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INTRODUCTION

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CHICKEN QABBALAH

THE TEN COMMAND-RANTS

The Ten Command-Rants

First Command-Rant

All is One.

This statement is hardly a veil-rending revelation to anyone who has dabbled even slightly with abstract thought. It’s easy to imagine everything in the universe lumped together into one big something beyond which there is nothing. But it’s the concept of nothing that sends our primate minds into a tailspin. Now, the very young Chicken Qabalist might be tempted to think of this divine nothingness as kind of a negative “enO” from which the “One” somehow popped into being as if from behind a mysterious looking-glass. But, as the Second Command-Rant will demonstrate, “nothing” is “something else” altogether.

Second Command-Rant

The First Command-Rant is a lie. All is Nothing.

Astronomers and physicists tell us there is more nothing in the universe than anything else. In fact, they now say that most of the matter and energy in the cosmos (well over 90 percent) is somehow hiding in all this nothingness. Come to think about it, even matter that we can see is really mostly nothing. There is infinitely more nothing in an atom than protons and electrons. There is more nothing in our bodies than anything else. We are full of tubes and pockets and sacs and bladders and cavities and chambers and openings and voids. Every cell in your body is mostly nothing. When a cell starts to divide to produce more cells, it first folds in on itself to create more precious nothing to work with. Even your brain grew out of the nothingness of this embryonic internal disappearing act.

Physicists cannot even say with any certainty that matter, as most people think of it, exists at all. The components of atoms (protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, charm, etc.) are not matter. They are tendencies. (Tell that to your head the next time you slam it getting into your car!) Physicists and mystics are now using the same vocabulary, and it is only a matter of time before our learned men and women of science will announce clearly what Qabalists have been saying cryptically for centuries.

Elements of creation as we know them—minerals and metals, animals and people, planets and stars, light and energy—are merely the husks of an invisible universal force that sustains the entire cosmos. We’re like dead skin cells that have flaked off from the body of the unmanifest Super-Being. This force—this nothingness, is better than reality. It is undiluted, unlimited potentiality! It is the ultimate reality, and the nature of that reality is pure consciousness.

The first thing that attracted me to the Qabalah as a young Chicken Qabalist (hatchling) was the concept that everything proceeded out of this “Nothing.” That made Nothing the ultimate creator, not the Elohim,1 or Jehovah, or any of the other ill-tempered bullies of the Old Testament. I liked the idea of brooding and inscrutable Nothing behind everything in the universe.

You can think about the Elohim creating stuff like crazy; you can think about YHVH Elohim2 blowing life into Adam’s nose; you can even think about a sneaky stinky cloud killing the first-born babies in ancient Egypt; but you can’t think about Nothing! Anything you can think about —anything you can capture and hold in your mind’s eye—is automatically disqualified from infinityhood and can’t possibly be the ultimate Deity.

Qabalistic tradition informs us that everything proceeded from the Great One, and the Great One proceeded from a very special kind of Nothing—actually three very special kinds of Nothing. Beginning Chicken Qabalists need not spend a great deal of time trying to grasp this concept because, first, it can’t be understood, and second, if you did understand it, there would no longer be a need for you to study anything. However, as you approach the meditative summit of your career as a Chicken Qabalist, the irrational mystery of the three kinds of Nothing will increasingly absorb you. For this reason I offer the following.

The first kind of Nothing is called Ain 3 This Nothing is really nothing—not even the concept of no-thing (i.e., the absence of anything). Now, if Ain just sat around nowhere doing nothing it’s a sure bet that nothing was going to get done. However, something happened to make Ain actually become Nothing (maybe because it was Nothing all along and just had to wake up to the fact). This new, defined Nothing the Qabalists call Limitless Nothing, or Ain Soph . The third kind of Nothing is a hybrid Ain Soph called Ain Soph Aur, , Limitless Light. I view it as the light bulb that goes off in the vastness of Ain Soph when it realizes the perfect Notness of its Nothingness! Nothing is Not! This double negative is tantamount to saying “Something is!” and sets the stage for the first Positive in the universe—the concept of One.4

Don’t worry if none of this makes any sense to you right now. It is enough to remember that realization of “One” is the second-to-last goal of all Qabalists. The final goal is to attain the consciousness of “Nothing.”

Third Command-Rant

There really isn’t a creation, time or space, Heaven or Earth…

Get used to it. Ultimate reality is Nothing, so all perceivable phenomena, including time and space, are illusions. We could take a picture proving this if our camera had a wide enough lens. That lens, of course, would have to take in not only the absolute One, but all that Nothing, too!

Third Command-Rant (continued)

…But there is a you!

On the other hand, you are real5—a sparkling image of the absolute reality. You must remember, however, that the real you is something far different and more wonderful than your ape-like brain and reptilian nervous system can grasp. The real you is not just a piece of the force of universal consciousness—the real you is, in essence, the universal consciousness itself! You are not your body, or your brain, or your mind, or your astral body, or any of the more subtle sheathes that yogis and spoon-benders say you are nestled inside. Bodies and brains and minds are as unreal as creation, time, space, Heaven or Earth. The real you doesn’t eat, or drink, or think, or sleep, or die. I’m sure we would all be amazed to know just how skinny, and light, and thoughtless, and sleepless, and immortal we really are.

fourth Command-Rant

We perceive there is a creation, time and space, Heaven, and Earth because of a fundamental defect in our powers of perception.

Our eyes cannot see infrared or ultraviolet; our ears cannot hear a dog-whistle or the extra-low frequencies generated by giant redwood trees; most people’s noses can’t even smell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. Even if we could utilize all the sensitive new scientific instruments that enable us to see more, hear more, or smell more, do we really think that we could ever gather enough information (or develop powers of intelligence profound enough to interpret that information) to unveil the ultimate reality? Get real! We are all sleepwalkers stumbling blind, deaf, and numb through a life we could never understand even if we could see, hear, feel, or smell like Superman.

It is perfectly natural for you to ask, “Why is there evil in the world?” or “Why do bad things happen to good people?” but stop flattering yourself. You’re never going to find an answer to those questions by gathering information with your senses and attempting to process that information with your brain.

Fifth Command-Rant

This defect cannot be repaired, but it can be overcome.

Caution: Most people will be happier if they never try to overcome this defect. That is why most people in the world find it so easy to believe the most outrageous religious concepts without batting an eyelash. The rest of us brave and foolish souls must consciously misuse our defective powers of perception to our advantage. This is done by Qabalistic study and thought.

Six Command-Rant

In order to overcome our defective powers of perception we must be willing to abuse them until they break.

Qabalistic study and thought is designed to make you crazier than most people by requiring that you attain the all-encompassing consciousness of the real you. Obviously, this is not easy to achieve, but you may as well bite the bullet and get to work because it is the ultimate fate of all units of evolving consciousness—even Chicken Qabalists!

In order to hit this mystical and omniscient mark, it will be necessary for you to partially disable the mechanisms of normal thought by overloading your laughably inadequate mind with data from your laughably inadequate powers of perception. If all goes well, you will become so sick of the whole ponderous cosmos that your inadequate faculties will look for any way out of the insanity and eventually surrender to transcendent consciousness.6

The first step is easy. All you have to do is join 99 percent of the world’s population and accept creation/time/space/Heaven/Earth as “reality.” Then, through Qabalistic exercises, you systematically dissect and analyze every aspect of that “reality.” You connect everything you can think of with everything else you can think of until there is no “anything” left.

This process is not as tedious as it may at first appear because the illusionary universe obligingly provides us with three very helpful Command-Rants of its own.

♦ Everything in Heaven and Earth is connected to everything in Heaven and Earth.

♦ Everything in Heaven and Earth is the reflection of everything in Heaven and Earth.

♦ Everything in Heaven and Earth contains the pattern of everything in Heaven and Earth.

Seventh Command-Rant

Everything in Heaven and Earth is connected to everything in Heaven and Earth.

This one’s easy. We are living in a wall-to-wall universe. Everything is connected to everything else. The lox on the cream cheese rests upon the bagel; which is connected to my fingers; which are connected to my hand; which is connected (via the rest of my body) to my foot; which is connected to my shoe; which is connected to the floor; which is part of the delicatessen; which rests upon Earth; which is spinning in space; which also contains and is connected to the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and all the other heavenly bodies in the universe.

It follows, then, that all lox is ultimately connected to all cream cheese, bagels, fingers, hands, feet, shoes, floors, delicatessens, planets, Sun, Moon, stars and heavenly bodies everywhere. It also follows that each unit of lox possesses a special affinity with every other unit of lox by virtue of its vibratory “loxness,” and by the fact that they are all indirectly connected. Naturally, the same can be said for all cream cheese, bagels, body parts, and extraterrestrial delicatessens.

Eightth Command-Rant

Everything in Heaven and Earth is the reflection of everything in Heaven and Earth.

A piano has 88 keys, but theoretically we could build a piano with an infinite number of keys stretching forever lower in one direction and forever higher in the other. But no matter how big we make our piano, we will never have more than twelve notes with which to play. We can draw similar parallels in the characteristics of light and color, and the behavior of organic and mineral life.

In the subatomic realm, electrons orbit the nucleus of the atom in the same way moons orbit their planets, and planets orbit stars, and solar systems orbit whatever inscrutable “thing” is at the center of their galaxies, etc.

Look around. You are smack dab in the middle of a ribbon of repeating patterns stretching infinitely toward macrocosmic immensity in one direction, and infinitely toward microcosmic smallness in the other. As above, so below. If we study the tiny subject, we simultaneously study its giant counterpart and vice versa.

Nineth Command-Rant

Everything in Heaven and Earth contains the pattern of everything in Heaven and Earth.

This Command-Rant is really an extension of the previous one. As everything in Heaven and Earth is the reflection of everything in Heaven and Earth, every reflectee houses a faithful blueprint of that which it reflects. Since prehistoric times, this was observable in flora and fauna, but now we are magically blessed with the wondrous knowledge of DNA. Not only does everything in Heaven and Earth contain the pattern of everything in Heaven and Earth, everything is first cousin to everything in Heaven and Earth!

Tenth Command-rant

Look hard enough at anything and you will eventually see everything.

Only then, dear Chicken Qabalist, will you have an eye big enough to really close…so you can finally get some well-deserved rest.

THE SEPHER YETZIRAH

Introduced by Lon Milo DuQuette

What happened to Jehovah? Isn’t Jehovah God?
Didn’t Jehovah create Heaven and Earth? Hell no!
Elohim did, and Elohim is a very peculiar word.

—RABBI LAMED BEN CLIFFORD

And said the Elohim, Let there be light: and there was light.

—Genesis 1 :3

I’M SURE MANY OF YOU students are asking yourselves why I am starting our study of Genesis with the third verse of chapter 1 instead of the first. The answer is simple. Verse 1 tells us squat! It informs us; “In the beginning the Elohim created Heaven and Earth.”3

Big deal! What the hell is an Elohim? Is it God? Translators of the English Bible seem to think so. Most versions read: “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth.”

What happened to Jehovah? Isn’t Jehovah God? Didn’t Jehovah create Heaven and Earth? Hell no! Elohim did, and Elohim is a very peculiar word.

El ()4 is the root word for Deity. Eloh () is a feminine singular, in other words, a female Deity (a Goddess); im () is the plural ending for things that are masculine. Elohim (), then, should be translated either “Gods and Goddesses” or “Dual-Gendered Deity.” Later on in verses 26 and 27 the Elohim even refer to themselves as plural, “And said the Elohim, Let us make Adam in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth. And created the Elohim Adam in the image of Elohim created they them, male and female created they them.”

Surprised? So was everyone who had their hearts set on God not having a vagina and everyone who believed that Adam was an historical character, like General Custer, and not just a name for the human race. They were so upset when they discovered that in the beginning the Dual-Gendered Deity created Heaven and Earth that they made sure that Elohim and innumerable other special names would be translated “God” or “Lord” or “Lord God” or other such ambiguous masculine-sounding names.5

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3 The Biblical translations here are obviously those of the Rabbi himself, who worked from the standard Hebrew texts.

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5 It might surprise you to know that traditionally the concept of God as a father is foreign to the ancient Jewish mind. Abraham was the father of the Jews, and the father figure to the Jews. In the Bible, Abraham never referred to God as father, neither did Noah, Moses, Elijah, Elias, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Jonah, Solomon, Ezra, or Nehemiah. In fact, in the entire Old Testament only two verses in the book of Isaiah and one Psalm of David make reference to the fatherlike qualities of Deity.

Besides this little titbit, verse 1 leaves us in the dark concerning what Heaven is, what Earth is, or how the Elohim went about creating these things. Verse 2 is even worse:

And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohim moved upon the face of the waters.

If Earth was void and formless, where was all this water coming from? If the author was trying to be inscrutable, he sure did a damned good job of it.

