Jack Chanek - Qabalah for Wiccans: Ceremonial Magic on the Pagan Path

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Qabalah for Wiccans: Ceremonial Magic on the Pagan Path 2021 by Jack Chanek.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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First e-book edition 2021

E-book ISBN: 9780738768779

Cover design by Shannon McKuhen

Editing by Holly Vanderhaar

Interior art by Llewellyn Art Department

Interior yoga figure by Mary Ann Zapalac

Tarot card illustrations are based on those contained in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite, published by William Rider & Sons, Ltd. London 1911

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chanek, Jack, author.

Title: Qabalah for Wiccans : ceremonial magic on the pagan path / Jack

Chanek.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury : Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd, 2021. |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021036929 (print) | LCCN 2021036930 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738768663 (paperback) | ISBN 9780738768779 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Cabala. | WiccaCustoms and practices. | Tree of life. |

Cabala and Wicca.

Classification: LCC BF1623.C2 C53 2021 (print) | LCC BF1623.C2 (ebook) |

DDC 299/.942dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036929

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036930

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dedication

For Alex, who read an early draft of this book
and told me it was not a total snooze fest. You inspire me.

Contents

List of

by Deborah Lipp

: What Is Qabalah?

: Why This Book?

: Malkuth

: The Astral Triad: Netzach and Hod

: The Astral Triad: Yesod

: The Moral Triad: Chesed and Gevurah

: The Moral Triad: Tiphereth

: The Supernal Triad: Chokmah and Binah

: The Supernal Triad: Kether

: The Four Elemental Worlds

: Correspondences of the Sephiroth

: The Paths

: Qabalah for Spells

: Qabalah and the Gods

: The Mystery of It All

: Pronunciation Guide

: God-Names, Archangels, and Angels

Meditations, Exercises, and Rituals

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

s

Chapter 6

e

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

=

Foreword

W hen I first met Jack Chanek, he was nineteen years old, and I stood him up.

Jack was applying for membership in my Wiccan training group, and we had scheduled our first face-to-face meeting. The night before, there was a massive, record-breaking blizzard: more than two feet of snow fell in a matter of hours. When I got up in the morning, my thoughts were entirely focused on the weather, and the fact that I had a meeting scheduled went right out of my head. Jack waited at the designated restaurant, and sent a polite email that I eventually noticed. I ran down the block (between corridors of snow piled six feet high) to find him. This may have set the tone for our relationshipJack ever patient with my foibles, and flawlessly polite whether I deserve it or not.

The young man I met was charming, bright, genuinely interesting, and definitely full of rough edges that needed knocking off. From an occult point of view, he was all fire and air, with little earth or water in sight. He also knew exactly how bright he was. I happen to find arrogance charming, so I was not at all put off by that. We hit it off right away.

My philosophy, as a Wiccan priestess, is that it is my job to help those who come to my group find their own paths. Sometimes those paths take them away from me. I dont try to twist anyone into being my sort of Wiccan. So I am incredibly lucky that Jacks path turned out to guide him directly into my group, where he remains today.

Hes really impossible. Hes sweet, helpful, generous, and crazy smartIvy League smart, to be precise. At a Wiccan gathering, I attended a class he was teaching, and dammit, hes a good teacher too. A very good teacher. After he taught an introductory class on Qabalah a few times, attendees said he should write a book. And dammit, hes a good writer too.

Jacks entry into the occult was through the tarot. He became obsessed with it as a child, and studied occult subjects related to it, beginning with the Qabalah. At the time we met, my knowledge of the subject was minimal. Id read a couple of books and a few articles. I knew that the subject informed occultism, and Ive been an occultist for nearly forty years, but Id only ever scratched Qabalahs surface.

Like many people who become Wiccan as adults, my relationship with the religion of my upbringingJudaism in my casewas complicated. If it was perfect for me, I wouldnt have sought elsewhere. Yet I fundamentally understand myself to be Jewish. It is common for Jews to know ourselves to be ethnically, culturally, or tribally Jewish, and feel that connection deeply. But while that was true for me, it was also unsatisfying in some way. I tried, in my early twenties, to incorporate Jewish elements into Wicca. Some people do that successfully, but it didnt work for me. I abandoned the idea of spiritual Judaism sometime in the 1980s.

At the same time, in Wicca and Paganism, I frequently encountered people who said things along the lines of, Youre Jewish? You should study Qabalah! This always made me uncomfortable. In hindsight, Id call it a microaggressionpointing at my ethnicity or background and telling me what I should be good at. Its not a lot different from assuming an African-American is good at basketball. Because I was definitely not drawn to Qabalah anyway, and because of the unwelcome remarks of many (probably well-meaning) people, I mostly avoided Qabalah, and even managed to write a well-received book on the tarot Tarot Interactions: Become More Intuitive, Psychic & Skilled at Reading Cards without any Qabalistic content whatsoever.