-Caveat Lector-
http://www.gnosis.org/jskabb2.htm
Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection
by Lance S. Owens
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Part 2: Includes pages 134 - 166 of the published work.
Alchemy
Essential to understanding the themes animating the Kabbalistic-Hermetic
world view is a discussion of alchemy. In popular misconception, alchemy is
an immature, empirical, and speculative precursor of chemistry having as its
primary concern the transmutation of base metals into gold.40 This
simplification touches at only the most superficial veneer of alchemy; in
stark contrast, current historical and psychological readings of the
alchemical tradition suggest it had complex roots delving into the religious
or philosophical subsoils of Western culture and aspirations far more subtle
than the production of gold. Indeed, the dictum of medieval alchemists
themselves avows this fact: Aurum nostrum no est aurum vulgi ("Our gold is
not vulgar gold").
The historical foundations of alchemy rest in the same early Christian epoch
and Gnostic cultural milieu that generated the texts of the Corpus Hermeticum
and nurtured the early mystical roots of Kabbalah.41 As with Gnosticism and
Hermeticism, after the emergence of Christian orthodoxy, alchemy submerged
into the darker subsoil of Western culture until the Middle Ages. In the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries renewed contacts with Arabic and Greek
alchemical materials, together with a reawakening interest in heterodox
classical knowledge, inaugurated a new study of this ancient "Art." And to
this study was eventually add-mixed Kabbalah. No less a figure than Albertus
Magnus (1193-1280) became an adept of alchemy and authored numerous
alchemical works. To Thomas Aquinas, the great student of Albertus and the
signal theologian of the age, alchemical texts are also attributed--a fact
suggesting the philosophical and religious tenor of alchemical thought.42 For
the next four hundred years, alchemy ran like Ariadne's thread in a labyrinth
of creative vision. As the Age of Reason dawned, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle,
and John Locke would secretly correspond on alchemy's occult mysteries;
Newton is now well known to have penned more than a million words on the
great Art.43 A century and a half later its mystery would command Goethe's
masterwork, Faust, considered by C. G. Jung "the final summit" of alchemical
philosophy in its last creative extensions.44
Central to alchemy was the declaration of the Tabula smaragdina: That which
is below is above, that above is also below. In the alchemical view, matter,
the substance below, was the compliment and reflection of the divine realm
above. This perception was sometimes daringly extended in the face of
Christian dogma to assert that matter was eternal and uncreated, a complement
and mirror to the equally divine and uncreated spirit. As Jung observed,
"Matter in alchemy is material and spiritual, and spirit spiritual and
material."45 Within matter resided a light, the lumen naturae, which was both
a reflection and eternal compliment of heaven's celestial glory, the lumen
dei. This strange perception was amplified in an array of alchemical
metaphors; the core image was a complexio oppositorum--expressed by dualities
such as "light and dark," "material and spiritual," "wet and dry," "sun and
moon," "manifest and occult," "feminine and masculine"--seeking
transformative, salvific, and ultimately creative union. This mending of
divisions, above and below, required a work in proxy to be performed by
living men and women. Unaided by the alchemist--and his mystical sister and
feminine companion--it could not be accomplished. (See Figure 3.)
The treasure sought by the alchemist was often termed the "philosopher's
stone" (the antecedent of Joseph Smith's "seer's stone"): the pearl of great
price, the stone rejected by the builder, the filius philosophorum.46 Though
the alchemical transformation was often described as a transmutation of base
metal into gold--and though early alchemists had experimental laboratories
and engaged in empirical exploration--the late alchemical literature reveals
that ultimately it was the alchemist's own human baseness which sought
transmutation into something divine. Thus the alchemist was a necessary agent
of creative transmutation: a priest in a hallowed, ancient priesthood; a son
of the Widow; a knower of creation's ancient secret; a digger after hidden
treasure.47 The heart of this tradition was embodied in its ultimate
mysteries: the hierosgamos, or "sacred wedding," and the mysterium
coniunctionis, a mysterious union of opposites that eternally wed male to
female, matter to spirit, above to below, microcosmos to macrocosmos,
humankind to divinity.
A Legacy of Occult Societies: Rosicrucians and Masons
By the seventeenth century, the creative mix of Kabbalistic, Hermetic, and
alchemical religious philosophies had nurtured among important sectors of
Europe's intellectual elite broad aspirations for a more general religious
reformation, even a restoration of the ancient and true religion. Insightful
individuals at the creative edge of the culture judged their times and
urgently sought an alternative to the vehement Reformation and
Counter-Reformation madness which would soon bathe Europe in blood. One might
easily comprehend how this anxious age would be excited by the mysterious
announcement of a noble, secret, and ancient brotherhood calling itself the
fraternity of the Rose Cross, summoning the elite of Europe to join in a new
reformation.48 Thus began the Rosicrucian enlightenment.
