A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult

by Gary Lachman

  From Magick in Theory and Practice

  ALEISTER CROWLEY

  HYMN TO PAN

  SOPH. AJ.

  From Heaven and Hell

  EMANUELSWEDENBORG

  THERE IS A CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND EVERYTHING IN MAN

  The nature of correspondence is unknown nowadays; this for several reasons. The foremost reason is that man has moved himself away from heaven through love of self and love of the world. For a person who loves himself and the world primarily focuses on worldly things only, since these appeal to his outward senses and gratify his inclinations. He does not focus on spiritual things because these appeal to the inner senses and gratify the mind. As a result, people of this kind reject spiritual things, calling them too lofty to think about.

  The ancient people behaved differently. As far as they were concerned, a knowledge of correspondences was the finest of all knowledges. They drew discernment and wisdom through it; through it, church people were in touch with heaven. For this knowledge of correspondences is an angelic knowledge.

  Using correspondence itself, the most ancient people (who were celestial people) thought like angels and actually talked with angels as a result. For the same reason, the Lord often appeared to them and taught them. Nowadays, though, this knowledge has so vanished that even the nature of correspondence is unknown.

  Now, without insight into the nature of correspondence, nothing can be known in clear light about the spiritual world, nothing about its inflow into the natural world, or even about what the spiritual is relative to the natural; nothing can be known in clear light about man's spirit, called his soul, and how it acts on the body, nothing about man's state after death. Because of this, the nature and character of= correspondence needs to be presented. This will pave the way for further matters.

  Let us then first state the nature of correspondence. The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world - not just the natural world in general, but actually in details. So anything in the natural world that occurs from the spiritual world is called a correspondent. It is vital to understand that the natural world emerges and endures from the spiritual world, just like an effect from the cause that produces it.

  The natural world means all the expanse under the sun, receiving warmth and light from it. All the entities that are maintained from this source belong to that world. The spiritual world, in contrast, is heaven. All the things that are in the heavens belong to that world.

  Since man is both a heaven and an earth in smallest form, on the model of the greatest, he has a spiritual world and a natural world within him. His spiritual world comprises his more inward elements, belonging to his mind and having to do with discernment and intention. His natural world comprises his more outward elements, belonging to his body and having to do with its senses and behaviour. So anything that occurs in his natural world (his body, its senses, and its actions) from his spiritual world (his mind, its discernment, and its intention) is called a correspondent.

  The nature of correspondence is visible in man in his face. In a face which has not been trained to pretend, all the mind's affections stand out visibly, in a physical form as in their imprint. This is why the face is called the index of the mind, a person's spiritual world contained within his natural world.

  In much the same way, the elements of discernment are represented in speech and the elements of intention in bodily attitudes. So these things that happen in the body - face, speech, or attitudes alike - are called correspondences.

  This may also serve to clarify what the inner person is and what the outer person is. The inner is what is called the spiritual person; the outer, the natural. Further, the two are quite distinct, as are heaven and earth, in such a way that, further still, everything that happens or emerges in the outer or natural person happens and emerges from the inner or spiritual.

  All this has to do with the correspondence of the inner or spiritual realm of man with his outer or natural realm. Now we must deal with the correspondence of the totality of heaven with the details of man.

  It has been pointed out that the whole heaven reflects a single person, that it is a person in all appearance, and that it is therefore called the Greatest Man. It has also been pointed out that the angelic communities that constitute heaven are therefore arranged like the members, organs, and viscera in a person. So there are some which are in the head, some in the chest, some in the arms, and some in specific parts of them.

  So communities that are in a particular member there correspond to the like member in man - those in the head, for example, correspond to the head in a person, those in the chest to the person's chest, those in the arms to his arms, and so on. Man has being from this correspondence, for man has being only from heaven.

  The division of heaven into two kingdoms, one called celestial and one called spiritual, has been pointed out above in the appropriate section. In general, the celestial kingdom corresponds to the heart and to everything dependent on the heart throughout the body. The spiritual kingdom corresponds to the lungs and to everything dependent on them throughout the body. Heart and lungs constitute two kingdoms in man, with the heart's domain extending through the arteries and veins, and the lungs' dominion through the nerve and motor tissues. Both are involved in whatever effort or activity occurs.

  There are also two kingdoms in every individual's spiritual world, which is called his spiritual person. One of these belongs to his intention and the other to his discernment. Intention's dominion extends through affections for what is good, and discernment's through affections for what is true. These kingdoms correspond to the kingdoms of the heart and the lungs in the body.