Verse 3 finally gives us something we can dig our teeth into:

And the Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The key word here is “said.” That’s how everything was created—the Elohim talked everything into existence.6 The Elohim said it, and it was so. Obviously words are very important in the grand creation scenario. A word is a vibration, and vibration creates and sustains the universe. The atomic weight of the chemical elements is just another way of measuring their vibration. Molecules hold themselves together and bond with other molecules by the “glue” of their compatible vibrations. That’s what is meant by the term “the creative Logos, or Word.” That’s what John7 was talking about when he wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Duh!

And what, my sleepy students, are words made up of? Letters! Our Hebrew alphabet (and what other alphabet would the Elohim dare use?) is made up of 22 sacred letters, and the story of their creation is not found in the Bible, but in a mysterious little masterpiece called the Sepher Yetzirah: The Book of Formation.

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6 Qabalists are quick to point out that because the phrase , “and God said” (literally “and said Elohim”) appears ten times in the first chapter of Genesis, that the number I 0 is the key number of creation.

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7 The Gospel According to Saint John, 1:1.

Sepher Yetzirah The Book of Information

PROLOGUE

Deity, whom we call Yah, Yea-man, Jehovah of hosts, Joe Heavy, What-It-Is, the Big Kahuna, the Mighty Duh, the living Elohim, King of the Universe, Omnipotent, All-King and Merciful, Supreme, and Extolled is all-powerful, eternal; who is really, really holy and very, very large; who is so big It is both King and Queen of the Universe, who is so all-encompassing and huge that It has nowhere to sit down because all the chairs are inside of Itself; who, because It is everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing, had no one to play with—this Dude of Dudes created the Universe (with the help of three imaginary friends, “Numbers, Letters, and Words”) in 32 Mysterious Paths of Wisdom. They consist of I 0 Sephiroth out of nothing and of 22 Letters.

The Deity divided the 22 Letters into three divisions: Three Mothers (fundamental letters), Seven Double letters, and Twelve Simple letters.

THE 10 SEPHIROTH OUT OF NOTHING

Ten of these paths came out of nothing. (Because the Deity is everything, It had lots of nothing to play with.) These ten paths are called Sephiroth or emanations. Because they came out of nothing they aren’t actually real. (But then, of course, only the Deity knows that for sure.)

The 10 Sephiroth out of nothing are reflected in the human body by our ten fingers and toes, five on each side. In between the two sets of fingers is the tongue, and in between the two sets of toes are the naughty bits that make humans creative beings, too—just like the Deity!

Ten are the Sephiroth not 9; 10 and not 11 or 12, or 6 %. Think about that for a while. Inquire into it. Put it in your pipe and smoke it. Ponder it while the music from “Jeopardy” plays, and roll it around in your mouth a little before swallowing. Render it evident and lead the Creator back to Its throne so we can all go home.

But—at the same time, don’t talk about it. Don’t even think about it. If your mouth urges you to speak, burn its roof with hot pizza! If your heart urges you to think about it, turn on the television! As it is written, “Your answer must be in the form of a question.”

Then 10 Sephiroth out of nothing are infinite in ten ways (I’ll put them in Tree of Life order):

Beginning Infinite
Good Infinite
End Infinite
Height Infinite
Evil Infinite
Depth Infinite
West Infinite
East Infinite
North Infinite
South Infinite

Then 10 Sephiroth out of nothing appear like a lightning flash. Being endless, the Deity’s word is in them when they go and return. They run like hell when the Deity orders them around, and are constantly groveling before the throne.

From the Spirit of the Living God (1) emanated Air (2), from the Air emanated Water (3), from the Water emanated Fire Æther (4), from the Æther emanated the Height (5), and the Depth (6), the East (7), and the West (8), the North (9), and the South (10).

THE 22 LETTERS

The remaining twenty-two paths are the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. They form the foundation of everything we can think of, and all the other things that will never occur to us. The Deity weighed them and measured them, poked them and prodded them, issued them numbers, stapled and two-hole punched them; stamped their passports and organized them, according to all the crazy sounds It could make with Its infinite and eternal mouth. Formed by the breath of Air, It fixed them on five places in the mouth: the Throat, the Palate, the Tongue, the Teeth, and the Lips.

The Deity divided the 22 letters into three divisions: Three Mothers or Fundamental Letters, Seven Doubles, and Twelve Simple Consonants.

THE THREE MOTHERS

Three are the Fundamental Letters. Three not four, not sixteen, not even 3.14159. Think about that real hard. Turn it over in your mind. Put it in the blender and hit puree. Render it evident and put a fresh battery in the pacemaker of the Most High.

The Three Fundamental Letters ——(Aleph, Mem, Shin) are real Mothers and are extremely cool. Deity took their temperatures and tissue samples, and measured their cholesterol levels, issued them numbers, certified them, and formed by them lots of things, such as the breast, body, and head, and Heaven, Earth, and the atmosphere, and heat, cold, and moistness—but who cares about that stuff!

First and foremost, they represent the Three Primitive Elements in the universe and the spheres of consciousness those elements represent—Air ( Aleph), Water ( Mem), and Fire ( Shin).8

The Three Fundamental Letters——(Aleph, Mem, Shin) are also the Three Famous Dimensional Twins who, because of their amazing ability to stretch themselves to infinity, create the cosmic elbow room in which the entire universe manifests. Their names are: Aleph—Updown, Mem—Eastwest, and Shin—Northsouth. Dost thou get this? Needest thou a picture? Then behold figure 3.

The Double Letters are 7. Seven not 8, not 6 or F10. Hoist them up your flagpole. Clear your palate with them. Spay or neuter them, and spring for the Creator’s bail.

The 7 Double Letters— —(Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Peh, Resh, Tau) are rather confused and can be pronounced in a hard way and in a soft way. Because they can’t make up their minds, they symbolize seven opposites: Life-Death, Peace-War, Wisdom-Folly, Wealth-Poverty, Beauty-Ugliness, Fruitfulness-Sterility, and Dominion-Slavery.

The 7 Double Letters also stand for the six dimensions (that were created when the Three Famous Dimensional Twins did their act and stretched themselves out). Beth for Above, Gimel for Below, Daleth for East, Kaph for West, Peh for North, Resh for South, and the hardworking Tau stands in the center and holds the whole thing together. Wilt thou need us to draw you another picture? Lookest to figure 4 (page 34).

The 7 Double Letters also stand for lots of other things, such as days of the week, and nostril holes, and other body openings. But who cares about that stuff! First and foremost, they represent the seven planets in the solar system, and the spheres of consciousness those planets represent: Beth for Mercury, Gimel for the Moon, Daleth for Venus, Kaph for Jupiter, Peh for Mars, Resh for the Sun, and Tau for Saturn.9

THE TWELVE SIMPLE LETTERS

Twelve are the Simple Letters. Twelve not 11, not—oh, you get the picture. Send out a memo. Brush and floss. Shampoo and fluff dry them, and rewrite the Creator’s permanent record.

The twelve Simple Letters——(Heh, Vau, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tzaddi, and Qoph) are attributed to the oblique points, or edges, that were created when the six dimensions (that were created when the Three Famous Dimensional Twins did their act) were sealed and ran into each other at right angles: Heh, North East; Vau, South East; Zain, East Above; Cheth, East Below; Teth, North Above; Yod, North Below; Lamed, North West; Nun, South West; Samekh, West Above; Ayin, West Below; Tzaddi, South Above; Qoph, South Below. Art thou following this? Wilt thou need another picture? See thou figure 5.

The Twelve Simple Letters also stand for lots of other things, such as months of the year, eggs in a carton, organs in the human body—but who cares!

First and foremost they represent the twelve constellations—the twelve signs of the zodiac—and the spheres of consciousness those twelve signs represent: Heh, Aries; Vau, Taurus; Zain, Gemini; Cheth, Cancer; Teth, Leo; ’ Yod, Virgo; Lamed, Libra; Nun, Scorpio; Samekh, Sagittarius; Ayin, Capricorn; Tzaddi, Aquarius; Qoph, Pisces.

THE HEBREW ALPHABET

There’s no escaping it. Even the laziest Chicken Qabalist needs to learn the Hebrew alphabet and at least some of its traditional correspondences.4

Another thing that is absolutely necessary for your study is a small basic library of reference works. You don’t have to have these books right now, but you will want them very soon. Of course you will collect more books as you descend into Qabalistic madness, but these texts (and this book, of course) will be enough to get you on the road:

Aleister Crowley, 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser 1990);

David Godwin, Godwin’s Cabalistic Encyclopedia (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1994);

Ehud Ben Yehuda, Ben-Yehuda’s Pocket English-Hebrew Hebrew-English Dictionary (New York: Pocket Books, 1991).

The stunning exception is found in his comments on the letter Yod. I strongly urge the reader to carefully read and re-read that section. In 210 words, Ben Clifford casually reveals the supreme symbolic secret of creation by drawing our attention to that most mysterious of natural numbers known to mathematicians as the Greek letter Phi, and to architects as the Golden Mean or Golden Section. This number, or ratio (1.6180339887499), like the irrational number Pi, seems to issue from, and set the pattern for, the basic structure of the entire cosmos. But, unlike other abstract numbers, the pattern set by Phi is revealed naturally and universally in all living things and all things that grow and develop in stages. One of the most striking examples of this pattern of growth can found in the shell of the nautilus, which, when cross-sectioned, reveals a breathtaking repeating pattern of what looks like extended Hebrew Yods or English letter Gs. On a grander scale, it can be found in the formation of the great spiral nebulae. This primal pattern of patterns is, indeed, the “G” signature of the “Great Architect of the Universe,” the name by which Freemasons refer to Deity. As far as I know, Ben Clifford is the first Qabalist (or alleged Qabalist) to make this profound and fundamental connection.

DOES GOD SPEAK HEBREW?

Hell no! God’s a Chicken Qabalist and doesn’t worry about it. Do you actually think there is a white-bearded giant in the clouds who created the universe and everything in it by belching out nouns and verbs right out of some celestial edition of Ben-Yehuda’s Hebrew dictionary? I don’t think so. The creative fiat, the language of the Deity, is not one of grunts and gurgles and hisses and sighs. It is a language of numbers. Numbers do all the work. What distinguishes the Hebrew alphabet is not its pronunciation or its words and grammar, but its intimate relationship with numbers.

If God “said” anything in the beginning, it was most likely, “Let there be 3.” That’s all that needed to be said because, as we learned in the Sepher Yetzirah, the 3 dimensions then just took off on their own and extended from the central point to instantly form 7 and 12 spatial coordinates—a tight little 22-piece toolbox of creation.

Let’s start our brief study of the Hebrew alphabet by first observing that the 22 letters are divided into 3 categories: 3 Mother letters, 7 Double letters, and 12 Simple letters. 3—7—12. What a coincidence.

3 MOTHER LETTERS

[representing three primal elements]

7 DOUBLE LETTERS

[representing the seven planets of the ancients]

12 SIMPLE LETTERS

[representing the twelve signs of the zodiac]

Figure 7. These 22 Letters join the 10 Sephiroth and, in doing so, create the Tree of Life.

Aleph—A

Aleph is Path No. 11. It joins Kether (Crown) to Chokmah (Wisdom).

Aleph doesn’t look like any other Hebrew letter and is therefore easy to recognize. It has one long diagonal bar that looks like a banana separating two small Yods. The Yod at the top right is connected to the banana at midpoint by a thin line (a Yod on a stick). The Yod at the bottom left is flattened at the bottom like a foot and is connected to the banana underneath its left shoulder.

Aleph is spelled

(ALP). The three letters enumerate to 111 (or using Peh Final 831) and mean “ox.” In ancient cultures, the ox that pulled the furrowing plough was a supreme symbol of the fertilizing force of creation. Aleph is a letter of breath and the closest thing the Hebrew alphabet has to a vowel. As the plough of the ox penetrates and aerates the soil, so the breath of life penetrates and vivifies you and me. Oh hell! I’ll come out and say it—the Air of Aleph is more than just the firmament of atmosphere surrounding Earth—it is the Life-Force itself, the Prana of the Hindus, the active ingredient that makes the Holy Spirit holy). Give it some respect!

Aleph is one of the 3 Mother Letters and represents the element Air.

TAROT TRUMP: The Fool.

Beth—B

Beth is Path No. 12. It joins Kether (Crown) to Binah (Understanding).

Note that the roof of Beth is an elongated Yod that slides to the right and drips down to smoothly form a leg. The leg is connected to a long right-leaning parallelogram that serves as the base of the letter. The leg connects near but not at the right edge of the base.

Beth

Do not confuse with Kaph

Beth is spelled

(BYTh). The three letters enumerate to 412 and mean “house.” Its shape suggests a cave, the earliest house. In biblical times, a house was often a tent. A house is fundamentally a container, but it is also a shelter, a sanctuary, and a resting place, and most importantly, a place to exist. Beth is the fundamental structure of the universe, a container of existence, a receptacle of life, an atom, a living cell, a body. Astrologers divide the Heavens into twelve “houses.” Family bloodlines and households are also considered “houses,” such as the House of David or the House of Frankenstein.

