Appendix
The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. There are a number of variants of this ritual, which was the primary practical work of Golden Dawn Initiates until their attainment of the grade of Adeptus Minor. It pre-dates even its Jewish origins, and is to be found in a ancient Babylonian text where the individual summons the four major deities to each of the four quarters to protect them. In essence, it is a statement of separation and preparation for esoteric work, but in daily life it is...
Chapter Eleven Hod The Crystal Watercourse
In the Psyche, Hod is the Intellect as balanced against the Sephirah of the Emotions, Netzach. The Alchemical Hermaphrodite is composed of these two Sephiroth, as Hermes represents the Mind, and Aphrodite the Emotions. Thus Hod is specifically the power of the mind, the thoughts and the mental will. It acts as a lower arc of Chockmah, the Divine Will, and a lower level of Geburah, discrimination, and Binah, understanding. All these are reflected in the process of thought, as we structuralise...
Chapter One The Tree of Sapphires
Voices of the Word, Leaves of the Light The Kabbalah (a Hebrew word meaning handed down, or oral tradition) is the term used to denote a general set of esoteric or mystical teachings originally held within Judaism, but later promulgated to a wider audience in the 12th century onwards through centres of learning such as Spain. It consists of a body of teachings and analysis dealing with the nature of the Universe, the aspects of divinity, and the method of creation. From this set of teachings is...
Chapter Sixteen The Twenty Two Paths
Dion Fortune states that It is the Sephiroth alone that represent natural forces the Paths are states of Consciousness The Sephiroth are objective and the Paths are subjective. Kabbalah does differentiate between the essential nature of the Sephiroth and Paths, but also maintains their similarity in the divine process by referring to the whole system as thirty-two Paths. The immediate difference is represented by the glyph of the Tree, which indicates the Sephiroth as spheres, and the Paths as...
Threefold System
Sattva Goodness Maiden (First Quarter) - Mary, Isis, Nephthys Rajas Passion Mother (Full Moon) - Venus, Aphrodite, Nike Tamas Darkness Crone (Third Quarter) - Kalli, Lilith Other forms of the feminine associated with Binah range from the Shekinah, the indwelling presence of God (also associated with Malkuth as the unwedded soul), to Babalon, the Great Whore or Scarlet Woman, deified by Crowley in his elaborate symbology as the Lady Babalon, nursing the Babe of the Abyss in the City of Pyramids...
Chapter Nineteen The Rituals of the Sapphire Temple
The following rituals have been composed to demonstrate the application of Kabbalistic methods in the production of magical ceremonies. Each ritual is based around the letters that compose the title of the Sephiroth to which the ritual is allocated. In addition, the letters of the implements and furnishing of the ritual have been analysed to provide further expansion of their functions. Such analysis is useful to the Magician using Kabbalah, but each individual must develop their own basic...
Chapter Two The Sephiroth and the Four Worlds
As discussed within Chapter One, each Sephirah descends into itself in an infinite regression, creating a recursive fractal pattern. However, each Sephirah within itself contains a complex of aspects. That is a A concealed aspect that exists even before its manifestation or emanation as a Sephirah. If we see the Sephiroth as prisms reflecting the light in ways particular to their own structure, we can see that each prism is equally a limited perspective, a layer of reality convenient to the...
Chapter Seventeen The Psyche A Curtain of Souls
All cosmologies include some attempts to describe and model the elements that constitute the human experience. Their complexity and lucidity varies from culture to culture, and often models are variations on a theme, or expanded versions of earlier systems. The simplest model might well be that implied in Descarte's famous dictum, cogito ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. His model further includes a dubious proof for the existence of God, thereby composing the most basic dualistic system of...
Chapter Seven Chesed The Unicorn at the Waystation
Chesed, the fourth Sephirah, is most often translated as Mercy, or Loving Kindness. The translations include Mercy, grace, piety, beauty, good-will, favour, benefit, love, kindness, charity, righteousness, benevolence, to do good, to show oneself kind, to insult, reproach. Thus, in general it signifies the giving forth aspect of the Universe or the merciful king aspect of God. Chesed is also called GDVLH, Gedulah , meaning Greatness or magnificance, and is referred to under this aspect in the...
