See also: 
http://truthspeaker.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/freemasonry-gnosticism-the-kabbalah-and-christianity/

“Imagine, if you will, a leader of a religious group or secret society who based his entire movement on a foundational document – but yet would not share the contents of that document. Sacred writings, which were delivered to him by an unidentified mystery prophet. A blueprint which was confirmed to him by a “supernatural encounter which included an angel and a demon.” Writings which were confirmed by yet another prophet, one who later was discovered to have had women stand in front of him naked while he “prophesied” over them.

Mormonism? Freemasons? No, this movement is known as the “24/7 Prayer Movement” whose adherents are called “Forerunners.” They are best known as the “International House of Prayer” (IHOP) and the leader is Mike Bickle.”

Continue here

What is going on with IHOP is nothing new.   There have been many groups in the past that lived communily, segragated from society and followed a gifted prophet.  John Alexander Dowie’s City of Zion and Frank Sanford’s Shiloh come immediately to mind.   Another  mark of many cults and cultic groups is having their own special twist on eschatology and telling their followers that they are the special elite ones.  Mike Bickle preaches that the IHOP ”forerunners” (ie: Elijah and John the Baptist who prepared the way for the Lord) will not only survive the great tribulation, but that that by living through it they will  get promoted to rule with Christ.  On top of this he teaches that they will actually be the ones who will PRAY IT IN.

Both Dowie and Sanford believed that they were the Elijah’s to come.

Dowie as Elijah the restorer

Dowie also claimed to be Jesus Christ’s forerunner, as did Frank Sanford:   

“The Kingdom (Shiloh) sought to prepare the world through prayer for Christ’s second coming. As a means of doing this, Sandford and some of his followers made the first of several voyages around the world on the schooner Coronet in 1907. Following a voyage in 1911, on which several of his crew died from scurvy and starvation, Sandford was convicted of causing death at sea and served nearly seven years in the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. Although the Shiloh community ended shortly after his release, Sandford continued to lead his followers while in strict seclusion until his death in March 1948.” 1.

Why all these similarities between IHOP, Freemasons, Mormons, Maranatha, Shiloh, etc?  Because we are dealing with the same ROOTS OF FALSE DOCTRINE and OCCULT THEOSOPHY!

“My NOLR research came across Sandford’s turn-of-the-century cult several years ago when I discovered, as did Mr. Paquette, that many of the NOLR/NAR doctrines and practices line up with those of FWS (Frank Sanford) and his Shiloh compound. Sadly, history is simply repeating itself with the same “Apostolic-Prophetic” (pathetic) compounds such as John Robert Stevens and The Walk; John Robert Wimber and Vineyard; Bill Johnson and Bethel Church keying off the “ministry” of apostate homosexual Lonnie Frisbee who keyed off of Kathryn Kuhlman, etc.; the Hernnhut Zinzendorf compounds Morningstar and IHOP, etc). The “Shiloh” allegory is a central term for all of these entities. Why is the concept of Shiloh important toward understanding the occult theosophy behind both Sandford’s group and the NOLR? It is because the tangible attributes of historical Israel, including genetics, are reified into what is believed to be historical Israel’s genetic descendants. Although this doctrine is hidden, it is foundational to the authority and nature of the NOLR as well as other handmaidens of Christian Kabbalah such as the Freemasons, Mormons, Rosicrucians, Swedborgians, certain Roman Catholic doctrines, and numerous campus cults.” 2

1.   
http://abacus.bates.edu/muskie-archives/EADFindingAids/MC020.html#id2485493

2.   NOLR History

Notice in these videos that there is absolutely NO mention of Lonnie’s past history. Luker is using ceremonial magic and mystically trying to call down Lonnie’s “mantle” and the people in the congregation are eager to “receive” it.

The mystic river continues to flow among the signs and wonders crowd …. and there is NO discernment!!

 In researching the NAR and the Latter Rain we find many  disturbing things and false doctrines (doctrines of demons) that have infiltrated the Church. 

Let me start with Freemasonry and its impact on Christianity….. and I am only scratching the surface here!)

IHOP’s connection to Harry Truman -  A 33rd degree Freemason whose portrait is hanging in the Scottish Rite Temple in Washington DC.

“In May of 1983, the Metro Vineyard conducted a 21-day fast. During that period of prayer and fasting, Bob Jones– a prophetic speaker from Arkansas not affiliated with Bob Jones University- revealed to Bickle that he would some day begin a 24-7 prayer ministry that would be linked to Harry Truman’s home. “You are an intercessor and a youth pastor,” Jones said in his prophecy to Bickle. “You will lead a worldwide youth movement of prophetic singers and musicians that God will use to touch Israel…You will have a ministry of intercession for Israel like Harry S Truman…The Lord will place you near his home as a prophetic sign.”

