The Mystical Qabalah - Dion Fortune 2000

The Paths Upon The Tree

1. The Sepher Yetzirah refers to the Ten Sephiroth themselves, as well as the lines connecting them, as Paths, and justly so, for they are all equally channels of Divine influence; but it is usual in practical working to consider the lines between the Sephiroth only as the Paths, and the Sephiroth themselves as Spheres upon the Tree. This is one of the many tricks and blinds to be found in the Qabalistic system, for if we think of the Paths as thirty-two in number, as they are given in the Sepher Yetzirah, we shall not be able to equate them with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet which, with their numerical value and correspondences, form the key to the Paths.

2. Each Path is said to represent the equilibrium of the two Sephiroth it connects, and we have to study it in the light of our knowledge of these Sephiroth if we are to appreciate its significance. Certain symbols are also assigned to the Paths themselves. These are, as already noted, the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet; the signs of the Zodiac, the planets, and the elements. Now there are twelve signs in the Zodiac, seven planets, and four elements, making in all twenty-three symbols. How are these to be arranged on Twenty-two Paths? Here is another Qabalistic blind to puzzle the uninitiated. The answer is quite simple when it is known. Our consciousness being in the element of Earth, we do not need the symbol of earth in our calculations when we make contact with the Unseen, so we leave it out and then find ourselves with the correct set of correspondences. Malkuth is all the earth we need for practical purposes.

3. The third set of symbols to go upon the Paths are the twenty-two trumps or major arcana of the Tarot pack. With these three sets of symbols and the colours of the four colour scales, our major symbolism is complete; the minor symbolism consists of the innumerable ramifications of the correspondences through all systems and planes.

4. The Tree of Life, astrology, and the Tarot are not three mystical systems, but three aspects of one and the same system, and each is unintelligible without the others. It is only when we study astrology on the basis of the Tree that we have a philosophical system; equally does this apply to the Tarot system of divination, and the Tarot itself, with its comprehensive interpretations, gives the key to the Tree as applied to human life.

5. Astrology is so elusive because the uninitiated astrologer works on one plane only; but the initiated astrologer, with the Tree as his ground-plan, interprets on the four planes of the Four Worlds, and the effect of, shall we say, Saturn, is very different in Atziluth, where it is the Divine Mother, Binah, to what it is in Assiah.

6. All systems of divination and all systems of practical magic find their principles and philosophy based upon the Tree; whoever tries to use them without this key is like the foolhardy person who has a pharmacopoeia of patent medicines and doses himself and his friends according to the descriptions given in the advertisements, wherein backache includes every disease which does not cause pain in front. The initiate who knows his Tree is like the scientific physician who understands the principles of physiology and the chemistry of drugs, and prescribes accordingly.

7. Various methods of attributing the Tarot cards have been worked out from traditional sources. In his little book, The Key to the Tarot, A. E. Waite gives the chief of these; but refrains from indicating which, in his opinion, is the correct one. In his valuable tabulation of esoteric symbolism, “777” Crowley has no such reticence, but gives the system as it is known among initiates. This is the method I propose to follow in these pages, for I believe it to be the correct because the correspondences work out without discrepancies, a thing they do in none of the other systems.

8. According to this system, the four suits of the Tarot pack are assigned to the Four Worlds of the Qabalists and the four elements of the Alchemists. The suit of Wands is assigned to Atziluth and Fire. The suit of Cups to Briah and Water. The suit of Swords to Yetzirah and Air. The suit of Pentacles or Coins to Assiah and Earth.

9. The four aces are assigned to Kether, the first Sephirah; the four twos to Chokmah, the second Sephirah; and so on down the pack, the four tens being assigned to Malkuth. It will thus be seen that the cards of the four suits of the Tarot pack represent the action of the Divine Forces in each sphere and on each level of nature. Equally, if we know the significance of the Tarot cards we shall obtain much light on the nature of the Paths and Spheres to which they are assigned. Both these systems, the Tarot and the Tree, being of immemorial antiquity, their origins lost in the vistas of the ages, there is an enormous mass of symbolic correspondences accumulated around each of them. Every practical occultist who has ever worked with the Tree has added to this stock of associations, making the symbols live in the Astral by means of his operations. The Tree and its keys are infinite in their adaptability.

10. The four court-cards of the Tarot are called in modern packs, King, Queen, Knight, and Knave; but in the traditional packs they are, according to Crowley, arranged and symbolised differently. The King, being a mounted figure, indicating the swift action of the Yod of Tetragrammaton in the sphere of the suit; the Queen, as in the modern packs, is a seated figure, represents the steadfast forces of the He of Tetragrammaton; the Prince of the esoteric Tarot is a seated figure, corresponding to the Vau of Tetragrammaton; and the Princess, the Knave of the modern packs, correspond to the He final of the Sacred Name.

11. The twenty-two trumps are arranged in various ways by various authorities, of which Mr. Waite gives a selection, but in our system we will follow the order given by Crowley for reasons already discussed.

