Transcendental Magic

by Eliphas Levi

  To be isolated from the Astral Light it is not enough to envelop one's self in a woollen fabric; we must also, and above all, impose absolute tranquillity on mind and heart; we must have quitted the world of passions and be assured of perseverance in the spontaneous operations of an inflexible will. We must reiterate frequently the acts of this will, for, as we shall see in the introduction to the “Ritual”, it is by acts only that confidence is assured to the will, as the power and perpetuity of religions depend on their Rites and Ceremonies.

  There are intoxicating substances, which, by increasing nervous sensibility, exalt the power and consequently the allurements of astral representations; by the same means, but pursuing a contrary course, spirits may be terrified and disturbed. These substances, of themselves magnetic and magnetized further by operators, are what people term philtres and enchanted potions. But we shall not enter here upon this dangerous aspect of the practice, which Cornelius Agrippa himself terms venomous Magic. It is true that there are no longer pyres for sorcerers, but always, and more than ever, are there penalties dealt out to malefactors. Let us confine ourselves therefore to stating, as the occasion offers, the reality of such power.

  To direct the Astral Light we must understand also its twofold vibration, as well as the balance of forces termed magical equilibrium, expressed in the Kabalah by the senary. Considered in its first cause, this equilibrium is the will of God; it is liberty in man and mathematical equilibrium in matter. Equilibrium produces stability and dura tion. Liberty generates the immortality of man,1 and the will of God gives effect to the laws of Eternal Reason. Equilibrium in ideas is reason and in forces power. Equilibrium is exact; fulfil its law, and it is there; violate it, however slightly, and it is destroyed. For this reason nothing is useless or lost. Every utterance and every movement are for or against equilibrium, for or against truth, which is composed of for and against conciliated, or at least equilibrated. We shall state in the introduction to the “Ritual” how magical equilibrium should be produced, and why it is necessary to the success of all operations.

  Omnipotence is the most absolute liberty, now, absolute liberty cannot exist apart from perfect equilibrium. Magical equilibrium is hence one of the first conditions of success in the operations of science, and must be sought even in occult chemistry, in learning to combine contraries without neutralizing them by one another. Magical equilibrium explains the great and primeval mystery of the existence and relative necessity of evil. This relative necessity gives, in Black Magic, the measure of the power of demons or impure spirits, to whom virtues practised upon earth are a rource of increased rage and apparently of increased power. At the epochs when saints and angels work miracles openly, sorcerers and fiends in their turn operate marvels and prodigies. Rivalry often creates success; we lean upon that which resists.

  1 “Six is the number of the days of the week and the characteristic number of time, as seven is figurative of eternity. It represents equilibrium in the finite, three equilibrated by three, otherwise the soul striving with matter.”—Les Mystères de la Kabbale, p. 176. La Clef des Grands Mystères, p. 31, says that “the senary is the number of initiation by trial” and “the hieroglyph of the science of good and evil.” According to Lévi's posthumous work, The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum, p. 20, the Hexagram is “the Monogram of Hermetic Truth”.

  2 There is no such allocation in Zoharic Kabalism, nor in Sepher Yetzirah.

  1 Intimations of another order are conveyed in La Science des Esprits, p. 9: “To get possession of blind forces and so direct them that they become the lever of intelligence—such is the Great Secret of Magic. To invoke blindest passions, which are also illimitable in their scope, and bring them into slavish subjection, is to create omnipotence.”

