An Abyss Separates The Teachings Of Eliphas Levi With Those Of Eastern Occultism
An Abyss Separates The Teachings Of Eliphas Levi With Those Of Eastern Occultism Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of An Abyss Separates The Teachings Of Eliphas Levi With Those Of Eastern Occultism book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
An abyss separates the teachings of Eliphas Levi with those of Eastern Occultism by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Pdf
The knowledge possessed by Western Occultists of the Esoteric Philosophy, and their range of perceptions and thought of the Eastern Occultism, is very superficial. By stating that “Above the dark abyss were the Waters,” Eliphas Levi leads the student away from the right track. For it changes entirely the core characteristics of Cosmogony, and brings it down to a level with exoteric Genesis — perhaps it was so stated with an eye to this result. In order to clarify that “Above the Breath appeared the Light,” Levi gives a figure that any Eastern Occultist would not hesitate to pronounce it a “left hand” magic figure. His left-hand magic figure is herein reversed. At the dawn of a new Manvantara, perpetual Motion becomes Breath; from the Breath comes forth primordial Light which brings forth the Thought concealed in Darkness, and this becomes the Word, from which this Universe sprang into being. The learned Abbé had a decided tendency to anthropomorphize creation. He ignores the first stage of evolution and imagines a secondary chaos. But in the face of the task Levi had set before himself — that of reconciling Jewish Magic with Roman Ecclesiasticism — he could say nothing else. Not only are his explanations unsatisfactory and misleading (in his published works they are much worse) but his Hebrew transliteration is entirely wrong. The philosophy that the French Magus gives out as Kabbalistic is simply mystical Roman Catholicism adapted to the Christian Kabbalah. Clearly, Levi’s Kabbalah is mystic Christianity, not Occultism. The material Universe was built by Water, say the Kabbalists who know the difference between the “two waters “— the Waters of Life and those of “Salvation” — so confused together in dogmatic religions. Moses and Thales said that only earth and water can bring forth a living Soul, water being on this plane the Principle of all things. In Egypt Osiris was Fire, and Isis was the Earth or, its synonym, Water, the two opposing elements (because of their opposite properties) being necessary to each other for a common object — that of procreation. The earth needs solar heat and rain to make her throw out her germs. But these procreative properties of Fire and Water, or Spirit and Matter, are symbols only of physical generation.
Insights to the high idealism and quaint wit of Eliphas Levi by Arthur Edward Waite, Boris Mihailovich de Zirkoff Pdf
Intensely suggestive, he is at the same time without much depth; splendid in generalisation, he is without accuracy in detail. It would be difficult to cite a worse guide over mere matters of fact. Had Lévi been left to himself, he would not have got far in occult science because his Gallic vivacity would have been blunted too quickly by the horrors of studious research. But he did somehow fell within a circle of initiation which curtailed the necessity for such research, and put him in the right path. Lévi was scarcely a transcendentalist, not even a mystic. Instinctively a materialist, he approached perilously towards atheism as when he stated that God is a hypothesis which is “very probably necessary.” His prophetic utterances upon the mission of Napoleon III have been stultified by subsequent events. Éliphas Lévi reflected a high idealism and an inner revolt against the injustices of the times. To Madame Blavatsky he was “undoubtedly a great occultist,” but “being a charming and witty writer,” has “more mystified than taught in his many volumes on magic.” Under no circumstances did she look upon him as an Initiate or a practical occultist. His style is poetical and quite charming. But what has he really taught us? Nothing, absolutely nothing — except, perhaps, the exuberance of the French language and his quaint wit. Not one single aspirant has become an Occultist by following the teaching of the French magus simply because, though Lévi evidently got his secrets from an Initiate, he never received the right to initiate others, says Blavatsky.
The Great Secret or Occultism Unveiled by Eliphas Levi Pdf
So concludes what Levi considered to be his testament, his most important and final treatise, and a summation of his esoteric philosophy. This volume is the conclusion of the work he started as Book One, The Heiratic Mystery or the Traditional Documents of High Initiation, published as The Book of Splendours (Weiser, 1984). The Great Secret contains his final two works. In Book Two, The Royal Mystery or Art of Subduing the Powers, Levi discusses such topics as Evil, the Outer Darkness, the Great Secret, Magical Sacrifice, Evocations, the Arcana of Solomon's Ring, and the Terrible Secret. In Book Three, The Sacerdotal Mystery or the Art of being Served by Spirits, he expounds on the subjects of Aberrant Forces, the Chaining of the Devil, Sacred and Accursed Rites, Divination, Dark Intelligence, and the Great Arcanum.
