The Religion of the Frenzied Flame(Elden Ring)
The religion of the Frenzied Flame is the religion of Chaos. That which existed before order. Chaos is often times represented by water and in an alchemical sense the fiery crucible also represents Chaos. The Flame of Frenzy hath a watery quality to it and poureth forth from the eyes of it’s hosts as tears. The flame itself is related to the Primordial Crucible. In which all life was mixed together. The first mixture of all substances; which would eventually be set in order.
{Random House Webster’s Dictionary}
primordial
2. existing at or from the very beginning:
primordial matter.
{Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary}
primordial
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Late Latin primordialis, from Latin primordium origin, from primus first + ordiri to begin ― more at PRIME, ORDER
1 a : first created or developed : PRIMEVAL 1 b : existing in or persisting from the beginning (as of a solar system or universe)
{Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary}
crucible1 : a vessel of a very refractory material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat
“Oven or Furnace A mother-symbol. The alchemists’ crucible is symbolic of the body, and the alembic is expressive of the vas Hermetis (31). But it has afurther significance as a symbol of pure, spiritual gestation; it is in this sense that the glowing furnace makes its appearance in so many alchemic treatises, such as Michael Maier and the Museum Hermeticum (1678).” — pg 247, A DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS second edition, by J. E. CIRLOT Translated from the Spanish by JACK SAGE, published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001, © Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 1962 Second edition 1971
The understanding that all things were formed from Chaos is an ancient idea. It is present in ideologies, philosophies and religions all over the world. It is very pertinent for us to understand what this word means.
{From Dictionary of Phrase and Fable}
Chaos (kaos)
Confusion; that confused mass of elemental substances supposed to have existed before God reduced creation into order. The poet Hesiod is the first extant writer that speaks of it.
“Light, uncollected, through the chaos urged
Its infant way, nor order yet had drawn
His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.”
Thomson: Autumn, 732–4
Chaos is everything mixed together as One Thing; there is no Two, there is no duality. There are no differences and no separateness. All is plastic and formless; without any definition.
In Genesis the creation of the earth is described. A void, dark, formless expanse.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” — Genesis 1:1–2
The Greek philosopher Anaxagoras spoke of the first mind establishing order upon the inert passive subject which is Chaos.
“Anaxagoras, the son of Hegesibulus or Eubulus, was a native of Clazomenae. He was a pupil of Anaximenes, and was the first who set mind above matter, for at the beginning of his treatise, which is composed in attractive and dignified language, he says, “All things were together; then came Mind and set them in order.” — pg 63, Complete Works of Diogenes Laertius, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS by Diogenes Laertius, © Delphi Classics, 2015.
Philo Judaeus who was the precursor to the Neo-Platonists also expressed the idea that the spiritual or that is to say the mental precedeth the physical.
“But Moses, who had early reached the very summits of philosophy,2 and who had learnt from the oracles of God the most numerous and important of the principles of nature, was well aware that it is indispensable that in all existing things there must be an active cause, and a passive subject; and that the active cause is the intellect of the universe, thoroughly unadulterated and thoroughly unmixed, superior to virtue and superior to science, superior even to abstract good or abstract beauty; (9) while the passive subject is something inanimate and incapable of motion by any intrinsic power of its own, but having been set in motion, and fashioned, and endowed with life by the intellect, became transformed into that most perfect work, this world.” -The Works of Philo Judaeus,Philo of Alexandria (20BC — 50AD), Creation
The First Cause is GOD and He impressed His cognition upon passive matter. His Reason or Thinking is also known as the Logos or the Word. The Logos is perceived as the basis of all order in the universe. This order we may call providence, fate, causality, among other words that we use to express this conception of right thinking by which all things are created, given form and purpose.
“Fate is no more than a connected Series of Causes, God is the First Original Cause, on which all the rest depend” — all works of Epictetus introduction X, Translated from the Original Greek, By ELIZABETH CARTER.
{From Century Dictionary (1889)}
causality
That which constitutes a cause; the activity of causing; the character of an event as causing. The relation of cause to effect, or of effect to cause; the law or principle that nothing can happen or come into existence without a cause.
