VI

THE LOVERS---L'AMOUREUX

Ever bear in mind that Equilibrium results only from the opposition of forces; the active has no existence without the passive; light without darkness produces no form; and affirmation can only triumph over negation. Love again gains accession of strength from hate, and that hell is the heated soil of such plants as shall bear root in heaven. It should be known also that the great Fluidic Agent which is called the "Soul of the World," and which is delineated with the horned head of the Cow of Isis to express animal fecundity, is a blind force.

The power which the Magus wields is composed of two opposing forces, which unite in love and disjoin in discord; love associates contraries, while hate makes similars to be rivals and enemies; hatred succeeds to love when by saturation the void has become filled, unless the full cannot become empty; but the usual result is an equilibrated saturation, due to mutual repulsions.

From these considerations can be deduced the existence and causes of sympathy and antipathy between persons, and so the means of becoming loved can be shown to those who are good as well as wise and discreet.

Sexual love is a physical manifestation; repugnance and pain may be forgotten by those who are under its sway. This is a form of inebriation arising from the attraction of two contrary fluids; and at the conjunction of the positive and negative poles there results an ecstasy and orgasm during which the loved one seems the brilliant phantom of a vision.

When the conjunction has set up the state of equilibrium anew, attraction is succeeded by repulsion; and very often an exaggerated amour leads to an unjust share of disgust.

All created beings participate either in the positive or negative attitude of the universal sympathetic fluid, and may help to maintain or re-establish a Sympathy; but it is necessary to distrust knowledge while it is imperfect, and not to expose oneself in suggesting remedies to the risk of administering poisons. Enchantment by means of any object which has belonged to a beloved one is often a magnetic operation leading to useless and yet dangerous results; it is better to establish new currents of force, to produce a void where satiety exists, for the surest means of regaining the affection of man or woman is to bestow some signs of love on another.

Consider the bodily and mental disorders which result from solitude and its accompanying fluidic congestions, due to want of equilibrium; ----such are nervous maladies, hysteria, hypochondriasis, megrim, vapours, and insane delusions. It will be possible also to understand the ailments of maidens, and of women of an uncertain age, of widows and of celibates. Inspired by the natural law now under consideration, you may often predict the future course of a life, and may cure many such ailments, often by distracting the attention when unduly fixed, and so may the Magus become as great a physician as Paracelsus, or as renowned a Diviner as was Cornelius Agrippa. You will come to understand the diseases of the soul; the fact that learned and chaste persons often hunger after the pleasures of vice will be noticed, and so will it be observed that men and women steeped in vices turn at times to the consolations of virtue; and thus you may predict, without striking a blow, the occurrence of strange conversions and of unexpected sins, and great astonishment will be shown at your facility in discerning the most carefully concealed secrets of the heart and home. Girls and women may be by such means of divination shown in dreams the forms of lover and husband; such confidantes are potent auxiliaries in magic arts; never abuse their position, never neglect their interests, for they are good gifts to the Magus. In order to possess an assured sway over the heads and hearts of women, it is essential to obtain the favour of both Gabriel the Angel of the Moon, and of Anael the Angel of Venus.

Certain female demons must be overcome and cast down; foremost of these are:-----

Nahemah, princess of the Succubi of the dreams of men.

Lilith, queen of the Stryges, tempting to debauchery, and destroyer of maternal desire.

Nahemah presides also over illicit and sterile caresses.

Lilith rejoices in strangling in their cradles children whose origin has been soiled by the touch of Nahemah.

The truly wise master of the Kabalah understands the concealed meanings of these names, and of such demoniac evil powers, which are also called the material envelopes or cortices, or shells of the Tree of Life, soiled and blackened by the outer darkness; they are as branches which are dead, having been torn off from the Tree, whence issue light, life, and love.

Notes

The Tarot Trump numbered 6, which is named in French packs L'Amoureux, is commonly called in this country The Lovers. The design shows the Sun above, whence issues Cupid armed with a bow and arrow; below is a man standing between two women, who represent Virtue and Vice. The meanings assigned by El. Levi are----equilibrium, antagonism, union, interlacement, the conflict of two triads.

P. Christian says: "In the Divine World this card teaches the knowledge of good and evil; in the Intellectual World, the equilibrium of necessity and liberty; and in the Physical World, the relation of cause and effect.

VII

THE CHARIOT OF HERMES---LE CHARIOT

THE Chariot of Hermes has attached to its car a white and also a black Sphynx; each of these symbolic animals propounds an enigma to the neophyte. The word of the White Sphynx is Jachin. The word of the Black Sphynx is Boaz. The former word here signifies Love; the latter word here signifies Power. Samael guides the White Sphynx, Anael guides the Black Sphynx; because attraction is set up by contraries. Hermes, seated in the Chariot, touches the Black Sphynx with the point of a sword of steel, but the White Sphynx with a sceptre of gold.

It is after the type founded by the Thrice Great Hermes that the Magus learns how to use the Magical Wand and the Sword to control good and evil powers and beings.

Evil beings fear the sword because their astral forms are subject to wounds and to being severed by such a weapon. White spirits obey the consecrated magical wand because of its correspondence to the type of the Wand of the God-sent magician Moses.

FORMATION AND CONSECRATION OF A MAGICAL SWORD.

The sword-blade of steel should be forged in the hour of Mars, and new smith's tools should be used. The pommel should be of silver, made hollow, and containing a little quicksilver; the symbols of Mercury and Luna, with the monograms of Gabriel and Samael, should be engraved upon its surface. The hilt should be encased with tin, and should have the symbol of Jupiter and the monogram of Michael engraved upon it; see Cornelius Agrippa, De occulta Philosophia, liber iii., cap. 30. There should be a small triangular copper plate extending from the hilt up the blade of the sword a short distance on each side; on these should be engraved the symbols of Venus and Mercury.

The guard should end in two curved plates on each side; on these, the words Gedulah, Netzach upon one side, and Geburah, Hod upon the other, should be engraved; and in the middle between them engrave the Sephirotic name, Tiphereth.

Upon the blade itself engrave upon one side Malkuth, and upon the other side the words Quis ut Deus.

The Consecration of the Magical Sword must be performed on a Sunday during the Solar hour and under the invoked power of Michael. Drape the Altar, prepare the Tripod, and burn therein the wood of laurel and cypress, consecrate the fire, and then thrust the blade of the sword into it, saying, "Elohim Tzabaoth, by the power of the Tetragrammaton, in the name of Adonai and of Mikael, may this sword become a weapon of might to scatter the beings of the unseen world, may its use in war bring peace, may it be brilliant as Tiphereth, terrible as Geburah, and merciful as Chesed." Withdraw the sword from the fire, and quench it in a liquid composed of the blood of a reptile mixed with sap to be obtained from a green laurel: then polish the blade with the ashes of vervain carefully burned.

FORMATION AND CONSECRATION OF THE MAGIC WAND.

Choose the wood of an almond or nut tree which has just flowered for the first time; the bough should be cut off at one blow by the magical sickle. It must be bored evenly from end to end without any crack or injury, and a magnetised steel needle of the same length must be introduced. One end must be closed by a clear transparent glass bead, and the other end by a similar bead of resin: cover up these two ends with sachets of silk. Fit two rings near the middle of the wand, one of copper and one of zinc, and supply two portions of fine chain of the same metals; roll them round the wand, and fix the ends into the wand close to the ends. Upon the wand should then be written the names of the Twelve Spirits of the Zodiacal Cycle; their sigils should also be added.

Aries..........................................................Sarahiel

Taurus.......................................................Araziel

Gemini........................................................Saraiel

Cancer........................................................Phakiel

Leo..............................................................Seratiel

Virgo...........................................................Schaltiel

Libra............................................................Chadakiel

Scorpio.......................................................Sartziel

Sagittarius..................................................Saritiel

Capricornus...............................................Semaqiel

Aquarius....................................................Tzakmaqiel

Pisces.........................................................Vacabiel

Upon the Copper Ring engrave in Hebrew letters from right to left the words "The Holy Jerusalem,"

H QDSHH JRUSHLIM ; and upon the Zinc Ring engrave in Hebrew letters from right to left the words "The King Solomon," H MLK SHLMH, Heh Melek Shelomoh.

When the wand is complete, it must be consecrated by invocations of spirits of the Four Elements and the Seven Planets by ceremonies lasting over the seven days of a week, using the special incense and prayers already described for each day.

The consecrated Wand, and indeed all magical implements, should be kept wrapped in silk, and never allowed in contact with any colour but black; and it is well to keep them in a cedar or ebony box.

With this Wand duly made and fully consecrated, the Magus can cure unknown diseases, he may enchant a person, or cause him to fall asleep at will, can wield the forces of the elements and cause the oracles to speak.

Notes

In this chapter Levi describes the Tarot Trump No. 7, the Chariot; in his Rituel he assigns its meanings, as----Weapon, sword, sacred septenary, triumph, royalty, priesthood.

In respect to this card P. Christian writes that in the Divine World it refers to the dominance of spirit over natural force; in the Intellectual World, Priesthood and authority; in the Physical World, the submission of matter to the intelligence and will-power of man.

This seventh key is figured in Levi's Rituel in a full-paged plate facing page 332.