From Divine Names to Dolphins and Sexual Magic: An Inquiry into Western Esotericism and kabbalah

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 3

PART I 8

LANGUAGE AND HIGHER KNOWLEDGE: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEMARCATION OF WESTERN ESOTERICISM AND KABBALAH 8

1. A DISCUSSION OF VAGUE TERMINOLOGIES 8

1.1 The Concept of Western Esotericism 8

1.2 Defining Kabbalah 24 1.2.1 The Symbolic World of the Sefirot 24 1.2.2 The quest for a Definition 26 1.2.3 Kabbalah and Gnosticism 33 1.2.4 Summary 36

1.3 Mysticism or Esotericism. An Attempt at Clarification 37

1.4 Kabbalah and Western Esotericism 46

2. THE CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE IN MEDIEVAL KABBALAH 50

2.1 The Language of Creation 50

2.2 Language as Higher Knowledge 56

2.3 Gates of Light 61

2.4 The Fountain of Wisdom 68

3. CONCLUSION OF PART 1 74

PART II 80

CONTEMPORARY KABBALAH: A NEW (?) FIELD OF STUDY 80

4. INTRODUCTION TO PART II 80

5. KABBALAH IN WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITIONS: 81

A VERY SHORT OVERVIEW 81

6. THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY KABBALAH 91

7. THE KABBALAH CENTRE 94

Table of Contents

7.1 A General Presentation 94

7.2 The Red String and its cosmological framework 101

7.3 The 72 Names of God 104

7.4 The Zohar 110

7.5 Kabbalah or New Age, Religion or Spirituality? 115

7.6 Summary 117

8. THE KAMADON ACADEMY AND THE MELCHIZEDEK METHOD 118

9. THE GNOSTIC TEACHINGS OF SAMAEL AUN WEOR 122

9.1 Sexual Magic and Apocalyptic 122

9.2 Kabbalah in the doctrine of synthesis of Weor 126

9.3 Summary 129

10. ERWIN NEUTZSKY-WULFF AND THE NEUROLOGICAL LANDSCAPE OF THE SEFIROT 129

10.1 A General Theory of Religion and Reality 130

10.2 Religion as Sexuality/ Sexuality as Religion 133

10.3 Neutzsky-Wulff and Kabbalah 137

10.4 The Occult Connection 141

10.5 New Age Nonsense or Creative Interpretation 144

11. CONCLUSION OF PART II 146

12. FINAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIVE WORDS 148

BIBLIOGRAPHY 155

References to websites 168 The Kabbalah Centre 168 The Kamadon Academy 169 Samael Aun Weor 169

RÉSUMÉ 170

Introduction

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Introduction

This thesis places itself in the midst of a crossroad of different

academic discursive fields, primarily those of “Kabbalah” and “Western

esotericism”, and secondly that of “mysticism”. As a result of this quite

fluid foundation, the first part of the thesis will aim at clarifying the

necessary concepts. The main argument in this first part is that

Kabbalah is an umbrella term covering a wide range of texts and

practices, of which there are different discursive strategies, some

esoteric and some mystical, just to name the two relevant for the

present thesis.

I will argue that Kabbalah to a large extend can be studied as part of

Western esotericism. As will be shown, I see Western esotericism as a

discursive strategy implying a claim of higher knowledge and in the

kabbalistic texts analysed in the last chapters of Part I, this higher

knowledge is identified with the proper knowledge of language. Thus,

in these texts, the conception and use of language becomes itself an

esoteric discourse.

An important clarification is to state from the beginning that when I

use the terms mysticism or (Western) esotericism, they do not imply

any empirical value: I use these terms only as heuristic tools, as

scholarly constructs necessary for conceptualizing and analyzing the

historical evidence. None of the terms should be seen as essential, sui

generis phenomena. Likewise, the definitions proposed should be seen as

working definitions and are thus neither universal nor final.

Before turning to a discussion of the crucial concepts for the present

thesis, it is necessary to give a brief explanation of my general

epistemological foundation. Since the main problems presented in this

thesis are of definitorial and terminological character, it is important to

demarcate the epistemological premises for such a pursuit though it will

Introduction

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by no means be an exhaustive attempt. As a point of departure,

Jonathan Z. Smith twenty years ago called for an adequate theoretical

foundation for the general study of religion. He argued that without a

proper theoretical foundation the academic study of religion would

stagnate and this general theory had to be built upon purely theoretical

grounds1. This does not only concern the definition of “religion” per se

but the very approach to the study of religion and to the quest of

definition2. A scholar who has taken up the proposal by Smith is Jeppe

Sinding Jensen. His approach to the study of religion in general serves

as the epistemological basis for the present thesis. In his doctoral thesis

Jensen strives to clarify the epistemological foundations of the study of

religion. Problems with the relationship between explanation and

interpretation, between metaphysics and rationality and between

semantics and references are widely discussed in the search for an

answer to the problem of the ontological status of cultural expressions

like religious utterances in the broadest sense. No clear answers are

given, but the necessity of addressing the questions and the importance

of an ongoing self-reflection of these issues is highly stressed, as to

maintain a raison d’être for the study of religion. Jensen explains both

the religious and the academic ontology as being constructions. What

then, is the difference between these models? Where the religious

models emphasize their statements about the world as being true

mirrors of the ‘actual’ world, scientific models are precisely

characterized by their explicit dependency on theory and their

acknowledgement of themselves as being mere models3. Generally

Jensen argues that religion can only be construed as a theoretical object

1 Smith: Imagining Religion ch. 2. 2 For a comprehensive account of the problem of definition within the study of religion see Platvoet: ’The Definers Defined’. Platvoet also offers an extensive bibliography to the subject, and though I do not agree with his definition of religion, the article provides a good overview of the problem. However, it should be noted that the article is from 1990 an as such does not present the current state of research. A more recent and elaborate work is Platvoet and Molendijk (eds.): The Pragmatics of Defining Religion. 3 Jensen: The Study of Religion, part II.

Introduction

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by looking at it as a semantic system4 – religion is a method for people,

as social beings, to construe their world. As such, religion is a semantic

phenomenon made up of both cognitive and semiotic aspects and thus

cannot be reduced to either of those but is to be found where they

meet, that is, in language5.

The emphasis on the theoretical character of both scholarly models and

the subject matter is extremely important when we address the question

of clear terminology and definitions. As Jensen states:

I propose to view definitions in the human sciences as ‘generalized interpretations’. In the study of religion that would amount to an understanding of ‘definition’ as ‘the construction of an image of religion from a set of metaphors that have a certain degree of precision. But at the same time flexibility and openendedness’. To make the long story even shorter: Definitions are the shortest possible versions of theories. That is, definitions are no better than the theories they are based on. So, what we may formally ask of a theory is that it is backed by explicit theorizing […] All we demand is that theories are complementary and not contradictive and that it is clearly indicated at what level the definition and its associated theorizing operates on6.

The consequences I draw from Jensen’s approach are as follows: 1) A

general theory of religion must be meta-theoretical and construed from

a purely theoretical foundation. 2) Definitions can be made on different

taxonomical levels and should be theoretically construed accordingly.

Thus a general definition of religion has to be independent of historical

4 Jensen: The Study of Religion, p. 420. 5 Another scholar who should be mentioned in this context is Gavin Flood who, as Jensen, argues for the importance of focusing on language in religious studies. Flood, however, has another approach than Jensen in that he argues for the necessity for a dialogical relationship between the academic research and the subject matter. This, he argues, would imply a consciousness of both being imbedded in a socio-historical context and give the scholar a position from “elsewhere rather than the view from nowhere” (Flood: Beyond Phenomenology p. 223). He rightly observes that perfect objectivism is impossible and thus the scholar should rather be explicitly aware of his/her own position. However he does take this implication a bit too far in his emphasis on the inclusion of the social, cultural historical and political context of both scholar and the object of study. If this was to be fully implemented, one would hardly get to the actual subject of inquiry. 6Jensen: The Study of Religion p. 63. (emphasis by Jensen).

Introduction

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evidence and construed on a strictly theoretical background. This is also

the case with concepts which are merely scholarly constructs such as

Western esotericism and mysticism. The question of how to define

Kabbalah is more complex since the concept of Kabbalah comprises

both a historical group of texts and persons on one hand and a

scholarly construct on the other.

The theoretical foundation should be seen as an epistemological outset

that makes it possible to arrive at a proper methodology for researching

historical realities. This strictly theoretical approach to definitions is

what the following discussions of Western esotericism, Kabbalah and

mysticism should be viewed against. What I hope to do in the following

chapters of part 1 is to clarify the problematic epistemological status of

some of the prevalent definitions and more or less arbitrary uses of the

terms and try to arrive at theoretically adequate definitions so as to

demarcate the different fields.

Conclusively, I will analyze two medieval kabbalistic texts in order to

exemplify my theoretical statements. This part should provide the

foundation for the following discussion of the incorporation of

kabbalistic discursive elements in the construction of traditions in

contemporary esoteric movements.

The second part of the thesis is devoted to the study of contemporary

Kabbalah in its various guises. In order to follow the connection from

the Medieval Jewish Kabbalah I will first present a short overview of

the role of Kabbalah in Western esotericism. Secondly a short chapter is

devoted to the status of the academic study of contemporary Kabbalah.

As it will be demonstrated the shortness of the chapter is not due to

laziness from my side but rather the fact that the study of contemporary

Kabbalah has been much neglected both within the study of religion in

general and in Jewish studies in particular. Finally I will include an

exemplary analysis of an eclectic selection of contemporary groups and

persons which use Kabbalah as a part of their teachings. As will be

Introduction

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shown, these movements are very different in practice, religious

objective, target group and, most important for the present discussion,

their perception of Kabbalah and the extent to which Kabbalah play a

role in their traditions.

The main purpose of the thesis is thus fourfold:

• To arrive at an adequate terminology for the study of Western

esotericism and Kabbalah.

• To argue that Kabbalah is indeed an integrated part of the field

of Western esotericism.

• To show how language functions as higher knowledge in

medieval Kabbalah.

• To introduce contemporary Kabbalah as a worthy field of study.

A Discussion of Vague Terminologies

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Part I

Language and Higher Knowledge: A Contribution to the Demarcation of Western Esotericism and Kabbalah

1. A Discussion of Vague Terminologies

In this chapter I will make an effort to disentangle and clarify the key

terms of the thesis in order to provide an adequate analytical

framework. This is highly important since much usage of the terms

“esotericism”, “Kabbalah” and “mysticism” happens without any

considerations of what he terms imply. Thus the following discussion

will imply a critical examination of the different attempts to define and

approach the different concepts.

1.1 The Concept of Western Esotericism

As the field of Western esotericism becomes a more and more accepted

and integrated part of the study of religion, new problems and

questions seem to emerge. It is hardly necessary anymore to argue the

relevance and academic purpose of the field. Rather, the focus is now

an attempt at reevaluating the foundations and demarcations of the

field of Western esotericism.

Several problems present themselves in many of the prevailing

definitions of Western esotericism. As such, the case is no different

than with other ambiguous concepts such as gnosticism and mysticism

- or religion for that case, just to take a few relevant examples.

Esotericism is not a sui generis phenomenon but a scholarly construction.

That is, a heuristic tool for analyzing a certain set of historical evidence

which seems to share some discursive similarities.


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Western esotericism was made a more or less independent field of

study with the efforts of Frances Yates in the 1960’s. Until then,

esotericism was mainly studied as equivalent to mysticism or “gnosis”

by the scholars of the respective fields 7, such as Gershom Scholem,

Carl Gustav Jung, Henry Corbin and Mircea Eliade, who were also part

of the Eranos circle8. The work of these scholars within the Eranos

circle can be seen as part of an attempt to oppose the prevailing

“disenchantment of the world”, an attempt that was to be continued by

Yates.

To Yates, Western esotericism was conceived of as the “Hermetic

Tradition”, which she saw as an extremely influential though neglected

undercurrent in Renaissance Western culture9. She even argued that the

revival of hermetic philosophy was crucial for the development of

modern science10 and that this philosophy also played a major role on

the political scene in the first half of the 17th century11. The most

important part of Yates’ approach to esotericism was that she

considered it a worthy object of study and did not dismiss it as

“superstition”. It is problematic though that she saw the “Hermetic

Tradition” as almost equal in importance to the mainstream of Western

culture. However, as Wouter Hanegraaff has showed, her narrative fell

within the current research paradigm of her time12. The influential

works by Yates opened up the contemporary study of Western

esotericism, which until recently has been dominated by Antoine Faivre.

Faivre, himself being part of the Eranos circle, also adopted the

7 See Stuckrad: ’Esotericism’, p. 607. 8 The Eranos Circle has flourished as an academic and spiritual group since 1933. For a study of the role of the above mentioned scholars in the Eranos, see Steven M. Wasserstrom: Religion afterReligion. Wasserstrom argues for the influence of esoteric and especially masonic ideas on at least Eliade, Corbin and Scholem (p. 38-49). For the role of Eranos particular within the study of esotericism see Hans Thomas Hakl: Der verborgene geist van Eranos. See also Hanegraaff: ‘Beyond the Yates Paradigm’ for a critical approach to both the Eranos circle and Frances Yates. 9 Hanegraaff: ‘Beyond the Yates Paradigm’, p. 18-21. 10 Yates: Giordano Bruno and ‘The Hermetic Tradition’. 11 Yates: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. 12 Hanegraaff: ’Beyond the Yates Paradigm’, p. 17-18.


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religionist views prevalent in the group, a point that has later been

subject to critique 13 . It should be pointed out however, that the

religionist writings of Faivre are restricted to the earlier part of his

scholarship. Also, I will maintain that the importance of the works by

Yates and Faivre for the establishment of the academic study of

Western esotericism cannot be overemphasized. Thus the following

critical discussion should mainly be seen as aimed at the problem in

question of the present thesis; namely the inclusion of Kabbalah in the

demarcation of Western esotericism. It is the theoretical frameworks

proposed by these scholars which are under scrutiny here and not their

contributions in general.

Overall, Faivre regards Western esotericism as a certain “form of

thought”14 that can be identified through six characteristics of which

the first four are intrinsic and the last two secondary for a certain

phenomenon to belong to the field of Western esotericism. These can

be summarized as follows15:

1. Correspondences. The idea that all parts of the universe are

connected and influence each other. 2. Living Nature. That a kind of living soul embodies all of nature;

closely connected to the theory of correspondance and an important element of the magia naturalis of the Renaissance.

3. Imagination and Mediations. Imagination is necessary to reveal and use mediations, both ritualistic and mediating entities.

4. Experience of Transmutation. An experience of the complete metamorphosis of the self, resulting in a collapse between subject and object.

5. The Praxis of Concordance. The idea that different sets of teachings fundamentally are connected.

6. Transmission. That the esoteric teaching has to be passed on from an authorized master.

To designate Western esotericism as a “form of thought” has the

unfavourable risk of implying a notion of essentialism. And

13 McCalla: ’Antoine Faivre’. 14 Faivre: Access, p.10.


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furthermore Faivre’s theory is developed from certain religious currents

in a specific historical and geographical location, that is, Christian

Western Europe in the Renaissance and early Modern period. This

means that the foundation of the definition is of empirical character

and not theoretical and general, the result being a tautology where the

different taxonomical levels get mixed up.

As stated in the introduction, a theoretically valid general typology must

necessarily be ahistorical. Compared to this, the definition proposed by

Faivre can be designated as an example of historical essentialism.

To demarcate the field of Western esotericism to a group of historically

related currents, like Antoine Faivre does, results in the problem of

distinguishing exactly where this relation ends. To Faivre the Christian

kabbalists of the Renaissance are central to the field of Western

esotericism, whereas their sources of inspiration, the Jewish kabbalists,

are not. This shows a conscious choice and a certain perception, not

only of the concept of esotericism, but certainly also of “Western” as a

cultural category. This choice implies a monolithic view of European

culture and neglects the plurality of the society: it does not refer to

“Western” as a merely geographical delimitation but as a certain cultural

and religious entity strictly connected to Christianity. As Faivre states:

En fait, Faivre avait seulement entendu, par choïx de méthode, traiter d’un ’Occident visité par le judaïsme et l’Islam’, donc majoritairement pénétré (jusqu’au XXe siècle) de christianisme16.

According to Faivre this ought to show his acknowledgement of

Europe as religiously pluralistic. But on the contrary it demonstrates

exactly how Faivre does not recognize Judaism and Islam as important

factors in constituting European culture when he claims that Judaism

15 The full description can be found in Faivre: Access: p. 10-15 and Faivre and Needleman: Modern Esoteric Spirituality, p. xiv-xxii. 16 Faivre: ‘Kocku von Stuckrad’, p. 208. (Emphasis by Faivre).


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and Islam are only visitors on the European scene17. As a contrast to

Faivre’s monolithic perception of Western culture we find the position

of Kocku von Stuckrad who suggests a threefold approach to the

appreciation of a pluralistic Western culture and the study of

esotericism within this conceptual framework:

First, religious pluralism and the existence of alternatives are the normal case, rather than the exception, in the history of Western culture; second, Western culture has always been characterized by a critical reflection on religious truth claims and the interaction between different cultural systems (such as religion, science, art, literature, politics, law, economics, etc.); third, competing ways of attaining knowledge of the world is a key to understanding the role of esotericism in Western discourse18.

I will return to Stuckrad’s approach shortly, however, first I will present

another example of the monolithic perception of Western culture as it

was stated by Faivre. This is paradoxically exposed by Monika

Neugebauer-Wölk, who on the one hand argues for viewing esotericism

as an independent tradition opposed to Christianity, but on the other

shows an explicit Christocentric approach to Western culture19. She

proposes five thematic fields within esotericism in order to show its

opposition to Christianity: 1) ‘Transgression of holy scriptures’,

denoting the dependency on non-Christian sources for esoteric

knowledge. 2) This knowledge becomes the foundation for the self

understanding of early modern esotericism as being the ‘true

17 For a discussion and refutation of the narrative of a monolithic Christian West see Meyerson and English (eds.): Christians, Muslims, and Jews; Nederman: Worlds of Difference and Popkin (ed.): Jewish Christians. I do contend that Western Europe is and has been dominantly Christian. However, while recognizing this, it is still possible to see other cultural input as inherent to the social reality of Western Europe, thus shifting the focus from cultural plurality to cultural pluralism. There is a subtle but important difference between seeing Western culture as 1)“Christian pluralistic” where “Christianity” is a broad cultural system that can even encompass rivaling religious systems, or 2) pluralistic but dominantly Christian. This gives the rivaling religious systems a more autonomous status even being minorities, a fact that I find of immense importance. 18 Stuckrad: ’Esoteric Discourse’.


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Christianity’ 20 . 3) ‘Realisation and worldly power’, indicating that

exertion of power is ‘an integral part of esoteric religiosity’. 4)

Interpretations of Christ which are ‘incompatible with the Christian

system of meaning’. 5) The notion of ‘invisible church and secret

society’ which is opposed to the public nature of both church and

society in institutionalized Christianity21. The problem of identifying

Christianity with only the confessionalized and institutionalized

churches is noted by both Wouter Hanegraaff 22 and Kocku von

Stuckrad who concludes:

Even taken as an ideal typical point of departure, Neugebauer-Wölk’s model subscribes to a theological or even heresiological discourse of purity and difference. The crucial problem of this Christocentric approach is the total neglect of non-Christian traditions in Western culture, a neglect that is all the more remarkable since Jewish and Muslim mysticism had an enormous influence on the development of Western esotericism, however defined23.

Hanegraaff’s own approach to the field of Western esotericism is a bit

more ambiguous than the ones presented by Faivre and Neugebauer-

Wölk. This is due to a much more explicit development within his

writings, a development that shows his change in attitude towards

Western culture in general and Western esotericism in particular.

In Hanegraaff’s entry on ‘esotericism’ in the Dictionary of Gnosis and

Western Esotericism it becomes clear that he is willing to extend Faivre’s

approach to Western esotericism in time, that is back to antiquity and

forward to the presence instead of restricting the period to the

Renaissance and the early Modern period. Still, culturally Hanegraaff

19 Neugebauer-Wölk: ’Esoterik’. See Stuckrad’s discussion of Neugebauer-Wölk in Stuckrad: ‘Western Esotericism’, p. 83-84. 20 As Stuckrad rightfully notes it is difficult to see how ‘the esoteric claim to represent ‘true Christianity’ fits the argument that esotericism stands outside Christianity’ (Stuckrad: Western Esotericism, p. 83, n. 15). 21 Neugebauer-Wölk: ’Esoterik’, p. 137-143 and Stuckrad: ‘Western Esotericism’, p. 83-84. 22 Hanegraaff: ’The Dreams of Theology’.


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wields a notion of “Western” that implies a Christian or Christian

secularized cultural milieu24. This gives an ambiguity regarding the

relation between Kabbalah and Western esotericism:

In said dictionary “Kabbalah” is only described in the entry ‘Jewish

Influences’25. However, as Hanegraaff states in his introduction to the

dictionary, the exclusion of Jewish and Islamic esotericism is only due

to pragmatic reasons, since the two fields have already achieved general

academic recognition compared to the field of Western esotericism26.

So there “is” a Jewish esotericism, but whether this is seen as included

or excluded in the notion of Western esotericism is unclear.

In response to Faivre, the approach proposed by Hanegraaff

emphasizes a methodological agnosticism and his proposed and applied

historical-empirical methodology is unimpeachable27. He emphasizes

that the field of Western esotericism can only be a field of study when it

is construed as such by the scholars studying “it”28. It should be seen as

intermingled with Western culture and religion in general, as an

integrated but underestimated and under-studied dimension29. This far

Hanegraaff’s approach is irreproachable and my current criticism

should be viewed solely as aimed at his attitude towards the

demarcation and definition of Western esotericism and not towards his

methodology.

When it comes to the pre-enlightenment period Hanegraaff still clings

to the Christian cultural demarcation of Western esotericism as

presented by Faivre:

In the end, to study pre-Enlightenment manifestations of Western esotericism means quite simply to study pre-

23 Stuckrad: ’Western Esotericism’, p. 84. 24 Hanegraaff: ‘Esotericism’, p. 337-340. See also ibid.: ‘Empirical Method’ p. 122-123 and ibid.: New Age Religion p. 384-386. 25 Hanegraaff (ed.): Dictionary p. 633-647. 26 Hanegraaff: ‘Introduction’, p. xii. 27 See especially Hanegraaff: ‘Empirical Method’ and ibid.: New Age Religion. 28 Hanegraaff: ‘The Study of Western esotericism’, p. 489. 29 Hanegraaff: ‘The Study of Western esotericism’, p. 511.


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Enlightenment Christian culture while concentrating on dimensions which have not yet received sufficient attention30.

Even though Christianity for Hanegraaff is used in its broadest possible

sense, it still reduces Western esotericism to a strictly Christian

phenomenon, once again showing a Christocentric perception of the

West. Furthermore, Hanegraaff when speaking about “manifestations

of Western esotericism” does exactly what he argues against, namely

transforming Western esotericism from a purely scholarly construct to

historical phenomena31. A more nuanced view is found in the later

article ‘Forbidden Knowledge’ where Hanegraaff argues:

The field of study referred to as “Western esotericism” is the historical product of a polemical discourse, the dynamics of which can be traced all the way back to the beginnings of monotheism. Moreover, it is in the terms of this very same discourse that mainstream Western culture has been construing its own identity, up to the present day32.

Still, Western esotericism as a discourse is confused with historical

reality, as it is presented as a “product of a polemical discourse” instead

of a discourse in itself. Furthermore Hanegraaff notes that Western

esotericism should be understood as

a general label for certain specific currents in Western culture that display certain similarities and are historically related33.

As noted by Stuckrad this is a very vague approach due to the double

use of “certain” 34 . So even though Hanegraaff emphasizes the

30 Hanegraaff: ‘The Study of Western esotericism’, p. 511. Hanegraaff’s delimitation of Western esotericism has been altered since the writing of this article. Now he does include Jewish Kabbalah into the notion of Western esotericism (private communication, July 2007). 31 I do not mean to imply any notion of essentialism in the quotation, I only wish to point out the problem of confusing typological and historical categories. 32 Hanegraaff: ‘Forbidden Knowledge’, p. 226. 33 Hanegraaff: ‘Esotericism’, p. 337.


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constructed state of Western esotericism, an ambiguity in the relation

between typology and historical reality prevails. In Hanegraaff’s most

recent publications he explicitly rejects “Faivre’ian” approaches to

Western esotericism when he argues:

…it is becoming less and less convincing to see western esotericism as a quasi-coherent and more or less self-contained “tradition”, “counter-culture”, or “subcurrent” that can be defined by pitting it against “mainstream” currents or traditions such as Christian theology, rational philosophy or empirical science. Nor, or so I would argue, does the new emerging perspective sit very well with looking at esotericism along phenomenological lines, as a quasi-essentialist “form of thought” which is in fact defined by its very contrast with that of a “disenchanted“ secular worldview (and is hence incapable of accounting for processes of secularization in western esotericism since the eighteenth century). Instead, what we presently see emerging in the work of an increasing number of scholars is an emphasis on the complexity of western culture as a pluralistic field of competing religious and ideological entities and on western esotericism as an analytical concept (not a descriptive category) which brings that situation into focus by systematically highlighting religious and cultural dimensions that have traditionally been marginalized as “other”35

This turn towards cultural complexity and the stating of “Western

esotericism” as an analytical tool and the consequent rejection of any

notion of essentialism is fundamentally correct. However, when

Hanegraaff combines this attitude with his notion of Western

esotericism as a product of what he terms the “Grand Polemical

Narrative” I find that he again confuses the different categories and

reinstate the analytical category “Western esotericism” into the status of

a “more or less self-contained counterculture”. And this is exactly what

he wants to avoid. I believe that the problem lies in the concept of the

34 Stuckrad: ‘Western Esotericism’, p. 79. However the use of “certain” would for Snoek be a way to mark out the “fuzzy” character of the classes involved in the definition. See Snoek: ‘Defining ‘Rituals’’, esp. p. 12-14. In my opinion this is only useful in the process of making a definition and not in the “final” solution.


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“Grand Polemical Narrative”. It was developed in his article ‘Forbidden

Knowledge’ and denotes the above mentioned polemical discourse

which is seen as the monotheistic rejection of the “pagan other” or

what he in a later article terms “cosmotheism”:

In sum: I suggest that the construction of a “pagan other” has been the first step—and arguably the most crucial one—in the development of a “grand narrative” of Western religion, culture and civilization. This narrative of “who, what and how we want to be” relies upon a concept of who, what and how we do not want to be: pagan, or associated with anything pagan. But regardless of such wishes, as a matter of historical fact paganism is and always has been part of what we are: it is an integral part of Western religion, culture and civilization, and cannot be separated from what lived Christianity has been from the very beginning. This fact, however, could not be openly acknowledged, or even be allowed to surface into conscious awareness; and as a result, a “space” was created in the collective imagination that was occupied by the pagan “other”. In the course of a long development, this space eventually developed into what we now refer to as Western esotericism36.

Thus, according to Hanegraaff Western esotericism is the historical

outcome of the “Grand Polemical Narrative”37 a narrative which he

lately has connected to the role of images in Western cultural history.

He argues that an anti-image discourse can be found at the very core of

the “Grand Polemical Narrative” and by examining this discourse we

can get to the central point of what the “Grand Polemical Narrative”

and thus Western esotericism is all about38. This is heavily criticized by

Stuckrad who replies:

That Hanegraaff is turning away from typological approaches based on content and ideas and that he instead

35 Hanegraaff: ’The Trouble With Images’, p. 108-109. 36 Hanegraaff: ’Forbidden Knowledge’, p. 234. 37 Hanegraaff: ’The Trouble With Images’, p. 109. 38 Hanegraaff: ’The Trouble With Images’, p.113.


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explores the structures that underlie European history of culture is interesting and opens new perspectives. However, in my view the construction of what is pathetically called a ‘Grand Polemical Narrative’ is misleading. Claiming ‘complexity’ in the study of European history and religion certainly is correct; but the simplification and reduction to an imagined polemical narrative is the opposite of complex analysis39.

The identification of the “Grand Polemical Narrative” leads Hanegraaff

to see the “mission” of the academic study of Western esotericism as

analyze and deconstruct the strategies of the “Grand Polemical

Narrative” in order to correct the misleading pictures of Western

cultural history as they are implied within the polemical discourse and

to replace them with ‘others that more adequately reflect the historical

evidence’40. Though I can to a large extend agree with the basic

assumption of an ideal objectivism in the academic study of Western

esotericism (and all other academic pursuits for that matter), I cannot

help to find this missionary statement rather naïve and simplistic since

implicit in the declaration lays a tendency to see the scholar of Western

esotericism as the saviour of the critical historical analysis and

presentation of Western culture. Furthermore, Hanegraaff fails to

take the utmost consequence of his own theory which would be that we

can never fully differentiate between mnemohistory and historiography.

As he himself notes:

This difference is crucial because often our memories are misleading and factually incorrect, both on the individual and the collective level: they are not “photographic reflections” of what actually happened, but highly selective social constructs41.

39 Stuckrad: ’Esoteric Discourse’, p. 12. 40 Hanegraaff: ‘The Trouble With Images’, p. 111. 41 Hanegraaff: ’The Trouble With Images’, p.111.


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Now I can fully agree with this statement, however I do not believe that

there is any way out of this problem. Certainly, it is important to be

aware of the notion of history as a social construct but it is naïve to

believe that historiography can fully avoid this. Admittedly, Hanegraaff

lessens the radicalism of an entirely objective historiography in his

description of the term as an ‘attempt to describe, as accurately as

possible, what actually happened’42. Still his agenda seems rather

unrealistic:

My agenda, by contrast [to mnemohistory] is historiographical throughout: my concern is with pointing out how traditional historiography has been continuously influenced and conditioned – indeed, one might say, contaminated – by normative concepts, assumptions, and terminologies rooted in the Grand Polemical Narrative, frequently leading to “false” or “artificial” memories of our own past which are simply not supported by the historical evidence. No dimension has suffered from the resulting distortions more severely than western esotericism. The ultimate goal is therefore to break the power that traditional mnemohistorical constructs exert over historiography, in the interest of a more neutral, less prejudiced, and factually more accurate perspective43

Now this is not only naïve in its idealism, it is bordering a paranoid,

almost conspiratorial, perception of Western culture and its related

historiography. As Stuckrad convincingly argues the proposed Grand

Polemical Narrative is a way too simplistic construct and that

many of the ‘currents’ within the field of Western esotericism have in fact never been simply neglected, marginalized, or banned as dangerous; they all have a complex and changing history in many different contexts44.

42 Hanegraaff: ’The Trouble With Images’, p. 111. (My emphasis). 43 Hanegraaff: ’The Trouble With Images’, p. 112. 44 Stuckrad: ’Esoteric Discourse’, p. 13. As examples Stuckrad mentions Hermeticism, astrology, alchemy, Freemasonry and Kabbalah.


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This undermines the very foundation for the assumption of the

existence of a Grand Polemical Narrative and opens up for a far more

nuanced and complex view of European cultural history which in my

view is much more fruitful.

To sum up the difficulties pertaining to the definitions and approaches

to Western esotericism it is possible to discern two major problems: 1)

The confusing of historical and typological categories and 2) A

monolithic or at least simplistic picture of Western culture.

This is precisely what Olav Hammer and Kocku von Stuckrad strive to

overcome in their approaches to the field of Western esotericism. Olav

Hammer strictly differentiates between esotericism as a historical

category and as a typological one, primarily focusing on the latter as it

provides a broader framework for studying various different

phenomena which are not necessarily historically connected45.

Kocku von Stuckrad argues that a common ground for the academic

study of Western esotericism

can only be found when esotericism is seen not as a selection of historical ‘currents’, however defined, but as a structural element of Western culture46.

