The Sepher Yetzirah seems to be a important source for Franz
Bardon's "Key to the true Quabbalah".
Eric Yudelove was the first
one who was able to prove the connection of Franz Bardon's works with the
Western Quabbalah, the Tao and the Sepher Yetzira.
I highly recommend this
interesting book to every student of Magic, Quabbalah, Sexual Magic and Tao.
The Tao & The Tree of Life.
by
Eric Yudelove
(I think that the entire book is very interesting and therefore I give also a table of contents.)
Chapter 1 The Shaman and the Three Worlds
A
Shamanic Journey~Taoist Yoga and the Kabbalah
Chapter 2 The Missing Link Jewish and Western Kabbalah
Early History of the Kabbalah~The Tree of Live~Modern Jewish Kabbalism~Western
Kabbalism
Chapter 3 The Structure of the Universe
Wu Chi and
Ein Soph~ Tai Chi and Kether~Thc Sepheroth~
Thc Three Elemental
Forces~Energies, Forces, and Elements~The Microcosm~.
The Elements~Chi and
Akasha~Shamanic Structure
Chapter 4 Taoist Yoga . .
Early History~Taoist Yoga
IH the West~ Mantak Chia and the Healing Tao~
.The Chi Energy System~The Two
Main Energy Channels~The Mind Directs
the Chi~The Tan Tien~ Restoring
Prenatal Chi~The Inner Smile~The Six Healing
Sounds~.Sexual
Practice~Healing Love~ Testicle and Ovarian Breathing ~Iron Shirt
Chi Kung
~.Fusion of the Five Elements ~ Inner and Outer Fusion~.Controlling
Effect
of the Elements~ The EnergyBody or Pearl~Fusion of the Elements, Part 2
~
The Creation Cycle~ The ThrustiHg Routes~The Belt Routes~Fusion of the Five
Elements, Part 3
Chapter 5 The Sepher Yetzirah and Franz Bardon
Maaseh
Merkabah~ The Workings of the Charlot~The
First Written Book of the
Kabbalah~The Author of the
Sepher Yetzirah~The 32 Mystical Paths~The
Alchemical
Tradition ~. Taoist Inner Alchemy~Kan and
Li Alchemical Formulas~Lost
Traditions of the Sepher
Yetzirah~Franz Bardon~Further Mysteries of the
Three
Mother Letters ~ The Power of Sound ~Balancing
the Elements~The Seven Double
Letters~The Twelve
Simple Letters~The Bardon Kabbalistic System
The Tao and the Tree
The Golden Dawn~ The Training
of a Western Kabbalist
~ Pathworking ~ The Middle Pillar Exercise ~ The
Lightning
Flash and the Serpent's Path~The 32 Paths
and the 32 Meridians~ The Goals of
Taoist Yoga and
Western Kabbalah~ The higher Mysteries of Inner
Alchemy~The
Energy Body and the Body of light
Chapter 7 The Sexual Mysteries ...
The Hebrew
Mysteries~The Zohar~The Shekinah~
Sexual Partners for the Western Kabbalist
and Taoist~
Western Sexual Mysteries~Ritual Sex~Sex Magick~
East Meets
West~Taoist Sexual Secrets and the Western
Kabbalah~Testicle and Ovarian
Breathing Explained~
The Big Draw
Chapter 8 The North Star and the Teli
The
Intermediate Formulas~Kan and Li~The Planets and the Stars
~The North Star
And the Big Dipper~The Sealing of the Five
Senses and the Seven Double
Letters~
Star Magick~Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law
.The
Congress of Heaven and Earth~Return to the Source
Conclusion
Appendix A Taoist Meditations
~)The Inner Smile and
the Six Healing Sounds 2)The
Microcosmic Orbit 3)Fusion of the Five Elements
4)Healing Love ~The God and Goddess
Appendix B Kabbalistic Meditations
1)The Lightning
Flash, The Serpent's Path And the Middle Pillar
2)Building the Tree of Life
and the Aura
3)Three Mother Letters Meditation
Bibliography
Index
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(
This excerpt contains only parts which are related to Franz Bardon.)
In the beginning, the Kabbalah was strictly a Jewish system. It developed as
an esoteric, or hidden, explanation of the meaning of the Torah.
The Torah
is the first five books of the Bible. It is said to have been written by Moses
and consists of the books Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.
It is handwritten on scrolls in synagogues all over the world and printed in
Hebrew, English, French, Chinese, and so on, in every Bible published anywhere
on earth.
It would appear obvious that mystical traditions would arise among
the jews, just as they did in all other religions.
The Kabbalah was a secret
tradition for most of its history. It was an oral tradition handed down from
master to disciple. The word Kabbalah translates "to receive," which
is indicative of the apprentice relationship necessary to learn Kabbalah from a
teacher.
The early history of the Kabbalah is shrouded in mystery and legend. One
legend tells that the Archangel Raziel taught Kabbalah to Adam after his
expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Another attributes Abraham as the first
Kabbalist and the author of the Sepher Yetzirah, one of the two classic texts of
the Kabbalah. Another legend tells of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai with the
original Ten commandments. On these original tablets were written the Kabbalah.
When Moses saw the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf, he deemed them unworthy to
receive this higher law and destroyed the original tablets. He then climbed to
the heights of Mt. Sinai and returned to the people with a simple legal code to
govern the rebellious, recently freed slaves of Pharaoh. The original ten rules
of the Kabbalah were orally related to Aaron, the High Priest and Moses'
brother. Thereafter, the Kabbalah was reserved for only the priesthood and the
very learned. A man must first be learned in the law before he could approach
the Kabbalah.
What makes the Jewish Kabbalah even more difficult is the fact
that there were many different schools and systems. There is no one Kabbalah
among the Jews. There is a body of knowledge that is composed of traditions
arising during more than five thousand years of growth.
During most of this time, the Kabbalah belonged exclusively to the Jews. In the twelfth century, the Kabbalah emerged from secrecy in Spain. It was here that the diagram known as the Tree of Life first appeared. This diagram is the missing link between the two traditions of Jewish and Western Kabbalism.
Figure 1: Bookplate from Portae Lucis, 1516
Almost all of Western Kabbalism is built upon this Tree.
Jewish Kabbalism places much less emphasis upon it.
Specifically, its first
appearance in a book was in Portae
Lucis in 1516. This was a Latin
translation of Shaare Orah (Gates of Light) written by Rabbi Joseph Gikatalia
(1248-1323) around the year 1290. This was a time of great messianic fervor
among the Jews based on the prophetic teaching of Abraham Abulafia, the master
Kabbalist. The book was not actually printed, though, until the year 1516 and
existed until then in manuscript form. On the title page, a seated man is shown
holding a tree with the ten Sepheroth.
The publication of this book
corresponds with the creation of a new Kabbalah. The term "Christian
Kabbalah" could accurately be applied to this new Kabbalah at that point in
time—1516. Strangely, a printed Hebrew version of this book did not appear
until 1559. This was one year after the first printed edition of The Zohar
appeared. The Zohar is a massive work. It is, along with the Sepher Yetzirah,
the classic book of Jewish Kabbalism. It caused a revolutionary change in Jewish
Kabbalah, but its influence barely touched Western Kabbalah.
However, this
other little known book, Portae Lucis, exerted tremendous influence in two
separate directions. Shortly after its publication in Latin, a group of fervent
Dominicans tried to convince Pope Leo X to confiscate and burn all Jewish books.
The Christian mystic, Johann Reuchlin (1455 1522), drew from this book in his
own classic De Arte Cabalistica (On the Art of the Kabbalah, 1517) to convince
the Pope, to whom it was dedicated, of the value of Jewish teachings and the
Hebrew books were saved.
Reuchlin believed that the Kabbalah contained the
doctrine of Christianity. He taught that in the age of the patriarchs, before
Moses, God had a three lettered name such as YHV, the Trigramaton. Later in
time, the four lettered name of God, the Tetragrammaton, YHVH, was first
revealed to Moses, as stated in Exodus 3:15. In the Christian era, by adding the
letter Shin to the Tetragrammaton you get the five
letter name of god, the
Pentagramaton, YHShVH. This is also the Hebrew spelling of Jesus' name. This was
the early basis of Christian Kabbalah.
Reuchlin was also aware that the
Kabbalists practiced their religion with devotional love of God rather than the
more traditional fear of God. He thought that these Kabbalists were very "Christian"
in their behavior. The Kabbalah also talked about the Messiah. Reuchlin tried to
convince the Pope that the Kabbalists were really talking about Jesus. As a
historical matter, the Kabbalists did not believe that the Messiah had yet
appeared, while the Christians believed it was Jesus.
On the other hand,
occult groups throughout Europe were greatly influenced by the teachings of this
book. It continues to exert that influence
The teachings in Saarei Orah cannot be said to be at the heart of modern
Jewish Kabbalah. As it exists today, most Jewish Kabbalists follow the teachings
of The Zohar and its interpretations by the great Rabbi Isaac Luria (1524 1572)
known as the Ari. Lurianic Kabbalism is vastly complex. However, its basic
theory, when stripped down to essentials, is remarkably consistent with modern
physics in describing the creation of the universe and its evolution.
It is
Lurianic Kabbalism that expanded the importance of the Lower World in Jewish
Kabbalism. This Lower World is a dark, demonic place where sparks of divine
light live in exile. The Lurianic Kabbalist uses a meditational technique to
travel to the Lower World (the world of the Qlippoth) to rescue the divine
sparks and bring them to the Upper World. This was called a Unification because
God's exiled light was being brought together with its source.
Lurianic
Kabbalism is virtually unknown to followers of the Western Tradition of
Kabbalism. Western Kabbalists were most concerned with the Tree of Life and the
Sepheroth. This is part of, but by no means the totality of, Jewish Kabbalah.
The Tarot also became intimately involved with Western Kabbalism and the Tree of
Life. Jewish Kabbalists abhor the Tarot. They will not talk about it
This,
in a nutshell, is the state of the Kabbalah today. Two main groups—the
Jewish and the Western Kabbalists— essentially do not know each other.
Jewish
Kabbalism and Western Kabbalism are two very different traditions. Western
Kabbalah is an outgrowth of the crossover of bits and pieces of the Jewish
Kabbalah into the non Jewish world where it was combined with other traditions
to form a synthesis that is generally referred to as Western Kabbalah. This
crossover probably began in the twelfth century as Jewish Kabbalah began to shod
its mystique of absolute secrecy and became better known among European Jews who
passed it on to Christian neighbors.
Western Kabbalism seems to have begun to take shape during the Renaissance,
combining Rosicrucianism, astrology, Sufi mysticism brought back from the
Crusades, magic, alchemy, Christian mysticism, hermetics and, of course, Jewish
Kabbalah.
Initially, it was taken up by the priests and the aristocracy. The
Kabbalah afforded a legitimate area of study and a cover for Christians who
wished to explore the occult without being accused of witchcraft and heresy.
By
the mid 1 800's, another piece of Western Kabbalism fell into place, this being
the Tarot. Prior to this, the Tarot had
existed as a fortune telling system.
The Tarot consists of seventy eight cards. Fifty six of these cards are similar
to a modern deck of playing cards with 4 court cards for each suit—King,
Queen, Knight, and Prince (or Princess) instead of three court cards. In
addition, there are twenty two picture cards called the major arcana. The point
of connection for the Kabbalists were the twenty two letters of the Hebrew
alphabet. The source of the twenty two cards of the major arcana is unknown. No
doubt there were secret occult schools that taught of the connections between
the twenty two cards and the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet for some
period of time.
Its first appearance in writing was in France in the 1850's
in the famous occultist Eliphas Levi's two volume Dogma and Theory of High
Magic. Here Tarot was portrayed as being the basis of a transcendental system of
expanding consciousness known as magic, founded upon the principles of Kabbalah.
Needless to say, it created quite a storm.
