Origins of the Christian Kabbalah

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Copyright The Esoteric Quarterly, 2008. 43

Origins of the Christian Kabbalah

John F. Nash

Summary

his article explores the emergence of theChristian Kabbalah from its Judaic ante-

cedents. The birth of that major feature of thewestern esoteric tradition was made possibleby the confluence of traditions in the HighMiddle Ages and Renaissance when Jewishmystical texts and insights became available toChristian scholars. The Christian Kabbalahfirst appeared in Florence in the early 15th

century and spread to Germany and the rest ofEurope. It had obvious theological applica-tions, but much interest also focused on dis-covering the timeless underpinnings of allworld religions and on healing the breachamong Christians, Jews and Muslims.

The Christian Kabbalah was part of a moregeneral investigation of occult traditions whichincluded Hermeticisma combination of as-trology, alchemy and magic. Unfortunately,from the standpoint of the traditions purity,Hermeticism steered the Christian Kabbalahaway from its intellectual and mystical rootstoward a preoccupation with magic. Not sur-prisingly, ecclesiastical authorities becameincreasingly suspicious, although hostility wasalso motivated by prevailing anti-Semitism. Inany event, the Christian Kabbalahlike itsJudaic antecedentnever became a massmovement; it remained the pursuit of a smallelite of scholars, aristocrats and churchmen.

Background

y the 13th century Sephardic Jewishscholars from Baghdad to Spain were ac-tively engaged in Kabbalistic studies.1 ButChristian scholars were virtually ignorant oftheir work, and the Kabbalah had no apprecia-ble impact on Christian doctrine or even on itsunderlying mindset. Over the next severalcenturies all that would change; a ChristianKabbalah emerged, to the dismay of both

Christian ecclesiastical authorities and rabbinicJewish authorities.

The objective of this article is to explore theemergence of the Christian Kabbalah, from the14th to the end of the 17th century. The intentof this article is not to present a comprehensiveexploration of either the Judaic or the ChristianKabbalah; nor could that be done in a journalarticle of any reasonable length. Due attentionis paid to major topics of interest that capti-

vated the Christian Kabbalists, but the articlesthrust is primarily historical.

Numerous works on the Judaic Kabbalah andits incorporation into 19th and 20th-centuryesotericism are readily available.2 Develop-ment of the Christian Kabbalah from the 17thcentury onward, and the more detailed explora-tion of its outcomes, can be subjects for furtherstudy.

Classical Judaic Kabbalah

The Kabbalah (Hebrew: hlbq, received ortradition) has its roots in an oral tradition ofJewish mysticism, extending back to biblicaltimes, perhaps even to Moses or Abraham.3That tradition was viewed as divine revelation,interpreted and commented upon by genera-tions of mystics and scholars. However, theJudaic tradition eventually became overlaid byPythagorean, Platonic and Neoplatonic meta-physics.4 The classical Kabbalistic texts were

About the AuthorJohn F. Nash, Ph.D., is a long-time esoteric student,author and teacher. Two of his books, Quest for theSoul and The Soul and Its Destiny, were reviewedin the Winter 2005 issue of theEsoteric Quarterly.His latest book is Christianity: the One, the Many.See the advertisements on page 10 of this issue andalso the website: www.uriel.com.

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The Esoteric Quarterly

Copyright The Esoteric Quarterly, 200844

published in Spain and southern France in the12th and 13th centuries, but most likely theywere based on manuscripts or at least frag-ments dating back to the early centuries of theCommon Era. The texts included the Sefer ha-Bahir(ryhbh rps, Book of Illumination),

the Sefer Yetzirah ( hrycy rps, Book of Crea-tion), and the monumental Sefer ha-Zohar(rhwzh rps, Book of Splendor). TheZoharwas written in the style of Midrashic and Tal-mudic texts, offering discursive commentaryon the Torah and other books in the HebrewBible.5

The Kabbalah appealed both to the intellectand to the intuition, providing a system of eso-teric symbolism with theological, contempla-tive, theurgical and psychological potential.

The elaborate schema of the Tree of Life wasthe work of 16th-century Jewish scholars inPalestine. But even in 1400 there was broadunderstanding of the sefiroth (singular: sefirah,hryps), a word whose roots connoted num-ber, writing, and sound or revelation.6The number symbolism clearly reflected Py-thagoreanor perhaps earlier Egyptianinfluence. TheZoharalso described theAinSoph (Pws Niy)), the unmanifest, unknowableGodhead from which the emanations emerge.7The sephiroth can be viewed variously as suc-

cessive emanations of the divine essence, asthe forms or vessels into which those emana-tions flowed, as divine persons in the senseof the persons of the trinity, as logoi interme-diate between the Godhead and humanity, oras archetypal forces of great potency.

The original sefiroth, numbered 1-10, wereknown by the following archetypal names: Ke-ther(rtk, Crown), Chokmah (hmkx, Wis-dom),Binah (hnyb, Understanding), Chesed(dsx, Mercy), Geburah (hrwbg, Judg-

ment), Tifareth (tr)pt, Beauty or Har-mony),Netzach (xcn, Victory or Eter-nity),Hod(dwh, Splendor), Yesod(dwsy,Foundation), andMalkuth (twklm, King-dom). Gedulah (hlwdg, Greatness) wasused as an alternative name for Chesed, andDin (Nyd, Severity) as an alternative to Gebu-rah. Tabun (Nwbt, Intelligence) was an alter-native to Binah. A later addition to the sefi-

roth,Daath (t(d, Knowledge or Gnosis),was left unnumbered. The Hebrew names,English translations, and interpretations of thesefiroth are summarized for quick reference inAppendix 1.8

The Kabbalah also provided a guide to spiri-tual development, inviting seekers to explorethe nature of Divinity and its creation as wellas the higher reaches of the human psyche.The Sefer Yetzirah discussed 32 paths, ornetivoth (singular: nativ, bytn), to God. Ten ofthose paths corresponded to the sefiroth,while the remaining 22, each identified by aletter in the Hebrew alphabet, became identi-fied with the relationships among them. Thenetivoth offered seekers distinctive spiritualchallenges and opportunities.

