The history of magic : $b including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries — John Shaqi
The history of magic : $b including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteriesLévi, Éliphas
Religion
The history of magic : $b including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
Lévi, Éliphas
Magic -- History
operations of alchemy, which are still possible and actual under the
conditions set forth in the speculation concerning the Astral Light. It
is not as such, one would say, a thaumaturgic process, unless indeed
the dream should rule—as it tends to do—that fulfilment depends on an
electrifying power in the projected will of the adept. In any case, the
ethical transliteration of alchemical symbolism is seemingly a more
important aspect of this subject.
I need not register here that I disbelieve utterly in Lévi’s
construction of the art of metallic transmutation, or that I regard
his allegorising thereon as a negligible product when it is compared
with the real doctrine of Hermetic Mysticism; but this is not the
point at issue. The possessor of the Key of Magic, of the Kabalistic
Keys, thrown aside or lost by the Church, comes forward to tell us
that after the advent of Christ “magical orthodoxy was transfigured
into the orthodoxy of religion”; that “those who dissented could be
only _illuminati_ and sorcerers”; that “the very name of Magic must be
interpreted only according to its evil sense”; that we are forbidden by
the Church to consult oracles, and that this is “in its great wisdom”;
that the “fundamental dogma of transcendental science ... attained its
plenary realisation in the constitution of the Christian world,” being
the equilibrium between Church and State. All that is done outside the
lawful hierarchy stands under an act of condemnation; as to visions,
all fools are visionaries; to communicate with the hierarchy of unseen
intelligence, we must seek the natural and mathematical revelations set
forth in Tarot cards, but it cannot be done without danger and crime;
while mediums, enchanters, fortune-tellers, and casters of spells
“are generally diseased creatures in whom the void opens.” Finally,
as regards the philosophical side of Magic, its great doctrine is
equilibrium; its great hypothesis is analogy; and in the moral sense
equilibrium is the concurrence of science and faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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