Disclaimers:
The Jewish Kabbalah’s foundations develop from three pillars demarcating the divine within male/female principles and some combination in between and union of the two. “Principle” is the key word. I am not engaging in a politically definition of gender, only that kabbalah has a strong dialectic between a masculine and Divine feminine active throughout its processes and a gender polarity language active in the Hieros Gamos.
Good/Bad paradigm are extremely strong in Christian theology which is reflected in their Kabbalah. As we look deeper at Kabbalah, we’d need to redefine ideas around demons and the Devil.
And then Gershom Scholem lends a word about mysticism saturated with unembodied life forms as they affect spirituality. He says:
The conservative character so frequent in mysticism hinges largely on two elements: the mystic’s own education and his spiritual guide... As to the mystic’s education, he almost always bears within him an ancient heritage”
A religion for example...but what happens to mystics who are not raised in a specific religion? A question perhaps answered another time. Be that as it may, there are strong engagements of mysticism, entities, angels and magic in Kabbalah. One needs an open mind to understand what it means so it is suggested suspending disbelief and entertaining a mystical stance to effectively approach kabbalah.
INTRODUCTION
Tarot cards, according to academic research, began as a game in Northern Italy in the late 1400s and only transitioned to an occult vehicle at the height of its popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1981, Michael Dummett, a philosophy professor at Oxford University authored the book, The Game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City in which claims he found no evidence to show that Tarot with occult interpretations existed before the 16th century in northern Italy. His book was a 600 page treatise on the history of Tarot as a card game, and I believe though Dummett’s research was precise, his conclusions were shortsighted. He wasn’t interested in mysticism of the middle ages, but if Dummett had studied the Tree of Life and Jewish Kabbalah he’d see
how at the end of the 15th century some perhaps ascetic Christian mystics enthusiastically embraced the Jewish paradigm and tweaked it to make it their own and supporting a new acetic paradigm that became part of European culture;
that through Jewish historical connections,the symbols and patterns of a fully formed and activated (Yetsirah and Assiah respectively) the hieros gamos unearths deep ancient Babylonian magic (oh yes, I said it), which actually becomes a tidy “Eliadean” sacred return out of which we can easily make a deck of tarot cards based on Jewish instead of Christian kabbalah ;
that magic is only undiscovered science as evidenced inside Pythagorean mathematics utilized within kabbalistic structures; and
how at the time the inquisition was burning heretics (unsanctioned magicians) the Christianized cards could be a way to practice Cabbalah (the C differentiating Christian from Jewish Kabbalah) under the Inquisition’s radar.
A card reader might see a new Tarot the Jewish Tree of Life as consisting of 4 worlds, the beginning Atsiluth, the world of emanation, ein sof makes room for his partner through TzimTzum (Big Bang) in Keter; the second world, Beri’ah, the creation where Lilith exists reigning over demons and the golem waiting for their souls;the 3rd world, Yetsirah, where the angels live igniting the 9th Sefirot, performing the Hieros Gamos with his beloved Shekinah in Assiah, activating Malkhut, the independent 10th Sefirot. (Read Scholem, Symbolism - Section IV, Chap.3) And all of which can be and has been witnessed and utilized within a deck of Tarot cards --
Christian Cabbalah:
Dan says:
The development of the Christian kabbalah began in the school of Marsilio Ficino in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century. It was the peak of the Italian Renaissance, when Florence was governed by the Medici family, who supported and encouraged philosophy, science and art. Florence was a gathering place for many of the greatest minds of Europe, among them refugees from Constantinople, which was conquered by the Turks in 1453.” Ficino is best known for his translations of old esoteric treatises that eventually became the Hermetica. These works that probably originated in Egypt in late antiquity were attributed to Hermes Trismegestus, dealing in magick, astrology and esoteric theology. “The Thrice-Great Hermes” centered on the concept of magic as an ancient scientific doctrine and “source of all religious and natural truth,” which deeply inspired Ficino and his followers.
A great thinker that came out of this group was a young scholar and theologian Count Giovani Pico dela Mirandola who died in 1496 at the age of 33. He took a deep interest in Hebrew and was introduced to Jewish Kabbalah through Flavius Mithredates, a Jewish convert to Christianity who provided translations for him in both Hebrew and Latin. Pico famously proclaimed that Christianity’s truth is best demonstrated by the disciplines of magic and kabbalah and as Dan says, “regarded magic as a science, both in the natural and theological realms, and interpreted the kabbalistic texts with which he was familiar as ancient esoteric lore, conserved by the Jews, at the heart of which was the Christian messages, which is fortified by the study of kabbalah.”
Pico’s work was continued by his student, German philosopher and linguist Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) Reuchlin’s most noted work was De Arte kabbalistica (1516), which became the textbook on kabbalah for 200 years. Reuchlin presented his information as coming from “Simon”, a descendant of Rabbi Shimeon bar Yohai, the central figure in narratives of the Zohar. According to Reuchlin’s interpretation, his Simon presents kabbalistic principles which a Muslim and Christian both colleagues integrate with general principles of philosophy by what they believed to be Pythagorean philosophy -- and those of science and magic. Reuchlin’s presentation was regarded by both his own disciples and followers throughout Europe as a definitive, authoritative presentation of the kabbalah.
