by Eliphas Levi
In the first place, let us remove from the mind of our readers all supposition of the absurd—that is, of an effect devoid of cause or contradicting its cause. To become invisible one of three things is necessary—-the interposition of some opaque medium between the light and our body, or between our body and the eyes of the spectators, or the fascination of the eyes of the spectators in such a manner that they cannot make use of their sight. Of these methods, the third only is magical. Have we not all of us observed that under the government of a strong preoccupation we look without seeing and collide with objects in front of us? “So do, that seeing they may not see,” said the Great Initiator, and the history of this Grand Master tells us that one day, finding Himself on the point of being stoned in the Temple, He became invisible and went out. There is no need to reproduce the mystifications of popular Grimoires about the ring of invisibility. Some specify that it shall be composed of fixed mercury, enriched by a small stone which it is indispensable to find in a pewit's nest, and kept in a box of the same metal. The author of the Little Albert ordains that this ring should be composed of hairs torn from the head of a raging hyena, which recalls the history of the bell of Rodilard. The only writers who have discoursed seriously of the Ring of Gyges are Jamblichus, Porphyry and Peter of Apono.1 What they say is evidently allegorical, and the representation which they give, or that which can be drawn from their description, proves that they are speaking in reality of nothing but the Great Magical Arcanum. One of the figures depicts the universal movement, harmonic and equilibrated in imperishable being; another, which should be formed from an amalgam of the seven metals, calls for a description in detail. It has a double collet and two precious stones—a topaz constellated under the sign of the sun and an emerald under the sign of the moon. It should bear on the inner side the occult characters of the planets and on the outer their known signs, duplicated and in kabalistic opposition to each other; that is, five on the right and five on the left; the signs of the sun and moon resuming the four several intelligences of the seven planets. Now, this configuration is no other than that of a Pantacle signifying all mysteries of magical doctrine, and here is the occult significance of the ring: to exercise omnipotence, of which ocular fascination is one of the most difficult demonstrations to give, we must possess all science and know how to make use of it.
Fascination is accomplished by magnetism. The Magus inwardly forbids a whole assembly to see him, and it does not see him. In this manner he passes through guarded gates and comes out of prison in the face of his petrified gaolers. At such times a strange numbness is experienced, and they recall having seen the Magus as if in a dream, but never till after he has gone. The whole secret of invisibilty consists therefore in a power which is capable of definition— being that of distracting or paralysing attention, so that light reaches the visual organ without impressing the eye of the soul. To exercise this power we must possess a will accustomed to sudden and energetic actions, great presence of mind and skill no less great in causing diversions among the crowd. Let a man, for example, who is being pursued by his intending murderers, dart into a side street, return immediately, and advance with perfect calmness towards his pursuers, or let him mix with them and seem intent on the chase, and he will certainly make himself invisible. A priest who was being hunted in '93, with the intention of hanging him from a lamp-post, fled down a certain street, assumed a stooping gait, and leaned against a corner with an intensely preoccupied expression; the crowd of his enemies swept past; not one saw him, or rather, it never struck anyone to recognize him: it was so unlikely to be he! The person who desires to be seen always makes himself observed, but he who would remain unnoticed effaces himself and disappears. The true Ring of Gyges is the will; it is also the wand of transformations, and by its precise and strong formulation it creates the magical word. The omnipotent terms of enchantments are those which express this creative power of forms. The Tetragram, which is the supreme word of Magic, signifies: “It is that which it shall be,” and if we apply it to any transformation whatsoever with full intelligence, it will renew and modify all things, even in the teeth of evidence and common sense. The hoc est of the Christian sacrifice is a translation and application of the Tetragram: hence this simple utterance operates the most complete, most invisible, most incredible and most clearly affirmed of all transformations. A still stronger word than that of transformation has been judged necessary by councils to express the marvel—that of transubstantiation.
