A Modern Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery

Part II: A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and Its Mysteries

Chapter 3: The Mysteries Continued, Part 4 and Chapter 4: The Mysteries Concluded, Part 1

Introduction: The ancient mysteries guide the soul through chaos to divine wisdom, culminating in a radiant ascent. This section completes the purificative descent and begins the journey to divine union, unveiling the soul’s eternal essence.

Chapter 3: The Divine Light Revealed

Psellus distinguishes two visions in the mysteries: “suspection,” deceptive apparitions born of the soul’s passions, and “superinspection,” the perception of pure, formless divine light. The Chaldaic Oracle advises, “When you see a fire without form, shining through the world’s depths, hear its voice.” This sacred light, untainted by illusion, is the soul’s true essence, as an Indian text echoes: “Know all appearances as the mind’s delusion; the First Cause is in all yet beyond all.” The Zohar and Deuteronomy warn against imaging this formless divinity, emphasizing its transcendence.

Modern skeptics dismiss these visions as mere astronomical displays, but the ancients saw them as profound truths, not trifling shows. Proclus describes the soul’s awe before this light: “Beauty astonishes, converting the soul to itself, revealing the divine within the temple’s sanctum.” Apuleius recounts, “I saw the sun at midnight, adoring the gods above and below,” a vision beyond sensory grasp. Plato adds, “A sudden light, like a leaping fire, kindles in the soul, nourishing itself.” This is the alchemical stone, the “crystalline rock” of the Apocalypse, radiating divine wisdom.

Vaughan calls this the “star-fire of nature,” ignited by uniting heaven and earth, transforming the soul into a “new world.” The alchemists’ “Prester” or “Saturnian Salt” is this fiery spirit, the eternal center of life, as John’s Gospel proclaims: “In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.” This light, hidden in darkness, is known only to those who subdue their will to divine wisdom, achieving the alchemical perfection that multiplies the soul’s divine essence.

Chapter 4: The Ascent to the Elysian Fields

Hercules’ final labor in the Hesperidian region symbolizes the soul’s ascent to divine union. Olympiodorus explains, “The Islands of the Blessed, rising above the sea, represent a state transcending earthly life—the Elysian Fields.” Hercules, dragging Cerberus from hell, liberates the soul through a threefold evolution, freeing it from sensory bonds to live in divine light. His golden apples, rewards of sacred labors, signify the soul’s perfected wisdom, unlike Theseus, detained by earthly passions.

The descent to Hades is easy, but the ascent is arduous, as Homer’s cave in Ithaca illustrates: “The northern gate is for souls descending to generation; the southern, for immortals ascending to divinity.” Only a purified, immortal essence can pass through this narrow gate, achieving eternal consciousness.

Closing: Chapter 3 concludes the mysteries’ purificative descent, revealing the soul’s divine light through chaos. Chapter 4 begins the ascent to divine union, promising further revelations of the soul’s eternal essence in our next post.