Qabalah?

Niomi

I've heard quite a lot about this thing called Qabalah, but by all means certainly not enough. I tried a google search. I seem to be getting lots of information about the individual 'spheres' but not much on what it is as a whole. Can anyone explain this Qabalah briefly, or point me to a good website on the subject-- for dummies?
 

jmd

Unfotunately, most of the threads on the Kabalah within this Forum are restricted to subscribers.

A table of contents for many of these threads exists there too.

In the History and Iconography section is also a number of threads related likewise to Kabalistic discussions, namely (amongst others):This thread will probably be moved to the non-Taror section in due time...
 

HudsonGray

Try searching under the different spellings--Kaballah, Kabballa, Cabala, etc.
 

jmd

I meant to also give three useful online resources, and plain forgot... so here goes (in my personal order of preference):Each has a mildly different orientation, but each is also, in my view, solid in its presentation.

I have had the least contact with the third of these, and personally find the format not very appealing.
 

Zephyros

Also if you are interesred in the subject with regard to the Tarot, then The Book of Thoth gives some information on the subject, but it certainly isn't light reading
 

hedgecub

The book Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo DuQuette is supposed to be a good introduction to the Qabalah that is thorough but not too heavy reading. I haven't read it, so I can't recommend it myself, but I've heard it recommended often :)
 

Alissa

This thread's content is most appropriate to the Magic forum, which addresses Qabalah, and will be moved there within the next 24 hours.

Thanks.
 

HOLMES

actually ,,

if i can put into tarot terms so it can stay here .. ehhe

1. the major arcana are assigned 22 paths of the qabbalah tree of life
2. the major arcana assocations have varied from author to author so no real standard is kept , some go by golden dawn some go by crowley, while go even older then that.
3. i can't go much more into the paths for i do not understand them. that well
4. hence the 11 is fool, the 12 is the magican, where the 32 is the world. i think that it is the golden dawn i am following ,
5. for the toth tarot has said tzardi is not the star and so switch the star with the emperor postion.
6. there is a hebrew letter given to each position like aleph is the ox, and that can help you understand it more.

1. the court cards are assigned the mixature of the four elemental worlds
2. the four elemental worlds are in this order , fire, water, air , and earth
3. the earth is made of the elements of fire, water, and air,
4, the kings are fire, the queen is water , the knights are air, and the pentacles are earth
5, so king in waters is fire in fire,
6. a little further assocation would be 2 are kings, 3 are queens, sixes are princes, and 10 are pages.
this is implied and not applied.
7. so pages would mean manifestion, knights formation, queens creation and king are sparks or seeds. when it comes to how the concept is coming into being.

1. the minor arcana are based on the spheres,
2. the aces are ones for example
3. the name of each sphere gives you a good hint to the number cards, hence TIPERETH is beuty
six of swords , is about mental beuty , while six of pentacles would be about physical beuty.
but they are more then that for astrology was used to help define them.

4. astrology used to go hand in hand with the qabbalah assocations are
planets and signs, in the major arcana, (they would most likely be correlated to the qabbalah path)

while in the minor arcana the decantes system is used
which you could see in my thread coding the tarot.

the chicken qabbalah is one book that has helped me to the understand tarot in qabbalah , and astrology ways,
and another book i got called the qabalistic tarot is an indepth but wordy book on how to understand it.

the witches tarot book focus on the paths, while the witches qabbalah book focuses on all the pagan assocations made with the sepherioth

you could write a book while you study on how it all relates.
and you will find there is controversy in relating it for people believe you can and should, or you can't and shouldn't try.

the only thing to do is develop a system for understanding which is most likely based on something you study like the golden dawn or crowley system
and put your personal touches on it.

study what is before you change it to what you think it should be :O)
 

mac22

hedgecub said:
The book Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo DuQuette is supposed to be a good introduction to the Qabalah that is thorough but not too heavy reading. I haven't read it, so I can't recommend it myself, but I've heard it recommended often :)

I have and it is a good intro to the mystical
Qabalah of western Magick
 

jmd

It may be noteworthy that most of the other threads in the Kabalah section incorporated within the subscriber 'Magic' Forum also specifically mention Tarot...

With regards to Holmes post, it is worth reiterating his point that there are various ways in which Kabbalistic associations have been promulgated by various individuals.

Firstly, not all instances of depictions of the Tree of Life have twenty-two connecting branches (which some have called 'paths'). Some important ones have sixteen, making, with the ten Sefirot, a numerical total of twenty-six (the value of the letters of YHVH).

One of the 'traditions' of Major Arcana allocations on the Tree has the Bateleur/Magician in Keter, the Papess/High Priestess in Hockmah, etc until one gets to the Wheel of Fortune in Malkut, with the remaining and successive twelve cards (either ending with the World then Fool, or Fool then World) having no such allocation.

What the Golden Dawn did is to take the Kircher version of the Tree of Life, adopt a small text called the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom (remember, Wisdom is here Hockmah), and make certain attributions from the higher emanating spheres towards that of the world (Assiah) between the Tree's presumed branches as 'paths' and the twenty-two Atouts/Major Arcana, and the successive 32 'paths of Wisdom' (allocating the first ten to the Sefirot).

One of the links I gave in my first post discusses possible correlations between the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Tarot's Atouts/Major Arcana.

In terms of the Kabalah, possibly the three aspects to begin are some familiarity with the first five books of the Bible (the Torah), the depiction of the ten Sefirot which forms the Tree of Life (without, at first, any 'connecting branches/paths'), and a beginning familiarity with the division of the Hebrew alphabet into 'mother', double and single letters.

For this last, I would highly recommend, above other texts, Aryeh Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah.