Book Three, chapter 6

1Chapter 6

2And this science, may God strengthen you, can neither be worked nor apprehended except by one in whose natural disposition that lies. And to this Aristotle pointed in the "Book of al-Isṭamākhīs", when he said that the Perfect Nature is a power for the philosopher which increases him in his knowledge and his wisdom. And the sages have differing shares in this spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) — and this is the secret laid down among them, which no one other than they comes to know.

3And it is the secret concealed in wisdom, since there was no chapter of the chapters of wisdom, subtle or great, that the sages did not disclose to their pupils and pass around among themselves by correspondence or by questioning, except this concealed secret, which is the spiritual power of the Perfect Nature.

4And the sages used to name this spiritual power Tamāghīs Baghdīswād Waghdās Nūfānāghādīs. And these four letters are the names of this spiritual power; they used to name it [by them] when they had need of it, and they are an allusion to the Perfect Nature.

5And Hermes related: "When I wanted to bring out the knowledge of the secret of creation and its manner, I came upon a dark underground passage filled with darkness and winds, and I could see nothing in it because of its darkness, and no lamp would hold out for me in it because of the abundance of its winds. Then there came to me one who came in my sleep in the most beautiful form, and he said to me: Take a light and put it in a glass that will shield it from the winds, and it will give light for you along with this. Then enter the underground passage and dig in its middle, and bring out from it the statue of a talisman that has been made; for when you bring out that statue, the winds of that passage will go away and it will be lit for you.

6Then dig in four corners of it, for you will bring out the knowledge of the secrets of creation, the causes of nature, the wonder of things and their qualities. So I said to him: And who are you, O you? And he said to me: I am your perfect nature; if you wish to see me, call me by my name.

7I said: And what is the name by which I should call you? And he said: Tamāghīs Baghdīswād Waghdās Nūfānāghādīs. So I said to him: And in what state should I call you, and how should I proceed in my calling you? And he said: When the Moon descends at the head of Aries, at whatever time it may be, by night or by day, enter a clean house and place a table in the corner of the house, on its east side, upon something raised from the ground.

8And take four cups, each cup of which holds a raṭl, and fill each one of them with one of these oils, namely oil of almonds, ghee, oil of walnuts and oil of vinegar [sense uncertain]. Then take four cups after the pattern of the first and fill them with wine. Then make a sweetmeat of walnut oil, ghee, honey and sugar, rich and sweet. Then take the eight cups, the sweetmeat that has been made, and a glass bowl.

9First place the bowl in the middle of the table with the sweetmeat upon it, and place the four cups with the drink around it, facing the four directions: you begin with the eastern, then the western, then the southern, then the northern. Then you begin, of the oils, with the oil of almonds for the east, alongside the cup of drink; then the oil of walnuts, western; then the ghee, southern; then the oil of vinegar, northern.

10And this arrangement I found in the "Book of al-Isṭamāṭīs". Then take a candle, light it and place it in the middle of the table. Then take two censers filled with charcoal, and fumigate in one of them with al-kīya [substance uncertain] and frankincense, and in the other with prepared aloeswood.

11Then rise, standing facing the east, and say seven times: Tamāghīs Baghdīswād Waghdās Nūfānāghādīs. Then say after that: I call you, O strong, spiritual, exalted spirits, who are the wisdom of the sages, the discernment of the discerning and the knowledge of the learned: answer me, be present with me, bring me near to your governance, guide me aright by your wisdom, strengthen me by your power, make me understand what I do not understand, teach me what I do not know, and make me see what I do not see and ward off from me the afflictions that cling [to me], of ignorance, forgetfulness and hardness, so that you may join me to the ranks of the first sages, in whose hearts wisdom, sagacity, wakefulness, discernment and understanding dwelt; and dwell in my heart and do not leave me." He mentioned this in the «Isṭamāṭīs»: "For if you do that, you will see me."

12He said: And the sages used to keep up that [rite] with their spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) once or twice every year, in reverence for their perfect nature; and what Hermes the sage told them about them moved them to that, and they knew that they eat that only for love and concord; so they would eat that food, and those whom they loved [sense uncertain: with them].

13And Aristotle said: To every sage there is a power that comes to him from the spiritual power, strengthening him and inspiring him and opening for him the locks of the gates of wisdom, that power being joined to his high star which governs him; so it grows up with him and nourishes him. And the sages and the kings used to keep up this spiritual power by this invocation and the names, and it would help them in their knowledge and their wisdom and the governance of their affairs and in being granted success toward their right guidance, and would ward off the evil of the plots of the people of evil from their kingdoms; and it was a help to them in the kingdom and in bringing their word together upon obedience.

14So this spiritual power — he says to Alexander — O King, which governs you: I have told you its names and uncovered for you the secret hidden in it; and were it not for the King's rank and his worth with me, I would not have uncovered that to him nor told him of them.

15So keep up this invocation at the first of your setting out, and name the names of this spiritual power, for it will grant you success and make you mighty, and will overcome for you whoever sets himself against you, and will humble what has proved hard for you and subdue it.

16When you have done that, do not neglect the matter of the stars, and do not march except by them, for the stars are the head of the governance of the world, and by them the affair of the two worlds, the small and the great, is upheld. So seek the help of the spiritual powers of your star, the four, which are the perfect nature, and in the four names [sense uncertain] of which I informed you, the secret of secrets; and they became four only because the natures are four.

