Transcendental Magic [antikvár]

BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACEéliphas LÉVI Zahed is a pseudonym which was adopted in his occult writings by Alphonse Louis Constant, and it is said to be the Hebrew equivalent of that name. The author of the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie was born in humble circumstances about the year iSio,^ being the son of a shoemaker. Giving evidence of unusual intelligence at an early age, the priest of his parish conceived a kindly interest for the obscure boy and got him on the foundation of Saint Sulpice, where he was educated without charge and with a view to the priesthood. He seems to have passed through the course of study at that seminary in a way which did not disappoint the expectations raised concerning him. In addition to Greek and Latin, it has been alleged that he even acquired considerable knowledge of Hebrew, though it would be an error to suppose that any of his published works exhibit linguistic attainments, more especially in that language. He entered on his clerical novitiate, took minor orders and in due course became a deacon. He was also appointed a professor at the Petit Séminaire de Paris. But at some uncertain date subsequently the story is that he was expelled suddenly for holding opinions contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The existing accounts of this expulsion are hazy, and incorporate unlikely elements, as, for example, that he was sent by his ecclesiastical superiors to take duty in country places, where he preached with great eloquence what, however, was doc-trinally unsound ; but I believe that the preaching of deacons, though possible, is not practised in the Latin Church.^ Pending the appearance of the biography which has been^ "Writing to Baron Spédalieri, his friend and pupil, in the month of January i86a, he stated that he was then fifty-two years of age."See The Mysteries of Magic, second edition, 1897.^ According to one report, he fell under the influence of Lamennais and his Paroles d'un Croyant.