The word ‘hermetic’ is derived from three words – Hermes (Greek), Thoth (Egyptian), and Mercury (Roman). It is a science, a philosophy on which the Bible and the Qabalah are solidly rooted in. Hermes was known as the God of Wisdom and was the teacher of Abraham. Amongst all the diverse knowledge that Hermes gave the world, his philosophies were the most mystic and intriguing to all. The Hermetic Philosophy is based on seven principles. We have listed down the seven principles along with a brief description of what they stand for:
Table of Contents
Principles in Hermetic Philosophy
- The Principle of Mentalism – The All is mind, the Universe is mental.
- The Principle of Correspondence – As above, so below; as below so above
- The Principle of Vibration – Nothing rests, everything moves; everything vibrates.
- The Principle of Polarity – Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair in opposites; like and unlike are all the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.
- The Principle of Rhythm – Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.
- The Principal of Cause and Effect – Every cause has its effect, every effect has its Cause; everything happens according to the law; chance is but a name for law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law.
- The Principal of Gender – Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principle; gender manifests on all planes.
The number ‘seven’ holds extreme significance in the Hermetic Philosophy. It represents the creative powers of God, which are seven in number and are the seven colors of the rainbow. This is the reason why the Sephiroth, which is a critical part of the Sacred Geometry (put forth by the Hermetic Philosophy) features seven chakras. Let’s discuss the Sacred Geometry and what it represents in detail:
Sacred Geometry
The term Sacred Geometry is considered to be a common element of the human condition. It features sacred universal patterns that depict the design of everything in our reality. The Kabbalah theories can be better explained with the help of Sacred Geometry.
The Sacred Geometry (or the Tree of Life) gives us insights into past, present, and future prophecy. These concepts are as basic and simple as they can be, yet difficult to comprehend for most people. While sacred depictions of trees have been around for centuries and are prominent in most religions across the world, there is something very intriguing about the Tree of Life, which happens to be the center of the Kabbalah theories. It depicts man’s divine unity with the universe and can be easily understood as the map of the human psyche.
Different elements in the Tree of Life represent different concepts. All of these elements put together then form the Tree of Life, which are depicts a structured harmony among all these elements. The Tree of Life consists of 10 nodes symbolizing different archetypes, along with 22 lines that connect these nodes. The nodes are represented by spheres and the lines are represented by paths. The nodes stand for encompassing aspects of human existence, God and the human psyche. They also stand for deities, angels, celestial bodies, numbers or specific values. On the other hand, the paths represent the relationship between these aspects.
Christian Cabala
Christians are not in favor of the Cabalistic theories, but the very endorsement of this theory by St. John Fisher is enough of a reason why Christians should not dismiss the concepts, facts, and ideas put forth by the Cabala theories. Despite being a branch of the Kabbalah itself, Christian Cabala is deemed to be a lot less complex. However, the fact that Christain Cabala is not as much researched as the Jewish Kabbalah and thus can prove devious, does perplex Kabbalah followers.
The very origin of Christian Cabala was a lot later than that of the Jewish Kabbalah. Cabala came into existence because of the keen interest of some Christian scholars in the mystical aspects of Jewish Kabbalah. These Christian Scholars, however, interpreted the Jewish kabbalah ideologies under their Christian theology.
The fact that the ten Sephiroth (an essential and integral part of Kabbalah) has been linked to distinct Christian perspectives such as the Birth of Jesus Christ, His atonement and His Resurrection, itself shows that the Christain scholars have successfully linked the Kabbalah theories to the Christain perspective. This, however, does not prove that the Christian Cabala is as well-researched as its Jewish counterpart. This is also why there are only a few documents of merit, worthy enough to be published as literary works of Christian Cabala.
Most of the manuscripts by Christian scholars lack originality, which is why they haven’t ever seen the light of the world. These manuscripts consist of selections from earlier writers, or at best, commentary on the original Kabbalah literary works.
The founder of the Christian interpretation of Kabbalah was Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, and this is an undisputed claim. Pico evidently had the original Jewish manuscripts of Kabbalah translated into Latin, before he read, understood and finally infused the Christian aspect into the Kabbalarian philosophies.
Summing up
By and far, Jewish Kabbalah is known to be the original, most authentic source of the Kabbalah theories. All the ideologies, concepts and diagrams have stemmed from the Jewish Kabbalah and have been interpreted in various different ways by those interested in this mystical practice. It is intriguing that the Jewish Kabbalah is based on the Bible, and yet, Christian Cabala is not as popular as the former
.– Despite making its best effort to correlate the Kabbalah concepts to the Bible, Christain Cabala has not been able to survive in the modern world. All that is left is the increasing number of followers of the Jewish Kabbalah, who are scrupulously and ardently studying the secrets of Kabbalah, trying to present it to the modern world in the simplest possible manner.
