A Commentary on “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom”: Chapter Six (Part Two)

The Paths to and from Tiferet (Part Two)

“To those who are superficial and in a hurry, no less than to those who are deliberate and reflective, it must look as though there were no mystery anywhere.” MARTIN HEIDEGGER, “A DIALOGUE ON LANGUAGE”

“If the bleak days scare away all shining radiance, and if all breadth shrivels into the paltriness of narrow conventionality, then the heart must remain the source of what is light and spacious. And the most solitary heart makes the broadest leap into the middle of beyng, if on all sides the semblance of nonbeings stops its noise.” MARTIN HEIDEGGER, PONDERINGS V

In Part Two of our discussion of the paths emanating to and from Tiferet, we will be examining Path #21 The Desired and Sought Intelligence (Zayin), Path #22 The Faithful Intelligence (Lamed), Path #23 The Sustaining Intelligence (Samekh), and Path #25 The Intelligence of Trials (Temptations) (Resh).

The Letter Zayin and the 21st Path: The Desired and Sought Intelligence

Zayin: Tiferet to Chesed: Path21. Desired and Sought Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaChafutz VeHaMevukash): It is called this because it receives the divine Influx so as to bestow its blessing to all things that exist.

The Twenty-first Path is the Intelligence of Conciliation, and is so called because it receives the divine influence which flows into it from its benediction upon all and each existence.

Alt. Trans. “The twenty-first path is called the consciousness of the desired-which-fulfills because it receives the divine influence which flows into it as a result of the blessing it confers upon all that exists.”

We have spoken a number of times regarding the gap that currently exists between Love and intelligence or between Logos and Eros. On the 21st path, the intelligence or “consciousness” receives “the divine influence” or Love, which is “the desire which fulfills”, and through this coming to en-own confers this love on all that exists or on the Other. This is ‘conciliation’. The Divine is in need of human beings’ complicity in order to reveal Its truth. “Faith is the experience that the intelligence is illuminated by love”, as Simone Weil said. This experience is called “conciliation” (what we have been calling dialectic here), and this conciliation overcomes the strife that exists between the intelligence and its desire to know and the fulfillment of this desire to know.

The letter Zayin is shaped like a sword and is the symbol of “spiritedness”, “sustenance” (endurance, courage), and strife. It is the arrow of Eros, that which pierces through the husks and containers of the enclosures represented by the letters Chet and Tet and allows the inner light or true essence of things to be seen. It is the key to the door of Dalet and the opening of that door or gateway to the realm beyond. It represents the 7th day of Shabbat (Sabbath), the day of rest and spirituality (or the “letting be” of passivity), which completes the process of the 6 days of creation. It is the sword that Christ refers to when He says He comes not to bring peace, but with a sword. (Matthew 10: 34-36)

The Zayin signifies Space and includes the six days and six directions of physical reality, but also stands as a unique 7th principle or energy, the “spirit” which activates the physical. We usually designate this as “energy” or the life-force, but it seems that we need to somehow see how this principle is one of Love and not of Will. The Zayin is also associated with the word ‘manacle’ and this could indicate that its relation to rest is one of imprisonment. The contradictory forces of ‘liberation’ and ‘oppression’ seem to be implied in its nature. The Zayin is the source of all movement which would indicate a relation to Time. Like the letter Vav, it is an impregnating principle, which activates the creation. The contraries of rest and movement are symbolized in the letter.

Zayin is drawn with a Vav with a crown on top of it. The Vav is related to the Ohr Yashar, the direct light of the Creator coming down into the created world. The Zayin also relates to the Ohr Hozer, the returning light, which follows the path of the Vav to return and then spreads out when it reaches the crown. The Zayin impregnates all of life and allows the Vav to spread, opening the field of every possibility.

Shaped like a sword, the Zayin represents all movement and all movement is related to Time, which is associated with Binah. The Zayin represents the strife between contraries, the struggle for existence to overcome need, the struggle for sustenance (מזון). It is the struggle between Yaakov Jacob and the angel. Is it a good thing that Jacob is victorious over the angel in his struggling? What are the implications of this? The Zayin is said to be the power within a person that causes them to speak, initiate, live i.e., what it is about human beings that makes them human. It is the Eros of the human soul, Psyche. Interestingly, Zayin is also the source of rest. It teaches us to harmonize between the spirit and perfection related to the 7th day of rest, and the matter of the 6 days of work.

Genesis 1.14 And Elohim said: ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so.

The Letter Lamed and the 22nd Path: The Faithful Intelligence

The Twenty-second Path is the Faithful Intelligence, and is so called because by it, spiritual virtues are increased, and all dwellers on earth are nearly under its shadow.

Alt. Trans. “The twenty-second path is called the faithful consciousness because, through it, the spiritual powers are increased. All dwellers on earth ‘abide in its shadow.'”

Path 22. Faithful Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Ne’eman): It is called this because spiritual powers are increased through it, so that they can be close to all those ‘who dwell in their shadow’.

Case trans. The twenty-second path (Lamed, joining Gevurah to Tiphareth) is called the Faithful Intelligence, because by it spiritual powers are increased. All dwellers on earth are under its shadow.

Lamed, the 12th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, is the symbol of learning and can be seen as either a step or as a snake uncoiled. It is translated literally as the word for learning and also as a staff or goad. It is located at the centre of the Aleph-Beth and represents the heart Lev לב; in Kabbalah, learning is mostly done with the heart and soul, not just the mind i.e., the intelligence is illuminated by Love. The mind is a secondary organ. The Lamed indicates that “spiritual learning” is the heart of human existence. The course in life for every human being is to learn and express spiritual experiences and to practice what has been learned with every breath of life. This manner of being-in-the-world comes into conflict with the ideologies and narratives which predominate in the societies of which we are members.

Lamed reaches higher than any of the other Hebrew letters, like a lightning flash high in the air. This ‘higher reaching’ may be an indication of hubris. The shape of the Lamed is an undulating movement, and the Lamed represents the constant organic movement, the constant change that occurs within the limits of Necessity. Lamed is the lightning strike of Zeus or of God descending down the two sides of the Tree of Life. This would indicate that it is a warning sign against pride in one’s own learning or in the learning of the shared knowledge of the community of which one happens to be a member. Lamed teaches us to learn from everything in life, that no one and no institution are solely in possession of the truth. After one has governed their possessive, grasping tendencies in Khof and no longer has the blockages of the ego interfering, they can begin to learn the spiritual perfection of their own self, and to learn the laws, will, and ways of the Creator from the torah side of the Tree of Life. This is the process of learning to align with the will of the Creator and the acceptance of that will.

As a snake uncoiled, Lamed may be the ‘flying serpent’ or dragon, the Draconis Tali of the Sefer Yetzirah, which extends throughout the firmament of heaven and indicates both Space and Time. The ‘pattern of all that is formed’ is the web of Necessity. The web of Necessity is the limits and boundaries placed upon created things as well as the actions of human beings. Human action, including its desire and will, is subservient to the same Necessity that is evident in the laws of gravity. It is the Greek understanding of phronesis whose goal is sophrosyne, the balance and equilibrium or moderation that is the wisdom of actions, the wisdom that sees actions as subject to the same limits and boundaries as are all created beings.

