Tarot and Kabbala

Huck,
Just a quick note. I did discuss the roots of the Hebrew Kabbalah in conjunction with the Christian Cabala that later became occult Qabala. I have studied the occult tradition, just not the Hebrew one. Anyway, I chose Johannes Reuchlin rather than Pico because Reuchlin is intimately connected to Agrippa (the source of the Golden Dawn Qabala, although the Hebrew alphabet placement came from Kircher). Reuchlin was in a group with Trithemius (source of John Dee's angelology). Agrippa's source of Kabbalah is Reuchlin because he lectured on Reuchlin's books. All of them were influenced by Nicholas of Cusa who gave a sermon on a German Kabbalistic book in 1430 (I think). So, there is an historical connection. Reuchlin did belong to a society of Saint Jerome.

What I have gotten from reading about early cards is: 1. the actual ordering of the trumps was flexible, and it is more important to think in groupings rather than rigid orders. 2. there is more to be discovered by looking at the pictures because they are the symbols. 3. I think that 21 and 231 are significant because (and this is my opinion) the cards are a humanist invention (not an invention of the warrior class), and these are Pythagoreans. Perhaps the extra card (22) is necessary to make 78 or the triangular number of 12. I argued with you, Huck, because I think the number of cards (not the order) is a key symbol. I don't think it is just an accident that there are 21 trumps with an extra movable card, and 78 all together.

But, I am not sure how far we can get discussing this as it is 'internal evidence' and the topic is about 'external' evidence. But I do think that if people consider the possibility of Saint Jerome and I posted some art a few links back; you can consider this as external evidence pointing toward the humanists.

kapoore said:

Huck,
Just a quick note. I did discuss the roots of the Hebrew Kabbalah in conjunction with the Christian Cabala that later became occult Qabala. I have studied the occult tradition, just not the Hebrew one. Anyway, I chose Johannes Reuchlin rather than Pico because Reuchlin is intimately connected to Agrippa (the source of the Golden Dawn Qabala, although the Hebrew alphabet placement came from Kircher). Reuchlin was in a group with Trithemius (source of John Dee's angelology). Agrippa's source of Kabbalah is Reuchlin because he lectured on Reuchlin's books. All of them were influenced by Nicholas of Cusa who gave a sermon on a German Kabbalistic book in 1430 (I think). So, there is an historical connection. Reuchlin did belong to a society of Saint Jerome.

Click to expand...

What's the source of your informations?

Addenda to 1502 in Mirandola ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=aJ...yuj-CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Bernardino

Sources.
There is a good article on Agrippa (Agrippa von nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius) in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.Stanford.edu/ I used the summary of the occult cabala from Paul Huson's book, The Mystical Origins of the Tarot pp59-64. However, the influence of Agrippa's work on the Golden Dawn system is standard knowledge. For Trithemius I used an article in the Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism by Wouter J. Hanegraaff Volume II. The article was written by Neol Braun who also wrote a book entitled, Trithemius and Magical Theology. Together these three articles give a glimpse of the relationships and the connections.

For Nicholas of Cusa's sermon that mentions the Sepher Raziel, I used Jasper Hopkins translation, Nicholas of Cusa's Early Sermons: 1430 to 1444. For insight into Hebrew Kabbalah I used: Elliot Wolfson's book Through a Speculum that Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism. I quoted also from Gershom Scholem's Origins of the Kabbalah.

For a connection between Trithemius and John Dee, I am referring to A Treatise on Angel Magic by Adam McLean. This is somewhat tentative, but I think Trithemius is a major source for occultist as he gives the Hebrew names of angels. For Kircher I refer to Ronald Decker, Thierry De Paulis, and Michael Dummet who originally discovered that Eliphas Levi's Hebrew
pattern on the Tree of Life was taken from Kircher.

After I made the Saint Jerome connection I reviewed a lot of online art from the period. Try http://www.aiwaz.net/modules.php?name=news&sid=33 If I did this link correctly you should get an article on "Secret Identity of Jerome" by David Bowman. Aiwaz also has a beautiful picture of Saint Jerome painted by Van Eyck. I think the Van eyck Saint Jerome might have been Cardinal Abergati--not sure because now I can't find it. Oh, I quoted extensively from Ronald Decker's book Art and Arcana which is based on occult Cabala and he has a lot to say about Saint Jerome.

