The Reconciliation Of Science And Religion: Eliphas Levi's Discourse On Gnostic Kabalah - The Human Verb, The Divine Verb And The Divine Humanity

This is the first critical English translation of Éliphas Lévi's Preliminary Discourse to the second edition of his famous Dogma and Ritual of High Magic, published in 1861.  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.

Lévi mentions the Preliminary Discourse in his correspondence with his student Baron Spédalieri, 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..."

In the present text, Levi says:

"To be [a] poet, it is to create; it is not to dream nor to lie.
God was [a] poet when He made the world, and His immortal epic is written with stars.

The Sciences have received from Him the secrets of poetry, because the keys of harmony were delivered into their hands.

Numbers are poets, because they sing with notes [that are] always right, which gives rapture to the genius of Pythagoras."

The Editor's Appendix contains 3 sections:

1. Three letters from Lévi to Baron Spédalieri which mention the Preliminary Discourse
2. Two chapters from Book 2 of The Key to the Great Mysteries which are related to the Verb
3. The Introduction to Ritual of High Magic which also has some relevant information about the Verb

All of the items in the Editor's Appendix are brand new translations and help to show the depth of Lévi's philosophy of the Verb and its relation to Gnostic Kabalah.