La Clef des grands mystères - Suivant Hénoch, Abraham, Hermès Trismégiste et Salomon

Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the monstrous or marvellous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, in the ceremonies practised at reception by all secret societies, there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed. Occult philosophy seems to have been the nurse or god-mother of all intellectual forces, the key of all divine obscurities and the absolute queen of society in those ages - when it was reserved exclusively for the education of priests and of kings. It reigned in Persia with the Magi, who perished in the end, as perish all masters of the world, because they abused their power; it endowed India with the most wonderful traditions and with an incredible wealth of poesy, grace and terror in its emblems; it civilized Greece to the music of the lyre of Orpheus; it concealed the principles of all sciences, all progress of the human mind, in the daring calculations of Pythagoras; fable abounded in its miracles, and history, attempting to estimate this unknown power, became confused with fable; it undermined or consolidated empires by its oracles, caused tyrants to tremble on their thrones and governed all minds, either by curiosity or by fear.

Dogma and Ritual of High Magic. Book I

MANY paths lead to the mountain-top, and many and diverse are the rifts in the Veil, through which glimpses may be obtained of the secret things of the Universe.

The Abbé Louis Constant, better known by his nom de plume of ÉLIPHAS LÉVI, was doubtless a seer; but, though his studies were by no means confined to this, he saw only through the medium of the kabala, the perfect sense of which is, now-a-days, hidden from all mere kabalists, and his visions were consequently always imperfect and often much distorted and confused.

Moreover, he was for a considerable portion of his career a Roman Catholic priest, and as such had to keep terms, to a certain extent, with his church, and even later, when he was unfrocked, he hesitated to shock the prejudices of the public, and never succeeded in even wholly freeing himself from the bias of his early clerical training. Consequently he not only erred at times in good faith, not only constantly wrote ambiguously to avoid a direct collision with his ecclesiastical chiefs or current creeds, but he not unfrequently put forward Dogmas, which, taken in their obvious straightforward meanings, he certainly did not believe--nay, I may say, certainly knew to be false.

Paradoxes of the Highest Science

Pour la première fois, une Histoire de la magie composée de sept volumes regroupés ici en un seul tome, nous montre au cours des siècles quels furent les rituels les mieux gardés et nous en révèle les secrets. 

Cette oeuvre majeure dans toute bibliothèque d'occultisme retrace l'histoire de la Magie, de ses origines dans les temps anciens à la fin du XIXe siècle. Qu'il y soit question de magie Hermétique, d'alchimie, de sorcellerie ou des secrets de la Kabbale, Éliphas Lévi, dans une démarche qui se veut pédagogique, nous raconte cette histoire dans un langage simple, avec précision et concision. Un histoire qui se lit comme un roman.

Histoire de la magie - Une histoire des procédés et rituels secrets au cours des siècles

Le livre des splendeurs

KNOWEST thou that old queen of the world who is on the march always and wearies never? Every uncurbed passion, every selfish pleasure, every licentious energy of humanity, and all its tyrannous weakness, go before the sordid mistress of our tearful valley, and, scythe in hand, these indefatigable labourers reap their eternal harvest. That queen is old as time, but her skeleton is concealed in the wreckage of women's beauty, which she abstracts from their youth and love. Her skull is adorned with lifeless tresses that are not her own. Spoliator of crowned heads, she is embellished with the plunder of queens, from the star-begemmed hair of Berenice to that-white, but not with age-which the executioner sheared from the brow of Marie Antoinette. Her livid and frozen body is clothed in faded garments and tattered winding-sheets. Her bony hands, covered with rings, hold diadems and chains, scepters and crossbones, jewels and ashes. When she goes by, doors open of themselves; she passes through walls; she penetrates to the cabinets of kings; she surprises the extortioners of the poor in their most secret orgies; she sits down at their board, pours out their wine, grins at their songs with her gumless teeth, takes the place of the lecherous courtesan hidden behind their curtains.

Dogma and Ritual of High Magic. Book II

Extrait : "Dieu ne peut être défini que par la foi ; la science ne peut ni nier ni affirmer qu'il existe. Dieu est l'objet absolu de la foi humaine. Dans l'infini, c'est l'intelligence suprême et créatrice de l'ordre. Dans le monde, c'est l'esprit de charité. L'Être universel est-il une machine fatale qui broie éternellement des intelligences de hasard ou une intelligence providentielle qui dirige les forces pour l'amélioration des esprits ?"

Reprenant les diverses critiques qui ont pu lui être faites en son temps par divers "sages" (médecins, savants, prêtres, etc.) quant au contenu de ce qu'il dévoilait au sein de ses travaux, Eliphas Lévi prend ici la peine de répondre à chacune avec humour, sagesse et finesse afin de montrer les limites des conceptions idéologiques de chacun de ces "sages" et de leurs certitudes. Utilisant intelligemment ces remarques et critiques, il se propose ensuite d'éclairer plus avant le lecteur sur les différentes thématiques évoquées, afin de dévoiler davantage le fond de ses pensées sur le thème de l'occultisme, de la magie, de la religion, de l'initiation etc.

Le Livre des Sages - Oeuvre posthume

Dies geniale Werk des französischen Magiers E. Levi behandelt die Philosophie des Ausgleichs, des Gleichgewichtes, die Balance der Kräfte, die beiden linken und rechten Waagschalen, die zur Gottheit führen. Er setzt den Vergleich zwischen dem Zentrum und der Peripherie, stellt die beiden notwendigen Seiten von Gut und Böse gegenüber, die zur wahren goldenen Mitte führen, wie es bis jetzt in dieser Weise noch nie zu Papier gebracht wurde. Levi schreibt gegen den notwendigen Teufel, weil seine tierischen Eigenschaften nicht im Seelenspiegel enthalten sein dürfen. Gleichzeitig stellt er den dummen und unwissenden Menschen dem weisen und wissenden Eingeweihten gegenüber, um den Unterschied zwischen dem giftigen und vergänglichen Blei und dem ewig glänzenden Gold aufzuzeigen.

La Clef des grands mystères - Suivant Hénoch, Abraham, Hermès Trismégiste et Salomon

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