Twelve

This is taken from "THE KABBALAH UNVEILED," by S.L. MacGregor Mathers:

"The Kabbalah was first taught by God Himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in paradise. After the Fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of the earth to furnish the protoplasts with the means to return to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians retained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could intorduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses who was learned in all the

wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into the Kabbalah in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but recieved lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aide of his mysterious science the law-giver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of the secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but witheld them from Deuterronomy. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and Solomon were the most deeply initiated into the Kabbalah. No one, however, dared to write it down, till Schimeon Ben Jochai, who lived at the tiime of the destruction of the second Temple...After his death, his son, Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, as well as his disciples, collated Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai's treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called ZHR, Zohar, splendor, which is the grand storehouse of Kabbalism."

The Kabbalah or Qabalah consists of and is classified into 4 sections: 1. the practical Kabbalah, 2. the literal Kabbalah, 3. the unwritten Kabbalah, 4. the dogmatic Kabbalah.

I will discuss the Practical Qabalah later, right now I would like to touch upon the Literal Qabalah. (This is from S.L. MacGregor Mather's book, "The Kabbalah Unveiled") :

The literal Qabalah is divided into 3 sections:

GMTRIA, or Gematria;

NVTRIQVN, or Notariqon;

and ThMVRH, Temura.

Gematria, is a transposition of the Greek word, ypauuateia. The essence of Gematria is that words and phrases consist of numerical values, and words and phrases of similar numerical values tend to explain each other.

For example: The words, RVCh ALHIM, Ruach Elohim, which means the spirit of Elohim, has a total numerical value of 300. This is obtained by adding up the numerical values of the letters...R=200, V=6, Ch=8, A=1, L=30, H=5, I=40...adding them up they equal 300. 300 is the numerical value of the letter, SH, and represents the words, RVCh ALHIM.

Another example: "Again, the name of the angel, MTTRVN, Metatron, or Methratron, and the name of the Deity, ShDI, Shaddai, each make 314; so the one is taken as symbolic of the other. The angel Metraton is said to have been the conductor of the children of Israel through the wilderness, of whom God says, "My Name is in him."

Two more examples are seen in a verse of Genesis, VHNH ShLShH, Vehenna Shalish, "And lo, three men," equals in numerical value ALV MIKAL GBRIAL VRPAL, Elo Mikhael Gabriel Ve-Raphael, "These are Mikhael, Gabriel and Raphael." Each phrase equals 701.
Again in Genesis, IBA ShILH, Yeba Shiloh, "Shiloh shall come," which equals 358, which is the exact numeration of the word, MShICh, Messiah.

Notariqon comes from the latin word, Notarius, meaning shorthand writer. There are 2 forms of Notariqon. With one form, Notariqon involves each letter of a word as standing for, as an inital of, a different word, so that these words derived from the initals of one word, fit together and form a sentence. This forms a link of mystical significance between the letters of the word and the phrase or sentence it produces from each initial standing for a different word.

As example, the first ancient Hebrew word found in Genesis is BRAShITh, Berashith. If each letter of this word is attributed to a word itself, and then these various words form together to make a phrase or sentence, then a significant connection can be seen between

the two. For instance, with BRAShITh...B=BrAShITh...R=RAH...A=ALHIM...
S=ShIQBLV...I=IshRAL...Th=ThVRH (Berashith Rahi Elohim Sheyequebelo Israel Torah...meaning in
the beginning the Elohim saw that Israel would accept the Law). Indeed, there can be much study on each word that occurs in the text of first four books of Moses, realizing that each word can form an entire phrase or sentence--many significant, mystical truths can be discovered in this manner

The other form of Notariqon is the opposite of the one I just described. for example, the Qabalah is called the ChKMh NSThRH, Chokmah Nesethrah, meaning the secret wisdom...and if one takes the first letters of these words, Ch & N, one can form the word, ChN, Chen, meaning grace.

"Temura is permutation. According to certain rules, one letter is substituted for another letter preceding or following it in the alphabet, and thus from one word another word of totally different orthofroaphy may be formed. Thus the alphabet is bent exactly in half, in the middle, and one half is put over the other; and then by changing alternately the first letter or the first two letters at the beginning of thesecond line, twenty two commutations are produced. These are called the "Table of the Combinations of TzIRVP" Tziruph..."
This is one method, ALBTh, albath:
11    10     9     8     7     6     5     4     3     2     1
K      I      T    Ch   Z    V    H    D     G    B    A
M     N      S     O    P    Tz   Q    R     Sh Th   L

There are twenty one other methods of Temura, and it would take a good deal of time to explain them all, so for brevity, I will just give an example of Temura using the one method I illustrated above, albath. From the word RVCh, Ruach, is formed the word, DTzO, Detzau. Over the many thousands of years of study using all the methods of Temura, many significant correlations between words have been discovered and studied by Kabblist scholars. I will leave my discussion of the literal Qabalah now to persue a discussion of the dogmatic Qabalah.

The dogmatic Qabalah consists of the doctrinal portion of the Qabalah and contains many treatises, but can be concentrated into 4 works: the Sepher Yetzirah, the Zohar, the Sepher Sephiroth, and the Asch Metzareph.

The Sepher Yetzirah is known as the "Book of Formation." This teaching is attributed to Abraham. It contains the mystical interpretation of the origins of the Divine by relating these ideas into the symbols of the first ten numbers and the 22 letters of the ancient Hebrew alphabet. Thus making the "32 paths."

The Zohar, ZHR, or Splendor, consists of the following books, the SPRA DTzNIOVThA, Siphra Dtzenioutha, the "Book of Concealed Mystery" it is the "foundation" of the Zohar; the ADRA RBA QDIShA, Idra Rabba Qadisha, the "Greater Holy Assembly," which describes the unfolding evolution of the "Book of Concealed Mystery;" the ADRA ZVTA QDIShA, Idra Zuta Qadisha, the "Lesser Holy Assembly," which supplements the Idra Rabba. All 3 of these books explain the "gradual development of the creative Deity..." A fourth book, called the BITh ALHIM, Beth Elohim, the "House of Elohim" deals with "angels, demons, elemental spirits, and souls." The "Book of the Revolutions of Souls," is yet another.

The SPR SPIRVTh, Sepher Sephiroth, the "Book of Emanations," defines how the Divine evolved from a negative to positive existence.

The ASh MTzRP, Asch Metzareph, is a book also known as the "Purifying Fire." It is a work in alchemy.

S.L. MacGregor Mathers also explains that the principal doctrines of the Qabalah address the following concepts:
1. "The Supreme Being, His nature and attributes."
2. "The Cosmogony."
3. "The creations of angels and man."
4. "The destiny of man and angels."
5. "The nature of the soul."
6. "The nature of angels, demons, and elementals."
7. "The peculiar mysteries contained in the Hebrew letters."
8. "The equilibrium of contraries."

The opening line of "The Book of Concealed Mystery," explains an important concept, stating that it is a book about "the equilibrium of balance." It goes on to say that this "Equilibrium hangeth in that region which is negatively existent." Now, I would like to discuss "negative existence," just what is it? I'm sure most people can understand positive existence, but not too many perhaps can grasp the concept of negative existence. Yet isn't it logical that if a postive existence exists, then negative existence surely must too, as the opposing force of the positive existence. Yet, negative existence defies definition. So therefore the Qabalists say that the negative existence defies mortal comprehension, but it is a very important concept when understanding the the "primal forms of the unknowable and nameless One..."

Thus the Qabalists outline these primal forms for our understanding: the "AIN," the negatively existent One,
the "AIN SVP" (Ain Soph), which is the "Limitless Expansion," and the "AIN SVP AVR" (Ain Soph Aur), the "Illimitable Light." A quote from the Book of Concealed Mystery states: "Equilibrium hangeth in that region which is negatively existent." And indeed, just what is negative existence, can this be defined by human terms?
Most Qabalists do not feel that mankind can give an accurate definition to this concept. Yet, if one does some deep contemplation on the concepts of these primal forms of the Divine, one can start to see just what infinite wonder the Divine is. The Divine truly is the Absolute, in every existence there is and could be, and can not be easily concieved of by man's limited perceptions.

Before I venture on to explain the sephiroth further, it is vitally important to discuss the Ain, Zero...the great 'No-Thing'...this is from "A Garden of Pomegranetes," by Israel Regardie:

"The universe, as the sum total of all things and living creatures, is concieved as having its primeval origin in infinite space---Ain, "Nothing," or Parabrahman, the Causeless Cause of all manifestation. To quote the "Zohar":
--"Before having created any shape in the world, before having produced any form, He was alone, without form, resembling nothing. Who could comprehend Him as He then was, before creation, since He had no form?"

The Ain is not a being; it is No-Thing. That which is incomprehensible, unknown, and unknowable does not exist--at least, to be more accurate, insofar as our consciousness is concerned. Blavatsky defines this primal reality as an omnipresent, eternal, and boundless principle on which all speculation is utterly imposible, since it so transcends the power of human conception and thought that it would only be dwarfed by any similitude. That which is known and named is known and named not from a knowledge of its substance but from its limitations.

