Eliphas Levi - Transcendental Magic - Its Doctrine and Ritual

Let us now specify the manner in which visions operate. All forms correspond to ideas, and there is no idea which has not its proper and peculiar form. The pri-mordial light, which is the vehicle of all ideas, is the mother of all forms, and transmits them from emanation to emanation, merely diminished or modified according to the density of the media. Secondary forms are reflections which return to the font of the emanated light. The forms of objects, being a modification of light, remain in the light where the reflection consigns them. Hence the Astral Light, or terrestrial fluid, which we call the Great Magnetic Agent, is saturated with all kinds of images or reflections. Now, our soul can evoke these, and subject them to its DIAPHANE, as the Kabalists term it. 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 – dreams vague and incoherent if some governing will do not remain active during the sleep, giving, even unconsciously to our intelligence, a direction to the dream, which then transforms into vision. Animal Magnetism is nothing but an artificial sleep produced by the voluntary or enforced union of two wills, one of which is awake while the other slumbers – that is, one of which directs the other in the choice of reflections for the transformation of dreams into visions and the attainment of truth by means of images. Thus, somnambulists do not actually travel to the place where they are sent by the magnetizer; they evoke its images in the Astral Light and can behold nothing which does not exist in that light. The Astral Light has a direct action on the nerves, which are its conductors in the animal economy, transmitting it to the brain. It follows that, in a state of somnambulism, it is possible to see by means of the nerves, without being dependent on radiant light, the astral fluid being a latent light, in the same way that physics recognize the existence of a latent caloric.

Magnetism between two persons is certainly a wonderful discovery, but the magnetizing of a person by himself, awakening his own lucidity and directing it himself at will, is the perfection of magical art. The secret of this Great Work does not remain for discovery; it has been known and practised by a great number of initiates, above all by the celebrated Apollonius of Tyana, who has left a theory concerning it, as we shall see in the “Ritual”. The secret of magnetic lucidity and the direction of the phenomena of magnetism depend on two things – agreement of minds and complete union of wills, in a direction which is possible and determined by science. This is for the operation of magnetism between two or more persons. Solitary magnetism requires preparations of which we have spoken in, our initial chapter, when enumerating and establishing in all their difficulty the essential qualities of a veritable adept. In the following chapters we shall elucidate further this important and fundamental point.

The empire of will over the Astral Light, which is the physical soul of the four elements, is represented in Magic, by the Pentagram, placed at the head of this chapter.

The elementary spirits are subservient to this sign when employed with understanding, and by placing it in the circle or on the table of evocations, they can be rendered tractable, which is magically called their imprisonment. Let us explain this marvel briefly. All created beings communicate with one another by signs, and all adhere to a certain number of truths expressed by determinate forms. The perfection of forms increases in proportion to the emancipation of spirits, and those that are not overweighted by the chains of matter, recognize by intuition out of hand whether a sign is the expression of a real power or of a precipitate will.

The intelligence of the wise man therefore gives value to his pantacle, as science gives weight to his will, and spirits comprehend this power immediately. Thus, by means of the Pentagram, spirits can be forced to appear in vision, whether in the waking or sleeping state, BY THEMSELVES LEADING BEFORE OUR DIAPHANE THEIR REFLECTION, WHICH EXISTS IN THE ASTRAL LIGHT, IF THEY HAVE LIVED, OR A REFLECTION ANALOGOUS TO THEIR SPIRITUAL LOGOS IF THEY HAVE NOT LIVED ON EARTH. This explains all visions, and accounts for the dead invariably appearing to seers, either such as they were upon earth, or such as they are in the grave, never as they subsist in a condition which escapes the perceptions of our actual organism.

Pregnant women are influenced more than others by the Astral Light, which concurs in the formation of the child, and offers them incessant reminiscences of the forms that abound therein. This explains how it is that women of the highest virtue deceive the malignity of observers by equivocal resemblances. On the fruit of their marriage they impress frequently an image which has struck them in dream, and it is thus that the same physiognomies are perpetuated from generation to generation. The kabalistic usage of the Pentagram can determine therefore the appearance of unborn children, and an initiated woman might endow her son with the characteristics of Nero or Achilles, with those of Louis XIV or Napoleon.

We shall indicate the method in our “Ritual”.

The Pentagram is called in Kabalah the Sign of the Microcosm, that sign so exalted by Goethe in the beautiful monologue of Faust:

“Ah, how do all my senses leap at this sight! I feel the young and sacred pleasure of life quivering in my nerves and veins. Was it a God who traced this sign which stills the vertigo of my soul, fills my poor heart with joy and, in a mysterious rapture, unveils the forces of Nature around me? Am I myself a God? All is so clear to me: I behold in these simple lines the revelation of active Nature to my soul. I realise for the first time the truth of the wise man's words: The world of spirits is not closed! Thy sense is obtuse, thy heart is dead! Arise! Bathe, O adept of science, thy breast, still enveloped by an earthly veil, in the splendours of the dawning day!” (Faust, Part i. sc. I.)

On 24 July in the year 1854, the author of this book, Eliphas Levi, made an experiment of evocation with the Pentagram, after due preparation according to all the Ceremonies indicated in the thirteenth chapter of the “Ritual”. The success of this experiment, details of which, as regards its principles, will be found in the corresponding chapter of the present doctrinal part, establishes a new pathological fact, which men of true science will admit without difficulty. The experience, repeated even to a third time, gave results truly extraordinary, but positive and unmixed with hallucination. We invite sceptics to make a conscientious and intelligent trial on their own part before shrugging their shoulders and smiling. The figure of the Pentagram, completed in accordance with science and used by the author in his experiment, is that which is found at the head of this chapter, and it is more perfect than any in the Keys of Solomon or in the Magical Calendars of Tycho Brahe and Duchentau. We must remark, however, that the use of the Pentagram is most dangerous for operators who are not in possession of its complete and perfect understanding. The direction of the points of the star is in no sense arbitrary, and may change the entire character of an operation, as we shall explain in the “Ritual”.

Paracelsus, that innovator in Magic, who surpassed all other initiates in his unaided practical success, affirms that every magical figure and every kabalistic sign of the pantacles which compel spirits, may be reduced to two, which are the synthesis of all the others; these are the Sign of the Macrocosm or the Seal of Solomon, the form of which we have given already, and that of the Microcosm, more potent even than the first – that is to say, the Pentagram, of which he provides a most minute description in his occult philosophy. If it be asked how a sign can exercise so much power over spirits, we inquire in return why the whole Christian world bows down before that Sign of the Cross? The sign is nothing by itself, and has no force apart from the doctrine of which it is the summary and the logos. Now, a sign which summarizes, in their expression, all the occult forces of Nature, a sign which has ever exhibited to elementary spirits and others a power greater than their own, fills them naturally with respect and fear, enforcing their obedience by the empire of science and of will over ignorance and weakness. By the Pentagram also is measured the exact proportions of the great and unique Athanor necessary to the confection of the Philosophical Stone and the accomplishment of the Great Work. The most perfect alembic in which the Quintessence can be elaborated is conformable to this figure, and the Quintessence itself is represented by the Sign of the Pentagram.