Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi
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p. 207we shall draw the spirit away with us, and it will certainly serve us. To conjure is to oppose the resistance of a current and a chain to an isolated spirit — cum jurare, to swear together, that is, to make a common act of faith. The greater the strength and enthusiasm of this faith, the more efficacious is the conjuration.
This is why new-born Christianity silenced the oracles ; it only possessed inspiration, it only force.
Later on, when St Peter grew old, that is, when the world believed that it had a legal case against the Papacy, the spirit of prophecy came to replace the oracles ; Savonarola, Joachim of Mores, John Hus, and so many others, by turns influenced the minds of men, and interpreted, by lamentations and menaces, the secret anxieties and rebellions of all hearts.
We may act individually when evoking a spirit, but to conjure we must speak in the name of a circle or an association ; this is the significance of the hieroglyphical circle traced round the magus who is operating, and out of which he must not pass unless he wishes at the same moment to be stripped of all his power.
Let us grapple at this point with the vital and palmary question, whether the real evocation and real conjuration of spirits are things possible, and whether such possibility can be scientifically demonstrated. To the first part of the question it may be replied out of hand that everything which is not an evident impossibility can and must be admitted as provisionally possible.
As to the second part, we affirm that in virtue of the great magical dogma of the hierarchy and of universal analogy, the kabbalistic possibility of real evocations can be demonstrated ; concerning the phenomenal reality consequent upon magical operations accomplished with sincerity, this is a matter of experience ; as already described, we have established it in our own persons, and by means of this Ritual we shall place our readers in a position to renew and confirm our experiences. Nothing in nature perishes ; whatsoever has lived goes on living always under new forms ; but even the anterior p. 208forms are not destroyed, since they persist in our memory Do we not still see in imagination the child we once kner though now he is an old man ? The very traces which believe to be effaced from our memory are not in rr blotted out, for a fortuitous circumstance may evo) recall them.
But after what manner do we see the' we have already said, it is in the astral light, wh1* mits them to our brain by the mechanism of t1 system. On the other hand, all forms are prop analogical to the idea which has determined th the natural character, the signature of that ic1 term it, and so soon as the idea is acti form is realised and bodied forth.
Schillumine' of Leipsic, terrified all Germ? o*. tions, and his audacity in magical expr j>e that his reputation became an ins' fye ( allowed himself to be carried away 3#^ ^ of hallucinations which he had pr ,^*b ^< other world disgusted him with &,?%/. 7i His story should be a warninp fc/^ // °f by ceremonial magic. Nat' $ ^tf ^ ^ punity, and no one can sa' ^ • Asj|» °^/ calculable forces.
It is ^<?*?^ ^ ' and will ever lead, us -^ > /^ fy " those who would see * °^^e^^/'^s we reply to them in Q^- ^ eminent Englishman ^ " You are perfectly wiu. for our own part, it will u less convinced.
To those who have scrupulously and boldly fulfilleu there has been no result, we would reco. should stay their hand, as it is possibly a warm^ who will not lend herself for them to these anomalou^ but if they persist in their curiosity, they have only to SL afresh. The triad, being the foundation of magical doctrine, must
NGLE OF PANTACLJjg 211 9 i evocations ; ' a 6 to the double :on and effect. 18 kabbalistically, oalistic panta<ie hieroglyphic sign it the syt^ ieir obJect- ^ together with the lettet V 'c kabbalah;erioug anc[ obscure i incoming 9> the number of s 1/mer -^ kabbalist sayg ex.
b\e e the number of the
Ue a?es*g (^at is, the key tfWtipJit the number of the ?en itjn, and the number of , -al we decade of Pythagoras g! t\xe ltus of * sum of the triangular 1 ln to the sum Of an magic Of
^ It is tf*s ?en tjn, and the number of
JTA desctibe tlae .^aX, gnostic ,-amme of human genius mottstTOuS aTl ed 3 honouiospel sought to absorb or TaiaS i
La o^d pagaia ?.A fhe explained^ of lefcters and numbers kibi- as a the kabbalah, which, from .j^tes, o Gematriah and Temurah. \>bath circle of ,m to us arbitrary or devoid b0§eoi to6 great 6 Side tOV' PhilosoPhical symbolism of ^as3 a matter st importance in the teaching ^0irPosed to bm the occult sciences. The mv^> t oft- t0^' and which connected primitive *dS et\^ o^>seTV pe^ -t if the Spil5 with letters, and letters with •°L?f£eavea, ^^ed; Moreo keys of Solomon. We have a oi taJT^ forming ^vs> preserved to our own day, set l' iro^ the f antacle or Sr nothing else than the game of
" v sacteo- sy^^ad and the ; of which were remarked and 6T' \oi^eA 8talC:'ndentlv of th^e in the modern world by the ^e 8f "L0iao». m'lde use of thos'de Gebelin. al nd gtaver We haVG repr' Solomon is explained by St John 3Teast, a ^ atiobalists. The He says, " There are three which ise ^{CQV&™ the celebrai_the Father, the Word, and the 5TaysUC oUT10uted extraordire three which give testimony on )d • \tiatvf tter, and the blood." Thus, St John of Hermetic philosophy, who attri-
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