A Portrait Is Worth A Thousand Words

The famous Giacomo Casanova, who had contacts with both Eva & Jacob Frank, wrote his memoirs in this castle and worked in the library as a patron of Count Joseph Waldstein. Pawel Maciejko traveled to Casanova’s grave, as well as Duchcov Chateau, when researching for his book The Mixed Multitude, which is considered the seminal work on Frankism. In his researches he discovered that Casanova had numerous contacts with Kabbalists.

At the entrance of Duchcov Chateau stands the abovc portrait depicting Count Joseph Carl Emmanuel Waldstein, holding open a book, which upon inspection turns out to be the 1558 Mantua edition of The Zohar, folio 127. According to Pawel Maciejko:

“The portrait is interpreted as a pictorial representation of Sabbatian political theology putting forward the idea of the eschatological conflict between Islam and Christianity paving the way for the acceptance of the messiah Sabbatai Tzvi by non-Jews.”

Note that he wears a red cloak, signifying the Garments of Esau and the kingdom of Edom. This is a core concept in the doctrine of Jacob Frank, the penultimate Sabbatian leader, who stressed the necessity of “wearing the robes of Edom.” Donning these robes entailed converting to Christianity to enter the status of nobility, as well as penetrating the ranks of secret societies. The role of secret societies can not be ignored when exploring this period of history. Notable Orders active at this time include the Bavarian Illuminati, The Asiatic Brethren, and the Egyptian Masonry of Cagliostro, known as the Rite of Memphis Mizraim, all of which involve the milieu of characters that we are discussing today.

The rest of this article is based on a lecture that Pawel Maciejko gave at Ben Gurion University about the Waldstein Portrait in Duchcov Chateau. This lecture is called ‘The Mysteries of Mohammad the Messenger,’ the subtitle being ‘Western Esotericism between Religions: Conversions and Transformations.’ Maciejko goes into great detail about the symbolism of the Waldstein portrait. The full lecture is found here:

In the portrait Waldstein is pointing to a specific passage in The Zohar which discusses “the elimination of the spirit of impurity from earth.” This passage is the end of a narrative recounting a dialogue between two rabbis discussing sorcery, which “is possible only through its connection to the primordial serpent.” According to Rabbi Yitzach, “from the story of Bilam we may learn the mystery.”

“It teaches us that every act of sorcery is possible only through its connection to the primordial serpent, the spirit of impurity. Whoever wants to obtain the power of the impure spirit must first defile himself. Thus’ in order to practice sorcery, Bilam defiled himself every night by engaging in sexual acts with his donkey. Rabbi Yizach proceeds to describe details of the rituals of witchcraft as performed by Bilam. The developing conversation touches upon the question of the orogin of impurity which begun with the injection of the primordial serpents slime into Eve.״

This is the context of the passage portrayed in the Waldenstein portrait, which is translated as:

“And every impure spirit clings to the serpent before arriving in the world. No one in the world escapes him, for he manifests in everything, until the time when the Blessed Holy One eliminates him from the world. As it is written: “he will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8) and further I will eliminate the spirit of impurity from earth.”

(“for he manifests in everything, until the time when the Blessed Holy One eliminates him from the world” is the specific line that Waldstein’s finger points to in the portrait)

Another curious detail of this portrait is the small Arabic inscription in the bottom right corner, something that one might miss upon first glance. The inscription reads “The mysteries of Muhammad the Messenger.”

This connects Muhammad to the Zoharic passage about the elimination of the spirit of impurity from the world. The only available texts at the time that both mention Muhammad by name and discuss the mysteries of the Zohar, are works of Sabbatian Kabbalah, such as Perush Mizmore Tehillim by Israel Hazzan. The text is a Kabbalistic exegesis of this scripture:

