‘My Veil No Mortal Has Yet Uncovered’
The veil of Isis is a central image in the history of western esotericism, used by the Freemasons, Rosicrucians and Theosophists. At the turn of the nineteenth century, there was an uptick in interest in the veil from German philosophers, especially in its aesthetic dimension: with the veil, Schiller poetically considers the limits of subjectivity, Goethe explores the representation of nature, Kant exemplifies the sublime and Novalis constructs a syncretic narrative. This paper analyses these philosophers and argues that their recurring invocation of the veil of Isis reflects a fraught relationship between reason and its limits, offering an intriguing insight into the precarious status of rationality. I contend that the aesthetic figure of the veil serves a philosophical role as the site where reason grapples with its own boundaries, both critiquing and redefining the limits of reason at the emergence of modern European philosophy, suggesting that the irrational is not an impediment to thought but its very condition.