IV. The Emperor—L'empereur

       Table of Contents

      The clothing of a Magician should be new, clean, and woven by a virgin; magical implements should be new, and consecrated by prayers and incense.

      The Magician needs to be abstinent, chaste, and devoted to the Work. His spirit and heart must be free from other claims upon them, and his will power devoted wholly, perseveringly, and with intelligent faith to the success of any great work, and to the results of his scientific occult performances. Magical operations should commence with Exorcisms of air, earth, and water, and end by Consecrations with fire.

      The Exorcism of Air is performed by breathing forth toward the four cardinal points, by the Word, and by repeating this invocation :—

      “The Spirit of God brooded over the waters, and God breathed into Man the breath of life.

      “The Spirit of God filled the universe; in it all things exist, and in it is the Word of Power.

      “May the Word be in my spirit, and so may all things be subservient to me.

      “Be ye exorcised then, ye beings of Air, in the Name of Him whose breath first filled all things with the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

      The Prayer of the Sylphs should then be recited.

      [This will be found at length in Levi’s Rituel de la haute Magie, p. 78, and in English in A. E. Waite’s “Mysteries of Magic,” p. 122, the only error being his heading, “ Prayer for the Sylphs ”; it is the prayer of the Sylphs for a nearer relation to the divinity.]

      The Exorcism of Earth is performed by the sprinkling of consecrated water, by the breath, by the Word, and by the burning of incense suitable to the day of the ceremony. Then recite the Prayer of the Gnomes.

      [See Levi, Rituel, p. 84; and Waite, p. 125.]

      The Exorcism of Water is performed by the laying on of hands, by the breath, by the Word, and by sprinkling upon it consecrated salt mixed with a little of the ash taken from the censer, and duly consecrated. The Water is to be sprinkled around by a brush composed of sprays of vervain, periwinkle, sage, mint, valerian, and basil; these are to be tied with a thread taken from a virgin’s distaff, to a handle of the wood of a nut-tree which has not yet borne fruit. Upon this handle you must engrave, with the magical dagger, the characters of the Seven Spirits.

      The Salt is consecrated by reciting over it the following Latin prayer :—

      “In isto Sale sit sapientia, et ab omni corruptione servet mentes nostras et corpora nostra, per Chokmah, et in virtute Ruach Chokmael; recedant ab isto phantasmata hylse ut sit Sal celestis, Sal terrse et Terra salis, ut nutrietur bos triturans, et addat spei nostrse cornua tauri volantis. Amen.”

      Then this Latin prayer over the ashes from the censer:—

      “Revertatur cinis ad fontem aquarum viveritium, et fiat terra fructificans et germinat arborem jucundi-tatis, et incensum suavitatis, per tria nomina Binah, Chokmah et Kether, in principio et in fine, per Alpha et Omega, qui sunt in Spiritu Azoth. Amen.”

      While you sprinkle the mixed salt and ashes into the water, recite :—

      “Emittes Spiritum O Tiphereth, et creabuntur omnia nova in his ergo sit semen venturi sseculi. Amen.”

      Exorcism of Water.

      “All powerful Father, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose voice is heard in the great waters, who didst cleave the waters of the Red Sea to make a passage for the children of Israel, and then didst cause the sea to swallow up the Egyptians who were pursuing them, Mi Kamoka Baalim Jehovah, thou whose altar, composed of the Twelve Jewels, is beneath the waters of the sacred river, deign to bless this water and to banish from it all baneful influences, Shaddai, Shaddai, Shaddai (breathe three times over the water). By the great names, Araritha, Eloah va Daath, Elohim Tzabaoth and Elohim Gibur, may this water be consecrated for the service of those who are about to invoke the Divine Powers for the benefit of their souls. Amen.”

      Then the Prayer of the Undines should be recited.

      [This is found in the Rituel, p. 81, and in Waite, p. 123.]

      To perform the Exorcism of Fire, cast upon it salt, incense, and sulphur, while you pronounce the names of Anael, Michael, and Samael; the prayer of the Salamanders should then be recited.

      [This is to be found in the Rituel, p. 83, and in Waite, p. 124.]

      You must thoroughly understand that elemental beings are souls of an imperfect type, not yet raised in the scale up to human existence, and that they can only manifest power when called into action by the adept as auxiliaries to his will, by means of that universal astral fluid in which they live. The kingdom of the Gnomes is assigned to the North, the Salamanders to the South, the Sylphs to the East, and the Undines to the West.

      These Elemental beings are related to, and bear an influence over persons, according as they are of one or other of the four Temperaments. The Gnomes are related to the Melancholic type, Salamanders to the Sanguine, Undines to the Phlegmatic, and Sylphs to the Bilious Temperament.

      Their symbols are those of Taurus the Bull for Gnomes; Leo the Lion for Salamanders; the Eagle for Sylphs; and the sign of Aquarius for Undines.

      Their Rulers are respectively Ghob, Djin, Paralda, and Nicsa.

      The combination of these four types of face and being represents the Created Universe, a complete and eternal entity, Man in fact, the Microcosm; and this is the first formula of the mystical explanation of the enigma of the Sphynx.

      Notes.

      The Fourth Tarot Trump represents a crowned emperor reclining against a throne, holding a sceptre in his right hand; the sceptre ends above in a lotus flower. In modern tarots the throne is decorated with a black eagle. The older design showed the emperor’s body as representing a right - angled triangle in general outline, and the legs are crossed, the whole suggesting the Athanor of the Alchemist. Levi, in his Rituel, gives the following meanings to this card: The Porte, or government of the Orientals, initiation, power, the Tetragrammaton, quaternary, and the cubical stone.

      Christian considers that on the human plane this trump means the realisation of actions directed by the science of truth, the love of justice, the force of will, and organic work.