Liberty is Chokmah.

Despotism is Binah.

Power beneficent is Kether.

Liberty is Gedulah.

Despotism is Geburah.

Power beneficent is Tiphereth.

Liberty is Netzach.

Despotism is Hod.

Power beneficent is in Yesod.

In the essence of the First Cause, Liberty has Necessity as a counterpoise; this Necessity is the despotism of Supreme Reason, and resulting from this equilibrium is a Wise and Absolute Power.

If you seek to be absolute, be first wise; and if you are wise, be then absolute. To be a Master you must be free; to be free you must have attained the mastery of yourself.

Liberty is Jakin.

Despotism is Boaz.

Power is represented by the Temple Gate which was between them.

Four phrases constitute and include all that is required for the possession of High Magical Power.

To know.

To dare.

To will.

To keep silence.

Knowledge is represented by the Human head of the Sphynx.

Courage, by its Eagle's wings.

Will, by the Lion's claws, and the loins of the Bull.

Secrecy, by its stony silence and by the hidden answer to its enigma.

When the pupil has grasped the meaning of, and can carry into practice, these four requirements, he may then receive permission to Love.

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Every force corresponds to all forces, and may become all powerful in the hands of one who knows how to direct and use it.

Each form of weakness has a similarity to all weaknesses, and may become a slave to one who is strong and knows how to avail himself of it. Through the knowledge of this secret, the Magus commands the forces alike of heaven and hell, and they can but be submissive to his Will.

Realise clearly that an intelligence which is Free is of necessity both just and wise. Nero and Caligula were possessed of despotic will, but their intelligence was not free; intoxicated with absolute power, they were attacked by vertigo. Absolute will power unguided by a right Reason is the quintessence of the Devil; and here is the explanation of the secrets of Black Magic, which leads to madness of mind and poisoning of body. Hence the sorcerer is said to give himself to the Devil, and in the end the Devil will wring his neck.

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You will now need to learn the last secret of magical force and the final grade of human will power.

It is Resistance to the Universal Attraction; this is the conquest of nature, it is the Royal Authority of Soul over Body----it is Continence. To have the power and opportunity to do what give pleasure, yet to abstain because one wills it; this shows the Royal power of Soul over body.

Happy is the man who can be so placed, and yet so act: thus it is that the most sublime use of liberty is absolute obedience. Without obedience no society can continue to exist. This is why the Magi worshipped the Christ in the stable at Bethlehem. Christ, that son of God, greatest of initiates, and the last initiator.

But Christ had, as all great teachers have had, one teaching for the people and also an esoteric doctrine.

To John, the beloved disciple, he confided the deepest mysteries of the Holy Kabalah; and John in after years revealed or reveiled them in his Apocalypse, which is indeed a synthesis of all earlier magical, prophetic, and Kabalistic works.

The Apocalypse requires as its key or Clavicula the Wheel of Ezekiel, which is itself explained by the hieroglyphs of the Tarot.

Notes

This final card, numbered 21 in the actual Tarot Trumps, and called Le Monde, represents an angelic or human figure floating in the air, almost nude, and holding a short wand in each hand. The figure is more female than male. Around her is an oval garland of leaves, and outside of this, at the four corners, are placed the Kerubic emblems of a man, lion, eagle, and bull. This figure, says Levi, is Truth, and the mystical meaning is the Microcosm, or the resume of all in all.

Christian draws the garland circular, and as formed of roses; the Kerubim are placed at the four cardinal points, and not at the angles of the design; he says its meaning is the Eternal Reward of a life well spent.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR

The very curious manuscript volume, from which the preceding pages have been translated, concludes with a passage which appears to retract the whole of the foregoing instruction. It is a very notable illustration of the second mind of its author. Mr. Waite, who published an English translation of much that Levi has written, has in his Preface called especial attention to the evidence that Levi was drawn in a most mysterious fashion in two different directions by opposing forces. From his early training he tended to be a devout Catholic; from his Hebrew studies he became a Kabalist and a Magician. So even in this short occult treatise we find him, after carefully giving magical instruction through twenty-two chapters, making at its end a solemn recantation, and pointing out that the duty of a Christian is to the Church of Christ, which is the best and highest aim to which a man can attain.

THE CONCLUSION

BY ELIPHAZ LEVI

One last word remains to be said. When the Temple is rebuilt, there will be no more sacrifice upon its High places. Centuries have passed since Hermes and Zoroaster lived and taught. A voice greater than that of the Soul of the World has imposed silence upon the Oracles.

The Word has been made Flesh; a new symbol of salvation by holy water has replaced the magical ceremonies of the day of Luna. The sacrifices to Samael on the day of Mars are surpassed by the heroic severities of penitence.

The sign of the Gift of Tongues and the Christian code have replaced the sacrifices to Mercury.

The day once sacred to Jupiter is now devoted to the sign of the Kingdom of God in man by the transubstantiation of love under the forms of bread and wine.

Anael has vanquished Venus: Lilith and Nahemah are consigned to Hades, and the sacred rite of marriage gives divine approval to the alliances of men and women.

Lastly, extreme unction, which prepares a man for a death of peace, has replaced the sad offerings of Saturn; and the priesthood of light gives forth illumination on the day sacred to the Sun.

Glory be to the Christ, who has brought to their completion the symbols of the Ancient Mysteries, and who has prepared the reign of knowledge by faith. Will you now be greater than all Magi? Hide away your science in the recesses of your mind. Become a Christian, simple and docile; be a faithful servant of the Church, believe, mortify yourself, and obey.

OCCULT AND RELIGIOUS MAXIMS

FROM THE MSS. OF ELIPHAZ LEVI

Every idle word is a fault.

Show your learning by your actions.

The Word is Life, and the First Principle of Life.

The quality of a life is shown by its actions.

An idle word is either without meaning or is of the nature of a lie.

An idle word in religious matters is a sin.

He who is content with idle words is as if he were dead.

He who does not make his worship manifest has no religion.

Better is superstition than impiety.

God judges actions rather than vain thoughts.

He who is religious will do works which accord with the Word of his religion; he who has no religion and believes not in any word, yet he also must be judged by his actions, for to every man shall it be according to his works.

True religion is that which showeth a form of worship which is pure and living; the perfection of worship, however, lieth in self-sacrifice, which is complete and enduring.

The beauty of self-sacrifice is taught in the Church of Christ, Catholic and Roman; and it is an article of faith, that any one who denies himself and takes up this cross, and follows the Mediator to the Altar, assumes at once the offices both of Priest and Victim.

No man ever saw God at any time.

Before the dawn of the Microcosm, Azoth was the Flying Eagle and the Royal Lion; it was the Mastodon of the Earth and the Leviathan of the Sea. When the human-headed Sphynx appeared---Azoth became Man among men, and Spirits among Elementals. Every substance can and should become Azoth by adaptation.

In Azoth is the Principle of the Light, which is the Quintessence of Splendour and Gold. This is the grand Secret of universal Transmutation.

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No man has ever seen the Light; but we see by reason of it those objects which reflect the light.

There is nothing occult which shall not be known: there is nothing concealed which shall not be revealed.

The Kingdom of God is within us.

Initiation passes from East to West.

Intelligence passes from South to North.

Power passes from North to South.

The Word is the garment of the Truth.

God wields not absolute, but regulated power.

To tell the Truth to those who cannot understand it, is to lie to them. To unveil the Truth to such persons is to profane it.

THE END