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The Mysteries Concluded

Part II, Chapter 4

This chapter completes Atwood’s account of the Mysteries by following the initiate upward from Elysium, a state above bodily life, through a death-like liberation, to union with the First in which knower and known are one. Atwood argues that this union comes through divine media and theurgic aid, not through thought alone. She ends by calling this “consummation of the Mysteries” “the ground of the Hermetic philosophy” (II.4 ¶52), and a “Vital Experiment” whose by-products are the elixir and gold (II.4 ¶58).

Elysium: the state above generation

Quoting Olympiodorus, Atwood reads Hercules’ last labour as entry into the Islands of the Blessed, “the same with the Elysian Fields”: a state “which transcends this corporeal life and generation” (II.4 ¶3). Descent into life is easy; the gate of ascent is narrow, and only “immortals” pass, which Porphyry glosses as essentially immortal souls (II.4 ¶5–7). Atwood concludes that “nothing but the subtlety of an immortal essence, and that by regeneration, can pass into immortality” (II.4 ¶7). The Golden Branch, which “through death and darkness enters” and blossoms “as a radiant flower”, follows this point, though the text never says what it stands for (II.4 ¶7).

This meadow of Divine Ideas, Atwood says, the alchemists “call it their garden” (II.4 ¶9). She identifies Flammel’s “mountain of the Seven”, Sendivogius’ Planetary Sphere and the “tincture of the Sapphiric Mine” with “the cleansed Augean, the already prepared medial receptacle of the newborn light”. When that light arises, the darkened colours return and the “suspended circulation” is restored (II.4 ¶9). This is Elysium, the Terrestrial Paradise, also called nox corporis, “the night of body or corporeal sleep” (II.4 ¶9). Here takes place Augustine’s third, “anagogic” vision: the mind’s eye, “purifying to the center”, turns and takes in the whole circumference as reflector of its light (II.4 ¶15). Atwood notes “there is a grade above” (II.4 ¶15). Quoting Apuleius, she closes with Isis telling Lucius to pluck the roses and shed the beast’s hide to “return to the Human Form” (II.4 ¶17).

Liberation into elysian light

Atwood says we are “not cut off from this fountain, but attracted out from it”; passions and foreign impressions defile our “passive purity” and hide the inner light (II.4 ¶19). Revealed in a purified soul, that light draws the mind’s eye “to contact suddenly”. This she calls “the method and arcane principle of Self- Knowledge” (II.4 ¶19). The earlier “vision in Hades” can be borne without much disturbing common life. But “when the central magnet moves to the ascent”, “a liberation is effected through agony, as it were of death”, and the soul with its vehicle passes “into the elysian light”. That, Atwood says, was Lucius’ “rosy crown” (II.4 ¶19). Aeneas meeting his father then has “the whole Epopteia opened to him”: the revelation of Universal Nature and of the soul’s origin and end (II.4 ¶21). The grades run “telete precedes muesis, and muesis, epopteia”, and all end at “the Paternal port” (II.4 ¶23). The true gods appear as light, and “by no means extend themselves as figured phantasms, such as the mind before beheld in Hades from its own self-shadowing creative fancy” (II.4 ¶29).

Union by divine media, not by thought

Agreeing with Iamblichus, Atwood holds that Theurgists are joined to the Divine “by divine Media, and not a mere conception of the mind” (II.4 ¶31). Once preparation is complete, the Synthemata, the “Theurgic aids and media themselves, perform by themselves their proper work”; the soul’s purity counts only among the “concauses” (II.4 ¶31). In natural life no single power rules, and each motive becomes “a usurper of a vacant throne” (II.4 ¶38). Through Sendivogius she describes a Fire, quiet “like unto a chariot”, which holds “the rational soul” (II.4 ¶39). The “total Reason” lies hidden “as gold in the dark ore”, and wakes only by “a resolution of the whole circulatory confine”. What then arises Atwood names “the Sal Sepientum et Mercurius Philosophorum” (II.4 ¶39). Quoting Proclus, she adds that muesis comes “through the uncial silence imparted by faith” (II.4 ¶40).

The Paternal Port

Quoting Proclus, Atwood describes the final “discovery of the Father” as neither opinion nor syllogistic science but “Intellectual Vision”, “conjoining Light with Light”. It is more beautiful than “that vision that was in Elysium” (II.4 ¶41). The soul, “with all her beams concentrated”, knows God “in Identity”, without subject and object (II.4 ¶42). Yet “without the Pontic Medium, without Theurgic assistance we are unable to transcend the consciousness of this life” (II.4 ¶49). The text leaves open whether these are one requisite or two. Quoting Plotinus, she says He comes “suddenly alone”, after preparation (II.4 ¶50).

