by Eliphas Levi
Bewitchment may be cured also by substitution, when that is possible, and by the rupture or deflection of the astral current. The folk-traditions on all these points are admirable and undoubtedly of remote antiquity; they are remnants of the teaching of Druids, who were initiated in the Mysteries of Egypt and India by wandering hierophants. Now, it is well known in vulgar Magic that a bewitchment—that is, a determined will resolved on doing evil, invariably has its result, and cannot draw back without risk of death. The sorcerer who liberates anyone from a charm must have another object for his malevolence, or it is certain that he himself will be smitten and will perish as the victim of his own spells. The astral movement being circular, every azotic or magnetic emission which does not encounter its medium returns with force to its point of departure, thus explaining one of the strangest histories in a sacred book, that of the demons sent into the swine, which thereupon cast themselves into the sea. This act of high initiation was nothing else but the rupture of a magnetic current infected by evil wills. Our name is legion, for we are many, said the instinctive voice of the possessed sufferer. Possessions by the demon are bewitchments, and such cases are innumerable at the present day. A saintly monk who has devoted himself to the service of the insane, Brother Hilarion Tissot, has succeeded, after long experience and incessant practice, in curing a number of patients by unconsciously using the magnetism of Paracelsus. He attributes most of his cases either to disorder of the subjects' will or to the perverse influence of external wills; he regards all crimes as acts of madness and would treat the wicked as diseased, instead of exasperating and making them incurable, under the pretence of punishing them. What space of time must still elapse ere poor Brother Hilarion Tissot shall be hailed as a man of genius! And how many serious men, when they read this chapter, will say that Tissot and myself should treat one another according to our common ideas, but should refrain from publishing our theories, if we do not wish to be reckoned as physicians deserving the madhouse. It revolves, notwithstanding, said Galileo, stamping his foot upon the earth. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, said the Saviour of men. It might be added: Ye shall love justice, and justice shall make you whole men. A vice is a poison, even for the body; true virtue is a pledge of longevity.
The method of ceremonial bewitchments varies with times and persons; all subtle and domineering people find its secrets and its practice within themselves, without even actually calculating about them or reasoning on their sequence. Herein they follow instinctive inspirations of the Great Agent, which, as we have said, accommodates itself marvellously to our vices and our virtues. It may be generally laid down, however, that we are subjected to the wills of others according to the analogies of our tendencies and above all of our faults. To pamper the weakness of an individuality is to possess ourselves of that individuality and convert it into an instrument in the order of the same errors or depravities. Now, when two natures whose defects are analogous become subordinated one to another, the result is a sort of substitution of the stronger for the weaker, an actual obsession of one mind by the other. Very often the weaker may struggle and seek to revolt, but it falls only deeper in servitude. So did Louis XIII conspire against Richelieu and subsequently, so to speak, sought his pardon by abandoning his accomplices. We have all a ruling defect, which is for our soul as the umbilical cord of its birth in sin, and it is by this that the enemy can always lay hold upon us: for some it is vanity, for others idleness, for the majority egotism. Let a wicked and crafty mind avail itself of this means and we are lost; we may not go mad or turn idiots, but we become positively alienated, in all the force of the expression—that is, we are subjected to a foreign suggestion. In such a state one dreads instinctively everything that might bring us back to reason, and will not even listen to representations that are opposed to our obsession. Here is one of the most dangerous disorders which can affect the moral nature. The sole remedy for such a bewitchment is to make use of folly itself in order to cure folly, to provide the sufferer with imaginary satisfactions in the opposite order to that wherein he is now lost. Endeavour, for example, to cure an ambitious person by making him desire the glories of heaven—mystic remedy; cure one who is dissolute by true love—natural remedy; obtain honourable successes for a vain person; exhibit unselfishness to the avaricious and procure for them legitimate profit by honourable participation in generous enterprises, etc. Acting in this way upon the moral nature, we may succeed in curing a number of physical maladies, for the moral affects the physical in virtue of the magical axiom: “That which is above is like unto that which is below.” This is why the Master said, when speaking of the paralysed woman: “Satan has bound her.” A disease invariably originates in a deficiency or an excess, and ever at the root of a physical evil we shall find a moral disorder. This is an unchanging law of Nature.