The tarot card Temperance #14 is appropriate here. The knowledge of ‘the pattern of all that is formed’ is within the universe of Yetzirah and yet bridges to the universe of Beriyah. Tiferet is the Pythagorean mean which brings into a relation, a ‘conciliation’, and balances (hence Lamed is associated with Libra) the individual will of Netzach with the limits and boundaries of creation which is the will of God. The will of God is, ultimately, inscrutable but the balance of the mean properly determines ethical actions i.e., the individual’s being-in-the-world and the individual’s being-with-others. It is the knowledge of Necessity which allows one to distinguish between that which is Necessary and that which is Good, to distinguish between the things that are Caesar’s and the things that are God’s.

The Sephirot Hod is said to represent The Library of Hermes and this is the site of the study that Lamed represents. There is a warning in the letter with regard to the pride that can mistakenly occur through one’s pride in one’s own knowledge. This is a warning against the danger of hubris.

What we think virtue or human excellence to be is given to us from the societies of which we are members. This knowledge is associated with time and history. Since the path is restricted to time and history, the realization of its knowledge is to increase the will to power of its possessors. This may account for the Martial and sexual connections that Case associates with this path, and also to the conventional notions of Justice to which it is related. This would suggest a Hod, Yesod, Netzach connection to the paths and I have chosen to relate Lamed to the path from Tiferet to Hod and will discuss it later under the paths emanating from Hod. What Case’s interpretation appears to reveal is the thinking of a man who is trying to establish a sect himself and to give power to the teachings of that sect. Placing the Justice card as #11 is indicative of the completed work of the Magician #1, which is clearly a product of the will to power. While this is indeed a form of “justice”, it is not the true form, the true completion, perfection. Justice itself is not a product of human wills but rather determines them.

What is quite clear in the Sefir Yetzirah is that redemption and salvation is an individual journey, and the search or quest for the Light is not to be derived from traditional teachings only because the search, and its goal, is not something that can be passed on through the genes or the inheritance that one gets from one’s parents or from one’s society. The quest must be undertaken by the individual themselves. Contrary to how Americans sometimes view their history, the collective itself cannot engage in a ‘spiritual journey’. The collective engages in the search for the will to power. (This may be one of the reasons why the Americans and the technological are so compatible with each other.) The spiritual, when not understood as will to power, is not a product of Time. The translations of the Sefer Yetzirah and “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” create a great deal of confusion in not distinguishing between the spirit as will and the spiritual as will to power i.e., spiritedness.

In examining the paths, the four universes of the Sefir Yetzirah must be kept in mind as well as the directions in which the paths are leading. Because the created world is spherical in shape, and because the created things themselves are square or cubic in form (since physical things begin at the number 4), the attempt here is literally “to square the circle” which is irrational in itself. That which is beyond the physical requires the intervention of a mediary i.e., a radius that will be the circumference of the circle. (?) The universes of Asiyah, Yetzirah, and Beriyah are all capable of accessibility, but the realm of Atzilut is beyond human beings without some kind of Divine intervention through grace. (The universes of the Sefer Yetzirah parallel the universes of Buddhism: Asiyah > Kamadhattu: the world of desire; Yetzirah > Rupadhattu: the world of forms; Beriyah: Arupadhattu: the world of formlessness; Atzilut > Nirvana: the world of the unnamable, the unspeakable. These universes can be seen and explored in the temple of Borobudur on the island of Java in Indonesia).

The Letter Samekh and the 23rd Path: The Sustaining Intelligence

Samekh: Tiferet to Netzach Path 23: The Stable/Sustaining Intelligence: The Twenty-third Path is the Stable Intelligence, and it is so called because it has the virtue of consistency among all numerations.

Alt. Trans. “The twenty-third path is called the stable consciousness because it is the power of sustenance among all the Sephirot.”

Sustaining Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kayam): It is called this because it is the sustaining power for all the Sephirot.

The Twenty-third Path once again illustrates that which has been called the “mathematical” in this writing i.e., that which can be learned and that which can be taught, and how this understanding of the mathematical is in strife with the Love and friendship that is at the heart of the purpose of Creation, the Ain Sof. The “mathematical” would be indicated by the letter Lamed ל or “study”, “the serpent uncoiled”, and I have indicated that this is Path 22 The Faithful Intelligence where ‘spiritual powers are increased through it, so that they can be close to all those ‘who dwell in their shadow’ i.e., those who live in the world of the mathematical dwell in the shadows of the spiritual powers. The ‘shadows’ are the outer appearances of things.

In order for some thing to be learned, it must first be brought to a “stand” or bounded within a horizon so that it may be “de-fined” and a name given to it so that it may be spoken about. The shape of the letter Samekh ס indicates this bringing to a stand and this binding. The “numerations” weigh and measure things so that they are brought out of their natural state of metabole or change into something that can be known i.e., they are given a “permanence” of some kind, a “stability” of some kind. Numbers are only one example of the “mathematical” but they are the most common. The manner of seeing that results from the “consistency” or reliability of the use of numbers is but one manner of accounting for the laws of Necessity and the relation of created things to the domains of time and space, that which is studied in Path 22 The Faithful Intelligence.

The Twenty-third Path also indicates the limits of human reason and intelligence. The Sustaining/ Stable Intelligence is that knowledge which can be relied upon. In English, we have come to understand logos as “reason” because the origins of philosophical English are Latin, ratio, rationale. We rely upon principles, laws and axioms to “illuminate”, “sustain”, “stabilize”, and “endure” in our projections upon the things of the world. These projections determine how we view the things of the world. The letter Tet ט, meaning ‘snake’, which we have discussed as the path from Binah to Chesed, has a clear connection to the letter Lamed and this also suggests the limits that are placed on human knowledge. That which provides the stability to the Sephirot is the Good, and this Good shows itself in the friendship of the Divine Trinity and the Love that sustains Creation. The ‘stability’ that arises from the collective or social manner of viewing the world comes about as a result of the consistency of the results of calculations or ‘numerations’ that are carried out regarding Necessity. The ‘numerations’ are the logoi or speech that are shared among the members of the community.

The letter Mem is attributed to the 23^rd path by Case. The movement on the paths of the mother letters is vertical, horizontal or diagonal and their movement influences the character of the path that is being experienced. Because Alef is the source of all the letters, it is capable of both vertical and horizontal movement, but it can also influence the diagonal paths existing between the various Sephirot. In making a visual illustration of the paths, they are shown as straight lines; but in reality, they are arcs on the circumferences of the gyring movements either up or down the Tree of Life.

Case in his study of the 32 paths sees the Twenty-third Path as that path which will lead the human community to a better universal, homogeneous State i.e., through the principle of reason realized in the technological. The Illuminati of the Twenty-third path are those who believe themselves to be the new Uber mensch, the Nietzschean “overman”, the next step in the human evolutionary chain. But they are nothing more than the “helmsmen” whose use of cybernetics realized in the making of artificial intelligence is the core of their power. Such progressive hopes of Case ignore the lessons of the Sefer Yetzirah regarding the nature of force and power. When the logos is understood as the principle of reason (the Cause of Causes), the logos comes to be understood as will to power realized through the use of the principle of reason. As Nietzsche said, technology is the highest form of will to power.

