French ceremonial magic revival

Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant)

1810 – 1875

Éliphas Lévi, born Alphonse Louis Constant, was a French esotericist and former seminary student whose Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1854–1856) synthesized Kabbalah, tarot, Hermeticism, and ritual magic into the first coherent modern system of Western ceremonial magic. His famous image of Baphomet, his articulation of the Astral Light as the magical medium, and his identification of the Major Arcana of the tarot with the Hebrew alphabet became foundational concepts for the entire subsequent Western occult revival. He directly shaped the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's approach to magic, and Aleister Crowley claimed to be his reincarnation — testimony to his towering influence on modern occultism.