Aetherous

Pure sources of Kabbalah

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I have no real exposure to Kabbalah, but maybe others here do. Feel free to share.

 

(By "pure sources" I simply mean, not kabbalah tied into any particular magickal system...lets JUST talk kabbalah in this thread..."pure" doesn't have anything to do with a particular source being unquestionable in its legitimacy. But that can be discussed, too.)

 

I like these preview videos that I've stumbled upon in the past couple of days...

 

http://www.kabbalah.com/where_to_begin

http://learn.kabbalah.com/power-kabbalah-1

http://learn.kabbalah.com/power-kabbalah-level-2

http://learn.kabbalah.com/power-kabbalah-3

 

...

 

This website appears to offer everything (courses, books, etc) at no cost:

 

http://edu.kabbalah.info/home

Edited by turtle shell
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Hey... wanna learn a cool trick?

...

See kabbalah right there?

...

See these 10 sephirots on it?

...

Draw a long horizontal line over each one of them

...

Know what you get?

...

Seven lines

...

Crazy, huh?

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Hey... wanna learn a cool trick?

...

See kabbalah right there?

...

See these 10 sephirots on it?

...

Draw a long horizontal line over each one of them

...

Know what you get?

...

Seven lines

...

Crazy, huh?

 

Yawn. Sinfest is in a slump. Need to practice more horse stance.

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I will post some links and info. when I return home. Aryeh Kaplan, Daniel Matt are two very excellent writers on the subject. Also the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia is well worth a Google search.

 

I would recommend avoiding the above links. Rav Berg sells red strings and expensive water that has been blessed by him. Google it.

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We see that your tree of life isn't rooted. :D

 

...

 

I would recommend avoiding the above links. Rav Berg sells red strings and expensive water that has been blessed by him. Google it.

 

Yea, I had heard this before...and of course their lessons books etc cost a bit of money.

 

What do you think of the last link, where everything is free?

Edited by turtle shell

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If you want a pure source to learn from, nothing is much more pure than the Sepher Yetzirah, the Book of Creation. This is one of the works that any other author you can reference will have based their information off of, and is one of the earliest explanations of the Kaballah available. I believe several translations of it are available, although I can't vouch for one over the others.

If you want a pure source to learn from, nothing is much more pure than the Sepher Yetzirah, the Book of Creation. This is one of the works that any other author you can reference will have based their information off of, and is one of the earliest explanations of the Kaballah available. I believe several translations of it are available, although I can't vouch for one over the others.

 

I have Kaplan's translation. Other recommendations?

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I know the OP asked for pure sources, and this definitely does not qualify, but I developed a very different depth of understanding of the Qabalah from Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah. The thing that I discovered is that the quality of her descriptions was clear enough and accurate enough to make it worthwhile for me to read despite cultural and practical elements I did not agree with entirely. I have been trying to layer multiple sources, and have also been working to integrate my work with the Tarot as I study it. Having each of these elements working together has been really beneficial for me in terms of my overall understanding.

 

In what way is Kaplan's translation not recommended?

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Its purity is questionable, but I like Abulafiah's (1240-1290) work as translated in Ecstatic Kabbalah by Rabbi David Cooper. Its not intellectual, its chanting, breath work, a system of sacred vowels. Not wholly different then Egyptian and Shinto practices.

 

A great free practice is from Abardoncompanion.com. Rawn Clark's 'Magic of IHVH-ADNI' series of 8 lessons. It's kabbalah with a Hermetic Bardonian twist. A channeled work (thus not pure) that starts simple and gets very deep. He has later audio's that use it as a healing device.

 

Much Kabbalic study is very intellectual with complex diagrams, lists and structures, both of the above are experiential without being new agey.

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The study of the Holy Kabbalah is like building a pyramid--one adds layers to one's understanding in a stepwise fashion until the knowledge becomes part of one's Being.

 

Here is a list of books which form a (possible) progressive study of Kabbalah:

 

A Garden of Pomegranates -- Israel Regardie

The Essential Kabbalah -- Daniel C. Matt

The Mystical Qabalah -- Dion Fortune

Sepher Yetzirah -- Aryeh Kaplan

Zohar, the Book of Splendor--Basic Readings from the Kabbalah -- edited by Gershom Scholem

De Arte Cabalistica. On the Art of the Kabbalah -- Johann Reuchlin

The Book of Splendours: The Inner Mysteries of Qabalism -- Eliphas Levi

The Mysteries of the Qabalah -- Eliphas Levi

The Holy Kabbalah -- Arthur Edward Waite

Edited by theurgy

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Note: in my list above I neglected to include Angels and Other Mysteries of the Tree of Life by Omraam Michael Aivanhov.

In reviewing its contents it has struck me that this may be the single best overview and introduction to the Holy Kabbalah I have read. In it, Aivanhov (whose level of attainment is very apparent) clearly explains in simple language what the Kabbalah is and why one should study it. This little book is highly recommended for beginning and advanced students alike.

 

Oh, and what's this? It happens to be available on scribd:

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/58466844/Omraam-Mikhael-Aivanhov-Angels-and-Other-Mysteries-of-the-Tree-of-Life

 

Enjoy, friends :)

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I'm not a wise Kabbalist, but I understand that it is often a good idea to expand our view of a thing as much as possible.

