Ladder of Lights

228 Pages·2008·1.15 MB·English

by  William Gordon Gray

The
LADDER of LIGHTS
(or Qabalah Renovate)
by
WILLIAM G. GRAY
A Step by Step Guide to the
Tree of Life and the
Four Worlds of the Qabatists
A
HELIOS BOOK
1975

© William G. Gray, 1968
Published by Helios Book Service Ltd
Publishers & Booksellers
8 The Square, Toddington, Nr. Cheltenham, Glos.
Printed in Great Britain by
Morrison & Gibb Ltd., London and Edinburgh
Contents
Page
Chapter One The Pattern of Things 7
Chapter Two The Sephirotic Ladder 15
Chapter Three Sephirah Malkuth, The Kingdom, 10 27
Chapter Four Sephirah Yesod, The Foundation, 9 42
Chapter Five Sephirah Hod, Splendour, Renown, 8 59
Chapter Six Sephirah Netzach, Victory,
Achievement, 7 76
Chapter Seven Sephirah Tiphereth, Beauty,
Harmony, 6 94
Chapter Eight Sephirah Geburah, Strength,
Justice, Severity, Fear, 5 115
Chapter Mine Sephirah Chesed, Mercy, Compassion, 4 132
Chapter Ten The Abyss, and the "Sephirah" Daath 150
Chapter Eleven Sephirah Binah, Understanding, 3 163
Chapter Twelve Sephirah Chockmah, Wisdom, 2 180
Chapter Thirteen Sephirah Kether, The Crown,
The Summit, 1 201
Chapter Fourteen Ain Soph Aur—
The Three Negative Veils 222
Chapter One
THE PATTERN OF THINGS
We live in patterns because we have to. They are
inescapable. The Cosmos is a pattern. So are we. There are
patterns of Spirit, Soul, Mind, and Body extending through
all states of existence. We can find them readily enough
anywhere. Our human bodies are a Magic Maze of patterns
throughout their cellular structure. We have only to look at
our own fingertips to observe our individual patterning.
Insofar as the pattern of anything may be called a symbol,
each of us are living Symbols forming part of the Great
Design we can only think of as Divine Life.
The basic facts are simple enough. We live between two
worlds or states of existence. The Outerworld of ordinary
mundane living, and the mysterious Innerworld of thoughts,
feelings, and subjective activities which we vaguely classify
as "spiritual". Both worlds are real in relation to ourselves,
and the energies operating through them are transmutable and
interchangeable from one to another. The patterns formed by
such exchanges are those by which we live. We can alter
ourselves by altering our life-patterns and vice versa. We
and they are interdependent.
If it were possible to find or formulate what might be
described as the Perfect Pattern and follow it faithfully, then
we should be Perfect People. This has been the aim of
every religion and philosophy, Creed, Code, or System.
Looking at our past history and present situation as humans,
it seems evident that we have either failed to find or to
follow any such thing. Nevertheless, this has not been for
want of attempts made in that direction. So many attempts
have been made so often by such different means, that con
fusion occurs among them all, and for an individual to make
any selective choice for himself is mostly a matter of instinct
or inclination.
It was and is the Ideal of every Spiritual System to find this
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Perfect Pattern and use it for the development and upliftment
of such souls who might fit themselves into its framework. An
intelligent human applying this Design to himself must surely
be on the way to his own perfection. This was the purpose of
Occult Initiation, in which aspirants were supplied with a
Symbolic Plan for their progression through the worlds of
Spirit, Soul, Mind and Body which form our whole state of
Being.
The sublimity of this Concept is such that we can scarcely
appreciate it at a first glance. It is like trying to sum up the
whole of human language into a single word. In fact it is
symbolised by the mythical Lost Word, which is said to
explain everything, contain everything, and once spoken
obviates the need for any further speech. In line with this is
the idea of expressing all mathematics by one single and simple
equation which would solve every possible problem. One
thought which comprises all thinking; the Cause of all
causation.
If we consider some of the principal Systems among us, we
shall see that they have all produced some kind of a Master
pattern which must have been effective to some degree or they
could not have affected so many people for so long a time.
Perhaps the most universal was the ancient Solar, or circled
Cross, held in common by nearly all faiths in one form or
another. Christianity began under its aegis, the Calvary Cross
being a later adaptation. Buddhists show it as the Wheel of
Life, and it remains today as a major Symbol of most Mystery
Schools. As a universal Symbol, it is scarcely to be surpassed.
