Discussing and explaining the nature of the invisible Elements and the “Primordial Fire” mentioned above, Éliphas Lévi invariably calls it the “Astral Light”: with him it is the “Grand Agent Magique.” Undeniably it is so, but—only so far as _Black_ Magic is concerned, and on the lowest planes of what we call Ether, the noumenon of which is Âkâsha; and even this would be held incorrect by orthodox Occultists. The “Astral Light” is simply the older “Sidereal Light” of Paracelsus; and to say that “everything which exists has been evolved from it, and it preserves and reproduces all forms,” as he does, is to enunciate truth only in the second proposition. The first is erroneous; for if all that exists was evolved _through_ (or _viâ_) it, this is not the Astral Light, since the latter is not the container of _all_ things but, at best, only the reflector of this _all_. Éliphas Lévi very truly shows it “a force in Nature,” by means of which “a single man who can master it ... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face”; for it is the “Great Arcanum of transcendent Magic.” Quoting the words of the great Western Kabalist in their translated form,(400) we may, perhaps, the better explain them by the occasional addition of a word or two, to show the difference between Western and Eastern explanations of the same subject. The author says of the great Magic Agent: This ambient and all‐penetrating fluid, this ray detached from the [Central or Spiritual] Sun’s splendour ... fixed by the weight of the atmosphere [?!] and the power of central attraction ... the Astral Light, this electro‐magnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis, which twines round two poles ... and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn [emblem of infinity, immortality, and Cronus—Time—not the God Saturn or the planet]. It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of the caduceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen snake of Moses encircling the Tau ... lastly, it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and is really the blind force [it is not blind, and Lévi knew it], which souls must conquer, in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; for if they should not, they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them, and will return to the central and eternal fire. This great Archæus is now publicly discovered by, and _for_, only one man—J. W. Keely, of Philadelphia. For others, however, it _is_ discovered, yet must remain almost useless. “So far shalt thou go....” All the above is as practical as it is correct, save one error, which we have explained. Éliphas Lévi commits a great blunder in always identifying the Astral Light with what we call Âkâsha. What it really is will be expounded in Volume II. Éliphas Lévi further writes: