Magic and Mysticism

Magie et Mysticisme, June 1931.

In an interesting article published recently herein (the March issue of 1931), Mr. J. Marquè-Rivière rightly points out the dangers and illusions to which those who engage in the practice of magic are exposed. We believe that it would be of benefit to return to this issue, to clarify and supplement some certain points on the notes already given, because it is important to leave no ambiguity.

The dangers in questions are especially grave for Westerners for at least two reasons, the first of which is their tendency to attach undue importance to everything that is 'phenomena,' as evidenced by the de- velopment they gave to the experimental sciences; and if they are so eas- ily seduced by magic, it is because it is also an experimental science, how- ever different it is from those sciences that the university educators know under this label. One must not be deceived: this is an order of things which in itself has absolutely nothing ‘transcendent;' and if such a sci- ence can, like any other, be legitimized by its attachment to the higher principles upon which everything depends, according to the general con- ception of the 'traditional sciences,' it will be placed only at the last rank of secondary and contingent applications, among those furthest away from the principles. This is how magic is considered in all Eastern civili- zations: it exists there, it is a fact that needs no challenge, but it is far from being held in honor as Westerners often imagine, who willingly lend their tendencies to others. In Tibet itself, as well as in India or in China, the practice of magic as a 'specialty,' so to speak, is abandoned to those who are unable to rise to a higher order; of course, this does not mean that others cannot sometimes produce, for particular reasons, phe- nomena externally similar to magic phenomena, but the goal and even the means are then quite different in reality. Moreover, to stick to what is known in the Western world, simply take tales of saints and sorcerers, and see how similar facts are on both sides; and this shows that, contrary to the belief of the modern ‘scientist,' phenomena cannot prove anything by themselves.

Now, it is obvious that deluding ourselves about the value of these things greatly increases their danger, and this brings us to the second of the two reasons we mentioned earlier: this is the ignorance of Western-ers, as in the absence of any traditional teaching, of which they are deal-ing with such a case. Even leaving aside the numerous street performers and charlatans who have greatly stigmatized Mr. Marquès-Rivière, those who want to try study these phenomena, lacking sufficient data to guide them, or organizations set up to support and protect them, are reduced to a rather crude empiricism; they act like children who would like to handle formidable forces, and, if unfortunate accidents result from this, there is no link to be astonished at.

Speaking here of accidents, we wish to refer above all to the risks of imbalance to which those who act in this way expose themselves: this imbalance is indeed an all too frequent consequence of communication in what Mr. Marquès-Rivière calls the 'vital plan,' and which is in fact nothing else than the domain of subtle manifestation. The explanation for this is simple: this is exclusively a development of certain individual possibilities; if this development occurs abnormally, disordered, and in-harmonic, it is naturally and in a certain sense inevitable that it should lead to such a result, not to mention the reactions of the forces of all kinds with which the individual is indiscriminately in contact with. We say 'forces,' without specifying further; we prefer this term, despite its vagueness, to that of 'entities,' which risks giving rise too easily to 'per-sonifications' which are more or less fanciful. Furthermore, this 'inter-mediary world' is much more complex and extensive than the corporeal world; but the study of this world enters, in the same manner, into what may be called the ‘natural sciences,' in the most true sense of this expres-sion; to want to see something more through this, is, we reiterate, to de-lude ourselves in the strangest way. There is nothing to it, let us say it clearly, anything 'initiatic,' and it emerges there in a generally way, there are many more obstacles than of supports to reaching true knowledge, especially for beings subject to the attraction of phenomena which is one of the characters of the modern West.

Some, after having engaged in this search for extraordinary phenom-ena, end up getting bored, for whatever reason, or by being disappointed, and it often happens that they turn to mysticism, which is entirely West-ern; surprising at it may seem at first glance, it still meets needs or aspi-rations of the same order. Certainly, it may seem that mysticism has a higher character than magic; but, if we reach the essence of things, we can realize that the difference is not so vast: here again, it is about 'phe-nomena,' visions to others, sensitive and sentimental manifestations of all kings, with which one always remains exclusively the realm of indi-vidual possibilities. Which is to say, the dangers of illusion and imbalance are far from being surpassed, and if they assume here different forms, they may be no less important for that; they are even aggravated, in a sense, by the passive attitude of the mystic, who leaves the door open to all the influences that may arise, while the magician is at least defended to a certain extent by the active attitude he strives to conserve. The un- fortunate consequences of passivity are too obvious to insist upon; they are found carried to their most extreme degree in a case such as of the mediums; we would certainly not wish to establish the slightest assimi- lation, or even the slightest comparison, between mediums and mystics, but it must be admitted that this character of passivity is common to both. What also emerges from the mystic, almost always, is he is too easily duped by his imagination, whose productions in him, come to mingle with the real results of his 'experiences' in an almost inextricably way. For this reason, we must not exaggerate the importance of the 'revela- tions' of the mystics, or at least we cannot accept them without some restrain; what makes all the visions of interest, such as those of Anne- Catherine Emmerich, since Mr. Marquès-Rivière cited this example, is that they are in agreement, on many points, with certain traditional data; but it would be a mistake, and a reversal of normal relations, to wish to find here a 'confirmation' of these points, which, furthermore, have no need for this, and which are, on the contrary, the only guarantee that the visions in question are more than just a product of individual fantasy. We have just said that there is nothing ‘initiatic' in magic; we can say the same thing again for mysticism; we do not mean to depreciate things whose value, albeit relative, may still be considerable in certain points of view, but it is advisable to put them in their place and not to confuse them. Truly initiatic knowledge is something other than this; without any trace of 'phenomenalism' or 'sentimentalism,' it is only purely intel- lectual intuition, which alone is pure spirituality.

