The Eneatych
Nine Kabbalistic Considerations and A Discourse on Mystical Contemplation
by David Chaim Smith
(Volume 7 of the Lightning Flash of Alef series)
The Eneatych is the crowning jewel of the Lightning Flash of Aleph series. The text contains three sections. The first offers the root practice of the system and gives complete instructions for its performance. This is a practice that conditions the mind but is established in the heart and begins the process of refining the philosopher’s stone (aspeklaria). The second provides an illustrated nine-fold set of Kabbalistic themes (eneatych) through which the main points of the system can be studied and contemplated. This serves as a curriculum that can structure one’s ongoing inquiry. The third section is a discourse on mystical contemplation that gives a detailed Kabbalistic analysis of each stage of the process. Many images and supporting diagrams are provided.
This is where the long road to the crystallisation of the philosopher’s stone begins. The alchemical stone is neither a physical substance nor a psychological state… it is a prism through which the infinite passes and reality is seen. The work is accomplished in the heart, which establishes the foundation stone of the holy temple, the pivot point of the axis mundi, the centre of the universe, and the point from which the original tzimtzum contracted to the sides leaving a vacated space. This is the point from which all calculation and measurement commences, where conceptuality both begins and ends. This comprises a way of working for study and contemplation that can constitute an entire lifetime’s work.
About the Lightning Flash of Alef series
The Lightning Flash of Alef series is the expression of the esoteric work of David Chaim Smith. Although the series is published as a set of numbered volumes, the books are non-sequential and do not have to be read in any particular order. Each volume functions as a unique and viable window into the path, and each is sufficient as a starting point for the study of the work.
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Table of Contents
PREFACE
PART 1: CHURNING THE SHEFA
PART 2: THE ENEATYCH
1. Aur En Sof
2. Tzimtzum
3. Kilpah Shell
4. Networks of Klipot
5. Raising the Sparks
6. Triple Head of Keter
7. The Nine Chambers
8. Divine Intoxication
9. Crystallizing Vision
PART 3: IYYUN BA’SOD
A Discourse on Mystical Contemplation
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44 illustrations by David Chaim Smith
Hardcover Edition
152 pages. Clothbound hardcover with silver foil blocking to front cover and spine. Smyth-sewn, with French-fold velvet finish matte dust jacket. Printed on high-quality paper, with custom endpapers.
ISBN: 979-8-218-20129-6
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Press, reviews, endorsements
Interview with David Chaim Smith in The Occult Library - read it here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the Arcanvm podcast - watch on YouTube here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the Glitch Bottle podcast - watch on YouTube here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the This Is Darkness podcast - watch on YouTube here
Interview with David Chaim Smith in Arthur Mag - read it here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the Thelema Now! podcast - listen here
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About the Author
David Chaim Smith is an artist, author, and practitioner of contemplative mysticism. He was born in 1964 in New York and worked as a visual artist throughout the 1980s. In 1990, he became immersed in various esoteric mystical traditions, and over the next seven years he studied the Golden Dawn system and worked within several Lodges. In 1997 he set aside both this structured approach and all activities with his visual art to take residence in a gnostic Hermitage in the American midwest. In his studies there he found new methodologies, most notably those for approaching a non-dual perspective via a Gnostic-tantra praxis.
David returned to New York in 1998 and immersed himself in Chassidic mysticism and traditional Hebrew Kabbalah. This he embraced through the devotional approach of Breslov, and it was here he made a profound inner connection through the meditative praxis of ‘Hitbodedut.’ In 1999 David encountered The Fountain of Wisdom, a text that has survived as a 13th century manuscript in the Vatican Library. He worked with the text for many years, drawing from his experiences as an ecstatic visionary artist. In 2004 he made a breakthrough in interpretation with the development of esoteric cartography (spiritual or occult map-making), and within a few years had reached a degree of fluency that allowed him to transfer their syntax and visual vocabulary to works of art. Since this return to visual art, David has been prolific in his practice and his work as a writer and artist whose creative engine is fuelled by a devotional approach to ecstatic visionary mysticism, a unique dimension of David’s work stems from aspects of ideational contemplation considered as a mystical path.
David currently lives in the suburbs of New York City with his wife, Rachel.