In itself, it is unknowable, unthinkable, unspeakable. Rabbi Azariel ben Menahem (born 1160 A.D.)...states that the Ain can neither be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in words, for there is no letter or word to grasp it...It is the Absolute or the Unknowable of the agnosticism of Herbert Spencer: the thrice-great Darkness of the Egyptian sacerdotal caste; and in the Chinese Tao which "resembleth the emptiness of space," and which "hath no Father; it is beyond all other conceptions, higher than the highest." In one of the meditations of Chuang Tzu, we find that "Tao cannot be existent. If it were existent, it could not be non-existent....Tao is something beyond material existences. It cannot be conveyed, either by words or by silence. In that state which is neither speech not silence, its trancendental nature may be apprehended." To this Qabalistic conception or principal of zer would be allocated Baruch Spinoza's definition of God or Substance: "That which requires for its conception, the conception of no other thing."

Another of the many symbols used by the Hindus to represent this zero was that of the serpent Anata, which enclosed the universe; its tail being swallowed in its mouth represented the re-entrant nature of infinity."

Now, for a discussion as to the 10 sephiroth (sephiroth is plural, while sephira is the singular form of the word) The highest, top, number 1 sephira is called Kether,(Crown) the Divine name attributed to this sephira is AHIH, (Eheieh), I AM. This sephira is refered to as the 'great FATHER of all things.' He is the ARIK ANPIN--the vast contenance or macroprosopus. For it is this top sephira that contains the other 9 sephiroth...

The second and third sephiroth are equal and with the highest sephira, forms the Perfect Triad.

From: "The Kabbalah Unveiled," by S.L. Macgregor Mathers: "Chokmah is the second sephira & is a "reflection" of the first sephira, the Father--ChKMH, Chokmah, Wisdom, a masculine active potency reflected from Kether, the Father. This second sephira is represented by the Divine names IH, Yah & IHVH, Yahweh...for how else can the One,1, multiply itself? 1x1=1...or divide itself? 1 divided by 1 is still one...but one reflecting itself, 1+1=2 is Emanation...

The third Sephira, or Triad is a feminine passive potency, called BINH, 'Binah,' the Understanding, who is co-equal with (the second Sephira) Chokmah. For Chokmah, the number 2, is like two straight lines which can never enclose a space, and therefore it is powerless till the number three forms the triangle. Thus this Sephira completes and makes evident the supernal Trinity. It is also called AMA, 'Ama,' MOTHER, and AIMA, Aima, the great productive Mother, who is eternally conjoined with AB, the Father, for the maintenance of the universe in order. Therefore is she the most evident form in whom we can know the Father, and therefore is she worthy of all honour. She is the supernal Mother, co-equal with Chokmah, and the great feminine form of God, the ELOHIM, in whose image man and woman, are created according to the teaching of the Qabalah, 'equal before God.'...To her are attributed the Divine names, ALHIM, 'Elohim,' and IHVH ALHIM: and the angelic order, ARALIM, Aralim, the Thrones. She is the supernal Mother..."

The Fourth Sephira is produced by the union of the second and third Sephiroth. The names given to this Sephira are CHSD--Chesed, which means Mercy or Love--and also GDVLH--Gedulah, which means Greatness or Magnificence. It is a "masculine potency represented by the Divine Name AL, El, the Mighty One, and the angelic name, CHSHMLIM, Chashmalim, Scintilating Flames..."

The Fifth Sephira emanates the feminine passive potency, GBVRH, Geburah, which means strength or fortitude; or DIN, Deen, which means Justice. It is represented by the Divine Names, ALHIM GBVR, and ALH, Eloh; and the angelic name SHRPIM, Seraphim. This Sephira is also called PCHD, Pachad, which means Fear.

The Sixth Sephira is the uniting Sephira of the Fourth and Fifth Sephiroth. The name given to this Sephira is THPARTH--Tiphereth, which means Beauty or Mildness. It is represented by the Divine Name ALVH VDOTH, Eloah Va-Daath and the angelic names, Shinanim (SHNANIM) or Melakim (MLKIM), which means King. "Thus by the union of justice and mercy we obtain beauty or clemency, and the second trinity of the Sephiroth is complete..."

As S.L.M. Mathers stated: "This Sephira or "Path," or "Numeration"--for by these latter appellations the emanations are sometimes called--together with the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth Sephiroth, is spoken of as ZOIR ANPIN, Zauir Anpin, the Lesser Contenance, or Microprosopus, by way of antithesis to Macroprosopus, or the Vast Countenance, which is one of the names of Kether, the first Sephira. The sixth Sephiroth of which Zauir Anpin is composed, are then called his six members. He is also called MLK, Melekh, the King..."

I will continue the discussion of the remaining Sephiroth on the next page...
CONTINUED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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