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.The fatalities of life are therefore written necessarily in our wrinkles, and a first glance frequently reveals upon the forehead of a stranger either one or more of the mysterious letters of the kabalistic planisphere.Should the letter be jagged and scored deeply, there has been a struggle between will and fatality, and in his most powerful emotions and tendencies the individual's entire past manifests to the Magus.From this it becomes easy to conjecture the future; and if events deceive the sagacity of the diviner from time to time, he who has consulted him will remain none the less astounded and convinced by the superhuman knowledge of the adept.The human head is formed upon the model of the celestial spheres; it attracts and it radiates, and this it is which first forms and manifests in the conception of a child.Hence the head is subject in an absolute manner to astral influence, and evidences its several attractions by its diverse protuberances.The final word of phrenology is to be found therefore in scientific and purified astrology, the problems of which we bequeath to the patience and good faith of scholars.According to Ptolemy, the sun dries up and the moon moistens; according to the Kabalists, the sun represents strict Justice, while the moon is in sympathy with Mercy.It is the sun which produces storms, and, by a kind of gentle atmospheric pressure, the moon occasions the ebb and flow, or, as it were, the respiration of the sea.We read in the Zohar, one of the great sacred books of the Kabalah, that “the magical serpent, the son of the Sun, was about to devour the world, when the Sea, daughter of the moon, set her foot upon his head and subdued him”.For this reason, among the ancients, Venus was the daughter of the Sea, as Diana was identical with the Moon.Hence also the name of Mary signifies star or salt of the sea.To consecrate this kabalistic doctrine in the belief of the vulgar, it is said in prophetic language: The woman shall crush the serpent's head.Jerome Cardan, one of the boldest students, and beyond contradiction the most skilful astrologer of his time – Jerome Cardan, who was a martyr to his faith in astrology, if we accept the legend of his death, has left a calculation by means of which anyone can foresee the good or evil fortune attached to all years of his life.His theory was based upon his own experiences, and he assures us that the calculation never deceived him.To ascertain the fortune of a given year, he sums up the84The Doctrine of Transcendental Magicevents of those which have preceded it by 4, 8, 12, 19 and 30; the number 4 is that of realization; 8 is the number of Venus or natural things; 12 belongs to the cycle of Jupiter and corresponds to successes; 19 has reference to the cycles of the Moon and of Mars; the number 30 is that of Saturn or Fatality.Thus, for example, I desire to ascertain what will befall me in this present year, 1855.I pass therefore in review those decisive events in the order of life and progress which occurred four years ago; the natural felicity or misfortune of eight years back; the successes or failures belonging to twelve years since; the vicissitudes and miseries or diseases which overtook me nineteen years from now, and my tragic or fatal experiences of thirty years back.Then, taking into account irrevocably accomplished facts and the advance of time, I calculate the chances analogous to those which I owe already to the influence of the same planets, and I conclude that in 1851 I had employment which was moderately but sufficiently remunerative, with some embarrassment of position; in 1847 I was separated violently from my family, with great attendant sufferings for mine and me; in 1843 I travelled as an apostle, addressing the people, and suffering the persecution of illmeaning persons: briefly, I was at once honoured and proscribed.Finally, in 1825 family life came to an end for me, and I entered definitely on that fatal path which led me to science and misfortune.I may suppose therefore that this year I shall experience toil, poverty, vexation, heart exile, change of place, publicity and contradictions, with some eventuality which will be decisive for the rest of my life: every indication in the present leads me to endorse this forecast.Hence I conclude that, for myself and for this year, experience confirms fully the precision of Cardan's astrological calculus, which connects furthermore with the climacteric years of ancient astrologers.This term signifies arranged in scales or calculated on the degrees of a scale.Johannes Trithemius in his book on Secondary Causes has computed the recurrence of fortunate or calamitous years for all empires of the world.In the twenty-first chapter of our “Ritual” we shall give an exact analysis of this work, together with a continuation of the labour of Trithemius to our own days and the application of his magical scale to contemporary events, so as to deduce the most striking probabilities relative to the immediate future of France, Europe and the world.According to all the grand masters in astrology, comets are the stars of excep-tional heroes, and they visit earth only to signalize great changes; the planets preside over collective existences and modify the destinies of mankind in the aggregate; the fixed stars, more remote and more feeble in their action, attract individuals and determine their tendencies.Sometimes a group of stars may combine to influence the destinies of a single man, while often a great number of souls are drawn by the distant rays of the same sun.When we die, our interior light in departing follows the attraction of its star, and thus it is that we live in other universes, where the soul makes for itself a new garment, analogous to the develop-ASTROLOGY85ment or diminution of its beauty; for our souls, when separated from our bodies, resemble revolving stars; they are globules of animated light which always seek their centre for the recovery of their equilibrium and their true movement.Before all things, however, they must liberate themselves from the folds of the serpent, that is, the unpurified Astral Light which envelops and imprisons them, unless the strength of their will can lift them beyond its reach.The immersion of the living star in the dead light is a frightful torment, comparable to that of Mezentius [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]