The Mystical Qabalah - Dion Fortune 2000
Practical Work Upon The Tree
1. If among the readers who have followed these studies in the Qabalah thus far there are any of the more advanced students of Western occultism, they will no doubt have found much more that is familiar than is new or original. In working upon this storehouse of ancient knowledge we are in the position of excavators working on the site of a buried temple; we are digging up fragments rather than studying a coherent system; for the system, though coherent enough in its heyday, was broken and scattered and defaced by the persecutions of twenty centuries or unenlightened bigotry and spiritual jealousy.
2. More work has been done upon these scattered fragments than is generally realised, however. Mme. Blavatsky gathered together a great mass of data and exposed it to the gaze of a public which understood it little better than the child gazing at the cases in a museum and marvelling at the queer things they contain. The scholarly work of G. R. S. Mead has given us much information concerning the Gnosis, the esoteric tradition of the Western world during the earlier centuries of our epoch; Mrs. Atwood’s monumental book has revealed the significance of the Alchemical symbolism to us. None of these, however, have expounded the Western Tradition as initiates of that Tradition, but have approached it from outside and either pieced together its fragments, or, as in the case of Mme. Blavatsky, interpreted it by analogy in the light of the more familiar system of another Tradition.
3. Those who approached the study of the subject from the inside—that is to say, with the initiatory keys—and employed it as a practical system for the exaltation of consciousness have, for the most part, maintained a secrecy which, though it might have been not only justifiable and even essential in the days when the Holy Inquisition rewarded such researches with the stake, is difficult to assign to any more creditable motive in our liberal age than a desire to create and maintain prestige. A very effectual “corner” in occult practice, if not in occult knowledge, has been established and maintained among English-speaking peoples for the last quarter of a century. A “corner” that effectually defeated the spiritual impulse which should have given rise to a renaissance of the Mysteries during the last quarter of the last century. Consequently, the earth being ripe for the sowing and the wheat not being broadcast therein, the four winds brought strange seeds to the waiting ground, and a tropical growth sprang up that, having no roots in racial tradition, withered away or developed strange forms.
4. The buried temple of our native tradition has in actuality been excavated in part at any rate, but the rescued fragments have not been made available for students according to the honourable traditions of European scholarship, but have been gathered together into private collections the keys whereof have rested in the pockets of individuals who have opened and closed the doors in an entirely arbitrary fashion. I have no doubt these pages will cause heart-burnings in certain quarters whose private collections they depreciate in value. But I have no doubt also that the innumerable students who essayed the Western Path in vain may find in these pages the keys to what was incomprehensible to them in the method, or perhaps, to be more accurate, the complete lack of method, in which they were trained. Speaking for myself, it took me ten years’ work in the dark before I found the keys, and I only found these in the end because I was sufficiently psychic to pick up the Inner Plane contacts. I find it difficult to believe that any useful purpose is served by deliberately darkening counsel or by withholding from the student keys and explanations that are essential to his work. If the student is unworthy to be trained, do not let us train him. If he is to be trained at all, let us train him properly.
5. In the following pages I have done my best to elucidate the principles governing the use of magical symbolism. The practical use of the ceremonial method is best attempted under the guidance of one who is already experienced in its use; to work alone or with equally inexperienced comrades is to run unnecessary risks, but there is no reason why anyone should not experiment with the meditative method.
6. In order to use the magical symbols effectually one has to make the contact of each individual symbol. It is of little use to make a list of symbols and proceed to the construction of a ritual. In magic, as in violin-playing, one has to “make one’s notes”; one does not find them readymade as on the piano. The student of the violin has to learn to make each individual note before he can play an air. So it is with any occult operation, we must know how to construct and contact the magical images before we can work with them.
7. The sets of symbols associated with each of the Thirty-two Paths are used by the initiate to build up the magical images; it is necessary that he should know these symbols not only in theory, but also in practice; that is to say, he must not only have them thoroughly well rooted in his memory, but must also have performed meditations upon them individually until he has penetrated their significance and experienced the force they represent. To know the vast range of symbols associated with each Path is, of course, the work of a lifetime, but the student must learn the key-symbols of each Path as the essential preliminary to his studies; he is then able to recognise all other symbol-forms as they come his way and assign them to their proper classification. His knowledge will thus develop under two aspects: firstly, the knowledge of the symbolism in its infinite ramifications; and secondly, the philosophy of the interpretation of that symbolism. Once he has mastered a working knowledge of the concepts of esoteric cosmogony and has the general scheme of symbolism assigned to each Sephirah well fixed in his memory, the student is equipped with a card-index system and can commence filing, collecting the material for his files from every imaginable source in archeology, folk-lore, mystical religion, travellers’ tales, and the speculations of ancient and modern philosophy and ultramodern science.
