Category: theory of kowledge

Sefer Yetzirah Chapter 6.1: The Universe, Time, and Man

CHAPTER 6.1 In proof of these things, and witnessing faithfully are the Universe, the Year of time, and Man himself, the Microcosm. He fixed these as testimonies of the Triad, the Heptad, and the Dodecad; the twelve constellations as rulers of the world, the Dragon (THELE) Tali which environs the universe, and the microcosm, man. The triad, fire, water, and air; the fire above, the water below, and the air in the midst. The proof of which is that air is a participator (mediator) with both.

Alt. Trans.A proof of thisTrue witnesses in the Universe, Year and Soul.And a rule of twelve, seven and threeHe set in them the Tali, the Cycle and the Heart.
6.1 a. Tali, the Dragon, is above the Universe, as a king on his throne; the sphere in the year as a king in his State, the Heart of man as a king in warfare.And our God made the states of opposition (contraries), good and evil, good from the good, and evil from the evil. Happiness is reserved for the just, and misery for the wicked ones.

Wescott trans. 6.1. Three Fathers and their generations, Seven conquerors and their armies, and Twelve bounds of the Universe. See now, of these words, the faithful witnesses are the Universe, the Year and Man. The dodecad, the heptad, and the triad with their provinces; above is the Celestial Dragon, T L I, (49) and below is the World, and lastly the heart of Man. The Three are Water, Air and Fire; Fire above, Water below, and Air conciliating between them; and the sign of these things is that the Fire sustains (volatilizes) the waters; Mem is mute, Shin is sibilant, and Aleph is the Mediator and as it were a friend placed between them.

Commentary on Chapter 6.1

It should be noted that it is from language that the “emanations of the three Fathers” derives, or it is from the Word that the Holy Trinity is made manifest (“No one comes to the Father except through Me” John 14:6). An emanation is the effect produced by a cause and is a quality or predicate of a cause. Prior to the masculine is the feminine; and in the Sefer Yetzirah, the feminine is both Chakmah and Binah. It is from the water and fire that are the two sources of Chakmah and Binah that the physical universe is created through the mediation of air or spirit.

The physical universes are the “descendants” of these three primordial sources (causes). Water, Air and Fire are the three columns of the Tree of Life upon which rest the ten sephirot.

The Tali or Dragon may be said to be the Beauty of the world. The Tali are the arrows of Eros by which one is “entrapped” or “pierced” and drawn upwards. In Greek myths, Zeus is “entrapped” by the beauty of mortal women, then ravages them producing “heroes” and gods or demi-gods. The Tali is the centre of the sphere, the circle around which the heavens rotate. The Tali can also mean “to hang” and thus may be related to the Tarot card of The Hanged Man #12.

The interpretation of the Sefer Yetzirah rests on whether one understands the Incarnation as that which is destined for human beings, or whether the Incarnation is that to which human destiny is related. (In other words, the “salvation” is that which is destined for human beings or a human being is destined for “salvation” i.e., that is human beings’ purpose, meaning, end, completion, perfection.)

The Gate of Heaven – Bali

The Pole Serpent, Draco, has stars in all the constellations which represent Time and the twelve directions of space. The Dragon’s Head is the ascending mode while the Dragon’s Tail is the descending mode. The season of Spring is the head; Autumn is the tail i.e., the equinoxes. The Dragon’s Head is merits; the Tail is liabilities and this refers to pans of Justice in Chapter 2.1 of the Sefer Yetzirah. The Tali is called the Gate of Heaven for it is where the physical and the spiritual meet (through the presence of Air or Spirit) and is the beauty of the world.

Since Time is cyclic, the Cycle is “King over Time” i.e., it is the decree or Law to which Time is subjected. The Hebrew word used here is Galgal which means sphere or circle. The signs of the Zodiac in astrology need to be viewed as segments of a sphere. There are 22 letters which lead to 231 gates. The Tali are the lines within the circle (sphere) and thus are the paths or ways. These paths or ways are the experience of Time.

The Galgal is also associated with the voice of God as in a whirlwind. Whirlwind is Sufah (the “whirling dervish” of the Sufi-ism in Islam). The voice of God as a “burning bush” or sounding out of a whirlwind is related to the experience of the mystic who experiences contact with the spiritual as that of a whirlwind.

Other commentators on the Sefer Yetzirah place the Galgal beneath the feet of the Cherubim (the angels). The Galgal is the womb: the khôra of Plato in his Timaeus. The matrix that is the Universe has Binah as the mother and the galgal as her womb. The Galgal is the womb from which one is re-born to the spiritual plane (the sacrament of baptism as the re-birth through the fire, air and water of the Holy Spirit).

Time extends between Chakmah and Binah, but there is also the extension from Keter to Malkhut. Time is the Cross upon which the crucified Christ is hung and extended and this Cross reaches to the ends of the created universe. King Lear in Act 5.3 has experienced a rebirth through water and fire, and his ego or self has been destroyed through the affliction brought upon him by the tempest on the heath (the whirlwind). On the heath, Lear experiences the silence of God just as Christ did upon His crucifixion, and through fire and water is reborn. Many commentators and academics see the play King Lear as atheistic; Lear loses his faith in God. Nothing could be further from the truth. When he is reborn, he sees Cordelia as an angel. His reference to “becoming God’s spies” indicates that he and she will be at the Tali. The five “no’s” of Lear (Act 5 sc. 3) are not only his rejection of visiting Goneril and Regan, but also his rejection of the five dimensions of the universe.

The “Heart” is “King over the Soul”, and in the Sefer Yetzirah the soul and the body are often seen as the same. The word for heart relates to the number 32, the 32 paths of wisdom of the Tree of Life. The heart’s fire “catches” or beholds the fire that is at the heart of heaven. One reaches this fire by means of the 32 paths on the Tree of Life. The paths are the channels for the life-force that is the dynamis that is at the heart of nature, and this force is both how we make and how we “bring forth” things through the logos. It is “in-spiration”, the breathing in of the fire and of the spirit. The longing for the Good that is at the heart of all human beings is the “burning fire” in the darkness that experiences God’s absence and hears His voice out of the midst of the darkness (Eros).


In the circle to the left, the Heart is the radius or altitude. The Tali is the longitudinal axis. The Galgal is the circumference but also the horizontal or latitudinal axis. (The right-angled triangle of the Pythagoreans a2 + b2 = c2, when taken from the centre: Time2 + Space2 = Being2?) The three letters that come to make up the word “heart” mean “rejoice”, the attainment of truth as unconcealment. “The mystery of an other do not reveal” (Proverbs 25.9). The geometry of the Pythagoreans was a religious activity for the revealing of truth. It was a “religious” practice. It was meant to be an “occult” practice, not to be revealed to others. It was contemplation and prayer in their origin. Contemplation and prayer is meant to be done in solitude, not in public.

One of the more contentious elements of the Sefer Yetzirah is the possibility that evil is a product of God and was brought into being as a test for human beings. This view is part of the Gnostic tradition, part of the gnostic inheritance of the text. There is no “fall of man” in the Sefer Yetzirah; evil and the other contraries are present from the beginning. The Heart is King over the soul because it is as a king in warfare and must deal with the constant strife of the contraries that are present in everyday life and that are inherent in the creation itself. This understanding of heart has come to mean “will” in our psychology today.

CHAPTER VI 6.1 In proof of these things, and witnessing faithfully are the Universe, the Year of time, and Man himself, the Microcosm. He fixed these as testimonies of the Triad, the Heptad, and the Dodecad; the twelve constellations as rulers of the world, the Dragon (THELE) Tali which environs the universe, and the microcosm, man. The triad, fire, water, and air; the fire above, the water below, and the air in the midst. The proof of which is that air is a participator (mediator) with both.

Alt. Trans. A proof of this True witnesses in the Universe, Year and Soul. And a rule of twelve, seven and three He set in them the Tali, the Cycle and the Heart.

6.1 a. Tali, the Dragon, is above the Universe, as a king on his throne; the sphere in the year as a king in his State, the Heart of man as a king in warfare. And our God made the states of opposition (contraries), good and evil, good from the good, and evil from the evil. Happiness is reserved for the just, and misery for the wicked ones.

Wescott trans. 6.1. Three Fathers and their generations, Seven conquerors and their armies, and Twelve bounds of the Universe. See now, of these words, the faithful witnesses are the Universe, the Year and Man. The dodecad, the heptad, and the triad with their provinces; above is the Celestial Dragon, T L I, (49) and below is the World, and lastly the heart of Man. The Three are Water, Air and Fire; Fire above, Water below, and Air conciliating between them; and the sign of these things is that the Fire sustains (volatilises) the waters; Mem is mute, Shin is sibilant, and Aleph is the Mediator and as it were a friend placed between them.

Wescott trans. 6.2. The Celestial Dragon, T L I, is placed over the universe like a king upon the throne; the revolution of the year is as a king over his dominion; the heart of man is as a king in warfare. Moreover, He made all things one from the other; and the Elohim set good over against evil, and made good things from good, and evil things from evil: with the good tested He the evil, and with the evil did He try the good. Happiness (50) is reserved for the good, and misery (51) is kept for the wicked.
6.3 And out of the triad one stands apart; and in the heptad there are two triads, and one standing apart. The dodecad symbolizes war, the triad of amity, the triad of enmity, three which are life-giving, three which are death-dealing, and God, the faithful king, rules over all from the throne of his sanctity. One above three, three above seven, and seven above twelve, and all are linked together, and one with another.

Alt. Trans. Three Mothers: AMSh Air, water, and fire. Fire is above, water is below, And air of Breath is the rule That decides between them. And a sign of this thing (?) Is that fire supports water. Mem hums, Shin hisses, And Alef is the breath of air that decides between them.

6.3c Three: Each one stands alone One acts as advocate One acts as accuser And one decides between them. Seven: Three opposite three And one is the rule deciding between them. Twelve: Twelve stand in war (strife), Three love, Three hate, Three give life, And three kill.
Three love: the heart and the ears Three hate: the liver, the gall and the tongue Three give life: the two nostrils and the spleen Three kill: the two orifices and the mouth. And God faithful King rules over them all From his holy habitation Until eternity of eternities. One on three Three on seven Seven on twelve And all are bound, one to another.

6.3b The Tali in the Universe is like a King on his throne The Cycle in the Year is like a king in the province The Heart in the Soul is like a king in war (strife).

Wescott trans. 6.3. The Three are One, and that One stands above. The Seven are divided; three are over against three, and one stands between the triads. The Twelve stand as in warfare; three are friends, three are enemies; three are life-givers; three are destroyers. The three friends are the heart, the ears, and the mouth; the three enemies are the liver, the gall, and the tongue; (52) while God (53) the faithful king rules over all. One above Three, Three above Seven, and Seven above Twelve: and all are connected the one with the other.


Wescott trans. 6.4. And after that our father Abraham had perceived and understood, and had taken down and engraved all these things, the Lord most high (55) revealed Himself, and called him His beloved, and made a Covenant with him and his seed; and Abraham believed on Him (56) and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. And He made this Covenant as between the ten toes of the feet−−this is that of circumcision; and as between the ten fingers of the hands and this is that of the tongue. (57) And He formed the twenty−two letters into speech (58) and shewed him all the mysteries of them. (59) He drew them through the Waters; He burned them in the Fire; He vibrated them in the Air; Seven planets in the heavens, and Twelve celestial constellations of the stars of the Zodiac. –The End of “The Book of Formation

Westcott’s Notes to Chapter 6:

This chapter is a resumé of the preceding five; it calls the universe and mankind to witness to the truth of the scheme of distribution of the powers of the numbers among created forms, and concludes with the narration that this philosophy was revealed by the Divine to Abraham, who received and faithfully accepted it, as a form of Wisdom under a Covenant.

49. The Dragon, TLI, Theli. The Hebrew letters amount in numeration to 440, that is 400, 30 and 10. The best opinion is that Tali or Theli refers to the 12 Zodiacal constellations along the great circle of the Ecliptic; where it ends there it begins again, and so the ancient occultists drew the Dragon with its tail in its mouth. Some have thought that Tali referred to the constellation Draco, which meanders across the Northern polar sky; others have referred it to the Milky Way; others to an imaginary line joining Caput to Cauda Draconis, the upper and lower nodes of the Moon. Adolphe Franck says that Theli is an Arabic word.

50. Happiness, or a good end, or simply good, TUBH.

51. Misery, or an evil end, or simply evil, ROH.

52. This Hebrew version omits the allotment of the remaining six. Mayer gives the paragraph thus:−−The triad of amity is the heart and the two ears; the triad of enmity is the liver, gall, and the tongue; the three life−givers are the two nostrils and the spleen; the three death−dealing ones are the mouth and the two lower openings of the body.

53. God. In this case the name is AL, EL.

54. This last paragraph is generally considered to be less ancient than the remainder of the treatise, and by another author.

55. The Lord most high. OLIU ADUN. Adun or Adon, or Adonai, ADNI, are commonly translated Lord; Eliun, OLIUN, is the more usual form of “the most high one.”

56. Him. Rittangelius gives “credit in Tetragrammaton,” but this word is not in the Hebrew.

57. Tongue. The verbal covenant.

58. Speech. The Hebrew has “upon his tongue.”

59. The Hebrew version of Rabbi Judah Ha Levi concludes with the phrase, “and said of him, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.” Rabbi Luria gives the Hebrew version which I have translated. Postellus gives: “He drew him into the water, He rose up in spirit, He inflamed him in seven suitable forms with twelve signs.” Mayer gives: “He drew them with water, He kindled them with fire, He moved them with spirit, distributed them with seven, and sent them forth with twelve.”

Commentary on Chapter 6:

Many of the points of this section of the text are repetitions of sections 2.1 and 3.4.

We need to view the triads as triangles with the “one” standing apart as the mediator which brings the elements of the other two sides together into a relationship of “friendship”. The triangles are embedded within pyramids. Above his Academy, Plato had written: “No one enters unless he knows geometry”. This might also be interpreted or translated as “No one enters unless he knows the mathematical” (originally meaning “what can be learned and what can be taught”). Like the Delphic oracle itself (“know thyself”), Plato’s “oracle” has multiple meanings. First, it could be understood as “no one enters unless he/she is capable of being a friend” and understands the principles of friendship, or no one enters unless he knows what is capable of being learned and what is capable of being taught. This capability of learning and teaching is knowledge of geometry and knowledge of geometry is the recognition of Otherness.

How is fire Binah “above” water Chakmah? “Above” could mean here the “boundaries” that apply the “limits” to the “unlimited”. Identity = water; Difference = fire. Water is the Other. It is the coming together of fire and water through the mediation of air that creates the physical universe. Air, the breath, the logos, joins them together. We would not be able to perceive things without the boundaries that provide the measurable quantities that differentiate the things from one another. The dualism of fire and water is mediated by Air so that the three become one through our simultaneous perception of them.

Water or Chakmah is “clothed” or shaped in Binah and so becomes the created things of our everyday world, the Other. The attributes of Chakmah are then revealed in Tiferet or Beauty or the Heart (other commentators see Chesed as this point of revelation and they ascribe the attributes of Love and Mercy to this Sephirot, but it appears to me that Love and Mercy are the very qualities which the Law of Necessity lacks or appears to lack.) The foundation of Chakmah ends in Yesod, the ninth Sephirot, which is the materiality of things which fulfill needs but are devoid of Beauty (?). Tiferet is directly linked to the light or fire of Keter. (This is discussed in much more depth in the commentary on the 32 paths of Wisdom that will be forthcoming.)

“Fire supports water” by providing boundaries, limits, “clothing”. Binah is Understanding which precedes Wisdom on the ascent. The “clothing” of Chakmah is our everyday experience of the world; it is the understanding which makes our ‘world’ possible. We know what plants are and how they are different from stones, etc. Understanding supports Wisdom and is the foundation for Wisdom. “Wisdom” is knowledge of the whole of things (of which human beings are not capable); understanding is knowledge of the parts.

From the preceding section of the text: Tali = Space = Fire; Galgal = Time = Water; Heart = Spirit = Air. A King = Malkhut (Kingship). The interaction of the King with his subjects is that of “above and below”. A King is not separable from his Kingdom. Space itself is not in motion. It is. The Heart is the axis of Space and Time, the spiritual and the physical. Space “lowers” itself by giving of itself to allow beings to be by providing an “open” region for the physical to become and exist (the “withdrawal of God”). The Heart is the king over the war and strife between space and time. This strife occurs in what we call the “present”, the “now”.

The “cycle of the Year” is time. “Time is the moving image of eternity” as Plato says. Time moves and is motion itself, but the mystery of Time and Space is that they are not in motion as they are eternal, or more properly sempiternal. They are the combination of Binah and Chakmah. Time and Space must be “clothed” in lunar and solar calendars, for instance. We know of the existence of Time because we get older. We know of the existence of Space by the Time it takes to traverse it, but these are only appearances, not the reality of Space and Time.

“The Heart in the Soul” shows us that good and evil are not opposites: evil is the deprivation (need) of the good. The “strife” in the soul is that between fullness and need; the Heart (Eros) “decides between them.” To see good and evil as opposites is to attribute evil to God (a blasphemy, therefore not possible) or to see God as not all powerful and He Himself is subject to the laws of the creation He has made. (Why does He not intervene in the “evil” that is a tsunami? Why is there the affliction of the innocent? This is the sin of believing that one can discern the will of God. It is the belief in Providence which is nothing more than the belief in the good fortune of Chance. “I survived the tsunami so God must love me”; “The tornado didn’t strike our house so we must be blest”).

To describe them as opposites does not measure the difference by degree. Obviously, there are some “evils” greater than others, just as there are some goods which are higher in order than my love for tacos, for instance. Just as there is The Good in which all other “goods” participate, is there not also The Evil in which all evils participate? The root of all sin is the sin against the Light: The Good – the Light – the Truth; and The Evil – the Darkness – the Concealed. (“The Devil’s greatest accomplishment is convincing the world that he doesn’t exist”, his ability to conceal himself. The play Macbeth is the play where the descent into darkness is shown most clearly: the motifs are themes in the play. Some people in the USA today and in other parts of the world who are willingly making this descent into darkness by ignoring or falsifying the truth. How this ignorance is coupled with evangelical Christianity is something that is simply beyond me.)

The Sefer Yetzirah seems to suggest that the good is not given as
a reward, but it is a binding, a “yoke” to the good, what we would call a “covenant”, a promise that cannot be broken. To break it would be to sin against the light. A person attains that to which they attach themselves: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”; where your heart is, there also will be your treasure. (Christ’s admonishment to his disciples regarding the rich: “They have their reward.” That reward is usually in the “social prestige” that is attained.) The oblivion of eternity makes us choose false things as sacred, false things as good.

See Sefir Yetzirah 2.1 and 3.1. “Each one stands alone” 1 +1 + 1. The three ones can only become three when they are mediated by a one. Numbers are only possible when there is a material manifestation of the creation i.e., physical objects. Numbers only come into being or manifestation at three. Keter, Chakmah find a reconciliation in Binah or Understanding. Keter is the Light; Chakmah is the undifferentiated whole. When the Light (fire and air) combine with water, solids or physical substances are produced. The Fibonacci sequence of numbers illustrates this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.

The letter Phi was considered the letter of the “sacred mean”, “the golden ratio” in Greek. The “golden mean” is the ratio between the smallest and the next size up being equal to the ratio of the sum of the first two to the third. “Phi-lo-sophia” would then literally be the love of the sacred mean that gives wisdom, the friendship that gives wisdom.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” as well as the perfection of Greek sculptures and architecture, the “Doryphoros” and the temple of Apollo all make use of the “golden mean” to establish a relation between the macrocosm and the microcosm.

The reason the Sephirot can be used to make “pre-dictions” is that they speak in the language of poetic prophecy. Language is the original dynamis or movement in which being becomes manifest. Language involves letters, numbers and words. Is the manner or method here one of “divination” or theoria? Divination implies that one’s view of the whole depends on a dispensation of fate and cannot be derived from the theoretical viewing of the world which attempts to look for the immutable principles of the whole through reason and language. The whole of the Sefir Yetzirah is an attempt to show how, through language, truth and being have come into being.

Sefer Yetzirah Chapter 5: Significance of the Twelve Elemental Letters

This commentary continues with a discussion of Chapter Five of the Sefer Yetzirah, a central text of the Hebrew mystical tradition. In it, the twelve elemental or simple letters of the Hebrew alphabet are examined along with their significance to early scholars and mystics. One of the central conflicts in the history of thought is the conflict between piety and philosophy. The Sefer Yetzirah is a text that tries to overcome this conflict and attempts to show the true relation between philosophy and the love of the Divine.

Chapter 5.1 Text:

The simple letters are twelve, namely: Heh 5, Vau 6, Zain 7, Heth 8, Teth 9, Yod 10, Lamed 30, Nun 50, Samech 60, Oin 70, Tzaddi 90, and Quoph 100; they represent the fundamental properties, twelve, sight, hearing, smell, speech, desire for food, the sexual appetite, movement, anger, mirth, thought, sleep (imagination), and work. These symbolize also twelve directions in space: northeast, southeast, the east above, the east below, the northwest, southwest, the west above, the west below, the upper south, the lower south, the upper north, the lower north. These diverge to all eternity, and as the arms of the universe.

SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER V
(Found in some Versions)

  1. God produced Heh, predominant in Speech, crowned, combined, and formed Aries in the world, Nisan in the year, and the right foot of man.
  2. God produced Vau, predominant in Mind, crowned, combined, and formed Taurus in the world, Yiar in the year, and the right kidney of man.
  3. God produced Zain, predominant in movement, crowned, combined, and formed Gemini in the world, Sivan in the year, and the left foot of man.
  4. He produced Heth, predominant in Sight, crowned, combined, and formed Cancer in the world, Tammuz in the year, and the right hand of man.
  5. He produced Teth, predominant in Hearing, crowned, combined, and formed Leo in the world, Ab in the year, and the left kidney in man.
  6. He produced Yod, predominant in Labor, crowned, combined, and formed Virgo in the world, Elul in the year, and the left hand of man.
  7. He produced Lamed, predominant in sexual desire, crowned, combined,
    and formed Libra in the world, Tisri in the year, and the gall in man.
  8. He produced Nun, predominant in smell, crowned, combined, and
    formed Scorpio in the world, Marchesvan in the year, and the intestines in
    man.
  9. He produced Samech, predominant in sleep, crowned, combined, and
    formed Sagittarius in the world, Kislev in the year, and the stomach of man.
  10. He produced Oin, predominant in Anger, crowned, combined, and formed Capricornus in the world, Tebet in the year, and the liver in man.
  11. He produced Tzaddi, predominant in Taste, crowned, combined, and
    formed Aquarius in the world, Sebat in the year, and the gullet in man.
  12. He produced Quoph, predominant in Mirth, crowned, combined, and
    formed Pisces in the world, Adar in the year, and the spleen in man.

Wescott trans. 1. The Twelve Simple Letters are Héh, Vau, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Oin, Tzaddi and Qoph; (43)29 they are the foundations of these twelve properties: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Speech, Taste, Sexual Love, Work, Movement, Anger, Mirth, Imagination, (44)30 and Sleep. These Twelve are also allotted to the directions in space: North−east, South−east, the East above, the East below, the North above, the North below, the South−west, the Northwest, the West above, the West below, the South above, and the South below; these diverge to infinity, and are as the arms of the Universe.

Wescott’s Notes:

“This chapter is especially concerned with the Dodecad; the number twelve is itself pointed out, and the characters of its component units, once more in the three zones of the universe, year and man; the last paragraph gives a recapitulation of the whole number of letters: the Supplement gives a form of allotment of the several letters.”

  1. It is necessary to avoid confusion between these letters; different authors translate them in different manners. Heh or Hé not be confused with Cheth, or Heth, Ch. Teth, Th also must be kept distinct from the final letter Tau, T, which is one of the double letters; the semi−English pronunciation of these two letters is much confused, each is at times both t and th; Yod is either I, Y, or J; Samech is simple S, and must not be confused with Shin, Sh, one of the mother letters; Oin is often written in English Hebrew grammars as Ayin, and sometimes as Gnain; Tzaddi must not be confused with Zain, Z; and lastly Qoph, Q, is very often replaced by K, which is hardly defensible as there is a true K in addition.
  2. Postellus gives suspicion and Pistorius, mind.

Commentary on 5.1:

Below is a short outline of the meanings of the twelve elemental letters in the Hebrew alphabet. They will be discussed more fully as they relate to “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” and to the Tarot. The diagram of the Tree of Life was determined from the letters as outlined in the original text of the Sefer Yetzirah, and they are shown in the supplement to Chapter 5. The supplement is a product of the Renaissance and not that of the original.

The twelve elementals only have a single sound. They indicate the presence or absence of the attributes attributed to them; they are always there although hidden at times. The chart below outlines the contents of Chap. V and it should be noted that these are modern additions to the Sefer Yetzirah and are not contained in the original ancient text. It should also be noted that the outline of the human being shown here is The Hanged Man or a reversal of the proper figure of a human being! The illustration of DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man shows how the human being is the microcosm of the the macrocosm in space.

