The Mystical Qabalah - Dion Fortune 2000
General Considerations
1. In Part I we considered the general scheme and method of using the Qabalistic Tree of Life. We now come to the detailed study of the individual Sephiroth. This study must necessarily be tentative, for a life’s research could be given to the significance of the correspondences that spread in endless ramifications from every symbol associated with each Sephirah. But a start must be made, hence these tentative jottings; for I do not consider the following chapters on the individual Sephiroth worthy to be called anything better than this, even though they are the fruit of ten years’ meditation on that marvelous composite symbol.
2. The Tables of Correspondences at the head of each section consist of a selection of the principal symbols and ideas associated with each Sephirah, and have no claim whatsoever to comprehensiveness. They contain, however, the more significant symbols, and are sufficient to enable the student to gain a sound philosophical grasp of the subject, and experiment for himself in the use of the Tree as a meditation symbol.
3. The references are taken chiefly from “777,” by Aleister Crowley, who got them from the MacGregor Mathers MSS. Mathers, so far as I have been able to trace his references, for he gives no authorities, drew upon the work of Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelly; Cornelius Agrippa; Raymond Lully and Pietro de Abano among the earlier writers. Among the moderns the same material is found scattered through the works of Knorr von Rosenroth; Wynn Westcott; Eliphas Levi; Mrs. Atwood; Mme. Blavatsky; Anna Kingsford; Mabel Collins; Papus (Encausse); St. Martin; Gerald Massey; G. R. S. Mead, and many others. To some of these it is probable he was indebted; others may have been indebted to him; some of them were actually members of the Order of the Golden Dawn which he founded.
4. Other sources of information are Frazer’s Golden Bough; the works of Wallis Budge; the writings of Drs. Jung and Freud; the translations of Dr. Jowett from the Greek; the Sacred Books of the East Series, the Loeb Classical Library; the translation of Plotinus by Stephen MacKenna; the translation of the Zohar issued by the Soncino Press; and last, but by no means the least valuable source of information, the Holy Bible. So much for occult secrecy!
5. It will be seen that the symbols assigned to each Sephirah are classified in regular order under certain headings. To understand the significance attached to these different sections by the occultist and the use he makes of them it is necessary to explain the method of classification in detail.
6. SECTION 1. The Title assigned to the Sephirah.—Its name is given first in Hebrew and then in English, and the Hebrew spelling appended. The accurate spelling of all proper names used in the Qabalah is vitally important because of the numerical value attached to them by the Qabalists and the use made of the significance of these numbers by those who work the numerological methods. I am neither a numerologist nor a mathematician, and I do not therefore propose to comment on that which lies outside the sphere of my knowledge. I merely give the data for the convenience of those who can appreciate its significance.
7. SECTION 2. The Magical Image and the Symbols associated with each Sephirah.—The magical image is the mental picture which the occultist builds up to represent the Sephirah, and its details yield many significant symbols to meditation. These images are so old, and have been built with such a wealth of magical working, that they are apt to build themselves up of their own accord during meditation upon the Sephiroth. In the course of my own work on the Qabalah I saw most of them long before I had access to the tables that gave them. In practical working the initiated adept builds them detailed symbolism, and it is a very valuable magical exercise up to practise the visualisation of the magical images in their fullest detail. Much of this detail can be gleaned from the accounts I give of each Sephirah, but readers who have specialised knowledge of the Eastern or classical pantheons any can elaborate these images to any extent, surrounding them with all the paraphernalia of the gods assigned to each Station on the Tree; these can be identified through their astrological associations.
8. SECTION 3. The Situation on the Tree.—This throws an immense amount of light upon any meditation, for it reveals the equilibrium of the spiritual forces working in nature. For instance, Geburah (Mars) and Chesed or Gedulah (Jupiter) are opposite each other upon the Tree. The warrior king and the wise and benign lawgiver of peace balance each other. Geburah when unbalanced becomes cruelty and oppression, and Gedulah when unbalanced suffers evil to multiply.
9. SECTION 4. The Yetziratic Text.—This consists of the description of the Sphere or Path given in the Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formations. The translation I have used is that of Wynn Westcott.
10. These descriptions are exceedingly cryptic, but they will from time to time yield a flash of inspiration, and undoubtedly contain the essence of the Qabalistic philosophy.
11. SECTION 5. Descriptive Titles.—A catalogue of the names that have been applied to that particular Sephirah in the Rabbinical literature. These throw great light on the subject and are also useful to the student for purposes of reference when tracing out the ideas associated with a particular Sephirah.
12. SECTION 6. The Names of Power assigned to each Sephira.—The God-name represents the most spiritual form of the force and is conceived of as representing the functioning of that force in the Kingdom of Atziluth, the highest of the Four Kingdoms of the Qabalists.
13. The Archangelic Names represent the functioning of a force in Briah, the Kingdom of the higher mind, are the archetypal ideas.
14. Angelic choirs correspond to the Kingdom of or the Astral Plane, and the Mundane Chakras are representatives of each force in the Kingdom of Assiah—the Material Plane.
15. What I call in my tables the spiritual experience assigned to each Sephirah is called by Crowley the magical power—whereas this term may be rightly assigned to the Twenty-two paths, it is misleading when applied to the Sephiroth. I have changed the term in relation to the Sephiroth themselves, but retained it in reference to the Paths for reasons which will presently be seen.
16. SECTION 7. The Virtues and Vices assigned to each Sephirah of the Tree.—These indicate the qualities necessary in order to take the initiation of that grade, and the form that is taken by any unbalanced force in that sphere. In the highest grade of all, before form is developed, there is no correspondence.
17. SECTION 8. Correspondence in Microcosm.—The microcosm—which is man, corresponds with the Sephirothic macrocosm, and is important from many practical standpoints, particularly that of spiritual healing and astrology.
18. SECTION 9. The Four Suits of the Tarot Pack.—The assignation of the Tarot cards to the Tree opens up immense ranges of practical importance and forms the philosophical basis of the divinatory art.
19. If the reader keeps these explanations in mind, he will be able to follow the lines of reasoning and allusion developed in the elucidation of the symbolism assign to each Sephirah.
20. There is an immense work to be done in correlating the different polytheistic pantheons and the angelologies of Christian, Hebrew, and Mohammedan faiths with the classifications of the Tree. This has been done tentatively by Crowley, and is, I fancy, original work and not derived from Mathers. Its implications are not altogether clear to me, and I doubt if I could subscribe to all of them. An immensely wide range of scholarship is necessary for the satisfactory accomplishment of this branch, a range of scholarship which I do not possess. I shall therefore content myself with touching upon such points as have come within the range of my knowledge and make no attempt in the present pages at an ordered classification.
21. SECTION 10. The Flashing Colours.—This is only of use to advanced students who possess the necessary keys.
