Part 5

I looked around in this home of the magician. On his writing-desk lay a parchment on which he had commenced to write down the horoscope of the following year. Beside the desk was a celestial globe with figures painted in various colors. In a window looking towards the south hung an astrolabe, to whose alidade a long telescope (of course without lenses) was attached. The book-case contained a not inconsiderable number of folios: Versio Vulgata, some volumes of the fathers, Virgil, Dionysius Areopagita, Ptolemy, the hymns of Orpheus, Hermes Trismegistus, Jamblichus, Pliny's Natural History, a large number of works partly in Arabic upon astrology and alchemy, also a few Hebrew manuscripts, and so on. These and other such things were to be found in his observatory, which was also his studio and sleeping-room. Next to the observatory was the alchemical laboratory with a strangely appointed oven filled with singular instruments reminding me again of Faust's complaint:--

=Ihr Instrumente freilich spottet mein, Mit Rad und Kaemmen, Walz und Buegel. Ich stand am Thor, ihr solltet Schluessel sein; Zwar euer Bart ist kraus, doch hebt Ihr nicht die Riegel.=

While we lingered here our host informed us that for the present he had suspended his experiments in alchemy. He hoped to find his quinta essentia by a shorter process than the combination of substances and distillation, which had exhausted already so many investigators and led so few to success. He acknowledged that he had himself advanced no farther in the art of the adepts than the extraction from "philosophic earth" mixed with "philosophic water" of just so much, and no more, gold than he had employed at the beginning of the experiment. In spite of this, however, he worked daily before his oven, melting and purifying such metals as he needed for his planet-medallions, amulets and magical rings, and above all in preparing that effective alloy which is called electrum.

From his laboratory our host conducted us into two other apartments with arched ceilings, forming a sort of museum of most extraordinary curiosities,--skeletons and dried limbs of various animals: fishes, birds, lizards, frogs, snakes, etc.; herbs and differently colored stones; whole and broken swords; nails extracted from coffins and gallows; flasks containing I know not what,--all arranged in groups under the signs of the different planets. We beheld before us the wonderful and rich apparatus of practical magic arranged according to rules of which we were entirely ignorant,--rules which we had vainly sought in all the treatises of modern times upon the occult sciences of the Middle Ages, rules which might perhaps contain the simple principles underlying their confusion.

Evening was drawing on. The sun was sinking behind the western hills. It was beginning to grow dark among the arches where the great magician had imprisoned himself among dead and withered relics,--fragments broken from the great and living world without. We returned to his observatory. He opened a window and contemplated with dreamy glances the stars which were kindling one after another in the heavens. The twilight is a favorable time for conversation of the kind for which we had been preparing ourselves. We were soon settled in comfortable, roomy arm-chairs and discoursing earnestly,--we, the man of the fifteenth century, and the unborn souls of the nineteenth, whom he had summoned that he might look into the future, and who now used him to look back into the past. He spoke to us of his science....

"My knowledge is not of myself. Far, far away behind these hills, behind the snowy summits of the Alps, behind the mountains of the 'farthest-dwelling Garamantes,' on nameless heights which disappear among the clouds, the temple of truth was built long ago over the fountain from which life flows. That this temple is demolished we well know; only the first human pair has wandered through its sacred halls. But he who desires, who yearns and has patience, can sit down by the margin of the stream of Time and grasp and draw ashore some of the cedar-beams from the ruined temple drifting upon the billows, and from the form of the fragments may determine the structure of the whole. All wisdom has its roots in the past, and the farther we penetrate antiquity, the richer the remains we find of a highest human wisdom. What is Albertus Magnus with his profound knowledge in comparison with the angelic wisdom of Dionysius Areopagita, and what is the latter compared with that of the prophet who denounced his woes over Nineveh and Babylon? And yet these divinely commissioned men would gladly have been taught by the seventy elders who were allowed with Moses to approach the mountain where God chose to reveal himself, there receiving the mystic knowledge of the Cabala. On Sinai, however, God's secret was veiled in clouds, lightnings and terror; Moses himself was permitted to see him only 'from behind'--did not obtain a morning-knowledge (a knowledge a priori, an analogy-seeking pupil of Schelling would have called it), but an evening-knowledge (knowledge a posteriori, he would have added). The morning-knowledge was shown only to the man of the dawn of time and was extinguished at the first sin. From that time every successive generation has deteriorated from its predecessor:

