Historical development of Qabalah?
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Big bunch of questions and big area of history... I'll do what little I can to get this started.
First, Qabalah wasn't so much studied by Christians overall as by a few, rare, likely-also-subject-to-persecution types. It was a specialized interest, in other words, much the same way that occultism would be today in the general population. (I don't mean to say it was always linked to occultism - though it did also become especially a topic of study among those with interests in alchemy, magick, and similar subjects.)
On history - The "history of Kabbalah" (to use the more common Jewish transliteration) requires, first, that we clarify what is meant by "Kabbalah." In one sense, the tradition of teachings goes back at least to the 1st Millennium BCE. However, it wasn't called Kabbalah until roughly 2nd Millennium CE. It existed as related or variant emerging teachings and traditions, some along quite different lines (the Merkabah tradition overall) and some more recognizable as proto-Kabbalah. One thing is clear, though: The Sepher Yetzirah has a history from at least somewhere in the 1st Millennium CE and probably late 1st M BCE. It is the singular foundation work recognizable as consistent with the system we now know as Kabbalah.
The strongest single area and time of development - in fact, possibly the single strongest period of Jewish philosophical writing and creativity ever - was in the 13th Century, especially in Spain but also in Germany. The 32 Paths of Wisdom came from this time. So did The Gates of Light and The Book of Contemplation. (In fact, Mark Verman's scholarly and wonderful The Books of Contemplation - Medieval Jewish Mystical Sources might go a long way to answer some of your questions.) And, at the end of the 13th Century, the Spanish Jewish communities produced the jewel of their entire system, The Zohar.
At that point, Hebrew Kabbalah reached maturity - a maturity, in fact, possibly measured by being overly ripe. The Zohar IMHO represents the actual harvesting by the Rabbis of their collective cultural wisdom, so it has the quality of just-too-ripe fruit collected in baskets.
But this is the point that the system existed more as a result than a process, so it is probably the point to mark its maturity. Most of everything after that was debating about The Zohar and what it meant!
Does that help?
PS - On history, the Wikipedia article on Kabbalah, as usual, has reasonably good starter material and a biblio. It covers whole different angles than I did in the above.
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Thank you.
I looked up the wiki articles and their links and found this page:
www.gangleri.nl/articles/36/christian-cabalaHere's a little excerpt:
"A history of the early Christian CabalaGiovani Pico (or Picus) della Mirandola (1463-1494) claimed to be the first Latin scholar to study the Kabbala....[however] converted Jews were producing “Christian Kabbalist” arguments long before Pico.
In the time that Pico was born, many Jews lived in Europe under the tolerant reign of the Muslims. Especially Spain and southern France were crowded with Jews living together with Christians and Muslims. This resulted in fertile crossbreeds. Not for nothing the major Kabbalistic books were written in Spain in this period. When Christians started to win back territory from the Muslims, times got more difficult for the Jews as well. The idea rose that when Muslims were removed anyway, why not kick out the Jews within the same operation (they were -according to Christians- not only heretics, but also responsible for the plague!)? This process was going on in Pico’s early years. Jews were driven away from different places from 1477 on until the big expulsion from Spain in 1492. However many Jews indeed did leave, others thought of another solution: conversion to Christianity. This way they could stay were they were, study Jewish writings as sources of the Christian faith and most of all, continue their Kabbalistic studies (in secret).
A very strange thing is that on one hand Jews were kicked out of the major cities all over Europe, but on the other hand there was an interest in Jewish scriptures up to extraordinary high ranks in the Christian hierarchy. It is said that no other than pope Sixtus IV (1414-1484) ordered for translations of Kabbalistic books and most of them are still in the Vatican library until the present day! The translations were made by the Jewish convert.... known under the name Flavius Mithridates. Mithridates told the pope that with the Kabbala he could prove the Christian truths."
It goes on to say that Mithridates was Pico's teacher.
Then it says:"The early Christian Cabalists had a unique approach to Judaism and their esoteric teachings. They were not original in the idea that Judaism was a form of pre-Christianity, but definitely a new view was that Judaic teachings were valuable for Christianity. Judaism was not wrong and Christianity right, in fact, there was more truth in Judaism than Christians had always said. This very fact made Christianity as follower of Judaism even better! "
It also says that Christians considered Kabbalah acceptable, because it "contained Christian truths" but that Talmudic works were evil in the eyes of the Christians.
This is all really interesting to me.
I haven't found anything on Islamic Kabbalah. I don't think the Muslims adopted it. There was one reference to Sufis being influenced by Kabbalah, but I don't trust the source:
www.freemasonrywatch.org/sufi.html
you have to scroll way down. -
93,
"I haven't found anything on Islamic Kabbalah. I don't think the Muslims adopted it."
The Freemasonry Watch site you quote looks bogus, I agree.
Kabbalistic influence in Islam is not an area many people seem to have studied (except the paranoiacs). But I think it's important to realize that concepts can cross cultural and religious borders without it being clearly apparent. I don't think you'll see a Tree of Life arrangement in the writings of Islamic mystics, but you will find some ideas in common with Jewish and NeoPlatonic philosophers.
There is a tradition called Irfan in Shi'ite Islam. I've been unsuccessful in finding much out about it, other than in the two (quite bad) biographies of Ayatollah Khomeini that are out there. He studied it very intensely as a younger man, and gave lectures on it over the radio in Iran during the country's war with Iraq in the 1980s.
But in what's available, you will see terms like 'nafs' which refers to a basic or animal self, or 'ruh' which refers to divine consciousness. It doesn't take a linguistic genius to recognize our Nephesh and Ruach in that.
The tradition Khomeini followed recognized successive stages of attainment. From memory (and this IS early in the morning...) they involve developing a deep awareness of God, attaining Union with God and finally, becoming so united with God that one can speak AS God. There is a particular mystical text he followed that describes all of this, and it is recognized as being extraordinarily difficult to understand and to practice. But at the very least, we can see parallels in this system with the Thelemic Man of Earth, Lover and Hermit in this.
Part of Khomeini's appeal to his people lay in his claim that he had completed this course of mystical attainment. Islam has a tendency to veer to the Geburic side of things, and to Justice, and he saw himself as bringing divine Justice to a world that had leaned far too far to the Chesedic side. Naturally, there is still a debate about what his actual attainment really was
93 93/93,
EM
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Although Sefer Yetsirah is older than what we normally think of as the Kabbalah, it wasn't studied by the Merkabah/Heikhalot mystics. In its original form it was very static, movement between the sephiroth along the 22 paths was 2nd Millennium.
Ecstatic Kabbalah is also worth a look, as it is as old as the Zohar.
One interesting point, modern Kabbalah dates from around 1,000 c.e., just after the Ebionites (Jewish Christians) apparently disappeared, and in its early days Jews often accused Kabbalah of being overly Christian in influence.......
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@sethur said
"Although Sefer Yetsirah is older than what we normally think of as the Kabbalah, it wasn't studied by the Merkabah/Heikhalot mystics. In its original form it was very static, movement between the sephiroth along the 22 paths was 2nd Millennium."
Having read all of the major versions in the original Hebrew, I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about in terms of a later version of Sepher Sephiroth adding "movement beween the sephiroth." (For one, there is almost nothing concerning the Sephirioth in Sepher Yetzirah.)
Agreed the S.Y. wasn't part of the Chariot tradition.
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I was referring to later material that added movement, not to later editions of the book that added planetary attributes etc, sorry for not being clear.
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@Tamara_Tornad said
"I want to know more about the development of Qabalah and how it relates to the history of how the Jews were treated.
I know that Qabalah was first developed by Jews, and then the system was borrowed by Christians, and later by the Golden Dawn."