Causality establisheth order and regression is a return to a chaotic state. This Chaos is a state of no causal relationships. There is no pull between meanings because there are no separate meanings or differences. There is no chain of relation.
{Stedman’s Medical Dictionary}
chaos
State of such total disorganization that it has no constructive predicates.
A state in which no causal relationships are operating.
[G., primeval formless void]
A pull of meaning, a force or a law; convergence such as entropy reverting ordered things into base components. Order to disorder.
{From Oxford American Dictionary}
entropy
Figurative lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder
Now that we have reviewed the concepts of order and chaos to some degree; let us turn our attention to the proselytes of the religion of the Frenzied Flame.
Hyetta is a blind woman who feeleth a light when she eateth the eyes of those who have devoted themselves to the Frenzied Flame. These eyes are disgustingly referred to as Shabiri grapes. Shabiri is considered to be a demon of blindness in Jewish lore.
“Shabriri is the demon of blindness in Jewish lore. He rests atop uncovered water at night, including pools and rivers, and causes blindness in anyone who drinks it. He is especially attracted to clear and shining vessels. To render Shabriri powerless before drinking, say the incantation “Shabriri. Beriri. Riri. Jiri. Ri. I am thirsty for water in a white glass.” The reduction of his name causes him to shrink in size and vanish. His name in Hebrew translates to mean “dazzling glare” or more literally, “breaker of the eyesight.” Sources: Bias, Freedom from the World of Satanism and the Power of Satan, 42; Thompson, Semitic Magic, 30; Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, 119; Van Loopik, Ways of the Sages and the Way of the World, 156–7.” — pg 295, Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures, BY THERESA BANE, BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2012 Theresa Bane. All rights reserved
“Hello? Is someone there? My name is Hyetta, and I’m journeying in search of the distant light. If I might be so bold as to ask… would you donate any Shabriri grapes in your possession to me? My eyesight has been weak since birth, you see. I can’t tell which way I’m supposed to go next. But when I eat one of those grapes, I can feel a distant light in the back of my eyes. It will lead me, to my true duty, as a Finger Maiden.” — Hyetta, Elden Ring
When given a Shabriri grape.
“Oh, many thanks to you. Now I can feel the distant light once more. You are most kind, indeed. May the blessing of the Fingers be upon you.” — Elden Ring, Hyetta
Jesus says something significant regarding eyes in Matthew.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” — Matthew 6:22–24
Further reading regarding the symbolism of the eye.
“eye
The most important organ of the senses, always associated symbolically with LIGHT and intellectual perspicacity; at the same time, the eye has long been considered not only a receptive organ but also the transmitter of “beams,” the image of spiritual expressivity.” — pg 122, Dictionary of Symbolism, translation copyright 1992, by Hans Biedermann
{American Heritage Dictionary}
perspicacity
Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.
“In modern psychology the eye functions symbolically as the organ of light and consciousness, for it permits us to perceive the world and thus makes it real for us.”- pg 122, Dictionary of Symbolism, translation copyright 1992, by Hans Biedermann
Hyetta being blind cannot discriminate visually for her all things are darkness. Darkness is often associated with Chaos for before there was creation; the world was without form and void; there was complete darkness. By eating eyes the organs of visual sense she is gathering light, perceptions, consciousnesses, understandings, experiences and so forth. Hyetta acts as an eye-biter in an indirect sense due to the fact that people voluntarily give her their eyes. The Frenzied Flame merges all persons, differences and individualities forming a complete unitary whole.
“Eye-biting was considered an involuntary form of EVIL EYE.” — pg 117, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca THIRD EDITION by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Copyright © 1989, 1999, 2008 by Visionary Living, Inc.
After we traverse a sewer underneath Leyndell, and a veritable abyss. We find on the last floor awaiting us Hyetta. There she dispensed unto us the mysteries of her religion after we were seared by the Three Fingers.
“Thank… thank you… I have touched them. The words of the Three Fingers.
