Horus Maat

QBLH by Nema (Photo by Louis Martinie)

QBLH: a painting, a system, an alphabet.

The painting is approximately 24"x 30". It's on stretched canvas in acrylic paint. The Golden Paint Company manufactures refractive paints that show a secondary color with a change of view; these were employed extensively, but not exclusively, in manifesting QBLH.

Louis Martinie is the photographer of this and of five other paintings of mine. He's included shots of details and angles selected with inspiration and creativity on the CDs he's made of them. He rescued the originals from hurricane Katrina, for which I'm eternally grateful.

The system is of Qaballah, a progression of Initiation based on the design named "Otz Chaim" or Tree of Life. The T o L is usually depicted in two dimensions as a schematic or map, taller than wide, with the 10 lights, or Sephiroth, shown as circles connected by pairs of parallel lines, or Paths.

In the painting, the T o L is given the seeming of three dimensions as a tall, skinny abstract tree with black bark and foliage and with ten varicolored, globular fruits. The bark resembles pineapple skin and the leaves are stylized philodendron leaves. The vegetation in the picture is black since everything else is in color.

The colors of the fruit are those of the King Scale in Aleister Crowley's Liber 777, Table of Correspondence XV. I chose to use the King Scale colors in response to an inner suggestion to "do something other" than use the usual Queen Scale. The King Scale represents the Father, the "Yod" of Tetragrammaton, the world of Assiah, the material world. The Queen Scale represents the Mother, the first "He" of Tetragrammaton, the world of Yetzirah, the world of spirit.

The Sephiroth are represented by the spheres on the Tree; the Paths amid the Sephiroth are symbolized by objects and creatures in the landscape. The objects stand for the names of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The progression of Initiation can be achieved, in part, by studying the Tree of Life in small sections. One approach could be choosing a Sephira and the Paths that touch it; becoming involved with  them through observation; reading at least two or more commentaries on them (when possible); then putting each, Sephira and Paths, into personal practice, sequentially, concurrently, or in a mixture of both, as the situation requires.

When you're confident that you have a working understanding of your current Sephira, or Light, and its Paths, begin again with the next one and the Paths touching it. When you've completed the process with the whole Tree, you will have learned a lot about yourself, your life's work, your lover(s), your friends, and your religion.

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Here is a list of objects representing the Hebrew letters, Paths (defined by the number of the Sephiroth they connect), and Tarot Trumps:

Object     Letter     Path     Trump

Ox    Alef  1 - 2  Fool

House    Bate  1 - 3  Magus

Camel (near palms)  Gimel  1 - 6  Priestess

Door    Dalet  2 - 3  Empress

Window   He  2 - 6  Star

Nail (in man's hand) Vav  2 - 4  Hierophant

Sword (hung on house) Zain  3 - 6  Lovers

Fence    Chet  3 - 5  Chariot

Serpent (on rock)  Teth  4 - 5  Lust/Strength

Hand    Yod  4 - 6  Hermit

Palm    Kaf  4 - 7  Fortune

Ox Goad   Lamed 5 - 6  Adjustment 
(hung on house)

Water    Mem  5 - 8  Hanged Man

Fish    Nun  6 - 7  Death

Prop (leaning on fence) Samek 6 - 9  Art

Eye    Ayin  6 - 8  Devil

Mouth   Pe  7 - 8  Tower

Fish-hook (earring) Tzaddi 7 - 9  Emperor

Back of head  Qof  7 - 10  Moon

Head    Resh  8 - 9  Sun

Tooth (in man's hand) Shin  8 - 10  Aeon/Judgement 
Tet-pillar (behind house) Tav  9 - 10  Universe 

The Trumps designations are from the Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris. 
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Nema