  The situation in the heavens is similar. The celestial kingdom is the seat of heaven's intention, where the "good" of love reigns. The spiritual kingdom is the seat of heaven's discernment, where what is true reigns. These are what correspond to the functions of the heart and lungs in man.

  This correspondence is why "the heart" in the Word indicates intention, also the good of love; while "the breath" of the lungs indicates discernment and what is true of faith. This is also why affections are attributed to the heart, even though they are not in or from the heart.

  The correspondence of heaven's two kingdoms with the heart and lungs is the general correspondence of heaven with man. Less general is the correspondence with his particular members, organs, and viscera, whose nature will now be noted.

  In the Greatest Man, or heaven, people in the head are those who are involved in everything good more than others are. They are in fact involved in love, peace, innocence, wisdom, discernment, and in joy and happiness as a result. They flow into the head, and into things dependent on the head, in man; and they correspond to such things.

  In the Greatest Man, or heaven, the people who are in the chest are involved in the good of charity and faith. They flow into man's chest, and correspond to it.

  In the Greatest Man, or heaven, people in the loins or organs for generation are involved in marriage love. People in the feet are in the outmost good of heaven, which is called natural-spiritual good. People in the arms and hands are involved in the power of what is true from what is good. People in the eyes are involved in discernment; people in the ears, in hearkening and obedience; people in the nostrils, in perception; people in the mouth and tongue, in discussing on the basis of discernment and perception. People in the kidneys are involved in truth as examining, distinguishing, and correcting. People in the liver, pancreas, and spleen are involved in various kinds of cleansing of what is good and true. Other functions are performed elsewhere.

  These flow into parallel elements in man, and correspond to them. The inflowing of heaven is into the functions and uses of the members of the body. The uses, being from the spiritual world, take form by means of such materials as occur in the natural world. So they present themselves in their effect, which is the source of correspondence.

  This is why these same members, organs, and v
iscera are used in the Word to denote parallel things; for everything in the Word has meaning according to correspondence. "Head" is therefore used to denote discernment and wisdom, "chest," charity; "loins," marriage love; "arms" and "hands" the power of what is true; "feet," what is natural; "eyes," discernment; "nostrils," perception; "ears," obedience; "kidneys," examination of what is true; and so on.

  This is also why it is natural for people talking about intelligence and wisdom to speak of "a good head," to speak of someone involved in charity as "a bosom friend," to refer to someone perceptive as "having a sharp nose," someone discerning as "sharp-sighted," someone powerful as "having a long arm," someone who wills something from his love as "willing from his heart."

  These expressions, and many others in people's language, stem from correspondence. They actually stem from the spiritual world, though people do not realize it.

  The existence of this correspondence between everything heavenly and everything human has been demonstrated to me by an abundance of experience - such an abundance that I am so thoroughly convinced about these matters as to find them quite obvious, beyond any doubt. But listing all this experience is not our task at this point, and the very abundance precludes it. You may find it assembled in Arcana Coelestia in the treatment of correspondences, representations, the inflow of the spiritual world into the natural, and interaction between soul and body.

  In spite of the fact that everything physical about man corresponds to everything heavenly, still a person is not a picture of heaven as far as his outward form is concerned, only as far as his inner form is concerned. It is the more inward elements of a person, after all, that receive heaven; his outer elements receive the world. So an individual is inwardly a heaven in least form, a reflection of the greatest heaven, so far as his more inward elements do receive heaven. To the degree that his more inward elements are unreceptive, he is not a heaven or a reflection of the greatest.

  Be that as it may, his more outward elements, which receive the world, may be in a form that follows some pattern of this world - with different degrees of beauty, therefore. Outward or physical beauty, that is, goes back to parents and to formation in the womb. Thereafter it is maintained by means of a general inflow from the world. As a result, the form of an individual's natural person may differ radically from the form of his spiritual person.

  A number of times, I have been shown what the form of an individual's spirit was like, and with some people who looked lovely and charming, the spirit looked misshapen, black, and monstrous - something you would call a reflection of hell rather than of heaven. With others who were not beautiful, the spirit looked graceful, radiant, and angelic. After death, a person's spirit looks the way it actually was within his body while it dwelt there in the world.

  But correspondence includes even more than just man. There is an intercorrespondence of the heavens, the second or middle heaven corresponding to the third or inmost, and the first or outmost heaven corresponding to the second or middle. This first heaven corresponds to physical forms in man, called members, organs, and viscera.

  So man's body is where heaven finally leaves off; it is what heaven stands on like a base. But this arcanum will be explained more fully elsewhere.

  But the following fact must certainly be known: all the correspondence that exists with heaven is with the Lord's Divine Human, since heaven is from Him and He is heaven, as has been pointed out in the preceding chapters. For unless the Divine Human did flow into all the elements of heaven - and, following correspondences, into all the elements of earth - neither angel nor man would exist.

  This clarifies again why the Lord became Man, why He covered His Divine with a Human from beginning to end. This happened because the Divine Human which has sustained heaven- before the Lord's coming was no longer adequate to keep everything going, since man, the "base" of the heavens, had undermined-and-destroyed the pattern.

  Angels are baffled when they hear that there actually are people who ascribe everything to nature and nothing to the Divine, people who believe that their bodies, where so many heavenly marvels are assembled, are just put together out of natural elements -- who believe nature to be the source even of man's rationality.

  Yet if only they could raise their minds a bit, they would see that things like this are from the Divine, not from nature, that nature was created simply to clothe the spiritual, to act as its correspondent and to give it presence in the lowest realm of the overall design. Angels compare people like this to owls, who see in the dark but not in the light.

  From Transcendental Magic

  ELIPHAS LEVI

  Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the monstrous or marvellous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, in the ceremonies practised at reception by all secret societies, there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed. Occult philosophy seems to have been the nurse or god-mother of all intellectual forces, the key of all divine obscurities and the absolute queen of society in those ages when it was reserved exclusively for the education of priests and of kings. It reigned in Persia with the Magi, who perished in the end, as perish all masters of the world, because they abused their power; it endowed India with the most wonderful traditions and with an incredible wealth of poesy, grace and terror in its emblems; it civilised Greece to the music of the lyre of Orpheus; it concealed the principles of all sciences, all progress of the human mind, in the daring calculations of Pythagoras; fable abounded in its miracles, and history, attempting to estimate this unknown power, became confused with fable; it undermined or consolidated empires by its oracles, caused tyrants to tremble on their thrones and governed all minds, either by curiosity or by fear. For this science, said the crowd, there is nothing impossible; it commands the elements, knows the language of the stars and directs the planetary courses; when it speaks, the moon falls blood-red from heaven; the dead rise in their graves and mutter ominous words, as the night wind blows through their skulls. Mistress of love or of hate, occult science can dispense paradise or hell at its pleasure to human hearts; it disposes of all forms and confers beauty or ugliness; with the wand of Circe it changes men into brutes and animals alternatively into men; it disposes even of life and death, can confer wealth on its adepts by the transmutation of metals and immortality by its quintessence or elixir, compounded of gold and light.

  Such was Magic from Zoraster to Manes, from Orpheus to Apollonius of Tyana ...

  I testify that in fine there is one sole, universal and imperishable dogma, strong as supreme reason; simple, like all that is great, intelligible, like all that is universally and absolutely true; and this dogma is the parent of all others. There is also a science which confers on man powers apparently superhuman ...

  To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions - an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broke, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE - such are the four words of Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolical forms of the sphinx. These maxims can be combined after four manners and explained four times by one another ...

  There is no invisible world; there are, however, many degrees of perfection in organs. The body is the coarse and, as it were, the perishable cortex of the soul. The soul can perceive of itself, and independently of the mediation of the physical organs ... the things, both spiritual and corporeal, which are existent in the universe ... What is called the imagination within us is only the soul's inherent faculty of assimilating the images and r
eflections contained in the living light, being the Great Magnetic Agent ... The man of genius differs from the dreamer and the fool in this only, that his creations are analogous to truth, while those of the fool and the dreamer are lost reflections and betrayed images. Hence, for the wise man, to imagine is to see, as, for the magician, to speak is to create ... but the imagination of the adept is diaphanous, whilst that of the crowd is opaque ...

  ... the Astral Light, or terrestrial fluid, which we call the Great Magnetic Agent, is saturated with all kinds of images or reflections ... Such images are always present before us, and are effaced only by the more powerful impressions of reality during waking hours, or by preoccupation of the mind, which makes our imagination inattentive to the fluidic panorama of the Astral Light. When we sleep, this spectacle presents itself spontaneously before us, and in this way dreams are produced ... Animal Magnetism is nothing but the artificial sleep produced by the voluntary or enforced union of two wills, one of which is awake while the other slumbers ... Thus, somnambulists do not actually travel to the place where they are sent by the magnetiser; they evoke its images in the Astral Light and can behold nothing which does not exist in that light ...

  Magnetism between two persons is certainly a wonderful discovery, but the magnetising of a person by himself, awakening his own lucidity and directing it at himself at will, is the perfection of magical art.