Learning the Letters
© 2003 By Peter
[This was originally posted by Peter on the BardonPraxis forum and appears here with permission.]
I had a little bit of an epiphany concerning Bardon's statement about learning the letters like a child. This is an extremely true statement, but also one with considerable depth that goes beyond what Bardon talks about within KTQ, I believe. I'm sure some others would benefit seeing how all of the labours of IIH seem to fit into the greater picture of the work of Kabbalah.
Whomever picks up the KTQ and starts work upon it, be they an absolute beginner or a scholar that has gone through the steps of IIH up to step eight, will have to learn the letters like a child: learning each letter's colour, tone, feeling and legality one by one and step by step. In much the same way that a child would learn the alphabet by being able to print out the letters, pronounce them, form words with them, speak these words and eventually make the leap from printing to writing as well as the further refinement of their eloquence.
While the beginner and the magician both have to learn the letters like a child, the magician has the advantage in the fact that he knows, understands and can speak a number of different languages. The first language that the scholar learns within his training within IIH would be the language with only one or two letters, that is the language of vital energy. Now, of course, being a student of Qigong I realize that this one letter language is something that can be infinitely expanded upon with the addition of the meridians through which vital energy flows, the dantian's in which vital energy is stored, and the various degrees of quality and accumulation of vital energy. In addition to eventually learning that the vital energy is made up of relatively equal amounts of magnetic and electric fluid, a point that is also well known within the orient under the guise of the three forms of vital energy: shen, qi and jing. A triad that very much resembles that of Shin Aleph Mem.
Secondly one learns a language that has more letters in it, namely the letters of the four elements that make up the whole of reality and can express all sorts of different quantities and qualities. Eventually mastering this language via the various finger rituals. Yet, this too can be broken down into a binary system of the electric and magnetic fluids.
Thirdly, the scholar learns the language of the electric and the magnetic fluids. Which is not really something that I can comment overly much about, though it does make me wonder why Bardon placed the work with the fluids so late within IIH when he has the scholar working with combined forms of these qualities for some time.
Fourthly, the scholar understands and has a certain degree of mastery over the language of the senses: smell, taste, touch, sound, sight, emotional significance and mental chatter, via his work with the beginning few steps of IIH.
Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, there is the language of essential meaning. A language that Bardon seems to think that the scholar should have definitely developed fully by the completion of step eight, even thought it is something that is trained in a roundabout way in the exercises of every step that I have practiced. With the work of the soul mirrors, the introspection into the scholars character is an attempt at trying to see essential meaning of the scholars self at that moment and time, albeit in a fashion that is heavily filtered. With the meditative exercises of thought control one is working on quieting the rational mind enough so that it can perceive essential meaning, and in fact, true vacancy of mind can produce a perception of essential meaning. Though this perception of essential meaning is again one that is generally filtered for some reason that I do not quite understand. With the sensory concentration exercises, the scholar is trying to find the essential meaning of sensory perceptions. The conscious reception of food, the mystery of breathing, the magic of water, the secret of the subconscious, as well as the creation of elementals, are all forms of placing the an essential meaning of a desire into the Akasha. The primary difference between these exercises being the how well the essential meaning of the desire is crafted. Yet it doesn't seem to be until the work of the transference of consciousness into another being, and then into the Akasha, that a more direct perception of essential meaning is trained.
All of these five different languages of vital energy, the elements, the fluids, and essential meaning are the building blocks upon which the Universal Language of Kabbalah is formed.
-- Peter
3 July, 2003