An Ancient Philosophy
for a New Age: The Importance of Kabbalism in Barbara Nadel’s Deadly Web
Hilary A Goldsmith,
University of Greenwich
Born in London, Barbara Nadel now lives in Essex
whilst regularly visiting Turkey which provides the setting for her series of
detective novels featuring Inspector Çetin İkmen. Nadel published her
first book in the series Belshazzar’s
Daughter, in 1999: the thirteenth and most recent, A Noble Killing, in January 2011. Nadel is both a trained
psychologist and has a longstanding interest in magic and the occult (personal
email). Her background is not initially, therefore, a literary one.
Nadel’s interest and training in various aspects of
the occult and magic harks back to an age dominated by pre- Newtonian knowledge
systems within which intuition and a sensitivity to psychic phenomena were
accepted as a valid elements within human experience. This pre-Newtonian mystical
world influences the character of Inspector İkmen. Due to her powers of
precognition and her ability to tell fortunes, İkmen’s mother became
identified as a witch. İkmen has inherited some of her psychic ability.
Although uneasy about acknowledging his latent powers, they frequently inform İkmen’s police work and their
veracity is accepted by his colleagues.
Newtonian philosophy regards the world as eventually
totally knowable, functioning in accordance with a small set of provable
mathematical laws based on Isaac Newton’s (1642 – 1727) Laws of Motion
and Gravitation as set out in his Principia
Mathematica (1687). These laws, combined with Francis Bacon’s (1561 – 1626) scientific
method as defined in his Novum Organum (1620)
have formed the backbone of scientific thought and enquiry up until the present
day. The Newtonian world view also favours division and separation. It is
atomistic, regarding the world as being composed of discrete unchanging objects
in empty space.
Pre- Newtonian philosophy, on the other hand, held
intuition in high regard. Aristotle, for example, regarded intuition as providing both the
inspiration for and the basic impetus from which science is derived. Indeed, as
the fundamental premises from which scientific knowledge is reasoned cannot
themselves be proved by reason ‘it will be intuition that apprehends the
primary premises [...]. [I]ntuition will be the originative source of
scientific knowledge’ (Posterior Analytics 2.19). Further, ‘no other kind of
thought except intuition is more accurate than scientific knowledge’ (Posterior Analytics 2.9). Most
importantly, in Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle defines science as ‘the union of
Knowledge and Intuition’ (104).
Rather than being driven solely by Newtonian
materialism, Nadel’s world accepts the need for the balancing qualities of
psychic knowledge systems accepted within the Aristotelian paradigm (world
view) but denied by the Newtonian paradigm because they are not scientifically
or mathematically verifiable. In much of Nadel’s fiction, including Deadly Web, Nadel is concerned with reestablishing the importance of knowledge
systems excluded from the dominant Newtonian paradigm. Such knowledge systems
include myth, magic and religious faiths and belief systems such as Kabbalism.
Nadel’s work demonstrates how total reliance on the Newtonian worldview can provide
only a limited interpretation of reality. For Nadel, inclusion of some elements
of pre-Newtonian knowledge systems within our world view can expand the human
consciousness and so aid the creation of a more complete understanding of the universe
we inhabit.
A crucial issue for Nadel’s
writing is the range of possibilities delineated by the terms ‘fact’ and
‘belief’, for example in presenting Kabbalism, which many might regard as a
belief, as a fact. The first use of the word ‘fact’ in 1539, noted in the Oxford
English Dictionary, gives its definition as ‘[a] thing done or performed’ with
no mention of the need for proof. In the pre-Newtonian world, a ‘fact’ was a
far broader, subjective and more open-ended concept than it is today. A ‘fact’
is understood within Deadly Web in
its pre-Newtonian definition, not as an objective, scientifically provable
truth. In much of Nadel’s fiction,
a ‘fact’ has a fluidity and a certain ambiguity which does not align it with
the Newtonian paradigm.
‘Belief’ is defined as [t]he
mental action, condition or habit, of trusting to or confiding in a person or
thing: trust, confidence, faith’
(Oxford Online). In Deadly Web, Nadel
might be interpreted as offering a dramatization of the effect of reversing the
status of ‘fact’ and ‘belief’ as recognised within the Newtonian paradigm. For
all the major characters in Deadly Web, Kabbalism
takes on the status of fact in that it is undeniably true.
Deadly Web (2005)
The novel opens with the
discovery of the naked body of Gulay Arat. She has been stabbed through the
heart. In another part of Istanbul, the body of a young man, Cem Ataman who has
apparently committed suicide, is discovered in a graveyard. The bodies of two
other teenagers are subsequently found at different points around the city.
Suspicion eventually falls on
Max, a Kabbalist of İkmen’s acquaintance. Max knew all the victims as he
taught them English. The police, visiting Max’s home, find it covered with
blood. Max is nowhere to be found. It is not known if he is dead or alive.
İkmen consults his gypsy
friend Gonca and the dervish Ibrahim Dede, both of whom think that Max might be
about to perform a ritual to try to rid the city of the darkness in which it is
becoming increasingly engulfed. Max tries to perform his ritual at night on a
boat in the Bosphorus using İkmen’s daughter, Çiçek as bait to involve
İkmen. Fortunately, he is apprehended before any harm comes to her.
Max throws himself into the
water but is captured by the police. He becomes increasingly unwell during the night
and eventually dies. His body is placed in a body bag but when the technicians
open the bag the following day to prepare the body for post-mortem examination
it is empty.
Kabbalah
Although the origins of Kabbalah are unknown, one of
its key texts, the Sefer Yetzirah, (Book of Creation) is known to have been in
use in the tenth century AD and may have been composed as early as the third century
AD. It is a complicated system of correspondences within which every idea
contains with it its own contradiction. Therefore God is both good and evil,
just and unjust, merciful and cruel, limitless and limited, unknowable and
knowable. The central symbol of Kabbalism is The Tree of Life. The tree
describes the route by which the divine spirit descended to earth and the path
humankind must take to ascend to God. At the end of Deadly Web, Nadel includes an Author’s Note giving details of this
pre-Newtonian belief system (410).
Nadel describes Kabbalah as ‘the magical system devised and practiced by Jewish
occultists’. Her Author’s Note adds:
At the most basic level Kabbalah is a system
of relationships or correspondences that, theoretically, open up access to the
inner reaches of the mind. Based around a diagram called The Tree of Life, Kabbalah teaches that both
man and the universe are one and the same and therefore interchangeable […] it
is therefore possible to influence the divine by using those corporeal forms
[...] that correspond to whichever angel or demon may be asked for assistance
in the unseen world. (410)
Within the text, Gonca explains to İkmen (and to the reader) the
principles of Kabbalism, how: ‘“[e]verything is interconnected”’ (176). There
are no barriers, no boundaries. Everything is accessible through everything
else. Gonca explains how ‘“that which is in heaven and that upon earth are one
and the same and are completely interchangeable”’ (176).
This interchangeability and interconnectedness is not recognized within
the Newtonian world view which is atomistic and favours complete separation of
both objects and concepts.
Kabbalism is described then by both Nadel, after the conclusion of the story and
therefore outside of the text and from within the text by Gonca. This
illustrates the holistic inclusiveness of Kabbalah. It exists both within the
story, influencing (or possibly dictating) the worldview of the characters and
outside the story, in the real world inhabited by the reader. By placing its
description after the end of the main text, it takes on the role of
non-fictitious information. Not only does it help the reader better understand
the story, Nadel’s inclusion of the information about Kabbalah, may influence
the way the reader understands and appreciates the real world outside the novel.
In the text, Max is described
as ‘a very powerful Western magician, a Kabbalist, an adept and a close
acquaintance of both angels and demons’ (69). İkmen had known Max since
the 1970s. However, Max is: ‘a much darker man than İkmen […] just dark in
several different ways’ (64). Despite their differences, when the two had
originally met, the men had ‘clicked immediately’ (69). But Max evoked an
‘uneasy feeling’ (69) in İkmen which the latter did not particularly
enjoy. While İkmen recognizes that he and Max shared certain psychic
powers, he does not totally understand these powers and cannot control them. It
is this lack of control which worries İkmen. As İkmen ‘had been both
in love with and repelled by his magical mother, so he felt that a distance of
some sort needed to be put between himself and Max’ (69). İkmen felt safer
if a certain degree of Newtonian separation is maintained between him and Max.
