a year ago
17
2
Posted On: September 4th 2025, 11:33 pm
La Clef Des Grands Mysteres
(The Key to the Great Mysteries)
(1861, unknown edition)
by Eliphas Levi
#esotericism #esoteric #occult #occultism #bookgram #bookcollector #antiquebooks #antiquarianbooks #antiqueoccult #eliphaslevi
The beginning of school, travel, and seasonal illness have all conspired to slow down my posting recently, but not my collecting!
And boy do I have one today: the most important occult book in my collection, and my first foreign language book. I’ve purposefully avoided other languages because 1) they’re typically very early or first editions (therefore more expensive), and more importantly 2) if I do feel urge to read them… that would be nice. But sometimes a book comes along that is so important you want to get the earliest edition you can swing, and I swung big time on this one. Listed on a European auction house, I thought, “there’s no way…” Just a few weeks later hailing from the Netherlands 🇳🇱 I present to you Eliphas Levi’s “The Key to the Great Mysteries.”
No one else calls him this, but to me Levi is an occult Godfather. Born in 1810, Levi was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. But before that he was a catholic priest. He abandoned the priesthood early on and began his studies into the occult. Some say he wanted additional knowledge to get closer to the divine. He was fairly prolific, but there are three considered major works laying the foundation for the occult sciences. This book is his third such foundational text.
The Key to the Great Mysteries reveals the secrets of religion and the Qabalah and provides insight on the prophetic knowledge of numbers. The study of a divine science, “the mathematics of God.”
Suffice to say I was stoked to win the auction and obtain this legendary treasure for my collection. It’s the closest thing I have to an incunable which is a term for ancient books printed prior to the year 1500. That is a whole other category of collecting I don’t expect to explore much, but they are super cool. For now I’m basking in the glow of this glorious relic!
Au revoir, until next time 🇫🇷
(The Key to the Great Mysteries)
(1861, unknown edition)
by Eliphas Levi
#esotericism #esoteric #occult #occultism #bookgram #bookcollector #antiquebooks #antiquarianbooks #antiqueoccult #eliphaslevi
The beginning of school, travel, and seasonal illness have all conspired to slow down my posting recently, but not my collecting!
And boy do I have one today: the most important occult book in my collection, and my first foreign language book. I’ve purposefully avoided other languages because 1) they’re typically very early or first editions (therefore more expensive), and more importantly 2) if I do feel urge to read them… that would be nice. But sometimes a book comes along that is so important you want to get the earliest edition you can swing, and I swung big time on this one. Listed on a European auction house, I thought, “there’s no way…” Just a few weeks later hailing from the Netherlands 🇳🇱 I present to you Eliphas Levi’s “The Key to the Great Mysteries.”
No one else calls him this, but to me Levi is an occult Godfather. Born in 1810, Levi was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. But before that he was a catholic priest. He abandoned the priesthood early on and began his studies into the occult. Some say he wanted additional knowledge to get closer to the divine. He was fairly prolific, but there are three considered major works laying the foundation for the occult sciences. This book is his third such foundational text.
The Key to the Great Mysteries reveals the secrets of religion and the Qabalah and provides insight on the prophetic knowledge of numbers. The study of a divine science, “the mathematics of God.”
Suffice to say I was stoked to win the auction and obtain this legendary treasure for my collection. It’s the closest thing I have to an incunable which is a term for ancient books printed prior to the year 1500. That is a whole other category of collecting I don’t expect to explore much, but they are super cool. For now I’m basking in the glow of this glorious relic!
Au revoir, until next time 🇫🇷
Comments (2)
a year agodesertwindrarebooks
Thats an impressive find! I love that someone at some point bound it in vellum. Its perfect for that book!
More posts
