[1b] _Op. cit_., pp. 90, 92, and 94.
Concerning the evil planetary spirits, the spurious _Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy_, attributed to CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, informs us that the spirits of Saturn "appear for the most part with a tall, lean, and slender body, with an angry countenance, having four faces; one in the hinder part of the head, one on the former part of the head, and on each side nosed or beaked:
there likewise appeareth a face on each knee, of a black shining colour:
their motion is the moving of the wince, with a kinde of earthquake:
their signe is white earth, whiter than any Snow." The writer adds that their "particular forms are,--A King having a beard, riding on a Dragon.
An Old man with a beard.
An Old woman leaning on a staffe.
A Hog.
A Dragon.
An Owl.
A black Garment.
A Hooke or Sickle.
A Juniper-tree."
Concerning the spirits of Jupiter, he says that they "appear with a body sanguine and cholerick, of a middle stature, with a horrible fearful motion;but with a milde countenance, a gentle speech, and of the colour of Iron. The motion of them is flashings of Lightning and Thunder;their signe is, there will appear men about the circle, who shall seem to be devoured of Lions," their particular forms being--"A King with a Sword drawn, riding on a Stag.
A Man wearing a Mitre in long rayment.
A Maid with a Laurel-Crown adorned with Flowers.
A Bull.
A Stag.
A Peacock.
An azure Garment.
A Sword.
A Box-tree."
As to the Martian spirits, we learn that "they appear in a tall body, cholerick, a filthy countenance, of colour brown, swarthy or red, having horns like Harts horns, and Griphins claws, bellowing like wilde Bulls. Their Motion is like fire burning; their signe Thunder and Lightning about the Circle. Their particular shapes are,--A King armed riding upon a Wolf.
A Man armed.
A Woman holding a buckler on her thigh.
A Hee-goat.
A Horse.
A Stag.
A red Garment.
Wool.
A Cheeslip."[1]
[1] _Op. cit_., pp. 43-45.
The rest are described in equally fantastic terms.
I do not think I shall be accused of being unduly sceptical if Isay that such beings as these could not have been evoked by any magical rites, because such beings do not and did not exist, save in the magician's own imagination. The proviso, however, is important, for, inasmuch as these fantastic beings did exist in the imagination of the credulous, therein they may, indeed, have been evoked.
The whole of magic ritual was well devised to produce hallucination.
A firm faith in the ritual employed, and a strong effort of will to bring about the desired result, were usually insisted upon as essential to the success of the operation.[2] A period of fasting prior to the experiment was also frequently prescribed as necessary, which, by weakening the body, must have been conducive to hallucination. Furthermore, abstention from the gratification of the sexual appetite was stipulated in certain cases, and this, no doubt, had a similar effect, especially as concerns magical evocations directed to the satisfaction of the sexual impulse.
Add to these factors the details of the ritual itself, the nocturnal conditions under which it was carried out, and particularly the suffumigations employed, which, most frequently, were of a narcotic nature, and it is not difficult to believe that almost any type of hallucination may have occurred.
Such, as we have seen, was ELIPHAS LEVI'S view of ceremonial magic;and whatever may be said as concerns his own experiment therein (for one would have thought that the essential element of faith was lacking in this case), it is undoubtedly the true view as concerns the ceremonial magic of the past. As this author well says:
"Witchcraft, properly so-called, that is ceremonial operation with intent to bewitch, acts only on the operator, and serves to fix and confirm his will, by formulating it with persistence and labour, the two conditions which make volition efficacious."[1b]
[2] "MAGICAL AXIOM. In the circle of its action, every word creates that which it affirms.
DIRECT CONSEQUENCE. He who affirms the devil, creates or makes the devil.
"_Conditions of Success in Infernal Evocations_.
1, Invincible obstinacy; 2, a conscience at once hardened to crime and most subject to remorse and fear; 3, affected or natural ignorance; 4, blind faith in all that is incredible, 5, a completely false idea of God. (ELIPHAS LEVI: _Op. cit_., pp.
297 and 298.)
[1b] ELIPHAS LEVI: _Op. cit_., pp. 130 and 131.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG in one place writes: "Magic is nothing but the perversion of order; it is especially the abuse of correspondences."[2] A study of the ceremonial magic of the Middle Ages and the following century or two certainly justifies SWEDENBORG in writing of magic as something evil.
The distinction, rigid enough in theory, between white and black, legitimate and illegitimate, magic, was, as I have indicated, extremely indefinite in practice. As Mr A. E. WAITE justly remarks:
"Much that passed current in the west as White (_i.e_. permissible)Magic was only a disguised goeticism, and many of the resplendent angels invoked with divine rites reveal their cloven hoofs.
It is not too much to say that a large majority of past psychological experiments were conducted to establish communication with demons, and that for unlawful purposes.
The popular conceptions concerning the diabolical spheres, which have been all accredited by magic, may have been gross exaggerations of fact concerning rudimentary and perverse intelligences, but the wilful viciousness of the communicants is substantially untouched thereby."[1b]
[2] EMANUEL SWEDENBORG: _Arcana Caelestia_, SE 6692.
[1b] ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE: _The Occult Sciences_ (1891), p. 51.
