The Sixth Chapter

THE SIXTH CHAPTER.

HE Fear of the Lord is the True Wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the True Secrets of Magic, and he but buildeth upon a foundation of sand, and his building can in no way last. The RABBIN MOSES persuaded me to be wise, while he himself, with words which neither he himself nor any other person understood, and with extravagant symbols made bells to sound, and while with execrable conjurations he made appear in glasses him who had committed a theft, and while he made a water causing an old man to appear young (and that only for the space of two hours and no longer). All the which things he indeed taught me, but the whole was but vanity, low curiosity, and a pure deception of the DEMON, leading to no useful end imaginable, and tending to the loss of the Soul. And when I had the Veritable Knowledge of the Sacred Magic, I both forgot them, and banished them from mine heart.

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That impious Bohemian, ¹ with the aid and assistance of his Associate, performed astounding feats. He rendered himself invisible, he used to fly in the air, he used to enter through the keyholes into locked-up rooms, he knew our greatest secrets, and once he told me things which God alone could know. But his Art cost him too dear, for the Devil had made him swear in the Pact that he would use all his secrets to the dishonour of God, and to the prejudice of his neighbour. Ultimately his body was found dragged through the streets, and his head without any tongue therein, lying in a drain. And this was all the profit he drew from his Diabolical Science and Magic.

In AUSTRIA I found an infinitude of Magicians who only occupied themselves in killing and maiming men, in putting discord among married people, in causing divorces, in tying witch-knots in osier or willow branches to stop the flow of milk in the breasts of nursing women, and similar infamies. But these miserable wretches had made a Pact with the Devil, and had become his slaves, having sworn unto him that they would work without cessation to destroy all living creatures. Some of these had two years (for their Pact) to run, some three, and after that time they underwent the same fate as the Bohemian.

At LINTZ I worked with a young woman, who one evening invited me to go with her, assuring me that without any risk she would conduct me to a place where I greatly desired to find myself. I allowed myself to be persuaded by her promises. She then gave unto me an unguent, with which I rubbed the principal pulses of my feet and hands; the which she did also; and at first it appeared to me that I was flying in the air in the place which I wished, and which I had in no way mentioned to her.

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pass over in silence and out of respect, that which I saw, which was admirable, and appearing to myself to have remained there a long while, I felt as if I were just awakening from a profound sleep, and I had great pain in my head and deep melancholy. I turned round and saw that she was seated at my side. She began to recount to me what she had seen, but that which I had seen was entirely different. I was, however, much astonished, because it appeared to me as if I had been really and corporeally in the place, and there in reality to have seen that which had happened. However, I asked her one day to go alone to that same place, and to bring me back news of a friend whom I knew for certain was distant 200 leagues. She promised to do so in the space of an hour. She rubbed herself with the same unguent, and I was very expectant to see her fly away; but she fell to the ground and remained there about three hours as if she were dead, so that I began to think that she really was dead. At last she began to stir like a person who is waking, then she rose to an upright position, and with much pleasure began to give me the account of her expedition, saying that she had been in the place where my friend was, and all that he was doing; the which was entirely contrary to his profession. Whence I concluded that what she had just told me was a simple dream, and that this unguent was a causer of a phantastic sleep; whereon she confessed to me that this unguent had been given to her by the Devil.

All the Arts of the Greeks are Enchantments and Fascinations, and the Demons hold them enchained in these accursed arts so that the Foundation of the True Magic may be unknown to them which would render them more powerful than they; and I was the more Confirmed in this opinion because their operations were of no practical use whatever, and caused injury unto him who put them into practice, as in fact many of them

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avowed plainly to me, when I had the True and Sacred Magic. There are also many operations which they say are handed down from the Ancient Sibyls. There is an Art called White and Black; ¹ another Angelical, TEATIM; in which I avow that I have seen orations so learned and beautiful, that had I not known the venom therein hidden, I would have given them herein. I say all this because it is very easy to him who is not constantly upon his guard to err.

