In Awe of Ataraxia

In the research for my Golden Sun III project, the Myth of Laerad, I occasionally stumbled across the hermetism/hermeticism page on Wikipedia. Hermeticism is basically a esoteric discipline (religion) with gnostic concepts throughout. It’s set apart from other disciplines because of its amazing Mysteries, and the powerful mythology and magick that drives them. Perhaps go to its Wiki page if you want more info.

Recently, I discovered a very apparent truth as I examined the page in detail for the first time: Golden Sun and Hermeticism have incredible similarities. Not only that, but the work I’ve been doing the past three years on the Myth of Laerad is actually spiritually successive to what could be the larger, hidden plot of the Golden Sun series, which I believe I may have uncovered. Let me show you my findings.

• First, the founder of Hermeticism: Hermes Trismegistus (meaning “Thrice Great”), named so because, as he claims in The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, he knows the three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe. One of those three things is Alchemy.

• Next, take a look at the Hermetic creation myth! The Maker of the world created “seven powers”: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and the Moon. Not only this, but the classical elements of Fire, Air, Earth and Water are essential to Hermetic practice.

• Who was the Wise One? “The Latin Ops: Terra, genius of the earth.” Ops, or Opis, was the same mythical figure represented as Gaia, or Mother Earth, and thus was female. The Wise One of Golden Sun, to me at least, feels decidedly patriarchal. But compare the symbol of Ops (the Monad) to the Wise One itself:

The Stone of Pessinus: “There was an oddly shaped stone that was procured from Pessinus that represented Ops. It was put in the famous temple in Rome and worshiped by the Romans, particularly the Cult of Cybele, for a long time in numerous ceremonies.”

Even more relevant, take a look at this alchemical woodcut, dated around the 17th century, of the Eye of Providence; the infamous symbol of all things occult:

“Adeptship is the state of complete spiritual maturity so far as this is possible to a member of the human family. Deficient in nothing necessary to a life of wisdom, the adept is sufficient to his own needs and capable of determining that course of personal action most likely to lead to enlightenment. The adepts foreshadow the state of mankind when it will have attained the full release of its faculties and powers. The adept is, therefore, the truly evolved of our species.”

• One of the most famous occult writers ever (along with Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, etc); Madame Blavatsky “asserts the capabilities of the adept as being able to take active control of elemental spirits.“

• Lastly, and definitely the most interesting:

1. “In the initiatory system of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn(!), an adept is one who has been granted the title Adeptus Minor. Symbolically this degree represents a spiritual aspirant who, having mastered the union of the four elements under an upright and balanced spirit, is allowed passage from the Portal of the Vault of the Adepti to… Abiegnus; the center of the universe.

2. “In the lore of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Mons Abiegnus (Latin, ‘fir covered mountain’) was a mythical mountain that symbolized the spiritual journey of the initiate. Borrowed from Rosicrucian symbolism, Abiegnus is visualized as the kabbalistic tree of life in the form of a subterranean mountain.”

3. The Aleph Ritual. A Ma’aseh Merkabah ritual constructed from traditional sources and from the angelic pantheon adopted by the Order of the Golden Dawn. This ritual is to be performed in conjunction with a study of the Tree of Life.

Mons Abiegnus… Mount Aleph…

There you have it. Not only does Golden Sun partly originate from a secret religious discipline (it also takes a lot from Norse mythology and others), but nearly all my ideas for Golden Sun III are aligned with it.

Pretty awesome.