17So invoke by them and keep them up at every one of the times, and take refuge in them in your affair and in what is closed to you; although I have seen for you from your high star that you will overcome Persia and kill its kings, and at the first of your departing from your lands to the lands of Persia you will meet with severe hardship from them.

18And when the affair exhausts you and you despair of victory, the spiritual power of your perfect nature, which is joined to your star, will rise up at an invocation that comes from you; so take refuge in it when the hardship distresses you. Then it will join with your star, then cast its rays by its power upon the helpers of the king of Persia and his viziers and his commanders, and will draw the affection of their hearts to you, and will suggest to them the killing of their king and hearing and obedience to you. Upon that they will rise in the morning and gather in their council, and their word will be united upon you, and the affection of their hearts will be joined to you, and they will unite upon killing the king and bring you his head, hearing and obedient to you.

19And I see for you victory and dominion over all the kings, all of them; and they will be afraid of you and seek peace with you. And I see your death in a land of iron and a sky of gold, after your seizing of the lands and your killing of the kings and your levying of riches and treasures. This is what I see of the power of your star and the dominance of your rule and the spiritual power of your perfect nature." This is the text of Aristotle's words on that.

20And I saw in the «Reports of Persia» something that I thought I should mention to you; namely, that when Alexander set out for the king of Persia, and he was in a number that could not be counted for multitude, the number of Alexander's men was reported to him [the king of Persia], and the king of Persia asked about his conduct and about his circumstances, since he had drawn near to him; and his intimates advised him to send to him someone to meet him. And among the words of the king of Persia was that he said: "I see the upper world turned toward this man and aiding him, and one does not doubt that whoever fights him has fought the upper world, and whoever fights the upper world is necessarily a loser." And this is what «Aristotle» had foretold to Alexander.

21And it is mentioned in this book that the first sage who devised the talisman — the spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) appeared to him and guided him to the wondrous works, and his perfect nature guided him, and granted him success, and gave him insight into the obscurities of the secrets, and said to him: "I am with you, and I shall not appear to anyone after you except to one who calls me by my name and offers me a sacrifice in my name" — [was] «Karfasāyis». For this man used to see with the eye of his spiritual power and to know with a spiritual heart; and between him and Ādamānūs, who is Adam, there were ten fathers, and of years two thousand two hundred and sixty years.

22And among the words of this sage: "It is not fitting for the sage who works with talismans to occupy his soul, his mind, his discernment and his resolve with any of the works other than that; and that is because of what the maker of the talisman needs of intensity of thought and deliberate study for joining these spiritual spirits one to another. And whoever occupies his soul with any of the branches of wisdom other than that, his resolve and his discernment fall short of it, and he does not exhaust its branches nor the working of it" — and the like, as this sage said.

23And to this «Ṭumṭum» the Indian alluded, with the use of thought, at the beginning of his book, and he made thought the mainstay of his book. And he also mentioned that the talisman is called a talisman only because it is spiritual powers gathered by resolve, bound fast in that in which they are bound fast. And the spiritual powers are four: al-hammāma diffused in the world; the spiritual power of the instrument by which this spiritual power is drawn; the spiritual power of sound resolve; and the spiritual power of the craftsmanship by hand.

24And these three spirits, which are the instrument, the resolve and the craftsmanship, are cast upon the diffused al-hammāma, and by them its ray is drawn and its part is bound in that in which it is desired to bind it; like the polished mirror which a man raises in his hand in the light of the Sun and turns with its face toward the shade, and by its brightness he draws the ray of that light, and it casts it into the shade, so that it becomes luminous and shining without anything of that light being diminished. Likewise these three spiritual powers are cast upon the diffused al-hammāma, which is the spiritual power of motion and rest, and draw that. So this, he said, is the meaning of the name 'talisman'.

25And he said at the beginning of this book: "The first thing with which you begin in your affair, in what concerns your own soul, is that you look to your spiritual power that governs you, whose link is joined to your star; and this is the perfect nature which «Hermes» the sage mentioned in his book, when he said that the small world, which is man, when he is perfect in nature, his soul is like the disc of the Sun fixed in the heaven, which illuminates with its rays every horizon; and likewise the perfect nature: its ray stands in the soul, and its ray penetrates and falls upon the powers of the subtleties of wisdom, and by that ray of its it draws the powers of wisdom until it establishes them in the soul, which is its place, just as the ray of the Sun draws the powers of the world and raises them into the air.

26And the sage Socrates said: The perfect nature is called the sun of the sage, and his root and his branch. And Hermes was asked; it was said to him: By what is wisdom attained? And he said: By the perfect nature. And it was said to him: What is the root of wisdom? He said: The perfect nature. And it was said to him: And what is the key of wisdom? He said: The perfect nature.

27And it was said to him: And what is the perfect nature? And he said: The spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) of the philosopher, which is joined to his star and governs him; it opens for him the locks of wisdom, teaches him what was obscure to him, inspires him with what is right, and instructs him in the keys of the gates in sleep and in waking.

28So the perfect nature is, for the philosopher, in the position of the sincere teacher who instructs the boy word after word, and whenever he has mastered one chapter of knowledge, he brings him into another chapter; and that boy will not fear deficiency in knowledge as long as that teacher remains with him, because he uncovers for him what was confused to him, teaches him what was obscure, and begins to teach him what he does not ask about. Thus is the perfect nature for the philosopher.

29So know that. And it is for that reason that we said that the knowledge and practice of this science are not attainable for a person, nor acquaintance with its secrets, except for one in whose nature that is. And this was the reason for bringing in the words of the sage Aristotle on that; so understand.