First _occult_ Adam; and in each of these spaces are formed many
thousand worlds. The first Adam is _involved_ in the Primal Ether, and
is the analogue of the world Binah.
Again the Introduction repeats the first and second descent of Yōd into
the vacated space, to make the light there less great and subtile; the
constitution of the _Tehiru_, Splendor, from the light left behind there
by him; the communication of Light to him by the female letter He; the
emission by him of that Light, within the sphere of Splendor, and the
formation thereof, within the sphere "of a certain sphere called the
Supreme Crown," _Corona Summa_, KETHER, "wherein were contained, in
potence, all the remaining Numerations, so that they were not
distinguishable from it. Precisely as in man exist the four elements, in
potence specifically undistinguishable, so in this Corona were in
potence all the ten Numerations, specifically undistinguishable." This
Crown, it is added, was called, after the restoration, The Cause of
Causes, and the Ancient of the Ancients.
The point, Kether, adds the Introduction, was the aggregate of all the
Ten ... when it first emanated, it consisted of all the Ten; and the
Light which extended from the Emanative Principle simultaneously flowed
into _it_; and beheld the two _Universals_ [that is, the Unities out of
which manifoldness flows; as, for example, the _idea_, within the Deity,
of Humanity as a Unit, out of which the individuals were to flow], the
Vessel or Receptacle containing this immitted Light, and the Light
Itself within it. And _this Light is the Substance of the point Kether;
for the WILL, of God is the Soul of all things that are_.
The Ainsophic Light, it had said, was infinite in every direction, and
without end or limit. To prevent it from flowing into and re-filling the
quasi-vacant space, occupied by an infinitely less Splendor, a partition
between the greater and lesser Splendor was necessary; and this
partition, the boundary of the sphere of Splendor, and a like one
bounding the sphere Kether, were called _Vessels_ or _Receptacles,
containing_, including, and enclosing within themselves the light of the
sphere. Imagine a sea of pellucid water, and in the centre of it a
spherical mass of denser and darker water. The outer surface of this
sphere, or its limits every way, is the vessel containing it. The
Kabalah regards the vessels "as by their nature somewhat opaque, and not
so splendid as the light they enclose."
The contained Light is the Soul of the vessels, and is active in them,
like the Human Soul in the human body. The Light of the Emanative
Principle [Ainsoph] _inheres_ in the vessels, as their _Life_, internal
_Light_, and _Soul_ ... Kether emanated, with its Very Substance, at the
same time as Substance and Vessel, in like manner as the flame is
annexed to the live coal, and as the Soul pervades, and is within, the
body. All the Numerations were potentially contained in it.
And this potentiality is thus explained: When a woman conceives, a Soul
is immediately sent into the embryo which is to become the infant, in
which Soul are then, potentially, all the members and veins of the body,
which afterward, from that potency of the Soul, _become_ in the human
body of the child to be born.
Then the wisdom of God commanded that these Numerations potentially in
Kether, should be produced from potentiality into actuality, in order
that worlds might consist; and HE directed Yōd again to descend, and to
enter into and shine within Kether, and then to re-ascend: which was so
done. From which illumination and re-ascension, all the other
numerations, potentially in Kether, were manifested and disclosed; but
they continued still compacted together, remaining within Kether in a
circle.
When God willed to produce the other emanations or numerations from
Kether, it is added, HE sent Yōd down again, to the upper part of
Kether, one-half of him to remain without and one-half to penetrate
within the sphere of Kether. Then He sent the letter Vav into the
Splendor, to pour out its light on Yōd: and thus,--
Yōd received light from Vav, and thereby so directed his countenance
that it should illuminate and confer exceeding great energy on Hakemah,
which yet remained in Kether; so giving it the faculty to proceed forth
therefrom; and that it might collect and contain within itself, and
there reveal, all the other eight numerations, until that time in
Kether.
The sphere of Kether opened, and thereout issued Hakemah, to remain
below Kether, containing in itself all the other numerations.
By a similar process, Binah, illuminated within Hakemah by a second Yōd,
"issued forth out of Hakemah, having within itself the Seven lower
Numerations."
And since the vessel of Binah was excellent, and coruscated with rays of
the color of sapphire, and was so nearly of the same color as the vessel
of Hakemah that there was scarcely any difference between them, hence it
would not quietly remain below Hakemah, but rose, and placed itself on
his left side.
And because the light from above profusely flowed into and accumulated
in the vessel of Hakemah, to so great an extent that it overflowed, and
escaped, coruscating, outside of that vessel, and, flowing off to the
left, communicated potency and increase to the vessel of Binah.... For
Binah is _female_....
Binah, therefore, by means of this energy that flowed into it from the
left side of Hakemah, by virtue of the second Yōd, came to possess such
virtue and potency, as to project beyond itself the Seven remaining
vessels contained within itself, and so emitted them all, continuously,
one after the other ... all connected and linked one with the other,
like the links of a chain.
Three points first emanated, one under the other; Kether, Hakemah, and
Binah; and, so far, there was no copulation. But afterward the positions
of Hakemah and Binah changed, so that they were side by side, Kether
remaining above them; and then conjunction of the Male and Female, ABA
and IMMA, _Father_ and _Mother_, as points.
He, from Whom all emanated, created Adam Kadmon, consisting of all the
worlds, so that in him should be somewhat from those above, and somewhat
from those below. Hence in Him was NEPHESCH [PSYCHE, _anima infima_, the
lowest spiritual part of man, _Soul_], from the world ASIAH, which is
one letter _He_ of the Tetragrammaton; _RUACH_ [SPIRITUS, _anima media_,
the next higher spiritual part, or _Spirit_], from the world YEZIRAH,
which is the _Vav_ of the Tetragrammaton; NESCHAMAH [the highest
spiritual part, _mens_ or _anima superior_], from the world BRIAH, which
is the other letter _He_; and NESCHAMAH LENESCHAMAH, from the world
ATSILUTH, which is the YŌD of the Tetragrammaton.
And these letters [the Sephiroth] were changed from the spherical form
into the form of a person, the symbol of which person is the BALANCE, it
being _Male_ and _Female_ ... Hakemah on one side, Binah on the other,
and Kether over them: and so Gedulah on one side, Geburah on the other,
and Tephareth under them.
The Book _Omschim_ says: Some hold that the ten Sephiroth succeeded one
another in ten degrees, one above the other, in regular gradation, one
connected with the other in a direct line, from the highest to the
lowest. Others hold that they issued forth in three lines, parallel with
each other, one on the right hand, one on the left, and one in the
middle; so that, beginning with the highest and going clown to the
lowest, Hakemah, Khased [or Gedulah], and Netsach are one over the
other, in a perpendicular line, on the right hand; Binah, Geburah, and
Hōd on the left; and Kether, Tephareth, Yesod, and Malakoth in the
middle: and many hold that all the ten subsist in circles, one within
the other, and all homocentric.
It is also to be noted, that the Sephirothic tables contain still
another numeration, sometimes called also a Sephirah, which is called
Daath, cognition. It is in the middle, below Hakemah and Binah, and is
the result of the conjunction of these two.
To Adam Kadmon, the Idea of the Universe, the Kabalah assigns a human
form. In this, Kether is the cranium, Hakemah and Binah the two lobes
of the brain, Gedulah and Geburah the two arms, Tephareth the trunk,
Netsach and Hōd the thighs, Yesod the male organ, and Malkuth the female
organ, of generation.
Yōd is Hakemah, and He Binah; Vav is Tephareth, and the last He,
Malkuth.
The whole, say the Books _Mysterii_ or of _Occultation_, is thus summed
up: The intention of God The Blessed was to form Impersonations, in
order to diminish the Light. Wherefore HE constituted, in
Macroprosopos, Adam Kadmon, or Arik Anpin; three Heads. The first is
called, "The Head whereof is no cognition"; the second, "The Head of
that which is non-existent"; and the third, "The Very Head of
Macroprosopos"; and these three are _Corona, Sapientia_, and
_Informatio_, Kether, Hakemah, and Binah, existent in the Corona of the
World of Emanation, or in Macroprosopos; and these three are called in
the Sohar ATIKA KADISCHA, _Senex Sanctissimus_, The Most Holy Ancient.
But the Seven inferior Royalties of the first Adam are called "The
Ancient of Days"; and this Ancient of Days is the internal part, or
Soul, of Macroprosopos.
The human mind has never struggled harder to understand and explain to
itself the process of creation, and of Divine manifestation, _and at the
same time to conceal its thoughts from all but the initiated_, than in
the Kabalah. Hence, much of it seems at first like jargon. Macroprosopos
or Adam Kadmon is, we have said, the idea or intellectual aggregate of
the whole Universe, included and contained unevolved in the manifested
Deity, Himself yet contained unmanifested in the Absolute. The Head,
Kether, "whereof is no cognition," is the _Will_ of the Deity, or the
Deity _as_ Will. Hakemah, the head "of that which is non-existent," is
the Generative Power of begetting or producing Thought; yet _in_ the
Deity, not in action, and therefore non-existent. Binah, "the very or
actual head" of Macroprosopos, is the productive intellectual capacity,
which, impregnated by Hakemah, is to _produce_ the Thought. This Thought
is Daath; or rather, the result is Intellection, Thinking; the Unity, of
which Thoughts are the manifold outflowings.
This may be illustrated by a comparison. Pain, in the human being, is a
feeling or sensation. It must be _produced_. To produce it, there must
be, not only the _capacity_ to _produce_ it, in the nerves, but also the
_power_ of _generating_ it by means of that capacity. This generative
Power, the Passive Capacity which produces, and the pain produced, are
like Hakemah, Binah, and Daath.
The four Worlds or Universals, Aziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiah, of
Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Fabrication, are another enigma of
the Kabalah. The first three are wholly _within_ the Deity. The first is
the Universe, as it exists potentially in the Deity, determined and
imagined, but as yet wholly formless and undeveloped, except so far as
it is contained in His Emanations. The second is the Universe in idea,
distinct within the Deity, but not invested with forms; a simple unity.
The third is the same Universe in potence in the Deity, unmanifested,
but invested with forms,--the idea developed into manifoldness and
individuality, and succession of species and individuals; and the fourth
is the potentiality become the Actuality, the Universe fabricated, and
existing as it exists for us.
The Sephiroth, says the _Porta Cœlorum_, by the virtue of their Infinite
Emanator, who uses them as a workman uses his tools, and who operates
with and through them, are the cause of existence of everything created,
formed, and fashioned, employing in their production certain _media_.
But these same _Sephiroth, Persons_ and _Lights_, are not creatures _per
se_, but _ideas_, and _Rays_ of THE INFINITE, which, by different
gradations, so descended from the Supreme Source as still not to be
severed from It; but It, through them, is extended to the production and
government of all Entities, and is the Single and Perfect Universal
Cause of All, though becoming determinate for this or the other
operation, through this or that Sephiroth or MODE.
God produced all things by His Intellect and Will and free
Determination. He willed to produce them by the mediation of His
Sephiroth, and Persons ... by which He is enabled most perfectly to
manifest Himself; and that the _more_ perfectly, by producing the causes
themselves, and the Causes of Causes, and not merely the viler effects.
God produced, in the first Originate, all the remaining causates. For,
as He Himself is most simply One, and from One Simple Being One only can
_im_mediately proceed, hence it results that from the First Supreme
Infinite Unity flowed forth at the same time All and One. One, that is,
in so far as flowing from the Most Simple Unity, and being like unto It;
but also All, in so far as, departing from that perfect Singleness which
can be measured by no other Singleness, it became, to a certain extent,
manifold, though still Absolute and Perfect.
Emanation, says the same, is the Resulting displayed from the
Unresulting, the Finite from the Infinite, the Manifold and Composite
from the Perfect Single and Simple, Potentiality from that which is
Infinite Power _and_ Act, the mobile from that which is perennially
permanent; and therefore in a more imperfect and diminished mode than
His Infinite Perfection is. As the First Cause is all things, in an
unresulting and Infinite mode, so the Entities that flow from Him are
the First Causes, in a resulting and finite mode.
THE NECESSARY ENTITY, subsisting of Itself, as It cannot be dissevered
into the manifold, yet becomes, as it were, multiplied in the Causates,
in respect of their Nature, or of the Subsistences, Vessels, and
openings assigned to them; whereby the Single and Infinite Essence,
being inclosed or comprehended in these limits, bounds, or
externalnesses, takes on Itself Definiteness of dimension, and becomes
Itself manifold, by the manifoldness of these envelopes.
