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Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie
 Translated by A. E. Waite



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Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie
Part I: The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
By Eliphas Levi (Alp honse Louis Constant)
Translated by A. E. Waite.
Originally published by Rider & Company, England, 1896.
Transcribed and converted to Adobe Acrobat format by Benjamin Rowe, June,
2001.
Typeset in Bauer Bodoni and Waters Titling.



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 Part I:
The Doctrine of 
Transcendental 
 Magic



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 INTRODUCTION 
BEHIND the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, 
behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all 
sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old 
temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the 
monstrous or marvellous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the 
inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, 
in the ceremonies practised at reception by all secret societies, there are found 
indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully 
concealed. Occult philosophy seems to have been the nurse or god-mother of all 
intellectual forces, the key of all divine obscurities and the absolute queen of soci-
ety in those ages – when it was reserved exclusively for the education of priests 
and of kings. It reigned in Persia with the Magi, who perished in the end, as perish 
all masters of the world, because they abused their power; it endowed India with 
the most wonderful traditions and with an incredible wealth of poesy, grace and 
terror in its emblems; it civilized Greece to the music of the lyre of Orpheus; it 
concealed the principles of all sciences, all progress of the human mind, in the 
daring calculations of Pythagoras; fable abounded in its miracles, and history, 
attempting to estimate this unknown power, became confused with fable; it 
undermined or consolidated empires by its oracles, caused tyrants to tremble on 
their thrones and governed all minds, either by curiosity or by fear. For this sci- 
ence, said the crowd, there is nothing impossible, it commands the elements, 
knows the language of the stars and directs the planetary courses; when it speaks, 
the moon falls blood-red from heaven; the dead rise in their graves and mutter 
ominous words, as the night wind blows thrugh their skulls. Mistro ess of love or of
hate, occult science can dispense paradise or hell at its pleasure to human hearts; 
it disposes of all forms and confers beauty or ugliness; with the wand of Circe it 
changes men into brutes and animals alternately into men; it disposes even of life 
and death, can confer wealth on its adepts by the transmutation of metals and 
immortality by its quintessence or elixir, compounded of gold and light. 
 Such was Magic from Zoroaster to Manes, from Orpheus to Apollonius of 
Tyana, when positive Christianity, victorious at length over the brilliant dreams 
and titanic aspirations of the Alexandrian school, dared to launch its anathemas 
publicly against this philosophy, and thus forced it to become more occult and 
mysterious than ever. Moreover, strange and alarming rumours began to circulate 
concerning initiates or adepts; they were surrounded every where by an ominous 
influence, and they destroyed or distracted those who allowed themselves to be 
beguiled by their honeyed eloquence or by the sorcery of their learning. The 
women whom they loved became Stryges and their children vanished at nocturnal 
meetings, while men whispered shudderingly and in secret of bloodstained orgies 
1 



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2 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
and abominable banquets. Bones had been found in the crypts of ancient temples,
shrieks had been heard in the night, harvests withered and herds sickened when
the magician passed by. Diseases which defied medical skill appeared at times in
the world, and always, it was said, beneath the envenomed glance of the adepts.
At length a universal cry of execration went up against Magic, the mere name
became a crime and the common hatred was formulated in this sentence: “Magi-
cians to the flames!” – as it was shouted some centuries earlier: “To the lions with
the Christians!” Now the multitude never conspires except against real powers; it
does not know what is true, but it has the instinct of what is strong. It remained
for the eighteenth century to deride both Christians and Magic, while infatuated
with the disquisitions of Rousseau and the illusions of Cagliostro.
 Science, notwithstanding, is at the basis of Magic, as at the root of Christianity
there is love, and in the Gospel symbols we find the Word Incarnate adored in His
cradle by Three Magi, led thither by a star – the triad and the sign of the micro-
cosm – and receiving their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, a second myste-
rious triplicity, under which emblem the highest secrets of the Kabalah are
allegorically contained. Christianity owes therefore no hatred to Magic, but
human ignorance has ever stood in fear of the unknown. The science was driven
into hiding to escape the impassioned assaults of blind desire: it clothed itself with
new hieroglyphics, falsified its intentions, denied its hopes. Then it was that the
jargon of alchemy was created, an impenetrable illusion for the vulgar in their
greed of gold, a living language only for the true disciple of Hermes.
 Extraordinary fact! Among the sacred r ecords of the Christians there are two
texts which the infallible Church makes no claim to understand and has never
attempted to expound: these are the Prophecy of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, two
Kabalistic Keys reserved assuredly in heaven for the commentaries of Magian
Kings, books sealed as with seven seals for faithful believers, yet perfectly plain to
an initiated infidel of the occult sciences. There is also another work, but,
although it is popular in a sense and may be found everywhere, this is of all most
occult and unknown, because it is the key of the rest. It is in public evidence with-
out being known to the public; no one suspects its existence and no one dreams of
seeking it where it actually is. This book, which may be older than that of Enoch,
actually has never been translated, but is still preserved unmutilated in primeval
characters, on detached leaves, like the tablets of the ancients. The fact has
eluded notice, though a distinguished scholar has revealed, not indeed its secret,
but its antiquity and singular preservatio n. Another scholar, but of a mind more
fantastic than judicious, passed years in the study of this masterpiece, and has
merely suspected its plenary importance. It is, in truth, a monumental and
extraordinary work, strong and simple as the architecture of the pyramids, and
consequently enduring like those – a book which is the summary of all sciences,
which can resolve all problems by its infinite combinations, which speaks by



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 INTRODUCTION 3
evoking thought, is the inspirer and moderator of all possible conceptions, and the 
masterpiece perhaps of the human mind. It is to be counted unquestionably 
among the very great gifts bequeathed to us by antiquity; it is a universal key, the 
name of which has been explained and comprehended only by the learned Will- 
iam Postel; it is a unique test, whereof the initial characters alone plunged into 
ecstasy the devout spirit of Saint-Martin, and might have restored reason to the 
sublime and unfortunate Swedenborg. We shall recur to this book later on, for its 
mathematical and precise explanation will be the complement and crown of our 
conscientious undertaking. 
 The original alliance between Christianity and the Science of the Magi, once 
demonstrated fully, will be a discovery of no second-rate importance, and we do 
not doubt that the serious study of Magic and the Kabalah will lead earnest minds 
to a reconciliation of science and dogma, of reason and faith, heretofore regarded 
as impossible. 
 We have said that the Church, whose special office is the custody of the Keys, 
does not pretend to possess those of the Apocalypse or of Ezekiel. In the opinion of 
Christians the scientific and magical Clavi cles of Solomon are lost, which notwith- 
standing, it is certain that, in the domain of intelligence, ruled by the Word noth- 
ing that has been written can perish. Whatsoever men cease to understand exists 
for them no longer, at least in the order of the Word, and it passes then into the 
domain of enigma and mystery. Furthermore, the antipathy and even open war of 
the Official Church against all that belongs to the realm of Magic, which is a kind 
of personal and emancipated priesthood, is allied with necessary and even with 
inherent causes in the social and hierarchic constitution of Christian sacerdotal- 
ism. The Church ignores Magic – for she must either ignore it or perish, as we 
shall prove later on; yet she does not recognize the less that her mysterious 
Founder was saluted in His cradle by Three Magi – that is to say, by the hieratic 
ambassadors of the three parts of the known world and the three analogical 
worlds of occult philosophy. In the School of Alexandria, Magic and Christianity 
almost joined hands under the auspices of Ammonius Saccas and of Plato; the 
doctrine of Hermes is found almost in its entirety in the writings attributed to 
Dionysius the Areopagite; Synesius outlined the plan of a treatise on dreams, 
which was annotated subsequently by Cardan, and composed hymns that might 
have served for the liturgy of the Church of Swedenborg, could a church of the 
illuminated possess a liturgy. With this period of fiery abstractions and impas- 
sioned warfare of words there must be connected also the philosophic reign of 
Julian, called the Apostate because in his youth he made unwilling profession of 
Christianity. Everyone is aware that Julian had the misfortune to be a hero out of 
season of Plutarch, and that he was, if one may say so, the Don Quixote of roman 
Chivalry; but what most people do not know is that he was one of the illuminated 
and an initiate of the first order: that he believed in the unity of God and in the 



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4 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
universal doctrine of the Trinity; that, in a word, he regretted nothing of the old
world but its magnificent symbols and its too gracious images. Julian was not a
pagan; he was a Gnostic allured by the allegories of Greek polytheism, who had
the misfortune to find the name of Jesus Christ less sonorous than that of
Orpheus. The Emperor paid in his person for the academical tastes of the philoso-
pher and rhetorician, and after affording himself the spectacle and satisfaction of
expiring like Epaminondas with the periods of Cato, he had in public opinion, by
this time fully Christianized , but anathemas for his funeral oration and a scornful
epithet for his ultimate memorial.
 Let us pass over the petty minds and small matters of the Bas-Empire, and
proceed to the Middle Ages . . . . Stay, take this book! Glance at the seventh page,
then seat yourself on the mantle which I am spreading, and let each of us cover
our eyes with one of its corners . . . . Your head swims, does it not, and the earth
seems to fly beneath your feet? Hold tightly, and do not look right or left . . . .
The vertigo ceases: we are here. Stand up and open your eyes, but take care
before all things to make no Christian sign and to pronounce no Christian words.
We are in a landscape of Salvator Rosa, a troubled wilderness which seems resting
after a storm. There is no moon in the sky, but you can distinguish little stars
gleaming in the brushwood, and may hear about you the slow flight of great
birds, which seem to whisper strange oracles as they pass. Let us approach
silently that crossroad among the rocks. A harsh, funereal trumpet winds sud-
denly, and black torches flare up on every side. A tumultuous throng is surging
round a vacant throne: all watch and wait. Suddenly they cast themselves on the
ground. A goat-headed prince bounds forward among them; he ascends the
throne, turns, and assuming a stooping posture, presents to the assembly a human
face, which everyone comes forward to salute and to kiss, their black taper in
their hands. With a hoarse laugh he recovers an upright position, and then dis-
tributes gold, secret instructions, occult medicines and poisons to his faithful
bondsmen. Meanwhile, fires are lighted of fern and alder, piled up with human
bones and the fat of executed criminals. Druidesses, crowned with wild parsley
and vervain, immolate unbaptized children with golden knives and prepare horri-
ble love-feasts. Tables are spread, masked men seat themselves by half-nude
females, and a Bacchanalian orgy begins; there is nothing wanting but salt, the
symbol of wisdom and immortality. Wine flows in streams, leaving stains like
blood; obscene advances and abandoned caresses begin. A little while, and the
whole assembly is beside itself with drink and wantonness, with crimes and sing-
ing. They rise, a disordered throng, and form infernal dances . . . . Then come all
legendary monsters, all phantoms of nightmare; enormous toads play inverted
flutes and thump with paws on flanks; limping scarabaei mingle in the dance;
crabs play the castanets; crocodiles beat time on their scales; elephants and mam-
moths appear habited like Cupids and foot it in the ring: finally, the giddy circles



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 INTRODUCTION 5
break up and scatter on all sides . . . . Every yelling dancer drags away a dishev- 
elled female . . . . Lamps and candles formed of human fat go out smoking in the 
darkness . . . . Cries are heard here and there, mingled with peals of laughter, 
blasphemies and rattlings in the throat. Come, rouse yourself: do not make the 
sign of the cross! See, I have brought you home. You are in your bed, not a little 
worn out, possibly a trifle shattered, by your night's journey and its orgy; but you 
have beheld that of which everyone talks without knowledge; you have been initi- 
ated into secrets no less terrible than the grotto of Triphonius; you have been 
present at the Sabbath. It remains for you now to preserve your wits, to have a 
wholesome dread of the law, and to keep at a respectful distance from the Church 
and her faggots. 
 Would you care, as a change, to behold something less fantastic, more real and 
also more truly terrible? You shall assist at the execution of Jacques de Molay and 
his accomplices or his brethren in martyrdom . . . . Be not misled, however; con- 
fuse not the guilty and the innocent! Did the Templars really adore Baphomet? 
Did they offer a shameful salutation to the buttocks of the goat of Mendes? What 
was actually this secret and potent association which imperilled Church and 
State, and was thus destroyed unheard? Judge nothing lightly; they are guilty of a 
great crime; they have exposed to profane eyes the sanctuary of antique initiation. 
They have gathered again and have shared the fruits of the tree of knowledge, so 
that they might become masters of the world. The judgement pronounced against 
them is higher and far older than the tribunal of pope or king: “On the day that 
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” said God Himself, as we read in the 
Book of Genesis. 
 What then is taking place in the world, and why do priests and potentates 
tremble? What secret power threatens tiar as and crowns? A few bedlamites are 
roaming from land to land, concealing, as they say, the Philosophical Stone under 
their ragged vesture. They can change earth into gold, and they are without food 
or lodging! Their brows are encircled by an aureole of glory and by a shadow of 
ignominy! One has discovered the universal science and goes vainly seeking death 
to escape the agonies of his triumph: he is the Majorcan Raymond Lully. Another 
heals imaginary diseases by fantastic remedies, belying beforehand that proverb 
which enforces the futility of a cautery on a wooden leg: he is the marvellous 
Paracelsus, always drunk and always lucid, like the heroes of Rabelais. Here is 
William Postel writing naivel y to the fathers of the Council of Trent, proclaiming 
that he has discovered the absolute doctrine, hidden from the foundation of the 
world, and is longing to share it with them. The Council heeds not the maniac, 
does not vouchsafe to condemn him, but proceeds to examine the grave questions 
of efficacious grace and sufficing grace. He whom we behold perishing poor and 
abandoned is Cornelius Agrippa, less of a magician than any, though the vulgar 
persist in regarding him as a more potent sorcerer than all because he was some- 



