Jung, Kabbalah, and Gnosis

Abstract

Kabbalah is the principal mystical tradition within Judaism. Its historical origins are obscure, but it probably originated in association with early Jewish Merkabah mysticism. Between 1100 and 1300 c.e. the Kabbalistic tradition constellated, and the principal Kabbalistic source books appeared publicly in the Pyrenean region. The development of Kabbalah in this region and time may be related to the coincident emergence in the same period and geographical area of other esoteric Gnostic spiritual traditions, including the Gnostic and Christian religion of the Cathars. These traditions are related to Gnostic movements that had existed in late antiquity, and are based in the experience of Gnosis, a knowledge arrived at by intuitive and spiritual means. Classical Gnostic experience resulted in a mythological and cosmological literature closely related to the Kabbalah. Noting this fact, Gershom Scholem identified Kabbalah as Jewish Gnosticism. The “prophetic Kabbalah” of Abraham Abulafia (1240–1291) and the later Kabbalah of Isaac Luria (1534–1574) both show evidence of primal visionary insights replete with Gnostic overtones. C. G. Jung interpreted many of his spiritual insights according to the examples of classical and Christian Gnosticism. He was, however, keenly aware of the Kabbalah. In Jung's triple initiatory vision of the “Mystery of the Bride-Chamber,” one of the three visions concerns the Kabbalistic wedding of Tifereth and Malkuth in the Garden of Pomegranates. This signal and highly meaningful event reveals Jung as a visionary participant in both classical Christian Gnosis and the Jewish Gnosis of the Kabbalah.