When you feel that you have a fairly firm mental hold on it, add another digit next to it. You can pick one at random, or select digits from a number that has meaning to you, like your telephone number. Remembering to keep the ‘2’ vivid, hold the second number next to it. When it is stabilised, add another number, and then another, and keep going until you can no longer hold the whole number simultaneously in your mind’s eye. At that point, start back from the first ‘2’, and try building back up.

During your first attempts, you may find that even the initial ‘2’ is wavering and difficult to keep hold of. That’s perfectly normal; visualisation is not something that many of us practice. Keep at it, and you’ll find that you quickly improve. When you can hold an entire ten-digit phone number steady for minutes at a time, expand your horizons a little. Imagine the surface of your mind’s eye really is a blackboard, complete with chalk dust and a wooden frame. Rub a number out and replace it with something else. Fill in the rest of the classroom that the blackboard is in. Finally populate it with attentive, polite, quiet little children.

If you can hold the image of an entire class – with individual children in specific places – and still retain the numbers you started with, then you’ve mastered visualisation. You can move on earlier though if you are impatient to give up visualisation training, but make sure you can at least envision the blackboard and the wall it is mounted on. This is likely to take several weeks.

You’ll find that visualisation is easier some days than others. Factors such as fatigue, when you last ate and even the moon’s phase may play a role. Look back over your notes and see what correspondences you can identify. As well as the critical benefits your meditations will receive from well-trained visualisatory ability, be aware that when you work with images in your mind’s eye, you are painting pictures with the very fabric of Yesod itself. It is the essence of everything that Yesod is.

The ninth sphere of the Tree of Life, Yesod (pronounced yeh-SODD) means ‘Foundation’, and it is the first sphere that Malkuth connects to, the place of interface between the state of just being and the wisdoms represented by the rest of the Tree. It is also known as Tzaddik, righteousness. Yesod is described as the ‘pure’ intelligence because it is the final product of the rest of the Tree, just prior to its ultimate embodiment into the chaos of the world through Malkuth.

To understand Yesod, it is necessary to look at its position on the Tree. It is often identified with the moon, and like the moon, it reflects the light of the sun/soul from its home in Sephira 6, Tiphareth, straight down to the earth/body in Malkuth. It is also connected to the Spheres of thought and feeling (Hod and Netzach, 7 and 8 respectively), but it lies below their level, close the unthinking instinct of Malkuth.

In other words, Yesod is the sphere of the unconscious. It integrates the past with the urgings and tendencies of the higher soul, and blends that material in with conscious thought and feeling, feeding the resultant material to the self. This is a realm of the imagination and the unconscious, of phantoms, dreams, legends and horrors. Self-awareness begins here, in the dim memories of past pains and glories, and the inherited needs of the soul.

The Cat in the Mirror

Yesod receives all of the urges and imaginings generated within Malkuth. It is a sphere of illusions and phantasms, as infinitely malleable as Malkuth is stubbornly inflexible. The past lives on here, in patterns cast by prior events and thoughts – not just individually, but collectively as well, for after all, we are all one. When you look into your mind’s eye and work with your imagination, you are manipulating the stuff of Yesod. When you dream, this is the sphere that you wander through. Yesod is a place of unbridled creativity, where anything can be brought into existence and given a chance to show itself. This is the realm of the psychic and the astral – a place of possibilities rather than truths.

Without the influence of Yesod, there would be no house for the influence of the past, no place for common understanding, no way for the light of the divine to touch the world. Formation takes place here; patterns filter down to Yesod from the rest of the Tree and are turned into blueprints by which Malkuth can bring them into manifestation. All that is and was lives on in Yesod’s reflections. This is the home of symbolism, hidden meanings and desires, and all manner of images and chimera.  It is the path by which the divine light of the soul is able to make itself manifest within the world, for if it shone directly onto Malkuth, that beauty of Tiphareth, the pure house of the soul, would sweep away our free will in a bright burst of divine love. Every soul yearns for completeness, for the return first to Tiphareth, and then up to Kether and unity with God. If that completion were enforced however, there would be no room for growth or understanding – it would be as if God had never Sundered himself in the first place.

