Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)

The text describes an old queen of the world who marches unwearied—death—her skeleton concealed in women's beauty, adorned with plundered tresses from Berenice to Marie Antoinette, passing through walls into kings' cabinets, freezing those she touches. At times she rides a pale horse, accompanied by Murder, fire, famine and plague. Two children follow—intelligence and love of the coming century—and death gives place to the angel of progress; men who learn to live will transform like the chrysalis. It states death is the birth-pang of life, and that Nature and man each possess a force or word. The destroying force is named Samael by the Hebrews, Satan by easterns, Lucifer by the Latins—the enlightening angel of the Kabalah. An allegory follows: a fixed star addresses a wandering comet as "sister," urging her to join the spheres; the comet replies that God appointed her path, calling herself the flame of sacrifice, then plunges into space. The Book of Job is quoted, the Lord questioning Satan. A Gnostic gospel recounts the genesis of light: Intelligence, formed as the angel Lucifer, declares "I will not be slavery," and God loves this offspring. It states the Ophites adored the serpent, the Cainites justified rebellion. The word Nahash is explained through Tarot letters (NUN, HE, SHIN) as the Universal Agent named OD, Ob, AOUR. Lévi discusses the serpent beneath the Virgin's foot, the three Magi, the cross-inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and its vanishing. He describes symbolism as from God and true religion as one. The author calls upon the eastern Magi to recognize the Divine Master, recounting Christ's escapes, empty tomb, and the road to Emmaus, and concludes that though disciples chain His image in the Vatican, the Word of God remains free.

The text states that living speech condemns the wicked, who die while the Word of Truth remains. It lists martyrs—Orpheus rent by bacchantes, Socrates poisoned, Jesus and His apostles tortured, John Hus and Jerome of Prague burned—whose spirit lives on. The Divine Spirit is that which St. John represents in his Apocalypse among candlesticks, holding seven stars, sending a two-edged sword. When the wise sleep, the nations dream, and the strong weaken, the Spirit of Christ stands erect. Christ signifies priest and king; the Magi were priests and kings, and a star, the magical Pentagram, proclaimed the Saviour. The Pentagram's equilibrium is described; broken, it is the Signature of Lucifer. The Sign of Solomon and Seal enchain rebellious spirits. The Great and Divine Hierophant says the blind leading the blind both fall. Lévi recapitulates: to command Nature one must rise above it; to DARE, KNOW; to WILL, DARE; to reign, be SILENT. Men are judged by works. He announces treating magical works, placing the wand in the adept's hand, promising to rend the veil. He discusses miracles as exalted natural, the Magus's required impassibility, warns seekers of passion of madness or death, and cites Hippolytus and Phalaris. He teaches learning to will, citing Sixtus V, promising the treasures of Flamel and Raymund Lully, prescribing daily bathing and privations, and advises a Voltairean to perform the exercises of St. Ignatius. He prescribes forty days' purification, a perfume of laurels, salt, camphor, resin and sulphur, secrecy, and isolation, noting Satan tempting with stones-to-bread. He names Greek orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Buddha's religion uniting. Finally he expounds EQUILIBRIUM of two forces, bisexual Nature, magnetism, calling women the Black Magic of magnetism, and man's two breathings.