Kieren Barry makes the convincing argument in 'Greek Qabalah' that almost everything we know as Qabalah comes form the Greeks. The attributing of numbers to letters (historically Greek precedes Hebrew in this regard), the attributing of symbolism to numbers/letters (Pythagoras), the emanations (Neo-platonists), etc.
IAO131
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That is only true if you take "Cabala" as being the filing system that people such as Dion Fortune and Crowley reduced it to. The static Gnostic system of Yetsirah - where "formation" is a historical event that took place in the past - is the starting point of Cabala, which reconsidered Yetsirah and created instead a dynamic system where "formation" is constant. A good starting point is Gershom Scholem's History of Jewish Mysticism and his edition of translations of pre-Zohar Cabalistic texts, such as Of The Thirteen, and the Book Bahir.
What the Golden Dawn inherited was a "system" based on a fragment of the Zohar printed in Latin as Kabala Denudata and translated by Mathers as The Kabbala Unveiled. Until 20th century researchers got into the subject and English translations of the entire Zohar and other works became widespread, most occultists believed that Rosenroth/Mathers had revealed "The Cabala" rather than a tiny portion of it.
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Sethur, 93,
I think you're being too harsh here. The Golden Dawn was the recipient of a long line of 'technology transfer' through the Hermetic traditions that goes back at least to Marsilio Ficino and Pico Della Mirandola, and their interaction with Henrew traditions. Mathers didn't invent his own tradition, and Westcott seems to have had a broad background in the key texts, also. The Ciceros' website has some of his writing that shows this.
I've also found nuggets of GD notions in Gikatilla's Gates of Light, so I'm certain someone in the GD, or one of its pedecessors, had discovered this, also.
If you read the Holy Books, and especially Crowley's commentary on Liber LXV, I think it's plain he had far more than a 'filing system' concept of it all. He grasped ecstatic Qabalah in a way that the original GD system was not designed to teach. You're confusing the junior high school curriculum with the PhD level that Crowley went on to explore.
I was fascinated when I discovered Moshe Idel's work to find him explaining the importance of sexual polarity in early Jewish worship. I'm thinking especially of the notion he discussed in Kabbalah - New Perspectives of the Kerubim uniting ecstatically before the Ark of the Covenant, and the Shekinah descending as a result.
Crowley may have discovered the importance of sacred sexuality through different sources, but those, surely, only complemented what he learned over the years after his GD days. And I wouldn't rule out his having been instructed in an oral tradition regarding this, even in the late 1890s, that wasn't put into the GD Knowledge Lectures. Sex and the GD is its own, touchy subject, but clearly, there was an understanding in that order that its connection to mysticism was basic and essential.
93 93/93,
EM
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With all due respect, what do you think Ecstatic Cabala means? And though Mirandola had contact with Cabalists, I'm not sure Ficino did, Hermeticism does not equal Cabala and Mirandola was primarily interested in trying to find a way to convert Jews to Christianity.
Another excellent source is Umberto Eco's "The search for the perfect language" which shows how Christian Cabala developed.
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Hermeticism, as understood in the Middle Ages, absolutely does mean Qabalah! Though the Hermetic corpus of writings long pre-existed, this isn't rea,lly what constituted Hermeticism in the Middle Ages and (especially) Rennaissance - where it is essentially a blending of Kabbalah, alchemy, and sorcery with other esoteric language.
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Sethur, 93,
"With all due respect, what do you think Ecstatic Cabala means?"
I'm not clear regarding the point of your question, but I've always tended to equate ecstasy in the Qabalistic context with intense devotion and/or absorption into a state or level or plane well beyond the egoic condition of things. All the 'filing system' stuff we begin with is just a matter of preparing the ground - ploughing for the later planting, growth and harvesting. Qabalah/Kabbalah/Cabala, in all its different schools and traditions, aims to set up the mind to be tripped or tricked or relaxed into losing its fixation on defending a personality and its needs.
Is your definition substantially different?