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6 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
times a cynic and mystifier. What secret do these men bear with them to their
tomb? Why are they wondered at without being understood? Why are they con-
demned unheard? Why are they initiates of those terrific secret sciences of which
the Church and society are afraid? Why ar e they acquainted with things of which
others know nothing? Why do they conceal what all men burn to know? Why are
they invested with a dread and unknown power? The occult sciences! Magic!
These words will reveal all and give food for further thought! De omni re scribili
et quibusdum aliis. 
 But what, as a fact, was this Magic? What was the power of these men who
were at once so proud and so persecuted? If they were really strong, why did they
not overcome their enemies? But if they were impotent and foolish, why did peo-
ple honour them by fearing them? Does Magic exist? Is there an occult knowledge
which is in truth a power and works wonders comparable to the miracles of
authorized religions? To these two palmary questions we make answer by an
affirmation and a book. The book shall justify the affirmation, and the affirma-
tion is this: There was and there still is a potent and real Magic; all that is said of
it in legend is true after a certain manner, yet – contrary to the common course of
popular exaggeration – it falls below the truth. There is indeed a formidable
secret, the revelation of which has once already transformed the world, as testified
in Egyptian religious tradition, summarized symbolically by Moses at the begin-
ning of Genesis. This secret constitutes the fatal Science of Good and Evil, and the
consequence of its revelation is death. Moses depicts it under the figure of a Tree
which stands in the midst of the Terrestrial Paradise, is in proximity to the Tree of
Life and is joined at the root thereto. At the foot of this tree is the source of the
four mysterious rivers; it is guarded by the sword of fire and by the four symboli-
cal forms of the Biblical sphinx, the Cherubim of Ezekiel . . . . Here I must pause,
and I fear that already I have said too much. I testify in fine that there is one sole,
universal and imperishable dogma, strong as supreme reason; simple, like all that
is great; intelligible, like all that is universally and absolutely true; and this dogma
is the parent of all others. There is also a science which confers on man powers
apparently superhuman. They are enumerated thus in a Hebrew manuscript of
the sixteenth century: 
 “Hereinafter follow the powers and privileges of him who holds in his
 right hand the Clavicles of Solomon, and in his left the Branch of the Blos-
 soming Almond. ' ALEPH . – He beholds God face to face, without dying.
 and converses familiarly with the seven genii who command the entire celes-
 tial army. h BETH . – He is above all griefs and all fears. g GHIMEL . – He
 reigns with all heaven and is served by all hell. o DALETH . – He rules his
 own health and life and can influence equally those of others. x HE. – He
 can neither be surprised by misfortune nor overwhelmed by disasters, nor



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 INTRODUCTION 7
 can he be conquered by his enemies. nVAU. – He knows the reason of the 
 past, present and future. z ZAIN. – He possesses the secrt of the re esurrection 
 of the dead and the key of immortality. 
 Such are the seven chief privileges, and those which rank next are these: 
 kCHETH. – To find the Philosophical Stone. tTETH. – To possess the 
 Universal Medicine. v IOD. – To know the laws of perpetual motion and to 
 prove the quadrature of the circle. [ CAPH . – To change into gold not only 
 all metals but also the earth itself, and even the refuse of the earth. 
 sLAMED. – To subdue the most ferocious animals and have power to pro- 
 nounce those words which paralyse and charm serpents. a MEM. – To have 
 the ARS NOTORIA which gives the Universal Science. i NUN. – To speak 
 learnedly on all subjects, without preparation and without study. 
 These, finally, are the seven least powers of the Magus: 
 ySAMECH. – To know at a glance the deep things of the souls of men and 
 the mysteries of the hearts of women. r AYIN. – To force Nature to make him 
 free at his pleasure. q PE . – To foresee all futureevents which do not depend 
 on a superior free will, or on an undiscernible cause. , TSADE . – To give at 
 once and to all the most efficacious consolations and the most wholesome 
 counsels. f KOPH . – To triumph over adversities. wRESH . – To conquer love 
 and hate. c SHIN . – To have the secret of wealth, to bealways its master and 
 never its slave. To enjoy even poverty and never become abject or miserable. 
 mTAU. – Let us add to these three septenaries that the wise man rules the 
 elements, stills tempests, cures the diseased by his touch and raises the 
 dead! 
 But certain things have been sealed by Solomon with his triple seal. It is 
 enough that the initiates know; as for others, whether they deride, doubt or 
 believe, whether they threaten or fear, what matters it to science or to us?” 
 Such actually are the issues of occult philosophy, and we are in a position to 
meet the charge of insanity or the suspicion of imposture when we affirm that 
these privileges are real. To demonstrate this is the sole end of our work on occult 
philosophy. The Philosophical Stone, the Universal Medicine, the transmutation 
of metals, the quadrature of the circle and the secret of perpetual motion are nei- 
ther mystifications of science nor dreams of delusion. They are terms which must 
be understood in their proper sense; they formulate the varied applications of one 
and the same secret, the several aspects of a single operation, which is defined in a 
more comprehensive manner under the name of the Great Work. Furthermore, 
there exists in Nature a force which is immeasurably more powerful than steam, 
and a single man, who is able to adapt and direct it, might change thereby the 
face of the whole world. This force was known to the ancients; it consists in a Uni- 
versal Agent having equilibrium for its supreme law, while its direction is con- 



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8 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic 
cerned immediately with the Great Arcanum of Transcendental Magic. By the
direction of this agent it is possible to modify the very order of the seasons; to pro-
duce at night the phenomena of day; to correspond instantaneously between one
extremity of the earth and the other; to see, like Apollonius, what is taking place
on the other side of the world; to heal or injure at a distance; to give speech a uni-
versal success and reverberation. This agent, which barely manifests under the
uncertain methods of Mesmer's followers, is precisely that which the adepts of the
Middle Ages denominated the First Matter of the Great Work. The Gnostics repre-
sented it as the fiery body of the Holy Spirit; it was the object of adoration in the
Secret Rites of the Sabbath and the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Bap-
homet or the Androgyne of Mendes. All this will be proved. 
 Here then are the secrets o occult philosophyf , and such is Magic in history. Let
us glance at it now as it appears in its books and its acts, in its Initiations and its
Rites. The key of all magical allegories is found in the tablets which we have men-
tioned, and these tablets we regard as the work of Hermes. About this book,
which may be called the keystone of the whole edifice of occult science, are
grouped innumerable legends that are either its partial translation or its commen-
tary reproduced perpetually, under a thousand varied forms. Sometimes the inge-
nious fables combine harmoniously into a great epic which characterizes an
epoch, though how or why is not clear to the uninitiated. T hus, the fabulous his-
tory of the Golden Fleece resumes and also veils the Hermetic and magical doc-
trines of Orpheus; and if we recur only to the mysterious poetry of Greece, it is
because the sanctuaries of Egypt and India to some extent dismay us by their
resources, leaving our choice embarrassed in the midst of such abundant wealth.
We are eager, moreover, to reach the Thebaid at once, that dread synthesis of all
doctrine, past, present and future; that – so to speak – infinite fable, which
reaches, like the Deity of Orpheus, to either end of the cycle of human life.
Extraordinary fact! The seven gates of Th ebes, attacked and defended by seven
chiefs who have sworn upon the blood of victims, possess the same significance as
the seven seals of the Sacred Book interpreted by seven genii and assailed by a
monster with seven heads, after being opened by a Lamb which liveth and was
dead, in the allegorical work of St. John. The mysterious origin of Oedipus, found
hanging on the tree of Cithaeron like a bleeding fruit, recalls the symbols of Moses
and the narratives of Genesis. He makes war upon his father, whom he slays with-
out knowing – tremendous prophecy of the blind emancipation of reason apart
from science. Thereafter he meets with the sphinx, that symbol of symbols, the
eternal enigma of the vulgar, the granite pedestal of the sciences of the sages, the
voracious and silent monster whose unchanging form expresses the one dogma of
the Great Universal Mystery. How is the tetrad changed into the duad and
explained by the triad? In more common but more emblematic terms, what is that
animal which in the morning has four feet, two at noon, and three in the evening?



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 INTRODUCTION 9
Philosophically speaking, how does the doctrine of elementary forces produce the 
dualism of Zoroaster, while it is summarized by the triad of Pythagoras and 
Plato? What is the ultimate reason of allegories and numbers, the final message of 
all symbolisms? Oedipus replies with a simple and terrible word which destroys 
the sphinx and makes the diviner King of Thebes: the answer to the enigma is 
MAN! . . . Unfortunate! He has seen too much, and yet through a clouded glass. A 
little while and he will expiate his ominous and imperfect clairvoyance by a vol- 
untary blindness, and then vanish in the midst of a storm, like all civilizations 
which – each in its own day – shall divine an answer to the riddle of the sphinx 
without grasping its whole import and mystery. Everything is symbolical and 
transcendental in this titanic epic of human destinies. The two antagonistic broth- 
ers formulate the second part of the Grand Mystery, completed divinely by the 
sacrifice of Antigone. There follows the last war; the brethren slay one another; 
Capaneus is destroyed by the lightning which he defies; Amphiaraus is swallowed 
by the earth; and all these are so many allegories which, by their truth and their 
grandeur, astonish those who can penetrate their triple hieratic sense. Aeschylus, 
annotated by Ballanche, gives only a weak notion concerning them, whatever the 
primeval sublimities of the Greek poet or the ingenuities of the French critic. 
 The secret book of antique initiation was not unknown to Homer, who outlines 
its plan and chief figures on the shield of Achilles, with minute precision. But the 
gracious Homeric fictions replaced too soon in popular memory the simple and 
abstract truths of prime val revelation. Humanity cl ung to the form and allowed 
the idea to be forgotten; signs lost power in their multiplication; Magic became 
corrupted also at this period, and degenerated with the sorcerers of Thessaly into 
the most profane enchantments. The crime of Oedipus brought forth its deadly 
fruits, and the science of good and evil erected evil into a sacrilegious divinity. 
Men, weary of the light, took refuge in the shadow of bodily substance; the dream 
of that void which is filled by God seemed in their eyes to be greater than God 
Himself, and thus hell was created. 
 When, in the course of this work, we make use of the consecrated terms God, 
Heaven and Hell, let it be understood, once and for all, that our meaning is as far 
removed from that which the profane attach to them as initiation is remote from 
vulgar thought. God, for us, is the AZOT of the sages, the efficient and final prin- 
ciple of the Great Work. 
 Returning to the fable of Oedipus, the crime of the King of Thebes was that he 
failed to understand the sphinx; that he destroyed the scourge of Thebes without 
being pure enough to complete the expation in the name of his people. Thei 
plague, in consequence, avenged speedily the death of the monster, and the King 
of Thebes, forced to abdicate, sacrificed himself to the terrible manes of the 
sphinx, more alive and voracious than ever when it had passed from the domain 
of form into that of idea. Oedipus divined what was man and he put out his own 



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10 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic 
eyes because he did not see what was God. He divulged half of the Great 
Arcanum, and, to save his people, it was necessary for him to bear the remaining 
half of the terrible secret into exile and the grave. 
 After the colossal fable of Oedipus we find the gracious poem of Psyche, which 
was certainly not invented by Apuleius. The Great Magical Arcanum reappears 
here under the figure of a mysterious union between a god and a weak mortal, 
abandoned alone and naked on a rock. Psyche must remain in ignorance of the 
secret of her ideal royalty, and if she behold her husband she must lose him. Here 
Apuleius commentates and interprets Moses; but did not the Elohim of Israel and 
the gods of Apuleius both issue from the sanctuaries of Memphis and Thebes? 
Psyche is the sister of Eve, or rather she is Eve spiritualized. Both desire to know 
and lose innocence for the honour of the ordeal. Both deserve to go down into hell, 
one to bring back the antique box of Pandora, the other to find and to crush the 
head of the old serpent, who is the symbol of t ime and o f evil Both ar. e guilty of
the crime which must be expiated by the Prometheus of ancient days and the 
Lucifer of the Christian le gend, the one delivered by Hercules and the other over- 
come by the Saviour. The Great Magical Secret is therefore the lamp and dagger 
of Psyche, the apple of Eve, the sacred fire of Prometheus, the burning sceptre of 
Lucifer, but it is also the Holy Cross of the Redeemer. To be acquainted with it 
sufficiently for its abuse or divulgation is to deserve all sufferings; to know as one 
should alone know it, namely,to make use of and co nceal it, is to be master of the
Absolute. 
 A single word comprehends all things, and this word consists of four letters: it 
is the Tetragram of the Hebrews, the AZOT of the alchemists, the Thot of the 
Bohemians, or the Taro of the Kabalists. This word, expressed after so many man- 
ners, means God for the profane, man for the philosophers, and imparts to the 
adepts the final term of human sciences and the key of divine power; but he only 
can use it who understands the necessity of never revealing it. Had Oedipus, 
instead of killing the sphinx, overcome it, harnessed it to his chariot and thus 
entered Thebes, he would have been king without incest, without misfortunes and 
without exile. Had Psyche, by meekness and affection, persuaded Love to reveal 
himself, she would never have lost Love. Now, Love is one of the mythological 
images of the Great Secret and the Great Agent, because it postulates at once an 
action and a passion, a void and a plenitude, a shaft and a wound. The initiates 
will understand me, and on account of the profane I must not speak more clearly. 
 After the marvellous Golden Ass of Apuleius, we find no more magical epics. 
Science, conquered in Alexandria by the fanaticism of the murderers of Hypatia, 
became Christian, or rather concealed itself under Christian veils with Ammonius, 
Synesius and the pseudonymous author of the books of Dionysius the Areopagite. 
In such times it was necessary to exonerate miracles under the pretence of super- 
stition and science by an unintelligible language. Hieroglyphic writing was 



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 INTRODUCTION 11
revived; pantacles and characters were invented to summarize an entire doctrine 
by a sign, a whole sequence of tendencies and revelations in a word. What was the 
end of the aspirants to knowledge? They sought the secret of the Great Work, the 
Philosophical Stone, the perpetual motion, the quadrature of the circle, the Uni- 
versal Medicine – formulae which often saved them from persecution and hatred 
by causing them to be taxed with madness, but all signifying one of the phases of 
the Great Magical Secret, as we shall show later on. This absence of epics contin- 
ues till our Romance of the Rose; but the rose-symbol, which expresses also the 
mysterious and magical sense of Dante's poem, is borrowed from the transcendent 
Kabalah, and it is time th at we should have recourse to this vast and hidden 
source of universal philosophy. 
 The Bible, with all its allegories, gives expression to the religious knowledge of 
the Hebrews only in an incomplete and veiled manner. The book which we have 
mentioned, the hieratic characters of which we shall explain subsequently, that 
book which William Postel names the Genesis of Enoch, existed certainly before 
Moses and the prophets, whose doctrine, fundamentally identical with that of the 
ancient Egyptians, had also its exotericism and its veils. When Moses spoke to the 
people, says the sacred book allegorically, he placed a veil over his face, and he 
removed it when communing with God: this accounts for the alleged Biblical 
absurdities which so exercised the satirical powers of Voltaire. The books were 
written only as memorials of tradition and in symbols that were unintelligible to 
the profane. The Pentateuch and the poems of the prophets were, moreover, ele- 
mentary works, alike in doctrine, ethics and liturgy; the true secret and tradi- 
tional philosophy was not committed to writing until a later period and under 
veils even less transparent. Thus arose a second and unknown Bible, or rather one 
which was not comprehended by Christians, a storehouse, so they say, of mon- 
strous absurdities – for in this case believers, involved by the same ignorance, 
speak the language of sceptics – but a monument, as we affirm, which comprises 
all that philosophical and religious genius has ever accomplished or imagined in 
the sublime order, a treasure encompassed by thorns, a diamond concealed in a 
rude and opaque stone: our readers will have guessed already that we refer to the 
Talmud. How strange is the destiny of the Jews, those scapegoats, martyrs and 
saviours of the world, a people full of vitality, a bold and hardy race, which perse- 
cutions have preserved intact, because it has not yet accomplished its mission! Do 
not our apostolical traditions declare that after the decline of faith among the 
Gentiles salvation shall again come forth out of the house of Jacob, and that then 
the crucified Jew Who is adored by the Christians will give the empire of the 
world into the hands of God His Father? 
 On penetrating into the sanctuary of the Kabalah one is seized with admiration 
in the presence of a doctrine so logical, so simple and at the same time so abso- 
lute. The essential union of ideas and signs; the consecration of the most funda- 



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12 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic 
mental realities by primi tive characters; the trinity of words, letters and numbers;
a philosophy simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite as the Word; theorems
more complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology which may be 
summed up on the fingers; an infinite which can be held in the hollow of an 
infant's hand; ten figures and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square and a circle:
such are the elements of the Kabalah. Such also are the component principles of
the written Word, reflection of that spoken Word which created the world! All 
truly dogmatic religions have issued from the Kabalah and return therein. What-
soever is grand or scientific in the religious dreams of the illuminated, of Jacob
Bohme, Swedenborg, Saint-Martin and the rest, is borrowed from the Kabalah; all
Masonic associations owe toit their secr ets and their symbols. The Kabalah alone
consecrates the alliance of universal reason and the Divine Word; it establishes by
the counterpoise of two forces in apparnt oppositioe n, the eternal balance of
being; it alone reconciles reason with faith, power with liberty, science with mys-
tery: it has the keys of the present, past and future! 
 To become initiated into the Kabalah it is insufficient to read and to meditate
upon the writings of Reuchlin, Galatinus, Kircher, or Picus de Mirandola; it is
necessary to study and understand the Hebrew writers in the collection of Pisto-
rius, the Sepher Yetzirah above all; it is essential in particular to master the great
book Zohar, to investigate the collection of 1684, entitled Kabbala Denudata ,
especially the treatise on “Kabalistic Pneumatics” and that on the “Revolution of
Souls”; and afterwards to enter boldly into the luminous darkness of the whole
dogmatic and allegorical body of the Talmud. We shall be then in a position to
understand William Postel, and shall admit secretly that – apart from his very
premature and overgenerous dreams about the emancipation of women – this cel- 
ebrated, learned, illuminated man could not have been so mad as is pretended by
those who have not read him. 
 We have sketched rapidly the history of occult philosophy; we have indicated
its sources and analysed in a few words its chief memorials. The present division
of our work refers only to the science, but Magic, or rather magical power, com-
prehends two things, a science and a fore: without the forc ce the science is noth-
ing, or rather it is a danger. To give knowledge to power alone, such is the 
supreme law of initiations. Hence did the Great Revealer say: `The kingdom of 
heaven suffereth violence, and the violent only shall carry it away.' The door of
truth is closed, like the sanctuary of a virgin: he must be a man who would enter.
All miracles are promised to faith, and what is faith except the audacity of will
which does not hesitate in the darkness, but advances towards the light in spite of
all ordeals, and surmounting all obstacles? It is unnecessary to repeat here the
history of ancient initiations: the more dangerous and terrible they were, the
greater was their efficacy. Hence, in those days, the world had men to govern and
instruct it. The Sacerdotal Art and the Royal Art consisted above all in ordeals of



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 INTRODUCTION 13
courage, discretion and will. It was a novitiate similar to that of those priests who, 
under the name of Jesuits, are so unpopular at the present day, but would govern 
the world notwithstanding, had they a truly wise and intelligent chief. 
 After passing our life in the search for the Absolute in religion, science and jus- 
tice; after revolving in the circle of Faust, we have reached the primal doctrine 
and the first book of humanity. At this point we pause, having discovered the 
secret of human omnipotence and indefinite progress, the key of all symbolisms, 
the first and final doctrine: we have come to understand what was meant by that 
expression so often made use of in the Gospel – the Kingdom of God. 
 To provide a fixed point as a fulcrum for human activity is to solve the problem 
of Archimedes, by realizing the use of his famous lever. This it is which was 
accomplished by the great initiators who have electrified the world, and they 
could not have done so except by means of the Great and Incommunicable Secret. 
However, as a guarantee of its renewed youth, the symbolical phoenix never reap- 
peared before the eyes of the world without having consumed solemnly the 
remains and evidences of its previous life. So also Moses saw to it that all those 
who had known Egypt and her mysteries should end their life in the desert; at 
Ephesus St. Paul burnt all books which treated of the occult sciences; and in fine, 
the French Revolution, daughter of the great Johannite Orient and the ashes of 
the Templars, spoliated the churches and blasphemed the allegories of the Divine 
Cultus. But all doctrines and all revivals proscribe Magic and condemn its myster- 
ies to the flames and to oblivion. The reason is that each religion or philosophy 
which comes into the world is a Benjamin of humanity and insures its own life by 
destroying its mother. It is because the symbolical serpent turns ever devouring its 
own tail; it is because, as essential condition of existence, a void is necessary to 
every plenitude, space for every dimension, an affirmation for each negation: 
herein is the eternal realization of the phoenix allegory. 
 Two illustrious scholars have preceded me along the path that I am travelling, 
but they have, so to speak, spent the dark night therein. I refer to Volney and 
Dupuis, to Dupuis above all, whose immense erudition produced only a negative 
work, for in the origin of all religions he saw nothing but astronomy, taking thus 
the symbolic cycle for doctrine and the calendar for legend. He was deficient in 
one branch of knowledge, that of true Magic which comprises the secrets of the 
Kabalah. Dupuis passed through the antique sanctuaries, like the prophet Ezekiel 
over the plain strewn with bones, and only understood death, for want of that 
word which collects the virtue of the four winds and can make a living people of 
all the vast ossuary, by crying to the ancient symbols: ‘Arise! Take up a new form 
and walk!’ But the hour has come when we must have the courage to attempt 
what no one has dared to perform previously. Like Julian, we would rebuild the 
temple, and in so doing we do not believe that we shall be belying a wisdom that 
we venerate, which also Julian would himself have been worthy to adore, had the 



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14 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
rancorous and fanatical doctors of his period permitted him to understand it. For
us the Temple has two Pillars, on one of which Christianity has inscribed its
name. We have therefore no wish to attack Christianity : far from it, we seek to
explain and accomplish it. Intelligence and will have exercised alternately their
power in the world; religion and philosophy are still at war with one another, but
they must end in agreement. The provisional object of Christianity was to estab-
lish, by obedience and faith, a supernatural or religious equality among men, to
immobilize intelligence by faith, so as to provide a fulcrum for virtue which came
for the destruction of the aristocracy of science, or rather to replace that aristoc-
racy, then already destroyed. Philosophy, on the contrary, has laboured to bring
back men by liberty and reason to natural inequality, and to substitute wits for
virtue by inaugurating the reign of industry. Neither of these operations has
proved complete or adequate; neither has brought men to perfection and felicity.
That which is now dreamed, almost without daring to hope for it, is an alliance
between the two forces so long regarded as contrary, and there is good ground for
desiring it, seeing that these two great powers of the human soul are no more
opposed to one another than is the sex of man opposed to that of woman.
Undoubtedly they differ, but their apparently contrary dispositions come only
from their aptitude to meet and unite.
 “No less is proposed, therefore, than a universal solution of all problems?”
 The answer is yes, unquestionably, since we are concerned with explaining the
Philosophical Stone, perpetual motion, the secret of the Great Work and of the
Universal Medicine. We shall be accused of insanity, like the divine Paracelsus, or
of charlatanism, like the great and unfortunate Agrippa. If the pyre of Urban
Grandier be extinguished, the sullen proscriptions of silence and of calumny
remain., We do not defy but are resigned to them. We have not sought the publi-
cation of this book of our own will, and we believe that if the time be come to bear
witness, it will be borne by us or by others. We shall therefore remain calm and
shall wait. 
 Our work is in two parts: in the one we establish the kabalistic and magical
doctrine in its entirety; the other is consecrated to the cultus, that is, to Ceremo-
nial Magic. The one is that which the ancient sages termed the Clavicle, the other
that which people on the country-side still call the Grimoire. The numbers and
subjects of the chapters which correspond in both parts, are in no sense arbitrary,
and are all indicated in the great universal key, of which we give for the first time
a complete and adequate explanation. Let this work now go its way where it will
and become what Providence determines; it is finished, and we believe it to be
enduring, because it is strong, like all that is reasonable and conscientious.
 ELIPHAS LEVI . 



