Part III: Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment
Chapter 1: The Experimental Method and Fermentation, Part 3
Introduction: The Hermetic art transforms the soul by harnessing reason to purify its vital essence, revealing divine wisdom. This section explores how alchemists, through disciplined inquiry, overcome illusions to awaken the soul’s radiant light, guided by ancient wisdom.
Reason as the Alchemical Key
Alchemists like Lully and Geber celebrate reason as the transformative force that purifies the soul’s essence, the “One Thing.” Just as reason governs passions in everyday life, it can elevate the soul’s chaotic impulses into divine light. Anaxagoras describes this intellect as infinite, pure, and all-knowing, unmixed with material forms, capable of separating the dense from the rare, hot from cold, to create harmony. This “Central Light,” called Wisdom or Sulphur, refines the soul’s raw spirit, much like the sun transforms earthly elements.
Unlike modern science, which studies external effects, alchemists sought the soul’s inner truth through rational experience. They warn against chasing fleeting illusions, as the soul’s “phantastic spirit” can lead to folly if unchecked. Reason, as a universal standard, aligns with divine faith, guiding the soul to its infinite source.
The Art of Separation
Paracelsus calls separation the “greatest miracle,” achieved through a magical intellect that penetrates the soul’s depths. The Emerald Tablet instructs, “Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, gently, with sagacity.” This spiritual wind, not mechanical force, purifies the soul’s essence, freeing its “seed of gold” from imprisonment. Eirenaeus explains, “Our sulphur, trapped in the body, is released by our water, revealing the Third Menstrual—a radiant essence—through patient meditation and precise fire.”
This process, likened to Aeneas’ quest for the golden bough, requires a disciplined mind to navigate the soul’s chaos. Orpheus’ Argonautics urges entering the “Cave of Mercury” with wisdom, grasping the hidden essence that yields the Hermetic art’s true matter. Only a lover of wisdom can unlock this light, subduing illusions to achieve divine clarity.
The Heroic Journey
The alchemical journey mirrors heroic myths, where the soul sacrifices its lower nature to awaken divine virtue. Achilles, stirred by Patroclus’ death, dons radiant armor to triumph, symbolizing the soul’s fiery intellect overcoming chaos. Similarly, Aeneas’ rites for Misenus unlock the infernal path, reflecting the soul’s dissolution of sensory bonds. Palingenius’ poem captures this: “Drown the slippery youth in Stygian waters, dissolve his taint, and a spirit will rise, clad in gold, renewing all it touches.”
This “death” of the medial life—sensory illusions—ignites the soul’s heroic will, transforming it into a vessel of divine light, radiant and eternal, as poets and alchemists unite in their vision of truth.
Closing: This section reveals reason’s role in purifying the soul’s essence, transforming it into divine light through the Hermetic art. The journey into alchemical fermentation deepens in our next post, unveiling further secrets of this sacred practice.
Part III: Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment
Chapter 1: The Experimental Method and Fermentation, Part 2
Introduction: The Hermetic art seeks wisdom through rational inquiry, unlocking nature’s hidden light within the soul. This section explores the alchemical method of engaging the soul’s essence, purifying it to reveal divine truth, guided by the wisdom of ancient adepts.
Rational Inquiry into Nature
Unlike modern chemistry, which dissects nature’s forms, ancient alchemists approached her as honored guests, seeking her inner light with reverence. Iamblichus notes, “Theurgists consulted the divine intellect for purification and salvation, not trifling matters.” They didn’t chase fleeting phenomena but sought to align with nature’s radiant essence, the “magian circle” of divine harmony, through disciplined contemplation.
This journey begins in the “region of chimeras,” where initial inquiries falter amid illusions. Yet, with a “rectifying spirit,” adepts like Oedipus mastered the soul’s enigmas, tracing vital causes to their divine source. This rational approach, blending experience and reason, unlocks infallible wisdom, far beyond modern science’s external focus.
