The role of the Qlippoth in Thelema
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- First off let me say I'm very new to Thelema so forgive my ignorance on some things.
Before taking a serious interest in Thelema my primary spiritual path was Luciferianism, which is more or less a Gnostic form of Satanism. It's not out of any desire to be reactionist or "evil", I simply have a unique attraction to demonic and adversarial spirits.
Anyway one thing that always fascinated me as a Luciferian was the Qlippoth. I was wondering on how Thelemites view the Qlippoth. I know in the Golden Dawn it was forbidden to work with Qlippothic forces in magic. I haven't read all of Crowley's works yet, but it seems he mentions the Qlippoth here and there and even gave some sigils for it but never really talked about it in depth.
Even though it was my favorite subject, I must admit there's still alot about the Qlippoth and the Qabalah I don't know. The best book I've read on the Qlippoth is "Qabala, Qlipoth, and Goetia Magic" by Thomas Karlsson. It presents some very unorthodox but interesting theories about the Qlippoth and it's role in the universe. Even if you disagree with his ideas it's a very thought provoking read.
From my understanding Thelema is about unity, not a good/evil duality that many ceremonial magicians view the Qabalah/Qlippoth from. So I'm wondering if the Qabalah and Qlippoth are really 2 sides of the same coin, with the Qlippoth just being the "dark" side of the Sephiroth that man tends to fear and cast as evil. So in this respect can a Thelemite work with the Qlippoth in a positive fashion (i.e if it helps him find his/her true will) or is it still something that is viewed as negative?
This is something I've been thinking about for a while and am open to anyone's thoughts on this.
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93,
Welcome to the forum. Among other threads, you should check out:
www.heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?t=2474&highlight=&sid=f72154870a8471e52f5d276f524a31e2
www.heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?t=3318&highlight=&sid=e34eac0d28c4ee6d73015e2705629041
www.heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?t=3020&highlight=&sid=59ad7280c3ea8d906848e5f5d2e6f8a6
93 93/93,
Edward
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@Infernal Seraph said
"Anyway one thing that always fascinated me as a Luciferian was the Qlippoth. I was wondering on how Thelemites view the Qlippoth."
There's not actually a Thelemic doctrine on them per se. (And I realize you asked about the view of Thelemites, rather than Thelemic doctrine.)
It's a Qabalistic topic, and is primarily addressed in purely Qabalistic terms.
There is a greater priority in the New Aeon on looking at one's shadow side rather than burying it. (Depth psychologies developed more ore less parallel to the birth of Thelema.) There is one place, at the end of the 1=10 grade of A.'.A.'., where Crowley always gave an examination that dealt with one particular astral journey or vision involving the Q'lippoth.
"I know in the Golden Dawn it was forbidden to work with Qlippothic forces in magic."
That's not really true. Not sure where that came from. It's not in any oath, for example. It would be true that, despite receiving some preliminary instruction on the Q'lippoth in the 3=8 grade, the really major paper fell in the Second Order, and that's where pretty much all forms of practical magick were undertaken.
"I haven't read all of Crowley's works yet, but it seems he mentions the Qlippoth here and there and even gave some sigils for it but never really talked about it in depth."
Correct. The idea of looking into the darkness per se was a common theme, but the Q'lippoth as such were mostly just another in 777 to him.
"So I'm wondering if the Qabalah and Qlippoth are really 2 sides of the same coin"
Uh, well, no, because the Q'lippoth are as much as part of the Qabalah as the Sephiroth.
My personal view consists of two main points, a lesser and a greater.
The more important one: Everyone has to balance themselves vertically as well as horizontally, and needs, eventually, to be nonresistant to the whole range of themselves. If one is naturally drawn to angels and light, there comes a time that one must intentionally explore the dark. If one is naturally drawn to demons and dark, there comes a time that one must intentionally devote themselves to the Light. This is a general "health & freedom" matter, not a judgment on either one.
The less important (but still important) half of my view: Aside from that general equilibration, any monkeying with the Q'lippoth is likely a masturbatory toying around below late 5=6 or even 6=5. When eventually tethered to the inmost center of one's being, one can (and, actually, must) hurl oneself into all corners of the unconscious. Until then, only the very rarest of people would have a psycho-spiritual bungee that could do the job.
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Jim' , you said in one of the links above that "we all have to deal with lilith in malkuth"? explain?
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@Alias55A said
"Jim' , you said in one of the links above that "we all have to deal with lilith in malkuth"? explain?"
Which link? I have no idea what I meant LOL.
But I suspect I meant this: Life brings this to us. (Which is a WAY different thing than going out to form a magical relationship with it.) Life brings it to us and we have to effect the change within ourselves.
If it's not what I meant before, then please accept this humble offering of today's fortune cookie.
PS - Just finished the 11-part Appendix Whoohoo! After some overnight proofreading, we're all but cover copy away from heading for the printer.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"
"So I'm wondering if the Qabalah and Qlippoth are really 2 sides of the same coin"Uh, well, no, because the Q'lippoth are as much as part of the Qabalah as the Sephiroth.
My personal view consists of two main points, a lesser and a greater.
The more important one: Everyone has to balance themselves vertically as well as horizontally, and needs, eventually, to be nonresistant to the whole range of themselves. If one is naturally drawn to angels and light, there comes a time that one must intentionally explore the dark. If one is naturally drawn to demons and dark, there comes a time that one must intentionally devote themselves to the Light. This is a general "health & freedom" matter, not a judgment on either one.
The less important (but still important) half of my view: Aside from that general equilibration, any monkeying with the Q'lippoth is likely a masturbatory toying around below late 5=6 or even 6=5. When eventually tethered to the inmost center of one's being, one can (and, actually, must) hurl oneself into all corners of the unconscious. Until then, only the very rarest of people would have a psycho-spiritual bungee that could do the job."
So basically you're saying that one should explore both the demonic and the angelic and find a balance between the two? That would make alot of sense to me in my understanding of Thelema. I was originally drawn to the Qlippoth because of my interest in Hebrew demonology, and therefore found the infernal forces of the Qlippoth more personally appealing than the traditional "angelic" tree of life. However in studying the Qlippoth I learned more about the Qabalah in general too.
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This reminds me of a similar question I've been brooding on. In Allen Bennett's "Qabalistic Dogma," he says, to wit, that Daath is called evil in order to conceal its holiness, and that Daath is the goal of the Magnum Opus. Yet in Crowley's works, he refers to Daath as the "abode of the Black Brothers." Hence my confusion...
Also, could there perhaps be a similar situation with the Qlippoth, that they are referred to as evil in order to conceal some higher doctrine? The more I study the literature of Thelema, the more I find these sort of contradictions. I'd appreciate some clarifying words.
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Crowleys ideas on Black Brothers in relation to the Left Hand Path is something that should be understood as irrelevant to any real Left Hand Path system. Crowleys misconception of what the Left Hand Path is came from Blavatsky.
From my own experience, I have problems understanding how one would arrive at Will without Qliphothic initiation. I just don´t see how one would be able to arrive at Will before one has already met the shadow, before one has conquered the ego and so on.
Further, the result of working with both the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth is not balance. Balance is related to the Sephiroth. The result is Gnosis, Power and Activity.
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@atlantis said
"Crowleys ideas on Black Brothers in relation to the Left Hand Path is something that should be understood as irrelevant to any real Left Hand Path system. Crowleys misconception of what the Left Hand Path is came from Blavatsky. "
Or, another way to say the same thing, is that some people today are using the term LHP in their own way, neglecting what the term has always meant.
"From my own experience, I have problems understanding how one would arrive at Will without Qliphothic initiation."
If you only meant that you have problems understanding how one "would ever arrive at Will" without confronting and owning the suppressed, denied, pathologized aspects of their own psyche, then I'd agree with you completely - it just doesn't happen. But that doesn't appear to be all that you mean, and I imagine we would disagree both on method, and on the undesirable secondary effects that might come from one method vs. another.