Hazzan invokes this verse in order to develop the notion that with the advent of the end of days, the non-jews, and particularly the non-jewish authorities, will also recognize Sabbatai Tzvi as the true messiah. ‘kings will be your foster fathers’ was taken as denoting the rulers of the gentiles, who will become believers in Sabbatai Tzvi and patrons of his faith. Drawing upon the kabbalistic idea that the reign of every earthly ruler is only possible thanks to his deriving energy from the corresponding ruler (archon) or guardian on high. Israel Hazzan interprets the second part of the verse, “their queens will be your nursing mothers” as that referring to the recognition of Sabbatai Tzvis messianic mandate also with the inhabitants of the angelic, or in this case demonic, realm. The acceptance of Sabbatai Tzvi by the kings of this world is possible only because a profound change has taken place in the higher worlds. The demonic rulers of the earthly are turned to good, with great love. They are identified as Samael and Rahab. Whose guardians are they? In order to answer this question Hazzan points to the mystery revealed by his teacher Nathan of Gaza, in connection with a Talmudic dictum quoted here as “not for nothing does the starling follow the raven.” This dictum is predicated upon the biblical verse “so Esau went to Ishmael.” Esau and Ishmael are traditional emblems of Christianity and Islam respectively. In kabbalah the former is associated with the most cruel bird, the raven, while the latter is representing by the starling. It would seem that the recognition of Sabbatai Sevi as the true messiah by the non-jews means his recognition by muslims and christians, yet it is not so simple. The string of associations linking Samael, Esau, Raven, on the one hand, and Rahab, Ishmael, Starling, on the other, are not Sabbatian innovations, they are attested in several earlier kabbalistic works. Israel Hazzan would hail them as special mysteries revealed by Nathan of Gaza and Sabbatai Sevi.

“Sabbatai Tzvis acceptance as the true Messiah will first be recognized by Muslims and subsequently by the Christians… This is the ultimate ‘mystery of Muhammad.’ In the end of times Muslims will become messengers of Sabbatai Tzvi.” This same Messianic plan “will involve the political triumph of Christianity over Islam” and “the subjugation of the world of Islam by Christian powers, which would be a penultimate part in the Messianic drama leading the the recognition of the true messiah, Sabbatai Tzvi, by Jews, Moslems and Christians.”

“Indeed, Israel Hazzan’s commentary contains some first hand accounts of Muslim Sabbatians of non-jewish origin, and treats the first stage of this process as partly accomplished. The second stage however, the spreading of Sabbatianism in the Christian world involves a profound shift in the worlds on high. Samael the guardian of Esau and Christians, will become the guardian of Ishmaelites, while Rahab will become the guardian of Christendom. This change in the spiritual world will also have an import in this worldly dimension, it will involve the political triumph of Christianity over Islam.”

The transcript on the back of the Waldensein portrait states that Waldenstein studied Hebrew writings in the context of his activities as a Freemason.

“In the late 1770s and early 1780s, there existed a circle of Prussian, Saxon, and Austrian Freemasons, who harboured interest in Kabbalah and studied it together with Wolf Eyebeshutz. The group met in Wolfs house, it existence is attested by the letters regularly exchanged by Wolf Eyebeshutz (son of Jonathan Eyebeshutz) and Count Joseph Carl Emmanuel Waldstein.” There are at least 227 letters between them in german and French. “Most of the letters are fairly bread and butter correspondence, reflecting mainly commercial interests, they do allow us to say a little bit about the membership of the group and its activities.”

“On the basis of these letters we can say something about the group that met at Wolfs house to study Kabbalah.” Another key figure appearing in these letters is Moses Dobrushka, the founder of the Asiatic Brethren, and a close relative or Jacob Frank.

“As for the membership of the group, the Eyebeshutz-Waldenstein correspondence reads like a Hapsburg, Saxon, and Prussian who is who. It incudes prominent Habsburg aristocrats, Prussian officials, the head of the Berlin Rosicrucians, wealthy Jewish financiers, Prussian court banker Daniel Itzig, the Vienna banker Bernhard von Eskeles, so on and so forth. As for the activities, the group engaged in the extensive study of Kabbalistic texts, including the most notorious work of Sabbatian Kabbalah, the heavily antinomian tract Va-Avo ha-Yom el ha-Ayin, composed by Wolf’s father, Jonathan Eyebeshutz… Wolf translated large portions of his fathers words into German for the use of his Masonic students.”

Va-Avo ha-Yom el ha-Ayin is a deeply antinomian text. The Zohar is often noted for its use of erotic language when describing the machinations of the upper worlds and their relationship to the lower world that we inhabit. Scholars have described Va-Avo ha-Yom el ha-Ayin as ‘pornographic’ in comparison to the mere ‘eroticism’ of the Zohar and traditional Kabbalah.

This text was authored, though in secret, by Jonathan Eyebeshutz, a revered Orthodox Rabbi whose Crypto-Sabbatianism is well known now, despite his refutation of those charges during his lifetime. The fact that his son Wolf Eyebeshutz was translating this text into German to teach to his fellow Freemasons is highly significant. The following quote says more than enough about the nature of this secret doctrine that spread through the occult underworld. The author of VaAvo haYom el haAyin writes:

“Everything that is prohibited in the lower worlds… is the force of unification and construction in the upper realms”