Introduction to Magic

Apathanatismos

(Deification)

Mithraic Ritual of the “Great Magical Papyrus of Paris”

Translated from the Greek by Luce Introduction and commentary by Ea, Leo, Luce, P. Negri

Introduction

The text—presented here in the first Italian translation from the original Greek, and which we have compared with the German version by A. Dieterich (Eine Mithrasliturgie, Leipzig, 1903) and the English version by G. R. S. Mead (A Mithraic Ritual, London, Benares, 1907)—is found in the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris (No. 574 of the Supplément grec de la Bibliothèque Nationale. For variant readings, cf. Wessely in the Jahresbericht des kk. Staatsgymnasiums Hernals, 1899, p 12ff., as well as N. Novossadsky, Ad papyrum magicum bibl. Parisinae nat. additiones paleographicae, Petersburg, 1895).

In this text we have the only ritual of the ancient Mysteries that has been preserved in its entirety through the centuries, in a redaction dating to the beginning of the fourth century C.E. The tradition to which it is connected is essentially Mithraic, namely an adaptation of that ancient Aryan-Persian tradition which, for a while during the decline of ancient Rome, contended with Christianity for the spiritual legacy of the West. In the text, together with elements of Mithraic theurgy, we find intermingled elements of Egyptian-Gnostic magical traditions, particularly in reference to the many “names of power” that appear in it. This does not prevent the fact that, notwithstanding various strictly philological or historical considerations, the text represents a unity in which these various elements complete each other, for the practical realization of the ritual itself.

This Mithraic ritual has a very special meaning. It was not a ceremony attended by many people (hence, the inadequacy of the term “liturgy” employed by Dieterich), but rather an individual operation aimed at the transformation of the deepest nature of man, and apparently reserved to those who had already gone through the lower degrees of initiation. The character of the ritual is not purely interior, nor magical in the sense of ordinary ceremonial magic. It is not purely interior, because, unlike the path of Hindu yoga and also what remains of Hermetic-alchemical symbolism, it does not deal with metaphysical states and meanings to be perceived directly, in their unspoken and formless essence. Rather, these meanings are first given as invocatory and ritual actions, then projected into magical images and visualizations. However, the context of ceremonial magic in the strict sense is transcended, since there is no exterior relationship with the apparitions. They are not exploited for some particular purpose, but rather everything converges toward a transcendent realization of the self. Therefore this has something intermediate: a common trait, after all, of everything that falls in the realm of theurgy. We also notice that the experiences described or indicated in the ritual do not seem to take place outside the body, nor in the ordinary bodily conditions, but rather in a special state of fluidic intoxication well known to those who practice magic, in which the contact established with the “Astral Light” and the consequent release from everything that comes from the animal senses do not prevent one from remaining in touch with the physical body and carrying out particular ritual actions. Thus, in the text, the references to the various apparitions are given together with logoi⁴⁸ (which are not necessarily pronounced only in the mind), and with real physical actions, such as closing the eyes, breathing, pressing one’s abdomen, and so on. In this regard, it is interesting that the Mithraic ritual confirms that the science of breathing and of particular bodily postures (asanas) is not limited to Hindu Yoga, but was known even in the ancient Mysteries of the West, especially in Egypt, from which survives a text in hieroglyphics called the Book of Breathing. The same applies to the science and the use of “names of power,” which correspond to the mantras and bîjas of the esoteric Hindu tradition. By closely following this Ritual, we can reconstruct the unfolding of the path followed by the Mithraic initiate.

First of all, it is necessary to become detached from the “law of the waters,” from desire, or the burning, unending need that afflicts men who are tied to their inferior and mortal natures. In the first logos, the Mithraic initiate, just like the Orphic initiate, declares his own title of nobility—being His son, still mortal, but sanctified by the “Strong Strength of all Strengths” and by the “incorruptible Right Hand.” He invokes his transcendent reality, namely his “Perfect Body.” From the corruptible elements that constitute the animal nature, the invocation rises to their essence and to the primordial, heavenly, incorruptible elements. The operator resists and subsists: he holds firm and in “purity” fixes the power of his own soul beneath him. He then sets himself to unchain the force and to open the “mystical eye” to the transcendent vision. Having realized the moment of “purity,” a contact is established through the breath with the element of air, in view of the first transformation: the experience of Air (a state of disembodied lightness) or of a diffuse spiritual sensibility, free from the bonds of the physical senses. The experience of Air is followed by the experience of the Wind, which is the principle that moves the supersensible ether and allows one to climb up to the causes, or to the initial hierarchy of “beings” or “Gods.” Here the initiate holds his ground against the forces that attempt to sweep him away and resolves the tension caused by his appearance through the invocation of Silence, in other words, by putting himself in the state of calmness, the deeper being-in-oneself. When the vision clarifies, he proceeds.

The “thunder” mentioned in the second instruction may be regarded as a passage through one of the so-called “points of indifference” (layabindu, in a corresponding Sanskrit expression), with an ensuing sudden change of state. In fact, from the second logos we learn that the initiate assumes the way of being proper to the very Gods of this order; the cyclical view is revealed to him, in which he creatively perceives the sidereal essences filling the ethereal space. The experience ends with the vision of an immense “wheel” and of closed “fiery doors,” which signify universal “Necessity.” This vision is too much to bear, due to a sense of loss that the initiate tries to overcome with wonderful élan in the third logos of the Ritual. In this logos, the state corresponding to the “Lord of Necessity,” the “Prince of Fire,” or the “Dominator of the Wheel” is invoked, aroused through its “Names,” attracted and fixed. What follows is a further transformation or change of state: “Silence” gives new strength to the soul, and the heavenly world appears liberated, clarified, no longer subject to fate, but rather in the overshadowing of the superior principle, transparent as a world of Gods, producing exaltation and ecstasy. The invocation continues. At first, what is outlined is the experience of a new, “central” way of being, proper to this world. What follows is the apparition or projection of the Solar God. The following ritual puts the initiate in contact with the elementary cosmic power, with the primordial nature of the κόσμος των θεων (world of the gods). The Solar God leads to the “Pole,” to the “midpoint” or “base point.” This point needs to be “fixed,” while at the same time, by “bellowing,” the primordial Ammonic and taurine strength, or the “Strength of Strengths,” is awakened. This brings about a second opening of “doors” and an ensuing emergence from the depths of the septenary hierarchy. This hierarchy is first experienced in its “feminine,” manifested, and dynamic aspect, and then in the further masculine, unmanifested, unchanging aspect.

Nor does action of the ritual end here. This very hierarchy is transcended, and through a further deepening and fixation (which may correspond to the passage to the Ogdoad [the highest plane] mentioned by Gnostics), the nature of Mithras himself is actualized. Mithras is he who assumes and dominates the taurine, cosmic force that carries and moves all things. After being experienced in a magical projection or image, this supreme principle, in a second phase, is directly realized. The Mithraic nature, evoked and mastered through a new “bellowing,” is “fixed” by the initiate. He commands it to remain, for the perfection of the state of him who is free from necessity, birth, and death. In many parts of the text there are sentences that are uncertain or susceptible to different interpretations. While keeping within the limits of philological correctness, we have tried to present a comprehensible and coherent translation, insofar as with this publication we have not endeavored to make a contribution to secular philology, but rather to shed some light on the phenomenology of the mysteriosophic experience.

