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serves, through the sympathy of things homogeneous, the reflections of the past
life; if drawn into a special current by a will which is powerfully sympathetic, it
manifests naturally, for there is nothing more natural than prodigies. It is thus
apparitions are produced. But we shall develop this point more fully in a chapter
devoted to Necromancy. The fluidic body, subject, like the mass of the Astral
Light, to two contrary movements, attracting on the left and repelling on the
right, or reciprocally, between the two sexes, begets various impulses within us,
and contributes to solicitudes of conscience; it is influenced frequently by reflec-
tions of other minds, and thus temptations are produced on the one hand, and on
the other profound and unexpected graces. The traditional doctrine of two angels
who sustain and tempt us is explained in this manner. The two forces of the Astral
Light may be represented by a balance wherein are weighed our good intentions
for the triumph of justice and the emancipation of our liberty.
The Astral Body is not always of the same sex as the terrestrial, that is, the pro-
portions of the two forces, varying from right to left, seem frequently to belie the
visible organization, producing seeming aberrations of human passion and
explaining, while in no wise morally justifying, the amorous peculiarities of Ana-
creon or Sappho. A skilful magnetizer should take all these subtle distinctions into
account, and we shall provide in our Ritual the rules for their recognition.
There are two kinds of realization, the true and the fantastic. The first is the
exclusive secret of magicians, the other belongs to enchanters and sorcerers.
Mythologies are fantastic realizations of religious dogma; superstitions are the sor-
cery of mistaken piety; but even mythologies and superstitions are more effica-
cious on human will than a purely speculative philosophy apart from any
practice. Hence St. Paul opposes the conquests of the folly of the Cross to the
inertness of human wisdom. Religion realizes philosophy by adapting it to the
weaknesses of the vulgar; such is for Kabalists the secret reason and occult expla-
nation of the doctrines of incarnation and redemption.
Thoughts untranslated into speech are thoughts lost for humanity; words
unconfirmed by acts are idle words, and the idle word is not far removed from
falsehood. Thought formulated by speech and confirmed by acts constitutes a
good work or a crime. Hence, whether in vice or virtue, there is no utterance for
which we are not responsible; above all, there are no indifferent acts. Curses and
blessings produce their consequence invariably, and every action, whatsoever its
nature, whether inspired by love or hate, has effects analogous to its motive, its
REALIZATION 41
extent and its direction. When that emperor whose images had been mutilated,
raising his hand to his face, exclaimed, I do not feel that I am injured, he was
mistaken in his valuation and detracted thereby from the merit of his clemency.
What man of honour could behold undisturbed an insult offered to his portrait?
And did such insults, inflicted even unknown to ourselves, react on us by a
fatal influence, were the effects of bewitchment actual, as indeed an adept cannot
doubt, how much more imprudent and ill-advised would seem this utterance of
the good emperor!
There are persons whom we can never offend with impunity, and if the injury
we have done them is mortal, we begin forthwith to die. There are those also
whom we never meet in vain, whose mere glance alters the direction of our life.
The basilisk who slays by a look is no fable; it is a magical allegory. Generally
speaking, it is bad for health to have enemies, and we can never brave with impu-
nity the reprobation of anyone. Before opposing ourselves to a given force or cur-
rent, we must be well assured that we possess the contrary force, or are with the
stream of the contrary current; otherwise, we shall be crushed or struck down,
and many sudden deaths have no other cause than this. The terrible visitations of
Nadab and Abihu, of Osa, of Ananias and Sapphira, were occasioned by electric
currents of outraged convictions; the sufferings of the Ursulines of Loudun, the
nuns of Louviers and the convulsionaries of Jansenism, were identical in principle
and are explicable by the same occult natural laws. Had not Urban Grandier been
immolated, one of two things would have occurred: either the possessed nuns
would have died in frightful convulsions or the phenomena of diabolical frenzy
would have so gained in strength and influence, epidemically, that Grandier, not-
withstanding his knowledge and his reason, would also have become hallucinated,
and to such a degree that he would have denounced himself, like the unhappy
Gaufridy, or would otherwise have perished suddenly, with all the appalling char-
acteristics of poisoning or of divine vengeance. In the eighteenth century the
unfortunate poet Gilbert fell a victim to his audacity in braving the current of
opinion and even of philosophical fanaticism which characterized his epoch.
Guilty of philosophical treason, he died raving mad, possessed by the most
incredible terrors, as if God Himself had punished him for defending His cause
out of season. As a fact, he perished by reason of a law of Nature of which assur-
edly he knew nothing; he set himself against an electric current and was struck
down as by lightning. Had Marat not been assassinated by Charlotte Corday, he
would have been destroyed infallibly by a reaction of public feeling. It was the
execration of decent people which afflicted him with leprosy, and he would have
had to succumb thereto. The reprobation excited by the massacre of St. Bartho-
lomew was the sole cause of the atrocious disease and death of Charles IX, while,
had not Henry IV been sustained by an immense popularity, which he owed to the
projecting power of sympathetic force of his astral life, he would scarcely have
42 The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
outlived his conversion, but would have perished under the contempt of Protes-
tants, combined with the suspicion and ill-will of Catholics. Unpopularity may be
a proof of integrity and courage, but never of policy or prudence: the wounds
inflicted by opinion are mortal for statesmen. We may recall the premature and
violent end of many illustrious persons whom it would be inexpedient to mention
here. The brandings of public opinion may be often great injustices, but none the
less they condemn their victims to failure and are often a death-sentence. On the
other hand, acts of injustice done to a single individual can and should, if
unatoned, cause the ruin of an entire nation or of a whole society: this is what is
called the cry of blood, for at the root of every injustice there is the germ of homi-
cide. By reason of these terrible laws of solidarity, Christianity recommends so
strongly the forgiveness of injuries and reconciliation. He who dies unforgiving
casts himself dagger-armed into eternity and condemns himself to the horrors of
an eternal murder. The efficacy of paternal or maternal blessings or curses is an
invincible popular tradition and belief. As a fact, the closer the bonds which unite
two persons, the more terrible are the consequences of hatred between them. The
brand of Althaea consuming the life of Meleager is the mythological symbol of this
terrible power. Let parents be ever on their guard, for no one can kindle hell in his
own blood, or devote his own issue to misfortune, without being himself burnt
and made wretched. To pardon is never a crime, but to curse is always a danger
and an evil action.
IX t I
INITIATION
JESOD BONUM
THE INITIATE is he who possesses the lamp of Trismegistus, the mantle of Apol-
lonius, and the staff of the patriarchs. The lamp of Trismegistus is reason illumi-
nated by science; the mantle of Apollonius is full and complete self-possession,
which isolates the sage from blind tendencies; and the staff of the patriarchs is the
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