So, by acting as a confused, misty mirror for the glories of the soul in Tiphareth – as well as the fires of the mind in Hod and the waves of emotion in Netzach – Yesod allows Malkuth, with all its imperfections, to remain in existence. Without it, the entire universe would be swept back up in the rapture that is Kether, oneness with God. Yesod is a dark, twisted mirror, but it has to be, because the light that it reflects is so intense.

Be aware though that like any other mirror, Yesod reflects both ways, and while it does distort the glory of the divine, it also purifies the physical. Illusions can not pass upwards out of Yesod. Further more, like a more conventional mirror, it brings the soul into the personality through the unconscious, but it can also show twisted aspects of the personality back to itself. Horrors and glories can be generated out of the twists in our own unconscious. Yesod is a dangerous sphere: a trap for illusions, both our own and others’, layered over the years. We need to learn to identify our own fantasies (both good and bad) before we can move through Yesod in safety. Many mystics have been trapped here by false wonders and terrors.

Are you able to tell the difference between a twisted reflection of your own fears and desires, and a true reflection of your divine will? Are you ready to look beyond the words and tricks of false prophets and see the beauty of God’s light? These are the challenges that you will need to rise to in order to master the many nodes of Yesod.

Yesod

In meditations, Yesod is normally visualised as a grassy hilltop clearing poking out of a vast forest of trees. The forest is full of hidden, distant activity. It is night, and the moon is overhead, its phase corresponding to the current physical one. The only colour is a dark indigo wash over the blacks, whites and greys of the scene – and even then, only when the moon is at least half full. Towards the centre of the clearing, a wide circle of stones surrounds a ring of pillars. Each stone is about a foot round, half white and half black. The pillars themselves come in pairs, one black and one white. At the top, exactly level with your face, each pair holds a round mirror. There are nine pairs, distributed evenly around the circle. As you stand at the centre and look into the mirrors, you see that each contains a different aspect of your personality; positively skewed, negatively skewed and undistorted versions of your childish ego, your restrictive, parental id, and your rational ‘true self’.

Yesod is variously associated with the colour indigo, mirrors, the sexual organs, lavender, violets, willow trees, incense, cats, vampires, the virtue of independence, burial mounds, employee rights and the moment of conception.

You need to assemble a few simple items for this exercise – specifically, a picture of something that you feel strongly about, positively or negatively; a small amount of flavoursome food or drink; something scented; and something with a texture that you can feel easily. Before you begin, put your items in front of you and make sure you won’t be disturbed for five minutes. Close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply for a few moments, breathing in for the count of four, holding a beat, and then breathing out again for the count of four. After several slow breaths, open your eyes.

Pick up the picture and look at it. Consider the subject. Think about how it makes you feel. Remember a few facts associated with the subject, and previous occasions in the past when you have been particularly aware of the subject. Try to be aware of all your mental activity associated with looking at the picture. Now close your eyes, and tell yourself: “None of this is Malkuth.” (If you’re just trying to ground yourself, you can use the word ‘real’ in place of ‘Malkuth’ throughout this.) Open them again and look back at the picture. This time, make a special effort to ignore what it is about. Just look at the play of light and shadow, line and definition, colour and form, and do your best to ignore its overall meaning. Tell yourself: “This is Malkuth.”

Now repeat the process for your other four senses. You have objects ready for taste, smell and touch; for sound, use your hands to clap a musical rhythm or knock a familiar door-knock pattern on a table. In each instance, first make the most of the experience as a conscious event, linked to your thoughts, feelings and memories. Then remind yourself that such things are not of Malkuth/real, and repeat the experience. The second time, focus entirely on your sensory input, and switch as much of your mind off as you can.

You only need to perform this exercise a few times to really strengthen your understanding of and connection to Malkuth; just once is enough to get back down to Earth usually. It is the sphere we live in the most, and so it is the easiest for us to get a handle on. You can repeat the exercise any time you’re feeling disconnected from reality, or you feel that mental or emotional concerns are weighing you down and you want to get back to the solid world.

