by Eliphas Levi
The Fifth Hour
The voice of the great waters celebrates the God of the heavenly spheres.
The Sixth Hour
The spirit abides immovable; it beholds the infernal monsters swarm down upon it, and does not fear.
The Seventh Hour
A fire, which imparts life to all animated beings, is directed by the will of pure men. The initiate stretches forth his hand, and pains are assuaged.
The Eighth Hour
The stars utter speech to one another; the soul of the suns corresponds with the exhalation of the flowers; chains of harmony create unison between all natural things.
The Ninth Hour
The number which must not be divulged.
The Tenth Hour
The key of the astronomical cycle and of the circular movement of human life.
The Eleventh Hour
The wings of the genii move with a mysterious and deep murmur; they fly from sphere to sphere, and bear the messages of God from world to world.
The Twelfth Hour
The works of the light eternal are fulfilled by fire.
EXPLANATION
THESE twelve symbolical hours, analogous to the signs of the magical Zodiac and to the allegorical labours of Hercules, represent the succession in works of initiation. It is necessary therefore (i) To overcome evil passions, and, according to the expression of the wise Hierophant, compel the demons themselves to praise God. (2) To study the balanced forces of Nature and learn how harmony results from the analogy of contraries; to know also the Great Magical Agent and the twofold polarization of the universal light. (3) To be initiated in the triadic principle of all theogonies and all religious symbols. (4) To overcome all phantoms of imagination and triumph over all illusions. (5) To understand after what manner universal harmony is produced in the centre of the four elementary forces. (6) To become inaccessible to fear. (7) To practise the direction of the magnetic light. (8) To foresee effects by the calculus of the balance of causes. (9) To understand the hierarchy of instruction, to respect the mysteries of dogma and to keep silence in presence of the profane. (10) To make a profound study of astronomy. (11) To become initiated by analogy into the laws of universal life and intelligence. (12) To effect great works of Nature by direction of the light.
Here follow the names and attributions of the genii who preside over the twelve hours of the Nuctemeron. By these genii the ancient hierophants understood neither angels nor demons, but moral forces or personified virtues.
Genii of the First Hour
PAPUS, physician. SINBUCK, judge. RASPHUIA, necro mancer. ZAHUN, genius of scandal. HEIGLOT, genius of snowstorms. MIZKUN, genius of amulets. HAVEN, genius of dignity.
Explanation
We must be physician and judge of ourselves in order to destroy the witchcrafts of the necromancer, conjure and disdain the genius of scandal, overcome the opinion which freezes all enthusiasms and confounds everything in the same cold pallor, like the genius of snowstorms; and learn the virtue of signs, that we may enchain the genius of amulets and reach the dignity of the Magus.
Supplement to the Ritual
Genii of the Second Hour
SISERA, genius of desire. TORVATUS, genius of discord. NITIBUS, genius of the stars. HIZARBIN, genius of the seas. SACHLUPH, genius of plants. BAGLIS, genius of measure and balance. LABEZERIN, genius of success.
Explanation
We must learn how to will and thus transform the genius of desire into power; the hindrance to will is the genius of discord, who is bound by the science of harmony. Harmony is the genius of the stars and seas. We must study the virtue of plants, and understand the laws of the balance of measure in order to attain success.
Genii of the Third Hour
HAHABI, genius of fear. Phlogabitus, genius of adornments. EIRNEUS, destroying genius of idols. MASCARUN, genius of death. ZAROBI, genius of precipices. BUTATAR, genius of calculations. CAHOR, genius of deception.
Explanation
When you have conquered the genius of fear by the growing force of your will, you shall know that dogmas are the sacred adornments of truth unknown to the vulgar; but you must cast down all idols in your intelligence; you must bind the genius of death; you must fathom all precipices and subject the infinite itself to the ratio of your calculations. So shall you escape for ever the snares of the genius of deception.
Genii of the Fourth Hour
PHALGUS, genius of judgement. Thagrinus, genius of con fusion. Eistibus, genius of divination. Pharzuph, genius of fornication. Sislau, genius of poisons. Schiekron, genius of bestial love. ACLAHAYR, genius of gambling.
Explanation
The power of the Magus is in his judgement, which enables him to avoid the confusion consequent on the antinomy and antagonism of principles; he practises the divination of the sages, but he despises the illusions of enchanters who are the slaves of fornication, artists in poisons, ministers of bestial love. In this way he is victorious over fatality, which is the genius of gambling.
Genii of the Fifth Hour
ZEIRNA, genius of infirmities. TABLIBIK, genius of fascination. TACRITAU, genius of Goëtic Magic. SUPHLATUS, genius of the dust. SAIR, genius of the antimony of the sages. BARCUS, genius of the quintessence. CAMAYSAR, genius of the marriage of contraries.
Explanation
Triumphing over human infirmities, the Magus is no longer the sport of fascination; he tramples on the vain and dangerous practices of Goetic Magic, the whole power of which is but dust driven before the wind; but he possesses the antimony of the sages; he is armed with all the creative powers of the quintessence; and he produces at will that harmony which results from the analogy and the marriage of contraries.
Genii of the Sixth Hour
TABRIS, genius of free will. SUSABO, genius of voyages. EIRNIILUS, genius of fruits. NITIKA, genius of precious stones. HAATAN, genius who conceals treasures. HATIPHAS, genius of finery. ZAREN, avenging genius.
Explanation
The Magus is free; he is the secret king of the earth, and he traverses it as one passing through his own domain. In his voyages he becomes acquainted with the juices of plants and fruits, and with the virtues of precious stones; he compels the genius who conceals the treasures of Nature to yield all his secrets; in this manner he penetrates the mysteries of form; he understands the vestures of earth and speech; and if he be misconstrued, if the nations are inhospitable towards him, if he goes about doing good but receiving outrages, then is he ever followed by the avenging genius.
Genii of the Seventh Hour
SIALUL, genius of prosperity. SABRUS, sustaining genius. LIBRABIS, genius of hidden gold. MIZGITARI, genius of eagles. CAUSUB, serpent-charming genius. SALILUS, genius who sets doors open. JAZAR, genius who compels love.
Explanation
The septenary expresses the victory of the Magus; who gives prosperity to men and nations; who sustains them by his sublime instructions; who soars like the eagle; who directs the currents of the astral fire, represented by serpents. The gates of all sanctuaries open before him, and in him all souls who yearn for truth repose their trust. He is beautiful in his moral grandeur; and his is that genius which wins the gifts of love.
Genii of the Eighth Hour
NANTUR, genius of writing. TOGLAS, genius of treasures. ZALBURIS, genius of therapeutics. ALPHUN, genius of doves. TUKIPHAT, genius of the SCHAMIR. ZIZUPH, genius of mysteries. CUNIALI, genius of association.
Explanation
These are the genii who obey the true Magus; the doves signify religious ideas; the SCHAMIR is an allegorical diamond which in magical traditions represents the stone of the sages, or that force which nothing can resist, because it is based on truth. The Arabs still say that the SCHAMIR, originally given to Adam and lost by him after his fall, was recovered by Enoch and possessed by Zoroaster; and that Solomon received it afterwards from an angel when he entreated wisdom from God. By means of this magical diamond, the monarch himself dressed the stones of the temple—mak
ing no exertion and using no tools—merely by touching them with the SCHAMIR.
Genii of the Ninth Hour
RISNUCH, genius of agriculture. SUCLAGUS, genius of fire. KIRTABUS, genius of languages. SABLIL, genius who discovers thieves. SCHACHLIL, genius of the sun's rays. COLOPATIRON, genius who sets prisons open. ZEFFAR, genius of irrevocable choice.
Explanation
This number, says Apollonius, must be passed over in silence, because it contains the great secrets of the initiate, that power which fructifies the earth, the mysteries of secret fire, the universal key of languages, the second sight from which evil-doers cannot remain concealed. It signifies the great laws of equilibrium and of luminous motion repre sented by the four symbolical animals of the Kabalah, and in Greek mythology by the four horses of the sun; the key of emancipation for bodies and souls, opening all prisons; and that power of eternal choice which completed the creation of man and establishes him in immortality.
Genii of the Tenth Hour
SEZARBIL, devil or hostile genius. AZEUPH, destroyer of children. ARMILUS, genius of cupidity. KATARIS, genius of dogs or of the profane. RAZANIL, genius of the onyx. BUCAPHI, genius of stryges. MASTHO, genius of delusive appearances.
Explanation
Numbers end with nine, and the distinctive sign of the denary is zero, itself without value, added to unity. The genii of the tenth hour represent all which, being nothing in itself, receives great power from opinion and can suffer consequently the omnipotence of the sage. We tread here on hot earth, and we must be permitted to omit elucidations to the profane, as to the devil who is their master; to the destroyer of children, which is their love; to the cupidity, which is their god; to the dogs, to which we do not compare them; to the onyx, which they possess not; to the stryges, who are their courtesans; or to the false appearances which they take for truth.
Genii of the Eleventh Hour
AEGLUN, genius of the lightning. ZUPHLAS, genius of forests. PHALDOR, genius of oracles. ROSABIS, genius of metals. ADJUCHAS, genius of rocks. ZOPHAS, genius of pantacles. HALACHO, genius of sympathies.
Explanation
The lightning obeys man; it becomes the vehicle of his will, the instrument of his power, the light of his torches; the oaks of the sacred forests utter oracles: metals change and transmute into gold, or become talismans; rocks move from their foundation, and, charmed by the lyre of the grand hierophant, touched by the mysterious Schamir, transform into temples and palaces. Dogmas evolve; sym bols, represented by pantacles, become efficacious; minds are enchained by powerful sympathies and obey the laws of family and friendship.
Genii of the Twelfth Hour
TARAB, genius of extortion. MISRAN, genius of persecution. LABUS, genius of inquisition. KALAB, genius of sacred vessels. HAHAB, genius of royal tables. MARNES, genius of the discernment of spirits. SELLEN, genius of the favour of the great.
Explanation
Here now is the fate which the Magi must expect, and how their sacrifices must be consummated; for after the conquest of life, they must know how to immolate themselves in order to be reborn immortal. They will suffer extortion; gold, pleasure, vengeance will be required of them, and if they fail to satisfy vulgar cupidities they will be the objects of persecution and inquisition; yet the sacred vessels are not profaned; they are made for royal tables, that is, for the feasts of understanding. By the discernment of spirits the wise will know how to protect themselves from the favour of the great, and they will remain invincible in their strength and in their liberty.
THE NUCTEMERON ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS
Extracted from the ancient Talmud termed Mishna by the Jews
The NUCTEMERON of Apollonius, borrowed from Greek theurgy, completed and explained by the Assyrian hierarchy of genii, corresponds perfectly to the philosophy of numbers as we find it expounded in the most curious pages of the Talmud. Thus, the Pythagoreans go back farther than Pythagoras; thus, Genesis is a magnificent allegory, which, under the form of a narrative, conceals the secrets not only of the creation achieved of old, hut of permanent and uni versal creation, the eternal generation of beings. We read as follows in the Talmud: “God hath stretched out the heaven like a tabernacle; He hath spread the world like a table richly dight; and He hath created man as if He invited a guest.” Listen now to the words of the King Schlomoh: “The divine Chokmah, Wisdom, the Bride of God, hath built a house unto herself, and hath dressed two Pillars. She hath immolated her victims, she hath mingled her wine, she hath spread the table and hath commissioned her servitors.” This Wisdom, who builds her house according to a regular and numerical architecture, is that exact science which rules in the works of God. It is His compass and His square. The Seven Pillars are the seven typical and primordial days. The victims are natural forces which are propagated by undergoing a species of death. Mingled wine is the universal fluid, the table is the world with the waters full of fishes. The servants of Chokmah are the souls of Adam and of Chavah (Eve). The earth of which Adam was formed was taken from the entire mass of the world. His head is Israel, his body the empire of Babylon, and his limbs are the other nations of the earth. (The aspirations of the initiates of Moses towards a universal oriental kingdom stand here revealed.) Now, there are twelve hours in the day of man's creation.
First Hour
God combines the scattered fragments of earth; He kneads them together and forms one mass, which it is His will to animate.
Explanation
Man is the synthesis of the created world; in him creative unity begins again; he is made in the image and likeness of God.
Second Hour
God designs the form of the human body; He separates it into two sections, so that the organs may be double, for all force and all life result from two, and it is thus the Elohim made all things.
Explanation
Everything lives by movement, everything is maintained by equilibrium, and harmony results from the analogy of contraries. This law is the form of forms, the first mani festation of the activity and fecundity of God.
Third Hour
The limbs of man, obeying the law of life, come forth of themselves and are completed by the generative organ, which is composed of one and two, emblem of the triadic number.
Explanation
The triad issues spontaneously from the duad; the movement which produces two also produces three; three is the key of numbers, for it is the first numeral synthesis; in geometry it is the triangle, the first complete and enclosed figure, generatrix of an infinity of triangles, whether like or unlike.
Fourth Hour
God breathes upon the face of man and imparts to him a soul.
Explanation
The tetrad, which in geometry produces cross and square, is the perfect number; now, it is in perfection of form that the intelligent soul manifests; according to which revelation of the Mishna, the child is not animated in the mother's womb till after the formation of all its members.
Fifth Hour
Man stands erect; he is weaned from earth; he walks and goes where he will.
Explanation
The number five is that of the soul, typified by the quintessence which results from the equilibrium of the four elements; in the Tarot this number is represented by the High-Priest or spiritual autocrat, type of human will, that High-Priestess who alone decides our eternal destinies.
Sixth Hour
The animals pass before Adam, and he gives their proper name to each.
Explanation
Man by toil subdues the earth and overcomes the animals; by the manifestation of his liberty he expresses his word or speech in the environment which obeys him: herein The Nuctemeron According to the Hebrews primordial creation is completed. God formed man on the sixth day, but at the sixth Hour of the day man fulfils the work of God and to some extent recreates himself, by enthroning himself as king of Nature, which he subjects by his speech.
Seventh Hour
God gives Adam a companion brought forth out of t
he man's own substance.
Explanation
When God had created man in His own image, He rested on the seventh day, for He had given unto Himself a fruitful bride who would unceasingly work for Him. Nature is the bride of God, and God reposes on her. Man, becoming creator in his turn by means of the word, gives himself a companion like unto himself, on whose love he may lean henceforth. Woman is the work of man; he makes her beautiful by his love; and he makes her also a mother. Woman is true human nature, daughter and mother of man, grand-daughter and mother dear of God.