Transcendental Magic

by Eliphas Levi

  The Sign of the Cross adopted by Christians does not belong to them exclusively. This also is kabalistic and represents the oppositions and tetradic equilibrium of the elements.1 We see by the occult versicle of the Lord's Prayer, which we have cited in our “Doctrine”, that it was originally made after two manners, or at least that it was characterized by two entirely different formulae, one reserved for priests and initiates, the other imparted to neophytes and the profane. For example, the initiate said raising his hand to his forehead, “For thine,” then added “is,” and continuing as he brought down his hand to his breast, “the kingdom,” then to the left shoulder, “the justice,” afterwards to the right shoulder, “and the mercy” —then clasping his hands, he added, “in the generating ages.” Tibi sunt Malkuth et Geburah et Chesed per aeonas—a Sign of the Cross which is absolutely and magnificently kabalistic, which the profanations of Gnosticism have lost completely to the official and militant Church. This Sign, made after this manner, should precede and terminate the Conjuration of the Four.2

  To overcome and subjugate the elementary spirits, we must never yield to their characteristic defects. Thus, a shallow and capricious mind will never rule the Sylphs; an irresolute, cold and fickle nature will never master the Undines; passion irritates the Salamanders; and avaricious greed makes its slaves the sport of Gnomes. But we must be prompt and active, like the Sylphs; pliant and attentive to images, like the Undines; energetic and strong like the Salamanders; laborious and patient, like the Gnomes: in a word, we must overcome them in their strength without ever being overcome by their weaknesses. Once we are well established in this disposition, the whole world will be at the service of the wise operator. He will pass through the storm, and the rain will not moisten his head; the wind will not move even a fold of his garments; he will go through fire and not be burned; he will walk upon water and will behold diamonds within the crust of the earth. These promises may appear hyperbolic, but only to vulgar under standing, for if the sage do not perform such things materially and actually, he accomplishes others which are much greater and more admirable.1 At the same time, it is indubitable that we may direct the elements by our will up to a certain point and can really change or hinder their effects. For example, if it be established that persons in an ecstatic state lose their weight for the time being, why should it be impossible to walk upon the water? The convulsionaries of Saint Medard felt neither fire nor steel, and begged for the most violent blows and incredible tortures as a relief. The extraordinary climbings and miraculous equilibrium of some somnambulists are a revelation of these concealed forces of Nature. But we live in a century when no one has the courage to confess the wonders that he has witnessed, and did anyone say: “I have myself beheld or performed the things which I am describing,” he would be answered: “You are diverting yourself at our expense, or otherwise you are ill.” It is far better to be silent and to act.

  The metals which correspond to the four elementary forms are gold and silver for the air, mercury for water, iron and copper for fire, lead for earth. Talismans are com posed from these, relative to the forces which they signify and to the effects which it is designed to obtain from them. Divination by the four elementary forms, respectively known as aeromancy, hydromancy, pyromancy and geomancy, is performed after various manners, which all depend on the will and the TRANSLUCID or imagination of the operator. In fact, the four elements are only instruments which assist second sight. Now, second sight is the faculty of seeing in the Astral Light, and it is as natural as the first or sensible and ordinary sight, but it can operate only by abstraction of the senses. Somnambulists and ecstatics enjoy second sight naturally, but this sight is more lucid when the abstraction is more complete. Abstraction is produced by astral intoxication, that is, by an excess of light which completely saturates, and hence stupefies, the nervous system.1

  Sanguine temperaments are disposed tc aeromancy, the bilious to pyromancy, the phlegmatic to hydromancy and the melancholic to geomancy. Aeromancy is confirmed by oneiromancy, or divination by dreams; pyromancy is supplemented by magnetism; hydromancy by crystallomancy; and geomancy by cartomancy. These are transpositions and complements of methods. But divination, however operated, is dangerous, or to say the least useless, for it disheartens will, as a consequence impedes liberty and tires the nervous system.

  1 This Prayer is found in Le Comte de Gabalis first published in 1680. I have met also with some of the others in sources anterior to Lévi which I cannot now remember. They would not be beyond recovery, did anything attach to the question.

