The Pillars of Tubal-Cain

by Nigel Jackson, Michael Howard

Angelic wisdom forms the teaching of true magick. Here is a new and unique view of Western magick, its origins and its preservation in Esoteric Christianity, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, alchemy, medieval magick, the Cabbala, the Tarot, the Grail mythos, Arth

Genres: Witchcraft, Occult, Magick, Religion, Spirituality

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

Reviews

[Fanny Fae · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pillars of Tubal-Cain is a very well researched book, and has an almost mythopoetic feel to it in places. It is not a book to simply be sat and read in a single sitting, but rather savored and digested over a period of time. If you are interested in true, traditional witchcraft and magic in Europe, then this is one of the best books to find on the subject.

While there were some minor typographical errors in the book, it did not take away much from my personal enjoyment of the book. Alongside this book, I would also recommend, "Tubelo's Green Fire" by Shani Oates, the Maid of the Clan of Tubal Cain - the direct line from the work of Robert Cochrane.

[Steve Cran]

Western esoteric mysticism and/or angel magick comes primarily from the Middle East. Most European ideas were brought over via the old testament. But the Hebrews who wrote the old testament were influenced by a variety of systems. The systems came from Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, Persia and Arabia. Each of these countries had a system of gods numbering seven, one for each off the known planets including the sun and the moon.



According to biblical legend Lucifer was God's lead angel, who lead a rebellion and was ultimately cast down into the earthly realms along with his cohort of angels. These Angels took on human form and were thus called watchers. Eventually these watchers fell in love with human women and mated with them giving rise to a race of people called the nephilim. These were giant people with magical powers. Eventually the Flood would come and wash them all away.



According to the Yezidis of Northern Iraq Satan who is called Melek Taus was redeemed. Supposedly he cried out tears of repentance and he was the angel in charge of all the other angels. He is worshiped as a peacock. Interesting that the throne in Iran was called the peacock throne.



According to Luciferian witch craft Lucifer the light bringer ascended for the reason of bringing mankind, who at the time were savages, into enlightenment. When Lucifer and his angles descended they taught human kind religion, civilization, magick and metal working. Now remember that Tubal Cain was a metal worker and metal workers had magical abilities. Of course Christianity turned Lucifer into a boogey man called Satan.



There was documents of giant races documented through out thee world in places like Shamabalah, Atlantis, Arabia and even Amorites. They were big and supposedly had magical abilities. Later on they would be wiped out by the flood. Many mythologies talk about a race of giants being wiped out by newer gods or being wiped out by some cataclysm. Check out the titans in Greek mythology and the Jotuns in Norse mythology.



Many symbols have been perverted in Judeo Christian Europe. The snake was typically a symbol of wisdom. Recall that it was the snake who told Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge to help open her eyes so she could grow up. In the bible the snake wass turned into something evil. The Tower of Babylon which Nimrod, another giant, tried to ascend was not a tower to challenge god but rather it was representative of the Watcher trying to reach godliness and redemption. The Tree had a similar meaning and in fact old religions worshipped the tree or by a tree.



Lilith in Babylonian mytholgy used to live in a tree until Inanna told Gilgamesh to cut it down. In this tree there dweelt an owl and a snake. The owl was a symbol of certain Goddesses and wisdom. Lilith later became Adams first wife and she in fact later left him because she would not submit to an inferior position. Lilith would copulate with animals and other entities and would give rise to a race of demons. Lilith was a succubus who seduced men in their sleep. It said that from man's liquids came several races of Demon. Some say that Lilith gave birth to the faery people. Women use her as model for liberation.



Queen Sheba is sometimes equated with Lilith in that some legends portray her as having owl feet or cloven feet. Sheba means seven and corresponds to the seven angels. It is surmised that Queen Sheba and Solomon were occultist and that Solomon who controlled demons to build his empire taught Sheba some of her secrets.



Occult wisdom which originated in the Middle East came to Europe via many directions. One direction was Jews bringing it over when they were enslaved by the Romans.Occult knowledge also came over when the Crusaders and Templar knights returned from fighting in Jerusalem. The founder of the rosy cross order learned Cabbalah in Damscus and the horned god came from the Middle East as well.



The Pillars of Tubal Cain is a book roughly 273 pages in length,but it is packed with information. I strongly advise reading. this stuff is definitely not Wicca

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

After being not especially impressed by his “Children of Cain”, I decided to tackle Mike Howard’s – of blessed memory – “classic” as accompanying read to my reading of Peter Grey’s “Lucifer”. The “Pillars” are somewhat considered a classic for the “Luciferian Tradition” (whatever that might be) within Western Esotericism. Heaving read it, I’m under the impression, that Howard wanted to write about a tradition but instead wound up with a theology masked as history-book (the relationship between theology & history being of course the basic problem of every occidental tradition, one could argue). A tradition in this context would need a subject with a more or less unbroken history of practice, which is frankly not the case with the Lightbringer. The term “discourse” as loose area of interconnected notions on a topic with meanings subjective to the particular actor would fit the understanding of the book better. With “theology” I mean a unifying vista of the course of events explained in metaphysical terms. Of course this has to build upon a solid historical basis being the course of events. That all is no problem per se, but becomes a big one, when the genre is not entirely clear to the reader, maybe even to the writer and the things actually written lack solidity because the foundation for tradition and theology, i.e. history is rather dubious.
Although this is obviously no academic text, it aims at a certain seriousness mostly conveyed by heaps of information on information, presented in a rather fragmented and disconnected order. Clarity of writing would have helped here a lot because he obviously has his direction and themes. It is nice that he tried to be somewhat thorough in his research, but fails since he doesn’t really succeed in terms of examining the current status of research, or even manages to quote properly. Much to often one reads sentences like” „tradition has it“ or „some writers say that“ or even „xy said that…” without even referencing the book or any other source which wouldn’t leave the critically minded reader in a state of amazement about the abilities of Howard’s imagination. The implicit methodological assumptions about cross-cultural motives is much indebted to the common Jungian “archetypes” and phenomenology in the veins of Eliade which both are highly valuable for a metaphysically inclined writer but have been thoroughly, and rightly so, criticized in the past decades. Maybe it would have deserved some 2,5 or even 3 stars for Howard’s achievements in the development of the general occult revival, but it lacks practical value and is only of worth for the reader to understand the complexity of our issues when we delve into the depths of occult history, where this books gives a lot of starting points for further research.

[M G · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many great things in this book however it could benefit from a good edit and a lot of footnotes as it can be a slog. That said, truths right out in the open for those wanting to move beyond (well beyond) the pop pagan 101 stuff.

I had a hard time with it being so heavy on the Judeo-Xtian narrative but understand that it's partly due to where the scholarly research lays.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am still pondering this one...

[Ashur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to what other people have said; interesting, but I feel that many of the conclusions drawn (particularly about connections between things) are dubious or poorly-supported. I would personally recommend more stringent research, but this isn't an academic text. I occasionally ran across things that were outright untrue and would not have been there if the research quality had been higher. It could also use a good edit. Again, worth the read (for me, at least), but take with a grain of salt.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok this book is pretty good but it was hard to read. The first three chapters were like this is what different people think. It was like he picked a topic and told us the different point of view that cultures had. Different myths, thoughts, ideas, origins of religion, etc. It was hard to follow. After that, it was pretty much easier to follow. It was an interesting book.

[Cezar Dranka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fracão. Um monte de blá blá blá sobre pontos da história da magia, sem aplicação prática alguma.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those confuses itself but would call me stupid for pointing it out but yeah, who knows how much of our history has been lost to time