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by Dion Fortune (Author)
THE MYSTICAL QABALAHDION FORTUNE1. Very few students of occultism know anything at all about the fountain-head whence their tradition springs. Many of them do not even know there is a Western Tradition. Scholarship is baffled by the intentional blinds and defences with which initiates both ancient and modern have wrapped themselves about, and concludes that the few fragments of a literature which have come down to us are medieval forgeries. 2. The adepts of those races whose evolutionary destiny is to conquer the physical plane have evolved a Yoga technique of their own which is adapted to their special problems and peculiar needs. This technique is based upon the well-known but little understood Qabalah, the Wisdom of Israel. 3. It may be asked why it is that the Western nations should go to the Hebrew culture for their mystical tradition? The answer to this question will be readily understood by those who are acquainted with the esoteric theory concerning races and sub-races. No one can deny that Judaism was the matrix of the European spiritual culture when they recall the fact that Jesus and Paul were both Jews. No race except the Jewish race could possibly have served as the stock upon which the new dispensation was to be grafted because no other race was monotheistic. Pantheism and polytheism had had their day and a new and more spiritual culture was due. The Christian races owe their religion to the Jewish culture as surely as the Buddhist races of the East owe theirs to the Hindu culture. 4. The mysticism of Israel supplies the foundation of modern Western occultism. It forms the theoretical basis upon which all ceremonial is 3 developed. Its famous glyph, the Tree of Life, is the best meditation symbol we possess because it is the most comprehensive. 5. It is not my intention to write a historical study of the sources of the Qabalah, but rather to show the uses that are made of it by modern students of the Mysteries. Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah remains a classic in the field. She explores all aspects of the Qabalah-whose disciplines include the esoteric sciences of astrology and tarot, and forms the basis of the Western Mystery Tradition. Her thorough explanation of the Tree of Life, which lies at the heart of Qabalistic teaching, provides a key to the practical working of this mystical system for both novice and initiate.
