In this Book
- Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: State University of New York Press
summary
A searching study of Eliphas Lévi and the French occult revival. This classic study of the French magician Eliphas Lévi and the occult revival in France is at last available again after being out of print and highly sought after for many years. Its central focus is Lévi himself (1810-1875), would-be priest, revolutionary socialist, utopian visionary, artist, poet and, above all, author of a number of seminal books on magic and occultism. It is largely thanks to Lévi, for example, that the Tarot is so widely used today as a divinatory method and a system of esoteric symbolism. The magicians of the Golden Dawn were strongly influenced by him, and Aleister Crowley even believed himself to be Lévi's reincarnation. The book is not only about Lévi, however, but also covers the era of which he was a part and the remarkable figures who preceded and followed him – the esoteric Freemasons and Illuminati of the late 18th century, and later figures such as the Rosicrucian magus Joséphin Péladan, the occultist Papus (Gérard Encausse), the Counter-Pope Eugène Vintras, and the writer J.-K. Huysmans, whose work drew strongly on occult themes. These people were avatars of a set of traditions which are now seen as an important part of the western heritage and which are gaining increasing attention in the academy. Christopher McIntosh's vivid account of this richly fascinating era in the history of occultism remains as fresh and compelling as ever.
Table of Contents
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- List of Illustrations
- pp. 4-6
- Introduction
- pp. 11-14
- Part 1: The Age of Unreason
- pp. 15-16
- 1. The Rebirth of Magic
- pp. 17-33
- 2. The Occult and the Revolution
- pp. 34-43
- 3. Revolutionary Cults
- pp. 44-50
- 5. Magnetisers and Mediums
- pp. 55-60
- 6. The Holy King
- pp. 61-70
- Part 2: Eliphas Lévi
- pp. 71-72
- 7. The Early Years
- pp. 73-82
- 8. The Radical
- pp. 83-95
- 9. Enter Eliphas Lévi
- pp. 96-104
- 10. The Magician
- pp. 105-123
- 11. The Pundit
- pp. 124-135
- 12. The Last Years
- pp. 136-140
- 13. Eliphas Lévi: An Assessment
- pp. 141-154
- Part 3: Towards the Kingdom of the Paraclete
- pp. 155-156
- 14. The Heirs of Eliphas Lévi
- pp. 157-170
- 15. The War of the Roses
- pp. 171-176
- 16. The Magical Quest of J.-K. Huysmans
- pp. 177-194
- 17. Writers and the Occult
- pp. 195-205
- 18. Satanists and anti-Satanists
- pp. 206-218
- 19. The Indian Summer of Occultism
- pp. 219-224
- Select Bibliography
- pp. 228-232
Additional Information
ISBN
9781438435589
DOI
MARC Record
OCLC
713035999
Pages
240
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No