Customer Reviews

Mystical Qabalah

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When examining this new edition in order to consider it as a course text I found several problems within the edition itself. At first I thought that, maybe, it had been a very long time since I'd read it as some things didn't seem as clear as I'd remembered them. Upon comparison to the '84-'89 edition I found the source of the problem, the text has not been faithfully reproduced. For example the following two quotes are from the end of Chapter 2, Paragraph 4.

2001 Edition: "Nor am I impressed by a dedication to the higher life which by peculiarities of clothing and bearing and by the manner of cutting, or omitting to cut, the hair."

1984 Edition: "Nor am I impressed by a dedication to the higher life which manifests itself by peculiarities of clothing and bearing and by the manner of cutting, or omitting to cut, the hair."

This is only a single example and I have yet to find an entire chapter devoid of such mistakes, some of them leaving out entire sentences.

The Mystical Qabalah is, without a doubt, one of the best books on Qabalah ever written. It is a shame that Weiser, a formally respected publisher, could make such a mess of it.

-Greg Wotton

This book is very well written and is inspiring from begining to end. The author
painstakingly covers the wide range of thought and practice of qabalah in the mystical sense and makes it practical. She never omits to mention the tree of life and it's role in every topic that is covered, every part or station of tree is aproched in a way that only an adept person could.

Sure Ophiel's Qabala book is good, Ted Andrews stuff is all right. But if you want the knowledge that rooted it all and even influenced them: come to Dion Fortune's "Mystical Qabalah". It is the most powerful and definitive work on the Qabalah I've ever read. I ordered the original from Builders of the Adytum via Amazon.com and the original is the best, all the other stuff in the new version makes it a little too voluminous. But still, I tell you, it is the best in every way. When I read it, I understood all the forms of magic and how they work at their core, especially tarot, meditation, spells, et cetera and their hermetic core. It helped me with the why's and whats' of it all. Especially in pathworking. Happy reading.

Captain Josh.

Such great detail, that I'm sure it will take me many, many reads before I even begin to remember what she has written. This really is like a sourcebook for all things Qabalah. Must-have for anyone seriously studying the subject. One word of warning though-- this is not an "easy read" Be prepared to *study* this text.

When I read this book, I was amazed with its precision, clarity and completeness. For me, new doors of understanding the science of Qabalah opened up as I read through the chapters that touch upon all of the basic aspects of this occult science.
I have studied Qabalah for some time, under various schools and sects, but I feel that this book is one of the greatest to come out of the early part of the 20th century.
Qabalah is an in depth science, that maps the relationship of the various hidden, unseen dimensions of the universe--in relation to one's psyche (soul), mind, and divinity...
This science truley unveils the occult, the mysteries of life and death, magick, etc. Qabalah synthesizes the use of words (etymology), numbers (numerology), celestial bodies (astrology), symbols, mystical practices and many other key occult applications. Verily, Qabalah ties together the hidden, unseen mystery that awaits the true seeker.
I recommend that one should read the book: Tarot and Kabalah by Samael Aun Weor. This book will shed much more light on the topic. I was even more impressed with the said work. Also, read Eliphas Levi. gnosis-usa.com or go through amazon.

This has been the primary source of qabalistic knowledge for my work. It has given significantly more meaning to the other tomes in my library, 777, Sefer Yetzirah, etc. whose text were nigh unintelligible until after having laid the foundation with this piece of Fortune's legacy.

It has also afforded insight into much of the symbolism in a number of the Western esoteric orders with which I am familiar with.

I would highly recommend along with this book that one keep a notebook and as correspondences and ideas come, to write them down. Obtain a blank Tree of Life and jot in the correspondences as you become aware of them. Create a chart of those correspondences in the Four Worlds. Your subconscious will pick up on it immediately and begin to process the new information.

No occultist, philosopher, theologian, or dare I say mystic should be without this piece in their library.

First: you need to know that the Qabalah as it is used by Western Occultists bears little resemblance to Qabalah as it is practiced by Chasidic and Orthodox Jews. (Dion Fortune says as much in this book, but many miss this distinction). The Qabalah of the Occultists should be judged as a thing in itself, not as an outgrowth of Judaism... in fact, you'll find that efforts to link the two will only get you confused.

As a thing in itself, the Western Qabalah is a fine system for organizing the mind; it can provide a wonderful framework for structuring rituals, and it is a powerful mandala for meditation. And Dion Fortune's book is unquestionably the best introduction to the Qabalah of the Occultists. Her writing is clear and concise and her examples are easy to grasp. In connection with Crowley's *777*, this provides you with everything you need to create your own rituals in the Western Ceremonial tradition. (If you're going to do this, you should also [a] read Fortune's *Psychic Self-Defense* and [b] avoid slavishly following Crowley's suggestions: remember, the Qabalah is essentially an empty filing cabinet, to be organized in the way which suits your needs best... although some will hop up and down and scream "blasphemy" because I dared to say that).

This book, with all it's flaws reflecting Dion's time (early 20 century) and place (imperial G. Britain) is still a wonderful introduction to Western mysticism and occult training.

If the reader is able to focus on the purpose this book tries to serve and not on tangential content, it will prove to be most useful. This is an opinion of someone who read this book as the first-ever intro to Qabalah. I imagine that it will have some value for the more knowledgeable reader as well.

Dion Fortune wrote in accordance with the needs of her time. This book, while perhaps her best, is as yet only an introduction to the subject of mysticism and the Tree of Life. All genuine occultists (positive or negative) recognize that the Tree is the essential key to access knowledge that lies beyond this physical world. Yet few reveal the real secrets of that art, and this book is no exception: it points toward the keys, yet does not reveal them. It is good to study these works, yet without the fuel to power the machine, it is not possible to move. Dion Fortune hints in most of her books toward the source of that fuel, but she does not reveal it openly. So those who do not have that key will be left guessing and building useless concepts in the mind, something even she warns against repeatedly. Read this book; it is valuable. But better still, read the works of Samael Aun Weor, the only one who was authorized to reveal the hidden key of all mystical traditions.

Dion Fortune, despite her self-expressed Biblical and Christian leanings, is a valuable and flexible source of information regarding this once-obscure subject. Her elucidation is clear, rationally expounded, and written in a friendly voice. She shows us that the Qabalah is compatible with any religion, not only her own or that of Judaism, but that it serves a tool for understanding not only oneself better, but also onself's conception of the Divine. She is one of the few authors (that I have read) of any religion whatsoever that is perfectly willing to take a system she believes in and allow for it to be utilized in a tradition radically different from her own.

Perhaps one flaw with the book is a benign one: she consistently repeats herself throughout. While this can be (and was) helpful in some circumstances, and is a welcome change from authors who give you a bit of information and expect you to never forget it, once you understand the point it can bog down the text.

The only major flaw of the book is that it does not include such a detailed description of the 22 paths. It focuses exclusively on the sephira, neglecting what is really the most important part of the entire Tree. This is somewhat remedied, however, by the editorial addition which includes some writing on the paths.

In the end, this is an essential text for anyone interested in mysticism, of any tradition. This book, as I understand it, is used to this day as the instruction material for Fortune's order, the Fraternity of the Inner Light. To this day it is a classic. Regardie, in his introduction to Crowley's 777 (which Fortune refers to repeatedly throughout the text), cites this book as a necessary introduction to that text, and a definite classic in it's own right. Coming from so esteemed a master of the Qabalah as Israel Regardie, one could not ask for a better endorsement.

I emphatically recommend you buy this book.