The Qlipoth

Posted On 8 marzo 2021

A personal view

As the title makes clear, today I write this essay to share with all of you, my dear readers, the vision I have today about the Tree of Shadows or Qlipoth. I have been actively exploring and working with this for 11 years, and over time my view of what Qlipoth is or is not has changed. Something that I would like to make clear, no theory is correct or incorrect, it is what it is, people’s experiences, therefore, this is my vision according to my work, but feel free to explore others, although the ideal is that you live your own experience to have your vision of what the Qlipoth is and is not for you.

My journey through the Qlipoth and its tunnels began with my entry into Dragon Rouge, before this order, my knowledge on the subject was theoretical, but I had not put anything into practice. Back then, I felt that the Qlipoth had something to offer me, I was fascinated with the idea of a spiritual map, it just seems to me that it was a brilliant idea. Also at that time there was not much material available, the subject was hardly talked about and the one who had the Qliphotico monopoly was D.R. So if someone wanted to know about the subject, they had to either be a member of the order or read QQGM, there was no other way. Although it was little because we are not going to believe that they gave you much material. The material on the Qlipoth itself was a very slight explanation and a small invocation to the ruler of the first sphere, and not much else. When I have dared to ask for something else, the moderators of the D.R forum simply answered that it could only be discussed if I was a member of some high degree. The constant lack of interest on the part of the order in its members led me, after a few years and formally finishing the 3.0 course, to take a more independent and individual path.

So I set out on my journey through the Qlipoth alone, without a mentor, without a guide, without an order. I did not know very well where I was going to end up since being alone and without material was a great odyssey. As time went by, I met other magicians in the same situation, deserters from D.R with whom we worked together for several years, and we were sharing ideas, visions, rituals, and experiences. Thus, you can understand at first that the Qlipoth is personal, it is something unique, that it is a journey in itself for each magician, that it is a self-initiatory process, and that we do not need this or that to tell us that our experiences are good or bad, but we must be the ones who judge whether we are advancing or delirious.

At the beginning of this whole trip, my vision of the Dark Tree was somewhat dogmatic, I believed that things were only one way and everything that came out of there was not entirely correct. Only the passage of time, the very experience of doing and seeing results, and seeing what this trip produced in another, led me to mature ideas and understand that here there are no spaces for totalitarianism, but that this is an elastic model and that everyone does what they want with it.

My experiences with the Qlipoth have only been guided by the spirits, demons, and gods of those regions, thus I have been developing each ritual, each meditation, each initiation. And it was this very thing that motivated me to write a guide on Qliphotic magical work, I mean the series «The Tree of Shadows.» I did this intending to expose what I had learned in each Qlipha, but also as a ritual guide for those who are taking their first steps, or simply looking for material to inspire or follow as it is exposed there.

But beyond all this, I must say that the Qlipoth has grown a lot in recent years, many more began to write on the subject, to develop new theories, some are somewhat extreme and are accompanied by a strong sense of rebellion, Manichaeism, and a strong sense of destruction, others are more moderate in what they write, and while they speak that it is possible to see this in this way, they simply affirm that the Qlipoth are the shadows of the Sephiroth, for therefore they develop a whole model based entirely on looking for the dark parallelism with the Tree of Life. Whereas in my case, I see the Tree of the Qlipoth as something independent, neither anti-cosmic, but neither as the adverse side of the Sephiroth. I consider that each Qlipha and their respective tunnels are worlds in the astral plane, regions that can be visited through the appropriate techniques, spaces that are populated by more than one spiritual force that we can contact to guide and empower us, on our self-initiatory journey.

As I said at the beginning, I do not believe that any theory or vision of the tree is right or wrong, I believe that everyone has to find what best fits in their development. In my case, I have never directly or indirectly touched a Sephira, therefore, those who say that to work with the Qlipoth you must have done previous work with the Tree of Life, I can say that it is not true you can do something completely independent, and be successful.

It happens that many people need duality to be able to validate a system, that if there is not an adversary on the road in front, they cannot explain their paradigm, and some of us have simply understood that the Tree of Qlipoth is independent of everything and that it has its balance. Therefore, I do not need a nemesis for my progress.

On the other hand and keep in mind, working with the Qlipoth is a modern «invention», it is not possible to trace in the annals of history magicians who have used it, who say otherwise, only lies. Yes, Kenneth Grant indeed developed a strong work with all this and it is to him that we owe the chance to be doing what we are doing, but let’s be honest, this is not similar to what he has raised in his books, and this is because his vision was different, neither better nor worse, just different. So, let’s not pretend that this is historical when it is a part of modern magic.

Having said that, this explains why many times we find contradictions within the same Tree. For example, I have always wondered who said that such an entity governs in such a Qlipha. One of the themes we have is that many times we find a Qlipha that is supposed to be female, but is ruled by a male demon, an example of this: Satariel, who is supposed to be the Black Womb, the Throne of the Dark Goddess in her purest state, but it is ruled by Lucifugo. And that leads me to think, who made these matches? I do not have an answer, I can only say that there are things that we have accepted, but need to have an open mind because later we discover that there is more than one divinity or ruling force there, that is not written in any book, than when we refer to rulers is not in the literal sense of the word, which is not a hierarchical order, far from it.

Another theme that I have found in the Qlipoth is that it is full of obscurantism, and a lot of fantasy. Let’s see, if you think that when you make this trip life is going to go down a sewer, have no doubts that that is what will happen to you. I am not going to say that the trip is a sweet candy, because it would be missing the truth, the trip changes you, it changes the way you see the world, people, magic, even the gods and divinities, but it frees you, empowers you, gives you awareness, takes you away from false superstition, dogmas, prostrating yourself before others, be they, humans or gods, that’s what this trip is for, to discover your inner divine potential. But beware of this, I consider myself a rational magician, I am not governed by superstitions or conspiracies, or nonsense like that. I think one has to be open-minded, not go in conditioned expecting dire things just because someone said it was like that. Do you want to know what happens in each Qlipha? Well, there is only one way, start the journey by yourself, only then will you be able to know what is on the Other Side.

It’s all for today.

Daemon Barzai