Comparative perspectives

on the

Zohar

John Noyce
B.A.(Hons)(History) (Sussex),
M.A.(Dev Stud), M.Lib(Monash)

Melbourne, Australia

Email: [email protected]

July 2004

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In this essay some of the archetypes to be found in mystical literature are explored by
contrasting textual examples from the Zohar with examples drawn mainly from the yogic
and Devi traditions of India and from the writings of the Christian mystics of early
modern Europe.

The Sefer ha-Zohar began to circulate in Spain in the late 1280s and the person most
responsible for it was Rabbi Moses de Leon, the author of several Hebrew texts. The
Zohar presents itself as an ancient, rabbinic midrash on the Pentateuch, authored by
Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai (known as Rashbi), a rabbi of the second century CE, who,
along with his circle of mystics, is the main protagonist of the Zohar. Written in Aramaic,
the language of these early Jewish mystics, the Zohar has many idiosyncratic words and
phrases that betray its medieval European provenance. Thus the Zohar is most likely the
collective product of a Kabbalistic fraternity in Gerona in Castile, in northern Spain,
drawing on previous, secret1, teachings of the earlier Rabbi Isaac the Blind (c.1160-
c.1236) and his circle in Provence, in southern France. Many of the concepts presented
in the Zohar are also to be found in earlier texts. The term Sefirot, for instance, originated
in the Sefer Yetzira, where it is refered to as ten ideal numbers that functioned, along with
the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, as the ‘building blocks’ of the universe.
The concept of the ten Sefirot appeared in other earlier texts, notably Rabbi Azriel of
Gerona’s Explanation of the Ten Sefirot.

The intention of this essay is to discuss some of the archetypes of Zoharic Kabbalah, and
to point to apparent similarities (and differences) with the texts of other mystical
traditions.

One such comparison notes the apparent similarity that the diagramatic representation of
the ten Sefirot has with the diagramatic representation of the chakras in the yogic
tradition of India (see appendix). It has become fashionable in certain parts of new age
spirituality to make such a comparison, and, as a Google search reveals, there are a
number of web pages that purport to directly compare Sefirot to chakras.2 Leaving aside
the obvious, namely that there are ten Sefirot and, usually, only seven chakras, there are

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obvious dangers in such a superficial comparison of two profound mystical traditions,
and the direct comparison of Sefirot to chakras is not attempted here. These two mystical
traditions do however have some similarities worthy of note.

At the gate

One fruitful comparison is that of the Shechina with the Kundalini, both of whom are
refered to as feminine, and both of whom grant or deny access to the aspirant to higher
spiritual knowledge.

In the Zohar 1:103b, it is written:

Come and see. There is opening within opening, rung upon rung,
through which the glory of the blessed Holy One becomes known.
Opening of the tent [Genesis 18:1] is the opening of Righteousness,
as it is said: Open for me gates of righteousness. [Psalm 118:19]
This is the first opening to enter;
Through this opening all other supernal openings come into view.
Whoever attains this attains all other openings,
for all abide in Her [the Shechina]

In this text, the phrase ‘the gates of righteousness’ is understood to refer to the Shechina.

For the yogi, the Kundalini also resides at the first opening, as described in a song3 in the
Marathi language, attributed to Namdev, and dating most probably from the late
thirteenth century CE, coincidentally the date of the Zohar:
in the beginning
is the ant
mouth of the triple river
is the mouth of the ant

in darkness
is the ant
in flames a wick of water
lights a lamp of soot

in the wake of the ant

all of the sky follows
the world of our making's her dropping

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 i pursue that ant
i, vishnudas nama
unlock the ant with my guru

Here the ‘ant’ is yogic code for the Kundalini, and the ‘mouth of the triple river’ refers to
the entrance to the three nadis, or channels, which connect the chakras.

The thirteenth century Marathi saint Jnaneshwara has provided the clearest exposition of
Kundalini awakening in the sixth chapter of his commentary on the Bhagavadgita,
popularly known as the Jnaneshwari. In the midst of a technical, but nevertheless
awesome, description of the ascent of the Kundalini, he comments that

This Kundalini is the mother of the world, who illumines the self
and gives shade to the sprouted seed of the universe.
It is the embodiment of the formless Brahman,
the cask of Lord Shiva, the main spring of the sacred syllable Om.4

In this we are reminded of the Zoharic relationship of the Shechina to the male aspect of
the Divine.

Gates and palaces

Let us consider another text from the Zohar, from 1:7b:

Open for me gates of righteousness [Psalm 118:19],
this is the gate of the Lord [ibid].
This is certain because if one does not enter through this gate,
one cannot gain entry to the worlds.
It is like an exalted King who is high, hidden and concealed,
and who has made gates for himself, one upon the other
and at the end of all the gates he had made one particular gate
with a number of locks, a number of doors, and a number of palaces.