IHOP purchased President Truman’s portion of his family’s farm-the 125 acres across from Truman Corners Shopping Center-from the Goldberg family 50 years to the day that the Goldbergs purchased it from Truman himself………There is another connection between the group’s mission and Truman. The birth of the modern state of Israel has been seen by many Christians as a sign that the End Times foretold in the Scriptures were near at hand. Truman, a Baptist, played a direct role in the creation of the State of Israel……The members of IHOP-KC plan to call their new world headquarters, “The Truman Prayer Center.” ”
http://iwka.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/ihop-kc-in-a-jackson-county-advocate/

Is IHOP tapping into a freemasonic spirit by aligning itself with Harry Truman?  One article I read said that Harry Truman only agreed to support the modern state of Israel because they gave him 2 million dollars and he needed money for his campaign. 

“In his book, “Jewish Religion – Jewish History,” Israel Shahak records that Harry Truman had been abandoned by everyone when he came to run for President. Then an American Zionist brought Truman $2 million dollars in cash in a suitcase aboard his whistle-stop campaign train.

“That’s why our recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast,” John F Kennedy had remarked to Gore Vidal. And thus occurred yet another Zionist event in the corruption of American politicians.” 
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/jewhis1.htm#Foreword

Here is Mike Bickle telling the story in his own words:

Someone told me recently that a friend of theirs was in the prayer room at IHOP and saw a lot of people with masonic rings there at that time.  This person told me that they have confirmed that the late John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard, was a freemason.  (he called the lodge and they confirmed it indirectly by saying “we can’t give out  information on our MEMBERS!) 

Dave Clausen, who was with Grace Fellowship from the time of that 21 day fast until May 200, states in his testimony (found here)

“……they (Bickle and the KC “prophets”) became the major reintroducers and popularizers of Latter Rain, Manifested Sonship and Restoration/Dominion ideas back into the Church world, whether they or anyone else understand what that means or not.  As a result, they over time actually became part of a wide-spread and majority network of false prophets in the Body of Christ that continues to this hour.”

John Wimber was highly connected to Mike Bickle in the early days of the Kansas City Fellowship and it was a Vineyard Church at that time.  John Wimber taught at Fuller Institute with C. Peter Wagner and has greatly influenced the likes of Bill Johnson and Mike Bickle.  The Toronto Airport Fellowship was also a Vineyard church when the signs and wonders movement broke out there in the 1990′s. 

One of Wimbers mentors was Robert Schuller (also a freemason
http://www.geocities.com/endtimedeception/robert.htm
 ) of the “positive confession”, who has also had a great influence on emerging church members ….. see this 

http://www.cephas-library.com/purposedriven/purposedriven_robert_schullers_long_influence_on_warren.html

Wimber was also connected to Bill McCartney of the Promise Keepers:

“Because of his Latter-Rain beliefs, Paul Cain was received in 1987 as a great leader by Mike Bickle, Bob Jones, and the others in the Kansas-City leadership…at about the same time that John Wimber, founder of Vineyard, was connecting with them. Then Cain prophesied that stadiums the world over would be filled with Christians en route to building “Joel’s Army,” and wouldn’t you know it, that almost suddenly Bill McCartney from the Vineyard church in Boulder, Colorado, started preaching to stadiums filled with Christian men en route to building Promise Keepers!!! Clearly, the agenda to fill stadiums came before the prophecy, and the prophecy was then uttered expressly to initiate the agenda. It was uttered again in 2001 to reinforce the agenda.

You can deduce the world-conquest mission of Promise Keepers in that its leadership has gone to bed with the Vatican. Moreover, PK officials have in the past invited members of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam to participate in their rallies (what kind of Christians could they be???). ecumenism is the word here! PK is not interested in shepherding the people of God into the Way of Jesus Christ, therefore, but is gathering and bonding as many men together as possible, regardless of their doctrinal positions. “ 
http://www.tribwatch.com/promkeep.htm

Here’s a picture of the back of a man’s tee shirt from the first Promise Keeper’s meeting on the great lawn in DC.

Notice the direct link to Freemasonry with the phalic symbol / obelisk on the back of the man’s shirt. 

Bickle was also (and still is in some cases) closely related to Paul Cain and Rick Joyner, who were both initiated into the Knights of Malta (see testimony here).  Paul Cain has since been disgraced for sexual sin and has now been “restored”.   The Knights of Malta is an off shoot of Freemasonry and is part of the military arm of the Catholic Church.  (See my other blog post about the Knights of Malta and Todd Bentley’s commissioning service.  This was attended by Peter Wagner, Bill Johnson, Rick Joyner, John Arnott and others: 
http://truthspeaker.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/todd-bentleys-occult-commissioning-service-part-3-william-branham-anointing-and-the-knights-of-malta/
 )

 Other associates of Bickle are Bob Jones (also exposed for sexaul sin), Bobby Conner, John Paul Jackson and Jack Deere and Todd Bentley who led the Lakeland “Revival” and committed adultery and got re-married to his nanny. 