Chapter Five Chockmah The Quarry of Devotion
Chockmah, meaning wisdom, is the second Sephirah in the lightning flash descent of the Tree of Life, and takes its place at the top of the positive pillar. It is negative only in respect of Kether, from whom it receives its influence Mezla , and positive in respect of Binah Understanding , the third Sephirah. It connects to Kether, Binah, Tiphareth and Chesed, and the linking paths have the following Tarot cards attributed to them Fool, Empress, Emperor, and Hierophant. In the Berakhot 7a , it...
Chapter Fifteen Gematria
Gematria is one of the rules for interpreting the Torah, and is partially a high-level system of numerology. It is defined by Scholem as, explaining a word or group of words according to the numerical value of the letters, or of substituting other letters of the alphabet for them in accordance with a set system. All Hebrew letters are equally values and words, so for example the letter Aleph, signifying A, also means one, as well as being a word meaning ox. The table given lists the major...
Chapter Thirteen Malkuth The Kingdom of the Shells
The tenth path is called the Resplendent Intelligence because it is exalted above every head and sits upon the throne of Binah. It illuminates the splendours of all the lights, and causes an influence to emanate from the Prince of Countenances, the Angel of Kether. Sepher Yetzirah Malkuth, in Hebrew MLKVTh Mem, Lamed, Kaph, Vau, Tau , translates as Kingdom and reign, and is the name of the tenth Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. An examination of the letters that compose this word may shed light...
Chapter Ten Netzach The Rose in the Lamplight
The Sepher Yetzirah deems Netzach, the Hidden Intelligence, for it pours forth a brilliant splendour onto all intellectual virtues which are looked upon with the eyes of the spirit and the ecstasy of faith. In most readings, Netzach is described as the seat of the emotions, partnering Hod, the seat of the Intellect. As the base of the Positive Pillar, and as the first of the Sephiroth in the Creative Process below the Veil of Paroketh, Netzach functions as Nature's Dynamo, storing and...
Chapter Twelve Yesod The Hall of Mirrors
Yesod means Foundation, and also base, ground, principle or compilation. It is the base of the third and final triad of the Tree, and connects Tiphareth to Malkuth on the Middle Pillar. It is also connected directly to Hod and Netzach. The letters of Yesod, Yod-Samekh-Vau-Daleth, total 80 by Gematria, which is the value of Peh, meaning mouth. It is also the value of KS, meaning throne, and MVLD, meaning birth, or new moon. As the Moon is the planet attributed to Yesod, it is interesting to note...
Chapter Fourteen The Klippoth
The word Klippoth is the plural of the word spelt Qoph-Lamed-Peh-Heh, meaning shell, husk, skin, peel or rind'. This indicates at once that the Klippoth are the shells or leftovers of a process, in the same way that an eggshell is related to an egg, or the peel related to a.n apple. In the cosmology of Kabbalah, these shells or envelopes were said to hold their abode beneath the world of Assiah into which Adam descended at the Fall. Much of the development of this idea was made by Issac de...
Chapter Eight Geburah The Folding of the Robe
Geburah is the fifth Sephirah of the Creative Process, and signifies in Hebrew a number of related meanings, around the theme of strength Strength, power, force, valour, courage, victory, might, God, strong, mighty, hero. Geburah is connected with the punishment of God, rigour, severity, and justice. An alternative title of this Sephirah is Pachad, meaning fear. Its most negative aspect is said to be blind fanaticism, which is often the result of a fear of that which is considered different to...
Chapter Six Binah The Angel of the Tides
A useful analogy of the creative process represented by the uppermost three Sephiroth of the Tree, the Supernal Triad, is that of water flowing from a tap. The source of the water is the Kether, whilst the pouring stream is the Chockmah aspect of the system. If one cups ones hands into a hollow and places them in the path of the water, this represents Binah, the formative aspect of the creative process. The water then forms tides and eddies, and moves within a defined area. The bubbles formed...
Chapter Four Kether The Crown of Coherent Light
As we have already noted, one of the primary doctrines of Magick is that that which is above is like unto that which is below, also stated variously as the heaven is in the earth, but after an earthly manner and that the earth is in the heaven, but after a heavenly manner, or Kabbalistically as Malkuth is in Kether, and Kether is in Malkuth, but after another manner. This doctrine of trans-resonance, as given in Kabbalah as an intimate and ultimate identity between Malkuth and Kether, can be...
