This will lhelp alot of people

[Kilderan]

This is nmy firs tposting on this subject so I will keep it simple. I have studied the Qabalah since I was 16 (now 34) and Until recently was having trouble understanding all the information associated with the subject. I t was after reading a book (cannot remember which at the moment) that it suddenly dawned on me, this is what it is all for. So I will save some new students some time. You can learn a great deal about the Qabalah by creating extesive visualisation/meditation/astral working "realms" using the discriptions found for each siphera and each path. Keep in mind there is a path to take for just he spheres and the paths and the two together. Once you begin this, you should encounter resitance, which is normal, lots of guardians along the way :). You should also begin to understand more on an intuative level as well as actualy learn for the guides you will encounter, as well as the visualisations them selves. As far as the Magick portion goes, I have, fortunatly, had a great deal of success with basic match ups. For example, anything elemental can be contributed to Malkuth, and you can work the tree in any fashion you please, but keep what goes with each siphera, with THAT siphera, I.E. the name (english and traditional) of the sphere, the angelic or arch-angelic names along with the colors and the letters. Yo should get a great deal of success proceeding in that Fashion.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: I have used the above methods with great succes, BUT, And I mean BUT, I am also the kind of Magi that will tempt fate as it were. I am not afraid to call upon the entire hosts of heaven (and actualy have done so) to find my request greatly welcome :). So I give this one warning: This may not be good for you, But I offer it for you to decide if it is :).

I will also give one very good point to practice. Find a FEW books that describe the basic middle pillar, and do it weekly at first then daily if you do get dizzy doing it. I suggest a few books since there are variations out there and it will help you to find a variation that "feels" right. This is a wonderfull way to charge your bateries and opens up some very sensative receptors(Sensative in the sence of "hearing", you will Hear/see/feel/touch more of the heavens).

Well I WAS going to keep it short, but seems I am a bit more winded than I thought I was :).

If you have any questions feel free to ask :). I am not a history buff, even though I have read up on some of the Qabalistic history, I tend to forget that stuff right away :), so try to keep questions relevent to practice :).

May the POwer of creation flow freely through you :).

Kilderan

[bananabrain]

but it seems to me that what you are proposing is really pretty unsafe for somebody that doesn't know what they're doing. i am astonished that somebody who claims to have been studying kabbalah for 18 years is encouraging people to experiment in this particularly confusing area with no more guidance than a book. are you self-taught or did somebody teach you? what is your textual/linguistic background? was that a typo or do you not know it's "SeFiRa", not "SiFeRa"? kabbalah, as far as i am aware, is pretty damn much dependent on hebrew. i fail to see how the english name of anything (which is going to be no more than an approximation anyway) is going to help at all. you haven't mentioned any safeguards or anything! i apologise if this post seems a little brusque or if i have misunderstood your intention, but this can be a dangerous area.

b'shalom

bananabrain

[Revelation]

Amen, BB.

[Kilderan]

Ok Bananabrain I am going to try to respond to your post to give you a good idea of where I am commming from :).

Ok, first I would like to explain one very crucial view point I believe is important. There was an individual that was moving from town to town, on the was to the first town he said to himself, "I will probobly meet up with a bunch of Upity people that will just plain ignore me since I am new there" and lo an behold, when he arrived that is exactly what he found. On his way to the next town, hew tried a differnt approach, he told himself "This time I am going to find good people that will weelcome me into thier group". Well when he arrived at the next town he found lots of smiles and good people :). My point is this, I have approached magick with the same view point. I have a very powerfull will and do not allow myself or my magick to find the negative that does not need to be found :). Also I should point out that anyone can think this way and produce very safe results with it, just like I have :). It is a choice to have in any magickal cerimony.

Yes I was self taught and my understanding on hebrew is limited in the sence I can piece things together slowly, but I still understand the spelling of a few of the hebrew words. As far as my spelling goes of Sifira or what ever, I am a lousy speller :). and COULD look it up if I chose to to correct the spelling :).

As far as just using the english portion, I do believe that is one instance that I was not clear on what I ment. Yes it is important to use the hebrew, What I was trying to say is that if you want to work on , lets say, the english equivlelnt of Geburah is "Strength", so if you wanted "strenght" the english equivelent to Giburah, then would create your "realm" using the association of the sphere Geburah. That is VERY SIMPLE in design and to many people tend to over complicate the Qabalah, AND this is mailny due to writers that do not fully understand the SIMPLE concepts placed in the tree.

