Lévi on How to Repel the Wicked

Éliphas Lévi, Arthur Edward Waite (T) · Mystic Verse and Insights Series · 2 pages

Two pages carrying one continuous passage from Éliphas Lévi's Transcendental Magic, pages 333-34, in Arthur Edward Waite's translation, taken from the chapter on philtres and magnetism.

The first condition for preserving oneself against evil influences is given at the outset, and it is a mental discipline rather than a rite: forbid excitement to the imagination. All those prone to excitement are called more or less mad, and a maniac is always governed by his mania — so the reader is told to place himself above puerile fears and vague desires. The argument that follows is an argument from consistency. Since you see effects everywhere proportioned to their causes, and see causes directed and modified in human affairs by understanding, and find goodness stronger and more respected than evil, there is no reason to assume an immense unreason in the infinite when there is reason in the finite. Truth, on this view, is hidden from no one, and God requires of no being anything contrary to its nature, being himself the author of that nature. Faith is then redefined as confidence — confidence not in men who malign reason, who are called fools or impostors, but in the eternal reason offered like the sun to every human creature coming into the world. The practical conclusion is the one the title points to: whoever believes in absolute reason and desires truth and justice before all things has no occasion to fear anyone, because his own natural light, ruled by his will, will instinctively repel the light of the wicked. The closing line concedes the limit of the protection — poisonous substances administered to such a man may indeed make him ill, but never criminal.

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