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 I ' A 
 THE CANDIDA TE 
 DISCIPLINA ENSOPH KETHERI 
WHEN a philosopher adopted as the basis for a new apocalypse of human wisdom 
the axiom: “I think, therefore I am”, in a measure he altered unconsciously, from 
the standpoint of Christian Revelation, the old conception of the Supreme Being. I 
am that I am, said the Being of beings of Moses. I amhe who thinks, says the man 
of Descartes, and to think being to speak inwardly, such a one may affirm, like 
the God of St. John the Evangelist: I am he in whom and by whom the word man- 
ifests – In principio eras verbum. Now, what is this principle? It is a groundwork 
of speech, it is a reason for the existence of the word. The essence of the word is in 
the principle; the principle is that which is; intelligence is a principle which 
speaks. What further is intellectual light? It is speech. What is revelation? It is 
speech also, being is the principle, speech is the means, and the plenitude or 
development and perfection of being is the end. To speak is to create. But to say: 
“I think, therefore I exist”, is to argue from consequence to principle, and certain 
contradictions which have been adduced by a great writer, Lamennais, have 
proved abundantly the philosophical unsoundness of this method. I am, therefore 
something exists might seem to be a more primitive and simple foundation for 
experimental philosophy. I AM, THEREFORE BEING EXISTS . Ego sum qui sum, such is 
the first revelation of God in man and of man in the world, while it is also the first 
axiom of occult philosophy. xvx' wc' xvx' . Being is being. Hence this philoso- 
phy, having that which is for its principle, can be in no sense hypothesis or guess- 
work. 
 Mercurius Trismegistus begins his admirable symbol known under the name of 
the “Emerald Table,” by this threefold affirmation: “It is true, it is certain without 
error, it is of all truth.” Thus, in physics, the true confirmed by experience; in phi- 
losophy, certitude purged from any alloy of error; in the domain of religion or the 
infinite, absolute truth indi cated by analogy: such are the first necessities of true 
science, and Magic only can impart these to its adepts. 
 But you, before all things, who are you, thus taking this work in your hands 
and proposing to read it? On the pediment of a temple consecrated by antiquity to 
the God of Light was an inscription of two words: “Know thyself.” I impress the 
same counsel on every man when he seeks to approach science. Magic, which the 
men of old denominated the SANCTUM REGNUM , the Holy Kingdom, or Kingdom 
of God, REGNUM DEI , exists only for kings and for priests. Are you priests? Are 
you kings? The priesthood of Magic is not a vulgar priesthood, and its royalty 
enters not into competition with the princes of this world. The monarchs of sci- 
ence are the priests of truth, and their sovereignty is hidden from the multitude, 
 1



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2 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
like their prayers and sacrifices. The kings of science are men who know the truth
and them the truth has made free, according to the specific promise given by the
most mighty of all initiators.
 The man who is enslaved by his passions or worldly prejudices can be initiated
in no wise; he must reform or he will never attain; meanwhile he cannot be an
adept, for this word signifies a person who has achieved by will and by work. The
man who loves his own opinions and fears to part with them, who suspects new
truths, who is unprepared to doubt everything rather than admit anything on
chance, should close this book: for him it is useless and dangerous. He will fail to
understand it, and it will trouble him, while if he should divine the meaning, there
will be a still greater source of disquietude. If you hold by anything in the world
more than by reason, truth and justice; if your will be uncertain and vacillating,
either in good or evil; if logic alarm you, or the naked truth make you blush; if
you are hurt when accepted errors are assailed; condemn this work straight away.
Do not read it; let it cease to exist for you; but at the same time do not cry it down
as dangerous. The secrets which it records will be understood by an elect few and
will be reserved by those who understand them. Show light to the birds of the
night-time, and you hide their light; it is the light which blinds them and for them
is darker than darkness. It follows that I shall speak clearly and make known
everything, with the firm conviction that initiates alone, or those who deserve ini-
tiation, will read al l and understand in part.
 There is a true and a false science, a Divine and an Infernal Magic – in other



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 THE CANDIDATE 3
words, one which is delusive and tenebrous. It is our task to reveal the one and to 
unveil the other, to distinguish the magician from the sorcerer and the adept from 
the charlatan. The magician avails himself of a force which he knows, the sorcerer 
seeks to misuse that which he does not understand. If it be possible in a scientific 
work to employ a term so vulgar and so discredited, then the devil gives himself to 
the magician and the sorcerer gives himself to the devil. The magician is the sov- 
ereign pontiff of Nature, the sorcerer is her profaner only. The sorcerer is in the 
same relation to the magician that a superstitious and fanatical person bears to a 
truly religious man. 
 Before proceeding further, let us define Magic in a sentence. Magic is the tradi- 
tional science of the secrets of Nature which has been transmitted to us from the 
Magi. 
 By means of this science the adept is invested with a species of relative omnip- 
otence and can operate superhumanly, that is, after a manner which transcends 
the normal possibility of men. Thereby many illustrious hierophants, such as Mer- 
curius Trismegistus, Osiris, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and others whom it 
might be dangerous or unwise to name, came after their death to be adored and 
invoked as gods. Thereby others also – according to that ebb-and-flow of opinion 
which is responsible for the caprices of success – became emissaries of infernus or 
suspected adventurers, like the Emperor Julian, Apuleius, the enchanter Merlin 
and that arch sorcerer, as he was termed in his day, the illustrious and unfortunate 
Cornelius Agrippa. 
 To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM , in other words, the knowledge and power of 
the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions – an intelligence illuminated by 
study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and 
a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE , 
TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE – such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon 
the four symbolical forms of the sphinx. These maxims can be combined after 
four manners and explained four times by one another. 
 On the first page of the Book of Hermes the adept is depicted with a large hat, 
which, if turned down, would conceal his entire head. One hand is raised towards 
heaven, which he seems to command with his wand, while the other is placed 
upon his breast; before him are the chief symbols or instruments of science, and 
he has others hidden in a juggler's wallet. His body and arms form the letter 
ALEPH , the first of that alphabet which the Jews borrowed from the Egyptians: to 
this symbol we shall have occasion to recur later on. 
 The Magus is truly that which the Hebrew Kabalists term Microprosopus – oth- 
erwise, the creator of the little world. The first of all magical sciences being the 
knowledge of one's self, so is one's own creation first of all works of science; it 
comprehends the others and is the beginning of the Great Work. The expression, 
however, requires explanation. Supreme Reason being the sole invariable and 



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4 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
consequently imperishable principle – and death, as we call it, being change – it
follows that the intelligence which cleaves closely to this principle and in a man-
ner identifies itself therewith, does hereby make itself unchangeable and as a
result immortal. To cleave invariably to reason it will be understood that it is nec-
essary to attain independence of all those forces which by their fatal and inevita-
ble operation produce the alternatives of life and death. To know how to suffer, to
forbear and to die – such are the first secrets which place us beyond reach of
affliction, the desires of the flesh and the fear of annihilation. The man who seeks
and finds a glorious death has faith in immortality and universal humanity
believes in it with him and for him, raising altars and statues to his memory in
token of eternal life. 
 Man becomes king of the brutes only by subduing or taming them: otherwise
he will be their victim or slave. Brutes are the type of our passions; they are the
instinctive forces of Nature. The world is a field of battle, where liberty struggles
with inertia by the opposition of active force. Physical laws are millstones; if you
cannot be the miller you must be the grain. You are called to be king of air, water,
earth and fire; but to reign over these four living creatures of symbolism, it is nec-
essary to conquer and enchain them. He who aspires to be a sage and to know the
Great Enigma of Nature must be the heir and despoiler of the sphinx: his the
human head, in order to possess speech; his the eagle's wings, in order to scale the
heights; his the bull's flanks, in order to furrow the depths; his the lion's talons, to
make a way on the right and the left, before and behind.
 You therefore who seek initiation, are you learned as Faust? Are you insensible
as Job? No, is it not so? But you may become like unto both if you choose. Have
you overcome the vortices of vague thoughts? Are you without indecision or capri-
ciousness? Do you consent to pleasure only when you will, and do you wish for it
only when you should? No, is it not so? Not at least invariably, but this may come
to pass if you choose. The sphinx has not only a man's head, it has woman's
breasts; do you know how to resist feminine charms? No, is it not so? And you
laugh outright in replying, parading your moral weakness for the glorification of
your physical and vital force. Be it so: I allow you to render this homage to the ass
of Sterne or Apuleius. The ass has its merit, I agree; it was consecrated to Priapus
as was the goat to the god of Mendes. But take it for what it is worth, and decide
whether ass or man shall be master. He alone can possess truly the pleasure of
love who has conquered the love of pleasur. Te o be able and to forbear is to be
twice able. Woman enchains you by your desires; master your desires and you will
enchain her. The greatest injury that can be inflicted on a man is to call him a
coward. Now, what is a cowardly person? One who neglects his moral dignity in
order to obey blindly the instincts of Nature. As a fact, in the presence of danger it
is natural to be afraid and seek flight: why, then, is it shameful? Because honour
has erected it into a law that we must prefer our duty to our inclinations or fears.



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 THE CANDIDATE 5
What is honour from this point of view? It is a universal presentience of immor- 
tality and appreciation of the means which can lead to it. The last trophy which a 
man can win from death is to triumph over the appetite for life, not by despair 
but by a more exalted hope, which is contained in faith, for all that is noble and 
honest, by the undivided consent of the world. To learn self-conquest is therefore 
to learn life, and the austerities of stoicism were no vain parade of freedom! To 
yield to the forces of Nature is to follow the stream of collective life and to be the 
slave of secondary causes. Tor esist and subdue Nature is to make for one's self a 
personal and imperishable life: it is to break free from the vicissitudes of life and 
death. Every man who is prepared to die rather than renounce truth and justice is 
most truly living, for immort ality abides in his soul. To find or to form such men 
was the end of all ancient initiations. Pythagoras disciplined his pupils by silence 
and all kinds of self-denial; candidates in Egypt were tried by the four elements; 
and we know the self-inflicted austerities of fakirs and brahmans in India for 
attaining the kingdom of free will and divine independence. All macerations of 
asceticism are borrowed from the initiations of the Ancient Mysteries; they have 
ceased because those qualified for initiation, no longer finding initiators, and the 
leaders of conscience becoming in the lapse of time as uninstructed as the vulgar, 
the blind have grown weary of following the blind, and no one has cared to pass 
through ordeals the end of which was only in doubt and despair: the path of light 
was lost. To succeed in performing something we must know that which it is pro- 
posed to do, or at least must have faith in someone who does know it. But shall I 
stake my life on a venture, or follow someone at chance who himself cannot see 
where he is going? 
 We must not set out rashly along the path of the transcendental sciences, but, 
once started, we must reach the end or perish. To doubt is to lose one's reason; to 
pause is to fall; to recoil is to plunge into an abyss. You, therefore, who are under- 
taking the study of this book, if you persevere to the end and understand it, you 
will be either a monarch or madman. Do what you will with the volume, you will 
be unable to despise or to forget it. If you are pure, it will be your light; if strong, 
your arm; if holy, your religion; if wise, the rule of your wisdom. But if you are 
wicked, for you it will be an infernal torch; it will lacerate your breast like a pon- 
iard; it will rankle in your memory like a remorse; it will people your imagination 
with chimeras, and will drive you through folly to despair. You will endeavour to 
laugh at it, and will only gnash your teeth; it will be like the filein the fable which 
the serpent tried to bite, but it destroyed all his teeth. 
 Let us now enter on the series of initiations. I have said that revelation is the 
word. As a fact, the word, or speech, is the veil of being and the characteristic sign 
of life. Every form is the veil of a word, because the idea which is the mother of 
the word is the sole reason for the existence of forms. Every figure is a character, 
every character derives from and returns into a word. For this reason the ancient 



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6 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
sages, of whom Trismegistus is the organ, formulated their sole dogma in these
terms: “That which is above is like unto that which is below, and that which is
below unto that which is above.” In other words, the form is proportional to the
idea; the shadow is the measure of the body calculated in its relation to the lumi-
nous ray; the scabbard is as deep as the sword is long; the negation is in propor-
tion to the contrary affirmation; production is equal to destruction in the
movement which preserves life; and there is no point in infinite extension which
may not be regarded as the centre of a circle having an expanding circumference
receding indefinitely into space. Every individuality is therefore indefinitely per-
fectible, since the moral order is analogous to the physical, and since we cannot
conceive any point as unable to dilate, increase and radiate in a philosophically
unlimited circle. What can be affirmed of the soul in its totality may be affirmed
of each faculty of the soul. The intelligence and will of man are instruments of
incalculable power and capacity. But intelligence and will possess as their
help-mate and instrument a faculty which is too imperfectly known, the omnipo-
tence of which belongs exclusively to the domain of Magic. I speak of the imagina-
tion, which the Kabalists term the DIAPHANE or TRANSLUCID . Imagination, in
effect, is like the soul's eye; therein forms are outlined and preserved; thereby we
behold the reflections of the invisible world; it is the glass of visions and the appa-
ratus of magical life. By its intervention we heal diseases, modify the seasons,
warn off death from the living and raise the dead to life, because it is the imagina-
tion which exalts will and gives it power over the Universal Agent. Imagination
determines the shape of the child in its mother's womb and decides the destiny of
men; it lends wings to contagion and directs the arms of warfare. Are you exposed
in battle? Believe yourself to be invulnerable like Achilles, and you will be so, says
Paracelsus. Fear attracts bullets, but they are repelled by courage. It is well
known that persons with amputated limbs feel pain in the vicinity of members
which they possess no longer. Paracelsus operated upon living blood by medicat-
ing the product of a bleeding; he cured headache at a distance by treating hair cut
from the patient. By the science of the theoretical unity and solidarity between all
parts of the body, he anticipated and outstripped the theories, or rather experi-
ences, of our most celebrated magnetists. Hence his cures were miraculous, and to
his name of Philip Theophrastus Bombast, he deserved the addition of Aureolus
Paracelsus, with the furt her epithet of divine!
 Imagination is the instrument of THE ADAPTATION OF THE WORD. Imagination
applied to reason is genius. Reason is one, as genius is one, in all the variety of its
works. There is one principle, there is one truth, there is one reason, there is one
absolute and universal philosophy. Whatsoever is subsists in unity, considered as
beginning, and returns into unity, considered as end. One is in one; that is to say,
all is in all. Unity is the principle of numbers; it is also the principle of motion and
consequently of life., The entire human body is recapitulated in the unity of a sin-



