The Magician's Kabbalah

by Marcus Katz

  MR: The Hebrew for Myrrh, the resin of suffering and sorrow, used for anointing (the head or feet, attributed to Kether and Malkuth) and embalming (the body, attributed as a whole to Malkuth). Also symbolic of the suffering endured in the separation of Malkuth and Kether from each other by the Fall.

  RM: Meaning “High, exalted”, both attributes of Kether, and also meaning to decay (worm-eaten), thus the process of Malkuth and the decay implicit in evolution symbolised by the Worm, Dragon or Serpent. It can be noted that a rearrangement of the letters of KThR gives KRTh, meaning "to cut off", and "divine punishment", perhaps indicating that any deviation from the Crown brings about a Fall from the state of Grace represented by Kether.

  KL: Meaning “to comprehend, measure, all every, whole, any”, referring to Kether as the All and the highest comprehension - the "Admirable Intelligence" as the Sepher Yetzirah entitles it. Also "Invisible Intelligence" in that if something is everything, it cannot ever be perceived because there is nowhere outside it to perceive it from. Thus, "occult" and "unspeakable" experiences are so because they defy comprehension as they partake of this ultimate ground of reality.

  LK: A word meaning "to you" and hence can be seen as the mystical return up the Tree of Life from Malkuth to Kether as the "you" is the Self, or God one is moving towards.

  K: The letter Kaph, the Hand of God in Kether, "who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with the span" - Isaiah 40, v.12. Also the hand as the receptive Malkuth on the Tree. The symbolism of the Hand is varied, but in this context can be seen as representing the transmission of divine grace between Kether and Malkuth. Also see notes later referring to Kaph and the Wheel tarot card as attributed to Kether.

  ThV: Tau, the cross and synthesis in Malkuth, but also symbolic of spirit (the "crown", or Kether of the Pentagram) crucified in the four elements (comprising Malkuth).

  Th: The letter Tau, as described above. It also represents a boundary, which could be described as Malkuth being the ultimate boundary of Kether, or Mark, in that Malkuth is the visible aspect of Kether.

  Numerically, Malkuth values 496, which totals to 19 (4+9+6), which totals to 10 (1+9), which can be broken down to 1 as well. Thus, Malkuth (10) and Kether (1) are within the value of Malkuth itself. Kether, on the other hand, values 620 (the Zohar speaks of the 620 pillars of light), which breaks down to 8 (6+2), the number of the Sephirah Hod. This is an interesting attribution in respect of the initiatory experiences associated with Hod in the Grade of Practicus of the Golden Dawn system.

  A final point using Gematria is that the value of the word ‘Swan’, the symbolic bird of Kether and illumination, is BRBVR = 410, which is also the value of Magic (MQA'aR) and the ‘Confession of God's Unity’ (the Shema, ShMA'a).

  The Triune Crown

  The Triple Crown worn by the Pope can be viewed as representing the Trinity of Kether extended in itself, Chockmah and Binah, for above the Abyss the Sephiroth merge with each other in the same way that the four lower Sephiroth below the Veil merge within Malkuth.

  We can make a correspondence of the three letters of KThR to the first three Sephiroth (including itself) as follows:

  Kaph: Kether

  Tau: Chockmah

  Resh: Binah

  A further breakdown is utilised by spelling the letters again in full. The tarot cards to which these letters are assigned offer valuable descriptions of the nature of this creative trinity of Forces.

  Kaph in Kether

  Kaph, as previously described, is the hand of God transmitting the vital spark to Man, and the hand of Man receiving the divine influx (as painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, for example). Its tarot glyph is that of the Wheel, a symbol of synchronicity, Kether being the pivot and Malkuth being the hub. The number of the card is 10, referring to the number of Malkuth, the number of Sephiroth contained within Kether, and reducing to 1, the unity of Kether itself.

  Spelt in full, Kaph is Kaph + Peh, corresponding to the Wheel and the Blasted Tower, each of which can be seen as a process of evolution. On the one hand, progressive and cyclic, on the other hand, sudden and decisive. In terms of Kether we see in these cards the doctrine of Unity in Diversity (the spindle and spokes of the wheel) implicit in Kether, and the doctrine of the breaking of the shells in Lurianic Kabbalah (the tower or ‘blasted house’ being matter struck by the lightning flash of creation).

