(The Four Worlds – source)

The sephirotic tree of life represents a metaphor through which Creation takes place in ten steps and suggests that there are ten emanations involved. There is an alternative version, in which Creation takes place in four steps; this model is called the four worlds. The four worlds can be superposed over the kabbalistic tree and thus the two models became complementary. [1]

         The four worlds are:

• Atziluth – the world of emanations and the divine world of archetypes.
• Briyah – the world of creation or the creating world of archangels.
• Yetzirah – the world of formation or the world of angels and the astral plane.
• Assiah – the active, material world. [2]

A method through which the four worlds are bound by the sephirotic tree is based on the tradition that each of these contains its own tree; these are sometimes represented by the emanation from Kether to Malkuth.

Another way is dividing the tree in four different regions; here Atziluth corresponds to Kether, Hokhmah, Binah; Briyah corresponds to Chesed, Gevurah and Tiphereth; Yetzirah to Netzah, Hod, Yesod; Assiah to Malkuth. From here we shall have the triangles of the four worlds.

In the case of Atziluth – The celestial triangle starts from a single point, meaning that it comes from the divine unity and divides in two sides. This shows that, although divinity is a unity, any manifestation can be seen in a dual form: masculine and feminine, up and down, in and out, hot and cold etc. One of the duties of a magician is to learn to go through any part in contradiction in order to obtain communion with divinity.

In the case of Briyah – The moral triangle, combination of Strength and Mercy, sustains the evolution of Beauty. If we have too much mercy we become weak and incompetent in fulfilling goals. People use us and we die young. On the other hand, if we show only strength and are totally ruthless we can touch our goals (but never without difficulty), but we won’t have friends and we won’t have real love, thus our success has no sense. Through development of Strength and Mercy, we get a beauty which helps us to attain all goals, and our success has a meaning.

In the case of Yetzirah – The worldly triangle is in connection with successes in the physical realm, not of the mental or spiritual that are found in the moral and celestial triangles. Here, a Victory followed by too much mercy gets to defeat, while the Splendor of  a Victory, if is not tempered by Mercy, leads to revolt and ruin. When in balance, there is a Foundation for the successes in this world and a Kingdom that is represented by the only Sephiroth that hangs at the base of the three triangles.

In Atziluth, the archetypal world, everything forms an origin or starts to be something. In that moment, it is simply typified in the largest sense possible: “This was nothing, now it will become life at cellular level”.

In Briyah takes place the creation. This defines the type of Existence in its exact category: “This has been life at cellular level, now it will become a human being.”

In Yetzirah takes place the formation, and the preceding processes are concentrated on finer aspects through clear definition of the result’s nature. “This was cellular life that transformed in human bodies. Now it will structure itself under the form of a small finger-tip belonging to the left hand of a human being.”

In Assiah or material world in which we live, the first three processes are projected from the other worlds under the form of earthly realities. When their purpose has been done, they are reabsorbed by death or dissolved and get back to the stage of nothing before they are given a new origin.

It doesn’t mean that any thing that has an origin must do this complete circle. Something that has an origin can get only to the next level and then get back by that which gave it its origin.

• In Atziluth, which gives the origin is directly seen as an aspect of God.
• In Briyah, the creator is called archangel.
• In Yetzirah, those who give form are
• In Assiah, those that express are called planetary powers.

All is God. It is only a question of which part of God does what.[3]

 In Assiah (Physical World), the Tree is planted and cultivated by the senses. Its design is seen with the eye and its colors are appreciated. Wherever we see those colors we should think of the Sephiroth concerned. We can smell the perfumes of the Tree and touch its form attributions. Our ears should be trained to classify sounds and speech appropriately. All this can be worked into ritual practices.

In Yetzirah (Mental World) there is an enormous field of work to be done with the Tree. We can study its philosophy, perceive and solve its problems, consider its pattern-possibilities, and learn one by one the lessons presented to an intelligent pupil by its ordered arrangements. There are no known ends to its mental stimuli or the answers arrived at.

In Briyah (Soul World) the Tree is approached on the ethical and moral level as a code of conduct and standards embodying the highest principles to be found by a seeking soul. Here we learn the laws of living in harmony and balanced relationship with all Being and beings.

In Atziluth (Spirit World) the Tree takes on the aspects of the Living God. Here we approach the Tree with worship, devotion, prayer, and sheer joy of contact with extensions of the Supreme Spirit.[4]

The general notion presented is that God thinks something to become manifest in the material world and – bang! – it simply appears. Creation is a process and every thing must go through the same cyclic laws of life in order to manifest itself in the physical world in which we live in. Kabbalism presents the laws of this process in 4 distinct levels:

1. World of Origin – Atziluth. It is the level at which God gives the origin of each thing through the conception of an archetype in its own conscience. From here, every Sephiroth is identified through a name of God. If God gives the sense of function lower than His consciousness, it gives it a lower level of manifestation.
2. World of Creation – At this level, the concept is taken further by the orders of spirits called archangels, for they condensate the archetype to be processed by lower orders of spirits.
3. World of Formation – Yetzirah. Here the name implies form, structure; all the other detailed specifications are given by the working entities with multiple and different specializations, called angels. Each order of angels is specialized on a single function, but is expert in that function.
4. World of Action – Assiah. Here is the place in which the concept manifests in existence as we perceive it. It comes to us through natural laws and through channels of consciousness. The powers at this level are materialized in cosmic phenomenon that we can appreciate through our normal perceptions, such as the stars, planets, zodiacal signs and elemental energies.

That is why the Four Worlds are reduced to the cosmic conscience that concentrates in the material existence through energetic cycles of creation seen from four angles.

At each level, the practicing kabbalist works with different ways of personification of divinity: in Assiah, he works with the elemental spirits, in Yetzirah with angels, in Briyah with archangels and in Atziluth he works directly with each of the ten names of God from each sephiroth. Although the basic idea is that the universe is split into four levels of function, they resonate among themselves.

A practical method of application of the Four Worlds is a business plan seen at a strategic level, a tactical level, an operational level and a functional level. A complete business plan will contain all these four layers by having a simply strategy, but widely spread in tactical methods to reach that goal. Each tactic will be analysed at a level of action and then will be applied in the day to day course of the business.

The worlds must be consistent and balanced between them so that the objective may be reached; each function must be in accordance with the plan (or “that which is above must also be same as below”).

[1] Notes on Kaballa, Colin Low, p. 197.

[2] The Middle Pillar, Israel Regardie, p. 46.

[3] The Ladder of Lights, William G. Gray, p. 16-17.

[4] The Ladder of Lights, William G. Gray.

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(Diagram of the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton arranged in a Tetractys shape, showing that by the rules of Gematria the sum is 72. – Source)

Four aspects of Kabbala

The kabbalistic system is split into four big domains, no matter what branches and schools are working with it:

1. The theoretical or dogmatic kabbala;
2. The literal kabbala;
3. The meditative or unwritten kabbala;
4. The practical or magical kabbala;

Theoretical or dogmatic Kabbala 

         The theoretical part represents the esoteric philosophy of kabbala.

“The theoretical part deals with the mystical forms, with the teachings about the angels and sephiroth or about the divine emanations. With great success, it deals with problems posed by the many schools of philosophy, and it provides a conceptual framework into which all theological ideas can be fitted.”[1]

         The theoretical part of kabbala is that which deals with the aspects and theories referring to the creation and development of the universe and of all things. It does this through three categories (after Ginsburg, cited by W.Westcott).

         “The great doctrines of theoretical kabbala, as Ginsburg says, are mainly created to solve the problem of:

1. the nature of the Supreme Being (of divinity)
2. the creation of the Universe and of our world.
3. the creation of angels and man.
4. the destiny of the world and of man.
5. the import of the revealed law[2].

Theoretical kabbala is certainly the most important aspect of Jewish kabbala, particularly of the orthodox-jewish branches. Of this category are part the main books of Kabbala, like Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir and also the first five books of the Old Testament.

Literal Kabbala

The literal Kabbala concerns itself with the manipulation of letters and numbers in order to find secret wisdom in the scriptures. According to kabbala and Christianity, God created the world by the help of the word, reason for which it is considered that every letter of the Hebrew alphabet is a channel of manifestation of an aspect of divinity and of the creating force, each letter possessing and maintaining sacred meanings and creative potencies.

Because of the association between numbers and letters, it will result a tight connection between words and numerical value associated to these words. The finding of words that have the same numerical value will offer a complex succession of meanings and interpretations hidden in the holy texts.

There are three methods generally applied in literal kabbala:

1. Gematria
2. Notariqon
3. Temurah

Gematria

         Represents the kabbalistic numerology, and the origin of the word is found in the Greek  geomatria and in the Aramaic gematria.[3]

         It is a system through which it is attributed a value to words and phrases, which considers that these words or phrases that have an identical numeric value reveal a relation between the two words or phrases and concepts or ideas that these words imply.

         The method however can be applied to persons as well, names, divine and angelic names, events, locations, aphorisms etc., generally being used for the interpretation of holy texts. Though it is used from time to time by kabbalists in languages such as Spanish, Greek and Arab, the method is applied mostly in Hebrew or Aramaic.[4]

         This method has been spread beginning with the XVII century because of the translation work of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

         Some consider that there are two forms of gematria: the first being the rabbinic and the other, which is the most spread nowadays, is the one used in kabbalistic practice.

         Gematria has four basic forms:

• Absolute value
• Ordinal value
• Reduced value
• Integral reduced value

Notariqon

         It is written also as notaricon or notarikon and comes from the Latin notarius, with the signification of stenographer.

         One of the methods used is the selection of the first or last letter in the words that compose a phrase and creating a new word that takes over the signification and meaning of the entire phrase.

         This technique was taken by the modern society and used at large scale.[5]

• Words that use only the first letter:

1. laser: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
2. CD-ROM: (C-D) Compact Disc read-only memory
3. ABS: (from the German word Antiblockiersystem): Anti-lock braking system
4. ATM: Automated Teller Machine
5. PIN: Personal Identification Number
6. HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus

• Words that don’t contain only the first letter:

1. Amphetamine: Alpha-methyl-phenethylamine
2. Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization
3. Radar: Radio Detection and Ranging

Temurah

         In Hebrew it means changing, permutation. It is a method that consists in substituting a letter from a word with another, after a predetermined method. In this way it is obtained another word with a totally different signification.

         Applied to other languages other than Hebrew, this technique will produce series of letters with no logical meaning.

There are three simple forms of Temurah:

• Atbash: the replacement of the first letter from the alphabet with the last, of the fifth with the last but one letter of the alphabet and so on.

a=z, b=y, c=x etc

• Avgad: the replacement of the letter with the next in the alphabet.

a=b, b=c, c=d

• Albam: the replacement of the first letter in the alphabet with a twelfth letter, the second with the thirteenth and so on.

a=l, b=m, c=n etc.

Meditative or unwritten Kabbala

         Meditative kabbala concentrates on different techniques for attaining spiritual liberation. These techniques include meditation, contemplation, manipulation of letters and numbers, of diagrams (yantras) and words of power and divine names.[6]

         The syntagm unwritten kabbala comes from the fact that this knowledge, these methods and techniques were transmitted from ancient times through word of mouth. For a very long period of time, they were considered too powerful to be published on a large scale.

         But even today there are aspects of kabbala which are not written and are transmitted only from teacher to student, after there has been created a connection between them, and the student is ready to receive them.

Practical or magical Kabbala

         It deals with those aspects and ways through which it can be applied with results in both the spiritual world and the physical world, with the help or through ceremonial magic, of rituals, invocations, evocations, through manipulation of elemental forces and of talismans.

         Kabbalistic magic is oftentimes called theurgic magic, because all the rituals and ceremonies are made under and with the authority of divinity. For example, we could take Shemhamphorasch, which represents the 72 names of God that come from the Old Testament (Exodus 14:19-21).

         Kabbalistic magic is based on colors, symbols, but also divine names, names of archangels, of angels etc., which are associated with the sephiroth of the tree of life, in which or through which the magician wants to operate and produce change or transformation.

         The mage that is always in search of illumination can ascend to the levels of higher consciousness and can get to fuse with or experience divinity with the help of the arrow or of the dragon (kundalini snake), traversing the sephirotic tree in ascendance, from Malkuth to Kether.

         However, the mage that is in search of the forces, of the ways and of the possibilities necessary to manifest divinity in the physical realm will follow the path of the lightning bolt, through which the divine powers are descending from Kether to Malkuth. Obviously that, in order that these to really happen, it is necessary that the spiritual work will maintain a balance in the structure of the tree of life and that the mage will work with all the sephiroth or at least with the opposing ones.[7]

         Oftentimes, the magical success is given by the capacity to offer our own will to the divinity. Biblical examples are numerous on this matter. At the same time, it is often necessary, if not indicated, to use purification techniques of different existential levels, fasting, prayer etc.

[1] Meditation and Kabbalah, Aryeh Kaplan, U.S.A., Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1985, p.1.

[2] An Introduction to the Study of the Kabbalah, Westcott, W.W., London, J.M. Watkins, 1910, p. 31.

[3] A comprehensive etymological dictionary of the English language: Dealing with the origin of words and their sense development thus illustrating the history and civilization of culture, Ernest Klein, Dr., Elsevier, Oxford, 7^th ed. 2000.

[4] Data integrity patterns of the Torah: A tale of prime, perfect and transcendental numbers, Kevin Acres, Research Systems, Melbourne, 2004.

[5] The words obtained through this method in modern society are called acronyms.

[6] Meditation and Kabbalah, Aryeh Kaplan, U.S.A., Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1985.

[7] Binah-Chockhmah, Gheburah-Chesed, Hod-Netzah.

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Silver Torah pointer lying on a jewish prayer book

The great majority of kabbalistic literature was part of the oral tradition which, in time, began to be written and later translated. Even if it was said to us by Ben Sirach[1], over 2000 years ago: “You shall have no business with secret things.”[2], there have been realized many mystical studies, the oral tradition became to be written and then translated especially into Latin or Greek, and in actual times in other languages.

The first texts that appeared were the apocalyptic, in the first and second century of prechristianity. It is said that these writings were kept with strictness by the Essenes.[3]

Elements of Jewish mysticism can be found in the non-biblical texts from the Dead Sea and those from Nag Hammadi; an more precise example would be The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Some parts of the Talmud and Midrash offer esoteric or mystical information in a particular way[4]. Many of the texts, like Hekalot Rabbati, Sefer haBahir, Tora Hakana, Sefer P’liyah, Midrash Otiyot d’Rabbi Akiva, Bahir and Zohar,. Claim to be from the Talmudic era, even if some of these writings are identified by modern scholars as clear works of the Middle Ages, ascribed to the ancient past.

The texts that constitute the source of ideas, concepts, practices and mystical meditations can be divided in two categories. The first is formed by primary texts coming from the Messiah, prophets of great masters. From the second category are the great multitude of books existing at this moment about the mysticism, esoterism, meditation and practice of the kabbala.

In this section, we will be dealing however with the primary texts that refer to the tree of life.

• Sefer-ha-Torah – Books of the Law, the first five books of the old testament.
• Etz-ha-Chayyim – Tree of Life, dictated by Rabbi Yitzhak Luria and published in 1901.
• Sefer Yetzirah – Book of Formation, manual of Hebrew letters written by Abraham and published at Mantua, in 1562.
• Heikhalot – Heavenly Palaces
• Sefer-ha-Bahir – Book of the Brightness, published in Provence, France, in 1176[5].
• Peshitta – The Gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas.
• Sefer-ha-Zohar – Book of Splendor, published between 1558 and 1560.
• Sifra-Detzniyutha [6] – The Book of Concealed Mystery.
• Idra Rabba Qadusha [7]– The Greater Holy Assembly.
• Idra Zuta Qadusha – The Lesser Holy Assembly.
• Sefer Raziel HaMalach – Book of Raziel the Angel.

Sefer-ha-Torah – Scrolls of the Law

The five books which compose Torah are part of the Old Testament [8]. The Hebrew name of the books comes from the first word that each of the books begin.

1. Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית “In the beginning of”)
2. Shemot (שְׁמוֹת “Names” )
3. Vayikra (וַיִּקְרָא “And He called” )
4. Bamidbar (בְּמִדְבַּר “In the wilderness”)
5. Devarim (דְּבָרִים “Words” )

The anglicization of the names derives from greek and reflects the topic of each book:

1. Genesis – begins with the process of Creation of the Universe and of humanity. Then it is presented the history of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as the life of Joseph.
2. Exodus – presents the story of Moses who led the people of Israel out of Egypt, the receiving of the 10 Laws and in the end the instructions to build the tabernacle.
3. Leviticus – At first it offers instructions for the usage of the tabernacle and continues with the rules that people must apply during their presence in the tent.
4. Numbers – describes the census of the Israelites on mount Sinai and the lands of Moab.
5. Deuteronomy – is formed especially by the speeches of Moses that have the role to make the Jewish people more obedient as well as the transmission of new laws and the designation of Joshua as successor.

The historical descriptions in the Torah are not always in chronological order. Sometimes, the histories are ordered by concepts, in conformity with the rule that “there is no earlier or later in Torah” [9].

The most religious of the Jews think that the present version of the Torah is the perfect copy of the version written by Moses. But the majority accepted the idea that the present version is, in fact, a compilation written by many Jewish authors, writings from different time periods beginning with 1000 B.C.; the final work seems to have been compiled in the V century B.C., although there have not been found any manuscripts from that period.

No matter the provenience form, the final writing is attributed to Ezra the Scribe. But there is less probable that the writings we have today are exact copies of the same compiled by Ezra. Religious conservators want to believe that the holy books and the alphabet have remained unchanged in the course of thousands of years, although there are sufficient proofs that show that there was a Hebrew alphabet older then the actual, called gezer or proto-sinaitic, that was the base of the actual one. In fact, it is supposed that the proto-sinaitic alphabet is the basis of most alphabets on Earth, including the latin, Hebrew, Arabic, runic etc. [10] [11]

When Torah was written, the Jewish sinaitic alphabet disappeared long ago because of the thousands of years of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman cultural and religious domination. As such, Ezra written it in the new language. Although, the most ordinary printings we have today of the Torah date from IV century A.D., called masoretic [12]

The Tanakh [13] or Old Testament was compiled by the Great Assembly Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, in translation The Men of the Great Assembly, the book being formed of 120 writings and prophecies. The translation in Greek is called Septuaginta and became a text associated with Christianity. It is said that this designation, Septuaginta, comes from the fact that the translation work was done by 72 translators that have worked simultaneously in Alexandria, where existed the biggest community of Jews outside Palestine.

Sefer Yetzirah – Book Of Formation

Sefer Yetzirah, in translation Book of Formation or of Creation. It is said that this work had the greatest influence in the development of the Jewish mind. All the creations of golems and miracles attributed to the rabbis have taken place because of the usage offered in this work.

Historians did not succeed in determining the origin of the text. Some say the work was composed in VI century ; the linguistic construction used can be even from the II century. References to the Book of Abraham from the Quran, that send to this book or a variation of it, would place it much earlier from the Middle Ages. No matter if the one who wrote this work is or isn’t Abraham, it is considered that it was transmitted from Adam to Noah and then to Abraham [14].

It is the first mystical manual and, very possible, the source of Hebrew alphabet origin. It presents and organizes the creation in 32 paths of wisdom, formed of:

• 10 Sephiroth:
  • 3 elements: air, water, fire; [15]
  • 6 directions: front, back, left, right, up and down;
  • center
• 22 letters:
  • 3 mother or primary letters: representing the three primordial elements from which everything was created: air, water and fire;
  • 7 doubles: representing the classic planetary forces: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn;
  • 12 simple or elemental letters: representing the twelve signs of the zodiac over the year.

To these there are added other emotional, intellectual and esoteric associations; in other words it is an index of correspondences. [16]

(Star of David)

(Merkabah)

The first chapter of this book represents the earliest mentioning of the six pointed star, known under the name Star of David. Generally it is presented in a bidimensional plane, as intersection of two triangular pyramids. Sefer Yetzirah however presents the Star of David in a three-dimensional plane, representing the Tree of Life in space, as a combination of two triangular pyramids. This structure is used in Merkabah work of ascension to the superior planes of existence, like Ezekiel who raised to the heavens.

(Source)

Sefer-ha-Zohar – Book of Splendor

Zorah (“Splendor”) is the most important kabbalistic text, an exegesis written in rashi aramaic[17] of the five books of Torah.

As in the case of Sefer Yetzirah, the origin of the text has not been classified. Many kabbalists believe it was written between 1280 and 1286 by Moses b. Shem Tov of Leon in Guadalajara, north-east of Madrid, Spain, where it was carried a lot of kabbalistic activity at that time [18].

The Zorah is organized in commentaries on the articles from Torah, but the elaborations utilized are based on Talmud, Midrash Rabba, Yetzirah, Bahir and many other rabbinic texts. In this context we can affirm that Zohar is, in a way, Kabbala.

Most of the orthodox[19] Jews[20] believe that the teachings of kabbala have been permanently transmitted from teacher to disciple and that the teachings offered are of divine essence.

The Zohar exemplifies the fundamental difference between the Jewish rational-philosophical branch and the mystical-theosophical branch, that represents the mystical belief according to which divinity is a dynamic aspect which implies both the masculine and feminine gender.[21] These aspects must be united for the keeping of harmony in the Universe.

The Zorah starts from the presumption that there are four aspects of the biblical text:[22]

• Peshat – Simple, literary;
• Remez – Allusive or Suggestive;
• Derash – metaphorical, through comparisons or illustrations;
• Sod – containing mysteries or secrets hidden in the text. The procedure of exegesis in the Zohar used for the undertaking of the knowledge is called Perdes (paradise), word that comes from the first letter in the name of the four methods of undertaking of the texts described earlier (P, R, D, S). This procedure is similar to the one applied by commentators in the time of the first period of Christianity in the Middle Ages.
• Literary – the way of undertaking is historical, dealing with past events.
• Typological – connects the events from the Old Testament with the ones in the New Testament, dealing with past and present events.
• Moral or tropological – the moral part of the story is taken into consideration, dealing with present events.
• Analogical – refers to the spiritual and mystical part and the Christian prophecies, dealing with future events.

The mystical part in Zohar is based on the principle that all visible things include phenomena that are both exoteric and esoteric, and which offer instructions for spiritual development.

The Zohar is opposed to religious formalism, stimulating imagination and emotion and refreshes the experience of the prayer process at the same time. In many religious communities, prayer has become more of an exterior process rather than what it is supposed to be, a process of transcendence of wordly problems and crisis and of offering to the divinity, through a process of union and acceptance of divine grace.

In the XVII century it was proposed that only those over 40 years can have the right to study kabbala, and in extension to read the Zohar, because it was considered too powerful for those less experienced and emotionally mature.

The enthusiasm provoked by the Zohar was also shared by Christians like Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Johann Reuchlin, Aegidius of Viterbo[23] etc.; all of them were convinced that this book contains Christian truths. They reasoned this belief with the existing analogies between the teachings of the Zohar and the Christian teachings, some of these being the fall from heaven and the principle of Trinity.  The arguments and explanations brought to the concept of God as Trinity in catholic or orthodox Christianity are rather lacking because they are found in kabbala and manuscripts like the Zohar, that Christianity didn’t take from the Jews.

Peshitta – The Bible

Peshitta [24] means simple version (or common) of the Syriac Bible. This name has been given in the IX century to both Testaments, old and new, although they have been translated separately. The greek version, Septuagint, was translated from masoretic texts, but Peshitta was translated from Aramaic,  independently from the first [25].

From both versions it can be observed that Yeshua (Jesus) was born, raised and educated as a Jew. His life was the messianic message itself that he was preaching and can be understood though the culture and society in which he lived. He was and is a good example for both the Hebrews of his time, and after 2000 years, for the man of modern society. Although interrogated by the rabbi, they could not find him defect because, besides the adequate life he was having, he had advanced knowledge of what is Hebrew mysticism and kabbala.

When Jesus was tempted by the Pharisee for them to see if he respects the law, his response was odd. He did not refer neither to the 613 laws[26] from Torah nor to the 10 laws brought by Moses, but he recited Shema or the affirmation of union with divinity from Torah Doverim/Deuteronomy 6:4-5:

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”

Matthew 22:36-38

Actually, it is one of the laws from Torah, Doverim 6:5:

         “Love thy God with all your heart, with all thy soul and with all thy strength.”

Deute. 6:5

 

Keeping the divine names from the Aramaic version Shema, this paragraph would sound like this:

         “Hear Israel, YHVH Elohim is your only YHVH. Love thy YHVH our Elohim, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your resources.

Then said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Matthew 22:38-40

This is also one of the laws from Torah, Vayiqra 19:18

“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as theyself. I am the Lord.”

Leviticus 19:18

After almost four years from the moment of the rise to the heavens of Yeshua started to appear all sorts of stories about his life and teachings. Four of them were canonized, the rest however did not fit with the gentiles or Christians ideas. Yeshua had an exemplary life as a jew, but, in the New Testament, this was described by the gentiles with modifications, the way to view some aspects of his life no longer being seen from the Hebrew law point of view, but from that of the new Christians, that have deviated from the Jewish laws or did not even know of them[27].

Or can we affirm that only the life and teachings covered in the four Gospels are true ? If we could accept this, we should ignore the existence of the other gospels, a thing that most Christian groups are doing today.

In this case, the way of viewing the teachings would be limited and, we could say, unreal or certainly incomplete.

The most important Christian source before the apparition of the Gospels is the greek translation of the Tanakh[28], called Septuagint. The long Jewish tradition of interpreting the biblical verses has been remade sometimes forced, so it could be correlated with Jeshua’s life as achiever of the prophecies from Torah. It was considered that the writings of the prophets, especially those of David, Isaiah, Miheia, Osea and of the kings of Israel, were containing mistakes that were not corresponding to the new ways of though, being finally corrected and adjusted to support the histories from the New Testament. The earliest gospels are dated around the 4^th and 5^th century. It is interesting how the tradition of thousands of years, as well as the texts that it is based on, have been perceived as false by the new Christians.

In these conditions, we must remember that Jesus himself said he did not come to spread a new message or a new religion, but to fulfill and revive the old one. He did not come to correct, eliminate or change Torah, but to demonstrate it by the example of life. These affirmations appear quite clear in the Gospel of John and in the Gospel of Thomas[29] [30].

Etz-ha-Chayyim – The Tree Of Life

The Tree of Life (  ) is the mystical symbol used in kabbala and Jewish esoteric knowledge to represent the way in which God created the Universe. At the same time, the tree of life is supposed to be a representation, a cosmological model of the reality we live in.

The Tree of Life also tells us of the place of man in the created Universe, this being seen as a fruit of the physical world that condensed and solidified in matter.

Kabbalists use the Tree Of Life as a map to be able to return to divinity and to unite with nature.  This is done by a journey through each sephiroth of the sephirotic tree to the Holy Trinity (Kether, Hokhmah, Binah).

The most known form of the sephirotic tree comes from Rabbi Yitza’zq Luria (1534 – 1572), who dictated Etz-ha-Chayyim, one of the most complex works about practical kabbala; from the beginning until our days, this attracted the interest of many people involved in the process of spiritual evolution.

Hekhalot – Heavenly Palaces

Hekhalot is not a single text but rather a type of writing with the same characteristic. These texts concentrate on the modalities to get to the palaces of Heaven; they tell us what to expect once arrived there, how to call the angels and the angelic forces to interact with them and to give help.

(Gate of Heavenly Palace)

The work contains several documents that are part of this category, like: Hekhalot Rabbati, in which are described six of the seven palaces of God, Hekhalot Zutarti, Shiur Komah, as well as many other smaller documents[31] or fragments on the same subject.[32]

Sefer Raziel HaMalakh – Book of Raziel the Angel

Raziel is translated as secret of god. In Kabbala it is said that he is the keeper of secrets[33] and that he offered the wisdom in Torah and the first five books of the Old Testament [34] , being associated with the sephiroth Hokhmah and with the Briyah World[35].

It is said about the Book of Raziel that it would contain all the answers of the secret knowledge, in this context being considered the book of magicians. He offered the book to Adam and Eve after the fall from Heaven, so that mankind can find its way back to divinity and paradise.

The book has been transmitted from generation to generation over to Enoch, whom is supposed to have become Metatron. From Enoch it was offered to Noah to build the ark and to keep the flora and fauna of the earth.[36]

Sefer-ha-Bahir – Book of the Brightness

It is a book of special interest for kabbalists because it is a questionnaire with questions and answers about concepts and ideas from Kabbalistic literature. A sort of guide of the beginner in kabbalistic subjects, that does not exceed the size of a magazine, but it is very hard to understand. The book was published, for the first time, in Provence, France, in 1176[37]

[1] Jesus ben Sirach, Ben Sira, is the author of the book Deuteronomy in the Old Testament ; Guillaume, Phillipe, New Light on the Nebiim from Alexandria: A Chronography to Replace the Deuteronomistic History, sections 3 – 5: full notes and bibliography.

[2] Sirach III. 22; Talmud, Hagigah, 13a; Midrash, Genesis Rabbah, VIII.

[3] Philo, De Vita Contemplativa, III., Hippolytus, Refutation of all Heresies, IX. 27.

[4] Hagigah 12b-14b.

[5] The most recent edition was edited by Reuve Margaliot and was published at Jerusalem in 1951.

[6] Also written as Siphra Dtzenioutha.

[7] Also written as Idra Rabba Qadisha.

[8] Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts, Hebrew Publishing Company, Philip Birnbaum, 1964.

[9] Talmud Pesachim 7a.

[10] Details can be found at http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2108

[11] Other info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Semitic_language

[12] The oldest manuscript that survived is Codex Petropolitanus, from 910 A.D.

[13] More commonly known as Masoretic Text, from the alphabet that it was written in.

[14] The Kabbalah, Christian D. Ginsburg, 1920.

[15] The “earth” element is formed through the combination of the three elements.

[16] The Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation: in Theory and Practice, trans. Aryeh Kaplan, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1997.

[17] Rashi script is a semicursive form of writing in Hebrew, in which Rashi wrote commentaries for Talmud and Tanakh (Old Testament).

[18] Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, Keter Publishing, Jerusalem, 1974.

[19] From the latin orthodoxus or the greek orthodoxos; orthos = righteous, doxis = opinion. Orthodox = righteous opinion or dogma.