LetterSignMonthBody PartAttribute
Heh
ה
Jubilation		Aries (Fire)MarchRight footSpeech
Vau/Vav
ו
Cane		Taurus (Earth)AprilRight kidneyThought/Mind
Zayin
ז
Manacle/ Yoke		Gemini (Air)MayLeft footMotion
Chet
ח
Enclosure		Cancer (Water)JuneRight handSight
Tet
ט
Snake		Leo (Fire)JulyLeft kidneyHearing
Yud
י
Arm		Virgo (Earth)AugustLeft handAction
Lamed
ל
Study		Libra (Air)SeptemberGall bladderCoition
Nun
נ
Fish		Scorpio (Water)OctoberIntestineSmell
Samekh
ס
Prop		Sagittarius (Fire)NovemberKivah (Chest?)Sleep
Imagination
Eyin
ע
Eye		Capricorn (Earth)DecemberLiverAnger (?)
Tzadi
צ
Righteous		Aquarius (Air)JanuaryStomachTaste
Kuf (Qof)
ק
Monkey		Pisces (Water)FebruarySpleenLaughter
The Twelve Elementals, Attributes

The arrangements in the above chart appear to be based on the Lunar, not the Solar, calendar and do not follow precisely modern astrological associations. If one begins the start of the year with Aries in March, one begins with Fire. The numbers of the created things, the sensible things, begin at 4.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, the totality of the whole. If one begins with January with Capricorn, one begins with Earth, and the numbers begin with material things. With the Kabbalah, the universe begins from air, proceeds to water then to fire then to earth. (The Emperor card of the Tarot #4, for instance, has rams’ heads embedded in the throne or seat, significant of Aries. This would indicate a predominance of the element fire mixed with earth, action or movement with material things. But the surroundings in the illustration of the Emperor are sterile for the most part. Does this indicate that the cycle begins with summer (Gemini, The Twins, The Lovers #6 card of Tarot, ruled by Mercury, and thus air and speech) and finds its completion in spring with the planting of the seeds in March where the ground only appears to be sterile but actually holds a great deal of promise?)

Kivah, associated with Sagittarius, means “protector” in Hebrew. It
seems to be related to ‘friendship’ or something someone can lean
on, a prop. This is the Hebrew letter Samekh. As a part of the body, it
would seem to relate to the chest, but I am unable to find its actual
relation (pancreas? spleen?). The mythological association would be
to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, the Archer, and the Moon and thus
the association with sleep, but the night is when she goes hunting.
The associations do not make too much sense in any case. The associations present us with a riddle and are meant to be obscure. It is a common feature of history that writers who are persecuted by the powers in authority come up with ingenious ways to present their truths while keeping themselves hidden from the authorities.

Sefer Yetzirah 5.2

5.2 These twelve letters, he designed, formed, combined, weighed, and changed, and created with them the twelve divisions of the heavens (namely, the zodiacal constellations), the twelve months of the year, and the twelve important organs of the frame of man, namely the right and left hands, the right and left feet, two kidneys, the liver, the gall, the spleen, the intestines, the gullet, and the stomach.

Wescott trans. 5.2. These Twelve Simple Letters He designed, and combined, and formed with them the Twelve celestial constellations of the Zodiac, whose signs are Teth, Shin, Tau, Samech, Aleph, Beth, Mem, Oin, Qoph, Gimel, Daleth, and Daleth. (45)31 The Twelve are also the Months of the Year: Nisan, (46)32 Yiar, Sivan, Tamuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri, Hesvan, Kislev, Tebet, Sabat and Adar. The Twelve are also the Twelve organs of living creatures: (47)33 the two hands, the two feet, the two kidneys, the spleen, the liver, the gall, private parts, stomach and intestines.
He made these, as it were provinces, and arranged them as in order of battle for warfare. And also the Elohim (48)34 made one from the region of the other.
Three Mothers and Three Fathers; and thence issue Fire, Air and Water. Three Mothers, Seven Doubles and Twelve Simple letters and sounds.

Wescott’s Notes to 5.2

45. These letters are the initials of the 12 Zodiacal signs in Hebrew nomenclature. They are: Teth Telah Aries, Mem Maznim Libra, Shin Shor Taurus, Oin Oqereb Scorpio, Tau Thaumim Gemini, Qoph Qesheth Sagittarius, Samech Sartan Cancer, Gimel Gedi Capricornus, Aleph Aryeh Leo, Daleth Dali Aquarius, Beth Bethuleh Virgo, Daleth Dagim Pisces.
46. The month Nisan begins about March 29th. Yiar is also written Iyar, and Aiar: the Hebrew letters are AIIR.
47. The list of organs varies. All agree in two hands, two feet, two kidneys, liver, gall and spleen. Postellus then gives, intestina, vesica, arteriae,” the intestines, bladder, and arteries; Rittangelius gives the same. Pistorius gives, “colon, coagulum (spleen) et ventriculus,” colon−−the large intestine, coagulum and stomach. The chief difficulty is with the Hebrew word MSS, which is allied to two different roots, one meaning private, concealed, hidden; and the other meaning liquefied. 48. The Elohim−−Divine powers−−not IHVH the Tetragrammaton.

Commentary on 5.2

The twelve elementals indicate the circumference of the sphere and the circles within it. The boundaries outline the limits placed upon the unlimited and make it measurable so that it can be weighed and changed. The boundaries or limits give the outward appearance of the thing. They are indications of the limits of human knowledge which is confined to understanding the Laws of Necessity in their manifold representations. The cubic shape below indicates the limits of human perception.

The twelve diagonals to the Tree of Life exist in a one-to-one relationship. The “boundaries” are the limits given to things so that they may appear in space. The boundaries are the realm of Necessity, that which has been imposed on the originary Chaos in order to allow creation to come into being. The Tree of Life is inscribed within a sphere. One must be at the centre of the sphere in order to avoid its oscillations or rotations within Time; one must be both within Time and beyond the realms of Space and Time. One must be at the point of infinity or “the vanishing point”. Thought on the diagonal boundaries assists one in distinguishing the Necessary from the Good; and this indicates why, for the ancients, the practice of geometry was a ‘religious practice’ similar to how we conceive prayer to be. True thinking is given in contemplation, attention and prayer. The thinking involved in the yetzirah realm of “creation” is the knowing and making that we call technology, the “in another for another” that deals with the world as ready-to-hand.

The #7 of The Chariot is the “riding” of the diagonals in the ascension of the Tree of Life. The Chariot is the “embodied soul” and its three living figures represent the tripartite nature of the soul. Netzach (The Chariot #7) and Hod (Justice #8) indicate a descent if the mediator is Yesod (Foundation, represented in Tarot by The Hermit #9), the lower form of eros. If the mediator is Tiferet (Beauty) or the higher form of Eros, the ascension is upward toward Gevurah or to Chesed. The Sephirot Tiferet stands at the meeting place of the worlds of Yetzirah and Beriyah. Tiferet is both the two-faced Eros and the two-faced Logos. Logos itself is composed of number, word and speech. It may be to the many (rhetoric) or it may be among two or three (dialectic).

Keter (from Katar “to surround”) as the Crown indicates the circular or spherical nature of the structure of Creation itself. This is also an indication that God has “descended” into His creation in the form of Beauty (Christ/Eros), in the Beauty of the World. Being at the centre of the circle or sphere is a “negation of the self” where one can become “God’s spies” (King Lear Act 5. Sc. 3), and this allows God to see His creation through those human beings who have attained this level of consciousness and perception. Attaining this level of consciousness, as was the case of King Lear, was achieved through great suffering and affliction. The purpose of suffering and affliction is the destruction of the ‘ego’ self that denies and defies the Other that is the Good. The danger coeval with philosophy is tyranny (see both Plato’s Republic and Symposium), but as King Lear points out to us, they are, in fact, opposite. What is clear from both the writings of Shakespeare and Plato is that this destruction or decreation of the ‘ego’-self is not easily accomplished. Philosophy is only for the few. The saints and the philosophers are few.

God is beyond and absent from His creation and needs human beings to view His creation, to “reveal” His creation to Him through them. (Being needs human beings to “reveal”, “unconceal” its truth). This, to say the least, is not easily done. Human beings by nature choose night and darkness instead of the path towards the Light (“descent” and “ascent” both operate according to Nature; they are subject to the laws of Necessity). For God to answer the supplications and prayers of His creatures, He must pass through the whole of His creation. Klipah or the “evil husks” must be breached before one enters the realm of the spiritual mysteries. (See William Blake’s notes on “The Book of Job”. ) This occurs at the second crossroads or the second re-birth and this corresponds to the Mother letter Alef א. This is the “baptism” of fire and water.

The 12 diagonals are the channels through which the energy of the dynamis or the Life-Force flows through the universe and they are the interface between the physical and the transcendental, that is between the material and the spiritual. They correspond to the realm of Time. They are associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the 28 days of the Lunar calendar, and the “times” of the Book of Ecclesiastes (“a time to be born, a time to die, a time to rend and a time to sew” etc.) The arrangement of “names” gives the ability to “pre-dict”: 14 good times; 14 evil times. The 28 times are arranged on the circumference of the circle and Time indicates movement and change. The 28 times are arranged around the 12 constellations: 12 hours of the day; 12 hours of night.

Sefer Yetzirah Text 5.3

5.3 Three mothers, seven doubles and twelve simples, these are the twenty-two letters with which I H V H Tetragrammaton, that is our Lord of Hosts, exalted, and existed in the ages, whose name is Holy, created three fathers, fire and spirit and water, progressing beyond them, seven heavens with their armies of angels; and twelve limits of the universe.

Wescott trans. 5.3. Behold now these are the Twenty and Two Letters from which Jah, Jehovah Tzabaoth, the Living Elohim, the God of Israel, exalted and sublime, the Dweller in eternity, formed and established all things; High and Holy is His Name.

Commentary on 5.3

Below is an illustration of the twenty-two letters of the ancient Hebrew alphabet. The letters will be discussed in greater detail when we come to speak about “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” later in this blog. What we highlight here is that in the Sefer Yetzirah, the creation comes from Word, the Logos.

The twelve elementals have only a single sound. The absence or presence of the attributes: they are always there, though they may be hidden; just as in every word we form, the remaining letters of the alphabet remain present but hidden.

12 months, 12 tribes, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Books of Plato’s Laws. Whereas the Mothers and the Doubles are concerned with individual spiritual elements, the 12 elementals seem to designate the social, time, and the limits of space within time.

Here in Chapter 5, the significance of the triad, heptad and dodecad (3, 7 and 12) are highlighted. From the three Fathers of fire, air and water, the physical universe was created in the form of 7 heavens (planets) and the 12 limits of space (12 Zodiac constellations). The relation of the Zodiac to the Sefer Yetzirah will be discussed in greater detail later.

Wescott Notes to Chapter V

This chapter is specially concerned with the Dodecad; the number twelve is itself pointed out, and the characters of its component units, once more in the three zones of the universe, year and man; the last paragraph gives a recapitulation of the whole number of letters: the Supplement gives a form of allotment of the several letters.

43. It is necessary to avoid confusion between these letters; different authors translate them in different manners. Heh or Hé not be confused with Cheth, or Heth, Ch. Teth, Th also must be kept distinct from the final letter Tau, T, which is one of the double letters; the semi−English pronunciation of these two letters is much confused, each is at times both t and th; Yod is either I, Y, or J; Samech is simple S, and must not be confused with Shin, Sh, one of the mother letters; Oin is often written in English Hebrew grammars as Ayin, and sometimes as Gnain; Tzaddi must not be confused with Zain, Z; and lastly Qoph, Q, is very often replaced by K, which is hardly defensible as there is a true K in addition.

44. Postellus gives suspicion and Pistorius, mind.

45. These letters are the initials of the 12 Zodiacal signs in Hebrew nomenclature. They are:

Teth Telah Aries Mem Maznim Libra

Shin Shor Taurus Oin Oqereb Scorpio

Tau Thaumim Gemini Qoph Qesheth Sagittarius

Samech Sartan Cancer Gimel Gedi Capricornus

Aleph Aryeh Leo Daleth Dali Aquarius

Beth Bethuleh Virgo Daleth Dagim Pisces

46. The month Nisan begins about March 29th. Yiar is also written Iyar, and Aiar: the Hebrew letters are AIIR.

47. The list of organs varies. All agree in two hands, two feet, two kidneys, liver, gall and spleen. Postellus then gives, intestina, vesica, arteriae,” the intestines, bladder, and arteries; Rittangelius gives the same. Pistorius gives, “colon, coagulum (spleen) et ventriculus,” colon−−the large intestine, coagulum and stomach. The chief difficulty is with the Hebrew word MSS, which is allied to two different roots, one meaning private, concealed, hidden; and the other meaning liquefied.

48. The Elohim−−Divine powers−−not IHVH the Tetragrammaton.

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter 4

The Seven Double Letters

4.1 There were formed seven double letters: Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tau. Each has two voices, either aspirated or softened. These are the foundations of Life: Peace, Riches, Beauty or Reputation, Wisdom, Fruitfulness, and Power. These are double, because their contraries (transpositions) take part in life: contrary to Life is Death; to Peace, War; to Riches, Poverty; to Beauty or Reputation, Deformity or Disrepute; to Wisdom, Ignorance; to Fruitfulness, Sterility; to Power, Slavery.

Alt. Trans.
The transposition of Wisdom is Folly
The transposition of Wealth is Poverty
The transposition of Seed is Sterility (Desolation)
The transposition of Life is Death
The transposition of Dominance is Subjugation
The transposition of Peace is War
The transposition of Beauty (Grace) is Ugliness

Wescott trans. 4.1. The Seven double letters, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Peh, Resh, and Tau have each two sounds associated with them. They are referred to Life, Peace, Wisdom, Riches, Grace, Fertility and Power. The two sounds of each letter are the hard and the soft−−the aspirated and the softened. They are called Double because each letter presents a contrast or permutation; thus Life and Death; Peace and War; Wisdom and Folly; Riches and Poverty; Grace and Indignation; Fertility and Solitude (sterility and rest?); Power and Servitude.

Commentary on 4.1:

The seven double letters are those letters that have two possible sounds either hard or soft. As “the foundations of Life”, the letters represent the seven vertical lines of the Tree of Life, the seven pillars of Wisdom which are the seven subjects of study within the old classical education. They “run” with a hard sound and “return” with a soft sound. The hard sound of Bet has the sound of b, while the soft has the sound of v. The hard Kaf has the sound of k, the soft, the sound of kh, like the English ch as in “chorus”. The hard Peh is pronounced like a p, while the soft is like an f or ph such as “philosophy” or “Phuket”. The hard sound is indicated by a dot placed in the middle of the letter called a Dagesh. The letter Resh in Hebrew is included in the seven doubles even though it never takes a Dagesh.

The seven doubles are the means to climb the vertical lines of the Tree of Life; they may also be a means of descent. The seven also represent the number of times the phrase “It was good” is mentioned in the Genesis. The seven represent the “contraries” of Life. “Contraries” is often translated as “opposites”, but they are not opposites since they exist in degrees of strength or intensity. I have chosen to translate them as “deprivations” or “deprivals” because they are in need of balance. They represent the ‘need’ and ‘fulfillment’ that are the two faces of Eros and from them derive the polemos or strife, the confrontation that is everyday life.

Another translation is “transposition”. A trans-position is a movement towards or away from something, a change of position or place. This might refer to the change of position required to make hard and soft sounds in speech. In soft speech there is a deprivation of breath, but is this deprivation of breath required to bring the strengths of the qualities of the hard speech into balance or reconciliation? The Strengths are on the right-hand side of the Tree of Life, while the left side is concerned with what is perceived as the “weaker” qualities, the Chakmah qualities of Wisdom and Mercy. Is this a note or a warning on the folly of excess, on the folly of egoistical self-concern and possession? Self-concern is one of the dangers inherent in eros for life requires us to look after our own individual needs.

In the six directions of the space, the movement of these transpositions could be up or down, east or west, north or south, and I consider them to be the gyring motions of the paths and Sephirot. Their place within the Tree of Life will determine their nature or character. The condition of Life is “strife” and this “strife” can be eased through “friendship” whether of individuals or nations; and this friendship or harmony is achieved through mediation. These “goods” also indicate the “temptation” that arises in human beings to mistake them for the Good. The Sefer Yetzirah clearly indicates that these “goods” are in Time and Space (this is the meaning of the word “trans-position” i.e., movement and place), while the Good itself is beyond space and time.

In analyzing topos or “place” we require a focus, horizon, and origin (since topos is the origin of our word ‘topic’, the place or site of something) . “Origin” is to be understood as that out of which something comes to appearance, the site of its appearance. Thought begins where “world” emerges: the appearance of things, the engagement with others, the recognition of self. The origin is the “embodied soul”. It is in the encountering of the presence of things as such that a “focus” is given to our thinking: this focus is “wonder”. The place itself is everywhere the Same and this we have associated with Air.

Human being is the being that is always “on the way”: human being is the “quest” that results from the “question”. Our being-in-the-world is already given to us in our encounters with ourselves, with others, and with the things in the places in which they are. We call this “consciousness” or “cognition”.

Truth as “unconcealment” is bound within the horizon in which we are placed: our speaking and acting is revealed as true or false and it is also capable of being true or false. “Understanding” and “meaning” allow only certain things to emerge as meaningful (the limits of the “cubic box”), while others are withdrawn or remain hidden.

Understanding (Binah) finds its ground within a domain or “place” that it has constituted for itself. Nihilism has arisen in the modern age because memory (Chakmah) is disjointed from its own past and questions only arise that are “technical” or “rational” in character. “Consciousness” and “cognition” are closed down so that we exist in a kind of somnambulistic state. Through our need and desire for security, it is the closing off of openness to the possibilities of the future and their questionableness. It realizes itself in our “just do it” slogans so that actions are undertaken without thought.

The being of human beings in the world of Yetzirah (understood as gestell or “framework”, the frame in which we place our picture of the world) is a manner of apprehending the “other” as resource, as thing. In this apprehension of the world as “thing”, what is forgotten is that thinking is a remembering or re-collection and a form of giving thanks to the Giver for that which is given.

Text of the Sefer Yetzirah: 4.2

4.2 These seven double letters point out the dimensions, East, West, height, depth, North, South, with the holy temple in the middle, sustaining all things.

Wescott trans. 4.2. These Seven Double Letters point out seven localities; Above, Below, East, West, North, South, and the Palace of Holiness in the midst of them sustaining all things.

Commentary on 4.2

The seven doubles point out the six directions of space as well as the Holy Temple sustaining all things. These six directions parallel six Sephirot: Netzach > Hod, Tiferet > Yesod, Chesed > Gevurah. These are the directions one must face, or the motion of the head, when attempting to transmit or attain the qualities mentioned in 4:1 and in one’s meditations. The Talmud states: “He who wishes Wisdom, let him face south; he who wishes Wealth, let him face north.” In the temple, the Menorah which is related to wisdom is in the south; the Table indicating wealth was to the north. The Tarot Card of The Magician #1 has a table upon which rests the things from which he makes wealth (swords, cups, pentacles) and this wealth is made from the energy that comes from the upheld ready-to-hand wand (tools and will).

The holy temple in the middle sustaining them all would refer, for a Christian, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Love) and would therefore be related to the human heart (Tiferet > Yesod). It could also be the Body of Christ, as the whole of creation is seen as the body of Christ, the Logos. This would indicate the Cross of “the Lamb slain from the foundations of the Earth”. (This is how Christ’s saying should be understood: “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” It is not only referring to a church or synagogue but to the whole of creation.)

The creation as temple could also relate to Eros understood as the “proportional mean”, the balance which holds them all in relation to one another. Tiferet as Beauty, Grace channels the spiritual Light from Keter to all the other parts of the created World, and the proper response to the world is one of Love since it is Love which sustains the whole of the world. (“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” Matt: 6: 19-24.) This passage from Matthew deals with not being able to serve two masters i.e., wealth and God. You cannot serve God and Mammon. There are also references to “the eye” as the “lamp of the body”. The eye that is in darkness makes everything dark. Macbeth, for example, has the eye that sees daggers. (This has very important implications for the theoretical viewing of the world: neither Aristotle nor Newton is wrong; they are simply viewing the same world through very different eyes. The word theoria in Greek is “to view” with its root theo meaning “god”).

The spiritual, Keter, and the material, Malkhut, are poised in the balance that is Tiferet in the middle. “The end is in the beginning”. Fullness and Need here are expressed as the desire for the Good, but this desire itself oscillates; Wealth as the fullness of the material world is not sufficient to meet the need of the whole human being. Human beings need truth, beauty and the Good, and their desire for it is what distinguishes them from the other animals for from these needs human beings build a “world”. They are the “perfect imperfect” creatures, the perfect incomplete beings.

Text of the Sefer Yetzirah: 4.3

4.3 These seven double letters He formed, designed, created, and combined into the Stars of the Universe, the days of the week, the orifices of perception in man; and from them he made seven heavens, and seven planets, all from nothingness, and, moreover, he has preferred and blessed the sacred Heptad.

Alt. Trans.
Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT
Seven and not six
Seven and not eight
Examine with them
And probe with them
Make each thing stand on its essence
And make the Creator sit on His base.


Wescott trans. 4.3. These Seven Double Letters He designed, produced, and combined, and formed with them the Planets of this World, the Days of the Week, and the Gates of the soul (the orifices of perception) in Man. From these Seven He hath produced the Seven Heavens, the Seven Earths, the Seven Sabbaths: for this cause He has loved and blessed the number Seven more than all things under Heaven (His Throne).

SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER IV
(Found in some modern editions)
He caused and produced Beth, predominant in wisdom, crowned, combined, and formed the Moon in the Universe, the first day of the week, and the right eye, of man.
Gimel, predominant in health, crowned, combined and formed Mars in the Universe, the second day of the week, and the right ear in man.
Daleth, predominant in fertility, crowned, combined, and formed the Sun in the Universe, the third day of the week, and the right nostril in man.
Kaph, predominant in life, crowned, combined, and formed Venus in the Universe, the fourth day of the week, and the left eye of man.
Peh, predominant in power, crowned, combined, and formed Mercury in the Universe, the fifth day of the week, and the left ear in man.
Resh, predominant in peace, crowned, combined, and formed Saturn in the Universe, the sixth day of the week, and the left nostril in man.

Tau, predominant in beauty, crowned, combined and formed Jupiter in the Universe, the seventh day in the week, and the mouth of man.
By these seven letters were also made seven worlds, seven heavens, seven lands, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days (as before), seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, and every seventh year a jubilee.

Commentary on 4.3:

The creation of the world itself was accomplished in six days, each corresponding to one of the directions in space. The Sabbath or day of rest is the seventh when the perfection of the completion of creation was achieved.

The Sephirot are located at the lower end points of the seven vertical lines of the Tree of Life. The movements within the Sephirot are upwards for human beings, and they indicate a process of decreation. The downward movements are those of the Divine and indicate the process of creation. The seven doubles are associated with the astrological forces of the seven planets, the realms of space and time. The influences of the planets are mediated by angels through the vertical paths associated with the Sephirot.

The “orifices of perception” in human beings are four of the five senses, all related to the head. Touch is not included (why, given the importance of hands to formation and making, the universe of Yetzirah?) How the world is perceived by human beings is determined through the senses and the examining and probing of the things that are in order to “make each thing stand on its essence” i.e., to bring the things into presence, to a stand, in their truth. In doing so, this will allow the Creator to sit on His base or foundation, or will place the Creator on His base in the creation that He has made. World needs human being to bring things to their truth so that the Creator will be made visible as the foundation of all (see the previous section). This is part of the aim or effort of the Sefer Yetzirah, to see the unity in diversity. The God’s appearance or disappearance is the responsibility of human beings.

The Sephirot are emanations only of the realm of the Good, Beauty and Truth; they are separated by the chasm of Necessity. The word “emanation” has the meaning of the Greek parousia, “a being present alongside” or “between”, “a coming to presence”. In Christianity, the word indicates the Second Coming of Christ or Judgement Day, but if Time is circular, Judgement Day is ever-present as well as absent alongside or between the past and the future i.e., in the present, the NOW. “To make the Creator sit on His base” is to bring to presence the truth of the presence, and at the same time, the absence of the Creator in His creation for human beings. This ability to bring to presence the creation and the Creator is what distinguishes human beings from other living beings and from the whole of the creation itself. In the process of de-creation, it signifies the necessity for human beings to become mediaries for God so that through us He may view His creation. We become “God’s spies”. In medieval thought, this was the highest end for human beings.

“Examine with them” refers to the letters themselves i.e., the logoi, whether they be numbers or words. Since the Sephirot are that which gives “spiritual energy”, the dynamis of the Good in the realm of Necessity or that which is not the Good, the text says to “probe” with the letters. The “probing” is to be done through the logos itself in “dialectical discourse”, “dialectical” here meaning “friendly conversation” (which is its original meaning). Some interpretations of the text imply that Malkhut is the “centre point”, but this is clearly not the case: the “Holy Palace” is in the centre of the sphere and that is Tiferet not Malkhut. Malkhut is what we would call the Natural Kingdom, Nature, what the Greeks called phusis. The centre of the individual is “the heart” and the base for the Creator is Yesod (Foundation), but it is the body of the Living God (Tiferet) that sits upon the Foundation from His presence (Yesod) of being in the centre.

The following chart represents the doubles’ relation to the physical universe and to the human body. These later additions to the text of the Sefer Yetzirah suggest a collaboration between the early Hebrews and the Pythagoreans. From the evidence in his Gospel and in his Book of Revelations, St. John the Evangelist was a Pythagorean. (Luke and John are Greeks; Matthew and Mark are Hebrews.) The seven in relation to the body could also represent the chakmas or centres of energy that indicate a Hindu influence present in the writing. The letters in the chart below do not coincide with their Hebrew meanings. Peh, for example, means ‘mouth’, although its connection here with hearing and with Mercury or Hermes as ‘the library of traditional knowledge’ of the past messages of the gods, and of the power of those who possess such knowledge is an appropriate association. Being associated with the left ear would also associate it with the left side of the Tree of Life.

LetterQuality PlanetDayPart of Body
BethWisdomMoonMondayRight eye
Gimel HealthMarsTuesdayRight ear
DaletSeedSunWednesdayRight nostril
KafLifeVenusThursdayLeft eye
PehPower MercuryFridayLeft ear
ReshPeaceSaturnSaturdayLeft nostril
TavBeautyJupiterSundayMouth

If Time is circular, one can see that the mid-point is the combination of the Sun and Venus among the planets, the combination of Seed (fertility) and Life. These combinations and their alignments raise questions: why is not Tau associated with Venus since it is associated with Beauty? How can Saturn, which is associated with Time, be related to Peace? Are we speaking of the peace of Death here? Time is associated with the “strife” that is the essential condition of Life, and Saturn (Chronos) is associated with the god who attempted to eat his own children i.e., Death: Time, which gives them birth and eventually consumes them. I will attempt to answer some of these questions as I proceed through this commentary. (On The Wheel of Fortune card, the movement is counter-clockwise i.e., “the future comes to meet us from behind” in the NOW, again indicating the process of de-creation.)

The rule of the 7 dominates the Foundation of the creation of the world. 7 is 4 + 3: 4 is the number of the physical realm, and 3 the number of the spiritual realm. This may relate to the Seven Seals of the early Kabbalists and to the seven seals that are to be opened on the day of Judgement indicating an end of Time (Book of Revelations). The Sephirot are “eternal”; they are the unchanging middle points of the balance that weigh and transform from fullness to need and from need to fullness. They are the “running and returning” that is the message of God (Mercury, the messenger of the gods, is depicted with wings on his feet) which we perceive as motion, but which is not motion; the motion is within ourselves.

The four universes and their relation to the One (which is a Three) is the foundation of the rule of seven. The universe of Atzilut is beyond the physical realm. This is the realm of Keter, Chakmah, and Binah. The universe of Beriyah or the Universe of the Throne allows the Sephirot to interact with the lower worlds through the three Mothers. The universe of Yetzirah is the world of speech, the logos which bridges the gaps “between” the two universes bringing the spiritual and physical together. The universe of Asiyah or the kingdom of Malkhut is the great temptation towards downward movement.

“Every word emanating from God creates an angel” or the mediator that will deliver that word between worlds, to answer prayers and supplications. (“Human beings do not live by bread alone but from the word that emanates from the mouth of God” Matt: 4.11). There are seven archangels but only three (Gabriel, Michael, Raphael) are mentioned in the Bible itself while the other four come from the tradition (see the diagram of the Tree of Life that opens this commentary). In the Sefer Yetzirah, the angels are created on the 5th day after the stars are created. Laylah, the angel of Fate, was considered the angel of astrological birth (The Star #17). The three archangels were considered “temporary” angels in the text, but this is somewhat bewildering to say the least: are they “temporary” in their appearance and hiddenness, temporary in the realm of the material, or temporary historically, in time? The archangels are related to Chakmah consciousness and thus are associated with the answering of prayers. The battles associated with the archangels and Satan are the battles that occur every day within the human heart and in the world of human beings.

The seven doubles or binaries indicate how letters become words. The dominant letter is placed at the beginning and then the arranging of the other six e.g., if one seeks wisdom, Bet at the beginning and GD KPRT following. For meditation, one focuses on the part of the body associated with the letter. The specific traits are best transposed on the day of the week associated with them.

Text of Sefer Yetzirah 4.4

4.4. From two letters, or forms (stones) He composed two dwellings; from three, six; from four, twenty-four; from five, one hundred and twenty; from six, seven hundred and twenty; from seven, five thousand and forty; and from thence their numbers increase in a manner beyond counting; and are incomprehensible. These seven are Planets of the Universe, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars; the seven days are the days of creation; and these and the seven gateways of a man, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and a mouth, through which he perceives by his senses.


Wescott trans. 4.4. Two Letters produce two houses; three form six; four form twenty−four; five form one hundred and twenty; six form seven hundred and twenty; (39)26 seven form five thousand and forty; and beyond this their numbers increase so that the mouth can hardly utter them, nor the ear hear the number of them. So now, behold the Stars of our World, the Planets which are Seven; the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. The Seven are also the Seven Days of Creation; and the Seven Gateways of the Soul of Man−−the two eyes, the two ears, the mouth and the two nostrils. So with the Seven are formed the seven heavens, (41)27 the seven earths, and the seven periods of time; and so has He preferred the number Seven above all things under His Heaven. (42)28

Wescott Notes to 4.4

“This is the special chapter of the Heptad, the powers and properties of the Seven. Here again we have the threefold attribution of the numbers and letters to the Universe, to the Year, and to Man. The supplemental paragraphs have been printed in modern form by Kalisch; they identify the several letters of the Heptad more definitely with the planets, days of the week, human attributes and organs of the senses.”

  1. These numbers have been a source of difference between the editors and copyists, hardly any two editors concurring. I have given the numbers arising from continual multiplication of the product by each succeeding unit from one to seven. 2×1=2, 2×3=6, 6×4=24, 24×5=120, 120×6=720, 720×7=5040.
  2. In associating the particular letters to each planet the learned Jesuit Athanasius Kircher allots Beth to the Sun, Gimel to Venus, Daleth to Mercury, Kaph to Luna, Peh to Saturn, Resh to Jupiter, and Tau to Mars. Kalisch in the supplementary paragraphs gives a different attribution; both are wrong, according to clairvoyant investigation. Consult the Tarot symbolism given by Court de Gebelin, Eliphas
  3. Levi, and my notes to the Isiaic Tablet of Bembo. The true attribution is probably not anywhere printed. The planet names here given are Chaldee words.
  4. The Seven Heavens and the Seven Earths are printed with errors, and I believe intentional mistakes, in many occult ancient books. Some Hermetic MSS. have the correct names and spelling.
  5. On the further attribution of these Seven letters, note that Postellus gives: Vita−−mors, Pax−−afflictio, Sapientia−−stultitia, Divitiae (Opus)−−paupertas, Gratia opprobrium, Proles−−sterilitas, Imperium−−servitus.
    Pistorius gives: Vita−−mors, Pax−−bellum, Scientia−−ignorantia, Divitiae−−paupertas, Gratia−−abominatio,
    Semen (Proles)−−sterilitas, Imperium (Dominatio)−−servitus.

Commentary on 4.4:

LetterQuality PlanetDayPart of Body
BethWisdomMoonMondayRight eye
Gimel HealthMarsTuesdayRight ear
DaletSeedSunWednesdayRight nostril
KafLifeVenusThursdayLeft eye
PehPower MercuryFridayLeft ear
ReshPeaceSaturnSaturdayLeft nostril
TavBeautyJupiterSundayMouth
Hebrew Letters and their assignments

In the chart above, I have attempted to make some associations between the seven double letters as well as the planets, the days of the week, and the parts of the body that are assigned to them. Again, this is very tentative and with further reflection a truer account may be found in the various relations that are given in the initial Sefer Yetzirah.

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter Three

The Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter Three:

3.1 The three mother letters A, M, SH are the foundations of the whole; and resemble a Balance, the good in one scale, the evil in the other, and the oscillating tongue of the Balance between them.

Wescott trans. 3.1. The Foundation of all the other sounds and letters is provided by the Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin; they resemble a Balance, on the one hand the guilty, on the other hand the purified, and Aleph the Air is like the Tongue of a Balance standing between them. (35)23

23 “This chapter is especially concerned with the essence of the Triad, as represented by the Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem, and Shin. Their development in three directions is pointed out, namely in the Macrocosm or Universe; in the Year or in Time; and in the Microcosm or Man.”

  1. The importance of equilibrium is constantly reiterated in the Kabalah. The “Siphra Dtzeniouta,” or “Book of Mystery,” opens with a reference to this Equilibrium as a fundamental necessity of stable existence. (The notions of strife, sophrosyne and prudence in the Greeks.)

Commentary on 3.1:

The beginning of Chapter 3 of the Sefer Yetzirah repeats what was already mentioned in 2.1. As explained there, the three Mothers are related to the three elements of air, water and fire. Mem “hums”, while Shin “hisses”. As the foundations of the whole, the three Mothers represent the three columns of the Tree of Life: Mem/Chakmah; Shin/Binah; and Alef/Keter. They connect together the horizontal paths of the Tree in its downward and upward motions. Both the vertical and horizontal lines of the “plan” or the Tree of Life belong to the letters Alef, Mem, and Shin. The seven double letters work with the three Mothers in both the downward and upward motion on the Tree of Life. The repetitions indicate what I have called the gyring motion of the journey either up or down the Tree of Life.

The translation here seems to have made an error: it is not the “tongue” or stem of the Balance which oscillates, but rather the good and evil pans on either side which move either upward or downward depending on the “weight” present. “Sin” is the weight, and sin is that which produce injustice. If the tongue is said to oscillate, then this would indicate the nature of historical knowledge that is passed on to others through Time. The pan of good is that which is “merited” or earned, while the pan of evil is that which is “owed” or “liable”; it is a “liability”, a “debt”. (This is why in the Lord’s Prayer Christians ask the Father “to forgive us our “debts” as we forgive our “debtors” i.e., what is ‘owed’ to others and what others ‘owe’ to us, a conception of justice.) The Law of Necessity itself does not change. All created things move within its limits and cannot exceed the limits imposed on them. That which is “owed” must be paid at some point in time. That which is “merited” is that which is obedient to the Law of Necessity (God’s Law, the Divine Will). The concept of karma is appropriate here. This is what Justice is. (This is one of the reasons why I am inclined to view Justice as #8 in the Tarot cards and not as #11 as The Order of the Golden Dawn has assigned to it.)

The contraries present in the world are not “opposites” but deprivations. They may be viewed in the light of yin/yang which in themselves are not opposites but contrary forces. What is interesting to note here is that good and evil are present from the foundations of the world and are part of the foundations of the world. They are not merely constructs of the human mind, or what we call human values. The World at its very heart in its creation is ethical. “Consciousness” and “conscience” are the awareness that thought is present in the World itself and that human beings do not live beyond good and evil in their freedom. The Sephirot to the left and the Sephirot to the right are connected by the three Mothers.

Sefer Yetzirah Text 3.2

3.2 These three mothers enclose a mighty mystery, most occult and most marvelous, sealed as with six rings, and from them proceed primeval Fire, Water, and Air; these are subsequently differentiated into male and female. At first existed these three mothers, and there arose three masculine powers, and hence all things have originated.

Wescott trans. 3.2. The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin, are a great Mystery, very admirable and most recondite, and sealed as with six rings; and from them proceed Air, Fire, and Water, which divide into active and passive forces.
The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin, are the Foundation, from them spring three Fathers, and from these have proceeded all things that are in the world.

Commentary 3.2:

What is notable here is that the origins of the world are feminine. As was discussed earlier, the three Mothers appear to represent what Plato called the khôra in his Timaeus. For Plato, the khora was “most perplexing” while here it is “most occult and most marvelous”. The YHV is said to be derived from the three Mothers: Yud=Mem, Heh=Shin, Vav=Alef. AMSh are said to be the mediators between contraries. The contraries are brought into a relation of harmony, “friendship” because they exist in “strife”. The “foundation” that is the Mother letters is the “mean proportional” that reconciles and connects the incommensurables of the left and the right on the Tree of Life (i.e., nature and convention; justice and victory/glory; water and fire with a “hissing” sound). The mean proportional is the Logos or the Word that is the Breath that the Mother letters represent.

The sealing with six rings represents the six directions of the sphere (space) discussed earlier. The rings are the circumferences of the circles within the sphere, the gyring motions either upward or downward. The six rings are Tiferet, the beauty of the world, which through shape and colour provide the “outward appearances of the things” or eidos. The suggestion here is that human beings are incapable of having knowledge of the whole beginning with knowledge of the individual or particular thing through the knowledge of all things. (The Lord of the Rings: “Three rings for the Elvin kings=Air those who give language to human beings and other living things such as trees; Seven for the Dwarf lords=Earth, the miners and craftsmen, the technai and the artisans, of the realm of Yetzirah; Nine for Mortal Men=Water; = 19 rings; One ring to rule them all=Fire the letter ש Shin; = 20 rings i.e., Judgement. The ring of Sauron can only be unmade in the Fires of Mt. Doom; i.e., the end is imbedded in the beginning and “doom” is Fate or Fortune which is conceived as a mountain which one must climb.)

“The script that is written in the King’s name and sealed with the King’s ring cannot be reversed.” (Esther 8.8) Here, the World is seen as a “script” or a written document requiring interpretation or reading. This interpreting is called hermeneutics. We carry out this reading constantly in our day to day lives and this reading is prompted by the thought present in the principle of reason or it may be done through another type of thinking.

The three Fathers are the three columns of the Tree of Life which define space. They are three vertical lines; the Mothers are three horizontal lines. The “descendants” of the Fathers are all living things which require space to be. Air is Keter, water is Chakmah, and Fire is Binah. With the being of living things is the inception of Time.

Sefer Yetzirah Text 3.3

3.3 The three mothers are A, M, SH; and in the beginning as to the Macrocosm the Heavens were created from Fire; the Earth from primeval Water; and the Air was formed from the Spirit, which stands alone in the midst, and is the Mediator between them.

Alt. Trans.
Three Mothers: Alef Mem Shin
He engraved them, He carved them,
He arranged them, He weighed them,
He transformed them.
And with them He depicted
Three Mothers AMSh in the universe (space)
Three Mothers AMSh in the Year (time)
Three Mothers AMSh in the Soul (thought, the spiritual, cognition),
Male and female.

Wescott trans. 3.3. The Three Mothers in the world are Aleph, Mem and Shin: the heavens (36)24 were produced (37)25 from Fire; the earth from the Water; and the Air from the Spirit is as a reconciler between the Fire and the Water.

Wescott Notes:

24 36. Heavens. The Hebrew word Heshamaim HShMIM, has in it the element of Aesh, fire, and Mim, water; and also Shem, name; The Name is IHVH, attributed to the elements. ShMA is in Chaldee a name for the Trinity (Parkhurst). ShMSh is the Sun, and Light, and a type of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. Malachi iv. 2.

25 37. Were produced. The Hebrew word BRA, is the root. Three Hebrew words are used in the Bible to represent the idea of making, producing, or creating. BRIAH, Briah, giving shape, Genesis i. 1. OShIH, Ashiah, completing, Genesis i. 31. ITzIRH, Yetzirah, forming, Genesis ii. 7. To these the Kabalists add the word ATzLH, with the meaning of “producing something manifest from the unmanifested.”
Emanation. Shin. Aleph. Mem. Macrocosm. Primal Fire. Spirit. Primal Water.
Universe. Heavens. Atmosphere. The Earth.
Elements. Terrestrial Fire. Air. Water.
Man. Head. Chest. Belly.
Year. Heat. Temperate. Cold.

Commentary on 3.3:

The three Mothers Alef, Mem, and Shin, air, water, and fire are initially one in the beginning but in the creation, they are separated into three: the Heavens are made from Fire (the sun and stars), the Earth is made from the primeval chaos of water (mire and clay), and air is formed from spirit which stands in the middle and is the mediator that brings the contraries of fire and water, heaven and earth, together into “harmony” or a relation of “friendship”. This bringing together creates ‘world’ for us. It is what we understand by “experience”.

The three Mothers are brought together through five processes: engraving, carving, arranging, weighing, and transforming. Through these processes the three Mothers make three domains: world, year, and soul. “Breath from breath” is an indication of the soul’s relation to the divine. It is the soul which mediates between time and space. It is the soul, through the five processes, which bring beings to light and reveals them in time that is water and fire.

Three spatial dimensions are made from six directions. AMSh separates the space continuum from the time and spiritual continuum and then brings them together into a unity and harmony. Dynamis and kinesis is movement in space, and movement or motion is Time. The two belong together but are separate. This is to be understood on a number of levels: what separates us, literally, from the Heavens is air for we are bound to the earth. However, the Mothers are all present in all three: three in space, three in time, and three in the soul. The air is the mediator that brings together the one and the many (three) whether it be in space, time, or soul, male and female. Space is three dimensions; time is past, present and future; soul is cognition, thought and spirit or will.

Water represents matter (earth from water), fire represents energy (dynamis, whether in motion or not), and air is the bridge or mediator between them. Earth itself is not a basic element but is composed from the other three, primarily water. Air represents the paths through which the Sephirot interact in the Tree of Life i.e., from Chakmah to Binah, from Wisdom to Understanding, from cognition to thought with the influence of air. Fire is the radiation of energy and water the absorption of energy, the giving and receiving that is mediated by air which links the two by being able to transmit the energy. Through this, one may understand the metaphor of Plato who, in his “Seventh Letter”, says that Love is “fire catching fire”. Radiation and absorption are not opposites. Water is deprived of fire; in other depictions Chaos is ‘darkness without light’. The light in its linking does not itself move (it is not subject to time). The light of Keter is a “borrowed” light from that Light which is beyond Being. In the question of identity and difference, difference is deprivation, deprival not an opposite.

Beings made by techne or the five processes are beings by physis or Nature that relate to Being in a different way. Shakespeare says: “The Art itself is Nature”, the art being the five processes of making, and the making of art is part of the essence of human being. The techne or the maker, the artist, is an initiate (The Magician card of the Tarot #1). Human beings do not “create”; they make. They are not the source of their “in-spiration”. The “all One” of Heraclitus is the “friendship” of the mean that holds together contrary forces and energies. The assertive character of the logos in Aristotle (the apophanesthai) is the naming of things as Otherness. The saying something about something as something (“this is a computer”) is the imperative voice in the Hebrew. This is the voice of the making of things, the algorithmic voice. It is an assertive, imperative voice involving the will.

Sefer Yetzirah Text 3.4

3.4 In the Year or as regards Time, these three mothers represent Heat, Cold, and a Temperate climate, the heat from the fire, the cold from the water, and the temperate state from the spiritual air which again is an equalizer (mediator) between them. These three mothers again represent in the Microcosm or Human form, male and female; the Head, the Belly and the Chest; the head from the fire, the belly from water, and the chest from the air lieth between them.

Wescott trans. 3.4. The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin, Fire, Water and Air, are shown in the Year: from the fire came heat, from the waters came cold, and from the air was produced the temperate state, again a mediator between them. The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin, Fire, Water and Air, are found in Man: from the fire was formed the head; from the water the belly; and from the air was formed the chest, again placed as a mediator between the others.

Commentary on 3.4

The Coming to be of Human Beings

The Sefer Yetzirah introduces the coming to be of human beings with the coming to be of time. Time is shown as cyclical or circular, not linear such as past, present and future. (“The future comes to meet us from behind” as the Greeks would say.) The mediation is made possible by the cyclical nature of time (S.Y 6.3). Things in space are fixed in their position; they are limited, for if they were unlimited, we would not be able to distinguish one thing from another. The Other is the coming together of fire and water, the formation of substance or earth, materiality, physicality. Time is motion in space and Air provides the conduit or path for this motion and mediates between the contraries of hot/cold, fire/water. The air itself in not in motion but is the medium through which time passes. Water is designated as H2O: the combination of fire and air.

Fire is seen as an excess of sensations, while water is the lack of sensations (depression, gloom). In the cycle, the intermediate point must be crossed no matter the direction. (The gnomon of the sundial is a concrete image of this).

Human beings are seen as a microcosm of the created World. The Head is fire because it is associated with Binah or Understanding and Knowledge; the Belly is associated with water because it is associated with Chakmah or the “appetites” and the passions (also with Yesod); and the Chest is associated with air because it is associated with Tiferet, with the lungs and with Air (Life). The Chest is also associated with the Heart since the heart is located in the chest and through it all of the paths of the Sephirot must pass. The Hebrew word Ravayah is similar to the Greek word sophrosyne or temperance, moderation. The actions and desires of human beings are realized in time; their being is in the present. Air (breath, the Logos, the Heart) decides between their rashness and their moderation, the fire and the water, the goodness and the evil of the actions.

Sefer Yetzirah Text 3.5

3.5 These three mothers did he create, form, and design, and combine with the three mothers in the world, and in the year, and in Man, both male and female.
He caused Aleph to reign in the air, and crown it, and combined one with the other, and with these he sealed the Air in the world, the temperate climate of the year, and the chest (the lungs for breathing air) in man; the male with Sh, A, M, the female with Sh, M, A.(?) He caused Mem to predominate in Water, and crowned it, and combined it with others, and formed Earth on the world, cold in the year, and the fruit of the womb in mankind, being carried in the belly. He caused Shin to reign in Fire and crowned it, and he combined one with the other, and sealed them, as heaven in the universe, as heat in the year, and as the head of Man and Woman.

Wescott trans. 3.5. These Three Mothers did He produce and design, and combined them; and He sealed them as the three mothers in the Universe, in the Year and in Man−−both male and female. He caused the letter Aleph to reign in Air and crowned it, and combining it with the others He sealed it, as Air in the World, as the temperate (climate) of the Year, and as the breath in the chest (the lungs for breathing air) in Man: the male with Aleph, Mem, Shin, the female with Shin, Mem, Aleph. He caused the letter Mem to reign in Water, crowned it, and combining it with the others formed the earth in the world, cold in the year, and the belly in man, male and female, the former with Mem, Aleph, Shin, the latter with Mem, Shin, Aleph. He caused Shin to reign in Fire, and crowned it, and combining it with the others sealed with it the heavens in the universe, heat in the year and the head in man, male and female. (38)

Commentary on 3.5

The three Mothers are present in combinations at all times, but in their various emanations one element will predominate over another. The three Mothers are combined with the three mothers of the World, Time and human beings. In Air, Alef predominates, but Mem and Shin are also present. To “seal” is to fix in position: air in the world, the temperate in climate, and the lungs in human beings. For males and females, Shin or fire predominates in the Head; for females, the Belly is Alef, while for the male it is Mem, but the other two elements are also always present. Mem predominates in water and in combination with the others forms earth within the world, and the female womb as the receptacle for humankind.

Whichever element predominates determines the shape of the Hebrew letters. When Alef predominates, we have the following configuration:
Alef: Male: Alef Mem Shin; Female: Alef Shin Mem (World, temperate season, lungs/heart)
Mem: Male: Mem Alef Shin; Female: Mem Shin Alef (Earth, cold, belly)
Shin: Male: Shin Alef Mem; Female: Shin Alef Mem (Heaven in the World, Hot in the Year, the Head in the Soul)

What should be noted here is that everything that comes to the soul passes through the body. The soul and body are mirror images of each other, counterparts to each other, not opposites of each other. The three Mothers constitute the three worlds of space and time: Asiyah, the world of the physical or Mem; Yetzirah, the world of formation or Alef; and Beriyah, the world of understanding and knowledge or Shin. Human beings occupy these three worlds simultaneously, and it is its ability to occupy “worlds” that distinguishes human beings from other animals. It is language, the logos, the Alef as a principle, which allows us to do so.

The crowns of the letters are the supposed means by which one moves from one universe to another and from one Sephirot to the other. More will be said about the crowns later in this commentary.

The Nature of the Three Mother Letters:

The Three Mother letters come from the three references in Genesis where it is said “Elohim made…”. The shape of the Hebrew letters is extremely important.
Aleph — “and Elohim made the Firmament and divided the waters . . .” 1:7

Keter, Sephirah #1 in the Tree of Life, is usually assigned to the letter Alef which means “ox”, “master”, “teacher”, “wondrous”. א Alef (Ox)`. Aleph or (Alef) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and signifies either the number 1 or the concept of 0 and would correspond to either The Fool #0 or The Magician #1 in the Tarot. Using the concept of 0 suggests that Alef signifies no-thing and is not to be comprehended by either numbers or words since numbers and words come into being with the creation of Time and Space; but both Time and Space, numbers and words, are with the One from the beginning.

Aleph indicates the Oneness and Unity of the Creator; but as the shape of the letter suggests, this Oneness is a 1 + 1 +1, a One composed of Three. The three parts of the letter are two letter Yods and one letter Vav. The diagonal Vav separates the two Yods which are two points, or two individual beings: the Divine Soul and the Soul of Creation. This diagonal suggests that the creation is a barrier but also a way through, a door or gateway perhaps; and the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Dalet, means “door” which also suggests this. It hints that beyond the illusion of separation and duality is underlying Oneness – that nothing is separate and the Creator is the source of everything.

The shape of the Aleph is two Yods י, one above and one below, with a diagonal line, the Vav ו, between them, representing the higher world and the lower world, with the Vav separating and connecting the two.

Aleph represents the creation of something from nothing. In the Sefer Yetzirah, this indicates that it is of the world of Beriyah. It is the essential symbol of beginnings (suggesting The Fool #0) and the ultimate reality that cannot be talked about since it is timeless, spaceless, and present everywhere. It is the One that cannot be divided, representing the perfection beyond human comprehension.

Aleph suggests the wonder that arises from beginnings, the sense of a quest-ion that begins or is responsible for the “quest” or the journey. On this journey, there is a “Master” or ruler and a “teacher”: these are the Laws of Necessity (the Divine Will or Torah). Necessity brings suffering; the purpose of suffering is to teach. As the Greeks understood, the “mathematical” is that which can be learned and that which can be taught. Necessity is both master and teacher with regard to our human being in the world, and it is that which can be learned and that which can be taught. There is also the suggestion that the journey cannot be undertaken alone. One requires a “master” or a “teacher”.

Mem, the second Mother letter, derives from “and Elohim made the two great lights . . . and the stars.” 1:16 מ Mem (water).

The letter Mem is water mayim מים , the waters of wisdom, knowledge, and is related to The High Priestess #2 card of the Tarot. Mem has both an open and a closed format with the open format illustrated here. The open format represents exoteric wisdom, while the closed format represents esoteric wisdom.

This is shown in the Tarot card by the Priestess holding a scroll with the word “Tora” inscribed on it. The revealed letters are the exoteric or public wisdom of the Torah, while the missing “h” or Heh represents the esoteric or private
qualities of the writing suggesting that ‘jubilation’ (Heh means ‘jubilation’) is to be found in the esoteric elements of the Torah. On the right pillar of Boaz behind her is a Yod signifying the individual, while on the pillar of Jakim is a Beth (meaning ‘house’) signifying the house of the collective, the society, the city. There is an element of the ‘hidden’ in our understanding of the letter Mem. On the curtain behind The High Priestess are seven pomegranates in the shape of the lower seven Sephirot of the Tree of Life, which are the Sephirot of the manifestation of creation. The universe is manifested in the 7 Pillars Of Wisdom which are the areas of knowledge of the ancient world.

Associated with water, the influence of Mem flows downward in the Tree of Life as the element of fire, Shin, rises upward. Mem indicates the life-force of the Divine which moves downward, while Shin represents the fire of desire striving to move upward. Mem is associated with the receptacle of Space into which the creation is received and contained. The downward movement of water also suggests gravity, the most elemental sign of the Law of Necessity, and the ‘plan’ according to which all creation must succumb and submit.

Mem represents both water and manifestation, but it cannot manifest itself until God speaks ‘Let there be light’. It is said that in every person is the thirst for the words of the Creator, which are the waters of life and light is the life itself. The open Mem refers to the revealed aspects of God’s will as the law of necessity, while the closed Mem refers to the concealed part of the celestial rule that nonetheless guides us and all of existence, to which we attribute the concept of Providence. For the Hebrews this also relates to the Torah. Mem also represents the time necessary for ripening when it is accompanied by fire (Binah and The Empress #3 card of the Tarot) and indicates to us the importance of balanced emotions and of humility when it is connected to Netzach, the seventh Sephirot. This “time of ripening” is designated as Memory. In the process of thought, an “urge” or desire wells up where, in Time, will and theoretical thought bring this urge or desire to its completion. This involves both the worlds of Beriyah and Yetzirah.

Mem corresponds to the number 40 and represents the time necessary for the ripening process that leads to fruition i.e., forty days metaphorically. Christ is said to have fasted in the desert for 40 days and nights following which He was tempted by Satan with the three temptations or tests: the temptation of turning stones into bread (the desire to control necessity and to emancipate human being within that necessity from that necessity), the temptation to be given all the power in the world (the will to power as manifested in the social and collective), and the temptation of suicide (the temptation to view one’s individual ego as the All or the One). All human beings ultimately face these three temptations at some point in their lives. The power to turn stones into bread, the desire for the power of social prestige and recognition, and the power of suicide or self-destruction where we must choose whether we are our own or belong to God and must not tempt God. Suicide is the false form of de-creation.

Shin derives from “and Elohim made the beasts of the earth after its kind . . .” Gen. 1:25

Shin, the 21st Hebrew letter, is the letter of fire and transformation, purification. Shin literally means “tooth” and its shape is 3 branches of flame. These are the 3 pillars of the Tree of Life, reaching high like flames, purifying and changing the condition of our lives, teaching us to become aligned with the Whole of Creation through the process of de-creation which occurs through suffering which is deprival and need. Shin also represents the right and left extreme contraries or deprivals and the requirement to balance them by following the central pillar, the middle way.

The shape of the letter Shin on the left suggests the arcs of the paths within the Tree of Life. Both the tooth and fire meanings of Shin refer to it as a process of transformation, breaking down, grinding into particles, building anew, cooking, the firing of a clay pot into a form. This breaking down and transformation is the first step of the conversion that leads to the “baptism” that is the de-creation on the upward journey through the Tree of Life. The whole process of transformation that occurs in the conversion, the healing that occurs through baptism, the breaking down of the ‘ego’ necessary before one can re-unite with the One, and the restoration to the One are all aspects of the qualities of Shin. The transformative process begins and is related to the world of Yetzirah or Formation. It is Shin which transforms the mere physical world of Asiyah into a world where the physical matter becomes useful and apt for human purposes, the making of something from something.

The fire of Shin also paradoxically represents the unchangeable, the unmovable, and thus is a symbol of the divine power to raise up through Grace, to overcome gravity. It is this power of ‘rising up’ that Plato speaks of when he says that Love is ‘fire catching fire’. (This is the distinction between The Magician #1 and the figure in the Strength #11 card. The Strength card is the individual who has completed the conversion and baptism process through the fire of Shin.) The spirit, when understood as will, is that which constantly transforms matter, yet remains unchanged itself. It is this confusion between spirit understood as Love and spirit understood as Will that has caused so much grief for human beings. It is the two faces of Eros made manifest. Shin is the flame of the spirit, of Love, which we must keep always burning within us, but this Love must be a desire for the Good. From where and when does it devolve into will to power for its own sake? This is a question I wish to explore in these writings. Where do human beings make the decision that the absence of God requires ‘the death of God’ so that we can be ‘free’ in our own willing and making? Is this the constructive/destructive power of fire? How are these aspects ultimately related to Eros?

Finally, the Shin teaches us balance. It is composed of 3 Vavs, the 3 pillars of the Tree of Life. The right pillar of Boaz is of kindness and mercy, the left of Jakim of strict justice and severity. These are the contradictions of Necessity. The world cannot continue without both, so we must try to recognize the balance between the two. This is Justice. In all aspects of life, we must search for the middle way between the deprivations and extremes.

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter 2

Text:

2.1 The foundations are the twenty-two letters, three mothers, seven doubles, and twelve single letters. Three mothers, namely A, M, SH, these are Air, Water, and Fire: Mute (Hums) as Water, Hissing as Fire, and Air of a spiritual type, is as the tongue of a balance standing erect between them pointing out the equilibrium which exists.

Alt. Trans.: Twenty-two foundation letters, Three Mothers, Seven Doubles, And Twelve elementals: The three Mothers are Alef, Mem, Shin. Their foundation is A pan of merit (fullness) A pan of liability (need) And the tongue of decree deciding between them.(mediation)

Three Mothers: Alef, Mem, Shin: Mem hums, Shin hisses And Alef is the Breath of air deciding between them.

Wescott Trans. 2.1. The twenty−two sounds and letters are the Foundation of all things. Three mothers, seven doubles and twelve simples. The Three Mothers are Aleph, Mem and Shin, they are Air, Water and Fire. Water is silent, Fire is sibilant, and Air derived from the Spirit is as the tongue of a balance standing between these contraries which are in equilibrium, reconciling and mediating between them.

Commentary on 2.1

The foundations of the created world are revealed through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet by means of the 10 Sephirot. The image created is one of a balance, a scale, the symbol of Justice. The Tree of Life itself is a symbol of this. The Three Mothers represent the three columns into which the Sephirot are divided and come to constitute the three pillars of the Tree of Life. Boaz is the pillar of Mem (water), Jakim is the pillar of Shin (fire) and Keter is the breath (air) or Spirit (the Logos) which judges between them. Water moves downward; fire rises. The movement, as we perceive it, is clockwise.

The ‘tongue of balance’ or the ‘tongue of decree’ is a metaphor for the Logos. The function of the Logos is as a reconciler and mediator. It is the ‘speaking silence’ that is the Beauty of the World, as well as the Law of decree that is Necessity. It is the Torah and the Ain Sof.

Blake Illustration for The Book of Job: Job’s Bad Dreams

The Scale here is the Law of Necessity, the law which rules over all created things. It is the schema or plan which creation and created things must follow. It is the Divine Will. The justice of the law of Necessity is one of the most difficult things for human beings to comprehend. It raises questions such as: if God is all Good, why does He allow the innocent to suffer? Why does He allow the wicked to prosper? The evil Demiourgos of the Gnostics and the questions of the “Book of Job” come to mind. (“The Book of Job” is originally in Greek with God’s answers to Job written in Hebrew. Needless to say, God’s answers to Job are not “psychologically satisfying” to the suffering human being who is crying out for justice!)

Examples of the Sternness of Necessity are all about us, while examples of Mercy can sometimes be hard to find. The “hissing” of Fire is caused by water’s contact with it. The implication is that mercy, love, and charity are always present and there is strife between the elements of water and fire which is mediated by air (“of a spiritual type”, which means that it is ‘no-thing’). This is one of the bridges between the spiritual and the physical. The emphasis is on holding things in harmony and of the reconciliation between them. It is through the meeting of fire and water that earth is formed.

Shin and Mem also denote the name “Shem”. Shem is one of the sons of Noah who participated in Noah’s spiritual experience, his direct contact with God. Some Kabbalists give the writing of the Sefer Yetzirah to Shem who taught it to Abraham (which is close to how the Sefer Yetzirah is being understood here if the non-Hebrew influences are taken into account within the final Hebrew text). The word “Shem” designates “name”, to name things. It is through the “naming” of things that things are brought to presence and are revealed. It is through “names” that we can grasp the spiritual essence of a person or object, if by “names” we mean the logos.

The pronunciation of the letters is also said to be a valuable meditation technique similar to the word “Om”, for instance, or the Gregorian chants of medieval Christians. Meditation is thought, contemplation, attention, prayer and it is distinguished from the thinking that is involved in the realm of yetzirah or the realm of knowing and making, the world of ‘formation’.

If we compare what is said here to Plato, the Sephirot are the Ideas which are limited to 10 and which beget all numbers and all enumeration. The Ideas beget the eidos or the outward appearances of things that brings things to a stand and give us “understanding”. Understanding is formed from the middle pillar of Keter, the logos, which is the air or “spiritual breath” that speaks the “judgement” of what things are. The logos is composed of number and speech and these are seen as identical. From the logos is physical creation identified and made.

Text 2.2:

2.2 He hath formed, weighed, transmuted, composed, and created with these twenty-two letters every living being, and every soul yet uncreated.

Alt. Trans.

Twenty-two Foundation letters: He engraved them. He carved them, He permuted them, He weighed them, He transformed them, And with them, He depicted all that was formed and all that would be formed.

Wescott Trans. 2.2. He hath formed, weighed, and composed with these twenty−two letters every created thing, and the form of everything which shall hereafter be.

Commentary on 2.2:

“He engraved them”: the letters are written on a tabula rasa a blank slate, no-thingness. They are “carved” out and separated (things that are given form and separated, the process of thinking known as diaresis to the Greeks). The letters are “permuted” or “arranged” so that words are formed. The words give names to things so that they are “weighed”, measured, and defined i.e., judged. Once measured, they can be ‘transformed’. The outward appearance of a thing was what Plato called the eidos of the thing, the ‘form’ of the thing, what allows a thing to be “measured”, “weighed” and “composed” . The Forms and Ideas of Plato are distinctive concepts, not identical or the same as is commonly understood. The Forms are the emanations of the Ideas and begot from the Ideas.

From the letters, all that was formed and all that will be formed was always already there. The things that are formed are “depicted”, “from the picture”, given an outward appearance (eidos in Greek), so that the things can be seen in images and pictures (as well as the letters themselves) and thus could be visualized so that understanding and knowledge could take place. The emphasis is on seeing or viewing. Prior to the seeing, a form must first be in place and this shape must be accompanied by colour or the light. This form is a product of the logos and can be understood through the geometry of the ancients. Geometry deals with space; weighing and composing deal with place and with Time. Place is understood as topos in Greek, and it is the site of human beings’ making in their various worlds.

Text 2.3:

2.3 Twenty-two letters are formed by the voice, impressed on the air, and audibly uttered in five situations (places): in the throat, guttural sounds (Alef, Chet, Heh, Eyin); in the palate, palatals (Gimel, Yud, Kaf, Kuf); by the tongue, linguals (Dalet, Tet, Lamed, Nun, Tav); through the teeth, dentals (Zayin, Samekh, Shin, Resh, Tzadi); and by the lips, labial sounds (Bet, Vav, Mem, Peh).

Wescott trans. 2.3. These twenty−two sounds or letters are formed by the voice, impressed on the air, and audibly modified in five places; in the throat, in the mouth, by the tongue, through the teeth, and by the lips. (31)[1]

[1]31. This is the modern classification of the letters into guttural, palatal, lingual, dental and labial sounds.

Commentary on 2.3:

Here the passage speaks of oral communication, voice, speech. The movement is from inner to outer, from hidden within the throat, to revealing upon the lips, the audible. Voice is the third action that is mentioned following the creation of the whole (the One God) and the formation of letters (the Logos). The Voice gives rise to creation itself.

The Sefer Yetzirah speaks of five Loves: Keter, Chakmah, Chesed, Tiferet, and Netzach which represent “fullness” as I understand it. The other column represents the five Judgements: Binah, Gevurah, Hod, Yesod, and Malkhut which I call “needs”, but the use of the word “judgement” here indicates the essence of the principle of reason and its site of truth. One could understand “judgement” as “outcome” or “end”. The judgements are sometimes called “Strengths” which can be seen as force or power, the bringing into reality or completion of those urges which we experience in everyday life, those desires which are related to ‘will’, or the potentiality and possibility related to Aristotle’s dynamis brought to completion as energeia or “work”, “works”. This may be related to the natural desire to overcome needs. The desire, the aspiration of thought, and its fulfillment is a “movement” and indicates the combination of being and time.

When inscribed within a sphere and the sphere is then rotated clockwise, fullness is the result. When the sphere is rotated counter-clockwise, evil or need is the result. The Wheel of Fortune #10 is not to be conceived as a two-dimensional circle but rather as a sphere. The following chart relates to the Sephirot’s relation to their position in space within the sphere:

Keter – Malkhut          Good -Evil                 Ethical

Chakmah – Binah             Past-Future              Time

Chesed – Gevurah            South-North             Space

Tiferet – Yesod                  Up-Down                  Space

Netzach – Hod                  East-West                 Space

Text 2.4:

2.4 These twenty-two letters, the foundations, He arranged as on a sphere, with two hundred and thirty-one modes of entrance. If the sphere be rotated forward, good is implied, if in a retrograde manner evil is intended.

Alt. Trans. Twenty-two foundation letters: He placed them in a sphere Like a wall with 231 Gates. The sphere oscillates back and forth. A sign for this is; There is nothing in good higher than Delight There is nothing evil lower than Plague.

Wescott trans. 2.4. These twenty−two letters, which are the foundation of all things, He arranged as upon a sphere with two hundred and thirty−one gates, and the sphere may be rotated forward or backward, whether for good or for evil; from the good comes true pleasure, from evil nought but torment.

The first chapter of the Sefer Yetzirah speaks of the spiritual realm, the ruler of which is “the heart”.  The heart acts like a general in battle in dealing with the strife that is created between the different urges and desires created by the “will” or eros that is the condition of the embodied soul of human beings. The “heart” can act out of “fullness” or “need”. The heart is the Sephirot Tiferet. The human form is a microcosm of the macrocosm that is the created world. One is reminded of the words of the English poet William Blake from his poem “Auguries of Innocence”: “God appears and God is light/ To those poor souls that dwell in night/ But does a human form display/ To those who dwell in realms of day.”

The second chapter of the Sefer Yetzirah deals with Space and Time. In space and time we deal with contraries, the deprivations of the qualities from each other. The sphere is said to oscillate back and forth: fullness and need oscillate within time and the movement is cyclical. Time is cyclical in the Sefer Yetzirah, not linear i.e., going from past to present to future, although this appearance is given in the movement from Chakmah to Binah where the past of Chakmah moves through the present of Keter to the future that is Binah. Oscillation is movement in place. These movements can be illustrated by the motions of a gyre.

The circumference of the circle/sphere is “like a wall” with 231 gates. The mathematical formula for this is: n (n – 1) / 2; 231 = 22 x 21 / 2 gates. The “wall” is the limit imposed on the unlimited, on Necessity. All of our arts and sciences develop from how we know, understand, and deal with Necessity. There are 22 points within the the sphere and the things of the world are brought to appearance within/on the circumference (the horizon). 3 points;   4 points=6 lines;   5 points=10

The number of lines that can connect the 22 letters is 231 which are the paths (letters) and gates of the Sephirot. Two letters can be combined in 231 ways. Each of the combinations is also a triangle: two letters plus the third that is part of “the wall”, one of the mother letters. The 0 is not a number, per se, but a placement indicator. The Egyptians and the Greeks rejected the concept of 0, so a 10 is not a 1 + 0, but a placement that allows the cyclical movement of the numbers to take place. (Knowledge of binomial and binary combinations would be useful here since this is the mathematical language of computers.) In this case, the number and the letter are interchangeable. One can have a  08 as well as an 80. They are not references to quantity but to quality i.e., they are not subjects (nouns), but predicates (adjectives, adverbs).

As has already been indicated, one cannot have number without space since number deals with quantity, and number must have an Other besides the One. The One itself is beyond the second one composed of the triune of Keter, Chakmah, and Binah, which constitute both space and time and these are contained within the sphere of Creation: their end is their beginning so the 1 is in the 10 and the 10 is in the 1. Time gives being to beings in space, and this Time is the moving image of the eternity of the One in its essence. Time is the dynamis (possibility and potentiality) and the kinesis (movement, action) of Life itself.

In the legend of the formation of the Golem, one is to proceed around the circle of the sphere chanting the letters from Alef to Tav; to unmake the Golem, one reverses the direction from Tav to Alef. (There is a correspondence here between the ‘creation’ and the decreation of the human being). The Golem appears to be not only the making of a soulless human being or other animal (since only God can give “soul” to beings since “soul” is eternal like Himself and part of Himself), but also the making of any made thing accomplished through the numbers and the letters.

The Golem would be a general term for the artifacts of man which do not have their origin in Nature: genetic splicing is but one manner of accomplishing the making of a “Golem”; Artificial Intelligence would be another. Cybernetics is but another synonym for the making of the Golem. The Golem appears to be something akin to the voodoo doll or the Orcs and Gollum of Tolkien, yet at the same time the Golem might suggest that through meditation one is able to visualize the “perfect human being”, the beings that are the perfection seen in Greek statues or Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”. Human beings in their being are the perfect imperfection. (The Golem reminds one of the condition of the prisoners of Plato’s Cave being “unconscious” and “soulless”.)

A Christian might see a vision of God as Christ i.e., in the form of man. The goal of the whole of the Sefer Yetzirah is the formation of the “spiritual Golem”. I would suggest that it is rather the attainment of the revelation of the Mediator (Christ) as body or the bringing of the Mediator (Christ) into actual presence or parousia. This is done through the “fullness” and “need” that is Eros. This presents us with a problem, however, if we are Christians. One does not go in search of Christ but rather prepares oneself to be found and received by Him. The sheep does not go in search of the Shepherd; it is the Shepherd’s task to find the sheep. The sheep bleats in order to be found. The bride (the embodied soul, Psyche) prepares herself in order to be received by the bridegroom (the Divine, Eros).

What is confusing about the Sefer Yetzirah is whether there are three or ten Mothers as to their relation to the Hebrew alphabet. The Mothers are the connectors between the paths: two columns, 231 gates. Mem and Shin connect Chakmah and Binah (Alef), Mem and Alef connect Gevurah and Chesed (Shin), and Alef and Shin connect Hod and Yesod (Mem). These crossroads are the points of separation of the three worlds of Asiyah, Yetzirah, and Beriyah. A rebirth, conversion, and a baptism is required to access these different realms. These rebirths are of the “water and of the Spirit”, of the “fire and of the water” or of the Logos (Breath) and of the spirit.

Some Kabbalists include an eleventh Sephirot named Da’at in their composition of the Tree of Life. Da’at is sometimes called “the Void”, but Da’at appears to be the web of Necessity itself, the limit or law which rules over all created things. What we call “knowledge” derives from our understanding of these limits whether in the physical or psychological realms. The two columns of Jakim and Boaz are comprised of these eleven Sephirot twice over i.e., the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The first eleven are said to represent the “front” (the face, the look, the outward appearance of things, what Plato called the eidos). The second eleven are the “back”, the contraries or the deprivations of things. (This would coincide with Eros as two-faced, looking in different directions and in his representation as Fullness and Need). The name “Israel” itself signifies the whole of created things, not what we understand as the state of Israel today.

When the Sefer Yetzirah states that “there is nothing in Good higher than delight”, this can be understood in a similar fashion to the Greek word eudaimonia or “good spirits”, what we understand as “happiness”. The deprivation of happiness is affliction, what is referred to as “plague” in the text of the Sefer Yetzirah. In Hebrew, the word for “delight” is oneg; the word for affliction or “plague” is nega. One obtains the words by rotating the letters back to front.

Simone Weil Spain

The sphere of creation is oscillating, rotating. One must be within the sphere, at the centre, to be unmoved by its oscillations or rotations, and Tiferet is the centre of this sphere, both the height and depth. From the centre, inside, there are no directions, no contraries. Only when one is off-centre, outside, is this perception possible and one is subject to the oscillations or turnings of the wheels upon wheels that are within the sphere itself. (King Lear Act 5 sc. iii and Act 4 sc. vii “But I am bound upon a wheel of fire,/ That mine own tears do scald like molten lead”.). Along the journey, the “dark night of the soul” as experienced by the saints occurs the closer one gets to Keter. They report that there is a complete disconnect with God (Christ’s “Father, why have you forgotten me?”, St. John of the Cross, Simone Weil). Following the dark night, the revelation is received. The dark night would occur at the third crossroads on the upward motion and the first crossroads on the descending motion on the Tree of Life.

Text 2.5:

2.5 For He indeed showed the mode of combination of the letters, each with each, Aleph with all, and all with Aleph. Thus, in combining all together in pairs are produced these two hundred and thirty-one gates of knowledge. And from Nothingness did He make something, and all forms of speech and every created thing, and from the empty void He made the solid earth, and from the non-existent He brought forth Life. He hewed, as it were, immense columns or colossal pillars, out of the intangible air, and from the empty space. And this is the impress of the whole, twenty-one letters, all from one, the Aleph.

Wescott trans. 2.5. For He shewed the combination of these letters, each with the other; Aleph with all, and all with Aleph; Beth with all, and all with Beth. Thus in combining all together in pairs are produced the two hundred and thirty−one gates of knowledge. (32)[1]

See the notes to the Wescott translation below.

Wescott trans. 2. 6. And from the non−existent (33)[2] He made Something; and all forms of speech and everything that has been produced; from the empty void He made the material world, and from the inert earth He brought forth everything that hath life. He hewed, as it were, vast columns out of the intangible air, and by the power of His Name made every creature and everything that is; and the production of all things from the twenty−two letters is the proof that they are all but parts of one living body. (34)[3]

[1]32. The 231 Gates. The number 242 is obtained by adding together all the numbers from 1 to 22. The Hebrew letters can he placed in pairs in 242 different positions: thus ab, ag, ad, up to at; then ba, bb, bg, bd, up to bt, and so on to ts, tt: this is in direct order only, without reversal. For the reason why eleven are deducted, and the number 231 specified, see the Table and Note 15 in the edition of Postellus.

[2]33. Non−existent; the word is AIN, nothingness. Ain precedes Ain Suph, boundlessness; and Ain Suph Aur, Boundless Light.

[3]34. Body; the word is GUP, usually applied to the animal material body, but here means “one whole.”

Commentary on 2.5:

Passage 2.5 is a summary of all that has been said up to now in the Sefer Yetzirah. The combining together of the pairs of letters produce the 231 gates of knowledge, but all are from the one Alef. The formula for the combinations is n (n – 1) / 2. Within Alef are the three elements of air, fire and water indicating the Pythagorean understanding of numbers as a triune (and the One God as a Trinity). The physical universe, earth, substance, is created from these three elements. “The void” is Chakmah or the unlimited, space without definable limits; it is of the element water. It is no-thing. To make no-thing into some-thing requires the imposition of language and number so that they can be measured and weighed and then named, “the shape of water”. This shaping is called the Beriyah level of the Universe, the creation of something from nothing (Atzilut, Yetzirah, and Asiyah being the other three). Binah and the Beriyah level of creation are simultaneous. “From non-existence (“no-thing”) He brought forth Life” as well as Language, and both occur simultaneously.

“He carved (hewed) immense columns or colossal pillars”: “Wisdom has built its house; it has carved its seven pillars” (Proverbs 9:1) The great pillars of Wisdom are the seven subjects of education, and hence Understanding: grammar, logic, rhetoric (Language), arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy (Number). Wisdom is realized through the study of the 7 subjects. The 7 pillars are also said to correspond to the lower 7 Sephirot of created things. The 7 days of the week are the “light of the world”, the reflected light of Malkhut (Time) from the primary light of the Sun of Tiferet. The 7 doubles of the alphabet are the vertical lines of the Tree of Life derived from the three Mothers. The three Mothers are associated with the past, Time. Together they spell out the word “last night”. Understanding is the shared knowledge that we would deem “historical knowledge”, and it is comprised of the 7 pillars of Wisdom; it comes from the past and is part of the communities of which we are members.

