A Brief Description of the Qabalah.

In order to explain a little about the Qabalah I will quote from two sources, the kabbalah unveiled by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, and Appendix A of 777 by Aleister Crowley .

"The first questions which a non-qabalistic reader will probably ask are:What is the Qabalah? Who was its author? What are its sub-divisions? What are is general teachings? and why is a translation of it required at the present time?

The Qabalah may be defined as being the esoteric Jewish doctrine.It is called in Hebrew QBLH,Qabalah,which is derived from the root QBL.Quibel, meaning to receive. This appellation refers to the custom of handing down the esoteric tradition by oral transmission, and is nearly allied to tradition.

There are no separate numerical characters in Hebrew and Chaldee;therefore,as is also the case in Greek, each letter has its own peculiar numerical value,and from this circumstance results in the important fact that every word is a number, and every number is a word...I have selected the Roman Q to represent the Hebrew Qoph of Koph, a precedent for the use of which without a following u,may be found in Max Mullers Sacred books of the East.The reader must remember that the Hebrew is almost entirely a consonantal alphabet, the vowels being for the most part supplied by small points and marks usually placed below the letters.Another difficulty of thew Hebrew alphabet consists in the great similarity between the forms of the certain letters,eg, V,Z, and final N."

The following is the origins of the Qabalah as taught by the Jews. "The Qabalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophical school in Paradise. After the Fall the angels graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient children of earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into the Qabalah in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the law-giver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management if the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch,but withheld them from Deuteronomy.Moses also initiated the 70 elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and Solomon were the most deeply initiated into the Qabalah. No one, however, dared to write it down, till Schimeon Ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple...After his death, his son, Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, as well as his disciples, collated Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai`s treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called ZHR, Zohar,, Splendour, which is the grand storehouse of Qabalism.

The Qabalah is usually classed under four heads:

1. The practical Qabalah.
2. The Literal Qabalah
3. The unwritten Qabalah
4. The dogmatic Qabalah.

The practical Qabalah deals with talismanic and ceremonial magic, and does not come within the scope of this work."

The literal Qabalah is referred to in several places, and therefore a knowledge of its leading principles is necessary. It is divided into three parts: GMTRIA.Gematria; NVTRIQVN,notariqon,and ThMVRH, Temura.

Gematria is based on the relative numerical values of words, as I before remarked. Words of similar numerical values are considered explanatory of each other, and this theory is also extended to phrases. Thus the letter Shin, Sh, is 300, and is equivalent to the number obtained by adding up the numerical values of letters of the words RVCH ALHIM, Ruach Elohim, the spirit of Elohim; and it is therefore a symbol of the spirit of the Elohim. For R-200,V-6,Ch-8,A-1,L-30,H-5,I-10,M-40; total 300. Similarly the words AChd, Achad, Unity, one, and AHBH, Ahebah, love , each-13; for A-1,Ch-8,D-4, total-13; and A-1, H-5, B-2, H-5, total-13. Again the name of the angel MTTRVN, Metatron or methraton,and the name of Deity, ShDi, Shaddai, each make 314; so the one is taken to be symbolic of the other. The angel Metatron is said to have been the conductor of the children of Israel through the wilderness, of whom God says, "My Name is in him" "

Notariqon is derived from the Latin word notarius, a short hand writer , and Temurah is permutation . This article is to brief to go through either of these but it is suffice to say that they also deal with numbers and words.

"The term Unwritten Qabalah is applied to certain knowledge which is never entrusted to writing, but communicated orally. I may say no more on this point, not even whether I myself have or have not received it. Of course, till the time Rabbai Schimeon Ben Jochai none of the Qabalah was ever written.

The Dogmatic Qabalah contains the doctrinal portion. there are a large number of treatises of various dates and merits which go to make up the written Qabalah, but the may be reduced to four heads:

1. The Sepher Yetzirah and its dependencies.
2. The Zohar with its developments commentaries.
3. The Sepher Sephiroth and its expansions.
4. The Asch Metzaraeph and its symbolism.

"

"The principle doctrines of the Qabalah are designed to solve the following problems:

1. The Supreme Being, His nature and attributes.
2. The Cosmogony
3. The creation of angels and man.
4. The destiny of man and angels
5. The nature of the soul.
6. The nature of angels,demons, and elementals.
7. The import of the revealed law.
8. the transcendental symbolism of numerals.
9. The peculiar mysteries contained in the Hebrew letters.
10. The equilibrium of contraries..."

What is Qabalah

"Qabalah is:-

(a) A language fitted to describe certain classes of phenomena, and to express certain classes of ideas which escape regular phraseology. you might as well object to the technical terminology of chemistry.

(b) an unsectarian and elastic terminology by means of which it is possible to equate the mental process of people apparently diverse owing to the constraint imposed upon them by the peculiarities of their literary expression.You might as well object to a lexicon, or a treatise on comparative religion

(c) A system of symbolism which enables thinkers to formulate their ideas with complete precision, and to find such simple expression for complex thoughts, especially such as include previously disconnected orders of conception.You might as well object to algebraic symbols.

(d) An instrument for interpreting symbols whose meaning has become obscure, forgotten or misunderstood by establishing a necessary connection between the essence of forms, sounds, simple ideas (such as number) and their spiritual, moral, or intellectual equivalents. You might as well object to interpreting ancient art by consideration of beauty as determined by physiological facts.

(e)A system of classification of omniform ideas so as to enable the mind to increase its vocabulary of thoughts and facts through organising and correlating them. you might as well object to the mnemonic value of Arabic modifications of roots."

(f) An instrument for proceeding from the know to the unknown on similar principles to those of mathematics. you might as well object to the use of the square root of -I, X to the 4th power etc.

There is a lot to the Qabalah. It is the language that the whole of the Western esoteric tradition is written in . With out a knowledge of the Qabalah then can be no great leaps forward in magick. It should be one of the first things that the serious student of Magick attempts to understand . He will study Qabalah always, for the rest of his life . It is inexhaustible.

Last updated on the 09.March.99