| INTRODUCTION |
| The Mystical Foundations of the World Order |
Life is shrouded in a mystery; this is the fundamental fact which confronts us. We live in a cave with
our backs to the light, and, as Plato said, our knowledge is nothing more than the shadows which play
upon its walls.
What this mystery is in itself we cannot tell. All we know is that it exists, and ultimately all we
know of ourselves is that we exist. If we call this mystery “God”, then our lives vibrate between the
two poles of “God is” and “I am”; but because the first transcends the reason, as the infinite
transcends the finite, the relationship between them can only be expressed in symbols; that is in finite,
or rational, terms. If in the place of God we write “Reality”, “Nature”, “Unknowable”, or “Zero”, it
matters not one whit; the equation is just as obscure; for all we have done is to replace a by b, c, d, or
e, not knowing what these letters mean. The symbol has changed, but what it symbolizes remains as
inscrutable.
Granted that this is so, then it follows that our intellectual lives are purely symbolical existences.
All our thoughts are nothing more than symbols of a mystery, whether it embraces God - the ultimate
source of all things - or reality - the tangible world in which we live. All are, in fact, equidistant from
what they represent and are, consequently, of equal value from the point of view of the represented. If
say that “God is ineffable”, “God is inscrutable”, or “God is omnipotent”, though the words differ we
are saying no more than that “God is”. All these word symbols are of equal value, because they in no
way uncover this mystery. Yet, though equidistant from the represented, these symbols are by no
means equidistant from the mind of man, which is not archetypal but protean; that is to say it is for
ever changing its intellectual forms. Whilst at one time one set of symbols keeps it in tune with the
mystery, at another time a different set of symbols can alone do so. Consequently, though a, b, c, d,
and e are all of equal value to the represented, they are by no means of equal value to the representer -
ourselves.
Granted that this is so, then it follows that symbols, to remain potent, must change as intellectual
concepts change. For example, should we today declare that the universe is composed of minute
indivisible and indestructible atoms of matter, we can expect no appeal from. the scientific mind;
because the conception of the universe has changed and the man of science is thinking in terms of
electrical waves or waves of light. Nevertheless, these waves are just as much symbols as atoms are,
and in themselves they explain nothing; yet their virtue lies in that they fit better into the present order
of scientific thought; that is - symbolically they are not out of place.
As long as they maintain their place they maintain their attractive power by bringing the mind into
contact with the mystery; and so long as this contact endures an equilibrium is established between
the mystery and the intelligence, and the mind is held, as it were in a state of wonder - that is of love
or attraction. So long as this equilibrium lasts, - that is so long as faith in the potency of the symbol is
overwhelming - contentedness monopolizes the life of man; but directly this faith declines, discontent
intervenes, and it is in discontent that must be sought the origins of all world revolutions.
Why is this so? Because the finite can only find succour in the infinite, the potent in the
omnipotent, the limited in the unlimited, the mortal in the immortal, the child in the mother. Cut away
the greater, and the lesser is bereft of hope. It is like a ship drifting on a shoreless sea. She may be
well built, well stocked, and bravely manned, yet her destiny is foreordained; having no port to put
into, sooner or later she and her crew must sink beneath the waters and be lost for ever.
When this doom encompasses mankind, as today it would seem to encompass it, man does not so
Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah page 7 much wring his hands in despair as drown his hopelessness in physical
enjoyments. “Let us eat and drink. ... for tomorrow we die” become the passwords of the age, and the more this
obsession gains sway the less does wonder illumine his path, until the age enters its eclipse. Love becomes lust, the
noble ignoble, the beautiful hideous, the generous selfish, and all is lost in a scramble of greeds. It is
in this dismal darkness that Satan materializes and Satanism becomes a cult. The symbols go on,
potent and impotent; but now they are turned upside down, for fear is hope reversed.
