Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 92 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite
18. Philtres And Magnetism-c
Potions which enfeeble mind and disturb reason establish the empire already acquired by an evil will, and it was thus that the empress Caesonia is said to have fixed the savage love of Caligula.
Prussic acid is the most terrible agent in these envenomings of thought; hence we should beware of all extractions with an almond flavour, and never tolerate in bedchambers the presence of bay-cherry, Datura stramonium, almond-soaps or washes, and generally all perfumes in which this odour predominates, above when its action on the brain is seconded by that of amber.
To weaken the activity of intelligence is to strengthen proportionally the forces of unreasoning passion.
Love of that kind which the malefactors we are concerned with would inspire is a veritable stupefaction and the most shameful of moral bondages.
The more we enervate a slave, the more incapable we make him of freedom, and here lies the true secret of the sorceress in Apuleius and the potions of Circe.
The use of tobacco, by smoking or otherwise, is a dangerous auxiliary of stupefying philtres and brain poisons.
Nicotine, as we know, is not less deadly than prussic acid and is present in tobacco in larger quantities than is this acid in almonds.
The absorption of one will by another frequently changes a whole series of destinies, and not for ourselves only should we watch our relations, learning to distinguish pure from impure atmospheres, for the true philtres, and those most dangerous, are invisible.
Such are the currents of vital radiating light, which, mingling and inter-changing, produce attractions and sympathies, as magnetic experiments leave no room to doubt.
The history of the Church tells us that an archheretic named Marcos infatuated all women by breathing on them; but his power was destroyed when a valiant Christian female forestalled him in breathing, and said to him: “May God judge thee!” The Cure Gaufridy, who was burnt as a sorcerer, pretended to enamour all women who came in contact with his breath.
The notorious Father Girard, a Jesuit, was accused by his penitent, Mlle.
Cardier, of destroying her self-control by breathing on her.
Such a pretext was necessary to minimize the horrible and ridiculous nature of her accusations against this priest, whose guilt, moreover, has never been well established, though, consciously or unconsciously, he had certainly inspired an exceedingly shameful passion in the miserable girl.
“Mlle.
Ranfaing, having become a widow in 16—,” says Dom Calmet in his Treatise on Apparitions, “was sought in marriage by a physician named Poirot.
Failing to obtain a hearing, he thereupon gave her potions to induce love, and these caused extraordinary derangements in the health of the lady, increasing to such a degree that she was believed to be possessed, so that other physicians, baffled by her case, recommended her for the exorcisms of the Church.
Thereupon, by command of M.
de Porcelets, Bishop of Toul, the following were named as her exorcists: M.
Viardin, doctor in theology, the state councillor of the Duke of Lorraine, a Jesuit and a capuchin.
But in the long course of these ceremonies, almost all the clergy of Nancy, the aforesaid Lord Bishop, the Bishop of Tripoli, suffragan of Strasbourg, M.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
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 passage explicitly describes 'currents of vital radiating light' that produce 'attractions and sympathies,' identifying this magnetic affinity as the metaphysical basis for the magic discussed.
All passages →Word Power Incantationpraxis
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 details how sorcerers infatuate victims through 'breathing' and how a Christian female destroys this power by speaking the words 'May God judge thee!', illustrating the causal force of utterance.
All passages →Related passages · 9 parallels
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XVIII-b
“A certain thing of this kind also may take 71 place in the harmony and crasis of the universe: for the same things may be the salvation of the whole, through the perfection of the things inherent and the recipients; but may be noxious to th…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 365 (part 1)
“Section 45 45.
From this discussion it becomes perfectly clear that the individual member of the All contributes to that All in the degree of its kind and condition; thus it acts and is acted upon.
In any particular animal each of the lim…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter III
“Since, however, every part of the heavens, every sign of the zodiac, all the motion of the heavens, every period of time according to which the world is moved, and all things contained in the wholes of the universe, receive the powers which…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)|First Dialogue-j
“So that the continual movement of one part supposes and carries with it the movement of the whole, in such a way that the attraction of the posterior parts is consequent upon the repulsion of the anterior parts; thus the movement of the sup…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1h
“Hence comes the bare existence of all things, and hence their unions, 277 277 ἑνώσεις, διακρίσεις, ταὐτότητες, ἑτερότητες.
their differentiations, their identities, their differences, 278 278 Hence parts are united into wholes and wholes a…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 39 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 529 MYSTERIOUS SUN FLUID.
VIII.
LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY.
T HE imponderable fluids have had their day; "mechanical Forces" are less talked about; Science has put on a n…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 362
“Section 42 42. It follows that, for the purposes which have induced this discussion, the stars have no need of memory or of any sense of petitions addressed to them; they give no such voluntary attention to prayers as some have thought: it…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 12: The Prayer|Section 1e
“Observe this too, my son; that each one of the other lives inhabiteth one portion of the Cosmos - aquatic creatures water, terrene earth, and aery creatures air; while man doth use all these - earth, water air [and] fire; he seeth Heaven, t…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Sympathy — 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. (derived)
renaissance_hermeticism|Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LXXI — Of Many Words Joined Together, as in Sentences and Verses; and of the Virtues and Astrictions of Charms|Chapter LXXI, Section 1a
“CHAPTER LXXI.
Of Many Words Joined Together, as in Sentences and Verses; and of the Virtues and Astrictions of Charms .
Besides the virtues of words and names, there is also a greater virtue found in sentences, from the truth contained in…”
Shared concept: Word Power Incantation — 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. (derived)