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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.consciousness.mysticism,talk.religion.misc From: catherine yronwodeSubject: Scholem Politically-Biased? (was: Re: Hermetic QBL Unsupportable? (was Parpola Discovered! ....) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 00:03:49 GMT Joseph wrote: > > does [Gershom Scholem's use of the word] "charlatan" include the > honest seeker after "knowledge" who dosnt happen to qualify for the > "traditional oral community participation"? Obviously not, since Scholem did not characterize the hermetic, Rosicicrucian, Christian, non-Jewish author Arthur Edward Waite as a "charlatan" but rather a "scholar." I think that some non-Jews taking part in this discussion feel attacked when they are not being attacked. I am sorry this is happening. I wish everyone would take a more reasoned, measured look at this material. Below you will again see the quote from Scholem, by way of supporting my (and siva's) contentions that 1) Scholem was capable of distinguishing what he believed to be "charlatans" and "scholars" from one another based on their written texts with respect to the kabbalah. 2) Scholem did not dismiss all hermetic authors on kabbalah as "charlatans" nor did he endorse all hermetic authors on kabbalah as "scholars." 3) There is no evidence that Scholem's dismissal of Crowley as a "charlatan" was race-based. 4) There is no evidence that Scholem's endorsement of Waite as a "scholar" wish a "fine philosophical intuition and [a] natural grasp [of the kabbalah]" was race-based. 5) Therefor it is insupportable to accuse Scholem of having called Crowley's writings on the kabbalah "charlatanry" due to a "political bias" as some here have asserted. Gershom Scholem's text labelling Crowley a "charlatan": The many books written on the subject [of Kabbalah] in the 19th and 20th centuries by various theosophists and mystics lacked any basic knowledge of the sources and very rarely contributed to the field, while at times they even hindered the development of a historical approach. Similarly, the activities of French and English occultists contributed nothing and only served to create considerable confusion between the teachings of the Kabbalah and their own totally unrelated inventions, such as the alleged kabbalistic origin -> of the Tarot-cards. To this category of supreme charlatanism -> belong the many and widely read books of Eliphas Levi -> (actually Alphonse Louis Constant; 1810-1875), Papus (Gerard -> Encausse; 1868-1916), and Frater Perdurabo (Aleister Crowley; -> 1875-1946), all of whom had an infinitesimal knowledge of Kabbalah that did not prevent them from drawing freely on their imaginations instead. The comprehensive works of A.E. Waite, (*The Holy Kabbalah*, 1929), S. Karppe, and P. Vulliaud, on the other hand, were essentially rather confused compilations made from secondhand sources [e.g. Knorr Von Rosenroth's "Kabbalah Denudata" -- hara]. ---------------------------------------------- "Kabbalah", Gershom Scholem, Dorset Press, 1987 (1974 copyright), pp. 202-3. Gershom Scholem's text labelling Waite a "scholar" with "fine philosophical intuition and [a] natural grasp [of the kabbalah]": It is not to the credit of Jewish scholarship that the works of the few writers who were really informed on the subject [of Kabbalah] were never printed, and in some cases were not even recorded, since there was nobody to take an interest. Nor have we reason to be proud of the fact that the greater part of the ideas and views which show a real insight into the world of Kabbalism, closed as it was to the rationalism prevailing in the Judaism of the nineteenth century, were -> expressed by Christian scholars of a mystical bent, such as -> the Englishman Arthur Edward Waite of our days and the German Franz Josef Molitor a century ago. It is a pity that the fine philosophical intuition and natural grasp of such students lost their edge because they lacked all critical sense as to historical and philological data in this field, and therefore failed completely when they had to handle problems bearing on the facts. ---------------------------------------------- "Kabbalah", Gershom Scholem, Dorset Press, 1987 (1974 copyright), pp. 2. I hope this sets the record straight and eases fears that Jews such as Gershom Scholem are politically biased or are trying to degrade or demean the writings of non-Jews as a result of racial prejudice. cat yronwode Hoodoo and Blues Lyrics --------- http://www.luckymojo.com/blues.html
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