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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?
Anything we haven't covered, please let us know .
Kabbalah emphasizes that we can find the deepest expression of our spirituality
in our ordinary, daily lives and my latest book, Kabbalah for Life, aims
to make Kabbalah alive in everything you do, even in your communications
with 'extra-dimensional' beings. This may appear strange, even ridiculous,
until we consider that any being or entity outside of ourselves can be considered
in this way, even other human beings. Whether these 'beings' actually exist
outside or whether they are figments of our imagination, projections, or
parts of us that we do not recognize, we all have the experience that they
exist.
Most cultures throughout history have described beings, some angelic and
some demonic in nature, that exist in other realities or dimensions parallel
with and sometimes interpenetrating our world. Some mainstream psychologists
claim these 'extra-dimensional' beings are the impersonal forces of nature
which we personalize in an attempt to gain control over them. According
to some more far-sighted psychologists and those aware of the new physics,
however, these beings are representational of real forces. Behind our everyday
perception, when we enter the world of sub-atomic particles, there is a
level of existence where different laws apply, but which is no less real
because invisible on a mundane level. The same applies to all 'levels of
existence' which we cannot perceive with our usual senses.
The question arises why anyone would want to make contact with any of these
other 'beings', particularly the demonic ones! If we are to be whole, to
include rather than exclude all of ourselves, one way of achieving this
is through making contact with all the forces within our universe. We are
usually quite willing to include the 'good guys' - if I suggest that you
talk to your Guardian Angel you would probably have little resistance (assuming
you believed it possible). On the other hand, once we discuss communicating
with demons we are entering the realm of the shadow which includes those
parts of ourselves that we would rather not face.
Any aspect of our being that we exclude from our awareness becomes part
of our shadow which has been usefully described as being like a big bag
we drag round behind us. The more shadow we have, the heavier our bag becomes
and the more it restricts our free movement. Conversely, the more material
from this 'shadow bag' we can dredge out, face, and integrate, the lighter
the bag becomes and the more energy we have available to fulfil our life
functions, from the loftiest sense of Divine Purpose through to everyday
functions that help us survive in the world.
If we do not face our anger over, say, a poor work situation, this suppressed
anger and the associated anxiety will become part of our shadow. If we find
ways of expressing the anger, we will no longer be pulled down by the weight
of it, and will free our energies, perhaps to make a life-enhancing decision
about the work. On the other hand, if we do not express our anger, it is
pushed deeper down into the shadow bag until we are no longer even aware
of its existence. As a result there will be tension and holding patterns
in our body which will cause pain and disease later in life. We might start
smoking tobacco to alleviate the stress from denying the anger; we might
over-eat in an attempt to suppress the attendant feelings. We can then say
that our behaviour opens us up to the influence of the corresponding demonic
force. For instance, a demon whose presence brings 'cancerous mis-growth
of cells' might be allowed a foothold in the body which then leads to illness
or death. We do not have to believe in demons to understand the process
of what is happening. Perhaps what we are dealing with is a personification
of the suppressed material in an individual's subconscious. Whatever we
believe, however, what we can do is to start communicating with the demons
or 'suppressed energies', find what they need to express, and through various
appropriate actions, dispel the demons through releasing the pent-up anger.
On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the sphere called Daath is the access point
to the reverse side of the Tree where all the demons that bring 'dis-ease'
into our lives exist. Whether these demons represent aspects of our own
shadow nature or whether they are actual entities with a life of their own
is irrelevant as we can communicate and affect our relationship with them
as if they are real. Thus we can affect a healing through communicating
with demons as much as through contacting our Guardian Angel. Kabbalistic
healing includes work with both spirit and shadow, bringing us closer to
a wholeness that heals not just ourselves but all the extra-dimensional
beings in our world.
Article first appeared in Watkins Review, summer 2006
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 2006 (v7.1)