Sara M. Thejls doth schreibble:
>
> I can't help asking, what does this have to do with kabbalah?
It is from the title of the text that we
were discussing.
Below is a post from the 'Abramelin' list
that goes into this a bit further:
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It seems to me that there is an
assumption going the rounds along
with the announcement of Dehn's
new edition in English, that the
French text to which Mathers and
Ambelain referred was solely based
upon the German text.
I also notice that there is some
movement now away from what we still
refer to as the Mathers edition [ even
though we are uncertain of just who
is responsible for that translation ],
and toward the canonization of the
Dehn edition.
This is a move that I feel is not only
premature but ill-informed, particularly
in view of the fact that Dehn/Guth admit
to redacting the text wherever they felt
it was necessary.
One of the problems that I have with
what I call the Llewellynization of the
Abraham Elim texts, is that we are not
talking about a book which exists in
one unique and pristine instance.
It is the plurality of the Abraham Elim
material that makes it so remarkable when
people talk about an 'Abramelin <sic>
system', as if such a thing exists apart
from their syncretizing and reductionist
program.
The *Kabbalah Mystica* is more like a many
layered mosaic, with parts being added,
subtracted, canceled and exaggerated by the
modifications of the various transcribers
over time and across a number of countries.
And we have not yet discovered the seed
text that they all refer to, if in fact
one exists and the text is not merely the
result of a series of compilations over
time held together by an engaging folk
narrative of the pilgrimage variety, as
Patai suggested.
See this page for some examples of
early pilgrimage narratives:
http://www.umilta.net/egeria.html
There are several different versions of
the *Kabbalah Mystica* known to be in
the stacks of one institution or other.
The most *extensive* surviving version currently
known to us is the German manuscript kept at the
Sachsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden
[MS Dresden N.161, Nr.56], followed by the
French version held at the Arsenal Library
in Paris [MS 2351].
The French version [the one that Mathers and
Ambelain referred to] is divided into three
books, each with its own separate title page,
with the main page reading:
"First Book of the Sacred Magic which God gave
to Moses Aaron David Solomon & to other Saints
Patriarchs & Prophets, which teaches the true
Divine wisdom, left by Abraham to Lamech His
Son translated from the Hebrew 1458."
The reference to 'Saints' is just the first
shot of an entire fusillade of "Christianisms"
peppered throughout this text.
Note also the reference to the Patriarchs, and
the giving of alms in honor of the 72 disciples
< in 32 pairs > known to the Eastern Churches,
found later in the text.
This suggests to me that Abraham Elim may have
been affiliated with an Eastern Church, possibly
the Syrian / Chaldaean Church - along with the
fact that Abraham Elim salutes his guest
in Aramaic, or "the Chaldean language...".
See also this entry for St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus:
http://tinyurl.com/yc6h3h
The title page of the German manuscript reads
as follows:
"The Mystical Kabbalah of the Egyptians and the
Patriarchs, which is the Book of the True Old
Divine Magic, Written by Abraham Son of Simon
for His Younger Son Lamech."
The author's full name is given as Abraham ben
Simeon ben Judah ben Simeon.
We know the name of Abraham ben Simeon's
instructor in the *Mystical Kabbalah* - Abraham
Elim - and we know something of his whereabouts
at the time of Abraham ben Simeon's visit - a
hill in the desert, covered with bushes and
trees, outside the town of Arki.
Prior to this meeting, Abraham tells us that he
traveled through Palestine on his way to Egypt,
which suggested to me that 'Arki' could be the
hillside town of Al 'Araki:
http://tinyurl.com/yl3gql
It is possible to get a much better idea of
the region by zooming in.
The most recent transcriber and translator of
the German version of the *Kabbalah Mystica*,
Georg Dehn, also plunks for the region around
Al 'Araki.
I no longer think that Arki was in Egypt; I
think it was the hillside tell of Arca Caesarea
mentioned in sources such as Agrippa, in the
vicinity of what was once the ancient Canaanite
city of Arqa, and currently listed on my maps
as Arka, located about 12 miles to the north
and east of Tripoli:
Arqa
http://tinyurl.com/q9vpv
Map of the Levant during the Crusades
http://tinyurl.com/ootol
Returning to the manuscript and its several
versions:
Mathers has it that Abraham Elim greets his guest
in Chaldaean; the Hebrew version of the *Mystical
Kabbalah* kept at the Bodleian [Oxford MS Opp.594]
has Abraham Elim greeting his guest in Aramaic.
