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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 (cal@hplb.hpl.hp.com)
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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
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