Magic power
ALL PEOPLE ARE ENDOWED WITH MAGIC POWER, BUT IN DIFFERENT MEASUREMENTS. Most use their abilities unconsciously, sometimes harming each other. Ah, if the Inquisition knew how many people unconsciously conjure, it would certainly burn the entire population of the Earth. And including themselves. But now it's not about that.
To achieve "sanctum regnum", i.e. science and the power of magicians, four things are necessary: a mind enlightened by study, courage that stops at nothing, an irresistible will, and modesty that nothing can spoil or intoxicate. To know, to dare, to want, to be silent - these are the four words of the magician, inscribed on the four symbolic forms of the sphinx. These four verbs can be combined in four ways and are mutually explained four times.* See the Tarot game. [Eliphas Levi. The doctrine and ritual of higher magic]
Attention: this moment is one of the most important in magic!
Here are the four elements of magical power. An increase in each of them entails an increase in magical power, but taken individually, each does not give a result.
Let's start with the symbolism: bull, eagle, lion and man. These are the divided forms of the sphinx, denoting the 4 elements (earth, air, fire and water) that make up everything that exists.
Land. Bull. Secret. Be silent.
Land. The fact that the earth personified mystery is no secret to anyone. If a person wanted to hide something, then he buried it in the ground. In the time of primitive people, it was food, and the earth did not let out a smell that could attract wild animals. In the time of the pirates, these were treasures, the land gave them shelter. So the concepts of mystery and land are very closely related to each other.
Bull. The symbol of the bull was originally associated with agriculture. Even in ancient times, people used it as a draft animal. The bull is a rather silent animal, hence the symbolic meaning.
Secret. In the experiments of magic, solitude and mystery are needed. These experiences are strengthened by silence and destroyed by exposure. Being announced, they lose their force. [Agrippa. Occult Philosophy] I warn you against any dissemination of information about your practice in the Craft. I will give several reasons: the first is that different people belong to different egregores. The most common (and therefore the most powerful egregors) are Christian, Muslim and Buddhist egregors. Moreover, Christian and Muslim egregors are initially against magic in any form, as well as, however, separate currents of Buddhism. Informing an ordinary person about magic, you inform an egregor who can immediately take measures to stop your practicing magic by attracting circumstances into your life that will simply distract you from magic, and up to influence directly on your mind. In such a case, your magical experiments may fail for some time. One of the old grimoires warns of such a danger, but from the side of spirits, not egregores, because. it's about summoning magic (you see, not all spirits like being summoned). And to prevent their interference in the mind of the “operator” (as the magician is called in the grimoire), it is recommended to wear a stone called bloodstone (the bloodstone creates a powerful energy shield around the owner). You can communicate exclusively with other magicians, having, of course, a limit in this. It must be understood that THE MORE SECRETS YOU KEEP, THE MORE POWER YOU HAVE. That is why the teacher shares his Power, transferring his knowledge to the student.
Be silent. Silence is one of the ways to accumulate Strength, an action called in the common people a restraint. Remember how much time and effort goes into talking (to put it bluntly) about nothing. Remember if you ever felt tired after a conversation, or at least a little tired. That's the whole point - excessive chatter leads to significant energy losses, and the magician needs energy. The magician should save energy in everything and this is normal.
Air. Eagle. Faith. Dare.
Air. Air is associated with something intangible and intangible, but, of course, existing.
We breathe air and we cannot live without it. In the same way, we must trust at least someone or something in our life, be it a friend or an elevator in the house.
Eagle. The eagle is considered a symbol of spirituality, and, as you know, spirituality is directly related to the concept of faith. Recall at least what place was given to faith by Jesus Christ, who walked on water thanks to it. Astral travel is also associated with the eagle, and this is not surprising - the eagle is a creature that flies, and during astral travel real flights are made, although of a slightly different nature.
Faith. Faith must be present in any action. Achieve absolute faith in the effectiveness of the operations performed. It is very important. There is one interesting magic trick.
It differs, in my opinion, in an unacceptable simplicity, but one of its main components is faith. So imagine the desired situation and trust that it has already happened. The main thing here is not to leave the situation in oneself, but to really transfer it into reality, i.e. actually believe it. But there is one more snag - if you do not believe in this, but confuse your desire to believe with faith, then the result will be just the opposite. I personally do not use this method and I do not recommend it to people who do not particularly believe. And yet, you need to believe first of all in yourself, in your strengths. Otherwise, you're worthless.
To believe means to agree with what we do not yet know, but about what the mind assures us that we already know this or, at least, we will learn with time. [E. Levy. The doctrine and ritual of higher magic]
Dare. To dare means to have courage, not to be afraid. In many operations, the magician must maintain exceptional composure. This is especially true of the notorious summoning magic, where the fear that arose in the heart of the magician can cause the loss of his mind or even death. The magician must be brave, otherwise he will never open the veil of the invisible world, which gives so many opportunities to climb the steps of Power and Knowledge. But courage does not mean recklessness, the magician always knows what he is doing and what to expect. And that's the whole point. It is not the one who does not know fear who dares, the one who crosses over fear dares.
Fire. A lion. Will. Want.
Fire. There is such an expression "to catch fire with an idea." It means that a person passionately wants to promote this idea. It is necessary to build on the word "wants". And fire characterizes this state very well. A burning fire can spread to nearby things. The same happens with people. One person, like the Cuban revolutionary Chigivara, is able to “infect” (subordinate to his influence) an entire people, or even more, with his ideas. Hence the connection with the will.
A lion. If you look at the lion, you can find many correspondences with the fire element. Take at least the mane and color, as well as the fact that the lion lives in countries with a hot climate. In the zodiac, Leo corresponds to July and August, usually the hottest months of the year.
Will. Willpower can be developed to the point where it can influence the forces of nature. And since magic has as its object the study of astral forces and their control, anyone who wants to become seriously acquainted with magic must develop and strengthen his will.
The will is connected with the phenomena of magnetism and hypnosis. Therefore, for the development of the Force, we can recommend books of this direction, which was practiced in ancient India and ancient Egypt, and became widespread in Europe thanks to Franz Mesmer, who once wrote a dissertation on this topic.
Want. The magician must be able to want. And there is truth in this too. Wanting - not wanting. To desire means to indulge in desire, to fall under its power. To want means to be the master of yourself and your desires. You need to learn this rather subtle art. Achieving the goal, i.e. the fulfillment of desire must occur through the rejection of it (desire). It sounds rather strange, but believe me, this is actually the case. Here it is necessary to turn to the views of the ancient Indians. As long as you desire something and your mind is restless, you are like a troubled lake. Thus, everything around you see in a distorted form. It is these “hindrances” that often prevent you from achieving the desired result. But when you are free from desires, you begin to see everything clearly;
Become like a calm lake with a smooth and clean surface, and you can take really effective steps. Arguing from the point of view of European magicians, a strong desire creates larva, which leads to completely unnecessary energy costs. And this is not good for a magician.
Water. Person. Imagination. Know.
Water. Water has no form, but it can become ice and steam. Those. one can also compare water with what happens in the imagination. Thoughts can merge into a continuous stream and a person at this moment does not think about anything - the state of water is liquid. Then a thought stands out from the general flow and takes shape - the state of water is solid (ice). However, a thought can be forgotten and become something intangible - the state of water is gaseous (steam).
Person. As you know, a person consists almost entirely of water (it's amazing how accurately the ancients knew or assumed this). It is also known that water is one of the best programming objects. Now quite a lot has been written on this topic, some of it has even been scientifically proven. From myself I will add that maybe this is one of the reasons why magic is possible to this day.
Imagination. Imagination is not accidentally associated with "man" - people made all their inventions with the help of imagination, this underestimated component of our lives. It should serve the magician to create images necessary for magical work. The more realistic the image, the greater the chance of success. One of the most important skills of witches was the ability to indulge in a flight of fancy so as to forget about everything in the world. And it should be noted that all exercises designed to increase Strength are connected precisely with visualization, i.e. with the representation of non-existent objects and actions.
