The ree of An Illustrated Study in Magic
Edited and Annotated by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero
A Cornerstone of Magical Practice
In a Major New Edition
At a time when magic was regarded by most as suspect at best and dangerously evil at worst, Israel Regardie saw magic as a precise scientific discipline as well as a highly spiritual way of life. At the age of twenty-four, he took on the enormous task of making it accessible to a wide audience of eager spiritual seekers. Regardie wished to point out the fundamental principles common to all magic, regardless of any specific tradition or spiritual path.
The result was The Tree of Life, which adroitly presents a massive amount of diverse material in a remarkably unified whole. From the day it was first published, this book has remained in high demand for its skillful combination of ancient wisdom and modern magical experience.
This master work has now been meticulously edited by two Senior Adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn who worked personally with Regardie. The material has been clarified with annotations, commentary, and explanatory notes. There is a new introduction, glossary, bibliography, and index, and a wealth of new illustrations.
This new edition carries on Regardie’s dream—that magic be delivered from obscurity and misconception into understanding and usefulness.
About the Author
Israel Regardie (1907–1985) was the author of a number of outstanding books on magic who was credited with removing the excessive secrecy surrounding modern occultism. Born in England, Regardie spent most of his life in the United States. In 1928 he took a job as Aleister Crowley’s secretary and by 1932 he had become an esoteric teacher in his own right. In 1933 he joined the Stella Matutina, an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1937 he published the rituals of the Order in his classic book The Golden Dawn.
About the Editors
Chic Cicero was born in Buffalo, New York. A former musician and businessman, Chic has been a practicing ceremonial magician for the past thirty years. He was a close personal friend of Israel Regardie. Having established a Golden Dawn temple in 1977, Chic was one of the key people who helped Regardie resurrect a legitimate branch of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the early 1980s.
Sandra Tabatha Cicero was born in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, with a Bachelor’s degree in the Fine Arts. Both Chic and Tabatha are Senior Adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. They are the authors of several books published by Llewellyn.
To Write to the Editors
If you wish to contact the editors or would like more information about this book, please write to the editors in care of Llewellyn Worldwide and we will forward your request. Please write to: Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero c/o Llewellyn Worldwide 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989
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THE TREE OF LIFE
An Illustrated Study in Magic
Israel Regardie
edited and annotated by
Chic Cicero
Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota
The Tree of Life: An Illustrated Study in Magic © 2001 by Llewellyn Publications and Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without permission in writing from Llewellyn Publications except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.
Copyright © 1932 by Israel Regardie
Second Edition 1972 by Samuel Weiser, Inc.
THIRD EDITION, edited and annotated
Twenty-third Printing, 2025
Cover design: Bill Cannon
Book design and layout: Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Project management: Tom Lewis
Photos of Israel Regardie are from the Israel Regardie Archives, H.O.G.D. private collection, courtesy of Maria Babwahsingh.
Several graphics from the CD The Alchemical and Occult Collection are provided courtesy of Conscious Productions, 110 Dartmouth SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106 (http://www.bewelltech.com/alchemical).
Artwork from Egyptian Designs; Egyptian Motifs; Symbols, Signs & Signets; The Gods of the Egyptians; Women, A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources; Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft; Heck’s Pictorial Archive of Art and Architecture; The Doré Bible Illustrations; Doré’s Illustrations for “Paradise Lost”; The Doré Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy; Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery; The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer; A Treasury of Bible Illustrations, Old and New Testaments; and The New Testament: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources are courtesy of Dover Publications, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Regardie, Israel.
The Tree of Life: an illustrated study in magic/Israel regardie.—3rd ed., edited and annotated/by Chic Cicero, Sandra Tabatha Cicero. p. cm Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN: 978-1-56718-132-6
1. Magic. 2. Occultism. I. Cicero, Chic, 1936-II. Cicero, Sandra Tabatha, 1959III. Title.
BF1611 .R45 2000
133.4'3—dc21 00-063705
Llewellyn Worldwide does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public. All mail addressed to the editors of this book is forwarded, but the publisher cannot, unless specifically instructed by the editors, give out an address or phone number.
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Other Books by Israel Regardie
The Golden Dawn
The Middle Pillar
A Garden of Pomegranates
The Philosopher’s Stone
The Art of True Healing
The Romance of Metaphysics
Twelve Steps to Spiritual Enlightenment
The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic
Ceremonial Magic
Foundations of Practical Magic
The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic (3rd edition, edited and annotated by the Ciceros)
A Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life (3rd edition, edited and annotated by the Ciceros)
Other Books by the Ciceros
Golden Dawn Magical Tarot
(formerly the New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot)
Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition
Experiencing the Kabbalah
Creating Magical Tools
Ritual Use of Magical Tools
Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple
The Golden Dawn Journal Series:
Book I: Divination
Book II: Qabalah: Theory and Magic
Book III: The Art of Hermes
The Magical Pantheons: A Golden Dawn Journal
The Essential Golden Dawn
The Golden Dawn Enochian Scrying Tarot
Tarot Talismans: Invoke the Angels of the Tarot
Dedicated with poignant memory of what might have been to Marsyas
Israel Regardie
You must understand therefore that this is the first path to felicity, affording to souls an intellectual plenitude of divine union. But the sacerdotal and theurgic gift of felicity is called indeed the gate to the Demiurgos of wholes, or the seat, or palace, of the good. In the first place, likewise, it possesses a power of purifying the soul...afterwards it causes a coaptation of the reasoning power to the participation and vision of the good and a liberation from every thing of a contrary nature, and in the last place, produces a union with the Gods, who are the givers of every good.
—Iamblichus
Figure 1: Tahuti, Patron of Magic.
Part Two: Theory and Practice
Illustrations
Color Plates
The Minutum Mundum...................................................................Plate One
Four Tattva Symbols........................................................................Plate Two
The Pentagram Sigil.......................................................................Plate Three
The Hexagram of Solomon............................................................Plate Four
Illustrations:
Figure 1: Tahuti, Patron of Magic................................................frontispiece
Figure 2: Israel Regardie at Age Twenty..................................................xxii
Figure 3: Israel Regardie, Author and Magician.....................................xxv
Figure 4: Regardie, Doctor of Chiropractic and Reichian Therapist.......xxviii
Figure 5: Regardie with Sonny Boy, in the Early 1980s..........................xxx
Figure 6: The Way to the Upper World........................................................2
Figure 7: The Hermetic Universe...................................................................5
Figure 8: Jacob Boehme...................................................................................6
Figure 9: The Gateway to Eternal Wisdom..................................................9
Figure 10: Earthly and Heavenly Life.........................................................10
Figure 11: The Mystical Heart......................................................................12
Figure 12: The Eastern Chakras and the Western Tree of Life................15
Figure 13: The Unity of Humanity and the Cosmos.................................16
Figure 14: The Mountain of Initiation—The Path of Divine Theurgy....18
Figure 15: The “Heavenly Man”........................................................................21
Figure 16: Iamblichus...........................................................................................23
Figure 17: Blavatsky, Levi, Waite, and Crowley........................................28
Figure 18: Mathers and Westcott.................................................................34
Figure 19: The Sephirotic Tree of the Qabalah.................................................40
Figure 20: The Tree of Life...................................................................................42
Figure 21: Geometric Figures Attributed to the Hebrew Alphabet.............44
Figure 22: The Serpent Swallowing its Tail......................................................46
Figure 23: The Tree of Life with its Roots in the Heavens.............................48
Figure 24: The Manifestation of YHVH............................................................50
Figure 25: Supernal Triad....................................................................................52
Figure 26: The Head of Adam Kadmon............................................................57
Figure 27: The Tree of the Soul...........................................................................59
Figure 28: The Four Worlds.................................................................................62
Figure 29: The Emanations of the Divine.........................................................64
Figure 30: The Caduceus......................................................................................70
Figure 31: The Mirror of Nature and the Image as Art..................................73
Figure 32: The Soul of the World........................................................................76
Figure 33: Sun and Moon.....................................................................................80
Figure 34: The Egyptian Underworld...............................................................83
Figure 35: The Human Psyche............................................................................86
Figure 36: Man is a Microcosm...........................................................................94
Figure 37: Symmetry of the Human Figure.....................................................97
Figure 38: Adam Kadmon, The Heavenly Man..............................................99
Figure 39: The Soul—Shekinah Represented as the Spirit of Mercury.....100
Figure 40: The Reflection of Macroprosopus.................................................103
Figure 41: Theophrastus Paracelsus................................................................107
Figure 42: Pythagoras.........................................................................................109
Figure 43: The Sacred Uraeus, Cow, Hawk, and Scarab.............................118
Figure 44: Ptah Fashioning the Egg of the World.........................................121
