Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in laurel_a_stuart's LiveJournal:

Thursday, May 11th, 2006
8:13 am	Work and social life have eaten away a lot of time this week. The next few days are going to be just as busy. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to read the Saadia version of the Sepher Yetzirah again and then this morning, by chance, I caught a few important sentences in Kaplan's book that helped reaffirm to me that I'm heading in a productive direction. "The seven Doubles are often associated with the seven lower Sefirot. Actually, however, these seven letters represent the seven vertical lines on the Tree of Life diagram. The seven lower Sefirot are merely the lower end points of these seven vertical lines. These letters are therefore the ladders leading upward from the seven lower Sefirot, and this is the way in which the two are associated vertically on the ladder of the Sefirot. One rises through their hard sound and descends with their soft sound." - Aryeh Kaplan Sefer Yetzirah pp.165-166 I had already come to the conclusion that its very helpful to ascribe these vertical paths astrologically in the same fashion within my personal QBL. For example, Malkuth has Saturn as an attribution and so does the path connecting Malkuth to Yesod. The path between Yesod and Tipareth has the attribution of the Moon, the path between Tipareth and Kether has the attribution of the Sun. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 8th, 2006
3:15 pm	Bereshith I've decided to work with somewhat exclusively with the Gra version of the Tree of Life. The Gra was also known as Vilna Gaon or the Gaon of Vilna. The Ari-Gra translation of the Sepher Yetzirah is going to be my primary meditational text for a while, line by line perhaps. I'm very committed to getting a book on an alternative qabbalah written in the next few months. This LJ, devoted exclusively to QBL and QBL-related topics (ritual, meditation, tarot, alchemy, astrology, mysticism) is one of the steps in my path to get there. I'm convinced that the Gra version of the tree, which depicts a "Pre-Fall" cosmology is more helpful to the processes of Tikkun HaLev and Tikkun Olam than the currently standardized glyph. Besides, there are now hundreds of books and web pages devoted to the standardized glyph. Way too many of them simply pass along the same information. The Ari-Gra glyph provides a true mandala and removes Da'ath as a secret "11th" sephira which I feel is important for reasons I'll go into some other time. I want my book to be different. I want to begin by addressing the concepts central to Tikkun and how modern qabalistic philosophy and magic can be used to create it. I'm going to use principles and ideas found in Wicca, ceremonial magic, humanism, LHP philosophies and Unitarian Universalism. One of the things that's given me a lot of headaches along the way has been the traditional Golden Dawn correspondences. That's worth a post by itself. I've studied them, I've studied most of the alternatives that have been presented by other contemporary qabalists and kabbalists. I've been playing with potentials and possibilities for a long time now. Ultimately though, I don't think there's One True Way in QBL any more than there's a single gate to heaven. Since salvation is awaiting anyone and everyone who is able to light their inner spark and become a living bene elohim , I can only chronicle my own journey and what is useful (or destructive) for me. I hope in the end I succeed in my own path and possibly help others to follow, in the tradition of the bodhisvatta . However, I'm currently much more like Mushu the little dragon in Disney's Mulan than any true saint/savior. (3 Comments |Comment on this)