Éliphas Lévi (1810–1875)

(Halloween-theme mock-Tarot cards commercial, probably for a TV show) “What do I have to do to be rescued from the sludge pit that is my life?”
—mock “Tarot card”: That’s not my problem!

For something so intentionally B.S.-y, it’s a pretty realistic depiction of nonsense, lol.

Anyway, on the comically opposite end of the spectrum from learning about Tarot from Halloween commercials, is learning about it from the fancy old occultists like Eliphas Levi. Incidentally, he only writes about the Major Arcana, and as he doesn’t adequately introduce or whatever what he’s talking about, so if you didn’t know the cards already, you might not have the slightest idea what the fuck he’s talking about it, you know. As it is, he’s very old-fashioned and fancy, somewhat masculine, (III is the ‘the triangle of Solomon’, for example, which fascinated me, although he was very reticent to talk about ‘love’ and such, only hinting shyly), and rather into Kabbalah (Jewish/“Anglo”-Jewish mysticism) and also just aristocratic magic in general. In some senses, it’s not quite as good a quality as modern books—over-ornate, shy, masculine, etc—but it is fascinating, historically relevant or whatever, and out of copyright (ie cheap lol).

…. But the second cycle of 22 chapters—over half the total—aren’t as good as the first set. He doesn’t give you any usable rituals; he just…. rambles on, you know.

I mean, I guess it was safer for him that way, Victorian Europe had far more tolerance for convoluted wordiness than magic itself, but—not gonna be sitting here with even one ritual at the end of this, right.

…. But I’ll say this: many of the points he makes are much more clear in what I suppose you could call more streamlined books, more modern books—but that is not the same as saying that he is incorrect or formally wrong. Just hard to remember, or even look up.

…. And it is true that initiation does imply something true that is not always popular in every epoch of history—that of hierarchy or natural aristocracy or whatever you like, although that of course does not rule out the in this age equal truth of injustice, and indeed also the possibility of vain imaginings, you know.

…. He is shy, but better shy than crazy, sometimes. “Crazy”, of course, isn’t a technical term, you know. But neither is acting out simply because you have unresolved trauma, something I recommend—or a need to shock the hicks, whatever your theory is.

Ultimately it’s good to remember that the purpose of alchemy or whatever is health and wealth, not the avoidance of life. Knowledge of chess, chemistry, and past “Jeopardy” answers are unlikely to reward one with wealth and happiness in isolation from the knowledge of the human personality and the secret things—but neither are idle questionings that, I don’t know, do not concern you, a substitute for the things that do.

Although it’s funny, because like many other 1855 books it’s very taken with chemistry and chess or whatever it is—just chess in general I mean, not specifically. Blah blah blah REASON blah blah blah blah….

…. But yeah: it is true that there is both a, well he calls it a theory, but a divination use of the Tarot, and also a magical use; and there are other true things he says too, if you can forget the many loquacious and (usually) shy ramblings he goes on and on for.

…. And he also says some things that are wrong.

…. The ironic thing to mention here—1855! Woot! 🥳—is that I became interested in Tarot not because it was supported by or really alluded to at all, or especially in any positive way, by the great philosophers and the mainstream thinkers, but because I felt an inward attraction to it, indeed even when I understood it not, and often could not justify my inward attraction to myself! 🤭

…. “The Book of Hermes”: so childish, yet so old…. Always young, the eternal youth is nevertheless grown old before his time…. Perhaps. 😉… (more)

The two documents published together as The Great Secret were in all likelihood the final doctrinal work composed by the nineteenth-century French adept Alphonse Louis Constant, better known as Eliphas Levi. They were written for manuscript circulation among Levi's pupils, and published only posthumously. Another prior section that makes of these two a set of three was published as The Book of Splendours. However, the content of that volume (on "The Hieratic Mystery") is not strongly connected to the issues in this one (on "The Royal Mystery" and "The Sacerdotal Mystery"), and The Great Secret can be read to full benefit without prior reading of The Book of Splendours, which consists of Levi's glosses of qabalistic and Masonic doctrines, along with cross-cultural comparisons of the Christ myth.

"Let it be well understood that we are not writing for the profane masses, but for the instructed of a later age than ours and for the pontiffs of the future." (105)

Much of The Great Secret addresses theological issues, and in a most bewildering manner. Levi, who had at one point trained for the priesthood, consistently professes himself to be a loyal Catholic, and to champion the Roman Church as the sole legitimate repository of magical power. At the same time, he relentlessly criticizes both doctrines and practices of the Church in his day, often proposing alternatives informed by advances in materialist science as well as comparisons with non-Abrahamic religions. Levi's occult terminology is generally straight out of the Mesmerist milieu of the early nineteenth century, with a great deal of attention given to "magnetism" in its various manifestations.

A highlight is the chapter on "The Magnetism of Evil," where Levi spends a lot more time describing and illustrating the likely (extra-)moral consequences of an objective view of the natural world than he does contradicting them with an orthodox theology to assert the solicitude for humanity by a sovereign ruler of the Universe. (In Jason Colavito's blog, he has supplied a fresh translation of this chapter, noting its presentiments of both Lovecraftian cosmicism and "ancient astronaut" Nephiliphilia.)

"The present writer is a Catholic of the desert. However, there is nothing frightful about the Thebaid, and he has always preferred the Abbey of Thelema, founded by Rabelais, to the Hermitage of Saint Anthony." (173)

The ante-penultimate chapter is itself titled "The Great Secret," and the arcanum is one well-circulated among Thelemites today. "There is no part of me that is not of the gods" (Papyrus of Ani via Liber XV). Deus est homo. "I am clothed with the body of flesh; I am one with the Eternal and Omnipotent God" (Liber LXV I:53). There is no god but man. Levi reached this conclusion in parallel to Ludwig Feuerbach in the same window of European history. Although they wrote for vastly different audiences, both men had difficulty making themselves understood. As Aleister Crowley would later remark, "An indicible arcanum is an arcanum that cannot be revealed."… (more)