irst, homage must be paid to the sages and saints whose teachings of spiritual hierarchy nurtured the roots of Western esoteric tradition: Siddhartha Gautama, Heraclitus, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Ibn 
rabi, to name a few. The great wisdom traditions have been transmitted to the present day through the conscious sacrifice of untold hearts.
From earliest times, Western esotericism has been intimately influenced by the East. This book was made possible by an East-West movement that spanned the twentieth century. Tremendous philosophers of that movement, including Traditionalist scholars in the circles of Ananda Coomaraswamy and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, have incisively criticized modern-day disregard for the great traditions. Their works have served as the finest of metaphysical sources used by this arguably postmodern resurrection of Tarot origins. René Guénon’s Initiation and Spiritual Realization serves as a superb introduction to the Sophia Perennis. Peter Masefield’s lucid investigation into the Tenfold Noble Path of Pali Buddhism also deserves special mention.
That both the inner way of spiritual transcendence and the outer way of cosmic manifestation compose in truth a nondual whole has been most recently clarified by transpersonal and integral authors such as Ken Wilber. The modern corpus of perennial wisdom reminds twenty-first-century thinkers of the necessity for actual contemplative practice regarding verification of how Unity of Being is wedded to the Myriad Becoming.
The deepest bow of gratitude is given to Gia-fu Feng, a legendary Buddhist-Taoist Adept who in his final seven years dynamically transmitted to the author all that matters.
Gracious thanks to Paul Schroeder and Philip Smith for editorial assistance. And to the Léons in name and heart, the brightest of blessings and much, much love are extended beyond the scope of words.