The illustration on the left indicates the horizontal lines of Alef, Mem, and Shin. The movement is from right to left on the Tree: from Chakmah to Binah (Shin), from Chesed to Gevurah(Alef) , from Netzach to Hod (Mem).

The One Name of God is YHVH: tetra (four), gramma (letters) or Tetragrammaton.  The whole of language and number is said to develop from the combinations made through this name. The name invokes the shape of Alef: two Yods with a Vav as a diagonal barrier between them.

In the passage, the initiate “foresees, transforms and makes”. To “foresee” is to “pre-dict”; to “transform” is to change in order to “make” – pro-duction. The forming and making in the realm of Yetzirah and Asiyah is what we understand as the “technological”, the “knowing” and “making”. What is implied in human making is that the human bringing into being of things is that those things were always already there and that the human being merely reveals that which is part of “every thing that will ever come into being”. The Balinese, for example, celebrate their Honda motorcycles as ‘a gift from the god’. Honda did not ‘create’ the motorcycles; they were always already there and Honda merely revealed them and made them.

Human beings make from “another”; Nature makes from itself. The human being does not create; he “makes” from the seeing (foreseeing, pre-diction), the arranging (transforming), and the production or bringing forth into being or revealing that which was always there. (From this one could say that J. R. R. Tolkien is literally correct in saying that technology is “black magic”! In the past, permission was required from on High to make an actual physical Golem, but that does not seem to have stopped modern day scientists. Note the similarities of the words Golem and Tolkien’s Gollum. The ‘eye of Sauron’ and the techne of Saruman would appear to be the seeing that is the technological.)

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: 1:10-1:12

Text: 1:10

1.10 Second, from the Spirit (Breath) he made Air (Breath) and formed for speech twenty-two letters, three of which are mothers, A, M, SH, seven are double, B, G, D, K, P, R, T, and twelve are single, E, V, Z, CH, H, I, L, N, S, O, Tz, Q, but the spirit is first among these. Third, Primitive Water. He also formed and designed from his Spirit, and from the void and formless made earth, even as a rampart, or standing wall, and varied its surface even as the crossing of beams. Fourth, from the Water, He designed Fire, and from it formed for himself a throne of honor, with Auphanim, Seraphim, Holy Animals, and ministering Angels, and with these he formed his dwelling, as is written in the text “Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flaming fire.” (Psalm civ. 4.)

Wescott Trans. 1.10. Second; from the Spirit He produced Air, and formed in it twenty−two sounds−−the letters; three are mothers, seven are double, and twelve are simple; but the Spirit is first and above these. Third; from the Air He formed the Waters, and from the formless and void (23)[1] made mire and clay, and designed surfaces upon them, and hewed recesses in them, and formed the strong material foundation. Fourth; from the Water He formed Fire (24)[2] and made for Himself a Throne of Glory with Auphanim, Seraphim and Kerubim, (25)[3] as his ministering angels; and with these three (26)[4] he completed his dwelling, as it is written, “Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flaming fire.” (27)[5]

Wescott’s Notes:

[1]23. Formless and Void. THU and BHU; these two words occur in Genesis i. 2, and are translated “waste and void.”

[2]24. Note the order in which the primordial elements were produced. First, Spirit (query Akasa, Ether); then Air, Vayu; then Water, Apas, which condenses into solid elementary Earth, Prithivi; and lastly from the Water He formed Fire.

[3]25. The first name is often written Ophanim, the letters are AUPNIM; in the Vision of Ezekiel i. 16, the word occurs and is translated “Wheels.” ShRPIM are the mysterious beings of Isaiah vi. 2; the word otherwise is translated Serpent, and in Numbers xxi. 6, as “fiery serpents”: also in verse 8 as “fiery serpent” when Jehovah said “Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole.” Kerubim. The Hebrew words arc ChIVTh H QDSh, holy animals: I have ventured to put Kerubim, as the title of the other Biblical form of Holy mysterious animal, as given in 1 Kings vi. 23 and Exodus xxv. 18, and indeed Genesis iii. 24. Bible dictionaries generally give the word as Cherubim, but in Hebrew the initial letter is always K and not Ch.

[4]26. Three. In the first edition I overlooked this word three; and putting and for as, made four classes of serving beings.

[5]27. This is verse 4 of Psalm civ.

Commentary on 1:10

This verse speaks of the formation of the created World through the formation of letters and language. The Spirit is distinguished from Air in that the Spirit is considered Direct Light (the light of the Sun, for instance, or the Idea of the Good perhaps) while Air is considered Reflected Light, the light that allows for physical things to be seen, the light that comes from the fire of the artisans and technicians in Plato’s allegory of the Cave and allows for inspiration. This is aligned with the Sephirot Keter and Malkhut which occur simultaneously (and is the reason for my placement of The Magician card at #10 rather than #1 on the Tree of Life; The Magician is in reference to the worlds of Asiyah and Yetzirah, the worlds of material and its formation. The Magician is associated with the human will).  Malkhut is visible through the reflected light of the spiritual upon created things; it is the light of the rational mind and what we would call “understanding” or how we come to interpret the things in our world and create a world for ourselves. It is through the letters, speech and numbers that are the products of the Direct Light that one can elevate the things that are into the reality of their true existence by apprehending the truth of their essence. It is in doing so that we are essentially human. The revealing of truth through the logos is what makes us essentially human. Note that there are two types of thinking and seeing implied here.

The Direct Light is the light that the darkness cannot comprehend, and this is illustrated by the placement of Malkhut outside of the two pillars of Jakim and Boaz and at the foot of the third pillar with its connections to Keter (Crown), Tiferet (Beauty), and Yesod (Foundation). The connection between the physical universe (Kingdom/Malkhut/ the cave of Plato’s Republic) is through an understanding of its foundation (Yesod), an apprehension of its Beauty (Tiferet), and the final apprehension of the Direct Light of the Sun (Keter). This triad of foundation, beauty, and light is parallel to the triad of Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge that the first three Sephirot indicate. They may also be said to correspond to the stages outlined in Plato’s allegory of the Cave with regard to the ascent from the Cave to the light of the Sun and the revelation of the Idea of the Good. In the allegory of the Cave, four stages are present, the fourth being the return to the Cave. They are also parallel to the four divisions of the Divided Line that Plato outlines in Bk. VI of his Republic. More discussions of the Cave, the Divided Line, the worlds of the Sefer Yetzirah and their relations to the two-faced natures of Eros and the Logos will be found in an upcoming post on these topics.

A distinction between thinking and Thought is being made here. Thought is connected to the Direct Light while thinking is done through the Reflected Light. Thought is led in its ascent through the contemplation of the physical, through an understanding of its foundation, through the revelation of its beauty and the apprehension of the Direct Light of the sun. Thinking occurs from the descent of the Spirit or the Voice into the letters, words and numbers that bring about the house of being. (“Language is the house of being. In its home humans dwell.”) The two gyres illustrate the different directions and movements in thinking and Thought. Thinking leads downward; Thought moves upwards.

It is important to remember that the creation occurs all at once and that its formation is secondary to its Being itself. The formation is within the 6 days of creation; the creation begins with the “Let there be light” or the first Saying of God. The One is God; the Second is Other than God. With the creation of the second, God withdraws and the sphere of space is created and the limits or horizons of the creation are established. These limits are the Law of Necessity (what we would call The Wheel of Fortune in Tarot). With creation, Space (Air) is established, and with it, the created things themselves, from which Time comes into being and vice versa.

“Light” is the concept of giving and this giving is shown in the withdrawal of God from that which He created or has given. The Light is Love in that, in His withdrawal, God allows His Creation to come into being. The making of a great artist is also a “giving” and is analogous to this giving that is God’s. This giving and self–denial is a metaphor for what should be the principle of human actions or that which defines ‘human excellence’ or virtue: all of creation is ethical as well as moral. For a woman, her most truly human act is her imitation of the Divine in the ‘giving of birth’ to another human being, the self-denial that is a recognition of ‘otherness’. The raising of children is a gradual withdrawal allowing the child to be.

In his dialogue Timaeus, a dialogue set the morning after the occurrence of the dialogue Republic, Plato focuses on the definition of space which he calls the khôra. The khôra (also chora; Ancient Greek: χώρα) was the territory of the Ancient Greek polis outside the city proper. The term has been used by Plato to designate a receptacle (as a “third kind” [triton genos]; Timaeus 48e4), a space, a material substratum, or an interval. Space is the receptacle of the original gift from God that is the creation.

In Plato’s account, the khôra is described as a formless interval, alike to a non-being, in between which the Ideas (Sephirot) were received from the spiritual realm (where they were originally held, the Direct Light) and were “copied”, being shaped into the transitory forms of the sensible realm (the reflected Light of Malkhut); the khôra “gives space” and has maternal overtones (a womb, matrix):

“So likewise it is right that the substance which is to be fitted to receive frequently over its whole extent the copies of all things intelligible and eternal should itself, of its own nature, be void of all the forms. Wherefore, let us not speak of her that is the Mother and Receptacle of this generated world, which is perceptible by sight and all the senses, by the name of earth or air or fire or water, or any aggregates or constituents thereof: rather, if we describe her as a Kind invisible and unshaped, all-receptive, and in some most perplexing and most baffling partaking of the spiritual, we shall describe her truly.”— Plato, Timaeus, 51a

Plato calls the partaking of the physical with the spiritual “perplexing and most baffling”. God’s act of creation perplexes and baffles us. In the secondary process, we might think of it as how technology (the “spirit”, the “will”) “gives space” to the making of the gadgets and tools that we call technology (but this is incomplete) and to the applied sciences that direct that making. Technology itself is the way of being and seeing that allows for the tools of technology to be possible. Our way of being and seeing allows the things to be and to be understood in the way that they are. This is the world of yetzirah, the world of “formation”. The connection here is that it is the Logos: language, letters, speech, that are the mediation between the spiritual (the realm of “no-thingness”) and the physical realms. As space is a receptacle, the letters of language are themselves receptacles or receivers of that which comes from the spiritual. This is where the notion of “in-spire” originates, and is the origin of “inspiration”, “that which is responsible for the ‘breathing in”.

The twenty-two letters come into being through the Logos or the AlefBeth. The second Sephirot (The High Priestess card of the Tarot #2 is shown holding a scroll upon which is written TORA, the Law) Chakmah, is the blank slate that the Logos writes upon, although the Logos is/was present prior to Chakmah. This is why the left side (or right side, depending on the perspective) of the Tree of Life is Feminine, and the Sephirot on the right should be considered “receptive” rather than “giving”. The masculine principle is the ‘giving’ side of the Tree of Life and this ‘giving’ comes from the Light of Keter.

The “engraving” and “carving” of the letters is described as such since this was the manner of early writing on clay tablets. To write, the clay needed to be removed or withdrawn, and the shape determined by a pre-determined form. When we form words, we remove letters from the whole of the alphabet, although the whole alphabet always remains present. In oral speech, we “engrave” through the articulation and pronunciation of sounds and “carve” them through expression and enunciation.

“The Spirit is first among these” would indicate that all letters and language itself retains the one breath that is the Logos, the Word, or the Sephirot that is Keter, the Direct Light that is associated with Air. It is the light from Keter given to Chakmah that finds its realization in Malkhut or the physical universe, or in Binah which is Understanding. For Christians, Christ is Keter, Tiferet, Yesod and His crucifixion is His realization in Malkhut. (“The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World” – Rev: 13.8. “The Book of Revelations” speaks of the Beast that will gain control of all language and peoples, and be at war with the saints; and all nations will bow down and do homage to him. This might suggest to some the arrival of the universal, homogeneous State of Hegelian philosophy, that it is the Great Beast, or as some scholars have suggested, the early Church of Rome was, in fact, the Great Beast since it modelled itself as a universal, homogeneous, catholic entity.)

Text: 10 a

1.10 a Third, Primitive Water. He also formed and designed from his Spirit, and from the void and formless made earth, even as a rampart, or standing wall, and varied its surface even as the crossing of beams.

(Alternative Translation)

Three: Water from Breath With it He engraved and carved (22 letters from?) Chaos and Void Mire and clay He engraved them like a sort of garden He carved them like a sort of wall He covered them like a sort of ceiling (And poured snow over them And it became dust As it is written,  “For to snow He said, “Become earth!” (Job 37.6)

Commentary on 10 a:

The formation of earth comes from the coming together of Breath and Water. Breath gives birth to Wisdom; wisdom is water: unlimited, undifferentiated, unformed. Understanding (Binah, the Empress #3) imposes limits, de-fines things, brings things into the “open region” of space and gives form to them, what Plato called the eidos or the outward appearance of the thing. “Wisdom is like rain” (Isaiah 55: 9-11). “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, for He causes His rain to fall in equal amounts upon the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5: 48) Here is described the distinction between the Necessary and the Good. The Necessary is the “standing wall” and “rampart” between God and the creation, and this is represented by the letter Vav in the Hebrew alphabet ו Vav (cane signifying the severity of Necessity). The engraving “like a sort of garden” is the letter Heh in Hebrew ה Heh (jubilation the gratitude for life itself). We are reminded again of the original form of Alef, two Yods separated by a Vav.

Some analysts say that Chakmah (Sephirot #2) follows chronologically the creation of earth or the physical universe (Malkhut), but how can this be so? Solids require space and space must be present before solids can come into being (solids understood as res extensa, “extended things”).  Chakmah is related to Time (Binah) through the mediation of the mother letter Shin (tooth, fire) ש Shin, and later we shall see how Chakmah is associated with Kronos or Saturn which is Time, and the “gloom” of Time which is the mortality related to created things. Chakmah is the “pool” through which the reflected light of Malkhut is given back to the Direct Light of Keter.

There is both ascent and descent implied here. Earth is created from water which has become “snow” or a solid. The “snow” is fixed Time. Fixed Time is Memory which must be re-called, re-membered (made present in representations from the reflected light of Malkhut) and revealed in the standing present and thus given physical form once again. With the creation of created beings so, too, is Time created and Time becomes “a moving image of eternity” or that which is beyond Time.

Chakmah is seen as a formless solid here, “mire and clay”, “chaos and void”, from which the letters are derived which give form to the mire and clay. The world of our perceptions is not what it seems, this Malkhut world of reflected light. Behind the apparent solidity of everyday objects lies a shadowy world of potentiality (Aristotle’s dynamis). This world of Chakmah defies easy description, as its form is so different from our everyday experience; we may compare it to the world that is described in quantum mechanics. Yet our common everyday world of solid tables, ashtrays, stars, and galaxies somehow arises from what transpires underneath in the movement of the dynamis of potentiality to the reality or actuality of energeia. The Hebrew Torah is likened to water before it is handed over to others; then it becomes likened to stone. Oral speech is fluid like water; written speech is permanent like stone, and the Law is written in stone because it has been handed over to others.

The similes used in this passage of the Sefer Yetzirah are said to allude to the creation of the Hebrew letters which have a top, centre, and bottom. The top and bottom of the letters are said to have heavy horizontal lines. The middle have thin vertical lines. The vertical lines separate the letters from each other. The bottom are the garden (foundation), the vertical are the wall of separation, and the top the ceiling. Chakmah is the source of the letters; when the letters are combined into words, they then become Binah. To the Kabbalists, God entrusted the creation of letters, numbers and speech to the angel Metatron, Prince of the Face, and He is identified here with the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ, and with the god Eros who was identified as having “two faces”. He is the “Prince of Creation,” or the “Logos,” with which God created the universe. He is also the prince of the eidos or the “outward appearance” of things. (Eros is born of Aphrodite and Ares/Venus and Mars: Love/Beauty and Strife.)

Text: 1-10b

1.10 b Fourth, from the Water, He designed (formed) Fire, and from it formed for himself a throne of honour, with Auphanim, Seraphim, Holy Animals (Holy Chayot), and ministering Angels, and with these he formed his dwelling, as is written in the text “Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flaming fire.” (Psalm civ. 4.)

Commentary 1-10b

This part of the verse represents one of the four universes that are part of the whole of creation: 1. Atzilut (Sephirot), No-thingness (the world of shadows); 2. Beriyah (Creation), the Throne, something from nothing; 3. Yetzirah (Formation) Angels, Something from Something; and 4. Asiyah (making action, work and the work, dynamis and energeia), the shade of the physical, Completion (energeia). This section seems to bridge the world of Yetzirah and the world of Beriyah.

Fire turns water into cloud through the combination or strife of hot and cold and then returns it in the form of rain. There is an ascent and descent implied here. Whereas water or rain falls everywhere, fire itself is focused. The bridging of the world of Yetzirah and the world of Beriyah comes about through the Sephirot Tiferet, Sephirot #6. Fire gives birth to Light; the physical world is perceived through reflected light. Breath gives birth to Wisdom. Water gives birth to gloom (Time). According to the Kabbalists, the world of Beriyah is dominated by Binah which is the imposition of limits and horizons on the unlimited that is Chakmah. (This interpretation is questionable unless and until one thinks that the world of Creation must be “clothed” in the representations of Binah thinking or theoretical thinking.)

The Serafim, the highest order of angels or the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, are the three most commonly agreed upon by the various religious sects. They represent power, force or potential but they, too, are also intermediaries between the realm of the spiritual and that of the physical. The “ministering angels” are the daemons or mediators who appear as “flaming fire”. The angels are God’s messengers who appear as the “lightning” of the Sephirot, and they capture the fire that is the soul of human being and elevate the soul. Plato refers to this as the love that is the “fire catching fire”. It is fire that is the element of decreation, a narrowing and a focusing, while water is the element of creation, a withdrawal and expansion.

The realm of Heaven (the universe of Atzilut) is derived from Breath (Air), Fire and Water, the Trinity of the Son, Father and the Holy Spirit. This realm is beyond the realm of Space and Time, and beyond this is the realm of the Good (the Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur). Because the realm of Heaven is beyond space and time, I do not assign paths to the topmost triangle or trinity of the Tree of Life. The paths of Alef, Mem, and Shin are the crossroads or horizontal paths of the Tree of Life giving it balance and stability, much like the forces of yin and yang in Taoist philosophy.

Space and Time become the realm of Necessity and Chance, the world of Malkhut, but the Word is what brings this realm into being. Time and Space are the Cross of Christ who, in the Gospel of St. John, is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” as well as the “light of the world”. To be “born again” requires a conversion and a “baptism” that is from the water and the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit’s symbol is the dove of peace that overcomes the condition of the strife that existed prior to the conversion, or the gift of tongues of fire thus uniting the three Persons that are the Trinity in the single epiphanic vision.

In life, there are three conversions and three rebirths required, or so it appears. The first occurs at the crossroads of Netzach and Hod, and this is the rebirth from Mem water; the second is at the crossroads of Chesed and Gevurah, and this is the rebirth from Shin fire; and the third is at the crossroads of Chokmah and Binah, and this is the rebirth from Alef air. These rebirths are ‘liberations’: the first being from water or the appetites, the flesh; the second, from fire or thoughts; and the third, from the emotions that are the products of air. Each rebirth is a purification.

Text: 1-11

1.11 He selected three letters from the simple ones (elementals), and sealed them as forming his great Name, I H V and he sealed the universe in six directions. Five. – He looked above, and sealed the height, with I H V. Six. – He looked below, and sealed the deep, with I V H. Seven. – He looked forward, and sealed the East, with H I V. Eight. -He looked backward, and sealed the West, with V H I. Nine. – He looked to the right, and sealed the South, with V I H. Ten. -He looked to the left, and sealed the North, with H V I.

Wescott Trans. 1.11. He selected three letters from among the simple ones and sealed them and formed them into a Great Name, I H V, (28)[1] and with this He sealed the universe in six directions. Fifth; He looked above, and sealed the Height with I H V. Sixth; He looked below, and sealed the Depth with I V H. Seventh; He looked forward, and sealed the East with H I V. Eighth; He looked backward, and sealed the West with H V I. Ninth; He looked to the right, and sealed the South with V I H. Tenth; He looked to the left, and sealed the North with V H I.

Wescott’s Notes:

[1]28. Here follow the permutations of the name IHV, which is the Tetragrammaton−−Jehovah, without the second or final Heh: IHV is a Tri−grammaton, and is more suitable to the third or Yetziratic plane. HVI is the imperative form of the verb to be, meaning be thou ; HIV is the infinitive; and VIH is future. In IHV note that Yod corresponds to the Father; Heh to Binah, the Supernal Mother; and Vau to the Microprosopus−−Son.

Commentary on 1-11:

This verse speaks of the formation of Space and Necessity. The three letters selected by God from the twenty-two that form the whole alphabet are called the Three Mothers: Alef, Mem, Shin. Mothers imply matrixes, receptacles, but here they are sealed with I H V, with God’s name, Yod Heh Vav. Three-dimensional space has six directions and each of these is “sealed” with the name of God or its variants.

If we look at the number 10, the zero is not “nothing” but an indication of the circularity of the space that indicates “a new beginning”; it is a place holder, a site. The 1 is in the 10 and the 10 is in the 1; i.e., the end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end. The binary system of the philosopher and mathematician Leibniz (the inventor of finite calculus) is the result of this method of enumeration and is the basis for modern computing.

The nature of number itself remains a great mystery.   The first three letters of the Hebrew alphabet are Alef, Bet, and Gimel. Alef is a mother (connector, hook) and Bet and Gimel are doubles, letters that can be pronounced in two ways (c as is “circuit”, or c as in “camel”). The first three simple letters are Yud, Heh, Vav. Yud is said to include the first four letters of the alphabet whose numerical equivalents are: 1+2+3+4=10. After 4 comes 5, the numerical value of Heh, and then 6, the numerical value of Vav. Of the three mothers Alef is Breath (Air), Mem is water, and Shin is Fire; while the letter Yud corresponds to Water, Heh corresponds to Fire, Vav corresponds to Breath (Air).

With regard to the three mothers (what we might call vowels in today’s language though there are no vowels in Hebrew), both the Sefer Yetzirah and Plato seem to agree that they are “mysterious” and “perplexing” in their receptivity. Other Kabbalists say that there are actually 10, not three, letters that can used as connectors, and these letters correspond to the Sephirot themselves. The ten would seem to be the three mothers and the seven doubles. These connectors make the words that are written and spoken language and they are capable of infinite combinations with the other 12 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The combined letters can make the words to be used in mantras or chanting that will lead one to awareness of the Divine, so some Kabbalists say.

When attempting to visualize the Tree of Life, one must see it as a forked-limbed tree: the fork has three branches and is composed of the three pillars of Jakim, Boaz, and Keter. The branching off from the central trunk of Keter occurs at Tiferet. This branching determines how the Logos and Eros are to be understood and interpreted. This is the point of the second re-birth. The positions of Heh and Vav determine the directions along a given axis, the directions in which the path of thought is to take. I have chosen to see Heh as the branch that leads from Tiferet to Chakmah, while Vav is the branch from Tiferet to Binah.  

When moving up the Tree of Life in the process of decreation, the forked point that occurs at Tiferet, the Logos, leads West through Vav in the principle of reason as a principle of being. The principle of Love which is the foundation of reflective thought, contemplation and prayer moves East through Heh to Chokmah or Wisdom. The movement on the left branch or trunk is power, will to power, the language of public discourse (rhetoric), technology as a way of being in the world. It is exoteric. The movement on the right branch or trunk is self-nullification, decreation, the rejection of power (even though one possesses it as potentiality or possibility), the dialogue among friends (two or three) in dialectic, and the sophrosyne or phronesis that are the principles of moral, ethical action. It is esoteric.

1+2+3=6 (Tiferet/Beauty) and all paths move through Tiferet #6. What is most important is the direction of the movement. Analysts look at the Sefer Yetzirah as “opposites” when speaking of the directions, but a more appropriate word would be “deprivals”, “a need for…” (Eros). Evil is not the opposite of the Good, but a deprival of the Good, a need for the Good. Stern Justice is deprived of Mercy; and because it is so, it is not true Justice. When it is moved by Mercy and Compassion then it becomes true Justice. The actions of Eros may be performed out of a sense of need or from a position of “fullness”. The “fullness” of Eros demonstrates generosity and compassion for one’s fellow human beings. 

The “forming” of “opposites” is done by taking the first letter and placing it at the end i.e., VHY is north, while VYH is south. (But since a sphere is circular and in perpetual motion, how can one speak of “opposites” in a circle? The ouroboros or the serpent eating its own tail indicates, for example, that evil is ultimately self-consuming; but this does not only pertain to evil. The World #21 card of the Tarot illustrated here has three ouroboros’s tying the encircling laurel leaves together: the one that is the whole plus the two on either side. The banner encompassing the female figure is a Beth). East is VYH; West is VHY. Up is YHV; down is HYV. This changing of the position of the letters indicates the circular motion being spoken about. We are not talking about straight lines here, but arcs within a sphere. Water moves downward in a widening gyre, and fire moves upwards in a narrowing gyre.  

As one moves about on the wheel, one experiences both fullness and need in some fashion. The point of perception from which the wheel is to be viewed (the determining of directions) is done from the centre (“the heart”, Tiferet #6), or it can be done from the position of Vav within the wheel. In the interpretation offered here, Vav is the Law of Necessity, the ground of the principle of reason as a principle of being. God’s creation is one of wheels within wheels, or gyres within gyres, and the proper response to it is Love. The direction is determined by the two remaining letters: YH is the direction toward fullness or the widening gyre; HY the direction toward deprival or the narrowing, focusing gyre.  

