Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

THE NUCTEMERON ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS 399 her beautiful, and he also makes her a mother ; woman is true human nature, daughter and mother of man, granddaughter and grandmother of God. Eighth Hour. Adam and Eve enter the nuptial bed ; they are two when they lie down, and when they arise they are four. Explanation.

The tetrad joined to the tetrad represents form balancing form, creation issuing from creation, the eternal equipoise of life ; seven being the number of God's rest, the unity which follows it signifies man, who toils and co-operates with nature in the work of creation. Ninth Hour. God imposes his law on man. Explanation.

Nine is the number of initiation, because, being composed of three times three, it represents the divine idea and the absolute philosophy of numbers, for which reason Apollonius says that the mysteries of the number nine are not to be revealed. Tenth Hour. At the tenth hour Adam falls into sin. Explanation.

According to the kabbalist ten is the number of matter, of which the special sign is zero ; in the tree of the sephiroth ten represents Malchuth, or exterior and material substance ; the sin of Adam is therefore materialism, and the fruit which he plucks from the tree represents flesh isolated from spirit, zero separated from unity, the schism of the number ten, giving on the one side a despoiled unity and on the other nothingness and death.

p. 400Eleventh Hour. At the eleventh hour the sinner is condemned to labour, and to expiate his sin by suffering. Explanation. In the Tarot, eleven represents force, which is acquired through trials ; God sends man pain as a means of salvation, and hence he must strive and endure that he may conquer intelligence and life. Twelfth Hour. Man and woman undergo their sentence ; the expiation begins, and the liberator is promised. Explanation. Such is the completion of moral birth ; man is fulfilled, for he is dedicated to the sacrifice which regenerates ; the exile of Adam is like that of (Edipus ; like CEdipus he becomes the father of two enemies, but the daughter of (Edipus is the pious and virginal Antigone, while Mary issues from the race of Adam.

FINIS.

INDEX

ABRAHAM the Jew, 266, 267 Abraxas, 79, 152, 229, 266 Abracadabra, 209, 212 Absolute, 41, 44, 58, 155, 169, 264, 335 Achilles, 35 Active and Passive, 38 Adam, the Human Tetragram, 37 ; signified by Jod, 51 ; impression of his Fall on the Astral Light, 80 ; see also 89, 124, 156, 256, 399 Addhanari, 167 Adonhiram, 256 .ffischylus, 15 Agrippa, Cornelius, not a great magician, 10 ; great and unfortunate, 23 ; submitted to the religion of his time, 47 ; his miserable death, 88, 99, 161 ; see also 164, 202, 238, 263, 352 Alchemy, see Magnum Opus Ammonius Saccas, 7, 18 Anael, 76, 236, 353 Analogy.

See Hermetic Axiom, but also 165, 166, 167 Androgyne, 14 Android, 312, 370 Animal Magnetism, see Magnetism Antichrist, 55 Aour, 182 Apollonius, 4, 13, 30, 64, 72, 86, 88, 98, 115, 117, 118, 263, 282, 294, 387 Apocalypse, 5, 6, 43, 77, 91, 150, 227, 257, 258, 371, 375 Apuleius, 16, 17, 18, 30, 32, 120, 281, 283, 326 Aqua Toffana, 145, 148 Archimedes, 29, 98, 103 Ark of the Covenant, 371 Ars Notoria, 12 Asch Mezareph, 152 Asiah, 50 Astral Body, not always of the same sex as the physical, 83 ; dissolution at death, 112 ; in conformity with the condition of thought, 121 ; means