The Hieroglyph of Cancer L'hiéroglyphe du cancer, July 1931.

We have often had occasion, during our various studies, to refer to the symbolism of the annual cycle, with its two ascending and descending halves, and especially to that of the two solsicial gates, which open and close respectively the two halves of the cycle, and which are related to the figures of Janus of the Latins, as well that of Ganesha among the Hin- dus.^[174] To fully understand the importance of this symbolism, it must be remembered that, by virtue of the analogy of each part of the universe with the whole, there is a correspondence between the laws of all the cycles no matter what order, so that the annual cycle, for example, can be reduced and therefore more accessible, the picture of the great cosmic cycles (and an expression such as that of the 'great year' indicates this quite clearly), and as an abridgement, if one may say so, of the very pro- cess of universal manifestation; this is what gives astrology all its mean- ing as a properly 'cosmological' science. If this is so, the two 'stopping points' of the solar march (this is the etymological meaning of the word 'solstice') must correspond to the two extreme terms of the manifestation, either as a whole or in each of the cycles which constitute it, cycles which are in indefinite multitude, and which are nothing other than the different states or degrees of the Uni- versal Existence. If we wish to apply this more specifically to a cycle of individual manifestation, such as that of existence in the human state, we can easily understand why the two solsticial gates are traditionally des- ignated as the 'door of men' and the 'door of the gods.' The 'door of men,' corresponding to the summer solstice and the Cancer zodiacal sign, is the entry into the individual manifestation; the 'door of the gods,' corre- sponding in the same way to the winter solstice and to the Capricorn zodiacal sign, is the exit of this same manifestation and the passage to the higher states, since the 'gods' (the devas of the Hindu tradition), just as the 'angels' according to another terminology, properly represent, from the metaphysical point of view, the supra-individual states of be-ing.^[175] If we consider the distribution of the zodiacal signs according to the four elementary trigons, we see that the sign of Cancer corresponds to the 'depths of the waters,' which is to say, in the cosmogonic sense, to the embryogenic medium which the germs are deposited into the mani- fested world, germs corresponding in the 'macrocosmic' order, to the Brahmanda or the 'Egg of the World,' and, in the ‘microcosmic' order, to pinda, a formal protoype of individuality, pre-existing in a subtle mode from the beginning of the cyclical event, as constituting one of the pos- sibilities that will have to develop during this event.^[176] This can also be related to the fact that this same sign of Cancer is the home of the Moon, whose relationship with the Waters is well known, and which, like the waters itself, represents the passive and plastic principle of manifesta- tion: the lunar sphere is properly the 'world of formation,' or the domain of elaboration of forms in the subtle state, the starting point of existence in the individual mode.^[177] In the astrological symbol of Cancer, we see the germ in the state of half-development which is precisely the subtle state; it is therefore not a question of the bodily embryo, but of the formal prototype of which we have just spoken, and whose existence is situated in the psychic domain of the 'intermediate world.' Moreover, this figure is also that of the San- skrit u, an element which, in the akshara or the sacred monosyllable Om, constitutes the intermediate term between the point (m), representing the non-principal manifestation, and the straight line (a), representing the complete development of the manifestation in the gross or corporal state.^[178] What is more, this germ is here double, placed in two inverse posi- tions of one another and thus representing two complementary terms: it is the yang and the yin of the Far Eastern Tradition, where the yin-yang symbol that brings them together has the exact same form. This symbol, as representative of the cyclic revolutions, whose phases are related to the alternative predominance of yang and of yin, is related to other fig- ures of great importance from the traditional point of view, such as that of the swastika, and also that of the double spiral which refers to the symbolism of the two hemispheres. These, one luminous and the other dim (yang, in its original meaning, is the side of the light, and yin the side of shadow), are the two halves of the 'Egg of the World,' linked respec- tively to the Heavens and the Earth.^[179] There is also for each being, al- ways by virtue of the analogy of the 'microcosm' with the 'macrocosm,' the two halves of the primordial Androgyne, which is generally de- scribed symbolically as being of spherical form;^[180] the spherical form is that of the complete being which is in virtuality in the original germ, and which must be reconstituted in its full plenitude at the end of the indi- vidual cyclical developement. It should be noted, furthermore, that the for mis also the schema of the conch (shankha), which is in obvious relations with the Waters, and which is also represented as containing the seeds of the future cycle dur- ing the periods of pralaya or of the 'outer dissolution' of the world. This conch encloses the primordial and imperishable sound (akshara), the monosyllable Om, which is, by its three elements (matras), the essence of the triple Vedas; and this is how the Veda perpetually subsists, being in itself anterior to all the worlds, but somehow hidden or enveloped during the cosmic cataclysms which separate the various cycles, to then be man- ifested once again at the beginning of each of these.^[181] The diagram can also be completed as that of the akshara itself, the straight line (a) cover- ing and closing the conch (u), which contains within its interior the point (m), or the essential principle of beings;^[182] the straight line then repre-sents at the same time, by its horizontal direction, the 'surface of the Wa-ters,' that is to say, the substantial environment in which the develop-ment of the germs will take place (represented in Eastern symbolism by the blossoming of the Lotus flower) after the end of the period of inter-mediate obscurity (Sandhya) between two cycles. We will then have, in the same schematic representation, a figure that we can describe as the inversion of the conch, opening to let the germs escape, following the straight line now oriented in the descending vertical direction, which is that of the development of the manifestation from its unmanifest princi-ple. ^[183] Of these two positions of the conch, which are found in the two halves of the symbol of Cancer, the first corresponds to the figure of Noah's Ark (or Satyavrata in the Hindu tradition), which can be represented as the lower bottom of a circumference, closed by its horizontal diameter, and containing inside it the point in which all the germs are synthesized in the state of the complete environment. ^[184] The second position is then symbolized by the rainbow, appearing 'in the cloud,' which is to say in the region of the superior Waters, at the moment that marks the restora-tion of order and the renovation of all things, while the Ark, during the cataclysm floated on the inferior Ocean of the Waters; it is therefore the upper half of the same circumference and the union of the two figures, inverse and complementary to each other, forming a single complete cir-cular or cyclic figure, the reconstitution of the primordial spherical shape: this circumference is the vertical section of the sphere whose hor-izontal section is represented by the circular enclosure of the earthly Par-adise. ^[185] In the yin-yang of the Far-East, we find in the inner part of the two half-circumferences, but displaced by a doubling of the center rep- resenting a polarization which is, for each state of manifestation, the an-alog of what is Sat or of the pure Being in Purusha-Prakriti for the Uni-versal Manifestation.^[186] These considerations do not pretend to be complete, and without a doubt only correspond to some of the aspects of the sign of Cancer; but they can at least serve as an example to show that there is in traditional astrology anything other than a 'divinatory art' or a 'conjectural science' as the moderns think. In reality, there is all that is found, under various expressions, in other sciences of the same order, as we have already in-dicated here in our previous study on the 'Science of Letters,' and what gives these sciences a truly initiatic value, allowing them to be regarded as truly part of 'sacred science.'

