Qliphoth: Encyclopedia - Qliphoth

Qliphoth

Qliphoth, kliffoth or klippot (singular: qliphah) refer to the representation of evil forces in the mystical teachings of Judaism (such as in the Kabbalah.) The term klippot means peels in Hebrew.

Like nearly all kabbalistic concepts, the qliphoth have been described in numerous ways often very much different from each other. They are also a decidedly obscure area of Kabbalah, which may have fueled speculation. Thus, the following is to be taken as an incomprehensive list of conflicting views, not as various aspects of the same concept.

Qliphoth - Judaic views

All Judaic interpretations of the qliphoth agree they are the cause of evil and suffering (see theodicy). There are kabbalistic worldviews that seek to explain evil without use of the qliphoth concept, as aspects of the sephiroth (singular: sephirah) Binah, Gevurah and Hod.

The Zohar describes the qliphoth as the result of separation necessary in the act of creation. Between two things, there must be a gap or barrier, and that is a qliphah.

In what may be the most widely-accepted teaching, they are the "[empty] husks" of "[holy] sparks" (nitzotzot) that were cast down after Adam and Eve defied God's command not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden as told in the Book of Genesis.

A Hasidic view states that in the process of creation, ten sephiroth were created, each encapsuled by a qliphah. The ten sephiroth are thought to be ten divine "enumerations" or "emanations" of God into the universe. The first set of ten qliphoth proved too weak to hold the emanating force, and the lower seven of them broke. They were replaced, but the broken former set, animated by a residue of the creative power of God, remained and conflicts with those aspects of the world corresponding to the lower seven sephiroth.

A more modern interpretation attributes the creation of the qliphoth to an inherent imbalance towards the Severity aspects of creation, which occurred either in Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge but not the Tree of Life, or before that, in creation itself. The latter view is sometimes elaborated to state severity had to lose power to produce a balanced creation, and the excess power formed the qliphoth.

In a similar but less mystical interpretation, qliphoth come into existence whenever the powers of the sephiroth are used wrongly, and may manifest in any form, ranging from hurricanes to car wrecks to demons and other supernatural creatures.

Qliphoth - Hermetic views

Kabbalah as interpreted in Hermeticism is related to the original, but Hermetics ignore many of its concepts in favor of ones taken from other sources or originally created. Here, God is sometimes thought to shine with his pure, divine light into a chaotic darkness, Tohu va-Bohu, that did not cease to exist when God created light and order (the contrasting view in Judaic Kabbalah supports that the act of creation by God required retraction of the divine essence or tzimtzum; the notion of void or matter external to God is antithetical to Judaic Kabbalah, which leans toward panentheism). This darkness is equated to the qliphoth and also represents evil, because it is thought to be opposite or antagonistic to God's creation.

In one of the founding texts of Hermetic Kabbalah, 'The Kabbalah Unveiled', MacGregor Mathers equals these forces to the Kings of Edom. He also offers the suggestion they are the result of an imbalance towards a merciful aspect of God and have since been destroyed. [1]

In Hermetic teachings following this one, the qliphoth have tended, much like the sephiroth, to be interpreted as metaphysical worlds or entities, and merged with demonological ideas. One such concept lists the qliphoth as follows:

• Thaumiel (Governed by Satan and Moloch)
• Ghagiel (Governed by Beelzebuth)
• Sathariel (Governed by Lucifuge)
• Gha'agsheblah (Governed by Astaroth)
• Golachab (Governed by Asmodeus)
• Thagirion (Governed by Belfegor)
• A'arab Zaraq (Governed by Baal)
• Samael (Governed by Adramelech)
• Gamaliel (Governed by Lilith)
• Nahemoth or Lilith (Governed by Naamah)

In addition to this, there are also "The Seven Infernal Habitations" or seven hells (Tehom, Abaddon, Titahion, Barshacheth, Tzelmoth, Shaarimoth and Gehinnom), twelve qliphotic orders of demons, three powers before Satan and twenty-two demons corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Qliphoth - Luciferian view

The qliphoth gained further independence in the writings of Kenneth Grant and the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis. Here, they comprise a Tree of death opposite or behind the Tree of Life. This concept is a central tenet of the magical order Dragon Rouge.

The qliphoth are thought of as the opposites to the sephiroth. It is thought that the qliphoth are the ten (or eleven) manifestations of darkness, into which God's divine light cannot reach. The qliphoth are the personifications of an "anti-God" condition. The assumption that such a condition can even exist spotlights how distant this view is from Judaic Qabalah, and how much it is informed by Luciferianism.

This interpretation is very much a recent and marginal one, and even inside occultism it is probably shared only by a small minority. It is notable however, in first treating the qliphoth not as a disdained and unimportant topic but as a central concept described in much detail.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Qliphoth", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki