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
It has been said in the _Doctrine of Transcendental Magic_ that the
name Jehovah resolves into seventy-two explicatory names, called
_Shemahamphorash_.[70] The art of employing these seventy-two names and
discovering therein the keys of universal science is the art which is
called by Kabalists the Keys of Solomon. As a fact, at the end of the
collections of prayers and evocations which bear this title, there are
found usually seventy-two magical circles, making thirty-six talismans,
or four times nine, being the absolute number multiplied by the tetrad.
Each of these talismans bears two of the two-and-seventy names, the
sign emblematical of their number and that of the four letters of
Tetragrammaton to which they correspond. From this have originated the
four emblematical Tarot suits: the Wand, representing the _Yod_; the
Cup, answering to the _He_; the Sword, referable to the _Vau_; and the
Pentacle, in correspondence with the final _He_. The complement of the
denary has been added in the Tarot, thus repeating synthetically the
character of unity.[71]
The popular traditions of Magic affirm that he who possesses the Keys
of Solomon can communicate with spirits of all grades and can exact
obedience on the part of all natural forces. These Keys, so often lost
and as often again recovered, are no other than the talismans of the
seventy-two names and the mysteries of the thirty-two hieroglyphical
paths, reproduced by the Tarot. By the aid of these signs and by their
infinite combinations, which are like those of numbers and letters, it
is possible to arrive at the natural and mathematical revelation of
all secrets of Nature, and it is in this sense that communication is
established with the whole hierarchy of intelligence.
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