The three columns of the Tree of Life are East/West on the left-hand side, North/South on the right, and Up/Down in the middle. There are many different interpretations of this by the Kabbalists and their interpretations begin from how the letters YHV are to be placed. The centre line or pillar is composed of Keter, Tiferet, Yesod and Malkhut.  

Aristotle

A few words regarding Aristotle’s theory of causality are necessary here. What is the relation between the Creator and the Creation? Many view this relation as one of Cause and Effect: we interpret cause as “that which is responsible for” and effect as “that which is indebted to” or “obliged to” its cause. Aristotle speaks of the “Uncaused Cause”. This concept prevails in the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the Universe. The Creation is indebted to, or obliged to the Creator for its being. The relation is not one of opposites: the Creator “gives to” the Creation its being through His withdrawal. The Creation is obliged to, or indebted to the Creator for its being. The giver and the gift are not opposites but are held in a relation to each other.  

A few words need to be said here about the manner in which the principle of reason became a principle of being in the history of thought in the West and in the Sefer Yetzirah in particular. Near the time when the Sefer Yetzirah was supposedly written, the Greek word logos became translated as ratio in Latin. The principle of reason states: nihil est sine ratione, “no-thing is without (a) reason”. Logos was understood as “word”: things come into being through the word. Ratio was understood as the principle of causation, cause and effect as well as the principle of contradiction: one must speak without contradicting oneself. One looks for and renders reasons for the things that are and for the events that occur: both ontological and ethical principles or foundations  can be grasped here.  

“Reason” as “logic” can be seen as rooted in the principles of grammar: subject/predicate where the predicate or “qualities” cannot contradict the subject i.e., “All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Socrates is mortal”: the statement is not the cause of Socrates’ death. This is the root of logistics. Whatever happens to be possible has a reason for its possibility; whatever happens to be necessary has a reason for its necessity. Whatever happens to be actual has a reason for its actuality. Reason is the grounds or foundations. It, thus, becomes a principle of being.   We live with the principle of reason as commonplace because it is immediately illuminating. (See The Illuminating Intelligence Path 14 of The Paths of Wisdom). We have entrusted our senses, our cognition, to the principle of reason (See the path of Vav The Intelligence of the Senses #17).

Leibniz

As we have already stated, the revealing of truth is human nature. The philosopher Leibniz once stated: “A truth is only a truth if a reason can be rendered for it.” This is the essence of what is called the correspondence theory of truth. It replaces the idea of truth as “unconcealment” that the Greeks understood. Truth is a correct judgement; the connection of a predicate to a subject, The Unity Directing Intelligence (Path #13 of the paths of Wisdom) that connects the qualities of the predicates to the subject that is spoken about. The rendering of reasons is an “account” of the “why” some thing is this way and not that way. Judgement justifies accounts, gives specific reasons. The “account” requires a “site” and that site is other human beings in a community. The ground of the truth of judgement is represented as ratio.

(In the Sefer Yetzirah the letter Resh represents The Path of Trials #25 and it is the Judgement between Yesod (foundation) and Tiferet (Beauty). Tiferet is both the logos and ratio i.e., the point where the Tree of Life forks into three branches. Ratio branches to the left or West, and Logos branches to the right or East.)   The ultimate flowering of the principle of reason is artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a complete self-contained, self-enclosed world based on the principle of reason.

Rene Descartes

After Descartes, humans experienced themselves as an “I” that relates to the world such that it renders this world to itself in the form of connections (relations) correctly established between its representations/judgements and thus sets itself over against this world as object. The subject and predicate and the reasons for their connections must be rendered back to the representing “I”. The reason is a ratio, an account given to the judging “I” regarding the thing. When reasons have been rendered, the thing comes to a stand as an object, as an object for a representing subject. The completeness of the reasons to be rendered (Hod) is the “perfection” of the thing’s stand as an object as something firmly established for human cognition. The “account” means that all can rely on the account rendered. Every thing counts as existing only as a calculable object for cognition.

Text: 1-12

1.12. These are the ten ineffable existences: the spirit of the living God, Air (Breath from Breath), Water (Water from Breath), Fire (Fire from Water), Height (Up) and Depth (Down), East and West, North and South.

(“There was first of all a period when Nothing existed . . . Gradually Nothing took upon itself the form and limitation of Unity, represented by a point at the centre of a circle.” (H. A. Giles, A History of Chinese Literature, New York, 1901, p. 3).

Wescott Trans. 12. Behold! From the Ten ineffable Sephiroth do, proceed−−the One Spirit of the Gods of the living, Air, Water, Fire; and also Height, Depth, East, West, South and North. (29)[1]

[1]29. Note the subdivision of the Decad into the Tetrad−−four elements; and the Hexad−−six dimensions of space.

Commentary 1:12

One of the ancient problems of philosophy is that of Identity and Difference, or unity and difference. This problem is present in the formation of the World. We find the World “other” to us, different from ourselves, yet at the same time there is a connection between this otherness and ourselves that we experience through our bodies.

In order for a relation to come into being, there must be an element of similarity or identity that can be joined or yoked together (the principle of Pythagorean geometry). The Soul of the human being is related to the spirit of the living God. To be living, a thing must be in motion, and for Aristotle, the highest motion is circular (the movements of the stars and planets, for example). The Soul of the human being is “identical” to the spirit of the living God; but because we are an embodied soul, we are distant from God and yet, paradoxically, near to God. The Living God is embodied in His creation through the life of the Living Word. The Word embodies all that has come into being and all that will come into being. Whatever will come into being will come through Word. In the Sefer Yetzirah, when the living word comes into being, it becomes “stone”, something that is not living, the Ten Commandments as an example.

The giver must be close to the recipient, not identical per se. They must be “proportional”, commensurable. In the Pythagorean doctrine, human beings are incommensurables, irrational numbers. They are brought into a relation by the “mean”, thus the Logos. The original Creation of the World is not a chronological event occurring over six days, but a simultaneous event (a Big Bang, if you will), but its formation and unfolding occurs chronologically; thus with the creation of Space and Time, the formation of the World ensues. Space or Chaos is the second level of Creation. (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…And God’s spirit hovered above the waters and He said “Let there be light”).

If we look at the Tree of Life in terms of the concepts of cause and effect, identity and difference, and relation, we can say that Chakmah gives rise to (or descends to) Chesed or Mercy, or perhaps Love understood as agape, Charity, on the left side of the Tree (#4). This corresponds with the pillar of Jakim, the white pillar. The deprivation of Chakmah or wisdom is the Sephirot of Binah or Understanding. Understanding is the deprivation of wisdom, the lack of or “withholding” of wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge of the whole while Understanding is knowledge of particulars. Binah gives rise to Gevurah, Force or Power (Strength in numbers). The right side of the Tree of Life seems to indicate “social” constructions i.e., living in communities and the shared knowledge that comes from living within those communities. It is the realm of the political. The deprivation of Love, Mercy or Charity within the Understanding gives rise to the “withholding” or deprivation that is understood as knowledge within those communities that is of the nature of Gevurah or Force. (Knowledge understood as power, social status, prestige.)

The relation necessary to temper Force and to balance it with Mercy is to be found in Tiferet #6, Beauty. Tiferet is placed both below and above Gevurah and Chesed and this indicates a movement both up and down since Tiferet is tied to Keter (up) and Yesod, as well as to Malkhut (down). Both Gevurah and Chesed must share something in common that Tiferet (Beauty) can bring into a relation. Could this something in common be the shared Beauty of the World, the recognition of the Otherness of the World?

Yesod is related to the sexual organs and it is Beauty which causes the sexual organs in both male and female to “rise up”, literally, as a response. Human sexuality is the “foundation” (Yesod) of communities and thus the social. Our “eros” is first driven by our attraction to the beauty of other human beings. Hod is Glory, or recognition within the social and is the deprivation of Netzach or true Victory. So much of social Glory is based on fraud and illusion.

The Sephirot are perceived “like lightning”, in a flash. They are not something which is constantly beheld. This is similar to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The shadows on the wall of the Cave created by the reflected light of the fire behind the cave dwellers are, according to Plato, “non-beings”. This is the shared knowledge of the social, what the Sefer Yetzirah calls the Understanding or what we call intelligence. The Ideas (the Sephirot) are apprehended in the glance, and there is an emphasis on the “correctness” of the glance (the Sephirot are 10, not 9, not 11). But it is merely a glance.

In the Sefir Yetzirah the initiate must “understand with wisdom and be wise with understanding” (SY 1:4). The part can only be truly understood from the whole and knowledge of the whole is wisdom. In Plato’s allegory, the initiate is the prisoner who has been released from their chains. Both Republic and the Sefer Yetzirah require a significant other; the journey cannot be begun or accomplished on one’s own.

Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man

The Sephirot, like the Ideas, are the truth of beings, arising like “lightning” and disappearing into concealment, hiddenness, “running and returning”. The Sephirot are “depths”, states of fullness and deprival. Binah understanding is a state of separation and disunity (subject/object, mind/body). The initiate must overcome this duality by “imbedding the end in the beginning”, the whole into the part. This can only be achieved by what the Sefer Yetzirah refers to as Wisdom. (Mantra: What do you see behind your head? Ans: Nothing). In order to perceive what is behind the head a mirror is required; that is Chakmah requires a mirror which uses Malkhut’s reflected light to clothe things in Binah representations (“shadows”). (Is this the “joke” of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” where the writing is written backwards from right to left and requires a mirror to view it from left to right?)

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: 1.6-1.9

The Text: 1.6

1.6 These ten Sephiroth which are ineffable, whose appearance is like scintillating flames (like the appearance of lightning), have no end but are infinite. The word of God is in them as they burst forth, and as they return; they obey the divine command, rushing along as a whirlwind, returning to prostrate themselves at his throne.

Alt. Trans. These ten Sephiroth which are ineffable, whose appearance is like scintillating flames, have no end but are infinite. The word of God is in them as they burst forth, and as they return; they obey the divine command, rushing along as a whirlwind, returning to prostrate themselves at his throne.

Wescott Trans: 1.6. The Ten ineffable Sephiroth have the appearance of the Lightning flash, (17) their origin is unseen and no end is perceived. The Word is in them as they rush forth and as they return, they speak as from the whirl−wind, and returning fall prostrate in adoration before the Throne.

Wescott Note:

17. Lightning flash. In the early edition the words “like scintillating flame” are used: the Hebrew word is BRQ. Many Kabalists have shown how the Ten Sephiroth are symbolized by the zig−zag lightning flash.

Commentary on 1.6

St. John of the Cross

The vision or seeing of the Sephirot is like lightning, a flash that gives insight into the nature of created things. The Sephirot “burst forth” into appearance and then “return” into hiding, into “oblivion” or “forgetfulness”. The “bursting forth” is the Greek aletheia or “truth” and is here understood as “the word of God is in them”. Truth and language are related and intertwined with one another. To see the Sephirot is a “looking down” into the depths. (When the saints see Christ crucified, it is a looking down at Him on the cross i.e., St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila.) Since their appearance is like lightning, the Sephirot can only be visualized in an instant before they disappear. (Plato’s emphasis on the “correctness of the glance”. The meaning of the Sephirot can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. This would be quite contrary to Heidegger’s understanding of this phrase in Plato. The “correctness” that Heidegger criticizes because it gave rise to the need for certainty in modern metaphysics and the sciences is not what Plato understood as the necessity for “correctness”. Another type of thinking is involved).

The ten Sephirot as the emanations of the Logos are in themselves infinite. It is through the Sephirot, the 10 sayings of God, that all things come into being. (“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”) While created beings must come to be and pass away, the Sephirot themselves do not. The Sephirot indicate that whatever human beings or Nature makes or causes to come into being, it was always already there because the Sephirot are infinite. (From this, a more correct term for what we call “creativity” would be “in-spiration” – that which is responsible for the “breathing in” or the “giving life to” our forming and making of things, works of art, say. The things or works themselves were always already there.)

The “rushing and returning” indicates movement and rest. Aristotle’s dynamis as “possibility” or “potentiality”; kinesis or motion, movement; steresis or rest; energeia as completion or action at an end; entelechia the purpose or place (the stand, the topos of the thing) of something, the finished thing. Through all of these are “will” and “desire” understood as the dynamis, and these are related to the logos or speech and eros as ‘urge’. This is the moment of mystical vision, the moment when prayers are answered, the moment when the artist sees that which he or she is about to create . At these moments, we experience a re-birth or a change, an epiphany, which removes what were previous boundaries or limits to our being and we are able to rise up to the next level. This experience is that of the “embodied soul” as a Chariot, a chariot of fire.

The Text: 1.7

1.7 These ten Sephiroth which are, moreover, ineffable, have their end even as their beginning, conjoined, even as is a flame to a burning coal: for our God is superlative in his unity, and does not permit any second one. And who canst thou place before the only one? (And before One, what do you count?)

Alt. Trans. These ten Sephiroth which are, moreover, ineffable, have their end even as their beginning, conjoined, even as is a flame to a burning coal: for our God is superlative in his unity, and does not permit any second one. And who canst thou place before the only one?

Wescott Trans: 7. The Ten ineffable Sephiroth, whose ending is even as their origin, are like as a flame arising from a burning coal. For God (18) is superlative in his Unity, there is none equal unto Him: what number canst thou place before One.

Wescott Note:

18. God; the Divine name here is Jehovah.

Since the Sephirot are embedded in a sphere, their shape and movement are circular. The end and the beginning are conjoined, yoked together. The ouroboros as the symbol of the infinite is seen within them. Beginning with Keter (Crown) and ending in Malkhut (Kingship), they may be seen as Cause and Effect: the Crown is responsible for (cause) the Kingship (effect), and the Kingship (effect) is responsible for, or obliged to, or brings about the Crown. (The placement of the Magician’s card at one may be questionable. Should he not be at 10? In the discussion of The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom, I place The Magician at #10.)

The Wheel of Fortune, Necessity, would therefore be placed at 1, or prior to the one. The Magician as a Maker uses the ready-to-hand objects of the physical world (the wands, pentacles, cups and swords) to make the things that are useful to human beings. He is the techne, the artisan, the maker. The Wheel indicates the circularity of the movement: the movements within the Tree of Life, the paths, are not linear, but circular. They are present as arcs, incomplete in themselves? They are the wheels within wheels. Within the Wheel of Fortune card in the four corners are placed the symbols of the four Evangelists of the Christian Gospel, the “testimony” or speech that is the understanding of the whole.)

The analogy used is that of “a flame to a burning coal”. The flame is the cause of the effect of the coal’s burning and the coal’s burning is the cause of the effect of the flame. The flame, fire, rises upward; the coal, the earth, moves downward in the potentia of its dynamis. The two are conjoined. Within the five dimensions of the spherical World, Keter as cause and Malkhut as effect could be in different places with Malkhut above Keter. Keter is sometimes seen as “will” by the Kabbalists, but “power” or “force” would, I think, be a better interpretation of this word. There is a distinction between the Divine Will understood as Necessity, and the human will which manifests itself in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah.

The Strength card, #11, shows no effort in controlling the passions or the “natural urges” within and without her represented in the figure of the lion. Is she exercising will or exercising power? Are the two related in Aristotle’s concept of dynamis? The Order of the Golden Dawn changed the original numberings of Strength and Justice from #11 to #8, but it is clear that The Magician #1 and Strength #11 are meant to be contrasted. Justice is represented as the “completed work” of The Magician energeia. The dynamis of the artist is present in The Magician whether he is forming the work or not. He can form the work and it is in this forming or performance that he is called an artist! But the potentia for the action, movement is present whether there is a performance or not.) The “will”, the choice, the decision is in the action itself; the “power” is present whether the action, choice or decision is performed or not.

If a pair of Sephirot are two points on an infinite line, the points come together at the “point at infinity”, the circular movement within the spherical. All lines or paths meet at “the point of infinity”, or the Heart, the centre of the sphere. Not to be involved in motion is to be at the centre of the sphere or wheel. Within the sphere, there are no opposites; there are deprivations. Evil is the deprivation of Good; poverty the deprivation of wealth; fullness the deprivation of need (Eros). The physical world requires space in order to be, an “open region” where it can manifest itself.

The spiritual realm is both within and beyond space: the soul is embedded in a body. The physical world is in both space and time. With the physical is time: being and time. The realm beyond the physical, the spiritual, does not require space and time. Angels, daemons, mediators are required to bring the realms of the physical and spiritual together. The flame of a candle cannot rise unless it is attached to something physical, the wax from which it derives or originates. Matter is our infallible judge. It is from matter, the physical appearance of the beauty of the world and individual human beings who happen to be in it, that we come to see Plato’s ‘fire catching fire’ as the effect of Love upon the flesh and the spirit.

In the spiritual realm, closeness is “resemblance”, kinship, friendship. The mediator brings two unlike things (such as two human beings) into a relation with each other so that they can resemble each other while remaining distinct individually: a:b:c, where b is the mediator between a and c bringing them into a relation. This relation exists on both the spiritual and physical levels.

The purpose of human being and of being human is to overcome the darkness of being, to bring being to light, to reveal being in its truth. The purpose of the Logos is to bring light to the world through life (eros), the light which the darkness cannot apprehend or comprehend. Both the darkness and the light are present simultaneously in human beings since we are embodied souls. The light is Love. The word for ‘truth’ in Hebrew is Emet which begins with the first letter of the alphabet and ends with the last letter. The two are joined together by Mem the middle letter of the alphabet. This suggests that the truth and the Logos are one and that this is Love (Eros).

On the Wheel of Fortune tarot card are the letters TORA (in a counter-clockwise direction) and the letters TARO (in a clockwise direction). This appears to indicate that one can achieve union with God either through the revelation of the Divine Law (Tora, the movement West), or one can achieve this same union through Being (Taro, the movement East). Judaism and Islam have their revelations of God given through the Divine texts of the Torah and the Koran, the Divine Law. Christians have their revelation given to them through the Being of Christ given in the testimony of the Gospels. Given the other principles in operation here, this would seem to suggest that the Torah and the Tarot are the Same (as Christ Himself suggests). The paths of the Tree of Life as Nativ or personal paths must be undertaken by the individual alone, whether it be in choosing to accept the Divine Law as revealed or by carrying out the journey by other means to find contact with the Divine Presence through personal experience. This experience is what has come to be known as Gnosticism.

Numbers do not come into being until the formation of the physical universe. For numbers, understood as arithmos, the numbers used to count, there must exist quantity and plurality. Prior to the formation of the World, there was only God, Chaos, and God’s Spirit hovering over Chaos, but these are to be understood as the Trinity of the One. With His withdrawal, the Other appears (the physical universe) and with the Other, number is brought into being. (Or number and language, the Logos, always existed in the Spirit; and with the withdrawal of God, come to presence in physical being? This would explain why the physical is necessary to reach the spiritual through the logos of number and language, and would thus account for the circularity of the Tree of Life and the spherical nature of World.)

The Text: 1.8

1.8 And as to this Decad of the Sephiroth, restrain thy lips from comment (bridle/yoke thy lips from comment), and thy mind from thought of them, and if thy heart fail thee return to thy place; therefore is it written, “The living creatures ran and returned,” and on this wise (regarding this) was the covenant made with us.

Wescott Trans: 1.8. Ten are the ineffable Sephiroth; seal up thy lips lest thou speak of them, and guard thy heart as thou considerest them; and if thy mind escape from thee bring it back to thy control; even as it was said, “running and returning” (the living creatures ran and returned) (19) and hence was the Covenant made.

Westcott Note:

19. The text gives only RTzUAV ShUB−−”currendo et redeundo,” but the commentators have generally considered this to be a quotation from Ezekiel i. 14, referred to H ChIVT, the living creatures, kerubic forms.

This verse of the Sefer Yetzirah is said to deal with techniques of meditation, the clearing of the mind of language and the representations associated with language (what we commonly understand as thinking and thought). The purpose of the mantras and the whirling of the dervishes is to clear the mind so that one may experience the Sephirot directly. The Sephirot are the revelation of the truth of the things that are in their shining forth, their epiphanic, lightning-like appearance. The appearance of the Sephirot is the cause of the “running of the heart” which, due to its failure (because it is bound to the physical), must return to the foundation of its physical base and to the representations of the mind through Understanding. It is Plato’s “fire catching fire”, the glimpse of the Love that is the Heart of the World itself and which, due to its relation as potentiality for love, is “caught” or yoked with the Love that is the mediator of the World. This mystical union is beyond thought or speech (hence the “bridling” and the “yoking”.)

The covenant made between God and His creation is that His redemption is promised even though one must return to the physical. A covenant is a “mean” which joins two “unequal” or incommensurate entities, in this case God and the individual soul. For human beings, communion with the spiritual is erotic, a need, and the possibility of this communion is promised in such a way that it cannot be broken. (“What God has joined together let no man put asunder”). Our sin is our breaking of our covenant with God; His promise is redemption from that sin. When we cease to desire the spiritual, we become less than human. The mediation that is the bridge between the spiritual and the physical is the covenant of God. This mediation or covenant spiritual is what we commonly understand as Grace.

The Text: 1.9

1.9. These are the ten emanations of number. One is the Spirit (Breath) of the Living God, blessed and more than blessed (holy, benedicted) be the name of the Living God of Ages (the Life of Worlds). The Holy Spirit is his Voice, his Spirit, and his Word.

Wescott Trans.: 1.9. The ineffable Sephiroth give forth the Ten numbers. First; the Spirit of the God of the living; (20) Blessed and more than blessed be the Living God (21) of ages. The Voice, the Spirit, and the Word, (22) these are the Holy Spirit.

Wescott’s Notes:

20. The Spirit of the Gods of the Living. RUCh ALHIM ChIIIM; or as R. gives it, “spiritus Deorum Viventium.” Orthodoxy would translate these words “The spirit of the living God.”

21. AL ChI H OULMIM; “the Living God of Ages”; here the word God really is in the singular.

22. The Voice, Spirit and Word are QUL, RUCh, DBR. A very notable Hebrew expression of Divinatory intuition was BATh QUL, the Daughter of the Voice.

Commentary on 1.9:

This verse speaks of the One as the Holy Trinity, the Word made flesh (earth). One is Air (Spirit), which is God’s voice, spirit and His Word. It is through the One that Wisdom and Understanding come about through number and speech, and it is from these that we have knowledge. This is the “Breath of the Living God”, the God’s presence in His creation.

Aristotle

On the Tree of Life, Keter (Crown) is the first number to come into existence. The Holy Spirit is the “gift of tongues” which manipulates letters into words and gives human beings the ability to name things and, thus, to bring them into being. For the ancient Greeks, human being was the zoon logon echon, the living being capable of speech/language. The “spirit” is the dynamis and energeia of Aristotle, that of living beings, their animation, motion and completeness. While things that do not have soul can achieve completeness, ensouled beings experience an absence, a need, of that which makes them complete. Human beings are the needing beings, and their existence is essentially one of eros, the strife of fullness and need. One could say that human beings are perfect in their imperfection.

The act of speaking, the formation of words and language brings the things of the world into being. The naming, through the word, brings the being to a stand in its place in space and makes discourse, communication about it possible. Keter, through Tiferet (Beauty) to Yesod (Foundation), brings about the Sephirot through which all things are experienced (Malkhut). “The beginning is in the end, and the end is in the beginning”. This must be understood as simultaneous, not chronological.

It is through God (Word) that we are able to name things. The naming of things is a “holy act”. His Name is “blessed and benedicted”. God “descends” to us and we “descend” (kneel in prayer) to Him. “Bene-dicted” is literally “the good speech”, the good word, both what is said and what is received; the prayer and its answer, the speaking and the hearing. God is the “Life of Worlds”. We live in a number of worlds simultaneously, but it is “speech” that is the “life” within these worlds and makes these worlds possible. Language is the sharing of these worlds with one another. With the erosion and disintegration of language comes the destruction of the possibility of these possible worlds and the movement towards a one-dimensional, surface oriented world. Modernity is the great example of the growth of this wasteland of one-dimensionality. This one-dimensionality is visible to anyone who travels the world at this time. Those things that are the products of technology have the Same at their core.

God is “the Voice of Breath and Speech”. To breathe is to in-spire and it is this in-spiration which gives voice its ability to speak. Breath is the mediator between voice and speech. The movement is from right to left from our point of view and from left to right when viewed from the Tree of Life. “In the beginning God created…” Voice; “The breath of God hovered on the face of the water…” Breath; “God said, Let there be light…” Speech. “Divine inspiration” relates to prophecy, “the highest speech”. Prophecy was the highest speech because of the predictive powers given to it by its comprehension of all time i.e., past, present, and future. The predictive powers of the modern sciences through mathematical calculation is now considered “the highest speech”. This can account for the Hebrew esteem of the prophets and the Greek esteem for the poets, for both spoke “the highest speech” in relation to their two cultures.

A Commentary on the Sefir Yetzirah 1:2-1:5

1.2 Ten are the numbers, as are the Sephiroth, and twenty-two the letters; these are the Foundation of all things. Of these letters, three are mothers, seven are double, and twelve are simple. (This translation of the Sefer Yetzirah is from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s excellent text which can be found here: https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Sefer_Yetzirah.html?id=aqc-61vr4q0C&redir_esc=y )

Alt. Trans. Ten are the numbers, as are the Sephiroth, and twenty-two the letters, these are the Foundation of all things. Of these letters, three are mothers, seven are double, and twelve are simple.