From the Mysteries to the Hermetic art

Atwood says divine men rose by “voluntary abnegation”, climbing through Intellect and Wisdom to the First Principle and coming down again “in successive circulations”, until “the total life was irradiated” (II.4 ¶52). Reading Plato’s “more thrysus bearers than Bacchic souls”, she says many “had the fire” but could not “draw it forth” (II.4 ¶54). She rejects the expounders’ narcotic explanation: the light was “the Light of Life” (II.4 ¶56). The Vital Experiment discloses powers whose fragments, shown “without a discovery of their source”, set chemistry chasing the elixir and gold, “vital products” (II.4 ¶58).

The Work in this chapter

  • Vessel: “the cleansed Augean, the already prepared medial receptacle of the newborn light” (II.4 ¶9) — the purified container in which new light arises (stated).
  • Sign: the colours “return to neutralize their poison” (II.4 ¶9) — what was lost in darkness reappears in balance once the light arises (interpreted).
  • Stage: “a liberation is effected through agony, as it were of death” (II.4 ¶19) — the soul and its vehicle pass into elysian light (stated).
  • Agent: “the Theurgic aids and media themselves, perform by themselves their proper work” (II.4 ¶31) — divine media act once the operator stops intellectual effort (stated).
  • Procedure: “a resolution of the whole circulatory confine” (II.4 ¶39) — the enclosing life must be dissolved for the hidden Reason to wake (interpreted).
  • Result: “the Sal Sepientum et Mercurius Philosophorum” (II.4 ¶39) — the awakened Reason (stated).
  • Impediment: “converted to externals, we desert our best life unconsciously” (II.4 ¶9) (stated).

Terms introduced

  • Elysian Fields / Elysium — a state above corporeal life and generation (II.4 ¶3, ¶9).
  • nox corporis — “the night of body or corporeal sleep” (II.4 ¶9).
  • garden — the alchemists’ name for the meadow of Divine Ideas (II.4 ¶9).
  • anagogic vision — intellectual sight, the third vision, in Elysium (II.4 ¶15).
  • vision in Hades — the lower stage of self-made figured images (II.4 ¶19, ¶29).
  • Self-Knowledge — inner revelation in a purified soul (II.4 ¶19).
  • telete, muesis, epopteia — three ascending grades of initiation (II.4 ¶23).
  • Paternal Port — undefiled union with the Father (II.4 ¶23, ¶41).
  • Synthemata — theurgic aids acting of themselves (II.4 ¶31).
  • concauses — contributing causes, such as the soul’s purity (II.4 ¶31).
  • total Reason — the soul’s hidden ruling principle (II.4 ¶39).
  • circulatory confine — what encloses the hidden Reason; not further defined (II.4 ¶39).
  • Identity — knowing without subject and object (II.4 ¶42).
  • Pontic Medium — required for transcendence; unexplained (II.4 ¶49).
  • Light of Life — the true light of the initiations (II.4 ¶56).
  • Vital Experiment — the process linking Mysteries and Alchemy (II.4 ¶58).

Authorities cited

Olympiodorus and Proclus on the Islands of the Blessed (II.4 ¶3); Homer and Porphyry on the two gates (II.4 ¶5–7); Virgil on Elysium and Aeneas (II.4 ¶7–8, ¶21); Flammel, Vaughan, Esdras, Sendivogius and Solomon on the garden (II.4 ¶9); Augustine on the three visions (II.4 ¶15); Apuleius on Isis and Lucius (II.4 ¶17–19); Agrippa on entering into oneself (II.4 ¶19); Iamblichus on Synthemata and phantasms (II.4 ¶19, ¶29, ¶31); Plato’s Phaedrus, Plotinus and Proclus on the vision of the gods and the One (II.4 ¶23, ¶29, ¶41, ¶50); the Chaldaic Oracle (II.4 ¶32–35, ¶43–48); Sendivogius on Fire (II.4 ¶39); Morieni on the magistery as God’s secret (II.4 ¶39); Warburton and “the expounders”, criticized (II.4 ¶29, ¶56); Epictetus (II.4 ¶57).