Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

p. 824finally, during the whole life, obtained from the stars which enter into the entire number formed by the addition of the letters and stars. This astrological operation is simple, easy, and requires few calculations ; it connects with the highest antiquity, and belongs evidently to primitive patriarchal magic, as will be seen by studying the works of Gaffarel and his master Eabbi Chomer. Onomantic astrology was practised by the old Hebrew kabbalists, as is proved from their observations preserved by Eabbi Chomer, Kabbi Kapol, Rabbi Abjudan, and other masters in Kabbalah. The menaces of the prophets uttered against various nations were based upon the characters of the stars found vertically over them in the permanent correspondence of the celestial and terrestrial spheres. Thus, by writing in the sky of Greece the Hebrew name of that country |V or jy, and translating the numbers, they obtained the word 2"in, which signifies destroyed, desolated.

CHABAB. Destroyed) Desolated. Sum 12.

J \ » 561 JAVAN. Greece. SumlZ.

Hence they inferred that after a cycle of twelve periods Greece would be destroyed and desolated. A short time before the sack of Jerusalem and its temple by Nabuzardan,, the kabbalists remarked eleven stars disposed in the following manner vertically above the temple : —

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All these entered into the word wan, written from south to west, the term signifying reprobation and abandonment without mercy. The sum of the number of the letters is 423, exactly the period of the duration of the temple. Destruction threatened the empires of Persia and Assyria, in the shape of four vertical stars which entered into the three letters an, fioev, and the fatal period indicated was 208 years.

So, also, four stars announced to the kabbalistic rabbins of another period the fall and division of the empire of Alexander ; they entered into the word ViB, Parad, to divide, 284, the number of this word, indicating the entire duration of this empire, both as to root and branches.

According to Eabbi Chomer, the destinies of the Ottoman power at Constantinople would be fixed aiid announced beforehand by four stars, entering into the word HN2, Caah, signifying to be feeble, weak, and drawing to its end. The stars being more brilliant in the letter N, indicated a capital, and gave it the numerical value of a thousand.

The three letters combined make 102 5, which must be computed from the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II., a calculation which still holds out several centuries of existence to the enfeebled empire of the sultans, at present sustained by all Europe combined. The MANE THECEL PHARES which Balthazar, in his intoxication, saw written on the wall of his palace by the glare of the torches, was an onomantic intuition similar to that of the rabbins.

Initiated, no doubt, by his Hebrew diviners in the reading of the stars, Balthazar operated mechanically and instinctively upon the lamps of his nocturnal feast, as he would upon the stars of heaven. The three words which he had formed in his imagination soon became indelible to his eyes, and paled all the lights of his banquet. It was easy to predict an end like that of Sardanapalus to a king who abandoned himself to orgies in a besieged town.

p. 326In conclusion, we have said, and we repeat, that magnetic intuitions alone give value and reality to all kabbalistic and astrological calculations, puerile possibly, and completely arbitrary, when made without inspiration, by cold curiosity, and in the absence of a powerful will.

CHAPTEE XVIII PHILTRES AND MAGNETISM LET us now adventure in Thessaly, the country of enchantments. Here was Apuleius deluded like the companions of Ulysses, and underwent a shameful metamorphosis. Here all is magical, — the birds that fly, the insects humming in the grass, even the trees and flowers ; here in the moonlight are brewed those poisons which compel love; here spells are devised by the stryges to render them young and lovely like the Charites. 0 all ye youths, beware ! The art of poisoning the reason, or of philtres, seems, as a fact, if traditions may be trusted, to have developed its venomous efflorescence more abundantly in Thessaly than elsewhere ; there, also, magnetism played its most important part, for exciting or narcotic plants, bewitching and harmful animal substances, derived all their power from enchantments— that is to say, sacrifices accomplished and words pronounced by sorcerers when* preparing philtres and beverages. Stimulating substances, and those in which phosphorus predominates, are naturally aphrodisiacal. Anything which acts strongly on the nervous system may determine passional exaltation, and when a skilful and persevering will knows how to direct and influence these natural tendencies, it can make use of the passions of others to the profit of its own, and will soon reduce the most independent personalities into instruments of its pleasures.