ABSTRACT
The presence of magic is evident from the outset as one of the many constituents that would make up surrealism. Magic and alchemy are fundamental to Breton's conception of surrealism, both providing the source of essential surrealist concepts and exercising a decisive influence upon the development of the movement at key moments in its history. Taking as his starting point Rimbaud's alchemy of the word, in the Second Manifesto of Surrealism Breton claims surrealism as taking up the challenge set by the author of Un Saison en enfer at the start of a difficult undertaking. The early interest shown by surrealism in alchemy and magic intensified with the onset of the Second World War, when the surrealists gathered in Marseilles during the winter of 1940/41 while attempting to flee France, created their own version of the Marseilles Tarot. Rougemont also muses on the broader status of occultism when asked if he believed in the occult.
