Shells

The Qliphoth/Qlippoth/Qlifot or Kelipot 

(Hebrew: קְלִיפּוֹת‎, the different English spellings are used in the alternative Kabbalistic traditions of Hermetic Qabalah and Jewish Kabbalah respectively), literally “Peels”, “Shells” or “Husks” (from singular: קְלִפָּה‎ qlippah “Husk”), are the representation of Evil or Impure spiritual forces in Jewish mysticism, the polar opposites of the holy Sefirot.

The Realm of Evil is also termed 

Sitra Achra/Aḥra (Aramaic סטרא אחרא‎, 

The “Other Side” opposite holiness) 

in Kabbalah texts.

INT. FRED'S OFFICE - DAY 

Wesley is packing Fred's personal 
effects in a box with bubble-wrap. 
He takes a commemorative plate off 

the wall where it hung next to 

the Dixie Chicks poster. 

ILLYRIA 
(standing in the doorway) 
You grieve still... 

for a single Life.

WESLEY 
(without turning to look 

at her, shuts his eyes tight  and 

speaks through gritted teeth) 

Why are you here?

ILLYRIA 
I... I'm uncertain.  
(looks around) 
This place... was 

part of The Shell.

WESLEY 
(snaps) 
Don't call her —  
(breathes deeply) The woman 

you killed had a name.

ILLYRIA 
This is important to you. 
Things have Names. 
The Shell... Winifred Burkle... 
She can't return to you.

WESLEY 
(packing her things, tearfully) 

I know.

ILLYRIA 
Yet there are fragments. 
When her brain collapsed, 

electrical spasms channeled 

into my function system...

memories.  

(holds up her fingers, making a gap between 

her thumb and index finger where 

an electrical spark forms) 

(as Fred) 
Please...Wesley, 

why can't I stay?

WESLEY 
(turns away, nearly sick, crying) 
No.  
(looks out the window) 
Leave.

ILLYRIA 
I've nowhere to go. 
My Kingdom is long dead.  
(softly) 
Long dead. There's so 

much I don't understand. 
I've become overwhelmed. 
I'm unsure of my place.

WESLEY 
(turns to her, angrily) 
Your place is with 

the rest of Your People: 
Dead and turned to ash.

ILLYRIA 
Perhaps... but 

I exist here. 
I must learn to 

Walk in This World.  
(slowly approaches Wes) 
I'll need your help... Wesley.

WESLEY 
(frowning, choking back tears) 
If I were to help you find your way... 
you have to learn to change. 
You mustn't kill.

ILLYRIA 
You killed the Qwa'ha Xahn 

in defiance of Your Leader.

WESLEY 
(shakes his head, then looks at her) 
He murdered the 

woman I love.

ILLYRIA 

And that made it just.

WESLEY 
No. It wasn't just.  
(sighs, puts his hands on his hips) 

I'm probably the last man 

in The World to teach 

you what's right.

ILLYRIA 
But you will. If I abide, 

you will help me.

WESLEY 
(softly) 
Yes.

ILLYRIA 
Because I look 

like her?

WESLEY 
(looks at her with tears 

in his eyes, whispers) 
Yes.

ILLYRIA 
(stands beside Wes, looks out 

The Window to the lab below 

where her sarcophagus lies) 
We cling to What is Gone. 

Is there anything in 

This Life but Grief?

WESLEY 
(looks out at the lab) 
There's Love. 

There's Hope...

for some. 

There's hope that you'll 

find something worthy... 
that your life will 

lead you to some joy... that 

after everything... you can 

still be surprised.

ILLYRIA 
Is that enough?  
(looks at Wes) 
Is that enough 

to Live on?

Whenever One Move Out of The Transcendent, One Comes into a Field of Opposites.

“This, am I.”

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Whenever one moves out of 

The Transcendent, 

one comes into 

A Field of Opposites. 

These Two,

Pairs of Opposites 

come forth as 

Male and Female 

from the two sides. 

What has eaten of 

The Tree of The Knowledge, 

not only of good and evil, 

but of male and female, 

of right and wrong, 

of this and that, 

and light and dark. 

Everything in The Field of Time is Dual, 

past and future, 

dead and alive. 

All This, 

being and nonbeing, 

is, isn’t.

BILL MOYERS: 

And what’s the significance 

of them being beside 

The Mask of God, 

The Mask of Eternity? 

What is this sculpture 

saying to us?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

The Mask 

represents 

The Middle, 

and 

The Two 

represent 

The Two Opposites, 

and 

They ALWAYS 

Come in Pairs. 

And —

Put Your Mind 

in The Middle.

Most of us put 

Our Minds on 

The Side of The Good 

against 

What We Think of as ‘Evil’. 

It was Heraclitus, 

I think, who said, 

“For God, all things are 

Good and Right and Just, 

but for Man, some things are

Right and others are not.” 

You’re in The Field of Time 

when you’re Man, 

and one of 

The Problems of Life 

is to 

Live in the realisation of

 both terms. 

That is to say, 

“I know 

The Centre 

and I know that 

Good and Evil 

are simply 

temporal apparitions.”

BILL MOYERS: 

Well, are some myths 

More or Less 

True than others?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

They’re True in 

different senses, do you see? 

Here’s a whole mythology 

based on 

The Insight That 

Transcends Duality. 

Ours is a mythology that’s based on The Insight of Duality. 

And so, 

Our Religion tends to be 

ethical in its accent, 

Sin and Atonement, 

Right and Wrong. 

It started with a sin, you see. 

In other words, moving out of the mythological zone, the garden of paradise where there is no time, and where men and women don’t even know that they’re different from each other, there the two are just creatures. And God and man are practically the same: “He walks in the cool of the evening in the garden where we are.” And then they eat the apple, the knowledge of the pairs of opposites, and man and woman then cover their shame, that they’re different; God and man, they’re different; man and nature, as against man.

“You get a totally different civilization, a totally different way of living according to your myth 

as to whether Nature is fallen 

or whether Nature is itself a manifestation of Divinity, 

and The Spirit being the revelation of The Divinity That’s Inherent in Nature.” 

— Joseph Campbell

I once heard a wonderful lecture by Daisetz Suzuki, 

you remember, this wonderful old 

Zen philosopher, who was over here. 

He was in his 90s. 

He started to lecture in Switzerland that I heard in Ascona. 

He stood up with his hands on his side, and he said, 

“God against Man —

Man against God —

Man against Nature —

Nature against Man —

Nature against God —

God against Nature —

Very funny religion.....”

Now, in the other mythologies, 

One puts Oneself 

in accord with The World. 

If The World is a mixture 

of Good and Evil, 

you do not put yourself 

in accord with it. 

You Identify with The Good 

and 

You Fight against The Evil, 

and this is a religious system 

which belongs to 

The Near East, following Zarathustra’s time. 

It’s in the Biblical Tradition, 

all the way, in Christianity 

and in Islam as well. 

This business of 

not being with Nature, 

and we speak with sort of derogation of 

“The Nature Religions.”

You see, with that 

Fall in The Garden, 

Nature was regarded as corrupt. 

There’s a Myth for you that 

Corrupts The Whole World for Us. 

And every Spontaneous Act is Sinful, 

Because Nature is Corrupt 

and 

Has to be Corrected, 

Must not be yielded-to. 

You get 

A Totally Different Civilisation, 

a totally different way of living 

according to your myth as to whether 

Nature is Fallen or whether Nature is itself 

A manifestation of divinity, 

and The spirit being the revelation of the divinity that’s inherent in nature.