Cicero - Self Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition_Part 01

TheNeophyte Grade 57
the divine male and the divine female principles. Read in this context, the Qabalistic
origins of the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) give an
entirely new meaning. The first sentence of Genesis, which in Hebrew begins as
"Berashith bara Elohim Aih-ha-Shamaim w'Ath ha-Aretz," can be interpreted as "In
the beginning, the gods (the united Male and Female aspects of the Divine) created
the Heavens and the Earth." This idea of the equality of the divine male and
divine female principles, although suppressed for centuries by male-dominated
societies, is carefully hidden in Qabalistic doctrine, although at times it has
slipped out unforeseen in almost all translations of the Pentateuch, such as in Genesis
1:26and 1:27:"And God went on to say let us make man in ourimage, according
to ourlikeness," "And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God's
image he created him; male andfemale he created them."
Another example is the word Sephiroth, which is used to describe the ten
emanations of the Divine. Here we have a feminine noun Sephirah being joined to
a feminine plural "oth." This again points to the importance of the feminine in
Qabalah. The Sephiroth themselves are generally considered feminine because
they structure and give form to the emanations of deity. Thus anyone who seriously
studies the Qabalah for any length of time will see that it is a very balanced
system for spiritual growth.
The Qabalah is usually classified under four heads which overlap each
other in some instances. They are:
1. THE DOGMATIC QABALAH-the study of ancient Qabalistic
books such as the Written Torah also called the Pentateuch, the
Zohar, the Bahir, and the Sepher Yetzirah.
2. THE PRACTICAL QABALAH-deals with the construction
of talismans used in ceremonial magic.
3. THE LITERALQABALAH-deals with Gematria; the relationships
between numbers and the letters of the Hebrew
alphabet, which yield many hidden meanings of Hebrew
words and names.
4. THE UNWRITTEN QABALAH-refers to the correct knowledge
of the sacred symbol known as the Tree of Life (Etz-ha­
Chayim). This is the only branch of the Qabalah that the Neophyte
of this course will need to study for now.
We will not at this time describe the long history and evolution of the
Qabalah as espoused and elucidated by various teachers and sources down
through the ages. To do so would be to place an undue burden upon the Neophyte.
However, for ambitious students who like to take on burdens, we highly
recommend a book by Gershom Scholem called simply Kabbalah published by
Dorset Press (New York). This book gives an excellent and detailed account of the
various schools of Qabalistic thought.