As your maiden, allow me to divine them. All that there is came from the One Great. Then came fractures, and births, and souls. But the Greater Will made a mistake. Torment, despair, affliction… every sin, every curse. Every one, born of the mistake. And so, what was borrowed must be returned. Melt it all away, with the yellow chaos flame. Until all is One again” — Hyetta, Elden Ring
All things were One Thing, One Great. The Prime Mover established order upon inert matter giving form to what was once chaos. This impression of mind upon matter is the cause of all differences, separateness, distinguishment, dichotomy and division. The votaries of Chaos perceive this event of the First Cause as the origin of suffering. For they feel separated from true wholeness and in their conceptions of it there can be nothing individual; all must be one.
The Prime Mover, the First Cause, GOD, or in Elden Ring the Greater Will. The Platonic Demiurge, so to speak. Is the cause of all creation. This is the ideological basis of Hyetta’s genesis of the world story.
{Britannica Concise Encyclopedia}
Demiurge
Subordinate god who shapes and arranges the physical world.
In his dialogue Timaeus, Plato identified the Demiurge as the force that fashioned the world from the preexisting materials of chaos. In Gnosticism of the early Christian era, the Demiurge is regarded as an inferior deity who had created the imperfect, material world and who belonged to the forces of evil opposing the supreme God of goodness.
The view that the maker of the world is a villain hath a spiritual equivalent in Gnosticism. In their view the Demiurge(artisan) hinders mankind from truth and keeps him ignorant. For them the author of differences is the author of all evil and the cause of all sin and strife. It may be said that creation itself was a sin by their logic. Peradventure the very first in their view. Their heroes were the serpent and figures such as Prometheus. The serpent in particular is a symbol of Chaos and the sameness of all things.
“In alchemy the fundamental message of the ouroboros is the changing of one thing into another, ultimately yielding “All is One.” It is a symbol for Mercurius and the union of opposites.” — pg 234–235, The Encyclopedia of MAGIC and ALCHEMY by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.
“For the Naassenes and Ophite Gnostic sects, the ouroboros was equated with the serpent in the Garden of Eden. A hero rather than villain, the serpent helped Adam and Eve defy the demiurge Jehovah and obtain the first gnosis (knowledge) by eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Later, the serpent came to represent the guardian of the Tree of Life and therefore the gatekeeper to immortality.” — pg 234, The Encyclopedia of MAGIC and ALCHEMY Rosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.
The Gnostics’ viewed Chaos or the Abyss as the supreme being and the Mother Goddess.
“Abyss Ambivalent, as both the profundity of the depth and as abasement
and inferiority. The watery abyss is the primordial source of the universe;
the Mother Goddess; the underworld. In Gnostic symbolism it is Supreme
Being, the author of the Aeons.” — pg 12, AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS, By J.C. COOPER, Copyright © 1978 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
In Elden Ring Rykard and the Great Serpent wish to eat the gods. They have their own fire which is like lava. Similar to the tearlike watery fires of Frenzy. Which appeareth to be akin to the hot liquids of a crucible. The principle of sameness is expressed in both the One Great and the Great Serpent. The Primordial Crucible and the bowels of the Great Serpent both represent the same principle of destroying differences.
The votaries of the Frenzied Flame wish to return to the state of oneness before all differences. The representatives of the Flame of Frenzy are the Three Fingers and the representatives of the Greater will are the Two Fingers. It is pertinent then to understand something about hand symbolism.
“In the figurative language of the Bible and beyond, hands have long represented power.” — pg 258, The A to Z Guide to Bible Signs and Symbols, by Neil Wilson & Nancy Ryken Taylor, © 2015 by Barton-Veerman Company, Published by Baker Books
“Reference to hand or hands could also indicate a person’s will or attitude.” — pg 258, The A to Z Guide to Bible Signs and Symbols, by Neil Wilson & Nancy Ryken Taylor, © 2015 by Barton-Veerman Company, Published by Baker Books
Two and Three fingers on two different hands which it would seem to represent power, will, or attitude. We should understand the numerological significance of these numbers.
Three Fingers, the number three is the number of completeness according to Biblical numerology.