"I just don´t see how one would be able to arrive at Will before one has already met the shadow, before one has conquered the ego and so on."
I'm not sure what "conquered the ego" means, so I don't know if I agree with you entirely. (For that matter, I just realized I may not know what you mean by "arrive at Will." It's a very strange, ambiguous term. "Will" isn't a destination.)
"Further, the result of working with both the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth is not balance. Balance is related to the Sephiroth. The result is Gnosis, Power and Activity."
Part of the confusion in such discussions is that, while there are useful conventions in speaking of the Sephiroth and Q'lippoth in forms such as two mirrored trees, etc., that's also misleading. The Q'lippoth are part of the Sephiroth: just one more layer to the multi-World layering within each Sephirah.
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Jim wrote:
"Or, another way to say the same thing, is that some people today are using the term LHP in their own way, neglecting what the term has always meant."
and what has the LHP always meant?
just quessing, LHP/RHP bullcrap is the pillars of severity and mercy? idk"
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@Alias55A said
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"Or, another way to say the same thing, is that some people today are using the term LHP in their own way, neglecting what the term has always meant."and what has the LHP always meant?
just quessing, LHP/RHP bullcrap is the pillars of severity and mercy? idk"
No, none of that.First, in the East and West, LHP vs. RHP often have meant exactly opposite things.
The main characteristic of LHP historically is that one is moving counter to natural spiritual evolution by trying to back against the current rather than go forward through the necessary changes of a soul's rightful evolutionary progress.
Yes, you can diagram this with "involution-evolution" cycles, and that communicates to some people, though it's at least somewhat misleading - because the two phases aren't really separate.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"First, in the East and West, LHP vs. RHP often have meant exactly opposite things.
The main characteristic of LHP historically is that one is moving counter to natural spiritual evolution by trying to back against the current rather than go forward through the necessary changes of a soul's rightful evolutionary progress.
Yes, you can diagram this with "involution-evolution" cycles, and that communicates to some people, though it's at least somewhat misleading - because the two phases aren't really separate."
That does not sound right to me. Maybe some Thelemites have an alternate set of definitions as to what most other people mean when they refer to the left hand path vs right hand path.
Typically right hand path has meant conventional religion of some sort. It is considered the safe path, you follow a series of predetermined steps. You get where you are going to get by following through the program.
Left hand path is the opposite. It is considered to be the dangerous path for the heroes. It typically starts with some sort of blasemphy against conventional religion and social norms. Then it goes from there.
Contrary to this idea of the left-hand path as being some contrary anti-evolutionary force, it is the dynamic force of evolution itself.
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@Jastiv said
"That does not sound right to me. Maybe some Thelemites have an alternate set of definitions as to what most other people mean when they refer to the left hand path vs right hand path.
Typically right hand path has meant conventional religion of some sort. It is considered the safe path, you follow a series of predetermined steps. You get where you are going to get by following through the program."
Or, to put it more crudely, RHP is "good" and LHP is "bad" in the most simplistic way. (Except in some Eastern schools, where LHP is "good" and RHP is "bad.")
But the reason for the good/bad has nothing to do with conventional religion per se, but the specific characteristic of evolutionary vs. resistant to or avoidant of the full course of evolution. (That is, continuing in one's course vs. starting to drive in reverse thinking it's a better way to "get back").
Your definition of RHP doesn't at all describe a large number of conventionally RHP schools.
"Left hand path is the opposite. It is considered to be the dangerous path for the heroes. It typically starts with some sort of blasemphy against conventional religion and social norms. Then it goes from there. "
Not historically. If you want to make up your own definition, then fine.
BTW you've just described Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, to name a few examples.
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"(Except in some Eastern schools, where LHP is "good" and RHP is "bad.") "
thats more like it
ok, lets be a bit more specific, heres my opinion.
RHP, christianity, islam, buddhism ect.. what jim said.
