Difference between revisions of "Éliphas Lévi"
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Alphonse-Louis's father was a shoemaker living in what is today the 6th Arrondissement in Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. The family's material conditions were very limited, but the parson at the church of Saint-André-des-Arts was running a school free of charge for the poor, at which Alphonse-Louis too would receive basic education. After that, and several intermediary steps later, last of which the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, in 1835 he became ordained sub-deacon, and from then on he was himself entrusted with teaching appointments. With one of his schoolgirls (whom in his confusion he took for a reincarnation of Virgin Mary) he fell in immortal love, and left the seminary for her just before he was to be ordained priest. But alas, she ran out on him. | Alphonse-Louis's father was a shoemaker living in what is today the 6th Arrondissement in Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. The family's material conditions were very limited, but the parson at the church of Saint-André-des-Arts was running a school free of charge for the poor, at which Alphonse-Louis too would receive basic education. After that, and several intermediary steps later, last of which the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, in 1835 he became ordained sub-deacon, and from then on he was himself entrusted with teaching appointments. With one of his schoolgirls (whom in his confusion he took for a reincarnation of Virgin Mary) he fell in immortal love, and left the seminary for her just before he was to be ordained priest. But alas, she ran out on him. | ||
| − | [[image:Eliphas_Levi_1836.jpg|left|Portrait of the young man, 1836|thumb]] | + | [[image:Eliphas_Levi_1836.jpg|left|Portrait of the young man, 1836|thumb]]Overcome with disappointment when he quit his education, his mother took her life a few weeks later. For Alphonse there commenced a time of aimless searching. Within just one year he made the acquaintance of Honoré de Balzac, developed his gifts of visual arts by collaborating on the chorus line "Les Belles Femmes de Paris", made friends with the militant socialist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Tristan Flora Tristan], and yet at the same time he carried on dreaming of a future as a priest. This dream guided his way to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter's_Abbey,_Solesmes St. Peter's Abbey], a Benedictine monastery whose library of 20,000 volumes gave him the chance of making himself acquainted with scriptures from the early Christianity, by ancient gnostics, and by religious mystics as well. It was here that he authored a first booklet of his own entitled "Le Rosier de Mai" which was as pious as romantic, and rhapsodized about matters of love in so romantic and vivid a way that it was deemed better to expell him from the monastery. |
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| + | Following an intervention in his support by the archbishop of Paris, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Auguste_Affre Denis Auguste Affre], Constant finally was given an appointment as warden at the college of Juilly, east of Paris. However, his seniors treated him badly, but now all the wrath broke out of him, and he wrote a first raging pamphlet, ''La Bible de la liberté''. With its publication in February 1841 he not only provided for a major scandal throughout the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but at the court in Versailles as well<ref>There exists a rather sardonic narration of these incidents and of the following. Here is where you may find it: [http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb33497059p Mystères galans des théâtres de Paris]. Paris: Cazel, 1844. S. 88 ff.</ref>. | ||
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| + | == References == | ||
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Revision as of 04:35, 7 September 2011
Éliphas Lévi, also Éliphas Lévi Zahed was the pseudonym under which from 1854 on the catholic cleric Alphonse-Louis Constant (February 8, 1810, Paris - May 31, 1875, ibid.) wrote and published scriptures of occult and magical contents. Lévi is said to have been the re-founder of occultism in the 19th century.
Life
Per aspera ...
Alphonse-Louis's father was a shoemaker living in what is today the 6th Arrondissement in Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. The family's material conditions were very limited, but the parson at the church of Saint-André-des-Arts was running a school free of charge for the poor, at which Alphonse-Louis too would receive basic education. After that, and several intermediary steps later, last of which the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, in 1835 he became ordained sub-deacon, and from then on he was himself entrusted with teaching appointments. With one of his schoolgirls (whom in his confusion he took for a reincarnation of Virgin Mary) he fell in immortal love, and left the seminary for her just before he was to be ordained priest. But alas, she ran out on him.
Overcome with disappointment when he quit his education, his mother took her life a few weeks later. For Alphonse there commenced a time of aimless searching. Within just one year he made the acquaintance of Honoré de Balzac, developed his gifts of visual arts by collaborating on the chorus line "Les Belles Femmes de Paris", made friends with the militant socialist Flora Tristan, and yet at the same time he carried on dreaming of a future as a priest. This dream guided his way to St. Peter's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery whose library of 20,000 volumes gave him the chance of making himself acquainted with scriptures from the early Christianity, by ancient gnostics, and by religious mystics as well. It was here that he authored a first booklet of his own entitled "Le Rosier de Mai" which was as pious as romantic, and rhapsodized about matters of love in so romantic and vivid a way that it was deemed better to expell him from the monastery.
Following an intervention in his support by the archbishop of Paris, Denis Auguste Affre, Constant finally was given an appointment as warden at the college of Juilly, east of Paris. However, his seniors treated him badly, but now all the wrath broke out of him, and he wrote a first raging pamphlet, La Bible de la liberté. With its publication in February 1841 he not only provided for a major scandal throughout the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but at the court in Versailles as well[1].
References
- ↑ There exists a rather sardonic narration of these incidents and of the following. Here is where you may find it: Mystères galans des théâtres de Paris. Paris: Cazel, 1844. S. 88 ff.