In 1614 the first of the enigmatic documents that would become known as the
"Rosicrucian manifestos" was published at Cassel, Germany. Titled the Fama
Fraternitatis, or a Discovery of the Fraternity of the Most Noble Order of
the Rosy Cross, this strange work was a
trumpet call which was to echo throughout Germany, reverberating thence
through Europe. God has revealed to us in the latter days a more perfect
knowledge, both of his Son, Jesus Christ, and of Nature. He has raised men
endued with great wisdom who might renew all arts and reduce them all to
perfection, so that man "might understand his own nobleness, and why he is
called Microcosmus, and how far this knowledge extendeth into Nature."49
The Fama proceeded to introduce the history of a mysterious individual called
"C. R." Born in 1378, C. R. was the founding father of the Rosicrucian order,
a man who had labored long, though unrecognized, towards the general
reformation now declared. C. R. (or Christian Rosencreutz as he was
subsequently identified) had been an "illuminated man." As a sixteen-year-old
boy he had traveled to the East where "the wise received him (as he himself
witnesseth) not as a stranger, but as one whom they had long expected; they
called him by his name, and showed him other secrets," including an important
text called only "the book M." The boy became skilled in language and
translation, "so that the year following he translated the book M into good
Latin, which he afterwards brought with him." (The "book M" continued to play
an important part in the Rosicrucian mythos as one of its treasures; of
course, a vague outline of the story told by Joseph Smith might here also be
discerned.) C. R. then traveled across Africa to Spain,
hoping well (that since) he himself had so well and so profitably spent his
time in his travel, that the learned in Europe would highly rejoice with him,
and begin to rule and order all their studies according to those sound and
sure foundations. He therefore conferred with the learned in Spain. . . . But
it was to them a laughing matter, and being a new thing unto them, they
feared that their great name should be lessened, if they should now again
begin to learn and acknowledge their many years errors.
Rejected, Brother C.R eventually returned to Germany and quietly established
his order among those few men who "through especial revelation should be
received into this Fraternity." Among these men alone were shared and
transmitted the secrets of the order. After death, C. R.'s body was concealed
in a tomb and eventually forgotten; but this lost vault, declared the Fama,
had around the year 1604 been again found, opened, and entered. Within its
miraculously lighted geometric confines C. R.'s followers discovered an
altar, a "brass plate" upon which were engraved mysterious words and glyphs,
several records of the order, and the book M. And now, the Fama continued,
like as our door was after so many years wonderfully discovered, also there
shall be opened a door to Europe (when the wall is removed) which already
doth begin to appear, and with great desire is expected of many. . . .
Howbeit we know after a time there will now be a general reformation, both of
divine and human things. . . . Our Philosophy also is not a new invention,
but as Adam after his fall hath received it, and as Moses and Solomon used it.
50
Upon close examination the Fama Fraternitatis presents itself more as an
allegory than as actual history, and this was probably its intent. The
Rosicrucian mythos was connected closely with the mysteries of alchemy where
allegorical legends of buried treasures miraculously rediscovered were
particularly prevalent.51 However, the story was generally interpreted
literally. And the excitement it incited grew the following year with the
publication of the second Rosicrucian manifesto, the Confessio Fraternitatis.
52 This second manifesto repeated the message of the first, interpreting and
intensifying it, and added a powerful apocalyptic and prophetic note: a great
millennial reformation was at hand, and with it, a return to an Adamic
knowledge revealed by God:
We ought therefore here observe well, and make it known unto everyone, that
God hath certainly and most assuredly concluded to send and grant to the
world before her end, which presently thereupon shall ensue, such truth,
light, life and glory, as the first man Adam had . . . . So then, the secret
hid writings and characters are most necessary for all such things . . . .
What before times hath been seen, heard, and smelt, now finally shall be
spoken and uttered forth, when the World shall awake out of her heavy and
drowsy sleep, and with an open heart, bare-headed, and bare-foot, shall
merrily and joyfully meet the new arising Sun.53
One year later, in 1616, a third and final Rosicrucian document appeared, The
Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz. Cast in the form of a long
allegory in alchemical symbolism, it bid the wise of Europe approach a sacred
royal marriage, a hierosgamos of mysterious mystical intent:
This day, this day, this, this
The Royal Wedding is.
Art thou thereto by birth inclined,
And unto joy of God design'd
Then may'st thou to the mountain tend
Whereon three stately Temples stand,
And there see all from end to end.54
The Rosicrucian manifestos caused a furor throughout Europe and England.
Individuals espousing sympathy with Rosicrucian ideals published numerous
works lauding the brotherhood's purposes and petitioning acceptance into the
order. But to the dismay of all, the Rosicrucian brotherhood never declared
itself, never accepted or acknowledged the many aspirants to its fellowship,
and indeed perhaps never even really (at least outwardly) existed. While
history has identified both the author of the manifestos--Johann Valentin
Andreae--and a wider group of individuals sharing in "Rosicrucian"
aspirations, the deeper sources and purposes of the movement remain
enshrouded in layers of mystery and supposition.
