Customer Reviews

The History of Magic

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Eliphas Levi's "History of Magic" is probably the most singularly beautiful, profoundly romantic and Personal rendering of the history of Magic ever penned. It is as much a sourcebook for the Symbolist/Decadent fin-de-siecle generation as is Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil & Paris Spleen, and ironically, Levi collaborated with Baudelaire on the work entitled:"Les Mysteres Galants".(webb. Occult Underground,266) It is essential to grasp when involved in such a historical treatise as this, that in Occultism, as in religious thought: EXPERIENCE TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER DOCTRINE. If one is seeking verifiable facts given in chronological order that is simple to digest and retain, look elsewhere. For Levi is speaking of history in relation to his own private researches, to which he had dedicated his life since entering the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church at the age of twelve. His is also a history of magic with literary antecedents; to the likes of Aurthur Rimbaud for instance, this work of Levi/Constant's was a veritable bible, whose symbolism permeates works such as "A Season In Hell" to a deliriant degree. There is perhaps not one writer or Artist regardless of medium between the years 1860-1930 who was not at least familiar with Levi/Constant; this fact extends from his own friends, such as Balzac, de Nerval, Victor Hugo, Dumas- to Breton, Crowley, Bataille, Meyrink, Henry Miller and innumerable others! The names cover from Western to Eastern Europe, as well as North America; and it is Levi who established what we define, in its cultural sense, as "Occultism" today. It is also largely because of his pioneering Occult works that the "19th century Occult Revival" merged with the Arts of the day, giving birth to the idea of "Art as Religion, & the Artist as Priest/magician". It was in the Occult that the Artist(spelled for the 1st time with a capital)found a definition of his own position, and most granted the highest respect and admiration to the Rabelaisian personage of Alphonse Louis Constant, which is Levi's real name. Aleister Crowley's lifework was centered around Eliphas's dream of a reconciliation between the arts of science & religion, for which he laboured and set down all that was required in his Occult as well as religious and revolutionary tomes, comprising together at least 20 works. The essential question in Levi's History Of Magic is NOT the accuracy of his scholarly objectivity, but his system's origins, structure, goals, and the benefits it bestows and light shined upon the Occultist's understanding of Magic in relation to the history of magic; that Levi's historical system differs from other interpretations is due to the fact that he was not so much interested in the historical facts as much as how the history and the knowledge it produced could benefit the modern-day Occultist operating in the world today. In this respect the text is given over to interpretation of all variety of magical personages, events, accomplishments, inventions, and works. Also essential to know is that it is thanks to the genius of the Philosopher/mathmetician Hoene Wronski and his CaBalistic insights that Levi gleaned much in his Philosophical approach. One may benefit also by disregarding any facts pseudo-scholar Waite provides on Constant's background as he had at the time of writing his prefaces' not one single work in regards to the life of Levi; his critical insights however are as valid as any, and for all his seeming hostility he in reality is truly, next to Crowley, perhaps Levi's biggest fan! waite is also to be commended for providing the bibliographical sources for those seeking "established facts"( which merely means some few people agree upon what they themselves only know from yet another source of questionable reliability) It is quite evident from a philosophical standpoint that the Occultist's rewards reaped from their experience outweighs in practical value what is the scholar's bane regardless of any amount of scholarly exactitude. In this sense, as much as in the exquisitely-toned bardic prose of Levi, he has created a historical work that will outlast innumerable others, standing as it does on the merits of great literature as well as being universally regarded as a pioneering classic of Occultism.

This is the single greatest book on the history of the Spiritual Art and Science of Magick. My only two complaints about the book are that it's written in a rather biased view, from a purely Christian perspective (not that any other religion's perspective would be any better!) and the translator/editor, Arthur Edward Waite, once again sees fit to make some useless and innacurate remarks here and there. But still read his footnotes! He makes some legitimate points in this book!

I have read everything in the history of occultism, from the The Book of Splendors to the Picatrix, from Hermes Trimegustus to Madam Blavatsky, Agrippa to Albert Pike. This is the only book on occultism you will ever need. Levi knows more about the history of the magi than any writer anywhere. Those who believe he is inaccurate have only an outer knowledge of the inner tradition. If you have gotten to the point where you know of this book, buy it.

I am going to keep my review brief, and I probably would not be contributing it except to counter the negative reviews, which I consider to be quite unfairly and overly negative. First and foremost, Levi is not a profesional historian, he is an occultist, and one of the greatest who ever lifted the veil. To dismiss this beautifully written and informative book as ignorant, obsolete and lacking in citations, would be an extreme case of 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'. Whatever complaints may be made about it's historical accuracies seem trite and petty considering the wealth of immensely inspired material Levi provides. Highly recommended.

A.E. Waite could have spend his time better than translating this "French masterpiece". As always Eliphas Levi is ill-informed and doesn't care much about facts. The book is full of factual errors and Alphonse Louis Constant shapes history as it suits him. This doubtful "History of Magic" is therefore only interesting for uncritical followers of the master, reseachers who specialize in the history of occultism in the nineteenth century or for experts on the history of magic in general who can make distinctions between facts and non-sense. It is more or less misleading to rate this book five stars.

this ol boy has truly been surpassed in knowledge A LONG TIME AGO. after two books I have found little more than reference to kabhallist learning and personal imaginings of proper ritual.
not only are his books mainly the ruminations of a basement bound catholic cleric pre information age, but he also unfortunately did little more than copy current church doctrine and superstition while adapting it to his own "sacred" twist, not very powerful, not very enlightening. sounds mainly like a repeat of the dark ages gone hopeful. only benefit i derived from his writing is access to esoteric legends and biblical symbology that has been forgotten, this has been very interesting to a point but his theories on energy balance i.e., his dualistic approach to magical intention seem quite antique in the age of everything is one knowledge. good for his time, dusty for hours. god bless levi. om

The part about India being described as "the Mother of all heresies" where the reviewer above writes that this is: "[laughable, were it not so pathetic an example of judeochristian resentiment]" is actually right on the money from the perspective of a Western Esotericist and Esoteric Christian who is aware that the entire Pantheistic Diaspora of Indian deities are one and the same with the 200 Fallen Angels of Christianity.

We are all intruigued by the mysteries of magic. But this book makes the most preposterous claims about magic, ritual, history and god knows what else, that I have ever seen. Far from the claim (in a review below) of his "empiricism," Levi does not seem to have been in the least informed by the sciences of his day. The real mystery is why the great esotericsit A.E. Waite bothered to translate it from the French at all. Need an example? India is described as "the Mother of all heresies" [laughable, were it not so pathetic an example of judeochristian resentiment]. And he seriously believes that the the books of the Old Testament describe the literal anthropology & history of the peoples of the Mideast, Ishmael=Islam and all the rest [fundamentalism so naive it would make a Trent Lott blush!]. The book's organization reflects the author's romance with Quaballah, but the chapters themselves are random collections of "ideas" on topics unrelated to the chapter titles [a stream-of-consciousness style the anticipated the great Joyce by half a century, albeit to no effect, aesthetic or otherwise]. The single high point of the book is Levi's description of spiritual love: "The true man elevates himself not by trying to possess the object of his desire but by raising himself to Her through devotion" [its a pity he didn't know anything about Sufism or the key difference between magic and devotion]. Try Israel Regardie instead, who is at least steeped in Renaissance memory training, neo-Platonism and other worthies. Remember that it is but a small (backwards) step that separates dog from god.