by Comrade August
This essay is an attempt to introduce the qaballa of Aleister Crowley´s Thelema. My thougts must not be taken as being completely representative, this is just the way I´ve been able to grasp the sytem.
Most mystics, ritualists and occultists say alot about qaballa; but remarkable few will give you the impression of it as an intelligent system based on reason. The one who starts digging in it will encounter the imbecile ravings of akathartic rabbis, gibberish about planet spheres on the astral plane, more gibberish, and lastly; terribly abstruse things written by people who do see with clarity but don´t care about explaining the basics and the logic behind the(ir) system.
I find the qaballa of Thelema very scientific, or more precise: I understand it as pure dialectical materialism, from now on referred to as diamat.
Diamat is basically the idea that the tension between opposites create the motion of the world, or be-coming, and that this be-coming at times take revolutionary leaps in it´s evolution.
Experience teaches us that all things depends upon everything else, that all things must have ancestors responsible for their being.
Most kids, at one time or another, ask the question: -What created the world?
Most oftenly they get the answer: -God created the world, dear.
The child considers the answer and then continues with: -Who created God?
Our reason tells us that at a certain time, or more accurate; before (?) time, there must have been a great no-thing, and that this no-thing then must be the source of All, even if it seems akward. We also settle with the conclusion that since it is in no way limited has the ability of eternal existence, existence outside time. The curious thing is that we consider it capable of all this because it does not exist. What we have hear is a double negation; a no-thing that does not exist. A double negation is the same as an affirmative. We cannot battle it with any efficiency, we have to admit that our enemy is truly immortal, and truly eternal.
This eternal no-thing, this All-Father is the
Qabalistic Zero. (this no-thing is by Crowley considered to be dual, I will return to that.) From this one source is the whole universe emanated. It is this emanation thing that people have problems grasping, their logic tells them that the universe must have been created. This is not so stupid, but if you affirm to that theory you will soon find yourself drowning in hellish theorems about a paternal god responsible for everything that occurs.
Why did the world come into existence then?
We , and our eastern friends, say that it happened out of necessity. I will now make an attempt to examine this necessity. Let us return to our great no-thing again, our qabalistic zero. I made the conclusion that it is eternal and infinite. Infinite in what way? It has no definite qualities, those are restricted to existing things. What it does have however is the possibility of qualities. In fact, in contains infinitely many possibilities, all possibilities. It is infinite in infinitely many ways. Something infinite has no point were it can be defined.
This is were our emanation thing comes into the picture. Our qabalistic zero is infinitely big and infinitely small, infinitely wide and infinitely narrow, infinitely much and infinitely little. All this is ultimately the same as infinite expansion and infinite contraction. These two principles are in Thelema represented as, in the named order; Nuit and Hadit. Since both Nuit and Hadit are infinite, so too must be their points of contact. This clasp between the infinite expansion and infinite contraction would, according to plain non-mystic maths, result in a finite number, namely the number One. This is the qabalistic egg, or
Kether. It has also a childhood form when it is not yet manifest, merely being a tendency to exist: The field of operation in wich the universe can manifest. Both these ideas are by Crowley referred to as
Ra Hoor Khuit. It is the child of Nuit and Hadit, and the highest form of be-ing or consciousness.
The qabalistic egg is the pie of the Big Bang, the great undiffrientiated, the perfect symmetry.
The universe is now in a state of birht, all due to necessity. The points of contact between Nuit and Hadit are, as stated above, infinite, and accordingly is this our universe an infinite space, just as one circle has infinitely many sides.
Since our great All-Father is immortal it has in no way seased to exist. (As if something that doesn´t exist can sease to exist!) We can therefore with great confidence assume that we´ve not seen the last of his workings. Within Kether we find the archetypal principle of expansion, of dissolving, similar to the Tan principle, as well as the archetypal principle of contraction, centralizing; the will to posess, the wanting for stasis and being, the Sat principle. The contraction is
Chokmah and the expansion is
Binah. But these two are lowe aspects of the two former since we no longer can talk about infinitely many possibilities, just about what´s possible in the now existing world. Binah is motherly, she provides the possibilities, she is the scarlet whore Babalon that offers everything, at least everything possible. Chokmah is the fatherly fertilizer, he is the will to possess, he works upon everything Binah offers, and as
the Beast he is; he is never statisfied.
The dialectical tension between these two initiates motion, be-coming, but it is not yet time for another dialectical revolution. What we do now in our qabalistic system is that we leave th archetypal world and enter into the actual world, the possibilities made real. It is time for our qabalistic egg to hatch: it is now time for the Big Bang.
The actual form of Chokmah is named
Chesed. It is the principle of order, stasis and location (Sattava), while the actual form of Binah is called
Geburah. Geburah is the dissolving, the random, the probabilities of quantum physics, it is the destructive (Tamas) side of the universe dialectical motion.
Now is the time for a revolution, in fact: now is the time for the very element of time to come into existence!
Tiphereth is the immediat result of Chesed and Geburah; it is the cracking of the cosmic pie. As the result of Chesed and Geburah we find ourselves with Tiphereth: time; ordered motion. Tiphereth is also the basis of concsiousness. As Kether is the Crown of the macrocosm, is Tiphereth th same of mans concsiousness and be-ing, the microcosm. It is the field of operation in wich man can manifest. Because of this is Tiphereth referred to as Ra Hoor Khuit, a statement by Crowley to clarify the old theorem: as above, so below.
Within this new idea of concsiousness and be-ing (be-coming if you like), we again find the two principal concepts. I will now concentrate on the case of human be-ing, I believe why is evident. The lower form of Chesed is
Netzach, the Beast within man, fiery to its nature. Netzach is love, the desire to possess, and accordingly: to experience. It is also the selective faculty (not entirely on its one) and the direct emotions. It is mans idea of Bliss (Ananda).
The lower form of Geburah is
Hod. Hod is expanding and evolving, the watery, receptive faculty and mans idea of Knowledge (Cit). These two combine in number nine,
Yesod. Yesod is mans idea of his own self and be-ing (Sat). Yesod is each mans personality and Foundation, defined by the two former. As all emanation is dialectical, is Yesod in a phase of constant be-coming. Lastly we have number ten,
Malkuth; the Kingdom. If Yesod is mans own be-ing, then Malkuth is the whole of mans life, man and his enviroment. When speaking not only of its to each be-ing personal aspect, it is the complete manifestation, the totality of all be-coming.
I do in no way imply that this is the complete crowleyan qaballa, just that this is the sanity I´ve been able to find behind the madness. These are my personal views and I realize that they might be untraditional to some people.
Each mans qaballa is personal; a personal attempt to systematize his thoughts and his world in an, at least for him, intelligible and logical fashion.
It is each mans method of science, with the aim of religion.