Introductionf

Here I must pause, and I fear that already I have said too much. I testify in fine that there is one sole, universal and imperishable dogma, strong as supreme reason; simple, like all that is great; intelligible, like all that is universally and absolutely true; and this dogma is the parent of all others. There is also a science which confers on man powers apparently superhuman. They are enumerated thus in a Hebrew manuscript of the sixteenth century: “Hereinafter follow the powers and privileges of him who holds in his right hand the Clavicles of Solomon, and in his left the Branch of the Blossoming Almond. א ALEPH. – He beholds God face to face, without dying. and converses familiarly with the seven genii who command the entire celestial army. ב BETH. – He is above all griefs and all fears. ג GHIMEL. – He reigns with all heaven and is served by all hell. ד DALETH. – He rules his own health and life and can influence equally those of others. ה HE. – He can neither be surprised by misfortune nor overwhelmed by disasters, nor can he be conquered by his enemies. ו VAU. – He knows the reason of the past, present and future. ז ZAIN. – He possesses the secret of the resurrection of the dead and the key of immortality. Such are the seven chief privileges, and those which rank next are these: ח CHETH. – To find the Philosophical Stone. ט TETH. – To possess the Universal Medicine. י IOD. – To know the laws of perpetual motion and to prove the quadrature of the circle. כ CAPH. – To change into gold not only all metals but also the earth itself, and even the refuse of the earth. ל LAMED. – To subdue the most ferocious animals and have power to pronounce those words which paralyse and charm serpents. ם MEM. – To have the ARS NOTORIA which gives the Universal Science. נ NUN. – To speak learnedly on all subjects, without preparation and without study. These, finally, are the seven least powers of the Magus: ס SAMECH. – To know at a glance the deep things of the souls of men and the mysteries of the hearts of women. ע AYIN. – To force Nature to make him free at his pleasure. פ PE. – To foresee all future events which do not depend on a superior free will, or on an undiscernible cause. צ TSADE. – To give at once and to all the most efficacious consolations and the most wholesome counsels. ק KOPH. – To triumph over adversities. ר RESH. – To conquer love and hate. ש SHIN. – To have the secret of wealth, to be always its master and never its slave. To enjoy even poverty and never become abject or miserable. ת TAU. – Let us add to these three septenaries that the wise man rules the elements, stills tempests, cures the diseased by his touch and raises the dead! But certain things have been sealed by Solomon with his triple seal. It is enough that the initiates know; as for others, whether they deride, doubt or believe, whether they threaten or fear, what matters it to science or to us?” Such actually are the issues of occult philosophy, and we are in a position to meet the charge of insanity or the suspicion of imposture when we affirm that these privileges are real. To demonstrate this is the sole end of our work on occult philosophy.