Indeed, the imagination is like the eye of the soul; in it forms are drawn and saved; through it we see reflections of the invisible world; it is the mirror of visions and the apparatus of magical life; through it we heal diseases, influence the seasons, remove death from the living and resurrect the dead, for it exalts the will and gives it power over the world agent. [Eliphas Levi. The doctrine and ritual of higher magic]
Know. To know is the privilege of the magician. Be aware of invisible connections and laws. This is what distinguishes a magician from a man. If a person can feel something at the level of intuition, then the magician knows exactly what and how. It should also be said that knowledge obtained from books or from some other external source is always incomplete knowledge. TRUE KNOWLEDGE IS WHAT IS GAINED FROM YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE. Therefore, beware of becoming the constantly reasoning Theosophist with whom the Internet forums are full and whose books roam the libraries and shops in great quantities. Theory must always be supported by practice. That is why I called my book The Way of the Practice.
Will gives strength.
Imagination guides the Force.
Faith sustains the Force.
The secret preserves the Power.
As you work, you will become more and more convinced that these four components of the Force constitute the entire basis of magic.
Chapter 5
We proceed to the explanation and dedication of the holy and mysterious pentagram. So let all the indifferent and superstitious close the book; they will see nothing but darkness, or they will be outraged. The pentagram, which in the Gnostic schools is called the Flaming Star, is a sign of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy. This is the star of magicians; it is the sign of the Word that made the flesh, and, according to the direction of its rays, this absolute magical symbol represents the orderliness, or disorder, of the Sacred Lamb of Ormuzd and St. John, or the accursed goat of Mendes.
But sanctification or profanation; it is Lucifer or Venus, morning or evening star. This is Mary or Lilith, victory or death, day or night.
The pentagram with two ascending ends represents Satan in the form of a goat at the Sabbath; when one end ascends, this is the sign of the Savior.
A pentagram is a figure depicting the human body, having four limbs and one point representing the head. The head of the human figure below, of course, represents the demon - that is, intellectual overthrow, confusion or madness.
So, if magic were a reality, if occult science were in reality the true law of the three worlds, this absolute sign, as ancient as history, can exert a strong influence on spirits, freeing them from the material shell.
A complete understanding of the pentagram is the key to the two worlds. This is a completely philosophical and natural science. The sign of the pentagram must be composed of seven metals, or at least inscribed in pure gold on white marble. It can also be written in vermilion on flawless lamb skin, a symbol of wholeness and light. Marble must be virgin: it has never before been used for other purposes; lamb skin must be prepared under the protection of the sun. The lamb must be killed at Passover with a new knife, and the skin must be salted with salt consecrated by magical action. Simplifying even one of these difficult and seemingly arbitrary operations can invalidate the final result.
The pentagram is consecrated by the four elements: the magical figure is exhaled five times. It is then sprinkled with holy water and dried with the smoke of the five incense (namely frankincense, myrrh, aloes, sulfur and camphor), to which a little white resin and ambergris may be added. Five breaths are accompanied by the pronunciation of the names belonging to the five demons, these are: Gabriel, Raphael, Anael, Sama-el and Orifel.
After that, the pentacle is placed sequentially in the direction of north, south, east, west and the center of the astronomical cross, pronouncing at the same time, one after another, the consonants of the holy tetragram and then, in a semitone, the blessed letters Aleph and the magic Tau, united in the Kabbalistic name Azoth .
The pentagram can be placed on the incense altar and under the resurrection tripod. The operator must also put on the sign of the macrocosm, which consists of two intersecting and overlapping triangles. When the spirit of light is awakened, the head of the star - that is, one of its ends - should be located towards the tripod of resurrections, and the two lower ends - towards the altar of incense. In the case of working with spirits, the opposite direction is used, but then the operator must be on the alert, placing the end of the whip or sword at the top of the pentagram.
We have already pointed out that these signs are the active sign of the will. So the word of the will must be given in its completeness, so that it can be transformed into action; one slight negligence - a slurred word or a poorly performed duty - distorts the whole process, wasting all the strength of the operator in vain. Therefore, we must either completely refrain from magical ceremonies, or perform them scrupulously and accurately.
The pentagram, engraved on glass with the help of an electric machine, also has a great influence on spirits and torments phantoms. Old magicians draw a sign on their doorstep to prevent evil spirits from entering and good ones from leaving. This compulsion comes from the directions of the rays of the star. The two beams of the outer side lead away the evil ones; two beams of the inner side capture them; and only one ray of the inner side holds good spirits captive. All these magical theories, based on the teachings of Hermes and on the analytical conclusions of science, have invariably been confirmed by visions of people subject to ecstasy and seizures of epileptics, declaring that they were possessed by spirits. G, whose Masonic seat is in the middle of the Flaming Star, stands for Gnosticism and Rebirth, two sacred words of the ancient Qabalah. It also means the Great Architect, since in the pentagram on each side it is represented as A. Arranging it in such a way that two rays are ascending and one below, we can see the horns, ears and beard of the hierarchical goat of Mendes, and then it becomes a sign infernal spells.
The allegorical star of magicians is nothing more than a magical pentagram; and those three kings, the sons of Zoroaster, brought by the Flaming Star to the cradle of the microcosmic God, symbolize the cabalistic and magical beginning of the Christian doctrine. One is white, the other is black, and the third is brown. The white king offers gold - a symbol of light and life; the black king gives myrrh - the image of death and darkness; the brown king donates incense - the emblem of the reconciling doctrine of two beginnings. They then return to their domain by a different path to show that the new cult is just a new path that leads man to one religion, which is the religion of the sacred triad and the radiating pentagram.
The following words of Isaiah can be applied to Christianity itself: “How you fell from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! Crashed on the ground, trampling the nations!
But the pentagram, defiled by men, burns, always pure, in the right hand of the Word of truth, and an inspired voice promises him that it will weaken the influence of the Morning Star - a solemn promise not to surrender to the star of Lucifer.
All the secrets of magic, all the symbols of Gnosticism, all the figures of the occult, all the Kabbalistic keys of prophecy are summed up in the pentagram, which Paracelsus proclaimed the greatest and most powerful of all signs.
And is it any wonder that every magician believes in the real influence produced by a sign on spirits of all ranks? He who does not put the sign of the cross for a penny trembles before the star of the microcosm. Conversely, realizing the decline in willpower, the magician turns his gaze to this symbol, takes it in his right hand and feels himself armed with intellectual omnipotence, but on the condition that he is in reality a king, worthy to be led by a star to the cradle of divine incarnation; on condition that he knows, dares, wishes and keeps silent; provided that he is well acquainted with the use of the pantacle, goblet, lash and sword; and finally, provided that the fearless gaze of his soul corresponds to those two eyes that the ascending end of our pentagram always represents open.
1. Aleph. A.
ENTERING
discipline
Ensof
Keter
When a well-known philosopher took the reasoning “I think, therefore I exist” as the basis for a new revelation of human wisdom, he himself, without knowing it, following the Christian revelation, somewhat changed the ancient concept of the Almighty. In Moses, Genesis of Genesis says: "I am who I am." In Descartes, a man says: “I am the one who thinks,” and since thinking means speaking inwardly, the man of Descartes, like the God of the holy evangelist John, can say: “I am the one in whom and through whom the word is manifested.” In principle, there was a word (Un principio erat verbum).
What is a principle? This is the basis of speech (words - de ba parole), this is the meaning of existence, words (du verbe). The essence of the word lies in the principle; the principle is that which is (exists); reason is the principle that speaks.
What is intelligent light? This word (la parole). What is revelation? This word (la parole). Being is the principle, the word is the means, and the fullness or development and perfection of being is the goal: to speak is to create.
But to say, "I think, therefore I am," is to conclude from an effect to a principle, and recent objections raised by a great writer* have sufficiently proved the philosophical imperfection of this method. "I am, therefore something exists" seems to me the more original and simpler basis of experimental philosophy.
* Lammene.
I exist, therefore, there is being (Lesuis done e "etre existe).
Ego sum gui sum is the first revelation of God in man, and of man in the world; so is the first axiom of secret philosophy.
BEING IS BEING
Therefore, this philosophy has as its basis that which exists, and nothing hypothetical or accidental.
Mercury Trismegistus begins his wonderful symbol, known as the "Emerald Table", with the following triple statement: "it is true, it is certain without error, it is quite true." Truth, confirmed by experience, in physics; certainty, freed from the slightest admixture of error, in philosophy; absolute truth, indicated by analogy, in the field of religion or the infinite - these are the first conditions of true science, and magic alone can bestow them on its adepts.
– But, first of all, who are you, holding this book in your hands and about to read it? ..
On the pediment of the temple, dedicated in ancient times to the God of light, there was an inscription: "know thyself."
I am inclined to give the same advice to every person who wishes to approach knowledge.
Magic, which the ancients called "sanctum regnum", the holy realm or the realm of God, was created exclusively for kings and high priests. Are you priests, are you kings? “The priesthood of magic is not a vulgar priesthood, and its realm has nothing to dispute with the princes of this world. The kings of science are the priests of truth, and their realm is hidden from the crowd, as are their sacrifices and their prayers. The kings of science are people who know the truth, and the truth has made them free, according to the exact promise of the most powerful of initiators.
A man who is a slave to his passions or the prejudices of this world cannot become an initiate: he will never achieve this before he reforms himself; such a person cannot be an adept, because the word "adept" denotes one who has achieved by his will and deeds.
A person who loves his ideas and is afraid of losing them, who is afraid of new truths and is not disposed to doubt everything rather than to admit anything by chance - should close this book, since it is useless and dangerous to him; he will not understand her well and will be confused by her, but he will be even more confused if he understands her properly.
If anything in the world is dearer to you than reason, truth and justice; if your will is fickle and fluctuates, either towards good or evil; if logic scares you; if the naked truth makes you blush; if you are insulted by touching on rooted prejudices, immediately condemn this book, and without reading it, act as if it did not exist at all; but do not shout about its danger; the secrets it contains will be understood by few, and whoever understands will not divulge them. To show the light to the birds of the night is to hide it from them, for it blinds them and becomes darker than darkness for them. So, I will speak clearly, I will say everything, and I firmly believe that only initiates or persons worthy of becoming them will read everything and understand something.
There is true and there is false science, divine magic and hellish magic, i.e. false and gloomy: I have to open one, expose the other; we must distinguish the magus from the sorcerer, and the adept from the charlatan.
The Magus has the power he knows; the sorcerer tries to abuse what he does not know.
The devil, if it is only permissible to use this disgraceful and vulgar word in a scientific book, submits to the magician, and the sorcerer will surrender to the Devil.
Magist - the supreme high priest of nature, the sorcerer only defiles it.
A sorcerer is to a magician what a superstitious and fanatic is to a truly religious person.
Magic, inherited from the magicians, is the traditional science of the secrets of nature.
Thanks to this science, the adept is clothed with relative omnipotence and can act superhumanly, i.e. in a way that is beyond ordinary human understanding.
Thus, many famous adepts, like Mercury Trismegistus, Osiris, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana and others, whose names would be dangerous or inconvenient, were deified or called after death as gods. So others, according to the ebb and flow of public opinion, which at whim creates fortune, have become accomplices of hell or suspicious adventurers; such are the emperor Julian, Apuleius, the magician Merlin and the arch-sorcerer, as he was called in his time, the famous and unfortunate Cornelius Agrippa.
To achieve "sanctum regnum", i.e. science and the power of magicians, four things are necessary: a mind enlightened by study, courage that stops at nothing, an irresistible will, and modesty that nothing can spoil or intoxicate.
Know, dare, want, be silent- these are the four words of the magician, inscribed on the four symbolic forms of the sphinx. These four verbs can be combined in four ways and are mutually explained four times.*
* See Tarot game.
On the first page of the book of Hermes, the adept is depicted wearing a huge hat, which, when pulled down, can cover his entire head. One of his hands is raised to the sky, which he apparently orders with his wand, the other is folded on his chest: * in front of him are the main symbols or tools of science, and he hides the rest in the conjurer's bag. His body and arms form the letter Aleph, the first letter of the alphabet which the Hebrews borrowed from the Egyptians; but we shall have to return to this symbol later.
* Apparently, an unfortunate typo crept in here! The other hand, in all the images of the Tarot, lies on the table, and according to all the descriptions, including Eliphas Levi himself, is lowered ... For example, Papus in his "Gypsy Tarot" says: "... of which one lowered to the earth, the other is raised to the sky "... - approx. per.
Truly, a magician is what the Jewish Kabbalists call "microprosopus", i.e. creator of the small world. Just as the first magical knowledge is the knowledge of oneself, so the first of all the works of science, which includes all others, and at the same time the principle of great work, is the creation of oneself; this word needs an explanation.
Since the supreme mind is the only immutable and therefore eternal principle, since change is what we call death, the mind, which grows strongly and, to some extent, is identified with this principle, thereby becomes immutable and, therefore , immortal. It is clear that in order to cling unfailingly to the mind, it is necessary to be independent of all the forces that, through a fatal and necessary movement, bring about the changes of life and death. To be able to suffer, to abstain, and to die—these, therefore, are the first secrets that place us above suffering, sensual lusts, and the fear of non-existence. The man who seeks and finds a glorious death believes in immortality, and all mankind believes in him with him and for him, since it erects altars or statues to him as a token of immortal life.
Man becomes the king of animals only by taming or taming them; otherwise he will be their victim or slave. Animals are the image of our passions; they are the instinctive forces of nature. The world is a battlefield that freedom contests with the force of inertia, opposing it with an active force. Physical laws are the millstones in which you will be grain if you fail to become a miller.
You are called to be the king of air, water, earth and fire; but in order to reign over these four symbolic animals, one must conquer and enslave them.
He who aspires to become a sage and to know the great mystery of nature must become the heir of the sphinx and rob it: he must have its human head to master the word, eagle wings to conquer heights, bull's sides to work the depths, and lion's claws to clear a place for yourself right and left, forward and backward.
- So, who wants to be initiated, are you learned, like Faust? Are you impassive, like Job? No, isn't it? But you can do it if you want. Have you conquered the whirlwinds of vague thoughts? Do you not hesitate whether you have completely renounced whims? Do you take pleasure when you want it, and do you want it when you have to? Isn't it true, no? Anyway, isn't that always the case? But it can be if you want it.
The sphinx not only has a human head, it also has female breasts; can you resist female charms? - No, isn't it? - And now answering, you laugh, and, wanting to glorify the vital and material strength in yourself, you boast of your moral weakness. So be it, I allow you to pay this honor to the ass of Stern or Apuleius; I do not dispute that the donkey has its merits: it was dedicated to Priapus, just as the goat was dedicated to the god Mendes. But let us let him remain what he is, and let us try to find out whether he is your master or whether you can become his master. Only he can truly possess the pleasure of love who has conquered the love of pleasure. To be able to use and abstain means to be able twice. Woman enslaves you to your desires; be the master of your desires and you will enslave the woman.
The greatest insult that can be inflicted on a person is to call him a coward. But what is a coward?
A coward is one who does not care about his moral worth and blindly obeys the instincts of nature.
Indeed, in the presence of danger it is natural to be frightened and try to run away; why is it considered shameful? Because the law of honor puts duty above our aspirations or fear. What is honor from this point of view? – Universal premonition of immortality and respect for the means that can lead to it. The last victory that a person can gain over death is to triumph over the thirst for life, not out of despair, but thanks to a higher hope, which consists in believing in everything beautiful and honest, according to the whole world.
To learn to conquer oneself is to learn to live, and the rigors of Stoicism were not conceited swagger, but freedom.
To yield to the forces of nature means to follow the current of collective life, i.e. to be a slave to secondary causes.
To resist nature and conquer it means to create for oneself a personal and eternal life, to free oneself from the vicissitudes of life and death. The man who is ready to die rather than renounce truth and justice is truly alive, for he is immortal in his soul.
The purpose of all ancient initiations was to find or educate such people.
Pythagoras forced his students to practice silence and all kinds of abstinence; in Egypt, those who entered were tested by four elements; and we know what monstrous cruelties the fakirs and brahmins subject themselves to in their desire to attain the realm of free will and divine independence.
All kinds of mortifications of the flesh of asceticism are borrowed from initiations into the ancient mysteries, and they ceased because those capable of being initiated did not find initiators for themselves, and the leaders of conscience eventually became as ignorant as the crowd; then the blind were left to follow the blind, and no one else wanted to be subjected to trials that only led to doubt and despair... The path to the light was lost.
To do something, you need to know what you want to do, or at least trust someone who knows it. But how can I risk my life and randomly follow someone who does not know where he is going?
One should not boldly embark on the path of high knowledge; but, if you started walking, you must reach or die: to doubt means to become insane, to stop means to fall, to retreat means to throw yourself into the abyss.
So, if you start reading this book, if you understand it and want to read it to the end, it will make you a monarch or a madman. Do what you will with this volume, you will not be able to despise it or forget it. If you are pure, this book will be a light to you; if you are strong, she will be your weapon; if you are holy, by your religion; if you are wise, it will regulate your wisdom.
But if you are angry, this book will be like an infernal torch for you; she will dig into your chest, tearing it like a dagger; it will remain in your memory as a remorse; it will fill your imagination with chimeras, and by means of madness will lead you to despair. You will want to laugh at her and you can only gnash your teeth, because this book for you will be like that file in the fable, which the snake tried to gnaw, and which spoiled all her teeth.
I will now begin a series of dedications.
I said that revelation is a word (le verbe). Indeed, the word or speech (la parole) is the cover of being and the hallmark of life. Any form is a cover of the word, because the idea, the mother of the word, is the only meaning of the existence of forms. Every figure is a sign; each sign belongs to and returns to the word. That is why the ancient sages, through the mouth of Trismegistus, formulated their only dogma as follows:
What is above is, as it were, what is below, and what is below is, as it were, what is above (that is, similar to what is above).
["Ce qui est au-dessus est comme ce qui est au-dessous, et ce qui est au-dessous est comme ce qui est au-dessus"; "...quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius; et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius..."]
In other words, the form is proportional to the idea, the shadow is the measure of the body, calculated in relation to the light beam; the scabbard is as deep as the length of the sword; negation is proportional to the opposite statement; the product is equal to destruction [...] in a movement that preserves life, and there is no such point in infinite space that could not become the center of a circle, the circumference of which increases and infinitely recedes into space.
Consequently, each individuality can be infinitely perfected, since morality is analogous to a physical structure, and we cannot imagine a point that could not expand, increase and throw rays into a philosophically infinite circle.
What can be said about the whole soul, the same must be said about each of its individual abilities.
The mind and will of man are instruments of incalculable value and power. But mind and will have for their helper and instrument a faculty too little known, a faculty whose omnipotence belongs exclusively to the realm of magic; I'm talking about the imagination, which the Kabbalists call "transparent" (diaphane) or "translucent" (translucide).
Indeed, the imagination is like the eye of the soul; in it forms are drawn and saved; through it we see reflections of the invisible world; it is the mirror of visions and the apparatus of magical life; by means of it we heal diseases, influence the seasons, remove death from the living and raise the dead, for it exalts the will and gives it power over the world agent.
Imagination determines the form of the child from the mother's womb and determines the fate of people; it gives wings to contagion and guides weapons in war. - "Are you in danger during the battle? Consider that you cannot be wounded like Achilles, and so it will be," says Paracelsus. Fear attracts bullets, and courage causes the cannonballs to change their path. It is known that amputees often complain of pain in members that are no longer there. Paracelsus operated on living blood, treating the result of bloodletting; he healed headaches at a distance by operating on cut hair; by virtue of the science of the imaginary unity and solidarity of the whole and the parts, he far outstripped all the theories, or rather all the experiments of our most famous magnetizers. Therefore, his cures were miraculous, and he deserved to have his name of Philip Theophrastus Bombast added the nickname of the Halo of Paracelsus, with the addition of the epithet "divine"!
Imagination is a tool for "fitting the word".
Imagination added to reason is genius.
Reason, like genius, is one in its multitude of deeds.
There is a principle, there is truth, there is reason, there is an absolute and comprehensive philosophy.
Everything that exists is in unity, considered as a principle, and returns to unity, as to an end.
One is in one, i.e. everything is in everything.
Unity is the principle of numbers, it is also the principle of movement, and therefore of life.
The whole human body is summarized in the unity of only one organ, and this organ is the brain.
All religions are summarized in the unity of a single doctrine, the assertion of being and its identity to itself, and this constitutes its mathematical significance.
In magic there is only one dogma, and here it is: the visible is the manifestation of the invisible, or, in other words, in things tangible and visible, the perfect word (le verbe parfait) is exactly proportional to things imperceptible to our senses and invisible to our eyes. The magician raises one hand to the sky, lowers the other to the earth and says: "Above is infinity! Below is also infinity. Infinity is equal to infinity." This is true both in things visible and invisible.
The first letter of the alphabet of the holy language - Aleph - depicts a man raising one hand to the sky and lowering the other to the earth.
It is the expression of the active principle of every thing, it is a creation in heaven corresponding to the omnipotence of the word on earth. This letter, in itself, is a pantacle, i.e. sign expressing all-encompassing knowledge.
The letter Aleph can replace the sacred signs of the macrocosm and microcosm, it explains the Masonic triangle and the brilliant five-pointed star, for the word is one, and the revelation is also one. God, having given man reason, also gave him the word (la parole); and revelation, many in its forms, but one in its principle, is wholly contained in the universal word (le verbe), the interpreter of absolute reason.
This is what the so poorly understood word "Catholicism" means, which in modern sacred language means "infallibility." The universal in the mind is the absolute, and the absolute is infallible. If absolute reason irresistibly forces the whole society to believe the word of a child, then this child is recognized as infallible both by God and by all mankind.
Faith is nothing but reasonable certainty in this unity of reason and the universality of the word.
To believe is to agree with that which we do not yet know, but about which reason assures us that we already know it, or at least we will know it in time.
Meaningless, then, are the self-proclaimed philosophers who say: "I will not believe what I do not know."
- Poor people! Would you have to believe if you knew?
- But can I believe at random and without evidence?
– Of course not! Blind and unfounded faith is superstition and madness. It is necessary to believe in the causes, to recognize the existence of which the mind makes us, on the basis of the consequences known and considered by science.
The science! Great word and great problem!
What is science?
I will answer this question in the second chapter of this book.
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4. Modern magicians
“In order to reachsanctum regnum, in other words, the knowledge and power of the magician, there are four indispensable conditions - quick wit enriched with teaching, boundless courage, inflexible will, ineradicable caution. TO KNOW, TO RISK, TO DESIRE, TO KEEP SILENCE - these are the four commandments of the magician...”
Eliphas Levi. "Magical Doctrine and Ritual"
Perhaps because of the inexorably widening chasm that today separates the average educated person from both Christianity and science, interest in the occult and magic has increased over the past century. The practical application of magic also flourished, and magicians of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Eliphas Levi, McGregor Mathersand Aleister Crowley, occupied a high position in the history of magic.
Eliphas Levi, whose real name was Alphonse Louis Constant, was born in Paris around 1810. His father was a shoemaker, the family was very poor, but the boy had an inquisitive mind and received a spiritual education. However, he was expelled from the seminary for heretical opinions and never became a priest. The conflict between an orthodox Catholic education and an enduring fascination with magic permeates all of his books, but despite desperate attempts to reconcile these conflicting trends, Levi never really succeeded in this.
