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Levi, Eliphas; Waite, Arthur Edward.
Transcendental Magic. Its Doctrine and Ritual.
Publisher: William Rider & Son, London;
Date of Publication: 1923
Stock Code: 11571
Second edition. Octavo, pp. xxiii, [2], 521, [3], final advertisement leaf. With black and white illustrations, including eight full-page plates as called for. Bound in the original publisher’s red cloth with ornate gilt rolled boarders, gilt Seal of Solomon corner ornaments, gilt titles to upper board and spine.
A slightly shaken copy; cloth lightly rubbed to corners with minor wear to spine-tips. Striking mid-century bookplate to front paste-down and small neat ink owner’s name “Sealbert” to front free endpaper, a few light spots of foxing to prelims else clean. Rare copy of Eliphas Levi’s (1810-1875) most influential work and his final treatise on ritual magic, with each section being split into twenty-two chapters to mirror the Major Arcana of the tarot. Indeed it is Levi who is responsible for our modern understanding of the tarot as a tool of divination rooted in esoteric symbolism. Translated from the French by the English mystic, ceremonial magician, and co-creator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck, A. E. Waite. The influence of this work, via Waite's translation, on late nineteenth/early twentieth century British occultism is difficult to overemphasise. Transcendental Magic directly informed the formation and ceremonies of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as well as impressing upon a young Aleister Crowley who was so enamoured with Levi that he proclaimed himself Levi’s reincarnation. This is the second, and best, edition, substantially revised with over 100 more pages than the first. The book is complete with 23 illustrations including a plate depicting Levi's infamous interpretation of Baphomet, which went on to become an key figure in the cosmology of Crowley's Temple of Thelema.

£650.00