---
title: "Magical Gestures by André Consciência"
url: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/magical-gestures-by-andre-consciencia/
date: 2025-01-01
modified: 2026-07-03
lang: en
author: "Perseus Arcane Academy"
description: "Introduction “The fundamental principle of rituals is based on confirming an idea, a train of thoughts by an external mode of expression or the other way around, producing a train..."
categories:
  - "Franz Bardon"
  - "Guest Post"
tags:
  - "Evocation"
  - "gestures"
  - "Magic"
image: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/andre-cover-1.jpg
word_count: 3700
---

# Magical Gestures by André Consciência

## Introduction

“The fundamental principle of rituals is based on confirming an idea, a train of thoughts by an external mode of expression or the other way around, producing a train of thoughts by a gesture or an action, which we shall designate ‘evocation’ in hermetics. This maxim is standing for the entire magical ritual. It is stated hereby that not only any idea can be expressed by an action, but can also be bound to a certain task. This refers to any creature as well. Anything not receiving and bearing a special name, symbol or external mark is without significance. All the magical processes and rituals are based on this primordial thesis in every religious system with its special cults since the remotest times. The only difference is that nothing but a very small part has been accessible to the masses, whilst most of it has been kept strictly secret but reserved only to high priests and adepts. Every ritual answers a certain purpose, regardless whether the point in question be the banning witchcraft of Tibet or the gestures of fingers (mudras) performed by the Bali priests in their cults in the Orient, or the exorcism ritual of magicians. The synthesis will always remain the same. At a trial, the hand with three fingers raised for the oath as confirmation of a truthful statement may also be regarded as a magical gesture. From the Christian point of view the raised fingers symbolize the Trinity. Each of the numerous lodges and sects has its own rites.” 

“(…) It is of no importance at all to the genuine magician if he reads books about the particular way in which any other magician is drawing his magic circle, regarding it as a symbol of infinity, Divinity and purity, planting his genii and angels in it for the sake of protection, or else how a Lama is painting his Mandala and sets up his Thatgatos as a symbol of protective deity. He does not need such strange directions because he knows very well that they are only a mental support for the mind.”

“(…) There are magicians who are performing rituals unnoticed in the middle of a big crowd by movements of their fingers in the pockets of their coats. In conformity with the elements, they are using the analogy of the five fingers by inputing the forefinger to fire, the thumb to water, the middle finger to akasa, the ring finger to earth, and the little finger to air. The right hand represents the positive elements and the left one the negative elements. This small example may be sufficient.”

*Franz Bardon, The Practice of Magical Evocation*

Ritual gestures are one of the most magical means used by everyone, religious or not, and superstitious or sceptic. This is simply because every gesture is magical, as will be seen, although not necessarily magically loaded (at least consciously and effectively). Even if this was not the case, ritual gestures would still be one of the most used magical techniques utilized by superstition, and yet, the sophisticated methods of the East aside, not much has been written about their full nature in the West outside of the iconography known to the clergy and similar educated circles. Still if we make use of the little we have, it is fairly enough to keep us going. Aleister Crowley, for instance, uses a set of ritual gestures with dramatic intensity ([see the Signs of the Grades and God positions](https://sacred-texts.com/oto/libero.htm)), sharing them with the world, and Franz Bardon a set of ritual gestures prepared with magical quantity:

 “It is very important indeed to manage the accumulation of elements and vital power in the hands and feet very well, because this will be of manifold use in the practical application of magic. The keenest attention should be paid to the fingers. 

(…) Hands and fingers are usually engaged in magic, so the scholar ought to devote his full attention to them. He must accumulate the element by pore-breathing in one hand or both in such a manner that through a sheer motion of his hand, as if in a flash, he emits the element into the selected space, impregnating it instantly. 

(…) Bind and fix your personal desire that you wish most eagerly to be realized to your own small ritual or gesticulation, best of all to gesticulations of the fingers, and imagine that your desire is being realized by this gesture, or that it has been realized already. 

(…) By repeating the imagination with the selected gesture or ritual, a power reserve is formed in the causal sphere of the akasa principle which will adopt the necessary vibration (electromagnetic fluid), colour, sound and all the analogies corresponding to the desire or purpose. We can rightly assert that they are blood particles of the entire condition. If this power reservoir has been loaded by frequent repetition, the mere ritual will produce the discharge of one part of this reservoir, bringing about the necessary effect in this way. 

