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Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) · 106 of 123 · tr. A.E. Waite

21. The Science Of The Prophetse

Next came the reign of Anael, the spirit of Venus, on 24 June, in the year of the world 354, when love began to be the instructor of mankind; it created the family, while the family led to association and the primitive city. The first civilizers, were poets inspired by love; presently the exaltation of poetry produced religion, fanaticism and debauchery, culminating subsequently in the deluge. This state of things continued till 25 October, being the eighth month of the year A.M. 708, when the reign of Zachariel, the angel of Jupiter, was inaugurated, under whose guidance men began to acquire knowledge and dispute the possession of lands and dwellings. It was also the epoch of the foundation of towns and the extension of empires; its consequences were civilization and war. The need of commerce began, furthermore, to be felt, at which time -namely, 24 February, A.M. 1063 - was inaugurated the reign of Raphael, angel of Mercury, angel of science and of the word, of intelligence and industry. Then letters were invented, the first language being hieroglyphic and universal, a monument of which has been preserved in the Book of Enoch, Cadmus, Thoth and Palamedes, the kabalistic clavicle adopted later on by Solomon, the mystical book of the TERAPHIM, URIM and THUMMIM, the primeval Genesis of the Zohar and of William Postel, the mystical wheel of Ezekiel, the ROTA of the Kabalists, the Tarot of Magi and Bohemians. The invention of arts began, and navigation was attempted for the first time; relations extended, wants multiplied and there followed speedily an epoch of general corruption, preceding the universal deluge, under the reign of Samael, angel of Mars, which was inaugurated on 26 June, A.M. 1417. After long exhaustion, the world strove towards a new birth under Gabriel, the angel of the moon, whose reign began on 28 March, A.M. 1771, when the family of Noah multiplied and re-peopled the whole earth, after the confusion of Babel, until the reign of Michael, angel of the sun, which commenced on 24 February, A.M. 2126, to which epoch must be referred the origin of the first dominations, the empire of the children of Nimrod, the birth of sciences and religions, the first conflicts between despotism and liberty. Trithemius pursues this curious study throughout the ages, and at corresponding epochs exhibits the recurrence of ruins; then civilization, born anew by means of poetry and love; empires, reconstituted by the family, enlarged by commerce, destroyed by war, repaired by universal and progressive civilization, absorbed subsequently by greater empires, which are syntheses of history. The work of Trithemius, from this point of view, is more comprehensive and independent than that of Bossuet and is a key absolute to the philosophy of history. His exact calculations lead him to the month of November in the year 1879, epoch of the reign of Michael and the foundation of a new universal kingdom, prepared by three centuries and a half of anguish and a like period of hope, coinciding precisely with the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth centuries for the lunar twilight and expectation, with the fourteenth, thirteenth, twelfth, and second half of the eleventh centuries for the ordeals, the ignorance, the sufferings, and the scourges of all Nature. We see therefore according to this calculation, that in 1879 - or in twenty-four years’ time - a universal empire will be founded and will secure peace to the world.
Themes
Apocatastasiscosmology

The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.

The passage explicitly describes the cyclical nature of history where civilizations rise, fall into ruins, and are born anew through recurring epochs.

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Correspondencecosmology

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.

The text links planetary spirits (Venus, Jupiter, Mercury) directly to specific human social structures and developments (love/family, knowledge/war, science/word).

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Divine Providencetheology

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

Human history is depicted as being guided and ordered by specific angelic reigns (Anael, Zachariel, etc.) that dictate the development of society.

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Numerical Mysticismtheology

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

The passage relies on 'exact calculations' of specific dates (A.M. years) to map historical epochs and predict future events like the year 1879.

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Related passages · 1 parallel
renaissance_hermeticism|Paracelsus: The Aurora of the Philosophers|Section 1a
THE AURORA OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. BY THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS. WHICH HE OTHERWISE CALLS HIS MONARCHIA. CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE. ADAM was the first inventor of arts, because he had knowledge of all thing…”
Both passages discuss the cyclical nature of civilization, the role of divine figures or angels in guiding human progress, and the recurrence of historical patterns, including the deluge and the preservation of knowledge through hieroglyphic and mystical means.
21. The Science Of The Prophetse — Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) — Guru