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 3

Introduction: The ancient mysteries culminate in the soul’s ascent to divine union, where it shines with eternal wisdom. This section explores the transformative journey through sacred rites, uniting the soul with the divine source in radiant harmony.

The Radiant Ascent to Elysium

The soul’s ascent, guided by Theurgic rites, leads to the Elysian Fields, where it beholds divine light untainted by illusion. Iamblichus describes this light’s subtlety, drawing the soul like fish from turbid waters to clear air, overwhelming it with divine contact. Agrippa urges, “Set aside the veil of ignorance, cast out forgetfulness, and enter yourselves to know all things. The soul, like a tree full of forms, is clouded by oblivion but can pass from light to light through divine wisdom.”

Virgil’s Aeneas, meeting his father in Elysium, experiences the “Epopteia”—the ultimate vision of universal nature. He sees, “A spirit within animates heaven, earth, and seas, stirring all with mind. From this come life, beasts, and monsters, their fiery vigor dulled by earthly bonds. They fear, desire, grieve, and rejoice, blind to the divine air, trapped in darkness. Through penalties—winds, waters, fire—their stains are purged, until a pure ethereal sense remains, a simple fire.” This purified soul, free of earthly taint, inhabits Elysium’s vast fields, radiant with divine truth.

The Divine Vision of Truth

Proclus explains, “The perfective gods initiate the soul, connective gods reveal stable visions, and collector gods fix it in the intelligible watch-tower.” This progression—telete (initiation), muesis (contemplation), epopteia (vision)—unites the soul with its divine source. The gods—Minerva’s clarity, Apollo’s radiance, Venus’ beauty—manifest as aspects of this divine fire, not deceptive phantasms but true emanations of light. Iamblichus asserts, “Divinity emits true representations, co-existent with truth as light with the sun, revealing the essence of all beings.”

The soul, initially seeing shadows, turns inward to evolve its essence, discovering the gods’ unity in its deepest recesses. Proclus adds, “The soul, revolving harmoniously around the divine, excites its powers to union, perceiving all psychically within its reason.” This is the alchemical stone, a crystalline vessel reflecting divine harmony, uniting the self-knowing and self-known in eternal light.

The Universal Harmony

Apuleius’ vision of Isis reveals, “All things—stars, gods, elements—obey her decree.” The chorus in Aristophanes sings, “The sun shines for the initiated, meadows bloom for us alone.” Proclus describes Elysium’s “plain of truth,” where intelligible light generates all forms, a prolific meadow of divine reasons. The soul, purified, becomes a fountain of light, scattering streams inward, harmonizing justice, beauty, and charity under reason’s dominion.

This is the alchemical “new world,” where the soul, as Vaughan’s “star-fire,” subdues nature through love’s balance. The “Mercaba” of the Kabalah, Ezekiel’s fiery chariot, carries this transfigured essence, the eternal Word of John’s Gospel, uniting all in divine creation.

Closing: Chapter 4 concludes the mysteries, uniting the soul with divine wisdom in Elysium’s radiant harmony. The journey’s implications for transforming life unfold further in our next post, revealing new depths of the Hermetic art.