x INTRODUCTION
But it is necessary to settle on something: bad rules are better than no rules
at all. We may then hope that our critics will aid our acknowledged feebleness ;
and if it be agreed that much learning hath made us mad, that we may receive
humane treatment and a liberal allowance of rubber-cores in our old age.
4. The Tree of Life is the skeleton on which this ‘body of truth is built.- The
juxtaposition and proportion of its parts should be fully studied. Practice alone
will enable the student to determine how far an analogy may be followed out.
Again, some analogies may escape a superficial study. The Beetle is only con-
nected with the sign Pisces through the Tarot Trump “The Moon.” The Camel
is only connected with the High Priestess through the letter 3.
Since all things whatsoever (including no thing) may be placed upon the Tree
of Life, the Table could never be complete. It is already somewhat unwieldy ; we
have tried to confine ourselves as far as possible to lists of Things Generally
Unknown. It must be remembered that the lesser tables are only divided from
the thirty-two-fold table in order to economise space; ¢.g. in the seven-fold table
the entries under Saturn belong to the thirty-second part in the large table.
We have been unable for the moment to tabulate many great systems of Magic;
the four lesser books of the Lemegeton, the system of Abramelin, if indeed its
Qliphothic ramifications are susceptible of classification, once we follow it below
the great and terrible Demonic Triads which are under the presidency of the
Unutterable Name, the vast and comprehensive system shadowed in the Book
called the Book of the Concourse of the Forces, which we are now editing and
hope to issue separately, interwoven as it is with the Tarot, being, indeed, on one
view little more than an amplification and practical application of the Book of
Thoth.
But we hope that the present venture will attract scholars from all quarters, as
when the wounded Satan leaned upon his spear,
‘‘ Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
By angels many and strong,”
and that in the course of time a far more satisfactory volume may result.
Many columns will seem to the majority of people to consist of mere lists of
senseless words. Practice, and advance in the magical or mystical path, will
enable them little by little to interpret more and more.
Even as a flower unfolds beneath the ardent kisses of the Sun, so will this
table reveal its glories to the dazzling eye of illumination. Symbolic and barren
as it is, yet it shall stand for the athletic student as a perfect sacrament, so that
reverently closing its pages he shall exclaim, “ May that of which we have partaken
sustain us in the search for the Quintessence, the Stone of the Wise, the Summum
Bonum, True Wisdom, and Perfect Happiness.”
o mote it be!