Some research by experimental/ asemic writer & publisher Tim Gaze in Australia on Eliphas Lévi, who a few year after the Bouzingos' dissolution was involved with the Evadamist commune of the Mapah Ganneau. There's also a bit on this group HERE and HERE and HERE. Many thanks, Tim!
Connections between Eliphas Lévi & the «Bouzingo»
I did a tiny bit of research, to see if there were any obvious connections between the Bouzingo people and the influential scholar of esotoric knowledge, Eliphas Lévi.
My main source was Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival by Christopher McIntosh (Rider, 1972).
Eliphas Lévi is the name under which our protagonist is best known.
Named at birth (8th February 1810) Alphonse-Louis Constant, Lévi was educated from 1825 at the seminary St-Nicolas du Chardonnet, with the intention of becoming a priest. The Principal, Abbé Frére-Colonna, was an expert in supernatural phenomena such as the animal magnetism used by Anton Mesmer.
Later, he studied philosophy at a college in Issy, then entered the theological college of St-Sulpice, training to become a priest. He was ordained as a Deacon in 1835, but abandoned the idea of becoming a priest in 1836.
After leaving St-Sulpice, he started to attend artistic and literary salons, and became active in radical politics.
At some time around 1838, Lévi met Honoré de Balzac, at the home of a Mme Girardin.
In 1839, in the company of the writer Alphonse Esquiros, Lévi visited the prophet Mapah, whose family name was Ganneau, who is already mentioned in prior Bouzingo research.
Alphonse-Louis wrote a radical book, La Bible de la liberté, published by Auguste Le Gallois in 1841. Both author and publisher were fined and imprisoned for this work.
He wrote a number of other articles and books on political ideas and religion. McIntosh comments that Constant managed to simultaneously be a radical and a traditionalist, fusing Socialist ideas with Catholicism. Constant's drawings and poetry were also published in journals.
In addition, he edited some notes entrusted to him by his recently deceased friend Flora Tristan, which were published as L'Emancipation de la femme, ou testament de la paria, in 1846. An early feminist work?
His first famous work on occultism, Dogme et rituel de la haute magie, was published under his pseudonym in 1856. Fluent in reading Hebrew because of his religious education, he decided to convert his Christian names into equivalent Hebrew names, changing Alphonse-Louis to Eliphas Lévi. Sometimes he used the name Eliphas Lévi Zahed.
Another famous work, Histoire de la magie, was published in 1860.
In the 1870s, Lévi received a visit from the author Judith Gautier (Mme Judith Mendès), who was the daughter of Bouzingo Théophile Gautier. Judith's husband, also an author, named Catulle Mendès, was an enthusiast of Lévi's work, and invited him around, where Eliphas met Victor Hugo. Victor knew of Lévi's writing.
So, there were definite connections between Alphonse-Louis Constant/Eliphas Lévi and members of the Bouzingo circle, although they occurred much later than the 1930s. Constant was still finding his way in the world in the 1830s. The word "Bouzingo" does not occur in McIntosh's book.
A deeper question about magic and the Bouzingo would be: was there any conscious, willed intentional magic by members of the Bouzingo during their most active period?
rough research by Tim Gaze, June 2011
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