Whatever their actual intent or origins, the manifestos crystallized a broad
preexisting alternative, reformative inclination in European society. This
was a new/old religious vision steeped in Hermetic, Kabbalistic, alchemical,
and in the broader definition, Gnostic, symbolism; a mythos that had been
brewing in the pregnant retort of European creativity over two prior
centuries.55 The tradition's "doctrines"--imbued as they were with an
experimental, experiential, creative and immensely personal vision--found
expression in a peculiar symbolic or hieroglyphic language, an idiom
alchemical in nature but ever more religious-philosophic than
physical-chemical in intent. And interwoven in all was a new working of the
old sacred mystery of Kabbalah. This infusion of Kabbalah was aided in the
later seventeenth century by Knorr von Rosenroth's translation into Latin of
several key Kabbalistic works, including large sections of the Zohar--an
effort that was immensely influential in the literate circles devoted to
these studies.56 There followed in the mid-to-late-seventeenth century,
particularly in England, an alchemical renaissance. During this period the
Hermetic "religion" of alchemy was augmented by Kabbalistic imagery and
fermented by a high spiritual quest for ultimate, individual knowledge of
God. It was this expansive alchemical Hermetic philosophy into which Isaac
Newton and his fellows in the new Royal Society delved.57
The arcane Hermetic books produced by Christian philosophers during this
period circulated widely among the elite societies and intellects of Europe.
These were works composed in the idiom of symbolic language, replete with
allegorical pictures hinting at humankind's noble mystery.58 The
"hieroglyphic" engravings often play at the theme of the complexio
oppositorum, opposites seeking union, a motif conveyed by (or accompanied
with) the arcane symbols of Sun and Moon (See Figure 4.) In several figures
trumpets herald the new dispensation, an image offered by the second
Rosicrucian manifesto.59 Emblematic of humankind having again remembered
God's messengers, angels ascend and descend from heaven.60 We repeatedly find
illustrated a sacred wedding of King and Queen, their holy conjunction being
oft pictured as a carnal coupling which leads through hermaphroditic forms to
a new and regal heavenly being. Here too we encounter a symbolic beehive. The
industry this beehive metaphorically bids, however, was misunderstood in
latter days. In its primary context the "industry" was a secret, laborious
concern of alchemical transmutation: a transformation of dark matter into a
pure and vital golden elixir--an alchemical opus performed within the alembic
"hive" of the soul.61 (See Figure 5.) Intimately associated and reigning over
all the emblems of this occult hieroglyphic tongue was the supreme
"All-Seeing Eye" of God, the sacred emblem of a perpetual divine and
uncreated intelligence, humankind's single unfailing light (See Figure 6).
This time, these emblematic books, this philosophy: these are the propagating
sources of the symbols finally carved in stone upon Joseph's Nauvoo temple.
To this Hermetic-alchemical tradition and its unique vision alone did they
pertain, from it alone came an assertion of their sacred import. Early
Mormonism's affinity for and incorporation of the same symbolic motifs
strongly evidences its intrinsic link with the Hermetic tradition.62 (See
Figure 7 & 8.)
The import of myth and metaphor as a vehicle of the Hermetic-Kabbalistic
tradition cannot be overstated. In Gnostic studies the function of myth and
symbol as a conduit for the expression of primary vision is well accepted,
and classical Gnosticism is now usually classified in terms of its mythic
motifs. Likewise, within the Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition the intricate
interplay of "above and below" bred a unique matrix of myths: stories and
symbols which conveyed by metaphor the savor of a primary and encompassing
vision of God and humanity. Integrated and developed over several hundred
years, this Hermetic-Kabbalistic mythos reached maturation during the
seventeenth century. It is during the early and middle years of this key
century that the mythos most fully flowered, enveloping the separate
traditions of Kabbalah, classical Hermeticism, and alchemy.
A creative mix of symbols and stories played variations on core archetypal
themes during this period. Detailed examination of these is beyond this essa
y. But there is one image which runs as a pervasive subtext, defining the
tradition's fuller mythos: the motif of the mysterium coniunctionis. On earth
and in heaven two paths intertwined; Man and God echoed to each other a flux
of conjunctions. Matter and spirit, light and dark, masculine and feminine:
all mingled in the mystery, face to face. An array of opposites were
personified as vehicles for the metaphor of this conjunction. To these was
linked the companion image of the hierosgamos. It was a mystery foreshadowed
by man and woman in first conjunction as Adam and Eve, proxies of creation's
primary conundrum. It became the sacred wedding of a King and Queen, the Rex
and Regina of alchemy.63 (see Figure 9.) Of course, there followed a parallel
theme of the great mystery's knower, the philosopher-priest-king who was the
human mediator of conjunction. And playing an important role in the specific
form of several motifs (particularly those within the occult fraternities)
came variations on the story of Christian Rosencreutz, the book M, the sealed
text awaiting translation, the hidden tomb, and the lost buried treasure.
Perhaps in imitation of the mysterious Rose Cross brothers, and certainly in
rational response to political exigencies, reformative religious aspirations
increasingly inclined during the subsequent century towards the formation of
occult brotherhoods and societies. Incongruent as it seems, this expansion of
occult interests appeared hand-in-hand with the so-called "Age of
Enlightenment." A group of highly informed Englishmen influenced by, or
perhaps sharing in, Rosicrucian aspirations and symbolic language probably
engendered the first secret Masonic lodges during the mid-seventeenth century.
64 The earliest generally accepted documentation of a Masonic initiation is
found in the dairy of Elias Ashmole in 1646. Ashmole (1617-92) was an
influential scholar and collector of books, a founding member of the Royal
Society, and a man with an unquestionably extensive knowledge of Rosicrucian
materials. Among the documents preserved in his impressive library are the
texts of the Rosicrucian manifestos carefully copied in his own hand; to
these manuscripts Ashmole had appended a letter, also in his own hand but
apparently addressed to no one, praising the Rosicrucian fraternity and
petitioning admission.65
By the late seventeenth century, several occult Hermetic brotherhoods,
including Masonic and Rosicrucian societies, existed in England. The
relationship these fraternities had to the first Grand Masonic Lodge
organized at London in 1717 remains unclear. Although noting that "Masonry
underwent gradual changes throughout a period of years stretching from well
before 1717 to well after that date," modern authorities on Masonic history
usually mark the beginnings of "speculative Masonry" to the decade following
organization of this first Grand Lodge.66 Not long after this, around 1750, a
specifically Rosicrucian order had been incorporated into French Masonry.
Within the initiatory structure of the occult lodges, allegorical "mystery
plays" were used to convey, through symbolic ritual, the grounding mythos of
Masonry--a mythos which appears to have been fundamentally
Hermetic-Kabbalistic.67 Though several renditions of Masonic history still
emphasize the role of earlier "craft guilds" as a source of Freemasonry,
relatively little evidence supports this claim. Even if one grants the
existence of some linkage of eighteenth-century Masonry with earlier craft
guilds, this does not diminish the molding force Hermeticism, alchemy and
Rosicrucianism had on the fraternity's symbolic and philosophic development.
(See Figure 10.) Simply put: Eighteenth-century Masonry was forcefully shaped
by esoteric Hermetic-Kabbalistic traditions. While emphasizing this, I allow
that several Masonic Lodges eventually evolved with less esoteric
underpinnings and much simple fraternal intentions.
Taking note of the increasing influence of Freemasonry in politics and
society, German historians began attempting during the latter part of the
eighteenth century to trace the historical roots of Masonry. Evidence
compiled during this period suggested those roots led not to King Solomon or
the craft guilds, but to Rosicrucianism. This view was in wide circulation by
the early nineteenth century, and in 1824 the prominent English essayist
Thomas De Quincey published a detailed restatement in London Magazine.68
While A. E. Waite rejected this assertion in 1887,69 Frances Yates recently
restated a strong case for it. "The European phenomenon of Freemasonry," she
concluded in 1972, "almost certainly was connected with the Rosicrucian
movement."70 Whatever judgment one favors, it remains clear that during the
period of Joseph Smith's life Masonry was not uncommonly believed to be
associated with a Rosicrucian legacy of alchemical, Kabbalistic, and Hermetic
lore and its reformative religious aspirations.71
The eighteenth century was a fertile breeding ground for occult societies,
almost all of which had groundings in a Hermetic-Kabbalistic framework and
upon a bedrock of Masonry and Rosicrucianism. Students unfamiliar with their
history too commonly assume a consistency and cohesion in these movements, or
confound them with the charitable fraternities that are their distant modern
cousins. On the contrary, a creative heterogeneity and religion-making
mysticism was rampant among these groups.72 Existing orders and lodges were
not uncommonly transmuted by the force of strange individuals, new visions,
and claims of ever more enlightened, ancient origins. Examples come easily:
Adam Weishaupt who sought through his Masonic order of the Illuminati,
founded in 1776, to transform German politics and society; the mysterious
Comte de Saint-Germain (ca. 1710-85), a devotee of alchemy and occult arts,
who widely influenced continental lodges of Masonry; Count Alessandro di
Cagliostro (ca. 1743-95) who blended Egyptian and Kabbalistic symbolism into
his Egyptian Masonic rite, an order which included men, women, and rumors of
ritual sexual liaisons73; Martinez de Pasqually (ca. 1715-79) and his Order
of Les Elus Cohen (the Elect Priests), claiming a Kabbalistic, Masonic
restoration of the ancient priesthood of Judaism, a notion echoed in other
esoteric manifestations of Masonry; and Louis Claude de St. Martin
(1743-1803), disciple of de Pasqually, who long remained an influence upon
French occultism. To these must be added the brilliant Swedish seer Emanuel
Swedenborg (1688-1772), founder of a religious movement that touched esoteric
Masonry.74 Though several visionary figures stood in this rank of
illuminates, eventually the broader manifestations of the movement attracted
more than a few opportunistic charlatans. Separating the two is no easier for
historians today than it was for their contemporaries.
In summary, common threads of a specific mythos weave through these movements
and societies, even if they are not of one common cloth. In the occult
inclinations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries one finds a
recurrent theme of restoration: restoration of a more perfect, ancient order;
of forgotten priesthood; of secret mysteries and rituals; and of lost occult
words and powers. Often there mingles in the visionary fabric a practical
thread: Man is intrinsically and eternally imbued with uncreated divine
intelligence, an elixir by which he may alchemically transmute the dark
material world--including its social and political structures--and thus
restore Zion upon the earth. It was an opus reflected in allegories, glyphs,
and symbols, by a canon reopened and reinterpreted, and in ancient lost books
again found: buried, hidden, golden treasures all awaiting men and women who
would delve. For seers of this age the tasks at hand were personal, but by
nature the inner opus was reflected outwardly: microcosmos and macrocosmos
were inextricably linked. This broad world view engendered laborers in an
ancient craft, builders of a new temple--a mystical structure ordered above
and below by living links of light and vision--and in the Holy of Holies of
this sanctum they sought a sacred wedding of transformative union, a
mysterium coniunctionis. It was in sum a Hermetic-Kabbalistic mythos, deeply
admixed with alchemy, reformed by Rosicrucianism, and conjoined with a
Mason's compass and square. And at its esoteric core there shone a distant
Gnostic spark.
