Fortune - The Mystical Qabalah

Books by Dion Fortune

Occult Study

Machinery of the Mind

The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage

Psychology of the Servant Problem

The Soya Bean

Esoteric Orders and Their Work

The Problem of Purity

Sane Occultism

Training and Work of an Initiate

Mystical Meditations on the Collects

Spiritualism in the Light of Occult Science

Through the Gates of Death

Psychic Self-Defense

GlastonburyAvalon of the Heart

The Mystical Qabalah

Practical Occultism in Daily Life

The Cosmic Doctrine

Applied Magic

Aspects of Occultism

The Magical Battle of Britain

Occult Fiction

The Demon Lover

The Secrets of Dr. Taverner

Goat-Foot God

The Winged Bull

The Sea Priestess

Moon Magic

Revised edition published in 2000 by

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Copyright 1935, 1998 Society of Inner Light, London

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser. Reviewers may quote brief passages. First published in 1935 by Williams and Norgate, Ltd., London. First American edition published in 1984 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Revised edition first published in 1998 by SIL Trading Ltd., London. Dion Fortune is a registered trademark.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-150-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fortune, Dion.

Mystical Qabalah / Dion Fortune

p. cm.

Originally published: London : Williams & Norgate, 1935.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57863-150-5 (pbk : alk. paper)

1. Cabala. 2. Tree of life. I. Title.

BF1611 .F66 2000

135'.4dc21

00-042858

Cover art is a photograph of an original oil painting by Patricia Waldygo, copyright 1984 Patricia Waldygo. All rights reserved.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

MV

10 9 8

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

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The Tree of Life forms the ground-plan of the Western Esoteric Tradition and is the system upon which pupils are trained in the Society of the Inner Light.

This volume, and others are used as the basis of the tutorial system of the Society. Particulars of the Society will be sent to anyone who cares to write to the Society of the Inner Light, 38 Steele's Road, London, NW3 4RG.

The transliteration of Hebrew words into English is the subject of much diversity of opinion, every scholar appearing to have his own system. In these pages I have availed myself of the alphabetical table given by MacGregor Mathers in the Kabbalah Unveiled because this book is the one generally used by esoteric students. He himself does not adhere to his own table systematically, however, and even uses different spellings for the same words. This is very confusing for anyone who wishes to use the Gematric method of elucidation, in which letters are turned into numbers. When, therefore, Mathers gives alternative transliterations, I have followed the one which coincides with that given in his own table.

The capitalisation employed in these pages may also appear unusual, but it is the one traditionally used among students of the Western Esoteric Tradition. In this system, common words, such as Earth or Path, are used in a technical sense to denote spiritual principles. When this is done, a capital is used to indicate the fact. When a capital is not used, it may be taken that the word is to be understood in its ordinary sense.

As I have frequently referred to the authority of MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley in matters of mysticism, it may be as well to explain my position in relation to these two writers.

I was at one time a member of the organisation founded by the former, but have never been associated with the latter. I have never known either of these gentlemen personally, MacGregor Mathers having died before I joined his organisation, and Aleister Crowley having then ceased to be associated with it.

Chapter 1

1. Very few students of occultism know anything at all about the fountain-head whence their tradition springs. Many of them do not even know there is a Western Tradition. Scholarship is baffled by the intentional blinds and defences with which initiates both ancient and modern have wrapped themselves about, and concludes that the few fragments of a literature which have come down to us are medieval forgeries. They would be greatly surprised if they knew that these fragments, supplemented by manuscripts that have never been allowed to pass out of the hands of initiates, and completed by an oral tradition, are handed down in schools of initiation to this day, and are used as the bases of the practical work of the Yoga of the West.

2. The adepts of those races whose evolutionary destiny is to conquer the physical plane have evolved a Yoga technique of their own which is adapted to their special problems and peculiar needs. This technique is based upon the well-known but little understood Qabalah, the Wisdom of Israel.

3. It may be asked why it is that the Western nations should go to the Hebrew culture for their mystical tradition ? The answer to this question will be readily understood by those who are acquainted with the esoteric theory concerning races and sub-races. Everything must have a source. Cultures do not spring out of nothing. The seed-bearers of each new phase of culture must of necessity arise within the preceding culture. No one can deny that Judaism was the matrix of the European spiritual culture when they recall the fact that Jesus and Paul were both Jews. No race except the Jewish race could possibly have served as the stock upon which the new dispensation was to be grafted because no other race was monotheistic. Pantheism and polytheism had had their day and a new and more spiritual culture was due. The Christian races owe their religion to the Jewish culture as surely as the Buddhist races of the East owe theirs to the Hindu culture.

4. The mysticism of Israel supplies the foundation of modern Western occultism. It forms the theoretical basis upon which all ceremonial is developed. Its famous glyph, the Tree of Life, is the best meditation-symbol we possess because it is the most comprehensive.

5. It is not my intention to write a historical study of the sources of the Qabalah, but rather to show the uses that are made of it by modern students of the Mysteries. For although the roots of our system are in tradition, there is no reason why we should be hidebound by tradition. A technique that is being actually practised is a growing thing, for the experience of each enriches it and becomes part of the common heritage.