Eliphas Levi - The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum

On Tuesday the colour of the robe should be fiery, or rusty, or of blood colour, with a girdle and bracelets of steel; the wand should be of magnetised steel; a sword may also be used and a consecrated dagger; garlands of absinth and rue; an amethyst and steel ring on the finger should also be worn.

On Wednesday the robe should be green or of shot silk many tinted; the necklet of pearls, or of glass beads containing mercury; the perfumes are benzoin, myrrh, and storax; the flowers for the garlands are the narcissus, lily, the annual or perennial mercurialis, fumitory, or marjoram; the precious stone is the agate.

On Thursday the robe of scarlet, a lamen of tin upon the forehead, bearing the symbol of Jupiter and the three words Giazar of Fire, Bethor of Water, and Samgabiel, also fiery; the perfumes for incense, ambergris, cardamon, grains of paradise, balm, mace, and saffron. The ring should contain an emerald or a sapphire; the garlands of oak, poplar, fig-tree, or pomegranate; the wand of glass or resin. The robe should be made of wool or silk.

On Friday the robe of azure blue, its decorations of green or rose colour, the wand of polished copper; the perfumes are musk, civet, and amber; crown of violets; garlands of roses interspersed with boughs of myrtle and olive; the ring ornamented by a turquoise. Lapis lazuli and beryl should decorate the crown or diadem. The operator should hold a fan formed of swan’s feathers, and should wear around his loins a circlet, being a copper plate on which is engraved Anael, with its sigil, and on a circle surrounding these the words Ave Evah; Yade Lilith.

On Saturday the robe should be black, or dark brown, with appropriate designs embroidered in orange-coloured silk. Around the neck should be worn a chain and lamen formed of lead engraved with the name Saturn and his sigil, with the addition of the words Almalec, Aphiel, and Zarahiel. The proper perfumes for the incense are scammony, aloes, sulphur, and asafoetida. The wand should be ornamented with an onyx stone, and the proper garlands are of ash, Cyprus, and black hellebore. Upon the onyx on the wand there should be engraved with a consecrated tool, during the hours of Saturn, a figure of the double-faced Janus.

The Third Tarot Trump, the Empress, represents a seated female figure upon a throne, crowned with twelve stars, and holding in her left hand a sceptre surmounted by a diamond-shaped emblem, or a globe; she has wings, and by her right side is emblazoned on a shield the black eagle. This figure is the Greek Aphrodite-Urania, and corresponds to the figure in St. John’s vision, clothed with the Sun, crowned with twelve stars, and having the Moon beneath her feet.

Levi gives in his Rituel its meanings as the Word, the ternary, plenitude, fecundity, nature. See also Waite, page 255. Christian, page 116, allots Isis to this trump. This is erroneous; no examples of the Empress ever show horns, while several Priestess cards of the oldest types do show the horns of Isis upon her head.

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The clothing of a Magician should be new, clean, and woven by a virgin; magical implements should be new, and consecrated by prayers and incense.

The Magician needs to be abstinent, chaste, and devoted to the Work. His spirit and heart must be free from other claims upon them, and his will power devoted wholly, perseveringly, and with intelligent faith to the success of any great work, and to the results of his scientific occult performances. Magical operations should commence with Exorcisms of air, earth, and water, and end by Consecrations with fire.

The Exorcism of Air is performed by breathing forth toward the four cardinal points, by the Word, and by repeating this invocation :—

“The Spirit of God brooded over the waters, and God breathed into Man the breath of life.

“The Spirit of God filled the universe; in it all things exist, and in it is the Word of Power.

“May the Word be in my spirit, and so may all things be subservient to me.

“Be ye exorcised then, ye beings of Air, in the Name of Him whose breath first filled all things with the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

The Prayer of the Sylphs should then be recited.

[This will be found at length in Levi’s Rituel de la haute Magie , p. 78, and in English in A. E. Waite’s “Mysteries of Magic,” p. 122, the only error being his heading, “ Prayer for the Sylphs ”; it is the prayer of the Sylphs for a nearer relation to the divinity.]

The Exorcism of Earth is performed by the sprinkling of consecrated water, by the breath, by the Word, and by the burning of incense suitable to the day of the ceremony. Then recite the Prayer of the Gnomes.

[See Levi, Rituel , p. 84; and Waite, p. 125.]

The Exorcism of Water is performed by the laying on of hands, by the breath, by the Word, and by sprinkling upon it consecrated salt mixed with a little of the ash taken from the censer, and duly consecrated. The Water is to be sprinkled around by a brush composed of sprays of vervain, periwinkle, sage, mint, valerian, and basil; these are to be tied with a thread taken from a virgin’s distaff, to a handle of the wood of a nut-tree which has not yet borne fruit. Upon this handle you must engrave, with the magical dagger, the characters of the Seven Spirits.

The Salt is consecrated by reciting over it the following Latin prayer :—

“In isto Sale sit sapientia, et ab omni corruptione servet mentes nostras et corpora nostra, per Chokmah, et in virtute Ruach Chokmael; recedant ab isto phantasmata hylse ut sit Sal celestis, Sal terrse et Terra salis, ut nutrietur bos triturans, et addat spei nostrse cornua tauri volantis. Amen.”

Then this Latin prayer over the ashes from the censer:—

“Revertatur cinis ad fontem aquarum viveritium, et fiat terra fructificans et germinat arborem jucundi-tatis, et incensum suavitatis, per tria nomina Binah, Chokmah et Kether, in principio et in fine, per Alpha et Omega, qui sunt in Spiritu Azoth. Amen.”

While you sprinkle the mixed salt and ashes into the water, recite :—

“Emittes Spiritum O Tiphereth, et creabuntur omnia nova in his ergo sit semen venturi sseculi. Amen.”

“All powerful Father, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose voice is heard in the great waters, who didst cleave the waters of the Red Sea to make a passage for the children of Israel, and then didst cause the sea to swallow up the Egyptians who were pursuing them, Mi Kamoka Baalim Jehovah, thou whose altar, composed of the Twelve Jewels, is beneath the waters of the sacred river, deign to bless this water and to banish from it all baneful influences, Shaddai, Shaddai, Shaddai (breathe three times over the water). By the great names, Araritha, Eloah va Daath, Elohim Tzabaoth and Elohim Gibur, may this water be consecrated for the service of those who are about to invoke the Divine Powers for the benefit of their souls. Amen.”

Then the Prayer of the Undines should be recited.

[This is found in the Rituel , p. 81, and in Waite, p. 123.]

To perform the Exorcism of Fire, cast upon it salt, incense, and sulphur, while you pronounce the names of Anael, Michael, and Samael; the prayer of the Salamanders should then be recited.

[This is to be found in the Rituel , p. 83, and in Waite, p. 124.]

You must thoroughly understand that elemental beings are souls of an imperfect type, not yet raised in the scale up to human existence, and that they can only manifest power when called into action by the adept as auxiliaries to his will, by means of that universal astral fluid in which they live. The kingdom of the Gnomes is assigned to the North, the Salamanders to the South, the Sylphs to the East, and the Undines to the West.