People sometimes tell me that they are interested in the Cabbalah, that they have read a lot of books by well-known students of cabbalistic science – people such as Lenain, Papus, Eliphas Levi, Dion Fortune, A. E. Waite and Israel Regardie .
Certainly, there is a lot to be learned from all these books, but the first thing I ask somebody who wants to know what I think about these books is how he or she has read them. And, all too often, the answer I get is, " Oh, from time to time I read a few pages, here and there."
Well, that is not the way to study the Cabbalah. If you tried to study mathematics by beginning with differential and integral calculus, for instance, before mastering the four basic operations, the science of mathematics would remain a closed book to you! You have to begin at the beginning and understand the first lessons before trying to assimilate more difficult things.
Only if you do that can you expect to make rapid progress. As long as some point is not quite clear to you, you must not try to go any further. You have to advance step by step, without rushing things. If this is true of mathematics, how much more so is it true for the Cabbalah.
You cannot read the Cabbalah as though you were reading a magazine.
The Cabbalah is a very special science, quite unlike any other, and it demands very special qualities in those who want to study it in depth. In the first place, they are advised not even to begin before the age of forty and, only then, if they are truly destined to do so, if they have the mental and psychic capacities required and if they possess the moral integrity that will ensure that they never use their knowledge to achieve their own, personal goals.
The Cabbalah is a mysterious, sacred doctrine and it presents many difficulties, even dangers, to those who venture to explore it. Cabbalists have a parable that emphasizes this: one day, four rabbis decided to meet in order to study the Cabbalah together.
Not long after, one of them had abandoned the attempt, another had lost his faith and a third had gone out of his mind. Only the fourth pursued his study and received great blessings from it.
I do not advise you to embark on a serious study of the Cabbalah, therefore. Learn only what can be useful to you, what is within your reach.
And, if you are not ready for it, begin with other subjects and other exercises which will prepare you to explore the Cabbalah later on.
Believe me, it is an extremely difficult science; not everybody can undertake to study it. Indeed, it would be sacrilegious and even dangerous to do so without porper prepartion.
If I say this, it is not because I want to discourage you but because I want to be useful to you. But if you launch rashly into the study of Cabbalistic Science can upset your psychological balance.
If this happens, of course, it is not the Cabbalah that is to blame, but your own misplaced curiosity or your desire to gratify your own cupidity or ambition.
I have sometimes said to people, " You study the Shem Ha-Mephorash and learn the names and attributes of the 72 Planetary Spirits, but what do you intend to do with them once you know them?"
“I want to ask them to protect me and give me success, love and wealth.” Exactly, and that is where the danger lies! In the first place it is extremly unwise to try to force these luminous spirits to serve human cupidity and, in the second place, you must not imagine that they are ready to obey every Tom, Dick and Harry.
You have to begin by reaching a certain stature in the spiritual world, otherwise the spirits will see through you at once and leave you to flounder along on your own.
The 72 Planetary Spirits are under no obligation to gratify your whims. If you want to give them orders you must be possessed of great power, a very strong will and a high degree of self-mastery; it is not enough to know and pronounce their names.
without the help of a guide or Master, is that it can lead to sorcery and black magic.
Look at all the publishers that have started to bring out books about the occult within the last few years. Some of those books contain terrible formulas and even detailed explanations about how to make a pact with the Devil.
The tragedy is that a great many people – many more than you might imagine – are fascinated by such books and believe every idiotic word in them. Some of it is true, of course, but a great deal of it is not only a tissue of lies, it is also dangerous; but there are many who are gullible enough to swallow it all.
I am well aware of all that goes on in this respect; I know that witchcraft is still very much alive in some country areas where people still use old books of magic to cast spells and conjure up spirits.
They even try to call up the Devil himself – and the astonishing thing is that they succeed! Why ? Because with their faith and tenacity and, especially, their patience, they attract infernal spirits. Thes spirits attach themselves to them in order to feed on them. So, not only are these people in close contact with the spirits they call up, they also lend them life, as it were.
What is the use of becoming rich and powerful and having all the pleasure in the world if you then find yourself bound hand and foot, persecuted and possessed?
People do not realize how dangerous witchcraft is. The publishers and bookshops that sell these books have a heavy burden of responsibility in this respect. It seems that the more extravagant the titles, with their so-called Hebrew, Chaldean and Persian names, the more popular they are!
But the names are deformed out of all recognition and have no connection with the originals, for the manuscripts have been handed down, from one person to the next, for centuries, and every time they are copied the errors they contain increase.
But there is nobody to warn you of the dangers involved.
Understand the difference between our spiritual, initiatic Teaching, whose only goal is the light, and other occult practices. In this Teaching you are perfectly safe.
If you want to venture into other areas, without a guide and without the light, you are free to do so, but you run the risk of sinking to the level of black magic.
Before approaching the sacred science of the Cabbalah, you must purify yourself, purify your heart and your mind, otherwise the Heavenly spirits will see that you are commiting a sacrilege and put obstacles in your way. On the other hand, the spirits of darkness will be delighted to snare one more gullible creature by dazzling him with the prospect of easy success.
It takes a great deal of effort to keep climbing upwards, but it is all too easy to slide downhill, down to Hell; it is enough to follow the pull of one’s own lusts and appetites.
I sometimes say to people:"Why are you so strongly drawn to occult practices? Why do you neglect the great truths that have been given you and which could help you to improve your health and to have better relations with your fellow human beings ?
Of course, the desire to study the Cabbalah has, in itself, nothing to do with witchcraft. The only thing is that, before discovering its secrets, one must be willing to pass through all the preliminary stages, to work on oneself and improve one’s own character, and to prove oneself both worthy and capable of going further.
But, if you are in too much of a hurry, if you want to skip the preliminaries and force your way into the realms of the sacred before you are fit to do so, you will not be allowed to; you will be held up by the guards at the gates and refused permission to go any further until you have passed some tests and given sufficient proof that you possess such and such a virtue.
On the other hand, nobody will make you pass any tests if you want to do evil. On the contrary, the viler and more malignant you are, the more readily you will be recognized as a hero and leader, someone to be respected by others of your kind. What happens in a gang of cutthroats? The most brutal and violent of the gang is spontaneously recognized as the leader.
This is simply a reflection of the way things are done in Hell, where the leader is the blackest of all its inhabitants. In Heaven, on the contrary, it is the gentlest and most luminous, the one who is most full of love, who reigns.
This is why the Cabbalah sometimes compares the universe to a White Head which is reflected in the form of a Black Head. The Black Head is the shadow, the inverted reflection of the White Head. Hell is the image of Heaven in reverse. In Hell it is the most degraded who rules; in Heaven it is the most exalted.
‘That which is below is like to that which is above’, said Hermes Trismegistos. That which is at the bottom, therefore, is like that which is at the very top.
The Sephirah Kether, at the summit of the Tree of Life, is reflected in an inverted Kether at the bottom. And in this world of human beings, who are the rulers? Are they the best and most worthy?
Have those who hold the reins of power, the men in charge, the barons of finance, politics and economics… have they been chosen because they are nobler, more generous and more disinterested than the other fellows? On the contrary, they are the most ambitious, the most self-seeking.
This is the world that lies below the diaphragm, the world of the inverted reflection, or, to use Dante’s image, " the inverted cone", and those who hold sway in this world are those who are most suited to do so.
To be sure, there are some happy exceptions, but, generally speaking, those who are best equipped are those with the longest fangs, the sharpest claws and the hardest hoofs.
Here and there, fortunetly, there are still a few exceptional, disinterested beings in government and industry, men of intelligence, competence and integrity. True, but they are few and far between.
OMA