It is important to understand that one of the  big goals of this movement is ecumenicism.   According to one of my contacts who was close to Mike Bickle in the early days, Mike is very eccumenical and friendly toward Catholics and he tells me that IHOP has become more and more monastic.   Mike Bickle also teaches contemplative prayer and sells 32 books on that subject in the Forerunner bookstore.  Many of these books are written by the ancient catholic mystics.

The link to the kabbalah:

” The strategy of many groups such as Freemasonry, the Illuminati, para-church organizations such as Promise Keepers, is to unite men spiritually. Freemasonry, the Illuminati and similar groups make it necessary for men to go through rituals and ceremonies to unite as “brothers” and to grow closer to whichever “Supreme Being” they believed in. This is supposed to lead to healing between religions, races and families. Some believe world peace and the one-world religion and government will be the final result. Rallying cries’ of many of the religious right and leadership including Promise Keepers, are family, peace, morality, rights, and next to that, patriotism.

The Cabala, Gnostics and Freemasons are all working towards the same goal of unification of their thoughts and beliefs with those of Christianity. J.M. Ragon, a freemason, made the following statement in regards to the issue of Christianity and the occult:

“the Cabala is the key to the occult sciences. The Gnostics were born of the cabalists..(2) “… The result of Gnosticism was thus not to christianize the cabala, but to cabalize Christianity by mingling pure and simple teaching with theosophy and even magic. (3)”…The central doctrine of Gnosticism– a movement connected with Jewish mysticism–was nothing else than an attempt to liberate the soul and unite it with God”; … “through the employment of mysteries, incantations, names of angels,” etc.

 ”….the role of the Gnostics was to reduce perversion to a system by binding men together into sects working under the guise of enlightenment in order to obscure all recognized ideas of morality and religion. It is this which constitutes their importance in the history of secret societies.” (4)”
http://www.seekgod.ca/nonew.htm

 Constance Combey also notes on her blog “What Constance Thinks”:

“I’ve been reading Alice Bailey’s From Bethlehem to Calvary in an attempt to find references to the Manifest Sons of God heresy permeating charismania in order to refute it in an article. Interestingly, I found this quote on page 20 of the paperback:
“Christianity will not be superseded. It will be transcended, its work of preparation being triumphantly accomplished, and Christ will again give us the next revelation of divinity.

“I find this interesting in light of IHOP’s Mike Bickle’s ‘prophetic word’ while in Egypt in 1983, “The face of Christianity will change in one generation.”

A friend of mine has done 10 years of research on the NAR and the NOLR and found the esoteric roots connecting these movememts to the Kabbalah and theosophy.  The kabbalah teaches that the goddess Sophia is actually the Holy Spirit and is the shekinah (which is a feminine noun in Hebrew) and she is God’s wife!  See info here (this is an esoteric site:   
http://shekinah.elysiumgates.com/
 ) 

  And this site  
http://mysticismmeditation.blogspot.com/2008/02/contemplations-on-divine-sophia-kees_16.html

which mentions Jacob Boehme, who was the German Kabbalist / Theosophist whose writings were translated to English and who influenced Jane Leade (an English mystic/ christian), the Philidelphia Society, and also George Fox of the Quakers. (Interesting to note that John Wimber started out his ministry in the Quakers).    The Latter Rain based what was going on in Canada in the late 1940′s on Jane Leade’s prophecies.  This was proven by my friend who contacted George Warnock and asked him and who confirmed this as true.

Ultimately, Sophia is just a more modern form of the Queen of Heaven, having come out of the Greek pantheon. 

“There are several female Deities that can lay claim to the title Christian goddess.  Mary, the Mother of Jesus/Yeshua,  first comes to mind. There is Mary Magdalene the “Goddess in the Gospels” the Church refused to acknowledge as the wife of Yeshua and probably co-Messiah. “Mary” is a Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew name Miriam or Miriamne. There are many theories about this name, such as Mary might not even be a name, but a title meaning Priestess of Goddess.

So the bottom line is that what we have going on today in many so called Christian circles is NOT true Biblical Christianity but a mixture of ancient kabbalistic teachings mingled with Christian doctrine.  The whole signs and wonders camp is filled with this …… it’s a virus that has been resurrected from the past and repackaged as something new. 

Many theologians and scholars believe the Holy Spirit written as, Pneuma in Greek everytime it appears in the New Testament, is a feminine being.  Note that Pneuma is a neuter word in Greek, but in Hebrew the word Ruah (Spirit) and in Aramaic the word Shekinah (Presence) are feminine words and imply a feminine divine presence.  The Holy Spirit is possibly a Christian Goddess, not a mysterious invisible member of an all-male Trinity “club.”  Or more provocatively, maybe there is a Feminine Trinity of God-the-Mother (Sophia and Mary?), God-the-Daughter (Mary Magdalene) and Goddess-the-Spirit-Presence (Shekinah, Ruah). The Holy Spirit appears at Yeshua’s baptism in the form of a dove.  The dove has long been a symbol of the Goddess in the Ancient Near East, and was never used to symbolize any male Being or God.” 
http://www.northernway.org/goddess.html

