Commentaries

on the Opus Magicum

T h e discourses by Luce and Leo included in this chapter outline the intro-
duction to one of the first and fundamental operations in the initiatic art:
the transferring of the sense of the Self into the region of the heart. In this context
the heart should not be understood as a physical reality, but sub specie interior-
itatis (from the inner point of view) and as the center of the human being.
We add that, contrary to common opinion, according to the traditional
teaching everything that is mental, reflective, and cerebral must be referred
to the lunar, feminine, passive element; conversely, to the heart must be
attributed the quality of the solar, masculine, and central element.
In this regard, however, one should not think of what is commonly
ascribed to the heart (sentimentality, passions, and so forth). The occult
realization of the heart (or of one's Self in the heart) has instead the mean-
ing of an initial relation with the subtle or elementary aspect of reality.
There are images that, being realized in a contemplative manner, natu-
rally favor this translation of the sense of Self (indirect method). One can
also try to carry out this translation directly, which will then be followed
by the experience of a particular state (direct method). Leo and Luce have
discussed both of these ways.
To these matters, I want to add a practice with which it is possible to go
further in this direction, and thanks to which many other disciplines will
be greatly enhanced and vivified. This practice breaks down into two phases,
namely the moment that precedes falling asleep and the moment that fol-
lows waking up in the morning.
First of all, one needs to dwell intensely on the following thought: that
the so-called waking life of ordinary human beings is nothing but a state of
torpor, of drunkenness and dullness, a state of fog and unreality. When the
violent voices of the external world, the impressions and the stirring of the
senses, the power of feelings, thoughts, and actions finally cease, and when
the invisible, occult hand of sleep suspends all this with a shroud of inner
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COMMENTARIES ON THE OPUS MAGICUM

silencethen the way for inner growth is open, through the awakening
and the powerful rising of the Sun of Knowledge and of Reality. Unfortu-
nately, in that precise moment we pass out and lose consciousness.
Remembering all this during the evening, before falling asleep, in a
calm state, not being tired, having cleansed the mind of all worries, imag-
ine through meditation to be at the foot of a mountain in the early hours of
the morning, ready to begin the ascent. Slowly, let the ascent begin, while
darkness fades away and the first light, then the sun, appears. You must
continue to ascend, imagining the simultaneous rising of the sun in the
sky, its growing, triumphant, expanding light shining over all things. Right
at the moment you feel you have reached the peak of the mountain, be-
come aware that the sun has reached its zenith in the clear, bright sky.
Contemplation needs to be stopped at this point, as you recognize all this
as the sense of that which will effectively happen within, beyond the threshold
of sleep, until the middle of the night. Naturally, your ascent of the mountain
and the rise of the sun from dawn to noon must be felt in strict correlation.
Everything must be experienced from an inner perspective as a progres-
sion of awakening. This process, once the top of the mountain is reached,
must give rise to a sense of identification with the noon lightradiant,
silent, pure in the boundless ether.
In the morning, upon waking up, clear the mind from any residue of sleepi-
ness and return through contemplation to the peak of the mountain, which is
where you had remained; slowly head back to the valley below. In the mean-
time, the sun descends, sets, and every light will disappear by the time you
reach the plain. This must be imagined and remembered as the meaning of
the period between the middle of the night and the morning. In the darkness
of the day, in which you find yourself when you awake, let the echo of the
Light from above or the echo of the Midnight Sun linger in the sensation that I
am the bearer of this Light that is now in your center, namely in the heart.
Then you will notice the new, animated sense, according to which the
light of the physical sun will appear when these disciplines are realized
and lived. Also, you should notice and pay much attention to any other
new meaning that flashes in the midst of common perceptions. Besides
mere imagining, try to really recall some of the impressions of that time in
which, aside from dreams, consciousness is interrupted by sleep.
Keep in mind though, that wanting to remember pushes memories away.
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COMMENTARIES ON THE OPUS MAGICUM

What needs to be done is to attract memory, invoking it without desire,

loving it. For the same purpose, it is necessary to awaken from sleep spon-
taneously, not due to noises, and much less due to the presence of some-
body else in your room. The memory is also facilitated by a slight scent of
musk, rose, or Florentine iris.

One of the instruments of operative magic is the ability to fix a feeling, to

realize it as an objective something, not connected by the reference to my physical
body; as a state that I can posit outside of myself, in space, so to speak, without
it ceasing to be a conscious event. Nothing can be done in operative magic
without the capability to evoke, nourish, and then free oneself (by inducing
or projecting) from a feeling or a thought. This skill is somewhat connected
to the descent to the center of the earth, and thus to the seat of the heart.
Another technical detail is in order. In order for any image to act in the
way I am talking about, it must be loved. It must be assumed in a great, inner
calm and then warmed up, almost nourished, with sweetness, without bring-
ing the will or any effort into play, and much less without expectations. The
Hermeticists called this agent "sweet fire," "fire that does not burn," and
even "/ire of the lamp" since it really has an enlightening effect on the images.

