DOKAN 6/Dokan 06.iso/Webs/128.120.24.39/nge/q10.txt

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                       Notes on Kabbalah

The author grants the right to copy and distribute these Notes provided
they remain unmodified and original authorship and copyright is retained.
The author retains both the right and intention to modify and extend
these Notes.

Release 2.0
Copy date: 17th. January 1992

Copyright Colin Low 1992 ([e-mail])

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Chapter 4: The Sephiroth (continued)
========================
     This  chapter  provides a detailed look at each of  the  ten
sephiroth  and  draws together material scattered  over  previous
chapters.

Binah, Chokmah, Kether
-----------------------

     Only man can fall from God
     Only man.

     No animal, no beast nor creeping thing
     no cobra nor hyaena nor scorpion nor hideous white ant
     can slip entirely through the fingers of the hands of god
     into the abyss of self-knowledge,
     knowledge of the self-apart-from-god.

     For the knowledge of the self-apart-from-God
     is an abyss down which the soul can slip
     writhing and twisting in all the revolutions
     of the unfinished plunge
     of self-awareness, now apart from God, falling
     fathomless, fathomless, self-consciousness wriggling
     writhing  deeper  and deeper in all the  minutiae  of  self-
               knowledge, downwards, exhaustive,
     yet  never,  never  coming to the bottom,  for there  is  no
              bottom;
     zigzagging down like the fizzle from a finished rocket
     the  frizzling,  falling fire that cannot go  out,  dropping
              wearily,
     neither can it reach the depth
     for the depth is bottomless,
     so it wriggles its way even further down, further down
     at last in sheer horror of not being able to leave off
     knowing itself, knowing itself apart from God, falling.

                                  "Only Man", D. H. Lawrence


     The  triad of Binah,  Chokmah and Kether are a  Kabbalistic
representation  of the manifest God.  A discussion on this  triad
presents me with a problem. The problem is that while I have used
the word "God" in many places in these notes, I have done so with
a  sense  of unease,  understanding that the word means  so  many
different  things  to  so  many people  that  it  is  effectively
meaningless.  I have chosen to use the word as a placeholder  for
personal experience, with the implicit assumption that the reader
understands  that "God" *is* a personal experience,  and  not  an
ill-defined abstraction one "believes in".  My view is not novel,
but  there are still many people who are uncomfortable  with  the
idea of experiencing (as opposed to "believing in") God. A second
assumption implicit in the use of the word "God" as a placeholder
is  that it stands *only* for experience;  your  experience,  and
hence your God,  is as valid as mine,  and as there are no formal
definitions, there is no scope for theological debate or dispute.
This leaves me with nothing more to say.
     However.....these  notes  were  intended  to  provide   some
insight into Kabbalah, and it would be odd, having begun to write
them,  to then turn around and say "sorry,  I won't say  anything
about  the  three  supernal sephiroth".  I think I  have  to  say
something.  Balanced  against this is my original  intention,  at
every stage in these notes,  to relate the objects of  discussion
to something real,  to make a personal contribution by adding  my
own  understanding to the subject rather than simply  pot-boiling
the same old material.  I cannot see how to put flesh on the bare
bones  of  the  supernal  sephiroth  without  discussing  my  own
conception of God and whatever personal experience I might  have.
I am loth to do this.  For a start, it isn't fair on those people
who  study  and use Kabbalah (many Jewish) who do  not  share  my
views, and secondly, remembering the parable of the blind men and
the  elephant,  impressions of God tend to be shaped by the  part
one grabs hold of,  and how close to the bum end one is standing.
     Like  it or not,  my explanations of the supernal  sephiroth
are  going to be lacking in substance.  I can only ask  you,  the
reader, to accept that the primary purpose of Kabbalah has always
been the direct,  personal experience of the living God,  a state
Kabbalists have called "devekuth",  or cleaving to God,  and  the
way   towards  that  experience  comes,   not  from  a   studious
examination  of  the symbolism of the  supernals,  but  from  the
practical  techniques  of  Kabbalah to be discussed  in  a  later
chapter.

     The   title   of  the  sephira  Binah   is   translated   as
"understanding",  and sometimes as "intelligence".  The title  of
the sephira Chokmah translates as "wisdom",  and that of  Kether
translates as "crown".  These three sephiroth are often  referred
to as the supernal sephiroth,  or simply the supernals,  and they
represent that aspect of God which is manifest in creation. There
is another aspect of God in Kabbalah,  the "real God" or En Soph;
although En Soph is responsible for the creation of the universe,
En  Soph manifests to us only in the limited form of the  sephira
Kether.  An enormous amount of effort has gone into  "explaining"
this process:  one book on Kabbalah [1] in my possession  devotes
eight pages to the En Soph,  twelve pages to the supernal trio of
Kether,  Chokmah and Binah, and five pages to the remaining seven
sephiroth,   a   proportion  which  seems   relatively   constant
throughout Kabbalistic literature.
     Briefly,  the  hidden  God or En Soph crystallised  a  point
which is the sephira Kether.  In most versions (and this idea can
be found as far back as the "Bahir" [2]) the En Soph "contracted"
(tsimtsum) to "make room" for the creation,  and the crystallised
point  of Kether manifested within this "space".  Kether  is  the
seed planted in nothingness from which the creation springs -  an
interesting  metaphor  turns the Tree of Life "upside  down"  and
shows Kether at the bottom of the Tree, rooted in the soil of the
En  Soph,  with  the  rest of the sephiroth  forming  the  trunk,
branches and leaves.  Another metaphor shows Kether connected  to
the  En Soph by a "thread of light",  a metaphor I used  somewhat
whimsically  in  the section on "Daath and the  Abyss",  where  I
portrayed  the  Tree of Life as a lit-up Christmas  tree  with  a
power cord snaking out of the darkness of the En Soph and through
the  abyss  to Kether.  Like the Moon,  Kether has  two  aspects:
manifest  and hidden,  and for this reason its magical  image  is
that of a face seen in profile:  one side of the face (the  right
side,  as  it happens) is visible to us,  but the other  side  is
turned forever towards the En Soph.
     Kether has many titles:  Existence of Existences,  Concealed
of  the  Concealed,   Ancient  of  Ancients,   Ancient  of  Days,
Primordial Point,  the Smooth Point, the Point within the Circle,
the Most High, the Inscrutable Height, the Vast Countenance (Arik
Anpin),  the White Head,  the Head which is  not,  Macroprosopus.
Taken together,  these titles imply that Kether is the first, the
oldest,  the  root of existence,  remote,  and its most  accurate
symbol  is  that  of  a  point.  Kether  precedes  all  forms  of
existence,  all  differentiation and distinction,  all  polarity.
Kether contains everything in potential, like a seed that sprouts
and grows into a Tree, not once, but continuously. Kether is both
root  and seed.  Because it precedes all forms and  contains  all
opposites  it  is not *like* anything.  You can say  it  contains
infinite  goodness,  but  then you have to say that  it  contains
infinite evil. Wrapped up in Kether is all the love in the world,
and  wrapped  around  the love is all  the  hate.  Kether  is  an
outpouring  of  purest,  radiant light,  but equally  it  is  the
profoundest  stygian dark.  And it is none of  these  things;  it
precedes all form or polarity,  and its Virtue is unity.  It is a
point  without  extension  or  qualities,  but  it  contains  all
creation within it as an unformed potential.
     The "Zohar" [3] is packed with references to Kether,  and it
is  difficult to be selective,  but the following quote from  the
"Lesser Holy Assembly", is clear, simple, and subtle:

     "He  (Kether) hath been formed,  and yet as it were He  hath
     not  been  formed.  He hath been conformed so  that  he  may
     sustain all things;  yet is He not formed, seeing that He is
     not discovered.

     When He is conformed He produceth nine Lights,  which  shine
     forth from Him, from his conformation.

     And  from Himself those Lights shine forth,  and  they  emit
     flames,  and they rush forth and are extended on every side,
     like  as from an elevated lantern the rays of  light  stream
     down on every side.

