Getting to Grips with the Kabbalah

Broadly speaking, there are three different ways to approach the Kabbalah.

The first is the ‘proper’ route, through Jewish mysticism and teaching. It can give the best true understanding and appreciation of the Kabbalah as a system of mysticism, but it isn’t always easy to follow, even if you speak perfct Hebrew. The aim of traditional Kabbalah is to help you connect with and serve God, and its teachings are quite spiritually focussed.

If you wanted to start down this road, you’d probably want to start by reading the Torah. After that, the best introduction is “Derech HaShem: The Way of God”, written in the 18th century by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and translated and annotated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. It’s a beautiful introduction to what the Kabbalah is really about, and it introduces all of the concepts you’ll need to make sense of the more esoteric works. After that, you’d need to read the classic masterpieces of Kabbalistic study, such as “Sha’arey Orah: Gates of Light” by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla, and the “Zohar”, by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, both of which have been translated into English.

Kabbalah Art 04 by Michalska1

A more common approach in the US and UK is to approach the Kabbalah as a system of occultism. There are a lot of books in this area, mine included. Many of them are very basic overviews, which always frustrated me when I was trying to investigate the subject back in my early 20s. One of the best is Israel Regardie’s “The Tree of Life: An Illustrated Study in Magic”. It’s slightly dated, although the Llewellyn version edited and annotated by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero is better.

Regardie was the father of modern western occultism, and “The Tree of Life” provides instruction and technique for a wide variety of ceremonial magical practices, all within the broad framework of the Kabbalah. It’s full of great material, but I should point out that the focus is split between Kabbalah itself and magical technique. Dion Fortune’s “Mystical Qabalah” is the other contender for top Western book. It’s smaller and more tightly focussed on the Kabbalah, so which you prefer would depend on how interested you were in general occult technique.

It’s worth pointing out at this point that traditional Kabbalah and occult Kabbalah are very different things, as different as life in a monastery is to a full Catholic mass. You could study both, but the one will not help you learn the other.

Kether by Ninth Raven

The third option is to learn by direct experience of the Tree of Life. The Sepiroth and Nativoth are open to pathworking, and it can be an incredible journey to explore them directly. In general, when pathworking the Tree, you should expect to spend q fair chunk of time getting to really know and understand each sphere, chatting to all the various inhabitants, seeking and/or asking for wisdom, exercises, teaching, hints on both getting further up the tree and on personal progression, &c. The paths generally take less time to understand, but they also need to be studied.

In this sort of practice, you need to start at Malkuth, and work your way up as you come to an understanding of each section. One thing to bear in mind here is that as you connect with each Sephiroth, you will intensify that sphere’s influence in your life. That can get quite uncomfortable when dealing with Geburah, and Binah sometimes — like a surgeon’s knife, their actions are always for the best, but they are not always gentle. You need to watch Yesod, too; it loves to use your flaws to deceive you.

Where this sort of exploration takes you, precisely, will depend on you as a person. It can be hard work, and there are some risks to any program of pathworking — self-delusion, obsession, and so on.  With that said though, this sort of exploration will give you an understanding that no amount of books or teachings ever can.

I often get asked about Kabbalah trainers, but unfortunately, I can’t point you to anyone useful. Traditional Kabbalah masters are modest and low-profile, and the majority are only interested in students who can read Hebrew. The current wave of pop-Kabbalah, unfortunately, is total crap. Some organisations are about as sane and helpful as the Scientologists.