Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

p. 354origin of the first dominations, the empire of the children of Nimrod, the birth of sciences and religions, and the first conflicts between despotism and liberty.

Trithemius pursues this curious study throughout the ages, and at corresponding epochs exhibits the recurrence of ruins ; then civilisation, born anew by means of poetry and love ; empires, reconstituted by the family, enlarged by commerce, destroyed by war, repaired by universal and progressive civilisation, subsequently absorbed by great empires, which are the syntheses of history.

The work of Trithemius, from this point of view, is more comprehensive and independent than that of Bossuet, and is a key absolute to the philosophy of history.

His exact calculations lead him to the month of November in the year 1879, epoch of the reign of Michael and the foundation of a new universal kingdom, prepared by three centuries and a half of anguish, and a like period of hope, coinciding exactly with the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and first part of the nineteenth centuries for the lunar twilight and expectation, with the fourteenth, thirteenth, twelfth, and second half of the eleventh centuries for the ordeals, the ignorance, the sufferings, and the scourges of all nature.

We see, therefore, according to this calculation, that in 1879 — that is, in twenty-four years' time, a universal empire will be founded, and will secure peace to the world. This empire will be political and religious ; it will offer a solution for all problems agitated in our own days, and will endure for 354 years and 4 months, after which it will be succeeded by the return of the reign of Orifiel, an epoch of silence and night.

The coming universal empire, being under the reign of the sun, will belong to him who holds the keys of the East, which are now being disputed by the princes of the world's four quarters. But intelligence and activity are the forces which rule the sun in the superior kingdoms, and the nation which now possesses the initiative of intelligence and life will possess also the keys of the East, and will establish the universal kingdom. To do this it may previously have to undergo a cross and martyrdom.

p. 355analogous to those of the Man-God ; but, dead or living, among nations its spirit will prevail, and all peoples will acknowledge and follow in four - and - twenty years the standard of France, ever victorious, or miraculously raised from the dead. Such is the prophecy of Trithemius, confirmed by all our previsions, and grounded in all our hopes.

CHAPTEE XXII THE BOOK OF HERMES WE approach the end of our work, and must here give the universal key and utter the final word. The universal key of magical works is the key of all ancient religious dogmas, — the key of the Kabbalah and the Bible, the little key of Solomon. Now, this clavicle, regarded as lost for centuries, has been recovered by us, and we have been able to open the sepulchres of the ancient world, to make the dead speak, to behold the monuments of the past in all their splendour, to understand the enigmas of every sphinx, and to penetrate all sanctuaries. Among the ancients the use of this key was permitted to none but the high priests, and even its secret was confided only to the flower of the initiates. Now, this was the key in question: A hieroglyphic and numeral alphabet, expressing by characters and numbers a series of universal and absolute ideas ; then a scale of ten numbers, multiplied by four symbols, and connected with twelve figures representing the twelve signs of the zodiac, plus the four genii of the cardinal points. The symbolical tetrad, represented in the mysteries of Memphis and Thebes by the four forms of the sphinx — the man, eagle, lion, and bull — corresponded with the four elements of the old world, water being signified by the cup held by the man or aquarius ; air by the circle or nimbus

356 THE BITUAL OF TRANSCENDENT MAGIC surrounding the head of the celestial eagle ; fire by the wood which nourishes it, by the tree fructifying in the heat of earth and sun, and, finally, by the sceptre of royalty, which the lion typifies ; earth by the sword of Mithras, who each year immolates the sacred bull, and, together with its blood, pours forth that sap which gives increase to all fruits of earth.

Now, these four signs, with all their analogies, explain the one word hidden in all sanctuaries, that word which the bacchantes seemed to divine in their intoxication when they worked themselves into frenzy for Io EVOHE. What, then, was the meaning of this mysterious term ?

It was the name of the four primitive letters of the mothertongue : the Jod, symbol of the vine, or paternal sceptre of Noah; the HE, type of the cup of libations and also of maternity ; the VAU, which joins the two, and was depicted in India by the great and mysterious lingam.

Such was the triple sign of the triad in the divine word ; then the mother letter appeared a second time to express the fecundity of nature and woman, and to formulate the doctrine of universal and progressive analogies descending from causes to effects, and ascending from effects to causes. Moreover, the sacred word was not pronounced; it was spelt, and read off in four words, which are the four sacred words — JOD HE VAU HE.

The learned Gaffarel regards the teraphim of the Hebrews, by means of which they consulted the oracles of the urim and thummim, as the figures of the four kabbalistio animals, which symbols, as we shall presently show, were summed up in the sphinxes or cherubs of the ark. In connection with the usurped Teraphim of Michas, he cites a curious passage from Philo, which is a complete revelation as to the ancient and sacerdotal origin of our TAROTS.

Gaffarel thus expresses himself : " He (Philo the Jew), speaking of the history concealed in the before-mentioned chapter of Judges, says that Michas made three images of young boys and three young calves, three also of a lion, an eagle, a dragon, and a dove, all of fine gold and silver ; so that if