“In number three we have our first geometrical figure. The first time we can enclose an area. Three therefore, stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete and entire; divine perfection. As we go through the Bible we will see that all things that are specially complete are stamped with this number three.” — pg 12, THE MIRACULOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBERS AND COLORS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, BY M.D. Stewart, DETROIT CHRISTADILPHIAN BOOK SUPPLY
Two Fingers, the number represents dichotomy, differences, duality.
One, Two, Three. One is the number that representeth perfect unity. Two representeth a splitting of that unity and the establishment of order. Three is the number of unity and completeness. Therefore the votaries of the Flame of Frenzy are endeavoring to return all things to wholeness; even though the One Great hath been previously separated. Their standard of divine perfection is Chaos.
Two affirms that there is a difference — there is another.
1. It is the first number by which we can divide another. For example, when
the earth lay in the chaos which had overwhelmed it, (Gen. 1:2), its condition was universal, ruin and darkness. The second thing recorded in connection with the creation was the introduction of a second thing, light.
Immediately there was division and difference for God divided the light from
the darkness.
2. The second day was characterized by division (Gen. 1:6). Let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the
waters.
3. The first statement in the Bible, Gen. 1:1, in the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth (perfection). The second statement is: And the earth
was (or rather became) without form and void (difference). — pg 11, THE MIRACULOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBERS AND COLORS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, BY M.D. Stewart, DETROIT CHRISTADILPHIAN BOOK SUPPLY
The Two Fingers represent order due to the fact that all order requireth division, dichotomy, variety; therefore without differences there is chaos; hence in morality good is in contrast to evil, in a society proper conduct is in contrast to criminality, beauty is in contrast to ugliness; elements of reality are perceived and discerned and are not considered to be one thing. The idea that differentiated reality and matter is a deviation from a great whole or one thing is an old belief dating back to ancient religions and philosophies.
“Moreover, the One Thing within us and the One Thing of the whole universe are really the same just as the One Mind within us and the One Mind of the universe become the same in meditation.” — Chapter 1 GIFT FROM THE GODS, The Emerald Tablet : Alchemy For Personal Transformation by Dennis William Hauck, Copyright © Dennis William Hauck, 1999
There are individuals who have experienced the dissolution of self, individuality, differences and so forth; often through altered states of consciousness due to induced trance and drugs; returning to source and being one with the universe are two phrases among a great deal of others that are used to describe such an experience.
“A galaxy of stars spun endlessly through the universe, and I was that. The rapture exceeded any pleasure, joy, ecstasy, or bliss that I had ever experienced or imagined. This was the most prolonged and intense bliss that I have ever known. Individuality dissolved into the primordial infinite joy. There was a complete loss of the condition of the skin-bound body-mind. There was no “I” or “self.” The most significant aspect of the state of unity was this transcending of the self-sense. There was not a “union” of the “I” with lover, or “I” with the galaxy. Rather, there was only undifferentiated unity and consciousness as all that.” — Chapter 9 THIS IS THE PATTERN, Part 2 APPLYING THE EMERALD FORMULA, The Emerald Tablet : Alchemy For Personal Transformation by Dennis William Hauck, Copyright © Dennis William Hauck, 1999
There are many proponents of nondualism who actively wish to promote such experiences as the one above. They believe that division itself is an illusion that must be unlearned and that Chaos is true reality; therefore they have been the traditional philosophical and religious opponents of those who believe that duality and order are essential and absolute aspects of reality; the proponents of nondualism believe that mankind hath been restricted by the belief in positive differences between good and evil. According to them there is no good or evil, God and Satan are one simply being different aspects of the One Thing, because everything is an aspect of the One Thing. That One Thing is essentially Chaos.
We could very well associate chaos in a mental sense to insanity; a mind that lacks discrimination, coherence and logic.
“In an essay from 1953, Grant writes that “we should strive always to realise the Void nature of things and to merge into that state of formless awareness.”14 He describes ultimate reality as a “Pure and perfect void,”15 and as a prerequisite for enlightenment he stresses the complete union of opposites through insistence on “the sameness of all things and not on their differences — which are purely illusory because mind- made.” — pg 158 The Eloquent Blood The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism, by MANON HEDENBORG WHITE, © Oxford University Press 2020
The Golden Robe in Demon’s Souls is a sort of Demon that is associated with madness to some degree and colorwise is similar to the yellow Frenzied Flame of Elden Ring. Yellow is the color of unity.
