The History of Magic
Lévi, Éliphas As a comprehensive work on magic through the ages, The History of Magic, is hard to beat. Éliphas Lévi was born in poverty in 1810, the son of a Parisian shoemaker. His early associations with the Christian Catholic Church were ambivalent because of his interest in "the Secret Doctrine" - Magic. His voice as a magus emerged in Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual, published in 1855-56, followed by The History of Magic (1860), where he...