Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 330soaps or washes, and generally all perfumes in which this odour predominates, above all, when its action on the brain is seconded by that of amber. To weaken the activity of intelligence is to strengthen proportionally the forces of unreasoning passion. Love of that kind which the malefactors we are concerned with would inspire is a veritable stupefaction and the most shameful of moral bondages.
The more we enervate a slave,, the more incapable we make him of freedom, and here lies the true secret of the sorceress in Apuleius and the potions of Circe. The use of tobacco, by smoking or otherwise, is a dangerous auxiliary of stupefying philtres and brain poisons. Nicotine, as we know, is not less deadly than prussic acid, and is present in tobacco in larger quantities than is this acid in almonds.
The absorption of one will by another frequently changes a whole series of destinies, and not for ourselves only should we watch our relations, learning to distinguish pure from impure atmospheres, for the true philtres, and those most dangerous, are invisible ; these are the currents of vital radiating light, which, mingling and interchanging, produce attractions and sympathies, as magnetic experiments leave no room to doubt.
The history of the Church tells us that an arch-heretic named Marcos infatuated all women by breathing on them, but his power was destroyed by a valiant Christian female, who forestalled him in breathing, and said to him : " May God judge thee ! " The cure Gaufridy, who was burnt as a sorcerer, pretended to enamour all women who came in contact with his breath. The notorious Father Girard, a Jesuit, was accused by his penitent, Mile.
Cardier, of completely destroying her self-control by breathing on her. The excuse was most necessary to minimise the horrible and ridiculous nature of her accusations against this priest, whose guilt, moreover, has never been well established, though, consciously or unconsciously, he had certainly inspired an exceedingly shameful passion in the miserable girl. " Mile. Kanfaing, having become a widow in 16 — ,'* says Dom Calmet in his " Treatise on Apparitions," " was sought in marriage by a physician named Poirot. Failing to obtain a hearing, he thereupon gave her potions to induce love, and these caused extraordinary derangements in the health of the lady, increasing to such a degree that she was believed to be possessed, and physicians, baffled by her case, recommended her for the exorcisms of the Church.
Thereupon, by command of M. de Porcelets, Bishop of Toul, the following were named as her exorcists : M.
Viardin, doctor in theology, the state councillor of the Duke of Lorraine, a Jesuit, and a capuchin, but in the long course of their ceremonies, almost all the clergy of Nancy, the aforesaid lord bishop, the bishop of Tripoli, suffragan of Strasbourg, M. de Nancy, formerly ambassador of the most Christian King at Constantinople and then priest of the Oratory, Charles of Lorraine, Bishop of Verdun, two Sorbonne doctors specially leputed to assist, frequently exorcised her in Hebrew, in rreek, and in Latin, and she invariably replied to them jrtinently, though she herself could scarcely read even itin.
Mention is made of the certificate given by M. ficholas de Harlay, learned in the Hebrew tongue, who jognised that Mile. Eanfaing was really possessed, that le had answered the mere motion of his lips without any ittered words, and had given numerous other proofs.
The sieur Gamier, doctor of the Sorbonne, having also commanded her several times in the Hebrew language, she replied lucidly, but in French, saying that the pact bound her to speak in ordinary language.
The demon added : " Is it not sufficient for me to shew that I understand what you say ? >f The same doctor, addressing him in Greek, inadvertently used one case for another, whereupon the possessed woman, or rather the devil, said : " You have blundered. The doctor replied in Greek, " Point out my error. The devil answered, " Be satisfied that I mention the mistake ; I shall tell you no more. The doctor bade him be silent in Greek, and he retorted, " You bid me be silent, and I will not be silent."
p. 332This remarkable example of hysterical affection carried into the region of ecstasy and demonomania, as the consequence of a potion administered by a man who believed that he was a sorcerer, proves, better than anything we could say, the omnipotence of will and imagination reacting one upon another, and the strange lucidity of ecstatics or somnambulists, who comprehend speech by reading it in thought, though they have no knowledge of the words.
I make no question as to the sincerity of the witnesses cited by Dom Calmet ; I am merely astonished that men so serious passed by the difficulty which the pretended demon experienced over answering in a tongue foreign to the sufferer. Had their interlocutor been what they understood by a demon, he would have spoken as well as understood Greek ; the one would have been as easy as the other to a spirit so learned and satirical.
Dom Calmet does not stop here with his history ; he enumerates a long series of insidious questions and unserious injunctions on the part of the exercisers, and a like sequence of more or less congruous replies by the poor sufferer, who was always ecstatic and somnambulistic. It is needless to add that the excellent father draws precisely the luminous conclusions of the not less excellent M. de Mirville.
The phenomena being above the comprehension of the witnesses, they were all ascribed to perdition. Splendid and instructed conclusion ! The most serious part of the business is that the physician Poirot was arraigned as a magician, confessed, like all others, under torture, and was burnt. Had he, by any potion, really attempted the reason of the woman in question, he would have deserved punishment as a poisoner ; that is the most that we can say.
But the most terrific of all philtres are the mystical exaltations of misdirected devotion. Will ever any impurities equal the nightmares of St Anthony or the tortures of St Theresa and St Angela de Foligny ? The last applied a red hot iron to her rebellious flesh, and found that the material fire was cooling to her hidden ardours. With what
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