"'Aetas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem,'

and with the darkness of sin reason is plunged into constantly blacker depths. The individual seeker after truth may gain enlightenment, but for himself alone, not for humanity. Therefore a magician confines the wisdom he acquires to his own bosom, or imparts it to a single pupil, or buries it under obscure expressions which he commits to parchment; but he neither can nor will impart it without reserve to humanity whose path appears to lead downward into a constantly deeper night.

"Even the theologians speak of the pristine wisdom,--the theologians with whom we, who practice the occult science, agree far more than the simple and suspicious among them think. What remained, in the time of Noah, of pristine wisdom was saved with him in the ark. His first-born obtained as his portion the fairest wisdom. Prophecy, the Cabala, and the Gospel belong to the sons of Shem, the Jews. But even Ham and Japhet were not left destitute. It was the priest of the sons of Ham that guarded the secrets of Isis,--secrets before which even we Christians must bow in the dust; for the Old Testament does not hesitate to exalt the wisdom of the Egyptians and recognize Moses as a pupil from their school. Hermes Trismegistus was an Egyptian, and we magicians who know that he transmuted whatever he chose into gold and precious stones, are not astonished when the apostle Paul speaks of the treasures of Egypt, or at what travellers relate of its pyramids and other giant works, or when Pliny estimates the number of its cities at twenty thousand, or when Marcellinus is amazed at the immense treasures which Cambyses carried away from it, for all this was a creation of the art of Hermes Trismegistus. Even the portion of the children of Japhet was not insignificant. It was divided between the treasury of Zoroaster and that of the Eleusinian mysteries. Some coins of this treasure fell into the hands of Plato and Aristotle and have from them come into the possession of Porphyrius, Jamblichus, and the theosophists and scholastics. It is this diffused illumination--that of the Bible (its inner, secret meaning) the Cabala and fragments of Egyptian, Persian and Grecian wisdom--which are collected and united in the magic of learning. These are the ancestors of my science. Has it not a pedigree more noble than that of any royal family?

"I heard you mention something about the necessity for a science of investigation without presupposition. Would you then really presume to be the judge of all that past generations have thought, believed and transmitted as a sacred inheritance to those that follow? Do you not shrink before the idea that human hunger for truth must have been satisfied from Adam to our own days by nothing but illusions? that you are the children and children's children of mere idiots who have fixed their hopes, their faith, and their convictions on baseless falsehoods? Put your godless plan of investigation to the test! Do it openly, and the theologians will burn you! Do it in secret, and you will finally crave the stake as a liberator from the terrible void such a science would leave in your own soul! No, the magician believes just as devoutly as the theologian. Only in the mellow twilight of faith can he undertake those operations whose success is a confirmation of the truth of his faith. Or do you require stronger corroboration of the genuineness of his tenets than what I find when I read in these stars which wander silently past my window, the fates of men, and see these fates accomplished; when, with the potency of magical means, I summon angels, and demons, and the souls of dead and unborn men to reveal themselves before my eyes, and they appear?

"I confess that our science, if it is looked at only on the surface, resembles a variegated carpet with artfully interwoven threads; but as only a limited number of manipulations is required to produce the most remarkable texture, so it is also but a few simple thoughts which support all the doctrines and products of magic.