The Hebrew terms have been considered by all Kabalists as the keys of magical transformation. The Latin words, est, sit, esto, fiat, have the same force when pronounced with full understanding. Montalembert relates seriously, in his legend of St Elizabeth of Hungary, how one day this saintly lady, surprised by her noble husband, from whom she sought to conceal her good works, in the act of carrying bread to the poor in her apron, told him that she was carrying roses, and it proved on investigation that she had spoken truly; the loaves had changed into roses. This story is a most gracious magical apologue, and signifies that the truly wise man cannot lie, that the word of wisdom determines the form of things, or even their substance independently of their forms. Why, for example, should not the noble spouse of St Elizabeth, a good and firm Christian like herself, and believing implicitly in the Real Presence of the Saviour in true human body upon an altar where he beheld only a wheaten host, why should he not believe in the real presence of roses in his wife's apron under the appearances of bread? She exhibited him loaves undoubtedly, but as she had said that they were roses, and as he believed her incapable of the smallest falsehood; he saw and wished to see roses only. This is the secret of the miracle. Another legend narrates how a saint, whose name has escaped me, finding nothing to eat on a Lenten day or a Friday, commanded the fowl to become a fish, and it became a fish.1 The parable needs no interpretation, and it recalls a beautiful story of St Spiridion of Tremithonte, the same who evoked the soul of his daughter Irene. One Good Friday a traveller reached the abode of the holy bishop, and as bishops in those days took Christianity in earnest, and were consequently poor, Spiridion, who fasted religiously, had in his house only some salted bacon, which had been made ready for Easter. The stranger was overcome with fatigue and famished with hunger; Spiridion offered him the meat, and himself shared the meal of charity, thus transforming the very flesh which the Jews regard as of all most impure into a feast of penitence, transcending the material law by the spirit of the law itself, and proving himself a true and intelligent disciple of the Man-God, who hath established His elect as the monarchs of Nature in the three worlds.
1 “The transformations of Magic and Hermetic Chemistry are only artificial developments of natural seeds: we do not make gold but assist Nature so to do.”—Fables et Symboles, p. 335.
1 “There must be rejected the absurdities of metempsychosis, according to which men are sent as a punishment into the bodies of animals.”—Correspondence with Baron Spédalieri, No. 23.
1 The demonographers say that Peter de Apono—1246—1320—was a prince of sorcerers, but according to some critics he was a strong-minded person who believed little in God or devil. Above all. they warn us from attributing to him the treatise which is mainly responsible for his occult reputation—The Heptameron or Magical Elements. I do not claim to adjudicate between the two parties. Outside occult literature I believe that most persons wrote the books attributed to them—possibly, even Shakespeare—but within that charmed circle, almost any given authorship of the past may be exhibited as doubtful. It has been said that even Éliphas Lévi employed an author, but the testimony comes from the Masonic Rosicrucian Society, the egregious Soc. Ros., and is to be judged accordingly.
1 “All truly strong men are magnetizers, and the Universal Agent obeys their will. It is thus that they work wonders. They inspire faith, draw others after them, and if they say of this or that it is that or this, Nature changes in a sense for the vulgar eye and becomes whatsover the great man wills.”—La Clef des
Grands Mystères, pp. 223, 224.
CHAPTER XV
THE SABBATH OF THE SORCERERS
WE recur once more to that terrible number fifteen, sym bolized in the Tarot by a monster throned upon an altar, mitred and horned, having a woman's breasts and the generative organs of a man—a chimera, a malformed sphinx, a synthesis of deformities. Below this figure we read a frank and simple inscription— The Devil. Yes, we confront here that phantom of all terrors, the dragon of all theogonies, the Ahriman of the Persians, the Typhon of the Egyptians, the Python of the Greeks, the old serpent of the Hebrews, the tantastic monster, the nightmare, the Croquemitaine, the gargoyle, the great beast of the Middle Ages, and— worse than all these—the Baphomet of the Templars, the bearded idol of the alchemist, the obscene deity of Mendes, the goat of the Sabbath. The frontispiece to this “Ritual” reproduces the exact figure of the terrible emperor of night, with all his attributes and all his characters.
