A Modern Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery

Part III: Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment

Chapter 3: The Manifestation of the First Matter, Part 3

Introduction: The Hermetic art transforms the soul’s essence, the First Matter, into radiant divine light, uniting it with eternity through sacred vision. This section unveils the mystical dialogue with the divine mind, revealing the soul’s path to universal truth through poetic and alchemical insight.

The Divine Vision of Pœmander

Hermes’ Pimander recounts a sacred encounter where the soul, freed from sensory illusions, beholds the divine mind. Pœmander, the “Mind of the Great Lord,” reveals an infinite light, sweet and radiant, born from a dark, moist chaos. This light, the First Matter, emerges as a holy Word, uniting with nature to birth a fiery spirit that ascends, leaving earth and water transformed below. This vision mirrors the alchemical process of separating the subtle from the gross, as the Emerald Tablet instructs.

The divine mind declares, “I am that Light, your God, before the moist nature of darkness. The Word is the Son, and the Mind is the Father—united in life.” This union, where the soul’s seeing and hearing align with divine light, transforms it into a vessel of eternal wisdom.

The Creation of the Cosmos

Hesiod’s Theogony echoes this, depicting Chaos birthing Erebus, Night, Ether, and Day, with Love uniting all. This poetic cosmogony aligns with alchemical creation, where the First Matter, stirred by divine will, forms the universe. Ovid’s Fasti describes a primal mass separating into fire, air, water, and earth, shaped by the divine hand into a harmonious world, reflecting the soul’s transformation from chaos to radiant order.

The divine will, as the Kabalistic interpreter notes, moves the formless abyss to create matter and attraction, birthing the cosmos through love. This mirrors the soul’s alchemical rebirth, where the purified essence becomes a crystalline vessel of divine light.

The Soul’s Ascent to Wisdom

Solomon celebrates this wisdom as an “understanding spirit—holy, subtle, undefiled,” guiding the soul to know the cosmos’ creation and the elements’ operations. This is the philosopher’s stone, the “Ruach Elohim” that moved upon the waters, born in the soul’s virgin womb as a universal, triune essence. Through faith and love, the soul, purified of sensory desires, becomes a radiant vessel, as Pœmander instructs: “Know yourself, and pass back into Life.”

Closing: This chapter unveils the First Matter’s transformation into divine light, a sacred vision of cosmic and spiritual unity. The journey into its alchemical practice deepens in our next post, unveiling further secrets of this sacred art.