The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX to study the elements of that physical Qabalah which we call magic. According to the qabalistic principles formulated by the school of Paracelsus, death is nothing but a slumber, ever growing deeper and more definite, a slumber which it would not be impossible to stop in its early stages by exercising a powerful action of will on the astral body as it breaks loose, and by recalling it to life through some powerful interest or some dominating affection. Jesus expressed the same thought when he said to the daughter of Jairus: “ The maiden is not dead, but sleepeth”; and of Lazarus: “ Our friend is fallen asleep, and I go to wake him.” To express this resurrection- ist system in such a manner as not to offend common sense, by which we mean generally-held opinions, let us say that death, when there is no destruction or essential alteration of the physical organs, is always preceded by a lethargy of varying duration. (The resurrection of Lazarus, if we could admit it as a scientific fact, would prove that this state may last for four days.) Let us now come to the secret of the Great Work, which we have given only in Hebrew, without vowel points, in the Rituel de la haute magie. Here is the complete text in Latin, as one finds it on page 144 of the Sepher Yetzirah, commented by the alchemist Abraham (Amsterdam, 1642): 1 It will be objected that Lazarus stank, but this is a thing which happens frequently to healthy people, as well as to sick men, who recover in spite of it. Besides, in the Gospel story, it is one of the bystanders who says that Lazarus “by this time stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.” One may then attribute this remark to imagination—E. L. Rather to the arrogance of the a priori reasoner.—TRANS. 216