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 THE CANDIDATE 7
gle organ, which is the brain. All religions are summed up in the unity of a single 
dogma, which is the affirmation of being and its equality with itself, and this con- 
stitutes its mathematical value . There is only one dogma in Magic, and it is this: 
The visible is the manifestation of the invisible, or, in other terms, the perfect 
word, in things appreciable and visible, bears an exact proportion to the things 
which are inappreciable by our senses and unseen by our eyes. The Magus raises 
one hand towards heaven and points down with the other to earth, saying: 
“Above, immensity: Below immensity still! Immensity equals immensity.” – This 
is true in things seen, as in things unseen. 
 The first letter in the alphabet of the sacred language, Aleph, ' , represents a 
man extending one hand towards heaven and the other to earth. It is an expres- 
sion of the active principle in everything; it is creation in heaven corresponding to 
the omnipotence of the word below. This letter is a pantacle in itself – that is, a 
character expressing the universal science. It is supplementary to the sacred signs 
of the Macrocosm and Microcosm; it explains the Masonic double-triangle and 
five-pointed blazing star; for the word is one and revelation is one. By endowing 
man with reason, God gave him speech; and revelation, manifold in its forms but 
one in its principle, consists entirely in the universal word, the interpreter of abso- 
lute reason. This is the significance of that term so much misconstrued, CATHOLIC - 
ITY, which, in modern hieratic language, means INFALLIBILITY. The universal in 
reason is the Absolute, and the Absolute is the infallible. If absolute reason 
impelled universal society to believe irresistibly the utterance of a child, that child 
would be infallible by the ordination of God and of all humanity. Faith is nothing 
else but reasonable confidence in this unity of reason and in this universality of 
the word. To believe is to place confidence in that which as yet we do not know 
when reason assures us beforehand of ultimately knowing or at least recognizing 
it. Absurd are the so-called philosophers who cry: “I will never believe in a thing 
which I do not know!” Shallow reasoners! If you knew, would you need to 
believe? 
 But must I believe on chance and apart from reason? 
 Certainly not. Blind and haphazard belief is superstition and folly. We may 
have faith in causes which reason compels us to admit on the evidence of effects 
known and appreciated by science. Science! Great word and great problem! What 
is science? We shall answer in the second chapter of this book. 



--------------------------------------- 26

 II h B 
 THE PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE 
 CHOKMAH DOMUS GNOSIS 
 SCIENCE is the absolute and complete possession of truth. Hence have the sages 
of all the centuries trembled before such an absolute and terrible word; they have 
hesitated in arrogating to themselves the first privilege of Divinity by assuming 
the possession of science, and have been contented, instead of the verb TO KNOW, 
with that which expresses learning, while, in place of the wordSCIENCE , they have
adopted that of GNOSIS , which represents simply the notion of learning by intu- 
ition. What, in fact, does man know? Nothing, and at the same time he is allowed 
to ignore nothing. Devoid of knowledge, he is called upon to know all. Now, 
knowledge supposes the duad – a being who knows and an object known. The 
duad is the generator of society and of law: it is also the number of the Gnosis. 
The duad is unity multiplying itself in order to create, and hence in sacred sym- 
bolism Eve issues from the inmost bosom of Adam. Adam is the human tetra- 
gram, summed up in the mysterious JOD, type of the kabalistic phallus. By adding 
to this JOD the triadic name of Eve, the name of Jehova is formed, the Divine Tet- 
ragram, which is eminently the kabalistic and magical word, xnxv, being that 
which the high-priest in the temple pronounced JODCHEVA . So unity, complete in 
the fruitfulness of the triad, forms therewith the tetrad, which is the key of all 
numbers, of all movements and of all forms. By a revolution about its own centre, 
the square produces a circle equal to itself, and this is the quadrature of the circle, 
the circular movement of four equal angles around the same point. 
 “That which is above equals that which is below,” says Hermes. Here then is 
the duad serving as the measure of unity and the r, elation of equality between
above and below forms with these the triad. The creative principle is the ideal 
phallus; the created principle is the formal cteis. The insertion of the vertical 
phallus into the horizontal cteis forms the stauros of the Gnostics, or the philo- 
sophical cross of Masons. Thus, the intersection of two produces four, which, by 
its movement, defines the circle with all degrees thereof. 
 ' is man; h is woman; 1 is the principle; 2 is the word; A is the active; B is the 
passive; the monad is BOAZ; the duad is JAKIN . In the trigrams of Fohi, unity is the 
YANG and the duad is the YIN. 
8 



--------------------------------------- 27

 THE PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE 9
 BOAZ and JAKIN are the names of the two symbolical Pillars before the principal 
entrance of Solomon's Kabalistic Temple. In the Kabalah these Pillars explain all 
mysteries of antagonism, whether natural, political or religious. They elucidate 
also the procreative struggle between man and woman, for, according to the law 
of Nature, the woman must resist the man, and he must entice or overcome her. 
The active principle seeks the passive principle, the plenum desires the void, the 
serpent's jaw attracts the serpent's tail, and in turnin g about upon himself, he, at 
the same time, flies and pursues himself. Woman is the creation of man, and uni- 
versal creation is the bride of the First Principle. 
 When the Supreme Being became a Creator, He erected a JOD or a phallus, and 
to provide a place in the fullness of the uncreated light, it was necessary to hollow 
out a cteis or trench of shadow equivalent to the dimension determined by his cre- 
ative desire, and attributed by him to the ideal JOD of the radiating light. Such is 
the mysterious language of the Kabalists in the Talmud, and on account of vulgar 
ignorance and malignity, it is impossible for us to explain or simplify it further. 
What then is creation? It is the house of the creative Word. What is the cteis? It is 
the house of the phallus. What is the nature of the active principle? To diffuse. 
What is that of the passive? To gather in and to fructify. What is man? He who 
initiates, who toils, who furrows, who sows. What is woman? She who forms, 
unites, irrigates and harvest s. Man wages war, woman brings peace about; man 
destroys to create, woman builds up to preserve; man is revolution, woman is con- 
ciliation; man is the father of Cain, woman the mother of Abel. What also is wis- 
dom? It is the agreement and union of two principles, the mildness of Abel 
directing the activity of Cain, man guided by the sweet inspirations of woman, 
debauchery conquered by lawful marriage, revolutionary energy softened and 
subdued by the gentleness of order and peace, pride subjugated by love, science 
acknowledging the inspirations of faith. It is then that science becomes wise and 
submits to the infallibilit y of universal reason, instructed by love or universal 
charity. Then it can assume the name of GNOSIS , because it knows at least that as 
yet it cannot boast of knowing perfectly. 
 The monad can manifest only by the duad; unity itself and the notion of unity 
at once constitute two. The unity of the Macrocosm reveals itself by the two oppo- 
site points of two triangles. Human unity fulfils itself to righ t and left. Primitive 
man is androgynous. All organs of the human body are disposed in pairs, except- 
ing the nose, the tongue, the umbilicus and the kabalistic JOD. Divinity, one in its 
essence, has two essential conditions as the fundamental grounds of its being – 
necessity and liberty. The laws of supreme reason necessitate and rule liberty in 
God, Who is of necessity wise and reasonable. 
 To make light visible God had only to postulate shadow. To manifest the truth 
He permitted the possibility of doubt. The shadow bodies forth the light, and the 
possibility of error is essential for the temporal manifestation of truth. If the buck- 



--------------------------------------- 28

10 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic 
ler of Satan did not intercept the spear of Michael, the might of the angel would
be lost in the void or manifested by infinite destruction launched below from
above. Did not the heel of Michael restrain Satan in his ascent, Satan would
dethrone God, or rather he would lose himself in the abysses of the altitude.
Hence Satan is needful to Michael as the pedestal to the statue, and Michael is
necessary to Satan as the brake to the locomotive. In analogical and universal
dynamics one leans only on that which resists. Furthermore, the universe is bal-
anced by two forces which maintain it in equilibrium, being the force which
attracts and that which repels. They exist alike in physics, in philosophy and in
religion; in physics they produce equilibrium, in philosophy criticism, in religion
progressive revelation. The ancients represented this mystery by the conflict
between Eros and Anteros, the struggle between Jacob and the angel, and by the
equilibrium of the golden mountain, which gods on the one side and demons on
the other encircle with the symbolic serpent of India. It is typified also by the
caduceus of Hermanubis, by the two cherubim of the ark, by the twofold sphinx
of the chariot of Osiris and by the twoseraphim – r espectively black and white. Its
scientific reality is demonstrated by the phenomena of polarity, as also by the uni-
versal law of sympathies and antipathies. 
 The undiscerning disciples of Zoroaster divided the duad without referring it to
unity, thus separating the Pillars of the Temple and endeavouring to halve God.
Conceive the Absolute as two, and you must immediately conceive it as three to
recover the unity principle. For this reason, the material elements, analogous to
the divine elements, are understood firstly as four, explained as two and exist ulti-
mately as three. 
 Revelation is the duad; every word is double, and supposes two. The ethic
which results from revelation is founded on antagonism, and this results from the
duad. Spirit and form attract and repel one another, like sign and idea, fiction and
truth. Supreme Reason necessitates dogma when communicating to finite intelli-
gences, and dogma by its passage from the domain of ideas to that of forms, par-
ticipates in two worlds and has inevitably two senses testifying in succession or



--------------------------------------- 29

 THE PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE 11
simultaneously, that is, to the spirit and the flesh. So are there two forces in the 
moral region, one which attacks and one which restrains and expiates. They are 
represented in the mythos of Genesis by the typical personalities of Cain and Abel. 
Abel oppresses Cain by reason of his moral superiority; Cain to get free immortal- 
izes his brother by slaying him and becomes the victim of his own crime. Cain 
could not suffer the life of Abel, and the blood of Abel suffers not the sleep of 
Cain. In the Gospel the type of Cain is replaced by that of the Prodigal Son, whom 
his father forgives freely because he returns after having endured much. 
 There is mercy and there is justice in God; to the just He dispenses justice and 
to sinners mercy. In the soul of the world, which is the Universal Agent, there is a 
current of love and a current of wrath. This ambient and all-penetrating fluid; 
this ray loosened from the sun's splendour and fixed by the weight of the atmo- 
sphere and the power of central attraction; this body of the Holy Spirit, which we 
term the Universal Agent, while it was typified by the ancients under the symbol 
of a serpent devouring its tail; this electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous 
caloric, is depicted in archaic monuments by the girdle of Isis, twice-folded in a 
love-knot round two poles, as well as by the serpent devouring its own tail, 
emblematic of prudence and of Saturn. Motion and life consist in the extreme ten- 
sion of two forces. “I would thou wert cold or hot,” said the Master. As a fact, a 
great sinner is more really alive than is a tepid, effeminate man, and the fullness 
of his return to virtue will be in proportion to the extent of his errors. She who is 
destined to crush the serpent's head is intelligence, which ever rises above the 
stream of blind forces. The Kabalists call her the virgin of the sea, whose dripping 
feet the infernal dragon crawls forward to lick with his fiery tongues, and they fall 
asleep in delight. 
 Hereof are the hieratic mysteries of the duad. But there is one, and the last of 
all, which must not be made known, the reason, according to Hermes Trismegis- 
tus, being the malcomprehension of the vulgar, who would ascribe to the necessi- 
ties of science the immoral aspect of blind fatality. “By the fear of the unknown 
must the crowd be restrained,” he observes in another place; and Christ also said: 
“Cast not your pearls before swine, lest, trampling them under their feet, they 
turn and rend you.” The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, of which the 
fruits are death, is the type of this hieratic secret of the duad, which would be only 
misconstrued if divulged, and would lead commonly to the unholy denial of free 
will, though it is the principle of moral life. It is hence in the essence of things that 
the revelation of this secret means death, and it is not at the same time the Great 
Secret of Magic; but the arcanum of the duad leads up to that of the tetrad, or 
more correctly proceeds therefrom, and is resolved by the triad, which contains 
the word of that enigma propounded by the sphinx, the finding of which would 
have saved the life, atoned for the unconscious crime and established the kingdom 
of Oedipus. 



--------------------------------------- 30

12 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
 In the hieroglyphic work of Hermes, being the Tarot or Book of Thoth, the
duad is represented either by the horns of Isis, who has her head veiled and an
open book concealed partially under her mantle, or otherwise by a sovereign lady,
Juno, the Greek goddess, with one hand uplifted towards heaven and the other
pointed to earth, as if formulating by this gesture the one and twofold dogma
which is the foundation of Magic and begins the marvellous symbols of the
“Emerald Table” of Hermes. In the Apocalypse of St. John there is reference to
two witnesses or martyrs on whom prophetic tradition confers the names of Elias
and Enoch-Elias, man of faith, enthusiasm, miracle; Enoch, one with him who is
called Hermes by the Egyptians, honoured by the Phoenicians as Cadmus, author
of the sacred alphabet and the universal key to the initiations of the Logos, father
of the Kabalah, he who, according to sacred allegories, did not die like other men,
but was translated to heaven, and will return at the end of time. Much the same
parable is told of St. John himself, who recovered and explained in his Apocalypse
the symbolism of the word of Enoch. This resurrection of St. John and Enoch,
expected at the close of the ages of ignorance, will be the renovation of their doc-
trine by the comprehension of the kabalistic keys which unlock the temple of
unity and of universal philosophy, too long occult and reserved solely for the elect,
who perish at the hands of the world.
 But we have said that the reproduction of the monad by the duad leads of
necessity to the conception and dogma of the triad, so we come now to this great
number, which is the fullness and perfect word of unity.



