TRANSCENDENTAL MAGIC: ITS DOCTRINE AND RITUAL
Book Details + Condition: George Redway (London). Scarce First Edition, 1896. By Eliphas Levi, with a biographical preface by Arthur Edward Waite. Frontispiece portrait of the author. 406 pages, with 2 pp of publisher's advertised occult books to rear. Illustrated with b&w occult imagery throughout. Eliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant, was a French occult author, socialist, and ceremonial magician. "éliphas Lévi", the name under which he published his books, was his attempt to translate or transliterate his given names "Alphonse Louis" into the Hebrew language. "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie" is the title of éliphas Lévi's first published treatise on ritual magic, which appeared in two volumes between 1854 (Dogme) and 1856 (Rituel). The work is structured into 22 chapters, which parallel the Tarot. Contents include:
- Pillars of the Temple
- Triangle of Solomon
- The Tetragram
- The Pentagram
- Initiation
- The Kabbalah
- Hermetic Magic
- Necromancy
- Black Magic
- Bewitchments
- Astrology
- Charms and Philtres
- Stone of the Philosophers
- Sabbath of the Sorceress
- Divination
- Mastery of the Sun
- Book of Hermes
- And MUCH more.
A solid and clean copy of an increasingly rare first edition, with firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; light shelf wear to boards, with rubbing and darkening present; chafed spine ends; darkening to spine; inked library note to inside front board (with no other indications present); toning to endpapers, with normal toning to pages; interior is clean and free of markings.
