The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)

which I have expressed its letters in this work ; also their names, powers, and numerical values. There are no separate numeral characters in Hebrew and Chaldee ; therefore, as is also the case in Greek, each letter has its own peculiar numerical value, and from this circumstance results the important fact that every word is a number , and every number is a word. This is alluded to in Revelations, where ££ the number of the beast ” is mentioned, and on this correspondence between words and numbers the science of Gematria (the first division of the so-called literal Qabalah) is based. I shall refer to this subject again. I have selected the Roman letter Q to represent the Hebrew Qoph or Koph , a precedent for the use of which without a following u may be found in Max Muller’s “ Sacred Books of the East.” Thereader must remember that the Hebrew is almost entirely a consonantal alphabet, the vowels being for the most part supplied by small points and marks usually placed below the letters. Another difficulty of the Hebrew alphabet consists in the great similarity between the forms of certain letters — e.g ., Y, Z, and final N.

5. With regard to the author and origin of the Qabalah, I cannot do better than give the following extract from Dr. Ginsburg’s ££ Essay on the Kabbalah,” first premising that this word has been spelt in a great variety of ways — Cabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, &c. I have adopted the form Qabalah, as being more consonant with the Hebrew writing of the word.

6. ££ A system of religious philosophy, or, more properly, of theosophy, which has not only exercised for hundreds of years an extraordinary influence on the mental development of so shrewd a people as the Jews, but has captivated the minds of some of the greatest thinkers of Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, claims the greatest attention of both the philosopher and the theologian. When it is added that among its

INTRODUCTION.

captives were Raymond Lully, the celebrated scholastic metaphysician and chemist (died 1315) ; John Reuchlin, the renowned scholar and reviver of Oriental literature in Europe (born 1455, died 1 522) ; John Picus de Mirandola, the famous philosopher and classical scholar (1463- 1494) ; Cornelius Henry Agrippa, the distinguished philosopher, divine, and physician (1486-1535) ; John Baptist Yon Helmont, a remarkable chemist and physician (4577- [644) ; as well as our own countrymen, Robert Fludd, the famous physician and philosopher (1574-1637) ; and Dr. Henry More (1614-1687); and that these men, after restlessly searching for a scientific system which should disclose to them ‘ the deepest depths ’ of the divine nature, and show them the real tie which binds all things together, found the cravings of their minds satisfied by this theosophy, the claims of the Kabbalah on the attention of students in literature and philosophy will readily be admitted. The claims of the Kabbalah, however, are not restricted to the literary man and the philosopher ; the poet too will find in it ample materials for the exercise of his lofty genius. How can it be otherwise with a theosophy which, we are assured, was bom of God in Paradise, was nursed and reared by the choicest of the angelic hosts in heaven, and only held converse with the holiest of man’s children upon earth. Listen to the story of its birth, growth, and maturity, as told by its followers.