Kaballah in Sweden.pdf

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Thomas Karlsson

Kabbalah in Sweden

uring the late autumn 1613 Gustav II Adolf and Johannes Bureus

were travelling through Sweden to organize the new printing of the

Bible. When, on December 5, they found themselves in Tuna in Dalarna,

Bureus was overwhelmed by what he has described as ‘a moment of

excitement’. The time was 6.22 in the morning and Bureus heard a voice

singing ‘RIVos IaM CLaVDe pVer sat prata bIberVnt’, ‘Close up the

streams young boy, because the meadows have drunk themselves full’.

In these words the Roman numerals for 1673 are hidden, and Bureus

interpreted this to mean that the world was to end that year.

What took place in 1613 would forever influence Bureus, and after

the experience in Dalarna he was to take on the role as one initiated into

the mysteries, a prophet in the midst of a world of the blind.

At this stage in his career, Bureus was inclined to have mystical ex-

periences; for several years he had studied esoteric teachings such as as-

trology, magic and Kabbalah. From his diary entries we find out that he

‘began to enjoy the Kabbalah’ in 1591 when he was reading the magical

text

Arbatel.

During his life, Bureus developed his own esoteric system

centred on the runes, but based on the structure of the Kabbalah. He

referred to this system as a Nordic Kabbalah.

Johannes Bureus and the Nordic Kabbalah

Johan Bure (1568–1652) or Johannes Bureus, the name under which he is

mainly known, is the most important non-Jewish Swedish Kabbalist. In

Bureus’s work older Gothicism along with runic and linguistic research

blended with his strong interest in all forms of esotericism: astrology,

magic, alchemy and above all the Kabbalah. Bureus would re-interpret

the Gothic myths so that they would not merely accentuate the history

of Sweden, but also be an individual path of illumination. The work of

Johannes Bureus was pivotal for the birth of Swedish grammar, but he

was also a great pioneer in runology and he was the one who re-created

abbalah

weden

the idea of the Gothic according to a very personal philosophy. Bureus

believed that Christianity and the Latin language had been too domin-

ant and thus made the runes seem insignificant; he therefore wanted

to attempt to reinstate them and create a general awareness of them.

He published a runic ABC book, but one of his most important accom-

plishments was his extensive mapping of rune stones. He charted 663

rune stones, which is about a fourth of all the rune stones known today.

Johannes Bureus developed a runology that was rooted in linguistics, but

that also incorporated deep esoteric speculations. Bureus, who lived in

Uppsala, was inspired by, among others, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Reuchlin

and other great names of occultism. Through a comparison with the

Kabbalah, he was convinced that the runes had different dimensions;

they were signs for writing, but also esoteric and magical symbols. He

created a Gothic Kabbalah that he referred to as ‘Kabala Upsalica’. The

secret dimension of the runes he called

Adul

runes or ‘Adel’ runes. Ad-

ditionally, he constructed a symbol that he named

Adulruna

and which

contained the fifteen

Adul

runes. This symbol has certain similarities to

the

Monas Hieroglyphica

of John Dee, which contains all the symbols for

the planets. Bureus’s

Adulruna

is a map of the universe and the progres-

sion of mankind through various layers of existence. The

Adulruna

acts

as both a symbol of man and of the universe; it describes both the micro-

cosmos and the macro-cosmos. Bureus’s most important esoteric text is

also called

Adulruna Rediviva:

the

Adulruna

resurrected.

Two symbols constitute the foundation of Bureus’s esoteric universe:

the first is the

Adulruna,

the second is the rune cross. The vertical rune

row of the cross is one of the most important parts of Bureus’s system;

these runes illustrate a seven-step initiatory process that can move up-

ward (ascensus) and downward (descensus). Bureus explains that the Son

of God descends and is born as a man following this path, but that he

also ascends to heaven through the very same path. The task of the

Adul

runic disciple is to advance from the first rune, Byrghal, to the high-

est level symbolised by the Thors rune. The mediator in this process

is Christ (who is equated with Odin). In the

Cabbalistica

this sevenfold

path of initiation recurs in several versions. It is, for example, associated

with the alchemical process with its seven stages to the elixir.

