Morticom magicians Eliphas Levi incidents in his life

 

Morticom Shop
Enter the weirdest, funniest and most outrageous Shop Here! If You DARE!

WEIRD HUMANS

ELIPHAS LEVI
1810 - 1875

(ENTRY 002)

1)
J.M. Hoene-Wronksi, the Polish occult teacher of Levi, was originally a soldier by profession. After abandoning the military life, he became interested in philosophy and science and eventually made his way to France, where he taught mathematics.

2)
By 1810, Wronski believed that he had discovered the 'absolute' and had a perfect understanding of reality and truth. He attempted to turn this 'understanding' into a mathematical formulae, but it proved to be incomprehensible not only to mathematicians, but also other magicians.

3)
Wronski visited London and petitioned Parliament for grants and subsidies. He made such a nuisance of himself that a fellow mathematician stated, "In the interests of social order one must hope that Wronski will go to bed and not wake up again the next day."

4)
Wronski was an occultist, mystic, a student of gnosticism and qabalism and believed that human beings could attain Godlike powers.

5)
In 1850 Wronski met Alphonse-Louis Constant, who had by now adopted the name Eliphas Levi. Levi was looking for a new set of beliefs that would give some kind of meaning to his purposeless existence, and Wronski fit the bill perfectly.

6)
Levi threw himself totally into the study of the 'occult sciences' including alchemy, cartomancy, magic and astrology. He spent the majority of his time rifling the libraries in Paris for esoteric books and manuscripts, reading them voraciously.

7)
Levi spent many hours conversing with obscure soothsayers, diviners, magicians, occultists, mystics and self appointed prophets, hoping to extract the secret wisdom from their pointless conversations.

8)
When Levi, in 1854, evoked the 1st century sage Appolonius, he described the incident as follows, "The smoke spread....floating above the altar.....I heaped more fuel and perfume upon the chafing dishes.....I beheld distinctly before the altar, the figure of a man of more than normal size....Three times, with closed eyes, I invoked Appolonius. When I again looked there was a man in front of me, wrapped from head to foot in a shroud.....I experienced an abnormally cold sensation, and when I endeavored to question the phantom I could not utter a syllable.
I....pointed my magic sword at the figure, mentally commanding it to obey me.....The form became vague and suddenly vanished. I ordered it to return and presently felt, as it were, a breath close by me; something touched the hand with which I was holding the sword, and immediately my forearm became numb.
I guessed that the sword displeased the spirit, and I placed it's point downward, close by me, within the circle....I experienced such a weakness in all my limbs, and a fainting sensation came so quickly over me, that I sat down, whereupon I fell into a profound lethargy accompanied by dreams of which I had only a confused recollection when I recovered consciousness....."

9)
When Levi evoked Appolonius, the spirit did not speak to him, but it did give Levi answers to his questions in his mind. Unfortunately the exact wording of the questions and answers were not recorded, so it was impossible to measure the truth of Levi's claim about the secrets revealed to him by Appolonius.

10)
Once Levi wrote about occult experiments, ".....I regard the practice as destructive and dangerous....I commend the greatest caution to those who propose devoting themselves to similar experiences; their result is intense exhaustion, and frequently a shock sufficient to occasion illness."

11)
Levi's' account of the Trident of Paracelsus, a three pronged fork inscribed with mystical symbols, explained that the three prongs represented both the Christian trinity of the Father, the son and the Holy ghost and the alchemical elements of salt, sulphur and mercury. Levi was wrong about this. Paracelsus regarded the Trident as a cure for sexual impotence brought on by witchcraft.

12)
Sometimes Levi distorted the facts to suit his purpose. For instance he tried to prove that Tarot cards were used by occultists in the 16th and 17th centuries and stated that he had found proof of this in 16th century writings. In truth there were no references whatsoever.

13)
Although Levi's writings were very suspect, they inspired future generations of occultists, such as H.P. Blatavsky and the magician Aleister Crowley.

14)
Levi's theories consisted of three 'dogmas'. The first being the 'dogma of correspondence' which describes the soul being a microcosm, a little universe, enabling a magician to change the world outside by changing the little world inside.
The second 'dogma' is the astral light, an invisible but all pervading substance that gives a physical object an astral twin so that the occultist can influence both the physical universe and (To tip tables or heal the sick) the consciousness of other human beings.
The final 'dogma' is achieved by trained human imagination and will. Levi believed that will and imagination were real and natural forces.

15)
Levi's description of the process of making an 'infernal evocation' - the raising of a demon, included observing a strict dietary observance of 15 days, eating only vegetables, getting totally drunk every five days on hemp and poppy wine strained through a cloth woven by a prostitute, the actual invocation being carried out in a haunted graveyard or the vault of a deserted convent.
The items required for the evocation are the head of cat which has been fed on human flesh for five days, four nails from the coffin of an executed criminal and the horns of a goat which has had sexual intercourse with a young girl.

16)
Levi's imagination made his occult books very readable but they are seen by serious occultists as being valueless, although at present his writings are becoming popular again.