Some of the things I suggest may be problematic for you, or you may fail to see how they apply. If so, please contact me and, if I can, I will explain further. Sometimes I might have to refer you to another Outline if it relies on concepts not, at that stage, introduced. Above all, don’t be embarrassed about asking questions; the only silly question is the one that isn’t asked. Finally, there are some things you are going to have to memorise in order to get the most out of this. The most difficult will be the Hebrew Alphabet (Alephbeth); and you will almost certainly be tempted to say (as have so many before you), ‘All the letters look the same’. Well, you learned the Roman alphabet – e c o a d b h p q g - and Hebrew has nothing to match that series! Pick a few (three at a time is good) and study them, draw them, and think about them in your spare moments. It’s not as hard as it looks. To fit in with the talks, it’s best to start at the end (Tav - ת) and work your way towards the beginning (Aleph - א). Trying to learn about the Tree without being able to read the Alephbeth is like trying to study maths without any knowledge of the Greek symbols. You might think you know what is going on, but you will be doing sums while those around you are doing calculus. History The origins of the Qabalah are lost in the mists of time. There is a tradition that it was taught by Moses, but little historical evidence. The design of the Temple (weakly) and the Menorah (strongly) suggest an early date. The earliest known Qabalistic work is the Sepher Yetzirah (‘The Book of Formation’), which is thought to date from the first century CE. However, it does not, to me at least, have the look of something that originated with its unknown author, and is probably based on earlier work. There is a belief that there once existed a companion volume, Sepher ha-Briah (‘The Book of Creation’), but there are no copies in existence. Things changed in the 13th Century CE with the publication of the ‘Zohar’ and the ‘Bahir’. The latter has some characteristics of an experimental, or speculative, nature, particularly in the location of the Paths. It would appear this was not just a time of revelation, but of rediscovery and speculation, as well. By the time of the Renaissance there was widespread knowledge of the subject outside Judaism. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an enthusiastic student, as were other famous men of the period. It was around this time that the first Tarot decks appeared. While the general ideas, and many of the cards, were based on other similar packs, I have no doubt that the Tarot was designed as a teaching instrument on the nature and structure of the Tree of Life, probably for Italians with little knowledge of Hebrew. I can produce no evidence for this beyond Ockham’s Razor – any other explanation of the similarities (of the Major Arcana especially) to the Tree of Life is harder to believe. A fascinating and profoundly important thing happened at this time. As a result of their Qabalistic studies, many Jews converted to Christianity; but many Christians converted to Judaism. Remember this! In my view, the Tree of Life is the single most important diagram in the history of humanity – but it will not give you the ‘Truth’. It’s like a mathematical formula – the results you get out are dependent on what you put in. ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’. But, as Pontius Pilate was suppose to have said, ‘What is "Truth"?’ One of the few statements of Eliphas Levi with which I have unhesitating agreement is as follows; ‘The Qabalah, or traditional science of the Hebrews, might be called "The Mathematics of Human Thought". It is the algebra of faith. It solves all the problems of the soul as if they were equations, by isolating the unknowns. It gives to ideas the clarity and rigorous exactitude of numbers: its results, for the mind, are infallibility (always relative, however, to the sphere of human knowledge) and, for the heart, profound peace’.
The Current Situation and Future Developments Today, there are many variants of Qabalistic teaching. Some verge on being cults, some are the interpretations of a single individual, some are deeply based in Judaism, and some owe characteristics to various religions or philosophies. I met a follower of the Jain religion who told me that his guru used the Tree of Life as a means of elucidating the meaning of their scriptures. Over the years the methodology of the Qabalah has given me amazing insights into my own nature and that of the world. One thing I will share with you now, even though I can’t demonstrate its veracity; but it is true. I was thinking about the four states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) in comparison to the four Greek elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air). As the former is verifiable science, and the latter is a bit of dodgy philosophy, I thought the text of Genesis might help, as concepts can be coded into it to generate meaningful answers.. I didn’t get the answer I wanted but, translated into English, what hit me was something like, ‘There is a fifth state of matter. It is like a liquid, but is very still’. I didn’t know what this meant until a year or so later when I read something by, (or possibly about) Peter Higgs (of Boson fame). He spoke of the Bose-Einstein condensate, what happens to matter when it approaches absolute zero. At this stage the atoms become still, and conduct electricity without resistance as a superconducting fluid. What jangled in my head was the statement that went something like, ‘We should regard the superconducting fluid as a new state of matter’. Hmmm. Science and mathematics are repeatedly confirming structure of Tree. Catastrophe theory, the scientific method, String theory, modern Cosmology, Dissipative Structures and many other aspects of modern knowledge, as well as traditional mystical processes, can all be modelled by the Tree of life without modification. When I started teaching that decisions are made prior to our becoming aware of them, an idea based entirely on the structure of the Tree of Life, I was (as far as I know) on my own. Recent developments have demonstrated the veracity of this idea. |
1: Introduction |