Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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THE TRIANGLE OF SOLOMON 45 adaptation ; in alchemy — azoth, incorporation, transmutation ; in theology — God, incarnation, redemption ; in the human soul — thought, love, and action ; in the family — father, mother, and child. The triad is the end and supreme expression of love ; we seek one another as two only to become three.
There are three intelligible worlds which correspond one with another by hierarchic analogy ; the natural or physical, the spiritual or metaphysical, and the divine or religious worlds. From this principle follows the hierarchy of spirits, divided into three orders, and again subdivided by the triad in each of these three orders. All these revelations are logical deductions from the first mathematical notions of being and number.
Unity must multiply itself in order to become active. An indivisible,, motionless, and sterile principle would be unity dead and incomprehensible. Were God only one He would never be creator or father. Were he two there would be antagonism or division in the infinite, which would mean the division also or death of all possible things.
He is therefore three for the creation by Himself and in His image of the infinite multitude of beings and numbers. So is He truly one in Himself and triple in our conception, which also brings us to behold him as triple in Himself and one in our intelligence and our love. This is a mystery for the faithful, and a logical necessity for the initiate into the absolute and real sciences. The Word manifested by life is realisation or incarnation.
The life of the Word accomplishing its cyclic movement is adaptation or redemption. This triple dogma was known in all sanctuaries illuminated by the tradition of the sages. Do you wish to ascertain which is the true religion ?
Seek that which realises most in the divine order, which humanises God and makes man divine, which preserves the triadic dogma intact, which clothes the Word with flesh by making God manifest to the hands and eyes of the most ignorant, which finally is by its doctrine suitable to all and can adapt p. 46itself to all — the religion which is hierarchic and having allegories and images for children, an exalted philosophy for grown men, sublime hopes and sweet consolations for the old.
The primeval sages, when seeking the First of Causes, beheld good and evil in the world; they considered the shadow and the light ; they compared winter with spring, age with youth, life with death, and their conclusion was this : The First Cause is beneficent and severe ; it gives and takes away life. Then are there two contrary principles, the one good and the other evil, exclaimed the disciples of Manes.
No, the two principles of universal equilibrium are not contrary, although contrasted in appearance, for a singular wisdom opposes one to another. Good is on the right, evil on the left, but the supreme excellence is above both, applying evil to the victory of good and good to the amendment of evil. The principle of harmony is in unity, and it is this which imparts such power to the uneven number in magic.
Now, the most perfect of the odd numbers is three, because it is the trilogy of unity. In the trigrams of Fohi, the superior triad is composed of three yang, or masculine figures, because nothing passive can be admitted into the idea of God, considered as the principle of production in the three worlds. For the same reason, the Christian trinity by no means permits the personification of the mother, who is implicitly included in that of the son.
For the same reason, also, it is contrary to the laws of hieratic and orthodox symbology to personify the Holy Ghost under the form of a woman. Woman comes forth from man as nature comes forth from God ; so Christ ascends Himself to heaven, and assumes the Virgin Mother : we speak of the ascension of the Saviour, and the assumption of the Mother of God.
God, considered as Father, has nature for his daughter ; as Son, He has the Virgin for His mother and the Church for His bride ; as Holy Spirit, He regenerates and fructifies humanity. Hence, in the trigrams of Fohi, the three inferior yin correspond
THE TRIANGLE OF SOLOMON 47 to the three superior yang, for these trigrams constitute a pantacle like that of the two triangles of Solomon, but with a triadic interpretation of the six points of the blazing star.
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