Qabalah Introduction Class

[Neshamah]

Hello Everyone,

With the blessing of m1thr0s, I am beginning a new class as an Introcution to the Qabalah (Western Esoteric Tradtion). This class is sceduled to start on Monday or (more likely) Tuesday of next week. If you'd like to post a comment or question in this thread to make sure I cover that particular topic, please do.

Even if you have no additional comments or questions, I would like to hear who is interested in this class. So, if you would just like to post to tell me that your are interested, that would be great, too.

At any rate, we'll be starting soon !!!

Love, Light, and Peace,

Neshamah

[MythMath]

Sounds wonderful (and timely)...

Looking forward to it...

[m1thr0s]

excellent Fr. Neshamah...thank you for taking this on.
let me know if there is anything you need that we can accomodate...

m1thr0s

[Radiant Star]

I think I should probably take note of this Neshamah. Never been able to get into it with a generous heart, I maybe should give it another go...

[Kain]

It's been a while since I approached Qabbalah formally, a regroup should prove most beneficial in this regard I think. Thank you very much for taking the lead in this one Neshamah, like m1thr0s said, if there's anything you would require the forum to accomodate let us know...

I would be interested in:

A general and concise description of the leading properties of each of the particular coordinates (Sephiroth, Paths etc) of the cosmological manifestation sequence (as shown by the unfoldment of the Tree fo Life).

If possible, a concise description of what the "previous universes" that have collapsed to the outer areas surrounding our Universe entail as a phenomenon. It is these that are often referred to as the Qlippoth if I'm not mistaken.

If any of these seem unfit for the introduction or irrelevant altogether, please ignore them outright Neshamah. Thank you very much in advance for starting this class,

Kain

[fr.novumorganum]

This comes at a perfect time for me.

[Frater Yechidah]

I'm in, as always, but then you can pretty much assume it when it comes to Qabalah :p

LLLSHJ,
Yechidah.

[Neshamah]

Qabalah Basics

Let’s start off with a few definitions. I call what I practice Qabalah since it is taken primarily from the Western Mystery (or Occult) Tradition, rather than Kabbalah,, or Cabala, or any of the other variants. When I want to differentiate between the Qabalah and the Jewish Mystical Tradition, I call theirs the Kabbalah. Any questions along these lines will be answered gladly.

I don’t bother with much differentiation between the Practical or the Literal Qabalah. I see the practice of Qabalah as a single discipline which includes study of the Tree of Life, study of the gematria of various words, study of the relationships of words, concepts, and ideas based on gematria, but also on the correspondences of each Sephirah or Path. We’ll talk a lot about correspondences as we make our way through this class, but this is one of the more interesting aspects of the Qabalah (at least to me). For instance, the Sephirah Geburah is related to the planet Mars which rules the Zodiacal Signs Aries and Scorpio (co-rule with Pluto). The Sephirah and the planets have Archangels and Angels which are related to them, not to mention Metals, Stones, Colors, and even Scents.

You don’t have to know Hebrew to do Qabalah, but a working vocabulary is helpful. You might want to spend some time learning the Hebrew letters and their corresponding numbers (all of which goes into gematria). Sometimes when you see the words written out in Hebrew something will just “click” and you’ll have a deeper understanding than ever before. :yes:

There are a number of books on the Qabalah that are on sale these days; I don’t really recommend any one more than others – they all have their own positives and negatives. I will mention one that is back in print now that is excellent in relating the Qabalah with the Tarot; that book is Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang. Wang does have a Golden Dawn background, and the book is a little pricey, but I promise that you will not be disappointed in it or regret that you spent your money on it.

I’m not going to adopt one way of presenting this material; what I mean by that is that this will not be from a Golden Dawn perspective, or an Aurum Solis perspective, or any ONE perspective. I have been a member of the Golden Dawn in the past (a couple of times :rolleyes: ), but I do not ascribe to their metaphysical views on Qabalah. If you will see any kind of bias at all it might be a Rosicrucian bias, but I will attempt to keep that at a minimum. :p

We will start with a study of the Tree of Life, starting with the Sephirah and then moving to the Paths. I won’t spend a LOT of time on any one thing, unless there are questions. I will always take the time to answer questions (even if I decide to answer them via PM to keep the thread moving). I will be posting new lessons every two or three days, depending on the number of questions on each. If this looks to be too fast, I will slow things down – if it looks to be too slow, I will speed things up. It is all dependent on you and how fast you want this class to go.

I always start at the bottom of the Tree, since that is where we all begin our journey in life. So, our next class will be on Malkuth – the Sephirah called “The Kingdom,” which relates directly to our physical world. So, if you have a book, you might look ahead so you can play “stump the Teacher” (I always loved that game :laugh: ).

Oh, one more thing; we will discuss the Dark Side of the Tree, the Qlippoth (or Qliphoth) when we get to that place in the class. I don’t want to discuss Qliphothic elements while I’m talking about the Dayside Tree. There’s already enough info to keep us busy for years, we don’t need to clutter up the class by mixing Dayside and Nightside Trees. Ok?

Love, Light, and Peace,

Neshamah

[m1thr0s]

temporarily locked...Neshamah...please see your PM...we have created a special classroom forum for this...

New Location: Qabalah Basics (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/forumdisplay.php?f=137)

m1thr0s