Hermeticism and the Magic World View
A decade ago Mormon historians were forced to confront the subject of Joseph
Smith and the occult or magic world view, a confrontation caused in part by
the "discovery" of the so-called "Salamander" letter. Replete with references
to seer stones, treasures, and enchantments, the letter also related that
Joseph Smith obtained the Book of Mormon not from an angel, but from a
magical white salamander which transfigured itself into a spirit.75 Though
the letter was subsequently proved a forgery, for two years historian labored
under the assumption that the letter and several companion forgeries were
genuine. In the wake of these events the prophet Joseph Smith's spiritual
roots came under a careful scrutiny. Ironically, investigators soon brought
to the surface a wealth of unquestionably genuine material--much of it long
available but either misunderstood or ignored--substantiating that Smith and
his family had a variety of interactions with non-orthodox Western religious
traditions generally termed "occult." Repercussions from this difficult
period in Mormon studies are still playing out.
Cast into the realm of occult history, historians tried to make sense of this
"occult" Joseph Smith and early Mormonism. The general interpretation
eventually adopted by many investigators structured Joseph Smith's links to
the occult within the sociological context of New England folk magic and its
"magic world view." D. Michael Quinn's seminal study Early Mormonism and the
Magic World View was initiated during this period. In his introduction, Quinn
began by exorcising the forgeries and summoning the facts:
the historical issues these forgeries raised . . . require, I believe, a
careful re-evaluation of evidence long in existence regarding early Mormonism
and magic. . . . Sources [whose authenticity are beyond question] provide
evidence of Joseph Smith's participation in treasure digging; the possession
and use of instruments and emblems of folk magic by Smith, his family
members, and other early LDS leaders; the continued use of such implements
for religious purposes in the establishment and early years of Mormonism; and
the sincere belief of many early Mormons in the magic world view.76
Subsequently, Quinn moved beyond these simple data. Indeed, "comprehensive"
is hardly an adequate description of his survey. Magical rituals, Kabbalah,
Hermes Trismegistos, Rosicrucians, Seer's stones, divining rods, Masonic
lore, and astrology: Quinn binds them all, by evidence weak and strong, to
Joseph. Less integrative than extensive, his study is a foundation work
which--as any such work should--leaves far more questions unresolved than
answered.
The subject broached by this effort demands further evaluation. A crucial
correction, however, must be made to the methodology used in examining the
data: the concept of a magic Weltanschauung or "world view" must be balanced
with an intensive historical casting of early nineteenth-century occultism's
lineages and mythos. Particularly important is a careful examination of
Hermeticism and the nature of the religious vision it encouraged.
Faced with a vast subject, Quinn constructed an arena for its study by
circumscribing the concept of a "magic world view" within the culture of
early America, and then summoning the various facts that drew Joseph Smith
and other early Mormons into that circle. The definition of "magic" came from
Webster's Third International Dictionary, augmented and slightly expanded.
Magic is (and not to quote the whole definition given by Quinn, I will
abbreviate) the "use of means . . . that are believed to have supernatural
power to cause a supernatural being to produce or prevent a particular
result"; the control of natural forces "by the typically direct action of
rites, objects, materials, or words considered supernaturally powerful."
Later Quinn adds that magic tends to incorporates an animistic world view and
a sense of a chain of causation behind event. Though it can be supplicative,
its intent is often coercive.77 One is ill-advised to argue here with Quinn's
general approach or definition of magic and its world view; given the many
constrains upon such a path-breaking investigation, both are well enough
chosen. Nonetheless their static sociological and philological correctness
partially obscures a more complex process at play.
Magic came in many forms, high and low. As discussed earlier, in Europe the
medieval legacy of magic was transformed between the fifteenth and
seventeenth centuries by an influx of the highly refined Kabbalistic,
Hermetic, and alchemical traditions. During that time magic became--at least
for scholarly adherents like Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, and John
Dee--something akin to religion.78 In the Hermetic-Kabbalistic interpretation
magic had more to do with obtaining experiential knowledge of God and the
celestial hierarchies than with particularistic goals of control and
coercion--the "digging for vulgar gold." Both Jewish and Christian
practitioners of the "high magical arts" would have judged Webster's
definition as applicable more to a reprehensible form of popular or folk
magic than to their own pursuits.79 By the seventeenth century this Hermetic
magic had become thoroughly intertwined with a wider reformative religious
vision and a coherent foundational mythos. This view asserted the human
potential for divine communication, progression to ultimate knowledge and
even union or identity with God.
Certainly popular magic with its less refined concerns continued to exist;
and in terms of pure numbers of practitioners it most likely dominated in the
common culture. But British historian Keith Thomas notes the important
distinction that must be developed between popular magic and the separate
intellectual or elitist trends. Speaking here of developments in the
seventeenth and early eighteenth century, Thomas notes:
It would thus be tempting to explain the practice of popular magic as the
reflection of the [alchemical and Hermetic] intellectual interests of
contemporary scientists and philosophers. But such a chain of reasoning would
almost certainly be mistaken. By this period popular magic and intellectual
magic were essentially two different activities, overlapping at certain
points, but to a large extent carried on in virtual independence of each
other.80
What Thomas calls "intellectual magic" was of course the seventeenth-century
mix of Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and alchemy. The point I am making is that
magic could be more and less than "magic": whatever terms one may use to
define the noun, from the sixteenth century into the early nineteenth century
it had at least two different historical manifestations, each with different
aspirations and lineages. Popular or folk magic with its magic world view was
undoubtedly common in early nineteenth-century America. But there had also
entered into the matrix of American religion elements of this other
"intellectual" Hermetic mythos. And its world view was much more complex.
