cabalas and conspiratorial dictionaries

[Sojourner]

At 03:15 PM 8/26/97 -0400, JULIUS RAPER wrote:

>	Is there a conspiracy afoot to conceal the possible Greek source
>of "cabala" in the Greek "kabbale," which my Greek dictionary defines as
>3rd person singular aorist of "kataballo," "to throw down, to overthrow,
>to bring down, to strike down, to cast away, to throw down or sow, to lay
>down as a foundation" and several other related definitions. 
>	 No wonder many cultures and institutions feared something
>subversive afoot when cabalas were mentioned, though the reference may be
>to the cabalistic cosmogony associated with the gnostics: that our world
>was a late emanation from the original benevolent godhead, a world created
>(sown, thrown down) by a minor, none too benevolent demiurge, a dungeon-
>or prison-world cast down so far that only by liberating the spark of
>gnosis or wisdom within each of us, our remnant from that original
>godhead, can we perceive our true state and reunite with our origins.  We
>are akin to Sophia, carrier of the spark, born in a brothel (in Tyre, I
>believe)--but through love of Sophia (philo/sophia--or is it philos/ophia,
>love Ophis, the serpent?) we can augment the spark of gnosis.  This, of
>course, is the playing field Durrell locates both his Quartet and Quintet
>upon, and it is a green one, given the way the gnostic cabala has been
>viewed as heresy (perhaps for good reasons) in European cultures. 
>	But why would the dictionaries want to hide these possibilities?
>				JRR
>
>

	"Sure I'm paranoid... but am I paranoid ENOUGH?"

	      ---DWF "IJ"