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1BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE Vll to prophesy, presumably for want of an audience, and la vraie Ugitimitd was not restored, so the disciple returned to Paris, where, in spite of the pledge of his diaconate, he effected a runaway match with Mdlle. Noe'iny, a beautiful girl of sixteen. This lady bore him two children, who died in tender years, and subsequently she deserted him. Her husband is said to have tried all expedients to procure her return,* but in vain, and she even further asserted her position by obtaining a legal annulment of her marriage, on the ground that the contracting parties were a minor and a person bound to celibacy by an irrevocable vow. The lady, it may be added, had other domestic adventures, ending in a second marriage about the year 1872. Madame Constant was not only very beautiful, but exceedingly talented, and after her separation she became famous as a sculptor, exhibiting at the Salon and elsewhere under the name of Claude Vingmy. It is not impossible that she may be still alive ; in the sense of her artistic genius, at least, she is something more than a memory. At what date Alphonse Louis Constant applied himself to the study of the occult sciences is uncertain, like most other epochs of his life. The statement on page 142 of this translation, that in the year 1825 he entered on a fateful path, which led him through suffering to knowledge, must not be understood in the sense that his initiation took place at that period, which was indeed early in boyhood. It obviously refers to his enrolment among the scholars of Saint Sulpice, which, in a sense, led to suffering, and perhaps ultimately to science, as it certainly obtained him education. The episode of the New Alliance — so Gannean termed his system — connects with transcendentalism, at least and obtaining a licence to preach and administer the sacraments in that diocese, though he was not a priest. He is represented as drawing large congregations to the cathedral by his preaching, but at length the judge who had sentenced him unmasked the impostor, and the sacrilegious farce thus terminated dramatically. * Including Black Magic and pacts with Lucifer, according to the silly calumnies of his enemies.
2Viii BIOGEAPHICAL PREFACE on the side of hallucination, and may have furnished the required impulse to the mind of the disciple ; but in 1846 and 1847, certain pamphlets issued by Constant under the auspices of the Libraire Societaire and the Libraire Phalanste'rienne shew that his inclinations were still towards Socialism, tinctured by religious aspirations. The period which intervened between his wife's desertion* and the publication of the Dogme de la Haute Magie, in 1855, was that, probably, which he devoted less or more to occult study. In the interim he issued a large " Dictionary of Christian Literature," which is still extant in the encyclopaedic series of the Abbe* Migne ; this work betrays no leaning towards occult science, and, indeed, no acquaintance therewith. What it does exhibit unmistakably is the intellectual insincerity of the author, for he assumes therein the mask of perfect orthodoxy, and that accent in matters of religion which is characteristic of the voice of Rome. The Dogme de la Haute Magie was succeeded in 1856 by its companion volume the Hituel, both of which are here translated for the first time into English. It was followed in rapid succession by the Histoire de la Magie, 1860; La Clef des Grands Mysteres, 1861 ; a second edition of the Dogme et Rituel, to which a long and irrelevant introduction was unfortunately prefixed, 1862; Fables ct Symloles, 1864; Le Sorcier de Meudon, a beautiful pastoral idyll, impressed with the cachet cabalistique ; and La Science des Esprits, 1865. The two last works incorporate the substance of the amphlets published in 1846 and 1847. The precarious existence of Constant's younger days was in one sense but faintly improved in his age. His books did not command a large circulation, but they secured him admirers and pupils, from whom he received remuneration * I must not be understood as definitely attaching blame to Madame Constant for the course she adopted. Her husband was approaching middle life when he withdrew her— still a child— from her legal protectors, and the runaway marriage which began by forswearing was, under the circumstances, little better than a seduction thinly legalised, and it was afterwards not improperly dissolved.
3BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE ix in return for personal or written courses of instruction. He was commonly to be found chez lui in a species of magical vestment, which may be pardoned in a French magus, and his only available portrait — prefixed to this volume — represents him in that guise. He outlived the Franco- German war, and as he had exchanged Socialism for a sort of transcendentalised Imperialism, his political faith must have been as much tried by the events which followed the siege of Paris as was his patriotic enthusiasm by the reverses which culminated at Se"dan. His contradictory life closed in 1875 amidst the last offices of the church which had almost expelled him from her bosom. He left many manuscripts behind him, which are still in course of publication, and innumerable letters to his pupils — Baron Spedalieri alone possesses nine volumes — have been happily preserved in most cases, and are in some respects more valuable than the formal treatises. No modern expositor of occult science can bear any comparison with Sliphas Levi, and among ancient expositors, though many stand higher in authority, all yield to him in living interest, for he is actually the spirit of modern thought forcing an answer for the times from the old oracles. Hence there are greater names, but there is no influence so great — no fascination in occult literature exceeds that of the French magus. The others are surrendered to specialists and the typical serious students to whom all dull and unreadable masterpieces are dedicated, directly or not ; but he is read and appreciated, much as we read and appreciate new and delightful verse which, through some conceit of the poet, is put into the vesture of Chaucer. Indeed, the writings of filiphas Levi stand, as regards the grand old line of initiation, in relatively the same position as the " Earthly Paradise " of Mr William Morris stands to the " Canterbury Tales. There is the recurrence to the old conceptions, and there is the assumption of the old drapery, but there is in each case the new spirit. The " incommunicable axiom " and the " great arcanum," Azoth,