By the dawn of the nineteenth century the Hermetic tradition had developed
sub rosa several elements characteristic of an incipient heterodox religion,
including clear restorational aspirations. From this fertile bed sprang
numerous occult fraternities and societies: societies Kabbalistic,
alchemical, magical, and Masonic. And though they generally used a Christian
vocabulary, the intentions they fostered could appear antithetical to
orthodox Christianity. Most particularly, it was a view of man and God
intrinsically hostile to dour Puritan presumptions.81 Classic Protestant
thought accepted no theogony (genesis or genealogy of God), and in orthodox
judgment new divine revelation was, as Meric Casaubon expressed, nothing
"else but imposture or melancholy and depraved phantasie, arising from
natural causes."82 By contrast, in the Hermetic tradition there emerges a
coherent and radically alternative vision which, as Joscelyn Godwin
explained,
combines the practical examination of nature with a spiritual view of the
universe as an intelligent hierarchy of beings; which draws its wisdom from
all possible sources, and which sees the proper end of man as the direct
knowledge of God. This kind of belief underlies the [Rosicrucian]
manifestoes; it is presupposed in [Robert] Fludd's works and in those of the
alchemists; it reappears in the more esoteric aspects of Freemasonry.83
By the late eighteenth century, elements usually associated with the
formation of a new religion were present in this alternative tradition: an
intricate and extensive mythic framework (derived from Kabbalistic, Hermetic,
alchemical, and Rosicrucian materials); an extra-canonical corpus of "sacred"
texts (drawn from archaic Hebrew and Hermetic sources); a new symbol system
(conveying esoteric meanings); detailed initiatory and ritual formulas; a
claim to lineages of ancient priesthood; an affirmation of renewed
communication with the celestial realms; and a thoroughly articulated
reformative, even millennial, aspiration for a new Adamic restoration. (See
Figure 11.)
When I speak of the Hermetic (or Hermetic-Kabbalistic) tradition in the early
nineteenth century, I mean this amalgamation of elements along with their
underpinning Hermetic mythos. Though any backwoods rodsman divining for
buried treasures in Vermont in 1820 may have known about the tradition, it
would be erroneous to lump him into it or to see it necessarily reflected in
him. Yet here the distinction must be drawn: in this same general time and
place there undoubtedly existed individuals who were deeply cognizant of
Hermeticism, its lore, rituals, and aspirations. And this group probably
included an occasional associate of treasure diggers. Such individuals would
have learned about the Hermetic tradition in varying degrees and from various
lineages (including esoteric Masonic and Rosicrucian orders), but most
certainly not as a transmission of popular magic and folk lore alone.
In summary, the treasure digger's "magic world view," the supernatural method
to means, must be distinguished from the more complex Hermetic vision
conveyed in the mix of Kabbalah, ceremonial magic, Paracelsian medicine,
Rosicrucianism, alchemical symbolism, and several esoteric brands of Masonry.
And what a young Joseph Smith could have learned from a rodsman, ensconced
only in a magic world view, is less important to his religious development
than the kinds of ideas a Hermetic initiate might have stimulated.
Joseph Smith, Hermeticism, and Kabbalah
In the period before 1827 Joseph Smith probably had some passing interaction
with individuals knowledgeable of Hermeticism and Kabbalah. But to
reconstruct the history of that exposure demands consideration of contexts
and hypotheses tied to a thin heritage of fact: it is a type of connection
that appears likely but which cannot be documented with certainty. The
situation changes a bit after 1840. During those last years of Joseph's life
evidences linking him to the Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition can, when placed
in context, appear substantial. In the following discussion, I will sketch
some of the evidences linking Joseph to the Hermetic tradition, both early in
his prophetic career and later in Nauvoo. And though the shading of fact may
seem too light or dark, or in proportions skewed, this is a way of drawing
Joseph Smith within his own history that I believe must be confronted by
Mormon historians.84
Of course a question arises that lingers as a subtext to the material that
follows and must be addressed before proceeding: If Joseph Smith had
significant interactions with the Hermetic-Kabbalistic mythos, did they
impact his religion-making vision? While it seems to me that they probably
would or did, I also acknowledge another possibility: Despite any apparent
historical interactions, common patterns connecting Smith's vision to the
Hermetic-Kabbalistic mythos may be entirely synchronous (or parallel) rather
than causal. And if synchronous, they further could be classed as archetypal
manifestations consistent with a recurrent type of "revelatory" experience
(such as is witnessed elsewhere in the history of the tradition) or, instead,
as pure happenstance.
