Spiritualism and the nineteenth-century revival
Éliphas Lévi
Alphonse-Louis Constant
One of the real turning points: the man who synthesised Kabbalah, Tarot, ceremonial magic, magnetism and Christianity into what he helped redefine as occultism.
- Dates
- 1810 – 1875
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Paris
- Died
- Paris
The life
He trained for the Catholic priesthood but never became a priest, moving through radical politics and religious speculation before arriving at magic.
Place in the tradition
His terminology and imagery flow directly into the Golden Dawn, Waite and Crowley. The most famous modern image of Baphomet is his, intended as a symbolic reconciliation of opposites rather than a portrait of Satan.
a note on the record
History and later legend
His History of Magic is influential and highly mythologised; it should be read as a document of nineteenth-century occultism rather than as history.
the written record
Principal works
-
two parts, 1854 and 1856
Dogma and Ritual of High Magic
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie
His masterpiece. Twenty-two chapters in each half implicitly parallel the Tarot trumps, building a theory and practice of ceremonial magic.
-
1860
History of Magic
Histoire de la magie
An influential but highly mythologised history linking ancient mysteries, Kabbalah, magic and Christian esotericism.
-
1861
Key of the Great Mysteries
La Clef des grands mystères
Develops his occult philosophy of correspondences and universal equilibrium.