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VISIONARY REVUE PARIS - SPRING 2003

HERMES AND PAN AND

HERMETICISM PANTHEISM

In his autobiography, Johfra quotes from Faust

and his lament that “Alas, two souls dwell within my
breast, and each longs to sever itself from the other.”
(Faust l.1112) On the one hand is the love of Nature
as grasped through the senses, on the other is a
higher longing for Heavenly existence. Johfra felt
this dual longing in himself accutely - a dualism
which he had inherited from his studies in
Hermeticism, which polarized existence between
body and spirit, earth and heaven, Nature and the
Transcendent.
It is for this reason that Hermes Trismegistos, in
Johfra’s rendering, points upward with one hand
and downward with the other. Hermeticism sought
the reconciliation of opposites by transcending them
in favour of a higher union. The god Pan,
meanwhile, sits firmly upon the earth and with both
outstretched hands he knowingly gestures
downward. For, he knows that - all that exists, exists
here! This is the only world.
JOHFRA PAINTING THE ADORATION OF PAN
A closer examination of The Adoration of Pan
reveals an order amidst the swirling chaos. There
are in fact four distinct groups of figures. On the
left, they emerge from the earth, in the middle from
the water, on the right from the fire, and at the top
left from the air - the four fundamental elements.
All swirl towards Pan (‘the All’) in the centre, as if
toward the unified source of the elements. In the
future, Johfra will become obsessed with these four
elements - as the fire spirits, fairies, water nymphs
and woodsprites that invisibly inhabit and enliven
nature.

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