Rabelaisian Dialectic and the Platonic-Hermetic Tradition by George M. Masters

Rabelaisian Dialectic and the Platonic-Hermetic Tradition by George M. Masters

4. THE HIEROS GAMOS 

Beyond each of the empirical disciplines is God. Though man attempts to reach out beyond the creation to the Creator, he can not; for in Rabelais's thought, finite logic can not grasp the infinite. Human reason only takes man so far in his pursuit of wisdom. Through intuitive dialectic he can move still further, but there is a gap between the two kinds of reason.

The empirical sciences only point the way. For example, astronomy and magic demonstrate divine order and intelligence, and alchemy suggeststo its students a spiritual rebirth in natural terms. 

But it is especially in the metaphysical speculations of the Cabala and the corpus hermeticum that one finds a symbolic expression of the union of such dialectical extremes as body and soul and the corresponding discursive and intuitive reason. 

Rabelais adapts from the Hermetic literature and the Cabala the image of the sphere and the symbolic mysteries of wine and sex to express the coincidence of opposites and the completeness of man.

But Rabelais's marriage is closer in tone to Leo Hebraeus' conception of sexual union as symbol of the prototype of a cosmic union of sun and moon. intellect and passion, and the ideal and imperfect natures of man and all creation. 

On the human scale the Androgyna symbolizes for him and for Rabelais such a perfect union.