Christian Knorr von Rosenroth was the son of a protestant
minister from Selesia. During his travells around Europe he came
into contact with, and was deeply influenced by, the writings of Jacob
Boehme. For the last 21 years of his life he was a close
adviser to a Bavarian prince. Christian August, wo shared his mystical
interests. He was also in touch with the Cambridge philosopher Henry
More and the Belgian mystic Franciscus Mercurius Van Helmont. He
was an inspired religious poet, interested in Christian
mysticism, and also developed an interest in Kabbalah,
and aquired manuscript copies of Lurianic
material. On the basis of all this he wrote The Kabbalah Denudata
(The Kabbalah Uncovered), the first translation of the Zohar
into Latin. "Hermetic"
or "Magical" Kabbalah (Qabalah),
concerning which so many books are available in esoteric bookshops at present,
is strongly based on the Mather's
translation into English (with commentaries) of Rosenroth's book.
The Theosophy of Blavatsky
likewise shows connections here, due to Blavatsky's drawing on Mathers
for Kabbalah.
Kabbalah main page
images not loading? | broken links? | suggestions? | criticism?
contact me
page history
page uploaded 11 November 1998
modified 9 March 2000