Figure 45: Amen-Ra, King of the Gods...........................................................122
Figure 46: Isis and Osiris....................................................................................124
Figure 47: The Goddess Maat...........................................................................128
Figure 48: Horus, the Lord of Fire and Force.................................................130
Figure 49: Hathor, the Egyptian Aphrodite...................................................135
Figure 50: Anubis, the God of the Dead.........................................................137
Figure 51: Bast......................................................................................................138
Figure 52: Shu, Nuit (Nut), and Geb................................................................139
Figure 53: The Alchemist in His Laboratory..................................................146
Figure 54: The Breast Plate of a Hebrew High Priest...................................149
Figure 55: Francis Barrett...................................................................................152
Figure 56: Magical Implements from Barrett’s “The Magus”....................154
Figure 57: A Magical Circle from the Greater Key of Solomon..................157
Figure 58: A Magical Circle and Pentacles (Sixteenth Century)................158
Figure 59: A Magical Circle from the Heptameron......................................161
Figure 60: A Magical Circle and Lamen (Sixteenth Century).....................161
Figure 61: Magical Tools—Lamp, Wand, and Sword..................................162
Figure 62: A Magical Dagger............................................................................163
Figure 63: Magic Sword....................................................................................164
Figure 64: Pentacle of Solomon........................................................................165
Figure 65: The Triangle of Art...........................................................................165
Figure 66: The Trident........................................................................................166
Figure 67: Imagination, Energy, and Creativity............................................171
Figure 68: Jacob’s Dream...................................................................................182
Figure 69: Endurance—Atlas Supporting the World...................................185
Figure 70: Paravati in a Yogic Asana...............................................................188
Figure 71: The Steps Leading to the Celestial City.......................................192
Figure 72: Illumination.......................................................................................196
Figure 73: The Self-Sacrifice of the Pelican.....................................................199
Figure 74: The Deity............................................................................................200
Figure 75: The Ten Names of God with Their Orbs and Hierarchies.......203
Figure 76: A Pentacle of “Shemhamphoras” with Divine Names.............206
Figure 77: Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly..............................................210
Figure 78: Sacred Dance.....................................................................................216
Figure 79: Hermes Trismegistus.......................................................................220
Figure 80: The Experience of the Inner Worlds.............................................224
Figure 81: Henry Cornelius Agrippa...............................................................228
Figure 82: Divine Beings of Light and Fire.....................................................232
Figure 83: The Vision of Ezekiel.......................................................................235
Figure 84: The Ladder to the Heavens............................................................237
Figure 85: The Pentagram..................................................................................239
Figure 86: Lesser Banishing Pentagram..........................................................240
Figure 87: The Angel...........................................................................................243
Figure 88: Peter de Abano.................................................................................246
Figure 89: Egypt, the Mother of Magic...........................................................252
Figure 90: The Winged Solar Disk...................................................................255
Figure 91: Ra (or Rê), the Sun God...................................................................256
Figure 92: Moina Mather’s Art for “The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage”..............................................................................262
Figure 93: The Magician’s Vision of a Magic Disk........................................268
Figure 94: An Alchemist Invoking the Divine...............................................275
Figure 95: The Book of Knowledge..................................................................278
Figure 96: The Angel Gabriel Apppearing to Zacharias.............................282
Figure 97: The Book of Spirits from Barrett’s “The Magus”.......................290
Figure 98: A Magician Standing in a Magic Circle.......................................294
Figure 99: A Magician Summoning a Spirit...................................................297
Figure 100: Pentacles of Venus from “The Key of Solomon the King”.....303
Figure 101: Chart of Sephirotic Correspondences........................................305
Figure 102: Magical Seals from Barrett’s “The Magus”...............................307
Figure 103: The Circle and Triangle from “The Goetia”..............................310
Figure 104: Magical Seals from “The Goetia”................................................312
Figure 105: Talismans from “The Book of Ratziel”......................................315
Figure 106: Figure for Summoning Five Kings of the North......................319
Figure 107: Zodiacal Correspondences on the Human Body.....................320
Figure 108: The Chakras....................................................................................322
Figure 109: A Ritual of Purification.................................................................328
Figure 110: A Greek Ritual of “Drawing Down the Moon”.......................330
Figure 111: Isis Worship and Neptune Worship...........................................332
Figure 112: Christ’s Agony in the Garden......................................................335
Figure 113: The Hall of Judgment....................................................................338
Figure 114: A Dionysian Ritual........................................................................340
Figure 115: The Quest—An Alchemist Pursuing Nature............................342
Figure 116: The Magician in a Protective Circle Evoking an Angel..........346
Figure 117: Summoning the Dead...................................................................354
Figure 118: Qabalistic Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil...............357
Figure 119: Mesmer Performing Hypnosis....................................................359
Figure 120: Harpocrates on the Lotus, the Lord of Silence.........................362
Figure 121: Sol and Luna...................................................................................368
Figure 122: An Alchemical Mermaid..............................................................372
Figure 123: Alchemists at Work.......................................................................375
Figure 124: Union of Opposites—King and Queen, Lion and Eagle........378
Figure 125: An Invocation to the Divine.........................................................380
Figure 126: An Egyptian Magician..................................................................389
Figure 127: The Creator God in the Vision of St. John.................................394
Figure 128: The Sun as an Image of the Divine.............................................398
Figure 129: The Holy Table of Dr. John Dee..................................................404
Figure 130: Title Page from Heywood’s “Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels”.............................................................................................................408
Figure 131: An Angel as the Celestial Pilot....................................................412
Figure 132: The Empyrean................................................................................420
Figure 2: Israel Regardie at Age Twenty.
INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION
If I read the signs of the times aright, the veil of the Temple of the Mysteries is being drawn back at the present moment. There are phases in the spiritual life of mankind just as there are weather cycles extending over periods of years, and the tide which began to move during the first decade of the twentieth century is gathering as it proceeds. The signs of the times are to be seen in the publication of certain books on magic in which the genuine secrets are given, and in a form available for any reader with a capacity for metaphysical thought. Among the most important of these are Israel Regardie’s two books: The Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life. . . . Mr. Regardie has done his work admirably, both in the spirit and in the letter. The Tree of Life is a book which it would be difficult to praise too highly; it is going to be one of the classics of occultism.1
Such was the opinion of Dion Fortune, a respected authority in esoteric circles, whose article “Ceremonial Magic Unveiled,” printed in the January 1933 issue of The Occult Review, was an enormous aid to the young Israel Regardie’s magical career—a career so successful and influential that Regardie would be later become known as the man who removed the excessive secrecy that veiled modern occultism and made the magical practices of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn accessible to all spiritual seekers. Before his death in 1985, “Francis” Israel Regardie was considered by many
people to be one of the primary caretakers of the Golden Dawn tradition, a current of magic and spiritual discipline that attracted many prominent occultists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Dr. William W. Westcott, Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers, Arthur Edward Waite, William Butler Yeats, and Aleister Crowley. Regardie’s stature is in no way diminishedwhen comparing him to this extraordinary ensemble of knowledgeable magicians. His own theurgic abilities were well recognized by those who knew him:
A number of people have asked how Regardie stacked up against the higher Grades of the Stella Matutina. Having met a number of people who claimed 8=3 and one of 9=2 rank . . . I would safely say he was far ahead of them in technical expertise that they could not be considered in the same league as he.2
As a young man, Regardie had long been interested in the Qabalah, Theosophy, comparative religion, and philosophy. On March 18, 1926, he became a member of the Washington College of the Societas Rosicruciana in America.3 Around that time, Regardie discovered Crowley’s newly published Book Four, a work which captivated his curiosity. Regardie wrote to Crowley in Paris and eventually received a reply to his inquiry. A year or so later, Crowley offered Regardie a job as his secretary in Paris. Regardie took this as a great opportunity to learn magic from an authority. In October of 1928, at the age of twenty, Regardie went to France to take the post that Crowley had offered him. For the next three years Regardie lived a rather nomadic life as he tried to get his employer to teach him the magical arts.
However, Crowley did not offer to teach Regardie magic or yoga. He suggested that Regardie for a time relinquish all interests in mysticism, and instead walk and work his way around the world to explore every conceivable vice.4 Regardie, a shy and unobtrusive young man, kept expecting Crowley to openly volunteer magical information and discuss it with him which he never did. Regardie, too intimidated by his employer, did not press the issue. Contrary to his mentor’s suggestion, he continued his own studies, reading every book or manuscript on these subjects that he could get his hands on. Crowley’s troubles in France lead to his relocating to England, however, his publisher, Mandrake Press, eventually folded. As a
result, Crowley could no longer afford to keep his secretary. Regardie and Crowley drifted apart, though they remained friends. There can be no doubt, nevertheless, that the early years spent with Crowley were of major importance to Regardie’s intellectual and philosophical makeup.
In 1932, at the age of twenty-four, Regardie published his first magical book, A Garden of Pomegranates—this was based on his own Qabalistic studies, together with information compiled from different authors on the subject, including Aleister Crowley, A. E. Waite, Eliphas Levi, Frater Achad, Paul Foster Case, and D. H. Lawrence. The text was designed to give readers a simple yet comprehensive
Figure 3: Israel Regardie, Author and Magician.
guidebook outlining the complex system of the Qabalah and providing a key to its symbolism.
That same year, Regardie published The Tree of Life, a book usually considered his Magnum Opus. Regardie dedicated both books to Crowley, as a gesture of his spiritual independence from his old friend. In Regardie’s words: “I had already written two books, A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life. These were, incidentally, symbolical of my having severed the umbilical cord that tied me to Crowley. . . .”5
The Tree of Life is considered by many to be one of the most comprehensive texts on magic ever written. At the same time, it is an outstanding introduction to the subject. Crowley had also tried to write magical books that were reader-friendly and easy to comprehend, but he was never really capable of reaching this goal. Regardie’s text, on the other hand, is often regarded as indispensable for understanding Crowley’s more obscure writings. According to Francis King and Isabel Sutherland in The Rebirth of Magic: (Crowley) wrote with great clarity and simplicity on yoga, but his purely magical writings are largely incomprehensible to the reader not equipped with a detailed knowledge of Mather’s Qabalistic system, the rites of the Golden Dawn, and even the events of Crowley’s own life.
The pupil succeeded where the master had failed. In 1932, Regardie published two books, The Tree of Life and The Garden of Pomegranates, which many consider to be minor occult masterpieces. The former work dealt with the techniques of ritual magic, the latter with the Qabalah; in spite of Regardie’s close relationship with Crowley they represent the pure Golden Dawn system rather than ‘Crowleyanity’. It would seem that, young as he was, Regardie had the discrimination to discern which particular elements of ‘Magick’ were drawn from, repectively, the OTO, from the Book of the Law, and from the Golden Dawn. The Tree of Life gives, using alchemical symbolism, a detailed account of the ‘Mass of the Holy Ghost’—in other words, the sexual magic of the OTO.”6
King reiterates his point in his book on Modern Ritual Magic:
The Tree of Life, in my own opinion the best introduction to practical occultism that has ever been written, was dedicated to ‘Marsyas’, a name under which Crowley had personalized himself in his poem Aha, and included some lengthy quotations from ‘Marsyas’ himself. It would however, be a gross mistake to consider The Tree of Life as being
purely derived from Crowley and his teachings, for it excluded all specifically Thelemite (Crowleyan) elements and, although its author was at the time under the mistaken impression that the Golden Dawn had been defunct for many years, it largely consisted of a restatement of the original pre-1900 G. D. magical system that someone, presumably Mathers, had synthesized from so many diverse elements and sources.7
About five years after its publication, an episode occurred concerning The Tree of Life which was destined to cause a rift, soon to become a chasm, in the friendship between Regardie and Crowley— Regardie sent his old friend a copy of the book and received what he considered an insulting letter in return. Regardie responded in kind. The result was a final, complete, and rather nasty break between the two men which Regardie documented in his book The Eye in The Triangle: An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley (1970).
Regardie was deeply wounded by the breakup of the friendship and was only able to pardon Crowley in his later years. Many years earlier he had tried to repair Crowley’s tarnished public image by co-authoring a book called The Legend of Aleister Crowley (1930). Regardie’s later books offered a more balanced and matured view of Crowley than did his earlier works. Regardie’s charitable nature and his ability to forgive his old friend was evident in such works as The Eye in the Triangle. But he was also irritated when people linked him solely with Crowley’s teachings. The Tree of Life, written before Regardie was initiated into a spin-off of the Golden Dawn, was compiled from many different sources that were listed in his Appendix to that book. “One of his pet hates,” writes Pat Zalewski, “was people associating him with Crowley’s brand of Thelemic Magic, and the Book of the Law. I can still recall him thumping the table at dinner one night saying ‘Dammit, I’m a Golden Dawn man and not a Thelemite, and I wish people would realize it.’ He did, however, hold a lot of respect for McMurtry and some of the abilities of the O.T.O.”8 In any event, Regardie had many friends and associates in the Thelemic community.
The publication of The Tree of Life caused quite a stir in magical circles of the time, particularly in the remnants of the Golden Dawn. Although the original Order had ceased to exist in 1903, it continued to live on in its successor Orders, the Stella Matutina and the
Alpha et Omega. Although Crowley had published similar material many years earlier, his works had been privately printed in small, limited editions. However, both A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life had been printed by Rider and Company, a major publisher of esoteric books in England. Thus Regardie’s books were readily available to a wider audience of interested readers.
Many members of both Orders remembered Crowley as a disruptive insurgent from years before, therefore Regardie’s previous connection to Crowley caused some members to lash out at him. One of the leaders of the Alpha et Omega, E. J. Langford-Garstin, went so far as to write Regardie in a letter condemning him in no
Figure 4: Regardie, Doctor of Chiropractic and Reichian Therapist.
uncertain terms and asking him to never again mention the name of the Golden Dawn in print. Other members, most notably Dion Fortune, defended him as can be seen from her article in the Occult Review, praising Regardie’s The Tree of Life. Her article did more to reveal the true essence of the Golden Dawn, and to a broader audience, than anyone had divulged previously. The chiefs of the Stella Matutina seemed to play both ends against the middle. A representative of the Order wrote a letter to Dion Fortune strongly agreeing with her viewpoint, and another letter to Langford-Garstin which stated how irresponsible he considered Dion Fortune’s actions and sentiments to be. In one of the great faux pas in the history of esoteric groups, the two letters ended up in the wrong envelopes.
As a result, the door of initiation swung open for Regardie. With Dion Fortune’s support, he was invited to join the Stella Matutina. In his words: “It was on the basis of The Tree of Life, that I was invited to join the Order.”9
In January of 1933, Regardie become a member of S. M. and made rapid progress through the grades. However, Regardie was terribly disappointed with the chiefs of the Stella Matutina, and he concluded that the teachings of the Golden Dawn would not survive unless they were published; shortly after attaining to the grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor in 1934, Regardie left the Order in December of that year.10 In 1937 he published much of the Golden Dawn’s ceremonies and teachings in four volumes titled The Golden Dawn. He clearly stated his reasons for doing this in his previous book My Rosicrucian Adventure (1936), which documented his own experiences with the Golden Dawn:
. . . (I)t is essential that the whole system should be publicly exhibited so that it may not be lost to mankind. For it is the heritage of every man and woman—their spiritual birthright. . . . My motives have been to prove without a doubt that no longer is the Order the ideal medium for the transmission of Magic, and that since there have already been several partial and irresponsible disclosures of the Order teaching, a more adequate presentation of that system is urgently called for. Only thus may the widespread misconceptions as to Magic be removed.
Some members of the Order were incensed at this action, but others were quite happy to no longer have to copy all the Order materials tediously by hand. In Regardie’s words, “Some approved
Figure 5: Regardie with Sonny Boy, in the Early 1980s.
of the publication of these books; a very few disapproved. That’s all there is to it.” But that is not all there was to it. Regardie went on to publish other seminal works, such as The Middle Pillar (1938), which sought to correlate magical techniques to Jungian psychology and the (then) relatively new methods and hypotheses of psychoanalysis. By publishing arcane magical teachings and making them available and understandable to all who wanted to learn, Regardie’s legacy became clear: “That the rebirth of occult magic has taken place in the way it has can be very largely attributed to the writings of one man, Dr. Francis Israel Regardie.”11 Having recently acquired the former archives of the Israel Regardie Foundation, and having seen the vast amount of personal work and research that Regardie did in the areas of Qabalah, Psychology, and Enochian Magic, we can certainly testify to the fact that he was no mere armchair occultist—he was a first-rate Theurgist and an expert in the field of magic.
We are delighted to present this new annotated and illustrated edition of Regardie’s classic text, The Tree of Life. Readers of previous editions will notice a few changes such as a difference in the spelling of certain Hebrew words. Regardie’s early writings featured the Askenazic dialect, a form of Hebrew pronunciation used in central Europe wherein the Hebrew letter Tau or Tav is sometimes pronounced as an “s” rather than a “t” or “th.” Later, he adopted the more common Mediterranean Sephardic dialect employed by most Qabalistic authors, translators, and the majority of Golden Dawn magicians. Today, most Western magicians, Hermetic students, and Qabalistic scholars use the Sephardic version. Because of this, we have changed the spelling of some Hebrew words to reflect the modern usage that Regardie employed in most of his later works, and that is much more familiar to contemporary readers of Qabalistic texts.
Chapter titles have been added by us for the reader’s convenience. All the endnotes are also ours. Although previous editions of The Tree of Life contained a small number of illustrations, many more have been added to this new edition. We have also included a second Appendix, a Bibliography, a comprehensive Glossary, and an Index.
The Tree of Life presents the reader with an extensive survey of the practices of the Western magical tradition as well as a bird’s eye view into the theory behind those practices. In his Introduction to the Second Edition, Regardie wrote that: “This book has special meaning for me that none of my other writing ever had.”12 With this opinion we wholeheartedly concur, for The Tree of Life has special meaning for us as well. Out of all of his books, this text in particular seems to express that rare quality of writing that we have come to treasure from Regardie’s pen—his desire to touch the reader with inspiration, his love of mystical poetry and sacred invocations, his sense of the joy in the spiritual quest for union with the divine, and most of all, his unselfish wish to share what he has discovered with others. The Tree of Life is a jewel of book that will make the reader wealthier in spirit.
—Chic Cicero
Sandra Tabatha Cicero Metatron House Solar Eclipse, August 1999
Endnotes
1. Dion Fortune, “Ceremonial Magic Unveiled,” Occult Review, January 1933.
2. Pat Zalewski, The Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn, 181.
3. The records for January 21, 1926 state “Secretary instructed to inquire of Metropolitan as to admission of a Hebrew, underage.” Regardie’s application to the SRIAm was submitted to the vote and accepted on March 4, 1926.
4. Regardie, The Eye in the Triangle, 17.
5. Ibid., 91.
6. Francis King and Isabel Sutherland, The Rebirth of Magic.
7. Francis King, Modern Ritual Magic (formerly titled Ritual Magic in England), 153.
8. Pat Zalewski, The Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn, 179–180.
9. Regardie, The Eye in the Triangle, 91.
10.We have in our possession a copy of a ThAM-level Enochian Exam taken by Regardie and dated November 2, 1934. He was given a satisfactory grade by his temple chiefs.
11. Francis King and Isabel Sutherland, The Rebirth of Magic.
12. Regardie, The Tree of Life, 2nd Edition, York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser.
INTRODUCTION
By virtue of the widespread ignorance concerning the sovereign nature of the Divine Theurgy,1 despite frequent references almost everywhere to the subject of Magic, a gross misunderstanding has been permitted to make its growth during the centuries. Few are there today who would appear to possess even the vaguest idea as to what constituted the high objective of that system considered by the sages of antiquity the Royal Art and the Transcendental Magic. And because there have been even fewer in number prepared to defend to the last its philosophy and disseminate its true principles amongst those found worthy of receiving, the field of war strewn with the mangled reputations of its Magi was relinquished to the charlatans. These, alas, made good use of their opportunity for wholesale despoliation. So much so, that the word Magic itself has now become synonymous with all that is odious, and is conceived to be an obnoxious thing.
For several centuries in Europe was this unrighteous condition of things permitted. It continued for some while until about the middle of the last century, when Eliphas Levi, a writer with a certain facility of expression and a flair for synthesis and surface exposition, endeavored to restore to Magic its age-old lofty reputation.2 How his efforts would have fared had not they been succeeded
xxxiii
and abetted by the advent of the philosophy of the Theosophical Movement in 1875,3 together with the open discussion of occult and mystical matters which thereafter ensued, is exceedingly hard to say. Even so, they have been none too successful. For, despite nearly eighty long years of attention to and the unconcealed discussion of the esoteric philosophy and practice in various of its branches, there can be found in the Catalogue of the British Museum Reading Room, for instance, no single work on Magic which attempts to provide a lucid, unambiguous, and exact exegesis, unhampered by too great an employment of symbol and figure of speech. Eighty years of occult study! And not one serious work on Magic!
For some little while has it been known in various quarters that the writer was a student of Magic. As a consequence enquiries would frequently be addressed to him as to its nature. So numerous did they become as time went on, and so abysmal was the unintentional ignorance of the subject that all displayed, that it seems high time to make available for that public a synthetic and definitive exposition. Inasmuch as no other individual has attempted this task of paramount importance, upon the writer devolves this difficult work. He does not propose to limit himself by specious remarks concerning the incommunicability of occult secrets. Nor will he mention the impossibility of conveying the true nature of the mysteries of ancient time, as some recent authors have done. Though all this is true, nevertheless there is enough in Magic which is communicable. In spite of hundreds of pages to elucidate, against these writers also must be leveled the grim accusation of having done much to confirm public opinion in the already firm belief that Magic was ambiguous, obscure, and fatuous. A greater misconception than this could hardly be held. For Magic, let me insist, is lucid. It is definite and precise. There are no vague formulæ or dubieties comprehended within the sphere of its exactitude; all is clear-cut and devised for practical experiment. Its system is absolutely scientific, and each part thereof is capable of verification and demonstrable proof. The Tree of Life is published, somewhat hesitatingly it is true, with the sole object of filling in the existent gap. The writer desires to render intelligible and comprehensible to the ordinary intelligent layman, to the student of the
Mysteries and those versed in the lore of other mystical systems and philosophies, the root principles from which the tremendous high-towering structure of Magic is built. With one exception, not known or suitable to the public at large unfortunately, this necessary task has never previously been accomplished.
The frequency of long quotations from the writings of magical authorities that the writer has inserted herein is quite simply explainable. It was due solely to the desire to demonstrate that the larger essentials of this exposition are not the outcome of any inventiveness of the writer, but are firmly rooted in the wisdom of antiquity. That there are crudities of expression, possible misinterpretations of fact or theory, sins of omission and commission, the writer needs hardly to be informed. By reason thereof he is humbly apologetic. He must be pardoned by virtue of his youth and inexperience. May his efforts spur some other more learned individual, gifted with greater facility of pen, and possessed of a more profound knowledge of the subject and its concomitants, to provide a better formulation of Magic. The writer will be among the first to acclaim it with welcome and eulogy.
It is also necessary to acknowledge the courtesy of Messrs. Methuen & Co. in extending permission to reproduce the illustrations of the four Egyptian Gods from The Gods of the Egyptians, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge.4
Israel Regardie London August 1932
Endnotes
1. Theurgy is a Greek word meaning “God-working,” Magic used for personal growth, spiritual evolution, and for becoming more aligned with the divine source of the universe.
