[Opinion] Is kabbalah universal?

[cormundum]

I would add to it that Jewish Kabbalah is not a single unified system. Even the tree of life is not one version, the one most known is just the most favorite version which made it considered in time as the only one... but it was one of many versions of the tree. These two are also trees of life of Jewish Kabbalah. The circular one is where the sephirot are layered on each other as layers of onion.

You're misinterpreting the images. There are multiple layers to the Tree of Life concept. There's the side that is the more tree-like image which shows the path upwards towards the Ain Sof, then there is the perspective of igulim/circles or rings where the Sefiros are surrounding the core, which is either the human person or the Ain Sof depending on the context. The most famous version comes from Moshe Cordavero's P'ri Etz Chaim, which the Golden Dawn seized upon and became the standard for most Western occultists to reference. For some reason the in-out view on the Sefiros wasn't as popular, even though it makes some interesting conjecture on the nature of auras and energy fields and all that stuff.

 

[Morell]

You're misinterpreting the images. There are multiple layers to the Tree of Life concept. There's the side that is the more tree-like image which shows the path upwards towards the Ain Sof, then there is the perspective of igulim/circles or rings where the Sefiros are surrounding the core, which is either the human person or the Ain Sof depending on the context. The most famous version comes from Moshe Cordavero's P'ri Etz Chaim, which the Golden Dawn seized upon and became the standard for most Western occultists to reference. For some reason the in-out view on the Sefiros wasn't as popular, even though it makes some interesting conjecture on the nature of auras and energy fields and all that stuff.

Not sure that I can follow that logic, honestly. Somehow I cannot wrap my mind about the difference here. If I try to understand them as different maps mapping the same "area" still I find it pretty incoherent to be describing the same thing.

 

[HoldAll]

I would add to it that Jewish Kabbalah is not a single unified system. Even the tree of life is not one version, the one most known is just the most favorite version which made it considered in time as the only one... but it was one of many versions of the tree. These two are also trees of life of Jewish Kabbalah. The circular one is where the sephirot are layered on each other as layers of onion.

Exactly. In the book I'm just reading, old Jewish rabbis liked to play hide and seek with Kether and Daath, as it were. One rabbi thought Kether was so close to En Sof that it shouldn't be on the Tree and puts Daath on top, another one had it the other way round, a third one used Daath to make a point and then would dispense with it in the next chapter... Hermetic Qabbalists don't know how good they've got it, everything in their system is so neat and streamlined it's hardly mysticism anymore.

 

[otherworldlymage]

I would add to it that Jewish Kabbalah is not a single unified system. Even the tree of life is not one version, the one most known is just the most favorite version which made it considered in time as the only one... but it was one of many versions of the tree. These two are also trees of life of Jewish Kabbalah. The circular one is where the sephirot are layered on each other as layers of onion.

The tree of life is possibly from Egypt

 

[HoldAll]

Sanford L. Drob, "Symbols of the Kabbalah - Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives", p. 175:

Within kabbalistic thought there developed what was to become the generally accepted doctrine of the interpenetration of the Sefirot. In brief, this doctrine holds that each Sefirah contains within itself an element of each of the others, so that Chesed for example, is composed of the Chesed of Chesed (i.e., pure Chesed ), the Gevurah of Chesed, the Tiferet of Chesed, the Netzach of Chesed, etc.

The conventional Tree of Life is clearly inadequate for this teaching, I suggest a herd of Schrödinger's cats instead.

 

[Morell]

The tree of life is possibly from Egypt

I don't know, I think that Tree of life is one of things that could be considered universal. It appears in multiple ancient traditions.

 

[Wintruz]

First I apologize if I misspell the term. I don't use this system nor do I study it too much.

At least where I move it seems that a lot of people favor Kabbalah in their occult practice. Good reason for me to explore this topic. So I took a look with questions in mind:

Is Kabbalah universal system?
Can I find it at core of any occult practice?
Is it important for me to learn Kabbalah?

So I took a look. At first on occult system Kabbalah, later I also read a collection of texts on Jewish mystical system Kabbalah. I've learned what both are about and it was really interesting learning. I was especially surprised that Jewish Kabbalah is rather mystical system taking Jewish tradition to it's... maybe extreme, but I would rather say peak. On other hand occult kabbalah felt very shortened and simplified, although it gained angels and demons and mirror map, becoming map of life and death. I say simplified because this is but one understanding of one rabbi who drew the map while other Rabbis made other maps of creation. But in the end I found answers to my questions.

Is Kabbalah universal system?
No. It works at its peak only in system of understanding the world that Jews and Christians. I was rolling my eyes when reading how people tried to put together Kabbalah and Norse paganism both modern and historical. The book Uthark: night side of the runes is great example of such attempt in both included texts. For some it might work, but they are based on too different world view and understanding of reality.

Can I find it at core of any occult practice?
No.. Not all occult system use demons, angels, or system of 10 sefirot or other 10 levels of reality.

Is it important for me to learn Kabbalah?
Yes. It's not necessary for my practice, but learning about how others view the world is of value for sure.

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So this is my opinion on Kabbalah. How about you? What do you think?

I wrote quite a bit about this here.

Kabbalah ascended in the Western magical tradition because it allowed a "canonical" (the Hebrews preceding Christ) system to fill in the gaps after Scholasticism did away with the earlier Neoplatonic metaphysics that had informed late Roman paganism and early Christianity (Pseudo-Dionysius, Origen, etc.). Basically it was thought by the Golden Dawn and their forefathers to be spiritually "safe" because it belonged to a people of the book. Within Judaism/Hassidism, there is an ecstatic side to Kabbalah which, I think, has value within that context. Outside of that context though, when it becomes "Hermetic Qabala", it's essentially a way of labelling experiences and qualities.

There are a lot of problems with this. First is that experiences and qualities cannot really be categorised in this neat, rational way and attempting to "make it fit" is really attempting to get higher levels of consciousness to conform with the ego's need to contain things within safe boxes. Experiences which might dismantle the ego are here repurposed by the ego.

The Tree of Life has use as a mnemonic device where traditional correspondences can be memorised but, aside from that, unless you're a historian specialising in the development of magical thought, you're better off focusing on ways of opening and transforming the soul, not categorising everything the soul encounters.

 

[Morell]

I wrote quite a bit about this here.

Kabbalah ascended in the Western magical tradition because it allowed a "canonical" (the Hebrews preceding Christ) system to fill in the gaps after Scholasticism did away with the earlier Neoplatonic metaphysics that had informed late Roman paganism and early Christianity (Pseudo-Dionysius, Origen, etc.). Basically it was thought by the Golden Dawn and their forefathers to be spiritually "safe" because it belonged to a people of the book. Within Judaism/Hassidism, there is an ecstatic side to Kabbalah which, I think, has value within that context. Outside of that context though, when it becomes "Hermetic Qabala", it's essentially a way of labelling experiences and qualities.

There are a lot of problems with this. First is that experiences and qualities cannot really be categorised in this neat, rational way and attempting to "make it fit" is really attempting to get higher levels of consciousness to conform with the ego's need to contain things within safe boxes. Experiences which might dismantle the ego are here repurposed by the ego.

The Tree of Life has use as a mnemonic device where traditional correspondences can be memorised but, aside from that, unless you're a historian specialising in the development of magical thought, you're better off focusing on ways of opening and transforming the soul, not categorising everything the soul encounters.

Fascinating take on history. Thanks a lot for that one! Would never come to me that such an interest in numerology would come from Greek philosophy but it definitely makes a lot of sense. Nice to see how Kabbalah actually came to be.