The Hermetic Qabalah
A Krummy Qabalah Text
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Hermetic Qabalah” by Dr. Paul A. Clark.]
I rejoined Kindle Unlimited, and because this text was available for free, I decided to give it a read. I’ve read numerous Kabbalah and Qabalah texts, and like most of them, this one fails to impress. The giveaway that it would disappoint came early in the book, when the author, Dr. Paul A. Clark, lauded the Kabbalah/Qabalah writings of Aryeh Kaplan, Dion Fortune, and Paul Foster Case. I’ve read (and reviewed at Amazon) books by each of these iconic authors, and I contend that none of them “cracked the cosmic code” and satisfactorily explicates a hermetic Kabbalah/Qabalah.
Dr. Clark studied Qabalah at Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), Paul Foster Case’s Western Mystery school before establishing his own occult order. And as other reviewers have pointed out, this text very much regurgitates Case’s Qabalah teachings.
I could write pages on my disagreements with Dr. Clark, but I’ll just focus on a few of them. First off, Dr. Clark devotes numerous chapters elaborating many of the supposed 32 Paths of the Qabalah. I have little regard for the Sephir Yetzirah, the oldest written (and most revered) extant Qabalah text (see my two-star review of Aryeh Kaplan’s translation/commentary), which identifies these paths – and I reject these paths as having any reality.
Secondly, I do not at all resonate with Dr. Clark’s attributions. For example, he states that “Chokmah astrolologically correspond to the Zodiac.” This is nonsense. It corresponds to Uranus, and the Tarot card the Tower, which Dr. Clark erroneously assigns to Geburah.
Dr. Clark writes: “Chokmah as the Cosmic Father can only be defined in relationship to Binah, the Divine Mother. Until impregnation of the womb has occurred, there is no Father. It is a role defined not by quality, but by function. The same is true for Binah. Herein is the mystery of the sacred trinity. Each part manifests separately but is, in fact, one unity. There is one!”
I say this is balderdash. I say that the Trinity is reflected in, or through, Kether, Da’ath and Tiphareth.
Dr. Clark, laughably, calls Kundalini “the Saturn Force.” He writes, “The planet Saturn is associated with what in the Eastern Tradition is called Kundalini or Serpent Fire.” This is a nonsensical association. Kundalini is associated with Pluto/Scorpio, not with Saturn/Capricorn.
I could go on and on elaborating my differences with Dr. Clark, but I’m sure you get the picture by now. In sum, this is not Qabalah book that I recommend.
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Hermetic Qabalah” by Dr. Paul A. Clark.]
I rejoined Kindle Unlimited, and because this text was available for free, I decided to give it a read. I’ve read numerous Kabbalah and Qabalah texts, and like most of them, this one fails to impress. The giveaway that it would disappoint came early in the book, when the author, Dr. Paul A. Clark, lauded the Kabbalah/Qabalah writings of Aryeh Kaplan, Dion Fortune, and Paul Foster Case. I’ve read (and reviewed at Amazon) books by each of these iconic authors, and I contend that none of them “cracked the cosmic code” and satisfactorily explicates a hermetic Kabbalah/Qabalah.
Dr. Clark studied Qabalah at Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), Paul Foster Case’s Western Mystery school before establishing his own occult order. And as other reviewers have pointed out, this text very much regurgitates Case’s Qabalah teachings.
I could write pages on my disagreements with Dr. Clark, but I’ll just focus on a few of them. First off, Dr. Clark devotes numerous chapters elaborating many of the supposed 32 Paths of the Qabalah. I have little regard for the Sephir Yetzirah, the oldest written (and most revered) extant Qabalah text (see my two-star review of Aryeh Kaplan’s translation/commentary), which identifies these paths – and I reject these paths as having any reality.
Secondly, I do not at all resonate with Dr. Clark’s attributions. For example, he states that “Chokmah astrolologically correspond to the Zodiac.” This is nonsense. It corresponds to Uranus, and the Tarot card the Tower, which Dr. Clark erroneously assigns to Geburah.
Dr. Clark writes: “Chokmah as the Cosmic Father can only be defined in relationship to Binah, the Divine Mother. Until impregnation of the womb has occurred, there is no Father. It is a role defined not by quality, but by function. The same is true for Binah. Herein is the mystery of the sacred trinity. Each part manifests separately but is, in fact, one unity. There is one!”
I say this is balderdash. I say that the Trinity is reflected in, or through, Kether, Da’ath and Tiphareth.
Dr. Clark, laughably, calls Kundalini “the Saturn Force.” He writes, “The planet Saturn is associated with what in the Eastern Tradition is called Kundalini or Serpent Fire.” This is a nonsensical association. Kundalini is associated with Pluto/Scorpio, not with Saturn/Capricorn.
I could go on and on elaborating my differences with Dr. Clark, but I’m sure you get the picture by now. In sum, this is not Qabalah book that I recommend.
