Eliphas Levi

Biography

1810-1845: Childhood, youth and religious vocation

Alphonse-Louis Constant was born the February 8th 1810, with the nº5 of the street of Ditch-Saint-Germain-of-Near (become since street of the Old Comedy) in Paris, of Jean Joseph Constant and Jeanne Agnès Beaucourt. His/her father was shoe-maker. Thanks to the abbot J. - B. Hubault Malmaison, which had organized in its parish a college exempting free the bases of the instruction to the poor children, it makes its first studies, then enters in 1825 to the small seminar Saint Nicolas's Day of the Hanging-post, directed then by the Brother-Colonna abbot, who perhaps already directs it towards the study of the magic. In 1830, having finished its rhetoric, it passes according to the rule to the seminar of Issy to finish its two years of philosophy. The death of his/her father intervenes this same year. After Issy, it leads to the seminar of Saint-Sulpice to make his theology. It is ordered there sub-deacon and tonsure. In 1835, whereas he with the load of the one of catechisms of young girls of Saint-Sulpice, the young Adele Allenbach is entrusted to him by his mother, with mission “of protecting it in particular and of informing it separately, as if she were the girl of a prince”.

His/her mother, enthusiastic Catholic and marries of a Swiss officer, had emigrated in France in 1830 because the religion of his/her daughter seemed to him threatened, and both lived since in a great destitution.

The young abbot falls little by little passionately in love with its protected, in whom it believes to see the Blessed Virgin appeared in a carnal form. Ordered Deacon the December 19th 1835, it leaves finally the seminar in June 1836 before receiving the sacrament of the order; but meanwhile the young girl for whom it had been lost it forsook.

His/her old crippled mother, who had put all her hopes in him, was very killed by the departure of her son of the seminar and committed suicide a few weeks later while asphyxiating herself with the emanations of her stove with coal. A. Constant has one moment the idea to enter to the Trap door, but his/her friends divert some. It spends one year in a boarding school close to Paris, then accompanies a friend travelling actor named Bailleul in a round in province.

In 1838, it binds friendship with the socialist Flora Tristan (future grandmother of the painter Paul Gauguin), and collaborates with Alphonse Esquiros, met with the small seminar, with a review: Beautiful women of Paris , which reveals with the public his gifts of draftsman. Whereas he traverses the living rooms for his review, he makes one day the knowledge of Honore de Balzac, then in full glory, at Mrs. de Girardin.

Still thinking of reaching the priesthood, it leaves for the Abbaye Solesmes, determined well to pass the remainder of its days there. The abbey had a library of approximately 20 000 volumes, from which it drew abundantly. He studies the doctrines of old gnostic, that of the Fathers of the primitive Church, the books of Cassien and other ascetics, the written piles of the mystics, and in particular the books of Mrs. Guyon. During its stay, it makes appear its first work: the Rose tree of May (1839). Because of a disagreement with the abbot of Solesmes, A. Constant leaves finally the abbey at the end of one year, without the penny.

While interceding near the archbishop of Paris, M {{gr.}} Affre, it ends up obtaining a station of Surveillant to the college of Juilly. Its superiors maltreat it, and in its nausea it composes, with the great scandal of the clergy and the right-thinking people, the Bible of freedom (1841). The work appeared on February 13rd and was seized in Versailles one hour after its setting on sale. A great number of specimens could be saved all the same, and the Constant abbot was stopped in the first days of April. The lawsuit took place the May 11th 1841, the abbot was condemned to 8 months of prison and 300 francs of fine. With the prison of Holy-Pelagie, where it spends 11 months (not having probably what to regulate the fine…) he finds his friend Esquiros and the abbot of Lamennais. All the means are employed to make it die sorrow and of misery. One intercepts his letters to denature the direction of them, shows it to be one sold with the police force, and it must moreover undergo the animosity of some other prisoners. He seeks in the reading of the consolations, reading for the first time the writings of Swedenborg. But his/her friends of the outside do not forget it. Certain Mrs. Legrand, very rich friend of Flora Tristan, made in kind soften the ordinary one of the prisoner while making him carry a more varied food.

