Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 26 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite
4. The Conjuration Of The Fourd
The earth is exorcised by aspersion of water, by breathing and by fire, with the perfumes proper for each day and the Prayer of the Gnomes King invisible, Who, taking the earth as a support, didst furrow the abysses to fil them with Thine omnipotence; Thou Whose name doth shake the vaults of the world, Thou Who causest the seven metals to flow through the veins of the rock, monarch of the seven lights, rewarder of the subterranean toilers, lead us unto the desirable air and to the realm of splendour.
We watch and we work unremittingly, we seek and we hope, by the twelve stones of the holy City, by the hidden talismans, by the pole of loadstone which passes through the center of the world!
Savior, Savior, Savior, have pity on those who suffer, expand our hearts, detach and elevate our minds, enlarge our entire being!
O stability and motion!
O day clothed with night!
O darkness veiled by splendour!
O Master Who never keepest back the wages of Thy labourers!
O silver whiteness!
O golden splendour!
O crown of living and melodious diamonds!
Thou Who wearest the heaven on Thy finger like a sapphire ring, Thou Who concealest under earth, in the stone kingdom, the marvellous seed of stars, live, reign, be the eternal dispenser of the wealth whereof Thou hast made us the wardens!
Amen.
It must be borne in mind that the special kingdom of Gnomes is at the north, that of Salamanders at the south, that of Sylphs at the east, and that of Undines at the west.
These beings influence the four temperaments of man; that is to say, the Gnomes affect the melancholy, Salamanders the sanguine, Undines the phlegmatic and Sylphs the bilious.
Their signs are: the hieroglyphs of the Bull for the Gnomes, who are commanded with the sword; those of the Lion for Salamanders, who are commanded with the bifurcated rod or magic trident; those of the Eagle for the Sylphs, who are commanded by the holy pantacles; finally, those of the Water-Carrier for Undines, who are commanded by the cup of libations.
Their respective sovereigns are Gob for the Gnomes, Djin for the Salamanders, Paralda for the Sylphs and Nicksa for the Undines.
When an elementary spirit torments, or at least vexes, the inhabitants of this world, it must be conjured by air, water, fire and earth; by breathing, sprinkling, burning of perfumes; and by tracing on the ground the Star of Solomon and the Sacred Pentagram.
These figures must be perfectly correct and drawn either with the charcoal of consecrated fire or with a reed dipped in various colours, mixed with powdered loadstone.
Then, holding the Pantacle of Solomon in one hand and taking up successively the sword, rod and cup, the Conjuration of the Four should be recited with a loud voice, after the following manner: Caput mortuum, the Lord command thee by he living and votive serpent!
Cherub, the Lord command thee by Adam Jotchabah!
Wandering Eagle, the Lord command thee by the wings of the Bull!
Serpent, the Lord Tetragrammaton command thee by the angel and the lion!
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Anael!
Flow Moisture, by the spirit of Eloim.
Earth, be established by Adam Jotchabah.
Spread, firmament, by Jahubehu, Zebaoth.
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.
The text details elemental spirits inhabiting specific directions and influencing human temperaments.
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.
It explicitly maps elements to directions, temperaments, animals, and ritual tools.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Elemental beings are said to influence the four temperaments of man.
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 a ritual using material symbols to engage divine or spiritual powers 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.
The core practice involves reciting conjurations with a loud voice to command spirits.
A vertical structure connecting cosmic levels — a tree, pillar, mountain, or ladder linking heaven, earth, and underworld around which the cosmos is organised. Yggdrasil binding the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, the Kalevala's Sampo as world-pillar, the Mayan ceiba, the Vedic Aśvattha, the shamanic central tree of Eliade's analyses. Cosmic-structural in character: distinct from sefirot_tree (a kabbalistic emanation diagram) and emanation_hierarchy (an ontological cascade); world_tree_axis is the cosmos's spine rather than the divine's outflow.
References a pole of loadstone which passes through the center of the world.