The Holy Kabbalah: A Study Of The Secret Tradition In Israel

by Arthur Edward Waite

When Jerusalem was destroyed during the early centuries of Christianity, many of the great Jewish religious scholars went into exile, taking their ancient wisdom with them. Over generations a secret doctrine was developed, a mystical interpretation of the Old Testament, which is known as the Kabbalah. This doctrine was passed on by word of mouth for hundreds of years and finally set down in such works as Zohar, or The Book of Splendour, and The Book of Concealment.

The present exhaustive study of the Kabbalistic texts examines their main areas of concern and shows how these writings were reinterpreted in later ages by alchemists and magicians, diviners and astrologists. In the modern age, when so many people are seeking a new spiritual dimension to their lives, it is a timely reminder of those paths taken by past thinker in their quest for the truth.

Genres: Occult, Religion, Philosophy, Mysticism, Magic, Judaism, Nonfiction

636 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Arthur Edward Waite was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultism viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion."

Reviews

[JA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant title by AE Waite. What we have here is an expose on Kabbalah, mainly the Zohar, stripped of all the metaphysical hocus-pocus and political posturing present in most Qabalah, both Hermetic and Hebrew. Interestingly, he applies almost an alchemical approach to the Kabbalah, removing the unnecessary and allowing the reader to gently extract the gold.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I use this more as a reference book. A.E. Waite uses turgid prose, so it's as much as I can do to get through the research.

[Hamze · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible book, it is mess, it was really exhausting and boring. I wanted to learn more a out the subject but the way this book is put together and scripted is not that good at all

[Jean-claude Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for Christian Kabbalah.