Wescott Trans: 1.2. Ten are the ineffable Sephiroth. (9) Twenty−two are the Letters, the Foundation of all things; there are Three Mothers, Seven Double and Twelve (10) Simple letters.

Wescott Notes:

9. The Ineffable Sephiroth. The words are SPIRUT BLIMH, Sephiruth Belimah. The simplest translation is “the voices from nothing.” The Ten Sephiruth of the Kabalah are the “Ten Primary Emanations from the Divine Source,” which are the primal forces leading to all manifestation upon every plane in succession. Buxtorf gives for Sephiruth−−predicationes logicae. The word seems to me clearly allied to the Latin spiritus−−spirit, soul, wind; and is used by Quintilian as a sound, or noise. The meaning of Belimah is more doubtful. Rittangelius always gives “praeter illud ineffabile.” Pistorius gives “praeter ineffabile.” Postellus evades the difficulty and simply puts the word Belimah into his Latin translation. In Frey’s Hebrew Dictionary BLIMH is translated as nothing, without any other suggestion; BLI is “not,” MR is “anything.” In Kabalistic writings the Sephiruth, the Divine Voices and Powers, are called “ineffbilis,” not to be spoken of, from their sacred nature.

10. The classification of the Hebrew letters into a Triad, Heptad and Dodecad, runs through the whole philosophy of the Kabalah. Many ancient authors added intentional blinds, such as forming the Triad of A.M.T., Ameth, truth; and of AMN, Amen.

Commentary:

The Sephirot are not actual numbers but are the source of the numbers: that is, they are the source of the logos or, more properly, the logos itself. Sephirah means “counting” (or “counting on”). We “count” and “count on” the physical universe to ensure us that our knowledge of it is true knowledge. We begin to count with the fingers of our hands. We ‘count on’ those things that are ready-to-hand, things that we can touch and manipulate. Numbers are one of the ways in which we view, interpret and encounter things. Just as we view and de-fine things through words, we can also do so through numbers.

Number is not possible without the space and time of the physical universe for number must express itself in quantity and there is no quantity in one. Wisdom (Chakmah) and Understanding (Binah) lead to Knowledge, and Knowledge and Understanding lead to Wisdom. Wisdom is said to have 7 pillars which are the 7 subject or knowledge areas of study, “the seven pillars of wisdom”. Knowledge is the product of Understanding and Understanding is prior to knowledge. The link between Wisdom and Understanding is the Word, or the letters, and the link between Understanding and knowledge is also the Word which imposes limits on things and makes them particulars. We understand, for instance, the plant-like of the plant and the animal-like of the animal before we have knowledge of the particular plants or particular animals and through speech can name them and can point them out to others.

Space is prior to Time and the Sephirot are sometimes referred to as “the 10 Sephirot of No-thingness (space)”, the Ain. I write “no-thing” to distinguish it from the nihil which is our common understanding of the nothing. It is with Time that things come into being; and according to the Sefer Yetzirah, things come into being through the three books of text, number and speech which are mediaries between Wisdom and Understanding. Knowledge and Understanding must also be linked through the Word. Through the “naming” of things, things are given their place (topos in Greek) in space and so can be talked about. The world and its experiences and contexts that have been created is to be interpreted as “text”. We read the world or worlds in which we live.

The lines in the Tree of Life total 22: 3 horizontal, 7 vertical and 12 diagonals corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The 3 horizontals are called Mothers, the 7 verticals are called Fathers, and the 12 diagonals are called Simples. It is through the letters that the universe was created and they are called the 22 Foundation letters. It is through the letters that we come to understand and know the world.

The letters are not only involved in the inception of the world but they also sustain it. It is through text, number, and speech that the world is sustained and, as such, it is through human beings that “the way, the truth and the life” is sustained in the world since human beings are the only beings capable of speech. If one knows how to manipulate the letters correctly, one then knows how to manipulate the elemental forces and things of creation through the principle of reason. This relates to what the Greeks understood as techne, a knowing that involves a making (and what our word “technology” means today, and what is understood as yetzirah or “formation” in the text). This knowing and making is what artists and scientists do. This is but one side of the knowing that is present in the Sefer Yetzirah.

The three primary letters of the Kabbalah are א Alef (Ox), מ Mem (water) and ש Shin (tooth); and these are called the Three Mothers. They are the horizontal lines highlighted in red in the illustration on the left. Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Mem is the middle letter, and Shin is the second to last. The last letter (Tav) is not used because it is one of the Doubles (and thus would seem to imply a choice). The Doubles are illustrated in blue.

The three Mother letters are called “crossroads” because they are horizontal lines and cross over to the other side of the Tree of Life from left to right when viewed from the ascending motion or from the bottom up. They move from right to left when viewed in the descending motion, from top to bottom. (Notice that the Sephirot of Chesed and Gevurah are linked by the letter Alef which has passed through Tiferet initially. Chesed is Loving Kindness or Mercy, while Gevurah is Severity or Force. Chesed is what we understand by manifest Nature while Gevurah is what we understand by Convention. Tiferet is Beauty, and the letter Alef is in the centre of its name. It is the fire that is symbolized as the Sun. More will be said about this later.)

The twelve Simples or Elementals are illustrated in green and they are the diagonal channels of movement within the Tree of Life which are the netivot or private paths that one must traverse before one is able to ascend the Tree of Life.

The Sefer Yetzirah: 1:3

1.3 The ten numbers formed from no-thing are the Decad: these are seen in the fingers of the hands, five on one, five on the other, and over them (precisely in the middle) is the Covenant by voice spiritual (the Circumcision of the tongue), and the rite of Circumcision corporeal (as of Abraham).

Alt. Trans. The ten numbers formed from no-thing are the Decad: these are seen in the fingers of the hands, five on one, five on the other, and over them is the Covenant by voice spiritual, and the rite of Circumcision, corporeal (as of Abraham).

Wescott Trans: 1.3. The ineffable Sephiroth are Ten, as are the Numbers; and as there are in man five fingers over against five, so over them is established a covenant of strength, by word of mouth, and by the circumcision of the flesh. (11)

Wescott’s Notes;

11. The Two Covenants, by the Word or Spirit, and by the Flesh, made by Jehovah with Abraham, Genesis xvii. The Covenant of Circumcision was to be an outward and visible sign of the Divine promise made to Abraham and his offspring. The Hebrew word for circumcision is Mulah, MULH: note that MLH is also synonymous with DBR, dabar,−−verbum or word.

Commentary 1:3

While one has the plan for formation, for making something, through the understanding (the covenant of the spiritual or invisible word or voice), the formation itself occurs through the work of the hands. The covenant of the spiritual or voice is what we call “intelligence” or “consciousness”. The making of things occurs through the use of the ready-to-hand of the material things about us. Understanding is comprised of dianoic thought (the thought the brings or gathers separate things together into a unity or a one i.e. the logos) and diaretic thought (the thought that separates things to distinguish them from other things, how we classify things through our taxonomies). The manner of the seeing or how this covenant is interpreted or heard will determine whether one views the creation first through Love (Tiferet/Chesed) or whether one views the creation through Will (Gevurah/Tiferet), and this distinction is essential. These are the two faces of Eros and of the Logos.

The influence of the Pythagoreans on the Sefer Yetzirah can be seen in Aristotle’s, Metaphysics, I.5.986 a22, where he says: “Members of this school [the Pythagoreans] say there are ten principles, which they arrange into two columns of cognates (the pillars of Jakim and Boaz in the Tree of Life), thus: limited and unlimited, odd and even, one and many, right and left, male and female, rest and movement, straight and curved, light and darkness, good and bad, square and oblong.” The ten principles of the Pythagoreans correspond to the 10 Sephirot of the Kabbalah’s Tree of Life.

One of the puzzling things about the Tree of Life is the basic sense of direction given to it: do we determine the right and left from our perspective or should the Tree of Life be viewed in a mirror or from its own perspective which would reverse the directions given to it? I am puzzled because I am wondering how we can attribute Love (Chesed) as a Masculine principle (Aphrodite/Venus is female and the surroundings of The Emperor #4 card in Tarot are sterile i.e., they have no living nature about them) and the Masculine is placed on the right-hand side of the Tree which contains the five Loves, while Strength/Force/Will are attributed to the Feminine aspects and placed on the left side of the Tree of Life and are called the five Strengths? I will attempt to make sense of this puzzle as I proceed with this commentary.)

A covenant comes between two separate, unequal parts and holds them or yokes them together in a harmony; it makes them commensurate to each other. The covenant of the Spiritual Circumcision is the Parousia of God, the “being alongside”, “between”, “among”, that is the relation of God to His creation. The covenant is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the Earth” for Christians, and the Ten Commandments of God or the Torah for the Hebrews. For the Hebrews, truth is revealed as Law; for Christians, truth is revealed as Being. The middle pillar of the Tree of Life is the place of the covenant. (This could be represented pictorially in the form of a cross as two diameters of a circle or sphere crossing in the centre).

In the Hebrew, the “circumcision of the tongue” is fluency in speech i.e., the highest speech, “prophecy”, the ability to pre-dict. We consider science as our “highest speech” because of its ability to predict outcomes and so we, currently, “bow down to” science. This fluency of speech is a gift through the mediation or parousia of God in His creation. Without this presence, we would know nothing. The two Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant were said to be the source of all prophecy, but God is the third who speaks through the Cherubim who are the mediators: “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat (Jakim, the ark cover), from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony I will speak with you”. (Exodus 25:22) The two Cherubim on the Ark represent the two faces of Logos and Eros. When the Cherubim were removed from the Ark with the destruction of the First Temple, prophecy is said to have ceased to exist.

The circumcision of the sexual organ is the recognition that one can be empowered to have control over the urges that create strife in the human body and soul, one of the most dominant being the sexual urge. (This could be seen as an example for justifying the Strength card as #8 in Tarot since this is the step beyond the Chariot card and the strife between the two sphinxes represented in that card. The figure’s easily closing the jaws of the lion representing the passions would suggest this. The Justice card, however, suggests the need for control on the social plane, the higher demand to be just to each human being. It is the urges, the needs, that we have which create injustice in human relations. But they also create Justice…The Tree of Life seems to suggest that the individual is on the right side and the social is on the left side and there is the constant crossing over via the paths.)

The two covenants spoken about here would suggest the two faces of Eros and the Logos, the voice and the flesh, the spirit and the body, which shall be discussed in more detail as we proceed further into the texts of the Sefer Yetzirah and “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom”.

The Sefer yetzirah 1:4

1.4 Ten are the numbers of the ineffable Sephiroth, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Learn this wisdom, and be wise in the understanding of it, investigate these numbers, and draw knowledge from them, fix the design in its purity (“make each thing come to stand in its essence”), and pass from it to its Creator seated on his throne.

Alt. Trans. Ten are the numbers of the ineffable Sephiroth, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Learn this wisdom, and be wise in the understanding of it, investigate these numbers, and draw knowledge from them, fix the design in its purity, and pass from it to its Creator seated on his throne.

Wescott Trans: 1.4. Ten is the number of the ineffable Sephiroth, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Understand this wisdom, and be wise by the perception. Search out concerning it, restore the Word to its creator, and replace Him who formed it upon his throne. (12)

Wescott’s Notes:

12. Rittangelius gives “replace the formative power upon his throne.” Postellus gives “restore the device to its place.”

Commentary 1:4

Was God’s creation an act of will or an act of love? God in His withdrawal, His allowing something to be other than Himself, provides us with the perfect path or example for our own existence. (As the French philosopher, Simone Weil, once said: “If we forgive God for not existing, He will forgive us for existing”.) Is the withdrawal of the great artist from his work an act of will or an act of love? The artist can choose to withdraw or not; the artist can choose to bring forth that which inspires her or not. The common view is that it is an act of will rather than an act of love which brings forth great art; but an artist who withdraws through the will does not produce ‘great art’.

Both God and the Sephirot are “ineffable” and cannot be described through the use of language. But to see God as pure Will moves too close to Nietzsche for my liking (the eternal recurrence of the Same). The Sephirot are emanations of God and are, therefore, used to describe God. But God is beyond the Sephirot (Plato: “The Good is beyond Being”), just as the rose itself is beyond the emanation of its odour. The Sephirot themselves are inadequate representations of the Good. We could equate them with the “ideas” of Plato.

The Sephirot are one of the ways used to attempt to describe God, ways that human beings can comprehend the qualities of God or the predicates of God. All cultures attempt to describe God with the things that are ready-to-hand for them. God is One and ineffable. The attempts to proselytize the “true religion” without first learning the nature of the religion of those that one is attempting to convince that it is the “true religion” is akin to madness, an error and misunderstanding of the directive to “Go forth and make disciples of all nations”. A “disciple” is a “friend”, one with whom one can engage in friendly conversation i.e., dialectic. The proselytizing spirit should have been an exercise in communication and unification but, unfortunately, it was not. It became, and remains in most cases, an exercise in power, an exercise in evil.

This passage of the Sefir Yetzirah deals with the first three Sephirot: Keter, Chakmah, and Binah: The Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding. As discussed earlier, Wisdom is knowledge of the whole, which is difficult if not impossible to attain since we ourselves are part of the whole; however, this does not deter the quest for such knowledge, and as long as there are human beings, such a quest will continue.

Understanding precedes knowledge in that understanding is the sensory awareness of the presence-at-hand of things as well as their possible readiness-to-hand for ends that we determine. To make things stand in their essence is to reveal them in their truth. From this revealing of things in their truth, one passes from them to their Creator. One examines all things and determines which Sephirot relates to them (“Examine with them”). “Probe from them”: the Sephirot are not contemplated in themselves but are used to develop an insight into the things of the world. (Plato’s ideas are numbers, but they are not the numbers of arithmos or calculation. One uses them to gain knowledge of the things of the world and to recognize the things as “shadows”.) This “probing” brings a thing to a stand so that it will step forth and show itself as a “this” and not “that”. To let a thing be in its essence is to go beyond viewing the thing as something which is of possible use for our ends.

Here is thought understood as dianoia and diaresis, with knowledge as the outcome. The Sephirot themselves are reached through the “paths of Wisdom”; the paths are the “pure design” which is the product of Understanding (the limits placed on the Unlimited). The “design” is the Law of Necessity. The “examining” of things with the Sephirot is the determination of how the things in their essence belong to, or are possessed by, the Sephirot to which they belong or are possessed. The “probing” of things is the determining of the essence of the thing, the determining of the truth of the thing and the revealing of the thing for what the thing really is. This revealing “elevates” the thing from the shadows into its true reality. Examining and probing are part of questioning. This elevating of the thing is the “restoring” of the original Word to its Creator. We participate in the creation of the world by decreating ourselves by mirroring God’s act of withdrawal.

The four universes of the Sefer Yetzirah are: 1. Atzilut (Nearness, Emanation, the parousia of the Divine); Content: Sephirot; Level: No-thingness; 2. Beriyah (Creation); Content: the Throne (the Creation itself as the “lowering” of God, and the vehicle through which He expresses His care and concern through the Beauty of the world); Level: Something from No-thing, ex nihilo; the Sephirot of ‘no-thingness’; 3. Yetzirah (Formation); Content: Angels/Cherubim, products of the spirit, mediators; Level: Something from Something, “in another for another”; 4. Asiyah (Making, Action); Content: Shadows of the physical; Level: Completion (the work, the artifact, from dynamis potential to energeia the completed work). More will be said about the four universes later.

The Sefer Yetzirah 1:5

1.5 These Ten Numbers, (beyond which is the Infinite one), have the boundless realms, boundless origin and end, an abyss of good and one of evil, boundless height and depth, East and West, North and South, and the one only God and king, faithful forever seated on his throne, shall rule over all, forever and ever.

Alt. Trans. These Ten Numbers, beyond the Infinite one, have the boundless realms, boundless origin and end, an abyss of good and one of evil, boundless height and depth, East and West, North and South, and the one only God and king, faithful forever seated on his throne, shall rule over all, forever and ever.

Wescott Trans: 1.5. The Ten ineffable Sephiroth have ten vast regions bound unto them; boundless in origin and having no ending; an abyss (13) of good and of ill; measureless height and depth; boundless to the East and the West; boundless to the North and South; (14) and the Lord the only God, (15) the Faithful King rules all these from his holy seat, (16) for ever and ever.

Wescott Notes:

13. Abyss; the word is OUMQ for OMQ, a depth, vastness, or valley.

14. My (Case’s) Hermetic rituals explained this Yetziratic attribution.

15. The Lord the only God. The words are ADUN IChID AL, or “Adonai (as commonly written) the only El.”

16. Seat. The word is MOUN, dwelling, habitation, or throne.

Commentary 1:5

The text here deals with Space. God, the infinite One, is the “Former” (Yotzer), “the one who forms”. He is the Demiourgos of Plato’s Timaeus. The distinction between “formation” and “creation” is important. Here, the formation occurs within that which is boundless. The boundless is the “unlimited”, designated as the water of Chakmah, the khora of Plato’s Timaeus, that which is given limits so that it may be de-fined (“of the limits”) and designated as a particular thing. It is given shape. The boundless is given its limits through language and number, and it is through language and number that things come to stand as ousia, as presence in their particularity in the Now of Time. God as the Former is the Logos of the Greeks (“It is through Him that all that is comes into being, and nothing comes into being except through Him”. John 1: 1-5)

The three lower universes align with the ideas of “to create” (Beriyah), “to form” (Yetzirah), and “to make” (Asiyah). “Wisdom” is to create, “Understanding” is to form, and “knowledge” is to make. The making implies the completion of an action, the pro-duction of a thing such that the thing requires no further action and is complete; it is “perfect” in its emergence into presence.

The Sephirot #9 Yesod has connotations with “binding” and “connecting” and connects the physical world to the world of Yetzirah or the world of the formation which is associated with the angels or mediators, the daemons, and the human soul is considered one of these. It is through the mediation of the angels that the physical world is elevated or lifted up and restored to its Creator. The physical world is “brought to a stand” i.e., elevated, through the use of language and number. This is the covenant of speech. That Yesod is also associated with the sexual organs indicates its relation to the covenant of the flesh, circumcision.

(This is how the Magician #1 card of the Tarot is to be understood: he is not Keter or #1, but rather Malkhut #10. Through the formation of the ready-to-hand physical things of the world (the cups, wands, pentacles, swords), he elevates these things to the level of Yetzirah or “formation” through the mediation of Yesod which is the foundation, or base, of the physical world, what we understand as “metaphysics”. Yesod requires and is associated with sense perception and will (the sexual organ, the “lower” associations with Eros), and these are the initial “mediators” between the soul and the physical world.)

Space, within which the Tree of Life rests, is not a two-dimensional circle but a sphere. The sphere is divided into a five-dimensional continuum. Space is prior to Time, and Time as well as number begins with the being of created things, the physis of the world, its materiality. The infinite One (the Good) is beyond both space and time. The boundaries of space, the limits, are the realm of Necessity. They are indicated by the 10 directions within which space is given.

Three dimensions are “up/down”, “north/south”, “east/west”, and these three dimensions are further defined by the six directions of World as outlined. The Time continuum is defined by two directions, past and future, or beginning and end. This is called “year” and is the fourth dimension. The fifth dimension is the spiritual dimension and is defined by good and evil, and this is called “soul”.

To illustrate these dimensions within the sphere of space using the Tree of Life: 1. Beginning (Chakmah/Wisdom)/ End (Binah/ Understanding); 2. Good (Keter/Crown)/ Evil (Malkhut/Kingship); 3. Up (Netzach/Victory)/ Down (Hod/Splendour); 4. North (Gevurah/Strength)/ South (Chesed/Love); 5. East (Tiferet/Beauty)/ West (Yesod/Foundation).

God, called Elohim, creates the world with 10 sayings or speeches, which is the understanding. (Elohim is the Christ, the Logos, of St. John, but he is not limited to this manifestation only. He could also be considered to be Krishna or any other of the possible names that human beings have come to understand Him in their being-in-the-world). Wisdom as beginning represents the past. Memory is hidden, concealed until it is revealed or re-collected through the understanding (in words or images). The mediation of Wisdom (past) and Understanding (future) conceived as Time is the present. (“The future comes to meet us from behind” as the Greeks would say.) It is in and through Time that things come to be. Wisdom is the no-thing of Being which becomes the some-thing through understanding, through speech and number.

The centre line of the Tree of Life from Keter to Malkhut is called the “Tree of Knowledge”. On a two-dimensional plane, Keter is seen as closest to God while Malkhut is farthest. This is the traditional way of viewing the creation. The centre line is composed of 4 Sephirot: Keter (Good), Tiferet (Beauty), Yesod (Foundation), and Malkhut (Kingdom). (In The Lovers #6 tarot card, Adam stands before the Tree of Life while Eve stands before the Tree of Knowledge, if one wishes to interpret the figures in this way). In the direction of the descent, the Good proceeds to Beauty which provides the Foundation for Kingdom. When the direction is as ascent, Kingdom is the deprivation of the understanding to seeing the Foundation as the manifestation of the Beautiful and the Good.

Since World is a sphere (an infinite sphere? A sempiternal sphere?), the speaking of up and down as far as directions does not make sense. The Sefer Yetzirah speaks of depths. There is a great depth, a chasm, separating the Necessary from the Good. The depths are the “deprivations” of things. The depths are the “need” of things to realize their true substance and to come to their true essence which is their perfection. This possibility of perfection is always present within them. The human being is the ‘perfect imperfection’. Something is absent, missing. For something to meet these needs, a great depth must be crossed. The crossing is done in a series of steps or leaps. (What was understood as Jacob’s Ladder) For God to answer prayers, a great depth must be crossed, the whole of the created World itself, for God Himself is unaffected by His creation. He is beyond both Space and Time. Given what we know about the deep immensities of space, this crossing is not easily accomplished.

Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter One

The Tree of Life from the Kabbalah:

The Tree of Life

What will be shown in this writing is how the letters and the paths associated with the Sephirot of the Kabbalah correspond to the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot. The emanations of the Sephirot correspond to the symbols and images presented in the cards; that is, the objects and situations that we encounter within our worlds correspond in their true natures to the numbers and images “revealed” in the cards when interpreted correctly. “Interpretation” involves attention, contemplation and reflection. An “emanation” emanates from a source. An emanation is not an expansion of the source but a withdrawal of the source to allow the emanation to be just as, paradoxically, the perfume of a rose is made possible by the rose’s withdrawal and yet is at the same time a stepping forward of the rose itself to manifest its being as a sign of its presence. The presence involves an absence and a hiddenness at the same time.

The Tarot cards, composed of letters and numbers, are intermediaries between the individual and the world we live in. They are what we understand as art. They are tools or equipment to assist in the overcoming of the distinction between mind/body, soul/body, and the self/world. All that is known (the Greek word gnosis) is brought to presence through language and number, or through Word.

Movement is Life. As illustrated through the Tree of Life, movement, kinesis, begins at 1. the Crown (Keter) and flows to 2. Wisdom (Chakmah), then to 3. Understanding (Binah), through to 4. Loving Kindness (Chesed), then to 5. Strength or Force, Power (Gevurah), through to 6. Beauty (Tiferet), then to 7. Victory (Netzach), then to 8. Empathy, Mercy (Hod), from there to 9. Foundation (Yesod), and finally to 10. Kingdom or Sovereignty (Malkhut). The movement is from right to left or East to West. All the Sephirot pass or are channeled through #6 Beauty (Tiferet) with the exception of #10 Kingdom (Malkhut). This is the movement from top to bottom, from the heavens to the earth, or the direction of the primal creation. The movement upwards involves depth, while the movement downwards tends towards the surfaces or the outward appearances of things; and the further one moves down, the further one is away from the reality of things.

A most important point to note is that the creation of the world is not an “expansion” from God but a withdrawal of God. In making the universe, God allows something other than Himself to be and yet, paradoxically, it is at the same time Him since He is One and the Whole. This Otherness and withdrawal of God signifies both His presence and His absence in His creation just as the presence and absence of the rose is revealed by its perfume.

Text of the Sefir Yetzirah with Commentary:

This is a highly recommended text.

The Sefer Yetzirah is written in poetry because philosophy is more akin to poetry than to history, which is more akin to prose. Its narrative is a mythos, a story of the God and His Creation. The exercises and statements made in the text are akin to philosophy for they are attempts to answer the questions of Being and of coming-into-being: the how, what, who, where, when and why of created things. In traditional philosophy this is what is called metaphysics.

The translations here render the original poetry of the Hebrew into current modern English prose. As with all translation, something is lost, but something may also be gained by examining the texts closely. There are many versions of the Sefer Yetzirah, with many additions and retractions occurring throughout the ages. The versions here are an attempt to provide a readable translation through an amalgam of the many versions available. Three different translations are provided here.

1.1 In thirty-two mystical paths of wisdom did JAH the Lord of Hosts engrave his name: God of the armies (hosts) of Israel, ever-living God, merciful and gracious, sublime, dwelling on high, who inhabits eternity. He created this universe by the three Sepharim: Number, Writing, and Speech. (The translation used here is from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Formation which can be found here. This book is highly recommended. 

https://books.google.co.id/books?id=aqc-61vr4q0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Alt. Trans.:  In two and thirty most occult and wonderful paths of wisdom did JAH the Lord of Hosts engrave his name: God of the armies of Israel, ever-living God, merciful and gracious, sublime, dwelling on high, who inhabiteth eternity. He created this universe by the three Sepharim: Number, Writing, and Speech.