  1 “The Cross is the point of departure of four infinite lines, for ever separated, united for ever by a centre which becomes that of immensity.... In the centre of the Cross there blooms the Mystical Rose, Rose of light, flower of life and love, the ordered petals of which typify the hearts of the elect in their harmonious hierarchy. The Rose is the symbol of the Great Work, and Abraham the Jew represents it blossoming white and red on an azure stem, having golden leaves. Into the rose-calyx the symbolical pelican pours its blood to nourish the offspring which it immortalizes. This is the sign of the Rosicrucians. Peace profound, my Brother.”—Correspondence with Baron Spédalieri, No. 56.

  2 “The hieroglyphical sign of the Cross, symbol of the Name which resumes all names, image of the four cardinal points and the quadrature of the circle— otherwise, the circular movement of the square—this sign recapitulates and represents the whole philosophy and theology of the Kabalah.”—Les Mystères de la Kabbale, p. 89.

  1 “A wise Kabalist can astonish the crowd and even confound the instructed (1) by divining hidden things, (2) by so overruling the wills of others that they are hindered from doing what they would and compelled to do that which they would not, (3) by producing apparitions and dreams, (4) by curing the sick, (5) by bringing back to life when all symptoms of death have supervened, (6) by predicting things to come, and (7) by exhibiting at need the reality of the Philosophical Stone and the transmutation of metals, according to the secrets of Abraham the Jew, Flamel and Raymond Lully.”—La Clef des Grands Mystères, pp. 216, 217.

  1 The subject is extended further in another place as follows: “Man formulates the Light—meaning Astral Light—by means of his imagination. He attracts it sufficiently to clothe his thoughts and even his dreams with appropriate forms. But if he is invaded thereby, if his understanding is swamped by the forms thus evoked he goes crazy. . . . The forms which are produced by overheated imagination to mislead understanding are real as the imprints of photography. It is impossible to see that which does not exist. Phantoms, dreams, including waking dreams, are therefore real images existing in the light.”—La Clef des Grands Mystères, pp. 235, 236.

  CHAPTER V

  THE BLAZING PENTAGRAM

  WE proceed to the explanation and consecration of the Sacred and Mysterious Pentagram. At this point, let the ignorant and superstitious close the book; they will either see nothing but darkness, or they will be scandalized. The Pentagram, which in Gnostic schools is called the Blazing Star, is the sign of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy. It is the Star of the Magi; it is the sign of the Word made flesh; and, according to the direction of its points, this absolute magical symbol represents order or confusion, the Divine Lamb of Ormuz and St John, or the accursed goat of Mendes. It is initiation or profanation; it is Lucifer or Vesper, the star of morning or evening. It is Mary or Lilith, victory or death, day or night. The Pentagram with two points in the ascendant represents Satan as the goat of the Sabbath; when one point is in the ascendant, it is the sign of the Saviour. The Pentagram is the figure of the human body, having the four limbs and a single point representing the head. A human figure head downwards naturally represents a demon—that is, intellectual subversion, dis order or madness. Now, if Magic be a reality, if occult science be really the true law of the three worlds, this absolute sign, this sign ancient as history and more ancient, should and does exercise an incalculable influence upon spirits set free from
their material envelope.

  The sign of the Pentagram is called the Sign of the Microcosm, and it represents what the Kabalists of the book Zohar term the Microprosopus. The complete com prehension of the Pentagram is the key of the two worlds. It is absolute philosophy and natural science. The sign of the Pentagram should be composed of the seven metals, or at least traced in pure gold upon white marble. It may be also drawn with vermilion on an unblemished lambskin— the symbol of integrity and light. The marble should be virgin, that is, should never have been used for another purpose; the lambskin should be prepared under the auspices of the sun. The lamb must have been slain at Paschal time with a new knife, and the skin must be salted with salt consecrated by magical operations. The omission of even one of these difficult and apparently arbitrary ceremonies makes void the entire success of the great works of science.

