The Kabbalah The Kabbalah Introduction What is Kabbalah? Kabbalah is an aspect of Jewish mysticism. It consists of a large body of speculation on the nature of divinity, the creation, the origin and fate of the soul, and the role of human beings. It consists also of meditative, devotional, mystical and magical practices which were taught only to a select few and for this reason Kabbalah is regarded as an esoteric offshoot of Judaism. Some aspects of Kabbalah has been studied and used by non-Jews for several hundred years. What does the word "Kabbalah" mean, and how should I spell it? The word "Kabbalah" is derived from the root "to receive, to accept,@ and in many cases is used synonymously with "tradition." No-one with the slightest interest in Kabbalah can fail to notice that there are many alternative spellings of the word, the two most common being Kabbalah and Qabalah. Cabala, Qaballah, Qabala, Kaballah (and so on) are also seen. The reason for this is that some letters in the Hebrew alphabet have more than one representation in the English alphabet, and the same Hebrew letter can be written either as K or Q (or sometimes even C). Some authors choose one spelling, and some choose the other. Some will even mix Q and K in the same document, spelling Kabbalah and Qlippoth (as opposed to Qabalah and Klippoth!). A random selection of modern Hebrew phrase books and dictionaries use the K variant to represent the letter Kuf, so anyone who claims that the "correct" spelling is "Qabalah" is on uncertain ground. There has been a tendency for non-Jewish books on Kabbalah published this century to use the spelling "Qabalah." Jewish publications are relatively uniform in preferring the spelling "Kabbalah." We take the view (based on experience) that the spelling "Kabbalah" is recognized by a wider selection of people than the "Qabalah" variant, and for this purely pragmatic reason it is used throughout this study. What is the "Tradition?" According to Jewish tradition, the Torah (Torah - "Law" - believed by Christians to be the first five books of the Old Testament, but the Jews do not hold the same belief, although they keep it carefully concealed from Christians that they hold the Talmud to be the ATorah@ not any books of the Bible) was created prior to the world and she (The Queen god) advised God on such weighty matters as the creation of human kind. When Moses received the written law from God, tradition has it that he also received the oral law, which was not written down, but passed from generation to generation. At times the oral law has been referred to as "Kabbalah" - the oral tradition. Bible Versus Oral Law (Talmud): The Bible under Talmudic Judaism is considered to be a collection of simple tales fit only for fools, women and children. The Talmud 'sages' thus must find new meanings in it by letter and number tricks which reverse the plain meaning and create out of it the permission to do otherwise forbidden crimes and misdeeds. The words of the Bible are continually misused and misquoted for purposes of blasphemy and reversal. Stealing for themselves the title of 'Israelites,' the Talmud 'sages' teach that 'God made a covenant with Israel only for the sake of that which was transmitted orally.' And the Biblical 'basis' of this is given as Exodus 34:27. But that verse states, instead: 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.' - the very opposite! The Talmudic reversal of Moses' written words are said to have been transmitted 'orally,' and through Moses himself - believe it or not! Bearing in mind that the Scribes were the Pharisee teachers of the Law of Moses, carefully distorted to comprise the Talmud, note: 'There is greater stringency in respect to the teachings of the Scribes than in respect to the Torah...so that a Biblical law may be transgressed.' The Torah in its narrow sense is the Old Testament, and in a still narrower meaning the first five books (Pentateuch) of Moses. it its wider Judaistic use it means the Old Testament as misinterpreted by the Pharisaic Talmud. Always with Judaism the Talmud ranks above the Bible in every way. A Talmud passage from the Book of Nedarim (vows) of the Soncino edition of the Talmud states: 'As will be seen on 37a, Scripture was generally regarded as the study of children only, adults usually investigating the deeper meaning...From this we see that it was usual to teach the Bible to girls in spite of the Talmudic deduction that daughters need not be educated. The opposition of Rabbi Eliezer to teaching the Torah to one's daughter 'He who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he taught her lewdness.' - was probably directed against the teaching of the Oral Law, and the higher branches of study ...The context shows that the reference is to the higher knowledge of Biblical law.' The Talmud states: 'A heathen who studies the Torah deserves death for it is written, Moses commanded us a law for an inheritance; it is our inheritance, not theirs.' Reference is also made to the 'Noachian laws' which the non-Jew may study 'but not laws which do not pertain to them.' Also: '...(the) objection was to the studying of the Oral Law...Rabbi Johanan feared the knowledge of Gentiles in matters of Jurisprudence, as they would use it against the Jews in their opponents' courts.' Understandably, since all Talmud laws discriminate against the non-Jew and rank him a virtual animal, these were apt observations. The Jewish Encyclopedia is still more open about what is in Sanhedrin 59a of the Talmud, above, threatening death for revelation of 'Torah' laws to Gentiles: 'for such knowledge might have operated against the Jews in their opponents' courts.' This observation follows a dissertation on the laws on cheating and getting the best of Gentiles in trade and in court. The Torah was (and is) believed, by Jews, to be fit only for fools and women, and in the same way as the Torah was accompanied by an oral tradition, so there grew up a secret oral tradition which claimed to possess an initiated understanding of the Torah, its hidden meanings, an d the divine power concealed within it. This is a principle root of the Kabbalistic tradition, a belief in the divinity of the Torah, and a belief that by studying this text one can unlock the secrets of the creation. Another aspect of Jewish religion which influenced Kabbalah was the Biblical phenomenon of prophecy. The prophet was an individual chosen by God as a mouthpiece, and there was the implication that God, far from being a transcendental abstraction, was a being whom one could approach (albeit with enormous difficulty, risk, fear and trembling). Some Kabbalists believed that they were the inheritors of practical techniques handed down from the time of the Biblical prophets, and it is not impossible or improbable that this was in fact the case. These two threads, one derived from the study of the Torah, the other derived from practical attempts to approach God, form the roots from which the Kabbalistic tradition developed. How old is Kabbalah? No-one knows. The earliest documents which are generally acknowledged as being Kabbalistic come from the 1st. Century C.E., but there is a suspicion that the Biblical phenomenon of prophecy may have been grounded in a much older oral tradition which was a precursor to the earliest recognizable forms of Kabbalah. Some believe the tradition goes back as far as Melchizedek. There are moderately plausible arguments that Pythagoras received his learning from Hebrew sources. There is a substantial literature of Jewish mysticism dating from the period 100AD - 1000AD which is not strictly Kabbalistic in the modern sense, but which was available as source material to medieval Kabbalists. On the basis of a detailed examination of texts, and a study of the development of a specialist vocabulary and a distinct body of ideas, Scholem has concluded that the origins of Kabbalah can be traced to 12th. century Provence. The origin of the word "Kabbalah" as a label for a tradition which is definitely recognizable as Kabbalah is attributed to Isaac the Blind (c. 1160-1236 C.E.), who is also credited with being the originator of the idea of sephirothic emanation. Prior to this (and after) a wide variety of terms were used for those who studied the tradition: "masters of mystery," "men of belief," "masters of knowledge," "those who know," "those who know grace," "children of faith," "children of the king's palace," "those who know wisdom," "those who reap the field," "those who have entered and left." If a chemist from the twentieth century could step into a time-machine and go back two-hundred years he or she would probably feel a deep kinship with the chemists of that time, even though there might be considerable differences in terminology, underlying theory, equipment and so on. Despite this kinship, chemists have not been trapped in the past, and the subject as it is studied today bears little resemblance to the chemistry of two hundred years ago. Kabbalah has existed for nearly two thousand years, and like any living discipline it has evolved through time, and it continues to evolve. One aspect of this evolution is that it is necessary for living Kabbalists to continually "represent" what they understand by Kabbalah so that Kabbalah itself continues to live and continues to retain its usefulness to each new generation. If Kabbalists do not do this then it becomes a dead thing, an historical curiosity (as was virtually the case within Judaism by the nineteenth century). These notes were written with that intention: to present one view of Kabbalah as it is currently practiced, so that people who are interested in Kabbalah and want to learn more about it are not limited purely to texts written hundreds or thousands of years ago (or for that matter, modern texts written about texts written hundreds or thousands of years ago). For this reason these notes acknowledge the past, but they do not defer to it. There