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download a pdf version of our distance learning kabbalah brochure (includes
application form)
Click here to download
a pdf version of our distance learning psychosynthesis brochure (includes
application form)
Kabbalah:
Kabbalah is a way of understanding all aspects of ourselves and is a rewarding
guide for personal and spiritual development.
Based on a map of consciousness called the Tree of Life, Kabbalah, or Qabalah
(an alternative spelling), is relevant to modern everyday life, offering
greater freedom and fulfillment through including the experience of both
our spirit and shadow sides.
Want to know more about Kabbalah, Qabalah and the
Tree of Life?
What is the difference between Kabbalah
and Qabalah?
Is non-Jewish Kabbalah authentic
or not?
What group courses do you offer?
What books can I read about Kabbalah?
Do you have any articles I can read
about Kabbalistic topics?
What does Kabbalah say about sex
and parenting?
Is Kabbalah a kind of therapy?
What is the link between Kabbalah
and Christianity?
What are energy bodies and how
does Kabbalah describe them?
What does Kabbalah say mediumistic
or channeled material?
What links do you have to Kabbalah,
Qabalah and related topics?
Want to know more
about Psychosynthesis?
Psychosynthesis brings together the two traditions of psychology and mysticism.
Psychology is then infused with a sense of soul and meaning, whilst the
mystery traditions benefit from the grounding and reflective qualities of
psychology.
Psychosynthesis is a practical system which is not about the application
of techniques, but learning to live with a vision that comes from deep within
oneself.
What is Psychosynthesis?
(a longer answer)
What group based courses do you offer?
What books can I read about Psychosynthesis?
Do you have any articles I can read
about Psychosynthesis topics?
Can I have Psychosynthesis counselling
or therapy?
Do you have links to other Psychosynthesis
sites?
Anything we haven't covered, please let us know
Available Now!
The Something and Nothing
of Death
a source of inspiration,
enabling you to face
the prospect of death
with a new spirit
of inquiry
Available Now!
Psychosynthesis:
The Elements and Beyond
everything ypu need
to understand and use
the visions and technques
of psychosynthesis
Magic is a Western philosophy of great depth that incorporates a practical
approach to self-realisation that is workable in everyday life. Whilst it
has misty ancestral links to the ancient world, and particularly Egypt,
it is more firmly rooted in Alchemy, Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, and other
similar hermetic disciplines. Magic has been described as the mysticism
or yoga of the West. Whilst there are similarities, and the ultimate aim
of complete self-realisation is the same, the major distinction is that
magic focuses on coming to earth rather than transcending it. Magic stresses
that the world just as it is, although it may sometimes appear impure or
valueless, is our most precious tool for transformation. You do not have
to go somewhere else to attain self-realisation; instead you can uncover
its abiding presence in the apparently mundane. Magic is found within oneís
life as it is, in both its heights and its depths.
Magical philosophy says that the two most important powers in the human
psyche are will and imagination, both properly tempered by the greatest
cosmic force, love. Imagination is what we use to create the world in which
we live, and will is the force by which we create it. In bringing these
two forces together, magic can be defined as making something intentional
happen. The key to success is using your intention aligned with your true
will or innermost sense of purpose. Putting this viewpoint in a nutshell,
the Hermetic philosopher Goethe1 said: ìReality is that which is effective.î
All methods for transforming oneself and the world, whether considered spiritual,
mystical or mundane, that change your inner reality and outer behaviour,
are considered valid approaches to self-realization.
A medieval treatise called ëThe Magic of Abra Melin the Mageí is based around
the notion that to have ëknowledge and conversation of your guardian angelí,
the equivalent to ëilluminationí, it is essential to first go into your
depths, to face ëthe demons of darknessí, and bring them under your control.
