Download Discussion Notes No 35 091005

SCIENCE AND SPIRIT:
KABBALAH
DISCUSSION NOTES NO. 35
By Garrett Riegg
October 4, 2009
A dozen of us sat around the living room on a cool fall evening to discuss the Kabbalah. The
group included Sean, Mark, Sharon, Hartland, Alia, Phyllis, Gini, Keith, Bob W., Ronnie, Garrett,
and first-time attendees, Jenny and Steve D. After self-introductions, I gave a quick history of the
Kabbalah, which goes back to (1) the written teachings of the Hebrews known as the Torah; (2)
the oral traditions handed down by Moses, which were finally written in the 3rd and 5th centuries
A.D. and are referred to as the Talmud; and finally, (3) the Zohar, which was composed by Moses
DeLeon in 13th century Spain. That book, the Zohar was the beginning of Kabbalistic influence,
which deeply influenced intellectuals and Masons in the 16th and following centuries.
We then focused on three different diagrams, all representing the Tree of Life in various colors,
descriptions and correspondences. Ten different Sephiroth, or emanations of God, were read one
by one and briefly discussed.
We were confused as to whether the left or right side was the feminine side because some of the
charts seemed to be flipped over.
We also found some of the synonyms to be quite contradictory, or at least unrelated.
It was easy to see how these aspects of deity, or emanations from Ein-soph, represented excellent
human virtues. Sean tried to explain how the Sephiroth affect our world view and lead to high
ethical standards.
Alia gave us some insight into how the Tree of Life is like a ladder for us to progress back and
forth across the spheres to get to our spiritual home. It was also pointed out that the actual
emanations go in a zig-zag fashion like the form of lightning as it descends from heaven to earth.
I read an excerpt explaining the feminine quality of the tenth and last Sephiroth, Malchut, which is
often identified with Shekinah, the feminine face of God.
I turned to the Masonic text known as “Morals and Dogma” and read portions which showed that
Masons considered the Kabbalah to be the ultimate authority in metaphysics and philosophy.
We then read from The Secret Doctrine, a comparison of eastern philosophy, speaking of Vach as
a universal light or sound that underlies the universe, and how it compares with Shekinah, which
is also the music of the spheres extolled by Pythagoras 2,500 years ago.
I read further on in The Secret Doctrine concerning the manner in which both Pythagoreans and
Kabbalists value numbers, music, mathematics and geometry. Even astronomy was considered a
branch of mathematics at that time.
In the handout from Wikipedia, Ketter would actually be numbered zero rather than one, so that
there are still ten different globes. One globe that does not show on some of the trees is the third
one, Deat, which is a kind of divine knowledge, which is also a hidden area for surprises.
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For the meditation we played a CD from “Ecstatic Kabbalah,” telling us how to picture our spines
as going from heaven to the earth as we meditate. The meditation was on the vowel sounds for
Yahweh.
After the break, we studied proverbs from the Talmud and ethical standards from Cordero, the 16th
century Kabbalist. It was observed that the average person would probably reject such high ethics
as being too idealistic.
In the final reading from Masonry, it was mentioned that the Kabbalah would help to explain
alchemy, Rosicrucians and even Swedenborg. Sean explained that Swedenborg was a well known
psychic in the 15th or 16th century whose psychic experiences (some of them well documented)
began at age 57 and led him to write a number of books based upon mystical experiences. His
books are still in print and many of his churches still exist.
We will reassemble on October 18, as Alia gives us a presentation on Tarot.
Garrett
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