Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 29 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite
5. The Blazing Pentagram-a
We proceed to the explanation and consecration of the Sacred and Mysterious Pentagram.
At this point, let the ignorant and superstitious close the book; they will either see nothing but darkness, or they will be scandalized.
The Pentagram, which in Gnostic schools is called the Blazing Star, is the sign of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy.
It is the Star of the Magi; it is the sign of the Word made flesh; and, according to the direction of its points, this absolute magical symbol represents order or confusion, the Divine Lamb of Ormuz and St.
John, or the accursed goat of Mendes.
It is initiation or profanation; it is Lucifer or Vesper, the star of morning or evening.
It is Mary or Lilith, victory or death, day or night.
The Pentagram with two points in the ascendant represents Satan as the goat of the Sabbath; when one point is in the ascendant, it is the sign of the Saviour.
The Pentagram is the figure of the human body, having the four limbs and a single point representing the head.
A human figure head downwards naturally represents a demon that is, intellectual subversion, disorder or madness.
Now, if Magic be a reality, if occult science be really the true law of the three worlds, this absolute sign, this sign ancient as history and more ancient, should and does exercise an incalculable influence upon spirits set free from their material envelope.
The sign of the Pentagram is called the Sign of the Microcosm, and it represents what the Kabalists of the book Zohar term the Microprosopus.
The complete comprehension of the Pentagram is the key of the two worlds.
It is absolute philosophy and natural science.
The sign of the Pentagram should be composed of the seven metals, or at least traced in pure gold upon white marble.
It may be also drawn with vermilion on an unblemished lambskin the symbol of integrity and light.
The marble should be virgin, that is, should never have been used for another purpose; the lambskin should be prepared under the auspices of the sun.
The lamb must have been slain at Paschal time with a new knife, and the skin must be salted with salt consecrated by magical operations.
The omission of even one of these difficult and apparently arbitrary ceremonies makes void the entire success of the great works of science.
The Pentagram is consecrated with the four elements; the magical figure is breathed on five times; it is sprinkled with holy water; it is dried by the smoke of five perfumes, namely, incense, myrrh, aloes, sulphur and camphor, to which a little white resin and ambergris may be added.
The five breathings are accompanied by the utterance of names attributed to the five genii, who are Gabriel, Raphael, Anael, Samael and Oriphiel.
Afterwards the Pentacle is placed successively at the north, south, east, west and centre of the astronomical cross, pronouncing at the same time, one after another, the consonants of the Sacred Tetragram, and then, in an undertone, the blessed letters ALEPH and the mysterious TAU, united in the kabalistic name of AzOTH.
The Pentagram should be placed upon the altar of perfumes and under the tripod of evocations.
The operator should wear the sign also as well as that of the Macrocosm, which is composed of two crossed and superposed triangles.
When a spirit of light is evoked, the head of the star - that is, one of its points - should be directed towards the tripod of evocations and the two inferior points towards the altar of perfumes.
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.
The text explicitly defines the Pentagram as the 'Sign of the Microcosm' and describes it as the figure of the human body mirroring cosmic structure.
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 details consecrated material symbols and actions (metals, perfumes, names) used to engage spirits and 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.
The text emphasizes that uttering names and consonants exercises an incalculable influence upon spirits and alters reality.