Opening the imagination - expressing the heart

"... I was clothed in a white garment, very similar to the alb of our Catholic priests, but longer and wider, and I wore upon my head a crown of vervain leaves, intertwined with a golden chain. I held a new sword in one hand, and in the other the ritual. I kindled two fires with the requisite prepared substances, and began reading the evocations of the ritual in a voice at first low, but rising by degrees... the smoke spread, the flame' caused the objects upon which it fell to waver, then it went out, the smoke still floating white and slow about the marble altar; I seemed to feel a quaking of the earth, my ears tingled, my heart beat quickly. I heaped more twigs and perfumes on the chafing-dishes, and as the flame again burst up, I beheld distinctly, before the altar, the figure of a man of more than normal size, which dissolved and vanished away. I recommenced the evocations and placed myself within a circle which I had drawn previously between the tripod and the altar. Thereupon the mirror which was behind the altar seemed to brighten in its depth, a wan form was outlined therein, which increased and seemed to approach by degrees. Three times, and with closed eyes, I invoked Apollonius. When I again looked forth there was a man in front of me, wrapped from head to foot in a species of shroud, which seemed more grey than white. He was lean, melancholy and beardless, and did not altogether correspond to my preconceived notion of Apollonius. I experienced an abnormally cold sensation, and when I endeavored to question the phantom I could not articulate a syllable. I therefore placed my hand upon the sign of the pentagram, and pointed the sword at the figure, commanding it mentally to obey and not alarm me, in virtue of the said sign. The form thereupon became vague, and suddenly disappeared. I directed it to return, and presently felt, as it were, a breath close by me; something touched my hand which was holding the sword, and the arm became immediately benumbed as far as the elbow. I divined that the sword displeased the spirit, and I therefore placed its point downwards, close by me, within the circle. The human figure reappeared immediately, but I experienced such an intense weakness in all my limbs, and a swooning sensation came so quickly over me, that I made two steps to sit down, whereupon I fell into a profound lethargy, accompanied by dreams, of which I had only a confused recollection when I came again to myself. For several subsequent days my arm remained benumbed and painful. The apparition did not speak to me, but it seemed that the questions I had designed to ask answered themselves in my mind…”

So runs the famous account given by the great French occultist Eliphas Levi, of a magical ceremony undertaken on July 24th 1854 to summon the spirit of the first century philosopher and miracle worker, Apollonius of Tyana. Levi, by his own account, spent twenty-one days fasting, praying and deep in study of his subject before attempting the rite which he later described as "..an actual drunkenness of the imagination, which must act powerfully upon a person otherwise nervous and impressionable.. the voluntary dream of a waking man". Though Eliphas Levis account lacks the drama of Lucifuges appearance in 'The Damnation of Theron Ware', it has a quiet and resigned air that is nevertheless believable, especially in regards to Levis statement that after the event he was ".. no longer the same man; something of another world had passed into me; I was no longer either sad or cheerful, but I felt a singular attraction towards death.." Levi had himself warned others against such rites in his writings, and now found himself sharing too much in the kingdom of the dead.

According to E. M .Butler, the 'ritual' mentioned by Levi, and recited sonorously in the Greek tongue, was the 'Magic Philosophy' of Patricius which he said contained the "doctrine of Zoroaster and the writings of Hermes Trismegistus". The work mentioned is the "Magia Philosophica, hoc est Francisci Patricii summi philosophi Zoroaster et eius CCCXX Oracula Chaldaica' first published by Francesco Patrizzi in Venice, 1591. Actually an extended collection of the late classical 'Chaldaean Oracles' by the magician "Julian the Theurgist', the 'Magia Philosophica' of Patrizzi largely takes over from the earlier and briefer collection of, and commentaries on the same, by the Byzantine scholar Gernistos Pletho whose work on the Oracles seems to have been first composed during his attendace at the Councils of Ferrara and Florence, held in 1438-9 to secure the union of the Roman and orthodox Churches. It would no doubt seem curious to a modern scholar to see the 'Chaldaean Oracles' placed beside the figure of the Pythagorean sage Apollonius of Tyana, but to earlier authorities Apollonius was himself both magician and alchemist, indeed this aspect of his biography has probably yet to be fully written. But first we must go back to Plethon, and through him to the ultimate sources for Levis' imaginary Apollonius.

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Last modified: November 09, 2003