The power of the magician is inversely related to his worldly interests by Eliphas Levi Pdf
Occult philosophy is the key to all divine obscurities, and the absolute queen of society in those ages when it was reserved exclusively for the education of priests and kings. The multitude never conspires except against real powers; it possesses not the knowledge of what is true, but it has the instinct of what is strong. Emperor Julian was the Don Quixote of Roman Chivalry. Julian and Socrates were put to death for the same crime. Why do priests and potentates tremble? What secret power threatens tiaras and crowns? Magic, as a science, is the knowledge of the metaphysical principles, and of the way by which the omniscience and omnipotence of the spirit and its control over nature’s forces may be acquired by the individual while still in the body. Magic, as an art, is the application of this knowledge in practice. True Magic is the intimate knowledge of nature within the sanctuaries known as the “worship of the Light” and diligent research into those occult laws, which constitute the ultimate essence of every element. True Magic, being divine and spiritual wisdom, it can only be exercised by the pure in heart. Occultism is vastly different from “magic,” a term often confounded the occult sciences, including the “black arts,” and the “worship of Darkness.” The Sphinx is the living palladium of humanity and the imagination lighting up our blind senses. She is the eternal enigma of the vulgar, the granite pedestal of Divine Wisdom, the voracious and silent monster whose invariable form expresses the one dogma of the great universal mystery. By lifting the veil of Isis and balancing the twin opposing powers — spirituality and animalism — ever reacting upon each other, the Kabbalah affirms the eternal struggle of being, reconciles reason with faith, power with liberty, and science with mystery. The seeker of Truth must be fearless and forgiving, brave dangers, dishonour, and give up all expectation. Divine knowledge must be conquered by defiant intensity and virtue, before she opens the portals of her secret chambers. Unsullied by the hand of matter, she shows her treasures only to the Eye of Spirit. What is faith except the audacity of a will, which does not tarry in darkness, but moves on towards the light in spite of all ordeals, surmounting all obstacles? It is action that proves life and establishes will, therefore, we must act in order to be. Mysteries are disdained by modern science. Their primary benefit is that they forestall absolute brutality among men. Miracles are natural phenomena from occult causes. Admission of miracles implies ignorance of their causes. By providential law, the true alchemist can only exercise omnipotence in inverse proportion to his material interests: the more resigned is he to privations, and the more he esteems that poverty which protects the secrets of the magnum opus, the more gold he makes. He must be cool, dispassionate, and utterly unconcerned with self, yet ever ready to sacrifice himself for the welfare of others. He has no right to use his magnetic power to lessen his personal suffering, as long as there is a single creature that suffers and whose physical or mental pain he can lessen, if not heal. Passion forcibly projects the astral light and impresses unforeseen and uncontrollable movements on the universal agent. The more we restrain ourselves for an idea, the greater is the strength we acquire within the scope of that idea. Indolence and forgetfulness are the enemies of will, and for this reason all religions have multiplied their observances and made their worship minute and difficult. In order to do a thing we must believe in the possibility of our doing it, and this confidence must forthwith be translated into acts. Faith does not even try; it begins with the certitude of completing and proceeds calmly, as if omnipotence were at its disposal and eternity before it. True magicians are normally found in rural areas, often uninstructed folks and simple shepherds. Those who live in harmony with nature are wiser than doctors, whose spiritual perception is trammelled by the sophistries of their schools. While poverty has no natural tendency to bring forth selfishness, wealth requires it. Hardship and poverty are so favourable to spiritual progress that the greatest masters have preferred it, even when the wealth of the world was at their disposal. In poverty is benevolence assayed, and in the moment of anger is a man’s truthfulness displayed. By truth alone is man’s mind purified, and by the right discipline it does become inspired. We should always remember that we are dethroned sovereigns who consent to existence in order to reconquer our crowns. Therefore, we must avoid hideous objects and uncomely persons, must decline eating with those whom we do not esteem, and must be mild and considerate to all. The disciple, by following his inner light, will never be found judging, and far less condemning those weaker than himself. The lamp of truth guides his learning, the mantle which enwraps him is his discretion, the staff is the emblem of his strength and daring. Let us then learn diligently; and when we know, let us have the will to act in unison with the Cosmic Will. He who has silenced lusts and fears is a king among the wandering mass. Fragments of relative truths can be communicated orally by the Sage to the disciple, but not the complete, everlasting Truth. Therefore Sages speak sparingly not to disclose but to lead the pure in heart to discover. Energetic ecclesiastical mediocrity has managed to supplant modest superiority, misunderstood