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INTRODUCTION
To The Second Edition
D
OES a parent have a favorite child Is there one, above all
others, that secretly he feels is the apple of his eye More
often than not, despite all protestations to the contrary,
there certainly is.
So it is with me. In having been asked to write an introduction to
this new edition of The Tree of Life, I feel a warm inner glow which
combines a number of quite separate emotions. This book has
special meaning for me that none of my other writing ever had.
Primarily, there is the basic fact that it was the first book that
emerged from my burgeoning spirit. A Garden of Pomegranates, a
prior publication, simply expanded itself from a set of Qabalistic
notes I had kept for several years-and that is all it ever was.
The Tree of Life has been said to be the most comprehensive
introduction available to the numerous, complex, and sometimes
obscure mystical writing of Aleister Crowley. Both these books were
dedicated to him whom I served as a secretary for several years.
Symbolically, both came to be gestures of independence from him.
The Tree of Life also resulted in a correspondence all over the
world that has eventuated in several deep and abiding friendships.
For these I am most grateful.
Though this book contains many minor typographical errorsprincipally
due to haste and the carelessness of youth-it has been
found useful as a guide to the vast, complicated and ~vonderful
Golden Dawn system of initiation to which I am obligated; a debt
which must here be acknowledged. The two volumes of The Golden
Dawn (Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minn. 1970) are alleged
by some students to contain such a diversified mass of information
that a clear guide is a pre-requisite to hew an intelligible pathway
through its papers, rituals and instructions. This new edition
should provide such a guide.
In the writing of The Tree of Life I learned much. It consolidated
many isolated fragments of disconnected knowledge and experience.
Correspondence indicated it has served others equally well.