CHAPTER IV.

The Mysteries concluded.

It behoves thee to hasten to the Light, and to the beams of
the Father from whence was sent to thee a soul clothed with
much mind. — Zoroastri Or acuta, Anima, Corpus, Homo.

IT is known concerning Hercules, that he
performed his last labour in the Hesperidian
region, and Olympiodorus, in his Commentary on
the Gorgias of Plato, informs us what we are to
understand by this. It is necessary to know, says
he, that islands stand out of, as being higher than
the sea ; a condition of being, therefore, which
transcends this corporeal life and generation is
denominated the Islands of the Blessed ; and
these are the same with the Elysian Fields. Hence
Hercules is said to have accomplished his last
labour in the Hesperidian region ; signifying by
this, that having vanquished an obscure and
terrestrial life, he afterwards lived in open day.1
For he dragged up Cerberus from hell, that is to
say, he liberated the whole individual entity
through a threefold evolution from the bond of its
earthly geniture, and established it finally in the
most exalted life. And those golden apples were a
part also of the reward of his arcane and telestic
labours ; which Theseus, before him, was unable
to finish, being detained by his passions in the
sea of sense. So Proclus understands the allegory,
where he says that, being purified by sacred
institutions and enjoying undefiled fruits, Hercules
at length obtained an establishment among the
gods.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere Causas,
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile Fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari !

1 See Taylor's notes to his Pausanias, vol. iii. p. 215, the extract,

234 More Esoteric View.

Nature indeed, as a beneficent mother, offers the
rich treasury of life to all, and the universal Father,
it is said, keeps the gate of the fatal cavern open
for the convenience of mankind. The descent,
therefore, is allowed on all hands to be easy ; but
the ascent otherwise ; the gate indeed being so
narrow, close, and difficult to discern, that there
be few, and they immortals only, that are able to
pass through. The allusion to these gates is frequent
in antiquity, and that of Homer in the thirteenth
book of the Odyssey, describing the cave in Ithaca
lias been the subject of many comments.

A lofty gate unfolds on either side,

That to the North is pervious to mankind,

The Sacred South V immortals is consigned.

That the poet does not narrate these particulars
from historical information or misinformation
either is very evident. For neither if there had
been any geographical ground for such a descrip-
tion, could he ha^e hoped to gain belief for the
persistent allegory, thus artificially opening up a
path to gods and men in the region of Ithaca. But
the wise Porphyry, after combating many erro-
neous opinions, explains that whereas the northern
gate pertains to souls descending into the realms
of generation, and the southern to souls ascending
to divinity ; we ought to observe, on this account,
that Homer does not sav indeed that this last is a
passage of the gods but of immortals : signifying
by this, souls which are per se, that is to say,
essentially immortal.2 For nothing but the subtlety
of an immortal essence, and that by regeneration,
€an pass into immortality. And here we may better
conceive, perhaps, the value of that Golden
Branch, which, attracted from the first to its
native soil, indifferent to e \rery other lure, through
death and darkness enters ; and taking root at
last, gathers strength to germinate and blossom,
as a radiant flower, overspreading and illuminating
2 Porphyry on the Cave of the Nymphs, sub. init.

The Mysteries. 235

tne surrounding wilderness of life. The sudden
transition from the horrid realms of Tartarus,
forms an admirable contrast in that part of the
iEneid where the hero, having passed the Stygian
border, goes forth to meet his father in the Elysian
Fields.

Devenere locos lsetos, et amoena vireta
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas,
Largior hie campos /Ether et Lumine vestit
Purpureo : solemque suum, sua sidera norunt.8

This divine ethereal purpled verdure, this
meadow of Divine Ideas, or Pratum, as the Oracle
denotes it, is a place well known to philosophers ;
the Alchemists in general call it their garden,
and Flammel, in his Summary, includes the
Mountain of the Seven Metals, saying, — the
philosophers have indeed a garden where the
sun as well morning as evening remains with a
most sweet dew ; whose earth brings forth trees
and fruits which are transplanted thither, which
also receive nourishment from the pleasant
meadows. And if thou wouldest come hither and
find good, betake thyself to the mountain of the
Seven, where there is no plain, and look down
from the highest downward to the Sixth, which
you will see afar off ; in the topmost height, you
will find a royal herb triumphing, which some call
mineral, some vegetable, some saturnine.4 For it
is either and all, which Vaughan describes as the
rendezvous of all spirits, where Ideas as they
descend from above, are conceived and incor-
porated. But it is a delicate and pleasant region,
he says, as it were in the suburbs of heaven. Those
seven mystic mountains, whereupon grow the roses
and lilies, are the outgoings of Paradise mentioned
in Esdras, and the Planetary Sphere of Sendivogius,
and that most famous tincture of the Sapphiric

3 638.

4 Flammelli Summula, in fine, and Maria Practica.

i
236 More Esoteric View.

Mine : which is in truth the cleansed Augean, the
already prepared medial receptacle of the new-
born light ; no sooner does this arise than all the
vegetable colours, before obliterated in darkness,
return to neutralize their poison and restore the
suspended circulation to a conscious equilibriate
accord. This is Elysium, the enclosed garden of
Solomon, where God condescends to walk and
drink of the sealed fountain ; the true Terrestrial
Paradise, which some have called nox corporis, the
night of body or corporeal sleep, a term made more
intelligible by the apposite saying of Heraclitus,
concerning souls in that condition, that we live
their death and die their life. In these meadows
therefore the souls of the dead are said to inhabit,
souls dead indeed to this life, yet more alive
in that. For converted to externals, we desert
our best life unconsciously as Empedocles says,

Heaven's exiles straying from the orb of light.

But philosophers are said continually to have
visited this place, as we read for instance concern-
ing the habitation of R. C, Vidi aliquando Olym-
picos domos, non procul a fluviolo et civitate
nota quas Sanctus Spiritus \ocari imaginamur.
Helicon est de quo loquar, aut biceps Parnassus,
in quo Equus Pegasus fontem aperuit perennis
aquae adhuc stillantem, in quo Diana se lavat, cui
Venus ut Pedissequa et Saturnus ut anteambulo,
conjunguntur. Intelligenti nimium inexperto
minimum hoc erit dictum. To clear the prospect
a little, therefore, Vaughan adds this description
of the Indian Brachman's abode. I have seen,
says Apollonius, the Brachmans of India dwelling
on the earth and not on the earth ; they were
guarded without walls invisibly, and possessing
nothing, they enjoyed all things.5 In such a place
the oracle told Ameiius the soul of Great Plotinus
was,

5 Fama et Confessio, R. C. Preface by Vaughan.

The Mysteries. 237

Ubi Amicitia est, ubi cupido visu mollis,
Purae plenus laetitise, et sempiternis rivis
Ambrosiis irrigatus a Deo ; unde sunt amorum
Retinacula, dulcis spiritus et tranquillus JEther
Aurei generis magni Jo vis.

By such clear and rapid rivers of supernal light
the adoring Sybil drew her inspiration, and by
such, according to the Orphic poet, the god
Apollo even loved to contemplate.

Omnia quae Phoebo quondam meditante beatus
Audiit Eurotas, &c.

