Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

p. 179thy peaceful light ; rather I shall expend in thy service my own life and heat. I shall disappear from heaven when I shall have consumed myself, and my doom will have been glorious enough ! Know that various fires burn in the temple of God, and do all give Him glory ; ye are the light of golden candelabra ; I am the flame of sacrifice. Let us each fulfil our destinies.

Having uttered these words, the comet tosses back her burning hair, uplifts her fiery shield, and plunges into infinite space, seeming to be lost for ever. Thus Satan appeared and disappeared in the allegorical narratives of the Bible. " ISTow there was a day," says the book of Job, " when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, ' Whence comest thou ?

' Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, 'From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. " A Gnostic gospel, discovered in the east by a learned traveller of our acquaintance, explains the genesis of light to the profit of Lucifer, as follows : — The self-conscious truth is the living thought. Truth is thought as it is in itself, and formulated thought is speech.

When eternal thought desired a form, it said : " Let there be light. Now, this thought which speaks is the Word, and the Word said : " Let there be light," because the Word itself is the light of minds. The uncreated light, which is the divine Word, shines because it desires to be seen ; when it says : " Let there be light ! " it ordains that eyes shall open ; it creates intelligences. When God said : " Let there be light !

" Intelligence was made, and the light appeared. Now the Intelligence which God diffused by the breath of His mouth, like a star given off from the sun, took the form of a splendid angel, who was saluted by heaven under the name of Lucifer. Intelligence awakened, and comprehended its nature completely by the understanding of that utterance of the Divine Word : " Let there be light ! " It felt itself to be free because God had called it into being, and, raising up 2p. 180its head, with both wings extended, it replied : " I will not be slavery. " Then shalt thou be suffering," said the Uncreated Voice. " I will be liberty," replied the light. " Pride will seduce thee," said the Supreme Voice, " and thou wilt bring forth death. " I needs must strive with death to conquer life," again responded the created light.

Thereupon God loosened from his bosom the shining cord which restrained the superb angel, and beholding him plunge through the night, which he furrowed with glory, He loved the offspring of His thought, and said with an ineffable smile : " How beautiful was the light ! " God has not created suffering ; intelligence has accepted it to be free.

And suffering has been the condition imposed upon freedom of being by Him who alone cannot err, because He is infinite. For the essence of intelligence is judgment, and the essence of judgment is liberty. The eye does not really possess light except by the faculty of closing or opening. Were it forced to be always open, it would be the slave and victim of the light, and would cease to see in order to escape the torment.

Thus, created Intelligence is not happy in affirming God, except by its liberty to deny Him. Now, the Intelligence which denies, invariably affirms something, since it is asserting its liberty. It is for this reason that blasphemy glorifies God, and that hell was indispensable to the happiness of heaven. Were the light unrepelled by shadow, there would be no visible forms.

If the first angels had not encountered the depths of darkness, the child-birth of God would have been incomplete, and there could have been no separation between the created and essential light. Never would Intelligence have known the goodness of God if it had never lost Him. Never would God's infinite love have shone forth in the joys of His mercy had the prodigal Son of Heaven remained in the house of His Father.

When all was light, there was light nowhere ; it filled the breast of God, who was labouring to bring forth. And when He said : " Let there be light ! " He permitted the darkness to repel the light, and the 3p. 181universe issued from chaos. The negation of the angel who, at birth, refused slavery, constituted the equilibrium of the world, and the motion of the spheres commenced. The infinite distances admired this love of liberty, which was vast enough to fill the void of eternal light, and strong enough to bear the hatred of God.

But God could hate not the noblest of His children, and He proved him by His wrath only to confirm him in His power. So also the Word of God Himself, as if jealous of Lucifer, willed to come down from heaven and pass triumphantly through the shadows of hell. He willed to be proscribed and condemned ; He premeditated the terrible hour when He should cry, in the extreme of His agony : " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?

" As the star of the morning goes before the sun, the rebellion of Lucifer announced to new-born nature the coming incarnation of God. Possibly Lucifer, in his fall through night, carried with him a rain of suns and stars by the attraction of his glory. Possibly our sun is a demon among the stars, as Lucifer is a star among the angels.

Doubtless it is for this reason that it lights so calmly the horrible anguish of humanity and the long agony of earth — because it is free in its solitude, and possesses its light. Such were the tendencies of the heresiarchs in the early centuries. Some, like the Ophites, adored the demon under the figure of the serpent ; others, like the Cainites, justified the rebellion of the first angel like that of the first murderer.

All these errors, all these shadows, all these monstrous idols of anarchy which India opposes in its symbols to the magical Trimourti, have found priests and worshippers in Christianity. The demon is nowhere mentioned in Genesis ; an allegorical serpent deceives our first parents. Here is the common translation of the sacred text : " Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

But this is what Moses says : ovita nvp nvy "IE>K mpn rrn Sao ony rrn prom Wha-Nahash halah haroum mi-chol halaht ha-shadeh asher hashah Jhoah ^Elohlm.