Kabbalah Worlds in the French and the Enochian Watchtowers

Chaosium's adaptation of Nephilim was based on the 1st edition of the French, which was crude and unrefined compared to subsequent supplements. Case in point, the US version recaps the Olamot as the four summoning worlds: Assia, Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth. In the French, these worlds would be discarded and replaced with Aresh, Meborack, Pachad, Sohar and Zakaï. 

A brief summary comes from this rpg.net post by a reviewer translating the French:

Kabbalah
Kabbalah as a science knew many false starts whether the studies of King Salomon or the wanderings of Helen in mythic Greece. However it is Jesus the Son of Ether that drew the fundamentals of the Occult Science used today.

The Messiahs posited that worlds exist around us in the magical fields. He could call the creatures of these worlds and draw Wisdom from their teachings. Kabbalah was the legacy he left to his Fallen creators hoping they would find solace in Sohar the world he had more often walked.

Five worlds are studied by Kabbalah and five ways structurate the two last circles of the Science.

Sohar where the elements are arranged in mystical patterns to be decoded
Zakaï where the world is dying and the only hope rests on the healing of the Fisher King
Aresh where the world is in a constant state of war and honor and atrocity are the only lords
Pachad where the world vacillate into beguiling beauty and raw horror
Meborack where all is in balance

When you reach Kabbalah ultimate circle you go visit these places rather than summoning creatures from them.

More information on these worlds and how they relate to Kabbalah may be found in this document, originally translated from a French fansite. (If you don't have an account there, then you'll probably need to make one.)

In order to progress to the Third Circle, the Kabbalist had to go on a vision-quest in one of these worlds. In the third edition, each world's quest was assigned correspondence to a particular Dominant Ka:  Aresh with Pyrim (Fire), Meborack with Faerim (Earth), Pachad with Onirim (Moon), Sohar with Eolim (Air), and Zakaï with Hydrim (Water). 

The names are Hebrew and have meanings, though they seem arbitrarily picked: Aresh means "marry", Meborack means "blessed", Pachad means "terror", Sohar means "round", and Zakai means "pure". As far as I can tell, these five Kabbalah Worlds were invented by the French writers and aren't based on any existing occult beliefs. The closest comparison seems to be the Enochian watchtowers... and I just realized that Nephilim: Revelation invented the five watchtowers of the supernal realms a few years before Mage: The Awakening.

Anyway, why bring this up? I like the idea of reaching the third circle by vision questing, so I wanted to devise an equivalent to the Kabbalah Worlds for the US version based on genuine occult beliefs. The Enochian Watchtowers seem to be the perfect fit!

In Nephilim's magic system, there's not a square of four classical elements (aside from believers of the "Four True Fields"). Instead, Nephilim use a pentagon (or pentagram) of five elements: the four classical elements plus the fifth element of moon between earth and water. As such, there's not four watchtowers for the classical elements but five! In order to advance to the third circle (which allows access to Atziluth), the summoner must go on a vision quest exploring the watchtower of their dominant Ka. 

The five Watchtowers exist perpendicular to the four Olamot and aren't comparable categories. The Watchtowers correspond to the five elements, whereas the Olamot correspond to the physical, astral, mental and spiritual levels of the universe. The Watchtowers exist on, or extend through, all of the Olamot.

Getting to the third circle requires confronting the Guardian of the Threshold, which varies for each Watchtower and even for the individual summoner. Once he gets to the third circle, then there's a final quest within the subtle plane of that Watchtower (which simultaneously exists within and without the summoner himself, because occultism and spirituality). Beyond simply summoning Keys to accomplish amazing effects on Earth, the summoner must build or claim a fiefdom within that plane to reach Agartha.

But that's beyond the scope of this idea post... and I still need to translate the French rulebooks. Hope you enjoyed!

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