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The tradition of Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah has experienced a resurgence in recent years, with celebrities including David Beckham and Madonna promoting the fashionable Kabbalah Centre, though the Centre itself has come under criticism for its cult-like character. Scientists of the past have taken the Kabbalah seriously, particularly in the 17th century when Locke and Leibniz studied it and Newton rejected it. The original Kabbalah was formulated in the medieval period in the text known as the Zohar, though Kabbalists claim that its origins lie much earlier. In Renaissance Florence under Lorenzo di Medici, the Kabbalah was embraced by Christians and renamed the Cabbala. This second strand of Christian mysticism, popularised by Pico della Mirandola, influenced Milton and Marlowe in Paradise Lost and Dr Faustus, and ultimately resulted in the infamous practices of the 20th century magician Aleister Crowley. This book aims to describe and untangle the various thread of Kabbalistic thought from the earliest times. The essence of Kabbalah is to understand how the divine will created and maintains the universe, drawing closer to the unknowable source. The author traces the origins of the Kabbalah to the visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah and the Talmud, the Palace literature of the 5th to 7th centuries, the figure of Metatron, the legendary scholar Aaron of Baghdad, the dualism of the Cathars and the influence of Moses of Leon and Castile. When the Zohar was written, the ten forces of the sefirot were given new, higher functions to explain the cosmic drama of the En-Sof, the source of sources. The author's comprehensive approach to the subject culminates in the Occult revival, including the Order of the Golden Dawn and New Age mysticism of the 20th century. 278pp, colour reproductions.