This common ground is explicated in Stuckrad’s proposed two-fold

approach to Western esotericism that focuses on 1) claims of higher

knowledge and 2) ways of accessing this knowledge47. This model

avoids any cultural or religious discrimination as it acknowledges the

inherent religious and cultural pluralism of Western society. Stuckrad

explains this approach as follows:

On the most general level of analysis we can describe esotericism as the claim of higher knowledge. Important here is not only the content of these systems but the claim to

45 Hammer: ‘Esotericism’. 46 Stuckrad: ‘Western Esotericism’, p. 80. See also Stuckrad: Western esotericism ch. 1 and ‘Western Esotericism’ p. 88-94. 47 Stuckrad: ‘Western Esotericism’, p. 88.


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a wisdom that is superior to other interpretations of cosmos and history […] The idea of higher knowledge is closely linked to a discourse of secrecy, albeit not because esoteric truths are restricted to an ‘inner circle’ of specialists or initiates but because the dialectics of concealment and revelation is a structural element of secretive discourses. Esoteric knowledge is not so much elitist as hidden48.

Western esotericism is in the rendering of Stuckrad a specific structure

within the vast field of European religion and as such it is closely tied to

discourses involving in the construction of tradition and identity.

The last approach to Western esotericism that I will discuss is the one

recently presented by Arthur Versluis. He is evidently inspired by both

Faivre and Stuckrad in his definition, although he speaks of “gnosis”

instead of “higher knowledge”. He seeks to identify common traits

within all Western esoteric traditions much like Faivre did earlier and he

finds that they all revolve around various approaches to “gnosis”. He

defines gnosis as ‘direct spiritual insight into cosmology or

metaphysics’49, however it is not entirely clear how this differs from the

term “higher knowledge”. What does differ from Stuckrad’s emphasis

on higher knowledge is that to Stuckrad, what is important, is the claim

of knowledge and not the content of the knowledge. With Versluis the

focus seems to have changed towards the substance and not the

discourse. Furthermore, the term “gnostic” becomes more or less

synonymous to “esoteric” in the rendering of Versluis:

One could as accurately refer to “Western gnostic” as “Western esoteric” traditions […] they all have in common:

1. gnosis or gnostic insight, i.e., knowledge of hidden or

invisible realms or aspects of existence (including both cosmological and metaphysical gnosis) and

48 Stuckrad: ‘Western Esotericism’, p. 88-89 (last sentence emphasis by me). 49 Versluis: Magic and Mysticism, p. 1.


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2. esotericism, meaning that this hidden knowledge is either explicitly restricted to a small group of people, or implicitly self-restricted by virtue of its complexity or subtlety50.

If we follow Versluis’ first argument that we could just as well speak

about Western gnostic traditions as Western esoteric traditions it does

not correlated to his following characteristic of the common

denominators as being both gnosis and esotericism. And furthermore,

to argue that what esoteric traditions have in common is “esotericism”

seems a rather redundant statement to me. In his characterization of

Western esotericism Versluis continues to argue for the possibility to

see magic and mysticism as constitutive elements in Western

esotericism and to say that ‘magic and mysticism form the twin currents

that, like the intertwined serpents of Hermes’ caduceus, together make

up much of the stream of Western esotericism’51. He correlates magic

to “cosmological gnosis” and mysticism to “metaphysical gnosis”, thus

forming two poles or esoteric pools in which the different traditions

can partake. Versluis explains the difference between the two as

follows:

Cosmological gnosis illuminates the hidden patterns of nature as expressing spiritual or magical truths; it corresponds, more or less, to the via positiva of Dionysius the Areopagite. Metaphysical gnosis, on the other hand, represents assertions of direct insight into the transcendent; it corresponds, more or less, to the via negativa of Dionysius the Areopagite52.

In a general demarcation of Western esotericism it is out of place to use

distinctions made by a single tradition, i.e. Dionysius the Areopagite, as

the foundation for an academic typology as is the case in the above

quotation. This mixture however, is exemplary to Versluis’ general

50 Versluis: Mysticism and Magic, p. 2. 51 Versluis: Mysticism and Magic, p. 3. 52 Versluis: Mysticism and Magic, p. 166, emphasis by Versluis.


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perception of the ideal academic attitude towards Western esotericism.

Versluis sees Western esotericism as something entirely different from

anything else. Thus he concludes:

If Western esotericism is to fully develop as a field of scholarly inquiry, its unique nature must be recognized. Most unique about it is not its transdisciplinary nature alone, but the fact that its manifold currents are each concerned with new ways of knowing […] While purely historical research obviously has its place in this field, the most important works may be those that suggest new ways of seeing or knowing53.

In other words, according to Versluis it is not enough to use traditional

historical methods, rather, to achieve a full understanding of the object

of study we need to adapt the very same methods as this object. This is

further stressed in the introduction where Versluis writes:

What I am suggesting, in other words, is that in magic and mysticism we see areas of study that by their very nature are not entirely reducible to objects of rationalist discourse and manipulation, but instead border on and open into dimensions of life that remain partially veiled to us unless we enter into them for ourselves54.

There is hardly need for comments to a statement like this, other than

this is exactly why the academic study of esotericism might have a

difficult task in gaining acknowledgement within the study of religions

in general.

Among the different approaches and definitions of Western esotericism

that have been under scrutiny in the present chapter the one proposed

53 Versluis: Magic and Mysticism, p. 169. 54 Versluis: Magic and Mysticism, p. 5.

by Stuckrad seems to me to provide the most fruitful framework and to

be the most consistent.


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Thus this elaborated definition of Western esotericism will be my

foundation for the current thesis and my own references to esotericism

should be understood based on this background. The reason why I

choose this approach is that it complies with the criteria I sat out in the

introduction. These entailed that a definition of a theoretical category

such as the scholarly construct “Western esotericism” must be based on

strictly theoretical foundation. However, reservations can be taken

against this approach too. The gravest criticism would be that it does

not even touch upon the difficult issue of what “Western” might entail.

For an adequate definition of Western esotericism and not just

esotericism this would be imperative.

In short esotericism can be seen as a structural discourse pertaining a

claim of absolute knowledge which is combined with a dialectics of

secrecy and revelation. This dialectic relationship between the hidden

and the revealed is of immense importance in the main part of

kabbalistic texts, and, as we shall see, it is also central to arriving at an

adequate definition of Kabbalah, a task that will be pursued in the

following chapter.

1.2 Defining Kabbalah

1.2.1 The Symbolic World of the Sefirot A reoccurring central topic in the following chapters is the kabbalistic

doctrine of the ten sefirot wherefore it is important to give a basic

introduction to this highly complex discourse. Very generally, the

kabbalistic picture of the godhead can be described as an organic

multidimensional system where all possible aspects of creation are

included. The supreme transcendent God is seen as the essence of Ein

Sof (no end) and can not be comprehended and the only way to

perceive him is through the symbolic language of the materialized

creation. This creation is mirrored in the divine realm in the concept of


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the ten sefirot, a system of divine emanations ranging from the

uppermost sefirah Keter (crown) where God still is utmost transcendent,

down to the lowest tenth sefirah Malkhut, identified with the Shekhinah,

the feminine aspect of God who dwells with Israel as long as it is

righteous and who is immanently present in all of creation. It is through

the Shekhinah that the (male) mystic can approach the godhead and

eventually “climb the cosmic tree” in order to ascend through the

heavenly realms. She is like a mirror collecting and reflecting the divine

light shining forth from all the other sefirot, first gathered in the ninth

sefirah Yesod (foundation, but also the penis in the anthropomorphic

image of the sefirot) and then impregnating the Shekhinah who can now

pour the divine providence down on Israel.

Below Keter, we find a sefirotic pair called H�okhmah (wisdom) and Binah

(understanding) which represent the essential fatherhood and

motherhood respectively. The next pair is H�esed (mercy) and Gevurah

(strict judgement, justice). When there is unbalance in the world of the

sefirot the most recognizable effect is that the fire of Gevurah is

strengthened and evil which clings to the holy sphere by the shells of

this sefirot becomes more powerful in both the divine and the human

world. Further down there is the pair of Netzah (eternity) and Hod

(glory) and the last of the ten sefirot to be mentioned is the sixth sefirah

Tiferet who can be paired with Malkhut, the Shekhinah. He is the groom

and the absolute masculine aspect of God while she is the bride and the

ultimate feminine 55 . Outside these ten is a hidden sefirah, Da’at

(knowledge). In medieval Kabbalah this sefirah is somewhat uncommon

but as will be demonstrated later it holds a position in Joseph Gikatilla’s

55 It is a very simplified picture I have given on the system of the sefirot. I will refer to the following for a more subtle picture of this complex divine realm: Tishby: Zohar pp.269-308, Scholem: Major Trends, p.205-243, Scholem: On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead; ‘Shekhinah’ p.140-197, Scholem: Kabbalah p.96-116 and Wolfson: Through a Speculum that Shines. The latter presents a special emphasis on the sefirot as the visual representation of god in the imagination. It should be noted that this is the presentation of the sefirot to be found from the Bahir and on. The sefirot appearing in the Sefer Yetzirah has a totally different, much more static function, strictly tied to the process of creation through the Hebrew language.


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Sha’arei Orah (Gates of Light). Da’at resides between the three upper

sefirot: Keter, H�okhmah and Binah and the seven lower: H�esed, Gevurah,

Tiferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod and Malkhut and denotes a certain hidden

knowledge necessary in order to reach the upper triad. There are

explicit erotic connotations to the word Da’at since this is the biblical

word used for sexual intercourse. In kabbalistic rendering it becomes a

symbol of the higher knowledge which is achieved when the erotic

fusion between the masculine and feminine aspects of the sefirot is

completed and Malkhut is filled with the divine light.

1.2.2 The quest for a Definition The foundation of the scholarly preoccupation with Kabbalah in

modern times lies with Gershom Scholem who spent most of his life

studying kabbalistic texts 56 . The theories exposed by Scholem

dominated the field until his death in 1982 and it was a very

comprehensive albeit one sided picture of Kabbalah that was

presented 57 . Scholem was responsible for making Kabbalah a

recognized field for academic studies and he made it accessible through

extensive publishing of the kabbalistic manuscripts and dozens of

articles and monographs on the subject but the monopole status that

Scholem had in Kabbalah scholarship made the field freeze in the

position towards its subject. Scholem’s approach was reproduced by his

students and with Idel’s words resulted

in a striking lack of novel theories of the nature of Jewish mysticism that differ from those of Scholem […] His views have been repeated time and again with no proper attempt to add new theoretical perspectives influenced by modern research in comparative religion58.

56 For a discussion of Scholem’s predecessors in Kabbalah scholarship see Daniel Abrams: ‘Defining Modern Academic Scholarship’. 57 The following discussion is based on reading s of the following of Scholem’s works: Origins of Kabbalah, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah and On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead. 58 Idel: Kabbalah, p. 23.


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Scholem’s focus was the kabbalistic works which revolved around the

doctrine of the ten sefirot, the doctrine that has been designated as the

theosophical Kabbalah. Scholem viewed Kabbalah as an intellectual,

theoretical pursuit and this was what he wanted to promote. Those

texts that did not fit into this narrative were bypassed in silence. A

reason for this choice was that Scholem wanted to see Kabbalah as an

intellectual elitist type of Judaism, that is, as an elevated form of pious

religiosity. A more practical and especially magical involvement did not

fit into this picture. Thus the definition of Kabbalah rested on the

concept of the doctrine of the ten sefirot, a definition that excluded

several important kabbalistic works, in particular those of the prophetic

or ecstatic kabbalist Abraham Abulafia59 . However, Scholem does

consider Abulafia to be kabbalist, thus showing an example of the

inconsistency in Scholem’s theory. Joseph Dan adheres to Scholem’s

restrictive definition of Kabbalah, as he regards the doctrine of the ten

sefirot as pivotal to all kabbalistic texts. He states, regarding the text

Ma’ayan ha H�okhmah (Fountain of Wisdom) that will be analysed in a

subsequent chapter of this thesis:

These mystical works can - and perhaps should - be read as comprising a Jewish mysticism completely free of the symbols and theories of the Kabbalah. These texts share neither the sources nor the symbolic theosophy of the Kabbalah60.

This statement is problematic since the defining factor of Kabbalah is

the ambiguous term ‘symbolic theosophy’ which turns out to be the

59 The scholar who has made a great effort to include ecstatic Kabbalah in his approaches and definitions of Kabbalah is primarily Moshe Idel who has published extensively on Abulafia and ecstatic/ prophetic Kabbalah and mysticism. See among others: Messianic Mystics, The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, and Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah. A more nuanced view of the Kabbalah of Abulafia is also found in Wolfson: Abraham Abulafia. On Scholem’s views on Abulafia see Idel: ‘The Contribution of Abraham Abulafia’. 60 Dan: The Early Kabbalah, p. 26.


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doctrine of the ten sefirot as it is expounded in the Bahir61 . The ‘Hug ha

Iyyun (Circle of Contemplation)62 which was the kabbalistic group

behind the Fountain of Wisdom, did use the concept of the sefirot, though

mainly as they were used in the Sefer Yetzirah63 which is a common

source for many kabbalistic texts. Concerning the apparently missing

‘theories of the Kabbalah’ I will later show that in the Fountain of Wisdom

we can find an attitude towards language that is shared by later

kabbalists, especially Gikatilla, and if accepting Moshe Idel’s proposal of

seeing the tradition of the divine names64 as a constituting factor of

Kabbalah, the texts of the ‘Iyyun - circle can by all means be considered

as a kabbalistic group.

It is interesting to note that the kabbalists themselves acknowledged

different kinds of Kabbalah. Abulafia gives three types of religious

involvement: The philosophical, the Kabbalah of the sefirot and the

Kabbalah of the divine names, where one has to go through each step

to go to the next. As Elliot Wolfson argues:

For Abulafia himself, the Kabbalah embraces both the knowledge of the sefirot and the knowledge of the letters, an idea that he traces back to the thirty-two paths of wisdom mentioned in the Sefer Yesirah, which consist of the ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters65.

61 Sefer ha Bahir is generally considered one of the earliest kabbalistic writings and is probably written in the last half of the 12th century in Provence. See Abrams: The Book Bahir (in Hebrew) for the best edition and study of the text. Other editions are Saverio Campanini: The Book Bahir, a critical edition of Flavius Mithridates Latin translation, providing Hebrew, Latin and English translation of the text. Scholem: Das Buch Bahir and Aryeh Kaplan’s English translation (though his commentaries are not reliable): The Bahir. 62 See chapter 2.4: The Fountain of Wisdom. 63 Though not itself a kabbalistic work, the Sefer Yetzirah, probably composed somewhere between the 4th and the 9th century CE has been of immense importance in medieval kabbalistic literature. It was in this text the notion of the ten sefirot first appeared, though in another guise than the one developed by the later kabbalists. For the latest and best edition, translation and commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah see Peter Hayman: Sefer Yesira. See also below, chapter 2.1. 64 See below. Idel: ‘Defining Kabbalah’. 65 Wolfson: Abraham Abulafia, p. 6 (emphasis by Wolfson).


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As is explained by Wolfson, Abulafia sees the sefirotic Kabbalah as a

lower form of Kabbalah, where the Kabbalah that is concentrated on

the divine names is seen as the true or most advanced Kabbalah66.

It is a difficult task to establish a comprising definition of Kabbalah.

The word in itself means reception or transmission and is thus closely

linked to notions of authority and tradition. Moshe Idel’s attempt at

arriving at a solution traces the first use of the word qabbalah, which he

finds in relation to the transmission of the doctrine of the divine names

in texts from the gaonic (8th to 10th century CE) period. He finds that:

The secret doctrine related to the pronunciation of the divine names was designated as qabbalah long before the first references to this term in relation to the doctrine of the ten sefirot67.

This is part of Idel’s refutation of Scholem’s and Dan’s insistence of the

doctrine of the ten sefirot as en essential and constitutive part of

Kabbalah. Both Scholem and Joseph Dan68 also reject seeing the

Ashkenazi esoteric literature as part of Kabbalah69, whereas if we accept

Idel’s approach and see the esoteric doctrine of the divine names as a

constitutive element of Kabbalah, the Ashkenazic writings of Eleazar of

Worms are without doubt part of the kabbalistic text corpus70.

Heidi Laura follows Idel in her delimitation of Kabbalah, though her

approach goes a step further:

The kabbalistic usage of the term “Kabbalah” suggests that it is primarily a marker for esoteric transmission rather than a specific set of doctrines. “Kabbalah” may indeed

66 Wolfson: Abraham Abulafia, part II, especially p. 104-106. See also Wolfson: ‘The doctrine of Sefirot’. 67 Idel: ‘Defining Kabbalah’, p. 101. 68 In his book Kabbalah, Dan does not even mention the medieval Ashkenazi Kabbalah. 69 For a representation of Scholem’s and Dan’s views on the Ashkenaz see Dan: ‘Ashkenazi Hasidim’. 70 Eleazar of Worm’s book Sefer ha-Shem (the Book of the Name) is a perfect example of an Ashkenazic kabbalistic text concerning the theurgical and theosophical aspects and uses of the divine names.


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refer to any tradition that is transmitted esoterically and that can be claimed to be part of an ancient layer of Jewish wisdom.71

In order to arrive at a useful and adequate definition of Kabbalah, it is

necessary to clarify which taxonomical level the definition belongs to.

Since Kabbalah is not only a scholarly construct but was and is actually

used as an identity marker for historical groups and persons we cannot

argue for a completely ahistorical definition. What I will propose is a

twofold approach to Kabbalah, namely a typological definition which is

closely connected to a historical definition: 1) Kabbalah is the product

or activity of a historical current of people who use the notion of

Kabbalah as a designation of the practice and transmission of Jewish

esoteric knowledge and who often identify themselves as mequbalim –

kabbalists. 2) Kabbalah can be seen as a discourse of transmitting

esoteric teachings claimed to belong to ancient Jewish wisdom lore

received through either an unbroken chain of transmission or by direct

revelation.

That the typological definition is tied to the historical one implies that a

kabbalistic discourse cannot be found before the appearance of the

historical Kabbalah in Western culture. However it also means that it is

possible to find kabbalistic discourses that have no connection to the

historical Kabbalah. As will be demonstrated later religious groups

making use of a kabbalistic discourse might not consider themselves

neither kabbalists nor necessarily Jewish.

Laura continues the discussion of transmission, also elaborated by

Wolfson and Idel72, regarding the different modes of transmission of

kabbalistic teachings, that is, the relation between what was orally

71 Laura: The Ashkenazi Kabbalah, p. 42. If the esoteric mode of transmission is seen as referring to the dialectics between the hidden and the revealed as suggested in Stuckrad’s definition of esotericism, we get very close to a comprehensive definition of Kabbalah. For the esoteric dialectics of transmission of secret teachings in Kabbalah see Wolfson: ‘Kabbalah’. 72 Wolfson: ‘Beyond the Spoken Word’ and Idel: ‘Transmission’.


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transmitted and what was written down. Her heuristic conclusion is as

follows:

We may imagine the scope of the term “Kabbalah” as a circle that has the most esoteric traditions and practices in its centre, surrounded by layers of traditions that to a still greater degree can be transmitted in written and more accessible form without jeopardizing them. Traditions on holy names, prophetism and magic would then be at the centre of the circle, while the theosophical symbolism would be found in the more exterior layers.73

However, this does not explain that so much kabbalistic material,

belonging to the central and therefore most esoteric teachings, has been

written down and thus more or less exposed to the public, unless we

assume that these writings were meant to be accompanied by oral

teachings.

The problem of definition is not made easier by the constant confusing

of the terms “mysticism” and “esotericism”.

Joseph Dan who has written extensively on Kabbalah is not consistent

in his use of the terms and sometimes consequently refers to Kabbalah

as Jewish mysticism74 and other times as Jewish esotericism75, without

properly clarifying the exact meaning of his use of the words. It seems

that Dan prefers the use of esotericism to denote the purely intellectual

and theosophical kabbalistic pursuits where mysticism is reserved for

the ecstatic Kabbalah as that presented by Abulafia.

It is a general problem of scholars outside the specific study of

esotericism, that very often they use the word ‘esoteric’ as

interchangeable with ‘secret’ and both Joseph Dan and the scholars that

I will discuss below are part of this terminological problem.

73 Laura: The Ashkenazi Kabbalah, p. 43. It is interesting to note that Joseph Dan takes the total opposite stand and regards the theosophical doctrines to be the core of kabbalistic esotericism (Dan: ‘Christian Kabbalah’ p. 121 and 128). However, this is not surprising when recalling his definition of Kabbalah as the traditions concerning the ten sefirot. 74 Dan: ’In Quest of a Historical Definition’. 75 Dan: ’Christian Kabbalah’.


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Part of the problem of the definition of Kabbalah, especially with

regard to the question of whether the Ashkenazic pietists are included

or not, is the issue of origins and the history of transmission within

Kabbalah.

Scholem’s theory of the history of Kabbalah can be described as an

attempt to locate the origins of Kabbalah in the Orient. He assumed

that an oriental esoteric tradition opposed to rabbinic Judaism was

passed untouched from the Orient, through Germany to Provence,

where it suddenly developed into Kabbalah. The Ashkenaz was not

counted as an important factor in the formation, but was seen as a

channel, which only passed on the tradition without adding anything

new to it76. This is what can be described as the linear theory which has

been heavily criticized the last twenty years, especially by Moshe Idel,

Elliot Wolfson, Mark Verman, Daniel Abrams, and Heidi Laura who

sums up the discussion77:

This theory is often called Scholem’s linear theory, but since the crucial point is the assumption that the kabbalists inherited and developed ancient mystical traditions that had passed “untouched” from the Orient to Provence, I will also refer to it as the “Oriental link theory”78.

The opposing theory is what Heidi Laura calls “the organic

development theory” which emphasizes the pluralistic and

communicative development of Kabbalah within the borders of

rabbinic Judaism; both in the circles of mystics in the Diaspora of

Germany and in France and Spain79. According to this theory Kabbalah

was formed by continuing exchanges of ideas between the different

Jewish mystical circles of Europe. The theory thus corresponds better

76 Scholem: Origins, especially ch. 2:4 and 2:9. 77 See especially: Idel: Kabbalah, ch. 1 and 2, Ibid: ‘Rabbinism Versus Kabbalism’, Wolfson: Through a Speculum, Mark Verman: ‘The Evolution’ p. 167-170, Abrams: ‘Defining Modern Academic Scholarship, Ibid: ‘The Literary Emergence’, Laura: The Ashkenazi Kabbalah. See also Harvey Hames: The Art of Conversion, ch. 1 and Daniel Weidner: ‘Reading Gershom Scholem’. 78 Laura, The Ashkenazi Kabbalah, p. 33.


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to the general view of European Middle ages as a pluralistic and non-

static world. What could be added is the importance of

interconfessional circles which paved the way for the infusion of Neo-

Platonic philosophy into medieval Jewish thought.

An example of the vivid exchange of ideas throughout European

intellectual circles is the preoccupation with the notion of evil and

demonology, which suddenly appeared in the works of the kabbalists of

southern Europe, particularly those of Isaac ha-Kohen80. The different

forces of darkness have always been considered a reality in major

currents of Judaism, so this is not puzzling; however the degree of the

mythological framework ascribed to evil appearing in these works is.

The most probable situation is that Kohen was influenced by the

German pietists through especially the Bahir and creatively composed

his treatises from these influences and his own theological creativity.

The influence of Kohen’s works did not spread far, but he inspired

those who counted the most: Moses de Leon and Joseph Gikatilla.

Neither the student of Isaac ha-Kohen Moses de Burgos nor Kohen’s

brother Jacob ha-Kohen elaborated further on the radical dualistic

worldview as presented by Isaac ha-Kohen. Rather they turned back to

more moderate considerations about the concept of evil. As Isaac ha-

Kohen was influenced by Ashkenazi ideas, so in turn did he inspire the

later German mystics. Menahem Ziyyoni’s works especially bear many

traces of the demonological and cosmological speculations presented by

Kohen81. The radical dualism of Isaac ha-Kohen and the so called

Gnostic mythology exposed in the Bahir were the main reasons for

Scholem to indicate the origin of Kabbalah as gnosticism, a discussion

we will turn to in the following chapter.

79 Laura, The Ashkenazi Kabbalah, p. 34. 80 Kohen: Treatise on the Left Emanation. 81 Laura, The Ashkenazi Kabbalah, chapter 5 and Huss: ‘Demonology and Magic’.

1.2.3 Kabbalah and Gnosticism


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A central component of Scholem’s linear theory was his conviction of

Gnosticism as a predecessor and direct influence of Kabbalah,

especially the Bahir. The problem was first addressed by Scholem in

193882, and has been discussed widely ever since83. Tishby agrees with

Scholem in that gnosticism influenced the theosophical system as it was

found in the Zohar, and was a constituent element in the pleromatic

doctrine of the ten sefirot84.

In the article ‘Jewish Gnosticism’ 85 , Joseph Dan argues that a

distinction has to be made between “gnosticism” and “gnostic” where

gnosticism refers to a specific group of mystical sects and movements between the late first century C.E. and the thirteenth, sects and movements which had different ideologies, symbolisms and religious views, with very few, if any, characteristics common to them all86.

“Gnostic” denotes the

proximity of a certain idea or symbol to an artificial, modern concept created by scholars in the field of history of religions, a concept which may have never existed in historical reality87.

82 First published in Reshit ha-Kabbalah in 1938, then in the enlarged German version Ursprung und Anfänge der Kabbalah in 1962 and finally in Origins of Kabbalah in 1987. Please note that the first Hebrew version was published before the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library in 1945. He later elaborated further on this thesis in ‘Merkabah Mysticism and Jewish Gnosticism’, published in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 1941 and in Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic Tradition in 1960. 83 The subject has been thoroughly treated by Nathaniel Deutsch in his The Gnostic Imagination, though the force of this book lies in its account of Scholem’s treatment of the problem and its examination of the sources from Antiquity, rather than a convincing theory regarding the seemingly gnostic inspiration in medieval Kabbalah. See also Dan: ‘Gershom Scholem’s Reconstruction’, Idel: Kabbalah, p. 115 – 117, Wolfson: ‘Review of Gershom Scholem’, and Abrams: ‘Jewish Gnosticism’. 84 Tishby: The wisdom of the Zohar, p. 236. 85 Dan: ’Jewish Gnosticism’. Dan has discussed the problem of Kabbalah and gnosticism in a series of articles: ‘Kabbalistic and Gnostic Dualism’, ‘The Emergence of Messianic Mythology’ and ‘Samael and the Problem of Jewish Gnosticism’. Though the latter implies a rather selective reading of the text The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit (The Gospel of the Egyptians), NHC III,2 & IV, 2. I agree with Dan’s main point that there is no proof of any direct affinities between ancient gnostic texts and medieval Kabbalah. 86 Dan: ’Jewish Gnosticism’, p. 316-317. 87 Dan: ’Jewish Gnosticism’, p.317


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With the distinctions between “gnosticism” and “gnostic” in mind it

should be possible to keep the two terms in an academic discourse.

Because to criticize and discard a term for having no historical reality

would imply the abolition of many of the crucial terms in the history of

religions as for example religion, ritual, mysticism, esotericism, tradition

and so on. What is important is to be aware that these terms are

scholarly constructions with, if not more then at least, a heuristic

purpose.

The reason I still find it relevant to use the two terms are, that what

these so-called gnostic movements might have in common is exactly

why they in the first place would have been called gnostic, that is the

emphasis on gnosis as the only way of salvation88. One should limit the

use of the categories of “gnosticism” and “gnostic” to the literary

genres exposed in the Nag Hammadi library and its circles, even though

some of the discourses presented there could fit other religious

categories as well, and realize that the categories do not necessarily

exclude each other. However, to use the terms “gnostic” and

“gnosticism” in a kabbalistic context seems to obscure more than to

clarify, especially since the affinities, if any, between gnosticism and

Kabbalah are only of typological nature. These typological similarities

are mainly the idea of a divine pleroma composed of sefirot in the case

of Kabbalah and aeons in that of gnosticism, the apparent cosmological

dualism, coincident names and the magical/ theurgical efficacy of divine

names. However, this is not a sufficient argument for the use of the

term gnostic as a designation for kabbalistic concepts.

For the present discussion this is meant to show how typological

characteristics have served for scholars of Kabbalah, i.e. Scholem and

88 Hanegraaff ’Gnosticism’. For further discussion about “Gnosticism” see Williams: Rethinking Gnosticism and Karen King: What is Gnosticism ?. The term gnosis could serve a purpose outside the field of gnosticism as a synonym for higher or absolute knowledge. However, to avoid confusion I prefer not to use the term. See also Merkur:Gnosis for an elaborate though contestable account of “gnosis” as a certain esoteric tradition of “visionary practices” within the three scriptural religions.


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Tishby in particular to trace Kabbalah back to the orient as part of their

linear theory of the origins and transmission of Kabbalah. The result is,

as we have seen in the case of Faivre’s definition of Western

esotericism, a deficient theoretical construction where typological and

historical categories are confused.

1.2.4 Summary In the preceding chapters I have discussed different definitions and

approaches to Western esotericism and Kabbalah and reached the best

possible working definitions of both. I will briefly summarize the

chosen definitions before continuing to the discussion of mysticism.

• Esotericism is a discursive strategy implying a claim of higher or

absolute knowledge combined with a notion of secrecy in the

way of transmitting this knowledge. For pragmatic reasons we

can delimitate the field to only denote discourses prevalent in

the West. However, Western should be understood in its

broadest possible sense, as a geographical category with

whatever pluralistic cultural and religious implications this might

entail. Western esotericism should thus not be restricted to a

certain period or cultural or religious denomination within

Western history.

• 1) Kabbalah can be seen as a discourse transmitting esoteric

teachings claimed to belong to ancient Jewish wisdom lore. Thus

the definition does not rely on a certain set of doctrines but

rather on the mode of transmission. In this context “esoteric”

must be seen as defined through the above criteria. 2) Kabbalah

is the product or activity of a historical current of people, the

mequbalim, who use the notion of Kabbalah as a designation of

the practice and transmission of Jewish esoteric knowledge.


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With these definitions in mind we can move on to the discussion of

whether Kabbalah should be regarded as “mysticism” or “esotericism”.

To do this I will begin with a discussion of mysticism per se and attempt

to arrive at a useful definition of the concept, before discussing the

classification of Kabbalah.

1.3 Mysticism or Esotericism. An Attempt at

Clarification

Neither mysticism nor esotericism are fixed and unambiguous

categories. The purpose of this chapter is to make an attempt to

untangle the seeming randomness in which the terms are used.

When addressing the question of a definition of ‘mysticism’ per se

several problems arise. Joseph Dan calls his approach to mysticism for

“the contingental approach” and emphasizes the historical contextual

nature of his definition:

This methodology can be characterized as a contingent approach to the study of mysticism; it emphasizes the study of a specific context, striving to reach general conclusions based on a comparative study of particular cases in detail, rather than using any abstract concept and imposing it on individual religious phenomena89.

If we take Jensen’s remark on the importance of a strictly theoretical

foundation for definitions, and if we see definitions as he suggests, as

“the shortest possible versions of theories”, then it is evident that the

approach proposed by Dan runs the same risk of typological confusion

as we have seen earlier since he bases it on historical evidence. The

actual definition of mysticism reached by Dan does, however escape

this theoretical problem but is nonetheless still very problematic. He

states that mysticism implies:

89 Dan: ’In Quest’ p. 2.(emphasis by Dan).


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…the negation of the veracity of communicative language, and the belief in a noncommunicative truth lying in a symbolic fashion deep within revealed divine language90.

