The Kabbalah of the Soul: The Transformative Psychology and Practices of Jewish Mysticism

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Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 2003 M03 25 - 384 pages
Reveals the transformative spiritual work by which the soul can reach ever higher dimensions of consciousness.

• Relates the soul levels of the Zohar to the various paths the soul may travel toward ultimate realization.

• Introduces a new meditative technique called "the Transformative Moment".

Throughout the history of the Jewish esoteric tradition, humankind has been understood to play a pivotal role in the perfection of the cosmos, uniting the finite with the infinite in the perfection of divine personality. Working from an original synthesis of the major kabbalistic traditions of cosmology derived from the Bible, the Zohar, and the school of Isaac Luria, Leonora Leet has erected a new framework for understanding the mechanism of the transformative spiritual work that enables the human soul to reach increasingly higher dimensions of consciousness. This analysis extends the frontiers of Leet's prior works on the Kabbalah to provide a new illumination of human possibilities.

Leet first considers the false temptations of worldly power and pleasure that lead to the fall of the soul and then the means of its redemption. She develops a powerful meditative technique called "the Transformative Moment," whose workings are exemplified by Jacob and Joseph and that allow the individual to progress through all the higher levels of the soul, even possibly to attain the miraculous powers of the legendary spiritual masters. She further correlates the hierarchy of soul levels with Ezekiel's Throne vision to show the various paths the soul may travel toward self-realization: sex, love, power, knowledge, holiness, and unification. The first four paths relate to the four-faced living creatures (Chayot) of Ezekiel's Throne vision--the bull-ox, lion, eagle, and man. The final two paths correlate to the prophet and the envisioned man on the throne he recognizes to be his divine higher self, the knowledge that defines the secret doctrine of the whole of the Jewish mystical tradition culminating in the Kabbalah.

From inside the book

Contents

THE SCALE OF THE SOUL
1
THE TRADITION OF BIBLICAL COSMOLOGY
6
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ZOHARIC AND LURIANIC COSMOLOGY
20
A NEW MODEL FOR KABBALISTIC COSMOLOGY
28
THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
46
THE SEVENTH WORLD AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE OF THE KABBALAH
51
THE FOURTHWORLD TRANSFORMATIONS OF NEFESH CONSCIOUSNESS
69
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE SOUL
72
THE MASTER OF TRANSFORMATION
185
THE MASTER OF CREATION
193
THE SIXTH WORLD OF TRANSFORMATIVE NESHAMAH CONSCIOUSNESS THE PATRIARCHS AND THE PARTZUFIM
202
THE PATRIARCHS
208
THE TZADDIKIM
219
THE PARTZUFIM
223
THE SIX PATHS TO DIVINE KNOWLEDGE
229
THE SEXUAL PATH OF THE BULL
241

THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEFESH SOUL
89
TEMPTATIONS OF A FALLEN CULTURE
94
A THERAPEUTIC FORM OF MEDITATION
116
THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUL
121
THE FIFTH WORLD OF MESSIANIC AND RUACH CONSCIOUSNESS
128
TRADITIONAL MESSIANIC CHRONOLOGY
132
STAGES OF RUACH CONSCIOUSNESS
141
KABBALISTIC TEXTS ON MEDITATION
152
THE STRUCTURE OF THE RUACH SOUL
159
THE RUACH SOUL MODEL OF TRANSFORMATIVE MEDITATION
172
CREATIVE THOUGHT
176
THE MASTER OF SYNCHRONICITY
179
THE LOVE PATH OF THE LION
251
THE POWER PATH OF THE EAGLE
263
THE COGNITIVE PATH OF MAN
272
THE HOLY PATH OF ENOCH
286
THE UNIFYING PATH OF METATRON
297
THE PRACTICE OF TRANSFORMATIVE MEDITATION
306
THE PRACTICE OF TRANSFORMATIVE PRAYER
319
NOTES
336
BIBLIOGRAPHY
363
INDEX
368
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About the author (2003)

Leonora Leet (1929-2004) received her Ph.D. from Yale University and was Professor of English at St. John's University. She is the author of The Universal Kabbalah, The Kabbalah of the Soul, Renewing the Covenant, and The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah.

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