Magic and the Qabalah by W.E. Butler

8/7/2019 Magic and the Qabalah by W.E. Butler

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.bout this I

Although the: Qabalah may be said to have its, origin in some 0. tlearliest experiences and speculations of the Hebrew race, it also con a"immemorial traditionswhich have come to 'USc from, the Night of Tiand from a land now lost, This 'compos" te tradition forms the themeW., E . .Butler's stimulating book, in which thenoted occultist has; souglto illumine as well as to instruct" aiming' his writing at the deeper levof his readers' minds.The word QBL, fiom which the name 'Qabalah' is formed, ignifies ' amouth to ear': it was, an unwritten tradition of esoteric knowledge p ssfrom, one generation of irritiates to another in an unbrokenline, ...Althoug 1estern scholars question the ac uracy of such oral transmissions, " T .Butler studied them in India and claims they can be very accurate il-deed. Hov rever, th 1'1 'com s a time w11 n some part of the oral teachir. committed to paper, '.nd it is the accu ulation of thes writings ovthe centi ries that constitutes the.historical Qabalah,me Q originated 10 before th ristian era, 01"ela e most fertile Talmudic period: the core of t s

c911 'io ' , p' - xi in an a ci nt 0- rc w r formed by, ab .ben J thai m th I' ign of the Roman Emperor An tOIDnUS .D .. B6..1baccording to '~E" Butier 's p r anal view.Th author promises that those who, having lead this, book, will use itchapters a food fo medi ti n practi e, will find therein som thing W 1"Iill I h Ipfu1 in e v0 f P rodueing those chan of onscio ne: swhich are the goals of m_gical art. H rishes to ass all to 10ther , Ii or 1eof the glimses f re lit I' hich it has been my g od fortune to a'recel vedmyself ' ..-~ - --- - __ - _I_

C o n ple te list se nt o n r eq ue st-QU .11.&:........

ellingbor- gh,ISBN a 85030 155 6


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHAn examination of the Qabalah both in itsJewish context and in its relationship to the

Western magical tradition.


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By the same authorAN INTRODUCTION TO TELEP ATHYAPPRENTICED TO MAGICHOW TO DEVELOP CLAIRVOYANCEHOW TO DEVELOP PSYCHOMETRYHOW TO READ THE AURAMAGIC: IT S RITUAL POWER AND PURPOSETHE MAGICIAN: HIS TRAINING AND WORK

NDT

byW. E. BUTLER

THE AQUARIAN PRESSWellingborough, Northamptonshire


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First published 1964Second Impression 1972First paperback Edition 1978Second Impression 1981 CONTENTSPag'

PREFACE 9I A GENERAL INTRODUCTION II

II PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION AND SEERSHIP 2 .6

THE AQUARIAN PRESS 1978

III THE ASTRAL PLANEIV MODERN PSYCHOLOGYV DIRECT EXPERIENCE

VI ASPECTS OF THE QABALAH

34465 566

VII THE TREE OF LIFE 73VIII THE FOUR WORLDS OF THE QABALISTS 8z

IX CONCERNING ADAM KADMONX CONCERNING THE VEILS

XI THE NEW OCCULTISM 101This book issold subject to the condition that itshall not, by way of trade orotherwise, be lent , re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without thepublisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that inwhich it ispublished and without a similar condition including this condition

being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

. ~ BIBLIOGRAPHY

ISBN 85030 155 6

Printed in Great Britain byThe Thetford Press, Thetford, Norfolk,


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TO

THE REVERED MEMORIESOF

"R,K.", "D.N.F." AND "A.V.O."

i.1I

IiI1

i,I


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PREFACETIT T L E need be written as a preface to this book.LFollowing my usual custom, I have written to illumineas well as to instruct, and my writing is aimed at the deeperlevels of the minds of my readers. How far I may succeed inthis depends upon many factors, some of which are outsidemy conscious control. I can only send the book forth uponits mission and trust that it may help some of its readers tounderstand a little more of the wonderful philosophy of theQabalah.Again I have to thank my patient amanuensis, Mrs HildaEastburn, for her help in the preparation and typing of themanuscript of the book. Under somewhat difficult condi-tions she has been of the greatest help to me in its initialproduction.I have also to acknowledge with gratitude advice andhelp given to me by the Warden of the Socie ty of the InnerLight.Finally, I would thank all those readers of my earlierbooks who have written to me. I shall always be happy toreply to letters, critical or otherwise, if the writers wouldkindly enclose a stamped addressed envelope.May this book prove worthy of its dedication to thosewho were true exponents of the philosophy outlined there-in, and to whom lowe far more than I can ever say.

W. E. BUTLER


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AIN~ - - _ . , _ - - - . . . . - - - - - - - - . ._ . , . . . . - . . . .. . . . . . . . - . . . . . . " ./" \~ --- - - - -- & ",,-/ ;/-- SOPH .............O " 'O . l" " -/ / . . . -_ _ _ _ , 7 \I / /" ',,, \/ / / -, \ \/ \ \ \/ / ~I \ \ \I l : ; r I \ ~ \ \

I 1 / K E T HE R \: D I t

CHAPTER I

A General Introduction

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Twas Omar Khayam who lamented that he had, whenyoung, heard great argument among the philosophers,"but evermore came out by that same door wherein I went."Very many men throughout the ages have echoed thislament. According to esoteric teachings, however, there hasalways existed a body pf knowledge based upon the directpersonal experience of men of exceptional quality. Thisdirect experience has been explained and codified byteachers, who, from the beginning of human life on thisplanet, have constituted a guiding body known variously as"The Brotherhood", or the "College of the Holy Spirit".This teaching has been checked and verified by genera-tions of seers. It is the Corpu s Herme t ic u s, a faith and a belief,limited in its expression in any particular age or period oftime. The esoteric student is indeed a "spiritual scientist",and is always trying to express this basic philosophy in theforms of his own day; but because this is not only a receivedphilosophy but also, primarily, a "theosophy" capable ofbeing checked and verified by its followers, it is a livingteaching, opening up new vistas of thought and action.There are certain powers and faculties in man whichenable him to verify the teachings for himself, and to makea living contact with the inner side of things; and, sincehumanity is one, it is evident that these powers are latent inall men. They are the so-called "psychic" faculties, and arevariously developed inmankind. In some cases they are onlya little below the surface, in others, they are buried sodeeply that it is not possible to bring them to any greatdegree of functioning, though even this partial emergencecan give a basis upon which the individual concerned mayconstruct a helpful and workable philosophy of life.Where they are near the surface, the psychic faculties tend

1

BINAH

. . . . . . . . . . ." . . . . . .I ..../ \I \,I l\ ,, I\ ~, /...

. . . . '. . . . . . . .-- -

3

GEBURAHCHESEO

TIPHE RETH6

HOD NETZACH8 7

YESOO

MALKUTH10

THE TREE AND THE PATHSII


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHto appear spontaneously, and there exists a "rule of thumb"method of bringing them into activity that. has been usedthroughout the ages; a method quite apart from those socarefully designed and controlled in the esoteric schools.However, even though these psychic faculties do notmanifest in the waking consciousness, it should be clearlyunderstood that they are always working below the surface,thereby influencing the deeper subconscious levels.This is important, for in these deep unconscious levels ofthe mind of man, exist the great driving forces known as theinstincts. We are used to their classification under the head-ings of "self-preservation", "sex", and the "herd" instincts.Jung has pointed out that there is yet another basic instinctin man, the religious instinct, an instinct just as powerful asany of the others. For this reason it has been found impos-sible to pin-point the exact time in human evolution whenreligious observances began. This religious instinct mani-fested itself in two ways. The first was a direct experience, bycertain individuals, of an underlying reality behind the

physical world, the second, a formalized theology concern-ing this experience. Such theology exteriorized itself in theritual and ceremonial worship of the tribe.Since this direct experience did not come to everyone, ittended to be withdrawn; to persist as an inner groupingbehind the outer religious form. So, through the ages, allthe great religions developed this two-fold aspect, and intheir "Mysteries" the man who was prepared and ready, wasinitiated into a method of direct experience of the hiddenrealities.In the early days of Christianity, the "Mysteries of Jesus"withdrew into the background, while, at the same time, thewhole vast movement of Gnosticism was expelled from thechurch. It is true that many of the gnostic schools wereaberrant in both teaching and moral conduct; but whetherany real good was gained by ignoring the implication of ourLord's parable of the wheat and the tares is a debatablepoint. It is clear, however, that as a result of this wholesaleexpulsion, any manifestation of direct experience tended tobe either suppressed or twisted to fit into an already existing12

A GENERAL INTRODUCl'IONtheology. This attitude has persisted up to the present day.In modern times this field of direct experience has, underthe name of "extra-sensory-perception" (or E.S.P.), beenstudied from an objective and scientific point of view, and anew branch of research, entitled "parapsychology", hasbeen started and now flourishes in many parts of the world.These powers of extra-sensory-perception, usually knownas the psychic faculties, are sometimes referred to by Ameri-can writers as "wild talents", and at first sight they seem tohave little relevance to normal life. They emerge unexpect-edly, and in many cases do not seem to be under the controlof their possessor.In Victorian days it was customary to attribute them tothe unscientific observations of uneducated or primitivepeople, to mental unbalance, or even to simple fraud. Thispoint of view has gradually been modified in many respects,and there now exists a group of scientifically minded peoplewho are prepared to admit the possibility of such super-normal powers. Humanity in general, however, has notwaited for their permission to go ahead in its growingbelief in the existence of these powers and faculties. In thelives of the great religious teachers their followers havenoted the use of such powers by both the teachers them-selves and by their immediate disciples, though they usuallyclaimed that the supernormal phenomena produced by theirown particular teacher were superior to those produced byother teachers. They have even asserted that the wondersexhibited by the others were either fraudulent, or the workof evil beings attempting to deceive the faithful.This idea was common in the early days of Christianityand it still persists in many denominations of the church.But quite apart from the specific phenomena associated withthe teachers and their immediate disciples, there has alwaysexisted a belief, based on experience, that powers of thiskind were possessed by people who were not of the ortho-dox persuasion, people who were indeed active in theiropposition to it. Such supernormally gifted people became,what might be termed, a psychic "Cave of Adullam",* and

* I Samuel, xxii, Iand z.


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHto them resorted all who were in opposition to the estab-lished orthodoxy of the day.So the "Camp of the Gifted Ones", came to include somevery questionable characters: thus giving the orthodox agood excuse for persecution. But persecution only tends tostrengthen any belief, and these natural psychics and seerspersisted through the centuries, sometimes as solitary "wisemen" and "wise women", and sometimes as members of thewitch-cult, a cult which was simply the remnant of the oldpre-Christian religion. With the advent of Christianity thenon-Christian religions were reduced to scattered groups ofworshippers in remote country places, hence the name"pagan" which was applied to them.However, a considerable period of time was to passbefore the church became seriously worried by thesevestiges of the old religions, but with the growth andsecularization of Christianity, it entered into a persecutingphase and began the attempt to root out these obstinatepeople. The two classes of the persecuted, the psychics andthe pagans, found it helpful to join forces against the com-mon enemy, and their gain in strength was such that theybecame a real threat to the interests of the church. Thenthere set in the era of persecution which constitutes such adark page of Christian history. With the Reformation, itmight have been thought that these unfortunate peoplewould have had some respite from their troubles. The verygodly reformed churches, however, here and elsewhere,continued to be just as bitter in their attempts to stamp outthese heresies. A new outlook arose in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries, and belief in supernormal powersbegan to wane; concurrently the persecution of witches andwizards began to lessen, though it had a sharp recurrence inthe Salem witchcraft trials in the New England States inAmerica.In the nineteenth century, however, modern spiritualism,both in America and on the continent of Europe, began torevive the belief in the existence of supernormal powers,-and the extreme fringe of the new psychic movements beganto link up with the surviving remnants of the witch-cult.

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A GENERAL INTRODUCTIONThese remnants were, as a rule, no more than a degradedexpression of the old non-Christian religion. The witcheshad, generally speaking, reverted to the roles they hadplayed in classical times, as fortune tellers, poisoners andabortionists. Even today, in most large towns they are stillto be found telling fortunes by greasy packs of Tarot cards,casting spells with the use of "dragon's blood" and mer-cury, and very often acting as the means by which unfortun-ate girls can be put in touch with the abortionists.Let us add that true witch-cult still flourishes free fromthis sordid element: it is simply a body of people whoworship under the old non-Christian forms. In varyingdegrees it still uses the psychic abilities of those of its mem-bers who can be trained along this line, but in the main it hasnothing to do with the parody which existed in the MiddleAges; a parody due to the ruthless persecution it endured.We have, therefore, several lines of unorthodox belief allacknowledging the existence of supernormal faculties, andmaking use of them in varying degrees. The fortune-tellerwe have always with us, and the spiritualists have formed areligious cult based, in the main, upon the revelations whichthey have received from the "other side", whilst the Theo-sophical movement has brought to the western world someof the wisdom of the Orient. This has found a considerablemeasure of acceptance, since there has always existed a tradi-tion that others, apart from the witches and wizards,possessed a wisdom and power hidden from the generalityof mankind.In the West, in pre-Christian times, this wisdom wasthought to be in the possession of the initiated priests andleaders of what we now term the "Mystery-Religions",which sprang up in the Mediterranean lands some timebefore the advent of Christianity. More particularly theEgyptian and Chaldean Mystery Schools were thought topossess this hidden knowledge in its fullness,. ~~d .ma.t?ygreat philosophers of the ancient world sought mmation mtheir assemblies.When, in the early Christian days, the emperor Justinianclosed down the pagan philosophical schools, it was

1 5


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHcommonly thought that the hidden teachings had beenfinally suppressed, and this opinion has been generally heldby the majority of European scholars who have consideredthe subject. However, an unbiassed study of the matter soonsuggests that the hidden wisdom not only survived thedestruction of the Roman Empire, but also that it existstoday.Side by side with the tremendous advances in scientificknowledge which are so characteristic of these modern days,there has been a parallel increase in the number of organisa-tions which claim to possess some part of what has come tobe known as the "ancient" or "ageless" wisdom. Much ofwhat istaught in these modern schools of esoteric thought isa re-hash of certain teachings derived from the East wherethe indigenous Mystery-tradition has never been suppressed.Much that is being exported from the Orient is, however,but a superficial presentation of the true eastern wisdom.Not every "swami" or "rishi" is worthy of these venerabletitles.. :rhis eager acceptance of oriental teachings is character-istic of many of the modern esoteric movements; humannature being what it is (and not what we might wish it to be)the demand has created a corresponding supply. However,as .t~e great psychologist, Jung, has pointed out in hiswntings, the eastern systems are unsuited to most westernpeoples.There i~, of course, no reason at all why the orientalphilosophies should not be studied in conjunction with thewestern. systems. of t.hought, and some philosophers andth~ologl~ns .(maInly Inthe Roman Catholic Church), aredoing this ~Ith profitable results. It is a matter not merely ofunderstanding the ?eeper aspects of these eastern teachings,but also of following the methods of training which havebeen developed in connection with them. It is here that thepossibility of trouble arises. These methods, usually summedup un~er the general title of "yoga", have been developedf?r otlental. outlooks and requirements, and for the par-ticular physical make-up of eastern peoples. In spite of theearnest endeavours being made at the present time to assure

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A GENERAL INTRODUCTIONus that there is no difference between East and West, itremains true, at least in the field of esoteric training, thatdifferences do exist and have to be reckoned with. There is,of course, much common ground, but yoga, to be reallyhelpful to the occidental student, has to be considerablymodified.However, just as the East has its own characteristicmethods of esoteric teaching and training, based uponcertain sacred writings and the accumulated experiences ofits trained initiates through many centuries; so in the Westthere is a similar method of training, adapted for the psycho-logical and physical make-up of western peoples, basedupon the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and possessing,also, a deposit of the recorded experiences of generations ofseers and students, together with the fragmentary records ofwisdom derived from times long past.This basic body of pre-historic teaching and practice hasbeen enriched during historic times through contacts madeby the Hebrew nation with the various Mystery Schools,which sprang up, as we have said, in the Mediterraneanlands during the classical era. The enforced contacts of theHebrews with other nations during their sojourns inEgypt and Assyria and, still further afield, with otherelements of value, such as, for instance, the native philo-sophy usually associated with the Celtic Druids ( bu t d e riv in gf rom p re -C e ltic times), all these contributed valuable materialto this composite tradition of the West.In all esoteric systems worthy of the name, much use ismade of symbols and symbol-systems, and in the East,certain composite symbols, termed "mandalas", have beendeveloped and used. So also, similar composite symbols,which are known as "glyphs" are used in the westernschools of esoteric training, and the key glyph, aroundwhich all the other associated symbolism of the westerntraining is centred, is the "mighty all-embracing glyph ofthe universe and the soul of man", known as Otz Chiim Jthe "Tree of Life".The symbolism of the Tree of Life is basically derivedfrom the esoteric teachings of the past, but has been added

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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHto in all the centuries of its existence by those who have usedit as an instrument of training. For it is more than a dia-gram; it is the res~lt of .many centuri~s _of trainir:g andexperience gathered Into pictorial form; It ISalso an Instru-ment through which certain energies and forces may becontacted by successive generations of students.This glyph comes to us down the centuries and is a part,indeed the most important part, of the system of teachingknown as the Qabalah which was evolved by the Hebrewnation. This name, Q BL, may be translated as "from mouthto ear", and, though written records have also been used tosupplement it, the main body of esoteric knowledge hasalways been handed down by oral instruction.Such written records were, and still are, kept secret, andit was not until the eleventh century of our era that any partof the secret teaching was put into print for general use.Even then, the Qabalists reserved the inner teaching and didnot allow it to be given out to all and sundry.Much of this pre-Christian teaching was carried overfrom Jewry in the early Christian Church, and there, mixedwith Egyptian, Persian and Grecian elements, it formed thebasis of the great Gnostic movement in the early days of thechurch. Then for various reasons, the church expelled theGnostics from its fellowship, and threw away, at the sametime, most of the keys to the inner teaching, so that theQabalistic tradition was handed on, in the main, in purelyJewish circles; though certain Muslim teachers used it in amodified form.With the increasing power of the church, the arcaneschools became subject to varying degrees of persecution,and with the abolition by Justinian of the schools of philo-sophy, the tradition went into hiding, though, every nowand then, fragmentary gleams of its presence shone outamid the deepening gloom of the Dark Ages in Europe.In the tenth and eleventh centuries, some of the Qaba-listie circles in Spain published, for the first time, part oftheir teachings, and on these, as a parallel movement, theresprang up a school of Christian Qabalism.Unfortunately, an attempt was made to use the Qaba-

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A GENERAL INTRODUCTIONIistic teaching as an instrument for the conversion of theJews to the Roman Catholic faith. This caused the study ofthe Qabalah to be condemned by the strictly orthodoxrabbis of that time, resulting in an antipathy which persisteddown the years, and exists today, except perhaps, in theLiberal Synagogues of the Jewish faith.The Qabalah has been used by several schools of thoughtsince the days of Moses de Leon and his school, amongthem being an unorthodox sect of Jews known as the"Chasidim", whose chief exponents in the early nineteenthcentury were the "wonder-working rabbis" of Poland.Some of these men attempted to use their wonder-workingpowers in connection with the Napoleonic wars in Europe.A fine account of this is to be found in Martin Buber'sSo n s o f H ea ve n. The Chasidim still exist as a sect, and arestrong in certain American circles.The Qabalah was also used by two other schools ofunorthodox thought, the Alchemists and the Rosi~ruci~ns.Both these schools used it as the framework of their philo-sophy, and incorporated into it the esoteric tradition theyhad received from their predecessors. The Arabs hadbrought much of the learning of the Egyptian lands intoWestern Europe, where it was received under the name of"alchemy", a word based upon the old r;ame for ~,gypt:"Khem". Thus alchemy was "the Egyptian matter : thesecret teaching of Egypt.. .Again, in the story of the put~t~ve ~ounder of.the Rosi-crucians, Christian Rosencreutz, It ISsaid that he Journeyedto "Damcar" (probably Damascus) and later to Fez, where,it is stated, he studied "their Qab~ah". . . .The Western esoteric tradition ISgenerally Identified withthe Rosicrucian order most of its teaching being based uponthe Rosicrucian adaption of the Qabalah, interwoven withthe strands of tradition which have been handed down fromboth pagan and Christian gnosis.All esoteric schools have a central symbol system, aroundwhich their teaching is organized, and the Western "man-dala", as these symbol-systems are named i? the orient, is, aswe have said, Otz Chiim, the Tree of LIfe. In the more

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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHextravagant claims made by some of its ~xponent.s, theQabalah is said tohave been taught to Adam rn Paradise, bythe Arch-angel, Metratron, and the Tree of Life is identifiedas that tree which the Scriptures tell us grew in the Gardenof Eden. This, of course, is only a way of saying that thisparticular body of teaching and practice comes from aremote antiquity, and is therefore worthy of consideration.However, claims to such ancient lineage are really beside thepoint (many teachings and practices that arc far from edify-ing can also claim remote ancestry) so it is advisable to beguarded in making such claims on behalf of any system ofthought, unless the objective proof can be given of suchearly origins.In the world of "occult" philosophies, it is common tofind the most outrageous statements being made along theselines, causing the general public, or at least its more intelli-gent section, to regard the occult teachings with a certainamount of contempt. Of course, many uncritical followersof such teachings regard this contempt as something whichmust be borne by those who are different in their outlookfrom the uninstructed and prejudiced outer world. It is truethat such criticism is very often both vituperative and super-ficial, a mental defence-weapon used by the critic to avoidthe possibility of his having to revise the whole of hismental outlook; a task which we none of us care about! Inmatters like this it is fatally easy to allow such a bias to creepunnoticed into our thinking, and the manifest animosityand the unfairness so often displayed by the hostile critic,evoke a similar response from the believer. A very interest-ing example of this is to be found in the contents of themany books which have been written in connection withwhat have come to be known as "The Dead Sea Scrolls".At the same time, of course, it is quite possible that a per-fectly true claim to an ancient origin might be made by anesoteric school, for many of these schools, at least in theWest, were forced by persecution to "go underground"and t? transmit their teachings in secret.It IS necessary that we should make a clear distinctionbetween mystery-mongering secrecy on the one hand, and

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A GENERAL INTRODUCTIONlegitimate reserve in communicating training and teachingto the outside world on the other. It is interesting to notethat certain knowledge once held by the occult schoolsalone, is now being extensively used by American advertis-ing agencies. More and more the new psychological prac-tice is being misused and perverted by unscrupulous peopl~,and the esotericist can point to this as a vindication of hispractice of reserve in communication.If the enquiring student should join any of the true occultschools, he will in all probability find that in the "Mythos"of the lodge, certain claims to the antiquity of its teachingswill be made, but such claims, substantiated in some casesby good documentary evidence, are not put forward to thegeneral public.T he e so te ric lo dg es, in so fa r a s th ey a re w or kin g e fficie ntlY , a ndp ro d ucin g r esu lts , d o s o b y v ir ttl e o f fu n ctio n , r ath e r th an ch ar te r.A teaching or philosophy, if it is to be of any real servicemust, by its very nature, conform to the description givenby Jesus to the Kingdom, "The Kingdom of Heave.t~," He

said, "is likened unto a wise householder, who bringethforth out of his treasure things new and old."A teaching is no less worthy of respect because it wasformulated today, than is a traditional teaching going backtwo thousand years or more. The body of teaching is con-stantly being re-interpreted and illuminated by the work ofthe present time.There is a Co r p u s He rme ti cu s , a body of teac~ing "?1?-ceforall delivered" to the followers of the esoteric tradition byteachers from another evolutionary scheme than our own,or so it is declared in the lodges, but this foundation hasbeen built upon and modified by generations o[ initiates.Like some of the great abbeys and c~thedr~ls_ofthis country,it shows the marks of its composite building. If we may-continue to use the analogy of ecclesiastical architecture, wemay say that we find in the esoteric tradition portions whichsuggest the first "wattle and daub" churches alongside therough axe-hewn wooden structures of the Saxon "house-church", the heavy squat buildings of the ~ater Saxon andearly Norman periods; the soaring Gothic of the early21


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHMiddle Ages (and the various modifications thereof), till wecome to the banal Victorian "Gothic" reconstruction, andthe experiments in steel and concrete of the present day.It remains to be seen, of course, how much of the modernexpression can be blended into the more traditional teach-ings which reflect the modes of thought of ancient times stillforming part of the tradition, whilst, at the same time, anintense effort is being made to re-interpret tradition in termsof the present day.Now this is typical of any living organism, this power toadapt to new conditions whilst retaining its own individual-ity, and it is certainly in line with the Qabalistic teaching aswe have received it. F or th e Q ab ala h is n ot o nly a b od y o f t eachingd e r iv e d from th e "M aste rs in Israe l"; it is a m eth o d o f u sin g th em ind in a p ractica l and co nstan tly w id en in g con sid eratio n o f th enature o f th e u niv er se a nd th e so ul o f man .We may say that the Qabalah was first deliberately in -fo lded into the Hebrew Scriptures by the heirs of the esoterictradition, whence, strengthened and modified by the tribu-tary streams of Egyptian, Chaldean aad Hellenic esotericteachings, it became the Secret Wisdom of Israel, handeddown from initiate to pupil through the ages.It was the task of the "Master in Israel", the initiate of theHebrew Mysteries, to receive and transmit the keys of thishidden wisdom in such a way that the pupil, reading in theorthodox Scriptures of his race, might unfold from theirdepths the secret teachings which had been folded withinthem. By meditation upon these teachings, and by the use ofthe prescribed technique, the initiate worked with thishidden wisdom, adding to it the results of his own re-searches, and in turn transmitting it, enlarged and enriched,to his own pupils.Sometimes, of course, such individual work was faultyand out of line with the main tradition, but this the pupilcould .correct by using the glyph of the Tree of Life in theprescribed manner.It w~l be seen from the foregoing that the Qabalisticsystem IS not merely a body of knowledge, though of courseit is that in part, neither is the Tree of Life a diagram in the

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A GENERAL INTRODUCTIONordinary sense of the word. Although both knowledge anddiagrammatic representation are important and integralparts of the Qabalah, it is primarily, as we have alreadypointed out, a m etho d o f u sin g th e m in d in such a way that theinitiate comes into direct contact with the living powers andforces of the universe, and through them with the eternalsource of all manifestation.So the system of the Qabalah, though primarily an"occult" system, culminates in an exalted mysticism, and inso doing becomes a true and living theosophy.In the same way, by the use of the sacred Scriptures of theold and new Testaments alike, the Qabalist maintains con-tact with the group-souls of the western races, and becomesable to influence the destinies of the West, not, it should beobserved, by external political means, but by infusing intothe racial unconscious seed-atoms of thought which willbear fruit in the future.The true initiate influences the world not only by what hesays, but, in a far more important way, by what he is .It remains now to conclude this chapter by a briefaccount of the history of the Qabalah as far as it has becomeknown to the scholars of the western world. The wordQBL, from which the name "Qabalah" is formed, signifies"from mouth to ear", that is to say, it was an unwrittentradition passed down from one generation of initiates toanother in an unbroken line. Contrary to the generallyaccepted opinion of Western scholars, such oral transmis-sion can be very accurate indeed, as the present writer foundwhen studying these matters in India. But there alwayscomes a time when some part of the oral teaching is written

down either in the form of private manuscripts which arecirculated amongst the brethren, or else as an attempt tointerest and attract the general public.Scholars who have studied this question of the historical,written Qabalah, have come to certain general conclusions,though, as in all scholarly assessments of history, they dis-agree considerably amongst themselves! A general patternemerges, however, and it is this pattern which we will nowbriefly discuss.


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHThe two books which are the chief Qabalistic publica-tions, are the S ep b e r Y e tz ir a h , or Book of Formation, and theZohar , or Book of Splendour. Of these the S e ph e r Y e tz ir a h isthe older, and its authorship has been attributed to RabbiAkiba ben Joseph, a pupil of one of the contemporaries ofRabbi Gamaliel, of whom we read in the Acts of theApostles. How far any prior esoteric teaching is embodiedin the Se ph er Y etzir ah is a matter of opinion amongst

scholars; but from other sources than the purely exoteric,historical ones, we are inclined to think that the author,whoever he may have been, d id incorporate to some extentin the S e p he r Y e tz ir a h a very considerable amount of tradi-tion which was coloured by Egyptian and Chaldean esotericteachings assimilated during the Captivities.However, as far as the S e ph e r Y e tz ir a h is concerned, it didnot appear in a published form until the sixteenth century,and it was the S ep b er Z oh a r, the Book of Splendour, whichfirst attracted attention in the West. Hostile critics have saidthat Rabbi Moses Shem Tov de Leon wrote this book in thethirteenth century. On the other hand, over-zealous occult-ists have claimed that the Book of Splendour descends froman unknown antiquity. The truth probably lies, as usual,between the two extremes.The personal view of the present writer is that Moses deLeon edited a large number of floating manuscripts, someof which originated long before the Christian era, whileothers were elaborated during the most fertile Talmudicperiod, and that the core of this collection had been formed,(again from pre-existing and ancient sources) by Rabbi benJochai in the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus,A.D. 86-161.There is much in the Zoha r which is evidently the result ofthe working of its editor's mind, a mind coloured by theaccepted ideas and theories of his day, and this, of course,allows his hostile critics a good deal of scope for theirattacks.But even in our modern world, the influence of an editorstill shows itself in that which he edits, and it is difficult tosee how this can be entirely avoided.

24

A GENERAL INTRODUCTIONSome critics have maintained that de Leon gained a livingby transcribing large numbers of the Zohar , and squanderedthe profits so obtained in riotous living. However, as Waitepoints out, if he transcribed this large book very frequently,he would have needed a number of copyists, and the profitsthereby obtained would have been so considerably reduced,that he would not have had much to squander. On the otherhand, if he transcribed it by his own efforts, he would not

have had time to squander the profits.In all probability he d id gain some profit from his editorialwork (perhaps an unknown patron was behind the work)but profit may not have been his sole motive. As for thealleged neglect of his family, there may have been a certainspice of truth in this; considerably enlarged upon by his ill-wishers. It does happen in similar circles today!It is, however, well to remember that in the time of Mosesde Leon, there were in existence many other related tradi-tions which had come down from antiquity. The Zoha r is notthe only source. How much of the wisdom of the hiddensanctuaries of the ancient world is embodied in the Qaba-listie works is something which, in the nature of things, wecannot determine, but it is certain that some of that wisdomhas been so transmitted.In this connection the writer learned from a friend, aninitiate of a Scottish Rosicrucian fraternity, that some verydefinite eleventh-century Portuguese elements existed in itsritual and teaching. Certain Phoenician influences are also tobe found in other Qabalistic faternities.It would appear, therefore, that the body of knowledgeand tradition which comes to us down the ages from some ofthe earliest experiences and speculations of the Hebrewrace, has been augmented by many tributaries. In its Jewishaspect it still expresses some of the orthodox Jewish con-cepts of its eleventh century recension, but it also bringswith it immemorial traditions which have come to us fromthe Night of Time; from times long past, and, we may alsosuggest, from a land now lost.This composite tradition is that with which we are con-cerned in this book.


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CHAPTER II

Psychism, Illumination and Seership

INthe previous pages, reference has been made to whatwere termed "wild talents" : the apparently randomappearance of certain powers and faculties which are be~in-ning to be studied by an increasing number of psychologists,True to type, these investigators have given new names tothese powers and faculties, such as "Extra-sensory-percep-tion" and "P.K." or "Psycho-Kinesis". The parapsycho-logists all over the world are now working on these randompowers, and at least one Chair of Parapsychology has beenset up in a continental university.The subject matter for their research is obtained by work-ing through large batches of people, usually universitystudents, until they find those who have some wild talent.The process rather resembles the proverbial search for aneedle in a haystack, and the seers of the esoteric schools,together with the psychics and mediums of the spiritualistmovement, tend to regard it with a critical eye. Neverthe-less, it is bringing the methods of modern science to bearupon the subject, and whatever survives that very efficientprocess may be regarded as being established. This is not tosay, however, that the hypotheses built up on these re':"searches necessarily give complete and satisfactory explana-tions of the phenomena studied. It is necessary to take intoaccount the personal subjective bias of the investigator, andthis is a more difficult task.From the mass of information which has been obtainedby the parapsychologists, one definite fact has emerged:somewhere in the mental make-up of the individual there is,what we may describe as, a "dormer window", "a casementlooking out upon "perilous seas, and fairy lands forlorn",as well as upon scenes of glory and light.The question which now arises in the minds of some

2 6

PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION AND SEERSHIPparapsychologists is whether these talents belong to thepast or the future of the race. Are they the remnants of aprimitive faculty which was superseded by the use of themore dependable method of communication by the spokenword, or are they faculties which are latent in all and arenow being gradually evolved into active use?The esoteric schools say that this question can beanswered either way, all depending upon the part of themachinery of the mind which is being used. The facultiesand powers usually termed "psychic" are, and always havebeen, part of the content of the mind; but their mode ofmanifestation at any time depends upon the conditionsunder which it takes place. All sense impressions, whetherphysical or super-physical, come into the waking conscious-ness through those levels of the mind which are usuallyknown as the "subconscious" or "unconscious", and theyare always coloured and altered by their journey throughthose levels.This "stained-glass" effect takes place in all cases, evenwhen the observer prides himself upon his "objective"approach to the subject of his study. Sometimes th~ distor-tion is fairly obvious, and scie~tific ~orkers recogmze wh~tthey call the "personal e


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MAGIC AND THE QABALAHdevelopment than the i~volunta~y system. Now the relativeactivities of these two Interlocking systems vary over verywide limits, but they are always involved together in allmental activity.Some schools of thought attempt to make a sharp line ofdemarcation between them, but it is found that in actualpractice they are always working together; only their pro-portions vary. One of the chief characteristics of the invol-untary nerve system is that it is closely connected with theemotional nature, and is affected by alteration of the emo-tional tone of the individual. On the other hand, the cerebro-spinal system is directly affected by the thoughts generatedby the waking consciousness. Under normal conditions thevoluntary cerebro-spinal system should be master, and theinvoluntary system should be the servant, but this is acounsel of perfection, for in the majority of humanity, theemotional energies tend, in varying degree, to dominate thedecisions of consciousness. There is a minority in which themental processes have, as it were, been cut off from theemotions, but this leads to the arid and sterile mentalitywhich is so characteristic of that minority.It will be seen, therefore, that any psychic impressionscoming into consciousness will be distorted and coloured ina varying degree by the composite emotional-mental nature.Where the emotional nature predominates, the psychic pro-cesses will be largely channelled through the involuntarysystem, and will be haphazard and fluctuating and not underthe control of the will. This is the so-called "negative"psychism, characteristic of savages, uneducated people andanimals. The type of psychism associated with the voluntarynerve system is known as the "positive" psychism and inorder that this type may function, its possessor must have adegree of mental development and control.This control over its manifestations is the point which isstr~ssed by those who have adopted a somewhat doctrinaireattitude to the development of the psychic faculties. Thereare, however, varying degrees of control (no psychic isalways capable of full control) and even the so-called "posi-tive" psychic can, under certain conditions, move towards

28

the negative end of the scale. The degree of this shift willdepend upon the workings of the sub-conscious levels ofthe mind of the psychic.At the other end of the scale, the negative psychic isdirectly affected by the subconscious content of his mind,and his observations on the inner levels will always bestrongly affected by the contents of his subconscious.If allowance is made for this distortion, he may be able todo quite good work along these lines, and be of consider-able assistance to his fellow men. Unfortunately however,there is a tendency for the negative psychic to become thefocal point of an admiring group of people, and any criticismof his powers is regarded by that group as a heresy, a fallingaway from the wonderful teachings which are being receivedthrough the psychic oracle. This tends to suppress thathealthy self-criticism which is the best safeguard in thesesubjective regions.It does happen, occasionally, that such a negative psychicdetermines to change over to the more positive form of hispowers, and, if he can escape from the mental grip which isexerted on him by his group, he may proceed to take thetraining which is necessary for this change.His first test comes when, to his dismay, his psychicpowers disappear entirely, and, as one such person told thewriter, "I was as psychic as a brick wall for over two years".Because of this temporary loss of power, many negativepsychics attempting to move over to the positive use of theirpowers are daunted and fall back to their old way of work-ing. This is to be understood, but if they ha d persevered,they would have found that their powers would havereturned, but in a new and improved form.It is the rule of the esoteric schools to require their initi-ates to strive toward the positive control of the incarnation-ary personality, and this control includes control over theinherent psychic faculties. For this reason they do not wel-come into their ranks those psychics who are the product ofthe ordinary "developing circle" where the habitual use ofthe negative forms of psychism has been firmly established.If such people are admitted, then two things tend to happen.

