The History of Magic - Including a Clear and Precise Exposition of its Procedure, Its Rites and Its Mysteries

Éliphas Lévi

Description

This vintage classic gives invaluable insight into the mysterious depths of the mind of French author and ceremonial magician, Éliphas Lévi.

Explore the rich history of magic and delve into its procedures and rites as E. Lévi presents his knowledge of the occult. First published in 1913, this volume is an essential read for those with an interest in witchcraft and sorcery.

The chapters featured in this volume include:

- Magic of the Magi

- Magic in Ancient Greece

- The Kabalah

- Primitive Symbolism

- Mysticism

- Oracles

- Magical Monuments

- Magic and Christianity

- Pagan Magic

- Kabalistic Paintings and Sacred Emblems

- Sorcerers

- Magic and Freemasonry

- The Illuminati

Sujets

• Spirituality
• Magick

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 13 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528783187
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

THE HISTORY OF MAGIC

James Hyatt .
LIPHAS L VI
Frontispiece
THE HISTORY OF MAGIC
INCLUDING A CLEAR AND PRECISE EXPOSITION OF ITS PROCEDURE, ITS RITES AND ITS MYSTERIES
BY
LIPHAS L VI
(ALPHONSE LOUIS CONSTANT)
Opus hierarchicum et catholicum (Definition of the Great Work, according to Heinrich Khunrath)
TRANSLATED, WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES, BY
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS ARE INCLUDED AND PORTRAITS OF THE AUTHOR
Second Edition
Eliphas Levi
Alphonse Louis Constant - better-known by his pen name, Eliphas Levi - was born in Paris, France in 1810. In his youth, he began to study to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, penning a number of minor religious works. Two of his more radical works, advocating what was considered extreme social liberalism, earned him brief prison sentences. In 1853, after a visit to England, Levi became interested in Rosicrucianism, and produced his first treatise on magic in 1854 under the title Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ( Dogma and Ritual of High Magic ) (1855). He published the sequel, La Clef des Grands Myst res ( The Key to the Great Mysteries) , six years later, and followed this with Fables et Symboles ( Stories and Images ) (1862), La Science des Esprits ( The Science of Spirits ) (1865), Le Grand Arcane, ou l Occultisme D voil ( The Great Secret, or Occultism Unveiled ) (posthumous; 1898). Levi s personal brand of magic was a great success, coinciding as it did with the growth of spiritualism on either side of the Atlantic. He was a great influence on the legendary occultist Aleister Crowley. Levi died in 1875, aged 65.
A Brief Introduction to Magic Tricks
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks, or creating illusions of a seemingly impossible, or supernatural nature - utilising natural means . These feats are called magic tricks, effects, or illusions. Some performers may also be referred to by names reflecting the type of magical effects they present, such as prestidigitators (sleight of hand), conjurors (purportedly invoking deities or spirits), hypnotists (involving individuals mental states), mentalists (demonstrating highly evolved mental abilities) or escape artists (the art of escaping from restraints or traps). The term magic is etymologically derived from the Greek word mageia . Greeks and Persians had been at war for centuries and the Persian priests, called magosh in Persian, came to be known as magoi in Greek; a term which eventually referred to any foreign, unorthodox or illegitimate ritual practice.
Performances which modern observers would recognize as conjuring have probably been practiced throughout history. But for much of magic s history, magicians have been associated with the devil and the occult. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many performers capitalised on this notion in their advertisements and shows. In the UK, this association dates back to Reginald Scott s The Discoverie of Witchcraft , published in 1584, in which he attempted to show that witches did not exist, by exposing how many (apparently miraculous) feats of magic were done. The book is often deemed the first textbook about conjuring, but all obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603, and those remaining are now very rare. For many centuries, magic was performed either on the street as a type of entertainment for the common masses or at court, for nobility. During the early 1800s however, large-scale magic performances began making their way onto the theatre stage. Modern entertainment magic owes much to Jean Eug ne Robert-Houdin (1805-1871), originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the 1840s. His speciality was the construction of mechanical automata which appeared to move and act as if they were alive; a feat which wowed his audiences for many years.