In some respects this reminds the present writer of the sixteenth century Spanish
Christian mystic, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), who, in her Interior Castle, depicts the
soul entering a castle and proceeding through the seven heavenly mansions containing
numerous rooms so as to encounter God at its centre. In First Mansions, chapter one,
Teresa outlines for the reader (originally the nuns of her order) her first thoughts:

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 I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single
Diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms,
just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

In her conclusion, Teresa notes that

Although I have spoken here only of seven Mansions, yet in each
there are comprised many more, both above and below and around,
with lovely gardens and fountains and things so delectable that you
will want to lose yourselves in praise of the great God Who created it
in His image and likeness.

Also in her conclusion, Teresa cautions the reader against over-confidence:

It is true that, however strong you may think yourselves, you cannot
Enter all the Mansions by your own efforts: the Lord of the Castle
Himself must admit you to them. So, if you meet with any resistance,
I advise you not to make any effort to get in, for if you do you will
displease Him so much that He will never admit you.5

As in the Zoharic text quoted earlier, here we have an ‘exalted King’ (Lord of the Castle)
who decides who will or will not enter his domain.

A probable reason for this similarity between Teresa’s Interior Castle and the earlier
Zohar lies in the Jewish ancestry of Teresa. Whilst Teresa attempted to keep her past
secret, she had been brought up in a Jewish converso family whose ancestors had in
earlier times felt it prudent to convert to Christianity. Additionally we need to note that
both Teresa and her confidant, Juan de la Cruz, were living in Avila, the Spanish town
where Moses de Leon had compiled the Zohar less than three hundred years earlier. The
American academic Sujan Jane Burgeson has noted the similarity of Teresa’s seven
mansions not only to the ten sefirot of the Zohar, but also to the seven stages of
meditation in Abraham Abulafia’s ectastic Kabbalah, and to the seven palaces of the
earlier Merkabah tradition.6

The origin of the Zoharic use of gates and palaces is most probably to be found in the
texts of the earlier Jewish mystical tradition, the Merkabah. As a modern historian has
noted, “the world of Merkabah mysticism is one of the most dazzling of the mystical
worlds. It is a realm of fantastic heavenly beings, of bizarre magical names, and of occult

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interactions between spirit and matter. In it, closed gates to celestial palaces are opened
by long, incomprehensible incantations, and the dangers which rise up against man as he
enters the realm of the supernatural are met with seals of truth.”7

The period of Merkabah mysticism extends from as early as the first century BCE and
continues until the tenth century CE, and whilst its texts have only survived in fragments
and are still being studied by historians, its influence is surely in the Zohar. In the Pirkei
Heikhalot, which has only survived in a fragment which includes chapters 15 to 29, the
mystic is given detailed instructions for passing through the gates of seven successive
palaces, each of which are guarded by wrathful angels who can refuse entry if the mystic
does not give the correct ‘password’. Chapter 24 of the Pirkei Heikhalot vividly describes,
in language that would not be out of place in the Zohar, the entry to the gate of the seventh
palace:
1. The greatest [terror] of them all is the five hundred and twelve
eyes of the four Holy Hayot opposite the gate of the seventh palace.
[There are also] faces of human shape – and each ‘face’ has sixteen
faces – on each Hayot opposite the gate of the seventh palace.
2. As soon as that man [ie. The initiate] entreats to descend to the
Merkabah, Anaphiel the prince, opens the doors of the seventh palace
and that man enters and stands on the threshhold of the gate of the
seventh palace and the Holy Hayot lift him up. Five hundred and
twelve eyes, and each and every eye of the eyes of the Holy Hayot is
hollow like the holes in a sieve woven of branches. In addition, there
are the eyes of the Cherubim of Might and the Wheels of the Shechina,
which are similar to torches of light and flames of burning coals.
3. This man then trembles, shakes, moves to and fro, panics, is terrified,
faints, and collapes backwards. Anaphiel, the prince, and sixty-three
watchmen of the seven gates of the palace support him, and they all
help him and say: “Do not fear, son of the beloved seed. Enter and
see the King in his magnificence. You will not be slaughtered and you
will not be burnt. …
5. They give him strength. Immediately, they blow a trumpet from
“above the vault which is over the heads of the Hayot” [Ezekiel 1:25].
And the Holy Hayot cover their faces nd the Cherubim and the Wheels
turn their faces away and he stands erect, turns and poses himself before
the Throne of Glory.8

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This being the Throne of Glory of the true and solitary King, Harariel-YHVH, Lord of
Israel.

Six reflected in the seventh

The concept of seven as a sacred number is common throughout many religions and
mythologies, and is also present in the Zohar9 and in earlier Jewish mystical texts such as
those of the Merkabah tradition in which the mystic enters seven successive palaces as
noted above. The notion of six being reflected in the seventh is encountered less so. In the
texts of the Kabbala, such as the Zohar, the six male aspects, namely Hesed (greatness),
Gevurah or Din (judgement), Tiferet (beauty), Hod (majesty), Nesah (endurance), and
Yesod (foundation), are reflected in the seventh, the female Shechina.

