Bringing Down the Power
Last Tuesday evening, I held down the Eastern Quarter for the graduation/final ritual of Arbor Vitae, a Kabbalistic study group sponsored by the Fellowship of the Spiral Path. It was particularly interesting because the Spiral version of Kabbalah studies started with a group I led back in the 1980’s (a tradition that I used to jokingly call “California Kabbalah”). As I racked my brain trying to remember in just which direction one starts a banishing pentagram, I found myself reflecting on the great virtues of that system and also why I am not practicing it anymore.
Long ago in the mists of antiquity (otherwise known as the 50’s and 60’s), the only books on magical training available came from the Golden Dawn tradition via Dion Fortune or Aleister Crowley, and was based on the Western Esoteric Kabbalah. Dion Fortune’s version of the tradition was the basis for the Aquarian Order of the Restoration (AOR), which Marion Zimmer Bradley and her husband Walter Breen had started in the 60’s. When I married into the family I ended up in the AOR as well. Marion had us all reading books like Fortune’s, The Mystical Qabbalah, but we did not do any systematic ritual work with the Tree. By the 80’s, when the AOR had dissolved and given way to the Center for Non-Traditional Religion, which morphed into the Fellowship of the Spiral Path when Marion withdrew from active participation in the pagan community, I was ready to tackle the Tree of Life myself, and fortunately there was a great group of people who were eager to start the journey with me.
At that time I was working for Far West Educational R&D Laboratory, trying to apply General Systems Theory to Educational Design. I put up an unlabeled diagram of the Sephiroth on the Tree above my desk and everyone assumed it was a flow chart. Which, as a matter of fact, it is. I loved the way the Kabbalistic system allows one to correlate data. It’s a wonderful tool for organizing archetypes and addressing comparative mythology, a cosmic filing cabinet. It is also a powerful initiatory system, which can activate and integrate each aspect of the psyche, one by one. Most books on Kabbalah start at the top and trace the flow of energy downward. It seemed more logical to me to start with Malkuth– the sphere of earth where we all live, and work our way upward to the Great Unmanifest Source of All. The “graduation” ritual brings the power back down so no one is left floating in the ether.
I ran the class twice, after which the material was taken and extended and transformed by a group led by Emily Garlick, who eventually turned it over to Brianna Tracy, who now leads a Spiral group called Etz Chaim, and Charline Palmtag, who leads Arbor Vitae groups whenever a sufficient number of people are interested. Most of those in Tuesday’s ritual were repeating the sequence. I take a certain satisfaction is seeing how much of what I started has been retained, and how it has served as a foundation for others to build on.
This is ceremonial magic, a controlled process that can direct a pretty strong flow of power in a very precise way. It uses symbolism and ritual to harness the energy in such a way that even if something unexpected happens it will still be appropriate. The color and symbolism of the ritual garments that Kelson (known in Spiral as St. Kelson the Ornate) created are esthetically satisfying. It was good to feel that energy again.
But I also remembered why I had moved on from ceremonial Kabbalism to the shamanic work that eventually brought me to heathenry. Kabbalah is a practice for the head, and my intellect is already pretty well developed. My involvement in that tradition did its work. After that I felt the need to loosen up, and having gained all that control, to learn how to lose it. My first teacher for that was Coyote. Then I encountered Odin. But that’s another story.
Charline is currently recuperating from the most recent round of Arbor Vitae, but in time she may be persuaded to run another one. For those who aren’t disturbed by Hebrew god-names, it can be a valuable experience. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll try another round myself. But it may not be possible to step into that river twice. But whether I do or not, I hope that Brianna and Charline and I can put all the materials into a book one day.