Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) · 47 of 96 · tr. A.E. Waite
8. Realizationc
The Astral Body is not always of the same sex as the terrestrial, that is, the proportions of the two forces, varying from right to left, seem frequently to belie the visible organization, producing seeming aberrations of human passion and explaining, while in no wise morally justifying, the amorous peculiarities of Anacreon or Sappho.
A skilful magnetizer should take all these subtle distinctions into account, and we shall provide in our “Ritual” the rules for their recognition.
There are two kinds of realization, the true and the fantastic.
The first is the exclusive secret of magicians, the other belongs to enchanters and sorcerers.
Mythologies are fantastic realizations of religious dogma; superstitions are the sorcery of mistaken piety; but even mythologies and superstitions are more efficacious on human will than a purely speculative philosophy apart from any practice.
Hence St.
Paul opposes the conquests of the folly of the Cross to the inertness of human wisdom.
Religion realizes philosophy by adapting it to the weaknesses of the vulgar; such is for Kabalists the secret reason and occult explanation of the doctrines of incarnation and redemption.
Thoughts untranslated into speech are thoughts lost for humanity; words unconfirmed by acts are idle words, and the idle word is not far removed from falsehood.
Thought formulated by speech and confirmed by acts constitutes a good work or a crime.
Hence, whether in vice or virtue, there is no utterance for which we are not responsible; above all, there are no indifferent acts.
Curses and blessings produce their consequence invariably, and every action, whatsoever its nature, whether inspired by love or hate, has effects analogous to its motive, its extent and its direction.
When that emperor whose images had been mutilated, raising his hand to his face, exclaimed, “I do not feel that I am injured,” he was mistaken in his valuation and detracted thereby from the merit of his clemency.
What man of honour could behold undisturbed an insult offered to his portrait?
And did such insults, inflicted even unknown to ourselves, react on us by a fatal influence, were the effects of bewitchment actual, as indeed an adept cannot doubt, how much more imprudent and ill-advised would seem this utterance of the good emperor!
There are persons whom we can never offend with impunity, and if the injury we have done them is mortal, we begin forthwith to die.
There are those also whom we never meet in vain, whose mere glance alters the direction of our life.
The basilisk who slays by a look is no fable; it is a magical allegory.
Generally speaking, it is bad for health to have enemies, and we can never brave with impunity the reprobation of anyone.
Before opposing ourselves to a given force or current, we must be well assured that we possess the contrary force, or are with the stream of the contrary current; otherwise, we shall be crushed or struck down, and many sudden deaths have no other cause than this.
The terrible visitations of Nadab and Abihu, of Osa, of Ananias and Sapphira, were occasioned by electric currents of outraged convictions; the sufferings of the Ursulines of Loudun, the nuns of Louviers and the convulsionaries of Jansenism, were identical in principle and are explicable by the same occult natural laws.
Themes
◆Cosmic Sympathycosmology
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The passage describes how insults, enemies, and curses react on individuals through fatal influences and occult natural laws, indicating hidden affinities between parts of the cosmos.
The Zoroastrian triad of right thought, right speech, and right action as the foundation of ethical life; truth-in-living.
The text outlines a triad of responsibility where thought formulated by speech and confirmed by acts determines moral outcome, mirroring the Zoroastrian triad.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The text refers to the 'exclusive secret of magicians' and the 'occult explanation' of doctrines, indicating esoteric teachings reserved for the initiated.
The persistent form or image of a human being that exists from birth to death, distinct from the impermanent physical matter.
The concept of the 'Astral Body' distinct from the 'terrestrial' body aligns with the definition of a persistent subtle form separate from physical matter.
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 passage explicitly states that curses and blessings produce consequences invariably and that thoughts formulated by speech and confirmed by acts constitute good works or crimes.