Whilst the male/female aspect of the relationship of the six to the seventh would seem to
be unique to the Kabbala, there are other mystical traditions where six powers are found
integrated in the seventh. In Kundalini yoga, the qualities of the six main chakras,
namely Mooladhara (innocence, wisdom), Swadisthana (creativity), Nabhi (sustenance,
satisfaction), Anahat (love, joy), Vishuddhi (collective consciousness, communication),
Agnya (forgiveness), are integrated in the seventh, the Sahasrara.10

Classical Kundalini yoga texts also described the ascent of the Kundalini through the six
chakras to the seventh, the Sahasrara, known as the thousand-petalled lotus. Thus, in the
ninth stanza of the Sanskrit language text, the Saundarya-Lahari (The Ocean of beauty),
usually attributed to the great Indian yogi-saint, Sankara, and dated to the eighth century
CE, the author addresses the Devi, the Goddess:

Thou art diverting Thyself, in secrecy with Thy Lord, in the thousand-
petalled lotus, having pierced through the Earth situated in the Muladhara,
the Water in the Manipura [Nabhi], the Fire abiding in the Svadhisthana,
the Air in the Heart [Anahat], the Ether above [Vishuddhi], and Manas
between the eyebrows [Agnya] and thus broken through the entire Kula
path.11

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Later texts in the Kundalini yoga tradition, notably those of the Nath yogis, refer also to
more chakras beyond the Sahasrara. In chapter three of the Kaulajnana Nimaya, a Nath
text possibly of the twelfth century CE, it is written:

Dearest, (in the pinda exist), the (chakras) of five lines, 16 lines,
sixty four petals, the truly beautiful 100 petal (lotus) [Agnya] and
the beautiful thousand petal lotus [Sahasrara] and above this is
a very brilliant 10,000,000 petal lotus. Above the 10,000,000
petal lotus is a 30,000,000 petal lotus, each pericarp of which is
similar to a flame. Above all this is the all encompassing, eternal,
undivided, independent, steady lotus – pervading all, stainless.
By its will (sveccha) it causes creation and dissolution. Both the
animate and the inanimate are dissolved in this linga.12

It would be possible to compare the final lotus with the Keter, but, as commented above,
direct comparison of the chakras and the Sefirot seems to the present writer to be
unnecessary, and demeaning to both mystical traditions.

We turn now to two later mystics, of the Christian Sophia tradition, Jacob Boehme (1575-
1624) and John Pordage (1608-1681), both of whom used the ‘six reflected in the
seventh’ archetype.

Boehme constructed a complex theology based on his belief in a universal principle,

connected to Eternal Nature and to Wisdom in her feminine form as Sophia. For a
summary of Boehme’s complex beliefs we can turn to the eighteenth century French
mystic, Count Louis Claude de Saint Martin:

Jacob Boehme took for granted the existence of a Universal Principle;

He was persuaded that everything is connected in the immense chain
of truths, and that the Eternal Nature reposed on seven principles or
bases, which he sometimes calls powers, forms, spiritual wheels, sources,
and fountains, and that those seven bases exist also in this disordered
material nature, under constraint. His nomenclature, adopted for these
fundamental relations, ran thus: the first astringency, the second gall
or bitterness, the third anguish, the fourth fire, the fifth light, the sixth
sound, and the seventh he called BEING or the thing itself.13

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In the first few months of what turned out to be the final year of his life, Jacob Boehme
summarised for his friends and followers his ideas in the Clavis (or Key to his writings).
When discussing Eternal Nature and its seven properties he makes it clear that the
seventh contains the other six:
The seventh property is the subject or the contence of the other six
properties, in which they work, as the life doth in the flesh; and this
seventh property is rightly and truly called the ground or place of
nature.14

When Boehme discusses the Seventh property in detail he again emphasises this
integration:
122. The Seventh property is the substance, that is, the subjectum or
house of the other six, in which they all are substantially as the soul
in the body: by this we understand especially, as to the light-world, the
paradise or budding of the working power.
123. For every property maketh unto itself a subject, or object, by its
own effluence, and in the seventh all the properties are in a temperature,
as in one only substance and as they all did proceed from the Unity,
so they all return again into one ground.15