What causes this vacuum into which fear rushes? A breakdown in the equilibrium between the
mysterious and the intelligible. As there is the greater mystery between God and the mind of man, so
also is there the lesser mystery between mind and the body of mankind. The knowing are few; the
ignorant are many. What to the one is supreme goodness, to the other may prove to be a deadly
poison. As Adam eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil lost Eden, so throughout the
ages have the wise kept wisdom to themselves, imparting to the multitudes only just sufficient
knowledge to fill them with wonder, and guarding against giving too much lest wonder intoxicates
them and turns them mad. When this wisdom has been observed an equilibrium has been established
in the social order, and when it has not been observed chaos has always held sway. A society or a
civilization seldom perishes by the sword; nearly always it perishes through a defamation of the
mysteries which held it in equilibrium. When Ham uncovered his father's nakedness he was cursed; so
also was Prometheus punished for stealing fire from heaven. Thus it happens that a people or a
civilization is cursed when its rulers uncover the mysteries in the public places. When the symbols are
made cheap they are misunderstood, they cease to be symbolical and become real, idols in the eyes of
the multitudes. When the multitudes dance round the Golden Calf, then are the Tables of the Law cast
upon the ground.
All this may seem strange to us today, when everything is trumpeted abroad and sold for gold and
there is no righteousness in the land; when love and lust, sorrow, tragedy, and excitement are sold for
a penny in the newspapers, and when all that is sacred and vicious is broadcasted around for much
less. The exploitation of the mysteries is the order of this age; there is no secrecy except that of
exaggeration and untruthfulness. Yet may not it be said: Is not the progress of to-day due almost
entirely to publicity? Yes, that is undoubted; but what profits progress if the world is to be filled with
discontent? Freedom is a sublime mystery, but when this mystery is vulgarized it becomes anarchy.
Look around: everywhere we see turmoil, strife, jealousy, fear, and greed; Satan brooding over the
four corners of the world and the drums of war beating nearer and nearer.
Behind this turmoil crouches the Machine, the Baphomet of the age of iron. He should have been
the servant of man, yet he has become his master. He should have mitigated the curse of Eden and
have transformed toil and labour into leisure and contentment. Why has he failed to do so? Because
the mysteries of physical science, having slipped the leash of secrecy, have, like maenads, coursed
madly about the world. Once the searchers after the mysteries of Nature worked in a gloom of fear,
locking away their knowledge in ciphers and cryptograms; now they stride into their laboratories
seeking to transmute knowledge into gold, and when the people cannot understand their jargon they
fall back upon the pen of the novel-writer, transforming scientific fact into romantic fiction.
Why has science thus failed us? Because the wisdom of the few has been cast like pearls before the
swinish ignorance of the many. The intellectual evolution of the masses has not kept pace with the
physical evolution of the scientists. A new body has been built, a body of titanic power, yet it is still
inhabited by a mind which belongs to a far less powerful instrument. The result is a moral
disintegration - a throwing out of balance, out of focus, out of equilibrium. Chaos surrounds us,
because the mysteries have been communicated to those unworthy to receive them, and not until the
new body is endowed with a new mind will a new soul be born within it. Such an equilibrium can
alone be established through wonder - a stepping out from the finite towards the infinite, a
transmutation of Satan into God.
our backs to the light, and, as Plato said, our knowledge is nothing more than the shadows which play
upon its walls.
What this mystery is in itself we cannot tell. All we know is that it exists, and ultimately all we
know of ourselves is that we exist. If we call this mystery “God”, then our lives vibrate between the
two poles of “God is” and “I am”; but because the first transcends the reason, as the infinite
transcends the finite, the relationship between them can only be expressed in symbols; that is in finite,
or rational, terms. If in the place of God we write “Reality”, “Nature”, “Unknowable”, or “Zero”, it
matters not one whit; the equation is just as obscure; for all we have done is to replace a by b, c, d, or
e, not knowing what these letters mean. The symbol has changed, but what it symbolizes remains as
inscrutable.
Granted that this is so, then it follows that our intellectual lives are purely symbolical existences.
