French occultist and tarot reader Levi Eliphas: biography, books, achievements and discoveries

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In the history of mankind, there were many figures, inventors and discoverers who contributed to the development of completely different areas. Among the magic and esoteric sciences, Eliphas Levi became such a figure. Many people interested in this area appreciated him for his openness to superreality. In addition, he made many discoveries in magic, wrote a large number of books, opened the mysteries of rituals and practices to the world. Over time, he began to be called the last magician.

Biography

Levi Eliphas is the pseudonym of the French tarot reader and occultist Alphonse Louis Constant. He was born on February 8, 1810 in the family of a shoemaker in Paris. Since childhood, he was a very dreamy boy. From an early age, he was interested in magic and magic, and he believed that the world is much more than it seems at first glance.

Study

The first educational institution in the life of the occultist was the Primary Seminary of St. Nicholas, located in Chardonnay, where his parents sent him. After graduation, he went to Issy to enter the Higher Sulpician Seminary. It was there that Levi Eliphasbegins the study of magic, in this he is helped by the director of the seminary, the abbot. After graduating from this institution, he was supposed to become a deacon, but his life turned out differently. As soon as he was ordained in 1836, Levi disowned him out of his own passion.

Private life

As Levi Eliphas himself said, he did not continue the spiritual path, because God rewarded him with what unmerciful saints call "temptation". He himself believed that this was a true initiation into human life. His first passion was the young Adele Allenbach, to whom he taught the discipline of catechism. But his life changed dramatically after the suicide of his mother. Then spiritual and material poverty burst into her, flooding with negativity.

Fateful for him was the meeting with Gauguin's grandmother, Flora Tristan, who was quite a significant figure in the women's and workers' liberation movement. It was a very stormy conversation that changed Levy's life forever. It was this woman who introduced him to Alphonse Esquiros and Balzac. The first just before they met, published a novel called "The Magician", which undoubtedly influenced Constant.

Solem

In 1939, Levi Eliphas returns to the path of church service and heads to Solem Abbey. He stayed there for only a year, after which he left it due to the fact that he did not get along with the rector. But during this time he did a lot. Having received the writings of Spiridon Georges Santa in his hands, he learned a lot of information of interest to him.

Also, he was able to master the teachings of the Gnostics of antiquity. Having plunged into mysticism with his head, it was in Solem that he wrote the now famous Bible of Freedom.

Return to Paris and prison

When he returned to Paris a year later, his financial situation again became quite miserable. He got a job as an intern at the Oratorian College in Ruyi. Then he decides to publish his Liberty Bible for the first time. But as soon as the first edition hit the shelves, the book was immediately withdrawn. The arrest of the "bible" was justified by the fact that it expressed agreement with the ideas preached by Lamenne, a Christian socialist. But in 1841, Levi again expresses the same ideas, only this time in his Religious and Social Teachings.

Naturally, this entailed certain consequences. Constant was arrested and imprisoned in Saint-Pelagie, accused of attacking property, as well as religious and social conscience. In addition to the imprisonment itself, he was also awarded a huge fine, which, due to his financial situation, he was simply unable to pay. Levy has been imprisoned for almost a year, but even here he does not waste time and gets acquainted with the works of Swedenborg in the prison library.

Period after imprisonment

After his release, he almost immediately releases his new book, called "The Mother of God". The clergy said about this work that the author showed heavenly love incorrectly, because it is more reminiscent of earthly feelings. After that, he is completelyrenounces church and cassock. Among Constant's work there were also songs, which, it is worth noting, were approved by Beranger himself.

From mysticism to barricades

In 1845, Constant begins a detailed study of literature related to the problems of the modern social order and calling for the elimination of social inequality. Eliphas Levi studied an incredible amount of information. Magic and ritual interested him most of all. Over time, he devotes himself to the political changes of the modern order. Levy at that time visited many republican political clubs and made far from one speech there, thanks to which he made acquaintance with Pierre Leroux. After that, he met an eighteen-year-old girl with whom he immediately fell in love. She would later become known as a sculptor under the pseudonym Claude Vignon, although her real name is Noémie Cadio.

New Conclusion

Because of cooperation with the opposition press, Eliphas is again imprisoned. He was convicted for a pamphlet en titled "The Voice of Hunger". After these events, the February uprising occurs, in which Levy takes an active part as a spokesman for clubs.

After the completion of these events, he miraculously managed to escape execution and stay alive. But this significantly pacified his ardor, and he moved away from political activity. Thanks to this, the tarot reader and occultist returned to his former path, taking the pseudonym Eliphas Levi. Doctrine and ritual are also of interest to many contemporary surrealists.

Kabbalah

After meeting Goene, Vronsky Constant changes his life path,realizing in conversations with this person that Kabbalah is the main science of faith. Inspired, he creates publications of dogmas and describes under his new pseudonym Eliphas Levi the doctrine and ritual of higher magic. This name is a translation of his real data into Hebrew. At the same time, he conducts his famous invocation of the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana, who was a great magician living as far back as the first century. This is happening in London.

Old age and death

By the time of old age, Eliphas Levi, whose books are of interest to many surrealists, already had a lot of students and followers. Therefore, poverty no longer threatened him, because he received money for the publication of many occult works. In addition, his students diligently cared for him and helped financially. On May 31, 1875, a famous tarot reader and magician died of dropsy. Therefore, the last book of Eliphas Levi was published after his death. It was published by one of his followers, Baron Spedalieri. It was thanks to this devoted disciple that the world saw the famous book called "The Key to the Major Arcana or Occultism Unveiled".

Eliphas Levi "History of Magic"

One of the most significant books of this famous man was the "History of Magic". The author was sure that people consider all manifestations of magic to be quackery and insanity only because they do not know anything about it. For Levi, magic was no less significant science than algebra or geography. Therefore, in his book, he tried to convey to the world as much as possible how important this knowledge is and how to use it in practice.

Levi believed that with the help of spells and secret rituals, you can change your life radically, become more successful and get more out of life. Therefore, to this day, his treatises and teachings find their followers, and the deep knowledge of this “last magician” is passed down from generation to generation. Levi's main achievement was that he was able to pass on the experience to his students and made magic available to everyone. Apparently, this was facilitated by his past, where he participated with interest in the political life of the country and tried to achieve justice for all segments of the population.

Eliphas Levi. "Transcendent Magic"

Practically the reference book of any medium for many years has been "Transcendental Magic", written by the famous tarologist Levi. He explains in as much detail as possible everything related to spirits, and helps to subdue them, learn to talk with them and understand the nature of being. We can safely say that all his life this man tried to convey to society all possible information regarding magic in general.

He tried to show another reality, wider and more significant than the material world. And the fact that the books of this author have been attracting the interest of readers for more than a century only says that Eliphas Levi made an incommensurable contribution to understanding the subtle world.