Friday, May 11, 2007

Snake Oil Saint


This is a bit hard to swallow.
Up to one million people are set to gather in Brazil to watch Pope Benedict XVI canonise the country's first home-born saint, Friar Galvao.Friar Galvao, an 18th Century monk, is still a hugely influential figure. He is best remembered for producing Latin prayers written on tiny balls of paper that, when swallowed, had the apparent effect of curing a range of ailments.

Until you realize that this is the practice of Kabbalistic Magick developed during the Renaissance, whereupon the Jewish physicians would use Kabbalistic talismans as part of their healing practice. The medical texts and practices used were Islamic and introduced by Jewish scholars into Europe.

Once again the Catholic Church proves it's religious syncretic nature, in Brazil it blends Voodoo with Christianity and appoints a Saint who used Christian Kabbalistic magick.

Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the words is as a derogatory term for compounds offered as medicines which imply they are fake, fraudulent, or ineffective. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality. In short, it refers to a product sold as one part of a hoax.

"Snake oil." The expression has come to be synonymous with a quack remedy. But questions about the origins of the term provide the basis for an interesting investigation.

Although considered quintessentially American, patent medicines actually originated in England. The recipient of the first royal patent for a medicinal compound is unknown, but the second was granted to Richard Stoughton's Elixir in 1712. By the mid-eighteenth century an incomplete list included 202 "proprietary" medicines-those protected by patent or registration. Relatively few of the ready-made medicines were actually patented-which required disclosure of their ingredients-but rather had their brand name registered. Nevertheless, the term patent medicine has become a generic term for all self-prescribed nostrums and cure-alls.

Shipments of patent medicines were halted by the Revolutionary War, and American entrepreneurs took the opportunity to meet the demand. Post-war nationalism and cheaper prices of the non-imported medicines helped American vendors maintain their lead over English suppliers (Munsey 1970).

Snake Oil and Holy Water Richard Dawkins,

In 1996 the Vatican, fresh from its magnanimous reconciliation with Galileo, a mere 350 years after his death, publicly announced that evolution had been promoted from tentative hypothesis to accepted theory of science. This is less dramatic than many American Protestants think it is, for the Roman Catholic Church has never been noted for biblical literalism--on the contrary, it has treated the Bible with suspicion, as something close to a subversive document, needing to be carefully filtered through priests rather than given raw to congregations. The pope's recent message on evolution has, nevertheless, been hailed as another example of late-20th-century convergence between science and religion. Responses to the pope's message exhibited liberal intellectuals at their worst, falling over themselves in their eagerness to concede to religion its own magisterium, of equal importance to that of science, but not opposed to it. Such agnostic conciliation is, once again, easy to mistake for a genuine meeting of minds.

In any case, the belief that religion and science occupy separate magisteria is dishonest. It founders on the undeniable fact that religions still make claims about the world that on analysis turn out to be scientific claims. Moreover, religious apologists try to have it both ways. When talking to intellectuals, they carefully keep off science's turf, safe inside the separate and invulnerable religious magisterium. But when talking to a nonintellectual mass audience, they make wanton use of miracle stories--which are blatant intrusions into scientific territory. The Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, even the Old Testament miracles, all are freely used for religious propaganda, and they are very effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children. Every one of these miracles amounts to a violation of the normal running of the natural world. Theologians should make a choice. You can claim your own magisterium, separate from science's but still deserving of respect. But in that case, you must renounce miracles. Or you can keep your Lourdes and your miracles and enjoy their huge recruiting potential among the uneducated. But then you must kiss goodbye to separate magisteria and your high-minded aspiration to converge with science. The desire to have it both ways is not surprising in a good propagandist. What is surprising is the readiness of liberal agnostics to go along with it, and their readiness to write off, as simplistic, insensitive extremists, those of us with the temerity to blow the whistle. The whistle-blowers are accused of imagining an outdated caricature of religion in which God has a long white beard and lives in a physical place called heaven. Nowadays, we are told, religion has moved on. Heaven is not a physical place, and God does not have a physical body where a beard might sit. Well, yes, admirable: separate magisteria, real convergence. But the doctrine of the Assumption was defined as an Article of Faith by Pope Pius XII as recently as November 1, 1950, and is binding on all Catholics. It clearly states that the body of Mary was taken into heaven and reunited with her soul. What can that mean, if not that heaven is a physical place containing bodies? To repeat, this is not a quaint and obsolete tradition with just a purely symbolic significance. It has officially, and recently, been declared to be literally true. Convergence? Only when it suits. To an honest judge, the alleged marriage between religion and science is a shallow, empty, spin-doctored sham.

Homeopathy and other popular therapies demonstrate ancient and universal principles of magical thinking, which some recent research suggests are fundamental to human cognition, even rooted in neurobiology.

Paracelsus rejected Gnostic traditions, but kept much of the Hermetic, neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophies from Ficino and Pico della Mirandola; however, Hermetical science had so much Aristotelian theory that his rejection of Gnosticism was practically meaningless. In particular, Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Agrippa and Flamel; Paracelsus did not think of himself as a magician and scorned those who did, though he was a practicing astrologer, as were most, if not all of the university-trained physicians working at this time in Europe. Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus' medicine. In his Archidoxes of Magic Paracelsus devoted several sections to astrological talismans for curing disease, providing talismans for various maladies as well as talismans for each sign of the Zodiac. He also invented an alphabet called the Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon talismans.

How old is Kabbalah?

The earliest documents which are generally acknowledged as being
Kabbalistic come from the 1st. Century C.E., but there is a suspicion
that the Biblical phenomenon of prophecy may have been grounded in a
much older oral tradition which was a precursor to the earliest
recognisable forms of Kabbalah. Some believe the tradition goes back
as far as Melchizedek. There are moderately plausible arguments that
Pythagoras received his learning from Hebrew sources. There is a
substantial literature of Jewish mysticism dating from the period
100AD - 1000AD which is not strictly Kabbalistic in the modern sense,
but which was available as source material to medieval Kabbalists.

On the basis of a detailed examination of texts, and a study of the
development of a specialist vocabulary and a distinct body of ideas,
Scholem has concluded that the origins of Kabbalah can be traced to
12th. century Provence. The origin of the word "Kabbalah" as a label
for a tradition which is definitely recognisable as Kabbalah is
attributed to Isaac the Blind (c. 1160-1236 C.E.), who is also
credited with being the originator of the idea of sephirothic
emanation.

Prior to this (and after) a wide variety of terms were used for those
who studied the tradition: "masters of mystery", "men of belief",
"masters of knowledge", "those who know", "those who know grace",
"children of faith", "children of the king's palace", "those who know
wisdom", "those who reap the field", "those who have entered and
left".
+++

History of Kabbalah

The word Kabbalah, simply means "tradition". Its root is the Hebrew word for "receive". It implies a received tradition. There have been traditions handed down, orally and in writing, throughout the three thousand and more years of Jewish history. From its very inception Judaism had different paradigms of leadership that sometimes overlapped and sometimes conflicted. Moses gave way to Joshua, who was succeeded by judges, and then kings. The priesthood was initially the repository of the religious tradition, but it sometimes failed in its role and either judges or prophets stepped in to fill the gap. There have been alternative, mystical traditions, too, from the period of the prophets--those spiritual outsiders who railed against the betrayals of the established religious structures. Mysticism has always been an essential part of the Jewish spiritual tradition. Some even suggest the mystical goes back to Abraham. A fascinating Midrash suggests that the Wisdom of the East originated from the teachings he passed on to the sons of his concubines.

Academic convention assumes that the technical term "Kabbalah" applies exclusively to a body of esoteric literature that emerged in Medieval Spain, and Provence in France, and went on flourishing from there. It is true that two thousand years ago the rabbis of the Talmud did not use this word but rather spoke about "nistar", the secret world of Torah that paralleled the "niglah", the revealed. But I believe the roots of what is called Kabbalah go back to the very beginning of the Jewish tradition.

As the Christian world based itself on Greek philosophy, and its power and influence spread, in general, within Judaism too, alternative approaches were sidelined. Sefer Yetzirah, the first book that defines mainstream Kabbalah, appears somewhere between the third and the fourth century. It is referred to in the Midrash . However, many academics argue that the text we have today is another one of later provenance.

In Sefer Yetzirah we find the first clear statement of an alternative way of looking at the world, life, and God, based on the Sephirot and the Hebrew alphabet. (Incidentally, the symbolic power of letters and numerology, was something Pythagoras had already written about.)

New writings--Sefer Raziel ("The Book of Raziel, the Angel"), Sefer Bahir ("The Book of Enlightenment"), and then the Zohar ("Bright Light")--emerged into the public domain. The Zohar was discovered, some say written, by Moses De Leon (about 1290 in Spain) but attributed to Shimon Bar Yochai. It is a multi-volumed collection of monologues and commentaries on the Torah that creates a totally different atmosphere from the rational commentators. It became the most widespread and accepted book of the Kabbalah.

As life under Christian monarchs in Spain became unstable and God seemed to retreat from the Jews, a non-rational world became both an escape and a comfort. Mystics such as Abraham Abulafia (born in Spain at the end of the thirteenth century) preached messianism and a new world order. They courted danger. (Abulafia was imprisoned by the Pope, and Shabbetai Zvi, much later, in Constantinople, was imprisoned by the Sultan.)

The expulsion of Jews from Spain caused great chaos and upheaval. But the establishment of a "city of refuge" in Safed in Galilee created a dynamic centre for a new wave of Kabbalistic innovation. Moses Cordovero, Isaac Luria, and Chayim Vital, all expanded the ideas found in Sefer Yetzira and Sefer Bahir, and combined them with ecstatic mystical practices and experiences. They popularized Kabbalah as a way of reaching God and living a fuller, more spiritual life.

The fact that they did, indeed, encourage a wider, non-academic audience to join them, and the fact that they elevated experience over scholarship, drew down opposition from the mainstream rabbinate. To make matters more confusing, many of the other marginal, magical, superstitious, esoteric and fringe movements of Jewish life pinned their colours to Kabbalah. The excesses of some of these movements led to a campaign to uproot and expunge mystical writings from Jewish life, particularly in Europe after the rationalism of the seventeenth century began to spread.

Shabbetai Zvi was a highly charismatic mystic who was born in Turkey in the seventeenth century. He succeeded in convincing most of the Jewish world that he was the Messiah. But when he got to Istanbul he converted to Islam and the whole movement collapsed. The Shabbetai Zvi debacle discredited Kabbalah. Indeed, Moshe Hagiz, from Jerusalem, went on a voyage around the Jewish world campaigning against the Sabbatean heresy, and as a result Kabbalists were all but driven underground. The Enlightenment also led to the marginalization of Kabbalah.

It was Chassidism, the eighteenth century charismatic revolution in Eastern European Jewry that popularized, and to some extent legitimized, the Kabbalistic approach to life and brought it back towards the mainstream. The early Chassidic masters drew inspiration, both in prayer and ideology, from Lurianic Kabbalah. Initially the free, experimental mood of Safed mysticism suffused the Chassidic masters of the second and third generation. But then, like many revolutionary movements, it lost its anti-establishment and innovative character and became part of the structured religious life of Orthodoxy. It lost its creative identity.