(…) As soon as you have produced so strong an accumulation of light, viz., a light dynamide, that your body is bursting, you will feel at the same moment that your whole body, mainly your fingertips, has been loaded with a strong electric current.

(…) In the right half of your body, accumulate the electric fluid dynamically with all your strength via your hand and finally through the forefinger. Project the accumulated electric fluid to a powerful electric spark and encase it with your imagination exactly in the centre of the talisman.”

*Franz Bardon, Initiation Into Hermetics*

When comparing with Aleister Crowley, Bardon has the advantage of often instructing the reader to use all three bodies (mental, astral, and physical) in gestures such as drawing the circle and others. However, the different meanings and progressive stages of the formation of a gesture in each of the planes are not explained, and we are left with just enough, but not a lot. In this article I am shedding a little light on the subject. 

# My best method

In [A Guide to Sphere Quabbalah](https://falconbookspublishing.com/a-magical-series-a-guide-to-sphere-quabbalah-by-andre-consciencia/?fbclid=IwAR28B0ZbmCTfNBLCalGcAD8R1_7YZwf220oWJtZYlu4VhnLFNTzdC6zc6pU), I write

“A while after I had finished writing the A Guide to Sphere Quabbalah, I managed to recover some old Quabbalistic notes from my late grandfather, José Gomes Consciência, who, having lived a good part of his life in India, in which my father was born, first introduced me to personalities such as Swami Vivekananda. But from him I also inherited notes on worldly horoscopes, astrology, spiritism, ancient civilisations and the quabbalah. The notes I now managed to recover were connected to palmistry, and I thought of experimenting and perfecting the experiments of such notes, finally bringing to paper my old plan of working the planetary light oscillations via the so-called sleight of hand.

This science, like most of the topics presented in this book, has ancient origins, studied among Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians, then finding great strength among the Hebrews. Latin and Greek philosophers managed to learn these arts.

Briefly, and for our own purposes, we must state the electric hand is the hand of might, and the magnetic hand the hand of power. The magnetic hand withstands the quantity, the substance of the thing, and the electric hand its function, what it can do.

The hand, generally speaking, either the right or left hand, is the true pentacle of men. Pentacle comes from pantaculum, that which contains all. In this sense, nature and the universe are pentacles, and the man is the pentacle of nature or of the universe, and the hand is the pentacle of the man: his microcosm. The electric hand represents the active microcosm and the magnetic hand the passive microcosm.” 

(…) “When we are so used to this practice that it is enough for us to join these parts of the palms of our hands for the effects to take place, we will start touching the electric hand on the chosen regions in order to fill the room with the qualities and light oscillation corresponding to the zones we are touching. We will, likewise, touch the magnetic hand to have these oscillations enliven us and give us their qualities so that we can accumulate them.”

The book moves to explain a way to use the fingers and hands together with certain quabbalistic tones to devise a whole system of elemental, quabbalistic and planetary magic combined. Although the method is my best ritual method, it still lacks explanation of the foundations previously referred to: the different magical stages of the formation of a gesture.

In this same title, “Part IV – The Book of Gestures (Motion)”, I proceed to give a combination of internal and external magical motions to each cosmic letter. “We shall, therefore, define an asana to each sphere, the asanas being root positions, and then start working with the cosmic letters. By principle, each of the letters will have internal motion (breath and the motion of the organs) and external motion (outer body and sound).” While this can be considered a polarized (2) key for magical gestures, I will be content when I explain the gestures according to the number 3 and the number 11. By having all into consideration, any ritual comes to fullness in a metaphysical sense.

In this article, we will use, for the sake of simplicity, examples that can be practiced with the hands. If the reader is to integrate the polarized key, it is sufficient to think of the fingers as the outer body and the different points in the palm of one’s hand as the organs. As the fingers move with elemental power, certain locations of the palm of the hand are pressed or released so different planetary influences can be manipulated.  

# Gestures explained through the mental (symbol), astral (icon), and material (index) planes

Before anything else, let’s talk about the hand in its purest state. It means nothing, but it holds the original idea of shape, and this idea contains all formation, pre-manifestation and manifestation, yet none in a contained stage. I mean by this to say the hand or any other part of the body (any sign) in its akashic state is nothing but the manifestation of the most abstract mind. While this may sound vague, it is the first mental stance to be taken by the ritualist. Before the hand does anything, the hand is infinite potential, and the hand is boundless.

