Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 24 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite
4. The Conjuration Of The Four-b
Prayer of the Sylphs Spirit of Light, Spirit of Wisdom, Who breath gives and takes away the form of all things; Thou before Whom the life of every being is; a shadow which transforms and a vapour which passes away; Thou who ascendest upon the clouds and dost fly upon the wings of the wind; Thou who breathest forth and the limitless immensities are peopled: Thou who drawest in and all which came forth from Thee unto Thee returneth; endless movement in the eternal stability, be Thou blesses for ever!
We praise Thee, we bless Thee in the fleeting empire of created light, of shadows, reflections and images; and we aspire without ceasing towards Thine immutable and imperishable splendour.
May the ray of Thine intelligence and the warmth of Thy love descend on us: that which is volatile shall be fixed, the shadow shall become body, the spirit of the air shall receive a soul, and dream be though.
We shall be swept away no more before the tempest, but shall bridle the winged steeds of the morning and guide the course of the evening winds, that we may flee into Thy presence.
O Spirit of Spirits, O eternal Soul of Souls, O imperishable Breath of life, O Creative Sigh, O Mouth which dost breathe forth and withdraw the life of all beings; in the ebb and flow of Thine eternal speech, which is; the divine ocean of movement and of truth!
Amen.
Water is exorcised by imposition of hands, breathing and speech; consecrated salt and a little of the ash which remains in the pan of incense are mingled also with it.
The aspergillus is formed of twigs of vervain, periwinkle, sage, mint, ash and basil, tied by a thread taken from a virgin's distaff and provided with a handle of hazelwood from a tree which has not yet fruited.
The characters of the seven spirits must be graven thereon with the magic bodkin.
The salt and ash must be consecrated separately, saying: Over the Salt May wisdom abide in this salt, and may it preserve our minds and bodies from all corruption, by Hochmael and in the virtue of Ruach Hochmael!
May the phantoms of Hule depart herefrom; that it may become a heavenly salt, salt of the earth and earth of salt; that it may feed the threshing ox, and strengthen our hope with the horns of the flying bull!
Amen.
Over the Ash May this ash return unto the fount of living waters; may it become a fertile earth; may it bring forth the Tree of Life, by the Three Names which are Netsah, Hod, and Jesod, in the beginning and in the end, by Alpha and Omega, which are in the spirit of Azoth!
Amen.
Mingling the Water, Salt and Ash In the salt of eternal wisdom, in the water of regeneration, and in the ash whence the new earth springeth, be all things accomplished by Eloim, Gabriel, Raphael and Ariel, through the ages and aeons!
Amen.
Exorcism of the Water Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters; the things which are above are like unto things which are below, and things below are like unto things above, for the performance of the wonders of one thing; the Sun is its Father, the Moon its Mother, the wind hath carried it in the belly thereof.
It ascendeth from earth to heaven, and again it descendeth from heaven to earth.
I exorcise thee, creature of water, that thou mayest become unto men a mirror of the living God in his works, a fount of life and ablution of sins.
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The text uses alchemical terminology like Azoth, fixation of volatile, and Sun/Moon parents.
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 states 'the things which are above are like unto things which are below'.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The text describes a flow from the Spirit of Light to all things and their eventual return, implying a hierarchical cascade.
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 text details consecration of matter (water, salt, ash) to engage divine power 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.
Water is exorcised by speech and the magician declares 'I exorcise thee' to alter reality.