One of the basic notions of Kabbalism is that we (man, woman or child) are linked to God in a creator-created relationship. This is not in a direct relationship, where we are both separated from each other though. We retain a part of the God-head with us in our existence. The part that we retain is a "spark of the Divine"- the 'breath' that was breathed into Adam in Genesis of the Bible. (For those who do not subscribe to the Christian ways, most religions have similar principals, where the Divine has given life to the mundane in one way or another. It is what was given to the inanimate to make it animate that carries along with us, to make us 'animated' or 'alive'). So, unlike many views that have Man below God, the Kabbalists believe that we, although below God, still retain a piece of God, and through a perfecting of the self, we can raise our consciousness back to the level of the piece of God that we carry with us.

The important part of this statement is that we must raise our consciousness up to a greater level. WE must raise OUR consciousness. 'Man' (I'm not being PC here- but you understand that by 'Man' what is meant is the greater mass of human existence) must raise its collective consciousness, rather than any one individual alone. The reason for this is that we all carry a piece of God within us. So, as we approach the perfected God-head state, we become more and more alike, since we embody more and more aspects of God. It is useless for one individual to become perfected, since when they die, they will return to the mass of human consciousness that is still at a lower level.

A simple example of how the general consciousness can be raised is thus- if you smile at someone while walking down the street, and they smile back. They may then continue to smile for a time, meeting other people, and making them smile. Soon enough, a lot of people are smiling, and some of them may even smile at you, creating an overall happy state of consciousness. Thus you have performed an act of Kabbalistic Magick! Albeit a truly simple act, the effect is positive, and wide-spread enough. Now, if everyone did that to everyone else, the simple act of smiling would be extremely powerful. And with the current climate of political, religious and general hostility that we, in this post-Millennial period are feeling with the recent spate of bombings, shootings and general stupidity world-wide, we could really do with a decent dose of positivity toward ourselves through the positivity towards others (that are really ourselves!)

The same can be said for a frown or scowl, but instead of raising the consciousness, it is lowered. This is also an act of Kabbalistic Magick, but of a destructive, downward type. As with most things that can be viewed with a binary, opposite nature, we must make the decision as to which way we can use the power that we have. Smile, raise consciousness and begin to create a "heaven on earth" situation, or frown and create a "hell on earth" situation. This is true, very much so. There may be an after-life, with a heaven for the good and a hell for the bad, but who knows what that is like? I have been clinically dead twice, and I still don't know! And really, at this point in our existence, who cares? We have life, in this reality, in this form, in the here and now. That is our gift. That is our place. If we are here to experience life, and 'report back' to the God-head through the Adam Kaddamon, then we should really not bother ourselves too much with the what-fors of the afterlife. Our job is to live here and now. So, shouldn't we be working towards that heaven on earth?

Many teachers of Kabbalism prefer to take a hands-on approach to the study of Kabbalah. It is far better learnt through experience than through reading. In this, the 'grounding' of knowledge is very important, since the consciousness of this reality is elevated by the knowledge gained through Kabbalistic study. This is in a way adverse to many principals of High Magick, since that deals with the reality above ours. Kabbalism does this, but seeks to bring it back into this one, in order to raise it to a greater level.

Also, much of the study of the Tree of Life involves principles that cannot be placed into words. An example of this is the notion of "Love". We need only to listen to the vast number of songs, poems and the like that have the line 'love is...", to realise that we have no succinct definition of the idea. Inside every one of us, however, we have a notion of that concept. Otherwise when we said the word 'love' we would have no idea as to what we were talking about. This 'feeling of love' is something that the Kabbalistic student needs to feel, in order to grasp the terrestrial love, which is in a way, a mirroring of the 'Divine love'. I dare anyone to succinctly, or even verbosely, without any sort of subjective symbolism, to define the Divine Love!

It is good to remember that the Kabbalah was originally an oral tradition, and hence could be passed on 'as-needed' or explained as the student learnt. So, when the real-life of the student came to the point where they would be able to grasp new concepts (higher sephira of the tree), the knowledge would be transferred. So, even the teaching methods were closely linked to the experience of this reality.