93 93/93,
EM
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Edward, "Ecstatic Kabbalah" is the formal name of Abulafia's technical system. The term has been revived in some New Agey ways, but the root use was for Abulafia's 13th Century mystical system. It's kinda "Sepher Yetzirah & 321 Gates of Wisdom" meets mantra yoga with extended pranayama techniques, evolving into a non-nihilistic Raja Yoga.
The reported measurable consequences sound a lot like they came out of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika description of advanced pranayama phenomena.
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JAE 93,
Thanks for the clarification. I'm somewhat familiar with Abulafia, but from second-hand sources rather than the actual texts. Given the extensive use of the term 'ecstasy' in Thelemic usage, I've assumed the phrase could be used more broadly.
93 93/93,
EM
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ecstatic is literal in this case, the object is to stand outside yourself, to meet the divine twin that had already been central to gnostic practice for over a millennium. The method is temurah, more or less.
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Man has always sought ways to be happy. Numerous teachings, old and new, try to provide it. However, humanity continues to suffer. None of the methods that mankind has developed throughout history yielded the craved happiness; hence, today people are losing interest in them.
It is at this time of bewilderment that a hitherto hidden method is now surfacing. Throughout history, its possessors have kept it hidden from the public eye. Nor was the general public attracted to it. But today it is bursting onto the center stage of the public agenda, and people throughout the world, from all nations, races, and nationalities are following it. This teaching is the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Millions around the world have the sense that by utilizing this method, they will receive the answers they have been seeking as to how they can be happy. This builds a strong attraction for people today. And, although most people still do not understand the essence of the method, they feel deep within that it will provide the answer. Thus, they are willing to explore what Kabbalah has to offer.
To understand what has made the wisdom of Kabbalah expand worldwide, we must go back to the cradle of humanity, to ancient Babylon, Mesopotamia. This is the beginning of the process that is being completed these days, a process that is attracting people to Kabbalah.
The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that the evolution of humanity is essentially the evolution of the desire to enjoy. This desire evolves from generation to generation and prompts us to fulfill it.
The first time a desire for something beyond the desire to exist appeared in a human being was 5767 years ago (according to the Hebrew calendar and to the date of writing these lines in 2006). Although many generations
preceded Adam, he was the first person in whom the desire to comprehend the collective Nature appeared. It is not a coincidence that his name was Adam, because it comes from the words Adamme la Elyon, “I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Adam was named after his desire to transcend his qualities and become similar to Nature’s quality of altruism. Adam passed on what he had discovered to his offspring. Also, the book, Raziel ha Malaach (The Angel Raziel), is ascribed to him.The day Adam discovered the spiritual world is called “the day of the creation of the world.” This was the day on which humanity made its first contact with the spiritual world, and this is why the Hebrew calendar begins on this day.
According to Nature’s plan, humanity will achieve balance with the inclusive Nature, the final correction of the human ego, within 6,000 years of this day. This is why it was written that “the world exists for six thousand years” (Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin, 97:71). During those years, the human ego will gradually grow and bring humanity to the realization that it must be mended. It will also show humanity the method of correction, and how
to implement it.A few generations after Adam, humanity was centered around ancient Babylon, and that is where the first outbreak of egoism occurred. As a result, people began to want to dominate Nature and the world, and to exploit everything to their own benefit. This outbreak of egoism was allegorically described as the building of The Tower of Babel: “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven” (Genesis, 11:4). However, the Babylonians’ plot failed because it is impossible to satisfy the ego directly.
**As their egos grew, it separated them from one another. Previously, the people of Babel had lived as one people. But now, when the ego began to “speak” in them, they stopped understanding each other. This moment is described as “the evolution of different languages.” Thus, hatred drew them apart, and they were scattered all over the world. **
Yet, in one of those Babylonians, a man named Abraham, there surfaced a desire to know the secret of life, along with the growth of the ego. It was the same desire that had first appeared in Adam.
Until that point, Abraham had been helping his father build idols and sell them. But once he began to feel that the idols no longer satisfied his growing desire, he began to search for higher forces. This story symbolizes Abraham’s sensation that he was idolizing every egoistic desire he’d had, bowing before his desire and surrendering to its domination.
Thus, Abraham began to feel that such a life leads nowhere. He felt that if he wanted to transcend to a more highly evolved life, he would have to “break the idols” and to try to escape the ego’s domination.
When he did, he discovered Nature’s inclusive force and called it “God,” which, in Gimatria (a method of using Hebrew letters as numbers), is equal to “the Nature.” Abraham realized that Nature’s force necessitates all people to come into balance with it, and that the imbalance is the source of all suffering.
As Abraham continued to search, he discovered that the ego comprises 613 desires, each of which must be adapted to Nature’s general law of altruism. In other words, in all one’s desires, one must reach the state of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” the service of others.
When we correct each of the desires by using them altruistically instead of egoistically, Kabbalah calls this “performing Mitzvot” (keeping Commandments). This refers to changing the intention with which we use our desires, not to any physical actions.
**The method for achieving equilibrium with Nature, beyond the ego, was discovered by Abraham. It is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.” Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation) is also ascribed to Abraham. **
Abraham began to teach this wisdom to his people, the ancient Babylonians. It was written that “Abraham the Patriarch would bring them into his home, give them food and drink, and would bring them closer” (Bereshit Raba 84:4). However, most of the people did not take interest in correcting their egos.
But after Abraham and his wife, Sarah, made considerable efforts to teach the correction method, they managed to organize a group of people that became the first group of Kabbalists in human history. This group later received the name, “Israel.”
From that point on, humanity has been divided into two paths: Kabbalists and the rest of humanity. As the ego continued to grow, both among the Kabbalists and in the rest of humanity, it evolved very differently in each
of these groups. The Kabbalists strained to maintain balance with Nature atop the growing ego, while the rest of humanity searched for new ways to satisfy their egos.From generation to generation, humanity reached greater achievements. People kept believing that very soon they would reach their ultimate fulfillment. Yet they remained emptier than before the new hope had emerged. Today, the ego has reached its final degree; hence, many
are sensing that millennia of the evolving ego have yielde only helplessness and a general, global crisis.Realizing this puts humanity in the same position it occupied in Babylon. But this time humanity, which has spread across the globe and proliferated into billions of people, is ready to listen. Now, the time is ripe to absorb the method founded by Abraham, intended to teach everyone how to use their egos correctly, how to achieve balance with Nature, and how to feel like the whole of Nature: eternal and whole.
Until recently, Kabbalists were compelled to conceal this method from humanity. They had to wait until the final degree of the ego appeared, a level that humanity would despair of fulfilling. They waited for a time when people needed a correction method, and would feel that of all teachings, the cure for all ailments could be found specifically within the wisdom of Kabbalah. But now that these conditions have been met, Kabbalists, who carefully hid the method in the past, are opening it to all. This completes the historic cycle, and all of humanity as one body can now achieve equilibrium with Nature.
In a manifesto called “Messiah’s Horn,” Baal Ha- Sulam says that redeeming the world from its plights depends solely on disseminating the correction method: “We are in a generation that is standing at the very
threshold of redemption, if we will only know how to spread the wisdom of the hidden in the masses.”He emphasizes that the wisdom of Kabbalah must be brought to everyone in the world, and compares it to the voice of the Shofar (a ram’s horn blown on Jewish holidays): “And the dissemination of the wisdom in the masses is called “a Shofar.” Like the Shofar, whose voice travels a great distance, the echo of the wisdom will spread throughout the world…”
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93s!
Hi Tamara!
I have attempted to respond to your post several times but somehow lost the darn connection…. However, now I’ve gotten smart (or at least tired of retyping enough…) and will save my response to the word processor, and do the old cut and paste ritual.
Anyway, the original post stated:
“I want to know more about the development of Qabalah and how it relates to the history of how the Jews were treated.