"That the universe is a triple harmony, as the Godhead is a Trinity, you are aware. We live in the elemental world; over our head the celestial space, with its various spheres, revolves; and above this, finally, God is enthroned in the purely spiritual world of ideas. The unhappy scientists of your century have in their narrow prejudice separated these worlds from one another (but by crowding together the celestial and the elementary). Your so-called students of nature investigate only the elementary world, and your so-called philosophers only the ideal; but the former with all their delving in the various forms of matter, never reach the realm of the spiritual, but are rather led to disavow its existence; and the latter can never from the dim world of ideas summon up the concrete wealth of nature. In vain your students of nature imagine that in physiology, or your philosophers that in anthropology, they shall find the transition from one world to the other. We magicians, on the contrary, study these worlds as a unit. We find them combined by two mighty bonds: those of correspondence and causality. All things in the elementary world have their antitype in the celestial, and all celestial things have their corresponding ideas. These correspondences are strung from above downwards as strings on the harp of the universe, and on that harp the causalities move up and down like the fingers of a player. While your students of nature seek the chains of causality in only one direction, the horizontal, that which runs through things on the same level, that which connects things in one and the same elementary world; we, the students of magic, search with still greater diligence those perpendicular chains of causality which run through and combine corresponding objects in the three worlds. Our manner of investigating this perpendicular series resembles your method of examining the horizontal but slightly, if at all. What unnecessary trouble your induction causes you! You wish to investigate the nature of some manifestation of force, for instance; you analyze it with great painstaking into different factors, you strive to isolate each of these factors and to cause them to act each its own part, to find out what each has contributed to the common expression of force. We meet with no such hindrances. A secret tradition has presented to us our perpendicular lines of causality almost entire, and we are able to fill up the lacunae of this tradition by an investigation which is not impeded with any great difficulties. This investigation relies on the resemblances of things, for this similarity is derived from a correspondence, and causality is interwoven with correspondence. Thus, for instance, we judge from the resemblance between the splendor of gold and that of the sun that gold has its celestial correspondence in that luminary, and sustains to it a causal relation. Another example: the two-horned beetle bears a causal relation to the moon, which at its increase and wane is also two-horned; and if there were any doubt of this intimate relation between them, it must vanish when we learn that the beetle hides its eggs in the earth for the space of twenty-eight days, or just so long time as is required for the moon to pass through the Zodiac, but digs them up again on the twenty-ninth, when the moon is in conjunction with the Sun. Do not smile at this method of investigation! Beware of repeating the mistake which 'common sense' is so prone to make in seeing absurdities in truths which happen to be beyond its horizon? Our method is founded on the idea that there is nothing casual in nature. To be sure we accept a divine arbitrament, but by no means a natural fortuity. Not even the slightest similarity between existing objects is a meaningless accident! Not even the slightest stroke in the figures by which we fix our words and thoughts in writing is without deep significance. Every thing in the work of nature and of man has its cause and its effect. We can not make a gesture, nor say a word, without imparting vibrations to the whole universe, upward and downward,--vibrations which may be strong or feeble, perceptible or imperceptible. This principle runs through the whole of our cosmical system, and this thought must be true even for you analyzers.

"Before explaining more fully the magical use of our series of correspondence and causality, I wish to show you a couple of them. I shall choose the simplest, but at the same time the most important. I commence with

THE SCALE OF THE HOLY TETRAD. (Table I.)

From which is found the Correspondences to the Four Elements.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | God's name | [Hebrew] |(Jehovah) in | |four letters. |------------------------------------------------------------ THE |Seraphim,|Dominions,|Principali- |Saints, |The four WORLD |Cherubim,| Powers, | ties, | Martyrs, |triplicities OF | Thrones | Empires | Archangels,| Confessors|of the ARCHETYPES | | | Angels | |celestial AND | | | | |hierarchy. BLISS |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Michael |Raphael |Gabriel |Uriel |Four angels, | | | | |guardians of | | | | |the four card. | | | | |points. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Seraph |Cherub |Tharsis |Ariel |Angels | | | | |presiding over | | | | |the elements. ======================================================================== |Aries, |Gemini, |Cancer, |Taurus, |The four | Leo, | Libra, | Scorpio, | Virgo, |triplicities | Sagit- | Aquarius | Pisces | Capra |of the Zodiac. THE | tarius | | | | CELESTIAL |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- WORLD |Mars, |Jupiter, |Saturn, |Fixed |The stars and | Sun | Venus | Mercury | Stars, |planets as | | | | Moon |related to the | | | | |elements. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Light |Transpar- |Activity |Firmness |Four qualities | | ency | | |of the | | | | |celestial | | | | |elements. ======================================================================== |Fire |Air |Water |Earth |The four | | | | |elements. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Warmth |Humidity |Coldness |Aridity |The four | | | | |qualities of | | | | |the elements. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Summer |Spring |Winter |Autumn |The four | | | | |seasons. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |East |West |North |South |The four card. | | | | |points. THE |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- ELEMENTARY |Animals |Herbs |Metals |Stones |Four kinds of | | | | |mixed bodies. WORLD |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Walking |Flying |Swimming |Crawling |Four kinds of | | | | |animals. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Germ |Flower |Leaves |Root |The parts of | | | | |the plants as | | | | |related to the | | | | |elements. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Gold, |Copper, |Quicksilver |Lead, |Metals | Iron | Tin | | Silver |corresponding | | | | |to the | | | | |elements. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Shining |Light and |Clear and |Heavy and |Stones | and | Trans- | Hard | Opaque |corresponding |Burning | parent | | |to the | | | | |elements. ======================================================================== |Faith |Science |Opinion |Experience |Four | | | | |principles of MICROCOSMOS| | | | |judging. |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Choleric |Sanguinic |Phlegmatic |Melancholic|Temperaments. ======================================================================== |Samael |Azazael |Azael |Mehazael |Princes of the | | | | |evil spirits | | | | |raging in the | | | | |elements. HELL |---------+----------+------------+-----------+-------------- |Oriens |Paymon |Egyn |Amaimon |The demons | | | | |presiding over | | | | |the four card. | | | | |points.

"Here you see one of the nets which magic has stretched from the Empyrean down into the abyss. For each of the sacred numbers there is a separate scale of the same kind: 'The universe,' says Pythagoras, 'is founded upon numbers,' and Boethius asserts that 'Every thing created in the beginning of time was formed according to the relations of certain numbers, which were lying as types in the mind of the Creator.' It is consequently a settled fact with us that numbers contain greater and more effective forces than material things; for the former are not a mixture of substances, but may, as purely formal entities, stand in immediate connection with the ideas of divine reason. This is recognized also by the fathers: by Hieronymus, Augustine, Ambrosius, Athanasius, Bede, and others, and underlies these words in the book of Revelation: 'Let him who hath understanding count the number of the beast.' Those varied and relatively discordant objects which form a unity in the same world, are arranged side by side in the scale; whereas those things which in different groups or different worlds correspond to one another, form the ascending and descending series.

"Do not forget that correspondence also implies reciprocal activity! Thus, for instance, the letter [Hebrew] in the holy name of God indicates a power which is infused into the successive orders of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, and which is imparted through them to the constellations Leo and Sagittarius, and to the two wandering luminaries Mars and the Sun. These angels and stars all pour down into the elementary world the abundance of their power, which produces there fire and heat, and the germs of animal organisms, and kindles in man reason and faith, in order to meet finally in the lowest region, its opposites: cold, destruction, irrationality, unbelief, represented by the names of fallen angel-princes. I will now show you another table which is an introduction to the study of Astrology and treats more in detail of certain parts of the preceding, showing how things in the elementary world and microcosm are subject to the planets. In showing this to you I will remind you of the verse:

'Astra regunt hominem; sed regit astra Deus.' (The stars guide man; but God guides the stars.)

(TABLE II.)