because of its feigned modesty. A man who is truly man can only will that which he should reasonably and justly do; so does he silence lusts and fears, that he may hearken solely to reason. Such a man is a natural king and a shepherd for the wandering multitude. Life is aspiration and respiration. Creation is the assumption of a shadow to serve as a bound to light, of a void to serve as space for the plenitude, of a passive fructified principle to sustain and realise the power of the active generating principle. Movement is the outcome of a preponderance of one over the other force (positive and negative) as determined by the laws of affinity and antipathy. If both forces are absolutely and invariably equal, the world will come to a stand-still. “If the two forces are expanded and remain so long inactive, as to equal one another and so come to a complete rest, the condition is death.” Man can produce two breathings at his pleasure, one warm and the other cold; he can also project either the active or passive light at will. Will is the offspring of Divinity; desire, the motive power of animal life. Miracles are the inexplicable effects of natural causes. They are commonly regarded as contradictions of nature or sudden vagaries of the divine mind — not seeing that a single causeless effect would reduce the universe to chaos. Anthropomorphism is the parent of materialism and author of black magic. God operates by His works in heaven by angels, and on earth by men. But in the “heaven” of human conceptions, it is humanity that creates God, and men think that God has made them in His image because they have made Him in theirs. The man who has come to fear nothing and desire nothing is master of all. Nothing on earth can withstand the power of rational will. Warm breathing attracts, cold repels, for heat is positive electricity; cold, negative electricity. Warm insufflation restores the circulation of the blood, cures rheumatic and gouty pains, restores the balance of the humours, and dispels lassitude. Cold insufflation soothes pains occasioned by congestions and fluidic accumulations. Occult medicine is essentially sympathetic. Good will and reciprocal affection must exist between doctor and patient. Syrups and juleps have little inherent virtue. Rabelais compelled his patients to laugh, and all the remedies he subsequently gave them succeeded better, as a result; he established a magnetic sympathy between himself and them, by means of which he communicated to them his own confidence and good humour; he flattered them in his prefaces, called them his precious, most illustrious patients, and dedicated his books to them. The cause of every bodily disorder can be traced back to a moral disorder. But the power to heal is never possessed by those addicted to vicious indulgences. Only the pure in heart can heal the ills of the body by exercising divine gifts. Such only can give peace to the disturbed spirit of their brothers and sisters, for their power to heal come from no poisonous source.
On malevolent bewitchments and venomous magic by Eliphas Levi, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Paracelsus Pdf
Bewitchment, whether voluntary or involuntary, physical or moral is a homicide — and the more infamous because it eludes self-defence by the victim and punishment by law. Moral maladies are far more contagious than physical. Some triumphs of infatuation are comparable to leprosy or cholera. Bewitchment by means of currents is exceedingly common, morally as well as physically; most of us are carried away by the crowd. Absolute hatred, unleavened by rejected passion or personal cupidity, is a death sentence for its object. Black magic is a graduated combination of sacrileges and murders designed for the perversion of the human will. It is the religion of the devil, the cultus of darkness, and the hatred of good carried to the height of paroxysm. Not only do the wicked torment the good, but the good torture the wicked unconsciously. We may die through love as well as through hate, for there are absorbing passions under the breath of which we feel depleted like the spouses of vampires. Antipathy is the presentiment of a possible bewitchment, either of love or hatred, for we find love frequently succeeding repulsion. Instantaneous sympathies and electric infatuations are explosions of the astral light, which is akin to the discharge of strong magnetic batteries. Bewitchment by a will persistently confirmed in ill-doing, cannot be pulled back without risk of death. The spell may be staved off by substitution or deflection of the astral current. But the sorcerer who releases a spell must have another object for his malevolence, or he himself will perish by his own spell because every poisoned magnetic emission that cannot reach its target will return with force to its point of departure. Virtue is one of the elixirs of long life and well-being. While vice is hid by hypocrisy, virtue is suspected to be hypocrisy. Sorcery, whether by spells or love-potions, is venomous magic. We write not to instruct but to warn. Sorcerers are often poor country folks, repulsed by all, and therefore afflicted by enduring bitterness. The fear which they inspired was their consolation and their revenge. Magical emblems and characters, engraved on amulets and talismans, are relics of old religious rites, the meaning of which is no longer understood. Only harmlessness and brotherhood in thought and deed, coupled with non-resistance to evil, can shield us from evil. Real protection comes from personal merit and virtue, not from talismans. Nought is permitted to the virtuous man. Love, above