İkmen is particularly mistrustful of Max’s interest in teaching his
daughter Çiçek to use her inherent magical powers. İkmen, always wary of
his own powers of intuition did not want them expanded by Max’s influence.
Nadel’s
fiction is set in a world where acceptance of forms of knowing marginalised by
the dominant Newtonian paradigm is commonplace. İkmen’s world is one in
which these pre-Newtonian knowledge systems are valued for the contribution
they make to human knowledge. At the same time, however, the need for caution
to be exercised in employing knowledge which is not understood and cannot be
controlled is also demonstrated in Deadly
Web through an exploration of the character of Max.
Max’s Story
Max Esterhazy is not a child
of the Newtonian paradigm. He is not limited within its confines and to some
degree it does not recognize his existence. Max cannot be reduced to the
discrete particles of the Newtonian paradigm, nor does his existence obey its
laws. As far as Max is concerned Newtonian- inspired science and forensic
scientific techniques are impotent. Forensic testing of the large quantity of
blood found in Max’s home can tell that the blood is human and can decipher its
group. The blood is the same group as that of Max and yet science cannot reach
further than this; it cannot prove that the blood is actually that of Max. Max
gives the lie to the Newtonian assertion that everything within the world is
eventually completely knowable through science. For Max at least, this is not
the case.
İkmen feels out of his
depth when treating Max as a suspect and asks Gonca for help in how best to
approach Max. Dede has obtained books for Max for over thirty years. İkmen
consults Dede on the meaning texts on the occult found in Max’s apartment.
Worryingly for Ikmen, Dede tells him that Max has knowledge that makes him capable
of most things saying that: ‘“real Kabbalists can do things that, to most
people, would seem to be impossible”’ (173). Dede tells İkmen that if Max
does not want to be found, he will remain invisible. Max ‘could very well still
be in his apartment; he could even be watching us now’ (173).
Max the magician lives within
a pre-Newtonian paradigm. He is not restricted by the laws and rules of the
Newtonian worldview. Whilst for modern Western man it is Newtonian-inspired
science that opens up new possibilities, freeing us from old superstition, for
Max it is conversely the pre-Newtonian knowledge systems which make the
seemingly impossible possible. In İkmen’s words: ‘“with Max, anything is
possible”’ (194). Within his
Aristotelian world ancient, occult knowledge opens up a whole new realm of
possibilities, which can be frightening to those who do not understand them,
whilst having a liberating effect on those who do.
While İkmen and the
police see Max’s disappearance as suggestive of his guilt, Dede suggests the
possibility that Max is ‘“working to restore the balance in this city […
which…] has become very dark of late”’ (174). This darkness is due in part to
the Iraq conflict. With his son about to do his National Service the Iraq war
is a concern close to İkmen’s heart.
Max’s ritual required the sacrifice of the teenagers at the four
cardinal points of the city. Their deaths opened up the portals allowing the
performer of the ritual to invoke the protection of the guardian angels of
these portals. He is then safe to perform the ritual at the centre of this
protected circle, in this case on the Bosphorus. Noting Martha A.Turner’s
comment that ‘clearsightedness’ is essential for ‘unprejudiced observation’
(72) it is interesting that the four ritualistic murders, Cem’s suicide, Max’s
attempt to perform his ritual and the disappearance of his body are all
associated with the dark of the night rendering such ‘clearsightedness’
impossible. That the vision of the observers is obscured by darkness might be a
metaphorical representation of Turner’s further point that ‘complete knowledge
is rarely available to fallible human beings’ (72). Max’s fate is left
unexplained at the end of the novel: the true nature of his ritual not
understood.
The question is posed as to whether Max is good or bad. However, it is
doubtful whether such a question applies to Max, as within Kabbalism, the
distinction does not really exist. Talking to İkmen on a boat in the
Bosphorus, Max explains his motives. He was indeed trying to protect his city
‘“[f]rom war. From gas attack, from chemicals, from the ghastliness of ethnic
cleansing [of the Turks by Saddam Hussain]’ (348). To do so, however he had
murdered three girls and accepted the suicide of the boy Cem. For Gonca: ‘“the ends justify the means, do they
not?”’ (286) İkmen is shocked
but Gonca explains that: ‘“[r]ight and wrong, black and white – these are
meaningless concepts in the scheme of the universe”’ (286). Further, for Gonca,
‘“[b]lack and white, good and bad, [are] only different faces of the same
coin”’ (288). Gonca seems to be implying that such Cartesian dualities are
human constructions rather than basic universal truths.
Lee Worth Bailey makes the
point that dividing the world into dualities such as right and wrong, life and
death, can make understanding more difficult because ‘we constantly find
problems in the large intermediate areas’ (41). He feels that we would be
better off exploring ‘other options such as paradox and continuum’ (41). These
other options reflect the concerns of a more holistic world view than that
apparent within the Newtonian paradigm, which favours the division and
separation of experience and phenomena.
No conclusions are offered as
to how Max’s body vanished from the body bag the next day. İkmen himself is
baffled. Whether Max faked his own death or really became invisible is never
known. Perhaps Max, the enigmatic magician,never existed within the ‘normal’
boundaries of human-kind. Nadel herself feels that:
Max may well have
been able to control his body to the extent that he only appeared to be dead
and then made his escape. But then again when Ibrahim Dede the dervish talks of
Max being in other worlds maybe he isn’t wrong. Who are we, after all to dictate how many dimensions there
are? (personal Email)
The fluidity of Max’s
character does not indicate the distinct personality that might be expected of
a character ruled by the Newtonian paradigm. His identity is never fully
defined. His nationality is in doubt. He was brought up in England but his
father was a Nazi. Dede viewed Max as ‘a good man.’ When İkmen points out
that he murdered people, Dede says that it was the entities that he conjured up
that had committed these deeds, thus freeing Max from any personal responsibility
in their deaths (388). When Ikmen
tries to press Dede on this he will only reply: ‘“I am saying nothing […] I
give you only the facts; it is for you to make your conclusions”’ (389).
Max’s character also raises
issues of identity frequently encountered in Nadel’s work. Max exists almost more within the
science of Aristotelian paradigm (defining and identifying him by his
qualities), than within the science of the Newtonian paradigm that would wish
to define him as a conglomeration of solid particles. The lack of materialism
in his outlook is reflected in the fluidity of his physical body, which can
apparently dissolve, disappear without trace.
In Nadel’s fiction the stable, ordered, predictable,
rule-bound world of the Newtonian paradigm ceases to provide the dominant
impetus. The reader is thus freed from viewing the world solely from a
perspective where only phenomena which can be scientifically proved or verified
are considered ‘true’. However, the dangers of relying on Aristotelian
feelings, intuition and imagination alone to reach the truth are also
demonstrated.
For Nadel, the current denial of the veracity of the
whole area of psychic human experience has produced an un-balanced society,
which may be, at least in part, responsible for the problems which we face
today. Combining elements of seemingly disparate paradigms can create a more
complete world view. The use of relevant aspects of both the Newtonian and Aristotelian
pre-Newtonian paradigms increases the range of strategies available with which
to approach the problems of today’s multi-faceted world.
Bibliography
Aristotle (c. 350 BC) Posterior
Analytics, available from: http//classics.mit.edu-Aristotle-post.mb.txt
(accessed 6 November 2008).
Aristotle (c. 350 BC/ 1998) Nicomachean
Ethics, New York, Dover.
Bacon, Francis (1620/1960) The New
Organum, New York, The Bobbs-Merril Company Incorporated.
Bailey, Lee Worth (2005) The
Enchantments of Technology, Illinois, University of Illinois Press.
Nadel, Barbara (2005) Deadly Web, London, Headline
Nadel, Barbara (1999) Belshazzar’s Daughter, London, Headline.
Nadel, Barbara
(2011) A Noble Killing, London,
Headline.
Nadel, Barbara, (2006) ‘Where the Bodies are hid’, www.shotsmag.co.uk Accessed 13/10/2006.
Newton, Isaac (1687/1999) The
Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Berkeley,
University of California Press.
Turner, Martha A. (1993) Mechanism
and the Novel: Science in the Narrative Process, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Personal Email
Barbara Nadel, Personal email, 16 January 2007.
Other
Open Book, ‘An Interview with Barbara
Nadel’, BBC Radio 4, 11/12/2005.