Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 315the configurations are frequently arbitrary in the highest degree, and upon the indication of a single star, for example, we can see no reason why a 1 should be traced rather than a 1 or a T ; four stars will also give indifferently a n, n, or n> as well as an X. We are therefore deterred from reproducing a copy of Gaffarel's planisphere, examples of which are, moreover, not exceedingly rare.
It was included in the work of Montfau^on on the religions and superstitions of the world, and also in the treatise upon magic published by the mystic Eckartshausen. Scholars, moreover, are unagreed upon the configuration of the letters of the primitive alphabet.
The Italian Tarot, of which the lost Gothic originals are much to be regretted, connects by the disposition of its figures with the Hebrew alphabet in use after the captivity, and known as the Assyrian alphabet ; but there are fragments of anterior Tarots where the disposition is different. There should be no conjecture in matters of research, and hence we suspend our judgment in the expectation of fresh and more conclusive discoveries.
As to the alphabet of the stars, we believe it to be intuitive, like the configuration of clouds, which seem to assume any form that imagination lends them. Star-groups are like points in geomancy or the pasteboards of cartomancy. They are a pretext for selfmagnetising, an instrument to fix and determine native intuition.
Thus, a kabbalist, familiar with mystic hieroglyphics, will perceive signs in the stars which will not be discerned by a simple shepherd, but the shepherd, on his part, will observe combinations that will escape the kabbalist.
Country people substitute a rake for the belt and sword of Orion, while kabbalist recognises in the same sign as a whole all the lysteries of Ezekiel, the ten sephiroth arranged in a triadic lanner, a central triangle formed of four stars, then a line three stars making the jod, and the two figures taken jether expressing the mysteries of Bereschith ; finally, four constituting the wheels of Mercavah, and completing le divine chariot. Looked at after another manner, and mging other ideal lines, he will notice a well-formed p. 316ghimd placed above a jod, in a large daleth, a symbol typifying the strife between good and evil, with the final triumph of good. As a fact, the ghimel superposed on the jod is the triad produced by unity, the manifestation of the divine Word, whilst the reversed daleth is the triad composed of the evil duad multiplied by itself.
ORION
Thus regarded, the figure of Orion would be identical with that of the angel Michael doing battle with the dragon, and the appearance of this sign, so understood, would be, for the kabbalist, a portent of victory and happiness. A long contemplation of the sky exalts the imagination, and then the stars respond to our thoughts. The lines drawn mentally from one to another by the primitive observers must have given man his first notions of geometry. Accordingly, as our soul is troubled or at rest, the stars seem burning with menace or sparkling with hope. The p. 317sky is thus the mirror of the human soul, and when we think that we are reading in the stars it is in ourselves we read.
Gaffarel, applying the prophecies of celestial writing to the destinies of empires, says that not in vain did the ancients place all signs of evil augury in the northern region of the sky ; calamities have been in all ages regarded as coming from the north to spread themselves over the earth by the invasion of the south.
" For this reason," he tells us, " the ancients represented in the northern parts of the heaven a serpent or dragon near two bears, since these animals are the true hieroglyphs of tyranny, pillage, and all oppression. As a fact, glance at history, and you will see that all great devastations proceed from the north.
The Assyrians or Chaldeans, incited by Nabuchodonosor or Salmanasor, exhibited this truth in abundance by the destruction of the most splendid and most holy temple and city in the universe, and by the complete overthrow of a people whom God himself had taken under his special protection, of whom he specially termed himself father.
And that other Jerusalem, Eome the blessed, has not it, too, experienced frequently the violence of this evil northern race, when it beheld its altars demolished and the towers of its proud edifices brought level with the foundations, through the cruelty of Alaric, Genseric, Attila, and the other princes of the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and Alain. . . .
Very properly, therefore, in the secrets of this celestial writing, do we read calamities and misfortunes on the northern side, since a septentrione pandetur omne malum. Now, the word in, which we translate by pandetur, is also equivalent of e depingetur or scribetur, and the prophecy signifies equally: All the misfortunes of the world are written in the northern sky.
We have transcribed this passage at length, because it is not without application in our day, when the north once more seems to threaten Europe ; * but it is also the destiny of hoar-frost to be melted by the sun, and the darkness * This passage was written before the Crimean War.
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