Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 176black ; famine and plague follow on diseased and emaciated steeds, gleaning the few sheaves which remain to complete her harvest. After this funereal procession come two little children, radiating with smiles and life, the intelligence and love of the coming century, the dual genius of a new-born humanity.
The shadows of death fold up before them, as does night before the morning star ; with nimble feet they skim the earth, and sow with full hands the hope of another year. But death will come no more, impiteous and terrible, to mow like dry grass the ripe blades of the new age ; it will give place to the angel of progress, who will gently liberate souls from mortal chains, so that they may ascend to God.
When men know how to live they will no longer die ; they will transform like the chrysalis, which becomes a splendid butterfly. The terrors of death are daughters of ignorance, and death herself is only hideous by reason of the rubbish which covers her, and the sombre hues with which her images are surrounded. Death, truly, is the birth-pang of life.
There is a force in nature which dieth not, and this force perpetually transforms beings to preserve them. This force is the reason or word of nature. In man also there is a force analogous to that of nature, and it is the reason or word of man. The word of man is the expression of his will directed by reason, and it is omnipotent when reasonable, for then it is analogous to the word of God himself.
By the word of his reason man becomes the conqueror of life, and can triumph over death. The entire life of man is either the parturition or miscarriage of his word. Human beings who die without having understood or formulated the word of reason, die devoid of eternal hope. To withstand successfully the phantom of death, we must be identified with the realities of life. Does it signify to God if an abortion wither, seeing that life is eternal ?
Does it signify to Nature if unreason perish, since reason which never perishes still holds the keys of life ? The first and terrible force which destroys abortions eternally was called by the Hebrews
)DUCTION Samael ; by other easterns, Satan ; and by the Latins, Lucifer. The Lucifer of the Kabbalah is not an accursed and stricken angel; he is the angel who enlightens, who regenerates by fire ; he is to the angels of peace what the comet is to the mild stars of the spring-time constellations.
The fixed star is beautiful, radiant, and calm ; she drinks the celestial perfumes and gazes with love upon her sisters ; clothed in her glittering robe, her forehead crowned with diamonds, she smiles as she chants her morning and evening canticle ; she enjoys an eternal repose which nothing can disturb, and solemnly moves forward without departing from the rank assigned her among the sentinels of light.
But the wandering comet, dishevelled and of sanguinary aspect, comes hurriedly from the depths of heaven and fiings herself athwart the path of the peaceful spheres, like a chariot of war between the ranks of a procession of vestals ; she dares to face the burning spears of the solar guardians, and, like a bereft spouse who seeks the husband of her dreams during widowed nights, she penetrates even unto the inmost sanctuary of the god of day ; again she escapes, exhaling the fires which consume her, and trailing a long conflagration behind her ; the stars pale at her approach ; constellate flocks, pasturing on flowers of light in the vast meadows of the sky, seem to flee before her terrible breath.
The grand council of spheres assembles, and there is universal consternation ; at length the loveliest of the fixed stars is commissioned to speak in the name of all the firmament and offer peace to the headlong vagabond. " My sister," she thus commences, " why dost thou disturb the harmony of the spheres ? What evil have we wrought thee ? And why, instead of wandering wilfully, dost thou not fix thy place like us in the court of the sun ?
Why dost thou not chant with us the evening hymn, clothed like ourselves in a white garment, fastened at the breast with a diamond clasp ? Why float thy tresses, adrip with fiery sweat, through the mists of the night ? Ah, wouldst thou but take thy place among the daughters of heaven, how M p. 178much more beautiful wouldst thou be !
Thy face would burn no longer with the toil of thine incredible nights ; thine eyes would be pure, thy smiling countenance white and red like that of thy happy sisters ; all the stars would know thee, and, far from fearing thy flight, would rejoice at thine approach ; for then thou wouldst be made one with us by the indestructible bonds of universal harmony, and thy peaceful existence would be one voice more in the canticle of infinite love.
And the comet replies to the fixed star : " Believe not, 0 my sister, that I am permitted to wander at will and vex the harmony of the spheres ! God hath appointed my path, even as thine, and if it appear to thee uncertain and rambling, it is because thy beams cannot penetrate far enough to take in the circumference of the ellipse which has been given me for my course.
My fiery hair is God's beacon ; I am the messenger of the suns, and I immerse myself continually in their burning heat, that I may dispense it to young worlds on my journey which have not yet sufficient warmth, and to ancient stars which have grown cold in their solitude. If I weary in my long travellings, if my beauty be less mild than thine own, and if my garments are less unspotted, yet am I a noble daughter of heaven, even as thou art.
Leave me the secret of my terrible destiny, leave me the dread which surrounds me, curse me even if thou canst not comprehend ; I shall none the less accomplish my work, and continue my career under the impulse of the breath of God f Happy are the stars which rest, which shine like youthful queens in the peaceful society of the universe ! I am the proscribed, the eternal wanderer, who has infinity for domain.
They accuse me of setting fire to the planets, the heat of which I renew ; they accuse me of terrifying the stars which I enlighten ; they chide me with breaking in upon universal harmony, because I do not revolve about their particular centres, because I join them one with another, directing my gaze towards the sole centre of all the suns. Be reassured, therefore, 0 beauteous fixed star ! I shall not impoverish
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