[Opinion] ART spelled backwards...

[stalkinghyena]

I’ve read Levi’s Transcendental Magic a number of times since I was a kid, and every time I come away with something that didn’t excite my awareness as much as I did before, or I just blazed past it in my greed to get to some kind of pre-determined point. This quote over the past year has given me pause to ponder:

“The word ART when reversed, or read after the manner of sacred and primitive characters from right to left, gives three initials which express the different grades of the Great Work. T signifies triad, theory and travail; R, realization; A, adaptation.”

That’s from his chapter in the Doctrine section entitled The Great Work.

Care to share your thoughts and feelings on this quote?

 

[KjEno186]

If it sounds arbitrary and confusing, you're not alone in thinking such a thing, as John Michael Greer wrote in his commentary on

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"The allegorical interpretations in question can be quite arbitrary. Lévi goes out of his way to demonstrate this by taking the word ART, reading it backwards, and turning it into an allegory for the process of alchemical transformation. Arbitrary or not, this provides a fine summary of the alchemical process in its broadest sense. First comes theory and travail, that is, studying the work in a theoretical sense and then putting in the necessary time and labor to develop the needed skills, always guided by the logic of the ternary to keep balance between the contending opposites. Second comes realization, that is, making the theory a reality through the practice, on whatever plane of human experience you have chosen for the work. Third comes adaptation, that is, taking the same principles and applying them to other situations on other planes."

Since the book was originally written in French, here is the paragraph in question from the

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"Le mot ART retourné, ou lu à la manière des écritures sacrées et primi-
tives, c’est-à-dire de droite à gauche, exprime, par trois initiales, les différents
degrés du grand œuvre. T signifie ternaire, théorie et travail ; R, réalisation ;
A, adaptation. Nous donnerons, au douzième chapitre du Rituel, les recettes
des grands maîtres pour l’adaptation, et spécialement celle qui est contenue
dans la forteresse hermétique d’Henri Khunrath."

Perhaps Levi drew upon the knowledge of his readers for whom the state of the ART in French painting had attained levels of realism never seen before. To master the skills of oil painting certainly required study of artistic theory and constant work. Once a painter completed the Realization of a work into a finished product, a realistic scene of a beautiful landscape for example, the next project would likely include some adaptations learned from the previous effort. Thus, around and around went the process. Greer relates it to alchemy, so perhaps someone could comment on that aspect?

 

[stalkinghyena]

I appreciate your input Kj, as well as the link to Greer and the original French TM.

IMO I don't think anything Levi wrote was arbitrary - if you me and Greer agree on what that means - though I do on occasion roll my eyes. But that happens with every occult writer I read, and every other writer on every subject for that matter . I suppose if I think such a thing then would deserve as much in turn.
My understanding is that allegory, parable, and metaphor is the essential basis of his occult reasoning, and for him the understanding of such is the mastery of magic, though he sometimes makes it sound like you have to castrate yourself (figuratively, one hopes) to do go all the way.

Academic realism in painting brings opens an interesting door. But I would point out that he lived in the era where French Impressionism was becoming the dominant expression. Here we could have "T-R-A" applied to a radical turn, figuratively and literally. Given Levi's comments on the sacrifices magi often made of their lives in the name of the revolutionary changes their presence and actions often signify in the world, the artistic evolutions of the modern era could serve as an allegory or parallel. Maybe even a symptom.

As far as alchemy, this is very much the in the realm of the "tortured genius" - if he not a hack or charlatan as alchemical texts often bitch about in relation to the "true" way of doing things. Your extension to his presentation of Khunrath adds further context of course, as alchemical art often gives us equations of the philosophy and operations. One could say the same thing of Tarot (in this chapter, The Hanged Man "misconstrued").

I think it is interesting "TRA" forms a syllable of TET-TRA-GRAM-MA-TON, as displayed on his pentacle design, though there are many earlier examples of this division is grimoire sigils. I don't know if that gave him the idea, but I would like to think he is pointing to something deeper.

 

[KjEno186]

I would just like to point out that the picture of the painting by Courbet was completed in 1854-55 at about the same time that Levi published his Dogma et Rituel. The bulk of Impressionist paintings were done between 1867 and 1886. I very much like the point about Te-TRA-grammaton!

 

[KjEno186]

One could say the same thing of Tarot

Looking back at Chapter 4, Levi plays a similar word game with TAROT...

"The incommunicable axiom is enclosed Cabalistically within the four letters of the tetragrammaton in this manner:

in the letters of the words AZOTH and INRI, written Cabalistically, and in the monogram of Christ as it was appended to the labarum (fn. says, 'The labarum was a Roman standard bearing the Chi-Rho, a symbol made of the Greek letters XP (chi and rho), the first two letters of Christ, which was used after the Christianization of the empire. The Chi-Rho still has a role in some Catholic uses.), and which the Cabalist Postel interprets with the word ROTA, with which the adepts formed their taro or tarot, by repeating the first letter twice, to indicate the circle and have it understood that the word is inversed."

 

[stalkinghyena]

I would just like to point out that the picture of the painting by Courbet was completed in 1854-55 at about the same time that Levi published his Dogma et Rituel. The bulk of Impressionist paintings were done between 1867 and 1886.

Fair enough. To be honest I wasn't thinking about dates so much as influences in regards to the "spirit of the times", so to speak. Levi's work, and others from that century could be seen to represent a growing current of dissatisfaction with the scientific determinism that was stifling spirituality and was gradually being reflected in artistic and social revolutions that were dawning. Levi was a bit of a radical in the political sense, so I have heard, but like many in the revival period of occultism since the Enlightenment period he sought to turn the Age of Reason back against itself.
Still, the discussion of art and Levi proves an interesting turn for me. I was suddenly reminded of Josef Peladan and the Symbolist movement, which I believe was more directly inspired by the occult, and Levi in particular.

Looking back at Chapter 4, Levi plays a similar word game with TAROT...

That's an excellent connect, and reminds me there are so many. I guess there is Kabbalah as a monument of teachings and equations and then there is "thinking cabalistically" in a sort of "mythic algebraic" sense which could be done with any system that relies on symbolic correspondences. ROTA and TRA being word games in one sense, but in other senses representing layers of meaning that can slip through one's fingers like a serpent only to come round and bite one on the foot. The venom, of course, being "our Water", as alchemists inform us, initiating the "travail" of transformation and then to all the other steps.

Anyways, comparison of the two gave me an idea, which turned into a game, which is turning into something else. Perhaps I can share yields of personal reflection on that down the road, but I am forced to move glacially these days. Can't be helped.