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 unity, purifying its essence to resonate with eternal wisdom. This section completes the descent into the soul’s depths and begins its radiant ascent, echoing the transformative journey of love and balance.

Chapter 3: The Divine Light of the Soul

Psellus distinguishes two visions in the mysteries: deceptive apparitions born of the soul’s passions and the pure, formless divine light, the “Sacro Sancto.” The Chaldaic Oracle urges, “When you see a fire without form, shining through the world’s depths, hear its voice.” An Indian text echoes, “All appearances are the mind’s illusions; the First Cause is in all yet beyond all.” The Zohar and Deuteronomy forbid imaging this formless divinity, emphasizing its transcendence.

Modern skeptics dismiss these as mere astronomical displays, but the ancients saw profound truths. Proclus describes the soul’s awe: “Beauty converts the soul, revealing the divine within the temple’s sanctum.” Apuleius recounts, “I saw the sun at midnight, adoring the gods,” a vision beyond sensory grasp. Plato adds, “A sudden light kindles in the soul, nourishing itself.” This is the alchemical stone, the Apocalypse’s crystalline rock, radiating wisdom through the soul’s purified essence, resonating with the universal harmony of love.

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 life within, as John’s Gospel proclaims: “In Him was Life, the Light of men.” This light, hidden in darkness, shines for those who align their will with divine love, balancing masculine and feminine energies to birth divine consciousness.

Chapter 4: Ascending to Divine Union

Hercules’ final labor in the Hesperidian region symbolizes the soul’s ascent to divine union. Olympiodorus explains, “The Islands of the Blessed transcend earthly life, the Elysian Fields where Hercules, freeing Cerberus, lives in open day.” His golden apples, rewards of sacred labors, signify the soul’s perfected wisdom, unlike Theseus, trapped by sensory passions. This ascent, through a narrow gate, is for immortal souls refined by divine love.

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 essence, reborn through sacred rites, passes to eternal consciousness, uniting the soul with its divine source in a harmonious embrace.

Closing: Chapter 3 unveils the soul’s descent through chaos to divine light, purifying its essence for unity. Chapter 4 begins the ascent to divine union, promising further revelations of this sacred journey in our next post.