The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 158 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 74 (part 2)
You shall reply: I am watering my plant .
He will then say: Give me that bottle; I will water it myself .
You will answer by refusing, and he will again ask you, but you will persist in declining, until he shall stretch forth his hand and shew you the same figure which you have traced upon the head suspended from the tips of his fingers.
In this case you may be assured that it is really the spirit of the head, because another might take you unawares, which would bring you evil, and further, your operation would be unfruitful.
When you have given him your phial, he will water the head and depart.
On the morrow, which is the ninth day, you shall return and will find your beans ripe.
Take them, place one in your mouth, and then look at yourself in a glass.
If you cannot see yourself, it is good.
Do the same with the rest, or they may be tested in the mouth of a child.
All those which do not answer must be interred with the head.
The advantage of occasional invisibility in the pursuits of illicit affection seems to have fascinated the compiler of the Little Albert, and he refers to the adultery of Gyges with evident relish in prefacing his process for Invisibility by means of a Ring This important operation must be performed on a Wednesday in spring-time, under the auspices of Mercury, when it is known to be conjoined with other favourable planets, such as the Moon, Jupiter, Venus or the Sun.
Taking good mercury, fixed and well purified, compose a large ring thereof, so that the same will pass easily over the middle finger of the hand.
Let the collet be enriched by a small stone which is found in the pewit's nest, and about the ring let the following words be enchased: Jesus passing ✠ through the midst of them ✠ disappeared .
✠ Next, having placed the ring on a palette-shaped plate of fixed mercury, compose the perfume of mercury, and thrice expose the ring to the odour thereof; wrap it in a small piece of taffeta corresponding to the colour of the planet, carry it to the pewit's nest from which the stone was obtained, let it remain there for nine days, and when removed, fumigate it precisely as before.
Then preserve it most carefully in a small box, made also of fixed mercury, and use it when required.
The method of use is to place the ring upon the finger with the stone outwards; it will so fascinate the spectators by its virtue.
that one may be present without being beheld.
When the wearer no longer desires to be invisible, he has merely to turn the ring, so that the stone shall be inward, and close the hand over it.
But Éliphas Lévi affirms that the only authors who have written seriously concerning the ring of Gyges or its equivalents are Porphyry, Iamblichus and Peter of Apono; that their discourse is allegorical and that they are referring to the Great Magical Arcanum.
However this may be, the Little Albert supplies an alternative process which it pretends to derive from these authorities and also from Cornelius Agrippa, sometimes termed the master of Peter of Apono in defiance of chronology and the centuries.
The first requisite is a tuft of hair taken from the head of a hyena, and from the upper part thereof.
These hairs must be plaited into a ring, which must be carried, like the other, to a pewit's nest and deposited therein, also for the space of nine days.
The perfumes of mercury must be used in like manner.
The person who wears this ring will be invisible and he will reappear by removing it from his finger.
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 ritual treats a severed head as possessing a spirit that can be interacted with and requires specific offerings (watering).
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 operation relies on planetary auspices (Mercury, Wednesday) and specific materials (mercury, pewit's nest) reflecting Hermetic correspondences.
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 a ritual involving a suspended head and a spirit that must be verified before interaction, fitting the grimoire tradition of commanding or binding spirits.
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.
The text specifies performing the operation on a Wednesday under Mercury when conjoined with favorable planets, acknowledging planetary influence.
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 text specifies inscribing words on a ring ('Jesus passing through the midst of them disappeared') to confer magical power of invisibility.