You must have missed a number of Kabbalistic practices that, in contrast to Ompalam or the Lunar religion, seem to involve pretty much exactly the sort of rational practices I would expect from some Western sorcerers - dedicated study of correspondences, mathematical explication of hidden connections and meanings, analysis of a variety of things via a single system, all that sort of stuff. Very 'rational', if based on premises that seem a bit absurd to us. In fact, the obsession with the details and rational investigation and extrapolation of the Holy Texts you find in Kaballah seems to be one of the few RW systems that combines magical practice with the dedication to particular books that we find in HW sorcery.
But that is almost the side issue - what little we DO know of Zzaburism is that it is a mystic Western system, yet your primary objection to the Kabbala as a model appears to be that it is a mystic Western system*. Obviously there is a problem here.
My basic problem with the conception of Zzaburism that Peter is talking about is that is appears to simply be sorcery - its not in the least mystic, and is distinguished from other brands of Western thought only by what it lacks, rather than by attempting something above and beyond advanced sorcerous practice.
I am going to go out on a limb here, and say that the problem is that Peter is working from the definition of Zzaburism in GloranthaIttHW (which he co-authored, so that seems a safe assumption), while I (in assuming that Zzaburism is an explicitly mystic philosophy) am working from the reference on pg 218 of the HeroWars players book (which clearly describes Zzaburites as mystics).
FWIW, while I disagree with much of the detail of Peters argument, I think that, working from the Glorantha book definition of Zzaburism (in which it seems to cover all atheist sorcerers who follow pre-Malkionist sorcerers), he is correct in saying that they are not, by and large, mystics, and mystic practices are inappropriate for them.
So, I am going to go out on a limb and say that the term 'Zzaburism' is used to mean two quite different things in the Glorantha book and the Hero Wars Introduction book - either that, or one of the references is extraordinarily misleading**.
We have Zzaburism (1) a mystic perspective of an impersonal god and Zzaburism (2) a term used to apply to pre-Abiding Book atheist sorcery in general, the vast majority of whom are not mystics. I think later Kabbalist practice is not too bad a model for Zzaburism (1), but is too mystic to be a good model for Kabbalism (2). (numbers assigned in publication order)
So that just leaves us with the question of whether a Kabbalist system/ conception of the otherworld (which obviously has roots in mystic Kabbalist practice) is appropriate as an inspiration for non-mystic Western Sorcerous practice. I think it pretty clearly is - after all, it is the basis for much (if not most) of RW Western magical theory, and is used quite a bit by modern magicians who are not in the least mystics.
Cheers David
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #118
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