The Key to the True Kabbalah
A Crummy Kabbalah Book
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of“The Key to the True Kabbalah” by Franz Bardon.]
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.
I have read numerous books on the Kabbalah (Kabbalah, by Moshe Idel, The Essential Kabbalah, by Daniel Matt, Meditation and Kabbalah, by Aryeh Kaplan, The Way, by Michael Berg, and Introduction to the Cabala, and the Work of the Kabbalist, by Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi, et al.) and some on the Qabalah (The Mystical Qabalah, by Dion Fortune, 777 and Other Qababalistic Writings, by Aleister Crowley, and The Tree of Life, by Israel Regardie), so I think I'm eminently qualified to review this book.
In short, this book, like all the other Qabalistic texts, and the majority of the Kabbalistic texts, I've read is, in a word, pathetic--second rate occultism bereft of real wisdom. It's just a hodgepodge of so-called "magical" formulae presented in a disintegral format and context. The author mixes in bits and pieces of Hindu tantrism, rudimentary yogic concentration-meditation exercises, but exhibits no real understanding of yoga or mysticism.
This book is not the key to the "true" Kabbalah, the mystical-ecstatic Kabbalah. The term Kabbalah means "to receive (the Divine Influx, the Holy Spirit, Light-energy from above). And this book has nothing to say about receiving, or channeling, Light-energy, Divine Power from above. It also has nothing much to say about the "theoretical or cosmological" Kabbalah, the Tree of Life and its relation to Creation. And finally, apart from its hodgepodge of "magical" focusing exercises, which will not bestow any of the psychic powers the author alludes to, it also has nothing much to say about the practical Kabbalah--divination via astrology, Tarot card reading, the I Ching, or other methods. In short, this book is overpriced and crummy.
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of“The Key to the True Kabbalah” by Franz Bardon.]
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.
I have read numerous books on the Kabbalah (Kabbalah, by Moshe Idel, The Essential Kabbalah, by Daniel Matt, Meditation and Kabbalah, by Aryeh Kaplan, The Way, by Michael Berg, and Introduction to the Cabala, and the Work of the Kabbalist, by Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi, et al.) and some on the Qabalah (The Mystical Qabalah, by Dion Fortune, 777 and Other Qababalistic Writings, by Aleister Crowley, and The Tree of Life, by Israel Regardie), so I think I'm eminently qualified to review this book.
In short, this book, like all the other Qabalistic texts, and the majority of the Kabbalistic texts, I've read is, in a word, pathetic--second rate occultism bereft of real wisdom. It's just a hodgepodge of so-called "magical" formulae presented in a disintegral format and context. The author mixes in bits and pieces of Hindu tantrism, rudimentary yogic concentration-meditation exercises, but exhibits no real understanding of yoga or mysticism.
This book is not the key to the "true" Kabbalah, the mystical-ecstatic Kabbalah. The term Kabbalah means "to receive (the Divine Influx, the Holy Spirit, Light-energy from above). And this book has nothing to say about receiving, or channeling, Light-energy, Divine Power from above. It also has nothing much to say about the "theoretical or cosmological" Kabbalah, the Tree of Life and its relation to Creation. And finally, apart from its hodgepodge of "magical" focusing exercises, which will not bestow any of the psychic powers the author alludes to, it also has nothing much to say about the practical Kabbalah--divination via astrology, Tarot card reading, the I Ching, or other methods. In short, this book is overpriced and crummy.