Well ...

the meeting between Pico de Mirandola and Reuchlin was a matter of an afternoon tea or not much more, according to Ernst Bloch in a biography of Reuchlin ... a rather good and intensive book, as far I remember, about which I astonishingly find nothing in the web. Well, the book in my private library is lost, too.
Just a German student in Florence getting an audience by the better known scholar.

Reuchlin's first book about Kabbala was a beginner's book about Kabbala, plotting a talking between men from 3 different cultures, a Christian (Reuchlin himself), a Jew and an Epicurean (?). My rememberance is dark, maybe Reuchlin took the idea from somebody else (I was much younger, when I read the book, so please excuse) ... probably an author of the kabbalistic surrounding, who wrote about the talking between 3 speakers of the 3 world religions (?).

The book "The correspondence of Johann Amerbach" ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=dx...kSbz3CpWQyAT7xImXDQ&client=firefox-a#PPA61,M1

... contains interestinng details of the production situation of Reuchlin's text. Reuchlin is supported by the following persons:

* Johann von Dalberg(* 1445), bishop of Worms, wellknown as supporter of Conrad Celtis, had been as a student in Ferrara in 1476, where he became acquainted to the German humanists Agricola and Dietrich von Plieningen; later he reached, that Agricola came to Heidelberg, where he in a short time as a teacher attracted Conrad Celtis

* Wimpheling, conservatist, later the foe of Thomas Murner and a "fighting humanist"

* Sebastian Brant, a short time later author of the bestselling "Ship of the Fools"

* Trithemius, already with 21 years (in 1483) the "elected abbot" in Sponheim, a somewhat ruined cloister, where he did build up the library from 50 items to more than 2000

* Leontius, * ca. 1460, still young in 1494, monk and poet, constantly involved in the printing business

* Johann Heynlin, once a well accepted professor at the Sorbonne in Paris ("in 1469 elected rector of the university"), who had introduced the printing press in Paris and France, in 1494 already rather old and he had returned to Basel

Well, with the old man Johann Heynlin (also called Johannes de Lapide) we've the key figure of the development ... he was professor in Paris and introduced there book printing (1469). In Paris he was teacher to Johannes Reuchlin and the later printer Johann Amerbach, who is said to have appeared 1477 in Basel. The first great printing success of Amerbach became Reuchlin's Latin word book Vocabularius Breviloquus, 1475-76 ...

The story, how Reuchlin came to Paris ... Reuchlin (15 years old) had studied shortly in Freiburg im Breisgau, when he got in 1470 the mission to accompany the younger son of Charles I, Margrave of Baden, to Paris ... this younger son, 14 years old, was later (since 1496) Fredrick IV, bishop of Utrecht, a man with many wars and not much interest to his duties as bishop. The reason for the choice was his fine Latin.

Charles I himself was married to a sister of the Emperor ... a great familiary connection, but Emperor Fredrick III. behaved lazy in regard of the Empire till ca. 1475, when Burgund attacked the city of Neuss, and the Emperor with a great army intercepted. From this time on Charles and soon later his oldest son always took the military side with the Habsburgers and participated in the lucky politic of Maximilian I.

So Reuchlin had splendid chances in young years ... he started to learn Greek with Heynlin and in 1474 he went with Heynlin to Basel, probably working at his Latin wordbook. But he returned to Paris, is 1478 in Orleans and finishes his studies 1481 in Poitiers. It's curious, that Reuchlin in a time, when German-French relations after the death of Charles the Bold of Burgund had a rather bad state, were in France. Was he used as a sort of diplomat or hidden agent? 1478 the city of Orleans is the place of a council, at which the French king Louis XI is present.

......
Well ... I took (right now) some reading through some biographies, got some anger cause all the contradictions and still remember the lost Ernst Bloch biography as the best. So I stop this consideration ...