There is no surviving evidence that Jacob Boehme was directly influenced by the Zohar.
However it is known that he studied Kabbala with Balthasar Walther, the German
physician who became director of the Elector’s chemical laboratory in Dresden. Whilst
history portrays Jacob Boehme as the ‘cobbler of Gorlitz’, he was in reality a prosperous
cloth merchant who travelled throughout the German-speaking areas, and had many
friends in the nobility and urban elite.16 Through these contacts he explored alchemical
ideas and hermetic imagery using the works of several writers including the Swiss
spiritual alchemist, Phillipus Bombast von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (c1493-
1541)17
In England in the seventeenth century, John Pordage developed a theology which
borrowed from Boehme’s earlier work. In his Theologia mystica (published in 1683, after
his death) Pordage outlined his theory of eight globes or worlds of which the whole, the
Archetypous Globe, he designates with the letter A; and Eternal Nature as B, which has
within itself six further worlds:
The letter A affordith the view of the Archetypal Globe or World
which is the first and contains the other in its circumference, as

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 the figure demonstrateth18
B would have you behold Eternal-Nature, whole circle see, doth
enclose all the worlds.
C carrieth you to the Angelical World [fig: or The Love world]
D declareth the Dark Fire-World [fig: or The wrath-world]
E entreth you into the Fire-Light-World [fig: or The Severe world]
F pointeth forth the Light-Fire-World [fig: Paradise]
G giveth you the light of the four Elementarie-Worlds
[fig: The outward visible world]
H holdeth out the Light Fireless-World [fig: or The mercifull world]19

Considering this typology of the eight worlds, the reader may wish to reflect on possible
Kabbalistic influences on Pordage. Could the Archetypal Globe be Keter? Could Eternal-
Nature be the Shechina?

In A treatise of Eternal Nature (published after his death in 1681), Pordage expands in
detail on the seven forms and their properties. Having explained the properties of the first
six, he arrives at the seventh:
And now in the last place, for a conclusion of all, the Creator brings
forth the seventh form, in which the aformentioned working forms
and properties do act and qualifie, as the Soul in the Body. It is the
House and dwelling place, and is the Eternal Earth, which gives the
Eternal Substantiality and Corporiety to them all. Here they dwell in
Triumphant joy; here they are all fed, with the Eternal food which the
Love-essence gives birth unto them, and circle in and through one
another, in the greatest Unity and Harmony in the triumphant joy of
the Love essence, which pierceth through them all. Thus you feel the
birth of Eternal Nature, full compleat and perfect…20

Whilst this is a long way from the Sefirotic structure of the Zohar, is it not possible to see
in this text an echo of the union of the Shechina with the six aspects of her male
counterpart?

The River
One of the enduring archetypes to be found in diffferent mystical traditions is the River,
which can be found in two forms. The first form is that of the river to be crossed, with the
aid of the teacher, or guru, en route to the mystical union, or yoga, with the Divine. This
is the sense intended by the eighth century Sahajiya Buddhist, Saraha:

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 The body is the boat, the pure mind is the oar.
Take as a rudder the word of a good master.
Make your mind quiet and then steer the boat –
by no other means can one reach the other shore.
The boatman tows the boat.
Do not hastily approach the inborn (Sahaja) through other ways.
The path is dangerous, and the wicked are strong.
Everything is destroyed at the swelling of the ocean.
Saraha says: If you follow the bank and sail upstream
against the swift current, the boat will enter the sky [heaven].21

This formula is to be found in songs of subsequent bhakti sants in India, leading some
seven hundred years later to this scathing commentary in a song by the great fifteenth
century saint Kabir:

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:

What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travellers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

And there is no body, and no mind!

Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;

there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don’t go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.22
The other usage of The River in mystical traditions is as a metaphor for the blessings that
flow from the Divine to the mystic, and this is the usage that we find in the Zohar, such
as in 1:52a:
There are seven lights, which split up into seven seas,
and one sea [Shechina] contains them. This one sea is the
supernal sea in which all the seven seas are contained.
These seven lights enter the sea, and smite the sea on seven
sides, and each side splits up into seven rivers, as it is
written “and He will smite it into seven rivers” (Isaiah 11:15)
and each river splits up into seven streams, and each stream

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 splits up into seven roads, and each road splits up into seven
paths, and all the waters of the sea enter them. The seven
supernal lights enter the sea – they are really six emerging from
the uppermost one. As the sea receives them so it distributes its
waters to all the seas, to all the rivers.

In this passage “the one sea” is the Shechina receiving the Divine blessings from “the
topmost one”, the Divine Mother, Binah.

Another example of ‘the river as Divine blessing’ can be found in the works of the
thirteenth century Sufi, Rumi:
There is a Water that flows down from Heaven
To cleanse the world of sin by grace Divine.
At last, its whole stock spent, its virtue gone,
Dark with pollution not its own, it speeds
Back to the Fountain of all purities;
Whence, freshly bathed, earthward it sweeps again,
Trailing a role of glory bright and pure.

This Water is the Spirit of the Saints.

Which ever sheds, until itself is beggared,
God’s balm on the sick soul; and then returns
To Him who made the purest light of Heaven.23

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Mother of the universe

Binah in the Zohar is the mother of all, the consort of Hochmah, or wisdom, which in the
Zohar and other Kabbalistic writings takes a male form (as compared to wisdom in other
traditions being female as in the Greek Sophia). This archetype of the mother of the
universe, or world-mother, is encountered in many cultures.

In the culture of the early Greeks, we find the following praise of the Goddess as Mother
Nature in the ode now known as the Orphic Hymn to Nature:

O Nature, mother goddess of all, artificer mother,

celestial, venerated, goddess of richness, sovereign,
all subduer, untamed, steering, lighting all,
almighty, nursing mother of all,
Undecaying, first born, legendary, enabling us,
Born of the night, all wise, light bringing, powerful in restraint
The track of your feet is whirling and silent motion
O sacred one, cosmic Mother of the Gods,
unending one, bringing all to completion, common to all,
but belonging to yourself alone
self-fathered, yet without a father, beloved, gladsome, great,
flowerlike, garlanded, beloved, accessible and wise,
leader, accomplisher, life giving, all nourishing maiden,
Self-sufficient, justice, combining in yourself all the Graces presiding
Goddess of earth, air and sea,
bitter to the worthless, sweet to those who honour you,
all wise, all giving guardian queen of all,
Bringing food, freely endowing us with ripening plenty,
Thou, father, mother of all, with us as nourisher and nurse,
swift birth giver, blessed one, rich in seed, begetter of the seasons,
Creator of all, shaper, source of all richness, sea goddess,
everlasting, setting in motion, all wise, full of care,
Never failing, you whirl with quick force.
All flowing, circular in motion, shape shifting,
on your fair throne, you are honoured, alone you perfect your design,
Loud thundering you sit above the rulers,
Fearless, all subduer, you are destiny fiery goddes of fate
You deathless, are everlasting life and know the future.
You are the all and you alone create.
But Goddess we pray you in good season lead us to peace,
health and increase of prosperity.24

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Throughout the later Roman empire, the Goddess was worshipped as Isis. The most
eloquent description was by Lucius Apuleius in his novel, Metamorphoses (c.155CE).
Here he describes how Isis visited him in a dream, saying:

Behold Lucius I am come, your weeping and prayers have

moved me to succor you.
I am She that is the natural mother of all things,
master and governor of the universe, chief of the powers divine,
queen of all that dwell in heaven and in hell;
at my will the planets of the sky and the winds of the sea are disposed.
My divinity is adored throughout the world by many names,
for the Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, the Mother of the Gods;
the Athenians call me Athene; the Cyprians, Paphian Aphrodite;
the Cretans, Diana; the Sicilians, Persepine; and the Eleusians
call me their ancient Goddess Ceres, or Mother of the Corn.
Some call me Juno, some Minerva, some Hera, others Bellona,
others Hecate, others Rhamnusia. But the Ethiopians which dwell
in the Orient, and the Egyptians, which are excellent in all kinds of
ancient knowledge, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to
worship me, do call me by my true name, Queen Isis.25

In the cache of ancient manuscripts now known as the Nag Hammadi Library and dated
on physical evidence to the second century CE, we find the remarkable text known as the
Trimorphic Protennoia which begins:
I am Protennoia, the thought that dwells in the Light.
I am the movement that dwells in the All,
She in whom the All takes its stand,
the first born among those who came to be,
She who exists before the All.
Protennoia is called by three names, although She dwells
alone, since She is perfect.
I am invisible within the thought of the invisible One.
I am revealed in the immeasurable, ineffable things.
I am incomprehensible, dwelling in the incomprehensible.
I move in every creature. …

I am a single One (feminine) since I am undefiled.

I am the Mother of the Voice, speaking in many ways,
completing the All.
It is in Me that knowledge dwells, the knowledge of things everlasting.
It is I who speaks within every creature and I was known by the All.
It is I who lift up the sound of the Voice to the ears of those
who have known Me, that is the Sons of the Light.26

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In the Indian tradition, the Goddess as ‘mother of the universe’ can be found in a number
of texts and known by a variety of names, including the Devi. One of the earliest of the
Devi texts is the Devi Sukta:
I move with Rudras and with Vasus, I move
With Adityas and all Gods by My side,
And both Mitra and Varuna I support.
I support Indra, Agni and the Asvins.

I uphold Soma, the destroyer of the foe.

I sustain Tvastri and Pushan and Bhaga.
I reward with wealth the offerer of oblation
and the devout worshipper pouring the Soma.
I am Queen, the Gatherer-up of treasures,
the Knower, the first among the Holy Ones.
The devas have established in many places
Ma who lives on many planes, in many a form.

The man who sees, who breathes, and who hears what is spoken
through Me alone obtains his sustenance.
There are those who dwell by My side but know not.
Hear thou who hast hearing: I tell thee the sacred truth.

Yes, I myself say this, and these My words

must needs be welcome to Devas and men!
One whom I love I make Mighty – make of him
a Brahmana, a Sahaja Yogi, a Gifted Man.