The escapologist and magician, Harry Houdini took his stage name from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them based on what became known after his death as escapology . Houdini was genuinely skilled in techniques such as lock picking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the range of conjuring techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in the audience. In the modern day, these forms of magic easily transferred from theatrical venues to television specials; a transition which has opened up myriad new opportunities for deceptions. It has also brought stage magic to vast audiences, as most television magicians perform before a live audience, who provide the remote viewer with a reassurance that the illusions are not obtained with post-production visual effects. Some modern illusionists believe that it is unethical to give a performance that claims to be anything other than a clever and skilful deception. Most of these performers therefore eschew the term magician (which they view as making a claim to supernatural power) in favour of illusionist and similar descriptions. On the other side of the coin, many performers say that magical acts, as a form of theatre, need no more of a disclaimer than any play or film; this viewpoint is reflected in the words of magician and mentalist Joseph Dunninger, who stated that for those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.
Although there is also discussion among magicians about how a given effect should be categorised, they broadly fall into the following categories: Production (where the magician produces something from nothing; a rabbit from a hat for example), Vanish (where something disappears), Transformation (where a silk handkerchief may change colour), Restoration (where the magician will destroy an object, then restore it to its original state, Teleportation (where a borrowed ring may be found inside a ball of wool, or a canary inside a light bulb), Levitation (where the magician, or some person or object defies gravity), and Prediction (where events are predicted under seemingly impossible and unexplainable circumstances).
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
I N several casual references scattered through periodical literature, in the biographical sketch which preceded my rendering of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie and elsewhere, as occasion prompted, I have put on record an opinion that the History of Magic , by Alphonse Louis Constant, written-like the majority of his works-under the pseudonym of liphas L vi, is the most arresting, entertaining and brilliant of all studies on the subject with which I am acquainted. So far back as 1896 I said that it was admirable as a philosophical survey, its historical inaccuracies notwithstanding, and that there is nothing in occult literature which can suffer comparison therewith. Moreover, there is nothing so comprehensive in the French language, while as regards ourselves it must be said that-outside records of research on the part of folk-lore scholarship-we have depended so far on a history by Joseph Ennemoser, translated from the German and explaining everything, within the domain included under the denomination of Magic, by the phenomena of Animal Magnetism. Other texts than this are available in that language, but they have not been put into English; while none of them has so great an appeal as that which is here rendered into our tongue. Having certified so far regarding its titles, it is perhaps desirable to add, from my own standpoint, that I have not translated the book merely because it is entertaining and brilliant, or because it will afford those who are concerned with Magic in history a serviceable general account. The task has been undertaken still less in the interests of any who may have other-that is to say, direct occult-reasons for acquaintance with its procedure, its rites and its mysteries. I have no object in providing unwary and foolish seekers with material of this kind, and it so happens that the present History does not fulfil the promise of its sub-title in these respects, or at least to any extent that they would term practical in their folly. Through all my later literary life I have sought to make it plain, as the result of antecedent years spent in occult research, that the occult sciences-in all their general understanding-are paths of danger when they are not paths of simple make-believe and imposture. The importance of Eliphas L vi s account at large of the claims, and of their story throughout the centuries, arises from the fact ( a ) that he is the authoritative exponent-in-chief of all the alleged sciences; ( b ) that it is he who, in a sense, restored and placed them, under a new and more attractive vesture, before public notice at the middle period of the nineteenth century; ( c ) that he claimed, as we shall see, the very fullest knowledge concerning them, being that of an adept and master; but ( d ) that-subject to one qualification, the worth of which will be mentioned-it follows from his long examination that Magic, as understood not in the streets only but in the houses of research concerning it, has no ground in the truth of things, and is of the region of delusion only. It is for this reason that I have translated his History of Magic, as one who reckons a not too gracious task for something which leans toward righteousness, at least in the sense of charity. The world is full at this day of the false claims which arise out of that region, and I have better reasons than most even of my readers can imagine to undeceive those who, having been drawn in such directions, may be still saved from deception. It is well therefore that out of the mouth of a master we can draw the fullest evidence required for this purpose.
In the present prefatory words I propose to shew, firstly, the nature of liphas L vi s personal claims, so that there may be no misconception as to what they were actually, and as to the kind of voice which is speaking; secondly, hi