The tenth sphere, Malkuth (pronounced marl-KOOT) is the base of the Tree of Life, the lowest of all the Sephiroth. It is also known as Shekhinah, a term that refers to the female aspect of God – God the Mother, rather than the Father. As the Kingdom (or, perhaps more appropriately, ‘Queendom’) Malkuth represents the state of being. It is stability, the end result, physical embodiment – the very end of the act of creation. As such, it is associated with mundane physical reality, finished products and end results, the fruits of any act of creation.

Personal consciousness and the interaction of the senses with the physical universe all fall within the realm of Malkuth. Its planetary symbol is the Earth, but it is important to note that the sphere is not the physical universe itself. Solid matter – reality – is the product of all ten spheres and twenty-two paths, rather than just one. Malkuth then is not reality as such, but it is the portal through which reality is given form; the mother, rather than the child.

In terms of the soul’s journey and the development of the psyche, Malkuth is the realm of direct physical experience, the place where our senses interact with that which is real. Thought, emotion, memory and evocation have no place here – if you caress a piece of silk, Malkuth is the plain sensation of sheer softness, rather than any pleasure it evokes. It is sight and taste and feel, devoid of context or analysis, experience without meaning. There is nothing really self-aware about Malkuth; alone and uncombined with other spheres, is it bestial and purposeless. Pure Malkuth has no emotion or reason, no mind to speak of; just a certain amount of instinct and reflex. In Malkuth, existence happens from moment to moment, free of context or meaning. There is just physical sensation and the awareness of it. As such, it is very close to Greek concepts of Hades, the hellish domain of empty shells.

Malkuth: The Kingdom

This is not a bad thing, however. Without a solid, objective base for experience, there can be no reality. We all create our own meaning and significance internally for each event, and if we did not share a common base free of all assumptions, we could have no grounds for free-willed communication or existence. By remaining free of all emotion, thought and analysis, Malkuth ensures that it carries with it no assumptions. There is no built-in static to interfere with the way we create our view of reality. We have ultimate free will to determine our interactions with the world and each other – there is no dogma built in to Malkuth, no insistence on meanings or ethics or anything else. We are all individual, and by remaining entirely within the area of sensation, Malkuth allows us to share a world without compromising that individuality. For this reason, Malkuth is often referred to as the flower of the Tree of Life – we take the beauty from it that we seek.

On a more mystical level, Malkuth is the focus point for the rest of the forces of the Tree of Life. The Sephiroth express themselves into the world through Malkuth; it is a vital gateway, the first portal between the universe and the paths back to God – the gate to the orchard. Before the soul can start to seek its return to God, it first has to fully become separated, so Malkuth is the marker which denotes the point at which separation occurs – one has to pass beyond it before one can go back. As a balance point between physical matter and the energies of the spirit, it seethes with dynamic energies. Each Sephiroth is an infinity in it own right, and Malkuth is the infinity of boundless space speckled with tiny particles of matter.

Malkuth is often associated with the four classical elements of Greek philosophy: fire, air, water and earth. The elements themselves are further considered to represent energy, gasses, liquids and solids; power, will, intuition and strength; and destiny, spirit, life and inanimate matter. Malkuth is therefore usually depicted as the Cross of Equated Forces, divided into four equal quarters, coloured russet, citrine, olive and black. As the only sphere of the Tree grounded into physical reality, Malkuth is the only stable Sephira – changing it takes time and effort, due sacrifices to the inertia of causality.

The lessons that Malkuth asks us to learn are focussed on operating within the real world. We exist, as humans, in a sea of relationships that we share with other humans. Can we learn to apply the wisdoms we acquire in other areas of the Tree to our lives as social animals? Can we learn to cherish the senses and let go of the static that we associate with them? Can we appreciate moments of peace, beauty and love for what they are? These are the challenges of the sphere of Malkuth.

The Temple of Malkuth

When visualising Malkuth, it is usually depicted as a four-quartered Temple in an underground cavern. A long, rough tunnel some ten feet high winds its way through dark rock, lit by burning wooden torches. The tunnel is drafty, and the stone is damp, even wet in places, but the air is not cold. After a time, the tunnel leads to a set of stairs carved into the rock. They lead through a circular hole in the roof. Climbing the steps leads to the Temple of Equated Forces, a square cavern carved smoothly out of the rock and floored with sparkling sheets of marble. Each wall is covered by a curtain of shimmering silk. A stone altar stands in front of each curtain, holding a plain candle. Straight ahead from the point of entry – to the east – the curtain and candle are sky blue, and represent Raphael, the archangel of air. Behind, they are pure white, and represent Gabriel, archangel of water. To the right, they are bright red, and represent Michael, archangel of fire. Finally, to the left, they are a rich gold, and represent Uriel, archangel of earth.

In addition to its imagery, which represents its position as the foundation of the four elements that make up the world, Malkuth is also associated with the colour sky blue, gates, the human body, sandalwood, clover, oak trees, the magic circle, rabbits, gnomes, the virtue of discrimination, mother earth, organisational techniques and the moment of birth.

The Tree of Life from Wikimedia

By winding its way down from one Sephira to the next, God’s divine energy gains texture and meaning. Eventually, it is grounded into reality and takes its allotted form. The shards of the sundering become all the aspects of our physical world – inanimate matter, human consciousness, physical actions, even intangible ideas. The Tree can illustrate any and all of these end results, but as a foundation, it’s most useful to consider the Tree from the viewpoint of the creation of the universe. Just bear in mind that it encompasses all possibilities.

Before the existence of the Tree, there is just the infinity of God’s divine light. Nothing else exists. The light is not God Himself, but it is His essence. In accordance with God’s will and the sundering, the light becomes conscious. This is the first Sephira of the Tree – Kether, the Crown. Limitless light, Kether awakens to its own existence.

Despite its consciousness, Kether has no awareness. It is still undifferentiated – unity allows no externalisation. The second Sephira, Chokmah (Wisdom) forms in response to Kether’s unity. Chokmah is able to look back at Kether and perceive the wonder of the divine love. Two points provide the basis for a path, and the energy of the Sundering cascades down that path. Chokmah is both the source and recipient of that energy, and broadcasts it out joyfully in all directions.

A straight line allows polarity, but not meaningful motion. The energy flooding out from Chokmah travels an infinite distance – but the universe of expression is curved back on itself. Eventually the energy returns to the point it originated from, back at Chokmah, whilst still travelling in a straight line. The limitless light is filled with Chokmah’s energy, but the curve that the energy has been around describes an infinite blackness. This blackness becomes the third Sephira: Binah, Understanding, the Womb of God. With Binah’s formation, movement and space become meaningful. The new sphere receives Chokmah’s infinite energy, the mother to Chokmah’s fatherhood.

(BINAH) The Seas of Binah by *pathworking

Now that there are three points of reference in the limitless light, it is possible to begin to map out distance and direction. Binah organises the energy of Chokmah, and divides it into quanta – the individual shards. All are still part of the whole, and Binah’s oceans are very much still one, but there is also a sense that it is possible for subdivisions to exist. Having organised the divine energy, Binah emits it again, into the infinities it encompasses – a new direction. Finally the three dimensions of space are complete, and the real universe comes into being with the creation of the fourth sphere: Chesed, Mercy. In Chesed, the shards from Binah are clothed in all of the infinite variety of form that three dimensions of space allows for. Chesed is constant change and plenty without discrimination; perfect inclusiveness. Everything is welcome within Chesed, for there is no idea of shortage or foreignness.

The undiscriminating bounty of Chesed causes problems, however. Not everything is meant to exist; there is not enough room for infinite amounts of every possibility. That brings up the requirement for some hard decisions. The fifth Sephira is Geburah, Severity. In its infinite love, Geburah understands that some elements must be sacrificed to make way for others that are more appropriate, necessary or successful. That which is not needed is slashed away, so that the whole may take its most perfect form.

That perfect form is manifested in the sixth Sephira: Tiphareth, Beauty. This is the City of Gold, home of the soul. It is the pinnacle of refinement, but it still reflects the perfection and beauty of the divine in all its wisdom. Tiphareth does not yet have any impetus for action, and without action, there can be no exploration. The perfection of Tiphareth, perceiving the need for motion, gives birth to the seventh Sephira: Netzach, Victory. Netzach is an engine of energy and direction. It is powered by the limitless energy of divinity, and seeks restlessly to provide the motion than Tiphareth requires. This motion is both physical and spiritual, and gives rise to emotion, the force that drives the personality.

(TIPHARETH) The Golden City by meekel

Motion without direction however is self-defeating. To balance its energy, Netzach’s need seeks dispassionate intelligence – Hod, Glory, the eighth Sephira. In Hod, Netzach’s energy is analysed, examined and given purpose. This is the place of rational thought and scrutiny, where communication becomes possible because the personal mind is taking shape. Drawing on the power of Netzach to drive it, Hod pushes its energies down into Yesod, the Foundation, the ninth sphere. In Yesod, the glory of Tiphareth is reflected and mingled with the thought of Hod and the feeling of Netzach into a great melting pot of possibility. Splendours and nightmares exist here, in the realm of the imagination and unconscious. Yesod encompasses all that may be, all that was and all that can be envisaged.

(YESOD) Misty Forest by Freya Sensei (minor liberties taken)

Yesod is a murky and impure mirror, however. The true image of the divine can not be allowed to manifest purely in the universe, for it would be a beacon to all of the shards of God’s self, sweeping all individuality and free will away. For the Sundering to have meaning – for the shards of God to be able to experience – then the glory of Tiphareth must be hidden, at least a little. The manifest world cannot bear the light of God’s perfection. Therefore, Yesod provides a filter between the rest of the Tree and the final Sephira: Malkuth, the Kingdom.

In Malkuth, Hod and Netzach are able to reach down to organise the energies of the divine – and the bounty of Chesed and Binah – into the patterns that lie beneath reality. These patterns are slotted into place within Malkuth, which then works with the primal forces to bring the world of matter into being. By coming into existence, Malkuth creates the universe, and the purpose of the Tree is finally realised and completed.

This is the lightning-flash that creates the universe, the energy of God pouring down the Tree. As a spiritual pursuit, Kabbalism is about the individual climbing back up the Tree, along the sword-stroke path, to regain some unity with God.

According to the doctrine of the Sundering, a key tenet of Kabalistic thought, all of reality is an aspect of God’s divided self, seeking reunification with divinity, connected to itself at all levels. This is remarkably similar to recent theories of quantum mechanics, which suggest that every subatomic particle is connected to every other one, and that each part contains the whole – the ‘Holographic Universe’. Swap the names around, and science and the Kabbalah say the same thing: that all was one, and then it split and became the universe, but remained connected, and will one day return to being one again.

The Tree of Life shows how the spark of divinity became the substance of the universe, in Kabbalistic thought. It is the route from energy to matter, from God to Man. It is at the heart of each mote of existence, and so manifests time and again, in all areas, at all levels. Therefore, it is also a depiction of God Himself: “as above, so below”. Just as fractal mathematics show us that the shape of a leaf’s pores echoes the shape of the leaf – and also the shape of the branch, and even the shape of the tree – so the Tree of Life can be found on all scales of reality, from the universal to the most personal.

Don’t worry too much if this is tricky to grasp; the mystical and philosophical implications of the macrocosm and the microcosm are advanced, and difficult for the human mind to really get a hang of. We work by comparisons and dualities, so it is hard for us to make sense of a scheme which talks about universal unity. As a basic concept, it is enough to know that the Tree of Life represents and explains many different levels of reality, and that all are linked. It is the way the universe works, the route by which everything came into existence, and the template upon which everything is patterned.

Some notes on navigating the tree can be found here.

The heart of Kabbalistic thought is nothing less than the most profound expression of mankind’s desire to understand the divine – how can a mere mortal, created, flawed and unworthy, possibly find a way to truly know God and discern His purposes? This question has driven the development of the Kabbalah, taking it from its very earliest origins through to its current prominence.

This question is hardly unique to the Kabbalists, of course. We all feel the need to find some sort of personal answer to the deepest questions of life, even if the answer some people choose is just that everything is all some sort of random huge coincidence. Every culture on Earth throughout history has come up with some sort of explanation as to how the world was created. The answers range from the very simple to the very complex, from Fiat Lux to the veils of Maya, or the mathematical laceworks of the Big Bang. There seems no doubt amongst us, as a species, that somewhere along the line, something was responsible, whether it was the First Word, the Sundering, or the accidental collision of a pair of 11-dimensional ‘branes.

Kabbalah Art 05 by Michalska1

The problem we have lies in working out exactly what it was that happened, and what we can do to find a point of contact back, a way to break back in to the infinite realms. One of the greatest modern scholars of the Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, conceived of the structure of religion as something that had evolved over several discrete stages. In the first, ‘primitive’ stage, religion does not admit any significant differentiation between the universe and the divine. Stars, heavenly bodies, storms, oceans, deep forests, all of these are direct and immediate parts of the God/s. When lightning strikes, the Thunder God is angrily smashing his fist onto the earth. When there is a solar eclipse, the Sun God is dying. This animistic attitude paints mankind as the plaything and victim of the divine – in close touch with God, but helpless in the face of his cruelties and whims.

The second stage is the ‘creational’, in which God is responsible for the formation of the universe and everything it contains, but He is not part of it. There are many wonders in nature, but they are evidence of God’s power and creativity, rather than a manifestation of his body. When the seas rise up, it is because God’s winds are blowing, rather than because the Sea itself is angry. Scholem saw this as Israel’s unique contribution to world theology. In this model, God is all-powerful and all-loving, but withdrawn from the world. Mankind can rely on God’s mercy, but he cannot get close to Him, nor easily communicate his needs to Him.

The third and most advanced stage of religion is the ‘mystical’, and it is the province of the Kabbalah. In this final form, the circle starts to close back towards primitive animist, but from the point of view of empowered understanding and loving communication. God’s created are able to uncover the paths by which they can make their way back to God. They can therefore form very personal, open relationships with him; the Lord of All becomes the Loving Friend. By treading the paths of the Orchard – that is, by studying the Kabbalah – the mystic is able to finally come to the perfect relationship with divinity, in close contact with God, and certain of receiving His blessings.

The Kabbalah is a map and guide, but at the same time it is the territory itself. It represents the world, but also creates it and maintains it. The solid ground beneath our feet is formed by the interplay of the forces it describes, expressed and channelled through the Tree of Life. The Kabbalah is a description of creation, a blueprint for creation, and the very substance of creation itself, and all its complexities and intricacies have developed from that one fundamental question of how we can know God.

Also note:

Getting to grips with the Kabbalah

Cults and 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.

Personally, I have concerns about both organisations. Both have a reputation for being undemocratic and controlling, for making financial demands, and for asserting unlikely claims. Bnai Baruch also has an unfortunate reputation for intolerance towards homosexuality.

If you want details, the best bet is to research what the media and interested commentators have to say about both organisations at the Rick A. Ross Institute, an Internet archive of information about controversial groups and movements.

They have a page dedicated to the Kabbalah Center:

http://www.rickross.com/groups/kabbalah.html

And several forum threads about Bnai Baruch:
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,27491,page=1
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?14,55046,73150

http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,34154,page=1

But in general, with any organisation, what is most important is your experience and how you feel. There are several points which I think are important for anyone getting involved with a spiritual organisation.

1. Are you getting a direct and immediate benefit from your membership of the group?
This is of course the most important question. All other considerations aside, if being part of an organisation is actually and genuinely making your life better right now, then that is a major positive point. No matter what the organisation teaches, there will be all sorts of other people with antagonistic belief systems — from fundamentalist religious zealots to hard-line mechanistic atheists — who claim that you are being taught a bunch of lies. Ignore them, and believe whatever makes most sense to you. Everyone claims to have proof that they’re the ones telling the truth, and everyone is wrong.

2. Are you being taught anything that most people would consider actively objectionable?
The first warning sign is being taught things that society would find offensive: that one group of people are worse, less human, weaker — or, conversely, superior — to others; that clearly criminal or malicious activities are OK; that you ought to do what you are told without asking questions; that you should do things which don’t feel right; that you’re condemned if you don’t follow this specific teacher; that bad things are the fault of the people to whom they happen; that you are weak, powerless, evil or otherwise guilty, particularly more so than other people; or that it is OK to hate certain types or groups of people. If you’re being taught toxic crap, run away immediately.

3. Are extraordinary claims backed up by extraordinary proof?
Any organisation which claims to be able to teach supernatural abilities, even if it takes a very long time, should be able to clearly demonstrate them in reasonably careful circumstances. If you are being offered a path to spiritual peace, lack of desire and freedom from money, are all the teachers calm, tranquil and living simply? If you are being taught to communicate with dead loved ones, is there a medium handy to give you a clear demonstration of it working? If an organisation does not offer good evidence right from the start, then whatever their reason for that lack, be wary of their claims. It often means that they are just lying.

You are a SPIRITUAL BEING by nicasaurusrex

4. Do they claim to have the one true path?
There are a huge range of spiritual paths and teachings, and all of them have things to offer. Almost all paths are taught by many different teachers. Any teacher who claims that they and they alone are the correct way — or who suggests that his followers are superior, chosen or special just because they follow him — should be treated with a lot of caution. It can be a sign that the group wants to control you.

5. How democratic and open is the group?
An open, democratic group has a democratically elected board who can discipline or even fire the leaders and teachers, and a constitution that makes members rights clearly visible. It also practises full financial transparency, with regular independently-assessed financial statements that clearly show how much money the organisation makes, and what it spends it on — including how much the leaders receive. If any of these aspects are missing, be careful, because it might indicate that the group is totalitarian, controlling or a flat-out scam.

6. Do they ask you to do anything which would be unreasonable if an acquaintance asked you to do it?
Imagine there is someone you know a little bit — just a friend of a friend, or a professional contact on the same sort of level as you are. What would you do for this person? Join them at a possibly interesting meeting? Go to the movies with them? Spend a week putting leaflets through a door to support their favourite politician? Give them 10% of your earnings? Stop talking to people you care about because they tell you to? Treat any spiritual organisation exactly as if it was just a friend of a friend. Be as friendly as you like with other members, but if the organisation asks you to do anything which you wouldn’t do for an office-mate, be very cautious. Particularly if you actually want to help the organisation by agreeing, because this might be evidence that you are becoming brain-washed. A true friend is your friend regardless of what you believe or what you do for the cause — if group members treat you differently because you dare to say no, then they’re not friends, they’re brainwashing you.

Never, under any circumstances, harm personal friendships or relationships because an organisation tells you that it would be better. Drop a friend because he is mean to you, or makes your life worse, or even because you have just moved on — but never, ever because someone else tells you to. This is the clearest sign available that the group wants to control your life.

Also look at what you are being asked for. Money is the most obvious unreasonable request, but it is not the only one. Other ways an unscrupulous organisation can exploit members include: using them as unpaid workers, using them to recruit other people, using them sexually, using their public prominence to give the group greater credibility, or controlling their lives to indulge the sick power fantasies of the leader/s. So even if you’re not being asked for money, keep a careful watch on what you’re being asked for. If it’s anything more than you might expect a chess club to require of you, then you might be being exploited.

Freedom

Note that all of this applies just as much to political parties or golf clubs or any other organisational structure. Sometimes the benefits outweigh the exploitation or control, and sometimes they do not. That is a decision you have to make — but you can only make it if you clearly know what both the benefits and costs are. Then you are truly free, to choose as you see fit.