Alternative RHP, white magick, GD , buddhism, mainstream wicca lolwhite/black magick: just using it as a lableing of any "soft, safe boring fluff bunny stuff", and black as the usual LHP Goetia, enochian, satanism, new age satanism, luciferianism, and anything dark in general.
LHP, satanism??? something against mainstream religino
Alternative LHP, black magick and stuff said above revering to black magick.from my understanding comming from reading some of jims opinions on the qlipoth(however u spell that), not much difference except for some "fine" points in relation to the AA system.
so how can one system be more "aligned" to the progression of the soul when not everyone follows the same path? some people like the darker side better and spiritualy and emotionally it is more healthy and satifying for them then others.thoughts? (will return later, food calls...)
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Alias 55A, 93,
The qlippoth are understood to be the shells of the dead - what's left of old ideas and outmoded energies. I don't think becoming my great-great-grandfather (or his ideas and proclivities) would be a progressive spiritual step.
They are inherently unbalanced because they are no longer part of the evolutionary stream of life. Sure, they could be cool to play with, because that very imbalance is going to make them seem dynamic and exciting. Ever hang out with a convicted fraud? I knew one once, and he was charismatic and fascinating, at least until he violated his parole and went back inside.
But setting up an either/or scenario between 'white light Qabalah' and a sort of death-metal Qabalah (which is usually how this realm is presented through cultural motifs) is an inaccurate way of representing the situation. Q'lippothic energies need to be dealt with in their time (and I don't mean merely beaten into submission, either), but deliberately making a qlippothic scenario the core of your practice is putting yourself out of kilter. Sure, it's fun to get roaring stoned at times ... but at some point, ya gotta chill and come home again, and that means you need to remember just where - and what - home, the Hadit-light within Nu, actually is. Often, LHP people tell me (in effect) that there's no such place. Does that mean I'm wrong, or does it mean they've lost their inner compass?
Playing the unbalanced game qlippothic forces need you to play (which requires you to sacrifice some of your powers of discrimination and will) doesn't strike me as an evolutionary step onward. Evolution is towards greater awareness, not just incorporation of energy from the shadow-side.
And I personally find a kind of qlippo-fundamentalism among the LHP crowd. They 'know' they're the lords of darkness (or somesuch), the ones who are really rocking out with the cosmos, while I'm being all prissy and white light. That, to me, smacks of misplaced elitism.
93 93/93,
Edward
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@Liber Tzaddi: said
"33. I reveal unto you a great mystery. Ye stand between the abyss of height and the abyss of depth.
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In either awaits you a Companion; and that Companion is Yourself.
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Ye can have no other Companion.
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Many have arisen, being wise. They have said "Seek out the glittering Image in the place ever golden, and unite yourselves with It."
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Many have arisen, being foolish. They have said, "Stoop down unto the darkly splendid world, and be wedded to that Blind Creature of the Slime."
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I who am beyond Wisdom and Folly, arise and say unto you: achieve both weddings! Unite yourselves with both!
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Beware, beware, I say, lest ye seek after the one and lose the other!
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My adepts stand upright; their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells.
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But since one is naturally attracted to the Angel, another to the Demon, let the first strengthen the lower link, the last attach more firmly to the higher.
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Thus shall equilibrium become perfect."
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"The qlippoth are understood to be the shells of the dead - what's left of old ideas and outmoded energies. I don't think becoming my great-great-grandfather (or his ideas and proclivities) would be a progressive spiritual step. "
true, even though i dont know much on the qlippoth subject, theres gotta be something else, other then shells of the dead(just a hunch).
i.e. the tree of life must have a shadow, as the sun rises and sets, and the moon pops out, if there is "night" side to it, what is it like? do we know much about it, the reason i say this the dark is got greater then the light, or vice versa, its an equal balance, thats where my "hunch" comes in to play that there has to be something of worth in this "night" side."Often, LHP people tell me (in effect) that there's no such place. Does that mean I'm wrong, or does it mean they've lost their inner compass? "
well like in all systems of magick you got ppl who know something and got somewhere or just dumbasses, in which i dont know which type your describing. Some of my friends follow the LHP, and i wouldnt say they have lost their compass, some if not most of their senses are better then mine, and ofcourse are very independent ppl, so i think they rely on themselves instead of a concept.
