How Many Petals on a Rose?
Are roses all seven-petaled? Do they all have seven petals?
No. A web search reveals that they have FIVE. Most of them.
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September 27, 2014
Living Milliseconds in the Past
“Our conscious registration of an inner decision occurs after the brain has already set that action in process, demonstrating that conscious free will is but a convenient fiction. We are all living milliseconds in the past, removed by our own neurology from the events taking place in the environment and the acts performed by ourselves.”
–Frater FP, The Magician’s Kabbalah.
September 27, 2014
Whoever Has Ears, Let Them Hear
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
—Revelation 2:7.
September 27, 2014
The Free Gift of the Water of Life
“Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
—Revelation 22:17. (Unable to locate a precise, exact translation. Multiple versions are close, but none are as good as this version, which remains unattributed.)
New International Version:
“16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
“17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
“18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophesy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.”
—Revelation 22:16-18.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A16-18&version=NIV
September 27, 2014
The Net of Manifestation
“Appropriate symbols of this state of understanding are the lattice, or net, indeed anything representing the concepts of linking, organisation, symmetry and complexity. Binah is also the Sephirah from which Maya issues, the net of manifestation that is ultimately illusion.
In the psyche, this relates to the archetypes that are “hard wired” into our brain so that we perceive the universe as we do. The transcending of this biological programming is part of the “crossing of the Abyss,” in a sense. Note that there is a scientific and philosophical argument which parallels the magical argument of whether such a feat is possible. The Magicians argue whether it is possible to cross the Abyss whilst alive (it is difficult to know where the disproof of this argument could be), whilst the scientific philosophers argue whether it is possible for a system to escape itself.”
“Another of the concepts associated with Binah is faith. The idea of faith is often taken to be merely a “strong belief,” but true faith is more than that. As defined by Paul, faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11.1). Faith is that aspect of our psyche that “understands” aspects of the universe that cannot be translated into rational thought (i.e. Hod). and remain above the “Abyss.”
“Thus faith rests on transcendent experience, not on belief or hope–substance and evidence must be experienced first, and hence with faith “we understand [i.e. Binhah] that the worlds were framed by the word of God [i.e. Chockmah], so that things which are seen were made of things which do not appear” (Hebrews 11.3).
–Frater FP, The Magician’s Kabbalah, pp. 44.
September 27, 2014
On the Dark Mirror
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now stays faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
Letter from the apostle Paul to a church in Corinth, which was famous for the manufacture of polished metal mirrors, hence the reference to “darkly,” which refers to the poor quality of the reflected image. Paul says that our knowledge of the divine is imperfect and incomplete. The “face to face” is considered a reference to a personal encounter with Jesus, through which “then shall I know even as also I am known.” In other words, through Christ, we will know.
Wiki notes that the term “charity” is used in translation of the Greek agape. “Love” is more accurate, and preferred in translations other than the King James.
Here is the entire chapter 13:
“13: Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
“4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
“8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.”
“11. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
“13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
The King James version:
“4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
–1 Corinthians: 13:12-13.
September 27, 2014
Patterns
“As Itzhak Bentov explains, if one were to freeze such an interference pattern, for example, the ripples in water made by a stone being dropped, then one could, analysing the pattern, discover where the stone had broken through the water. On a note of poetic whimsy, one could perhaps visualise the Tree of Life as the wave-front of the light of God.
One may realise that all the above modern ideas are actually pre-empted and summarised in a more ancient doctrine, which states, in the Tabula Smaragdina (Tablet of Emerald); “it is true without lying, certain and most true, that which is inferior or below, is as that which is superior, or above, and that which is superior as that which is inferior, to work and accomplish the miracles of one thing.”
Patterns emerge at all levels and all scales, such as the spiral of a shell and the spiral of a fern branch, or the shape of a galaxy and the shape of a human cell. As Louise B. Young states, “the whole is immanent in all the parts, no matter how small.” To those who work with such a self-reflexive system, then it becomes possible to model, and experience, states that often defy description in other, more linear systems.
As Blake puts in “Auguries of Innocence:”
“To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”
Such is the promise that the Tree of Sapphires (another translation of the word Sephirah) holds, as each facet of each sapphire reflects eternally upon each other in a labyrinth of light.”
–Frater FP, The Magician’s Kabbalah, pp. 12-13.
September 27, 2014
Merkabah Mystics
“The teachings of the Merkabah mystics became part of the “Heikhalot” school, whose name means “palace,” referring to the spiritual planes through which the mystics ascended. The description of these journeys seems to bear similarities to the journey of the soul into the Underworld depicted in the Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day, with magical words or appropriate names of the gods to be spoken before each door is passed and each palace entered.”
