What Does an Authentic Kabbalah Maasit Manuscript Look Like?
The following photograph, taken from the book Shoshan Yesod Olam, shows you what a page from what is considered the greatest book of Kabbalah Maasit looks like. (That’s right! Authentic Kabbalah Maasit books are manuscripts, not simple PDFs.)
This extraordinary manuscript consists of 673 pages and is a compilation of all ancient knowledge of Practical Kabbalah, collected by Rabbi Yosef Tirshom. It is clearly the product of a millennia-old tradition.
The manuscript describes a series of techniques, with particular emphasis on meditation on unions of Divine Names (yejudim) and the pronunciation of powerful phrases with Divine Names.
On this page, you can observe a series of instructions for use in the Sefirot of the Tree of Life, related to what is today called Esoteric Squares (not to be confused with magic squares used in mathematics, although they may resemble them).
The Purpose of Kabbalah Maasit
One of the main reasons for using Kabbalah Maasit, as Rabbi Chaim Vital explains in his book The Gates of Holiness, is to attract the Spirit of Holiness, the Ruach HaKodesh. However, he issues a warning, informing us of what many Kabbalah teachers caution about today. He tells us that those who delve into Kabbalah Maasit may be tempted to come into contact with the degrees of Impurity. For this reason, in his book The Gates of Holiness, the later editor considered removing the methods used by Chaim Vital and other Kabbalists.
This warning is accompanied by a light, where he tells us that if one has the ashes of the Red Heifer, it could serve to purify the person again. This is mentioned in relation to the great Practical Kabbalists who lived two thousand years ago, such as Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Nehunia Ben Hakana, and Rabbi Ishmael (Kohen Gadol) ben Elisha. They ascended to the Supernal Palaces; like Rabbi Akiva, who ascended to the Pardes (Orchard). In their time, the secret of the ashes of the Red Heifer was still known, with whose waters they could purify the impure, but at the same time, those waters would make the pure impure. This is a great secret explained in several places in the Zohar.
A Brief Overview of Techniques
I will not go into detail to explain the different techniques, as each one is an ocean of knowledge, but let’s list some of them:
- Emptying the mind of worldly matters to connect through meditation on Divine Names.
- Making use of Yejudim (unions of Divine Names).
- Purification of the physical, mental, and emotional body.
- Inducing altered states of consciousness through the five processes mentioned in the Sefer Yetzirah.
- Inducing altered states of consciousness using Esoteric Squares (I personally call them Kabbalistic Squares—I prefer this designation).
- Understanding what prayer is and how to practice it. This is necessary to perform certain rites during the Amidah, as explained in the manuscript Harba deMoshe (Sword of Moses), in order to ensure that elevated angels of Light (not genies, as some say) become your allies and attend to everything you say.
- Creation of seals as explained in the Sefer Raziel.
- Use of Names as indicated in Harba deMoshe or the Sefer HaRazim (The Book of Secrets).
There are more techniques (detailed in Shoshan Yesod Olam) for all kinds of effects, such as inducing dreams where answers are revealed or shaping nature (i.e., events).