NMR ISSUE 25

Astrological Forecast 25
Athena
Badger
Beltane Mystery Play
Ceremonial Magicians
Editorial 25
Eternally Dressed in Green
Fifty Gates of Understanding
Folklore of Ancient Egypt
Heritage and Faith The Ultimate Wiccan Possessions
Letters 25
My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma
My Loving Goddess
Negative Emotions
On the Fairies Defending Decent Creatures
Solitary Solstice
The Success Cube
Things

Articles
Authors
Rituals
Book Reviews
NMR Issues
NMR Covers

Fifty Gates Of Understanding

John Michael Greer

Since the teachings of the modern magical tradition began to emerge from secrecy about a hundred years ago, the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom—a traditional term for the Sephiroth and Paths of the Tree of Life—have been the dominant model of the magical universe in the Western world. This is quite understandable; as a key to the tradition's teachings, and a practical and philosophical tool for occult work, the Paths have enormous power. It may be worth noting, though, that the Tree of Life as it is now understood is only one of the models that were used in older versions of the magical tradition.

Another model, and one that has nearly as broad an applicability as the Paths, is a system called the Fifty Gates of Understanding. These are so called, according to the Renaissance Qabalist Athanasius Kircher, because no one can arrive at a perfect understanding of the aforementioned Paths, unless he first enters by them. Intended specifically to complement the Paths of Wisdom, the Gates of Understanding offer a different but related view of the universe, one which modern students of the magical arts may find useful.

The Fifty Gates Of Understanding

1 Primary matter, Hyle, chaos.
2 Matter in manifestation: formless, empty and
inanimate.
3 Natural forces of attraction and repulsion:
the Abyss.
4 Separation and first rudiments of the
Elements.
5 Elemental Earth, from which all seed is as yet
absent.
6 Elemental Water, acting upon the World.
7 Elemental Air, issuing from the abyss of
waters.
8 Elemental Fire, warming and giving life.
9 Elements interacting through the Qualities
(hot, cold, dry, wet).
10 Their attraction toward a mixture of all.
11 Emergence of metals through the division of
Earth.
12 Flowers and saps ordered for the
generation of metals.
13 Seas, lakes, secret flowers among the cavities
of the Earth.
14 Evolution of grasses, trees, and all plant
life.
15 Processes of growth and reproduction in the
plant kingdom.
16 Evolution of animal life in its most basic
forms.
17 Evolution of insects, worms, and other
invertebrate animals.
18 Evolution of fish, with their special
properties.
19 Evolution of birds, with their special
properties.
20 Evolution of the mammals.
21 Emergence of human beings.
22 Human anatomy and physiology.
23 Human subtle anatomy, etheric structure,
soul.
24 Human sexuality and reproduction.
25 The human being as a microcosm of the
Universe.
26 Five external powers: hearing, touch, sight,
taste, smell.
27 Five internal powers: memory, will
imagination, emotion, thought.
28 Humanity in the nonphysical realms of the
Universe.
29 Humanity as an angelic order (Ishim).
30 Humanity as image and likeness of the
Divine.
31 Sphere and spirits of Levanah, the Moon.
32 Sphere and spirits of Kokab, Mercury.
33 Sphere and spirits of Nogah, Venus.
34 Sphere and spirits of Shemesh, the Sun.
35 Sphere and spirits of Madim, Mars.
36 Sphere and spirits of Tzedek, Jupiter.
37 Sphere and spirits of Shabbathai, Saturn.
38 Sphere and spirits of Mazloth, the outer
planets and stars.
39 Sphere and spirits of Rashith ha-Gilgalim,
the galaxy.
40 Sphere and spirits of the cosmos as a whole.
41 Kerubim, Mighty Ones.
42 Beni Elohim, Sons of Divinity.
43 Tarshishim, Brilliant Ones (or Elohim,
Deities).
44 Malakim, Angelic Kings.
45 Seraphim, Fiery Serpents.
46 Chashmalim, Shining Ones.
47 Aralim, Strong Ones.
48 Auphanim, Wheels or Whirling Forces.
49 Chaioth ha-Qodesh, Holy Living Creatures.
50 AIN SOPH, Divinity Itself.1

This long and somewhat arcane list may seem baffling at first glance. A few points of explanation, though, may offer some clarity. The Fifty Gates of Understanding make up one variant—a very sophisticated one—of an ancient visionary model of the Universe: the Great Chain of Being. In this model, everything in existence is part of a continuum which extends, unbroken, from the central creative Power down to the densest forms of physical matter. Creative energies emanating from Deity flow along this continuum, sustaining it and connecting all things back to their Source.2

One can see that this way of thinking about the world is far removed from the more common views of reality in the modern West. In our culture's established religions, the universe is split down the middle into one world of matter and another of spirit; and any contact between the two is labeled evil unless it takes place through official channels. Translate this same dualism into physical and psychological, and the same thing holds true for most modern scientific thought. The model of the Great Chain of Being, on the other hand, expresses far more clearly the dance of interactions between many different levels of existence (from dense matter and physical energies through the subtle energies of life and health, through the many aspects of human consciousness, up into the high reaches of the spiritual realm) which we as human beings actually experience every day.

