XXXIII. TO APOLLO. The FUMIGATION from MANNA. BLEST Pæan, come, propitious to my pray'r, Illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revere, Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth . Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee 5 Receives it's constant, rich fertility. Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing, 7 Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king: Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head, Noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread: 10 Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine, 11 Pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine. O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye Views all within, and all beneath the sky: p. 162 Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, 15 Who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure: Hear me entreating for the human kind, Hear, and be present with benignant mind; For thou survey'st this boundless æther all, And ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball 20 Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight, Extends beneath the gloomy, silent night; Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound, The stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found. The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, 25 Thyself all the source and end divine: 'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, With various-sounding, harmonising lyre; Now the last string thou tun'ft to sweet accord, 29 Divinely warbling now the highest chord; 30 p. 163 Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee, Responsive yields a Dorian melody. p. 164 All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe, And changing seasons from thy music flow Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance 35 Summer and Winter in alternate dance; This claims the highest, that the lowest string, The Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring . Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horn'd nam'd, 39 Emitting whistling winds thro' Syrinx fam'd; 40 40 Since to thy care, the figur'd seal's consign'd, 41 Which stamps the world with forms of ev'ry kind. p. 165 Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice, And save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text links the divine lyre's harmony to the ordering of seasons and nature, reflecting a cosmic structure mirrored in music.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The passage describes how Apollo's music directly influences natural cycles, stating 'changing seasons from thy music flow'.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
[auto] Apollo is explicitly identified as the 'light-bearer' and 'Phœbus' with a 'light-producing eye', making luminosity a central attribute of his divinity.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The epithet 'Bacchian' associates Apollo with ecstatic or frenzied divine states.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The deity is depicted as actively surveying the 'boundless æther' and providing 'precepts pure' for the human kind.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The text prescribes specific ritual actions like 'FUMIGATION' and 'rites' to engage the god's power for the salvation of mystics.