Galvanism, Electricity, and Magnetism. The electric spark is light, and
so is that produced by the flint, when it cuts off particles of steel.
Iron, melted or heated, radiates light; and insects, infusoria, and
decayed wood emit it. Heat is produced by friction and by pressure; to
explain which, Science tells us of _latent_ Caloric, thus representing
it to us as existing without its only known distinctive quality. What
quality of matter enables lightning, blazing from the Heavens, to rend
the oak? What quality of matter enables it to make the circuit of the
earth in a score of seconds?
Profoundly ignorant of the nature of these mighty agents of Divine
Power, we conceal our ignorance by words that have no meaning; and we
might well be asked _why_ Light may not be an effluence from the Deity,
as has been agreed by all the religions of all the Ages of the World.
All truly dogmatic religions have issued from the Kabalah and return to
it: everything scientific and grand in the religious dreams of all the
illuminati, Jacob Bœhme, Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, and others, is
borrowed from the Kabalah; all the Masonic associations owe to it their
Secrets and their Symbols.
The Kabalah alone consecrates the alliance of the Universal Reason and
the Divine Word; it establishes, by the counterpoises of two forces
apparently opposite, the eternal balance of being; it alone reconciles
Reason with Faith, Power with Liberty, Science with Mystery; it has the
keys of the Present, the Past, and the Future.
The Bible, with all the allegories it contains, expresses, in an
incomplete and veiled manner only, the religious science of the Hebrews.
The doctrine of Moses and the Prophets, identical at bottom with that of
the ancient Egyptians, also had its outward meaning and its veils. The
Hebrew books were written only to recall to memory the traditions; and
they were written in Symbols unintelligible to the Profane. The
Pentateuch and the prophetic poems were merely elementary books of
doctrine, morals, or liturgy; and the true secret and traditional
philosophy was only written afterward, under veils still less
transparent. Thus was a second Bible born, unknown to, or rather
uncomprehended by, the Christians; a collection, _they_ say, of
monstrous absurdities; a monument, the adept says, wherein is everything
that the genius of philosophy and that of religion have ever formed or
imagined of the sublime; a treasure surrounded by thorns; a diamond
concealed in a rough dark stone.
One is filled with admiration, on penetrating into the Sanctuary of the
Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine so logical, so simple, and at the same
time so absolute. The necessary union of ideas and signs, the
consecration of the most fundamental realities by the primitive
characters; the Trinity of Words, Letters, and Numbers; a philosophy
simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite as the Word; theorems more
complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology summed up by
counting on one's fingers; an Infinite which can be held in the hollow
of an infant's hand; ten ciphers, and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a
square, and a circle,--these are all the elements of the Kabalah. These
are the elementary principles of the written Word, reflection of that
spoken Word that created the world!
This is the doctrine of the Kabalah, with which you will no doubt seek
to make yourself acquainted, as to the Creation.
The Absolute Deity, with the Kabalists, has no name. The terms applied
to Him are אור פשו, AOR PASOT, the Most Simple [or Pure] Light, "called
אור סוףּ, AYEN SOPI, or INFINITE, before any Emanation. For then there
was no space or vacant place, but all was infinite Light."
Before the Deity created any Ideal, any limited and intelligible Nature,
or any form whatever, He was alone, and without form or similitude, and
there could be no cognition or comprehension of Him in any wise. He was
without Idea or Figure, and it is forbidden to form any Idea or Figure
of Him, neither by the letter He (ה), nor by the letter Yōd (י), though
these are contained in the Holy Name; nor by any other letter or point
in the world.
But after He created this Idea [this limited and
existing-in-intellection Nature, which the ten Numerations, SEPHIROTH
or Rays are], of the Medium, the First Man ADAM KADMON, He descended
therein, that, by means of this Idea, He might be called by the name
TETRAGRAMMATON; that created things might have cognition of Him, in His
own likeness.
When the Infinite God willed to emit what were to flow forth, He
contracted Himself in the centre of His light, in such manner that most
intense light should recede to a certain circumference, and on all sides
upon itself. And this is the first contraction, and termed צמצם,
_Tsemsum_.
אדם קדמון, ADAM KADMON, the Primal or First Man, is the first Aziluthic
emanant from the Infinite Light, immitted into the evacuated Space, and
from which, afterward, all the other degrees and systems had their
beginnings. It is called the Adam prior to all the first. In it are
imparted ten spherical numerations; and thereafter issued forth the
rectilinear figure of a man in his sephirothic decade, as it were the
diameter of the said circles; as it were the axis of these spheres,
reaching from their highest point to their lowest; and from it depend
all the systems.
But now, as the Infinite Light would be too excellent and great to be
borne and endured, except through the medium of this Adam Kadmon, its
most Secret Nature preventing this, its illuminating light had again to
emanate in streams out of itself, by certain apertures, as it were, like
windows, and which are termed the ears, eyes, nostrils, and mouth.
The light proceeding from this Adam Kadmon is indeed but one; but in
proportion to its remoteness from the place of out-flowing, and to the
grades of its descent, it is more dense.
From the word אצל, ATSIL, to emanate or flow forth, comes the word
אצילוח, ATSILOTH or Aziluth, Emanation, or the System of Emanants. When
the primal space was evacuated, the surrounding Light of the Infinite,
and the Light immitted into the void, did not touch each other; but the
Light of the Infinite flowed into that void through a line or certain
slender canal; and that Light is the Emanative and emitting Principle,
or the out-flow and origin of Emanation: but the Light within the void
is the emanant subordinate; and the two cohere only by means of the
aforesaid line.
Aziluth means specifically and principally the first system of the four
Olamoth [עלמות], worlds or systems; which is thence called the Aziluthic
World.
The ten Sephiroth of the general Aziluthic system are ten Nekudoth or
Points.
איןות, AINSOPH, AENSOPH, or AYENSOPH, is the title of the Cause of
Causes, its meaning being "_endless_" because there is no limit to Its
loftiness, and nothing can comprehend it. Sometimes, also, the name is
applied to KETHER, or the CROWN, the first emanation, because that is
the Throne of the Infinite, that is, its first and highest Seat, than
which none is higher, and because Ainsoph resides and is concealed
therein: hence it rejoices in the same name.
Before that anything was, says the _Emech Hammelech_, He, of His mere
will, proposed to Himself to make worlds ... but at that time there was
no vacant space for worlds; but all space was filled with the light of
His Substance, which He had with fixed limits placed in the centre of
Himself, and of the parts whereof, and wherein, He was thereafter to
effect a folding together.
What then did the Lord of the Will, that most perfectly free Agent, do?
By His own estimation, He measured off within His own Substance the
width and length of a circular space to be made vacant, and wherein
might be posited the worlds aforesaid; and of that Light which was
included within the circle so measured, He compressed and folded over a
certain portion ... and that Light He lifted higher up, and so a place
was left unoccupied by the Primal Light.
But yet was not this space left altogether empty of that Light; for the
vestiges of the Primal Light still remained in the place where Itself
had been; and they did not recede therefrom.
Before the Emanations out-flowed, and created things were created, the
Supreme Light was infinitely extended, and filled the whole _Where_:
nothing _was_, except that extended light, called AOR H' AINSOPH, the
Light of the non-finite.
When it came into the mind of the Extended to will to make worlds, and
by forth-flowing to utter Emanations, and to emit as Light the
perfection of His active powers, and of His aspects and attributes,
which was the impelling cause of the creation of worlds; then that
Light, in some measure compressed, receded in every direction from a
particular central point, and on all sides of it drew back, and so a
certain vacuum was left, called void space, its circumference everywhere
equidistant from that point which was exactly in the centre of the
space ... a certain void place and space left in Mid-Infinite: a certain
_Where_ was thereby constituted wherein Emanations might BE, and the
Created, the Fashioned and the Fabricated.
This world of the _garmenting_,--this circular vacant space, with the
vestiges of the withdrawn light of the Infinite yet remaining, is the
inmost garment, nearest to His substance; and to it belongs the name AOR
PENAI-AL, _Light of the Countenance of God_.
An interspace surrounds this great circle, established _between_ the
light of the _very_ substance, surrounding the circle on its outside,
and the substance contained _within_ the circle. This is called SPLENDOR
EXCELSES, in contradistinction to Simple Splendor.
This light "of the vestige of the garment," is said to be, relatively to
that of the vestige of the substance, like a point in the centre of a
circle. This light, a point in the centre of the Great Light, is called
Auir, Ether, or Space.
This Ether is somewhat more gross than the Light--not so Subtle--_though
not perceptible by the Senses_--is termed the Primal Ether--extends
everywhere; Philosophers call it _the Soul of the World._
The Light so _forth-shown_ from the Deity, cannot be said to be
_severed_ or _diverse_ from Him. "It is flashed forth from Him, and yet
all continues to be perfect unity..." The Sephiroth, sometimes called
the _Persons_ of the Deity, _are His rays_, by which He is enabled most
perfectly to manifest Himself.
The Introduction to the Book SOHAR says:
The first compression was effected, in order that the Primal Light might
be upraised, and a space become vacant. The second compression occurred
when the vestiges of the removed Light remaining were compressed into
points; and that compression was effected by means of the emotion of
joy; the Deity rejoicing, it had already been said, on account of His
Holy People, thereafter to come into being; and that joy being vehement,
and a commotion and exhilaration in the Deity being caused by it, so
that He flowed forth in His delight; and of this commotion an abstract
power of judgment being generated, which is a collection of the letters
generated by the points of the vestiges of Light left within the circle.
_For He writes the finite expressions, or limited manifestations of
Himself upon the Book, in single letters_.
Like as when water or fire, it had been said, is blown upon by the wind,
it is wont to be greatly moved, and with flashes like lightning to
smite the eyes, and gleam and coruscate hither and thither, even so The
Infinite was moved within Himself, and shone and coruscated in that
circle, from the centre outward and again to the centre: and that
commotion we term exhilaration; and from that exhilaration, variously
divided within Himself, was generated the potency of determining the
fashioning of the letters.
Of that exhilaration, it had also been said, was generated the
determination of _forms_, by which determination the Infinite determined
them within Himself, as if by saying: "Let this Sphere be the appointed
place, wherein let all worlds be created!"
He, by radiating and coruscating, effected the points, so that their
sparkling should smite the eyes like lightning. Then He combined
diversely the single points, until _letters_ were fashioned thereof, in
the similitude and image of those wherewith THE BLESSED had set forth
the decrees of His Wisdom.
It is not possible to attain to an understanding of the creation of man,
except by the mystery of letters; and in these worlds of The Infinite is
nothing, except the letters of the Alphabet and their combinations. All
the worlds are Letters and Names; but He Who is the Author of all, has
no name.
This world of the covering [or _garment--vestimenti_], [that is, the
circular vacant space, with the vestiges of the removed Light of The
Infinite still remaining after the first contraction and compression],
is the _inmost_ covering, _nearest_ to His substance; and to this
covering belongs the general name AUR PENIAL, _Light of the Countenance
of God_: by which we are to understand the Light of The Substance.
And after this covering was effected, He contracted it, so as to lift up
the lower moiety; ... and this is the _third_ contraction; and in this
manner He made vacant a space for the worlds, which had not the capacity
to use the great Light of the covering, the end whereof was lucid and
excellent as its beginning. And so [by drawing up the lower half and
half the letters], are made the _Male_ and _Female_, that is, the
anterior and posterior adhering mutually to one another.
The vacant space effected by this retraction is called AUIR KADMON, the
PRIMAL SPACE: for it was the first of all Spaces; nor was it allowable
to call it _covering_, which is AUR PENI-BAL, the Light of the
Countenance of God.
The vestiges of the Light of the Garment still remained there. And this
world of the garment has a name _that includes all things_, which is the
name IHUH. Before the world of the vacant space was created, HE was, and
His Name, and they alone; that is, AINSOPH and His garmenting.
The EMECH HAMMELECH says again:
The lower half of the garment [by the third retraction], was left empty
of the light of the garment. But the vestiges of that light remained in
the place so vacated ... and _this_ garment is called SHEKINAH, God
in-dwelling; that is, the place where יה Yöd He, of the anterior [or
male], and וה Vav He, of the posterior [or female], combinations of
letters dwelt.
This vacant space was square, and is called the _Primal Space_; and in
Kabalah it is called _Auira Kadmah_, or _Rasimu Ailah_, The Primal
Space, or The Sublime Vestige. It is the vestige of the Light of the
Garment, with which is intermingled somewhat of the vestige of the Very
Substance. It is called _Primal Ether_, but not void Space ... The Light
of the Vestige still remains in the place it occupied, and adheres
there, like somewhat spiritual, of extreme tenuity.
