Qabalah:

Tradition of

Worlds

within

Worlds

 

There are many esoteric portrayals of the scheme of things. Reading Joseph Campbell's survey of world mythologies, one can see the great diversity in the stories by which mankind explains his existence, even though the varying messages are always saying the same thing. Qabalah is part of one of these mythologies, having its own peculiar system of metaphysics, cosmology, magic, and, most importantly, initiation.

The world Qabalah comes from the Hebrew word "to receive." It is believed that a student of a mystery tradition like Qabalah cannot reap the benefits of study and practice unless he "receives" direct instruction from an adept. Supposedly, this hidden teaching has been passed down through generations in a word-of-mouth manner since the time of the mythological Adam and Eve. Qabalah is allegedly a secret science transmitted to Adam and later to Abraham by God through angelic hierarchies. As tradition has it, not a word of instruction was ever penned until Simeon ben Yochai--70 A.D.--sat in a cave for thirteen years and compiled the Sepher Yetzirah, one of the oldest and foremost Kabbalistic texts.

Regarding a factual account of Qabalah's origins, little is known of where and when it actually first appeared. There seem to be elements of ancient Chaldean, Egyptian, and pre-Aryan mysticism. More modern aspects of Qabalah are related to neo-Platonism. But we needn't limit ourselves to superficial chains of cause and effect to disocover the origins of Qabalah. It delves into the same mystery--life--that any other mystery tradition does. One could even consider Qabalah to be a form of Zen that is expressed in terms peculiar to the ancient Hebrew tradition.

It is more and more evident through time that great minds in any culture tap into the same wellspring of manifestation. Similarities between different kinds of mysticism are not always, as scholars would like to believe, the result of migration and trade between various geographical regions. The universe blossoms into existence in the same manner everywhere, the same observations based on experience can likewise be made everywhere, and so mystical traditions, when sincerely practiced, tap into the same reality everywhere.

There are at least four branches of Qabalah: Dogmatic, Literal, Practical, and Unwritten. The Dogmatic Qabalah concerns itself with Jewish mystical literature, books such as the Torah, the Talmud, the Sepher Yetzirah, the Bahir, the Zohar, and many others.

The Literal Qabalah is concerned the mystical attributes of the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter is simultaneously a phonetic symbol, a number, and a pictograph. The bulk of Literal Qabalah delves into the numerical relationships between words. Two words whose letters add up to the same sum are thought to have some some special relationship. The suggested similarities of meaning can result in flashes of insight. This strange discipline is a worthwhile one, but it requires a state of mind conducive to divination. No matter how superstitious a system appears, a truth uncovered is still a truth that can stand on its own.

The Practical Qabalah is concerned with ceremonial magic and the making of talismans and amulets. This branch is closed to most aspirants, as it requires years of training in the other branches in order to achieve the proper state of being from which to proceed.

The unwritten Qabalah is the most important branch for our purposes here. It deals with the central symbol behind the whole system, the Tree of Life. Spiritual, psychological, and physical evolution are greatly assisted by use of it.

The Tree of Life is a composite symbol that represents the entire universe. It shows how manifestation unfolds from nothingness. In order for the void to issue forth creation, Divine energy must appear by passing through ten stages or waystations called Sephiroth (singular: Sephirah). Each Sephirah is a reference point by which consciousness emerges and takes part in the physical world. The configuration and interrelation of the ten spheres conveys consciousness from formless chaos into the realm of sensory order. This occurs at every instant. If the energy were to stop, all we behold would vanish into obscurity in an instant. Even your flesh and bones are suspended in sensory awareness from within by the energy upwelling through the principles of the ten Sephiroth.

The goal of the mystic and of the magician is to relinquish his identification with the dross external whirlings of the lower Sephiroth and to obtain a direct connection to the source of consciousness, that emerges through Kether, the first Sephirah. He climbs ever higher, achieving more and more the ability to act from deeper and more liberated realms of being.

In the Golden Dawn, the task of the outer order student is to pass through the four Elemental grades, corresoponding to the lower Sephiroth, 10 through 7. These represent the four Elements, and many other things relating to four different concordant forces. The aspirant passes through material, pshyochological, intellectual, and emotional realms of his being. These are the "elements" of his Earthly persona which he observes dispassionately and learns to relinquish as his identity. When everything perceivable to his outer senses is reqarded as a medium for his manifestation, not as his actual nature, he his ready to transcend the four lower Sephiroth and attain Tiphareth, the sixth Sephirah. Such an attainment is the goal of all worthwhile systems of occultism, no matter how they express themselves. An initiate of Tiphareth has passed into the inner order. He is now capable of real magic, manifesting his aspirations from within by use of the four Elements of his lower nature. In modern psychological terms, this is true "self actualization." The real Self, which is immortal and Divine, can now "actualize" itself in the outer world, because the ego has been transformed into a conduit through which higher Worlds reveal themselves.

Some recommended introductory books on Qabalah: