Establishing Malkooth

Malkooth or 'Kingdom' is a complex sphere in that it represents several broad concepts simultaneously. It is at once, our feet when the Tree of Life is projected on the human frame (and the knees and base of spine when seated or kneeling); all solid matter, earth, and all material creation. It is our bones, and the marrow they contain is a personal aspect of the Secret Fire. It is important that we have a strong sense of foundation when we talk about Earth and Malkooth, so that in meditation we can remain grounded and secure. The stronger our sense of connection to the earth and our bodies we have, the more energy we can generate and the easier it will be to direct it. It is analogous to trying to build a skyscraper on a poured slab concrete for a foundation verses a four-story subbasement. The better the foundation, the stronger the structure.
Since the Secret Fire is hidden in the Earth, it is good to spend some time, even several years, working through the details of the Pentagram rituals. Cleansing, harmonizing, projecting, and withdrawing the energy represented there into yourself and surrounding area. The North is an especially important area for concentration, in that it is Earth of Earth, and is our hidden gateway to the Secret Fire. Buried in the solid nature of matter, is a underlying vibrant energy that is continually pulsating, giving rise to form and life, and turning energy in matter and matter into energy. This underlying nature is illustrated in, the Sign of Taurus, the zodiacal sigil given to the North. In it we see the Moon crowning a circle with a dot in the center, or the Sun. This combined lunar-solar sign for earthly nature points to the theory that all matter is simply condensed sun light, or hidden fire.
By associating the heaviness of Earth and the underlying heat it contains (the molten, volcanic core) with our feet, knees, and base of spine (and eventually our whole skeletal system), we can begin to experience the literal network creation is formed from . This imagery is reinforced by the statement that Malkooth and Kether are one. By imaging that an unlimited stream of energy is pulsating into and out of creation from the Ain Soph Aur at Kether, and then imaging the same for material creation as you envision it, at Malkooth. All to often the spheres are imagined as being static beings or states, when nothing is farther from the truth. They are alive, dynamic, and constantly interacting with each other and the energy-matter matrix. This interaction is most clearly seen on the Middle Pillar and the central spheres.

Exploring the Alphabetic Tarot

The Tarot has entertained card lovers for centuries. Yet while its symbolic content has been traced to a variety of influences-such as social hierarchy, the Virtues, Biblical and classical allusions, astrology and perhaps even alchemy-these do not explain why the Tarot's designers settled upon these specific images, or why they arranged these images in a particular sequence. Could the trumps also have been influenced by the Hebrew alphabet, as esotericists have long claimed?

יהוה - YHVH

The following method of meditation is based upon the fundamental associations known to every student of kabbalah. It can be performed by experienced or novice students alike, although novices should spend more time on the fundamentals to insure success later on, without having to go back an repeat the basics.
This series of exercises relates to the stages and Elements of Creation and the nature of the Primordial or archetypal expressions of consciousness. Those who have experience working with Hebrew and / or the Elements as outlined in basic magical practices will be able to move more quickly through this exercise. Those who have little or no experience in magic will find it a suitable and powerful introduction to these concepts on a very personal level.
The Hebrew doctrine of Creation sets forth the idea that the Primordial Man, or Adam was composed of the four lettered name of God stacked in vertical form to appear as sort of stick figure being. In addition, all of creation could be found to have it origin in this sacred name, and it pronunciation was closely guarded, so much so, that it is now lost. The discovery of its proper intonation is said to bring power over everything, so much so, that there are schools of kabbalah that only work with the various manipulations of this Name as their form of meditation.
For us, the Tetragrammaton will be used as a visual and mnemonic guide for our meditations and exercises designed to release the Secret Fire in Creation.
The standard Elemental applications will be applied: Yod (Head, endocrine system) is associated with Fire; Heh (shoulders / chest, and cardiopulmonary system) with Air; Vau (Spine / Nervous system, including sense organs) with Water; and the Final Heh with the dot (the hips, legs and feet, and skeletal system) with Earth.
The dot in the final Heh symbolizes the secret, hidden point of light, life, and love in all of creation, and hidden in matter. It is this secret force that when liberated brings us to the heights of divine bliss and consciousness in the original Fire of Yod.
As with all exercises, begin by drawing energy, in some fashion, down from Kether to the Earth. This can be through the Kabbalistic Cross, the Middle Pillar, or the Psychic Pump as previously described. Once a calm center is established, and a sacred space to contain the energy, either through the Pentagram Ritual, or imagining a vast and empty dome sphere around you (about six to nine feet in diameter), you may proceed.
Imagine the Primordial Man in front of you, vast and towering. Merge with the image, growing in size as you do. See the flaming Yod as your head, and imagine that it, or a ray from it, projects itself downward through the Airy world. Forming the first Heh, and continues into the Watery world, gaining density and weight, forming the Vau, and finally, into the world of solid matter, forming it, along with the Final Heh. There, the flame grows small, flickering brightly, but only as a small spark, compared to its vast and brilliant place of origin, and to the dark, cold, solid world of matter in which if now appears trapped.
Identify with the solid earth. Feel your feet rooted to it. Imagine that they, your legs, knees, and hips, are all heavy, solid, and firm, immovable and dense. Feel and imagine the great strength and stability that this offers you and appreciate it, as it is the foundation of your being. Continue with this imagery, and sense a point of dense, brilliant, heat and light in the center of this dark, solid matter. See it grow brighter and stronger, as though it were the center of the Earth itself. Continue with this heat and light, and let a strand of it move up from the center of the earth, through the layers of solid matter and rock to your feet, forming a sphere of great heat and light.
After several days, pull the energy up to your knees. After several more days, pull it up to your hips. After about a month of practice, pull it up and focus it at the base of your spine.
Extend the solid earth imagery to include your skeletal structure as well. Breath the fire up from the center of the earth, feel it focus around your spine, and move up to the top of your head. Imagine that your head is an empty sphere, waiting to receive the energy from below. Feel the energy course throughout your body, focusing on the bones. Breath it into them, cleansing them of any weakness or disease. See the marrow inside grow, and fill them with its bright red power. Extend it across the skull, jaw, and teeth. As before, when you are done with the meditation, absorb as much energy as you can, and send the rest to the center of the earth, closing off the contact.
After a month or two of this exercise, move on to the Vau. See the energy move through your feet, to the spine, and move up and through its narrow center column to the brain. Imagine that as it enters the spinal column, with each breath, the fluid contained therein, course up and across your brain, nurturing the tissue, and descending back down. Imagine your senses becoming stronger and more acute. Visualize the vast fiery energy coming form the center of the earth as increasing your psychic sensitivity and psychic centers. This can be imagined simply as the nervous system becoming bright and healthy.
Then, move on to the next, or First Heh. Here sense the energy as having moved up your feet, into the spine, and when it reaches the upper body and back of the head, it also fills the lungs with greater power and expansion. Feel yourself lifted up and expanded, as though your vision was made clearer, and sense of purpose, and destiny more definite. Imagine the lungs being charged with bright, warm healing energy, vitalizing the breath and blood.
After a few days, imagine the vital power moving from the middle of the shoulders, down the arms, and to the hands.
During this period experiment with projecting, circulating, and receiving energy through your hands. In general, the right hand should project positive, expansive, electrical energy; and the left should project magnetic, passive, and receptive energy. By holding the hands together, in the classic prayer position, in front of the chest with the back of your thumbs just touching the sternum, the heart center can be energized. In addition, the energy circulated creates a psychic 'belt' or 'dome' around the upper portions of the head and shoulders. Practice pulling energy down from the sun, moon, planets, and Cosmic through the left hand and into the earth or a talisman with the right.
Use the classic Sign of the Philosophus, or hands raised above the head with thumb and forefingers touching to form a triangle, to pull energy down into both palms and out through your feet. Try storing it in your solar plexus (you may want to use the Sign of Practicus for this) and projecting it as previously described. [9]
Then, move to the Yod. Here after the energy has moved up to the brain, see the head grow bright and luminous. Feel it absorb the fire from below and rejoicing its return. Sense the center of your head growing powerful, warm, and bright. Focus on this single point of brightness, and then send it back down to the earth, while reaching out to the universe with it. Feel yourself lost in s fiery world of primordial power, wisdom, and love. Feel as though you are of vast stature, towering immensely through out the solar system. Feel as though the planets themselves are your psychic centers, and the sun is your heart, the Earth your footstool and the original point of creation your crown. When you are done, shrink yourself back, and shut down the meditation.
This energy once experienced has tremendous healing potential. By freeing our negative and destructive thoughts into the center of the earth for purification and renewal, we open ourselves to a more energy and expanded consciousness through the removal of psychological blocks. Through drawing up the fiery healing energy of the earth, and packing it slowly, smoothly, and methodically deep into our cells, form the bones and its marrow upward and outward, we can increase our psychic sensitivity to telluric currents, weather patterns, and magnetic conditions. In addition, we add strength, energy, and vitality to our physical bodies. [10]

Secret Fire and YHVH

"For our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29
While alchemy, kabbalah, and astrology have been homogenized in modern esoteric practices to create an almost seamless synthesis, this is not true of earlier periods. Traditionally, alchemy and astrology played almost no role in Jewish kabbalah [5], and while it has been put forward that may Jews were alchemists, and some great alchemists possibly Jews [6], no manuscripts of Jewish alchemical practices seem to exist in any great number. Even the most famed Esch M'saref, or "The Refiner's Fire", is a compilation of material, focusing mainly on gematria, and not a 'chemical' work in itself.
Early kabbalists imagined creation taking place in several stages, from which was generated the anthropomorphic image of the 'primordial man', or Adam Kadmon. This 'first man' was imagined as being crated out of the four-letters of the Divine Name stacked one on top of the other. Yod was the head, Heh, the arms and shoulders, Vau, the spine and sexual organs, and the final Heh, the hips and legs. A host of attributes and qualities came to be associated with each letter, and as a whole, it formed its own school of kabbalistic meditation. By adding other letters, altering combinations, and substituting letters based on numerological equivalents, additional Divine Names, names of archangels, angels, and other spiritual beings were generated.
The oral tradition of Adam Kadmon is similar to that of the Egyptian god Osiris, in that Osiris was dismembered and reconstructed, while Adam "Fell" to pieces, and it is the work of the kabbalist to reconstruct the Original Adam. Each of us is said to be a piece of this original soul, and it is our purpose to find our place in Creation, via kabbalistic methods.

The Middle Pillar

"I will make the victor a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. "Revelations 3:12
Several variations of the Middle Pillar Exercise exist, however their fundamentals remain the same. Whether or not one uses the Elements as suggested by Regardie in "True Art of Healing" or the Sepherothic / planetary correspondences as he later suggests (and is most commonly used) in his book "The Middle Pillar" is irrelevant. The methods used by the Arum Solis will also be considered as an alternative exercise.
The theoretical basis of the Middle Pillar is that through imagination, breath, and concentration, the psychic energy of creation, here principally Yetzirah, can be directed allowing for a purification of the Vital Energy that holds the Secret Fire in check. As our psychic centers are cleansed of emotional, moral, and materialistic residue, they better reflect the cosmic energy that works through them. Through its pre-described pattern of circulating the energy, the Middle Pillar assists in smoothing out the edges of our aura, as well as increasing the flow of energy in general directions, so that the psychic pathways, both large and small, can be purified and strengthened through an increase of Vital Energy.
The pathways described for the Middle Pillar are circular in nature. They are for the most part large, clear, and bright, with a reflective quality too them. Regardie says that the psychic spheres should be imagined like large, clear, brilliant diamonds if no other color is known. Although, in the end, the entire sphere, or extended aura, of the practitioner should be imagined as a brilliant diamond radiating heat and light.
The beauty of the Middle Pillar is that it, like many esoteric practices, is really a layered exercise. Containing an almost infinite amount of flexibility and growth potential. As the practitioner develops in skill and manipulation of the imagery, the amount of new possibilities increases.
One of central movements of the Middle Pillar is the "Fountain of Light". Here, the practitioner imagines a brilliant force of energy forcing its way up through the soles of their feet and out the top of their head, spraying along the edges of their aura, making it strong and clear of any roughness, and gathering again at their feet. This cyclic imagery is repeated several times. This key part of the exercise, is the central part that prepares the central pathways for the eventual release of the Secret Fire. It is also similar to Eastern practices as seen in Chinese Chi Kung, Indian Tantra, and Tibetan Vajrayana yoga.
This being said, it is also clear that some differences exist between Eastern and Western methods of releasing the Secret Fire. The methods of direct work on the psychic centers, and an upward climbing of the spinal column is more traumatic than the more general work of the Middle Pillar. It is for this reason, that the techniques of yoga, save a few, that are aimed straight away at releasing the Secret Fire, require supervision of a guru. Being that they so restrict the activities of the practitioner, and require close supervision, they are also systems that are impractical for day to day life in American and European culture.
While similarities exist, and will be examined, the major differences appear to be the following:
1) Indian yoga is aimed principally at liberation from the physical realm in as quick a method as possible. Western esoteric practices are aimed at the perfection of matter and the psyche within the material world, and not an abandonment of it.
2) Chinese yoga, or Chi Kung, is more akin to Western practices, in that it is aimed at perfection of the material world, and even the spiritualizing of the body into a "Body of Light". It however, is more akin to Indian yoga, in that it starts at level of the etheric body (nadis or acupuncture points) and proceeds from there. This "from the bottom up, and inside out" approach is different from the Middle Pillars "top down, outside in" method. Because the etheric body is directly effected early on, the effects are more dramatic, as well as potentially traumatic for the unprepared. In the Middle Pillar, the etheric body is often the last thing effected. This is because the symbolism used, as well as the need to develop skills in concentration, visualization, and meditation effect primarily the mental outlook of the practitioner for a long period of time. Only after considerable practice, of a year or more, on a daily basis, do the effects of the Middle Pillar begin to sink into the astral body, and eventually filter into the etheric and physical bodies of the practitioner. It is stated in one source, that it takes a minimum of three years for even the most advanced yoga practitioner to release the Kundalini through special exercises. A 'release' which we have stated, is not a release per say, but the removal of obstacles to its natural expression. This is a critical point, since it is often said that to experience kundalini will often take twenty years of practice of esoteric exercises, or even Hatha Yoga, the same amount of time it took Nicholas Flamel to confect The Philosopher's Stone. During a recent workshop, Jean Dubuis stated that it may be possible to complete the extremely dangerous Flamel Method in three years. It may be that for the alchemist, the interior creation of the Philosopher's Stone is nothing short of the kundalini experience, and the exterior creation of the Stone is the ability to direct this Cosmic creative energy at will.
3) Tibetan systems run somewhere between the Chinese and Indian, in that they are concerned with liberation, but also with the creation of an etherial body made from their bodily essences. This Diamond Body, or Rainbow Body, is pure light and can materialize at the will of the adept. Like the Chinese and Indian systems, the Tibetan use a rituals for the purification of the mind and emotions of the practitioners, as well as the visual images in both anthropomorphic deities and abstract geometric forms. The Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram fulfill this function when performing the Middle Pillar.
Thus, we can see, the major differences in Eastern and Western practices can be summarized in function and reference point of origin. The East seeks liberation through progressive untying of the knots of ignorance that bind humanity to incarnation. The West seeks to perfect the material world making material reality a reflection of spiritual reality. One accomplished, the adept can then proceed to dis-incarnate at will. The Western approach seeks to be more active in the world and to transform it, while the Eastern approach is to see the world as an illusion that is impermanent, and as such, is more passive. Such philosophies, like all beliefs and cultures, reflect the physical environment of their earliest origin. In tropical and sub-tropical zones the concern with time is less important that in the Northern hemisphere where a winter without food stores means death for the community. The cold, harsh realities of arctic zones produce a different theory and technique, and as such, different ideal (gods) than agricultural areas. Whether one is a hunter nomad or an established agrarian society is reflective of the physical landscape they live in, and as such effects values, needs, and spiritual philosophy and technique.
This is of critical concern whenever one is considering adopting the esoteric practices on another land or culture. Why did it arise, and under what circumstances? Are those same conditions applicable today, and in the life of the potential practitioner? In view of current conditions, are the practices being considered progressive or regressive in nature? That is, are they forward moving, or simply an idealization of a mythical past 'golden age'?

The Sephiroth

"So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life." Genesis 3:24
The use of the "Tree of Life" has been both a blessing and a curse for modern esotericism. When understood, the "Tree" offers a complete and working model of Creation on both the microcosmic and macrocosmic scales. However, where many fail is on the personal level. The ability to apply the often very general information of the Tree to personal experiences of the initiate when they deal with physiological phenomena is profoundly lacking in modern esoteric circles. The reasons for this are several: First, many modern esotericists simply repeat what they have learned without experiencing whether or not it is true on a personal level; second, the language of kabbalah is multi-leveled, with the same word having several meanings, thus many who are using the words don't know what they actually mean, or on what level it may be interpreted; thirdly, the diagram of the Tree is simply too neat and compartmentalized. Many kabbalists are unable to adapt to the fact that interior reality is much more flexible than the Tree allows when applied to the two dimensional page or illustration.
These problems are farther complicated by the idea of ​​"One Tree" but "Four Worlds" making much meaningful, practical information nearly impossible to come by regarding the crises of spiritual awakening and so-called Kundalini phenomena as it relates to kabbalistic practices. When compared to the clear and explicit information available from Taoist and Tantrik sources, it is no wonder that so many Americans and Europeans prefer those systems to those more culturally and historically related.
To help resolve these problems in the transmission of knowledge, only information that has a relationship to experience of the author or others he has discussed this topic with will be included here. Theory will be stated as theory, and experience as experience. The meaning of common kabbalistic words will be defined, and redefined, to keep the communication clear and direct. An extensive use of confusing and somewhat irrelevant god-forms, references to mythology, and cosmology unconnected to the personal experience will be avoided.

"Creation - "In the Beginning

Creation is seen to have taken place, in Western kabbalistic and alchemical terms, in the following process.
The Divine mind of God, the Absolute, or in Hebrew the Ain Soph Aur (Limitless Light), through a series of expansions and contractions establishes the boundaries of Creation. The first world is the most subtle, and closest to the original state of non-existence, and is Atzilooth. This is called the world of Fire, because of the lively, undefined, and almost uncontrollable nature of fire. Next is Briah, or the World of Archetypes and forms as our human mind can grasp them. It is symbolized as the World of Air, and is the result as a barrier world that is formed by the creation of the next World, Yetzirah, or Water. This is the highly psychic and emotionally charged world immediately behind the veil of material existence, or Assiah. Also known as the World of Earth, because of the solid, concrete nature of material life.
The purpose of this scheme, is to show that creation occurs in increasingly dense levels of energy-matter, from the most subtle, or Fire, to the most dense, or Earth. Within this context of increasing density, there also arises a series of ten planes or levels of consciousness which combines with energy-matter, known as Sepheroth, or spheres of being. They occur in a pattern of: unity, reflection, polarity, reflection, polarity, unity, reflection, polarity, unity, and finally materialization. This basic idea of ​​unity-polarity-and re-harmonizing, is the basis of kabbalistic and alchemical practices, and is derived from the observation of Nature. Each World is a reflection to a denser or more subtle degree than the one before or after it. Each Sepheroth is a reflection, in part, of what proceeds or follows it. However, since each reflection is only partial, or slightly distorted, each Sphere takes on its own unique characteristics. Only the so-called "Middle Four Sphereoth" have the ability to harmonize or reflect in total all of the energies of creation, on some level.
This 'zigzag' of Creation is called the "Lightning Flash". The return of energy from dense matter, back through the various stages, Sepheroth, and Worlds of Creation is known as the "Path of the Serpent" because of its reverse, or complimentary 'zigzag' nature back up this diagram called the Tree of Life .
For the alchemist, somewhere between the third and fourth level, or sphere of creation, energy takes on the characteristic that will allow for the formation of matter at some future state, or level ten. This energy is called Prima Materia, Chaos in the Bible, Spiritus Mundi (Spirit of the Earth), and others. Here, duality is made complete, and genuine polarity exists, as opposed to simple the potential, or idea, of polarity that had existed previously. Energy is divided into active and passive modes, with the active energy constituting the energies of life, and the passive one the energy of matter. In "The Golden Chain of Homer", the active energy is called Niter and the passive energy is called Salt.
The energy of Life manifests in two forms, Fire and Air. While both are predominately active in nature, fire is the more active of the two, with Air being slightly passive because of the partial Water Element in its makeup. Potential Matter manifests its energy as Water and Earth. These Elements have nothing to do with the material bodies of the same name, and as such are capitalized and called "Elemental" to distinguish them from the earth we walk on, water we drink, air we breath, and fire we cook with. They are in fact, energetic states, each with their own unique characteristics, as well as each of the previously mentioned ten levels of consciousness within them. The Elements also have preferred ways of interacting with each other, to form the Three Principles of alchemy. There are in fact, forty different ways energy-matter-consciousness can manifest in our world.
The Three Essentials are the alchemical principles of Sulpher, Mercury, and Salt. Like the "Elements" these principle concepts are to be thought of a "Philosophical" and not literally as chemical elements or compounds. The Alchemical Sulphur, or Soul, of a things predominates in the animating principles of energy (Fire) and intelligence (Air); Alchemical Salt, or the physical body of a thing, predominates in unconscious forces, psychic, and instinctual intelligence (Water) and solid matter (Earth); Alchemical Mercury, or general life force, predominates in intelligence (Air) and instinctual forces, and psychic energy (Water), as such it is the link, or bridge, between the higher forces of Sulphur and the lower body of matter.
In the mineral realm the dominant energy is that of Earth, a little Water, and very little Air or Fire. In the vegetable realm, the dominant energy is Water and Air, but little Fire and Earth. In the animal realm, the dominant force element is Fire, then Air, but little Earth. These qualities need to be understood as they have been defined for the following information to be of any use to the practicing, or aspiring, Hermeticist. For example, using the above definitions, we can say that the plant realm has an abundance of instinctual energy (Water) and intelligence, ie a specific function (Air), but little direct energy (Fire), as this is received passively from the sun; and little hard, physical, matter (Earth).
In the East as in the West, the idea of ​​principle Elements and Philosophic Principles are expressed in more or less the same manner. This original undifferentiated energy from creation is often called in Indian philosophy, and modern occult, and New Age circles, as akasha, or Spirit. However, akasha, consists of two (2) aspects, one active as we have noted, Niter, and the other passive, Salt. The energies of Niter are also referred to as the force of Kundalini, or spiritual forces. In alchemy, this is the Secret Fire. To the Salt, belongs the force of Prana, or Vital Energy.
The function of the Vital energy is to maintain physical life forms and existence. It is completely instinctual and unconscious and is heavily influenced by cosmic cycles, astrological pulses, and other natural phenomena. The function of the Secret Fire is to increase in humanity, the only place where it is present, its sense of self, or "I". At the lowest level or functioning, this is the ego, at its highest, it is Divinity incarnate, as both are two sides of the same coin. One is 'self' in relation to the physical world and others; the other is 'self' in relationship to all of Creation and as a co-creator.
In the vast majority of humanity, this Secret Fire, or liberating energy of self-consciousness, lies dormant, asleep at the base of the spine, coiled like a serpent. Only a small amount manages to escape, reaching a sepherothic level, or so-called chakra, thus creating a loci of consciousness for each person. If it reaches the top of the skull, and beyond, a spiritual awakening can occur, allowing for a descent and re-ascent of the energy, during which the psychic centers can be awakened allowing for the manifestation of psychic powers and related phenomena.
The Secret Fire ascends as a result of a temporary weakening of the Vital Energy in the physical body. This is why so many spiritual awakenings take place under great physical stress, times of illness, or near-death-experiences. When the Secret Fire will ascend through the various psychic-physical currents causing it to be enveloped in a sphere of luminous light.
The experiencing of the Secret Fire, as a result of the suppression of the physical body's Vital Energy, can create condition which manifests in various forms:

-Some perceive the bright light as an angel, their Higher Self, or "Holy Guardian Angel", others as a spiritual teacher.
-Astral projection may result, along with perception of the immediate surroundings.
-Uncontrolled physical movements may also result, typical of so-called 'kundalini phenomena': shaking, rapid breathing, swinging of the torso, uncontrolled giddiness, and sitting straight upright in the Pharonic position.
After a period of time, the energy will descend, and return to the base of the spine.

The effects of this awakening will take some time for the consciousness of the individual to adjust to, and not limited to the 'non-physical' realms. The physical body, although to a lesser degree, is also changed and improved in functioning, constituting a genuine "re-birth 'on several levels. However, it is up to the mind, or sense of "I", of the individual, to cooperate with this influx of power if more permanent changes in consciousness are to be made.
As we can see, the concept of kundalini, or the Secret Fire, is linked to two polar concepts: that of the undifferentiated creative energy, and the second, as the seed of this energy locked on each cell of material creation, and focused in humanity at the base of the spine.
When this energy rises as a result of psychic experiences, and not because the physical weakness, can cause the Vital Energy of the body to be concentrated on various areas of the body, creating physical and psychic disturbances. If the energy becomes concentrated in the head, it can create the illusion of a spiritual awakening, as well as the well known "hot and cold" flashes, or currents, up and down the spine. The effects of the Secret Fire however, and not its re-distributive effects on the Vital Energy, can create the following phenomena:
Intense pains suggestive of an illness
Crawling sensations of ants or small bugs over the skin, as well as a 'jumping' sensation of the energy
A feeling of crystal clear calmness and tranquillity, rise from center to center to the top of the head
Ascending in the famous 'zigzag' or Rising Serpent pattern
The energy can skip a center or two
The energy can reach the top of the head in a flash of light
The character attributes of both positive and negative are exaggerated and sexual power is increased.
If the energy rises to the top of the head, then it becomes possible to work directly on the Vital Energy within the body, and use it, as a means of enhancing the psychic experience and spiritual awakening.
In short, the psychic centers must first be awakened by the Secret Fire and purified, before the energy of the physical body, can be concentrated upon them. Thus, our psychic exercises, and esoteric meditations are designed to prepare our minds, bodies, and consciousness for the liberation of the Secret Fire buried deep inside us. Through a progressive cleansing of the blood, nervous system, and endocrine glands, the 'chains' of the Vital Energy upon the Secret Fire are reduced and eliminated, allowing the ever present power and energy, a veritable pressure waiting to be released, to spring into action. Thus, the Serpent doesn't really sleep, it is we who are asleep to its presence and potential blessing.

Read - Kabbalah for the Student

Why are we here? What does the future hold? How can we avoid suffering
and feel tranquil and safe? These are questions we would all like to answer.
The wisdom of Kabbalah provides the answers to these questions and to many
more. It allows us to ask any question and experience the intimate, profound
fulfillment that comes with answering the deepest questions to the fullest. This
is why it is called “the wisdom of the hidden.”
Kabbalah teaches that we all want to enjoy. Kabbalists call this desire “the
will to receive delight and pleasure,” or simply, “the will to receive.” This desire  propels all of our actions, thoughts, and feelings, and Kabbalah depicts how we  can realize our desires and fulfill our wishes.

 Kabbalah for the Studeht - Download

Invocation of the Protective Angels

?What is the Connection Between Music and Kabbalah

Music and Kabbalah... What is the connection between them? Everyone has a conception of what music is, but not everyone, by far, knows what Kabbalah is.The essence of Kabbalah is shrouded in secrecy, but there has  always been an interest in Kabbalah. According to legends, one who knows Kabbalah and masters its secrets can control our world and the spiritual worlds that influence our world, revealing its past, present and future. Kabbalah is the science of the structure of the universe, the developmental laws of the spiritual worlds and our world, and the laws of man's purpose.Kabbalah is a science of the impact of human desires on the surrounding world.All Kabbalistic books are written in the language of feelings and desires. This language is unique and strictly scientific, employing graphs, formulae and diagrams. It explains how to alter our desires in order to purposefully influence the entire world. Through such graphs and schemes, Kabbalah describes one's feelings, the person’s soul. Music also speaks to the person in a language of feelings and emotions, and as such, is close to Kabbalah.What is music? It is an emotion captured in its evolvement. Only music can deliver the process of transforming feelings through time. That is why, to those who have not yet perceived the spiritual world, the music of Kabbalah provides a certain analogy of the impression of spirituality that is felt by the Kabbalist. The more evolved a person’s feelings, the more one will delight in what is heard. In music, a sensitive person can open an entire world for themselves, undergoing different emotional states from bliss to tragedy. And the more one develops one’s feelings, the more intricately he will sense that which the music transmits.In much the same way, one who studies Kabbalah cultivates appropriate inner instruments for comprehending spirituality, through which spiritual information can be perceived. As a musician looks into notes and hears music through his- or her inner sensation, a Kabbalist, while reading Kabbalistic texts, senses the spiritual world within. A person’s very first spiritual sensation when spirituality is revealed, is thankfulness to the Creator. One begins to sense this higher power and sees how it brought him out of a dead-end existence into an infinite, flawless world of absolute awareness and perfection. It is this sensation that Rav Baruch Ashlag (Rabash) transmitted through his music to the words of the psalm:I thank you for saving my soul from deathMy eyes from tearsMy feet from entering hell.The great Kabbalists who wrote the holy books depict the secrets of the universe, and we are also privileged to the melodies created by the great Kabbalists Yehuda Ashlag and his son Baruch Ashlag. Through the language of feelings, their melodies express spiritual sensations and information. Rav Yehuda Ashlag attained all of the universe’s secrets, and depicted them in his compositions, the Sulam (Ladder) Commentary to The Zohar, Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot)... and he also implanted them in his melodies. The existing location of the soul in the spiritual world is referred to as its root. The roots of souls differ. Souls descend into our world and incarnate in bodies. As the roots of souls differ, the objectives that each soul must complete in our world differ as well. That is why each body is nothing more than a mechanism for completing the soul’s plan of development.The person begins to feel attracted to spirituality, a striving to his spiritual root, desires to attain it right now, to be able to sense all the worlds today, while still living in this world. Kabbalistic music reveals and develops the person’s spiritual potential.Kabbalistic melodies are not subjected to typical musical analysis. From the point of view of classical music, these melodies may appear banal in their structure and musical language.But those persons with an inclination for the ascension of their souls in this lifetime, who wish to attain the Upper World and the entire universe, sense in this music something beckoning them into the unexplored. We do not know how our musical comprehension is structured. Why do we feel the major chords in a different emotional and sensible tone than the minor ones? Why do we sense the major as something brighter, more open, and happier than the minor? Many musicians with perfect musical hearing see colors in notes, chords, and tones. No one knows how this occurs and why such associations of color, sound, taste, and sensations appear within us. No one knows the structure of our receptors, which perceive absolutely immaterial information.Kabbalists, however, understand how these devices work within us, because they know the structure of our soul. As such, Kabbalists can instill spiritual information into musical sounds. That is why Kabbalistic music is a means of infusing the inner world of the person with information of everything that surrounds him. What the music of our world contains is connected to the personal, earthly sensations and emotions of the composers. Composers have always aspired to reflect the predicaments of creation in music, yet these attempts had never gone beyond a mere surmise or personal feeling.Only melodies written by Kabbalists actually enable us to enter into sensations of eternity, sensations of soul’s movement, pushing us to an understanding of our essence as a part of one eternal universe. Kabbalistic music is written by great Kabbalists as an expression of their spiritual sensations. It is inherently located at a high spiritual level.A spiritual sensation cannot be forgotten. That which was played and felt once remains and can be repeated at any moment. This feeling can later be manipulated, creating most refined shades of emotion. In every melody there is a different feeling corresponding to each particular spiritual state. Due to the elevated level of its composer, each melody speaks of the ethereal as it elevates one across the spiritual world - to eternity and perfection.

Soul Mates

Kabbalah teaches that a soul's heavenly source has male and female halves.
From Reishit Chachma by Eliyahu da VidasThere is no doubt that the "compatible helper" [paraphrasing Gen. 2:18] that Gd has intended for a man may assist him in his task. Yet, there is much more to it than that. A single person is unable to complete the rectification that he is to perform in this world. A soul's heavenly source has male and female halves, which are incarnated into the world as a man and a woman. The incarnation of the two does not necessarily occur simultaneously. As a result, only when the man and woman are righteous do they attain the privilege to meet and wed their real soulmate.By means of three steps of the marriage ceremony, the three main levels of a man's soul ... become bound to those of his wife ....Until marriage, however, a man continues to be a half soul. By means of three steps of the marriage ceremony, the three main levels of a man's soul, the Nefesh, the Ruach and the Neshama, become bound to those of his wife, and they both become one being, with one joint spiritual structure.Consequently, each spouse may only reach spiritual fulfillment and perfection by means of their union, when their lives are conducted with purity.Even when the man and woman who get married are not real soulmates - which is often the case in our time - they have to accomplish together a rectification that was assigned to them in Heaven. Sometimes, per divine decree, a person is unable to find a compatible mate. It is nevertheless the unmarried person's duty to keep trying to find a spouse, for one may only reach one's spiritual potential through marriage, and a decree may change at any time that the person achieves whatever rectification is personally required before he can find a mate.His soulmate is allowed to incarnate with him ... in order to help him ....When a man comes into this world without a heavy debt to rectify, he may meet his soulmate and marry her without much effort. The Ari cites the case of a man who sins and has to reincarnate, whereas his soulmate has completed her task in this world and has no further need of incarnation. (Shaar HaGilgulim, 20) In special cases, his soulmate is allowed to incarnate with him, and she will came back to this world with him in order to help him. When the time comes for him to get married, however, he will not find her effortlessly as in the first case, but after an intense search and struggle. Since he reincarnated because of a sin he committed, the Accusers on high speak against him; they want him to be prevented from meeting her, on the grounds that he does not deserve it. So they spread animosity between the couple and they later quarrel. That is why it is written that making couples is as difficult as splitting the Red Sea!

Translated by Simcha Benyosef

Being and Nothingness

There is no more fundamental binarism than yesh and ayin, something and nothing. Yesh means, simply, everything that there is. Ayin is Nothing. God is both. To approach the Divine in yesh, we yearn for God’s love. Like the Sufis, we pine for the Friend; like the Hindus, we envision God in manifold mythologies and forms. To approach the Divine in ayin, we learn to allow thought to cease, and simply open ourselves to the great emptiness which is the true nature of every thing. Here is Rabbi Arthur Green, in one of his earlier writings, onayin:

In all change and growth, say the masters, the mysterious ayin is present. There is an ungraspable instant in the midst of all transformation when that which is about to be transformed is no longer that which it had been until that moment, but has not yet emerged as its transformed self; that moment belongs to the ayin within God. Since change and transformation are constant, however, in fact all moments are moments of contact with the ayin, a contact that man is usually too blind to acknowledge. The height of contemplative prayer is seen as such a transforming moment, but one that is marked by awareness. The worshiper is no longer himself, for he is fully absorbed, in that moment, in the Nothingness of divinity. In that moment of absorption the worshiper is transformed: as he continues his verbal prayer, it is no longer he who speaks, but rather the Presence who speaks through him. In that prayerful return to the source, the human being has reached his highest state, becoming nought but the passive instrument for the ever self-proclaiming praise of God. Through his lips the divine word is spoken.

Arthur Green, Your Word is Fire

For those new to Kabbalah, the principle that everything is essentially empty may seem remarkably similar to Buddhism and other contemplative paths. So be it. Ayin is the ultimate Reality of all things. Nothing has separate, real existence. 

Ayin, nothingness, is more existent than all the being of the world.

David ben Abraham ha-Lavan, 14th century (Daniel Matt trans.)

In both Buddhist and Kabbalistic cosmologies, a great deal of time is spent explaining how the world seems to exist as it does. For the Kabbalists, this explanation involves the emanation of the ten sefirot: the evolution of God from Nothing. But the Kabbalah, again like Buddhism, emphasizes that this evolution is one of appearance only. It did not happen at some point in time, and now it’s over and the world exists. Time itself is part of the “world” which exists only as illusion. In the Now, in the present moment, where is time?

The Kabbalah also shares with some schools of Buddhism a contemplative inquiry into yesh and ayin. Because it is so beautiful, and similar to the Kabbalistic method, I would like to quote Thich Nhat Hanh’s well-known exposition of the interrelatedness of all things, “Interbeing,” in its entirety. (It was meant to be written on paper, not a computer screen...)

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, “inter-be.” If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. Without sunshine, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. The logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. Looking even more deeply, we can see ourselves in this sheet of paper too. This is not difficult to see because when we look at a sheet of paper, it is part of our perception. Your mind is here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. We cannot point out one thing that is not here–time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists within this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word “inter-be” should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. We cannot just be by ourselves alone. We have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think this sheet of paper will be possible? No, without sunshine nothing else can be. And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper” elements. And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without non-paper elements–like mind, logger, sunshine and so on–there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it. Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

The critical consequence of Interbeing is that the paper contains everything in the universe, but nothing that it “itself” and not “something else.” Every atom in your being was once inside a star. You are a temporary agglomeration of matter, which is itself a manifestation of energy and which is also almost entirely empty. In fact, the only “thing” which is holding together the bundles of energy and probabilities which comprise your atoms are the laws of physics — in Kabbalistic language, chochmah, the first sefirah after Nothingness.

Chochmah operates on the quantum level, the molecular level, the biological level, the ecosystemic level, the cosmic level — it is, at every stage, the organizing principle of Nothingness. But what is it? Where are the laws of physics written? A seed contains molecules of DNA, so that when the proper conditions are present, an oak tree can be made of soil, water, and sunlight. But where is the DNA of the sun itself “written”?

It is possible to cultivate a mind which is more open to experiencing Nothingness than our ordinary minds. But before we turn to these practices, it is worth remembering that the column of ayin is not preferred to the column of yesh. True, in some Kabbalistic and Hasidic sources, there is a disdain for the world of manifestation. But ultimately, yesh is ayin; samsara is nirvana. The mystic quest culminates not in the experience of Pure Nothingness, but in the return to the world in which the awareness of nothingness is maintained. Especially for the Kabbalists, most of whom were teachers, fathers, and community members, the world of yesh is not something to simply be left behind as we “die before we die” (a Sufi phrase) into an experience of ayin. There is no duality, no difference between yesh and ayin. This moment is God. This really is it.

The Evil

The primary Kabbalistic term for evil is sitra achra, which means "the Other side." In the subtle depth of this term alone lies some of the most transformative wisdom of the Kabbalah. Although often mythologized in terms of demons and devils, the "Other Side," at its root, is not separate from the Divine. Coins have two sides; papers have two sides; God has two sides, at least from our perspective. All are essentially one thing; what we experience as evil is as Divine as what we experience as good.

Naturally, no one wants to believe this. It's fine to think "everything is God" on a warm summer's day, when the birds are singing tunes of Heaven. But what about in a hospital, where a child is dying of cancer? What about in the gas chambers? For that matter, what about any situation in which our moral faculties are aroused, and the presence of evil is as palpable as the sunlight?

To say that evil is part of God is not to say it doesn't exist. Everything is part of God: the self, objects in the world, this computer. "Exist" is a property we ascribe to these objects, and which we do not ascribe to, say, dragons or unicorns. That is because this computer does things that a unicorn does not -- it appears, it reliably functions as an object, and so on. Likewise, to say that evil is "only" part of God and is not "ultimately real" does not alter its significance in our daily lives.

But it does alter how we relate to it. Many texts in the Kabbalah, including the Zohar, say that the task is not to destroy evil but to return it to its source -- to "include the left within the right," in the Zoharic metaphor, "to uplift the fallen sparks" in the Lurianic one. In Chabad Hasidism, it is stated that evil exists as part of the Divine revelation itself. Indeed, to think that evil really is separate from God is, itself, the essence of evil, which is precisely the illusion of separation. The most common form of this evil is something we all do all the time: assume that we are separate from God. The natural consequence of this belief is that "good" and "bad" are best evaluated according to how they benefit or harm the self. Thus, enriching the ego, making ourselves feel good (materially, usually, but also spiritually) -- all these quintessentially human endeavors stem from the illusion of separation. Theyetzer hara, conventionally known as the "evil inclination," might be better thought of as the "selfish inclination" or the "separating inclination." It is that which grounds all experience in the separate self, and does its best to enlarge, enrich, and empower that self above others. Conventional morality posits a dualistic psychology, in which a yetzer tov, a good inclination, balances out the evil one. For the Kabbalah, however, there is only truth and falsity: the truth that only God truly exists, and the falsity that all of our own conventional existence is real. Truth leads to those acts which benefit God -- for traditional Kabbalists, that includes ritual as well as ethical behavior. Falsity leads to those which seem to benefit the separate self.

This is hardly the end of the story. Some heretical Kabbalists believed that "acts which benefit God" include deliberate forays into the world of "sin," where the illusory nature of evil can be more readily exposed, and the sparks thereby elevated to their Source. Traditional Kabbalists and Hasidim, however, maintained the opposite: that the Torah provides the blueprint for right action, and that once the selfish inclination is abnegated, what remains are the commandments. The fundamental cosmology is the same, but the consequences are completely different.

Letting go of the reality of separate evil, and really accepting that the sitra achra is a side of Divinity, is easy on paper and very difficult in reality. Sitting in a cozy armchair, it's possible to meditate on the unity of all being, even those which are horrible. But when one is in the midst of the horror, I suppose, it becomes a rather different enterprise, and much closer to the ideal of the saint. Still, to the extent it is possible to do so, the notion is indeed life-changing. Everything is a flavor of Divinity — we may naturally want more hesed and less gevurah, and indeed, the Kabbalah contains thousands of incantations, intentions, and actions to shift the balance in just that way. But even the dinim, the harsh judgments which we experience, are a side of the Divine manifestation. I think all of us can find the edge of tolerance in this area. Some endure life-threatening traumas and yet are able to maintain the wider view. Personally, I can lose my proper perspective after only mild physical violence. Perhaps the right work on the self is to find the edge and expand it, gradually allowing more of God to exist without forgetting. This does not remove the imperative to fight against evil, of course — only the constriction and delusion which can sometimes accompany it.

Meaning of God

For Kabbalists, the visible world is only the superficial skin of Reality. Because of the way our minds are constructed to interact with the world, we imagine ourselves as separate selves, going about our business, trying to be happy. In fact, we, the stars, our friends and enemies, and everything around us — all of us are dreams in the mind of God. Nothing has any separate reality — it only looks like there are separate tables, chairs, computers, and people from a certain, limited perspective. Being in itself is actually nothing but God.

From God’s point of view, all of the distinctions we make — between ourselves and the world outside ourselves, among objects in the world, etc. — are completely illusory, because ultimately there is only the undifferentiated unity of the ein sof, the Infinite.

Of course, this is not how things look from our point of view. Why is this the case? And how do you know that everything is really one?

Let's pause for a moment, before answering those questions, for a “reality check.” For most of us today, the concept of God is a problematic and controversial one. I’ve taught Kabbalah to adults, adolescents, Jews, non-Jews, and I’ve noticed that the large majority of my students, when they hear the word “God,” seem to say “hold on — you’ve lost me.” So, as soon as someone mentions “God,” we go off on a tangent.

For most Kabbalists, the situation was very different. The concept and reality of God were felt and known from their earliest memories. These were, by and large, rabbis soaked in the God of Judaism, which they experienced and related to all the time; traditional Jewish practice puts one in constant relationship with God. So, that important [hold on,] that question of how we intellectually know that God exists is itself a somewhat non-Kabbalistic question. The kind of knowledge we are looking for is experiential knowledge. Not knowledge on faith or dogma, but knowledge based on first-hand experience. This is called da’at — true knowledge. The kind lovers have. Union.

For this reason, the Kabbalah is more interested in how we relate to God than how we can speculate about God. In particular, it asks how we know God through the concepts of the [sefirot], or how we unite with God through meditation, or how we can use our relationships with God for various purposes. The Kabbalah is also not a philosophical system. In fact, historically, much of the Kabbalah arose directly in response (and opposition) to rationalist philosophy. So we will not find systematic “proofs” of God’s existence in the Zohar or anywhere else. Really, if such proofs existed, wouldn’t you already know them by now anyway?

Since, for the Kabbalah, the Infinite — the ein sof — is utterly different from what most people call “God,” many contemporary teachers choose not to use the word “God” at all. This might be a good idea. After all, let’s look at two short texts from one of the most important Kabbalists, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, as translated by scholar Daniel Matt:

An impoverished person thinks that God is an old man with white hair, sitting on a wondrous throne of fire that glitters with countless sparks, as the Bible states: “The Ancient-of-Days sits, the hair on his head like clean fleece, his throne–flames of fire.” Imagining this and similar fantasies, the fool corporealizes God. He falls into one of the traps that destroy faith. His awe of God is limited by his imagination.

But if you are enlightened, you know God’s oneness; you know that the divine is devoid of bodily categories — these can never be applied to God. Then you wonder, astonished: Who am I? I am a mustard seed in the middle of the sphere of the moon, which itself is a mustard seed within the next sphere. So it is with that sphere and all it contains in relation to the next sphere. So it is with all the spheres — one inside the other — and all of them are a mustard seed within the further expanses. And all of these are a mustard seed within further expanses. Your awe is invigorated, the love in your soul expands.

This is a remarkable teaching. Of course, Cordovero uses his scientific framework — the idea that the universe is comprised of concentric spheres — instead of ours. But the principle is the same. God is not some old man in the sky who makes sure that only good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad. The universe doesn’t work that way. In fact, the universe is inconceivably vast, and every subatomic particle of it is filled with God. Here’s another important Cordovero text about the God idea:

The essence of divinity is found in every single thing — nothing but it exists.... Do not attribute duality to God. Let God be solely God. If you suppose that Ein Sof emanates until a certain point, and that from that point on is outside of it, you have dualized. God forbid! Realize, rather, that Ein Sof exists in each existent. Do not say, “This is a stone and not God.” God forbid! Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity.

Think about it. “Ein Sof” means infinite — really infinite. If this computer screen is not the Ein Sof, we’ve made a mistake, because we’ve given the Ein Sof a sof — an end. Kabbalists take the idea of infinity very seriously. God is that which Is — YHVH, one of the main Hebrew terms for this Reality, might even be translated “Is.” God is not an old man; God is What Is. The Infinite is everything. It is the only thing.

“God” is an imprecise name for the only thing in the universe that actually exists. Next question: If everything is God, why do things appear as they do? And how can we have knowledge of God, in this lifetime?

Spiritual Practic

Kabbalah is a centuries-old body of literature, but it is often studied today alongside yoga, meditation, and other spiritual practices. Our exact notion of practice (yoga) is somewhat foreign to Kabbalah, but if we were to view Kabbalah as a spiritual practice, how would it work? What does Kabbalah "do" for us as spiritual seekers?

Let's assume for a moment a basic tenet of Kabbalah: that, ordinarily, we are only receiving a small portion of what the world is manifesting at any moment. Scientifically, and intuitively, we know this to be true. If our minds did not filter out perceptions deemed to be extraneous, we would be flooded with sensory input and unable to do anything. We would be like infants, with only the most rudimentary tools to understand or relate to reality. Thus, our minds develop to screen out what is irrelevant, and organize perceptual information in ways which, experience has taught us, work.

We can know this directly simply by closing our eyes and trying to remember mundane details of our surroundings. What the images are on the sides of this page, for example. Or even what you are wearing today. Some things we notice, some we forget, and some we barely seem to encounter in the first place.

If we accept the principle that there is more to the world than what we usually perceive, then the question arises of how, if we are interested, we might perceive more: more joy, more life, more connection with the things which matter to us. This is what we might mean when we say "receiving" (kabbalah): receiving more of whatever life is. So how do we do that?

The most familiar means of doing so is probably that of meditation. By slowing down the rushing trains of thought, it is possible to observe the mind more clearly, and to notice each perception in greater and greater detail. All sorts of results tend to appear. Psychologically, meditators can become much more attuned to their feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, noticing negative emotions like anger, hurt or sadness before they "take over" and noticing positive emotions when they arise. People who meditate thus tend to be able to relax more easily, since they are not being driven by their emotional, reactive minds. We are also able to perceive the world more clearly -- one mouthful of food, one step, or one breath at a time. For "spiritual" types like me, the world becomes achingly beautiful, and perceptibly charged by the Divine. Meditation does, indeed, help me see more clearly -- and what I see accords with what mystics have written about for centuries.

All that said, this form of meditation is not present in Kabbalah until the nineteenth century. Today, there are many teachers who integrate the basic practice of insight meditation with Kabbalistic ideas and structures -- myself included. But the forms of meditation indigenous to the Kabbalah are subtly different, and meditation itself is, while present, not central to every type of Kabbalah. So, let's proceed instead from the Kabbalah's assumptions and structures. Theosophical Kabbalah helps practitioners receive the fullness of reality by closely attuning them to the symbolic and energetic structures of that reality, in text and in life. Take the ten sefirot. Each of these can be experienced as physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual realities. As one learns to do so, one deepens one's vocabulary of experience, and becomes more and more attuned to the minute fluctuations of it. Elsewhere on this site, I go through the sefirot in detail, and draw an analogy to the (false) urban legend about Eskimos having many words for snow. The point of that analogy is that as our vocabulary grows, our experience deepens.