Finally, and not incidentally, forms of experi-ential Kabbalah emerged that focused on thenames of God and the names of angels andarchangels related to the sefiroth. Invocationof the divine names offered the potential forecstatic mysticism and also for the acquisitionof occult powers. Magic was not a major fea-ture of the medieval Judaic Kabbalah, but itwas not neglected either.9

Later Developments

The modern Judaic Kabbalah owes a great deal

to the work of a community of 16th-centuryJewish scholars who settled in Safed (Tzafed),Galilee, traditional burial site of the second-century rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, mentionedin theZohar.10

Preeminent among the Safed scholars wereMoses ben Jacob Cordovero (15221570) andIsaac ben Solomon Luria (15341572). Theformer was a Spanish migr, one of tens ofthousands of Jews expelled from Spain in1492, while the latter was born in Palestine of

German parents. Cordovero and Luria pro-posed alternative versions of the Tree of Life,providing a new understanding of geometricrelationships among the sefiroth. Their workdrew attention to the rich symbolism of polari-ties which is so much a feature of modernKabbalistic study.

The Safed school also promoted belief in aprimeval cosmic catastrophe in which the sefi-


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roth were shattered by influx of the divineforce. That catastrophe is referred to as thebreaking of the vessels.11 God had to repairthe sefiroth in order for the universe to comeinto permanent manifestation; but the damagehad longer-lasting implications. Shards of

the broken vessels, each of which contained adivine spark, were scattered throughout theworld, and devout Jews are responsible forgathering the shards to reestablish divine or-der.12

Bridge toChristian Europe

he Kabbalah came to the attention ofwestern Christian scholars through several

channels. Important Kabbalistic schools had

been established in Moorish Spain and inProvence in the south of France. The Proven-al scholar and mystic Isaac the Blind (c.11601235) compiled and edited theBahirand theSefer Yetzirah. Moses de Leon (12501305),who lived in Castile, compiled theZoharandadded extensive commentary. The newlyavailable books, written in Hebrew or Ara-maic,13 soon became available to Christianscholars.

Also, Jewish scholars were dispersed through-out Europe as a result of the general Diaspora

which had been in progress for centuries,14 andcontact with Christian scholars was almost in-evitable. Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia(1240c.1295) whose studies included Kab-balah, philosophy, linguistics and numerologywas born in Saragosa, Spain, but traveledwidely throughout the Mediterranean region,including Rome. He became fascinated withgematria15 and with permutations of letters inthe divine names, particularly the unutterableTetragrammaton, hwhy.16 Ben Abulafia con-tributed much to the development of the ec-

static mystical Kabbalah.17 We shall see laterthat he narrowly escaped execution by theCatholic Church.

The Italian rabbi Menahem ben Benjamin Re-canati whose life spanned the end of the 13thcentury and the early part of the 14th devoted amajor part of his work to the Kabbalah. Twocenturies later, the Jewish humanist scholarYohanan Alemanno (c.14351505), who set-

tled in Florence, combined Hebraic and Kab-balistic studies with interests in Neoplatonismand magic.

Figure 1. Petrus AlphonsisGlyph of the Trinity

Many Jewish scholars converted to Christian-ity and incorporated esoteric Jewish teachingsinto their new faith.18 For example, MosesSephardi (10621110) was baptized in 1106and took the new name Petrus Alphonsi. Bornin Aragon, he eventually moved to Englandand may have served as a court physician to

King Henry I. Petrus created a glyph relatingthe Tetragrammaton to the Christian trinity(Figure 1), a forerunner of the Tree of Lifeconstructed five centuries later. Another con-vert to Christianity was Samuel ben NissimAbulfaraj, an Italian Jewish humanist scholarwho resided in Florence and wrote under thepseudonym Flavius Mithridates. He is bestknown for his Latin translations of 3,500 pagesof Hebrew mystical works, including theBib-lioteca Cabbalistica, a large compilation ofKabbalistic literature. Yet another convert wasDactylus Hebraeus; he was mentioned by Gio-vanni Pico, whose work will be discussedshortly, but we know little else about him.

As the Byzantine Empire went into decline,many Eastern Orthodox scholars came to thewest, bringing with them collections of raremanuscripts in Greek, Hebrew and Arabic.Wealthy patrons of Renaissance scholarshipsent emissaries in search of additional manu-

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scripts to stock their libraries. Among thosemanuscripts were Greek classics, currentlyunknown in the west. It should be remem-bered that Latin had long been the sole lan-guage of scholarly discourse in the west, andfew western scholars understood Greek; even

fewer could read the Semitic languages.Other manuscripts addressed Kabbalistic orHermetic topics.19 Hermeticism had a lineagedistinct from that of the Kabbalah, although itis possible to argue that they had a commonorigin in prehistory. In any event, the Her-meticism we know was a body of philosophi-cal, alchemical, magical and astrological teach-ings of Egyptian, Persian, and possibly Chal-dean origin. The term Hermeticism reflecteda common belief that it represented the secretteachings of Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-Great Hermes), revered as father of OccultWisdom; the founder of Astrology; the discov-erer of Alchemy.20 At the time of the Renais-sance, that Hermesa conflation of the Egyp-tian Thoth, the Greek Hermes, and the RomanMercurywas thought to have been a real per-son from remote antiquity.21 Whatever theteachings real origin may have been, the ex-tant Hermetic texts are now thought to havebeen written in the early centuries of theCommon Era. Hermeticism, even more thanthe Kabbalah, overlapped with Neoplatonicand Gnostic thought.

Christian Kabbalistsof the Renaissance

he Christian Kabbalah first took definiteform in the 15th century, in the city-state

of Florence in northern Italy. It was one of anumber of exciting new fields of interest inthe Florentine Renaissance. Others were Neo-platonism, which would reinforce the Helleniccontent of the Kabbalah, and Hermeticism.

When a mid-15th-century Florentine pro-claimed mi pare renascere (I seem to bereborn), he gave birth to the term Renais-sance by which we refer to the cultural andintellectual rebirth that had begun a few dec-ades earlier.22 It was driven by a dream of re-covering the greatness of classical Greece andRome, together with an economic boom that

offered hope that the dream might be fulfilled.The new wealth enabled leading families tosupport scholarship and the arts. Foremostamong those families were the Medicis, par-ticularly the three generations consisting ofCosimo de Medici (13891464), hailed by his

fellow citizens as Pater Patriae (Father of theFatherland); his sickly son Piero; and hisgrandson Lorenzo, the Magnificent.

Italian Scholars

Among many other endeavors, the Medicisestablished a library that soon became the larg-est in the world since the destruction of thePtolemaic library in Alexandria. Dispatchedby Lorenzo on just one of his book-buyingsprees, Giovanni Lascaris returned from theeast with more than 200 ancient manuscripts.23

The librarys collection became a treasuretrove of religious, philosophical and esotericmanuscripts that attracted leading scholars toFlorence. Moreover, the broad range of lan-guages in which they were written stimulatedlinguistic studies. The Vatican Library inRome, though smaller at that time, also grewrapidly in size. The library of Eugenius IV inthe first half of the fifteenth century contained340 books but by the time Nicolas V died in1455 there were almost twelve hundred vol-umes.24 By 1484 the collection had expanded

to 3,600 volumes, of which 1,000 were inGreek.

In 1438 representatives from the eastern andwestern churches met at Ferrara, near Bologna,to try to heal the Great Schism of 1054. Later,Pope Eugenius moved the meeting to Florence,and now it is customarily known as the Coun-cil of Florence. Deliberations continued until1445.25 A prominent member of the Orthodoxcontingent was the Greek philosopher and eso-tericist Georgius Gemistos, also known as Ple-thon. Gemistos had studied at the IslamicSchool of Theology at Brusa, in northwesternTurkey, and was an authority on Zoroaster andPlato. He also promoted an esoteric version ofChristianity with Neoplatonic leanings. Hislectures in Florence attracted the attention ofCosimo de Medici, and he was persuaded toremain in Florence after the council con-cluded.26

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In addition to the library, Cosimo de Medicifounded theAccademia Fiorentina o Societa diEloquenza, or Florentine Academy or Societyfor Eloquence, in 1541.27 The Academy com-peted, but also contrasted, with great centers oflearning like the Universities of Paris and Co-

logne. Whereas the latter preserved the Aristo-telian mindset of 13th-century scholasticism,the Florentine Academy saw a return to Platoas its guiding influence; indeed the Academywas viewed as a recreation of Platos school inAthens. The Academy acquired a well-deserved reputation forthe study of Greek,whereas the Universityof Padua, which theMedicis also founded,focused on Latin stud-

ies. Study of Plato andNeoplatonism was ac-companied by a syn-thesis of ideas fromother exoteric and eso-teric sources. The lat-ter took on a specialmystique because of awidely held belief dur-ing the Renaissancethat wisdom came fromthe east, perhaps from

sources predating bothHebrew and Greek tra-ditions.28 The notionthatMatthews threewise men came fromthe east played intothat belief.

Priest and scholar Mar-silio Ficino (14331499) was appointed headof the Florentine Academy and in due coursewas chosen by Piero de Medici to tutor hisson Lorenzo.29 Ficino set out to translate theentire works of Plato into Latin, but for a whilehe was reassigned to translate the Corpus Her-meticum from its original Greek. The 15-17treatises of the Corpus had already been com-piled into a single volume by Byzantine edi-tors. Ficinos translation was published in1463 and reprinted more than 20 times overthe next 150 years. Like most of his contem-poraries, Ficino believed that the Corpus Her-

meticum had been written by a real, very an-cient, Hermes Trismegistus.

Ficinos most famous student, Giovanni Picodella Mirandola (14631494), is regarded asthe first true Christian Kabbalist. Born into a

noble family, he was an intellectual prodigywho studied in Padua and Rome before mov-ing to Florence.30 He became one of the mostinfluential scholars of the early Renaissance.Estimates that Pico knew 22 languages31 mayhave been colored by the esoteric significanceof that numberfor instance, there are 22 let-

ters in the Hebrew al-phabetbut we doknow that he was tu-tored in Hebrew andAramaic by Samuelben Nissim Abulfarajand Yohanan Ale-manno.32 Pico ac-cepted the claims ofJewish mystics that theKabbalah representedan unbroken oral tradi-tion dating back atleast to Moses andMount Sinai. At theyoung age of 24 hedrew up a list of 900theses, orconclu-siones, on philosophy,the Kabbalah, magicand theology33 andchallenged anyone to adebate on their meritsbefore a papal audi-ence. In an accompa-nying Oration on the

Dignity of Man, Pico defended his bold chal-lenge:

[I] have dared to offer a disputation con-

cerning the lofty mysteries of Christian the-ology, the highest topics of philosophy andunfamiliar branches of knowledge, in sofamous a city, before so great an assemblyof very learned men, in the presence of theapostolic senate.34

The debate never took place, but the effect oncontemporary thought was profound. Hiswork stimulated interest in the Kabbalah and

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

(14631494), is regarded as the

first true Christian Kabbalist.

Born into a noble family, hebecame one of the most influ-

ential scholars of the early

Renaissance Pico accepted

the claims of Jewish mystics

that the Kabbalah represented

an unbroken oral tradition

dating back at least to Moses

and Mount Sinai His work

stimulated interest in theKabbalah and other aspects of

Judaism throughout Christian

Europe.


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more generally in Hebraic studies throughoutChristian Europe. One of Picos best-knownlater works, dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici,wasHeptaplus, a sevenfold cosmologicalcommentary on Genesis. He insisted that theKabbalah contained the keys to Hermeticism,

but his interest was purely theoretical. Piconever practiced magic, and he denounced theuse of astrology for purposes of divination.35

Pope Sixtus IV (reigned 14711484) is allegedto have supported Kabbalistic studies.36 Butthe highest-ranking churchmen to take a directinterest was probably Cardinal Egidio Antoninida Viterbo (c.14651532). Egidio was prior-general of the Augustinian Order and, later,Latin patriarch of Constantinople. A humanistscholar, he believed that Hebrew was the onlytrue sacred language and searched the Hebrewscriptures for hidden meanings.37 Egidio wasproficient in several other ancient languagesand studied the Quran in the original Arabic.In 1525 the Venetian Franciscan friar Fran-cesco Giorgi Veneto (14661540), also knownas Zorzi, wrote the influential bookOn theHarmony of the Universeand dedicated theworkto Pope Clement VII. Giorgis book pre-sented a comprehensive picture of creation,drawing upon Kabbalistic, Hermetic and Pla-tonic concepts.

