Eliphas Levi
1810 – 1875 French occultist, author, former deacon
Author whose books launched the modern revival of ceremonial magic.
- Religion
- A synthesis of Kabbalah, tarot, and ceremonial magic within a Catholic frame, presenting magic as a hidden science of the will and a universal astral light.
- Affiliations
- No lasting order. His books became the foundation of the 19th-century occult revival.
Eliphas Levi, born Alphonse Louis Constant, trained for the Catholic priesthood before turning to occultism and writing Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. He linked the tarot to the Hebrew alphabet and the Kabbalah and described magic as a science of the trained will working through a universal astral light. His work was the main bridge from older traditions to the Theosophical Society and the Golden Dawn.
Connections
- influenced Aleister Crowley — Crowley claimed to be Levi's reincarnation, born the year Levi died.
- influenced Aleister Crowley — Crowley claimed to be the reincarnation of Levi.
- influenced Helena Blavatsky — Blavatsky drew on Levi's occult writings.
- influenced Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers — The Golden Dawn built directly on Levi's ceremonial magic.
In the timeline
- 1854 Eliphas Levi links Kabbalah and the tarot central figure
- 1856 Eliphas Levi draws the Baphomet within an inverted pentagram central figure
- 1966 Church of Satan adopts the inverted pentagram with goat head, the Sigil of Baphomet mentioned