Hi, Pitch -
Speaking of 'love alchemy', I recollect that Rexroth
provided a great essay for the intro to Waite's *The
Holy Kabbalah*, with an excerpt below :
" To go back to the beginning, Kabbalism dates back
into the most obscure past of Judaism. What are the
distinguishing ideas of Kabbalism?
It is first of all a theory of emanations ('degenerative
monism' it is called philosophically).
The inscrutable Godhead fills and contains the universe.
To become active and creative, God emanates ten sephiroth
or intelligences.
A special prominence is given to one of these emanations,
who functions as a female principle in the Deity, a
demiurge
and a term to creation. This is the final emanation,
Malkuth
the Queen, the physical manifestation of Deity in the
universe.
She is thought of as a Divine Woman, the Bride of God
(like
the Shakti of Shiva).
Finally, the 'innermost secrets' of the Kabbalah are
what are
'occult' in all occultism, erotic mysticism and a
group of
practices of the sort we call yoga — autonomic
nervous-system
gymnastics.
For the Kabbalist, the ultimate sacrament is the
sexual act,
carefully organized and sustained as the most perfect
mystical
trance. Over the marriage bed hovers the Shekinah. "
- Kenneth Rexroth, Introduction, *The Holy Kabbalah*,
2003, page ix.
R. Aryeh Kaplan related the Mystical Kabbalah of
Rabbi Abraham
Elim to the Mystery of the sukkah/chuppah/marriage
chamber,
celebrated every Sabbath Evening when we draw down
and welcome
the Queen of Heaven and our 'sabbath soul', as well
as beginning
in the Seventh Month/Tishrei - a celebration of the
New Year in
the Autumn ( similar to the two Akitu ceremonies in
Spring and
Autumn ) and the month when the world was created.
Cors in Manu Domine,
~ Khem Caigan
<[log in to unmask]>
"Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation;
Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each Thing;
Fire and Air, Active by Elementation;
Water and Earth, Passive to Generation."
*Of the Division of Chaos*
-Dr. Simon Forman
|