The Alchemical Method
Basil Valentine advises, “Seek the concealed foundation with your own eyes and hands, building upon the impregnable rock of experience.” Crollius adds, “Through holy preparation and diligent contemplation, one draws greater wonders from nature’s bosom.” Van Helmont echoes, “The Tree of Life is attained through laborious intellectual research.” These adepts emphasize patience and rational inquiry, rejecting mere speculation for tested experience.
Eirenaeus instructs, “Our fire, the true sulphur of gold, is imprisoned in the body. Through our water, it is freed by dissolving the ethereal form, revealing the seed of gold in the Third Menstrual.” This process—joining the soul’s essence (Mercury) with its vital spark (sulphur)—requires profound meditation, precise balance, and mastery of internal fire, guided by symbols like the “Doves of Diana.”
The Separation of Essence
Paracelsus calls separation the “greatest miracle,” achieved through a magical intellect that penetrates the soul’s depths. The Emerald Tablet declares, “Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, gently, with sagacity. It ascends to heaven and descends, gaining strength from both.” This is no mechanical act but a spiritual wind, purifying the soul’s essence without foreign admixture, transforming it into a radiant vessel of divine light.
The soul, like Aeneas seeking the golden bough, must navigate entanglements with a prudent mind. Orpheus’ Argonautics urges entering the “Cave of Mercury” with understanding, grasping the hidden essence that yields the Hermetic art’s true matter. Only a lover of wisdom, through disciplined effort, can free this light, subduing the soul’s illusions to achieve divine clarity.
Closing: This section unveils the Hermetic method of rational inquiry, purifying the soul’s essence to reveal divine wisdom. The alchemical practices of fermentation deepen in our next post, promising further revelations of this sacred art.
Part III: Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment
Chapter 1: The Experimental Method and Fermentation, Part 1
Introduction: The Hermetic art now turns to the practical alchemy of the soul, purifying its vital essence to awaken divine wisdom. This chapter unveils the experimental method, rooted in Paracelsian principles, to transform the universal spirit within humanity.
The Alchemical Foundation
Greek philosophers viewed the soul not as an abstract concept but as a substantial essence, freed from material constraints through inner work. Alchemists, building on this, treat the soul as the “first matter” of their art, a divine spark capable of miraculous transformation. Unlike modern chemistry’s external focus, this Hermetic experiment seeks to reveal the soul’s hidden light, as seen in the mysteries’ Theurgic rites (Part II, Chapters 3–4).
The soul’s natural state is clouded by sensory illusions, its divine light obscured. Alchemists, like the Greeks, aim to purify this essence, observing its transformation through experimental practice. This process, veiled in secrecy, is the heart of the Hermetic art, promising wisdom and immortality through self-knowledge.
The Sphinx as Symbol
The Egyptians placed the Sphinx at Isis’ temple, symbolizing the soul’s dual nature—animal instincts and human reason. Its wings represent imagination’s power to elevate the soul to divine heights. In alchemy, this “phantastic spirit” is the universal essence, both material and spiritual, the raw material of transformation. As Vaughan notes, “A nature invisible, the substance of our mastery,” this essence is worked upon itself, joining “self to self” to conquer and renew its divine potential.
Modern mesmerism glimpses this essence, revealing the soul’s inner life, but lacks the art to refine it. Alchemists, unlike mesmerists, mastered this spirit, solving its riddles like Oedipus defeating the Sphinx, entering the temple of truth through disciplined inquiry.
The Method of Purification
The Hermetic experiment begins with theory, as Vaughan advises: “Add reason to experience, employ mind as well as hands.” Unlike modern science’s slow accumulation of facts, alchemists sought direct experience of spiritual causes, diving into the soul’s depths to uncover its light. Job’s imagery captures this: “There is a vein for silver, a place for gold, and stones of sapphires. Wisdom’s path, hidden from all living, is known only to God, who decrees the fear of the Lord as its beginning.”
Crollius explains, “Physic and pyrotechny are inseparable. The true medicine, bound in man like milk in a nut, must be freed from impurities through fire.” This fire, the “Antimony” of adepts, is the soul’s vital spark, purified to flow as a “pure panacea” from the divine source, healing body and mind.
Closing: This chapter introduces the Hermetic experiment, purifying the soul’s essence to reveal divine wisdom. The practical methods of this sacred art unfold further in our next post, deepening the alchemical journey.
Part II: A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and Its Mysteries
Chapter 4: The Mysteries Concluded, Part 5
Introduction: The ancient mysteries reach their zenith as the soul unites with the divine, embodying eternal wisdom through sacred rites. This section unveils the transformative power of Theurgic union, transcending earthly illusions to resonate with divine harmony.
The Theurgic Path to Divine Union
Theurgic rites, surpassing mere thought, unite the soul with the divine through sacred symbols. Iamblichus explains, “Divine union comes not from intellectual effort but from ineffable rites and symbols, moved by the gods’ will.” The Chaldaic Oracle declares, “Extend the sparkling fire into the mind’s temples, guiding it to the divine pattern.” These rites awaken the soul’s latent wisdom, aligning its faculties in harmonious order under reason’s rule, unlike the chaotic motives of natural life.
Proclus adds, “The soul, becoming an Intellectual World, meets the Creator, united through pure vision, not opinion or logic. This is the discovery of the divine—a radiant union more beautiful than Elysium’s light.” The soul, shedding all multiplicity, rests in faith, love, and hope, communing with the Ineffable Unknown, where subject and object merge in divine unity.
The Divine Fire of Wisdom
Sendivogius describes fire as the purest element, infused with divine majesty, governing the soul’s rational essence. “God created the soul as a tree of knowledge, clouded by oblivion. Only purity allows it to approach the divine fire, which no mortal can endure without dissolution.” This fire, calm and vital, moves by God’s will, stirring the soul’s faculties into harmony, as a king’s court follows his command. The alchemists’ “Salt of Wisdom” is this purified essence, uniting the soul with the divine source, as Morien tells King Calid, “This mastery is God’s secret, entrusted to prophets.”
Transcending the Sensible World
The soul’s natural life, fragmented by sensory desires, contrasts with the divine harmony of Elysium. Plotinus notes, “In the divine realm, all is diaphanous, light meeting light, each part containing the whole.” The soul, once divided, becomes unified, perceiving all through its radiant essence. Proclus urges, “Remove all variety, let the universe be still within, and commune with the divine.” This is the alchemical stone, a crystalline vessel of eternal light, harmonizing all creation in divine love.
Modern skeptics dismiss the mysteries as mere illusions, but the ancients’ accounts—rooted in experience—reveal a profound reality. The rites, pure in their origin, were guarded to protect their sanctity, ensuring only the worthy accessed divine wisdom. As Epictetus affirms, “The mysteries improve human life,” offering a transformative path to eternal truth.
Closing: Chapter 4 concludes the mysteries, uniting the soul with the divine in radiant harmony. The journey’s practical implications and alchemical secrets unfold further in our next post, revealing new depths of the Hermetic art.
Part II: A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and Its Mysteries
Chapter 4: The Mysteries Concluded, Part 4
Introduction: The ancient mysteries reach their pinnacle as the soul ascends to divine union, becoming an intellectual beacon of eternal wisdom. This section unveils the final Theurgic rites, uniting the soul with the divine through love, faith, and harmony.
The Divine Union Through Theurgic Rites
Theurgic rites transcend mere intellectual thought, uniting the soul with the divine through sacred media. Iamblichus explains, “Divine union is not achieved by thought alone, as theorists might assume, but through ineffable rites and symbols known only to the gods. These Synthemata, divine aids, perform their work autonomously, moved by the gods’ will, not our intellect.” The Chaldaic Oracle declares, “I revolve these in my mind’s sacred temples, extending sparkling fire to put the symbol of variety into the mind, guiding it to the incorruptible pattern of the divine.”
These rites awaken the soul’s latent wisdom, transforming it into an “Intellectual World.” Porphyry notes, “When the soul’s inferior powers align with reason, they venerate it, dissolving their own motions in its presence.” This harmony, unlike the anarchy of natural life where selfish motives dominate, establishes a divine monarchy where all faculties follow the rational will, mirroring the cosmic order.