In addition to what Abraxas has written, I wish to emphasize two points.

The first point is that along the path of high magic there is no need, in
following a discipline, to initially acknowledge the notions of "good" and
"evil" in a moral sense. This may be necessary for a passive spirit, in whom
the function of command is totally lacking: it is only because he does not
find this function in himself that he seeks it elsewhere, wishing to be com-
manded. A being who is complete and integrated on the basis of being two
(as Abraxas mentioned before) can create in himself the power to com-
mand and the power to obey, which are both absolute. When what is lack-
ing is not only the power to command (heavier to most men than any
other burden) but also the power to obey; when this inability to obey of the
inferior part takes over, usurping the rights of the superior poweronly
then one finds unruliness, laxity, and that "false freedom" which many
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SUMMARY

and is actuated through the subtle senses. Later on, we will discuss the
various traditions of symbols, such as the alchemical-hermetic one.
There are various ways to activate the sense of the "subtle body" and to
facilitate the operations that take it as their basis. In this regard we will
discuss the use of magical perfumes. In the meantime we wish to integrate
in this direction the instruction already given in chapter II, namely the
contemplation of a sun that rises in the night and sets during the day,
together with the sense that we ourselves ascend and descend a "mountain."
During the night, something occurs that, if expressed materialistically,
could be compared to a "freeing" or "detachment" of the subtle body from
the physical body. However, the Self, used as it is to lean on the physical
body, does not know how to accompany this detachment; thus, the result
is not the awakening, but the sinking of consciousness into torpor. The
above-mentioned exercise, if followed with the right intention, operates in
the sense of creating a predisposition to follow the process consciously
and to "introduce the Self to the subtle state."
However, we need to be aware that in the natural state this detachment
is not complete: the subtle body still maintains a certain connection with
the physical body that it animates, and the resonance in it of the subcon-
scious impulses and the processes (both normal and abnormal) of the or-
ganism creates the world of dreams. It becomes free only in part, and en-
ters into contact with the supersensible world; but many other possibili-
ties of knowledge and action that might derive from this are paralyzed,
due to the subsistence of that partial connection with the life of the or-
ganic subconscious, responsible for creating ordinary dreams.
Thus it is necessary to aim at a full and conscious detachment, creating
a different polarization of the fluidic body in respect to the physical body.
This may be attempted by those who have already obtained some results
from the previous exercise (e.g., a sense of vague luminosity fluctuating
during sleep) and have already established a certain contact with the subtle
body itself, following what has been said in chapter III. This is what needs
to be done next. Before falling asleep, after having contemplatively accom-
panied the sun's ascent to the zenith and one's own ascent to the peak of
the "mountain" at "high noon," it is necessary to visualize an image of one's
own body in the exact position in which it is found, tie it to the sense of the
subtle body, and then imagine a slow movement of the image, until it reaches
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SUMMARY

the opposite position. For instance, if the body lies on the left side, imagine
a slow rotation until you feel it as if it were lying on the right side. After that,
fall asleep. Due to the power of this practice, it is possible that, in the subtle
body, even the partial dependence on the organic life will be suspended.
The condition for the efficacy of this ritual is to go toward sleep with-
out tiredness, with a calm and serene mind, with an inner desire of eleva-
tion and illumination, almost with a sense of veneration and trust toward
the mystery hidden by sleep. The usual attitude with which one heads
toward sleep, to abandon oneself, relax, and let oneself go in a need for
physical satisfaction, operates in exactly the opposite way to that aimed at
by these practices.
And now, some general principles that we recommend to the serious
attention of those who practice initiatic disciplines:
1. Desire, hope, expectations, inexorably lead away from results; 2. All
of the esoteric exercises are fruitful only when they are loved and willed
for their own sake, almost as if they had a purpose in and of themselves; 3.
The persistent lack of results even after constant and serious efforts may
be just a test; 4. To find all of this natural is already a result.
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CONSCIOUS THOUGHTRELAXATIONSILENCE

RELAXATIONAbraxas has called attention to the fact that in magical

operations everything that is effort, resistance, or reaction on the part of
the body must be excluded. This means that one needs to learn first of all
the faculty of relaxation (detente, Entspannung), which is not achieved
through violence, but in a calm and rhythmic way, through conscious com-
mand of thought.
In order to attain a complete relaxation, you need to proceed step-by-
stepbeginning by focusing your attention on a finger and imagining it to
be lifeless, abandoned, dead, and then to shift to the other fingers, to the
hand, to the forearm, and then to the whole arm. Realize this formula:
"I am taking away all the strength from the muscles of my arm. The muscles
are totally asleep. They are relaxed. I do not feel my arm: it is asleep, it is
completely asleep and relaxed. It is a mass of lifeless bronze."
In the same way, mentally travel through the various parts of your legs,
progressively from below, using the same self-suggestion, employing the
same mental command: feel the way all the tension melts away, as if it were
snow placed on a burning stove. Finally, regard the entire body with this
conscious thought:
"All my muscles are relaxed. They are totally relaxed. I feelI AM relaxed.
I am calm. I am relaxed."
And then:
"I am absolutely calm. Everything in me is relaxed, untied. I am calm,
calm, I am rhythmical proportion, cosmic harmony . . . "
Continue to practice these exercises with goodwill until you can imple-
ment them in a few seconds. Do them self-consciously and with zeal. Soon, it
will be possible to completely relax your body at will, through the mere
mental command, or through the mere evocation of a plastic mental image.

SILENCEAfter physical relaxation comes inner relaxation, or Silence.

Bodily sensations have disappeared, thoughts become less frequent and
slower, while you remain without being impatient, dwelling in a conscious
calm. Realize this formula:
"The external world has disappeared. I am alonedeep within my-
self . . . I remain silent. I am calm. I think and feel that I am complete calm.
I am calm and everything in me is calm. Everything in me is calm and
infinite peace.
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CONSCIOUS THOUGHTRELAXATIONSILENCE

Iamfree calm ..."

After that, think of nothing else. Remain in this state. Allow the occa-
sional plastic, living image to flash through your mind.
Calmas in a distant, deep, abandoned grave.
Calmas at the bottom of a clear, transparent alpine lake.
Calmas a night filled with stars.
Calmas a small town under the blazing summer sun, deserted, calm,
noiseless, completely spread out, waiting for the cool of the night.
In fact, you are here waiting for the night in which the spiritual sun
rises and in which occurs the miracle of interiority, the birth of the spiritual
man.
In this calm, the mind is dissolved. And the thought that is evoked
there and prepared according to the Hermetic artis magic.
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APHORISMS

The organs of the physical body have a physiological function that is

partially accessible to scientific investigationand a function of relation-
ship with a subtle body, the vehicle of life. Through the latter comes another
order of relationships with a third body, of a higher nature. These ways are
permeated by the sensory perception and by the motoric exernalization of
impulses. Normal consciousness gives and receives only that which the
brain can transmit. Spiritual activity avoids the brain and travels through
other organs, in which the consciousness of normal man cannot yet estab-
lish itself.

When in an ordinary person the consciousness of the tired brain shifts

into other organs, it becomes obscured and sleep is produced. Simulta- 178

neously, the polarity of the body of life (the subtle body) and of the spiri-
tual body changes.

The initiate can retain consciousness during the shift from the brain to
another organ: then he becomes conscious of supersensible worlds that
ordinary people see only in dreams. If he succeeds in maintaining the po-
larity of bodies and preventing the detachment, he has a vision of those
worlds in the waking state.

The repair of the forces during sleep is due not only to "rest" but also to
two other factors: the first is the ceasing of the tension of waking con-
sciousness before the material world. The other is the contact with occult

178. This is why many people, when first beginning to experiment with preliminary
initiatic techniques, succumb to a sense of sleepiness and evasion, which is induced by
their consciousness. Their consciousness lags behind in respect to the shift of plane
already mentioned. There are also those who, having misunderstood the whole thing,
give up and do not go any further.
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APHORISMS

creative forces, with which we enter into relationship during sleep. They
are the forces that have organized our material body and that alone are
capable of keeping it together and of remedying its losses.

0
On the initiatic path, great mysteries are accompanied by small truths
or by simple techniques of inner refinement that can lead one far.
Many people have the possibility of acquiring spiritual knowledge and
yet do not realize it because they are looking for sensational methods, far
removed from their daily activity. With what we have communicated so far
in this book, one can make good progress toward esoteric realization. It is
a matter of using patience, perseverance, and acute observation. Many
people are very close to revelations capable of transforming them deep
inside, and yet do not realize it, since they look far away for sensational
phantasms.

Spiritual consciousness is perennial, continuous, and always active: it

is necessary to feel the failure of consciousness that occurs during sleep as
a pause due to a temporary limitation.

Every human act must be a preparation or an approach toward a higher

consciousness: this is the basis on which a man must organize his normal life.

Man is a composite: of a material body that he sees, feels, perceives; of

a vital body that holds it together; of a subtle body through which he sees,
feels, perceives; of a spiritual essence that is the center of his entire being.
One must remember this composite whenever one says "I."