Customer Reviews

Keys to the Kingdom: Jesus & the Mystic Kabbalah

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

To start I think the figure of Jesus is an important one. The author reveals the historical Jesus as the human, not as God but as the messenger, prophet and teacher of God. The way she writes is very informative and develops theories, some of them very truthful and others very doubtful... like the one about the cross or the theories about the apostle John..., but it was worth it to read and have an open mind on her opinion.

On the positive and valuable side... The analysis of the ten commandments, Jesus teachings and the tree of life are amazing. The way she develops some rituals are very inspiring and interesting. I will definatly try it. I have to admit that section about Jesus teachings and the tree of life are the best... I have read many much more other books of kabbalah and this one stand out.

To anyone looking for a kabbalah with an Jesus perspective I have to recommend it. This book proves Jesus was in fact a kabalistic rabbi with divine light to the world and the Son of God. An informative book good to read.

I bought this book few weeks ago because of the reviews I read. Once I received the book, it turned out to be exactly what was said about it. The author is incredibly thorough. You wonder some times. Other times, you have no choice but to admit she is right because of the logic that follows her reasoning. This book is not for young believers. Closed mind Christians. It will rock your bought if you can rightfully divide your Bible. It will rock your thought if you can "postpone" your belief for a moment and "listen" to what this book has to say. For instance, she ask the question" Could The Holy Spirit" actually be a woman? The curious thing after I read this book is that it made me love even more my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Truly, Jesus IS LORD!
Dr. Israel King, Ph.D. Author of How To Keep A Man

absolute awesome this book expresses ideas that r far out possiablities of what we've been "taught" however lends truth in these new ideas. it is easy to read, takes an attuned mind & sprit to grasp somethings, however there r plenty enuf nuggets in this book that no matter where u r in the growth u WILL gleen much from this. it is well written she does a superb job in expressing herself. its a must read dont pass up this jewel.

In reading this book I found it very similar to the Kabbalah for the Modern World by the same author, here in this book she has simplified the reading and made the ideas of Kabbalah appear more interesting. I have recommended this book to one of my students who learns Kabbalah from me.
I would say without a doubt that this book coupled with Kabbalah for the Modern World will be far and away the two best books to learn Kabbalah from.

I picked this book up at a local Wiccan shop. This book was the catalyst (among others along the way) that helped move me away from looking at Jesus as a savior and towards looking at him as a wise man, great teacher, and preacher of a great message. This book takes a look at who Jesus was, what he did in his life, and what happened when he died. At least the first 2 or 3 chapters do.

After that, the author launched into the Qabalah, and what Jesus has to do with it. This book was my first introduction to the Qabalah, and it is great for any Christians who may want to learn more about the Qabalah. Don't be alarmed by my story of how this book helped me move away from Christ as a savior, that was happening anyway thanks to other events in my life. There are many reviewers below me who can attest that this book actually helped strengthen their faith in Christ (the author herself remains a devout Catholic). What this book helped me do is to take Christ off the savior platform, look at him as a wise man/teacher, and see that that is fine! It is his message of Qabalistic teachings that is important, not the fact that he died. And that, my friends, is the whole point of the book. It focuses on Christ's teachings, so that whether or not you think he is a savior, you can appreciate what he taught.

Save your money, this writer is a self described "expert" on kabballah, santeria, voodoo, etc. If it is a "fringe" belief of an accepted religion, she has written a book about it. All with the expertise of a phoney out to make a quick buck by claiming to be an authority on the subject.

What I see here is the product of a woman having a mid-life identity crisis trying to profit from her softy liberal arts education in 'cultural anthropology' and subsequently having some kind of manic pretentious insight into the metaphysical/philosophical concepts of God and Truth as the scientific(or rather 'information gathering') nature of her profession clashes with her own personal faith. I hate how her other books on santeria and various ritual/magic(k) are presented as if she is an adept or something when really she is just an outside observer with only introductory knowledge and curiosity. She is like a lot of people in the information age, actually LEARNING about the world and the depths of her own heritage and other's instead of getting one spoonfed-shoved-down-the-throat-without-question cultural experience that tells us to hate or ignore everyone else different. This kind of self-discovery is good on an individual level but it turns into crackpottery disinformation when people get confused then manic and feel like they harbor some secret knowledge that they feel the need to share and deserve money for.

It's obvious in this book she is questioning the many nuances; mainly the divide between christians and jews and her culturally enforced literal interpretation of the Bible. This is where the book starts out; with her realization that judaism and christianity have the same roots, but are divided at the New Testament/Torah, Mosaic Code, etc. Then her frustration at not being able to understand it within her own christian religious realm and wondering 'whose side Jesus is on' shows up. Later, and throughout the book, her perception starts to rationalize and direct her own personal cosmology to what she wants to believe. She, like a LOT of people out there take for face value the BS interpolated 'historicity' of Jesus and The Bible movement that started in the 19th century, involving characters such as Flavius Josephus. She applies this perception to the vagueness of the oral myths, 'miracles' and unsure identities, nonexistent locations, etc. within the Bible using terms such as, 'obviously', 'ofcourse', 'intended', 'must have been', etc... For example, she takes at face value the supposed dreams of Constantine's as proof of a Jesus.

This kind of thinking leads us to many odd theories and useless conjectures as she slowly wads through the Kabbalah and mixes Jungian psychology with occultism, fundamentalism, binary, taoism and I can't remember what else... and have almost forgotten the point of this book! O, yeah, it's about some ultra-secret key to The Kingdom, whatever that is... The conclusion of the book consists of two perforated-sealed pages on the 'Secret Message' and 'The Ultimate Key', a driveling pretentiously deluded mental ejaculation comparing a person's existence to binary numbers: 101. The 'soul' being an observer '0' stuck in a material world with 'God' being 1. She comes to the realization that existence itself is 'God' and if only the reader were to use ritual and focus on this concept using their own will then they can create anything they want. The author's paranoid reason for sealing these pages is so the reader won't mindlessly flip through the book finding 'the ultimate secret' because the only way to understand it would to read her previous drivel leading up to it.

I think Terrence McKenna did a better job connoting Taoism with binary... This is basically a new age clusterf*** disinformation rehash of mysticism from someone who is obviously unaware of the mysticism/gnostic/mythical origins of ALL religions(and shamefully so for a 'cultural anthropologist') and is just coming to that realization, however manic. I'm afraid that it will be perceived as 'insightful' to all those religious sheep out there; instigating their own 40 day trip 'into the wilderness' of hilarious religious mania. But maybe thats the only way for people to truly understand the essentially cosmological/mathematical concepts behind the Kabbalah, etc. and loose their unnecessary fundamental literal interpretations of their religions. That, or they will completely avoid this drivel and see it as 'devil stuff'; either way, contributing to the disinfo and balkanization of society.

This book is a great read. Yes, the author does not regard the death of Jesus on the cross to be of great importance. She arguments well for this. And I agree with her on that one.

The issue I have with her color theory, is that she confuse additive and subtractive color blending. As a Graphic Design student I get annoyed by it, but it's really just a minor flaw.

What's a lot more striking is that she use a LOT of theories, originating from the legendary Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn (tables of correspondences to the then sephira on the tree of life). Those theories where finalized by no less than Mr. 666: Aleister Crowley, in Liber 777. Somehow weird to base a book about christian kabbalah, on stuff originally introduced by Aleister Crowley...

This is not a book for the average christian. If you agree with the theology of "The Da Vinci Code" you will love this book. The author reaches up into heaven, and pulls Yeshua (Jesus) off of the throne, and makes him only a man. She has him being married, being the father of the apostles John and James (because rabbis had to be married, and the father of a son, according to Hebrew tradition...which Yeshua seldom followed!), and surviving his crucifixion. It is an interesting read, it gives much information about the various aspects of each sephirah, but I disagreed with much of the "christian" part.

If we are even to consider the existence of Jesus and assuming everything he ever said was true, then his words on being dead for 3 days and then being resurrected to life again are also true! Paul confirms this when he said that if Jesus was not actually resurrected then his entire mission is futile and our belief in him is useless.
Personally, I'm not attacking this book, but I am inviting the author to consider something. If Jesus was enlightened to such a level that he could bring back to life Lazarus, that he could heal people, that he could walk on water and so forth, perhaps it wasn't that difficult for him to be resurrected as well. Which also fulfills his mission as well as the prophecies. Unless of course the author is attempting to put Jesus in exact category as I mentioned above, the not resurrected, the failing in his mission messiah. We first need to bring our attention to the reason Jesus was even born into this world. Why did he die and why is it important that he was in fact resurrected? The bible says that he was beaten so badly that it was hard to tell if he was even a human being. He bled terribly all the time he was beaten and the entire time he was hanging on the cross, pierced in his feet and hands and then finally pierced with a sword. The author attempted to justify from a medical point of view how he could have survived the crucifixion, but failed miserably because her justifications do not come in agreements with many experienced in medical fields. Jesus was dead and buried. The disciples saw him the way he was when he died, but didn't recognize him when he was resurrected because, as is stated in the bible, his body was renewed and he was in fact giving a completely new body. So if we to ignore all of this, and the reason behind the resurrection, then why even bother to follow Jesus? He is not dead, but alive. If some of us have hard time grasping that in our minds, or believing that he could have been taken alive to heaven, then perhaps the story of Elijah was also untrue and may be the rest of the bible is not either. We have to judge for ourselves, not to take into considerations opinions of people so desperately trying to prove Jesus and his mission different from what they are.