Eliphas Lévi - Rénovateur de l'Occultisme en France (1810 - 1875), by Chacornac, Paul.

Eliphas Lévi - Rénovateur de l'Occultisme en France (1810 - 1875), by Chacornac, Paul. 1926 French language softcover. 300 pages, nice condition, repaired cover and a few minor interior binding issues, overall intact.

Eliphas Levi (1810 – 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. He wrote over 20 books on magic, Kabbalah, alchemical studies, and occultism. He had a deep impact on the magic of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later on ex–Golden Dawn member Aleister Crowley. He was also the first to declare that a pentagram or five-pointed star with one point down and two points up represents evil, while a pentagram with one point up and two points down represents good. Lévi's ideas also influenced Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society. His drawing of the androgynous, goat-headed “Baphomet” is one of the most famous esoteric images worldwide.

When one wishes to better understand a work, it is useful to know the biography of its author. Thus, through the copious work that Paul Chacornac devoted to the life of Eliphas Levi, we are quite surprised to discover a man very different from the one we could have imagined when reading his essential books: "The Key to the Great Mysteries," "Dogmas & Ritual of High – Magic," "History of Magic," and "Course of Occult Philosophy.”