1 “Sixteen is the number of the Temple.”—La Clef des Grands Mystères, p. 64.
1 Jean Bodin, lawyer and demonographer, died of the plague in 1596, and it is uncertain to this day how he should be regarded. While his printed work, entitled The Demonomania of Sorcerers, would have done honour to the credulity of Delrio and almost surpassed Torquemada in ferocity and fanaticism, he left behind him a volume in manuscript which exercised his admirers, and he who recommended savage tortures and lingering death not only to those who practised sorcery but to those who showed pity for sorcerers, might himself have perished by the elemency of the Holy Inquisition. The MS., which does not seem to have been printed, is entitled A SEPTENARY COLLOQUY CONCERNING THE HIDDEN SECRETS OF SUBLIME THINGS. It is a controversial discourse between persons of various religions, the exponent of Christianity being worsted frequently by heathens. Whatever his real views, there is no doubt that Bodin helped materially in the diffusion of a sanguinary superstition; it is to be hoped that he did so honestly; but in any case the profound subtlety attributed to him by Éliphas Lévi is too much in advance of the time to be taken quite seriously.
1 There is no recurrence to these subjects, either at the place indicated or in the corresponding chapter of the “Ritual”.
XVII R1
ASTROLOGY
STELLA OS INFLEXUS
OF all the arts which have originated in ancient magian wisdom astrology is now the most misunderstood. No one believes any longer in the universal harmonies of Nature and in the necessary interconnexion of all effects with all causes. Moreover, true astrology, that which derives from the unique and universal dogma of the Kabalah, became profaned among the Greeks and Romans of the decline. The doctrine of the seven spheres and the three mobiles, drawn primitively from the sephirotic decade; the character of the planets governed by angels, whose names have been changed into those of Pagan divinities; the influence of the spheres on one another; the destiny attached to numbers; the scale of proportion between the celestial hierarchies corresponding to the human hierarchies—all this has been materialized and degraded into superstition by genethliacal soothsayers and erecters of horoscopes during the decline and the Middle Ages. The restoration of astrology to its primitive purity would be, in a sense, the creation of an entirely new science; our present concern is only to indicate its first principles, with their more immediate and approximate consequences.
We have said that the Astral Light receives and preserves the impressions of all visible things; it follows herefrom that the daily position of the heaven is reflected in this light, which, being the chief agent of life, operates the conception, gestation and birth of children by a sequence of apparatuses designed naturally to this end. Now, if this light be so prodigal of images as to impart the visible imprints of a maternal fantasy or appetite to the fruit of pregnancy, still more will it transmit to the plastic and indeterminate temperament of a newly-born child the atmospheric impressions and diverse influences which, in the entire planetary system, are consequent at a given moment upon such or such particular aspect of the stars. Nothing is indifferent in Nature: a stone more or a stone less upon a road ma
y break or modify profoundly the destinies of the greatest men or even the largest empires; still more must the position of this or that star in the sky have an influence on the child who is born, and who enters by the very fact of his birth into the universal harmony of the sidereal world. The stars are bound to one another by the attractions which hold them in equilibrium and cause them to move with uniformity through space. From all spheres unto all spheres there stretch these indestructible networks of light, and there is no point upon any planet to which one of them is not attached. The true adept in astrology must give heed therefore to the precise time and place of the birth which is in question; then, after an exact calculation of the astral influences, it remains for him to compute the chances of estate, that is to say, the advantages or hindrances which the child must one day meet with by reason of position, relatives, inherited tendencies and hence natural proclivities, in the fulfilment of his destinies. Finally, he will have also to take into consideration human liberty and its initiative, should the child eventually come to be a true man and to isolate himself by strength of will from fatal influences and from the chain of destiny. It will be seen that we do not allow too much to astrology, but so much as we leave it is indubitable: it is the scientific and magical calculus of probabilities.
