Kaballah interpreted without Hebrew references - looking for a book/website etc.

Scibility

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a book or website that explains the concepts of the tree of life and Kaballah in it's most basic form?

I am hoping to find something that is written sort of like this:
"First there was Negativity/Nothingness. Then there was End/Not. Then there was Light."

I don't know if it is even possible to interpret the teachings without use of the Hebrew language, but I have an interest in learning what the Kaballah really is, and what its basic concepts are.

It becomes very difficult to retain the information if you are also learning another language at the same time. Perhaps it was meant to be that way? IDK, but i'd really like to learn more about it if I can.

Even a resource geared towards children or teenagers would be appreciated.

If anyone has a suggestion I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
 

KariRoad

Meme / emeM = 528956 = jackpot!

Kabbalah (spellings of this are arbitrary, and often contested) is historically described as Jewish Mysticism. To truly grasp or understand Kabbalah, write on a piece of paper "Jewish Mysticism" and then realise that Kabbalah is thus (even to Jews) incomprehensible.

There is ultimately NO SUCH THING as Kabbalah. It is very likely a meme.

My studies brought me to the conclusion that Kabbalah is...
"every possible keyword imaginable run through a blender."

In other words, if all else fails, Kabbalah is the ultimate BS to hook ditsy suckers.
Answers for everything, amounting to nothing. But of course, that's everything :)
 

bradford

You are probably not going to escape Judaism and the Hebrew language entirely. Those who have moved on from the original tradition and integrated the Western Mystery Tradition and Hermetic ideas usually spell the name Qabalah - it's a general indicator that you are moving out of primarily Jewish thought.
However, the "original" Jewish Kabbalah is a lot more derivative than it will ever care to admit. It borrowed heavily from such things as Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, and even took the Tree of Life diagram from China's 10th century Wujitu and Taijitu.
I think one of the more interesting Qabalistic tours of the Sephirot is Aleister Crowley's "Naples Arrangement" exploring the unfolding of the numbers as the opening of dimensions.
It's not that lengthy. Here are a couple of links and there are more for the Googling.
http://www.corax.com/tarot/index.html?naples-arrangement
http://threefold31.livejournal.com/316128.html
 

Richard

Learning the Hebrew alphabet is easy and sort of fun, as the letters are pictograms of things like window, nail, sword, fish, head, etc. Hebrew orthography is slightly more complicated, but you don't need to know much about it. Learning Hebrew as a foreign language is another matter entirely, and in my opinion is not necessary for understanding the Qabalah in the context of the Western Mystery Tradition.
 

Zephyros

Kabbalah (spellings of this are arbitrary, and often contested) is historically described as Jewish Mysticism. To truly grasp or understand Kabbalah, write on a piece of paper "Jewish Mysticism" and then realise that Kabbalah is thus (even to Jews) incomprehensible.

There is ultimately NO SUCH THING as Kabbalah. It is very likely a meme.

My studies brought me to the conclusion that Kabbalah is...
"every possible keyword imaginable run through a blender."

In other words, if all else fails, Kabbalah is the ultimate BS to hook ditsy suckers.
Answers for everything, amounting to nothing. But of course, that's everything :)

I think we must differentiate between Kabbalah as Madonna and red strings and New Age instant enlightenment that pervades almost everything remotely non-scientific these days, and Kabbalah as it was originally intended. It is most certainly not a meme, not something the Kabbalah Center invented for celebrities; see it rather as another school of philosophical thought created by people in the Middle Ages. It exists as several books, schools of thought and in Israel is practically in the law-books. It has existed long before and will continue to be studied long after Madonna.

In any case I would be careful of dismissing anything in a Tarot forum and saying things do not exist since, by that line of thought, all of Aeclectic could and should be shut down. But of course we don't want that, do we :)
 

Scibility

Kabbalah (spellings of this are arbitrary, and often contested) is historically described as Jewish Mysticism. To truly grasp or understand Kabbalah, write on a piece of paper "Jewish Mysticism" and then realise that Kabbalah is thus (even to Jews) incomprehensible.

There is ultimately NO SUCH THING as Kabbalah. It is very likely a meme.

My studies brought me to the conclusion that Kabbalah is...
"every possible keyword imaginable run through a blender."

In other words, if all else fails, Kabbalah is the ultimate BS to hook ditsy suckers.
Answers for everything, amounting to nothing. But of course, that's everything :)

You're funny :) I take it you made an attempt at it huh :) I'd like to try to explore it. Something about it is appealing to me.
 

Scibility

You are probably not going to escape Judaism and the Hebrew language entirely. Those who have moved on from the original tradition and integrated the Western Mystery Tradition and Hermetic ideas usually spell the name Qabalah - it's a general indicator that you are moving out of primarily Jewish thought.
However, the "original" Jewish Kabbalah is a lot more derivative than it will ever care to admit. It borrowed heavily from such things as Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, and even took the Tree of Life diagram from China's 10th century Wujitu and Taijitu.
I think one of the more interesting Qabalistic tours of the Sephirot is Aleister Crowley's "Naples Arrangement" exploring the unfolding of the numbers as the opening of dimensions.
It's not that lengthy. Here are a couple of links and there are more for the Googling.
http://www.corax.com/tarot/index.html?naples-arrangement
http://threefold31.livejournal.com/316128.html

Thanks a million for the links. I'll take a peak at them for sure. And thanks also for clarifying the spelling. I didn't know that! The "original" is the one that i'm trying to research, but i'm really happy to find any basic information on either form, so thanks!


Learning the Hebrew alphabet is easy and sort of fun, as the letters are pictograms of things like window, nail, sword, fish, head, etc. Hebrew orthography is slightly more complicated, but you don't need to know much about it. Learning Hebrew as a foreign language is another matter entirely, and in my opinion is not necessary for understanding the Qabalah in the context of the Western Mystery Tradition.

It does look very intriguing, and something I probably would be very inclined to do, because I enjoy languages. Maybe i'll take the plunge if I can't find what i'm looking for :) Thanks for the feedback. Appreciated!
 

Zephyros

Thanks
It does look very intriguing, and something I probably would be very inclined to do, because I enjoy languages. Maybe i'll take the plunge if I can't find what i'm looking for :) Thanks for the feedback. Appreciated!

If you need, I can help you, and anyone else that wants, with (almost) any Hebrew questions you might have, best of my ability.
 

Richard

That's a generous offer by closrapexa. By the way, if anyone is interested, one can type Hebrew characters on the computer using a character map. For example, Sephirah 10 is מלכות . It gets a little weird, however, because the keyboard tends to work in "reverse" when in Hebrew mode.
 

Scibility

Thanks!

If you need, I can help you, and anyone else that wants, with (almost) any Hebrew questions you might have, best of my ability.

Thanks for your offer! That's incredibly generous of you.