Éliphas Lévi
French occult writer and poet (1810–1875) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (8 February 1810 – 31 May 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenties and became a ceremonial magician. At the age of 40, he began professing knowledge of the occult.[1] He wrote over 20 books on magic, Kabbalah, alchemical studies, and occultism.
This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. (April 2022) |
Éliphas Lévi | |
---|---|
Born | Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-02-08)8 February 1810 |
Died | 31 May 1875(1875-05-31) (aged 65) Paris, Third French Republic |
Resting place | Ivry Cemetery, Ivry-sur-Seine (later disinterred and placed in a common grave) |
Spouse | |
Children | 4+ |
The pen name "Éliphas Lévi", was an anagram of his given names "Alphonse Louis" into Hebrew. Levi gained renown as an original thinker and writer, his works attracting attention in Paris and London among esotericists and artists of romantic or symbolist inspiration.[2][3] He left the Grand Orient de France (the French Masonic organization that originated Continental Freemasonry) in the belief that the original meanings of its symbols and rituals had been lost. "I ceased being a freemason, at once, because the Freemasons, excommunicated by the Pope, did not believe in tolerating Catholicism ... [and] the essence of Freemasonry is the tolerance of all beliefs."[4]
Many authors influenced Levi's political, occultic and literary development, such as the French monarchist Joseph de Maistre, whom he quotes in many parts of his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Paracelsus, Robert Fludd, Swedenborg, Fabre d'Olivet, the Rosicrucians, Plato, Raymond Lull, and other esotericists.[5]