Qabalah: (A brief overview)

 Qabalah: (A brief overview)

 

“Do what thou wilt is the whole of the Law.”

The QBL can be traced back to about the first or second centuries in written form, although we believe that it existed as an oral tradition for a long time before that. The first book written on the subject is called the Sepher Yetzirah and was written in the first or second century as stated above. Authorship of this text was first accredited to Moses in the Bible, but was more than likely to hide the identity of the true author. Qabalah means Oral Tradition or Received Tradition and this term comes from the fact that the information was passed down in this way from teacher to student. It wasn’t until the Middle Ages during the 13 Century when the Sepher Zohar was written by a Rabbi Moses de Leon. Although the dates of authorship for these two books have been disputed, as well as the identity of the authors themselves, this to my knowledge is the best timeline wherein to put these texts.

Two of the major influences of this tradition are Neo-Platonism of the Greeks and the Markabah tradition of the Jews. Both of these traditions seek to attain enlightenment through attaining oneness with God. Plotinus is the founder of Neo-Platonism and it is within his theology that we find a remarkably similar schematic of the Four Worlds of the Qabalah. He posited that there are four levels or worlds that one needs to attain union with until finally attaining Henosis or mystical oneness, these four worlds are The One/The Nous, The Divine Mind/The All Soul and The Soul/Matter. Plotinus taught developing what he termed the Luminous Body, which in modern terms is called the astral body. In Plotinus’s method, emphasis is placed on ethics and meditation techniques, not dissimilar to Yoga, this included contemplating for example, the nature of Love and Beauty. The Markabah tradition’s method is that of creating a chariot that descends to the Seven Heavens until coming face to face with God. This chariot that is said to be constructed of and protected by Angels with the mystic seated inside, is the Jewish equivalent of the Luminous Body, as taught by the Neo-Platonists. The Markabah tradition focused on vibrating divine names associated with the construction of the chariot, and this method is still used in QBL practice today, however we no longer liken the astral body to a chariot.

In the Qabalah, Plotinus’ terminology for the Four Worlds have been changed, but the correspondences remain similar. Qabalistically the worlds are called in descending order, Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Asiah, these Four Worlds also correspond to the ineffable name which in QBL is called the Tetragrammaton. It is with the idea of these worlds that we may begin to understand the schematic known as the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life serves as a representation of the symbolism found in the QBL, whereby we can compartmentalize these ideas. The four worlds therefore correspond to what is called the Triads and the Sephirot. On the tree there are ten Spheres, these are called Sephirot. Along with the Sephirot we have the twenty-two paths that connect the spheres and together the ten Sephirot and the twenty-two paths are called the Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom. These thirty-two paths serve to explain man’s relationship to the magickal universe as outlining the hierarchical structure of the celestial realm. The twenty-two paths are also correspondent to the Hebrew alphabet while the Sephirot are associated with the Four worlds and the ineffable name, along with countless other correspondences these make up the Tree of Life and serves as the foundation of the Hermetic Tradition as it’s practiced today.

As mentioned before, the four worlds represent the three triads on the tree, these are called the Supernal Triad, the Ethical Triad and the Astral Triad, the last letter of the ineffable name is He final and corresponds to Malkuth. Malkuth is the tenth sephirah on the tree and represents the world of matter. Next is the Astral Triad and is composed of Yesod, Hod, Netzach, the Moon, Mercury and Venus respectively and correspond to the Hebrew letter Vau. The Ethical Triad is made up of Tiphareth, Geburah and Chesed, these are the spheres of the Sun, Mars and Jupiter and the letter associated is He. Lastly, we have the Supernal Triad and the Spheres that make up this Triad is Binah, Chokmah and Kether and the first letter of the Ineffable Name Yod. This is the basic structure of the Tree of Life and by the aid of this schematic we may study its different correspondences and gain a greater understanding of our place in the universe.

Next there are the ways in which the information found on the Tree of Life may be put into practice, there is the Practical Qabalah and the Literal Qabalah. The Literal Qabalah is made up of Temura, Notariqon and Gematria. These techniques are designed to connect different ideas with each other, especially when studying Holy Books, as these are said to be Divinely inspired and through these techniques their anagogic validity may be tested. The Practical Qabalah are all the ways that we put this information into practice, this may be as simple as a Pentagram ritual or it might involve summoning angels or constructing Talismans. Vibrating divine names, a method to build up the astral body, forms a big part of this practice, and things like the Pentagram rituals are practiced every day.

Besides all this we have the veils of Negative Existence, these do not usually enter our contemplations when dealing with the Qabalah as these veils are very hard to understand and represent three forms of Nothingness. The Universe is said to have originated from these three forms of Nothing and they are called Ain (Nothing), Ain Soph (Limitless) and Ain Soph Aur (Limitless Light). They are represented above Kether as three veils drawn as lines with their names. Very little has been written on these veils of non-existence, so the above description should suffice for the utility of this essay.   

I hope this essay has helped in some way and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

“Love is the law, love under will.”