Transcendental Magic

by Eliphas Levi

  Saint-Martin, in his NATURAL TABLE of the Correspondences between God, Man and the Universe, followed, as we have said, the division of the Tarot, giving an extended mystical commentary upon the twenty-two keys; but he refrained carefully from stating whence he derived his scheme and from revealing the hieroglyphics on which he commented.1 Postel showed similar discretion, naming the Tarot only in the diagram of his key to the arcana, and referring to it in the rest of his book under the title of the Genesis of Enoch. The personage Enoch, author of the primeval sacred book, is in effect identical with Thoth among the Egyptians, Cadmus among the Phoenicians and Pala-medes among the Greeks. We have obtained in an extra ordinary manner a sixteenth-century medal, which is a key of the Tarot. We are doubtful whether it should be confessed that this medal and the place where it was deposited were shown us in dream by the divine Paracelsus: in any case, the medal is in our possession. On one side it depicts the Juggler in a German costume of the sixteenth century, holding his girdle in one hand and a Pentagram in the other. On a table in front of him, between an open book and a closed purse, are ten deniers or talismans, arranged in two lines of three each and a square of four; the feet of the table form two and those of the Juggler two inverted . The obverse side of the medal contains the letters of the alphabet, arranged in a magical square, as follows:

  It will be observed that this alphabet has only twenty-two letters, the V and N being duplicated, and that it is arranged in four quinaries, with a quaternary for base and key. The four final letters are two combinations of the duad and the triad, and read kabalistically they form the word Azoth by rendering to the shapes of the letters their value in primitive Hebrew, taking N for , Z as it is in Latin, V for the Hebrew VAU, which is pronounced 0 between two vowels, or letters having the value of vowels, and X for the primitive TAU, which had precisely the same figure. The entire Tarot is thus explained in this wonderful medal, which is worthy of Paracelsus, and we hold it at the disposal of the curious. The letters arranged by four times five are summed by the word , analogous to those of and INRI, and containing all the Mysteries of the Kabalah.

  The Book of the Tarot, being of such high scientific importance, it is desirable that it should not be altered further. We have examined the collection of ancient Tarots preserved in the Imperial Library, and have thus collected all their hieroglyphs, of which we have given a description. An important work still remains to be done—the publication of a really complete and well-executed exemplar. We shall perhaps undertake the task.

  Vestiges of the Tarot are found among all nations. As we have said, the Italian is possibly the most faithful and best preserved, but it may be perfected further by precious indications derived from Spanish varieties. The two of cups, for example, the the Naïbi is completely Egyptian, showing two archaic vases, with ibis handles, superposed on a cow. A unicorn is represented in the middle of the four of deniers; the three of cups exhibits the figure of Isis emerging from a vase, while two ibises issue from two other vases, one with a crown for the goddess and one holding a lotus, which he seems to be offering for her acceptance. The four aces bear the image of the hieratic and sacred serpent, while in some specimens the Seal of Solomon is placed at the centre of the four of deniers, instead of the symbolical unicorn. The German Tarots have suffered great alteration, and scarcely do more than preserve the numbers of the keys, which are crowded with grotesque or pantagruelian figures. We have a Chinese Tarot before us, and the Imperial Library contains samples of others that are similar. M. Paul Boiteau, in his remarkable work on playing-cards, has given some admir ably executed specimens.1 The Chinese Tarot preserves several primeval emblems; the deniers and swords are plainly distinguishable, but it would be less easy to discover the cups and clubs.

  It was at the epoch of the Gnostic and Manichaean heresies that the Tarot must have been lost to the Church, at which time also the meaning of the divine Apocalypse perished. It was understood no longer that the seven seals of this kabalistic book are seven pantacles, the representa tion of which we give (facing this page), and that these pantacles are explained by the analogies of the numbers, characters and figures of the Tarot. Thus the universal tradition of the one religion was broken for a moment, darkness or doubt spread over the whole earth, and it seemed in the eyes of ignorance, that true Catholicism, the universal revelation, had disappeared for a space. The explanation of the book of St John by the characters of the Kabalah will be an entirely new revelation, though foreseen by several distinguished Magi, one among whom, M. Augustin Chaho, thus expresses himself:

  “The poem of the Apocalypse presupposes in the young evangelist a complete system and traditions individually developed by himself. It is written in the form of a vision, and weaves into a brilliant framework of poetry the whole erudition, the whole thought of African civilization. An inspired bard, the author touches upon a series of ruling events; he draws in bold outlines the history of society from cataclysm to cataclysm, and even further still. The truths which he reveals are prophecies brought from far and wide, of which he is the resounding echo. He is the voice which cries, the voice which chants the harmonies of the desert and prepares paths for the light. His speech peals forth with mastery and compels faith, for he carries among savage nations the oracles of Iao, and unveils Him Who is the First-Born of the Sun for the admiration of civilizations to come. The theory of the four ages is found in the Apocalypse, as it is also in the books of Zoroaster and in the Bible. The gradual reconstruction of primeval federations, of the reign of God among peoples emancipated from the yoke of tyrants and the bonds of error, are foretold clearly for the end of the fourth age, and the recurrence of the cataclysm, exhibited at first from afar, is portrayed in the fulness of time. The description of the cataclysm and its duration; the new world emerging from the waves and spreading in all its beauty under heaven; the great serpent, bound for a time by an angel in the depths of the abyss; finally, the dawn of that age to come, prophesied by the Word, Who appeared to the apostle at the beginning of the poem: ‘His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.’ Such is Ormuz, Osiris, Chourien, the Lamb, the Christ, the Ancient of Days, the Man of the time and the river celebrated by Daniel. He is the first and the last, Who was, Who must be, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. He holds the key of mysteries in His hands; He opens the great abyss of central fire, where death sleeps beneath the canopy of darkness, where sleeps the great serpent awaiting the wakening of the ages.”

  APOCALYPTIC KEY

  The Seven Seals of St John

  The author connects this sublime allegory of St John with that of Daniel, wherein the four forms of the sphinx are applied to the chief periods of history, where the Man-Sun, the Word-Light, consoles and instructs the seer.

  “The prophet Daniel beholds a sea tossed by the four winds of heaven, and beasts differing one from another come out of the depths of the ocean. The empire of all things on earth was given them for a time, two times, and the dividing of time. They were four who so came forth. The first beast, symbol of the solar race of seers, came from the region of Africa, resembling a lion and having eagle's wings: the heart of a man was given it. The second beast, emblem of the northern conquerors, who reigned by iron during the second age, was like unto a bear; it had three rows of sharp teeth, images of three great conquering families, and they said unto it: Arise, devour much flesh. After the apparition of the fourth beast, there were thrones raised up, and the Ancient of Days, the Christ of seers, the Lamb of the first age, was manifested. His garment was of dazzling whiteness, his head radiant; his throne, whence came forth living flames, was borne upon burning wheels; a flame of swift fire shone in his countenance; legions of angels or stars sparkled round him. The tribuna
l was held, the allegorical books were opened. The new Christ came with the clouds of heaven and stood before the Ancient of Days; there were given Him. power, honour and a kingdom over all peoples, tribes and tongues. Then Daniel came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. And it was answered him that the four beasts were four powers which should reign successively over the earth.”

  M. Chaho proceeds to explain a variety of images, strikingly analogous, which are found in almost all sacred books. His observations at this point are worthy of remark.

  “In every primitive logos, the parallel between physical correspondences and moral relations is established on the same basis. Each word carries its material and sensible definition, and this living language is as perfect and true as it is simple and natural in man the creator. Let the seer express by the same word, slightly modified, the sun, day, light, truth, and applying the same epithet to a white sun and to a lamb, let him say, Lamb or Christ, instead of sun, and sun instead of truth, light, civilization, and there is no allegory, but there are true correspondences seized and expressed by inspiration. But when the children of night say in their incoherent and barbarous dialect, sun, day, light, truth, lamb, the wise correspondence so clearly expressed by the primitive logos becomes effaced and disappears, and, by simple translation, the lamb and the sun become allegorical beings, symbols. Remark, in effect, that the word allegory itself signifies in Celtic definition, change of discourse, translation. The observation just made applies exactly to all barbarian cosmogonical language. Seers made use of the same inspired radical to express nourishment and instruction. Is not the science of truth the nourishment of the soul? Thus, the scroll of papyrus, or the book, eaten by the prophet Ezekiel; the little volume which the angel gave as food to the author of the Apocalypse; the festivities of the magical palace of Asgard, to which Gangler was invited by Har the Sublime; the miraculous multiplication of seven loaves narrated of the Nazarene by the Evangelists; the living bread which Jesus-Sun gave his disciples to eat, saying, ‘This is my body’; and a host of similar stories, are a repetition of the same allegory; the life of souls who are sustained by truth—truth which multiplies without ever diminishing but, on the contrary, increases in the measure that it nourishes.

  Exalted by a noble sentiment of nationality, dazzled by the idea of immense revolution, let a revealer of hidden things come forward and seek to popularize the discoveries of science among gross and ignorant men, destitute of the most simple elementary notions; let him say, for example, that the earth revolves and that it is shaped like an egg: what resource has the barbarian who hears him except to believe? Is it not plain that every proposition of this nature becomes for him a dogma from on high, an article of faith? And is not the veil of a wise allegory sufficient to make it a mythos? In the schools of seers the terrestrial globe was represented by an egg of pasteboard or painted wood, and when young children were asked, ‘What is this egg?’ they answered, ‘It is the earth.’ Those older children, the barbarians, hearing this, repeated, after the little children of the seers: ‘The world is an egg.’ But they understood thereby the physical, material world, while the seers meant the geographical, ideal, image-world, created by mind and the logos. As a fact, the priests of Egypt represented mind, intelligence, Kneph, with an egg placed upon his lips, to express clearly that the egg was here only a form of comparison, an image, a mode of speech. Choumountou, the philoso pher of the Ezour-Veda, explains after the same manner to the fanatic Biache what must be understood by the golden egg of Brahma.”