The exclusion from the seminary suggests that Levi entered the occult at a fairly early age. As a magician, he no doubt followed his own instructions - to know, to take risks and to be willing, but, fortunately, he did not keep everything a secret. In 1855-1856. he published two volumes of his most brilliant book, Magical Doctrine and Ritual. Fiercely romantic, vague and verbose, often hard to read, and in places downright absurd, the book is written with a fervor and fantasy that captivates the reader, as well as with such depth of insight into the theory and practice of magic that it is interesting to read it today. His later books, including A History of Magic (1860) and The Key to Mysteries (1861), are less interesting, he himself translated them into English when he was reincarnated as Aleister Crowley.
Levy made some money from his books. He barely made ends meet giving lessons in the occult to thirsty students, an impressive personality, with a large bushy beard, rather filthy habits and a cannibalistic appetite. In 1860 he was reconciled to Catholicism and died, comforted by the last church rites.
The learned English occultist A. E. Waite, who was not a reincarnation of Levi, but nevertheless succeeded in translating the Doctrine and Ritual, wrote that Levi was revealed the secrets of the occult society into which he was admitted, after which he was expelled from there for their disclosure. Waite does not indicate that this was a society led by Bulwer-Lytton, but it is clear that Levy was a member of it in the early 1850s. He was always more interested in theory than practice, and the only known magical action that he carried out is considered to be an act of necromancy, performed at a very high level - a call to the spirit of the pagan philosopher and magician Aioldoniy of Tiaa. It happened in 1854 in London.
Devi himself gave a surprisingly simple and accessible description of this ceremony compared to his usual grandiloquent rhapsodic style. He was persuaded to do so by a mysterious woman in black, who claimed to be a friend of "Sir B...L...". For twenty-one days he prepared - fasted and led a celibate lifestyle. (3 and 7 are powerful magic numbers, and 3^3XT.) The ceremony was performed by Levi without witnesses, in a room with four concave mirrors and an altar resting W freshly skinned white lamb skin. A pentagram was depicted on the white marble surface of the table, and the altar itself was surrounded by a magic circle - a chain of magnetized iron - which served as a barrier against evil forces. On the altar stood a small brass brazier, on which alder and laurel wood smoldered. And another brazier stood nearby on a tripod. Levi was dressed in a white robe - the predominance of white was supposed to indicate the purity of his intention and cause beneficial influences - and on his head rested a crown of vervain leaves intertwined with a gold chain. Traditionally, vervain was believed to have the ability to ward off demons. In his hand he held a new sword,
Levi lit a fire on both braziers so that the spirit could use smoke to create a visible body, and began to sing long mysterious chants, calling the spirit from the world of shadows. “In chorus the demons praise the Lord; they lose their malice and rage... Cerberus opens his triple mouth, and the fire sends up his praises to God with three flames... the soul descends on the graves and magical lamps are lit... The sound got louder and louder. Smoke rose and enveloped the altar. Then the ground seemed to shake under Levi's feet, and his heart began to beat faster. He threw branches on the fire, the flame shot up, and a figure of a man appeared in front of the altar, which soon melted and disappeared.
Levi repeated the chant from the beginning. Something lit up in the mirror behind the altar, and he saw the figure approaching him again. Levi closed his eyes and said the spell three times, telling the spirit to appear. “When I looked ahead of me again, I saw a man dressed from head to toe in something like a shroud, more gray than white; he was thin and sad, without a beard.”
Levi was scared. An unnatural chill seized him, and when he tried to speak, he found himself struggling to utter the words. For protection, he put one hand on the pentagram, and with the other pointed the tip of the sword at the apparition, inwardly commanding him to obey. The figure began to blur and disappeared. He ordered her to return. Something touched the hand in which Levi gripped the sword, and she went numb to the elbow.He lowered his sword. Immediately, a figure appeared before him again, but the magician felt a terrible weakness and, apparently, lost consciousness.
Over the next few days, the hand continued to ache, slowly regaining sensation. The figure didn't say anything, but for the two questions Levi intended to ask it, he seemed to get answers from within. These answers were - "death" and "dead". He did not believe that the figure he saw was the spirit of Apollonius, I said that the state in which the ceremony was being prepared and passed was very reminiscent of the state of “drunk imagination”, which could lead to hallucinations, but at the same time Levi was convinced that saw and touched something real. “I do not explain the physical laws by which I saw and touched; I only affirm that what I saw and what I touched, I saw distinctly and clearly, beyond all fantasy, and this is enough to confirm the true effectiveness of magical ceremonies ... I advise those who intend to devote themselves to be extremely carefulsuch occupations: they cause extreme exhaustion, and often the impression is so strong that it can end in illness.
Another French magician, a few years older than Levi, Pierre Vintre, claimed to be the reincarnation of Elijah, who came on a mission to prepare the way for the reappearance of Christ in All His Glory. He founded a mystical sect called the Labor of Mercy, which prided itself on the fact that when they took communion, the hosts were mysteriously covered with blood. Levi, who studied the signs on the holy gifts, stated that these signs are of diabolical origin. On the first wafer, the sinister sign of an inverted pentagram was discernible - a five-pointed star with two rays facing upwards - which is a symbol of Satan, since two raysdenote the horns of the goat of witches' covens. “This is the goat of lust pointing its horns towards heaven. This is a sign cursed by the initiates even at sabbats.” On the second host was an inverted caduceus, and the tails and heads of the snakes intertwined on it looked outward, and not inward, and above the heads of the snakes the Latin letter “U” was depicted. Like all inverted images and signs of duality, this symbolizes evil. On the third wafer, the name Yahweh was written upside down in Hebrew letters. This is also a symbol of the Devil, as it perverts the correct order of writing - “There is only Fatality, there is no God and Spirit. Matter is everything, and Spirit is only an invention of this distorted matter.”
When Vintré died in 1875, the defrocked Catholic priest Abbé Boulet took over the Labor of Mercy, and this set the stage for the great witchcraft battle of 1880-1890. Boulet was born in 1824. After taking the priesthood, he became the spiritual shepherd of a nun named Adele Chevalier, who heard supernatural voices and claimed to have been miraculously healed by the Virgin Mary. Boulet and Adele Chevalier became lovers. In 1859 they founded the "Society for the Rebirth of Souls" which, contrary to its lofty name, practiced sex magic and once even performed ritual murder. On December 8, 1860, at the height of the Mass, Boulay sacrificed the child born of him to Adele Chevalier. Boulet, who had a pentagram tattooed in the corner of his left eye (the left side is the side of evil) and who celebrated Mass in a robe with a crucifix embroidered upside down on it, specialized in exorcism - the expulsion of evil spirits. For nuns who complained of being possessed by the Devil, he recommended taking consecrated wafers mixed with feces (which, like fertilizers, contain powerful life energy). He also taught them to enter into a hypnotic state and imagine that they were copulating with Christ and various saints, and also to enjoy sexual intercourse with his own astral body.
In 1875 Boulet announced that he was the incarnation of John the Baptist and the new leader of the Labor of Mercy. Some members of the sect refused to recognize him, but he gathered a group of followers in Lyon. At the end of 1886, they were visited by the young Marquis Staiislas de Giata, a famous morphinist who later founded the Kabbalistic Order of the Cross and the Rose in Paris. and left indignant. Boulet believed that man's path to God lay through sexual intercourse. He encouraged sexual intercourse with both supernatural beings and mere mortals, and his group carried out ceremonial Marriages of Life or ritual copulations. Giata stated that the real result Bule's teachings are boundless promiscuity, adultery, incest, atrocities and masturbation, practiced with complete impunity, as acts of worship.
