~Basics With Notes On The Soul~

Too often, I see people discouraged by the complexity of the Qabalah. My hope is that this blog will clear things up.

      First off whats the difference between the 3 different spellings of the word? No matter how you spell it, it means "to receive". The K spelling is the original spelling and is the Jewish Kabbalah. The Q spelling is often called the hermetic qabalah and is more all accepting and has alot of occult art involved. The C spelling is the christian Cabalah. There is more to be said about the different ways the Kaballah is spelled but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

      The main Image and focal point is the Tree Of Life. This is often where people find themselves scratching their head and saying "Uh this seems like alot of work" and to be honest it isn't the easiest thing to grasp. Also when a person starts studying the tree with more depth, and looks at the correspondence's of the Tree of Life, they ask "is this a science or spirituality?" The answer is both. The tree of life is a map of creation, God, the universe, and the self. 

       You may feel overwhelmed by the Tree Of Life due to the hebrew names of the ten Sephirot (meaning sapphire), the 22 lines on the tree or the three magic words above the tree. Don't worry the name of this lesson is Kqcaballah made simple! All will be clear with a few Images and some bullet points.

OK folks. Qabalist everywhere are about to scream "blasphemy!" Because I am going to start from the top!

The Supernal Triad

• Kether (The Crown) Kabbalist call this sapphire "The most hidden of all things". Its light is so blinding you cant see past it. That's right people you're just going to have to bite the bullet and say "Oh well I'm not going to get it". The few things you should know about this sapphire is that it is the official start of creation. Kether is pure light, Instead of being dark matter type nothingness its the headlights pulling into the driveway.

•  Chokmah (Wisdom) The proper pronunciation of the word is done by saying hokmah and sounding like you have something in your throat. This is the 2nd sapphire where wisdom comes from nothingness. "Wait a sec mister, wisdom comes from learning...doesn't it?" Wisdom in the Qabalah comes before knowledge in this case it means keeping an open mind. Think of birth, You were inside your mom just hangin out eating half her food, perfect in every sense of the word and then you come out of the "oven" and now you are able to actually experience life, as you grow information finds you and you explore the the world around you looking for information. Wisdom is the reason why we search out information. HELLO "A wise man Knows that he knows nothing" Now a knowledgeable person might know alot. Which bring us to our 3rd ummm I mean invisible, well half invisible Sephirot.    
• Da'at (knowledge) Knowledge comes from keeping an open mind. Plain and simple, Real knowledge comes from looking at all facets of life. The good and the bad, A wise man knows that he knows nothing therefore he takes in all information and deciphers what he will. "Why isn't Da'at a numbered sephirot?" Uhm DUH because the Sepher Yetzirah told me so! NO the real answer is because it isn't. Da'at is also called the Abyss. it lacks the je ne sais quoi to be called a Sephirot. Da'at is where are the Sephirot meet to become one. Think of the Sephirot as jewels and da'at is your jewelry box.                                                                                           

• Binah (Understanding) Pronounced Be-Nah (as in Nah I don't want your cupcake). Now the the Supernal Triad is coming together. Binah is a watery place, It's really dark there too. Binah is a place of reflection. It is where we go to understand the things we do and the things that happen around us. It's where you call your mom and she pats you on the back then kicks you in the ass. It is also that click that says "I get it."

           Kether, Chokmah and Binah are called The Supernal Triad. There are two easy ways for me to explain the supernal triad. One is the Christian Trinity. The father would be Kether, The son would be Chokmah and the holy spirit or "Shekinah" would be Binah. Lets remember that the holy spirit is in fact feminine just like Binah. The other way to explain it is from a pagan perspective. Look at the wheel of the year. You not only have the maiden, mother and chrone faces of "The Goddess" which are fully represented by binah. but you have the Male aspects of the wheel of the year being the Maidens lover as "The God" and the offspring they created being "The God". The Tree of life is expressed through emanations. In fact it is one big emanation. The Supernal triad is just one part of this emanation but it is the most divine part of the tree of life.

Lightning or Serpent?

          You may or may not have heard that there are two ways to travel the tree of life. One is the way of the serpent and the other is the way of the lightning bolt. The lightning bolt travels down the tree and is the order the sephirot were formed and the Serpent travels up the tree in order to reach the supernal triad. This is NOT a choice of path's to take. Think of the lightning bolt as the birth process of the soul and think of the Serpent as our way of returning to divinity, collective consciousness if you will.

