Posted by Phillip Tussing on February 13, 19102 at 21:50:32:

In Reply to: Re: Baha'i and Kabbalah posted by Goli Young on April 05, 2000 at 16:43:00:

By way of preface: My interest is not in the covenant-breaker site, which I have already seen. I have what I believe is a legitimate line of inquiry, with which I hope someone can help me. I have already asked Rob Stockman about this -- he's a very nice and knowledgeable person, and agrees this is interesting, but unfortunately the lead he gave me went nowhere.

Question 1: It is well known that the Jewish Qabalists were active in Spain during the time of the Muslim occupation. It is well known that Jews and Muslims mixed, sometimes rather freely, in that place and time. I speculate that it must be nearly impossible for the Muslims not to have pursued Qabalistic studies at the time. Yet, I have studied Sufism and Islam, and never seen reference to it. Did it ever happen? Was the work published? Did it die out, or go underground, like all Qabalah in repressive societies? Anybody know?

Question 2: The Babis were heavily involved in mysticism, numerology and esoteric studies, primarily as a way to find The Promised One. Has that line of study completely died out in the Baha'i Faith? Did any of these people tap into the power of the Tree of Life, not for esoteric millenialism, but for esoteric psychology? Anybody know?

Question 3: The early Baha'is in the West were as mystically-oriented a bunch as could be imagined -- they made today's New Agers look tame. I cannot imagine that there were not some among them who studied Blavatsky, the Golden Dawn, and the Qabalistic revival that occurred at that time. Did any of them then try to adapt Qabalah to the Faith? Anybody know?

Very interesting questions -- any of you willing to tackle them?

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