Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Tamise Totterdell, Brian Janes and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DEVIL-WORSHIP IN FRANCE _Demy 8vo, about 450 pages, cloth_ THE DOCTRINE AND RITUAL OF TRANSCENDENT MAGIC BY ELIPHAS LEVI A COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF "DOGME ET RITUEL DE LA HAUTE MAGIE" BY ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE _With all the original engravings and a portrait of the Author._ GEORGE REDWAY 9 HART STREET, BLOOMSBURY LONDON DEVIL-WORSHIP IN FRANCE OR THE QUESTION OF LUCIFER _A RECORD OF THINGS SEEN AND HEARD IN THE SECRET SOCIETIES ACCORDING TO THE EVIDENCE OF INITIATES_ BY ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE "The first in this plot was Lucifer."--THOMAS VAUGHAN LONDON GEORGE REDWAY 1896 PREFACE The term Modern Satanism is not intended to signify the development of some new aspect of old doctrine concerning demonology, or some new argument for the personification of the evil principle in universal nature. It is intended to signify the alleged revival, or, at least, the reappearance to some extent in public, of a _cultus diabolicus_, or formal religion of the devil, the existence of which, in the middle ages, is registered by the known facts of the Black Sabbath, a department, however, of historical research, to which full justice yet remains to be done. By the hypothesis, such a religion may assume one of two forms; it may be a worship of the evil principle as such, namely, a conscious attempt on the part of human minds to identify themselves with that principle, or it may be the worship of a power which is regarded as evil by other religions, from which view the worshippers in question dissent. The necessity for this distinction I shall make apparent in the first chapter of this book. A religion of the darkness, subsisting under each of these distinctive forms, is said to be in practice at the present moment, and to be characterised, as it was in the past, by the strong evidence of miracles,--in other words, by transcendental phenomena of a very extraordinary kind, connecting in a direct manner with what is generically termed Black Magic. Now, Black Magic in the past may have been imposture reinforced by delusion, and to state that it is recurring at the present day does not commit anyone to an opinion upon its veridical origin. To say, also, that the existence of modern diabolism has passed from the region of rumour into that of exhaustive and detailed statement, is to record a matter of fact, and I must add that the evidence in hand, whatever its ultimate value, can be regarded lightly by those only who are unacquainted with its extent and character. This evidence is, broadly, of three kinds:--(a) The testimony of independent men of letters, who would seem to have come in contact therewith; (b) the testimony volunteered by former initiates of such secret associations as are dedicated to a _cultus diabolicus_; (c) the