Harvey Hames notes that Elijah del Medigo (1440–ca. 1490), the teacher of Pico della Mirandola and a much sought-after translator of Averroes's works into Latin, composed his theological treatise only after he returned to his native Crete where he could more freely critique the rise of Christian kabbalah and the blending of Neoplatonism, Christianity, and magic he encountered in Florence.

Avicenna (al-Husain, b. Abdallah Ibn Sina, d. 1037), Avicennae canonis libri

Avicenna (al-Husain, b. Abdallah Ibn Sina, d. 1037), Avicennae canonis libri
In Latin
Translated from Arabic by Gerard of Cremona
Fourteenth century

The papal library also acquired copies of standard medical works used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Portions of the twelfth-century Latin translation of Avicenna's medical encyclopedia were used as textbooks in universities, and the work as a whole served as a medical reference tool. In this copy, numerous miniatures vividly depict patient problems with which the medical practitioner was likely to be confronted. Here a patient has hemorrhoids.

Islamic Medical Manuscripts, Magical/Astrological Medicine 5

The first item (fols. 1b-38a) contains the anatomical sections from the Qānūn of Avicenna (MS A 27, item 1); the second item (fols. 38b-39b) is Kashf ba‘d al-lughah min al-Qānūn wa-ghayrihi, an anonymous commentary on terms in the Qanun (MS A 27, item 2); and the third item on fol. 41a is a short anonymous essay on oxymel (MS A 27, item 3). The fourth item (fols. 41b-75a) is an anonymous treatise on prognostics (MS A 27, item 4), and the final item (fols. 75b-76b) contains magical procedures and invocations useful for illness here catalogued. Folios 40a is blank, and fol. 40b is blank except for an owner's note. Fol. 77 is a very different, more recent, paper, and is blank except for some owner's annotations.

The Exodus of a Medical School -- Nevins 123 (12): 963 -- Annals ...

During the fifteenth century, Padua became a haven for hundreds of Jewish medical students from all over Europe, but the first did not graduate until 1409 [4]. As the Renaissance progressed, the social climate became more hospitable and, particularly in Italy, Jewish physicians found it easier to integrate into the general community. These physicians were still excluded from most other occupations and from public office, and their success in medicine was an example of taking advantage of opportunity despite societal intolerance.

Kabbalistic Physiology: Isaac the Blind, Nahmanides, and Moses de Leon on Menstruation


Sharon Koren a1

a1 Hebrew Union College, New York, New York


Science and faith were inextricably intertwined in the Latin Middle Ages. Clerics would attend to both spiritual and physical needs because the need to care for the body coincided with the need to care for the soul. Until the rise of universities in the twelfth century, monasteries were the centers of scientific knowledge. And, even after the professionalization of medicine in the thirteenth century, Christian physicians continued to look to the Bible, in addition to their license, as the source of their authority. Indeed, many Christian physicians who received medical degrees went on to pursue higher degrees in theology. It is therefore not surprising that several Christian theologians used medical theories in the service of theology.

Jews and Healing in the Middle Ages

Indeed, practical texts often show the interaction between members of Jewish and Christian communities in actual practice. For example, Christian and Jewish women appear to have shared similar knowledge and have used the same techniques regarding childbirth. It has been shown by historians that despite the differences with regard the use of plants (used according local availability), the techniques found in Western Hebrew texts were not different to those included in Latin texts (and Arabic). The similitude in remedies and techniques might be explained if we consider that, while the theory and notions in physiology are in general textually transmitted, techniques and recipes are more likely part of actual experience and belong largely to the province of orallity. In fact, there is evidence – for example - that Jewish midwives attended Christian women in labour, and vice versa, despite the prohibitions of the Church. This kind of interaction was a sure source of exchange of healing knowledge, and it is in the origin of the common substratum that we often discover in magic formulae and other healing methods and procedures included in sources of different provenance. Jews integrated these common practices, but it seems that they maintained their religious and cultural identity through the resource to Hebrew and to their own cultural background, as show the continuous allusions to practical Kabbalah in magic healing.

Our Sephardic Medical Roots

When I first began to study my Jewish medical roots, I presumed naively that I could start in Eastern Europe where my grandparents had come from and then work backwards. To my surprise, I soon learned that Jewish doctors were scarce in pre-Revolutionary Russia and that such medical care as existed most likely was delivered by a melange of healers, empirics, magicians, bath-house attendants and the like. If a 19th century Jewish mother proudly spoke of "my son the doctor", more likely she was bragging about a partially trained paramedic (feldsher), than a physician in the modern sense.

Except for purveyors of folk medicine, prior to the middle of the last century Jewish medicine substantially was a Sephardic enterprise, its practitioners either personally or spiritually descended from the erudite rabbi-philosopher-physicians who practiced in Medieval Spain and Portugal. Luminaries such as Judah Halevi, Maimonides and Nachmanides were among the first outflow of Jewish physicians from Spain during the 12th through 14th centuries and after the Expulsion of 1492, the trickle became a deluge. The emigres first went to Portugal and from there fanned out to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Italy, Poland, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Goa and the Americas. Although their lives were not uniformly comfortable, many Conversos resumed practicing their former religion in these less hostile lands. They were an intellectual elite, and adept at integrating into the new societies in which they found themselves. Many were professionally successful, but with very few exceptions they were not in the forefront of emerging new medical ideas being exponents of the prevailing Galenic old-school.

