Qabala provides many keys to understanding alchemy, particularly its different methods, as well as keys to interpreting the various symbols encountered. Many of these symbols are seen in books and manuscripts and are used as metaphors to both veil and reveal the secrets they contain. Through dreams, meditations, and spontaneous insights, past alchemists were able to understand the documents they were using, as well as interpret them for others. It is not uncommon to enter into alchemical gardens or palaces in one's dreams after undertaking this practice. Qabala helps us to better understand the meanings of the symbols we may encounter.
Among the most useful of Qabalistic tools is the Tree of Life. Through its simple yet profound structure, the entire cosmos can be explained and understood. Relationships are made clear, and all manner of mental, physical, and psychological illness can be diagnosed and resolved. Ignorance can be turned into Light, and death into life. While many students of Qabala spend years studying the Tree of Life and its intricate symbols, alchemists (who may not wish to be Qabalists as well) can utilize only its most basic components to guide them along the Path of Return.
The Path of Return is the way whereby each human soul goes from gross ignorance to Illumination-and the various phases, challenges, and encounters along the way. This path starts in the material world in which we live and takes our consciousness to the heights of perfect wisdom, compassion, and power. However, unlike some systems that seek to escape from matter and see it as evil, alchemy recognizes the inherent energy and power in matter and uses it for the journey. Alchemy says that we are to perfect ourselves through the challenges material life offers us, not run from them into a fantasy land of "spiritual perfection" that is little more than a fear of life itself.
This premature return to the Invisible Worlds-without first having learned to master material life, and thereby master ourselves-is symbolized in the tarot as the Lightning-Struck Tower. Return without wisdom is the real journey of the Fool, but to return with wisdom, power, and Illumination is to be the Magician-the co-creator with the cosmos. This is the tarot equivalent of the alchemist, a Magus who understands, uses, and directs the forces of consciousness, energy, and matter and realizes that they are One.
Just as astrology helps us to understand the influence of cycles on energy and matter without having to become astrologers, Qabala helps the aspiring alchemical adept to understand the influence of symbols without having to become a full-fledged Qabalist. However, the unique synthesis that alchemy offers often allows students to become far more skilled in all three areas of study than they would have thought possible had an attempt been made to study them independently. The reason for this is simple: alchemy is experientially oriented; thus, what we learn, we learn through experience and not memorization.