Eliphas Levi - Master of Tarot

Alphonse Louis Constant is one of the great influences on tarot - Aleister Crowley believed he was a reincarnation of the Frenchman. Levie was born in 1810, destined to be a priest, but at some point he discovered occultism. It is not clear if he was pushed or jumped, but he left the Catholic Church. In a ten year spurt he wrote an impressive number of books that influenced western occultism in France and in England.

The Chariot in the Book of Thoth is inspired by Levi's design. The Fool card is associated with Baphomet, the supposed God of the Templars as described by Levi.

Bibliography

• The Great Secret
• The History of Magic
• Kabbalistic Prayer and Book of Formation
• The Key of the Mysteries
• Letters to a Disciple
• Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum
• Mysteries of the Kabbalah
• The Paradoxes of the Highest Science
• Science of Hermes
• Transcendental Magic
• Conjuration of the Four
• Elements of Kabbalah
• The Book of Splendors

A significant number of these books were translated by A.E. Waite and Aleister Crowley, who were of course members of the Golden Dawn.