Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

p. 276at the hour for the regular visit, we must repair in silence to the chamber, light a clear fire of cypress-wood, and cast incense seven times thereon, pronouncing the name of the person whom we desire to behold. The lamp must then be extinguished, and the fire permitted to die out. On this day the portrait must not be unveiled.

When the flame is extinct, put more incense on the ashes, and invoke God according to the forms of the religion to which the dead person belonged, and according to the ideas which he himself possessed of God.

While making this prayer, we must identify ourselves with the evoked person, speak as he spoke, believe in a sense as he believed ; then, after a silence of fifteen minutes, we must speak to him as if he were present, with affection and with faith, praying him to manifest to us.

Renew this prayer mentally, covering the face with both hands ; then call him thrice with a loud voice ; tarry on our knees, the eyes closed or covered, for some minutes ; then again call thrice upon him in a sweet and affectionate tone, and slowly open the eyes.

Should nothing result, the same experiment must be renewed in the following year, and if necessary a third time, when it is certain that the desired apparition will be obtained, and the longer it has been delayed the more realistic and striking it will be. Evocations of knowledge and intelligence are made with more solemn ceremonies.

If concerned with a celebrated personage, we must meditate for twenty-one days upon his life and writings, form an idea of his appearance, converse with him mentally, and imagine his answers ; carry his portrait, or at least his name, about us ; follow a vegetable diet for twenty-one days, and a severe fast during the last seven. We must next construct the magical oratory, described in the thirteenth chapter of our Doctrine.

This oratory must be invariably darkened ; but if we operate in the daytime, we may leave a narrow aperture on the side where the sun will shine at the hour of evocation, and place a triangular prism before this opening, and a crystal 2p. 277globe, filled with water, before the prisin. If the operation be arranged for night, the magic lamp must be so placed that its single ray shall fall upon the altar smoke. The purpose of these preparations is to furnish the magic agent with elements of corporeal appearance, and to ease as much as possible the tension of imagination, which could not be exalted without danger into the absolute illusion of dream.

For the rest, it will be easily understood that a beam of sunlight, or the ray of a lamp, coloured variously, and falling upon curling and irregular smoke, can in no way create a perfect image. The chafing-dish containing the sacred fire should be in the centre of the oratory, and the altar of perfumes hard by.

The operator must turn towards the east to pray, and the west to invoke ; he must be either alone or assisted by two persons preserving the strictest silence; he must wear the magical vestments, which we have described in the seventh chapter, and must be crowned with vervain and gold. He should bathe before the operation, and all his under garments must be of the most intact and scrupulous cleanliness.

The ceremony should begin with a prayer suited to the genius of the spirit about to be invoked, and one which would be approved by himself if he still lived. For example, it would be impossible to evoke Voltaire by reciting prayers in the style of St Bridget. For the great men of antiquity, we may use the hymns of Cleanthes or Orpheus, with the adjuration terminating the Golden Verses of Pythagoras.

In our own evocation of Apollonius, we used the magical philosophy of Patricius for the ritual, containing the doctrines of Zoroaster and the writings of Hermes Trismegistus. We recited the Nuctemeron of Apollonius in Greek with a loud voice, and added the following conjuration : — Vouchsafe to be present, 0 Father of All, and thou Thrice Mighty Hermes, Conductor of the Dead.

Asclepius, son of Hephaistus, Patron of the Healing Art : and thou Osiris, Lord of strength and vigour, do thou thyself be present too. Arnebascenis, Patron of Philosophy, and yet