Though I do agree in Dan’s denial of a universal sui generis mysticism, I

find his “contingent” approach to mysticism too restrictive since he

emphasizes the necessity of the presence of historical groups or persons

to be designated as “mystics” for their products to be studied as

mysticism. Dan argues for the importance of locating the beginning of a

certain mystic tradition91. Furthermore, he contends that mysticism is

reserved for the three scriptural religions:

Only scriptural religion offers a valid, structured avenue of mystical expression by its insistence that God, the source of all truth, chose human language for His own expression, both when creating the world by the power of language and when revealing His secrets to the prophets and His other messengers92.

I will discuss Dan’s perception of language in more detail in a

subsequent chapter, but here it is important to note that to Dan the

perception of language as being of divine origin is a necessary part of

what can be designated as mysticism93.

Much of the modern conceptions of mysticism tend to focus on the

non-sensory, ineffable experiences of the divine, often emphasizing an

internal experience of unity with the divine. A result of this is, as

Richard King argues, that mysticism becomes decontextualized in that

the account of the experience is seen as autonomous and devoid of any

social relevance94.

90 Dan: ’In Quest’, p. 31. 91 Dan: ’In Quest’, part III. 92 Dan: ’In Quest’, p.30. Though it is evident that my view of Dan’s approach is very critical, see Hanegraaff: ‘On the Construction’ p. 52-54 for another presentation of Dan. 93 This is a highly problematic statement since it excludes many eastern forms of mysticism like that presented by Nagarjuna or the mystical aspects of Daoism, to take a few examples. 94 King: Orientalism, ch. 1.


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Dan can be seen as an example of how the study of mysticism within

the history of religions has, in recent years, shifted its focus from seeing

Christian mysticism, Jewish mysticism etc. as manifestations of a

universal religious phenomenon95 to embedding the different mystical

traditions within their normative religious traditions. Thus studying the

different historical evidence as belonging to a distinct religious, social

and cultural context is now the norm. Steven T. Katz argues for the

very conservative character of mystical experiences and convincingly

shows that the mystic experiences whatever he/ she expects to

experience96. Though the social and cultural context of a given mystical

experience is of immense importance, as Annette Wilke and Michael

Sells also contend, Katz’ approach has the danger of being too

reductionistic since it leaves no room for personal creativity or strictly

cognitive processes. Furthermore, it does not give any solution to the

definitorial problem of mysticism as we are still in the realm of

‘experience’. McGinn tries to overcome this problem in his

monumental work on Christian mysticism:

When I speak of mysticism as involving an immediate consciousness of the presence of God I am trying to highlight a central claim that appears in almost all mystical texts. Mystics continue to affirm that their mode of access to God is radically different from that found in ordinary consciousness… What differentiates it from other forms of religious consciousness is its presentation as both

95 This has been presented, among others, by Rudolph Otto who saw the mystical experiences as experiences of the “Holy” that he believed to be behind all religions. See Otto: Mysticism. More recently Frits Staal has promoted the idea of a universal mysticism, though from a different angle. Staal argues that the common mystical experiences in different cultures can be explained from a psychological point of view in that the human consciousness generates similar experiences and only the interpretation of these experiences is culturally conditioned, see. Staal: Exploring Mysticism. Staal also argues that a student of mysticism inevitably has to become a practitioner of mysticism him/herself to be able to understand mysticism properly (Staal: Exploring Mysticism p. 154.) This also shows Staal’s perception of the mystical experience as being trans-subjective since he believes the actual experience to be the same from one person to another. However, this cannot be defended from an academic viewpoint, since it is not possible to detach the interpretation from the experience itself. We have to accept that the only acces to mystical experiences are the descriptions of various sorts, not the experiences themselves. 96 Katz: ‘The ‘Conservative’ Character of Mystical Experience’.


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subjectively and objectively more direct, even at times immediate97.

This, however, only moves the problem from one place to another. It

evades the problematic focus on ‘experience’ but ends up in the even

more ambiguous term of ‘religious consciousness’. The same problem

arises in Moshe Idel’s definition of mysticism as ‘intensified

religiosity’98, since one is left to wonder how it is possible to measure

the degree of intensity or consciousness? This cannot be a theoretically

adequate criterion for defining mysticism. What might be appropriate is

to see mysticism as a certain religious activity. The mystical praxis

establishes a privileged speech situation, and what might be

characteristic of mystical speaking situations is the emphasis on a

rhetoric of transcendence, in which the mystic inscribes him/ herself.

Instead of focusing on a unio mystica, as many definitions of mysticism

do, this approach gives a broader concept of the mystical praxis.

Michael Sells calls the climax of this mystical activity for the ‘meaning

event’, a very useful concept taking the place of unio mystica. Additionally

it indicates a point of apprehension, that is, the ‘moment when the

meaning has become identical or fused with the act of predication’99.

In contrast to the realization as an instance of mystical union which entails a complete psychological, epistemological, and ontological transformation, the meaning event is a semantic occurrence… it is the semantic analogue to the experience of mystical union100.

This removes the focus from the experience itself, which we do not

have any access to, and places it on the description and/ or

interpretation of the experience. This also facilitates the use of the

97 McGinn: The Foundations of Mysticism, p. xix. 98 Lecture given at the EASR conference in Bucharest, September 2006. 99 Sells: Mystical Languages, p. 9. 100 Sells: Mystical Languages, p. 9.


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concept of “mysticism” with regard to many kabbalistic texts that often

do not imply the notion of Unio Mystica, but show different types of

contemplation, praxis and ecstasy.

Boaz Huss goes as far as to argue for the abandoning of the term

“mysticism” altogether. His radical position comes as a response to

recent voices within the Israeli academic study of Jewish mysticism who

argue that there is a need to include practical and experiential elements

in teaching Jewish mysticism in the academy. Not surprisingly other

voices strongly object to such an idea arguing that in an academic

context Jewish mysticism has to be taught from a purely historical and

theoretical perspective. Huss however, goes against both fractions

arguing that they both are

based on the same common assumption, namely that Kabbalah (along with the Hekhalot literature, Hasidism, and other Jewish cultural formations) is a Jewish expression of a universal mystical phenomenon101.

It is this very assumption that Huss wants to question as he argues:

“Mysticism” is not a universal category that should be used as a basis for academic study; rather it is a Christian theological term, that was used in the modern period due to political or theological motivations – in order to classify and categorize phenomena from non-Christian cultures. The use of this term is bound up in a theological position which, I believe, has no place in academic scholarship. The argument regarding how to teach “mysticism” is fundamentally not an academic debate, but a theological disputation102.

After the preceding discussions of the definition and use of the terms

esotericism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism and currently mysticism, it can be of

no surprise that I find Huss’ argument overreacting and simplistic. I can

fully agree with the first and basic problem of mixing religious practice

101 Huss: ‘Jewish Mysticism’, p.1.


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and academic study or teaching and perfectly contend to Huss’

argument that theological disputation has no place in the academic

study of religion and culture. However, to discard a term merely

because it was an originally theological concept is in my opinion not

very well thought out. It would, as already stated earlier with regard to

“gnosticism” mean that we would have to get rid of a large portion of

the terminology that we use in the academic study of religion. After all,

whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, the study of religion did

emerge from within a theological position. One of Huss’ arguments for

the invalidity of the term mysticism is that it is used to denote cultural

phenomena in cultures to which the “mysticism” had no intrinsic

meaning. And thus, that the employment of the term to these cultures

was an expression of Western imperialism and colonialism 103 .

Furthermore, in Huss’ short description of the scholarly attempt at

defining “mysticism” he concludes with a sweeping generalization that

The shared assumption behind all these definitions is that people of different cultures all experience an encounter with a transcendental entity104.

As I have shown in the previous discussions this is a much too

simplistic picture to draw of the problem. Though none of the above

mentioned definitions are fully valid in my opinion they are definitely

too diverse to be collected in the general statement provided by Huss.

He continues to argue that there is absolutely no common elements

between the different “so-called mystical” cultural formations and that

the assumption that such elements should exist is based on reductionist

or essentialist “scholarship”. To me this tells more about Huss’ own

reductionist perception of the academic study of “mysticism” in

particular but also of religion in general. To me it seems clear that in the

102 Huss: ‘Jewish Mysticism’, p.1. 103 Huss: ‘Jewish Mysticism’, p.2. 104 Huss: ‘Jewish Mysticism’, p.2.


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broad study of religion much pain is taken to reevaluate theological

terminology and reinstate the terms in order to provide a proper

theoretical framework for the study of religion. If Huss had taken more

general theories of the problem of definition into consideration and had

expanded his discussion of mysticism to include these considerations, a

much more constructive approach could be reached. He fails

completely to consider the discussions by Michael Sells or Elliot

Wolfson for instance who both have a radically different approach to

mysticism than the general conclusion reached by Huss. Furthermore

it would have proved fruitful to try to view mysticism as a certain genre

or a structural element within religious discourse. Furthermore he

exaggerates the consequences of using the category “mysticism” in

academic research when he writes:

The use of the term mysticism implies that people, in all cultures, sometimes experience an encounter with the Divine, or a transcendent reality. Using this assumption to categorize cultural formations and to establish academic fields that are devoted to their study is based on the assumption that the cause of various historical, cultural and social phenomena is the encounter with the Divine or the Transcendent [sic!] reality105.

This is a completely misunderstanding of the use of the category of

mysticism in an academic context. To examine a certain historical

phenomenon under the rubric of mysticism does not mean to accept

the truth claims made by this phenomenon. An academic analysis of

such a phenomenon does not imply an uncritical adoption of the

religious worldview presented, but rather focuses on the cultural, social

and historical implications that these truth claims might entail. This is

what the study of religion is all about and I am certain Huss would

agree. So how come the study of mysticism in particular should not be

capable of this? If accepting that the notion of mysticism is nothing

105 Huss: ‘Jewish Mysticism’, p.4.


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more than an analytical tool, a scholarly concept useful in the academic

study of religion in order to be able to identify a certain structural

element within the vast field of historical evidence, then I do not see

any far reaching problems. Certainly one has to be critically aware all

the pitfalls mentioned by Huss but this is the case with “religion” in

general as well.

In my opinion the most comprehensive and useful definition of

mysticism is the one formulated by Annette Wilke:

• Mysticism is an umbrella concept for (1) experiences in which

boundaries are dissolved – those of the subject, such as in a vacuum of thought, or in ecstasy; those of the object, so that dualities are removed; those of space, to experience the infinite in the finite-, those of time, when the ‘timeless, everlasting now’ replaces successive time. Mysticism also denotes (2) the concepts, teachings, and literary genres that contemplate, recount or describe this immanent transcendence or transcendent immanence106.

An important consequence of this approach is that it leaves room for

the notion of Unio Mystica and other modes of experience but does not

regard it as mandatory for something to be termed mystical107. This

definition is also the one I will adhere to in the remaining thesis.

Regarding the confusion of the terms mysticism and esotericism Rousse

–Lacordaire proposes two observations. First, the semantic fields of

mysticism and esotericism are close to each other, both implying a

notion of secrecy. Second, he argues that many scholars consciously

have chosen to use the term mysticism instead of esotericism due to the

mainstream academic discredit of the study of esotericism108. He is to a

large extend right in his observations, albeit I do not agree with his

conclusion:

106 Wilke: ’Mysticism’, p. 1279. 107 Regarding the role of Unio Mystica in Kabbalah see Idel:Kabbalah ch. 4 and Ibid. ‘Unio Mystica’. Idel convincingly argues against Scholem’s steadfast conviction that there is absolutely no Unio Mystica to be found in Kabbalah. 108 Rousse-Lacordaire: ‘Mysticism’ p. 818.


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Esotericism and mysticism do have similarities: the primacy of experience and inner transformation, the quest for unity, and the claim that the very heart of religion will be revealed only by going beyond rational discursivity109.

Obviously the implicit definition of esotericism is that of Faivre and it

is also Faivre’s distinction between mysticism and esotericism that

concludes the entry.

That the fields of mysticism and esotericism often coincide is a fact also

acknowledged by Faivre, who, however, does not emphasize the claim

of higher knowledge as what might separate the two categories, but

rather the role of intermediary agents:

…The mystic - in the strictly classical sense - aspires to the more or less complete suppression of images and intermediaries because for him they become obstacles to the union with God. While the esoterist appears to take more interest in the intermediaries […] He prefers to sojourn on Jacob’s ladder where angels (and doubtless other entities as well) climb up and down, rather than to climb to the top and beyond110.

At least Faivre himself calls this an oversimplified model, because it

essentializes both mysticism and esotericism to a degree of uselessness,

especially in disregarding the importance of visuality and intermediaries

in mystic discourse.

As stated, there is no agreement as to whether Kabbalah should be

designated Jewish mysticism, Jewish esotericism or simply Kabbalah,

avoiding any definitorial implications.

109 Rousse-Lacordaire: ‘Mysticism’ p. 819. 110 Faivre: Access to Western esotericism, p. 12.


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In Hebrew there is no word for mysticism. What is used is the word sod,

which literally means ”secret”, though usually in combination with

another word, e.g. sod ha-torah (secret of the Torah). Regarding

Kabbalah this word has been translated both as mysticism and as

esotericism, trying to denote a sense of social exclusivity. There is thus

no explicit differentiation made between mystical Kabbalah and esoteric

Kabbalah. However, by the proposed definitions of esotericism,

Kabbalah and mysticism respectively, I do believe it possible to discern

the different types of discourse in a given text. What is most important

in distinguishing mysticism from esotericism is the constitutive element

of esoteric discourse, namely the claim of a higher knowledge. This is

not necessarily involved in mystical activity, but it is by no means

excluded. Thus a given text can be both mystical and esoteric, but with

the proper analytical tool it is possible to clarify which levels are

mystical and which esoteric. Our definition of Kabbalah as transmitter

of esoteric teachings places Kabbalah in the centre of the field of

esotericism, yet as stated, this does not exclude mystical material since

the higher knowledge that is transmitted in the kabbalistic texts often is

achieved by means of mystical praxis.

Before turning to an example of esoteric discourse in two kabbalistic

texts, I will address the question of Kabbalah and esotericism a bit

further.

1.4 Kabbalah and Western Esotericism

I have in the previous chapters shown how Kabbalah can be defined as

the transmission of esoteric traditions i.e. traditions concerning higher

knowledge; and that this claim of possessing a special wisdom is exactly

what makes Kabbalah fit the concept of esoteric discourse. However,

since this position is not yet widely accepted I here present one of the

current discussions regarding the question of whether Kabbalah can be


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regarded as esoteric or not. In his book The Art of Conversion Harvey

Hames argues that Kabbalah should not be seen as esoteric. On the one

hand he wishes to withdraw Kabbalah from earlier assumptions that

Kabbalah is esoteric and elitist in its doctrine:

Generally, scholars who have worked on the Kabbalistic material have been inclined to take the texts at face value, in other words, to see the texts as a preserve of an elite who shared the esoteric knowledge among themselves… The question that needs to be answered is, why did these initiates start to put pen to paper and to write works devoted to Kabbalah?

And he answers:

The need for written texts goes hand in hand with the growing interest in the Kabbalistic approach to Judaism, and demonstrates clearly the impossibility of restricting the doctrines to an intellectual elite111.

He does concede however, that the kabbalistic texts have a twofold

purpose: The exoteric fulfils the need of attracting the attention of

curious readers, and the more esoteric purpose lies in what the texts do

not reveal, namely the techniques of gaining mystical experiences112.

This dialectic between the hidden and the revealed is of utmost

importance. Hames elaborates this further:

In the main, it was this distinction between the esoteric teachings and mystical practices associated with the names of God, and the general conception of the godhead and the inferences of these teachings for everyday life, which marked the borderline of what was revealed and what was concealed113.

I am certain that Hames is right in his conclusion, that there are

different levels of accessibility within the variety of kabbalistic texts.

111 Hames: The Art of Conversion, p.35-36. 112 Hames: The Art of Conversion, p. 36. It should be stated that the word esoteric in Hames apparently is used as a synonym for secret, something that is often the case in common scholarly literature. Albeit Hames does not speak of esotericism but only uses the adjective esoteric. This is an important distinction to maintain, though it still needs to be explicitly clarified how the term is used. 113 Hames: The Art of Conversion, p. 64.


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However, I find that he underestimates the theurgic implications of

engaging in theosophical Kabbalah, and after all, both kinds of texts are

written down and therefore more or less revealed to the public. Further

on it becomes clear that what is to be revealed only to initiates is the

secret knowledge of the chariot and of creation, whereas the theosophical

teachings concerning the sefirot are the foundation of more common

teaching114. But the secret doctrines of creation and the chariot can very

well be of theosophical kind and not necessarily connected to the

question of mystical techniques and divine names.

Though I do agree with Hames’ argument, that we need to examine the

kabbalistic text corpus within its social context, I am not persuaded by

his conclusions regarding the writing of the texts themselves. The

writing of esoteric material can very well be an element of an esoteric

discourse to reveal the secret teachings. That is, it is by no means

evident that everything in the written texts is possible to understand

without proper (oral) introduction or on the background of earlier

teachings. Also, the writing down of esoteric teachings could be a result

of an ever-growing amount of material, so that the only way to preserve

it would be to write it down. This is a purely hypothetical solution, but

the point is to show that the conclusion of Hames is as well. However,

the huge corpus of kabbalistic texts from the late medieval period does

indicate that Kabbalah grew in popularity, also as an alternative to the

more rationalistic and philosophical approach to Judaism as presented

by Maimonides. But I will argue that the different layers of accessibility

are not just thematic, since they are to be found within almost every

theme in the kabbalistic text corpus.

This solves some of the contradictory scholarly opinions regarding the

problem of esotericism versus exotericism in Kabbalah. Where Elliot

Wolfson sees Kabbalah as almost entirely esoteric, Harvey Hames

argues for the almost complete lack of esotericism within Kabbalah.

114 Hames: The Art of Conversion, p. 72.


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Again the problem seems to be mainly the equalization of esotericism

with secrecy115.

Another solution is found in an article by Yechiel Shalom Goldberg

where he examines the taxonomy in the works by mainly Scholem and

Idel and ends up comparing Wolfson’s approach with the one of

Hames. He sees one common denominator: namely wisdom in

different guises, traditional (Hames) or concealed (Wolfson):

One way to classify medieval Kabbalah, as it emerged in Provence and Catalonia and was elaborated in the Zohar, is a medieval form of wisdom literature, representative of a medieval wisdom tradition, with roots in biblical and rabbinic wisdom literatures, but also with features that set it apart from earlier wisdom traditions116.

Actually Goldberg points to, what I would argue is an element where

Kabbalah falls into place within an esoteric discourse, when he writes:

‘kabbalistic wisdom is a form of knowledge that can be transmitted

among tridents, but should not be transmitted openly’117. This also

complements our working definition of Kabbalah.

A fruitful approach to the esoteric side of kabbalistic texts is to see the

dialectical tension of the impossibility of revealing the secret

knowledge, meanwhile preserving this concealed secrecy as an

expression of an apophatic discourse. This type of discourse makes the

impossible dilemma of revealing the hidden a necessity for achieving

the ultimate knowledge regarding the divine. It should not be seen as an

epistemological problem to be solved by the scholar, but one of the

very means for the user of the texts to achieve illumination. Very similar

problems can be observed in the writings of Ibn Arabi, where every

statement about the divine is immediately dissolved in infinity. A

115 This is mainly the case with Hames’ use of the term. Wolfson seems to see esotericism as the dialectics between the hidden and the revealed. 116 Goldberg: ’Wisdom’, p. 13. 117 Goldberg: ’Wisdom’, p. 14.


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thorough analysis of this textual and discursive phenomenon is done in

the influential work by Michael Sells118. Apophatic discourse can often

be seen as connected to higher knowledge. However, in the texts which

will be examined later in this thesis, apophasis is not one of the keys

that connect language and higher knowledge. Rather, as I will show,

language serves a double function as both the means and the goal for

higher knowledge.

2. The Concept of Language in Medieval

Kabbalah

2.1 The Language of Creation

It is a basic premise for Judaism that the world is created by means of

the Hebrew language. In the cosmogony of the Torah god creates the

world out of nothing by ten utterances, that is, in Genesis I it is written

ten times “ויאמר אלהים” (and god said). The conclusion by the

rabbinical authorities in the mishnah Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Fathers)

5:1119 was that

Ten times God said something, a statement composed of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and behold – there was the world. From this one can conclude that by combining the powers of the letters with the numbers, God created the world out of nothing120.

118 Sells: Mystical Languages. 119 Neusner (transl.): The Mishnah, p. 672-688. 120 Dan: The Ancient Jewish Mysticism, p. 201.

This conclusion was taken to its extreme in the very short but highly

influential text, the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation). As previously noted

it was in this text that the concept of the sefirot was introduced, however

The Concept of Language in Medieval Kabbalah

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only in its basic meaning of “ciphers”. The main concern of this small

book was to give a precise representation of the process of creation as

expounded in Genesis. However, the scope was something radically

different from just a mishnahic exegesis. The purpose of the explanation

of the act of creation was nothing less than possibility of reproducing

the divine creation. With the words of Joseph Dan:

This is not a description of Genesis I but a scientific statement, that a certain combination of these thirty-two paths brings about the creation. This is not a formulation or a description, but a formulation which seeks to find the scientific truth regarding the way that the world was created – and if this is scientific truth, then bringing it to light means that one will be able to repeat the process, in all or in part. Thus whoever knows the secret of the thirty-two paths can possibly participate in the process of creation, either of a world or a creature121.

The thirty-two paths are the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet

combined with the ten numbers by which god created everything. As

the Sefer Yetzirah states in the first chapter:

Yah, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the Living God, God Almighty, high and exalted, dwelling for ever, and holy is his name, carved out thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom. He created is universe with three groups of letters (separim): with seper and seper and seper122.

The different groups of letters are later explained to be the twenty-two

letters of the Hebrew alphabet divided into three groups: 1) Three

primary letters or “mothers”, 2) seven double letters and 3) twelve

simple letters. However if we take the three groups as they are

explained in the alternative version they are not just groups of letters

121 Dan: The Ancient Jewish Mysticism, p.202 (emphasis by Dan). 122 Sefer Yetzirah §1, version A in Hayman: Sefer Yesira, p. 59. Hayman’s translation is a synoptic edition based on the earliest manuscripts. One of the other renderings of this paragraph reads in the last line: ‘He created his universe with three types of things: seper (writing), separ (numbers) and sippur (speech)’,(version C). The root letters however are the same: ספר.


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but contains the activity of writing and speaking a certain number of

times. This is elaborated further in several of the versions of the text. It

is evident that it is not just the writing of the language that has creative

powers but even more the act of speaking. This of course a direct

consequence of the creation story in Genesis I but here it is explained

in detail with regard to the pronunciation of the different letters. As in

§ 17:

The Twenty-two letters are the foundation: Three primary letters, seven doubles and twelve simple. They are carved out by the voice, hewn out in the air, fixed in the mouth in five positions123.

The author continues to explain how each letter is pronounced. It is in

the act of speaking that creation unfolds. However, it is not enough to

have created the universe by means of the letters. The letters are

combined and fixed on a wheel with two hundred and thirty-one gates,

the sum that is reached when combining each of the twenty-two letters

with all the others. The letters are also connected to the numbers, i.e.

the sefirot and they are seen as the basis where the letters are the

foundation of creation, and consequently creation can only be

accomplished by the combination of the two.

The sefirot are identified with different parts of creation so that the first

is the “Spirit of the Living God”, the next three are the elements air,

water and fire and the final six are the physical directions above and

below, east, west, north and south. The different parts of the newly

created world have to be sealed in order to be stable:

Five - he sealed above. He chose three simple letters and fixed them in his great name YHW (יהו). And he sealed with them the six edges (of the universe), and turned upwards and sealed it with YHW. Six – he sealed below. He turned downwards and sealed it with YWH. Seven – he sealed the east. He turned in front and sealed it with

123 Sefer Yetzirah §17, version A in Hayman: Sefer Yesira, p. 93.


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HYW. Eight – he sealed the west. He turned behind and sealed it with HWY. Nine – he sealed the south. He turned to his right and sealed it with WYH. Ten – he sealed the north. He turned to his left and sealed it with WHY124.

The notion of sealing something in order to gain control over it is a

widespread idea in late antiquity literature such as the Heikhalot texts,

Jewish magical treatises and certain of the so called gnostic texts,

especially the Books of Jeu and some of the apocryphal tractates of the

Nag Hammadi Library. However, the act of sealing is mainly attributed

to the human being who moves in the divine realms and not the

divinity itself. This is what could lead us to view the Sefer Yetzirah as a

manual of creation by which one can imitate the divine act of creation

more than just a cosmogony.

Several aspects of this short treatise are important with regards to the

later Kabbalah. First and most important is the invention of the

concept of the ten sefirot and second is the notion of the possibility of

copying the divine act of creation. Intrinsic to both is the concept of

language and what differed from the mainstream rabbinical

understanding of language was first and foremost the radically creative

nature attributed to the letters but also the basic view of the spoken

language as the foundation of the universe. As Dan sums up:

The two main characteristics of the concept of language in the Sefer Yezira are, first, language as an oral phenomenon, pronounced rather than written, and second, language as the expression of structure, reflecting the intrinsic structure of the divine world and emplying it to give shape and order to the universe and everything in it125.

The focus on the oral aspect of language had an enormous impact on

later Jewish esotericism where it was to be combined with idea of the

oral Torah. As we will later see in the analysis of the text the Fountain of

124 Sefer Yetzirah §15 , version A in Hayman: Sefer Yesira, p. 89-90.


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Wisdom it is the different types of pronunciation which come to be the

key to the esoteric knowledge inherent in the Hebrew language. These

different modes of dealing with language come from one of the final

parts of the Sefer Yetzirah:

When Abraham our father came, and looked, and saw, and investigated, and understood, and carved, and combined, and hewed, and pondered, and succeded, the Lord of All was revealed to him […] He bound twenty-two letters into his language, and the Holy One revealed to him the secret126.

This is also one of the key paragraphs for the reinterpretation given by

Abraham Abulafia who understood it such as prophesies could be

achieved through repeating what the biblical Abraham did. Thus his

ecstatic practices involved the seemingly random recitation of the

Hebrew letters until the sought experience was achieved. The Zohar on

the other hand made a quite different point from the paragraph. Here

Abraham was seen as the one who through his piousness became

worthy to study the oral Torah with god in his celestial academy.

In the Zohar the process of creation as it is expounded in the Sefer

Yetzirah is restated but the notion of the ten sefirot is put into a fullblown

mythical narrative. In this way all of Torah is seen as an explanation of

the inner life of the godhead as it unfolds in the sefirotic realm and the

creation is understood through sefirotic symbolism:

When concealed of all concealed verged on being revealed, it produced first a single pint, which ascended to become thought. Within, it drew all drawings, engraved all engravings, carving within the concealed holy lamp a graving of one hidden design, holy of holies, a deep structure emerging from thought, called מי (Who), origin of structure. Existent and non-existent, deep and hidden, called by no name but Who.

125 Dan:’The Language of Creation’, p. 146. 126 Sefer Yetzirah §61, version A in Hayman: Sefer Yesira, p. 182.


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Seeking to be revealed, to be named, it garbed itself in a splendid, radiant garment and created אלה (these). אלה attained the name: these letters joined with those, culminating in the name אלהים […] Just as מי is combined with אלה, so the name אלהים is constantly polysemous. Through this mystery the universe exists127.

The concealed of all concealed is Ein Sof which becomes Keter, the first

emanation when it is just about to be revealed. The single point is the

second sefirah, H�okhmah, the primordial point from where all creation

begins. In the drawing, engraving and carving all the subsequent sefirot

were prefigured within the divine thought before emerging in the

process of creation. The one hidden design is the third sefirah, Binah

from which the seven lower and more revealed sefirot emanates. This is

also why the upper triad of the sefirot, personified in Binah is called מי,

since she is so concealed that she is beyond naming. Only in

combination with the seven lower sefirot connected in the single name

can she be named with the name achieved by combining the two אלה

words, that is, אלהים. This name is said to be polysemous as it denotes

other sefirot than just Binah, most notably the Shekhinah.

This short introduction to the concept of the Hebrew language as the

means of creation serves as a background for the following discussion

of the esoteric implications of this understanding of language. The Sefer

Yetzirah and the Zohar can in this exposition be seen as two extremities

both in time and meaning, ranging from late Antiquity to the golden

days of Kabbalah in the thirteenth century and from the concise

“scientific” character of the first to the lengthy theosophical and highly

symbolic representations in the latter. Between these two extremes we

find the two texts I will focus on in the final chapters of this part of the

thesis. But first I will engage in a more general examination of the role

of language in the medieval Kabbalah and especially how language

127 Haqdamat Sefer ha-Zohar 1:2a, in Sefer ha Zohar, Pritzker edition vol. I, p.8.


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comes to serve as both the goal and the means of absolute or higher

knowledge.

2.2 Language as Higher Knowledge

The kabbalistic concept of the Hebrew language as both transmitter

and container of divine truths, some explicit and some inaccessible for

all other than the illuminated kabbalist, is an example of the esoteric

character of Kabbalah. Hebrew is not only seen as the primordial

language by which and of which the world is created. The kabbalistic

interpretation of language is even more radical in its view of the infinite

layers of meaning in the letters. This meaning is not only found in the

formation of words, but in the very appearance of the letters on the

Torah scroll. It is not only the black form of the written letter that is

significant, but even more the negative white background of the letter.

It is here that the secret and hidden meaning is to be found and it is

through this that the kabbalist can gain access to the supreme

knowledge of God128. An article by Scholem brings an interesting

quotation from Nahmanides:

We have an authentic tradition, according with which the whole of the Torah consists of divine names, namely in the manner in which the words, which we can read there, can be divided up in very varied ways, and namely into (esoteric)129 names… The Torah was originally written with black fire upon white fire130.

This idea has been the object of much rumination and one of the

interpretations was to see the white fire as the garments of god, or even

more radical, the very skin of god on which the pre-existent Torah was

128 Moshe Idel has treated this subject extensively in Idel: Absorbing Perfections, especially in chapter 2. 129 I suspect this word has been inserted by Scholem himself since, there is no word for esoteric in Hebrew and sod probably would not appear alone. 130 Scholem: ‘The Name of God (I)’ p. 77.


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written131. This makes it possible for the kabbalist to look behind the

written text and focus on the backgrund, the white fire, and thereby see

god himself. This is elaborated among others by Jacob ha-Kohen in his

Explanation of the Letters:

When I said to you that the white form and not the black exterior form in the aleph [א]corresponds to the exaltedness of the Holy One, blessed be He, I said this to you as a principle and a great secret: The white form corresponds to the white robe132.

Possibly this approach to language can be best described as a sort of

visual negative theology, where the reverse form of the letters is seen as

containing the ultimate knowledge of god and the Torah133.

Also according to Nahmanides, the Torah, when conceived of as a

series of divine names, is the oral Torah that was revealed to Moses134.

And with Scholem’s words:

For the kabbalists, God is at once the shortest and the longest name. The shortest because each individual letter in itself represents a name. The longest, because it expresses itself first as being all-encompassing in the total whole of the entire Torah135.

That the Torah is interpreted as an almost indefinite series of divine

names is exemplary to the kabbalistic concept of language in general.

Within the Hebrew language itself there are always deeper layers of

meaning which can be extracted from the text and the Torah, in being

divine, is just the perfect and most inexhaustible text of all. The

perception of the Torah as consisting of a myriad of divine names is the

131 Idel: Absorbing Perfections, p.47-50. 132 Jacob ha-Kohen: Explanation, p. 154. 133 See Idel: ‘Between Presence and Representation’ for an exposition of the relationship between god and the Torah. 134 Idel: ‘Between Presence and Representation’, p. 78. 135 Scholem: ‘The Name of God (II)’, p. 169-170.


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very foundation of the more particular and different ideas of language

that we meet in the different kabbalistic schools.

