Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 360
THE KITUAL OF TRANSCENDENT MAGIC
the occult name of this key, which was known only to initiates : —
The word may read EOTA, thus signifying the wheel of Ezekiel, or TAROT, and then it is synonymous with the AZOTH of Hermetic philosophers. It is a word which kabbalistically expresses the dogmatic and natural absolute ; it is formed of the characters of the monogram of Christ, according to the Greeks and Hebrews. The Latin K or Greek P is found between the alpha and omega of the Apocalypse ; the sacred Tau, image of the cross, encloses the whole word, as previously represented in our Ritual. Without the Tarot, the magic of the ancients is a closed book, and it is impossible to penetrate any of the great mysteries of the Kabbalah. The Tarot alone interprets the magic squares of Agrippa and Paracelsus, as we may satisfy ourselves by forming these same squares with the keys of the Tarot, and reading off the hieroglyphs thus collected. These are the seven magical squares of the planetary genii according to Paracelsus : —
THE BOOK OF HERMES
p. 361
SATURN.
p. 2
6 12:12 10 ~5 10J7T IT 9 6|7 Ti 14 6j 4 i MARS.
THE SUN.
9 22 1 32 25 19 7 11 27 18 8 3 19 14 16 15 23 24 18 20 22 21 17 13 22 29 10 19 26 12 36 5 35 6 12 13 VENUS.
22 25 47 23 18J41 47 17 0 42 35 IT 8 29 10 6 14j 9 18 36 12 3 31 16!25 43 19 37 38 14 32 31 26 44 20 21 39 8 33 22 27 45 46 15 40 19 24 03 27 362
THE RITUAL OF TRANSCENDENT MAGIC
MERCURY.
8 52 39 5 24 61 66 11 49 15 14 52 52 12 10 56 41 43 22 14 45 19 18 48 33 34 35 29 20 38 39 25 40 6 27 59 31 30 31 33 17 47 55 28 25 43 42 24 9 51 53 12 13 51 00 16 64 12 15 61 61 6 7 47 THE MOON.
37 70 29 70 21 62 12 14 41 16 28 70 30 71 12 53 14 46 47 20 11 7 31 72 22 35 15 16 48 68 40 81 32 62 25 56 57 17 49 29 7 66 33 65 25 26 58 40 56 31 42 74 34 66 53 27 59 10 51 2 41 75 35 36 77 68 28 19 20 60 69 11 61 65 12 43 25 44 60 76 ~5 By adding each of the columns of these squares, you will obtain invariably the characteristic number of the planet, and, finding the explanation of this number by the hieroglyphs of the Tarot, you proceed to seek the sense of all the figures, whether triangular, square, or cruciform, that you find to be formed by the numbers.
The result of this operation will be a complete and profound acquaintance with all the allegories and mysteries concealed by the ancients under the symbol of each planet, or rather of each personification of the influences, celestial or human, upon all events of life. We have said that the twenty-two keys of the Tarot are the twenty-two letters of the primitive kabbalistic alphabet, p. 363and here follows a table of the variants of this alphabet according to divers Hebrew kabbalists. X Being, mind, man, or God ; the comprehensible object ; unity, mother of numbers, the first substance. All these ideas are hieroglyphically expressed by the figure of the JUGGLER.
His body and arms form the letter aleph, round his head there is a nimbus in the form of oo , the emblem of life and the universal spirit ; in front of him are swords, cups, and pantacles, and he uplifts the miraculous rod towards heaven. He has a youthful figure and curly hair, like Apollo or Mercury ; the smile of confidence is on his lips, and the look of intelligence in his eyes.
3 The house of God and man, the sanctuary, the law, the Gnosis, Kabbalah, the occult church, the duad, wife, mother. Hieroglpyh of the Tarot, THE FEMALE POPE ; a woman crowned with a tiara, wearing the horns of the Moon and Isis, her head enveloped in a mantle, the solar cross on her breast, and holding a book on her knees, which she conceals with her mantle.
A protestant author of a pretended history of Pope Joan has met with, and used, for good or bad, in the interest of his thesis, two curious and ancient figures of the female pope or sovereign priestess of the Tarot.
These two figures ascribe to her all the attributes of Isis ; in one she is carrying and caressing her son Horus ; in the other, she has long and thin hair ; she is seated between the two pillars of the duad, has a sun with four rays on her breast, places one hand upon a book, and makes the sign of sacerdotal esotericism with the other — that is to say, she uplifts three fingers only, the two others being folded to signify mystery ; a veil is behind her head, and on each side of her chair the flowers of the lotus bloom upon the sea.
I strongly commiserate the unlucky scholar who has seen in this antique symbol nothing but a monumental portrait of his pretended Pope Joan.
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