Your approach is - in my humble opinion - WRONG

1. Reuchlin's work is too young to have been of importance for the development of Tarot.

2. The "kaballistic works" of Reuchlin have a minor importance to Reuchlin - he was a "big man" and "great humanist" in other aspects. His "world importance" he got mainly through the Pfefferkorn-Reuchlin conflict as a preparation of the later reformation. Nonetheless he was before already a great man, who had started a lot of things in Germany, mainly the distribution (translations etc.) of scriptures in old languages. Especially worthful he was as a teacher in these languages.

3. The relation Reuchlin-Agrippa isn't mentioned in the biographies of Reuchlin ... maybe it was of importance and a natural one for Agrippa, but not for Reuchlin. As Reuchlin was a "great man", it was natural to Agrippa to give lectures about the scriptures of Reuchlin, especially about Reuchlin notes about Kabbala, as Agrippa regarded the Kabbala as an important topic.

Wikipedia writes to Agrippa: "In 1512, he taught at the University of Dole in France, lecturing on Johann Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico; as a result, Agrippa was denounced, behind his back, as a "Judaizing heretic."
Jews had been driven out of France in 15th century, in 1512 we have a militaric conflict in Italy, involving the Empire against France. Surely not a good time to lecture about the scripture of a German humanist about an unpleasant topic ... Agrippa was inviting trouble, especially as he had fought before in the army of Maximililian.

4. The relation of Agrippa to Trithemius is mentioned in Agrippa's book in a personal manner. As Trithemius had been a great and famous librarian (possibly this was the greatest library in Germany then) and Agrippa's work is something,which Agrippa compiled in a somehow wild manner of libraries out of many different sources, it might be concluded, that Agrippa got most of it in the library of Trithemius. Sponheim is not too far from Cologne, it's natural that Agrippa belonged to the many scholars and students, who visited this library.

5. The Sepher Raziel was relatively far spread. The author might have been Eleazar of Worms ... a German Jew. Cusanus knew it and wrote about it. Conrad Bollstatter wrote about it.
It's not necessary to see an intensive connection Cusanus-Reuchlin ... Reuchlin is too young for Cusanus. I don't know, where you find a "brotherhood of St. Jerome" ... probably you think of the "brotherhood of Common life", originated in Deventer (?).

"The Imitation of Christ (or De imitatione Christi)", by Thomas à Kempis, was a bestseller of 15th century, very farspread. "The number of counted editions exceeds 2000," says the English wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_of_Christ_(book)

Thomas à Kempis belonged to the brotherhood. A John Wessel or Johan Wessel Harmensz Gansfort of Groningen, regarded as a great early humanist and a pre-Luther-reformist had also connections ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessel_Gansfort

In some versions of Reuchlin's biographies it's assumed, that Reuchlin learnt some of his Hebrew from this man in 1475 in Basel ... this version is contradicted by other informations, according which Reuchlin learnt Hebrew in 1492 in Linz and again 1498 in Italy.

A relation of Cusanus to Deventer and the brotherhood was very natural, not really special and signifying.

No doubt, it was natural - and not very mysterious - for Reuchlin as a great humanist to know a few texts of Cusanus.

***

It has been made a lot of the both small texts of Reuchlin, which might be called kaballistic. It has been made much of the meeting between Reuchlin and Pico de Mirandola ... the talk of an tea at afternoon. There have been a lot of activities of later researchers to blow up these little things to give them a very high evalution against other things, which also took place.

... ...Trionfi.com for instance "blows up" very few and spurious sentences in 15th century to "remarkable events" in 15th century. Sure, these small sentences are important for playing card history and have their value, but it's natural to observe, that our own activity and attention around this theme creates a very special effect, which somehow is not fair to other activities in 15th century of greater importance ...

Reuchlin finally lost his process against Pfefferkorn by a judgment of Pope Leo(1420), and Pfefferkorn finally triumphed with a ...



(Illustration showing the humanist Johannes Reuchlin kneeling and wringing his hands while Johannes Pfefferkorn stands by him in a master's robes. Woodcut, Cologne 1521)

... and Reuchlin died perhaps in grieve about it (1522), though one year after Leo (died 1521), and Pfefferkorn had not much time for his triumph (died 1523).

The greater process in history became the reformation and 1527 saw the sacco di Roma.



(Reuchlin reads with double tongue from the Talmud, Pfefferkorn triumphing)


(Reuchlin, Hutten and Luther as "patron libertatis", in the middle the Cologne Dominicans with Murner as the cat "Murnar")

and here at a large picture

http://mek.niif.hu/01200/01267/html/img/nagy/07-047.jpg

Reuchlin triumphing ("Capnio" is a Latin name of Reuchlin), the lying man in the foreground is surely meant to be Pfefferkorn (?)

... and that all of the battle of the images with the "7-häuptige Papst-Tier"
http://mek.niif.hu/01200/01267/html/img/nagy/07-049.jpg

and the 7-headed Luther
http://mek.niif.hu/01200/01267/html/img/nagy/07-053.jpg

Hi Huck,
I appreciate all your research. If I have interpreted your response correctly you are saying that there are connections between these people but they may be broad and insignficant. Of course, that is always true, isn't it? We project our own agenda into the gaps in knowledge and come up with what looks like a good version of what happened. It excites us, but it might not be accurate.

Also, the source of Saint Jerome as a patron saint of intellectuals and translators does come from the Brothers of the Common Life. Reuchlin was identified with this school as was Nicholas of Cusa and the Brothers Van Eyck. Cusa may have lived for awhile in the same household as the Van Eycks who may have painted his father, sister, and Cusa himself. If we begin with the Council of Basel in 1433, we see that the hope to reform the Catholic Church on the part of the reformers had a deep connection to Brothers of the Common Life (Cusa, Van Ecyks, etc.). Cardinal Albergati conscripted Cusa into the Papal party from the Counciliar party. Albergati formed a confraternity in Bologna called Saint Jerome. For awhile Bessarion was trying to help in Bologna with the project of reform. Bessarion has a well known friendship with Cusa. The undercurrent of reform paralleled the humanist movement. So, in some cases the connections are very close. In others more of a stretch. Reuchlin could be a stretch. I grant you that.

Let's reverse the search for a moment and move to Gershom Scholem's thoughts on Reuchlin and Cusa and the Kabbalah. I quoted some of this earlier but I don't mind doing it again. Let me preface this with bringing in a complication I didn't discuss before, and that is the context in which Gershom Scholem writes about Cusa and Reuchlin which has to do with the Gerona Kabbalists copying the works of John Scotus Eriugena (9th century translator of Ps-Dionysius.) According to Scholem, Eriugena influenced Cusa, and Reuchlin mistook this for something hoary with age while it was in fact widespread Platonism of the Middle Ages. The Gerona Kabbalists in turn influenced the Spanish Kabbalists and it's Scholem's idea that some concepts between the Platonists and the Kabbalists are identifical. A modern scholar Elliot Wolfson agrees with Scholem. Here is Wolfson's note
on page 293.
"It is worth noting that a similar conception is found in the Periphyseon of John Scotus Eriugena, a text whose possbile influence on the Provencal and Geronese kabbalists, especially Azriel, has been noted in the scholarly literature." And he refers to Scholem.
I don't know who Azriel is and I have never read anything by him, but apparently he took a great deal of his information from the 9th Century Neo-Platonist John Scotus Eriugena. On page 375 of Origins of the Kabbalah Scholem discusses the connections between Eriugena and Azriel in a long paragraph that I won't quote.

That said, we move on to Reuchlin , who of course knew nothing of common sources and was working in the same tradition, while assuming that he had found the wisdom of the ages. After quoting from Azriel, Scholem writes, "It is interesting to observe that precisely the decisive sentences of this passage on the Being and the Nought were quoted without a word of polemic or criticism by Johannes Reuchlin, a great admirer of Nicholas of Cusa, in the first fairly accurate Latin acount of the Kabbalah."

So according to Gershom Scholem: l. Reuchlin made the first fairly accurate translation into Latin. 2. He was quoting those particular passages that resonated with his own notions, which were heavily influenced by Nicholas of Cusa.

Eliot Wolfson in his book agrees with Scholem that the "Neo-Platonism" of Eriugena found its way into Azriel and from there into other Kabbalists. It's a perfect example of 'like attracting like,' or perhaps 'exact attracting exact.' Reuchlin is looking unconsciously for Cusa in Azriel and finds him, but what he is really finding is Eriugena in Cusa and Eriugena in Azriel.

The rather tangled history of Eriugena, and Azriel is general knowledge--at least I have seen it on a number of websites. I don't mean to diminish the unique achievements of the Kabbalists who added a distinctiveness to this material that has popularized it far beyond poor Eriugena. But let us not forget Eriugena either who has been called the loneliest man in civilization, and up until something like 1970 was still on the banned book list. Now that he is no longer banned I guess more scholars are taking an interest.

Agrippa's connection to Reuchlin is well documented in the essay in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. This is available online. These articles are written by respectable scholars that are experts in the field. I use them because frankly I can barely get through any of Agrippa's writing. The Reuchlin/Agrippa connection is described in this article.

Now as to the influence of Agrippa on the Golden Dawn and later occultist, I can only say. That was my impression. If you have contradictory evidence I welcome it.

I thank you, Huck, for your efforts. I am no expert, but am in the process of trying to make connections between occult Tarot of the occult revivals and its possible roots in the Renaissance.

hi Kappore,

My own major point was point 1:

"1. Reuchlin's work is too young to have been of importance for the development of Tarot."

With my other reflections I tried to understand and to evaluate your arguments.

For Cusanus ... a sort of "education in Deventer" is assumed (as I've read), but not proven ... documentary evidence of Cusanus' life till he was 16 year is not given. Later he studied in Cologne ... surely there were "influences of Deventer" already in the city. The order indeed had chosen an orientation towards Jerome AND Gregor, both fathers of the Latin Church ... is this unusual?

The way, in which you argument about the matter gives the impression, that you see something like the work of a "secret society" ... but all, what happens is just the common walk of the period of the renaissance. The older education system before the development of the cities had to be reformed according the changes in society. So education transformed from the older scholastic models to more open systems. The Deventer model is such an attempt, a combination of monks and free members as teachers ... it comes from the region of Burgundy, and all what we know about Burgundy in this period is, that it is on a grandious way of expansion till the end of Charles the Bold in 1477. So the Deventer model is ALSO successful and expanding, such parallels are not unusual.
The jump from Burgundy to the region of Cologne isn't also unusual, earlier the Beghines .
The whole movement is also known by another term, "devotio moderna" ... which I found, when I searched your "Albergati founding a Jerome order in Bologna".

"By the time of Albergati's first contact with the company in 1417, its members were constructing an oratory and were engaged in a campaign to bring other young people away from taverns and gaming tables and instructing them in the Christian life. Albergati organized into a confraternity under the title of St. Jerome, and gave direction to its teaching activity by writing a catechism textbook; the frontispice to the first groups (ca. 1425-33) shows St. Jerome enthroned and the young lay brothers around his feet teaching little children."

http://books.google.com/books?id=9z...=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#PPA21,M1

Click to expand...

The footnote at the page raises some doubts, what Albergati really did .. interestingly the group later organized sacre rappresentatione (in 1482 a textbook was written which contained 23 different shows) ...

Well, and what really interests is the parallel to San Bernardino, who preached 1423 in Bologna against playing cards.
Albergati goes a similar way (getting the boys away from the playing table) and if you think about it, you should see, that the idea, that we find here the origin of some Tarot cards, is somehow a little far off the direction.

Nonetheless an interesting detail, thank you. Ross should be enjoyed about it.

Gutenberg and Jerome ... Gutenberg opened his bible with a preface of Jerome. Are there other connections, that you see? I would think, that there is not too much known about the personal circumstances of Gutenberg.

Reuchlin isn't a man from Deventer or a related school ... maybe he met John Wessel or not, there are not much biographies, who relate this story.

For Erigena and Azriel ... it's common, that Neoplatonism of 2nd/3rd century century AD influenced kaballistic/Jewish AND Christian renaissance background.

I guess, this is the passsage, you refer to...
http://books.google.com/books?id=Tm...&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=26#PPA375,M1
... which also includes, that Scholem took Reuchlin as an admirer of Cusanus (Cusanus was probably the only German cardinal in 15th century and very successful ... how could Reuchlin not admire him?)

Scholem makes there a complex conclusion on a topic, which is rather difficult ... I remember to have seen a Ferrarese text from ca. 1450 which wishes to tell something about Prima Causa and Primo Mobile ... and it was totally boring and more or less not understandable, what the author wanted to say and what he wanted not to say and why he repeated himself constantly and not only once.
And texts from Cusanus, as far I know them, are similar, especially when he wishes to talk about philosophical topics.

I've a lot of respect for Gerschom Scholem, but I'm not sure, if I should be interested to follow his argumentation here - not, cause I really think, that he's necessarily wrong.

I wrote:

"Cusanus was probably the only German cardinal in 15th century and very successful ... how could Reuchlin not admire him?"

I've to correct myself. There were these cardinals from German countries:

1408-1410 Matthäus von Krakau, bishop of Worms, ambassador of Robert, king of the Romans (elected by Pope Gregory XII)
1426-1430 Johann von Bucka, Prag
1440-1469 Peter von Schaumberg, bishop of Augsburg, Germany, elected by counter-pope Felix V.
1440-1452 Johann Grünwalder, vicar general of Freising, elected by counter-pope Felix V., born in Munich
1448-1464 Cusanus
1460-1466 Burkhard Weisbriach, archbishop of Salzburg, Austria
1462-1464 Johann von Eych, bishop of Eichstätt, Bavaria, born in Thüringen
1477-1482 Georg Hesler, protonotary apostolic, counselor of Emperor Friedrich, born in Würzburg
1503-1509 Melchior von Meckau, bishop of Brixen, Tyrol ... born in Meissen

Counted between 1395 - 1503, 9 names from totally 261 (about 3.5 %) ... 261 = 198 cardinals and 63 socalled pseudocardinals

... a number, which somehow tells the story, why the reformation started in Germany, also why Burgundy became great with lay orders

http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/consistories-xv.htm

text of Reuchlin, translated

http://books.google.com/books?id=YSBz8tU2yPgC&printsec=frontcover&client=firefox-a#PPA41,M1

Hi Huck,
Thanks for the translation on Reuchlin's The Art of Kabbalah. According to the article on Agrippa in the Stanford Encyclopedia it was Reuchlin's first book, "De Verbo Mirifico" where Agrippa obtained his Kabbalah. This book does not seem to be translated into English. However, even if it were translated I am not capable of comparing Agrippa's text to that text to find the influence. This is why I have relied on the scholars in the field for this info.

Anyway, I did read The Art of Kabbalah and will offer my own impressionistic comments.
1. Simon's comments (which I assume are the direct Kabbalistic translations) refer to Azariel Bar Salomon of Gerone. I assumed, then, that this was the text of Aziel to which Gershom Sholem referred to in connection with Reuchlin.
2. At one point Simon mentions, "taking in all the branches of knowledge in Arabic, Greek, and Latin texts." At the same time he describes this as mathematical having to do with "all numbers, weight, & measure." I think this is a key phrase. Here he is not referring to Torah but to a book in the Catholic Bible, Wisdom 11:21. This book remained apocryphal to Jews. Perhaps this explains why it is related to foreign texts. In this case, Latin (the Vulgate) Bible. (Of course, it is also in the Septuagint, or the Greek Bible as well; but let's assume these guys knew Latin and not Greek since they were living in northern Spain). This particular phrase is key to the Neo-Platonic tradition of the Medieval Latins because they Pythagorized it to mean number as arithmetic, weight as musical ratio, and measure as geometry. This same phrase is quoted and explicated by Cusa, by Kircher, and even by the Protestant Robert Fludd.
3. Beginning on page 69 there is an extended discussion of the Fall of Adam and Eve from Paradise. This is preceded by a few dropped hints on symbolism as the way upward to re-union with God and seeing God face to face. I have read few of the Kabbalistic texts, but the topic of Adam and Eve is a favorite theme. In fact, a lot of the so called "sex magic" of the Kabbalah centers around these themes. Here the Kabbalistic representative, Simon, denies that there is sexual connotation in the Kabbalah of the sordid kind; but he admits that Adam and Eve being young and vigorous were naturally desirous. The interesting part, though, centers around the pivotal Biblical quote, " And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life.." Genesis 3:22.

As it turns out this phrase of Genesis was also taken up in the exact same manner by Augustine in De Genesi ad litteram, and particularly in John Scotus Eriugena. I am using as my source here Donald F. Duclow's 2006 collection of essays on the Platonic tradition, Masters of Learned Ignorance: Eriugena, Eckhart, Cusanus.

Augustine writes, "The tree of life planted in the middle of paradise signifies the wisdom by which the soul should understand that it is ordered in a certain middle range of things." Similarly the tree of knowledge grows in the center of paradise and also, " signifies the mid-rank of the soul." pp 91 Anyone versed in Neo-Platonism understands the mid-rank of the soul between the animal nature and the spiritual nature--soul being the connection. The Platonists called the middle section the "rational soul."

According to the book Masters of Learned Ignorance, Augustine switches positions on this later on, but this is taken up by Eriugena and given a very strange twist. Eriugena gives three views of Paradise. One is "exclusively corporal," another is "purely spiritual," and the other is "corporal and spiritual" Using one of the more symbolic phases of Augustine he begins with "Man is driven out of paradise into this world, that is, out of eternity into time...from an intelligible good to a sensible good." Again, if a reader is at all versed in the language of Neo-Platonism this is familiar territory. Somehow we have shifted away from Genesis into the symbolic universe.

Eriugena is a symbolist, and he finds a way of interpreting this phrase "to reach out one's hand.." as not the expulsion but the return and deification. He writes in Periphyseon, "It may be that he will put forth his hand, that is, stretch his zeal for good conduct by practicing the virtues, so that he may take of the fruit of the Tree of Life, which is the spiritual Gifts of the Word of God, and eat the food of pure contemplation, by virtue of which he shall live forever and never revert to the poverty of temporal things, which shall perish altogether at the end of the world, but pass wholly into God and be One with Him. " The tree of life, then, becomes not a symbol of the curse but a promise of reunification. Since paradise exists in eternity it is timeless and there is no beginning, middle, or end. In other words, it resembles the "Ever Present Origin" that is accessible through ascent to the One.

Reuchlin could have "read" all this into the parts of the Azriel texts he is quoting here; but according to Gershom Scholem enough was there already. And Eliot Wolfson agrees with him. I won't here quote more on Wolfson because again it gets very long and complicated; but you get the idea.

My thought is that with Reuchlin we are working within the tradition of Cusa, even though supposedly Reuchlin preferred the Bible and the Kabbalah to the works of Proclus. Another point that is worth mentioning is the attempt to make the Kabbalah equal in its Pythagorean content to that of the Platonists because he claims he is finding the Pythagorean roots in the Hebrew tradition. This is interesting for two reasons. l. He is thinking in terms of an audience that is from that tradition and hoping to justify the Hebrew tradition to them based on its excellence in Pythagorean knowledge. 2. He performs a syncreticism between the deep roots of 11:21 and the Kabbalah and thus sanctifies this whole body of NeoPlatonism related to Plato's Timaeus with the Kabbalah.

Kitty Ferguson in her book, The Music of Pythagoras, writes "Johann Reuchlin, a German humanist, set out to combine the study of Hebrew, Greek, theology, philosophy, and the Cabala, and to link it all with the name of Pythagoras. He wrote to Pope Leo X that, just as Ficino had so admirably done for Plato in Italy, he would "complete the work with the rebirth of Pythagoras in Germany." He rationalized the connection with the Cabala by drawing attention to the (questionable) fact that "the philosophy of Pythagoras was drawn from the teachings of Chaldean science." Obviously Kitty Ferguson the modern Pythagorean doesn't buy into this connection.

But I think here we have something that begins to have the feeling of the occult sciences--a syncretisim of Cabala into the Platonism and the Pythagorean material. Agrippa obviously builds on this syncretisim by gathering together material from ancient sources including the Chaldeans, the Arabs, and the angelogy of his mentor Trithemius.