The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 146 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 70 (part 2)
I adjure thee by the Father, by the Son and by the Holy Ghost, even by the Holy Trinity, by that God Whom thou canst not resist, under Whose empire I will compel thee; I conjure thee by God the Father, by God the Son., by God the Holy Ghost., by the Mother of Jesus Christ, Holy Mother and Perpetual Virgin, by her sacred heart, by hey blessed milk, which the Son of the Father sucked, by her most holy body and soul, by all the parts and members of this Virgin, by all the sufferings , afflictions, labours, agonies which she endured during the whole course of her life, by all the sighs she uttered, by all the holy tears which she shed whilst her dear Son wept before the time of His dolorous passion and on the tree of the Cross, by all the sacred holy things which are offered and done, and also by all others, as in heaven so on earth, in honour of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Blessed Mary, His Mother, by whatsoever is celestial, by the Church Militant, in honour of the Virgin and of all the Saints.
In like manner, I conjure thee by the Holy Trinity, by all other mysteries, by the sign of the Cross, by the most precious blood and water which flowed from the side of Jesus Christ, by the sweat which issued from His whole body, when He said in the Garden of Olives; My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice Pass from me.
I conjure thee by His death and Passion, by His burial and glorious resurrection, by His ascension, by the coming of the Holy Ghost.
I adjure thee, furthermore, by the crown of thorns which was set upon His head, by the blood which flowed from His feet and hands, by the nails with which He was nailed to the tree of the Cross, by the holy tears which He shed, by all which He suffered willingly through great love of us: by the lungs, the heart, the hair, the inward Parts, and all the members of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
I conjure thee by the judgment of the living and the dead, by the Gospel words of our Saviour Jesus Christ, by His preachings, by His sayings, by His miracles, by the child in swaddling-clothes, by the crying child, borne by the mother in her most pure and virginal womb; by the glorious intercession of the Virgin Mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ; by all which is of God and of His Most Holy Mother, as in heaven so on earth.
I conjure thee by the holy Angels and Archangels, by all the blessed orders of Spirits, by the holy patriarchs and Prophets, by all the holy martyrs and confessors, by all the holy virgins and innocent widows, by all the saints of God, both men and women.
I conjure thee by the head of St.
John the Baptist, by the milk of St.
Catherine, and by all the Saints .
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 phrase 'as in heaven so on earth' explicitly invokes the principle of correspondence between celestial and terrestrial realms.
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.
The text assumes an ordered cosmos under God's empire where divine authority extends over all spirits and can be leveraged.
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 operator asserts dominance ('I will compel thee'), demonstrating the doctrine that human volition backed by divine authority can command spiritual forces.
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
The passage is fundamentally structured around the invocation of divine names and titles (Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Mary, Saints) as sources of power to compel obedience.
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 text is a classic example of ceremonial spirit conjuration, using adjurations and divine mysteries to command a spirit's appearance and submission.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The efficacy of the ritual relies entirely on the spoken formulae ('I adjure thee', 'I conjure thee') carrying causal force to bind the entity.