In yet another demonstration that celebrity is no reliable guide to intelligence, Madonna and Guy Ritchie, her husband, have tried to lobby British government officials to use a magic Kabbalistic water to clean up radioactive waste. It was amusingly stymied by the British Civil Service playing "pass the parcel".
The Kabbalah is a mystical Jewish tradition that treats words and numbers (especially of the Torah) as having magical properties. It is basically a Hermetic religious tradition, which date back to Roman times, although the Kabbalah itself is probably a 12th century invention.
Even less surprising is that the Kaballah centre Madonna is attached to (yep, in California) was started by a one-time insurance salesman. Yes, please, clean up radioactive waste with an insurance salesman's idea of "science". Apparently it will also treat gynaecological problems in cows and sheep...
- Log in to post comments
Please differentiate between The Kaballah Centers as a type of religion taken up by Madonna, et all -- and kabbalah in traditional Judaism.
They have about as much in common as reform Judaism and Jehova's Witness'.
Any bets as to how long it will be before Madonna forgets her name is just a stage-name?
Madonna is keeping some pretty heady company. Down here in Florida ("The Mildew State"), our own lovable Katherine Harris once proposed using kaballah water to treat citrus canker.
No really, you can read all about it here
Hmmm, sorry, apparently HTML deficient today.
Here is the url for the Katherine Harris article:
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/07/katherine-harriss-kabbal…
What do you mean, "Madonna" is just her stage name?
"Madonna" really is her (first) name: Madonna Louise Ciccone.
I was trying to keep her woowoo kind of Kabbalism distinct from traditional Kabbalism (ironic use of the terms - Kabbalah apparently means "tradition"). But the echt tradition remains a Hermetic religious school of thought.
Pretty much by now, the term Kabbalah has been so distorted in popular culture (and the occult revivals) that it's virtually meaningless. I did some panels on occult elements in popular culture, and pretty much when I got to Kabbalah and pop culture, I pretty much described it as clusterf**k.
I pretty much described it as clusterf**k.
Yeah, that about sums it up. People whose opinions on the subjects I respect say that if you really want to grok Kabbalah, you start by learning Hebrew. Somehow I doubt Madonna has done this...
Let's see them animate a clay figure first. Once they can produce a golem, then we can study the properties of their magic water...
Ahcuah wrote:
Ooops! My mistake, of course it is.
What I meant was that it is a clear case of late-emergent nominative determinism.
Ian Spedding wrote:
Ah. In that case, I agree.