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In the Paris of the Second Empire Éliphas Lévi was a well known person. In the beginning a rather casual interest, his pursuit of esoteric matters later earned him a singular knowledge, almost tailor-made for a society that could no longer believe in the solacements from the church, yet neither in those science would offer. Although the political revolutions which had been turning the French society literally upside down for six decades finally found a temporary slowdown under Napoléon III, neither his imperialistic foreign policy nor the pomp of his self-stagings could resolve the deeply rooted feeling of uncertainty. People sensed something had been lost, and albeit only a small minority actually wanted to turn back the clock there was a widespread, diffuse longing - for a modern past, for a "like back then, but today". Esotericism appeared to offer a solution of this dilemma. By applying methods and forms of representation of the natural sciences on conceptions of the supernatural a connection between these two seemingly emerged, and the ''occult sciences'' took shape.
In the Paris of the Second Empire Éliphas Lévi was a well known person. In the beginning a rather casual interest, his pursuit of esoteric matters later earned him a singular knowledge, almost tailor-made for a society that could no longer believe in the solacements from the church, yet neither in those science would offer. Although the political revolutions which had been turning the French society literally upside down for six decades finally found a temporary slowdown under Napoléon III, neither his imperialistic foreign policy nor the pomp of his self-stagings could resolve the deeply rooted feeling of uncertainty. People sensed something had been lost, and albeit only a small minority actually wanted to turn back the clock there was a widespread, diffuse longing - for a modern past, for a "like back then, but today". Esotericism appeared to offer a solution of this dilemma. By applying methods and forms of representation of the natural sciences on conceptions of the supernatural a connection between these two seemingly emerged, and the ''occult sciences'' took shape.
One reason for Éliphas Lévi's success may of course be seen in the fact that he was the first who consequently followed this path. He was the first after [[Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim|Agrippa von Nettesheim]] who occupied himself with occultism more intensely than just en passant. Thence he could draw from an extensive well - without being hampered by his rather lesser developed ability to working systematically. Almost every notable mystic of the following times would be influenced by his scriptures, for the wide range of subjects they cover as well as for their relative originality. His taste for excentric appearances calculated for effect and regardless of possibly negative outcome helped boost his popularity even further. Seven years after his death the Parisian newspaper ''Le Figaro'' published a leading article about him.<ref>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k278346v Un maitre sorcier. Le Figaro v. 6. Oktober 1882] (describes in detail the incidents around Lévi's near execution in 1848)</ref> Apart from the above-mentioned Fernand Rozier the mystics particularly influenced by him were:
* [[Gérard Encausse]] (1865 - 1916), who published under the pseudonym Papus,
* [[Stanislas de Guaita]] (1861 - 1897),
* [[Joséphin Péladan]] (1858 - 1918), who called himself Sâr Mérodack Joséphin Péladan.
In the English language area he reached amongst others:
* [[Helena Blavatsky]] (1831 - 1891),
* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] (1890 - 1937),
* [[Aleister Crowley]] (1875 - 1947), who considered himself a reincarnation of Lévi.
== References ==
== References ==
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