As man [the unit of Humanity] is a microcosm, so Adam Kadmon is a
macrocosm, containing all the Causates of the First Cause ... as the
Material Man is the end and completion of all creation, so in the Divine
Man is the beginning thereof. As the inferior Adam _receives_ all things
_from_ all, so the superior Adam _supplies_ all things _to_ all. As the
former is the principle of _reflected_ light, so the latter is of
_Direct_ Light. The former is the terminus of the Light, descending; the
latter its terminus, ascending. As the Inferior man ascends from the
lowest matter even to the First Cause, so the Superior Adam descends
from the Simple and Infinite Act, even to the lowest and most attenuated
Potence.
The Ternary is the bringing back of duality to unity.
The Ternary is the Principle of Number, because, bringing back the
binary to unity, it restores to it the same quantity whereby it had
departed from unity. It is the first odd number, containing in itself
the first even number and the unit, which are the Father and Mother of
all Numbers; and it has in itself the beginning, middle, and end.
Now, Adam Kadmon emanated from the Absolute Unity, and so is himself a
unit; but he also descends and flows downward into his own Nature, and
so is duality. Again, he returns to the Unity, which he hath in himself,
and to The Highest, and so is the Ternary and Quaternary.
And this is why the Essential Name has four letters,--three different
ones, and one of them once repeated; since the first He is the wife of
the Yōd, and the second He is the wife of the Vav.
Those _media_ which manifest the First Cause, in Himself profoundly
hidden, are the Sephiroth, which emanate immediately from that First
Cause, and by Its Nature have produced and do control all the rest.
These Sephiroth were put forth from the One First and Simple,
manifesting His Infinite Goodness. They are the mirrors of His Truth,
and the analogues of His Supremest Essence, the Ideas of His Wisdom, and
the representations of His will; the receptacles of His Potency, and the
instruments with which He operates; the Treasury of His Felicity, the
dispensers of His Benignity, the Judges of His Kingdom, and reveal His
Law; and finally, the Denominations, Attributes, and Names of Him Who is
above all and the Cause of all ... the ten categories, wherein all
things are contained; the universal genera, which in themselves include
all things, and utter them outwardly ... the Second Causes, whereby the
First Cause effects, preserves, and governs all things; the rays of the
Divinity, whereby all things are illumined and manifested; the Forms and
Ideas and Species, out whereof all things issue forth; the Souls and
Potencies, whereby essence, life, and movement are given to all things;
the Standard of times, whereby all things are measured; the incorporeal
Spaces which, in themselves, hold and inclose the Universe; the Supernal
Monads to which all manifolds are referred, and through them to The One
and Simple; and finally the Formal Perfections, flowing forth from and
still connected with the One Eminent Limitless Perfection, are the
Causes of all dependent Perfections, and so illuminate the elementary
Intelligences, not adjoined to matter, and the intellectual Souls, and
the Celestial, Elemental and Element-produced bodies.
The IDRA SUTA says:
HE, the Most Holy Hidden Eldest, separates Himself, and is ever more and
more separated from all that are; nor yet does HE in very deed separate
Himself; because all things cohere with Him and HE with All. HE is All
that is, the Most Holy Eldest of All, the Occult by all possible
occultations.
When HE takes shape, HE produces nine Lights, which shine forth from
Him, from His outforming. And those Lights outshine from Him and emit
flames, and go forth and spread out on every side; as from one elevated
Lamp the Rays are poured forth in every direction, and these Rays thus
diverging, are found to be, when one approaching has cognizance of them,
but a single Lamp.
The Space in which to create is fixed by THE MOST HOLY ANCIENT, and
illuminated by His inflowing, which is the Light of Wisdom, and the
Beginning from which manifestation flows.
And HE is conformed in three Heads, which are but one Head; and these
three are extended into Microprosopos, and from them shines out all that
is.
Then this Wisdom instituted investiture with form, whereby the
unmanifested and informous became manifested, putting on form; and
produced a certain outflow.
When this Wisdom is thus expanded by flowing forth, then it is called
"Father of Fathers," the whole Universe of Things being contained and
comprehended in it. This Wisdom is the principle of all things, and in
it beginning and end are found.
The Book of the Abstruse, says the _Siphra de Zeniutha_, is that which
describes the equilibrium of the Balance. Before the Balance was, face
did not look toward face.