Germany and BeyondThe study of Jewish esotericism soon spreadbeyond northern Italy. Johann Reuchlin(14551522), one of the first Christian Kabbal-ists outside Italy, was born at Pforzheim in theBlack Forest region of Germany. Reuchlinmet Giovanni Pico during a visit to Florencebut studied Greek and Hebrew under leadingscholars at Basel and Paris. In due courseReuchlin taught at the University of Tbingen,and his reputation attracted students from allparts of the Holy Roman Empire. At the timeit was customary for German students to go toFlorence for post-graduate studies. MarsilioFicino paid tribute to the quality of Reuchlinsstudents: The German youth who visit theacademy of Florence come as well furnished asothers leave it. Reuchlins growing masteryof Kabbalah led to the publication ofDe ArteCabalistica (On the Art of the Kabbalah) in1517.

Several prominent Kabbalists were diplomats.The German diplomat, humanist and philolo-gist Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter (15061557) had studied at Tbingen. Some of hisKabbalistic writings appeared under the pseu-donym Lucretius. Widmannstetters close

contemporary Guillaume Postel (15101581)was a French diplomat and linguist. Sent as aninterpreter by King Francis I to the French em-bassy to the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Mag-nificent in Constantinople, Postel gatheredEastern manuscripts for the royal library. Formany years he worked to translate theBahir,the Sefer Yetzirah, and theZoharinto Latin,and his translations were finally published in1552.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim(14861535) was a German government offi-cial, military strategist, and court physician.He was also a Catholic theologian, philoso-pher, and occultist. Agrippa was one of thefirst writers to note similarities between Kab-balistic teachings and Gnosticism, suggestingthat the latter was influenced by earlier esotericJudaism.38

None of the individuals mentioned so far bene-fited from the far-reaching work of the Safedscholars. However the Safed work becameavailable to later Christian Kabbalists, who

included several Protestants.39

One was theLutheran Jakob Bhme (15751624) who wasborn in Grlitz, Silesia. On Trinity Sunday1600 he had a spiritual experience thatlaunched him onto a lifelong quest forgnosis.Bhme found himself part of a group devotedto the work of the German-Swiss physicianand alchemist Paracelsus. Bhmes formaleducation may have been limited, but he be-came interested in medicine, the Kabbalah, andthe Hermetic arts. He may also have read theworks of the Dominican friar Meister Eckhart

(c.1260c.1328) with whom he shared impor-tant beliefs. Bhme had little interest in pro-moting his ideas, and records of his studieswere kept mainly for personal reference. Thebooks we have were compiled and publishedby his followers, in some cases without hisknowledge or consent. However several longletters to friends have survived.


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Another Protestant Kabbalist was ChristianKnorr von Rosenroth (16311689). Also fromSilesia, he was influenced by Bhme. VonRosenroth studied at the universities of Wit-tenberg and Leipzig and traveled through Hol-land, France, and England. He became a re-

spected student of Oriental languages, espe-cially Hebrew. Von Rosenroth planned to pre-pare a new Latin translation of theZoharbutinstead published the four-volume KabbalahUnveiled(16781684).40 Among other thingsit offered a depiction of the Tree of Life thatdrew heavily on the Safed work (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Von RosenrothsTree of Li fe

Yet another 17th-century German of interest,this time a Jesuit priest, was AthanasiusKirchner (16021680). Kirchner studied top-ics ranging from geology and medicine to Si-nology. He also became an early Egyptologist.Those studies persuaded him that Adam andEve spoke the Egyptian language and thatHermes Trismegistus was none other than theOld Testament Moses. In hisEgyptian Oedi-pus, published in 1653, Kirchner reproduced aTree of Life that closely resembled the oneproposed by the Safed scholar Moses Cor-dovero.

Several other individuals are often cited asKabbalists of the period, including Paracelsus(14931541), John Dee (15271608), RobertFludd (15741637), and Thomas Vaughan(16221666). Those individuals did indeedoccasionally cite classical Kabbalistic texts or

the writings of Renaissance Kabbalists, buttheir primary interest was alchemy or magic.They added little to the Kabbalah as a systemof theology and mysticism and in some casesconfused their followers as to its true intent.Neoplatonic and Hermetic influence on theKabbalah and Hermeticism increased as thesynthesis of systems of thought increasedthroughout the Renaissance. Attempts havebeen made to discern a new field of HermeticKabbalah but there is scant continuity be-tween it and the medieval Judaic Kabbalah.

Topics of Interest

udaic Kabbalah was never a unified systemof mysticism, occultism or philosophy; the

various teachers shared personal insights andperspectives. As in many areas of esotericism,multiple descriptions can be formulated to cap-ture a reality which transcends the rationalmind. The most that we find is a distinctivemindset enshrined in classical texts and a set ofconcepts relating primarily to the cascadingemanation of divine force in delicately bal-anced polarities. Corresponding polarities inthe human constitution are implied.

Nor would it be realistic to look for a high de-gree of coherence within the Christian Kab-balah. Nevertheless certain recurring themesor topics of interest were addressed by promi-nent western scholars.

Perennial Wisdom

Christian scholars explored the Kabbalah andother ancient esoteric traditions in the hope of

discovering the timeless foundations of allworld religions. That hope led to an earlyform of what, today, we would call ecumen-ism. A number of scholars of the periodshared the dream of finding an all-embracingtheology that could unify Judaism, Christianityand Islamperhaps even paganism. Christi-anity was already viewed as an outgrowth andfulfillment of Judaism, and Islam claimed to be

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teachings almost guaranteed that other Chris-tian scholars would find similar notions ofemanation appealing.

One was Jakob Bhme, who was influencedboth by Eckhart and by the Kabbalah. He was

fascinated by the passage inJohn: [T]he lightshineth in darkness; and the darkness compre-hended it not,48 and he interpreted it to meanthat the Godhead is unknowable but immanent.He referred to the Godhead as the Ungrund,the Void.49 Bhme also argued that theGodhead emanates first as a trinity and then asa septenary, foreshadowing modern esotericteachings on the sevenrays.50 In the SeferYetzirah, emanation inThree and then inSeven was relatedsymbolically to thethree mother lettersand seven doubleletters in the Hebrewalphabet.51 FranoisMercure van Helmont(16181699), physi-cian to the Electress ofPfalz and acquaintanceof Gottfried Leibniz,identified the sevenlower sefiroth with theSeven Spirits beforethe Throne mentionedinRevelation.52

As noted earlier, JudaicKabbalists attached considerable importance tothe names of God for either mystical or occultpurposes. Johann Reuchlin noted that the He-brew name of Jesus, Yehoshuah (hw#hy) wasformed by the insertion of the lettershin (#) atthe midpoint of the Tetragrammaton, the unut-terable name of God. Reuchlin proceeded to

suggest that God had revealed himself in threestages, each of which corresponded to a par-ticular divine name. During the world epochwhich began with Abraham, God revealedhimself through the three-letter name Shaddai(yd#). In the second epoch, ushered in byMoses, he revealed himself through the four-letter Tetragrammaton (hwhy). In the present,messianic epoch, initiated by Jesus Christ, he

reveals himself through the five-letter nameYehoshuah (hw#hy).53 By completing the di-vine name, Jesus fulfilled and extended theJewish covenant.