–Frater FP, The Magician’s Kabbalah, 2003, pg. 4.
September 27, 2014
On the Golem
“The life force of the golem is the Hebrew alphabet, the secret name of God inserted under his tongue, or the word “truth,” one of God’s names, engraved on his forehead. (When the first Hebrew letter of “truth” is erased it becomes “dead.”) The legend of the golem conformed to, and strengthened, the image of the kabbalah as a doctrine that could bring great benefits, but one that also includes some sinister, dangerous elements.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 107-8.
September 27, 2014
On Habad Hasidism
The original teachings of the founder of Habad Hasidism and his disciples “tended to be intensely mystical, calling the visible universe a delusion, and preaching the submersion of individual characteristics and desires in quest of a complete fusion with the divine “nothingness,” the supreme Godhead.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 100.
September 27, 2014
Kabbalistic Panentheism
The main theories of the Besht and the Megid emphasized that “there is no place from which He is absent,” a kabbalistic panentheistic system. (Pantheism postulates that “everything is God,” while panentheism claims that “God is inside everything.”)
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 91.
September 27, 2014
Shabbatai Zevi and Sacred Hypocrisy
“The theological challenge facing Nathan of Gaza and other Sabbatian thinkers changed dramatically late in 1666, when Shabbatai Zevi was summoned to the palace of the Ottoman sultan. He emerged from the meeting wearing the Muslim cap. Having been threatened, Shabbatai Zevi did not hesitate for long before converting to Islam. Judaism was suddenly faced with a situation in which the messiah committed the worst possible sin that generations of Jews were educated to avoid. One has, when faced with a demand to convert, to become a martyr and “sanctify the holy name” rather than betray one’s God, people and tradition. Shabbatai Zevi, who should have been the example of religious perfection and who was regarded not only as a divine messenger but also as a divine incarnation, did the exact opposite.”
Scholem later explained that this was not only deliberate, but necessary, including the “discovery” of numerous verses and statements in the Bible, the Talmud and the Zohar that indicate the necessity of the messiah’s conversion to an “evil” religion.
“Several thousands of Sabbatians followed Shabbatai Zevi in the last decades of the seventeenth century and converted to Islam… Most Sabbatians, however, remained within Jewish communities, and created an underground of believers in all strata of Jewish society, simple people, intellectuals, and rabbis. They imitated their messiah in a kind of “sacred hypocrisy:” They pretended to be orthodox Jews, adhering to the ancient exilic tradition, while secretly they worshiped the messiah and the Torah of the age of redemption.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 89-90.
September 27, 2014
Messiah as Mediator
“Nathan proclaimed that each Jew should give the messiah spiritual force in the form of faith in him, and the messiah will then focus the powers of the whole people to achieve the final victory over the forces of evil. Thus, Nathan introduced into Judaism the concept of a mediated religious relationship with God, giving the messiah (for the first time in a millennium and a half) the role of being the intermediary between the worshipper and the supreme Godhead, and allotting to him a position of an incarnated divine power.”
Conversely, “Luria and his disciples described a direct relationship between man and God, and viewed the tikkun as the involvement of every individual in the process of redemption…”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 87-8.
September 27, 2014
Reincarnation in Jewish Kabbalah
“The concept of reincarnation (gilgul) became central in the psychological doctrines of the Lurianic school, perhaps for the first time in the history of the kabbalah. There are five strata in the soul, reflecting the structure of the sefirot; each of these components has its own history, and each wanders from body to body, from generation to generation, independent of the other parts. Each soul, therefore, is a meeting of parts that have their own history and experiences.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 82.
September 27, 2014
This Could Be the Last Moment
“Every moment, every deed, can be the crucial, final one, deciding the fate of the universe.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 79.
September 27, 2014
Origin of Evil is Divine
“It is evident that Luria conceived the eternal, infinite Godhead that preceded these processes to be imperfect, with the origins of evil deeply imbedded in it in a potential manner. It is very rare that theologians and mystics view the origins of evil as completely divine and eternal. The dualism presented here has nothing to do with humanity and its sinfulness, because it existed long before they came to be.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 76.
September 27, 2014
The Purpose of Creation is to Correct a Flaw
“The most innovative concept that lies at the heart of Luria’s teaching is the imperfection of beginning. Existence does not begin with a perfect Creator bringing into being an imperfect universe; rather, the existence of the universe is the result of an inherent flaw or crisis within the infinite Godhead, and the purpose of creation is to correct it.”
–Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 75.
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