home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- ****************************************************************************
-
- 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. Jan 1992
-
- Copyright Colin Low 1992 (cal@hplb.hpl.hp.com)
-
- ****************************************************************************
-
- Chapter 1.: The Tree of Life
-
- At the root of the Kabbalistic view of the world are three
- fundamental concepts and they provide a natural place to begin.
- The three concepts are force, form and consciousness and these
- words are used in an abstract way, as the following examples
- illustrate:
-
- - high pressure steam in the cylinder of a steam engine
- provides a force. The engine is a form which constrains the
- force.
-
- - a river runs downhill under the force of gravity. The
- river channel is a form which constrains the water to run in
- a well defined path.
-
- - someone wants to get to the centre of a garden maze. The
- hedges are a form which constrain that person's ability to
- walk as they please.
-
- - a diesel engine provides the force which drives a boat
- forwards. A rudder constrains its course to a given
- direction.
-
- - a polititian wants to change the law. The legislative
- framework of the country is a form which he or she must
- follow if the change is to be made legally.
-
- - water sits in a bowl. The force of gravity pulls the water
- down. The bowl is a form which gives its shape to the water.
-
- - a stone falls to the ground under the force of gravity.
- Its acceleration is constrained to be equal to the force
- divided by the mass of the stone.
-
- - I want to win at chess. The force of my desire to win is
- constrained within the rules of chess.
-
- - I see something in a shop window and have to have it. I am
- constrained by the conditions of sale (do I have enough
- money, is it in stock).
-
- - cordite explodes in a gun barrel and provides an explosive
- force on a bullet. The gas and the bullet are constrained by
- the form of the gun barrel.
-
- - I want to get a passport. The government won't give me one
- unless I fill in lots of forms in precisely the right way.
-
- - I want a university degree. The university won't give me
- a degree unless I attend certain courses and pass various
- assessments.
-
- In all these examples there is something which is causing change
- to take place ("a force") and there is something which causes
- change to take place in a defined way ("a form"). Without being
- too pedantic it is possible to identify two very different types
- of example here:
-
- 1. examples of natural physical processes (e.g. a falling
- stone) where the force is one of the natural forces known to
- physics (e.g. gravity) and the form is is some combination
- of physical laws which constrain the force to act in a well
- defined way.
-
- 2. examples of people wanting something, where the force is
- some ill-defined concept of "desire", "will", or "drives",
- and the form is one of the forms we impose upon ourselves
- (the rules of chess, the Law, polite behaviour etc.).
-
- Despite the fact that the two different types of example are
- "only metaphorically similar", Kabbalists see no fundamental
- distiniction between them. To the Kabbalist there are forces
- which cause change in the natural world, and there are
- corresponding psychological forces which drive us to change both
- the world and ourselves, and whether these forces are natural or
- psychological they are rooted in the same place: consciousness.
- Similarly, there are forms which the component parts of the
- physical world seem to obey (natural laws) and there are
- completely arbitrary forms we create as part of the process of
- living (the rules of a game, the shape of a mug, the design of an
- engine, the syntax of a language) and these forms are also rooted
- in the same place: consciousness. It is a Kabbalistic axiom that
- there is a prime cause which underpins all the manifestations of
- force and form in both the natural and psychological world and
- that prime cause I have called consciousness for lack of a better
- word.
- Consciousness is undefinable. We know that we are conscious
- in different ways at different times - sometimes we feel free and
- happy, at other times trapped and confused, sometimes angry and
- passionate, sometimes cold and restrained - but these words
- describe manifestations of consciousness. We can define the
- manifestations of consciousness in terms of manifestations of
- consciousness, which is about as useful as defining an ocean in
- terms of waves and foam. Anyone who attempts to define
- consciousness itself tends to come out of the same door as they
- went in. We have lots of words for the phenomena of consciousness
- - thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires, emotions, motives and so
- on - but few words for the states of consciousness which give
- rise to these phenomena, just as we have many words to describe
- the surface of a sea, but few words to describe its depths.
