Bygone Beliefs [35]
KENELM DIGBY we have already noticed, as well as other instances of the belief in "sympathy," and examples of similar superstitions might be multiplied almost indefinitely. Such are generally grouped under the term "sympathetic magic"; but inasmuch as all magical practices assume that by acting on part of a thing, or a symbolic representation of it, one acts magically on the whole, or on the thing symbolised, the expression may in its broadest sense be said to involve the whole of magic.
[2] IAMBLICHOS: _Theurgia, or the Egyptian Mysteries_ (trans. by Dr ALEX. WILDER, New York, 1911), p. 239.
The names of the Divine Being, angels and devils, the planets of the solar system (including sun and moon) and the days of the week, birds and beasts, colours, herbs, and precious stones-- all, according to old-time occult philosophy, are connected by the sympathetic relation believed to run through all creation, the knowledge of which was essential to the magician; as well, also, the chief portions of the human body, for man, as we have seen, was believed to be a microcosm--a universe in miniature. I have dealt with this matter and exhibited some of the supposed correspondences in "The Belief in Talismans". Some further particulars are shown in the annexed table, for which I am mainly indebted to AGRIPPA. But, as in the case of the zodiacal gems already dealt with, the old authorities by no means agree as to the majority of the planetary correspondences.
TABLE OF OCCULT CORRESPONDENCES
Arch- Part of Precious angel. Angel. Planet. Human Animal. Bird. stone. Body.
Raphael Michael Sun Heart Lion Swan Carbuncle Gabriel Gabriel Moon Left foot Cat Owl Crystal Camael Zamael Mars Right Wolf Vulture Diamond hand Michael Raphael Mercury Left hand Ape Stork Agate Zadikel Sachiel Jupiter Head Hart Eagle Sapphire (=Lapis lazuli) Haniel Anael Venus Generative Goat Dove Emerald organs Zaphhiel Cassiel Saturn Right foot Mole Hoopoe Onyx
The names of the angels are from Mr Mather's translation of _Clavicula Salomonis_; the other correspondences are from the second book of Agrippa's _Occult Philosophy_, chap. x.
In many cases these supposed correspondences are based, as will be obvious to the reader, upon purely trivial resemblances, and, in any case, whatever may be said--and I think a great deal may be said--in favour of the theory of symbology, there is little that may be adduced to support the old occultists' application of it.
So essential a part does the use of symbols play in all magical operations that we may, I think, modify the definition of "magic" adopted at the outset, and define "magic" as "an attempt to employ the powers of the spiritual world for the production of marvellous results, BY THE AID OF SYMBOLS." It has, on the other hand, been questioned whether the appeal to the spirit-world is an essential element in magic. But a close examination of magical practices always reveals at the root a belief in spiritual powers as the operating causes. The belief in talismans at first sight seems to have little to do with that in a supernatural realm; but, as we have seen, the talisman was always a silent invocation of the powers of some spiritual being with which it was symbolically connected, and whose sign was engraved thereon. And, as Dr T. WITTON DAVIES well remarks with regard to "sympathetic magic": "Even this could not, at the start, be anything other than a symbolic prayer to the spirit or spirits having authority in these matters. In so far as no spirit is thought of, it is a mere survival, and not magic at all...."[1]
[1] Dr T. WITTON DAVIES: _Magic, Divination, and Demonology among the Hebrews and their Neighbours_ (1898), p. 17.
What I regard as the two essentials of magical practices, namely, the use of symbols and the appeal to the supernatural realm, are most obvious in what is called "ceremonial magic". Mediaeval ceremonial magic was subdivided into three chief branches-- White Magic, Black Magic, and Necromancy. White magic was concerned with the evocations of angels,
[2] IAMBLICHOS: _Theurgia, or the Egyptian Mysteries_ (trans. by Dr ALEX. WILDER, New York, 1911), p. 239.
The names of the Divine Being, angels and devils, the planets of the solar system (including sun and moon) and the days of the week, birds and beasts, colours, herbs, and precious stones-- all, according to old-time occult philosophy, are connected by the sympathetic relation believed to run through all creation, the knowledge of which was essential to the magician; as well, also, the chief portions of the human body, for man, as we have seen, was believed to be a microcosm--a universe in miniature. I have dealt with this matter and exhibited some of the supposed correspondences in "The Belief in Talismans". Some further particulars are shown in the annexed table, for which I am mainly indebted to AGRIPPA. But, as in the case of the zodiacal gems already dealt with, the old authorities by no means agree as to the majority of the planetary correspondences.
TABLE OF OCCULT CORRESPONDENCES
Arch- Part of Precious angel. Angel. Planet. Human Animal. Bird. stone. Body.
Raphael Michael Sun Heart Lion Swan Carbuncle Gabriel Gabriel Moon Left foot Cat Owl Crystal Camael Zamael Mars Right Wolf Vulture Diamond hand Michael Raphael Mercury Left hand Ape Stork Agate Zadikel Sachiel Jupiter Head Hart Eagle Sapphire (=Lapis lazuli) Haniel Anael Venus Generative Goat Dove Emerald organs Zaphhiel Cassiel Saturn Right foot Mole Hoopoe Onyx
The names of the angels are from Mr Mather's translation of _Clavicula Salomonis_; the other correspondences are from the second book of Agrippa's _Occult Philosophy_, chap. x.
In many cases these supposed correspondences are based, as will be obvious to the reader, upon purely trivial resemblances, and, in any case, whatever may be said--and I think a great deal may be said--in favour of the theory of symbology, there is little that may be adduced to support the old occultists' application of it.
So essential a part does the use of symbols play in all magical operations that we may, I think, modify the definition of "magic" adopted at the outset, and define "magic" as "an attempt to employ the powers of the spiritual world for the production of marvellous results, BY THE AID OF SYMBOLS." It has, on the other hand, been questioned whether the appeal to the spirit-world is an essential element in magic. But a close examination of magical practices always reveals at the root a belief in spiritual powers as the operating causes. The belief in talismans at first sight seems to have little to do with that in a supernatural realm; but, as we have seen, the talisman was always a silent invocation of the powers of some spiritual being with which it was symbolically connected, and whose sign was engraved thereon. And, as Dr T. WITTON DAVIES well remarks with regard to "sympathetic magic": "Even this could not, at the start, be anything other than a symbolic prayer to the spirit or spirits having authority in these matters. In so far as no spirit is thought of, it is a mere survival, and not magic at all...."[1]
[1] Dr T. WITTON DAVIES: _Magic, Divination, and Demonology among the Hebrews and their Neighbours_ (1898), p. 17.
What I regard as the two essentials of magical practices, namely, the use of symbols and the appeal to the supernatural realm, are most obvious in what is called "ceremonial magic". Mediaeval ceremonial magic was subdivided into three chief branches-- White Magic, Black Magic, and Necromancy. White magic was concerned with the evocations of angels,