Interestingly, Paul Keith Davis’ ministry is called “White Dove“.  Davis is a close associate of Bob Jones and says this on his web site:

“WhiteDove Ministries was founded August 11, 1995 by Paul Keith and Wanda Davis. At the beginning of 1995, Bob Jones had prophesied that dual storms were going to strike the U.S. with prophetic significance. Although he had seen the two distinct major storms, he was unclear as to the location of their landfall. During the latter part of that year during late July and early August, we were hosting a prophetic roundtable meeting at our home in Orange Beach, AL, approximately 18 miles west of Pensacola. Several respected prophetic voices were in attendance including Bob Jones, Bobby Conner, Rick Joyner and others. Our meeting was interrupted by a hurricane that entered the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Erin came ashore on August 3, 1995 with the eye passing directly over our home. Following Erin, hurricane Opal also struck the same area in October 1995 fulfilling the prophetic revelation of dual storms highlighting a corporate season of significant spiritual emphasis.

Eight days after Erin, on August 11, a beautiful white dove landed on our balcony. Uniquely, it remained although it was apparent that it was not domesticated. We clearly heard the Lord speaking to us involving this sign as an indication of the “Dove Company” who will emerge in this generation possessing hearts desperate for intimacy with Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come and remain upon this body of believers as they find their rest in Him and He finds His rest in them.”

Notice this poster from White Dove Ministries (Paul Keith Davis)

This poster is for an upcoming conference and puts together all that I have been  saying.  This picture is symbolic of Hieros Gamos…. the temple marriage or divine union.   First of all as noted earlier Sophia’s symbol is a dove, so it is no accident that this ministry’s name is “white dove”.  The bride (sophia… wisdom) is dressed in white, but she has the sword in her hand.  Notice that her hand on the shaft of the sword and that it looks like a phallic symbol.  The top of the shaft is actually piercing the word “HER” in the lettering.  The first part of the word is IN HER where the sword’s phallic is penetrating.  (sorry to be so graphic).  I believe that the enemy is saying that he is planning to POSSESS the BRIDE.  This is very blatant temple worship of the Babylonian mystery schools and NOT Biblical Christianity. 

This connection to wisdom/sophia is what is behind contemplative prayer (connecting to the god within!)  and the whole bridal paradigm of IHOP and Mike Bickle…… “passion for Jesus”, and being married to Jesus, intimacy with Jesus,  (hieros gamos, the sacred marriage to the divine) ….. bringing the practicioner into a state of “ecstacy with God”  (ie; the likes of John Crowder of the “new” mystics)…. It’s a sick and convoluted interpretation of the truth.   This is what Mike Bickle and friends are really promoting…. a false gospel and a false Jesus.

Wisdom Sophia, the Zohar, Christian Kabbalah Exposing the Forerunners, Exposing the Cause and Effect

We can say that John was indeed a forerunner for Jesus Christ.
We can also say that Madame Guyon and Zinzendorf were also forerunners, but for a hybrid antichrist that was developed during renaissance-era Europe and imported into North America. This history behind the belief system that Guyon and Zinzendorf endorsed is well-documented in many history books. That NOLR leaders re-animate the original quests and objectives of Guyon, Leade, Zinzendorf, Beissel, Kelpius, etc. as they played out their utopian communities in America should provide a blatant expectation that the NAR/ICA will fail is the very same spectacular manner as did the originators.

God expects Christians to use historical studies to identify and counteract the theosophical infection that these occult leaders have brought in. We can actually use this as an opportunity to demonstrate the power and grace of the Word coupled with a full history to eliminate all conjectures that we are dealing with an identifier stream of the occult. The treatment is exposing the history of their forerunners in identifying their occult practices and objectives. This will simultaneously expose the longterm occult doctrines and practices. All the hard work; the research, has already been done.

Your going to have to get beyond the metaphysical however. Yes, there are indeed powers, principalities and spiritual wickedness bound up in the mix, but the Bible tells us that it is the “Doctrines of Demons” that provide the demons a place within the minds, hearts and communities of these Christian Kabbalists. You’ve already seen the video confirmation in numerous places where NOLR leaders like Chuck Pierce, C. Peter Wagner, Barbara Wentroble and dozens of others leade their congregants into physical actions based upon a Christian Kabbalist interpretation of the beginning of entering into a New Age. Their 2008 Denton, Texas meeting “Starting the Year off Right” shows that the NOLR/NAR admit they believe the Kabbalah is divinely-inspired and equal to the Bible. Their actions speaks louder than words.

Summary

Central questions that already have been answered:

1) For the Christian, is the Kabbalah a divinely-inspired set of writings from with to spiritually and practically embrace i.e. for doctrine and practice? If so, why? If not, and they are embraced, what are the consequences?

2) Can the doctrines and practices that the NOLR/NAR promotes be historically identified with those leaders/spiritual heros that they embrace? If so, what are the consequences?