All our thoughts are nothing more than symbols of a mystery, whether it embraces God - the ultimate
source of all things - or reality - the tangible world in which we live. All are, in fact, equidistant from
what they represent and are, consequently, of equal value from the point of view of the represented. If
say that “God is ineffable”, “God is inscrutable”, or “God is omnipotent”, though the words differ we
are saying no more than that “God is”. All these word symbols are of equal value, because they in no
way uncover this mystery. Yet, though equidistant from the represented, these symbols are by no
means equidistant from the mind of man, which is not archetypal but protean; that is to say it is for
ever changing its intellectual forms. Whilst at one time one set of symbols keeps it in tune with the
mystery, at another time a different set of symbols can alone do so. Consequently, though a, b, c, d,
and e are all of equal value to the represented, they are by no means of equal value to the representer -
ourselves.
Granted that this is so, then it follows that symbols, to remain potent, must change as intellectual
concepts change. For example, should we today declare that the universe is composed of minute
indivisible and indestructible atoms of matter, we can expect no appeal from. the scientific mind;
because the conception of the universe has changed and the man of science is thinking in terms of
electrical waves or waves of light. Nevertheless, these waves are just as much symbols as atoms are,
and in themselves they explain nothing; yet their virtue lies in that they fit better into the present order
of scientific thought; that is - symbolically they are not out of place.
As long as they maintain their place they maintain their attractive power by bringing the mind into
contact with the mystery; and so long as this contact endures an equilibrium is established between
the mystery and the intelligence, and the mind is held, as it were in a state of wonder - that is of love
or attraction. So long as this equilibrium lasts, - that is so long as faith in the potency of the symbol is
overwhelming - contentedness monopolizes the life of man; but directly this faith declines, discontent
intervenes, and it is in discontent that must be sought the origins of all world revolutions.
Why is this so? Because the finite can only find succour in the infinite, the potent in the
omnipotent, the limited in the unlimited, the mortal in the immortal, the child in the mother. Cut away
the greater, and the lesser is bereft of hope. It is like a ship drifting on a shoreless sea. She may be
well built, well stocked, and bravely manned, yet her destiny is foreordained; having no port to put
into, sooner or later she and her crew must sink beneath the waters and be lost for ever.
When this doom encompasses mankind, as today it would seem to encompass it, man does not so
Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah page 7 much wring his hands in despair as drown his hopelessness in physical
enjoyments. “Let us eat and drink. ... for tomorrow we die” become the passwords of the age, and the more this
obsession gains sway the less does wonder illumine his path, until the age enters its eclipse. Love becomes lust, the
noble ignoble, the beautiful hideous, the generous selfish, and all is lost in a scramble of greeds. It is
in this dismal darkness that Satan materializes and Satanism becomes a cult. The symbols go on,
potent and impotent; but now they are turned upside down, for fear is hope reversed.
What causes this vacuum into which fear rushes? A breakdown in the equilibrium between the
mysterious and the intelligible. As there is the greater mystery between God and the mind of man, so
also is there the lesser mystery between mind and the body of mankind. The knowing are few; the
ignorant are many. What to the one is supreme goodness, to the other may prove to be a deadly
poison. As Adam eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil lost Eden, so throughout the
ages have the wise kept wisdom to themselves, imparting to the multitudes only just sufficient
knowledge to fill them with wonder, and guarding against giving too much lest wonder intoxicates
them and turns them mad. When this wisdom has been observed an equilibrium has been established
in the social order, and when it has not been observed chaos has always held sway. A society or a
civilization seldom perishes by the sword; nearly always it perishes through a defamation of the
mysteries which held it in equilibrium. When Ham uncovered his father's nakedness he was cursed; so
also was Prometheus punished for stealing fire from heaven. Thus it happens that a people or a
civilization is cursed when its rulers uncover the mysteries in the public places. When the symbols are
made cheap they are misunderstood, they cease to be symbolical and become real, idols in the eyes of
the multitudes. When the multitudes dance round the Golden Calf, then are the Tables of the Law cast
upon the ground.
All this may seem strange to us today, when everything is trumpeted abroad and sold for gold and
there is no righteousness in the land; when love and lust, sorrow, tragedy, and excitement are sold for
a penny in the newspapers, and when all that is sacred and vicious is broadcasted around for much
less. The exploitation of the mysteries is the order of this age; there is no secrecy except that of
exaggeration and untruthfulness. Yet may not it be said: Is not the progress of to-day due almost
entirely to publicity? Yes, that is undoubted; but what profits progress if the world is to be filled with
discontent? Freedom is a sublime mystery, but when this mystery is vulgarized it becomes anarchy.
Look around: everywhere we see turmoil, strife, jealousy, fear, and greed; Satan brooding over the
four corners of the world and the drums of war beating nearer and nearer.
Behind this turmoil crouches the Machine, the Baphomet of the age of iron. He should have been
the servant of man, yet he has become his master. He should have mitigated the curse of Eden and
have transformed toil and labour into leisure and contentment. Why has he failed to do so? Because
the mysteries of physical science, having slipped the leash of secrecy, have, like maenads, coursed
madly about the world. Once the searchers after the mysteries of Nature worked in a gloom of fear,
locking away their knowledge in ciphers and cryptograms; now they stride into their laboratories
seeking to transmute knowledge into gold, and when the people cannot understand their jargon they
fall back upon the pen of the novel-writer, transforming scientific fact into romantic fiction.
Why has science thus failed us? Because the wisdom of the few has been cast like pearls before the
swinish ignorance of the many. The intellectual evolution of the masses has not kept pace with the
physical evolution of the scientists. A new body has been built, a body of titanic power, yet it is still
inhabited by a mind which belongs to a far less powerful instrument. The result is a moral
disintegration - a throwing out of balance, out of focus, out of equilibrium. Chaos surrounds us,
because the mysteries have been communicated to those unworthy to receive them, and not until the
new body is endowed with a new mind will a new soul be born within it. Such an equilibrium can
alone be established through wonder - a stepping out from the finite towards the infinite, a
transmutation of Satan into God.
| The Secrecy of Transcendental Knowledge |
Transcendental knowledge is knowledge which transcends the intelligence, yet it need not
therefore be knowledge which is beyond the focus of the mind. The differential calculus is common
knowledge to the mathematician, and yet it is transcendental to the majority of mankind. So also with
practically all science; it is in itself the perquisite of the few whom we call the wise. Today the
fundamental difference between the science of this age and the science of past ages is that, whilst
formerly the universe was looked upon as being full of symbols which, when read correctly, could
lead us to the Real Being which they clothed, today the universe is considered to be Reality itself, a
tangible being, a something which exists separated from us and which we can probe with our physical
senses and take apart and put together again as if it were a machine. The mystical conception has been
replaced by the mechanical conception, and yet in itself the mystery remains as profound.
Christ understood this when He said: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye
your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”1 To
the common folk Christ spoke in parables, not because He was of a common mind, but because He
was an initiate and so understood how fine is the division between reason and madness, and how
easily can knowledge dissolve the filament which separates these two. This essential wisdom, and
wisdom is largely the application of knowledge to circumstances, has always been realized in the
East. Amongst the Jews, and Christ was of that race, we find it firmly established, and it is not a mere
coincidence that the Hebrew word Sod, which means “mystery” or “secrets”, has the same numerical
value, namely 70, as the Hebrew word which represents “wine”; for mystery can intoxicate as well as
refresh.
The mysteries of the early Hebrews were closely guarded by the Sons of the Doctrine, and it would
appear that many of their secrets were derived from Egypt and later on from Babylonia. We are told
that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians2 and that in the first four books of the
Pentateuch he has esoterically laid down the principles of the secret doctrine. He initiated seventy
elders into the mysteries,3 which they transmitted from mouth to ear. Generally speaking, the initiates
led an ascetic life in order to separate themselves from the ignorant and unwise, so that they might
guard against divulging their doctrines.