  The Pentagram is consecrated with the four elements; the magical figure is breathed on five times; it is sprinkled with holy water; it is dried by the smoke of five perfumes, namely, incense, myrrh, aloes, sulphur and camphor, to which a little white resin and ambergris may be added. The five breathings are accompanied by the utterance of names attributed to the five genii, who are Gabriël, Raphaël, Anaël, Samaël and Oriphiel. Afterwards the Pentacle is placed successively at the north, south, east, west and centre of the astronomical cross, pronouncing at the same time, one after another, the consonants of the Sacred Tetragram, and then, in an undertone, the blessed letters ALEPH and the mysterious TAU, united in the kabalistic name of AZOTH.

  The Pentagram should be placed upon the altar of perfumes and under the tripod of evocations. The operator should wear the sign also as well as that of the Macrocosm, which is composed of two crossed and superposed triangles. When a spirit of light is evoked, the head of the star—that is, one of its points—should be directed towards the tripod of evocations and the two inferior points towards the altar of perfumes. In the case of a spirit of darkness, the opposite course is pursued, but then the operator must be careful to set the end of the rod or the point of the sword upon the head of the Pentagram. We have said that signs are the active voice of the word of will. Now, the word of will must be given in its completeness, so that it may be transformed into action; and a single negligence, representing an idle speech or a doubt, falsifies and paralyses the whole pro cess, turning back upon the operator all the forces thus expended in vain. We must therefore abstain absolutely from magical ceremonies or scrupulously and exactly fulfil them all.

  The Pentagram, engraved in luminous lines upon glass by the electrical machine, exercises also a great influence upon spirits and terrifies phantoms. The old magicians traced the sign of the Pentagram upon their doorsteps, to prevent evil spirits from entering and good spirits from departing. This constraint followed from the direction of the points of the star. Two points on the outer side drove away the evil; two points on the inner side imprisoned them; one only on the inner side held good spirits captive. All these magical theories, based upon the one dogma of Hermes and on the analogical deductions of science, have been confirmed invariably by the visions of ecstatics and the paroxysms of cataleptics, declaring that they are possessed by spirits. The G which Freemasons place in the middle of the Blazing Star signifies GNOSIS and GENERATION, the two sacred words of the ancient Kabalah. It signifies also GRAND ARCHITECT, for the Pentagram on every side repre sents an A. By placing it in such a manner that two of its points are in the ascendant and one is below, we may see the horns, ears and beard of the hierarchic Goat of Mendes, when it becomes the sign of infernal evocations.

  The allegorical Star of the Magi is no other than the mysterious Pentagram; and those three kings, sons of Zoroaster, conducted by the Blazing Star to the cradle of the microcosmic God, are themselves a full demonstration of the kabalistic and magical beginnings of Christian doctrine. One of these kings is white, another black and the third brown. The white king offers gold, symbol of light and life; the black king presents myrrh, image of death and of darkness; the brown king sacrifices incense, emblem of the conciliating doctrine of the two principles. They return thereafter into their own land by another road, to show that a new cultus is only a new path, conducting man to one religion, being that of the sacred triad and the radiant Pentagram, the sole eternal catholicism.1 St John, in the Apocalypse, beholds this same star fall from heaven to earth. It is then called absinth or wormwood, and all the waters of the sea become bitter—a striking image of the materialization of dogma, which produces fanaticism and the acridities of controversy. Then unto Christianity itself may be applied those words of Isaiah: “How has thou fallen from heaven, bright star, which wast so splendid in thy prime!” But the Pentagram, profaned by men, burns ever unclouded in the right hand of the Word of Truth, and the inspired voice guarantees to him that overcometh the possession of the Morning Star—a solemn promise of restitution held out to the Star of Lucifer.2