One old scribbler of symbols ² gave me many enchantments which only tended to work evil. He performed other operations by means of numbers, which were all odd, and of a triple proportion, in no way similar to the other, and for proof of this, he caused by such means in my presence a very fine tree which was near my house to fall to the ground, and all the leaves and fruits were consumed in a very short time. And he told me that in Numbers there was hidden a very Great Mystery, because that by the means of numbers one can perform all the operations for friendships, riches, honours, and all sorts of things, good and evil; and he assured me that he had tried them, but that yet some that he knew to be very true had not yet succeeded with him. With regard to this particular, I found out the reason through the Wise ABRAMELIN, who told me that this came and depended from a Divine Ministry, that Is to say, from the Qabalah, and that without that, one could not succeed. All these things have I beheld, and many others, and those who possessed these secrets gave them to me out of friendship. I burned these recipes afterwards in the house of ABRAMELIN, they being absolutely things very far removed from the Will of God, and contrary to the charity which we owe unto our neighbour. Every

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learned and prudent man may fall if he be not defended and guided by the Angel of the Lord, who aided me, and prevented me from falling into such a state of wretchedness, and who led me undeserving from the mire of darkness unto the Light of the Truth. I have known and felt the effects of the goodness of the Wise ABRAHA MELIN, ¹ who of his own free will, and before I had asked him so to do, accepted me for his disciple. And before that I had declared my wish unto him he would accomplish and fulfil my desire; and all that I wished to obtain from him he knew before I could open my mouth. Also he recounted to me all that I had seen, done, and suffered from the time of my father's death down to this moment; and this in words obscure and as it were prophetic, which I did not then comprehend, but which I understood later. He told me many things touching my good fortune, but, which was the principal thing, he discovered to me the Source of the Veritable Qabalah, the which according to our custom, I have in turn communicated unto thine elder brother JOSEPH, after that he had fulfilled the requisite conditions without the accomplishment of which the Qabalah and this Sacred Magic cannot be exercised, and which I will recount in the two following books. Afterwards he did manifest unto me the Regimen of the Mystery of that Sacred Magic which was exercised and put into practice by our forefathers and progenitors, NOAH, ABRAHAM, JACOB, MOSES, DAVID, and SOLOMON, among whom the last misused it, and he received the punishment thereof during his life.

In the Second Book I will describe the whole faithfully and clearly, in order that if the Lord God should wish to dispose of me before that thou shalt have attained a competent age, thou shalt find these three small manuscript books as forming at the same time both an inestimable

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treasure and a faithful master and teacher; because there are very many secrets in the Symbols of the Third Book which I have seen made experiment of with mine own eyes by ABRAMELIM, ¹ and to be perfectly true, and which afterwards I myself have performed. And after him I found no one who worked these things truly; and although JOSEPH at Paris walked in the same Path, nevertheless God, as a just Judge, did not in any way wish to grant unto him the Sacred Magic in its entirety, because he had despised the Christian Law. For it is an indubitable and evident thing that he who is born Christian, Jew, Pagan, Turk, Infidel, or whatever religion it may be, can arrive at the perfection of this Work or Art and become a Master, but he who hath abandoned his natural Law, and embraced another religion opposed to his own, can never arrive at the summit of this Sacred Science. ²

Footnotes

20:1 I.e. Antony, of whom he makes mention in the preceding chapter.

22:1 ? the Book "Ambrosius".

22:2 Evidently the man mentioned in Chapter V., as living at Ephiha, near Constantinople. The word I have rendered by "scribbler of symbols" is grifas.

23:1 So written here in the MS.

24:1 Thus spelt here.

24:2 Many Occultists will doubtless not be of this opinion. It is one thing to simply quit one debased and materialised form or sect of religion for another, which is perhaps little if any better; and quite another thing to seek out the true religion which is at the basis of all, and which could not be entirely true, were it not free from Sect.