In his

Antiquitates Scanziana,

Bureus reveals how the seven runes de-

scribe the steps taken by Christ as a saviour, from conception to resur-

rection and his ascent up to God. Bureus illustrates how the goal of the

disciple is to reunite Byrghal and Thors, man and God. This is not a

complete melding into God though, since man retains his individual

characteristics as is evident in the shape of Byrghal, but rather causes his

homaS

arlSSon

characteristics to reach a higher level. The symbol of Byrghal and Thors

united appears in several different variations, but in

Adulruna Rediviva

Bureus draws a special version that ‘reveals the immeasurable force that

those can reach, those who are united with God’.

Pivotal to Bureus’s mysticism is the

Adul

Rune symbol from which

the fifteen runes originate, a symbol that he named the treasure cham-

ber of the

Adul

Rune in which ‘the holiest names of the Creator are

revealed’. It has the form of a solar cross with three concentric rings.

The two outer rings are geometrical circles, while the inner ring has the

shape of a heart. The heart consists of a half circle below and a split cir-

cle above with its halves on top of the outer half circle in the shape of a B

lying on its side. From the other ring and inwards there is a cross which

creates the pivotal Haghal rune. Hence the

Adul

rune symbol consists of

a cross, an x and three rings that correspond to three levels of existence.

As Dr Susanna Åkerman has shown, Bureus was also influenced by the

Monas Hieroglyphica

by John Dee, which in the same way is a universal

symbol, which in itself contains other symbols, such as the planetary

signs (Åkerman 2000). All fifteen runes can be found in the

Adulruna,

and Bureus has a meticulous system for how to go about this procedure.

The first group of five runes, the birth

Femt

(fifth), is mainly found in

the outer parts of the

Adulruna

and the outermost ring. The birth

Femt

corresponds to God, the Father, the Creator and the one who gives birth.

These runes, after having been extracted from the

Adulruna,

are the five

largest in size as compared to the other ten runes. The next group, the

birth

Femt,

corresponds to the mediator. These runes are found within

the outer circle and inside the middle circle and these are smaller than

the first five runes. The last group, the embryo

Femt,

are found within the

middle circle and inside the heart. These last five runes are the smallest

of all. Among these runes is the rune of matter and duality, Byrghal, and

this last

Femt

corresponds to the plane of matter and the physical body.

At the birth of Gothic Runology during the period of the Swedish

Great Epoch, something of a revival of the runes took place. They were

used among many Swedish officers during the Thirty Years War to en-

code messages. What is singular about the Gothic Runology of Bureus

is that the runes are not merely ancient signs of writing, and proof of

the literary qualities of the ancient Norsemen, but above all symbols of

an individual path of initiation and illumination, in which the follower

obtains contact with God. The esoteric runic research of Bureus also be-

came famous outside Sweden and he was visited by several guests from

distant countries who wished to study the secrets of the

Adul-runes.

his deathbed, Bureus explained that it was his research in mysticism

abbalah

weden

that he was most proud of, even if he had also made great contributions

within linguistic research.

The great influence of Johannes Bureus on his contemporary age

and the intellectual climate of Sweden during the Epoch of Great Power

make it possible, or even probable, that he paved the way for a Swedish

initiatory esotericism at a later date. In those cases in which we can iden-

tify distinctive Swedish features within Swedish Freemasonry during

the eighteenth century, it is most likely that we can trace some of these

features back to Johannes Bureus.

The Swedish Kabbalah after Bureus

Even if very few Swedes studied and wrote about the Kabbalah in as

dedicated and personal a way as Bureus did, there was still significant

interest in Kabbalistic ideas. During the eighteenth century mysticism

flourished alongside ideas of the Enlightenment and scientific progress.

