The Kabbala of Shakespeare By Paul T. Olson At the age of twelve, my grandmother introduced me to the mysterious world of Shakespeare when she gave me Clark and Wright's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Compared to this early interest in the Bard, I was a late bloomer when in the summer of 1991 I began studying the Mystical Kabbala. The Kabbala is defined in the glossary of the Zohar as "the esoteric teachings of Judaism" (Matt, 304). Authorities differ about whether it was found by Adam, Noah, or Moses (Kraig, 54). This knowledge is best explained with a figure called the Tree of Life. It is composed of ten spheres or sephiroths numbered one through ten and divided in different formations depending on their operations, which we will see later. By using various systems of manipulation, magicians believe they can reach God's intellectual world or control nature by harnessing the energy concealed therein (Woodman, 15). Although I had studied the Kabbala and Shakespeare avidly, I didn't make any connection until Fall semester of 1993 when a fellow student in EN 420 Shakespeare leaned over to me and suggested that the conflict between Theseus and Hippolyta reminded him of the conflict between the Pillar of Mercy and the Pillar of Severity (see appendix). Like two vines bent toward each other, I could not prevent Shakespeare and the Kabbala from becoming hopelessly entangled by the end of the semester. When the assignment was given to do research on some topic in Shakespeare, there was little doubt in my mind what I would examine: William Shakespeare must have been aware of the Kabbala and included Kabbalistic doctrines in his plays. Documentation was my major apprehension. Shakespeare never uses the word "Kabbala" in the text of any of his plays, but that does not disprove my thesis as Shakespeare made reference to many things that he does not address directly. I searched to see what the occult "scene" was like in the renaissance. John Mebane says, "In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, magic became the most powerful manifestation of the growing conviction that human-kind should act out its potential in the free exercise of its powers on the social and natural environment" (3). David Ruderman describes the work of "Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the leading neoplatonists in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century" (140), as being "Christian Kabbala" (142) Gershom Scholem says, "On the whole, the spread of Lurrianic Kabbalism [a branch devoted to reunion with God] was almost entirely due to the activity of another Kabbalist, Israel Sarug, who between 1592 and 1598 carried on a lively propaganda in the interests of the new school among the Kabbalists of Italy" (p. 257). Shakespeare had a keen ability to identify the spiritual concerns and social interests of his times and incorporate them into his dramatic works. He must have been aware of the influence of the Kabbala on the thinkers of Europe and included Kabbalistic doctrines as themes and details in his plays. The Kabbalistic influence on Shakespeare's work must have resulted in the airtight psychology of his characters. Volume upon volume of published analysis demonstrate that Shakespeare's characters bear up well under the harshest of psychological examinations. The psychological system of the Kabbala corresponds to Freudian psychology: the Yechidah (sephiroth 1) corresponds to the superego, the Nephesh (sephiroth 9) corresponds to the id, and the Ruach (sephiroths 4- 8) corresponds to the ego (Kraig 155-8), but Freud wouldn't be born for hundreds of years. Regardie says, "I conceive of analytical psychology as the spouse of the ancient system of magic" (40) I have been able to find no system of psychology that would have been superior to Kabbala that Shakespeare would have had access to. In all the rereadings, translations, and transpositions of the Kabbala that were done--no matter how much the philosophies and doctrines were watered down, misconstrued, or just plain lost-- the one major ideal of Kabbala that always rose to the surface in some form (perhaps the ideal that mythified the Zeitgeist of Elizabethan England) was that "the world would become perfect when humanity regained the knowledge and power it had lost through original sin" (Mebane, 84). In The Tempest, Prospero becomes purified by his studies, and because of them he can perform God's Will (Mebane 176). Prospero regains his power through his studies. Additionally, "Shakespeare may have been aware of the alchemical meaning of the term tempest : it is a boiling process which removes impurities from base metal and facilitates its transmutation into gold" (181). Prospero's redemption comes before the beginning of the play; his actions result in the redemption of the other characters. In Henry IV part 1 & 2, Hal's redemption precedes his assumption of the throne. This redemption also takes place in Twelfth Night when Viola's disguise is revealed and she is reunited with Sebastian (regaining of lost knowledge). Failure to regain the knowledge and power lost after the introduction of original sin is a major part of tragedy. In the tragedies, the characters realize their mistakes and their ignorances too late to save themselves. This also reflects the perfection doctrine by showing the results of ignoring the need to pursue it. In Hamlet, impurities and decay are caused by the "original sin" of Claudius' reign--his assassination of Hamlet's father. Hamlet gains the knowledge to act when he meets the ghost but doesn't have the power to act until Gertrude is poisoned and then it is too late for him to save himself. Additionally, Hamlet may be referring to the Kabbalistic doctrine of metempsychosis (punishment of an evil soul by confinement in a beastly body) when he describes "how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar" (4, 3, 33). Even if this is not the only meaning of this line, Shakespeare knew that with all the talk of evil people dying, the Kabbalists in the audience would have been thinking about it. In the Kabbala (see appendix), the sephiroth Binah (understanding), Gibburah (strength), and Hode (splendor) comprise the pillar of severity. The sephiroth Hochma (wisdom), Hesed (mercy), and Netzach (victory) comprise the pillar of mercy (Kraig 87, 88). The human being resides between these two forces. The ideal is to balance these opposites. "Unbalanced mercy is but weakness and the fading out of the will. Unbalanced severity is cruelty and the barrenness of the mind (Regardie 21)." In light of this polarity, it seems to me that the aforementioned dispute between Theseus and Hippolyta, mirrored by the dispute between Oberon and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, is a clear dispute between severity (law) and mercy (love). As the government official, Theseus speaks for law when he says, "Such tricks have strong imagination" (5, 1, 18). In other words, he says, "love means nothing." Hippolyta speaks as love saying, "More witnesseth than fancy's images" (5, 1, 25). In other words she says, "Because everyone feels the same thing when they are in love, it can become something more than law." If Shakespeare feels that mercy, or love, is necessary to temper severity, or law, nowhere does this become more obvious than in The Merchant of Venice when Portia--embodying love just as Hippolyta did--is forced to become law (severity). Disguising herself as a man to save Antonio, she says outright, "And Earthly power doth then show likest God's/ When mercy seasons justice" (4, 1, 196-7). Both Midsummer Night's Dream and Merchant of Venice originate from the period between 1594 and 1596 (Watt, et. al. 14). This suggests that Shakespeare learned this doctrine and was inspired by it. There is a problem with Shakespeare's depiction of the necessity for balance between mercy and severity: Hochma (at the head of the Pillar of Mercy) corresponds to man and Binah (at the head of the Pillar of Severity) corresponds to woman (Kraig 103). This gives rise to the doctrine that the Pillar of Mercy is masculine and the Pillar of Severity is feminine. In these early plays, the severe characters are male and the merciful characters are female. Even so, the conflict between severity and mercy is solid. Shakespeare more closely follows the orthodox sexual attribution of severity and mercy in King Lear and Macbeth. These plays, coincidentally both originate between 1605 and 1606 (Watt, et. al. 14). This may suggest that Shakespeare learned the proper attributions of mercy and severity and found inspiration from them. Shakespeare examines the consequences of unbridled severity in King Lear. Lear's daughters--Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia-- are driven to extraordinary lengths by their soft father and become severity incarnate. Maiming, invasion, murder, and adultery are perpetrated by the daughters of Lear to attain their selfish goals. These plots collapse on themselves, leaving all three daughters and many others dead. In this, severity and mercy regain balance only with the death of all offenders. The title character of Macbeth is shown that he will become king. He is merciful and would like to let fate run its course; however, his severe wife convinces him to take matters into his own hands and kill the king. She shows her severity when she describes how she would "dash the brains" of her own baby if she had promised such a thing to Macbeth (1, 7, 58). Macbeth's softness (mercy) become his downfall when he obeys the demands of his lady. As in King Lear, death awaits the Macbeths as the reward for unbalanced severity. In the Kabbala, divine knowledge and energy descend from Kether to Malkuth (Kraig 68). The Ritual of the Middle Pillar is a meditation technique by which, it is believed, one may bring this divine knowledge down through one, through the parts of the body that correspond to the sephiroth (see appendix), energizing Kether at the head, Daath at the throat, Tifaret at the heart, Yesode at the genitals, and Malkuth at the feet (Regardie 123). In King Lear, the Fool criticizes Lear's obsession with the process of generation. The cod-piece that will house Before the head has any, The head and he shall louse; So beggars marry many. The man that makes his toe What he his heart should make Shall of a corn cry woe, And turn his sleep to wake (King Lear 3, 1, 18-34). In this the fool talks about the imbalance created by placing sexuality before personal safety and love. He says that when one puts the importance of the genitals (cod-piece) over the head or if one puts the foot (genitals?) over the heart it will cause anguish and disruption. In my interpretation, this shows Lear has lost touch with how divine energy flows down from the head to the feet. The evidence I have presented--that Shakespeare knew the Kabbala--is all circumstantial. Shakespeare never included anything that was irrefutably Kabbalistic. He shied from controversy even in the plays that were critical of the monarchy. He made sure that everything was back in balance by the end of the play. "The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in England witnessed the culmination of an intense struggle between those who maintained the continuing validity of traditional sources of knowledge and those who assessed that inherited beliefs must be tested and, if necessary, rejected (Mebane 6). Shakespeare lived in a world where "even a pious mage like John Dee was called upon to defend himself against charges that he was in league with the devil (7)." Shakespeare was very careful to avoid saying anything that would arouse suspicion of witchcraft or heresy. The doctrines I have identified as having parallels in Shakespeare's plays are hardly new, nor are they even specific to the Kabbala. They have their place in most other systems of mysticism, and many systems of mysticism were studied and practiced during Elizabethan times. But that very fact is the reason I find the topic so compelling: the Kabbala applies universally, just as Shakespeare's characters and themes are universally understood. The Kabbala addresses the full range of human experience. Shakespeare's characters and plots are as relevant today as they have ever been. Universality is the measure of any system of beliefs, any body of work, and even a good education. In each case, I must ask myself-- does this body of knowledge cover everything? If it can not, I must fill the hole in for myself; if it can, I know I have found something I can live with and within. Works Cited Clark, W. G. and W. Aldis Wright, ed. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Garden City, New York: Nelson Doubleday, nd. Kraig, Donald Michael. Modern Magick. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1991. Matt, Daniel Chanan, translator. Zohar. New York: Paulist Press, 1983. Mebane, John S. Renaissance Magic and the Return of the Golden Age. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Regardie, Israel. The Middle Pillar. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1985. Ruderman, David B. Kabbala, Magic, and Science. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988. Scholem, Gershom G. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schocken, 1941. Watt, Homer A. et. al. Outlines of Shakespeare's Plays. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1962. Woodman, David. White Magic and English Renaissance Drama. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973. Paul T. Olson box 43 Student ActivitiesOffice Northern Michigan University Marquette, Michigan 49855