- Kabbalah provides a vocabulary for states of consciousness
- underlying the phenomena, and one of the purposes of these notes
- is to explain this vocabulary, not by definition, but mostly by
- metaphor and analogy. The only genuine method of understanding
- what the vocabulary means is by attaining various states of
- consciousness in a predictable and reasonably objective way, and
- Kabbalah provides practical methods for doing this.
- A fundamental premise of the Kabbalistic model of reality is
- that there is a pure, primal, and undefinable state of
- consciousness which manifests as an interaction between force and
- form. This is virtually the entire guts of the Kabbalistic view
- of things, and almost everything I have to say from now on is
- based on this trinity of consciousness, force, and form.
- Consciousness comes first, but hidden within it is an inherent
- duality; there is an energy associated with consciousness which
- causes change (force), and there is a capacity within
- consciousness to constrain that energy and cause it to manifest
- in a well-defined way (form).
-
- First Principle
- of
- / Consciousness \
- / \
- / \
- Capacity Raw
- to take ________________ Energy
- Form
- Figure 1.
-
- What do we get out of raw energy and an inbuilt capacity for form
- and structure? Is there yet another hidden potential within this
- trinity waiting to manifest? There is. If modern physics is to be
- believed we get matter and the physical world. The cosmological
- Big Bang model of raw energy surging out from an infintesimal
- point and condensing into basic forms of matter as it cools, then
- into stars and galaxies, then planets, and ultimately living
- creatures, has many points of similarity with the Kabbalistic
- model. In the Big Bang model a soup of energy condenses according
- to some yet-to-be-formulated Grand-Universal-Theory into our
- physical world. What Kabbalah does suggest (and modern physics
- most certainly does not!) is that matter and consciousness are
- the same stuff, and differ only in the degree of structure
- imposed - matter is consciousness so heavily structured and
- constrained that its behaviour becomes describable using the
- regular and simple laws of physics. This is shown in Fig. 2. The
- primal, first principle of consciousness is synonymous with the
- idea of "God".
-
- First Principle
- of
- / Consciousness \
- / | \
- / | \
- Capacity | Raw
- to take _____________ Energy/Force
- Form |
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- Matter
- The World
-
- Figure 2
-
- The glyph in Fig. 2 is the basis for the Tree of Life. The first
- principle of consciousness is called Kether, which means Crown.
- The raw energy of consciousness is called Chockhmah or Wisdom,
- and the capacity to give form to the energy of consciousness is
- called Binah, which is sometimes translated as Understanding, and
- sometimes as Intelligence. The outcome of the interaction of
- force and form, the physical world, called Malkuth or Kingdom.
- This quaternery is a Kabbalistic representation of God-the-
- Knowable, in the sense that it the most primitive representation
- of God we are capable of comprehending; paradoxically, Kabbalah
- also contains a notion of God-the-Unknowable which transcends
- this glyph, and is called En Soph. There is not much I can say
- about En Soph, and what I can say I will postpone for later.
- God-the-Knowable has four aspects, two male and two female:
- Kether and Chokhmah are both represented as male, and Binah and
- Malkuth are represented as female. One of the titles of Chokhmah
- is Abba, which means Father, and one of the titles of Binah is
- Aima, which means Mother, so you can think of Chokhmah as God-
- the-Father, and Binah as God-the-Mother. Malkuth is the
- daughter, the female spirit of God-as-Matter, and it would not be
- wildly wrong to think of her as Mother Earth. One of the more
- pleasant things about Kabbalah is that its symbolism gives equal
- place to both male and female.
- And what of God-the-Son? Is there also a God-the-Son in
- Kabbalah? There is, and this is the point where Kabbalah tackles
- the interesting problem of thee and me. The glyph in Fig. 2 is a
- model of consciousness, but not of self-consciousness, and self-
- consciousness throws an interesting spanner in the works.
-
- The Fall
-
- Self-consciousness is like a mirror in which consciousness
- sees itself reflected. Self-consciousness is modelled in Kabbalah
- by making a copy of figure 2.
