The Magician's Kabbalah

by Marcus Katz

  It was this work which, when translated into English by MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918) in 1887 as The Kabbalah Unveiled, alongside already existing translations of the Sepher Yetzirah, provided the Kabbalistic backbone of the Golden Dawn Society, from which issued many of the more recent occult Kabbalists, such as Dion Fortune (1891-1946), who summarised the Sephiroth in her Mystical Qabalah (1935) and Aleister Crowley (1898-1947). The Christian occultist and Golden Dawn member, A. E. Waite also produced many works examining the secret tradition of Kabbalah, although of all of these occultists, Gershom Scholem says that they relied more on their imagination rather than their knowledge of Kabbalah, which he saw as “infinitesimal".[37]

  Another stream stemming from Rosenroth's work came through Eliphas Levi (1810-75), who became familiar with Cabalistic Martinism through Hoene Wronski (1778-1853), and had read both Boehme and Rosenroth amongst many others. He also became a student of tarot through the writings of Court de Gebelin (1725-84), who ascribed to the tarot an ancient Egyptian origin. From de Gébelin and Rosenroth, Levi synthesised a scheme of attribution of the tarot cards to the twenty-two paths of the Tree of Life, a significant development in that it provided a synthetic model of processes to be later modified and used by the Golden Dawn as mapping the initiation system of psychological, occult, and spiritual development. Levi wrote, "Qabalah ... might be called the mathematics of human thought".[38] Aleister Crowley continued Levi's work to some extent in his seminal work on the tarot, The Book of Thoth, published originally in the Equinox III.5, 1944.

  In summary, the Kabbalah passed from Judaic tradition through to Christian tradition, and through other flowerings such as the Polish Jewry Kabbalistic revival in the eighteenth century. Many of the early hermetic scholars and Neoplatonic thinkers began to merge Kabbalah with other doctrines such as Alchemy, and later occultists utilised it as a grand plan of spiritual ascent, bringing it full circle to its origins in the chariot riding of the mystics from which the tradition stemmed.

  It is said by traditional Kabbalists and Kabbalistic scholars that the occultist has an imperfect knowledge of the Tree, and hence the work of such is corrupt. I would argue that the Kabbalah is a basic device whose keys are infinite and that any serious approach to its basic meta-system will reveal some relevance if tested in the world about us, no matter how it may be phrased. The first Kabbalists cannot be said to have had an imperfect knowledge because they did not understand or utilize information systems theory or understand modern cosmology. Indeed, their examination of themselves and the Universe revealed resonant thinking many hundreds of years before science formalized it, in the same way that some current esoteric thinking may be reframed in some new science a hundred or a thousand years in the future.

  The body of teaching has various traditions and groupings of belief, but most hold as their central model a diagram generally composed of ten circles joined by twenty-two lines, entitled the Otz Ch'im or ‘Tree of Life’. These circles represent the ten concepts called Sephiroth, a Hebrew word meaning ‘numerical emanations’, and are said to represent every aspect of existence. The lines connecting them are termed ‘paths’ and are taken to represent the nature of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which (unlike English and similar languages) are also concepts and numbers equally as we have seen. The Sephiroth are also seen as paths, and so the full Tree has thirty-two paths.

  To this basic diagram have been attributed various other systems and attributions of elements from other systems. Therefore, the twenty-two Major Arcana of the tarot cards have been linked (in various formats) to the paths, and the planets, elements, stages of alchemy and other aspects of esoteric teachings have been linked to the Sephiroth. The majority of these attributions are derivations and permutations of those developed by medieval Hermeticists, who painstakingly produced tables of every angelic hierarchy, every grade of demon, and even the occult connections between rocks and stars. The Magus; Celestial Intelligencer (1801) of Francis Barrett is an example of these tables of correspondence and the occult dictionary 777 by Crowley provides a synopsis of the major systems of magical correspondence (i.e. deities, zodiacal signs, planets, perfumes, colours, numbers, mythical animals etc.). The basic elements of correspondence are shown in table two. These tables were also to be found as early as 1533 in Book II of Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, as mentioned earlier.

  Rather than examining any of these many elements in detail, we will sketch a number of basic concepts that apply throughout any examination of the multiple facets of this meta-system, specifically where recent advances in information technology and related systems have provided new conceptual models and terms for utilising this highly advanced esoteric and mystical framework.

  One of the prime tenets of occult belief is the law of correspondence, or "like affects like". This states that due to the inherent unity of all things, certain items and concepts have a type of mutual sympathy, association, or relationship. A primal application of this law is seen in the action of the witchdoctor or sorcerer who gains an item belonging to that of the individual he wishes to influence, be it for healing or cursing, or with or without the individual’s knowledge. Other more esoteric correspondences are seen across sets of items, for example, numbers, planets, scents and colours. An example is that the colour green, the number seven and the emotion of love are associated with each and the planet Venus, also viewed as the Greek Goddess of Love. A Magician attempting to invoke the influence of this Goddess is likely to surround himself with items which resonate with her.

  This occult idea has a psychological parallel in colour theory, which has demonstrated that certain colours produce changes in our internal physical and psychological states. A biological theory of morphic resonance has recently been postulated as detailing a non-local field which determines the manifestation of living things, and this relies on a similar basic view of occult inter-connectivity. Although many traditional Kabbalists abhor magical systems of correspondence, it is evident that early Kabbalists utilized this law in apportioning letters of the Hebrew alphabet to certain aspects of God. In a sense, the same unity of things is being demonstrated across sets of objects by the process of digitization becoming frequent in media communications. Thus, a sound can be reduced to a representation of zeros and ones and signalled in any other set of items, such as colour, shapes or even tactile signals. In the future, it may well be possible to transmit Beethoven's Fifth Symphony directly as colours and sensations to a data-suit which the receiver wears and through which the senses are stimulated.

  The Tree as a Meta-model (Template Theory)

  In many Kabbalistic aphorisms, the basic concepts often refer to the Tree of Life as a meta-model, that is, a system capable of comprehending other systems within itself. This is implied when authors use such terms as "universal language", "cosmic plan" and "blue-print of manifestation".

  Other esoteric examples of meta-models include the Seven Rays system, the Chakra system, Astrology, and tarot. Earlier meta-models include the Platonic and Pythagorean systems, and the quest for the supreme meta-model continues with the mathematical/physics search for a grand unified field theory (a single theory which relates all other theories regarding cosmological sciences).

  The concept of meta-models can be viewed as a template, or perhaps (when utilized in practice) as a filter, through which the infinite and eternal is limited within our own comprehension.

  The Tree of Life acts as a template capable of the following functions, listed according to Aleister Crowley and with brief commentary by myself:

  (a) A language fitted to describe certain classes of phenomena, and express certain classes of ideas.

  The eclectic approach of magick and the transcendent experiences of mysticism demand a means of expression not found in language fixed in the apparent world about us. Kabbalah, in providing a system which is both abstract and structural, can be used to provide a common ground of meaning in conceptual realms where even meaning is relative. An example mig
ht be found in the way Kabbalah depicts the interaction of different worlds in the Jacob's Ladder diagram. This basic image can be applied to many phenomena, from the way chemical changes take place when atoms change their energy states, to the way certain beliefs follow different levels of mystical experience. The Kabbalah provides in the first place a language by which mystical ideas can be described and expressed clearly and precisely.

  (b) A terminology by means of which it is possible to equate the mental processes of people apparently diverse.

  One of the key functions of the Tree, and one at which it excels, is as a mental filing-system. Not only can the Tree be viewed as a system, but also a meta-system, that is, a system which includes other systems within it. In this way, ideas may be compared across apparently different models. An example of this is the association of astrological concepts and symbolism with the myths of Ancient Egypt. When we understand the nature of Venus in astrological symbolism, we are able to equate this knowledge with an understanding of the nature of Hathor in Ancient Egyptian cosmology, through their mutual correspondence on the Tree. There are some dangers in taking this approach too simplistically or too far, as there are dangers in all methods of translation and learning. However, the Kabbalah nonetheless provides an incomparable method of accessing a range of new information and rapidly assimilating unfamiliar and diverse systems.

  (c) A system of symbolism which enables thinkers to formulate their ideas with complete precision, and to find simple expression for complex thoughts.

  As a system, Kabbalah offers a simple basis from which can be modelled complex processes. In the science of complexity and fluid dynamic theory, this is termed ‘surface complexity arising out of deep simplicity’. As an example, a basic knowledge of the Hebrew letters can be utilized to model any number of dynamic processes taking place in the Universe, through the Hebrew God-names. It provides a map which can model and predict with precision the unfolding of events and states of mind.

  (d) An instrument for interpreting symbols whose meaning has become obscure, forgotten or misunderstood, by establishing a necessary connection between the essence of forms, sounds, simple ideas (such as number) and their spiritual, moral or intellectual equivalents.

  The network structure of the Tree operates as a kind of Akashic Record, a term sometimes used to describe an astral library, accessible through altered states of consciousness such as meditation, dreams, and channelling. The Tree has a holographic structure which ensures that any item of discrete information placed on it will immediately become highlighted by the information already in place throughout the Tree. In this way, the Tree becomes a jigsaw into which pieces have particular, unique positions.

  Sometimes a piece may be placed or an idea considered incorrectly, and it is not noticed until you come to fill the pieces in around it. Thus, for some time, one might attribute water to Yesod, and come to no real harm or confusion, until one day an increased knowledge of Hod, Netzach and the Middle Pillar make it apparent not only that the correct and fitting attribution in terms of the system is Air, but why that is the case.

  This aspect of Kabbalah also allows us to comprehend obscure symbolism such as alchemy, Enochian, or other systems, by placing them upon the Tree and making maps through correspondence. The Tree in this case becomes a Rosetta Stone allowing us to re-create an entire language through mere fragments of correspondence.

  (e) A system of classification of omniform ideas so as to enable the mind to increase its vocabulary of thoughts and facts through organizing and correlating them.

  It is a commonly accepted fact that memory can be improved by collecting items of information in sets, and the Tree enables one to do this in a similar fashion to the Magic Room memory trick, where a room is strongly visualised in the imagination, and when a list is to be remembered, the items in the list are mentally placed in the room, and so associated with anchors already held in memory. The unlikely juxtapositions so created (a chicken on the shopping list placed in the armchair, and a lettuce inside the goldfish bowl) assist the recall of the list.

  Once the basics of the Tree have been mastered, new ideas from any source can be assimilated quickly or at least stored in relevant areas in the structure. The Kabbalistic exercise of Permutations, where letters of a divine name are re-arranged and shuffled in a constant motion during meditation can provide a basis of further exercises where areas of the Tree or tarot Cards are shuffled to provide vast ranges of new insight.

  This process has been made more accessible to non-meditators by computer programs such as the original Brainstorm or TurboThought, which allow the ranking, chaining and shuffling of ideas on a computer screen.

  (f) An instrument for proceeding from the known to the unknown on similar principles to those of mathematics.

  The process of Initiation takes us up through the Sephiroth via the Paths and from the apparent world around us into the hidden world of the divine. As the Kabbalistic system is based in simple objects such as the Hebrew letters, which can be arranged in complex formulae or words, which in turn have meaning, we can build up a coherent model of the Universe by simply applying our basic knowledge of the Tree to an event, observing the process, then expanding our model on that basis.

