Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 90 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite
18. Philtres And Magnetisma
Let us now adventure in Thessaly, the country of enchantments.
Here was Apuleius beguiled, like the companions of Ulysses, and underwent a humiliating metamorphosis.
Here all is magical - the birds that fly, the insects humming in the grass, even the trees and flowers.
Here in the moon-light are brewed those potions which compel love; here spells are devised by stryges to render them young and lovely like Charites.
O all ye youths, beware!
The art of poisoning reason, otherwise the art of philtres, seems indeed, if traditions may be trusted, to have developed its venomous efflorescence more abundantly in Thessaly than elsewhere.
There also magnetism played its most important part, for stimulating or narcotic plants, bewitched and harmful animal substances, derived all their power from enchantments - that is to say, from sacrifices accomplished and words pronounced by sorcerers when preparing philtres and beverages.
Inflaming substances, and those in which phosphorus predominates, are naturally aphrodisiacal.
Anything which acts strongly on the nervous system may induce impassioned exaltation, and when a skilful and persevering will knows how to direct and influence these natural tendencies, it can use the desires of others to the profit of its own, and will soon reduce the most independent personalities into instruments of its pleasures.
From such influence it behoves us to seek protection, and to give arms to the weak is our purpose in writing this chapter.
Here, in the first place, are the devices of the enemy.
The man who seeks to compel love - we attribute such unlawful manoeuvres to men only, assuming that women can never have need of them - must in the first place make himself observed by the person whom he desires and must contrive to impress her imagination.
He must inspire her with admiration, astonishment, terror, and even with horror, failing all other resources; but at any cost he must set himself apart in her eyes from the rank of ordinary men and, with or against her will, must make himself a place in her memory, her apprehensions, her dreams.
The type of Lovelace is certainly not the admitted ideal of the type of Clarissa, but she thinks of him incessantly to condemn him, to execrate him, to compassionate his victims, to desire his conversion and repentance.
Next she seeks his regeneration by devotion and forgiveness.
Later on secret vanity whispers to her how grand it would be to fix the affections of a Lovelace, to love him and yet to withstand him.
Behold, then, Clarissa surprised into loving Lovelace!
She chides herself, blushes, renounces a thousand times and loves him a thousand more.
Then, at the supreme moment, she forgets to resist him.
Had angels been women, represented by modern mysticism, Jehovah indeed would have acted as a wise and prudent Father by placing Satan at the gate of heaven.
It is a serious imposition on the self-love of some amiable women to find that man fundamentally good and honourable who enamoured them when they thought him a scapegrace.
The angel leaves him disdainfully, saying: “You are not the devil!” Play the devil as well as you can, if you wish to allure an angel.
No licence is possible to a virtuous man.
“For what does he take us?” say women.
“Does he think us less strict than he is?” But everything is forgiven in a rascal.
“What else could you expect?” The part of a man with high principles and of rigid character can never be a power save with women whom one wishes to fascinate: the rest, without exception, adore reprobates.
It is quite the opposite with men, and this contrast has made modesty woman's dower, the first and most natural of her coquetries.
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 art of philtres is described as 'unlawful manoeuvres' and the 'art of poisoning reason,' framing this magical knowledge as transgressive.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
The passage explicitly references Apuleius's metamorphosis and spells designed to render individuals young and lovely, highlighting form-mutability as a magical capability.
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 describes how philtres and beverages derive their power from 'words pronounced by sorcerers,' indicating the causal-magical force of spoken utterance.