Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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THE FIERY SWORD 77 beforehand, from age to age, the destinies of nations and the world. St John, depositary of the secret doctrine of Christ, has introduced it into the kabbalistic book of the Apocalypse, which he represents sealed with seven seals. We there find the seven genii of ancient mythologies, with the cups and swords of the Tarot.
The doctrine concealed under these emblems is the pure Kabbalah, already lost by the Pharisees at the time of Christ's advent. The scenes which succeed one another in this wonderful prophetic epic are so many pantacles, the keys of which are the ternary, the quaternary, the septenary, and the duodenary.
Its hieroglyphic figures are analogous to those of the book of Hermes or the Genesis of Enoch, to make use of a tentative title which expresses merely the personal opinion of the erudite William Postel.
The cherub, or symbolic bull, which Moses placed at the gate of the edenic world, bearing a fiery sword, is a sphinx, having a bull's body and a human head ; it is the antique Assyrian sphinx, and the combat and victory of Mithras were its hieroglyphic analysis. Now, this armed sphinx represents the law of mystery which watches at the door of initiation to warn away the profane.
Voltaire, who knew nothing of all this, was highly diverted at the notion of a bull brandishing a sword. What would he have said had he visited the ruins of Memphis and Thebes, and what would the echo of past ages which slumbers in the tombs of Barneses have replied to those light sarcasms so much relished in France ?
The Mosaic cherub represents also the great magical mystery, of which the elements are expressed by the septenary, without, however, giving the final word.
This verbum inenarrabile of the sages of the Alexandrian school, this word which Hebrew Kabbalists write mrr and interpret by xmâOK, thus expressing the triplicity of the secondary principle, the dualism of the means, and the equal unity of the first and final principle, then further the alliance between the triad and the tetrad in a word composed of four letters, which form seven by means of a p. 78triple and double repetition — this word is pronounced Ararita. The virtue of the septenary is absolute in magic, for the number is decisive in all things; hence all religions have consecrated it in their rites. The seventh year was a jubilee among the Jews ; the seventh day is set apart for rest and prayer ; there are seven sacraments, &c.
The seven colours of the prism and the seven musical notes, correspond also to the seven planets of the ancients, that is, to the seven chords of the human lyre. The spiritual heaven has never changed, and astrology has been more invariable than astronomy. The seven planets are, in fact, the hieroglyphic symbols of the key of our affections.
To compose talismans of the Sun, Moon, or Saturn, is to attach the will magnetically to signs corresponding to the chief powers of the soul ; to consecrate something to Mercury or Venus is to magnetise that object according to a direct intention, whether pleasure, science, or profit be the end in view. The analogous metals, animals, plants, and perfumes are auxiliaries to this end.
The seven magical animals are : — (a) Among birds, corresponding to the divine world, the swan, the owl, the vulture, the dove, the stork, the eagle, and the pewit ; (6) among fish, corresponding to the spiritual or scientific world, the seal, the cat-fish, the pike, the mullet, the chub, the dolphin, the sepia or cuttle-fish ; (c) among quadrupeds, corresponding to the natural world, the lion, the cat, the wolf, the he-goat, the monkey, the stag, and the mole.
The blood, fat, liver, and gall of these animals serve in enchantments ; their brain .combines with the perfumes of the planets, and it is recognised by ancient practice that they possess magnetic virtues corresponding to the seven planetary influences.
The talismans of the seven spirits are engraved either on precious stones, such as the carbuncle, crystal, diamond, emerald, agate, sapphire, and onyx; or upon metals, such as gold, silver, iron, copper, fixed mercury, pewter, and lead. The kabbalistic signs of the seven spirits are : — for the Sun, a serpent with the head of a lion ; for the Moon, a globe p. 79divided by two crescents ; for Mars, a dragon biting the hilt of a sword ; for Venus, a lingam ; for Mercury, the Hermetic caduceus and the cynocephalus ; for Jupiter, the blazing pentagram in the talons or beak of an eagle; for Saturn, a lame and aged man, or a serpent curled about the sun-stone. All these symbols are found on the graven stones of the ancients, and especially on those talismans of the Gnostic epochs which are known by the name of Abraxas. In the collection of the talismans of Paracelsus, Jupiter is represented by a priest in ecclesiastical costume, while in the Tarot he appears as a grand hierophant crowned with a triple tiara, holding a three-fold cross in his hands, forming the magical triangle, and representing at once the sceptre and key of the three worlds. By combining all that we have said about the unity of the triad and tetrad, we shall find all that remains for us to say concerning the septenary, that grand and complete magical unity composed of four and three.*
8 n H KEALISATION HOD VIVENS CAUSES manifest by effects, and effects are proportioned to causes. The divine word, the one word, the tetragram, has irmed itself by tetradic creation. Human fecundity proves livine fecundity ; the jod of the divine name is the eternal virility of the First Principle. Man understands that he ras made in the image of God when he attains comprehen- * With reference to the plants and colours of the septenary employed in letic experiences, see the erudite work of M. Ragon on La Haqonnerie
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