Kabbalah, oh how widespread it has become and how oddly distributed, shifted, and split.

To give the most minor of introductions, today I'm remaking one of my original videos,

but this time with flair and further supplemented by what I've learned over the year. Well, not all of it, but the minor points that I think are relevant to beginners in either

striking the chord of their desire for spiritual wisdom or engaging the mind that seeks understanding—pun intended.

And really quickly, if you want to learn about metaphysics, practical aspects of Kabbalah,

the secrets of numbers, magic spells, and more, then don't forget to subscribe because I'm

working on those at this very moment. Alright, let's start at the bottom. Kabbalah, as some people know, is a word meaning "the tradition," in reference to the oral

tradition and its subsequent depths of knowledge as it relates to the Torah, which is called the written tradition, or first five books of the Bible.

The oral tradition is considered delivered over the 40 days and nights unto Moses upon Mount Sinai by the Divine, directly from mouth to ear; hence it is called "the tradition."

Today, we have what may as well be called commoner Kabbalah, a series of artistic renditions

of items that are said to house the most ancient secrets, which to some extent they assuredly

do in the space of theology and occultism, but with a nuance of mystery since these topics

are finally becoming available to the general public. We'll begin our introduction proper with the Tree of Life, the other Tree in the midst

of the Garden of Eden, likened against the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This attainment of the Tree of Life, properly called Etz Chayim, is considered to be the

pinnacle of humanity's spiritual existence. How do we know that and what is this spiritual state similar to?

It's described in Genesis 3:22 where we find the quote, "lest he put forth his hand,

and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." Emphasizing, "and live forever."

Let's ask ourselves something briefly: why is it a tree? The tree is the most proper symbol for a few reasons, because a great tree sprouting from

a seed is much like the mystical imagery described in the Kabbalah as it relates to the creation

of the universe. Sure, it is a plant, but in the same vein, it so properly fits the process of creation.

The garden flourishes with all manner of foliage, just as the fields and air flourish with all manner of animals, and the crown of creation was Mankind.

Each level of living things begins with the generative force of two parents — we might even say masculine and feminine energies — who in the Kabbalah are called Aba and Ima.

Aba and Ima mean Father and Mother, respectively, and their mysteries are called the forbidden degrees, for which we find in Leviticus 18:7, "The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness

of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover." Therefore, we won't be going any further on Aba and

Ima aside from displaying their correlation to the Tree of Life, which I will do very soon after presenting the layout of the tree.

Anyway, the depiction of the tree is, at least how it is shown in the Lurianic Kabbalah,

like so. Well, if you don't know what I mean by Lurianic, it's a man named Isaac Luria who lived in the 1500s; he's a famous Kabbalist, a real

genius of a sort and the mystical grandfather of many Kabbalistic concepts today, like Tzimtzum,

which we won't be talking about herein. Even so, Luria is also known by the ascribed moniker, the Arizal, or the Holy Ari, because

of his devout and spiritual, powerful nature. He studied many things extensively, yet most of all seems to be The Zohar.

If you didn't know, The Zohar is a text from the 1200s, compiled and put into writing

by a man known as Moshe de Leon, but its authorship is attributed to the most famous

Rabbi, Shimon bar Yochai, but those history lessons are too easily covered on your own

time, so let's get back to the basics of the Tree. There are 10 sefirot in the tree, with a special sefirah called Da'at that typically isn't

present because of... reasons. Well, I don't put it there because of a few reasons, but one thing you should really ask yourself

is why do so many other trees not include Da'at? Like, seriously, what's missing?

Ha, actually that last bit is a play on words, "what's missing." It answers the question, coincidentally.

Okay, back to it. So the 10 sefirot are — and I'm going to say this slowly and highlight

the spheres as I say them — Malchut, Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiferet, Geburah, Chesed, Binah,

Chokmah, and at the peak, Keter. In English, we would see these as, following the same as last time, — Kingdom, Foundation,

Glory, Victory, Beauty, Judgment, Loving-Kindness, Understanding, Wisdom, and Crown.

As you may have noticed, some of these sefirot, or as commonly called Sephirot, are related

to each other. The most common correlations are called the Pillars. There are 3 pillars, of which we can categorize them: the pillar of Severity, which is the

left-hand pillar. The pillar of Sweetness or Mercy, which is the right-hand pillar.

And finally, the Pillar of Balance, which is the Middle Pillar. Sometimes you'll see the Middle Pillar also properly called the Pillar of Mercy, and this

isn't wrong, because the merciful nature can be distributed upon the left; this is

known as sweetening judgment or appealing to the aspect of mercy, but all of that gets pretty complicated, and we shouldn't be too

We now need to speak on another matter very briefly. One of the most famous books of the Kabbalah is known as Sefer Yetzirah, meaning *The Book*

of Formation, attributed to writing or ascribed around the 2nd century A.D. In this text, we find some of the most valuable

information, specifically of the 32 gates

of wisdom. These 32 gates are referential to the Sefirot and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Each of the 22 letters is ascribed to one of the paths, or rather, intersections, between

the Sefirot, with the other 10 gates being the Sefirot themselves. Each gate is lightly described in Sefer Yetzirah and appeals to the idea of spiritual ascension

through Henosis. Henosis is the idea of unification, or being connected together; therefore, the ideal

interpretation is that the individual is grafted into the spiritual roots of the tree itself, a partaker of its branches, thereby elevating

the person by drawing down those forces into

themself that they might be expressed in reality. These people also tend to be called converts, coincidentally enough.

You may ask yourself, how long does it take for this to occur? Well, quite simply, when a person sleeps, they

are elevated to the Sefirah of Yesod and descend

back down into Malkuth afterward, and in this space, the idea is that their spiritual form is rearranged to match their state of being.

So it happens quickly, but the issue is more so in actual obtainment, because in the long

run, you'll notice this to be far more difficult in execution than it is in theory. A point that should be known is how can

the higher spiritual forms be embodied or

drawn inward while a person is within Malkuth,
the lowest sephirah. It's an easy question, thankfully, in that
Malkuth already houses aspects of the 9 upper

sephiroth, thereby engagement with them is experienced
as a manner of expression from the individual.

For example, a human being is not naturally
in a state of knowing—likened to the sephirah

of Keter, but they can actualize forms of
knowledge, the sephirah Da'at.

They further can attain understanding, the
sephirah of Binah, of things through knowledge,

and with this compounding of knowledge and
understanding, a person can achieve a state of wisdom on certain matters.

Of course, this is the experience of these
things in physical reality; the supernal forms are much greater in terms of complexity and
integration, but this is the simple, personal

association that we experience in our lives. You might ask, what of the other sephiroth?
Well, just as the mind rests above all other

factors in our body, so too do these 3 sephiroth
rest above the lower 6, which are all categorized

as emotional sephiroth. We can express kindness, judgment, pursue
grandeur and glory, and victory, which furthermore

set foundations and ultimately culminate as
a kingdom—using 'kingdom' by way of license of language—such that we set up a space for
ourselves, a reflection of our own form here

in physical reality through active creativity,
which we may say is established in the most microcosmic form to all of these much higher
spiritual ideals.

That's actually a lot more than I originally
intended to write on that; we almost got off track.

So remember Aba and Ima from earlier? Aba is attributed to the right-hand pillar.

Ima is to the left-hand pillar. Why is that? Because the two gender aspects are dually
bisected by their inherent difference, which

We call the middle pillar. Basically, the feminine aspect is closer to Ima and the masculine aspect to Aba.

In the creation story of Judaic mysticism, this is immensely important, but all of those pieces are far beyond our current talk.

Anyways, let's bring up some more interesting points. The perfected name in Judaic mysticism is the four-letter name, stated as YHVH.

Many people today see this readily as Yahweh or Jehovah, but we don't need pronunciation specifics for this.

Each letter is likened unto what is called the four worlds. Each world represents a particular form of existence and is also tied symbolically to

the Tree of Life. The four worlds are called, from the top down, Atziluth, Briyah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah.

These respectively mean Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Action. Our current existence is in Malchut of Assiyah.

There is Malchut of the other three worlds, but again, that's a bit much for what we're

dealing with currently. So the name YHVH has a world for each character, directly related as I'll show on screen.

Another point for the more experienced that I see come up time and again is that the tip of the Yod is seen as what is called the supernal engraving, the first engraving or revealing

of all things we consider reality, and this is the fifth world called Adam Kadmon, primordial

man, but it isn't, in my opinion, a literal fifth world, just the fullness of the other four.

So you may ask yourself, why are people even curious about the four worlds? Well, because four is the most primary divisory

sign we see in human understanding. The four elements, the four seasons, the four

solar events of two equinoxes and two solstices,

I mean, there are a lot of fours out there if you look for them. Alright, we're back to the typical question: Us.

How does this relate to us? What do we have to do with this? Well, just as the form of man was made from the dust of the earth, so too was his form

made in the likeness of the Higher, for which it says, "God made man in his image," in

reference to humankind. We contain, in a mystical sense, all of the aspects of the Sefirot in their most minor

rendition, their most microcosmic state, which is expressed through the various areas of our bodily functions.

Introduction to Kabbalah

Introduction to Kabbalah

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