By including every tiny details, we can let our wisdom grow day by day.

 

For this reason, I want to suggest a book that can give a nice taste of the kabbalist ground.

What is really cool in this book is the portraits of the real Masters of the art.

After reading this book, I matured a very high opinion of the level of attainments that this science can give. Not for the miraculous stories, but for the teachings itself.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Gates-Jiri-Langer/dp/0227675525

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This is a difficult topic. You could spend much of your time researching what is pure kabbalah before actually getting into studying anything.

 

There's cabalah, qabbala, and kabbalah - each representing some group: gnostic, tarot, golden dawn/hermetic, and Jewish.

 

No idea what the difference is between all of them, but I'm sure within each group there are subsets of thought and schools. I would agree with Dainin about the site he recommends, probably the most accessible you can find.also try the walking stick foundation. I dont want to be discouraging but reading aryeh Kaplans books will almost certainly not get you anywhere. And reading original texts straight up is a waste of time....these are very complex texts. Please note this would all be Kabbalah.

 

I've not read any kabbalah Centre stuff but would be curious what they're view is.

Edited by daojones
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I dont want to be discouraging but reading aryeh Kaplans books will almost certainly not get you anywhere.

 

With all manner of respect, this is such a ridiculous statement that it is nearly legendary. While this may be true for you, it seems fairly unwise to conclude that this should be the case for everyone else. Also, to flippantly dismiss the work of this brilliant scholar who has demystified so much of the Kabbalah for the layperson is truly the stuff poppycock is made of! Therefore, I will disagree with you as Aryeh Kaplan has written several books which most certainly helped me:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Space-Introduction-Kabbalah-Meditation/dp/0940118564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354506535&sr=8-1&keywords=innerspace+aryeh+kaplan

 

http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Bible-Aryeh-Kaplan/dp/0877286175/ref=la_B001JX0XDG_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1354506558&sr=1-6

 

http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Kabbalah-Aryeh-Kaplan/dp/0877286167/ref=la_B001JX0XDG_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1354506558&sr=1-7

 

His translation of the Sepher Yetzirah was already mentioned in this thread. All of these books are LOADED with PRACTICAL techniques to experiment with and test the results therefrom.

 

Of course as ever, one must DO the work or these books "will almost certainly not get you anywhere" as you so eloquently pointed out.

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This is a difficult topic. You could spend much of your time researching what is pure kabbalah before actually getting into studying anything.

 

There's cabalah, qabbala, and kabbalah - each representing some group: gnostic, tarot, golden dawn/hermetic, and Jewish.

 

No idea what the difference is between all of them, but I'm sure within each group there are subsets of thought and schools. I would agree with Dainin about the site he recommends, probably the most accessible you can find.also try the walking stick foundation. I dont want to be discouraging but reading aryeh Kaplans books will almost certainly not get you anywhere. And reading original texts straight up is a waste of time....these are very complex texts. Please note this would all be Kabbalah.

 

I've not read any kabbalah Centre stuff but would be curious what they're view is.

 

daojones, what you say about Aryeh Kaplan is deeply misleading and plain wrong.

Perhaps because you assert this opinion without giving any actual information as to what thought process forms your point of view, your comment appears needlessly derogatory and utterly misinformed.

 

Aryeh Kaplan's works will get you somewhere very profound if you study them and work with them in a receptive way.

 

Lets keep this thread of resources as meaningful and useful.

If you have an opinion that something is not useful, please say why.

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For my two cents, I would suggest that Rabbi Yeshua had some very profound insights on kabbalah, you just have to pick through the dime store drama to find them. Some texts have made this easier by printing his lectures in red letters, but there is precious little of them that have survived the centuries

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"It is well known to mystics that if a man meditates upon a symbol around which certain ideas have been associated by past meditation, he will obtain access, to those ideas, even if the glyph has never been elucidated to him by those who have received the oral tradition by "mouth to ear". Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah

 

Get started any time: http://usgs.typepad.com/.a/6a013485938a51970c017c32c5bf81970b-popup

 

 

-My 2 cents, Peace

Edited by OldGreen
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Ahem, now to my defence:

 

What I did not clearly elaborate in my post:

 

Inner space is a great book. It is loaded with important concepts and lays out the system. This book and his other entry level ones like the ones linked to in a previous post are great for getting into the rabbit hole....but its a deep hole. Inner space, for me, was like getting a set of concepts without context and application. It is very abstract. It contains a lot, but much more study is necessary to make something of it.

 

 

books like yetzirah are just way to complicated to actually get what is being said in such a short book and in a translation and without a teacher filling in the holes. I tried studying it and had a lot of supplementary materials both in Hebrew and English and still could only come away with speculations about what was actually being said. I think it is a nice book, but will not get you anywhere by itself.

 

Turtle:

 

I had heard a line of thought that moses learned Egyptian mysticism during his time as a prince of Egypt...perhaps this is where the idea is from? Not sure what kka ba ankh means, but in a nutshell in Hebrew kabbalah means received...implying an oral communication and a mystical reception of divine things and stuff :P

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I had heard a line of thought that moses learned Egyptian mysticism during his time as a prince of Egypt...perhaps this is where the idea is from?

 

What Moses took from his Egyptian upbringing is something totally interesting to me.

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