Moshe Idel presents three models of kabbalistic conception of

language, the ecstatic model, the talismanic model and the theosophical-

theurgical model:

The ecstatic model is concerned more with the changes a certain mystical technique, based mainly on language, may induce in man; the talismanic model emphasizes the effect that someone’s ritualistic linguistic acts may have on the external worlds; and the theosophical-theurgical model centers on inducing harmony within the divine realm136.

The talismanic model is elaborated further: In general, this approach can be called hyposemantic, which means that language is regarded as magically effective even when one ignores its semantic aspects137.

It is difficult to strictly maintain these categories in practice as the

kabbalistic text material often crosses these taxonomical boundaries, as

for instance in the case of the ineffable divine name YHVH. This name

is used as a designation for the supreme godhead and it bears no

meaning in itself but is on the other hand seen as the foundation of all

linguistic meaning, so this name could indeed be called hyposemantic

and it certainly also has an inherent efficacy as all the other divine

names do. But still, this name is used differently by the various

kabbalists and could very well fall into each of the abovementioned

categories even within the same texts. As in the case of the Gates of

Light, the name YHVH is both magical effective, hyposemantic and can

be used both for personal advantage and for inducing divine harmony.

Idel’s model is useful as a tool for opening up the texts under

136 Idel: Absorbing Perfections, p. 15. 137 Idel: Absorbing Perfections, p.14.


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examination, but it lacks one vital aspect with its focus on the effect or

goal of language, namely the concept of the infinite layers of meaning

within language in general and the Torah in particular.

Joseph Dan draws the distinction between communicative and non-

communicative language, and magical versus mystical uses of language.

Concerning the divine names he argues:

“we can define a sacred name of god as that linguistic expression of the divine that is not communicative; it just is, representing in a linguistic form the inexpressible essence of god himself”138.

As an example of this he shows how a piece from the Song of Songs is

used in the Heikhalot literature to denote the most secret and potent of

the names of god by arranging the verses with the title Tzevaot added to

each phrase. This, he argues is an example of how description is turned

into essence and how the mystics are doing their best to distance

themselves as far as possible from the communicative and semantic

aspect of language. In my opinion, this is not a correct interpretation of

the role of language in these texts. On the contrary I would argue that

the mystics try to combine these levels, so that language becomes both

communicative and non-communicative at the same time. In this way,

the verses from the Song of Songs mentioned by Dan are both a

description of god and his very essence.

The whole of the Torah can be understood strictly literally while at the

same time seen to include infinite layers of meaning, both linguistic,

that is communicative and visual and non-communicative when

focusing on the “white fire” instead of the “black fire”. In short: The

communicative aspect of the Torah is the different layers of semantics

inherent in the text while the non-communicative aspects are the

138 Dan: ‘The name of God’, p. 143.


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background of the letters and the mingling of letters to create non-

semantic structures from the text.

As is the case with the dialectics in transmission, the linguistic dialectics

are of the utmost importance in these texts: It is in the meeting point

between apparent oppositions that new levels of meaning are produced,

and it is this that is seen as the entrance to hidden and absolute

knowledge.

Regarding the other distinction made by Dan, of magical versus

mystical uses of language, this too seems difficult to maintain

empirically. Magical use of language should involve the idea of the

above mentioned inherent efficacy of the language and this is what Dan

wants to distance mysticism from. Especially in the Heikhalot texts and

in the ecstatic mysticism of Abraham Abulafia, it is this efficacy that

becomes the means for mystical illumination. In this way magical and

mystical interpretations of language get intermingled.

Idel has earlier approached the idea of the dialectic concept of language,

though from a slightly different angle, when he describes how

intentional speech such as prayer has a theurgical function that

transcends human creation to complement the descending divine

speech139.

In the following chapters I will present two kabbalistic texts in order to

exemplify my point about language as an esoteric discursive element in

Kabbalah. Though very different, both texts view and use language in

two ways: First, as a means to achieve higher knowledge, secondly, they

see the proper understanding of language, and as such the divine

names, as being the sought knowledge.

139 Idel: ’Reification of Language’.


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2.3 Gates of Light

Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla (1248 - c. 1325) was the author of several

kabbalistic tractates from the late thirteenth century. These works can

roughly be divided into two main parts, namely the philosophical-

kabbalistical writings and the theosophical-kabbalistical writings140. The

main focus of this chapter is one of Gikatilla’s most influential

theosophical books: the Sha’arei Orah (Gates of Light)141, which is a

systematic treatise concerning the ten sefirot and the divine names. Like

in his earlier writings, Gikatilla emphasizes the importance of the

Hebrew language as a means for enlightenment and the true perception

of the language can even be considered the goal of the kabbalist. But

unlike the earlier mainwork, Ginnat ‘Egoz (The Nut Garden), all wordplays

and elaborations on the divine names are connected to the sefirotic realm

and the names of the specific sefirot.

The chapters of the Gates of Light follow the structure of the classical

representation of the ten sefirot, namely as a tree. The first gate is thus

the tenth sphere or the lowest sefirah, Malkhut, and from here the

author slowly proceeds up the sefirotic realm, one sphere/gate at a time

elaborating on all the different divine names connected to each of them.

Each has their own chapter except from the third and fourth gate

corresponding to the eighth and seventh sphere, which are joined

together in one chapter. The reason for this is explained in the very

beginning of the chapter:

It was necessary to bring both Names within the same gate even though each of the other names has a single gate to itself. For these two Names are defined in the light of each other. For when one is defined the other has to be brought

140 This distinction is made by Blickstein in his: Between Philosophy and Mysticism, which is an analysis of the philosophical- kabbalistical treatises, especially the Ginnat Egoz. 141 I use the transliteration provided by Weinstein. All following quotations from the Gates of Light follow his choice of transliteration, even though it is at times not consistent. Besides Weinstein’s edition I have consulted the Hebrew original in the Gershom Scholem Collection at the National Library of Jerusalem: 1561 (cat. nr. R261).


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in, thus they end up being defined as one, for they are united together as one142.

The two names in question are Elohim Tzavaot and YHVH Tzavaot

corresponding to the sefirot Netzah� and Hod. The reason for them

being joined together is that in these two the divine light from the

upper realm of the tree is collected and conducts the gathered light into

Yesod and from there to Malkhut.

The book is written as a guide from a master to his student or at least

fellow kabbalist143 where the reader is instructed in using the divine

names to achieve his goals. The short introduction is one of the most

important parts of the book and indeed gives the framework into which

the rest of the text is to be understood. Therefore I will quote the

beginning at length:

You, my brother and soulmate, have asked me to show you the pathway to the Names of the Ever-Blessed God so you may derive what you will from them and reach the place that you desire. Even though your enthusiasm is far greater than your question, I still feel compelled to divulge to you the way the light is disseminated and how God wants us to reach it. When you have learned this, then God will answer when you call144.

Gikatilla reveals to his student how the divine names can be used to

gain access to divine realms otherwise unattainable to man. These

realms are considered guarded by dreadful creatures that are to be

overcome to reach the intended destination in the upper spheres. This

can be done through correct knowledge of the divine names attributed

to each level. At this point Gikatilla polemicizes with those who claim

that it is the mere mentioning of the appropriate name that will help the

person in his theurgical task: “The verse does not promise safety by

142 Gates of Light, p. 115. 143 Gikatilla writes the book as a request from his ”brother and soulmate”, Gates of Light,. p. 3. 144 Gates of Light, p. 3


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merely mentioning His Name but by knowing His Name. It is knowing

that is the most significant145”. The student should put every effort in

knowing the meaning and significance of each of the divine names, so

they will bring glory to god and in return give merit to the person.

Those who use the names without the proper knowledge will on the

other hand be ruined.

The purpose of the book is to reveal the ultimate wisdom regarding the

divine names, that wisdom which discards all other interpretations of

the names. Like Nahmanides, Gikatilla too states that all of Torah is

made up of the divine names:

…all the words of the Torah are intrinsically woven into the tapestry of God’s Cognomens which are tied to God’s Names which, in turn, are tied to the ineffable Tetragrammaton, YHVH, to which all the Torah’s words are inextricably linked146.

To properly know the divine names means to know the relations

between the different names and the attributes connected to each name,

but also how these names are spread throughout all of the Torah. It is a

method for achieving the hidden meaning of the Torah, the meaning

that lies in the interconnectedness of attributes, names and the text of

the Torah. This higher knowledge is the one that enables the kabbalist

to ascend through the sefirotic tree, as it is explained in the third and

fourth gate:

Those who knew these truths would direct their prayers to these ideas and they would nullify all strong decrees, for they had the keys of the Kabbalah in their grasp and they would enter the place they needed to147.

145 Gates of Light, p.5 (my emphasis). 146 Gates of Light, p. 6. 147 Gates of Light, p.141.


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The decrees could come from the sefirah of Binah, but the one who

knows how to ascend properly will be able to pass these decrees and

proceed to the highest sefirah, Keter; it all depends of knowing to which

names and thereby sefirot one should direct the prayers. That the ‘strong

decrees’ would stem from Binah seems to indicate Gikatilla’s

indeptedness to Isaac ha-Kohen. Kohen explains in his Treatise of the Left

Emanation how the Sitra Ahra (The Other Side) emerges from

emanations brought forth from Binah.

The metaphor of seeing the sefirotic realm arranged as a tree is distinct in

the Gates of Light. It shows the name YHVH as the trunk, the name

EHYE148 as the roots with all the other names as branches to the tree

and some as the treetop. This is exemplified in the following:

Know that all His Names are carried and included with the unique Name which is YHVH, some of which may be analogized to roots, some to branches, and others to the treetop. His unique Name, may He be Blessed, stands in the centre and is called the centre line, while the other Names are interconnected like a tree with roots and branches.149

It should be noted though, that the tree is upside down, so that the

roots have their firmament in the uppermost realm and the treetop

reaches toward the human world. The names are the foundations of the

world and the names by which the world was created. The inherent

potential residing in these names therefore places a heavy burden of

responsibility on the one who knows them. To utter a name at the

wrong circumstances will shake the divine realms and thereby also the

human world. And the unique name YHVH, as it contains all other

names, is of course the most potent of them all and therefore usually

148 EHYE would be better transliterated EHYH (Hebrew: אהיה) meaning “I am”, the name that God uses to identify himself when he reveals himself to Moses in the desert (Exodus 3:14). EHYH also refers to the highest sefirah Keter. 149 Gates of Light p. 159-160.


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ineffable. But a passage of the Gates of Light seems to alter this usual

prohibition against uttering exactly this divine Name:

For there are no Names that are not contained in the Name YHVH, may He be Blessed. Now that you know this great and terrible thing, you must realize how careful one must be at the time one mentions it. For when you do you carry all the Sacred Names and it is as if you bear on your lips and upon the tongue the Holy Name and all Holy Names, it is as if your lips bear the responsibility of the world and all that it contains150.

It is not explicitly stated when it is appropriate to pronounce the

otherwise ineffable name, but it is stated that in the temple the high

priest would pronounce the name in praise and it would bless all the

upper realms, so that it would flow all the way to the human realm. So

the apprentice should imitate the high priest and only pronounce the

name in utmost piety151.

The image of the Torah as the garment of god is also a topic of

investigation in the Gates of Light. God wears his names like a garment

as is seen: ‘Know that when God wears the name TZAVAOT…152’

As long as the Shekhinah is in exile god wears all his names and

attributes, but when Shekhinah again dwells among Israel, god will cast

off all his names and cognomens so that Israel can see god himself153.

Since the exposition of the sefirotic tree is so well structured and fairly

easily understood, the Gates of Light is one of the kabbalistic texts that

has been easiest to access for seekers of divine knowledge. Therefore it

has been of major importance in the development of the Christian

150 Gates of Light, p.165. 151 Until the destruction of the temple, the high priest uttered the name during Yom Kippur with the ritual implication of renewing the cosmic order. After the destruction of the temple, the tetragrammaton was considered ineffable, since there was nowhere holy enough to invocate god. The uttering of the name would draw down the divine presence and this was considered inappropriate or even impossible outside the sanctuary of the temple. 152 Gates of Light, p. 156. 153 Gates of Light p. 177.


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adaptations of kabbalistic material, like in the Kabbalah of Johannes

Reuchlin154.

The rhetoric of the book is typical for kabbalistic esoteric literature.

Now and then it is stated that the author does not have permission to

reveal more on a given subject, but still he continues, giving the reader a

feeling of exclusivity and secrecy. This is part of the privileged speech

situation already established by the style of master to student dialogue.

This situation is further enhanced by the repeated references to well

esteemed ancient Rabbis like Rabbi Akiva and earlier esoteric literature,

the Sefer Yezirah and the Heikhalot, providing the text with authenticity

and authority. This is further enhanced by the claim that the text is not

innovative in nature but rather just transmitting and revealing ancient

esoteric tradition.

As stated in the beginning of the book, “knowledge” is utterly

important. This is emphasized further regarding the sphere of Da’at

(knowledge):

It [Da’at] is the Sphere that includes all the Spheres. For it is the source of the spring which has no end or final purpose. Because the Sphere DAT begins from MaLCHUT (the lowest and most humanly accessible Sphere) and reaches to AYN SOF155.

But Da’at is not only a sphere encompassing all the other spheres, it is

the symbol of the middle pillar of the sefirotic tree. This also shows how

it is possible for it to reach all the way from Malkhut to Keter and

beyond.

The importance of language can be seen in the perception of the

difference between Moses and the other prophets. Moses is the only

one who receives verbal revelation whereas all the other prophets only

receive visionary revelations. Thus Moses is the only one who has seen

154 See Reuchlin: On the Art of the Kabbalah, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: Philosophia Symbolica and below n. 122.


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the name YHVH without all the other names as garments, that is, he

has seen god as he is behind the veils of names and cognomens. This

provides the notion of language a status much higher than the notion of

vision and consequently implies that absolute knowledge is to be sought

within language and not in visions.

The idea of seeing the Torah as made up of the divine names enables

the kabbalist to do a whole new form of exegesis so as to find deeper

levels of meaning within the text. The names show in which state of

emanation god reveals himself in the specific passage. Knowledge of

the divine names and the pathways of the sefirotic realm provide the

kabbalist with the means of personal advantages but also with the

obligation to act according to the divine will. It is the theurgical task for

the one who knows the way, to restore the primordial balance within

the godhead:

Those therefore who know how to please their creator know how to repair the way to the SHeCHINaH, to bring her back to her place and to repair the channels that have been ruined; then the upper SHeCHINaH [Binah] will bestow her blessings upon the upper beings, which allows the other Spheres to fill the lower SHeCHINaH [Malchut], and that allows her to return to her place to bring forth blessing to the world156.

This reestablishment is precisely what kabbalistic theurgy is about. The

kabbalist is the tool by which the original cosmic order can be restored;

by observing the mitzvot, that is, the 613 religious commandments and

prohibitions listed in the Torah, and study the Kabbalah he works on

fulfilling the soteriological task of reestablishing the connection

between this world and the divine, so that the Shekhinah once again can

dwell among the people of Israel. In this rendering, the proper

knowledge of language is the tool for the kabbalist by which he can act

155 Gates of Light. p. 231. 156 Gates of Light, p. 303.


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according to the divine will and perform the theurgic aspects of the

mitzvot. However, it is not only a tool, since the acquisition of the right

knowledge of the language implies a higher knowledge of the divine

which is only accessible through and within the language of the torah and

the divine names.

In the next text we also see the emphasis on the proper understanding

of divine language as identifiable with higher knowledge. It is the short

treatise Fountain of Wisdom, which will be analysed in the following

chapter.

2.4 The Fountain of Wisdom

The Ma’yan ha H�okhmah (Fountain of Wisdom) is an anonymous work

attributed to a circle of kabbalists called the ‘Hug ha Iyyun’ or the Circle of

Contemplation which flourished in Spain and Provence around 1230.

Among the other writings of the circle are the Books of Contemplation and

the Book of Unity. The writings complement each other so that the Books

of Contemplation is a mostly theosophical work, the Fountain of Wisdom is

more concerned with an elaborate cosmogony and finally the Book of

Unity is focusing on three supreme lights of the godhead, which

represent the single essence of the divine. The texts are scattered among

several different manuscripts that show great inconsistency, and

consequently this analysis is based on the eclectic edition and

translation published by Mark Verman together with the printed

Hebrew versions available at the National Library in Jerusalem157. The

Fountain of Wisdom is the least accessible of the three books by the Circle

of Contemplation, it is focuses on the very beginning of creation and is

said to communicate the teachings given by the archangel Michael to

157 Verman: The Books of Contemplation. Joseph Dan gives another translation of the Fountain of Wisdom in The Early Kabbalah, but it is based only on a single manuscript, wherefore I chose the version given by Verman. The editions consulted in the Gershom Scholem Collection at the National Library in Jerusalem are: Amsterdam 1651 (cat. nr. 942), Venice 1601 (cat. nr.


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the angel Pe’eli158 who then revealed them to Moses159. This gives an

authority to the text that is even stronger than the usual pseudepigraphy

as employed by attributing the teaching to ancient rabbis. What the

readers should understand is that this text is a divine revelation

revealing the divine secrets without other intermediaries than Moses

himself. This text takes the doctrine of the Sefer Yezirah to its most

radical interpretation. Not only is everything created from and by the

Hebrew letters, here every part of creation is considered to have its own

language which can be learned through contemplation of the 231 gates

of wisdom also taken from the Sefer Yezirah. The following is one of the

most essential passages of the Fountain of Wisdom, wherefore it is quoted

at length:

For all wisdom and understanding, all comprehension and thought, inquiry, knowledge, vocalization, reflection, speech, whispering, voice, action, guarding, and undertaking - all are found in this Name160. When you want to comprehend and become enlightened about these four letters, calculate them using the 231 gates. From them you will ascend to activity, from activity to experience, from experience to visualization, from visualization to inquiry, from inquiry to knowledge, from knowledge to ascension and from ascension to certainty - until you fathom the explanation of each and every thing and are enlightened in the seventy languages. Then you will understand the words of man, the speech of domesticated animals, the chirping of birds, the utterances of wild animals, and the barking of dogs; [all of] which are accessible for the wise to know. From thence you will become enlightened in the highest of levels: namely, comprehending the conversations of palm trees, the

175), Berlin 1651 (cat. nr. 147), N.N. (cat. nr. 152), Tzernowich 1863 (cat. nr. 155) and Warsaw 1885 (cat. nr. 160). 158 Can be translated as “God’s mouth” or “wondrous”, depending on the vocalization. 159 The idea of Moses receiving more than just the written Torah on the Mount Sinai, is one of the most common themes in kabbalistic literature. Within rabbinic tradition it is acknowledged that Moses received both the written Torah and the oral Torah, but the kabbalists tend to go further and argue that he also received the secrets of the kabbalistic tradition. Also the idea of an angel transmitting divine secrets to Moses is common in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. (Verman: The Books of Contemplation p.50, n.68). 160 That is EHYH or YHVH.


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vocalizations of the seas, and the perfection of hearts and innermost thoughts. Finally, you will attain complete clarity and tranquillity, in order to consider the thought of the Supreme One, who dwells in the Ether; there is no level higher than this161.

As is the case with the Gates of Light the entrance to enlightenment is

through contemplation of language. Here the supreme enlightenment is

not only concerned with the divine, though it is definitely the utmost

goal, i.e. the thought of the Supreme One, ultimate knowledge of the

created world is a necessary part of the illumination. It is significant that

it is through the active use of language that one can reach this

enlightenment. This is seen by the choice of words: inquiry, knowledge,

vocalization, reflection, speech, whispering, and voice as listed in the

above quoted section. Throughout the book the same rhetoric is

provided, giving a series of words indicating the proper order in which

to engage in the contemplative activities.

The ether where the Supreme One dwells is also called the root-

principle, the Primal Ether and the Holy Spirit. This ether existed prior

to all things and from this primordial light and primordial darkness

sprang forth. These realms are outside even the highest level of human

inquiry and not even Moses was allowed to ask questions about them.

The reason for this is that here lay the very foundation of the existence

of god, but from the darkness on, Moses is revealed everything, ‘even

the creation of My essence and the essence of My Name and My

Glory162.’

One of the major topics of this treatise is the concept of tikkun. This

concept has a different meaning in the present text than the usual

indication of restoration. Here it is rather a method or an “analytical

process: Uncovering the fundamental elements of the object of

161 Fountain of Wisdom, p. 52-53. 162 Fountain of Wisdom, p. 58.


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inquiry”163. This however, might involve a theurgical restorative process

as a consequence of a successful implementation of the tikkun. It is

closely related to the understanding and achievement of the divine

language and divine names:

This is the tikkun, by directing your heart upon these four letters that constitute the Ineffable Name. In them is hidden a flowing stream and an overflowing fountain. They divide into several parts and run like lightning. Their light continues to increase and grow stronger164.

The increase and flow of divine light could very well be the kind of

restorative process that we later see in Zoharic theurgy, where it is the

goal of the kabbalist to study the torah and observe the mitzvot in order

to re-establish the cosmic balance within the godhead; a theme we also

noted in the Gates of Light. The overflow of divine light can, in the

symbolic world of the sefirot, only reach the human world when the

divine realm is in balance. Thus, the goal of the theurgical kabbalists

was to reestablish the harmony in the world of the sefirot. It was possible

when he, through the study of Torah, had understood the divine

mysteries. Then he then obliged to carry out the theurgical task which

was the meaning of human existence: That is, the uttermost purpose of

Kabbalistic work was to bring back the original balance within the

godhead:

The focus of the Kabbalistic theurgy is God not man; the latter is given unimaginable powers, to be used in order to repair the divine glory or the divine image; only his initiative can improve Divinity. An archmagician, the theurgical Kabbalist does not need external help or grace; his way of operating – namely, the Torah – enables him to be independent; he looks not so much for salvation by the intervention of God as for God’s redemption by human intervention165.

163 Fountain of Wisdom, p. 50, n. 69. 164 Fountain of Wisdom, p. 61 (emphasis by Verman). 165 Idel, Kabbalah, p.179.


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There is both a soteriological and an eschatological side to the

theurgical process. If Israel succeeded in performing the mitzvot, a

double redemption would take place in that the divine balance would be

restored so the Shekhinah could once again dwell among men as the

divine presence. Thus the world would be restored to its original state

of purity where evil is only a potential within the sefirot of Gevurah.

Whereas the Zoharic theurgy is centered on performing the mitzvot, the

theurgy of the Fountain of Wisdom is ultimately based on the proper

understanding of the Hebrew language and its inherent tikkun:

The tikkun of which we have spoken is the start of everything. It is the direction of the heart, intention of the thought, calculation of the viscera, purification of the heart, until the mind is settled and logic and language are formed. From language [stems] clarification and from clarification the word is formed. From the word is the uttereance and from the utterance is the deed. This is its166 beginning167.

Within the Circle of Contemplation the concept of tikkun should not be

understood as “restoration”as it is in Lurianic Kabbalah. Here it is

rather a technical term for a certain analytical process or primal attitude

towards the true perception of the divine names and thus a linguistic

phenomenon:

These are the tikkun, combination, utterance, sum and computation of the Ineffable Name – unique in the branches of vocalization that is magnified in the thirteen types of transformation168.

166 I.e. the Primal Ether. 167 Fountain of Wisdom p. 62 (emphasis by Verman). 168 Fountain of Wisdom p.50 (emphasis by Verman).


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This concept of tikkun and its relation to language is also prevalent in

another text of the ‘Iyyun - Circle, namely the one Mark Verman names

Contemplation Standard:

The explanation of knowledge of Him is through five processes and they are: Tikkun, combination, utterance, sum and computation. The knowledge of these processes is unique in the branches of the root of vocalization that is magnified in the root of the thirteen types of transformation169.

This text is a redaction of the Fountain of Wisdom and where, in the first

example, the combination, sum etc. are parts of the tikkun which thus

becomes the congregative designation for the different praxis; the

tikkun of the second example is the beginning of the series of practices

and attitude toward the divine names. In both texts tikkun is closely

linked to experiential knowledge as a part of the daily liturgical activity,

where tikkun can be seen as the foundation for the proper perception

and performance of language.

In the Circle of Contemplation higher knowledge is identified with

tikkun and tikkun is accomplished by a mystical dissolution of dialectical

boundaries:

It [tikkun] derives the word through the utterance and the utterance through the word; the tikkun through the combination and the combination through the tikkun; the sum through the computation and the computation through the sum - until all the words are positioned in the font of the flame and the flame in the font – until there is no measuring or quantifying the light that is hidden in the superabundance of the secret darkness170.

Only in the completion of tikkun will the kabbalist be able to fully

understand this tikkun and as such the foundation of creation and thus

of divine language. The dialectic is therefore retained even in the

169 Contemplation Standard p.100 (emphasis by Verman). 170 Fountain of Wisdom p. 51 (emphasis by Verman).


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acquisition of the absolute knowledge. With Idel’s terminology we

could say that language, at the moment it reached the utmost

hyposemantic level it gains its ultimate meaning and it is in the

understanding of this dialectic that the absolute knowledge resides.

Thus, mysticism and esotericism do not exclude each other, rather they

describe different discursive layers of the text. As is seen in the Fountain

of Wisdom, the rhetorical style ascribes itself in a mystical context and the

full accomplishment of tikkun can be seen as the semantic “meaning

event” as described by Sells, where all boundaries are dissolved. Still

this accomplishment implies the acquisition of an absolute knowledge

of the divine and of creation, thus showing the close but distinct

relationship between mystical and esoteric discourses.

3. Conclusion of Part 1

In the preceding chapters I have dealt with the theoretical construction

of central terminologies as well as with textual analysis.

I have chosen to use the typologies necessary for the present study in a

broad and elastic sense. That is, they do not exclude each other, but

merely show a certain discursive aspect within the text, group, current

etc. It is, however, still important to distinguish the different layers of

discourse, and to do this it is necessary to have the proper analytical

tools. Therefore I think it is of utmost importance to disentangle the

different scholarly constructs from the confusion of the current state.

Theoretically adequate definitions are essential to this pursuit and

therefore this has been a main goal of the first chapters of the thesis.

The definitions of Western esotericism have revolved around two

major problems: 1) The notion of “Western” as denoting a monolithic

Christian European culture where Islam and Judaism are only seen as

minor influences upon rather than integrated parts of Western culture

(Faivre, Neugebauer-Wölk), 2) The acknowledgement of a pluralistic

Conclusion of Part I

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Western culture but without taking the full consequence as to include

Judaic or Islamic developments in the definition (Hanegraaff), and 3)

The confusion of historical and typological categories (Faivre and to a

less extend Hanegraaff). Solutions to these problems have been

presented by Olav Hammer and Kocku von Stuckrad, where the

approaches proposed by the latter two have shown to be the most

useful and theoretically consistent according to the epistemological

foundation set out in the introduction. Thus I have arrived at the

following definition of Western esotericism:

• Esotericism is a discourse implying a claim of higher or absolute

knowledge combined with a notion of secrecy in the manner by

which this knowledge is transmitted and attained. For pragmatic

reasons we can delimit the field to only denote discourses

prevalent in the West. However, “Western” should be

understood in its broadest possible sense, as a geographical

category with whatever pluralistic cultural and religious

implications this might entail. Western esotericism should thus

not be restricted to a certain period or cultural or religious

denomination within Western history.

The next discussion of the thesis is concerned with a definition of

Kabbalah. This implies a treatment of the different theories of the

origins of Kabbalah which roughly can be divided into two main

positions: Those who adhere to a linear theory, considering the origin

of Kabbalah to be of gnostic character (Scholem and Tishby) and those

who argue for a multilinear theory. Dan stands in between these

positions as he refutes the gnostic origins of Kabbalah albeit not

recognizing the early ashkenazi material as constitutive factors in the

formation of Kabbalah in southern Europe.


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This leads to the discussion of a sufficient definition of Kabbalah where

the standard version has been to equate Kabbalah with the doctrine of

the ten sefirot (Scholem and Dan). This has been contested and

Kabbalah has been taken to imply also the ecstatic or prophetic

teachings (Idel and Wolfson) or simply to refer to the transmission of

the teachings of the divine names (Idel). However, none of these

proved theoretically sufficient and thus the final solution has taken its

outset in Heidi Laura’s definition and can thus be described as follows:

• Kabbalah should be seen as 1) the product or activity of a

historical current of people, the mequbalim, who use the notion of

Kabbalah as a designation for the practice and transmission of

Jewish esoteric knowledge. And 2) a discourse of transmitting

esoteric teachings claimed to belong to ancient Jewish wisdom

lore.

Thus the definition does not rely on a certain set of doctrines but rather

in the mode of transmission. In this context “esoteric” must be seen as

defined from the above criteria. Furthermore ad 2) is dependent on 1)

in that a kabbalistic discourse cannot exist before the historical

appearance of what was deemed Kabbalah by the mequbalim.

With an adequate definition of both Western esotericism and Kabbalah

it should be possible to determine whether these two discursive

categories can possibly include each other. To this purpose it has been

necessary to include the enquiry of mysticism since much Kabbalah

scholarship has been concerned with the relationship between

Kabbalah and, on the one hand mysticism, and on the other

esotericism. To clarify this, a definition of mysticism had to be reached

which did not imply a notion of “universal mysticism” (Staal) or was

too focused on “experience” (McGinn and Katz). The most suitable

definition turned out to be the one proposed by Annette Wilke:


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• Mysticism is an umbrella concept for (1) experiences in which

boundaries are dissolved – those of the subject, such as in a

vacuum of thought, or in ecstasy; those of the object, so that

dualities are removed; those of space, to experience the infinite

in the finite-, those of time, when the ‘timeless, everlasting now’

replaces successive time. Mysticism also denotes (2) the

concepts, teachings, and literary genres that contemplate,

recount or describe this immanent transcendence or

transcendent immanence171.

To this definition was added the designation of the most important

factor for distinguishing mystic from esoteric discourse, namely the

notion of higher knowledge. As such the two discourses do not exclude

each other as esoteric higher knowledge can be achieved through

mystical praxis, however mystical praxis does not inevitably generate

this higher knowledge.

I am fully aware that the proposed definitions of both esotericism and

Kabbalah can and should be subjects for criticism. The one of

esotericism can be seen as both too restricted: subjects like alchemy and

magic, which usually is included in the concept of esotericism, might

not be included in the proposed definition. And too broad: it could be

argued that certain kinds of modern science would fulfil the criterions

of the definition.

The definition of Kabbalah could be seen as too inclusive since much

of Judaism draws or claims to draw their teachings from ancient Jewish

lore in more or less secretive ways. To this I will argue that since my

definition of Kabbalah includes the definition of esotericism, we should

see the teachings transmitted as teachings that claim a sort of absolute

knowledge. This is often gained by biblical hermeneutics; another

common enterprise of Jewish religious practice. But what should

171 Wilke: ’Mysticism’, p. 1279.


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distinguish Kabbalah from other types of Judaism and/or esotericism is

the presence of an esoteric discourse and the claim that the teaching of

this discourse has its source in ancient Jewish lore.

My choice also deliberately implies that much modern Kabbalah fits the

definition, even though this type of Kabbalah is not Jewish. An

implication which most Kabbalah scholars, also deliberately, has tried to

avoid.

The following discussion was centred on the question of whether

Kabbalah can be designated esoteric or not. For this I presented the

views of Harvey Hames who argues for the exoteric mode of Kabbalah,

and on the other hand Wolfson, who argues for the inherent esoteric

character of Kabbalah. We have seen earlier in the thesis that one major

problem with the notion of esotericism as it is used by Kabbalah

scholars is that it is taken as synonymous to secret. This is also the case

for Hames, whereas Wolfson sees esotericism as the dialectic

relationship between the hidden and the revealed. Goldberg found a

common denominator for the two opposing views on Kabbalah,

namely the notion of wisdom. This is what brings together Kabbalah

and esotericism as defined above, where wisdom is both the higher

knowledge that is transmitted and the source for this knowledge.