As far as the danger inherent in the qabalah, "I DO NOT AGREE". What person "calls" or "visits" upon angels and archangles and sub angles to feel there is danger involved? I DO agree there are mant test involved that involve some pretty spooky specters "TAHT PLAY A ROLE AS GUARDIAN" and are supposed to be spooky :). But still very workable :). If you are not ready to proceed you will encounter a guardian, but honestly I have never heard of anyone, at all, ever, that has encountered any "REAL" danager from the qabalah. You might get spooked or shunted, but not harmed in any way. I have not experienced any harm and it could just be that I have experienced the Qabalah in a different way, But I promise you that I do not pull punches, nor do I contemplate small magick and I have no fear in my my magick circle EVER :). This is an important way of thinking and works like a charm :). As it was once quoted by one of our members, and this is so true, I have no fear, because they have no power over me. And any newbie should take this to hart and mediate on the true power of such a way of thinking :).

I hope I have cleared up some points and if you see all caps it is just for emphisis, not a yelling or hatefull sort of thing. I dont like being that way :).

May the power of creation flow freely through You :).
Kilderan

[bananabrain]

although it is not my place to tell you what you should or should not be doing, i think it only fair to mention a couple of things:

the thing that distinguishes kabbalah from other systems of encountering the power of the Infinite Divine is the hebrew language. if you're not using hebrew, i would tend to question whether you're actually talking about kabbalah or another system. the kabbalah is based upon the unique qualities of the hebrew language; gematria, notarikon, temurah and other kabbalistic techniques, not to mention the ETZ HaYiM, simply do not function with other languages. kabbalah is a system that pertains to the mystical interpretation of the Torah, insofar as the Torah is itself a permutation of the Divine Name. my point is that you SHOULD be careful about your spelling. spelling is *crucial* to kabbalah. the use of the hebrew language is also crucial. if you use it incorrectly, most kabbalists (and jews generally) would consider that profoundly disrespectful, bearing in mind that bad translations of our sacred texts (eg the egregious "Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch To Live", which is complete bollocks as a translation) have caused millions of people to be slaughtered by others less enlightened than yourself.

next, gevurah. GeVURaH is also known as DIN, which might be understood as Divine judgment, Might or Power. or "the fearsome powers of divine punishment and wrath in the world...[, which is]... needed to maintain control over the universe. according to many, this is the very sefirotic realm where things went pearshaped during the breaking of the vessels, unleashing the power of the sitra ahra due to the "destructive forces" that were necessary to keep order and exact punishment. in other words, the devil's in the detail, metaphorically speaking. the english word 'strength' does NOT simply translate into creating a realm for one's magick using the sefira of gevurah. as for 'overcomplicating' it, if you consult the source-texts for these systems, the sefer yetzirah and the bahir, you will find that it IS complicated - no two ways about it.

"honestly I have never heard of anyone, at all, ever, that has encountered any "REAL" danager from the qabalah."

then you HAVEN'T looked very hard. ever heard of abulafia? ben zoma? elisha acher? or shabbetai tsvi? he screwed up the jewish world for centuries - we're still recovering from this stuff which happened in the late C17th. i'm not talking about being zapped by guardians here. there are consequences right here in malchut of malchut and assiyah that you may not see right away, the same way as if you spray loads of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, you're not going to see any acid rain right away. it doesn't mean nothing has happened. the reason i am saying this stuff is not to piss you off, but because i think what you've said could quite possibly mislead people into getting into stuff they shouldn't mess about with. this is why i say - DO YOUR READING and only then decide. this goes sevenfold for knowledge of hebrew.

b'shalom

bananabrain

[MistOfTheSea86]

SO is Kabbalah really a state of mind?

[bananabrain]

yes... and no!

no, in that kabbalah is a system. yes, in that you can be in the right state of mind to appreciate that system and find it useful, or not. likewise, a casual glance will not result in a great deal of enlightenment - the 'little book of calm' approach will generally result in the 'what the hell is all this about' answer. the system has its own toolkit for navigation and manipulation. in the same way, you can cast runes or tarot, but until you can interpret the results you might as well be drawing letters during a game of scrabble. part of getting yourself into the right state of mind is by preparing your mind with study and, most effectively, practice, at least if you're jewish, or maybe directed meditation on hebrew letters if you're not.

b'shalom

bananabrain