[20] Orthodox Jews are a community strict in the application of the law and of the canonized ethics in the Talmudic texts. They are characterized by the belief that the law is divine and transmitted directly by God to Moses, and that it must not be altered in any way.

[21] Eros and Kabbalah, Moshe Idel.

[22] The Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906.

[23] Egidio da Viterbo

[24] http://www.peshitta.org/

[25] http://www.aramaicpeshitta.com/

[26] There are 365 negative laws corresponding to the days of the year and 248 positive laws corresponding, attributed to every bone in the skeletal system and primary organs in the human body; The Concise Book of Mitzvoth: The Commandments which can be Observed Today, HaCohen, Yisrael Meir., Trans., Charles Wengrov. Feldheim, 1990.

[27] Here it is referred to the other Christianized people, the romans, greeks etc.

[28] Tanakh is the biblical name used by Hebrew jews; it is also known as Masoretic text.

[29] It is an apocryphal text kept almost entirely on a papyrus found in1945, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

[30] The Nag Hammadi Library – http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhlalpha.hmtl

[31] Other texts that are part of the Hekhalot literature are Maaseh Merkabah, Merkavah Rabba, Sepher Hekhalot, Re’uyyot Yehezqel, Massekhet Hekhalot, Sepher Ha-Razim, Harba de Moshe.

[32] Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and the Talmudic Tradition, Gershom Scholem, 1965.

[33] A Dictionary of Angels, Including The Fallen Angels, Gustav Davidson, (1967), Entry: Raziel, pp. 242, 243.

[34] Hebrew Visions of Hell and Paradise (1894), Journal of The Royal Asiatic Society, London, The Royal Asiatic Society; can be read here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/journals/jras/1893-15.htm

[35] Angels A to Z, Lewis, James R., Oliver, Evelyn Dorothy, Sisung Kelle S. (Editor) (1996), Entry: Raziel, pp. 346, 347.

[36] The Legends of the Jews, Ginzberg, Louis (1909), Volume 1, Chapter IV.

[37] The Bahir, trans. Aryeh Kaplan, Aronson, 1995.

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(A disputation between Christian and Jewish scholars – Woodcut carved by Johann von Armssheim (1483) – source)

“For I speak to you Gentiles;

inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles,

I magnify my ministry, if by any means

I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh

and save some of them.”

Romans 11:13-14

Christianity began as a Jewish sect with teachings rooted in the Jewish culture and society. After the disappearance of Jesus from the physical realm, one of the apostles started to spread the received knowledge, but the center of  the essenian movement was, until the year 70 A.D., Jerusalem, and the majority of community members was Hebrew. In other words, the first Christians were Jews who believed and supported the teachings of Jesus.

When St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans, he spoke to the gentiles to stir up zeal to his own people, the Jews. Certainly, he was referring to those Jewish Christians that retired from the movement and reform initiated by Paul because they were displeased by the fact that the fundamental laws and rules were changing so that it would be easier for the gentiles (non-Jewish Christians).

It is believed that Mark was the gentile with the roman name Marcus, and his mother was Mary, who lived in Jerusalem. Luke was close to Paul and it is believed that he too was a gentile because Paul made a distinction between him and the other Jewish workers.

Paul was convinced that he is the “proper tool” to spread the teachings of Jesus in the world, the reason for which he started doing anything to gather more members into the community. At the end of the second century, the gentile Christians started being more numerous than the Jews and slowly, there were formed two “camps”.

Peter was a defender of the tradition and a devoted Jew, opposing any modification brought by Paul. The answer and tactic of Paul at the protests of Christian Jews and especially of Peter was to facilitate, modify or renounce the ancient laws more and more, so that anyone could adhere to the new movement. In this way, circumcision was abjured as necessity to be accepted; the Sabbath, which was Saturday was moved to Sunday; the strict alimentary rules disappeared totally, and meals that were not even part of the Jewish diet, like pork meat, became something normal. Fasting day became celebration day like at the Romans.

It is believed that Jesus, who was strict in law and tradition, would have never accepted this, but he was not there anymore to stop Paul from the unorthodox modifications that he was making. It was no longer important who entered the community, nor his quality; what interested Paul was the number of members who had to raise without stoping. Peter and the other Jewish Christians became more a minority in the plan of their own sect, and finally even separated from it, this being in fact the first prechristian schism. In this way, Christianity started to detach more and more from the old roots and to become an independent religious power.

At the moment of the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D., given by the emperor Constantine the Great, when Christianity became a state religion and Christians were no longer oppressed, the separation between Christians and Jews became huge and complete. They were and are two different religions and will always be.

The irony of these things is that, like all the other spiritual masters, Jesus did not want this. He wanted to keep the tradition and this is even mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, where it says that whoever breaks the divine laws will be among the last called to the Father, and when referring to the Laws, it was not only about the 10 commandments of Moses but of the entire Torah which contains 613 laws about the conduct and harmonious life in society.

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(Raul Petrisor presenting the Tree of Life in Hermetic version – Servants of Light, at the Hermetic Institute, branch of Fraternity of the Inner Light and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Raul was initiated in America)

Universal Kabbalah is not Jewish or Christian, but contains aspects from both and other spiritual sciences like astrology, tarot, crystal therapy, aromatherapy. The starting point is formed from the works of Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant; 1810 – 1875) and Papus (1868 – 1916)[1]. It influenced Theosophy [2]of Blavatsky (1831 – 1891)[3] and mostly The Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn[4] of Mathers and Westcott. Universal Kabbala is one of the most important aspects of any Golden Dawn order or group.

Universal or hermetic kabbalah becomes more and more spread; we could say it is amongst the most popular systems of spirituality and personal development at the disposal of the actual society. Hermetic Kabbala has got here because of the fact that it is available to everyone interested, no matter the religion or the belief system used. Hermetic Kabbala recognizes the old documents and practices, but uses them in a way that is not associated and bound to any religion or dogma.

The information presented will be with direct application in every day life through meditation, rituals and prayers. If the terms used sometimes seem religious, that is not the intention or purpose. Rather it is the result of the proliferation of the religious institutes for masses and of the usage of similar terms in generating religious dogmas. Essentially is that, unlike a religious person, the true mystic will perceive a very different sense in the terms and ideas. The reason is simple. The religious person, as it is, represents an onlooker of experiences to which he prays and bows, while the mystic is a practitioner of them. That is also the definition of the spiritual seeker, syntagm that translates as “someone who knows by direct experience”. As such, kabbala is not theology or belief about God, but the experience of God and the evolution towards Him, an unending journey in the process of becoming. Even if we acknowledge it or not, we are all on this eternal journey of becoming.

[1] Gerard Encausse is the founder of Martinist Order.

[2] Is a religious and metaphysical philosophy.

[3] Elena Petrovna Gan is known as Helena or Madam Blavatsky.

[4] Is a magical order created in Great Britain, in the XIX and XX century, that practices theurgy and spiritual development, influencing the western occult movement.

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(De arte cabalistica libri tres, iam denua adcurate revisi, Johann Reuchlin, 1530 – Source)

Christianity arose with Jesus and was, at the beginning, a Jewish sect that identified, accepted and saw Jesus (Jeshua) as the Messiah. He was born and raised in the Jewish tradition, culture and society. All the initial apostles and disciples were Jews. In the period and historical context in which it makes its appearance, the Jewish nation was full of hope. The great majority was waiting for a leader, a Messiah[1], who was going to free them from the oppression of the Roman Empire. At the same time, the Jewish spiritual elite was waiting for a Messiah to reunite the people of Israel with their God (YHVH).

Joshua himself affirmed quite clearly that he did not come to create a new spiritual movement with new teachings and rules, but his role was to fulfill the Torah, to refresh the ancient religion of the people of Israel, who was in moral and spiritual decline.

“Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)

What began as a small Jewish sect formed around the Messiah, who understood and applied the Jewish Laws and precepts and, in no case, the Greek and Roman ones, has got to the point of transforming into a religion formed of gentiles[2]. In the process of transformation and development of the prechristian religion, many of the Jewish Laws and doctrines that stood at the base of the sect have transformed or were abdicated. In this way it was made possible the assimilation of the spiritual movement within the Greek society, as well as the development within the culture and social-political entourage of Rome.

With the appearance of Saint Peter, who began these transformations, the pre-Christian groups divided in two camps: on one side, those who originated from Jewish roots, who understood, applied and lived by the Jewish Laws and traditions, and on the other side the gentiles, who became very numerous. The first opposed the centralization and institutionalization to which it was heading and which Peter wanted, but which took place because of the emperor Constantine the Great. He imposed the homogenization of the pre-Christian beliefs and movements in the whole empire. In this process of cosmetology of the pre-Christian religion that had to serve the political and economical interests of the Roman Empire, the few Jewish groups were eliminated or assimilated.

Nevertheless, the knowledge of kabbala remained alive and was passed through direct line, containing especially the teachings and practices that we now call gnostic. A strong impulse had the Gnostic groups with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of Thomas from Nag Hammadi[3]. These documents, as well as the teachings of Jesus from Peshitta[4], make the things be seen in another light and from another perspective. More and more it is understood that the elements of mysticism proliferated within the pre-Christian groups, but also of the early Christian church.

Many of the ideas, practices and concepts of kabbala are reflected in the Christian mystic. The Mystery of Crucifixion and that of the Eucharist have been identified with the mystery of Easter, which at the Jews is Pesach and through which it is commemorated the exit from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The mystery of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist has its roots in the mystery of bread and wine, that goes back to the Jews and even earlier.

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth.” Genesis 14:18-19.

Finally, Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire and crystallized into what we call Christianity.

At the end of the XV century, there started a movement among Jews converted to Christianity in Spain. They started attributing Christian aspects to the hidden mysteries of kabbala. The Christian and Renaissance speculations concerning kabbala, through which can be explained many secrets of the Christian faith and especially of the catholic faith, have been formulated around the Platonic Academy established by De Medici family, in Florence.

The Florentines, lead by the famous Renaissance hermetic Pico della Mirandola (1463 – 1494)[5] believed they have discovered in kabbala a divine revelation that coul give the keys of understanding the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato and the internal secrets of catholic Christianity. Pico himself had a considerable quantity of kabbalistic literature translated into Latin by the converted teacher Samuel ben Nissim Abulfaraj.

Among the 900 thesis, Pico presented for public debate in Rome the affirmation that “no science can convince us more of the Divinity of Jesus Christ than magic and kabbala” and believed it can be proved the dogmas of the trinity and of the incarnation through kabbalistic axioms.

All of these caused a movement in the Christian intellectual world, the writings of Pico and his follower, Johannes Reuchlin (1455 -1522), have gotten to a great interest in the doctrine of divine numbers and magical practice, this culminating with the writing of Cornelius Agrippa Nettesheim, De Occult Philosophia (1531), and, on the other hand, to attempts to form a synthesis between Christian theology and kabbalistic theology.[6]

The information and ideas have spread quickly in Italy, Germany and France.

In the XVI century, the appearance of kabbalistic texts in Latin made the number of attempts to create parallels between the two esoteric doctrines to grow.

In the XVII century, the center of Christian kabbala moved from Spain to England and Germany because of the writings of Jacob Boehme and of the notoriety of the book Kabbala Denudata, written by Knor von Rosenroth[7], in 1684, which contains the translation in Latin of some very important fragments from the Zohar and great quantities of information from Lurianic Kabbala [8]. Rosenroth and Athanasius Kirchner [9] made the connection between Adam Kadmon[10] and Jesus, as archetypal aspect of Christian theology, as well as between the Superior Triad, formed by the sephorith Kether, Chokhmah and Binah and the Holy Trinity.

In the XVIII century takes place the final phase of Christian kabbala development, in which have been added the alchemical symbolism and theosophical ideas. Because of this, Christian kabbala became a self sustaining science and, we could say, very different from the Jewish one from which it evolved.

[1] Messiah means “the anointed one”.

[2] In latin, gentiles means “belonging to a clan or tribe”. Nowadays it has the semnification of  “non-Jew”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentile

[3] The Nag Hammadi Library, James M. Robinson (1988).

[4] It is the standard version of the Bible from Syriac language, Aramaic dialect, that was translated directly into Hebrew, independently from the greek version, Septuagint.

[5] “Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, Conte” in Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, volume 15, copyright 1991, Grolier Inc.

[6] Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, p.197-198.

[7] The translation into English was made by S.L.MacGregor Mathers, in 1887, under the name Kabbalah Unveiled.

[8] It is Jewish and was preached by Rabbi Ari Isaac Luria; Lawrence Fine: Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos, Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2003.

[9] Was a German Jesuit from the XVII century who published over 40 works on esoterism, geology, medicine etc.

[10] In translation “primal man”, synonymous with Purusha from Upanishade.

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(Ezekiel’s vision, Matthäus Merian the elder, 1670 – Source)

The study of traditional Jewish kabbala can be divided into two schools. The main school can be called Mahaseh Berashith – The Work of Creation. This can be also called the proper Kabbala, being based on philosophical interpretations of the biblical literature, especially those referring to the creation of the Universe by God (ex.: Genesis I). This is the school that gives us the Tree of Life and The Four Worlds, the practice of gematria etc.

The second school of Kabbala is called Mehaseh Merkava – The Work of the Chariot. It is, in fact, a direct reference to the ancient Jewish shamans known today as the “Merkavah Mystics”. These mystics focused heavily upon prophetical and apocalyptic literature – especially the first chapter of Ezekiel, where the prophet is revealed a vision of the Divine Throne. This Throne is described in the text as a Chariot (Merkavah) lead by four Cherubim Angels. Other Jewish legends describe the Chariot as lead by Seraphim (Angelic Serpents of Fire), upon which Yahweh leads into Heavenly battle. The Merkavah Mystics believed that man – as a manifestation of the image of God – had, by birth, the authority and right to work in after the manner of God. This meant that they believed in humanity’s right to create, to perform magic, and to travel to Heavens (like the prophets Enoch and Elijah) in their own Charios of Fire.

Mahaseh Merkava couldn’t be practiced without first being studied the Mahaseh Berashith. Although this not work the other way around. In the Middle Ages, those Rabbis who respected the Jewish Law, and studied the Work of Creation themselves, were against the Work of the Chariot. The Merkavah Mystics were a subculture of mages who were not assimilated by the “official” Jewish authorities.

Even in our days, the Jewish Rabbis have the feeling that the practice of Kabbalistic techniques outside the religious context and beyond the strict Jewish observation must not be allowed. Even in their own circles, only a small number of people study and practice the mysteries of Kabbala. Generally, organized religions of the world view any form of practice and study at large scale of the mysteries that they preach as a threat at the address of the institutions authority.

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(Adam Kadmon or Primordial Man, with the Sefiroth – Source)

What is Kabbala ?

To define the concept of kabbala is not such an easy task. Even before consulting a dictionary we must know how it is spelled in order to find it. The word begins with K or Q ? And that is just for the beginning. We must take into account the fact that there are more ways to write this word[1]. And every version of writing is usually associated with a mystical or esoteric tradition in which kabbala plays an important role.

Looking into Romanian dictionaries, the surprise was big because, if we take in consideration various aspects, the definition is wrong and doesn’t even respect the definitions of the great institutions with history in this domain, such as Cambridge or Oxford.