  We must not despair altogether of a period which still concerns itself with these serious and reasonable researches; we have therefore cited these pages of M. Chaho with great mental satisfaction and profound sympathy. Here is no longer the negative and desolating criticism of Dupuis and Volney, but an effort towards one faith and one worship connecting all the future with all the past; it is an apology for all great men accused falsely of superstition and idolatry; it is, finally, the justification of God Himself, that Sun of intelligences Who is never veiled for upright souls and pure hearts.

  “Great and pre-eminent is the seer, the initiate, the elect of Nature and of supreme reason,” cries the author once more, in concluding what we have just cited. “His alone is that faculty of imitation which is the principle of his perfection, while its inspirations, swift as a lightning flash, direct creations and discoveries. His alone is a perfect Word of Tightness, propriety, flexibility, wealth, creating harmony of thought by physical reaction—of thought, whereof the perceptions, as yet independent of language, ever reflect Nature exactly reproduced in its impressions, well judged and well expressed in its correspondences. His alone are light, science, truth, because imagination, confined to its passive secondary part, never governs reason, the natural logic which results from the comparison of ideas; which come into being, extend in the same proportion as his needs, and which the circle of his knowledge enlarges thus by degrees without intermixture of false judgements and errors. His alone is a light infinitely progressive, because the rapid increase of population, after terrestrial renovations, establishes in a few centuries a new society in all the imaginable moral and political correspondences of its destiny. We might add, in fine, that his alone is absolute light. The man of our time is immutable in himself; he changes no more than Nature, in which he is rooted. The social conditions which surround him alone determine the degree of his perfection, of which the bounds are virtue, holiness of man and his happiness in the law.”

  After such elucidations, will anyone ask the utility of the occult sciences? Will they treat with the disdain of mysticism and illuminism these living mathematics, these proportions of ideas and forms, this revelation permanent in the universal reason, this emancipation of mind, this immutable basis provided for faith, this omnipotence revealed to will? Children in search of illusions, are you disappointed because we offer you marvels? Once a man said to us, “Raise up the devil, and I will believe in you.” We answered, “You ask too little; we will not make the the devil appear but rather vanish from the whole world: we will chase him from your dreams!” The devil is ignor ance, darkness, chaotic thought, deformity. Awake, sleeper of the Middle Ages! See you not that it is day? See you not the light of God filling all Nature? Where now will the destroyed prince of perdition dare to show himself?

  It remains for us to state our conclusions and to define the end and import of this work in the religious and philosophical order, and in the order of positive and material realizations. As regards the religious order, we have demon strated that the practices of worship cannot be indifferent, that the Magic of religions is in their Rites, that their moral force is in the triadic hierarchy and that the base, principle and synthesis of hierarchy is unity.1 We have demonstrated the universal unity and orthodoxy of dogma, vested successively in various allegorical veils, and we have followed the truth saved by Moses from profanation in Egypt, preserved in the Kabalah of the prophets, emanci pated by the Christian school from the slavery of the Pharisees, attracting all the poetic and generous aspirations of Greek and Roman civilization, protesting against a new Pharisaism more corrupt than the first, with the great saints of the Middle Ages and the bold thinkers of the Renaissance. We have exhibited, I say, that truth which is always uni versal, always living, alone conciliating reason and faith, science and obedience—the truth of being demonstrated by being, of harmony proved by harmony, of reason manifested by reason. By revealing for the first time to the world the Mysteries of Magic we have not sought to revive practices entombed beneath the ruins of ancient civilizations, but would say to humanity in this our own day that it is called also to make itself immortal and omnipotent by its works. Liberty does not offer itself but must be seized, says a modern writer: it is the same with science, for which reason to divulge absolute truth is never useful to the vulgar. But at an epoch when the sanctuary has been devastated and has fallen into ruins, because its key has been thrown into the ditch, to the profit of n
o one, I have deemed it my duty to pick up that key, and I offer it to him who can take it: in his turn he will be doctor of nations and liberator of the world. Fables and leading-strings are needed, and will be needed always by children; but it is not necessary that those who hold the leading-strings should be children also, lending a ready ear to fables. Let the most absolute science, let the highest reason, be the property of the chiefs of the people; let the Priestly Art and the Royal Art assume once more the double sceptre of antique initiations, and the world will re-issue from chaos. Burn no more holy images, destroy no more temples; temples and images are necessary for man; but drive out the merchants from the House of Prayer; let the blind no longer be leaders of the blind; reconstruct the hierarchy of intelligence and holiness; recognize only those who know as the teachers of those who believe. Our book is catholic, and if the revelations it contains are likely to alarm the conscience of the simple, we are consoled by the thought that they will not read it. We write for unprejudiced men and have no wish to flatter irreligion any more than fanaticism. If there be anything essentially free and inviolable in the world, it is belief. By science and persuasion we must endeavour to lead bewrayed imaginations from the absurd, but it would be investing their errors with all the dignity and truth of the martyr to either threaten or constrain them.