The Fire of Divine Wisdom
Sendivogius describes fire as the purest element, infused with divine majesty, carrying the soul’s rational essence. “God created the soul as a tree of knowledge, clouded by oblivion. Only through purity can it approach the divine fire, which no mortal eye can penetrate without dissolution.” This fire, calm and vital in its divine state, moves only by God’s will, stirring the soul’s faculties into universal harmony, as a king’s court moves with his command.
The alchemists’ “Salt of Wisdom” and “Mercury of Philosophers” is this purified essence, the soul’s hidden light. Morien tells King Calid, “This mastery is God’s secret, entrusted to prophets whose souls rest in paradise.” The soul, purified through rites, becomes a radiant vessel, reflecting the divine unity that sustains all creation.
The Final Contemplation
The initiated, perfected through Theurgic rites, contemplate the divine unity, the “Paternal Port.” Proclus explains, “The soul, assimilated to the intelligible universe, meets the Maker, united through intellectual vision, not opinion or syllogistic thought. This is the discovery of the Father—light conjoined with light, more beautiful than Elysium’s visions.” The soul, shedding multifarious knowledge, rests in silent faith, love, and hope, uniting with the ineffable One.
Plato’s method of divine intuition—through love, hope, and faith—guides the soul to this unical silence. Proclus urges, “Remove all variety, let the universe be still within, and commune with the Ineffable.” This is the alchemical stone, the soul’s radiant essence, seated in its divine throne, harmonizing all creation in eternal light.
Closing: Chapter 4 concludes the mysteries, uniting the soul with the divine in a radiant intellectual vision. The journey’s transformative implications unfold further in our next post, revealing new depths of the Hermetic art.
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.
Homo Sapiens: In the Maelstrom by Stanislaw Przybyszewski and translated by Joe E Bandel
In short, even if the comparison limps and makes absolutely no claim to exactness, the brain is deceived and lied to and learns only later, after it has summed up what happened, that it was deceived.
But with that the refined cruelty is not yet at an end.
With the poorly functioning brain is still connected a cute stuff of conscience, trained for millennia to cause torment for the sins that nature commits.
He, he, a quite unbelievable refinement… But with that the thing is not yet at an end.
Through a peculiar trick nature has drilled into the fool of a human that it is a tremendous advantage to have brain and conscience.
For what distinguishes the human from the animal? The human knows what he does…
Falk listened. Won’t a laughing fit soon overwhelm him?
The human got the brain so that he might recognize God namely nature, thank him for his benefactions…
No! I must stop. Otherwise I really run the risk of getting laughing cramps.
By thunder! What a refined rogue trick. To be thanked for the brain, and on top of that for the conscience, this beautiful dung heap on which nature dumps its villainies.
No, no! I thank you for the brain, the conscience and such knowledge apparatuses. Oh, I would rather descend to the bacillus.
He destroys without torment and without pangs of conscience.
The clever Herr Professor who wanted to teach the human the overman! Well! he would go under on the second day from his excess of brain and conscience!
Falk actually saw himself on a stage, he found that not at all strange, on the contrary: very pleasant. He loved to be noticed. Then he had the pose of a significant person, no, no pose: only a quite natural appearance of a significant person, just as the audience wishes to see a significant person.
By the way, esteemed audience, I commit the nonsense of personifying nature, and that is the first step to forming a God. He giggled. The God, ha, ha, ha, that the liberal, free-thinking bourgeoisie had abolished. The free-thinking audience—oh God, I suffocate,—German free-thinking with twenty seats in the Reichstag.
No! How he could amuse himself royally!
He suddenly started. Otherwise he used to calm himself with such self-conversations, to forget, but this time it didn’t succeed. On the contrary: the unrest seized him anew, surprisingly, from behind, with new violence.
But to the devil, what then? What will, what can happen?