--------------------------------------- 31

 III g C 
 THE TRIANGLE OF SO LOMON 
 PLENITUDO VOCIS BINAH PHYSIS 
 THE perfect word is the triad, because it supposes an intelligent principle, a 
speaking principle and a principle spoken. The Absolute, revealed by speech, 
endows this speech with a sense equivalent to itself, and in the understanding 
thereof creates its third self. So also the sun manifests by its light and proves or 
makes this manifestation efficacious by heat. 
 The triad is delineated in space by the heavenly zenith, the infinite height, con- 
nected with East and West by two straight diverging lines. With this visible trian- 
gle reason compares another which is invisible, but is assumed to be equal in 
dimension; the abyss is its apex and its reversed base is parallel to the horizontal 
line stretching from East to West. These two triangles, combined in a single figure, 
which is the six-pointed star, form the sacred symbol of Solomon's Seal, the 
resplendent Star of the Macrocosm. The notion of the Infinite and the Absolute is 
expressed by this sign, which is the grand pantacle – that is to say, the most sim- 
ple and complete abridgement of the science of all things. 
 Grammar itself attributes three persons to the verb. The first is that which 
speaks, the second that which is spoken to, and the third the object. In creating, 
the Infinite Prince speaks to Himself of Himself. Such is the explanation of the 
triad and the origin of the dogma of the Trinity. The magical dogma is also one in 
three and three in one. That which is above is like or equal to that which is below. 
Thus, two things which resemble one another and the word which signifies their 
resemblance make three. The triad is the universal dogma. In Magic – principle, 
realization, adaptation; in alchemy – azoth, incorporation, transmutation; in the- 
ology – God, incarnation, redemption; in the human soul – thought, love and 
action; in the family – father, mother and child. The triad is the end and supreme 
expression of love; we seek one another as two only to become three. 
 There are three intelligible worlds which correspond one with another by hier- 
archic analogy; the natural or physical, the spiritual or metaphysical, and the 
divine or religious worlds. From this principle follows the hierarchy of spirits, 
divided into three orders, and again subdivided by the triad in each of these. 
 All these revelations are logical deductions from the first mathematical notions 
of being and number. Unity must multiply itself in order to become active. An 
indivisible, motionless and sterile principle would be unity dead and incompre- 
hensible. Were God only one He would never be Creator or Father. Were He two 
there would be antagonism or division in the infinite, which would mean the divi- 
sion also or death of all possible things. He is therefore three for the creation by 
 13



--------------------------------------- 32

14 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
Himself and in His image of the infinite multitude of beings and numbers. So is
He truly one in Himself and triple in our conception, which also leads us to behold
Him as triple in Himself and one in our intelligence and our love. This is a mys-
tery for the faithful and a logical necessity for the initiate into absolute and real
sciences. 
 The Word manifested by life is realization or incarnation. The life of the Word
accomplishing its cyclic movement is adaptation or redemption. This triple
dogma was known in all sanctuaries illuminated by the tradition of the sages. Do
you wish to ascertain which is the true religion? Seek that which realizes most in
the Divine Order, which humanizes God and makes man divine, which preserves
the triadic dogma intact, which clothes the Word with flesh by making God man-
ifest to the hands and eyes of the most ignorant, which in fine appeals to all in its
doctrine and can adapt itself to all – the religion which is hierarchic and cyclic,
having allegories and images for children, an exalted philosophy for grown men,
sublime hopes and sweet consolations for the old.
 The primeval sages, when seeking the First of Causes, behold good and evil in
the world. They considered shadow and light; they compared winter with spring,
age with youth, life with death, and their conclusion was this: The First Cause is
beneficent and severe; It gives and takes away life. Then are there two contrary
principles, the one good and the other evil, exclaimed the disciples of Manes. No,
the two principles of universal equilibrium are not contrary, although contrasted
in appearance, for a singular wisdom opposes one to another. Good is on the right,
evil on the left; but the supreme excellence is above both, applying evil to the vic-
tory of good and good to the amendment of evil.
 The principle of harmony is in unity, and it is this which imparts such power to
the uneven number in Magic. Now, the most perfect of the odd numbers is three,
because it is the trilogy of unity. In the trigrams of Fohi, the superior triad is com-
posed of three YANG, or masculine figures, because nothing passive can be admit-
ted into the idea of God, considered as the principle of production in the three
worlds. For the same reason, the Christian Trinity by no means permits the per-
sonification of the mother, who is shown forth implicitly in that of the Son. For
the same reason, also, it is contrary to the laws of hieratic and orthodox symbol-
ogy to personify the Holy Ghost under the form of a woman. Woman comes forth
from man as Nature comes forth from God; so Christ Himself ascends to heaven
and assumes the Virgin Mother: we speak of the ascension of the Saviour, and the
assumption of the Mother of God. God, considered as Father, has Nature for His
daughter; as Son, He has the Virgin for His mother and the Church for His bride;
as Holy Spirit, He regenerates and fructifies humanity. Hence, in the trigrams of
Fohi, the three inferior YIN correspond to the three superior YANG, for these tri-
grams constitute a pantacle like that of the two triangles of Solomon, but with a
triadic interpretation of the six points of the blazing star.



--------------------------------------- 33

 THE TRIANGLE OF SOLOMON 15
 Dogma is only divine inasmuch as it is truly human – that is to say, in so far as 
it sums up the highest reason of humanity. So also the Master, Whom we term the 
Man-God, called Himself the Son of Man. Revelation is the expression of belief 
accepted and formulated by universal reason in the human word, on which 
account it is said that the divinity is human and the humanity divine in the Man- 
God., We affirm all this philosophically, not theologically, without infringing in 
any way on the teaching of the Church, which condemns and must always con- 
demn Magic. Paracelsus and Agrippa did not set up altar against altar but bowed 
to the ruling religion of their time: to the elect of science, the things of science; to 
the faithful, the things of faith. 
 In his hymn to the royal Sun, the Emperor Julian gives a theory of the triad 
which is almost identical with that of the illuminated Swedenborg. The sun of the 
divine world is the infinite, spiritual and uncreated light, which is verbalized, so 
to speak, in the philosophical world, and becomes the fountain of souls and of 
truth; then it incorporates and becomes visible light in the sun of the third world, 
the central sun of our suns, of which the fixed stars are the ever-living sparks. The 
Kabalists compare the spirit to a substance which remains fluid in the divine 
medium and under the influence of the essential light, its exterior, however, 
becoming solidified, like wax when exposed to air, in the colder realms of reason- 
ing or of visible forms. These shells, envelopes petrified or carnified, were such an 
expression possible, are the source of errors or of evil, which connects with the 
heaviness and hardness of animal envelopes. In the book Zohar, and in that of the 
Revolution of Souls, perverse spirits or evil demons are never called otherwise 
than shells – cortices. The cortices of the world of spirits are transparent, while 
those of the material world are opaque. Bodies are only temporary shells, whence 
souls have to be liberated; but those who in this life obey the flesh build up an 
interior body or fluidic shell, which, after death, becomes their prison-house and 
torment, until the time arrives when they succeed in dissolving it in the warmth of 
the divine light, towards which, however, the burden of their grossness hinders 
them from ascending. Indeed, they can do so only after infinite struggles, and by 
the mediation of the just, who stretch forth their hands towards them. During the 
whole period of the process they are devourd by the interior ae ctivity of the cap- 
tive spirit, as in a burning furnace. Th ose who attain the pyre of expiation burn 
themselves thereon, like Hercules upon Mount Oetna, and so are delivered from 
their sufferings; but the courage of the majority fails before this ordeal, which 
seems to them a second death more appalling than the first , and so they remain in 
hell, which is rightly and actually eternal; but souls are never precipitated nor 
even retained despite themselves therein. 



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16 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic 
 The three worlds correspond together by means of the thirty-two paths of light, 
which are as steps of a sacred ladder. Every true thought corresponds to a Divine 
Grace in heaven and a good work on earth; every Grace of God manifests a truth, 
and produces one or many acts; reciprocally, every act affects a truth or falsehood 
in the heavens, a grace or a punishment. When a man pronounces the Tetragram 
– say the Kabalists – the nine celestial realms sustain a shock, and then all spirits 
cry out one upon another: “Who is it thus disturbing the kingdom of heaven?” 
Then does the earth communicate unto the frst spheri e the sins of that rash being 
who takes the Eternal Name in vain, and the accusing word is transmitted from 
circle to circle, from star to star, and from hierarchy to hierarchy. 
 Every utterance possesses three senses, every act has a triple range, every form 
a triple idea, for the Absolute corresponds from world to world by its forms. Every 
determination of human will modifies Nature, concerns philosophy and is written 
in heaven. There are consequently two fatalities, one resulting from the Uncreated 
Will in harmony with its proper wisdom, the other from created wills in accor- 
dance with the necessity of secondary causes in their correspondence with the 
First Cause. There is hence nothing indifferent in life, and our seeming most sim- 
ple resolutions do often determine an incalculable series of benefits or evils, above 
all in the affinities of our DIAPHANE with the Great Magical Agent, as we shall 
explain elsewhere. 
 The triad, being the fundamental principle of the whole Kabalah, or Sacred 
Tradition of our fathers, was necessarily the fundamental dogma of Christianity, 
the apparent dualism of which it explains by the intervention of a harmonious 
and all-powerful unity. Chri st did not put His teaching into writing, and only 
revealed it in secret to His favoured disciple, the one Kabalist, and he a great 
Kabalist, among the apostles. So is the Apocalypse the book of the Gnosis or 
Secret Doctrine of the first Christians, and the key of this doctrine is indicated by 
an occult versicle of the Lord's Prayer, which the Vulgate leaves untranslated, 
while in the Greek Rite, which preserves the traditions of St. John, the priests only 
are permitted to pronounce it. This versicle, completely kabalistic, is found in the 
Greek text of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, and in several Hebrew copies, 
as follows: 
      .
 “The sacred word MALKUTH substituted for KETHER , which is its kabalistic 
correspondent, and the equipoise of GEBURAH and CHESED , repeating itself in the 
circles of heavens called eons by the Gnostics, provided the keystone of the whole 
Christian Temple in this occult versicle. It has been retained by Protestants in 
their New Testament, but they have failed to discern its lofty and wonderful 
meaning, which would have unveiled to them all the Mysteries of the Apocalypse. 



--------------------------------------- 35

 THE TRIANGLE OF SOLOMON 17
 There is, however, a tradition in the Church that the manifestation of these 
mysteries is reserved till the last times. 
 MALKUTH , based upon GEBURAH and CHESED , is the Temple of Solomon hav- 
ing JAKIN and BOAZ for its Pillars; it is Adamit e dogma, founded, for the one part 
on the resignation of Abel and, for the other, on the labours and self reproach of 
Cain; it is the equilibrium of being established on necessity and liberty, stability 
and motion; it is the demonstration of the universal lever sought in vain by 
Archimedes. A scholar whose talents were employed in the culture of obscurity, 
who died without seeking to be understood, resolved this supreme equation, dis- 
covered by him in the Kabalah, and was in dread of its source transpiring if he 
expressed himself more clearly. We have seen one of his disciples and admirers 
most indignant, perhaps in good faith, at the suggestion that his master was a 
Kabalist; but we can state notwithstanding, to the glory of the same learned man, 
that his researches have shortened appreciably our work on the occult sciences, 
and that the key of the transcendent Kabalah above all, indicated in the arcane 
versicle cited above, has been applied skillfully to an absolute reform of all sci- 
ences in the books of Hoene Wronski. 
 The secret virtue of the gospels is therefore contained in three words, and these 
three words have established three dogmas and three hierarchies. All science 
reposes upon three principles, as the syllogism upon three terms. There are also 
three distinct classes, or three original and natural ranks, among men, who are 
called to advance from the lower to the higher. The Jews term these three series or 
degrees in the progress of spirits, ASSIAH , YETZIRAH and BRIAH . The Gnostics, who 
were Christian Kabalists, called them HYLE , PSYCHE and GNOSIS ; by the Jews the 
supreme circle was named ATZILUTH , and by the Gnostics PLEROMA . In the Tetra- 
gram, the triad, taken at the beginning of the word, expresses the divine copula- 
tion; taken at the end, it expressed the female and maternity. Eve has a name of 
three letters, but the primitive Adam is signified simply by the letter JOD, whence 
Jehovah should be pronounced Jeva, and this point leads us to the great and 
supreme mystery of Magic, embodied in the tetrad. 