2. Eliphas Levi was the pen name of Alphonse-Louis Constant (1810–1875). He is considered one of the most important writers on Magic and an author of influence in the so-called “Occult Revival” of the nineteenth century. He is said by some to have coined the term “occultism,” and his works have inspired many later writers, including S. L. MacGregor Mathers. He was the first to suggest a relationship between the Tarot and the Qabalistic Tree of Life. His written works include The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic (later called Transcendental Magic), and The History of Magic.
3. The Theosophical movement, which was primarily Eastern in its mystical focus, taught the idea of a spiritual teaching that was common to all humanity, the universal brotherhood of mankind, the study of comparative religion, and the exploration of man’s latent spiritual faculties. One of the founding members of the Theosophical Society was Helena Petrova Blavatsky (1831–1891) or HPB as she was often called. HPB’s works include The Secret Doctrine, The Key to Theosophy, The Voice of the Silence, and Isis Unveiled. Henry S. Olcott also helped to found the Theosophical movement and was HPB’s right-hand man.
4. Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. 1 and 2, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1969).
Part One
Preliminaries
Magic is the traditional science of the secrets of nature which has been transmitted to us from the Magi.
—Eliphas Levi
6: The Way to the Upper World.
Figure
CHAPTER ONE
MYSTICISM: MAGIC AND YOGA
Acommon expression on the lips of many is the reiteration that mankind today, with all its ills and aberrations, flounders blindly in a terrible morass. Death-dealing and with octopus-like tentacles of destruction, this morass clutches him more and more firmly to its breast, albeit with great subtlety and with stealth. Civilization, curiously enough, modern civilization, is its name. The tentacles which are the unwitting instruments of its catastrophic blows reach out from the diseased structure, false and loathsome, of the decaying social system and the set of values wherein we are involved. And now, the entire fabric of the social world appears in process of disintegration. The structure of national organization would appear to be veering from economic ruin to that final crazy lurch which may see it disappear over the gaping precipice to complete destruction. Rooted firmly in the fullness of the individual life, the hitherto stout bulwarks of our life are threatened as never have they been before. More and more impossible does it seem with the setting of each sun for anyone to retain even the slightest portion of his divine heritage, individuality, and to exert that which makes him man. Despite being born in our age and time, those few individuals who are aware with a certainty in which there is no doubt of a destiny propelling them
imperiously forward to the fulfillment of their ideal natures, constitute perhaps the sole exceptions. These, the minority, are the born Mystics, the artists and poets, those who see beyond the veil and bring back the light of beyond. Included within the mass, however, is yet another minority who, while not fully conscious of an all-compelling destiny, nor the nature of its deeper self, aspires to be different from the complacent masses. With an inner anxiety it is restless to obtain an abiding spiritual integrity. It is mercilessly ground underfoot by the social system of which it is a part, and harshly ostracized by the mass of its fellows. The verities and possibilities of a reintegrating contact with reality, one which can be instigated here and now, during life and not necessarily upon the death of the body, are blindly ignored. The attitude, singularly unwise, adopted by the greater part of modern “intelligent” European humanity towards this aspiration, constitutes a grave danger to the race. It has permitted itself only too eagerly to forget that upon which it actually depends, and from which it is constantly nourished and sustained in both its inward and outward life. Avidly seizing upon the fluctuating evanescence of the hasty exterior existence, its negligence of affairs spiritual, as well as its impatience with the more far-seeing of its fellows, is a mark of extreme race-weariness and nostalgia.
It is a well-worn saying but one nonetheless true and nonetheless worthy of repetition, inasmuch as it expresses peculiarly the situation now widely prevalent, that “where there is no vision the people perish.”1 Mankind as a whole, or more particularly the Western element, has lost in some incomprehensible way its spiritual vision. An heretical barrier has been erected separating itself from that current of life and vitality which even now, despite willful impediment and obstacle, pulses and vibrates passionately in the blood, pervading the whole of universal form and structure. The anomalies presented today are due to this rank absurdity. Mankind is slowly accomplishing its own suicide. A self-strangulation is being effected through a suppression of all individuality, in the spiritual sense, and all that made it human. It continues to withhold the spiritual atmosphere from its lungs, so to speak. And having severed itself from the eternal and never-ceasing sources of light and
life and inspiration, it has deliberately blinded itself to the fact— than which no other could compare in importance—that there is a dynamic principle both within and without from which it has accomplished a divorce. The result is inner lethargy, chaos, and the disintegration of all that formerly was held to be ideal and sacred.
Laid down centuries ago, the doctrine taught by the Buddha commends itself to me as providing a possible reason for this divorce, chaos, and decay. To the majority of people existence is inevitably bound up with suffering and sorrow and pain. Now, although Buddha did teach that life was fraught with pain and misery, I am inclined to believe, when remembering the psychology of Mysticism and of Mystics, whose peer he undoubtedly was, that this viewpoint was adopted by him only to spur men forward from chaos to the attainment of a superior mode of life.2 Once the viewpoint of the personal ego, the outcome of ages of evolution,
Figure 7: The Hermetic Universe.
Figure 8: Jacob Boehme
has been transcended, man may see the iron fetters of ignorance roll away to reveal an untrammeled vision of supreme beauty, the world as a living thing and a joy for ever and ever. (See Figure 7, page 5.) Is there not for all to see the beauty of the Sun and the Moon, the pageantry of the changing seasons in the year, the sweet music of daybreak, and the spell of nights under the open sky? What of the rain falling through the leaves of trees towering to the gates of heaven, and the dew in early morning creeping over the grass, tipping it with spear-points of silver? Most readers will have heard of the experience of the great German Mystic, Jacob Boehme,3 who, after his divine beatific vision, walked into the green fields close to his village, beholding the whole of Nature ablaze with so glorious a light that even the tender blades of grass were resplendent with a divine loveliness and beauty that never had he seen before.4 (See Figure 8, page 6.) Great Mystic that the Buddha was—beyond perhaps any other within the knowledge of the average reader—and great his insight into the working of the human mind, it is impossible to accept on its face value his pronouncement that life and living are a curse. Rather do I feel that this philosophic attitude was adopted by him in the hope that once again might mankind be induced to seek the inimitable wisdom which it had lost, to restore the inner equilibrium and the harmony of soul, thus fulfilling its destiny unrestricted by sense and mind. Preventing this ecstatic enjoyment of life and all that the sacrament of life can give, there is one root cause of sorrow. In a word, ignorance. Because he is ignorant of what he really is in himself, ignorant of his true way in life, man is as the Buddha taught, so beset with sorrow and so sorely afflicted with distress. According to the traditional philosophy of the Magicians, every man is a unique autonomous center of individual consciousness, energy, and will—a soul, in a word. Like a star shining and existing by its own inward light, it pursues its way in the star-spangled heavens, solitary, uninterfered with, except in so far as its heavenly course is gravitationally modified by the presence, near or far, of other stars. Since in the vast stellar spaces seldom are there conflicts between the celestial bodies, unless one happens to stray from its appointed course—a very rare occurrence—so in the realms of humankind there would lie no chaos, little conflict, and no mutual
disturbance were each individual content to be grounded in the reality of his own high consciousness, aware of his ideal nature and his true purpose in life, and eager to pursue the road which he must follow. Because men have strayed from the dynamic sources inhering within themselves and the universe, and have forsaken their true spiritual wills, because they have divorced themselves from the celestial essences, betrayed by a mess of more sickly pottage than ever Jacob did sell to Esau,5 the world in this day presents a people with so hopeless an aspect, and a humanity impressed with so despondent a mien. Ignorance of the course of the celestial orbit, and the significance of that orbit inscribed in the skies forever, is the root which is at the bottom of universal dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and race-nostalgia. And because of this the living soul cries for help to the dead, and the creature to a silent God. Of all this crying there comes usually—nothing. The lifting up of the hands in supplication brings no inkling of salvation. The frantic gnashing of teeth results but in mute despair and loss of vital energy. Redemption is only from within and is wrought out by the soul itself with suffering and through time, with much endeavor and strain of the spirit.