See this wiki entry for some discussion of the
Aramaic and Chaldean languages and communities
throughout the Middle East and Egypt:
http://tinyurl.com/y2okx9
I also regard Elim/Alim as the honorific surname
of Abraham, the Chaldaean sage responsible for
transmitting the procedures at the core of the
*Sacred Magic of Abraham Elim the Mage*.
One of the Qumran Scrolls, designated 4QMa,
describes an individual who becomes one of the
Elim, or Gods.
See Morton Smith's "Ascent to the Heavens and
Deification in 4QMa," in Schiffman's *Archaeology
and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls*, 1990,
pgs. 181-88.
See also Raphael Patai's *The Jewish Alchemists:
A History and Source Book*, 1994, for more
information on Abraham ben Simeon ben Judah ben
Simeon's *The Mystical Kabbalah of the Egyptians
and the Patriarchs, which is the Book of the True
Old Divine Magic, Written by Abraham Son of Simon
for His Younger Son Lamech*, aka *The Sacred Magic
of Abraham Elim the Mage*.
Although the French ms. that Mathers and Ambelain
worked from is shorter than the more extensive
German ms., in both cases the words are
transliterated in accordance with the Sephardic
pronunciation of Hebrew.
If the author of the 'Kabbalah Mystica' had written
in German, we would expect to find the Ashkenazic
pronunciation common to Central and Eastern Europe
from the Thirteenth century on.
This, and the fact that the Spanish plural 's' is
employed throughout, suggests that the individual
responsible for translating the Hebrew text into
German was a Sephardi Jew - not uncommon in the
Germanies after their expulsion from Spain in 1492.
There is more evidence of Christian influence with
both the German and the French texts, with rather
more exaggerations found in the French one - for
instance, one thousand horsemen suddenly become
two thousand.
And we find the author of the German version to
have written the book in his 79th year of age; in
the French version of the text, the author is 96.
The Hebrew version is simpler and smaller than
either the German or the French versions, and
this forms the basis for thinking that the others
are later embellishments - once again, we can't
be sure.
The Hebrew version of the *Mystical Kabbalah*
is MS 594 of the Oppenheimer Collection in
the Bodleian Library at the University of
Oxford, and that version of the *Mystical
Kabbalah* consists solely of the contents
of Book One - there are no squares in
this text, the *Sefer Segullot Melachim*.
Oppenheimer 594 and the other instances we
have so far recovered of the *Mystical
Kabbalah of Abraham Elim* are all examples
of an *enormous* genre of such scrapbooks
kept by various Wonderworkers that are known
collectively as *sefer segullot*, that is,
Guides to the Practical Kabbalah.
These Guides contain instructions specifying
which formulae to write in Amulets/Kameot, or
which Words to pronounce in order to achieve
specific objectives, which Medicines to
prescribe for various ailments, various
techniques of Exorcism, Astrology, Theurgy,
Divination, &tc.
I think that it is important to recognize the
diversity of the *Kabbalah Mystica* material.
I also think that spackling over the differences
in these texts in order to make them fit in with
a dominant and colonizing system such as that of
the 'Golden Dawn' [ so effectively broadcast by
Llewellyn ] is to misrepresent them, and makes
these local and unusual variants to disappear,
rather than making them available to debate and
dialogue.
I think that it is important to evaluate *all* of
these variants by means of trial and test, rather
than to simply accept an idealized version generated
by authors with a vested interest in one Corporation
or other.
I am glad to have the Dehn material in both German
and English, and hope that we will all pursue
the new avenues of research it makes available to
us, rather than seeking what I feel is a premature
closure with the canonization of these texts as
*the system*.
I would also once again suggest taking a look at
the doctrines of divinization, deification, and
theosis, particularly as found in the Eastern
churches.
Here are a few related texts that might be useful:
Martin Cohen ~ *The Shi'ur Qomah: Liturgy
and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish
Mysticism*, 1983.
Andrew Louth ~ *The Origins of the Christian
Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys*, 1983.
John Meyendorff ~ *Byzantine Theology: Historical
Trends and Doctrinal Themes*, 1983.
George Berthold ~ *Maximus Confessor: Selected
Writings*, 1985.
Colm Luibheid ~ *Pseudo Dionysius: The Complete
Works*, 1987.
Colm Luibheid ~ *John Climacus: The Ladder of
Divine Ascent*, 1988.
Moshe Idel ~ *Kabbalah: New Perspectives*,
1990.
Moshe Idel ~ *Metamorphoses of a Platonic Theme
in Jewish Mysticism*
http://tinyurl.com/ovt42
Joan L. Roccasalvo ~ *The Eastern Catholic Churches:
An Introduction to Their Worship and Spirituality*,
1992.
