To: kabbalah-l@hollyfeld.org (Kabbalah-L Elist)
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer)
Subject: Romanized QBL (Second Installment)
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:57:03 -0800 (PST)

49971125 aa2 Hail Satan!

from the Slumbering Eye (what will eventually become Part II of
_Liber QBL_ or something along these lines):

	the Lurianic Tree of Life may well have been selected on 
	account of its beauty in association to the number of paths 
	that were constructed in relation to the Hebrew alphabet 
	and the decimal system used by these same peoples.  
	Hermetic qabalists either knew little else or favored this 
	in their construction of tarotic symbolism and association.

	however, what is seldom discussed is that there is a
	complexity to what should be called 'kabbalistic' or in
	my case either 'qabalistic' or 'QBListic' theory that 
	surpasses the Lurianic model, demonstrating that it is neither
	original (some say not even to Hebrew culture, but I have
	yet to see the evidence for parallels) nor necessary of
	use in communicating mystical ideas from Judaic and other
	cultures (esp. using a linked, sphere-number and letter-line 	
	construction).

	quite beyond this, the way that the spheres and lines or paths 
	are interpreted usually makes impossible an easy syncretism to 
	other languages or cultures, let alone the particular mystical 
	data that these express. below find one interpretation of these 
	general concepts (Tree of Life, spheres, paths) that allows 
	for variation -- those which appeal to me as I continue a 
	construction of Romanized QBL integrating my own world 
	rather than trying to assimilate a people, culture and 
	language alien to me.
	--------------------------------------------------------

	the characters of the spirits of the spheres are
	described symbolically by the traditional associations
	(within *any* given cultural context) to the numbers
	used for counting (in my case 1-10).  an example of an
	association for the number 10 is what has become known 
	as the 'tetraktys', made popular by the Pythagoreans:


			*     *     *     *
	
			   *     *     *

			      *     *    

			         *

	this figure symbolized to many individuals a kind of
	unity in quaternity, typically ascribed these days
	by Hermetic (and possible Jewish for all I know) 
	esotericists to the 'Name of God' or 'Formula of the 
	Tetragrammaton' (IHVH).   its popular meaning might 
	extend (at least in my limited experience) to the 
	formation given to a set of bowling pins (from above)
	or perhaps to a flying wedge of aviators such as geese.  

	correspondent to this would of course be the letters
	(in my case Roman A-Z, 26 of them) and paths, whose 
	modern significations I have attempted to provide in 
	_Liber Gematria_ during my initial forays into 
	Romanized QBL (files within this series may be found at 

	     http://www.luckymojo.com/avidyana/plebe/l.gematria.fn ).

	the exploration of the Tree is, within this expanded
	explanation, not necessarily a progress to some
	cosmological origin and back or ascending a ladder of
	maturation directly related to the letters, but is
	instead a cultural exploration into the depths of one's
	psyche (as the Tree contains those symbolic associations 
	meaingful to the mage, provided foundation by hir social
	milieu yet varying across the wide spectrum of human 
	experience).

	the form previously utilized (Lurianic) participates
	in a restrictive and stilted (for me, outmoded)
	cosmological implication, either missing an obvious
	structural sequencing or horribly mutated beyond that
	to which elegance and an acceptance of the perfection
	of the universe may move us to construct.

	tossing it aside for the moment, yet retaining the
	original number-sphere, line-path materials, the
	example used above (tetraktys) arises spontaneously
	from my mind as a 'natural' framework within which to 
	orient 10 spheres or circles.  less attractive would be
	the various radial (threes emerging from a singular 
	sphere center, doublet-spheres in a cinquette 
	surrounding a central void, or a decad circle) or linear 
	alternatives (e.g. that found on a standard playing 
	decks' "10" card -- a 3-4-3 linear symmetry).

	given the acceptance of the tetraktys for the spheres,
	it becomes necessary to either discern 16 or 26 lines
	between them (16 if the letters are assigned to the
	spheres alongside the numbers, 26 if separate).  the
	total possible number of lines to use if all of the
	10 tetraktys spheres are connected in every possible
	two-dimensional manner is 33.  to date (just now!) the
	only symmetrical (hey, I prefer symmetry) manner by
	which 26 lines can be constructed is as a vector flow
	from one end of the structure proceeding along the 
	outside of the structure within the first three levels.

	this is much easier to draw by hand than to try to 
	render in ASCII -- start from one end and connect all 
	the spheres not aligned to it (5), then choose one of 
	the spheres nearby and do likewise (6 more), start from 
	the other one (5 more), and then do the same for the 
	outside spheres of the next level (5 more each).  the
	total construction is therefore 10 circles and 26 
	lines (36 'paths' or number-letters in all).

	the most elegant structure I could discover using the 
	lesser (26) method was to connect up all the outside spheres
	to the neighbors on their sides, construct cross-beams
	from the 'initial' sphere in a ladder-like manner (this
	creates a total of 12 paths) and then radiate 4 more
	from the central sphere to the remaining side spheres
	(making 16 for a total number of 26 paths).

	the geometry thus completed, it remains to construct
	charts for significances pertaining to cultural cues
	closely-tied to the numbers and letters of the QBList.
	I leave this project for my future rather than attempt
	to begin it here. ;>

	=======================================================

	(c) tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com nagasiva 
	all rights reserved; duplication may be rendered 
	electronically for the purposes of study, but not 
	monetary profit, so long as proper attribution and 
	this copyright remain intact.

EOF