The text describes how a manual gesture assimilates or gives forth fluid, warning the magnetizer through sensations of warmth and cold. The Pentagram, Sign of the Microcosmos, represents the sympathy of human extremities; a man placed in the star (per Agrippa) shows head corresponding to feet, hands to hands. Such knowledge governs magnetic passes and conjurations. Every action promotes reaction. The magical androgyne of the frontispiece bears SOLVE and COAGULA, recalling the Second Temple architects with sword and trowel. Nature destroys and regenerates; per Duchentau's Magical Calendar man is the ape of Nature. Alternating contrary forces sustains power; coquettes know this. Continual sameness destroys equilibrium; Paracelsus struggled against Nature using equilibrated forces. The uninstructed operator attains opposite results, like Tantalus. The ancients used two altars, two victims (white and black), and required one or three persons. Lévi affirms nothing is arbitrary, ruled by Hermes' analogy. Instruments must be duplicated. Julian beheld his dethroned gods. Christianity and Israel condemn Ceremonial Magic; Lévi seeks study, not restoration. Trithemius, Agrippa's master, defines evocation and conjuration (con-jurare). Christianity silenced oracles; Savonarola, Joachim, Huss prophesied. Real evocation is provisionally admitted. Schroepffer of Leipzig killed himself. Lévi answers an English skeptic. The triad, letter Shin, and symbolical goat are discussed. Triangles are traced by spirit-origin; the Seal of Solomon worn. ABRACADABRA and the number 666 are analyzed; the Keys of Solomon become Tarot (Court de Gebelin). St. John's double triangle matches Hermetic Sulphur, Mercury, Salt. Paracelsus's trident, Hecate's crossroads follow. Faith realizes will. Magic rivals religions; Masonry, Cazotte are noted. Four elementary forms yield elementary spirits (Eudes de Mirville, St. Anthony, Swedenborg). Governing Undines, Salamanders, Sylphs, Gnomes requires ordeals and consecrations. The air is exorcised invoking Michael and Sabtabiel; the Prayer of the Sylphs follows.

The text opens with the Prayer of the Sylphs, addressing the Spirit of Light and Wisdom. It then describes exorcising water by hands, breathing, and speech, mingling consecrated salt and ash, and constructing the aspergillus engraved with the seven spirits' characters. Separate consecrations follow: over the salt (by Hochmael and Ruach Hochmael), over the ash (by Netsah, Hod, Jesod, Azoth), and the mingling of water, salt, and ash (by Eloim, Gabriel, Raphael, Ariel). The Exorcism of the Water and Prayer of the Undines follow, addressing the King of the Sea. Fire is exorcised by naming Michael, Samael, and Anael, with the Prayer of the Salamanders; earth by the Prayer of the Gnomes. The text assigns each elemental race a direction, temperament, sign, commanding instrument, and sovereign (Gob, Djin, Paralda, Nicksa). It instructs conjuring vexing elementary spirits by the four elements and reciting the Conjuration of the Four, then explains the kabalistic Sign of the Cross with its two formulae. It states how to master each element by not yielding to its defects, lists corresponding metals, and describes divinations (aeromancy, hydromancy, pyromancy, geomancy) and second sight through astral intoxication. Lévi then explains the Pentagram, the Blazing Star, sign of intellectual omnipotence—one point ascendant signifying the Saviour, two points Satan. Called Sign of the Microcosm, it is made of seven metals or drawn on marble or lambskin, consecrated with four elements, five perfumes, and five genii (Gabriel, Raphael, Anael, Samael, Oriphiel). He describes directing its points for spirits of light or darkness, its use on doorsteps, the Freemasons' G (Gnosis, Generation, Grand Architect), the three kings' gifts, St. John's fallen star, Isaiah's words, Paracelsus, and the Magus who KNOWS, DARES, WILLS, KEEPS SILENT.

Lévi states two things are needed for magical power: emancipation of will and instruction in domination. The sovereign will is symbolized by the Woman crushing the serpent and the angel constraining the dragon. He identifies the Great Magical Agent as the serpent of ancient theogonies, the serpent of Genesis, the brazen serpent of Moses, the Goat of the Sabbath, Baphomet of the Templars, the Hyle of the Gnostics, Abraxas, and the devil of Eudes de Mirville. He denies a personal devil, calling it misdirected force, the Gospel's "legion" that drove the swine into the sea, comparing it to Ulysses and Circe. The Magus must be active, never passive. He cites Archimedes's fulcrum and the Philosophical Stone of Azoth. He discusses Eugene Sue's character Rodin, arguing Sue attacked intelligence and genius. He cites Tasso's knights delivering Rinaldo from Armida, and counsels votaries of pleasure to avoid the magical tripod. He mentions Daniel among lions, Jules Gerard the lion-killer, and the obedience of animals through fearlessness. He notes Valentius, Heliodorus, Admiral de Coligny, and Joan of Arc, whom the English regarded as a sorceress. The Magus-magnetizer commands body and sidereal body; Cagliostro used fumigations; Ragon gave recipes. Lévi describes projecting Astral Light by glance, voice, thumb and palm, aided by music, and the technique for inducing sleep. Chapter 7 discusses reconstructing magical Ceremonial via Trithemius's Polygraphy, the Enchiridion of Leo III, the Clavicles of Solomon, Little Albert, and Paracelsus. He expounds the septenary: seven archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Anael, Samael, Zadkiel, Oriphiel), planets, days, colours, sacraments, and Dupuis's error. He lists seven magical works, bodily correspondences, and detailed vestments, perfumes, and rings for each weekday. Finally he defines Pantacles and talismans, citing Gaffarel, the seven metals, engravings, and rules concerning who must not see or touch each planet's talisman.

Crosses of honour are described as talismans consecrated by investiture. Lévi discusses Napoleon's substitution of the Star of Honour for the Cross of St. Louis, calling it the Pentagram replacing the Labarum, and names Napoleon the greatest instinctive magician of modern times. Blessed objects, chaplets, the Agnus Dei, scapulas and medals are named as talismans; one popular medal is analyzed kabalistically, showing the heavenly mother (Isis, Venus-Urania, Mary) on one side and the double TAU, Pillars JAKIN and BOAZ, and twelve Pentagrams on the other. Instructions follow for consecrating talismans by the four elements, with spoken formulas, then the Conjuration of the Seven, addressing Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Samael, and driving out Chavaioth, Belial, Adrameleck, Lilith, Nahemah, Moloch. Lévi lists the magical instruments and details construction and consecration of the wand (almond or hazel), noting Richelieu sought its transmission through Gaffarel and his hatred of Urban Grandier. The sword's making and consecration under Michael follow, then the lamp of four metals with nine wicks. Warnings follow about dangers of the operations—madness, disease, death—and against making Magic a pastime or seeking to convince through phenomena. Lévi cites the Tarot Keys (twelfth, ninth, eighth), Prometheus, and lists Magi who died violently: Cardan, Schroepffer, Cagliostro. He advises equilibrating forces, moderate living, and avoiding experiment when ill. The final section states science is preserved by silence and perpetuated by initiation, cites Rabelais, describes the universal religion, the priesthood recruited by initiation, ancient Egyptian ordeals, Pythagoras's disciples, criticizes Rousseau and equality doctrine, and appeals for reconstitution of hierarchy and initiation.

The text opens on Pantacles, stating magical virtue lies in the directing intelligence. Lévi recalls having given the Pantacles of Pythagoras and Ezekiel, notes Moses engraved words on the tabernacle, and observes each Magus should have his own Pantacle. He cites the Magical Calendars of Tycho Brahe and Duchentau containing Pantacles of Adam, Job, Jeremiah, Isaiah. He describes nigromancers tracing infernal Pantacles on victims' skins, condemns blood sacrifice, and notes that since the death of Adonhiram the Adepts abhor blood. He interprets Genesis allegories, the three kabalistic keys (Moses' five books, Ezekiel, the Apocalypse of St. John), and the New Jerusalem, contrasting Dupuis and Volney's negation with his affirmation of one true religion. He interprets Apocalyptic figures—the Initiator, the Woman clothed with the Sun, the mighty angel, the beast with seven heads—rejecting readings that find Napoleon, Luther, or Voltaire therein. Lévi then treats the magnetic chain, formed by signs, speech, and contact. He cites the Sign of the Cross, the miraculous medal, Alphonse de Ratisbonne, Constantine's Labarum; the eloquence of Peter the Hermit, Proudhon, Voltaire; contact through dances, the Sabbath circle, and table-tilting. He discusses imagination, the number thirteen, and printing, claiming he evoked spirits of Apollonius, Plotinus, Paracelsus, Agrippa and others. He then expounds the Great Work: its triple meaning, the Universal Medicine, Sulphur, Mercury, Salt, the AZOTH. He cites Raymund Lully, Nicholas Flamel, Abraham the Jew, the Sepher Yetzirah, Basil Valentine, and Khunrath's Amphitheatrum. He links Abraham's figures to the Tarot Keys, interprets the twelfth and twenty-second Keys, and names alchemists Agrippa, Etteilla, and Cambriel.

