The Tree of Life: A Study in Magic

Israel Regardie’s second book The Tree of Life was like his first dedicated to Aleister Crowley, this time using the pseudonym Marsyas, the Master in Crowley’s poem AHA. Implicitly identifying himself with the pupil Olympas, Regardie leavened the dedication with “poignant memory of what might have been.”

Some later readers like Francis King claimed to detect no Thelema in this book, and yet, in it: Regardie quoted Crowley approvingly with respect to the value of the Pentagram ritual (166); and when Regardie sought to illustrate a setting for the ceremony for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel, he did so by quoting twenty lines of verse from Crowley’s AHA (187). Thelemic rhetoric welled up in Regardie’s remarks that show more “man can never … understand by the mind alone that he is an eternal spiritual entity, a brilliant star shining by the light of its own essence within the bespangled body of Nuit, the Queen of Infinite Space” (80). The sixteen books for study listed in the short appendix to The Tree of Life include both The Equinox and Magick by Crowley (284).

In the introduction to second edition of The Tree of Life, Regardie was plainer than ever about his debts to Crowley, writing, “To his ultimate vindication from the idiocy of biographers and muckraking journalists I have dedicated many years of my life. His material will never die, it will remain an inspiration to students of the distant future as it has to me” (8).

(Review excerpted from my paper "Israel Regardie, American Thelemite") show less

Brilliant book, but a tough read, which invites much study and contemplation! Regardie provides the reader with a a good theoretical introduction to the topic of High Magic and then proceeds with a more practical approach: how to train the Will of the Magician, how to astrally project and how to work with ancient grimoires, to name a few, as well as a thorough outline of the method of Abramelin the mage.
Using a beautiful yet right to the point and sometimes very down-to-earth style, Regardie obviously knows what he is talking about. And the wonderful emblems and occult illustrations provide you with endless triggers for meditation. A must have for every serious student of the occult!

Un regalo di un amico, si è rivelata una lettura diversa dalle aspettative. Consiglio soprattutto a chi fosse interessato alla magia cerimoniale, o a chi, come me, ha sempre mantenuto le distanze dalla magia cerimoniale o teurgia o si è tenuto distante da tali tematiche. Come lettura veloce, potrebbe pulire o rimuove strutture mentali sedimentate.

Se fossi stato interessato all'argomento, le stelle sarebbero state decisamente di più.

A good introduction to the kabbalah and how it can be used magickally, if you are so inclined. If not, you can pick out some good info and theories on kabbalah-related subjects.

Read this decades ago along with anything else by Israel Regardie. It's very informative and very much a product of it's time. Nothing new to me here but is always worth the read as a kind of revision exercise.

Good.