How, then, may we return to this ecstatic identity with our deeper selves? In what way may this necessary union be accomplished between the individual soul and the Essences of universal reality? Where is the road which leads eventually to the improvement and betterment of the individual and consequently to the solution of the perplexing problems in the world of men?
The appearance of genius, regardless of the several aspects and fields of its manifestation, is marked by the occurrence of a curious phenomenon whose accompaniment is most always vision and ecstasy supreme. This experience to which I have reference is indubitably the hallmark and essential stigmata of genuine accomplishment. (See Figure 9, page 9.) Not to mediocrity is this apocalyptic experience vouchsafed. To the commonplace person, burdened as he is with dogma and an outworn tradition, there seldom comes that flash of
spiritual light making descent in splendid tongues of flame like the Pentecostal Holy Ghost,6 radiant with joy and the highest wisdom, pregnant with spontaneous inspiration. The sophisticated, the blase, the dilettanti—these are debarred by insuperable barriers from the merits of its benediction. To those having talent alone this revelation does not come, although talent may be the steppingstone to genius. Genius is not, nor has it ever been in years gone by, the result of merely infinite care and patience. But little importance I think need be attached to the oft-iterated definition concerning a certain very high percentage of perspiration plus a very small remainder of inspiration. No matter how great the value of perspiration, it cannot produce the magnificent effects of genius. In every field of endeavor in daily life, on every side do we see performed a vast amount of excellent work, indispensable for what it is, and the shedding literally of quarts of perspiration without in
Figure 9: The Gateway to Eternal Wisdom.
Figure 10: Earthly and Heavenly Life.
fact the evocation of a fractional part of a creative idea or exaltation. These outward expressions in genius—care, patience, and perspiration—are simply the manifestations of a superabundance of energy proceeding from a hidden center of consciousness. They are but the media by which the genius distinguishes itself, striving to make known those ideas and thoughts which have been hurtled into the consciousness and penetrated that borderline which successfully marks off and divides the profane from that which is divine. Genius in itself is caused by or proceeds concomitantly with a spiritual experience of the highest intuitional order. It is an experience which, thundering from the empyrean 7 like a fiery bolt from Jove’s seat,8 carries with it an instantaneous inspiration and an enduring uprightness, with a fulfillment of all the yearnings of the mind and the emotional makeup. (See Figure 10, page 10.)
Into the primary cause of this experience, familiar to those rare individuals whose lives have thus been blessed from early childhood even to their lattermost days, I do not wish to enquire. Such an enquiry would take me too far afield, leading as it would into the realm of metaphysic and philosophic impalpabilities, into which I am for the moment unwilling to enter. Reflection however does yield one very significant fact. Those individuals who have received the title of “genius” and are named by mankind as of the greatest, have been the recipients of some such inimitable experience as I have mentioned. A generalization it may well be, but it is one which nevertheless carries with it the seal of truth. Many another lesser person whose life has been gladdened and rightened in a similar manner has been enabled thereby to accomplish a certain life work, artistic or secular, which otherwise had been impossible. (See Figure 11, page 12.)
Now it is a more or less logical postulate, one which follows as a direct consequence of the preceding premise, that were it possible by a species of psychological and spiritual training to induce this experience within the consciousness of various men and women of today, humanity as a whole could be exalted even beyond the highest conceptions, and there would arise a mighty new race of supermen. In reality it is that goal whither evolution tends and which is envisaged by all the kingdoms of Nature. From the beginnings of time when intelligent man first appeared on the scene of evolution,
Figure 11: The Mystical Heart.
there have existed technical methods of spiritual attainment by means of which might be ascertained the true nature of man, and by which, moreover, genius of the highest order developed. The latter, I might add, was conceived to be but the by-product and terrestrial efflorescence of the discovery of the orbit of the starry Self, and at no time, by the authorities of this Great Work, was in itself considered to be a worthy object of aspiration. “Know thyself” was the supreme injunction giving impetus to their high endeavor.9 If the creativity of genius followed as a result of the discovery of the innermost self and the tapping of the sources of universal energy, if inspiration by the Muses ensued or a stimulus in the direction of some art or philosophy or lay occupation, so much the better. At the outset of training, however, these Mystics—for so these authorities came to be known—were completely indifferent to any result other than a spiritual one. Self-knowledge and self-discovery—the word “self” being used in a lofty, noetic, and transcendental sense—were the primary objectives.
If the arts have their origin in the expression of the Soul that listens and sees where for the outer mind are silence and the dark, then evidently Mysticism is one and perhaps the greatest of the arts, the apotheosis of artistic expression and endeavor. Mysticism by some sweet ordinance of Nature has been always and at all times the most sacred of the arts. The Mystic indeed bears within his bosom that tranquillity that oft-times is registered on the quiet face of the priest uplifted to the altar. He is a recognized intermediary and mouthpiece, the dual keys being laid in his hands. He is, both the ages and his fellows in the other arts admit, more directly admitted to the Sanctuary within and more immediately controlled by the psyche. It is for this reason that his successes are a success for all men at all times. But bitterly reprobated, as almost a new ruin of Lucifer, are his quite frequent failures. A bad poet or a bad musician is but a reproach to his particular art, and his name soon perishes from the memory of his people. A charlatan or an imposter-magician, however, imperils the whole world, casting a heavy veil over the translucent light of the spirit which it was his principal duty to bring to the sons of men. It is for this reason also that he is only for the very few in every age; but likewise he is for all the few in all
ages. Glorified with the beatitudes of all the artists and prophets of all the ages, he suffers ignominiously with their vilification, for they like himself are Mystics. He is lonely. He has drawn away into the subjective solitudes. Where he is gone—whither few can follow him unless they too have the keys—he is eulogiously acclaimed with song and dithyramb.
Not a theoretical knowledge of the Self is it that the Mystic seeks, a purely intellectual philosophy of the Universe—although that too has its place. The Mystic seeks a deeper level of acquaintance. Despite their rhetoric as to the absoluteness of reason, the logicians and philosophers of all time were inwardly convinced of the fundamental inadequacy and impotency of the ratiocinative faculty. Within it, they believed, was an element of self-contradiction which nullified its use in the quest for supreme reality. In proof of this the whole history of philosophy stands as eloquent witness. It was the belief of those who were Mystics, and experience repeatedly gave confirmation thereto, that it was only by transcending the mind, or that into the mind emptied of all content and made calm like a lagoon of still blue water, could a glimpse of Eternity be mirrored. When the modifications of the thinking principle had been stilled or transcended, when the constant whirling which is a characteristic of the normal mind has been quelled, and a serene tranquillity substituted, only then could there occur that vision of spirituality, that lofty experience of the ages illuminating the whole being with warmth of inspiration and profundity and a depth of imaginings of the highest and all-embracing kind.
The technique of Mysticism divides itself naturally into two major divisions. The one is Magic, with which this treatise will deal; the other is Yoga.10 (See Figure 12, page 15.) Now it is necessary to register a vehement protest against those critics who, in opposition to Mysticism—by which term some such process as Yoga or contemplation is understood—posit Magic as a thing completely apart, unspiritual, and of the earth gross. This classification I hold to be contrary to the implications of both systems and quite inaccurate, as I shall hereafter try to show. Yoga and Magic, the reflective and the exaltive methods respectively, are both different phases comprehended in the one term Mysticism. However often
12: The Eastern Chakras and the Western Tree of Life.
Figure
Figure 13: The Unity of Humanity and the Cosmos.
abused and misused as a word, Mysticism is throughout this book used because it is the correct term for that Mystical or ecstatic relationship of the Self to the Universe. It expresses the relation of the individual to a more comprehensive consciousness either within or without himself when, going beyond his own personal needs, he discovers his adjustment to larger, more harmonious ends. If this definition be in consonance with our views then it is obvious that Magic, also devised to accomplish that same necessary relationship, albeit by different methods, may not satisfactorily be placed against the other, and the advantages of one system panegyrically chanted as against the inadequacies of the other. For the finer aspects of Magic are a part, as the best of Yoga is also part, of that all-inclusive system—Mysticism. (See Figure 13, page 16.)