In these distant days the mysteries of Nature, and what is now called physical science, formed part
of the hidden cult. Thus Pythagoras, Anaximander, Nicetas, Heraclides, Aristarchus, Seleneus, and
Ecphantus believed in the rotundity of the earth or in its movement; the first of these philosophers
holding that each star was a world possessing its own atmosphere and surrounded by immense spaces
of ether.4 But this knowledge was never popularized for fear of upsetting religion, by means of which
authority over the ignorant masses was maintained. Early in the fourth century A.D. we find
Lactantius writing:
It is an absurdity to believe that there are men who have feet above their heads, and countries in which all is
inverted, in which the trees and plants grow from the top to the bottom. We find the germ of that error among
the philosophers who have claimed that the earth is round.5
St. Augustine held a similar opinion.6 Long before Copernicus wrote his book, Revolution of the
Heavenly Bodies (about A.D. 1542), we find that the medieval Jews had buried this secret in the
Zohar, in which may be read:
In the book of Hammannunah the Old we learn . . . that the earth turns upon itself in the form of a circle; that
some are on top, and others below; that all creatures change in aspect, following the manner of each place,
keeping however in the same position, but there are some countries of the earth which are lightened, whilst
others are in darkness; these have the day when for the former it is night; and there are countries in which it is
Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah page 9
constantly day, or in which at least the night continues only some instants. . . . These secrets were made known
to the men of the secret science but not to the geographers.7
Though refuted by Origen,8 Celsus was undoubtedly right when he declared that the primitive
Christian Church was possessed of a secret system, and Weishaupt, the supposed founder of the
Illuminati, may not have been altogether wrong when he said:
No one . . . has so cleverly concealed the high meaning of His teaching, and no one finally has so surely and
easily directed men on to the path of freedom, as our great master Jesus of Nazareth. This secret meaning and
natural consequence of His teaching He hid completely, for Jesus had a secret doctrine, as we see in more than
one place of the Scriptures.9
Whether this is so or not, there can be no doubt whatever that the Bible is a mystical work containing
a secret doctrine which is only known to those who have been initiated into it. What part of this
doctrine is will be discovered later on in this book.
From this brief excursion into the past it will be seen that secrecy has played an important part in
human history. The idea that all knowledge should be divulged and broadcast among the masses is
something quite modern. Even as late as the seventeenth century, when Leibnitz published in the Acta
Eruditorum of Leipzig his scheme of differential calculus, he did so in such a way as to hide both the
method and object from the uninitiated. Newton did the same with his invention of infinite series; and
algebra, as far as it was understood by the Arabians, was, as a secret, known to and hidden by certain
Italian mathematicians for three hundred years.
therefore be knowledge which is beyond the focus of the mind. The differential calculus is common
knowledge to the mathematician, and yet it is transcendental to the majority of mankind. So also with
practically all science; it is in itself the perquisite of the few whom we call the wise. Today the
fundamental difference between the science of this age and the science of past ages is that, whilst
formerly the universe was looked upon as being full of symbols which, when read correctly, could
lead us to the Real Being which they clothed, today the universe is considered to be Reality itself, a
tangible being, a something which exists separated from us and which we can probe with our physical
senses and take apart and put together again as if it were a machine. The mystical conception has been
replaced by the mechanical conception, and yet in itself the mystery remains as profound.
Christ understood this when He said: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye
your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”1 To
the common folk Christ spoke in parables, not because He was of a common mind, but because He
was an initiate and so understood how fine is the division between reason and madness, and how
easily can knowledge dissolve the filament which separates these two. This essential wisdom, and
wisdom is largely the application of knowledge to circumstances, has always been realized in the
East. Amongst the Jews, and Christ was of that race, we find it firmly established, and it is not a mere
coincidence that the Hebrew word Sod, which means “mystery” or “secrets”, has the same numerical
value, namely 70, as the Hebrew word which represents “wine”; for mystery can intoxicate as well as
refresh.
The mysteries of the early Hebrews were closely guarded by the Sons of the Doctrine, and it would
appear that many of their secrets were derived from Egypt and later on from Babylonia. We are told
that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians2 and that in the first four books of the
Pentateuch he has esoterically laid down the principles of the secret doctrine. He initiated seventy
elders into the mysteries,3 which they transmitted from mouth to ear. Generally speaking, the initiates
led an ascetic life in order to separate themselves from the ignorant and unwise, so that they might
guard against divulging their doctrines.
In these distant days the mysteries of Nature, and what is now called physical science, formed part
of the hidden cult. Thus Pythagoras, Anaximander, Nicetas, Heraclides, Aristarchus, Seleneus, and
Ecphantus believed in the rotundity of the earth or in its movement; the first of these philosophers
holding that each star was a world possessing its own atmosphere and surrounded by immense spaces
of ether.4 But this knowledge was never popularized for fear of upsetting religion, by means of which
authority over the ignorant masses was maintained. Early in the fourth century A.D. we find
Lactantius writing:
It is an absurdity to believe that there are men who have feet above their heads, and countries in which all is
inverted, in which the trees and plants grow from the top to the bottom. We find the germ of that error among
the philosophers who have claimed that the earth is round.5
St. Augustine held a similar opinion.6 Long before Copernicus wrote his book, Revolution of the
Heavenly Bodies (about A.D. 1542), we find that the medieval Jews had buried this secret in the
Zohar, in which may be read:
In the book of Hammannunah the Old we learn . . . that the earth turns upon itself in the form of a circle; that
some are on top, and others below; that all creatures change in aspect, following the manner of each place,
keeping however in the same position, but there are some countries of the earth which are lightened, whilst
others are in darkness; these have the day when for the former it is night; and there are countries in which it is
Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah page 9
constantly day, or in which at least the night continues only some instants. . . . These secrets were made known
to the men of the secret science but not to the geographers.7
Though refuted by Origen,8 Celsus was undoubtedly right when he declared that the primitive
Christian Church was possessed of a secret system, and Weishaupt, the supposed founder of the
Illuminati, may not have been altogether wrong when he said:
No one . . . has so cleverly concealed the high meaning of His teaching, and no one finally has so surely and
easily directed men on to the path of freedom, as our great master Jesus of Nazareth. This secret meaning and
natural consequence of His teaching He hid completely, for Jesus had a secret doctrine, as we see in more than
one place of the Scriptures.9
Whether this is so or not, there can be no doubt whatever that the Bible is a mystical work containing
a secret doctrine which is only known to those who have been initiated into it. What part of this
doctrine is will be discovered later on in this book.
From this brief excursion into the past it will be seen that secrecy has played an important part in
human history. The idea that all knowledge should be divulged and broadcast among the masses is
something quite modern. Even as late as the seventeenth century, when Leibnitz published in the Acta
Eruditorum of Leipzig his scheme of differential calculus, he did so in such a way as to hide both the
method and object from the uninitiated. Newton did the same with his invention of infinite series; and
algebra, as far as it was understood by the Arabians, was, as a secret, known to and hidden by certain
Italian mathematicians for three hundred years.
| The Jewish Secret Doctrines |
The world is a mystery, and mysteries are dangerous to the uninitiated: here are two facts which
would seem to be uncontradictable; for divulgence has invariably led to active discontent, caused by a
loss of balance between the spiritual and the mundane.
Like all other peoples, the Jews realized this, and long before the Qabalah was known as an occult
science, the mysteries of creation, evolution, and dissolution were locked up in their sacred writings.
Then came the great dispersion: a small people bereft of nationship was cast into a dissolving world,
and almost simultaneously a new cult arose called Christianity - a Jewish heresy. The reaction on
orthodox Jewry was instantaneous; for a tension was established which later on led to the persecution
of the Jews, whereupon the secrecy of the doctrines took on an accentuated form, for self-preservation
had now to be added to non-revelation. This led to the growth of oral traditions. The secret doctrines
were passed from mouth to mouth and were locked away in the brains of the priesthood and the
learned. Later, as persecution began to slacken, the written word once again began to appear, and by
degrees the Qabalah emerged into daylight.
This word is a curious one: its value is 70, which is, as we have seen, the numerical value of Sod
(dvs = 4+6+60) and “wine” (Oyy = 50 + 10 + 10) and also of “night” (lyl = 30 + 10 + 30) and “be
silent” (hsh = 5 + 6o + 5). Therefore it may be said to mean: “The secret which intoxicates, which is
as dark as night and which must not be divulged.”
