- Warning. This video might mess you up.
I'm serious, really.
We're about to explain the nature of the demonic hellscape
that is the Tree of Death counter to the Tree of Life.
However, the process of making this video was a nightmare.
So many things went wrong.
Just as often people feel that horror movie sets are cursed,
we experienced it personally.
Even our most skeptical team members
noticed that things got weird around this video.
And so we're extending the warning to you.
If you watch this video,
weird things might happen in your life.
And we recommend that you burn some sage,
call in your protective angels,
and activate your Merkaba before watching.
And then do it again when you're done.
You can pause the video now if you need to.
Okay. All ready?
Here we go.
You've been warned.
It's been a while since we've jumped into Kabbalah,
let's jump in again shall we?
When exploring this ancient philosophy
and map of the layers of existence,
there's one major thing we need to cover
and it's really important.
Previously, we explored the 10 Sefirot.
the emanations of the Tree of Life
which described the divinity in every level of creation.
However, in the spirit of completeness and understanding,
we must cover the reversal of such a system, the Qliphoth,
otherwise known as the Tree of Death.
For the majority of traditional Kabbalistic history,
many of the mystical Jewish sects
prohibited the Qliphoth study as it was set in opposition
to the natural practical Kabbalah that allowed the practice
of white magic.
While the danger in interacting with the dark tree
and mixing impure magic ensured that it remained a minor
and restricted practice in Jewish history.
In more recent years however,
with the advent of the Hermetic Kabbalah,
the dark realms known often as the Sitra Ahra
has begun to be explored and interpreted in context.
Much like the Sefirot,
the Qliphoth have numerous interpretations
of what they are and how they work.
(bright upbeat music)
A simple explanation of the Tree of Death
is that it's a dark antistructure or reflection
of the Tree of Life
consisting of the shadow side of creation.
With the 10 Sephira embodied divine light and unity,
the 10 Qlipha embrace all of the conceptions, energies,
and forces that were left out of divine order.
The word Qlipha translates as shell, husk, or peel,
usually describing that these may be the forces
that block access to the higher world
unless we attain personal mastery and ascend through them.
In the hermetic traditions,
the Tree of Death is often drawn as a reversed Tree of Life
underneath the primary tree, like so.
Loads of ways of interpreting it though,
especially its origin.
Following people like Von Rosenroth
and some members of the Golden Dawn,
the creation of the dark tree was a result
of the Sephira Geburah.
(air whooshes)
As we covered last time, Geburah is the fifth Sefirot
and is found within the pillar of severity.
It embodies the strength and judgment of the divine
representing the power and resolve required
to carry out Cosmic Law.
In some schools of Qliphothic ideology,
Geburah is seen as the most volatile of the Sefirot,
In this interpretation, during the act of creation
as divine light came down through the world,
Geburah began to break away from the Tree of Life
and was forced back into balance
by the other realms on the tree.
In this narrative, shards or fragments
of Geborah's volatile nature were lost into the void
beyond the tree and never rejoined it.
These fragments rejected the notion of unity
and instead created their own realms.
You may notice similarities in this story
to the fall of Lucifer or the Demiurge.
Bringing us a more intricate narrative
to explore this whole duality consciousness thing.
Another alternative explanation is proposed
in the Lurianic Kabbalah, and is generally
the more accepted theory in the mainstream teachings.
Luria believed that the Qliphoth are metaphorical shells
surrounding the realms on the Tree of Life.
In his views, these shells were the source of evil
in our world.
But we're seeing more as obstacles to overcome
to experience the beauty of each Sephira truly
as they could only outwardly embody God's light.
They were said to protect the holiness
of each realm, however
and help contain it into a structured form,
giving the Sefirot a sense of structure.
in Lurianic Kabbalah, the creation of the Qlipha
were said to be a result of something known as the Tzimtzum.
In simple terms, this basically describes that God began
the process of creation by using his infinite light
to create space in which finite
and independent realms could exist.
This was a big shift from the worldview of Medieval Kabbalah
which often believed that creation resulted
from God expanding its light into the universe.
So in this new paradigm of thought,
God began to fill each Sephira with divine light,
but it was so powerful that the spheres began to break open
and flow over.
Causing all of the spheres from Binah down to Yesod
to be shattered.
The shards and husks of the broken tree
cascaded into lower densities and created the Qliphoth.
In some interpretations, human beings too
are seen as sparks of light and are stuck inside Malkuth,
the lowest Sephira, until we work our way back up
to rejoin divine order.