For Rudra I stretch out the strings of His bow

to slay the fierce enemies of the Realised Souls.
And for the people, I engage in battle;
and through the earth and the heaven I spread.

And on the summit I bring forth the Father.

My home is within waters, in the ocean,
From where I extend to all existing worlds;
and yonder heaven I touch with My forehead.

And it is I who, like the wind, breathe forth Chaitanya

and set all existing worlds in motion.
Beyond heavens and beyond the earth am I,
and all this have I expressed in My splendour!27

In the Devi Mahatmya, part of the Markandeya Purana, the Devi is extolled as the all-
powerful protector of the universe:

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 The Devas said:

‘O Devi, you who remove the sufferings of those

who take refuge in thee, be gracious!
Be gracious, O Mother of the whole world;
Be gracious, O Mother of the universe;
Protect the universe!
You are, O Devi, the ruler of all that is movable and immovable!’28

In the later Devi Gita (Song of the Goddess), composed around the fifteenth century CE,
in partial imitation of the earlier Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Lord), the gods are being
harassed by the evil forces, and seek counsel with Vishnu, who indicates the solution to
their predicament:
Vishnu spoke:

Why are you all so worried, for the Auspicious Goddess

is a kama-kalpa-druma [lit: a wish-fulfilling tree]
Dwelling in the Manidvipa [Jewelled Island] as
Bhuvanesani [Ruler of the Universe], she is ever attentive.
She neglects us now only because of our misbehaviour.
Such chastisement by the World-Mother is simply for our
own instruction.
As a mother feels no lack of compassion whether indulging
or chastening her child,
Just so the World-Mother feels when overseeing our virtues and vices.
A son transgresses the limits of proper conduct at every step.
Who in the world forgives him except his mother?
Therefore go for refuge to the Supreme Mother without delay,
With sincere hearts. She will accomplish what you want.29

Echoes of this ‘mother figure’ can even be found in the monotheistic, largely patriarchal,
religions. In the Japuji, part of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs, we
find this verse:
Obeisance, obeisance to Him, the Primal, the Immaculate,
without beginning, without end, constant through all ages.
The One Mother existed Alone in some mysterious way
and She created the Three deities.
One was the Creator, one the Sustainer and one the Destroyer.
The world moves as He ordains and as He pleases.
He see all, but no one sees Him; this is a great wonder.30

16
Even in Christianity, echoes of the ‘mother of all ‘ archetype can be found. The European
medieval Christian mystic, Birgitta of Sweden, recorded in her Revelations a vision in
which Mary declares to her:

I am God’s mother31, for so it pleased him.

I am even the Mother of all, who are in celestial joy. …
I am also the Mother of all, who are in purgatory,
for all punishments, that have to be undergone for
the cleansing of their sins, are mitigated in some way
or another at some hour because of my prayers. …
I am also the mother of all justice that is in the world,
which justice my son cherished with the most complete attachment.
And, as a maternal hand is always prepared to come to the
defense of the heart of her son against danger, if someone
is trying to hurt him, so I am always prepared to defend
the just that are in the world and to free them of all spiritual danger.

I am called by all Mother of Mercy, truly daughter,

the mercy of my son made me merciful,
and seeing his mercy made me compassionate.32

This reverence for the feminine Divine as ‘mother of all’ is well expressed by the Arabic
poet Kahlil Gibran:
The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word ‘Mother’,
and the most beautiful call is the call of ‘My mother’.
It is a word full of hope and love, a sweet and kind word
coming from the depths of the heart. The mother is
everything – she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope
in misery, and our strength in weakness.
She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness.
He who loses his mother loses a pure soul who blesses and
guards him constantly.

Everything in nature bespeaks the mother.

The sun is the mother of earth and gives its nourishment of heat;
it never leaves the universe at night until it has put the earth
to sleep to the song of the sea and the hymn of birds and brooks.
And this earth is the mother of trees and flowers.
It produces them, nurses them, and weans them.
The trees and flowers become kind mothers of their
great fruits and seeds.
And the mother, the prototype of all existence,
is the eternal spirit, full of beauty and love.33

17
And so we return to Binah, regarded in the Zohar as the source of life and the bestower of
divine blessings, as in Zohar 2:185a:

When the supernal mother [Binah], the world to come, comes

to reside in the palace of the lower world [the Shechina],
in order to watch over it with a shining countenance, it is only
right that neither the slanderer [evil] nor the prosecutors [good, just]
should appear in her presence, for she brings forth all the
blessings, and illumines all; and complete freedom is there and
Israel partake of those blessings.
For when the world to come [Binah] enters the palace of the
lower world, and the lower world [Shechina] is there rejoicing
with her children [the Kabbalists] at the great feast, she [Binah]
immediately showers blessings upon the table, and all the worlds
are blessed, and every joy, and every shining countenance is to
be found there.

