Lazare Lenain (1823): the source of the 72 guardian angels

A bookseller from Amiens

Lazare Lenain was born in Paris in 1793 and spent almost his whole life in Amiens, where he died in 1877. A secondhand bookseller and velvet worker, he was admitted as a Freemason in 1818. In 1823 he published, at his own expense and in 500 copies, La Science cabalistique, ou l’art de connaître les bons génies, his only book. His stated aim: to make known a magic that he wanted freed from any diabolical idea.

What the book contains

The heart of the work consists of 72 entries, one per angel. Each brings together the same set of information: the divine quality the name expresses, the period of the year and the hour when the angel reigns, the psalm to recite, then the character attributed to whoever is born under him and its opposing side. Lenain adds a method for finding your three angels: one for the body, one for speech, one for the soul.

Where his tables come from

The 72 names come from the Shem ha-Mephorash, the great divine name that Kabbalists read in the Book of Exodus. Lenain draws on Agrippa, Reuchlin, and Kircher, but he writes that he devised his tables himself, following a principle of d’Odoucet, a successor of the cartomancer Etteilla. The division of the day into twenty-minute slots would therefore be his: none of his known sources gives it.

What modern lists made of it

The book, rare, circulated among 19th-century occultists. Papus devoted a chapter to it in 1903, Robert Ambelain drew on it in 1951, then Kabaleb in 1989; it was reissued in 1909 and in 1963. Most lists of guardian angels published since take up its names and portraits, and sometimes shift its dates by a day or two.

Facts and sources

• Lazare Lenain was born in Paris on February 17, 1793, and died in Amiens on November 5, 1877; he lived there almost all his life. Wikipedia (fr), “Lazare Lenain.”.
• He worked as a secondhand bookseller and textile worker (a velvet winder); he was received as a master Freemason in 1818. Wikipedia (fr), “Lazare Lenain.”.
• La Science cabalistique, ou l’art de connaître les bons génies was published in Amiens in 1823, in a print run of 500 copies; it is his only published book. Wikipedia (fr), “Lazare Lenain”.
• He draws on Agrippa, Reuchlin, and Kircher; the 72 names come from the Shem ha-Mephorash, taken from Exodus 14:19–21. Wikipedia (fr), “Lazare Lenain”; La Science cabalistique, ch. VI.
• He says he devised his tables (pp. 34–35) from a principle of d’Odoucet, Etteilla’s successor. La Science cabalistique, pp. 34–35.
• His four tables give each genius five days starting from March 20, five presided days, and twenty minutes of the day. La Science cabalistique, pp. 25–38.
• Reissues: 1909 (Dujols and Thomas, preface by Papus), 1963 (Éditions Traditionnelles), then 1972, 1979, and 1989. Wikipedia (fr), “Lazare Lenain.”.
• Papus (La Cabbale, 1903), Robert Ambelain (La Kabbale pratique, 1951), then Kabaleb (Les Anges, 1989) derive from it. Wikipedia (fr), “Lazare Lenain”.