There is no “human progress” that occurs on the “spiritual level” along with the progress achieved on the material level. The “spiritual level” is not subject to Time as are the created things of the world. Morally and ethically human beings, as a whole, have not made any significant progress from their ancestors. This is because the moral and ethical presence of what human beings truly are as human beings has always been present for them to reach out to and grasp. Because human beings lose sight of the chasm which separates the Necessary from the Good, they fail in making true spiritual progress. This is demonstrated in what is called today the ‘woke culture’. Whether one is ‘woke’ or not (after all, ‘woke’ is a synonym for ‘consciousness’), it is the product of the worship of power and all of its false idols. This ultimately results in the oblivion of eternity for human beings with the consequence of human beings becoming more bestial.

The 23^rd path derives from Genesis: 1:24 — “And Elohim said: ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth after its kind.’ And it was so.” Here, creation ex nihilo, “out of nothing”, the world of Beriyah, is distinguished from the growing and “bringing forth”, the poiesis, that is the production of nature and of human beings. This is a distinction of the universe of Asiyah from those of Yetzirah and Beriyah. Nature supplies the content of the Sephirot and it does so from out of itself. This is the significance of the sephirot Malkhut. Human beings share in this through procreation, so there is a connection here with the Sephirot Yesod.

The 23rd path extends from Tiferet to Netzach and is represented by the letter Samekh. ‘The power of sustenance among all the Sephirot’ is the ‘friendship’ or Love which is initiated by the Divine Trinity. This seems to indicate that, for human beings, the Sephirot and their existence can be lost or “forgotten”, “hidden”, and the ‘revealing’ of their truth may cease among human beings when love and friendship, mercy and kindness, is forgotten. This ‘forgetfulness’ puts human beings out of a proper relationship to Yesod, #9 The Pure Intelligence, and to our relationship with all that comes to be in our lives. #7 The Hidden Intelligence of Netzach, in combination with #8 The Perfect Intelligence of Hod and #9 The Pure Intelligence of Yesod, can combine in such a way that “the material intelligence of corporeality” (Path 29), “the palpable intelligence of the senses” (Path 27), and “the natural intelligence” of human being-in-the-world (Path 28) can cause us to be forgetful of the Transcendental Influx Intelligence of Tiferet (Path 6).

Hod #8 is indicated by the Justice card in Tarot and represents The Perfect Intelligence. “Perfection” is the completion of things; the things require nothing further, and it is the height of world of Yetzirah or Formation. The Chariot #7 is the embodied soul of human being, and the martial aspects of the card indicate the strife of living, how the truth must be wrested from hiddenness. The recognition of the justice of this strife or polemos (war) is what provides the “stability” to the intelligence (this is not “rationality”) and the ability to “reveal” the presence and influence of all the other Sephirot. This revealing of truth is what makes us truly and fully human; it is how we participate in Being together with Being. The difficulty is that this revealing of truth is also at the core of the principle of reason and technology, the ‘know how’ that brings things to a completion. This ‘know how’ must be seen as secondary to the primary knowledge of how things are illuminated by Love and given sustenance and stability through ‘friendship’. This is the core of this stage of that choice which must be made along the journey of life.

Hod is the terminus of the Pillar of Severity or Form (necessity); Netzach is the terminus of the Pillar of Mercy, the “splendour” of which is the recognition of the Beauty of the world, the covenant of God. The middle pillar is the fulcrum providing the “balance”, the “harmony”, the “equilibrium”, the “friendship”, the “covenant” between the Divine and human beings, and this fulcrum is the Corporeality of the physical universe, what is called the Ain Sof.

Samekh: Tiferet to Netzach: Path 23: Sustaining Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kayam): It is called this because it is the sustaining (enduring) power for all the Sephirot.

The letter Samekh is the symbol of support, protection, and memory. It means to “lean upon“, “support”, “uphold”. In gematria its number is 60. The perimeter of Samekh denotes the Creator and its interior denotes His creation, which He constantly supports and upholds and protects. It represents the Orr Makif, the Surrounding Light of the Kabbalah, indicating the general providence of the Creator, surrounding and sustaining all of existence, even as we perceive ourselves as separate. The Samekh is the container of all forms and is, therefore, related to the other container letters including the letter Khaf.

The Sun #19 card of Tarot is the microcosm of this overall cosmic relationship. Friendship is shown through the love, protection, and keeping in mind through one’s care and concern the interests of the other. Its common symbol is the wedding band which indicates the bond of the relationship. When two people are joined by Love through the mediation of the Divine, they enact a covenant with each other which cannot be broken. (“What God has joined together, let no one put asunder”. Human beings are not always brought together by or through God, however. Other forces are at work here.) In literature, we see the opposite of this bond in The One Ring of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings. Here the bond is not one of friendship or relationship but one of oppression and dominion. The figure of Sauron is well-illustrated by The Devil card of the Tarot which is the contrary of The Lovers card.

The letter Samekh teaches us that thinking in its rational form is circular. There are no grounds for the principle of reason, although traditionally these grounds have been attributed to God. Samekh tells us to think for the good of the other, to take care and be concerned with the other, and not just one’s self. This means to be inclusive of everything and everyone as these are part of the One. It is the principle that the wisdom is not contained in just one vessel, in just one person, but is distributed in all beings. This could be why those who believe they are in possession of the truth are, so often, intolerant. The Samekh teaches us that in order to know our Creator, we have to get out of our limited selves, out of what we think we know and the limitations of the physical, so we can get in touch with our essential inner self. It is the meaning of Christ’s saying that “Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.“ It implies a re-birth.

The danger of the Samekh, being enclosed as it is, is that we can become totally absorbed with ourselves and not be concerned or care for the other, both on an individual and/or communal level. The grave danger is that we believe we are in sole possession of the truth and all others must bow down to this truth. This self-possession becomes obsession and leads to intolerance.

We must empty ourselves in order to be filled; this “decreation” is much more easily said than done. The first step in the recognition of otherness is given to us by the beauty of the world, and this recognition pierces us (Zayin) and inspires us to love the other. The outer covering or ‘husk’ of Samekh needs to be pierced by the ‘arrow’ or ‘sword’ of Zayin in order for the divine influence to flow into it. (This is the meaning of Jesus’ saying that “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” Matthew 10 34-36)

The combination of Nun (Path 28 The Natural Intelligence) and Samekh נס Nes (Path 23 The Enduring Intelligence) means “miracle”. Once we have learned the lessons of these two letters, we can discover what the miracle really is. It is the ‘friendship’ of the Divine which sustains all the Sephirot, and we as human beings are called upon to mirror that ‘friendship’ in order to continue to reveal the truth of God’s creation. Frodo’s friend and companion in The Lord of the Rings is appropriately named Samwise and their ‘friendship’ is a manifestation of that miracle. This miracle is “the friendship of Justice” or “the Justice of friendship”, the bringing of two unequal parts or partners into a relationship that makes them “equal” (but not the “equality” that we perceive as the Same). The possibility of friendship is a miracle and it is this miracle which is the hope for human communities. Hope is the great antagonist against tyranny.

If we look at the combination of the Path #6 Transcendental Influx Intelligence and Path #23 The Sustaining Intelligence, we can see how the combination of the Light of the letter Alef and the “house” of the letter Beth influence how we come to interpret the Sephirot Chesed. It is from Tiferet that Chesed receives the qualities of Mercy and Kindness, and when Chesed is looked upon without the influence of Tiferet, then we have the influence of will to power which is a relationship of commandeering and domination, the world without the influence of the Ain Sof.

The Letter Resh and the 25th Path: The Intelligence of Trials (Temptations)

Tiferet to Yesod: Path 25 Intelligence of Trials (Temptations)

The Twenty-fifth Path is the Intelligence of Probation, or is Tentative, and is so called because it is the primary temptation, by which the Creator (blessed be He) trieth all righteous persons.

Alt. Trans. ” The twenty-fifth path is called the consciousness of trial because it is the primary test by which the creator proves the compassionate (Khasidim).”

Path 25. Testing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nisyoni): It is called this because it is the original temptation by which God tests all of His saints.

Resh: Tiferet to Yesod

The Reish, the 20^th Hebrew letter, means ‘head’, ‘leader’ and ‘beginning’. It is the symbol of choosing between greatness and degradation. In it is the word for poor רש Rash, (Need) but when it is filled with the power of the Aleph it becomes Rosh ראש, head or first (Fulness). As it is, it is composed of Shin and a Mem and the mother Alef is missing. Reish is the sixth of the seven double letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Reish is a container, just as Beth (2) and Khof (20) are containers. But while Khof represents forms such as a cup or house, Reish (200) represents the containing of the infinite, exponential growth which is the illusion that will to power gives; the container is the law of Necessity, and the ultimate container of life is death. Containers relate to limits and to the thinking that imposes limits. The Reish also represents the constant transition, flow and change of life and so is associated with Time. It is like a constant flow of energy, breaking through, breaking down into pieces, and building anew. Shin has a powerful influence over Reish and the illustrator of the Tarot illustrated here has associated it with the Judgement #20 card of Tarot. The Judgement card itself suggests a conversion and a rebirth here, a new beginning, and this relates it to the 25^th path of wisdom.

Genesis 1.25 And Elohim made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and Elohim saw that it was good.

The Twenty-fifth path is related to the letter Resh, ר meaning “head”, and is the sixth ‘double’. The path intersects the crossover path established by the letter Mem/Alef. The Sefer Yetzirah seems to indicate that the created world is already ‘a garden of Eden’ since in the eyes of God (Elohim) all created things are good. The “primary temptation” is to view the world as not good but incomplete, and it is conceived as incomplete because it does not conform to our wishes or desires. The Tree of Knowledge in the garden has always been viewed as “knowledge of good and evil”, and the great temptation for human beings is to view themselves as the ‘creators’ of good and of justice, and thus tempts them to ‘turn stones into bread’. The ‘righteous’ or the ‘just’ are those who are able to obey the will of God and able to avoid the temptation of seeing themselves as the creators of good, and the only creators of good. Clearly, those who are just show compassion to all that is and are mindful of the affliction that is part of the root of existence.

The path of Resh is the test or trial i.e., the polemos or confrontation that the individual must face with regard to “egoism” and the recognition of Otherness, the choice between power or compassion, between severity or loving kindness. The choice results in these opposing forces being brought into an equilibrium, where love and will, the ego and the Other meet in harmony and friendship and become a unity. Historically, the focus of traditional religions has been on the taboos against sexuality i.e., Yesod, while greed and cruelty were emancipated in the name of empowerment.

The path of Resh links Tiferet to Yesod, the Beauty of the world to the Foundation of the physical world. It intersects the path of Mem/Alef, the horizontal mother letters, and forms a “cross” (“Pick up your cross and follow Me” Matthew 16: 24-26; “What God has joined together let no man put asunder” Matthew 19:6. The cross here is the individual human body). The “putting asunder” of what God has joined into a unity through His mediatory powers is “the sin against the light”, against the Truth. All denial of what one knows to be true is a sin against the Light. As Socrates once said, “No one knowingly does evil.” Evil is the product of ignorance and stupidity. They may think that doing evil will benefit them at first, but in the final outcome it does not. This is the darkness or stupidity that is current in America at the moment, and it accounts for its rampant corruption, immorality, and injustice in the public sphere. These injustices are not only visible in America, however.

The equilibrium between the self and others, the unity between the “inner” and “outer” worlds is given by the light of Tiferet. (This is the unity which Socrates prays for at the closing of the dialogue Phaedrus and it mirrors the passage of Matthew 16: 24-26). The balance conferred by Love illuminates both Netzach and Hod, ethical action and justice, with the command to be compassionate and merciful. It is the obeying of this command that is the trial of Path #25.

The ”severity” of institutionalized religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam in the West) arises from their desire for power, from their being in possession of the “revealed texts” understood as Law. The Divine Revelation of these texts becomes ossified in stone, literally, and ceases to be a “living God”. Their God becomes a “jealous God” who seeks retribution for sin. However, “the god who sometimes does and sometimes does not wish to go by the name of Zeus” demands payment in blood for the worship of false gods as is seen in the histories of these religions. (This is the tarot card The Tower #15, the card of revolution, the lightning bolt of Zeus).

The point of equilibrium is Tiferet which brings into a relation the Sephirot Yesod, Netzach, and Hod simultaneously. This equilibrium is not something permanent but must be wrested from the darkness that attempts to hide it. The wresting of truth is the constant strife of life and is the trial for the ‘righteous’.

Path	Letter	Meaning	Symbol
Path 1. Mystical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mufla): This is the Light that was originally conceived, and it is the First Glory (“Let there be light”). No creature can attain its excellence. Path 11. Glaring Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeTzuchtzach): It is called this because it is the essence of the veil which is ordered in the arrangement of the system. It indicates the arrangement of the paths (netivot) whereby one can stand before the Cause of causes.	Alef/Beth א/ב	The manifestation of the physical universe through the Logos/Word, what is known as the Ain Sof. The association of the Divine Will (Necessity) with the Cause of causes and the principle of reason. The initiation point of the dualities of the universe. The manifestation of the Divine covenant through the Beauty of the World. Glaring means 1. shining with or reflecting a harshly bright or brilliant light ; 2. very conspicuous or obvious; flagrant. This may suggest that what we call “common sense” is meant here? Notice the “order…in the arrangement of the system” and “the arrangement of the paths” and these suggest the principle of reason in operation.	Beth is “house”; the ‘container’ of the physical universe. The ‘veil’ is the hiddenness of the things that are i.e., the covenant of the beauty of the world behind the Laws of Necessity.
Tiferet (Beauty) to Chokmah (Wisdom) Path 16. Enduring Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nitzchi): It is called this because it is the Delight of the Glory (Eden). As it is, there is no Glory lower than it. It is called the Garden of Eden, which is prepared for the (reward of) the saints.	Heh ה	Jubilation. The Garden of Eden is here present in the NOW, not something that will come as a reward after death. It is the reward for the being-in-the-world of the saints, the reward for being ‘saintly’.	The liberation from the enclosure that is Chet and the re-birth that results. The end of the paths of TORA and TARO in the Tree of Life.
Tiferet (Beauty) to Binah (Understanding) Path 17. Intelligence of the Senses (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaHergesh): This is prepared for the Faithful saints so that they may be able to clothe themselves in the spirit of holiness. In the arrangement of the supernal entities, it is called the Foundation of Beauty (Yesod HaTiferet).	Vav ו	The senses acting as a “hook”, peg. How we come to determine the nature of things. The viewing of things bounded by the ‘sanctifying’ thinking of separation. The influence of the ‘rooted intelligence’ and the ‘transcendental influx’ on how we come to interpret the world.	Contrary symbols of the moon and the heart in the Tarot card The Empress. The throne of Binah is a rectangle, an altar, not the cubes shown in the other Tarot cards.
Tiferet (Beauty) to Gevurah (Severity) Path 20. Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.	Ayin ע “eye”	Eyes How the eye sees and how the ear hears determine how we are going to be in the world of creation. It signifies that here a choice has to be made, a decision taken.	Experience, knowledge. The structure of all that is formed is the Law of Necessity. Knowing the Law of Necessity is Wisdom, for through this one is able to distinguish the Necessary from the Good.
Tiferet (Beauty) to Chesed (Kindness, Mercy) Path 21. Desired and Sought Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaChafutz VeHaMevukash): It is called this because it receives the divine Influx so as to bestow its blessing to all things that exist.	Zayin ז	“Sword”, that which pierces. “Manacle”, that which binds. The arrows of Eros as sword; the covenant of God as that which binds.It is the contrary of the Ayin. The Ayin is the root of the will to power over the physical while the desire and seeking of the Zayin is for the Good. Through the reception of Grace, the ‘divine influx’, it bestows the care and concern on all that exists and allows God to ‘see’ His creation, whereas the Ayin is dominated by the seeing of the ego of the individual Self.	The sword pierces the ‘husk’ that is the container of Samekh and allows the influx of the beauty of the world to establish that path or channel that allows grace to flow into the world.
Tiferet (Beauty) to Hod (Splendour) “the outward appearance of the things” Path 22. Faithful Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Ne’eman): It is called this because spiritual powers are increased through it, so that they can be close to all those ‘who dwell in their shadow’.	Lamed ל “study” The Library of Hermes	The Library of Hermes is composed of the texts of the world. The texts of the world are composed of that which is understood regarding the Laws of Necessity. It is what we call ‘education’; ‘historical knowledge’.	The Tower of Babel. The writings of all nations regarding their interpretations of the Laws of Necessity and the Divine Will. Lamed as the ‘uncoiled serpent’. It indicates revolution and change.
Tiferet (Beauty) to Netzach (Splendour) Path 23. Sustaining Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kayam): It is called this because it is the sustaining power for all the Sephirot.	Samekh ס	Love and friendship as the sustaining power of all the Sefirot. “Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.” 12 Yods in the Tarot card: all encompassed under the Sun, the whole of humanity. The salvation or redemption as the destiny of human beings or for human beings.	“Prop”, “support”. The friendship of care and concern that sustains all the Sephirot (creation) and the direct light within human beings. Lamed indicates dwelling in the shadow of this direct light.
Tiferet to Yesod Path 25. Testing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nisyoni): It is called this because it is the original temptation by which God tests all of His saints.	Reish ר	Head, leader, beginning. The choice between social recognition and one’s true self. Choice between the head and the heart. (“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”) The new beginning that follows the conversion and baptism; a re-birth.	The site of the choice and the possible conversion, baptism and re-birth.

Understanding the Paths emanating from Tiferet in Kabbalistic Philosophy

The Paths to and from Tiferet (Part One)

In the first part of our discussion of the paths emanating to and from Tiferet, we shall look at Path #6 Intelligence of the Separative/Mediating Influence, Path #16 The Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence, Path #17 Intelligence of the Senses, and Path #20 The Intelligence of the Will. These paths are, I believe, central to understanding the whole of “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” and to understanding the Tree of Life and Kabbalistic philosophy as a whole. They are central to the text and to the journeys outlined in the text through the various paths.

Path Six: Intelligence of the Separative/Mediating Influence

6. Transcendental Influx Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Shifa Nivdal): It is called this because through it the influx of Emanation (Atziluth) increases itself. It bestows this influx on all blessings, which unify themselves in its essence.

The Sixth Path is called the Intelligence of the Mediating Influence, because in it are multiplied the influxes of the emanations; for it causes that affluence to flow into all the reservoirs of the Blessings, with which these themselves are united.

Alt. Trans. “The sixth path is called the mediating consciousness because through it the emanation of atziluthic influence is increased. It causes that influence to flow unto all those so blessed as to be united to its essence.”

Wescott trans. The Sixth Path is called the Mediating Intelligence, because in it are multiplied the influxes of the emanations, for it causes that influence to flow into all the reservoirs of the Blessings, with which these themselves are united.

Case trans. The sixth path (Tiphareth, the sixth Sephirah) is called the Intelligence of Separative Influence, and it is so called because it gathers together the emanations of the archetypal influence, and communicates them to all those blessed ones who are united to its essence.

Since all the Sephirot are linked to Tiferet (with the exception of Malkhut), we shall use this section to summarize what has been discovered up to now. Tiferet in Hebrew means Beauty. Tiferet derives its beauty from the Light of Keter and, thus, from the light of the Sun. Its mediating influence can be an atziluthic influence, and it is this influence which is part of the deep mystery of life itself, the erotic that is life, the need that is life. It unites the souls of human beings to the Divine One. Just as the letters Alef, Mem and Shin are united into a one and are present and operating at all times in all the paths of wisdom, Tiferet reflects the ‘friendship’ of this Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or the Ain, Ain Sof, and Ain Sof Ur) in the physical manifestation of the Creation. Tiferet is the daimonic realm, the realm of mediation and “messaging”.

One aspect of this mediation is the “friendship” manifested in the letter Samekh which is the path from Netzach to Tiferet. Tiferet is the manifestation of God’s covenant with human beings that is shown in the Beauty of the World. This covenant or bond is mirrored in “the miracle of friendship” between human beings and in the miracle of friendship between God and human beings. The light of the Sun is the metaphor for this mediation of “friendship” or Love, and this light “illuminates” the “intelligence” in its discernment of those things which are “goods” and those which are not. This is the site of the ethical or moral in our human being-in-the-world. The ethical and the intelligible are indiscernible and inseparable in our being-in-the-world.

Tiferet is at that point in the Tree of Life where the Tree of Life manifests itself in two branches. These two branches are the two faces of Eros and of the Logos. The two faces of Eros and Logos provide the various ways and means in which human being can relate to the Otherness that is being-in-the-world. It is that site where, potentially, there is no gap between “intelligence” and Love in the complete human being. There is no gap because of the presence of beauty. Love and beauty are one and the Same.

Other aspects of the mediation through Tiferet are between the Self and the Other, or the subject/ object dualism of modern Western metaphysics where Mind (thinking) understood as rationality (the Latinate interpretation of our understanding of logos) overcomes or rises above, ‘leaps’ ahead of the other through either Love or Will and commandeers and “projects” that other in order to determine what ends that other will serve. This is the Mind’s connection with the lower form of eros. This is “intelligence” understood as techne or “know how”.

The second is that mediation that brings into a unity the individual soul and the Divine One. After the Great Flood detailed in the story of Noah (Genesis 6-9), God’s covenant with human beings was a rainbow. The rainbow is a singular or particular manifestation of the beauty of world which is constantly present and which is the covenant of God. This covenant is the paradoxical conjunction of being and no-thingness and of no-thingness and being.

