The Golem as a Transpersonal Image: 1. A Marker of Cultural Change Brian L. Lancaster, School of Human Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Trueman Building, 15-21 Webster Street, Liverpool L3 2ET, UK.. e-mail: B.L.Lancaster@livjm.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract: The golem—a human ‘creature’ brought into being by ritual means—is a recurring theme in Jewish mysticism and folklore. Qualitative changes in the portrayal of the golem may be discerned from the mediaeval period down to our day. The nature of these changes is examined for the light it casts on currents in European thought as the proto-scientific worldview and the Age of Reason were developing. The motif has particular relevance to Wilber’s (1995) distinction between the path of ‘ascent’ and that of ‘descent’ in psychological and religious terms. The golem relates to those mysteries of incarnation and resurrection which are central to the conflict in worldview between Judaism and Christianity, an understanding of which is relevant to issues of a transpersonal nature in our day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- His disciples said to him, ‘From above to below we know but from below to above we do not know.’ He replied, ‘Is it not all one—from below to above and from above to below?’ They asked further, ‘Master, ascending is not the same as descending because one who descends may do so running, which is not the case with ascending. Not only this, but ascending may be achieved through diverse paths which is not the case with descending.’ He said to them, ‘Go out and observe.’ The Bahir 1 The aims of the Transpersonal Psychology Section make explicit reference to ‘Eastern psycho-spiritual traditions,’ an emphasis which led me to the question, ‘What of Western psycho-spiritual traditions?’ Of course, there is sufficient breadth within the other stated aims for any such traditions to be included within the Section’s scope. Nevertheless, the emphasis leads to a consideration of what exactly we—both ‘we’ in this Section, and ‘we’ as a society more broadly—mean by the term, Eastern. My intention here is briefly to examine this question by way of introducing a discussion of a specific strand of Jewish mysticism, the tradition of the golem—a human ‘creature’ formed by magical means. In this article I focus on the history of the idea of the golem and its cultural context, illustrating the way in which its relationship to 1 A twelfth-century Jewish mystical text. Author’s translation. 1