And the _Commentary_ on it says: The Scales of the Balance are
designated as Male and Female. In the Spiritual world Evil and Good are
_in equilibrio_, and it will be restored, when of the Evil Good becomes,
until all is Good. Also this other world is called the World of the
Balance. For, as in the Balance are two scales, one on either side and
the beam and needle between them, so too in this world of restoration,
the Numerations are arranged as distinct persons. For Hakemah is on the
right hand, on the side of Gedulah, and Binah on the left, on the side
of Geburah; and Kether is the beam of the Balance above them in the
middle. So Gedulah or Khased is on one hand, and Geburah on the other,
and under these Tephareth; and Netsach is on one side, and Hōd on the
other, and under these Yesōd.
The Supreme Crown, which is the Ancient Most Holy, the most Hidden of
the Hidden, is fashioned, _within_ the occult Wisdom, of both sexes,
Male and Female.
Hakemah, and Binah, the Mother, whom it impregnates, are quantitatively
equal. Wisdom and the Mother of Intellection go forth at once and dwell
together; for when the Intellectual Power emanates, the productive
_Source_ of intellection is included in Him.
Before Adam Kadmon was fashioned into Male and Female, and the state of
equilibrium introduced, the Father and Mother did not look each other in
the face; for the Father denotes most perfect Love, and the Mother most
perfect Rigor; and she averted her face.
There is no _left_ [female], says the _Idra Rabba_, in the Ancient and
Hidden One; but His totality is Right [male]. The totality of things is
HUA, HE, and HE is hidden on every side.
Macroprosopos [Adam Kadmon] is not so near unto us as to speak to us in
the first person; but is designated in the third person, HUA, HE.
Of the letters it says:
Yōd is male, He is female, Vav is both.
In Yōd [י] are three Yōds, the upper and the lower apex, and Vav in the
middle. By the upper apex is denoted the Supreme Kether; by Vav in the
middle, Hakemah; and by the lower apex, Binah.
The IDRA SUTA says:
The Universe was out-formed in the form of Male and Female. Wisdom,
pregnant with all that is, when it flowed and shone forth, shone
altogether under the form of male and female. Hakemah is the Father, and
Binah is the Mother; and so the two are in equilibrium as male and
female, and for this reason, all things whatsoever are constituted in
the form of male and female; _and if it were not_ so _they would not
exist_.
This Principle, Hakemah, is the Generator of all things; and He and
Binah conjoin, and she shines within Him. When they thus conjoin, she
conceives, and the out-flow is Truth.
Yōd impregnates the letter He and begets a son; and she, thus pregnant,
brings forth. The Principle called Father [the Male or Generative
Principle] is comprehended in Yōd, which itself flows downward from the
energy of the Absolute Holy One.
Yōd is the beginning and the end of all things that are. The stream that
flows forth is the Universe of things, which always _becomes_, having no
cessation. And this _becoming_ world is created by Yōd: for Yōd includes
two letters. All things are included in Yōd; wherefore it is called the
Father of all.
All Categories whatever go forth from Hakemah; and in it are contained
all things, unmanifested; and the aggregate of all things, or the Unity
_in_ which the many _are_, and _out_ of which all flow, is the Sacred
Name IHUH.
In the view of the Kabalists, all individuals are _contained_ in
species, and all species in genera, and all particulars in a Universal,
which is an idea, abstracted from all consideration of individuals; not
an _aggregate_ of individuals; but, as it were, an _Ens_, Entity or
Being, ideal or intellectual, but none the less real; prior to _any_
individual, _containing_ them all, and out of which they are all in
succession evolved.
If this discontents you, reflect that, supposing the theory correct,
that _all_ was originally in the Deity, and that the Universe has
proceeded forth from Him, and not been _created_ by Him out of nothing,
the _idea_ of the Universe, existing in the Deity before its out-flow,
must have been as real as the Deity Himself. The whole Human race, or
Humanity, for example, then existed in the Deity, not distinguished into
individuals, but as a Unit, out of which the Manifold was to flow.
Everything _actual_ must also first have been _possible_, before having
actual existence; and this possibility or potentiality was to the
Kabalists a real Ens. Before the evolvement of the Universe, it had to
exist _potentially_, the whole of it, with all its individuals, included
in a single Unity. This was the Idea or Plan of the Universe; and this
had to be _formed_. It had to emanate from the Infinite Deity, and be
_of_ Himself, though not His Very Self.