In this brief essay, I offer four points that I suspect are not widely known. The first is that the University of Padua in northern Italy was a particularly receptive locale where Sephardim joined with exiles from France and Germany to participate in the intellectual ferment of the Renaissance. In this melting pot, hundreds of students not only learned medicine, but partook of the new humanistic ideas of the day. As Professor David Ruderman has described, when they returned to their countries of origin, they served as a vanguard for the Jewish Enlightenment that would emerge in the 18th century. Some of these Paduan graduates were exponents of Maimonides' rationalistic approach to medicine, others were enamored with astrology or the magic of Kabbalah, while still others attempted to reconcile traditional Jewish teaching with secular ideas which were heady and seductive. Indeed, one famous Jewish physician, Toviah Cohen, warned that before tasting the new science, a Jew first should fill his belly with Torah.

A second point worth noting is how frequently Sephardic expatriate physicians were sought after by the politically powerful. Kings and Popes, nobles and commoners, all favored Jewish doctors. Even in the 16th and 17th centuries when Jewish fortunes were in eclipse, the Queens of France, Russia, England and Sweden were attended respectively by Drs. Elijah Montalto, Antonio Ribera Sanches, Rodrigo Lopes and Benedict de Castro. How can we explain the remarkable acceptance by Christian society of this generally despised remnant? It's unlikely that their appeal can be attributed merely to medical acumen or to superior ethical principles. More likely it was that the Jews were perceived by Christian Europe as having skills greater than those of their gentile competitors.

Astrology, Astral Magic, & The Quest for Good Health
© 2002 Lauran Fowks
The longing for health and vitality is timeless. Whether to cure an existing illness or to ensure one’s continued good health, a great variety of methods have been employed over the ages. This paper will explore those techniques used by health practitioners in Medieval and Renaissance Europe that drew on astrology and astral magic - the manipulation of astrological influences - for their healing power. Particular attention will be given to the underlying principles and use of talismans for health and healing

Medieval Ceremonial Magic - The Gnostic Society ...

The term "magic" is etymological derived from an ancient Indo-Aryan root, which we find both in Greek and Latin, consisting of the three letters M, A, and G, or mag, meaning greatness or the bringing about of greatness. We discussed that many attempts have been made to define magic in the past. Entire volumes of anthropological writings have grappled with parsing the distinctions between magic, religion and science. But in the Medieval Period of Europe, these distinctions were not very clearly drawn. For the purposes of our discussion (that is, understanding the tenuous transmission of the Gnostic Tradition over an immense span of history) we defined magic as a particular ecstatic spirituality which seeks the expansion of consciousness through various sacred means. In particular, we are concerned with Theurgy (from Greek: θεουργί α, meaning "divine-working"), which describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of God (or other personified supernatural power), especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself. This was contrasted with other magical practices of the period, many of which may be seen as vestiges of pagan folk magic, and concerned with such issues as fertility, healing and protection from sorcery. Medieval Christianity coopted or assimilated many of these practices and promoted its own forms of magical thinking through the transformation of pagan deities and heroes into saints, adoption of pagan festivals and holidays as holy feast days, claiming sacred sites for cathedrals and pilgrimages, the Cult of Relics, and assigning of certain mystical powers to the Holy Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. However, in the minds of the people of this period, these would not be viewed as magical practices in the same way we may view them today. Dr. Karen Louise Jolly writes in her introduction to Magic in the Middle Ages: A Preliminary Discussion:

"Within Medieval Christendom, magic was the opposite of religion, and therefore defined by those who were in a position to define Christianity: church leaders and religious authors. In that sense "medieval magic" is whatever practices church leaders condemned as not of God. These authorities usually associate magic with the devil, paganism, heresy, and witchcraft or sorcery...."

Sorcery or malific forms of magic, were often called witchcraft or necromancy by people of the Middle Ages, though both terms had somewhat different meanings in Late Antiquity and in modern anthropology. With pressures from reformist and anticlerical groups intensifying during the Late Medieval Period, the Church increasingly equated magic and witchcraft as the most extreme forms of heresy, and was a frequent charge against those whom it sought to eliminate. This view would of course intensify later during the Reformation and Counter Reformation Periods, among both Catholic and Protestant religious and civil authorities. However, despite this negative association with magic, other forms of esoteric practice such as alchemy and astrology were tolerated during this period and received royal and papal patronage.

The Renaissance and Christian Kabbalah

Kabbalah was a growing force in Judaism throughout the late medieval period and by the beginning of the Renaissance had gained general acceptance as the true Jewish theology, a standing it maintained (particularly in the Christian view) into the eighteenth century.18 Only in the last several decades of the twentieth century, however, have historians begun to recognize the importance of Kabbalah in both the history of religion and in the specific framework of Renaissance thought. Frances Yates, one of this century's preeminent historians of the period, emphasized "the tremendous ramifications of this subject, how little it has been explored, and how fundamental it is for any deep understanding of the Renaissance." She continued,

Cabala reaches up into religious spheres and cannot be avoided in approaches to the history of religion. The enthusiasm for Cabala and for its revelations of new spiritual depths in the Scriptures was one of the factors leading towards Reformation. . . . The Cabalist influence on Renaissance Neoplatonism . . . tended to affect the movement in a more intensively religious direction, and more particularly in the direction of the idea of religious reform.19

Yates has delineated how understanding Kabbalah and its penetration into Christian culture are essential not only for comprehending Renaissance thought but also for studies of the Elizabethan age, Reformation religious ideals, the seventeenth-century Rosicrucian Enlightenment, and much that followed, including the emergence of occult Masonic societies in mid-seventeenth century England.