12. In these pages we propose to give the philosophical Tree of Life, and enough practical instruction to render it available for meditation purposes; but we do not propose to give the Practical Qabalah, which is used for magical purposes; because that can only properly be learnt and safely practised in a Temple of the Mysteries. Reference must be made to the Practical Qabalah, however, in order to render some of the concepts intelligible, but those who are rightfully in possession of its keys need have no fear that these keys will be revealed to the uninitiated in these pages, for I am quite alive to the consequences of so doing.

13. If, from the information here given, and as a result of pursuing the methods described herein, anyone is able to work out for himself the keys of the Practical Qabalah, as he well may, can any dispute that he is entitled to them?

14. The Tree is enormously valuable as a meditation glyph, quite apart from its use in magic. By meditation such as I have described in my account of my own experiences on the Thirty-second Path, it is possible to equilibrate the warring elements in one’s own nature and bring them into harmonious balance. It is also possible to get into sympathetic rapport with the different aspects of Nature which these symbols represent when applied to the Macrocosm, even if these forces are not given a definite form in talismanic magic. The information that is obtained from the study of one’s own horoscope is not to be accepted passively as the dispensation of Fate from which there is no appeal. We ought to realise that talismanic magic, or the less concentrated method of meditation upon the Tree, should be used to compensate all unbalanced force in the horoscope and bring all into equilibrium. Talismanic magic is to astrology what medical treatment is to medical diagnosis.

15. It is not possible for me to give any formulae of practical magic here; before such formulae can be made use of it is necessary to have received the grades of initiation to which they belong. Without these grades the student is no better off than the person who tries to diagnose and treat his own complaints after reading a medical textbook. That delightful humorist, Jerome K. Jerome, has told us what happens in such a case. The unfortunate imagines that he has every disease described therein, except housemaid’s knee, and cannot make up his mind as to the appropriate treatment, for everything he fancies is contra-indicated.

16. The ritual initiations of the Greater Mysteries of the Western Esoteric Tradition are based upon the principles of the Tree of Life. Each grade corresponds to a Sephirah and confers, or should confer, if the Order working them is worthy of the name, the powers of that sphere of nature. Likewise it opens up the Paths leading to that Sephirah, so that the initiate is said to be Lord of the Thirty-second Path when he has taken the initiation that corresponds to Yesod, or Lord of the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-sixth Paths when he has taken the initiation corresponding to Tiphareth, which constitutes him a full initiate. Beyond this lie the higher grades of adepthood.

17. The aim of each grade of initiation of the Greater Mysteries is to introduce the candidate to the Sphere of each Sephirah in turn, working from Malkuth up the T ree. The instructions given in each grade concern the symbolism and forces of the Sphere to which it refers and the Paths that equilibrate it. The sign and word of the grade are used when treading these Paths in the spirit-vision or projecting by them on the astral plane. Consequently the initiate is able to move with accuracy and certainty into whatsoever sphere of the Unseen he desires to penetrate, and to countercheck all beings he meets and all visions he sees, for he knows what the colours of the Paths are in all four scales, and he checks his vision by these. If he is working up the Thirty-second path of Saturn, whose colours are all in the sombre hues of indigo, dark blue and black, he knows that something is amiss if a scarlet-robed figure presents itself. Either that figure is illusive, or he himself has wandered off the Path.

18. To project the astral body along the Paths it is necessary for many reasons to hold the degrees of initiation to which they correspond; chief among which is that, unless one has received the grade, one will be unknown to guardians of the Paths, and they will be inimical rather than helpful, and do all in their power to turn the wanderer back. Secondly, if one should succeed in forcing one’s way past the guardian, one still has no means of counterchecking the vision or knowing whether one is on or off the Path, and there are plenty of beings in the lower sphere who are only too ready to take advantage of presumptuous ignorance.

19. These considerations, however, need in no way discourage anyone who wishes to meditate upon the Paths and Spheres in the manner I have described; and in the course of his meditations he may so enter into the spirit of the Path that its guardian shall come to know him and make him welcome. He will then literally have initiated himself, and no one can deny his right to be there.

20. The Tree, considered from the initiatory standpoint, is the link between the microcosm, which is man, and the Macrocosm, which is God made manifest in Nature. A ritual initiation is the act of linking the microcosmic Sephirah, the chakra, with the Macrocosmic Sephirah; it is the introduction of a newcomer to the Sphere by those who are already there. They construct a symbolic representation of the Sphere on the physical plane in the furniture of the temple; they construct an astral replica of it by concentrated imagination; and by means of invocation they call down into this temple not made with hands the forces of the Sphere of the Sephirah they are working upon.

21. These forces stimulate the corresponding chakras of the initiate and wake them to activity in his aura. The process of self-initiation by the meditations I have described is slower than the processes of ritual initiation, but it is sure enough if persevered with by a suitable person, but one cannot teach a jelly-fish to sing by feeding it on canary-seed.