8. The uninitiated inquirer may wonder how the enormous mass of data is kept sorted in the memory. To begin with, the serious student who uses the Tree as his meditation method works at it regularly every day. Moreover, it will be found by experience that the assignation of symbols to each Sephirah has a peculiar logical basis, hidden somewhere deep in the subconscious mind, and the symbol-sequences are not nearly so difficult to remember as might be supposed, especially if they have been used for meditation. Some of the symbols refer to the concepts of esoteric philosophy, some to the methods of projecting consciousness in vision, and some to the composing of ceremonial. The student must remember, however, that the symbols will never yield their significance to conscious meditation alone, however correctly and completely they are known; they must be used as the initiates intended them to be used, to evoke images from the subconscious mind into conscious content.
9. One set of symbols is assigned to the Ten Holy Sephiroth themselves, and another set to the Twenty-two Paths that connect them. Some of the symbols, however, occur in both sets, and all of them interconnect through their astrological and numerical correlations. This sounds most perplexingly complex, but in actual practice it is far simpler than it sounds, because the work is not done with the conscious mind, but with the subconscious mind, and it matters very little in what manner the symbols are pitch-forked into it, the strange demon that sits behind the censor sorts them out, picking that which it requires and rejecting all else, until finally a coherent pattern reappears in consciousness that only requires analysis to yield its significance after the same manner as a dream.
10. A vision evoked by the use of the Tree is, in fact, an artificially produced waking dream, deliberately motived and consciously related to some chosen subject whereby not only the subconscious content, but also the superconscious perceptions are evoked and rendered intelligible to consciousness. In a spontaneous dream the symbols are drawn at random from experience; in the Qabalistic vision, however, the picture is evoked from a limited set of symbols to which consciousness is rigidly restricted by a highly trained habit of concentration. It is this peculiar power to turn the mind loose within determined limits which constitutes the technique of occult meditation, and it is only to be acquired by constant practice over a considerable period. It is this which constitutes the difference between the trained and the untrained occultist; the untrained person may be able to detach consciousness from the control of the directing personality and thus allow the images to rise, but he has no power to restrict and select what shall appear, and consequently anything may appear, including a varying proportion of subconscious content. The trained occultist, however, accustomed to use this method in his meditations, is able to swing instantly clear of the normal subconscious content unless it is disturbed by emotion, in which case he is liable to be entangled in its meshes; but even in this case his method is his protection, for he is immediately able to recognise confused symbolism in the images because he has a definite standard of comparison with which to compare them.
11. In studying the Tree the student should always think of each Sephirah under the threefold aspect we have already mentioned of philosophy, psychism, and magic; to this end he should always think of it firstly as representing a certain factor in the evolution of the cosmos in the immemorial past of cosmic time, whether it remains in manifestation, has passed away, or has not yet arrived at the level of dense matter.
12. With this aspect of the Tree are also taken the curious cryptic texts of the Sepher Yetzirah, one to each Path. These most baffling utterances have a curious way of yielding sudden flashes of illumination to meditation and are by no means to be rejected as rubbish, incomprehensible though they may appear at first sight.
13. Another source of illumination is to be found in the additional titles of the Sephiroth, each of which has anything from one to two or three dozen. These are graphic descriptive names applied to the various Sephiroth by the ancient Rabbis and found scattered through the Qabalistic literature, and they tell us a great many things. For instance, the titles “Concealed of the Concealed” and “Primordial Point” that are applied to Kether convey a good deal to those who know where to look for it.
14. We can also, once we are acquainted with the symbolism, assign to the various Sephiroth their equivalent gods in other systems, and when we look up the symbols, functions, cosmic concepts, and methods of worship assigned to these deities we get a fresh flood of illumination. By the use of a good mythological dictionary or an encyclopaedia, Frazer’s Golden Bough, and Mme. Blavatsky’s SecretDoctrine and Isis Unveiled, we can, by the mere application of diligence, read a great many riddles that at first appeared insoluble, and the exercise is a fascinating one. When used thus the Tree is peculiarly valuable, because its diagrammatic form causes things to be seen in relation to each other, thus causing them to throw light upon each other.
15. In order to manipulate the psychic aspect of the Tree and its Paths the occultist uses images, because it is by means of images and the names that evoke them that vision is formulated. He associates with each Sephirah a primary symbol, which is called its Magical Image. Secondly, he associates with it in his mind a geometrical form which, in various ways, embodies its characteristics, and when he composes symbols he uses that form as the basis. For instance, Geburah, Mars, the Fifth Sephirah, has assigned to it a pentagon or five-sided figure. Any symbol of Geburah, whether it be a talisman, an altar to Mars, or a mental picture of a symbol, would be in the form of a pentagon coloured in one of the colours of the Mars colour scale.