all in a woman, is a veritable hallucination; for want of a prudent motive, it will frequently select an absurd one. Cyanide, when not lethal, will enfeeble the mind already poisoned by an evil will. Stay clear of bitter almonds (as well as the kernels of apricot, peach, and cherry), almond flavour extracts such as Amaretto, almond milk, soaps, and perfumes, Datura stramonium, and other hallucinogens. Tobacco, by smoking or otherwise, is a dangerous and stupefying philtre and brain poison. Nicotine is not less deadly than cyanide. Moreover, the latter is present in tobacco in larger quantities than in bitter almonds. But the most terrific of all philtres is the exaltation of misdirected devotion. By fuelling the imagination, excessive fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Goodness is much stronger than evil. Rise then above childish fears and dumb desires. Stamp out evil influence by controlling unbridled imagination and fanciful speculation. Believe in supreme wisdom for true wisdom cannot ensnare your intelligence. Poisons can may make you ill but never immoral. Weakness sympathises with vice because vice itself is a weakness that assumes the mask of strength. Madness holds reason in horror, and delights in the exaggerations of falsehood. Every human being, whether magus or not, should oppose violence by mildness, chastise evil by good, cruelty by tenderness. There can be nothing more dangerous than to make magic a pastime, or part of an evening’s entertainment. Magnetic experiments, performed under such conditions, can only exhaust the subjects, mislead opinions, and defeat science. The milder and calmer you are, the more effective will be your anger; the more energetic you are, the more precious will be your forbearance; the more skilful you are, the better will you profit by your intelligence and even by your virtues; the more indifferent you are, the more easily will you make yourself loved. Excessive love produces antipathy; blind hate counteracts and scourges itself; vanity leads to abasement and the most cruel humiliations. Remember that the magus is sovereign, and a sovereign never avenges because he has the right to punish; in the exercise of this right he performs his duty, and is implacable as justice. The way to see clearly is not to be always looking; and he who spends his whole life upon a single object will not attain it. Ceremonies are methods to create a habit of will, however, redundant when the habit is firmly established. We will now expose and stigmatise some of the most abhorrent acts. What sorcerers seek above all, in their evocations of the impure spirit, is that magnetic power which is the possession of the true adept, so that they can shamefully abuse it. Providence seems to scorn those who despise the martyrs, and to slay those who would deprive them of life. The terrible menace of hell inflicted by Christianity upon its flock has created more nightmares, more nameless diseases, more furious madness, than all vices and excesses combined. That is what the Hermetic artists of the middle ages represented by the incredible and unheard-of monsters, which they carved at the doors of basilicas. Moral equilibrium rests upon the immutable distinction between true and false, good and bad; one must place himself, by his works, in the empire of truth and goodness or relapse eternally, like the rock of Sisyphus, into a pandemonium of falsehood and evil. Wash carefully your clothes before giving them away. In times of epidemic the terror-struck are the first to be attacked. The secret of not fearing evil is to ignore it altogether. The wise men have scarcely any sorceries to fear, save those of fortune, but when called upon to advise they must persuade the bewitched to do some act of goodness to his bewitcher, to render him some service which he cannot refuse, and lead him to the communion of salt. The chemist imitates nature, the alchemist surpasses nature herself. Chemistry decomposes and recombines material substances, it purifies simple substances of foreign elements, but leaves the primitive elements unchanged. Alchemy changes the character of things, and raises them up into higher states of existence. As all the powers of the universe are potentially contained in us, our body and its organs are the representatives of the powers of nature and a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky.
Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual by Éliphas Lévi Pdf
This book is the first treatise on magic by Éliphas Lévi and one of his fundamental works. In this book, he criticizes magic as a collection of methods and rituals. Instead, he says magic is a universal power and attribute of a man, an eternal religion that existed before Christianity and other religions. According to his theory, proper magic as an attribute of a human is a combination of psychic force, will, and imagination. He calls the ordinary miracles attributed to unnecessary magic exaggerations. Yet, the access to the true magic is constricted only to a narrow circle of selected people, or Magi. Those who go through the initiation to Magi acquire force to alter human wills. His works became quickly popular, as their publication coincided with the interest in magic and occultism in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. It also greatly influenced the magic of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Also, in this text, Éliphas Lévi, for the first time, pointed out that a pentagram or five-pointed star with one point down and two points up represents evil, while a pentagram with one end up and two points down represent the good.