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE Vll to prophesy, presumably for want of an audience, and la vraie Ugitimitd was not restored, so the disciple returned to Paris, where, in spite of the pledge of his diaconate, he effected a runaway match with Mdlle. Noe'iny, a beautiful girl of sixteen. This lady bore him two children, who died in tender years, and subsequently she deserted him. Her husband is said to have tried all expedients to procure her return,* but in vain, and she even further asserted her position by obtaining a legal annulment of her marriage, on the ground that the contracting parties were a minor and a person bound to celibacy by an irrevocable vow. The lady, it may be added, had other domestic adventures, ending in a second marriage about the year 1872. Madame Constant was not only very beautiful, but exceedingly talented, and after her separation she became famous as a sculptor, exhibiting at the Salon and elsewhere under the name of Claude Vingmy. It is not impossible that she may be still alive ; in the sense of her artistic genius, at least, she is something more than a memory. At what date Alphonse Louis Constant applied himself to the study of the occult sciences is uncertain, like most other epochs of his life. The statement on page 142 of this translation, that in the year 1825 he entered on a fateful path, which led him through suffering to knowledge, must not be understood in the sense that his initiation took place at that period, which was indeed early in boyhood. It obviously refers to his enrolment among the scholars of Saint Sulpice, which, in a sense, led to suffering, and perhaps ultimately to science, as it certainly obtained him education. The episode of the New Alliance — so Gannean termed his system — connects with transcendentalism, at least and obtaining a licence to preach and administer the sacraments in that diocese, though he was not a priest. He is represented as drawing large congregations to the cathedral by his preaching, but at length the judge who had sentenced him unmasked the impostor, and the sacrilegious farce thus terminated dramatically. * Including Black Magic and pacts with Lucifer, according to the silly calumnies of his enemies.
2Viii BIOGEAPHICAL PREFACE on the side of hallucination, and may have furnished the required impulse to the mind of the disciple ; but in 1846 and 1847, certain pamphlets issued by Constant under the auspices of the Libraire Societaire and the Libraire Phalanste'rienne shew that his inclinations were still towards Socialism, tinctured by religious aspirations. The period which intervened between his wife's desertion* and the publication of the Dogme de la Haute Magie, in 1855, was that, probably, which he devoted less or more to occult study. In the interim he issued a large " Dictionary of Christian Literature," which is still extant in the encyclopaedic series of the Abbe* Migne ; this work betrays no leaning towards occult science, and, indeed, no acquaintance therewith. What it does exhibit unmistakably is the intellectual insincerity of the author, for he assumes therein the mask of perfect orthodoxy, and that accent in matters of religion which is characteristic of the voice of Rome. The Dogme de la Haute Magie was succeeded in 1856 by its companion volume the Hituel, both of which are here translated for the first time into English. It was followed in rapid succession by the Histoire de la Magie, 1860; La Clef des Grands Mysteres, 1861 ; a second edition of the Dogme et Rituel, to which a long and irrelevant introduction was unfortunately prefixed, 1862; Fables ct Symloles, 1864; Le Sorcier de Meudon, a beautiful pastoral idyll, impressed with the cachet cabalistique ; and La Science des Esprits, 1865. The two last works incorporate the substance of the amphlets published in 1846 and 1847. The precarious existence of Constant's younger days was in one sense but faintly improved in his age. His books did not command a large circulation, but they secured him admirers and pupils, from whom he received remuneration * I must not be understood as definitely attaching blame to Madame Constant for the course she adopted. Her husband was approaching middle life when he withdrew her— still a child— from her legal protectors, and the runaway marriage which began by forswearing was, under the circumstances, little better than a seduction thinly legalised, and it was afterwards not improperly dissolved.
3BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE ix in return for personal or written courses of instruction. He was commonly to be found chez lui in a species of magical vestment, which may be pardoned in a French magus, and his only available portrait — prefixed to this volume — represents him in that guise. He outlived the Franco- German war, and as he had exchanged Socialism for a sort of transcendentalised Imperialism, his political faith must have been as much tried by the events which followed the siege of Paris as was his patriotic enthusiasm by the reverses which culminated at Se"dan. His contradictory life closed in 1875 amidst the last offices of the church which had almost expelled him from her bosom. He left many manuscripts behind him, which are still in course of publication, and innumerable letters to his pupils — Baron Spedalieri alone possesses nine volumes — have been happily preserved in most cases, and are in some respects more valuable than the formal treatises. No modern expositor of occult science can bear any comparison with Sliphas Levi, and among ancient expositors, though many stand higher in authority, all yield to him in living interest, for he is actually the spirit of modern thought forcing an answer for the times from the old oracles. Hence there are greater names, but there is no influence so great — no fascination in occult literature exceeds that of the French magus. The others are surrendered to specialists and the typical serious students to whom all dull and unreadable masterpieces are dedicated, directly or not ; but he is read and appreciated, much as we read and appreciate new and delightful verse which, through some conceit of the poet, is put into the vesture of Chaucer. Indeed, the writings of filiphas Levi stand, as regards the grand old line of initiation, in relatively the same position as the " Earthly Paradise " of Mr William Morris stands to the " Canterbury Tales. There is the recurrence to the old conceptions, and there is the assumption of the old drapery, but there is in each case the new spirit. The " incommunicable axiom " and the " great arcanum," Azoth,
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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