16. The most important forms upon the Tree, however, are those associated with the four Names of Power assigned to each Sephirah; with these are associated four colours in which they are conceived to manifest in a symbolic form in each of the Four Worlds of the Qabalists. The highest of these is the God-name, which manifests in Atziluth, the plane of spirit, and is the supreme Name of Power of that Sephirothic Sphere and dominates all its aspects, whether cosmic, evolutionary, or subjective. It represents the idea underlying the development of manifestation in that Sphere; the idea that runs through all subsequent evolution and expresses itself in all ensuing effects and manifestations.
17. The second Name of Power is that of the Archangel of the Sphere, and represents the organised consciousness of the being through the activities of which the evolution of that phase was inaugurated and directed. Although these beings are represented pictorially as of human form, though etherealised, it must not be thought that life and consciousness as we know them in any way correspond to their nature. They are more akin in essence to natural forces, yet if we consider them simply as unintelligent energy we shall have no adequate concept of their nature, because they are essentially individualised, intelligent, and purposive. Both these ideas must enter into our concept, modifying each other, till finally we shall arrive at a realisation that differs very widely from anything to which Western thought is accustomed.
18. The third Name of Power denominates, not one being, but a whole class of beings, the choirs of angels as they are called by the rabbis, and these again represent intelligent natural forces.
19. The fourth denominates what we have called the Mundane Chakra, that is to say the celestial object which is looked upon as the product of the particular phase of evolution which took place under the presidency of that Sephirah and which represents it.
20. The third aspect under which we consider the Sephiroth is the magical aspect and is essentially practical. To arrive at this, we think of what may be experienced under the presidency of these different aspects of deity-manifestation, and what powers may be wielded by the magician when he has mastered their lessons.
21. Each Sephirah has assigned to it a virtue, which represents its ideal aspect, the gift which it brings to evolution; and a vice which is the result of the overplus of its qualities. For instance, Geburah, Mars, has for its virtues energy and courage, and for its vices cruelty and destructiveness. The student of astrology will at once recognise that the virtues and vices attributed to the various Sephiroth are derived from the characteristics of the planets associated with them, and will find that in this correspondence a whole new line of approach to astrology is opened up.
22. The spiritual experience as I prefer to call it, or occult power as Crowley calls it, is a profound realisation or vision of some aspect of cosmic science. This constitutes the essence of the initiation of the grade assigned to each Sephirah, for in the Greater Mysteries of the West the grades are associated with the Sephiroth.
23. The mediaeval Qabalists also assigned a part of the body to each Sephirah, but this must not be taken too literally; the real key is to be found in the realisation that the different Sephiroth represent factors in consciousness, and if we take Geburah as the strong right arm, we must realise that it really means the dynamic will, the executive capacity, the destruction of the effete and unbalanced.
24. Each Sephirah and Path has assigned to it symbolic animals, plants, and precious stones. It is necessary that the student should know these for two reasons: firstly, they give some very important keys to the relations of the gods of the different pantheons to the Sephiroth; and secondly, they form part of the symbolism of the Astral Paths and serve as landmarks when travelling in the spirit-vision. For instance, if one saw a horse (Mars) or a jackal (Luna) in the sphere of Netzach (Venus), one would know that there was confusion of plane and the vision was not reliable. In her Sphere one would expect to see her doves, and a spotted beast, such as a lynx or leopard.
25. It may be thought that the association of the symbolic beasts with the gods and goddesses in the old myths is entirely arbitrary and the fruit of the poetic imagination, which, like the wind, bloweth where it listeth. To this the occultist answers that the poetic imagination is not an arbitrary thing and refers the sceptic to the works of Dr. Jung of Zurich, the famous psychiatrist, and to the essays of the Irish poet, “A. E.,” in particular Song and its Fountains, wherein he analyses the nature of his own sources of inspiration. From the intrinsic nature of his poetry, and from many passing references in his works, I think we may be entitled to claim “A. E.” as one of that band of students who have been nurtured on the mystical Qabalah. At any rate, what he has to say is sound Qabalistic doctrine and extremely illuminating to our present argument.
26. Dr. Jung has a great deal to say concerning the myth-making faculty of the human mind, and the occultist knows it to be true. He knows also, however, that its implications are much farther reaching than psychology has yet suspected. The mind of poet or mystic, dwelling upon the great natural forces and factors of the manifested universe, has, by the creative use of the imagination, penetrated far more deeply into their secret causes and springs of being than has the scientist; it is not for nothing that the racial imagination, working thus, has come to associate certain animals with certain gods; a brief examination of the examples cited serves to show the basis of the association. The doves of Venus show her gentler aspect, and the cat-beasts her sinister beauty.
27. The association of plants with the different Paths rests upon a twofold basis. Firstly, there are plants traditionally associated with the legends of the gods, as is corn with Ceres and the vine with Dionysos; these we find associated with the Sephiroth, with which the functions of these gods are correlated—corn with Malkuth and the vine with Tiphareth, the Christ-centre, wherewith are associated all the Sacrificed Gods and the givers of illumination.
28. Plants are also associated with the Sephiroth in another way; the old doctrine of signatures assigned various plants to the presidency of various planets in a somewhat erratic fashion. In some cases there was a genuine association, in others it was arbitrary and superstitious. Old Culpepper and other ancient herbalists have a great deal to say on the subject, and some very interesting researches are being done on the Anthroposophical experimental farms.
29. In a similar way certain drugs are associated with the different Sephiroth; and here again we need to distinguish the superstitious from the mystical. The arbitrary attribution of drugs cannot always be justified by actual experiment, but we may safely say that whole classes of drugs could be regarded as under the presidency of certain Sephiroth because they partake of the nature of certain modes of activity which are classified under these Sephiroth. For instance, all aphrodisiacs could justly be assigned to Netzach (Venus), and all abortifacients to Yesod in her Hecate aspect; analgesics to Chesed (Mercy), and irritants and caustics to Geburah (Severity).
30. This opens up a very interesting aspect of the study of materia medica—the psychic and psychological aspect of drug activity. It was this aspect which was especially studied by the initiate-physicians such as Paracelsus, and it was the ignorant and superstitious abuse of this aspect by uninitiated physicians that led to the extraordinary aberrations of folk-medicine.
31. The occultist knows that there is a psychological aspect to every physiological action and function; he also knows that it is possible powerfully to reinforce the action of all drugs by the appropriate mental action, and that certain chemically inert substances lend themselves effectually to the transmission and storing of mental activities, just as other substances are effectual conductors or insulators of electricity.
32. This consideration brings us to the question of the association of certain precious stones and metals with the different Sephiroth, an association determined by both astrological and alchemical considerations. As is well known to psychics, crystalline substances, metals, and certain liquids are the best media for conveying or storing subtle forces. Colour plays an important part in the visions induced by meditation on the various Sephiroth, and it is found by experience that a crystal of the appropriate colour is the best material out of which to make a talisman: a blood-red ruby for the fiery Martian forces of Geburah; an emerald for the Green Ray nature forces of Netzach.
33. Perfumes, especially incense, are also associated with the different Sephiroth. As has already been noted, certain spiritual experiences and certain modes of consciousness are assigned to each Sphere on the Tree; it is well known that nothing induces states of mind or stimulates psychic consciousness more effectually than odours. “Scents are surer than sights or sounds to make your heart-strings crack,” says the most objective of poets, and the experience of practical occultists proves this to be true. There are certain aromatic substances associated by tradition with the different gods and goddesses, and these are most effectually potent to stimulate the mood which is in harmony with the function of that deity.
34. Magical weapons are also included in the long lists of symbols and substances associated with each Path. A magical weapon is an instrument of some sort which is used in the evocation of a particular force, or is the vehicle of its manifestation, such as the rod of the magician or the bowl of water or crystal sphere of the seer. The assignation of the magical weapons to the Paths tells us a good deal about the nature of the Paths, because we can deduce therefrom the kind of power that operates in the particular sphere in question.
35. As already noted, the various divinatory systems have their relations with the Tree and find their subtlest clues therein. The associations of astrology are readily traced through the symbolism of the planets and elements and their triplicities, houses, and rulership; geomancy links with the Tree via astrology; and the Tarot, the most satisfactory of all the systems of divination, rises from and finds its explanation in the Tree and nowhere else. That may seem a dogmatic statement to the scholarly historian searching for traces of the origin of those mysterious cards, and, may we add, most lamentably failing to find it; but when it is realised that the initiate works the Tarot and the Tree together, and that they dovetail into each other at every imaginable angle, it will be seen that such an array of correspondences could be neither arbitrary nor fortuitous.
36. A most interesting and important aspect of the practical work of the Tree concerns the manner in which ceremonial and talismanic magic are used to compensate the findings of the divinatory sciences. Each prick-symbol of geomancy, each card of the Tarot, and each horoscopic factor have their places assigned to them on the Paths of the Tree, and the occultist with the necessary knowledge can put together a ritual or design a talisman to compensate or reinforce each and any of these.
37. It is for this reason that divination by the uninitiated is apt to bring bad luck in its train, for it stirs the subtle forces by concentrating the mind upon them, without compensating that which is out of equilibrium by the appropriate magical effort.