In this Ether are two Lights; that is, the Light of the SUBSTANCE, which
was taken away, and that of the Garment. There is a vast difference
between the two; for that of the Vestige of the Garment is, relatively
to that of the Vestige of the Substance, _like a point in the centre of
a circle_. And as the only appropriate name for the Light of the Vestige
of Ainsoph is AUR, _Light_, therefore the Light of the Vestige of the
Garment could not be called by _that_ name; and so we term it a point,
that is, Yōd [' or י], which is that point in the centre of Light ...
and _this_ Light, a point in the centre of the Great Light, is called
_Auir_, Ether, or Space.
This Ether is somewhat more gross than The Light ... not so subtle,
though not perceptible by the senses ... is termed the Primal Ether ...
extends everywhere; whence the Philosophers call it The Soul of the
World ... Light is visible, though not perceptible. _This Ether is
neither perceptible nor visible_.
The Introduction to the Book Sohar continues, in the Section of the
Letter Yōd, etc:
Worlds could not be framed in this Primal Ether, on account of its
extreme tenuity and the excess of Light; and also, because in it
remained the vital Spirit of the Vestige of the Light Ainsoph, and that
of the Vestige of the Light of the Garment; whereby such manifestation
was prevented.
Wherefore HE directed the letter Yōd, since it was not so brilliant as
the Primal Ether, to descend, and take to itself the light remaining in
the Primal Ether, and return above, with that Vestige which so impeded
the manifestation; which Yōd did.
It descended below five times, to remove the vital Spirit of the Vestige
of the Light Ainsoph; and the Vestige of the Light and vital Spirit of
the Garment from the Sphere of Splendor, so as to make of it ADAM,
called KADMON. And by its return, manifestation is effected in the space
below, and a Vestige of the Sublime Brilliance yet remains there,
existing as a Spherical Shape, and termed in the Sohar simply _Tehiru_,
that is, Splendor; and it is styled The First Matter ... it being, as it
were, vapor, and, as it were, smoke. And as smoke is formless, not
comprehended under any fixed definite form, so this Sphere is a formless
somewhat, since it seems to be somewhat that is spherical, and yet is
not limited.
The letter Yōd, while adhering to the Shekinah, had adhering, to himself
the Light of the Shekinah, though his light was not so great as that of
the Shekinah. But when he descended, he left that light of his own
below, and the Splendor consisted of it. After which there was left in
Yōd only a vestige of that light, inasmuch as he could not re-ascend to
the Shekinah and adhere to it. Wherefore The Holy and Blessed directed
the letter He [Hebrew: ה], the female letter, to communicate to Yōd of
her Light; and sent him forth, to descend and share with _that_ light in
the Splendor aforesaid ... and when he re-descended into the Sphere of
Splendor, he diffused abroad in it the Light communicated to him by the
letter He.
And when he again ascended he left behind him the productive light of
the letter He, and thereof was constituted another Sphere, _within_ the
Sphere of Splendor; which _lesser_ Sphere is termed in the Sohar KETHER
AILAH, CORONA SUMMA, _The Supreme Crown_, and also ATIKA DE ATIKIM,
_Antiquus Antiquum, The Ancient of Ancients_, and even AIUT H' AIUT,
_Causa Causarum, the Cause of Causes_. But the Crown is very far smaller
than the Sphere of Splendor, so that within the latter an immense
unoccupied place and space is still left.
The BETH ALOHIM says:
Before the Infinite God, the Supreme and First Good, formed objectively
within Himself a particular conception, definite, limited, and the
object of intellection, and gave form and shape to an intellectual
conception and image. HE was alone, companionless, without form or
similitude, utterly without Ideal or Figure ... It is forbidden to make
of Him any figure whatever, by any image in the world, neither by the
letter He nor by the letter Yōd, nor by any other letter or point in the
world.
But after He had formed this Idea, the particular conception, limited
and intelligible, which the Ten Numerations are, of the medium of
transmission, Adam Kadmon, the Primal or Supreme Man, He by that medium
descended, and may, through that Idea, be called by the name IHUH, and
so created things have cognizance of Him, by means of His proper
likeness.
Woe unto him who makes God to be like unto any mode or attribute
whatever, even were it to one of His own; and still more if he make Him
like unto the Sons of Men, whose elements are earthly, and so are
consumed and perish!
There can be no conception had of Him, except in so far as He manifests
Himself, in exercising dominion by and through some attribute ...
Abstracted from this, there can be no attribute, conception, or ideal of
Him. He is comparable only to the Sea, filling some great reservoir, its
bed in the earth, for example; wherein it fashions for itself a certain
concavity, so that thereby we may begin to compute the dimensions of the
Sea itself.
