Qabalah, Qliphoth, and Goetic Magic, Thomas Karlsson
Ajna Publishing, 2008. Tommie Eriksson (translator).

I have several criticisms of Thomas Karlsson’s groundbreaking work on the Qliphoth but can only level these analyses because he goes further and with greater quality than nearly any other author to address this wrongly-ignored tradition. In the end, I found the work an asset to the serious student of occultism. It proves itself accessible while maintaining a mostly scholarly format. Karlsson is unencumbered by dogmatic Thelemitism and offers the reader better and deeper references to explore than the vast majority of Qabalistically-oriented works. His work is especially helped by liberal reference to Rabbinic sources and early developments in the Western Qabalh.

That this work comes from Karlsson’s Dragon Rouge perspective is inescapable for the reader. Clearly Karlsson intends this text to give the larger world a taste of his tradition. Unfortunately, this propaganda too-often feels like a non sequitur in the midst of a work that presents well-cited and attributed ideas from established sources. Yet compared to those Thelemic texts in which the propaganda is embedded indiscriminately with the ‘information,’ Karlsson impressed me as ahead of the curve.
I find Karlsson’s discussion of evil to be adequately nuanced if not entirely complete, but his overly adamant defenses of the distinctions between right and left hand paths become increasingly unsupported—a point that could have been easily corrected were he to have attributed the statements to his own experience rather than creed. Worse yet, the tagged-on introduction, by a Dr. Östling, does the work no favors in this regard.

Once Karlsson finishes his description of the Qliphothic materials, I felt the work lost its focus and authority. The Goetic sections lack the depth of the Qlipothic chapters and his sudden introduction of contemporary Goetic workings runs the risk of painting Qlipothic perspectives as less workable. This problem is exacerbated by offering only one description of a Tunnel of Set and then presenting the prospect of membership in the Dragon Rouge to receive further details. Moreover, in a work that claims to bring together much of the lore of this dark tree, Karlsson does not address the formulae of 000, 111, 222, 333, or 444; rather, he seems to imply that the Qliphoth are under the same numeric providence as the Sephiroth. In my estimation, the book should have finished with a thorough outline of the Tunnels of Set including a discussion of Typhonian, Setian, and Sabbatic currents and left the Goetic material for a second volume in which he could address them in a less cursory and common fashion.

Nevertheless, the first two thirds of the work are marvelous and informative with solid references and only occasional overuse of secondary citations—the great curse of the bad occult scholarship (read: ‘Telephone’- or ‘Chinese Whisper’-like repetition of  the same errors which now gain an aura of authenticity since some august figure got it wrong decades ago.)

Perhaps my last criticism should not be leveled at this book since it falls into a much more general dissatisfaction with writers on esotericism in general. Although I enjoyed reading most of the work and truly learned some new material, especially regarding the history of the ideas of the Qliphoth, in the end, I am left a burning question: So the hell what!? Karlsson’sfrequent references to ‘self-deification,’ ‘apotheosis,’ and a host of other superlative hyperbole may entice other readers; but, in spite of clearly having been around the magical block a few times, Karlsson does not give me any indication that he actually has achieved any comprehensive or higher level of awareness, consciousness, or empowerment. That is not to say that he hasn’t, merely that he does not write with the voice of one who has achieved enlightenment or even endarkenment. I see the marks of dogmatism too strongly in this text and despair that the Dragon Rouge’s self-professed utilization of Jung’s meta-psychology does not spread adequately beyond Jung’s ideas regarding the shadow. If the Sephiroth and Qliphoth are the blue-print of reality itself, should not they be relevant and applicable to the analysis of all of life, not merely the work of libidinous Northern Europeans—as lovely as they may be?

Karlsson appears to be poised to become a world-wide influence on the new 21st Century face of occultism. With the specter of Nazi-affiliation fading slowly from Nordic esotericism, a work such as this can now find a respectable place on the shelves of any researcher. This current text will shine in a second revised edition in which some of the editorial and perhaps translation errors are corrected. I am impressed enough with Karlsson’s work that I plan on seeking out his work on the runologist Johannes Bureus.