Beth is one of the 7 Double Letters and represents the planet Mercury.

TAROT TRUMP: The Magician.

Gimel—G

Gimel is Path No. 13. It joins Kether (Crown) to Tiphareth (Beauty).

Gimel starts with a Yod that extends straight down from its bottom tear. This leg connects to a short right-leaning parallelogram that serves as the base of the letter. Note that the leg connects only partially to the top right edge of the base:

Do not confuse with Nun

Gimel is spelled tea

(GML). The three letters enumerate to 73 and mean “camel,” also to couple or team up. Like the ox, a camel is an animal domesticated to the service of humanity. The ox, however, is exploited in the cause of nourishment, the camel in the cause of communication. A camel is the “ship of the desert,” a vehicle of life and commerce, capable of crossing the vast abyss of sand. The Path of Gimel on the Tree of Life also crosses the Abyss and joins Kether to Tiphareth.

In Aramaic (the language allegedly spoken by Jesus) the word camel and the word rope are spelled exactly the same, “gamla.” I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure, but I’ll bet in Matthew 19:24 Jesus says, “It is easier for a rope (not camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Duh!

Gimel is one of the 7 Double Letters and represents the Moon.

TAROT TRUMP: The High Priestess.

Daleth—D

Daleth is Path No. 14. It joins Chokmah (Wisdom) to Binah (Understanding).

Daleth has a firm level roof. It is connected by a leg on the right side. Note that the leg connects near but not at the right edge of the roof. A little part of the roof hangs over the leg.

Do not confuse with Resh

Daleth is spelled

(DLTh). The three letters enumerate to 434 and mean “door.” A door is a valve that can bar or accommodate both the entrance and exit of things. It is a tent flap, a threshold, and a gate. Walk out of the door of your house and you move from the unity of your home to the multiplicity of the world and vice versa.

The most important “door” for humans is a woman’s womb and/or vagina. It accommodates the entrance of the fertilizing male member, and nine months later, it is the door through which we all enter the world.

Daleth is one of the 7 Double Letters and represents the planet Venus.

TAROT TRUMP: The Empress.

Heh—H, E

Heh is Path No. 15. It joins Chokmah (Wisdom) to Tiphareth (Beauty).

Heh is drawn exactly like Daleth, but has an additional left leg. Note that the left leg does not touch the roof.

Do not confuse with Cheth

or Tau

Heh is spelled

(HH). The two letters enumerate to 10 and mean “window.” Also to breathe, to exist, to become, and to desire. A window is a transparent door, an eye through which we look out on the world. From within the house, we look out of the window at approaching visitors, so we can decide who to allow through the door and who to bar. A window also allows light and air to penetrate the house. Heh also means the identification of a star, as for navigation or astrology.

Its shape introduces the concept of openings—a small opening on the left and a large opening from below. This is suggestive of all things receptive, female, or negatively charged.

Heh is one of the 12 Simple Letters and represents the zodiacal sign of Aries.

TAROT TRUMP: The Emperor.

Vau—V,W,U,O

Vau is Path No. 16. It joins Chokmah (Wisdom) to Chesed (Mercy).

Vau starts with a Yod at the top that extends straight down from its bottom tear to form a right leg. Note that the leg connects to the top right edge of the Yod.

Do not confuse with Zain

Vau is spelled

The two letters enumerate to 12 and mean “nail” or “hook” or “pin.” A hook can be used to suspend things from above. Nails and pins are sharp, pointy things that join two objects together by means of penetration. By its very shape, it represents the phallus. This implies union (yoga), and union with God is the goal of all mystics, especially Chicken Qabalists. The process is theoretically simple. Find the proper Vau and you can nail yourself to God! This concept of union is further underscored when we remember the letter Vau is the Hebrew conjunction “and.”

Its shape introduces the concept of penetration, and is suggestive of all things aggressive, male, or positively charged.

Vau is a one of the 12 Simple Letters and represents the zodiacal sign of Taurus.

TAROT TRUMP: The Hierophant

Zain—Z

Zain is Path No. 17. It joins Binah (Understanding) to Tiphareth (Beauty).

Zain is a Yod with a leg dropping down from its bottom center.

Do not confuse with Vau

Zain is spelled

(ZYN). The three letters enumerate to 67 (or using Nun Final 717) and mean “sword.” A sword is a weapon of both offense and defense. It is the weapon of i nvoked force. It can be brandished as a deterrent or wielded to enforce the decisions of authority. A sword is also an instrument of division, separating one thing from another (like your enemy’s head from his shoulders), and of discretion and analysis, separating one idea from another. In a way, it is just the opposite of Vau, which unites things.

Zain is one of the 12 Simple Letters and represents the zodiacal sign of Gemini.

TAROT TRUMP: The Lovers.

Cheth-Ch

Cheth is Path No. 18. It joins Binah (Understanding) to Geburah (Strength).

Cheth is drawn exactly like Heh but both legs touch the roof.

Do not confuse with Heh

or Tau

Cheth is spelled

(ChYTh). The three letters enumerate to 418 and mean “field” and “fence.” A fenced-in field implies cultivated land—land that has been set apart, defined, and then plowed by the ox. A fence encloses an area and sets it apart from the surrounding area. It is a wall, a hedge, a membrane, a shell, a womb, a crust, a fortress, a citadel. It surrounds and protects the sacred life and light within from the danger and darkness without. Cheth also indicates the Life-Force itself, and anything living.

Cheth is one of the 12 Simple Letters and represents the zodiacal sign of Cancer.

TAROT TRUMP: The Chariot.

Teth-T

Teth is Path No. 19. It joins Chesed (Mercy) to Geburah (Strength).

Teth has a firm rectangular base from which sprout a mini-Zain from the left edge and a sharp leftward-crashing wave arising from the right edge. I think it looks like the profile of a duck swimming on the water looking back at a big Yod that’s stuck to the tip of its tail. Note that the duck’s bill does not touch the Yod on its tail.

Do not confuse with Mem

Teth is spelled

(TYTh). The three letters enumerate to 419 and mean “serpent.” Human beings are vertebrates and our spines are home to unimaginable energy and power. We are snakes with arms and legs, and this serpent energy is the key to our divine birthright. Like a snake swallowing its tail, there is truly no end to the mystery of the serpent. The one that tempted Eve is the same one that Moses elevated on a pole, and the same one that Jesus told us to be as “wise as.”

It is also interesting to note that the ancients were aware that individual sperm cells look like tiny snakes with giant (lion-like) heads.

Teth is one of the 12 Simple Letters and represents the zodiacal sign of Leo.

TAROT TRUMP: Strength.

Yod-Y, I, J

Yod is Path No. 20. It joins Chesed (Mercy) to Tiphareth (Beauty).

Yod is a flame. Blow upon it and you create all the other letters of the alphabet. Yod is my favorite Hebrew letter because it is so simple. It is the perfect pattern of primal creation—a point extending to become the whirling motion. It is Phi, the seed of the Golden Spiral; the mystic “G” in your grandfather’s Masonic ring; the Yin and Yang; the human embryo; the blueprint of the ram’s horn and the nautilus; the swirling cream in your coffee, and the billowing dynamics of smoke and air and water. It sets the pattern for our fingerprints, our DNA and the shape of great galaxies. It is the primal male-Shiva divine fire that plunges joyously into the female-Shakti ocean of divine water.

Yod is spelled

(YVD) [which is not a public health question]. The three letters enumerate to 20 and mean “hand.” Using Qabalistic logic, Yod is the key creative instrument of the Deity in the same way that the hand is a key creative instrument of human beings. Follow me? The human hand, however, is only the mundane member of creation. A secret and more profound equivalent of the creative hand is the spermatozoon, itself, of which I believe Yod is the most appropriate hieroglyph.

Yod is one of the 12 Simple Letters and represents the zodiacal sign of Virgo.

TAROT TRUMP: The Hermit.

THE FOUR QABALISTIC WORLDS AND THE FOUR PARTS OF THE SOUL

this surviving fragment deals with the all-important subjects of the Tetragrammaton Yod Heh Vau Heh),

THE TREE OF LIFE

if I were the Deity before creation, I must have been very lonely. Being the only and absolute Being, I might not even realize the nature of my own self. I symbolize this pre-creational state as a simple circle (I have chosen this figure because a circle has no beginning or end) and designate it by the holy number ONE.

Now, since I am ONE and absolute, it follows that ONE is the only real number—the only legitimate reality. As the Deity, I think I would be quite happy in my condition of oneness, and leave it at that, but something clearly happened to induce me to create. In order for me to create the many things in the universe, I would need to create more numbers. I think it happened like this:

I was alone and bored, and began to ponder the nature of myself. “What am I?” This was difficult because I was the only ONE. I had nothing else with which to compare myself. I wasn’t a “this” or a “that” because I had not yet created “thises” or “thats.” I was the absolute, there was no “outside” of me. I could not hold up a mirror and look at my image and say, “Oh look! I’m one of those!” I could, however, with great stillness and concentration, turn the focus of my attention inward and, like the holy men of India, observe my perfect reflection at the very center of my being. I would then for the first time be conscious of myself. “I am this!” I would shout.

Even instantly, as these words echoed in my absoluteness, I would fall from my pristine state of singularity, for I would now have to admit the concept of TWO:

Oh! Curse the moment I ever brought TWO into existence, because the moment my Self became conscious of my reflection (my Not-Self), a third concept was created, that is…the knowledge of the difference between Self and Not-Self. “I am ‘this’ but ‘that’ is not I.”

creation commenced when the Deity stirred from undistracted ecstasy and became self-conscious, an act which transformed Its self-existence (as the inscrutable Divine Unity) into Its self-image (as the Deity of creation). Therefore, I suggest that we also consider the number THREE one of our primary holy numbers.

Since TWO and THREE are merely attributes of ONE, they should be considered along with the number ONE as a Trinity Unit.

The Trinity Unit then behaves in precisely the same manner as the original ONE did when it reflected itself to become TWO. It reflects itself to create a second Trinity Unit:

A third Trinity Unit is instantly created in the same way that the original THREE was instantly created upon the birth of TWO:

creation commences when the Deity defines itself and becomes self-conscious—a three-part act which defines ONE as an abstract and unmanifested Trinity (the Supernal Triad). But what Zabad was apparently too distracted to realize was that the Deity cannot stop at self-knowledge. Momentum has been established which will result in a further series of six phenomenal emanations by which the universe will categorize itself and organize its infinite potentialities. The following diagram will illustrate this idea.

I believe that TEN hangs from the three Triads like a cosmic dingle-berry and provides an environment—a Kingdom—that traps the diffused and crystallized divine light inside a prison of matter. We live in this Kingdom. It is the lowest of the emanations. It is where the Divine Light vibrates at its lowest frequency. It is where the invisible becomes visible.

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When we look at all ten steps of creation, we see that the TENTH emanation is the reflection of the NINTH, which is the reflection of the SIXTH, which is the reflection of the ONE.

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Figure 19. The steps of creation.

Figure 18. Projection, Shattering, and Manifestation of the Divine Light.

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To form the backbone of the Ten Numbered Bubbles of Jozabad, the numbers and are as critical to the structure of the universe as the spine is to the human body. They are also indicative of the four letters of the name of Diety ,(Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh) and all that It represents in the universe and the human soul.11 If the class has any doubt about this, let me point out that the sum of and equals 26, the same as the supreme name of God .

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Furthermore (and most importantly I believe), when we insert the three paths that join and we create a total of 12 paths. (I call them Zabad’s Twelve Paths of Glory.) These 12 paths link the 10 emanations and bring the total steps of creation to the sacred number TWENTY-TWO!

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I believe that I have succeeded in demonstrating how the Deity (1) through the medium of 4, 10, and 22, created the universe and the nature of reality as we perceive it. I think it should be obvious to Rabbi Roe and the entire class that I have mastered the assignment and have wrenched all the wisdom that can be extracted from this line of thinking. I suggest we now move on to another subject, like when do we go co-ed?

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there are two additional pillars that flank the middle pillar (Figure 21).

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As it is postulated, each one of us is made in the image of the Deity. These two pillars correspond to the right and left side of the human body (the middle pillar being the spine). They also accommodate the entire spectrum of universal opposites that so profoundly divide our perception of reality; light-darkness, male-female, strength-weakness, the middle pillar serving to balance and harmonize these extremes.

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the paths which join the 10 Sephiroth are not merely nails that attach the emanations, but are actually conduits of divine intelligence, which transmit the influence of each Sephirah back and forth between its neighbor. Consequently, all the Sephiroth should be joined by paths (shown in figure 22 on page 124).

