Talking with Demons 5 - The Names of God

It is likely that when Satan appeared to Eve in the Garden of Eden, it was in full serpentine brilliance.
It has been his method to appear an an "angel of light" in order to deceive, and throughout time, movements which were characterised by light or illumination, have had Luciferic ideology at their core.

Ancient cultures are believed to have been enlightened by extraterrestrial beings, but there is little mention of the barbarism that accompanied such advanced civilisations. The sheer horror of Baal worship for example, or the rivers of blood required in sacrifice to the gods the ancient Egyptians

Despite the nature of the gentile nations which surrounded Israel, some of the aspects of pagan culture were assimilated into Jewish life, particularly during the Egyptian and later, Babylonian captivity, and Gnostic thought has at times run parallel to orthodox Judaism and even gained prominence, even though there seemed a clear pattern of Gods judgement that followed their forays into such practices.

Merkabah mysticism was the early form of Kabbalah and writings known as Hekelot tracts, described the passage of the mystic through a series of chambers, each step involving increasingly complex rituals in order to bridge the gulf between man and god.
Note that this model of mystical endeavour would become the standard for later forms of magic, including freemasonry.
It is hard to overestimate the impact of Jewish mysticism on modern occult practices.

As in the case of all magic, kabbalah involves connection with unseen spiritual agents, or demons. However kabbalists use a complex system of numerology called gematria to manipulate texts in order to establish one of the "72 Names of God".
Invoking the "Names of God", was the method in which, legend has it, the Golem of Prague was created.
It is also said in kabbalistic lore, that it was possible to create living animals from inanimate matter.
If that sounds unlikely, consider how we are able to create animals in laboratories today.

So is there a link between ancient gnostic practices and modern science?

The economist, John Maynard Keynes, was fascinated by the life of Isaac Newton, and purchased one of his personal trunks containing thousands of previously unseen works.
In the address entitled, "Newton the Man", which he wrote for the tercentenary celebration of Newtons birth at the Royal Society, Keynes related some of Newtons occult exploits including Kabbalah and alchemy.

Possibly the most revealing of Keyne's observations was that:

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago.... 

Why do I call him a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher's treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood. He believed that these clues were to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens and in the constitution of elements (and that is what gives the false suggestion of his being an experimental natural philosopher), but also partly in certain papers and traditions handed down by the brethren in an unbroken chain back to the original cryptic revelation in Babylonia. He regarded the universe as a cryptogram set by the Almighty - just as he himself wrapt the discovery of the calculus in a cryptogram when he communicated with Leibniz. By pure thought, by concentration of mind, the riddle, he believed, would be revealed to the initiate.

The Royal Society began life as the Invisible College, and was made up exclusively of esotericists. One of its most notable achievements was to popularise the Gnostic myth of Darwinism, thus leading half the world into the biggest act of folly in the whole of history, denying the existence of a creator.
Like it or not, the evidence paints a clear picture, regardless of what popular opinion says on the legitimacy of science.

The point is that, although we hope that knowledge offers the key to transcendence., in reality, it is a "set up". The secrets offered in the kabbalistic tree of life are irrelevant to life when we really understand that our true purpose, is not to know creation, but to know the creator.