The Magical Ritual of The Sanctum Regnum
Eliphas Levi
VI. The Lovers - L'Amoureux
Ever bear in mind that Equilibrium results only from the opposition of forces; the active has no existence without the passive; light without darkness produces no form; and affirmation can only triumph over negation. Love again gains accession of strength from hate, and that hell is the heated soil of such plants as shall bear root in heaven. It should be known also that the great Fluidic Agent which is called the "Soul of the World," and which is delineated with the horned head of the Cow of Isis to express animal fecundity, is a blind force.
The power which the Magus wields is composed of two opposing forces, which unite in love and disjoin in discord; love associates contraries, while hate makes similars to be rivals and enemies; hatred succeeds to love when by saturation the void has become filled, unless the full cannot become empty; but the usual result is an equilibrated saturation, due to mutual repulsions.
From these considerations can be deduced the existence and causes of sympathy and antipathy between persons, and so the means of becoming loved can be shown to those who are good as well as wise and discreet.
Sexual love is a physical manifestation; repugnance and pain may be forgotten by those who are under its sway. This is a form of inebriation arising from the attraction of two contrary fluids; and at the conjunction of the positive and negative poles there results an ecstasy and orgasm during which the loved one seems the brilliant phantom of a vision.
When the conjunction has set up the state of equilibrium anew, attraction is succeeded by repulsion; and very often an exaggerated amour leads to an unjust share of disgust.
All created beings participate either in the positive or negative attitude of the universal sympathetic fluid, and may help to maintain or re-establish a Sympathy; but it is necessary to distrust knowledge while it is imperfect, and not to expose oneself in suggesting remedies to the risk of administering poisons.
Enchantment by means of any object which has belonged to a beloved one is often a magnetic operation leading to useless and yet dangerous results; it is better to establish new currents of force, to produce a void where satiety exists, for the surest means of regaining the affection of man or woman is to bestow some signs of love on another.
Consider the bodily and mental disorders which result from solitude and its accompanying fluidic congestions, due to want of equilibrium; - such are nervous maladies, hysteria, hypochondriasis, megrim, vapours, and insane delusions. It will be possible also to understand the ailments of maidens, and of women of an uncertain age, of widows and of celibates. Inspired by the natural law now under consideration, you may often predict the future course of a life, and may cure many such ailments, often by distracting the attention when unduly fixed, and so may the Magus become as great a physician as Paracelsus, or as renowned a Diviner as was Cornelius Agrippa. You will come to understand the diseases of the soul; the fact that learned and chaste persons often hunger after the pleasures of vice will be noticed, and so will it be observed that men and women steeped in vices turn at times to the consolations of virtue; and thus you may predict, without striking a blow, the occurrence of strange conversions and of unexpected sins, and great astonishment will be shown at your facility in discerning the most carefully concealed secrets of the heart and home. Girls and women may be by such means of divination shown in dreams the forms of lover and husband; such confidantes are potent auxiliaries in magic arts; never abuse their position, never neglect their interests, for they are good gifts to the Magus. In order to possess an assured sway over the heads and hearts of women, it is essential to obtain the favour of both Gabriel the Angel of the Moon, and of Anael the Angel of Venus.
Certain female demons must be overcome and cast down; foremost of these are:
Nahemah, princess of the Succubi of the dreams of men.
Lilith, queen of the Stryges, tempting to debauchery, and destroyer of maternal desire.
Nahemah presides also over illicit and sterile caresses.
Lilith rejoices in strangling in their cradles children whose origin has been soiled by the touch of Nahemah.
The truly wise master of the Kabalah understands the concealed meanings of these names, and of such demoniac evil powers, which are also called the material envelopes or cortices, or shells of the Tree of Life, soiled and blackened by the outer darkness; they are as branches which are dead, having been torn off from the Tree, whence issue light, life, and love.
Notes
The Tarot Trump numbered 6, which is named in French packs L'Amoureux, is commonly called in this country The Lovers. The design shows the Sun above, whence issues Cupid armed with a bow and arrow; below is a man standing between two women, who represent Virtue and Vice. The meanings assigned by El. Levi are - equilibrium, antagonism, union, interlacement, the conflict of two triads.
P. Christian says: "In the Divine World this card teaches the knowledge of good and evil; in the Intellectual World, the equilibrium of necessity and liberty; and in the Physical World, the relation of cause and effect.