TEXT

χρὴ ον σε, θύγατερ, λαμβάνειν χυλοὺς
βοτανων μ[ε]λόντων σοί ἐν τ τέλει το
ἱερο μου συντάγματος

Propitiation Formula

Be favorable to me, O Providence and Fortune, as I write these first mysteries to be transmitted to the only Son, who will be rendered immortal, to the Initiate worthy of this Power of ours. The great Sun God Mithras ordered me to transmit these mysteries through his own Archangel. Be favorable to me, so that I alone, the Eagle, may reach the Heavens and contemplate all things.

Invocatory Logos

First origin of my origin, AEÈIOYO; Beginning of my beginning, PPP OOO PHR; Spirit of the spirit, of the first breath in me, M M M; Fire, that God has given in the mixture of the mixtures in me, first fire in the fire of me ÈYÈIAEÈ; Water of the water in me, first Water of the water in me, O O O A A A E E E; first earthly essence of the earthly essence in me, YÈYÒÈ; Perfect Body of me—born of N. (name) of N. (mother)—that the honored Arm and incorruptible Right Hand have formed in the dark and transparent world, inanimate body that was animated, YÈI AYI EYÒIE!

If you deem it right, though I am still held back by my inferior nature, allow me to attain the Immortal Birth, so that, having overcome the incessant need that holds me in its terrible grip, I may contemplate the immortal Principle through the immortal Breath ANCHREPHRENESUPHIRINCH, through immortal Water ERONOYIPARAKOYNETH, through the Earth and the Air EIOAÈPSENABÒTH; so that I may be reborn to the intelligence KRAOCHAXRO; so that I may give to myself a new beginning and breathe in me the Holy Breath, NECHTHEN APO TOY NECHTHINARPIÈTH; so that I may contemplate the abyss of the East, the horrible Water, NYÒ THEGÒ ECHÒ OYOCHIECHÒA and the vivifying Ether spread all around me may hear me, ARNOMÈTHPH; for I, a mortal man born of a mortal womb, being now made better by the strength of the highest Strength and by the incorruptible Right Hand—today I want to behold with an immortal eye and with imperishable Breath the immortal Aeon, the Lord of the Fiery Crowns.

Having been purified by sacred ceremonies, as the human strength of my soul endured in a pure state for a brief time, I will receive it again beyond the insistent and urgent need that oppresses me, which no lament can ever dispel. This is what I, N. (name), born of N. (mother), want according to the unshakable order of God, EYÈYIAEÈIAÒEIANIYAIIEÒ.

However, since it would not be possible for me, a mere mortal, to rise together with the golden effulgence of immortal splendor, I command to you ÒÈY AEÒ ÈYA EÒÈ YAE ÒIAE. Be still, O mortal nature destined to perish, and allow me to go beyond the inexorable, hard-pressing need. For I am the Son, I breathe MOYOPROCHÒ PRÒA, I am MOY PRÒ—by breathing PRÒE, I am!

III

First Instruction

Breathe from the solar rays, inhaling three times as deeply as you can, and you will see yourself rise up, above every height, and you will feel as though suspended in midair.

You will no longer hear any sound coming from a person or a living being; you will no longer see any mortal thing of the earth; but all the things you see will be immortal.

You will see the divine order of the proper day and of the hour; you will see the Gods who rise toward heaven, others descending from it, and you will see the course of the visible Gods through the Disk of my Father—God.

You will see the so-called Flute, in an analogous way, which is the beginning of the Wind at the service of the Great Work. You will see something like a flute hanging out of the disk, in the direction where the heavenly currents begin, as an infinite wind from the east. But if the other wind, blowing eastward, should appear to you, you will see it as the opposite of what is seen.

And you will also see the Gods staring at you and acting as if they were ready to assail you. At that time, place the right finger over your mouth and say:

First Logos

Silence Silence Silence

Symbol of the incorruptible living God, protect me o Silence NEKTHEIR-THANMELY!

Then hiss for a long time: S! S! Then exhale and say:

PROPROFENGÈ MORIOS PROPHYR PROPHENGE NEMETHIRE ARPSENTEN TITETMIMEÒYENARTHPHYRKEKÒPSYRIDARIÒTYRÈPHILBA!

Then you will see the gods looking favorably upon you, no longer acting as if they were ready to attack you, but going about their own business.

Second Instruction

When you see the higher cosmos free and all illuminated, and no aggressive behavior on the part of the Gods and Angels, expect to hear a great crash like thunder, such that you will remain stunned. But say again:

Second Logos

Silence! Silence!

I am a star that journeys with you and shines from the abyss

OXYOXERTHUTH!

Immediately after saying this, the solar disk will suddenly begin to expand.

And after you have recited this second logos—namely the word “Silence” twice and everything else—hiss twice and blow twice and straightaway you will see many five-pointed stars coming out of the solar disk, quickly filling the entire space. Then say again:

Silence! Silence!

And when the Disk opens up, you will see an immense wheel and fiery locked doors. Closing your eyes, recite rapidly the following logos:

VII

Third Logos

Listen and hear me—N. (name), son of N. (mother)—O Lord who has closed to the spirit the fiery doors of heaven! You, who have a double body, you who dwell in Fire PENPTERUNI, Creator of Light, keeper of the Keys SEMESILAM, burning breath PSYRINEY, soul of Fire IAÒ, breath of Light AOI, joy of Fire AILURE, beautiful Light AZAIAIÒNNACHBA; you, Lord of Light PEPPERPREPEMPIPI, whose body is Fire PHMUÈNIOK, giver of Light, spreading Fire AREIEICHITA, sparking Fires GALLABALBA; you who in Light have life AIAIÒ and are the power of Fire PYRIKIBOOSÈIA; you who move the Light SANKERÒB and unleash the Thunderbolts ÒÈIÒÈIÒ, glory of Light BAIEGENNÈTE, giver of Light SUSINEPHI, you who preside over the heavenly Light SUSINEPHI ARENBARAZEI MARMARENTEY, leader of the stars!

Open the door to me PROPROPHENGE EMETHEIRE MORIOMOTYREPHILBA! Because of the bitter and urgent need that presses me on, I invoke your venerable immortal living Names, those that never descended into a mortal nature, which were never expressed in any mortal human language or voice!

ÈEÒ OÈEÒ IÒÒ OÈ ÈEÒ ÈEÒ OÈEÒ IÒÒ OÈÈÈ ÒÈE ÒOÈ IÈ ÈÒ OÒ OÈ IEÒ OÈ ÒOÈ IEÒOÈ IEEÒ EÈ IÒ OÈ IOÈ ÒÈÒ EOÈ OEÒ ÒIÈ ÒIÈEÒ OI III ÈOÈ ÒEU ÈÒ OÈE EÒÈIA AÈAEÈA ÈEEÈ EEÈ EEÈ IEÒ ÈEÒ OÈEEOÈ ÈEÒ EYÒ OÈ EIÒ EÒ ÒÈ ÒÈ ÒÈ EE OOOYIOÈ

Say all this with fire and spirit from beginning to end, and then a second time, and so on until you have realized the seven immortal Gods of the cosmos.

