The Initiation in the Qlipoth
Because there are so many asking me about what the initiatory process is like within the Qlipoth, I´ve decided to write this little essay in the hope that it may help those who are just starting out on the path or who simply have doubts. What I will present here is based on my personal experiences, so I have to say that each person who goes through the initiation has unique experiences, each initiation comes in a different and particular way.
I started in the occult from a very young age, when I was only twelve years old, my grandfather had recently passed away and that’s where it all started. Like many pre-teens, I was very curious about death and how to contact with the world beyond. So, one day I decided to play the Ouija, which opened a lot of doors for me, some good and others not so much.
On the one hand, I discovered that I had good mediumistic skills but on the other, I opened doors that at the time I was not ready to handle. All this led me to deepen spiritualism and although it helped me a lot to control everything that happened to me, I left it because there was a lot of hypocrisy on its doctrine.
On the other hand, I wanted more, for some reason that I could not explain then, I was attracted to the darkness, to the devil, to Satanism, to black magic and all that search led me to learn about Afro- Brazilians religions. In a short time, I had my first baptism in religion and soon I realized that mine was more through the Kimbanda than the other Afro traditions. Undoubtedly it served me back then and I did a whole religious career that took me many years, but I still felt that call from the darkness within me and the Afro religion did not fully satisfy me.
I remember going through an esoteric store and talking about this with a man who seemed to know quite a bit about magic and he talked about a man who worshiped Saint Death and who practices a whole form of witchcraft with him, I didn’t hesitate to contact him, which lead me to know the cult of San la Muerte.
In the middle of all this I had learned by my own means to read the tarot and the Spanish deck, which led me to work on a radio program reading the tarot to people who called, it was a very fun time of my life. There I met who would be my mentor in the dark arts for several years. For privacy reasons I am not going to name here this person whom I remember with great affection and to whom I am very grateful for what he taught me. With him, we began to practice a form of traditional European witchcraft, necromancy, traditional Satanism, worship of Saint Devil, and some other things. For life reasons, each of us took a different path.
Then, I was alone, without a mentor but this lead me to form my first coven, we were a nice group, although all young and inexperienced, our inexperience took us along different paths, time passed and I devoted myself for a few years to the practices of Afro religions, offering help to those who asked me. But as the arcane 0 of the Tarot: The Fool, I continued in a search that seemed never to finish, there was something that I did not finish filling, it was a void within me that I needed to fill. That led me to investigate esoteric orders, to my surprise there was a wide world out there. That was how I found Dragon Rouge, and I decided to join. That led me to know the Draconian Path, there a universe opened up to me, full of magic and infinite possibilities. A creative universe, where one could exploit its potential and where darkness is not frowned upon.
I remained in the order for some years, but its rigid structures and its dogmas did not completely convince me. Where had the idea of antinomianism been? Well, I couldn’t find it. Fortunately and by then, I had discovered the publications of the Magan Lodge and my dear friend Asenath Mason. That helped me to grow independently and outside the DR dogmas.
Yes, I have to confess that even though DR is dogmatic and quite bureaucratic, it helped me to train in the basics, I make it clear that this is not a bad order, the thing is I do not share the vision they have of the path. Not sharing this led me to walk away from DR and unfortunately, there are not many draconian orders or circles that are open to the public. The Magan Lodge demanded to have a high level of Polish to be able to enter, and I “fantasized” with the idea of being able to be part of it, being a member of the Magan Lodge was like space where I was going to be able to train and go far. I learned Polish with a lot of will and effort and that opened the doors for me in the Lodge, my constant work and effort, and will led me to earn a space, but also many friends.
Beyond all this intro, which some will find interesting and others not, the idea is to tell you a bit about the initiatory process within the Tree of Shadows. The first thing you have to know is that it is a long-term process, which requires a great commitment, a great will and I believe that one has to be willing to change and leave everything behind.
It is not a process for everyone, but I am not saying this as if I were an elite, no, I am saying it because it can and is, a process that confronts us with our shadow, with our darkness, it is a destructive process, of death and rebirth, hence I will speak here of the first facet that is the Nigredo, putrefaction, this is a process that goes from Gamaliel to A’arab Zaraq.
But before delving into these Qlipoth, let’s talk a bit about the beginning of the journey, that is, the Qlipha Lilith, the dark side of Malkuth. This Qlipha is our gateway to the Shadow Tree, here the neophyte spends a lot of time working because he begins to get acquainted with initiation, understands the most basic aspects of magic, and begins to develop his basic skills. This Qlipha provides us with an access door to the Other Side, here we find Naamah who, according to the mythology, maybe Lilith’s daughter, an alter ego of her or her sister.
Naamah is sensual, young and powerful, she is our first guide, it is she who will begin to teach us how to walk through the tree, at least to take our first steps, it is she who delights us with the pleasures of material, wealth and opulence, it is also she who opens the way for us to the next Qlipha: Gamaliel, and who will help us in our passage through the first tunnel: Thantifaxath. The passage through this Qlipha is usually pleasant and seductive, we begin to have an understanding, often intellectual, of what the Tree is and of its structure, the earth delights us with its pleasures and we cross the first veil that separates the earth, the material plane with the astral plane. It is there when we begin to work with Thantifaxath, and the intermediate state is revealed to us, the intermediate state is when we are asleep but we become aware, it is when we begin to be aware of our dreams, we remember them and we have valuable information about them, we begin to get closer Gamaliel and we have our first dream encounters with different entities, it is here when our intuition grows and we are more successful when we use an oracle.
The permanence in this Qlipha depends entirely on each one, this is a personal experience, and it is Naamah who tells us when we are ready to take his initiation when we pass the test that she imposed on us and when we are ready to continue our journey.
Although the Tree of Shadows is a map for our initiation, there is no specific time for each process, unlike what often happens in an order, where for each degree one has to fulfill such and such a requirement, here the personal experience is what gives us this indication and of course, the teachers, allies, gods and entities that we find on the Other Side.
If the Current accepts us and we feel that this is for us, something that is fundamental, our journey continues. Thantifaxath leads us directly to Gamaliel, who is ruled by the Queen of Hell: Lilith. Gamaliel is a very hard Qlipha and one usually works for a few years in it, here the darkest dreams, the most forbidden desires, debauchery, and lust are common things, but so is witchcraft (in its darkest form), necromancy, vampirism, blood magic, sexual magic, and everything that can be connected to the moon. It is very simple to lose yourself in the delights of the flesh and be vampirized by the Incubus and the Succubi who live in both Gamaliel and Thantifaxath, this is the great test that Lilith submits to us. But if we manage to overcome this, we will have great allies and very good mentors. The moon connects us to the depths of our unconscious, here we must face all the taboos that we have and not only those that we have on a conscious level.
The magical work with Gamaliel is simply fabulous, Lilith is our second initiator in the mysteries of the Qlipoth and appears many times along the path, she also leads us beyond Paroketh when we cross the Lesser Abyss and are illuminated by the Dark Sun from Thagirion. Lilith knows the secrets of darkness, witchcraft, and dreams. She is a great lover and a great seductress, superficially tempting us with the desire of the flesh, but if we can go further and see her true face, she tempts us with forbidden knowledge.
Only after having passed the tests that Lilith placed us in Gamaliel and if we have been able to escape from the energetic vampires that live there, if we have been able to see our taboos face to face, Lilith will guide us to the third Qlipha: Samael.
Samael is the poison of God. One of the most decisive Qlipha in the life of the magician, because this is when the true initiation is on the Left-Hand Path, here the magician makes a pact with the Forces of Darkness, a Pact with his personal Shadow, who will be an ally.
Samael comes to poison reality, where everything is chaos, destruction, conditioning, we learn the truth and the lie of things, here many of the things that had a supreme value in our lives cease to have it. Old beliefs die, friends leave, couples break up, jobs do not last, money is not enough and thus could list many «calamities» that we must go through. Many are the magicians who come here and die in the grip of the reality they have to live, few are those who can overcome this instance. Many flee in terror and fear because everything they had achieved they lose, the «powers» of the magician wane, clairvoyance does not work, spells do not come out and the feeling of emptiness, depression, sadness, and anguish is tremendous. While all this may seem terrible at a glance, and it is, then it all makes sense. If we manage to pass all these tests, our consciousness begins to awaken, we begin to see life and the world with different eyes, it is as if one will wake up from a dream, the sensation is amazing and there are not many words that can describe it, just he who goes through such an experience can understand what I am talking about. Only when we reach this awakening do the trials cease and we are ready to continue our journey.
We finally meet A’arab Zaraq, but I’ll dig into this and the following Qlipoth later. The fact is that my journey continues, there is still much to discover and much to tell, but I do not want to theorize, but I want to tell you from the experience.
I hope you enjoyed this reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Greetings to all and may the Dragon illuminate your paths.
Daemon Barzai