Don Karr

Studies in English - 1960-2023
Translations & References
A Selection of Books & Articles
Appendix 1. Jewish Magic--A Selection of Sources in English
Appendix 2. Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur: An Outline of Contents
Appendix 3. The 1982 version of "Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature"

1a. Translations: 1877-1952
1b. Translations: 1971-2023
2.  Academic Studies on the Sefer Yetzirah
3.  Commentaries on the Sefer Yetzirah
      A. Pre-Kabbalistic Commentaries
      B. Kabbalistic Commentaries
      C. Commentaries by Recent Authors
4.  Western Esoteric & "New Age" Treatments of Sefer Yetzirah
Appendix: Chart of Various Correspondences of the Double Letters & Planets

1. SOURCES OF THE ZOHAR IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
2. DIVISIONS OF THE ZOHAR (chart)
3. PARASHAT/ZOHAR SECTIONS (chart)
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
5. RECOMMENDATIONS
6. Zohar I 51b-52a - translated from the French of Jean de Pauly
7. TRANSLATIONS COMPARED
8. KABBALAH BETWEEN THE ZOHAR AND SAFED - sources in English

Index with internal links
1. Overviews & Pre-Lurianic (Safed, Joseph Karo, Moses Cordovero, Elijah de Vidas)
2. Lurianic Kabbalah: A Bibliography (from Hayyim Vital to Yehuda Ashlag)
3. Other Items of Interest

Section 2 of "Notes on the Study of Later Kabbalah in English" comprises a bibliography to my paper "Which Lurianic Kabbalah?" which is available at Academia.edu.

This essay is supplemented by “Notes on the Study of Later Kabbalah in English,” which contains a bibliography covering Lurianic kabbalah.
"Which Lurianic Kabbalah?" should be considered a work in progress and a call for more in-depth research.

Shevirat ha kelim, or SHATTERING OF THE VESSELS, is a well-known feature of Lurianic kabbalah. How this shattering connects with the kings of Edom is somewhat more obscure. These kings "who reigned and died" are frequently mentioned but not often explained in detail.

CONTENTS:
-INTRODUCTION & OUTLINE OF STANDARD LITERATURE
-FOUR HISTORIANS OF CHRISTIAN CABALA (Waite, Blau, Yates, Beitchman)
-CHRISTIAN INTERPRETERS OF KABBALAH (navigation page)
-SOME SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PRINTED WORKS ON CHRISTIAN CABALA
-THE CONTENTS OF KABBALA DENUDATA
-NINETEENTH-CENTURY BOOKS ON KABBALAH
-THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN
-TWENTIETH-CENTURY BOOKS ON KABBALAH/CABALA/QABALAH

Addendum A: Items of Interest: books, chapters, and articles concerning the influence of kabbalah on Christian thought, i.e., Christian Kabbalah, the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition, the Western Esoteric tradition, Hermetic Kabbalah, etc.

Addendum B: Reviews: Sheila Spector’s “Wonders Divine” and “Glorious Incomprehensible,” Robert Wang’s Rape of Jewish Mysticism by Christian Theologians, Giacomo Corazzol’s edition of Menahem Recanati – Commentary on the Daily Prayers, and Annett Martini’s edition of Yosef Giqatilla – The Book of Punctuation.

Presented here is a series of cautionary vignettes addressing incomplete or erroneous ideas about “The Phoenix of His Age,” “The Prince of Concordia,” “The Father of Christian Cabala”—all epithets for the short-lived Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. This essay considers the following questions: What was Pico’s attitude toward the Jews? What was Pico’s understanding of Judaism and kabbalah, and how accurate was it? What was the nature of Pico’s concern with “the dignity of man”?

173—176: PREFATORY NOTE TO Ad Clarissimum ac Eruditissimum Virum N. N. De rebus in Amica sua Resposione contentis Ulterior Disquisitio from the original English

225—273: VISIONIS EZECHIELITICÆ Sive MERCAVÆ EXPOSITIO, Ex
Principiis Philosophiæ Pythagoricæ Præcipuisque Theosophiæ Judaicæ Reliqiis concinnta = THE VISION OF EZEKIEL OR EXPOSITION ON THE CHARIOT, THROUGH THE PRINCIPLES OF PYTHAGOREAN PHILOSOPHY (WHICH ARE) HARMONIOUS WITH ANCIENT JEWISH THEOSOPHY

274—292: CATECHISMUS CABBALISTICUS, sive MERCAVÆUS, Quo, in
DIVINIS MYSTERIIS MERCAVÆ EZECHIELITICÆ Explicandis & memoria
retinendis DECEM SEPHIROTHARUM sus egregie illustratur = SUMMARY OF THE KABBALAH, OR MERKAVAH, WHICH IS THE DIVINE MYSTERY OF EZEKIEL’S CHARIOT EXPLAINED & ACCOUNTED (AND IS) EXCELLENTLY ILLUSTRATED BY USE OF THE TEN SEFIROT

Three Noteworthy Books Treating Solomonic Magic
Significant Recent Publications
Texts of Solomonic Magic in English
Works of Related Interest (a bibliography with notes)
Addendum: Solomonic Magic on the Internet

This paper is periodically updated.

A scrapbook of images and documents from my association with Bill Siebert (Frater PVN) and others whom I met through him (December 1983 through 1986)
Appendix I. A Selection of Introductions from the Chapbooks of PVN
Appendix II. Works by Frater PVN 690 (Bill Siebert), 1980-1985
Appendix III. Contents of 416 Works from the 'Eighties & 'Nineties

The brief ritual Nexus of Horus/Maat, composed by Aion 131 (= Denny Sargent) in 1995, is here given in full with commentary from various online sources. Many of the webpages and sites from which material was drawn in 2006-2007 are now defunct.

Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat explores three radical expressions of modern goddess-inclusive occult theory and practice that evolved in the late twentieth century. Drawing from the same broad esoteric lineage that produced Aleister Crowley, Frater Achad, and Kenneth Grant, Maat magicians and theosophists such as Nema, Aion, 416 and others, developed new concepts of personal and cultural evolution, weaving æonic theory and kabbalah into revolutionary tenets and practices.
Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat reproduces transcriptions of original documents, diagrams and artwork by individuals and groups involved in Maatian practice, including a significant collection of material from the Thelemically-inclined occult order, the OAI.  The book also offers a well-researched history of the esoteric streams that gave rise to the progressive/subversive methods of Maat magick, and the broader cultural movements and upheavals which contributed to them.

“A long overdue and welcome history and analysis of the development and practice of the Maat current, from its origins in the writings and magick of Aleister Crowley, Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) and Kenneth Grant. The latter provides the link between the Thelema of the early twentieth century and the work of Maat-focussed magickians such as Nema, Aion, and 416. One of the significant aspects of Maat magick is that it injects the divine feminine and goddess-oriented spirituality into ceremonial magic, just as Wicca emphasises the primacy of woman and the Goddess. Karr’s extensive study and knowledge of Kabbalah is of prime importance in this respect, with regard to the Shechinah, the presence or indwelling of the Divine, understood to be feminine.”
“The book includes previously-unseen documentation and art written or created by individuals or groups whose practice is Maat-focussed, including a substantial amount of material from the Thelemic order, the OAI”.
—Treadwell’s Bookshop. London