The Qliphoth (קליפות with a value of 606—equivalent to the Hebrew word for nexus or ligature [a binding] and meaning “peels”, “shells” or matter, which in the singular form of the word [קליפה] having a value of 600—equivalent to the Hebrew word for knot or ligature) of the ‘nightside’[1] of the Tree-of-Life create a valuable grimoire for those attempting to understand the Ordeals of the Grades of the ATAT These manifest in our traversal of the spiritual path as bindings that can hold us back from further advancement and with by successfully overcoming them, can bind us that much more firmly to the path.

These ordeals well up from the subconscious part of the psyche and serve to rid us of energy blocks that are the neuroses we each must confront in order to unify the psyche into a more functional whole; making us more fully human.  Israel Regardie referred to these shadows as the “evil twins,” which can also easily be described as the Tree-of-Knowledge (of good and evil).

The Sefirot

The 22 Paths

The Ordeals & the Dark Night of the Soul

The ordeals are intimately connected with a phase in spiritual development; referred to as the ‘dark night of the soul.’ The phrase was originally coined by St. John of the Cross, who says that it:

…puts the sensory spiritual appetites to sleep, deadens them, and deprives them of the ability to find pleasure in anything. It binds the imagination, and impedes it from doing any good discursive work. It makes the memory cease, the intellect become dark and unable to understand anything, and hence it causes the will to become arid and constrained, and all the faculties empty and useless. And over this hangs a dense and burdensome cloud, which afflicts the soul, and keeps it withdrawn from the good.

The first of these several occurrences in one’s Magickal career is called the ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ and is a feature of the Path of Tav that the Neophyte of Our Order begins to travel. It is this that is called a reflection of the ‘Sorrow of the Great Mother.’ The ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ is essentially, the Abyss; connected to Yesod (that the Neophyte is working to fully attain) via the ‘nightside’ (shadow) of the Tree-of-Life.

The averse pentagram with its apex at Yesod shows the Ruach involuted into the Moon, which is itself, the culmination of the path of Tav—the Universe Atu. Tav is ruled by Saturn, which in the original Hebrew rendering of the Tree-of-Life was also placed upon the Abyss (moving Binah—attributed to Saturn) from which the ‘Babe of the Abyss’ emerges into Binah. The averse pentagram shows the involuted soul (Ruach) of humanity.

A line is drawn from Da’ath (where Binah is superimposed) to Netzach; then up to Geburah and across to Chesed; then down to Hod and back up to Da’ath.  Da’ath is termed the non-Sefira; giving credulity to the superimposition.  This gives us the upright pentagram; its apex culminating in the Abyss or the City of the Pyramids (Binah), which themselves are tombs.  This can be said to represent the idea of transcendence in the living man; reflective of Crowley’s motto as Master of the Temple: V.V.V.V.V. (“By the force of truth, I have conquered the Universe while living”).  And it is said that this attainment is the complete annihilation of the personality; that is existence above the Abyss.  But after such attainment, the personality is reflected back into the Ruach and only a limited memory of the experience remains.

The feeling of this ordeal is a morbid heaviness that besets the Neophyte; continuing on to the two subsequent grades in the Astral Triad (Yesod, Hod and Netzach).  The second phase in this ordeal occurs for the Zelator and is called the ‘Ordeal of Choronzon;’ the Zelator now moving towards the Black Pillar on the Tree-of-Life.  Here the argumentative nature of Choronzon is discovered and sophistic rationalizations are engaged.  If the Aspiration unto Tiphareth is strong, these arguments are used to develop the intellectual (and subsequently, the emotional capacities for the Philosophus) understanding of the Practicus.  But if the Aspiration is weak, a temporary or permanent failure will occur; leaving the Aspirant in a nihilist state—lamenting the futility of living (finding no meaning in existence).

The second of the existential crises is called the ‘Lesser Dark Night of the Soul’ that occurs at the intersection of Samekh and Peh; before the Veil of Paroketh.  It is the ‘blasted tower’ that shows the Dominus Liminis, but a glimpse of the illuminated singular or unified consciousness that is called the Holy Guardian Angel.  The fight is to yoke all the petty egos of the psyche into what is called asar un nefer (myself made perfect)—a singularity that Ray Kurzweil predicts is an upcoming destiny for the human race.  Some, most or all of these psychic components will rebel; preferring to toy with old sweetnesses, as described for the Scarlet Woman in Liber AL.

AL:III.43  “Let the Scarlet Woman beware!  If pity and compassion and tenderness visit her heart; if she leave my work to toy with old sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be known.  I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered.“

Motta’s commentary to this verse is insightful:

Although this verse is specifically directed to the Scarlet Woman, there is a sense in which it is useful to all Aspirants, and it must be taken in a very literal sense.

We have already remarked that there are no contradictions in the Book.  You have been told not to pity; you have been told that compassion is the vice of kings; you must act as if you believe these assertions to be facts, if you want to become a Thelemite.  See LXV, v, 52-56.

Many of your ordeals shall be of pity and compassion.  You must remember that pity is vanity and compassion is confusion, or you will run the risk of wasting your dedication on the most worthless people.

“Old sweetnesses”:  see AL I, 49; AL II, 5, 52.  These verses must be understood in the most literal sense, and complied with punctiliously.  Let the dead bury their dead, and follow 666!

“I will alienate her heart”:  I will confuse her intelligence.

“I will cast her out from men”:  Even those for whom she showed pity or compassion will scorn her.  In fact, they will be first to do so.
“I will slay me her child”:  Remember the Sign I.R.!  This is a hint for Members of a certain Grade.
Nor do you forget AL III, 16.

It is important to remember that Crowley teaches that the Aspirants to the A.’.A.’. are brothers and those who have attained to the A.’.A.’. are sisters.  This has everything to do with the fact that Malkah, the Daughter attains to the throne of the Mother (Babalon and the great N.O.X.).  Thelema is indeed a truly Gnostic philosophical system that is goddess-oriented in the same way as the ancient Gnostic philosophical system.

The counterpart to the Lesser Dark Night of the Soul is the Greater Dark Night of the Soul that involves the transformation of the unified consciousness into divine consciousness.  This is indicated by the fact that the apex of the upward pentagram is actually not on Binah at all (as described above) but is fixed on Uranus; hence a breakup of the unified ego structure into particles of dust; suitable to convince the ferryman that the soul is indeed dead and to conduct the Exempt Adept across the river Styx and unto the City of the Pyramids.

That this occurs on the path of Gimel (Priestess Atu) shows us the nature of this desolation.  The camel is the vehicle of the desolate desert; desolation being the indescribable nature of the Ordeal of the Babe of the Abyss.

Love is the law, love under will.