Each issue of the Rosicrucian Digest provides members and all interested readers with a compendium of materials regarding the ongoing flow of the Rosicrucian Timeline. The articles, historical excerpts, art, and literature included in this Digest span the ages, and are not only interesting in themselves, but also seek to provide a lasting reference shelf to stimulate continuing study of all of those factors which make up Rosicrucian history and thought. Therefore, we present classical background, historical development, and modern reflections on each of our subjects, using the many forms of primary sources, reflective commentaries, the arts, creative fiction, and poetry. This magazine is dedicated• to all the women and men throughout the ages who have contributed to and perpetuated the wisdom of the Rosicrucian, Western esoteric, Tradition. May we ever be •worthy of the light with which we have been entrusted. In this issue, we explore• the tradition received from Kabbalah, from its ancient beginnings to its practical application in the present day. Rosicrucian Digest No. 2 2012 Page ii No. 2 - 2012 Vol. 90 - No. 2 Peter Kingsley, Ph.D. “Paths of the Ancient Sages: A Pythagorean History” Kabbalah: A Brief Overview 2 Giulia Minicuci and Mary Jones, S.R.C.Joshua “P Maggid,ythagoras Ph.D., the FRC Teacher: From Samos to Metapontum” Official Magazine of the Introduction to the Sefer Yetzirah 8 Worldwide Aryeh Kaplan Rosicrucian Order Sepher Yetzirah 11 The Legend of the Lost Word 17 Established in 1915 by the Supreme RuthGrand Phelps, Lodge S.R.C. of the English“The SchoolLanguage of Pythagoras”Ralph M. Lewis, FRC Jurisdiction, AMORC, Rosicrucian Anonymous Park, San Jose, “The CA Golden95191. Verses of Pythagoras”Three Kabbalistic Meditations from 20 the Sepher Yetzirah AntoineCopyright Fabre 2012 d’Olivet, by the Supreme “EGrandxcerpt from Examination of the Golden Verses” Lodge of AMORC, Inc. All rights Julie Scott, SRC Hughreserved. McCague, Republication Ph.D., of F.R.C.any portion “Pythagoreans and Sculptors: The Canon of Polykleitos Melanieof Rosicrucian Richards, Digest M.Mus., is prohibited S.R.C. “PMasculineythagoras and FeminineMusic” Symbolism in 27 without prior written permission of the Kabbalah Lisa publisher.Spencer, M.A.O.M., S.R.C. “The Neo-Pythagoreans at the Porta Maggiore in Lloyd Abrams, Ph.D., FRC Rome” ROSICRUCIAN DIGEST (ISSN #0035–8339) is published bi-annually Jeanfor Guesdon, $12.00 per S.R.Cyear, single copies $6.00,“Silence” Pico della Mirandola and the Cabala 35 by the Grand Lodge of the English Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, D. Phil. FraterLanguage X, Jurisdiction,“Music AMORC, of the Spheres and Pythagorean Numerology” Inc., at 1342 Naglee Ave., San Jose, Ben CAFinger, 95191. POSTMASTER:“Apollonius: Send Man orThe Myth?” Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix 41 Ralphaddress M. Lewis,changes F.R.C.to ROSICRUCIAN “Reviewing Christian our Acts” Rebisse, FRC DIGEST at 1342 Naglee Ave., San Jose, CA 95191–0001. Staff of the Rosicrucian Research LibraryThe Kabbalah:“A Pythagorean Secret Tradition Bookshelf” of the West 44 Papus Kabbalah and Contemporary Cosmology 48 Daniel C. Matt, Ph.D. Page 1 Kabbalah: A Brief Overview Joshua Maggid, Ph.D., FRC here are strong connections with traditional Jewish Kabbalah out of their Kabbalah in Rosicrucianism and religious context and presents them as TMartinism, and Kabbalah remains a collection of practical techniques for an important aspect of the teachings of finding happiness, fulfillment, prosperity, the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC and the relationships, etc. Traditional Martinist Order. In this article, Another common way of classifying Joshua Maggid, a longtime Rosicrucian and different types of Kabbalah is according to Martinist who has studied Kabbalah for many the kinds of activities involved. years, presents a brief overview of Kabbalah, including Jewish, Christian, and Hermetic “Theoretical Kabbalah” or “Theosophical Kabbalah. Kabbalah” includes a system of metaphysics, a description of the inner For those beginning to learn about it, workings of Divinity and how it interacts Kabbalah can be difficult and confusing. with the material world, and methods of Different books say different things. Any deriving esoteric interpretations of the two books on Kabbalah may address Holy Scriptures.3 completely different topics, or they “Meditative Kabbalah” consists of a may provide conflicting definitions and wide variety of practices aimed at attaining interpretations of the same material. In higher states of consciousness, exploring the addition, authors use different English spiritual realm, encountering the Divine, spellings for the same Hebrew terms. and receiving new spiritual insights.4 This One reason for this is that there are is also referred to as “Mystical Kabbalah” several different systems or traditions and “Prophetic Kabbalah.” that all refer to themselves as “Kabbalah.” “Practical Kabbalah” refers to theurgy There is Jewish Kabbalah, Christian and magic, attempting to influence the 1 Kabbalah, and Hermetic Kabbalah. Divine Realm and produce practical Christian and Hermetic Kabbalah borrow effects in the