The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi Pdf
This is the complete English version of Eliphas Levi's treatise on ritual magic. This work is in two parts: in this one we establish the kabalistic and magical doctrine in its entirety; the other one, called "The Ritual of Transcendental Magic", is consecrated to the cultus, that is, to Ceremonial Magic. The one is that which the ancient sages termed the Clavicle, the other that which people on the country-side still call the Grimoire. The numbers and subjects of the chapters which correspond in both parts, are in no sense arbitrary, and are all indicated in the great universal key, of which we give for the first time a complete and adequate explanation. Let this work now go its way where it will and become what Providence determines; it is finished, and we believe it to be enduring, because it is strong, like all that is reasonable and conscientious. Contents: Introduction The Candidate The Pillars Of The Temple The Triangle Of Solomon The Tetragram The Pentagram Magical Equilibrium The Fiery Sword Realization Initiation The Kabalah The Magic Chain The Great Work Necromancy Transmutations Black Magic Bewitchments Astrology Charms And Philtres The Stone Of The Philosophers – Elagabalus The Universal Medicine Divination Summary And General Key Of The Four Secret Sciences
The Kabalistic and Occult Philosophy of Eliphas Levi - Volume 1: Letters to Students by Eliphas Levi,Daath Gnosis Pdf
This Volume is a compilation of 196 letters from Eliphas Levi to three different students: -1 letter to Mme. Hutchinson -10 letters to Mr. Montaut (also known as ""The Elements of the Kabalah"") -185 letters to the Baron Sp?dalieri These letters cover a variety of subjects and are presented in a Bilingual format (English side-by-side with the original French) with copious footnotes and illustrations to help the student grasp the subject matter. Although many of these letters have been published in English before, this is a new translation of them all. This collection is a wonderful way to see into the heart of the Author and contain insights into his Transcendental Philosophy. ""The effect which I await for you (from my epistolary lessons) will be the understanding of my books which contain the whole doctrine, but in an abridged and succinct form.""
The Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi Pdf
A landmark work in the theory and practice of the occult, Levi lays out the basic philosophy and practice of magic. While this work may be considered controversial in some circles, it is a useful tool for anyone that wants to get a basic understanding of what lays beyond the veil of magic and power. Although this kind of work can be dangerous to those that are unprepared for what lays within, those that want to understand a side of society that is often looked down on, this would be a good starting point.
This is the first part of Eliphas Levi's last great descourse on the mysteries of occultism that was continued and concluded in The Great Secret. In it, Levi examines with great precision and insight the inner meanings of Qabalism and their relationship to the occult sciences. Part One is a commentary on the Spihra Dzeniuta by Simeon BenJochal, which includes an examination of the affinities between Qabalism and Freemasonry. Part Two pursues the correspondences between Qabalism, Numerology and the Tarot. This edition includes an appendix by Papus (Dr. Gerard Encausse) summarizing Levi's doctrines and teachings and supplying some fascinating information on some of the master's many disciples.
Author : Thomas A. Williams Publisher : Williams & Company Page : 276 pages File Size : 43,9 Mb Release : 2003-06 Category : Biography & Autobiography ISBN : 1878853392
Eliphas Levi, Master of the Cabala, the Tarot and the Secret Doctrines by Thomas A. Williams Pdf
The only existing biography in English of this fascinating 19th century figure. Choice says, "An often enjoyable, wwll-documented, readable biographical book on Lévi and his influenxe...A significant book"
This volume represents the high-water mark of the thought of Eliphas Levi. It may be regarded as written by him as his Thesis for the Grade of Exempt Adept, just as his "Ritual and Dogma" was his Thesis for the grade of a Major Adept. He is, in fact, no longer talking of things as if their sense was fixed and universal. He is beginning to see something of the contradiction inherent in the nature of things, or at any rate, he constantly illustrates the fact that the planes are to be kept separate for practical purposes, although in the final analysis they turn out to be one. This, and the extraordinarily subtle and delicate irony of which Eliphas Levi is one of the greatest masters that has ever lived, have baffled the pedantry and stupidity of such commentators as Waite.
The presented here collection contains two of the most important books by Éliphas Lévi dedicated to his views on the essence of magic and the history of magical studies. Levi thinks that people regard magic erroneously and narrow it to a collection of tricks. On the contrary, magic is practicing the concentration of will, imagination, and psychic power to influence the minds of other people and the phenomena of reality. In The History of Magic, Lévi compares the magical components of different religious traditions and organizations, like pagan beliefs, Kabbalah, Christian Catholicism, Illuminati, and Freemasonry. He states that true magic is earthed under the parables, fables, and wonder stories with peculiarities in every division. Yet, they all have a common basis, which Lévi describes as the true magic which imparts real science. Levi's books greatly influenced the development of different occult and mystical movements in Europe and the United States, including the Theosophical Society of Helena Blavatsky._x000D_ _x000D_