Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 20 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite
3. The Triangle Of Pantaclesb
Nature is not outraged with impunity, and no one can play safely with unknown and incalculable forces.
It is this consideration which has led and will ever lead us to deny the vain curiosity of those who would see in order that they may believe, and we reply to them in the same words as we replied to an eminent Englishman who threatened us with his scepticism: “You are perfectly within your right in refusing to believe: for our own part, it will not make us more discouraged or less convinced.” To those who may assure us that they have scrupulously and boldly fulfilled all the Rites and that there has been no result, we would recommend that they should stay their hand, as it is possibly a warning of Nature, who will not lend herself to them for these anomalous works; but if they persist in their curiosity, they have only to start afresh.
The triad, being the foundation of magical doctrine must be necessarily observed in evocations; for it is the symbolical number of realization and effect.
The letter ש is commonly traced upon kabalistic pantacles which have the fulfilment of a desire for their object.
It is also the sign of the scapegoat in mystic Kabalah, and Saint-Martin observes that inserted in the Incommunicable Tetra-gram it forms the Name of the Redeemer.
It is this which the mystagogues of the Middle Ages represented in their nocturnal assemblies by the exhibition of a symbolical goat, carrying a lighted torch between its two horns.
In the fifteenth chapter of this “Ritual” we shall describe the allegorical forms and strange cultus of this monstrous animal, which represented Nature doomed to anathema but ransomed by the sign of light.
The Gnostic Agapae and pagan priapic orgies which followed in its honour sufficiently revealed the moral consequence which the adepts drew from the exhibition.
All this will be explained, together with the Rites, decried and now regarded as fabulous, of the Great Sabbath and of Black Magic.
Within the grand circle of evocations a triangle was usually traced, and the side towards which the upper point should be directed was a matter for careful observation.
If the spirit were supposed to be from heaven, the operator placed himself at the top, and set the altar of fumigations at the bottom; but if the spirit came from the abyss this method was reversed.
Moreover, the sacred symbol of two interlaced triangles, forming the six-pointed star, known in magic as the Pantacle or Seal of Solomon, must be worn upon the forehead and the breast, and graven in the right hand.
Independently of these signs, the ancients, in their evocations, made use of those mystical combinations of Divine Names which we have reproduced in our “Doctrine” from the Hebrew Kabalists.
The magic triangle of pagan theosophists was the celebrated ABRACADABRA, to which they attributed extraordinary virtues and represented as follows: This combination of letters is a key of the Pentagram.
The initial A is repeated five and reproduced thirty times, thus giving the elements and numbers of the two following figures: The isolated A represents the unity of the first principle, otherwise, the intellectual or active agent.
A united to B represents the fertilization of the duad by the monad.
R is the sign of the triad, because it represents hieroglyphically the emission which results from the union of the two principles.
The number ii, which is that of the letters of the word, combines the unity of the initiate with the denary of Pythagoras, and the number 66, the added total of all the letters, form kabalis-tically the number 12, which is the square of the triad and consequently the mystic quadrature of the circle.
Themes
◆Forbidden Knowledgesoteriology
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
The text explicitly mentions 'Black Magic', the 'Great Sabbath', and warns against 'anomalous works' that outrage Nature.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The passage describes ritual practices ('Rites', 'evocations', 'pantacles') intended to engage spiritual forces directly.
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.
It attributes 'extraordinary virtues' to the combination of letters in 'ABRACADABRA' and emphasizes the power of Divine Names.