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You will notice in my diagram that I have drawn broken paths leading from 3 to 4 and from 2 to 5. This is because I believe that these paths do not exist. To explain this, we must return for a moment to Zabad’s earlier essay, which explained how ONE became THREE. If you recall, he wrote that ONE is the only real number. TWO is just a projected reflection of ONE, and THREE merely a condition of recognition that TWO is not ONE.

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So, too, is the only real Triad; the Triad of is only its reflection, and the third Triad is merely the replication of the second. The area between the first Triad and the second Triad is like the impenetrable surface of a mirror. It is an inscrutable Abyss.

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As I gaze into the mirror hanging on the wall in my dormitory room, I see my reflection, an unreal image of the real me in my real room. So it is with the Deity. The Supernal Triad () is the real thing existing on the real side of the mirror/Abyss. On the unreal side of the Abyss are all the unreal things (including you and me and everything we perceive in the universe). They assume a semblance of reality because they, like my reflection in the mirror, are bound by the image of the real supernal patterns and forms.

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Just as I give a kind of life to my reflection in the mirror, so all the manifold units of creation are vivified by the Living Light of the Supernal Triad. Indeed, that Light is our true identity. What we think is our body, our world, our self, is only the shadowy reflection of the Divine Being whose radiance shattered at the Abyss. We aren’t even truly alive, we are just the reflection of real life. “And created the Elohim Adam in the image of Elohim created they them, male and female created they them.”

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Just as we cannot walk into a room reflected in a mirror, a path cannot exist between of the Supernal Triad and of the second Triad. Other paths appear to cross the Abyss, but they aren’t really Paths, but either reflected paths or avenues of reflection:

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Figure 23. Reflecting paths.

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The path joining

and

is the avenue of reflection between

and

The path joining

and

is the avenue of reflection between

and

The path joining

and

is the avenue of reflection between

and

The path joining

and

is reflected as the path joining

and

The path joining

and

is reflected as the path joining

and

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This leaves us with 22 paths joining the 10 Sephiroth. I presume to call the entire thing “Ramiah’s 32 Mysterious Paths of Wisdom.” It is my firm belief (although I am not prepared to elucidate further at the moment) that these 22 paths have a direct correspondence with the 22 letters of our sacred Hebrew alphabet. I further contend that the mystery of their placement upon this Tree of Life (as I have also presumed to name it) is the key to eventual return to our original divine estate.

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QABALISTIC MAGICK AND THE TREE OF LIFE

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there is no atrocity you can imagine, no wickedness you can conceive of, no monstrous act you can picture in your mind that the spirits cannot inflict upon you, your loved ones, your neighbors, the Earth, or the human race.

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Why on Earth would anyone want to have anything to do with such awful and terrible entities?

And the answer is probably the answer you do not want to hear—but here goes:

Because, until you master these spiritual forces and consciously redirect their unimaginable power to more constructive projects, their wild energies will continue to gush like burning Drano through your soul—along every avenue of least resistance large or small.

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Are the spirits good or evil?

Yes, the spirits are good or evil, in the same way electricity is both good and evil depending upon how it is directed.

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Are the spirits real or just imaginary?

The spirits are both real and imaginary, but most of us do not realize how real our imagination is.

Are the spirits part of me, or do they live an existence independent of me?

The spirits are inside you, but most of us do not realize (1) how big our insides really are, or (2) how much out of control and seemingly independent the things inside us can be.

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For a moment, let’s pretend that your brain (and remember, scientists tell us we use only a tiny fraction of our brain’s potential) is the source of all your power and ability to do anything. (Of course it isn’t. Remember the four parts of the soul and the fact your Neshamah, the Soul Intuition, was incredibly huge, and that it was the part of the soul that enables your mother to freak out whenever you’re in trouble, even if you were on the Moon?) But, just for simplicity’s sake, let’s say all your powers and abilities are functions of the brain.

Because the brain (under this pretend scenario) is the all-powerful director of our being, we could call it the god of our lives. This god is a good administrator, and knows how to effectively delegate authority to get things done. However, having no resources outside of itself to draw upon, the brain-god must divide itself into several large departments, creating from itself a board of directors.

One board member controls our logical and deductive processes, another our imagination and artistic sensibilities. Another board member dominates our sleep and dreams, and one quietly interfaces with our nervous systems. These large sections of the brain—these members of the board of directors, are archangels who execute the will of the brain-god.

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If we were to dissect the archangel areas of the brain, we would discover that within each of them are smaller areas that do more specific jobs within the archangel’s province. For instance, within the archangel of logic we would find the area that adds and subtracts and observes and registers the process of cause and effect. We might find within the artistic archangel an area that allows us to appreciate a beautiful painting, or a sector that sounds an alarm when we see a man wearing brown shoes and white socks with a tuxedo. These middle-management subdivisions of the archangelic zones of the brain are angels.

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Further dividing the brain, we discover that within each of these angelic regions are even smaller areas that control even more specific applications of their angelic department. We could keep dividing and dividing, creating ever smaller ever more specific intelligences, spirits, and yes, even demons.

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Magical evocation is merely identifying the specific spirit who accomplishes the task we want accomplished, then activating in descending order the areas of the brain that control it.

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Gods, archangels, angels, spirits, intelligences, and demons are personifications of all our abilities and potential abilities—a wondrous hierarchy of consciousness that represents the subdivisions of our own soul.

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spirit evocation

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when we talk about the Sephiroth we are talking about levels of consciousness. When I use the term “pure light of Kether” I’m not talking about some big flashlight in the cosmos, I’m talking about the pure omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, omni-the-whole-damned-ball-of-wax consciousness of Deity.

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Keeping that in mind, we must remember that even before we toyed with the idea of the Tree of Life we pondered three kinds of wonderful Nothing (Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur) that, like some huge and tiny cosmic egg, somehow managed to bring ONE (Kether, the Crown, the Self of Deity) into existence. The rest of the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life are merely aspects of this ONE. They appear to degenerate in purity as they descend the Tree, but in actuality, this is just an illusion.

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The light of Kether is One. It is pure consciousness. Its radiance never diminishes. The nine Sephiroth beneath it simply separate and filter the light. This trickle-down consciousness, not some mythological fruit-eating incident, is the real “Fall of Man.”

In figure 26, we see this process of degeneration projected upon the Tree of Life, and colorfully personified somewhat like a cosmic dysfunctional family.

ONE: Kether (Crown), the Self of Deity.

TWO: Chokmah (Wisdom), the Cosmic Father.

THREE: Binah (Understanding), the Cosmic Mother.

FOUR: Chesed (Mercy), the expressed Father, paternal, organized, authoritative.

FIVE: Geburah (Strength), the expressed Mother, active, ferocious, yet nurturing.

Figure 26. Levels of Consciousness.

SIX: Tiphareth (Beauty), the Son who is the end result of all these things.

SEVEN: Netzach (Victory), the degraded Mother, animal emotion.

EIGHT: Hod (Splendor), the degraded Father, animal reason.

NINE: Yesod (Foundation), the degraded Son, animal life.

TEN: Malkuth (Kingdom), the degraded Daughter, the condition of the soul of unenlightened Humanity.

Qabalists further dissect the universe of consciousness by organizing everything into four categories—four Trees of Life. Each Tree corresponds to one of the Four Letters in the Great Divine Name Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh, the four Qabalistic Worlds, and the four parts of the human soul (see figure 27, page 139).

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Remember, these are levels of consciousness, and not places or heavens located somewhere out in space. If you are waiting to die so you can go to one of these “higher” planes, you might be very disappointed. Death might not be what you think it is, and there is no reason to believe you will be any smarter than you were when you were alive. Make the effort to attain illumination while you still have a four-part soul.

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This Divine pecking order is the corporate flow chart of the universe, and of you and me. The ten segments of Deity in Atziluth rule the ten archangels in Briah, who rule the ten groups of angels in Yetzirah, who rule the various spirits down here in the material plane of Assiah. It’s easy to see who rules whom if we imagine the four trees placed one over another, as shown in figure 28 on page 140.

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Spirits are the agents who actually do all the heavy lifting on the material plane. You may think you disagree with me on this. You could point out that natural forces, people, and machines seem to be the instruments that push things around down here. But in truth, it is a spiritual hierarchy that is executor of everything that gets done in the phenomenal universe.

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Figure 27. The Qabalistic Worlds and the human soul

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Figure 28. The Divine Pecking Order.

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For example, I am standing here at the podium at the head of the classroom. I am thirsty and would like a drink of water. I ask a student if he would be kind enough to bring me a glass of water. The kindly student gets up, goes to the water cooler at the back of the classroom, draws me a glass of water and delivers it to me.

This simple scenario doesn’t seem very magical does it? However, from my point of view it was a miraculously successful conjuration. By strength of my will (and with only a few well-chosen magical words of enchantment) I set into obedient motion an entire hierarchy of spiritual beings;

I, Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford (the Deity),

had a need which I defined and named as “thirst” (Divine Name of a desire formulated by the Deity—Atziluth).

Activating my unambiguous spiritual authority as your teacher, I declare the Divine Name (vibrations of sound declaring my thirst) and inspire an archangel (student— Briah) to fulfill my desire.

The archangel then activates an army of angels within himself (in Yetzirah); angels of the eye to seek out and locate the water cooler, angels of nerves and muscles and equilibrium to propel him through space and around obstacles until he reaches his goal.

At the water cooler, the angel then employs the Intelligences and Spirits of gravity and hydrodynamics to fill the glass with water (Assiah).

The process is then reversed until the archangel delivers the water to me thereby fulfilling the will of the Deity.

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This may not be what you think of when you think of magick, but I assure you it is magick. In fact, most of the spiritual activity that took place in the above scenario actually occurred on the invisible plane. No one could see my words of enchantment. No one could see the internal processes that inspired and propelled the student to the water cooler, or the invisible force of gravity. For all intents and purposes, I wanted a drink of water and only seconds after focusing my will upon that desire, a glass of water traveled through space and appeared in my hands.

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Since spirits do the dirty work of creation, Qabalistic magicians theorize that it is only logical that they should be compelled to work for us. After all, these guys are easily bamboozled. They go where they’re pointed and do what they’re told. They’re accustomed to following orders from higher intelligences. However, in magick, it’s not what you know but who you are that counts, and before you can proceed to bamboozle a spirit into believing you are a higher intelligence, you must first bamboozle yourself into believing you are a higher intelligence!

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If I want to enchant Tina, the girl next door, to fall in love with me, it doesn’t matter that I know that Jehovah Tzabaoth is that aspect of Deity served by Haniel, who governs Anael of the Elohim, who commands Hagiel by whom is Kedemel2 compelled. I must first perfectly realize that somewhere in my own complex spiritual composition is a perfect working model of Jehovah Tzabaoth, Haniel, Elohim, Anael of the Elohim, Hagiel, and Kedemel. I must be able to actually identify with the top guy in my own organization, and from that position of authority beseech the archangel to help me conjure the angel that I may order the intelligence in his name so that the spirit will listen to me when I command it to do my bidding.

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Now, does this mean that you will have to study and master all those tongue-twisting god-names and archangels, and angels that (let’s face it) mean nothing to you? Does this mean that you will then have to labor to somehow integrate this mountain of memorized data into your subjective consciousness?

Hell no! You’re a Chicken Qabalist! Don’t worry about it! The essence of this wonderful organization is already integrated into your spiritual matrix. It (and the infinite number of other ways of looking at creation) came as standard equipment when you were born as a human being.

You can, of course, memorize all the goodies if you want to, and I’m sure there will be some of you who will want to.3 But I want you to know that it is not essential to do so. It is only necessary that you program your spiritual worldview with this image of an ordered hierarchy of consciousness. Eventually, your recognition of these Qabalistic facts of life will enable you to effortlessly and naturally align and harmonize the various aspects of your consciousness with the Qabalistic facts of life. Once this is achieved (and it will most likely happen without you realizing that it has happened) you will discover your place in the divine hierarchy and why only you can fill that position.

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I have prepared a flow chart (Table 3, pages 144-145) that shows the classic Qabalistic hierarchy of divine name, archangel, angel (and the angelic choir to which it belongs) and the intelligence and spirit attributed to each Sephirah on the Tree of Life. You can use this information to construct complex rituals of formal evocation, such as those found in any number of magical texts.

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You can also design simple house-and-garden variety spells such as this ditty I wrote and recited at the appearance of Venus in the evening or early morning sky:

O Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Tzabaoth,

You know the dreams of fools.

Thee I invoke to hear my oath,

In Nogah where Venus rules.

O Haniel, Great Archangel.

Glory of God thou art,

Send Anael, love’s bold Angel

To touch sweet Tina’s heart.

Come Hagiel! Come Hagiel!

In Anael’s name, obey!

Compel Kedemel to do my will

Tina love me night and day!

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Table 3. The Hierarchy of Spirits: Divine Name Governs Archangel who Governs Angel who Governs Intelligence who Governs Spirit.

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Intelligence of Yesod in Assiah: Maika be-Tarshishim ve-ad be-Ruah Shehaqim.

