The history of magic

by Éliphas Lévi

[74] The soul sheds one envelope, in which it has prepared another.

[75] This expression may tend to confusion. The consciousness and activity of the soul are manifested by means of that vehicle in which it happens to reside. It is not they that belong to the vehicle, but it is the vehicle that is used by them.

[76] There is no Kabalistic authority for the sun as the abode of souls.

[77] Kabalism is silent on the question of communication with those who have left this life, though tacitly it must admit the possibility on the evidence of the case of Samuel. The axiom that the spirit clothes itself to come down and unclothes itself to go up is one of the so-called conclusiones Kabbalisticæ of Picus de Mirandula, but it is found substantially in the Zohar, and as regards the descent, this is just what occurs ex hypothesi in the phenomena of spiritistic materialisations. As regards the parable of the rich man, it has nothing to do with the question of so-called spirit-return; those who were in the bosom of Abraham had as much left this life as those who were in Sheol.

[78] It depends on those who have left us. What of the earthly and the evil? Why should the bond between them and us—supposing that there is a bond—be that of our highest feelings?

[79] The fact is that he was assassinated, the inference is that it was by or at the instance of those whose secrets he was supposed to have betrayed. The murderers, also by inference, were said to be Brethren of the Rosy Cross. It may be mentioned that the Comte de Gabalis contains the theory of communication with elementary spirits, being those of earth, air, fire and water; but the mode of treatment suggests that it is a jeu d’esprit. The Nouveaux Entretiens sur les Sciences Secrètes, Génies Assistants and Le Gnome Irréconcilable, which are supposed sequels, are forgeries, of later periods.

[80] Elsewhere in his works Éliphas Lévi says that the Astral Light is (a) the Od of the Hebrews, (b) an electro-magnetic ether, (c) a vital and luminous caloric, (d) the instrument of life, (e) the instrument of the omnipotence of Adam, (f) the universal glass of visions. It follows the law of magnetic currents, is subject to fixation by a supreme projection of will-power, is the first envelope of the soul, and the mirror of imagination. He terms it also magnetised electricity. It would seem that his contemporary disciples in France have abandoned the theory of their master, or perhaps I should say rather its doctrinal part. On the other hand, it has perhaps reappeared, under theosophical auspices, as the reservoir of the akasic records.

[81] There are also references to Lilith, a demon-wife of Adam, in the Zohar; she is called the instigator of chastisements and was really the wife of Samael, the evil angel. It may be added that, according to Paracelsus, the elementaries non sunt progeniti ex Adamo. See Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmæis et Salamandris, Tract. I, cap. 1..

[82] In respect of male celibates, the physiological particulars referred to are the blind yearning of Nature after the nuptial state and, with a tentative reserve in respect of the life of sanctity, it is shame to those who neglect the warning or turn it to the account of sin.

[83] This is one construction of the symbol and is a little tinctured by Éliphas Lévi’s sincere admiration for the understanding which lay behind the Romance of the Rose. The text of Genesis says that a river rose to water the Garden “and from thence it was parted and became into four heads,” or four sources of rivers. These rivers did not water the Garden but the world without, and their names are familiar in the geography of the ancient world. The mystic pantacle of Eden shews therefore an enclosure constituted by a ring or circle of water, an island like that of Avalon, which is another Garden of Apples, and the waters flow out therefrom towards the four points of heaven: they form therefore a cross, and in the centre of that cross is the Paradise. If the reader will bear in mind that, according to the secret tradition, Adam was set to grow roses in the Garden of Eden, he will understand at what place of the world the symbolism of the Rosy Cross takes its origin.