The History of Magic (1913) is an extensive work on the origins of ceremonial magic throughout the world\'s many cultures and religions.
By exploring the magical components of the paga.
In 1860, he began work on The History of Magic, an assessment and analysis of sacred magic through many past cultures.
Writing under the name Éliphas Lévi-a literal translation of his name Alphonse Louis into Hebrew-he began to share his ideas on magic with the public.
And anyone who attempted to use magic for personal gain would lead to their own destruction.
Eschewing the charlatan\'s tricks and parlor illusions, Lévi believed that the practice of ceremonial magic required a strong will, psychic force, and powerful imagination to discover true science and influence reality.
He also incorporated Tarot cards into his magic teachings, which is why the Tarot is still considered part of the Western magic tradition.
He became a ceremonial magician and developed a social circle of other mystical and occultist thinkers.
Through the 1850s and 1860s, Constant developed and disseminated his growing ideas of the occult, mysticism, and the Kabbalistic school of thought.
He would be imprisoned again four years later for publishing a pamphlet critical of Emperor Napoleon III.
Constant was arrested immediately and spent six months in prison.
Unsurprisingly, the French government was highly sensitive to any work that advocated a change in social structure a mere 62 years after the terror of the French Revolution.
His first book, The Bible of Liberty (1851), expounds on these ideas.
Constant, too, promoted a vision of an ideal society that would be a utopia for all.
He was influenced by the work of the mystic Simon Ganneau, a socialist and feminist who advocated gender equality and female emancipation.
Constant worked as a tutor to keep himself afloat, continuing to seek spiritual answers.
A week before he was due to take orders as a priest, he left the Church and returned to civilian life.
While he did become ordained a deacon, he found that his doubts regarding the doctrine of the Catholic Church precluded him from completing his ordination.
At age 22, he entered the seminary at Saint Sulpice for an education that would prepare him for the priesthood.
French occultist Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875) was born in Paris to a shoemaker father.
Waite, this is a foundational book for any student of the occult.
Written by mystic and occultist Éliphas Lévi and translated by British scholar A.
E.
The History of Magic (1913) is an extensive work on the origins of ceremonial magic throughout the world\'s many cultures and religions