The fountain-head of this doctrine is the Zohar, or Book of Splendour, a vast jumbled commentary
on the Pentateuch, written partly in Aramaic and partly in Hebrew. Tradition asserts that its author
was Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, who lived in the second century A.D.; of it Ginsburg says:
It was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise.
After the fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth,
to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to
Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch
allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some
knowledge of it, and the other eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who
was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his birth, but became most
proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the
whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the
lawgiver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of
the pilgrimages, wars, and the frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret
doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy. This constitutes the
former the man, and the latter the woman. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this
doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition,
David and Solomon were most initiated into the Kabbalah. No one, however, dared to write it down, till Simon
ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple . . .
After his death
His son, R. Eliezer, and his secretary, R. Abba, as well as his disciples, then collated R. Simon G. Jochai's
treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Sohar (rhz) i.e. Splendour, which is the grand
storehouse of Kabbalism.10
Turning from tradition to history: though here again evidence is none too secure, the Zohar is
attributed to Moses de Leon, a Qabalistic writer of the thirteenth century, and quite possibly parts of it
were written by him. The whole compilation covers a vast ground and comprises:
1. The Sefer Ha-Zohar, The Book of Splendour11 - the main commentary.
2. The Sifra-di-Tseniuta, The Book of the Veiled Mystery.12
3. The Sitré Torah, Secrets of the Torah.
4. The Ra'ya Mahemna, The True Shepherd.
5. The Midrush Ha-he'lam, The Recondite Exposition.
6. The Tosefta, Additions.
7. The Hekaloth, Halls or Palaces.
8. The Idra Rabba, The Greater Synod.13
9. The Idra Zuta, The Lesser Synod.14
The first printed editions of the Zohar appeared almost simultaneously at Mantua and Cremona in
1558 - 60. Later editions are those of Lublin, 1623; Amsterdam, 1714 and 1805; Constantinople,
1736; and Venice. Of translations, Knorr von Rosenroth produced his Kabbalah Denudata in 1677-8,
a Latin version of the Sifra-di-Tseniuta, the Idra Rabba, and Idra Zuta, which in 1887 were translated
into English by S. L. Macgregor Mathers under the title of The Kabbalah Unveiled. In 1906, a
complete translation of the Zohar into French was made by M. Jean de Pauly. Besides these, there is
also the Soncino edition of the Sefer Ha-Zohar; this appeared in English between 1931 and 1934.
Of books dealing with the Qabalah there is a large number, of which the following is a small
selection which may be useful to the student. Qabbalah, The Philosophical Writings of Solomon Ben
Yehudah Ibn Gebirol or Avicebron, Isaac Myer, 1888; La Kabbale ou La Philosophie Religieuse des
Hébreux, Ad. Franck, 1889. The Kabbalah, Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature, Christian D.
Ginsburg, second impression, 1920. The Holy Kabbalah, A. E. Waite, 1929. The Secret Doctrine of
Israel, A. E. Waite, 1913. The History of Magic, Eliphas Lévi, 1913. The Book of Formation or
Sepher Yetzirah, Knut Stenring, 1923. The Zohar in Moslem and Christian Spain, Ariel Bension,
1932. A Garden of Pomegranates, Israel Regardie, 1932. Q.B.L. or The Bride's Reception, Frater
Achad, 1922. The Anatomy of the Body of God, Frater Achad, 1925.
would seem to be uncontradictable; for divulgence has invariably led to active discontent, caused by a
loss of balance between the spiritual and the mundane.
Like all other peoples, the Jews realized this, and long before the Qabalah was known as an occult
science, the mysteries of creation, evolution, and dissolution were locked up in their sacred writings.
Then came the great dispersion: a small people bereft of nationship was cast into a dissolving world,
and almost simultaneously a new cult arose called Christianity - a Jewish heresy. The reaction on
orthodox Jewry was instantaneous; for a tension was established which later on led to the persecution
of the Jews, whereupon the secrecy of the doctrines took on an accentuated form, for self-preservation
had now to be added to non-revelation. This led to the growth of oral traditions. The secret doctrines
were passed from mouth to mouth and were locked away in the brains of the priesthood and the
learned. Later, as persecution began to slacken, the written word once again began to appear, and by
degrees the Qabalah emerged into daylight.