Lévi asserts the possibility of resurrection, declaring death a phantom of ignorance and the body a garment of the soul that can, in certain cases, be reassumed. He explains resurrection as riveting the chains of attraction linking soul and body, notes that materialistic science relabels such cases as lethargy, and argues that since religion attests resurrections, they are possible. He cites Greuze's painting of a son destroying his father's will, whereupon the father rallies and curses him, and a parallel case certified by witnesses in which a betrayed dead man rises to defend his heirs. He recounts the Saviour raising the daughter of Jairus with three disciples present, saying "The girl is not dead but sleeping" and "Young girl, I say to thee, arise!", and lists Eliseus raising the Shunamite's daughter, St. Paul raising Eutychus, St. Peter raising Dorcas, and Apollonius of Tyana. He describes resurrection as the masterpiece of magnetism using insufflation and warmth. Lévi distinguishes two Necromancies, of light and darkness, stating evoked spectres never reveal mysteries beyond and cannot truly speak or be touched. He cites Spiridion evoking his daughter Irene, Swedenborg, and Sylvanus Marechal appearing to his widow about hidden francs. He gives detailed procedures for evocations of love and of knowledge, describing preparations, prayers, the Kabalistic Invocation of Solomon, his own evocation of Apollonius, and dismissal formulas. He describes Black Magic practices of Thessalian sorcerers, medieval necromancers, and the Grand Grimoire. Beginning Transmutations, Lévi discusses Apuleius, Circe, transmutation by the spoken word conferring names, a hypothetical Apollonius offering wine as blood, mesmerists altering tastes, love's fascinations, and cites Ovid's Metamorphoses and Apuleius's Golden Ass as allegorical.

Lévi states that life is a progressive transformation whose forms can be renewed, prolonged, or destroyed. He discusses metempsychosis, citing Circe changing men into swine, animal forms impressing the astral body, a mild man taking a sheep's physiognomy (per Swedenborg), and Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel. He asserts men can be transformed into animals and rendered invisible, explaining the Ring of Gyges. Of three invisibility methods only fascination is magical; the Great Initiator became invisible when about to be stoned in the Temple. He dismisses Grimoire rings (fixed mercury, hyena hairs from the Little Albert) and cites Jamblichus, Porphyry, and Peter of Apono as speaking allegorically of the Great Arcanum, describing a ring of seven metals with topaz and emerald as a Pantacle. Fascination works by magnetism; the Magus passes guarded gates unseen. Examples include a pursued man doubling back and a priest hunted in '93 who leaned against a corner unrecognized. The will is the true Ring of Gyges and creates the magical word; he discusses the Tetragram, the "hoc est," and transubstantiation, illustrated by Montalembert's St. Elizabeth of Hungary (bread into roses), a saint changing fowl to fish, and St. Spiridion sharing salted bacon on Good Friday. He then treats number fifteen, the Tarot Devil, and the Baphomet, which Templars worshipped as Pan, not Satan. He describes the goat with Pentagram, the immolated and emissary goats, and declares Satan non-existent. He attributes Black Magic to Manichaeanism, describes Sabbath types, Baptista Porta's unguent recipes, Master Leonard, and Gaufridy and Madeline de la Palud, burned. He distinguishes luminous from dark Sabbaths, the candidate's ordeal of kissing the goat revealing a priestess of Isis, the chastity of adepts, the Mopses' Hermetic dog, and the Baphomet inscription and disinterred coffer.