The Place of the Atlantean Tradition in the Manvantara

Place de la tradition atlantéenne dans le Manvantara, August-September 1931.

We have previously, in an article published here under the title Atlantis and Hyperborea, ^[187] pointed out the confusion that is too often made be- tween the primordial tradition, originally 'polar' in the literal sense of the word, and whose starting point is the same one of the present Man- vantara, and the derivative and secondary tradition that was the Atlan- tean tradition, referred to a much more restricted period. We have said then, and elsewhere at various times, ^[188] that this confusion can be ex- plained, to a certain extent, by the fact that the subordinate spiritual cen- ters were constituted in the image of the Supreme Center, and that the same denominations have been applied to them. Therefore the Atlantean Thule, whose name was preserved in Central America where it was brought by the Toltecs, had to be the seat of a spiritual power which was like an emanation of the Hyperborean Thule; and, as this name Thule designates Libra, its double meaning is closely related to the transfer of this same designation from the polar constellation of the Great Bear to the zodiacal sign, which still bears the name of Libra. It is also the Atlan- tean tradition that the transfer of sapta-riksha (the symbolic abode of the seven Rishis) should be related, at a certain time from the same Great Bear to the Pleiades, a constellation also composed of seven stars, but of a zodiacal situation; what leaves no doubt in this respect is that the Plei- ades were called the daughters of Atlas and, as such, are also called At- lanteans.

