The mystical Qabalah [Hardcover]

Dion Fortune (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1979

The Qabalah is one of the great foundations of Western esoteric and spiritual thought. It is an important tool in learning to use the intuition to explore the archetypal realms of divine life. The Mystical Qabalah is widely recognized as the most practical and authoritative guide to understanding and using the Qabalah. It explains its roots in Jewish mysticism, then demonstrates how this glyph the Tree of Life can be used to understand the emanations of the mind of God. The author, Dion Fortune, was one of the leading figures in the Western esoteric tradition during the first half of the twentieth century.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dion Fortune is the pen name of Violet Firth, one of the most mysterious and significant figures of the British esoteric tradition of the early twentieth century. Born in Llandudno, Wales, in 1890, she exhibited strong psychic tendencies even as a child. She decided at an early age to pursue a career in nursing, which led her to an interest in human psychology. She became an early Freudian, but soon saw the limitations of psychoanalysis and pursued the deeper implications of human psychology in occult and magical traditions. Raised on Christian Science, she gravitated first toward Theosophy and then to the Order of the Golden Dawn, where she became an initiate and received the hieratic name of Deo Non Fortuna, which eventually became her pen name, Dion Fortune. In 1922, she formed her own esoteric society, The Society of the Inner Light. Dion Fortune s legacy is her writings, both fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction, her books Psychic Self-Defence, The Mystical Qabalah, Through the Gates of Death, and Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage still stand, fifty years later, as the premier statements on their respective subjects. But it is in her fiction that she made her greatest contribution, probing depths of the human mind and character that conventional psychology still has not discovered or understood. She was married to, and divorced from, T. Penry Evans, M.D. She died in London in January, 1946. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Alta Gaia Books (1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0510410014
• ISBN-13: 978-0933432000
• ASIN: 0933432003
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New Edition is badly flawed., February 5, 2003

By 

Greg Wotton (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystical Qabalah (Paperback)

When examining this new edition in order to consider it as a course text I found several problems within the edition itself. At first I thought that, maybe, it had been a very long time since I'd read it as some things didn't seem as clear as I'd remembered them. Upon comparison to the '84-'89 edition I found the source of the problem, the text has not been faithfully reproduced. For example the following two quotes are from the end of Chapter 2, Paragraph 4.

2001 Edition: "Nor am I impressed by a dedication to the higher life which by peculiarities of clothing and bearing and by the manner of cutting, or omitting to cut, the hair."

1984 Edition: "Nor am I impressed by a dedication to the higher life which manifests itself by peculiarities of clothing and bearing and by the manner of cutting, or omitting to cut, the hair."

This is only a single example and I have yet to find an entire chapter devoid of such mistakes, some of them leaving out entire sentences.

The Mystical Qabalah is, without a doubt, one of the best books on Qabalah ever written. It is a shame that Weiser, a formally respected publisher, could make such a mess of it.

-Greg Wotton

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible guide to Qabalah in Western Occultism, April 19, 2003

By 

Kenaz Filan (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mystical Qabalah (Paperback)

First: you need to know that the Qabalah as it is used by Western Occultists bears little resemblance to Qabalah as it is practiced by Chasidic and Orthodox Jews. (Dion Fortune says as much in this book, but many miss this distinction). The Qabalah of the Occultists should be judged as a thing in itself, not as an outgrowth of Judaism... in fact, you'll find that efforts to link the two will only get you confused.

As a thing in itself, the Western Qabalah is a fine system for organizing the mind; it can provide a wonderful framework for structuring rituals, and it is a powerful mandala for meditation. And Dion Fortune's book is unquestionably the best introduction to the Qabalah of the Occultists. Her writing is clear and concise and her examples are easy to grasp. In connection with Crowley's *777*, this provides you with everything you need to create your own rituals in the Western Ceremonial tradition. (If you're going to do this, you should also [a] read Fortune's *Psychic Self-Defense* and [b] avoid slavishly following Crowley's suggestions: remember, the Qabalah is essentially an empty filing cabinet, to be organized in the way which suits your needs best... although some will hop up and down and scream "blasphemy" because I dared to say that).

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nature's deepest science written by an Expert, August 19, 2003

By 

Isabel Waterstone (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystical Qabalah (Paperback)

When I read this book, I was amazed with its precision, clarity and completeness. For me, new doors of understanding the science of Qabalah opened up as I read through the chapters that touch upon all of the basic aspects of this occult science.
I have studied Qabalah for some time, under various schools and sects, but I feel that this book is one of the greatest to come out of the early part of the 20th century.
Qabalah is an in depth science, that maps the relationship of the various hidden, unseen dimensions of the universe--in relation to one's psyche (soul), mind, and divinity...
This science truley unveils the occult, the mysteries of life and death, magick, etc. Qabalah synthesizes the use of words (etymology), numbers (numerology), celestial bodies (astrology), symbols, mystical practices and many other key occult applications. Verily, Qabalah ties together the hidden, unseen mystery that awaits the true seeker.
I recommend that one should read the book: Tarot and Kabalah by Samael Aun Weor. This book will shed much more light on the topic. I was even more impressed with the said work. Also, read Eliphas Levi. gnosis-usa.com or go through amazon.