MAGIC AND THE QABALAH

CHAPTER I
To A GENERAL INTRODUCTION
THE REVERED MEMORIES
fT *r argument
Omar Khayam who lamented that he had, when young, heard
r_ great among the philosophers, ..but
of evermore came out by
that same door wherein I went." very many men throughout the ages have
"R.K.", "D.N.F." and'AV.O." echoed this lament. According to esoterii teachings,lowever, tf,ere has
always existed a body of knorledge based upoi the direci personal
experience ofmen ofexceptional quality. This direct experience iras been
explained and codified by teachers, who, from the beginning of human lifu
9n
this planet, have constituted a guiding body knoin vari6usly as ..The
Brotherhood", or the "College of ilre Hbly S-pirit".
. lhis_teaching has been checked and verifieo by generations of seers. It
isthe corpus Hermeticus, a faith and a belief, lhnited in its expression in
any particular age or period of time. The esoteric student ii inaeeo a
"spiritual scientist", and is always trylng to express this basic phitosophy
in the forms of his own day; but 6eciuse tiris is not only a ,r""iuid
philosopltybut also, primarily, a ..theosophy" capable of being checked
and verified by its followers, it is a living teaitring, opening up iew vistas
of thought and action.
There are certain po\pers and faculties in man which enable him to
veriff teachings for himself, and to make a living contact with the inner
-the
side-of things;and, since humanity is one, itis evident that these powers
are latent in all men. They are the so-called "pslahic' faculties, ino ar"
variously developed in mankind. In some caseJthey are only a little belorv
the surface, in others, they are buried so deeply tirat it is not possible to
bring them to any great degree of functioning, thougtr eu"n ihis partial
emergence can give a basis upon which the individual conoernei may
colllruct a helpful and workable philosophy of life.
Where they are near the surface, the psyihic faculties tend to appear
spontaneously, and there exists a "rule of thumb" method of brinling
them into activity that has been used throughout the ages; a method
{'uitE
apart from those so carefully designed and controfed in the
schools. "soteric
However, even though these psychic frculties do not manifest in the
waking consciousness, it should be clearly understood that they are always
working belorv the surfrce, thereby influencing the deeper subconscious
levels. .
This is important, for in these deep unconscious levels of the mind of
 IlO MAGIc AND THE QABALAH A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 111