At its exit in April 1842, it obtains an order of murals for the church of Choisy-the-King thanks to the chaplain of Holy-Pelagie. In 1843, living the presbytery of Choisy, it begins the writing of the Mother of God . Its control is so exemplary, that Mgr Affre decides to recommend it to Mgr Olivier, bishop of Evreux. The bishop is ready to accommodate the abbot provided that it changes his name for that of his mother, in order to avoid any scandal in connection with the business of the Bible of freedom .

It is thus the Beaucourt abbot who leaves for Evreux in February 1843. Its preachings there meet a great success and cause many jealousies among the priests of the diocese. In June the newspaper the Universe announces the death of the abbot Constant, information then contradicted by Popular the , then the July 22nd 1843 is published in the Echo of Normandy an article entitled the New Lazare in whom all the history of the Beaucourt abbot is revealed: its identity, its lawsuit and its judgment. Obliged to leave the seminar, he is not forgotten by the bishop of Évreux which provides for its subsistence and still seeks to help it by the ordering of a mural for a convent. Unfortunately, Mgr Olivier is very afflicted by the exit with the Mother with God (1844), and at the end of February 1844, the abbot goes back to Paris by leaving its unfinished painting.

It re-examines his friend Flora Tristan, who will die little of time afterwards in Bordeaux. He hesitates a long time before publishing the integral manuscript of Flora Tristan, thinking that one would make it responsible, gives up finally the project and publishes from there the first manuscript under the title: the Emancipation of the woman or the Will of bet . With the autumn 1844, Mrs. Legrand asks him to come in Guitrancourt in order to complete the education of her children. It remains one year there then goes back to Paris and makes appear its peaceful proclamation, inspired by Silvio Pellico: Corpus Christi or Triumph of religious peace (1845).

The ideas utopians and humanitarians of time absorb it then entire. Two movements especially cause its share the deep ones and long meditations: the Saint-Simonism and the Fouriérisme.

The Saint-Simonienne school, in spite of his estimable qualities, always inspired a sharp repulsion to me. They have true religion all except the spirit of piety; their free wife makes me horror and they cannot include/understand charity since they ignore the love. They are cold like the industrialism, edges, despots and calculators. I am annoyed when I see them touching so close with our great truths which them dryness of heart compromises and layman. Childish has certainly remarkable outlines but it is full with selfishness and self-conceit.

Fourier turned over the system of Swedenborg, to create on the ground the paradise of attractions proportional to the destinies. By attractions he understood sensual passions to which he promised an integral and absolute expansion. God, who is the supreme reason, marked of a terrible seal these rejected doctrines: the disciples of Fourier had started with the nonsense, they finished by the madness.

1845-1855: Towards the esotericism and the occultism

In 1845, in the Book of the tears , it develops for the first time of the concepts ésotérisantes. During this period, it also composes of the songs and illustrates two works of Alexandre Dumas: Louis XIV and his century and the Count of Assembles-Cristo . Adele Allenbach, become actress, comes to often see it. She always preserved same admiration for her “small-father” by which she accompanied the coffin to her last residence.

A. Constant some time with Chantilly lives, then returns to be fixed at Paris, the nº 10 of the street Saint-Lazare. He becomes the friend of Charles Fauvety and the two men found in 1845 the monthly review: the Truth on all things . This one appeared only for 4 months.

Since its return of Évreux, it frequently went to Choisy-le-Roy where it had met in 1843 M^le Eugenie Chenevier, under-mistress at the Chandeau Institution. Among the boarders of the Institution the young person Marie-Noémi Cadiot was, to which Eugenie had bound of friendship. When the two young girls left Sunday, A. Constant accompanied them, and they passed all three of good moments.

Eugenie Chenevier agreed to be his wife in front of God. Trustful in the future, it had been already given to him and awaited a child. This wire, Xavier Henri Alphonse Chenevier, who was born on September 29th 1846, lived until 1916, and had itself a son, Pierre (by the line of Eugenie, the descent of Eliphas Lévi represents today more than 40 people, with the sixth generation).

But Marie-Noémi Cadiot fell in love… After having maintained a correspondence ignited with A. Constant, she escapes one beautiful day from in her parents to go to take refuge in the attic of this one. His/her father requires the marriage then, under the threat of a charge of diversion of minor, because the young girl did not have whereas 18 years. A. Constant had to resign itself.

The civil ceremony took place with the town hall of Xe district, the July 13rd 1846. The Cadiot family had not wanted to equip Noémi, and the two husbands were stripped so much of resources which they made their meal with some under fried potatoes bought on the Pont-Neuf.

Since the business of the Bible of freedom (1841), one prevented A. Constant from expressing his opinion by refusing insertion in the newspapers to him. To the instigation of Noémi, it goes back to make of the policy. He collaborates in particular in the peaceful Democracy , and writes a virulent lampoon: the Voice of the famine . The February 3rd 1847, one still condemns it to an year of prison and 1 000 francs of fine. His wife asks for grace for it and the child whom it carries near the ministries and obtains finally her release at the end of 6 months. Mrs. Constant is confined in September 1847 of a girl, Marie. The small Marie will die in 1854 at the 7 years age, with the great despair of A. Constant which adored it.

The revolution of February 1848 giving him more freedom, it starts to direct a review gauchist: the Powerful orator of the people , which had only four numbers, of the 16 to the March 30th 1848. It founds then with his friends Esquiros and the Welshman a political club: the Club of the mountain , especially made up of workers. Arrive the days of June, insurrection of the working classes brought by the reaction to make perish the incipient Republic. The June 23rd 1848 failed to be fatal with A. Constant: one shot, believer to deal with him, wine merchant which resembled to him with the corner of the street Saint Martin's day and the street of Arcis. The 24, Mgr Affre, wanting to alleviate the insurrectionists, accepted a ball and died three days later. A. Constant wished to represent the people with the National Assembly, but its attempt failed. His/her friend Esquiros on the other hand was elected the May 13rd 1849, and the two men were not attended any more. the Will of freedom (1848), which summarizes its political ideas, will be its last work of the kind. At that time, Mrs Constant, who had already published in the review of her husband and had attended the Club of the women of M {{me}} Niboyet, launches out in the Parisian world. She writes in the Din and the Monitor of the evening of the literary serials under the pseudonym of Claude Vignon (drawn from a novel of Balzac). It is one period of relative ease for the couple. Noémi takes lessons of the famous Pradier sculptor, and thanks to this high relation A. Constant obtains two orders of tables of the ministry for the Interior.

In parallel, it reads the Kabbala Denudata of Knorr de Rosenroth, studies the writings of Jacob Boehme, Louis-Claude of Saint Martin's day, Emanuel Swedenborg, Antoine Fabre d' Olivet, Chaho, and Gœrres.

End 1850, it meets the Migne abbot, founder and director of the ecclesiastical bookstore of Montrouge, which orders to him for its collection a Dictionnaire of the Christian literature . Appeared in 1851, the work astonishes by major science that it contains. About this time A. Constant the Polish scientist Hoëné-Wronski meets, whose work makes on him a durable impression and directs it towards the mathematical thought and the Napoleonean messianism . Then begin the drafting of the Dogme and ritual of the high magic . It takes the pseudonym of Eliphas Lévi, or Eliphas Lévi Zahed (translation in Hebrew of Alphonse-Louis Constant).

The faith is only one superstition and a madness if it with the reason for base, and one cannot suppose what one is unaware of only by analogy with what one knows. To define what one does not know, it is a presumptuous ignorance; to positively affirm what one is unaware of, it is to lie.

Mrs. Constant, who for some time had a connection with the marquis de Montferrier (brother-in-law of Wronski), flees one day not to return more. Deeply wounded, it goes back to work to try to escape sorrow.

