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Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) · 32 of 96 · tr. A.E. Waite

4. The Tetragram-e

Now, created spirits, being called to emancipation by trial, are placed from their birth between these four forces, two positive and two negative, and have it in their power to affirm or deny good, to choose life or death. To discover the fixed point, that is, the moral centre of the Cross, is the first problem which is given them to resolve; their initial conquest must be that of their own liberty. They begin by being drawn, some to the North, others to the South; some to the right, others to the left; and in so far as they are not free, they cannot have the use of reason, nor can they take flesh otherwise than in animal forms. These unemancipated spirits, slaves of the four elements, are those which the Kabalists call elementary daimons, and they people the elements which correspond to their state of servitude. Sylphs, undines, gnomes and salamanders really exist therefore, some wandering and seeking incarnation, others incarnate and living on this earth. These are vicious and imperfect men. We shall return to this subject in the fifteenth chapter, which treats of enchantments and demons. That is also an occult tradition by which the ancients were led to admit the existence of four ages in the world, only it was not made known to the vulgar that these ages are successive and are renewed, like the four seasons of the year. Thus, the golden age has passed, and it is yet to come. This, however, belongs to the spirit of prophecy, and we shall speak of it in the ninth chapter, which is concerned with the initiate and the seer. If we now add the idea of unity to the tetrad, we shall have, together and separately, the conceptions of the divine synthesis and analysis, the god of the initiates and that of the profane. Here the doctrine becomes more popular, as it passes from the domain of the abstract: the grand hierophant intervenes.
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Themes
Animismcosmology

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.

It explicitly affirms the existence of elemental spirits like sylphs and gnomes populating natural elements.

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Apocatastasiscosmology

The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.

The text describes the four ages of the world as successive and renewed like the seasons.

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Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

Unemancipated spirits take flesh in animal forms and are slaves of the elements.

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Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

Spirits are placed between two positive and two negative forces with a choice between good and evil.

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Hidden Sayingssoteriology

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

The doctrine is noted as not made known to the vulgar but reserved for initiates.

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Numerical Mysticismtheology

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

The passage centers on the tetrad, four forces, and the addition of unity to form divine synthesis.

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Soul Migrationcosmology

The transmigration of the soul across lives.

Spirits are described as wandering and seeking incarnation or living in animal forms.

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