A Modern Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery

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

Chapter 4: The Mysteries Concluded, Part 2

Introduction: The ancient mysteries culminate in the soul’s radiant ascent to divine union, transforming it into a vessel of eternal wisdom. This section explores the Elysian Fields, where the purified soul merges with the divine, guided by sacred rites and illuminated by love’s harmony.

The Elysian Ascent

Virgil’s Aeneid depicts Aeneas entering “joyful places, green groves, and blessed abodes, bathed in ethereal purple light, with their own sun and stars.” This Elysian realm, the alchemists’ garden, is a divine meadow of ideas where the soul, purified, finds its true home. Flammel describes it: “The philosophers’ garden, where the sun lingers with sweet dew, bears trees and fruits nourished by pleasant meadows. Seek the mountain of the seven metals, where a royal herb triumphs—mineral, vegetable, saturnine.” Vaughan adds, “This delicate region, the rendezvous of spirits, lies in heaven’s suburbs, where ideas descend and take form.”

This is the “Pratum” of the Oracle, the enclosed garden of Solomon, where divine light restores the soul’s harmony. Heraclitus notes, “We live their death, and die their life,” as the soul, dead to earthly senses, awakens in divine consciousness. The Rosicrucian text speaks of “seven mystic mountains” where roses and lilies bloom, the Sapphiric Mine’s tincture purifying the soul’s chaotic essence into a radiant vessel.

The Vision of Divine Wisdom

Proclus explains, “The plain of truth expands to intelligible light, splendid with divine illuminations. The meadow is life’s prolific power, generating all forms and reasons.” This Elysian state, the alchemists’ “Athanor” or furnace, kindles a new world within the soul. St. Augustine describes three visions: external (sensory), imaginative (internal), and anagogic (intellectual), where the soul, purified, beholds divine light. Porphyry likens it to a fountain scattering streams inward, uniting the self-knowing and self-known in eternal harmony.

Apuleius’ encounter with Isis reveals this truth: “I am nature, parent of all, queen of elements, supreme divinity. I rule the heavens, seas, and realms below, venerated in manifold forms. Moved by your prayers, I am present, bringing a salutary day. Dedicate your life to me, and you will live gloriously under my protection, adoring me in the Elysian Fields.” The soul, shedding its beastly guise through sacred rites, becomes a vessel of divine light, extending life beyond fate through obedience and chastity.

The Purified Soul’s Triumph

The soul, purified in the mysteries, becomes a “gas-lamp” of divine light, not a mere crystal but a vessel sustaining eternal flame. Apuleius continues, “You roll the heavens, illuminate the sun, govern the world, and tread on Tartarus. Stars, gods, and elements obey your decree.” This universal nature, accessible through purification, restores the soul’s original light, granting wisdom, health, and eternal life. The alchemists’ stone, born of this process, is the soul’s radiant essence, uniting all in divine love.

Closing: Chapter 4 concludes the mysteries, unveiling the soul’s ascent to divine union in the Elysian Fields, radiant with eternal wisdom. The journey into this sacred art’s implications continues, promising further revelations in our next post.