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THE CHICKEN TAROT AND THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGEL

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While it is true that little or no evidence exists that would suggest that the Tarot was the invention of ancient Hebrew Qabalists, it is obvious to anyone not blinded by sectarian prejudice that the 78 cards of a standard tarot deck are constructed, organized, and characterized in perfect harmony with fundamental Qabalistic principles.

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working with the Tarot is the fastest way I know of learning Qabalistic fundamentals and one of the most practical things one can do with the Qabalah.

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The Hebrew Qabalah forms the foundation of the Western Mystery Tradition and the Western Hermetic arts. This tradition includes Astrology, Alchemy, Jewish and Christian Mysticism, Ceremonial Magick, and Tarot. Of all of these disciplines, the Tarot is the most perfect representation of Qabalistic fundamentals and is the common denominator between the various systems.

Whether we realize it or not, when we work with the Tarot, we are working with the Qabalah. Tarot’s like the DNA of the Qabalah— better than that—it’s actually the picture-book of the Qabalah. I know there are many tarotists who are aware of the Qabalistic roots of the Tarot but, for one reason or another, they choose not to incorporate any Qabalistic wisdom in their arsenal of Tarot tools.

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AT: Perhaps that’s because the Qabalah is based on the Bible, is it not? How could it possibly be relevant to those of us who are not Jewish or Christian?

LBC: Some people think that because the Qabalah seems to be based on the Bible that it must be reserved for Jews or Christians, and therefore it has no place in neo-pagan or New Age thought. Such is not the case. The Qabalah is not a belief system. It’s a way of looking at things. It’s a way of organizing your universe so neatly that you eventually discover your own place in it. It’s a way of connecting absolutely everything in the universe with absolutely everything else until, eventually, you achieve a transcendent level of consciousness in which you realize there is nothing left to connect.

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there are many Qabalistic texts, some of them are pretty bizarre. If you’re not careful, you’ll wind up squandering thirty or forty years of your life counting the nostril hairs of God.

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First of all, there is only one universe, only one absolute. Call it God. Call it what you want, but It’s the One thing that contains all the other things in the world—It’s the great One beyond which there is nothing. Now, that “nothing” is a pretty important concept in the Qabalah, because that’s where the One and subsequently all the other stuff comes from. In the Tarot, this super-nothing is represented by the Fool card.

A pure buffoon skips toward his doom.
An abyss of profound uncertainties.
It takes a Fool to seed that womb
With all possible, possibilities.

Ultimately, the Fool is the only real Tarot card. In essence, all the other cards live inside the Fool—just like you and me and all the other components of creation live inside the inscrutable consciousness of Deity.

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AT: Do all 78 cards live inside the Fool card?

LBC: Technically, yes. Of course they do. But for our purposes it will be better to think of the Tarot as two distinct groups of cards. The Greater Arcana (or the 22 Trumps); and the Lesser Arcana (56 cards broken up into four suits, each suit containing one Ace, four Court Cards, and nine Small Cards).

Let’s look first at the trumps. We put the Fool under our microscope and we see that there are 22 trumps (including the Fool). These are the cards most people think of when they hear the word Tarot: Fool, Magician, High Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement, and World.

Now, there just so happens to be 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. What a coincidence! The Hebrew alphabet is really the foundation of the Qabalah and (though it might not be immediately obvious) the 22 trumps are the visual expressions of the 22 letters and their esoteric meanings.

Now, some of your readers, might use the 22 trumps exclusively when they read the cards for themselves or others. If that’s the case, each spread could actually be spelling out words.

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AT: You mean the cards could be literally spelling out the answer to a question?

LBC: That’s exactly what I’m saying. Tell me, what is one of the most common questions a Tarot reader is asked to answer?

AT: Questions of romance, I suppose. “Should I marry my sweetheart?”

LBC: “Should I marry my sweetheart?” Fine! Using a standard ten-card Celtic-Cross spread with the Empress as the significator, you lay out the Empress. Hierophant, Hanged Man, Tower, World, Emperor, High Priestess. Hermit, Sun and Justice. I’m sure there are infinite ways to interpret these cards in this order, but one unmistakable characteristic of the spread is the fact that the cards spell the words “DUMP THE GIRL.”

Vaporous mysticism is fine, but for Heaven’s sake don’t ignore the obvious! What if the Hermit, the Magician and the Hanged Man are really trying to tell your client to buy IBM?2

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AT: My goodness! I had no idea…

LBC: I didn’t think you did. Each of the 22 letters also has a basic meaning. For example, the Hebrew letter that is attributed to the Fool card is Aleph, and Aleph means “ox.” Now, it’s probably unlikely that any of your clients are ever going to scream, “My god, I’m going to marry an ox!” but there are many other relevant things to the modern world of which the word “ox” is suggestive—strength, stability, fertility, harnessed energy—see what I mean? You can never predict how your awareness of this attribute might someday trigger a psychic reaction and provide you and your client the answer.

The meanings of the Hebrew letters for the rest of the trumps are:

Magician—House

Hanged Man—Water

High Priestess—Camel or Rope

Death—Fish

Empress—Door

Temperance—Tent pole

Emperor—Window

Devil—Eye

Hierophant—Nail

Tower—Mouth

Lovers—Sword

Star—Fish hook

Chariot—Fence

Moon—Back of the head

Strength—Serpent

Sun—Head or face

Hermit—Hand

Judgement—Tooth

Wheel of Fortune—Paim of
the hand

World—Mark or Signature or Cross

Justice—Ox goad

If you did nothing more than learn the meanings of the Hebrew letters for each trump you would have 22 additional sources of information to draw upon when reading the cards.

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AT: Again, Rabbi, I have to say…

LBC: Look, do you want to hear what I have to say or not?

AT: Most certainly, I beg your…

LBC: Qabalists attribute twelve letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the signs of the zodiac, seven letters to the seven planets of the ancients, and three letters to the three primitive elements.

Now, it just so happens that the 22 trumps of the Tarot are divided and attributed in precisely the same way. What a coincidence! The Emperor is Aries, Heirophant Taurus, Lovers Gemini, Chariot Cancer, Strength Leo, Hermit Virgo, Justice Libra, Death Scorpio, Temperance Sagittarius, Devil Capricorn, Star Aquarius, and Moon Pisces.

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Figure 29. The 22 tarot trumps are created by the 22 letters of the sacred Hebrew alphabet.

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In a reading, a zodiacal trump might obviously be pointing to a specific time of year, perhaps the questioner’s birth-sign, or that of someone else important to the reading. Maybe the card is pinpointing an appropriate time to schedule an event such as a wedding, or a vacation.

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Signs of the zodiac represent more than just time coordinates. Each sign (and consequently each zodiac trump) has attached to it a litany of traditional plants, animals, precious stones, foods, drugs, and deities sacred to cultures and mythologies from around the world. All these attributes are hiding just below the surface of each card.

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Whether we consciously recognize them or not, these are archetypal images that we share with every other human being on the planet—and Qabalah is the glue that holds them all together. Depending upon the circumstances, the Justice card could stand for an emerald, or an aloe plant, or an elephant. The Emperor might suggest ruby, or geranium, or a ram.

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AT: But how can a tarot reader apply this information practically in a reading?

LBC: It all depends upon the question. If it concerns matters of health, a zodiac sign is attributed to each part of the body. The Moon card (Pisces) could indicate the feet, or the Lovers (Gemini), the lungs, or Strength card (Leo), the heart. There’s no end to the applications.

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let’s look at planetary trumps: The Magician is Mercury, the High Priestess is Luna, the Empress is Venus, the Wheel of Fortune is Jupiter, the Tower is Mars, the Sun card is the Sun, and the World is Saturn.

Those of your readers who are familiar with astrology know how important planetary influences are to a person’s life. Obviously, we’re not all astrologers, but the planetary trumps (like the zodiac trumps) have lots of traditional correspondences based on the Qabalah. For instance, each of the seven planets represents a day of the week. The Sun card obviously represents Sunday, the High Priestess is the Moon and Monday, the Tower is Mars and Tuesday, the Magician is Mercury and Wednesday, the Wheel of Fortune is Jupiter and Thursday, the Empress is Venus and Friday, the World is Saturn and Saturday.

Each of the planetary trumps also can point to one of the planetary metals. You may not think you will ever need to use this information in a reading, but just in case, it might be helpful to know that mercury is the metal for the Magician, silver rules the High Priestess, copper rules the Empress, tin rules the Wheel of Fortune, iron rules the Tower, gold rules the Sun, and lead rules the World.

The planetary trumps also represent parts of the human body. This information could be helpful in a reading concerning health matters. The Magician rules the nervous system, the High Priestess the lymphatic system, the Empress rules the reproductive system, the Wheel of Fortune rules the digestive system, the Tower rules the muscles, the Sun rules the circulatory system, and the World card rules the bones.

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AT: That leaves three final trump cards which stand for the elements—Air, Water, and Fire—Am I correct?

LBC: Correct.

AT: What happened to the Earth element? Is there no room for Earth in your Qabalah universe?

LBC: Don’t be absurd. Of course there is room for Earth. But Earth is somewhat the stepchild of the universe—in precisely the same way that human beings are somewhat the stepchildren in the family of spiritual beings. We’re vitally important stepchildren, however, and I want to talk about that later. But now let’s get back to the elemental trumps.

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There are three (actually four) trumps that represent elements: The Fool represents Air, the Hanged Man Water, and Judgement, Fire. These three trumps are attributed to the three Mother Letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Mem, and Shin. The fourth element— Earth—is represented by the World card that assumes double duty with the very compatible planet Saturn.

From a Qabalist’s point of view, the elements (as represented by the four elemental trumps) convey a much higher octave of significance than the elemental building-blocks of nature which we will soon see are represented by the Aces, Court Cards and Small Cards. The elemental trumps might be more accurately viewed as profound and primitive spiritual elements.

For instance, the Air of the Fool, instead of representing the mundane concepts of Air, symbolizes the vital essence that animates all life (the Breath of Life). The Water of the Hanged Man is the Great Sea—the universal menstrum that carries the vital essence oflife (the Blood of Life); the Fire of Judgement is the central fire of life—the Holy Spirit—the spark that sustains, and finally consumes and transforms all existence.

The World, being last and lowest of the trumps, represents both the planet Saturn and the element Earth. Saturn, according to mythology, swallowed his own children. This dual attribution is a not so subtle hint that Earth is both the end and the beginning—the foundation of the universe and its dissolution.

However, some very basic and practical attributes of the four elemental trumps are particularly helpful to me when I read the cards. For instance, they can be used to determine direction. The Fool is Air, which by tradition indicates the East; the Hanged Man is Water and the West; Judgement is Fire, traditionally sacred to the South; and the World is Earth, symbolic of the cold North. I’m sure your readers can imagine a circumstance where this directional information could be helpful in a reading?

Finally (and then we’re going to move on to the Lesser Arcana— I’m starving to death), the four elemental trumps can represent our senses: The Fool smells…

AT: (Laughter)

LBC: Oh grow up! The Hanged Man tastes, Judgement sees, and the World touches and feels.

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the Lesser Arcana—the Aces, the Court Cards, and the Small Cards.

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—the trumps are what we saw when we sliced the FOOL into 22 pieces. But if we slice the Fool into only four pieces we see the four Aces—and inside each Ace we find four Court Cards, and nine Small Cards.

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Figure 30. The Aces hold the Court Cards and the Small Cards.

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AT: But why four? Why are there four Aces? Why are there four suits in the tarot?

LBC: That is the best question you’ve asked today. Most of us are aware that the four suits are by tradition attributed to the elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. But where did the concept of these four elements come from? The answer comes straight out of the most fundamental doctrine of Hebrew mysticism—the Great Four-Letter Name of God—YOD HEH VAU HEH. Most nonJews pronounce this Jehovah. Most Jews hold the word in such reverence they never pronounce it at all. Hermetic Qabalists refer to it by its technical name, Tetragrammaton.

In Hebrew mysticism and Qabalah, the great absolute Deity is too abstract to think about. I guess they figured they had a better chance at conceptualizing Deity if they chopped It up into pieces and then methodically meditated about the pieces. The Number Two was still too abstract, and the Number Three was held in such veneration that I guess they finally decided that it would be okay to chop Deity up into four pieces that they called Yod Heh Vau Heh.

To these four pieces they attributed four worlds, which are really layers or frequencies of divine consciousness by which Deity creates everything with Its own thought.

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AT: How does that work exactly?

LBC: How does that work exactly? Give me a break here! If I knew how it worked—exactly—I would be as smart as the Deity, wouldn’t I? Theoretically, here’s the drill: the Deity gets a good idea up in world number 1 (Atziluth, the Archetypal World); and then that idea gets organized in world number 2 (Briah, the Creative World); then that organized idea gets visualized and formulated into a blueprint of the idea in world number 3 (Yetzirah, the Formative World); and finally, the idea actually manifests as an object, or a force, or an energy, down here in world number 4 (Assiah, the Material World). The concept is sort of like the Will, the Heart, the Mind, and the Flesh of Deity.

