Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) · 20 of 96 · tr. A.E. Waite
2. The Pillars Of The Temple-a
CHOKMAH DOMUS GNOSIS SCIENCE is the absolute and complete possession of truth.
Hence have the sages of all the centuries trembled before such an absolute and terrible word; they have hesitated in arrogating to themselves the first privilege of Divinity by assuming the possession of science, and have been contented, instead of the verb TO KNOW, with that which expresses learning, while, in place of the word SCIENCE, they have adopted that of GNOSIS, which represents simply the notion of learning by intuition.
What, in fact, does man know?
Nothing, and at the same time he is allowed to ignore nothing.
Devoid of knowledge, he is called upon to know all.
Now, knowledge supposes the duad - a being who knows and an object known.
The duad is the generator of society and of law: it is also the number of the Gnosis.
The duad is unity multiplying itself in order to create, and hence in sacred symbolism Eve issues from the inmost bosom of Adam.
Adam is the human tetra-gram, summed up in the mysterious JOD, type of the kabalistic phallus.
By adding to this JOD the triadic name of Eve, the name of Jehova is formed, the Divine Tetragram, which is eminently the kabalistic and magical word, being that which the high-priest in the temple pronounced JODCHEVA.
So unity, complete in the fruitfulness of the triad, forms therewith the tetrad, which is the key of all numbers, of all movements and of all forms.
By a revolution about its own centre, the square produces a circle equal to itself, and this is the quadrature of the circle, the circular movement of four equal angles around the same point.
“That which is above equals that which is below,” says Hermes.
Here then is the duad serving as the measure of unity, and the relation of equality between above and below forms with these the triad.
The creative principle is the ideal phallus; the created principle is the formal cteis.
The insertion of the vertical phallus into the horizontal cteis forms the stauros of the Gnostics, or the philosophical cross of Masons.
Thus, the intersection of two produces four, which, by its movement, defines the circle with all degrees thereof.
א is man; ב is woman; I is the principle; 2 is the word; A is the active; B is the passive; the monad is BOAZ; the duad is JAKIN.
In the trigrams of Fohi, unity is the YANG and the duad is the YIN.
BOAZ and JAKIN are the names of the two symbolical Pillars before the principal entrance of Solomon's Kabalistic Temple.
In the Kabalah these Pillars explain all mysteries of antagonism, whether natural, political or religious.
They elucidate also the procreative struggle between man and woman, for, according to the law of Nature, the woman must resist the man, and he must entice or overcome her.
The active principle seeks the passive principle, the plenum desires the void, the serpent's jaw attracts the serpent's tail, and in turning about upon himself, he, at the same time, flies and pursues himself.
Woman is the creation of man, and universal creation is the bride of the First Principle.
When the Supreme Being became a Creator, He erected a JOD or a phallus, and to provide a place in the fullness of the uncreated light, it was necessary to hollow out a cteis or trench of shadow equivalent to the dimension determined by his creative desire, and attributed by him to the ideal JOD of the radiating light.
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 explicitly quotes Hermes: 'That which is above equals that which is below,' establishing this as a foundational axiom.
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 outlines a narrative of origin where the Supreme Being erects a JOD and creates the cteis to form the universe.
Luria's doctrine of the divine self-contraction by which Ein Sof withdraws to make ontological room for a created world; creation as divine self-limitation rather than emanation outward.
The text describes the Supreme Being hollowing out a 'cteis or trench of shadow' to provide space for creation, mirroring divine self-contraction.
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 Tetragram is called the 'magical word' pronounced by the high-priest, implying causal power in speech.