--------------------------------------- 36

 IV o D
 TH E TETRA GRAM
 GEBURAH CHESED PORTA LIBRARUM ELEMENTA
 IN Nature there are two forces producing equilibrium, and these three consti-
tute a single law. Here, then, is the triad resumed in unity, and by adding the con-
ception of unity to that of the triad we are bought to the tetrad, the first square
and perfect number, the source of all numerical combinations and the principle of
all forms. Affirmation, negation, discussion, solution: such are the four philosoph-
ical operations of the human mind. Discussion conciliates negation with affirma-
tion by rendering them necessary to each other. In the same way, the philosophical
triad, emanating from the antagonism of th e duad, is completed by the tetrad, the
four-square basis of all truth. Accordin g to consecrated dogma, there are Three
Persons in God, and these Three constitute one only Deity. Three and one provide
the conception of four, because unity is required to explain the three. Hence, in
almost all languages, the name of God consists of four letters, and in Hebrew
these four are really three, one of them being repeated twice, that which expresses
the Word and the creation of the Word. 
 Two affirmations make two corresponding denials either possible or necessary.
The fact of being is affirmed, and that of nothingness is denied. Affirmation as
Word produces affirmation as realization or incarnation of the Word, and each of
these affirmations corresponds to the denial of its opposite. Thus, in the opinion
of the Kabalists, the name of the demon orof evil is composed of the same letters 
as the Name of God or goodness, but spelt backwards. This evil is the lost reflec-
tion or imperfect mirage of light in shadow. But all which exists, whether of good
or evil, of light or darkness, exists and manifests by the tetrad. The affirmation of
unity supposes the number four, unless it turns in unity itself as in a vicious circle.
So also the triad, as we have observed already, is explained by the duad and
resolved by the tetrad, which is the squared unity of even numbers and the qua-
drangular base of the cube, regarded as unity of construction, solidity and mea-
sure. 
 The Kabalistic Tetragram, JODHEVA , expresses God in humanity and humanity
in God. The four astronomical cardinal points are, relatively to us, the yea and the
nay of light – East and West – and the yea and nay of warmth – South and North.
As we have said already, according to the sole dogma of the Kabalah, that which
is in visible Nature reveals that which is in the domain of invisible Nature, or sec-
ondary causes are in strict proportion and analogous to the manifestations of the
First Cause. So is this First Cause reve aled invariably by the Cross – that unity
made up of two, divided one by the other in order to produce four; that key to the
18 



--------------------------------------- 37

 THE TETRAGRAM 19
mysteries of India and Egypt, The Tau of the patriarchs, the divine sign of Osiris, 
the Stauros of the Gnostics, the keystone of the temple, the symbol of Occult 
Masonry; the Cross, central point of the junction of the right angles of two infinite 
triangles; the Cross, which in the French language seems to be the first root and 
fundamental substantive of the verb to believe and the verb to grow, thus combin- 
ing the conceptions of science, religion and progress. 
 The Great Magical Agent manifests by four kinds of phenomena, and has been 
subjected to the experiments of profane science under four names – caloric, light, 
electricity, magnetism. It has received also the names of TETRAGRAM , INRI, 
AZOTH , ETHER , OD, Magnetic Fluid, Soul of the Earth, Lucifer, etc. The Great 
Magical Agent is the fourth emanation of the life-principle, of which the sun is the 
third form – see the initiates of the school of Alexandria and the dogma of Hermes 
Trismegistus. In this way the eye of the world, as the ancients called it, is the 
mirage of the reflection of God, and the soul of the earth is a permanent glance of 
the sun which the earth conceives and guards by impregnation. The moon con- 
curs in this impregnation of the earth by reflecting a solar image during the night, 
so that Hermes was right when he said of the Great Agent: “The sun is its father, 
the moon its mother.” Then he adds: “The wind has borne it in the belly thereof,” 
because the atmosphere is the recipient and, as it were, the crucible of the solar 
rays, by means of which there forms that living image of the sun which penetrates 
the whole earth, fructifies it and determines all that is produced on its surface by 
its emanations and permanent currents, analogous to those of the sun itself. This 
solar agent subsists by two contrary forces – one of attraction and one of projec- 
tion, whence Hermes says that it ascends and descends eternally. The force of 
attraction is always fixed at the centre of bodies, that of projection in their out- 
lines or at their surface. By this dual force all is created and all preserved. Its 
motion is a rolling up and an enrolling which are successive and unlimited, or, 
rather, Simultaneous and perpetual, by spirals of opposite movements which 
never meet. It is the same movement as that of the sun, at once attracting and 
repelling all the planets of its system. To be acquainted with the movement of this 
terrestrial sun in such a manner as to be able to apply its currents and direct 
them, is to have accomplished the Great Work and to be master of the world. 
Armed with such a force you may make yourself adored: the crowd will believe 
that you are God. 
 The absolute secret of this direction has been in the possession of certain men, 
and can yet be discovered. It is the Great Magical Arcanum, depending on an 
incommunicable axiom and on an instrument which is the grand and unique 
athanor of the highest grade of Hermetists. The incommunicable axiom is 
enclosed kabalistically in the four letters of the Tetragram, arranged in the 
following manner: 



--------------------------------------- 38

20 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
 In the letters of the words AZOTH and INRI written kabalistically; and in the
monogram of Christ as embroidered on the Labarum, which the Kabalist Postel
interprets by the word ROTA, whence the adepts have formed their Taro or Tarot,
by the repetition of the first letter, thus indicating the circle, and suggesting that
the word is read backwards. All magical science is comprised in the knowledge of
this secret. To know it and have the courage to use it is human omnipotence; to
reveal it to a profane person is to lose it; to reveal it even to a disciple is to abdi-
cate in favour of that disciple, who, henceforward, possesses the right of life and
death over his master – I am speaking from the magical standpoint – and will cer-
tainly slay him for fear of dying himself. But this has nothing in common with
deeds qualified as murder in criminal legislation; the practical philosophy which
is the basis and point of departure for our laws does not recognize the facts of
bewitchment and of occult influences. We touch here upon extraordinary revela-
tions, and are prepared for the unbelief and derision of incredulous fanaticism;
voltairean religion has also its fanatics, pace the great shades who must now be
lurking sullenly in the vaults of the Pantheon, while Catholicism, strong ever in its
practices and prestige, chants the Office overhead.
 The perfect word, that which is adequate to the thought which it expresses,
always contains virtually or supposes a tetrad: the idea, with its three necessary
and correlated forms, then the image of the thing expressed, with the three terms
of the judgement which qualifies it. When I say: “Being exists,” I affirm implicitly
that the void is nonexistent. A height, a breadth which the height subdivides lon-
gitudinally, a depth separated from the height by the intersection of the breadth,
such is the natural tetrad, composed of two lines at right angles one to another.
Nature has also four motions, products of two forces which sustain each other by
their tendency in an opposite direction. Now, the law whichrules bodies is analo- 
gous to that which governs minds, and that which governs minds is the very man-
ifestation of God's secret – that is to say, of the mystery of the creation. Imagine a
watch having two parallel springs, with an engagement which makes them work



--------------------------------------- 39

 THE TETRAGRAM 21
in an opposite direction so that the one in unwinding winds up the other. In this 
way, the watch will wind up itself, and you will have discovered perpetual motion. 
The engagement should be at two ends and of extreme accuracy. Is this beyond 
attainment? We think not. But when it is discovered the inventor will understand 
by analogy all the secrets of Nature PROGRESS IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO RESIS - 
TANCE The absolute movement of life is thus the perpetual consequence of two 
contrary tendencies which are never opposed. When one seems to yield to the 
other, it is like a spring which is winding up, and you may expect a reaction, the 
moment and characteristics of which it is quite possible to foresee and determine. 
Hence at the period of the greatest Christian fervour was the reign of ANTICHRIST 
known and predicted. But Antichrist will prepare and determine the Second 
Advent and final triumph of the Man-God. This again is a rigorous and kabalisti- 
cal conclusion contained in the Gospel premises. Hence the Christian prophecy 
comprises a fourfold revelation: I. Fall of the old world and triumph of the Gospel 
under the First Advent; 2. Great apostasy and coming of Antichrist; 3. Fall of 
Antichrist and recurrence to Christian ideas; 4. Definitive triumph of the Gospel, 
or Second Advent, designated under the name of the Last Judgement. This four- 
fold prophecy contains, as will be seen, two affirmations and two negations, the 
idea of two ruins or universal deaths and of two resurrections; for to every concep- 
tion which appears upon the social horizon an East and a West, a Zenith and a 
Nadir, may be ascribed without fear of error. Thus is the Philosophical Cross the 
key of prophecy, and all gates of science may be opened with the pantacle of 
Ezekiel, the centre of which is a star formed by the interlacement of two crosses. 
 Does not human life present itself also under these four phases or successive 
transformations – birth, life, death, immortality? And remark here that the 
immortality of the soul, necessitated as a complement of the tetrad, is kabalisti- 
cally proved by analogy, which is the sole dogma of truly universal religion, as it is 
the key of science and the universal law of Nature. As a fact, death can be no 
more an absolute end than birth is a real beginning. Birth proves the preexistence 
of the human being, since nothing is produced from nothing, and death proves 
immortality, since being can no more cease from being than nothingness can cease 
to be nothingness. Being and nothingness are two absolutely irreconcilable ideas, 
with this difference, that the idea of nothingness, which is altogether negative, 
issues from the very idea of being, whence even nothingness cannot be understood 
as an absolute negation, whilst the notion of being can never be put in comparison 
with that of nothingness, and still less can it come forth therefrom. To say that the 
world has been produced out of nothing is to advance a monstrous absurdity. All 
that is proceeds from what has been, and consequently nothing that is can ever 
more cease to be. The succession of forms is produced by the alternatives of move- 
ment; they are the phenomena of life which replace without destroying one 
another. All things change; nothing perishes. The sun does not die when it van- 



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 22 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic 
 ishes from the horizon; even the most fluidic forms are immortal, subsisting
, e always in the permanence of their raison d'êtr which is the combination of light
 with the aggregated potencies of the molecules of the first substance. Hence they
 are preserved in the astral fluid, and can be evoked and reproduced according to
 the will of the sage, as we shall see when treating of second sight and the evoca-
 tion of memories in necromancy or other magical works. We shall return also to
 the Great Magical Agent in the fourth chapter of the Ritual, where we shall com-
 plete our indications of the characteristics of the Great Arcanum, and of the
 means of recovering this tremendous power.' 
 Here let us add a few words on the four magical elements and elementary spir-
 its. The magical elements are: in alchemy, Salt, Sulp hur, Mercury and Azoth; in
 Kabalah, the Macroprosopus, the Microprosopus and the two Mothers; in hiero-
 glyphics, the Man, Eagle, Li on and Bull; in old physics, according to vulgar names
 and notions, air, water, earth and fire. But in magical science we know that water
 is not ordinary water, fire is not simply fire, etc. These expressions conceal a more
 recondite meaning. Modern science has decomposed the four elements of the
 ancients and reduced them to a number of so-called simple bodies. That which is
 simple, however, is the primitive substance properly so-called; there is thus only
 one material element, which manifests always by the tetrad in its forms. We shall
 therefore preserve the wise distinction of elementary appearances admitted by the
 ancients, and shall recognize air, fire, earth and water as the four positive and vis-
 ible elements of Magic. 
 The subtle and the gross, the swift and slow solvent, or the instruments of heat
 and cold, constitute, in occult physics, the two positive and negative principles of
 the tetrad, and should be thus tabulated: 
 Thus, air and earth represent the male principle; fire and water are referable to
 the female principle, since the Philosophical Cross of pantacles, as affirmed
 already, is a primitive and elementary hieroglyph of the lingam of the gymnoso-
 phists. To these four elementary forms correspond the four following philosophi-
 cal ideas Spirit, Matter, Motion, Rest. As a fact, all science is comprised in the
 understanding of these four things, which alchemy has reduced to three – the
 Absolute, the Fixed and the Volatile – referred by the Kabalah to the essential idea
 of God, Who is absolute reason, necessity and liberty, a threefold notion expressed
 in the occult books of the Hebrews. Under the names of KETHER , CHOKMAH and
 BINAH for the Divine World; of TIPHERETH , CHESED and GEBURAH in the moral



--------------------------------------- 41

 THE TETRAGRAM 23
world, and of JESOD , HOD and NETSAH in the physical world, which, together with 
the moral, is contained in the idea of the Kingdom or MALKUTH , we shall explain 
in the tenth chapter this theogony as rational as it is sublime. 
 Now, created spirits, being called to emancipation by trial, are placed from 
their birth between these four forces, two positive and two negative, and have it in 
their power to affirm or deny good, to choose life or death. To discover the fixed 
point, that is, the moral centre of the Cross, is the first problem which is given 
them to resolve; their initial conquest must be that of their own liberty. They 
begin by being drawn, some to the North, others to the South; some to the right, 
others to the left; and in so far as they are not free, they cannot have the use of 
reason, nor can they take flesh otherwise than in animal forms. These unemanci- 
pated spirits, slaves of the four elements, are those which the Kabalists call ele- 
mentary daimons, and they people the elements which correspond to their state of 
servitude. Sylphs, undines, gnomes and salamanders really exist therefore, some 
wandering and seeking incarnation, others incarnate and living on this earth. 
These are vicious and imperfect men. We shall return to this subject in the fif- 
teenth chapter, which treats of enchantments and demons. 
 That is also an occult tradition by which the ancients were led to admit the 
existence of four ages in the world, only it was not made known to the vulgar that 
these ages are successive and are renewed, like the four seasons of the year. Thus, 
the golden age has passed, and it is yet to come. This, however, belongs to the 
spirit of prophecy, and we shall speak of it in the ninth chapter, which is con- 
cerned with the initiate and the seer. If we now add the idea of unity to the tetrad, 
we shall have, together and separately, the conceptions of the divine synthesis and 
analysis, the god of the initiates and that of the profane. Here the doctrine 
becomes more popular, as it passes from the domain of the abstract: the grand 
hierophant intervenes. 



