Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

.62 THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSCENDENT MAGIC :are occasioned by reflections from the diaphane of waking persons, and, above all, of the magnetiser. Dream is vision produced by the refraction of a ray of truth. The chimerical fantasy is hallucination occasioned by a reflection. The temptation of St Anthony, with its nightmares and its monsters, represents the confusion of reflections with direct rays.

So long as the soul struggles it is reasonable ; when jt yields to this specie, of invading intoxication it becomes mad. To disentangle the direct ray, and separate it from the reflection — such is the work of the initiate.

Here let us state distinctly that this work is through all times Accomplished in the world by some of the flower of mankind, that there is hence a permanent revelation by intuition, and that there is no insuperable barrier which separates souls, because there are no sudden interruptions, and no abrupt walls in nature by which minds can be .divided from one another.

All is transition and blending, and, assuming the perfectibility, if not infinite, at least indefinite, of human faculties, it will be seen that every person .can attain to see all, and therefore to know all. There is no void in nature ; all is peopled. There is no true death in nature ; all is alive. " Seest thou that star ? " asked Napoleon of Cardinal Fesch. " No, Sire. " I see it," said the Emperor, and he most certainly did.

When great men .are accused of having been superstitious, it is because they beheld what remains unseen by the crowd. Men of genius differ from simple seers by their faculty of sensibly com- Hinunicating to other men what they themselves perceive, and of making themselves believed by the force of enthusiasm and sympathy. Such persons are the medium of the Divine Word. Let us now state the manner in which visions operate.

All forms correspond to ideas, and there is no idea which has not its proper and peculiar form. The primordial light, which is the vehicle of all ideas, is the mother of all forms, and transmits them from emanation to emanation, merely Diminished or modified according to the density of the

THE PENTAGRAM 63 media. Secondary forms are reflections which return to the font of the emanated light. The forms of objects, being a modification of light, remain in the light where the reflection consigns them. Hence the astral light, or terrestrial fluid, which we call the great magnetic agent, is saturated with all kinds of images or reflections. Now, our soul can evoke these, and refer them to its diaphane, as the kabbalists term it.

Such images are always present to us, and are only effaced by the more powerful impressions of reality during waking hours, or by preoccupation of the mind, which makes our imagination inattentive to the fluidic panorama of the astral light.

When we sleep, this spectacle presents itself spontaneously before us, and in this way dreams are produced — dreams vague and incoherent if some governing will do not remain active during the sleep, giving, even unconsciously to our intelligence, a direction to the dream, which then transforms into vision.

Animal magnetism is nothing else but an artificial sleep produced by the voluntary or enforced union of two wills, one of which is awake while the other slumbers — that is, one of which directs the other in the choice of reflections for the transformation of dreams into visions, and the attainment of truth by means of images.

Thus, somnambulists do not actually travel to the place where they are sent by the magnetiser ; they evoke its images in the astral light, and can behold nothing which does not exist in that light.

The astral light has a direct action on the nerves, which are its conductors in the animal economy, transmitting it to the brain, whence also, in the state of somnambulism, it is possible to see by means of the nerves, without being dependent on radiant light, the astral fluid being a latent light, in the same way that physics recognise the existence of a latent caloric.

Magnetism between two persons is certainly a wonderful discovery, but the magnetising of a person by himself, accomplishing his own lucidity and directing himself at will, is the perfection of magical art. The secret of this

64 THE DOCTEINE OF TKANSCENDENT MAGIC great work does not rest for discovery ; it has been known and practised by a great number of initiates, above all by the celebrated Apollonius of Tyana, who has left a theory concerning it, as we shall see in the Eitual.

The secret of magnetic lucidity, and the direction of the phenomena of magnetism depend on two things — the agreement of minds and the complete union of wills, in a direction which is possible and determined by science. This is for the operation of magnetism between two or more persons.

Solitary magnetism requires preparations of which we have spoken in our initial chapter, when enumerating and establishing in all their difficulty the essential qualities of a veritable adept. In the following chapters we shall further elucidate this important and fundamental point.

The empire of the will over the astral light, which is the physical soul of the four elements, is represented in magic by the pentagram, which we have set at the head of this chapter. The elementary spirits are subservient to this sign when employed with understanding, and, by placing it in the circle or on the table of evocations, they can be rendered tractable, which is magically called to imprison them. Let us briefly explain this marvel.

All created beings communicate with one another by signs, and all adhere to a certain number of truths expressed by determinate forms. The perfection of forms increases in proportion to the detachment of spirits, and those that are not overweighted by the chains of matter, recognise by intuition out of hand whether a sign is the expression of a real power or of a precipitate will.

The intelligence of the wise man therefore gives value to his pantacle, as science gives weight to his will, and spirits comprehend this power immediately.

Thus, by means of the pentagram, spirits can be forced to appear in vision, whether in the waking or sleeping state, by themselves leading before our diaphane their reflection, which exists in the astral light, if they have lived, or a reflection analogous to their spiritual logos if they have not lived on earth. This explains all visions, and accounts for the dead invariably