I remarked recently
that I was amused by reading the Sar Torah, The Prince of the Torah,
an early Hekhalot text which describes God deciding to send an angel
who held with him all the wisdom of the Torah to the Jews so that
they could learn the Torah. The book is pretty cool, and stories
about summoning the Sar HaTorah are important to the Hekhalot
tradition. What was amusing was the opening narrative in which the
Jewish people are basically like “God you've been a dick, and we
want to learn Torah but can't because you've been a dick!” And God
responds, “You're right my chosen people! You weren't cool and
broke our covenant, and I got super pissed, but sending gentiles in
to murder and enslave you was over reacting!” So, God recognizes
that they're praying for his Wisdom and that that want to have “an
abundance of Torah, a tumult of Talmud” and numerous legal
discussions. God has longed to hear his Torah on their tongues.
There's lots of consonance with Ts in the English translation...which
adds to the humor.
My initial thought
on it being amusing was who prays for that? Who prays to have legal
discussions? It just sounds funny. But it's really actually quite
reasonable, and beautiful. While I won't say a hundred percent that
the authors of the Talmud looked at it the way that I do, I'm sure
there were some who must have. The Torah is the law, as described in
the first 5 books of the Bible. The law however is not simply the
instruction for how people follow moral and ceremonial laws of the
Jewish people, the law is a symbol of reflection of the law which
underwrites the cosmos.
This is the basic
concept behind the Kabbalah. The books which comprise the Torah begin
with the book which describes the creation, the movement of man into
the final phase of creation, the first laws causing man to
participate in creation, the destruction and new beginning for
mankind, the establishment of the symbolic and metaphysical nations,
and ultimately the covenant and the establishment of the twelve
tribes. The Genesis describes the mystical order for the foundation
of mankind within the world and sets up the back story for the
reception of the rest of the law. The law is received as the apex of
a series of stories that sets up a very mystical symbolism for the
development of the world, man, and the relationship between the
world, man, and God – the very relationship which is the foundation
of religion, magic, and mysticism.
The law delivered in
this context is a symbol, a symbol for that relationship, for the
shape of the body of God, for the flow of creation through the
universe, and for the image of God which is the core of man's being.
This is the basis of the Kabbalah. Moses DeLeon in the Zohar
describes the mystical interpretation of the Torah. The law is
explained as a series of symbols and ceremonies of mystical
importance which correspond to movements within the body of God, and
make changes in the mystic, and the world, by its observance.
In modern magical
systems we sometimes find the same thinking. The Kybalion is
essentially a series of “natural laws” based on early New Thought
variations of Hermetic principles. These laws have the intention of
not simply describing how we should act, or in this particular case
how we improve ourselves or engage in developing occult power, they
have the intention of describing the nature of the universe, our
souls, and the connection there between.
For a much broader
group of magicians we could look at The Book of the Law with this
same structure. The Book of the Law on the surface provides “the
Law of Thelema” or the instruction for the Thelemite to live by the
instructions “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”
and “love is the law love under will.” The rest of the text can
be viewed as giving further commentary on those ideas. If we take it
as surface “moral commentary” or a description of how we should
act and live, or even ascribe to some sections a “ceremonial”
component, assuming it describes rituals in which we should engage,
there are still plenty of passages that are just weird as balls if we
don't attempt to explore possible deeper elements.
Going a level deeper
we can look at much of the Book of the Law as a description of
alchemy, both inner and outer, and therefore of initiation and magic.
Taken another way it may provide a means of understanding elements of
theology, not simply the allegorical theological elements which
describe initiation but also potentially a perspective from which to
interpret larger elements of theology. Taken further we can explore
the law as a commentary on the workings of the universe, our place in
those workings, and how the two relate.
See the trend
forming?
So when we talk
about the desire to call upon the Prince of the Torah and receive his
wisdom, which God and the angels generally refer to as if it is a
secret and precious treasure hidden away in a treasure vault, we're
desiring essentially to peal back the veil and understand the inner
and divine workings and nature of life the universe and everything,
to borrow a phrase. The whole goal of mysticism, the whole work of
spiritual development, that is what the Sar Torah describes as the
gift given in the summoning of the Prince of the Torah. Even for the
dullard with no wisdom, the Prince of the Torah elevates him to the
equal of the greatest sages.
Pretty neat. You
could call on the Prince and become a Master with no other
experience, no other work. Sounds like a plan. In fact, we could
probably solve a bunch of the worlds problems by Magus-ing everyone
up with this simple conjuration right?
Probably not. We
probably wouldn't want to. The work is part of the importance, part
of what gets us where we're going, what makes us what we are. The
work is also part of how we transform the world around ourselves, and
understand that world as well. Part of understanding that is
recognizing that the journey is the thing, and also, that not
everyone is made for the same work, and some people maybe don't need
that.
The myths of the
Prince of the Torah also talk about him coming angrily and full of
wrath in clouds of fire bent on destroying the world. He comes
peacefully when called correctly by a sage with divine permission.
Otherwise he destroys those who call him. This kind of reminds me of
people who take the Oath of the Abyss before they're ready and go
crazy. Divine fire can burn away all those things which keep us from
understanding who we are, what the world is, and where we're going in
it, but it can also burn away everything that anchors us and gives us
stability and control. It's a question of balance and preparedness.
So, when we're
ready, the Prince of the Torah can be an ally in our development.
Whether we're looking to find the nature of the mystical teachings
hidden in the Torah, or the Book of the Law, or simply the Truth
itself we have an angel for whom that is its purpose. We can prepare
ourselves and call upon it like we would call upon the Prince of the
Presence, or our Holy Guardian Angel, and gain insight, maybe not
instant mastery, but insight is worth a lot in this line of work.
You might want more
than my insight into the meaning and nature of this operation and
info on the actual operation itself. I'm going to save that for
another post, so follow the blog and check back soon.