Through love and repentance, we can return to unity.
Supposedly, when all the sparks are freed from the Qliphoth,
the Messianic era will begin and a new paradigm of love
will be ushered in.
Where exactly the Tree of Death is
is another interesting debate.
As described before, some believe they are wrappings
around the Sefirot, and others see it as a dark reflection
mirroring the Tree of Life underneath the tree.
Following Lurianic thought, the shards of the Qlipha
are located actually inside of Malkuth itself
and represent our own physical journey to the higher realms.
Naturally, however, many Kabbalistic traditions
caution someone against working with the Qliphoth
as many may liken it to opening a door to hell
filled with demons and monsters.
And why on earth would anyone willingly go there.
As it's taught in Kabbalah,
once your consciousness connects to a Qlipha,
its energies will flow into your life
whether you want it to or not.
And due to their volatile and extreme nature,
they can potentially wreak havoc in your life
if you aren't ready to assimilate the energy.
One of our writers has known people whose lives
have been destroyed and turned chaotic by these energies.
With people having lost jobs, broken up with partners,
and having drastic personality changes as a result.
However, while this is one potent paradigm of thinking,
we also must entertain the possibility
that angels and demons are all around us anyways.
As even modern science describes,
there are many dimensions overlaid on top of us.
And in that case, it's really only about what frequency
we're a match to.
You might be familiar with the concept of shadow work.
Facing our own inner darkness
in order to connect with the light.
This is the essential nature and pattern
of moving through the Qliphoth.
A husk around an emanation of God in order to embody
higher levels of divinity within us.
As we explored in our episode on Biology of Belief,
our paradigm of thinking
will affect our experience directly.
While the energies of darkness are intense
and at times destructive,
we should remember that destruction and chaos
paves the way for rebirth and new growth,
which is a vital part of creation.
Even Jesus was said to have descended to hell
where he enlightened and liberated many souls there
during his three days
between his crucifixion and resurrection.
And so you'll see, even as we explore these further
in this very episode, many of the expressions of this tree,
we actually see in our society today.
Meaning that in order to embody light as a species,
we have to face our own inner darkness.
For us, our experience of the Qliphoth began
while creating past Tarot.
Personally, I felt it was necessary to understand
these realms because they seem to be deeply relative
to understanding Tarot reversals.
Drawing the cards upside down in a spread
and doing so helped to solidify the reversal meaning.
Helping you to understand how to transmute
these darker forces in life.
So if you wanna learn more about that specifically,
we have a special video about how to utilize the Tarot
for life transformation.
And you can find the link to that in the comments below.
The realms of the Qliphoth are slightly different
to the Sefirot.
In that in most descriptions
there are numerous worlds of hell.
Sheol, the Abyss,
Jzoah Rotachat where Gehenna is located,
Be'er Shachat, the Pit of Corruption,
Sha'arei Maveth, the Gates of Death,
and Neshiyyah otherwise known as Limbo.
Where the Sefirot are ruled by archangels
and populated with various types of angelic entities
and orders that correspond to the nature of each sphere,
The Qliphoth are believed to be inhabited by demons
and other forms of negative entities
thought to have been banished from the Tree of Life
during the cleansing process.
Each sphere, however, does match up
and has a correspondence on each tree.
As we touched on earlier in the series,
Hebrew doesn't write its vowels
so sometimes there are different transliterations
and owing to different traditions,
the rulers of each Qlipha are sometimes different,
including the pronunciation of everything.
Generally speaking though,
the system goes something like this.
The first realm is the Nehemoth or sometimes Naamah
in her guise as the initiator.
It means Whispers and is ruled by Naamah, sister of Lilith.
It contains all the energies that excite the mind
and cause strange desires and corresponds to Malkuth
and worldly pleasures.
Moving down, we go next to Gamaliel, the Obscene One,
which translates to pollution.
Corresponding to Yesod,
the Sefirot where boundless forms become matter,
this Qlipha rules over the misshapen and polluted images
that produce misshapen results.
On a more practical level,
it relates to dreams and nightmares,
specifically ones that linger and are never put into action.
Gamaliel is ruled by the queen, Lilith in her harlot aspect
who teaches secrets of sexual alchemy
and unhealthy sexual repression.
We then come to Samael, the Poison Of God.
Corresponding with hode,
Samael represents the barren desolation
of a failed creation.
The energies of this realm invoke insanity, doubt,
and disbelief in unity
and are ruled by the Peacock King, Adrammelech.