Thus we can conclude that Kabbalah can very well be understood

within the framework of Western esotericism. However, it is important

here to note that since the scholarly term Kabbalah is inherently tied to

a historical notion of Kabbalah it is placed on a lower taxonomical level

than Western esotericism.

The remainder of the first part of the thesis shows an example of

esoteric discourse within two different kabbalistic texts. This discourse

could in both texts be seen as a certain perception of language as the

tool for gaining absolute knowledge and simultaneously being the core

of the knowledge. This again shows the dialectics emphasized by

Wolfson. In the latter of the two texts, the Fountain of Wisdom we see


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that the higher knowledge is actually gained by means of mystical praxis

thus showing how the two discourses can be present but distinct as

different discursive layers within a single text. With the two analyzed

texts I have shown how claims of higher knowledge are embedded in

the perception of language. Language becomes both the tool and the

bearer of this knowledge which is transmitted both through writing and

orally. Thus the access to the esoteric kabbalistic teachings and the

actual content is closely connected in that it is here that the revelatory

dialectics between the hidden and the revealed is found.

Conclusively: My purpose of proposing the definitions is to give a

theoretically adequate foundation for the common study of Kabbalah

and Western esotericism and to query the current perception and

definition of Western esotericism and Kabbalah. It should not be seen

as a final solution to the problems of definition but rather as a

suggestion for the demarcation of the respective fields and a point of

departure for further examinations.

In comparing the concept of Western esotericism with that of

Kabbalah we can say that Kabbalah makes use of the same discursive

strategies that proved constitutive for the notion of Western

esotericism. Consequently, when applying the view of religious

pluralism in Europe, Kabbalah does indeed belong to the discursive field

of Western esotericism.

Introduction to Part II

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Part II

Contemporary Kabbalah: A New (?) Field of Study

4. Introduction to Part II I will now turn to contemporary examples of movements that use

Kabbalah as a constitutive element in their religious systems. I have

chosen the following cases in an attempt to present the huge divergence

of uses of kabbalistic material. Thus, some of the currents which will be

examined will prove to comply with the definition of Kabbalah as it was

reached in the previous part of the thesis. However there will also be

some of the movements that cannot be termed Kabbalah but rather can

be designated as New Age movements which to a lesser extend makes

use of kabbalistic material.

When examining contemporary Kabbalah it is important to keep in

mind that Kabbalah should be understood in the widest possible sense,

sometimes indicating only the self identification of the respective group,

rather than any historical affinity with the medieval Kabbalah presented

in the beginning of this thesis. My emphasis on this is not an attempt to

argue that there exist a “true” or “original” Kabbalah but it should

rather be seen as an attempt to clarify the different uses of Kabbalah.

For example we can see that in many instances of New Age Kabbalah,

the term “Kabbalah” simply denotes an ancient esoteric teaching used

in order to provide the group with authenticity and authority. One

could as a heuristic model see the chosen groups arranged on a scale

from the clearest kabbalistic to the most eclectic. According to this we

would have:

• The Kabbalah Centre

Introduction to Part II

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• Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff • The Gnostic Teachings of Samael Aun Weor • The Kamadon Academy

These four cases could be further divided into what I would term

1)”Contemporary Kabbalah” to which the Kabbalah Centre would

belong, 2) “Occult Kabbalah” to which Neutzsky-Wulff belongs and

finally 3) “New Age Kabbalah” which is exemplified by Samael Aun

Weor and the Kamadon Academy. Obviously this is an extremely

eclectic selection, but due to the enormous popularity of Kabbalah

within contemporary esotericism and occultism a thorough treatment

of all the variations would be an impossible task. I have tried to give a

representative overview of the different directions the use of kabbalistic

discourses have taken in recent years.

5. Kabbalah in Western Esoteric Traditions:

A Very Short Overview

The emergence of Kabbalah in the Middle Ages did not go unnoticed

by the Christian intellectuals residing in the same areas of Europe and

one of the first to get acquainted with the kabbalistic writings was

Ramon Lull (ca. 1232-1315). He lived in Catalonia, one of the main

centres of Kabbalah in the 13th century. His interest in Kabbalah was

mainly due to his continuing efforts of converting Jews and Muslims to

Christianity. To do this he had to be well versed in their respective

doctrines as to prove either the superiority of the Christian teachings or

by showing the underlying Christian truths of their doctrines. For some

forty years he developed his Ars Magna for this purpose. It was meant

as a means to prove, through logical argumentation, the superiority of

Christianity and for Lull the incorporation of kabbalistic elements was

Kabbalah in Western Esoteric Traditions: A Very Short Overview

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“the ultimate instrument for achieving conversion172” A reason for this

was that one of Lull’s major discourses evolved around the problem of

the trinity and the unity of god, the same problem that the kabbalists

encountered in the doctrine of the ten sefirot. For both Lull and the

kabbalists one of the major arguments in solving this relationship was

to use neoplatonic ideas of emanation within the godhead itself. Also

the neoplatonic inspiration in both Kabbalah and in the Ars Magna

could be seen in the perception of both the human being and the world

as true microcosms that mirrored the whole of creation. A common

feature was also the importance given to the Hebrew language, albeit

they perceived it different. The Christians as well as the Jews saw the

Hebrew language as the original and divine language but where the

kabbalists saw a higher knowledge imbedded in each and every letter

and behind every letter i.e. the black fire on white fire, Lull saw the

letters as designations for different concepts and not bearers of an

esoteric truth173.

Though Lull would not have regarded himself as a kabbalist, he was to

be perceived as such by the later proponents of a full-blown Christian

Kabbalah, such as Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) and Marsilio Ficino

(1433-1499). Pico was the student of Ficino, one of the greatest

renaissance intellectuals, who worked for the Medici family in Florence.

Ficino was the translator of the platonic treatises from Greek to Latin

and even more important, he also translated the Corpus Hermeticum. The

revival of Platonism combined with the search for a Philosophia Perennis

and a Prisca Theologia was the core of what Yates later termed “the

Hermetic tradition of the renaissance”. The Corpus Hermeticum was seen

as the foundation of all philosophy and theology and the supposed

author Hermes Trismegistos was said to be the teacher of such

prominent characters as Zarathustra, Moses, Abraham and Plato. Since

172 Hames: The Art of Conversion, p. 287. 173 For a thorough monograph on the relationship between Lull and Kabbalah see Hames: The Art of Conversion.


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Kabbalah at this time was considered to be of ancient origins, or

actually being the oral Torah received directly from God by Moses on

Mount Sinai, this fitted perfectly in the search for Philosophia Perennis.

A common theme for the use of Kabbalah in the renaissance was the

attempt at finding the primordial language which was supposedly

spoken in the Garden of Eden. This was often assumed to be Hebrew

and the Kabbalah was perceived to be the tradition stemming directly

from the Garden itself. As Håkan Håkansson puts it:

Thus the impact of Kabbalah on Christian scholarship not only reinforced the notion that language can yield knowledge of the natural world; it also redirected attention towards a previously disregarded linguistic element. In Kabbalah it was neither the word that was believed to “imitate” the inner essence of an object (as in “Platonic” language view), nor was it the grammatical system that was considered to correspond to physical reality (as in the various theories of a universal grammar). Rather, it was the letters of the alphabet which, in their graphical shape as well as in their different combinations, enclosed the hidden treasures of the divine Word174.

Compared to the discussion presented in chapter 2, Håkansson’s

presentation emphasizes the same important aspects of the kabbalistic

concept of language. Namely: 1) the esoteric content of the graphical

shape of the letters as one aspect of the esoteric discourse inherent in

language and 2) the formation of words and the gematria as another. In

the renaissance, the emphasis that Kabbalah laid on language fitted

perfectly in the search for the prisca theologia, since this was closely

connected with the search for the language of Adam which was spoken

in the Garden of Eden.

To transfer the Jewish teachings into a Christian framework, Kabbalah

was generally considered by the Christian Renaissance humanists to be

misinterpreted by the Jewish kabbalists, whereas the “true” Kabbalah

was perceived to prove the authenticity and truth of Christianity. This is


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evident in the famous 900 theses that Pico della Mirandola published in

1486 and presented to the pope in Rome. 13 of the 900 theses were

condemned, but interestingly none of these belonged to the kabbalistic

theses.

47 theses belong to the category “Cabalistic conclusions according to

the secret doctrine of the Hebrew Cabalist wisemen, whose memory

should always be honoured”175 . 72 theses belong to the category

“Cabalistic conclusions according to my own opinion, strongly

confirming the Christian religion using the Hebrew wisemen’s own

principles”176. That so large a percentage of the theses were devoted to

Kabbalah shows how great valued this tradition was to Pico and it is

evident that Pico contributed immensely to the spread of Christian

Kabbalah in Europe. A key figure for this was Pico’s helper Flavius

Mithridates, a Jew who had converted to Christianity and taught Pico

Hebrew while also translating several kabbalistic texts177.

The next important figure in the history of Christian Kabbalah is Pico’s

student Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) who wrote one of the most

important works for modern occultist Kabbalah, namely De Arte

Kabbalistica from 1517. As Pico, Reuchlin saw in Kabbalah the

foundation and proof of Christianity as the “True Religion”. His earlier

book De Verbo Mirifico exposes the three scriptural religions as basically

identical and interestingly the kabbalistic arguments are shown to be the

most convincing. De Verbo Mirifico is structured around a conversation

between three scholars, a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew. An important

detail is that the Jewish scholar is called Simon, named after the

mythical author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai. Though a

174 Håkansson, p. 176. 175 Pico della Mirandola: 900 Theses, p. 345. 176 Pico della Mirandola: 900 Theses, p. 517. 177 Much study has been done as to define the kabbalistic sources of Pico. The best contributions are the commentaries and introduction to the 900 theses by S.A Farmer in his edition of the text: Farmer: Syncretism in the West. Another valuable source is Saverio Campanini: The Book Bahir. A critical edition with commentaries of the Hebrew text with


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dedicated Christian, Reuchlin was extraordinary positive in his attitude

towards Judaism in general and Kabbalah in particular and his works

were constantly under attack from both Protestants and Catholics. One

major concern of Reuchlin was his exploration of the divine names.

According to Reuchlin god revealed himself first to the patriarchs by

the three-letter name SDY (שדי), Shadday, next he revealed himself to

Moses by the tetragrammaton YHVH (יהוה) and finally by the coming

of Christ a shin (ש) was introduced in the center of the tetragrammaton,

forming the name Yehoshuah (יהשוה), believed by Reuchlin to be the

original Hebrew name for Jesus. The importance of the Hebrew

alphabet is also evident in the writings of Cornelius Agrippa (1486-

1535) who in his three books on occult philosophy laid the ground for

the preoccupation with Kabbalah in future grimoires.

During the renaissance, a major event took place which had a huge

impact on the development of Kabbalah, namely the expulsion of the

Jews from Spain in 1492. Since this had been the main centre for

Kabbalah for almost 300 years, this event cannot be underestimated. It

meant the spreading of the Jewish intellectuals to other areas of Europe

and to Palestine. Here a new centre developed in the holy city of Safed

in what is now Northern Israel178. The small mountain town became a

spiritual center for Judaism and one of the most important kabbalistic

teachers came from this place. This was the rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-

1572). With Luria Kabbalah underwent a substantial transformation

towards an increasing messianic and highly dualistic attitude. The

concept of tikkun which earlier was a vague term regarding the process

of perfecting the world179 became the central aspect of all kabbalistic

Mithridate’s Latin translation and further provided with an English translation by the editor in collaboration with Giulio Busi. 178 It is in this place that the mythic author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, is buried. Thus it is still a place of worship for many contemporary kabbalists who ventures on pilgrimage to the site. 179 See my chapter on the Fountain of Wisdom where tikkun is related to the proper usage of the Hebrew language.


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endeavours. It developed into a precise term denoting the ultimate

weapon against the forces of evil. Tikkun was in the context of Luria

the perfect restoration of the balance within the godhead180. Luria was

not only an influential kabbalist in his own time. He was to become a

major influence and inspirational source for most of contemporary

Kabbalah. His commentaries to the Zohar are the foundations of almost

all contemporary kabbalistic interpretations whether Jewish or non

Jewish181.

Many of the Jews who stayed in Europe fled to the Netherlands who

already at this time had freedom of religion, at least in private settings,

and this made Amsterdam in particular to one of the main Jewish

intellectual cities in Europe. As a consequence of this, a large part of

the printed kabbalistic manuscripts from this period is printed in the

Netherlands.

Other kabbalistic centres were located in the Eastern European

countries and Germany where the Ashkenazi Kabbalah had flourished

since the Middle Ages, especially with the works of Eleazar of Worms

(ca. 1176-1238) who among other works wrote Sefer ha Shem (The Book of

the Name), a commentary to Sefer Yetzirah and the Account of the Chariot of

Ezekiel and other kabbalistic treatises. His works was and still is of

immense importance to the Hasidic communities.

By the end of the renaissance the knowledge of Kabbalah became more

and more widespread and three other figures from the last half of the

16th century have to be mentioned, namely Guillaume Postel (1510-

1581), Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)and John Dee (1527-1609). Postel

was, as Reuchlin, a dedicated Christian who nevertheless was highly

interested in Kabbalah. He was well versed in Hebrew, Aramaic and

Arabic and made travels to the Orient for the French Court in search

180 Much has been written on the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria. A short but profound overview can be found in Scholem: Major Trends, seventh lecture p. 244-286. A comprehensive edition of all Scholem’s writings on Luria is Daniel Abrams (ed.): Lurianic Kabbalah (in Hebrew). 181 I will get back to the teachings of Isaac Luria in the chapter on the Kabbalah Centre.


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for manuscripts for the king’s library. He translated the Sefer Yetzirah,

the Sha’arei Orah, large parts of the Zohar and several other kabbalistic

works while also composing kabbalistic texts himself as his Or ha

Menorah (Light of the Menorah) During his work on the Zohar he was

accompanied by a woman whom he termed the “Venetian Virgin” and

identified with the feminine messiah – the second Eve and the

embodiment of the Shekhinah. She lived an intense mystical life and

received continuous revelations which Postel saw confirmed on every

page of the Zohar. Shortly after the death of the Venetian Virgin, Postel

fell seriously ill. When he recovered, he saw himself as radically

transmuted, having

incorporated the “celestial body” of the Venetian Virgin and, thus, to have become substantially her son and that of Jesus Christ, the first born of the second Adam and the second Eve182!

The theories proposed by Postel was evidently quite radical for his time

and the only reason he escaped the inquisition with his life was that he

was declared officially insane by the court in Venice. For the last years

of his life he was confined to stay in the monastery of St Martin des

Champs, where he kept writing and teaching until his death.

John Dee claimed to have become friends with Postel and if this is true

Dee would have had direct access to at least Postel’s translation of Sefer

Yetzirah183. It is certain from Dee’s library catalogue that he collected

everything possible connected to Kabbalah though mostly books by the

Christian kabbalists184. Dee took the search for an original language one

step further when he through angelic revelations or rather

conversations received the “True Language” of the angels, namely the

Enochian language. The culmination of Dee’s search for the true

language was his “discovery” of the monas hieroglyphica, a symbol

182 Jean-Pierre Brach: ’Guillaume Postel’, p. 971. 183 Håkan Håkansson: Seeing the Word, p. 181. 184 Håkan Håkansson: Seeing the Word, p. 181


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which ‘functioned as a form of “meta-language” from which the

Hebrew, Greek and Latin letters could be derived185’. Throughout the

Renaissance Kabbalah kept the status of perennial philosophy and prisca

theologia side by side with the Corpus Hermeticum though its teachings

were still looked upon with suspicion by the church authorities.

The most crucial event of the history of Kabbalah reception since the

expulsion of the Jews from Spain was the publishing in 1677 of a Latin

translation of a selection of some of the main works of Kabbalah. The

editor and translator was Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, chancellor of

Sulzbach one of the most important centres of esotericism and science

in Europe on that time. In the wake of the thirty years war Sulzbach

had grown into a proponent of interconfessionalism and intellectuals

flocked to the court of Sulzbach, resulting in a hitherto unseen

flourishing of religious, artistic and scientific enterprises gathered in one

place. In this milieu Knorr von Rosenroth wrote several books on

diverse topics, but none would hold such importance as his Kabbala

Denudata (Kabbalah Unveiled) which translated parts of the Zohar and

selections of the writings of Joseph Gikatilla and Moses Cordovero

among others.

The impact of this work on Western esotericism cannot be

overemphasized. Until the late nineteenth century it was the standard

reference work of Kabbalah and in its English translation it is still the

major reference for promoters of occultist Kabbalah such as The

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It was one of the founders of the

Golden Dawn, namely Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers who

translated the Kabbala Denudata to the English the Kabbalah Unveiled in

1887 and it this translation the prominent European occultists used. Of

other important figures relating to Kabbalah from this period Adolphe

Franck deserves to be mentioned. In 1843 he published the monograph

La Kabbale ou la philosophie religieuse des Hébreux, a book which gained

185 Håkan Håkansson: Seeing the Word, p. 183.


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enourmous popularity and which according to Moshe Idel ‘contributed

more to the knowledge of Kabbalah in modern Europe than did any

other work prior to the studies of Scholem’186. Franck’s approach to

Kabbalah was of unprecedented scholarly nature even though he was

definitely also religiously engaged in the topic. He continued the view of

Kabbalah as the foundation of religion so prevalent in the Renaissance

and also upheld by Eliphas Lévi, while also applauding the works of

Papus and the Theosophical Society187. They lay the foundation for the

development of occultist Kabbalah as it was exemplified by Mathers

and his contemporary occultist Aleister Crowley. They in turn were

developers of a more systematic use of Kabbalah integrated in a

Masonic initatory system of orders. Many of today’s magico-occult

orders such as the many versions of Golden Dawn or the Ordo Templi

Orientis, the Dragon Rouge and the Temple of Set derive from those

early secret societies.

Parallel to the development of occultist Kabbalah, several Jewish

kabbalistic currents flourished, especially in Eastern Europe, continuing

the tradition of Eleazar of Worms. Of these Hasidic movements one of

the most notable is the Kabbalah of the rabbi Nachman of Breslov

(1772 – 1810), the grandchild of Baal Shem Tov who was considered

the founder of hasidism. Rabbi Nachman’s teachings were highly

messianic and there has been a vivid controversy going on whether he

thought of himself as the messiah or not. He seems to have been

influenced by the selfproclaimed messiah of the seventeenth century

Sabbatai Zvi (1626-1676) though Rabbi Nah man took great effort in

renouncing sabbateanism. More importantly was Nah man’s usage of

the teachings of Isaac Luria and again we find the central doctrines

evolving around the concept of tikkun. Nah man’s followers today do

not believe he was the messiah but rather see him as a spiritual leader

186 Idel, Kabbalah, p. 8. 187 Hanegraaff: ‘Kabbalah and Modernity’.


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leading the way to the coming messiah. One of his famous sayings was

that it is a mitzvah always to be happy. As a response to this his

followers today can be found dancing and singing to loud dance music

in the streets of Jerusalem. Instead of the original lyrics they chant

either the rabbi’s name or their mantra which is ‘Na Nah Nah ma

Nahman meUman’188. These were the last words of the rabbi, spoken just

before he died and perceived to contain the secret key to the mysteries

of the universe. Furthermore the mantra contains an inherent efficacy

so chanting it or writing it as graffiti in the streets slowly cleanses the

world of impurity and thus preparing the coming of the messiah.

Many contemporary orthodox Jewish communities offer Kabbalah

study groups and entire Yeshivas (religious schools), especially in

Jerusalem, are devoted to the study of Kabbalah. Outside strictly Jewish

circles Kabbalah has upheld the status it was given in the renaissance as

an ancient wisdom tradition applicable to almost any other tradition.

This can be witnessed in the role of Kabbalah in the teachings of widely

different types of esoteric movements, from initatory orders like the

Dragon Rouge to the theosophy of Helena Blavatsky or the rosy red

New Age healers. A common trait for many of the non-Jewish

adoptions of Kabbalah is the very sporadic knowledge of traditional

kabbalistic material and the emphasis on the single notion of the Tree

of Life. In the following chapters a selection of the different more or

less kabbalistic movements will be analyzed.

188 In Hebrew this is: נ נח נחמ נחמנ מאומן. NahZman meUman literally means NahZman from Uman, the hometown of the rabbi.

The Academic Study of Contemporary Kabbalah

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6. The Academic Study of Contemporary

Kabbalah

The scholarly attention given to the different varieties of contemporary

Kabbalah is sporadic at best although it is currently improving

considerably189. To find the reasons for the neglect of contemporary

Kabbalah as a worthy field of study we will have to turn to Scholem

whose attitude towards his contemporary practitioners of Kabbalah was

marked by disdain. This stance has long been upheld by Scholem’s

students, even those who on other points have distanced themselves

from Scholem. The main figures have already been mentioned in my

discussion of the definition and demarcation of Kabbalah, namely

Joseph Dan and Moshe Idel.

In the article ‘Authorized Guardians’ Boaz Huss shows how Scholem

and his successors see themselves as being the “authorized guardians”

of contemporary Kabbalah190. Scholem hardly paid attention to his

contemporary kabbalists, though several (Jewish) kabbalistic

communities flourished during his time, both in Jerusalem and in

Eastern Europe. But for Scholem these groups were nothing more than

a once precious tradition that now had degenerated and lost any cultural

value and historical significance 191 . This disdain for contemporary

Kabbalah is closely connected with Scholem’s overall view of modern

culture as inherently secularized, leaving no room for any kind of

mysticism:

In the final analysis, one may say that there is no authentic original mysticism in our generation, either in the Jewish

189 Within the last few years two conferences have been arranged dedicated the topic of contemporary Kabbalah: One in Amsterdam, July 2007 and one in Israel, May 2008. Furthermore several research projects have been undertaken both in and outside Israel and already a few books have been published or are at least coming soon. These are for example Jody Myers: Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest from 2007 and the forthcoming publication Kabbalah and Modernity edited by Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi and Kocku von Stuckrad, expected late 2008. 190 Huss: ’Authorized Guardians’. 191 Huss: ’Authorized Guardians’, p. 108.


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people or among the nations of the world. […] It is clear that in recent generations there have been no awakenings of individuals leading to new forms of mystical teachings or to significant movements in public life. This applies equally to Judaism, Christianity and Islam192.

As Huss explicitly states:

Scholem’s disregard of contemporary kabbalists is dependent on his claim that it is the Zionist movement, and not traditional Kabbalah, that continues the historical national role of Jewish mysticism193.

It is interesting to note that where Scholem sees contemporary (Jewish)

Kabbalah and occultist Kabbalah as misinterpretations and

degeneration of Kabbalah “proper”, the Renaissance Christian

Kabbalah is not subject to any critique.

The occultist Kabbalah as expounded by Eliphas Lévi (ps. Alphonse

Louis Constant), Edward Arthur Waite and Aleister Crowley is

dismissed as forgery or at best fanciful misrepresentation as the famous

quote from Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism shows:

The natural and obvious result of the antagonism of the great Jewish scholars was that, since the authorized guardians neglected this field [i.e. Kabbalah], all manner of charlatans and dreamers came and treated it as their own property. From the brilliant misrepresentations of Alphonse Louis Constant, who has won fame under the pseudonym of Eliphas Lévi to the highly coloured humbug of Aleister Crowley and his followers, the most eccentric and fantastic statements have been produced purporting to be legitimate interpretations of kabbalism194.

192 Scholem: On the Possibility, quoted in Huss: ‘Authorized Guardians’, p. 108. Note also that Scholem does not include the possibility of mysticism outside the three major scriptural religions, a stance which has been followed by Joseph Dan. See my discussion in chapter 1.3. 193 Huss: ‘Authorized Guardians’, p. 109. 194 Scholem: Major Trends, p. 2. As Boaz Huss ads, Scholem later writes in a note to this lecture that ‘No words should be wasted on the subject of Crowley’s “Kabbalistic” writings […] (ibid. p. 353. Quoted in Huss: ‘Authorized Guardians’, p. 115, n.38).


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In his Eranos lecture in 1977 Scholem continues:

Insebesondere haben noch im 19. Jahrhunder die französischen Theosophen der martinistiscen Schule (Eliphas Lévi, Papus und viele andere) und in diesem Jahrhundert Scharlatane wie Aleister Crowley und seine Bewunderer in England das Menschenmögliche an allgemeiner Konfusion aller okkulten Disziplinen mit der ”Heiligen Kabbala” geleistet. Ein grosser Teil der Schriften, auf der Titelblatt das Wort Kabbala prangt, hat gar nichts oder so gut wie gar nichts mit ihr zu tun195.

This attitude is continued by Joseph Dan who states the following

regarding the Kabbalah Centre:

A distressing example of this phenomenon [i.e. New Age forms of Kabbalah”] is the vast enterprise of “kabbalistic” publications initiated and directed by “kabbalist Rav Berg”. Originally he based his teachings on the work of one of the last authentic kabbalists of the twentieth century, Rabbi Ashlag, who wrote a voluminous commentary to the Zohar, based on the teachings of Isaac Luria. It was heartbreaking to observe how this authentic enterprise deteriorated into a New Age mishmash of nonsense196.

Dan’s dismissal of the Kabbalah of Rabbi Berg is interesting for several

reasons. First and most important Dan accuses the Kabbalah Centre for

having no connection to the Hebrew Kabbalah. Now, this is obviously

not the case when looking at the material promoted by the Centre or

the themes around which their main teachings revolve; namely the

Zohar and the 72 names of god. Part of the interpretation is different

from traditional Kabbalah, but as will be shown in the following

chapter the connection is definitely still there. Secondly Dan opposes

the Kabbalah of the Centre to the “authentic Kabbalah” which

apparently in the views of Dan, ended with Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag and

his kabbalistic enterprise in the middle of the twentieth century.

195 Scholem: ‘Alchemie und Kabbala’, p. 2.


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What is worth noting about this disdain against contemporary non-

traditional Kabbalah is the implicit conception of “tradition”. Dan

himself argues for medieval Kabbalah to be an innovative branch of

Judaism that is radically creative in its interpretation of ancient Jewish

material. What then, makes the Kabbalah Centre’s creative

interpretation of the medieval kabbalistic material so different from

what the medieval kabbalists themselves were doing? Structurally, there

is hardly any difference. To Dan the difference must be that the

medieval kabbalists in his opinion were developers of and partaking in

an authentic tradition opposed to the artificial and constructed tradition of

the Kabbalah Centre. As a Kabbalah scholar this presumption is

untenable since it builds rather on Dan’s personal preference for the

traditional Kabbalah than on a scholarly analysis of the actual topic in

question. In the following chapter I will deal with the Kabbalah Centre

and especially focus on its interpretation of the medieval kabbalistic

material.

What the academic study of contemporary Kabbalah needs is a set of

new terminological tools. The highly useful distinction between

theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah and ecstatic-profetic Kabbalah as

suggested by Idel was made with Medieval Jewish Kabbalah in mind

and is thus not sufficient when it comes to the much more complex

situation of Kabbalah today. My tentative proposal would be to

introduce a more nuanced classificatory terminology in order to be able

to distinguish the different types of Kabbalah prevalent in the cultural

matrix of contemporary society.

196 Dan: The Heart and the Fountain, n. 56, p. 285.

7. The Kabbalah Centre

7.1 A General Presentation According to its own perception the Kabbalah Centre is

The Kabbalah Centre

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a spiritual and educational organization dedicated to bringing the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world. The Centre itself has existed for more than 80 years, but its spiritual lineage extends even further — to Rav Isaac Luria, in the 16th century, and through Rav Luria to Rav Shimon Bar Yochai, who revealed the principal text of Kabbalah, the Zohar, more than 2000 years ago197.

The acclaimed connection to Isaac Luria and Shimon Bar Yoh ai as the

direct lineage of the Centre is not surprisingly an important part of the

Centre’s strategy of authorization and self legitimization. Since

Kabbalah cannot be separated from the act and history of transmission,

this is an extremely important factor for a kabbalistic movement. Now,

one thing is to construct a spiritual lineage using actual historical

persons as pinpoints as the Kabbalah Centre does. Another is to

reinstate the mythical authorship of the Zohar to Shimon Bar Yohai

thus bringing the origins of Kabbalah back to Antiquity. As shown by

Olav Hammer, this extensive use of emic historiography is a common

trait of esoteric traditions which transform pieces of actual history into

what is needed for the organization to establish its legitimization. As

he writes:

Clearly, emic historiography rarely builds its narratives ex nihilo. Elements recognizable from a non-esoteric tradition of historiography are reinterpreted and find their way into accounts of mythologized or emic history198.

The Kabbalah Centre does not only use pieces of actual historical facts

such as the existence of the two rabbis, they combine these details with

already well established mythologized narratives regarding the historical

figures. Thus they reconfirm the claim made by Moses de Léon in 13th

century Spain that the Zohar was an ancient document handed down

197 www.Kabbalah.com/03.php (accessed February 2, 2008) 198 Olav Hammer: Claiming Knowledge, p. 157.

The Kabbalah Centre

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through generations from the well esteemed rabbi Shimon Bar Yoh ai. A

statement which has been upheld by kabbalists ever since despite

numerous convincing scholarly arguments that the book could never

have been written by Shimon Bar Yohai199. The authenticity of the

pseudepigraphic work was also upheld by Isaac Luria himself who

proposed a direct lineage between himself and Bar Yohai. While

holding on to a traditional kabbalistic account of transmission, the

interpretation of the material as promoted by the Kabbalah Centre is

radically different from that of Luria. The Kabbalah Centre relies

heavily on the Lurianic tradition especially in the interpretation of

Yehuda Ashlag, however an entirely new perspective is added as a

fundamental part of their Kabbalah:

The startling truth is that Kabbalah was never meant for a specific sect. Rather, it was intended to be used by all humanity to unify the world200.

The claim of the universality of Kabbalah is a relatively new

phenomenon, introduced but never really popularized by occultism.

However, with the growth of New Age201, the focus on the universal

character of spiritual teachings became increasingly incorporated into

the teachings of groups like the Jewish Renewal Movement and

likewise, kabbalistic ideas became more and more common in

mainstream New Age culture.

Before going further into the doctrines of the Kabbalah Centre I will

turn the attention to the history of the movement.

The historical foundation of the Kabbalah Centre lies in the teachings

of the Polish kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag. Born in Warsaw in 1885 and an

avid socialist he combined Marx’s rejection of capitalism with a strong

199 See the splendid discussion by Arthur Green in the introduction to the first volume of the Zohar, Pritzker edition. 200 www.Kabbalah.com/03.php (accessed February 2nd 2008)

The Kabbalah Centre

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conviction of the need of religion in a healthy society. In 1921 he

moved to Palestine to teach and study Kabbalah which for him meant

the theosophical teachings of Isaac Luria. He was even convinced that

the soul of Luria had transmigrated into his own by the will of god as to

make him able of continuing the exact understanding of Kabbalah as

begun by Luria202. Naturally the teachings of the old kabbalist were

transformed as to fit the context of the 20th century socialist. Thus the

most important of Luria’s doctrines, that of the tikkun, the restoration

of god and thereby the world was transformed into a social and ethical

quest for achieving equality and justice in the world. Only then would

the individual human being be able to elevate itself and return to its

divine roots. Thus attention was moved from the restoration of the

divine realm to the perfection of the material world203. As Jody Myers

writes:

He [Ashlag] understood the cataclysmic “breaking of the vessels”204 in social terms, as an event that resulted in the creation of self-centered, destructive human beings. For Ashlag, tikkun moves forward when individuals become altruistic, promote economic justice and reshape society to be just and peaceful205.

