Home > Work > The Tree of Life: An Illustrated Study in Magic
1 " 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. " 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. "
― Israel Regardie , The Tree of Life: An Illustrated Study in Magic
2 " All that can be said with truth of this Absolute and Supreme Reality is that IT IS. This must suffice. "
3 " 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 In the 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, 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. "
4 " One may even state for that true success in all Magic a thorough grounding in Yoga technique is an absolute essential. "
5 " 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. "
6 " Some of the ancients have said that five is a symbol of the creative power, and in this concept of creativity and power we have the character of Gevurah…It expresses not so much a state of things as an act, a further passage and a transition of ideality into actuality. "
7 " Since, therefore by this definition, man is a spark of so lofty a consciousness, a child of the cosmic gods, there is no alternative to the tenor of his life than that to his spiritual progenitors he should aspire for union. It is to effect this union that Magic owes its origin and its raison d’être. "