From a magical perspective, we can come to understand and experience that
the light of the Self can be found shining in the darkest places and, when
found, its light, brighter for being experienced in the darkness, may illuminate
us. In the Oxford English Dictionary, magic is defined as ëthe pretended
art of influencing the course of events, and of producing marvellous physical
phenomena, by processes supposed to owe their efficacy to their power of
compelling the intervention of spiritual beings, or of bringing into operation
some occult controlling principle of nature.í If you remove the qualifying
words ëpretendedí and ë supposedí from this definition you are left with:
The art of influencing the course of events, and of producing marvellous
physical phenomena, by processes that owe their efficacy to their power
of compelling the intervention of spiritual beings, or of bringing into
operation the occult controlling principle of nature.í
In other words, Magic is a way of making happen what you want to happen,
using imagination (the intervention of spiritual beings) and will (the occult
controlling principle.) As mentioned above, magicians believe that imagination
and will are the two most powerful human faculties. Israel Regardie says
that through imagination ëwe are capable of being united to the gods, of
transcending the mundane order, and of participating in eternal life. Through
this principle, therefore, we are able to liberate ourselves from fate.í
Regardie goes on to reflect that ëit is a great mistake to consider imagination
to be the same as fantasy and daydreaming. Imagination is the image-making
faculty, an image creating power which when developed may prove of the utmost
importance as assisting the soul in its forward journey.í
What distinguishes magical imagination from daydreaming is that the imagination
is being directed by the will. When in The Secret Doctrine, Helena Blavatsky
3 writes of imagination that it is ëthe mysterious power of thought which
enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own
inherent energy,í this energy is the will in action. The act of will is
a natural process, the very spark of life itself, and how every choice or
decision you make is an act of will. The definition of Magic most widely
used in esoteric books is from Aleister Crowley who defines it as ëthe science
and art of causing change to occur in conformity with your willí, which
is another way of saying making happen what you want to happen. Of course
to make magic work can be a complex task. To make happen what you want to
happen, many different circumstances and conditions need to be taken into
account. If what you want is, for instance, a bar of chocolate, you have
to decide on the degree and kind of force to use; the shop is only a short
distance away so you may decide upon walking as the kind of force, forward
at approximately four miles per hour as the degree. You have to exert this
force in the correct manner and through the correct medium ‚ it would be
no use walking in the wrong direction and up the garden path. This decided
upon, you only have to apply your force to the correct spirit ‚ the shopkeeper
‚ using a magical link, in this case money, and you have succeeded in your
magic as you now have a chocolate bar to eat.
In this example, the spirit you have involved in your magic is a shopkeeper,
the best kind of ëspirití to invoke when you want to purchase something.
You might not know exactly what they are or why they exist at all, but you
can experience the presence of ëspirits.í Despite there being many different
ideas and opinions about what the spirit world is, or whether it even really
exists or not, the shared experience of magicians and shamans of all persuasions
is that alongside our everyday reality there is a realm (or realms) of spirits
populated by innumerable different types of entities. These range from the
powerful to the weak, from the bright to the dim-witted, from benevolent
through cheeky to downright malicious.
A magicianís power to communicate with a spirit, in either their world or
ours, depends upon knowing the names, strengths, weaknesses, and correspondences
to the spirit in question. This knowledge enables you to call or dismiss
spirits, and compel them to perform tasks for you. Thus in the example of
summoning up a shopkeeper to acquire a bar of chocolate, your knowledge
that a shopkeeper spirit will exchange a bar of chocolate for money enables
you to communicate with the spirit and make your Magic work. Learning the
most appropriate means to communicate with a spirit is equally valid on
the spirit plane as in our mundane realm, perhaps more so. Magic is generally
more oriented towards using the will rather than not and thus concentrates
on developing our ability to choose. Some Eastern approaches to self-realisation
suggest that it is better to simply accept things as they are and surrender
to the unfolding nature of life. A good magician will certainly choose to
do just that at times, to let things be, wait and see what unfolds. The
point is, however, that the magician has a choice in the matter, whether
to act or not, and that is what defines Magic as the ability to choose.
The nineteenth century magician Eliphas Levi, defining magic as ëthe traditional
science concerning the secrets of nature transmitted to us from the magicians
of the pastí is affirming that Magic is a tradition, a science, natural
and transmittable. Indeed, there is nothing unnatural about magic, as making
happen what you want to happen is a basic human desire.
Magic is about moving to the place beyond your everyday and ego-led limitations,
to discover ways to make the right things happen for you, then to put this
into practice. Your birth, early development, family upbringing and education
affect your abilities as a magician but you can effectively clear these
blocks from the past. Some occultists complain that this work is too psychological
in nature, but it is truly the ground stone of Magic. Indeed, in Kabbalistic
Magic, to work through the sphere of the past (Yesod) is the only way to
truly become oneself, both in a spiritual and a material sense. To that
aim, it is vital to explore your journey from the past, and consider ways
to release energies for your magical development. Then the realm of potential
‚ all the potential of who you are and what you may be - is opened and,
as a magician, you can step confidently into each present moment, knowing
your future is assured.
Will Parfitt is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and an experienced
and innovative group leader. Trained in Psychosynthesis, he has more than
thirty years experience of working with psychospiritual development, and
he travels internationally to run courses on a variety of subjects including
kabbalah and psychosynthesis. Will is author of several books
including 'Kabbalah for Life' and 'Psychosynthesis: the Elements and Beyond'.
© Will Parfitt 2008 (v8.1)