More on the sources of Tantra: Marc Gafni

It is beyond the scope of these blogs work to fully document the historical path of Hebrew Tantra.

Suffice it to say that on a scholarly level Eliade already provides the Alexandrian link between Indian Tantra and the Western mysteries which took root roughly contemporaneously to the end of the Second Temple period. The links between the Israelite community and their Alexandrian bothers and sisters are well known documented both in Philo, the Talmud and numerous other sources.

Alexandria is the center of the western mystery traditions which Eliade links with Indian Tantrism. It requires no great leap to infer an internal esoteric Temple tradition linking the first and second Temples; Indeed it would make no sense if there was not such a traditions. The Talmud clearly assumes such a tradition; So the link between Solomon and the Alexandrian communities of the second Temple which were a hub the spiritual mystery traditions which Eliade sees as possible sources for Indian Tantrism is then clearly apparent. I should add that although all of this is true — it is not the source of my surmise.

My intuition about the relationship between the traditions come from a deep place of knowing which is supported by research but moves beyond the important but narrow reach of scholarship.

marc gafni
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