Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 195the first thing to do ? " Believe in your power, then act. " But how act ?
" Kise daily at the same hour, and that early ; bathe at a spring before daybreak, and in all seasons ; never wear dirty clothes, rather wash them yourself if needful ; accustom yourself to voluntary privations, that you may be better able to bear those which come without seeking ; then silence every desire which is foreign to the fulfilment of the great work. " What ! By bathing daily in a spring, I shall make gold ?
" You will work in order to make it. " It is a mockery ! " No, it is an arcanum. " How can I make use of an arcanum which I fail to understand ? " Believe and act ; you will understand later. One day a person said to me : "I would that I could be a fervent Catholic, but I am a Yoltairean. What would I not give to have faith ! " I replied : " Say ' I would ' no longer ; say ' I will,' and I promise you that you will believe.
You tell me you are a Voltairean, and of all the various presentations of faith that of the Jesuits is most repugnant to you, but at the same time seems the most powerful and desirable. Perform the exercises of St Ignatius again and again, without allowing yourself to be discouraged, and you will attain the faith of a Jesuit.
The result is infallible, and should you then have the simplicity to ascribe it to a miracle, you deceive • yourself now in thinking that you are a Voltairean. An idle man will never become a magician. Magic is an exercise of all hours and all moments. The operator of great works must be absolute master of himself ; he must know how to conquer the allurements of pleasure, appetite, and sleep ; he must be insensible to success and to indignity.
His life must be that of a will directed by one thought, and served by entire nature, which he will have made subject to mind in his own organs, and by sympathy in all the universal forces which are their correspondents. All faculties and all senses should share in the work ; nothing in the priest of Hermes has the right to remain idle ; intelligence p. 196must be formulated by signs and summed by characters or pantacles ; will must be determined by words, and must fulfil words by deeds ; the magical idea must be rendered into light for the eyes, harmony for the ears, perfumes for the sense of smell, savours for the palate, objects for the touch ; the operator, in a word, must realise in his whole life what he wishes to realise in the world without him ; he must become a magnet to attract the desired thing ; and when he shall be sufficiently magnetic, he must be convinced that the thing will come of itself, and without thinking of it.
It is important for the magus to be acquainted with the secrets of science, but he may know them by intuition, and without formal learning. Solitaries, living in the habitual contemplation of nature, frequently divine her harmonies, and are more instructed in their simple good sense than doctors, whose natural discernment is falsified by the sophistries of the schools.
True practical magicians are almost invariably found in the country, and are frequently uninstructed persons and simple shepherds.
Furthermore, certain physical organisations are better adapted than others for the revelations of the occult world ; there are sensitive and sympathetic natures, with whom intuition in the astral light is, so to speak, inborn ; certain afflictions and certain complaints can modify the nervous system, and, independently of the concurrence of the will, may convert it into a divinatory apparatus of less or more perfection ; but these phenomena are exceptional, and generally magical power should, and can, be acquired by perseverance and labour.
There are also some substances which produce ecstasy, and dispose towards the magnetic sleep ; there are some which place at the service of imagination all the most lively and highly coloured reflections of the elementary light ; but the use of such substances is dangerous, for they commonly occasion stupefaction and intoxication. They are used, notwithstanding, but in carefully calculated quantities, and under wholly exceptional circumstances.
p. 197He who decides to devote himself seriously to magical works, after fortifying his mind against all danger of hallucination and fright, must purify himself without and within for forty days. The number forty is sacred, and its very figure is magical. In Arabic numerals it consists of the circle, which is the type of the infinite, and of the 4, which sums the triad by unity.
In Eoman numerals, arranged after the following manner, it represents the sign of the fundamental doctrine of Hermes, and the character of the Seal of Solomon : — X / \ X XX XX V7 X X The purification of the magus consists in abstinence from coarse enjoyments, in a temperate and vegetable diet, in refraining from intoxicating drink, and in regulating the hours of sleep.
This preparation has been indicated and represented in all forms of worship by a period of penitence and trials preceding the symbolical feasts of life-renewal. As already said, the most scrupulous external cleanliness must be observed ; the poorest person can find spring water. All clothes, furniture, and vessels made use of must also be carefully washed, whether by ourselves or others.
All dirt is evidence of negligence, and negligence is deadly in magic. The atmosphere must be purified at rising and retiring with a perfume composed of the juice of laurels, salt, camphor, white resin, and sulphur, repeating at the same time the four sacred names, while turning successively towards the four cardinal points.
We must divulge to no one the works that we accomplish, for, as already said in the Doctrine, mystery is the exact and essential condition of all the operations of science. The inquisitive must be misled by the pretence of
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