Q.B.L. by Fr. Achad
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This book was what caused the falling out of Crowley and the person he called his "magickal heir," Frater Achad. What is the general consensus of this book on this board?
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A little about the book (from Red Wheel/Weiser):**
Q.B.L. is a unique work in both Qabalistic and Thelemic circles. In the world of the Qabalah, Frater Achad revealed revolutionary new principles that caused students of the Qabalah to reexamine and thus deepen their knowledge of the Tree of Life. In Thelemic circles, Aleister Crowley named Frater Achad his magical heir and Achad was fully expected to lead the cause of Thelemic Magick after Crowley’s death—until publication of this book caused a rift between the two and Crowley began to distance himself from Achad.Q.B.L. remains a concise, lucid introduction to the Qabalah and Tree of Life for those seeking to incorporate such into their own magical system. Yet it is much deeper than that. Indeed Achad’s tract on the reversal of Hebrew letter attributions—in effect reversing the Tree of Life or turning it upside-down—is the main cause of his falling out with Crowley.
This is a rare and valuable book, both for its insight and circumstances. True understanding of the Qabalah and its benefit in magical practice is clearly described, and the information contained is both practical and revelatory. The circumstances surrounding it, however—Frater Achad’s falling out with Crowley and eventual descent into apparent insanity—prove a valuable lesson and warning for individual seekers and those associated with established mystery schools.
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From Wikipedia:
"Rumors of insanity and imprisonment
In late 1917 Jones was arrested in a Vancouver hotel, where he had been behaving erratically. He was imprisoned on suspicion of being a draft dodger who was pretending to be insane. He was released after three days.
Kenneth Grant, writing in The Magical Revival, claims that on Jones' return to Vancouver circa 1930, he was wearing only a raincoat, which he proceeded to throw off, and then circumambulated the center of the city as a magical operation of some sort, earning himself criminal arrest and a stay in a mental institution. This story, which Grant may have had directly from Crowley, is in all likelihood a confusion of the 1917 incident with the "insanity" of Jones' 1928 baptism and 1929 confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church."
Also, Lon Milo Duquette highly recommends the book and I think he actually might refer to it (not sure) in his book about the Thoth tarot deck. I'm only mentioning this to point out that obviously appreciation of the book does not make you insane. I have not read it myself entirely yet, mainly due to the fact that I didn't really comprehend what I skimmed when I saw the book at the book store.
OH yeah! I mentioned Lon for another reason-- because he's a Thelemite and a big Crowley fan. Though Crowley seems to have rejected the book, I am wondering how this Thelemic community feels about it.
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I haven't read the book, and so this post will not be a review of its merits and/or faults. The four introductions to Qabalah, aside from Crowley's work, that I read were Regardie's Tree of Life, Fortune's Mystical Qabalah, Papus's Qabalah and Levi's. All pretty much covered the same thing on the subject.
I will admit that I am quite early on the path with respect to the study of Qabalah. But this is how I see it. Qabalah is a system of classification; of numbers, of words, ideas, etc. The Tree of Life (not Regardie's book, the actual tree) has 10 sephirah (spheres, emanations). Everything fits into those ten. Everything.
Once you can successfully incorporate everything you know into this system, I'm sure magick becomes a great deal easier.
I do not understand the point of multiplying trees, twisting them, inverting them, changing the positions of sephirah and claiming a discovery.
A tree is a tree is a tree... The only possible reason my mind can see for doing this is further intellectual stimulation, for the purpose of gaining "knowledge" (Daath). It's a game with no end.
Anyway, those are a couple of my cents.
93, 93/93
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I haven't read the book either, but I'm pretty sure that Da'ath is the doorway to the other side of the Tree of Life, which I've heard refered to as the "land of shells/qlippoth" and the Tree of Death. So, if Achad's reversal of the Tree has anything to do with this aspect, it could be interesting. Also, Crowley's reversal of the paths of the Emperor and the Star have something to do with the reversal of the tree or a mobius strip or something... I was told it's explained really well in DuQuette's book about the Thoth tarot, but I haven't bought that yet, either.
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@Redd Fezz said
"I haven't read the book either, but I'm pretty sure that Da'ath is the doorway to the other side of the Tree of Life, which I've heard refered to as the "land of shells/qlippoth" and the Tree of Death. So, if Achad's reversal of the Tree has anything to do with this aspect, it could be interesting."
I don't recall QBL saying anything about Da'ath or the Qlippoth. What he reverses is the order of the Hebrew letters on the Tree.
@Redd Fezz said
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Also, Crowley's reversal of the paths of the Emperor and the Star have something to do with the reversal of the tree or a mobius strip or something..."He doesn't reverse the tree either. Look in the Book of Thoth. He has a diagram showing the twisting of the ends of a strip representing the Zodiac and their placement on the Tree. He adds a second twist to one end to make it symmetrical. Or something like that. You'll have to see the diagram for what I said to make any sense.
I agree with Draco about Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune. She does talk about Da'ath and the Qlippoth. While reading QBL, I recall thinking that I wouldn't have a clue what he meant if I didn't already know something about Qabalah. But that could just be a personal problem.
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@sasha said
"I don't recall QBL saying anything about Da'ath or the Qlippoth. What he reverses is the order of the Hebrew letters on the Tree."
@sasha said
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@Redd Fezz said
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Also, Crowley's reversal of the paths of the Emperor and the Star have something to do with the reversal of the tree or a mobius strip or something..."He doesn't reverse the tree either. Look in the Book of Thoth. He has a diagram showing the twisting of the ends of a strip representing the Zodiac and their placement on the Tree. He adds a second twist to one end to make it symmetrical. Or something like that. You'll have to see the diagram for what I said to make any sense.
I agree with Draco about Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune. She does talk about Da'ath and the Qlippoth."
I have looked at that diagram in Thoth, but I didn't understand it's relationship to the Tree... or even, really, the diagram itself. Seemed interesting, whatever it was. One day, I will buy DuQuette's book on Thoth where he explains it.
Regarding Achad's QBL, I found this:
"His gnostic view of reality has been summarized by his followers thusly:
"The Qabalists tell us that the Sephiroth were emanated by means of the Flaming Sword, or Lightning Flash, which descended from Kether to Malkuth. They also say that this was followed by the ASCENT of the SERPENT OF WISDOM who thus formed the PATHS. They showed his head at the top of the Tree, in the path leading from Kether to Chokma, which is the first path of the FLAMING SWORD. "All the known authorities have then continued to number the remaining 22 of the 32 Paths of Wisdom from Path 11 (joining Kether to Chokma) to Path 32 (Joining Yesod to Malkuth). "One may now question how it was that the SERPENT who formed the Paths by ASCENDING the Tree could possibly have started at the top, and why previous commentators have never taken this vital idea into consideration." -The Sword and the Serpent [Official QBLH text]"I don't know which "official QBLH text" this Sword and the Serpent is, but I doubt it's the one by Denning and Phillips.
EDIT: Apparently, QBLH is the name of the order that is currently following Achad's lead.So, I guess whatever is in Q.B.L. is pretty controversial. I'd like to hear any opinions about it from those who have actually read it.
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I am going to take the lack of positive response as a resounding "no" in what was essentially a "so, should I read this" question. I downloaded and read some of his "The Egyptian Revival" and, though I'm no expert, it seemed like he was playing fast and loose with factual history to suit his ideas. IU-Sus = Jesus, for instance, etc. A lot of phonetical similarity type stuff and not very fleshed out evidence for some of the basic set up of his piece.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
Well first of all you guys might want to read it before discussing it. Here's a link:
www.hermetics.org/pdf/qbl/qbl.pdfDetails of the split between Crowley and Jones are given in the introduction to Liber Aleph. Unfortunatley the only copy I know of on the web doesn't include the introduction. (It's on sacred texts dot com). Borders usually has a copy that you can read over a cup of coffee.
As far as Jones' theories go....
He bought into Crowley's reality tunnel. Jones never made it to Magus, he was forever stuck in a reality tunnel. In fact I think he went into the light and found it to be a train.
The tree is a SYSTEM. The tree is not TRUTH. The way is a PATH. The WAY is NOT THE POINT. One could build an opperable system with the paths reversed, but Jones thought that he had found TRUTH. He laid down his new system and said "Here is TRUTH, what was before was false".That was his mistake. Our way is no more TRUE than his way, but when 99% of available material uses a certain attribution, not to mention the millions of adepts who have "built" these correspondences on the "astral" plane, or in the "collective unconscious"(however you choose to see it) it behooves us to take advantage of the labor of others.
"If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants"
"Reality is what you can get away with"
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
In a letter to Gerald Yorke he wrote:
@C. S. Jones said
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If this new Aeon is what it seems to be, it will have lifted the Curse of Magus and destroyed the Glamour and Lies and Madness of the Supernal Paths. That would leave one in Daath - and represent real Attainment - the becoming one with Those Who Know."The Black Brothers reside in Daath. He should have studied this one a little more:
@Uncle Al said
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yet the word is falsehood, and the Understanding darkness. And this saying is Of All Truth." -
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
@Redd Fezz said
"I am going to take the lack of positive response as a resounding "no" in what was essentially a "so, should I read this" question."