The Qabalistic version of this model adds certain touches to this picture. Fifty items in a list obviously do not exhaust the full range of levels in the Universe; they were never intended to do so. In Qabalistic thought, the continuum reaching from the Divine to its furthest creations is not seen as linear, like a chain. Instead, it radiates outward along an infinite array of lines, much the same way light radiates from a lamp. The Fifty Gates symbolize the course of just one of these lines—the line that includes human beings along its path. This is why the list of the Gates includes the particular parts of the Universe it does, and why the various elements of the human organism get so much attention. A system of Gates intended for jellyfish, dolphins or disembodied spirits would probably have little in common with this one—but that is hardly our concern!

The human perspective implicit in the Gates determines another, extremely important aspect of the system. A quick glance over the list will show that the Gates divide naturally into five groups of ten each. These correspond to five broad levels of existence: the physical level, consisting of dense matter and energy perceptible by the senses; the etheric level, consisting of the subtle energies of life and form which give structure to the material world; the astral level, or level of concrete consciousness, which gives shape to the etheric; the mental level, or level of abstract consciousness, which gives shape to the astral; and the spiritual level, reaching beyond definition, which gives shape to all. This is one of many ways of classifying the continuum; it has the advantage, though, that humans can directly experience all the levels it contains, and ordinary human awareness stands at the center of the scheme.

Practical Applications

Traditionally, the Fifty Gates are assigned to Binah (Understanding), the third Sephirah on the Tree of Life; while the Thirty-Two Paths are assigned to Chokmah (Wisdom), the second. This points up an important distinction. Chokmah corresponds to force, Binah to form; while the Paths focus on the forces of the Universe, the Gates focus on the forms through which those forces come into play. The Gates thus have a particular relationship with the world of everyday experience; and it can be a useful exercise to make a habit of identifying ordinary objects with their corresponding Gates: grass on the roadside with the 14th Gate, for example, a neighbor's dog with the 20th, or romantic feelings with the 33rd.

The Gates come into their own, though, as a subject for meditation and visionary work. The individual Gates, their order and interrelationships and their place in the system as a whole are all food for meditation. A valuable practice is to build up a Gate in the imagination, in the form of a great portal bearing the appropriate number. This then becomes the starting point for a pathworking—or rather a Gateworking—into the corresponding level of the astral. The 6th Gate thus allows visionary access to the realm of elemental Water; the 41st, to the sphere of the Angels of the Ninth Choir.

As always with workings of this type, One should take the usual precautions. One can find these in the Golden Dawn documents on scrying in the spirit vision and many other sources.3 While I have not been able to find a traditional set of Divine Names governing the Gates, my own experience has been that each of the five groups mentioned above can be related to one of the five Spheres of the Middle pillar, and thus to the corresponding Divine Name. The physical Gates are therefore related to the Name ADNI, Adonai; the etheric, to ShDI AL ChI, Shaddai El Chai; the astral, to YHVH ALVH VDAaTh, Tetragrammaton Eloah va-Daath; the mental to YHVH ALHIM, Tetragrammaton Elohim; and the spiritual to AHIH, Eheieh. One can use these Names to open the Gates, and to test entities encountered on the other side.

The general correspondence between the Gates and the Sephirah Binah has another implication for practice, for Binah, as the first origin of form, has a special rulership over all works of practical magick. Thus, the Fifty Gates have much to teach about this aspect of magical work. The above methods are the best way to learn these lessons, but not even one note may be out of place. One may work magick on different levels of the continuum that the Gates represent; some rituals make use of the subtle forces stored in herbs, stones and metals, while others focus on planetary or even angelic powers and still others combine levels in different ways. Each of these approaches has its own character, and will produce different results and be more or less effective in different situations. Work with the Fifty Gates can help to clarify these relationships to a remarkable extent.

Conclusion

These notes are a tentative first look at a neglected area of Qabalistic tradition—one that has potentials going far beyond the suggestions I've made here. For the time being, despite Kircher's advice, the Fifty Gates of Understanding are probably best suited to those who have already done a good deal of work with the Tree of Life, and are comfortable working in areas where few guidelines exist. Nonetheless, the symbolism of the Gates has a great deal to teach, and I hope other students of the magical tradition will find them interesting enough to begin explorations of their own.

Notes

1) This list of the Gates is adapted from the somewhat confused version used by the 19th Century French occultist Dr. Gerard Encausse. See Papus, The Qabalah (Aquarian: 1977), pp. 230-233.

2) For those who can handle academic writing, the classic book on the Great Chain of Being is still Arthur O. Lovejoy's The Great Chain of Being (Harvard: 1936).

3) See Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn (Llewellyn: 1971), Vol. 4, pp. 11-46, and also Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick (Llewellyn: 1988), pp. 486-503, for discussions of the methods involved in this type of work.