Reuchlin noted further that shin is one of the

three mother letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Itwas significant, he argued, that, in the messi-anic epoch, God had incarnated through awoman. The very name Jesus captured insymbolic form the doctrine of the virgin birth.In due course the name of Jesus, long consid-ered of devotional value, took on occult power.The 17th-century Franciscan friar Chrysosto-

mus Capranica sug-gested that the emperorFerdinand II invoke thepowerful name Yeho-

shuah to ensure successin a military campaignagainst the Turks.54

Christian Kabbalistsidentified the sefirahTifareth with JesusChrist. Just as Tifarethserved as the mediatorbetween KetherandMalkuth, Christ was theLogos, the restorer ofharmony after the fall of

Adam.55 The divineessence poured down onhumanity throughChrist. In response, wemust seek reunion with

God through Christ. Humanity might be es-tranged from God, but it was still potentiallydivine and capable of a different kind of re-demption from the one customarily taught bythe church. That alternative view of redemp-tion had much in common with the EasternOrthodox notion oftheosis, or deification.

In the west, Meister Eckhart had also foundthat concept appealing.56

Polarities

The power of the Kabbalah to model both thejuxtaposition and the resolution of polaritieswas an evocative concept, and an importantpolarity was gender. For example, Tifarethsposition in the Tree of Life, intermediate be-

Emergence of the Christian

Kabbalah was a tribute to

timeless and universalvaluetheological, cosmo-

logical, social and psychologi-

calof its Judaic antecedent.

It was also a tribute to the vi-

sion of Renaissance scholars

who recognized the Kab-

balahs potential to describe

and explore Christian beliefs

about God, the universe, soci-ety and the individual.


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tween KetherandMalkuth/Shekinah was en-tirely consistent with the notion that Christ wasborn from the Father and the woman.

Guillaume Postel took the notion of genderpolarity a stage further by proposing, as some

Gnostics had done many centuries earlier, thatGod manifested in both masculine and femi-nine form. Over time Postels belief acquiredmore than theoretical interest. In 1547 he meta Venetian prophetess named Joanna, whom hebelieved to be an incarnation of Christ.57 Pos-tel is quoted as saying: The Word has beenmade man, but the world will only be savedwhen the Word shall be made woman.58

The human and cosmic aspects of gender alsofascinated Jakob Bhme : [T]he masculineprinciple is predominantly anthropomorphic

and creative, whereas the feminine principle ispredominantly cosmic and birth-giving.59Echoing a theory usually attributed to PlatosAristophanes, Bhme asserted that Adam ini-tially was androgynous and virginal.60 Thatvirginity was embodied in Sophia: not a fe-male, but a chasteness and purity without ablemish.61 Sophia was the direct Greekequivalent of the Hebrew Chokmah.62 Adamlost his primeval virginity through the fall, andSophias place was taken by his earthly com-panion Eve. Thereafter, according to Bhme,

man remained in an incomplete state, yearningfor his primeval wholeness. The solution laynot in withdrawal into ascetic celibacy, as thechurch urged, but in a spiritual reunion of themasculine and feminine; through woman mancould once again find his primeval Sophia.63Masculine-feminine tension might be thesource of much suffering, but it provided anenvironment in which our spiritual potentialcould be realized.

Another polarity explored in the Kabbalah wasgood and evil.64 Kabbalistic teachings took amore sensitive attitude to that polarity than didorthodox Christianity.65 Kabbalists viewedmorality less as an absolute than as a questionof balance between pairs of opposites. Certainactions produce imbalance and call for com-plementary actions to restore balance. For ex-ample, severity, represented by the sefirah Ge-burah, needs to be balanced by kindness andgenerosity, represented by Chesed/Gedulah;

otherwise it harms the actor as well as others.On the other hand, excessive generosity mayneed to be balanced by prudent withholding ofbounty so that recipients can develop a senseof values. The resolution of opposites wouldbe illustrated well in Edmund Spensers FaerieQueene by Dame Concord and her twin sonsLove and Hate.66

Response fromInstitutional Christianity

Anti-Semitism, never totally absent amongmedieval Christians, increased in intensity af-ter the First Crusade. Persecution of Jews be-came common during the Renaissance and thecenturies that followed. Jewish Kabbalistsfaired no better than other Jews. Abraham ben

Samuel Abulafia, traveled to Suriano in thehope of meeting Pope Nicholas III who wasresiding there. Abraham was unaware thatorders had been issued to burn him at the stakeupon his arrival. Fortunately for him, the popedied that very day. Returning to Rome, Abra-ham was arrested but was released four weekslater. He died in exile in Malta sometime after1291.

Christian Kabbalistic studies represented aninterest in Judaism that contrasted uneasilywith the prevailing anti-Semitism. Despite the

involvement of monks, priests, cardinals, andeven a pope, the church viewed such studies,Christianized or otherwise, with considerablesuspicion, and official responses were ambiva-lent.

On the one hand there was a sense that interestin Jewish studies might help win Jews toChristianity. As we have seen many Jewishscholars did convert to Christianity,67 and theirexpertise was viewed as useful for evangelicaland, more importantly, polemical purposes.

Converts from Judaism were often appointedto debate religion with practicing Jews, al-though the disputations typically took theform of tribunals targeting the Jewish popula-tions of European cities.68 Lifelong Christianslike Giovanni Pico, Egidio da Viterbo, andJohann Reuchlin, who engaged in serious stud-ies of Judaism could help in similar ways, at-tempting to undermine Jews resistance toconversion. On the other, there was fear that


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Jewish studies, particularly Kabbalistic studieswhich impacted on major areas of doctrine,might be a Trojan horse that could under-mine Christian faith.69 Christian students ofKabbalah might be tempted to convert to Juda-ism or persuade others to do so.

Marsilio Ficinos interest in Hermeticism ledto accusations of heresy by the church, and hewas forced to mount a strong defense of hisorthodoxy. His student Giovanni Pico wasalso questioned by the Inquisition. DespitePicos assurances that that Neoplatonism andHermeticism were fully consistent with Chris-tian doctrine, 13 of his Theses were con-demned as heretical. After fleeing to France,Pico was eventually allowed to return to Flor-ence and was placed in the custody of theMedicis. He died at the early age of 31, poi-soned, according to some allegations, by hisown secretary. Picos funeral oration wasgiven by the controversial monk and reformerGirolamo Savonarola.

Johann Reuchlin had dedicatedDe Arte Ca-balistica to Pope Leo X. But that gesture didnot insulate him from ecclesiastical disfavor.When the inquisitors of Cologne proposed toburn all Jewish books in the Holy Roman Em-pire, Reuchlin sought to stop them, arguingthat the books were a sacred and intellectual

heritage. Angered by that opposition, the In-quisition sent Reuchlin to Rome and, despiteCardinal Egidios support, he was fined forheresy. Later, like Martin Luther, Reuchlinsecured the protection of a German prince.Reuchlin supported the Reformation cause,and Philipp Melachthon, Desideratus Erasmus,and Luther all came to him for instruction. Heis often referred to as the Father of the Ref-ormation.

During Cornelius Agrippas tempestuous ca-reer, he was denounced by secular and ecclesi-astical authorities throughout Europe and even-tually was condemned as a heretic. Amongmuch else, his assertion of links between theKabbalah and Gnosticism could scarcely beexpected to win friends in ecclesiastical circleswhere the church fathers diatribes againstGnosticism were often cited. Under pressurefrom the Inquisition, Agrippa was forced torenounce the study of magic and spent the last

years of his life in quiet piety. He died in 1535in Grenoble, France.

Guillaume Postels books were placed on theIndex of Prohibited Books in 1555. When heappeared before the Inquisition to defend his

views, he was judged to be insane rather thanheretical. Notwithstanding, he was imprisonedin Rome for four years.70 Upon release whenPope Paul IV died, he returned to France andcontinued to preach, only to be placed underhouse arrest by the Parlement in Paris for dis-turbing the peace. Postel spent the last elevenyears of his life in the monastery of St. Martindes Champs and died there in 1581.

The outspoken Giordano Bruno, whose diplo-matic skills never matched his intellectualgifts, became a major target of the institutional

church. In a terrible reenactment of the be-trayal of Jan Hus by the Council of Constance,Bruno was lured to Rome on a promise of safeconduct and burned at the stake in 1600.71More fortunate was the English poet JohnDonne (15721631), yet another man who be-lieved that the Kabbalah offered a way to rec-oncile Judaism and Christianity.72 Born aCatholic, he avoided persecution in Elizabe-than England by converting to Anglicanism,whereupon he was appointed Dean of St PaulsCathedral.

Jakob Bhme always considered himself a de-vout Lutheran, but he was critical of institu-tional Christianity and its warring sects, com-paring them to Babel and the Antichrist.73Bhmes anticlericalism and unconventionaltheological views drew continual fire fromchurch authorities. Silenced for several years,he began writing again in secrecy. His neme-sis, the chief pastor of Grlitz, Gregory Rich-ter, denounced Bhme from the pulpit and in-flamed public opinion against him. On hisdeathbed Bhme is reported to have said NowI go hence into Paradise.74 But his grave wasdesecrated by a mob.

Not surprisingly, the church took a dim viewof any attempt to erode the doctrine of evil. Toreduce the response to evil to the resolution ofpairs of opposites flew in the face of orthodoxmoral theology and threatened to underminethe power over peoples lives that the churchderived from belief in sin, judgment and hell.


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The ChristianKabbalistic Heritage

mergence of the Christian Kabbalah was atribute to the timeless and universal

valuetheological, cosmological, social and

psychologicalof its Judaic antecedent. Notinsignificantly, that antecedent developed pri-marily from Sephardic Judaism. Why, onemight ask, given what we know of subsequentevents, did not medieval Christian Europe pro-vide as fertile an environment as the Muslimworld for the development of the Judaic Kab-balah? The answer may lie in the vibrancy ofIslamic civilization as much as in the climateof tolerance it fostered.75

Nevertheless, Kabbalistic teachings found their

way into Christian Europe early in the Renais-sance. And great credit is due to the vision ofscholars of the time who recognized the Kab-balahs potential to describe and elucidateChristian beliefs about God, the universe, soci-ety and the individual. On the other hand, wemight note that the Christian Kabbalah differedfrom its medieval Judaic antecedent in its al-most-complete dependence on written textsrather than the oral tradition of generations ofrabbinic teachers. To that extent, use of thevery term Kabbalah becomes questionable.

Be that as it may, if we look for a man whosecontribution to the Christian Kabbalah waspivotal, he would have to be Giovanni Picodella Mirandola. In addition to popularizingthe study of Hebraic texts, which wouldbroaden the focus of Christian scholarship be-yond what it had been in medieval times, hegave Kabbalistic studies legitimacy in Chris-tian circles. Furthermore, he promoted theview that, by use of the intellect, man couldascend the chain of beingor perhaps weshould say the Tree of Lifeand approach the

angelic realm, even the divine realm. Neglectof the intellect, by contrast, reduced man to avegetative or animal level.

Despite the enthusiasm of Pico and the otherscholars we have discussed, the Christian Kab-balah never became part of mainstream Chris-tianity beliefs or practices. Interest was con-fined to a handful of intellectuals, mystics, andeccentric churchmen. Ironically, the synthesis

of Kabbalah and Hermeticism, which helpedgenerate interest in the Kabbalah early in theRenaissance, discredited it in the eyes of eccle-siastical authorities and increased suspicious ofanything with occult associations. Many lead-ing scholars were persecuted or even executed

for their involvement.Nor was the contribution of leading ChristianKabbalists always recognized in their owntime. Jakob Bhmes importance was onlyacknowledged several decades after his death,when his work inspired the Philadelphian So-ciety, an esoteric group formed in England in1670.76 Eventually Bhmes work would in-fluence Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)77 andpsychologist Carl Gustav Jung (18751961).Bhme was also held in high regard in 19th-century Russia, where mystics and even ordi-nary people referred to him as the holy JakobBhme among our fathers.78

In England Kabbalistic teachings influencedthe Cambridge Platonists, a group of academictheologians that included Benjamin Whichcote(16091683), Henry More (16141687), andCountess Anne Conway (16301679). In turn,their work as well as Bhmes influenced theartist and writer William Blake (17571827).79