No, sir, I would read it. Let this be as a test. See if you can read it now with unbiased eyes. Otherwise how will you call yourself free.
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@Almighty Creator said
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No, sir, I would read it. Let this be as a test. See if you can read it now with unbiased eyes. Otherwise how will you call yourself free."Nope, I'm not gonna!
Thanks for saving me some time, Almighty! After reading what he said about the Supernals vs. Daath, I have no interest because I actually spent a lot of time studying AC's whole concept of The Word in Portable Darkness. It was driving me mental. I was cross-comparing it with Brion Gysin: "We're here TO GO, to get out of The Word!" My mind was really in hyperdrive.@Almighty Creator said
"The Black Brothers reside in Daath. He should have studied this one a little more:
Uncle Al wrote:
yet the word is falsehood, and the Understanding darkness. And this saying is Of All Truth."
Interesting bit in the Bible about "In the beginning was God, and the word was with God, and the word was God..." I wonder if that has any relevance to this.
This whole thing reminds me of this web article I once read in which the author believed Qabalah Gnosis was a trap: "The Light" was actually no higher than Da'ath and any aspirant was reabsorbed into the demiurge or, um, false god... I forget the term, but whatever it was called in Valis. Also, there was a whole conversation I archived by a frequent "astral projector" who wrote "we are all food for the demiurge". How would we ever really know if we ever really got past Da'ath, anyway?
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@Redd Fezz said
"This whole thing reminds me of this web article I once read in which the author believed Qabalah Gnosis was a trap: "The Light" was actually no higher than Da'ath"
That's true by definition. L.V.X. ("light") is especially related to the solar level of illumination. It is especially a Tiphereth idea. Binah admits to N.O.X. ("night"). What confuses many students at the beginning is that N.O.X. is "more L.V.X.," the Light having reached a different threshold of intensity so that it shoots past the "visible spectrum" range of consciusness. (That's a metaphor.) It's the negation of L.V.X. only in the sense that it's the completion of L.V.X. I also enjoy the metaphor that L.V.X. is the Light propagated through an atmosphere, air, intellect-ego, whereas N.O.X. is the Light propagated through space.
The main thing to remember is that N.O.X. is not infernal darkness but, rather, is supernal darkness exceeding what we call L.V.X. It is "the light higher than eyesight" (CCXX II:51).
Of course, Kether is the highest symbol of LIGHT among the Sephiroth. N.O.X. is a higher kind of LIGHT than L.V.X. But if your writer meant "L.V.X." by "The Light," then he was technically correct.
"and any aspirant was reabsorbed into the demiurge or, um, false god..."
Oh, no, that's backwards! We're absorbed into the Demiurge / False God before crossing the Abyss, not after. It's the ego. The Demiurge (Jehovah or what have you) is always placed at Chesed, the "top" of the Ruach.
"How would we ever really know if we ever really got past Da'ath, anyway?"
That's the difference between knowing and Knowing. You couldn't know - otherwise, you'd still be enswathed by Da'ath. Instead, you'd have to Know.
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@Fire Giver said
"I also enjoy the metaphor that L.V.X. is the Light propagated through an atmosphere, air, intellect-ego, whereas N.O.X. is the Light propagated through space."
I love it. It reminds me of that quote from 2001: A Space Odyssey: "My god, it's full of stars!"
If LVX is the light of the sun/Tiphareth/Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and NOX is the light of Binah/Nuit, then is there a similar formula for the light of Chokmah/Hadit?
Might this be the "CHAOS" from Liber B val Magi?
"The main thing to remember is that N.O.X. is not infernal darkness but, rather, is supernal darkness exceeding what we call L.V.X. It is "the light higher than eyesight" (CCXX II:51)."
My darned science-trained brain always short circuits when I read this verse, and all I tend to think about is "ultraviolet radiation." Thanks for a better metaphor!
Steve
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@Steven Cranmer said
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My darned science-trained brain always short circuits when I read this verse, and all I tend to think about is "ultraviolet radiation." Thanks for a better metaphor!Steve"
Likewise. I've read similar thoughts from many others, too. Essentially, there's room for everyone to think they're correct in their experience/Knowing without knowing who is correct or who is off his rocker, isn't there?
As far as the demiurge being in Chesed, I have no real qualms about that idea, but how does the tetragrammaton appear on the Tree of Life, again? Yod is placed where, Heh is where, Vav is where, Heh is where?
