Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 74perseverance in the spontaneous operations of an inflexible will. We must frequently reiterate the acts of this will, for, as we shall see in the introduction to the Eitual, the will only assures itself by acts, as the power and perpetuity of religions depend on their rites and ceremonies.
There are intoxicating substances, which, by increasing nervous sensibility, exalt the power and consequently the allurements of astral representations; by the same means, but pursuing a contrary course, spirits may be alarmed and disturbed. These substances, of themselves magnetic, and further magnetised by the operators, are what people term philters and enchanted potions.
But we shall not enter here upon this dangerous application of magic, which Cornelius Agrippa himself terms venomous magic. It is true that there are no longer pyres for sorcerers, but always, and more than ever, are there penalties dealt out to malefactors. Let us confine ourselves therefore to stating, as the occasion offers, the reality of this power.
To direct the astral light we must understand also its double vibration, as well as the balance of forces termed magical equilibrium and expressed in the Kabbalah by the senary. Considered in its first cause, this equilibrium is the will of God ; it is liberty in man, and mathematical equilibrium in matter. Equilibrium produces stability and duration.
Liberty generates the immortality of man, and the will of God gives effect to the laws of eternal reason. Equilibrium in ideas is reason and in forces power. Equilibrium is exact ; fulfil its law, and it is there ; violate it, however slightly, and it is destroyed. For this reason nothing is useless or lost. Every utterance and every movement are for or against truth, which is composed of for and against conciliated, or at least equilibrated.
We shall state in the introduction to the Eitual how magical equilibrium should be produced, and why it is necessary to the success of all operations. Omnipotence is the most absolute liberty ; now, absolute liberty cannot exist apart from perfect equilibrium. Magical
THE FIERY SWORD 75 equilibrium is hence one of the first conditions of success in the operations of science, and must be sought even in occult chemistry, by learning to combine contraries without neutralising them by one another. Magical equilibrium explains the great and primeval mystery of the existence and relative necessity of evil. This relative necessity gives, in black magic, the measure of the power of demons or impure spirits, to whom virtues practised upon earth are a source of increased rage and apparently of increased power. At the epochs when saints and angels work miracles openly, sorcerers and fiends in their turn operate marvels and prodigies. Eivalry often creates success; we lean upon that which resists.
THE FIEKY SWOED NETSAH GLADIUS THE septenary is the sacred number in all theogonies and in all symbols, because it is composed of the triad and the tetrad. The number seven represents magical power in all its fulness ; it is the mind reinforced by all elementary potencies ; it is the soul served by nature ; it is the sanctum regnum mentioned in the keys of Solomon, and represented in the Tarot by a crowned warrior, who bears a triangle on his cuirass, and is posed upon a cube, to which two sphinxes are harnessed, straining in opposite directions, while their heads are turned the same way. This warrior is armed with a fiery sword, and holds in his other hand, a sceptre surmounted by a triangle and a sphere. The cube is the philosophical stone ; the sphinxes are the two forces of the great agent, corresponding to Jakin and Bohas, the two p. 76pillars of the temple; the cuirass is the knowledge of divine things, which renders the wise man invulnerable to human assaults ; the sceptre is the magic rod ; the fiery sword is the symbol of victory over the deadly sins, seven in number, like the virtues, the conceptions of both being typified by the ancients under the figures of the seven planets then known.
Thus, faith — that aspiration towards the infinite, that noble self-reliance sustained by confidence in all virtues — that faith, which, in weak natures, may degenerate into pride, was represented by the Sun ; hope, the enemy of avarice, by the Moon ; charity, in opposition to luxury, by Venus, the bright star of the morning and evening ; strength, superior to wrath, by Mars ; prudence, hostile to idleness, by Mercury; temperance, opposed to gluttony, by Saturn, who was given a stone instead of his children to devour ; finally, justice, in opposition to envy, by Jupiter, the conqueror of the Titans.
Such are the symbols borrowed by astronomy from the Hellenic cultus. In the Kabbalah of the Hebrews, the Sun represents the angel of light ; the Moon, the angel of aspirations and dreams ; Mars, the destroying angel ; Mercury, the angel of progress ; Jupiter, the angel of power ; Saturn, the angel of the wilderness. They were named Michael, Gabriel, Samael, Anael, Raphael, Zachariel, and Orifiel.
These governing potencies of souls shared human life in periods, which astrologers measured by the revolutions of the corresponding planets. But kabbalistic astrology must not be confounded with judicial astrology. We will explain this distinction. Infancy is dedicated to the Sun, childhood to the Moon, youth to Mars and Venus, manhood to Mercury, ripe age to Jupiter, and old age to Saturn.
Now, humanity in general subsists under laws of development analogous to those of individual life. On this groundwork Trithemius establishes his prophetic key of the seven spirits, to which we shall subsequently refer ; by means thereof, observing the analogical proportions of successive events, it is possible to predict important future occurrences with certitude, and to fix
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