Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival

13. Eliphas Lévi: An Assessment

13 Eliphas Levi . An Assessment The generation of occultists that followed Levi regarded him as its guide and master. And it was not only in France that his name was revered. Kenneth Mackenzie, as we have seen, came to Paris to sit at his feet, MacGregor Mathers called him a 'great qabalist', and Aleister Crowley believed himself to be a reincarnation of Levi. All of these men were involved, at various times, in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which had a profound influence on the development of occultism in the West. Levi, therefore, can be considered as one ofthe key figures in the history of modern occultism. There must, however, be many people who, knowing of Levi's position in the occult pantheon, have read his works with a fceling of extreme disappointment. Much of what he wrote is turgid, confused and naive. The reader who braves the chaos of Levi's writing soon fmds himselfbafRed by the contradictions which beset the man and his work. He succeeded in being at the same time a radical and a traditionalist, a rationalist and a believer in the supra-rational, an occultist and an orthodox Catholic. His writings teem with apparent inconsistencies. To attempt to extract a coherent teaching from Levi's books is like trying to fit together a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces are constantly changing shape and colour. A. E. Waite, one of Levi's main exegetists and also a Golden Dawn member, eventually gave up in despair, concluding that his writings represented 'the shifting moods ofa brilliant mind which had no certain anchorage , outside a hypothesis for explaining certain phenomena.'! But in order to evaluate Levi it is necessary to understand that he did not develop his occult philosophy suddenly; he evolved towards it, navigating his way through misty regions and across perilous seas-it is not surprising that he changed course several 142 Eliphas Levi and the French Occult Revival times. Finally he did succeed in finding, if not an anchorage, then a method and a point of view. But before assessing his contribution to occultism we must also consider in turn two other aspects of Levi: the radical polemicist and the literary stylist, both of whom deserve modest recognition. As a radical thinker Levi introduced no very original ideas. But he was in many ways ahead of his time and he differed from many ofhis fellow socialists in adhering firmly to Catholicism and in attempting to base his political philosophy on Christian principles. Though he was not capable ofconstructing a profound political theory he did have the ability to see certain truths and to point them out in a succinct and pithy way. For example, in Les Portes de l'avenir, he says: 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! Three words which seem to shine and are in fact full ofshadow! Three truths which, in coming together, form a triple lie! For they destroy one another. Liberty necessarily manifests inequality, and equality is a levelling process that does not permit liberty, because the heads that rise higher than others must always be forced down to the mean. The attempt to establish equality and liberty together produce an interminable struggle ... that makes fraternity among men impossible.' When, however, it comes to drawing up any kind ofpolitical programme, Eliphas Levi becomes naive and extravagant. In Les Portes de l'avenir, he recommends a series of reforms, including the following: 'That public scandals be no longer tolerated. 'That women without estate who live idle and luxurious lives be taught to work in houses of correction. 'That honest women be protected by law and be admitted to anyjob which they can do aswell as a man, so they no longer have to resort to prostitution. 'That men who live off prostitutes be imprisoned. 'That the death penalty be replaced by a longer, harder punishment : life imprisonment in a dark hole without human contact and only bread and water to eat and drink. 'That there be a federation of all peoples and that disagreements between nations be settled by arbitration, not war. 'That men reduced to begging bejudged: ifit is through their own fault they should be imprisoned, if through the fault of others, Society should make amends.' Apart from the somewhat inhumane suggestion about re- Eliphas Levi: An Assessment 143 placing the death penalty, most of these ideas would be totally impossible to put into effect. Some ofhis recommendations are...