There are three modes of human vision recorded
by St. Augustin ; the first external, and belongs
to the outward eye ; the second that of imagina-
tion, by which representations are visible to the
internal sense ; the third is anagogic, and an
intellectual sight, drawn above, by which intelli-
gible species are beheld, as a pure infusion of light
to the understanding. The first mode is familiar,
the second has been already discussed ; but this
third vision of the light is in Elysium : where the
eye of mind, no longer as heretofore looking from
without inwardly, beholds its object through the
atmosphere of the natural life ; but contrariwise,
having passed through this, purifying to the centre,
is converted and raised ; and, as a Unit, now
regards the circumference transitively, including it
as an understanding or reflector, as it were, to the
focus of her light. Porphyry beautifully resembles
this mode of being to a fountain, not flowing
outwardly, but circularly scattering its streams
into itself. And thus there is an assimilation estab-
lished, as near as may be in consciousness, of the
self -knowing and the self -known ; yet with this
motion of the soul, time is consubsistent, as
changing her conceptions, she passes from one to
another according to the self motion of her essence,
and through her eyes being directed to the survey
of the different forms which she contains, and
which have the relation of parts to her whole

238 More Esoteric View.

essence ; but eternity is consubsistent only with the
permanence of intellect in itself.6 And thus,
though there is a grade above ; yet this is the
Intellection in Elysium where the exemplary Image
of the Universal Nature also is revealed as in that
Athanor of Hermes before mentioned, or furnace
having a glass to it, that singular fundamental
of his small new world.

And the life of the intelligible world consists
thenceforth in intellectually energizing, and this
energy, distinguishing, desiring, understanding
within itself simultaneously, generates Light
through a perpetual tranquil and quiet contact
with the Principle of things. And the calm delight
of Being there in universal harmony, the truthful
visions, scenery, occupations and integral intelli-
gence are pictured with all the vivid colouring of
that experienced poet's soul ; and will be rightly
understood as an unfolding of the embryo life,
the nourishment and education of the under-
standing vehicle now standing in open presence
before its Archetypal Light ; according to which
also it perfects all the new-born attributes, as of
justice, beauty, charity, hope, every faculty,
sentiment and desire in orderly relation under the
dominion of reason ; and evolves the total har-
mony of nature, and all specific variety in her
originating source. — The sun shines but for us,
exclaims the chorus of the Initiated in Aristo-
phanes ; we alone receive the glory of his beams ;
for us alone the meadows are enameled with
flowers ; even for us, who are initiated and who
have learned to perform all acts of piety and
justice.7 Nor is it without reason that the river
Eridanus is said by Virgil to pass through those
celestial abodes ; for this indicates the prolific
flow of spirit which accedes spontaneously from
the occult energy of such a life. Taylor has

6 See Porphyry's Aid to Intelligibles. Taylor, p. 237.
7 In Ramis, act. 1.

The Mysteries. 239

admirably set forth these particulars of the poet
in his Dissertation ; and that the most abundant
spectacles and powers are belonging to those
Elysian fountains is shown by Proclus, in his fourth
book On the Theology, in which also he relates
that Theurgists placed their chief hopes of salva-
tion : for the plain of Truth, he says, is intellec-
tually expanded to intelligible Light and is
splendid with the illuminations which proceed from
thence ; and as the one (subjective identity) emits
by illumination intelligible light so the intelligible
(objective entity) imparts to secondary natures a
participation productive of essence. But the Meadow
is the prolific power of life, according to Plato, and
of all various reasons, and is the comprehension of
the First Efficient causes of life and the generation
of Forms : for the meadows also which are here,
continues the great exponent, are productive of all
various forms and reasons and bear water which
is the symbol of vivification.8 And here the meta-
physician accords with the ancient physiologists
and alchemists, who, experimentally searching,
were said to prove the Universal Identity of
Nature on the ontological ground ; reproducing
the whole material principle to sense and visi-
bility from the dissolution of the spirit in its proper
kind without alloy. But intending to speak of
these material rewards of initiation hereafter, and
of this Water especially, we pass onward for the
present to introduce the self-conspicuous and
prolific goddess herself, according to Apuleius'
most eloquent announcement, appearing in the
Eleusinian Fane.

Moved by thy prayers, 0 Lucius ! behold, I am
come ! I, who am nature, the parent of all things,
the Queen of all the elements, the primordial pro-
geny of ages, the supreme of divinities, the sover-
eign of the spirits of the dead, the first of ccelestials,

8 Procius, on the Theology of Plato, book iv. cap. vii
Tractatus Aureus, cap. iii.

240 More Esoteric View.

and the uniform resemblance of gods and goddesses;
I, who rule by my nod the luminous summit of the
heavens, the salubrious breezes of the sea, and the
deplorable silences of the realms beneath ; and
whose one divinity the whole orb of the earth
venerates under a manifold form, by different rites
and a variety of appellations. Hence the primor-
dial Phrygians call me Pessinuntica ; the Attic
Aborigines, Cecropian Minerva ; the floating
Cyprians, Paphian Venus ; the arrow-bearing
Cretans, Diana Dyctynna ; the three-tongued
Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine ; and the Eleu-
sinians, the ancient Goddess Ceres. Some also call
me Juno ; others, Bellona ; others, Hecate ; and
others, Rhamnusia. And those who are illumina-
ted by the incipient rays of that divinity, the Sun,
when he rises, viz., the Ethiopians and the Arii, and
the Egyptians skilled in ancient learning, wor-
shipping me by ceremonies perfectly appropriate,
call me by my true name, Queen Isis. Beho]d then,
I, commiserating thy calamities, am present,
favouring and propitious ; dismiss now tears and
lamentations, and expel sorrow ; for now the
salutary day will shine upon thee. Listen there-
fore attentively to these my mandates. The reli-
gion which is eternal has consecrated to me the
day which will be born of this night ; on which day
my priests offer to me the first fruits of navigation,
dedicating to me a new ship, when now the winter'
tempests are mitigated and the stormy waves of the
deep are appeased, and the sea itself has now
become navigable. That sacred ceremony you
ought to expect with a mind neither solicitous nor
profane. For the priest, being admonished by me,
shall bear a rosy crown in his right hand adhering
to the rattle, in the precinct of the pomp. Without
delay therefore cheerfully follow, confiding in my
benevolence. When you approach the priest,
gently pluck the roses as if you intended to kiss his
hand, and immediately divest yourself of the hide

The Mysteries. 241

of that worst of beasts, and which for some time
since has been to me detestable.9 Nor should you
fear anything pertaining to my concerns as difficult
— only remember and always retain it deposited
in the penetralia of your mind, that the remaining
course of your life must be dedicated to me, even
to the boundary of your latest breath. Nor is it
unjust that you should owe your whole life to
that goddess by whose assistance you will return
to the Human Form. But you will hVe happy, and
you will live glorious under my protection : and
when, having passed through the allotted space
of your life, you descend (once more) to the realms
beneath, there also in the subterranean hemisphere,
you dwelling in the Elysian Fields, shall frequently
adore me whom you now see, and shall there behold
me shining amidst the darkness of Acheron,
reigning in the Stygian Penetralia, and being
propitious to you. Moreover, if you shall be found
to deserve the protection of my divinity, by sedu-
lous obedience, religious services, and inviolable
chastity, you shall know that it is possible for me
to extend your life beyond the limits appointed
to it by fate.

