`…..I held a new sword in one hand, and in the other the ritual. I kindled two fires…and began reading the evocations of the ritual in a voice at first low, then rising by degrees…and as the flame again burst up, I beheld distinctly before the altar the figure of a man of more than normal size, which dissolved and vanished away…'
(Levi: `Dogme et Ritual de la Haute Magie')
Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant) is famous for his exquisitely written works on the history and practice of High Magic. In the middle of his career, in July 1854, he was invited to London to perform a magical evocation of a phantom, that of Apollonius of Tyana the ancient Greek magician and philosopher.
Given as a lecture at the Hell Fire Club, this is an account of the legendary Apollonius and the nature and origin of the obscure ritual used by Levi over three weeks isolated study, prayers and intense fasting.
First edition limited to:
36 copies bound in quarter black goatskin with emerald cloth, scarlet title label with Eliphas Levis pentagram, scarlet endpapers.
http://www.amazon. co.uk/gp/ product/B0050NQS B2
777 copies bound in French navy cloth with a scarlet title label bearing Levi's pentagram design and scarlet endpapers.
http://www.amazon. co.uk/gp/ product/B0050NRW M6