If one is inclined to look for links, deeper levels of complexity soon
intrude. The Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition not only affirmed the existence
of an archetypal structure accessible to independent, personal cognition or
"revelation": it sought through combined modalities of ritual, symbol, and
myth to aid an individual's encounter with this core reality, a reality
mirrored in the celestial realm and in the seeker's own self. Accepting that
some individuals obtained these experiences, thequestion of causal versus
synchronous links becomes circular: One can argue that contact with various
Hermetic ideas, symbols, ceremonies, and myths could (at least occasionally
and in the properly predisposed individual) help invoke a numinous and
uniquely individual experience. The experience, though personal and
self-contained, might become the substratum for creative development of
further intuition and insights inherently present in the inciting mythos.
Thus a tradition breeds an experience which then replicates anew the
tradition. This whole issue recalls the question plaguing historical studies
of Gnosticism and its various manifestations: is the tradition conveyed
through historically identifiable transmissions; are various historical
manifestations of "Gnostic vision" instead creations of a reborn and
independent "Gnosis" imbued with similar core insights (what depth psychology
calls archetypal patterns); or are both modes of transmission, inner and
outer, intrinsically coupled? To these questions I can give no answers; I
offer only my intuition that they lurk behind any interpretation of evidences
"linking" Joseph Smith to Hermeticism.
D. Michael Quinn extensively details evidences of Joseph's early contact with
Hermeticism, though he emphasizes the folk magical aspect. He offers the
Smith family's carefully preserved magical parchments and dagger, and the
talisman Joseph carried on his person.85 One recognizes the prominent use of
Hebrew on both the parchments and talisman, although the reason for this has
not been put in clear context by Mormon historians: the Hebrew came from
Kabbalah.86 As Quinn documents, knowledge necessary for the preparation of
the Smith family magical implements could have been obtained from books of
magic available in this time and region, and such materials might have been
acquired specifically to aid magical activities associated with treasure
seeking. Preparation for and proper performance of a magical
ritual--including production of a ceremonial dagger or parchment--was,
however, a lengthy and complicated venture demanding knowledge of an arcane
vocabulary. The vast host of angels and spirits addressed in different
magical rituals had specific names (again drawn from Kabbalah), elaborate
magical signs, and varied functions within the natural and celestial
hierarchies. From this complexity, magic lore made it clear that there were
definite existential dangers in getting the details wrong. It thus seems
likely that in addition to information gleaned from books, family members
would have augmented their knowledge by associations with individuals
experienced in ceremonial magic and the occult arts. In this company Joseph
Smith might have first been exposed to a person versed in the deep breadth of
Hermeticism.
One individual fits this description: the "occult mentor" identified by
Quinn, Dr. Luman Walter(s). Reputed to be a physician and magician (the two
were sometimes closely associated in that age), Walter is known to have been
in Joseph's and his family's circle of acquaintances prior to 1827. He was
also a distant cousin of Joseph's future wife, Emma Hale.87 As Quinn notes,
"Brigham Young described the unnamed New York magician as having travel
extensively through Europe to obtain `profound learning,'" and others
identified Walter as "a physician who studied Mesmerism in Europe before
meeting Joseph Smith."88 Walter family records and legend called him
"clairvoyant."89 If these statements are generally accurate, Walter had
considerable knowledge of Hermetic traditions. During this period in Europe
(and to a lesser degree in America) a physician with interests in Mesmer,
magic, clairvoyance, and "profound learning" moved in a milieu nurtured by
the legacies of Hermeticism. By definition, such a physician stood in a
tradition dominated by the medical and esoteric writings of Paracelsus,
steeped in alchemy, and associated closely with Rosicrucian philosophy.90 As
an individual also interested in hidden treasures, Walter might have taken
particular note of Paracelsus' admonition on Kabbalah's import:
All of you . . . who see land beyond the horizon, who read sealed, hidden
missives and books, who seek for buried treasures in the earth and in walls,
you who teach so much wisdom, such high arts--remember that you must take
unto yourselves the teachings of the cabala if you want to accomplish all
this. For the cabala builds on a true foundation. Pray and it will be given
you, knock and you will be heard, the gate will be opened to you. . . .
Everything you desire will flow and be granted you. You will see into the
greatest depth of the earth . . . The art of the cabala is beholden to God,
it is in alliance with Him, and it is founded on the words of Christ. But if
you do not follow the true doctrine of the cabala, but slip into geomancy,
you will be led by that spirit which tells you nothing but lies.91
If Walter did have contact with the young Smith, he might have shared some
interesting ideas about the occult reformative tradition that had for three
centuries been a force working on the creative edge of the Western religious
imagination, concepts which might have had influenced a prophetic
imagination. Here is the tentative early connection to a legacy of ancient
priesthoods, lost books, sacred weddings, modern seers, co-eternal matter,
golden treasures, angelic messengers, rebuilt temples, dawning dispensations,
and God's glorious intelligence. Perhaps Walter might even have had something
to say about the story of the sixteen-year-old Christian Rosencreutz who
journeyed to the East and translated the Book M, only to be rejected by the
learned of his age. This was a legacy of ideas about man and God unlike
anything in the texts of revivalism and seekerism sweeping New York's
"burned-over district"92 and yet so much like the religion embraced by the
prophet-to-be.
In addition to early influences from a possible occult mentor such as Walter,
other eddies of the Hermetic mythos swirled near the young Joseph Smith.