All this is in keeping with the geographical location of the traditional centers, which is itself linked to their own characteristics, as well as to their respective place in the cyclical period, because everything here is much closer than those who ignore the laws of certain correspondences could suppose. Hyperborea corresponds of course to the North, and At- lantis to the West; and it is remarkable that the very designations of these two distinctly different regions may also be confusing, since names of the same root have been applied to both. Indeed, one finds this root in a variety of forms such as hiber, iber, or eber, and also ereb by a transposi- tion of letters, designating at the same time the region of winter, which is to say the North, and the region of the evening or the setting sun, which is to say the West, and the peoples who inhabit one and the other; this fact is obviously of the same order as we have just recalled. The very position of the Atlantean center on the East-West axis indi- cates its subordination to the Hyperborean center, which is located on the North-South polar axis. Indeed, although these two axes form, in the complete system of the six directions of space, what may be called a hor- izontal cross, the North-South axis must nevertheless be considered as relatively vertical with respect to the East-West axis, as we have ex- plained elsewhere. ^[189] One can still, in accordance with the symbolism of the annual cycle, give the first of these two axes the name of the solsticial axis, and the second that of the equinoctial axis; and this helps to under- stand that the starting point given to the year is not the same in all the traditional forms. The starting point which one can call normal, as being directly in conformity with the Primordial Tradition, is the winter sol- stice; beginning the year at one of the equinoxes indicates the connection to a secondary tradition, such as the Atlantean tradition. The latter, on the other hand, being situated in a region which corre- sponds to the evening in the diurnal cycle, must be regarded as belonging to one of the last divisions of the cycle of the terrestrial humanity of to- day, so relatively recent; and, in fact, without seeking to give details that would be difficult to justify, we can say that it certainly belongs to the second half of the present Manvanatara.^[190] In addition, as the autumn in the year corresponds to the evening in the day, we can see a direct allu- sion to the Atlantean world in what is indicated by the Hebrew tradition (whose name is also that of those who mark the origin of the West), that the world was created at the autumnal equinox (the first day of the month of Tishri, following a certain transposition of the letters of the word Bereshith); and perhaps this is also the most immediate reason (there are others of a deeper order) from the enunciation of the 'evening'

(ereb) before the 'morning' (boqer) in the story of the 'days' of Genesis.^[191] This can be confirmed by the fact that the literal meaning of Adam's name is 'red,' the Atlantean tradition being precisely that of the red race; and it also seems that the Biblical flood corresponds directly to the cataclysm in which Atlantis disappeared, and that, consequently, it must not be identified with the deluge of Satyavarta which, following the Hindu tradition, issued directly from the Primordial Tradition, preceded immediately by the beginning of our Manvantara.^[192] Of course, this meaning that can be labelled as historical does not exclude other meanings; it must never be forgotten that, according to the analogy which exists between a primary cycle and the secondary cycles in which it is subdivided, all the considerations of this order are always susceptible of applications to varying degrees; but what we wish to say is that it seems that the Atlantean cycle was taken as a basis in the Hebrew tradition, that the transmission was done via the Egyptians, which at the least is not implausible through any other means. If we make this last reservation, it is because it seems particularly difficult to determine how the junction of the current came from the West, after the disappearance of Atlantis, with another current descended from the North and proceeding directly from the Primordial Tradition, a junction from which the constitution of the different traditional forms belonging to the final part of the Manvantara. This is not, in any case, a pure and simple reabsorption in the Primordial Tradition, of what had emanated from it in an earlier period; it is a kind of fusion between previously differentiated forms, to give birth to other forms adapted to new circumstances of time and place; and the fact that these two currents appear in some way as autonomous can still contribute to maintaining the illusion of an independence of the Atlantean tradition. No doubt it would be necessary, if one wished to search for the conditions in which this junction takes place, would give particular importance to the Celts and the Chaldeans, whose name, which is synonymous, actually means not a particular people, but rather a sacerdotal caste; but who knows today of the Celtic and Chaldean traditions, as well as that of the ancient Egyptians? One cannot be too cautious when it comes to completely extinct civilizations, and it is certainly not the attempts at reconstitution made by profane archaeologists that are capable of clarifying this question; but it is nonetheless true that many vestiges of a forgotten past come out of the earth in our time, and this cannot be without a purpose. Without risking the slightest prediction of what might result from these discov- eries, of which those who make them are generally incapable of suspect- ing their possible scope, we must certainly see here a 'sign of the times:' should not everything at the end of Manvantara, serve as a starting point for the development of the future cycle?