A Consideration of Kabbalah/Qabalah Texts, Part 2

This three-part article consists of my eighteen Amazon.com reviews of Kabbalah/Qabalah texts. The reviews are in reverse chronological order, with the latest reviews first. Part 1 was posted in August, and Part 3 will be posted later this month.]

Krishnamurti Meets Kabbalah

[“The Cipher of Genesis: Using the Qabalistic Code to Interpret the First Book of the Bible and the Teachings of Jesus.” Carlo Suares, 3 Stars]

In this unique text, Carlo Suares (1892-1976), utilizing Qabalistic code (meaning “gematria,” the ancient “science” of using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet as numbers to reveal hidden meanings of spiritual texts) seeks to provide the cipher, or algorithmic code, of Genesis and the teachings of Jesus – and fails miserably.

The only reason I gave this book three stars is for Suares’s great idea and bold attempt. Unfortunately, Suares is unqualified for the task. Not only does he exhibit limited understanding of the meaning of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, he also has no real understanding of spirituality. In short, he is in over his head with this text. Moreover, his writing is not agreeable, but rather cryptic, ambiguous, stilted, and “psychologized.”

Anybody intimate with J.Krishnamuti’s teachings, will quickly recognize that Suares “spiritual” analyses and interpretations of the Bible are right out Krishnamurti. And unsurprisingly, Suares, clearly taken with Krishnamurti, wrote a book on his teachings (“Krishnamurti and the Unity of Man”).

I am an expert on Krishnamurti’s teachings – in the 1970s I participated in various J. Krishnamurti groups—and only an “uninitiated” spiritual philosopher would attempt to marry J. Krishnamurti’s teachings with Qabalah. J. Krishnamurti had great potential, but after “First and Last Freedom” (see my five-star review) and “Commentaries on Living,” he went flat. There is no spiritual (or energetic) dimension to his teachings, which became a repetitive, “psychologized” drone after the aforesaid texts. Simply put, Krishnamurti did not “crack the cosmic code,” and neither does Suares in “The Cipher of Genesis.”

I’ve had “The Cipher of Genesis” for several years, and twice before attempted to read it. But each time I gave up because Suares didn’t impress me, and I didn’t want to take the time to learn the esoteric meaning of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. But a bright young lady who posts at my Facebook group (Electrical-Hermetic Christianity) insisted that I needed to give it another try -- and so I did. And this time I took several hours to figure out the esoteric meaning of the Hebrew letters. (I went to a few websites for different perspectives.)

What did I find? Two important things: First, Suares’s interpretation of the letters does not closely match mine; second, there are four basic gematria methods, so the numbers Suares uses are hardly etched in stone as the right ones.

I really believe that Suares had a great idea with his application of gematria to the Bible and qabala, and hopefully in the future someone more qualified will carry this work forward.

The Qrapola Qabalah

[“The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford,” Lon Milo Duquette, 2 Stars]

"The Chicken Qabalah, by" Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford (a.k.a. Lon Milo Duquette,) is a well-written, entertaining guide to the Qabalah, and those who enjoy the mixture of witty Jewish humor with Qabalistic philosophy will likely find it an enjoyable and uplifting read. But I personally do not care for Duqutte's brand of cosmic musing, and I have little regard for his Qabalism, which I shall proceed to critique.

Duquette, like most Qabalists, drinks from the fountain of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley; and because he does, much of his Qabalistic theology is flawed. Duquette reduces the true mystical Kabbalah to the untrue occult Qabalah, and the result is a vision of Ultimate Reality and cosmic reality that I don't subscribe to.

According to Moshe Idel, author of "Kabbalah, New Perspectives," there are essentially two Kabbalahs - the mystical-ecstatic one, and the theurgical-theosophical one. The mystical- ecstatic one is about receiving the Divine (or Supernal) Influx and becoming en-Light-ened by its radiant Power. Duquette has next to nothing to say about this Kabbalah. Kabbalah means "to receive," and the highest Kabbalistic practice is to receive and become one with this Power, the Holy Spirit.

Duquette, egregiously, reduces Ultimate Reality to Nothingness. He repeatedly states that the final goal is to attain the consciousness of Nothing." Nothing is a Zero, and Duquette, by attributing Divine status to a non-Existent, is guilty of the reification of Zero. Some mystics explain that Nothing really means "no-thing," but Duquette does not accept this POV; he emphasizes that "this Nothing is really nothing." But Duquette then contradicts himself when he elsewhere describes this Nothing as a "force" and as "pure consciousness." Ultimate Reality cannot be both Nothing and pure consciousness. Consciousness is hardly Nothingness.

Duquette has next to nothing to say about the truly spiritual, or mystical-ecstatic, Kabbalah, but is he more insightful about the theurgical-theosophical one? Hardly.

First off, Duquette believes that the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet "form the foundation of everything we can think of and all other things that will never occur to us." Pure poppycock. Letters have no ontological primacy and are not some ineffable "Alphabet Soup" wherefrom manifest existence derives. Rather, they are man-made symbols that enable man to create language. If the 22 letters were the true "building blocks" or reality, other great mystical traditions, such as Hinduism Buddhism, and Christianity, would also have identified them.

Duquette's Tree of Life is farsical and flawed. When Duquette talks about the 22 letters and the planets, he excludes Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Then, when he provides us with his Tree of Life figure, Neptune and Pluto are included, but Uranus isn't. These inconsistencies are not addressed by Duquette, and this reduces his credibility.

I do not accept Duquette's version of the Tree of Life. He correlates Neptune with Chokmah (and Wisdom), while I firmly maintain that it is Uranus, not Neptune, that correlates with Chokmah. Duquette also associates the Tarot card the Tower with Mars, while I hold that the Tower card is a perfect match with Chokmah and Wisdom. I also disagree with other Duquette attributions, but since this is just a book review and not a book, I will not elaborate here. Finally, Duquette omits altogether any discussion of the Sephirah Daath, which he considers a false Sephirah. I disagree, and consider Daath (and Neptune) as half of a mystical dyad involving Kether (and Pluto).

A couple of final points: Duquette states that the Chia, the undiluted Life-Force itself, is our true identity. This is false. The Chia, which corresponds with Taoist Chi and Hindu Prana, is cosmic in nature, while our true identity, Self-Aware Light-Force, is acosmic, and not implicated by the Life-Force. Duquette states that `we perceive there is creation, time, and space, Heaven, and Earth because of a fundamental defect in our powers of perception." If our perception is defective, then so are our minds, which depend upon perception to form concepts. Since Duquette holds that man's perception, and by implication his cognition, are defective, he really has no business writing about, and attempting to educate people about, spiritual reality.

In summary, this book is a one-star piece of philosophic poppycock, but since it has some entertainment value, I give it two stars.

A Good Basic Introductory Text to Kabbalah

[God is a Verb and the Practice of Mystical Judaism, David A, Cooper, 3 Stars]

"God is a Verb" is, as bestselling Buddhist author Jack Kornfield describes it, a "broad and accessible" text on the Jewish mystical tradition. And it is also the last Kabbalah book I plan to read--unless someone can point me to a truly deep non-academic one--because, quite frankly, I am tired of encountering the same exoteric, error-laden, "broad and accessible" Kabbalah in one Jewish mysticism text after another.

I would summarize this book as a well-written general guide to Jewish mysticism that emphasizes parables and inspiring stories in order to make the Kabbalah appealing to a mainstream audience. The book also provides practical spiritual exercises, but if you are already familiar with Buddhist and/or Hindu meditation techniques, you probably won't find the methods in the text to be of particular interest.

This book falls apart, as most Kabbalah texts do, when the author attempts to tackle the Tree of Life. Rabbi Cooper's understanding of the Sephirot and how they relate to en-Light-enment is deeply flawed. And, unfortunately, none of the other Kabbalah (or Qabalah) texts I've read (see my Amazon.com reviews) is any better when it comes to explaining the Tree of Life.

The Claptrap Qabalah

[The Mystical Qabalah, Dion Fortune, 1 Star]

Dion Fortune, author of “The Mystical Qabalah,” bills her mystical Qabalah teachings as “The Yoga of the West.” In her book she makes it clear that the book is about the Mystical Qabalah rather than the practical, or theurgical, one. She writes: “In these pages we propose to give the philosophical Tree of Life, and enough practical instruction to render it available for meditation puposes; but we do not propose to give the Practical Qabalah, which is for magical purposes; because that can only properly be learn and safely practiced in the Temple of Mysteries.”

So this book, according to Fortune, is primarily about the philosophical, or cosmological-theosophical, Tree of Life and yogic, or meditation, exercises pertaining to it. Does Fortune succeed in her exegesis of the Tree of Life and creation of a “Yoga of the West”? My answer is an emphatic “NO.”

First off, Fortune is almost clueless about the Tree of Life. In fact, half way through the book, I tossed it aside because I couldn’t take any more of her nonsense. I could write a book refuting her attributions and explanations, but since this is just a review, I’ll limit myself to a few examples: 1) She has no understanding of Daath, the mysterious, invisible Sephirah located beneath Kether. She considers it to be “formed out of the conjunction of Chokmah and Binah.” In reality, Daath correlates with the planet Neptune, and functions as a “converter-channel” for Kether (which correlates with Pluto), transforming its Force into a flow of divine Power, the Shekinah, or Holy Spirit, which unites with Tiphareth, spiritually en-Lightening the qabalist. Pluto is pressure, the atomic Force of consciousness. But for this conscious Force to flow, it needs an open vessel, a line of least resistance-- and that is Daath. Daath is invisible, open, and empty (like a vagina), allowing the phallic “thrust” of Kether to penetrate into Tipareth. 2) According to Fortune, “… if we assign to Kether the Sphere of the Three in One, the undivided Unity, and to Tiphareth the Sphere of the Redeemer or Son, we may be justified in referring to Yesod the sphere of the Holy Spirit…” Wrong again. The Holy Spirit, the Shekinah, flows from Kether, Consciousness Itself, and redeems the son, contracted Tipareth, transforming him into the Son, Or Self, en-Lightened Tipareth. Yesod correlates with the Moon, the personal subconscious, not with the transpersonal Supernal Influx, the down-poured Holy Spirit. 3) Fortune writes: “In the Vedantan philosophy Kether would undoubtedly equate with Parabrahma, Chokmah with Brahman, and Binah with Mulaprakriti.” Nonsense. Para Brahman would correlate with Ain Soph, the unspeakable Emanator of the ten Sephirot; Kether as the Primordial Adam, the atomic Atman, or Self (which realizes Itself in Tipareth via “marriage” with the Bride, the Holy Spirit); Chokmah with the fourth sheath (of the five sheaths, or “koshas,”which, according to Vedanta, veil Brahman from the yogi)—“wisdom,” the higher mind, or ascertaining intelligence; and Binah pertains to worldly “understanding,” the third sheath, the lower mind. I could continue to deconstruct Fortune’s philosophical Tree of Life, but I’ll stop here out of respect for the book review format, which is not meant for endless critiques. Instead, I’ll briefly turn my attention to Fortune’s “Yoga of the West.”

I have devoted the past forty years of my life to studying, practicing, and teaching mystical and occult systems. I’m not only an expert in the foremost spiritual traditions—Hindu Raja Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism; Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism; Christian Hermeticism, the mystical Kabbalah, Daism, and J.Krishnamurti’s teachings—I’ve also practiced professional astrology and have studied the I Ching and Tarot. In my opinion Fortune doesn’t know the first thing about yoga, particularly genuine kabbalistic yoga. All she offers are rudimentary focusing exercises on abstract mental constructs pertaining to a mere map—the abstract Tree of Life. There is no such thing as a “Yoga of the West” as opposed to a “Yoga of the East.” True yoga, genuine kabbalistic yoga, knows no such distinction.

I’ll now summarize real kabbalistic yoga: Kabbalah means “to receive.” And what one receives in genuine kabbalistic yoga, which mirrors Tibetan Dzogchen and the true Christian Eucharist, is the en-Light-ening power of Now, Shakti, the Holy Spirit, or Sambhogkaya. The union of a yogi’s consciousness (soul) with this Spirit produces Awakening, Self-realization. Kabbalah has also been described as the “Work of integration,” which means being integrally, or immediately and unobstructedly, present, so as to be a fit vessel for receiving and uniting with the Divine Light-energy, the Blessing Power from on high that transforms the kabalistic yogi into a Blessed One.

There is no need to even think about the Tree of Life if your only interest is the mystical Qabalah. The term “mysticism” means “communing with Ultimate Reality, as Spirit.” It’s the exact spiritual practice I described in the preceding paragraph. The Tree of Life is only important if you’re interested in the theurgical-theosphical Kabbalah—in philosophy, cosmology, and/or occult divining practices, such as astrology and the Tarot.

In sum, Dione Fortune is clueless about the Mystical Qabalah; and, in my opinion, her book does not merit serious consideration from those looking to understand the true mystical Qabalah.