Ashlag never gained much acknowledgement in his own time and he

had only a few faithful disciples. What became the most important

product of his kabbalistic enterprise was his translation of the Zohar

into Hebrew, including extensive commentaries. The dissemination of

Ashlag’s teachings in America was undertaken by one of his devout

students, Levi Krakovsky, who tried to introduce the study of Kabbalah

201 Here as well as in the remaing the thesis I use the term New Age in accordance with Hanegraaff: ‘The New Age Movement’. 202 Jody Myers: Kabbalah, p. 18 203 Cohen and Cohen (eds.): In the Shadow, p. 38-42. 204 A concept invented by Luria as a cosmogonic event, resulting in the divine sparks being captured in the human body and in a larger framework in an unbalance in the divine realm. This is what tiqqun is supposed to overcome. 205 Myers: Kabbalah, p.19.

The Kabbalah Centre

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to Jews in New York. However, American Jewish culture in the

twenties was radically different from that in Jerusalem or in Eastern

Europe. Hardly anybody knew Hebrew and Kabbalah was basically

unknown. Where, in Europe and Palestine the people interested in

Kabbalah were devout, orthodox Jews it was in America the non-

orthodox Jews and even non-Jews who had an involvement in

spiritualism and occultism, who showed interest in the kabbalistic

teachings.

In Krakovsky’s version Kabbalah became a “science”206. This is an

extremely important shift in the rhetorical promotion of Kabbalah,

since this is exactly what the later New Age inspired proponents of

Kabbalah would argue. Furthermore, Krakovsky seems to be the first

Jewish kabbalist to advocate the idea of a universal Kabbalah albeit still

in a restricted sense. In his rendering Kabbalah was the foundation of

all religion and spirituality and in the Messianic Age, in which he

believed to live, everybody would learn Kabbalah.

In the years before Krakovsky’s death in 1966 he taught Kabbalah to

young orthodox Jewish men. Among these was Shraga Feival

Gruberger who is more known under the English equivalent of his

name: Philip Berg. With the help of Krakovsky Berg founded the

National Institute for Research in Kabbalah, the foundation which

would later become the Kabbalah Centre.

To this day Berg and his family reject any affinity to Krakovsky. As

already noted, the question of lineage is of immense importance when it

comes to Kabbalah and the only way of obtaining authority is to have

the teachings of Kabbalah passed down through reliable sources. In this

respect it is of higher value for a kabbalistic teacher to be able to show a

direct link to a kabbalistic master in Israel than an unsuccessful rabbi in

Brooklyn. Thus Berg acclaims his teacher to be another of Ashlag’s

students, namely Yehuda Zvi Brandwein with whom he had studied in

206 Levi Krakovsky: The Omnipotent Light.

The Kabbalah Centre

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Israel207. In the early seventies Philip Berg moved to Israel together

with his wife Karen. They taught Kabbalah to both religious and non-

religious young Jews, men and women alike. To the Berg’s the broad

teaching of Kabbalah was an attempt to introduce young people to a

spiritual type of Judaism more appealing than the strict dogmatic

Judaism which apparently made the young Jews feeling alienated

towards their own religion and flee to ‘more mystically inclined eastern

religions208’. The Centre developed out of a mixture of Israeli and

American culture and addresses spiritual seekers of both Jewish and

non-Jewish background. The enterprise in Israel was almost entirely

directed towards Jews and for these students Berg edited and published

Hebrew and Aramaic texts of primarily Isaac Luria and Yehuda Ashlag

where in America they published English translations of the texts and

books in English written by Berg himself. The Kabbalah Centre

promoted itself as a form of spirituality rather than as a religion and

thus they reached an audience who were reluctant towards organized

religions but nevertheless still interested in religious topics. Berg offered

a radical new interpretation of the Jewish scriptures and especially of

the mitzvot which he understood not as commandments but as

suggestions or gifts from god to humanity. If one chooses to follow the

mitzvot he will receive the benefits from them but if not he would not

have to feel guilty209. This new approach to Judaism filled out a

religious vacuum between orthodoxy and secularism and the movement

quickly gained a lot of followers. However a major controversy in the

eighties between the orthodox Jewish powers in Israel and the

Kabbalah Centre resulted in a drastic loss of students and the break

between Berg and one of his major students, Michael Laitman. Laitman

was also a close follower of Yehuda Ashlag’s still living son Rabbi

207 Myers offers an introduction to the controversy between Krakovsky and Berg in Myers: Kabbalah, p.30-31. 208 Berg: Kabbalah for the Layman, p. 11 and Myers: Kabbalah, p. 51. 209 Myers: Kabbalah, p. 54-55.

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Baruch Ashlag and his more orthodox teaching. With Laitman’s final

outbreak from the Kabbalah Centre several members followed him and

joined Laitman’s own kabbalistic movement called Bnei Baruch which

still exist210. Despite the internal crisis of the Kabbalah Centre in Israel,

its popularity in America was increasing especially among non-Jews and

secular Jews. Parallel and maybe as a consequence of the shift in

audience Berg grew progressively polemic against orthodox rabbis

accusing them of denying important kabbalistic teachings to the seeking

students and for restricting the transmission of Kabbalah to their own

narrow religious circles211.

The teaching of the Kabbalah Centre is aimed at two different kinds of

audience. The first is a very narrow Jewish group that observes

orthodox Jewish practices and is highly dedicated to the religious

education within the Centre. The other and more dominant group

consists of more loosely connected people whose engagement range

from attending a course or meditation session now and then, buying a

book or two and maybe wearing a red string around their wrist to the

dedicated followers who attend service every Friday and Saturday,

participate in the high holiday retreats and generally follow the more

expanded education program offered by the Centre without necessarily

being Jewish.

At the core of the Kabbalah Centre’s teaching we find a number of

“spiritual tools”, that is, kabbalistic tools for increasing ones spiritual

level. The most important ones revolve around the doctrine of the

famous red string which followers wear around their wrist to remove

evil, the seventy two names of god, and finally the text of the Zohar. In

the next chapters I will focus on each of these subjects.

210 Myers: Kabbalah, p. 60. 211 Myers: Kabbalah, p. 61-62.

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7.2 The Red String and its cosmological framework

On the frontpage of the Kabbalah Centre’s website the red string is

listed side by side with the Zohar as one of the fundamentals of

Kabbalah. It is called a “powerful technology” whose purpose is

twofold:

to protect us from the envious looks of others, and to help us eliminate feelings of jealousy and resentment in ourselves. The technology is the Red String: a strand of red wool worn around the left wrist. This technology is an indispensable tool for spiritual and physical protection. The teachings of Kabbalah do not include prohibitions or commandments. Instead, the kabbalists speak of positive and negative energies212.

This reflects the general anthropology of the Centre that perceives the

human being as essentially receiving and giving different types of

energies. The goal is not surprisingly to be able to only give and receive

positive energy and avoid the bad energies. What is interesting in this is

the explicit turn towards a typical New Age rhetoric instead of

traditional kabbalistic terms. Not only is the emphasis on energies

which can be manipulated through spiritual elevation a common trait in

much New Age rhetoric, the very perception of the spiritual teachings

and tools as being technology or science213 is a very important key to

the universalization of the Kabbalah Centre’s teachings. It has to be

recognizable and appealing to a certain audience, namely the “spiritual

seekers” of the New Age milieu. I do not think one should

underestimate the importance of the highly competitive character of the

spiritual market and its influence on the different movements’ choice of

rhetoric and self promotion.

212 www.Kabbalah.com/13.php (accessed April 16, 2008). 213 Though I will not term the Kabbalah Centre a New Age Movement per se it is beyond doubt that they are highly inspired by New Age rhetoric. In the case of the relationship between New Age and science see James R. Lewis: ‘Science and the New Age’ where he

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The red string itself symbolizes danger and evil since in the Zohar red is

associated with the sefirah Gevurah214 which represents god’s stern

judgment and is the point, at least according to the Zohar where evil is

attached to the godhead as a parallel system to the holy sefirot; the Sitra

Ahra, literally the Other Side. By wearing the red string one gains control

over these chaotic forces but not every piece of red string will do. It has

to be properly prepared in order to gain its efficacy and furthermore

one has to observe a specific ritual for tying the string around the wrist.

The Kabbalah Centre explains that to infuse the red thread with

protective energy they take it to the tomb of Rachel, the biblical

matriarch, and wind it around the tomb. The protective forces that

she stood for alive is thus transferred to the woolen string wound

around her tomb since ‘according to Kabbalah, the burial sites of the

righteous are a portal to the energy they created in their lifetimes215’.

When the string is impregnated with Rachel’s protective energies it is

sold in small packages with a specific guide to the ritual fastening of the

string around the wrist.

It says that the string should be placed around the left wrist as this is

where the energies enter the body and thus:

By wearing the Red String on the left wrist, negative energies are intercepted at the precise point of entry. The string is tied in a carefully prescribed sequence of seven knots, each of which symbolizes a separate spiritual dimension that infuses our reality. It’s important that someone who loves us—someone we deeply trust—ties the string around our wrist. As they do, we should ask for the power to radiate kindness, compassion, appreciation, and absence of the Evil Eye to everyone around us216.

convincingly demonstrates how contemporary science provides New Age Movements with their basic legitimization. 214 See for example Zohar II, 20a-20b. Midrash ha Ne’elam in Tishby: Wisdom of the Zohar III p. 930-932. 215 www.Kabbalah.com/13.php (accessed April 17, 2008) 216 www.Kabbalah.com/13.php (accessed April 16, 2008).

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The reason why the “Red String Technology” holds such a central

position within the practice of the Kabbalah Centre can be found in

their interpretation of the cosmogony and anthropogony of Isaac Luria.

According to Luria all creation began when the only existing “thing”

Ein Sof (without end) made a contraction, leaving an empty space. This

is the process which in kabbalistic terminology is called tzimtzum. In this

empty space the primordial man Adam Kadmon was formed out of light

emanating from Ein Sof and from him the light flowed into special

vessels. The divine light however proved too powerful for the vessels

and they broke into pieces unleashing the sparks of light. Some of these

sparks attached themselves to the fragments of the vessels which then

became the kelippot, evil shells whereas others entered human bodies,

forming semi-divine beings. Thus the human being consists of a divine

soul trapped in a material body, living in a chaotic world where the link

to the divine has been broken. The fragmented nature of the material

world is a mirror of the state of the divine realm and the theurgical task

of the kabbalist was to restore the divine balance by observing the

mitzvot and engaging in restorative meditations. The individual purpose

was to make sure that the divine soul could in death be re-integrated

with its divine source, but this was only possible for the extreme

righteous man, the tzaddiq. For those who had not gained the spiritual

elevation necessary for this the soul would be reincarnated, a process

which in kabbalistic rendering is referred to as gilgul, until complete

righteousness would be achieved.

This detour around Luria’s highly mythologized interpretation of

kabbalistic material is meant to show the context in which the Kabbalah

Centre inscribes itself. It is in this context that the remaining discussion

of the Centre should be seen.

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7.3 The 72 Names of God

Apart from the red string the doctrine of the seventy two names of god

is highly important in the teachings of the Kabbalah Centre.

Ruminations concerning the names of god have always been central to

Jewish thought and we find several treatises of the Heikhalot literature

dealing with the theurgical use of the divine names217. In the medieval

Kabbalah the theme reappeared and as dicussed in chapter 1.2,

Kabbalah can be characterized as the transmission of the secret

doctrine of the pronounciation of the divine names. The specific case

of the seventy two names of god has its roots in rabbinic speculations

concerning different secret divine names among which is an unknown

name of seventy two letters by which god saved the Israelites from

Egypt218. But the idea of seventy two different names of god was first

presented by Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzaqi) in the eleventh century

when he explained a certain passage of Exodus as exposing these secret

names. In chapter 14:19-21 we find three sequential verses each

containing seventy two letters:

ו�ע מל�� יט ההל� לפני , האלהי

, ו�ל�, מחנה י�ראל ו�ע ע �ד ; מ�חריה

, ו�עמד, מ"ניה , הענ! . מ�חריה

19 And the angel of god, who

went before the camp of Israel,

removed and went behind

them; and the pillar of cloud

removed from before them,

and stood behind them;

ו�בא $י! מחנה כ �בי! מחנה , מצריויהי הענ! , י�ראל(ו�אר את, והח'�

20 and it came between the

camp of Egypt and the camp of

Israel; and there was the cloud

and the darkness here, yet gave

it light by night there; and the

217 See Peter Schäfer: Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur and Hekhalot Studien and more notably the brilliant analysis of the magical and theurgical aspects of this literary corpus in Michael Swartz: Scholastic Magic. 218 Huss: ‘All You Need Is LAV’, p. 612-613.

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קרב זה ( אול; ה*ילה . ה*ילה(-ל, זה(אל

one came not near the other all

the night.

, יד/(אתו�ט מ'ה כאו�/ל� יהוה , ה� (עלה� $ר�ח קדי (את

ו�� , ה*ילה(ע0ה -ל; ה� לחרבה(את

. ה י , ו�$קע�

21 And Moses stretched out

his hand over the sea; and the

lord caused the sea to go back

by a strong east wind all the

night, and made the sea dry

land, and the waters were

divided.

According to Rashi these can be combined to form the seventy two

divine names by taking the first letter of the first verse, the last letter of

the second verse and the first letter of the third verse, giving the first

name והו, the second name is constructed by taking the second letter of

the first verse, the last but one letter from the second verse and the

second letter of the third verse, thus forming the second name

When continuing this process throughout all seventy two letters the.ילי

following scheme of names can be arranged (read and counted from

right to left):

Each of these names is perceived to possess certain divine powers and

thus they can be used for ritual purposes. A famous example is the

thirteenth century kabbalist Abraham Abulafia who used the different

names in meditative practices aimed at achieving prophesies. He did not

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restrict himself to the tradition of the seventy two divine names but

extended his usage to include for example the doctrine of seeing the

whole Torah as consisting of one single divine name.

The Kabbalah Centre reaffirms the inherent efficacy of the names in

stating that the names themselves radiate divine power just by being

watched:

Because of their Divine source and the superhuman power contained in them, these three-letter combinations came to be known as the Names of God. But these aren’t “names” in the ordinary, earthly sense of the term. They're actually energy fields, visual mantras that are activated spiritually rather than vocally. In other words, you don't have to know how to pronounce them. And you don't need to understand exactly how or why they work. All you have to do is look at them. Incredibly, mysteriously, in that simple act, enormous power is unleashed219.

As noted earlier in my discussion of the Kabbalah Centre, the New Age

type of rhetoric is obvious. The names are not just names enhanced

with divine power; they are “energy fields” and “visual mantras”. And

furthermore, where the perception of the ritual efficacy of the names

might be the same as in the more traditional kabbalistic renderings, the

promotion of them is not surprisingly radically different. In medieval

Kabbalah, the knowledge of the divine names was a dangerous and

consequently restricted knowledge that was only passed on to the ones

wise enough to possess it. Contrary to this, the Kabbalah Centre makes

the acquisition of the names a universal right: ‘This is truly technology

for the soul - amazing spiritual power that no one is meant to live

without!220’. And again we can notice the emphasis on “technology”, a

strategy which should ensure the consumer that this is a tool that works

219http://store.Kabbalah.com/product_info.php?cPath=150_202&vcats=150&page=2&products_id=166 (accessed April 11, 2008). 220http://store.Kabbalah.com/product_info.php?cPath=150_202&vcats=150&page=2&products_id=166 (accessed April 11th. 2008).

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by itself, belief and knowledge is irrelevant. They continue the

description of the wondrous capabilities of the divine names:

In The 72 Names of God, you'll find a remedy for just about every challenge that's likely to come up in the course of a lifetime. Simply by properly meditating on the appropriate Name, you will be able to: * Bring more money into your life whenever you need it. * Ignite sexual energy and passion unlike anything you've experienced before. * Eliminate guilt forever and undo the damage it has caused you. * Recharge physical energy and heal illnesses - your own, and others'. * Radiate beauty to everyone who sees you. * Stop attracting the wrong people into your life. * Meet your true soul mate. And so much more!221.

Once again the New Age rhetoric is evident. This catalogue of

properties of the divine names could have been found in almost all

New Age groups and has no strict connection to Kabbalah besides the

medium of the divine names. The peculiar thing however is that the

Kabbalah Centre promotes as a central teaching the elimination of the

ego and the above qualities seem rather ego enhancing than ego

diminishing.

The process of eliminating the ego is connected to a specific divine

name: לאו or LAV. There is no literal meaning of the Hebrew word

but if the English word “love” should be transliterated into Hebrew it

would be לאו. This fact is played upon in the Kabbalah Centre’s

explanation of the divine powers attributed to this particular name,

since LAV designates charity, love for humankind and the will to

bestow instead of the egocentric wish to receive. Since this individual

spiritual development is crucial with regard to a larger scale cosmic

redemption LAV is one of the most important of the seventy two

divine names.

221http://store.Kabbalah.com/product_info.php?cPath=150_202&vcats=150&page=2&products_id=166 (accessed April 11th. 2008).

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As is well known the pop star Madonna is involved with the Kabbalah

Centre and their teachings have made their way into her creative work.

Thus we find the name LAV an essential element in her video

performance of the theme song for the James Bond movie ‘Die

Another Day’222. The movie shows Madonna with the Hebrew letters

tattooed on her right arm, being tortured in a prison similar to the לאו

one James Bond is held in in the movie. The location shifts between

this and a fencing dueling scene displaying a white and a black

Madonna fighting each other (In the movie Madonna plays the role as a

fencing instructor named Verity!). As the fighting increases in intensity

the imprisoned Madonna straps her arms in tefillin, the leatherstraps

Jewish men binds around their arms and forehead before prayer, just

before she is tied to an electric chair. In the end of the video the white

Madonna kills the black Madonna and simultaneously the electric chair

is empowered, leaving a thick cloud of smoke in the room. When her

executioner enters the room the chair is empty but the name לאו

appears in flaming letters on its back while we see Madonna escaping

down the corridor223 . Among the lyrics to the song we find the

important sentences: ‘I’m gonna break the cycle, I’m gonna shake up

the system, I’m gonna destroy my ego’. The connection between the

lyrics and the divine name is unmistaken and Huss arrives at the

following conclusion:

The significance of the letters LAV, according to the teaching of the Kabbalah Centre, enables us to read Madonna’s ‘‘Die Another Day’’ video clip as a Bergian kabbalistic text. The power of the seventy-two names of God saves Madonna, in the prison sequence, from the suffering and death caused by the external, evil powers of this world. Yet, as we learn from the dueling sequence and

222 In his article ‘All You Need is LAV’ Boaz Huss offers a splendid analysis of the music video. Thus the following is more or less a summary of his main points. 223 The video can be found on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAPh72JQ6qU&feature=related (accessed April 30, 2008).

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the lyrics of the song, the victory over the evil powers is contingent upon an internal victory, a destruction of the ego, the victory of the white Madonna (the divine light, the will to bestow) over the black Madonna (the evil side, the will to receive, the ego). This victory can be achieved through the power of the letters LAV224.

What is surprisingly is that while Huss in his analysis acknowledges the

postmodern symbolism in the function of Madonna in her constant

blurring of boundaries; She dissolves the boundaries between religion

and popular culture, between different religions by being the catholic

Madonna and the Jewish Esther, he does not recognize the genderly

dichotomy that she promotes by the laying of the tefillin. This practice is

a strictly male mitzvah and thus the basic gender roles are being torn

down225.

I will now turn to the actual usage of the seventy two names of god in

everyday practices within the Kabbalah Centre. The function of the

divine names can be divided in to two different practices: meditative

scanning and talismanic usage. The first of these involves the visual

skimming of the table of the divine names in order to activate the

healing light of the names. It is a ritual which can be practiced in

solitude for one’s own benefit or better in communion with others in

order to spread the healing divine energy to people or places around the

world in need of healing. It is not necessary to understand the letters or

being able to pronounce the names. The simple activity of looking at

224 Huss: ‘All You Need is LAV’, p. 617-618. 225 Kocku von Stuckrad discusses the deconstruction of stereotype gender roles by Madonna in his article: ‘Madonna and the Shekhinah’. However I do not agree with his view of the kabbalistic image of god as andropomorphic instead of just anthropomorphic or with his notion of the gender of the Shekhinah: ‘Thus, in kabbalistic interpretation the gender of the Shekhinah is multivalent; the Shekhinah is reflective of a male dominance that incorporates the female aspects of the divine. It reveals the power of male definitions and an androcentric organization of perceived differences’. For a different viewpoint see the works of Daniel Abrams, most notably The Female Body of God in Kabbalah especially p. 68-122 and ‘"A light of her own"’ where Abrams convincingly argues for the highly independent and elevated status of the divine feminine in Kabbalah.

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them is enough to release their power226. The talismanic usage implies

choosing the appropriate name in accordance to one’s needs; LAV (לאו)

to eliminate the ego, ALAD (אלד) for protection against the evil eye or

MAHASH (מהש) for physical protection, just to take a few popular

examples. These names can be written on amulets, t-shirts or directly

on the body if the purpose is to heal physical pain. The names can thus

be used as tools aiding the practitioner in her/ his spiritual quest, the

completion of which would be impossible without the divine power

inherent in the names.

7.4 The Zohar

The essential purpose of reading and scanning THE ZOHAR is to restore both our lives and our universe to their natural balanced state227.

Besides the red string and the divine names another important spiritual

tool is promoted by the Kabbalah Centre. This is the medieval literary

masterpiece, the Sefer ha Zohar, meaning the Book of Splendor. The Zohar

was written in the late thirteenth century as a pseudepigraphic work

mainly by the Spanish kabbalist Moses de Leon. He presented the work

as being an ancient work by the rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and now he

was able to pass piece by piece of this sacred authoritative teaching on

to his own students. It developed into a huge compilation of kabbalistic

exegeses on the Torah written in the style of ancient midrashim combined

with legendary tales of the lives and teachings of the ancient, honored

rabbis. It quickly achieved a canonical status among the kabbalists, a

status which has been maintained until today. Despite the academic

consensus about the pseudepigraphic character of the book, most of

the contemporary kabbalist adhere to the alleged authorship of the

226 Myers: Kabbalah, p. 131-133. 227 www.Kabbalah.com/scanchart07-08.pdf (accessed May 4, 2008).

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Zohar as being Shimon bar Yoh ai and not Moses de Leon. This is also

the case with the Kabbalah Centre who even promotes the Zohar to a

far greater extend than the Torah itself. Where the Zohar holds a place

on their website as part of the central teachings of the center and a

whole section of their online store is devoted to the book itself in

different languages and various commentaries on it, hardly any

references to the Torah are found. Only in their store it is possible to

buy a two volume Hebrew commentary on the Torah by Yehudah Berg.

Furthermore, in practice the Zohar has gained a similar function as the

Torah in that a special chart is given of when to read which portion of

the Zohar over a period of one year, exactly as it is common practice in

a traditional Jewish synagogue to read a designated chapter of the Torah

each Shabbat.

As with the divine names, the Kabbalah Centre emphasizes that

understanding of the language is of minor importance. The efficacy of

the Zohar is embedded in the physical representation of the letters, not

just in its literary meaning:

The Zohar is a spiritual book–the most powerful tool that has been given to us for revealing the Creator’s Light in our lives. This power does not depend on understanding or belief. Rather, it is imbued in every word and letter of The Zohar, and from every letter and word it passes to us228.

The reason for the elevated status of the Zohar compared to the Torah

can be found in the Kabbalah Centre’s distinction between Judaism and

Kabbalah, where Judaism is a closely defined religion opposed to

Kabbalah which is perceived as universal wisdom. Thus studying the

Torah is only relevant for the very small circle of orthodox Jews

attending the higher educational programs within the Centre, whereas

the Zohar is available for everybody. It is highly interesting to note how

228 www.Kabbalah.com/scanchart07-08.pdf (accessed May 4, 2008).

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the differentiation between what is conceived as esoteric and exoteric

has been reversed in the practical teachings of the Kabbalah Centre. In

traditional Kabbalah severe restrictions was made as to who was worthy

to study the Kabbalah and it was only a theoretical possibility after

several years of intensive study of the traditional orthodox Jewish

curriculum, that is the Torah, Mishnah, Halakhah and so on. Today

everybody can attend service at the synagogue, listening to the reading

of the Torah. In the Kabbalah Centre this has been turned upside down.

It is far more complicated to get to study the Torah in the context of the

Kabbalah Centre than the formerly esoteric teachings of the Zohar.

Here, everybody can attend the weekly readings of the Zohar and

everybody is encouraged to buy a Zohar to achieve the spiritual benefits

inherent in the book:

The Zohar not only reveals and explains, it literally brings blessings, protection, and well-being into the lives of all who come into its presence. Nothing is required but worthy desire, the certainty of a trusting heart, and an open and receptive mind. The Zohar’s ultimate purpose is to draw Light into our lives, and thereby bring complete fulfillment. The Zohar, therefore, is an opportunity for us to transform our natures. To bring about this transformation is why all the teachings of Kabbalah exist, and why The Zohar should always be in our homes, our thoughts, and our hearts229.

And as is written in the sales description of the pocket size edition of

the part of the Zohar which is attributed to the function of healing and

protection:

The Zohar is not only a book of Kabbalistic teachings and wisdom. It is a powerful tool for protection from physical illness and danger in all forms […] By keeping it with you or giving it to those you love, you can insure health in a world fraught with chaos and negativity. This miniature

229 www.Kabbalah.com/11.php (accessed May 4, 2008).

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volume is ideal for travel bags, your car, children's backpacks, and even in your purse. Don't leave home without it!230.

The Zohar actually functions in the same way as the divine names and

they compliment each other in the everyday practice of the Kabbalah

Centre attendee. Different sections of the book is said to be connected

to different spiritual functions just as the names of god and both the

book and the names are perceived to pave the way for the spiritual

perfection of the individual and thus for the world itself. The theurgical

utility of the Zohar is a reminiscent of the teachings of Yehuda Ashlag

who thought of himself as being the one who had completed the

understanding of the Zohar and made it available to all of humankind231.

Ashlag was convinced that he lived in the messianic age, a time where

the connections between the physical and the divine worlds were closer

than ever, and he saw it as his task to bring the knowledge of god and

of Kabbalah out into the world. And to this, the understanding and

spreading of the Zohar was mandatory for the complete spiritual

fulfillment of the physical world. In the Kabbalah Centre the Zohar

along with the divine names become the key tools to achieve the

individual and thus cosmological completion and purification.

For us to manifest complete fulfillment, we need to evolve into our greatest selves. In our thoughts, feelings, and actions, we need to erase negativity and replace darkness with Light. It is for this purpose that the teachings and tools of Kabbalah were given to all humanity—and the greatest of these tools is The Zohar232.

It should be noted however, that to Ashlag the task of individual and

cosmological purification was solely a duty for the Jews albeit the effect

230 http://store.Kabbalah.com/product_info.php?cPath=164&vcats=164&products_id=258 (accessed May 4, 2008). 231 Myers: Kabbalah, p. 118.

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would embrace all of humanity. But Ashlag thought of the Jews as

being on a far higher spiritual level than non-Jews, a level that non-Jews

would never be able to attain. He would never have thought of teaching

Kabbalah to gentiles. So the Kabbalah Centre’s adaption of Ashlagian

teachings and viewpoints is by all means eclectic and transformative.

The designation of Jews and gentiles are only referring to different

spiritual levels according to the Kabbalah Centre and thus everybody

can overcome their “gentile status”. As Myers explains:

The Centre rejects the Bible’s explanation that the name Yisrael was given to Jacob after he wrestled with God’s angel and was not defeated, and rejects any genealogical or national associations. It is a spiritual designation only. It refers to people who struggle with Satan and try to connect to the Light. In short, everyone at the Kabbalah Centre is Yisrael233.

This allegorical interpretation of the designation of Israel as a universal

spiritual category instead of a strictly Jewish one is part of the Centre’s

strategy towards spreading Kabbalah to all of humankind. They

insistently promote Kabbalah, not as a religion and certainly not as a

branch of Judaism, but as a universal wisdom available to everybody

regardless gender, religion and age:

It is quite understandable that Kabbalah could be confused with Judaism. Throughout history, many scholars of Kabbalah have been Jewish. But there have also been many non-Jewish scholars of this wisdom, such as Christian Knorr-von-Rosenroth, Pico Della and Sir Isaac Newton, just to name a few. […] It is a way of life that can enhance any religious practice. Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Jews use Kabbalah to improve their spiritual experience234.

232 www.Kabbalah.com/11.php (accessed May 4, 2008). 233 Myers: Kabbalah, p. 119. 234 www.Kabbalah.com/03.php (accessed May 5, 2008).

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7.5 Kabbalah or New Age, Religion or Spirituality?

The above distinction between religion and spirituality is another typical

aspect of New Age culture adopted by the Kabbalah Centre. However,

I would not go as far as to call the Kabbalah Centre a New Age

movement. Rather it is a perfect example of a religious organization’s

adaptation to the challenges which postmodern Western society poses

to traditional religion. In certain ways the Centre consequently can be

mistaken for presenting “New Age spirituality” in the guise of

Kabbalah. But I would argue that it is actually the other way around.

Even though the Kabbalah Centre, as shown above, evidently makes

use of typical New Age strategies and rhetoric they do not share the

crucial syncretistic elements so characteristic of New Age. On the

contrary the Kabbalah Centre offers traditional kabbalistic teachings on

new bottles, adapted to the conditions of post modernity. They are

aware of which rhetorical strategies work in a consumer oriented

culture and they have managed to establish themselves as an attractive

religious or, as they would say, spiritual choice in the subjectivity-

centered mode of life which Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead have

found so central to the religious milieu of post modernity235. This is not

the place for an extensive discussion of the distinctions between

religion and spirituality236 but I find it important to clarify my own

position in the debate. Suffice to say that I myself see the terms as

artificial emic distinctions which are employed by religious groups or

people in order to position themselves in relation to other types of

religion than their own. None of the above academic discussions of the

possibility of using the terms in an etic analysis seem convincing to me,

rather they tend to blur the boundaries of the respective categories. The

235 Heelas and Woodhead: The Spiritual Revolution. 236 This topic has been elaborated extensively by Christopher Partdridge: The Re-Enchantment of the West, esp. vol. I, chapter 3 and vol. II, p. 6-13, Paul Heelas: ‘The Spiritual Revolution’, Robert Fuller: Spiritual but not Religious, Steven Sutcliffe and Marion Bowman: Beyond the New Age, et al. Apart from their diverse viewpoints, what is common to all these discussions is

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problems of defining “religion” are well known and it will not get any

easier by the employment of an extra category as “spirituality”. It only

extends the definitiorial quest to comprise two fuzzy categories instead

of just one. An example of a definition of “spiritual” which in my view

does not distinguish itself from any definition of “religion” is the

following from Robert Wuthnow:

At its core, spirituality consists of all the beliefs and activities by which individuals attempt to relate their lives to God or to a divine being or some other conception of a transcendental reality […] But spirituality is not just the creation of individuals; it is shaped by larger social circumstances and by the beliefs and values present in the wider culture237.

I do not think that this definition by any means differentiates itself from

any other type of religion and consequently it confuses more than

clarifies. Within the study of contemporary Kabbalah the designation of

“spirituality” is also prevalent. As Boaz Huss writes:

The eclectic nature of postmodern spirituality involves a blurring of distinction between science, religion and popular culture. Both New Age and contemporary kabbalistic movements blur and challenge the accepted, modernist distinctions between religion and magic, theology and science, religious ritual and show business. New Age and contemporary Kabbalah combine diverse themes such as Tarot cards and quarks, sefirot and chakras, pop culture celebrities and Nobel laureates238.

He does not, however, involve in a discussion or definition of the term

spirituality and I think he misses an important distinction between

kabbalistic movements which use New Age concepts and religious

strategies and New Age movements which employ kabbalistic material

their basic agreement that a distinction of the two terms is of intrinsic value to the academic study of contemporary religion, an assumption that I do not contend. 237 Wuthnow: After Heaven, p. vii-viii. 238 Huss: ’The New Age of Kabbalah’, p. 118.

