Transcendental Magic — Éliphas Lévi

p. 285allegorical, and the representation which they give, or that which can be made from their description, proves that they are really speaking of nothing but the great magical arcanum. One of the figures depicts the universal movement, harmonic and equilibrated in imperishable being ; another, which should be formed from an amalgam of the seven metals, calls for a description in detail.

It has a double collet and two precious stones — a topaz, constellated with the sign of the sun, and an emerald with the sign of the moon ; it should bear on the inner side the occult characters of the planets, and on the outer their known signs, twice repeated and in kabbalistic opposition to each other ; that is, five on the right and five on the left ; the signs of the sun and moon resuming the four several intelligences of the seven planets.

Now, this configuration is no other than that of a pantacle signifying all the mysteries of magical doctrine, and here is the occult significance of the ring : to exercise the omnipotence, of which ocular fascination is one of the most difficult demonstrations to give, we must possess all science and know how to make use of it. Fascination is fulfilled by magnetism. The magus inwardly forbids a whole assembly to see him, and it does not see him.

In this manner he passes through guarded gates, and departs from prison in the face of his petrified gaolers. At such times a strange numbness is experienced, and they recall having seen the magus as if in a dream, but never till after he has gone.

The secret of invisibility, erefore, wholly consists in a power which is capable of finition — that of distracting or paralysing attention, so t the light reaches the visual organ without impressing e eye of the soul. To exercise this power we must possess will accustomed to sudden and energetic actions, great ince of mind, and skill no less great in causing diversions mong the crowd.

Let a man, for example, who is being pursued by his intending murderers, dart into a side street, return immediately, and advance with perfect calmness towards his pursuers, or let him mix with them and seem 2p. 286to be engaged in the chase, and he will certainly make himself invisible.

A priest who was being hunted in '93, with the intention of hanging him from a lamp-post, fled down a side street, assumed a stooping gait, and leaned against a corner, with an intensely preoccupied expression ; the crowd of his enemies swept past ; not one saw him, or, rather, it never struck anyone to recognise him ; it was so unlikely to be he !

The person who desires to be seen always makes himself observed, and he who would remain unnoticed effaces himself and disappears. The true ring of Gyges is the will; it is also the rod of transformations, and by its precise and strong formulation it creates the magical word. The omnipotent terms of enchantments are those which express this creative power of forms.

The tetragram, which is the supreme word of magic, signifies : " It is that which it shall be," and if we apply it to any transformation whatsoever with full intelligence, it will renew and modify all things, even in the teeth of evidence and common sense.

The hoc est of the Christian sacrifice is a translation and application of the tetragram ; hence this simple utterance operates the most complete, most invisible, most incredible, and most clearly affirmed of all transformations. A still stronger word than that of transformation has been judged necessary by councils to express the marvel, that of transubstantiation.

The Hebrew terms ni.T, &&IK, .Tfw, JON, have been considered by all kabbalists as the keys of magical transformation. The Latin words, est, sit, esto, fiat, have the same force when pronounced with full understanding.

M. de Montalembert seriously relates, in his legend of St Elizabeth of Hungary, how one day this saintly lady, surprised by her noble husband, from whom she sought to conceal her good works, in the act of carrying bread to the poor in her apron, told him that she was carrying roses, and it proved on investigation that she had spoken truly; the loaves had been changed into roses. This story is a most gracious magical apologue, and signifies that the truly wise man 3p. 287cannot lie, that the word of wisdom determines the form of things, or even their substance independently of their forms.

Why, for example, should not the noble spouse of St Elizabeth, a good and firm Christian like herself, and believing implicitly in the real presence of the Saviour in true human body upon an altar where he beheld only a wheaten host, why should he not believe in the real presence of roses in his wife's apron under the appearances of bread ?

She exhibited him loaves undoubtedly, but as she had said that they were roses, and as he believed her incapable of the smallest falsehood, he saw and wished to see roses only. This is the secret of the miracle. Another legend narrates how a saint, whose name has escaped me, finding nothing to eat on a Lenten day or a Friday, commanded the fowl to become a fish, and it became a fish.

The parable needs no interpretation, and it recalls a beautiful story of St Spiridion of Tremithonte, the same who evoked the soul of his daughter Irene. One Good Friday a traveller reached the abode of the holy bishop, and as bishops in those days took Christianity in earnest, and were consequently poor, Spiridion, who fasted religiously, had in his house only some salted bacon, which had been made ready for Easter.

The stranger was overcome with fatigue and famished with hunger ; Spiridion offered him the meat, and himself shared the meal of charity, thus transforming the very flesh which the Jews regard as of all most impure into a feast of penitence, transcending the material law by the spirit of the law itself, and proving himself a true and intelligent disciple of the man-God, who hath established his elect as the monarchs of nature in the three worlds.