  Tau in Chockmah

  Tau is attributed to the Universe card, and we can see that the Universal creation implicit in Kether as potential is first given expansion in Chockmah. As symbolic of manifestation, the Universe card depicts Chockmah as the first manifestation of Unity, the visibility of Kether in the first swirling of the Primum Mobile, the Zodiac. The Golden Dawn tarot card depicts the spheres of the zodiac arranged around the central figure of the Atu (see later chapter for further explanations of the creative process of Chockmah as depicted by the Zodiac).

  Spelt in full, Tau is Tau + Vau, corresponding to the Universe and the Hierophant. This affirms the Hierophant as symbolic of God's Wisdom (the translation of Chockmah being ‘wisdom’) and as the Interface between God (Kether) and the rest of Creation (Binah to Malkuth). This idea is mirrored in that the attribution of YHVH to the Sephiroth links Kether to Chockmah as the upper and lower parts of the Yod, Binah as Heh, the central Sephiroth to Vau (centred on Tiphareth, the Son) and Malkuth being the final Heh (the daughter that must be redeemed to Binah, the mother).

  Thus, on the progression up the Tree, Malkuth (the Universe) must be raised to Binah (Transcendent Understanding) which is the state of the Magister Templi in the WEIS (attributed to Binah), who tends his temple and garden comprising the Sephiroth below the Abyss.

  This develops into a state where the understanding becomes a mirror of the divine will and the mystic achieves Chockmah by becoming a pure interface to God. Finally, the Way is completed (Yod as symbolic of the Way depicted on the Hermit tarot card) by recognising the unity of all things, and hence the same letter covers both Kether and Chockmah. The Hermit tarot card to which Yod is attributed is also associated with the Neophyte ceremony of the Golden Dawn, and demonstrates that even from the first step on the path, the goal is always already there if we could but be aware of it.

  Resh in Binah

  Resh refers to consciousness and light through the tarot card of the Sun, and in the context of Binah affirms that the three supernal Sephiroth reside in the ‘white head’ (Resh means ‘head’) of Kether. The hemispheres of the brain may be divided into Chockmah and Binah, whilst the crown of the head is Kether. The Greater and Lesser Holy Assemblies of the Zohar elaborate on this symbolism at length.

  Resh is also (via the Sun tarot card) allocated to Tiphareth, symbolic of consciousness and is the state of mind dealt with physically by the ‘front of the head’ (a more accurate translation of Resh). It can be deduced from this current attribution that understanding is a transcendent form of consciousness (the Sun of Tiphareth arising from the Sea of Binah as the Golden Dawn image depicts it) preceding the final synthesis in Chockmah of the Magician before God.

  This is resumed under the symbolism of the Bornless Ritual as recorded by Aleister Crowley in Liber Samekh.[60] The original Greek text of the ritual (Fragments of a Graeco-Egyptian work upon magic, trans. Goodwin 1852) uses the phrase ‘the headless one’, or ‘the headless spirit’, but the Hebrew would be AChD BAIN RASh or AChD BLA RASH, meaning ‘one without a head’. This is likely to have been utilised by Crowley in his re-naming of the rite as that of the bornless one, i.e. one without a beginning, as Resh can mean ‘beginning’ as well as ‘head’, as in BRAShITh, ‘in the beginning’, the first word of Genesis.

  Traditional Kabbalah attributes the ‘B’ to Kether, and the ‘RAShITh’ to Chockmah, but it could also be seen that the Beth refers to the Ain Soph Aur, and hence the Resh to Kether, the Yod to the Sephiroth from Binah to Yesod, and the final Tau to Malkuth.

  The Kabbalistic Diagra
ms of Rosenroth also refer to the "head which is not", or "the head of not", in Aramaic RIShA DLA. Indeed, one part of this text states quite clearly:

  The crown of the Holy King, which is called the Head which is Not, and the Head of knowing and not being known ... and is called the Ancient Concealed One.

  Thus, the Bornless Ritual is an ascent up the middle pillar of consciousness from the bound lights of Malkuth and ultimately, to the boundless light of the Ain Soph Aur.

  Resh spelt in full is Resh + Yod + Shin, and relates to the cards of the Sun, Hermit and Last Judgement. These could be transliterated into the phrase "The Awareness (Sun) of the True (Hermit) Will (Judgement)", which takes place in the initiation process at two key points, the first on crossing the Veil and attaining to Tiphareth, and the second on crossing the Abyss and attaining to the Sephirah Binah. The following extensions can be drawn:

  Will in Malkuth: The Way of Nature, the "entelechy" of Aristotle in the unfolding of blossoms and the formation of galaxies. The "selfish gene" or "blind watchmaker" aspect of nature in the unfolding genesis about us.

  Will in Yesod: The Way of the Personality, an understanding of the ego requirements, cultural conditioning and so forth. The development of purpose, aim, goal, valuation, motivation and intention through a discipline such as Psychosynthesis.

  Will in Tiphareth: The Way of the Self. The Individual Will of the transcendent Self in recognition of the lower Sephiroth. Also the "way of the burning heart", and surrender to the "Inner Voice", "Higher Self", or Will of Christ.

  Will in Kether: The Way of God. The Universal Will, the Will of God, the state of Unity where it is "thus so". The Taoist "action by non-action", and the Way of the Siddhis.

  The Tree of Crowns

  In ritual, the Kether of each Sephiroth can be represented by the headdress worn by the participant. I offer here a list of those I have allocated, but it is by no means exhaustive and would obviously also be dependent on the symbolism adopted by the ritual participant:

  Kether: A Circlet of Gold or Ritual Crown. The Parsley Crown of the Nemean Games, sacred to Zeus.

  Chockmah: The Twin Feathers, or Crown of Thoth.

  Binah: The Crimson cap of concealment.

  Chesed: The Cardinals hat, or Emperors Crown. The Pine Crown of the Isthmian games, sacred to Poseidon.

  Geburah: The War Helm, or Martial Crown. The Judges Wig.

  Tiphareth: The Solar Crown, Cowl, or the Wimple. The Crown of Thorns. The Roman Crown of Roses.

  Netzach: The Laurel Wreath of Victory.

  Hod: The Caduceus Crown or the Mortar Board.

  Yesod: Crowns of disguise; wigs and masques. The Lunar Crown.

  Malkuth: The Skull Cap. The Crown of Wild Olives of the Olympian games, sacred to Zeus. The Wreath. Crown of flowers, or ears of corn or wheat. Shamanic headdress composed of earth attributes.

  In ritual, you could also correspond the Egyptian Crowns that symbolised the gods and goddesses to the Sephiroth with the following correspondences:

  Kether: Pthah

  Chockmah: Ma’at

  Binah: Nuit, Isis

  Chesed: Amoun

  Geburah: Horus

  Tiphareth: Osiris

  Netzach: Hathor

  Hod: Thoth

  Yesod: Khons, Shu

  Malkuth: Nekhbet

  This further demonstrates how Kabbalah and correspondences can be used to build up ritual format and content.

  EXERCISES

  1. Take any process, and ask "What is the point of this act?" or "What is the aim of this event?" The answer should not only contain the purpose or result of the act, but you will observe it contains the source for the act as well, if not directly, and then implied. This demonstrates the state relationship between Kether and Malkuth, where Kether is the source and the aim, Malkuth the result and the action, and both are ultimately identical.

  2. Take any dysfunctional process, or act which is not achieving the desired aim, and analyse it in terms of the letters which compose Kether:

  Kaph: The timing of the events within the process.

  Tau: The beliefs underpinning the process.

  Resh: The Awareness of the event, the thoughts and feelings you have.

  Attempt to elevate each of these letters to the Sephirah to which each letter is attributed in the Triune Crown of Kether:

  Kaph (Kether): Ensure that the timing moves towards a focused point.

  Tau (Chockmah): Ensure that your beliefs are formed in wisdom, that is, applied experience.

  Resh (Binah): Ensure that you have understanding, i.e., being aware of the whole form.

  This is an example of the way in which combinations of the letters and Sephiroth can be used to elevate mundane acts to their optimum potential.

  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 in the Golden Dawn model (based on Kircher) to Kether, Binah, Tiphareth and Chesed, and the linking paths have the following tarot cards attributed to them; Fool, Empress, Emperor, and the Hierophant.

  In the Berakhot (7a), it is written "the beginning of thought, and the first revelation of the array, is the second Sefirah, which is called Chockmah-Wisdom", and in the Sepher Yetzirah, Chockmah is more fully defined as "the Illuminating Intelligence, the Crown of Creation, the splendour of Unity, equalling it. It is exalted above every head, and is named by Kabbalists the Second Glory".

  Chockmah is essentially the concept of force, dynamism, and energy, as this “first revelation of the array”. It is the extension of the point of Kether, which was contracted from the Ain, into manifestation - as a line. In terms of Astrophysics this process took place a ten-millionth of a quadrillionth of a sextillionth second after the explosion of the singularity of Kether. The fundamental forces of Nature were tied together in one superforce. These forces are now defined in some models as; Electromagnetism, Weak force, Strong Force, and Gravity. These are seen as acting in ten possible dimensions, which neatly mirrors the Kabbalistic scheme of the four elements and the ten Sephiroth.

  In Theological terms, Chockmah represents the Logos, the Divine Word or Will. All that was potential in Kether is now directed, and what was merely location now has direction. Logos translates as either Word or Thought, and hence is taken as the self-expression of God. In Heraclitus, Logos is the underlying balance or rationality in the manifest world of flux. The Stoics took this idea as the Reason of the Universe, God. The divine plan for which mystics search has its place in Chockmah, the layer of the creative process wherein the lattice or array is formed.

  Many Jewish thinkers, on the other hand, identified the Logos with Wisdom, and the Memra, or Word. John 1:1 states "In the beginning was the Logos", and the Wisdom of Solomon says "Like a fine mist she [wisdom] rises from the power of God ... she is the reflection of the everlasting Light ... herself unchanging, but makes all things new ... she spans the world from end to end, and orders all things benignly."

  In the Sefer HaPardes, it is noted that Chockmah is called Fear, as Geburah is also entitled Pachad, or fear. Whereas the fear of Geburah is the fear of the "vengeful lord", the fear spoken of in Chockmah is the mystical fear, which is that when the contemplative's thoughts reach this high place, a place without measure or boundary, where the mind does has no power to grasp. The relationship between Chockmah and Geburah demonstrates the Kabbalistic concept that the Sephiroth form arcs to each other, so that aspects of Chockmah can be seen in both Geburah and Hod and aspects of Binah seen both through Chesed and Netzach.

  As stated in Job 28:28, "He says to man, behold the fear of God is Wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." This indicates, in terms of the ascent of the Tree, that Binah (Understanding) is above the Abyss, wherein on
e departs from the evil of the separate worlds, and that Chockmah (Wisdom) is the last step to Kether (God).

  In Hebrew, Chockmah, ‘wisdom’, is spelt Cheth + Kaph + Mem + Heh, transliterated as ChKMH. The letters have the following correspondences according to Levi:

  Ch: Distribution/Single

  K: Force (Wealth, according to Papus)/Double

  M: Death (Water)/Mother

  H: Religion/Single

  The distributive aspect of Chockmah is in its reception and transmission of the light of Kether. Indeed, Chockmah is that process in itself, and thus recurs at all levels of the Tree. The double letter Kaph also directly mirrors the nature of Chockmah in its attribute of force, and indicates that the nature of that force is circular in its connection to the Wheel Atu of the tarot. Mem, subtitled ‘Death’ in this scheme, indicates that Chockmah is the first and last Sephiroth that can be known - due to Kether having no other reference outside itself. As religion, Heh refers to the perfect Path of Yod flowing down the Tree as the Tao from Chockmah, or the strait gate and narrow way; “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” [Matthew 7:14].

  In the derivation of the channels, Cheth is the God of Mercy; Kaph, God the Immutable; Mem, God the Arcane; and Heh, God of God.

  Another explanation gives:

  Ch: Allocated to Chesed, produces the animals

  K: The description assigned to Kaph by Papus is worth quoting in full:

  Designates the first heaven, corresponding to the name of God Yod expressed in one letter, that is the primary cause which sets all that is mobile in movement...govern[s] the sky of the fixed stars, notably the twelve signs of the Zodiac which the Hebrews call Galgol hamnazeloth; the intelligence of the second heaven is called Raziel. His attribute signifies the vision of God and the smile of God.[61]