Sefer ha-Yetzirah, 231 Gates Options

This book of formation is supposedly how God created / formulate all creations. Altought I'm still clueless on how to use this book, the 231 Gates are mentioned in this book a few times and I am curious what does it refers to?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idontknow.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/mfight.gif) Enlighten me pls (IMG:style_emoticons/default/flame.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piss_old.gif)

Doc:

Thank you, I eagerly await your answers. Hopefully with your guidance I will be able to complete something that I have been working on for quite a while and then start to experience the universe at a totally different level. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yahoo.gif)

Bym:

I have not spent much time on Bardons Qabala because it is not compatable with the GD Kabbala that I use. I have been warned in the past that the attributes that Bardon assigns to Yod He Vau He are sufficiently different to the GD that if both systems are used together it can result in "personal" problems within the magician. I am not suggesting that either system is superior in any way, after all, reality IS no matter how you approach it and at unity there is no differentiation.

I would say that the 231 Gates would be compatible with Bardons system. I say this because the gates transend the meanings of the letters or any attributes that are assigned to them. As I understand it, the 231 Gates use the "elemental" forces associated with each of the letters that God used to create the universe. In Kaplan's commentary on the SY he says that (badly paraphrased because my books are in transit as I am moving house) "To make a change in the physical, the shape of the letter is used, to make a change in the mental, the name of the letter is used, to make a change in the spiritual, the sound of the letter is used". As the Gates method is about bringing to bear the forces of creation as God did, it is operating on the spiritual and thus the sounds of the letters are used, regardless of their meanings. When the mind is silenced, and the sounds are vibrated correctly it puts you in contact with the pure divine currents of the universe.

When dealing with the Gematria, I use the GD method mostly so that I can work with the Kamea. This said however, I don't worry about sticking to a single method, if something that I am doing is based on a different system, I would change. For instance, to follow all of the 32 paths of wisdom, no one single model of the ToL can be used.

Also, everyone, I am sorry if referring to my questions as "Noob" questions caused offense. The reality is we are all students of the occult and often the more we learn the less we know.

Mad love,

BrotherM