Kabbalah
-- which can be spelled with a K, C or Q -- is an ancient form
of Jewish mysticism, which was formalized at the end of the 12th
Century. Having turned Biblical truth and history into occult
myths and suggestions, it has evolved through the centuries --
blending with gnosticism, theosophy and other occult mysteries
-- usually behind closed doors and in secret societies.
But these hidden mysteries are now
communicated openly through the Internet, popular books and celebrities such
as Madonna. Highlighted at Gorbachev's 1997 State of the World Forum, it has
drawn followers among the world's elite as well as the stars of Hollywood.
We offer you this information, not to
build interest in occult arts, but to alert Christians to a deception likely
to be promoted in today's thrill-seeking, open-minded, pluralistic
atmosphere.
Two examples:
1.
Kabbalah:
"Kabbalah" is a doctrine of esoteric knowledge concerning God and the universe, asserted to have come down as a
revelation to the Sages from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few. Kabbalah is considered part of the Jewish Oral Law. It is the traditional
mystical understanding of the Torah. Kabbalah stresses the reasons and understanding of the commandments, and the cause of events described in the Torah....
"Early forms of
Jewish mysticism at first consisted only of empirical lore....In the medieval
era it greatly developed with the appearance of the mystical text.... It became
the object of the systematic study of the elect....
"Most forms of Kabbalah teach that every letter,
word, number, and accent of scripture contains a hidden sense.... Since the
late 19th century, with the emergence of the 'Jewish Studies' approach, the
Kabbalah has also been studied as a highly rational system of understanding
the world, rather than a mystical one."
2.
The New Kabbalah:
"The New Kabbalah is a philosophy and Jewish theology grounded in the
union between traditional Jewish mysticism and modern rational thought.
...the New Kabbalah seeks to uncover and further develop the philosophical
and psychological
significance of Kabbalistic
symbols and ideas. In addition, the New Kabbalah is enriched by
comparative studies and dialog between Jewish mysticism and other
religious and philosophical traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism,
Platonism, and Gnosticism.
"The New Kabbalah is born
out of the conviction that the theosophical system of Luria and his
followers promotes an open economy of thought, dialog and criticism while at
the same time providing a coherent and comprehensive account of the world
and humanity's role within it that is intellectually, morally and
spiritually vital for us today."
Excerpts from "KABBALAH:
GETTING BACK TO THE GARDEN" by
Marcia Montenegro. Footnotes are included in the original articles at
http://cana.userworld.com/cana_Kabbalah1.html
KABBALAH - Page 1:
"Kabbalah is a body of mystical and esoteric beliefs based on commentaries
on the Torah, the first five books of Hebrew Scripture. The term Kabbalah
comes from a Hebrew
root word... 'to receive.'
According to Jewish
Talmudic teachings, the secrets of the Kabbalah are to be 'carefully
controlled.' Rabbi Cooper says that Jewish mysticism satisfies a
need for a 'connection with the great unknown; we want to experience the
secrets of other realities and the meaning of life.'
"The Kabbalah 'discusses
angels and demons,
souls’ journeys after death, reincarnation, resurrection, and the goal of
achieving messianic consciousness.'
.... It is not about 'rote obedience of laws and commands, 'but is rather a
spiritual tool to
enable us to regain unity with God,
'to re-enter the Eden from which we were exiled.'
"'Linear, mechanistic'
ways of 'rational
thought' need to be set aside
in order to fully grasp Kabbalah teachings. Yehuda Berg states that Kabbalah
is the 'hidden wisdom'
that has been kept secret for centuries but now this teaching is coming
into the open for a society fraught with social and spiritual problems."
Kabbalah - Page 2:
"In Kabbalah, the
Creator is Ein Sof,
which literally means 'endless.' ... Ein Sof pervades all creation,
so that even a stone has divinity; In Kabbalah, The Shekinah is
sometimes called Eden, and the Torah is the Garden where God hid the light.
By becoming vessels of light, we can regain Eden.
"In contrast, the
Bible teaches that it is God who will redeem all creation. ...
"Various accounts of
creation are given One is that Ein Sof emanated a spark, 'from which emerged
and radiated all light' and this constituted the upper world. A lower
world was created from a light 'without brightness,' which represents a
lower consciousness."
Kabbalah - Page 3:
"Kabbalah teaches that God’s blessings flow to the world through the Tree
of Life [See
picture below] when
there is ethical behavior among humans; evil actions disrupt the
union of the sefirot [see also
sephria] and empower
demonic activity. God and humankind are interdependent.... Thus, we
are 'co-creators with God Itself.'