A month later, Bule left one of his followers - Oswald Werth. In May 1887, Giata and Werth joined forces and sent Boulet a letter saying that they had condemned him and sentenced him to death. Later, they explained that they only intended to expose Boulet to the public as a scoundrel, but the abbot was convinced, and perhaps not unreasonably, that they were going to kill him with black magic. He took the necessary precautions and the great battle of sorcery began.
Now the story of this magical battle looks unbearably funny, but for those who were involved in it, it did not seem so at all. It is still not clear whether the Giata group sent conspiracies on Bule at all, but Bule himself was convinced of this and, in fear for his life, cast spells that. conspiracies against their enemies. helped him v including his housewife, Julie Thiebaud, who was a clairvoyant. One of Boulet's supporters, Jules Bois, describing the scene in Lyon, said that Boulet asked Julie Thibaut if she saw what the supporters of vice were doing. She said that they put the image of Bude in the coffin (to kill him with imitative magic). She then announced that the opponents were serving a Black Mass against him. Boulet responded with a ceremony called the “Sacrifice of the Glory of Melchizedek,” in which “the feminine was combined with the masculine, red wine was mixed with white, creating ... a victorious mixture, with which the wicked altars were overthrown and the hierophants of Satanism were thrown into the dust.” Unfortunately, it turned out that the hierophants of Satanism retreated only for a while, and the next time they heard the sounds of mysterious blows, as if they were hitting the body with a fist. Bruises appeared on Bule's face, and, with a loudtearing his clothes with a cry, he exposed a bleeding wound on his chest.
Since 1890, the writer Zh-K has become a follower of Boulet. Gisman, completely surrendered to the occult. One of the best-known descriptions of the Black Mass is given in his novel The Pedant. In 1891 Guisman lived with Boulay in Lyon. By this time, in addition to Julie Thibault, Boulet attracted another clairvoyant. Bule's supporters were sure that Giata was trying to poison this girl. They believed that Giata could vaporize poisons and transmit them from a distance. In a letter to a friend, Gisman reported that now Giata “should be bedridden, and the hand into which he used to inject morphine must have swollen ... I was told that de Giata had poisoned the little clairvoyant, who, according to the law of retribution, hastily struck back hit. So it would be interesting to know if Giata is really defeated. Both clairvoyants see him in bed.” The law of retribution implies that all the power of the conspiracy sent is directed to the head of the magician who sent it.
In another letter, Gisman reports: “Boulle rushed about like a tiger, clutching one of his hosts and calling for help from St. Michael, and also the judges of eternal justice. Then, standing on the altar, he shouted: "Throw down Peladan, bring down Peladan, bring down Peladan." And mother Thibaut, folding her hands on her stomach, said: “It is done.” (Peladan was one of the members of Giata's group.)
Then Gisman had the feeling that he himself had become a victim of Giata's sorcery. He constantly felt the presence of an invisible force nearby, and sometimes something cold touched his face. At night he was threatened with what he called "fluid fists". His cat seemed to feel the same way. Gisman turned to Bule for help. Boulet sent him one of the wafers with the blood mark from Vintré's collection and a paste made from myrrh, frankincense, camphor and garlic. The burning of this paste was supposed to ward off the evil forces. Spices, like salt, have the ability to ward off evil, as they are also preservatives. Then one day Boulet warned Gisman not to go to work the next day. Gisman stayed at home, and in his absence a huge mirror fell on his work table. Anyone who happened to be at the table would have been inevitably killed.
In 1893 the battle reached its climax. On the 3rd of January, Boulet wrote to Gisman that the coming year bore bad omens. “The numbers 8-9-3 form a dangerous combination (probably because 8+9+3=20 and 2+0=2 - which is the devilish number of evil). The night before, Jules Thibault dreamed of Giata, and at dawn the black bird of death screamed. It was the herald who announced the advance. Bule woke up at three in the morning, feeling that he was suffocating, and lost consciousness for half an hour. But by four in the morning, he decided that the danger had passed. Bule made a mistake and died the next day, January 4th.
Both Gisman and Jules Bois were convinced that Boulet had been killed by black magic. After Bua published accusatory articles against Gisman, accusing him of practicing black magic, a duel took place between Bois and Giata with revolvers. The closer the day of the duel approached, the more zealous both sides were in conspiracies and witchcraft. On the way to the place of the duel, one of the horses harnessed to the carriage of Bua froze as if rooted to the spot and trembled, as if she had seen the Devil himself. This attack of trembling lasted twenty minutes. During the duel, each of the opponents fired one shot, but both missed. Later it turned out that in one of the revolvers the bullet got stuck in the muzzle. Bua's supporters were convinced that his revolver had run out of power and that they had magically managed to stop the bullet in Giata's revolver. Three days later, Bois fought a duel with one of Guiata's friends, an occultist who called himself "Papus". One of the classic books on Tarot cards belongs to his pen. On the way to this duel, Bois encountered what he interpreted as an occult attack on horses. The horse harnessed to his carriage fell. Op harnessed another, but she stumbled, and the carriage turned over. Bua arrived at the duel site bloodied. This time the duel was fought with swords, but no one was hurt.
While these terrible events were unfolding in France, a large occult society, the Order of the Golden Dawn, was founded in England. In its heyday, the Golden Dawn had a hundred members and had lodges in London, Paris, Edinburgh, Bradford and Weston-super-Mare. The members of the order were W. W. Yeats, two authors of occult thrillers Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Mahen, Astronomer Royal of Scotland and the elderlya priest who, thirty years earlier, had succeeded in making the elixir of life. Interestingly, the author of the elixir himself was afraid to drink it, and at the moment when it became necessary for him to use his invention, the elixir evaporated. This order also included Allan Bennett, an eccentric character who later became a Buddhist monk. He was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, but at the age of sixteen, having learned about the mechanism of procreation, he renounced it. In Aleister Crowley's retelling, Bennett's reaction was as follows:
“Is it possible that the Almighty God, whom we were taught to worship, invented such a disgusting and base way of procreation? Then surely this Lord is the Devil himself, enjoying abomination.” Bennett carried a "consecrated" cup or candlestick with him and once struck a Theosophist who doubted his powers with it. “It took 14 hours to bring the unbeliever back to his senses and restore his ability to control his members.”
The priceless property of the Golden Dawn was a mysterious encrypted manuscript discovered in 1884 by a priest, Dr. Woodman, in a London bookshop. Woodman showed it to William Wynn Westcote, a Kabbalah scholar who at the time was both Procurator of London and Master of the English Rosicrucian Society. But even together, they could not understand much in this manuscript. I had to turn to Samuel Liddell Mathers for help.
At this time, Mathers was in his early forties. Aside from the fact that he went to elementary school in Bradford, where he was a good runner, little is known about his early years. With the help of his wife, who was a clairvoyant, he deciphered the mysterious manuscript, finding out that it was related to certain details of the Kabbalah and the Tarot. Once in the "Golden Dawn", Mathers developed a frenzied activity, and, like a cuckoo in a strange nest, having expelled the founders of the society, he headed it himself. He claimed to have a magical connection with three leaders in Paris, who confirmed his status as the "apparent" head of the order. As a result, Westcote surrendered in 1897 (the Marquis Stanislas de Guiata died of a drug overdose in the same year).
According to Mrs. Mathers in her preface to her husband's book Kabbalah Unveiled (1938 edition), The Golden Dawn explored the "intelligent forces hidden in nature, the constitution of man, and his relationship with God" with good magical "purposes for man" could at last find unity with the Divine Man sleeping within him.” However, despite their lofty goals, the order soonwas at the mercy of personal quarrels and conflicts, especially after Aleister Crowley was admitted to him, who tried to remove Mathers from leadership. Many members of the order were unhappy with the unreasonably high claims of Mathers, who claimed that he was spiritually led by the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and the society split. Later, it was revived and reorganized under the leadership of A. E. Veit.
Mathers and his wife Moina - the sister of the philosopher Henry Bergson - moved to Paris. (Mathers tried to convert Bergson, but was unsuccessful.) Their house was furnished in the style of an Egyptian temple, and they celebrated "Egyptian masses" invoking the goddess Isis. At the ceremony, Mathers dressed in a white cassock, belted with a metal hoop on which the signs of the zodiac were engraved, he had bracelets on his wrists and knees, and a leopard skin was thrown over his shoulder. He was convinced that he was a descendant of the Scottish clan MacGregor, and began to call himself MacGregor Mathers, Chevalier MacGregor and Comte de Glenstre. The Mathers' private visitor to Paris was W. B. Yeats, whose magical name in the Golden Dawn wasDaemon est Deus Inversus (The Devil is the Other Side of the Lord). In the evenings they played a kind of chess for four. Yates and Mrs. Mathers played against Mathers and the spirit. Before moving his disembodied partner's piece, Mathers shielded his eyes with his hand and peered gravely at the empty chair on the opposite side of the board.
Mathers published and translated important magical books - the famous "Key of Solomon", which he unfortunately vulgarized, "The Sacred Magic of the Magician Abramelin" and "Kabbalah Unveiled", mostly difficult to read and "boring", but having a valuable preface by Mathers. Except In addition, he developed a system of distant magical connections (described in chapter III), which was adopted and deepened by Adisger Crowley.Matero and Crowley were implacable enemies.When Mathers died in 1918, two of his friends were sure that Aleister had killed him Crowley using black magic.
Aleister Crowley - poet, artist, climber, traveler, chess player, brilliant mood storyteller, asthmatic, drug addict, libertine I am a master of magic, born in 1875 (the year of the death of Eliphas Levi). Crowley later decided that he was Levi's reincarnation. (In previous lives he was Cagliostro, Alexander VI, Borgia Pope.) Crowley's father was a brewer and left his son a fortune that he spent at an incredible rate. Crowley's parents were members of the Plymouth Brotherhood, and he was raised in a strict puritanical atmosphere. He studied at Malverve, Towbridge and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the varsity chess team, gained experience with homosexual repercussions and earned himself a reputation for being terribly sinister. Oa was fond of mountaineering and climbed Kaagchedjuyagu in his youth.” In 1903, he married Rose Qually, the sister of the painter Gerald Kell, who later became president of the Royal Academy. She was clairvoyant, and it was through her that in 1904 in Cairo the spirit of Ameav Aiwass dictated to Crowley his first serious magical work, The Book of the Law. Then Rose Kelly became addicted to alcohol, and Crowley divorced her.
In 1898, Crowley entered the Order of the Golden Dawn, assuming the magical name of Brother Perdurabo (I will endure). In The Great Beast, Crowley's brilliant biographies, John Saimoido fears how Crowley tried to expel Matters and take his place. Enraged Mathers vasla wa Crowley of the vampire, but Crowley "turned against the vampire his own stream of ala" and crushed him. The struggle flared up, both sides participated in it with equal fervor. Mathers succeeded in destroying Crowley's entire pack of hounds with a single blow, inducing madness in his servant, and almost bringing Mrs. Crowley to death. The servant was tamed only with the help of a spear. In response, Crowley summoned Beelzebub and 49 devils subject to him and sent them to pursue Mother I Paris.
Exiled from the Golden Dawn, Crowley founded own AA society(Argentium Astrum -- "Silver Star"), but it never surpassed the "Golden Dawn" neither in number nor in the eminence of its members. By 1914, it counted 38 people. In 1610, Mathers obtained a court order that forbade Crowley from publishing the secrets of the Golden Star in his journal The Equinox. Crowley filed a protest, rather brazenly using a talisman "to win the favor of the judge", taken from the Mother's translation of the book "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin". The talisman worked and Crowley's protest was granted. The talisman consists of the following letters written on Parchment
| A L M A N A N L M A R E A A L B E N A N A R E H A L L H A |
All of Crowley's poetry and magical works are permeated with sexuality. He was distinguished by incredible love and, apparently, was a success with women. He carried with him special "spirits of immortality", which consisted of one part of ambergris, two parts - musk and three parts civet, which he claimed attracted women and horses, who always neighed at him. In 1912, the leaders of a German occult society specializing in sexual magic (Oriental Templars) were alarmed that Crowley published the secrets of their order in his Equinox. They met with Crowley in London, found out that these secrets were revealed to them on their own, and invited him to join their order. Crowley became the British head of the order, receiving the title of High and Holy King of Ireland and all Britannia included and the Sanctuary of Knowledge.
Crowley spent World War I in the United States doing anti-British propaganda among the Germans. Blood and iron have always impressed him. In 1916, after moving to Bristol, New Hampshire, he ascended to the upper magical stage of the Master, performing a ceremony of his own invention: he christened a toad with the name of Jesus Christ, after which he crucified it.
In 1920 he went to Cefalu va Sicilai and founded the Holy Abbey of Thelema (Greek for "will") with his mistress the Red Woman and Sister Cyprida (Aphrodite's name). However, he collected very few students and, accordingly, money. For most of his life, Crowley was in great need of both the former and the latter. Rumors, sometimes quitewell-founded, about disgusting rituals and orgies reached the government of Mussolini, and in 1923 Crowley was expelled. Later, he was expelled from "France and wandered alone from England to Germany and Portugal and back, constantly being in the field of view of the press,calling him "the most depraved man in the world." He himself preferred to call himself "The Great Beast".
Numerous magical works of Crowley were published in dubious magazines with small circulations, and at the expense of the author. Crowley's most accessible and simply written books are the brilliant occult thriller Moonchild and his masterpiece Magic in Theory and Practice, published in 1929. Despite the occultist's fondness for vagueness, Crowley was a gifted writer with a sardonic sense of humor and, if desired, the ability to express himself in simple and clear language. Perhaps wow "Magic in Theory and Practice" is the best book in its field.
Crowley died in Hastings in 1947. To the annoyance and indignation of the local authorities, his orgiastic "Hymn to Pan" was read at his extremely strange funeral in the crematorium chapel at Brighton. The last lines of the anthem paint the image in which Crowley wanted to be around.
I am your man, I am your man
I am a goat from your flock.
I am gold, I am god.
Flesh on your bones
A flower on your stem
I beat with steel hooves on stones
Under the sun freezing at its zenith.
Crazy, rape, cut
Endless this eternal world.
I am a worm, I am an immaculate maenad, I am a man
For glory Pan.
Io Pan, Pan! Io Pan!
In order to achieve the sanctum regnum, or, in other words, the wisdom and power of magicians, four conditions are necessary: a mind enlightened by learning; fearlessness that will not back down from any threat; a will that nothing can break; and a caution that will not yield to any temptation. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WISH, TO KEEP SILENCE - these are the four signs of a magician ...
Eliphas Leah.
Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic
Interest in the occult and magic has steadily increased over the past hundred years, perhaps due to the equally steady widening of the gulf separating the average educated person from Christianity on the one hand, and from science on the other. The ranks of practicing magicians were also not empty, and the 19th and 20th centuries inscribed many prominent personalities in the history of magic. First of all, Eliphas Levi, MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley should be mentioned.