If you really immerse yourself in theosophical Kabbalah, learning the Zohar, coming to know its symbols, you will discover for yourself that the chains of associations begin to flow very easily. You can "jam" with the Zohar the way a jazz musician jams on a motif in a composition. You can feel the interplay of energies (and I use this term very loosely) in your lived experience. And you gradually begin to open up, deepen, and receive.

It works -- but the only way to know whether it works is to try it. And to try it takes a lot of learning and effort. Theosophical Kabbalah is not like basic meditation, which anyone can pick up with just a few days of practice. It exists within an elaborate context of symbols, language, and religious structures, which is one reason it is often reserved for advanced students.

Many spiritual seekers today are convinced that any spiritual path can be learned quickly, in one's spare time, and in English. Well, this is not true. Some paths can, and some cannot. Whether for better or for worse, theosophical Kabbalah cannot. You can learn the symbols, acquaint yourself with the core truths, and deepen your appreciation for life through the Kabbalah's beautiful ideas. However, the fact is that in order to become truly fluent with the particulars of theosophical Kabbalah, it takes time.

Prophetic Kabbalah has a more familiar, and accessible, path to receiving: meditation. The precise techniques of Abulafia and his students do depend on the Hebrew language, but I've found that they can be transposed into English fairly easily. What those techniques do is loosen the grip of thought, just like insight meditation. Their method, though, is very different: they scramble the mind, a bit like Zen, and unchain the subconscious, a bit like some forms of psychoanalysis. With free association, letter permutation, and many other techniques, the practices of prophetic Kabbalah scramble up the thinking mind, enabling more direct perception of reality.

Just from this short description, you can see how different the methods of prophetic Kabbalah are from those of theosophical Kabbalah. Prophetic, or ecstatic, practice does not fine-tune the senses to the minute fluctuations of the sefirot; it shakes up the mind until it can see reality directly. Now, prophetic Kabbalah does still work with the language and topics of Kabbalah -- sefirot, letters of the alphabet, Divine names, and so on. However, it uses those resources to engender a mystical experience.

It, too, works, though it, too, takes a lot of practice. You can taste the fruits of ecstatic Kabbalah fairly quickly if you devote even a single night to it -- but you do need to devote the whole night, permuting letters and allowing the mind to free itself up. Critically (as described in the prophetic Kabbalah section), the point is not to get high; it's to receive insights. You will, if you do the practices, get high -- by which I mean, you will attain an altered mind-state that will hopefully be fascinating and delightful for you. (It may also be frightening, if you have fears or insecurities that arise too strongly.) But to just drift along in the altered mindstate, blissing out, is to miss the point. There are fruits to this practice, "messages" that seem to come from outside, or from deep inside -- which are really the same place. It will be obvious to you how Abulafia would understand these messages as prophecy from God. Whether you see them that way, or see them only as your deepest self speaking to you -- well, that depends on your theology. But don't ignore them; they're part of what you're there to receive. Finally, practical Kabbalah also has its path to receiving. Returning to the basic assumption at the top of this page -- there is more than what we usually perceive -- practical Kabbalah aims to attune us to specific "frequencies" (again, a term used loosely and metaphorically) that we ordinarily tune out. What is magic, really, but a tapping into energies and potencies we normally ignore? It's easy to say, from a position of doubt, that these potencies are nonsense, that we don't believe in magic. But without direct experience, how do you really know? Because there are charlatans on television? Because there's been no "scientific" study of it? Well, how could scientific studies work, when the intentions of the participants (there should not be any observers) are what determine the outcome?

I'm not saying you should believe in magic. In fact, I'm saying the opposite, that you shouldn't believe in anything. But that includes your own preconceptions. Believe nothing. Experience everything.

Jewish Mysticism

According to adherents of Kabbalah, the origin of Kabbalah begins with the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible). According to Midrash, God created the universe with "Ten utterances" or "Ten qualities." When read by later generations of Kabbalists, the Torah's description of the creation in the Book of Genesis reveals mysteries about the godhead itself, the true nature of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, as well as the interaction of these supernal entities with the Serpent which leads to disaster when they eat the forbidden fruit, as recorded in Genesis 2.The Bible provides ample additional material for mythic and  mystical speculation. The prophet Ezekiel's visions in particular attracted much speculation, as did Isaiah's Temple vision (Chapter 6). Jacob's vision of the ladder to heaven is another text providing an example of a mystical experience. Moses' experience with the Burning bush and his encounters with God on Mount Sinai, are all evidence of mystical events in the Tanakh, and form the origin of Jewish mystical beliefs.

Jewish mystical traditions always appeal to an argument of authority based on antiquity. As a result, virtually all works pseudepigraphically claim or are ascribed ancient authorship. For example, Sefer Raziel HaMalach, an astro-magical text partly based on a magical manual of late antiquity, Sefer ha-Razim, was, according to the kabbalists, transmitted to Adam (after being evicted) by the angel Raziel. Another famous work, the Sefer Yetzirah, supposedly dates back to the patriarch Abraham. According to Apocalyptic literature, esoteric knowledge, such as magic, divination, and astrology, was transmitted to humans in the mythic past by the two angels, Aza and Azaz'el (in other places, Azaz'el and Uzaz'el) who 'fell' from heaven (see Genesis 6:4).
This appeal to antiquity has also shaped modern theories of influence in reconstructing the history of Jewish mysticism. The oldest versions of the Jewish mysticism have been theorized to extend from Assyrian theology and mysticism. Dr. Simo Parpola, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, has made some suggestive findings on the matter, particularly concerning an analysis of the Sefirot. Noting the general similarity between the Sefirot of the Kabbalah and the Tree of Life of Assyria, he reconstructed what an Assyrian antecendent to the Sepiroth would look like.
He matched the characteristics of En Sof on the nodes of the Sepiroth to the gods of Assyria, and was able to even find textual parallels between these Assyrian gods and the characteristics of god. The Assyrians assigned specific numbers to their gods, similar to how the Sepiroth assigns numbers to its nodes. However, the Assyrians use a sexagesimal number system, whereas the Sepiroth is decimal. With the Assyrian numbers, additional layers of meaning and mystical relevance appear in the Sepiroth. Normally, floating above the Assyrian Tree of Life was the god Assur, this corresponds to En Sof, which is also, via a series of transformations, derived from the Assyrian word Assur.
Jewish mystical traditions always appeal to an argument of authority based on antiquity. As a result, virtually all works pseudepigraphically claim or are ascribed ancient authorship. For example, Sefer Raziel HaMalach, an astro-magical text partly based on a magical manual of late antiquity, Sefer ha-Razim, was, according to the kabbalists, transmitted to Adam (after being evicted) by the angel Raziel. Another famous work, the Sefer Yetzirah, supposedly dates back to the patriarch Abraham. According to Apocalyptic literature, esoteric knowledge, such as magic, divination, and astrology, was transmitted to humans in the mythic past by the two angels, Aza and Azaz'el (in other places, Azaz'el and Uzaz'el) who 'fell' from heaven (Genesis 6:4).