"According to
Kabbalah, a person must metaphorically and spiritually ascend the 10
points of the Tree of Life to reunite with the Divine. As one increases
his or her spiritual capabilities, one increases the capacity to contain
more of the Light pouring down through these 10 emanations, and so draws
nearer to the Creator.... Thus, the Tree of Life both symbolizes the Divine
Being, and offers the way back for humans to be reunited with the source
from whence he came. ]
"Kabbalah... is
not about worship or belief, but rather 'becomes a direct path of
communion between the individual and the Divine.' The Tree of Life and
the sefirot have been used in New Age and occult teachings,
and aligned with occult tools such as the
Tarot. Indeed, the
Kabbalah has been a
basis for
Western occult teaching for several centuries,
though it should be noted that many Kabbalists and traditional Kabbalist
rabbis do not sanction such activity.
KABBALAH - Page 4:
"In Kabbalah, Adam and Eve are viewed as symbols of male and female
energy [as in
Tibetan or Tantric Buddhism],
and as metaphor for the 'primordial Vessel whose existence' came before
creation, thus encompassing all the souls of humanity to come. The presence
of the Serpent, considered a fragmenting force, was necessary for
creation; otherwise, all would unite with God. This gave man the opportunity
of earning the Light on his own.
"One of the hidden
meanings of the story is that there are two Gardens of Eden,
one above, and one below, and reuniting these two Gardens is the
goal of humankind.
"Yehuda Berg
believes that the forbidden fruit was a sexual act between Eve and the
Serpent. Another writer interprets the sin as Adam driving out the Shekhinah
by eating only from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and not from the
Tree of Life, thus separating Shekhinah from her 'husband,' Tiferet,
and separating consciousness from unconsciousness. This act caused Adam and
Eve to lose their garments of light and fall into a lower physical form,
becoming clothed with garments of animal skin.... Adam and Eve chose with
good intentions to have more Light, since this is what the Serpent
offered. This choice was wrong, but because the Serpent’s temptation
enhanced the difficulty of their choice, it was also worthy.
"...everything,
including evil, has divine nature. Adam and Eve took a second bite of the
fruit, done out of self-serving motives, thus short-circuiting their ability
to receive the fullness of the Creator’s Light and moving them back to the
material level with a knowledge of death and evil. God’s command that Adam
must now work the land was not literal; rather, it meant that he must
'rebuild the Vessel of yourself through your own work in the world.'...
"As in the Eastern
religions, Kabbalah teaches reincarnation, the belief that we die and
are reborn, living many lives, ever seeking to advance spiritually. We are
in a process of repairing our broken vessels, which may take many lifetimes.
...
"When a critical
mass of humanity spiritually advances, it tips the scale in favor of all
humanity, and will bring us back to a connection with the immortality we had
before the fall. We all have sparks of the Divine and are shards,
albeit broken ones, of the original Vessel in the Garden. We can fix
ourselves, regain what was lost....
"Our days spent doing
good deeds are 'woven into a garment of splendor that will clothe the
soul as she enters God’s presence in the world to come.'....
"...there are
three ways to ascend to higher consciousness: study and scrutiny
of behavior;[today's
psychology & personality assessments?]
seclusion, contemplation, and soul-searching; and having a constant
awareness of the implications of everything one does....
"Yehuda Berg also
teaches the Certainty Principle.
[i.e. positive thinking, not
certainty concering fact or truth]
Using the story of the exodus as
an example, he explains that God did not part the Red Sea; instead, Moses
and the people proceeded with certainty and this gave them the
power to part the waters. ....We 'print our own ticket' to Paradise
through our individual work. Michael Berg advises one to rediscover who
we truly are, to realize we must share in order to take on the Creator’s
essence. By doing this, we will bring about the world’s transformation,
and can even bring about the end of pain, suffering, and death itself...."
KABBALAH - Page 5:
"...the Kabbalah Centre is not the first to offer Kabbalah outside its usual
tradition. Teachings on the Kabbalah prior to the Kabbalah Centre’s
popularity have been available to the general public since the latter half
of the twentieth century....
"Ein Sof
[the God of Kabbalah] is considered remote and unknowable, and
the Tree of Life is believed to be a revelation of Ein Sof’s
attributes. The biblical God, however, is not remote; He is intimately
involved with His creatures....
"Ein Sof’s
attributes are said to be dualistic (male and female) and opposites are
balanced within Ein Sof. The biblical God does not unite opposites.
He is one (Deut. 6.4); He is a perfect unity of righteousness, justice,
truth, mercy, and love, but these do no coexist in balance with their
opposites within God. First John 1:5 clearly states that “God is light, and
in Him there is no darkness at all” and that the God of truth “cannot lie”
(Titus 1.2). ...
"Ein Sof is
incomplete, since he needs man in order to complete his plan. But an
incomplete God is an imperfect God, and cannot be God at all. If God is the
standard for righteousness, He must be perfect and complete....
"Kabbalah teaches that the
Torah is encoded with hidden meanings. In contrast, historic Christian
interpretation assumes that God communicated the Torah to Moses in a normal
fashion, and that the text says what it appears to say; there is no
concealed meaning. ... Seeking hidden meanings is a hallmark of
gnosticism and occultism. Such a method can lead to imposing any foreign
meaning on a text that one wishes....
"The
Kabbalah is essentially gnostic;
that is, one must learn the spiritual secrets of the Torah through the
cryptic and intricate Zohar, and then advance through knowledge and actions.
This is in strong contrast to Biblical, orthodox Christianity, which is
essentially relational and is based on a clear, direct revelation from a
personal God and on the historical death and resurrection of God’s Son,
Jesus Christ. We do not need to delve into esoteric realms to find the
truth; truth is readily found in God’s word, and was declared by the
Messiah, Jesus Christ (John 14.6).
"Nor do we earn redemption
by works, but rather redemption is offered through the atonement of
Christ..... Phillip Berg writes that we must have the desire to 'receive in
order to share' so that the Vessel will be able to receive the Creator’s
Light 'in full force.'... Our actions in the physical world create 'channels
that connect us to the Divine.'... There seem to be some parallels between
this teaching and the emphasis in Gnosticism on the remote, unknowable
divine being and on the Light."
Please visit Marcia Montenegro's website at
www://cana.userworld.com/cana_Kabbalah1.html
|
Book Cover of
"Art and Symbols of the Occult"
[1]
by James Wasserman
|
|
According to "The KABBALAH and the
Tree of Life," a chapter in the book pictured here, the "Kabbalah
may be defined as esoteric Jewish doctrine. The word Kabbalah
comes from the Hebrew root QBL, meaning 'to receive,' and refers
to the passing down of secret knowledge through an oral
transmission."
The Encyclopedia Britannica
(Vol. 4, 1968, pages
536-537)
tells us that "Cabala is essentially
an oral tradition in the sense that initiation into its
doctrines and practices requires a personal guide, if
only to avoid the dangers inherent in the mystical experience....
"Cabala comprises two aspects,
theoretical Cabala and practical Cabala. The latter
amounts, to all intents and purposes to white magic,
operating with the holy names of God in contrast to black magic,
which uses demonic powers (witchcraft)....
"The original Gnosticism is
still discernible in the figure of
Metatron,
which plays a considerable part in the Hebrew Book of Enoch and
subsequent Cabala. As the highest angel he occupied a seat next
to the throne of God. The Babylonian Talmud contains
three references to Metatron."
"TREE OF THE COSMOS... This book
cover symbolizes the beliefs of
Jacob Boehme [sometimes spelled Böhme or Behmen]. The upper
portion depicts the Kabalistic unity of deity. The hexagram in
the top circle [often
called the Star of David]
is actually two intertwined triangles. Shown separately
side-by-side below the hexagram, those two opposite triangles
are labeled 'Nature' and the 'Eternal.'"[2]
"The larger sphere at the
bottom is called the "Solar World." Surrounding the sun in the
center are the signs of the zodiac. As in alchemy and other
occult systems through the ages, the Kabbalah includes
astrology. |
|
|
The Cabala: The secret
of the Cabala is that of Gnosticism
[4]
"The Cabala, essentially of
Jewish origin but sometimes assimilated into Christianity, is first and
foremost a 'quest for the secrets of the faith,’ according to the
Zohar, its most famous book. It relates to every domain of creation: from
the secrets of the faith to the secret of the universe... [T]here is a
hidden meaning in the sacred texts, and we must discover it in order to
approach the mysteries of the Creation....
"The novelty of the Cabala lies in the ‘secrets of divine truth’. The
divinity described by Cabalists, though, is quite different from the other
forms found in Judaism. The Cabala is a heresy at the heart of Judaism....
In the beginning, according to the Cabala, ‘God wished to see God’. By a
free act of creation, he drew back the absolute All and contracted it to
allow a hole to appear in it where the mirror of existence was to
emerge. [See
Lilith] This act is called Zimzum (‘contraction’). ...
"The sefirot have
been presented as the receptacles, or the tools, of God; or as his ten faces
or hands, or his clothes. ... [T]hey represent overlapping divine
attributes. Relations between the sefirot are governed by three
principles, the hidden Splendours (Zazahot). These are: Will, which
keeps balance; Mercy, which spreads the flux of the emanation; and Severity,
which contains it. In this way, the Splendours organize the sefirot,
according to a model known as the Tree of Life or Cabalistic tree....
| "The practical Cabala... lies in
the domain of mythology, alchemy and magic."[4-page
20] "...the dibbuk
is a spirit which takes possession of a living person. A famous
legend tells how a young cabalist was in love with a certain
girl. He died and subsequently took possession of her body."[4-20]
"According to the Pythagoreans
and the Hebrew cabalists,. in numbers there are hidden
mysteries which few understand. The Most High created all
things by number dimension and weight; by these numbers it is
possible to work out the essence of letters and names."[4-21] |
"The Cabala is a type of
Gnosticism, as man seeks to find divinity within himself. First of
all, he discovers nothingness... this is when the mystic empties
himself to become a receptacle for transcendence....
