In any attempt to popularize such an essentially mystical work as the Kabbalah the main point to be kept in view is that "Kabbalah" is a word of far wider significance than is commonly supposed; it is indeed equivalent to "Hermetic" when that term is employed in a wider than ordinary historical connotation. The Jewish Kabbalah is regarded by many scholars as a work of doubtful age and still more dubious authenticity; it is therefore unwise to attempt to speak dogmatically concerning its origin in our present state of relative uncertainty concerning it. But waiving these particular questions, which rightfully pertain only to scholastic controversy, it is entirely within the scope of a popular treatise to consider the main idea which Kabbalah invariably stands for independently of moot questions regarding the authority or authenticity of any special book or books. Kabbalah Denudata is probably the best known of the Latin works in kabbalistic literature. A fairly good English translation of this work, Kabbalah Unveiled, by Macgregor Mathers, is a familiar volume among students of things generally termed "occult," and as that treatise supplies a vast amount of curious information in a comparatively simple manner, we shall make many references to that extraordinary volume in the course of the following pages.