The issue with much of the literature translated by Christian academic and religious authorities is that whenever they are confused by their non-Christian sources, they make up stuff. It was certainly true of Sir James George Frazier’s classic The Golden Bough, a Christian’s “scientific and educated” perspective that compares Europeans with the rites and beliefs, superstitions and taboos of early cultures which is considered to be the foundations of modern Anthropology. It’s no different with Pico and Reuchlin’s own attempts at applying ascetic standards to ancient pre-Christian worldview. “Kabbalah” for Pico and Reuchlin is radically different from medieval Jewish kabbalah that they claimed to use as their source. Most of the Jewish sources they included were not kabbalistic and what little they referenced the Zohar were usually only referenced by other authors, not direct translations. Vital is Dan’s own comparisons:
The image of ‘kabbalah’ as it emerges from the works of early Christian kabbalists is thus meaningfully different from the one presented by the Hebrew sources... Most meaningful are the differences in the subjects that are discussed. The intense kabbalistic contemplation of “the secret of creation” and emergence of the system of the sefirot from the infinite Godhead is rather marginal in the deliberations of the Christian scholars; they had ready the theology of the Trinity, which they integrated with their understanding of the kabbalah. The shekhinah as a feminine power was of little interest, as well as the erotic metaphorical portrayal of the relationships in the divine world. The dualism of good and evil in the Zoharic kabbalah was not a main subject, nor was the theurgic element and the impact of the performance of the commandments on celestial processes. Mystical experiences, visions, and spiritual elevations were not at the center of their interest; [like Frazier] they regarded themselves as scholars, scientists and philosophers rather than mystics. (p. 66)
This became a particular problem as would-be mystics and Alchemists in the beginning of the 20th Century reached for solid tradition, was left empty handed. Creating false sources became more the norm as there didn’t seem to be any true schooling to be found as was evident by A.E. Waite as he was developing his Tarot clearly founded on kabbalah, not only disparate from the Zohar, but the established Christian kabbalah as well.
Tarot and the Tree of Life
According to Dummett, card games began in Northern Italy in the late 15th century. Kabbalah was openly studied and practiced in Italy between the 13th and 16th centuries (KABBALAH in ITALY 1280–1510, A Survey by MOSHE IDEL) and the Roman Inquisition was active in Italy in the late 16th Century. What this means is what is left is a more visible Christian heretical ascetic kabbalah breaking from a spirituality that engages the source of life itself to become a monist approach to a One Being from which evolved 10 other life forms 9 of which align into a Pythagorean geometric form named Adam Kadman who engages sexually with a 10th seforit feminine divine entity whose sefirot stands separate from her partner. This copulation activates the Heiros Gamos, one of the first and most potent of the ancient Babylonian rites that is over 5,000 years old.
Also, the ascetic Christian standards imposed on kabbalah castrated God’s passage to His Salvation, It turns out Jewish Kabbalah was enmeshed in erotic honesty. Kabbalah means “tradition,” the tradition of things divine. (see Scholem, Symbolism p. 1) and was a way of engaging mysticism that sprung mostly from Spain and then Italy in the Middle Ages
My focus will be to link academic dots to some previous one which I believe can easily traced to Babylon. The cards at the most basic level are oracles which in one perspective proves Kabbalah’s power. Why the Jewish Kabbalah? Because sex may be the most powerful force hooking mankind with a true Divine which I suspect Christian Kabbalists hoped to avoid. Rabbinical Jews were no different for they too created a Religion around the power perhaps to contain it. From what I’ve read and explored, it seems the magick independent physical force of nature which if you step back is both creative and sexual and needs to interact with another to reach its potential.
A.E. WAITE
Tarot was a useful tool for Mystics, Magicians and Alchemists for centuries until A. E. Waite rewrote millennia of magickal history through co-authoring the Rider-Waite deck in 1910 and publishing his book, “Pictorial Key to the Tarot” the following year . [A.E. Waite][http://www.goldendawnpedia.com/HistoryPages/Bios/AEWaite.htm] was an influential member of the Golden Dawn and a Christian Mystic. Probably it very well may have been his Christian faith that compelled him to leave the flailing occult group and struck out on his own. Within the bylaws of the Rosy Cross he stipulates that nobody affiliated with him or his organization could practice Magick or Alchemy. There has never been a more influential and lasting Western European mystical tradition outside the Jewish Kabbalah and the ue to Christianity's extreme prudery and belief that such power should only be in the hands of God. With its 78 illustrated cards, which set a standard for all subsequent Tarot cards. The
Changed the Suits of the Cards:
Was Waite ignorant or deliberately attempting to misdirect students of the occult by comparing the suits in his Tarot with a deck of cards as Wands = Diamonds, Cups = Hearts, Swords = Clubs, Pentacles = Spades (See Waite, Pictorial Key, Chapter 3 page 1)?
Apparently, the standard for pre-Golden Dawn decks were Wands = Clubs, Cups = Hearts, Swords = Spades, and Pentacles = Diamonds. (See Stuart Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot Vol. 1 p. 5).
Switched the 8th and 11th Major Arcanum positions.
Pictures are powerful, so it could be that those studying his deck were so taken with the pictures, they weren’t concerned with the elements. There’s astrologers that can show planetary reasons for the displacement if Justice and Strength, but I will attempt to give a reasonable argument for why they were set at those positions in the past.
Mostly Tarot is used for oracular purposes, I’m not sure that Mystics care where the numbers are or how suits are engaged. A Reader channels cards that follow what the Reader dictates and so for the most part pictures are fine. But do we want to use miscrafted tools? The importance of elements, for example, is clear on the I Magician who has his tools sitting on a table in front of him (the Wand/Swords controversy and their symbolism with air and fire will not be covered in this essay); but something truly extraordinary happens when using the Jewish and not the Christian Kabbalah as a map.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kushner, Laurence. The Way into Jewish Mystical Tradition. Vermont. 2001. p. 77
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit8/unit8.html
No comments:
Post a Comment