In this essay we have examined a number of archetypes found in mystical literature, by

comparing two separate traditions, namely the Jewish Kabbalah as exemplified in its
major text, the Zohar, with the Kundalini yoga tradition of India; together with
comparisons from the writings of some of the Christian mystics of early modern Europe.
In comparing the writings of Christian mystics such as Teresa of Avila, Jacob Boehme
and John Pordage, with the Zohar, some possible Zoharic influences on these later
European mystics may have been identified.

18
References

1
On the matter of the secrecy of earlier Kabbalistic teachings, see Rabbi Isaac’s letter to
the Kabbalists of Gerona, c.1235
http://www.statenislandacademy.org/Ing_us/apspanish
2
eg. ‘The Cabala and the chakras’
http://rainbowbody.net/Ongwhehonwhe/cabchak.htm
‘The Kabbalistic Sefirot and the chakras’
http://www.nettally.com/krivera/other2.html
Rebekah Kenton, ‘A Kabbalistic view of the chakras’
http://www.kabbalahsociety.org/kenton1.html
‘Hebrew Qabalah and the North Indian Tantra’
http://www.workofthechariot.com/TextFiles/Back-Tantra
3
As translated by Arun Kolatkar, in Journal of South Asian Literature 1982;17(1), p112
4
From the translation of the Jnaneshwari by M.R.Yardi.
http://www.bvbpune.org/chap.o6.html
5
Extracts from the translation of the Interior Castle by E.Allison Peers
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stt01001.htm
6
See also the comparison by Sujan Jane Burgeson in her doctoral dissertation, Mystical
symbolism in Teresa of Avila and classical Kabbalah (PhD, Graduate Theological Union,
1997), and the comments by Athol Bloomer in his ‘The Eucharist and Jewish mystical
tradition’, The Hebrew Catholic no.77, pp15-18, and no.78, pp24-27, available at
http://hebrewcatholic.org
7
David R.Blumenthal, ‘The Merkabah tradition’ in his Understanding Jewish
mysticism: a source reader: the Merkabah tradition and the Zoharic tradition (New
York: Ktav, 1978), p3
8
ibid, pp78-79
9
See, for example, 1:52a, quoted below, in the section on the river.
10
Sahaja Yoga is the modern version of the ancient Kundalini yoga, originating in India
and now practised by millions throughout the world. See P.T.Rajasekharan and
R.Venkatesan, Divine knowledge through vibrations (Bangalore: Panther Publishers,
1992)
11
Saundarya-Lahari (The ocean of beauty) of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada, with
transliteration, English translation, commentary [etc] by Pandit S.Subrahmanya Sastri and
T.R.Srinivasa Ayyangar (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1965), pp49-
50

19
12
Text from http://www.hubcom.com/tantric
The earliest Nath yogis, who may have originally been Buddhist adepts who moved into
the Hindu tradition, possibly as a result of the Muslim invasions, seem to have emerged
in the ten to twelfth centuries CE in the hills and mountains of northern India and may
well have had a connection with the slightly earlier Sahajiya Buddhists. Founded by the
legendary yogi, Matsyendranath (also known as Macchendra and as Minanath), their
main teacher was Gorakhnath. The secret knowledge of the Naths was passed on from
teacher to pupil, and also shared with other mystics who were ready for realisation. Thus
Nath concepts can be found in the songs of the Rajasthani saints Mirabai, Dadu, and
Sundardas, the Kashmiri saints Lalla and Rupa Bhavani, and many of the Marathi saints,
notably Jnaneshvara, Muktabai, Namdev, Eknath, and Tukaram. The Nath yogis had a
thorough knowledge of the subtle system. This knowledge was preserved in secret
writings, such as the Kaulajnana Nimaya and the Yogavishaya, both attributed to
Matsyendranath, and the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, the Amaraughasana, and the
Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha, all attributed to Gorakhnath. There is also the Gorakhbodh,
which takes the form of a question and answer session between Gorakhnath and
Matsyendranath. No doubt compiled by a succession of Nath teachers, the Gorakhbodh
gives answers to the disciple’s many questions – in effect a Nath FAQ.
13
Quoted in William Q.Judge, ‘Jacob Boehme and the secret doctrine’ Theosophist April
1886
http://www.blavatsky.net/theosophy/judge/articles/jacob-boehme-and-sd.htm
14
Jacob Boehme, The Clavis or ‘Key’ of Jacob Boehme… written in the German
language in March and April Anno 1624. Printed in the yeare 1647 Available online:
http://totlogcon.tripod.com/keyjac.html
15
ibid
16
B.J.Gibbons, Gender in mystical and occult thought: Behmenism and its development
in England (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp5,69
17
a useful summary of the ideas of Paracelsus is contained in a course handout at:
http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/mms/handouts/mmspara.htm; see also Gibbons, op cit, pp77-78
18
See appendix
19
John Pordage, Theologia mystica (London, 1683), unpaginated (at end of first section)
20
John Pordage, A treatise of Eternal Nature with her seven essential forms, or original
working properties (London, 1681), as printed in Theologia mystica (London, 1683),
[second section] p147
21
A composite translation from the French translation by M. Shahidullah in his Les
chants mystiques de Kanha et de Saraha (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1928), p233-234;
and the English translation in Atindra Mojumder, The Caryapadas: a treatise on the