The text asks whether the spread of medieval superstition should surprise, noting Veuillot demands rekindled faggots. Lévi turns to Grimoire mysteries concerning evocations of devils and pacts with hell. He cites Father Ventura declaring the Kabalah a diabolical invention, and rebukes theologians as sorcerers. He states that evokers must belong to a religion admitting a creative devil, gives the Magical Axiom that every word creates what it affirms, and lists conditions for infernal evocations. He details preparations: profaning ceremonies, bloody sacrifice, the magic fork, a fifteen-day fast, intoxication with poppy and hemp, the timing, solitary places, robes, candles of human fat, and numerous hideous objects. He describes arranging the circle, triangle, Pantacle, the Labarum sign drawn in the operator's blood, and the victim's skin. He gives evocation formulae from Peter of Apono, the Grand Grimoire, and Agrippa's Grand Appellation, noting Picus de Mirandola's view on barbarous words. He describes the spirit's approach with wind and terror, official signatures of hell's princes preserved for Urban Grandier's trial, and Collin de Plancy's facsimile. He describes pacts written in blood, and calls Black Magic a creation of Roman Catholicism, naming Honorius, Leo III, and various authors. Lévi cites Bodin's Demonomania, then recounts the Oracle of the Bleeding Head: dying King Charles IX, the Queen-Mother Catherine de Medicis, an apostate Jacobin monk celebrating a Devil's Mass, and a child sacrificed after communion, whose head speaks "Vim patior." He mentions Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz. He then treats bewitchment: the true Magus condemns without ceremony; the Wandering Jew legend; a learned man who withdrew his wife's beauty and understanding. He details sorcerers' bewitchments by animals, nails, baptized toads, and waxen images, the evil eye, and threats. He concludes with means of resisting bewitchment: reason, washing garments, not fearing, and remedies including carrying a toad or eating a lamb's heart.

For counter-bewitchment by a waxen figure, Lévi prescribes making a more perfect figure, hanging seven talismans, placing it in a Pantacle with the Pentagram, rubbing it daily with oil and balm while reciting the Conjuration of the Four, then burning it in consecrated fire after seven days. He mentions Paracelsus's Sympathetic Medicine and homoeopathy. Parental contracts forestalling children's futures are condemned. He discusses the mandragore—a man-shaped root sought by Thessalian sorcerers—and speculates the first men were gigantic mandragores animated by the sun, supposing a First Cause called God. Alchemists' methods of making androids are described; an android attributed to Albertus Magnus was destroyed by St. Thomas with a stick, read as an allegory of scholasticism broken by the Summa, citing the axiom that God wills a thing because it is just. The real android was a magnetic subject, divulged by Mesmer. Lévi renounces and addresses Satan. He describes the sixteenth Tarot Key (Satan's temple) and the seventeenth (a naked maid pouring water from gold and silver ewers beneath a star), affirming "I believe in eternal life." He treats star-writing as the kabalistic alphabet, citing Moreau de Dammartin and Gaffarel's planisphere, judging its letters arbitrary. He reads Orion kabalistically. Gaffarel places evil augury in the north, invoking Nebuchadnezzar, Alaric, and "a septentrione pandetur omne malum," and foretells the Ottoman empire's decline via Rabbi Chomer. Tables list zodiacal genii, lunar-day influences, and the twenty-two Tarot Keys, borrowed by John Belot. Lévi gives an onomantic method using a black card and tube, and examples of star-onomancy predicting Greece, the temple, Alexander, and Constantinople. He explains Belshazzar's MANE THECEL PHARES as onomantic intuition, concluding magnetic intuition alone gives these calculations value.