Because, according to Qabalistic tradition, each of us was created in the image of this four-part Deity, each of our souls is also divided up into four parts. The highest part of the soul is called the Chiah, the Life-Force itself. Then comes the Neshamah (the Soul Intuition), then the Ruach (our Intellect), and finally, the Nephesh (our Animal Soul). The four suits of the tarot are a perfect reflection of this concept. Can you see this?

AT: I think so. I can picture the Deity divided into four parts, and I can imagine the same with the soul, but I don’t quite understand exactly how the four parts of Deity and the four parts of our souls are connected.

LBC: : Just pretend the Deity is comprised of four incredibly gigantic tuning forks that are vibrating four musical notes in a descending scale. (Remember these are vibrations of consciousness, not sound.) Now pretend your soul is comprised of four tiny tuning forks tuned to the same four notes. Even though our tuning forks are infinitely smaller, they are still set into motion by the vibrations of the Deity’s tuning forks, and vibrate in perfect tandem with them. Do you follow me?

AT: Yes, I believe so.

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LBC: If you divide the 56 cards of the Lesser Arcana into four stacks, one for Wands, Cups, Swords, and Disks, you have this fourfold universe laid out in front of you. To really organize your world, lay each of the four stacks face up, with the Ace on top. Beneath the Ace put the four Court Cards (King, Queen, Prince, Princess), then the Small Cards (2 through 10).

The four stacks with the Aces on top are the four letters in the Great Name, YOD HEH VAU HEH, and the cards underneath are the pieces of Deity, Its universe and our own souls. The Wands are the Yod stack, and by tradition are attributed to Fire; the Cups live in the first Heh stack and represent the Water element; the Swords are the Vau stack and Air; and the Disks are the Final Heh stack and are attributed to the Earth element.

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Now these elements are more than just the fire in your fireplace, or the water in your swimming pool, or the air in your lungs, or the earth in your garden. They are all things—all forces—all energies in the universe divided into categories that are either fiery in nature (like nuclear radiation, or Tabasco sauce, or enthusiasm); or watery in nature (like electromagnetism, or beer, or mirrors); or airy in nature (like daydreams, or radio signals, or winds) or earthy in nature (like a coal mine, or stubbornness, or gravity).

It’s the job of these four elements to join with other elements in different combinations and proportions to create the universe. They do this with the help of a fifth element called Spirit. Spirit enables the elements to stick together the same way atoms bond together to form molecules. At the same time, this magical element, Spirit, serves to separate the individual elements just enough so that each tiny unit of Fire, or Water, or Air, or Earth maintains its elemental identity. If Spirit didn’t exist, the four elements would just smash together, turning the universe into mush.

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Spirit is represented in both the Greater and Lesser Arcana of the Tarot. The Judgement card, as we recall, does double-duty as the Trump that represents both Spirit and Fire. But it is in the Lesser Arcana that Spirit reveals itself in remarkable detail by the four Aces, the Court Cards, and the Small Cards that live inside them (see figure 30, page 159).

The four Aces are really the big YOD, HEH, VAU, HEH and everything that goes with it. The Ace of Wands is Spirit of Fire; Ace of Cups is Spirit of Water; Ace of Swords is Spirit of Air; Ace of Disks is Spirit of Earth.

Together, the four Court Cards of each suit are a miniature YOD HEH VAU HEH that subdivides their Aces into four parts. Kings are the fiery nature of their suit, Queens are the watery nature of their suit, Princes are the airy nature of their suit, and the Princesses are the earthy nature of their suit. Are you following this?

The King of Wands is Fire of Fire. Do you see? Fire because he is a King, and Fire because he’s a Wand. The King of Cups would be Fire of Water. Fire because he is King, and Water because his suit is Cups. See how it goes? The Queen of Cups would be…?

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LBC: The Qabalist sees the wonders of creation as the result of the Deity shuffling the cards and dealing them out in different numbers and combinations. It shuffles and draws three or four here—perhaps to create the elemental recipe for a duck; or it deals out three or four cards over there to create pond scum or an aardvark.

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how can we use this information to help us out in a tarot reading? Court Cards are for me the most difficult cards to interpret.

LBC: With the Court Cards, we are in luck, because the Kings, Queens, and Princes each represent 30 degrees of the year (from 20° of one zodiac sign to 20° of the next sign).

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AT: What about the Princesses?

LBC: Good question. I’ll talk about the Princesses later. For the time being, let’s just look at the Kings, Queens, and Princes. The reason why these twelve Court Cards rule from 20° of one sign to 20° of the next is to underscore the necessity for the elements to mix with other elements. If they ruled the entire 30° of a zodiac sign there would be no elemental mix. Besides, we already have twelve perfectly good zodiacal cards represented by the twelve zodiac trumps.

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It’s pretty easy to determine which days in any given year a King, Queen, or Prince represents. This is extremely helpful in a reading, especially when inspiration fails us. At such times we can always remember that the Queen of Cups represents June 11th to July 11th, or the Knight of Disks is August 12th to September 11th.2 This is also helpful knowledge if you wanted to use a person’s birthdate as a significator, or it might even be the birth card of someone who is important to the reading.

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It can be even more meaningful to think about the elemental mix of a Court Card, and how that would translate in the character of an individual or a situation. Kings are the fiery aspect of their suit and so display the most violent and dynamic aspects of their element, also the most fleeting. Queens, being watery, are receptive and hold on to, as well as reflect, the nature of their suit (although, like a good mother, she will eventually relinquish her hold to pass it on to her children). The Prince and Princess are literally the offspring of the King and Queen; the Prince the more active of the two.

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Certain elements combine harmoniously and others don’t, but don’t think you can nail down hard and fast definitions to the character of any tarot card by simply combining buzzwords. No card lives in a vacuum. Its ultimate meaning depends on its relation to its neighbors and the nature of the question. For this reason, the tarot reader should ideally be a Qabalist—armed with the knowledge of the fundamental classifications of everything in his or her universe. Eventually illumination will come, not through analysis or contemplation, but as the result of profound and simple observation.

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Good. Now let’s talk about the 36 Small Cards. (I won’t forget the Princesses). Each of the 36 Small Cards represents one decan (10°) of the year. Their positions are determined with perfect Qabalistic logic, and they nestle neatly under the rulership of a King, or a Queen, or a Prince of their suit.

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Each of the 36 Small Cards (in figure 31, page 165) represents one decan (10°) of the zodiac:

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Figure 31. Each of the 36 Small Cards rules one decan (10°) of the Zodiac.

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♦ The 2s, 3s, 4s represent the cardinal signs of the zodiac: Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn;

♦ The 5s, 6s, 7s represent the fixed signs of the zodiac: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius;

♦ The 8s, 9s, 1 Os represent the mutable signs of the zodiac: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

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Figure 32. Rulership of the Kings. Queens, and Princes. It is the cosmic duty of the elements to mix with each other and knit creation together. Therefore, instead of ruling from 0° to 0° of each zodiac sign, the Kings. Queens, and Princes rule from 20° of one sign to 20° of the next.

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Figure 33. The planets allotted to the Small Cards on the Tree of Life. Starting with 0° Leo, the planets are in descending order: Saturn , Jupiter , Mars , Sun , Venus , Mercury , Moon . Mars is repeated at the end and beginning of the solar year.

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In other words, the 2, 3, and 4 of Wands represent the 1st, 2nd and 3rd decan of Aries—because 2s, 3s and 4s represent Cardinal Signs. Wands are Fire and Aries is the cardinal fire sign of the zodiac.

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a planet is also assigned to each of the 36 Small Cards. Starting with 0° Leo (the 5 of Wands), planets are allotted to the Small Cards in descending Tree of Life order. For your readers who are unfamiliar with the Tree of Life, I’ll just tell you what that order is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon.

You’ll notice that Mars repeats itself at the last decan of Pisces and the first decan of Aries. Qabalists explain this by saying that at the end of winter and the beginning of spring the year needs an extra boost of Mars’ strength to help usher in spring. (Hey! Don’t blame me. I didn’t invent the system.)

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Now can you see where the Small Cards get their traditional meanings? It’s a combination of their Qabalistic and astrological attributes. The 2 of Wands is called Dominion because it is first and foremost a strong and fiery Wand, the suit of the Will; then it is a Two, the purest and strongest position in the Small Card sequence; then it is the first decan of Aries, the strong, aggressive and energy-filled sign of the zodiac; finally, the planet attributed to the 2 of Wands is Mars, and Mars is very, very happy to be in Aries. In other words—Wand plus Two plus Aries plus Mars equals “Dominion”

All the Small Cards aren’t as obvious as the 2 of Wands, but I guarantee that if you carefully examine the suit, the number, the zodiac sign, and the planet attributed to each Small Card, you will eventually see why it bears its traditional meaning—why the 3 of Cups is Love, why the 6 of Wands is Victory, and the 9 of Swords is Despair and Cruelty.

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the four Princesses. These four maids are treated differently from the other twelve Court Cards. This stems from the Qabalistic doctrine concerning the exiled condition of the human soul.

Now, when I say “exiled” I’m not referring to the old superstition about Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and now we’re all under some kind of bad ju-ju from an abusive creator. And I’m certainly not talking about that obscene and perverted doctrine known as original sin.

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The story of Adam and Eve was originally written as a Qabalistic fable. It, and many of the other “Holy Scriptures,” were crafted to illustrate profound cosmological and spiritual principles. They were created by and for very smart and highly educated specialists in the field of spiritual literature. They are technical texts that were never intended to be consumed like horror comics, and then misinterpreted to further the ambitions of mean-spirited religious bullies (coughing) and others who just can’t seem to (coughing) resist the temptation to enslave the minds and the sex-lives of their fellow creatures (coughing).

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LBC: Right! Remember what I said about four suits representing the four Qabalistic worlds, and that the human soul is a microcosmic reflection of this gigantic four-part reality?

AT: Yes, and that the four Court Cards in each suit are further subdivisions of all this…

LBC: Correct. Now think about the Court Card Kings as representing Atziluth (the Archetypal World), and, at the same time representing the highest part of each of our souls, the Chiah (the Life-Force);

AT: Okay.

LBC: Queens represent the second highest world, Briah (the Creative World), and our Neshamah (the Soul Intuition). Princes represent Yetzirah (the Formative World), and the Ruach, our Intellect; and finally, Princesses represent the lowest world, Assiah (the Material World) and the lowest part of our soul, the Nephesh (the Animal Soul).

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Assiah, the material world we see around us, is just the lowest vibratory expression of the universe. It is where the pure consciousness of Deity is so slowed down—so doped up— that it actually crystallizes. It is where light and energy become matter and the invisible becomes visible.

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The Nephesh, the Animal Soul, is our own personal version of Assiah. It is the only world our Nephesh recognizes. From this extremely limited point of view, both Deity and you and me are trapped, exiled in a frozen prison of matter. We are a Princess who has forgotten her royal birthright. We have fooled ourselves into believing that Assiah is the only reality. We identify ourselves completely with this lowest level of divine consciousness and the lowest part of our soul. But there is a way out—a way to escape the prison of matter and live in the bliss of the highest Qabalistic world. A classic fairytale shows us the way.

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A Princess, a daughter of a King and Queen, is the victim of a magic spell and falls into a deep coma. A charming Prince (also the son of a King and Queen) sees the motionless perfection of this sleeping beauty and falls hopelessly in love with her image. Even though she is asleep (and unlikely to respond in kind) the Prince stoops down into her sarcophagus and kisses her. The pure love coursing through his lips is the magic that awakens the Princess. She is lifted from her tomb and marries the Prince, the act of which simultaneously makes her the Queen and him the King.

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That’s where the fairytale stops, but in the Qabalah, the new King then makes his new Queen pregnant. After doing this, he rolls over and goes to sleep. The Queen gives birth to twins, a Prince and a Princess, who leave the castle for adventures of their own. They get separated. She gets cursed—falls asleep—yada yada yada—we know the story from there.

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That’s how Kings are made. If there were no Princesses—there could be no Kings. She may be asleep, she may be slumbering in the deepest forest, guarded by height-challenged mining engineers, but without her redemption the old sleeping King will never reawaken, and the entire electricity of the universe will short-circuit. This two-way incestuous circuitry is the dynamo that creates and sustains the universe.

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AT: This is all very quaint, Rabbi, but how does it apply to…

LBC: We’re talking about you and me here, booby. The you that you think is you is not you. It is a dream you. In fact, the you that you think is you is a dreamer inside a dreamer inside a dreamer inside a dreamer. You are the King of the universe, who has fallen asleep and is dreaming he is the Queen, who has fallen asleep and is dreaming she is the Prince, who has fallen asleep and is dreaming he is a sleeping Princess.

