The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Kabbalah 137
mystic was to enter the throne world and perceive God
sitting upon his throne. The throne world was reached
after passing through seven heavens while in an ecstatic
trance state. The passage of the mystic was dangerous,
impeded by hostile angels. Talismans, SEALs, the sacred
names of angels, and incantations were required to navigate
through the obstacles.
The historical origin of the true Kabbalah centers on
the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation), attributed to Rabbi
Akiba, whom the Romans martyred. The book’s exact
date of origin is unknown. It was in use in the 10th century,
but it may have been authored as early as the third
century.
The Sefer Yetzirah presents a discussion on cosmology
and cosmogony and sets forth the central structure of the
Kabbalah. It also is reputed to contain the formula for
creation of a golem, an artificial human.
In 917, a form of practical kabbalism was introduced
by Aaron ben Samuel in Italy; it later spread through Germany
and became known as German kabbalism or Early
Hasidim. It drew upon the Merkabah practices, in that it
was ecstatic, had magic rituals, and had as primary techniques
prayer, contemplation, and meditation. The magical
power of words and names assumed great importance
and gave rise to the techniques of gematria, notarikon,
and temurah.
The Classical Kabbalah was born in the 13th century
in Provence, France, and moved into Spain, where
it was developed most extensively by medieval Spanish
Jews. The primary work from which Classical Kabbalah
developed is the Sefer Zohar (Book of Splendor), attributed
to a second-century sage, Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai,
but actually written between 1280 and 1286 by the Spanish
kabbalist Moses de Leon. According to lore, the book
comprises the teachings given to Rabbi Simeon by divine
revelation.
The teachings of the Zohar became known as the
Spanish Kabbalah and spread into Europe in the 14th and
15th centuries. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in
1492, Kabbalah study became more public. Isaac Luria
Ashkenazi (1534–72), called the Ari Luria, a student of
the great kabbalist Moses Cordovero (1522–70), conceived
of bold new theories, which gave the Kabbalah a
new terminology and complex new symbolism. Luria emphasized
letter combinations as a medium for meditation
and mystical prayer.
In the 14th century, a Practical Kabbalah developed,
involving magical techniques for making amulets and talismans
and for invoking spirits. The Practical Kabbalah is
complex and features the use of magical alphabets, secret
codes of communication with angels.
The Hasidic movement emerged from the Lurianic
Kabbalah and made Kabbalah accessible to the masses.
The Hasidim are the only major branch of modern Judaism
to follow mystical practices. Interest in the Kabbalah
among Jews declined after the 18th century. The
reconstructionist movement, founded in 1922 by Rabbi
Mordecai M. Kaplan, borrows from Hasidic traditions
and espouses a more mystical Judaism. Interest in Kabbalah
enjoyed a cross-cultural renewal that began in the
late 20th century as part of a broad interest in esoteric
subjects.
Western occult interest in the Kabbalah grew first
out of German kabbalism and then Lurianic kabbalism.
Christian occultists were attracted to the magical amulets,
incantations, demonology, angelology, seals, and
letter permutations, and they used these as the basis for
ritual magical texts (see GRIMOIRES). The Tetragrammaton
(YHVH, Yod He Vau He, or Yahweh, the sacred name of
God) was held in great awe for its power over all things in
the universe, including DEMONs, a subject of intense fear
and interest.
In the late 15th century, the Kabbalah was harmonized
with Christian doctrines, which supposedly proved the
divinity of Christ. Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim included
Kabbalah in his monumental work, Occult Philosophy
(1531). Also in the 16th century, alchemical symbols
were integrated into the Christian Kabbalah.
Interest in the Kabbalah received renewed attention
in the 19th century from non-Jewish occultists such as
Francis Barrett, Eliphas Levi, and Papus. Levi’s works
were especially important in the occult revival that spread
through Europe in the 19th century. As did some of his
contemporaries, Levi related the Kabbalah to the Tarot
and numerology and drew connections to Freemasonry,
in which he saw a fusion of Judaic kabbalism and Neoplatonic
Christianity. The Kabbalah, he said in The Book of
Splendors, is one of three occult sciences of certitude; the
other two are Magic and Hermeticism. Of the Kabbalah,
Levi said:
The Qabalah, or traditional science of the Hebrews,
might be called the mathematics of human thought.
It is the algebra of faith. It solves all problems of the
soul as equations, by isolating the unknowns. It gives
to ideas the clarity and rigorous exactitude of numbers;
its results, for the mind, are infallibility (always relative
to the sphere of human knowledge) and for the heart,
profound peace.
The Kabbalah formed a central part of the teachings
of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, one of the
most significant esoteric orders in the Western mystery
tradition, which flourished in England during the late
19th and early 20th centuries. In 1888, the Golden Dawn
founder, Samuel Liddle Macgregor Mathers, published
the first English translation of a Latin translation of the
Kabbalah, Kabbala Denuda, by Knorr von Rosenroth. In
his introduction, Mathers describes the Kabbalah as the
key that unlocks the mysteries of the Bible.
Central Concepts of the Kabbalah
God is Ain Soph (without end or unending), who is unknowable,
unnamable, and beyond representation. God