For example, the Spring and Source of the Ocean is a somewhat, which is
_one_. If from this Source or Spring there issues forth a certain
fountain, proportioned to the space occupied by the Sea in that
hemispherical reservoir, such as is the letter Yōd, there the Source of
Spring is the first somewhat, and the fountain that flows forth from it
is the second. Then let there be made a great reservoir, as by
excavation, and let this be called the Ocean, and we have the third
thing, a vessel [_Vas_]. Now let this great reservoir be divided into
seven beds of rivers, that is, into seven oblong reservoirs, so that
from this ocean the waters may flow forth in seven rivers; and the
Source, Fountain, and Ocean thus make _ten_ in all.
The Cause of Causes made ten Numerations, and called the Source of
Spring KETHER, _Corona_, the Crown, in which the idea of circularity is
involved, for there is no _end_ to the out-flow of Light; and therefore
He called this, like Himself, _endless_; for this also, like Him, has no
similitude or configuration, nor hath it any vessel or receptacle
wherein it may be contained, or by means whereof any possible cognizance
can be had of it.
After thus forming the Crown, He constituted a certain smaller
receptacle, the letter Yōd, and filled it from that source; and this is
called "The Fountain gushing with Wisdom," and, manifested in this, He
called Himself WISE, and the vessel He called HAKEMAH, _Wisdom,
Sapientia_.
Then He also constituted a great reservoir, which He called the Ocean;
and to it He gave the name of BINAH, Understanding, _Intelligentia_. In
this He characterized Himself as Intelligent or _Conceiver_. HE is
indeed the Absolutely Wise and Intelligent, but Hakemah is not Absolute
Wisdom of itself, _but is wise by means of Binah_, who fills Himself
from it, and if this supply were taken from it, would be dry and
unintelligent.
And thereupon seven precious vessels become, to which are given the
following names: GEDULAH, _Magnificence_ or _Benignity_ [or KHASED,
_Mercy_]; GEBURAH, _Austerity, Rigor_ or _Severity_; TEPHARETH;
_Beauty_; NETSAKH, _Victory_; HŌD, _Glory_; YESOD, _Foundation_ or
_Basis_; and MALAKOTH, _Rule, Reign, Royalty, Dominion_ or _Power_. And
in GEDULAH He took the character of _Great_ and _Benignant_; in GEBURAH,
of _Severe_; in TEPHARETH, of _Beautiful_; in NETSAKH, of _Overcoming_;
in HŌD, of OUR GLORIOUS AUTHOR; in YESOD, of _Just_, by Yesod all
vessels and worlds being upheld; and in MALAKOTH He applied to Himself
the title of _King_.
These numerations or Sephiroths are held in the Kabala to have been
originally contained in each other; that is, Kether contained the nine
others, Hakemah contained Binah, and Binah contained the last seven.
For all things, says the commentary of Rabbi _Jizchak Lorja_, in a
certain most abstruse manner, consist or reside and are contained in
Binah, and it projects them, and sends them downward, species by
species, into the several worlds of Emanation, Creation, Formation, and
Fabrication; all whereof are derived from what are above them, and are
termed their out-flowings; for, from the potency which was their state
there, they descend into actuality.
The INTRODUCTION says:
It is said in many places in the Sohar, that all things that emanate or
are created have their root above. Hence also the Ten Sephiroth have
their root above, in the world of the garment, with the very Substance
of HIM. And AINSOPH had full consciousness and appreciation, prior to
their actual existence, of all the Grades and Impersonations contained
unmanifested within Himself, with regard to the essence of each, and its
domination then in potency ... When He came to the Sephirah of the
Impersonation Malakoth, which He then contained hidden within Himself,
He concluded within Himself that therein worlds should be framed; since
the scale of the first nine Sephiroths was so constituted, that it was
neither fit nor necessary for worlds to be framed from _them_; for all
the attributes of these nine Superior Sephiroth could be assigned to
Himself, even if He should never operate outwardly; but Malakoth, which
is Empire or Dominion, could not be attributed to Him, unless He ruled
over other Existences; whence from the point Malakoth He produced all
the worlds into actuality.
These circles are ten in number. Originated by points, they expanded in
circular shape. Ten Circles, under the mystery of the ten Sephiroth, and
between them ten Spaces; whence it appears that the sphere of Splendor
is in the centre of the space Malakoth of the First Occult Adam.