Mishkan ha-Echad

Thursday 9 February 2012

The Qlippoth and the Golden Dawn

The Qlippoth ("shells") are an area of Golden Dawn study and practice that is often ignored or glossed over. Working with the darker aspects of the universe and ourselves are something that most Right Hand Path magicians want little to do with.

And yet it is an essential part of the ultimate ascent up the Tree. We cannot, for example, fully understand Geburah, in particular, if we do not understand the Qlippoth. We are also missing a key to the puzzle of all the Sephiroth by not understanding what went wrong with the Breaking of the Vessels.

The Qlippothic forces are the extremes. They are what happens when balance is not reached or kept. Therefore we inadvertently encounter them throughout our path, and particularly in the Golden Dawn system in those grades that are not on the Middle Pillar, and yet also in every grade when we get too little or too much of an element, planetary power, etc.

The Qlippoth are parts of us and parts of the universe that are not as they should be. They are what went wrong, what is going wrong, and what might go wrong in the future. They are evil, the potential for evil, and good brought to such an extreme that it has become a new evil of its own.

During some work with the archangel Gabriel he showed me his role as lord over the Qlippoth. He told me that he stands in the West, the place of the Hiereus, because it is there he watches over and guards against the Multitudes. He is the key into our subconscious and also our guide for working with Qlippothic forces.

Gabriel attributed Qlippothic work to the 6=5 grade, which applies with the role of Geburah as the source of evil in Qabalistic tradition. The 4=7 grade receives a dim reflection of these forces within the Outer Order, and this is the grade attributed to the office of Hiereus. In a sense the Hiereus protects against the Qlippoth at the Western part of Malkuth on the temple floor, the place that is the Kether of the Qlippothic Tree, and yet also protects the Outer Order against the Qlippothic forces that emanate from Geburah.

Gabriel can show several techniques for Qlippothic work, most of which are understandably risky and quite terrifying to even think about, let alone actually do, but he also works as a protector, a shield against the shadow, a light within the darkness.

Personally I liken some of this work to the binding of Cacodaemons in the Enochian system, an equally ignored area, and yet a very powerful one. I plan to publish a full technique and guide for such Cacodaemon work in Enochian Magic in Practice, hopefully later this year.

Unfortunately a number of Golden Dawn orders and temples have axed or ignored Qlippothic work, fearful of what it entails. A great deal of caution needs to be applied to even studying these forces, of course, let alone working with them, but that is no reason to completely avoid the subject altogether - a subject that was part of the original Golden Dawn syllabus, even if only in a cursory form.

I think part of of the misunderstanding comes from the forbidding of "evil magic" in the 0=0 Oath, which some magicians think entails any and all Qlippothic work. Of course, there are some who work with the Qlippoth in the sense of black magic, to cause injury and harm to others, and so forth, but this is actually allowing that Qlippothic force to have power over the magician, rather than balancing it within themselves.

Some people think they need to work with the Qlippoth in the sense of making pacts with demons, but that is not true at all. The point is to understand, bind and balance them, and most of this work takes place internally, even if it involves an external demonstration through ritual magic.

As Gabriel indicated, this is high grade work and requires lots of preparation, which comes from prior initiations, lots of personal magical and spiritual work, and a healthy dose of introspection. It is not for the faint-hearted, nor the untested, and it has just as much power to destroy a magician who does not watch where they tread as it has to bring about a greater balance within them.

For those who are truly ready, however, it can prove very rewarding.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

93

Always wonderful to see people touch such subjects. I remember several years ago us having a conversation around the relationship of LHP and RHP technologies, and the illusion of such exclusive separations into 'light' and 'dark' work.
Its interesting to get a GD context to the qlipoth in terms of where it sits in the grades. Good to see normal blogging resumed also - the book must be finished! I look forward!!

93/93

Frater Docet Umbra
http://fraterdocetumbra.blogspot.com

J.C. said...

Personally, I have found that people who gravitate toward working with the Qlippoth for no good reason tend to be rather psychologically imbalanced. However, I also feel that once a certain stage of development has been reached, in particular once the initial stages of knowledge and conversation have been attained, working with the evil forces becomes a necessity as they seem to take it upon themselves to enter into your life whether you like it or not.

Frater Yechidah said...

@Fr. DU:

Thanks. Yeah, the book is done, proofs are on their way. Still lots to do, but should hopefully be able to blog more now. Glad you enjoyed the post.

LVX,
Dean.

Frater Yechidah said...

@J.C.:

You're right. A lot of people who do gravitate towards the Qlippoth are unbalanced and tend to use these forces to further unbalance themselves.

There is definitely a point in one's magical "career" when working with our darker aspects is warranted, however.

This doesn't mean actually working with demons in the sense of getting them to do our bidding, but more in the sense of working with our inner demons, addressing the darker aspects of ourselves (and the world at large) and going through a process of alchemical change that ultimately results in a state of greater balance than before.

Failure to address these forces can equally lead to imbalance. We encounter these forces indirectly in the elemental grades when our "issues" are usually raised and we are forced to deal with them (or begin dealing with them) or they get out of hand.

Qlippothic work in the Inner Order is, in essence, the logical extension of this work, but again, it's not something you begin lightly, and it's clearly something best approached in small doses, with many breaks and alternative Qabalistic, etc. work to balance things.

LVX,
Dean.

Anonymous said...

93

As I previousily said, good to see you back blogging. Out of this post I have also come to some thoughts on the double, and the dweller on the threshold. I even quote you paraphrasing Gabriel (hero worship if ever I saw it :-
)Anyway, if you're interested

http://fraterdocetumbra.blogspot.com/2012/02/pagan-blog-project-doppelganger-double.html

93/93

Docet Umbra

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