PierreKanazawaHermetic Kabbalah - Introduction
Welcome. This site attempts to be the broadest, least partisan, and most informed source about Kabbalah available on the WWW.
gabuwuNot gonna lie, this makes me deeply uncomfortable. Kabbalah is just a word for Jewish mysticism. It is closed practice and non-Jews aren’t supposed to delve deep into it, not because Jews have this weird sinister desire to hide this hidden knowledge but because it has gotten us murdered in the past. The word cabal is specifically in reference to Kabbalah. Alongside that, most resources on Kabbalah you find online is deeply inaccurate or completely misinterpreted outside of the specific Jewish context. Within the religious context of Judaism though, there is a commonly held opinion that non-Jews who attempt to study Kabbalah will be driven to madness by it.
Miryem [she/her]Honestly, good luck. (Parts of) western occultism is steeped in antisemitism and built on demonization of jews and appropriation of judaism & jewish culture. Its super disheartening to see what basically amounts to ‘lies that got us killed’ revered as great and amazing works. Especially the “jewish magician” bullshit.
To quote Gershom Scholem on hermetic qabalah (via Ezra Rose): “[…] the activities of the French and English occultists contributed nothing and only served to create considerable confusion between the teachings of the Kabbalah and own totally unrelated inventions, such as the alleged kabbalistic origins of the Tarot-cards. To this category of supreme charlatanism belong the many and widely read books of Eliphas Levi (actually Alphonse Louis Constant; 1810-1875), Papus (Gérard Encausse; 1868-1916), and Frater Perdurabo (Aleister Crowley; 1875-1946), all of whom had an infinitesimal knowledge of Kabbalah that did not prevent them from drawing freely on their imaginations instead.”
DamnatoWestern Esotericism has probably been the most pro-Jewish religion there is. There is no end to authors that praise Kabbalah as signifying the Jews having figured out the divine mysteries, from Johannes Reuchlin, to Agrippa, to Pico Mirandola. Scholem is talking about English Occultists twisting Kabbalah, like John Dee, and most likely Christian Kabbalists. Have you read the whole book?