Having said all this, you will hear thunder and the upheaval of everything that surrounds you; then you will feel deeply shaken. Once again say “Silence” with the following invocation.

After this, open your eyes and you will see the doors open and the world of the gods that is within them; and for the joy and pleasure of the sight, your spirit leaps and rises up.

Then, staying still, breathe in the divine, staring unflinchingly within your spirit.

When your soul is restored, say:

VIII

Fourth Logos

Come, O Lord

ARKANDARA PHÒTAZA PYRIPHÒTAZA BYTHIX

ETIMENNEROPHORATHÈNERIÈ

PROTHRIPHORATHI

Having said this, the solar rays will converge on you. You will become their center. When this is fulfilled in you, you will see a young handsome God, with fiery hair, wearing a white tunic and a scarlet mantle, with a fiery crown on his head.

Greet him straightaway with the greeting of Fire:

Fifth Logos

Hail, O Lord, strong and powerful, most influential King, highest of all the Gods; Sun, Lord of Heaven and Earth, God of Gods, powerful is your breath, mighty is your strength. Lord, if it so please you, announce me to the highest God who has begotten and produced you, since a man asks to worship you, as far as a human can. I am N. (name), son of N. (mother), born of the mortal womb of N. and of sperm, and I have been regenerated by you. I have been rendered immortal among myriads of beings at this moment, thanks to God’s will that transcends all goodness.

As soon as you have said this, He will take you to the Pole and you will see him as if on a road. Then, staring at him intently, emit a prolonged bellowing, sounding like a horn, expel all of your breath, pressing simultaneously on your ribs, kiss the amulets, and say toward your right:

Sixth Logos

Protect me, PROSYMÈRI

Having said this, you will see the doors open and seven virgins arise from the depths, with serpent faces. These are the dominating Fates, golden arbiters of the Heavens. At this sight, greet them in this fashion:

Greetings, o seven heavenly goddesses of Destiny (οὐρανο Τύχαι), noble Virgins, kind and holy, whose lives are as MINIMIRROPHOR; you, most sacred guardians of the four columns:

		Hail to you, the first	KREPSENTHAÈS!
		Hail to you, the second	MENESKEÈS!
		Hail to you, the third	MEKRAN!
		Hail to you, the fourth	ARARMAKÈS!
		Hail to you, the fifth	EKOMMIE!
		Hail to you, the sixth	TIKNONDAÈS!
		Hail to you, the seventh	ERUROMBRIÈS!

Seventh Logos

Then seven Gods will come forward, with the faces of black bulls, wearing linen around the loins, wearing seven golden crowns. These are the so-called Lords of the heavenly Pole, whom you also must welcome, greeting each one with his proper name:

Hail, Guardians of the Pivot, you sacred and strong youths who at command turn together the Axis of the Heavenly Wheel and hurl thunder and thunderbolts, earthquakes and lightning against the race of the impious. However, grant me, as I love Good and venerate God, bodily health, perfect intellect (lit. “sight” or “vision”), steady gaze, and calmness during these good hours of this day, O my Lords and great powerful Gods!

		Hail to you, the first	AIÈRÒNTHI!
		Hail to you, the second	MERKEIMEROS!
		Hail to you, the third	AKRIKIUR!
		Hail to you, the fourth	MESARGILTÒ!
		Hail to you, the fifth	KIRRÒALITHÒ!
		Hail to you, the sixth	ERMIKTHATHÒPS!
		Hail to you, the seventh	EORASIKÈ!

When they place themselves here and there according to their order, look intently at the air and you will see lightning and bright lights; the earth will shudder and a God will descend, an immense, radiant presence. He is young, with golden hair, wearing a white tunic, a golden crown, and a long robe (anaxurides), holding in his right hand the golden shoulder of the Calf.

This is the Bear who moves and turns the heavens, high or low, according to the seasons.

Then you will see lightning come forth from his eyes, and stars from his body.

At that precise moment, emit a long bellowing by pressing on your stomach so that all five senses may be stirred; prolong this to the end and, kissing your amulets, again say:

XII

Eighth Logos

You, MOKRIMOPHERIMOPHERERIZÒN of mine—N. (name), born of N. (mother)—stay with me in my soul. Do not depart from me, since I command to you ENTHOPHENENTHROPIÒTH.

Stare intently at the God, bellowing for a long time, and then greet him in this fashion:

XIII

Ninth Logos

Hail, Lord, Master of the Waters; hail, Origin of the Earth; hail Sovereign of the Spirit!

Lord, in palingenesis I die in an integrated state, and in integration I have achieved the fulfillment.

Born of animal birth, having been liberated I am transported beyond mortal generation,

As you have established,

As you have decreed,

As you have done, O Great Mystery!

CORRESPONDENCES⁴⁹:
	ω = ò	γγ = ng
	η = è	γκ = nk
	θ = th	ου = u
	υ = y	φ = ph
	χ = ch	κ = k

Commentary

We could associate “Providence” and “Fortune” (pronoia kai tychè), which are invoked in the propitiation formula, with the Hvarenô, namely the “Glory” or “Heavenly Fire” that according to the ancient Persian tradition is thought to descend from above in order to consecrate kings, priests, and conquerors. Hence, in the same formula, its relation with the power of initiation and consecration that the invocator declares to have already received; thus he can turn to the next achievement and rise from the rank of “Son” to that of “Eagle,” according to the ritual given in the text.

In any event, Pronoia is one of the epithets of Athena, the goddess of Wisdom, who, as a result of her infinite knowledge, has also the power to foresee future events; thus, she can bestow opportune knowledge so that nothing may disturb the outcome of the sacred operation. Tychè is the equivalent of the Roman goddess Fortuna, who is usually portrayed with wings, leaning on a sphere or wheel, which are the emblems of her speed. Sometimes Tychè is also veiled, to indicate that she goes her way without following any human criterion. The invocation of the two goddesses suggests that the neophyte, in his attempt to achieve immortality, not only invokes Fortune (namely the unpredictable and instantaneous power that plays such a role in magical operations), but also the wisdom necessary to recognize the “gifts” and to assume them at the proper time. (Another reading gives psychè instead of tychè. In that case the initiate would invoke not only all of his intellectual faculties, but the soul itself, or psychè with all of its infinite capabilities: in other words, the whole life source in him.) More generally, the word tychè, understood as “destiny,” may suggest the “fatal” aspect of the entire process. “Son” should be understood here as “Son of the Art” and also as “born according to power,” due to the double meaning of the word dynamis, which in the Gnostic-Christian literature includes the meanings of salvific power, miracle, sacrament (e.g., Romans 1:16; Matthew 7:22; Mark 6:5; II Corinthians 12:12). As such, the term “son” must refer to the subject of the Mysterion, in regard to the “Father,” the one who in the initiatory act transmits to the neophyte the principle or potential of awakening. At the end of the ritual, we shall see that this force reveals the very nature of Mithras: the initiate must get hold of it and fix it in himself, thus becoming in turn, with this act, a center and a “Father,” which is the highest rank in the hierarchy of these Mysteries. The “Father” is the fulfillment of the “Eagle,” the bird capable not only of taking off from the “earth” and flying in the “air” (according to what is found in the first instruction) but also to stare at the Sun, according to the law of Mithras, conqueror of the Sun.

