The Kabbalistic Alchemy of David Chaim Smith
“Kabbalah for understanding. Alchemy for practice. Gnosis for truth.”
A Lecture by Greg Kaminsky
Date: Thursday, March 8, 2018
Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (doors at 6:30 PM)
Greg Kaminsky, creator and co-host of the Occult of Personality podcast, will be presenting on the work of kabbalist, artist, and author David Chaim Smith.
Greg has been studying David’s work since 2009 and recently edited Smith’s 2017 book, Deep Principles of Kabbalistic Alchemy.
In this presentation, Greg will talk about the theory, symbolism, and practical aspects of contemplative mysticism as expounded in Smith’s work. Additionally, he will cover some of the material included in Smith’s upcoming book, Bath of Bright Silence, including the resurrection and reanimation of a contemplative practice that originated with the thirteenth-century Iyyun circle.
Signed and unsigned copies of David’s last two books, Deep Principles of Kabbalistic Alchemy and the new Bath of Bright Silence (prior to official launch in April) will be available!
About Deep Principles of Alchemy
Deep Principles of Kabbalistic Alchemy elaborates upon an array of symbols designed to guide the reader toward the ground of all phenomena, referred to as En Sof (no end) in kabbalah. The material is presented in clear yet esoteric terms, free from the common tendencies of psychologization, new-age dilution, and religious mythology. It is a rare opportunity for deep consideration of profound mysteries that cannot be summarily addressed with conventional language and theoretical speculation, ultimately offering a living tradition into a rare and powerful style of mystical practice.
About David Chaim Smith
David Chaim Smith was born in 1964 in Queens, New York. His early career was as a visual artist throughout the 1980s. In 1990 he began an immersion into the root sources of Alchemy and the Hermetic and Hebrew traditions of the Kabbalah. In 1996 he abandoned visual art for a total dedication to spiritual practice, from which came a unique blend of practical mysticism and creative innovation. This blend coalesced while working with an obscure thirteenth-century text called The Fountain of Wisdom, which he mapped out diagrammatically in notebooks during his ten-year hiatus from visual art. The resulting symbol vocabulary served as the basis for his 2006 return to art, generating the content for several books. He currently lives in the suburbs of New York City with his wife, Rachel.