He had to absolutely prevent it. He must not go under. Not yet. No, he had to hold Czerski back, explain the whole thing to him in detail, prove with reasons, set forth with invincible arguments that he was completely in error if he wanted to hold him responsible. That was ridiculous. If he wanted to punish the lie, he had to somehow get at nature and damage her… Yes, he had to convince the stupid Czerski that he had indeed acted as a knowing tool, but absolutely without any responsibility, something like a bacillus or something similar.
Yes, make clear, convince… perhaps in the following way:
Falk coughed. He clearly saw Czerski opposite him. Strange this hallucinatory quality of his thoughts. That is naturally the beginning of the end. Diagnostically very valuable these pronounced hallucinations that do not disturb at all. See, dear Czerski, I am now a thousand times calmer than a few hours ago… Yes, naturally.
Again he drank a full glass.
Are you impatient, Czerski? Well, we can begin. I am not in a hurry because I must touch on certain intimate things that thinking about is absolutely no pleasure.
You wrinkle your forehead. But my God, don’t you have any interest in psychological analyses? Regret, regret… I am a quite engaged soul researcher… He, he, he… I believe I committed all my villainies, as you like to call my actions, out of a certain psychological curiosity, a curiosity that for example distinguished the illustrious spirit of the liberal bourgeoisie, Herr Hippolyte Taine. You know, the gentleman who wanted to set up a distillery for virtues. Splendid idea, to produce virtues in the same masses as vitriol. He, he, he… That’s how the liberal spirits are!… Oh, oh, what they don’t all know and can do! But please, sit down, otherwise your knees will dissolve, as Homer says. A cigarette perhaps? Maybe a glass of cognac? You don’t drink? Yes, naturally, you are a philanthropist, and as such you walk on the highest heights of humanity, thus disdain the bodily pleasures. Ha, ha, ha… Now excuse me, don’t take it badly. I just cannot understand how a person who has a brain can get along without alcohol… You violate a natural compensation duty.
Why? Why? But that is quite clear. The primeval human, the brainless human, thus a Homo who is not yet sapiens, and consequently not capable of regulating his feelings, is subject spontaneously to certain emotional outbursts that one calls enthusiasm, ecstasy, suggestibility etc. It is a process that has certain similarity with so-called pathological processes, thus for example a mania. Something seizes the brain with terrible violence, makes blind to all reasons, incapable of any calculation, one becomes like a bull with a blinker tied on. But this ecstatic blindness gives an unheard-of power that actually created our civilization. See, this fanatical, straight-line blindness drove the masses to Jerusalem, it kindled the religious wars, it stormed Bastilles, won constitutions, it erected barricades and secured impunity for the roguish press pirates… That is the enthusiasm of rage that gave a Samson the power to put a whole army of Philistines to flight with a donkey’s jawbone and on the other hand brought Herr
Ravachol to the idea of transporting pious bourgeois souls to Abraham’s bosom: the bourgeois love the almighty Lord, they should thank Ravachol that they so suddenly get to behold the face of God in joy… Oh, oh—you laugh, Herr Czerski, one didn’t suspect you of anarchistic hobbies for nothing.
So this enthusiasm is an extremely important factor in nature’s household, but we are no longer capable of it. The sober reason of the free-thinking bourgeoisie has killed it. But we, yes we have the obligation to be guardians of this holy enthusiasm. But how to produce it if it is not there? Naturally through alcohol. See, Suvorov, he understood it. His armies got as much to drink before every battle as they wanted, that’s why they performed miracles of bravery… the Prussian war ministry should consider this circumstance.
I babble, you say? That is very stupidly said. You are probably also such a liberal brain to whom the small things appear ridiculous? But we came off our main theme. So Herr Taine, isn’t it? He has quite the same psychological curiosity as I… Do you know how he does it? He is in a society. He sees a person who has a character head, character head I read namely twice daily in the Berliner Tageblatt. The organ of the liberal bourgeoisie says it of every minister, provided he resembles a sheep. Otherwise it only says sharply cut profile, as if carved from marble, sometimes also antique etc. Herr Taine sees the sheep face. He immediately becomes distracted. He wanders around like a lunatic until he suddenly steps on the feet of the character head in question. But one knows that it is Herr Taine, and one is very pleased about it. Herr Taine notes in his notebook. First quality: great gentleness. Actual milieu: end of the eighteenth century.