+-------------------------------------------------------------- | MOON. | MERCURY. | VENUS. | SUN. | MARS. | ---------+------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+ ELEMENTS.|Earth, |Water. |Air, |Fire. |Fire. | | Water. | | Water. | | | ---------+------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+ MICRO- |White |Mixed |Slimy |Blood and |Acid | COSMOS. | juices. | juices. | juices. | vital | juices. | | | | | power. | | ---------+------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+ ANIMALS. |Sociable |Cunning |Beautiful |Bold and |Beasts of | | and | and | with | courageous.| prey. | | changeable.| rapid. | strong | | | | | | sexual | | | | | | instinct.| | | ---------+------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+ PLANTS. |Selenotrope,|Little |Spices and|Pine, |Burning, | | Palm, | short | fruit- | Laurel, | poisonous,| | Hyssop, | leaves and | trees. | Vine, | and | | Rosemary, | many | | Heliotrope,| stinging. | | etc. | colored | | Lotus, etc.| | | | flowers. | | | | ---------+------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+ METALS. |Silver. |Quicksilver,|Silver. |Gold. |Iron and | | | Tin, | | | sulphuric | | | Bismuth. | | | metals. | ---------+------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+ STONES. |All white |Many |Carnelian,|Topaz, Ruby,|Diamond, | | stones | colored. | Lazuli, | Carbuncle, | Jasper, | | and pearls.| | etc. | etc. | Amethyst, | | | | | | Magnet. |

----------------------- | JUPITER. | SATURN. +----------+----------- |Air. |Earth, | | Water. +----------+----------- |Vegetative|Gall. | juices. | | | +----------+----------- |Sagacious |Crawling | and | and | gentle. | nocturnal. | | | | +----------+----------- |Oak, |Cypress and | Beech, | those of a | Poplar, | gloomy | Cereals, | aspect or | etc. | foul odor. | | +----------+----------- |Gold, |Lead. | Silver, | | Tin. | +----------+----------- |Green and |Onyx and | air- | all brown | colored. | clays. | |

"The value of these, as of many other tables, will be clear to you when I now pronounce the first practical principle of magic:--

"As the Creator of the universe diffuses upon us, by angels, stars, elements, animals, plants, metals and stones, the powers of his omnipotence, so also the magician, by collecting those objects in the elemental world which bear a relation of mutual activity to the same entity (an angel or a planet) in the higher worlds, and by combining their powers according to scientific rules, and intensifying them by means of sacred and religious ceremonies, is able to influence this higher being and attract to himself its powers.

"This principle sufficiently explains why I have collected around me all the strange things you here see. Here, for instance, is a plate of lead on which is engraved the symbol of a planet; and beside it a leaden flask containing gall. If I now take a piece of fine onyx marked with the same planet-symbol, and this dried cypress-branch, and add to them the skin of a snake and the feather of an owl, you will need but to look into one of the tables given you to find that I have only collected various things in the elementary world which bear a relation of mutual activity to Saturn; and, if rightly combined, can attract both the powers of that planet, and of the angels with which it is connected.

"The greatest effect of magic--at the same time its triumph, and the criterion of its truth--is a successful incantation. Shall we perform one? If we go through all the necessary preparations, we shall have a bird's-eye view of the whole secret science. Only certain alchemists have a still greater end in view; they aspire to produce in the retort man himself,--nay, the whole world. You men of the nineteenth century know only by reputation of our attempts to produce an homunculus, and a perpetuum mobile naturae. Could you only count the drops of perspiration these efforts have wrung from us! There is something enchanting, something overpowering, in alchemy. It is gigantic in its aims, and in its depths dwells a thought which is terrible, because it threatens to crush that very cosmic philosophy on which our faith is founded. We occupy ourselves with the elements, until the idea steals upon us that every thing is dependent on them; that every thing, Creator and created, is included in them; that every thing arises by necessity and passes away by necessity. If you can only collect in the crucible those elements and life-germs which were stirring in chaos, then you can also produce, in the crucible, the six days of creation, and find the spirit which formed the universe. I have abandoned alchemy only to escape this thought; but a parchment will, sealed with seven seals, and hidden in the most secret corner of my vaults, contains the remarkable experiences I have had when experimenting for the perpetuum mobile and homunculus.

"But to the preparations for our conjuration! First we are met with the question: Is the hour favorable? Do the aspects oppose? Aspect is the relative position of two planets to each other. Every calendar from the centuries which lie between you and me speaks of these aspects: of the conjunction of the planets (when they are on the same meridian, and consequently separated by no angular distance); their opposition (when in a directly opposite part of the heavens); their quadrature (distance of 90 deg.), trigon (120 deg.), and hexagon (60 deg.). If the blood-red Mars, or the pale Saturn stand in quadrature or in opposition to one another, or to any of the other wandering stars, this portends destruction. But to-day both these planets are harmless; the aspects are good, and Mars itself being in the first 'face' of its own house, is consequently even kindly disposed. Even the moon, whose assistance is needed, is in the house of a friendly star, and in a favorable quadrature to Jupiter. Here we meet consequently with no hindrances. It remains, however, on the side of Astrology to find out what planets are the regents of the present year. In other words, what planets form the first aspect of the year. Look here in my calendarium. Mars was one of them. This suits us all the better as to-day is Tuesday, Mars' own day, and as the hour will soon be here which, on this day, he presides over absolutely. It is therefore of importance that we use in our incantation the martial part of my magical apparatus. Among the elements fire is martial. We shall therefore kindle a fire upon this altar. Among the planets, the thorny, poisonous and nettle-like are martial. We shall therefore feed this fire with dry twigs and rose-bushes. Among the animals the ferocious and bold are connected with the blood-red star. Here you see three belts of lion's hide fringed with the teeth of tigers, leopards and bears, and provided with clasps of iron, because iron is the martial metal. Let us fasten those belts, when the time has arrived, about our waists. Among the stones the diamond, amethyst, jasper and magnet are martial. I show you here three diadems which, though of pure iron, sparkle with these stones, and are furnished with the signs and signatures of our planet. Here you have three iron staves marked with the same signs: we must bear them in our hands. These breast-plates studded with amethysts, whose Hebrew inscriptions and characters refer to the same stars, we must wear over our hearts on the outside of the white clothing which we shall put on before our incantation begins. Here again you will notice three diamond rings: we shall wear them on our middle finger during the solemn and awful moment for which we are preparing. These two bells we place on the table; one of a reddish alloy and furnished with iron rings, summons the martial spirit hither, the other made of electrum magicum (i. e., a proportional alloy of all metals with some astral tincture added), serves to call celestial reserve-forces of all kinds, if needed. Further, we require these breast-plates and these rings of electrum, which do not bear the name of any planet, but the glorious and blessed name of God himself, as a protection for the conjurers against the conjured spirit. Who he is we shall soon find. Observe here, further, a terrible arsenal which is also necessary for our purpose. Mars is the star of war, murder and passion. The demons of Mars have a corresponding nature, and there exists between them and the tools by which their work on earth is accomplished, a power of attraction. Therefore we have here this heavy sword with which the magic circle is to be drawn; we therefore place in rows these skulls and bones which have been collected in places of execution, these nails, extracted from gallows, these daggers, knives and axes rusty with stains of blood. We must not forget the incense which was kindled on the altar shortly before the first citation. There is a different kind of incense for every planet and its demons. That appropriate for Mars is composed of euphorbia, bdellium, ammoniac, magnet, sulphur, brains of a raven, human blood and the blood of a black cat. It is highly important that the quality of this incense should be genuine. I might quote what Porphyrius says upon this point; but confine myself to pointing out that it has an influence on the conjurer as well as upon surrounding objects. It saturates both the air and the breast of the conjurer with substances that are connected with the planet and its demons. It draws down the conjured being and intoxicates him, as it were, with divine influences, which act on his mind and imagination. As a matter of course we must prepare besides, such implements as are needed in every incantation without bearing any relation to any certain planet. To them belong amulets inscribed with the names of seraphs, cherubs and thrones, and with sentences from the Bible and the sacred books of Zoroaster. To them belong further the magical candlestick of electrum with seven branches, every branch bearing the sign of a planet; and above all the pentagrams, those figures with fine points which no demon can overstep. We shall place the latter as a line of fortification around the magic circle, and we must be sure that no one of the points is broken. Inside the circle between the table, the seven-armed candlestick and the incense-altar there is room for the tripod with the bowl of holy water and the sprinkler.

"Having thus made the necessary preparations for our feast, let us think of the guest who is to be invited.