The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic: A New Translation

Modern mystics, occultists, ritualists, tarot enthusiasts, and pagans who feel their practice is enhanced by a better understanding of their source materials will find this work, the first English translation in more than 100 years of Levi’s seminal mid-19th-century pair of works, is a key addition to their magical libraries. Greer does well in bringing in Mikituk, who starts anew without directly referring to Waite’s earlier translation, freshening Levi without the indignity of over-modernizing his intensely symbolic language. Extensive but rarely editorializing footnotes address Levi’s literary and mythic references and his multi-language wordplay, and highlight important points for contemplation. In the extended introduction, Greer expresses great admiration for Levi’s thought process and the structuring of his ideas, and gives readers a conceptual structure through which to approach the dense text. Though Levi’s “genius” in making “magic relevant to his world” sometimes relies on now-discredited theories such as phrenology and Mesmer’s magnetism, there is timeless value in his syncretic sophistication combined with his orientation towards action, his eloquence in both allegory and in practical instructions, his urge toward a philosophy that includes reason but does not exalt it, and his deep understanding of the relationship between magic as psychology and magic as an effective force in the world. (Apr.)