(05-13-2015, 05:06 AM)Tan.rar Wrote: It was once said to me that the difference between magical systems is that of sophistication. Comparing a simple hermetic qabalah magic or perhaps simple witchcraft to Lurianic Qabalah or Yoga is like comparing a bicycle to a space station. Bicycles are still cool and can do things the space station can't, but the space station requires a much greater degree of sophistication of thought to accomplish what it does. So it is with the different systems of magic. I believe this is part of what draws individuals to particular systems just like there are some people who like to work with bikes and some people who like to work with space stations.
Lurianic Kabbalah is the more traditional Judaic method coming from Isaac Luria and the Hermetic tradition came through Giovanni Pico della Mirandola by fusing Christian and Hermetic elements into the Qabalah. However it was Athanasius Kircher glyph of the Qabalah that is mostly used in the western tradition.
I haven't studied the Lurianic Kabbalah in depth but i wouldn't say its better or more than the hermetic Qabalah, it simply has a different arrangement of the pathways connecting to the Sephiroths. A path connecting Geburah to Chockmah and Chesed to Binah. Rather than paths connecting Hod and Netzach to Malkuth.
The hermetic Qabalah has some advantages as they aren't limited by Mosaic law nor to traditional correspondences. For example the Tarot cards have been used as a correspondence in the Hermetic system which is highly rejected by the traditional Lurianic Kabbalah.
The higher self or the Holy Guardian Angel is almost always a correspondence of Tiphareth rather than Kether. I would say its the primordial light reflecting of Kether into the Solar Logo's of Tiphareth.
Kether and the Supernal being the Yechidah in my understanding and Tiphareth through Chesed being the Neshamah.
One of the main issues i have found while studying Qabalah is that every Occutlist has his or her own way of dividing the tree into the 4 worlds of the tetragrammaton and parts of the soul.