-
- Consciousness
- of
- / Consciousness \
- / | \
- / | \
- Consciousness | Consciousness
- of ________________ of
- Form | Energy/Force
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- Consciousness
- of the
- World
-
- Figure 3
-
- Figure 3. is Figure 2. reflected through self-consciousness. The
- overall effect of self-consciousness is to add an additional
- layer to Figure 2. as follows:
-
- First Principle
- of
- / Consciousness \
- / | \
- / | \
- Capacity | Raw
- to take _____________ Energy/Force
- Form |
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- Consciousness
- of
- / Consciousness \
- / | \
- / | \
- Consciousness | Consciousness
- of ________________ of
- Form | Energy/Force
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- Consciousness
- of the
- World
- |
- |
- |
- Matter
- The World
-
- Figure 4
-
- Fig. 2 is sometimes called "the Garden of Eden" because it
- represents a primal state of consciousness. The effect of self-
- consciousness as shown in Fig. 4 is to drive a wedge between the
- First Principle of Consciousness (Kether) and that Consciousness
- realised as matter and the physical world (Malkuth). This is
- called "the Fall", after the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden
- of Eden. From a Kabbalistic point of view the story of Eden, with
- the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the serpent and the
- temptation, and the casting out from the Garden has a great deal
- of meaning in terms of understanding the evolution of
- consciousness.
- Self-consciousness introduces four new states of
- consciousness: the Consciousness of Consciousness is called
- Tipheret, which means Beauty; the Consciousness of Force/Energy
- is called Netzach, which means Victory or Firmness; the
- Consciousness of Form is called Hod, which means Splendour or
- Glory, and the Consciousness of Matter is called Yesod, which
- means Foundation. These four states have readily observable
- manifestations, as shown below in Fig. 5:
-
- The Self
- Self-Importance
- Self-Sacrifice
- / | \
- / | \
- / | \
- Language | Emotions
- Abstraction_______________Drives
- Reason | Feelings
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ Perception /
- Imagination
- Instinct
- Reproduction
-
- Figure 5
-
- Figure 4. is almost the complete Tree of Life, but not quite -
- there are still two states missing. The inherent capacity of
- consciousness to take on structure and objectify itself (Binah,
- God-the-Mother) is reflected through self-consciousness as a
- perception of the limitedness and boundedness of things. We are
- conscious of space and time, yesterday and today, here and there,
- you and me, in and out, life and death, whole and broken,
- together and apart. We see things as limited and bounded and we
- have a perception of form as something "created" and "destroyed".
- My car was built a year ago, but it was smashed yesterday. I
- wrote an essay, but I lost it when my computer crashed. My granny
- is dead. The river changed its course. A law has been repealed. I
- broke my coffee mug. The world changes, and what was here
- yesterday is not here today. This perception acts like an
- "interface" between the quaternary of consciousness which
- represents "God", and the quaternary which represents a living
- self-conscious being, and two new states are introduced to
- represent this interface. The state which represents the creation
- of new forms is called Chesed, which means Mercy, and the state
- which represents the destruction of forms is called Gevurah,
- which means Strength. This is shown in Fig. 6. The
- objectification of forms which takes place in a self-conscious
- being, and the consequent tendency to view the world in terms of
- limitations and dualities (time and space, here and there, you
- and me, in and out, God and Man, good and evil...) produces a
- barrier to perception which most people rarely overcome, and for
- this reason it has come to be called the Abyss. The Abyss is also
- marked on Figure 6.
-
- First Principle
- of
- / Consciousness \
- / | \
- / | \
- Capacity | Raw
- to take _____________ Energy/Force
- Form | |
- |\ | /|
- | \ | / |
- --------------Abyss---------------
- | \ | / |
- Destruction | Creation
- of_____\_____|_____ /____of
- Form \ | / Form
- | \ \ | / / |
- | \ \ | / / |
- | \ Consciousness / |
- | of |
- | / Consciousness \ |
- | / | \ |
- |/ | \|
- Consciousness | Consciousness
- of ________________ of
- \ Form | Energy/Force
- \ \ | / /
- \ \ | / /
- \ \ | / /
- \ Consciousness /
- \ of /
- \ the World /
- \ /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- Matter
- The World
-
- Figure 6
-
- The diagram in Fig. 6 is called the Tree of Life. The
- "constructionist" approach I have used to justify its structure
- is a little unusual, but the essence of my presentation can be
- found in the "Zohar" under the guise of the Macroprosopus and
- Microprosopus, although in this form it is not readily accessible
- to the average reader. My attempt to show how the Tree of Life
- can be derived out of pure consciousness through the interaction
- of an abstract notion of force and form was not intended to be a
- convincing exercise from an intellectual point of view - the Tree
- of Life is primarily a gnostic rather than a rational or
- intellectual explanation of consciousness and its interaction
- with the physical world.