1854-1859: Travel and meetings

At spring 1854, it goes to London, meets there Dr. Ashburner and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, celebrates author of fantastic novels ( Zanoni, the Master Rosicrucian brotherhood is its most known work), who becomes his friend and the fact of admitting within the circles rosicrucians. Encouraged by a friend of this one initiated of high rank, it tries a series of evocations. During one of them, the phantom of Apollonius de Tyane appears to him by indicating the place of London to him where it could find its Nyctemeron (cf the account of the stay in Dogme and ritual of the high magic , pages 132 to 135). However Eliphas Lévi will remain always opposite with the experiments of magic. When later it had some disciples, it made them promise never to try the smallest experiment and to deal only with the speculative part of occult philosophy.

M^le Eugenie Chenevier had been in London for a few years, where it gained what painfully to raise her child. A. Constant wrote to him to ask him its forgiveness and it obtained it. During this time in Paris, his/her friend Adolphe Desbarolles takes with ex-Mrs. Constant arrangements necessary and makes move the personal businesses of the Master.

Returned to France in August 1854, Eliphas places some time in the workshop of painter of its friend Desbarolles, then lives a modest room of student on the 1st floor of the nº 120 boulevard du Montparnasse, where it completes Dogme and ritual of the high magic , which appears of 1854 to 1856. Then begins success, but not fortune.

In 1855, it founds with Fauvety and Lemonnier the philosophical and religious Revue which will be published during three years and in which it writes many articles on the Qabbale. Forsaking occult philosophy a little, it recovers to compose of the songs. One of it, in which it compares Napoleon III with Caligula is worth once again the prison to him. But a few days after its imprisonment he writes another song where he explains satirically why the judges made a mistake, that he forever compared anybody with Caligula, and makes it carry to the emperor who forgives him. From April at June 1856 it publishes songs in the Musketeer of Alexandre Dumas thanks to Desbarolles.

The January 3rd 1857, a bloody event plunges Paris in stupor. The archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur Sibour, is assassinated by a prohibited priest, Louis Verger, whereas it inaugurated neuvaine of Sainte Genevieve with Saint-Etienne-of-Mount. The two nights before, Eliphas had made (according to its dires) a premonitory dream which did not finish the words: “come to see your father who will die! ”. His/her father having died for a long time, it did not include/understand immediately the direction of them. The January 3rd around four hours of the afternoon, Eliphas was among the pilgrims who attended the office during which the archbishop was to succumb. But it is only by reading later the description of the assassin in the newspapers, that he remembered a pale priest met with Desbarolles before one year at Mrs. A. and who sought the black book of Honorius. This episode is reported in detail in the Key of the great mysteries (1861), pages 139 to 151.

After three last years boulevard of Montparnasse, it will place with the nº 19 avenue du Maine about June 1857. This shone upon room, that it decorates by making profitable its talents with artist, will see the seven best years of its life.

1859-1874: Significant publications, end-of-life

In 1859, the publication of the Histoire of the magic brings back 1 to him; 000 francs, which is a sum for the time, and devotes it by attracting to him the majority of the French ésotérisants (in particular Henri Delaage, Luc Desages, Paul Auguez, Jean-Marie Ragon, Henri Favre, and Dr. Fernand Rozier, which one will find later at the sides of Papus). He knew also the Edmond fortune-teller and the Cahagnet hypnotizer.

Solicited by his friends Fauvety and Caubet, it is made receive mason. Initiate the March 14th 1861 in the cabin the Pink of the perfect silence , whose Caubet was the Worthy one, it declares in his speech of reception:

I come to bring in the middle of you the lost traditions, the exact knowledge of your signs and your emblems, and consequently, to show you the goal for which your association was made up…

The ceremony took place in the presence of a great number of brothers to which it tried to explain why symbolism maconnic is borrowed from Qabbale. But it was a waste of time and effort, one did not believe it.

Meanwhile, M^le Eugenie Chenevier and its son having returned to Paris, Eliphas states that it wishes to deal with the child. The mother yields to this desire, but an estrangement occurs in 1867 for questions of money and it will re-examine neither the mother any more, nor the son until his death. In 1861, it publishes the Key of the great mysteries , last shutter of the trilogy started with Histoire of the magic and Dogme and ritual of the high magic . The Master works much, initiating with the occult sciences scholars belonging to the highest aristocracy, and even the bishop of Évreux, Mgr Devoucoux, to which it gives lessons of Qabbale. Thanks to the money perceived in remuneration of its lessons, he lives in a relative material comfort, enriching his library unceasingly. With the count Alexandre Branicki, hermetist, it makes a success of some convincing experiments of the Philosopher's stone in a laboratory installed with the castle of Beauregard, with Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. This castle belonged to the widow of Honore de Balzac and Eliphas became soon the friend of the son-in-law of Madam de Balzac, the count Georges Mniszech. The castle, ransacked by the Prussians in 1870, is the town hall of Villeneuve-saint-Georges today.

In May 1861, it goes back to London, accompanied by the count Alexandre Branicki, to spend a few months at Bulwer-Lytton off, arrived this year at the head of the Rosicrucian Society England . During this second stay, Eliphas Lévi returns several times visits with Eugene Vintras, which had sent two of its disciples to him to invite it before years. He not regards it as a prophet, but like a singular medium, an interesting subject of studies, and even its book to him the Gospel eternal buys.

In July 1861, the Italian baron N-J Spedalieri had bought in a bookseller of Marseilles the Dogme and ritual of the high magic and decided to contact the author. A correspondence of more than 1 followed; 000 letters which lasted of October 24th 1861 with the February 14th 1874. It is a course of single, precise Qabbale, filled of explanatory figures and anecdotes. Spedalieri was one of the most important patrons of the professor of occult sciences.

Returned in Paris, Eliphas Lévi publishes the Wizard of Meudon , dedicated to Mrs. de Balzac. Since its return of London, it regularly attends the maconnic meetings of the cabin Pink of perfect silence . August 21st, 1861, the rank of Master is conferred to him. Following a long discourse on the Mystères of initiation that he pronounced the next month, a Brother, professor Ganeval, having wanted to present some observations on what had just been known as, ran up against the protests of Eliphas, which was withdrawn and did not reappear any more in cabin. The attempts at Caubet to make it reconsider its decision the following day were unfruitful. The cabin Pink of perfect silence will be putting into sleep of 1885, perhaps but let us not seek there, like Oswald Wirth, a relation of cause and effect.

I ceased being Franc-Maçon because the Freemasons, excommunicated by the Pope, did not believe any more to have to tolerate Catholicism.

August 29th 1862 appears Fables and symbols , work in which Eliphas Lévi analyzes the symbols of Pythagore, of the Évangiles apocryphal books, the Talmud… etc Some times it attend incognito the spiritistic meetings to be documented. Pierre Christian, author of the strange novel the red Man of Tileries , was the neighbor and the friend of Eliphas and benefitted from his talks and his voluntary lessons all. In 1863 dies Louis Lucas, chemist initiated with the secrecies of Hermes, disciple of Wronski and friend of Eliphas. Its writings contain the first scientific synthesis which combines Occult science and applied sciences. He was the inventor of an apparatus able to measure the balance of the vital magnetism, which he called the biometer . This apparatus found since a quite curious use: a very similar apparatus indeed forms part of the panoply of the scientologists!

The May 15th 1864, Eliphas moves in one three parts on the 2nd floor of the nº 155 rue de Sèvres, its last residence. In 1865 appears the Science of the spirits, collection of tests treating again symbolism of the Gospels apocryphal books, of Talmud, etc (absolutely nothing to see with spiritism). At the summer 1865, the editor Larousse asks him to write some articles of Qabbale for his Grand Dictionary . He works at the same time with a superb work, but of a contestable historical value, the Livre of splendors , which deals especially with Qabbale of the Zohar and which will appear only after its death. At that time it starts to often feel neuralgic pains with the head, which make it much suffer. During the head office of Paris in 1870, its life was more painful because the communications with the province being crossed, it could not receive subsidies on behalf of its pupils any more. The hardness of its National service as Garde reveals a cardiac disorder. Once the Common finished, the Master completely stripped of resources once more, finds at one its pupils, Mrs. Mary Gebhard, which lived Elberfeld in Germany, long and hot hospitality. The events inspire some thoughts to him which it joins together under the title the Doors of the future . On its return of Germany, he learns death from the Spedalieri baroness. The death of his wife assigns so much the baron whom he believes become materialist and atheistic and ends up being diverted of the Master. In December 1871, Eliphas Lévi finishes another manuscript: the Black book franco-latomorum , devoted to the explanation of the rites of Freemasonry. With the autumn 1872, its ex-wife, writer and sculptor from now on recognized, Marie with the deputy of Marseilles, Maurice Rouvier, which will become commercial Minister. Its health continues to worsen. Because of a cardiac disorder it is prone to faindings during which it says to have extatic visions. During the year 1873, it completes the manuscript of the Gospel of science .