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MAGIC AND THE QABALAH PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION AND SEERS HIP


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Th~ in~rease~ mental activity consequent upon the trainingWhIChIS received tends to focus the consciousness on them~ntal lev~ls, and the cerebro-spinal machinery; the psy-chisrn, which has been wor~ng through the involuntarynerve system, then tends to?ie away; this process is deliber-ately accelerated by the special exercises which such initiatesreceive. In the E~stern schools, such negative psychics areusually not admitted, but much depends upon the indi-vidual circumstances.Psychism,.in ~oth its P?sitive and negative ranges, is verylargely a pictorial consciousness since the subconscious!evels o~the mind t~rough which it works were developed1~ a period .ofevolution when language, aswe understand it,did not eXl~t.By the term "pictorial" we understand not~)fily the visual, but also the auditory and other senseIm~ges. ~ow. these images, or rather the stock of themWhlC~ exists !n the subconscious mind, are used by thepsy~hic m~chinery, and, as we have said, they distort andfalsify the Information w~ich is received from supernormalsourc~s; U~ess t~ere exists a better set of images in thepsychic s mind, this state of affairs will persist.Whatever psychic impressions are received will bereferred to corresponding images in the mind, in exactly thesaIl'l:eway as, when something familiar is mentioned inordinary conversation, the tendency is to relate the idea toour own already established knowledge of the subject in'{uestion. So, for instance, when in the course of conversa-t~on som~one re.fers t~ hi~ dog~ the dog is immediatelyIinked up In the listener s mind WIth the memory of his owndog. The first ~og may I:>ediffere.nt i~ every way from these~ond, but un.ttlfurt~er Information ISsupplied the listener~ill tend to think of It under the terms of his own memorypicture.~his action of the mind is still more apparent when thesubJe~t under discussion is of a more abstract natureespecially when i~ is entirely new to the person concerned:Then correspondinj- images arise which may, or may not,~orrectly repre~ent the actual subject of discussion. SuchImages tend, WIthpractice, to become stereotyped, and are

30

built into a system of thought reaction which may be flexibleor the reverse. Now, this same mental machinery is used~hen the knowledge is being received through the opera-tion of the psychic senses, and here difficulties begin. Theincoming psychic impressions are twisted by this rigidreference-frame of the mind, and the result is a distorted andinaccurate perception. But because, when the psychic sensesare working in the conscious mind, there comes with thepsychic impressions, a rush of energy from the deeper levelssu~h per~eption tends to be regarded as sacrosanct, some~thing which must not be questioned, and this often leads toconsiderable trouble. The psychic feels that the energywhi~h c~mes wit~ the perception is ~ proof that such per-cepnon IS true, In th e fo rm u nd er w hich h e p erce iv e s it, andstrongly resents any attempt to criticize it.As previously indicated, such a psychic tends to becomethe focusing point of a group which is attracted and heldby the teachings, and there is built up a body of knowledgeheavily coloured by the mental reference-frame of thepsychic concerned. This effectually prevents any new know-ledge, which may a.ppear .to alter the teachin&, from gettingthrough the psychic s mind, Also, by a cunous telepathiccompulsion, emanating from the group-mind concerned,the psychic is prevented from rising to any greater heightsof perception than those already gained by him.Since this use of s om e sort of reference-frame wouldappear to be inescapable, the esoteric schools have devised aframe which has the advantage of being sufficiently flexibleto allow for the reception of new knowledge. This particularreference also has the virtue of disciplining the minds ofgr.oup members, and therefore lessens the grip of the group-mind upon the psychic who is its focal point. This flexiblereference-frame is the glyph of the Tree of Life with itsassociated philosophy, and it is around this "mighty all-embracing glyph of the universe and the soul of man" thatboth the theory and practice of the Western tradition isarranged. It is true that there are elements in the Westerntradition which do not derive from the Qabalah of theHebrews (Celtic and Iberian contacts amongst others) but it

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MAGIC AND THE QABALAH PSYCHISM, ILLUMINATION AND SEERSHIP


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is the glory of the Tree of Life that it may be used as a kindof occult Rosetta Stone. When it is so used, then the symbolsand glyphs of these other systems may be interpreted andin fact, ~ncoq~orated into th~ general Qabalistic picture. 'By this flexible pattern of Images and symbols it becomespossible to avoid, to a great extent, the distortion of thepsychic 1?erception:When the incoming psychic impressionsreach this mental SIeve, they are able to illuminate the sym-bols and so convey the essential nature of that which isbeing perceived on the inner levels of consciousness. Thisprocess of picking up and utilising suitable symbol forms istechnically termed "illumination", and leads on to a truebu~ f?rmless, direct perception in physical consciousness:This ISknown as "seership". There is a world of differencebetween the vague "sensings" of the negative psychismand the clearcut, but formless, perception of the well-d~veloped and trained insight of the positive seer. It is onlyfa~r to say, however, that. t.his direct perception is a rarething, Under adverse conditions most seers tend at times todescend to the level of "illumination" or even if these con-ditions are very disturbed, to descend still further and func-tion on the "sensing" levels of the negative psychism.All that can be done by anyone working in these higherreaches is to keep the mind directed towards the ideal oftrue seership, and in the meantime to work at the task of sotraining his mind that he becomes increasingly independentof external conditions.From what has already been said, it will be seen that thelower psychism, when not merely "impressional", is a stateof consciousness characterized by images. It is a pictorialtype of perception. This is because itrelates, aswe have seento that period in evolution when the subconsciousness waspredo:mnant, this aspect of the mind being a simple pictureconsciousness.Man. is ~ssen~iallycreative, and his thought activities, inthe main p~ctot1al,have built innumerable picture-images inthe collective unconscious of the human race. It is theseim~ges, the "creations of the created", as they are caned,WhIChare first observed when the psychic faculties become

3 2 .

active, and it is only later in his training that the psychicbegins. to work without them. Even then, the great arche-typal Images of the collective unconscious influence andcolour. his vision, a~d it requires a great deal of hard workto attain to the relatively formless vision of the seer.Here again, the glyph of the Tree comes to his aid. Thepicture-consciousness of the emerging faculty is broughtthrough and conditioned by the inter-related symbol systemof the .Tre~. Ev~n ~hen the psychic perceptions are inaccur-ate, this wll~be mdlcat.ed by the .fact that the symbolism doesn


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CHAPTER III

The Astral Plane

WHEN the phenomena of psychism are studied, itbecomes apparent that, quite apart fro~ the~r mani-

festation in the physical world, they are working In otherlevels of substance, and it is with these other "inner" levelsthat we are concerned in this chapter.During the centuries, the vision of both trained an~ un-trained seers and psychics has given a picture of these innerworlds. It is difficult to compress into a brief survey all thathas been observed, but it may suffice if we consider thegeneral outline. .Observations have revealed the existence of a form ofsubstance which is extremely fluidic and mobile, having nodirect connection with the physical world, yet present inevery atom of physical matter. It has been known by manynames but the most common name in the Western tradi-tion i; "the astral light", or, in Theosophical terminology,the "astral plane". In the Orient it is usually r~f~rred to asthe Kamic or "Desire World". In both these traditions, how-ever it is associated with what is known as the "mental" orMan~sic world and it is held that both these two attributesof sentient consciousness, desire and mind, are woven intoa common world which is usually known as the "astro-mental" or Kama-manas ic world.We have, therefore, to picture this astro-mental world ~saplane or level of fluidic mobile substance, through WhIChcurrents of energy flow. In it there dwell intelligences ofmany kinds and gtades, ranging from the lowliest types ofconsciousness up, through many intervening grades, to themighty Intelligences who, from these inner levels, bear r~leover all earthly manifestations, and beyond them to the In-dwelling life and consciousness of the planet itself.Furthermore, it is held, again from what has been

