Prefatory Note

Prefatory Note For the sake of those readers of this book who are not familiar with the Qabalistic system used in the Western Esoteric Tradition I think it best that I should give a brief outline of that system as an introduction to the Flying Rolls which follow.

The Qabalah is essentially a system of classification. The various factors that make up both the universe (the macrocosm) and the soul of man (the microcosm) are classified in accordance with ten numbers, the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, and twentytwo letters, the Paths of the Tree of Life.1

The manifested universe is further divided into Four Worlds, each containing a Tree of Life of its own. The Four Worlds are classified as follows :

Atziluth, Archetypal-Pure Deity

Briah, Creative-Archangelic

Yetzirah, Formative-Angelic

Assiah, Action-Man, Matter, Shells, Demons.

In each of these Four Worlds are the ten Sephiroth of that World, and each Sephirah in turn is divided into a Tree of Life made up of ten Sephiroth. This makes four hundred Sephiroth in all-the number of the letter Tau, last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the completion of all things.

When the Tree of Life is applied to the nature of Man it is divided into three, Nephesch, Ruach, and Neschamah-roughly equivalent to the Body, Soul and Spirit of St. Paul.

Nephesch is equated with Malkuth and Y esod, the two lowest Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, and is usually translated as 'Animal Soul'. It is the vehicle by which the mind is brought into contact with matter and, broadly speaking, it corresponds with the 'etheric' and 'lower astral' bodies of Theosophical terminology.

Ruach, the second principle, is usually translated as Mind or 1 These thirty-two factors were usually represented in diagrammatic form. This diagram-the Tree of Life-may be found in such easily available works as Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah, W. Gray's

Ladder of Lights, and R. G. Torrens' Golden Dawn-Its Inner Teachings. (Editorial Note.)

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