The first step in our return to our original state is to trick our own Prince into kissing us and waking us up. This is pretty difficult, but it’s not impossible, because we’ve all got one of these Princes running around in the “more awake” world. Even now, he’s beating his f ists against the lid of our glass coffin, trying to wake us up so he can marry us and can get on with his career. Modern Qabalistic magicians call this Prince the Holy Guardian Angel and view the union with their HGA as the first step toward spiritual enlightenment.

Note: dreaming in a dream!

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AT: How do we achieve union with our Holy Guardian Angel?

LBC: You do it by falling head-over-heels in love with love. You do it by using your inner imagination to create the Deity in the image of your most ideal lover, and then surrendering yourself completely and unconditionally.

Now this may sound uncomfortably like what Christians, and Buddhists, and Hindus tell you that you must do to their guys, and up to a point it is. But, no matter what they may tell you, no religion or creed can corner the market on this universal experience. It is totally universal and nonsectarian. It really doesn’t matter what you call the object of your devotion, or how you visualize it. Anything and everything is capable of being the focus for your love for the Holy Guardian Angel.

Now can you see why the Princesses are special? Like you and me, they are positioned at the lowest end of the elemental universe, but they also embody the foundation of the entire universe, and are the key ingredient in the great recipe of creation.

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Qabalists call the dream world of the sleeping Princess the Microcosm, or little universe. It is the world of Assiah and the Nephesh part of our soul. They place it at the very bottom on the Tree of Life. Here, I have some illustrations.

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Figure 34. The World of the Princesses.

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The world of the Prince is Yetzirah, the next higher Qabalistic world, which is known as the Macrocosm, the big world. In us it’s our Ruach. On the Tree of Life, the Macrocosm is attributed to the six Sephiroth in the middle of the Tree.

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Figure 35. The World f the Princes.

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Figure 36. The World of the Queens.

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The world of the Queen is Briah, the next higher Qabalistic world, which is represented on the Tree of Life by the third Sephirah of the Supernal Triad, Binah. This corresponds to the Neshamah part of our soul, the Soul Intuition.

The world of the King is Atziluth, the highest Qabalistic world, which is represented on the Tree of Life by the first and second Sephiroth of the Supernal Triad, Kether and Chokmah, and the Chiah part of our soul, the Life-Force, itself

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I have rambled on, haven’t I? Well, I had to, in order for you to see that the Princesses are just as much a defining key to their suit as the Ace is. The Ace and the Princess are like the Alpha and Omega of their suit. Actually the Princess is the Throne of her Ace.

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Figure 37. The World of the Kings.

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While the other Court Cards and Small Cards represent coordinates of time, by ruling degrees of the zodiac and days of the year, the Aces and their Princesses rule quadrants of Heaven which translate to quadrants of space and areas right here on Earth.

Imagine yourself looking down upon the North Pole of the Earth. Now divide the world in two by drawing a line that runs from the North Pole through Giza and all the way around the world back to the North Pole. Then quarter section the globe by drawing another line at a right angle to the first. The four quadrants of Earth are attributed in Yod Heh Vau Heh order thusly:

♦ The Quadrant east of Giza or most of Asia is ruled by the Ace and Princess of Wands;

♦ The Ace and Princess of Cups rule the area of the Pacific;

♦ The Ace and Princess of Swords rule the Americas; and

♦ The Ace and Princess of Disks rule most of Europe and Africa. (See figure 38.)

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It could be very helpful in readings concerning global matters or international finance.

LBC: Or if the question treats on the subject of travel.

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RABBI LAMED BEN CLIFFORD’S LAST LECTURE: GAMES QABALISTS PLAY

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Gematria, Notariqon, Temura— Games Qabalists Play

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isn’t this what most of you think Qabalah is all about— playing games with numbers, and letters, and words, until you decipher a personal message from God explaining the secrets of creation and affirming the fact that you are the Holy Chosen One?

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First of all we need to know why we are encouraged to play these mind-bending games. Let’s start by reviewing what we’ve learned from the Ten Command-Rants:

All is One.

Realization of the “One” is the second-to-last goal of all Qabalists.

The First Command-Rant is a lie—All is Nothing.

The final goal is to attain consciousness of Nothing.

There really isn’t a creation, time, or space, Heaven, or Earth…but there is a you!

Aren’t you happy to hear that?

We perceive there is a creation, time, and space, Heaven, and Earth because of a fundamental defect in our powers of perception.

Our faulty powers of perception keep us trapped in illusionary existence.

This defect cannot be repaired, but it can be overcome.

How do we overcome this defect?

In order to overcome our defective powers of perception, we must be willing to abuse them until they break.

Bingo! But this can be very dangerous. It may be true that every enlightened sage is insane, but it does not necessarily follow that every insane person is an enlightened sage! We must employ discipline, and strictly limit our techniques of self-abuse to fundamental observations of the illusionary world around us. These observations reveal to us that:

Everything in Heaven and Earth is connected to everything in Heaven and Earth.
Everything in Heaven and Earth is the reflection of everything in Heaven and Earth.
Everything in Heaven and Earth contains the pattern of everything in Heaven and Earth.

You are not likely to gain enlightenment simply by examining all the “things” in illusionary Heaven and Earth. But it is possible to achieve realization of the One (the second-to-last goal of all Qabalists) by a profound and transcendent awareness that you are an indispensable component of the connections, the reflections, and the patterns of the Supreme Being.

Look hard enough at anything and you will eventually see everything.

The object of your observation can be anything at all. Qabalists have learned, however, that some things reveal the Divine connection-reflection-pattern easier than others.

Mathematics is the most profound example because it lays bare, to the tenacious student, the very structure of the universe. Language is another excellent tool for spiritual dissection because, by its very nature, it is a vehicle of connections, reflections, and patterns. Language evokes and transfers images from mind to mind in a manner not dissimilar to the creative fiat of the mythological gods of creation.

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Orthodox Qabalists believe that Hebrew is the most sacred of all languages, and that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are both the building blocks of creation and the tools that put them all together. They believe the Holy Scriptures were divinely inspired and originally written in Hebrew to veil and reveal layer upon layer of ever-deepening spiritual truth. Certainly for devoted Jewish Qabalists this is the case, whether or not there is any historic validity to their belief or not.

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As a Chicken Qabalist I have the greatest respect for the remarkable way parts of the Bible yield astounding treasures to the tinkering student. Furthermore, I give thanks to the Great Poulterer that we have at our disposal that vast body of sectarian literature— hundreds of years of self-referential material, including classic Qabalistic texts, that employ biblical passages as springboards for the most illuminating exegesis. This material remains the foundation of our study whether or not we choose to embrace any of the religious aspects of the work (and this, dear students, is what separates us from our orthodox brothers and sisters)—we are not Qabalists to prove the Bible is holy—we are Qabalists because everything is holy. Look hard enough at anything and you will eventually see everything! Right now— right where you are, God is talking to you from the pages of the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas—from the funny papers, billboards, street signs, ticket stubs, and automobile license plates.

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We don’t always have to be quick to tinker with the letters and numbers when we use the techniques of Gematria, Notariqon, or Temura. We are perpetually bombarded by countless numbers nestled within the billions of impressions we process each day. How many times a day do we write the date? What is 57 doing on a jar of pickles? We listen to the Top 40, watch the News at 7 and go to work by taking the 405 freeway to the 55 to the 5 to the 101.

The ancient Qabalists didn’t spend much time on the turnpike and probably didn’t listen to the Top 40. What they did do was spend a lot of time studying the scriptures, and as the Tenth Command-Rant informs us, the scriptures are certainly as holy as a jar of pickles.

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As a matter of fact, the Bible is already crawling with numbers. Perhaps you’d like a better understanding of what Ezekiel was talking about in his famous vision? A due might be found in the very first chapter and verse of his book. In English it reads:

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the Heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.1

I personally do not think it was important for Ezekiel to make sure we all knew the exact publication date of his book. I do, however, think that he wanted to make it perfectly clear that he might be writing about something other than his psychedelic escapades with flying saucers, four-headed aliens, and dancing skeletons.

In the first verse we find the numbers 30, 4 and 5, or the Hebrew letters and -H, or the Hebrew word which means “birth.”

The second verse has a similar message: In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, we find 5 (-H), and 5 (-H) (duh!)—or the Hebrew word , which means “window!” A window is something through which we observe. It also permits light to enter. Birth, the result of penetrating light? Light penetrating where? The Book of Ezekiel sounds a little more intriguing now doesn’t it? Take a peak at how chapter 8 starts out:

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. (Ezekiel 8: 1).

We find the numbers 6, 6, and 5. I couldn’t find any significant words spelled VVH or even HVV, but when I put the three numbers side-by-side, I see the number 665 which is the sum of the Hebrew words “the womb,” which certainly seems to carry on the theme that was started in chapter 1: verse 1. Light penetrating the womb which gives birth—gives birth to what?

The 20th chapter may tell us. It begins with even more numbers:

And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me. (Ezekiel 20:1).

Number 7,510? Well, we can really get bogged down on numbers that large, but if we reduce the 10 to a 1 we get the number 751, which is the sum of the Hebrew word for “finished man” or “perfect man”: or AYSh ThM. Thus, by investigating the numbers that are mentioned openly in these four verses, we find ourselves teased with the concept of Light penetrating the womb giving birth to the Perfected Man.

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Was that the message Ezekiel was trying to convey? Probably not. But who cares! Whatever it was that the old boy was originally trying to say shrinks to insignificance. It is far more important to my spiritual enlightenment that my mind was forced to churn at breakneck speed to put all of this together, and then open itself up to the infinite potentialities of meaning. Look hard enough at anything and you will eventually see everything! It doesn’t even have to make very much sense what you connect to what. It’s all ultimately connected! Don’t you see?

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The Qabalah doesn’t enable me to merely interpret what somebody else meant to say; it forces me to hear what I need to hear! Each time I make another connection on paper, I am creating a new connection in my head (or perhaps reattaching a connection that was disconnected from the heads of our ancestors vast ages ago), and I am one step nearer to the realization that everything in Heaven and Earth is connected to everything in Heaven and Earth.

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I’ll now leave Ezekiel to the pizza cutter of your own wit. Time is short. I must push on with subjects of Gematria, Notariqon, and Temura, by which we can wring more truths (and Holy lies) from numbers and words. Please remember that these are not the only ways to warm up your cosmic translator, but they certainly are three classic, tried-and-true methods of the Chicken Qabalist.

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GEMATRIA

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Gematria2 is the process by which each letter of a word or series of words is converted to its numerical equivalent. Words yielding the same value are connected by their common numerical vibration and (on one plane or another) descriptive of each other. These correspondences are seldom obvious, and it is the student’s quest to meditate upon the words and numbers until he or she achieves the level of consciousness in which the illusory contradictions are resolved.

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For example, The Hebrew word for “riches” and “power” is (DBA). The three letters add to the sacred number 7. If we spell DBA backward, we get the word (ABD) which means “loss” or “ruin”

While it doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to realize that the opposite or riches and power is loss and ruin, the order and meanings of the individual Hebrew letters in these words tell a simple but profound story.

The Hebrew word “riches” (DBA) suggests a door to a house or barn opening to enclose an ox (an ancient symbol of wealth).

However, the word for “loss” or “ruined” reverses the letters and suggests the ox of wealth finds the barn’s door and escapes. Or, to put it bluntly: Door + Barn + Ox = Good! Ox + Barn + Door = Bad!

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Another famous paradox of Gematria demonstrates that the Hebrew word for Messiah (MShYCh) and the word used to describe the serpent (NChSh) that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden both add to 358. Could this mean that the serpent might be the savior of the world, and the Messiah might lead us to damnation?

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Christians certainly think “Jesus” (= 326) is the “Lord” (= 32), and those two words together = 358 = Messiah. I bet they’d be surprised, however, to learn that every time they dutifully end their prayers in the “name” ( = 340) “Jesus” (= 326), they are Qabalistically invoking 666, the number of the Beast of the Book of the Revelation, and for many, one of the scariest anti-Christian characters in the Bible. Could it be we really don’t understand the meaning of either of these concepts and the number 358 might be our only clue?

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Table 4 is a quick and dirty view of English letters, their Hebrew counterparts and numerical equivalents.4

Table 4. English Alphabet with Possible Hebrew Numerations.