I know that Qabalah was first developed by Jews, and then the system was borrowed by Christians, and later by the Golden Dawn.
I know that Jews were persecuted in Europe for centuries prior to the Nazis, but there must have also been periods of tolerance? I have read that Jews fared better under Islam than under Christianity historically - Moorish Spain was a height for Jewish thought. But were there periods of Christian tolerance of Jews?
So if Christians were studying Hebrew and Qabalah, it would have been during periods of toleration? Or were Christians taking knowledge from the Jews at the same time they were condemning them in pogroms?
Did Muslims ever adopt Qabalah?
Any information, websites, books on these topics....?”
Well, since I’m not currently working very much… I’ve actually had time to read some of the material posted on the website. First, I will mention that it appears that the “Lurianic” Kabbalah is not well received here. I find this quite interesting. However, the Lurianic and Sabbatean Kabbalah(s) relate strongly to your question regarding the relationship between the treatment of the Jews and the development of Hebrew Mysticism.
(On the other hand, I would also argue that the history of the Golden Dawn is directly related to the development of the Sabbatean Kabbalah (very unique twists on the Lurianic teachings and the later additions/redactions of Yaqob Frank). On a side note there is also a relationship between Sabbateanism and the HB of L, a predecessor to the O.T.O. and the Theosophical Society of Madam Blavatsky.)
The expulsion from Spain in 1492 caused the development of the “Marrano” or “Crypto-Jew”. Given the option of “Convert” (to Roman Catholicism), “Die” or face other punishments devised by the “Inquisitors”. The Kabbalah went underground… The Marrano practiced “Judaism” (and often times Kabbalah) disguised as a Convert. Secret Societies of Kabbalists remained in contact with others who had fled Spain in the Holy Land and abroad.
A Circle of Kabbalists gathered in Safed, Israel and included some of the most famed Mystics in Jewish history. The circle was composed of practitioners of Maggidic (Angelic) conversation and instruction. The “G_dly Rabbi Isaac” (Represented by the abbreviation ARI (Lion). The only Rabbi given this title… later changed to represent “Ashkenazi Rabbi Isaac” [also ARI] at the behest of the Right wing non-mystical crowd) at a young age appeared onto this scene (after isolating his self for years on an island in the Nile in Egypt much as the Saintly Rabbi Shimeon Bar Yochai isolated his self in a Cave) and became the leader of this circle of Mystics. They appointed a Person each to the Sephiroth in emulation of the Lower Assembly of he Zohar. He committed none of his vast teachings to writing and died at the age of 38. In some of my circles, he is considered the reincarnation of the Blessed Rabbi Shimeon Bar Yochai. However, one pupil (debatable with recent information on Rabbi Israel Sarug of blessed memory), Rabbi Chayim Vital Calabrese, was allowed to write down the teachings of the Holy Arizal.
These teachings held by Vital never reached the eye of anyone other than himself until, they were smuggled out from under his bed while he lay dying. Thus the original teachings were not fully released until later. Thus some variants of these teachings were printed before the actual writings taken down from the very lips of the Tzaddik were ever copied.
(Interestingly, Rabbi Schmuel Vital, may his place be great in the World to come, the codifier and inheritor of the teachings of the Holy Arizal (The Kitvei Ha’ARI) was amongst the Circle of the Blessed Rabbi Raphael Joseph, the supporter of the Mosiach and his Prophet.)
The Mystic teachings along with several Astronomical events and somewhat equivalent activity in Christendom (John Dee, Studion, Rosicrucian Manifestoes) set the stage for widely expected Messianic activity in Christendom, and within the Jews, in exile among the Nations.
The Chmielnicki Massacres occurred in 1648-9 and resulted in the murder of 100,000 - 200,000 Jews in Poland and the Ukraine. This was devastating to the collective Psyche of the Community of the Galut/Exile. The Ottoman Empire ruled the Holy Land (but at least were tolerant) and Jews were being annihilated in Europe.