The venerable Oracle being thus finished, adds
the philosopher, the invincible goddess receded
into herself ; and without delay, I, being liberated
from sleep, immediately arose, seized with fear
and joy, and in an excessive perspiration, and in
the highest degree admiring so manifest a presence
of the powerful goddess ; having sprinkled myself
with marine deiv, and intent upon her great com-
mands, I revolved in my mind the order of her
mandates ; shortly after too the sun arose, and
put to flight the darkness of black night.10 The

9 It will be remembered that Lucius entered upon this initia-
tion under the guise of an ass, into which he had been previously
transformed, which guise the oracle also had announced should
not depart from him until he had eaten of some flowering roses.

10

Apuleius, Metam. book xi. Taylor, p. 263, &c.

242 More Esoteric View.

dragon shuns the sun's beams which look through
the crevices, and the dead son lives — and the new
vessel, purified and holy, is brought into the
Eleusinian temple, to be consecrated in Light. Not,
as some have imagined, a crystal night-lamp or
magic-lanthorn, cleansed for the consumption of
the best olive oil, to dazzle the ignorant or instruct
beholders with artificial emblems 01 natural
science ; but a far more pellucid gas-lamp, an
infallible gasometer, able to hold and sustain and
measure simultaneously, even within itself to
kindle a perpetual flame, shining in equilibriate
constancy about the sufficient fuel of all life. As
Apuleius further apostrophizing the same divinity,
continues — Thou rollest the heavens round the
steady poles, dost illuminate the sun, govern the
world, and tread on the dark realms of Tartarus.
The stars move responsive to thy command, the
gods rejoice in thy divinity, the hours and seasons
return by thy appointment, and the elements
reverence thy decree.11

All which is readily admissible of the Universal
Nature ; and, if we may believe the experienced,
we are not cut off from this fountain, but attracted
out from it ; which supplies all things with life
perpetually, so that we are what we are by its
influence ; but in turn receiving the impressure of
foreign forms, passions, accidents, and evil genera-
tions, the passive purity is defiled and obscured,
and unconscious of that inner light which lives
in reality ; of which the present life is a mere
vestige and a comparative diminution of existence,
an imitation, as it were, ol that which is absolute
and real; whose spontaneous revelation in a
purified soul imparts virtue with understanding,
and universal knowledge, health of body, and
long length of days ; riches as from the Causal
fountain of all things, and felicity in communion
with all. It also emits light accompanied with
11 Apuleius, Metam. book xi.

. The Mysteries. 243

harmony of intellection, and finally exhibits a
form of such rarified effulgence that the eve of
mind, all the while faithfully regarding, is drawn
to contact suddenly, unable longer to sustain itself
alone. This is the method and arcane principle of
Self -Knowledge, and the narrow way of regenera-
tion into life ; and so great is the tenuity and
attractive subtilty of the Divine Nature, says
Iamblicus, that the initiated, when surveying it,
are affected in the same manner as fishes, when
they are drawn upwards from the dark and turbid
waters into the diaphanous clear air ; becoming
languid as soon as they perceive it, and deprived
of the use of their conn ascent spirit.12 For to this
spirit the vision in Hades is allied which is borne
through without much disturbance of the common
life ; but, when the central magnet moves to the
ascent, this expiration is described as taking place ;
a liberation is effected through agony, as it were
of death, the circulation oscillates, and the soul,
coalescing with its vehicle, transcends free from
corporeal hinderance into the Elysian light.
That was the rosy crown of which the Hierophant
was to assist Apuleius' Lucius to partake, when
he was enabled to put off the hide of that worst
of beasts, and re-enter into the Divine Form of
humanity. Wherefore, 0 ye asses ! cries Agrippa,
in condemnation, which are now with your chil-
dren under the commandment of Christ by his
Apostles, the messengers and readers of true
Wisdom in his Gospel, be you loosed from the
darkness of the flesh and blood, ye that desire to
attain to true Wisdom ; not of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, but of the tree of life :
setting apart all traditions of men and discourse
of the flesh and blood whatsoever it be ; entering
not either into the schools of other philosophers,
but into yourselves, ye shall know all things, for
the knowledge of all things is compact in you :
12 Iamblicus on the Mysteries, Taylor, p. 100.

244 More Esoteric View.

even as God hath created trees full of fruits, so
hath he created the soul as a reasonable tree full
of forms and knowledges : but through the sin of
the first parent all things were opened ; and
oblivion, the mother of ignorance, stepped in.
Set you then now aside who may, continues the
magician, the veil of your understanding, who are
wrapped in the darkness of ignorance : Cast out
the drink of Lethe, you who have made yourselves
drunken with forgetfulness, and wait for the True
Light, you who have suffered yourselves to be
overtaken with unreasonable sleep ; and forth-
with, when your face is discovered, ye shall pass
from the light to light,13 and from glory to glory, as
the Apostle says — from the light of the senses to
the illumination of reason, and from reason
through its topmost faith into the substantive
glorification of all.

'Twas in a golden cup
That Helius passed,
Helms, Hyperion's son,
O'er floods and oceans wafted far away.

To Erebus he went, and the sad realms of night
His aged parent there he found,
And the kind consort of his better days,
And all his blooming offspring.
Then to the sacred grove he sped,
The sacred grove of laurel.

And this strain brings us to the final purpose of
iEneas who, going forth to meet his father in the
Elysian fields, has the whole Epopteia opened to
him — the Pantheistic revealment of the Universal
Nature, her secret foundation, the soul's essence,
origin, hinderances, and proper end.

Principio ccelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes
Lucentemque globum Lunse, Titaniaque astra
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.
Inde hominum pecudumque genus vitseque volantum,
Et quse marmoreo fert monstra sub a?quore pontus.
Igneus est ollis vigor, et ccelestis origo

13 Vanity of the Sciences, in conclusion.

The Mysteries. 245

Seminibus : quantum non noxia corpora tardant,
Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra.
Hinc metuunt cupiiintque dolent gaudentque neque auras
Respiciunt, clausse tenebris et carcere cseco.
Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit :
Non tamen omne malum miseris, nee funditus omnes
Corporese excedunt pestes ; penitusque necesse est
Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris.
Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum
Supplicia expendunt. Alise panduntur inanes
Suspense ad ventos ; aliis sub gurgite vasto
Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni.
Quisque suos patimur manes. Exinde per amplum
Mittimur Elysium, et pauci laeta arva tenemus :
Donee longa dies perfecto temporis orbe
Concretam exemit labem, purdmque reliquit
iEthereum sensum, atque aura'/ simplicis ignemM

This initiation to the Paternal abode which,
according to the Alexandrian Platonists, opens
the whole of the divine paths and media by which
the soul becomes finally fitted for establishment
under the ccelestial circulation of her Law, exhibits
in progress likewise the self-splendid appearances
of the true gods, which are both entire and firm,
and expand to the mystic inspection of all intelli-
gibles ; as Socrates explains in Phaedrus : For
telete precedes muesis, and muesis, epopteia. Hence,
says he, we are initiated (teleioumetha) in ascending
by the perfective gods. But we view with closed
eye, i.e., with the pure soul itself (muoumetha)
entire and stable appearances, through the con-
nective gods, with whom there is the intellectual
wholeness and the firm establishment of souls.
And we become fixed in, and spectators of
(epopteuomen) the intelligible watch-tower, through
the gods who are collectors of wholes ; we speak,
indeed, of all these things as with reference to the
intelligible, but we obtain a different thing
according to a different order. For the perfective
gods initiate us in the intelligible through them-
selves ; as the collective monads are through

14 /Eneid, lib. vi. 724.

246 More Esoteric View.

themselves the leaders of intelligibles. And there
are indeed many steps of ascent, but all of them
extend to the Paternal port and the Paternal
Initiation.15

To find the Hero, for whose only sake

We sought the dark abodes and crossed the bitter lake.

For the Paternal is the first source of life, and the
last into which the conscience is initiated ; and
the re-birth and re-creation of this principle in the
Free Ether, prepared for it, is the end and pleni-
tude of initiatory rites.

In Taylor's notes to his Pausanias we find an
extract from an ancient writer, Asclepius
Trallianus, wherein the etymon of cro^ta, Wisdom,
is derived from Too-fa*, the conspicuous and the
clear. Thus- — what is Wisdom ? We reply, that
it is a certain clearness, as being that which renders
all things conspicuous. From whence was this
word clearness denominated ? We reply, from
light. Since, therefore, the clear is accustomed to
lead into light and knowledge things concealed in
the darkness of ignorance ; on this account, con-
cludes the writer, it is thus denominated. Thus,
also, Minerva is sometimes called Phosphor, as
being the bearer and measure of the Demiurgic
Fire. And what are all the gods but manifestations
of this same Fire germinating through the pro-
jecting energy of Intellect distinct in Light ? In
its lucid understanding, stable expanse, Minerva ;
in its golden radiance and ideality, Apollo ;
shining forth in beauty, warmth, and infinite
attraction, Venus ; in its concentrated flashing
force, Mars ; in compact impenetrable purity, the
chaste Diana ; penetrating in all the variety of
perspicuous thought and imagination, the winged
Mercury ; in its universal fabricative virtue and
beneficence, the Demiurgic Jupiter ; and thence-
forth downward and upward from the last to the

15 Proclus on the Theology of Plato, book iv. chap. xxvi.

The Mysteries. 247

first ineffable Phanes, before Saturn, or that
ancient Cybele, proceeded to manifestation by
will in time.

Then nor the sun's swift members splendid shone
But in dense harmony established lay
Concealed ; eternity's revolving sphere
Rejoicing round its centre firm to roll.

Until, as a poet goes on to explicate, by the
fanning of the celestial ether set in motion,

Then all the members of the god appeared.16

And the nourishing cause of these gods is said to
be a certain intelligible union, comprehending in
itself the whole intellectual progression, and filling
the Ethereal Hypostasis with acme and power.
All the gods, says Plotinus, are beautiful, and their
splendour is intense. What else, however, is it but
Intellect through which they are such ? and because
Intellect energizes in them in so great a degree, as
to render them visible by its Light. For they are
not at one time wise, and at another destitute of
wisdom, but they are always wise, in an impassive,
stable, and pure Intellect ; seeing such things as
Intellect itself sees, they occup}^ and pervade
without ceasing the whole of that blissful region.
For the life there is unattended with labour, and
Truth is their generator and nutriment, their
essence and their nurse.17 Plato also by Socrates
narrating the mode of ascent to the Intelligible
Beauty, and how, following the divine leaders they
became partakers of the same, concludes . — It was
then lawful to survey splendid Beauty, where we
obtained together with that happy choir, this
blessed vision and contemplation ; and we indeed
enjoyed this felicity, following the choir together
with Jupiter, but others in conjunction with some
other god ; at the same time beholding and being
initiated in those mysteries which it is lawful to

16 Empedocles, Physics.

17 Plotinus on the Beautiful and the Three Hypostases.

248 More Esoteric View.

call the most blessed of all mysteries. And these
divine orgies were celebrated by us while we were
perfect and free from those evils which awaited us
in a succeeding period of time ; we likewise were
initiated in and became spectators of entire, simple,
quietly stable, and blessed visions, resident in a Pure
Light ; being ourselves pure and liberated from this
surrounding vestment, which we denominate body,
and to which we are bound like an oyster to its shell.
And Beauty, continues the divine narrator, shone
upon us during our progressions with the gods :
but on our arrival hither, we possessed the power
of perceiving it, through the clearest of our senses.18
Not, let us believe with Dr. Warburton, <c a mere
illuminated image, which the priest had purified,"
for indeed his whole account of the institution is
absurd ; but when we consider to what Plato
really alludes, by those simple and blessed visions
resident in a pure light, we can no longer wonder
why the initiated were called happy and reported
to have been blessed ;19 since through initiation,
they were conjoined with the total deity and
intellectual perfection of their leaders, and were
replenished with the divine essentiality. And the
being entire is derived to souls from equilibriate
circulation in their Ether ; which contains, and
is connective of all the Divine genera. Everything,
however, which in the whole contains parts, com-
prehends also that which is divided, and collects
that which is various into union and simplicity.
But the quiet, stable, and simple visions, are
unfolded to souls supernally ; as Proclus explains
from the supercelestial place. And so those gods
and those powers that follow the gods reveal
themselves each in his particular form or essence
of light, but by no means extend themselves as
figured phantasms, such as the mind before beheld
in Hades from its own self -shadowing creative

18 Phsedrus, Taylor, vol. iii. p. 327 and following.

19 See Taylor's observations in the note on this passage, p. 327.

The Mysteries. 249

fancy. For wherefore should they be supposed
to exhibit these ? Is it not evident that their
characteristic would be far better expressed by
their simple idea living in the understanding ,
than by any other figured light or representation ?
By no means therefore, says Xamblicus, does
Divinity either transform himself into phantasms
nor extend these from himself to other things, but
emits illuminations, true representations of himself
in the true manner of souls. And truth, he adds,
is co-existent with the gods, in the same manner
as light with the sun. For as all other things, such
as are principal, primarily begin from themselves,
and impart to themselves that which they give
to others ; as for instance, in essence, in life, and
in motion ; thus also the natures which supply all
beings with truth primarily proclaim the truth
themselves, and precedaneously unfold the essence
of themselves to the spectators. Hence likewise
they exhibit to Theurgists a Fire which is itself,
to itself, visible.20 Let no one therefore wonder,
says Proclus, the gods being essentially in one
simplicity according to transparency, if various
phantasms are hurled forth before the presence of
them ; nor if they, being uniform, should in their
appearance be multiform, as we have learned in
the most perfect Mysteries. For nature and the
demiurgic intellect extend corporeal formed images
of things corporeal, sensible images of things
intelligible, and those without interval, since
all things are an emanation from these.21 And
thus the soul, when looking at things posterior
to herself, beholds the shadows only and images
of true being ; but, when she converts herself to
, herself, she evolves her own Essence, and the
vivific reasons which she contains. And at first,
indeed, she only as it were perceives herself ; but,
when she penetrates more profoundly for the