From its early medieval development in Spain, Jewish Kabbalah existed in close proximity to the Christian world and inevitably aroused notice among gentile observers.20 During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Kabbalists increasingly established a presence in several areas of Europe outside Spain, the most consequential of these perhaps being Italy, where Kabbalah soon touched the vanguard of Renaissance life. Then in 1492 came one of the great tragedies in Jewish history: the violent expulsion of Jews from newly unified Christian Spain. Forcibly expelled from their homeland, they fled to Italy, France, Germany, to the England of Henry the VII, and to Turkey, Palestine, and North Africa. With them went Kabbalah.

European culture in the fifteenth century had been animated by explorations, sciences, and bold visions reborn. Man stepped out from the shadow of the Creator and found himself master of worlds, capable of knowing God's handiwork. He discovered himself: the jewel of creation, the measure of all things. Perhaps no place was ablaze in this creative fire more than the Florentine courts of Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici. Cosimo had assiduously collected the rediscovered legacies of Greek and Alexandrian antiquity (an effort facilitated by the exodus west after the Turkish conquest of the Byzantine Empire in 1453). But most important, in 1460 he acquired and had brought to Florence the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of fourteen ancient religious treatises on God and man. Authoritatively mentioned in the early Christian patristic writings of St. Augustine and Lactantius, these "lost" texts were thought to have been authored in antiquity by one Hermes Trismegistos ("Thrice Great Hermes"), an ancient Egyptian prophet older than Moses, a knower of God's ancient but forgotten truths, and a seer who foretold the coming of Christ.21 Though eventually dated to the Gnostic milieu of the second century C.E., sixteenth-century scholars believed that Hermes Trismegistos and the Hermetica were an occult source that nurtured true religion and philosophy from Moses to the Greek philosophers of late antiquity.22

The influence of the Corpus Hermeticum was remarkable, its diffusion among intellectuals immense; it epitomized the Renaissance world view, a reborn prisca theologia, "the pristine font of ancient and Divine illumination." In a variety of ways, Renaissance thought was radically transformed by the Hermetic doctrine that man was infused with God's light and divinity: "You are light and life, like God the Father of whom Man was born. If therefore you learn to know yourself . . . you will return to life."23 Man was a divine, creative, immortal essence in union with a body, and man reborn "will be god, the son of God, all in all, composed of all Powers."24

Kabbalah made a dramatic entry on the Renaissance stage at almost precisely the same time the rediscovered Hermetic writings were gaining wide dissemination in the elite circles of Europe. The initial impetus for study of Kabbalah as a Christian science and for its integration with Hermeticism came from Florentine prodigy Pico della Mirandola (1463-94). Pico's philosophical education was initiated under the Hermetic and Platonic influence of the Medici Academy and court, of which he became an intellectual luminary. About age twenty he began his studies of Kabbalah, a pursuit furthered by Jewish Kabbalists who assisted him in translating a considerable portion of Kabbalistic literature into Latin and then aided his understanding of their occult interpretations.25 In 1486 Pico penned the "Oration on the Dignity of Man"--one of the seminal documents of the Renaissance--as an introduction to the famous 900 theses which he intended to debate publicly in Rome that year. More than a hundred of these 900 theses came from Kabbalah or Pico's own Kabbalistic research.26 "The marrying together of Hermetism and Cabalism, of which Pico was the instigator and founder," notes Yates, "was to have momentous results, and the subsequent Hermetic-Cabalist tradition, ultimately stemming from him, was of most far-reaching importance."27

Hermeticism found a perfect companion in Kabbalah. Sympathies that can be drawn between the two occult sciences, both supposed ancient and divine, are remarkable, and it is easy to see how they would have impressed themselves upon sixteenth-century philosophers: Kabbalah originated with God's word to Adam and the ancient Jewish prophets after him; Hermeticism was the sacred knowledge of the ancient Egyptian Gnosis, the legacy of a thrice-great prophet, transmitted to the greatest pagan philosophers, and foretelling the coming of the divine Word (Logos). Both placed considerable interest in a mystical reinterpretation of the Creation; the Hermetic text Pimander, often called "the Egyptian Genesis," complimented the new vision gained from a Kabbalistic revisioning of the Hebrew Genesis.28 Each taught the great "Art" of Divine knowledge based on the tenet that man is able to discover the Divine, which he reflects within himself through direct perceptive experience. And both offered paths to God's hidden throne, the divine intellect, where humankind might find revealed the secrets of heaven and earth. Element after element of Renaissance thought and culture is linked to the force of a new religious philosophy born of these two Gnostic traditions intermingling in the cauldron of Western culture's rebirth. Indeed, Yates suggests that the true origins of the Renaissance genius may be dated from two events: the arrival of the Corpus Hermeticum in Florence and the infusion of Kabbalism into Christian Europe by the Spanish expulsion of the Jews.29

Christian Kabbalah advanced an innovative reinterpretation of the Jewish tradition. For Pico and many influential Christian Kabbalists after him this ancient Gnostic tradition not only was compatible with Christianity but offered proofs of its truth. Many early Christian Kabbalists were, like Pico, not only scholars but Christian priests investigating remnants of a holy and ancient priesthood, rife with power and wisdom endowed by God. Their cooptation of the tradition was of course disavowed by most Jewish Kabbalists--though some aided and encouraged the development and a few converted to Christianity. But to the Christian scholars and divines who embraced it, Kabbalah was

a Hebrew-Christian source of ancient wisdom which corroborated not only Christianity, but the Gentile ancient wisdoms which [they] admired, particularly the writings of "Hermes Trismegistus". Thus Christian Cabala is really a key-stone in the edifice of Renaissance thought on its "occult" side through which it has most important connections with the history of religion in the period.30