Eliphas Levi (real name - Alphonse Louis Constant) was born in Paris around 1810. His father was a shoemaker and provided the family with only the most necessary things so as not to starve to death, but the young Alphonse Louis turned out to be a precocious child, and he was sent to study as a priest. In every book by Eliphas Levi, traces of the conflict between his orthodox Catholic upbringing, on the one hand, and his passion for magic, on the other, are noticeable. And although Levi tried all his life to reconcile these warring camps in his teaching, it cannot be said that he succeeded. Since Levi was expelled from the seminary, it is reasonable to assume that he became interested in the occult quite early. In his magical studies, he strictly followed three of the principles he himself formulated - that is, he knew, dared and desired; but, fortunately, the fourth principle - to remain silent - was observed not so carefully. In 1855-1856, he published in two volumes his main and most impressive work - "The Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic" ("Le Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie"). Filled with violent and at the same time dreamy romanticism, vague and long-winded, often obscure, and sometimes frankly absurd, this book is nevertheless written with sincere ardor and amazes with the boldness of the imagination, the creative power and the depth of the author's insights into the secrets of magical theory and practice, thanks to which it is read with interest and benefit even more than a hundred years after its first publication. Levi's later books are not so interesting, but among them are the History of Magic (1860) and The Key to the Mysteries (1861), which he himself translated into English, reincarnated as Alistair Crowley. Eliphas Levi's books did not bring him wealth. He made a living teaching occult lessons for beginners, impressing his students with his imposing appearance, long bushy beard, conspicuous slovenliness and incredible gluttony. In 1860 he returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church, and in 1875 he died, having confessed and received communion according to the Christian canons. The competent English occultist A. E. Waite, who was not a reincarnation of Levi, but nevertheless successfully translated into English the Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic, claimed that in this book Levi revealed the secrets of the occult organization in which he was a member " for which he was expelled from this organization. It is not entirely clear whether Waite was referring to the English occult society, headed by the famous novelist Budwer-Lytton; . The theory of magic has always attracted him more than the practice, and his participation in only one magical ritual is reliably known. It was a ritual of necromancy, though unusually sublime and pure: in London in 1854, Levi evoked the spirit of the pagan philosopher and magician Apollonius of Tyana. Levi's description of this ceremony seems strikingly simple and frank, compared to his usual enthusiastic and pompous style. He was persuaded to perform the ritual by a certain mysterious woman in black, who called herself a friend of "Sir B -L-". Levi prepared for the ceremony for twenty-one days, observing fasting and abstinence. (21 \u003d 3 X 7, and 3 and 7 are especially powerful magic numbers.) He performed the ritual alone, without witnesses, in a room with four concave mirrors and an altar mounted on a fresh skin of a white lamb. A pentagram (five-pointed star) was carved on the marble cover of the altar, which was surrounded by a magic circle - a chain of magnetized iron - to protect against evil forces. On the altar was placed a small copper incense burner with the ashes of burnt bay leaves and almond wood. Another incense burner stood on a tripod to the side. Levi dressed in white clothes (the white color was supposed to demonstrate the purity of his intentions and attract good forces) and placed a wreath of vervain leaves intertwined with a gold chain on his head. According to tradition, vervain has the ability to ward off demons. In one hand, Levi held a new sword, and in the other, a text describing the ritual. Levi lit a fire in both censers to create smoke - the material from which the spirit would create a visible body for itself - and intoned a long and mysterious spell that called the spirit from the world of shadows. "The demons sing praises to the Lord in unison; and their malice and rage leave them... Cerberus opens all three of his mouths, and the fire sings praises to the Lord with three tongues of lightning... the soul returns to the tombs, the magic lamps are lit..." At first he read the incantation was low and low, but then his voice became higher and louder. The smoke began to swirl and floated over the altar. Levi felt the earth itself tremble, and his heart began to beat faster. He threw more fuel on the fire, the flame flared brightly, and the figure of a man appeared in front of the altar; but after a moment it melted into thin air and disappeared. Levi repeated the spell. The mirror in front of the altar became brighter, and then from the depths of it a figure moved towards the caster. Closing his eyes, Levi commanded the spirit three times to appear. "When I opened my eyes again, a man stood before me, wrapped from head to toe in a kind of shroud - more gray than white; the man was thin, sullen and beardless." Levi was frightened and felt an unnatural cold permeate his entire body. When he tried to speak to the spirit, he found himself unable to utter a word. Then he put one hand on the protective pentagram, and pointed the tip of the sword, which he held in the other hand, at the spirit, mentally ordering him to obey. The figure faded and disappeared again. Levi told the ghost to return. Something touched his hand, in which he held the sword, and the hand went numb to the elbow. Levi had to lower his sword. The ghost immediately reappeared, but Levi suddenly became weak and fainted. The numbness and pain in the arm went away after only a few days. The ghost didn't say a word, but the answers to the two questions he intended to ask the spirit popped up in Levi's mind. The answers were the words "death" and "dead". Levi himself did not believe that the ghost that appeared to him was really the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana, and claimed that the preparation for the ceremony and the ceremony itself had an intoxicating effect on his mind and imagination, due to which an ordinary hallucination could well have arisen; but at the same time he was convinced that he saw something real and came into contact with something material. "I am not trying to explain the physical laws that allowed me to see and feel it; I only claim that I saw it distinctly and clearly, not in a dream, but in reality, and this is enough to confirm the true effectiveness of magical ceremonies. ... who intends to devote himself to such experiments, I advise you to exercise the greatest caution: they entail a breakdown and often cause a shock that threatens with illness. Another French magician, Pierre Vintra, who was several years older than Levi, announced that he was the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah and came back into the world in order to prepare the coming second coming of Jesus Christ. He founded a mystical sect called the Work of Mercy, which prided itself on a collection of communion wafers miraculously marked with blood marks. After examining the marks on three of these hosts, Levi recognized the traces of the Devil in them. The first sign was an inverted pentagram - a five-pointed star, two rays of which are turned upwards - which is considered a symbol of Satan: two rays directed upwards symbolize the goat horns of the chairman of the coven. "This is the goat of voluptuousness, attempting to strike Heaven with its horns. This sign is abhorred by initiates of higher degrees, even in the Sabbat." The second mark turned out to be a caduceus turned inside out: the heads and tails of the snakes turned outward, not inward, and the letter V was inscribed above their heads. Like all inverted symbols and symbols of the Two, this is an emblem of evil. The third wafer was marked with an inverted Hebrew name for Jehovah. It is also a symbol of the Devil, personifying a perversion of the correct order of things: "There is no God and Spirit; only Rock exists. Only matter exists, and the spirit is just a fiction of matter that has lost its mind."
In 1875, Vintra died, and the former Catholic priest, defrocked, Abb Bullan, became the head of the Works of Mercy. This event served as a harbinger of the great "battle of the sorcerers" that continued into the 1880s and 1890s. Bullan was born in 1824. After ordination, he became the spiritual mentor of a certain nun named Adele Chevalier, who heard supernatural voices and claimed that the Virgin Mary herself miraculously cured her of her illness. In 1859, Bulland and Chevalier founded the "Society for the Reformation of Souls", whose members, despite the lofty name, practiced sexual magic and committed ritual murder at least once. On December 8, 1860, Bullan, at the climax of the mass, sacrificed the child that Adele Chevalier bore him. An inverted pentagram was tattooed in the corner of Bullan's left eye (the left side is associated with evil), and he celebrated mass in a vestment embroidered in the form of an inverted cross. He specialized in exorcism - the exorcism of evil spirits. Nuns who complained of being tormented by demons, he treated with a mixture of consecrated wafers with feces (which, being fertilizer, contain a powerful life force). In addition, Bullan taught the nuns, through self-hypnosis, to suggest to themselves that they were copulating with Christ and the saints, and also to enjoy sexual intercourse with the astral body of Bullan himself.
In 1875, Bullan declared himself the reincarnation of John the Baptist and the new head of the Works of Mercy. Some members of the sect did not accept him, but in Lyon he managed to gather a group of adherents. At the end of 1886, they were visited by the young Marquis Stanislas de Guaita, a morphine addict who later founded the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose and Cross in Paris. A year before this visit, de Guaita had read Eliphas Levi and enthusiastically plunged into the theoretical and practical studies of magic. He stayed in Lyon for two weeks and left it with a feeling of disappointment and disgust. Bullan believed that a person's path to the Lord lies through sexual intercourse. He encouraged sexual relations with supernatural beings and with people; his group performed the ceremonies of "Unions of Life" - ritual copulations. Guaita stated that the practical outcome of Bullan's teaching is an unrestricted promiscuity in which adultery, incest, bestiality, and masturbation appear as solemn acts of deity worship.
