The Holy Qabalah
The Holy or Jewish Qabalah is a topic central to many of the modern systems
of magick, including the Golden Dawn, Crowley's Argentum Astrum and some
Rosicrucian Orders. No doubt you will be familiar with the name, and even
some of it's precepts, but what actually is it, and from whence did it come?
Historically and allegorically, the secrets of the Qabalah were given to
Moses on Mount Sinai by Jahweh, the Jewish God. These are said to have been
handed down in secret, from father to son, without interruption and without
being written down, through the centuries. In fact, the Hebrew word QBLH
means received tradition. The Qabalah which is written of today is a modern
interpretation of this ancient hokmah nistarah, 'the hidden wisdom'.
The most important early written text is the Sepher Yetzirah, 'the Book
of Formation', which was written anonymously in Hebrew in Babylonia around
500 AD. One point to be made is that the Qabalah was never meant to be written
down, and thus, this may throw some doubt over the authenticity of the early
texts, but even more over the later ones! In essence, the Holy Qabalah is
a body of occult doctrine which purports to deliver the true secrets of
the universe, through an underlying principle of logic and number systems.
There are generally considered to be two types of the Qabalah, the natural
and artificial forms. The natural Qabalah, by which is intimated the secret
Explanation of the Law as declaimed by Moses, and as written in the Hebrew
scriptures of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers; is an explanation of how the
universe came in existence. It basically starts with the statement that
from God came an emanation of light, from which came a sucession of emanations,
progressively less divine. These emanations, 10 in number, are termed the
Sephiroth (numbers), and form the basis of (i) the physical units of the
universe (ii) the true name of God and (iii) a path by which man, (as a
minature universe) can become God. The Sephira are usually represented in
a schema known as the Tree of Life. This esoteric figure contains many symbolic
meanings, as well as providing a framework to the study of the Qabalah,
and a path for attainment. The ten Sephira are arranged in a geometrical
pattern, linked by 22 paths, representing the Hebrew alphabet.
The Tree of Life displays a great deal of correspondences, and can be used
to explain the universal architecture, through symbology and numerology.
For examples of Qabalistic inferences within the Bible, read the whole of
the Revelation to John which contains some overt correspondences, and also
Genesis 6:15-16 & Leviticus 25:8-10 as examples of veiled references to
the Sephira, and to the Paths of Wisdom, the 22 paths linking the Sephira
together, and also the Hebrew alphabet.
The artificial Qabalah, in contrast, is a highly convoluted constructional
system of number correspondences, logicalities and explanatory inferences.
These are used to search for abstruse significances between words, through
three different methods: the gematria, notiqarion and temura. These methods
have been greatly exploited in recent times, especially by Aleister Crowley,
who, through the use of gematria, provided an explanation of the formulation
of his religion, Thelema. Try studying his prophetic opus the Book of the
Law, Liber AL vel Legis, as this shows some great examples of artificial
constructions. The key to the book is a direct gematria of the title.
I hope by this short piece to have cleared away some of the mystique surrounding
the subject & origins of the Holy Qabalah. Obviously, I cannot go into great
detail in this limited space, since it would take a lifetime. Hopefully
though, this will provide the impetus for the start of your own study of
this esoteric subject.
Matt D.A. Fletcher