Eliphas Levy

Eliphas Levy
Eliphas Levy
	Éliphas Lévi
Birth name	Alphonse-Louis Constant
Date of Birth	February 8, 1810
Place of Birth	Paris
Date of death	May 31, 1875 (65 years old)
Place of death	;
A country	;
Language (s) of works
Direction	occultism tarot cards
Core interests
Influenced	Ettail
Influenced	Alistair Crowley , Papus , Stanislas de Guaita , A. Waite

Alphonse-Louis Constant ( French Alphonse Louis Constant , literary pseudonym Eliphas Levy , February 8, 1810 - May 31, 1875 ) - French occultist and tarologist ^[3] .

Biography

Abbot Constant was born in Paris in the family of a shoemaker. From adolescence, began to show interest in the occult sciences and magic. After several years as a novice, he became a deacon and began teaching at the Petit de Paris , taking the oath of carnal abstinence, which he later regretted. In 1836, Louis Constant falls in love with a certain Adele Allenbach, which, naturally, leads to the collapse of his spiritual career. This, in turn, was the cause of the suicide of his mother, who expected too much from her son ^[4] . After the difficult year of 1839 , Constant left the monastery and became a follower of the theories of Ganno , or Mapa , as he was also called. Acquaintance with him greatly influenced the worldview of Louis as a magician and served as a catalyst for writing the book “The Bible of Freedom”, for the publication of which he spent 8 months in prison ^[5] .

In 1846, Constant married 18-year-old Noemi Kadio, who was a bright creative person and made him a worthy couple. However, all their children died in infancy, and Noemi herself was carried away by another in 1853 and left her husband ^[4] .

Soon, another of the key meetings for the magician’s life took place. A new acquaintance turned out to be a Polish occultist - Yu. M. Gene-Vronsky . And then Constant met the writer Bulver-Lytton , who was also interested in esotericism and with whom he joined the occult group, practicing magic, hypnosis, astrology ... ^[3]

Pentacle Levy

In London, Louis Constant summoned the spirit of the magician Apollonius of Tyana , who lived in the 1st century . Then Constant translated his name in Hebrew - Alphonse-Louis - and took the magic pseudonym Eliphas Levy ^[5] .

The aging Levy lived off through the publication of his occult works and the material assistance of his many students. Eliphas Levy died of dropsy on May 31, 1875 . After his death, Baron Spedalieri, being a loyal student of his, published yet another book by the master - “The Key to the Great Arcana or Exposed Occultism” ^[5] .

Rumors that Levy participated in many esoteric communities have remained neither refuted nor proven. According to unverified data, in 1861 he entered the French Masonic lodge, but soon, disappointed, left it. In any case, the communities in whose ranks stood Eliphas learned a lot from his concepts ^[3] .

Buried in a cemetery in Ivry-sur-Seine .

The most famous books

The doctrine and ritual of higher magic = Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 1854-1856 / ISBN 978-5-904844-03-5 . (Volume 1 - Doctrine, Volume 2 - Transcendental Magic)
Key to the Great Mysteries = La Clef des Grands Mystères, 1861 / N.Novgorod, 2013 .-- ISBN 978-5-904844-39-4
History of Magic = Histoire de la Magie, 1860
Science of perfume = La science des esprits, / N.Novgorod, 2013 .-- ISBN 978-5-904844-14-1
The Great Arcanum or exposed occultism, / N.Novgorod, 2014. - ISBN 978-5-904844-88-2

Literature

Fialko M.M., Theory of Astral Light by Eliphas Levy and Its Origins (Part One) // Religious Studies . - 2012. - No. 1 . - S. 114-119 . - ISSN 2072-8662 . Archived on August 28, 2014.
Arnaud de l'Estoile, Qui suis-je? Éliphas Lévi , Pardès, Grez-sur-Loing, 2008.
Daniel S. Larangé, Théologie mariale et discours féministe: la foi romantique en l´avenir du pouvoir féminin selon l´abbé Alphonse-Louis Constant , Tangence, 94 autumn 2010, p. 113-134.

Notes

↑ Billi Andre's “Stanislas de Guaita” / Translation from French by V. Nugatov. - ISBN 5-902753-02-3
↑ Boris Lehman, “Saint Martin, the Unknown Philosopher as a Disciple of the House of Martinez de Pasqualis”; R. A. Gilbert, A. E. Waite French Mystic and the History of Modern Martinism, ISBN 5-94698-048-3
↑ ¹ ² ³ Christopher McIntosh, Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival, 1972.
↑ ¹ ² Ellwood, Robert S. (1993). Islands of the Dawn. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1487-8 .
↑ ¹ ² ³ C. Nelson Stewart, Bulwer Lytton as Occultist 1996: 36 notes that the one surviving letter from Lévi to Lytton "would appear to be addressed to a stranger or to a very distant acquaintance" (AE Waite).

Links

Toutes les œuvres par Éliphas Lévi (livres gratuits à télécharger légalement au format PDF - Stampy Says)
Citations d'Eliphas Lévi
Son ouvrage Fables et Symboles en téléchargement .

[1] Billi Andre's “Stanislas de Guaita” / Translation from French by V. Nugatov. - ISBN 5-902753-02-3

[2] Boris Lehman, “Saint Martin, the Unknown Philosopher as a Disciple of the House of Martinez de Pasqualis”; R. A. Gilbert, A. E. Waite French Mystic and the History of Modern Martinism, ISBN 5-94698-048-3

[autogenerated2-3] ¹ ² ³ Christopher McIntosh, Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival, 1972.

[autogenerated3-4] ¹ ² Ellwood, Robert S. (1993). Islands of the Dawn. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1487-8 .

[autogenerated1-5] ¹ ² ³ C. Nelson Stewart, Bulwer Lytton as Occultist 1996: 36 notes that the one surviving letter from Lévi to Lytton "would appear to be addressed to a stranger or to a very distant acquaintance" (AE Waite).