Moreno a kabbalist?
CGayle
cgayle at zipcon.com
Wed Jan 2 23:53:09 CST 2008
I have spent last 6 months reading some traditional sources, in English, from Kabbalah, on top of years being exposed to it on other levels. I am now in the process of re-reading Moreno on his concepts of spirituality and psychodrama. Both for a paper I am working on in field of spiritual direction.
My take on it, is it is semantics.
I would call Moreno a mystic. I would not call him a Kabbalist, only in that that term is usually used for scholars, teachers or writers of Kabbalah texts. Although, Moreno's mystic sensitivities tapped him into similar understandings found in Kabbalah. I doubt he had studied these concepts much beyond his youth b/c from writings I have read, it does not appear that he realized the connections of his insights to traditional mystical Judaism. I say this b/c so much of his writings are critiquing religion, including Judaism, as not understanding such concepts, and his passionate introduction of concepts, such as being co-creators with God, Divine creative process, God being within us, God constantly still creating at every moment, etc...all of which are part of Kabbalah. I think his "discoveries" were sincere. And that he was tapping into mystical knowledge. Kabbalah means "receiving" and he had antenna out and was receiving! He did care not just about the material world but how that taps into spiritual realities, and vice versa. He wanted a spiritual (he called, religious) revolution.
I have suspected that he may have a genetic connection to Kabbalists in his ancestry...far beyond what has been recorded or known. He could have links back centuries to Kabbalists in Spain (b/c of his Sephardic ancestry), and he could have been tapping into that morphic resonance on top of his intelligence, talents, mysticism, and spontaneity/creativity.
Cynthia Gayle
----- Original Message -----
From: thana ag
To: list at grouptalkweb.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 12:01 PM
Subject: FW: Moreno a kabbalist?
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From: anathga at hotmail.com
To: adam at blatner.com
Subject: RE: Moreno a kabbalist?
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 20:00:09 +0000
Dear Adam,
One should be very careful with words: It would be more precise to say: that there is wealth of similar ideas,a most likely inspired by Kabballah, (not the other way around..) plus we are talking about an individual with highly evolved intuitive and intellectual faculties.,applying such to his vision of society.
However Moreno is talking about forces in the realm of this world only,while kabballah is talking about forces in the world beyond our senses.
anath
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From: adam at blatner.com
To: anathga at hotmail.com; edwschreiber at earthlink.net; list at grouptalkweb.org
Subject: Moreno a kabbalist?
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 13:44:51 -0600
Dear All,
While I respect many of Moreno's contributions---more than respect, honor him as great---and I'll be talking about why in my plenary presentation at the forthcoming conference---, yet I hesitate to idealize him. By idealizing I mean the activity of attributing virtues not clearly demonstrated based on the presence of virtues that are somewhat more demonstrable. He played many roles, some of which were brilliant and some soulful; and yet other roles were less perfectly developed and some might be considered faults or failings.
Moreno says he studied Kabbalah in his early years, as noted in his Autobiography (1989); I note this also in a relatively recent paper in our journal, the JGPPS, on role theory and the Kabbalistic diagram called the Tree of Life.
Yet I think it's more than a stretch to consider him anything near what most folks who know about the field would call a Kabbalist!
Kabblah, the most widely-known mystical sub-field in Judaism, involves, well, mysticism---an effort to connect with, ultimately experience a sense of union with G-d. It requires a sense of transcendence as well as immanence. While one of Moreno's gifts of greatness was his intuition of the nature of Divine immanence, the spirit shining through the being of every individual, especially manifest in the phenomena associated with spontaneity and creativity, yet I saw little that gave evidence of his reverence for the "other-ness" of God. Nor have I heard of his engaging in any particularly spiritual practice, and by spirituality I mean the activity of deepening one's connectedness or relationship with G-d, however that Greater Wholeness of Being may be named or conceived.
Much less has there been any evidence of continued involvement in reading or practice or association with other kabbalists. I don't dispute that one might discern some few common areas of overlap, but that's far from the same as an assertion that he "was" a kabbalist.
Admittedly, we could question what would qualify one as a kabbalist. I doubt that I would qualify, even though I've been dabbling in reading about this arena for about 40 years...
I hope that such pedantic quibblings are not too troublesome, but I think that attributing to Moreno qualities that would raise a number of eyebrows ends up reducing rather than amplifying our credibility and his.
Warmly, Adam
----- Original Message -----
From: thana ag
To: edwschreiber at earthlink.net ; list at grouptalkweb.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 12:48 PM
Subject: RE:
We are on the same page. That is what i am combing through. Re John Seed: I was much in touch with Joanna Macy in the 80ies. She actually stayed in our house when she was giving a workshop in "Open Center" one year. So we spent hours talking. Then i lost touch,plus mom's duties propelled my energies in a different direction. So,turns out I've been acquainted with their incredible work.
Happy New year,
anath
> Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 09:11:31 -0500
> From: edwschreiber at earthlink.net
> To: anathga at hotmail.com
> Subject: Re:
>
> Hi Anath,
> I agree with you, Moreno was a Kabbalist.
> In fact, I would go so far as to say that in his work, the body of his writings, he embedded Kabbalistic like codes. Sociatry is to extract the codes, share them,
>
> Happy New Year.
>
> Ed
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: thana ag <anathga at hotmail.com>
> >Sent: Dec 31, 2007 6:56 PM
> >To: Edward Schreiber <edwschreiber at earthlink.net>, list at grouptalkweb.org
> >Subject:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Dear Ed,
> >Thanks for your comments.
> >But try and not use the
> >dryer for sheets etc -and not be/c it is better for the fabric - just
> >so you will know (especially if you live in an apt)how life will be
> >when we run out of resources,or what life has been for the too poor to
> >have resources,and who therefore do not pollute ,but have no awareness
> >of the problem...(of course by you,I mean generic you). That awareness
> >issue is the point. And then the discipline to proceed with action.
> >That is the argument for keeping kashrus:,dietary laws, an enforcement
> >of discipline to show one's willingness to follow God..,in hebrew the
> >numeric value of nature and God is the same. I think we need now new laws of kashrus and an vanguard ready to take
> >upon themselves willingly the discomfort of not using instruments that
> >make our life easier but damaging to the environment.,and consciously economize on resources. \
> >So if I were playing God,I 'do be searching urgently for a group ready for such sacrifice,be/c of their concern for Nature.
> >. Who will they be? What shall we call them? Moreaneans? If everyone on listserve,and their families and their employees,students etc...joined...now that is "concretization"!
> >Of course that does not negate the possibility of writing papers,researching ,developing new technology social and otherwise.,
> > About
> >Moreno and Sociatry. Recently I started to study in depth the
> >Kabballah,and come to realize that Moreno was ,yes, a cabbalist.,which makes
> >me recall few of the encounters I had with him,and totally not getting
> >what he was saying. Or blown away by what he said. Oh how i wish it
> >was me now,not me at twenty something. SO many similarities especially since in both cases the goal is no less than the correction of the whole. Both assume society develops according to a definite laws. More About all that another time.
> >Let me know what you come up in your research. Thanks re John Seed. Will look him up.
> >
> >So good to hear your ideas.
> >Happy New Year!
> >anath
> >.
> >
> >> Date: Sun,
> >_________________________________________________________________
> >Share life as it happens with the new Windows Live.
> >http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_122007
>
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