Sources of Franz Bardons Kabbala

Please read also Mr. Scuttles elaboration on this subject further down on this page.

Recent studies (2001) concerning the sources of Bardons Kabbala have revealed quite interesting new insights.

These new findings show, that Bardon based his kabbalistic system indeed (at least in part) upon the Renaissance Hebraic mystical Kabbalah. Yudelove could show, that there are some relations between the Sefer Yetzirah and Bardons attribution of the kabbalistic letters and various parts of the human body (see the excerpt: Comparison of Bardon and Sepher Yetzirah by Eric Yudelove). Now new findings suggest, that Bardon was acquainted with the systems of important Renaissance Hebraic Kabbalists.

Especially important are in these regards the following kabbalistic mystics :

Rabbi Abraham Abulafia (1240-1288?), one of the most important exponents of the mystical Kabbala.
1. Rabbi Moshe Cordovero of Safed = the Ramak (1522-1570), author of the "Pardes Rimonim" which is one of the most important compilations of Hebraic Kabbalism.

And finally the probably most influential Kabbalist of all, namely
2. Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), known also as the "Ari", who was the founder of the mystic tradition of "lurianic" Kabbalism.

To stress Abulafias importance we should note here, that his most important student, Rabbi Joseph Gikatalia (1248-1323) wrote the most important "Shaarey Orah" (Gates of light) which contains for the first time the kabbalistic tree of life with his 10 sephira; see Figure 1 : The tree of life (Bookplate from Portae Lucis, 1516) from Yudeloves book.
Abulafia, Cordovero, and also Luria use in different ways a very special system, that Bardon mentions briefly in his "Key to the true Kabbala".I'm talking about Bardons special method to add vowels to the four lettered name of God, the Tetragrammaton YHVH. Please refer to Bardons 3rd book : "The Key to the true Kabbalah", part 3, Step 10, "The use of the Four-Letter Key" (page 259-260, 1996 Merkur Publishing edition).

Bardon writes: "As a matter of interest, I may at least indicate a few combinations of the four-letter key with the letters J-H-W-H. If I were to mention all the keys that are Kabbalistically analogous to this name, I should have to indicate 256 formulas, which is impossible for technical reasons. Thus I have chosen such formulas as are, firstly, less known, and, secondly, used only by Kabbalists, who are well acquainted with Hebrew Kabbalah."
Then follow 6 kabbalistic formulas where the YHVH (Bardon uses JHWH) gets extended by a vowel :

1. JaHWH
2. JeHWH
3. JiHWH
4. JoHWH
5. JuHWH
6. JauHWH

These extensions (here in blue color) of the tetragrammaton YHVH with a vowel puzzled me for a long time, because I couldn't figure out what those vowels could mean respectively why Bardon used such an exotic and strange system.But Hebraic Kabbalists of the Renaissance use this very system of vowel addition to holy names or letters in a number of ways.

1. Abulafia:

Kaplan writes: "Once one has mastered the technique of letter permutation, the next step in Abulafias system involves the pronunciation of the various names of God. The simplest of these involves the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH. These letters are combined with the letter Aleph, together with the five primary vowels. ... This method is presented in detail in Abulafias "Or HaShekhal" (Light of the Intellect)." [Source: "Meditation and Kabbalah" by Aryeh Kaplan, page 87 and 91.]

 

In this example, the extension of the tetragrammaton with vowels is not so clearly shown as by Cordovero in the next example. But we can see basically how a special meditation system gets developed by Abulafia, using the method of vowel addition.

2. Rabbi Moshe Cordovero:

Please refer to the extensive chapter on Cordovero (Safed) by Aryeh Kaplan. Here follows only the table by Cordovero about the relation of the Sefira and the expansion of the Tetragrammaton with vowels.

3. Rabbi Isaac Luria:

Rabbi Isaac Luria uses the expansion of the tetragrammaton with vowels in his system of the Yichudim.

Please refer again to Aryeh Kaplans book "Meditation and Kabbalah", page 218 (The Ari, 4. Yichudim) for details.

This system of Yichudim is a very complicated and most difficult meditation system. Here we have not only the expansion with vowels but also with consonants. The expansion with vowels of the tetragrammaton YHVH is used very often in this text. For example:

YOD HY VAV HY

YOD HH VV HH

YAHDVNHY

We find here also Cordoveros method of adding vowels which are attributed to the Sefirah. For example:
 

"Then meditate on YHVH in Chokhmah-Wisdom, where it has the vowel point Patach":

YaHaVaHa

"Then mediatate on YHVH in Tiferet-Beauty, where it has the vowel point Cholam":

YoHoVoHo

Finally I will add a very complicated example where the God Name Ehyeh is used:
 

"Meditate on these three names Ehyeh":

AaHaYaHa AaHaYaHa AhHaYaHa

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Was Bardon acquainted with the original Hebraic kabbalistic manuscripts?

For now we can only speculate about this issue.

Bardon writes for example in the XI chapter of KTQ : "Many writings dealing with the seventy-two genii or Sehmhamephorash do indicate the superior name of God, but its true meaning or key is not revealed."

