The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum
Interpreted by the Tarot Trumps

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

Éliphas Lévi (Author), W. Wynn Westcott (Edited and translated by)

9781108044295, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 December 2011

134 pages, 8 colour illus.
21.6 x 14 x 0.8 cm, 0.18 kg

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(1896) is a translation by William Wynn Westcott, co-founder of the 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn', of an unpublished French manuscript by Lévi, then owned by the spiritualist Edward Maitland.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prayers and rituals, praise of Jesus Christ as the great initiate, and a surprising assertion that Christianity has superseded ancient magic, revealing the life-long tension between Catholicism and magic in Lévi's personality and thought.

Preface by the editor
1. The Magician
2. The Priestess
3. The Empress
4. The Emperor
5. The Pope, or Hierophant
6. The Lovers
7. The Chariot of Hermes
8. Justice
9. The Hermit
10. The Wheel of Fortune
11. Fortitude
12. The Hanged Man
13. Death
14. Temperance
15. Satan
16. The Tower
17. The Star
18. The Moon
19. The Sun
20. The Last Judgment
21. The Unwise Man
22. The Universe
The Kabalistic prayer
Conclusion
Occult and religious maxims.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]