Quinn notes, "Pennsylvania was the focal point of ceremonial magic in early
America," and "several sources indicate that Joseph Jr. engaged in folk
magical activities during the summers of the 1820s away from Palmyra, often
in Pennsylvania."93 What Smith encountered in Pennsylvania may again be
better termed Hermeticism than folk magic; there is even some possibility
that he had direct contact with Rosicrucian ideas. German Pietists who had
immigrated to Pennsylvania in the previous century were deeply influenced by
Rosicrucianism and the Kabbalistically flavored mysticism of Jacob Boehme.
(See Figure 7.) This is a repeat citation) The first American Rosicrucian
group had been founded on Wissahickon Creek near Philadelphia just before
1700 by a learned band of theosophists and German Pietists headed by Johannes
Kelpius. In 1720 the German mystic and Pietist Johann Conrad Beissel
immigrated to Pennsylvania seeking to join that group. He subsequently
associated himself with a few of the remaining Wissahickon mystics and later
organized a Rosicrucian society, the Ephrata commune, near Lanchaster,
Pennsylvania.94 Alderfer notes in his study of the movement, "Ephrata itself,
though an inheritor of many strains of mysticism, was a latter-day haven of
essentially gnostic ideas and terminology."95
The community survived into the early nineteenth century. During its peak in
the mid-eighteenth century it proselytized widely, sending disciples on
"pilgrimages" through the surrounding countryside and even into New England.96
Alchemy, Kabbalah, and perhaps Freemasonry all played roles in the mystical
philosophy taught at Ephrata.97 A few tentative evidences suggesting loose
association of Smith with Rosicrucianism, and perhaps even some residual of
the Ephrata commune, are introduced by Quinn.98 But specific contacts aside,
one must recognize that the sophisticated Rosicrucian, Kabbalistic, and
alchemical ideas represented at Ephrata had been quilted into Pennsylvania's
esoteric lore for over one hundred years prior to Joseph's summer visits in
the 1820s. If Smith did have contact with individuals influenced by these
traditions (of which there must have been more than a few), his knowledge of
things Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and alchemical would have been augmented.
Joseph Smith's possible direct exposure to Kabbalah before 1840 deserves
specific comment (I will later discuss in detail his studies in Nauvoo). The
role of Kabbalah in magic was pervasive enough that even with a curtailed
involvement in ceremonial magic, Smith would have heard of the subject.
Paracelsus's admonition to treasure seekers (quoted above) represents the
importance with which Kabbalistic knowledge was imbued by occultists; in
fact, in the period's vocabulary "cabala" was often used as a synonym for
"magic" and "occultism." Those Christian esotericists who knew of Kabbalah in
the early nineteenth century would have known it principally through
Christianized interpretations by then thoroughly amalgamated with Hermetic,
alchemical and Rosicrucian notions. While an occasional American occultist
might have had some knowledge of Kabbalah in its original Jewish form, study
at this basic level required some knowledge of Hebrew, access to original
Hebrew Kabbalistic texts or the Latin translations in the Kabbalah Denudata,
and (at least in traditional view) an adept Kabbalist as guide.99
Nonetheless, within the context of prevalent transmissions, it is possible
Joseph encountered and took interest in some outline of Kabbalah. The most
basic form available to him would have been simple representations of the
"Tree of Sefiroth" found in Hermetic works published in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.100 (see Figure 2.) This depiction of the Sefiroth alone
could conveyed a wealth of ideas about an emanational structure in the divine
life--ideas which perfused Hermetic ideas and symbols, and which were like
those developed in Mormon theology. The power of this archetypal pattern of
the Sefiroth to stimulate a religious imagination is witnessed by occasional
later Christian "Kabbalistic" works, some of which appear to be almost
entirely free associations built from meditations on this structure of the
Sefiroth and devoid of any relation to traditional Jewish or Christian
Kabbalistic commentaries.
In this vein, a work recently published by Mormon author Joe Sampson is
interesting.101 Sampson evaluated Joseph Smith's writings, including the Book
of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, and noted a pattern of word and concept
usage in several verses which reproduces both the common English names and
the general hierarchical structure of the Kabbalistic Tree of Sefiroth.102
While Sampson carries his argument beyond what a less intuitive student might
discern, several of his examples deserve consideration. And though this
Kabbalistic pattern in Smith's revelatory writings may be accidental, it also
could suggest some earlier exposure at least to the concept of the Tree of
Sefiroth. Sampson extends his thesis by suggesting that Smith's translation
of the Book of Abraham from the Egyptian papyrus was a Kabbalistic work in
the classic sense. Though Sampson's development of this argument is itself
cryptically Kabbalistic, his theme again deserves scrutiny. Kabbalah was, as
he notes, the tradition of prophetic interpretation. It encouraged a creative
rereading of sacred texts in the quest for a return to the primary vision
which was the single source of knowledge and scripture. In nature (if not in
content) Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon, his retranslation of
Genesis, and his interpretation of the Book of Abraham papyruses all can be
seen as expressions of the primary interpretive vision Kabbalah mandated from
prophetic consciousness. Whether this was a reflection of Joseph's contact
with Kabbalah, or just of Joseph, remains an open question.103 But beyond
doubt, this interpretive activity fits within the evolved
Hermetic-Kabbalistic vision of a true prophet's work.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go to Part 3 -- pp. 166-194
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