Influences:

• His seminary headmaster who ignited his curiosity in about magic and the occult.
• An older couple called 'Ganneau' who practiced magic and the occult. Constant became one of their followers.
• Lévi stated he was influenced by an earlier writer and occultist Francis Barrett.
• Lévi is known as "The Man Behind Baphomet." Baphomet is the illustration used on "The Devil" card of the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. Following is a translation provided by Christian Joachim Hartmann taken from Lévi's book as to the interpretation of his drawing:

  "The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of hermetism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyn of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. The ugly beast's head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely reponsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyn arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences."

Key Relationships:

• Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, (the 1st Baron Lytton of Knebworth) a novelist, who was interested in Rosicrucianism as a literary theme and was the President of a minor Rosicrucian order. With Lytton, Lévi conceived the notion of writing a treatise on magic. This appeared in 1855 under the title 'Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie'. Later, it was translated into English by Arthur Edward Waite as 'Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual'. Its famous opening lines presents it's essential theme of Occultism:

"Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the monstrous or marvelous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, in the ceremonies practiced at reception by all secret societies, there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed."

• Adolphe Desbarolles, an author who achieved some prominence as the author of Les Mysteres de la Main, an important 19th century work on palmistry.
• Kenneth Mackenzie, a leading member of the S.R.I.A. (Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia) and the author of the influential “Royal Masonic Encyclopedia.” (Mackenzie was also theorized as the author and originator of the controversial “Cipher Manuscripts” upon which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded).

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