Creative Corner: Spirituality
 A Brief Introduction to the Authentic
 Kabbalah

Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime
and Healing

A Brief Introduction to the Authentic Kabbalah
by
Debby Earthdaughter

 

When I read the article describing the use of Cabala in ritual abuse programming, (``The Greenbaum Speech of D.C. Hammond''), I was concerned that many readers might not know anything about the real Kabbalah. Kabbalah is Jewish mysticism.

Because Christianity is the majority religion in the U.S., non-Christians know that the Christian cross has positive meaning to Christians. The use of an inverted cross by satanists is quite different from the use of the original cross by Christians. Similarly, most of us know that the black mass performed by some ritual abusers is quite different from the original Catholic mass.

Many people are probably unfamiliar with the Kabbalah. I am part Jewish and was ritually abused by white supremacists. Judaism in general is quite important to me in my healing. I find the Kabbalah very beautiful and life-affirming. I would like people to know something about the real thing, in contrast to its corruption by ritual abusers.

Kabbalah comes from the Hebrew root 'to receive'. Hebrew has its own alphabet. It can be transliterated into English letters in a number of ways. (Hence the various spellings for Chanukah/Hanukkah). Kabbalah is the usual way of transliterating the word in Judaism.

Learning Kabbalah in a Jewish context means honoring traditional Jewish ethics. Intention is extremely important. Kabbalah is about healing, both personal healing and being part of healing the world. Study is grounded in Judaism and Jewish community. When the word is spelled with a q or a c (Cabala or Qabala), this usually indicates Kabbalistic concepts taken out of such context and applied in any number of ways in occult or western mystery traditions.

In the article, Hammond describes a Cabalistic tree. This is a warping of the Tree of Life from Kabbalah. The real Tree of Life is a very life-affirming structure used to describe the universe and the interactions between these aspects of creation:

 

Learning More Online

For a brief, understandable introduction to the Tree of Life, check out this Real Audio interview with Rabbi Shoni Labowitz. http://www.anno nline.com/interviews/961127/biography.html

Many of the rabbis in the Virtual Yeshiva include Kabbalah in their teachings. Most of them are part of Reconstructionist Judaism and Jewish Renewal. http://www.rasheit.org/

For a more traditional Chassidic approach, try the Chabad Lubavitcher site. http://www.chabad.org/

 

Learning More from Books

Lynn Gottlieb. She Who Dwells Within: A Feminist Vision of a Renewed Judaism. Harpercollins. 1995. Paperback. Not a book on Kabbalah per se, but includes a feminist discussion of different aspects of the Shekhinah (the immanent, usually seen as feminine, aspect of God).

Edward Hoffman (Editor). Opening the Inner Gates: New Paths in Kabbalah and Psychology. Shambhala Pubns. 1995. Paperback. Includes many tools for tikkun (healing), including self-inventory based on the tree of life, myth and story-telling, sound and meditation.

Shoni Labowitz. Miraculous Living: A Guided Journey in Kabbalah Through the Ten Gates of the Tree of Life. Simon & Schuster. 1996. Hardcover. Insight and meditation guide through the ten gates.

Daniel Chanan Matt (Compiler). The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. Harpercollins. 1996. Paperback or audio cassette.

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