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Leviathan 149
Church, he became a priest, but was expelled
because of his left-wing political opinions (his
writings earned him three short jail terms) and
because he did not keep his inability to be celibate
a secret. He became a follower of a man named
Ganneau who claimed to be the reincarnation of
Louis XVII, and began serious study of the occult,
which had always interested him. In 1861 his most
important book, The Dogma and Ritual of High
Magic appeared. Based on the work of Francis
Barrett in The Magus, it attempted to create a
unified magical system of all occult knowledge,
and this effort was continued in his later books.
His system was then adopted and improved by the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and so
became the source of all modern systems of
magic, including the magic of modern Satanist
groups. His work also influenced the English
occult writer Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton; they both
joined an occult organization (which Bulwer-
Lytton may have founded), and studied together.
This organization may also have influenced the
formation of the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn (HOGD). Levi’s works were translated into
English by A. E. Waite, a very prominent member
of the HOGD, and have been kept in print by
occult publishers ever since.
See also Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn;
Magic and Magical Groups
For Further Reading:
Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts. New York:
Capricorn Books, 1967.
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches
and Witchcraft. New York: Facts on File, 1989.
Levi, Eliphas [Alphonse-Louis Constant]. History of
Magic. York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1969.
Leviathan
The word Leviathan is originally Hebrew, and
means “the coiled one” or “that which gathers
itself together in folds.” It has come to mean any
formidable, monstrous being or thing. The term is
originally biblical, referring to a multiheaded sea
monster defeated by Yahweh. Leviathan is associated
with—and is sometimes used interchangeably
with—Behemoth, another biblical sea
monster. Because of the association between the
Devil and serpents, Leviathan is often identified
with Satan. Alternately, it is also sometimes used
to designate one of Satan’s demons.
Leviathan was sometimes portrayed as a kind
of aquatic dragon; sometimes as a whale. Most
biblical references are, however, tantalizingly brief;
for example,
Thou didst divide the sea by thy might; thou
didst break the heads of the dragons on the
waters. Thou didst crush the heads of
Leviathan, thou didst give him as food for the
creatures of the wilderness. (Ps. 74:13–14)
The lengthiest account of the confrontation
between God and Leviathan can be found in the
forty-first chapter of Job, though it is unclear how
much of the content of Yahweh’s challenge to Job
refers to an earlier tale and how much is being
composed on the spot. In any event, the Hebrew
tale appears to derive from a Ugarit story in which
Baal defeats a seven-headed sea monster with the
aid of Mot. Furthermore, this story seems to be a
variation of the well-known (to students of
mythology) Babylonian myth of Marduk’s defeat
of the sea monster Tiamat.
Tiamat, the Babylonian female dragon monster,
is one of the inspirations for the Christian devil via
Hebrew scriptures. In early Christian thought, the
dragon represents the Devil or the Devil’s servant,
and has the allegorical role of representing the
Antichrist, or more generally, evil passions, paganism,
or the oppressive powers of this world. In the
Book of Revelation (12), it is described as big and
red, with seven heads and ten horns. In the war in
heaven, the archangel Michael is usually represented
as the slayer of the dragon, and his angels
fight against the dragon and his rebel angels.
In Hebrew scriptures, Yahweh is sometimes
depicted as a storm god. At his coming “the earth
trembled, and the heavens dropped, yea, the
clouds dropped water, the mountains quaked
before the Lord” (Judg. 5:4–5). “Thou didst break
the heads of the dragons on the waters” says the
Psalmist (Ps. 74:13), and “the Lord . . . shall slay
the dragon that is in the sea” (Isa. 27:1). Moreover,
in Psalms 91:13, “the saints shall trample the
dragon under their feet.” The battle between
Yahweh and the dragon is very popular in the