In the Christian Bible, Jesus said that God’s actual heavenly presence was arriving on Earth through Him (and not merely present as the Beauty of the World which acts much like a photograph of a loved one) and He often likened this to a huge tree, growing and spreading: (He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32). Jesus claims to be a tree of life, the whole, a vine that offers God’s life to the world (“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5). The presence/absence of God in His creation is the why I have used the metaphor of the beauty of the world as being an image or photograph of God i.e., it demonstrates the paradox of being/no-thingness that is the creation.

The figures in The Lovers card of the Tarot stand before two trees: The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and these two trees have been placed in the Garden of Eden which is understood here as the whole of Creation itself, and this garden is capable of being experienced in the NOW. Both Life and Good and Evil are the primordial elements of human existence. The Garden of Eden is here in the ever-present NOW. It is worth repeating the words of William Blake from “Auguries of Innocence” to illustrate the point: “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 two trees show that the intelligence and Love are inseparable, although in the human condition they have become separated.

In the Sefer Yetzirah and “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom”, the human form or body is a microcosm of the macrocosm of the whole of Creation. The human body is “the cross of Christ” and this is the meaning of Christ’s words: “Take up your cross and follow me”, for we experience the afflictions and sorrows of being alive as well as the pleasures, joys and triumphs through the mediation of the human body.

Tiferet is the path that allows one to look inward towards themselves and outward towards other human beings and to recognize and experience the sense of Otherness in their being-in-the-world. From it, the “loving kindness” of Chesed is realized through an awareness of the “friendship” that exists between the Divine Trinity and the created things shown in the Beauty of the world. It is through this loving kindness that is the emanation of the Divine in created things shown in their Beauty that one is able to know the “essence” of things, including one’s own self as part of that Divine creation and part of that which is Divine. From this knowledge and experience, one can have faith. “Faith is the experience that the intelligence is illuminated by love”, as Simone Weil says. The “intelligence” or “consciousness” of the whole of the 32 paths is illuminated by Love. This experience of faith is not brought about through reason and its applications, but through a consciousness of, an awareness of, the Love of God as present in His Creation. This awareness is given to one by Grace, the Divine Mediation, and is traditionally said to be given to one through the angels or daimons as His messengers. It is a product of the heart as well as the mind.

All of the Sephirot, with the exception of Malkhut, are influenced by the emanations that flow from Tiferet. How these influences come to be interpreted and understood is the essence of the teaching of the Kabbalah. The Atziluthic influence spoken of in this path is The Good which manifests itself in those things we call “good” in our lives, and it shows that that which we call ‘good’ has, as its essence, that which is The Good. To be able to perceive this good is due to the influx of the mediative forces of the spiritual. There are many passages in the New Testament in which Christ speaks of Himself as this Mediative influence, the parable of the vine and the branches already mentioned being one of them. Through this mediative influence, “the blessed ones” become united to its essence (the One), which is the Good.

The Constituting Intelligence belongs to Chakmah #2 which is the primordial life-force ‘swaddled in darkness’. This primordial life-force is the Will to Power. The ‘hiddenness’, the mystery of the life-force, is that Chaos that is the receptacle or enclosure of all things that are and that will come to be. We have spoken of these enclosures as manifested in the paths of Chet and Tet.

Tiferet belongs to the Sun, not to the darkness. The High Priestess card #2 cannot be placed here i.e., Tiferet, as Case proposes. The Lovers card #6 is properly placed here. As “that which constitutes the essence of creation in pure darkness”, it could be “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, and the darkness is that darkness which is unable to comprehend the Word or the Light which descends into it. This darkness is present in both the realms of Beriyah and of Yetzirah. Creation is both the Beauty of the World and the Cross of Christ and both represent the presence of the Divine in His Creation even though they are contraries. Beauty is the height and the Cross is the depth of that Creation.

Tiferet is “beauty” in Hebrew and this “beauty” and its “light” is the covenant of God. Response to this covenant is Love and Faith, which give hope. From and within this perspective, one is able to recognize that other human beings are those to whom justice is due, and it is here that ethical actions, “right and wrong”, find their root. It is a paradox in that at this stage where one realizes oneself as a complete human being, one feels one’s self as most “individual” and yet, at the same time, as one individual among many others. It is the experience of ‘freedom’ in being most bound. It is the opposite of the “egotism” which relies on the calculations and machinations of the “personality” to achieve its own particular selfish ends. The true individual is the free individual, and this freedom has nothing to do with the exercise of the will or the ‘freedom’ to exercise that will that results in the ‘empowerment’ of the individual ego.

From this position, one can understand the vision of the saints who see “downward” upon the crucified Christ i.e., the paradoxical covenant of God: the beauty of the world as its height, and the crucified Christ as its depths; the light of God amidst the darkness of creation that is the crucified Christ. Most depictions of the crucified Christ are a ‘looking up’ at Him.

Tiferet is the only Sephirot below the primordial Trinity which receives the light of Keter directly through the channels of the letters Alef and Beth (Alef is the light of the Sun in a descent; Beth is the light of the Moon in an ascent?). The light of Beth is that light within the world of Yetzirah. The letter Beth is that from which all of the other letters are pro-duced or ‘brought forth’. The individual self is not the “personal ego” that is dominated by the “social” and its goal of “recognition” and “social prestige”, the world of power and money. Access to knowledge of “past incarnations” is that knowledge that is available from one’s culture, from history, since all humanity was, is, and will be One. The individual is not the re-incarnation of Helen of Troy or the village idiot from 15^th century Leicester but all of these and more. As individuals, we are re-incarnations of all who have come before us since the individual becomes part of the One upon their death and their goal is to become themselves when they come to be.

The first letter assigned by Case to Tiferet is Gimel, but this might be an error. Tiferet is linked directly to Keter through the letters Aleph and Beth. This is why the reference to Tiferet is “the son”, directly linked to the Father. Since the Father is the whole and has created the whole through a withdrawal, not an expansion, the Son is the link between the Father and His creation. The Son is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth”, and from this one can come to understand the Sefir Yetzirah’s references to the parts of the sacrificial animal and to the human body and its form as microcosms of the Creation itself.

The Sephirot Tiferet is the mediation of all of the other emanations or influences that come from the other Sephirot. It is this mediation which has the ability to bring two things which are incommensurate with each other into a relation of harmony or friendship. The Sephirot are all One, and they are ones individually, linked together by the letter Alef (the light of Keter, the element of Air) and by the “mediating influence” of Tiferet or Beauty. “The reservoirs of the Blessings” are those things which we call “good” in the world and they are “containers”, receptacles, or storage places for the blessings which are all united and share in the One Good. They are referred to as ‘husks’ in the Sefer Yetzirah. The husks are the containers which must be pierced so that their inner essence will come to light.

The 16th Path: The Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence: The Letter Heh

The Sixteenth Path is the Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence, so called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no other Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous.

Alt. Trans. ” The sixteenth path is called the eternal consciousness because it is the pleasure of that glory beyond which is no glory like unto it. It is also called the garden of pleasure (Eden), which is prepared for the compassionate (Khasidim).”

Wescott trans. The Sixteenth Path is the Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence, so called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no other Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous.

Path 16. Enduring Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nitzchi): It is called this because it is the Delight of the Glory (Eden). As it is, there is no Glory lower than it. It is called the Garden of Eden, which is prepared for the (reward of) the saints.