20
earliest Bengali songs (Calcutta: Naya Prokash, 2nd ed.1973), pp79-80. See also the short
version in S.Das Gupta, Obscure religious cults (Calcutta: Firma K.L.Mukhopadhyay,
rev.ed.,1969).
Saraha was a Buddhist monk who became a wandering yogi (which was safer than
remaining in the great Buddhist monasteries of the North Indian plain which were
coming under increasing attack from the Moghul invaders) and achieved his
enlightenment (self-realisation) by understanding that life was to be enjoyed.
Furthermore, he came to understand that enlightenment was available in one’s current
life. These were radical concepts for a Buddhist monk of that time (eighth century CE).
He understood that the inborn spirit could, in the correct circumstances, be spontaneously
awakened. Following earlier tradition, he refered to this as Sahaja, and he and his fellow
yogis became known as the Sahajiya Buddhists. These Sahajiya Buddhists emerged most
probably in Bengal in eastern India somewhere between the eight and tenth centuries
CE. Saraha, Kanha, Bhusuka, Lui, Tilo, and others are known today only through their
dohas and caryas (short songs), written in a now defunct language, Apabrahmsa, and in
old Bengali. Many of the themes used in their songs can also be found in the work of the
later saints such as Kabir, Dadu and Sundardas, in the verses and prayers of Nanak, the
founding guru of the Sikh tradition, as well as in the work of later mystics in Bengal.
22
As quoted by Richard Payment in ‘Kabir’, in John Noyce, Sahaja and the ascending
Kundalini (Melbourne: Noyce Publishing, 2000), pp17-26, quotation at 22.
23
This text, translated by R.A.Nicholson, is from Persian poems: an anthology of verse
translations, edited by A.J.Arberry (London: Dent, 1954; Everyman’s Library, 1972).
Available online at several sites including http://www.khamush.com.poems.html
24
Translation from In a chariot drawn by lions: the search for the female in diety by
Asphodel P.Long (London: Women’s Press, 1992), pp67-68
25
This is a composite translation of the Adlington translation given in Rose Horman
Arthur, The Wisdom Goddess: feminine motifs in eight Nag Hammadi documents
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984), pp158-159; and the translation by
Paul Halsall, adapted from Adlington (1566) and Robert Graves (1951), at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/lucius-assa.html
26
Translation from The Nag Hammadi Library in English edited by James M.Robinson
(San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977), pp461-470
27
This is hymn 125 of the tenth book of the Rigveda. This text is in Divine Cool Breeze
July-Aug 1993, p7. Also in Knowledge of Reality no.13, p63. For a commentary on this
hymn see ‘Evolution of Mother worship in India’ by Shashi Bhusan Das Gupta in Great
women of India edited by Swami Madhavananda and Ramesh Chandra Majumdar
(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1954), pp60-61
28
This text is a modified version of the translation in Goddess cults in ancient India by
J.N.Tiwari (Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1985). The standard scholarly translation and
commentary is by Thomas B.Coburn in his Encountering the Goddess: a translation of

21
the Devi-Mahatmya and a study of its intepretation (Albany, NY: State University of
New York Press, 1991). See also his chapter, ‘Devi: the great Goddess’, in Devi:
Goddesses of India edited by John Stratton Hawley and Donna M.Wulff (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1996), pp31-48
29
Extract from The Devi Gita: the Song of the Goddess, translated by C.Mackenzie
Brown (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998), pp52-53
30
From http://www.valaya.co.uk/KNOWLEDGEmastersGUR.htm
31
The phrase ‘Mother of God’ was often used in medieval Christianity when refering to
Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ. The phrase had become part of formal Church dogma
at the Council of Chalcedon in 451CE.
32
Quoted in Jeannette Nieuwland, ‘Motherhood and sanctity in the life of Saint Birgitta
of Sweden: an insoluble conflict?’ In: Sanctity and motherhood: essays on holy mothers
in the middle ages. Edited by Annekke B.Mulder-Bakker (New York: Garland, 1995),
p319
33
From The Broken Wings (first published in Arabic in 1912), as printed in The greatest
works of Kahlil Gibran (Bombay: Jaico, 1989), Book Twelve, p407

22
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Work of the Chariot (nd) ‘Hebrew Qabalah and the North Indian Tantra’
http://www.workofthechariot.com/TextFiles/Back-Tantra

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