"Under the influence of the
Splendours, the shining light spreads to create the second sefira
[Wisdom].... It contains the general plan of the construction of the world,
which is manifested concretely in the third sefira [Intelligence].... The
theoretical problem of the Cabala is how to preserve the unity of the
Creator... .
"A world of symbols:
The sefirot have often been likened to symbols — they look like ‘a
priori categories’ of mystical experience. The Cabalists pursue their
quest for symbols by deciphering the Torah, in which the divine
light is clothed in consonants and words. There is a way of reading the
Bible... which ‘reveals a fabric of sacred names which shine through
countless combinations’ [the Bible Code?].... However, the
superstitious numerology of the Cabala is not limited to the Torah....
[Experiencing God:]
"Man contains all that is in heaven
above and on earth below.... Every experience of
the ‘other’ — and God is the absolute ‘other’ — is but an
experience of the same....
In the Christian world
[during the Renaissance]... many people began to take an interest in the
Cabala, including...
Jacob Bohme....
The Cabala is...
Gnostic, a search for the secret of Creation. Like all Gnosticism, it
proposes a cosmogony in which man is an actor with a major role to
play, even that of a collaborator with God. In this way, the
Cabala attempts to answer the problem of evil. The creation of the
world does indeed cause a break in divinity....
Two theories: [1] "God
based the creation of the world on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet [2] a
numerical value was assigned to each Hebrew letter so that the words
with the same 'value' were equivalents....
[Like Mormonism:] The soul which comes down to animate a body
[like Mormonism] refuses to leave its original place, but in the end it
must always obey God’s will. It must win its complement of perfection
from the material world and... is charged with the task of
impregnating matter with a share of spirituality in order to purify it
and draw it upwards....
'...the soul rejoins
its source; all is perfect above and below and the ascension of
the soul is accomplished by the wakening of the passion of the
feminine for the masculine.... The identification of passion’ and
desire is accomplished. The soul of the just man transforms the dry
place; love and passion are awakened above, and all is Unity.'
"The Cabalist has to
fight against the darkness of the world and his quest is to try to
illuminate it. The intense passion which guides him shows that
love and knowledge are often synonyms."[4]
"In two respects, Jewish mysticism always differed, at least in
expression, from other systems: there could not be complete union with God,
who remained always the Other.... Committed to strict monotheism, Jewish
Kabbalists speculated as to what went on within the godhead.... They could,
rather daringly, think of two aspects of God, a light and a dark, a loving
and merciful in contrast with a sternly judgmental. These ideas were
developed at length in a thirteenth-century text called the Zohar (Sefer Ha-Zohar
, Book of Splendor), the centerpiece of the most influential of several
Kabbalist systems... in the thirteenth century....
"...at the end of the fifteenth century... the center of Kabbalism
shifted to Palestine. A mythology and theosophy developed, as complex
as those of early Christian Gnostics, which they closely resemble. The
sefirot became rearranged in new configurations, male and female...."[5]
From various websites:
Symbols of the Kabbalah:
"Dr. Sanford Drob articulates the philosophical and psychological ideas that
are implicit in such kabbalistic symbols as Ein-sof (the Infinite),
Tzimtzum (Divine Contraction), Sefirot (Divine Archetypes),
Shevirat ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels), and Tikkun ha-Olam
(the Restoration of the World). Dr. Drob shows how contemporary philosophy
and psychology enable us to gain insight into the theosophical Kabbalah,
and to understand the Kabbalah in a manner that is vitally relevant to
contemporary life and thought. It is the author's conviction that the
theosophical Kabbalah provides a symbolic matrix through which the
'ultimate questions' regarding God and the world, and the meaning of human
existence, can be provided with satisfactory solutions. Rather than being an
antiquated mystical and theosophical system, the Kabbalah provides us with a
dynamic conception of God, world, and humanity that encompasses all
happening and all things, and which enables us to understand even the daily
activities of men and women as vital to the redemption of the world."
Kabbalistic Metaphors: Jewish
Mystical Themes in Ancient and Modern Thought: (scroll down to
title) "Kabbalistic Metaphors... places the major symbols of the
theosophical Kabbalah into a dialogue with several systems of ancient
and modern thought, including Indian philos
ophy, Platonism, Gnosticism,
and the works of Hegel, Freud, and Jung. ... Recognition of
the parallels between the Kabbalah and modern philosophy and psychology
provides us with valuable insight into both the Kabbalah and modern thought,
and helps pave the way for a 'new Kabbalh,' one that is spiritually and
intellectually relevant to contemporary life.
"...the Kabbalah is unique
in its position in the history of Western thought, acting as a 'switching
station' in which the biblical tradition, Near Eastern mysticism, and
Western philosophy converge. In the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria these
traditions combine with Luria's profound spiritual insight and intense
mythical imagination to produce a comprehensive philosophical and
psychological vision of the nature of God and humanity..."
KABBALAH. Introduction:
"With regard to the author and origin of the Qabalah, I cannot do better
than give the following extract from Dr. Ginsburg's 'Essay on the Kabbalah,'
first premising that this word has been spelt in a great variety of
ways--Cabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, &c. I have adopted the form Qabalah, as
being more consonant with the Hebrew writing of the word:
"A system of religious
philosophy, or, more properly, of theosophy, which has not only exercised
for hundreds of years an extraordinary influence on the mental development
of so shrewd a people as the Jews, but has captivated the minds of some of
the greatest thinkers of Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, claims the greatest attention of both the philosopher and the
theologian....
[One of its many esoteric
myths:] "The Kabbalah
was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a
theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall the angels most graciously
communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth, to
furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine
nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to
Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the
patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was
in this waythat the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other
Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. ....
"The Qabalah is usually
classed under four heads: (α) The practical Qabalah. (β) The literal Qabalah.
(γ) The unwritten Qabalah. (δ) The dogmatic Qabalah. The practical Qabalah
deals with talismanic and ceremonial magic, and does not come within the
scope of this work."
New Kabbalah -- Lurianic
Kabbalah Tikkun ha-Olam: The Restoration of the World: "Tikkun is
a symbol with both metaphysical and theological implications. Luria and his
disciples understood every event in the created universe.... For them it is
only as a result of the world's restoration that both cosmos and God
can be said to be complete. ...
"The Unification of God
and His Shekhina: The Zohar holds that God's feminine aspect is
exiled on earth as the 'Shekhinah' and that she must be reunited
with "The Holy One....' The unity between the masculine and feminine
aspects of the godhead was broken by the sins of mankind, and the
exile of the Jewish people, and is maintained by the 'Other Side'. Through
the observance of the mitzvot and divine worship, humankind is able to
reestablish the union between God and His Shekhina, symbolized as the
union between the Sefirot Tiferet and Malchuth.
"The unification of
divine masculine and feminine aspects of the godhead can be understood
as symbolic of the blending of the opposites, which, according to the
Kabbalists, is part of the perfection and harmony of the universe. In
psychological terms it can be understood as the reunification of the
feminine and masculine aspects of a divided self. ...
"The Raising of the
Sparks: The symbol of a divine spark encased in earthly matter is
an ancient Gnostic symbol, which takes on new life in the Kabbalah of
seventeenth century Safed. In the Gnostic version, a spark of
divinity is entrapped in an alien and evil world, and imprisoned in
the soul of man. According to the Gnostics, the individual's
knowledge (Gnosis) of the spark within himself results in its being
liberated from this world, and the Gnostic adherent abandons both body
and self to join the infinite pleroma. ...In contradistinction to the
Gnostics, Luria held that when the spark of divine light is freed, the world
is reintegrated and restored, rather than escaped and discarded.
According to the Hasidim it is the individual's divinely appointed task
to not only liberate those sparks that are entrapped in Kelippot
within his own body and soul, but also those sparks in the world that he or
she encounters along life's way."
Kabbalah and Theosophy:
For many centuries the Kabbalah was a Jewish tradition not available to
ordinary people and in particular not to women. ...of the few people in the
19th century who
understood the Kabbalah and its worth was not only a Gentile but a woman to
boot: Helena Blavatsky.
Nobody reading her Secret Doctrine and noting the many references to
the Kabbalah could doubt her intimate knowledge of these writings. In her
Theosophical Glossary she explains that... kabbalists are students of
'secret science' who interpret the hidden meaning of the Jewish scriptures
with the help of the symbolical Kabbalah: The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew
Rabbis of the middle ages derived from the older secret doctrines...
which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of
the Jews in Babylon. ...the world over, the search for god-wisdom
follows the same ideas. ...
"...it says in the Zohar:
"The Indivisible Point, which has no limit and cannot be comprehended
because of its purity and brightness, expanded from without, forming a
brightness that served the indivisible Point as a veil'...
"We also find in the
Kabbalah the idea that there is no such thing as an isolated existence:
Everything is linked
with everything else down to the lowest ring on the chain,
and the true essence of
God is above as well as below,
in the heavens and on the earth, and nothing exists outside Him....
"The Western world rejected
the idea of reincarnation until acquaintance with Eastern philosophy during
the 19th century reawakened thoughts about transmigration of the soul life
after life. Many are the references to this, particularly in the older
Kabbalah, for the majority of the older Kabbalists believed in gilgul, the
Hebrew term for transmigration.... Using the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah
built up a system of symbolic correspondences between the manifestations of
divine powers, letters, numbers, and the different parts of the human body."