20 Iamblicus on the Mysteries, chap. x. Taylor, p. 106.

21 On the Theology, book i. chap. xx.

250 More Esoteric View.

examination of herself, she finds in herself both
understanding and the Reason of created beings.
When, however, she proceeds into her interior
recesses and into the Adytum of Life, as the great
theologist declares, she perceives, with the eye
closed, as it were, the genus of the gods, which are
the unities of all being : for all things are in us
psychically, that is to say, in the efficient Reason
of our life, and through this, when it is developed,
we are capable of knowing all things, by exciting the
images and powers of the Whole which we contain.
And this has been said to be the best employment
of our energy, to be extended to a Divine nature,
and having our individual powers at rest, to
revolve harmoniously round it, to excite all the
multitude of the soul to this union ; and laying
aside all such things as are posterior to the One,
to become seated and conjoined to that which is
ineffable and beyond all things.22

It is satisfactory to observe how these ancients,
with one accord, dismiss all visions which take
place during the imperfect self-activity of the
human mind as arbitrary and untrustworthy ;
how well they had learned to discriminate, and
how very absolute and clear a line they draw
between enthusiasm and fanaticism, between the
shadowy world of imaginative vision and the
light of the true gods ; nor will any one, profoundly
considering their assertions, doubt about the origin
or respect due to these divinities, which, as an
emanative splendour from the Causal Fountain,
make manifest in energy its Intellectual Law.

What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball
In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter still their glorious voice,
For ever singing as they shine,
11 The Hand that moves us is divine

?2 Idem, chap. iii.

The Mysteries. 251

Or, as the Mathematician paints it,

En tibi Norma Poli — ! en divae Libramina Molis !
Computus en Jovis ! et quas dum primordia rerum
Conderet, omnipotens sibi leges ipse Creator
Dixerit, et Opens quae Fundamenta locarit.

And here again we take occasion to observe that
it is indeed by divine Media, and not a mere
conception of the mind or metaphysical abstraction,
either, that Theurgists are conjoined to the Divine
nature ; since, if this were the case, what would
hinder those who philosophize theoretically from
participating of this union ? which they do not ;
the perfect efficacy of ineffable works, says
Iamblicus, which are divinely performed, in a
way surpassing all ordinary intelligence and the
power of inexplicable symbols which are known
only to the gods themselves, impart Theurgic
union. Hence we do not perform these things
through intellectual perception ; since, if this
were the case, the intellectual energy of them
would be imparted b}^ us, neither of which is true :
for when we do not energize intellectually (all
preparative conditions having been fulfilled), the
Synthemata, i.e., the Theurgic aids and media
themselves, perform by themselves their proper
work ; and the ineffable power of the gods itself,
knows by itself its own images. It does not
however know them, as if excited by our intelli-
gence ; for neither is it natural that things which
comprehend should be excited by those that are
comprehended, nor perfect by imperfect natures,
nor wholes by parts ; hence neither are divine
causes previously called into energy by our
intellections ; but it is requisite to consider these
and all' the best dispositions of the soul, and also
the purity pertaining, as certain concauses ; the
things which properly excite the Divine will being
the Divine Synthemata themselves : and thus
things pertaining to the gods are moved by them-
selves, and do not receive from an inferior nature

252 More Esoteric View.

{i.e., to say, from the regardant subject) the
principle of their energy.23 As the Chaldaic Oracle
likewise in its own operative language declares :

And these things I revolve in the recluse temples of my mind :

Extending the like fire sparklingly into the spacious air,

To put into the mind the symbol of variety,

And not to walk dispersedlv on the empyreal channels, but
stiffly :

For the king did set before the world an intellectual incor-
ruptible pattern,

This print through the world, he promoting, accordingly
appeared,

Beautified with all kinds of Ideas of which there is one Fountain,

Intellectual notions from the Paternal Fountain cropping the
Flower of Fire —

And to these Intellectual Presters of Intellectual Fire all things
are subservient by the persuasive will of the Father.

Having put on the completety armed vigour of resounding
Light, with triple strength, f ortifyiug the soul and the mind .

O how the world hath Intellectual guides inflexible !24

So did Theurgic rites, by the medium of the
passive Ether, unfold the embryo vigour of her
newly conceived life ; awakening intellect into
reminiscence and filling it with the conscious
reasons of things manifest and occult ; and as
it were by an obstetric hand and action, bringing
forth the total nature and ornamenting it with
Light. For Wisdom here enacts the part of a dis-
creet mother, who having educated her son and
furnished him with understanding, bids him use
it, exercising him in every virtue and theoretic
discipline for the final conversion and accom-
plishment of his soul. And if the education has
been complete and the discipline perfect, says
Porphyry, the whole inferior powers will range in
harmonious concord about their proper rule, and
will so venerate this Reason, as to be indignant
if they are at all self-moved, in consequence
of not being quiet when their master is present ;
and will reprove themselves for their imbecility,

23 Iamblicus on the Myst. chap. xi. Taylor, p. 109.

24 Oracula Chaldaica.

The Mysteries. 253

so that the motions themselves will be dissolved
through their proximity to the reasoning power.25

But the government of the natural life is
oligarchical, almost an anarchy, where there is no
permanently accepted leader of the whole ; but
each motive rising, as it were, becomes an
usurper of a vacant throne ; and external insti-
tutions imaged from thence accordingly are selfish,
conflicting, and unhappy. Yet observing how the
faculties of the common mind rally about the
standard of each tyrant motive, as it accedes, and
how the highest are thus often made to subserve
the lowest ends, how covetousness, ambition, and
envy, and pride will erect and manifest themselves
in the circumstances of individual and social life,
and stamp their character on nations, and obscure
the perception of every other good ; we may
gather from thence a passable though faint con-
ception of the Almighty force that moves about
the Rational Magnet, and how the Presters of
Intellectual Fire follow in radiant order the will
of their First Cause. Under such a monarch indeed,
when once he is established, no dissensions would
be likely to arise, but the inferior powers will so
venerate his leading motive that they will move
only according to his movement, pursuing con-
stantly in observant order his infallible rule.

Fire, sa}^s the adept philosopher, is the purest
and most worthy of all the elements, and its
substance is the finest of all ; for this was first of
all elevated in the creation with the throne of
Divine Majesty. This nature is of all the most
quiet and like unto a chariot, when it is drawn,
it runs ; when it is not drawn, it stands still.
It is also in all things indiscernibly. In it are the
reasons of life and understanding, which are dis-
tributed in the first infusion of man's life, and
these are called the rational soul, by which alone
man differs from other creatures and is like to God.
25 Aids to Intelligence, sect. 2.

