Occult Literature
Sign of Benediction and Its Shadow
A raised hand with two extended fingers casts a dark parallel silhouette. Lettering curves around the pair, with Hebrew characters and small divided geometric emblems above. Fine hatching surrounds the wrist and separates the light hand from its shadow. The visible Latin lettering associates the gesture with benediction and the shadow with malediction. This editorial title follows those inscriptions without identifying a particular person. The plate stands before the first chapter, The Candidate, whose adjoining text discusses being, thought and the word. The crop retains all outer lettering and the small emblems. The catalogue records a historical symbolic illustration rather than claiming that the pictured gesture produces an actual blessing or curse.
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Citation
Unidentified engraver; reproduced in Éliphas Lévi’s work. "Sign of Benediction and Its Shadow" [editorial title]. In Transcendental Magic, Éliphas Lévi. 1896, George Redway. Source scan leaf 58. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/transcendental-magic-plate-58
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Complete source scan actually viewed, surrounding prose read, and exact active PageRef duplicate-screened. Complete design and captions retained; original monochrome reproduction without reconstruction. Final crops actually inspected; complete image boundaries, lettering and captions retained.
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Unidentified engraver; reproduced in Éliphas Lévi’s work. Sign of Benediction and Its Shadow. Transcendental Magic. Scan leaf 58. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/transcendental-magic-plate-58