The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum

A posthumous publication (1896) by an influential exponent of nineteenth-century occultism, interpreting the tarot trumps but finally asserting Christian revelation.

Éliphas Lévi (1810–75) was instrumental in the revival of Western occultism in the nineteenth century. This posthumous publication (1896), translated from an unpublished manuscript, outlines the meanings of the twenty-two tarot trumps and includes editorial notes on their iconography. It concludes with Kabbalistic prayers and occult and religious maxims.Éliphas Lévi, born Alphonse Louis Constant, (1810–75) was instrumental in the revival of Western occultism in the nineteenth century, and published several influential books on magic that are also reissued in this series. This posthumous publication (1896) is a translation by William Wynn Westcott, co-founder of the 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn', of an unpublished French manuscript by Lévi, then owned by the spiritualist Edward Maitland. It includes eight of the author's drawings. Each short chapter outlines the meaning of one of the twenty-two tarot trumps and is followed by a brief editor's note describing the card's iconography and summarising interpretations (sometimes deliberately misleading) given in Lévi's earlier publications. The book ends with Kabbalistic prayers and rituals, praise of Jesus Christ as the great initiate, and a surprising assertion that Christianity has superseded ancient magic, revealing the life-long tension between Catholicism and magic in Lévi's personality and thought.