“yellow’ was said to be the colour of unity — unity in affection, unity with the spiritual powers of the universe,” — pg 15 THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR,BY ELLEN CONROY, M.A., LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED & PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1921
The yellow robes represent the spiritual path of Buddhism.
“The yellow robe donned by the Buddhist is a symbol that he is now on the path that is to lead to spirituality.” — pg 15 THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR,BY ELLEN CONROY, M.A., LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED & PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1921
“The belief of these yellow-robed men is that they have within them a spark of the Godhead, and that, by suppressing the bodily desires and by concentrating their whole mental and psychic energies towards trying to understand this higher part of their nature, they will become united with the Supreme Spirit and will understand how to do many things and see many things that the ordinary man cannot do or see.” — pg 16 THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR, BY ELLEN CONROY, M.A., LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED & PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1921
The nature of the Old Monk’s enlightenment is the dissolution of self and merging with the One Thing, the One Mind. Apparently he had recognized his own supposed divinity and yet that divinity is part of still something else the root of which is the Old One; who will ultimately assimilate him and all other souls into itself as collective soul.
All individuality and personhood must melt away; there can be no individual soul or person in this One Great all is one. Ego must therefore be assimilated into chaotic existence.
{From Century Dictionary (1889)}
ego
n. The “I”; that which feels, acts, and thinks; any person’s “self,” considered as essentially the same in all persons. This use of the word was introduced by
Descartes, and has long been current in general literature.
One eyes must melt, one’s perspectives must melt, one’s person must melt; into Chaos. In many eastern ideologies the ego is viewed as a delusion and much mental work and conditioning is used to achieve what they perceive as yoking themselves to what they consider to be the cosmic mind.
“Ego in Buddhism the concept of an ego, in the sense of consciousness of one’s self, is seen as composed of nonvalid factors, as → delusion. The concept of an ego arises when the dichotomizing intellect (the sixth sense, → shadatayatana) is confused into presupposing a dualism between I and not-I ( or other). As a result we think and act as though we were entities separated from everything else, over against a world that lies outside of us. Thus the idea of an I becomes fixed in our subconscious, a self which produces thought processes like “I hate this, I love that; this is yours, this is mine.” Nurtured by such conceptions, we reach the point where the I or ego dominates the mind; it attacks everything that threatens its dominance and is attracted to everything that seems to extend its power. Enmity, desire, and alienation, which culminate in suffering, are the ineluctable results of this outlook, which in Zen is cut through by the practice of→ zazen. Thus in the course of Zen training under a → roshi, who leads people on the path to → enlightenment {→satori,→ kensho), the dominance of the ego illusion over the practitioner’s thinking and aspirations is gradually overcome.” — pg 98, The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion, Shambhala Publications, Inc. Horticultural Hall 300 Massachusetts A venue Boston, Massachusetts 02115 ©1986 by Otto-Wilhelm-Barth Verlag, a division of Scherz Verlag, Bern and Munich Translation © 1989 by Shambhala Publications, Inc.
In a sense the act of gouging out one’s eyes symbolizes the destruction of the ego, their perceptions and their experiences. The eyes of the votaries of the Flame of Frenzy burned in the crucible, that is to say, Hyetta’s stomach. She is a vessel for the light that was once in the votaries who sacrificed their eyes to her. Here in this narrative Chaos is considered crucible fire or light/enlightenment but the symbolism of the abyss is also present in the descent into the Leyndell sewers and catacombs. Therefore Fromsoft has expressed the principle of Chaos in myriad ways and some I have yet to mention. This will however suffice as an explanatory treatise upon the religion of the Flame of Frenzy.
“The path of the Lord of Chaos. Burn the Erdtree to the ground, and incinerate all that divides and distinguishes.
Ahhh, may chaos take the world! May chaos take the world!” — Shabriri