The Hebrew Kabbalists never
accepted the Tarot as having anything to do whatsoever with Kabbalah. It
probably is based on the prohibition in the Ten Commandments against any
paintings and graven images as well as rigidity of thinking. Although the Hebrew
Kabbalah is built upon a numerological system wherein words, phrases, and ideas
of equal numerical value were seen as having an inner connection (every Hebrew
letter also being a number), they do not recognize any connection between these
twenty two picture cards and the twenty-two Hebrew letters. This is probably the
main stumbling block between Hebrew and Western Kabbalists. I will not go into
the pros and cons of each position here. A Hebrew Kabbalist is right when he
says that Tarot is not part of the Kabbalah, just as the Western Kabbalist is
right when he says it is. The Kabbalah they are each talking about is a
different system than the others.
The Western Kabbalah gained fame and
notoriety in late nineteenth and twentieth century England in occult groups such
as the Golden Dawn. Most of modern Western Kabbalism is directly based on the
work of these English explorers who added Egyptian trappings to round out the
system. Aleister Crowley, a graduate of the Golden Dawn, was able to show the
universal connection of the Kabbalah with all other mystical and religious
systems. Despite his controversial reputation, no man is more responsible than
Crowley in pointing out the universality of Western Kabbalism. And, herein lies
its great appeal. Whereas Hebrew Kabbalism is all but inaccessible except to a
small group of devout Jews, and Taoist Yoga is steeped in Chinese symbolism,
Western Kabbalism is universal in its ability to encompass all systems. Perhaps
Western Tradition is a better term for it than Western Kabbalah.
The Western
Tradition is still young compared to its Taoist and Hebrew brethren. It needs
time to grow.
The Hebrew Kabbalah, in turn, is just beginning to emerge from
a long period of dormancy. Modern scholarship by authors like Gershon Scholem
have again given it legitimacy. Brilliant writers such as Aryeh Kaplan have made
the study and practice of Kabbalah among Orthodox and Hasidic Jews once again
fashionable after more than a century of neglect. Universities in Israel now
have Kabbalah departments. It is proselytized on the streets of New York City by
the followers of Rabbi Philip Berg. Slowly, it is coming to life as Jews seek to
explore their mystical heritage. Perhaps, it is a reaction to their
disillusionment with the "rational" world after the Holocaust.
Perhaps, it is the beginning of a whole new experience. Time will tell.
The Taoist sees Later Heaven as the place where the five universal energy
forces were formed out of the interaction of the Three Pure Ones. These five
elements are fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. Everything in the universe is
composed of these five elements in either a pure state or interacting with one
or more of the other elements. The term element is difficult to define. It
refers to energy in the universe. This energy had two poles—Yin and yang,
and five phases or activities generally referred to as elements.
The
Kabbalists saw the first three elements, Fire, Water and Air, as emanations from
the Three Mothers. The Hebrew Kabbalists were most concerned with these three
elements. The element of Air is actually the equivalent of two of the Taoist
elements Wood and Metal. Air is seen as having two poles rather than being
separated into two distinct elements.
Franz Bardon, the German
Hermeticist said in Initiation Into Hermetics that Air has two poles. It
mediates between Fire and Water. the Sepher Yetzirah confirms, numerous times,
that Air acts in a mediator or balancing role. Bardon further says that in its
job as mediator, Air assumes the quality of dryness from Fire and humidity
(moistness) from Water to establish the dual poles. The two poles of Air are
moist and dry. By this same manner of reasoning, Bardon fails to say that the
two poles also take on the qualities of warmth (not hot) and coolness (not
cold). Warm and cool are the two balancing poles of hot and cold. The two poles
of the Air element should be 1 ) moist and warm and 2) cool and dry to act as
mediator between Fire and Water.
I searched for a long time for this
information. Without it I could not complete the correspondences between the
five Taoist and four Western elements. The Taoist element Wood has the quality
of being warm and damp. Bardon's description of one pole of the air element as
humid would appear to match. Metal has the quality of being cool and dry. The
other pole of the Air element in Bardon's system has the quality of dryness.
Close enough. Thus with the Western element Air combining the Taoist elements of
Wood and Metal the two systems, Chinese and Western could be perfectly
correlated.
But still, so what if there is an alchemical and shamanic foundation to the
Sepher Yetzirah? The answer is that these aspects have been lost by later
interpreters. The book contains an entire outline of a very elaborate alchemical
shamanic based system. Few writers or scholars seem to be aware of this. One
person who was learned in just such a tradition was Franz Bardon, a German
Kabbalist and hermeticist who died in 1958. A most remarkable man, he revealed
in his three completed books a magical universe unlike anything previously
published in their openness and desire to provide the means and explanations to
explore the mysteries. His book The Key to the True Quabbalah (Dieter Rüggeberg,
1957) is an absolutely stunning and totally unique approach to the subject
matter. For years, I could not fathom the source of his information. Then, with
the publication of Aryeh Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah in 1990, I was finally able to
put some pieces of the puzzle together. In Sefer Yetzirah, Aryeh Kaplan actually
translates four different versions of existing texts into English. One version
known a the Short Version (because it's shorter than the others) contains
correspondences for the remaining nineteen letters of the Hebrew alphabet (other
than the Three Mother Letters) that differ in the whole from the other versions.
I had made a chart of all the correspondences in Bardon's Quabbalah and found
that almost all matched the correspondences in the short version of the Sepher
Yetzirah. Considering how different the correspondences in the various versions
could be, I found that Bardon and the Short Version presented remarkable
consistency. For instance, in the Gra version of the Sepher Yetzirah, the Double
Letter "Peh" corresponds in mankind with the left ear, while in the
Long Version "Peh" corresponds with the left nostril. In the Short
Version, it's the right nostril. In Bardon, the letter "P" (the
equivalent of "Peh") corresponds with the right nostril. This happens
in eighteen out of the possible twenty two Hebrew letters. Of the other four,
two are inverted and two are different. The overall connection between the two
books, Bardon's Key to the True Quabbalah and the short version of the Sepher
Yetzirah is not to be denied. Yet, there are certain differences. Bardon's
system had added certain correspondences that are not mentioned in the Sepher
Yetzirah such as color. But, there is no question that much of his Quabbalah as
well as his first book Initiation Into Hermetics (Dieter Rüggeberg, 1956)
are derived from a course of study based on the Sepher Yetzirah. Bardon claims
that the system is thousands of years old and that it does derive from the "Sepher
Jetzirah".
In order to make progress with the Key to the True
Quabbalah, the student must first have mastered most of the lessons in Bardon's
first book Initiation into Hermetics, which deals in large part with mastering
the elements.
I propose that this system is closer in nature to the original
intent of the Sepher Yetzirah, as it was orally transmitted long before it was
ever written down. Later writers tended to interpret the Sepher Yetzirah in
terms of the current popular philosophic and Kabbalistic outlook and little by
little its original meaning became lost. This is particularly true in Aryeh
Kaplan's commentaries in his Sefer Yetzirah. He gives us eighteenth century
Hassidic interpretations as well as those of sixteenth century Issac Luria and
the classic Kabbalists of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries,
etc., but completely missing is the original oral tradition. The reason for this
is that it was lost. The very fact that Bardon's work is so different from other
interpretations, yet is so similar in many ways to Taoist Internal Alchemy,
which is a very ancient system itself, leads me to believe that we may well have
a remnant of the original tradition here. In any case, it provides food for
thought and a practical and methodical approach to the teachings of the Sepher
Yetzirah. This system is basically universal in approach and doesn't require an
encyciopedic knowledge of Hebrew mysticism to understand.
Based on a knowledge of Bardon's system and Taoist Internal Alchemy, when we
return to our discussion of the Three Mother Letters, some of the mystery drops
away.
In Chapter 1 1 of the Sepher Yetzirah there is a further reference to
the number Three. We are told that the universe was created with letters,
numbers, and sounds (speech). These are called collectively the Three Sepharim,
or Three Books. Aryeh Kaplan states that the letters, numbers and sounds (he
translates
them as text, number, and communication) correspond to the three divisions of
the Mother Letters; Universe, Year, and Soul, respectively, and represent the
aspects of quantity, quality, and communication.
We are being told that aside from the letters and numbers from which the
Sephier Yetzirah was composed, sound is also a key to the mysteries.
Then,
in Chapter 2:1, we are told Mem hums, Shin hisses and Aleph is the breath of air
mediating between them. This is the beginning of the training with the Three
Elements. We learn the sound of the Three Mothers. Mem is hummed mm m m m; Shin
is hissed sh h h h h; and Aleph is sounded like a breath of air ah h h h h.
We
now learn to associate each sound with its element Sh h h h h with fire and
heat, m m m m m with water and cold, and ah h h h h with air and a neutral,
temperate temperature. These exercises must be developed over a period of time.
The student must actively imagine that when he makes the sound sh h h h h, for
instance, that he actually feels heat. After time and continued practice, he
will feel heat; likewise, for the two other elements, until the sound is fully
linked to the proper temperature.
The next step is to associate each sound
with the proper corresponding part of the body sh h h h h with the head, ah h h
h with the chest, and m m m m m with the abdomen. When we make these sounds, we
can feel their effect in these various parts of the body. This process is quite
similar to the Taoist exercise Six Healing Sounds. With the Six Healing Sounds,
various organs are calmed, relaxed, and cooled down
by use of the various
sounds. With the Three Mother Sounds, we are dealing with the more generally
defined body parts of head, chest, and abdomen. We could call them the "Three
Healing Sounds."
The work must continue until the student can feel heat
in the head, a neutral temperature in the chest, and cold in the abdomen when
sounding out the letters.
The sounding out of the Three Mother Letters also
serves as a form of mantra. The letters are slowly pronounced and the student
allows his consciousness to descend from the head down into the abdomen (as in
the Taoist Triple Warmer). This mantra, sh h h a a h h m m m, also promotes
internal silence. As the consciousness moves down to the abdomen, the internal
dialogue that so many students experience as an interference to meditation, is
cut off. At first, this effect is momentary. With the point of consciousness
removed from the head and lowered into the abdomen, there is a cessation of the
constant chatter in the brain. However, this effect can be quite startling to
the student and his conscious mind will generally take over with thoughts like "it's
so quiet in here." Practice is required. The student is so used to the
habitual presence of the "chatterbox" in the mind that when it turns
off, the experience can be quite frightening. It feels as if a part of you is
dying. This internal dialogue is often mistaken for the self. It is not. It is
merely interference and the sooner it is brought under control, the sooner the
student can make further progress.
In effect, all these exercises mirror Taoist Internal Alchemy. By lowering
the consciousness into the abdomen, we enter
the realm of the lower Tan
Tien, where the exercise of the Microcosmic Orbit begins and where the elements
are gathered in the Fusion exercises as well as where the elements are inverted
for the Lesser Enlightenment.
The element exercises of the Sepher Yetzirah
are designed to balance the elements in the body. I've just set out a few of
them here. Franz Bardon devotes a major part of his Initiation Into Hermetics to
various element exercises. This westernized system differed in structure from
the Sepher Yetzirah in that Earth is seen as a separate element, whereas in the
Sepher Yetzirah, Earth is seen as being created from Water and is not seen as a
separate element. This can be explained in that in Kabbalistic theory, the
universe was seen as having been created in four stages. These are referred to
as the Four Worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah. Assiah is the
physical universe (akin to Malkuth). Yetzirah is the world of formation (akin to
Yesod) that underlies what is generally referred to as the real world or Assiah.
In the world of Yetzirah there is no solidity and thus no element Earth. It is
only in Assiah that solidity takes place and Earth exists as a separate element.
In
the Sepher Yetzirah every one of the twenty two Hebrew letters corresponds with
a body part or organ. The three mother letters Shin, Aleph, and Mem refer to the
head, chest, and abdomen, respectively. In addition to the Three Mother Letters,
there are also the Seven Double and Twelve Simple Letters. Each of these letters
also referred to various body parts. Unfortunately, the Sepher Yetzirah is
devoid of instructions of what to do with the information. It often seems that
it resembles a student's outline notes culled down to the bare essentials rather
than a transcription of the full original teachings. The need for secrecy in
ancient times was probably the underlying reason for this. A simple first
reading of the Sepher
Yetzirah will generally leave you scratching your
head. However, when it is examined with an open mind, without relying solely on
traditional Hebraic interpretations, it becomes obvious that here is an entire
esoteric mind and body as well as spiritual system.
The Seven Double Letters each had four different correspondences 1 ) A body part, 2) a planet, 3) a day of the week, and 4) an attribute such as wealth, peace, wisdom, etc. According to Aryeh Kaplan, the attribute desired (such as wealth or wisdom) could be enhanced by use of the four correspondences. For instance, the letter Gimel (G) corresponds with 1 ) the left eye, 2) the planet Jupiter, 3) the day Monday, and 4) the attribute of peace. Kaplan says that to use this information one would meditate on the right ear, preferably on a Monday, and more preferably on an hour of the day when Jupiter predominates (a chart for doing this, derived from biblical sources is supplied by Kaplan in his book) so that one could achieve peace. In a real sense he is equating these teachings with magick, which was defined by Aleister Crowley as "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will" (Magick in Theory and Practice, Castle Books, pg. Xll, undated). Anyone with a knowledge of medieval magical grimoires (books of magical formulas and instructions), such as The Key of Solomon and The Lemeggeton, would immediately recognize the methodology, i.e. casting a spell on the proper day at the proper hour for the proper purpose.
One might be surprised to find apparent astrological associations here in
one of the most sacred books of the Kabbalah. But that is just what they are. If
we continue with the final twelve letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the Twelve
Simple Letters, we find that each one corresponds to a sign of the zodiac (Heh
(H) is Aries, Vav (V) is Taurus, etc.). Astrology played an important role in
the Kabbalah; however, it was a subordinate role. The same is true in Taoist
alchemy. It can certainly help if you have the knowledge, but if you don't, it
should not necessarily hinder your progress.
The Twelve Simple Letters also
correspond to the month of the year, a body part or organ and a physical
attribute such as speech, sight, or sexual intercourse. When it is looked at in
the manner I have described, the Sepher Yetzirah does in effect become a great
grimoire. In fact its information, incorporated into the Tree of Life diagram,
forms the basis of the Western Kabbalah.
In the Western Kabbalistic schools
long lists of correspondences were made up for the twenty two letters as well as
the ten Sepheroth, in addition to, and sometimes substituted for, those found in
the Sepher Yetzirah. Crowley collected these in his classic work 777. Each
correspondence had a place on the Tree of life. Meditations or rituals could be
composed by physical or mental manipulation of the correspondences so as to
arrive at some destination on the Tree. This will be discussed in further depth
in the next chapter.
As I before stated, there are no commentaries in
existence that explain what the author of the Sepher Yetzirah, be it the
patriarch Abraham or some other, originally intended the work to be. All we
really have is various versions of the book
itself. The commentaries that do
exist generally interpret the Sepher Yetzirah in terms of the currently
acceptable Hebraic interpretation which changed many times down through the
centuries.
The system set out by Franz Bardon in The Key to the True Quabbalah, is
vastly different from any known Hebraic interpretation, yet it is similar in
many ways to Taoist Yoga. Bardon sets out a complete course of training. He
removes the scriptural background that is so prevalent in all other
commentaries. He leaves us with a system that can be used by anyone, not just
devout Jews. This is not to say that the system is easy, it is just accessible
to a wider variety of people. The same could be said for Taoist Yoga, although
its background is Chinese, its teachings are available to everyone.
The
Bardon system is a Western Kabbalistic one. Bardon was German and his books were
originally written in German. He seems to be much better known to European
Kabbalists then to those in England or America. His book on Kabbalah is an
intensive course of training using the letters of the alphabet as its basis.
This is the German alphabet which includes letters such as Ch, Oe and Sh which
do not exist as independent letters in the English alphabet. Some mirror
phonetic translations of Hebrew letters such as Cheth and Shin (Ch and Sh).
However, there are obvious accretions to the system, if it is in fact based on
ancient Sepher Yetzirah sources.