In France, esoteric studies continued in theMartinist movement, named after LouisClaude de Saint-Martin (17431803). Saint-Martin and his teacher, Martinez de Pasquallywere both influenced by Kabbalism. An inter-esting insight shared by the Martinists wasChrists role as the repairer of humanity.Their perspective on redemption echoed theSafed Kabbalists assertion that God had torepair the world after the primeval catastro-phe.80 On the other hand, Christianity waslukewarm to suggestions that humanity mightparticipate in the redemptive act; indeed theProtestant reformers insisted that man is totallydependent on divine grace for salvation.81

The early 17th-century Rosicrucian movementwas influenced by both Kabbalistic and Her-metic teachings. In turn, Rosicrucianism in-fluenced Freemasonry and 19th-century oc-cultism. French occultism eventually blos-somed in the work of liphas Levi and Papus,while the most visible expression of British

E


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occultism was the Hermetic Society of theGolden Dawn.82

Meanwhile, interest in the Kabbalistic studydeclined in Jewish circles. An important rea-son was its association with the Sabbatean fi-

asco. In the 1660s, the charismatic but psy-chologically unstable Sabbatai Zevi (16261676) proclaimed himself the messiah and at-tracted popular support throughout the Jewishworld. Zevi himself had no particular leaningstoward the Kabbalah, but a leading supporter,Nathan of Gaza, used Kabbalistic teachings tobolster Zevis claims. When Zevi converted toIslam to escape execution by the Turkish sul-tan, the movement collapsed.83 The JudaicKabbalah was tainted, and serious study re-mained muted until the 20th century.

A more general reason for the decline in JudaicKabbalah was a perception on the part of rab-binic scholars that the Kabbalah had becomecontaminated by Hermeticism and Christian-ized. In particular, efforts based on Kabbalis-tic concepts to synthesize Jewish and Christianthought were opposed as strongly by Jewishauthorities as by Christian ecclesiastical au-thorities.

However the work of Christian Kabbalists wasnot totally rejected. That of the German phi-losopher Franz Josef Molitor (17791860) haswon admiration from Jewish historians. Theprominent Jewish scholar Gershom Scholemjudged his work to be far superior to that ofmost Jewish scholars of his time.84 Of Ger-man birth, Scholem emigrated to Jerusalembefore World War II.85 More than any otherindividual, he was responsible for the revivalof interest in the Kabbalah in Jewish circles.Now a broadly based Kabbalistic revival is inprogress in Israel, the United States, and else-where.

1 Sephardic refers to Judaic traditions that de-veloped within the Muslim Empire from theseventh century onward. It contrasts with Ash-kenazic Judaism that developed in ChristianGermany and later spread to eastern Europe.

2 See for example: Dion Fortune. The MysticalQabalah, revised edition. Weiser Books, 1935.

Arthur E. Waite. The Holy Kabbalah. CitadelPress, (undated, 1929?). Gershom Scholem.Kabbalah. Meridian Books, 1974. LeonoraLeet. The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah. In-ner Traditions, 1999.

3 Alternative forms are Qabalah, the more di-rect transliteration of the Hebrew, and the Lati-nized Cabala. This last was often used inconnection with the Christian Kabbalah.

4 The term metaphysics was actually coined byAristotle, who did not form part of that tradi-tion; however the term is a convenient short-hand for the mystically oriented philosophy thatstretched from Pythagoras to the third-centuryCE Neoplatonists.

5 The origins of all three books are disputed.Legends trace the books back to the first centu-ries of the Common Era, while secular academ-

ics typically attribute authorship to Isaac theBlind and Moses of Leon themselves. Contro-versy over the authorship of theZoharexistedeven during Moses de Leons lifetime.

6 Sefirah has three roots: sefer(rps, text), sefar(rps, number), and sippur(rwpys,telling).See: Aryeh Kaplan. Sefer Yetzirah: the Book ofCreation. Weiser, 1997, pp. 19-20.

7 TheAin Soph can be compared with the HinduBrahman. In more detail, the Godhead was saidto be hidden by three veils, theAin (Ny), Ul-timate), theAin Soph (Pws Ny), Limitless),and theAin Soph Aur(rw) Pws Ny), Infinite

Light).8 The sefirothic names were common Hebrewwords, and all are foundoccasionally inevocative combinations suggesting early knowl-edge of Kabbalistic symbolismin the HebrewBible. See for example: 1Chronicles 29:11;Proverbs 2:2-6; and Proverbs 9:10.

9 Magic was practiced among the Chasidim of12th- and 13th-century Germany. And a num-

ber of Italian Jews became interested in magicin the 15th century. The rabbi Meir ibn Gabbay(1480c.1540) emerged as a leading theurgicKabbalist in Turkey. See for example: Moshe

Idel. Kabbalah: New Perspectives. Yale Univ.Press, 1988, pp. 175ff.10 Shimon bar Yockai is often claimed to have

dictated theZoharto a student while hiding in acave after being condemned to death by Romanauthorities.

11 See for example, Raphael Afilalo (ed.). TheKabbalah of the Ari Zal according to the Ram-

hal. Kabbalah Editions, 2004, pp. 41-58.


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41 Introduction to Johann Reuchlin. On the Art of

the Kabbalah. (Transl: Martin Goodman &Sarah Goodman.) Univ. of Nebraska Press,1993, p. 18.

42 Richard H. Popkin. Jewish Christians and

Christian Jews: from the Renaissance to theEnlightenment. Springer, 1994, p. 17.

43 Ambrose Serle. Essays Upon Some RemarkableNames and Titles of Jesus Christ, 1799. Quotedin: Hirst. Hidden Riches, pp. 282-283. A trinitycan be extracted from the tree of life in morethan one way, all of them revealing importantcorrespondences, but none completely satisfy-ing in its symbolism. See: John Nash. TheTrinity and Its Symbolism. Esoteric Quar-terly, Spring 2005, pp. 33-46.

44 InExodus 31:3 the Lord said I have filled himwith the spirit of God, in wisdom [chokmah],

and in understanding [tabun], and in knowledge[daath].45 For a discussion of the Shekinahs role in Jew-

ish mysticism see: John Nash. The Shekinah:the Indwelling Glory of God. Esoteric Quar-terly, Summer 2005, pp. 33-40.