The Three Pillars

           Before we go any further, Lets have a look at the three pillars. In the qabalah there are three pillars, the pillar of severity, the pillar of mildness and the pillar of mercy. Binah and the 2 sephirot below it is the pillar of severity, kether and the three below it make up the pillar of mildness, chokmah and the 2 below it make up the pillar of mercy. This information is vital to understanding the tree because it further explains the souls experience traveling down the tree. Put simply the pillar of severity or judgement is negative, the pillar of mildness is neutral and the pillar of mercy is positive.

Now picking up where we left off.

The Emotive Sephirot & Malkuth

• Chesed (loving kindness) Pronounced Hesed with something in your throat. This is where our compassion comes from. This sephirot gives us that warm fuzzy feeling that says "I wish I could end world hunger". It is also our graciousness. It is what allows us to forgive those who have wronged us.                                                      

• Gevurah (strength,power) as soon as we feel grace we feel an urge of power and this strength we gain says "Not everything is a walk in the park". This sapphire is what makes us judge things it sits right under Binah for a reason. Unlike the divine binah this sephirot is more human. Its what says "I'm not giving that homeless person money, he is just gonna go buy booze!". But looking at this sephirot in a positive light,it is what gives us the strength to over come challenges. While chesed grants us the ability to forgive those who have wronged us, this sephirot says "How do I make sure that doesn't happen again?" in a way that is not vindictive. Instead it gives us the restraint to allow our trust to be earned.

• Tipharet ( Beauty ) Pronounced Tif-arette. This sephirot also means Balance. It is where the soul say "The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair" This is where the divine and the human meet. It's the i AM to the kether's I AM. This little i says "I feel like I'm in Heaven". This is where The Soul in the lightning bolt end its higher self process and the serpent realizes that he is divine.

• Netzach (Victory) This sephirot is where the soul says "I am Victorious I have felt what heaven is". It is where the soul remembers where it came from. This where the serpent says "I am victorious, I have overcome and I am This " " close to feeling how divine (i) really am. Its where red bull gives you wings ;)

• Hod (splendor) This is a funny one. Its where we get that "I am here for a reason" feeling. Its where We yell as loud as we can at kether ans scream "I know there is something greater than the little i". Its where the serpent says I will fight in order to overcome my own ego so that I can become and realize that i am one with the divine.

• Yesod (Foundation) this is where action speaks louder than words. This is where we suit up in order to ascend. This is not only where we prepare yourself for the splendor of hod, but where we weigh out the pro's and cons. This is where the serpent uses its wisdom to say "I must feel why I am here in order to be victorious"

• Malkuth (kingdom) This is where the soul says to kether "Again!!!". This is the material world where the serpent gathers all of the tools that are needed in order to Ascend.

~The Purpose Of The Kabbalah~

The KQCabalah is designed for personal transformation. Its designed to make us realize that we are in FACT divine beings. The Kabalah also helps us to understand the world and universe we live in. I like to say that the Kabalah gives us "new eyes". A true qabalist (I will switch the spelling just because I can!) looks at the world in a new light, Qabalist see the beauty in all things and brings us sanity. A qabalist realizes the need for all things, whether it be beauty, wisdom, grace, severity, judgement, good and evil.

Another important note is that the Kabalah especially the tree of life diagram helps us to read the bible properly. I cant stress this enough, Many of us in western society veiw the bible as a negative book that condemns and places judgement upon people, But when it is read with the "new eyes" that the kabalah gives us we can see that the bible is a beautiful book that tells us about who we really are. A very good example is genesis 3:22

" 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Often god gets a bad rap for this but when read with "new eyes" you see the reality that we are divine beings meant to live forever and that god did not actually punish human kind, We brought it upon ourselves. Use your wisdom and your knowledge. We still have the same fate we are still divine beings we just have to take a longer route now in order to ascend. Who are we to say that we knew gods plan for us? Logic tells us that god very well may have wanted us to work in order to be ready to handle the knowledge of good and evil. In essence thats what qabalist do. We work on ourselves in order to have the strength to carry such a burden. A qabalist controls his life and destiny not the other way around. Humans are not Victims we are Victorious!

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