Eliphas L Vi And The French Occult Revival

A searching study of Eliphas Lvi and the French occult revival.

A masterful account of liphas Lvi, one of the most celebrated Kabbalistic authors of all times. The influence Lvi exerted on such esoteric movement leaders as A.E. Waite; Madame Blavatsky; Papus; Aleister Crowley; Rudolf Steiner; Max Heindel; H. Spencer Lewis; Paul Foster Case and others is explored as well as remarkable insights into Lvi's life and times. A chapter is devoted to Masonic legend Albert Pike and analyzes Pike's classic Morals and Dogma revealing entire sections Pike took verbatim from the works of Lvi. This is a powerful and essential book by a respected Masonic and esoteric scholar.

Eliphas Le'vi was steeped in the Western occult tradition and a master of the Rosicrucian interpretation of the Qabalah, which forms the basis of magic as practiced in the West today. The Key of the Mysteries represents the culmination of Le'vi's thoughts and is written with subtle and delicate irony. It reveals the mysteries of religion and the secrets of the Qabalah, providing a sketch of the prophetic theology of numbers. The mysteries of nature, such as spiritualism and fluidic phantoms, are explored. Magical mysteries, the Theory of the Will with its 22 axioms are divulged. And finally it offers "the great practical secrets." The true greatness of this work, however, lies in its ability to place occult thought firmly in Western religious traditions. For Le'vi, the study of the occult was the study of a divine science, the mathematics of God.

This is the complete English version of Eliphas Levi's treatise on ritual magic. This work is in two parts: in the first one, called "The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic", we establish the kabalistic and magical doctrine in its entirety; this here, the second part, is consecrated to the cultus, that is, to Ceremonial Magic. The one is that which the ancient sages termed the Clavicle, the other that which people on the country-side still call the Grimoire. The numbers and subjects of the chapters which correspond in both parts, are in no sense arbitrary, and are all indicated in the great universal key, of which we give for the first time a complete and adequate explanation. Let this work now go its way where it will and become what Providence determines; it is finished, and we believe it to be enduring, because it is strong, like all that is reasonable and conscientious. Contents: Introduction Chapter I - Preparations Chapter Ii - Magical Equilibrium Chapter Iii - The Triangle Of Pantacles Chapter Iv - The Conjuration Of The Four Chapter V - The Blazing Pentagram Chapter Vi - The Medium And Mediator Chapter Vii - The Septenary Of Talismans Chapter Viii - Warning To The Imprudent Chapter Ix - The Ceremonial Of Initiates Chapter X - The Key Of Occultism Chapter Xi - The Triple Chain Chapter Xii - The Great Work Chapter Xiii - Necromancy Chapter Xiv - Transmutations Chapter Xv - The Sabbath Of The Sorcerers Chapter Xvi - Witchcraft And Spells Chapter Xvii - The Writing Of The Stars Chapter Xviii - Philtres And Magnetism Chapter Xix - The Mastery Of The Sun Chapter Xx - The Thaumaturge Chapter Xxi - The Science Of The Prophets Chapter Xxii - The Book Of Hermes

This classic study of the French magician Eliphas Lévi and the occult revival in France is at last available again after being out of print and highly sought after for many years. Its central focus is Lévi himself (1810-1875), would-be priest, revolutionary socialist, utopian visionary, artist, poet and, above all, author of a number of seminal books on magic and occultism. It is largely thanks to Lévi, for example, that the Tarot is so widely used today as a divinatory method and a system of esoteric symbolism. The magicians of the Golden Dawn were strongly influenced by him, and Aleister Crowley even believed himself to be Lévi's reincarnation. The book is not only about Lévi, however, but also covers the era of which he was a part and the remarkable figures who preceded and followed him – the esoteric Freemasons and Illuminati of the late 18th century, and later figures such as the Rosicrucian magus Joséphin Péladan, the occultist Papus (Gérard Encausse), the Counter-Pope Eugène Vintras, and the writer J.-K. Huysmans, whose work drew strongly on occult themes. These people were avatars of a set of traditions which are now seen as an important part of the western heritage and which are gaining increasing attention in the academy. Christopher McIntosh's vivid account of this richly fascinating era in the history of occultism remains as fresh and compelling as ever.

�liphas L�vi (born Alphonse Louis Constant; 8 February 1810 - 31 May 1875), was a French occult author and ceremonial magician. "�liphas L�vi", the name under which he published his books, was his attempt to translate or transliterate his given names "Alphonse Louis" into the Hebrew language.Constant was the son of a shoemaker in Paris; he attended the seminary of Saint Sulpice since 1830 and began to study to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood. However, while at the seminary he fell in love and left in 1836 without being ordained. He spent the following years among his socialist and Romantic friends, including Henri-Fran�ois-Alphonse Esquiros and so-called petits romantiques such as G�rard de Nerval and Th�ophile Gautier. During this time, he turned to a radical socialism that was decisively inspired by the writings of F�licit� de Lamennais, the former leader of the influential neo-Catholic movement who had recently broken with Rome and propagated a Christian socialism. When Constant published his first radical writing, La Bible de la libert� (1841, The Bible of Liberty), he was sentenced to an eight-month prison term and a high fine. Contemporaries saw in him the most notorious "disciple" of Lamennais, although the two men do not seem to have established a personal contact. In the following years, Constant would describe his ideology as communisme n�o-catholique and publish a number of socialist books and pamphlets. Like many socialists, he propagated socialism as "true Christianity" and denounced the Churches as corruptors of the teachings of Christ.Important friends at that time include, next to Esquiros, the feminist Flora Tristan, the eccentric socialist mystic Simon Ganneau, and the socialist Charley Fauvety. In the course of the 1840s, Constant developed close ties to the Fourierist movement, publishing in Fourierist publications and praising Fourierism as the "true Christianity". Several of his books were published by the Fourierist Librairie phalanst�rienne. He also turned to the writings of the Catholic traditionalist Joseph de Maistre, whose writings were highly popular in socialist circles. An especially radical pamphlet, La voix de la famine (1846, The Voice of Famine), earned Constant another prison sentence that was significantly shortened at the request of his pregnant wife, Marie-No�mi Cadiot.In his Testament de la libert� (1848), Constant reacted to the atmosphere that would produce the February Revolution. In 1848, he was the leader of an especially notorious Montagnard club known for its radicalism. Although it has been claimed that the Testament marked the end of Constant's socialist ambitions, it has been argued that its content is in fact highly euphoric, announcing the end of the people's martyrdom and the "resurrection" of Liberty: the perfect universal, socialist order. Like many other socialists, the course of events, especially the massacres of the June Uprising in 1849, left him devastated and disillusioned. As his friend Esquiros recounted, their belief in the peaceful realization of a harmonious universal had been shattered.

The presented here collection contains two of the most important books by Éliphas Lévi dedicated to his views on the essence of magic and the history of magical studies. Levi thinks that people regard magic erroneously and narrow it to a collection of tricks. On the contrary, magic is practicing the concentration of will, imagination, and psychic power to influence the minds of other people and the phenomena of reality. In The History of Magic, Lévi compares the magical components of different religious traditions and organizations, like pagan beliefs, Kabbalah, Christian Catholicism, Illuminati, and Freemasonry. He states that true magic is earthed under the parables, fables, and wonder stories with peculiarities in every division. Yet, they all have a common basis, which Lévi describes as the true magic which imparts real science. Levi's books greatly influenced the development of different occult and mystical movements in Europe and the United States, including the Theosophical Society of Helena Blavatsky.

This vintage book contains the original French version of Éliphas Lévi Zahed's 1861 work "Dogme et Rituel - De la Haute Magie". Éliphas Lévi Zahed (1810 - 1875) was a French author of occult literature and ceremonial magician. Contents include: "Discours Préliminaire", "Introduction", "Le Récipiendaire", "Les Colonnes du Temple", "Dogme De la Haute Magie", "La Réalisation", "La Chaine Magique", "La Nécromancie", "Les Envoutements", "Les Philtrés er Les Sorts", etc. This fascinating book will appeal to those with an interest in the occult, and it would make for a fantastic addition to collections of allied literature. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.