This word is a curious one: its value is 70, which is, as we have seen, the numerical value of Sod
(dvs = 4+6+60) and “wine” (Oyy = 50 + 10 + 10) and also of “night” (lyl = 30 + 10 + 30) and “be
silent” (hsh = 5 + 6o + 5). Therefore it may be said to mean: “The secret which intoxicates, which is
as dark as night and which must not be divulged.”
The fountain-head of this doctrine is the Zohar, or Book of Splendour, a vast jumbled commentary
on the Pentateuch, written partly in Aramaic and partly in Hebrew. Tradition asserts that its author
was Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, who lived in the second century A.D.; of it Ginsburg says:
It was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise.
After the fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth,
to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to
Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch
allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some
knowledge of it, and the other eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who
was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his birth, but became most
proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the
whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the
lawgiver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of
the pilgrimages, wars, and the frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret
doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy. This constitutes the
former the man, and the latter the woman. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this
doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition,
David and Solomon were most initiated into the Kabbalah. No one, however, dared to write it down, till Simon
ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple . . .
After his death
His son, R. Eliezer, and his secretary, R. Abba, as well as his disciples, then collated R. Simon G. Jochai's
treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Sohar (rhz) i.e. Splendour, which is the grand
storehouse of Kabbalism.10
Turning from tradition to history: though here again evidence is none too secure, the Zohar is
attributed to Moses de Leon, a Qabalistic writer of the thirteenth century, and quite possibly parts of it
were written by him. The whole compilation covers a vast ground and comprises:
1. The Sefer Ha-Zohar, The Book of Splendour11 - the main commentary.
2. The Sifra-di-Tseniuta, The Book of the Veiled Mystery.12
3. The Sitré Torah, Secrets of the Torah.
4. The Ra'ya Mahemna, The True Shepherd.
5. The Midrush Ha-he'lam, The Recondite Exposition.
6. The Tosefta, Additions.
7. The Hekaloth, Halls or Palaces.
8. The Idra Rabba, The Greater Synod.13
9. The Idra Zuta, The Lesser Synod.14
The first printed editions of the Zohar appeared almost simultaneously at Mantua and Cremona in
1558 - 60. Later editions are those of Lublin, 1623; Amsterdam, 1714 and 1805; Constantinople,
1736; and Venice. Of translations, Knorr von Rosenroth produced his Kabbalah Denudata in 1677-8,
a Latin version of the Sifra-di-Tseniuta, the Idra Rabba, and Idra Zuta, which in 1887 were translated
into English by S. L. Macgregor Mathers under the title of The Kabbalah Unveiled. In 1906, a
complete translation of the Zohar into French was made by M. Jean de Pauly. Besides these, there is
also the Soncino edition of the Sefer Ha-Zohar; this appeared in English between 1931 and 1934.
Of books dealing with the Qabalah there is a large number, of which the following is a small
selection which may be useful to the student. Qabbalah, The Philosophical Writings of Solomon Ben
Yehudah Ibn Gebirol or Avicebron, Isaac Myer, 1888; La Kabbale ou La Philosophie Religieuse des
Hébreux, Ad. Franck, 1889. The Kabbalah, Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature, Christian D.
Ginsburg, second impression, 1920. The Holy Kabbalah, A. E. Waite, 1929. The Secret Doctrine of
Israel, A. E. Waite, 1913. The History of Magic, Eliphas Lévi, 1913. The Book of Formation or
Sepher Yetzirah, Knut Stenring, 1923. The Zohar in Moslem and Christian Spain, Ariel Bension,
1932. A Garden of Pomegranates, Israel Regardie, 1932. Q.B.L. or The Bride's Reception, Frater
Achad, 1922. The Anatomy of the Body of God, Frater Achad, 1925.
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The Secret Wisdom Of The Qabalah: Introduction