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Click here to
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
There is a source of all creation, a something (or nothing) out of which
everything else arises. It is impossible to name it, because as soon as
you even try to name it, that isn't it any more. So some ancient Egyptians
decided to call it Atum, a good a name as any, especially as it means 'the
source'. They then described themselves as the children of Atum. Their story
is, quite naturally, also our story, for like the ancient Egyptians we are
also the children of the source of all creation. The story of our lives
and interactions is the story of Atum getting to know itself through the
lives of its creation. We may not be ancient Egyptians yet in another sense,
we have never been anything else. The Creator and the Created is One in
its endless becoming.
To know itself, Atum has to become something other than nothing. After all,
if you are nothing (or next to nothing), it is pretty hard to relate to
yourself, let alone to anyone or anything else. The first thing Atum is
aware of (on a level that we can understand) is that it is moving along.
Then, having moved along, Atum realizes that some thing has passed. This
is the first born child of Atum, the first born 'neter'. A neter is a bit
like a god or goddess only more than that. A neter represents the spiritual
essence and principles within all things.
This first child of Atum is called Shu, the 'neter of the past'. Shu is
also called 'yesterday' and corresponds to our human past, on an individual
and collective level. He has a female twin called Tefnut, the second-born
child of Atum. Tefnut is the neter of the future and is called tomorrow.
She corresponds to all our potential - everything that we may become (whether
we become it or not, that's the nature of potential.)
Atum&'s next realisation gives birth to two more neters. As well as a past
and a future, Atum realizes there is something above and something below.
The neter Nut is positioned above; she is a beautiful woman, arched over
the world like the night sky, her belly full of the stars. Below and beneath
is Geb, a handsome man, bright red in colour, his body lying on the earth,
with penis erect. Together the neters Nut and Geb correspond to the mother
and father archetypes, the primary relationships affecting each individual
human being. A magic circle is now completed.
A cross within a circle is the origin of the famous Egyptian ankh cross.
In an ankh, the cross is drawn below the circle to represent the division
of earth and sky, the division that allows the space for life to exist in
both its beautiful and it's terrible aspects. In esoteric tradition, the
circle represents complete awareness, and the cross the union of male and
female energies. The ankh represents separation from such complete awareness
and implies that this does not always have to be so.
Through the interaction of time (Shu and Tefnut) and space (Nut and Geb),
both light (Ra) and darkness (Thoth) come into existence. Ra and Thoth are
the first two children of Nut and Geb, and they correspond to different
aspects of human awareness and intention.
Ra is the neter of the light, represented by the sun, whilst Thoth is the
neter of the dark, represented by the moon. Their stories resonate with
many aspects of human development. At every stage of the human story, they
are present as the seeds of potential inward or outward growth. They are
reminiscent of the seeds of change within the famous Chinese yin-yang symbol,
a symbol with which the ancient Egyptians would have had no problem relating.
When we reflect on the journey of life, we can recognize how the past and
the future mold our life stories; how the interaction between ourselves
and our mother and father (or their representatives) sets the tone for life-long
interactions and interpersonal relations; how the dualistic world view has
moved away from an understanding of the fluid interaction of light and dark,
and set all division in stone, so we are even divided from ourselves. And
how through coming to understand these principles within, each human has
the potential to become more him- or her-self, responding to both the light
and dark aspects of the psyche from an inclusive perspective.
The story of the next five children of Nut and Geb is a description of what
goes awry in human development, and the work that can be done to redress
the balance, not so much to heal the wounds but reframe and include them.
These five children are Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys and Horus the Elder.
Osiris and Isis are best known as the animus and anima, the masculine and
feminine aspects of the human psyche. Set is the shadow, set about with
all the difficulties that blind emotion and unconscious action bring, but
also brimming with the possibility of redemption. Nephthys is the dark feminine,
sometimes a dreamer, out of touch with aspects of reality, sometimes the
woman of insight and vision. Horus the Elder is her male equivalent, at
worst a centre of denial and avoidance, but sometimes the carrier of the
seed of potential on both physical and psychic levels.
There are five of these children just as naturally as there are five fingers
on a hand. The sixth finger that can count the original five is the foundation
of all human understanding, the offspring of Osiris and Isis, known as Child
Horus. The story of Child Horus is the story of our coming to know ourselves
through accepting the responsibilities of both limitation and power, restriction
and love. The story of his coming into full adulthood offers hints for the
next step in the collective human story. Indeed, some versions of the'Age
of Aquarius' describe it as the new 'Age of Horus.'
All these neters are voices calling us to remember their existence within
ourselves, offering a reminder that through understanding their significance
we can understand our own significance. Through an understanding of the
story of the neters, and an attempt at the practical application of its
implications, the ancient Egyptians founded the greatest civilization of
the ancient world, a civilisation that lasted for many millennia. The implications
of what such an understanding offers us at this time of worldwide change
are immense. The first step is for us to realise every move we make is endowed
with meaning, and clearly so, both individually and collectively. We then
become able to hear the call of the neters and follow their guidance, to
hear their resounding call to us to become something other than nothing.
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)