  As will be seen, all Mysteries of Magic, all symbols of the Gnosis, all figures of occultism, all kabalistic keys of prophecy are summed up in the Sign of the Pentagram, which Paracelsus proclaims to be the greatest and most potent of all signs. Need anyone be surprised therefore that every Magus believes in the real influence exercised by this sign over spirits of all hierarchies? Those who set at naught the Sign of the Cross tremble before the Star of the Microcosm. On the contrary, when conscious of failing will, the Magus turns his eyes towards this symbol, takes it in his right hand and feels armed with intellectual omni potence, provided that he is truly a king, worthy to be led by the star to the cradle of divine realization; provided that he KNOWS, DARES, WILLS and KEEPS SILENT; provided that he is familiar with the usages of the Pentacle, the Cup, the Wand and the Sword; provided, finally, that the intrepid gaze of his soul corresponds to those two eyes which the ascending point of our Pentagram ever presents open.

  1 “The Pentagram is the Star of the Epiphany; Lumen ad revelationem gentium. This Star which the Magi saw in the East, this Star of the Absolute and the Universal synthesis . . . opens to human aspirations the fifty gates of knowledge. It leads to the manger of the ox and ass in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, that is to the high reason of the humility of dogma, the elevation of the humble and lahorious at the breaking of symbolical bread, sacrament of love and truth. The child and mother are two, the Magi three. . . . These five explain the five rays of the star . . . and the Epiphany is a marvellous Pentacle, like all symbolical pictures of our Christian Legend.”—Correspondence with Baron Spédalieri, No. 76.

  2 It is obvious that no such restitution is implied by the promise in question, but it is said elsewhere and without the offence to logic and sense in the above statement that Lucifer, whom the dark ages represented as the genius of evil, will become truly the angel of light when having acquired liberty at the price of reprobation he makes use of it in yielding to the eternal order and thus inaugurates the glories of willing obedience.—La Clef des Grands Mystères, p. 23.

  CHAPTER VI

  THE MEDIUM AND MEDIATOR

  TWO things, as we have shown, are necessary for the acquisition of magical power—the emancipation of will from servitude and its instruction in the art of domination. The sovereign will is represented in our symbols by the Woman who crushes the serpent's head and by the radiant angel who restrains and constrains the dragon with lance and heel. In this place let us affirm without evasion that the Great Magical Agent—the double current of light, the living and astral fire of the earth—was represented by the serpent with the head of an ox, goat or dog, in ancient theogonies. It is the dual serpent of the caduceus, the old serpent of Genesis, but it is also the brazen serpent of Moses, twined about the Tau, that is, the generating lingam. It is, moreover, the Goat of the Sabbath and the Baphomet of the Templars; it is the Hyle of the Gnostics; it is the double tail of the serpent which forms the legs of the solar cock of Abraxas. In fine, it is the devil of M. Eudes de Mirville1 and is really that blind force which souls must overcome if they would be freed
from the chains of earth; for, unless their will can detach them from this fatal attraction, they will be absorbed in the current by the force which produced them, and will return to the central and eternal fire. The whole magical work consists therefore in our liberation from the folds of the ancient serpent, then in setting foot upon its head and leading it where we will. “I will give thee all the kingdoms of the earth, if thou wilt fall down and adore me,” said this serpent in the evangelical mythos. The initiate should make answer: “I will not kneel to thee, but thou shalt crouch at my feet; nothing shalt thou give me, but I will make use of thee, and will take that which I need, for I am thy lord and master”— a reply which, in a veiled manner, is contained in that of the Saviour.

  We have said that there is no personal devil. It is a misdirected force, as the name indicates.1 An odic or magnetic current, formed by a chain of perverse wills, constitutes this evil spirit, which the Gospel calls legion, and this it is which precipitated the swine into the sea— another allegory of the attraction exercised on beings of inferior instincts by blind forces that can be put in operation by error and evil will. This symbol may be compared with that of the comrades of Ulysses transformed into swine by the sorceress Circe. Remark what was done by Ulysses to preserve himself and deliver his associates: he refused the cup of the enchantress and commanded her with the sword. Circe is Nature, with all her delights and allurements: we must overcome her in order to enjoy. Such is the significance of the Homeric fable, for the poems of Homer, those true sacred books of ancient Hellas, contain all the mysteries of high Eastern initiation.