Madonna Among Many Modern Artistes Inviting the Muses via Mystically Mumbled Numbers

Madonna defends Kabbalah interest

"Madonna has defended her interest in the mystical Jewish teachings of Kabbalah, saying media descriptions of it as a cult make her angry. In a newspaper interview, the singer put all the attention down to a lack of understanding of the religion:

According to the Christian Kabbalah:

"Many of the basic ideas and principles found in the Kabbalah are also found in Gnosticism because both were in the Eastern Mediterranean near the time of Christ."

"Both attach an importance to knowledge, called the 'gnosis' or the knowledge of God. This knowledge does not come from rational thinking but is inspired by God. As in Gnosticism, sin is not considered to be wrong doing but ignorance which separates humankind from God. The knowledge, specifically the 'gnosis', unites humankind to God--to know God is to be God. Those sharing this 'gnosis' are the elect; they are the enlightened ones who share the knowledge of God, although they may not lead perfect lives."

"The Kabbalists share similar goals as did the Gnostics: each group set out to answer the religious paradoxical questions of life. Such as why does the world possess both good and evil characteristics when it was created by a God Who is all good? Why is the world finite when it was created by an infinite God? Similar questions which are asked concerning the world can also be asked of humankind. Of all of the questions concerning God's relationship with the world and humankind, there seems to be one ultimate question: God, by his very nature of being infinite, all good and knowing, seems unknowable; then, how is it possible for humankind to know him?"

"The Kabbalah seems to serve to answer this question in two ways: the first is in the explanation that every idea contains its own contradiction, and God Who is the sum of all ideas contains all contradictions. Therefore God is both good and evil, just and unjust, merciful and cruel, limitless and limited, unknowable and knowable. All things, which contain their contradictions or opposites, unite to form a greater whole which is God."

"From this first answer comes the Kabbalah's second answer which indirectly relates God to the world. God is seen as a mirror from which shines a brilliant light. This brilliant light is then reflected onto a second mirror, then onto a third, then to a fourth, and so on. With each succeeding reflection the light loses some of its brilliancy until when it finally reaches the finite world it shines very dimly."

"Within this concept of the reflection of light lies the Kabbalist's theory for the creation of the world. In the begin- ning there was just God, and from himself he sent an emanation, often described as light. From this first emanation evolved nine more, ten in all, called the "sephiroth."

"The ancient Kabbalists taught that the brilliant lights of the sephiroth constitute the sacred name of God. Their reasoning was that the sephiroth was the world, or universe, and God is the world. Therefore, the sephiroth are the facets or parts of God, and they also are facets of the universe."

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