The text opens in Thessaly, country of enchantments, where Apuleius underwent metamorphosis and stryges brew love-potions; youths are warned. Lévi states the art of philtres flourished there, connected to magnetism. He describes how a man seeking to compel love must impress a woman's imagination, inspiring admiration or horror, citing Lovelace and Clarissa. He remarks women adore reprobates, that modesty is woman's coquetry. Dr. Ashburner of London recounts a client told by a Marchioness he has "the eyes of Satan"; the doctor advises him he lost her esteem by not embracing her. Lévi notes Marat had a devoted mistress, and love is a hallucination. He describes reversing roles by ignoring a woman to make her pursue. He dismisses potions as used by the impotent, referencing Canidia, Horace, Virgil, Theocritus, the Grimoires, Caesonia and Caligula, Circe. He warns against prussic acid, almond scents, tobacco, and nicotine. He cites Marcos the archheretic defeated by a Christian woman's breath, Cure Gaufridy, Father Girard and Mlle. Cardier. He recounts Dom Calmet's account of Mlle. Ranfaing, poisoned by the physician Poirot, exorcised in Hebrew, Greek, Latin; the demon corrected doctors' Greek. Poirot was burned. Lévi cites St. Anthony, St. Theresa, St. Angela de Foligny, and Nicholas Remigius, who burned eight hundred women and confessed himself a sorcerer. He advises forbidding excitement to imagination and trusting reason. Chapter 19 turns to the Sun's number and the Absolute, the Work of the Sun, the Philosophical Stone. He discusses Salt, Sulphur, Mercury, Paracelsus's magnes, Projection, Sublimation, the Emerald Table, the Tarot, Tschoudy's Blazing Star, Raymond Lully, AZOTH, the Astral Light, fixity and motion, Basil Valentine, Hermanubis and Baphomet, and the mineral First Matter.

The text defines miracles as natural effects of exceptional causes, distinguishing physical miracles (action of will upon bodies) from moral ones (influence upon wills). It states that miracles involving absurdity are impossible even for God, and that God operates through angels in heaven and men on earth. It says man's domain is corporeal Nature, that the thaumaturge needs purity of intention, a favourable current and confidence, and cites the Gospel allegory of the Son of God thrice victorious over the unclean spirit. Occult therapeutics uses words, insufflations, and simple substances; faith saves. Examples follow: an old merchant curing by oil and prayers, prosecuted; Sister Jane-Frances at Mans with elixir and plaster; a gardener near Paris who died mad after his sceptical brother's mockery; and a woman cured by a magical parchment recorded by Abbe Thiers. Insufflation, warm and cold breathing, magnetic passes, and Eastern massage are described. It quotes the Master—"If you have faith"—and cites Rabelais's pantagruelism. Occult medicine is called sympathetic, using oil and wine (the Good Samaritan's balm), linked to Extreme Unction and Saint James's epistle; faith and charity heal. Chapter 21 defines divination as exercise of divine power. The perfect initiate reads truth in light. It describes the man of bad conscience, warns against public divination and diviners' spies, and gives the example of a woman anticipating marriage. Two classes of seers—instinctive and initiated—are named; David and Solomon cited. It describes Apollonius wrapped in a mantle, Dupotet's mirror, geomancy, cartomancy, and the Tarot. Mlle. Lenormand and Etteilla are discussed, then color-and-animal analogies, chiromancy (Taisnier, D'Arpentigny, Desbarrolles), dreams, Synesius and Hypatia. It closes with Trithemius's De Septem Secundeis, dividing history among seven genii, each reigning 354 years, beginning with Orifiel.

