The 2 Trees and Jewish Mysticism.

[Azvanna]

For people familiar with Kabbalah, how does the tree of life tie in with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
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Does this excerpt from the Gospel of the Beloved Companion compare?
http://awakeningwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Magdalena-Gospel_new.pdf

[THANK...]

It depends on the school. From my studies there is a Tree of Good which is Life, and a Tree of Evil, which is Death, the Qabalah and Qliphoth, respectively. The Tree of Life is the tree of ascending through the Hechaloth (Halls of Heaven) and initiations thereof that involve different orders of angelic communication and ritual procedures. The Tree of Death (or Knowledge) is considered the reverse tree and deals with the denizens of hell. Some consider the Qliphoth to be the negative existence of God's Creation, each qlipha (shell) a hell realm that one may ascend from the depths of sexual desire to the crowning of the kings of Hell (power over others and the material world), others see the reverse tree as literally reverse from the Qabalah, an upside representation leading one from Lilit (Malkut) to Thaumiel (Keter).

With all that, some consider them exactly the same, just different ways of describing the same thing.

[Azvanna]

Thanks, I don't know anything about the Qlipoth, so I'll have a look into that as well.




With all that, some consider them exactly the same, just different ways of describing the same thing.

This makes sense from the description you gave, considering the Tree as a ladder of sorts and a name given to the action of ascending or descending. Did I interpret you correctly?

[THANK...]

This makes sense from the description you gave, considering the Tree as a ladder of sorts and a name given to the action of ascending or descending. Did I interpret you correctly?

Yes. It all depends on the source, whether it is a Jewish Mystic who is studied in the Torah, Tanak, Midrash, and is an actual practicing Jew, or a Ceremonial Magician who studies the work of Thelema or Golden Dawn, et cetera, have different ways of interpreting which is which and why. Some schools consider the Qliphoth and Qabalah as different trees, the Qliphoth representing the violent and raw aspects of God's Creation and the Qabalah representing the ordered and harmonious aspects of God's Creation. Others say the Qabalah is the only tree, where the Qlophoth is actually ruled by the Left Pillar or Pillar of Severity (where some claim the terms Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path originate, but more evidence points towards those terms emerging from the Vamachara (or vamamarga) literally 'left-path', a Tantric Sect). Yet other sources understand the Qliphoth simply as unbalanced sephira (the spheres of the Qabalah).

As you can see, the Qabalah is complicated and the views of the traditional Jewish sects and Western Mystery Tradition practitioners are quite different. It's like being a mathematician and expected to be fluent in written Greek - they each use the same symbolism but they are different languages all together.

[Azvanna]

As you can see, the Qabalah is complicated and the views of the traditional Jewish sects and Western Mystery Tradition practitioners are quite different. It's like being a mathematician and expected to be fluent in written Greek - they each use the same symbolism but they are different languages all together.

I have my work cut out for me ><

[THANK...]

I would suggest picking one book on the Qabalah you really like and study it. Also a Tarot deck with Qabilistic symbolism you really like and study and work with it. If it is a too much of a pain, simply stop and start at a better time, or move on all together.

The Zohar is an excellent place to start if you are the scholarly type, or the Sefir Yetzirah (a short one, that is suggested by Jews and Ceremonials alike, but I have hardly read either!).

"Qabala, Qliphoth, and Goetic Magic" by Thomas Karlsson is an excellent book, but geared more towards the Left-Hand Path.
"Kabbalah" by Charles Ponce is another great read, and also relates Kabbalism to Hindu mysticism.