• CABÁLĂ, (2) cabale, f. 1. Jewish esoteric and symbolic interpretation of the Old Testament; doctrine based on this interpretation. 2. Fig. Intrigue – From fr. cabale, germ. kabale. Source: Dicţionarul Explicativ al limbii române 1998;
• CABÁL//Ă ~e 1) (in Middle Ages) Jewish doctrine that consists in the mistic-allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament. 2) fig. Reprovable action devised to incite enmity or to balk something; intrigue. Fr. cabale, germ. kabale. Source: Noul dicţionar al limbii române, 2002;
• CABÁLĂ v. conspiracy, plot, intrigue, machination. Source: Dicţionar de sinonime, 2002.

1. Although it is an esoteric knowledge based on the interpretation of the Bible, kabbala is not the interpretation itself;
2. Through kabbala isn’t done only the interpretation of the Old Testament, but of the entire Bible, and other noncanonical texts called apocryphal;
3. How do we get to conspiracy, intrigue, plot, machination? The term does not come from the French or German It is like saying that the word taci[2] comes from the English touch[3].

The word of hebrew origin kabbala comes from:

The word kabbala appears for the first time in the writings of the poet and thinker Salomon Ibn Gabirol, but was not used until beginning with the XIV century[4]. The term is used to designate a set of esoteric or mystical teachings initially kept within Judaism, but promoted later in the XII century, in cultural centers such as those in Spain. Kabbalah is formed from a set of teachings and analyses that study the nature of the Universe, the aspects of Divinity and the ways of Creation. From this set of teachings derives the role of man in the revealed scheme.

From a mystical point of view, the term kabbalah refers to a set of symbols called Sephiroth and to Divine Names associated with them. It includes practices, meditation techniques, concentration techniques on these names as well as prayers associated with those symbols. These are ways in which Divinity manifests in the physical realm, but are also principles through which the practitioner can get to know God, the sephirot representing one of the ways in which we can experience God or be face to face with Him in the same way as the prophets, the patriarchs, as Jesus or the apostles. To see the face of the divine is a supreme honor[5]

To say the same thing in a more simplified manner, it is necessary to know the name of the person with whom we want to meet face to face. In the same way, in order to see God’s face, it is indispensable to know His name.

Kabbalah insists on the fact that we must get to see the divine face, the aspects of God, in the interior world as well as the exterior world. The soul or divine spark in us seeks permanently to understand the ways of the divine and to apply them in the physical realm.

Kabbalah teaches us that the forms that we see every day are but masks which cover spiritual things and aspects, principles through which the entire Creation manifests. Becoming aware of these we actually become aware of the way that God manifests on every level of Creation, of the way in which He wishes to be perceived, to be experimented, to be felt etc.

All of these because in kabbalah the simple act of receiving isn’t a passive one, like reaching out one’s hand to something, but an active process of receiving and acknowledgement of the divine aspects in everyone’s life, it is a constant process of searching and personal understanding of the aspects more and more profound of divinity which manifest in the Universe and through the Universe. Through this process of opening our hearts and souls we open to receive teachings more and more profound. The heart becomes active and transforms itself into an organ of spiritual judgement.

The opening of the heart is a state of conscience over which the kabbalistic practices are directed, it is the state in which we are given access to the unseen world, beyond that which we can understand or, more often, accept the human mind. For the greater majority of kabbalists, the heart is a place in which, with the help of imagination, meditation and prayer, we can connect our mind to the spheres of influence of the Divine.

The central image of Kabbalah is formed of a system of Sephiroths connected between them through 22 links or 22 paths, called The Sephirotic Tree or The Tree Of Life.[6] These form the 32 paths of wisdom, 32 being the numerical value of the word LEV, which means “heart”.

History of the Kabbalah

According to the legends, kabbalah has been transmitted from God to Adam, and then the tradition went on from generation to generation until today. It has been transmitted through an unbroken line by known masters or, more often, unknown, saints and prophets, for thousands and thousands of years. In other words, its origin is surrounded by mystery and it seems it erupted with the dawn of human history, reflecting humanity’s evolution from the animal kingdom. In classical kabbalistic literature it is said that it is the revelation of the Creation’s mysteries and of God, of the mysteries of the human soul and of things like prophecies and magic; in short, mysticism and metaphysics. But, as much as any of these things, kabbalah is a mirror reflecting the burning intelligence which challenged humanity to rise above all the other species of creatures on this Earth – an intelligence that makes us conscious of our self and empowers us with the capacity of a conscious evolution much more intense than our present state.

The kabbalistic science and practice are transmitted from teacher to student, usually implying a series of methods, techniques, meditations and prayers. The experience of universal kabbala is correlated with the majority of mystical traditions, without contradicting them however. The knowledge of kabbala is an universal truth which exceeds the cultural and social limits.

Kabbalah is unique in its own way because it is among the few beliefs that are ancestral, but, in the same time, in continuous development. Kabbalah is practiced without interruption as a form of mysticism, personal development and spiritual path.

The history of Kabbala is hard to get fixed in dates and linear successions because of its nature – oral, traditional teaching. Long before the printing press, the kabbalistic teachings have been transmitted from teacher to student as oral teaching and under the form of some manuscript collections used by other teachers. The original impulse of kabbala was sent forth by a school of Jewish mysticism in the first century, named Merkabah, meaning chariot. These mystics used secret methods of “spiritual ascension” to obtain mystical experiences with the help of fasting and breathing techniques. These experiences can be recognized as being common for any modern adept who follows the occult system of initiation, for example: “The world has been purified around me and my heart has felt like it entered a new world.”

The teachings of the Merkabah mystics became part of the Heikhalot school, whose name means palace, referring to the spiritual planes through which the mystics evolved. The descriptions of these travels are similar with the travels of the soul in the world of beyond, having magical words or names of gods, said before each door to be opened and each palace to be entered.

Classical texts that form the base structure of traditional Kabbala:

• Sefer-ha-Tora – Book of the Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
• Etz-ha-Chayyim – Tree of Life, published in 1901.
• Sefer-ha-Zohar – Book of Splendor, published in 1558-1560.
• Sefer Yetzirah – Book of Formation, published at Mantua in 1562.
• Sefer-ha-Bahir – Book of the Brightness, published at Amsterdam in 1651.
• Peshitta – The Gospels, including also the Gospel according to Thomas.

Many of the following kabbalistic schools are formed around these books, these containing the interpretation and meanings which reveal the action of God and the Creation. From the school formed at Safed in the XVI century come many thinking leaders of kabbala, especially Rabbi Isaac Luria[7], called Ari (1534-1572), and Rabbi Moshe Cordevero[8] (1522-1570). The former is responsible for a great part of the kabbalistic structure and cosmogony, thus the “lurianic” school of thought gave answers to many of the more complex kabbalistic problems, especially those about the “breaking of the vessels” [9]. The next great historical development of kabbalah came with the Hasidic movement from the middle 1700s, concentrated around the Rabbi Israel, also known as Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760)[10] , meaning “Master of the Divine Name”, a sign of profound respect in kabbala[11].

After we have examined the development of kabbala in the Jewish tradition, we will try to outline a part of the important ways through which it went to the occult tradition especially in Europe and the modern magician.

Kabbala and its teachings have got to the magical philosophy firstly through the medieval Christian thinkers who have seen in kabbala an example of validation of their own oral traditions.  From the end of the XV century, the Jews converted to Christianity brought with them new points of view to the theologians. A platonic academy in Florence, founded by Giovanni Mirandola (1463-1494)[12], has brought further the research and discussion of kabbala among philosophers of that time[13]. Shaarey Orah’s publication Gates Of Light (1516), in latin, promoted the interest to the teachings in Bahir[14] and the fundamental plan of the tree of life.

The primary sources for the occult rebirth have been Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), a german Jesuit who’s Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1630)[15] detailed kabbala in the study of Egyptian mysteries and of hieroglyphs, and De Occulta Philosophia (1533)[16] by Cornelius Agrippa[17]. Other works coming from alchemists, including Khunrath, Fludd and Vaughan, have marked the definition of kabbala as metamap for the first hermetic thinkers.

Christian mystics have started using its structure for explanations of their revelations, the most renowned being Jacob Boehme[18] (1575-1624)[19]. However, the most important event from our line of examination is, indisputably, the publication of Christian Knorr Von Rosenroth (1636-89), Kabbala Denudata, written in latin from 1677 and 1684, which gave translations from Zohar and excerpts from the works of Isaac Luria.

This work, which has been translated into English in 1887 by MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918) with the title The Kabbalah Unveiled[20], along with the translation of Sefer Yetzirah [21] [22], has formed The Golden Dawn, from which appeared many of the recent occultists, like Dion Fortune[23] (1891-1946), who made a summary of the Sephiroth in The Mystical Qabalah (1935), and Aleister Crowley[24] (1898-1947). The Christian occultist and member of Golden Dawn, Arthur Edward Waite[25], has written many works examining the secret tradition of the kabbala, though, about all these occultists, Gershom Scholem[26] (1897-1982) says they were relying on their own imagination rather than the knowledge of the kabbala, which was “infinitesimal”.

Another course has started from the works of Rosenroth through Eliphas Levi[27] (1810-75), who known kabbalistic martinism[28] through Hoene Wronski[29] (1778-1853) and has studied, amongst others, Boehme and Rosenroth. He became a student of the tarot through the works of Court de Gebelin[30], who attributed the tarot an ancient Egyptian origin. Starting from Gebelin and Rosenroth, Levi synthesized a scheme of the system of psychological, occult and spiritual initiations. Levi wrote: “Kabbala can be named the mathematics of the human mind”[31]. Aleister Crowley continued Levi’s work, presenting it in the tarot book “The Book Of Thoth”.

On short, kabbala passed from the Jewish tradition through the Christian tradition by different currents as the Jewish Polish Renaissance from the XVIII century. Many of the early students and neo-platonic thinkers have started combining it with alchemy, and later occultists used it as a great plan of spiritual ascension, closing the mystical circle from which it came.

Traditional kabbalists affirm that the occultist has an incomplete knowledge of the tree of life and, as such, the work with it is imperfect. Kabbala is a basic mechanism who’s untying is infinite and any serious approach of it’s basic metasystem will have a serious relevance if it is tested in the world that surrounds us, without having any importance on how it was formulated. About the first kabbalists it cannot be said that they had an imperfect knowledge about the tree of life, because they did not understand and didn’t even use the theory of the informational systems or because they didn’t understand the modern cosmology. Indeed, their examinations over their own person and over the Universe have unraveled a knowledge that existed hundreds of years before science defined it, in the same way that the contemporary occult thinking could be rediscovered in a science hundreds of years later.

The body of the teachings and grouping of beliefs have as a central model a diagram composed of 10 circles connected through 22 lines, called Etz-ha-Chayyim or the Tree Of Life. These circles represent the 10 concepts named sephiroth, a Hebrew word meaning emanation; it is said that they represent every aspect of existence. The lines that unite them are called “paths” and are taken as representation of the nature of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which, unlike the English alphabet or any other similar language, represent concepts and numbers in the same manner. The Sephiroth can be seen as paths, reason for which the tree also carries the name of the 32 paths of wisdom.

To this basic diagram there have been added a variation of other systems and attributes from other beliefs and sciences. As such, the paths have been connected with the 22 cards of the Tarot, with the planets,  elements, levels of alchemy and other aspects of esoteric teachings. Most of these attributes are derivations and permutations of those developed by the medieval hermetics who, with a lot of work, have produces the pseudoscientific charts of angelic hierarchies, of every grade of demons, even of those occult connections between stones and stars. The book The Magus; Celestial Intelligencer[32](published in 1801) by Francis Barrett[33] is an example of these tables of correspondences, and the occult dictionary 777 of Crowley[34] presents the magical correspondences in most systems (ex: gods, zodiacal signs, planets, perfumes, colors, numbers, mythical animals etc.). These charts are also found in Book Two from Occult Philosophy of Cornelius Agrippa, from year 1533.

[1] There are at least six ways of writing the word.

[2] A tăcea, tac. 1.To be silent. 2. Not to speak

[3] Pronounced the same as ‘taci’.

[4] Kabala şi limba ei aramaică, Constantin Daniel, pag. 6

[5] He (Job) shall pray unto God, and He will be favorable unto him; and he shall see His face with joy, for He will render unto man His righteousness (Job 33:26)

[6] The Mystical Qabalah, Dion Fortune, p. 17.

[7] Kabbalah of Creation: The Mysticism of Isaac Luria, Founder of Modern Kabbalah, Eliahu Klein, Berkeley, North Atlantic Books, 2005.

[8] He ruled the mystical Jewish movement in XVI century and was known under the acronym Ramak, from Rabbi Moshe Cordevero.

[9] Shevirat HaKelim – breaking of the vessels. From the creation of Adam Kadmon there started different emanations which have contributed to the creation of the world. The first three Sephiroths, Keter, Chokhmah and Binah, have received divine light because they were ordered on the three columns, but the other seven inferior Sephiroths, not being ordered on the three columns through which descends compassion, severity and divine mildness, have not been capable of maintaining the divine light and thus have broken. This primordial situation has led not only to the collapse of the Sephirots, but also to the fall of the adherent worlds. In this way it was created the imbalance called Shvirat HaKelim – the breaking of the vessels; this imperfect arrangement of the Sephiroths is the origin of Sitra A’hra or of “evil”. Kabbalah Glossary: Clarification of Term and Concepts of the Kabbalah by Raphael Afilalo.

[10] Also known under the acronym “Besht”, considered the founder of the Hasidic movement.

[11] Founder of Hasidism, Rosman Moshe, Univ. Of Calif. Press, 1996.

[12] Renaissance philosopher

[13] Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, Conte, volume 15, Grolier Inc, copyright 1991.

[14] Book of the Brightness.

[15] Can be taken from here: http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/AKir/AKOeAeII.htm

[16] Can be read here: http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/index.html

[17] Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486 – 1535) has been an occult writer, magician, theologian, astrologer and German alchemist.

[18] Christian mystic and German Lutheran Theologian; Jacob Boehme: his life and teaching or Studies in theosophy, Hans Lassen Martensen, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1885.

[19] His works can be found here: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/boehme/

[20] Can be read here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tku/index.htm

[21] Translated by Isidor Kalisch in 1877: http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sy/index.htm

[22] Translated by W.W.Wescott in 1887: http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/yetzirah.htm

[23] The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Alan Richardson, Aquarian Press, 1987.

[24] Born Edward Alexander Crowley, member of Golden Dawn, A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.).

[25] Writer in the occult and esoteric domain, co-creator of the tarot deck Rider-Waite.

[26] Gershom Scholem, also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a philosopher and Jewish historian raised in Germany. He is known as the founder of Modern Academy of Kabbalistic Studies, becoming the first teacher of Jewish mysticism of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

[27] Born Alphonse Louis Constant, was an occultist and French writer. Eliphas Lévi, the name under which he published his books, was an attempt to translate his name to Hebrew language.

[28] Spiritual, mystical and Esoteric Christian form, with its origins in France in XVII century.

[29] Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński was a Polish Messianist philosopher.

[30] Antoine Court, self-named Antoine Court de Gebelin, was a French protestant pastor who seen

the cards of tarot as holders of symbols and esoteric knowledge.

[31] The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic, Eliphas Levi.

[32] Can be read here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/magus

[33] English occultist.

[34] Can be read here: http://thelemapedia.org/index.php/Tree_of_Life:777 ; http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/libers/liber777.pdf

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