The Kabbalah Centre

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into their eclectic systems. Without doubt Kabbalah has become a

religious buzz word, and to incorporate kabbalistic concepts into New

Age teachings gives the movement a widely recognized authority.

Kabbalah has become the universal wisdom in contemporary

esotericism, including New Age, and holds a position as divine

knowledge and tradition similar to the status that was given to Indian,

Tibetan or Egyptian religious traditions in earlier esotericism.

7.6 Summary

In the previous discussion I have shown how the Kabbalah Centre

places itself in two traditions. The substance of their teaching belongs

to quite traditional kabbalistic doctrines which however have been

interpreted in a New Age rhetoric. As a consequence they base their

teaching on such traditional kabbalistic subjects as the divine names, the

Zohar and speculations about the use of amulets but the usage of these

teachings have been transformed into tools for spiritual purification and

everyday improvements. Still as the final quotation will show, the

selfevolvement is deeply imbedded in traditional Lurianic doctrines:

Kabbalah teaches that every human being is a work in progress. Any pain, disappointment, or chaos that exists in our lives is not because this is how life is meant to be, but only because we have not yet finished the work that brought us here. That work, quite simply, is the process of freeing ourselves from the domination of the human ego and creating an affinity with the sharing essence of God239.

239 www.Kabbalah.com/03.php (accessed April 17, 2008).

The Kamadon Academy and the Melchizedek Method

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8. The Kamadon Academy and the Melchizedek

Method

In 1997 the spiritual teacher Alton Kamadon chanelled a new method

for spiritual enlightenment: a teaching which was called the

Melchizedek Method. It was received from the ascended master Thoth

or Enoch. This teaching was said to be practiced first by the cetaceans

(that is, the dolphins and whales) in the temples of higher learning in

Atlantis. Kamadon is also said to constantly have received new

information from and worked with The Ascended Masters, The Angelic

Realms, Lord Sananda and Lord Melchizedek in the Intergalactic

Council of the Great White Brotherhood. He also had memories of his

deep connection to the ancient Mystery Schools of Lemuria, Atlantis

and Egypt240.

The teachings itself consists of five initiatory levels where the first two

always are taught together. Of the benefits gained from the different

initiatic levels, these can be highlighted:

Level 1 & 2: • Activating the Hologram of Love 3 Breath Merkaba lightbody. • Accessing the time-space continuum through the spine. • Instant holographic chakra balance. • Encoding the five sacred key languages of Egyptian, Hebrew,

Sanskrit, Tibetan & Chinese through the pineal gland. • Opening dimensional doorways to time travel with teleportation. • Retrieving beneficial aspects and talents from past lives on Earth

and other planets. • Amplifying the 33rd Degree Energies of your Adam Kadmon

light body with rotational light colour rays. • Opening up the ancient seals of wisdom within the Great

Pyramid and the Sphinx. Level 3 & 4: • Opening your Superconsciousness to Star Languages and God’s

Light Mansion Galaxy Worlds.

240 www.kamadonlove.com/Alton_Kamadonx.html (accessed May 21, 2008)


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• Interaction with the Galactic Councils that Oversee the Ascension of our Soul.

• A conversation with God. • A visit to the Intergalactic Melchizedek University on the

Pleiades.

The main teaching concerns the activation of one’s “33rd degree

Merkaba Adam Kadmon Light Body”, also called the “Zohar Body”241.

Merkaba is explained as follows:

MerKaBa is a term which translated means 'chariot' in Hebrew. In ancient Egyptian (18th dynasty) means MER= rotating fields of light, KA= spirit and BA= soul. When the MerKaBa is activated around a person's body, he or she is in a place of complete protection, generated by the Love of the Universe242.

The notions of Merkaba and Adam Kadmon are central to the

teachings of the Academy with the Merkaba as the “technology” by

which to reach one’s own Adam Kadmon Light Body. Adam Kadmon

is basically perceived through Lurianic kabbalistic glasses and is thus

seen as the primordial divine being stemming forth from Ein Sof and

through which all creation began. Also in Lurianic terms mankind is

considered to contain sparks of this divine being, which can be

awakened through spiritual practice. This is what is called the Light

Body and with the intervention of YHVH the powers of Adam

Kadmon can be bestowed upon the individual as to transform the

person into an ‘extension of YHWH’243. It is no coincidence that

“Kamadon” is an anagram of Adam Kadmon:

“Kamadon” is the anagram of Adam Kadmon, the name given to our light body, the ‘archetypal’ or prototype of

241 www.holisticwebs.com/orbital/level4.html (Accessed May 19, 2008). 242 www.4dshift.com/back/july99.htm (accessed May 19, 2008). 243 Richardo Serrano: Reaching to Kamadon.


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humanity. It is this divine human form that contains the essence of YHVH, God244.

Furthermore Adam Kadmon has the ability to manifest himself

physically in whatever guise he finds necessary in order to transmit the

divine truths. Obviously this is where any connection with traditional

Kabbalah has evaporated. Adam Kadmon is also connected to the

Kamadon Temple which is said to be an ethereal temple hovering

above the earth and awaiting to be drawn down through human

consciousness. It contains all the wisdom of Adam Kadmon and is even

perceived to be the ‘temple of the soul of Adam Kadmon’245.

Of other kabbalistic terms the Kamadon Academy operates with the

doctrine of the ten sefirot which is identified with Kabbalah in general.

Furthermore Kabbalah is given a universal status which however can

only be revealed directly from a divine mediating agent:

Kabbalah is the science of the many universes of higher intelligence that serve the Godhead. Kabbalah cannot be understood exclusively in the languages of Man and, according to Enoch, must be revealed directly by the angel/ emissary of YHWH246

Strangely, the functionality of the Hebrew letters and the divine names

(mainly YHVH) is not connected to Kabbalah but has a status of its

own. Thus we find the following from the text Keys of Enoch:

Key 202:1 The name of YHWH is coded within every biochemical function in our body, especially within the life-giving DNA/RNA matrix. Key 202:29 The Hebrew “letters” are used because they are, in actuality, thought-forms of Light vibrations which control the

244 www.holisticwebs.com/orbital/level3info.html (accessed July 13, 2007). 245www.kamadonacademy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=60 (Accessed May 19, 2008). 246 Richardo Serrano: Reaching to Kamadon.


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higher force fields used to evolve all forms of intelligibility from the divine mind.

Both these “keys” sounds much like a rewording of some basic

kabbalistic notions of language and the tetragrammaton. In the Sefer

Yetzirah all creation stems from the Hebrew letters and the Torah and

in Medieval Kabbalah this is transferred to the tetragrammaton, since it

is the essence of the Torah, as being the foundation of all creation. This

was also prevalent in the Gates of Light. And in the paragraph 202:29 the

Hebrew letters achieve the same hyposemantic qualities as Abulafia

attributed them, that is an inherent efficacy.

Now, I am certain that most practitioners of the Melchizedek Method

are absolutely unaware of these traditional kabbalistic elements and

maybe that even counts for Alton Kamadon himself. However this

shows how traditional Kabbalah has become a structural element in

Western esotericism and as such can be reused in a more or less

recognizable shape.

Obviously the Melchizedek Method shows a high degree of eclecticism

and leaves the sense of a theosophical doctrine combined with New

Age rhetoric and UFO religion. Kabbalistic terms are in the usage of

the Kamadon Academy mere buzzwords meant to provide the method

with attractiveness for a certain audience. The general rhetoric chosen

by the Academy is marked by an extreme predilection for putting

together as many similar buzzwords (sometimes resulting in a

meaningless redundance) as possible into one concept such as “God’s

Light Mansion Galaxy Worlds” 247 , “New Meta-Galactic Luminous

Zonalight”248, “Activation of the Metatronic Waveform Cell Recorder

Crystalline Frequency”249. This pseudo scientific language has the effect

of providing the specific benefits of the method an air of

247www.kamadonacademy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=60 (accessed May 19, 2008). 248 www.kamadonlove.com/zonalightx.html (accessed May 19, 2008).


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unintelligibility and mystery on one hand and scientific authority on the

other. Kabbalah is not an explicitly dominant part of this tradition.

However when spoken of kabbalah always has a highly elevated status

of universal esoteric truth. The knowledge of “traditional” kabbalah is

restricted to a few central concepts like Adam Kadmon and the sefirot,

but any deeper knowledge is very rare. Thus a Kamadon teacher in

Denmark could inform me that Zohar was an ascended master and not

a kabbalistic work written in the end of the 13th century.

9. The Gnostic Teachings of Samael Aun Weor

9.1 Sexual Magic and Apocalyptic

Samael Aun Weor (pseudonym of Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez)

was born in Columbia in 1917 and raised as a Jesuit. In his early teenage

years he became interested in spiritualism and after having studied this

for some years he joined the Theosophical Society in 1933. From this

he enrolled in Arnoldo Krumm-Heller’s Fraternitas Rosicruciana

Antiqua which had come to South America in 1927250. His extensive

studies included among others, the prominent thinkers Helena

Blavatsky, Rudolph Steiner, Gurdjieff, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and

Eliphas Levì from which he drew heavily when composing his own

teachings.

In his autobigraphic book The Three Mountains Weor describes how he is

born a consciuos being compared to other people, and that he from

early on have memories of past incarnations. These includes a period

on Lemuria, Atlantis, a member of an esoteric Tibetan order (in his

Lemurian body), an Egyptian priest, as Julius Caesar and the equivalent

249www.kamadonacademy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=60 (accessed May 19, 2008). 250 Zoccatelli: ‘G.I. Gurdjieff’. See also Peter König: ‘Ordo Templi Orientis’.

The Gnostic Teachings of Samael Aun Weor

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of Jesus on the Moon251. He tells of his initiations of fire (i.e the sexual

fire) that allows him to get rid of his egos and earthly attachments. He

describes an early meeting with a highly illuminated master who

explains to Weor what his mission on earth should be: You will have to

draw the mulitudes, and form the Army of World Salvation to initiate

the new Aquarian Era [...] Your specific mission is to create Men, to

teach the people to fabricate the astral, mental and causal bodies so that

they can incarnate the Human Soul252.

This is closely connected to the name Samael which is explained as

follows:

Samael, the inner Being of Samael Aun Weor, is a great Archangel who has been assisting humanity for ages. He has been known by many names throughout our history, but he is perhaps best known as Ares, Mars, the God of War. His war is always a spiritual one, the war against the corruption of the human mind253.

Everybody is said to have an innermost being that can be found

through the work of sexual magic. By entering the abyss of oneself, one

can encounter and free the sparks of one innermost being, sparks which

are captured in the demonic “I”s and egos. With the alchemical

transmutation of the “Ens Semini”, the essence of the semen, one can

dissolve the “I”s and reach higher states of conscious being. The inner

being is the only one who can make the true Human being, without the

consciousness of this one is only an “intellectual animal”.

Weor saw himself as the bodhisattva of Samael and the messenger of

the new era which is said to begin on 4th February, 1962, between

2 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon:

251 Zoccatelli: ‘G.I. Gurdjieff’. 252 Weor: The Three Mountains p. 162. 253 www.gnosticteachings.org/content/view/163/75/ (accessed July 10th 2007).


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Since long ago, all the spiritualist brethren of the world have been waiting for the great Avatar of Aquarius; listen, do not wait for another messenger, because I am the Initiator of the new era254.

In 1950 Weor published The Perfect Matrimony of Kinder or The Door to

Enter into Initiation later named The Perfect Matrimony which contains his

sexual magical teachings. Published in Catholic Mexico it is no surprise

that the book caused immense aversion and Weor was even sent to jail

because of the book. The prosecution is probably also one of the

reasons that Weor’s teachings became very apocalyptical in the

following years, as exemplified in his lecture ‘Final Catastrophe’:

Then, let it not be strange for you that the future Earth will have light and wisdom. However, the present moment is the critical moment, my dear brothers and sisters; these are terrible times. People of other planets of infinite space know the present state in which we are living; it is clear that they will assist us. However, only those who deserve it will be saved255.

According to this lecture the end of the world will happen in the year

2500, due to kabbalistic readings of the numbers:

Humanity is completely mature for the supreme punishment. The end of this shameful humanity is near.

The Kabbalistic analysis demonstrates that in the numbers two (2), five (5), zero (0), and zero (0), the secret of the great catastrophe is enclosed. Whosoever has understanding, let him understand for there is wisdom therein.

Unfortunately, people do not know how to comprehend the profound meaning of certain Kabbalistic numbers. Lamentably, they interpret everything literally.

We must wait in cold blood for the supreme hour of punishment for many and of martyrdom for others256.

254 www.gnosticteachings.org/content/view/536/43/ (accessed July 10th 2007). 255www.gnosticteachings.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=43 (accessed July 10th 2007). 256www.gnosticteachings.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=43 (accessed July 10th 2007).


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However, in other texts the date is set according to the Maya calendar

and arrives at the year 2043257.

According to his Christmas message of 1952 the single path to

redemption is walking on the “razor’s edge”, which is the direct path of

sexual magic. Only in this way can one become “christified” and thus

eligible for salvation258.

In the following years Weor managed to publish extensively on a wide

range of esoteric subject, though all with the pivotal aspect of sexual

magic. He also established the AGEAC (Asociación Gnóstica de

Estudios Antropológicos Culturales y Científicos), a school with the

purpose of spreading the gnostic teachings to all humankind. The

organization still exists today with branches all over the world.

However several other institutions also claim to be the proper heirs of

Weor’s gnostic teachings and this seems to sometimes cause tensions

between the different groups. Weor himself did not claim monopoly

over one single school. A multitude of schools could exist as long as

they kept to his teachings and kept three initiatic chambers,

corresponding to the three mountains of his initiatic autobiography.

It is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction in the records of the life of

Weor. This is due to the material available which mainly consists of

more or less hagiographic description given by his followers on one

hand and Weor’s autobiographical statements on the other. Not even

the amount of books written by Weor is it possible to find a consensus

of. Some claim that he has written 49 books and some claim 70259. Be

this as it may, it is beyond any doubt that he was very productive and

wanted his teachings to reach any corner of the world. For this reason

he chose to deny all copyright on the material, a fact that facilitates the

257 This is different from most other interpretations of the end of the world according to the Maya calendar which usually arrives at the year 2012. See Sacha Defesche: ‘The 2012 Phenomenon’. 258 Weor: ‘Christmas Message 1952’.


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research, since most of his books are spread in various languages on the

internet.

With the words of Weor himself, we can say that he presents a

“doctrine of synthesis”. He sees all religions as expressions of a single

universal truth, but he himself is the one to present the correct path to

this truth. This path, as already stated is the practice of sexual magic by

which one becomes “christified” and a “real (conscious) human being”.

In the following chapter I will clarify which role Kabbalah plays in this

sexual magical doctrine.

9.2 Kabbalah in the doctrine of synthesis of Weor

At first sight Kabbalah does not play any prominent role in the writings

of Weor. However, a closer examination of his texts reveals an

underlying system of references which to a large extend makes use of

kabbalistic terminology and symbolism.

By studying Weor’s books it becomes almost certain that he did not

have any direct knowledge of the medieval kabbalistic literature, not

even in any of the available translations. It is evident that he did not

know Hebrew, and the very rare references to any primary kabbalistic

sources indicates that he did not have immediate knowledge of any of

these treatises. Now and then references are given to the Zohar but the

references are extremely vague and could in reality refer to any

theosophical kabbalistic treatise. Though never said explicitly, it seems

likely that Weor got most of his knowledge of Kabbalah through the

teachings of Eliphas Lévi whom he studied in his early days. Also, as a

member of the Theosophical Society, he probably inherited Madame

Blavatsky’s views on Kabbalah.

Weor himself defines Kabbalah accordingly:

259 Zoccatelli: ‘G.I. Gurdjieff’.


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[Kabbalah is] an ancient esoteric teaching hidden from the uninitiated, whose branches and many forms have reached throughout the world. The true Kabbalah is the science and language of the superior worlds and is thus Objective, complete and without flaw260.

In the doctrine of Weor every human being incarnates the ten sefirot.

These should be “activated” through the practice of sexual magic in

order to awaken the sefirotic crown, i.e. the three upper sefirot261.

The sefirotic tree is seen as a map of the universes, both the created,

material universe and the inner universe of the human soul. The three

upper sefirot: Keter, H�ochmah and Binah serves as the first, second and

third Logos respectively, corresponding to the Father, the Son and the

Holy Spirit. The third Logos, Binah, is then further divided into a

feminine and masculine principle, serving as the divine Mother and

Father.

The seven lower sefirot is seen as corresponding to the seven different

bodies of the human being262:

1:10 Malkhut: The physical body. 2: 9 Yesod: The ethereal/ vital body. 3:8 Hod: The astral body. 4:7 Netzah : The mental body. 5:6 Tiferet: The causal body/ the body of Will. 6:5 Gevurah: The body of the Consciousness. 7:4 Hesed: The body of the Innermost.

The sefirot are counted with two numbers each in order to show how

they are stepwise emanated from Ein Sof and meanwhile function as a

ladder to be reached from below. Thus Malchut is both number one, as

the first step from the physical world and number ten, as the final

divine emanation. According to Weor the initiant should descend in his

own inner worlds in order to ascend the sefirotic tree. This can only be

done with the practice of sexual magic, a practice he calls the Arcanum

260 Weor: The Initiatic Path, p. 240. 261 Weor: The Initiatic Path, p. 143.


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A.Z.F. The purpose of this is to move from one type of body to the

next, the final goal being the solar body which is achieved when the

practitioner reaches the three upper sefirot: the divine Logos. When this

ascend is accomplished it results in a second birth, the birth of the solar

body. Only when reaching this state one can call him/ herself a Human

Being263.

The second sefirah H�ochmah is said to be the second Logos, the Christ.

Christ is not seen as an individual being but rather as a cosmic entity or

principle:

Christ is a cosmic force that can express Himself through any human being who is properly prepared […] A human being is Christified when the Christ substance is assimilated physically, psychologically and spiritually. Then the human being becomes a Christ; then the human being is converted into a living Christ264.

Among the examples of Christs who have appeared in different cultures

are Quetzalcoatl, Ahura-Mazda, Osiris, Hermes Trismegistos and

obviously Jesus.

The three upper sefirot symbolizes the sexual union between the second

sefirah H�ochmah, the Christ symbolized by the Lingam, the erected

phallus and the third sefirah Binah, The Holy Spirit and the Divine

Mother symbolized by the Yoni and the Chalice. The union of the two,

performed within the human being is awakening the Divine Serpent,

the Kundalini that rises towards the Father, the first sefirah Keter. It is

this accomplishment that gives birth to the solar body in the human

being.

262 Weor: The Initiatic Path, p. 74. 263 Weor: The Initiatic Path, p. 1. 264 Weor: The Initiatic Path, p. 147.


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9.3 Summary

Weor inscribes himself in a conglomerate of different esoteric traditions

and characteristically describes his own teaching as a doctrine of

synthesis. As is the case with the Kamadon Academy Weor does not

seem to have any direct knowledge of traditional kabbalistic materials.

But due to his lifelong involvement with esoteric movements that make

use of basic kabbalistic teachings he does indeed show a greater

knowledge of kabbalistic doctrines than what is to be found in the

Melchizedek Method. The main components of Weor’s teaching derive

from Tantra and Kabbalah as they are found in the rendering of early

modern occultism and theosophy. However in the doctrine of synthesis

these two esoteric currents have gained a wholly new context by being

incorporated into an apocalyptic setting.

10. Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff and the Neurological Landscape of the Sefirot

265

Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff (born 1949) is one of the most influential and

important contemporary Danish occultists. However, as he mainly has

positioned himself as an underground science fiction writer he has

hardly been noticed in the academic study of religion. One of the

reasons for this might be that Neutzsky-Wulff is placed on a borderline

between literature and pseudo science, both topics which have been

highly neglected in the study of religions. The literary career of

Neutzsky-Wulff has been varied and thus he has written comic strips,

stories for porno magazines and horror magazines, computer manuals,

voluminous science fiction novels and last but not least quasi-scientific

literature regarding magic, occultism and religion. This last type of

265 This chapter will appear in the forthcoming book Kabbalah and Modernity edited by Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi and Kocku von Stuckrad. See Thejls: ‘Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff’ in the bibliography.

Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff and the Neurological Landscape of the Sefirot

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publications culminated in a huge volume entitled Det overnaturlige (The

Supernatural) published in 2004.

The novels bear explicit connotations to the religious ideologies and

practices elaborated in the quasi-scientific writings and so most of his

books are divided into ten chapters often arranged according to the ten

sefirot. Here I will explore the role of Kabbalah in the writings of

Neutzsky-Wulff and how his perception of Kabbalah on one hand is

inscribed in the tradition of occult Kabbalah reaching back to early

Modernity and on the other hand is extremely innovative. Furthermore

the question of how this type of Kabbalah relates to traditional

Kabbalah and other forms of contemporary Kabbalah will be

interesting to examine.

10.1 A General Theory of Religion and Reality The religious main work of Neutzsky-Wulff is Det overnaturlige which is

entitled both “the Ultimate Grimoire” and “the proper history of

religions” by the author. It is written in ten parts each divided into ten

subchapters. The book is almost like a new Golden Bough of

comparative mythology and one of Neutzsky-Wulff’s main arguments

is, not surprisingly, that all religions are revolving around the same axis

and are more or less identical.

He sees the historical evolution of religions as degeneration and

Christianity as it is exemplified by the National Lutheran Church in

Denmark as farthest removed from “true religion” as possible. The

reason for this, according to Neutzsky-Wulff, is that religion proper is

identical with love and life. But as he says, Lutheran Christianity has

removed itself from both love and life especially in its rejection of

sexuality. And to Neutzsky-Wulff no separation between religion and

sexuality is possible. To him, religion is sexuality and more, it is

masochistic.


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To Neutzsky-Wulff religion proper is only found where a true hieros

gamos takes place, where the woman is the temple prostitute who

assures the god’s presence by being devoted to him in all aspects of her

life. I will get back to the implications of this later.

His main argument is that the religious and thus the supernatural once

was part of what was considered natural and that it is a necessary part

of the human worldview and reality.

However, reality is no easy category in the writings of Neutzsky-Wulff.

Actually most of his novels imply several levels of reality. This should

lead us to his perception of what reality “really” is, namely a mere

projection from the brain. This implies that there is no such thing as an

objective reality ”out there”, but only subjective realities that we can try

to communicate to each other by means of language. In short: Reality

does not exist as an objective, measurable unit and neither the

humanities nor the natural sciences are able to provide a sufficient

worldview266:

With its insistence on observation science has tried to escape metaphysics but has still received it from the back door. Metaphysical problematics have been ignored rather than solved and with modern physics the time had come.

Observation might be formalized experience but experience nonetheless and in this century the scientists suddenly found themselves in a universe of experience where everything depended on the chosen model. With the Heisenberg uncertainty relation the waterproof shatters between “what is” and “what we can observe” finally broke down.

If one had to avoid the metaphysical, in principle immeasurable one had to dismiss the notion of a reality behind the observations. Reality is what the scientist observes; or rather it is his observations arranged in a tasteful and appropriate way. The world is experience267.

266 All citations are translated from Danish by me. Where Hebrew terms appear I have chosen to keep Neutzsky-Wulff’s transliteration even though they sometimes diverge from my own. All emphasis and capitalizations are in original. 267 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Kabbala 1’.


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What we perceive to experience as reality is filtered by the different

centers of the brain and obscured by sense perception. This leads

Neutzsky-Wulff to the declaration that experience and thus reality is

nothing but neurological processes. Nonetheless, it is possible to

transcend this projected reality by “cheating” the brain, more

specifically by overruling the prefrontal cortex. The goal of this is to get

behind sense perception and reach or at least recognize what can be

termed as unmanifested reality, which, as we shall see is equaled to the

kabbalistic concept of En Sof.

The brain constantly works to create a world from the needs of the organism, which are transcendent, as they are behind the world, are “supernatural”, unconceptualized. It is this transcendent dynamics that the Kabbalah names en soph, that is, without end, border, undefined268.

The manual for this is the book Det overnaturlige (The Supernatural). As

Neutzsky-Wulff says in the introduction:

On this epistemological Titanic, most of us naturally live relatively unconcerned, and for those, this book will not have much to say, but only for those who seek “the golden key that unlocks the palace of eternity”269.

In the view of Neutzsky-Wulff Det overnaturlige should be seen as such a

key – a book which provides the theoretical foundation for the true

mysteries of religion and thus reality. These mysteries are sexuality and

neurology. The book is dedicated to two women, mystes for whom

Neutzsky-Wulff functioned as mystagogue.

Religion might be the most sophisticated extension of limbic behavior and in its source inseparable from the reflecting sexuality. Thus a study, in the original sense of the word, of

268 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Kabbala 1’ 269 Neutzsky-Wulff: Det overnaturlige, p. 15.


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sexuality becomes simultaneously a submerging into the mysteries270.

10.2 Religion as Sexuality/ Sexuality as Religion Religion is the most radical affection possible as exemplified in the

temple prostitute or the slavegirl who unconditionally devotes herself to

her god/master. This also reflects Neutzsky-Wulff’s theory of mankind

which simplified proposes that the human nature seeks the ultimate

devotion: Men the devotion directly to the gods and women to the gods

incarnated in the man. This devotion has to be unconditioned and the

modern myste has to return to the state of the priestess which is the

temple prostitute. She has to let go of her self and be nothing but the

object of the attention of her god. Without his attention, his proximity

she is nothing. Neutzsky-Wulff describes an “academy” for this type of

modern priestesses, Huset (the House) where girls aspiring to become

slaves can apply for admittance. They have to sign a contract giving the

governors of the House absolute control over the girl and she becomes

nothing but a piece of property. Their education is described as follows:

They put away their clothes, which they will never get back and spend a couple of days in the cage which will later function as qodhesh haqqodashim [holy of holies]for those who will be elected priestesses. It is a case made of ironbars, one meter high and wide and one and a half in length. After this their disciplinary training begins. They receive an erotic version of the maiden’s uniform, which in its simple form is the peplos of the priestess […] Furthermore they have to be at their master’s sexual disposal.271

The means of discipline are whipping, hand, neck and foot fetters,

bridle and the pillory:

The collar reduces the slave to a pet; the handcuffs make her give up resistance towards sexual advances and the foot fetters

270 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Den frygtelige virkelighed 2 (’The terrible reality) 271 Neutzsky-Wulff: Det Overnaturlige, p. 170.


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prevent escape. Another effective means of discipline is the pillory where she is freely available in a humiliating position.272

However, they are more than disciplinary tools since the consequence

of this treatment is the experience of transcendence. To Neutzsky-

Wulff the relationship between the master and his slave is that of

ultimate love with absolute mutual devotion and while he becomes her

god she will be his gateway to the divine. It is in Neutzsky-Wulff’s

interpretation in this relationship that the world comes into being.

What men are to do in order to transcend is much more complicated. It

is not enough to be the master of the woman and thus to be her god.

The man has to go the long way of studying and slowly changing his

own mindset and reality perception. A key to this lies in the book Rum

(Space273) from 2001 which is written as to be read like a kabbalistic

treatise with several layers of meaning and different possibilities of

interpretation. One of the ways to read the book is through the use of

gematria and with the aid of this method find one’s way through the

different cross-references spread throughout the book. However, the

gematria is not restricted to the traditional numerical values of Hebrew

words and letters. It is broadened as to also correspond to other

religious systems, so that when examining the Hebrew letter nun, the

significance is not only imbedded in its numerical value but also in its

association to the Egyptian god of chaos “Nun”.

This, of course makes the book a challenge to the reader and it is

expected from the author’s side, that the reader is acquainted with his

former works. Without former knowledge of Neutzsky-Wulff’s work

Rum would probably not make much sense, but rather give an

impression of a rambling mess of separate parallel stories without much

connection. As such the books by Neutzsky-Wulff can be said to

272 Neutzsky-Wulff: Det Overnaturlige, p.172. 273 The Danish word ”rum” denotes both the abstract ”space” and the more concrete “room“ where it is also the same word in both singular and plural. The book plays on all of the different connotations of the word.


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present a sort of textual initiation. Rum and Det Overnaturlige are the

representatives of the higher knowledge necessary for the initiate to

begin the ritual practice. The earlier books provide the theoretical

background whereas these latter two are more or less ritual manuals

hidden behind literary narratives in the case of Rum and mythological

readings in that of Det Overnaturlige. If they are studied thoroughly and

seriously enough and the guidelines are followed the reader/ initiate

should be able to reach a state of expanded reality perception and

furthermore, to be able to control and form this reality. The books have

been accompanied by a series of articles in Neutzsky-Wulff’s magazine

Bathos meant to facilitate the shift from theory to practice that the two

books propose. It is mainly aimed at the male initiate that do not have a

(female) mystagogue to manage the initiation. In her place the initiate

must attract a succubus, a female entity which can replace the mystagogue.

The guide ‘Transcendens for Dummies’ (‘Transcendence for

Dummies’) suggests the arrangement of an adytum, a restricted room

only meant for the work on transcendence. The room ought to be as

sound and light proof as possible and sparsely furnished with only a

mattress covered with leather and a set of fetters to make the

impression of being in a cell convincing. The initiate should only step

into the room naked and after a shower and should stay in the room for

a fixed amount of time, maybe from sunset to sunrise or even longer

locked to the fetters in the wall. Obviously this kind of sense

deprivation has psychological consequences. As Neutzsky-Wulff

explains, the mind will defend itself and try to make the initiate

abandon the project and return to the safe and ordinary perception of

reality. Thus one might expect boredom followed by anxiety and

feelings of blind and numbness. To overcome this it is of utmost

importance to respect the scheduled time of the stay in the adytum. The

acknowledgement of being a prison or a slave is mandatory to achieve

the experience of transcendence since it will not only be a recognition


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from the side of the initiate but also on the side of the transcendent

entities the actualization of which the whole ritual is aimed at. This

leads to one of the major points in the teachings of Neutzsky-Wulff.

That transcendence and descendence are two sides of the same coin

and it is thus necessary for the initiate to transcend that at the same

time an entity descend. The female entity is tempted to approach the

initiate and thus descend by the fact that he is a prisoner. The initiate

will become her slave but in the process be able to control his

experiences of transcendence and actively navigate in the expanded

realms of reality.274

The relationship between the “ordinary” reality and the transcendence

is explained as follows:

Neither the theurge nor the entity exist in any “real” sense, only the self-manifesting nothing which, following the same rules, adopts the role as object. The difference between everyday experience and transcendence is not that they have two different worlds as object, but that only the latter is an experience in the proper sense of the word (by which reality is generated) whereas the first is illusory (images and signs).275

This is an important recognition for the initiate. He has to realize that

what is usually perceived to be reality is nothing but a consensual

projection of the mind. We experience what we expect to experience.

This is what the adytum is supposed to overcome. It helps the initiate to

override the pre-frontal cortex which is the place for the conformity of

reality and gain access to unfiltered or direct experiences. But to obtain

transcendence is one thing, another is to be able to use the new

perception of “reality” and navigate in the transcendent realm. This is

the point where Kabbalah becomes central.

274 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Transcendens for Dummies’ 12-14 in Bathos 46, p. 4-17, 34-49 and 60-69. 275 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Transcendens for Dummies’ 12, in Bathos 46, p. 4.


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10.3 Neutzsky-Wulff and Kabbalah

To Neutzsky-Wulff the most accurate approach to the concept of

reality is Kabbalah. The reason is that Kabbalah is seen as the map of

the cognitive universes that lie behind sense perception. Reality is seen

not just as a mirror reflecting the transcendence of Ein Sof but a

stepwise neurological process, indicated by sefirot276. This process is the

manifestation or creation of one’s own reality where the sefirot

designates the level of actualization from pure potentiality or

transcendence in Ein Sof to the blueprint of the physical world in

Malkhut. As Neutzsky-Wulff explains in Det overnaturlige:

When we are “rising” through sephiroth, the steps and layers of actualization/ conceptualization, we are actually moving “backwards” in the brain; or inferior brain centers manifest themselves without the interference of PFC277.

