Eliphas Levi: The magician who revived occultism
Many modern motifs of the occult - from spiritual imagery to tarot cards - were first popularised by the visionary magician Éliphas Lévi in the 19th century.
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Éliphas Lévi might be the most influential magician you’ve never heard of. He was born in France on 8th February 1810 and did not start professing knowledge of the occult until the age of 40. However, he shaped many aspects of modern esoteric thought, leading him to be seen as something of a pioneer.
Did you know that many of the customary designs on modern tarot cards are down to him? He even created the now-iconic image of the winged goat-creature Baphomet.
It’s easy to think that many occultist traditions date back to ancient times. Many of them actually originate from Éliphas Lévi - an enterprising Frenchman who grew up loyal to Catholicism but opted to reinterpret much of its doctrine. As Sky HISTORY has found out, this approach gained him both admirers and enemies.
Éliphas Lévi’s early life
Éliphas Lévi was born Alphonse Louis Constant in Paris. At this time, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled as Emperor of the French (and was only about two years away from his disastrous invasion of Russia).
Constant’s early life was inconspicuous. He was born to a shoemaker and, in 1832, started on the path towards becoming a priest. To this end, he entered the seminary at the Church of Saint-Sulpice, a Catholic church still standing in the French capital to this day.
However, though Constant was ordained as a deacon, he later abandoned his plans to join the priesthood. It was a bit like the early-19th-century equivalent of dropping out of university because you decide the course isn’t for you after all. That’s according to at least one theory about the young Constant’s motives, anyway…
Why did Constant leave Saint-Culpice?
In 1922, mystic A. E. Waite suggested that Constant had ‘conceived strange views on doctrinal subjects, though no particulars are forthcoming’. Worse, it appears that Constant just wasn’t the type to keep his unorthodox opinions to himself.
Waite believes that as Constant was ‘deficient in gifts of silence, the displeasure of authority was marked by various checks’. Eventually, a higher-up at Saint-Sulpice put their foot down, expelling this maverick thinker from the seminary.
Constant develops a rebellious image
Waite allows that Constant may have actually jumped before he was pushed, and ‘relinquished the sacerdotal career in consequence of doubts and scruples’. Constant did later claim to have resolved supposed conflicts between faith and science.
In the first half of his life, Constant wrote a number of political texts espousing socialist ideals. Consequently, he found himself serving prison sentences imposed upon him by a government fearing that he would otherwise ferment social unrest.
His reputation as a left-wing radical was further cemented by his initially positive reaction to the rise of Napoleon III in 1852. Constant was convinced that the new Emperor of the French would restore public order. He was soon disabused of this notion, and once again saw the inside walls of a prison in 1855 after publicly criticising the Emperor.
What were Éliphas Lévi’s occultist beliefs?
It’s theorised that, after becoming disillusioned with Napoleon III, Constant shed his previous political persona and pivoted to exploring mysticism instead. It was around this time that Constant adopted the pen name ‘Éliphas Lévi’ (a Hebrew version of ‘Alphonse Louis’).
Alternatively, it could be argued that the esoteric views expressed in his spiritualist treatises were actually grounded in his socialist beliefs. Lévi also incorporated elements of philosophy and the Kabbalah into his teachings.
Lévi’s best-known text, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magic (known in English as Transcendental Magic), encapsulated his skill at reconciling religion with reason. Lévi did not deem magic a mere superstition. Instead, he saw it as a science with the power to help the human microcosm pursue universal principles.
The figure of Baphomet (as created by Lévi) itself unites traditionally opposing ideals - like those of male and female, light and dark. This version of Baphomet first appeared in Transcendental Magic, published in two volumes in the 1850s. Lévi also promoted the concept of ‘astral light’, a fluidic life force capable of being magically manipulated to bring about changes in the material world.
Éliphas Lévi’s legacy
Lévi passed away on 31st May 1875, but left a long-lasting impact on occultism. He helped to popularise the use of tarot cards for divination purposes. He also heavily influenced other occultists, including the British-born Aleister Crowley, who even claimed to be Lévi reincarnated.
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