“Magic is an instrument of divine goodness or demoniac pride, but it is the annihilation of earthly joys and the pleasures of mortal life.”
Miscellaneous Quotes On the Subjects of Magic and Magicians
Source: Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magi Part I: The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic By Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant), Translated by A. E. Waite, England, Rider & Company, England, 1896, p. 53
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Eliphas Levi 22
French writer 1810–1875Related quotes
Source: Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), Ch. 34 : Materializing a Palace in the Himalayas
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus
“I shared with ships good joys and fortunes wide
That might befall their beauty and their pride”
"Sailing Ships", p. 162
Collected Poems (1933)
Context: While many a lovely ship below sailed by
On unknown errand, kempt and leisurely;
And after each, oh, after each, my heart
Fled forth, as, watching from the Downs apart,
I shared with ships good joys and fortunes wide
That might befall their beauty and their pride…
“Pleasure may be snatched from life’s clenched fists, not joy”
Signposts to Elsewhere (2008)
“But shapes that come not at an earthly call,
Will not depart when mortal voices bid.”
Dion, st. 5 (1814).
Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998), p. 139
Context: For me, and probably for all of us, the concept of a personal, interested god can be appealing, often deeply so. In times of sorrow or despair, I often wonder what it would be like to be able to pray to God or Allah or Jehovah or Mary and believe that I was heard, believe that my petition might be answered. When I sing the hymns of faith in Jesus' love, I am drawn to their intimacy, their allure, their poetry. But in the end, such faith is simply not available to me. I can’t do it. I lack the resources to render my capacity for love and my need to be loved to supernatural Beings. And so I have no choice but to pour these capacities and needs into earthly relationships, fragile and mortal and difficult as they often are.
“The law of similarity made any map a magical instrument.”
The Wizardry Compiled (1989)