In November 1873, Judith Mendès, girl of Théophile Gautier, need for one for its Eastern novels had had, of information on Qabbale chaldéenne. The fame had led it straight at Eliphas Lévi, which invited one day in his/her father, had predicted with the young girl her successes of young woman while reading in her hand. Her husband Catulle Mendès presented Eliphas to the writer Victor Hugo, who appears it knew the works of Qabbaliste and had even appreciated them.

The year 1874 was very painful to pass: rather serious bronchitis, smotherings, and a persistent fever did not leave him almost any rest. Its legs swelled little by little and a kind of elephantiasis was declared soon. In January 1875, the Master completes his last manuscript: the Catechism of peace . May 31st, 1875, it dies out with the nº 155 rue de Sèvres, the 65 years age. One buried it with the cemetery of Ivry, a simple cross of wood marking the site of his tomb. In 1881, its body was exhumed and its remainders placed in the common grave.

Works

Works of Constant Alphonse-Louis

1832 : Nemrod (appeared in the Dictionary of Christian literature )
1839: the Rose tree of May or the Garland of Marie
1841: the Bible of freedom
1841: the Assumption of the woman or the Book of the love
1841: religious and social Doctrines
1844: the Mother of God, religious epopee and humanitarian
1845: the Corpus Christi or Triumph of religious peace
1845: Peace! Peace! Reprimand addressed by an abbot and a theologist to Timon which is neither one nor the other
1845: the Book of the tears or Christ consolator , Essai of conciliation enters the Catholic church and modern philosophy
1845: the Three Harmonies
1846: the Last Incarnation
1846: the Voice of the famine
1847: the Mourning of Poland. Protest of the French Democracy and universal Socialism
1847: Rabelais in Basmette
1847: the Three Criminals
1847: the Wizard of Devinière
1848: the Marseillaise of the people (song)
1848: the Reign of the people (song)
1848: the Will of freedom
1851: Dictionary of the Christian literature

Works signed under the pseudonym of Eliphas Lévi

1854 : Dogma and ritual of the high magic
1859: History of the magic
1859: the Key of the great mysteries according to Hénoch, Abraham, Hermes Trismégiste and Solomon
1861: the Wizard of Meudon
1862: Fables and symbols with their explanation
1863: Call of Poland in France by a Pole
1865: the Science of the spirits

Posthumous works

In this section, the date indicated is the date of drafting and not that of publication.

1854 : the universal Clavicle of the clavicles of Solomon or the Black book of the Black books
1856: Notebook of Eliphas Lévi
1860: the prophetic Clavicle of the seven spirits of Jean Trithème
1861: the Mysteries of the Cabal or the Harmony occults of the two wills
1861: occult Course of philosophy. Letters with the baron Spedalieri
1868 - 1869: the Great Mystery or Occultism revealed
1869 - 1870: the Book of splendors
1869 - 1870: the Book of wise the
1870: Elements of the Cabal
1871: Doors of the future or Last words of an indicator
1871: the Black book franco-latomorum
1872 - 1874: the Veil of the temple torn
1873: the Gospel of science
1873: the Religion of science
1873: Paradoxes of the high science
1874: the Wisdom of Old the
1874: the Book of Abraham the Jew found
1875: the Catechism of peace followed Quatrains of the Bible and the Bible of freedom
nonknown date: the Book of Hermes restored and explained by Eliphas Lévi and with accompanying notes by Eliphas Ben Zahed, with forty seven figures in text and a hard-bound album containing the seventy-eight blades of the Tarot
nonknown date: the Appendix of Solomon

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