The Great Secret

Great Britain: Thorsons Publishers Limited, 1975. First Edition. Octavo with black cloth-wrapped boards in black gold and purple jacket; illustrations; 188p VG Jacket with chipping at head and foot of spine and at front fold, small scratch to front of DJ; VG copy, clean and tight. Now in archival mylar. Hardcover. ISBN: 0877282951

Volume III - Studies in Hermetic Tradition. "Never before published in English, this newly-translated work of occult philosophy was written in 1868. Levi, however, speaks with a surprisingly contemporary voice to a world bedevilled by violence, terrorism, and nationalism run amok. "This world is a mad-house and in it the wise are the attendants," Levi declares. The revolutionary spirit, he warns, 'is often inspired by a fierce thirst for justice and is capable of the utmost heroism and devotion, but it is always deceived, debased and set off course by the magnetism of evil.'" -- Jacket. About the author: "Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (8 February 1810 – 31 May 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenties and became a ceremonial magician. At the age of 40, he began professing knowledge of the occult. He wrote over 20 books on magic, Kabbalah, alchemical studies, and occultism." -- Wikipedia.