Astrology is as ancient as astronomy, and indeed it is more ancient; all seers of lucid antiquity have accorded it their fullest confidence; and it is not for us to condemn and reject lightly anything which comes before us encompassed and supported by such imposing authorities. Long and patient observations, conclusive comparisons, frequently repeated experiments, must have led the old sages to their decisions, and to refute them the same labour must be undertaken from an opposite standpoint. Paracelsus was perhaps the last of the great practical astrologers; he cured diseases by talismans formed under astral influences; he distinguished upon all bodies the mark of their dominant star; there, according to him, was the true Universal Medicine, the Absolute Science of Nature, lost by man's own fault and recovered only by a small number of initiates. To recognize the sign of each star upon men, animals and plants, is the true natural science of Solomon, that science which is said to be lost, but the principles of which are preserved not withstanding, as are all other secrets, in the symbolism of the Kabalah. It will be understood readily that in order to read the stars one must know the stars themselves; now, this knowledge is obtained by the kabalistic domification of the sky and by mastering the celestial planisphere, as rediscovered and explained by Gaffarel. In this planisphere the constellations form Hebrew letters, and the mythological figures may be replaced by the symbols of the Tarot. To this same planisphere Gaffarel refers the origin of patriarchal writing, and the first lineaments of primitive characters may very well have been found in the chains of starry attraction, in which case the celestial book would have served as the model of Enoch's, and the kabalistic alphabet would have been a synopsis of the entire sky. This is not wanting in poetry, nor above all in probability, and the study of the Tarot, which is evidently the primitive and hieroglyphic work of Enoch, as was divined by the erudite William Postel, is sufficient to convince us hereof.1
The signs imprinted in the Astral Light by the reflection and attraction of the stars are reproduced therefore, as the sages have discovered, on all bodies which are formed by the co-operation of that light. Men bear the signs of their star on their forehead chiefly, and in their hands; animals in their whole form and in their individual signs; plants in their leaves and seed; minerals in their veins and in the peculiarities of their fracture. The study of these characters was the entire life-work of Paracelsus, and the figures on his talismans are the result of his researches; but he has given us no key to these, and hence the astral kabalistic alphabet, with its correspondences, still remains to be constructed. As regards publicity, the science of non-conventional magical writing stopped with the planisphere of Gaffarel. The serious art of divination rests wholly in the knowledge of these signs. Chiromancy is the art of reading the writing of the stars in the lines of the hand, and physiognomy seeks the same or analogous characters upon the countenance of querents. As a fact, the lines formed on the human face by nervous contractions are determined fatally, and the radiation of the nervous tissue is absolutely analogous to those networks which are formed between the worlds by chains of starry attraction. The fatalities of life are therefore written necessarily in our wrinkles, and a first glance frequently reveals upon the forehead of a stranger either one or more of the mysterious letters of the kabalistic planisphere. Should the letter be jagged and scored deeply, there has been a struggle between will and fatality, and in his most powerful emotions and tendencies the individual's entire past manifests to the Magus. From this it becomes easy to conjecture the future; and if events deceive the sagacity of the diviner from time to time, he who has consulted him will remain none the less astounded and convinced by the superhuman knowledge of the adept.
The human head is formed upon the model of the celestial spheres; it attracts and it radiates, and this it is which first forms and manifests in the conception of a child. Hence the head is subject in an absolute manner to astral influence, and evidences its several attractions by its diverse protuberances. The final word of phrenology is to be found therefore in scientific and purified astrology, the problems of which we bequeath to the patience and good faith of scholars.
