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An Introduction to the Study of the Kabalah
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An Introduction to the Study of the Kabalah
By William Wynn Westcott
PREFACE
Students of literature, philosophy and religion who have any sympathy with the Occult Sciences
may well pay some attention to the Kabalah of the Hebrew Rabbis of olden times; for whatever faith
may be held by the enquirer he will gain not only knowledge, but also will broaden his views of life
and destiny, by comparing other forms of religion with the faith and doctrines in which he has been
nurtured, or which he has adopted after reaching full age and powers of discretion.
Being fully persuaded of the good to be thus derived, I desire to call attention to the dogmas of the
old Hebrew Kabalah. I had the good fortune to be attracted to this somewhat recondite study, at an
early period of life, and I have been able to spare a little time in subsequent years to collect some
knowledge of this Hebrew religious philosophy; my information upon the subject has been enlarged
by my membership of The Rosicrucian Society.Yet the Kabalistic books are so numerous and so
lengthy, and so many of them only to be studied in Rabbinic Hebrew and Chaldee that I feel to-day
less confident of my knowledge of the Kabalah than I did twenty years ago, when this essay was
first published, after delivery in the form of lectures to a Society of Hermetic Students in 1888. Since
that date a French translation of "The Zohar," by Jean de Pauly, and a work entitled "The Literature
and History of the Kabalah," by Arthur E. Waite, have been published, yet I think that this little
treatise will be found of interest to those who have not sufficient leisure to master the more
complete works on the Kabalah.
The Old Testament has been of necessity referred to, but I have by intention made no references to
the New Testament, or to the faith and doctrines taught by Jesus the Christ, as the Saviour of the
world: if any desire to refer to the alleged reference in the Kabalah to the Trinity, it will be found in
the Zohar ii., 43, b.: and an English version of the same in "The Kabbalah," by C. D. Ginsburg.
WM. WYNN WESTCOTT, M.B., etc.