That bores you, Herr Czerski? Well I only wanted to prove to you that my psychological method differs essentially from Taine’s.
So I am a married man. Happy? No! Unhappy? No! What then?
But do you really not want to drink a glass of cognac? It is good when one is nervous. That dampens the depressive states, increases the life energy, makes the whole organism more capable of performance.
“You don’t want to? Well, then your health.”
Falk drank.
“Hm, hm… How should I even begin?” He walked up and down.
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.
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.
Part II: A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and Its Mysteries
Chapter 3: The Mysteries Continued, Part 3
Introduction: The ancient mysteries guide the soul through a transformative descent into its chaotic depths, purifying it to unite with divine wisdom. This section unveils the perilous journey past deceptive visions, culminating in the revelation of the soul’s true essence.
The Transformative Descent
The mysteries’ purificative rites lead the soul into Tartarus, a realm of primal chaos, described by Virgil as a dark cave where “the ground trembles, hills shake, and dogs howl as the Goddess approaches.” This is the soul’s confrontation with its deepest, unpurified essence, the alchemists’ “Black Saturn” or “hidden Stone,” fetid yet vital. A Rosicrucian allegory illustrates: “At the earth’s center lies a mountain, invisible, guarded by beasts and birds. A great wind shakes it, an earthquake overthrows debris, and a fire consumes earthly rubbish, revealing a treasure—the exalted tincture that could turn the world to gold if it were worthy.”
This descent, though fraught with terror, is essential. The initiate, armed with rational will, faces lions, dragons, and monstrous apparitions—illusions of the soul’s unpurified spirit. As the biblical account of Elijah echoes, “The Lord is not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the still, small voice that follows.” After the chaos, a great calm reveals the day-star, dispelling darkness and unveiling the soul’s divine essence.
The Alchemical Purification
Hermes instructs, “Take the watery, corrupted nature, a coal holding fire, and purify its redness until it shines.” This purification, visiting “the interiors of the earth rectifying,” transforms the chaotic spirit into the philosopher’s stone, a medicine for life. Porphyry declares, “The purified soul must associate with its Generator, gaining scientific knowledge of true being.” Plato warns that without firm reason, the soul risks being overwhelmed in Hades, absorbed by delusions. Only by resisting these temptations can it ascend to Elysium’s divine light.
Alchemists describe this spirit as a “thick fire” imprisoned in incombustible moisture, needing dissolution to reveal its radiant core. Vaughan notes, “This mineral nature, ever-changing like clouds, is persecuted by reason’s light, revealing a starry seed, heavy yet luminous.” This is the “Salt of Saturn,” the ancient Demogorgon, a primal essence that, when purified, becomes the soul’s eternal source.
The Final Initiation
Stobaeus records, “In death and initiation, the mind is agitated with errors, wanderings, and darkness. On the verge, all is horror—trembling, sweating, affrightment. Then, a divine light shines, revealing flowery meadows and sacred visions. Free and crowned, the initiate walks among the blessed.” This mirrors alchemy’s “happy gate of blackness,” where dissolution reveals the soul’s true life. Porphyry explains, “Nature binds the body to the soul, but the soul can dissolve its own bond, returning to its divine source without destroying the body.”
The initiate, guided by the “golden bough” of rational intellect, navigates this chaos to unite with the divine. Apuleius recounts, “I approached death’s threshold, trod Proserpine’s realm, and returned through all elements, seeing the sun at midnight and adoring the gods. Though heard, you must remain ignorant of these truths.” This ineffable experience, known only through direct participation, reveals the soul as both seeker and sought, united with its divine source.
Closing: This section unveils the mysteries’ descent through chaos, purifying the soul to unite with divine wisdom. The journey toward this ineffable truth continues, promising deeper revelations of the Theurgic art in our next post.
Anarchistbanjo's World 