218 Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Kabbalah in Sweden

Kabbalah in Sweden
Thomas Karlsson

The Swedish esotericist Johannes Bureus (1568–1652) is the first person to use
the word Kabbalah in the Swedish language; furthermore, he viewed himself
as a kabbalist. During the late autumn of 1613 King Gustavus Adolphus and
Johannes Bureus were travelling through Sweden to organise the new printing
of the Bible. When they, on 5 December of that year, found themselves in Tuna
in the province of Dalarna, Bureus was overwhelmed by what he described as
‘a moment of excitement’. The time was 6.22 in the morning and Bureus heard
a voice singing ‘Close up the streams young boy, because the meadows have
drunk themselves full’, ‘RIVos IaM CLaVDe pVer sat prata bIberVnt’. In these
words the Roman numerals for 1673 are hidden, and Bureus interpreted this to
mean that the world was to end that year.
What took place in 1613 would forever influence Bureus, and after the expe-
rience in Dalarna he would take on the role as one initiated into the mysteries,
a prophet in the middle of a blind world. At this stage in his career, Bureus was
inclined to have mystical experiences; for several years he had studied esoteric
teachings such as astrology, magic, and Kabbalah. From his diary entries we
find out that he ‘began to enjoy the Kabbalah’ in 1591 when he was reading the
magical text Arbatel. From then on, Bureus developed his own esoteric system
centred around the runes, but based on the structure of the Kabbalah. He
referred to this system as a Nordic Kabbalah.

Johannes Bureus and the Nordic Kabbalah

Johannes Bureus is the most important non-Jewish Swedish kabbalist. Bureus

was a driving force in Gothicism, an ideology that associated the legendary
Gothic tribes with the Swedes in order to emphazise the powerful history of
the Swedish nation. In Bureus’ work, older Gothicism from the sixteenth cen-
tury along with runic and linguistic research blended with his strong interest
in all forms of esotericism: astrology, magic, alchemy, and above all Kabbalah.
Bureus would re-interpret the legends about the Goths so that they would not
merely lend glory to the history of Sweden, but also provide an individual path
of illumination. Johannes Bureus did groundbreaking work for structuring

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Swedish grammar, but he was moreover a great pioneer in runology. He pub-

lished a catalogue of 663 rune stones, which is about one quarter of all rune
stones known today, and he developed a runology that was rooted in linguis-
tics, but also incorporated esoteric speculations. Bureus, who lived in Uppsala,
was inspired by Agrippa, Paracelsus, Reuchlin, and other well-known eso-
teric writers. By analogy with the Kabbalah, Bureus became con­vinced that
the runes had various different dimensions; they were not only signs used for
writing, but also esoteric and magical symbols. He created a Gothic Kabbalah
that he referred to as “Kabala Upsalica”, and he called the secret dimension of
the runes Adul runes or “Adel” runes. Furthermore, he constructed a symbol
that he named Adulruna which contained the fifteen Adul runes. This symbol
has certain similarities to the Monas Hieroglyphica of John Dee, which con-
tains all the symbols for the planets. Bureus interpreted the Adulruna as a map
of the universe and of the progression of mankind through various layers of
existence.
Beside the Adulruna, the rune cross is the central symbol of Bureus’ esoteric
universe. The vertical rune row of the cross is one of the most important parts
of his system; these runes illustrate a seven-step initiatory process that can
move upward (ascensus) and downward (descensus). Bureus explains how the
Son of God descends and is born as a man following this path, but that he also
ascends to heaven through the very same path. The mediator in this process is
Christ, who is equated with the Norse god Odin. In the Cabbalistica this seven-
fold path of initiation recurs in several versions. It is for example associated
with the alchemical process with its seven stages to the elixir found in the writ-
ings of Paracelsus. In the Antiquitates Scanziana, Bureus reveals how the seven
runes describe the steps taken by Christ as a saviour, from conception to resur-
rection, and his ascent up to God. Bureus illustrates how the goal of the adept
is to reunite Byrghal and Thors, terms that in Bureus’ work signify man and
God. This is, however, not a complete melding into God, since man retains his
individual characteristics. Man and the entire material world is on the contrary
elevated to the divine spheres symbolised by the rune Thors. The symbol of
Byrghal and Thors united appears in several different variations, but in
Adulruna rediviva Bureus draws a special version that ‘reveals the immeasur-
able force that those can reach, who are united with God’.
Bureus was influenced by Christian kabbalists such as Pico della Mirandola
and Johann Reuchlin, and especially their speculations regarding the penta­
grammaton, YHSVH, a modified version of the more familiar tetragrammaton,
YHWH, that according to Pico and Reuchlin was a Hebrew form of the name
Jesus. In his Antiquitates Scanziana, Bureus illustrates a cross consisting of
IHVH at each arm with the letter Shin in the centre. To the Christian kabbalists