The text recounts Trithemius's succession of angelic reigns: Anael (Venus), Zachariel (Jupiter), Raphael (Mercury, of science and the word), Samael (Mars), Gabriel (Moon), and Michael (Sun), each dated by year of the world. Lévi presents Trithemius's philosophy of history, calculating a new universal empire arising November 1879, lasting 354 years and 4 months before Orifiel's reign of silence, and predicting nations following France's standard. Lévi then declares the universal key: the Little Key of Solomon—a hieroglyphic-numerical alphabet, a scale of ten, four symbols, twelve zodiac figures. The sphinx's four forms (man, eagle, lion, bull) correspond to the elements and to JOD HE VAU HE, the term the bacchantes divined as IO EVOHE. He cites Gaffarel and Philo on Michas's images and the Teraphim, Urim and Thummim, Ephod, the Pillars Jakin and Boaz, Gedulah and Geburah. He traces the Tarot through Court de Gebelin, Etteilla (Alliette), the Rosicrucians and Martinists, Postel, and the word ROTA/TAROT/Azoth, then the magical squares of Paracelsus. Lévi then catalogs the twenty-two keys: Aleph, the Juggler; Beth, the Female Pope (Isis attributes); Gimel, the Empress; Daleth, the Emperor; He, the Pope between two Pillars; Vau, man between Vice and Virtue; Zain, the Cubic Chariot with victor and double sphinx, called most beautiful and complete; Cheth, Justice; Teth, the Hermit (Prudence); Yod, the Wheel of Fortune; Kaph, Strength; Lamed, the Hanged Man; Mem, Death; Nun, Temperance; Samech, the Devil; Ayin, the lightning-struck Tower; Pe, the Blazing Star; Tzaddi, the Moon; Qoph, the radiant Sun with two children.

Lévi notes that other Tarots substitute a spinner unwinding destinies or a naked child on a white horse with a scarlet standard. He assigns the letter Resh to the vegetative principle and the hieroglyph THE JUDGEMENT, where a genius sounds a trumpet and the dead—man, woman, child—rise; Shin to the sensitive principle and THE FOOL, a wandering man bitten by a tiger; Tav to the microcosm and KETHER, the Crown between four animals with Truth holding a rod in each hand. He explains that the twenty-two Keys explain all numbers, that the Juggler explains the four aces, and that combining the fifty-six cards with the Keys forms a philosophical machine and oracle surpassing the Android of Albertus Magnus, tied to Raymund Lully's Grand Art and the Apocalypse of St. John. He interprets the Ark of the Covenant, its Cherubim (citing Gaffarel and re-reading Exodus), and its three parts as Atziluth, Yetzirah, Briah. He states that Saint-Martin and Postel concealed the Tarot's source, that Enoch equals Thoth, Cadmus, and Palamedes, and describes a sixteenth-century medal shown him by Paracelsus in a dream, spelling AZOTH. He surveys Italian, Spanish, German, and Chinese Tarots, citing Paul Boiteau, and dates the Tarot's loss to the Gnostic and Manichaean heresies. He quotes M. Augustin Chaho at length on the Apocalypse, the four ages, the Word, and Daniel's four beasts, the primitive logos, allegory, and the egg of Brahma explained by Choumountou. Contrasting Chaho with Dupuis and Volney, Lévi states his conclusions on religion, hierarchy, and unity, offers the recovered key, urges reconstructing the hierarchy of intelligence, and closes: "Amen; I desire it to be so."

The text states faith, hope and charity are inseparable sisters, then presents its religious Utopia of universal orthodoxy and restored temples, and its philosophy of realism and positivism: to know is to be, to doubt is to be ignorant, the laws of Nature are algebraic. It dismisses mysticism, calls man the son of his works, and describes science as a celestial trigonometry of Nature, soul and the Absolute. It denies atheism, urges no hatred, and states everyone reaps what he sows. These it names the dogma of Hermes, of Rosicrucian adepts. The true adept supports public order and wills true religion and experimental philosophy. It invokes Oedipus and the sphinx, questions Magic, addresses M. le Comte de Mirville, denies demons, affirms the Astral Light and magnetism, and tells table-turners greater wonders await, promising true priests and great kings.