Oren Litwin on God of the Desert Books

[Oren Litwin]

I find it interesting that something akin to demonic possession shows up repeatedly across many unrelated healing disciplines; see overview here: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-the-others-within-us (The author tries hard to figure out a rationalistic explanation for the phenomenon, but he discusses the cases dispassionately.) My wife is currently studying Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and the founder of that method, Dr. Upledger (a Western-trained surgeon), reports having encountered hostile entities (and other, more benevolent entities) during his work. (Tangentially, this essay by Eric S. Raymond might be interesting: http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/dancing.html)

I am tentatively willing to call the entities "demons," given the discussions in the Talmud etc., though the English word carries a lot of baggage.

(One comment about the Tree of Life is that a lot of the discussions of it in Western magickal traditions are superficial. I would not say that Malkhuth represents "the earth and the physical world," or at least not that alone. One can cautiously draw a limited analogy to Yin and Yang, in the sense that these two attributes are not static, but are relational and dynamic; Thing A can be Yin in relationship to Thing B, but Yang in relationship to Thing C. Similarly, the sefirot describe not merely spiritual locations, but relational processes. I am no Kabbalist, but I've done enough reading to wince at most Western discussions of the sefirot.)

[David Swindle 🟦]

Thanks Oren! Yes, I certainly understand how/why Orthodox Jews would wince at how we western occultists have appropriated the Tree of Life over the centuries! :) I know that there's much more to it than this more superficial approach. And I plan to dig into it more in the coming years.