Pernety - A Treatise On The Great Art.pdf - cyjack.com

The Great Art page 50Of Light 38The origin of Light proves to us its spiritual nature. Before matter began to receive its form, Godcreated Light; it was immediately diffused in matter, which served as the wick for its maintenance.The manifestation of Light was, we may say, the act which God exercised upon Matter; the firstmarriage of the Creator with the creature, of the spirit with the body.At first diffused everywhere, Light seemed to collect in the sun, as several rays unite in a point. Thelight of the sun is consequently a luminous spirit, inseparably attached to this star, whose rays areclothed with particles of Ether in order to become sensible to our eyes. They are streams which flowcontinually from an inexhaustible source, and which diffuse themselves throughout the vast extent ofthe Universe.Yet, we must not conclude that these rays are purely spiritual. They are corporified with Ether, asthe flame with the smoke. If we furnish in our hearths a perpetually smoky fuel we will have aperpetual flame.The nature of Light is to flow continually: and we have agreed to call rays those effluxions of thesun mixed with Ether. Yet, we must not confound Light with the ray, or with the splendour andbrightness. Light is the cause; brightness the effect.When a lighted candle is extinguished the igneous and luminous spirit, which inflames the wick, isnot lost, as is commonly believed. Its action simply disappears when food is lacking to it. It isdiffused in the air, which is the receptacle of Light, and of the spiritual nature of the material world.So bodies return by resolution to the matter whence they have been derived; so also, the naturalforms of individuals return to the universal forms, or Light, which is the vivifying spirit of theUniverse. One must not confound this spirit with the rays of the sun, since there are only the vehicleof it. It penetrates even to the center of the earth, when the sun is not on our horizon.Light is for us a vivid image of Divinity. Divine love being unable, to speak thus, to contain itself initself; has been diffused outside itself and multiplied in creation. So Light is not confined to luminousbodies: it is scattered, it is multiplied, it is as God, an inexhaustible source of benefit. It iscommunicated always without any diminution; it seems even to acquire new strength by thiscommunication, as a master who, by imparting knowledge to his pupil, strengthens his own.This igneous spirit, born into bodies by the rays, is easily distinguished from them. The latter arecommunicated only as long as they find in their way no opaque bodies which arrest their course. Theformer penetrates even the most dense bodies, since we feel the heat on the side of a wall opposite tothat on which the rays fall, although they have not been able to penetrate it. This heat exists evenafter the rays have disappeared with the luminous body.Every transparent body, glass especially, transmits this igneous and luminous spirit withouttransmitting the rays: this is why the air, which is behind, in furnishing a new body to this spirit,38 It is the Universal Agent, the Universal Plastic Mediator, the common receptacle of vibrations, of Movement and of theimages of Form, Maya.This Universal Agent is the Od Do of the Hebrews and of Chevalier de Reichembach, the Astral Light of the Martinists.The use and manipulation of this force constitutes the Grand Arcanum of Practical Magic.F. Jollivet-Castelot, Comment On devient Alchimiste, p. 282.The Universal Agent when magnetizing the world, is called Astral Light; when it forms the metals, it is named AZOTH orSophic Mercury . . . Eliphas Lévi.