On the subject of Yoga much has been written; some of it rubbish, some little exceedingly worthwhile. But the whole secret of the Way of Royal Union is contained in the second aphorism of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras.11 Yoga seeks to arrive at Reality by undermining the foundations of the ordinary waking consciousness, so that upon the tranquil sea of mentality that follows upon the cessation of all thought, the inner eternal Sun of spiritual splendor could shine to shed an irradiation of light and life and immortality, to enhance the whole worth of man. All the practices and exercises in the Yoga systems are so many scientific steps, having as their one objective the complete abeyance of all thought at will. The mind must be thoroughly emptied at will of its content. Magic, on the other hand, is a mnemonic system of psychology in which the almost interminable ceremonial details, the circumambulations, conjurations, and suffumigations are deliberately intended for the exaltation of the imagination and soul, with the utter transcending of the normal plane of thought. In the one case, the spiritual axe is laid to the root of the tree, and the effort made consciously to undermine the whole structure of consciousness in order to reveal the soul below. The Magical method, as opposed to this, endeavors to rise altogether beyond the plane where trees and roots and axes exist. The result in both cases—ecstasy and a marvelous outpouring of gladness, wildly rapturous and incomparably holy—is identical. It may be realized without difficulty then that the ideal means
Figure 14: The Mountain of Initiation—The Path of Divine Therugy.
of finding the perfect pearl, the jewel of untold price, through which one may see the holy city of God, is a judicious combination of both techniques. In any event, Magic proves more efficacious and puissant when combined with the control of the mind which it is the object of Yoga to achieve. And likewise the ecstasies of Yoga acquire a certain rosy hue of romanticism and inspirational worth when associated with the art of Magic.
Needless to say, then, when I speak here of Magic I have reference to the Divine Theurgy praised and reverenced by antiquity. It is of a quest spiritual and divine that I write; a task of self-creation and reintegration, the bringing into human life of something eternal and enduring. Magic is not that popularly conceived practice which is the child of hallucination begotten by savage ignorance, and which panders to the lusts of a depraved mankind. Because of the ignorant duplicity of charlatans and the reticence of its own scribes and authorities, Magic for centuries has been unduly confused with Witchcraft and Demonolatry.12 With the exception of but a few works which have either been too specialized in their appeal or distinctly unsuitable for the general public, nothing has hitherto been issued to act as a definitive statement of what Magic really is. This work does not pretend to deal in any way with lovecharms, philtres, and potions, nor with amulets preventing one’s neighbor’s cow from giving milk, robbing him of his wife, or to ascertain the whereabouts of gold and hidden treasure. Such vile and stupid practices rightly deserve that much-abused term “Black Magic.” With this aspect of things this study has naught to do; although at the same time it is not to be understood that I deny the reality or efficacy of these methods. But if any man is anxious to discover the eternal font wherefrom the flame of Godhead springs, should there be one who is desirous of awakening in himself a more noble and lofty consciousness of the spirit, and within whose heart burns the aspiration to dedicate his life to the service of mankind, let such a one turn eagerly to Magic. In its technique, peradventure may be found the means to the fulfillment of the loftiest dreams of the soul. (See Figure 14, page 18.)
From academic sources Magic is defined as “the art of applying natural causes to produce surprising effects.” With this definition—and also with the view of a writer such as Havelock Ellis13
that it is a name given to the whole stream of individual human action—we are in complete accord, inasmuch as every conceivable act in the whole span of life is a magical act. What supernatural effect could he more astonishing or miraculous than a Christ, a Plato, or the Shakespeare who was the natural offspring of the marriage of two peasants? What more marvelous and surprising than the growth of a tiny babe to the full maturity of manhood? Any and every exertion of the will—the uplifting of an arm, the utterance of a word, the silent germination of a thought—all these are by definition magical acts. The “surprising” effects, however, which Magic seeks to encompass, occupy a somewhat different plane of action than do those just enumerated, although the latter, because they are so common, are nonetheless surprising and thaumaturgic.14 The result, which the Magician above all else desires to accomplish, is a spiritual reconstruction of his own conscious universe and incidentally that of all mankind, the greatest of all conceivable changes. The technique of Magic is one by which the soul flies, straight as an arrow impelled from a taut bow, to serenity, to a profound and impenetrable repose. But it is only man himself who may tauten the string of the bow; none else may accomplish this task for him. It is of course in this qualifying clause that lurks the flaw. “Salvation“ must be selfinduced and self-devised. The universal essences and cosmic centers are ever-present, but towards them man must take the first step and then, as Zoroaster15 has said in the Chaldæan Oracles, 16 “the blessed immortals are swift to come.” The cause and maker of fate and destiny is man himself. As he acts so must the course of his future existence be. Not only so, but in the hollow of his palm rests the fate of all mankind. Not a large number of individuals will feel equal to awakening the dormant courage and the grim determination which masters the universe, that thus by a road direct and free of obstacle mankind may be led to a nobler ideal and a fuller and more harmonious mode of life. Were only a few men to exert themselves to discover what they really are, and ascertain beyond all cavil the scintillating refulgence of bright glory and wisdom burning in the innermost heart, and discover the bonds connecting them with the universe, then I think they will have accomplished not only their own individual purpose in life and
15: The “Heavenly Man.”
Figure
fulfilled their own destiny, but, what is infinitely more important, they will have fulfilled the destiny of the universe considered as one vast living organism of consciousness.
What is meant by lighting a candle? In this process only the uppermost portion of the candle bears the flame. Although only the wick is lighted, yet customarily one speaks of the candle itself as being alight and illuminating the darkness around. In this may be found a suggestive reference having significant application to the world at large. If only a few people in each country, each race, each people throughout the world find themselves and enter into a hallowed communion with the very Source of Life, then they because of their illumination become the wick of humanity and cast a resplendent and glorious aureole of gold over the universe. In those individuals who constitute a minute, almost microscopic minority of the populace of this globe, willing and eager to devote themselves to a spiritual cause, lies the only hope for the ultimate redemption of mankind. Eliphas Levi, the celebrated French Magician, hazards a novel view which I think may have some bearing on this problem and throws an illuminating ray on this proposition. “God creates eternally,” he writes, “the great Adam, the universal and perfect man, who contains in a single spirit all spirits and all souls. Intelligences therefore live two lives at once, one general which is common to them all, and the other special and individual.”17 (See Figure 15, page 21.)
This protoplastic Adam is called in that Qabalistic work named The Book of Splendour 18 “the Heavenly Man,” and it comprises in one being, as the erudite Magus observes, the souls of all men and creatures and dynamic forces which pulse through every portion of stellar space. I do not wish to enter metaphysics just at this moment, to discuss whether this primordial universal being is created by God or whether it has simply evolved from infinite space. All I desire to consider now is that the totality of all life in the universe, vast and widespread, is this heavenly being, the Oversoul as some other philosophers have known it, created forever in the heavens. In this cosmic body we, individuals and beasts and Gods, are the minute cells and molecules, each having a separate function to perform in the social polity and welfare of that Soul. This philosophical theory admirably suggests that as in the man of earththere is an intelligence
Figure 16: Iamblichus.
governing man’s actions and thoughts, so there is likewise, figuratively speaking, in the Celestial Man a soul which is its central intelligence and its most important faculty. “All that which exists upon the Earth has its spiritual counterpart on high, and there exists nothing in this world which is not attached to something Above, and is not found in dependence upon it.” So wrote the doctors of the Qabalah. As in man the gray cerebral substance is the most sensitive, nervous, and refined in the body, so also the most sensitive, developed, and spiritually advanced beings in the universe comprise the heart and soul and intelligence of the Heavenly Man. It is in this sense, in short, that the few who undertake to perform the Great Work, that is to find themselves from a spiritual point of view, and to identify their whole consciousness with the Universal Essences, as Iamblichus 19 terms them, or the Gods, who constitute the heart and soul of the Heavenly Man—these are the servants of mankind. They accomplish the work of redemption and fulfil the destiny of Earth. (See Figure 16, page 23.)