For instance, color plays a major part in
Bardon's system. Each letter is assigned a color in the first step of the
practice. Yet the Sepher Yetzirah never mentions color. However Aryeh Kaplan
states at page 1 74 of his SepherYetzirah that a tradition of color for the
planets and the Sepheroth can be found in The Zohar that follows the order found
in one version of the Sepher Yetzirah. Hebrew Kabbalists often meditated on the
color assigned to the Sepheroth. Exactly when the colors were assigned to each
letter is unknown. Color is a most obvious connection and being able to
visualize a letter in a particular color is an excellent meditational device.
All the Western Kabbalistic schools had color correspondences for the letters
and the Sepheroth. It is a basic tool for building a meditation or ritual.
The
Taoists assigned colors to the five elements and in turn to the internal organs.
The Taoist universe contained colors for the Earth, the planets and the stars.
On the whole, though, color is less important to the Taoists or the Hebrew
Kabbalists, where it functions more as an aid to practice, than it is to the
Western Kabbalist where its function is essential.
In Bardon's system the
practitioner first learns to assign colors to the individual letters of the
alphabet, for instance A is light blue, B is light violet, and C is red. A
series of four different exercises with the color and the letter are performed.
First the student learns to "see" the color in his whole body. Next
each letter is assigned to one of the four elements. Mirroring the Sepher
Yetzirah and the Three Mother Letters, those letters assigned to the fire
element are visualized in the head, those assigned to air are visualized in the
chest, and those to water in the abdomen. Bardon works with the earth element as
the fourth element. Letters assigned to earth are practiced from the coccyx
(tail bone) down to the soles of the feet.
The next series of exercises
assigns each letter and color to a particular body part. These in large part
follow the correspondences in the short version of the Sepher Yetzirah. All of
these exercises use the visualizing abilities of the student.
Next the
student learns to "pronounce" the letters. Each letter is sounded at a
particular note on the music scale. So that A is sounded in the pitch of note G,
B in note A, C in note D, and so on. Basically the exercise proceeds so that the
student combines both the sound of the letter and the color and repeats the
previous exercise of hearing the note and seeing the color of each letter in 1)
his whole body, 2) in its proper elemental region (head, chest, abdomen, or
legs), and 3) in its corresponding organ.
The third step in Bardon's
Kabbalistic training begins with learning to associate each letter with a
certain feeling. This is based on its elemental correspondence. Thus, the letter
A, which corresponds with the air element, is experienced as a feeling of ease
or lightness. The letter B, which corresponds with the earth element, is
experienced as a feeling of weight. Likewise, a letter that corresponds with the
fire element would be experienced as a feeling of warmth and a water element
letter with a feeling of chill. Once this is learned, the student now combines
all the exercises and simultaneously sees the letter's color, hears it at its
correct pitch, and feels it at its proper element (heat, chill, weightiness, or
lightness). Bardon calls this Tri polar or Tri elemental pronunciation. It is
not until this Tri polar pronunciation is mastered that the student is able to
actually use the letters creatively (as a Kabbalist).
Obviously, Bardon's
system is very complex. The training outlined above actually revolves around the
Three Mother Elements. All visualizing exercises are within the province of the
Fire element, all auditory exercises are subject to the Air element and the
feeling exercises are subject to the Water element. In effect, almost the entire
course of study is based on the elements. Bardon has one short chapter on the
principles of the ten Sepheroth, but there are no exercises given specifically
for them
Once a student has reached the point where he can use any letter in
a tri polar manner, he no longer is a student but has truly become a Kabbalist.
He is literally a force of nature, he can control the elements and the letters
that God used to create and form the universe. He is the Master of the Word. The
Sepher Yetzirah has been translated as either the Book of Formation or The Book
of Creation. Bardon gives us a method to apply these terms literally so that the
Sepher Yetzirah is seen not as some ancient philosophy, but as a vibrant system
of true creative knowledge.
Unfortunately, Franz Bardon died before he could
write a planned book on alchemy. As he would have said, it was the Will of
Divine Providence. Few Western Kabbalists have ever heard of him. But, more than
anyone else I have ever encountered, he provided a true bridge between the
Hebrew and Western Kabbalah and Taoist Yoga.
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