     And  those rays of light,  which are extended,  when  anyone
     draweth near unto them so that they may be examined, are not
     found, and there is only the lantern alone."

Polarity  is contained within Kether in the form of  Chokmah  and
Binah,  the Wisdom and Understanding of God,  and Kabbalists have
represented  this polarity using the most obvious  of  metaphors,
that of male and female.  Chokmah is Abba,  the Father, and Binah
is Aima, the Mother, and the entire world is seen as the child of
the continuous and never-ending coupling of this divine pair. The
following passage is taken again from the "Lesser Holy Assembly":

     "Come  and  behold.  When the Most  Holy  Ancient  One,  the
     Concealed  with  all Concealments (Kether),  desired  to  be
     formed forth, He conformed all things under the form of Male
     and  Female;  and in such place wherein Male and Female  are
     comprehended.

     For they could not permanently exist save in another  aspect
     of  the  Male and Female (their  countenances  being  joined
     together).

     And  this  Wisdom (Chokmah) embracing all  things,  when  it
     goeth  forth  and shineth forth from the Most  Holy  Ancient
     One,  shineth  not save under the form of Male  and  Female.
     Therefore is this Wisdom extended,  and it is found that  it
     equally becometh Male and Female.

     ChKMH  AB BINH AM:  Chokmah is the Father and Binah  is  the
     Mother,   and  therein  are  Chokmah,   Wisdom,  and  Binah,
     Understanding,  counterbalanced together in the most perfect
     equality of Male and Female.

     And therefore are all things established in the equality  of
     Male and Female, for were it not so, how could they subsist!

     This  beginning is the Father of all things;  the Father  of
     all Fathers;  and both are mutually bound together,  and the
     one path shineth into the other - Chokmah,  Wisdom,  as  the
     Father; Binah, Understanding, as the Mother.

     It  is  written,  Prov.  2.3:  'If thou  callest  Binah  the
     Mother."

     When  They are associated together They  generate,  and  are
     expanded in truth.

And concerning the continuing act of procreation:

     "Together They (Chokmah & Binah) go forth, together They are
     at rest;  the one ceaseth not from the other, and the one is
     never taken away from the other.

     And  therefore is it written,  Gen 2.10:  'And a river  went
     forth from Eden' - i.e.  properly speaking,  it  continually
     goeth forth and never faileth."

A  river  or  spring  metaphor is  often  used  for  Chokmah,  to
emphasise the continuous nature of creation. The primary metaphor
is  that of a phallus - Chokmah is the phallus  which  ejaculates
continuously  into  the womb of Binah,  and Binah in  turn  gives
birth to phenomenal reality.  Phallic symbols - a standing stone,
a fireman's hose, a fountain, a spear etc, belong to Chokmah, and
womb  symbols - a cauldron,  a gourd,  a chalice,  an  oven  etc,
belong  to  Binah.   In  an  abstract  sense, Chokmah  and  Binah
correspond to the first,  primal manifestation of the polarity of
force  and  form.  To repeat a metaphor I have  used  previously,
Binah is a hot-air balloon,  and Chokmah is the roaring blast  of
flame which keeps it in the air.  The metaphor is not  completely
accurate:  Binah is not form, but she is the Mother of Form - she
creates the condition whereby form can manifest.
     The  colour of Binah is black,  and she is  associated  with
Shabbatai ("rest"),  the planet Saturn. The symbolism of Binah is
twofold: on one hand she is Aima, the fertile mother of creation,
and  on  the  other  hand  she  is  the  mother  of   finiteness,
limitation,  restriction, boundaries, time, space, law, fate, and
ultimately,  death; in this form she is often depicted as Ama the
Crone,  who broods (like many pictures of Queen Victoria) in  her
black widow's weeds on the throne of creation - one of the titles
of Binah is Khorsia, the Throne.
     The  magician  and  Kabbalist Dion Fortune  had  a  strongly
intuitive  grasp of Binah,  not just as a sphere of a  particular
kind  of  emanation,  but as the Great  Mother  herself,  as  the
following rhyme from her novel "Moon Magic" [4] shows:

