Mark Stavish - Kabbalah for Health & Wellness

Mark Stavish has over a quarter-century of experience in traditional spirituality and is an internationally respected authority in the study and practical application of alchemy, Kabbalah, and astrology. Stavish has published several hundred articles, book reviews, and interviews on the traditions of Western esotericism, many of which have been translated into numerous languages. He has also been a consultant to print and broadcast media as well as several documentaries.

In 1998, Stavish established the Institute for Hermetic Studies. In 2001, to further the advancement of nonsectarian and academic approaches to Western esotericism, he established the Louis Claude de St. Martin Fund, thereby creating the only widely known taxdeductible, nonprofit fund dedicated exclusively to advancing the study and practice of Western esotericism.

Stavish's education includes two undergraduate degrees, in theology and communications, and a master's degree in counseling. He has also been a member and officer in several traditional initiatic organizations focusing on Rosicrucianism, Martinism, and regular Freemasonry.

For more information on the Institute for Hermetic Studies and its program of activities and to receive its free electronic newsletter, VOXHERNIES, visit its website at www.hermeticinstitute.org.

1' KK STAV I S H

This book is dedicated to my wife and children, and to all who seek to remove human ignorance and suffering through the Kabbalistic Path.

Also by Mark Stavish

The Path of Alchemy

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Simple Purification Practice ................................ 23

A Basic Technique for Prayer ................................ 40

A Basic Technique for Meditation ............................ 41

Ritual Attunement to the Tradition ........................... 43

The Six Directions ....................................... 45

Hebrew Letters and the Energy Body ......................... 74

Using Hebrew Letters to Heal Another Person ................... 76

The Middle Pillar of the Elements ............................ 84

Using the Middle Pillar in Healing Practices ..................... 89

The Flashing Sword of Mezla ............................... 91

Using the Flashing Sword in Healing Practices ................... 95

Pathworking ........................................... 118

Healing Hands: The Universal Position for Prayer ................ 144

Sign of the Adept ....................................... 145

Active Treatments Using the Right Hand ...................... 146

Active Treatments Using the Left Hand ....................... 147

Using Planetary Powers in Healing .......................... 160

Using Planetary Powers to Change Material Conditions ........... 164

Charging Water ........................................ 168

Healing Roses ......................................... 169

Practice of Spiritual Gratitude .............................. 181

Awakening the Inner Master ............................... 182

Extracting the Essence: Purification of the Centers ............... 189

The Perfect Practice ..................................... 193

Special thanks to the following, without whose generous assistance in time, talent, and treasure, this book would not have been possible: Christopher Bilardi, Paul Bowersox, Susan B. Layne, Dr. Don Melchior, Dr. Andrea M. Nerozzi, Carl Weschcke, Lisa Finander, and the staff of Llewellyn Publications-and above all, to the students, adepts, and masters of the traditions who have each added in their own way to the continual advancement of the Great Work.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all participants in the evolution of awareness. Some of us pursue this as a noble undertaking worthy of daily practice and great effort. Others are happy to let the universe wash over them, experiencing a kind of cosmic erosion in which personal experience, ill health, and adversity work together to uncover an authentic self encouraged to awaken in the process. The only difference between these two groups is that the former actively promotes this natural evolution, acting to free and empower awareness, while the latter allows circumstance to work its glacial magic on their sleepy and submissive souls.

This excellent book by Mark Stavish is for those who wish to be an engaged participant. In fact, if you consider yourself a member of this group of seekers, Kabbalah for Health & Wellness may be the tool you have been looking for.

In my practice as a psychotherapist and shamanic practitioner, I am constantly presented with people who are looking for answers. Like most seekers in the postmodern world, they have found traditional faiths comforting, albeit short on substance, but feel very deeply that there is something more. They end up casting about, trying to find that thing all seekers are endeavoring to capture-enlightened awareness.

They read and listen and learn. They attend seminars and sermons, ritual meetings and drum circles. They get attunements, adjustments, and blessings. Having done so, they find that sometimes these experiences leave them stumbling around in a waking dream state or a trance state. Other times they may find themselves inexplicably in the non-dual causal, where communication with the outside world is difficult if not impossible, being full of bliss but incoherent. In their search for a substantive spirituality, they are often encouraged in this New Age to "pick what works" for them. The result can be a confusing mishmash of legitimate experience and hokum that they then try to synthesize into a workable philosophy and worldview. Such synthesis of disparate elements is not always possible-or even desirable.

The fundamental problem with this shotgun approach to enhancing awareness is that the seeker is rarely guided through it in a sequential way. Formal disciplines all have a "program" that one can work one's way through. At each step along the way, a teacher says, "Here, right here, is the state of awareness we are looking at. See it, feel it, become anchored in it, and then we shall move on." The idea is that in a formalized program, honed to perfection over the course of generations, the student works her way slowly up to the causal, and ultimate freedom, becoming anchored in each state and understanding it fully on the way up. Once in the causal, the small self drops away, and the student can re-inhabit the world at will, donning whatever mask or state she desires, because she understands through experience what it means to be that thing. She has already worked her way through it once.