Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Know to Become a Qabalist - Softcover

DuQuette, Lon Milo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578632153 ISBN 13: 9781578632152

Verlag: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

A unique and humorous and also practical approach to the increasingly popular study of Qabalah. This is a seriously funny book! Traditional Qabalistic (or Cabalistic, or, indeed, Kabbalistic read this book to find out what the difference is...we know you've always wondered) sources tend to be a bit, er, dry. DuQuette spices up the Qabalah and makes it come alive, restoring the joy of learning the fundamentals of this admittedly arcane system by using simple, amusing anecdotes and metaphors. This account, written psuedepigraphically (fictitiously attributed to a supposed authority), allows DuQuette as Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford to soar to outrageous heights and, when necessary, stand apart from the silliness to highlight the golden eggs of Qabalistic wisdom nested therein. Sure to be a revelation to those who think that learning about the Qabalah needs to be tedious and serious, DuQuette shows that great truths can be transmitted through the medium of laughter. It's s Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lon Milo DuQuette has been involved with occult studies since the late 60s, and has become an acknowledged and widely recognized authority within the world of modern occultism. His previous publications include Magick of Thelema, The Tarot of Ceremonial Magick, Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium, and the humorous, biographical My Life with the Spirits.

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THE CHICKEN QABALAH OF RABBI LAMED BEN CLIFFORD

A Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist

By Lon Milo DuQuette

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2001 Lon Milo DuQuette
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-215-2

Contents

List of Figures
Foreword—My Life with the Rabbi, by Rodney Orpheus
Introduction: Confession
Chapter 0. Who Was Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford?
Chapter 1. Frequently Asked Questions About Chicken Qabalah
Chapter 2. The Ten Command-Rants
Chapter 3. The Sepher Yetzirah
Chapter 4. The Hebrew Alphabet
Chapter 5. The Ineffable Name of God and the Ark of the Covenant
Chapter 6. The Four Qabalistic Worlds and the Four Parts of the Soul
Chapter 7. The Tree of Life
Chapter 8. Qabalistic Magick and the Tree of Life
Chapter 9. The Chicken Tarot and the Holy Guardian Angel
Chapter 10. Last Lecture—Games Qabalists Play
Epilogue: Shem-ha-Mephorash—The Rabbi's Last 72 Words
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

CHAPTER 1

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CHICKEN QABBALAH

Introduced by Lon Milo DuQuette

We are Qazbalists not to prove the Bible is holy—weare Qabalists because everything is holy.

—Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford

Without doubt, the first question people asked Rabbi Lamed Ben Cliffordconcerned his choice of the word "Chicken" to describe his brand of Qabalisticstudy and practice. It is clear to me, after reviewing scores of letters on thissubject, that he delighted in giving a different answer to every individual whoasked, "Why do you call it Chicken Qabalah?" Indeed, for this reason, I hadaltogether given up the idea of including any of them in the "Frequently AskedQuestions" chapter. Then, shortly before returning the last draft of themanuscript to my publisher, I received a telephone call from one of the Rabbi'sstudents living in New York City. She was a wealth of information and happilycorroborated the following story, which was part of a 1987 letter to a Jamaicandisciple.

Why do I call it Chicken Qabalah? Actually, the term "Chicken Qabalah" issuedfrom the mouth of an arrogant and hateful old man who attended my New York CityYOU-CAN-FORGET-90-PERCENT-OF-WHAT-YOU-KNOW-ABOUT-THE-QABALAH seminar. After mytalk he approached me, so obviously infuriated that he could hardly speak.

He said, "Sir, you speak blaspheme! You are no Kabbalist! You don't evenpronounce the word correctly—it is Kahb-bah-' law! Kahb-bah-' law! What youteach is not Kabbalah! It is ... it is ..."

The poor man's face turned bright red and his whole body began to shake as hesearched his mind for a word fowl [sic] enough to describe my work.

"It is—it is—Chicken! Chicken Kahb-bah-' law!"

It was instantly obvious to everyone in the room that he was painfullyembarrassed at the ill-chosen and infantile words that blurted mindlessly out ofhis mouth. People started to chuckle. He then became so flustered that he spatupon the floor and said, "You and your teachings merit only spit! Spit!" andthen he stormed out of the hall.

As I am vowed to interpret every phenomenon as a direct communication from Godto my soul, I recognized this awful slobbering man as an angel of the Lord, sentto reveal to me the name of the spiritual science that would forever cling to myname. That night in meditation I examined his message Qabalistically.

The Hebrew word for phlegm or spittle is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (KICh), and the word for merit is[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (NE). To my great joy, the phrase "merit spit," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], enumerates to the number 93,one of the holiest of numbers. Number 93 relates not only to the divine conceptsof Love and Will, but also to the great secret Word by which we triumph overdeath. I then looked down at my notes to discover that the very same lettersarranged in the very same order rendered in English characters the word [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (ChIKEN).

I cannot say that I actually believe the above story. It might have some basisin fact, but, like most of the Rabbi's stories, it is probably pure fiction (oras he would say, "a Holy Whopper"). As we will soon see, however, the lies ofRabbi Lamed Ben Clifford can contain some very great truths.

The list of questions and answers, below, was not compiled by Ben Clifford. Icompiled it with the kind help of his secretary and "magical son," Gizmo BenLamed, from nearly 6 years of the Rabbi's personal correspondence with disciplesand detractors.

What is Chicken Qabalah?

Chicken Qabalah is the deceptively self-effacing term given to those aspects ofthe Holy Hebrew Qabalah that are of practical value to practitioners of theWestern Hermetic spiritual tradition. While giving the most profound respect toindividuals and institutions that teach the rich parochial traditions ofspeculative Qabalah, Chicken Qabalists, like students of Zen, focuspragmatically on the mind-transcending techniques of the art.

Who are Chicken Qabalists?

Anybody can be a Chicken Qabalist, but at this point in history most arestudents of Tarot, Psychology, Astrology, Ceremonial Magick, Rosicrucianism,Alchemy, Mystic Freemasonry, or Witchcraft."

Is Chicken Qabalah real Qabalah?

Hell yes! Don't worry about it, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. So-calledorthodox Qabalahs are only other people's Chicken Qabalahs that have beenaround for a long time.

Is there a correct way to spell the word Qabalah?

Hell no! You're a Chicken Qabalist! Don't worry about it. Cabala, Kabbalah,Quabbbalah, Caqubabalalah—They're all wrong! (So they may as well all becorrect!) We'll talk about that more when you are a little more familiar withthe Hebrew alphabet.

Is it hard to become a Chicken Qabalist?

Hell no! Don't worry about it. But, if you feel you need some externalvalidation, sign this, cut it out and put it in your wallet. No need to send inan application or pay any dues. If the omniscient Deity really exists, It willsurely recognize your bold act of spiritual audacity.

There! You're a full-fledged Chicken Qabalist. Now, the first thing you need tolearn is that everyone's Qabalah is uniquely their own. Your Qabalah is not myQabalah or anyone else's. A personal Qabalah is placed in your hands the momentyou take up the study. It's alive, and grows upon what you feed it. The more youlearn, the more you use. No two students study or work the same.

For example: I know people who have studied most, if not all, of the classictexts. They know their Hebrew backward and forward, and a whole poop-load of thetraditional correspondences. They can twist and abuse numbers and letters allnight long and send you out the door screaming with their nonstop raving. Theycan manipulate your address and phone number to prove you're the antichrist, andyour real name is Rumplestiltskin. However, all that doesn't necessarily...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Red Wheel/Weiser
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1578632153
• ISBN 13: 9781578632152
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV, GPSR Europäische Union; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande