The Hollow Tree

When you're deeply clear, the spiritual path is well-lit. It might be foggy at times. You might not see very far. But you know where to step next.

But what happens when you're not deeply clear? When the path is dark?

Hermetic Qabalah has a map for this. It names ten spiritual stumbling blocks people can trip over, called the Qliphoth (literally “husks” or “empty shells”).

On the low end, these are things like clever delusion and victim consciousness.

But there are much more serious forms too, like gurus abusing their students spiritually.

If you learn to read these energies, you can use them as warning signs. They let you know when you're straying off the path.

You can also use knowledge of the Hollow Powers to judge and accuse others if you want to be a dick. Invariably some people will do this. Just like people accuse one another of "spiritual bypassing" without really understanding what that means.

But I think there's a kinder and more helpful approach.

Summary

Here are the Hollow Spheres in quick overview, going from the bottom of the Tree to the top. (I cover all of these in more depth in the talk. This is here for ease of reference.)

• Hollow Earth: Usually called “Lilith”, this is tanha in Buddhism. Gripping, grasping, pushing away. Fixation on how things have manifested instead of where they come from.

• Hollow Moon: Called “Gomaliel”, meaning “the Obscene Ones”. Creative effort devoid of creative power. Empty sexuality, empty work, zombie-like toil. Draining or vampiric trends where people’s body energy gets harvested to perpetuate the harvesting.

• Hollow Mercury: “Sammael”, meaning “Poison of God”. This is bullshit in Harry Frankfurt’s sense: deception based not (just) on lies but on getting the listener to stop caring about truth. Weaponizing the mind against clarity so that intelligence makes you dumber.

• Hollow Venus: “Arab Zereq”, meaning “Ravens of Dispersal” (for reasons that are beyond me — I don’t know why it’s “ravens” here). This is victimhood in the sense of Karpman’s Drama Triangle. Passion devoid of the higher functions of the heart.

• Hollow Sun: “Taigiriron”, meaning “the Disputers”. This is distorted pride, pride as a sin. False light. “I know the way, and I know the way for you!” It’s a very common temptation for people who first reach the Sphere of the Sun: “I’m now fully enlightened! I get it!”

• Hollow Mars: “Golochob”, meaning something like “Arsonists”. Destruction and forceful dispersal without the tempering of compassion or wisdom. This can show up as “holy” wrath, but it can also show up as condemnation and damnation and dismissal on a spiritual level.

• Hollow Jupiter: “Gha’ashebalah”, meaning “the Smiting Ones” — but I think that’s a misleading name. I prefer to think of this as the Devourers. This is grandiosity that consumes others, hollows them out, makes them an extension of you. Think of the way followers of dangerous cults can come to have the same phrases and gestures and speaking tone as each other, like they’re members of the cult before they’re people.

• The remaining three Hollow Powers correspond to the highest Spheres but don’t actually reach them. You grapple with them at full force in opening Da’ath, the Gate of the Abyss:

  • Rejection of Saturn: “Satariel”, meaning “the Concealing Ones”. Saturn gives birth to the material world, so in rejecting Saturn we reject her gift of incarnation. This is the attempt to escape material existence to seek a “higher” spirituality, viewing the realm of duality as corrupt or empty of meaning or value. (This is a point where Hermetic Qabalah disagrees with Gnosticism: the Gnostics viewed the world as a trap to be escaped, while the Hermetic Qabalists view that as the confusion of the Satariel and hold the ultimate goal to be full incarnation as divinity.)

  • Rejection of the Stars: “Augiel”, meaning “the Hindering Ones”. In Hermeticism, the stars reflect the Eternal, which is the home and origin of all souls. Rejecting the stars means rejecting anything beyond duality, manifestation, and sensation. This is materialism for the sake of control. This is where science has fallen in rejecting the wisdom practices of its Hermetic roots.

  • Rejection of Unity: “Thaumiel”, meaning “the Twins”. This is the illusion of duality as the foundation of being. It’s not just a concept: this is duality as fundamental. Belief in fundamental good and evil as opposing forces has the Thaumiel as its parents.