The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 30 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 9 (part 4)
The sources of occult wisdom, it proceeds, are, firstly, in God; secondly, in spiritual essences--that is to say, the Angelical Hierarchy; thirdly, in corporeal creatures, the reference being probably to the signatura rerum of Paracelsus; fourthly, in Nature--that is to say, in a knowledge of the secret virtues of natural things, as, for example, herbs and precious stones; fifthly, but after a long interval, in the apostate spirits reserved to the last judgment; sixthly, in the administers of punishment in hell, which seems to connect with the classical conception of avenging infernal gods; seventhly, in the people of the elements, that is, the Salamanders, Sylphs, Undines and Gnomes or Pigmies.
The secrets deriving from these sources range from the highest achievements of reputed mystical science to the bourgeois ambitions of daily life, from the Regeneration of Enoch and the Knowledge of God, Christ and His Holy Spirit--wherein is the perfection of the Microcosm--to the attainment of honours and dignities, the ingathering, of much money, the foundation of a family, good fortune in mercantile pursuits, and successful housewifery both in town and country.
The prolongation of life, the transmutation of metals and the talismanic cure of all diseases, with other "paradoxes of the highest science," also figure in the list.
Meditation, inward contemplation and the love of God are the chief aids to the acquisition of Magical Art, together with great faith, strict taciturnity and even justice in the things of daily life.
Finally, a true magician is brought forth as such from his mother's womb; others who assume the function will be unhappy.
Click to view CHARACTER OF ARATRON The powers and offices of the Seven Olympic Spirits are as follows: ARATRON governs those things which are ascribed astrologically to Saturn.
He can convert any living organism, plant or animal into stone, and that in a moment of time; he can also change coals into treasure and treasure into coals; he gives familiars and reconciles subterranean spirits to men; he teaches Alchemy, Magic and Medicine, imparts the secret of invisibility, makes the barren fruitful and, lastly, confers long life.
He should be invoked on a Saturday, in the first hour of the day, making use of his character, given and confirmed by himself.
Click to view THE CHARACTER OF BETHOR The affairs of Jupiter are administered by BETHOR, who responds quickly when called.
The person dignified by his character may be exalted to illustrious positions and may obtain large treasures.
He reconciles the Spirits of the Air to man, so that they will give true answers, transport precious stones and compose medicines having miraculous effects.
BETHOR also grants familiars of the firmament, and can prolong life to seven hundred years, subject to the will of God, which qualification imparts an air of caution.
Click to view THE CHARACTER OF PHALEG PHALEG governs the things that are attributed to Mars.
The person who possesses his character is raised by him to great honour in military affairs.
Click to view THE CHARACTER OF OCH Solar interests are administered by OCH, who prolongs life to six hundred years, with perfect health therein.
He imparts great wisdom, gives excellent (familiar) spirits, composes perfect medicines, converts any substance into the purest of metals, or into precious stones; he also bestows gold and a purse, quaintly described by the English translator of the Arbatel as "springing with gold." He causes the possessor of his character to be worshipped as a god by the kings of the whole world.
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The transmutation of metals and Alchemy are explicitly listed as secrets deriving from the sources.
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The text describes 'people of the elements' such as Salamanders, Sylphs, Undines, and Gnomes as sources of wisdom.
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 reference to 'signatura rerum of Paracelsus' and planetary governance implies the doctrine of correspondence.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The connection between planetary spirits and earthly affairs suggests hidden affinities binding the cosmos.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
Prolongation of life is granted 'subject to the will of God'.
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.
Sources are listed hierarchically from God down to elementals and hell.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The text mentions apostate spirits 'reserved to the last judgment'.
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
Secrets deriving from 'apostate spirits' suggest transgressive or forbidden knowledge.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The ability to invoke spirits and command transformations implies the operation of magical will.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
Meditation is listed as one of the chief aids to the acquisition of Magical Art.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The text explicitly mentions the 'perfection of the Microcosm' as a goal of mystical science.
The grimoire-tradition practice of ceremonially commanding or binding a spirit through consecrated seals, circles, divine names, and prescribed instruments, compelling its appearance and obedience. Distinct from theurgy in the direction of the power relationship — theurgy is reverent engagement with the gods on the premise of the operator's own ascent, this is subordination of a lesser spirit to the operator's will — and from word_power_incantation and sacred_names, which name components (verbal force, name-power) this practice deploys rather than the ritual structure itself.
The passage details the invocation of specific spirits (Aratron, Bethor, etc.) using characters to command their powers.
The rule of the stars and planetary powers over mortal destiny — the astrological governors whose spheres bind souls to birth, error, and death; in Sethian gnosis the 'error of the stars' that the savior exposes, and from which the incorruptible generation alone is free. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of universal affinity) in being a bondage-to-powers claim, and from archons (the rulers as personal beings) in concerning the astral machinery itself.
Spirits are described as governing things 'ascribed astrologically' to specific planets.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The 'Regeneration' and 'perfection of the Microcosm' imply transformation into a divine state.
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
Apostate spirits teaching Alchemy and Magic parallels the Watchers' forbidden teachings.