--------------------------------------- 42

 V x E
 THE PENT AGRAM
 GEBURAH ECCE
 HEREUNTO we have exposed the magical dogma in its more arid and abstruse
phases; now the enchantments begin; now we can proclaim wonders and reveal
most secret things. The Pentagram signifies the domination of the mind over the
elements, and the demons of air, the spirits of fire, the phantoms of water and
ghosts of earth are enchained by this sign. Equipped therewith, and suitably dis-
posed, you may behold the infinite through the medium of that faculty which is
like the soul's eye, and you will be ministered unto by legions of angels and hosts
of fiends. 
 But here, in the first place, let us establish certain principles. There is no invis-
ible world; there are, however, many degrees of perfection in organs. The body is
the coarse and, as it were, the perishable cortex of the soul. The soul can perceive
of itself, and independently of the mediation of physical organs, by means of its
sensibility and its DIAPHANE – the things, both spiritual and corporeal, which are
existent in the universe. Spiritual and corporeal are simply terms which express
the degrees of tenuity or density in substance. What is called the imagination
within us is only the soul's inherent faculty of assimilating the images and reflec-
tions contained in the living light, being the Great Magnetic Agent. Such images
and reflections are revelations when science intervenes to reveal us their body or
light. The man of genius differs from the dreamer and the fool in this only, that
his creations are analogous to truth, while those of the fool and the dreamer are
lost reflections and bewrayed images. Hence, for the wise man, to imagine is to
see, as, for the magician, to speak is to create. It follows that, by means of the
imagination, demons and spirits can be beheld really and in truth; but the imagi-
nation of the adept is diaphanous, whilst that of the crowd is opaque; the light of
truth traverses the one as ordinary light passes through clear glass, and is
refracted by the other, as when ordinary light impinges upon a vitreous block, full
of scoriae and foreign matter. That which most contributes to the errors of the
vulgar is the reflection of depraved imaginations one in the other. But in virtue of
positive science, the seer knows that what he imagines is true, and the event
invariably confirms his vision. We shall state in the Ritual after what manner this
lucidity can be acquired. 
 It is by means of this light that static visionaries place themselves in communi-
cation with all worlds, as so frequently occurred to Swedenborg, who notwith-
standing was imperfectly lucid, seeing that he did not distinguish reflections from
rays, and often intermingled chimerical fancies with his most admirable dreams.
24 



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 THE PENTAGRAM 25
We say dreams, because dream is the consequence of a natural and periodical 
ecstasy which we term sleep; to be in ecstasy is to sleep; magnetic somnambulism 
is a production and direction of ecstasy The err. ors which occur therein are occa- 
sioned by reflections from the DIAPHANE of waking persons, and, above all, of the 
magnetizer. Dream is vision produced by the refraction of a ray of truth. Chimeri- 
cal fantasy is hallucination occasioned by a reflection. The temptation of St. 
Anthony, with its nightmares and its monsters, represents the confusion of reflec- 
tions with direct rays. So long as the soul struggles it is reasonable; when it yields 
to this species of invading intoxication it becomes mad. To disentangle the direct 
ray, and separate it from the reflection – such is the work of the initiate. Here let 
us state distinctly that this work is being performed continually in the world by 
some of the flower of mankind; that there is hence a permanent revelation by 
intuition; and that there is no insuperable barrier which separates souls, because 
there are no sudden interruptions and no high walls in Nature by which minds 
can be divided from one another. All is transition and blending, wherefore, 
assuming the perfectibility, if not infinite at least indefinite, of human faculties, it 
will be understood that every person can attain to see all, and therefore to know 
all. There is no void in Nature: all is peopled. There is no true death in Nature: all 
is alive. “Seest thou that star?” asked Napoleon of Cardinal Fesch. “No, Sire.” “I 
see it,” said the Emperor, and he most certainly did. When great men are accused 
of superstition, it is because they behold what remains unseen by the crowd. Men 
of genius differ from simple seers by their faculty of communicating sensibly to 
others that which they themselves perceive, and of making themselves believed by 
the force of enthusiasm and sympathy. Such persons are the media of the Divine 
Word. 
 Let us now specify the manner in which visions operate. All forms correspond 
to ideas, and there is no idea which has not its proper and peculiar form. The pri- 
mordial light, which is the vehicle of all ideas, is the mother of all forms, and 
transmits them from emanation to emanation, merely diminished or modified 



--------------------------------------- 44

26 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
according to the density of the media. Secondary forms are reflections which
return to the font of the emanated light. The forms of objects, being a modifica-
tion of light, remain in the light where the reflection consigns them. Hence the
Astral Light, or terrestrial fluid, which we call the Great Magnetic Agent, is satu-
rated with all kinds of images or reflections. Now, our soul can evoke these, and
subject them to its DIAPHANE , as the Kabalists term it. Such images are always
present before us, and are effaced only by the more powerful impressions of real-
ity during waking hours, or by preoccupation of the mind, which makes our
imagination inattentive to the fluidic panorama of the Astral Light. When we
sleep, this spectacle presents itself spontaneously before us, and in this way
dreams are produced – dreams vague and incoherent if some governing will do
not remain active during the sleep, giving, even unconsciously to our intelligence,
a direction to the dream, which then transforms into vision. Animal Magnetism is
nothing but an artificial sleep produced by the voluntary or enforced union of two
wills, one of which is awake while the other slumbers – that is, one of which
directs the other in the choice of reflections for the transformation of dreams into
visions and the attainment of truth by means of images. Thus, somnambulists do
not actually travel to the place where they are sent by the magnetizer; they evoke
its images in the Astral Light and can behold nothing which does not exist in that
light. The Astral Light has a direct action on the nerves, which are its conductors
in the animal economy, transmitting it to the brain. It follows that, in a state of
somnambulism, it is possible to see by means of the nerves, without being depen-
dent on radiant light, the astral fluid being a latent light, in the same way that
physics recognize the existence of a latent caloric.
 Magnetism between two persons is certainly a wonderful discovery, but the
magnetizing of a person by himself, awakening his own lucidity and directing it
himself at will, is the perfection of magical art. The secret of this Great Work does
not remain for discovery; it has been known and practised by a great number of
initiates, above all by the celebrated Apollonius of Tyana, who has left a theory
concerning it, as we shall see in the “Ritual”. The secret of magnetic lucidity and
the direction of the phenomena of magnetism depend on two things – agreement
of minds and complete union of wills, in a direction which is possible and deter-
mined by science. This is for the operation of magnetism between two or more
persons. Solitary magnetism requires preparations of which we have spoken in,
our initial chapter, when enumerating and establishing in all their difficulty the
essential qualities of a veritable adept. In the following chapters we shall elucidate
further this importan t and fundamental point.
 The empire of will over the Astral Light, which is th e physical soul of the four
elements, is represented in Magic, by the Pentagram, placed at the head of this
chapter. 
 The elementary spirits are subservient to this sign when employed with under-



--------------------------------------- 45

 THE PENTAGRAM 27
standing, and by placing it in the circle or on the table of evocations, they can be 
rendered tractable, which is magically called their imprisonment. Let us explain 
this marvel briefly. All created beings communicate with one another by signs, 
and all adhere to a certain number of truths expressed by determinate forms. The 
perfection of forms increases in proportion to the emancipation of spirits, and 
those that are not overweighted by the chains of matter, recognize by intuition out 
of hand whether a sign is the expression of a real power or of a precipitate will. 
The intelligence of the wise man therefore gives value to his pantacle, as science 
gives weight to his will, and spirits comprehend this power immediately. Thus, by 
means of the Pentagram, spirits can be forced to appear in vision, whether in the 
waking or sleeping state, BY THEMSELVES LEADING BEFORE OUR DIAPHANE THEIR 
REFLECTION, WHICH EXISTS IN THE A STRAL L IGHT, IF THEY HAVE LIVED, OR A 
REFLECTION ANALOGOUS TO THEIR SPIRITUAL LOGOS IF THEY HAVE NOT LIVED ON 
EARTH. This explains all visions, and accounts for the dead invariably appearing 
to seers, either such as they were upon earth, or such as they are in the grave, 
never as they subsist in a condition which escapes the perceptions of our actual 
organism. 
 Pregnant women are influenced more than others by the Astral Light, which 
concurs in the formation of the child, and offers them incessant reminiscences of 
the forms that abound therein. This explains how it is that women of the highest 
virtue deceive the malignity of observers by equivocal resemblances. On the fruit 
of their marriage they impress frequently an image which has struck them in 
dream, and it is thus that the same physiognomies are perpetuated from genera- 
tion to generation. The kabalistic usage of the Pentagram can determine therefore 
the appearance of unborn children, and an initiated woman might endow her son 
with the characteristics of Nero or Achilles, with those of Louis XIV or Napoleon. 
We shall indicate the method in our “Ritual”. 
 The Pentagram is called in Kabalah the Sign of the Microcosm, that sign so 
exalted by Goethe in the beautiful monologue of Faust: 
 “Ah, how do all my senses leap at this sight! I feel the young and sacred 
 pleasure of life quivering in my nerves and veins. Was it a God who traced 
 this sign which stills the vertigo of my soul, fills my poor heart with joy and, 
 in a mysterious rapture, unveils the forces of Nature around me? Am I 
 myself a God? All is so clear to me: I behold in these simple lines the revela- 
 tion of active Nature to my soul. I realise for the first time the truth of the 
 wise man's words: The world of spirits is not closed! Thy sense is obtuse, thy 
 heart is dead! Arise! Bath e, O adept of science, thy breast, still enveloped by 
 an earthly veil, in the splendours of the dawning day!” (Faust, Part i. sc. I.) 
 On 24 July in the year 1854, the author of this book, Eliphas Levi, made an 



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28 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
experiment of evocation with the Pentagram, after due preparation according to
all the Ceremonies indicated in the thirteenth chapter of the “Ritual”. The success
of this experiment, details of which, as regards its principles, will be found in the
corresponding chapter of the present doctrinal part, establishes a new pathologi-
cal fact, which men of true science will admit without difficulty. The experience,
repeated even to a third time, gave results truly extraordinary, but positive and
unmixed with hallucination. We invite sceptics to make a conscientious and intel-
ligent trial on their own part before shrugging their shoulders and smiling. The
figure of the Pentagram, completed in accordance with science and used by the
author in his experiment, is that which is found at the head of this chapter, and it
is more perfect than any in the Keys of Solomon or in the Magical Calendars of
Tycho Brahe and Duchentau. We must remark, however, that the use of the Pen-
tagram is most dangerous for operators who are not in possession of its complete
and perfect understanding. The direction of the points of the star is in no sense
arbitrary, and may change the entire character of an operation, as we shall
explain in the “Ritual”. 
 Paracelsus, that innovator in Magic, who surpassed all other initiates in his
unaided practical success, affirms that every magical figure and every kabalistic
sign of the pantacles which compel spirits, may be reduced to two, which are the
synthesis of all the others; these are the Sign of the Macrocosm or the Seal of
Solomon, the form of which we have given already, and that of the Microcosm,
more potent even than the first – that is t o say, t he Pentagram, of which he pro-
vides a most minute description in his occult philosophy. If it be asked how a sign
can exercise so much power over spirits, we inquire in return why the whole
Christian world bows down before that Sign of the Cross? The sign is nothing by
itself, and has no force apart from the doctrine of which it is the summary and the
logos. Now, a sign which summarizes, in their expression, all the occult forces of
Nature, a sign which has ever exhibited to elementary spirits and others a power
greater than their own, fills them naturally with respect and fear, enforcing their
obedience by the empire of science and of will over ignorance and weakness. By
the Pentagram also is measured the exact proportions of the great and unique
Athanor necessary to the confection of the Philosophical Stone and the accom-
plishment of the Great Work. The most perfect alembic in which the Quintessence
can be elaborated is conformable to this figure, and the Quintessence itself is rep-
resented by the Sign of the Pentagram.



--------------------------------------- 47

 VI n F 
 MAGICAL EQUILIBRIUM 
 TIPHERETH UNCUS 
 SUPREME intelligence is necessarily reasonable. God, in philosophy, may be 
only a hypothesis, but He is a hypothesis imposed by good sense on human rea- 
son. To personify the Absolute Reason is to determine the Divine Ideal. Necessity, 
liberty and reason – these are the great and supreme triangle of the Kabalists, who 
name reason KETHER , necessity CHOKMAH , and liberty BINAH, in their first or 
Divine Triad. Fatality, will and power, such is the magical triad, which corre- 
sponds in things human to the Divine Triad. Fatality is the inevitable sequence of 
effects and causes in a determined order. W