are many adequate texts for those who wish to understand Kabbalah as it was practiced in the past. These notes have another purpose. The majority of people who are drawn towards Kabbalah are not historians; they are people who want to know enough about it to decide whether they should use it as part of their own personal mystical or magical adventure. There is enough information not only to make that decision, but also to move from theory into practice. I should emphasize that this is only one variation of Kabbalah out of many, and I leave it to others to present their own variants - I make no apology if the material is biased towards a particular point of view. The word "Kabbalah" means "tradition." There are many alternative spellings, the two most popular being Kabbalah and Qabalah, but Cabala, Qaballah, Qabala, Kaballah (and so on) are also seen. I made my choice as a result of a poll of the books on my bookcase, not as a result of deep linguistic understanding. If Kabbalah means "tradition," then the core of the tradition was the attempt to penetrate the inner meaning of the Bible, which was taken to be the literal (but heavily veiled) word of God. Because the Word was veiled, special techniques were developed to elucidate the true meaning...Kabbalistic theosophy has been deeply influenced by these attempts to find a deep meaning in the Bible. The earliest documents (100 B.C. - 1000 A.D.) associated with Kabbalah describe the attempts of "Merkabah" mystics to penetrate the seven halls (Hekaloth) of creation and reach the Merkabah (throne-chariot) of God. These mystics used the familiar methods of shamanism (fasting, repetitious chanting, prayer, posture) to induce trance states in which they literally fought their way past terrible seals and guards to reach an ecstatic state in which they "saw God." An early and highly influential document (Sepher Yetzirah) appears to have originated during the earlier part of this period. By the early middle ages further, more theosophical developments had taken place, chiefly a description of "processes" within God, and a highly esoteric view of creation as a process in which God manifests in a series of emanations. This doctrine of the "sephiroth" can be found in a rudimentary form in the "Yetzirah,@ but by the time of the publication of the book "Bahir" (12th. century) it had reached a form not too different from the form it takes today. One of most interesting characters from this period was Abraham Abulafia, who believed that God cannot be described or conceptualized using everyday symbols, and used the Hebrew alphabet in intense meditations lasting many hours to reach ecstatic states. Because his abstract letter combinations were used as keys or entry points to altered states of consciousness, failure to carry through the manipulations correctly could have a drastic effect on the Kabbalist. In "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism" Scholem includes a long extract of one such experiment made by one of Abulafia's students - it has a deep ring of truth about it. Probably the most influential Kabbalistic document, the "Sepher ha Zohar." was published by Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jew, in the latter half of the thirteenth century. The "Zohar" is a series of separate documents covering a wide range of subjects, from a verse-by-verse esoteric commentary on the Pentateuch, to highly theosophical descriptions of processes within God. The "Zohar" has been widely read and was highly influential within mainstream Judaism. A later development in Kabbalah was the Safed school of mystics headed by Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria. Luria was a highly charismatic leader who exercised almost total control over the life of the school, and has passed into history as something of a saint. Emphasis was placed on living in the world and bringing the consciousness of God through Ainto@ the world in a practical way. Practices were largely devotional. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Judaism as a whole was heavily influenced by Kabbalah, but by the beginning of this century a Jewish writer was able to dismiss it as an historical curiosity. Jewish Kabbalah has vast literature which is almost entirely untranslated into English. A development which took place almost synchronously with Jewish Kabbalah was its adoption by many Christian mystics, magicians and philosophers. Renaissance philosophers such as Pico Della Mirandola were familiar with Kabbalah and mixed it with Gnosticism, pythagoreanism, neo-platonism and hermeticism to form a snowball which continued to pick up traditions as it rolled down the centuries. It is probably accurate to say that from the Renaissance on, virtually all European occult philosophers and magicians of note had a working knowledge of Kabbalah. It is not clear how Kabbalah was involved in the propagation of ritual magical techniques, or whether it Awas@ involved, or whether the ritual techniques were preserved in parallel within Judaism, but it is an undeniable fact that the most influential documents appear to have a Jewish origin. The most important medieval magical text is the "Key of Solomon," and it contains the elements of classic ritual magic - names of power, the magic circle, ritual implements, consecration, evocation of spirits etc. No-one knows how old it is, but there is a reasonable suspicion that its contents preserve techniques which might well date back to Solomon. The combination of non-Jewish Kabbalah and ritual magic has been kept alive outside Judaism until the present day, although it has been heavily adulterated at times by hermeticism, Gnosticism, neo-platonism, pythagoreanism, Rosicrucianism, Christianity, Tantra and so on. The most important "modern" influences are the French magician Eliphas Levi, and the English "Order of the Golden Dawn." At least two members of the G.D. (S.L. Mathers and A.E. Waite) were knowledgeable Kabbalists, and three G. D. members have popularized Kabbalah - Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, and Dion Fortune. Dion Fortune's "Inner Light" has also produced a number of authors: Gareth Knight, William Butler, and William Gray. An unfortunate side effect of the G.D is that while Kabbalah was an important part of its "Knowledge Lectures," surviving G.D. rituals are a syncretist hodge-podge of symbolism in which Kabbalah plays a minor or nominal role, and this has led to Kabbalah being seen by many modern occultists as more of a theoretical and intellectual discipline, rather than a potent and self-contained mystical and magical system in its own right. Some of the originators of modern witchcraft drew heavily on medieval ritual and Kabbalah for inspiration, and it is not unusual to find witches teaching some form of Kabbalah, although it is generally even less well integrated into practical technique than in the case of the G.D. The Kabbalistic tradition described in the notes derives principally from Dion Fortune, but has been substantially developed over the past 30 years. I would like to thank M.S. and the T.S.H.U. for all the fun. Chapter One The Tree of Life At the root of the Kabbalistic view of the world are three fundamental concepts and they provide a natural place to begin. The three concepts are force, form and consciousness and these words are used in an abstract way, as the following examples illustrate: (1) high pressure steam in the cylinder of a steam engine provides a force. The engine is a form which constrains the force. (2) a river runs downhill under the force of gravity. The river channel is a form which constrains the water to run in a well defined path. (3) someone wants to get to the center of a garden maze. The hedges are a form which constrain that person's ability to walk as they please. (4) a diesel engine provides the force which drives a boat forwards. A rudder constrains its course to a given direction. (5) a politician wants to change the law. The legislative framework of the country is a form which he or she must follow if the change is to be made legally. (6) water sits in a bowl. The force of gravity pulls the water down. The bowl is a form which gives its shape to the water. (7) a stone falls to the ground under the force of gravity. Its acceleration is constrained to be equal to the force divided by the mass of the stone. (8) I want to win at chess. The force of my desire to win is constrained within the rules of chess. (9) I see something in a shop window and have to have it. I am constrained by the conditions of sale (do I have enough money, is it in stock). (10) cordite explodes in a gun barrel and provides an explosive force on a bullet. The gas and the bullet are constrained by the form of the gun barrel. (11) I want to get a passport. The government won't give me one unless I fill in lots of forms in precisely the right way. (12) I want a university degree. The university won't give me a degree unless I attend certain courses and pass various assessments. In all these examples there is something which is causing change to take place ("a force") and there is something which causes change to take place in a defined way ("a form"). Without being too pedantic it is possible to identify two very different types of example here: 1). Examples of natural physical processes (e.g. a falling stone) where the force is one of the natural forces known to physics (e.g. gravity) and the form is some combination of physical laws which constrain the force to act in a well defined way. 2). Examples of people wanting something, where the force is some ill-defined concept of "desire," "will," or "drives," and the form is one of the forms we impose upon ourselves (the rules of chess, the Law, polite behavior etc.). Despite the fact that the two different types of example are "only metaphorically similar," Kabbalists see no fundamental distinction betwe… truncated (274,064 more characters in archive)