In short, "God is a Verb" is a good, basic, chicken soup for the soul-type text on Jewish mysticism--but if you are already familiar with Kabbalah and looking for profound and penetrating insight into its mysteries, you won't find it in this book.

The Work of a Klueless Kabbalist

[“The Work of the Kabbalist,” Z’ev Ben Shimon Halevi, 2 Stars]

Everybody makes mistakes, but unlike most spiritual teachers, I freely admit mine. In my first book, "Beyond the Power of Now," I included "The Work of the Kabbalist" on my recommended Spiritual Reading List, but after rereading it, I realize that I made a mistake.

How did I make this mistake? When I first read "The Work of the Kabbalist" many years ago, I was just starting to study the Kabbalah, and lacked a basis for judging author Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi's various Tree of Life Maps and Sephirot attributions; so I gave him a pass on his theosophical Kabbalah, and focused on just his mystical Kabbalah, which, properly, emphasizes receiving the Divine Radiance, and ultimately beholding oneself as the "Self of the Unlimited."

However, even though Halevi pointed to the Goal ("Bhagavan beholding Bhagavan"), the "work of the kabbalist" that he recommends--various imagination, meditation, and contemplation exercises--fails to point directly to the Divine. Nonetheless, I included his book on my Recommended (though not Highly Recommended) List simply because it was the best of an endlessly bad bunch of books on the Kabbalah (and the Qabalah), and I wanted to have at least one Kabbalah book on my Spiritual Reading List. Well, now there are none, because aside from Moshe Idel's purely academic text "Kabbalah: New Perspectives," I can't find a good one.

Shortly before rereading "The Work of the Kabbalist," I reread P.D. Ouspensky's classic text "In search of the Miraculous," which is about Gurdjieff's teachings. It is obvious, from all sorts of indicators, that Halevi is very familiar with Gurdjieff's teachings; and, like Gurdjieff, he describes the spiritual path as "the work," and attempts to impress the ignorant with cosmology (kabbalistic in his case) that is, in a word, crap. Now, many years after first reading Halevi, I am an unequalled expert on the theosophical (as well as the mystical) Kabbalah, and, in my opinion, Halevi is clueless regarding the Tree of Life, and the "creative" attributions he superimposes on the Sephirot have no basis in reality. Two stars for this book (rather than one), only because Halevi properly identifies the goal of the mystical kabbalist: beholding the radiant Divine as one's Self-nature.

A Mediocre, Exoteric Text

[The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Daniel C. Matt, 2 Stars]

Daniel Matt's "The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism" (which is a collection of selected Jewish mystical writings), is, at best, a mediocre, exoteric text. At worst, it graphically illustrates how poorly Jewish mysticism compares to the foremost mystical traditions, such as Hindu Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Christian Hermeticism, and Daism (the teachings of Adi Da). I think that most eclectic mystics who read books in these traditions would rate them well above the material presented by Dr. Matt. It saddens me to say this, because I am Jewish by birth.

Dr. Matt is an academic, and his Introduction is what you'd expect from someone from the academy--clearly and cleanly written, but bereft of any radical, esoteric insight. First off, he has no real understanding of the Sephirot. Not only are his attributions weak, but he doesn't even mention Da'at, the mystical sephira that unites all the other ones. It is not possible to understand the Tree of Life without understanding the relationship between this sephirah and the other ten. Secondly, Dr. Matt never mentions the relation between the Sephirot and astrology. The fact is, each of the sephira correlates with a planet (which includes the sun and moon), and this explains how one can practically use the Kabbalah as a tool for divination. In short, Dr. Matt's Introduction is hardly demystifying; it's just a "safe," skimpy, superficial history of the Kabbalah in order to introduce his selection of Jewish mystical writings.

Apart from offering nothing particularly insightful in his Introduction, Dr. Matt's selection of "essential teachings" is poor in my estimation, and fails to provide substantive explanation or instruction for anyone wanting to practice Jewish mysticism. For example, the thirty-two paths of Wisdom are mentioned in the chapter Creation, but Dr. Matt doesn't say what these paths are; instead he refers us to another text for an explanation.

We Jews need a "messiah," an enlightened kabbalist who can expertly explain both the mystical-ecstatic and theurgical-theosophical Kabbalah from the highest perspective. Until such a one emerges, mediocre texts like "The Essential Kabbalah" will receive undue praise.