     "I am she who ere the earth was formed
     Was  Rhea, Binah, Ge.
     I am that soundless, boundless, bitter sea
     Out of whose deeps life wells eternally.
     Astarte, Aphrodite, Ashtoreth -
     Giver of life and bringer in of death;
     Hera in heaven, on earth Persephone;
     Diana of the ways, and Hecate -
     All these am I, and they are seen in me.
     The hour of the high full moon draws near;
     I hear the invoking words, hear and appear -
     Shaddai El Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge -
     I come unto the priest who calleth me - "

One  of  the oldest correspondences for Binah is the  element  of
water,  and  she is called Marah,  the bitter sea from which  all
life comes and must return.  She is also the Superior or  Greater
Mother; the Inferior or Lesser Mother is the sephira Malkuth, who
is  better symbolised by nature goddesses of the earth  itself  -
e.g.  the trinity of Kore,  Demeter,  and Persephone. The Tree of
Life has many goddess symbols,  and it is not always easy to  see
where they fit:

     Binah  is the Great Mother of All,  with symbols  of  space,
     time, fate, spinning, weaving, cauldrons etc.

     Malkuth  is the Earth as the soil from which  life  springs,
     matter  as  the  basis for life,  the  spirit  concealed  in
     matter,   best  symbolised  by  goddesses  of  this   earth,
     fertility, vegetation etc.

     Yesod in its lunar aspect is the Moon, a hidden reality with
     the ebb and flow of secret tides,  illusion, glamour, sexual
     reproduction etc, and is sometimes in invoked in the form of
     lunar goddesses - Selene, Artemis etc.

     Gevurah  is on the Pillar of Form;  the whole Pillar  has  a
     female aspect,  and Gevurah is sometimes invoked in a female
     form as Kali,  Durga,  Hecate,  or the Morrigan, although it
     must  be  said that all four goddesses also  share  definite
     Binah-type correspondences.

     Netzach  has the planet Venus as a correspondence,  and  its
     aspect of sensual pleasure,  luxury,  sexual love and desire
     is  sometime  invoked  through a goddess such  as  Venus  or
     Aphrodite.

     The  Spiritual Experience of Binah is the Vision of  Sorrow:
as the Mother of Form Binah is also the Mother of finiteness  and
limitation,  of determinism,  of cause and effect.  Every quality
comes forth hand-in-hand with its opposite:  life and death,  joy
and despair,  love and hate,  order and chaos,  so that it is not
possible  to find an anchor in life.  For every reason to live  I
can  find you,  buried like a worm in an apple,  a reason not  to
live;  the  Vision of Sorrow is a vision of a life  condemned  to
tramp along the circumference of a circle while forever denied  a
view of the unity of the centre. At its most extreme the creation
is  seen as an evil trick played by a malign  demiurge,  a  sick,
empty joke,  or a joyless prison with death the only release. The
classic  vision  of sorrow is that  of  Siddhartha  Gautama,  but
Tolstoy  records [5] a terrible and enduring  psychic  experience
which  contains  most of the elements associated with  the  worst
Binah can offer - it drove him to the very edge of suicide.
     The Illusion of Binah is death; that is, the vision of Binah
may be compelling,  but it is one-sided,  a half-truth,  and  the
finiteness it reveals is an illusion. Our own personal finiteness
is an illusion.
     The  Qlippoth of Binah is fatalism,  the belief that we  are
imprisoned in the mechanical causality of form,  and not only are
we  incapable of changing or achieving anything,  but even if  we
could,  there  wouldn't  be  any point.  Why try to  be  happy  -
happiness  leads  inexorably to sadness.  Why try  to  build  and
create - it all ends in decay and ruin soon enough. As the author
of "Ecclesiastes" says, all is vanity.
     The Vice of Binah is avarice.  Form is only one-half of  the
equation  of  life  - change is the other half - and  to  try  to
hold onto and preserve form at the expense of change would be the
death of all life.  The Virtue of Binah is silence.  Beyond  form
there are no concepts, ideas, abstractions, or words.

     The  Spiritual  Experience of Chokmah is the Vision  of  God
Face-to-Face.  The  tradition I received has it that  one  cannot
have  this vision while incarnate i.e.  one dies in the  process.
One  Hasidic  Rabbi  liked to bid farewell  to  his  family  each
morning as if it was his last - he feared he might die of ecstacy
during the day.  In the "Greater Holy Assembly" [3], three Rabbis
pass away in ecstacy,  and in the "Lesser Holy Assembly" [3]  the
famous  Rabbi  Simeon ben Yohai passes away  at  the  conclusion.
There  is  a fairly widespread belief that to look on  the  naked
face of God,  or a God,  means death, but fortunately there is no
historical  evidence to suggest that the majority  of  Kabbalists
died of anything other than natural causes.  Having said that,  I
would  not  like  to  underplay the  naked  rawness  of  Chokmah;
unconstrained, unconfined, free of form, it is the creative power
which   sustains  the  universe,   and  talk  of  death  is   not
melodramatic.
     The  Illusion of Chokmah is independence;  at the  level  of
Binah we seem to be locked in form, separate and finite, but just
as  death  is  seen  to  be an  illusion  so  ultimately  is  our
independence and free-will.  We *seem* to be independent,  and we
*seem* to have free-will, but at the level of Chokmah we draw our
water from the same well.
     The  Virtue  of  Chokmah is good,  and  the  Vice  is  evil.
Regardless   of  your  definition  of  good  or   evil,   Chokmah
encompasses  every  possibility  of  action,   circumstance   and
creation,  and modern Kabbalists no longer try to believe God  is
good,  and evil must reside elsewhere.  Medieval Kabbalists liked
to  hedge their bets,  but one has only to plumb  the  bottomless
depths  of  personal good and evil to find they spring  from  the
same place.
     The Qlippoth of Chokmah is arbitrariness. The raw, creative,
unconstrained  energy of God at its most primal and  dynamic  can
seem utterly arbitrary and chaotic,  and some authors [e.g.  [6]]
have  seen it this way.  This removes the "divine will" from  the
energy  and  leaves  a  blind,   directionless  and   essentially
mechanical  force which is unbiased - creation  and  destruction,
order and chaos,  who cares? The Kabbalistic view is that this is
not so:  Chokmah contains form (as Binah) *in potential*,  and it
is not correct to view Chokmah as a purely chaotic energy.  It is
an  energy biased towards an end - "God's Will",  for lack  of  a
better description.

     The  Spiritual Experience of Kether is Union  with  God.  My
comments  on  the Spiritual Experience of Chokmah apply  also  to
Kether. The Illusion of Kether is attainment. We can live, we can
change, but there is nothing to attain. Even Union with God is no
attainment;  we were always one with God,  and *knowing* that  we
are  changes  nothing of any consequence - as long  as  we  live,
there  is  no  goal in life other  than  living  itself.  As  the
Kabbalist Rebbe Nachman of Breslov said [7]:

     "No  matter how high one reaches,  there is still  the  next
     step.  Therefore,  we never know anything,  and still do not
     attain  the true goal.  This is a very deep  and  mysterious
     concept."

The  Qlippoth of Kether is Futility.  Perhaps the creation was  a
bad idea. Maybe the En Soph should never have emanated the point-
crown of Kether. Perhaps the whole of creation, life, the entire,
ghastly three-ring circus we are forced to endure is nothing more
than  *a complete waste*.  The En Soph should suck  Malkuth  back
into Kether,  collapse the whole, crazy house of cards, and admit
the mistake.

     The  God-name  of Binah is Elohim,  a feminine noun  with  a
masculine  plural  ending.  When  we read in the  Bible  "In  the
beginning created God...", this God is Elohim. The name Elohim is
associated with all the sephiroth on the Pillar of Form,  and  is
taken  to represent the feminine aspect of God.  The God-name  of
Chokmah is Yah (YH),  a shortened form of YHVH.  The God-name  of
Kether is Eheieh, a name sometimes translated as "I am", and more
often as "I will be".
     The archangel of Binah is Tzaphqiel;  I have been told  this
means "Shroud of God",  but I have not been able to verify  this.
If  it does not mean "Shroud of God",  it most certainly  should.
The  archangel of Chokmah is Ratziel,  the Herald of  the  Deity.
According to tradition, the wisdom of God and the deepest secrets
of  the  creation were inscribed on a sapphire which  is  in  the
keeping of the archangel Ratziel,  and this "Book of Ratziel" was
given  to Adam and handed down through the generations  [8].  The
archangel of Kether is Metatron,  the Archangel of the  Presence.
According to tradition Metatron was once the man Enoch,  who  was
so wise he was taken by God and made a prince among the angels.
    The angel orders of Binah,  Chokmah and Kether can be derived
directly  from  the  vision of Ezekiel.  In  the  Biblical  text,
Ezekiel  describes successively the Holy  Living  Creatures,  the
great  wheels  within  wheels,   and  lastly  the  throne-chariot
(Merkabah) of God. The vision of Ezekiel had a great influence on
early Kabbalah,  and it is no coincidence that the angel order of
Binah is the Aralim,  or Thrones,  the angel order of Chokmah  is
the  Auphanim  or Wheels,  and the angel order of Kether  is  the
Chiaoth  ha Qadesh,  or Holy Living Creatures.  The forms of  the
Chiaoth ha Qadesh - lion,  eagle,  man and ox - have survived  to
this  day  in many Christian churches,  and can be found  on  the
"World" card of most Tarot packs.

     It  is  difficult to grasp the nature of Chokmah  and  Binah
from symbols alone, just as it is difficult to grasp interstellar
distances,  the energy output of a star, the number of stars in a
galaxy,  and the number of galaxies visible to us.  The scale  of
the observable physical universe relative to our planet (and  the
planet  is a big place for most of us) is  staggering;  there are
something  like a hundred stars in *our galaxy alone*  for  every
person  on  this  planet.  When I think of Chokmah  and  Binah  I
attempt  to think of them on this scale;  the  physical  universe
where  we  have  our  home,   considered  as  Malkuth,  is  vast,
mysterious, and contains inconceivable energies - to consider the
Father and Mother of creation on any less a scale seems  arrogant
to me. Which brings me to the question "Can one experience, or be
initiated into, the supernal sephiroth?".
     If the Kabbalah is to be considered as based on  experience,
and not an intellectual construction,  then the answer has to  be
"yes".  The  supernals represent something real.   What  do  they
represent?  Is it possible to "cross the Abyss"?  The answers  to
these questions depends on which Kabbalistic model one chooses to
use,  and precisely how one interprets the Tree of Life.  For the
sake of argument I have chosen three alternative models:

Model A:  the  sephira  Malkuth  represents  the  whole  physical
          universe; the  sephiroth  from Yesod  to  Chesed  (the
          Microprosopus)  represent  a  sentient,  self-conscious
          being;  the  supernals represent the God of  the  whole
          universe, God-in-the-Large.

Model B:  the Tree of Life is a model of human consciousness; the
          supernals represent the God within, God-in-the-Small.

Model C:  the  Tree  of  Life exists in the four  worlds  of  the
          creation, namely Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah.
          When talking of "the Tree",  we are talking about  "the
          Tree of Yetzirah"; "The Abyss" is in fact "the Abyss of
          Yetzirah" only.