3) Is the Christ of the NOLR/NAR the same Christ of the Bible, or is their Christ really the Adam Kadmon of the Lurian Kabbalah coupled with the mysterious fourth part of the Godhead known as “Wisdom Sophia” as identified by Jacob Boehme, Jane Leade, Count von Zinzendorf, etc. etc.?

These and other question can be answered and serve as direction for reaching out to the young occultists led by Lou Engle, Mike Bickle, Francis Frangipane, Rick Joyner, Barbara Wentroble, Cindy Jacobs, Dutch Sheets, C. Peter Wagner, Bill Johnson, Bill Hamon, and many, many others

Kabala is very much a religion because it deals with religious matters! Being the creation, God or theology, man and his relation to God and the creation and the destiny of a mans soul (matters of the spirit). Kabala is not just a philosophical system as Buddhism is, with no god (panatheism). The occultic objective of kabala is to enlighten men to their so called ‘rightful place among the universal/collective soul’ AKA godhood. Kabala is pantheism, the belief that all things are god. It is often expressed this way,, ‘God is all, all is God’ And enlightenment (illumination as ALLA says) to this is called ‘self realization’, among many other terms. Another way to refer to pantheism is monism, the belief that all things are one.

Kabala, like all other traditions of pantheism are totally contradictory to Christianity. CS Lewis and other theologians have said,,,, there is only two religions in the world.. Pantheism,, which seeks to absorb all other religions into its self,,, and is diametrically and emphatically opposed to Christianity. Then there is Christianity, which says that all men are sinners in need of a Savior,,, and Jesus is the only avenue (way) and option (name by which ALL men must be saved) for mans salvation from his fallen and depraved state,,,,, which has him alienated from God’s presence. (This is my paraphrase, I could not find the quote). Kabala is pantheism and pantheism is the antithesis of Christian theism,, they are totally incompatible.

The main reason people are attracted to pantheism is the idea of exaltation to godhood or ‘CHRIST’ status! But there is also another big reason why people are attracted to pantheism. While I could not find the CS Lewis quote I was looking for,,, I found one that gives insight into why people are so willing to believe in pantheism. Mr. Lewis says,, “The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you.”55.C.S. Lewis, Miracles p.93

RELATED LINKS

A PRIMER ON OCCULT PHILOSOPHY  Primer For Recognizing Occult Doctrines and Practices 
Is God Pleased With The Occult?

Provided by How2BecomeAChristian.info

A kabbalahist named ALLA SAID:  I have no idea what a kabbalahist is? But, you can ask k231 how false I am in that. I am gifted in kabbalah. There is no ‘is’ because it is not a religion.

Kabala is very much a religion because it deals with religious matters! Being the creation, God or theology, man and his relation to God and the creation and the destiny of a mans soul (matters of the spirit). Kabala is not just a philosophical system as Buddhism is, with no god (panatheism). The occultic objective of kabala is to enlighten men to their so called ‘rightful place among the universal/collective soul’ AKA godhood. Kabala is pantheism, the belief that all things are god. It is often expressed this way,, ‘God is all, all is God’ And enlightenment (illumination as ALLA says) to this is called ‘self realization’, among many other terms. Another way to refer to pantheism is monism, the belief that all things are one.

Kabala, like all other traditions of pantheism are totally contradictory to Christianity. CS Lewis and other theologians have said,,,, there is only two religions in the world.. Pantheism,, which seeks to absorb all other religions into its self,,, and is diametrically and emphatically opposed to Christianity. Then there is Christianity, which says that all men are sinners in need of a Savior,,, and Jesus is the only avenue (way) and option (name by which ALL men must be saved) for mans salvation from his fallen and depraved state,,,,, which has him alienated from God’s presence. (This is my paraphrase, I could not find the quote). Kabala is pantheism and pantheism is the antithesis of Christian theism,, they are totally incompatible.

The main reason people are attracted to pantheism is the idea of exaltation to godhood or ‘CHRIST’ status! But there is also another big reason why people are attracted to pantheism. While I could not find the CS Lewis quote I was looking for,,, I found one that gives insight into why people are so willing to believe in pantheism. Mr. Lewis says,, “The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you.”55.C.S. Lewis, Miracles p.93

RELATED LINKS

A PRIMER ON OCCULT PHILOSOPHY  Primer For Recognizing Occult Doctrines and Practices 
Is God Pleased With The Occult?

Provided by How2BecomeAChristian.info

This paper was given by Kathryn LaFevers Evans
at ASE 3rd International Conference, “Esotericism, Religion, and Nature”
May 29 – June 1, 2008
College of Charleston, South Carolina

L’École Abstraite: Coincidentia Oppositorum as a Dialectic of Love:16th-18th Centuries

Textual examples of number symbolism document the propagation into Early Modern esotericism of a key concept: coincidence of opposites as a dialectic of love. The architecture of this fortification or Palace of Divine Love represents in physical geometric form the spiritual ideas of l’école abstraite, the abstract school of thought. The key texts compared herein—Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples’ De Magia naturali, François Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel, Jacob Boehme’s The ‘Key’, and Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman—demonstrate the inheritance of this subfield of esotericism, l’école abstraite.

Lefèvre (1455-1536) synthesized mythological, philosophical, theological and scientific theories and practices into a wholly-interpenetrating, esoteric worldview utilizing coincidentia oppositorum, termed such by the fifteenth-century cardinal, Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464). Particularly Book II of Lefèvre’s unpublished treatise On Natural Magic is exemplary of Early Modern esotericism’s inheritance of l’école abstraite, the abstract school of thought.

Kent Emery Jr. asserts that Lefèvre’s teachings contributed to the evolution of l’ecole abstraite, an indigenous French school of spirituality the influence of which reached to the philosophy of Hegel. Emery traces the tradition from John Scotus Erigena (800-877) to Ramon Lull (AmicAmat 1276-83) to Nicholas of Cusa, and emphasizes that Lefèvre reinforced teachings of mystic Church Fathers such as St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) and the Victorines, which were then later legitimized by Lefèvre’s students Josse Clichtove (1472-1543) and Charles de Bovelles (1479-1553), then by the Capuchin Benet of Canfield (1562-1611), then Laurent de Paris (1563-1631) who spoke of le palais de l’amour divin. Regarding Benet of Canfield, and his contemporary Laurent de Paris, Emery says, “For both, the principle of the coincidence of opposites is central” (Emery online, dates mine). In De Magia naturali Book II Chapter 4, Lefèvre himself claims a more ancient lineage for this tradition of numerical ascension along the chains to Idea:

Quam Mercurius, quam Zÿmoxchis, quam Zoroaster, denique divinus Plato,
posteaque eam Egiptios magos concesserat, tantopere desiderabant [. . .].Which Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus, which Zalmoxis, which Zoroaster, and
thereupon the divine Plato, and after he had departed the Egyptian magicians, of such measure were longing for [. . .]. (Evans II:58, f. 202)

Francois Rabelais

Categorized most specifically, I find that Book II embodies Christian Kabbalah, which is encompassed by the overarching abstract school of thought, later coined l’école abstraite by Benet of Canfield. The network during Lefèvre’s time of those now labeled Christian Kabbalists, included his compatriot François Rabelais (1483-1553). He is suggested to have used Lefèvre as the model for his satirized good theologian Hippothadée in The Third Book of Gargantua and Pantagruel (Œuvres Complètès L’Intégrale, Index des Personnages 998, “Hippothadée”). Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), a seventeenth-century self-identified receiver of God’s Will, in turn transmits l’école abstraite in The ‘Key’ through describing the physical architecture representing spiritual experiences. The primal architecture of this fortress or Palace of Divine Love is the binary juxtaposition of Above and below, married in a love-triangle or Trinitarian love-nexus generated out of that binary. Never tiring of the basic physical joke of satirically inverting sublime intimacies, Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), in Tristram Shandy, reenacts the key concept of coincidence of opposites as a dialectic of love through satirized incarnations of the binary, enacting a divine comedy to the very end of his voluminous text.

Where, in Lefèvre’s and Boehme’s texts we receive sublimely mythopoetic incarnations of divine love, through Rabelais and Sterne we receive a sacrifice of that dearest experience, yet offered in such a way as to effect the healing purpose of satirical learned wit. Each in their own way, these thinkers propagate an esoteric, wholly-interpenetrating worldview where all are in love, all are saved.

In the title of De Magia naturali Book II Chapter 10, Lefèvre employs the umbrella term, “Priscae velatae Theologiae” or “Ancient veils of Theology” (Evans II:80, f. 213). Throughout Book II, Lefèvre unveils mythology, theology, and philosophy to reveal a theory, practice and experience of number as Idea. He reveals how the limit of the metaphorical imagery in disciplines is duality, the binary coincidence of opposites, symbolized by the number 2. The Magic in Lefèvre’s number mysticism is based on human experience of numerical ascension from man to God, achieved through the number 3. Renaissance esotericists conceived of this prisca theologia as embodied in the Trinity through the Spirit of Christ. Theirs was a wholly-interpenetrating vision of universal Holy Spirit beyond dualistic boundaries, demonstrated in the topic of Lefèvre’s Book II, which he calls “Pythagorean philosophy”, and which he equates to “Cabala” and prophetic teachings (Evans Ch. 1 II:50, f. 198; Ch. 14 II:89-90, f. 217-218v). The Magic ternary or number 3 is identified in Chapter 1 as the Venusian love-nexus: “Venereum amorem, et inferioris potentiae appetitusque nexum . . . Venus is love, and love-nexus of the inferior power and longing . . .” (Evans II:51, f. 199v). In Chapter 3, Lefèvre details planetary effects on the earthly resulting from similars’ affinity to similars through the “benignity” of archetypes who embody this coincidence of opposites as a dialectic of love:

And Jupiter along with Venus, celestial love-nexus of benevolence, sound in unison their approach reciprocally nearest to benignity, as of all magical accordances, through their path benignity is sanctioned. And in truth not only the celestial to the celestial accord, but also the celestial to the earthly. [. . .] The influence consequently of the eighth circle, and also of the Moon, earth feels the greatest. Of Saturn and Mercury water, of Jove and Venus air, of Mars and Sun fire. And this agreed upon proportionate admixture of theirs, Empedocles of the Pythagoreans, who merely rightly inferred by conjecture, that matter is saved by concordant discord, by a love-relationship truly interior . (Evans Ch. 3 II:56-57, f. 201-202v)

This sexualized, though clearly metaphorical coincidence of opposites in ritual theological couples Lefèvre adopts as the primal mythopoetic scaffolding for De Magia naturali, describing that mythologized genesis of creation as “the mitigation of re-creation,” and justifying its use with the explanation “such that minds more easily understand” (Evans Ch. 7 II:67, f. 207v). Lefèvre delineates the inferior terrestrial numbers of the body and the Superior celestial numbers of the soul, forming the first binary relationship: “[. . .] primus ergo binarius.” “[. . .] the first [number] is therefore the binary .” This binary, the primal exilic metaphor of the Fall, he mythologizes as androgynous unity in the term “mons binarii,” “the mountain of the binary,” synonymous with the axis mundi or World Pillar. All other numbers emmanate from 2. (Evans Ch. 7 II:68-9, f. 207-208v)

For Christian Kabbalists, the exilic Fall from One to 2 is expressed mythologically in the story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and in Jesus’ birth as the Son of God. The final Christian salvation from exile is expressed sacrificially through Jesus’ crucifixion when he becomes Christ, the Spirit that unites God and man, completing ascension to the Trinity. Likewise, Natural Magic resolves exile through number symbolism incarnate in mythological beings. Lefèvre employs the descending and ascending chains of the numerical, celestial and angelic spheres, on which man ascends to the divine. In Chapter 10, he claims that the numbers to the mystery of the magi (magicians) and the numbers to the mystery of the prophets are the same, that this “ancient veil of theology” is in concordance with Christian theology, and that Judaic Kabbalah is not unworthy (Evans II:80, f. 213; Ch. 14 II:89, f. 217). Eugene F. Rice explains how Lefèvre relates God’s delight in the number 3, and associates the triangle with the Trinity: “From the triangle all things come; it is the beginning, middle and end. [. . .] It inspires love of justice and equity, for the equilateral triangle is the figure of aequalitas” (“The De Magia Naturali of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples” 24)

Echoing Lefèvre, what the triangle symbolizes to Boehme is described thus: “Nothing and All; Alpha and Omega, the Eternal Beginning and the Eternal End; the Trinity Unmanifest” (The ‘Key’ 56).
I saw the Being of all Beings, the Ground and the Abyss, also the birth of the Holy Trinity, the origin and the first state of the world and of all creatures. I saw in myself the three worlds—the Divine or angelic world; the dark world, the original of Nature; and the external world, as a substance spoken forth out of the two spiritual worlds . . . In my inward man I saw it well, as in a great deep; for I saw right through as into a chaos where everything lay wrapped, but I could not unfold it. Yet from time to time it opened itself within me like a growing plant. […] The work is none of mine; I am but the Lord’s instrument, with which He does what He wills. (74)

Adam’s fall is symbolized as a divorce from Sophia into two triangles, which move again towards complete union, towards “the most significant Character in all the Universe” [the hexagram] (74).
Boehme describes the Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion in Divine Marriage:

[…] the Children of Adam [. . .] are Images of GOD […] Wherefore also they are distinguished from the Angels by this peculiar Character [hexagram symbol] which is not contrived by human Speculation, but is written in the Book of Nature by the Finger of God; for it points directly, not only at the Creation of this third Principle in six Days; but also at fallen and divorced Adam’s Reunion with the Divine Virgin SOPHIA. (80)

Laurence Sterne

The importance of mathematically generated symbols—such as the triangle and the hexagram—to esoteric thought is readily communicated through satire, since the satiric genre embodies the foundation from which to generate such symbols from Ideas: the comic juxtapositions and reversals of High and low. Satirists’ construction of the coincidence of opposites centers the Holy Spirit itself as the battleground between High and low, and thus the rightful territory of satire. The Ideas and forms of number symbolism have also long been ensconced in military allegory by its practioners, whether seriously or satirically, Ephraim Chamber’s Cyclopedia cites this fact in the definition of fortification: “Some Authors go back to the Beginning of the World, for the Author and Origin of Military Architecture. According to them, GOD himself was the first Engeneer; and Paradice, or the Garden of Eden, the first Forteresse” (“Fortification” 79 U of Wisc online). Under the obsessive manipulations of Sterne’s military character Uncle Toby, the precious hexagram form is satirically distorted into a hexagon fortification, as Sterne would have seen Chamber’s “Fortification” just so illustrated.
D. W. Jefferson has pointed to the direct influence on Sterne’s Tristram Shandy of Urquhart and Motteux’s first English translation of Rabelais’ third book (Jefferson 150). Turning to The Third Book then, Neopythagoreanism, Neoplatonism and Christian Kabbalah are foundational throughout in such teachings as the significance of numbers. That significance is demonstrated through Panurge’s satirical defense of debtors:

Debts: A thing most precious and dainty, of great Use and Antiquity. Debts, (I say) surmounting the number of Syllables which may result from the Combinations of all the Consonants, with each of the Vowels heretofore projected, reckoned and calculated by the Noble Xenocrates. To judge of the perfection of Debtors by the Numerosity of their Creditors, is the readiest way for entring into the Mysteries of Practical Arithmetick. (310)

“Practical” here connotes the esoteric technique, or practice of number symbolism and numerical ascension. Reversing the mechanics of that cosmic hierarchy, Rabelais contends that Debt is the essential divine relationship rather than Love; Debt sets the universe in motion, not Love. The religious reversal is then amplified as Rabelais throws sex, and then war, into the equation. Panurge abstractly ponders the passion in his own nuptial coupling and what he concludes is the reason for the saying, “the Debt of Marriage” (Rabelais 317). Linking that chain next to a military allegory, Panurge denigrates second marriages to widows of war (320-21). Enter Sterne’s character Uncle Toby and the apparent impotence of a passionate desire, in the end, towards the Widow Wadman. Uncle Toby is obsessively practicing on his military Hobby-Horse in the central battleground of Holy Spirit. What endears this esoteric military allegory to us is that this interior territory, this love-relationship truly interior, embodies the touchstone of sacrifice. Therein is Uncle Toby’s double victory of sacrificing both passion and divine love, as demonstrated in the construction of his drawbridge:
“It turned it seems upon hinges at both ends of it, opening in the middle, one half of which turning to one side of the fosse, and the other to the other; the advantage of which was this, that by dividing the weight of the bridge into two equal portions, it impowered my uncle Toby to raise it up or let it down with the end of his crutch, and with one hand, which, as his garrison was weak, was as much as he could well spare—but the disadvantages of such a construction were insurmountable;—for by this means, he would say, I leave one half of my bridge in my enemy’s possession—and pray of what use is the other?” (Jefferson 21)

At the end of the story, after “THE INVOCATION” of Cervantes and his “mystic mantle,” I interpret that Sterne’s character Tristram recommends we sacrifice both divine love and human passion or debt:
[…] there must be ups and downs, or how the duce whould we get into vallies where Nature spreads so many tables of entertainment. […] for heaven’s and for your own sake, pay it—pay it with both hands open […]. (Sterne 571-72)

Hence, in a triangle of aequalitas, Uncle Toby’s Hobby-Horse drawbridge leverages both the camps of God and man in a spiritually redemptive sacrifice, thus securing victory. Melvyn New provides a clue to this conclusion in the Editor’s Introduction, where he describes the nature of Sterne’s sermons: “Above all, he denies the possibility of happiness or morality without religion, and asserts again and again the Providential design of the world […] from the first Adam’s fall to the second Adam’s (Christ’s) redemptive sacrifice” (xli). So I conclude that when satirists in the tradition of learned wit invert sublime intimacies through sexual and military allegory, neither an embrace nor an offense is intended, but rather complete surrender to Divine Will in love.

The telltale binary clue to Sterne’s propagation of the abstract school of thought is sounded loudly at the story’s end, where Tristram’s father’s “Bull,” lent for animal husbandry purposes to their servant, reappears. It is then that Sterne likens human progeny to such two-horned beasts as satyrs. So not only is the binary number 2 allegorized in the love-nexus between Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman, but that same dialectic of love has borne the beastly fruit of Tristram, instead of the Holy Trinity. His father Walter embodies the coincidence of opposites in that the name Walter can be traced through its manifestations as Bon Gaultier, Merry Walter, Robin Goodfellow, Puck or Pooka, and thus back to the two-horned pagan god Bucca or Boucca (“Puck Through the Ages” online; “The Boucca Society” online). By all counts, the binary Walter should have spawned the Thrice-Blessed Trismegistus as planned. Fortunately for lovers of satirical learned wit, the mere mortal Tristram was born, and along with him this “Cock and Bull” tale for our instruction and delight.

Works Cited
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http://images.library.wisc.edu/HistSciTech/EFacs//Cyclopaedia/Cyclopaedia01/XL/0795.jpg.

Jefferson, D. W. “Tristram Shandy and the Tradition of Learned Wit.” Laurence Sterne: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views. Ed. John Traugott. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. 148-167.
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http://www.boldoutlaw.com/puckrobin/puckages.html

Rabelais, François. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Tr. Sir Thomas Urquhart and Pierre Le Motteux. Intro. Terence Cave. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
—. Œuvres Complètès. L’Intégrale. Ed. Guy Demerson. Paris: Seuil, 1973.
Reuchlin, Johannes. On the Art of the Kabbalah: De Arte Cabalistica. Trans. Martin and Sarah Goodman. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1994.

Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Ed. Melvyn New and Joan New. London: Penguin, 2003.
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