Freemasonry and Swedenborgianism grew and attracted well-estab-

lished and erudite individuals in society who viewed their occult ex-

periments as scientific. Spiritism, Animal Magnetism and Divination

fascinated the bourgeois, nobility and even kings (Ojas 2000: 280). The

Count and man of state Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm (1756–1813) was a

significant character in esoteric circles in Sweden during this time. He

exerted a vital influence on Swedish politics during the time when

Gustaf IV Adolf was declared incapacitated 1792–6, and has been de-

scribed as something of a charlatan (Bogdan 2005: 1). Reuterholm’s pol-

itical power was strengthened due to the fact that he was a close ally to

Duke Karl. Additionally, they were both Freemasons. They also shared

an extensive occult interest and the library of Reuterholm contains sev-

eral Kabbalistic texts. The collection is now part of the Swedish Library

of the Freemasonic Order in Stockholm. Among these texts we can find

Cabbalisternas stora och Hemliga Problem,

which describes the numerologic-

al aspects of Creation,

Konung Salmonos Semiphoras och Schemhamphoras,

which conveys the holy and secret names of God and

De Cabala Sancta

(About the Sacred Kabbalah), which describes the ten Sephiroth. The

text

Reflextioner om Cabbalen och Inledningen

tells of the mythical origin of

the Kabbalah and the significance of Hebrew in Kabbalah:

The Cabalists believe that everything has its true name, through the

interconnection and pronunciation of which they can achieve great

things. . . . This is something that reveals the pre-eminence of the

homaS

arlSSon

Hebrew language. The effects are more significant, since the words

that they employ, express either the name of God, or its perfection

and emanations.

A Captain of the Navy, Henrik Gustaf Ulfvenclou, was a reputed spirit

conjurer in the 1780s. He was part of the most intimate esoteric circle of

Duke Karl, and the Duke reveals in a letter to the King that in Ulfvenclou

had he encountered ‘. . . a man rather enlightened in the higher sciences

and secrets’, and that he had contributed to the Duke’s experience ‘. . .

that the light is stronger than any power of man can endure’, and that

he had now seen spirits (Forsstrand 1913: 113). Ulfvenclou was well in-

formed in the occult arts such as astrology, chiromancy and geomancy

and he was very interested in the Kabbalah. During his stay with the

Duke, Ulfvenclou persuaded him that he was in contact with all kinds of

spirits and that he had forced the spirit of the Widow Queen into a bottle,

which he had ‘sealed with the wondrous seal of Solomon’ (Forsstrand

1913: 116). In a letter to his friend Carl Göran Bonde, Ulfvenclou includes

two magical pentacles and describes how his friend shall be able to com-

municate with the holy guardian angel. He signed the letter Chæremon,

a name he had received on February 11, 1796 at 10 in the evening, when

he ‘all of a sudden gained his first ordination from the Lord’s angels and

was given the keys of nature, mercy and all power in the presence of the

witnesses Gabriel, Uriel, Razil and others’ (Forsstrand 1913: 134).

At this time there also existed an order bearing the Kabbalistic name

Metatron. This name has been the subject of numerous speculations

among the Kabbalists. It is often the name of an angel that is associ-

ated with either the lowest or the highest Sephirah on the Tree of Life.

According to one tradition, God took the patriarch Enoch from earth

and turned him into the angel Metatron. Metatron is also linked to the

heavenly writer who holds God’s archive (Scholem 1996: 132). Through

a newspaper advertisement in the spring of 1781, the previously un-

known order proclaimed its existence and declared that it wished to

make public ‘the high purpose and history of the society’ (Häll 1995:

121). They claimed that the society had been in existence for forty years,

and that they, among other things, had engaged in charity. There was no

use applying for membership, since they chose their members through

physiognomy, a method that analysed man by the appearance of his

face. The order claimed to keep their eyes out all over Sweden, but es-

pecially in Stockholm, to identify proper candidates. The Grand Master

of Metatron has left behind several valuable manuscripts; one, entitled

Blick der unbekanten gloria,

was the foundation of the order.

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