46 In Christian theology God the Father plays thede-facto role of a Godhead, with the unfortunateimplication that the highest level of divinity ismale.

47 Meister Eckhart. Sermon 5:How All Creatures.Matthew Fox (ed.). Passion for Creation. In-ner Traditions, 1980/2000, p. 93.

48 John 1:5.49 A similar notion was promoted by the 20th-

century Protestant theologian Paul Tillich.50 Jakob Bhme. Four Tables of Divine Revela-

tion. London, 1654. Robin Waterfield (ed.).Jacob Boehme. North Atlantic Books, 2001,pp. 214-217.

51 Sefer Yetzirah 1:10. See for example, AryehKaplan. Sefer Yetzirah: the Book of Creation.Weiser, 1997, pp. 7, 250-254, 262. The remain-ing twelve single letters correspond to thenext stage of differentiation discussed in theesoteric literature: the 12 signs of the zodiac.The increasing complexity of manifestation is

represented by the series: 13712... Notethat 7 = 3 + 4, while 12 = 3 x 4.

52 Revelation 1:4.53 Reuchlins arguments were presented in his

bookDe Verbo Mirifico (On the MiraculousWord). See, for example: Scholem, Kab-balah, p. 198. Also, see the Introduction to Onthe Art of the Kabbalah by Martin Goodman &Sarah Goodman. Univ. of Nebraska Press,1993, pp. xix-xxi.

54 Ken Gewertz. Mystical Encounters. HarvardGazette Archives, March 1996.

55 It should be noted that originallyLogos con-noted mediator or bringer of harmony. In-terpretation as the Word was a late develop-

ment, popularized by the 17th-century KingJames Bible.

56 Eckhart, Sermon 5, p. 93.57 Yvonne Petry. Gender, Kabbalah, and the Ref-

ormation. Brill 2004, pp. 5ff.58 liphas Levi. History of Magic. (Transl: A. E.

Waite.) Weiser, 1913/1969), p. 253.59 Jakob Bhme. The Threefold Life of Man.

(Transl: S. Janos.) Quoted in: N. Berdyaev.Studies Concerning Jacob Boehme, etude II,1930, pp. 34-62.

60 In Platos Symposium Aristophanes declaredthat man was originally androgynous but was

cut in two by Zeus to curb his pride. Ever since,man has sought his female half, and vice versa.61 Bhme, The Threefold Life of Man, pp. 34-62.

See also Bhmes Mysterium Magnum. Lon-don, 1654, chapter 18.

62 Chokmah was a feminine Hebrew noun, andin Hellenic Jewish mysticism Chokmah/Sophia(Wisdom) was regarded as a feminine divineentity. In the Kabbalah, Chokmah became amasculine force.

63 For a discussion of Bhmes teachings on gen-der and their influence on William Blake see:Hirst,Hidden Riches, pp. 92-96.

64 For a discussion of the pairs of opposites as theyare addressed in the Kabbalah see: John Nash.Duality, Good and Evil, and the Approach toHarmony. Esoteric Quarterly, Fall 2004, pp.15-26.

65 Nash. Duality, Good and Evil, and the Ap-proach to Harmony, pp. 15-26.

66 Edmund Spenser. The Faerie Queene, BookVI, canto 10. London, 1596.

67 In some cases conversion was voluntary, but inmany instances it was coerced, as occurred in15th-century Spain.

68 Major disputations took place in Paris and Bar-celona.

69 Hirst,Hidden Riches, pp. 110-111.70 Yvonne Petry. Gender, Kabbalah, and the Ref-

ormation. Brill 2004, p.7.71 Such treachery was not uncommon at the time.

Martin Luther narrowly escaped a similar fate atthe Diet of Worms in 1521. Not surprisingly,Galileo entered into a plea bargain with the In-quisition rather than risk further investigation.

72 See the discussion in Hirst,Hidden Riches, pp.110-111.


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73 Quoted in: Waterfield. Jacob Boehme, pp. 154-155. Source not provided.

74 John J. Stoudt. Sunrise to Eternity. Universityof Pennsylvania Press, 1957, p. 191.

75 It must not be forgotten that the golden age of

Islamic culture occurred while most of ChristianEurope was still mired in the Dark Ages.

76 Prominent members of the Philadelphians wereAnglican priest John Pordage (16071681) andJane Ward Lead (16241704) who had a num-

ber of visions involving Sophia.77 It is easy to see how Bhmes resolution of op-

posites fed into Hegels theory of thesis, an-tithesis and synthesis.

78 Nikolai Berdyaev. The Russian Idea. (Transl:R. French.) Lindisfarne Press, 1947/1992, p.37.

79 For an extended discussion of the Cambridge

Platonists and their influence on Blake see:Hirst,Hidden Riches.

80 See note 20.81 The Calvinists went so far as to insist that hu-

mankind was totally depraved and, evenChrists atonement could only rescue a smallelite, or elect, from eternal damnation.

82 For perspectives on the Society of the GoldenDawn see: Israel Regardie. The Golden Dawn.Llewellyn Publications, 1982. See also: MaryK. Greer. Women of the Golden Dawn. ParkStreet Press, 1995.

83 See the extensive account of Zevi and themovement in Gershom Scholem. Kabbalah, pp.244-286. See also hisMajor Trends in JewishMysticism. Schoken Books, 1946, pp.287-324.

84 Scholem, Kabbalah, p. 201.85 Important works by Gershom Scholem, includ-

ingMajor Trends in Jewish Mysticism andKabbalah, have already been cited.

Appendix 1. Sefiroth inthe Judaic Kabbalah*

No. Hebrew Name ConventionalEnglish Name

1 Kether rtk Crown2 Chokmah hmkx Wisdom

3 Binah orTabun

hnybNwbt

Understanding orIntelligence

-- Daath t(d Knowledge or Gnosis4 Chesed, or

Gedulahdsx

hlwdgMercy or

Greatness5 Geburah, or

Dinhrwbg

NydJudgment or

Severity

6 Tifareth tr)pt Beauty or Harmony7 Netzach xcn Victory or Eternity8 Hod dwh Splendor

9 Yesod dwsy Foundation10 Malkuth or

Shekinahtwklmhnyk#

The Kingdom orThe Indwelling Presence of God

* Kabbalists insist that the English names are just convenient labelsand that the true nature of the sefiroth is deeper and more complex.

Documents

Origins of the Christian Kabbalah