How Transcendental Qabala is Mapped to the Liturgical Year
The Thirty Six Decans of Transcendental Qabala and their Dates
Before we begin, I will note that Liturgy’s tour of Europe and the UK begins in a month, including dates in France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Estonia and Lithuania.
My system of philosophy proper, which is only a subset of my various philosophical reflections, is mapped to the zodiacal and liturgical year. The system’s name is “Transcendental Qabala”, and it draws partly from, unsurprisingly, transcendental (i.e. post-Kantian) philosophy and partly from the tradition of qabala, which was first set down by Sephardic Jews in medieval Islamic Spain before being Christianized by Pico della Mirandola and others during the Renaissance and then expanded and modified in various ways during the 19th century by Eliphas Levi in France and the Golden Dawn in England. Each of Transcendental Qabala’s 36 major topics is assigned to a particular 10-day stretch or decan, which turns it into a kind of wheel (I call each topic itself a ‘decan’, referring to its ten-day duration).
The ordinary zodiacal year (the 12 signs, currently we are in Cancer) gathers the decans into groups of three (three per each of the 12 signs, signs last 30 days), 12x3=36. My system diverges from this: I divide Transcendental Qabala into 10 books - the first has three topics or decans, spanning the sign of Capricorn, the eight inner books all have four decans, so they phase in their alignment with the signs (which each have three decans), and the final book or epilogue is a single decan. 3+(8x4)+1=36. Since I’ve never posted the actual schedule publicly before, I’ll do it here.
CHRISTMAS
BOOK I: THE ARK WORK
Capricorn
Decan 1 - The Ark (December 21-31)
Decan 2 - The Armistice (January 1-10)
Decan 3 - Sacred Labor (January 10-20)
BOOK II: RENIHILATION
Aquarius
Decan 4 - Structure (January 20-30)
Decan 5 - Foundation (January 30-February 9)
Decan 6 - Motivation (February 9-19)
Pisces
Decan 7 - Elaboration (February 19-28)
BOOK III: THE FOUR CARDINALS
Decan 8 - Ascesis (March 1-10)
Decan 9 - Catharsis (March 10-20)
Aries
Decan 10 - Fervor (March 21-31)
Decan 11 - Majesty (March 31-April 9)
PASCHA
BOOK IV: THEOLOGY
Decan 12 - Hael (April 9-19)
Taurus
Decan 13 - Haqq (April 20-30)
Decan 14 - Ololon (May 1-10)
Decan 15 - Laet (May 10-20)
BOOK V: PHILOSOPHY
Gemini
Decan 16 - Axiology (May 21-31)
Decan 17 - Metaphysics (May 31-June 10)
Decan 18 - Cosmogony (June 11-21)
Cancer
Decan 19 - Eschatology (June 22-July 2)
PENTECOST
BOOK VI: DRAMA
Decan 20 - History of Drama (July 2-12)
Decan 21 - Mythopoiesis (July 12-22)
Leo
Decan 22 - Aesthethics (July 23-August 1)
Decan 23 - Dramatic Eschatology (August 2-12)
BOOK VII: MUSIC
Decan 24 - History of Music (August 12-22)
Virgo
Decan 25 - General Tremolo (August 23-September 2)
Decan 26 - The Burst Beat (September 2-12)
Decan 27 - Musical Eschatology (September 12-22)
MARYMAS
BOOK VIII: HAELEGEN
Libra
Decan 28 - Sovereignty (September 23-October 2)
Decan 29 - Hierarchy (October 3-13)
Decan 30 - Emancipation (October 13-23)
Scorpio
Decan 31 - Individuation (October 22-November 1)
BOOK IX: PERICHORESIS
Decan 32 - Integration (November 2-11)
Decan 33 - Coalescence (November 11-21)
Sagittarius
Decan 34 - Arrogation (November 22-31)
Decan 35 - Catalysis (December 1-10)
BOOK X: APOCALYPTIC HUMANISM
Decan 36 - The Ten Antinomies of Apocalyptic Humanism (December 11-21)
I'm a long-time follower of your work and am always intrigued by what you put out, although I'm relatively new to your substack. As a practicing Jew, I have to admit I'm a little frustrated by the decision to synthesize Christianized Kabbalah into your system. Kabbalah is an inherently Jewish mystical system rooted in Torah and is a closed practice within Judaism. "Cabalah" and "Qabala" take Jewish mystical ideas and divorce them from their fundamental context within Judaism. Christian Cabalah frequently was expanded through made-up sources and was primarily created as a means to convert Jews to Christianity, and occult Qabala downplays the inherent Jewishness of the ideas it takes while also relying on the works and ideas of notorious antisemites like Crowley.
Kabbalah, whatever you call it, is fundamentally Jewish. Every aspect of it is rooted in Jewish religious practice and culture and a very deep understanding of Torah. It was made by Jews for Jews as a Jewish mystical system, and all other uses of it are absolutely an appropriation of Jewish culture. It's absolutely okay to learn Kabbalah from Jews and in Jewish spaces, and other people are of course welcome into Jewish spaces to join our practices and studies, but that's very different from going out and taking our practices for yourself in a non-Jewish context. Christianity has its own mystical systems that have nothing to do with Kabbalah, as does general occultism and pretty much any religion you can think of. It's frustrating to see people take the mystical system that we made for ourselves as an intrinsic part of our religious practice and insert a totally other religion into it.