NOS

"Qabalah is a Hebrew word that means 'tradition.' It is derived from the root word qibel, meaning 'to recieve' or 'that which is recieved.' This refers to the handing down of estoric knowledge by oral transmission." (Cicero, Sandra and Chic, The Essential Golden Dawn, page 167)

THE SEPHIROTIC TREE OF THE KABBALAH:

"From Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Vol. 1, pp. 166-168, we read: Cabala, Cabbalah, Kabalah, Kabbalah -- 'The mystical philosophy or theosophy of the Jews...[written, not in Hebrew, but in Persian symbols of hidden meaning while the Jews were in Babylonian (modern Iraq) and Persian (modern Iran) captivity]. The cabala is divided into two kinds: the Practical and the Theoretical. The Practical Cabala is occupied in instructions for the construction of talismans and amulets [witchcraft]...Buxtorf (Lexicon and Talmud) defines the Cabala to be a secret science, which treats in a mystical and enigmatical manner of things divine, angelical, theological, celestial, and metaphysical; the subjects being enveloped in striking symbols and secret modes of teaching. Much use is made of it in the advanced degrees (of Freemasonry), and entire Rites [Scottish] have been constructed on its principles." (Quoted from "Scarlet and the Beast" by John Daniel, Vol. I, page 195)

Kabbalist Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi, in writing about the so called "Tree of Life", claims: "The actual origin of the Tree of Life is Unknown. It traditionally is rooted in the Cabala, the inner teaching of Judaism." (Introduction to the Cabala, Halevi) The Kabbalah is also the inner teaching of corporate Freemasonry, as attested by many of the most notorious Freemasonic mystagogues. Thus the term "Judeo-Masonry" refers to this fact. According to 33rd Degree Freemason, Manly P. Hall, the Scriptures, or written Torah, is the Law, while the Talmud is called the "soul of the Law", and Qabalah is considered to be the "soul of the soul of the Law." In short, Qabalah is considered to be the core or inner working of Judaism--the final word, so to speak.

The racist nature of the Jewish Kabbalah is illustrated in the chart above⁽⁰¹⁾, where the lowest realm of emminations on the Sephirotic tree are demonic shells, or non-Jews, called in the Qabalah "kilphoth". However, since corporate Freemasonry is essencially Judaism for Gentiles, the Talmudic distrust and contempt of the "goy", i.e., gentiles, is supplanted in Masonry with a distrust and contempt for 'cowan', i.e., the Masonic term used to describe profane outsiders, or non-Masons who have the audacity to learn about Masonry or intrude into its mysteries. In the most powerful Masonic order, the Scottish Rite, which is sometimes called "the Jewish rite", cowan are sometimes called "gentiles".

As Saint Athanatius pointed out, the Bible is the true tree of life. The Kabbalah, in contrast, despite what it calls the Sephirot, is in fact the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and so its fruits are forbidden in the Bible. The Kabbalists teach that both good and evil are needful and both are qualities of God. The hexagram sybolizes this occult dualism. Thus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the Kabbalist cannibal wisdom which teaches that evil is needful, necessary, meaningful, purposeful, good, etc., thereby suggesting, as did the serpent in the Garden of Eden, that evil is good fruit.

In contrast, the traditional Catholic view is that evil is evil, good is good, and never the twain shall meet, since good and evil are mutually incompatible, irreconcialiable opposites, one of which, evil, will be utterly extirpated and anihilated in the eschaton. So, from the Christian perspective, there is no reason to eat from the Sephirotic tree of the knowledge of good and evil, since the question is not how to balence good and evil but rather how to overcome evil with good.

In short, what Kabbalists call "the tree of life" is the tree of death, since it's written: "the wages of sin are death". The serpent asked, "Yea, hath God said?" Yes, God said, and His Word, as it was cannonized by the Catholic Church, remains the final word, not the oral tradition of the Qabbalists, nor the gospels of the gnostics.

7:5. And the Pharisees and scribes asked him: Why do not thy disciples walk according to the tradition of the ancients, but they eat bread with common hands? 7:6. But he answering, said to them: Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7:7. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men. Doctrines and precepts of men. . .See the annotations, Matt. 15. 9, 11. 7:8. For leaving the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pots and of cups: and many other things you do like to these. 7:9. And he said to them: Well do you make void the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition. 7:10. For Moses said: Honour thy father and thy mother. And He that shall curse father or mother, dying let him die. 7:11. But you say: If a man shall say to his father or mother, Corban (which is a gift) whatsoever is from me shall profit thee. 7:12. And further you suffer him not to do any thing for his father or mother, 7:13. Making void the word of God by your own tradition, which you have given forth. And many other such like things you do.

(01) The chart above is scaned from Ted Pike's book Israel, Our Duty, Our Dilemma. "In Rabbi Adi Steinsaltz's study of the Tanya of Shneur Zalman, the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism, we read that '...the second soul of the Jew is a part of God above, literally,' while 'The souls of the nations of the world, however, derive from the other impure kelipot (demonic 'shells'), which contain no good whatever, as it is written in Etz Chayyim, Portal 49, ch. 3...'" (Craig Heimbichner, Blood On The Altar, page 87)