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1 4 I fiLIPHAS LfiVI’S TRANSCENDENTAL MAGIC i \ De LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO.’S American Edition Now Ready Transcendental Magic Its Doctrine and Ritual By ELIPHAS LEVI Author of “The Mysteries of Magic” A COMPLETE TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH ORIGINAL By ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE Including all the famous original engravings and a life-size portrait of ISliphas Levi, the first ever published in the United States. Guaranteed by Dr. L. W. de Laurence to be an exact reproduction of the noted 1896 London Edition, which has always sold for $5.50 prepaid, with this exception, that this, our 1910 Amer¬ ican Edition, is absolutely accurate, according to translation from the French original, free from typographical errors, printed on finest book paper, with best binding, gold stamp, and sells for only $3.75 prepaid, whereas the 1896 London Edition sells for $5.50. These features serve to distinguish all the de Laurence, Scott & Co.’s publications, which are manufactured under the censorious eye of Dr. L. W. de Laurence, who is looked upon as being an expert in the manufacture of high class publications, which he insists must be sold at the lowest possible price. High priced Editions of this hook have been sold by English publishers and American book-sellers, who have forced the buyer to pay from $5.25 to $5.50 a copy for this noted book and until Dr. L. W. de Laurence personally bore the great expense of composition, of engraving, of elect retyping, plate making and book-binding to produce our American Edition the buyer was forced to pay an exorbitant price for the cheaply made, bound London edition, before he could possess one of these books which every advanced student of Magic and Occultism knows is one of the most complete now in print on this subject. AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS’ PRICE, $5.25 AND $5.50 PREPAID No book-seller can sell you this book for less than $5.25 and many charge $5.50 for it because they cannot afford the great cost of publishing an edition, which costs several thousand dollars; so they must first pay the English publishers their price for it, then import it and pay a high duty charge to the government. Dr. de Laurence’s sole object in publishing an American Edition is to put a stop to this and sell it at a lower cost to the many advanced students who wanted one of these noted volumes. A BOOK FOR THE STUDENT Just write to any dealer and ask his price if you doubt this statement and if they sell you this volume for less than $5.25 prepaid, they are selling one of our edition. This is a book for the student, it needs no recommendation. Read the list of contents, then study the index and you will see just what this work contains. This is positively guaranteed to be the best Edition extant, as it is printed from new type and published under the critical eye and Editorship of Dr. de Laurence, who is known the world over as an author and publisher of exceptional ability who spares no expense to produce a perfect book for the student. This book is in a class by itself, and is personally recommended by Dr. de Laurence, to all who really wish a strictly high class work. We, of course, know that other dealers will not be pleased because we have dared to cut the price on this noted book, but as we are concerned only in looking after the interest of our thousands of friends and students we cannot afford to let the mercenary interests of a few book-sellers, who cannot afford to publish an American Edition and who are not in a position to compete with our publishing and book-selling departments, influence us in matters of this kind. However, many dealers are buying this book of us now instead of importing it and paying duty, as they get a better book and find our retail price lower than the English publishers’ wholesale price. Our price, $3.75 prepaid, carefully boxed, positively no less. Money returned if not satisfactory. De LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO. 35€ Dearborn St., CHICAGO, ILL., U.S.A. THE ONLY PORTRAIT OF ELIPHAS LEVI EVER PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. Copyright, 1910, by tie Laurence, Scott & Co, Publishing Department, C . ix fi /TVVvL^^vv.'f*" ,Jtr vt # ■* V' TRANSCENDENTAL MAGIC ITS DOCTRINE AND RITUAL BY fiLIPHAS LfiVI ^ . f - AUTHOR OF “THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC’ A COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF “DOGME ET RITUEL DE LA HAUTE MAGIE” WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE BY ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE AUTHOR OF “DEVIL WORSHIP IN FRANCE,” ETC., ETC. INCLUDING ALL THE ORIGINAL ENGRAVINGS AND A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR CHICAGO de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO. 1910 ‘JL- COPYRIGHT 1910 de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO. v f ) /k ***\ O n ft / fa BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE is a pseudonym which was adopted in Eliphas Levi Zahed his occult writings by Alphonse Louis Constant, and it is said to be the Hebrew equivalent of that name. The author of the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie was born in humble circumstances about the year 1810, being the son of a shoemaker. Giving evidence of unusual in¬ telligence at an early age, the priest of his parish con¬ ceived a kindly interest for the obscure boy, and got him on the foundation of Saint Sulpice, where he was educated without charge, and with a view to the priesthood. He seems to have passed through the course of study at that seminary in a way which did not disappoint the expecta¬ tions raised concerning him. In addition to Greek and Latin, he is believed to have acquired considerable knowl¬ edge of Hebrew, though it would be an error to suppose that any of his published works exhibit special linguistic attain¬ ments. He entered on his clerical novitiate, took minor or¬ ders, and in due course became a deacon, being thus bound by a vow of perpetual celibacy. Shortly after this step, he was suddenly expelled from Saint Sulpice for holding opin¬ ions contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The existing accounts of this expulsion are hazy, and in¬ corporate unlikely elements, as, for example, that he was sent by his ecclesiastical superiors to take duty in country places, where he preached with great eloquence what, how¬ ever, was doctrinally unsound; but I believe that there is no precedent for the preaching of deacons in the Latin Church. Pending the appearance of the biography which has been for some years promised in France, we have few available materials for a life of the “Abbe” Constant. VI TRANSCENDENTAL MAGIC In any case, he was cast back upon the world, with the limitations of priestly engagements, while the priestly career was closed to him—and what he did, or how he contrived to support himself, is unknown. By the year 1839 he had made some literary friendships, including that of Alphonse Esquiros, the forgotten author of a fantastic romance, en¬ titled “The Magician”;* and Esquiros introduced him to Ganneau, a distracted prophet of the period, who had adopted the dress of a woman, abode in a garret, and there preached a species of political illuminism, which was ap¬ parently concerned with the restoration of la vraie legitimite. He was, in fact, a second incarnation of Louis XVII.— “come back to earth for the fulfilment of a work of re¬ generation.”! Constant and Esquiros, who had visited him for the purpose of scoffing, were carried away by his elo¬ quence, and became his disciples. Some element of so¬ cialism must have combined with the illuminism of the visionary, and this appears to have borne fruit in the brain of Constant, taking shape ultimately in a book or pamphlet, entitled ‘ ‘ The Gospel of Liberty, ’ ’ to which a transient im¬ portance was attached, foolishly enough, by the imprison¬ ment of the author for a term of six months. There is some reason to suppose that Esquiros had a hand in the pro¬ duction, and also in the penalty. His incarceration over, Constant came forth undaunted, still cleaving to his prophet, and undertook a kind of apostolic mission into * M. Papus, a contemporary French occultist, in an extended study of the “Doctrine of Eliphas Levi,” asks scornfully: “Who now remembers anything of Paul Augnez or Esquiros, journalists pre¬ tending to initiation, and posing as professors of the occult sciences in the salons they frequented1?” No doubt they are forgotten, but Eliphas Levi states, in the Histoire de la Magie, that, by the publi¬ cation of his romance of “The Magician,” Esquiros founded a new school of fantastic magic, and gives sufficient account of his work to show that it was in parts excessively curious. t A woman who was associated with his mission, was, in like manner, supposed to have been Marie Antoinette.—See Histoire de la Magie, 1. 7., c. 5.