man, exist the great driving forces known as the instincts. we are used to followers have noted the use of such powers by both the teachers
their classification under the headings of "self-preservation", ',sex',, and themselves and by their immediate disciples, thoughthey usually claimed
the "herd" instincts. Jung has pointed out that ihere is yet another basic that the supernormal phenomena produced by their orvn particulir teacher
instinct in man, the religious instinct, an instinct just as powerfut as any were superior to those produced by other teachers. They have even
of the others. For this reason it has been found impbssibl" to pin-poi"t tt asserted that the wonders exhibited by the others were either fraudulent,
exact time in human evolution when religious o-bservances'uegan. rnis " or the work of evil beings attempting to deceive the faithful.
religious instinct manifested itself in two ways. The first wai a direct This idea was common in the early days of Christianity and it still
experience, by certain individuals, of an underlying reality Grri"J trr" persisls in many denominations of the church. But quite apart from the
physical world, the second, a formalized theotoEy concernint trris specific phenomena associated with the teachers and thelr immediate
experience. such theology exteriorized itselfin the rituat ano cererionial disciples, there has always existed a belief, based on experience, that
worship of the tribe. powers of this kind were possessed by people who were not of{re orttrodox
since this direct experience did not come to everyone, it tended to be persuasion, people who were indeed active in their opposition to it. Such
withdrawn; to persist as an-inner grouping behind the outer religious supernormally gifted people became, what might be termed, a psychic
form. so, tfrrogsh rhe ages, all the gieat rerilions developed thi, t*o:-loia "Cave of Adullam",* and to them resorted all who were in oppositibn to
Sslect' and in tleir "Mysteries" the man who was prepared and ready, was
the established orthodoxy ofthe day.
initiated into a method of direct experience or mi niaoen realities. So the "Camp of the Gifted Ones", came to include some very
In the early days of christianity, trre "Mysteries of Jesus" withdrew into questionable characters: thus giving the orthodox a good excuse for
-
the background, while, at the same timi, the whole vast *ou"-.nt of persecution. But persecution only tends to strengthen any belief, and these
Gnosticism was expelled from the church. It is true that many of the natural psychics and seers persisted through the centuries, sometimes as
gnostic schools were aberrant in both teaching and moral conduct; solitary "wise men" and "wise women", and sometimes as members of
but
yhe$er any_reaf good was gained by ignoriig the implication oi oo, the witch-cult, a cult which was simply the remnant of the old pre-
!-ord's
parable of the wheat and the taresls a delatable point. lt is clear, christian religion. with the advent of Christianity the non-christian
however, that as a result of this wholesale expulsion, *y religions were reduced to scattered groups of worshippers in remote
-uoir"rtrtion or
direct experience tended to be either suppressed or twisted to nt into u' country places, hence the name "pagan" which was apptieO to them.
already existilc ttreo_t9g{. This-attitude hii persisted up to the present day. However,'a considerable period-of-time was to pass flfore the church
In modern times this field of direct expehence has, under it n"-r or became seriously worried by these vestiges orthebto religions, but with
"extra-sensory-pgrceptiol" (or E.S. p. ),-been studied from an"ouiectiue the growth and secularization of christianity, it entered int6 a persecuting
and scientifrc point of view, and a new branch of research, entitled phase and began the attempt to root out these obstinate peopie. The two
classes of the persecuted, the psychics and the pagans, found it helpful to
ljfaranqfgtrglogy", has been started and now flourishes in many puru of join forces against the common enemy, and theii giin in strength uas such
9" *o.19, These powers of extra-sensory-perception, usually il;; ;,
the.psychic faculties, are sometimes referrid to-by Americari writers as that they became a real threat to the interests ofthe church]Then there
"wild talents", and at first sight they seem to have little relevance to normal s_ej
ln.the 9ra of persecution which constitutes such a dark page of
life. They emerge unexpectedly, and in many cases do not seem to be under Christian history. With the Reformation, it might have been Oougnl nat
the control of their possessor. these unfortunate people would have had some iespite from their tr6ubles.
In victorian days it was customary to aftribute them to the unscientific The.very godly reformed churches, howeverf here and elsewhere,
-
observations of uneducated or primitive people, to mention unualance, continued to be just as bitter in their attempts to stamp out these heresies.
or
even to simple fraud. This point of view hai gradually been modifid
in A new outlook arose in the seventeenth and eight&nth centuries, and
many respects, and there now exists a group of scientifically minded belief in supernormal powers began to wane; concirrrently the persecution
people who are prepared to admit the possibitity of such .op"-o-uf of witches and wizards began to lessen, though it had a iharp recurrence
powers. Humanity in general, however, has not wait€d'for in the Salem witchcraft trials in the New fnghna Shtes inAmerica.
their
permission to go ahead in its growing belief in the existence
of these * I Samuel, xxii, I and 2
powers and faculties. In the lives of the great religious teachers
their
 ln MAGIC AND THE QABALAH
A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 13
In the nineteenth century however, modern spiritualism, both in
America and on the continent of Europe, began to revive the betierin side by side with the tremendous advances in scientific knowledge
the which are so characteristic of these modern days, there has been a paralliel
existence of supernormal powers, and thl exreme fringe of the new
-
psychic movements began to link up with the surviving increase in the number of organisations whichclaim to possess .oto" purt
;ith" of what has come to be known as the "ancient" or "ageless" wisdom. Much
wirch-cult. These remnants were, is a rule, no modthan 'eilo"n;
a desraded
expression of the old non-christian religion. The wirches trao, gef;erauy ofwhat is taught in these modern schools ofesoteriJthought is a re-hash of
speaking' reverted to the roles they hid prayed in classicJ;irr;;;;, cerllin teachings derived from the East where the indilenous Mystery-
fortune telle_rs, poisoners and abortiohists. duen tooay, in tradition has never been suppressed. Much that is being eiportea nom ttre
-ori iurg" to*o,
they are still to be found telling fortunes by greasy pacrs of orient is, however, but a superficial presentation 6r the true easlern
ftrJt cards, *r99-. Not every "swami" or "rishi" is worthy of these venerable tifles.
cgting spells with the use of ;d;A
_,$ragons bio6d" This eager acceptance of oriental teachings is characteristic of many of
ofte_n acting as the means by which unfortunate girl,"nO."r"ory,
c"n be;utl" t""ir, .
with the abortionists. the modern esoteric movements; human nature being what it is (and'not
Let us add that true witch-cult still flourishes free from this sordid wha1w9 might wish ir to be) the demand has crea6d a corresponding
element: it is simply a body of peopre who worship uno"r trre ora supply. However, as the great psychologist, Jung, has pointed out in his
noo- writings, the^eastern systems are unsuited to most western peoples.
christian forms. In varying degrees it still uses thi psychic auirities or
those of its members who can bl trained along this tiire, uut There is, ofcourse, no reason at all why the oriental philosophies should
ir trr" -ai" notbe sudied in conjunction with the western systems of tirought, and
it has nothing to do with the parody which eiisted in trre r"riaaie-t;;,
a parody due to the ruthless persecution it endured. some philosophers and theologians (mainly in the Roman datirolic
we have, therdore, severar lines of unorthodox belief all acknowledging C^hurc.h), are-foing this with profitaUle results. [t is a matter not merely
- o{ y{enlan0ing the deeper aspects of these eastern teachings, Uut atso
the existence o_f supernormar frculties, and making ur";fth;ir;;i"g of following the methods of iraining which have ueen alvenpeo in
degrees. The fortune-teller we have always with is, *a trr",pi.it""[rl
have,fo-rmed a religious cult based, in the main, upon connection with them. It is here that the possibility of trouble arises.
trr" r.uil.tiori. These methods,-usually summed up under the generaliitle of "yoga", have
whlch they have received from the 'bther side", whilit the Theosophical
been developed for oriental outlooks and iequirements, and for the
Tol"mTJ .hgs br-ought ro the western world some CI" *irO"-
unent. I hrs has tbund a considerable measure of acceptance,
"f
iitt particular pfrvsicat make-up of eastern peoples. In spite of the earnest
since there" endeavoun being made at the present time io assure us that there is no
has always existed a tradition that others, apart from the wirches
and difference between East and west, it remains true, at least in the field of
wizards, possessed a wisdom and power triOden from ttre
mankind.
g;;;t;f esoteric training, that differences do exist and have to be reckoned with.
In There is, of course, much common ground, but yoga, to be really helpful
. the West, in pre-Christian times, this wisdom was thought to be in ta the occidenfal student, has to be considerabiy iroOifr"O.
the-possessionof the initiatedpriests and leaders of whatwe
now-t,,,n-G However, just as the East has its own characteristic methods of esoteric
':Mrytely-Religions", which iprang up in the Mediterranean f*J,,o*"
time before the advent of christianity. ilfore particumv trr" teaching and training, based upon certain sacred writings and the
ngypti-
p$td911 Mysrery schools were thougtrtto possess thisiidd.n"riti*a"og.
*t accumulated experiences of is trained initiates through mani centuries;
so in the west there is a similar method of trainin!, aaaiteo for the
TjI^$I*:: a3d manl great philos-opheis of the un.i"nt
mrtratron rn tleir assemblies.
*"rfJ;;;;ii physical make-up of wesrern peoptEs, UaseU upon ttre
lWqnglogi.c4_and
When, in the early Christian days, the emperor Justinian Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and possessing, ui.o,'a Oeposit of the
.. closed down
Se qlganpl4gsophical schools, it was commonly thought that the hidOen
leco$ed experiences of generations of seers and-students, together with
the frag-mentary records of wisdom derived from times long-past.
lelchings had been finally suppressed, and this ojinion tas been een"."rru
nel{ u _the
majority of European scholars *n" rt"""-"""rif"Jlrr'" . This basic body ofpre-historic teaching and practice has bien enriched
P!j-ect. However, an unbiassed study of the matter soon suggests that the {uring historic times through contacts -aoe 6y the Hebrew nation with
the various My_stsry Schools, which sprang up, a, *" have said,
lllo:l:t:9:l ngt.only survived thl destruction of the
but also that it exists today.
Rffilddi.;; Mediterranean lands during the classical eri Tire enforced contacts of
in the
the
Hebrews with other nations during the sojourns inEgypt and Assyria
and,
 II4 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 115
still further afield, with other elements of value, such as, for instance, the
native philosophy usually associated with the celtic Druids (but deriing In the tenth and ereventh centuries, some of the
eabalistic circles in
from pre-celrrc times), all these contributed valuable maLrial to this spain published, for the first time, part of their teach-ings,
and on these,
composite tradition of the West. as aparallel movement, there sprang up a school orcrriiriiao qadir-.
In all esoteric systems worthy of the name, much use is made of symbols Unfortunately, an att€mpt was maoito use the
eabalistic t"ict ine-u.
an instrument for the conversion of the Jews to trr"
g1d srynloflrystems, and in the East, certain composite symUots, terms io,n* i"tii"rl"-ni'itrr.
"mandalas", have been developed and used. so also, simiut This caused. the study of the eabalah to be condemned
uv trr" ,t i"irv
symbols, which are known as "glyphs" are used in the western "dp"rit" orthodox rabbis of thgt tile, resulting in an antipathy
schools -"o"pt *rr1"r, p".rist"o
of esoteric training, and the key -glyph, around which alr the other down the years, and exists today, p"rirapr, in the t iUerat
a-s-socilted symbolism of the western training is centred, is the ,.mighty Synagogues of the Jewish faith.
The Qabalah has been used by several schoors ofthought
{f1mUr-aciqglyph of the universe and theioul of man;', tnownas'Oa since the days
of Moses de lron and hig schobl, among mem uein! an"un"rit"J".
Chiim, the "Tree of Life',.
of Jews known as the "chasidim", whJse chief exione"*
,,.t
The symbolism of the Tree of Life is basically derived fromthe esoteric in trr,
teachings of the past, but has been added to in all the centuries
oilts
nineteenth century were the "wonder-working rabbis,' "*rv
of poland. some
of these men attempted to use their wonder-woikingpo*".,
existence by those who have used it as an instrument of training. Forltl, in.ono""ti*
morerhan a diagram; it is. the result of many centuries of tdining and yi$-mq Napoleonic wars in Europe. A fine accounfof this is to be found
experience gathered into pictorial form; it is also an instrument tffi;gh in Martin Buber's sons of Heavei. The chasidim still exist
u r."i, unc
which certain energies and forces may be contacted by successiie are strong in certain American circles. "r
generations of students. The Qabalah was also used by two other schoors of unorthodox
thought,
This glyph comes to us down the centuries and is a part, indeed the the Alchemists and the Rosicrucians. Both these schools
. most
imqortantpart, nf the system of teaching known as thi qaualah whichrwas
used it as-the
nagp.wor\ of their philosophy, and incorporated into it the esoteric
ev-olved by the Hebrew nation. This name, tradition they had received-from their pridecessors. The Arabs
eBL, ma] Ue transtateO as brought much of the learning
had
"from mouth to ear", and, though written recdrds havealso ueen used io the Egyptian lands into western E;;"p",
9f
where it was received undeithe nam" b? ..alchemy",
supplement it, the main body of esoteric knowledge has always been u *o.O U*"0 of,"n
handed down by oral instruction. the..ol$. name for Egypt: ..Khem". Thus alchemy was ..the
egypiian
Such written records were, and still are, kept secret, and it was matter": the secret teaching of Egypt.
not until
elev.ent! century of our era that-any purt oith" secret teaching *", put Again, in the story of the putativilounder of the Rosicrucians,
the
into_print for general use. Even then,-the ^I(osencreutz, it is said that he journeyed !o "Damcar" (probabiychristian
eabalists reserved itre inie, cuQ an{_later to Fez, w_here, it is stated, he studied ..iir"i,
Damas-
telching and did not allow it to be given ouito all and sundry. euLutufr,f
The western esoteric tradition is generally ioentinea wittr- ttre
\{uc]l of this pre-Christian-reaching was carried over from J6wry in the Rosicrucian order, mostof its teaching uelng uased upon
TrlV Christian Church, and there, mixed with Egyptian, p"rri'"n the Rosicrucian
Grecian elements, it formed the basis of the great 6nbstic'move."ni-O adaptationof the Qabalah, interwoveriwith ihe strand-s of tradition
which
io have been handed down from both pagan and - -_-
$eeglr dars ofthe church. Then for various rE"son., the church expelled Christian gnori..
All esoteric schools have a centrai slmbol system, around which their
the Gnostics from its fellorvship, and threw awE/, at the same ti-.,
*ori teaching is organized, and the Western ,,'ound"lui,,
9f the,kws to the inner teaching, so that the eabalistic traoition *as Gr; t;bri_
handed on, in the main, in purely Jewish circles;-though certain
rraorri-
systems are named in the orient, is, as we have said, ",
otz chiim,theiree of
teachers used it in a modified form. Life. In the more extravagant claims made by ror"olis"if;il;A;
with the increasing power of the church, the arcane schools became Qabalah is said to have been taught to Aaam in Faradise, uy trr" errr-
to varying degreel of persecution, and with the abolition by angel, Metratron, and the Tree of Life is identified as that-tree
:ubJ.e9t which the
Justinian of tle schools of philbsophy, the tradition went into Scriptures tell us grew in the Garden of Eden. fnis, of course,
htdi"g,
way of sayingthat this particular body of teaching andpractice
i;;;t-;
though, every now and then, fragmenary
$eams of its pr"r"n"" ,t on" oii comes from
amid the deepening gloom of the DarkAges in Europe. a.remote antiquity, and is therefore worthy of consideration.
Horrever,
claims to.such ancient lineage are really besiae me point (many
te""rr1n!,
 116 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH A cENERAL rNrRoDUcrroN ll7
and practices that are far from edi$ing can also claim remote ancestry) A teaching is no less worthy of respect because it was formulated today,
_
so it is advisable to be guarded in making such claims on behalf of any than is a traditional teaching going back two thousand years or more. The
system ofthought, unless the objective proofcan be given ofsuch early body of-teaching is constantly being re-interpreted andiluminated by the
origins. work of the present time.
In the world of 'bccult" philosophies, it is common to find the most .bnce for all
outrageous statements being made along these lines, causing the general . Jhere-!9 a Corpus Hermeticus, a body of teaching
delivered" to the followers of the esoterii tradition b| teachers from
public, or at least its more intelligent section, to regard the occult another evolutionary scheme than our own, or so it ii oectarpd in the
teachings with a certain amount of contempt. Of course, many uncritical lodges, but this foundation has been built upon and modified by
follopers of such teachings regard this contempt as something which must generations of initiates. Like some of the great a6beys and cathedrals of
be borne by those who are different in their outlook from the uninstructed this country it shows the marls of its composite building. If we may
and prejudiced outer world. It is true that such criticism is very often both continue !o use the analogy of ecclesiastical architecture, *imay say that
vituperative and superficial, a mental defence-weapon used by the critic we find in the esoteric tradition portions which suggest the first ,.rattle
!o avoid the possibility of his having to revise the whole of his mental and daub" churches alongside the rough axe-hewn-wooden structures of
outlook; a task which we none of us care about! In matters like this it is the Saxon "house-church", the heavyiquat buildings ofthe later saxon
f_atally ealy to allow such a bias to creep unnoticed into our thinking, and Ngrman periods; the soaring Gothic of thi early Middle Ages
the manifest animosity and the unfairness so often displayed by the liostile Tdgrly
(and the various modifications thereofl, till we come to the banal victori'an
critic, evoke a similar response from the believer. A very interesting "Gothic" reconstruction, and the experiments in steel and concrete of the
example ofthis is to be found in the contents of themany bools which have present day.
been written in connection with what we have come to be known as ,.The It_remains to be seen, of course, how much of the modern expression
Dead Sea Scrolls". At the same time, of course, it is quite possible that can be blended into the more traditional teachings which reflect the modes
a perfectly true claim to an ancient origin might be made by an esoteric of thought of ancient times still forming part of 6e tradition, whilst, at the
school, for many of these schools, at least in the West, were forced by same time, an intense effort is being madi to re-interpret tradition in terms
persecution to "go underground" and to transmit their teachings in secret. ofthe present day.
It is necessary that we should make a clear distinction between mystery- Now this is typical of any living organism, this power to adapt to new
mongering secrecy on the one hand, and legitimate reserve in conditions whilst retaining its own indlviduality, ana it is certainly in line
communicating training and teaching to the outside world on the other. It with the Qabalistic teaching as we have received it. For the
is interesting to note that certain knowledge once held by the occult eabalih is not
only,a body of teaching derived from the ,,Masters in limel,,; it is a
schools alone, is now being extensively used by American advertising method of using the mind in a practical and constantly widening
agencies. More and more the new psychological practice is being misused cons-ideration of the nature of the universe and the soul of man,
and perverted by unscrupulous people, and the esotericist can point to this
as a vindication of his practice of reserve in communication. __Y" -"y- say that the Qabalah was first deliberately nloA"a into the
Hebrelv Scriptures W the heirs of the esoteric iradition, whence,
If the enquiring student should join any of the true occult schools, he strengthened and modified by the tribuary streams of Egyptian, Chaldean
will in all probability find that in the "Mythos" of the lodge, certain claims and Hellenic esoteric teachings, it becarne the secret Wiioo- of Israel,
to the antiqurty of its teachings will be made, but such claims, handed dqpn from initiate to-pupil through the ages.
substantiated in some cases by good documentary evidence, are not put It was the task of the "Mastei in IsraJl", the initiate of the Hebrew
forward to the general public. Mysteries, to receive and transmit the keys of this hidden wisdom in such
The esoteric lodges, insofar as they are working efficiently, and a way.tat the pupil, reading in the orthodox Scriptures of his race, might
producing results, do so by vir.tue of function, mther than chaner. unfold from their depths the secret reachings which had been foldedwitf,in
A teaching or philosophy, if it is to be of any real service must, by its the.m.. BV m$itation upon these teachings, and by the use of the prescribed
very nature, conform to the description given by Jesus to the Kingdom, technique, the initiate worked with thiJ hidden-wisdom, adding to it the
"The Kingdom of Heaven," He said, "is likened unto a wise householder, results of his orvn researches, and in turn transmitting it, enlirged and
who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.', enriched, to his own pupils.
 118 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH A GENERAL INTRODUCTION l19
Sometimes, of course, such individual work was faulty and out of line contemporaries of Rabbi Gamaliel, of whom we read in the Acts of the
with the main tradition, but this the pupil could correct by using the glyph
of the Tree of Life in the prescribed manner. {po-rflgr, How far any prior esoteric teaching is embodied inthe Sepher
Yetzimh is a matter of opinion amongst scholars; but from other sources
It will be seen from the foregoing that the eabalistic system is not than the purely exoteric, historical ones, we are inclined to think that the
meryly a body of knowledge, though of course it is that in part, neither autlor, whoever he may have been, did ncorporatnto some extent in the
p tleJree gf fife a diagram in the ordinary sense of the woid. Although sepher Yetzirah a very considerable amount of tradition which was
both knowledge and diagrammatic representation are important aio ggyptian and Chaldean esoreric reachings
integral parts of the Qabalah, it is primarily, as we have already pointed Tlol*O by assimilated during
the Captivities.
out, a method of using the mind in such a way that the initiate comes into However, as ftr as the Sepher yetzirah is concerned, it did not appear
direct coniact with the living powers and forces of the universe, and in a published form until the sixteenth century and it was me Sipher
through them with the eternal source of all manifestation. hhar, the Book of splendour, which first attracted attention in the west.
So the system of the Qabalah, though primarily an ,.occult" system, Hostile critics have said that Rabbi Moses Shem Tov de Leon wrote this
culminates in an exalted mysticism, and in so doing becomes a true and book in the thirteenth century. on the other hand, over-zealous occultists
living theosophy. have claimed that the Book of splendour descends from an unknorvn
_ In the same way, by the use of the sacred Scriptures of the old and new antiqulty. The truth probably lies, as usual, between the two extremes,
Testaments alike, the Qabalist maintains contact with the group-souls of The personal view of the present writer is that Moses de r,eon edited
the western races, and becomes able to influence the destiniis of the west, a large number of floating manuscripts, some of which originated long
not, it should be observed, by external political means, but by infusing into before the christian era, while otheis were elaborated during the mosi
the racial unconscious seed-atoms of thought which will bear fruit in the fertile Thlmudic period, and that the core of this collectiorihad been
future. (again from pre-existing and ancient sources) by Rabbi ben
The true initiate influences the world not only by what he says, but, in [o1m"9,
Jochai in the region of the Roman Emperor Antoninus, e.p. gO-tOt.
a far more important qay, by what he rs. There is much inthe Tnhar which is evidently the result of the working
It remains now to conclude this chapter by a briefaccount ofthe history of its editor's mind, a mind coloured by the accepted ideas and theorie's
of the Qabalah as frr as it has become known to the scholars of the western ofhis day, and this, ofcourse, allows his hostile critics a good deal ofscope
..eabalah"
ryorp, The word QBL, from which the name is formed, for their attacks.
signifies "from mouth to ear", that is to say, it was an unwritten tradition But even in our modern world, the influence of an editor still shows
passed down from one generation ofinitiates to another in an unbroken
itself in that which he edits, and it is difficult to see how this can be entirely
line. contrary to the generally accepted opinion of western scholars, such avoided.
oral transmission can be very accurate indeed, as the present writer found Some critics have maintained that de lron gained a living by
when studying these matters in India. But there aluayi comes a time when transcribing large numbers of the znhar, and squandering the prorit" ro
some part of the oral teaching is written down either in the form of private obtained in riotous living. However, as waite points out, iihe transcribed
manuscripts which are circulated amongst the brethren, or else as an this large book very frequently, he would have needed a number of
attempt to interest and attract the general public. copyists, agd
scholars who have studied this questibn of the historical, written $e profits thereby obtained would have been so considerably
reduced, that he would not have had much to squander. on the other hanc,
Qabalah, have come to certain general conclusions, though, as in all if he transcribed it by his own efforts, he wbuld not have had time to
scholarly assessments of history they disagree considera6ly amongst squander the profits.
themselves!
.{ general pattern emerges, however, and it is titir p"ttJ-
which we will now briefly discuss. . In_ all probability he did gain some profit from his editorial work
(perhaps an-unknorvn patron was behind the work) but profit
may not have
The two books which are the chief eabalistic publications, are the been his sole motive. As fo-r the alleged neglect of tris frmily, ih"r",'uy
Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formation, and the Znhar, or Book of certain spice of truth in ttris; cdnsiderably enUrfea opon U!,
splendour. of these the sephir Yetzirahisthe older, and its authorship has Jyv9.-bee1.a
his ill-wishers. It does happen in similar circles today!
been attributed to Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph, a pupil of one oi the It is, however, well to remember that in the time of Moses de Leon, there
 120 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
were in existence many other related traditions which had come down
from antiquity. The Tnhar is not the only source. How much of the wisdom CHAPTER II
of the hidden sanctuaries of the ancient world is embodied in the
Qabalistic works is somettring which, in the nature of things, we cannot PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION
determine, but it is certain that some of that wisdom-has been so
transmitted.
AND SEERSHIP
In this connection the writer learned from a friend, an initiate of a the previous pages, reference has been made to what were termed
scottish Rosicrucian frateryity, that some very definite eleventh-century JN
r'bild talents" : the- apparently random appearance of certain porvers and
Fortuguese elements existed in its ritual and teiching. certain phoeniciair faculties which_are beginning to be studied by an increasing'number of
influences are also to be found in other eabalistic-fraternities. psychologists. True to type, these investigatori have given nEw names to
.I! yould appear, therefore, that the body of knowledge and tradition th3q9 powers and faculties, such as ,.Extra-sensory-perception,' and
which comes to us down the ages from some of the earliest experiences o'P.K."
or "Psycho-Kinesis". The parapsychologists ali over thi world are
and speculations of the Hebrew race, has been augmented by many now working on these random powers, and at least one Chair of
tributaries. In its Jewish aspect it still expresses sorne of the orthodo; klprychology has been set up in a continental university.
Jewish concepts ofits eleventh century re&nsion, but it also brings with The subject
_ matter for their research is obtained by working through
it immemorial traditions which have come to us from the Night oitim"; large.batches of people, usually university students, uhtil they frno tho-se
from times long past, and, we may also suggest, from a larid now lost. who have some wild talent. The process iather resembles thi proverbial
This composite tradition is that with which we are concerned in this search for a needle in a haystack, and the seers ofthe esoteric schools,
book. togetherwith the psychics and mediums of the spiritualist movement, tend
to regard it with a critical eye. Nevertheless, it is bringing the methods of
modern science to bear upon the subject, and whatevei sirvives that very
efficient procels may be regarded aJueing esablished. This is not to s{,
howwer, that the hypotheses built up on these researches necessarily givi
complete and satisfactory explanations of the phenomena studied. it is
necessary !o take into account the personal subjective bias of the
investigator, and this is a more difficuli task.
From the mass of information which has been obtained by the
parapsychologists, one definite fact has emerged: somewhere i-n
the
mental make-|p oJ the individual there is, what we may describe as, a
"dormer window", a casement looking out upon "perilous seas, and fairy
lands forlorn", as well as upon scenei of gl-ory aoO tigtrt.
_ The question which now arises in the minos br somiparapsychologists
is whether these talents belong to the past or the futuri or ihe race.-^qre
t{e1the remnants o{lnrimitive faculty which was superseded by the use
of the moredependable method of communication by ttre spodn woro,
or are they fuculties which are latent in all and are nbw being gradually
evolved into active use?
The esoteric schools say thqt this question can be answered either way,
all depending yqon rhg part of the rnactrinery of the mind *rricrr is ueing
used. The ftculties and fowers-usually termid ..psychic,' are, and Aqayi
have been, part of the content of the mind; but their mode of manifestation
at any time depends upon the conditions under which it takes place.
All
 N2 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION AND SEERSHIP 123
sense impressions, whether physical or super-physical, come into the the involuntary system, and will be haphazard and fluctuating and not
waking consciousnes s throughthose levels olttrimino *iiich are usually under the control of the will. This is the so-called '.negative" psychism,
knuvn as the "subconscious" or ..unconscious',, and they are ufr*V, characteristic of savages, uneducated people and animals. the type of
coloured and altercd by their journey through those levels.' psychism associated with the voluntary nerve system is known ai the
-This "stained-glass" effect takes place in all cases, even when the "positive" psychism and in order that this type may function, its possessor
observerprides himselfuponhis'bbjective" approach tothe subject of his must have a degree of mental development and control.
study. sometimes the distortion is fairly obvious, and scientifii workers This control over its manifestations is the point which is stressed by
yognug what they call the "personal equation" in the results of their those who have adopted a somewhat doctrinaire attitude to the
observations. But the real stained-glass diitortion usually takes place in development of the psychic frculties. There are, however, varying degrees
the-deeper levels of the mind, and iJ not apparent to the observer himself. of control (no psychic is always capable of full control) and even the
If weapply this to the emergence of the iuperphysical frculties, *",L so-called "positive" psychic can, under certain conditions, move touards
-
that theirappearance and functioning wil b? utte'r"a and coloured very the negative end of the scale. The degree of this shift will depend upon
colsiderably by their passage through the subconscious levels of the the workings of the sub-conscious levels of the mind of the psychic.
Th4, T0 as they come. through muih deeper levels than the ordinary At the other end of the scale, the negative psychic is directly aflected
physical sense impressions, they will be capable of much gi;;, @ the subconscious content of his mind, and his observations on the inner
distortion. levels will aluays be strongly affected I the contents ofhis subconscious.
. The physical mechanigm
impressions reach the
through which these subtle psychic If allowance is made for this distortion, h.e may be able to do quite good
level of the wating self is twofold. First, irt"r" i, work along these lines, and be of considerable assistance to fus fellorv
what is known as the involuntary nerve system, of as it is sometimes men. Unfornrnately however, there is a tendency for the negative psychic
called, the sympathetic nerve system. Then there is the voluntary or to become the focal point of an admiring group of people, and any
cerebro-spinal nerve qystem, which in terms of evolution is a much newer criticism of his powers is regarded by that group as a heresy, a falling away
development than the involuntary system. Now the relative activities of from the wonderful teachings which are being received nrough nb
these two interlocking srytery vary over very wide limits, but trr"y ur" psychic oracle. This tends to suppress that healthy self-criticism wfuch is
always involved together in all mental activity. the best safeguard in these subjective regions.
some schools of thought attempt to make a sharp line of demarcation It does happen, occasionally, that such a negative psychic determines
between them, but it is found that in actuar praitice they * a*uy, to changc over to the more positive form of his powers, and, if he can
ryorking together; only their proportions uary. One of tfre cnief escape from the mental grip which is exerted on him by his group, he may
characteristics of the ryolgntary nerve systern is that it is closeiy proceed to take the training which is necessary for this change.
connected with the emotional nature, and is affected by alteration of
thl His first test comes when, to his dismay, his psychic powers disappear
emotional tone of the individual. on the other hand, the c"rebto-rpinJ entirely, and, as one such person told the wriier, ..I was as psychiiis a
system is directly affected w the thoughts generated by the *iring brick wall for over two years." Because of this temporary lois of power,
consciousness. Under normal conditioni the voluntary cerebro-spinai many negative psychics ittempting to move over to the positive oru of th"i,
system should be master, and the involuntary system shouid be the
s"rrr-t, p(Mers are daunted and fall back to their old way of working. This is to
but this is a counsel of perfection, for in ihi majority or numanrty, trre be understood,butlf they hadpersevered, they would have found that their
emotional energies tend, in rarying degree, to dominate the decisions of powers would have returned, but in a new and improved form.
consciousness. There is-a minority in which the mental processes have, It is the rule ofthe esoteric schools to require their initiates to strive
as it were, been cut off from the emotions, but this leads to the aria
ani toward the positive control of the incarnationary personality, and this
sterile r-r-rerrtality which is so characteristic of that minority. control includes control over the inherent psychic frculties. For this
It will be seen, therefore, tlrat any psychic impressions coming into reason they do not welcome into their ranls those psychics who are the
consciousness will be distorted ana ioioured in a varying degree product ofthe ordinary "developing circle" where the habitual use ofthe
composite emotional-mental nature. where trre erriotioial nature fu the
negative forms of psychism has been firmly established . If such people are
predominates, the psychic processes will be largely channelled thr""th admitted, then two things tend to happen. The increased mental aitivity
 I24 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION AND SEERSHIP a5
consequent upon the training which is received tends to focus the ':which he perceives it, and strongly resents any attempt to criticize it.
consciousness on the mental levels, and the cerebro-spinal machinery; the
psychism, which has been working through the involuntary
I As previously indicated, such a psychic tends to become the focusing
nerve system, point-ofa group which is attracted and held by the teaghings, and theri
then.tends to. die away; this process is deliberately accelerated "uy ,rt"
special exercises which such initiates receive. In ihe Eastern schools,
, is built up a body of knowledge heavily coloured by the meniai reference-
ry"l o"g4* psychics are usually not admitted, but much depends upon ;, fam9 of the_psychic concerned. this effectually prevents any new
knowledge, which may appear to alter the teaching, irom getting through
the individual circumstances. the psychic's mind. Also, by a curious telepathic compulJion,
Psychism, in both its positive and negative ranges, is very largely a "ir*afiig
piaorial consciousness, since the subconscious levels of the mina thiough
from the group-mind concerned, the psychic is prevented from ti
rising
anl.greatgl heights of perception than those already gained ry hin.-
which it works were dgvelope{ in a period of evolution when languafe, -would
Since this use of some sort of reference-frame appear to be
as we understand it, did not exist. By the term "piclorial" we unoeistaia inescapable, the esoteric schools have devised a frame wtiiitt tt". *t"
ryt only the visual, but,also the auditory and other sense images. Now advantage of_b9i"g sufficiently flexible to allow for the reception of new
these images, or rather the stock of them which exists in the subJonscious knowledge. This particular reference also has the virtue ofdisiiplining ttre
.T{,-ry ur$ S-the psychic machinery and, as we have said, they distort mindsof group members, and therefore lessens the grip ofthe gioup-iind
*q a$o the information which is reieived from supernormal iources. upon the psychic who is its focal point. This flexible refereniB-frame is
Unless there exists a better set of images in the psychic's mind, this sate
of affairs will persist. $9 CfVnngf ne Tree of Life with ie associatbrl philosophy, and it is around
this "mighty all-embracing glyph of the univprse and tireioul of man" that
whatever psychic impressions are received will be referred 0o both the theory and practice of the western tradition is arranged. It is true
corresponding,images in the mind, in exactly the same way as, when that there are elements in the western tradition which do nolderive from
gomething frmiliar is mentioned in ordinary ionversation, the t"od"n y the Qabalah of the Hebrews (celtic and Iberian contacts amongst others)
is to relate the ideato our orvn already establiihed knowledge ofme subject but it is the glory of the Tree of Life that it may be used as a kini of occdl
in question. so, for instance, when in the course of converiation sometne Rosetta stone. when it is so used, then the symbols and glyphs of these
refgrs.to his dog, the dog is immediately linked up in the listener,s mind other systems may be interpreted and, in hct, incorporated into the
with^the mgmory of his own do-g. The first dog miy be different it ;"".y general Qabalistic picture.
way from the second, but until further information is supplied the listener By. this flexible pattern of images and symbols it becomes possible to
will tend to think of it under the terms of his own memory picture. avoid, to-a great extent, the distortion of the psychic perception. When the
This action of the mind is still more apparent when the subject under incomin!; psychic impressions reach this rirentat ,i"ue, ih"y are able to
discussion is of a more abstract nature, eipecially when it is entirely new illuminate the symbols and so convey the essential nature of ttrat which
to the person concerned. Then corresponding irnages arise which may, or is. b-e.ing perceived on the inner leveli of consciousness. This process of
mE/ not, correctly represent the actual subject ofdiscussion. such imiges
glg-king up and utilising suitable symbol forms is technicaliy rermed
tend' with practice, to become stereotyped, and are built into a systeniof "illumination", and leads on to a true, but formless, direct perception in
thought reaction which may be flexible or the reverse. Now, this sarne physical consciousness. This is known as "seership". There is a world of
mental machinery is used when the knowledge is being received through difference between the vague "sensings" ofthe negative psychism and the
the operation the psychic senses, and here diffiJurties uegin. if,e clearcut, but formless, perception of the well-developed and trained
_o.f
incoming psychic impressions are twisted by this rigid reference--frame of insight of the positive seer. It is only fair to say, however, that this direct
the mind, and the result is a distorted and inaccurate perception. But perception is a rare thing. Under adverse conditions most seers tend at
because, when the psychic senses are working in the cbnscibor .inJ, times to descend to the level of "illumination" or even, if these conditions
there comes-, with the psychic impressions, a rush of energy from ttre qe very disturbed, to descend still further and function on the "sensing"
deepel.levels,.such perception tends to be regarded as-iacrosanct, levels of the negative psychism.
something which must not be questioned, ana thir often leads !o All that can be done by anyone working in these higher reaches is to
considerable trouble. The psychic feels that the energy which comes with keep the mind directed to*ards the ideal of true seiship, and in the
the perception is a proof that such perception is true, in the under meantime to work at the task of so training his mind thai tre becomes
form
126 MAGIC AND THE QABALAH
increasingly independent of external conditions.
From what has already been said, it will be seen that the lower
psychism, when not merely "impressional", is a state of consciousness CHAPTER III
characterized by images. It is a pictorial Epe of perception. This is
because it relates, as we have seen, to that period in evolution when the THE ASTRAL PLANE
subconsciousness was predominant, this aspect of the mind being a simple
picture consciousness.
Man is essentially creative, and his thought activitieb, in the main
\I/HEN quite
the phenomena of psychism are studied, it becomes apparent
Y Y that, apart from their manifestation in the physical world, they
pictorial, have built innumerable picture-images in the collective are working in other levels of substance, and it is with these other "inner"
unconscious of the human race. It is these images, the "creations of the levels that we are concerned in this chapter.
created", as they are called, which are first observed when the psychic During the centuries, the vision of both trained and untrained seers and
frculties become active, and it is only later in his training that the psychic psychics has given a picture of these inner worlds. It is difficult to
begins to work without them. Even then, the great archetypal images of compress into a brief survey all that has been observed, but it may suffice
the collective unconscious influence and colour his vision, and it requires if we consider the general outline.
a great deal of hard work to attain to the relatively formless vision of the Observations have revealed the existence of a form of substance which
seer. is extremely fluidic and mobile, having no direct connection with the
Here again, the glyph of the Tree comes to his aid. The picture- physical world, yet present in every atom of physical matter. It has been
consciousness ofthe emeqging faculty is brought through and conditioned known by many names, but the most common name in the Western
S the inter-related symbol system of the Tree. Even when the pqychic tradition is "the astral light", or, in Theosophical terminology, the "astral
perceptions are inaccurate, this will be indicated by the fact that the plane". In the Orient it is usually referred to as the l(amic or "Desire
symbolism does not agree with the basic symbolism of the Tree. The World". In both these traditions, however, it is associated with what is
psychic will then know that the vision is inaccurate, and will take steps knorvn as the "mental" ot Manasic world, and it is held that both these
accordingly. two attributes of sentient consciousness, desire and mind, are woven into
It will be clear, from the foregoing, that definite and regular meditation a common world which is usually knorvn as the "astro-mental" ot l(amn-
on the Tree of Life is an essential part of the training of the initiate of the manasic world.
Western tradition. We have, therefore, to picture this astro-mental world as a plane or level
Finally, it may be said, that in the high formless perception of the true of fluidic mobile substance, through which currents of energy flow. In it
seer, common ground is reached with those who follow the mystic uay, there dwell intelligences of many kinds and grades, ranging from the
the difference being that the seer is still working in the form worlds, even lowliest types of consciousness up, through many intervening grades, to
though employing a formless type of perception. the mighty Intelligences who, from these inner levels, bear rule over all
In the next chapter we will discuss that great level of life and earthly manifestations, and beyond them to the in-dwelling life and
manifestation, known to many as the 'hstral plane", and see the working consciousness of the planet itself.
of psychic perception at that level. Furthermore, it is held, again from what has been obtained through the
use of exalted seership, that the emotional and mental aspects of all life
on this planet are part of the corresponding aspects of these inner plane
intelligences, and behind them, permeating, and indeed maintaining in
existence all these lives and forms, is the Immanent Logos, the "Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world", by whose enduring sacrifice the
wodd is nourished and sustained.
It is sometimes stated, by critics who apparently know very little about
it, that the esoteric philosophy is one of "pantheism", identifying the
Creator with His creation. This is not so, for in the Western tradition the
 U8 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH THE ASTRAL PI.ANE n9
Deity is always thought of as being both Imrnanent: sacrificed in His
automatically builds up the images of the conditions of physical life.
Universe, and Transcendent: reigning supreme over all.
Immediately the astral substance takes shape around these thought forms,
. Esoteric leachlng declares that the astrb-mental realms interpenetrate and the man finds himself among scenery very sirnilar to that which was
the physical world and also extend spatially far beyond it. At the same
around him in earth life. But since the subconsciousness has been built up
time, it is stated (and this has been verlnea ty many seers), the substance
according to the habitual thoughts and desires over many years, it will
ofthat plane is not physical substance as we know it, but one which exists
automatically build surrounding images which will reflect accurately the
in thal space-time continuum which has been given the popular name of
character of the man. In this way the "summerland" and the ,.dark
the "fourth-dimension". This means that the matter of thi inner planes is
i spheres" and the "grey worlds", so common in spiritualist communi-
_n$ Soverned by the same natural laws as the dense physical world, for, cations are built up in these finer levels.
fike every other level of exis0ence, it has its own definite laws of being: if But not only are these relatively lower levels of the astral light built up
it is studied from the standpoint of these laws, then au its maniftstations
into the paradises and hells ofthe discarnate dwellers therein, but they are
and phenomena are seen to be as orderly as those ofthe physical world.
also full of the swarming images built up S the thoughts of people still
For this reason the esotericist does not speak of the "supernormal", for
in the physical body, and in this way there exists on these inner levels a
he holds that there is but one supernatural aspect of all manifesation: the
great body of linked thought both consciously, and unconsciously
Logos from whom all Nature on all planes has its origin, and in whom
expressed by humanity. The 'tollective unconscious" of the Jungian
all the observed sequences which we term "natural law'ieternally subsist.
psychologists is located here, and the whole of human thinking is done in
From this standpoint, it is usual to refer to all manifestations of inner plane
the atmosphere and under the influence of this great thought-form. Now,
activity as being "supernormal" but nol "supernatural". It *itt ue because man has "bodies" of the substance of the astro-mental levels, it
observed that as evolution proceeds, much that is at present supernormal
is found by observation that there is a very real unity of the race on these
will come into the category of normal whilst, at-the same time, the levels, and that, in very fact, no man is an island.
questing soul of man will reach out into the infinite immensities of The energy and life which is continually pouring into these inner
creation and discover much more which will be studied and brought into
realms, and from them into the physical world, comes from much higher
the realms of the normaL rhere is no limit set to the range of marib mind
levels, but manifests in these lower worlds as that energy which is knorvn
except
119
inability to go beyond a certain point at any given time, and this, as the "libido". So, for all life on both the astro-menal and physical
as it will be seen, is a constantly receding horizon.
worlds, this driving energy is affected and conditioned by the collective
one of the most striking qualities of this super-physical realm is the subconsciousness of the race. This applies also to the animal, vegetable
amying pobility of is substance, and it is because of this that the practical
and mineral kingdoms, as well as to the curious halfiray state which lies
work of the esoteric schools becomes possible. The tenuous subsance of
between the gross physical world and the levels of the astral light. This
the astral light will take any form which is impressed on it
S the thought linking level, the so-called "etheric plane" ofthe theosophists, is ofthe
of sentient^beings of whatever grade; so there are built op itr tttir t"aT- greatest importance as we shall see when we come to deal with it. Here
myriads of imlges of all kinds. They divide naturally into two distinct
we are concerned with the astro-mental levels which, in their higher
qroups lccgrding to their background. one group hal as its background aspects, are its controlling factors.
the physical unrld and its phenomena, whilst the oiher has the back[round
The instinctive life of all the kingdoms of Nature is part of, and is
of the spiritual realms beyond the astro-mental levels.
controlled by, the energies ofthe inner levels directed by intelligences of
It is one of the common jeers at spiritualism that the descripions of the
all grades; intelligences which are themselves subject to the guiding
'bther side" which are given through mediums are so ..e'arthly" and direction of higher beings whose natural home is in the higher leveh ol
commonplace, and one critic has gone so far as to say that the spiriiualists
the astro-mental world; those levels which are peopled from the spiritual
are "suburbanizing the cosmos,,.
realms which lie beyond them. These "group-spirits" as they are termed,
statement is true, but does not necessarily prove the unreliability
-This form part of another aspect of the inner worlds. There is a curious pride
of the seance room cornmunicators. According io the seers ..suburbari-
and self-sufficiency which causes modern man to think of himself as being
ilatio-n" happens because the subconsciousnesJof the person who has left
the only truly intelligent being in the universe, and even when considering
the physical, and now become a dweller on the aitro-mental levels,
the possibility of sentient life on other planets, he seems sure that such life
 130 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH THE ASTRAL PLANE 13l
will be human in form, or, if the conditions of such other words preclude I sufficient for us that in the western tradition this is our foundation.
this, will be inferior in some way or other ta homo sapiens. However, with l1 In-the higher stages of seership "perceftion of' becomes ..identi-
regardto the innerplanes man is only one ofseveral otherlines ofevolving -
fication wjthl' thg.obiect which iiueing ob'served, and here
life, and the great g-roup-spirits of the various kingdoms of Nature belong symbol-relationship of the Tree enables ihe seer to lring uact rr6m
tt"
"guio,
tirose
to one or another ofthese independent lines oflife. But because all things eTlted regions something of what has been experirenied.
in this concourse of forces are linked most closely together, the In the lower astral levels, the rolling billo\d of the light contain the
intelligences of these supermundane worlds are closely'linkJd *itit th" myriad images projected by the minds of both incarnate-and discarnate
whole collective thoughtofhumanity, and inevitably act and react upon it. beings, and the astral cuirents energise them. In this way rhytGc
..Jt.IrlP" emphasized that the astral light is not, in itself, a plane of influences are brought to bear upon allife, and these infl,r"n"lr, ;o;ki;g
"form'1 The forms and images are derived from the mental levels which through the collective unconscious of the race, cause those tides in
the
interpenetrate it. The astral light itselfis a level ofmobile astral substance, affairs ofmen which are therealmainsprings ofhuman
o-beying the laws of its own nature, and is plastic in an amazing degree to
-infliences {or !ad'
"rr"Jr"rg"J-a
In very truth, rhe astral levels ire trie steering ana oiretift ili,
the formative influence of mental activlty, whether these
proceed.from incarnate or from discarnate minds. on the one hand, as
for the race' From the lower levels come those imprilses *rri"rt
the evil and unbalanced forces in human life, whilsi from th"
*irt ror
the rtigrr", urtr"r
"collective unconscious'l-of the Jungian psychologists, it is intimately come those influences which work ever torwards the establiihment
linked with the whole of life, incarnate in its varyingdegree on earth, and or
harmony, truth and love upon this planet.
on the.other-it is the plastic medium through *nic-n niln"r inteliigences A knowledge of these currents of energy which flow constantly behind
fulfil the will of the Iogos for the world. -
gives the po.wer to control and di.ect them, and thii,
. It is compapliu"ly easy to develop the power to see some of the images *::*n:r
the practical work of the esoteric craffsman. Here again, the metilod
fi;
in the astral light, indeed, many of the brilliant little pictures which ire of
the Tree is unsurpassed in its power to build up in the riind a true
reference
many people just before they frll asleep, or juit as they awaken, framg a1d a directing channel for these great energies which are
ryen.bV
the pictures termed bypsychologists..hypnogogic', ind ..hypnopompic,,, constantly affecting mankind and, indeed, thJmyriad tiies orthe whoie
are in fact theimages ofthe astral light. lt ii in thii region trrai itre untrainec planet.
psychic usually works, and the visions he discerns are in fact, not we have said that the power to control and direct the cosmic energies
the
actual astral levels, but what have been termed the "creations of the which are to be found in the inner planes is one which murt u"
created". in the practical work of the occultist, but it is here that we "-pr&"d
u
In mugh tle same way, the city dweller, if he were to live entirely in the veryimportant pitfal. rr is a commonry accepted idea that th" "n"oun6.
cellTe of a large town, and never leave it, would see only the purely *di"iuo
has this control at his disposar and may use ii in any particular
artificial urhan scenery and would know nothing of the rores'ts ani *u! *rut
suits his
mountains, lakes and seas of the great world around-, and his ideas of the lncy or that his immediate neLds may oirect. Neverther"ri, fri,
is utterly false, at least as ftr as the brethren of'the true esoteric
orders are
world would be very inaccurate. concerned. It is true that many_ who attempt this path do usettre powers
So it is with the untrained psychic, and therefore the esoteric schools they obtain in order to satiss their own personal desires and
have always insisted upon a lengthy training which would lead from The true eso0ericist, however is arways mindfur of the que.tir";hi;h ".riiti"rr.
pychic perception to an illuminated seership. ltris ..higher psychism", as put to him at the commencementof hi1 training in the Mysteri"rr ,;wty
r*,
it has been called, works without images, but for the picticit"*ort ortrre do you desire to enter our brotherhood?" At tha't time he gave
trt" unr#,
schools it has been associated with the great symboi system of the Tree "I desire to know in order to serve", and it is this wrricrr rre irust constantry
of Life. As we have written elsewhere, t[e frei is not only a great glyph remember.
or compound symbol, it is in essence a chart of retntionships,*0, ttroi,ltt But this statement, true though it is, needs some analysis. o.Service,,
the seer trained upon it ceases to use the symbols themielves when f,e is
one of those words which, like valuable currensy, be, and often is,
reaches_a ggrtain pointin his training, tie symbor-rehtionships stilr debased. As the late Dr Joad would have said, ..It all "un
remain in his mind and form a foundation for all his subsequeni work.
depend,
mean by 'seryice1" The word has come to have several different
; *ily;;
Other esoteric schools use other glyphs and who are we to -r*irigr,
ioAg" - , . and it is essential that we consider what it means in the context
of esotelc
I32 MAGIC AND THE QABALAH THE ASTRAL PLANE 83
training. Service may be given to our fellow men, to the master Craftsmen the race can be helped: such as lecturing to, or perhaps teaching those who
of the order and to the Eternal. It may also be given to ourselves. which are interested is what is required? ttow att this is true: these ire all ways
is the true service? In point of fact, all are legitimate ways of service; it of service, and for those who are capable of doing whatever is involved
is the priorities which really matter. In what order do we place our 1L them, tfrey are true and legitimate methods oiservice. However, as
respectlve services? Let us start by considering the last one I have named, christ said solong ago, although these things should not be left undone,
the service ofthe self. there is something else which comes first. the esotericist has always to
It is usual in many esoteric schools, more particularly those which are remember that very truly, "no man is an island". He is linked wittr ttre
inclined towards the mystical rather than the true esoteric path, to despise whole ofhis race in the deeper aspects ofhis nature, and all he ruyr, thinL.
and attempt to disregard the personal self and its requirementq in a or does influences the group mind of humanity. So everyone
[y ,i*pfy
mistaken foilowing of certain mystical teachings. The trouble with so being himself affects all men, but, in the case of the dedicirco ani t uiri"o
many people is that they will wrench from their context certain statements occultist, this influence is more definite and potent for good. so the
madl Uy the great teachers of the spiritual way. This is a casein go-int. -lJ occultist helps humanity by simply being himseif, and actiig as it were,
is quite true that at a certain point in the esoteric training, the "fly"lj as a ferment which, unseen but very potent, can cause a vitil change in
which is the personal self, must be immersed in the "sea" of the deep self, conditions around.
but this is not until a certain level of true spiritual development has been we now come to that aspect of service which has gathered so much that
reached. It is this attempt to mortiff the personality which can so easily is foolish andpuerile in human thought: the serviJe given to ne aaepts
become one of the greatest stumbling blocks on the way, so it may be as and masters of the esoteric way. In modern occult writlngs this idea of the
well if we consider it fairly carefully' "masters" and adepts has been so bowdlerized that- it has become
What is this personal self with which we mostly identify ourselves? And unacceptable 0o serious thinlcers. "Humanity dearly loves a lord", and we
what is its purpose? The name itself comes from a root which means "a have seen, in the appearance of Fascism ana *re National socialism of
mask", anA nis recalls the actors of classic times, who represented their Hitler's Germany, how a great number of people are prepared to allorv
part in the play by wearing a mask. So they spoke "through the mask". othen to do their thinking foT ft9-: They appear to be afraid of attempting
- In the same way, so the esotericists claim, the deep self of everyone to direct their own lives, gladly leaning upon those who will oo'theii
spealrs and acts through lhe persona, the mask of the personal self. But thinking for them, who will show them, anolrneeos ue, drive them Jon!
this mask is not something which can be put on at leisure and dispensed the path which they must follow.
with at will. It is far more than that. It is the true expression of the deep when this attitude of mind is brought to the work of esoteric science,
self working in the conditions of earthly time and space, and with the it caneasily become u fgrl of spiritual slavery every whit as evil as any
innumerable influences of race, heredity and custom, all of which tend to material bondage. This is the last thing that is desired by the adepti. They
distort and alter this wonderful instrument of the self. So we may say, that require mature men and womel (though it is well to notice ttrat maturity
this personality has what the psychologists term a "fulse ego", a centre is not always a matter of age) who will stand upon their own feet, and n&
around which it has been built up, but which must at a certain point be depend in a pathological manner upon their superiors. It is here that the
given up. This is the "life" which mustbe given up and lost in order that terms which are in popular use encourage such dependence. The words
ttre eeonian life may be gained. But all things in their order. Before the chela and guru, wtich are so often used in the eastern esoteric systems
personality can be given up in this way, it must first have been developed are usually translated as "pupil" and "!eacher". This ofcourse would be
to its utmost. Only the best is to be offered to the Lord, and many so-called quite a legitimate translation if the pupil-teacher relationship of the
"mystics" would do well to follow the teaching of one of the characters oriental-systems and the pupil-teacher ielitionship of western education,
intheBible: "We will notofferto the Lordthat which has costus nothing."* mealt t$ same thing to the understanding of the average person. Bui
[.et us now consider the service which the esotericist should give to his much of the oriental esoteric training based upoi' u system of
ii
fellow men. What kind of service should this be? It is commonly thought discipleship which is foreign to the psychological approach of the western
that the more obvious ways of social service are the ways through which mlnd'-anda it isonly fairto add, the methoos ortraining of the true esoteric
schools of the East do not encourage the servile sudservience which is
* II Samuel, xxiv,24. characteristic of so many Hindu aspirants.
 I34 MAGIC AND THE QABALAH
il
THE ASTRAL PLANE 135 lr
However, though the true esoteric teachers do not desire any slavish "spirit, soul and body as a living and continual sacrifice". In the ritual of
obedience from their followers, they do require that the aspirant should the Qabalistic Cross he says with gesture and word Ateh, Malkuth, ve
"obey the rule". Here we come to something which will be familiar to Geburah, ve Gedulnh le Olarn: "To Thee is the Kingdom, the Fower and
those of my readers who have any knowledge of the monastic orders inthe the Glory for ever and ever."
Christian church. The communities of monks or nuns live and work Persisting in this, there come, in the course of his training and the
n'under
obedience", and many Pro0estant critics of the system seem to development of the inner faculties, "illuminations" on "the mount" and
imagine that the members of these communities vorv implicit obedience in the light of these he learns to look at all life from another point of view,
to the head of the particular monastery or convent in which they happen sub species etetnitas, and so discern, on the tracing board of the Archi0ect
to be. This is not true. Obviously, there must be a system of discipline, no of the Universe, the plan which is the basic of all evolutionary existence.
community can be run without some form of control, but the obedience Now he must learn to descend the mount, and coming into the field of
which is demanded of the novice when taking his final vows is obedience ordinary life, endeavour to live and work under the precepts of the Will
to the "Rule of the Order", and W this Rule all the community, from the which ordered that plan. Only then can the aspirant find true happiness
highest to the lowest, are bound. and rest. As the blessed souls told Dante, "In His will is our peace." So
If we take one of the orders, the Benedictines, as an example, we find in the end, the path of esoteric science merges into the path which is
that the whole life of the community is regulated by the Rule which was common to mystic, occultist and Nature-mystic alike. And as, in the Holy
fint laid down by the founder of the Order, St Benedict, and this rule is Mysteries, the giffs of bread and wine which are the representations of the
administered by a willing collaboration between all the brethren. Any offerings and sacrifice of the people are mystically offered on the heavenly
qrbitrary action by the head of the community can be challenged without altar and thence returned to the earthly altar as the means whereby the
fear by any brother who feels that in this instance the Rule was not being faithful may receive the very life and power of the eternal, so in this
obeyed. personal offering of the self, and the illumination and power which results
So in the esoteric schools the true obedience is given to the Rule of the therefrom, the aspirant begins to work with true porver and right
Order which is behind the outer school. For the esoteric schools are knowledge of the lower worlds. Only then is the service of the eternal
pendant from the great orders which exist behind the scenes. Some may realized and fulfilled by him, and in that service he finds that "perfect
thinkthatthis makes membership of an esoteric school still more doubtful freedom" which is referred to in the old Anglican collect.
than they had already thought, but as the Order Rule is always taught, and
can thus be compared with the general moral and ethical outlools, the
individual is always in a position to judge its ralidity, as fur as his orvn
capacity permits.
But any arbitrary alteration in the training methods is not permitted by
hissuperiors. The disciplines laid down must be carried out, they are part
of the training, and the individual has to realize this. At the sametime, tris
teachers are always willing to help him in any difficult points, and he, in
his turn, is expected to use his own mind in endeavouring to understand
such difficulties. It must always be realized that discipline implies
following the Rule freely and willingly, not in the spirit of a recalcilrant
mule!
Finally we come to the greatest form of service: the service of the
Eternal. Here there are two distinct stages, both of which are essential.
In th9 first stage there is a st€ady endeavour to lift the personal
consciousness to some measure of contact, however slight, with the
eternal power, love and wisdom. From the very beginning of his training
the esoteric apprentice is taught to make this effort, and io offer himsef
 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY R7
psychologist Freud. When his theories first burst upon the world they
received so lopsided a welcome that they became suspect to many people;
CHAPTER IV to explain why this should have happened it will be necessary to discuss
briefly some of his main ideas.
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Freud was a medical psychologist and during his work with his patients
he began to formulate certain ideas in order that he might explain to them
fT is nor.since,
Itheory
proposed to discuss the details of modern psychological
unlike ancient Gaul, it is divided into manyhor"
the abnormal workings of the minds of mental sufferers; at the same time

than three. Thgmany

iuru he saw that much of the behaviour of the minds of normal people could
schools of psychology stem, in ttre main, rrorir trre be accounted for in this way. He found, as Myers and many others had
three systems identified with the names of Freud, Adler and iung.
done, that the region of the mind which lay below the threshold of
. The chief way in which these modern psychological theories diffe"r from consciousness, the subliminal or "subconscious", was affectpd by every
the academic psychology of the nineteenth centufo is that they ir"d;;t
extend the concept of the self of man. The older psychology dealt with
impression received by way of the five senses. All such impressions, and
man the emotions and thoughts evoked by them, were registered in the depths
as an entirely conscious being, an "encapsulated entity",-whose
conscious of this mental level.
thoughts, emotions and aspirations constituted his iniire psychotogica
Since, however, there exists a certain code of conduct, many of these
make-up.
emotions and thoughts were not acceptable to the conscious mind, and
with the rise of many ynorthodox philosophical and religious there came into existence, what was termed the "endo-psychic censor".
movements, and more particularly modern spiritualism and theosopiry,
it The function of this censor was to prevent unacceptable expressions ofthis
became necessary, once the facts had been established, to try to Rf
ttrem nature from rising up from the subliminal realms, and so affecting the
tlto the existing psychological framework. It was then found that the conscious self. It was a kind of one-way sieve which, while it allowed all
framework itself would need much alteration and adjustment if it were L
impressions to pass down into the depths of the subconscious, prevented
cover. all the new aspects of the mind of man which were now being
the return of those thoughts and emotions that were not acceptable to the
revealed. personal consciousness.
It is to the scholar and investigator of psychic happenings, F. W. H. But 'but of sight" was very definitely not "ovt of mind", for Freud
Myers, that we owe the concept ofwhat hehimed the"isubliirinal mina;l discovered that these unwanted emotions and thoughts were very much
The word comes from "limef ' meaning a threshold. To Myers, and those
alive and active in the subliminal depths, and (a most important point),
associated with him, the conscious mind was pictured, not as the whole
that they were constantly affecting the waking consciousness, Working
mind, but merely as a part of it. To them it seemed to be onry tne grouna with his patients, he found that all such subconscious impressions were
floor of the mental structure; the threshold, as it were, or tl"-*note under a constantpressure from forces which were entering the mind at its
e!i!ce. Above it, and below it were other levels of menal activity, and deepest levels. These forces were differentiations of a dynamic energy
with these, so far as mental control was concerned, the consciour inina which was the sustaining power of the whole personalrty, the 6hn vinle
had very little to do. Nevertheless, the influence and direction from these
of Bergson. Thisprimary "thrustof life" wasnamed "libido", anditwas
levels was constant, so Myers spoke of the ..subliminal,' and here that Freud made his most valuable and spectacular discoveries. He
"supraliminal", and, although at first this latter t€rm was used simply to claimed that the inflowing energy split up into three main streams, and that
refelto the waking conscious self, it came to be regarded in another wa,y these streams were the forces behind the three "instincts" of self-
at a later date. preservation, sex, and herd.
Myers did not, at first, attempt to differentiate between the levels of the It was in the realm of the second instinct, sex, that his main contribution
subliminal mind, but others began to work with his ideas and evolved the lay, and, of course, it was this bias which gave his ideas a notoriety that,
concept of the "subconscious', aspects of the mind. to some extent, was not deserved. Sex, in the popular mind, means
Much of the general body of new psychological theory bitterly something very definite and limited, but Freud used the term to cover a
opposed,. as it was, by the conservative . pJychologiss,, of his duy, *u,
much wider field, embracing, as it did, all the manifold expressions of the
expanded and given a new look by the pioneering work of thjgreat creative instinct ofwhich physical sex is only one part.
 138 MA6rc AND rHE eABALAH
psycHoLocy
MoDERN 139
He evolved a technique which he found made it
possible !o gain of what has been termed the "libido", a force of which all physical,
admission to the depths of the subconscious and to study its workings. ihis or life
forces, are manifestations. This living energy flows between tL" t*o
technique ("psycho-analysis"), by word association tests and the JtuOy of
poles: the "conscious" and the "unconicious;ispects ofthe personality.
the patient's dreams, enabled him to penetrate behind the ,tensor,"and
bring hidden mental material into coniciousness. when this was done, he li Qt qy reason, the conscious self fails to hord^ its requisite irr
found-that a great deal of emotional energy, which had been locked up in this libido, then at whatever point this deficiency occurs, there ",noont
will be
found an.excess of energy in the unconscious. whinever trte riuing
these hidden thought complexes, was released with beneficial results to d"rgy
projects itself from the unconscious depths, (the matrix or primfr
the patient. Freud also discovered that certain hidden thought complexes ,oorZ.
tended to split off from the main mental stream and 6ecome'semi_ from which, or through which, it flowj into tt hu-an pd;;ity),lll
independent. Such "dissociation" was liable to have very serious "
to be fou-nd expressing itself as a grouping of opposites. ttere we irave in
consequences, for these dissociated complexes could radically alter the another form that which is expreJsed in ttre qauatistic conception of the
whole of the sufferer's personality. classic cases such as "The watseka two pillars of the Tree of Life, headed by the Sephiroth Ciotonan ia
Btunh.
Wonder" and the "Sally Beauchamp,, multiple personality case (and, in
regarded the unconscious levels of the mind as the limbo into
more recent times, that of Evelyn Lancaster whose history has been given -I*d
w-hich were jettisoned emotions, thoughts and memories which were
to the public in the books entitled rhe Three Faces of Eie and staigers
in IuIy Body) show to what lengths .,schizophrenia"
-can objectionable to the conscious self.
goi This Jung was ready to admit, but from his own researches he came to
It became evident to Freud and his co-workers that oni of the factors _
which cause dissociation in its various forms was the repression into the the conclusion that there were other things in tle unconscious. one of
these_was the deposit ofthe experiences olour ancestors, and he called
subliminal depths of much that offended the normal itandards of the
waking self. Rather than admit that certain thoughts and emotions were this the racial or collective unconscious. The conscious mind is held to
be the outcropping of the unconscious, just as the visible pottion
self originated and natural, the waking self refused to acknowledge them, oi ttr"
iceberg is the outcropping of the greaGr mass of ice which lies below.
or to allow them to pass into the conscious mind. Instead thiy were An
even better analogy is that of the mountain range. The individual pinnacles
repressed into the subconscious limbo, where they locked up the
inflowing nervous energy or deflected it into abnormal channels. when can be heldro represent individual consciousiesses, the peak wbdd then
represent the racial consciousness of the various nations and human
the complexes were uncovered, it was held by Freud that the mind would
groupings'.whr].s1th9 sreat body of the range would represent
revert to normality, and in many cases this did occur. the
However, two of Freud's associates, Alfred Adler and Cad Gustav Jung,
and vegetable life of the planet. All thesJ are joined together bt tdi;""drl
cornmon base and origin: the earth itself.
felt that Freud's insistence on sex as the chief frctor in mental illness u,is
not entirely justified, and they began to move away from that standpoint If the conscious mind is_an outgrowing from the underlying uncon-
scious, then the springs of life are tobe fouid in it, and the .tiuiai' is
and to form their own schools of thought. Adler laid great stress opon th" seen
!o be not only an inflowing energy, blindry thrusting up into cooscious-
"power complex", teaching that this manifestation of the self-prese-rvation
ness, but also a direaive force which has certain cliaracteristics.
instinct was responsible for a great deal of mental disturbance attributed
by Freud to sex. If results are a criterion, they have proved him to be This directive energy is a steady pressure in the direction of
correct, and the psychologists ofhis school have done a great deal ofvery
progression, here definedas_ feeling that ,,things are moving,,,
-the
indicating thatthe conscious selfhas oppori-unities andp6ssibilities whlch
good work.
pe brought into manifestation. Buisuch a feeling can produce a one-
However, Jung, in the present writer's opinion, stands out from his two ry'1v
sided attitude toqards life. The everchanging circumstances of the
illustrious confrbres by the magnificent sweep of his system of world
psychology; he also comes nearer than either of the others to the viewpoint around demand a flexible approach by thi mind; when a rigid one_sidJ
of the Qabalists. Briefly, it may be said that Jung recognizes the exisLnce gutloo\ prevents this, the individuai ..gets into u groou{ as we say.
Somewhere, in The Professor at the Breatcfast faite, Oliver Wendil
* The Three
Holmes remarls that the only difference between a groove and a grave is
Bdy
Faces of Eve
Evelyn Lancaster
- Dn Thigpen & crecHey
- published 1957. stmngers in My their respective depth.
- - Published 1958 Seckei & Warburg, London. In the psychological fierd this certainly holds good, for the inflowing
 I4O MAGIc AND THE QABALAH MODERN PSYCHOLOGY l4t
life is so constricted by this mental attitude that its course is deflected and individual these imprisoned "things" emerge into the waking con_
various forms of mental illness appear. The most spectacular of these is sciorrsness in the symbolic form of dreams. tn their true form th'"y
extreme mental dissociation such as that already referred to in the case of unable to pass the censor, but in symbolic disguise they can get by and"re
Evelyn Lancaster, but very many lesser forms oimental ill-health abound so
emerge on to the conscious levels. Both Freud and Jung oeuetopeo a
on every side of us. t€chnique of dream analysis which would enable them ti discover the
one of the ways in which the libido reacts to such inner conflicts is to nature of the hidden complexes which were causing the neurotic troubles
withdraw into the depths of the personality. This means that the conscious of their patients. This, together with the method of .7free association'f was
self is deprived of much of the vital force which it needs, and becomes
impotent in the affairs of life; fighting where it should be diplomatic, being leld by many of the early psycho-analysts to be sufficient to effect a cure.
Jung, however, not satisfied with thii, held that it was not sufficient to
diplomatic where it should be fighting, and at the same time unable to relieve the blocked waters ofthe emotional complex by breaking downthe
c-arry any such attitude to the point where it could really be of use. But psychic dam which had confined them. It was also nl.esr"ryio cut
the regression ofthe libido into the unconscious depths causes it to bring
new
channels and redirect the incoming libido in such a *uy thut t ttn",
ce{sin healing power to bear, and when the latent energies become trouble of that kind could be avoided.
sufficienfly strong, they may emerge into the field of the conicious mind. Another characteristic teaching of Jung is that men and women may be
Such an eruption of the unconscious can, when properly directed, break classified with two main types, the outward-turning and the inward-
down much of the rigidity of the conscious seli and enable the person turning, the extrovert and the introvert. pure types aie rare and human
concerned to make new adjustments to outside circumstances. so it will be personalities can generally be classified undir one or otler of these
seen that tlere is a certain rhythm in the working of the lifeforce. There headings- Bothtypes are representative of normal attitudes to life, but both
is a period of progression, then a period ol regression, and this can develop a form of mental disease when they are carried to extremes
enantiodromia. as it was termed by Heraclitus, is a normal action of the by a desire to escape from the stress and strain ofthe realities oflife.
mind.. But trouble begins when the mind sticks too strongly to either pole In the dreams of both types there occur cefiain symbols which, on
of activity. investigation, turn out to be symbols which were coniciously employed
Now there are many things in the unconscious levels which relate to the in the childhood of mankind, or even, for that matter, in .o-p"ritiJeiy
early primitive attitudes to life, and there are very many experiences in recent human-history though to the average person they are usually
conscious life which are distasteful and repugnant to the individual. These unknown._Such symbols-appear to be uery dat iources of energy withiir
tend 0o be thrust down by the 'tensor" beneath the threshold of the self. They are lermed.'h_rchetypes,', and are held to Ue of tfr! gr;;s;
consciousness, and so are prevented from being manifested in conscious importance, since they indicate the direction in which ttre tiuido is
thought, word and deed. attempting to flow When such symbols appear in a composite form, then
Such inhibition is a normal and necessary activity of the mind. The we havg a glyph, or "mandala". A glyph ias been defined as the coat
trouble arises when the conscious self adopts an attitude of 'All these of
arms of the forces being dealt with, andlt is a normal activity of the human
things are below me , and I am not responsibti for them. Neither do I allow personality !o build up such glyphs. In neurotic and psychop-athic subjects,
such thoughts and feelings in myself, I have put them out of my mind.', such glyp-hs appear in the dream state, or arise-spontineously i"n the
I,llfortgnately, although such primitive outlooks may have been put out of yaking life, and they indicate the nature of the forces which are concerned
sight, they are anything but 'but of mind". They attract to themselves in the neurosis.
some of the inflorving psychical energy and are, as it were, a .,resistance we study the Tree of Life, which is a very ancient mandala, we
pocket".in tle personality, constantly at war with the waking self, and _ Y!"o
find that it conforms very closery to the Jungian ioncepts, or should we
constantly attempting to rise up into, and influence, the waking ionscious- ratler say that the teachings ofthe school oTJung are very close to the
ness. In the waking life these att€mpts usually show themselves as irra- ancient teachings?
tional words or actions, for which there appears to be no apparent reason. There are other teachings of the zurichpsychologist which cannot be
But^it in the sleep state that these buried complexes are ible to emerge touched upon here, since they would take up too mrictr of our space,
is but
more fully, just as, in our "resistance pocket" analogy, its members weie ma1 b9 said that they are capable of being ,.placed on *re free',, is.,
able to operate more freely in the night. So in the dream-life of the it ^
they fit into the scheme of thamighry glypfi.
 I42 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
There is, however, one point in the teachings of Jung which we should
mention, and that is his concept of the "selffwe mow tend to identiff
ourselves with.the ego-sense, with the "I am"; the conscious waking sef. CHAPTER V
{rl this empiric, or frlse ego, is held by Jung to be something whicrimust
ultimately be discarded, or, to be more accurate, must be sipersedea by
a new centre of consciousness which will form a point or-equitiurium
DIRECT EXPERIENCE
TT *r said by them of old time, that the Mysteries gave their initiates
between the conscious and unconscious aspects orihe personatity.
_
Here again, the teaching associated withthe tree of Life insists upon ra supreme boon: freedom from the fear of death, and although this might
this same-necelsrty; the necessity of losing the life of the fatse ego in or?er be somewhat doubtful in the case of the semi-public Elusiniin tvtysteries
that a fuller life may be experienced. of Grace, it was certainly true of the deeper sanctuaries of initiation.
From all that has been said it will appear that the system of ..analytical of course it is equally true that a debased spiritualism, combined with
psychology" which c. G. Jung devised is very near io the teachings a certain amount of astrology also existed in those days, and for many of
and
practices of the arcane schools, and more particularly to those -or *r" those who partook in its se,ances it provided an inteliectual proof of the
Qabalistic tradition. existence of other realms of being apart from the purely ptrysicat. Indeed
It is obvious that such an integrated system of teaching cannot for some of its adherents it provided the same oidontinuing life
adequately be summarized in a few paragraphs, but it is hJped that as did the more august Mysteries. ""tiaittty
sufficient will have been given to enable theieader to get some id'ea of the
_ In both these cases, the operative factor which enabled this certainty to
rystry. Perhaps we may summarize what has been written here by saying be attained was that which we have here termed "wild talent',, though
there
t{at Jung.dges not regard the unconscious as being only the ruuuistr tieai was a considerable difference in its application and control as faris these
of the mind, conaminating the pure waters of fnstinctive life as they two movements were concerned. But the essence of both was direa
endeavour to flow through it, anderecting all kinds of obstacles to their experience, To deduce the underlying laws from intellectual study, based
passage. Rather does he look to it as being also the ground and
root ofthe upon what was observed, was one aspect which bulked largely in-the true
conscious waking self, constantly engaged in an attempt to bring the forces mysteries, whilst the same aspect in the public cult tendei to b""o-"
of life into those channels which wfu alow them to fertilize-andrender ahonic or "underworld" cult, and becami debased and conaminated "
fruitful-a// the aspects of the self. So, as Jung claimed, fris system is many alien elements. But common to both was this factor of direct
s
primarily one which is concerned with the esa6[shment of balance and
gxperience of supernormal things; an experience which resulted in
reintegration in the personality. freedom from the fear of death. However, it ii possible to lose sight of the
This is also claimed to be the aim of the system of philosophy which is wood because of the trees, and it was certainly so in both casesl For the
based upon the Tree of Life the mighty, all-emdracing gfyph of t}re
universe and the soul of man. - over elaboration of the puely intellectual aspect often tended to eclipse
this direct experience in the Ir,tysteries, whilst the emotional cult of 'the
underworld, with all its doubtful associations also tended to lose its porver
to give its follorvers direct experience, and so in official Mystery Jchool
and underworld seance cylt alike, reliance began to u" con"6ntt"ieo opon
that which was received through the superiormal faculties of cerLin
people who were known as se,ers and, in the case of the female psychics,
pythonesses or oracles.
At the level of the Mysteries, the oracles of Apollo at Delphi and that of
^
podgna_were possibly the most frmous in the ancient world whilst on the
level ofthecthonic cults thereemergedthe "wise man" and .,wisewoman',,
who, because of theirpsychic faculty, were regarded as sources of inform-
ation beyond the normal. In bottr caies, howeier, it can be seen trow great
was the loss of the more general direct experience. In the official
nrystEries
 T44 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
DrREcr EXpERTENcE l4S
it led to a sterile philosophizing, whilst in the underworld cults it led to
presence in the church ofan inner core ofpeople, who not only had direct
internal dissensions, the followers of one psychic against the followers of
experience of inner, supernormal things, but were also heirs to that
another, and to the encouragement of the worst elements of human nature.
wisdom which had been transmitted through the ages from times out of
was one of the great attractions of christianity that it offered to all its
_ _{t mind.
followers some form of direct experience. Its supreme message was the
With the increasing secularization of the church, and the beginnings of
work of the atoning Son of God, and the possibility of makiig a direct
its entry into the political field, direct experience began to be subordinited
living conact with Him. Its second message was thi proclamattn of the
Resurrection with its accompanying proof
to oxter organization, and, concurrently, those who held the deeper
of survival beyond bodily teachings were expelled from the church, though the charismata stitt
death,. and the proclamation of a new order. The powers or eil nao ueen
continued to manifest sporadically. Indeed the Venerable Bede, writing in
vanquished, and man was rescued from their thraf. T his was the ke rwwL
the ninth century though lamenting the loss of most of the ..gifts" was ible
the good news which christianity was proclaiming throughout the ilorld,
to say that the gifts of healing still remained. In point of fact, as we have
and together with this there was an intense living faith in Ihe presence and
power of the Master. said, the "gifls" were manifested throughout the ages, though
sporadically and usually in an unregulated fashion. This applies not only
In this atrnosphere of positive faith, the small christian communities
to the great Catholic communions of East and West, but alio to many of
found that-thepower which He had promised them, and which they held
to be the spirit of wisdom and consolation, was enabling them to have
the heretical and schismatic sects which "hived off' from them
throughout the years. Many of these, in their inception at least, had such
some measure of direct experience of the "things not seen,'. so St paul,
direct experience ofthe inner realities. But this experience was usually
*lling to his corinthian converts enumerates tie "giffs" or charismota without any definite framework, and was regarded as either a sign of the
which were being unfolded and used by the brethreri, pointing out at the
truth oftheir particular heresy or else as a sign ofdivine approral ofthe
same-time something which all great religious teachbrs haie stressed,
individuals who experienced it. In the great Orthodof and Roman
namely that the "spiritual giffs", as the Authorized version of the Bible
communions, such direct experience was discouraged since the mystic
terms them, are mo,re properly called ,,psychic gifts,'. They are not in
temperament has a definite bias against it when received through psychical
themselves spiritual in what we may term ttre etrrica
-e*ing of that
yord, a1d a,s St Faul points out, they are secondary to the real thin!, which Teans. The mystic, whether of the East or West, seeking union with the
Supreme Reality, has little time to spare in the "Vanity Fair" of either the
is an attitude of heart and mind directed to the sirvice, in the truI sense,
mundane or the psychical world.
of God and mankind. "The greatest of these is l,ove,,; says the Apostle.
But with the rise of the scientific and enquiring ,.age of reason", the
At the same time, however, this direct experience was of the g?eatest
direct experiences of the mystics, together with the records of similar
he$ to the infant church, since it afforded to all alike the possiS'ility of
experiences given in the Scriptures, began to be subjected to the criticism
some measure of individual contact with the unseen things, and as lbng
possibility was recognized, the church went from-sirength.
of what was proudly described as the "rational" mind. It was held,
"t_$i! erroneously, as we believe, that it was possible for human thir*erc at the
with the influx into christianity of those who had been trairied in the
present stage of their evolution, ta be able to make correct objeaive
Mysteries of the older religions, there grew up an inner teaching which,
judgements of these subjective experiences. Disregarding the scriptural
basedas i1-was upon the Hebrew traditions and upon the inner-teachinj
injunction that "He who judgeth a matter without knowledge, it is a shame
qiven by Christ to His Apostles, enlarged again by Grecian, persian ani
and a folly unto him", the victorian scientists regarded all records of direct
Egyptian outlooks, developed into the composiie mwement which is
experience as simply due to human credulity and self-deception.
known as christian Gnosticism. This Gnostii movement has always had
Curiously enough, in view of the hostility of official science to the
more than its fair share of adverse criticism. Some of this was justified (not
claims of Christianity, the leaders of the Anglican Church joined the
all the Gnostic schools came up to the standard set by christ) but others
rationalists in an unholy alliance against those who in any way manifested
were far different and hardly deserved the venomoui auacks of ,,Saint"
Ireneus and others.
ftj y"ty gifts which they should themselves been showing forth.
"Enthusiasm" in any form was abhorrent to them, as instanced by the
clement of Alexandria and origen both represent another strand in the
rebuke given to Wesley by an Anglican bishop.
complex web ofthe early church; careful study oftheirwritings reveals the
But the clock cannot be turned back by mere suppression, and the
 146 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
DIRECT EXPERIENCE a7
psychical energies cannotbeextinguished by the fiat of scientist
or prelate. others they tend to work in a random way, and, indeed, on the mystic way
so there arose movements which were centred upon the oir"ct experie"ce
supernormal things. Modern Theosophy, mode- spiritualisni and the they are usually regarded as hindrances rather than helps. Emotion has
9f been regarded as something which should be reduced to a minimum as ftr
loosely knit organizations of qh9 New ihought Movement all uegan
to as possible, but as modern psychology has shown, emotion is the driving
tep! ttgt direct experience of the inner sidJof things was possiule.-
force behind all human effort and development, and without it the mind
opposed by church and science, they have ii"reured and estab_
-. Piry4y of man becomes sterile and ineffective.
lished themselves, until now, in at least one initance, they are confordg
tothe ancient,pattern, and attempting, as far as possiulg to ostraci* At the same time, of course, its unregulated manifestations can be
-a
reject those of their members who do not see eye to eye with the leaders. equally disastrous. A land may become waste and uninhabitable if its
But the wheel has brought to them the noitr'ortrt"i*ar r"*, uy tt water is allowed to flood all the land. True use of the source of warcr is
made when it is controlled and directed by sluice and dam and irrigation
obscure brethren in the past: the alchemists, the Rosicrucians and "i,
many channel. Then will the desert blossom as the rose.
others who preserved the golden thread of direct experience. ,.where
there is no vision the peopleperish'i for without direct experience trr" It is this method of engineering, applied in the sphere of the self, which
Nature-worship degenerates into orgiastic rites; the cirurch becomes is the basis of the great glyph of the Tree of Life, the underlying principles
"io
impotent and unable to obey her Lo-rd's cornmand of which we are studying. As we shall be devoting most of our time 0o the
rrr" rrroora,
"r to minisLr to
rational philosophy and science become sterile and unable
*o consideration of the Hermetic Way, it may be well if we deal briefly with
the deeper needs of the soul of man. It will be seen that there are the other two paths.
three The path of Nature-Mysticism, the Green Ray, as it is sometimes
main paths of.development which lie before the enquirer. TWo of them,
nature-mysticism and mysticism, are paths of the emotions, whilst termed, has, like the other two ways, both its advantages and its dangers.
the It is a path of direct experience, the experience of God made maniftst in
third is a path of the mind.
It is impossible, of course, to make a clear-cut distinction in actual Nature. It is a living contact with the informing life of the planet and is
practice, for even in the most intellectual appraisal of the univers" a vializing element in all human life. Unless the elemental energies are
*a n" contacted, to some extent at least, man is sterile and ineffective on the
soul of man it is easy to recognize the embtional undertones which lie
beneath it, whilst even the most emotional of the mystics shols physical plane. Fornrnately, we are compelled to make a minimal contact
some with these forces because of the automatic functioning of our physical
elementary use of the intellect. However, these are ttri trree."irrp"trrr.
bodies, but more than this is needed if we wish to live more fully.
They are studied in the East under the titles of r?aj yoga, nnanivifa
cmani Yoga. There are, of course other lines orictiiity,
ia During periods of social repression and inhibition the elemental forces
ui frii)"
"i"i methoAs
y2ga,.laya yoga, karma yoga, etc., but these are all sribsidiary tend to be throttled down and banked up behind the conscious selves of
of training which lead to one or other of the three main paths. men. It is then that the repressed energy begins to seek fresh outlets, and,
we are fully aware that this division of the yoga pa*s witt be regarded finding a weak point may wear the barrier away, bursting its restraints and
-by some students as "notaccording to cockiriui,t it is based flooding the racial consciousness, thus bringing destruction to the orderly
rh; work of the race. To prevent this, the initiates of the Green Ray open up
author's own experience in India when working with a group of "p""
niro"
occultists, and it agrees very well with the Weitern system. - certain channels in the racial unconscious (concerning which the great
paths are acknowledged and trodden by those who follow the psychologist Jung wrote so eloquently), and through these channels the
_-'These elemental forces, controlled and directed, pour into the soul of man. This
western Mysteries, tlough the path ofthe mind, the Hetm"tic nm, is tteii
by us to be the most impolant For_though a man may make a living gives a vial illumination and energy which spurs the race to new endea-
contact with the elemental powers behind Nature. and another mai vours. In this country such an elemental contact was made during the reign
achieve a mystical contact with deep spirirual reality, yet, unliss the <f the first Elizabeth and there have been others of a similar kind. One
mini outstanding example, of course, is the classical Renaissance in Europe.
has_been trained, all the results of such contact will inivitabry
u" al.tort n Where the restraining barriers are too strong, however, it may happen
and misapplied on the physical plane.
that this elemental force begins to energize anew the old forms of Nature
. 9n 3! of these ways to God, the psychic hculties show themselves, but Mysticism, and the witch-cult again begins to attract its devotees. Any
in the Hermetic Fath they are trained and developed, whereas in uon
trre nation which allowsthese suppressions andchecks on theelemental forces
 148 MAcrc AND THE eABALAH DIRECT EXPERIENCE 149
is a nation with a neurosis, and, such a condition, lying as it does below
vrorks idealize the Roman culture in this way, but, at the same time, there
the conscious levels ofthe mind, can be a potentiai rolrt"" ofdanger.
ugqan appalling amount of evil which was part of the very warp and woof
. [t is. necessarl to point out, however, that in this, as in all manifestition, of Roman life. More particularly was this evident in the arena, where
there is a natural rhythmand there will be times whentheelemental forces
spectacles were exhibited in which some of the myths of the gods and
thrust forward into manifestation in the souls of men, just as there wiu be
goddesses and their relations with human beings, were enac-ted with
periods whel thgl ebb and recede. The true initiate of the Green
Ray absolute realism. There was no pretence, what the myth set forth was
learns to work with these tides and to control and direct them for trr" gooa
literally enacted before the thousands of spectators. Fasiphae and the Bull,
of the race, but there are many people outside the ranks of the na-ture the slaying of the Titans, and others of the same kind wLre so enactedn as
mystics for whom this contact is unregulated and spasmodic. This is
the Roman writer Martial recordsj InThe GoldenAss, Apulius, writing
fargely true of the celtic races an-d accounts ior some of the many years later, refers to similar spectacles. It is important to remembei
inconsistencies which are so characteristic of them. when the celt is .bn
that these things were done in full public view, not in the brothels and stews
his contacts", to use a technical term, he can reach up to the stars, and
of Fort said or modern Alexandria for the attraction of European tourists
rything seems impossible to him. when, however, hii contact has'been
lost, he is moody and depressed and incapable of sustained effort.
I ofthe baser class.
Because these things were so, the christian church reacted strongly
To those who are @ temperament and racial inheritance naturally
drawn against the whole pagan system, and in the process threw away sevJrat
t9 it,. tlis path of the Green Ray offers an opportunity to sabilirrc ttreir
physical nature, to control theircontact wittr-the elemlntal forces !1Uies.
with the dirty water! Our chief difficulty in judging the early
prevent the violent alternations of those forces from affecting them,
and to Christian period is that we tend to look through iwentiJttr century
as spectacles at the pagan scene, and this attitude can be very misleading.
would otherwise be the case. It is also one of the ways, and aialid way,
However, the abuse does not preclude the right use of inything, and
whereby the soul, having made contact with God made manifest in
there are aspects of sex, or, to use a more correci term ..polaiity,,, which
\ature, may rise to contact and ultimate union with "Him who dwelleth have a very great value. It is these which are the content of some of the
in light inaccessible".
teachings ofthe Green Ray. In themselves they are of great importance and
like all other ways, it has iE obverse side, and because are, in a true sense, moral; their misuse hotvever, can, and does, produce
of^unfortunately,
this it has received more than its fair share of misrepresentation ana
something very horrible, approximating to the spectacles of the pagan
abuse. More particularly has this been the case in those paru of the woril
days . This is evident in some of the records of medieval witchcraft . At the
where christianity has been strongly entrenched in the mechanism of
the same time it should be kept in mind that the methods used to extort the
state, and able therefore, to exert the utmost pressure upon those who
truth from the supposed witches were so very drastic as to invalidate much
differed in any way from its orvn teachings. ei tne ru'n"ii-", ;hh*gh
that was recorded as their 'tonfessions", though a sufficient residue
this is no excuse for the enormities perpJtrated in the name oitrr. Loio
remains to shorv that not all the witches and wizirds were the harmless
of Love, this bias is understandable when one considers the conditions in
natural psychics many spiritualists suppose them to have been.
which Christianity began in the Roman Empire.
However, these things are the pathologies of the Green Ray, and must
Into the structure of the lore of the GreerRay there is incorporated a
not be tnken as any crilerion ofthe character and work ofthose-who follow
y"p pfofogld teaching concerning rhe more recondite arp".t" oi."i, unO this hth which leads to the Light as surely as any orher.
it is this which has always brouglit down upon the initiaies of the Green
Many of its initiates have been in the forefront of artistic revival, and
Yy-ttr" enmity of orthodox_Christianity. Itls aho, of course, this aspect a renewal ofaesthetic values, such as the celtic renaissance in Ireland at
of. the pathof the Green Ray whictr- can so easily be OistorteA ana the end of the last century and the beginning of this, owed much to the
misapplied, as it was in medieral times in Europe. Bufthe abuse of a thing presence in its midst of those who followed the path of the Green Ray.
is.no excuse fgrleglect of its legitimate use, aithough, at the same time',
In more recenttimes the work of psychologists of both the Freudian and
it is understandable that the official church, with its lirowhage of the p;si,
Jungian schools of thought has shown the very great importance ofthis con-
tried to put it down.
tact with the elemental forces of life, and has juitified the work of the Green
Itis usual for those who have been trained and broughtup in the classical I
tradition to minimize the more evil side of Roman H6. Rudyard Kipling's * De Specnculis Liber, v.
cp. Suetonius, Nero. Xtr 2.
 l5O MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
Ray initiates in the Kingdom of Adonai In arezt, God made manifest in
Nature.
It remains to consider very briefly the path of the purple Ray: the path CHAPTER VI
of mysticism. Here we have to remember that ir followeis are to be found
in all the great religions of the world, even as are the followers of ttre ottr",
ways, though the orthodox christian churches have always tended to
ASPECTS OF THE QABALAH
regard the mystical traditions of other hiths as outside thi pale, so to TFHERE are several different aspects of the
eabalah, and each student
speak, and
_only
in recent times has there been any attempt m"de to study I. will be drawn to select from these the one most suited to his
the mystical teachings of non-christian religions. Tb theii credit be it said temperamental bias. It is essential to remember, however, that although
qralthF aqtempt has, in the main, been made by theologians of the Roman one aspect may be the natural line of work for one particular student, it
Catholic Church. is very necessary that he should have a fair knowledge of the others in
However, the church itself has always been somewhat suspicious of the order that his studies may be balanced. It is usual to divide the
activitjes of-the mystics eabalah
1n
its oyn fold, suspecting thern of reanings under the following heads:
tormards monism orpantheism, and indeed, soml ofthiutterances
of sorie
ofthe mystics have encouraged this suspicion. (l) The dogmatic Qabalah.
But on the whole the catholic churches of both western and Eastern (2) The literal Qabalah.
obediences have beenthenursing ground forthe development ofa definite (3) The practical Qabalah.
lhlistian mygtical tradition and piactice. Islam has is mystical side in the (a) The unwritten Qabalah.
sufi sects, whilst in the Hindu religion the path of Bhakiyogais trre
pre-eminent of its orrn mystics.
fatrr
We will not discuss these four in the order given, and, as we proceed,
In the christian churches, the path of the mystic has sometimes been it will be seen that we are working from the outer presentation of the
knorvn as the Threefold way of purgation, Illumination and union, and
Qabalistic philosophy back to its inner essence. ThiJhas been done for
there is a veryconsiderable body of writings based upon this classification, two reasons. The student starts from known terms and concepts and then
some of which are mentioned in the bibliography at the end of this book. begins to deal with those which are different, in many ways, from his
cgntrarl !9 poput". belief the patrr oftni mystic is anything but a normal thinking; he will find, however, that by the tirne he reaches the
sentimental idealism and-escapism. The mystic does inderod toit later stages of this classification, he has begun to acquire a new set of
from the multiplicity of things and seek the unity, but, and trris is moJt
"*uy concepts and a neur vocabulary with which to deal with them.
important, it is not through any desire to escape fiom the difficulties and Let us then begin with the dogmatic eabalah. This is the outer doctrine
troubles of the world in order that he may himielf frnd peace. Rather does which is embodied in the classical written sources of which we spoke in
he tread apath_o{high asprration and severe discipline, seeking tht""ify the first chapter of this book. It is well to remember however, that the
in a passion of love and adoration in order that.through rrim-ne wrroii hhnr-andthe Sepher Yetzirsh are not single works, but are made up of
world may be helped. "selfish salvation there is none,"-is an old catholic several works gathered together under those heads.
PYing, and the true mystic does not seek personal salvation but rather that There are certain problems which any philosophy worthy of the name
he may, through love and adoration, bi attuned to that will in wtrose must attempt to solve such as the Nature and attributes of the supreme
service is perfect freedom. Being, the mysteries of creation, the nature of life, and the being and
such an attitude is frr removed from the pseudo-mysticism so current at destiny of man. In the dogmatic or written eabalah these idea-s are
the present time in both East and west. If any should doubt this, r"t trr"* considered within a definite system of relationships and concepts known
read the writings of St Teresa dAvila, of Ruysbroek and of st John of as the Tree ofLife, and it is this basic relationship diagram or 'inandala"
the
cross' Therein will be found something of ttre spirit of the true (as the Easterns term such figures), which is the key to all
quest. -yrti" eabalistic
teaching.
It tuy E helpirl if we here give a fundamental principle which lies
.behind all teaching
Qabalistic and thought: the principle of-.,balance',. As
 152 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH AspEcrs oF THE eABALAH l53
the student proceeds in his work with the eabalah, he will find this are taken to form a word or words. One of the most famous of such words
principle a key which unlocks many closed doors. In ftct the basic isAgla, one of the Names of Fower used in ceremonial magic, and having
Qabalistic treatise starts with the words "The Book of the concealed the meaning "Mighty art Thou, O Lord".
Mysiery is the book of the equilibrium of balance." All these methods of the literal Qabalah are obviously akin to the
We come now to the second head in our classification, the ..literal', methods of dream analysis used by psychologists today, and they prordde
Qabalah; here we enter a world of thought where the fixed landmarks of a uay by which many subconscious thought complexes may be brought
logical thought are superseded by a method which in many ways resembles into the waking consciousness. Herein lies their value. Also, because of
the dictum of the Red QueeninAlice Through the Lookiig G/rrs.. ,.When the correlation of number and letter in the Hebrew alphabet, such artificial
I-say-a thing is so tlree times, then it ls so." (I quote from memory but words and sentences are in the nature of formulae similar to the chemical
that is the general idea.) formulae, which show, by their component letters, the elements from
The methods of the lileral Qabalah have been described by one occultist, which certain compounds are built. Because of this, although this field of
Dion Fortune, as being akin to doing mensuration with trre iid of an elastic the literal Qabalah is full of traps for the unwary it should be studied to
ruler, and from the ordinary point of view, this is a very apt descripion. some extent by the enquirer, in order that he may begin to understand
These peculig ways ofmental working depend upon the fact that-every something of the psychology which underlies the secret wisdom of the
letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numeriCal valul. this is also the casL Hebrews.
with the Greek alphabet, and the sarne curious method of thought can be The next division of our subject is the one which has made the greatest
used with that also. appeal to the ordinary public right down the ages. The practical Qabalah
There are three main methods for the deciphering of the literal eabalah. is that part of the Qabalistic work which deals with the magic of "woven
The first with which we will deal is known as the Gematria. Here the paces and waving hands": Ceremonial and Thlismanic Magic.
p4nciple is that words of a similar numerical value explain one another. Unfornrnately this aspect of the Qabalah has become the heir to many of
Thus, the word Achad, meaning unity has for its numbei value li!, and this the most superstitious and degraded ideas and practices ofboth classical
is also true of Aheba, which means [,ove. So Unity and Love express the and medieval times, and has been chiefly studied from the baser motives
same idea. of mankind. But beneath all the fraud and filth and folly of so many of its
It is obvious that there are infinite possibilities in this method, but to practitioners in times past, there lies a true and high doctrine and practice,
anyone who is acquainted with modern psychological work it will also which in the hands of those who are prepared to train and purifr
appear that there is method in the apparent madness of the ancient rabbis. themselves, can be used for high spiritual purposes. In another chapter we
This is wen more apparent when we come to the next division of the literal shall deal more fully with this subject.
Qabalah -Notaiqon Here a word is taken and each of its letters is used The last division of the Qabalah is what is known as "the unwritten
as the initial letter of the new word. Thus if we use our own English
Qabalah". This is a body of knowledge and practice which has been
language, and take as an illustration the word ..Man,', we can UV *ri, handed down from time immemorial, and is not in itself of Hebrew origin.
method form the sentence "Many are near.,' Some of the applications of The Qabalah has been used to act as a carrier for this deep esoteric
this method caused the medieval rabbis to reject the eabalahiit was being teaching, but the ieaching itself has been derived from many other
used to convert Jews to christianity, and , as we have said , in another place-, sources. At various times men have claimed to have divulged the unwritten
this enmity still persists in many quarters.
Qabalah, but, although teachings which have hitherto been reserved for
The third method of ttre literal eabalah is Temumh. This is a method the few havebeen made public, tle true mysteries have not been betrayed
of permuation, where one letter is substituted for another letler which forthe very good and sufficient reasonthat by their intrinsic nature they
either follows orprecedes it inthe alphabet, and an entirely different word -
cannot be so divulged.
is formed as a result. There are twenty-two sets of such letler The true mysteries are experienced, not taught, and cannot be
..eabalah
ryqmqtations, including the most important one known as the communicated to others by words. Only by inducing such a realization in
of the Nine Chambers", but except for those who have devoted a very great those who are capable of being affected by it, can any communication of
anlount of study to this method, it is of general interest only. this arcane knowledge be attempted, and, even then, it is necessary that
There is a second formof Notaicon, inwhichthe initials of a sentence there should be some common language which may be used as a means
 154 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH AspEcrs oF THE eABALAH 155

yhereby it may be discussed, and checked. The unwritten eabalah uses and function. Only when he can worship "in the empty shrine,, can he feel
the concepts and symbol-forms of the eabalah as the alphab-eti"Jior-. that he is relatively secure.
ofa new language, and this new language can onry be taught to thor" *rro These Greater Mysteries, which are the core of the unwritten eabalah
are capable of receiving such "illuminations" as they-are technically are the centre around which all the Lesser Mystery Schools are orginized.
termed. The initiates of these Greater Mysteries form a brotherhood known
so the Mysteries are divided by a line of natural cleavage into the Lesser yariously as "The Great White Lodge" or .,The College of the Holy
and.tfe Greater Mlsteries. In the Lesser Mysteries,-information and spirit". It is dual in its work, dealing with the nations in accordance witir
teaching is given which.can be understood by the reasoning mind,
*o trr" their general cultural differences. so there is an Eastern Tradition, "they
right use of this teaching will bring the aspirant to the p6int where it is ofthe Ganges", and a Western Tfadition, ..they of the Andes". These two
possible for those who are his teachers to arouse in him a .,realizationl, titles come from an old Rosicrucian source, for the true Order is one of
which will enable him to understand the language of the Greater the manifestations of the Western tradition.*
Mysteries. Also, although alchemy has had its followers in both East and West, it
Because this is so, the Mysteries have been organized in a series appeared in the West as a movement which had this same inspiration
of
grades or steps, and in the Lesser Mysteries suci'grades behind it.
can be taken
irrespective of the moral or ethical standing of the pJrson In the latter half of the nineteenth century a resurgence of the activities
"on""-Jat
the same time, however, they who bear ruli therein usually r"" to iitrt"t of the Western tradition brought into being irew movements which, based
unsuitable people are not automatically advanced because of their on more ancient foundations, began to tqch something of the ageless
intellectual qualifications. of course it does sometimes happen trr"t -"lt wisdom. Foremost among these was the movement known as -.,The
unsuitable-ones. do approach the Door of the Greater Mysieries, but Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn", and it is from this order that most of
by
rea:o-n of their inability to experience the realities of thaf realm the Western eso0eric movements stem.
they arl
unable to proceed further and must perforce fall back. At the same time, a corresponding impulse from the Eastern tradition
To use a
!om_9ly simile, a qan may have spent much time in acquiring had brought a new movement, "The Theosophical Society", to the
a full and detailed understanding of the principles of action of u',noto? attention of the world. This movement, by maintaining a public
cycle and of its parts; but, howev-rmuch he may tcnow of these thiG;;ii presentation of its teachings, has acted as a leaven which has affected much
he attempts to ride that machine before he has learnt to batnnce'ii of that part of twentieth-century life which has been seeking, albeit
control it, he will be unable to do so. on the other hand, should he u"qoir" unconsciously perhaps, for deeper leachings on life and destiny.
the ability to ride it, he could get into serious trouble if he rode The oiiginal Order of the Golden Dawn foundered upon the-roclcs of
it without
any knowledge o! principles. To be a good motor-cyclist both personal jealousies and ambition, but the various split--off portions still
!!s rarts and
kngwled-ee ga
{ilitr
and work of an initiate.
are necessary. This is alsithe case in tli" t*ininc survive and work with varying degrees of efficiency, and behind and
through them work the masters of the Western tradition.
h
. . 4: ksser Mysteries he gains the basic information and begins to fit
himself for the reception of those realizations which are the irodes of
experience in the Greater Mysteries.
If this were better unde_rstood by would-be apprentices to the Mysteries,
they would save themselves muih time and energy, and would be less
liable to be deceived s unscrupurous "teach#J' *no
themselves lofty titles and pretensibns. "nojat"-to
It is to be noted that, although a man may attain to the grades of the
-
Greater Mysteries, he cannot rest assured that he is sife rrom any
retrogression. He holds his grade in those Mysteries by virtue of his
functioning therein. As a tight-rope walker holds tris position;td,op"
by a continued act of balancing, io the initiate holdi his graoe uy erJrt * Not to be identified with any advertising Fraternity.
 l
1

THE TREE oF LrFE 157 ir

tt
invisible, is the mighty stage upon which life plays its part. At the same it
;l
time, the structure of this cosmic stage conditions and directs the play
CHAPTER VII which is being produced upon it. In other words, life is not something
apart from the universe, but an integral part of it. All manifestation is but
THE TREE OF LIFE the ryeans whereby the life-wave, proceeding from the unmanifest, may
in an emergent evolution become perfect in all its degrees.
Tlq focal point around which the whole of the philosophy of the So it is that the process of creation is symbolized by the glyph of the
I Qabalah is centred is the diagram or "mandala" knciwn is ihe Tree Tree, and lhe Sephiroth may be held to symbolize the points where the
or H.!. In this chapter we will consider it purely as a diagram, reserving objective universe is held in manifestation, and the evolving life, as it
consideration of its component parts for liter ihapters. - emerges therefrom, partakes of all their qualities.
The Tree consists of ten stations or Sephiroth, which are shown in a
definite pattern. They are all connected by lines, twenty-two in number,
Wherever manifestation takes place, there is life coloured
particular aspect of the universe in which that manifestation is taking
b the

and these ten circles and their connecting lines represent, in diagrarnmatic place. So the relationship values symbolized in the Tree of Life are to be
form, the Thirty-two Paths. found also in every evolving consciousness. There is, therefore a
The general scheme of the Tfee is that of a filing syslem, for it is held microcosmic Tlee within each human being, and between the personal
by the Qabalists ttrat all manifestation can be ctissifiea under the ten consciousness and the universal self there iS the same relationship as that
headings ofthe sephirorft, whilst the subjective reactions ofall life and which exists between the tidal waters of an almost landlocked bay and the
consciousness can be represented in the twenty-two connecting Faths.* ocean of which they are an integral part. So we recall that St paul, quoting
The Tiee can be considered from several angles, and the firsiofthese a Greek poet, says "For we are also His offspring"; and again, ..In Him
is its division into what are known as the three pillars. In certain we live and move and have our being."
organizations the Pillars of the Temple are said to be two, Jachin and Boaz, If we now turn to the lines which connect the ten Sephiroth with each
but the Qabalah teaches that there are three. It is held that whereas the two other, we find that they represent the modes of consciousness both in the
lill_ars represent cosmic force and form respectively, the Middle pillar universe and the soul of man. When we are using the Tree in meditation
deals with the element of consciousness in the manifest universe. It is work, we learn to tread these twenty-two paths in our inner consciousness,
taught that the inflowing energy of creation flows from a central point for it is in the region of consciousness that the application of the Tree takes
which is known as l(ether, and thence to the sephirolh of both the buter place. The Qabalist (and we do not refer to the dry-as-dust pedant who
Pillars in an alternative path which is known as the Lightning Flash. The has mad6 the outer form of the Qabalah his field of study, but to the sincere
first station to which it pioceeds is that te rmea cho*ma'-h, and-from thence follower of the tradition which has been handed dovrn from one generation
it.passes gt th9 sephiroth Biruh which is at the head of the opposite to another in the esoteric schools of the West) makes use of the Tree for
Pillar of Form. It then crosses over again ta the sephiroth Gedita, or the purposes of his own interior spiritud development.
chesed, as itis alsocalled, backagain ta Geburah, or-pachadonthe pillar To continue with our survey of the glyph as it is used in meditation work,
of Form . so the creative life proceeds until it finally manifests itself in the it will be noted that each Sephirorlr has a colour. Here we louch upon
basic Sephimh, Malkuth. certain teachings into which we cannot go at the moment, but it is
Thus is the tree established in each of what are known as the Four sufficient to say that the colour plan which runs throughout the whole of
Worlds. These are dealt with more fully elsewhere, and will only be the Qabalistic scheme, is not there merely to give the Tree a festive
mentioned briefly in this chapter. appearance. It has a very definite part to play in any practical work upon
whilst this creative actrlity is taking place, tle Middle pillar is being it. There are four such colour scales, one for each of the Four Woddi of
established as the result of the balance attained betwecn the two opporiti Atziluth, Briah, YetzimhandAssiah, and it is usual to portray the Tree in
qiltl5. Through this Middle Pillar manifests the emergent consciousness, one of these, usually as indicated in our diagram.
the life-uave, for which the manifest universe, in all itsispects, visible and It will be seen that the Sephirah Cholonah, Chesed, andNetzach form
one line or "pillar", whilst on the opposite side we fi nd Binah, Pachad and
* Though it is aught that certain other ,,Secret
kths" exist. Hod, formng the other pillar. The stations of l{ether, Danth, Ttpareth,
 I58 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
THE TREE OF LIFE t59
Yesod and Malhtth arclocated on the Middle pillar. It will be noticed that Indeed, in its developed gnostic form it was repudiated by the church in
inthis last sephirah, Malkuth, is the base of the entire Tree, and that it
the opening words of the Nicene Creed where God is described as the
is linked up with all the other Sephiroth.
This is the furthest point of manifestation. The emerging conscious- "Maker of heaven and earth and. of all things visible and invisible,'.
nesses who are playing their parts on the cosmic stage herJtuir from
Ifwe have laboured this point it is because it is necessary to show how
their far this teaching is from the "woolly" and escapist philosophies of many
outgoing activities and begin to return to their source. But whereas they
modern esoteric schools, but we are not claiming here that the teachings
gmerged as a "life-wave", they return as individualized consciousnesses. -
ofthe Qabalists have always been free from the dualistic heresy. The secrit
ft is the growth of individualized being which is the particular work that tradition has always been influenced by the temper of thought around it,
is being done in the material world, and for this reason this world is of
and during certain periods, the Calvinistic ideas, which contain a large
the greatest imporcance. In thewords of a great
eabalist, it is the marking- measure of dualism, have influenced what may be termed the top layers
buoy_of manifestation, and evolving human life must reach and pur,
,ourid of the tradition; underneath the surface, however, the real teaching has
it before turning back on the return journey to the source aom wtrictr it
proceeded in the morning of manifestation. remained unaffected by it.
Again, if we seem to have laboured the point of the extreme importance
_ Any attempt to by-pass the physical plane is foolish, for its lessons must of the Sephirah Malkuth, it is in order that the very different aititude of
be learnt, its battles essayed and its limiations accepted and used.
Here many esoteric students towards the physical plane may be contrasted with
ye fave again the same emphasis which recurs throughout the Qabalah:
the sane and balanced outlook of the Qabalistic teachings.
tle.rmngrtancgof the physical world, and, because of tlat, the imfortance
We now come to one of the most important aspects of the Tree of Lifu.
of the physical body which is our instrument for dealing with this world.
There are two ways of storing goods. In one, everything is throrvn
The Qabalist, like the true christian is enjoined to play[is firll part in the
worf{' and not to att€mpt to flee from it. 1'Escapism"'has never been the indiscriminately into the store, and in the other each item is carefully
packed and disposed of in such a way that it may the more easily be found
leaghing of either Qabalism or christianity, though throughout the years when necessary. Most of the time, we follow method number one, and the
both systems of teaching have been contaminateo by -th"
only reason that our thoughts are not muddled frr more than they are, is
doctrines of Manicheanism. "rrori"oo,
that the natural structure of the mind forces us to place them in some kind
.in These doctrines regard the physical world and the physical body as evil
themselvep, bginq the creaiions of an imperfect lisser goa. irre *ry
of order, just as the shape of our store-room would force us to dispose of
the more bulky items of furniture in a certain way if we would get them
way to salvation is, therefore, to repudiate a[ material thinls and utt".pt
by ascetic living and by the practice ofphilosophy, to endea'vour to r"toi,
in. So, as we have seen in a former chapter, the mind is built up in a very
different patt€rn, and the best way in which we can store the knowledg-e
th9 palms of light. Tlrgre a good-deal of this kind of teaching to be
1o is
found in the-teaclrings of the Gnostics of early christianity, and it'is also
we have gained is to pack it away in accordance with the mental
present in the "doctrine o.f^tfr9 two ways" which is found in two early architecture.
christiandocuments, the "Didache" and the "Epistle of Barnabas',. Bdt This the Tree of Life teaches us to do, since it conforms to that
since chr-istianity developed in the matrix of Jewish thought, it took from
architecture very closely indeed. We may, therefore, now consider the
Tree as a great "filing cabinet", by means of which we may sort out and
it some of its basic ideas, and so we find this doctrine oittr" t*o ways in
store the knowledge we receive. We have, then a filing system of ten main
tre manual of discipline of the eumran community on the shores o?the headings: the ten Sephiroth, and a further twenty+wo lesser ones: the
Dead sea, and even in the old restament itself; indeed, st Faul's remarks
interconnecting paths on the Tree.
ggncerning the two laws he finds in himself have something of the same
idea. This, as fur as we can see, is chiefly due to the incorpoiation in uotrr
For the time being we will concentrate on the primary headings of our
system, and consider how they may be used. Each Sephirahhas acertain
Jewish and christian religious thought of certain persian teachings.
primary "virtue" which is its keynote, and all persons, conditions and
-.It is easy to see that, for those who are for some reason or othir pre- influences can be divided between one or other of these ten. But every
disposed to retreat from the world, this teaching holds great charm for it
good thing can be overdone in these lower worlds, and we find, thereforl
gives thcm chapter and verse for such retreat. However,-trom the point
of that the "vices" which are the unbalanced aspects of the virtues, also go
view of the schools of esoteric eabalism, it is an enoneous teaching.
to their own place: in this case to the ten stations of the eliphothic Tree.
 160 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
THE TREE OF LIFE 161
As an illustration let us take one sephirult, and work it out
in some detail. to work, and we catch sight of a rov of buildings which are, we know,
l,et us take chesed on the right-hand pillar of the Tree. rr".e *e nna
condemned as slums. We see that bulldozers and cranes are at work and
$e ryin lea0ing which we musi use is cinstructive Aaiury. ohe stuoent the buildings are rapidly being demolished. This is an acnvity of Geburuh
is advised to make a card index system and to work
on this 6ru.rin"ution.l or Pachad. There are those who would equate good with building up and
U1{9r thrg let us place
of
!9{i"g on the appropriate inaei carJ*r" ,y_U"f organizing, and awl with breaking down and destrrying, but it is clearthat,
This is a geometrical figure:iir" rqo"r". It should be coioured
!hes-q!. in this present instance, the activities of Pachad are beneficent. There is
a clear blue' and if we have the nec6ssary ability,
we may place within the a line in one of Tennyson's poems, King Arthur's dying speech, ,,The old
square a
{rawing of a majestic beardedking, seated on his throne. this -- -- order changeth, yielding place to new, and God fulfils Himself in many
gives the keynote ofprotective organizatioriand preservaiion.
ways, lest one good custom shoul.d corrupt the world."
Now let us continue to use this method of classification. rooHng
around us' we find certain activities which come under The existence of the slum property is an example of the conserving
the headine of activity of Chesedhaving become unbalanced, and the activity of pachad
protective control and preservation, and we therefore
rrr" *r"r" lG-, is needed to break these conditions down and correct the balance.
under this head. For irylq:" we may include the town ;d;;";-t But Pachad may also become unbalanced in the same way, and here we
qlanni$ authorities, wild{ife presemation societies * _'""t may again use a similar instance. On our daily walk to the station, we hare
forgetting the civil service. we often reftr !o these actiuiti"s ""
""0 a, .,fatern"rt,' seen that for some time a rather well-built house in obviously good
h also one aspect of Chesed. We may also profitably
39, *i, tt condition has been empty. Now, as we pass it we see that hooligans, young
ourtdrng up processes of o9r physical bodies as coming"oiria". under this" and old, have begun to break down the fences, to smash the windows and
heading. There will be people in our daily life who r"";Gpott*y
quality and we can file them-accordingly. In this *uy
thil to deface the building. Soon it will no longer be habitable, or even safe,
organized complex of ideas arl rerating to one particuiar
*" 6"dilp * for someone has been breaking down the walls themselves for purposes
aspect of their own. Here is an example of the unbalanced working of paihad,
This process is repeated-with-each sephimh'until there ii i"ui"rrfu,
automatic subconscious habit of classifiiation. It must u" t"p"ut"a"p
t and we would see, in tle sudden imrption of council officials and building
that the Qabalah is not only a system of philosophy, uot trro:t
trr" squads, the compensating activities of Chesed, making good the wanton
ii i. ar.o, destruction and so balancing the out-of-balance activities of pechad.
essentially, a method of using the mind in a certain,ray.
fne O.y_;;;; If the Tree is used as a meditation system, then this is the kind of thing
qFgnt Tuy occupy himself with the outer hisro.v o, philoroohic validitv
of the Qabalah, but the sincere student of er6t"riJ which must be done with each of the Sephiroth in turn. It is important to
GOiii'*;;,t:
*9,T.tr using obtains a far more balanced anA objective view remember that the opposed Sephiroth together form a working unit, and
:y"s-Tm,
of it is this unit which must be dealt with in all practical work upon the Tree.
the possibilities than the other.
Thus we have certain "functional triangles" as they are termed. The fint
One very
Tnporqnt point in this respect is that no station on the Tree ofthese is knorvn as the Supernal Triangle, and is made up ofthe Sephiroth
can ever be dealt with singly; always ii is tinteo with all trt.
in particular with its oppoii-te station; in the case of the "trr"r.,
*a I(ether, Chokmah and Binah. This is the root and basis upon which all
two side pillars.
sephiiii;; t;; manifestation is grounded, and between it and the rest of the Sephiroth
there is a gulf fixed, known as the 'hbyss". This means that all subiequent
Thus, in the example w9 have just used, it is necessary that
we now manifestation is of a different quality to these three, and to understanO ttre
grocegd t9 study the Sephimh pachad. Here we have tle ;;";;p;;
severity, the geometric symbol in this case is a pentagon, sypernals fully an entire change of consciousness is necessary. These
wittrin which three, the source which is l(ether, the father which is Chokmah and the
theimage ofa mighty warrior in his char'iot.'Here,in place
:..T:y.41?
o.T me geneflcient organizing activities
mother which is Binah, are the governing factors for the rest of the Tree.
of chesed, we have the violent The station Chokmah is regarded as the positive masculine potency of
disruption
9f gxlstins conditions which so many people regard as the lasi manifestation, and the station, Binah, as the passive feminine potency
evil. In truth this is not so, for the disintegrating activitieJorpa
the_necessary balance to the organizing a-ctiviti-es of
rh"d;;; thereof. As will be seen from the diagram, these three supernals itand at
Chesed. the head of each of the three pillars of the Tree.
.%.uI again consider this in the sarie way that we have done with the
other station. Let us imagine that we are going down the rtr""t
Now here we come to the mysterious station known as Daath. This
oo oo. ,*y seems to have no connection with the rest of the Tree, and is apparently
 I

162 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH ,l

rr{

an eleve-n$ sgation, y€t the i

eabaristic texts are emphatic that there are only
ten sephiroth. Herein lies a mystery but it may b" rugg"rt"d
tnx niin I

has to do with dimensions of consciousness. Tfiere is i-qauatistic

saying CHAPTER VIII
that Kether is the Malkuth of tre unmanifest, that i., tr,iiin
*h Jrir"
Four worlds, the- last phase of manifestation of each world i,
trr" ,*r"" THE FOUR WORLDS OF THE QABALISTS
ano begmrung of tlle next.
We may then conceive Daath as being, amongst other things, the philosophy of the Qabalists is an ..emanation', philosophy, and
.of
conlecting link of consciowness between trre worlas. ryor, oiiiin
TIIE
r here it comes into direct opposition to the ideis of 6ttiroao*
Atziluthlirilsdirectly with D oath n Briah. and that with naatn n vrtzliorn christianity. This opposition is, however, based upon certain miscon-
until the world oflssraft is reached. This linking station in all the *orrJ, ceptions-and is in point of fact gradually changing under the impact of
would appearto bethe apex of apyramid whosebase is m aaeupotrciir, modern knowledge. The old idea of the Eternal aJthe personal artificer
chokmah and Binah,- and thii apex exists or subsists in another in creation is changing as the immensities of creation ire unveiled.
dimension. the last analysis, of course, it is very true to say that God created all
_ .In
nqxt triangle isthatof pachad and chesedwhich finds its point
^the
Tiphareth, and the third is that composed of Netzach, Hod and f"roi.
in Frygl, but the way in which this was done, as set iorth by the eabalah,
is different to the ideas of exoteric Judaism which have b-een taken over
_ The tenth sep himh, Malkurrr is the point where all the influences of the into orthodox christiamty. The great objection of christian theologians
Tree are received and dealt with, and-the evolving lives in
the,n*io.t"o to the emanationist philosophy is that it tends towards pantheism, ihich
ungver.99 begin their return to the source from wlich cql be equated so easily with the idea that ..God,, is sirnply the toaliry
tn"y cum".-------
It will be seen that the Middle pillar contains the stations which are the ojl iature. But this the Qabalah does not reach. euite rightli ii teaches that
equilibrated energies of the two outer pillars, and any God is made manifest in Nature, and is immanent in it: uui it aso teaches
"onria"*iioo?
either of these must take.into account not only the polarizing opposite oi that all manifestation, on whatever plane, is only one expression of the
lhe slation concerned, but also the equilibrating urira ,titi.iri tlr;; eternal being who reigns transcendant over all. It shodd be noted here that
functional triangle. "f in this philosophy there is no rigid dichotomy; no hard and frst division
In fact, whenever we are dearing with the Tree, either as a meditation between spirit and Matter. Mafter is regarded as "the luminous garment
symbol or as a general diagram ofthe disposition of manifest
are alweys to remember that the Tree must, in the last resort,
thi;gr;;; ofthe Eternal", indeed as being an expression ofthat Being, and tlerefore
be consldered allthings are holy in their intrinsic nature. This idea, as will be se€n, cuts
as a who^le, even though we may be concentrating upon right across the Manichaean strain which still penists in some parts of
some particular
aspect of it at a given time. christiamty, one of its manifestations being what is commonly kno*n as
puritanism.
Assuming that the emanationist philosophy is correct how then is
creation effected? Here we come to the idea of the 'hgents" tlrough whom
creation akes place, and also to the modes of thaicreation. Iimust be
clearly understood that these realms of creation which are called
"worlds", are-not spacial planets or anything of that kind. We say this
because even those who should have known better have sometimes iallen
into this error. Let us then define what is meant by the term. A ,,world,'
in thh conneclign refers to a particular mode of-activity of the Deity.
The first of these modes is known as the world of Atziluth, or- the
archetypal world. It is the field of the divine ideas which are behind all
manifestation. Here the divine mind manifests those abstract concepts
which will later be worked out in increasing complexity in all the fieids
of manifestation. The glyph of the Tree of Life is held by the
eabalists to

J
 I& MAGIc AND THE QABALAH THE FouR woRLDs oF THE eABALrsrs 165
be established in all the"worlds" and here it is understood to be present Sephirah l(ether, and this power in turn expressed itselfthrough the other
in its most refined form. It is a spiritual "blue-print" in the divine mind. SephirothtntrlMalkuthwas reached. But, as we have already pointed out,
This is not to say that the figure which we draw and describe as the Tree the essence of the Tree isbalance, and in the beginning of theoutpouring
is present in the world of Atziluth as a figure, but rather that the of Cosmic Life through each Sephirah there is no balance; not until the
relationships figured in the Tree have here their origins. corresponding station is emanated does such a balance become possible.
We come next to the world of Biah.In the eabalah this world of Briah It follo\ils, then, that during the establishment of each Sephimhthere is an
is also called the world of rhrones and is held !o emanaie from the world overplus of differentiated energy, and this goes into what may be 0ermed
of Ahiluth. It is, as it were, a step nearer to the objectivity of matter, and "the waters under the earth". Thus there exists in the universe this realm
is sometimes known as the Creative Vy'orld, since it is here that the of unbalanced force; the realm of "the Kings of Edom, who reigned before
archetypes of the Atziluthic World begin to be objectified, and ir is here there was a King in Israel". Now, all manifested life has been, and still is
tfal the "archangels" are held to be actively engaged in formulating the 0o a very great extent indeed, out of harmony, at least here in Malkuth of
divine archetype!. It is a "world" in which the primal energy of Assiah, and this unbalance means that there are built up organized centres
manifestation begins its work. of unbalance in the chaotic world of unorganized energy which is the
lt is to be understood that the "archangels" are not in any way to be kingdom of the Qliphoth, and as the positive evil of the world is an
thought of as superhuman beings having a human form and posiessing expression ofthe unbalance ofthe doers ofevil, so each disharmony goes
wings as popular piety would have us believe. The same may also be to its own place, linking up with that aspect of the Qliphorh which is of
-such
said of the angelic and subhuman orders of life. its own nature. Thus, in the course of the ages, are built up the mighty
The third world is the world of Yetzirah, the world of formation. Here unbalanced complexes of positive wil, complexes which are ene rgzedf
the substance of manifestation is still with outany mateial expression, and the terrible energies of the waters under the earth.
it is here that those beings known as the angels have their true abode. Here It is possible to obtain power in three ways. The first way is that of
the universe builders are, as it were, making their arrangements for the approach to the fountain-head of all power and the endeavour to become
materialization of the divine archetypes in physical expression, and this a channel of that power; tle second way is, as it were, an attempt to ..rob
physical expression takes place in the fourth world, that of Assiah. Peter to pay Paul" by juggling with the energies of manifestation; and the
Assiah is said to be made up of the grosser elements of the preceding third uay is that of reversion to the waters of chaos, and of becoming the
three-worlds. By this we understand that there is a gradation of complexit! channel through which the unbalanced power of that kingdom may emerge
of substance in these worlds (which, it must be kept in mind, ari non- in terrible action.
material), and this gradation results in a similar gladation of material In the terms of Jungian psychology, we may regard the etiphoth asthe
physical matter. As we shall see, the Tree of Life is implicit in all the four unbalanced aspects ofthe archetypes ofthe collective unconsciousness of
worlds, and the relationships it portrays show a similai gradation. Since, the race. Always there is a pressure from the waters under the earth, and
as we have said, all the four worlds are interpenetrating nstates',, the finer this pressure will find release through any channel which is open to it. So
and grosser aspects of them all are to be found in the last world to be the fanatical dictator, whether of the right or the left finds himself buoyed
emanated, and the grossest of them all is the sephirah at the foot of the up by some apparently irresistible power, and everything seems possible
Tree of Life, the Sephirah known as Malkuth. to him. However, asthe Qliphorhic energies begin to flow through him in
It is here, in the world of Assiah, that we come to another eabalistic an increasing stream, he finds that they are beginning to take control. No
concept which is of real importance. Belwr Assiahis said to be formulated longer can he exert the authority which was his and direct his activities
the kingdom of the Qliphoth. Briefly, it may be said that the in accordance with reason. The energies are commencing to become inner
eliphoth are
the unbalanced aspects ofthe Tree of Life formulated in the wateri of chaos dictators and to drive him whither, in his reasonable moments, he would
in an averse Tree often stations. Thus there appears an infernal rree of not wish 0o go. Now he begins to make mistakes, his strat€gy becomes
ten stations, corresponding to the ten Holy Sephiroth. faulty, and the unbalanced forces which he has released in those who
The origin of this realm of the Qliphoth isn be found in the processes blindly follorv him, now begin to work upon them in such a way as to bring
of manifestation by which the universe came into being. This was begun about disloyalty and disruption within the nation. Finally, the whole
I the oupouring of the primal power from the unmanifest through-the system of dictatorial power crumbles, and his reign is over.
 166 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH rHE FouR woRLDs oF THE eABALrsrs 167
It is held by one school of esoteric training that, when Christ hung on friction and opposition which enables that principle to formulate therein.
the Cross, it was not in the agony of death by crucifixion, there are more This, then, is part of the mechanism of creation, and is necessary in order
terrible forms of torture, but in the taking unto Himself the accumulated that manifestation may take place. There will also be that opposition
unbalanced force and abreacting it, that His real work was accomplished. which is due to the fact that pressure of creation in one direction has not
the1, by a stupendous alchemy He transmuted it into unbalanced power, fully ceased before a new phase of activity begins to take place, and thus
available for the helping of the world, and, whilst a great change was the initial activity of the new phase is impeded in its beginnings. But all
affected in the psychic atmosphere of this planet, a new and living way was this is comprehended within the cosmic scheme.
opened up through which man could approach the eternal. What is not included in the cosmic scheme is what we have termed
We have been speaking of "positive evil", and this may perhaps need "positive evil", that is to say, it has no intrinsic function to perform
some explanation. In this system of thought evil is not regarded in quite therein, as is the case with negative evil. Rather is it a fuilure arising from
the same way as it is in popular thought. It is held that there is, wtrat is the unbalanced actions of the life-units of the scheme, for implicit in the
termed "negative evil", and this is simply the reaction to the energies of whole universe (and, according to the Qabalists, in the whole of creation),
tle creative logos. Friction, which engineers and motorists aftempt to is the principle of "free will", and it is here that positive evil has its roots.
\ee,p as low as
possible when they apply it to their machinery is never- Thus the freewill oftheunits oflifetends to organize theunbalanced forces
theless one of the most imporiant factors in its operation. If a road surface for its own purpose; in this way organized positive evil becomes a foreign
were entirely without frictional qualities, if such a thing were possible, body of the Heavenly Man (as the whole field of manifestation is termed
the energy of the motor would make the wheels go round, but they would by the Qabaliss) and two courses are possible in order to deal with this
not be able to get any purchase on the road and would spin uselesily. Any positive evil, just as in the physical body an effort is made to absorb or
motorist who has had to get his car out of a snowdrift or out of a piece of reject a foreign substance: so in Macroprosopos a similar effort is made.
marshy land will appreciate thisn as will, also, any skater who-, at the Where it is possible, the positive organized energy of positive evil is
beginning of his career, appreciated the truth of the saying that skates absorbed into the general circulation ofpower in the universe by a process
should be sold in sets of three! Thus negative evil is regarded as the which is equivalent to the "abreaction" used in modern psychiatrical
ne€essary reaction to the application of the creative forces, without which treatrnent. This process, which must always take place in and through the
any creation would be impossible. densest level of manifestation if it is to be effective, worls through the
_
This brings us back to the opening statement of the Book of the developed and dedicated beings who find in this work their natural line
Concealed Mystery. The Book of the Concealed Mystery i:s,,theUoot of ofaction, and throughout the ages ofevolution such cosmic abreaction has
the equilibrium of balance". As the Sephiroth are established in each been effected by them. According to certain Qabalists the outflorving
"world", they appear in balanced form, one pulling against the other, as stream of manifestation reached its lowest point on the physical level some
it were, in order to achieve the equilibrium which is the ideal of mani- two thousand years ago, and at this point it should have been possible for
festation. Here we have the source of what is known as ..dualism',, for if the lngos of Light so to enter into the evolving life, that henceforth it
we thinkonly of the opposition of the Sephiroth, we shall tend to regard would have been possible for it to evolve to its perfection and return to its
some of them as "evil", but if we regard this "push-pull,' as the estabiish- source in a balanced and order$ manner. However, the power of positive
m€nt of a dynamic balance, we shall see that the apparent antagonism is evil was such that, despite the efforts of previous dedicated beings, there
illusory and that it springs from a mistaken view olmanifestation. How- was a danger that the whole scheme might be temporarily "bogged down"
ever, during theperiod in which this dynamic balance is being established, and retarded in such a way thatthe whole of evolving life would fail toturn
there will be unbalanced power at large in the universe, ana this will, as the corner, and, passing beyond the point of return for aeonian time, cause
ry9 have said, gravitate to its appropriate centre in the regions of tle the entire cosmic scheme to be thrown out of balance.
Qliphoth: the "Habitations of Hell", as they are sometimes termed. So the incarnation of the Logos had to be devoted to the restoration of
we regard the whole process of manifestation as being a mighty flow the balance, and this He did by drawing to himself the unbalanced forces,
-If
of power from a creative centre, and its ultimate return theretq then we and, by a supreme alchemy, transmuting them in such a way that the
may think of negative evil as being the resistance of the field of evolving life was able to pass the nadir and begin, en mltsse, to tread the
manifestation to the organizing principle in that emanation of power, the path of return. That which before was limited to the few became an
 168 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
opportunity for the many, for He opened up a new and living way whereby
mankind might be able to surge ahead torvards the spritual home, and, not
only mankind alone, for by His cleansing of the psychic sphere of the CHAPTER IX
planet, all the lives thereon, subhuman and elemenaialike ihared in this
liberation. CONCERNING ADAM KADMON
This also was the belief of the early Christian church before the
legalistic Roman mind began to formulate the christian Good News in
legal terms. It was held quite simply that christ had fought and conquered
]N several ancient philosophies the eternal source of all manifestation
fis imaged under the form of a great Man. This idea, in the hands of the
thepowers of evil, and released the whole cosmic ordei from its bondage primitive type of mind produces what has been termed "anthropo-
to the Lords of unbalanced Force, so ttrat all might now be able to retuin morphism ', and this has been a fruitful source of trouble in most of the
safely home to the eternal. This view of the atonement is one which can religious syst€ms of the world.
be held by anyone, for no fficial definition of the Atonement has been For it is quite justifiable to think of God in some kind of earth imagery
formulated b any of the great councils of the Catholic Church. in fuct it is almost impossible to do otherwise. Even the strictest
This whole question of the Atonement is ably worked out in Aulen's -
monotheist and metaphysician must use rorne earth terms if he is to convey
chrtsns victor.lt is mentioned here in order to show how the eabalistic anything to his followers, and though, following Eastern precedent he may
concepts were used and still are, by Christian eabalists. attempt to define the Eternal by using negative terms Neli, neli "Not this,
It may seem that this consideration of the eliphoth has little to do with not that", nevertheless he cannot avoid the employment of positive terms,
the Four Worlds, but it is because it concerns them by virtue of the ftct even though he uses them in a negative way.
thatn onevery oneof them, with theexception ofthe worldof A4iluth,the Thus, if he says, "God is Love, He is more than that, for our earthly
shadowy waters under the Earth are to be found. The archangel of Biah concept oflove is only the shadorv ofa shadow ofthe reality," he has had
has.his counterpart in the Devil in the Habitations of Hell, and the angels to use the positive term, and to some extent define it in order to express
their counterpart in the demons of the Habitations. the idea which he is trying to convey.
Now the unbalanced forces in the worlds of Briah and yetzimh were We have said that the anthropomorphic tendency has caused much
passive and unorganized, but with the evolution of consciousness and self-
trouble in the religious world. This is because the multitudes usually
consciousness in the world of ,{sslah, they began to be organized into a employ a subconscious mental mechanism known as "projection". This
force of positive evil, warring against ttre iight]ana so the Habitations of means that we tend to give to an outer image the emotions and instinctive
Hell came into existence. values which are in ourselves. This projection takes place in mrying
Though the victory over the powers of evil has been won on aeonian degrees, but very few people entirely escape its employment. This
levels, man has still to apply that victory in his orrn personal realm, and mechanism, when it is employed in religious work, can give rise to some
to "fight manfully against the world the flesh and the devil", as the very queer ideas as to the nature of the Supreme Being. I think it was Dean
Anglican Catechism puts it. This warfare must be fought in the dust and Swift who remarked on one occasion that God made man in His orn
turmoil of everyday life. This world is the battlefield of Kirukshetra, as lmage, and man had replied b', making God in ftls image, 'bomplete with
the great Hindu epic of the Gita terms it. shovel hat". This is true of the majority of people. A man with a strong
. Here the teachings of the Qabalah can be usefully applied, and although
in some cases battles may be won by retreating, after the manner of Fabiirs
streak of cruelty in his nature will conceive of God as a great figure of
terror ruling over the affairs of men, and he will find in the sacred
C,unctalor, yet for the great bulk of humanity it is here, on the physical scriptures of his religion "proof-texts" which, when wrenched from their
plane, in the grind of mundane life, that the victory must be gained. tt is context will justiff him in thinking of the Supreme in this way. What is
because ofthis that the Qabalists lay such great stress upon the station of more, and this is the most important point, he will be able to justify his
MalkuthinAssiaft, and it is also the reason why we have devoted this space own use of cruelty to others by pointing to similar action by the God he
to the consideration of the Qliphoth, for it is here in the world of matter worships.
that they must be met and overcome. Some ofthe worst excesses of the Christian churches throughout the
centuries have been condoned and 'Justified" by such use of the Old
 NO MAGIC AND THE QABALAH
coNcERNTNG ADAM KADMoN nl
Testament, and this is not peculiar to Christianity. All
religious Him the Spirit of the Concealed One
movements have been affected by it, for pro-jection is not something which form, so thatthere may be manifest in
in every part."
is purely western and Christian; it is a psychological mechanism common
We may interpret this as a declaration that the Heavenly Man is the field
to the whole of humanity.
in which all manifestation takes place, and He is also the Pleroma or
The genius ofthe Qabalah has been to take this universal tendency and
fullness of all the powers, forces and forms to be found therein, whilst His
turn it to service by boldly using anthropomorphic images, but using them
consciousness is the root and ground ofall consciousness in creation. This
in a certain definite way, so that instead ofbeing a source oftrouble, they
is the Cosmic Christ of modern esoteric thought, and in Him we truly live
will help the mind to reach up to concepts which seem to lie far beyond and move and have our being.
the mental horizon.
In this mighty figure of the Heavenly Man, the Qabalah is placing before
It may be noted in passing, that the idea of the Heavenly Man is not us the concept ofa living universe, in contradistinction to the arid lifeless
peculiar to the Qabalists. It is to be found in the Hindu esoteric teachings,
concept of modern materialistic science, or, to be more accurate, of that
and reappeared in the West in the teachings and revelations of the great
section of science which still thinla in terms of the Victorian period. For
Swedish seer Swedenborg. In his teaching every form of life has its many scientists are nowadays beginning to visualize all manifestation as
appropriate place in the body of the Heavenly Man, and this too, is to be
the working of a mighty consciousness.
found in another guise in the teachings of the Western tradition.
Again, a word of warning is neressary. The great glyph of the Heavenly
The Heavenly Man of the Qabalah is held to be the manifestation of what
Man is valuable as indicating an actual series of relationships between the
is termed Aik Anpin, the Great Countenance, which is the Sephiratt various factors in the universe, but it is these relationships which are of
Ikther expanded n Cholvrnh and Binah. Now these three are the three the essence of the matter. It is so easy to use the glyph as a substitute for
supernals between whom and the rest of the Tree is placed the abyss to
the reality it expresses.
signiff that they differ from the others in a special way. Choloruh, which There is yet another doctrine of the Heavenly Man which claims
is the positive, male principle, and Binahthe negative female principle
attention. There is a teaching that there exist certain men who have,
unite in Daath, or to put it in another way, the equilibrium of these two
through repeated incarnations, attained perfection within this planetary
enable the emerging consciousness to begin to manifest in the other
system. They are variously known as the brothers, the masters, the holy
Sephiroth. The root of Arik Anpin or Macroposopos is to be found in ones, the mahatmas, according to the various schools of West and East.
Ikther, justasthe rootof the Heavenly Man, Microposopos, istobe found It is held that each of these masters represents the perfection of one type
it Tiphareth.
ofconsciousness, and is, as it were, the centre around which the evolving
The Microposopos is also known as fuur Anpin, or the Lesser consciousness of men group themselves, each according to his type of
Countenance, and is made up of Chesed, Pachad, Nedach, Hod md "ray".
Yesod , centred in Tiphareth . It will be seen that this leave s outthe Sephiratt
So, in each cycle of cosmic history there is built up a Heavenly Man
Malkuth. Tlhis Sephirah is sometimes called "The Bride of Micro- after the manner of the Swedenborgian revelations, each evolving
posopos", or else Kellnh, the queen, in which case Microposopos is
consciousness gravitating to that position in the Heavenly Man which is
known as the king.
the position for his type. At the same time all the lives are interdependent
It is also saidthat Malkuth "is er,alted above every head, and sits upon and form one consciousness; as emergent evolution proceeds, so all lives
the throne of Binah*.Nwt Binah is also termed the Superior Mother, and
begin to become conscious of position in the cosmic scheme, a position
Malkuth therefore becomes the Inferior Mother. which they have always held, but of which they were not aware. So
In the Greater Holy Assembly, one of the books of the 7nlnr, Rabbi Microposopos becomes realiz.ed in the reciprocal Heavenly Man which
Schimeon is stated to have said to his co-workers "Now take your places is evolved. This process is repeated, so says the tradition, through seven
to describe how the parts of Microposopos are confirmed . . . from the great epochs of evolution, until at the end there is to be found one Heavenly
forms of the Ancient of Days, the Holy of the Holy Ones, the Withdrawn Man which consciously mirrors the mind and consciousness of the
of the Withdrawn Ones, the Concealed One of All. But the conformations
Eternal, that mind and consciousness which is immanent in all
of Microposopos are disposed from the forms of Macroposopos; and
-
His constituent parts are expanded on this side and on that , under a human
manifestation, and which in the Qabalah is known as Adam Kadmon.
All of this may be expressed in the symbols used by a modern writer,
I72 MAGIC AND THE QABALAH

and with them we may profitably conclude this chapter.

". . . there appeared in thb Rose of Light, at the diamond point where
being enters into manifestation, the perfect forrn of a Man; androgyne, if CHAPTER X
the expression may be allowed, at which the whole concourse of adorants
swept to their knees, Thrones, Fowers, Dominions themselves, for in all CONCERNING THE VEILS
Heaven there is no Fower that is not a form of the Light, and Beyond Light,
and no Fower has power that does not know this." \I/HEN we study the glyph of the Tree of Life we find that the first
"I r€member . . . we all have in ourselves the porer of cognition by YY Sephirah, Ikther, appears to have a background shown as three
symbol, which next to silence is most eloquent; and I have not forgotten concentric arcs and namedAin, Ain SophandAin SophAurrespectively.
the symbol which Venus held out, the symbol which speaks with power If Kether is the source of all manifestation what then are these Veils, as
in all worlds. We were to see it again . . . the Cross on which, if I may they are termed?
so express myself, Light dies; the Rose, if I may venture, in which Light The answer is that they are the symbols of the unmanifest, from which
is born."* Iktherptoceeds. For, of course, all manifestation must have some root in
that which, in itself is unmaniftst. The philosopher Herbert Spencer
regarded this as not only The Unknown, but as The Unknowable; this is
true, of course, if we regard the mind as a finished product. But, as
evolution of both life and consciousness proceeds, many things which
once were unknorvable, become knowable forthe instrument we are using
is becoming more efficient.
At the same time it must be remembered that, although the instrument
may be more efficient, this will not avail unless a development also takes
place in tle consciousness. This latter is not merely a quantitative
advancement; it also concerns the unfolding ofa new quallty.
Dion Fortune likens the use of the veils in practical esotericism to the
employment of algebraic symbols in the calculations of the higher
mathematics. [n themselves the symbols are meaningless, but they enable
the mind to deal with problems which would otherwise be impossible of
solution. So with the whole of the inter-related symbolism of the Tree of
Life; it is a system of mathematics dealing with cosmic unknowns.
But, it may be asked, why should these highly abstruse ideas be
considered; why not leave them in a decent obscurity, and get on with the
practical side of esotericism?
There are several reasons for the establishment of the symbolic veils in
the student's mind, and the most important of these is that it roots all
esoteric work in a source which cannot in any way be used as a mential
finality. Whenever the esotericist is dealing with any manifested
appearance, he must always regard it against the background ofthe veils,
and in this way he is taught to avoid the establishment of a mental fixed
point. Always beyond lies the unmanifest, and it is against this background
that all his life and work is set.
*Al4sitfromVenrzs,p.155.Alsolrout'sTestament,p. lT9.BothboolabySirRonaldFraser. Another use of the veils is to express in symbolic terms the fact that
Published by Jonathan Cape. manifestation is not only a "being", but also that it is a "becoming". So the
I74 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH CONCERNING THE VEILS N5

Name of God, which is given to l(ether, is Ehieh Asher Ehieh, translated it which we are able to understand at any given time. For the mind of man,
in our Bible as "I am that I am". A friend of the writer, a notable Qabalist, as it grows, becomes able to understand more and more of manifestation,
suggests that a better translation would be "I am the Ever-becoming One". and so the veils recede as man progresses.
Here we have the idea of an outflowing form, the unmanifest, this resulting It is evident, therefore, that some set these veils in one position, whilst
in all manifestation. So, in this name of the Eternal, we are given the others go far beyond their fellows, and penetrate deeply into the mystery'
concept of a rhythmic unfoldment of the activity of God, with no absolute But although we may, in this way, suggest the idea of "negative existence",
finality: always a becoming, never an absolute ending. Many followers of we must be careful not to define it too closely. For whatever we define
the orthodox religions, both Christian and non-Christian, would dissent comes within the compass of our mind, and therefore ceases to be infinit€.
from this idea, but this is, in the main, due to the normal desire for Only when we have experienced in our spiritual self something of that
completion of work and "refreshment after labour". That there is such a infinity can we be said to comprehend it.
satisrying completion of the evolutionary journey of the spirit of man is "If God can be understood, then He is no longer God," said one
true, but this philosophy teaches that the completion of one phase of philosopher, and this simply means that the use of the rational faculty
manifestation is followed, after a period of bliss and happiness beyond cannot, of itself, define the infinite. But by a mystical comprehension, we
earthly imagining, by a fresh adventure of the spirit, as the activity of the may understand something of that which is the root and foundation of all.
ever-becoming One again opens out the starry ways. So, again and again, Fawcett, in one of his books* goes into this matter in some detail, and
the divine life surges into manifestation; again and again it "rests from its although we would not agree with all his conclusions, we would strongly
labours'r and withdraws itself into the fruits of its activity; and again and recommend his writings to those who find metaphysics a congenial field
again, in new aspects of its fathomless being, are conceived new and of study.
exciting adventures of manifestation. We have, therefore, two modes or ideas, negative and positive existence,
Here we have the Qabalistic equivalent of what is known in the East as which in themselves are irreconcilable, and here the graded symbol of the
the cycle of the "Days and Nights of Brahma". In the East, it is true that veils helps us. McGregor Mathers, in The l<abbalnh Urweiled', says,
this divine activity is thought of, more or less entirely, as the working out "between these two ideas, a certain connecting link is required, and hence
of inevitable law, but in the schools of the Western tradition such a concept we arrive at the form which is called potmtial existence, which, while
is associated with the idea of the working-out, by a supreme artist, of a more nearly approaching positive existence, will still scarcely admit of
vision ofbeauty which is part ofits nature. So, aeon after aeon the plans clear definition. It is existence in itspossib le form. For example, in a seed,
of God are worked out, the cosmic picture is completed, and the Artist the tree which may spring forth from it is hidden: it is in a condition of
rests; whilst all the beings who have been the actors upon His stage, parts potential existence; it is there; but it will not admit of definition. How
of His cosmic masterpiece, enter into the "joy of the Lord", until, after much less, then, will those seeds which that tree in its turn may yield be
what in temporal terms are untold ages, once more the divine fiat goes defined, for these latter are in a condition which, while it is somewhat
forth, and the sons and daughters of God shout aloud for joy in that fair analogous to potential existence, is at a stage even less adnanced, that is,
morning of a new creation. So from eternity unto eternity the ever- they are negatively existent. On the other hand, positive existence is
becoming One expresses Himself, and all this is symbolized by the veils. always capable of definition; it is dynamic; it has certain evident powers,
Now since the veils portray "negative existence", any earthly image we and it is therefore the antithesis of negative existence. It is the tree, no
may make of them is, of course, entirely misleading. We cannot predicate longer hidden in the seed, but outwardly developed and manifested."
of "that which is" anything which can be expressed in earth terms. This Fositive existence has a beginning and an end, and it therefore requires
is aught both in Eastern philosophies and in Christian theology. 'Weri, another form from which to depend, for without this other concealed
nerd, Not this, not that," says the Eastern sage, and the mystical theology negative ideal behind it, it is unstable and unsatisfrctory.
of the pseudo-Dionysius, and the mysterious author of that wonderful Thus, then, have I faintly and with all reverence, endeavoured to
treatise The Clond of Unknowing, say the same thing. foreshadow in the minds of my readers, the idea of the Illimitable One;
But although we cannot give 'h local habiation and a name" to the and before that idea, and ofthat idea, I can only say, in the words ofan
underlying realities symbolized by the veils, we can use the veils as a
background against which we may judge all manifestation, or that part of * Diine Imagining, Douglas Fawcett (MacMillan & Co., Lnndon, l92l)'
N6 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
ancient oracle, "In Hfun is an illimitable abyss of glory and from it there
goeth forth one little spark which maketh all the glory of the sun and of
the moon and of the stars. Mortal! behold how little I know of God; seek CHAPTER XI
not to know more of Him, for this is far beyond thy comprehension,
however wise thou art; as for us, who are His ministers, how small a part THE NEW OCCULTISM
we are of Him!"
There is yet another "veil" in Qabalistic philosophy. It is termed
THAVE tried in this book to give some idea of the nature of modern
Paroketh, and is drawn across the diagram of the Tree of Life through the Iesoteric lore, and to indicate some of its sources. I have purposely
Sephirah Tiphareth. Beyond thisverl Parokeththere lies the alyss as it is written in a way which will probably irritate some of my readers. I am
named the level of consciousness and manifestation which is of an
-
entirely different qualrty to the lower personal self.
sorry if this is the case, but I have written not only to instruct but to affect
the deeper levels of the mind; this has meant that the subject matter has
There is a tendency, common to many aspirants to esoteric knowledge, been presented in what may appear to be an irrational way. Those who,
to attempt to soar in the rarified air of abstract ideas to the neglect of what having read this book, use its chapters as food for meditation practice will
are erroneously thought to be inferior states and conditions ofbeing. Veil find therein something which will, I believe, be helpful in the uork of
Parokah is intended to warn the Qabalist that he must not lose himself in producing those changes in consciousness which are the goals of magical
a labyrinth of abstract speculation, but work within the present limits of art.
his mental capacity. By so doing he avoids becoming "woolly-minded", "Of the making of books there is no end," and certainly there have been
and, this very limitation of thought will develop his consciousness to the many published works which deal with the secret wisdom of Israel, the
point where he can effect that change of consciousness which will take him
Qabalah, and with the esoteric schools which derive their power and
across the abyss into an entirely new world of being. He has then become inspiration from that particular presentation of the ageless wisdom.
reborn in eternity, to use a phrase which was used in the old mystery Unfortunately, so much of what has been published by one person, or
schools. group of persons, appears to be but a rehash of what someone else has
But until he has so developed, it is a wise policy for him to concentrate already written. To some extent this must be true. We build upon the
upon the levels of the Tree which lie below Tiphareth. He must "tarry rn foundations laid by others, and our own work, if valid, serves in its turn
Jerusalem until his beard is grown". as the level from which others build. What is new in our work, is not the
This device of theverlParokethmaybeappliedto the study of everypart scheme which we outline, but rather that particular form in which we
of the Tree. It is a very useful method of limiting the field of mental vision present it. It is here that the unique contribution ofany new writer lies,
and endeavour, and corresponds, in the mental field, to the artist's device and it is here that the growing point of esoteric science is to be found. Most
ofscreening offthe area ofvision by his hands, so that he sees only a part of the published material dealing with the Western Esoteric Tradition has
of the total scene, but sees that with grealer clarity. been drawn from the rituals and knowledge papers of the Hermetic Order
Here it is as well to remember that there is yet another check on the of the Golden Dawn as they were revealed by Aleister Crowley, Dr Israel
tendency to soar in mental pride. It is said in this philosophy 'A Tree in Regardie and other members of that order, or of similar Orders, such as
every Sephirah". We live on the planet Earth, and we have a consciousness Argentum Asrnis and Stelln Matutina. The rituals once revealed lose their
which has been furnished with earth images and concepts. Within this power, although they canbe used as subjects for meditation and can, under
sphere of Earth, Malkuth on the Tree, we must realize that there is the these circumstances, be of very great help to the earnest student.
reflection of that, which in its true nature, lies far beyond. "As above, so It may be as well if I indicate, at this point, what is my own position in
below" runs the Hermetic axiom. So all the aspects of the Tree are present this matter. In my early days I was fortunate in making contact with one
tnMalkuth, and it is on this level that we must first contact them. So always who taught with authority in this field, and my debt to this man (known
we must remember that when we begin to have mystical and occult to his students as "R.K.") is very great indeed. I"ater, in the East, I came
experience, we are urorking within the rainbow aura of Earth; we are into contact with a group of Indian occultists, and by a most curious
contacting Tiphareth or Binah or Kether under the veil of eanhly things. concatenation of circumstances, I found, on my return to this country
another teacher, the late "Dion Fortune", and I made my esoteric home in
 I78 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
the Fratermty she founded. Dion Fortune was at first a member of the
Order of the Golden Dawn, under Mrs McGregor Mathers, and later
worrd today. u'u,, *;::;il"::;":TT-, ror many n""o#
attempt to find stability by joining one or another of the arcane schools;
transferred to the Order Stella Matutina. Because of this, her general
particularly those schools which claim an ancient lineage. These
outlook was that of the G.D.
fraternities, by their venerable ancestry give to these people a feeling of
An extensive contact with psychic and occult matters through my work
security which they do not find in the outer world. This, however, is
with my first teacher, together with a great deal of independent personal
"escapism" and although we may withdraw from the world in this way,
experience in the psychic and occult fields, enabled me to make uie of the
our onlyjustification (apart from a relatively few special cases) is that in
material given me in the Fraternity in a distinct way. Based upon my own
such a retreat we may contact energies which will enable us to resume the
personal psychism, plus the body ofteaching received from these several
struggle with renewed vigour. It is well to remember, horvever, that
sources, my bools have been written to help others to attain to some of
"refreshment" follows upon "labour", and it is only those who have
the glimpses of reality which it has been my good fortune to have received
fulfilled their rightfrrl service who receive their just dues.
myself.
ln the new presentation of the esoteric philosophy this point is being
the new age which we are now entering, revolutionary changes are
_I1 strongly emphasized, for it is in what an initiate of the Mysteries ls, rather
taking place, and the esoteric schools must, to some extent it least, adjust
than in what he says, that he really serves humanity. I believe the idea of
themselves to the new tempo of life if they are to be of service to humanity.
the collective unconscious of the race, so carefully outlined W the
It has to be recognized that, like many other venerable institutions, the psychologist C. G. Jung, to be a true concept, and, if we look at the esoteric
esoteric fraternities have accumulated much unnecessary lumber in their
schools from this standpoint, I think we can see how the initiate worls.
passage through the centuries. Some of this lumber is to be found
"No man is an island." Whether we talk of the 'bollective unconscious",
embedded in the rituals of the Fraternities (like the fossil in the rock), and
ot the Anima Mundi, or the "astral light", we are compelled to view each
it has a certain secondary value, since it links the present-day individual as being intrinsically linked with all his fellorvs, and indeed
consciousness with the primitive levels of the archetypes in the collective
with all evolving life. Under these conditions he is constantly affecting,
unconscious of the race. However, there is much which could be jettisoned
and being affected by, all other individuals and he lives in this great "group
with advantage, and those who rule in the lodges must needs grasp this
soul", if we may so describe it. One of the virtues of an esoteric school
neftle if they are to deal effectively with the people and conditions ortne
is that it forms a separate group within the greater group. Because it is
changing world.
linked with the collective unconscious on the one hand, and on the other
Bread and wine and a validly ordained priest are all that are necessary
is in touch with the collective superconsciousness (what the mystics have
to the offering of the Catholic Oblation. In a similar way, the essentiali
defined as the divine ground within the soul) its members are enabled to
of esoteric science are ftr fewer than many would have us iealize. It should
modifr thetaintedunconscious ofthe race by means of thedivineenergies
not be forgotten that just as Our Lord likened the Kingdom of Heaven to
which they can, and must, contact and direct if they are to be occultists
a wise householder who brings forth from his treasures tlings old and
in any real sense.
neq so must the esoteric schools achieve balance in this new age by
That this might be understood has been the underlying theme of all my
developing a new approach. This must be done by building upon th- trub
writing, and will continue so to be in whatever I may write in the future.
foundations which were shown them in olden times ..in thi mount,', a
"New Mansions for New Men." The age demands them and they will
structure which may be integrated into the life and work of today.
be built. However, it must also be remembered that the "mansions"
With one such endeavour I am myself associated, and it remains to be
referred to in Bible lore were the mansioni, the road stations of the Roman
seen how successful we may be in presenting this new image of the
world, places where rest and refreshment could be obtained before one set
Mysteries to the world. To this end I have written and lectured on the
out once more upon the way. In the end, it is eternally true that, as an
subject of "magic" in order that some of the distortions of the medieval
Eastern saying (attributed to the Lord Jesus) has it: "This world is a
days may be removed and the light of the ageless wisdom shine more
Bridge; pass over it, but build no House thereon."
clearly in these days of change and turmoil.
The continuity of ftmily, social and national life has been disrupted by
two great world wars, and the shadow of nuclear war hangs over all the
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 18l

lump the first and third classes together, and, indeed, much of what is
claimed to be true leaching is so adulterated by the fictional element as
to partially justify the critics.
A great deal of the material which has been regarded as the peculiar
BIBLIOGRAPHY property of the 'hrcane" societies is, in point of fact, "public domain",
as a series of visits to the British Museum Reading Room will prove. In
fAM not giving an extensive bibliography in connection with the subject this connection it may be noted that the word 'brcane", which is applied
Iof this book. The published books dealing with it fall into two main to the esoteric fraternities, has the meaning of something deposited in a
classes: those written to attack the philosophy of the Qabalah, and those chest, and this is what has been done by very many esoteric brotherhoods.
written to defend it. The former are usually characterized by a pedantic The available material has been treated as very very secrct, and doled out
dry-as-dust approach, and the latter by a credulous enthusiasm which to the brethrcn as a special revelation. It is to the credit of the Society of
defeats its own ends. A few bools have appeared which were free from the Inner Light, which was founded on a Golden Dawn contact by "Dion
these distortions. These were, in the main, written by members of the Fortune", that it has released much of its teaching for incorporation in
esoteric fraternities. The first of these, in order of time and importance Gareth Knight's two volumes. This includes not only the basic esoteric
is, of course, The Knbbalah Unveiled by MacGregor Mathers. It is still concepts, but the results obtained by their practice.
in print, and although in many respects it needs revision, it is still a very We are, as it were, working with a kaleidoscope, where, in addition to
useful book. The second book, which is still in print, is The Mystical the usual number of coloured fragments, new pieces are introduced as the
Ifubbalnhby Dion Fortune, published by Williams & Norgate. This book result of that working. The resultant patterns produced by this state of
contains ttre teaching which was received by those who were taught by affairs are the justification for our practice. For all our writings are but
Dion Fortune herself, and it is of the greatest value. Since its original as approximate symbols of that to which they point; they are indeed
publication, however, much water has passed under the bridges, and some signposts on the way. By their use, we may make direct contact with the
of the teaching of The Mystical Qabalnhis due for restatement. This has realities which now we perceive only 'bs in a glass, darkly", or, as the New
been done in two volumes entitledz4 Praaical Guide to Occult Symbolism English Bible has it, as "puzzling reflections in a mirror".
S Gareth Knight. Many ofus havebeenbrought by vision and experience to the realization
There are several other bools on the Qabalah, but they are mostly of the invisible concourse of forces; the field in which all life is working
written from the aloof intellectual angle, and are generally antagonistic to out its destiny, and it is with these forces and with Those who direct them
any esoteric ideas. For this reason I have not referred to them. Those who that mankind, consciously or otherwise is directly concerned.
are interested can locate them through the usual channels. It remains to indicale some of the books which have been written on the
The writings of Dr F. I. Regardie contain a very great deal of subject of mysticism, and here I have decided to include works which are
information on the Qabalah, as also do the four volumes of The Golden characteristic of both Christian and non-Christian mysticism.
Dawn, published by the Aries Press, Chicago. These latter need to be read Foremost in the list of books which deal with specific Christian
with discrimination, however. mysticism are the works of that great Anglican writer Evelyn Underhill.
A very interesting liftle book, The Sepher Yetzirah, by one of the Of these, the best is possibly her Mysticism. One who follows her very
founders of the Golden Dawn, the late Dr Wynn Westcott, is much deeper closely in point of value is Fr Foulaine, the Roman Catholic, whose book
than its 329 srrggests, and is best tackled after some preliminary work on The Gmces of Interior Prayer is of the greatest value to the student of the
more elementary expositions of the Qabalistic philosophy. mystical tradition. That great work by Baron F. Von Hugel, who was one
A word on esoteric publications may not be out of place here. They fall of the greatest of Roman Catholic lay theologians, The Mystical Element
into three classes; those which are, in the main the results of direct in Religion, as displayed in the lines of St Catherine of Genoa and her
personal experience on the part of their writers, those which are the result friends, is also a work of real value. We then come to Studies in Mysticism
of much careful "scissors and paste" work, and which smell much more by A.E.Waite, a finebook, thoughmarred somewhatby the peculiar style
ofthe library atmosphere than the incense ofthe Lodge, and the greater of its author. At the same time it ascends to the heights of poetic expression
numbers which are fiction of various grades. Cynics, of course, would and, indeed, sublimity.
I82 MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
We now come to non-Christian mysticism, and one of the best, serving
as a bridge between the two traditions is Rationul Mysticism S
W. Kingsland. Selections from the works of the Sufi mystic Jalah al-Din
Rumi are to be found in one of the bools entitled "The Wisdom of the
East" series. It is a compilation by F. Hadland Davis. Another Sufi mystic,
Al Ghazali is also included in "The Wisdom of the East" series of bools.
The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Chinese classic on the mystical life
translated by Wilhelm and Jung, gives an excellent idea of one of the
classic Chinese systems, whilst the various books on Zen Buddhism which
are appearing at the present day will give a ftir outline of basic Buddhist
belief.
What is really required is a work which approaches this subject from
a sympathetic but unbiased point of view, but for this I am afraid we shall
have to wait for some time.

I
 APPRENTICED TO MAGIC
AND
MAGIC S.THE QABALAH
W.E.Butler, a devoted friend and colleague of Dion Fortune,
w_al
?mong those who helped build the Society of the Inner
Light into the foremost Mystery School of its day, before
going on to found the Servants of the Light Schooi in the late
1960s. In this special compilation volume, two of Butler,s
seminai works are reprinted with a new introduction by
Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, S.O.L.'s current Director of
Studies, cementing his reputation as 'The Grand Maistre of '
English Occultism'
APPRENTICED TO MAGIC, designed to liberate the latent
magical powers we all possess, takes the form of a series of
personal instructions from a guru to his chela. The lessons
are basic exercises in meditation and the training of one,s
visualizing power and includes information orimental
exercises, magical rites.and ceremonies, astral projection and
the ancient Tree of Life.

MAGIC AND THE QABALAH is a stimulating examination

of the QBL (literally 'from mouth to ear,fand the
significance of this unwritten tradition of esoteric
knowledge over many centuries. The illuminating work
provides much food for meditation and will be helpful in
producing those changes of consciousness which are the
goals of magical art.

Together the two provide the reader with an exhilarating

contact with the mind of an esoteric craftsman, an
inestimable privilege for anyone who aspires to initiation
into Western magical practice. And if hls advice is read
properly, meditated gpon, and followed up, it will bring
those who are ready to the Doors of the l,lysterieS.

MAGIC/OCCULTISM ISBN 0-85030-961-1

UK €6.99
AUS $16.95 rrp
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