One is immediately struck by the more than ordinary
lucidity and sense of construction displayed in this work. In
the Tree of Life and its Correspondences, we are told, we shall
find
“a convenient means of classification, a sort of filing
cabinet, together with much valuable material ready to file, and
room for all that we may collect in our further researches.
In this filing cabinet we shall find a means of getting rid of a
great many ideas which have been valueless on account of their
unbalanced nature, and this not by means of suppression—which
forms complexes—but by
careful arrangement, thus setting our minds in order; and
by balancing these ideas against their opposites, leaving the
mind in a state which transcends both aspects, thus gradually
regaining our lost equilibrium, which is the basis of the work.
. . . The intention of this essay is to supply a basis
whereby all serious students of the occult and mystic lore may
learn to obtain equilibrium on all planes.”
We are furthermore told that “to appreciate this essay . .
. one should have a pack of Tarot cards. Miss Colman
Smith's pack, published by Rider & Son, of London, being the
easiest procurable, the matter is discussed as though this were
in the possession of the reader.”
There is no escaping the depth and wisdom of the
quabalistically concealed meanings, and of these Frater Achad
gives many illuminating examples. It is, however, in the
appendix to Chapters 3 and 4 that the most interesting discovery
is made. We are asked how it was that the serpent who
founded the paths by ascending the Tree could possibly have
started at the top, and we are shown what would happen if we
started onn our upward journey by the Eleventh Path leading from
Malkuth to Yesod and attributed to the Tarot Trump O—the
Fool—i.e., following of course, exactly the reverse order of the
Paths as they were numbered in the old way, but keeping exactly
to the order of the Letters from Aleph to Tau.
As to elaborate further would take up too much space, we
can only advise those who are able to do so to study Frater
Achad’s essay. Their industry will be well repaid.
—E. F. W. in the Occult Review, December 1922.
______________________________
It is almost invaluable to the beginner, saving him
much time and mental combustion in the endeavor to gain a
mastery of the fundamentals of this complicated system.
The Appendix will afford something new to old and
advanced students of the Qabalah, since it contains hints and
clues which open up a new plan of study.
How well Frater Achad has succeeded in simplifying a
complicated system can only be demonstrated by the student to
himself, and only by application.
—R. C. W., Occult Press Review, February-March 1923.
______________________________
This work has much more of merit than the average
attempt at cabalistic revelation. The exposition of the Ten
Sephiroth alone, is one of the best we have thus far seen, and
gives to the reader in simple form an excellent idea of the
Sephirotic schema. The Hebrew Alphabet and the chapter on the
Twenty-Two Paths make this volume really valuable to every
student of the Rosicrucian and Cabalistic Mysteries.
We believe this work has a mission. The Kaballah
Unveiled by the late MacGregor Mathers has long held first place
among the really good works on Cabala, but the fact that it has
been out of print for years, with little demand for its
restoration, indicates that it did not succeed in making clear
the cabalistic profundities. Q. B. L. does this very thing.
It is a rather expensive volume but we know of none
better to offer to the student or one that we can more cordially
endorse.
—Mercury,
Official Organ of the S. R. I. A., New York, Date Unknown.
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