This was not just a speculative philosophy, but a new (though cautious and often occult) religious movement which radically reinterpreted normative Christianity. In some fashion it touched every important creative figure of the Renaissance. To an age seeking reformation and renewal, there had come forgotten books by prophets of old--pagan and Hebrew--who foresaw the coming of the Divine creative Logos, who knew the secret mysteries given to Adam, who taught that man might not only know God, but in so knowing, discover a startling truth about himself. These ideas reverberated in the creative religious imagination of the Western world for several centuries, perhaps even touching--though illusively and attenuated by time--the American religious frontier of the 1820s.

Jewish Magic Bibliography

The following bibliography is meant as an aid to the student of Jewish magic, ranging from biblical to modern times. It was compiled with the assistance of a Mary Gates Undergraduate Research Grant at the University of Washington and under the guidance of Prof. Scott Noegel. It is organized both chronologically and topically, with many entries repeated for ease of use. It is my hope that this bibliography will become a great asset in the further development of the study of Jewish magic. While this list is far from exhaustive, I have attempted to present the most up to date and relevant material for research in Jewish magic. Accordingly, I hope to continue to update this bibliography in order to make it as current as possible.

Alex Jassen and Scott Noegel

University of Washington

SEE:

Kabbalistic Kommunism

Passover Song

My Favorite Muslim

For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing



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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Much Ado About Nothing

That would describe Green Party Leader Elizabeth May's campaign in Central Nova if we go by her web page. Remember she announced her candidacy in March, and got the Liberal endorsement a month ago. And since January we have been on election alert.

So how come her web page is not up to date?




New campaign site is coming soon

A new campaign website for Elizabeth May, candidate for MP for the Nove Scotia riding of Central Nova is coming soon ...


See:

Green Party

Elizabeth May


Peter MacKay


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Busting A Green Anarchist

Temporary worker; Jeff Monaghan , who was publicly arrested and taken out in handcuffs from his workplace, for leaking a draft of the Governments green plan, is an anarchist.

Clearly someone in the PMO knew this and ordered the arrest in order to smear the Environmental movement as being 'anarchists'.
Government defends arrest of public servant

We are after all dealing with a government of so called self professed Libertarians who know well the political mileu they exist in, which includes anarchists. They know it far better than their Liberal predecessors in fact.

And as such being our new Conservative Law and Order government are shamelessly using the bugaboo of the apprehended threat of 'anarchism' to justify this overkill on a leak of a government draft of their environmental plan.

I would suggest that they pinpointed
Jeff Monaghan deliberately to send a chill not only through the Ministry of the Environment but all government departments. And now they will use his being an anarchist to further the smear job they plan. After all originally the media reported that John Baird issued a fax saying they released the plan by mistake.

After all his arrest by the RCMP is not a usual bust, nor one that the State Police Force would initiate themselves. They had to have been informed as to who had leaked the governments green plan . Ask yourselves this, why did they not arrest a predominant journalist instead, as they have done in the past when it came to leaks. That is they were informed as to whom the government had suspicions had leaked the document.

In his press conference today
Jeff Monaghan said as much, while not saying he was the source of the leaked information. It is interesting that the MSM refers to hims as a "a federal bureaucrat", a "civil servant", when in fact these are political appointments and jobs covered by the Federal Labour Relations Act.

He is in fact none of these, he is but a lowly temporary worker, whose position may or may not carry the weight of being a civil servant or bureaucrat, since he is dispensable.

His is a job that can be easily replaced day by day, which was the point of introducing temporary workers into the civil service, to reduce costs. It is part of the Neo-Con Reinventing Government scheme, ironically introduced by the Liberals, which sees the reduction of the civil service from career occupations to contract jobs, in order to save the government money on paying less in benefits ( they still pay the same in wages except that the wages go to a Padrone not the worker).

He is neither a civil servant nor a bureaucrat nor even one who may have been covered by the governments own secrecy code applied to the civil service, he is a Temporary or Contract worker. A worker hired by a third party that contracts out workers to fill government jobs. Ironically he worked in this position for four years, which should have made him a public servant, but he was denied his rights to that job description, which would have made him federal employees subject to the rules and regulations of the state and to the right to belong to the federal Public Service Union.

As such he was not granted these rights, since the State decided to contract out his job to save money. So did they have any right to arrest him? Apparently not, since they let him go and he held a press conference exposing them.

In order to get around the conditions of work under the Canada Labour Act, which covers federal employees, the government contracts out work to temporary labour agencies. This means their workers get lower wages than PSAC employees, are not covered by the Labour Relations Act, and are not subject to the same security and secrecy provisions of other public sector workers.

You can't have it both ways, which is what the Conservatives forgot in this case. And thinking they actually had a federal employee who leaked their Green Plan mistakenly sent the RCMP after a temporary worker. And they identified him as an Anarchist, which means this was a political arrest. He was arrested only days after he was profiled in the Ottawa Citizen for his role in Ottawa's Anarchist Bookstore.

Ottawa's anarchist bookshop a spot for 'fringe' thinkers to gather

Exile Infoshop opens on Bank Street to offer alternative media, resources

Garrett Zehr, with files from Bruce Ward, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Thursday, May 03, 2007

But Jeff Monaghan, a member of the group's organizing collective, said the project is much more than just another bookstore.

"This is a community space," he said. "Infoshops are part of a much larger social movement, putting complex theories of social equality into practice and identifying with related movements and struggles demanding freedom and dignity."




What makes Jeff admirable is that he understands this, and in his press conference today exposed this hypocrisy. The fact temporary workers are being used to replace long term public service positions, he worked in his position for four years, that the government selectively uses secrecy to repress information available to the public.

Clearly the government of Stephen Harper is far more Stalinist than Libertarian and for exposing that again, post Garth Turner, we have Jeff to thank .

Unfortunately his arrest shows that Anarchism is still considered a threat to the State by statists.

Government worker Jeff Monaghan, an employee at Environment Canada, was arrested and led away in handcuffs from his office early Wednesday as co-workers looked on. At a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday, Monaghan called it a "politically engineered raid of my workplace."

"The spectacle of my arrest, the subsequent RCMP press release and the prepared statements from Environment Canada, including [Environment Minister John] Baird, have been crafted to bully public servants," he said.

Monaghan, 27, also called the proposed charges "vengeful" and an "extension of a government-wide communication strategy pinned on secrecy, intimidation and centralization."

Baird said the arrest was a signal to other government employees that leaks of information wouldn't be tolerated.

But Monaghan, whose job was to monitor news reports about the government, said Thursday the proposed charges are "without precedent" in the extent to which they are disproportionate to the alleged offence.

On Thursday, he fired back at his accusers, calling the proposed charges a "profound threat to the public interest." He said they're part of a Tory communications strategy "pinned on secrecy, intimidation and centralization."

"The spectacle of my arrest, the subsequent RCMP press release, and the prepared statements from Environment Canada, including minister Baird, have been crafted to bully public servants whom they, in a paranoid fit, believe are partisan and embittered," Monaghan told a news conference.

He never admitted to the leak, but made it clear that he was profoundly opposed to the government's handling of the climate-change file. For four years he had worked on contract at Environment Canada, reading media articles and writing analyses of what they contained.

At the same time, Monaghan was helping to open an anarchist bookstore in downtown Ottawa that lists as its beliefs ``egalitarianism, co-operation and a collective struggle against abuses of power."

He said the government has undermined its legal commitment under the Kyoto agreement on climate change, and tried to "fool the public" into thinking otherwise through a carefully crafted public relations strategy. He said Environment Canada officials he worked with dutifully went along with the strategy even when it crossed the line into partisan activities.

"Our society knows the threat presented by the changing climate, global warming, and the rapidly increasing growth of industrial emissions," Monaghan said. "We deserve real action, not cynically calculated PR campaigns and witch-hunts on public servants."

Depending on who you talk to, the 27-year-old anarchist is either a victimized whistleblower or an alleged criminal who leaked sensitive government information.

Worker by day, anarchist book store operator... also by day

The unidentified Environment Canada employee who was escorted out of his office in handcuffs yesterday for allegedly leaking documents to the press came forward Thursday, accusing the Harper government of using bully tactics to discourage whistleblowers from coming forward.

In a brief news conference on Parliament Hill, 27-year-old Jeffrey Monaghan, a temporary government employee of four years — oh, and also a member of an Ottawa-based anarchist collective that opened a book store just over a week ago — announced he has not been charged with a crime.

"What I can tell you is that the proposed charges against me pose a profound threat to the public interest," said Mr. Monaghan, who did not take any questions.

"They are without precedent in their disproportionality, they are vengeful and they are an extension of a government-wide communications strategy pinned on secrecy, intimidation and centralization."

For more on Mr. Monaghan's comments and the document he allegedly leaked, read the story here.



Then Jeff shaved....

Jeff Monaghan, at the news conference Thursday, called the proposed charges an 'extension of a government-wide communication strategy pinned on secrecy intimidation and centralization.'

Jeff Monaghan, at the news conference Thursday, called the proposed charges an 'extension of a government-wide communication strategy pinned on secrecy intimidation and centralization.'
(CBC)


And here is the real irony of it all; this was the Conservative Governments much lauded democratic reform week.

This week, in its much-heralded “Week of Democratic Reform”, the federal government has delivered PR – public relations.

“It would be laughable if it wasn’t so worrying,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “What we are seeing is a government so deeply committed to deflection and avoiding the real issues that they are starting to believe their own spin.”

Ms. May said that the so-called Week of Democratic Reform was really a week of gimmickry and housekeeping: new rules on loans to political parties; more seats in parliament for growing provinces and an extra day of voting.


SEE:

Harpers Fascism

Leo Strauss and the Calgary School

Post Modern Conservatives.

Why The Conservatives Are Not Libertarians

Trotsky on Harper

The Great Dismantler

Man O Steel

More PMO Censorship


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Rent Control Filibuster

The Liberals and NDP filibustered the Alberta Legislature last night when the Tories tried to sneak their toothless rent control bill through the Legislature.
Tories refuse rent debate

Marathon debate over soaring rents keeps Alberta legislators up all night

Canadian Press

Published: Thursday, May 10, 2007

EDMONTON (CP) - An overnight debate in the Alberta legislature over new housing legislation had NDP Leader Brian Mason ordering pizzas and Liberal members stashing food.

Mason says he felt like a kid at a sleepover as he ordered fast food for his NDP colleagues and shared food with security staff. Liberal Leader Kevin Taft didn't join the marathon debate about whether rent controls should be brought in, but his members stashed food in the assembly to keep up their strength.

Government whip Frank Oberle said rent controls would stifle construction of new housing units, so the legislation that eventually passed second reading did not include them.

It instead limits rent increases to once a year, increases fines for landlords who ignore the rules and give tenants more notice when their apartments are being converted to condos.

Opposition politicians say that's sadly inadequate for thousands of people facing huge rent hikes, forcing some to leave Alberta in search of cheaper housing.

Rent legislation debate goes overnight (9:35 a.m.)

edmontonjournal.com

Published: Thursday, May 10, 2007

EDMONTON - In a rare move, the Alberta legislature sat all night to debate the Conservative government's controversial rent legislation.

The New Democrats introduced an amendment about 8:30 a.m. today to bring in rent guidelines. The amendment is still being debated.

Liberal-sponsored amendments to the legislation - Bill 34, the Tenancies Statutes Amendment Act - were passed early this morning.

The legislation will limit rent increases to once per year and require landlords to give tenants a year's notice before turning their buildings into condominiums.

But the government has steadfastly refused to include rent controls in the legislation even though a committee recommended rent-control legislation.

The Liberals said in a prepared statement today one of their amendments doubles the fines for landlords who violate the rules on condo conversions.

The debate was continuing this morning. Live video of the legislature is available at http://media.assembly.ab.ca/livevideo.



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Gas Gouging

Gas gouging is here again. The reason of course is that it is spring. And prices rise in the spring just like dandelions.

PILGRIM: Now, this spring, gas price is an annual event. In 22 of the last 23 years, prices have risen some time after March 15th and go up until about mid-May.

The Center for Policy Alternatives reports that Canadians are paying as much as 27 cents per litre too much for gas.
 "For example, drivers in Toronto are currently being overcharged 15 cents
per litre," Mackenzie says.
The situation is the same across the country:
in Halifax drivers arecurrently overpaying 19 cents per litre;
21 cents per litre
in Winnipeg; 18 cents per litre in Edmonton;
and a whopping 27 cents per litre
in Vancouver.

You can use their handy dandy tool to find out how much you are being
screwed by Big Oil.


The image “http://policyalternatives.ca/images/upload/news/gas_gouge_meter.jpg.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
And from GasBuddy.com

Edmonton
Today 104.855
Yesterday 104.877
One Week Ago 105.102
One Month Ago 98.740
One Year Ago 101.510

Using the above price for gas Hugh Mackenzie's Gas price gouge: The sequel.calculator finds that in Edmonton;

Your gas prices are 21.1¢ per litre above the normalized cost of 82.9¢ per litre in Edmonton
With today's crude oil price of $62.01 USD per barrel and the US dollar at $1.11 CAD, the price of regular unleaded gasoline in Edmonton should be 82.9¢ per litre at normal profit margins. At a price of $1.04 per litre, you are paying 21.1¢ per litre in pure excess profit. Across Canada, an extra margin of 21.1¢ per litre generates an additional profit of 21.1 million dollars per day

Further from Gasbuddy.com we find that prices for gas have steadily increased over the past six years.

http://66.70.86.64/test.gaschart?Country=Canada&Crude=f&Period=72&Areas=Edmonton,,&Unit=CAN%20c/L

"Expect even higher profits, especially during the second and third quarters, their busiest season," said Jason Toews, co-founder of gasbuddy.com, a website that compares gas prices across the country. Toews predicts prices will peak at $1.30 a litre for self-serve, regular unleaded by August. This means more money for Big Oil, while gas retailers, Toews says, are making very little.

And even if there is competition between Gas Stations over prices this happens; Wisconsin Gas Station Owner Ordered To Raise Prices

So much for the free market.

And even without provincial and federal taxes on gasoline, that Linda Letherdale and her pals at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation whine about, the price would still be going up.

Oil prices rose Thursday despite a U.S. report showing that stocks of gasoline, crude and distillate fuels all rose,

"At this point it doesn't even matter any more what the reasons behind the price rise are," said Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers' Association of Canada.

He said consumers are "exhausted and frustrated" and are being gouged at the pumps for reasons that aren't clear.

"We've got no satisfactory explanations as to why these huge price rises take place year after year," said Cran, whose group received hundreds of calls Tuesday from motorists looking for answers.

According to MJ Ervin & Associates Inc. a Calgary-based consulting firm, the national average price of gas on Tuesday was reported at about $1.10 a litre, up five cents from the average price in March and 19 cents from the average price in January.

"This is a trend that we see every spring," said Catherine Hay, Senior Associate with MJ Ervin and Associates.

"This is something that we see in anticipation of the big driving season every year," she said.

Hay said this time last year the national average gas price was $1.08, only two cents lower that this year

Just like dandelions

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Green Deja Vu

Civil Servant arrested over Green Plan leak

Reminds me of this;

Tories muzzle environmental scientist

Mere days after Prime Minister Stephen Harper got up in the House of Commons and claimed his Accountability Act would protect civil servants who speak out about unethical behaviour, Mark Tushingham, a scientist with Environment Canada, got an e-mail from the Environment Minister's office.

Tushingham was just about to give a presentation on the science behind his novel Hotter Than Hell at the National Press Club. Released last November with little fanfare, it's about the Earth becoming so hot from climate change that America and Canada are at war over water.

"I was entering the elevator 15 minutes before the event when I got a call on my cellphone," says Tushingham's publisher, Elizabeth Margaris at DreamCatcher Publishing. "[Tushingham] said, 'I've got bad news. I can't go.' He was told [by the Environment Minister's office] not to appear."

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Mon Dieu

The image “http://www.thestar.com/images/assets/223126_3.JPG” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Dear God;

Should I lead a third place party in Ottawa or in Quebec City.


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