I'm looking at a diagram right now that puts (spellings as on diagram):
Ehiëh in Kether,
Jah in Chokmah,
Jehovah in Binah,
El in Chesed,
Elohim Giboor in Geburah,
Eloha ve Daath in Tiphareth,
Jehovah Tsebaot in Netzach,
Elohim Tsebaot in Hod,
Chadaï el Haï in Yesod
Adonaï Melek in MalkuthYHVH is supposed to be the demiurge in this concept, right? Oh right, that's before manifestation, so whatever Binah manifests is the Demiurge and since Daath has no place on the tree, that leaves Chesed. So, is it likely that anyone ever really goes past the Abyss permanently? Or for that matter for much time at all? Or beyond time, has any semblance of themselves without coming back?
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David's right on the most common attribution.
In the Demiurge issue, Johovah is attributed to Chesed on a different basis than the usual name attributions. It is there (1) as an expression of the idea of 4 and (2) because the Gnostic idea of the Demiurge is the self-exalting brat ego that thinks he's the highest that is, not realizing that he's just a joke before the veil of the Goddess - in other words, Chesed!
BTW, I did specifically say Jehovah - meaning specifically that form, not other interpretations of YHVH. It's Johavah = Jove/Zeus.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"David's right on the most common attribution.
In the Demiurge issue, Jehovah is attributed to Chesed....
BTW, I did specifically say Jehovah - meaning specifically that form, not other interpretations of YHVH. It's Johavah = Jove/Zeus."So, on that diagram I was referring to, El is on Chesed and Jehovah is on Binah. I'm not sure what you think of this, as you used both Johovah and Jehovah spelling variants in your above quote for Chesed. Should Jehovah ever be placed on Binah in your opinion? Does El have a place?
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Typo, now corrected.
I can't speak for the diagram you're looking at, haven't seen it, don't know anything about provenance, etc. It isn't typical, to say the least.
One way of mapping these, though, is:
Kether - Yod
Chokmah - Yod Hey (YaH)
Binah - Yod Heh Vav (YaHOo)
Chesed - Yod Heh Vav Heh -
93
Last night I revisited Fr. Achad and spent a couple of hours scanning through his major works, especially the Anatomy of the Body of God. I've concluded that he had moments of brilliance, and among the confusion of his writings, there are some inspired points.
As you read him, you get a sense that he is psychotic in the medical sense. I have no doubt that he did some work, but what stands out beside his erratic writings is the fact he didn't 'work through the grades,' as Crowley politely and impolitely encouraged him to do.
Not having his diaries at my disposal, which might shed further light on this subject, I conclude he was seized by something very similar to a Choronzon; with the result that he became obsessed with his intellectual discoveries and remain trapped in Da'ath. Although, I would even go as far to say he never even got close to there. I wonder if instead of finding an HGA he found a Qlippothic force instead and never reached the K&C.
Note: I would add that since he jumped from the grade of Neophyte 1=10 to Master of the Temple 8=3, he in fact got no further than Yesod, since his writings rave about the importance of it, it being the generative organ of Man and thus spawning an infinite number of Trees, etc.
93, 93/93
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@Draco Magnus said
"I would add that since he jumped from the grade of Neophyte 1=10 to Master of the Temple 8=3, he in fact got no further than Yesod, since his writings rave about the importance of it, it being the generative organ of Man and thus spawning an infinite number of Trees, etc. "
Worthy observations.
Probably worth adding in comment to this: There is a fairly common phenomenon at the end of A.'.A.'. 1=10 and the transition into 2=9. Something reported by many of us, but not everyone, is an experience of what seems to be crossing the Abyss.
I think several things are involved. One is that the scope of transition between 1=10 and 2=9 is huge, likely waaayyyyyy beyond what a person has experienced previously or thought likely. Second, there is a symbolic relationship between Yesod and Da'ath and between Yesod and Binah (see 11th Aethyr - how the "frontier of the Abyss" is painted in almost exclusively Yesod symbols). Third, every Sephirah has a sub-Tree in it, and (if my experience is any clue) that is a direct experience near the end of 1=10 of passing through the Supernals-of-Malkuth. (These sub-Sephiroth experiences were exceedingly common in all of my early A.'.A.'. grades.)
I was, therefore, suspicious years ago when I revisited the available part of Achad's diaries and noticed his specific experience of passing not just into Binah but of "overshooting" it into Chokmah and "eventuating" in Kether. This was very familiar to me - but as the Supernals in Malkuth!