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The Hermetic Journal and Myself Should Be Based Here for About Two Years Issue Number 31 - Spring 1986 Edited by Adam McLean 1Banbury Rd Tysoe, Warwickshire CV35 OSS Tel: 029 588 746 CONTENTS ISSUE NUMBER 31 1 Editorial 3 News and Information 5 The Seven Palaces in Early Jewish Mysticism Dr Deirdre Green 0 20 A Method of Photographing Etheric Energy Without the Need of Special Operator Properties Michael Watson O 26 The Alchemical Vessel as Symbol of the Soul Adam McLean O 35 Alchemical Mandala Number 28 Regular feature 36 Reviews and Book Notices A collection ofSacred~ayick.Com 4 he Esoteric Library EDITORIAL that the work of the Journal and publishing ventures has now been With the previous issue of the entirely secured for the future. Journal I sent out a letter As you all know, this work is only acquainting subscribers and marginally profitable, indeed it colleagues with the difficulties I is entirely unrealistic to expect had experienced through moving to such specialist esoteric Wales. The response was publishing ever to survive well in overwhelming and very heartening. the commercial sphere. So I have Many people wrote or telephoned to decided, as suggested in my show their concern, offering me earlier letter to found a good advice as to how best to non-profit making educational resolve things. This certainly Charity dedicated to researching demonstrated to me that people and preserving the Hermetic want to support the Hermetic tradition. (The proposed aims and Journal and the publishing objects of this Trust are on page activities and wish this work to 3 of this issue). continue and develop further. This provisionally titled The last few months have been 'Hermetic Research Trust' will rather hectic, but I can announce continue the work that has been 1 initiated through the Journal and develop between the Journal the publications, I will be the activities and its subscribers. I Director of the Trust, and will hope to be able to involve more donate all the equipment, people directly in the work of the bookstock, etc. Whenever people proposed 'Hermetic Research subscribe to the Journal, buy Trust', so if anyone has any books, make a donation, or give suggestions of ways in which they some of their time to help the would like to help please contact Trust, they will be directly me. supporting the aims and objects of This is an extremely important and promoting interest in the Hermetic exciting time for me. I believe tradition we all love and wish to the work I initiated over seven see unfold further in our present years ago out of my belief in the age. spiritual impulse still living in The process of transforming the the Hermetic tradition, though existing business to a 'Hermetic constricted and thrown into crisis Research Trust', could not be made by the move to Wales, is now going without new resources becoming through a new spurt of growth, and available, particularly some is being transmuted into a new property to act as a new base for form that will ensure its survival the work. The Marquess of well into the next century. Northampton has been kind enough I thank all of you who have helped to help out by providing me over the past years, and accomodation for myself and the especially those regular Hermetic Journal activities at subscribers to the Journal, whose Tysoe near Stratford-upon-Avon in unwavering support has stimulated Warwickshire. This has resolved my and encouraged me to undertake all immediate difficulties over the the laborious and time-consuming situation in Wales and I will move tasks that are necessary if these to Warwickshire in mid February. materials are to be published. The Marquess of Northampton, who In the next decade or so we are supports many charitable activ- going to witness exciting new ities, is also helping greatly developments in the Hermetic work, over the legal procedures involved and I hope the Journal, Magnum in setting up the Charitable Opus and the new 'Hermetic Trust. Research Trust' will be able to Many exciting possibilities for play a part in this. I hope that the future of the work are now many of the subscribers to the beginning to unfold, and in Journal, my fellow researchers and particular I expect to be based in colleagues, will feel able to join central London in about two years with me in contributing to these time, when there will be a further developments. expansion of the Hermetic work. Details of these future developments will be announced later in the Journal. So in a few months, once the legal technicalities have been finalised, the work of the Journal will be established as a Charity. There will be little outward sign of this change, the Journal continuing as usual as will the publications, but I hope that a new closer relationship might *** NEWS AND INFORMATION *** The proposed initial 'working draft' for the aims and object of 'Hermetic Research Trust'. Please note that this have to be amended or expressed in other words in order to satisfy the Charity Commissioners. A final version should be available in a few months time. 'The Hermetic Research Trust' An educational Charitable Trust established to promote and encourage interest in the heritage of the hermetic tradition and show its continuing relevance as a source of inspiration both to cultural life and to the personal spiritual growth of the individual. To further these aims the Hermetic Research Trust will work :- * To sponsor and encourage serious research into the original manuscripts and source documents of the hermetic tradition and make this available to the public through books, exhibitions and conferences. * To sponsor and encourage the editing, translation and publication of the important source works of the hermetic tradition that have been neglected. * To promote and encourage greater understanding of the continuing relevance of the philosophical, symbolic, aesthetic, spiritual and cultural ideas underlying the hermetic tradition in all its facets. WEEKEND WORKSHOP 24 - 25th MAY Iam undertaking an intensive weekend workshop to be held in London in May, organised by the Wrekin Trust. There are only a limited number of places, so if you wish to attend, please book early - direct to the Wrekin Trust, Marbury House, St. Owen St, Hereford HR1 2PR (tel 0432 266551) - I enclose their leaflet with the mailing of this issue. Please note I cannot personally handle any bookings. NEW ADDRESS Please note my new address as from mid-February will be, 1Banbury Road Tysoe, Warwickshire, CV35 OSS Tel: 029 588 746 This is in a small village between Stratford-u~on-Avonand Banbury, and halfway between Birmingham and Oxford. It is easily accessible by many major roads. The Hermetic Journal and myself should be based here for about two years. I would be delighted if some of my subscribers took the opportunity of visiting me, and especially would welcome any regular help (such as binding the Journal or typing) from anyone living relatively nearby. Mail will be redirected by the Post Office from my previous addresses, you need not worry if you temporarily lose this new address. It should take until mid March to get my new workspace fully organised, but I don't foresee any insurmountable problems over this, and things should quickly get back to normal. A Collection ofSacred~ajick.Com 4 he Esoteric ~ibrary THE SEVEN PALACES IN EARLY JEWISH MYSTICISM Dr Deirdre Green O The early Jewish Hekhalot mystical tradition is not well known outside Judaic circles; little scholarly research has been done on it, and modern esoteric groups, although drawing widely on later Jewish mystical and occult thought, have given it no substantial attention. Even within Judaic circles, it was a closely guarded, unorthodox, esoteric system. It appears to have initially developed from prophetic visions such as those described in the books of Ezekiel and Isaiah [l] where (to abstract a typical example) the visionary sees God sitting on a throne in a crystal firmament, surrounded by fire, with the Cherubim and the Four Holy Living Creatures nearby. From these types of visions developed speculations forming the basis for Merkavah or "Chariot" mysticism: the "Chariot" refers to the culmination of the mystic's vision, where a celestial chariot carrying the Divine Throne, such as was seen by Ezekiel, is perceived 123; although here and there we receive hints that the chariot is also a kind of spiritual ltvehicle" or "bodyIg which the initiate would use to ascend to higher states of awareness and vision. The first full scale literary presentation of Merkavah mysticism is in the Hekhalot ("Palaces") literature; the texts that survive are mostly from the period 300 or 400 C.E. to the early Middle Ages. The Merkavah and Hekhalot traditions can hardly be separated. For purposes of clarity, I refer throughout to qqHekhalot" mysticism when indicating experiences connected with the Seven Palaces (Hekhalot), and to "Merkavah" mysticism when referring to the broader stream of the movement and to experiences of its members which do not in themselves necessarily involve reference to the Palaces. (The word hekhal in fact may mean a temple as well as a palace.) Later, the tradition was continued -- with some modifications and alterations -- in medieval Kabbalah and Hasidism, and its symbolism even seems to have crept into the writings of the Spanish Carmelite mystic St. Teresa of Avila. (See my article 'St Teresa of Avila and Hekhalot Mysticism', Studies in Religion, Vol 13, No 3, Summer 1984). Traces of the Merkavah tradition can also be found in Apocalyptic literature (the Revelation of St. John, discussed later, being an interesting and relatively well known example), and in Qumran texts. Merkavah and Hekhalot mysticism was an occult-orientated mystical system: that is, it made elaborate use of magical names, invocations, guided visualisation and related techniques, and it was an esoteric system revealed only to initiates.
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