material world. To some concepts, terms, and techniques from extent, however, these distinctions can be Jewish Kabbalah, but they may use them somewhat arbitrary. Some modern authors differently, and they incorporate elements in the Hermetic or Magical tradition from other traditions. Even within see magic more as a system of spiritual traditional Jewish Kabbalah, because it development rather than an exercise of has existed over many centuries and in personal power.5 different parts of the world, there have developed a variety of different systems, Jewish Kabbalah 2 Rosicrucian schools, and methods. In recent years, Some authors apply the word Digest there has also appeared a kind of “New “Kabbalah” to all of Jewish mysticism, No. 2 Age Kabbalah,” which takes elements of going back thousands of years, including 2012 Page 2 the Merkavah tradition and even the of the Zohar were first circulated in Spain Biblical prophets. Others reserve the term by Rabbi Moshe de Leon in the 1290s. He “Kabbalah” for the specific form of Jewish claimed that he found them, and that they mysticism that began around the twelfth were written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and thirteenth centuries CE in southern in the second century CE. Academic France and in Spain. That was when the scholars generally believe that the Zohar word “Kabbalah” was first used to refer to was actually written by de Leon himself, these writings and activities. or possibly by a group with which he was Merkavah Mysticism (The Work of associated. It may have incorporated or the Chariot) is sometimes classified as expanded upon earlier oral traditions. pre-Kabbalistic or as Early Kabbalah. Its Mostly written in a form of Aramaic, dates are usually given as starting around much of the Zohar is extremely arcane and the second century BCE and continuing notoriously difficult to understand. for about a thousand years. These mystics would meditate and send their souls upward, proceeding through a series of seven holy palaces or chambers. Each chamber provides a different spiritual experience. They hoped to eventually reach the seventh and highest chamber and receive a divine vision like the one described by the prophet Ezekiel [1:1-28]. The Sefer Yetzirah6 (The Book of Formation) is often called the oldest Kabbalistic text.7 It describes in detail how God used the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet to create everything in the universe. When properly interpreted, it can also be read as a meditation manual that describes a number of meditation techniques using the Hebrew letters. Traditionally attributed to the Biblical Statue of Moshe de Leon in Guadalajara, Spain. patriarch Abraham, the origin of the Sefer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_de_leon Yetzirah is unknown, but some date it to around the second or third century CE. In the sixteenth century, the city of The Sefer ha Zohar8 (The Book of Safed (Tzfat), in what is now Israel, was a Splendor) is generally acknowledged to be major center of the flourishing of Kabbalah. the most important Kabbalistic writing. Many important figures emerged in Safed Not a single book, but a collection at that time, but the most influential figure of books, the Zohar contains esoteric for Kabbalah was Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534- interpretations of the Holy Scriptures and 1572), often referred to as “the Ari” or descriptions of the inner workings of the “the Arizal.” He provided a new approach Divine Realm. Much of it is in the form of to understanding and interpreting the stories about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Zohar, and he constructed a very detailed his companions, traveling around the Holy description of the creation of the universe, Land and discussing the hidden meanings the divine emanations, and the process of of the scriptures. Manuscripts of portions reincarnation.9 Page 3 During the European Enlightenment Giovanni Pico della Mirandola of the eighteenth century, science and (1463-1494) had books on Kabbalah rationality came to the fore, and interest translated from Hebrew into Latin, and in mysticism diminished. In Judaism, he also wrote books on Kabbalah. He the failure of the messianic Sabbatean argued that the Catholic Church should movement in the seventeenth century incorporate Kabbalah and magic into had discredited Kabbalah in the eyes of Christian theology. Pico believed that, by many, and mysticism generally lost its employing Kabbalistic methods of esoteric appeal. While Kabbalah was attacked interpretation, he could use the Hebrew and suppressed by the dominant forces, Scriptures to prove the truth of Christian a form of Kabbalah was perpetuated by teachings such as the divinity of Jesus the Hassidic movement starting in the and the doctrine of the Trinity. One of eighteenth century in Eastern Europe. his famous “Nine Hundred Theses” was: Hassidism conveyed Kabbalah in a “There is no science that assures us more somewhat popularized form that allowed of the divinity of Christ than magic and for encountering the Divine in nature Cabala.”11 and everyday life rather than exclusively through scriptural study and complex meditative techniques.