The Hebrew faith ultimately adopted the Hexagram, or
Shield of David as a Master-Glyph, and the profundity of its
design is capable of indefinite interpretation. Later came the
highly sophisticated development of the Quarternity and Sex-
tuplicity as the Ten Emanations of the One, arranged in the
pattern known as the Tree of Life. Few minds could, or yet
can, work with this Glyph on account of its complications, so
it remained almost the exclusive property of the Qabalistic
School. Orthodox Rabbinism declared it heretical. However,
it became the sign of a developing and Westernising mind and
soul, growing away from the static Oriental outlook and
culture, and such it remains today.
The Symbol of the Tree of Life is neither static nor dead.
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It is a growing, flexible, and adaptable Life-Pattern capable
of indefinite extensions throughout Life Itself in all states and
existences. This means not merely cellular organic life, but
the whole of Being, manifested in all possible aspects. Since
there cannot be more, the Tree presents no less. It is no rigid
accumulation of defunct dogma and meaningless symbology
for an advancing humanity, for it presents an ever richer field
of faith in widening dimensions of spirit. Before all else it
lives, and must be lived.
The so called Qabalah, or "received teaching" is the out
come of beliefs, experiences, and developments of souls who
have "trodden the Paths" by arranging their lives according
to the patterns produced by means of the Tree. It is not a
hard and fast rule of thumb mysticism, but a Way of Life and
Living within a Pattern which constantly and consciously aims
at its own perfection.
As we grow the Tree grows. It bears a different variety of
fruit in the twentieth century than it did in the fourteenth,
but it still fulfils its function of producing sustenance for the
insatiable human soul in search of its own meaning. What is
more, its fruits are literally inexhaustible, since they con
tinually renew themselves with fresh supplies of Inner energies.
The harder we pluck the Tree, the more plentifully comes its
amazing fruit.
After initial contacts with the Tree of Life and the Qabalah,
it is only natural that we should ask ourselves whether to
continue our investigations, or stop wasting time on what
seems a medieval rubbish heap in some abandoned Ghetto.
Such a question can only be answered by the querant himself.
No amount of reading will solve it. All we can read are the
opinions and theories of others, which may or may not be
helpful. Each Qabalist must formulate the Tree according to
his own life within its pattern. Those unable to do this cannot
be Qabalists.
The Tree provides the means of receiving Innerworld con
tacts with types of consciousness normally inaccessible to the
ordinary human mind. It is from and through these sources
that the "Teaching" comes. Nor is this an automatic process,
but the result of hard and painstaking work in all worlds.
Qabalism is not for the lazy, the ineffectual, or the indifferent
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occultist. It offers a living-pattern which must be experienced,
not merely looked at.
Such an experience is only possible if we "work the Paths"
through the Four Worlds. In Atziluth, the World of Origins,
we work with Contemplation. In Briah, the Creative World,
we use Meditation, while in Yetzirah, the Formative World,
what is sometimes called Ritual Magic applies. Finally in
Assiah, the World of Expression, we must act in terms of
earth life. Thus do we weave the Qabalistic Pattern of Life
as the Tree teaches us.
Since the essential meaning of the Qabalah is contained in
the Tree of Life, it is to the Tree that we must turn for all
information. The Tree is to the Qabalist what the Cross is
(or should be) to a Christian, or the Wheel to a Buddhist.
Unless there is a good understanding of the Tree and how it
works, there is no more point in attempting Qabalism than
entering a cycle race without being able to ride one.
So much has been written about the Tree and the Qabalah
during the last century that it is strange so little has been
explained. The whole subject presents itself as a fascinating
confusion. Original writers translated Hebrew scripts faith
fully with all their "in-group" allusions and heavily veiled
meanings within meanings within meanings. Ordinary minds
accustomed to thinking in straight lines, struggled with these
hopelessly, often making muddles worse than they were.
Subsequent writers simply took in previously published
literary washing and rehashed it to small purpose. Only a
bare minimum of authors even attempted to present the
Qabalah in a sensible intelligent light. To some extent there
is a reason for this.