Let us state now for the edification of the vulgar, for the satisfaction of M. le Comte de Mirville, for the justification of the demonologist Bodin, for the greater glory of the Church, which persecuted Templars, burnt magicians, excommunicated Freemasons, etc.—let us state boldly and precisely that all inferior initiates of the occult science and profaners of the Great Arcanum, not only did in the past but do now, and will ever, adore what is signified by this alarming symbol. Yes, in our profound conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of the Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates; yes, there existed in the past, and there may be still in the present, assemblies which are presided over by this figure, seated on a throne and having a flaming torch between the horns. But the adorers of this sign do not consider, as do we, that it is a representation of the devil: on the contrary, for them it is that of the god Pan, the god of our modern schools of philosophy, the god of the Alexandrian theurgic school and of our own mystical Neo- platonists, the god of Lamartine and Victor Cousin, the god of Spinoza and Plato, the god of the primitive Gnostic schools; the Christ also of the dissident priesthood. This last qualification, ascribed to the goat of Black Magic, will not astonish students of religious antiquities who are acquainted with the phases of symbolism and doctrine in their various transformations, whether in India, Egypt or Judea.
The bull, the dog and the goat are the three symbolical animals of Hermetic Magic, resuming all the traditions of Egypt and India. The bull represents the Earth or Salt of the Philosophers; the dog is Hermanubis, the Mercury of the sages—otherwise, fluid, air and water; the goat repre sents fire and is at the same time the symbol of generation. Two goats, one pure and one impure, were consecrated in Judea; the first was sacrificed in expiation for sins; the other, loaded with those sins by imprecation, was set at liberty in the desert—a strange ordinance, but one of deep symbolism, signifying reconciliation by sacrifice and expiation by liberty! Now, all the fathers of the Church, who have concerned themselves with Jewish symbolism, have recognized in the immolated goat the figure of Him Who assumed, as they say, the very form of sin. Hence the Gnostics were not outside symbolical traditions when they assigned this same mystical figure to Christ the Liberator. All the Kabalah and all Magic, as a fact, are divided between the cultus of the immolated and that of the emissary goat. We must recognize therefore a Magic of the Sanctuary and that of the wilderness, the White and the Black Church, the priesthood of public assemblies and the Sanhedrim of the Sabbath.1 The goat which is represented in our frontis piece bears upon its forehead the Sign of the Pentagram with one point in the ascendant, which is sufficient to distinguish it as a symbol of the light. Moreover, the sign of occultism is made with both hands, pointing upward to the white moon of Chesed, and downward to the black moon of Geburah.1 This sign expresses the perfect concord between mercy and justice. One of the arms is feminine and the other masculine, as in the androgyne of Khunrath, whose attributes we have combined with those of our goat, since they are one and the same symbol. The torch of intelligence burning between the horns is the magical light of universal equilibrium; it is also the type of the soul exalted above matter, even while cleaving to matter, as the flame cleaves to the torch. The monstrous head of the animal expresses horror of sin, for which the material agent, alone responsible, must alone and for ever bear the penalty, because the soul is impassible in its nature and can suffer only by materializing. The caduceus, which replaces the generative organ, represents eternal life; the scale-covered belly typifies water; the circle above it is the atmosphere, the feathers still higher up signify the volatile; lastly, humanity is depicted by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences. Behold the shadows of the infernal sanctuary dissipated! Behold the sphinx of mediaeval terrors unveiled and cast from his throne! Onomodo cecidisti, Lucifer!2
The dread Baphomet henceforth, like all monstrous idols, enigmas of antique science and its dreams, is only an innocent and even pious hieroglyph. How should man adore the beast, since he exercises a sovereign power over it? Let us affirm, for the honour of humanity, that it has never worshipped dogs and goats any more than lambs or pigeons. In the hieroglyphic orders, why not a goat as much as a lamb? On the sacred stones of Gnostic Christians of the Basilidean sect there are representations of Christ under the diverse figures of kabalistic animals—sometimes a bird, at others a lion, and again a serpent with the head of lion or bull; but in all cases He bears invariably the same attributes of light, even as our goat, which cannot be con founded with fabulous images of Satan, owing to the Sign of the Pentagram.
Let us affirm categorically, to combat the remnants of Manichacanism which are appearing sporadically among Christians, that as a superior personality and power Satan does not exist. He is the personification of all errors, per versities and consequently of all weaknesses. If God may be defined as He Who exists of necessity, may we not define His antagonist and enemy as necessarily he who does not exist at all? The absolute affirmation of good implies an absolute negation of evil: so also in the light, shadow itself is luminous. Thus, erring spirits are good to the extent of their participation in being and in truth. There are no shadows without reflections, no nights without moon, the planet of morning and stars. If hell be just, it is good. No one has ever blasphemed God. The insults and mockeries addressed to His disfigured images attain Him not.1
We have named Manichaeanism, and it is by this monstrous heresy that we shall explain the aberrations of Black Magic. The misconstrued doctrine of Zoroaster and the magical law of two forces constituting universal equilibrium, have caused some illogical minds to imagine a negative divinity, subordinate but hostile to the active Deity. An impure duad comes thus into being. Men were mad enough to halve God; the Star of Solomon was separated into triangles, and the Manichaens imagined a trinity of night. This evil God, product of sectarian fancies, inspired all manias and all crimes. Sanguinary sacrifices were offered him; monstrous idolatry replaced the true religion; Black Magic traduced the Transcendent and Luminous Magic of true adepts, and horrible conventicles of sorcerers, ghouls and stryges took place in caverns or desert places, for dementia soon changes into frenzy and from human sacrifices to cannibalism there is only one step. The Mysteries of the Sabbath have been described variously, but they figure always in Grimoires and in magical trials. The revelations made on the subject may be classified under three heads: 1. those referring to a fantastic and imaginary Sabbath; 2. those which betray the secrets of certain occult assemblies of veritable adepts; 3. revelations of foolish and criminal gatherings, having for their object the operations of Black Magic. For a large number of unhappy men and women, given over to such mad and abominable practices, the Sabbath was but a prolonged nightmare, where dreams appeared realities and were induced by means of potions, fumigations and narcotic frictions. Baptista Porta, whom we have signalized already as a mystifier, gives in his Natural Magic, a pretended recipe for the sorcerers' unguent, by means of which they were transported to the Sabbath. It is a composition
of child's fat, aconite boiled with poplar leaves and some other drugs, the whole mixed with soot, which could not contribute to the beauty of the naked sorceresses who repaired to the scene anointed with this pomade. There is another and more serious recipe given by the same author, which we transcribe in Latin to preserve its grimoire character. Recipe: suim, acorum vulgare, pentaphyllon, verspertillionis sanguinem, solatium somniferum et oleum, the whole boiled and incorporated to the consistence of an unguent. We infer that compositions containing opiates, the pith of green hemp, Datura stramonium or laurel-almond, would enter quite as successfully into such preparations. The fat or blood of night-birds added to these narcotics, with black magical ceremonies, would impress imagination and determine the direction of dreams. To Sabbaths dreamed in this manner we must refer the accounts of a goat issuing from pitchers and going back into them after the ceremony; infernal powders obtained from the ordure of this goat, who is called Master Leonard; banquets where abortions are eaten without salt and boiled with serpents and toads; dances, in which monstrous animals or men and women with impossible shapes take part; unbridled debauches where incubi project cold sperm. Nightmare alone could produce or explain such scenes. The unfortunate cure Gaufridv and his abandoned penitent Madeline de la Palud went mad through kindred delusions, and were burned for persisting in affirming them. We must read the depositions of these diseased beings during their trial to understand the extent of the aberration possible to an afflicted imagination. But the Sabbath was not always a dream; it did exist in reality; even now there are secret nocturnal assemblies for the practice of the Rites of the old world, some of which have a religious and social object, while that of others is concerned with orgies and conjura tions. From this two-fold point of view we propose to consider the true Sabbath, that of luminous Magic in the one case and that of darkness in the other.