With Kabbalah as the theoretical guiding principle one can navigate in

the neurological landscape and create one’s own reality – that is, the

actualization. This is closely connected with transcendence/

descendence. Since when the myste transcends through the sefirot the

unmanifested reality descends simultaneously to become increasing

materialized.

The ten sefirot are thus seen as different cognitive levels. Malkhut is the

veil that one has to get through to start the actualization which leads to

transcendence and the rest of the sefirot accordingly correspond to

certain centers of the brain or neurological processes. Thus the upper

triad of the sefirot Keter, H�okhmah and Binah is seen as lying even below

the limbic behavior pattern suggested as to indicate the autonomous

nervous system, the pillars of Gevurah - Hod and H�esed – Netzah as

respectively the negative and positive side of the limbic system where

276 Neutzsky-Wulff: Det Overnaturlige, p. 127.


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Hod and Netzah could more specifically be the negative and positive

centre of approval in hippocampus. Tiferet matches hypothalamus, Yesod

the thalamic filter and finally Malkhut parallels cerebrum where the

projection of the physical world takes place.

Each of the ten sefirot is understood to exhibit individual geographical

characteristics and also to be inhabited by certain types of entities

belonging to each sefirah. The two lowest sefirot are most elaborate

described as the following examples from two transcendence accounts

show.

Malkhut

Malkhut is explained to be like a fairytale place, the forest that you as

the main character of a fairytale are entering in order to find “the wise

woman”, “the evil witch” or “the troll”278. These supernatural figures

are entities that descend simultaneously as the mystic ascends.

A myste of NW gives the following description of Malkhut, a description

which is matched by other transcendence accounts:

In Malchut they [the entities] are often children, dwarfs or maybe pixies. They are very hospitable and usually treat you like if you were the Queen of Saba (but then, to them you are). They wait you and tell edifying stories around the table, where you get the most honorable seat. It is like visiting a peasant family hundred years ago. They offer you food and drinks that keep you in the astrality because they want you to stay as long as possible [...] The old men are kind and grave, the women meek and shy. The children which for some reason are always boys are teasing and annoying.279

The importance of the residents of Malkhut lies in their function as

guardians of the gate to the other realms. To continue the astral journey

to Yesod it is necessary to acquire both enough confidence in the astral

realm to have the courage to delve deeper into the system and a key to

277 Neutzsky-Wulff: Det Overnaturlige., p. 131. 278 Neutzsky-Wulff: Transcendens for Dummies 16, Bathos 47, 2007, p. 14-27. 279 Anonymous (1): Transcendence Account..


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be able to enter the next sefirot. This can be a name or a number which

can be subject to gematria upon returning to the “ordinary” world.

Similar to the woman in a cage the male initiate who spend his time in

the adytum might experience what Neutzsky-Wulff terms precipitate

transcendence to Malkhut. With time she/ he will be able to transcend

consciously and to control the experience so she can continue to the

next sefirah Yesod:

Yesod

In Yesod the circumstances are not as cozy. You might be pinned on a cross or a tree, put in a cage, raped by ten raving beasts or boiled, cut to pieces and vacuum packed. Here, the trick is not to be afraid or panic. It is easier than it sounds like, as the prefrontal cortex (where the fear for these kind of totally harmless things belongs) is on stand-by so to speak or works on your/ the transcendence’s side. Let yourself be killed, raped and humiliated, preferably without too much murmur (that makes them so sad). Try to be an object or an animal, then in time you will pass the test and continue to Rachamim.280

In Yesod the temple service truly begins and it is where the initiate can

attract the upper transcendent entities through her sexual service. Here

the myste has the responsibility of the actualization of the world(s), of

her own transcendence and of the descendence of the “supernatural”

entities. In Malkhut the myste is still a novice who has to learn how to

navigate, still not quite aware of the territory in which she is situated but

if she has managed to proceed to Yesod she commits herself to the

duties of the priestess or as a myste states, she has become a female

tzaddiq, :

Through the transcendence I have become what you could call the world’s servant. I have been in the service of the world as restorator of the contact between the world and its underlying spirit. I serve, with a Jewish term, as a female caddiq. I contribute to the maintenance of the world machinery and do

280 Anonymous (1): Transcendence Account. Rachamim is another name for the sefirah Tiferet.


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what I can to keep the paths between the worlds clean (tiqqun)281.

As in much of Neutzsky-Wulff’s own writings the inspiration from

Lurianic Kabbalah is evident. The Lurianic concept of the breaking of

the vessels has in the context of Neutzsky-Wulff become equal to the

degeneration of religion, that is, the division between sexuality and

religion. With the removal of the priestess/ the temple prostitute the

direct connection between the divine and the world was interrupted.

The Sefer Yetzirah is seen as the most important kabbalistic [!] text and

Neutzsky-Wulff published a Danish translation written by one of his

followers282. In his translation the title is not The Book of Formation as it

is usually translated but the Book of Actualization. As we have seen, this is

a central term in the teachings of Neutzsky-Wulff as actualization is

closely linked to one’s own conceptualization of the world. Since the

work is very much a cosmogony, in the interpretation of Neutzsky-

Wulff it becomes a manual of creation, and as the world is seen as

essentially subjective it can be used as a do-it-yourself guide to your

personal cosmogony. It teaches the mystic to be aware of the creative

mechanisms of language, mechanisms which in Neutzsky-Wulff’s

rendering are neurological.

The verse ends with a request to accommodate the wisdom of the book and to “reinstate the creator on the throne”. The creator is here man who by the adoption of a communicative aspect of language has lost the cognitive, logos. It is the declared purpose of Sepher Yetzirah to teach the student the cognitive language – Teach Yourself Creation283.

Again it is the concept of language which is central. To Neutzsky-Wulff reality as a neurological concept is essentially linguistic and Kabbalah is the key to this language, hence it is no surprise that the Sefer Yetzirah has such an elevated status in the teachings of Neutzsky-Wulff.

281 Anonymous (2): Transcendence Account. 282Lennart Amden: Sefer Yetzirah. 283 Neutzsky-Wulff: ‘Kabbalah 2’.


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10.4 The Occult Connection

As is often the case with the creator of a new religious system

Neutzsky-Wulff claims to be independent and highly superior in

comparison to every other contemporary religious tradition. According

to him all religion since Antiquity has been in a state of increasing

degeneration, even the Medieval kabbalistic works which are held in

high esteem are nonetheless seen as showing the inevitable signs of

depravation. This is another reason why the Sefer Yetzira is perceived to

be of even more importance than the Zohar. Kabbalah is thus also one

of the only traditions since Antiquity which Neutzsky-Wulff wants to

acknowledge any value at all. And even though he obviously is inscribed

in the occult tradition of early modernity he dismisses every other

teaching as mere nonsense. Prominent occultists like Éliphas Levi or

Aleister Crowley are barely mentioned and if they are, they are mocked

as dilettantes. However, as shown by Alfred Vitale284 with regard to

modern occultism in general and Egil Asprem285 with regard to the

occultist Kabbalah in particular, what was characteristic of fin de siècle

occultism was the reinterpretation of available religious material

through the means of scientific methods and rhetoric. And this is

exactly what Neutzsky-Wulff is doing. The observations made by

Asprem in his analysis of Aleister Crowley’s use of Kabbalah can

reasonably be applied to Neutzsky-Wulff as well:

The comparative methodology of Frazer is applied, but in place of Frazer’s skeptical agenda we find here an esoteric, perennialist agenda. The main argument of this article will show how disembedded elements of the Kabbalah, through an instance of religious creativity, are put to the forefront of this novel occult

284 Alfred Vitale: ’The Method of Science’. 285 Asprem: ’Kabbalah Recreata’.


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methodology, as the very matrix which makes the innovations possible286.

Asprem continues to show how Crowley in his book Liber 777 uses

Kabbalah as a basic system of classification into which all religious

phenomena might be applied and is thus used as a taxonomical

device 287 . Furthermore we might consider the first of the seven

definitory theses of Kabbalah that Crowley presents in his appendix to

Liber 777:

Qabalah is:

a) A language fitted to describe certain classes of phenomena, and to express certain classes of ideas which escape regular phraseology…

b) An unsectarian and elastic terminology by means of which it is possible to equate the mental processes of people apparently diverse…

c) A system of symbolism which enables thinkers to formulate their ideas with complete precision…288

Though certainly not directly applicable to Neutzsky-Wulff’s perception

of Kabbalah, there are important similarities. First of all the

implications of a) and b), that Kabbalah is a certain symbolic language

which is superior to ordinary language and enables the user to speak of

extraordinary realities with utmost precision, is a common claim made

by Neutzsky-Wulff in Det overnaturlige. Secondly that Kabbalah can be

used as a terminology applied to mental processes is also as we have

seen, a theme easily recognizable in the teachings of Neutzsky-Wulff.

Furthermore, the propensity to write fictional works with kabbalistic

themes is a common trait for both writers289. This said the similarities

286 Asprem: ’Kabbalah Recreata’, p. 136. 287 Asprem: ’Kabbalah Recreata’, p. 138. 288Crowley: Liber 777, Appendix A, p. 125. Also presented and discussed in Asprem: ‘Kabbalah Recreata’, p. 138. 289 See especially Crowley: The Wake World and Neutzsky-Wulff: UFO and RUM.


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of Crowley’s and Neutzsky-Wulff’s perception and use of Kabbalah

should not be stretched too far. To Crowley Kabbalah is a universal and

not strictly Jewish system whereas to Neutzsky-Wulff Kabbalah is a

Jewish phenomenon and the knowledge of Hebrew essential in order to

be able to use Kabbalah properly as a classificatory and navigatory tool

and to understand its specialized symbolic language. Moreover

Neutzsky-Wulff’s interest in and understanding of traditional Kabbalah

is much more profound than that of Crowley’s even though his

interpretation is even more innovative.

As Asprem shows, Kabbalah is used by Crowley to fulfill the motto the

method of science, the aim of religion and if we transfer that to Neutzsky-

Wulff it is evident that he takes that motto to its utmost consequence.

The kabbalistic enterprise in the interpretation of Neutzsky-Wulff

becomes identical with that of the scientist’s as the following quote

illustrates:

The kabbalists square God as a physicist would square a wave function. The world is language and thus linguistic analysis as deduction is a viable alternative to the scientific induction290.

This again leads back to Neutzsky-Wulff’s interpretation of the first

lines of Sefer Yetzirah where the created, that is actualized, world is

divided into three realms namely the one who describes (writes), that

which is described (written) and the description (writing) itself291. Here

the kabbalist/ scientist can put himself in the place of God as the

master of creation, and this is the utmost purpose of transcendence.

290 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Kabbala 2’. 291 Neutzsky-Wulff: ’Kabbala 2’. The part of the Sefer Yetzirah which is referred to is: ’בשלשה ספרים בספר וספר וספור‘


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10.5 New Age Nonsense or Creative Interpretation

The perception of Kabbalah as a map of the transcendent and

neurological realm and of the sefirot as corresponding to certain brain

centers cannot but challenge the prevailing conceptions of Kabbalah.

As has recently been discussed in chapter 6, the academic study of

Kabbalah has been characterized by a polemical attitude against

contemporary Kabbalah practitioners and with regard to Neutzsky-

Wulff the case is similar. In Denmark the sole mention of Neutzsky-

Wulff and his kabbalistic enterprise is a short article written for the

Christian anti-cult movement “Dialogcentret” by Marianne Schleicher.

Under the title ‘Kabbalah: En middeladerlig klassiker udsat for pop’

(‘Kabbalah: A Medieval Classic Exposed to Pop’) she examines the

adoption of Kabbalah by New Age representatives and as examples

Schleicher points to Madonna and the Kabbalah Centre and Erwin

Neutzsky-Wulff. Her conclusion regarding these phenomena is as

follows:

No, neither Madonna nor Wulff engage in Kabbalah. They merely reuse elements from a Jewish mystical theological praxis and subjugate them to their modern worldview in their religious/ spiritual seeking of meaning. Then, at the same time they can benefit from that aura of insight and wisdom which have always surrounded Jewish mysticism292.

With no explicit demarcation of Kabbalah it is difficult to follow this

conclusion. There are no arguments regarding why the Kabbalah of the

Kabbalah Centre or Neutzsky-Wulff is not Kabbalah, only that it is part

of the New Age rendering of Kabbalah. Apparently, in the view of

Schleicher this is enough to exclude the currents from Kabbalah

proper. As previously discussed, the Kabbalah Centre can hardly be

deemed a New Age phenomenon per se. It is rather a New Religious

Movement which increasingly has been inspired by New Age rhetorics


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but at the core of its teachings still has quite traditional Jewish

Kabbalistic themes. The designation of Neutzsky-Wulff as a New Age

representative seems even more arbitrary as he has nothing whatsoever

to do with what is usually characteristic of the New Age milieu. Most

importantly, the notion of the coming of a new age is entirely absent in

Neutzsky-Wulff’s teachings. Regarding his use of Kabbalah it is, like the

Kabbalah Centre, grounded in traditional Kabbalistic practice, though

interpreted in a radically creative manner. These cases seem to indicate

how New Age is used as a sort of terminological garbage bin instead of

an analytical tool. What the Kabbalah Centre and Neutzsky-Wulff do is

to take from the traditional Kabbalah what is useful to them and put it

into new frameworks and new representations. As Wouter Hanegraaff

points out innovation and new interpretations are needed for a tradition

to continue. ‘Perfect understanding’ he says ‘would logically imply the

death of tradition’293. In its outset Medieval Kabbalah itself was highly

creative in its interpretation of ancient Jewish material so it can be to no

surprise that contemporary Kabbalah is just as innovative with regard to

their interpretations of the available sources. Moreover Medieval

Kabbalah was not a unified movement. Rather there were many

varieties of what was termed to be Kabbalah. Though there by no

means is agreement among Kabbalah scholarship exactly as to how to

demarcate Medieval Kabbalah, as least there is agreement on the fact

that diverse currents existed within what can be defined as Kabbalah.

So when it is possible to speak of theosophical, ecstatic, practical or

magical Kabbalah within the field of Medieval Jewish Kabbalah and

also acknowledge the later currents of Christian Kabbalah it ought not

to be of great trouble to establish new taxonomies within contemporary

Kabbalah. As such, concepts like occult Kabbalah and New Age

Kabbalah can be used as analytical tools without negative connotations

292 Schleicher: ’Kabbalah’. 293 Hanegraaff: ’Kabbalah and Modernity’.


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of not being “proper” Kabbalah. So even though Neutzsky-Wulff is

obviously quite extreme in his interpretation of Kabbalah it does not

imply that what he does is not Kabbalah. It is definitely not traditional

Jewish Kabbalah, but if looked at from as objective a point as possible

his ideas of the sefirot as a map of the brain is not more radical than the

Renaissance Christian kabbalists who interpreted Kabbalah to prove the

truth of Christianity.

11. Conclusion of Part II

The second part of the thesis has been concerned with a short historical

overview of the role of Kabbalah in Western esoteric traditions. It

illustrated how Kabbalah in the renaissance was gaining a status of

being ancient, divine wisdom, transmitted by the Jews but actually

containing the hidden wisdom and foundational truth of Christianity.

The attribution of a universal esoteric wisdom to Kabbalah has been

prevalent ever since albeit under different guises. However, the role of

Kabbalah in the construction of traditions in contemporary religion has

to a large extend gone unnoticed by academic scholarship due to a

dismissive attitude among Kabbalah scholars. Thus it is only in recent

years that the study of contemporary Kabbalah in its various forms has

begun to be considered worthy of attention.

The case studies analyzed in this part were chosen in order to exemplify

the variety of creative interpretations of Kabbalah that we can witness

in contemporary religion. Thus we have examined the largest kabbalistic

movement of today; the Kabbalah Centre which presents traditional

kabbalistic teachings transformed into postmodern consumer oriented

“spirituality”. Then we had Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff who in his neuro-

linguistic interpretation of Kabbalah and reality upholds an extreme

elitism. To Neutzsky-Wulff the knowledge, use and understanding of

Kabbalah is definitely not for the masses! Neutzsky-Wulff’s rendering

Conclusion of Part II

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of Kabbalah is highly inspired by fin de siècle occultism and this is also

evident in the sexual magic taught by Samael Aun Weor. Weor,

however did not share the same primary knowledge of traditional

kabbalistic material as Neutzsky-Wulff, but relied on the interpretations

he received through his religious education within the different esoteric

movements that he consulted throughout his life. The last group that

has been examined is the Kamadon Academy and its Melchizedek

Method. This showed to be the movement which had the least

connection to traditional Kabbalah among the groups under scrutiny.

This is also mirrored in the minor role that Kabbalah plays in their

teachings. Kabbalah has in the Melchizedek Method been wrapped in

so many layers of New Age symbolism that the kabbalistic material is

barely recognizable. But this has not only happened to the kabbalistic

material. Since their teaching is comprised of bits and pieces of every

conceivable part of the New Age milieu, all these fragments have been

decontextualized and reworked into a new context. This is obviously

nothing outstanding in the history of religions where the invention of

new traditions happens all the time. But in the present context the

Kamadon Academy is the most radical example of that process.

Now, I am perfectly aware that this is far from being a representative

selection. However, what I have strived to do in the present chapter

was primarily to introduce and exemplify this vast field of understudied

currents within contemporary Western esotericism and to show the

importance of Kabbalah within these diverse movements. In this way

Kabbalah can fruitfully be viewed as a structural element within

Western esotericism.

Final Discussion and Conclusive Words

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12. Final Discussion and Conclusive Words

When Western esotericism was established as an independent field of

research it was necessarily much clearer demarcated as is the case today.

As a new field it had to place the academic study of esotericism on solid

foundations and to be positioned distinctly in relation to other

academic categories.

Since then the situation has gradually changed. More and more scholars

have in the concept of Western esotericism found a fruitful framework

for their own studies. A consequence of this is that the specific

historical category that Western esotericism once was constructed to be

is opened up. The borders of the field of Western esotericism are

increasingly blurred and the definition of the field has been contested

both implicitly and explicitly. Explicitly in the theoretical discussions

flourishing within the academia and implicitly by the research carried

out under the umbrella of Western esotericism.

It is evident that the classic definition of Western esotericism as

suggested by Antoine Faivre is challenged by the actual research

presently carried out in the field. The borders are crossed in both time,

space, approaches and concepts and thus the subjects studied and

presented under the term Western esotericism has come to include such

diverse themes as Sufism, New Age, pre-Socratic philosophy, ancient

Jewish magic, Chechen traditionalism, Kabbalah in various guises, neo-

paganism and contemporary magical orders. However, more traditional

topics of Western esotericism are also covered such as theosophy,

Christian kabbalah, rosicrucianism and alchemy.

That the “fringe” topics are overrepresented in current scholarship is by

no means a surprise considering the age of Western esotericism as a

more or less accepted academic field of study. Now that the field has

been quite solidly consolidated in the academia, the scholars of Western

esotericism have the opportunity to turn the focus inwards and look at

the state of the field itself. As is also happening all the time with the


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broader concept of religion, the limits of the concept of Western

esotericism are explored and challenged. And it is not only the term

“esotericism” which is being evaluated, stretched, deconstructed and

reassembled. Just as important is the question of what the ambiguous

concept of “Western” denotes. Is it a cultural category, a geographical?

And what does it imply? As I have strived to show in the first part of

the thesis it is obvious that we cannot uphold the earlier Christocentric

demarcation of Western esotericism. The definitorial problems are an

essential part of the evolution of an academic field, without which the

field would stagnate. Paradigms are there to be challenged in order to

fruitfully develop and continually revisit the academic pursuit. However,

it is important that the boundaries of the field are not only challenged

and explored in empirical research. Whether one perceive Western

esotericism as a historical or a typological category, the theoretical

foundations should be considered and explicitly elaborated294. Thus I

have provided a critical examination of the prevalent definitions, not

only of Western esotericism but also of primarily Kabbalah and

secondly mysticism. The purpose of this was to be able to disentangle

these often intermingled categories and provide a sufficient definitorial

and theoretical framework for studying Kabbalah within the field of

Western esotericism. I argued that the concept of “Western” has to

imply the notion of religious and cultural pluralism in order to avoid the

Christocentric approach presented by Antoine Faivre and Monica

Neugebauer-Wölk. After examining the different approaches and

definitions of esotericism I ended up refuting the ones proposed by

Faivre since it mixed up typological and historical categories and was

based on tautological argumentation; Hanegraaff due to its

inconsistency; Neugebauer-Wölk since it was build on Christocentric

premises; and Versluis who apart from having an explicit religionistic

294 This part of the discussion has been published in a slightly other version in Thejls: ‘The Demarcation of Western Esotericism’.


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agenda fails to give any convincing definition. Instead I have chosen to

follow the approach suggested by Kocku von Stuckrad who perceives

Western esotericism to denote a structural element or a specific

discourse in Western history that involves a claim of higher or absolute

knowledge which is attained and transmitted through a dialectic of

secrecy and revelation.

I continued to discuss the definition of Kabbalah. Though seldom

defined explicitly, Kabbalah has persistently been identified with the

doctrine of the ten sefirot first by Gershom Scholem and later by his

student Joseph Dan. This position has been contested by other

Kabbalah scholars such as Moshe Idel and Elliot Wolfson who have

endeavored to include the more practical Kabbalah into the definition.

Thus Idel established two distinct categories of Kabbalah, namely the

theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah and the ecstatic-prophetic Kabbalah.

Furthermore he argued that the name Kabbalah had been a designation

for the doctrine relating to the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton

long before the doctrine of the ten sefirot became a central part of

Jewish thought. Heidi Laura continued the discussion about the

definition of Kabbalah but fruitfully chose to move the focus from

doctrinal contents to the mode of transmission. Thus to Laura

Kabbalah can be designated as the transmission of Jewish esoteric

teachings. This is the approach that I have chosen to elaborate further,

so that my suggestion for a definition of Kabbalah is twofold. This

is due to the twofold status of Kabbalah as both an actual historical

current and a typological category. Thus the typological category has

to be dependent on the historical demarcation but still be theoretically

independent. My solution was to view Kabbalah as both a historical

product related to selfidentification of a certain group of people as

mequbalim, kabbalists and as the transmission of esoteric knowledge

claimed to derive from ancient Jewish wisdom lore.


- 151 -

My next concern was a definition of mysticism that was not dependent

on the notion of experience, universalism or consciousness. For this

purpose I discussed the approaches suggested by primarily, Bernhard

McGinn, Richard King, Steven Katz and Michael Sells. However I

found that the most theoretically valid definition was the one proposed

by Annette Wilke who focused on the breaking down of the boundaries

between immanence and transcendence as a foundation for a mystical

discourse.

The following discussion revolved around the question of whether

Kabbalah should be seen as mysticism or esotericism. In the current

scholarship the two terms have been used interchangeably so that

Kabbalah is often designated Jewish mysticism just as well as Jewish

esotericism. I argued that Kabbalah as such is best understood in the

framework of esotericism but that this does not exclude the notion of

mysticism. In such, a kabbalistic text according to our definition of

Kabbalah will often claim to be in possession of a higher knowledge

which is achievable for the one who knows how to unlock the secret,

that is, the one who holds the interpretive key. This might be attained

through mystical practice but not necessarily so. Likewise, mystical

practice does not automatically generate esoteric knowledge. Thus we

can say that the most important factor for distinguishing esotericism

and mysticism is the claim of higher or absolute knowledge.

I concluded the first part of the thesis with an examination of the role

of language in medieval Kabbalah. My basic premise was that in

Kabbalah language exhibits a dual function as both the means of

gaining access to the higher knowledge and being this knowledge itself.

It is within the acknowledgement that the hyposemantic aspect of

language is essentially where meaning is found, that absolute knowledge

is hidden and gained. This was what I strived to show in the final

analysis of the Gates of Light and the Fountain of Wisdom both of which

perceive the proper knowledge and understanding of language as the


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tool for gaining absolute knowledge. But not only this. The actual

knowledge is contained within the very same perception of language so

that language becomes both the means and the object of higher

knowledge.

In the second part of the thesis I turned to the study of contemporary

renderings of Kabbalah. First of all I discussed the academic

scholarship, or rather the lack of it, on contemporary Kabbalah. Here I

found that much of the disinterest in contemporary formations of

Kabbalah is due to the attitude of Gershom Scholem. In being the

biggest authority on the field Scholem’s dismissal of contemporary

Kabbalah had a huge effect on the subsequent scholarship. Thus,

nobody bothered to study contemporary Kabbalah. This means that

there is still a vast field of study which I have only touched upon in the

present thesis. However, what I have hoped to show is that

contemporary Kabbalah in its various guises is certainly an interesting

and important field of study both for Western history of religions in

general and for the study of Western esotericism in particular.

What is interesting to note is how much the academic scholarship on

Kabbalah has influenced the formation of contemporary Kabbalah.

Since the academic study of Kabbalah until recently has focused on the

doctrine of the ten sefirot as constitutive for Kabbalah, it is exactly this

doctrine which has come to be known among religious groups in the

process of constructing their tradition. This, combined with the fact

that without any knowledge of Hebrew the doctrine of the sefirot has

probably been the easiest accessible doctrine of Kabbalah, have had the

effect of identifying Kabbalah more or less with the doctrine of the ten

sefirot, at least in popular understanding. After all it was to a large extend

texts concerned with the sefirot that was translated in Knorr von

Rosenroth’s Kabbalah Denudata. This becomes evident when we turn

towards groups with only a superficial knowledge of the primary

sources of traditional Kabbalah. Their founders’ main source of


- 153 -

knowledge of Kabbalah stems from the popularization and accessibility

of the major works by Gershom Scholem and the different creative

interpretations available in previous esoteric material, interpretations

which to a large extend were based on Mather’s translation of Kabbala

Denudata. In the examples analyzed in the present thesis this is

obviously the case with the teachings of the Kamadon Academy and

Samael Aun Weor who basically use the symbolic representation of the

ten sefirot and a few related concepts such as the idea of Adam Kadmon

as designations for Kabbalah. Weor’s own appellation of his teaching as

the “doctrine of synthesis” could thus fittingly be applied to The

Melchizedek Method as well.

The two other contemporary groups examined in the thesis show a far

larger kabbalistic framework. For the Kabbalah Centre the reason is

obvious. The founder Philip Berg went through a long kabbalistic

education with the teacher and kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag and is thus

very well versed in the larger corpus of traditional Kabbalah. It is

noteworthy then, that in the teachings of the Kabbalah Centre the

doctrine of the sefirot has been downplayed, so it is not until you attend

their courses that the concept appears. This is probably part of their

strategy of popularizing Kabbalah by focusing on the practical tools by

which to enhance ones spiritual life and the concept of the sefirot

belongs to the doctrinal realm and not the practical.

The central teachings of the Kabbalah Centre can be said to reiterate

and reinforce the medieval kabbalistic understanding of the

hyposemantic aspect of the Hebrew language in its use of the Zohar and

the divine names. Where the medieval conception involved a balance

between the understanding of the meaning of the text and the

independent efficacy of the letters, the Kabbalah Centre

overemphasizes the efficacious aspect of the language so that

understanding of the meaning of language is of minimal importance.


- 154 -

In the teachings of Neutzsky-Wulff language also holds a key

position. His perception of reality is linguistic in nature so that

reality is created through the language in a way very similar to what

is explained in the Sefer Yetzirah. Consequently Neutzsky-Wulff

perceives the Sefer Yetzirah to be the most important book of

Kabbalah which in turn, in his understanding, comes to denote an

ancient Jewish doctrine. To Neutzsky-Wulff Kabbalah is the key

to the neuro-linguistic reality and the map one can use in order to

navigate within the supernatural realm.

To sum up, it is first and foremost important to restate that when

accepting a pluralistic view of Western cultural history it paves the

way for the opening up of the earlier Christocentric conceptions

of the field of Western esotericism. Moreover, in order to detach

the typological concept of Western esotericism from any distinct

cultural and historical phenomena it is useful to view esotericism

as a certain structural element in Western culture. As I have

shown, this also allows for the study of Kabbalah within the

framework of Western esotericism. I have strived to overcome

earlier scholarly presumptions against contemporary Kabbalah by

choosing the different historical groups under scrutiny from both

traditional medieval kabbalistic circles and from the broad

spectrum of contemporary reinterpretations and usages of

kabbalistic material. What I found in common between the

medieval texts examined and the two groups that showed to be

most aware of their traditional kabbalistic sources was the special

status of the Hebrew language. Thus in all four cases language

could be seen as bearer of esoteric knowledge in both its semantic

and hyposemantic aspects.

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- 155 -

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References to websites The following web references are arranged according to the chapters in

which they appear.

The Kabbalah Centre • www.Kabbalah.com/03.php

• www.Kabbalah.com/11.php

• www.Kabbalah.com/13.php

• www.Kabbalah.com/scanchart07-08.pdf

• http://store.Kabbalah.com/product_info.php?cPath=150_202

&vcats=150&page=2&products_id=166

• http://store.Kabbalah.com/product_info.php?cPath=164&vcat

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• www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAPh72JQ6qU&feature=related

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The Kamadon Academy

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• www.holisticwebs.com/orbital/level4.html

• www.kamadonacademy.com/index.php?option=com_content&

task=view&id=151&Itemid=60

• www.kamadonlove.com/Alton_Kamadonx.html

• www.kamadonlove.com/zonalightx.html

Samael Aun Weor

• www.gnosticteachings.org/content/view/163/75/

• www.gnosticteachings.org/content/view/536/43/

• www.gnosticteachings.org/index.php?option=com_content&tas

k=view&id=60&Itemid=43

Résumé

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Résumé

A Master’s Thesis presented to the Department of History of Religions, University

of Copenhagen May 2008 by Sara Møldrup Thejls.

This study deals with two fields of European history of religions,

namely Western esotericism and Kabbalah. It challenges the former

notion of Western esotericism as being a strictly Christian cultural

phenomenon by discussing the prevalent definitions of and approaches

to the field; an understanding of Western esotericism which would

exclude a phenomenon such as Kabbalah from the field of Western

esotericism. The preliminary alternative to this view is most importantly

to perceive Western culture not as culturally monolithic Christian but

rather as a complex system marked by cultural and religious pluralism.

However it is also necessary to detach the definition of Western

esotericism from exact historical phenomena and instead view the

heuristic construction of Western esotericism as a structural element

and a certain discourse in Western history of religions. This discourse

involves a claim of higher knowledge and is transmitted or achieved

through a dialectic of concealment and revelation. With this approach

to Western esotericism and Western cultural history it is not only

possible but naturally to study Kabbalah as a part of this framework.

In an analysis of the concept of language in medieval Kabbalah it

becomes clear that language holds a twofold position in that it contains

indefinite layers of both semantic and hyposemantic character and

furthermore becomes both the transmitter and the container of higher

or absolute knowledge. This is exemplified in two medieval kabbalistic

texts, the Gates of Light and the Fountain of Wisdom.

The scope is extended as to include a discussion of the academic study

of contemporary Kabbalah, a topic which to a large extent has been

neglected. The following examination of four widely different religious

Résumé

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groups is focusing on the various degrees to which Kabbalah is used in

the construction of tradition in the more or less traditional Kabbalah

Centre, The Danish occultist Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff, the doctrine of

synthesis of Samael Aun Weor and the New Age eclecticism of the

Kamadon Academy. This thesis thus reconsiders earlier restrictive

attitudes towards both Kabbalah and Western esotericism and

introduces contemporary Kabbalah and kabbalistic renderings as a

worthy field of study for the study of religions in general and for

Western esotericism in particular.

From Divine Names to Dolphins and Sexual Magic: An Inquiry into Western Esotericism and kabbalah

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Transcript of From Divine Names to Dolphins and Sexual Magic: An Inquiry into Western Esotericism and kabbalah