In this regard, we agree with Dieterich and Mead that the expression “Sun-Mithras” is a gloss of an ignorant scribe, since in this tradition Mithras is not the Sun God, but one who becomes his ally and ambassador only after defeating him. In the ancient Western tradition the Eagle was the “bird” sacred to Jupiter: it was portrayed with a sheaf of red thunderbolts in its claws (the white thunderbolts came from Minerva; the black ones from Vulcan—and the student of Hermetic sciences might find references to the three main “colors” of the “matter” of the Work). The eagle is the symbol of strength and of the sovereign power. It was the ensign of imperial Rome and of its legions, and also the symbol of cities, especially in Egypt, where its hieroglyph indicated Heliopolis (the “City of the Sun”). As far as Jupiter’s iconography is concerned, we may note in passing that the Supreme God is portrayed in a sitting position, to suggest that the highest power presiding over the universe is stable and steady and that it never changes (cf. the symbolism of the “Pole,” discussed later). The naked torso of the God indicates that he manifests himself to the divine intelligences; his lower half, being covered, represents what is unknown to man. One more reference. In the Hermetic treatise “The Virgin of the World,” Isis declares that the sovereignty of Wisdom is in the hands of Harnabeshinis, a name that Prietschmann transcribed as “Hor neb en Xennu” (Gold, Lord of Xennu); its hieroglyph is precisely a golden eagle that flies close to the Sun, staring at it without blinking.

The expression paradota mystèria, in which mystèrion has the meaning of initiatory act, leads us from Mithraism to the general doctrine of traditio (tradition) and of tradere (to hand down) on the basis of a “presence.” This presence was known in Kabbalah as the Shekinah; in the Arabic traditions as Baraka, or blessing; and in this case the same as the pronoia kai tychè or Hvarenô that is first invoked by the theurgist. We have mentioned this doctrine, common to all the Mysteries of antiquity, in chapter III, in relation to the Tantric text published there. (Cf. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, no. 39 in the bibliography; and for the meaning, A. Reghini, E. C. Agrippa e la sua Magia, Milan, 1926.) Compare the propitiatory formula found in the text with that given in the magical ritual of Peter of Abano (Heptameron, XI): “My heavenly Father, let me know today if I, a sinner, am allowed as your unworthy son, to display the arm of your power against these very obstinate spirits, so that if you will, I may be enlightened with every wisdom, and ever glorify and adore your Name.”

In the first logos the theurgist evokes from the depths of his being the sensation of the “perfect body,” or “complete body” (soma teleion), which is like the “act” of the various “elements” that in their dark and corruptible form constitute his animal body. This “body” is formed by the “world of Light and Darkness, of Life and Death”; in other words, it is drawn from things that, being subject to becoming, “are and are not,” and this occurs through the “power of the Right Hand.” This name of initiatic power, which we have already mentioned, effects the “change according to substance” that is conceived, also in Gnosticism, Hermetism, and neo-Platonism, as an integration, a rectification, a fixing, and a straightening. The manner of the “elements,” as they are found in man’s physical body, is oblique, curved, weak, dark, evanescent: it is the world of shadows and corpses. The essential virile virtue of the “Right Hand” (the “Hand of Power,” since in Hebrew and in Arabic jod, or “hand,” also means power) and of “Justice,” fixes these elements; it activates them, arouses them, makes them alive.

At that moment, the law of homeopathy sets in. According to an initiatic teaching, in every organ of a complete human body, there lies as though chained a form of cosmic sensibility; this constitutes a way to communicate “according to substance” with the corresponding elements of the superior and interior world. In the invocatory logos, the theurgist tries to stir his consciousness in this “direction” and toward this cosmic relationship, for it is only on its basis that the ritual or magical act can produce an effect (see the essay by Leo in chapter I). The doctrine of the “Perfect Body” has correspondences in many other traditions: we may recall here St. Paul’s “spiritual body”; the augoeides, or “radiant body” mentioned by Plotinus and Olympiodorus; the vajra-kâya, or “body of the diamond-thunderbolt,” of Tibetan Tantricism (Vajra-yâna). This “body” is a “resurrection body” and a “magical body.” In Agrippa (De Occulta Philosophia, III, 44) it is written: “In the whole world there is nothing so admirable, so excellent, so miraculous, that the human soul carrying in its constitution the image of the divinity, which the magicians call a soul that stands without falling, cannot do by its own virtue and without any external help.” The technical expression “standing, not falling,” which is traditional and was used in the earliest times, refers to the above-mentioned “strengthening” through the “power of the right hand.” In the Corpus Hermeticum, Tat, the “Son of the Art,” tells his Master, Hermes-Thoth: “O Father, having been strengthened by God, I do not contemplate with the eyes, but with the intellectual energy of the powers.” The term used is a-klinès, “made stable, unyielding.” From here we can refer to the term sahu that was the ancient designation for the body through which the deceased was confirmed in immortality. In Egyptian, aha means “to stand up, to face something”; when we add the prefix s-, which in that language forms causative verbs, we have saha (to cause something to stand up, to carry upward, to straighten). In the ancient Egyptian language the deceased was also called kherit, namely he who has fallen. It was only in virtue of the sahu formed by the ritual that immortality was granted to him. Moreover, the name itself of the Hermetic interlocutor Tat, means “stability” in Egyptian; the hieroglyph that corresponds to its pronunciation is the nilometer, namely the trunk of the tamarisk on which, according to tradition, the body of the slain Osiris came to rest before his resurrection. In Greek an-istèmi and ana-stasis have the same meaning as the Egyptian sahu; these terms are employed by Herodotus and even by Homer in the sense of rising from death. The initiatic power causes the fallen one to rise up again, turning him (through the “perfect” or “rectified” body) from a “shadow” and a “corpse” into a Living Being. In the name of the transcendent reality evoked in one’s body, the theurgist seeks extinction of cravings through a “birth that is free from death,” the extinction of “necessity.” The idea of anankè is found in the most ancient Hellenic mysteriosophy, and it corresponds to the Hindu karma and to the Buddhist tanha. Anankè refers to the deep irrational yearning by which a being is precipitated into a physical life, and to that yearning which, from a state of “being-in-oneself,” leads to the state of “ex-istence,” namely of “being outside.”

