Qabalah Part One: The Supernals

Okay, I'm going to attempt to explain Qabalah as best that I can. The best advise that I can give you at the outset is to take nothing literally and question everything. It is only though personal innovation that progress can be made. However, let any opposition to the ideas presented here be judged with careful scrutiny, lest the thought process become nothing more then an exercise in mental acrobatics.

I will be using a few terms that you may be unfamiliar with. I will try to define each as I go, but let me first define a term so frequently used that I must define it off the bat. Sephiroth is a plural term that means "numbers, spheres, emanations" according to Israel Regardie's book, The Tree of Life. The singular form of the word is Sephirah. The Sephiroth in this context refers to the spheres or stations on the Tree of Life diagram.

The easiest form of Qabalah to understand, in my opinion, is what has been termed the Unwritten Qabalah, which is the study of the diagram of the Tree of Life. This is because it is somewhat open to interpretation to the individual, albeit very carefully. We must not let our imaginations run away with us in our interpretations because then it ceases to be a philosophy. However, the information that we have is vague enough to allow for variations of meaning, even in the individual. An example would be the four worlds of the Qabalah. One system would have the first Sephirah alone assigned to the first world which is called Atziluth or the Archetypal World, the next two Sephiroth assigned to the second world called Briah, the Creative World. The next six Sephiroth would compose the third world called Yetzirah, the World of Formation, and the last Sephirah make up the last world of Assiah, the World of Action. On the other hand, another system would have the last two Sephiroth composing the world of Assiah. Another system has an entire Tree existing in each world.

So what's the difference? The difference is basically the context in which we are operating, and each system may be used by the same person at different times. If we are talking about the Soul of Man, we would use the first system that I described, but if we are talking about the Tarot, we would use the last.

Let us begin with the very beginning. Actually, lets go back a back a little further then that. In the Bible, we read, "In the beginning, God created..." This of course is the familiar translation. However, the Zohar calls attention to the fact that the translation is only approximate because the true translation is confusing beyond understanding to the pious. "Bereshit bara Elohim..." is the Hebrew, which translates directly to, "With beginning, _____ created God." There is a word missing here, but it is intentionally so. For what in Heaven or Earth could create God?! Nothing!

But what is my meaning here? When I say, "Nothing can create God," I do not mean that God cannot be created. I mean that Nothing did create God, a Nothingness that is something... a substantial nothingness, for all things must have a cause. So what could be at the root of this cause? A sea of Nothingness.

This Nothingness has been named, hesitantly, by the Qabalists as Ain Soph, that is Without Limit. It has been described, I do not remember where or by whom, as "A circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." Dion Fortune described it in The Cosmic Doctrine. "The Unmanifest is pure existence. We cannot say of it that it is Not. Although it is not manifest, it IS. IT is the source from which all arises." Not much more can be said of Ain Soph, because the more that is said of it, the further we will be from the truth.

Therefore we will continue with the Beginning. The first manifestation, or Sephirah, is called Kether, which means the Crown. The best way to describe Kether is pure being, pure existence. Like the Ain Soph, it has no shape and no motion, yet unlike the Ain Soph, it is manifest. In Geometry, it can be described as a point. In Physics, it is termed a Singularity. The Divine Name of God given to describe Kether is Eheieh which means, "I Am" or "I Will Become". This is suggestive of its state of pure being, having no other qualities other than existence.

Imagine for a moment a vast sea of Ain Soph. Now for the sake of not giving you a stroke, we will visualize it as light. Now imagine that this light beginning to gather together and concentrate itself to form a vortex. This vortex, like a whirlpool, forms a point of emptiness at it's center. Now if we remember that Ain Soph is Nothing, then we know that the empty point at its center is the absence of Nothing, which is something. And we further know that this something is formed from Nothing and defined by Nothing. Therefore, this something is very highly connected with Nothing.

This illuminates the Magickal Image given to Kether. It is a mighty patriarch seen in profile. Dion Fortune says in The Mystical Qabalah, "... we do not see the magical image of Kether full-face, that is to say complete, but only partially. There is an aspect which must ever be hidden from us, like the hidden side of the moon. This side of Kether is the side that is towards the Unmanifest, which the nature of our manifested consciousness prevents us from comprehending..."

Now this something, coming from Nothing, but now manifest, has a quality to it, the fact that it is manifest. Therefore, it can be defined, albeit not in the language of man, or at least not accurately in the language of man. However, this definition of the first manifestation by necessity gives rise to a second manifestation, the definition itself. It is therefore said that the second Sephirah, Chokmah which means Wisdom, is the reflection of Kether. Returning to Geometry, we see the point in relation to a second point, and this relationship composes a line between these two points, implying motion, which in turn implies energy. This is archetypal male or positive in the language of polarity. Its correspondent in the physical world is the sphere of the Zodiac which is perpetually in motion, never ceasing its whirling nor slowing or reversing. Steady is its course, and mysterious is its nature. Therefore, it is Chokmah Nisitarah, that is Secret Wisdom, because it conceals within itself the mysteries of Kether.

The next Sephirah is called Binah, Understanding. This is archetypal female, and as the third manifestation, it suggests a shape, because of the triangle. Whereas Chokmah was energy and motion, Binah is shape and form. Whereas Chokmah was absolute freedom, Binah is imprisonment; the bringer of death. For all forms are temporary and must eventually crumble. As the archetypal mother, it delivers all things into life and in so doing condemns them to death. From The Mystical Qabalah, "It is a straitening and a limiting; a binding and a constricting. Form checks life, thwarts it, and yet enables it to organize. Seen from the point of view of free-moving force, incarceration in a form is extinction." Yet this is misleading.

Let me here state that Binah is my favorite Sephirah. Most people who understand Qabalah will wonder first of all why I have a favorite Sephirah at all, because all are equally Holy, and then they will be even more confused as to why in the world I would chose Binah as my favorite. Binah is depressing, the bringer of death, the stern correcter. It is called the Vision of Sorrow. Why would I be so drawn to it?

I will give you a section of the script from the last episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion which explains what I am talking about very well.

Misato: Everything is vague. That's freedom.
Ryouji: The world where you can do anything you like.
Misato: Yet, you are uneasy.
Fuyutsuki: Don't you know what you should do?
Shinji: What should I do?
Gendou: I give you a constraint.
Asuka: Now you have a top and a bottom.
Rei: Now you have lost one degree of freedom.
Misato: Now you have to stand on the ground.
Ryouji: But you obtain a comfort.
Makoto: Your mind becomes slightly easier.
Shigeru: And you walk.
Maya: That is your will.
Shinji: Is this my will?
Ritsuko: The world with a floor is the world surrounding you.
Touji: Yet, you can move freely.
Kensuke: If you wish, you can change the position of the world.
Hikari: The position of the world does not stay the same.
Ryouji: It changes through the flow of time.
Fuyutsuki: You can also change.

It is commonly known by even the beginning student of the Tarot that the Death Card usually indicates change. Death allows for change. It allows for growth. That which is eternal cannot change. It is freedom absolute, yet it is imprisoned in its own freedom. It cannot do anything because it can do everything. Therefore, you cut the line short to make shape, giving it a beginning and an end. For nothing can be without a beginning, and everything that has a beginning has an end.

Imagine yourself as a free floating entity in and endless expanse. You may move, but where to move to? You race forward seeking something, anything, but there is nothing. In fact, who's to say you are moving forward, for you see in all directions at once because you have no limitations at all. So what is the difference in which direction you move, and what will you do when you get there. Time means nothing, space means nothing. You are alone.

Now imagine that you see in the vast expanse a glimmer of light. What is it? There has never been anything other than you. What is this other? You focus your attention in its direction, forgetting about what is in the other direction because you know that there is nothing. You have lost a degree of awareness because now there is a forward which you can see and a behind which you cannot see, but you care not. This Other comforts you. You move toward it, and just as there is now a "forward", there is for the first time a "toward" or in other words, something else to relate to even if it means nothing but relation in terms of distance. You move toward it and get close to it. This "other" is one like you, yet has its own will, so while you may move, it may remain where it is, and vica versa. You may move past it at an angle or away from it altogether, or you may get closer. And it may do the same, or not, according to its will.

This other is comforting because you are no longer alone, and you become attached to it. But you are terribly aware that by becoming attached to it, you have just lost something. You have lost your freedom. And even if you move away from it, or it away from you, as far away as the two of you are, you will always exist in relation to the other. Because of its very existence, it defines your own, and you define it. You may now be close or far, or you may be towards or away, but in all cases this depends on the actions of the other.

Yet would you desire to return to being entirely alone, where nothing means anything and because you can do anything, you can do nothing? You have lost so much and gained so little, but now you can change. What's more, with this other, you can create a third and fourth and infinity. You can create a circle by revolving around each other, and you can move within the boundaries of this circle or outside. And the more others you create, the greater the things you can create because you now have parts that you can make to relate to each other, just as you have related to this first other.

I could go on for hours, but I will not. It would do you well to meditate on this idea, but if you do, be careful to set a timer. Such meditations on archetypes such as these have a tendency to make you lose track of time and become lost in them. In fact, just writing the above caused me to lose track of myself for a time. Do not worry about completing the meditation because you cannot complete a meditation like this. There is always a story of what comes after that never ends.

So now you have a basic image of the Supernal Triad on the Tree of Life. In my next post, I will give a primer in the next set of Sephiroth, the Ethical Triad.