"Playing the unbalanced game qlippothic forces need you to play (which requires you to sacrifice some of your powers of discrimination and will) doesn't strike me as an evolutionary step onward. Evolution is towards greater awareness, not just incorporation of energy from the shadow-side. "
agree, but from what you are describing to me about the qlippoth, it doesnt seem the best LHP system to work with. As there are other LHP system's that push towards awareness, evolution and what not.
"And I personally find a kind of qlippo-fundamentalism among the LHP crowd. They 'know' they're the lords of darkness (or somesuch), the ones who are really rocking out with the cosmos, while I'm being all prissy and white light. That, to me, smacks of misplaced elitism. "
lmao i know what you mean, theres a goth club in ybor city florida that i hand out at sometimes when i can afford it, and it draws the LHP big time there, and a nice vampire coven that usually hang out in what they call the "red room" its nice and so is the energy omg!! but most have ego's which is a downer, but most RHP ppl have "self rightiousness" :::shruggs:
and old christian concepts of the darkside of things which gets very old and annoying. -
93,
"agree, but from what you are describing to me about the qlippoth, it doesnt seem the best LHP system to work with. As there are other LHP system's that push towards awareness, evolution and what not.
"Sure, okay. But this thread was about the qlippoth.
Last year I gave a course in Tarot, and some of the meditations and explorations I did on the connecting paths beyond Tiphereth were not about what I expected, or had previously encountered.
And I think this is the nub of it. Something like LHP work has always been part of the advanced Second Order curriculum. But people saying "Hey, this looks co-o-o-l!" and jumping in before they get to that stage are in deeper waters, with faster currents, than they realize. The instruction to the rest of us has always been "Wait for that stuff," and I think that makes simple sense.
93 93/93,
Edward
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"Last year I gave a course in Tarot, and some of the meditations and explorations I did on the connecting paths beyond Tiphereth were not about what I expected, or had previously encountered. "
interesting, you got my attention, care to explain
"And I think this is the nub of it. Something like LHP work has always been part of the advanced Second Order curriculum."
whoooo! good, i was a little worried the AA curriculum may not be balanced lol.
"But people saying "Hey, this looks co-o-o-l!" and jumping in before they get to that stage are in deeper waters, with faster currents, than they realize. The instruction to the rest of us has always been "Wait for that stuff," and I think that makes simple sense."
lol that was me 4 1/2 yrs ago, they told me to wait and stick with mastering the basics, and i went jumping from one system to another looking for a power kick lol, didnt happen, well mabye a little lol
but im still stuck dealing with more crap and energy on my plate then when i started lmao" -
93,
"EM wrote:
Last year I gave a course in Tarot, and some of the meditations and explorations I did on the connecting paths beyond Tiphereth were not about what I expected, or had previously encountered.Alias 55A wrote:
interesting, you got my attention, care to explain "Just that I found myself looking at much more primal energies than I'd encountered before. Now, it was a stressful time where I worked, with repeated layoffs and similar joys, and I don't know how much this environmental input affected what I was getting. But I found some of the imagery I got had (for want of a better phrase) a 'pre-human' feeling. It wasn't at all comfortable, for example, to deal with the paths above the Abyss, which had an atmosphere of the world before biological life came to it. There was little or no human feeling or imagery to any of it. I felt relieved each time I finished one of the exploratory exercises. It made sense, but it wasn't what I'd either read or intuited previously.
On the other hand, a path like the Chariot, which is famously dark and heavy, was positively playful.
So, when people start talking about the Left Hand orders, I feel I was seeing a particular stratum of the Tarot system that's close in nature to what they work with.
93 93/93,
Edward