The First Monday - Part 1
These blogs are my perspective on a subject that is profoudnly facinating to me: Practical Kabbalah. When I first heard the name Jacobus Swart I knew we had to meet, all I knew is that he's a Kabbalist but I had no idea he was the successor to William Gray. I didn't even know who William Gray was about 12 or more years ago when someone was speaking about him. I knew Kabbalah though and I knew the crackle of magic that I connected with it. This blog is on exactly that, Practical Kabbalah.
It is shunned but many modern day Kabbablists who, I was to learn last Monday the 1st Feb, are mostly influenced by Isaac Luria's student Chiam Vital. Vital wanted to claim sole right on the teachings of the Ari and he slandered the name of the other students. Most of contemporary Kabbalah is based on Vital's account of Luria - who taught only for 2 years in Safed. I didn't know all this! We (a class of about 10 students) are being primed for teachings that are pre-Luria and of which there is a vast body of untranslated text in super condensed hebrew inwhich it was written. That there are not a handful of Divine Names but thousands this thrilling. The crackle of magic intensifies.
The story of the man that was helping to translate some of these texts and his discovery of a Divine Name that causes confusion in ones enemies is a good example. He was one day confronted by "enemies", people that wanted to rob him, and he remembered that name and repeated it. The enemies became confused. The man didn't believe, or wasn't into, Kabbalah yet the Divine Name worked for him. No faith required. The explanation: Divine Names are a combination of Hebrew letters.
Each Hebrew letter is glyph that represents a force-energy pattern. They are Keys Jacobus says and they are archetypes, they are the building blocks of who we are and the Universe. They are an integral part of the collective unconscious of all humankind. We throw switches in the unconscious when we visualise them and especially verbalise them - which I soon found out. Fortunately Koffi (one of the 10 students) asked for some practical exercises. Combinations of these letters are the Divine Names and so far we were taught one: YHVH.
When I chant the YHVH with the combination of pronounciation we were shown, there is an actual physical resonance or vibration in the body. It's extremely invigorating. Being in a wheelchair I find my body misses the stimulation of movement, but my body loves chanting the YHVH. It makes me present in the moment and it feels goood. So very good.
Basic concepts
"What you act on is what you make real". This was introduced first and this one I find (so far) the most challenging. J says he lives in a world in which there is no crime. And this is South Africa you hear? When speaking to people from overseas they mention it in the very next breath. But he believes by living with unlocked doors, no burglar-bars and no alarm systems he is acting on and making real his world of no-crime. He hasn't been burgled or anything for more than 30 years while the houses on the same street have - numerous times. Even if one feels the fear, let it be there, BUT don't act on it or else it is made real.
Ok, I understand the theory here, yet for me leaving the doors unlocked or open while I sleep is similar to lowering myself into a shark-tank without a cage around me. Sharks are predators and I don't know if I would want to put the theory to the test if I only had one crack at it. Clearly this one is going to take some practice. It is an idea firmly based in Kabbalah though and not invented that Monday evening, that we activate the "4 worlds of the Kabbalistis" of Atzilute, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah - Assiah is action. In our actions come together the whole of Creation; J mentioned it when speaking about the Microcosm / Macrocosm connection - we put in motion Creation when we act...
Oops, this is a sudden end but I just looked at the time. That's it for tonight. I have some more thoughts brewing, so watch this space!
I thought I would clarify some of the points you raised:
ReplyDelete1. Practical Kabbalah is more or less shunned by mainstream religionists, the only proviso being that "you are allowed to study it, but not to practice it." I find this stance quite absurd.
2. In mainstream Judaic circles the term "Kabbalah” is automatically understood to refer to the "Lurianic" variety. In this regard, it is interesting that the pupils of Isaac Luria acquired the teachings of their master in an incredibly short time. The Ari died barely two years after his arrival in Safed. After his demise, Isaac Luria's teachings and mantel were apparently passed on to Chaim Vital, his acknowledged successor. Regarding this I wrote in "The Book of Self Creation," that "I find the generally held opinion that Chaim Vital is the most authentic representative of the teachings of Isaac Luria, to be seriously problematic. Vital was far too intent on blowing his own trumpet and discrediting the rest of the students of the Ari. In fact, his own messianic tendencies drove him to behave in a thoroughly unpleasant and egotistical manner towards those he regarded to be his 'enemies,' especially those fellow students whose reports and writings on Lurianic teachings did not quite align with his own. Close scrutiny of one of the reports on a 'spirit possession' in Safed, in which Chaim Vital is certainly the major player, clearly reveals the 'possession' to have been 'rigged' in order to shame an individual who opposed Vital’s messianic notions.
I am not suggesting that Chaim Vital's voluminous output should not be considered representative of Lurianic Kabbalah, but only that one should read the writings of other students of the great master, including authors of the day who resided elsewhere, in order to gain a more comprehensive insight into Lurianic Kabbalah."
3. Now, regarding the teaching that each one of us creates, and is hence responsible, for our respective individual realities, the main principle which one needs to understand is that there is in truth no separation whatsoever between oneself and that which we perceive to be external to oneself. All are indeed one, and in the realisation of that "Universal Oneness" lies an enormous amount of power, e.g. the full recognition that we are part of the selfsameness of one great Being called "Ehyeh" or "I am," enables one to work remarkable acts of "rectification" and "self creation" within the framework of that "Oneness." This is the fundamental reason why I refuse to act on what I call the "what-if-approach" to existence, e.g. "Since the fundamental reality of life in my part of the woods is generally believed to be this, that, and the other, I better be prepared in case such and such happens. After all, what if.....?" My understanding is that if you act on "what if," it is likely that the purported factors behind that very "what if" will be verified by your actions. The basis of "self creation" is to enact that which you want to be part of your reality, and not on anything you do not want to be part of your existence.
4. There are indeed hundreds, if not thousands, of Hebrew Divine Names, as can be seen in Practical Kabbalistic tomes like the "Shorshei ha-Shemot" (The Roots of Names), etc., and these are employed for numerous reasons, ranging from the most mundane to the loftiest. Whilst I am most appreciative of the entire spectrum of practical applications of these special Names, I am particularly appreciative of their uses in aligning ones body, mind, soul and spirit in a manner most beneficial to holistic living on this planet.