According to Ptolemy, the sun dries up and the moon moistens; according to the Kabalists, the sun represents strict Justice, while the moon is in sympathy with Mercy. It is the sun which produces storms, and, by a kind of gentle atmospheric pressure, the moon occasions the ebb and'flow, or, as it were, the respiration of the sea. We read in the Zohar, one of the great sacred books of the Kabalah, that “the magical serpent, the son of the Sun, was about to devour the world, when the Sea, daughter of the moon, set her foot upon his head and subdued him”. For this reason, among the ancients, Venus was the daughter of the Sea, as Diana was identical with the Moon. Hence also the name of Mary signifies star or salt of the sea. To consecrate this kabalistic doctrine in the belief of the vulgar, is is said in prophetic language: The woman shall crush the serpent's head.1
Jerome Cardan, one of the boldest students, and beyond contradiction the most skilful astrologer of his time—Jerome Cardan, who was a martyr to his faith in astrology, if we accept the legend of his death, has left a calculation by means of which anyone can foresee the good or evil fortune attached to all years of his life. His theory was based upon his own experiences, and he assures us that the calculation never deceived him. To ascertain the fortune of a given year, he sums up the events of those which have preceded it by 4, 8, 12, 19 and 30; the number 4 is that of realization; 8 is the number of Venus or natural things; 12 belongs to the cycle of Jupiter and corresponds to successes; 19 has reference to the cycles of the Moon and of Mars; the number 30 is that of Saturn or Fatality. Thus, for example, I desire to ascertain what will befall me in this present year, 1855. I pass therefore in review those decisive events in the order of life and progress which occurred four years ago; the natural felicity or misfortune of eight years back; the successes or failures belonging to twelve years since; the vicissitudes and miseries or diseases which over took me nineteen years from now, and my tragic or fatal experiences of thirty years back. Then, taking into account irrevocably accomplished facts and the advance of time, I calculate the chances analogous to those which I owe already to the influence of the same planets, and I conclude that in 1851 I had employment which was moderately but sufficiently remunerative, with some embarrassment of position; in 1847 I was separated violently from my family, with great attendant sufferings for mine and me; in 1843 I travelled as an apostle, addressing the people, and suffering the persecution of ill-meaning persons: briefly, I was at once honoured and proscribed. Finally, in 1825 family life came to an end for me, and I entered definitely on that fatal path which led me to science and misfortune. I may suppose therefore that this year I shall experience t
oil, poverty, vexation, heart exile, change of place, publicity and contradictions, with some eventuality which will be decisive for the rest of my life: every indication in the present leads me to endorse this forecast. Hence I conclude that, for myself and for this year, experience confirms fully the precision of Cardan's astrological calculus, which connects furthermore with the climacteric years of ancient astrologers.1 This term signifies arranged in scales or calculated on the degrees of a scale. Johannes Trithemius in his book on Secondary Causes has computed the recurrence of fortunate or calamitous years for all empires of the world. In the twenty-first chapter of our “Ritual” we shall give an exact analysis of this work, together with a continuation of the labour of Trithemius to our own days and the application of his magical scale to contemporary events, so as to deduce the most striking probabilities relative to the immediate future of France, Europe and the world.
According to all the grand masters in astrology, comets are the stars of exceptional heroes, and they visit earth only to signalize great changes; the planets preside over collective existences and modify the destinies of mankind in the aggregate; the fixed stars, more remote and more feeble in their action, attract individuals and determine their tendencies. Sometimes a group of stars may combine to influence the destinies of a single man, while often a great number of souls are drawn by the distant rays of the same sun. When we die, our interior light in departing follows the attraction of its star, and thus it is that we live in other universes, where the soul makes for itself a new garment, analogous to the development or diminution of its beauty; for our souls, when separated from our bodies, resemble revolving stars; they are globules of animated light which always seek their centre for the recovery of their equilibrium and their true movement. Before all things, however, they must liberate themselves from the folds of the serpent, that is, the unpurified Astral Light which envelops and imprisons them, unless the strength of their will can lift them beyond its reach. The immersion of the living star in the dead light is a frightful torment, comparable to that of Mezentius. Therein the soul freezes and burns at the same time, and has no means of getting free except by re-entering the current of exterior forms and assuming a fleshly envelope, then energetically battling against instincts to strengthen that moral liberty which will permit it at the moment of death to break the chains of earth and wing its flight in triumph towards the star of consolation which has smiled in light upon it. Following this clue, we can understand the nature of the fire of hell, which is identical with the demon or old serpent; we can gather also wherein consists the salvation and reprobation of men, all called and all elected successively, but in small number, after having risked falling into the eternal fire through their own fault.1