Western Esoteric Qabalah is a blend of traditional Qabalistic teachings,
Gnosticism, Hermetic Philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Neo-Pythagoreanism, Alchemy,
Astrology, and Tarot. All of the Western Wisdom traditions can be understood
through the medium of the Qabalistic symbol - the Tree of Life. That being
said, we use the name Qabalah which is obviously Hebrew, and a large
proportionate amount of what we are dealing with here had its beginnings in
the Hebrew Qabalah, the oral tradition of mysticism practiced by the ancient
Hebrews. Scholem who is one of the foremost scholars of Jewish Qabalah
states that its beginnings were in Jewish Gnosticism and Neo-Platonism a
philosophy and theory developed by the Greek Plato. In this theory, Plato
espoused that the universe was made up of emanations of energy which
hierarchically descend and radiate from the Godhead through intermediate
stages finally forming physical matter and the world we live in. This theory
of Emanations is where the idea of the Sephirotic spheres was developed.
Traditional Hebrew Qabalah today, on the other hand, functions as a part of
the spiritual practices and wisdom of Judaism. In Orthodox Judaism, Qabalah
is used only to interpret the workings of God, the Penteteuch (the first 5
books of the Bible) and the Holy texts of Judaism. Qabalah is a part of this
tradition and is used in a very specific way. Hebrew Qabalah of today tries
not to vary from its beginnings in Judaism's mystical traditions and is still
taught orally, although utilizing various texts as well, only to men over 30
years of age. The Sephir Yetzirah-Book of Formation is the first important
text, originating from the oral tradition and was written down sometime
between the 3rd-6th centuries C.E. It contains six brief chapters and is the
first book in which the word Sephiroth appears. This book describes the
creation of the Universe in terms of the Hebrew alphabet and symbolic numbers
undoubtedly related to Neo-Pythagoreanism.
The Sephir Yetzirah then became the foundation of later texts. The next
flurry of writing and work with the Holy Qabalah was in the Middle Ages and
into the Renaissance. Other important texts include the Bahir, written
around 1200 CE in southern France. Here we have the first references to the
Secret Tree (the Tree of Life) and the description of the Sephiroth as
vessels of the Divine Light. It is theorized that the Bahir was probably
assembled from other texts that were probably of Eastern origin.
Then between 1280-1286 CE, Moses de Leon wrote perhaps the greatest text on
QBL, the Zohar, a series of commentaries on the Bible and on mystical
cosmology. For generations considered an ancient work written in Ancient
Aramaic, a language which is the root of Hebrew and Arabic, Moses de Leon
felt that his work would be taken more seriously if rather than naming
himself as the author, instead should be attributed to an ancient author,
thus 2nd century rabbi Simeon ben Yohai. There exists no complete
translation in a European language - Simon and Sperling translated only 35%,
while Kabbalah Unveiled contains three more books.
At this time Spain was a hotbed of knowledge under Muslim rule with scholars
studying alchemy, astrology and with much tolerant exchange of ideas between
Muslims and Jews, even Christians, in Muslim Spain. Another important work,
Gates of Light, Sha'are Orah, was also produced at this time which is an
excellent text on Hebrew names of God.
In the Renaissance man considered himself the jewel in the crown of the
Universe, becoming the measure of all things, rather than the lowly sinner
atoning for the fall. Hermetic philosophy came to the fore and another great
exchange of ideas with Qabalah being studied by the Christian Scholar
magicians. Under this influence Qabalah now was grasped by Christians as a
universal system and a great tool. A few Jewish converts to Christianity
helped speed this occurrence. This exchange of ideas and interest dovetails
with Hermeticism as a major interest of the time. In 1460 CE Cosimo De
Medici, realizing the value of the Hermetica, asked his translator to do it
first before even a text of Plato's Republic.
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