Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 83 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite

16. Witchcraft And Spellse

Thomas, that daring innovator who first substituted the absolute law of reason for arbitrary divinity, by formulating an axiom which we cannot repeat too often, since it comes from such a master: “A thing is not just because God wills it, but God wills it because it is just.” The real and serious android of the ancients was a secret which they have kept hidden from all eyes, and Mesmer was the first who dared to divulge it.

It was the projection of the will of the Magus into another body, organized and served by an elementary spirit; in more modern and intelligible terms, it was a magnetic subject.

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.

Mention of an 'elementary spirit' organizing the body aligns with the belief in spirits inhabiting or serving material forms.

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◆Cosmic Sympathycosmology

The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.

The concept of a 'magnetic subject' and the projection of will relies on hidden affinities between the Magus and the subject.

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◆Hidden Sayingssoteriology

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

The passage explicitly refers to a 'secret which they have kept hidden from all eyes' regarding the ancient android.

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Related passages · 1 parallel · 1 contrast

◆renaissance_hermeticism|Paracelsus: The Aurora of the Philosophers|Section 1t

“The Aurora is by some regarded as an instance in point; though no doubt in the main it is a genuine work of the Sage of Hohenheim, yet in some respects it does seem to approximate somewhat closely to previous schools of Alchemy, which can s…”

Both passages discuss the concept of magical projection of will or influence into another body or object. Passage A describes the projection of the will of the Magus into another body, while Passage B discusses the magical projection of influence into stones and other substances. This shared conceptual insight qualifies as a genuine parallel.

◆neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XVIIbCONTRASTS

“For, as he sometimes makes some stupid man to speak wisely, through which it becomes manifest to every one, that this is not a certain human but a divine work; thus, also, he reveals through things which are deprived of knowledge, conceptio…”

Both passages discuss the concept of divine or supernatural influence acting through intermediaries. Passage A describes the projection of the will of the Magus into another body, while Passage B discusses divine influence revealing knowledge through things deprived of knowledge, both illustrating the idea of higher powers manifesting through lesser entities.