Theosophy - An introductory
study course: "Theosophy is old because it embodies principles
that have been known and taught by the sages of the past all over the world.
It has been called by many names. In India it is called Brahmavidya 'The
Wisdom of Ultimate Reality' or Sanātana Dharma 'The Eternal Teaching.' In
Judaism it is called Kabbalah - 'That Which Has Been Received.' In China it
is called Tao Hsueh 'The Teaching of the Way.' In Islam it is
called Sufism 'The Way of Those Who Wear Wool” (the 'pure' or the
'wise').... It has also been called the Wisdom Tradition, the Perennial
Philosophy."
Kabbalistic Metaphors: Jewish
Mystical Themes in Ancient and Modern Thought: (scroll down to
title) "Kabbalistic Metaphors... places the major symbols of the
theosophical Kabbalah into a dialogue with several systems of ancient
and modern thought, including Indian philosophy, Platonism, Gnosticism,
and the works of Hegel, Freud, and Jung. ... Recognition of
the parallels between the Kabbalah and modern philosophy and psychology
provides us with valuable insight into both the Kabbalah and modern thought,
and helps pave the way for a 'new Kabbalh,' one that is spiritually and
intellectually relevant to contemporary life.
"...the Kabbalah is unique
in its position in the history of Western thought, acting as a 'switching
station' in which the biblical tradition, Near Eastern mysticism, and
Western philosophy converge. In the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria these
traditions combine with Luria's profound spiritual insight and intense
mythical imagination to produce a comprehensive philosophical and
psychological vision of the nature of God and humanity..."
Medieval Pure Ones The Gnostic Apostle
Thomas: Chapter 12: (Gnostic Jews): "...a mystical
movement highly colored by gnostic ideas was taking place within Judaism
across the Pyrenees in Spain. Kabbalah ("Tradition" or "Doctrine")
developed from currents that were bubbling within Judaism in the time of
Christ and perhaps even earlier. Jewish orthodoxy always discouraged
speculation on ultimate questions not dealt with in approved scripture: What
is the nature of God? What are the origins of evil? ... The development of
Kabbalah probably has... much to do with Christian Gnosticism, and deserves
to be briefly noted. Some scholars think that the Christian variety grew out
of the Jewish; in any event there are striking parallels....
"For much of its history
this mystical current in Judaism took a definitely gnostic form. Its
principal chronicler, the late Gershom Scholem, regarded the mystical
Kabbalah an essential and persistent, and for a long period predominant,
element in the Jewish experience. Kabbalists accepted the authority of
the Torah, but speculated on its hidden meanings in ways alarming to
orthodoxy, producing a mixture of subtle metaphysics and elaborate mythology.
...
"In two respects, Jewish
mysticism always differed, at least in expression, from other systems:
there could not be complete union with God who remained always the Other,
the creator of the human creature; and no Jew who wanted to remain within
the community could suggest that Yahweh was not the sole and good God.
Committed to strict monotheism, Jewish Kabbalists speculated as to what went
on within the godhead. They could speak of emanations 'on the other
side.'They could, rather daringly, think of two aspects of God, a light
and a dark, a loving and merciful in contrast with a sternly judgmental.
These ideas were developed at length in a thirteenth-century text called the
Zohar (Sefer Ha-Zohar , Book of Splendor), the centerpiece of the most
influential of several Kabbalist systems to be found in Spain in the
thirteenth century. ...
"When Jews were expelled
from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, the profound shock to Jewry
sent its stream of mystical speculations into new channels and the center
of Kabbalism shifted to Palestine. A mythology and theosophy
developed, as complex as those of early Christian Gnostics, which they
closely resemble. The sefirot became rearranged in new
configurations, male and female.... But only human beings can complete
the restoration. By their actions, spirit can be fully liberated.... ...
"Antinomianism, an
end to the Law, was a central feature of Shabbatai's teaching. He was given
to "strange actions": he called on his followers to eat ritually forbidden
fat of kidney; he publicly pronounced the Ineffable Name of God; he was
accused of sexual debauchery; he used a blasphemous benediction, "Blessed
art Thou, O Lord, who permittest that which is forbidden." Scenting
political trouble ahead, the Turkish authorities gave Shabbatai an
ultimatum: he would either embrace Islam or be put to death. Shabbatai chose
to live. For the Messiah to renounce his religion at the climax of his
world-redeeming mission was, of course, a staggering blow to his followers.
...