  1 It is said otherwise that “all prodigies are performed by means of a single agent which the Hebrews term OD, like Baron Reichenbach, which we call on our own part the Astral Light, following the school of Martines de Pasqually, which M. de Mirville dubs the devil, while the old alchemists denominated it AZOTH. It is that vital element which manifests in the phenomena of heat, light, electricity and magnetism, which magnetizes all terrestrial globes and all living beings. It gives proof of the kabalistic doctrine concerning equilibrium and movement by the double polarity which attracts on the one side and repels on the other, on the one produces heat and on the other cold, with their colour-correspondences of blue and greenish light and of yellow and reddish. This agent, according to its diverse modes of magnetization, renders us mutually attractive or repellent, subjects wills to one another, establishes or disturbs equilibrium in the animal economy by its transmutations and alternative emanations, receives and transmits the imprints of that imaginative force which is in man the image and likeness of the creative word, thus awaking presentiments and determining dreams. The science of miracles lies in the knowledge of this wonderful force, while the art of performing them is simply the art of magnetizing or illuminating beings according to the invariable laws of magnetism or the Astral Light.”—La Clef des Grands Mystères, pp. 217, 218. Lévi goes on to record his preference for the word light rather than that of magnetism because it is more traditional in occultism and expresses more fully the nature of the Secret Agent. He defines the latter as the fluid and potable gold of alchemical masters. He pretends also in his reverie that the French or = gold comes from the Hebrew Aour, which signifies light. The Universal Agent is defined otherwise as vital force subordinated to intelligence. If abandoned to itself, it devours whatsoever it produces, like Moloch, and as such it is the infernal serpent of ancient mythos. But if Wisdom, mother of the Elohim, sets a foot upon its head, the flames which it breathes forth are extinguished and Wisdom, with open hands, pours life-giving light upon the earth.

  1 Compare the first reference to AZOT in Chapter 1 and the annotation thereon, Éliphas Lévi does not mean of course that the so-called universal seducer is God in manifestation or that the Jehovah of Kabalism is a blind force, indifferent to good or evil, but this is how his loose imagery lends itself to interpretation.

  1 “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity—three words which seem so luminous and yet are full of obscurity; three principles which in their combination produce a triple falsehood, because they destroy one another. Liberty of necessity makes inequality manifest, while equality is a level which does not admit of liberty, for the level abases or suppresses all heads which rise above others. The pretension to equality sustained by liberty produces interminable strife of people between themselves and of pride in rebellion against that inexorable Nature which makes fraternity impossible among men. The watchwords of the republic which is to come will be Humanity, Justice, Solidarity: such is the enigma of the modern sphinx, which must be divined or we perish.”—Les Portes de L'Avenir, xxxviii, xxxix. “Liberty is the full enjoyment of all those rights which do not connote a duty. It is by the fulfilment of duty that rights are acquired and preserved. Man has the right to do his duty because he is bound to preserve his rights. Self-devotion is only a sublimation of duty, and it is the most sublime of all rights.”—Paradoxes of the Highest Science, p. 14.

  VII G

  THE FIERY SWORD

  NETSAH GLADIUS

  THE septenary is the sacred number in all theogonies and in all symbols, because it is composed of the triad and the tetrad. The number seven represents magical power in all its fulness; it is the mind reinforced by all elementary potencies; it is the soul served by Nature; it is the SANCTUM REGNUM mentioned in the Keys of Solomon and represented in the Tarot by a crowned warrior, who bears a triangle on his cuirass and is posed upon a cube, to which two sphinxes are harnessed, straining in opposite directions, while their heads are turned the same way.1 This warrior is armed with a fiery sword and holds in his left hand a sceptre surmounted by a triangle and a sphere. The cube is the Philosophical Stone; the sphinxes are the two forces of the Great Agent, corresponding to JAKIN and BOAZ, the two Pillars of the Temple; the cuirass is the knowledge o
f Divine Things, which renders the wise man invulnerable to human assaults; the sceptre is the Magic Wand; the fiery sword is the symbol of victory over the deadly sins, seven in number, like the virtues, the conceptions of both being typified by the ancients under the figures of the seven planets then known. Thus, faith—that aspiration towards the infinite, that noble self-reliance sustained by confidence in all virtues —the faith which in weak natures may degenerate into pride, was represented by the Sun; hope, the enemy of avarice, by the Moon; charity, in opposition to luxury, by Venus, the bright star of morning and evening; strength, superior to wrath, by Mars; prudence, hostile to idleness, by Mer cury; temperance, opposed to gluttony, by Saturn, who was given a stone instead of his children to devour; finally, justice, in opposition to envy, by Jupiter, the conqueror of the Titans. Such are the symbols borrowed by astronomy from the Hellenic cultus. In the Kabalah of the Hebrews, the Sun represents the angel of light; the Moon, the angel of aspirations and dreams; Mars, the destroying angel; Venus, the angel of loves; Mercury, the angel of progress; Jupiter, the angel of power: Saturn, the angel of the wilderness. They were named also Michaël, Gabriel, Samaël, Anaël, Raphaël, Zachariel and Orifiel.

  These governing potencies of souls shared human life during successive periods, which astrologers measured by the revolutions of the corresponding planets. But kabalistic astrology must not be confounded with that which is called judicial. We will explain this distinction. Infancy is dedi cated to the Sun, childhood to the Moon, youth to Mars and Venus, manhood to Mercury, ripe age to Jupiter, and old age to Saturn. Now, humanity in general subsists under laws of development analogous to those of individual life. On this basis Trithemius establishes his prophetic key of the seven spirits, to which we shall refer subsequently; by means thereof, observing the analogical proportions of successive events, it is possible to predict important future occurrences with certitude, and to fix beforehand, from age to age, the destinies of nations and the world. St John, depositary of the Secret Doctrine of Christ, has commemorated this sequence in the kabalistic book of the Apocalypse, which he represents sealed with seven seals. We meet also the seven genii of ancient mythologies, and the Cups and Swords of the Tarot. The doctrine concealed under these emblems is pure Kabalah, already lost by the Pharisees at the time of Christ's advent. The scenes which succeed one another in this wonderful prophetic epic are so many pantacles, the keys of which are the ternary, the quaternary, the septenary and the duodenary. Its hieroglyphic figures are analogous to those of the Book of Hermes or the Genesis of Enoch, to make use of a tentative title which expresses merely the personal opinion of the erudite William Postel.

  The cherub, or symbolic bull, which Moses placed at the gate of the edenic world, bearing a fiery sword, is a sphinx, having a bull's body and a human head; it is the antique Assyrian sphinx, and the combat and victory of Mithras were its hieroglyphic analysis. Now, this armed sphinx represents the Law of Mystery which watches at the door of initiation to warn away the profane. Voltaire, who knew nothing of all this, was highly diverted at the notion of a bull brandishing a sword. What would he have said had he visited the ruins of Memphis and Thebes, and what would the echo of past ages which slumbers in the tombs of Rameses have replied to those light sarcasms so much relished in France? The Mosaic cherub represents also the Great Magical Mystery, of which the elements are expressed by the septenary, without, however, giving the final word. This verbum inenarrabile of the sages of the Alexandrian school, this word which Hebrew Kabalists write and interpret by 1, thus expressing the triplicity of the secondary principle, the dualism of means, the equal unity of the first and final principle, the alliance between the triad and the tetrad in a word composed of four letters, which form seven by means of a triple and double repetition—this word is pronounced ARARITA.

  The virtue of the septenary is absolute in Magic, for this number is decisive in all things: hence all religions have consecrated it in their rites. The seventh year was a jubilee among the Jews; the seventh day is set apart for rest and prayer; there are seven sacraments, etc. The seven colours of the prism and the seven musical notes correspond also to the seven planets of the ancients, that is, to the seven chords of the human lyre. The spiritual heaven has never changed, and astrology has been more invariable than astronomy. The seven planets are, in fact, the hieroglyphic symbols of the keyboard of our affections. To compose talismans of the Sun, Moon or Saturn, is to attach the will magnetically to signs corresponding to the chief powers of the soul; to consecrate something to Mercury or Venus is to magnetize that object according to a direct intention, whether pleasure, science or profit be the end in view. The analogous metals, animals, plants and perfumes are auxiliaries to this end. The seven magical animals are: (a) Among birds, corresponding to the divine world, the swan, the owl, the vulture, the dove, the stork, the eagle and the pewit; (b) among fish, corresponding to the spiritual or scientific world, the seal, the cat-fish, the pike, the mullet, the chub, the dolphin, the sepia or cuttle-fish; (c) among quadrupeds, corresponding to the natural world, the lion, the cat, the wolf, the he-goat, the monkey, the stag and the mole. The blood, fat, liver and gall of these animals serve in enchantments; their brain combines with the perfumes of the planets, and it is recognized by ancient practice that they possess magnetic virtues corresponding to the seven planetary influences.

  The talismans of the seven spirits are engraved either on precious stones, such as the carbuncle, crystal, diamond, emerald, agate, sapphire and onyx, or upon metals, such as gold, silver, iron, copper, fixed mercury, pewter and lead. The kabalistic signs of the seven spirits are: for the Sun, a serpent with the head of a lion; for the Moon, a globe divided by two crescents; for Mars, a dragon biting the hilt of a sword; for Venus, a lingam; for Mercury, the Hermetic caduceus and the cynocephalus; for. Jupiter, the Blazing Pentagram in the talons or beak of an eagle; for Saturn, a lame and aged man, or a serpent curled about the sun-stone. All these symbols are found on engraved stones of the ancients and especially on those talismans of the Gnostic epochs which are known by the name of ABRAXAS. In the collection of the talismans of Paracelsus, Jupiter is represented by a priest in ecclesiastical garb, while in the Tarot he appears as a grand hierophant crowned with a triple tiara, holding a three-barred cross in his hands, forming the magical triangle, and representing at once the sceptre and key of the three worlds.

  By collating all that has been said about the unity of the triad and tetrad, we shall find all that remains to be told concerning the septenary, that grand and complete magical unity composed of four and three.1

  1 The septenary is said otherwise to be the great Biblical number, the key to the “creation” of Moses and “the symbol of all religion”.—La Clef des Grands Mystères, p. 33.

  1 The Zoharic Kabalists at least did nothing of the kind: in common with all Rabbinical Jewry, they read ADONAI for JOD, HE, VAU, HE, and looked to that time of the Messiah when the Sacred Name would be restored to the renewed sanctuary.

  1 With reference to the plants and colours of the septenary employed in magnetic experiences, see the erudite work of M. Ragon on La Maçonnerie Occulte.—NOTE OF ÉLIPHAS LÉVI.

  VIII H1

  REALIZATION

  HOD VIVENS

  CAUSES manifest by effects, and effects are proportioned to causes. The Divine Word, the One Word, the Tetragram, is self-affirmed by tetradic creation. Human fecundity proves divine fecundity; the Jod of the Divine Name is the eternal virility of the First Principle. Man understands that he was made in the image of God when he attains comprehension of God by increasing to infinity the idea which he forms of himself. When realizing God as the infinite man, man says unto himself: I am the finite God. Magic differs from mysticism because it judges nothing a priori, until after it has established a posteriori the actual base of its judgements, that is to say, after having apprehended the cause by the effects contained in the energy of the cause itself, by means of the universal law of analogy. Hence in the occult sc
iences all is real, and theories are established only on the foundations of experience. Realities alone constitute the proportions of the ideal, and the Magus admits nothing as certain in the domain of ideas save that which is demonstrated by realization.2 In other words, what is true in the cause manifests in the effect. What is not realized does not exist. The realization of speech is the logos properly so called. A thought is realized in becoming speech; it is realized also by signs, sounds and representations of signs: here is the first degree of realization. Then it is imprinted on the Astral Light by means of the signs of writing or speech; it influences other minds by reflections upon them; it is refracted by crossing the Diaphane of other men; it assumes new forms and proportions; it is translated into acts and modifies the world: this is the last degree of realization. Men who are born into a world modified by an idea bear away with them the mark thereof, and it is thus that the word is made flesh. The mark of the disobedience of Adam, preserved in the Astral Light, could be effaced only by the stronger mark of the obedience of the Saviour, and thus the original sin and redemption of the world can be explained in a natural and magical sense. The Astral Light, or Soul of the World, was the instrument of Adam's omnipotence; it became afterwards that of his punishment, being corrupted and troubled by his sin, which intermingled an impure reflection with those primitive images which composed the Book of Universal Science for his still virgin imagination.

  The Astral Light, depicted in ancient symbols by the serpent devouring its tail, represents alternately malice and prudence, time and eternity, tempter and Redeemer; for this light, being the vehicle of life, is an auxiliary alike of good and evil, and may be taken not only for the fiery form of Satan but for the body of the Holy Ghost. It is the instrument of warfare in angelic battles, and feeds indifferently both the flames of hell and the lightnings of St Michael. It may be compared to a horse having a nature analogous to the chameleon, ever reflecting the armour of his rider. The Astral Light is the realization or form of intellectual light, as the latter is the realization or form of the Divine Light.