Passages similar to: Secret Teachings of All Ages — Ceremonial Magic and Sorcery
Source passage
Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
Ceremonial Magic and Sorcery (31)
The above figure is a complete and faithful representation of a magic circle as designed by mediæval conjurers for the invocation of spirits. The magician accompanied by his assistant takes his place at the point formed by the crossing of the central lines marked MAGISTER. The words about the circle are the names of the invisible intelligences, and the small crosses mark points at which certain prayers and invocations are recited. The small circle outside is prepared for the spirit to be invoked, and while in use has the signature of the desired intelligence traced within the triangle.
By the reigning sympathy and by the fact in Nature that there is an agreement of like forces and an opposition of unlike, and by the diversity of thos...
(40) But magic spells; how can their efficacy be explained?
By the reigning sympathy and by the fact in Nature that there is an agreement of like forces and an opposition of unlike, and by the diversity of those multitudinous powers which converge in the one living universe.
There is much drawing and spell-binding dependent on no interfering machination; the true magic is internal to the All, its attractions and, not less, its repulsions. Here is the primal mage and sorcerer- discovered by men who thenceforth turn those same ensorcellations and magic arts upon one another.
Love is given in Nature; the qualities inducing love induce mutual approach: hence there has arisen an art of magic love-drawing whose practitioners, by the force of contact implant in others a new temperament, one favouring union as being informed with love; they knit soul to soul as they might train two separate trees towards each other. The magician too draws on these patterns of power, and by ranging himself also into the pattern is able tranquilly to possess himself of these forces with whose nature and purpose he has become identified. Supposing the mage to stand outside the All, his evocations and invocations would no longer avail to draw up or to call down; but as things are he operates from no outside standground, he pulls knowing the pull of everything towards any other thing in the living system.
The tune of an incantation, a significant cry, the mien of the operator, these too have a natural leading power over the soul upon which they are directed, drawing it with the force of mournful patterns or tragic sounds- for it is the reasonless soul, not the will or wisdom, that is beguiled by music, a form of sorcery which raises no question, whose enchantment, indeed, is welcomed, exacted, from the performers. Similarly with regard to prayers; there is no question of a will that grants; the powers that answer to incantations do not act by will; a human being fascinated by a snake has neither perception nor sensation of what is happening; he knows only after he has been caught, and his highest mind is never caught. In other words, some influence falls from the being addressed upon the petitioner- or upon someone else- but that being itself, sun or star, perceives nothing of it all.
Your attention is called to the fact that each circle in the symbol is called to and blended with the one on either side of it. Accordingly in the...
(37) Your attention is called to the fact that each circle in the symbol is called to and blended with the one on either side of it. Accordingly in the circular extent of each circle there is to be found FOUR different spaces or regions, as follows: (1) Its own unblended space or region; (2) the space or region in which its own space or region is blended with that of one of the neighboring circles, which constitutes a shield-shaped space; (3) the space or region in which its own space or region is blended with that of the other neighboring circle, constituting a shield-shaped space; and (4) the space or region in the very centre of the symbol, in which the space or region of each circle is blended with that of both of the other two—thus producing a Triune Region. This arrangement, again, furnishes us with SEVEN distinct regions, as follows (giving each circle the name of a letter, as A, B, or C, respectively) I. Circle A; II. Circle B; III. Circle C; IV. Space A-B; V. Space A-C; VI. Space B-C and finally VII. Region A-B-C, at the centre. There are thus three unblended areas; also three blended areas of two elements; and finally one blended area of three elements; the latter combining within itself all three elements in equal proportion. Let him who wishes for the Light solve this Riddle of the Symbol!
The circle, however, must not be interpreted as conveying the idea of limitation; rather is it intended to convey the idea of limitlessness. The...
(3) The circle, however, must not be interpreted as conveying the idea of limitation; rather is it intended to convey the idea of limitlessness. The symbol, although the best possible for the purpose, is inadequate—this by reason of the impossibility of representing the Infinite by a finite symbol. The only adequate symbol of the Eternal Parent would be that of Infinite Space, and this, of course, cannot be represented by a sign, for no matter how wide the circle might be drawn there would always be Space beyond it. But, recognizing the impossibility of an adequate symbol, the ancient Rosicrucians have adopted the empty circle as the best possible finite symbol of the Infinite Unmanifest.