  The Tree also manages to recognise the mathematical limit known as Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, which states that every equation must hold at least one reference that can only be proven outside of that equation, in another equation; therefore, there cannot be a complete or self-contained equation. The outsider equation in the Tree is the Ain Soph Aur, (the "limitless light" from which the Tree proceeds) or, in the Paths, the Fool card, which is correctly unnumbered in most packs and therefore outside the scheme.

  As we build up our knowledge of the Tree and apply it to our experience through ritual, correspondence and contemplation, it becomes an increasingly elegant and precise model, which allows us to make sense of what otherwise, might be unrecognised or resisted by our limited worldview.

  (g) A system of criteria by which the truth of correspondences may be tested with a view to criticising new discoveries in the light of their coherence with the whole body of truth.[39]

  The testing aspect of the Tree is revealed increasingly as the individual formulates their own cosmology and philosophy in its terms. Analysing correspondences reveals, as does all Inner Work, other levels of meaning, and these can be in turn tested back against the whole pattern of the Tree. The holographic nature of the Tree ensures that each idea or belief that is tested against the Tree is set against the whole system and not merely one aspect of it.

  This final aspect of Kabbalah is important in spiritual progress and initiatory work as it allows us to keep a reasonably coherent structure as at the same time we destroy all that structure. It provides a scaffold that we can climb and test its ability to bear us up, even as we remove it behind us. At the end of the Mutus Liber alchemical series of drawings, the ladder is drawn up in the final stage.

  The Tree as a Fractal System (The Orchard)

  Certain mathematical formulae involving complex numbers composed of both real numbers and imaginary numbers (such as i, the symbol denoting the square root of -1) can produce graphs such as the Mandelbrot set which have recursive properties, that is, they repeat their patterns at lower or higher orders of complexity and calculation. Thus, when magnifying, mathematically, an area of the Mandelbrot set, one can find the same strange shape emerging, and within certain areas of that shape, the shape repeats, and so forth. As is said of that and could be said of the Tree of Life and correspondences, “Self-similarity is symmetry across scale”.[40]

  This discovery reminds us of the Kabbalistic doctrine of Sephiroth existing within Sephiroth. Indeed, Joseph ibn Sayyah went as far as to describe in detail the play of lights within the Sephiroth to the fourth degree, as, for example, the "Tiferet which is in Gedullah which is in Binah which is in Keter".

  Again, this finds a similarity with one eastern concept which states that
there is no beginning, no ending, no linear progression, only an unbounded net of jewels each of which reflects and contains the reflection of each of the others.

  Thus, the repetitive plan which is spoken of in Kabbalah, and the fact that each Sephirah "contains the other nine", is due to the fractal or recursive nature of the Kabbalistic system symbolised by the Tree of Life, and referred to often as the Orchard of trees.

  Another technological advance which resumes this idea is that of hologram images, which are produced by projecting the interference patterns made by light waves (lasers) about an object onto photographic plate. Shining light on the plate from the same angle then produces the image of the object from the viewers location. As Itzhak Bentov explains, if one were to freeze such an interference pattern, for example, the ripples in water made by a stone being dropped, then one could, analysing the pattern, discover where the stone had broken through the water.[41] On a note of poetic whimsy, one could perhaps visualise the Tree of Life as the wave-front of the light of God.

  One may realise that all the above modern ideas are actually pre-empted and summarised in a more ancient doctrine, which proposes, in the Tabula Smaragdina (Table of Emerald); "It is true without lying, certain and most true, that which is inferior or below, is as that which is superior, or above, and that which is superior as that which is inferior, to work and accomplish the miracles of one thing."

  Patterns emerge at all levels and all scales, such as the spiral of a shell and the spiral of a fern branch, or the shape of a galaxy and the shape of a human cell. As Louise B. Young states, "the whole is imminent in all the parts, no matter how small".[42] To those who work with such a self-reflexive system, then it becomes possible to model, and experience, states that often defy description in other, more linear systems. As Blake puts it in Auguries of Innocence: