The Reconciliation of Science and Religion: Eliphas Levi's Discourse on Gnostic Kabalah - the Human Verb, the Divine Verb and the Divine Humanity

Book excerpt: This is the first English translation of Eliphas Levi's Preliminary Discourse from the second edition of his famous Dogma & Ritual of High Magic (also called Transcendental Magic in English). It is a Discourse on Gnostic Kabalah: the Human Verb, the Divine Verb and Divine Humanity. It is presented in a Bilingual format (English side-by-side with the original French) with copious footnotes and a sizable Editor's Appendix. Levi mentions it in his correspondence with his student Baron Spedalieri, saying: "...the economy of numbers necessitates the alliance of science and of faith which will constitute the absolute reason for the human verb upon an unshakable foundation, analogous to that of God, as I have demonstrated in the preliminary discourse of my second edition to Dogma and Ritual..."