254 More Esoteric View.

This soul was of that most pure fire, infused by
God into the vital spirit, by reason of which man,
after the creation of all things, was created into a
particular world or microcosm. In this subject,
God, the Creator of all things, put his seal and
majesty, as in the purest and quietest subject,
which is governed by the will and infinite wisdom
of God alone. Wherefore God abhors all impurity ;
nothing that is filthy or compounded, or blemished
may come near Him, therefore, no mortal man
can see God, or come to Him naturally. For that
Fire which is in the circumference of the Divinity,
in which is carried the seal and majesty of the
Most High, is so intense, that no eye can pene-
trate it ; for Fire will not suffer anything that is
compounded to come near to it : but is the death
and separation of everything that is compounded.
We have said that it is the most quiet subject ;
so it is, or else it would follow that God could not
rest ; but it is of a most quiet silence in itself more
than any man's mind can imagine. Thou hast
an example of this in the flint, in which there is
fire, and yet is not perceived, neither doth appear
until it is stirred up by motion, and kindled in it
that it may appear. So the Fire in which is placed
the sacred majesty of our Creator, is not moved
unless it be stirred up by the proper will of the
Most High, and so is carried where His holy will is.
There is made by the will of the Supreme Maker of
things a most vehement and terrible motion.
Thou hast an example of this, when any monarch
of this world sits in state ; what a quietness there
is about him, what a silence, and although some
one of his court doth move, the motion is only of
some one or other particular man, in an order
which is not regarded. But when the Lord himself
moves, there is a universal stir and motion, then
all that attend on him move with him. What then,
when that Supreme Monarch, the King of kings,
and Maker of all things (after whose example the

The Mysteries. 255

princes of this world are established) doth move in
his own majesty ? What a stir ! What a trembling,
when the whole guard of this heavenly army move
about him ! But some one may ask, how do we
know these things, since heavenly things are hid
from man's understanding ? To whom we answer,
that they are manifest to philosophers into whom
the incomprehensible Deity has inspired his own
Wisdom.26

For the total Reason is in this life of ours hidden,
as the fire in fuel that is not kindled, or as gold in
the dark ore unseen — our Iron, our Red Earth,
our Loadstone, celeberrimus ille microcosmos
et Adam, in which we are all now as dead ; nor can
be awakened to reminiscence without a resolution
of the whole circulatory confine, when it arises
identically reverse, perfect, and alone. This is the
Sal Sapientum et Mercurius Pbilosophorum ;
their Secretum Secretorum ; — Scire etiam tibi
convenit, 0 bone rex, quod hoc magisterium nihil
aliud est, nisi arcanum et secretum secretorum Dei
altissimi et magni ; Ipse enim hoc secretum
prophetis commendavit : quorum scilicet animas
suo paradiso collocavit.'

27

We learn, finally, that the souls of the Initiated,
being made perfect in every telestic accomplish-
ment and virtue, and having passed orderly
through the whole progression of Intelligible
Causes, by the Greeks called gods, were next
promoted to a contemplation of their Highest
Unity. For having vanquished every irrational
and gravitating inclination, the soul, holding
the circle of reason complete, as it were, and para-
mount over all, and possessing all, except her
own identic essence, desires this now alone and
above every other good, her final Cause and con-
summation in the Absolute so long deprived.

28 Sendivogius, New Light of Alchemy, Element of Fire, p. 99.
27 Morieni de Trans. Metal. Ars Aurifera, vol. ii. p. 27.

256 More Esoteric View.

I will open a secret to the Initiated, but let the
doors be shut. And thou, O Musaeus, offspring of
the bright Silene, attend carefully to my song :
for I deliver the truth without disguise : suffer
not therefore former prejudice to debar thee from
that happy life which this knowledge will procure
unto thee. But studiously contemplate the
divine oracle, and persevere in purity of mind and
heart. Go on in the right way, and contemplate
the sole Governor of the World. He is One and
of Himself alone, and to that One all things owe
their Being. He operates through all, was never
seen by mortal eyes, but does Himself see every
one.28

This contemplation, then, of the indwelling
Unity was the final preparative to translation ; and
it has been supposed, from the concluding passage,
that He was never seen by mortal eyes, and others
of like import, that the Initiated, therefore, did
not behold Him. But it should be remembered,
that the initiated were nowhere considered as
mortal men, in respect of their souls, which were
regenerate, and so fortified by assimilation and
proximity, that, whether in union or separation,
their regard was not extraneous but hypostatical,
as of like to like. No mortal can see God or come
to Him naturally ; for if that light which is in
the circumference be so intense that nothing
corporeal can sustain it, and previous unions,
which were but partial and instantaneous, as it
were, tried the ethereal vehicle to its utmost
susceptibility, how much less, therefore, can the
compound creature, approaching to the Fiery
Centre, live ? Neither is it said to be lawful for
the pure to be touched by the impure, and the
uninitiated are for this reason totally debarred, as
it were, by a threefold barrier of sense, ignorance,
and disinclination, from the discovery of truth.
But neither let it be imagined, do the Initiated
28 See the Orphic Fragment in Warburton, vol. i.

The Mysteries. 257

self -actively comprehend the life of Deity ; for that
would be indeed an inversion and a submerging
of the Creator in the creature ; but Plato beauti-
fully unfolds the passive method of the Divine
Intuition, and the three elevating causes of love,
hope, and faith, to those who do not negligently
read what he has written. For what else than love
conjoins the soul to beauty ? and where else is
truth to be hoped for, asks the philosopher, except
in this place ? And what else than faith is the cause
of this ineffable muesis ? For muesis, in short,
is neither through intelligence nor judgment, but
through the unical silence imparted by faith, which
is then better than every gnostic energy (when it
surpasses this), and which establishes both whole
and individual souls in the ineffable Unknown.29
But, lest we prolong the transcendental theme; that
which is most externally remarkable in the theurgic
mandates for this translation is, that the whole
body should be buried, except the head ; sublimely
signifying that the total life, with exception of
that which is intellectual, should be buried in
profound oblivion ; alone elevating, in Platonic,
phrase, the head of the charioteer to the place
beyond the heaven, where he is filled with the
Demiurgic Wisdom and an empyreal life.

And it is necessary, says Proclus, that the soul
thus becoming an Intellectual World, and being as
much as possible assimilated to the whole intelli-
gible universe, should introduce herself to the
Maker of the Universe, and, from this introduction,
should, in a certain respect, become familiar with
him, through a certain intellectual energy. For
uninterrupted energy about anything calls forth
and resuscitates our dormant Ideas. But through
this familiarity, becoming stationed at the door
of the Father, it is necessarv that we should be-
come united to Him. For discovery is this, — to
meet with Him, to be united to Him, and to see
29 Proclus, on the Theology, book iv. chap. ix.

258 More Esoteric View.

Him Himself — the Alone with the Alone ; the
soul hastily withdrawing herself from every other
energy to Him ; for then, being present with her
father, she considers scientific discussions to be
but words, banquets together with Him on the
Truth of Real Being, and in pure splendour is
purely initiated in entire and stable vision. Such,
therefore, is the Discovery of the Father ; not
that which is doxastic, or pertaining to opinion ;
for that is dubious and not very remote from the
irrational life ; neither is it scientific ; for this is
syllogistic and composite, and does not come into
contact with the intellectual essence of the
Intellectual Demiurgus. But it is that which
subsists according to Intellectual Vision itself :
a contact with the Intelligible, and a union with
the Demiurgic Intellect. And this may properly
be denominated difficult, as Plato alludes, either
as how to obtain, presenting itself to souls,
after every evolution of life, or as to the true labour
of souls. For after wandering about generation,
after the purification and the light of science ;
intellectual energy alone, by the intellect that is
in us, shines forth ; locating the soul in the Father,
as in a port, purely establishing her in fabric ative
intellections, and conjoining Light with Light. —
Not such as was with science, or that vision that
was in Elysium, but more beautiful, more intel-
lectual, and partaking more of the nature of the
One than this. This, then, is the Paternal Port
and the discovery of the Father, according to
Proclus, viz., an undefiled union with him.30

And with what magnificence of thought and
diction does the Platonic Successor recall the
Initiated Reason to the contemplation of her end,
as ablating everything else in gradual approach,
and calling together the whole voluntary accord,
he exhorts us. Now, if ever, to remove from
ourselves multiform knowledge, exterminate all
30 On the Timaeus of Plato, vol. i. Taylor, p. 254.

The Mysteries. 259

the variety of life, and in perfect quiet approach
near to the Cause of all Let not only opinion
and phantasy be at rest, and the passions alone,
which impede our anagogic impulse to the First,
be at peace ; but let the air and the universe
be still (within us), and let all things extend in us
with a tranquil power, to commune with the
Ineffable. Let us also, standing there, having
transcended the Intelligible, and with nearly
closed eyes, adoring, as it were, the rising sun
(since it is not lawful for any being whatever
intently to behold Him) let us survey that Sun
whence the Intelligible gods proceed, emerging, as
the Poets say, from the bosom of the ocean ; and
again from this divine tranquillity descending into
Intellect, and from Intellect, employing the
reasonings of the soul, let us relate to ourselves
what the natures are from which, in this pro-
gression, we shall consider the First God exempt.
Let us, as it were, celebrate Him, not as estab-
lishing the earth and heavens, nor giving sub-
sistence to souls and the generations of mortals ;
for these things He produces indeed, but amongst
the last of things. Prior, rather, let us celebrate
Him as unfolding in Light the whole Intelligible
Universe and intellectual genus of gods, together
with all the super-mundane and mundane divin-
ities ; as the God of all gods, the Unity of all
unities, and beyond the First Adyta ; as more
ineffable than all silence, and more Unknown than
all recondite essence, as Holy amongst the holies,
and concealed within the Intelligible gods.

Such was the theology of the wise Ethnics, such
their piety, and with such an energetic expansion
of their whole unfettered will and understanding,
did they seek to prove Reality in the Great
Unknown — unknown, because concealed in this
life — unconscious, even whilst yet in Elysium, the
soul looked out through all her imaged light. But
returning from thence into herself with all her

260 More Esoteric View.

beams concentered, addressing the Great Arche-
type, He becomes known ; yet not as in the
individuated consciousness, things are said to be
known apart ; nor as before, either in separation
of subject and object ; but absolutely, in Identity ;
as passing from herself the soul no longer sees or
distinguishes by intellection nor imagines that
there are two things, but, consubstantial, becomes
herself the ultimate object as she was before the
subject in simultaneous accord. And thus the
Divine Oracle ratifies the Platonic instruction to
inquire.

There is something Intelligible which it behoves thee to

understand with the Flower of thy mind.
For if thou inclinest thy mind thou shalt understand -this also,
Yet understanding, thou shalt not comprehend this wholly :
For it is a Power of circumlucid strength glittering with

vehemence of intellection.
But with the ample flame of the ample mind which measureth

all things,
Except this Intelligible :
But it behoves thee to understand this also ; not fixedly

but having a pure turning eye,
Extend the empty mind of thy soul towards the Intelligible,
That thou mayest learn the Intelligible, for it exists beyond the

mind.

Such is the condition and metaphysical aliena-
tion which ancient experience sublimely proved,
as passing to deification ; which the natural reason
echoes, but by a necessity of faith only, since it
cannot pass into the superstantial proof. Theoretic
contemplation, sensible abstraction, continuity of
active thought, all are alike inadequate ; Without
the Pontic Medium, without Theurgic assistance
we are unable to transcend the consciousness of
this life, and so are prevented from carrying
metaphysics or of proving existence on the
ontological ground. But this desiring faith of
reason by which she has persisted and still persists,
occasionally to inquire and infer, respecting causes
which are both beyond and behind her natural
grasp, has, we think, been aptly compared to the

The Mysteries. 261

perception which the eye has of light and colours
tor as sight, observing believes, yet can affirm
nothing absolutely about the reason or essences of
colours ; in like manner reason, reflecting abstract-
edly, perceives a necessity of subsistence within
itself, yet, unable to know, can affirm nothing with
respect to it. For affirmation implies a doubled
testimony in subject and object, or as a logician
might say, affirmation arises out of that which is
composite from a subject and a predicate. If
therefore Intellect should by any means be enabled
to come into visive contact with its vision, as if
begetting an experience, it would then assert ; and
the assertion, as respects itself, would be true ; and
the disbelief of other who had not proved the same,
would be to it as if some one having slept away his
life dreaming in this world, should on awakening
to outward sense, persist in those dreams with
which he had been so long conversant, denying the
reality of the appearing world ; and as his
infatuation would be obvious, and his denial dis-
regarded by mankind, so is the blindness of the
sensible life described as obvious and lamentable
by those who have passed into a more profound
and convictive experience.

But not reason, nor enthusiasm, nor ardent
desire, nor an intellectual conception, nor ab-
straction, as we are taught, conjoins theurgists
with the One ; but these are preparatory steps
only to the self-oblivious amplitude of conception
which precedes Him moving in the ultimate
recessure of life.

He comes, says Plotinus, suddenly alone, bring-
ing with him his own empyreal universe and total
deity, in one. And all things in that ultimate
circulation are diaphanous, nothing dark or
resisting, as of subject and object remaining in the
mind ; but everything is apparent to every faculty
intrinsically throughout. For light everywhere
meets light, as thought its understanding in the all,

262 More Esoteric View.

continental all, resident in each particular, perfect
with all ; and the splendor there is infinite, for
everything there is great, even that which is small,
for it has the great. The sun which is there is all
the stars, and again each star is the sun, and all the
stars, as ideas are in the mind everywhere, and
the same mind in all ; only in each a different
quality is dominant, yet all are comprehensible in
each, and transmutable one into another, as
thoughts arise and are displaced without disorder
or opposive persistence. Motion likewise there is
perfectly harmonious, for the motion is not con-
founded, as in the world it is, by a mover different
from itself ; but the seat of each thing is that which
the thing itself is, and concurs and proves itself to be
what it is by its own self-evidence, proceeding
constantly towards that whence it originated.
Thus that which thinks and understands, and the
thing understood are one, co-eternal and co-equal,
and their substance is intellect, and Intellect
according to these philosophers is the subsistence
of all.

But in the sensible world the circulation of things
is altogether different ; for though this has been
proved also to be an outbirth from the same
universal centre, yet the equilibrium of being is
broken everywhere at the circumference for
manifestation ; one thing does not subsist by
another, but each part or individual remains alone
in contrariety of conscience ; nor does the devious
wheel of life obey her axle any more, until return-
ing into it, she perceives her error and the trans-
gression that was made in self-will, for the sake
of this experience, from the great Law of Light,
from plenitude of Power, from immortal Harmony,
and that high Exemplar which is before all things,
and the Final Cause of all ; which seeing only is
seen, and understanding is understood by him,
who having a sight like that of Lynceus, pene-
trating all centres, discovers himself in That

The Mysteries. 263

finally which is the source of all ; and passing
from himself to That, transcending, attains the
end of his progression.

