Monday, March 19, 2012

Kabbalah Sephiroth: 1. Kether - Crown

Right so, I confess, I barely am anymore knowledgeable after reading Dion Fortune's Mystical Kabbalah and my other musings, like reading every single tarot card description in relation to their Sephiroth and paths, as I was before, but then again I've only been learning about it for 2 weeks. Here are some of my notes from the book.

So just a few notes, correspondences, images on every Sephirah. Nothing too fancy, bit chaotically ordered sometimes. Basically you're sharing in my rehearsing of the material.

First Trinity: Kether, Chokmah, Binah - The Intellectual World

Consciousness reaches from the spiritual essence of Kether, through the realisation of Daath, which carries it across the Abyss, into the translated consciousness of Tiphareth, through which it is brought by the sacrifice of the Christ which rends the veil Paroketh; then on into the psychic consciousness of Yesod, the Sphere of the Moon, and thence to the sensory brain of Malkuth.
A crown is above the head, and Kether is generally held to represent a form of consciousness which is not achieved during incarnation. It is is essentially outside the scheme of things so far as the planes of form are concerned. The spiritual experience associated with Kether is Union with God, and whoso achieves that experience is said to enter into the light and come not forth again.

Here's a question from me to you the blog reader, I think Dion Fortune's just wrong about this, but if according to Fortune Kether is a form of consciousness which is not achieved during incarnation, then how does a non-dual mystic experience - described by Fortune as "union with God" translate into the Tree of Life, as I've had this sort of experience on my most profound shroom trip, and I'm sure many others have had through whatever means - being "the drop in the ocean", it only seems logical to me to attritube it to Kether?

Kether - Crown (The Self)
Non-duality, root of all being
Symbol: Ancient bearded king seen in profile, we only see the face partially.
Sahasrara Chakra, Thousand petalled lotus, above the head.
Gods: Jehovah, Allah, other monotheistic Deities. Color: Brilliant white. Jewel: Diamond. Plant: Flowering almond. Perfume: Ambergris. Animal: God.
Kether in Atziluth: Eheieh, Kether in Briah: Archangel Metatron. Yetzira: the angels, the Chaioth ha Qadesh, Holy Living Creatures, and their name carries the mind to the chariot vision of Ezekiel and the four holy creatures before the throne. Four aces of the tarot: the roots of the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. Kether is the fountain-head of the elements. As above, so below. The microcosm corresponds to the macrocosm, and we must therefore seek in man the Kether above the head which shines with a pure white brilliance in Adam Kadmon, the Heavenly Man. The rabbis call it the Yechidah, the Divine Spark; the Egyptians call it the Sab; the Hindus call it the Thousand-petalled Lotus.

TITLE: Kether, the Crown. (Hebrew spelling: - Kaph, Tau, Resh.)
MAGICAL IMAGE: An ancient bearded king seen in profile.
SITUATION ON THE TREE: At the head of the Pillar of Equilibrium in the Supernal Triangle.
YETZIRATIC TEXT: The First Path is called the Admirable or Hidden
Intelligence because it is the Light giving the power of comprehension of the First Principle, which hath no beginning. And it is the Primal Glory, because no created being can attain to its essence.
TITLES GIVEN TO KETHER: Existence of Existences. Concealed of the
Concealed. Ancient of Ancients. Ancient of Days. The Primordial Point. The
Point within the Circle. The Most High. The Vast Countenance. The White Head.
The Head which is not. Macroprosopos. Amen. Lux Occulta. Lux Interna. He.
GOD-NAME: Eheieh.
ARCHANGEL: Metatron.
ORDER OF ANGELS: Holy living creatures. Chaioth ha Qadesh.
MUNDANE CHAKRA: Rashith ha Gilgalim. Primum Mobile. First Swirlings.
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE: Union with God.
VIRTUE: Attainment. Completion of the Great Work.
VICE: -
CORRESPONDENCE IN MICROCOSM: The Cranium. The Sah.
Yechidah. The Divine Spark. The Thousand-petalled Lotus.
SYMBOLS: The point. The crown. The swastika.
TAROT CARDS: The four Aces.
ACE OF WANDS: Root of the Powers of Fire.
ACE OF CUPS: Root of the Powers of Water.
ACE OF SWORDS: Root of the Powers of Air.
ACE OF PENTACLES: Root of the Powers of Earth.
COLOUR IN ATZILUTH: Brilliance.
BRIAH: Pure white brilliance.
YETZIRAH: Pure white brilliance.
ASSIAH: White, flecked gold.

3 comments:

John Anderson said...

Your question about Kether is a good one and ive never thought of it that way before. Technically...Kether is a symbolic understanding of that which is really hard to comprehend...thus we have Chochma and Binah, our first understanding of God as Divine Mother and Father which makes the approach easier to manage intellectually and personally. I think Fortune means...that Kether is an idea of something beyond our comprehension, its like giving the Tao a name, however, does that mean it cannot be experienced..what would a Taoist say? Look at it this way, LMD says the QBL is for people w/ too much time on their hands and sometimes those people get caught up in the intellectual experience and not the transpersonal in regards to understanding the QBL. Ill ask my friend who lectures on the Magical side of the QBL, he would have a far better explanation but he is also one who gets caught up in the intellectual side of things and not the experiential.

John Anderson said...

BTW...ive got a shelf full of QBL books, been initiated in the GD attended several good lectures on the QBL and I still know a fraction of the system. Id rather just do the work and leave the deeper studies to those who can dumb it down for me

Dedroidify said...

It sure is a big mountain of wtf this kabbalah bizniz ;) But I'm rather enjoying it, do you have any tips or reading recommendations on how I can involve the Tree of Life into my ritual magick?