All three models can be found in Kabbalistic writing,  and it  is
rarely clear which version an author is using at any given  time.
I admit the fault myself. Model A differs radically from Models B
and C:  Model A is an all-embracing model of everything,  whereas
in  Models  B  and C the Tree has  been  applied  recursively  to
a  component  of the whole,  namely a human  being  considered  a
divine  spark.   This  is  a  valid  (if  confusing)  Kabbalistic
technique:  take  a  whole,  and find a new Tree in each  of  its
components;  apply  the  method recursively  until  you  generate
enough detail to explain anything.  This idea is summed up in the
aphorism: "there is a Tree in every sephiroth".
     Is  it possible to experience the supernals in  Model  A?  I
would say that it is only possible to experience them at a remove
via  the paths crossing over the Abyss from  Tipheret;  that  is,
as a living, incarnate being my consciousness rises no further up
the Pillar of Consciousness than Tiphereth (or Daath),  but it is
possible  to apprehend the supernals via the  linking  paths.  To
experience  the  consciousness of Binah in this  model  would  be
tantamount  to  being able to modify the  physical  constants  of
nature - Planck's constant, the speed of light, the Gravitational
constant,   the  ratio  of  masses  of  particles  etc.   -   the
consequences  don't bear thinking about!  To  experience  Chokmah
would  be  to  experience the force  which  underpins  a  billion
galaxies.  I  do  not believe even the  most  arrogant  twentieth
century  magician  would claim to have achieved either  of  these
initiations - the continuing existence of the planet is  probably
the best evidence for that.
     Model  B  is  a model of the Microprosopus  *as  a  complete
Tree*.  There  is  some evidence in the "Zohar" that  the  author
thought  about the Macroprosopus and Microprosopus  in  precisely
this  way,  with  references to "the greater  Chokmah"  and  "the
lesser Chokmah". Model C is substantially similar to Model B, but
cast in a slightly different model.  With this interpretation  it
is  certainly  possible to consider "the lesser  Chokmah"  as  an
accessible  state  of consciousness,  but "the  Greater  Chokmah"
remains as in Model A; that is, we can experience the God within,
"God-in-the-Small",  and experience our essential unity with  all
other living beings considered as "Gods-in-the-Small", but beyond
that lies a greater mystery,  that of "God-in-the-Large".  We may
each  be a chip off the old block,  but individually we  are  not
*identical* with the old block.
     This  discussion  may seem arcane,  but there is  a  natural
tendency  in people to exalt spiritual experience to the  highest
level,  which  does  nothing more than inflate  and  devalue  the
currency  of the language we use to describe  these  experiences.
The  universe  is too large,  too mysterious,  and  too  full  of
infinite  possibilities of wonder for anyone to claim  initiation
into Malkuth, far less Kether.

