Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 139decisions, and to refute them the same labour must be undertaken from an opposite standpoint.
Paracelsus was perhaps the last of the great practical astrologers ; he cured diseases by talismans formed under astral influences ; he distinguished upon all bodies the mark of their dominant star ; there, according to him, was the true universal medicine, the absolute science of nature, lost by man's own fault, and recovered only by a small number of initiates.
To recognise the sign of each star upon men, animals, and plants, is the true natural science of Solomon, that science which is said to be lost, but the principles of which are preserved notwithstanding, as are all other secrets, in the symbolism of the Kabbalah.
It will be readily understood that in order to read the stars one must know the stars themselves ; now, this knowledge is obtained by the kabbalistic domification of the sky and by the understanding of the celestial planisphere, recovered and explained by Gaffarel. In this planisphere the constellations form Hebrew letters, and the mythological figures may be replaced by the symbols of the Tarot.
To this same planisphere Gaffarel refers the origin of patriarchal writing, and in the chains of starry attraction the first lineaments of primitive characters may very well have been found, in which case the celestial book would have served as the model of Henoch's, and the kabbalistic alphabet would have been the synopsis of the entire sky.
This is not wanting in poetry, nor, above all, in probability, and the study of the Tarot, which is evidently the primitive .d hieroglyphic work of Henoch, as was divined by the erudite William Postel, is sufficient to convince us hereof. The signs imprinted in the astral light by the reflection and attraction of the stars is reproduced, therefore, as the sages have discovered, on all bodies which are formed by the conjunction of that light.
Men bear the signs of their star on their forehead chiefly, and in their hands ; animals in their whole form, and in their individual signs ; plants in their leaves and seed ; minerals in their veins and their grain. The study of these characters was the entire lifep. 140work of Paracelsus, and the figures on his talismans are the result of his researches ; he has, however, left us no key to them, so that the astral kabbalistic alphabet with its correspondences still remains to be done; as regards publicity, the science of unconventional magical writing stopped with the planisphere of Gaffarel. The serious art of divination rests wholly in the knowledge of these signs.
Chiromancy is the art of reading the writing of the stars in the lines of the hand, and physiognomy seeks the same or analogous characters upon the countenance of its inquirers. As a fact, the lines formed on the human face by nervous contractions are determined fatally, and the radiation of the nervous tissue is absolutely analogous to those networks which are formed between the worlds by the chains of starry attraction.
The fatalities of life are, therefore, written necessarily in our wrinkles, and a first glance frequently reveals upon the forehead of a stranger either one or more of the mysterious letters of the kabbalistic planisphere.
Should the letter be jagged and laboriously inscribed, there has been a struggle between will and fatality, and in his most powerful emotions and tendencies, the individual's entire past manifests to the rnagus ; from this it becomes easy to conjecture the future, and if events occasionally deceive the sagacity of the diviner, he who has consulted him will remain none the less astounded and convinced by the superhuman knowledge of the adept.
The human head is formed upon the model of the celestial spheres ; it attracts and it radiates, and in the conception of a child, this it is which first forms and manifests. Hence the head is subject in an absolute manner to astral influence, and evidences its several attractions by its diverse protuberances.
The final word of phrenology is to be found, therefore, in scientific and purified astrology, the problems of which we point out to the patience and good faith of scholars. According to Ptolemy, the sun dries up and the moon moistens ; according to the kabbalists, the sun represents p. 141rigorous Justice, while the moon is in sympathy with Mercy. It is the sun which produces storms, and, by a kind of gentle atmospheric pressure, the moon occasions the ebb and flow, or, as it were, the respiration of the sea.
We read in the Zohar, one of the great sacred books of the Kabbalah, that " the magical serpent, the son of the Sun, was about to devour the world, when the Sea, daughter of the Moon, set her foot upon his head and subdued him. For this reason, among the ancients, Venus was the daughter of the Sea, as Diana was identical with the Moon. Hence also the name of Mary signifies star or salt of the sea.
To consecrate this kabbalistic doctrine in the belief of the vulgar, it is said in prophetic language : The woman shall crush the serpent's head.
Jerome Cardan, one of the boldest students, and, beyond contradiction the most skilful astrologer of his time — Jerome Cardan, who, if we accept the legend of his death, was a martyr to his faith in astrology, has left behind him a calculation by means of which any one can foresee the good or evil fortune special to all the years of his life. His theory was based upon his own experiences, and he assures us that the calculation never deceived him.
To ascertain the fortune of a given year, he sums up the events of those which have preceded it by 4, 8, 12, 19, and 30 ; the number 4 is that of realisation ; 8 is the number of Venus or natural things ; 1 2 belongs to the cycle of Jupiter, and corresponds to successes ; 1 9 has reference to the cycles of the Moon and of Mars ; the number 3 0 is that of Saturn or Fatality.
Thus, for example, I desire to ascertain what will befall me in this present year 1855 ; I pass in review the decisive events in the order of life and progress which occurred four years ago ; the natural felicity or misfortune of eight years back ; the successes or failures of twelve years since ; the vicissitudes and miseries or diseases which overtook me nineteen years from now, and my tragic or fatal experiences of thirty years back. Then, taking into account irrevocably accomplished facts and the advance of time, I calculate the
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