Mysticism—Magic and Yoga—is the means, therefore, to a new universal life, richer, greater, and more full of resource than ever before, as free as sunlight, as gracious as the unfolding of a rose. It is for man to take.
Endnotes
1. Proverbs 29:18.
2. The Buddha taught the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths, which are the foundation of all schools of Buddhism. The Four Truths are as follows: 1) that all life is suffering, pain, and misery—known as dukkha, 2) the cause of this suffering is selfish craving and personal desire—known as tanha, 3) tanha can be overcome, and 4) the way to overcome this suffering is through the Eightfold Path—Right Knowledge, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
3. Jacob Boehme (1575–1624), was a German religious and philosophical Mystic. Born at the end of the Reformation, Boehme greatly influenced later intellectual movements such as Idealism and Romanticism. Boehme was himself influenced by the speculative alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Boehme’s writings synthesized Renaissance nature mysticism, philosophy, spiritual alchemy, and biblical doctrine—held together by the thread of devotional fervor. His works include Der Weg zu Christo or “The Way to Christ” (1622), Mysterium Magnum or “The Great Mystery” (1623), and Von der Gnadenwahl or “On the Election of Grace” (1623).
4. The mystical vision indicated here was Boehme’s second experience of illumination, which occurred around the year 1600. It is described in “The Life of Jacob Boehme,” Volume I of his Collected Works, English translation, as well as in H. L. Martensen’s book Jakob Boehme. Both texts are cited in Underhill’s Mysticism, 255–256.
5. Refer to Genesis 25:29–34.
6. Refer to Acts 2:1–6.
7. The Empyrean refers to the highest reaches of heaven, believed by the ancients to be a realm of pure fire or light. In the Chaldæan scheme of the universe, the Empyrean is included in the realm of the “Second Mind” beneath the Intelligible World of Supramundane Light. The Second Mind is representative of the divine power in the Empyrean World which is identified with the second great triad of powers known as the Intelligible and Intellectual Triad. This world is comparable to the Qabalistic World of Briah. (Refer to Westcott’s Collectanea Hermetica, Vol. VI, 8–10.)
8. Another name for Jupiter, the supreme Roman sky god. The words “jovial” and “jolly” are derived from the name of Jove, who was regarded as the source of happiness.
9. “Know Thyself” was the meaning of the Greek maxim Gnothi Seauton, which was inscribed above the entrance to the ancient temple of Apollo at Delphi. The classical philosopher Socrates professed a deep concern with the idea of self-knowledge expressed in this saying, and the theory that one may be guided by an inner voice.
10. Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning “union,” hence the phrase “the Way of Divine Union.” It is the Eastern science of physical, mental, and spiritual integration.
11. Patanjali was the author or one of the authors of two great Hindu classics: the Yoga-sutras, and the Mahabhasya or “great commentary.” The first classifies yogic thought into four volumes: “Psychic Power,” “Practice of Yoga,” “Samadhi” (or “union with god,” a merging of the individual consciousness with universal consciousness), and “Kaivalya” (“liberation”).
12. Keep in mind that this book was first printed in 1932, decades before the creation of the nature-religion of Wicca. Regardie’s reference to Witchcraft here refers to the medieval superstitions, hexes, and general hysteria that resulted in the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, not what we know today as Wicca.
13. Henry Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) was an English psychologist, essayist, and physician who studied human sexuality. Ellis challenged Victorian prohibitions against public discussion of sex. His written works include The Criminal (1890), Man and Woman (1894), and his Magnum Opus, the seven-volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897–1928)—an innovative encyclopedia of human sexual behavior and biology. When the first volume of this work was published, it caused an uproar and a trial in which the presiding judge labeled the book “a filthy publication.”
14. Thaumaturgy is a Greek word meaning “miracle-working.” It describes Magic used to create changes in the material world.
15. Zoroaster or Zarathustra (c. 628–551 B C E.) was an Iranian religious leader and reformer, priest, and founder of Zoroastrianism, or Parsiism as it is called in India. He was an important figure in the history of world religion. Legend has it that Zoroaster was connected with occult knowledge and magical practices that developed later in the Hellenistic world of the Mediterranean and Near East. His monotheistic idea of God also intrigued theologians and religious historians who have pointed to connections between his teachings and those of Judaism and Christianity. Along with Moses and Hermes Trismegistos, Zoroaster was considered by Renaissance philosophers as one of the three great spiritual teachers of the world, the prisci theogici, who had foreshadowed the teachings of Christ.
Zoroaster’s teachings, as portrayed in the Gathas or early hymns, focused on Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity, who is surrounded by seven entities which the later Avesta describes as amesha spentas or “beneficent immortals.” The monotheism of Zoroastrianism contains a striking dualism in that Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord of Light, is opposed by Ahriman, the embodiment of evil. This dualism is resolved in the teaching that Ahura Mazda is the ultimate creator of both good and evil, who were separated into opposing principles only through their own choice.
16. The Chaldæan Oracles are all that remain of a rather lengthy text that was said to have been brought to Rome by Julianus the Chaldæan magician in the Second century C.E. These fragments, reputed to have been written by Zoroaster, contain sacred doctrines and philosophies of the ancient Babylonian priests that have come down to us through Greek translations. Paraphrased in Neoplatonic literature and philosophy, the Chaldæan Oracles form an important part of the Western Esoteric Tradition. The Oracles describe the spiritual scheme of the universe along with an outline of the ancient theurgic practices used to contact and unite with the divine source of the universe.
17. Waite, The Mysteries of Magic: A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi, 149.
18. The Sepher ha-Zohar or “The Book of Splendor.” Written in a pseudo-Aramaic style, the Zohar is primarily a series of mystical commentaries on the Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch). Set in an imaginary Palestine, the Zohar describes a series of dialogues between Simeon ben Yohai and his disciples concerning the ten Sephiroth. The Zohar shows the influence of Neoplatonism, as well as the influence of Joseph Gikatilla, a medieval Spanish Qabalist and friend of Moses de León. In recent years, twentieth century scholars such as Gershom Scholem were able to demonstrate that Moses de León was the real author of the Zohar (see Scholem, Kabbalah, 57–61). Nevertheless, many traditional scholars still maintain that Simeon ben Yohai wrote the Sepher Zohar
19. Iamblichus was a Neoplatonic philosopher of the fourth century C E. He was the first Neoplatonist to dislodge Plotinus’ intellectual mysticism in favor of theurgy and a theology that included all of the mysteries, rituals, myths, and deities of syncretistic paganism. Most of his writings have been lost, but his teachings can be found in the writings of Proclus. His works include On the Mysteries, Theological Principles of Arithmetic, and On the Pythagorean Life. Iamblichus was known as “the divine” or “the inspired.” The emperor Julian considered him to be the intellectual equivalent of Plato. The works of Iamblichus were very important to the later development of ceremonial magic.
"That the rebirth of occult magic has taken place in the way it has can be very largely attributed to the writings of one man, Israel Regardie."
-Francis King and Isabel Sutherland authors of The Rebirthof Magic
A Twenty-first-century Edition of a MagicalClassic
Since it was first published in 1932, The Tree of Life has provided spiritual seekers and aspiring magicians with the most comprehensive study of the common threads of magical theory and practice. Israel Regardie's mission of bringing magic into the light of understanding takes a giant step forward in this new edition. Two Adept associates of Regardie's have contributed these enhancements:
• Annotations throughout, with critical commentary and explanatory notes
• A new introduction, glossary, bibliography, and index
• Askenazic Hebrew translated to common Sephardic
• A large number of new illustrations
If you are looking for a complete introduction to the study of magic, or if you have an older copy and would like a clearer, more usable version, you will not find a better choice than this edition of The Treeof Life.
Israel Regardie (1907-1985) is credited with removing the excessive secrecy surrounding modern occultism and making the techniques of high magic available to all. His book The GoldenDawn is regarded as indispensible to all students of the occult.
Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, who knew Regardie personally, are the editors of Regardie's A Garden of Pomegranatesand The Middle Pillar,and have written several books on Western magic, including The Essential Golden Dawn, Tarot Talismans, and Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition.
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