What is Kaballah

Arthur Edward Waite argues that scholars during the transition period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries grafted Kabbalistic symbolism onto operative building traditions, providing conceptual foundations for Craft Masonry 1. In his view, the Kabbalistic concept of spiritual building—wherein the physical Temple signifies an internal House of Doctrine—directly informed Masonic symbolism, including the pillars J and B as well as the overarching theme of a lost and substituted sacred word 1.

William Wynn Westcott similarly contends that Kabbalistic structures parallel Masonic ritual and symbolism 2. In the Craft, Westcott aligns the pillars of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty with the Sephirotic triad of Chochmah, Geburah, and Tiphereth, while comparing the Winding Staircase to the tortuous path of emanations on the Sephirotic Tree 2. He also links the numerical divisions of three, five, and seven to Hebrew alphabetic symbolism and the Sephiroth 2. In the Royal Arch, he connects the original Keepers of the Veils to the highest Sephirotic triad as depicted in the Zohar 2.

In the Scottish Rite, Albert Pike draws upon Kabbalistic theology to explain moral and cosmic equilibrium 4. He interprets the conjoining of Geburah (Severity) and Gedulah to produce Tiphereth (Harmony and Beauty) as an illustration of how divine rigor is tempered by grace, mirroring the dual spiritual and material nature of man 4.

Albert C. Mackey takes a different view on the broader connection, observing that while mystical systems such as Kabbalism were defined by secret doctrines veiled in intentional obscurity, Freemasonry has no secret doctrine, leaving its philosophy open to the world and reserving secrecy only for its modes of recognition and symbolic ritual ceremonies 3.