Identifier: opencourt_mar1904caru (find matches)
Title: The Open court
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Carus, Paul, 1852-1919 Open Court Publishing company, Chicago
Subjects: Religion Religion and science
Publisher: Chicago : The Open Court Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Digitizing Sponsor: CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

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the circle, the universal medi-cine, and the transmutation of metals. He has discovered, in fine,the secret of human omnipotence and of indefinite progression—he is, in one word, the master of the absolute. Gigantic claim ! The Mahatmas of Thibet pale away into in-significance before the little French magician. Levi has surroundedhis teachings with enigmas and mysteiies. What is his GreatArcanum? A thaumaturgical symbol of Trithemius, described inthe Histoire de la Magie, is declared by him to contain the finalsecret and indicible formula of the Great Arcanum. This figureis composed of two triangles—one white and one black—which arejoined at the base. Beneath the inverted apex of the black triangle 148 THE OPEN COURT. there is a fool crouching, painfully twisting his head, and lookingwith a grimace of terror at his own image reflected in the obscurityof the black triangle, while a man in knightly garments, in thevigor of maturity, with a steady glance and a strong yet pacific at
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Symbolical Figure.(From Levis Haute magie.) titude of command, is balanced on the apex of the white triangle,within which are the letters of the divine tetragram. Levi gives the following exoteric explanation of the above de-vice : The wise man depends on the fear of the true God, whilethe fool is crushed by his terror of the false god made in his own ELIPHAS LEVI MAGICIAN AND MYSTIC. I49 image. Its esoteric significance is as follows, says Waiter Un-initiated humanity creates God by a blackened, magnified, and dis-torted resemblance of itself which it reflects on the illimitable back-ground of stupidity and ignorance, then it crouches and shivers inthe presence of the monstrous phantom. The adept also createsGod, not however, by reflecting his likeness on infinity, but theconception of his power and knowledge, figured by a symbol. Thisconception is reflected on the white triangle, that is, on the un-known world enlightened by the analogies of science. The initiateis represented as po

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