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Some letters have multiple numbers because phonetically they can sound like other letters and those other letters have different numbers. For example, the English word “cat” could be spelled many ways using Hebrew letters. Just a few ways it could be spelled are shown below:

As Hebrew doesn’t use any vowels, “cat” can also be spelled with just the consonants:

The numeration of the word changes, with variations in spelling offering us more food for thought and more opportunity for intellectual overload so coveted by Chicken Qabalists. As far as I’m concerned, all spelling is equally correct as long as it evokes a chain reaction of thoughts. The Chicken Qabalist should feel free to transliterate English letters and words using a broad assortment of methods. For example, if I change each English letter of my name to a logical Hebrew counterpart (a very un-Hebrew thing to do) we arrive at the number 419:

LAMED

30 + 1 + 40 + 5 + 4

= 80

BEN

2 + 5 + 50

= 57

CLIFFORD

20 + 30 + 10 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 200 + 4

= 282

= 419

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Now 419 is a very interesting number. First of all, it is a Prime Number and cannot be divided by any other number but itself. There are some pretty important Hebrew words that add to 419. The word for the Hebrew letter Teth () adds to 419. means “serpent” and all the wonderful and scary things that go with the idea of serpent. According to our Sepher Yetzirah, Teth is the letter of the zodiac sign of Leo. On the Tree of Life, Teth is the path that joins the fourth Sephirah, Chesed, to the fifth Sephirah, Geburah. In the Tarot, Teth is the Strength card.

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Wow! Isn’t 419 a great number? But if we look a little deeper, we discover that the Hebrew words Sodom and Gomorah also add to 419, and we know what the Bible tells us happened to those communities. Oops! Maybe I better spell my name differently. In more strict Hebrew, it might be spelled as follows:

LMD

30 + 40 + 4

= 74

2 + 50

= 52

CLPhRD

20 + 30 + 80 + 200 + 4

= 334

= 460

But 460 is also a wonderful number (and a big number in traditional Judaism) because it is the sum of the letters of the words “Holiness to the Lord” . These words were engraved upon a gold plate that the High Priest of Israel wore on his hat.

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My first name can further be reduced to the simple letter L (), which, after all, is spelled LMD and rendered “Lamed” in English. I can also treat the “C” in Clifford as a “Q,” and we get the following:

= 30

2 + 50

= 52

QLPhRD

100 + 30 + 80 + 200 + 4

= 414

= 496

Here a very interesting number. Hebrew words that add to 496 include the great sea-devil Leviathan and Malkuth the tenth and lowest Sephirah on the Tree of Life.

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Determining a word’s number is only the beginning of the fun. Next we pick the number apart by every means known and a few that we will make up. For example: 496 is the sum of the numbers 1 through 31. (In other words, if 496 was a barrel of wine, 31 would be the brandy distilled from that wine.) Turning to one of our number texts5 we find that 31 has several entries. The two most important, in my opinion, are AL () which is the simplest way to say God in Hebrew, and LA () which means “not.” This reminds us of the first two Command-Rants; All is One, AL () and All is Nothing, LA (). Say what you will about Islam, but Allah is a great name for God!

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There are no hard and fast rules about how you go about chasing one number to another. Go crazy. That’s the idea!6 Feel free to break into other levels of correspondences. For instance: 496 = Malkuth, and on the Tree of Life it is 10, and represents the material plane. That means that 496 must also represent all things 10ish (after all 4 + 9 + 6 = 19 and 1 + 9 = 10). The Hebrew letter Yod enumerates to 10. Yod means “hand.” Using Hebrew for English, HA means “this” and ND () means “a skin bottle.” Also, HAND = 60. The number 60 is the Hebrew letter (Samekh) which suggests the phallus (Oh my God! This skin bottle!) and when spelled in full is SMK, which enumerates to 120, which is the number of the word “on,” the sacred Greek word for “existence” and “being,”7 and one of the most holy Egyptian words for Deity in the person of the Sun.

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See what we’ve done? Even this little excursion around Gematrialand has rewarded us with the provocative revelation that Yod, the creative hand of God, and the essence of existence and being, manifests as the Sun in our macrocosmic solar system, and also as the human phallus (this skin bottle, no less!) in the microcosmic material plane of Malkuth, the 10th and lowest Sephirah on the Tree of Life—whose number is 496.

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What does this all mean? Who cares!

You can see where this is all going, can’t you? Like a mountain goat leaping ecstatically from crag to crag, one thought springs into another, and another, ad infinitum. You can continue, almost forever, connecting things that you never thought were connected. Sooner or later something’s going to snap and you will overcome the fundamental defect in your powers of perception.

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But don’t expect illumination to come as the result of some particular revelation concerning numbers or language. No, no, no, my children! Getting all worked up over those discoveries will chase away your friends and ruin your social life. Your Qabalistic enlightenment will come quietly from the simple, but profound, realization that you are integrally connected to everything—just like these numbers and letters.

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Now let’s move on to the techniques of Notariqon and Temura. They are really elaborations on Gematria because, in the final analysis, the number of the letter or word remains of primary importance. Let’s look first at Notariqon.

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NOTARIQON

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There are two kinds of Notariqon.8 The first condenses a word, sentence, or a phrase into a more simple form in order to extract a more fundamental truth. The second method expands a word into a sentence whose component words are the initials of the original word.

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The former is the most commonly used, and is exercised by using only the initials of the composite words to arrive at another word or number of significance. There are thousands of examples of this to be found in the Hebrew words and phrases in the Bible. Quite frankly, it’s not really very impressive, because anybody can make most anything say most anything else. It all depends upon your personal or sectarian prejudices.9 The spiritual pay-off does not come from proving a word is the perfect cryptographic definition of something else, but by breaking free of our day-to-day thought patterns and realizing that anything is potentially anything else.

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For our example, observe that the phrase, “I did it on time,” reduces to the word “IDIOT.” IDIOT = I (10) + D (4) +I (10) + 0 (6) + Th (400) = 430 = Nephesh, the Animal Soul of Man. (Oh God! This is getting too easy!)

The next form of Notariqon is a process that expands a letter, a word, or a sentence. For our example, let’s continue the chain of ideas we started earlier and expand upon the letter Yod: Yod means “hand” and the word HAND can be expanded to reveal America’s most worn out and meaningless blessing, “HAVE A NICE DAY.”

But let’s not stop here. When we expand “Have a nice day,” we discover that the individual letters of that nauseating mantra of insincerity expand into the delicious axiom of decadence: “HEROIN AND VODKA EASE AGONY. NOTHING IS CERTAIN EXCEPT DEATH AND YESTERDAY.”

What does it all mean? Who cares!

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TEMURA

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With Temura,10 letters are replaced by other letters. It is the classic “secret code.” There are infinite ways this can be done, so I will only show you a few. The most primitive form of Temura simply rearranges the letters in a word or phrase. Let’s look at the phrase “HAVE A NICE DAY.” It can be rearranged to yield all sorts of profundities.

♦ You may start your day with the simple affirmation—EACH DAY NAÏVE

♦ Or coldly curse people by telling them to “HAVE AN ICE DAY.”

♦ You might suggest a dessert to your friend, “HAVE A ICE, ANDY.”

♦ Or meet someone at the uncomfortable corner of HAY AND ICE AVE.

♦ Did you ever begin your prayer to David, the patron saint of outlaw motorcyclists?—AVE, CHAIN DAVE.

♦ Movie villains may ask, “CAN A HEAVY DIE?”

♦ What a stupid question. Of course, A HEAVY CAN DIE.

♦ You might admire someone’s firm handshake and exclaim, “YEA! A VICE HAND.”

♦ You might eat too much chocolate and have to warn people, “I HEAVE A CANDY!”

♦ Your dentist might make you wear a sign that says I A DECAY HAVEN.

♦ Or she may cruelly admonish you, HA! NAÏVE DECAY!

♦ To honor dead spies, paradise might host a yearly CIA HEAVEN DAY.

♦ A hypochondriac might try to color his imaginary illness and DYE A VAIN ACHE.

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Unfortunately, none of the above statements make any sense—but who cares! Look at all the unconnected things that got themselves connected. However, if we were dealing with Hebrew letters and words that have their own numerical equivalents and multiple definitions, we might find all sorts of entertaining and enlightening messages.

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The most common way Qabalists replace one letter with another is by utilizing a table called AIQ BKR, or The Qabalah of the Nine Chambers. See Table 5, page 195.

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Letters having the same single digit root [1-10-100], [2-20-200], [3-30-300], etc.) are grouped together in nine chambers. The letter A can be replaced by I (or J or Y) or Q. The letter B can be replaced by K or R, thus the name AIQ BKR. The Hebrew word for “bull,” PR (280) could be replaced by the Hebrew word for “bosom” ChB (10). The English word LID (34) conceals the word ShAM (341).

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Table 5. The Qabalah of the Nine Chambers.

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The Qabalah of the Nine Chambers (Table 5) is particularly helpful for those Chicken Qabalists who dabble with Magick Squares. A Magick Square is really the numerical matrix of its parent Sephirah on the Tree of Life. In other words, Binah is the third Sephirah, and therefore is the Sephiratic expression of the planet Saturn. Consequently, the Magick Square of Saturn is a square 3 × 3.

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This follows right down the Tree of Life and right up the number scale: the Magick Square of Jupiter (4th Sephirah, Chesed) is a square 4 × 4; the Magick Square of Mars (5th Sephirah, Geburah) is a square 5 × 5; the Magick Square of the Sun (6th Sephirah, Tiphareth) is a square 6 × 6; the Magick Square of Venus (7th Sephirah, Netzach) is a square 7 × 7; the Magick Square of Mercury (8th Sephirah, Hod) is a square 8 × 8; and the Magick Square of Luna (9th Sephirah, Yesod) is a square 9 × 9.

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These Magic Squares (see figure 39, page 196) are filled with numbers—the same amount of numbers as there are squares in the Magic Square. Thus, the Magick Square of Saturn/Binah (3 × 3 = 9) will contain the numbers 1-9; the Square of Jupiter/Chesed 1-16; the Square of Mars/Geburah 1-25; the Square of Sol/Tiphareth 1-36; the Square of Venus 1-49; the Square of Mercury 1-64; and the Square of Luna 1-81.

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Figure 39. Planetary Magick Squares.

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The numbers of all Magick Squares are ingeniously arranged such that the sum of the integer in any horizontal, vertical, or main diagonal line is always the same.

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You will also notice that the numbers 1 through 10 and the numbers 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 are in bold type wherever they appear in the various Magick Squares. This is because these numbers also represent Hebrew letters. Qabalistic magicians have for centuries used these Magick Squares to create the sigils or signatures of angels and various other spiritual beings who personify various aspects of each individual Sephirah. These sigils capture the mathematical essence of the spirit. They can be used to charge talismans or amulets, or when drawn in the air with a magic wand, evoke and focus the spirit’s energy.

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Obviously all the Hebrew letters cannot be represented by all the squares. Even the biggest square, that of Luna, has only 81 squares, completely leaving out room for the letters, Tzaddi (90), Qoph (100), Resh (200), Shin (300), and Tav (400).

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The poor Magick Square for Saturn has only 9 numbers/letters to work with. How could I create the sigil for the bumbling nerd Angel named DORKAEL11 on the Saturn Magick Square? (See figure 40 below.) I can find the 4 for D and the 6 for O and the 1 for A and the 5 for E, but what do I do for the R and the K and the L? 200 and 20 and 30 don’t appear on the Magick Square of Saturn. Am I out of luck? No!

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Figure 40. Creating a Sigil.

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Figure 41. The AthBSh.

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Figure 42. The ALBth.

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That’s where the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers (Table 5) comes in. I look up R in the Nine Chambers’ chart and see that R (200) shares its chamber with K (20) and B (2). There isn’t a 20 in the Magick Square of Saturn but there is a 2. So, in creating the sigil for DORKAEL, I will treat the 200 of R as the 2 of B and use the square of 2. I will also have to use the 2 square for the K as well.

Other techniques of Temura divide the alphabet in two parts in various ways and replace letters with the letter in the box above or below it. The version in figure 41 (above) is called AThBSh (after the first four letters in the code).

The version of Temura in figure 42 is called ALBTh (after the first four letters in its code).

As you can imagine, there are nearly infinite ways to rearrange the letters so that they…12

…rearranging the letters…to peel back…

…infinite ways…

…all we can do is rearrange…

…it just looks like creation…

Sometimes it is so…We don’t really climb the Tree of Life to get back to the Godhead…we just peel back…peel back…like Solomon in the nut garden13…one membrane peeled back to reveal another and another…the center germ of the nut is invisible…is nothing…yet it carries the code of all of its ancestors and the potential of infinite nuts to come…I’m that center germ…not the shell, not the meat, not the membranes….I’m the nothing in the middle.

…sometimes it just becomes so very….
Well, I think I’ve said enough about Temura and
…perhaps I’ve just said enough now.

Please excuse me.

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13 Song of Songs, 6:11.

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You know, dear friends, when all is said and done, it makes no difference how we rearrange or substitute our letters. It makes no difference if one number reveals another number, or word, or—or any of it—as long as all this helps us make a final connection. Because, at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what we’ve done, only that we did.

Every letter, every number, every word, every image, every concept, every thought and component of thought is at once the loving creator, offspring and destroyer of every other letter, every other number, every other word, every other image, every other concept, every other thought and component of thought.

It’s really quite lovely, actually—so tidy.

Yes, so very tidy, and…and so very, very…

smooth.14

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14 The Smooth Point. One of the traditional titles of Kether.

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