Opposite Samael is the realm of A'arab Zaraq,
meaning something like Ravens Of The Burning One.
This realm corresponds to Netzach.
Where Netzach embodies openness and natural love,
Zaraq contains the dark feminine aspect of Venus
that confronts you with perverse sexuality and warfare.
The demons of this realm are the ravens of death
who reject even their own being.
Depending on tradition, it is either ruled by Baal Haddad
or Tubal Cain.
Both warrior elites.
Coming to the center, we have Thagirion,
the Realm of Disputes.
Rrelated to grief and loss,
this realm corresponds to Tiphareth.
Where the Sephiroth is a place of beauty
and glory and the Christ heart of all things,
Thagirion is an ugly place where the horrors
and abominations of the world hide.
Where Tiphareth houses the luminous sun,
Thagirion is illuminated by the black sun
and is ruled by Belphegor, the archdemon of the dead
whose energy embodies loneliness and loss.
Moving upwards, we come to Gollachab,
the True Realm Of Fire.
This Qlipha corresponds to Geburah.
So you just know this one's gonna be full of nice
and pretty things.
Where Geburah embodies righteous strength and justice,
Gollachab is composed of things that burn to do destruction.
Enforce their will upon others
through strength and domination.
It is ruled by Asmodeus
and is one of the most destructive realms described
by Kabbalah.
Opposite to Gollachab, we find Gamchicoth,
sometimes known as Ghagsheblah, the Devourer and Smiter.
Corresponding with Chesed where ideas are brought into being
from Binah and Chokmah, in a place filled with creations
of truth, love and peace,
Gamchicoth is the realm of devouring,
which seeks to waste the substance and thought of creation.
Energies of greed, destruction, and overthrowing
are often present here and are ruled by Astaroth.
Satarial resides in the first supernal triangle
and is identified as Concealment.
Where Binah is a Sephira of revealing and formation
embodying the womb of creation for the divine feminine,
Satarial conceals the nature of the perfect hole
and is arguably the sphere responsible
for dualistic energies.
The energies of this sphere bring concepts of surrealism
and absurdity where truth is obscured and veiled in night.
This realm is often described
as looking like a dark labyrinth
that the practitioner can easily get lost in.
It is often said to be ruled by Lucifuge Rofocale,
the dark twin of Lucifer.
Opposite Satarial is the realm of Ghagiel,
sometimes known as Chaigidel,
the Hinderer and Confusion of God.
Corresponding to Chokmah,
this Qlipha is wisdom taken to an extreme
and then falsified.
Its energies embody lying and material hedonism
in opposition to those of reality and wisdom.
Theoretically, if Chokmah is not balanced
by the force of Binah,
it remains a proud unrestricted energy
too stubborn to be bound by the matrix of the mother,
unwilling to take any sense of form.
In which case Ghagiel can be thought of
as the force that hinders the natural evolution
of divine energy flowing down into the creation
through pride and egotism.
And maintains itself in the world of illusions and lies.
It is a realm ruled by Beelzebub and Adam Belial,
the Lord of Decay and the Lord of Lies.
Reaching the crown of the Qliphoth,
we find Thaumiel, the Twin God.
Thaumiel represents duality whereas Kether represents unity.
It is the division of that, which is perfect only in unity.
Some traditions argue that the entities of this sphere
tried to invoke the energies of Elef before being banished
and now reject unity.
It stands as the gateway to the wider universe beyond it
and is ruled by the two kings, Moloch and Satan.
(eerie music)
And so, you can see the whole exploration
of the Tree of Death.
While many people may recoil and fear and disgust
seems to be a very important conversation to be had.
Today in society, the principles we are seeing
the Qliphoth stand for are ever present in society.
Things like pollution, greed, duality consciousness,
or perverse sexual desire.
It's something that must be addressed.
And thus, it seems to be necessary to understand the demons
that we're seeking to banish.
Much like the Tree of Life,
there is also an intricate system of pathways
that describes the flow of energy between them.
The sphere of Daath is also present on the Qliphoth
and fulfills the same role as on the Tree of Life.
An abyss or void and serves to connect the two trees.
While the traditional gates to the dark tree
lies inside of Daath, deep within the abyss,
there are also ways to access its energies within Malkuth,
but that's something for our magic series
coming down the road.
Really, there's so much more to cover
but this should give you a basic introduction
to the other side of the Tree of Life
and serve to help you understand where everything exists
in balance and correspondence with each other.
And so with that, please keep learning and growing
and we'll all come to a fuller understanding together.
(upbeat theme music)