This reason is very simple. The Qabalistic Tree and its
associations may be likened to a well-designed crossword
puzzle with its clues. The entire meaning and value of the
puzzle lies with the mental exercise involved in its construc
tion and solution. In solving it, a mind must be used to some
considerable extent, which naturally improves and develops
the mind power of the thinker. By presenting the Tree as a
Qabalistic puzzle of mental and spiritual magnitude, an oppor
tunity is afforded for genuine progress of mind and spirit to
whomsoever has the wits and endurance to attempt its
solution. Consequently the written and published Qabalah
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must be considered as the clues to the enigma and not its
answers except on some of the broad issues. The real solution
must be worked out individually, for it lies in the souls of those
who seek it and nowhere else.
The major clue or Key to the Qabalah being the Tree, we
must bring the main force of our enquiry thereto and keep
going until at least the outlines of a pattern emerge. This
should provide us with a mass of material from which blanks
can be filled in as necessity arises.
Firstly what is the Tree? It is a symbolic representation of
the relationships believed to exist between the most abstract
Divinity and the most concrete humanity. A sort of family
Tree linking God and Man together with Angels and other
Beings as a complete conscious creation. Since it is a Symbol,
we must gain some knowledge of the meaning, construction,
and applications of Symbols, or the Tree will be nothing more
than lines and dots on paper.
A Symbol is the embodiment of an idea so that it can be
dealt with by differing conscious entities, or even between
different conscious levels of the same Entity. Thus a Symbol
is a means of exchange much like coinage or any mutually
acceptable currency. Symbolism may be considered as the
currency of consciousness. After all, the very words on this
page are groups of symbols arranged so as to convey meaning
from one mind to another.
The Tree-Symbol is in itself an alphabet of symbols from
whence a spiritual language can be constructed which should
be intelligible between Beings in different states of existence.
In old fashioned terms, Gods, Angels, and Men are given a
common language. In modern parlance the normal conscious
ness is enabled to communicate directly with the sub and
super consciousness by means of inter-relative symbology. To
make the Tree fully articulate is the work of every Qabalist,
because once an intelligent contact has been established by its
means between our human selves and the Great Consciousness
of which we are infinitesimal units, then we shall make
really useful progress along the lines of the Perfect Pattern.
In order to make the Tree speak so that we can make
sense of it, we must first attach translatable meanings into its
framework, and the only way this can be done is by medita-
tional and practical work with the Tree. Each Sephirah and
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Path must be linked to ideas which lead an exploring con
sciousness from one dimension of experience to another. Such
concepts must be mutually acceptable to Intelligences on
both sides of the Veil dividing the Inner and Outer Worlds.
Once we can think, feel, and live with these ideas, we shall
literally be learning the language of the Angels.
The primary task of course is grasping and handling the
basic concepts of the Ten Sephiroth and their relationship with
each other. Anyone can learn these parrot fashion in a very
short while, but they will have no real meaning until they
have become integral parts of a living-pattern. This cannot be
accomplished without systematic Contemplation, Meditation,
Prayer, and Practice. Put together, these four essentials spell
one word—WORK.
To speak the language of the Tree we must be able to utter
its sounds, (the Sephiroth) form and pronounce its letters,
(the Paths) then express ourselves with its words, which are
Sephiroth-Path combinations. This is done by a similar method
of application to a child learning its native tongue. Eventually
we shall discover the style and grammar of the Tree, which
brings an ability to arrange its concepts in accordance with
types of consciousness unreachable on ordinary human levels.
The method is to work within limits so as to approach the
Limitless. Our Tree-thinking is limited by the relationship of
the Sephiroth to each other between the Right and Left hand
Pillars, but the upward extension through Kether into the
unlimited AIN SOPH AUR is Infinite. In that sense Kether
is like the bow of a ship, stationary of itself in relation to the
whole vessel, but constantly reaching new waters of the
Eternal Ocean. Otherwise we can think of the Tree like a
conduit, the walls of which are the Pillars, but the flow of
force passing through them is infinite because incessant. All
such notions give us ideas to work with.
In order to handle Sephirotic groupings as single concepts,
they have been joined by what are called Paths or channels.
The positions and nomenclature attached to these Paths are
a major cause of disagreement among Qabalists. There are
few if any serious divergences about the Sephiroth themselves,
but the paths have become more of a battleground for dis
sentient occultists, rather than peaceful promenades in search
of knowledge. Each different School takes an assortment of
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