Wescott Trans: . In thirty−two (1) mysterious Paths of Wisdom did Jah, (2) the Jehovah of hosts, (3) the God of Israel, (4) the Living Elohim, (5) the King of ages, the merciful and gracious God, (6) the Exalted One, the Dweller in eternity, most high and holy−−engrave his name by the three Sepharim (7) −−Numbers, Letters, and Sounds.(8)

Wescott NOTES TO THE SEPHER YETZIRAH CHAPTER ONE

(These notes are provided as an appendum to the Wescott translation and may provide some perspective on how the text was translated.)

The twelve sections of this chapter introduce this philosophic disquisition upon the Formation and Development of the Universe. Having specified the subdivision of the letters into three classes, the Triad, the Heptad, and the Dodecad, these are put aside for the time; and the Decad mainly considered as specially associated with the idea of Number, and as obviously composed of the Tetrad and the Hexad.

1. Thirty−two. This is the number of the Paths or Ways of Wisdom, which are added as a supplement. 32 is written in Hebrew by LB, Lamed and Beth, and these are the last and first letters of the Pentateuch. The number 32 is obtained thus−−2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2=32. Laib, LB as a Hebrew word, means the Heart of Man. Paths. The word here is NTIBUT, netibuth; NTIB meant primarily a pathway, or foot−made track; but is here used symbolically in the same sense as the Christian uses the word, way−−the way of life: other meanings are−−stage, power, form, effect; and later, a doctrinal formula, in Kabalistic writings.

2. Jah. This divine name is found in Psalm lxviii. 4; it is translated into Greek as kurios, and into Latin as dominus , and commonly into the English word, Lord: it is really the first half of the word IHVH or Jehovah, or the Yahveh of modern scholars.

3. Jehovah Tzabaoth. This divine name is printed in English Bibles as Jehovah Sabaoth, or as “Lord of hosts” as in Psalm xxiv. 10. TzBA is an army.

4. God of Israel. Here the word God is ALHI, which in unpointed Hebrew might be God, or Gods, or My God.

5. The Elohim of the Living. The words are ALHIM ChIIM. Alhim, often written in English letters as Elohim, or by Godftey Higgins as Aleim, seems to be a masculine plural of the feminine form Eloah, ALH, of the divine masculine name EL, AL; this is commonly translated God, and means strong, mighty, supreme. Chiim is the plural of Chi−−living, or life. ChIH is a living animal, and so is ChIVA. ChII is also life. Frey in his dictionary gives ChIIM as the plural word lives, or vitae. The true adjective for living is ChIA. Elohim Chiim, then, apart from Jewish or Christian preconception, is “the living Gods,” or “the Gods of the lives, i.e., living ones.” Rittangelius gives Dii viventes, “The living Gods,” both words in the plural. Pistorius omits both words. Postellus, the orthodox, gives Deus Vivus. The Elohim are the Seven Forces, proceeding from the One Divine, which control the “terra viventium,” the manifested world of life.

6. God. In this case we have the simple form AL, EL.

7. Sepharim. SPRIM, the plural masculine of SPR, commonly translated book or letter: the meaning here is plainly “forms of expression.”

8. Numbers, Letters and Sounds. The three Hebrew words here given are, in unpointed Hebrew, SPR, SPR and SIPUR. Some late editors, to cover the difficulty of this passage, have given SPR, SPUR, SIPR, pointing them to read Separ, Seepur, Saypar. The sense of the whole volume appears to need their translation as Numbers, Letters and Sounds. Pistorius gave “Scriptis, numeratis, pronunciatis.” Postellus gave “Numerans, numerus, numeratus,” thus losing the contrasted meanings; and so did Rittangelius, who gave “Numero, numerante, numerato.”

Comments on the Text: 1.1

The 32 paths indicated in the Kabbalah are the ten digits of one’s hands and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The quantities of things, the physical or material things, are calculated and expressed by number and these are what can be counted on and grasped by the hands, the ready-to-hand things. The qualities of things, the categories we use to describe things, are expressed by language, words formed out of letters. Numbers require plurality and only come into existence with the creation of the physical universe, with space and time. The numbers begin at 4; i.e., the Trinity of God as One and Three, and the physical matter of creation at 4. The Sephirot define the numbers because they first came into creation as emanations of God. All numbers are contained in the Ten, and all Ten are contained in the One and all are emanations of the One.

The 32 paths are the number of times God’s name, Elohim, is mentioned in the account of creation in the Book of Genesis. “God said” appears 10 times i.e., the ten Sephirot starting with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Elohim is a plural and so is not actually God Himself. The figure of Elohim shares many of the same characteristics as the figure of Eros, and there is a clear connection between Eros and the Logos or the “sayings of God”.

The other 22 times are the 3 where “God made”, (the three Mother letters of the Sephirot Alef, Mem, Shin which indicate the 4 universes comprising the whole: Atzilut, Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah and the bridging of those worlds: God Himself, being the first, etc.), the 7 references referring to “God saw”, and the 12 other references of Elohim referring to the remaining 12 letters of the alphabet.

The 32 paths are the channels through which “spirit” (understood as the element of Air, and in other places referred to as Mind or Intellect) influences the body and all physical matter; and for human beings all these channels must go through the heart. The channels operate both ways: up and down, spirit or mind influencing the heart and the heart influencing the spirit or mind. The heart is the causal link between the mind/body and it is connected to the Life force. In the passage from St. John the Evangelist, “In Him life was, and this life was the light of human beings” indicates that truth is not some intellectual abstraction but is the actual or authentic way of human beings’ being-in-the-world. The Sefer Yetzirah calls the heart “the king over the soul”, the soul being the kingdom over which the heart rules. It is the heart which establishes the mood of care/concern for those things which have come to be meaningful for us as human beings.

The number 32 is also 25 indicating that there are 5 dimensions to the visible universe. The visible universe is like an onion or a babushka doll whose layers conceal the hidden mystery within. The 32 paths are referred to as Nativ in the Sefer Yetzirah which means a “private” not a “public” path. Each individual must traverse these paths on their own. The means of ascent or descent along the Tree of Life is through 231 Gates with each Gate bearing a “threshold guardian” of some type (one must assume). Understanding what the nature of these threshold guardians is is very important in travelling along the paths. A teacher for example, if he or she is a proper teacher, is a threshold guardian along one of life’s paths.

The paths are said to be “mystical”. In Hebrew the word mystical (peliyot) has connotations of being hidden, separated from the world at large, “occult”. One can see a relation to this hiddenness from the Greek word aletheia which means “to unconceal”, “to reveal”, “to remove from forgetfulness”, ” to make unhidden” and aletheia is the Greek word for “truth”. The human being as a human being and to be an authentic human being is called upon to reveal truth, and the revealing of truth brings one into strife with that which is hidden and with those who would wish it to remain hidden. This is the primary conflict between the individual and the collective. It is the political conflict.

The 32 paths are said to be the paths to/of “wisdom”. “Wisdom” is said to be knowledge of the whole, the One. The Greek word for this knowledge is gnosis. Wisdom is the knowledge of the Same, that which goes beyond the knowledge of the particulars that compose the physical world. “Wisdom” includes what the Greeks understood as phronesis or “wise judgement”, and wise judgement was understood as one of the four virtues or “human excellences” that lead to happiness. Wisdom is also the seeing of unity in the diversity of particular things. It is seeing the tree that is present in all trees whether oak, elm, or beech. It is also to recognize the deprivations of those things that exist, such as Evil, from their fullness, which is the Good. The Wise are able to see Time in its wholeness and can comprehend past, present and future simultaneously. The whole of the Sefer Yetzirah is an attempt to see the unity amidst the diversity of the things that are in space and time. Those who are able to see the whole are “prophets”. The woman presented in the Tarot card “The World” is a prophetess.

We mentioned that Elohim is God’s name used 32 times in Genesis and this corresponds to the 32 paths that lead to Wisdom. The state of Wisdom is the second Sephirot of the Tree of Life, Chakmah. The third Sephirot is Binah, or Understanding, which is knowledge of particulars. This knowledge of particulars corresponds to our apprehension of the particular objects about us and their possible uses for us.

Elohim is a plural in Hebrew and corresponds, I think, to the Trinity that is present prior to the creation of the physical universe, the Trinity that must be present for the universe to be. Understanding is that knowledge which places the limits on the unlimited, what allows particular objects to come to presence for us. To place limits on is to “de-fine”, and it is this defining of things, of what they are, that allows the things to come to presence and be visible to us as the things they are. They are given boundaries and framing. This “defining” is accomplished through language and number, what we have historically come to call metaphysics. Wisdom itself is beyond language and number. Wisdom is associated with the element water, while Understanding is associated with the elements of Air and Fire. Wisdom is associated with emotions/heart, while Understanding is associated with mind/intellect. How these contraries are connected and brought into harmony is the core of the teaching of the Sefer Yetzirah. It is the understanding of the two faces of the Logos and of Eros.

Wisdom is seen as thought thinking thought, pure thought, the same concept as Aristotle’s understanding of God, the Unmoved Mover or the Uncaused Cause. The concept of thought without words, numbers or images is beyond me, unless it is simply thought as the Life-force itself i.e., thought as pure possibility or potentiality, dynamis. This would suggest that the “cause” of the life force itself is the element air in combination with fire and water. Wisdom would be simple unity, harmony. In Plato’s dialogue Timaeus, she is the khôra or receptacle of all: “So likewise it is right that the substance which is to be fitted to receive frequently over its whole extent the copies of all things intelligible and eternal should itself, of its own nature, be void of all the forms. Wherefore, let us not speak of her that is the Mother and Receptacle of this generated world, which is perceptible by sight and all the senses, by the name of earth or air or fire or water, or any aggregates or constituents thereof: rather, if we describe her as a Kind invisible and unshaped, all-receptive, and in some most perplexing and most baffling partaking of the intelligible, we shall describe her truly.”— Plato, Timaeus, 51a. Here, Plato sees the relation between Wisdom and Understanding, or the Sephirot Chakmah and Binah, as most “baffling” and “perplexing”. The word “intelligible” is one that will come under much discussion and scrutiny as we move through this interpretation of the Sefer Yetzirah. This area could be represented by Da’at, the Void, from out of which the Life- force and beings emerge.

The concept of creation which I mentioned earlier as the “withdrawal” of God to allow something to be other than Himself can be understood from the word “engrave”, when He uses the 32 paths to “engrave” the universe. When we speak of writing, we mean we add ink to paper (expansion). When we engrave, we remove material in a clay tablet (or whatever) as we see in cuneiform writing (withdrawal). The word “engrave” could also indicate the setting of boundaries; the limits placed on the unlimited, and it is the shapes of the letters themselves which establish these limits or boundaries in the written word.

The letter Yud in Hebrew has a numerical value of 10, indicating the 10 Sephirot. The letter Heh has a numerical value of 5, indicating the five fingers on the right hand. In the idea of “making”, the hands are important as they are what we use to grasp the things of the world, the ready-to-hand, the materials we use to make the artifacts that are useful to us. The letters of the Divine Name Yah Heh, are present at the beginning of the Creation and are the essence of the Creation (the Trinity and the concept of the Word as God and with God).

There is some difficulty with trying to interpret the YHVH as “the Lord of Hosts” and of the “hosts” understood as “the armies of Israel”. The Sefer Yetzirah suggests that the “hosts” represent all of the beings created through the 10 Sephirot and how these beings are understood by human beings through numbers, writing and speech. We can understand the “hosts” as that moment when God reveals Himself to human beings through His creation; those beings He created are His “hosts” in the same way we can understand being a host of an event such as a dinner party or a meeting. In Shakespeare’s King Lear, King Lear and Cordelia will act as “god’s spies” i.e. they will be his “hosts” for they will allow Him to see His creation through their eyes (Act 5 sc. iii). YHVH indicates a sort of dualism: the first YH separated by the Vah Heh. But again, they indicate the three-in-one concept which is attempting to be illustrated here: YH is God, VH is His creation and both together comprise YHVH.

The “Living God” is to be understood as the Life-force itself, what we have come to call Nature, and what the Greeks understood as phusis and poiesis. It is the force (dynamis) that causes things to emerge and come to a stand so that they can be known (energeia). The names of God (Elohim) indicate the activity of this force in the downward motion through the Tree of Life. For example, “God saw” is mentioned 7 times and so this should focus our attention on “seeing” when we are attempting to understand the essence of the Sephirot #7 or Netzach (Victory). This should also focus our attention on the element of sight, on how things are perceived, when attempting to understand the Chariot Tarot card.

The word “Holy” indicates that which is separated from the mundane, the common. It is the separation of God from His creation, what is to be bowed down to or looked up to and not to be given an image or named.

The place of the concept of “will” is troubling in our understanding of who and what we are. In the Sefer Yetzirah, will is placed beyond all other forces in its representation in the Sephirot Keter, #1 and in #10 Malkhut. Both are seen as Kingdoms and God is King of the Universe or the Whole. The Ten Commandments are the will of God. Necessity is the will of God. Is will a motivator prior to Love (Eros) or is Love prior to will? This issue will be explored in this interpretation of the Sefer Yetzirah. For the moment we may understand “God’s will” as the Law of Necessity which is embedded and enmeshed in the creation itself. It is the schema or blueprint used by the demiourgos in his making of what is.

The three “books” used for the creation are text (Sepher), number or cipher (Sephar), and communication or the telling (Sippur). All relate to what the Greeks called logos, while the will is associated primarily with eros. They relate to the quality (emanations), quantity (the physical, material things), and the relation to others or the talking to others of that which has been created. The three books relate to Space (Universe), Time (days of the week) and Soul (how these are to be properly understood and interpreted). These relate to the five dimensions of the universe where space is third, time is fourth, and soul is the fifth dimension.

The 32 paths can be represented pictorially as we do with the diagram of the Tree of Life (text), or they can be represented numerically as the sequences of the paths, or they can be represented to each other through our speech as our Understanding of the things that are. Our understanding of what things are is prior to our naming of them and speaking about them. The three books are also represented in the form of the letters themselves as they are written, the numerical value assigned to them, or the sounds that are made through the spoken word. Text as form is space (the res extensa or what we understand as objects); numbers are the sequence of time understood as the week and the year, a sequential series of “nows”; and communication is the continuum of soul. It is from these three that the word Sephirot is derived. It is only through the Sephirot in their three aspects that God can be approached. It is through the Sephirot that God reveals Himself to His creation, and it is through the Sephirot that one can reveal God in His creation. It is only through our particular body that we are able to gain access the whole that is beyond our particular self. Matter, the body, is our infallible judge.

The Sephirot act as intermediaries or daimons through which one can communicate with God and there are some texts that assign an angel to each of the Sephirot. The Sephirot are the messengers (Hermes and Eros of the Greeks, the angels of Judaism and Christianity, etc.) through whom one communicates with God and He communicates to us. (“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14.6) Jesus as human being is the highest of these mediators (Metatron in the angel hierarchy.)

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah and “The Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom”

The text of the Sefir Yetzirah, from which the Kabbalah is said to have originated, is supposed by some sources to have been written by Abraham himself on instructions from Shem, the son of Noah, who is also sometimes referred to as Melchizedek among many Hebrew sources. Melchizedek is said by other Hebrew sources to have changed what originally was the sacrifice of animals to God to the offering of bread and wine to Him, perhaps an indication of the movement of human beings from a nomadic hunter-gatherer to an agrarian existence.

Shem, meanwhile, is said to have participated in the spiritual revelation given to Noah by God; and from this, God is said to have orally instructed Abraham to pass on that which he received from God to Shem. So, the authorship of the Sefer Yetzirah is attributed to Abraham for the Hebrews and to Shem for the Gentiles. This suggests that prior to the writing of historical texts (or any texts for that matter), there was a unified spirituality in existence in what was then the known world. This is an amazing thought.

However, other more credible sources attribute the text of the Sefer Yetzirah to around the 1st century BCE, which might indicate the apparent influences of the Neo-Platonic Pythagoreans, Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists, and the neo-Aristotelians on some of the content of the text. The text of the Sefer Yetzirah, in my opinion, is an attempt to resolve the problem of piety and philosophy, the conflict between Jerusalem (piety/theism) and Athens (philosophy/atheism) which is a core problem for the history of thought in the West.

The goal of the knowledge of the Sefer Yetzirah is that one become “a prophet” (c.f. The World #21 card of the Tarot where, at the completion of the journey, the initiate is to have the gift of prophecy or the ability to dwell in both the spiritual and physical worlds simultaneously). Prophecy is “the highest speech”, and one would consider a prophet the “highest” or most complete human being i.e., the most ‘perfect’ human being, the most ‘virtuous’ human being; and we shall see shortly the importance of language and speech in the physical, spiritual and mystical worlds of the Sefir Yetzirah. The prophet is said to be one who dwells in the presence of God, and this has always been considered as the highest end for human beings in both the ancient and medieval worlds of the West. In our interpretation here, dwelling in the presence of God or the Good are understood to be one and the same.

“Kabbalah” means “that which is received”, “that which has been given”, the gift. What is received is believed to be the divine message, the Torah, the divine gift, the salvation and redemption that is the reconciliation of the “perfect imperfection” that is human being with the perfection that is the Divine. That gift which has been received becomes part of one’s heritage or inheritance.

The Sefer Yetzirah outlines an essential “strife” between that which has been received and how that which has been received is understood and interpreted; and this essential strife may be understood as that between the individual and the society or the collective. This is because the Sefer Yetzirah is a philosophical text and its language is the poetry of philosophy. There always has been and always will be strife between philosophy and that which considers itself the established “truth” of the collective, or that upon which the collective (society) is based, be that the canon or doctrine of the religions of those societies or the established opinion of those who hold what knowledge is conceived to be in those societies. Piety belongs to the collective; philosophy belongs to the individual; piety is the exoteric; philosophy is the esoteric.

The Kabbalah is an attempt to interpret that divine message or divine gift and the meaning or significance of that gift. This gift from the god is referred to sometimes as the Tree of Life. This Tree, established in visual form during the Renaissance, is brought to presence to us through language and number. Language and number are gifts from the god, from the Ain Sof. They are not “invented” by human beings but “dis-covered” or “un-covered”, unconcealed. They were always there, only hidden or concealed. This uncovering and revealing is what is called “truth” here.

The Kabbalah’s principles or foundations are based on God’s act of creation ex nihilo in Chapter One of the Book of Genesis in the Western Bible, and one may also understand something of the Kabbalah through the opening words of St. John’s Gospel from that Bible: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Same (He) was in the beginning with God. All things (Difference) came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of human beings. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.” (John I: 1-5) In the multi-layered universe of the worlds of the text of the Sefer Yetzirah, this is the world of Beriyah, the world of creation of something from no-thing, and in the hierarchy of the worlds of the Sefer Yetzirah, it is below the world of Atzilut, the world of the Divine Ideas or Archetypes, the Sephirot themselves.

I would, cautiously, suggest that the anthropocentric view of the God as the “eternal fiery Father” is not quite right as the God that is characterized by the Sefer Yetzirah, although the God as perceived there is indeed of the element of Fire, particularly when viewed from the left side of the Tree of Life, the side of Severity and Fear. But this is only one of His elements. Being infinite, ineffable, and unnamable, perhaps He is what we mean by Life itself, and therefore images of Him or uttering His true Name is taboo in Hebrew and Islam since the utterance of a name or the production of an image “solidifies” or ossifies that which is named. The early Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, once said: “the god who sometimes does and sometimes does not wish to go by the name of Zeus” when He is called upon since He chooses to appear in and under many forms and names.

I am always astounded, for instance, by other sects of Christians who accuse Catholics of being pagans because these other sects think the Catholics worship statues i.e.; they are idol worshippers. The statue is, of course, not the Being him/herself that is being supplicated, but a mediary between the person at prayer and the Being they are calling upon for aid, just as all Art is a mediary between human being and Life itself. The statue helps focus their prayer. I am also cautious because I remember the lines from the English poet William Blake who said in his poem “Auguries of Innocence”: “God appears and God is light/ To those poor souls that dwell in night/ But does the human form display/ To those who dwell in realms of day.” Referring to this I must say: I simply do not know; but I do know the Sefir Yetzirah is closer to Blake than to the traditional religions and their interpretations be they Hebrew or Christian. Also, Blake’s meaning is present in many mythologies and religions throughout the world. It is sometimes called the “mystical tradition”. It is what is called esoteric, that which is hidden or occult or merely that which is ‘private’, and it is contrary to the exoteric which is for ‘public viewing.’

God, in the Sefer Yetzirah, is said to have created His world with three “books”. With these three “books” (Heb. Sepharim, Gr. logoi): 1. text (Heb. Sepher, Gr. Logos, speech that is written or spoken i.e. rhetoric) with 2. number (Heb. Sephar, Gr. arithmos) and with 3. communication, speaking to one another (Heb. Sippur, Gr. Dialectic?), human beings are called upon to “dis-cover” and “un-cover” the mysteries of the created universe. The world is meant to be read as text and upon this reading communicated to others.

The Tree of Life is said to be composed of 10 Sephirot or the Ten Emanations of God (referred to as the Ten Commandments in the Torah). “Emanation” is the action of flowing from a source. Perfume emanates from a flower, for instance. The Sephirot are connected by paths or channels created by the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, thus 32 paths in total, 10 Sephirot + 22 paths. The 22 paths are the letters of the Hebrew and early Greek alphabets (which are both said to derive from the Aramaic language), and the 10 Sephirot also represent the ten fingers of the human body. The human form is considered the microcosm of the macrocosm of the whole of Creation (again referencing Blake’s ‘augury’ here.)

The importance of “grasping” and “being able to grasp” is present in the text of the Sefer Yetzirah. With the letters comes speech (what the Greeks understood as logos), and with the fingers come numbers which are used to “count on” or to calculate. The paths are described as channels through which the “waters” of the spiritual flow downward (One must be “born again of the water and of the spirit” in order to rise up or go against the Necessity of gravity which pulls downwards). Water, by nature, flows downward; to “flow” upward, water requires fire or needs to become “air”, literally clouds. These movements of the spiritual as ascent and descent are the essential feature of the Tree of Life. The downward movement is creation and the upward movement is decreation in the interpretation offered here.

“Speaking to one another” and the Greek word dialectic have undergone great changes over the centuries. The word dialectic literally means “conversation between two or three persons” (esoteric), not two or three hundred persons for that would make it rhetoric, the speech of one to many (exoteric). The original dialectic, the conversation between friends, has been permutated into what is now known as Hegelian dialectic (thesis, antithesis, synthesis) and to Marx’s “dialectical materialism” where the original dialectic of the “sharing of the spirit” is attributed to physical matter through human beings’ making that matter or material “valuable” through their labour and through their “absolute knowledge” of that material which they have made. This making of “value” is the origin of our concept of “values” which has derived from the disappearance of God and the oblivion of eternity in order to place human beings, falsely, at the centre of the world. “Values” and their historicity have come to replace “morality” and “ethics” in our lexicons. The Greeks and the early Hebrews had no “values”.

The Tree of Life of the Kabballah

The letters and the paths associated with the Sephirot correspond to the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot, and the emanations of the Sephirot correspond to the symbols and images presented in the cards, from the sacred to the profane; that is, the objects and situations that we encounter within our worlds correspond in their true natures to the numbers and images “revealed” in the cards when the cards are interpreted correctly. The cards, composed of letters and numbers, are intermediaries between the individual and the world we live in. They are tools to assist us in the overcoming of the distinction between mind/body, soul/body, and the self/world. All that is known (the Greek word gnosis) is brought to presence (ousia) through language and number, or through Word. The desire to know is urged by the ‘need’ and ‘fullness’ that is Eros. Both logos and eros are to be found in the Sephirot Tiferet #6, for all the paths of the other Sephirot lead through Tiferet with the exception of Malkhut.

A most important point to note is that the creation of the world is not an “expansion” from God but a withdrawal of God. In making the universe, God allows something other than Himself to be and yet, paradoxically, it is at the same time Him since He is One and the Whole. This Otherness and withdrawal of God signifies both His presence and His absence in His creation. We might consider this making of God analogous to the making of the great artist (and I mean only great art here) where the artist withdraws to allow something other than him/herself to be, something which is at the same time, part of him/herself and yet not part of him/herself. One could carry it even further and make an analogy to a woman giving birth to a child. A woman’s giving birth is her great recognition of Otherness. It is her desire for the Incarnation of the Divine, and this desire or urge begins with Eros. It is this withdrawal of God, His allowing something to be other than Himself, that is the argument against the Gnostics who see the world’s creator as somehow an evil Demiourgos; yet, as we will see later, what we understand as ‘evil’ is a constant presence among the things that are and it impacts how Eros is to be understood.

The Greek word demiourgos means “a public or skilled worker” i.e., the politician or the techne, one who is skilled at making something from something and for someone else. In other languages, the demiourgos is “the blind god” or “the foolish one”, one who is ignorant of the gods or opposed to them i.e., the malevolent one. In many Gnostic texts, the demiourgos creates the physical world and the human beings in it. He creates followers who preside over the material world and who present obstacles to the soul seeking to ascend from it. The Fool #0 and The Magician #1 may be said to correspond to the demiourgos of the Gnostics and equal the numbers 01 and 10 respectively. In the Tarot, this shows their connection with The Wheel of Fortune #10.

Theory of Knowledge: An Alternative Approach

Why is an alternative approach necessary?