Stephen J. Duffy ~ *The Dynamics of Grace: Perspectives
in Theological Anthropology*, 1993.
Steven Botterill ~ *Dante and the Mystical Tradition:
Bernard of Clairvaux in the Commedia*, 1994.
Wolfgang Pauli ~ *Writings on Physics and Philosophy*,
1994.
Marvin Meyer & Paul Mirecki(eds.)~ *Ancient
Magic and Ritual Power*, 1995.
Robin Amis ~ *A Different Christianity: Early Christian
Esotericism and Modern Thought*, 1995.
Guy Stroumsa ~ *Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and
the Roots of Christian Mysticism*, 1996.
Michael Swartz ~ *Scholastic Magic: Ritual
and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism*,
1996.
Andrey Smirnov ~ "The Universe as a Phenomenon
of Language: Sa'adiah Gaon's Commentary to
the 'Book of Creation'," in Raphael Jospe(ed.)~
*Paradigms in Jewish Philosophy*, 1997,
pages 87-111.
Maria Jaoudi ~ *Christian Mysticism East and West*,
1998.
Belden Lane ~ *The Solace of Fierce Landscapes:
Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality*, 1998.
Jeffrey Russell ~ *A History of Heaven: The Singing
Silence*, 1998.
Rebecca Lesses ~ *Ritual Practices to Gain
Powers: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation
in Early Jewish Mysticism, 1998.
Anthony Kelly ~ *The Process of the Cosmos:
Philosophical and Theology and Cosmology*, 1999.
Anna Williams ~ *The Ground of Union: Deification
in Aquinas and Palamas*, 1999.
Dierdre Carabine ~ *John Scotus Eriugena*, 2000.
Victoria Clarke ~ *Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through
Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo*, 2000.
Oliver Davies ~ *Celtic Spirituality*, 2000.
Steven Fanning ~ *Mystics of the Christian Tradition*,
2001.
Naomi Janowitz ~ *Magic in the Roman World: Pagans,
Jews and Christians*, 2001.
Louis Dupre, James Wiseman (ed.) ~ *Light from Light:
An Anthology of Christian Mysticism*, 2001.
Vasileios Tatakes ~ *Byzantine Philosophy*, 2001.
James Cutsinger (ed.) ~ *Paths to the Heart: Sufism
and the Christian East*, 2002.
Catherine Keller ~ *Face of the Deep: A Theology of
Becoming*, 2003.
Jean-Yves LeLoup ~ *Being Still: Reflections on an
Ancient
Mystical Tradition*, 2003.
Kilian McDonnell ~ *The Other Hand of God: The Holy
Spirit as the Universal Touch and Goal*, 2003.
Veli-Matti Karkkainen ~ *One With God: Salvation as
Deification and Justification*, 2004.
Graham Speake ~ *Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise*,
2004.
Frederick Franck ~ *The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of
the Kyoto School and It's Contemporaries*, 2004.
Elliott Wolfson ~ *Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic
Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination*, 2004.
Daniel Dombrowski ~ *Platonic Philosophy of Religion:
A Process Perspective*, 2005.
Solrunn Nes ~ *Mystical Language of Icons*, 2005.
Yohanon Aharoni, Michael Avi-Yonah, Anson F. Rainey,
& Ze'ev Safrai ~ *The Macmillan Bible Atlas*, 1993.
Ambelain - Spiritual Alchemy
http://tinyurl.com/mr4ya
Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity
— A New Approach
by Kocku Von Stuckrad
" There is no Jewish archisynagogus, no Samaritan,
no Christian presbyter who is not an astrologer,
a soothsayer, or *an anointer*. "
http://tinyurl.com/mqp3e
The Spiritual World of a Master of Awe:
Divine Vitality, Theosis, and Healing
in the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim
by Alan Brill, Yeshiva University
http://tinyurl.com/yg2ch8
Metamorphoses of a Platonic Theme
In Jewish Mysticism
by Moshe Idel
http://tinyurl.com/ovt42
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Cors in Manu Domine,
~ Khem Caigan
<Khem@...>
" Every Angel who is an Archon of the
zodiacal sign (sar mazzal) of a person
when it is sent below has the image of
the person who is under it....
And this is the meaning of 'And God
created man in His image, in the image
of God He created him' (Gen. 1:27).
Why is [it written] twice, 'in His image'
and 'in the image'?
One image refers to the image of man and
the other to the image of the Angel of
the zodiacal sign that is in the image
of the man. "
~ from:
*Hokhmah ha-Nefesh*,
by R. Eleazar of Worms
|