- The Tree is composed of 10 states or sephiroth (sephiroth
- plural, sephira singular) and 22 interconnecting paths. The age
- of this diagram is unknown: there is enough information in the
- 13th. century "Sepher ha Zohar" to construct this diagram, and
- the doctrine of the sephiroth has been attributed to Isaac the
- Blind in the 12th. century, but we have no certain knowledge of
- its origin. It probably originated sometime in the interval
- between the 6th. and 13th. centuries AD. The origin of the word
- "sephira" is unclear - it is almost certainly derived from the
- Hebrew word for "number" (SPhR), but it has also been attributed
- to the Greek word for "sphere" and even to the Hebrew word for a
- sapphire (SPhIR). With a characteristic aptitude for discovering
- hidden meanings everywhere, Kabbalists find all three derivations
- useful, so take your pick.
- In the language of earlier Kabbalistic writers the sephiroth
- represented ten primeval emanations of God, ten focii through
- which the energy of a hidden, absolute and unknown Godhead (En
- Soph) propagated throughout the creation, like white light
- passing through a prism. The sephiroth can be interpreted as
- aspects of God, as states of consciousness, or as nodes akin to
- the Chakras in the occult anatomy of a human being .
- I have left out one important detail from the structure of
- the Tree. There is an eleventh "something" which is definitely
- *not* a sephira, but is often shown on modern representations of
- the Tree. The Kabbalistic "explanation" runs as follows: when
- Malkuth "fell" out of the Garden of Eden (Fig. 2) it left behind
- a "hole" in the fabric of the Tree, and this "hole", located in
- the centre of the Abyss, is called Daath, or Knowledge. Daath is
- *not* a sephira; it is a hole. This may sound like gobbledy-gook,
- and in the sense that it is only a metaphor, it is.
- The completed Tree of Life with the Hebrew titles of the
- sephiroth is shown below in Fig. 7.
-
-
- En Soph
- /-------------------------\
- / \
- ( Kether )
- / (Crown) \
- / | \
- / | \
- / | \
- Binah | Chokhmah
- (Understanding)__________ (Wisdom)
- (Intelligence) | |
- |\ | /|
- | \ Daath / |
- | \ (Knowledge) / |
- | \ | / |
- Gevurah \ | / Chesed
- (Strength)\_____|_____/__ (Mercy)
- | \ | / (Love)
- | \ \ | / / |
- | \ \ | / / |
- | \ Tipheret / |
- | / (Beauty) \ |
- | / | \ |
- | / | \ |
- |/ | \|
- Hod | Netzach
- (Glory) _______________(Victory)
- (Splendour) | (Firmness)
- \ \ | / /
- \ \ | / /
- \ \ | / /
- \ \ | / /
- \ \ Yesod / /
- \ (Foundation) /
- \ /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- \ | /
- Malkuth
- (Kingdom)
-
- Figure 7
-
- From an historical point of view the doctrine of emanations and
- the Tree of Life are only one small part of a huge body of
- Kabbalistic speculation about the nature of divinity and our part
- in creation, but it is the part which has survived. The Tree
- continues to be used in the Twentieth Century because it has
- proved to be a useful and productive symbol for practices of a
- magical, mystical and religious nature. Modern Kabbalah in the
- Western Mystery Tradition is largely concerned with the
- understanding and practical application of the Tree of Life, and
- the following set of notes will list some of the characteristics
- of each sephira in more detail so that you will have a "snapshot"
- of what each sephira represents before going on to examine the
- sephiroth and the "deep structure" of the Tree in more detail.
-
-