According to a special and more technical aspect, “necessity” and the “burning, ceaseless yearning” mentioned several times in the text may refer to a characteristic experience that occurs in many people, as soon as with the first disciplines they succeed (whether they know it or not) in touching and setting in motion something in the subterranean zone of their being. This experience is like an organic, absolute, and unending hunger, generating an incomparable anguish and dissatisfaction. It searches around, seeking satisfaction by turning to this or that object, becoming identified with this or that human tendency or desire, starting with physical hunger, all the way to the spasms of a passion such as that described in Tristan and Isolde. This is a vain attempt, because it is a hunger that cannot be satisfied by anything earthly or human. It desperately enhances every type of sensation, while nevertheless remaining insufficient; thus, what remains is a sort of consuming yearning for the void. Then, to die may appear as a supreme joy and the only object adequate for the desire (e.g., muero porque non muero [I die because I do not die], uttered by St. Theresa of Avila; we find the same situation in the hymn to darkness and death as the supreme fulfillment of love in Tristan). There is almost an obscure intuition that death and night hide something that can extinguish this nameless thirst, as which also comes into question in Orphism (cf. the Hymns to the Night of Novalis, and A. Onofri, Guido al Tristano e Isotta, Milan, 1924). We could mention more than one person for whom suicide became the epilogue of such an awakening, provoked without adequate control and enlightened consciousness. This particular interpretation of the “need” and “necessity” mentioned by the theurgist is supported by the fact that we are dealing here with a ritual of the Greater Mysteries. This ritual presupposes preliminary practices that might have induced the exact experience in question—that which can be fulfilled only in death: either in teleisthai, that death which is life or initiatic resurrection; or else in teleutan, real death, in which case telos does not mean the fulfillment but the end, the extinction of the brief light of individual consciousness.

Being a slave of “necessity” (anankè), man is passively led by the “current,” according to a law that the initiate attempts to break. Therefore, he needs to fix the power of his human soul, to suspend it and to keep it firmly under control, through the higher power he has received—only then the bond will be removed. Through the change of state, his “anguish” will dissolve. The Self will breathe the “cosmic air” that is the ether of liberty and liberation, a being-in-no-place, and a freshness made of immaterial activity. This “cosmic air” is the “ether of life” or “ether of the Living,” echoing in a spiritual form of sound, in syllables of clarity and enlightenment. These syllables in the ancient Egyptian tradition are the so-called “names of power”; they are also the mantras of Hinduism and the “letters of light” of the Kabbalah. Aristides, in regard to the Eleusinian Mysteries, said that one would experience there the most horrible and the most wonderful things; the scariest (phrikòdestaton) and the most serene (phaidrotaton) feelings that divine things have to offer to men (Eus., 256). Likewise, in this Mithraic ritual, mention is made of the “Wonder of Fire,” the “Horror of the Waters” (the “Waters that make one shudder”), and the “Abysses of the Source.” We may recall that these experiences refer to the Greater Mysteries, reserved for those who have been strengthened through previous trials, thus being able to overcome the terror, confusion, and rapture that they would cause in most people. The text mentions a protective measure: the immediate invocation or evocation of “Silence”—the state of silence that was spoken of before. The “immortal eye” is the “third eye,” the “frontal eye,” the “cyclopean” or “solar” eye; it is the eye of spiritual vision. The initiatic literature abounds with references to it. Not only can this eye stare at the Aion, but also things are revealed to it that the “purifying fire” strips of their particular and sensible character. We have mentioned its correspondence with the “eye of Shiva,” which in turn alludes to the frontal pearl found in images of the Buddha.

The statement made in this logos, that the power of the human soul must be restored beyond the state of “necessity,” confirms the view that initiation is not a mystical shipwreck, but rather an integration: an integration into a state that is superior to, and which preceded, the conditions of inferior form and existence.

The invocation of the first logos is filled with voces mysticae (mystical words). We have already spoken of them; they are words that, employed in a special state of fluidic exaltation, have the power to arouse and to evoke—they are almost “absolute expressions,” or gestures of power that project the meanings with which the remaining words are charged. In order to be efficacious, these words need to be “awakened.” The theurgic “enthusiasm” must “set them alight” and “unlock” them until they erupt almost spontaneously in the evocations. In these “words” we should notice the presence of the seven Greek vowels, which probably correspond in their order to the seven planets and the seven degrees of the magical hierarchy (more on which later) echoing a very widespread symbolism.

III

We have said that the first instruction concerns a realization of the “air” element, obtained through breath. This presupposes a knowledge of the Science of Breathing in the sense of the Hindu prana, a magical life-energy enclosed within material breathing. The three inspirations probably refer to three depths of breath, inwardly pervaded by an élan that eventually transforms consciousness into the “airy state.” The first vision of the Gods that ensues is a supersensible projection, made possible by such a state. In this state, once one has become free of the yoke of physical sensation, in the transparency of the solar Eye or Disk, what sleeps in the buried interiority of man can be known in the guise of images.

In regard to the Gods who travel up and down, we are immediately reminded of Jacob’s ladder and of the Telesma, which, according to the “Emerald Tablet,” rises from the earth toward heaven and then descends back to earth, carrying with itself the power of the higher and lower things. These two streams of energy move the cosmic air in conformity to the modulation that the “flute” bestows on the “wind”; they manifest the One Force, to a different and antagonistic degree, according to whether one takes as a reference the East (the symbol of rising, growth, and generation) or the West (the symbol of decay and passing away). If this leads us back to the opposition found in the so-called “Great Magical Agent,” we are also inclined to connect to it the meaning of the two mysterious “Dadophoroi” (torch bearers), often found on Mithraic monuments, one carrying his torch upright, and the other holding it toward the ground. Moreover, this is not the first time that we encounter the “Wind” in Mithraism. While Hermetism believes that the wind carries in its womb the Telesma, or the “father of all things,” in other Mithraic monuments (e.g., in the bas-relief of Modena—see F. Cumont, Les Mystères de Mithra, Brussels, 1913, p. 109) the wind blows over the Aion from four sides; here the Aion finds itself between two halves of an “egg” (a symbol closely related to that of the alchemical athanor).

In the reconstruction of the myth by F. Cumont (ibid., p. 133) we find again the “Wind” scourging Mithras’s “nakedness,” after he emerges from the “stone,” on the edge of the “waters.” Mithras belongs to the type of those who do violence to the “tree.” Having ripped leaves from it to create a protective “garment,” and having eaten its fruits, he turns to measure himself against the lords of the wonderful world in which he has entered and who had witnessed “from the mountaintops” his miraculous birth from the “stone.” All these symbols are clear enough for the student of esoteric symbols. According to J. Evola’s interpretation⁵⁰ the “wind” is related to the initial experience of the cosmic power that invests the initiate at the precise moment he becomes free of the physical bonds. The initiate needs to reaffirm himself over this force with a projection of the positive fire that attracts a descent of the feminine cosmic power. This force will cover the nucleus of the initiate with a “garment of power” or of “flame,” which will then become his supersensible body. In this ritual we find almost the same thing, since the initiate to the Mysterion lives as his own realization the meanings enclosed in the myth. However, the experience of the “wind” is followed by that of the Gods in the act of falling upon the newcomer, as they are the enemies of those who try to release themselves from their control and to identify themselves with the supreme principle.

The invocation of this principle, together with “Silence,” allows the theurgist to pass the test and to transform the influences of the Gods into something good; they are now left behind, “going about their own affairs,” left behind in their own laws. This “silence” that resolves the tension recalls the paue, paue (be still, be still) of a Naasene Gnostic fragment: “The same Man, the Phrygians call also Papas, because he set at rest all things which had been moved irregularly and discordantly before his coming. For the name Papas is the synthetic sound of all things in heaven, on earth and below the earth, saying ‘Be still, be still’ (paue paue) to the discord of the cosmos. The Phrygians also call him the ‘corpse’ when he is buried in the (material) body as in a tomb; and after the transformation, God.” (Hippolytus V, I, 21–22)

The gesture of putting a finger on the lips recalls the famous figure of the god Harpocrates (see Apuleius, Metamorphoses, I), who in the Egyptian tradition expresses a form of the rising Sun, a personification of Horus the Young, namely of the original force that rises again and reasserts itself after Osiris has been cut to pieces (the symbol of the process of individuation). Once this force awakens and leaves the “sepulcher,” it imposes silence on chaos and on the turmoil of the elementary nature that is still untamed. Philalethes (Introitus ad occlusum regis palatium, VI, XI) talks about certain impurities of the “air”; the formation of “clouds” that darken the sky and need to be dispelled until the whiteness of the Moon is discernible; and of abundant rains that need to be produced to restore to the Air its serenity. Most likely this alludes to the same experience. The encounter with the guardians of heavenly doors and their overcoming through magical formulas is also found in Gnostic texts, e.g., in the one given by Dieterich (p. 35 n.) “Go back Ialdabaoth and Kuro, archons of the third aeon, since I invoke ZUZÊZÂZ ZAÔZUZ KÔZÔZ. Then the archons of the third aeon will leave and flee, to the West, to the left, and you will ascend.” The hissing is found in Peter of Abano’s Heptameron: it is followed by “great upheavals” and the apparition of entities that at first seem to assail the operator who stands within the magical circle and who, after he displays to them “Solomon’s Seal,” assume a peaceful posture and obey him.

The initiate’s declaration of his own sidereal dignity is often found in the mysteriosophic literature. It is also reaffirmed in the Orphic laminae, before the guardians of Mnemosine’s spring: “My lineage is heavenly (ἒμοι γένος οὐρένιον), as you well know. I am burning and consumed with thirst.” “I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven. My lineage is heavenly.” (Lam. Petelia) “I belong to your blessed stock. But Moira and the thunder struck me down, drying me up.” (Lam. Thurii, II)

In our ritual the declaration seems to have a determinative sense, establishing commonality with the heavenly natures into whose circles one has ventured. What ensues is the solar vision, represented by the “Disk.” The “hissing” and “blowing” are most likely related to the practice of breath. We may even compare this with the so-called “purification of the nadis” (nadishudda), consisting of an expiration (hissing), broken down in small segments, and acted upon mentally so as to expel the turbid and impure elements of the fluidic body and to actualize all of its “currents.” This action, in the text, comes after the “thunder” (I have already mentioned the thunder that causes Dante, in his otherworldly journey, to “pass out”—Inferno, III, 130ff.), and it seems to confirm a certain steadiness among the turmoil of the inner elements produced by the thunder itself. The solar vision has an identifying character: it takes place in a space that is consciousness itself, in its immaterial simplicity. As far as the five-pointed star is concerned, we could interpret it as a vision of human beings, whose “Number” is five. In that case, the immense wheel is the Wheel of Generation, the Wheel of Destiny and of Necessity, corresponding to the Hindu samsâra. Compare this with one of the recurrent sayings of the Buddhist Majjhima-nikâjo: “With a heavenly, clear, and otherworldly eye he sees beings appear and disappear, vulgar and noble, beautiful and ugly, happy and unhappy—he clearly sees how beings continuously reappear according to their actions.” The counterpart of the necessity that rules over earthly affairs is the barring of the heavenly doors; it is not possible to go beyond, unless this horrible vision, which permeated the most ancient Hellas, is overcome. This can be done by neutralizing the confusion of the human nature by invoking the Lord of Fire.

VII

This invocation is one of the most beautiful and powerful to be found in this type of literature. There is indeed an occult rhythm that connects the various attributes with the nomina arcana (hidden names) and drives them forward with increasing exaltation, culminating in the series of divine names. Here the expression seems released from articulation, vibrating in the form of pure acts. The text says that the logos must be repeated until the seven gods are fulfilled, namely realized, sculptured in the inner light. Finally, after a new “Silence” in which one becomes free and “fixes” the impetus of the evocation, the “doors” open up (the “thunder” and “precipitation” mark the new change of state, or the new “fall of potential,” to use a physical image), the Gods appear, and consciousness is transported above, among them. The “Names,” says the text, must be pronounced “in Fire and Spirit”—in the Hermetic conjunction of Solar and Lunar; Mercury and Sulfur; dry, golden masculine strength and fluidic, humid feminine breath; and with sufficient “direction of efficacy.” The various attributes must act upon the evocator’s spirit like pieces of kindling, which are thrown into the fire to produce an ever stronger flame.

VIII

I have mentioned already that the invocation is both one and sevenfold. It is addressed to the seven planetary Gods and to the One, to the solar Aion who is their root, comprehending and transcending them. In fact, it is this Aion who is invoked by the new logos and who appears after the septenary hierarchy of Gods and Goddesses.

The Aion holding the heavenly keys is without a doubt the Mithraic Chronos. The epithet “Thou double-bodied” is also found in the Mithraic monuments, in which this being is portrayed with the head of a lion with open jaws (symbol of devouring Fire), and a human body. It also has wings, and a snake is wound around its body (cf. the “Serpent kundalini” in Tantric symbolism, wrapped around the Svayamku-linga [phallus] of Shiva, the principle of transcendent virility) and holds its head on the middle of Aion’s brow (another reference to the “place” of the cyclopean eye). Aion holds in one hand the thunderbolt and in the other a key (or, in some images, a scepter). Its feet tread upon the lunar symbol, just as in the alchemists’ symbol of “Rebis” (also a “double symbol,” and hermaphroditic) and in that of the “Virgin,” the esoteric meaning of which has been totally lost among Christians. Like the Phoenix, this Aion grows out of fire.

In the space of the fourth logos, while the mode of centrality is being formed (the rays take the initiate as the center of convergence), Mithras’s messenger appears. In the following logos, the fifth, there are various noteworthy points. It is confirmed, first of all, that the “Sun” here is not the highest deity. I have already said that Mithras, instead of being subjected to the divine strength (as happened in the Hebrew myth to Adam, who likewise took from the “tree,” and to other brave men mentioned in the same Orphic laminae, who were struck down and incinerated by lightning), overcomes it and makes this victory his warrant for an alliance with the Sun.

We next notice the expression concerning the Juice of Life, of the sperm that, having created the animal body of the initiate, undergoes a transformation in the ritual. It seems that what is hinted at here is the doctrine of the occult regeneration of sexual power, or of the “conversion of the Waters flowing below, into Waters flowing above.” Not only is this highly secret operation alluded to in the evocation, but it also seems that the ritual mentions its practical execution in the course of the theurgic action. We refer here to the part after the fifth logos, where mention is made of the solar God who goes to the “Pole,” to the “Support,” and then proceeds: where mention is made of a “bellowing” and a complete expiration. We may recall that in Kundalini Yoga, the “place” of kundalini (which in its dormant form is said to be none other than man’s generative power)—of that kundalini which is the cosmic Fire, the serpentine Power encircling the body of the Mithraic Aion, and also effigies of masculine deities in the Syrian cults of Isis—is called muladhara, meaning “radical support,” an idea that corresponds to that of a “pole” or “pivot.” The theurgist is led to the root of his being, to the muladhara, and thus to the awakening of the “fire” of kundalini by the solar principle actualized in himself. Bellowing (Mô) may be a mantra of awakening; thus the comparison with the mantra OM (made by Mead) and with the HUM in Tantric texts employed for these practices seems well founded when we consider the “reversal” undergone by verbal expressions in their “subtle” usage. To exhale one’s entire breath, articulating the act by bellowing, reminds us of one of the main teachings of Kundalini Yoga, in which the kumbhaka (the suspension of breath that has completely been exhaled or completely retained) is said to create a propitious state for the awakening of kundalini. In any event, there is no doubt that bellowing is connected to the “taurine power,” the creative, masculine, and Ammonic force. Outside of Mithraism, bellowing is also found in the Thracian rites of Dionysus. Dieterich, following the studies of Andrew Lang (Custom and Myth, 43), relates it to the so-called “bullroarer.” This is an instrument found in the ceremonies of various primitive peoples in New Mexico, Australia, Africa, and New Zealand; it produces a sort of rumbling or bellowing that evokes the God or announces his arrival. No woman can see this instrument without dying. Thus the esoteric interpretation may be this: the taurine power burns and destroys the “woman in the Self,” such that he who awakes it without first establishing himself in the hard and dry nature of the “Iron of the Wise” ends in catastrophe.

Concerning bellowing, we may note these interesting verses of an ecstatic shaman hymn: “The mighty bull has bellowed! The horse of the steppe has shuddered! I am above all of you, I am a man! I am endowed with all things! I am the man created by the Lord of the Infinite!” (M. Eliade, Le chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l’extase, Paris, 1951, p. 210) A special technical meaning is found in the injunction to stare at the solar God, once he, after reaching the “Pole,” proceeds along the “path.” This path, if the parallel we are drawing is correct, could be the path followed by the fire of kundalini and the place from which—shifting to Far Eastern symbolism—the “Dragon” will take off. The act of “staring” would then express an absolute and yet immaterial endurance while being carried off in such a “flight.” Without this capacity of endurance, the operation may have the lethal result we have mentioned. In Agrippa we read: “There is in man’s body a certain little bone, which the Hebrews call luz, which is incorruptible, neither it is overcome by fire, but is always preserved unhurt, out of which (they say) as a plant out of a seed, our human body will regrow at the resurrection of the dead. And these virtues are not declared by reasoning, but by experience.” (De Occulta Philosophia, I, 20) In Aramaic, luz is the name of the bone attached to the lower extremity of the sacral bone, at the base of the spinal cord. This is precisely the location of muladhara, according to Hindu teachings, and the seat of kundalini. Kundalini is said to regenerate the body since it draws out of the “sepulcher” in which the mystical “Papas” lies—the Dead One mentioned in the Naasene fragment—the “perfect body” of our ritual.

In the previous chapter it was said that Luz, in the Pentateuch (Genesis 28), was the ancient name of the city of Bethel (“House of God”). It was near this city that Jacob had his famous dream. As he woke up he exclaimed: “Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not,” then, seized by fear, he added: “How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Now the muladhara, in the Hindu tradition, is called none other than “Brahman’s threshold.” There are also numerous references from Hermetic alchemy. We again cite Philalethes (Ibid., IV): “This center (of the “magnet”) naturally turns toward the Pole, in which the virtue of our Steel is fortified by degrees. And in this Pole is found the heart of our Mercury, which is a true fire in which rests its Lord—and sailing across this great Sea, he will go even to the two Indies.” Moreover, it is said that at the entrance of a “cave” near Luz (which can be related to the Hermetic symbols of the “mine,” “Mercury’s cave,” and the cave of Trophonius, and well as reflected in a materialized form in the various prehistoric “cave-cults”) there was an almond tree with a hole in the trunk, through which one could find the path to a “city,” so thoroughly hidden that the “angel of Death” could not enter in or have any power over it (Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8, p. 219). If anyone should take the trouble to look through a Tantric text (Shiva-Candra, in the Tantravatta, III, 2nd ed.), he might be surprised to find an almost identical allegory in regard to the secret ritual of Yoga. The “Pole,” which supports the solar principle, “our Gold,” could be the subject of important symbolic considerations. In the Far Eastern tradition it corresponds to the “invariable pivot” from which Heaven’s activity is manifested. In many other traditions we find the “Polar Mountain,” where the entrance to the Land of the Living is to be found. At this point, we touch on a new order of ideas; from the doctrine of the secret art we are led again to that of the invisible kingdom and of the “King of the World,” concerning which we refer the reader to the book of the same name by René Guénon.

X–XI

In regard to all this, and to the following phases of the ritual where one encounters the seven gods and seven goddesses, we now turn to a characteristic Hellenic myth. Already, thanks to what has been said so far, one can begin to appreciate the degree to which traditional myths and legends are not the product of sheer fantasy, but rather contain initiatic teachings in coded language. This is the myth that portrays Hermes and Apollo in the act of exchanging the Caduceus and the seven-stringed lyre. Apollo is the solar god, and also the very apparition following the fourth logos. He is the god who first goes to the “Pole” and then proceeds along the path, to the point of which he is “fixed” and the bellowing occurs, announcing the awakening of the primordial force. In regard to the technique of this “awakening,” I have mentioned the suspension of breath, which would be one of the methods of combining two currents of subtle energy (solar and lunar). In ordinary people these currents are distinct and wind in a serpentine fashion along the two sides of an ideal line running through the body. This line begins at the top of the head and goes all the way down to the sacral bone, roughly following the spinal cord—just like the two snakes of the Hermetic Caduceus, wound around the central staff (see A. Avalon, The Serpent Power, Madras, 1924). The caduceus of the myth expresses this arrangement, which brings forth a third, central axis (the staff of the caduceus), to be traveled by kundalini. On this inner axis, the so-called chakras or energy centers are awakened and illuminated. They correspond both in number and meaning to the sevenfold hierarchy: to the seven planets, the seven gods, the seven strings of the lyre, the seven spheres, the seven spirals of the snake carried by the Phrygian deity and by the Mithraic Aion, etc. Thus with the Hermetic composition of the Caduceus, the initiate obtains from the solar principle (Apollo) the access to that “Royal Path” on which, being carried by the taurine power that “opens” the doors to him, he realizes the experience of transcendent states that constitute the immaterial hierarchy of the Hebdomad and the symbolical “Land of the Living.”

This realization has two phases: first seven virgins appear, and then seven gods. Referring again to Hindu teaching, in each of the seven chakras there is a sleeping god (deva) and a goddess (devi), which must be understood as the masculine and the feminine aspects of corresponding metaphysical powers. I have already mentioned that “feminine” aspect is the manifested one, dynamic, active, immanent, and demiurgic; it is the aspect of shakti, or of power, the substrate of existing things insofar as they exist. The “virginity” of the goddesses expresses being, or such power, at a pure state (not yet subject to the law of duality, of Self and non-Self proper to the physical world). However, their purely demiurgic character is confirmed by their epithets of “guardians of the four Foundations” and “Goddesses of Destiny.” Conversely, the masculine aspect represents what is transcendent, detached, immutable. This aspect, according to a symbolism found in many traditions, is aptly represented by the color black, in contradistinction to the “light” that begins where the manifestation, the expression, the πρόοδος begins, incapable of assuming the primordial creative power, whose nature is shared by the black bull-faced gods. Thus, these are the “supports,” or the centers of the seven centers; as the text says, the spinning of the heavenly wheels proceeds from them, referring to the “tertiary” rather than the “quaternary” order. Thus the ritual alludes to visions in which the cosmic septenary is first experienced in its immanent aspect, then in its transcendent aspect; first, in its aspect of “passive perfection” (the yin of Chinese tradition), and then in its aspect of “active perfection” (the yang) and of “foundation.”