34

obtained through the use of exalte? seersh~p, that theemotional and mental aspects of all life on thi~ planet arepart of the corresponding aspects of t~ese Inner. planeintelligences, and behind them, p~rmeat!ng, and l~deedmaintaining in existence all these lives and forms, !S theImmanent Logos, the "Lamb slain from the foundation ~fthe world", by whose enduring sacrifice the world ISnourished and sustained.It is sometimes stated, by critics who apparently knowvery little about it, that the esoteric phil?sophy is on~ of"pantheism", identifying the Creator ":1~ HIS cre~tI0r:'This is not so for in the Western tradition the Deity 1Salways though~ of as being both Im:na~ent: sacrificed inHis Universe, and Transcendent: relgmng supreme overall.Esoteric teaching declares that the astro-mental re~lmsinterpenetrate the physical w?rld ~n? also extend sp~tIallyfar beyond it. At the same time, it 1Sstated (and this h~sbeen verified by many seers), the su.bstance of tha~plan~ IS

not physical substance as we know. It, but one wh1~h existsin that space-time continuum WhICh has been g1ven thepopular name of the "fourth-dimension". This means thatthe matter of the inner planes is not governed by the samenatural laws as the dense physical world.' for, like e:reryother level of existence, it has its own definite laws ofbe!n~:if it is studied from the standpoint of these laws, then all Itsmanifestations and phenomena are seen to be as orderly ,asthose of the physical world. For this reason the esotencistdoes not speak of the "supernatural", for he h.olds 0-at thereis but one supernatural aspect of all manlfest~tIon:. tJ:1eLogos from whom all Nature on all planes h~s rts ongin,and in whom all the observed sequences which we term"natural law" eternally subsist. Fro~ this standpoir:t~ it isusual to refer to all manifestations of mner plane activity asbeing "supernormal" but no t "supernatural". It wi~l beobserved that as evolution proceeds, much that IS atpresent supernormal will come ir:to the category o~ norma lwhilst at the same time, the questing soul of man will reachout into the infinite immensities of creation and discover

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MAGIC AND THE QABALAH THE ASTRAL PLANE


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much more which will be studied and brought into therealms of the normal . There is no limit set to the range ofman's mind except its inability to go beyond a certain pointat any given time, and this, as it will be seen, is a constantlyreceding horizon.One of the most striking qualities of this super-physicalrealm is the amazing mobility of its substance, and it isbecause of this that the practical work of the esotericschools becomes possible. The tenuous substance of theastral light will take any form which is impressed on it bythe thought of sentient beings of whatever grade; so thereare built up in this realm myriads of images of all kinds.They divide naturally into two distinct groups according totheir background. One group has as its background thephysical world and its phenomena, whilst the other has thebackground of the spiritual realms beyond the astro-mentallevels.It is one of the common jeers at spiritualism that thedescriptions of the "other side" which are given throughmediums are so "earthly" and commonplace, and one critichas gone so far as to say that the spiritualists are "suburban-izing the cosmos".This statement is true, but does not necessarily prove theunreliability of the seance room communicators. Accordingto the seers "sub urbanization" happens because the sub-consciousness of the person who has left the physical, andnow become a dweller on the astro-mental levels, auto-matically builds up the images of the conditions of physicallife. Immediately the astral substance takes shape aroundthese thought forms, and the man finds himself amongscenery very similar to that which was around him in earthlife. But since the subconsciousness has been built upaccording to the habitual thoughts and desires over manyy~ars, it will automatically build surrounding images whichwill reflect accurately the character of the man. In this waythe "summerland" and the "dark spheres" and the "greyworlds", so common in spiritualist communications arebuilt up in these finer levels.But not only are these relatively lower levels of the astral

36

light built up into the paradises and hells of the discarn.atedwellers therein, but they are also full of. t~e swarmIn~images built up by the thoughts of people still in the phYSI-cal body, and in this way there exists on these inner levels agreat body of linked thought b~th consci~usly, ~nd un-consciously expressed by humanity. The collective un-conscious" of the Jungian psychologists is located here, andthe whole of human thinking is done in the atmosphere andunder the influence of this great thought-form. Now,because man has "bodies" of the substance of the astro-mental levels, it is found by observation that there is a veryreal unity of the race on these levels, and that, in very fact,no man is an island.The energy and life which is cntinuallypo;tring intothese inner realms, and from them Into the physical world,comes from much higher levels, but manifests in theselower worlds as that energy which is known as the "libido".So for all life on both the astro-mental and physical worlds,thls driving energy is affected and condi~ioned .by thecollective subconsciousness of the race. This applies alsoto the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, as well as tothe curious halfway state which lies b~tween t?e. gr?ssphysical world and the levels of the astral light, Tlus lIn~Inglevel, the so-called "etheric plane" of the theosophists, ISofthe greatest importance as we shall se~ when we come todeal with it. Here we are concerned with the astro-mentallevels which, in their higher aspects, are its controllingfactors.The instinctive life of all the kingdoms of Nature is partof, and is controlled by, the energies ?f th~ inner lev_elsdirected by intelligences of all gr.a~es; Ir;tellI~ences ~luchare themselves subject to th~ ~U1dIng ~rectlon of higherbeings whose natural home IS Inthe higher levels of theastro-mental world; those levels which are peopled fromthe spiritual realms which lie beyond them. These "group-spirits" as they are terme~, form part of .another aspect ofthe inner worlds. There IS a curIOUSpride and self-suffi-ciency which causes mod~rn man. to ~hink of .himself asbeing the only truly intelligent being Inthe unrverse, and

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even when considering the possibility of sentient life on,other planets, he seems sure that such life will be human inform, or, if the conditions of such other worlds precludethis, will be inferior in some way or other to h om o s ap ie n s.However, with regard to the inner planes man is only oneof several other lines of evolving life, and the great group-spirits of the various kingdoms of Nature belong to one oranother of these independent lines of life. But because allthings in this concourse of forces are linked most closelytogether, the intelligences of these supermundane worldsare closely linked with the whole collective thought ofhumanity, and inevitably act and react upon it.It must be emphasized that the astral light is not, in itself,a plane of "form". The forms and images are derived fromthe mental levels which interpenetrate it. The astral lightitself is a level of mobile astral substance, obeying the lawsof its own nature, and is plastic in an amazing degree to theformative influence of mental activity, whether these influ-ences proceed from incarnate or from discarnate minds. Onthe one hand, asthe "collective unconscious" of the Jungianpsychologists, it is intimately linked with the whole of life,incarnate in its varying degree on earth, and on the other itis the plastic medium through which higher intelligencesfulfil the will of the Logos for the world.It is comparatively easy to develop the power to see someof the images in the astral light, indeed, many of thebrilliant little pictures which are seen by many people justbefore they fall asleep, or just as they awaken, the picturestermed by psychologists "hypnogogic" and "hypno-pompic", are in fact the images of the astral light. It is inthis region that the untrained psychic usually works, andthe visions he discerns are in fact, n o t the actual astral levels,but what have been termed the "creations of the created".I? mu~h the same way, the city dweller, if he were to liveentirely 11 1 the centre of a large town, and never leave it,would_ see only the purely artificial urban scenery, andwould know nothing of the. forests and mountains, lakesand seas of the great world around, and his ideas of theworld would be very inaccurate.

38

i !III iI I

SO it is with the untrained psychic, and therefore ~heesoteric schools have always insisted upon a lengthy tram-ing which would lead from psychic perception to an illumin-ated seership. This "higher psychism", as it has been called,works without images, but for the practical work of theschools it has been associated with the great symbol systemof the Tree of Life. As we have written elsewhere, the Treeis not only a great glyph or compound symbol, it is in e sse ncea c ha rt o j r el atio n sh ip s, and, though the seer trained upon itceases to use the symbols themselves when he reaches acertain point in his training, t h e SY '! 1 bo l -r e l at io n s~ ip s s ti llre main in h is m ind and form a foundation for all his subse-quent work. Other esoteric schools use other glyphs andwho are we to judge .... Sufficient for us that in the Westerntradition this is our foundation.In the higher stages of seership "perception of" becomes"identification with" the object which is being observed,and here again, the symbol-relationship of t~e Tree ena~lesthe seer to bring back from those exalted regIons somethingof what has been experienced.Inthe lower astral levels, the rolling billows of the lightcontain the myriad images projected by the minds of bothincarnate and discarnate beings, and the astral currentsenergise them. In this way rhythmic influences are broughtto bear upon all life, and these influences, working t~rou&hthe collective unconscious of the race, cause those tides mthe affairs of men which are the real mainsprings of humaneffort for good and for bad. In very truth, the astral levelsare the steering and directing levels for the race. From thelower levels come those impulses which work for the eviland unbalanced forces inhuman life, whilst from the higherastral come those influences which work ever towards theestablishment of harmony, truth and love upon this planet.A knowledge of these currents of energy which flowconstantly behind the scenes gives the po.wer to controland direct them, and this is part of the practical work of t~eesoteric craftsman. Here again, the method of the Tree ISunsurpassed in its power to build up in the mind a truereference frame and a directing channel for these great

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energies which are constantly affecting mankind and, indeed,the myriad lives of the whole planet.We have said that the power to control and direct thecosmic energies which are to be found in the inner planes isone which must be employed in the practical work of theoccultist, but it is here that we encounter a very importantpitfall. It is a commonly accepted idea that the magician hasthis control at his disposal and may use it in any particularway that suits his fancy or that his immediate needs maydirect. Nevertheless, this is utterly false, at least as far as thebrethren of the true esoteric orders are concerned. It is truethat .m~ny who atteml?t this l?ath do use the powers theyobtain m order to satisfy their own personal desires andambitions. The true esotericist, however is always mindfulof the question which was put to him at the commencementof his training in the Mysteries: "Why do you desire toenter our brotherhood?" At that time he gave the answer"I desire to know in order to serve", and it is this which hemust constantly remember.But this statement, true though it is, needs some analysis."Service" is one of those words which, like valuable cur-rency, can be, and often is, debased. As the late Dr Joadwould have said, "It all depends on what you mean by'service'." The word has come to have several differentmeanings, and it is essential that we consider what it meansin the context of esoteric training. Service may be given toour fellow men, to the master Craftsmen of the Order andto the Eternal. It may also be given to ourselves. Which isthe true service? In point of fact, all are legitimate ways ofservice; it is the priorities which really matter. In what order

~o ~e place our respective services? Let us start by con-sidering the last one I have named, the service of the self.It is u~ual in tnar:y esoteric schools, more particularlythose which are Inclined towards the mystical rather thanthe true esoteric path, to despise and attempt to disregard~he persona~ self and its requirements in a mistaken follow-Ing of c~rtam mystical teachings. The trouble with so manypeople IS that they will wrench from their context certainstatements made by the great teachers of the spiritual way.40

This is a case in point. It is quite true that at a certain pointin the esoteric training, the "flyer", which is the person~lself, must be immersed in the "sea" of the deep self, but thisis not until a certain level of true spiritual development ~asbeen reached. It is this attempt to mortify the persona~1tywhich can so easily become one of the greatest snimblingblocks on the way, so it may be as well if we consider itfairly carefully. ., .'What is this personal self with WhIChwe mostly identifyourselves? And what is its purpose? The name itself comesfrom a root which means "a mask", and this recalls theactors of classic times, who represented their part in theplay by wearing a mask. So they spoke "through the mask".In the same way, so the esotericists claim, the deep self ofeveryone speaks and acts through the persona, the mask ofthe personal self. But this.mask is n


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service, and for those who are capable of doing whatever isinvolved in them, they are true and legitimate methods ofservice. However, as Christ said so long ago, although thesethings should not be left undone, there is something elsewhich comes first. The esotericist has always to rememberthat very truly, "no man is an island". He is linked with thewhole of his race in the deeper aspects of his nature, and allhe says, thinks or does influences the group mind ofhumanity. So everyone by simply being himself affects allmen, but, in the case of the dedicated and trained occultist,this influence is more definite and potent for good. So theoccultist helps humanity by simply being himself, and actingas it were, as a ferment which, unseen but very potent, cancause a vital change in conditions around.We now come to that aspect of service which has gatheredso much that is foolish and puerile in human thought: theservice given to the adepts and masters of the esoteric way.In modern occult writings this idea of the "masters" andadepts has been so bowdlerized that it has become unaccept-able to serious thinkers. "Humanity dearly loves a lord",and we have seen, in the appearance of Fascism and theNational Socialism of Hitler's Germany, how a greatnumber of people are prepared to allow others to do theirthin~ing fo~ them. !hey appear to. be afraid of attemptingto direct their own lives, gladly learung upon those who willdo their thinking for them, who will show them, and ifneeds be, drive them along the path which they mustfollow.When this attitude of mind is brought to the work ofesoteric science, it can easily become a form of spiritualslavery every whit as evil as any material bondage. This isthe last thing that is desired by the adepti. They requiremature men and women (though it is well to notice thatma~urity is not always a matter of age) who will stand upontheir own feet, and not depend in a pathological mannerupon their superiors. It is here that the terms which are inpopular use encourage such dependence. The words chelaand guru , which are so often used in the eastern esotericsystems are usually translated as "pupil" and "teacher".

42

This of course would be quite a legitimate translation if thepupil-teacher relationship of the oriental sy:stems and thepupil-teacher relationship of western education, meant thesame thing to the understanding of the average person. Butmuch of the oriental esoteric training is based upon a sys~emof discipleship which is foreign to the psychologlcalapproach of the western mind, and, it is only fair to add, themethods of training of the true esoteric schools of the Eastdo not encourage the servile subservience which is charac-teristic of so many Hindu aspirants.However, though the true esoteric teachers do not desireany slavish obedience from their followers, they do requirethat the aspirant should "obey the rule". Here we come tosomething which will be familiar to those of my readerswho have any knowledge of the monastic orders in theChristian church. The communities of monks or nuns liveand work "under obedience", and many Protestant criticsof the system seem to imagine that the members of thesecommunities vow implicit obedience to the head of theparticular monastery or convent in which they happen tobe. This is not true. Obviously, there must be a system ofdiscipline, no community can be run without some form ofcontrol but the obedience which is demanded of thenovice ~hen taking his final vows is obedience ~othe "Ruleof the Order", and by this Rule all the commuruty, from thehighest to the lowest, are bound.If we take one of the orders, the Benedictines, as anexample we find that the whole life of the community isregulated by the Rule which was first laid down by thefounder of the Order, St Benedict, and this rule is admin-istered by a willing collaboration between all the. brethren.Any arbitrary action by the head of the commuruty ~an ~echallenged without fear by at;tybrother who feels that m thisinstance the Rule was not being obeyed.So in the esoteric schools the true obedience is given tothe Rule of the Order which is behind the outer school. Forthe esoteric schools are pendant from the great orderswhich exist behind the scenes. Some may think that thismakes membership of an esoteric school still more doubtful

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than they had already thought, but as the Order Rule isalways taught, and can thus be compared with the generalmoral and ethical outlooks, the individual is always in aposition to judge its validity, as far as his own capacitypermits.But any arbitrary alteration in the training methods is notpermitted by his superiors. The disciplines laid down mustbe carried out, they are part of the training, and the indi-vidual has to realize this. At the same time, his teachers arealways willing to help him in any difficult points, and he, inhis turn, is expected to use his own mind in endeavouring tounderstand such difficulties. It must always be realized thatdiscipline implies following the Rule freely and willingly,not in the spirit of a recalcitrant mule!Finally we come to the greatest form of service: theservice of the Eternal. Here there are two distinct stages,both of which are essential. In the first stage there is asteady endeavour to lift the personal consciousness to somemeasure of contact, however slight, with the eternal power,love and wisdom. From the very beginning of his trainingthe esoteric apprentice is taught to make this effort, and tooffer himself "spirit, soul and body as a living and continualsacrifice". In the ritual of the Qabalistic Cross he says withgesture and word A te h, M alku th , u e Geburah , u e G ed ula h IeO lam: "To Thee is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory,for ever and ever".Persisting in this, there come, in the course of his trainingand the development of the inner faculties, "illuminations"on "the mount" and in the light of these he learns to look atall life from another point of view, s ub s p e ci es e t er n i ta s , andso discern, on the tracing board of the Architect of theUniverse, the plan which is the basic of all evolutionaryexistence. Now he. must learn to descend the mount, andcoming into the field of ordinary life, endeavour to live andwork under the precepts of the Will which ordered thatplan. Only then can the aspirant find true happiness andrest. As the blessed souls told Dante "In His will is ourpeace". So in the .end~ the path of esoteri~ science mergesInto the path which IS common to mystic, occultist and

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Nature-mystic alike. And as, in the Holy Mysteries, thegifts of bread and wine which are the representations of theofferings and sacrifice of the people are mystically offered onthe heavenly altar and thence returned to the earthly altar asthe means whereby the faithful may receive the very life andpower of the eternal, so in this personal offering of the self,and the illumination and power which results therefrom, theaspirant begins to work with true power and right know-ledge of the lower worlds. Only then is the service of theeternal realized and fulfilled by him, and in that service hefinds that "perfect freedom" which is referred to in the oldAnglican collect.

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MODERN PSYCHOLOGY


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CHAPTER IV

Modern Psychology

ITi~not propose~ to discuss the details of modern psycho-. logical theory, SInce, unlike ancient Gaul, it is dividedinto many more parts than three. The many schools ofpsychology stem, in the main, from the three systemsidentified :vith the ~ames ?f Freud, Adler and Jung.Th~ c~ef way In which these modern psychologicaltheories differ from the academic psychology of the nine-teenth century is that they immensely extend the concept ofthe se~fof man . .The ol?er psychology dealt with man asan en~ltely conSCIOUSbeing, an "encapsuled entity", whoseconSCIOUSthoughts, emotions and aspirations constitutedhis entire psychological make-up.~!th the rise of many unorthodox philosophical andreligious movements, and more particularly modern spirit-ualism and theo.sophy, it became necessary, once the factshad been established, to try to fit them into the existingpsychological framework. It was then found that the frame-work itself would need much alteration and adjustment if itwere to cover all the new aspects of the mind of man whichwere now being revealed.. It is to the scholar and investigator of psychic happen-Ings, F. W. H. Myers, that we owe the concept of what henamed the "subliminal mind". The word comes from

"limen~' m~aning a threshold. To Myers, and those associ-ated wlt~ him, the conscious mind was pictured, not as thewhole mind, but merely as a part of it. To them it seemed tobe only the ground floor of the mental structure' the thres-hold, as it were, of the whole edifice. Above it, and below itwere other levels of mental activity, and with these, so faras me-?tal control was concerned, the conscious mind hadvery little to do. Nevertheless, the influence and directionfrom these levels was constant, so Myers spoke of the46

"subliminal" and "supraliminal", and, although at first thislatter term was used simply to refer to the waking consciousself, it cam~ to be regarded in another way at a later date.Myers did not, at first, attempt to differentiate betweenthe levels of the subliminal mind, but others began to workwith his ideas and evolved the concept of the "subcon-scious" aspects of the mind.Much of the general body of new psychological theory,bitt.erl~,oppc;>sed,as it was, by the conservative "psycho-10gls~S of ~s day, was expanded and given a new look bythe plOneermg work of the great psychologist Freud. Whenhis theories first burst upon the world they received so lop-sided a ;velcome t~at they became suspect to many people;to explain why this should have happened it will be neces-sary to discuss briefly some of his main ideas.Freud was a medical psychologist and during his workwith his patients he began to formulate certain ideas inorder that he might explain to them the abnormal workingsof the minds of mental sufferers; at the same time he sawthat much of the behaviour of the minds of normal peoplecould be accounted for in this way. He found, as Myers andmany others had done, that the region of the mind whichlay below the threshold of consciousness, the subliminal or"subconscious", was affected by every impression receivedby way of the five senses. All such impressions, and th e em o-tio ns a nd th ou gh ts e vo ke d by t hem, were registered in the depthsof this mental level.Since, however, there exists a certain code of conduct,many of these emotions and thoughts were not acceptableto the conscious mind, and there came into existence, whatwas termed the "endo-psychic censor". The function of thiscensor was to prevent unacceptable expressions of thisnature from rising up from the subliminal realms, and soaffecting the conscious self. It was a kind of one-way sievewhich, while it allowed all impressions to pass down intothe depths of the subconscious, prevented the return ofthose thoughts and emotions that were not acceptable to thepersonal consciousness.But "out of sight" was very definitely no t "out of mind",

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for Freud discovered that these unwanted emotions andthoughts were very much alive and active in the subliminaldepths, and (a most important point), that they were con-stantly affecting the waking consciousness. Working withhis patients, he found that all such subconscious impressionswere under a constant pressure from forces which wereentering the mind at its deepest levels. These forces weredifferentiations of a dynamic energy which was the sustain-ing power of the whole personality, the e la n v it al e of Berg-son. This primary "thrust of life", was named "libido" andit was here that Freud made his most valuable and spec-tac~lar ~scoveries. I;Ie claimed that the inflowing energysplit up into three main streams, and that these streams werethe forces behind the three "instincts" of self-preservation,sex, and herd.It was in the realm of the second instinct, sex, that hismain contribution lay, and, of course, it was this bias whichgave his ideas a notoriety that, to some extent, was notdeserved. Sex, in the popular mind, means something verydefinite and limited, but Freud used the term to cover amuch wider field, embracing, as it did, all the manifoldexpressions of the creative instinct of which physical sex isonly one part.He. evolv~d ~ technique which he found made it possibleto gam admission to the depths of the subconscious and tostudy its w?r~ings. This technique ("psycho-analysis"), byword asso~latlon tests and the study of the patient's dreams,eJ?-abledhim to pen~tra~e behind .the "censor" and bringhidden mental material into consciousness. When this wasdone, he found that a great deal of emotional energy, whichhad been l~cked up in these hidden thought complexes, wasr~leased with beneficial results to the patient. Freud alsodis~overed that certain hidden thought complexes tended tosplit off from the main mental stream and become semi-in~ependent. Such "dissociation" was liable to have verysen.ous consequences, for these dissociated complexes couldradically alter the whole of the sufferer's personality. Classiccases such as "The Watseka Wonder" and the "Sally Beau-champ" multiple personality case (and, in more recent times,

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that of I?v~lyn Lancaster whose history has been given tothe publi~ m the books entitled Th e Th re e Faces o f Ev e andStrangers tnMy Bot(y), show to what lengths "schizophrenia"can go.*It became evident to Freud and his co-workers that one ofthe factors which cause dissociation in its various forms wasthe repression into the subliminal depths of much thatoffended ~he normal ~tandards of the waking self. Ratherthan admit that certain thoughts and emotions were selforiginated and natural, the waking self refused to acknow-le~ge them, or to allow them to pass into the consciousmind. Instead they were repressed into the subconsciouslimbo, where they locked up the inflowing nervous energyor deflected it int? abnormal channels. When the complexeswere uncovered, n was held by Freud that the mind wouldrevert to normality, and in many cases this did occur.However, two of Freud's associates, Alfred Adler andCarl Gustav Jung, felt that Freud's insistence on sex as thechief factor in mental illness was not entirely justified, andthey began to move away from that standpoint and to formtheir own schools of thought. Adler laid great stress uponthe "power complex", teaching that this manifestation ofthe self-preservation instinct was responsible for a greatdeal of mental disturbance attributed by Freud to sex. Ifresults are a criterion, they have proved him to be correctand the psychologists of his school have done a great deal ofvery good work.However, Jung, in the present writer's opinion, standsout from his two illustrious confreres by the magnificentsweep of his system of psychology; he also comes nearerth~n either of the others to the viewpoint of the Qabalists.Bnefiy, it may be said that Jung recognizes the existence ofwhat has been termed the "libido", a force of which allphysical, or life forces, are manifestations. This livingenergy flows between the two poles: the "conscious" andthe "unconscious" aspects of the personality. If, for anyreason, the conscious self fails to hold its requisite amount of.... The Three Faces of Eve-Drs Thigpen & Cleckley-Published 1957. Strangerstn mybody-Evelyn Lancaster-Published 1958Seeker&Warburg, London.

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this libido then at whatever point this deficiency occurs,there will be found an excess of energy in the unconscious.Whenever the living energy projects itself from the uncon-scious depths, (the matrix or primal source from which, orthrough which, it flows into the human personality), it isto be found expressing itself as a grouping of opposites.Here we have in another form that which is expressed in theQabalistic conception of the two pillars of the Tree of Life;headed by the S e ph ir o th C h o km a h and Binah.Freud regarded the unconscious levels of the mind as thelimbo into which were jettisoned emotions, thoughts andmemories which were objectionable to the conscious self.This J ung was ready to admit, but from his own re-searches he came to the conclusion that there were otherthings in the unconscious. One of these was the deposit ofthe experiences of our ancestors, and he called this the racialor collective unconscious. The conscious mind is held to bethe outcropping of the unconscious, just as the visibleportion of the iceberg is the outcropping of the greater massof ice which lies below. An even better analogy is that of themountain range. The individual pinnacles can be held torepresent individual consciousnesses, the peaks would thenrepresent the racial consciousness of the various nations andhuman groupings, whilst the great body of the range wouldrepresent the animal and vegetable life of the planet. Allthese are joined together by their common base and origin:the earth itself.If the conscious mind is an outgrowing from the under-lying unconscious, then the springs of life are to be foundin it, and the "libido" is seen to be not only an inflowing

energy, blindly thrusting up into consciousness, but also adirective force which has certain characteristics.This directive energy is a steady pressure in the directionof progression, here defined as the feeling that "things aremoving", indicating that the conscious self has opportuni-ties and possibilities which may be brought into manifesta-tion. But such a feeling can produce a one-sided attitudetowards life. The everchanging circumstances of the worldaround demand a flexible approach by the mind; when a50

rigid one-sided outlook prevents this, the individual "getsinto a groove", as we say. Somewhere, in T he P ro fe sso r a t th eB re ak fa st T ab le , Oliver Wendell Holmes remarks that theonly difference between a groove and a grave is theirrespective depth.In the psychological field this certainly holds good, forthe inflowing life is so constricted by this mental attitudethat its course is deflected and various forms of mental ill-ness appear. The most spectacular of these is extrememental dissociation such as that already referred to in thecase of Evelyn Lancaster, but very many lesser forms ofmental ill-health abound on every side of us.One of the ways in which the libido reacts to such innerconflicts is to withdraw into the depths of the personality.This means that the conscious self is deprived of much ofthe vital force which it needs, and becomes impotent in theaffairs of life; fighting where it should be diplomatic, beingdiplomatic where it should be fighting, and at the same timeunable to carry any such attitude to the point where it couldreally be of use. But the regression of the libido into theunconscious depths causes it to bring certain healing powerto bear, and when the latent energies become sufficientlystrong, they may emerge into the field of the consciousmind. Such an eruption of the unconscious can, whenproperly directed, break down much of the rigidity of theconscious self, and enable the person concerned to makenew adjustments to outside circumstances. So it will beseen that there is a certain rhythm in the working of the life-force. There is a period of progression, then a period ofregression, and this enant iodromia, as it was termed byHeraclitus, is a normal action of the mind. But trouble beginswhen the mi

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Magic and the Qabalah by W.E. Butler