Preface to ha-qabala

The fact that "qabala" has a wide variety of spellings -- cabala, kabala, kabbalah -- should be any student's first clue that the system is not simple. Yet that is the great paradox and is indicative of the system itself: the foundations are in reality quite simple, it is interpretation that yields confusion. The simple couched in the complex, and the complex revealed by the simple, are the pillars by which qabala is defined.

Once understood, qabala becomes at one and the same time immediately accessible and staggeringly infinite. Each piece echoes in each other piece; every letter contains the whole of qabala. It is, perhaps, the most perfect system of enlightenment ever established. To witness the infinite in the finite -- to see yourself as truly infinite; a finite body in an endless universe -- is the goal of traversing the Tree of Life of the Qabalists.

Yet enlightenment in a truly infinite system reveals only the reality of infinity; to understand and know all would be impossible under such conditions. Here then is one man's interpretation of the mysteries of ha-qabala and how they relate to a contemporary Western mind, far from the ancient Egyptian desert that first gave rise to the code.

Even a glimpse at the true nature of qabala decrees that a student's learning can never be complete. So saying, do not take this word as gospel. Take it as a guide to your own path through discovery. After all, there are no teachers, only students who have studied more and can help guide those who have not yet studied as much.