asakku
dubĝal (scribes assistent)
Posts: 51
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Post by asakku on May 27, 2013 13:41:53 GMT -5
Most people who are into Babylonian and Kabbalistic stuff are total convinced, that the Tree of Life originated in Mesopotamia. Mostly because of this picture And this one from Assyria They build up their whole religious System on that. But what is behind this all? Is there really a proof, that there was something like a "spiritual" Tree in mesopotamian Cultures? Just because they used it on reliefs, do not mean, it has any sort of deeper religious meaning. Maybe it was just decoration. So, what i want to know.. are there tablet sources that describe this "mystic" Tree of Life in any way important or even existent to the mesopotamian religions and beliefe systems?
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Post by enkur on May 28, 2013 1:11:34 GMT -5
Parpola is the first to make such speculations. The Qabalah is a medieval invention.
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asakku
dubĝal (scribes assistent)
Posts: 51
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Post by asakku on May 28, 2013 7:33:00 GMT -5
He is a scientist, but can we take his theorys as valid? Let's take a look on his profile on wikipedia.
Simo Parpola has suggested that the oldest versions of the Sephirot extend from Assyrian theology and mysticism.
Noting the general similarity between the Sephirot of the Kabbalah and the tree of life of Assyrian mysticism, he reconstructed what an Assyrian antecedent to the Sephirot would look like.[1] Matching the characteristics of Ein Sof on the nodes of the Sephirot to the gods of Assyria, he found textual parallels between these Assyrian gods and the characteristics of the Jewish God.
The Assyrians assigned specific numbers to their gods, similar to the way the Kabbalah assigns numbers to the nodes of the Sephirot. However, the Assyrians used a sexagesimal number system, whereas the Sephirot use a decimal system. Using the Assyrian numbers, additional layers of meaning and mystical relevance appear in the Sephirot. Normally, floating above the Assyrian tree of life was the god Assur—this corresponds to Ein Sof, which is also, via a series of transformations, supposedly derived from the Assyrian word Assur.
Parpola re-interpreted various Assyrian tablets in the terms of these primitive Sephirot, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, and concluded that the scribes had been writing philosophical-mystical tracts rather than mere adventure stories. Traces of this Assyrian mode of thought and philosophy eventually reappeared in Greek Philosophy and the Kabbalah.
Parpola is a strong advocate of Assyrianism, supporting the link between the modern Assyrians and their ancient ancestors. He argues for a direct link between the ancient Assyrians and those who call themselves and their Aramaic language Assyrian today.
What do you guys think about?
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Post by enkur on May 28, 2013 12:20:30 GMT -5
Well while I do appreciate Crowley's interpretations of the Qabalah in the context of the modern Western occultism, I do find ridiculous his attempts to use the Qabalah as an universal system of classification, especially when applied to traditions which precede the Qabalah with millennia. I'm afraid Parpola does something similar. Projecting monotheist views onto ancient polytheist traditions is extremely misleading whatever personal insights could be gained thereby. This error is characteristic of both occultists with mystic predilections and of scholars who tend to regard the monotheism as a higher phase of the religious thought than the polytheism.
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asakku
dubĝal (scribes assistent)
Posts: 51
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Post by asakku on Jun 2, 2013 22:25:47 GMT -5
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