Hie deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit
Permixtos heroas, et ipse videbit ur illis.

And this was the consummation of the Mysteries,
the ground of the Hermetic philosophy, prolific in
supernatural increase, transmutations and magical
effects. And thus it is said to be lawful for the
Vital Spirit to descend and ascend in successive
circulations until she terminates her flight in the
Principle of things. And this was the life of the
gods and of divine happy men, who rising in
voluntas abnegation above the evil and sensual
habitude of this life and mairy sufferings to which
body is allied, obtained together with a liberation
from these, a foretaste simple, beatific, and secure,
of the life which is eternal ; when, by exciting the
divine virtue within, they became simultaneously
elevated, and proceeding through Intellect to
Wisdom, they arrived at the First Principle ;
and again descending thence, increasing in divine
virtue by each ascent, until the total life was
irradiated from the ample recess of light.

Tunc ire ad mimdum archetypum ssepe atque redire
Cimc tar unique patrem rerum spectare licebit —

Cujus tunc Co-operator effectus potest Omnia.
But there are many degrees of Divine illumination ;
nor were the rites of Eleusis found to be equally
efficacious for all ; since all souls are not of equal
capacity or bias towards intellectual education :
but as philosophers agree that preceding initia-
tions are preparatory to those in a subsequent
order, so the possession of the best habits of
thought in this life, and natural inclinations, render
the Spirit better adapted to sublime. Plato,
accordingly, cites the records of the Mysteries,
to witness that there are many more thyrsus
bearers than Bacchic souls ; which is to say, that

264 More Esoteric View.

many had the fire indeed, and were able even to
perceive it, who were without the power to dis-
cover and draw it forth to manifestation. For,
in the thrysus, Prometheus is fabled to have
concealed the fire he stole from heaven ; but
Bacchus, persisting through the whole course of
life allotted, returned, as the Orphic verse denotes
him, triumphant, and appearing in splendour
to mortals.

Bacchus, ipse totus igneus et fulgidus appareret, qui nudis
oculis tolerari non posset.

So Osiris appeared in shining garments, as
Apollo, all over radiant ; so Socrates, in his mighty
genius once freed, in ecstasy shone forth, as it is
related, to the beholders, more dazzling than the
luciferous Avheel of the meridian sun, diffusing
itself from the freed centre outwardly until it
moved the dark circumference of sense itself.31

So great Alcides, mortal mould resigned,
His better part enlarged and all refined ;
August his visage shone ; Almighty Jove
In his swift car his honoured offspring drove.

So Orpheus, and so divine Achilles shone reful-
gent in his armour ; and Jason, on his return from
Colchis, with the Golden Fleece.

But, say the expounders, all this splendid
delirium and transfiguration in the Mysteries was
the effect of narcotic liquors, which were adminis-
tered to the Mystce before the shows commenced,
causing a confusion of their intellects, and the
strange and miraculous appearance of the objects
exhibited to them. But this is all a mistake ;
arising naturally enough out of the tendency of
common sense, Procrustes like, to accommodate
things to the limitation of its own sphere, which
comprehends but a small part, however, of the
things which are. The light exhibited in the
Eleusinian mysteries, i.e., in the true initiations,

31 Agrippa Occult Phil, book iii. where are given several notable
examples in this kind ; and Apuleius on the Demon of Socrates.

The Mysteries. 265

as is plainly to be gathered from the sense of the
ancients, was the Light of Life which these could
kindle and fortify, and the total drama was
Divine. Let ignorance disbelieve, and impiety
reprobate, as long as they are able ; those Theurgic
associations were neither futile nor unholy ; nor
were the visions or gods attending on those
Mysteries dead images, nor mere symbols, nor
impotent, nor idle, nor invisible, though unseen.
For are we not taught b}^ the highest philosophic
authorities to believe that by Theurgic rites, an
ascent was made through appropriate media and a
gradual assimilation, which without these could
not be effected, to the knowledge of the First
Cause ; and that not theoretic only, but actual in
co-efficiency of being and universal intellection.

And here, if any agree with us, he will readily
appreciate that mandate of the Mysteries which
forbids that divine things should be divulged to
the uninitiated. For beyond the early danger to
unpurified souls, there remains this objection, that
such things cannot be understood by the multitude,
nor rightly by any but by those only who were
fortunately enabled to perceive them. But it is
not possible, following their descriptions, the
sublimely articulate relations of the Greek and
Alexandrian Platonists, or those no less profound
and earnest mystics of the middle ages, concerning
the divine hypostasis and last conjunction of the
contemplative soul and its immortal experience,
to maintain an indifferent spirit, or without being
in a degree moved to a responsive sense of their
reality. And he who, being endowed with a perci-
pient mind and liberal, will take pains to examine
those writings, or even those of the reputed ene-
mies of their faith — the enlightened Fathers of the
Christian Church — may be persuaded by very
much evidence, too much to intrude in this place,
that the Eleusinian rites alluded to, and the objects
attained, were of a nature widely differing from

266 More Esoteric View.

those which have been generally reported. And if,
as must be indeed admitted, they became latterly
disgraced in impure hands, yet this ought not b}7
any means to detract from our esteem of the
original institution, to which those latter orgies
were diametrically opposed. That the Mysteries
were instituted pure there is no doubt, since it is
universally allowed ; early Christians concurring
with the wisest Ethnics in declaring that they
proposed the noblest ends, and by the worthiest
means attained them ; where not only everything
within was conducted with decorum, but utmost
care was taken to secure the same for those passing
without the Fane, where misbehaviour, even of the
eye, was accounted criminal, and indiscretion was
punished, and profanation by death. That all was
a mere machination and priestly lure, or the
visions of men of obscured intellects, is an
assumption arising out of the double ignorance of
modern times ; all those immortal fables and
glowing descriptions of poets, philosophers, saints,
and historians belie the folly, and reflect it on
those who, from regarding objects of sense only,
with a trifling imagination, have obscured the
high reality and light of better days.

But it is then, as Epictetus says, that the idea
of the Mysteries becomes truly venerable, when,
believing the ancients, we begin to understand
their assertion, that all things therein were pro-
vided by them for the improvement and perfection
of human life.

Thus far we have endeavoured to sketch through
the order of the Mysteries to their consummation ;
for the sake of affording a ground to the pursuit
of our inquiry, to indicate the connection of the
Sacred Art and Alchemv, and inasmuch as modern
revelation would permit, the nature of that Art
and proper Subject of this philosophy. In the
progress of this Vital Experiment, it may not be
difficult to imagine that powers would be disclosed

The Mysteries. 267

and particular secrets of nature in the substance
of her Whole. These intermediate fruits and frag-
ments, having been exhibited at intervals to the
world, without a discovery of their source, have
given rise to much astonishment and misappre-
hension, and those futile researches of common
chemistry after the elixir and gold. Both of which
are vital products, as we shall proceed to elucidate
with the method and metaphysical origin of the
Philosopher's Stone.