Then a young scholar arose in Gaza, his name was Nathan, he was brilliant and recognized as a Prophet. He foresaw that the Chiah Mosiach dwelled within a troubled man named Shabtai Tzvi… who quite interestingly had been traveling to Gaza to seek out this most Holy Lamp, Nathan of Gaza. The Great Light shining through Nathan enabled him to heal many with troubled minds, broken bodies, and spirits. He was also able to discern the root of one’s soul and determine the appropriate tiqqunim (emendations) that could effect this repair.
Shabtai Tzvi had experienced episodes of presumed mania and delusions, wherein he believed his self to be, the Mosiach, Son of David and King of Israel. He had at times been able to abolish these thoughts, but at other times pronounced the ineffable name aloud, and committed other acts of Profanation and Violations of Torah. Upon approaching the Holy Lamp of Gaza with these problems, he was informed by the Great Prophet that he was indeed, the Mosiach of Israel.
The rising tension of an Anti-Semetic Europe, along with intense Messianic expectations and increased exposure to mystical and theurgic techniques, led to the largest Messianic movement in Jewish history (and in modern recorded history). Entire villages were consumed by Prophecy, even Christians convulsed on the ground mentioning “Shabtai Tzvi” specifically by name. There were many eyewitnesses to these events. However, although nearly all of the Jewish communities supported the Mosiach… he was taken to the Sultan where he… converted to Islam.
Specific Theology was already in place, that tapped strongly into the Collective Marrano and Exile impacted Psyche, of the Community of Israel. The Mosiach had to immerse his self into the Darkness, to rectify the Holy Sparks held by the Qlipphoth. This Theology caught on like wildfire. An Apostate Mosiach did not end the movement, nor did his death (He was “Occulted“ away to assume the role of the Holy King in the Sphere of Tiphareth). This sect developed a concept of Avatars of the Mosiach (Yeshua was the Shell or Qliphah of Mosiach). They also believed in Cosmic Aeons or Shemmitah, and the abrogation of the Torah. This led to a later avatar named Yaqob Frank… whereas Shabtai Tzvi converted to Islam… Frank converted to Catholicism therein uniting all 3 Abrahamic faiths. Later when he ran afoul of the Church (Sexual Rites, Alchemy, etc) he indicated the “G_ds of FreeMasonry will have to do for us now“.
His (Frank’s) nephew was Moses Dobruschka aka Von Schoenfeld aka Junius Frey. Moses Dobruschka (under another name) was the head of a group called “The Asiatic Brethren”. They had a temple called “Chevrah Zerach Bequr Aur” or “The Society of the Shining Light of Dawn”. This is quite interesting as the Golden Dawn supposedly derived from a Temple called “Chevrah Zerach Aur Bequr”.
Also worth mentioning is Johanne Falk, supposedly the Head of the London “Kabbalistic College” of Golden Dawn History. He was the ancestor of one Rabbi Schmuel Chayim Falk often called the “Ba’al Shem of London”. Rabbi Falk was forced to flee the continent after his secret Sabbatean faith was revealed. He was also the direct initiator of Cagliostro and Emmanuel Swedenborg.
A third figure is Louis Maximilion Bimstein, also known as “Max Theon” of the HB of L and the Movement Cosmique. He is mentioned in the Theosophical literature as “Serapis Bey” (before Madame Blavatsky’s Masters moved East). His father was one “Rabbi Bimstein” in Poland who was also of the Sabbatean faith.
While I’m at it… I might as well mention the child of Marrano ancestry Martinez de Pasqually of Elus Cohen/Martinist fame and the finding of the “Rituals of a Heretical Jewish Sect”, by a relative involved with the Inquisition. Hmmm, wonder where these came from.
Anyway, the “Marrano” (Forced Converts), and later “Donme” (converses to Islam) and “Frankist” (conversos to Catholicism) movements have impacted the development of Kabbalah and relate to the way the Jews were treated.
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Dennis