Posted on 07/10/2003 3:16:34 PM PDT by DoorGunner
Mystical Qabalah, Mystical Christianity, and the Christian Cabala
Mystical Christianity is an outgrowth of the same universal spirituality found in the Hebrew tradition as the Mystical Qabalah. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism that sprang from the messianic advent of Master Yeshuvah, who was born a Jew and lived in a Jewish culture. All of his apostles and early disciples were also Jews. Master Yeshuvah, as with every appearance of Messiah, brought a fresh transmission of universal mystical spirituality clothed in the context of the historical setting, cultural milieu, environment, language, characteristic worldview, and prevailing body of discourse among the people to whom it was being delivered. The mainstream of Jews at the time Master Yeshuvah appeared had been expecting a savior of the Jewish people who would deliver them from Roman oppression through an apocalyptic process. This contrasted with the Jewish mystical community, which had been anticipating a messianic advent with the spiritual mission of reuniting Israel with their Lord YHVH, and a returning to the true religion of the children of Abraham. Master Yeshuvah himself clearly asserted that he had not come as an innovator to replace the tradition with a new teaching, but as a reformer who had come to fulfill the Torah and the prophets, and to renew the ancient faith that had faded into decay.
Today, a growing body of scholars is questioning many aspects of Christianity that have been popularly held for a long time. A picture is emerging that shows that the history, theology, and practice of Christianity have been directly effected and shaped by dominant factions, resulting in the marginalization and suppression of the mystical element as being in opposition to accepted doctrine. As soon as Paul entered the picture, a dichotomy arose among the early Christian devotees between those coming from a traditional Jewish background and the growing group of Gentile Christians.
The diversity of perspectives of the early followers of Master Yeshuvah was later replaced by the monolithic homogeneity imposed by emperors to make Christianity a uniform religion throughout their empires. As the Pauline Gentile faction grew in numbers and power, and the Catholic Church of Rome assumed orthodox authority over Christianity, it absorbed and codified Mystical Christianity in much the same way that Rabbinical Judaism assimilated and obscurated the Mystical Qabalah. The essential Jewishness of early Christianity was virtually wiped out by the massive revisionism of the Pauline Gentiles. We will have to wait for further windfall discoveries of source documents to be able to establish a clear picture of what happened during the earliest stages of Christianity after the departure of Master Yeshuvah.
Many of the ideas and practices of the Mystical Qabalah are reflected in those of Mystical Christianity. The mysteries of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion have long been compared with the mystical significance of Pesach (Passover). The sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist have their roots in the sacramental use of bread and wine that goes back to the earliest Hebrews and beyond. Ablution with water, lighting of candles, prostration, rituals that celebrate the mystical significance of the rites of passage, and rituals associated with changes of season, planting and harvesting are other fundamental elements Christianity shares in common with its Hebrew, Judaic, and Islamic cousins.
In the seventeenth century CE, the center of Christian Cabala moved to England and Germany, where its status was boosted by the theosophical writings of Jacob Boehme and the landmark qabalistic compendium of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth. Von Rosenroth and Athanasius Kirchner extrapolated the qabalistic allusion of Adam Kadmon to be a reference to Jesus as the primordial man in Christian theology. In the final phase in the development of the Christian Cabala in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became permeated with alchemical symbolism and conjoined with the emerging doctrines of theosophy. This in turn greatly influenced the development of Freemasonry.
http://www.workofthechariot.com/TextFiles/Back-ChristianCabala.htm
(Excerpt) Read more at workofthechariot.com ...
[Portions have been removed, for length. Please feel free to read it in its entirety.]
DG
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Does that say a lot, or what? Thanks for posting this, DG
Yes, it says that the author of this piece does not subscribe to the tenets of the orthodoxy whose early development subsequent promulgation is detailed in the text.
"The diversity of perspectives of the early followers of Master Yeshuvah was later replaced by the monolithic homogeneity imposed by emperors to make Christianity a uniform religion throughout their empires. As the Pauline Gentile faction grew in numbers and power, and the Catholic Church of Rome assumed orthodox authority over Christianity, it absorbed and codified Mystical Christianity in much the same way that Rabbinical Judaism assimilated and obscurated the Mystical Qabalah."
Seems to square quite well the apparent perspective inherent to your observation.
Yes. So does this:
In the final phase in the development of the Christian Cabala in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became permeated with alchemical symbolism and conjoined with the emerging doctrines of theosophy. This in turn greatly influenced the development of Freemasonry.
Theosophy, of course, is clearly occult, with channeling, spirit guides, tarot cards, etc.
Freemasonry? Well, we all know that they are just a social club. Good works, and all, no occult practices there.
DG
p.s. More to come (lots).
I thought that website's Coven workshops were a little over the top:
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May God have mercy on their souls.
DG
p.s. I wonder how FR's closet kabbalists like the company they keep.
Nicely put, DG. I made the below comments (with slightly different wording) on another thread, but they bear repeating here:
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Occultism is more about the belief that nature, and the various entities/personalities that inhabit it, can be successfully manipulated by humans into granting said humans some favor.
In short, all of creation is humankind's personal vending machine, and the whole magic thing is just about learning how to use exact change.
Christianity isn't a religion of manipulation - it's a religion of ethics. Our relationship with God is based on our ethical standing before Him. No amount of relics, or icons, or potions, or incantations can change that. God is not some impersonal force that we can manipulate if we're skilled enough. The occultist's beef with Christianity is that it places humankind permanently subservient to a single diety, instead of allowing them to pick and choose their leaders (and allegiances), as if they were simply voting for their next senator.
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