From there we derive the symbol and thus we add to the akashic layer of perception the intellectual faculties, as well as to the body of akashic trance the perception of the mental body moving or standing. The symbol connects the abstract sign to a certain meaning that your mind can agree with, and if the collective mind agrees with this symbol, the more power it obtains. For instance, if your hand shapes the letter A (which can be used to manifest the cosmic letter A physically in instances when we cannot be vocal), everyone will recognize the A sound not because the shape has this sound, but because the general individual and collective intellect has this sound for that shape. When you tap into this symbol, you are tapping into a reservoir of mental vitality coming from the sum of all individuals who can agree to this pact of sorts in which the shape of A manifests the ‘a’ sound. 

Then, as you add your astral body to the equation, you add the astral perception of the sign. This astral perception is the icon. The akasha relates to the abstract or original idea, the mind to the symbol or meaning, the astral with the icon or resemblance (magic of sympathy). An icon stands for something that it resembles with. For instance, the letter A (connected quabbalistically with air) resembles the snowy peak of a mountain. An icon is always a symbol as well because the intellect cannot disagree with a resemblance. But while for the Saanich (certain indigenous people) the letter A sounds like ‘e’ and not ‘a’, and would not work symbolically in this sense, it would still look like the peak of a mountain and work symbolically through the icon. In other words, the vitality that was being generated from the akasha gathers the vitality from the mental reservoir connected to the symbol, and it grows more numerous when reaching the astral plane, accessing every creature that can process resemblance. 

Finally, concerning the material plane, we work with the so-called index, another state of the sign. The significance of an index comes from a causal relationship; that is, when we cough, it means we are (relatively) unwell, and it signifies sickness because when there is a virus, there is a cough. The connection between the A letter and the ‘a’ sound is also an index because regardless of whether we agree the letter A signifies the ‘a’ sound or not, when people read the letter, they generally make an ‘a’ sound, and the ‘a’ sound is caused by reading the letter on the material plane. The vital reservoir gains the momentum of the power of Nature itself in its mechanism. 

Engaging holistically in this way, we then seal the formula by making the A shape with our hand, having the mental hand moving the astral hand and the astral hand moving the physical hand.   

# Gestures explained through the ten spheres

1 – Neptune: This symbolic state has been dealt with in our description of the sign on an akashic level. The hand is an abstract idea of limitless potential within shape. 

2 – Uranus: Here, the hand (x) means (=) something  (y); let’s say the hand represents magical authority. Now, the limitless potential within shape takes the function of limitless authority within the hand, and what the hand does, power does. It is, again, a symbolic state or mental notion. 

3 – Saturn: The shape the hand draws during a pose or motion comes to represent a particular thing, so that authority now delineates a path for power to follow into manifestation. This stage can be symbolic (mental) or symbolic and iconic (mental and astral) if it works through resemblance and the magic of sympathy. To use our previous example, we will shape the A letter, so we point the thumb (water) and forefinger (fire) down, forming the shape of an arch turned upwards, and enclose it with the middle finger (akasha). This is iconic because it resembles a mountain with a crown of snow, but also what we are doing is pushing the vital fluid from the source of the akasha to manifest in its dual nature, water and fire, and to further levels in the air element, where it is to accumulate by the conjunction of akasha, fire and water, air being their container and regulator. At the same time, the akashic element that intercepts fire and water through the position of the middle finger represents the intermediary agency of the air element in its highest capacity, elevating it to its higher octave connected to the akasha. This is akin to the power of the mother cosmic letter of Air, the A.

4 – Jupiter: Now, the hand's position or motion is to be considered. We will expand the path previously given and turn it into influence over something else. Let us move (motion) the hand that shapes the A mudra to the chest (position). We are, by this means, connecting the macrocosmic power represented to its place of regency in our microcosm (the chest), as well as loading the chest with the air element through the corresponding cosmic letter. Before, we were dealing with pure being, in which shape (quality) x is y power (quantity); in the stage of Jupiter, we deal with the law: doing x with a certain shape does y.

5 – Mars: Infinite authority, having created the (astral) means for its manifested existence, now turns into (physical) action. The hand, for instance, now commanding the whole body, lightens the incense, preparing to invoke or evoke the sylphs.