"Shabbatai's principal
apostle, Nathan of Gaza, expounded a new Law. It was higher than the old
Torah, which had come to an end. Old values were no longer valid, old rules
no longer binding. All of God's work was good, and if it had become so
tainted by evil that its true goodness was no longer apparent, then it was
necessary to seek out the hidden good in the most unlikely and apparently
basest places. It was only a short step to a theory and practice of 'holy
sin.' What was previously unlawful becomes a holy act for the new man,
if performed with a purified mind and purpose. In the time of
redemption the sin of Adam is wiped out. The wicked material world is seen
to be an illusion, and those filled with awareness of spiritual reality need
not worry about laws laid down for conduct in this sham world." See
Lilith
The esoteric Quest for the Golden Age of andalusia
:
Tarot and the Kabbalah
Ellen Goldberg, M.A.
We will look at the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the 10 numbers of the Sefirot of the Tree of Life, and see how they breathe life and meaning into the Tarot. We will also consider some of the themes held in highest regard by both the kabbalah and the tarot, such as the healing of the world through the restoration of balance between the masculine and feminine, and the recovering of cosmic consciousness without renouncing the world.
See
ARTICLE
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Kabbalah/id/1895688
:
Kabbalah - Kabbalah personalities
Baruch Ashlag
Yehuda Ashlag
Miguel de Cervantes
Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero
Isaac Luria
Madonna
Elijah ben Solomon
Chaim Vital
Sabbetai Zvi
Aleister Crowley
See
ARTICLE
Popular Occultism.
Red Kabbalah Strings -- Hermetic Kabbalah:
"The Western Esoteric (or Hermetic) Tradition, a precursor to both the neo-Pagan and
New Age movements, is intertwined with aspects of Kabbalah. Within the Hermetic tradition, much of Kabbalah has been changed from its Jewish roots through syncretism, but core Kabbalistic beliefs are still recognizably present.
"
'Hermetic'Kabbalah, as it is sometimes called, probably reached its peak in the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a 19th-century organization that was arguably the pinnacle of ceremonial magic (or, depending upon one's position, its ultimate descent into decadence). Within the Golden Dawn, Kabbalistic principles such as the ten Sephiroth were fused with
Greek and Egyptian deities, the Enochian system of angelic magic of John Dee, and certain Eastern (particularly
Hindu and Buddhist) concepts within the structure of a Masonic- or
Rosicrucian-style esoteric order.
"Many of the Golden Dawn's rituals were exposed by the legendary occultist Aleister
Crowley....
"The attitude of syncretism displayed by Hermetic Kabbalists is plainly evident here, as one may simply check the table to see that Chesed (חסד "Mercy") corresponds to
Jupiter, Isis, the color blue.... Poseidon, Brahma, and amethysts -- none of which, certainly, the original Jewish Kabbalists had in mind!.... However popular within certain sects, especially the
Thelemic Orders such as the O.T.O.
...Crowley is not without critics. Dion Fortune, a fellow initiate of the
Golden Dawn, disagreed with Crowley, and her work
The Mystical Qabalah implicitly states this. Elphas Levi's works such as Transcendental Magic, heavily steeped in esoteric Kabbalah
... agrees....
"The anime series
Neon Genesis Evangelion utilised the Kabbalah
imagery heavily.... During an apocalyptic sequence, referred to as the 'Third Impact', in the film End of Evangelion, heavy use of the
Tree of Life is undertaken....
"The comic series
Promethea by Alan Moore draws heavily on Kabbalah, and is in large part a framework for an overview and explanation of many Kabbalistic concepts."
See
Role-Playing Games & Popular Occultism
Kabbalah in non-Jewish society
:
Kabbalah eventually gained an audience outside of the Jewish community. Nominal-Christian versions of Kabbalah began to develop; by the early 18th century some kabbalah came to be used by some hermetic philosophers, neo-pagans and other new religious groups. Kabbalah - Hermetic Kabbalah. The Western Esoteric (or Hermetic) Tradition, a precursor to both the neo-Pagan and New Age movements, is intertwined with aspects of Kabbalah. Within the Hermetic tradition, much of Kabbalah has been changed from its Jewish roots through syncretism, b ...
See
ARTICLE
Endnotes:
1. James Wasserman, Art and
Symbols of the Occult (Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books,
1993)
2. Since the second triangle was
nearly invisible when first posted, I superimposed the light blue lines over the black
lines to make it more visible.
3.
Peter Hirschberg, "Invoking the
Spirits," The Jerusalem Report, November 16, 1995.
4.
Andre Nataf, The
Wordsworth Dictionary of the Occult" (UK: Wordsworth
Editions Ltd., 1988), pages 20-24.
5. The Gnostic Apostle Thomas: Chapter 12
at
http://www.gnosis.org/thomasbook/ch12.html
From:
An Encyclopedia of Religions
(New York: The Philosophical Library, 1945), pages 412-413. Fergilius
Ferm (editor).
ka:
In early Egypt, the spirit guardian and
companion which attends the human soul both while
the soul is in the living flesh, and also in the
after-life....
