There is a curious work by Blanchard, on the Origin of Life, wherein he shows some strange contradictions and confusions in the theories of his colleagues, and which we recommend to the reader's attention.
* Eliphas Levi shows it very truly "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it .
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might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." Quoting the words of the great Western Kabalist in their translated form (see The Mysteries of Magic , by A.
E.
Waite), we may explain them perhaps the better by the occasional addition of a word or two to show the difference between Western and Eastern explanations of the same subject.
The Author says of the great Magic Agent -- "This ambient and all-penetrating fluid, this ray detached from the (Central or 'Spiritual') Sun's splendour .
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fixed by the weight of the atmosphere (?!) and the power of central attraction .
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the Astral Light, this electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- "Time" -- not the god Saturn or the planet.
"It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of the caduceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen snake of Moses encircling the Tau lastly, it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and is really the blind force (it is not blind, and Levi knew it), which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire." This great archaeus is now discovered by, and only for one man -- Mr.
J.
W.
Keeley, of [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 254 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Nitrogen, "the breath of the Supporters of the Heavenly Dome," as the Mohammedan mystics call it; WATER, that primordial fluid which was required, according to Moses, to make a living soul with.
And this may account for the flagrant discrepancies and unscientific statements found in Genesis.
Separate the first from the second chapter; read the former as a scripture of the Elohists, and the latter as that of the far younger Jehovists; still one finds, if one reads between the lines, the same order in which things created appear -- namely, Fire (light), Air, Water, and MAN (or the Earth).
For the sentence: "In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth" is a mistranslation; it is not "Heaven and Earth," but the duplex or dual Heaven, the upper and the lower Heavens, or the separation of primordial substance that was light in its upper and dark in its lower portions -- or the manifested Universe -- in its duality of the invisible (to the senses) and the visible to our perceptions.
God divided the light from the Darkness (v.
4); and then made the firmament, air (5), "a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," (6), i.e.
, "the waters which were under the firmament (our manifested visible Universe) from the waters above the firmament," or the (to us) invisible planes of being.
In the second chapter (the Jehovistic), plants and herbs are created before water, just as in the first, light is produced before the Sun.
"God made the Earth and the Heavens and every plant of the field before it was in the Earth and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Elohim ('gods') had not caused it to rain upon the earth, etc." (v.
5) -- an absurdity unless the esoteric explanation is accepted.
The plants were created before they were in the earth -- for there was no earth then such as it is now; and the herb of the field was in existence before it grew as it does now in the fourth Round.
Discussing and explaining the nature of the invisible Elements and the "primordial fire" mentioned above, Eliphas Levi calls it invariably the "Astral Light." It is the "grand Agent Magique" with him; undeniably it is so, but -- only so far as Black Magic is concerned, and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] Philadelphia.
For others, however, it is discovered, yet must remain almost useless.
"So far shalt thou go.
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." All the above is as practical as it is correct, save one error, which we will explain in the text further on.
Eliphas Levi commits a great blunder in always identifying the Astral Light with what we call Akasa.
What it really is will be given in Part II.
of Vol.
II.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 255 BUT WHY SLANDER THE INDIAN HIEROPHANTS?
on the lowest planes of what we call Ether, the noumenon of which is Akasa; and even this would be held incorrect by orthodox Occultists.
The "Astral Light" is simply the older " sidereal Light" of Paracelsus; and to say that "everything which exists has been evolved from it, and it preserves and reproduces all forms," as he writes, is to enunciate truth only in the second proposition.
The first is erroneous; for if all that exists was evolved through (or via ) it, it is not the astral light.
The latter is not the container of all things but only the reflector, at best, of this all.
Eliphas Levi writes: -- "The great Magic agent is the fourth emanation of the life principle (we say -- it is the first in the inner, and the second in the outer (our) Universe), of which the Sun is the third form .
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for the day-star (the sun) is only the reflection and material shadow of the Central Sun of truth, which illuminates the intellectual (invisible) world of Spirit and which itself is but a gleam borrowed from the A BSOLUTE." So far he is right enough.
But when the great authority of the Western Kabalists adds that nevertheless, "it is not the immortal Spirit as the Indian Hierophants have imagined" -- we answer that he slanders the said Hierophants, as they have said nothing of the kind; while even the Puranic exoteric writings flatly contradict the assertion.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The entire passage is organized around the Astral Light as Lévi's 'Grand Agent Magique,' its nature as a universal fluid transmitting magical influence, its relationship to Akasa, and its role as reflector of all forms.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage maps the same cosmic principle across multiple symbolic forms (ouroboros, girdle of Isis, caduceus, brazen snake, winged dragon) and notes the structural parallel between Western and Eastern explanations of the same subject.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage provides an esoteric reading of Genesis's creation narrative, identifying the order of creation as Fire (light), Air, Water, and MAN (Earth), and explains the 'dual Heaven' as the separation of primordial substance.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage explicitly describes a cascading hierarchy: the ABSOLUTE → Central Sun → the Sun (third form) → the Astral Light (fourth emanation of the life principle), each level a reflection or emanation of the one above.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage invokes 'the great Western Kabalist' (Lévi), 'the Indian Hierophants,' and Paracelsus as authorities in an unbroken chain of esoteric transmission across traditions.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly advocates reading Genesis 'between the lines' to find the esoteric order of creation, contrasting the outer (exoteric) meaning with the inner (esoteric) truth that resolves apparent absurdities.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage extensively discusses the 'invisible planes of being,' the 'intellectual (invisible) world of Spirit,' the 'waters above the firmament' as non-physical dimensions interpenetrating the visible universe.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces a staged descent from the ABSOLUTE through the Central Sun, the Sun, and the Astral Light (fourth emanation) down to the visible material world, naming the directional process of spirit descending through successive planes.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The 'dual Heaven' is described as 'light in its upper and dark in its lower portions,' and the firmament divides 'the waters under' from 'the waters above,' presenting apparent opposites as two poles of the same primordial substance.