     Lastly,  it is worth asking "what *is* God?".  What does the
Kabbalistic  trinity of Kether,  Chokmah and Binah represent  *in
reality*?  I  have  deliberately avoided mentioning  an  enormous
amount  of Kabbalistic material on these three sephiroth  because
it   is   not  clear  whether  it  contributes   to   a   genuine
understanding.  How useful,  for example,  is it to know that the
name  Binah (BINH) contains not only IH (Yod,  He),  the  letters
representing Chokmah and Binah,  but also BN, Ben, the son? There
is a level of understanding Kabbalah which is  intellectual,  and
capable  of almost inifinite elaboration,  but it leads  nowhere.
What  experience  or perception does the word  "God"  denote?  If
there  is  nothing  which is not God,  why  are  so  many  people
searching for God? Why do so many people feel apart from  God?  I
quoted  D.H.  Lawrence's  poem "Only Man" because of  his  deeply
intuitive view of the Fall from God and the abyss of separation.
    I was browsing in my local occult bookshop recently,  a shop
which  contains  a catholic selection of books  covering  Eastern
religions,  astrology,  Tarot,  shamanism,  crystals,  theosophy,
magick,   Celtic  and  Grail  traditions,   mythology,  Kabbalah,
witchcraft,  and so on. I am not sure what I was looking for, but
despite  a couple of hours of browsing I certainly did  not  find
it.  What did strike me was the extent to which so many of  these
books  were  written  to  make human  beings  *feel  good*  about
themselves.  There  is  a  smug view permeating  so  much  occult
literature  that "spiritual" human beings are a little  bit  more
"advanced"  or "developed" than the pack,  that they are  "moving
along  the Path" towards some kind  of  "enlightenment",  "cosmic
consciousness",  "union with God",  "divine love", or one of many
more fantastic and utterly sublime goals. It is all so empowering
and  affirming and cosy.  Even in the less starry-eyed and  gushy
works  the  view  is  predominantly,  almost  exclusively  human-
centred,  and  I found it difficult to avoid the impression  that
the  universe was designed as a foam-padded playground for  human
souls  to romp around in.  There is more than a little  truth  in
Marx's statement that religion is the opium of the people,  and a
cynic could justify a claim that occultism and esoteric  religion
are  little more than a security blanket for  unfortunate  people
who  cannot look reality in the face.  Where are the books  which
say  "you are an insignificant speck of flyshit in a universe  so
vast you cannot even begin to comprehend its scale;  your  occult
pretensions  amount  to  nothing and are  carefully  designed  to
protect you from any experience of reality;  all human experience
and knowledge is parochial,  insignificant and largely irrelevant
on  a universal scale,  and your personal contribution even  more
so;  there are no Masters or Powers,  no Secret Chiefs,  no Inner
Plane Adepti,  no Messiahs,  and God does not love you;  the only
thing you possess is your life, and the joy and mystery of living
in a universe filled to the brim with life, where little is known
and much remains to be discovered; when you die, you are dead." I
do  not concur with this position in its entirity,  but it  is  a
valid  position  to  adopt,   and  one  which  is  not   strongly
represented in esoteric and occult literature.  Why not?  Perhaps
people do not want to buy books which say this. I will venture an
opinion  which  reflects my own experience;  as such  it  has  no
general validity, but it is worth recording nevertheless.
     I   believe  that  many  religious,   esoteric  and   occult
traditions currently extant are unconsciously designed to protect
human  beings from experiencing God and lead towards  experiences
which  are  valid  in themselves but  which  are  biased  towards
feelings of love,  protection,  peace,  safety,  personal growth,
community  and empowerment,  all wrapped up in a strongly  human-
centred   value  system  where  positive  *human*  feelings   and
experiences are emphasised.  I believe that people are apart from
God  by choice,  that they cannot find God because *they  do  not
want to*.
     It is difficult to justify this statement without  resorting
to  an onion-skin model of the psyche;  underneath  the  surface,
unsuspected and virtually inaccessible, is a layer which does its
best  to  protect us from the existential terror  of  confronting
things  as  they really are.  As a child I was terrified  of  the
dark;  the dark itself was not malign,  but I was deeply  afraid,
and  in  this case it was fear which determined  my  relationship
with the dark,  not any quality of the dark itself. So it is with
God  -  it  is  our deeply buried  and  unrecognised  fear  which
determines our relationship with God.  We read books,  go to  the
cinema and theatre,  argue,  invent,  throw parties,  play games,
search for God, live and love together, and bury ourselves in all
the  distractions  of human society in a frenetic  and  unceasing
effort  to avoid the layers of fear - fear of solitude,  fear  of
rejection, fear of disease and decay and disintregration, fear of
madness,  fear  of meaninglessness,  arbitrariness and  futility,
fear  of death and personal annihilation.  Like an audience in  a
cinema, we can live in a fantasy for a time and forget that it is
dark,  cold and raining outside,  but sooner or later we have  to
leave  our  seats.  And underneath all the fears is the  fear  of
opening  the door which conceals the awful truth:  that  we  have
wilfully,  and with great energy and persistence,  chosen *not to
know*.

[1]  Ponce, Charles, "Kabbalah", Garnstone Press, 1974.

[2]  Kaplan, Aryeh, "The Bahir", Samuel Weiser 1989.

[3]  Mather, S.L., "The Kabbalah Unveiled", RKP 1970

[4]  Fortune, Dion, "Moon Magic", Star Books, 1976

[5]  James,  William,  "The  Varieties of Religious  Experience",
                        Fontana 1974

[6]  Peter J. Carroll, "Liber Null & Psychonaut", Samuel Weiser 1987

[7]  Epstein, Perle, "Kabbalah", Shambhala 1978

[8]  Graves,  Robert, & Patai, Raphael, "Hebrew Myths, the Book
                                        of Genesis", Arena 1989

Copyright Colin Low 1991