Kabbalah:
(Heb. Kahn—to receive, hence
tradition) The esoteric mystic lore of Judaism based upon an
occult interpretation of the Bible and handed down as
secret doctrine to the initiated.
"The origin is obscure. Evidences
of Kabbalistic themes both as speculative theosophy and
practical thaumaturgy are found in Apocryphal and
Apocalyptic literature and abundantly in Talmudic
and Midrashic literature. In the course of its
long development, many streams from alien sources flowed
into it—Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, Neo-Pythagoreanism,
possibly also Zoroastrianism and Suffism**.
"Its birthplace was Palestine,
but it was in Babylonia, during the Geonic period (550-1000
A.D.) that it experienced its first substantial systematic
developments At least two important Kabbalistic works were
composed or edited here, the “Sejer Yetairah” (The Book of
Formation), on the creative powers of letters and numbers, a
most widely studied and commented
work, and the “Shiur Komak” (The Measure of the Height) an
anthropomorphic work on the dimensions of the Deity.
"From Babylonia [actually
Baghdad] the center of Kabbalah moved, in the
ninth and tenth centuries, to Italy, Spain, the Provence and
Germany. Among the forerunners of Kabbalah in Europe were
Aaron ben Samuel, who brought it from Babylonia to
Italy, Isaac the Blind and Azriel in the Provence, the
Kalonymus family, who transplanted it from Italy
to Germany, Judah the Pious and Eleazar of Worms, and, in
Spain, Moses ben Nachman.
"To this period belong the
Kabbalistic classics “Masechet Atzilut” (A Treatise on
Emanation) by Jacob Nazir (12 c); the “Sefer Ha-Bahir”, (The
Luminous Book) and the “Sefer HaTemunah”, (The Book of the
Image)....
"The most significant book of
this period, however, and the one which came to be regarded
as the holiest of all Kabbalistic writing,, and the very
epitome of Jewish mysticism, was the Zohar, made known to
the public by Moses de Leon in
1300.
"The next great period of
Kabbalah was in the 16th century. Its principal center
was in Palestine, more especially in the city of Safed. Next
in importance was the center in Poland. The foremost
Kabbalists of this period were Moses Cordovero
(1522-1570), Isaac
Luria (1533-1572), the
father of modern “practical” Kabbalah, and his disciple,
Chayim Vital (1543-
1620) who committed the teachings of Luria to writing.
Luria was the founder of a
school of Kabbalistic speculation in which redemption and
messianism figured prominently which greatly influenced
the subsequent development of Kabbalab.
The Lurianic Kabbalah was
one of the spiritual sources of the popular mystic
movement of Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th
centuries known as Chasidism [Hasidism]. With the
advent of the Zohar, the study of Kabbalah spread
among the masses of the people.
"It ceased to be the secret
doctrine of the few. Everybody studied it, even the
young. Especially was this true of the Jews in Poland.
Frequently leading Rabbinic authorities inveighed against
this popular absorption in Kabbalistic studies
which fed many superstitions and aberrations.
"Kabbalism attracted the
interest of Christian scholars in the Middle Ages.
Prominent among them were Raymond Lully, Pico della
Mirandola and John Reuchlin -- first as a reaction to
medieval scholastic theology and then in the hope
of finding substantiation for Christian doctrine -- in the
mystic writings of the Jews.
The central themes of Kabbalah
are the nature of the Deity—the “En Sof”—(The Limitless One)
and the ways by which He has made Himself manifest—the “Ten
Sefirot” (Emanations), the four Universes of Atzjlah
(Emanation), Beriah (Creation), Yetzirah (Formation), and
Asia (Action) the Soul of man, its nature and consummation,
the mysteries of the Divine Name, good and evil, man’s place
in the universe, heaven and hell, the order of the angels
and demons, Israel, the Exile, redemption and the Messiah.
"Kabbalah employed a characteristic exegetical technique
which gave it great freedom and scope. It regarded not only
every word of the Bible—written in Hebrew, the very language
of God—but every letter, every vowel and all their possible
permutations and combinations as holding profound mysteries.
Thus the Bible was interpreted not only literally,
allegorically, homiletically and anagogically, but also
through the devices of Gematria (the interpretation of a
word according to the numerical value of its letters),
Notarikon (taking each letter of a word as the initial of
some other word), Temurah (substituting one letter for
another) and Tziruf or Chiluf (transposing the
letters—anagram). Thus Kabbalah never felt the constraint of
the “letter which killeth” and never came into conflict with
the written Scriptures as Christian mystic, frequently did.
See Judaism (Introductory)."
Footnote: Adolf Franck, The Kabbalab (1926)
Christian Ginsburg, The Kabbalah (1920) ; A. E.
Waite, The Holy Kabbalah (1929) Jew. Encycl.
(1901-05) s.v. Cabala . A.H.S
