The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES This substance is what Hermes Trismegistus calls the great Zelesma. When it produces splendour, it is called Light. It is this substance which God creates before everything else, when He says, “ Let there be light.” It is at once substance and movement. It is fluid, and a perpetual vibration. Its inherent force which sets it in motion is called magnetism. In the infinite, this unique substance is the ether, or the etheric light. In the stars which it magnetizes, it becomes astral light. In organized beings, light, or magnetic fluid. In man it forms the astral body, or the plastic medium. The will of intelligent beings acts directly on this light, and by means of it on all that part of Nature which is submitted to the modifications of intelligence. This light is the common mirror of all thoughts and all forms; it preserves the images of everything that has been, the reflections of past worlds, and, by analogy, the sketches of worlds to come. It is the instrument of thaumaturgy and divination, as remains for us to explain in the third and last part of this work. 109