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Qabalism

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I haven't been able to find much biographical data about Dr. Henry B. Pullen-Burry, which is a shame, because Dr. Pullen-Burry seems to have been an important leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn during its most productive years. Dr. Pullen-Burry joined the GD's Isis-Urania Temple in 1892, adopting the motto ANIMA PURA SIT. His wife, Rose, joined two years later, at about the same time that Dr. Pullen-Burry was elected or appointed to serve as Sub-Cancellarius of the Order. He held this position from 1894-1896 and was then elevated to serve as Cancellarius from 1896-1897. There's a widely-held perception that the office of Cancellarius is merely an Outer Order position in Golden Dawn groups, but in truth the Cancellarius is one of the Three Chiefs who govern the entire Order. In fact, the Golden Dawn Z-1 document defines the Cancellarius as "more immediately than either of the preceding Chiefs, the representative of the executive authority of the Second Order over the Outer." No Outer Order initiations can take place without the Cancellarius' consent, and the Cancellarius is the only person authorized to deliver formal communications from the Second Order to Outer Order initiates. In other words, during Dr. Pullen-Burry's term as Cancellarius, he served as a bona fide Second Order Chief of S. L. MacGregor Mathers' Golden Dawn.

During the schisms which plagued the Golden Dawn in the late 1890's, Dr. Pullen-Burry remained staunchly loyal to Mathers as its Chief Adept, even as he privately wrote letters critical of Mathers' obsessive "mania." Pullen-Burry even wrote about a two-week visit to Paris, where he stayed with Mathers, and his private correspondence corroborates other tales of Mathers becoming obsessed with Mars-- refusing to invoke other forces, and ultimately becoming completely unbalanced as a result. Pullen-Burry's letters also corroborate the disturbingly strange behavior of Mathers' personal envoy to the London temple, one Aleister Crowley, as Crowley made a bizarre attempt to physically sieze control of the London temple dressed in highlander regalia and a masked face. Despite the misgivings documented in his private correspondence, Dr. Pullen-Burry never joined the London revolt against Mathers as Chief Adept of the Order. This was clearly a man who took his Order vows seriously, remaining faithful to Mathers even as Pullen-Burry began to have serious doubts about the Order's leadership.

As if being a Chief of the Golden Dawn during its heydey don't establish Pullen-Burry's credentials as an occult heavyweight, the good doctor eventually emigrated to the United States-- where he came to play an important role in the founding of Paul Foster Case's mystery school, the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.). Dr. Pullen-Burry corresponded at length with Case, encouraging him in his work and providing what Case considered "inner school verification" of B.O.T.A.'s authenticity. This is significant for two reasons, because (1) it confirms that Paul Foster Case believed that Dr. Henry B. Pullen-Burry had established genuine inner school contacts, and (2) it indicates that B.O.T.A.'s claims to be an "authentic outer vehicle of the inner school of occult wisdom" rest, at least partly, on communications between Case and Pullen-Burry.

Considering Dr. Pullen-Burry's senior leadership position in Mathers' Golden Dawn and his central role in the establishment of B.O.T.A., then, it seems really odd that "Qabalism" would be such an obscure title; I wasn't even aware of its existence until a few short months ago-- and I'm a semiserious collector of little-known Victorian and Edwardian occult tomes! What's even more surprising for a book that has languished in relative obscurity for nearly 90 years is that "Qabalism" is such an amazing, interesting work of fresh, vital, original Qabalistic thought!

Be forewarned-- this isn't your father's Qabalah. On first read, it sounds as if Dr. Pullen-Burry is proposing an entirely new arrangement of the Tree of Life, complete with new Paths and new Spheres, which Dr. Pullen-Burry says begin to emerge within the Adept's consciousness as his or her Tiphareth center becomes energized and begins to rise towards the Supernal Triad. Pullen-Burry refers to this new arrangement as the "Modern Tree of Life," and for simplicity I'll use his terminology throughout my review. The very notion of a "Modern Tree of Life" really disappointed me as I was reading this book for the first time, because I'm normally turned off by books which attempt to "reform" or "revise" traditional Qabalistic attributions (I guess I'm a traditionalist at heart!). Even worse, though, Dr. Pullen-Burry seems to hint that his Modern Tree of Life represented a new stage of Qabalistic development, which would come to fruition during a "New Dispensation" or "New Aeon," apparently referring to the coming Aquarian Age. It almost sounds like Pullen-Burry is implying (a la Crowley) that in unveiling the Modern Tree of Life diagram, he's assuming the role of supreme Qabalistic prophet of the Aquarian dispensation.

Fortunately, a more careful rereading indicates that Dr. Pullen-Burry's intent in writing "Qabalism" may not have been so radical. The author clearly states that the Modern Tree of Life is a tool for Adepts in the here and now, and although he also says that the Modern Tree will become more and more applicable as the Aquarian Age matures over the next 120 sidereal years, nothing in his book indicates that the author was proclaiming a new central revelation which would eventually replace traditional Qabalistic philosophy. In fact, about three-fourths of this book focus on the traditional Tree of Life diagram, only presenting the Modern Tree of Life diagram in its final chapters. While I might have assumed that the Modern Tree of Life was intended to replace the more traditional scheme, "Qabalism" never actually says this!

In fact, Dr. Pullen-Burry explicitly endorses the traditional Tree of Life's depiction of the Lightning Flash of involution, where creative forces descend in a progressive manner from the AIN through each of the ten traditional Sephiroth. He clearly isn't suggesting that his Modern Tree of Life should completely replace the traditional Tree of Life in our understanding of this involutionary process.

Although The Modern Tree of Life adds at least two new Paths to the traditional Tree,"Qabalism" also makes no suggestion that the Qabalistic Path of Initiation-- often depicted as a Serpent ascending the Tree of Life, its coils indicating the precise order of work to be undertaken by the student as he or she works upwards through the Tree's first seven Spheres-- requires any modification, and Pullen-Burry doesn't explain how Tarot might be attributed to these new Paths, making such a revision problematic. It would appear, at least, that Pullen-Burry isn't suggesting any changes to the traditional Golden Dawn initiatic formula or to the traditional Rosicrucian Grades of Initiation. Following this path to its conclusion would theoretically put the student at the very advanced degree of Adeptus Exemptus, 7 = 4, which is interesting, because Dr. Pullen-Burry seems to indicate that the traditional Tree of Life diagram works perfectly well up to this point.

In fact, Dr. Pullen-Burry's Modern Tree of Life diagram really only appears to apply to the Adeptus Exemptus, during the work of the 7 = 4 degree, as his or her Tiphareth center begins to rise towards the pseudo-Sephira of Daath. The ideas in this book aren't so much a redesign of the Tree, then, as they are a description of changes which take place at a specific point during Adepthood, somewhere beyond the Adeptus Minor degree of 5 = 6, and most likely only during the practical work of the Adeptus Exemptus degree of 7 = 4. It took me a second reading of this fine book to understand that Dr. Pullen-Burry wasn't proposing a "new" Tree of Life at all-- he was merely utilizing a new set of Qabalistic symbolism to describe changes in the Adept's consciousness which begin to take place somewhere at or beyond the 7=4 degree of Adepthood. If the traditional Serpent on the Tree diagram depicts the path leading to Adepthood, it makes sense to use a modified Tree design to illustrate changes in consciousness which occur beyond this state; in my opinion, Pullen-Burry's Modern Tree of Life is more of a teaching aid for extremely advanced Qabalistic practicioners, and a portent of things to come as the Aquarian Age progresses, than it is a radical departure from the Qabalah practiced by B.O.T.A. or the Golden Dawn.

In other words, what Pullen-Burry teaches in this little volume doesn't apply to the beginning student, won't even apply to the vast majority of advanced students, and really only comes into play when the Adept has attained a measure of equilibrium between the balanced forces of the central Spheres on the Tree of Life (Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod), which begins his or her ascent and growth towards Daath and the Supernals (Binah, Chokman, and Kether). This is an extremely advanced state of spiritual development, and not one that most self-styled occultists are even remotely close to attaining. At this exalted state, Dr. Pullen-Burry writes, "The soul approaching Christhood has already established a fairly good balance between his Geburah and his Chesed; these two Sephiroth will be getting quite strong; each will be reaching upwards the one, for truth, and the other, through love." Dr. Pullen-Burry's Modern Tree of Life diagram is really just a teaching tool to explain things far above the typical student's threshold of consciousness. Nothing in this book suggests that beginning students should adopt Pullen-Burry Modern Tree wholesale, in place of the traditional Tree of Life, or that Qabalists at ANY state of development should work EXCLUSIVELY with the redesigned Tree. I'm convinced that Pullen-Burry's Modern Tree of Life was intended to serve as a highly specialized tool, to be used only in extremely advanced phases of the Great Work.

There is one mystery in this book that I haven't been able to solve. Dr. Pullen-Burry repeatedly cites a person named "Rose" as the source of many of the ideas presented in "Qabalism." In earlier chapters I assumed that "Rose" was Rose Pullen-Burry-- the author's wife-- since she was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This identification made sense, because many G.D. leaders (including Mathers) openly relied upon their wives' psychic abilities. In later chapters, however, "Rose" is clearly identified as a male, as in the following sentence: "Rose, as has often been said, uses the simplest of language, often employing phrases which, had he been possessed of the Qabalistic technique, he could have stated in single words." From this we can not only infer that "Rose" was a male, but also, from his lack of Qabalistic technique, that he was not an initiate of the Hermetic Arts (and therefore not a member of the Golden Dawn). This sentence completely excludes Rose Pullen-Burry from being the mysterious source of her husband's Qabalistic teachings. I'm assuming that "Rose" may have been a Theosophic or Mental Science writer, somebody who was active in Pullen-Burry's lifetime or just before. If anybody reading this review has thoughts about the identity of this "Rose," I'd love to hear from you!

"Qabalism" isn't a book for the layman. In some ways it's a simple title, easy to read, but in others it can be deceptively complex-- a work written by Adepts for Adepts. I can't vouch for the authenticity of Pullen-Burry's system, since I make no pretensions about my own humble state of development, although the ideas in "Qabalism" do seem to correlate somewhat with some of my own experiences in working with the sixth Sphere of Tiphareth. Although written in a deceptively easy-to-understand style, I'd also caution that this book repays careful reading; several passages in this book seem so straightforward and so plainly simple that it's easy to miss their deeper implications the first time through-- even if you're already familiar with this sort of "hiding in plain sight" blind, which isn't uncommon in Victorian occult literature. I can honestly say that I've never read anything quite like Pullen-Burry's "Qabalism," and while it may not be for everybody, I'd highly recommend it for serious students of the Golden Dawn tradition! There is more here than meets the eye.

God bless!