Thanks to Paul M we know that Bardon used the 72 four lettered Names of God (not to be confounded with the 72 Hebraic names of God = Bardons Mercurial spirits; also on the same sketch) from a drawing in Athanasius Kirchers "Oedipus Aegyptiacus" as kabbalistic "quantity keys" for the mercury spirits. For reference see Bardons KTQ (page 269, 1996 Merkur Publishing edition) XI chapter about "The Kabbalistic Use of Divine Names and Beings", the section about the "quantity key" or "key of energy substance" (the German "Kraftschlüssel" translates to "Power(-Supply)-Key") and Athanasius Kircher: Source of "Quantity Key's" (on this site: on top the 72 leaves with the 72 Hebraic names of God = Bardons Mercurial spirits. On the 2nd circle the 72 names of God derived from the "72 nations and languages on earth"). Until now I have not found the "quantity keys" in any other grimoire or book on kabbalah (that doesn't mean of course that such don't exist), even though Bardon speaks about "many writings".Therefore we can assume that Bardon did in fact know Kirchers Oedipus Aegyptiacus. I don't know if Bardon was able to read Latin, perhaps he was only able to "read" the picture material; I don't know if the two voluminous tomes of Oedipus Aegyptiacus have ever been translated from the original Latin language. Yet Kirchers sketch contains some God-names in various foreign languages (e.g. Greec, Koptic, Aramaic, etc., please studey the picture) and those were correctly translated (by Bardon?). For example the Greek "Q" (Theta) from Qeod (Theos) in Kirchers picture is correct in Bardons Kabbala. Another possibility is, that Bardon found Kirchers God names ("quantity keys") in a Czech or German manuscript or book in an occult (private?) library, ..., we will never know for sure.Anyway the above Jewish mystics are repeatedly cited by Athanasius Kircher in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus in his section about the Hebraic kabbalah. Especially Abulafia and Cordoveros "Pardes" are cited very often. Therefore it is quite possible that Bardon looked for the original works of these authors and studied some of them. This would be quite interesting because there exists no (Latin or other) translation for (most of) those Hebraic texts. Most of them were never printed and existed only in manuscript form in specialized archives and libraries. Was Bardon able to read the original Hebraic manuscripts in Hebraic writing?Another possibility is of course, that Bardon had been in contact with lurianic mystics of his time.And finally, eventually some important parts of Hebraic Kabbala were incorporated by various magicians in their own systems, e.g. Reuchlin or Pietro di Abano ...Further studies may eventually shed some light on this issue.

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By coincidence I too have been puzzled by the vowel additions to the formulae in KTQ. I tried to compare the 3 letter and 4 letter formula's to work out what the similarity between the additions was and from there how to work it out. Without success. There was something missing.The key that cracked the code was within Paul Allen's "Sources of Franz Bardon's Kabbala" article posted in February 2001.

The table giving the vowel additions and aligning them to the Sephiroth is the start.
From there we can see that for example the added vowel "o" belongs to Tifareth.
 
  

Sefirah	vowel		Tetragrammaton
Keter	Kametz	a	YaHaVaHa
Chokhmah	Patach	a	YaHaVaHa
Binah	Tzeré	e	YeHeVeHe
Chesed	Segol	e	YeHeVeHe
Gevurah	Sheva	'	Y'H'V'H'
Tiferet	Cholem	o	YoHoVoHo
Netzach	Chirek	i	YiHiViHi
Hod	Kibbutz	u	YuHuVuHu
Yesod	Shurek	u	YuHuVuHu
Malkuth	kein Vokal		Y H V H

[Source: "Meditation and Kabbalah" by Aryeh Kaplan, page 185.]

Turning to KTQ we see that:

Jo Ho W "leads to the absolute power of achieving everything ...".

Further down we have Jo Ho W which "leads to the absolute power as possessed by the omnipotent".

In the next chapter relating to the fourfold key we have Jo HWH "gaining control over other people and also imparts superiority to other beings."

Tifareth relates to the Sun in our universe, to power, to a personal conception of God. I am sure you will have the message by now. A few minutes study and you can feel the answer is near. Test yourself with the J au formula's in KTQ.I think within one of the books or manuscripts by Abulafia/Cordovero/Luria is a series of exercises which are to do with either the creation of the Sephira within the meditator or contact with the Sephira as an external thing.

I believe that having made the right contact the practitioner will be able to bring out the sephiroth into the vowel.

To give an example: Mr Spock could not be in love so he would not be able to emotionally pronounce. So unless you have made the contact, possibly ecstatic contact with the sephiroth you should not be able to do the job. Properly.For those with a problem with modification here are examples.

We can change a song by playing in various styles and ways. The tune is recognisable but the result is different by playing bouncy and simple for children, with a constant beat for dancers, even applying orchestra or electronic sounds, all modify.We can say yes to something but by elongating the sss we can imply doubt.
If we say yes !!! to something we are seizing an opportunity or being triumphant.
If we say yes and trill it slightly while increasing the bass we are agreeing to a sensuous experience. Think how we adapt and modify words to better express what we wish to communicate. 
Unfortunately the whole code is not broken.

Franz Bardon gives more vowels than are in the table. We do not know the why or how these added vowels work. We do not know if the method sketched by Cordovero is applicable to us or if other exercises will allow us to use this key. Study of the original manuscripts will draw us nearer an answer.

Intuition shouts at me that "au" refers to Malkuth and the sound of Geburah is short and martial. I can be wrong. We may assume that the vowel additions work with other consonants as we are given the formula We He Bi.So far from having the answer we are presented with many more questions. If Divine Providence so wills we may be allowed to publish answers and hope they are read and understood by true students.

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