6 – Sun: This refers to a larger meaning that necessarily has been present all along. In the case we are depicting, the magician lighting the incense is at the center of a circle, he or she is in the temple of God as God, and therefore the hand that commands the body is the hand of God that commands the Universe.

7 – Venus: Here in the sensual sphere, we may use two notions altogether and start working with the sign as an index (material connection). We blow upon the air with our hand, waving it as to move the incense. This has a mechanical cause-and-effect connection; when we blow the air with our hand, it means we are moving (or acting over) the air element. In other words, we are working with the state or intention that gives rise to a motion, and this motion circuits back to the intention and causes it to achieve. Then, we work with how a motion affects the body; for instance, we raise our hand to the air, leaving the hand and vitals vulnerable and the body unable to reach a defensive tool or defend itself with the arm. This is an action of surrender. In this case, we are surrendering to the divine ecstasies of the air element and surrendering our knowledge to God’s omniscience, all the while greeting the sylphs with divine humbleness (humbleness that still originates from infinite authority).  

8 – Mercury: Now, we throw our fingers forward with the little finger slightly extended over the others so the stretch is on it. This is the finger attributed to the air element. If the A mudra has properly charged the body and chest, the whole elemental fluid of the air should have been moved to the hand and fingers and, in the gesture, directly projected onto the smoke of the incense and the room. This is the process of infusion and magical action itself, where our gesture changes the internal glory of external objects, be it a room, another person, or a tool.   

9 – Moon: Here is where the gesture changes hierarchy and polarity chains by switching power from consciousness to consciousness and dynamically moving it. It is where the ebb and flow of life itself comes in. This is the place where gestures influence social status, contracts and obligations. But also where actual evocation and invocation can take place, because it is from here all interactions between the conscious and the subconscious spring forward and also where consciousness can be effectively transferred. The whole key is “who is doing this gesture and who is receiving it? And what does it mean to do it and what does it mean to receive it”? When a king makes a knight his gesture means he is giving his authority over life and death to the knight. The same gesture, to the knight, means he has been made a tool of the king and a guardian of his kingdom. Yet the sign given binds both through a single power. But let us say our hand now moves upon the mala while repeating auto-suggestion sentences. Who is doing this gesture to whom? As we understand this question, we can decide to remain in the minus pole, being more or less mindlessly influenced by divinity to a certain direction, or remain in full presence in the plus pole, where we partake of the divine will influencing our automatic nature and mastering it. But, for the sake of our narrative, our hand actually moves to draw the sigil of the sylph Capisi. When we ask who is doing this gesture and who is receiving it, it becomes clear we are not throwing this gesture to the air, but touching Capisi, and as we realize this, another realization erupts: Capisi is drawing her seal for us, and giving us her sign. It is an agreement. All contact starts with an agreement. 

10 – Earthzone Belt: Here are the gestures connected to space and place. Let us say we raise our right hand (we have dealt with this gesture before when raising the hand to the sylphs) and swear with our left hand (connected to the heart) upon the bible. This gesture has a specific set (the nature of a set having been given in point “6 – Sun”), the court of law. When we do this gesture outside the court of law it still bears symbolically the seriousness and authority of the court. In the past of Europe, exchanging wedding rings had a specific set as well, a church. By exchanging rings in the church and kissing, a marriage was sealed by divine power itself, for whom the church was a sign. Even in the absence of a church, the gesture, by means of absorption, may carry the same kind of power anywhere. Or, simply put, even if we are not standing in the center of a painted or inscribed circle, when we draw a circle mentally, astrally, and physically with our fingers, the gesture of its own becomes the place that we call a magical circle. While this gesture originates from a specific set it can take the place of this very set and replace it entirely and effectively.    

11 – Pluto: Here lies a mysterious stage and species of the magical gesture. While 10 reproduces set and space, 11 reproduces time or/and evolution. These are signs related to certain grades of initiation, for instance, that recall and conjure certain stages of maturity, and some signs can be given by beings of Pluto well beyond our time. However, it is sufficient for us to give the famous sign of the cross as an example. It is drawn with three fingers, to carry the trinity, and in this it is both symbolic (mental) and iconic (astral), for 3 fingers resemble the holy trinity in quantity. Our focus, however, is that the sign draws a cross (iconic) and in this connects with the specific moment when Jesus Christ was crucified and humankind redeemed. The very sign of the cross, then, efficiently performed, causes this living moment to re-occur and should truly redeem the ritualist. 

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