We may recall here a celebrated passage from Apuleius: “I came to the boundary of death, and having trodden the threshold of Proserpina, I traveled through all the elements and returned to earth. In the middle of the night I saw the sun flashing with bright light. I came face to face with the gods below and the gods above and paid reverence to them face to face” (Metamorphoses, XI, 23). The correspondence of these phases with the itinerary already described in the Mithraic ritual is quite evident. But the true fulfillment is beyond these experiences. The initiate gradually wrests himself free from the orbits of the gods and of the planets, moving beyond them. It is an ascent corresponding to a simplification, to an ἀπλωσις, to use Plotinus’s expression. In each of the spheres, the soul becomes free from those various “passional” elements in virtue of which it was subjected, in its mortal life, to the Lords of these spheres, until it remains totally naked, “clothed only in its own power,” as it is said in the Corpus Hermeticum. In the Mithraic text, the various overcomings appear to have been given in function of a greeting to each of the gods, mixed together with voices that may have the character of both chrism and spell. The text does not directly reveal the dramatic character that these experiences must have when the initiate attempts to transcend the various cosmic hierarchies by identifying himself with them, unfaltering, enduring, and preserving himself, and when he awakens in their own “ascendant” direction a strength stronger than their own, using which he passes to the immediately higher levels of the hierarchy. The ritual leads to the “state beyond the seven,” where, with a rumbling of the earth that resembles “thunder” (we may recall the thunder sound of the “Gigantic Man” seen from a “high mountain” mentioned in The Gospel of Eve (in Epiphanius, Haereses, XXVI, 3), there takes place the encounter of the initiate with Mithras.

The taurine energy (as calf) is again indicated through the symbol of the “Bear” as the central cosmic power, around which the motion of all things gravitates. Mithras is its ruler. He is portrayed in various monuments in the act of carrying a calf’s shoulder, thus suggesting his quality of “bull-slayer.” And the taurobolium, in this tradition, has the value of a rebirth into eternity (cf. N. Turchi, Le relig. misteriosofiche del mondo antico, Rome, 1923, p. 192). The Mithraic doctrine considers the passage of the spirit beyond the seven spheres as what we might call a transcendent taurobolium. Nor should we omit the observation that the Bear constellation, referred in the text to Mithras, gives an overall impression of a cart with yoked oxen; and the “North” (Latin septentrio) that it points to may be rendered as septem-triones—i.e., according to Virgil’s use of the term, as “seven oxen.” This would lead us right back to what rules the seven gods portrayed with “black” bull-faces. In regard to the instruction at the end of the seventh logos, we have said that it refers to the glorification of the initiate in Mithras’s own nature; to the realization of Mithras’s quality, to be actualized in a supreme assumption of the taurine power that has already opened to him the heavenly gates. It is now necessary to operate the same transformation on this power, portrayed in the symbol or ritual of the taurobolium.

XII

In the penultimate logos, the theurgist fixes this realization in his own soul. This is the “digestion” of Mithras’s nature, by command. We find here a new witness to the eagle’s nature of the initiate, who stares intently at the magical image of the Great God, while in the “bellowing” resounds the threat of that strength that has already been assumed.

An analogous invocation, of Egyptian origin, is found in another Greek magical papyrus (A. Dieterich, Abraxas, Leipzig, 1891, 195, 4ff.): “May you dwell in my mind and in my heart all the days of my life, and fulfill everything my soul desires! For you are me and I am you. Whatever I say shall be so for ever, for I have your Name (in a magical sense, that is, your ‘presence’) as guardian in my ‘heart.’ ”

XIII

The fulfillment of the work is crowned by the final formula of “Hail” to the god of the Ritual, who has performed the Mystery of Transformation. The epithet “Lord of the Waters” reveals a significance that should already be familiar to the reader. That of “Lord of the spirit,” which finds an exact counterpart in the Corpus Hermeticum, is proper of the “magical” assumptions of the initiatic tradition. Here the higher value is not to be spirit, but Lord of the spirit. The “regeneration” of the initiate is his integration, his fulfillment, his awakening to that life, next to which the dark, craving-filled life of mortals is nothing but death. This is an awakening to a life that is “life in itself” and “of itself” (αὐτοζον), an incorruptible life. Liberated in this Life, the initiate proceeds along the “way” (the unnamable Tao of Far Eastern tradition); rather he is this very Life, since, according to a Sufi saying, “On God’s Road, the traveler, the journey, and the path on which he walks are one and the same.” From “sacred consecrations,” from the “Strong strength of all strengths,” and from the “incorruptible Right Hand,” picked out of the mass of the “dead” and made worthy of initiation, the initiate, the “Son” of Tradition and of Art, rises in the ritual of the Greater Mysteries to the power of the “Eagle,” surpassing every height up to the peak at which echoes the formula of the Egyptian Book of the Dead:

“I AM YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW AND THE POWER OF REBIRTH. I KNOW THE ABYSSES: THAT IS MY NAME.”

Magical Appendix to the Ritual⁵¹

(I)

“I am PHEROYRA MIURI.”

After you have said these things, you will immediately be able to prophesy. You will be free in spirit and outside yourself, when he (the God) answers you. He will speak the oracle to you as maxims, and while he speaks he will be visible. But you remain silent.

You will be able to comprehend all these matters by yourself, then you will remember indelibly the things spoken by the great God, even if the oracle contained thousands of maxims.

(II)

If you wish the teaching to be given to a fellow-initiate, you may do this, providing that he alone may hear with you the things spoken; let him remain chaste together with you for seven days in isolation, also breathing the fluid.

(III)

And even if you were alone in this operation, and undertook the things spoken by the God, you would speak as though prophesying in ecstasy.

(IV)

And if you should wish to teach someone, first judge whether he is completely worthy as a man; then if the God has prophesied in favor of him, that he might make himself immortal, confide the first invocation to him, but not the essential part: “First origin of my origin, etc.”

Right after this, as you are already an initiate, say the rest of the invocation over his head, in a low voice, so that he may not hear it, and consecrate his vision that he may achieve the mystery.

This consecration to immorality takes place three times a year.

But if anyone, O son, wishes to hear the God through instruction gives to another, he will not be granted it.

(V)

If you want to teach someone else, take the juice of the herb called “kentritis,” and smear it with rose petals on his eyes; and he will see so clearly that he will amaze you.

(VI)

I have not found a greater ritual act than this in all the world.

Ask the God for what you want, and he will give to you.

This is the nature of the Great God.

(VII)

Many times I have used the ritual, and have wondered greatly. But the God said to me: “I do not need the consecration, but can prophesy as through a raging river that carries the great mystery of purification, which can be restored just as through the ritual by means of twenty-five living birds; you may also prophesy once a month, at the full moon, instead of three times a year.