Heh: Tiferet to Chakmah: Path 16: The Eternal Intelligence The second path linked to Tiferet is the letter Heh (but then how does one assign Gimel to its path since the letter is called “king over wealth”? Surely this must be associated with Chesed or Binah which is the physical world and The Emperor #4 card of the Tarot which is associated with wealth and fire, unless one considers the word “wealth” to mean “abundance” in the sense of one’s “cup running over”, the “reservoir” or container of those blessings that are given by God in friendship? This might suggest an association with Binah. The true “abundance” of the world is its Beauty; the true “need” of the world is the Light; and God is perpetually offering His love and friendship in abundance through the Beauty of the World and all those things in the world which we consider ‘beautiful’ and ‘good’. This is how Eros is to be understood.) It is through the Beauty of the World that the “emanations” of the “atziluthic influences” are increased, and “blessed are those” who are united to the cause of the Beauty of the World, the Divine Creator, the Good. The word ‘glory’ and the word ‘beauty’ are synonymous in “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”.

The several paths converging in Tiferet do not influence Tiferet but are influenced by and through Tiferet. Just as the light of Keter is not influenced by the other Sephirot but gives to those Sephirot their presence and ability to be Tiferet, too, determines the nature or the essence of things in their being. Tiferet influences Justice (Necessity) so that its severity and power is balanced and tempered with Mercy and Kindness. The canonical law that is the knowledge and understanding of Gevurah is brought into balance and tempered through the Being in the world of the parousia that is the Son. Our experience of our “need” as human beings urges and prods us to seek for that which will fulfil the absence of that perfection, the completion that we seek.

For human beings, our love of the beauty of the world begins with our love for the beauty of each other through the mediating influence of the light cast upon things which allows us to see them in their outward appearance. We feel the urge of sexual desire, the erotic, through the foundation that is Yesod, the foundation of the physical. We become “friends” through speech, and it is through this speech that we can attempt to become one with the other. While the word of God is perfect speech, our own speech is incomplete and imperfect. When God joins the two together, they then become one.

The Tarot cards associated with Tiferet illustrate the contraries (with the exception of Temperance) to those blessings associated with Tiferet. The speech between “two or three” friends (dialectic) becomes the speech that is to two or three hundred, the rhetoric of those who seek power over others. The experience of love becomes the “hard experience” of The Tower #15 and the knowledge derived from such experience. The cards of The Tower #15 and The Devil #16 are cards without light.

That which endures is Nature. Nature is sempiternal. Consciousness of this is the “Enduring Intelligence”. “Time is the moving image of eternity”, as Plato said. That which endures is Nature; that which passes away is also Nature. In its passing it moves, but in its moving it is ever the Same in its place. The Creation that is is the Garden of Eden which is experienced in the NOW, not at some future point in time. The saints enjoy life as the creation enduring in the NOW. They experience the world of the here and now as Eden.

The Letter Vav and the 17th Path: Intelligence of the Senses

Path 17. Intelligence of the Senses (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaHergesh): This is prepared for the Faithful saints so that they may be able to clothe themselves in the spirit of holiness. In the arrangement of the supernal entities, it is called the Foundation of Beauty (Yesod HaTiferet).

The Seventeenth Path is the Disposing Intelligence, which provides Faith to the Righteous, and they are clothed with the Holy Spirit by it, and it is called the Foundation of Excellence in the state of higher things.

Alt. Trans. “The seventeenth path is called the consciousness of disposition. It provides faith to the compassionate (Khasidim) and clothes them with the Holy Spirit (Ruach Elohim). Within the Supernals, it is called the foundation of beauty (Tiphareth).”

Wescott trans. The Seventeenth Path is the Disposing Intelligence, which provides Faith to the Righteous, and they are clothed with the Holy Spirit by it, and it is called the Foundation of Excellence in the state of higher things.

The Vav is said to represent the Kav, the vertical line extension of the Creator’s perfection into the created world in order to constantly direct it, guiding the cycle of existence step by step, until eventually the perfect Oneness of the Creator which underlies all of creation is revealed. Vav thus relates to the Law of Necessity, the Divine Will, ‘the structure of all that is formed’. The Vav could thus be seen as a barrier but also a way through.

Vav is related to the Orr Yashar, the direct light of the Creator, entering the world; but in the strife of this world, it appears to act as a barrier to the true Light. This would relate it to Christ, the Ain Sof, who is the direct light of the Divine and would thus associate Vav with Tiferet, the sixth Sephirot which is the Beauty of the World. But Vav, being an elemental letter, is capable of only one direction of movement. Is this movement up or down? Is it on the left side or the right side of the Tree of Life? The two sides of the Tree of Life should be viewed as the two faces of Eros, the front (right) and back (left), the two faces of the Ain Sof, or the mirror of the right and the left sides.

As a connector, Vav contains the mediatory power to connect heaven (mind, reason) and earth. It can be considered a channel or canal, which connects and bestows all the energy of the shefa שפע abundance from above down to the created beings. This suggests that its movement is downwards, and appears to imply that all creation is a movement downwards. A more proper direction might be said to an “away from”. The Vav is said to represent the ladder of Jacob Yaakov – rooted in earth, with its head in the heavens, what is known as Jacob’s ladder. But if this is the case, then it is upside down (as is suggested by the tarot The Hanged Man#12). The Vav is the extension of the essential dot Yod י, but this extension is an expansion indicating its relation to the will to power and its relation to the physical body. God’s withdrawal is that from which all of creation comes forth and it is contained in Alef. It is the contrary of will to power; it is a denial of power and an expression of Love.

Vav represents the number 6, 1 + 2 + 3, and represents the six days of the creation of the world, as well as the six physical dimensions (right and left, front and back, up and down) of Space. The first day of creation is related to Chesed and is attributed to “kindness”. God’s withdrawal allows creation to be, but the Mercy and Kindness of God are present prior to their manifestation in the physical world of creation and the act of ‘giving’ that is the Creation. The Light of God is two-fold: one Light is beyond Being (the Good) and then there is the light within creation itself from the sun, moon, and heavens. Creation begins at the number 4, Chesed.

The second day of creation has the attributes of “severity”, “contraction”, and “judgement” associated with it, the binding of things in enclosures; it is the Law of Necessity. It relates to the Sephirot Binah, as well as to Gevurah and Hod. The deprivation and need of the original creation is experienced here and its metaphorical significance is the separation of the waters. It is associated with the Flood and with the Tower of Babel i.e., The Tower #15 card of tarot.

The third day of creation is associated with Tiferet and is associated with beauty, mercy and the balance between the positive and negative elements of creation (although, as is suggested here, these elements are prior to the Creation itself). The fourth day of creation is associated with Netzach, with splendour and the victory that comes from “endurance” (but why is this prior to the creation of human beings? One plausible answer is that the heavens and the earth are sempiternal and that one of the chief virtues for human beings is “endurance”). It is also associated with the creation of the sun and moon. The fifth day of creation is associated with Hod and has the attribute of acknowledgement but also of devastation. The sixth day of creation is associated with Yesod and with the creation of human beings. It is associated with Adam whose name contains the letters Alef, Dalet and Mem. Adam is the human being who is perfect in his thought, speech and action i.e., he is the “complete” human being: the first human being is the complete human being and he is referred to as the Adam Caedmon. That he is brought into being on the sixth day shows the association of human beings with Tiferet. But how is it that human beings other than Adam come to be the “perfect imperfection”?

The Vav is also representative of the male phallus, the fertilizing agent, bringing life, abundance, continuity, and addition and represents the extension below Tiferet to Yesod. This is our first experience of eros.

The Intelligence or Consciousness of the Senses is that manner of seeing which allows the saint to become a saint and allows them to view the world as it is, that is, as a Garden of Eden. This viewing is the reward for their saintliness. In doing so, they are ‘clothed’ in the ‘excellence’ that is what we understand by virtue. They achieve what the Greeks called arete. This is the highest form of human being. The ‘courage’ shown by human beings is in their ‘endurance’ of the experience of creation. It is the denial of the third temptation of Christ.

The highest form of human being is shown through their actions. The saint (or philosopher) shows, through their example, what human excellence is. There is no need for proselytizing. “To make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28: 19-20) is to show by example what the purpose of the journey is. To those whose god is a dispenser of power and fear, they will also be dispensers of power and fear in their spreading of what they conceive the truth to be. The greatest sins are committed by those who believe they are in possession of the truth. ‘Christian nationalism’ and other “-isms” that purport to be the ‘word of God’ are, at best, mistaken in their understanding of Christ’s message, and at worst, blasphemers. One is reminded of the line from W.B. Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming”: “The best lack all conviction/ While the worst are filled with passionate intensity”.

The letter Vav in Hebrew serves as both a conjunction and a verb modifier from present, past and future tenses. It is thus associated with Time. Binah is the Sephirot associated with Time. The mediation of Vav is thus associated with Time and is the influence of Will upon the ready-to-hand of the world. This is why I have associated Vav with the path that extends from Tiferet to Binah.

Because science no longer deals with what was once understood traditionally as Nature (and, thus, reality), the human will prepares each thing of Nature for that completion or perfection that will come from the ends or purposes that human beings determine or devise that are best for themselves. This is what we call “freedom”, the devising of ends which we think are best for ourselves. We believe in this freedom because we believe that, ultimately, we are ‘our own’ as individuals. Freedom is the commandeering and dominating knowing and making that we understand as technology. This dominating knowing and making includes our own bodies. It is also what we understand as ‘artificial intelligence’. What is clear from the Sefer Yetzirah and the traditional religions of the world both West and East is that we are not our own but are called to a higher destiny beyond ourselves.

In the world of the will and of will to power, there are some cases where there are created beings that serve no purpose or ends for the will to power of some human beings; that is, they have no “purpose” or future “use” and cannot be brought into being as part of a “standing reserve” of resources, and to these beings no “justice” nor perfection is due, and that includes some other human beings. This is what has made, and will make in the future, the possibility of genocides and these genocides will be much greater than those that have occurred in the past.

The Letter Ayin and the 20th Path: Intelligence of the Will

Ayin– and Elohim “divided the light from the darkness.” 1:4

Path 20: Tiferet to Gevurah: Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.

The Twentieth Path is the Intelligence of Will, and is so called because it is the means of preparation of all and each created being, and by this intelligence the existence of the Primordial Wisdom becomes known.

Alt. Trans. “The twentieth path is called the consciousness of will because it is the pattern of all that is formed. By this mode of consciousness, one may know the actuality of the primordial wisdom.”

The Twentieth Path, the Intelligence of the Will, is the understanding of the “preparation of all and each created being”, “the pattern of all that is formed”, and may be best understood in the German word gestell as it is used by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. A Gestell is a framework or “method of organization” which allows created things to be and to come to presence for us. It is the primordial algorithm and taxonomy. Heidegger calls it the essence of technology. It is a manner or disposition of human being-in-the-world (among other possibilities of human being, although it is by far the dominant one) and it determines how the created beings are to be viewed. It is a ‘destiny’, a ‘fate’ of Being that has been given to human beings. While in German Gestell is a noun, Heidegger uses the word in a way that is uncommon by giving Gestell an active role, by viewing gestell as a product of the human will and a product of human action, a human “projection”, “a throwing forth”.

In defining the essence of technology as Gestell, Heidegger indicates that all that has come to presence in the world has been “enframed”. Such enframing or the placing within ‘enclosures’ relates to the manner reality appears or unveils itself in the period of modern technology (by “modern” here is meant post-Renaissance) and people born into this “mode of ordering” are always embedded into the Gestell (enframing) themselves. (As the Canadian philosopher, George Grant said, “What we have done to Nature, we first had to do to our own bodies”.) Thus, what is revealed in the world, what has shown itself as itself (the truth of itself) requires first an Enframing, literally a way to exist or to be in the world, to be able to be seen and understood. Path #20 indicates this knowledge when viewed from one possible perspective.

In ordinary usage the word gestell would signify simply a display apparatus of some sort, like a book rack, or picture frame; but for Heidegger, Gestell is literally the challenging forth, or performative (dynamis) “gathering together”, for the purpose of revealing or presentation i.e., the human will as central to how the world will be unveiled. If applied to science and modern technology, “standing reserve” is active in the case of a river once it generates electricity or the earth if revealed as a coal-mining district, the soil as a mineral deposit, or scenic sites as part of the tourism industry. It is this challenging forth that connects gestell to the human will. It is ‘the hook’ or ‘peg’ that is part of the meaning of the letter Vav.

We can see here again the connection between the passages from Genesis related to the coming-to-be of human beings and the coming-to-be of technology in our modern age. Human beings are given the central role in creation; and all that has been created or will be created is given over to them for their disposal. The world itself, created beings themselves, do not reveal themselves in their essence without the aid of human willing. The act of revealing is, literally, a one-way path or a one-way street from this particular viewpoint. This is the way of viewing the world when the Strength card is seen as #8 and that it is connected to Gevurah and Chesed by the paths and when one assigns the letter Tet ט to it.

Path #17 The Intelligence of the Senses and Path #20 The Intelligence of the Will indicate that point where The Tree of Life branches off or becomes two-limbed. This branching occurs when the manner of perceiving the world is determined. It may be determined either through Will or through Love. Will and Love determine the two faces of Eros and of the Logos: the lower eros and the higher Eros on the one hand, and rhetoric and dialectic in language. This determination occurs within the world of Beriyah and it can be distinguished by that thinking which is done by the artisans and technicians and that thinking which is done by the saints and the philosophers. This bifurcation determines the world as ‘standing reserve’ and disposable, or it can view the world as a Garden of Eden.

Another way of viewing the 20^th path is to see it as “prudence” or the Strength card as #11 of the Tarot. The essence of technology as outlined by Heidegger devolves into the nihilism of the pure “will to will”, the need to will anything since one has no other alternative given the oblivion of eternity and replaced that eternity with the eternal recurrence of the Same. The technological way of being-in-the-world is a mirror or mimicking of the “primordial wisdom” that is in the realm of the world of Atzilut since it bestows the ‘values’ on things and these ‘values’ are related to their potential uses. This may be seen in the manner of questioning of the thing and how that question will be answered.

“The structure of all that is formed” is the Law of Necessity and it is through the understanding of the Law of Necessity that one is able to know “the essence of Original Wisdom” or the Sephirot Chakmah. Our attempts to understand ‘all that is formed’ comprise our ‘theories of the real’, what we call our sciences, how we attempt to view our world. Our sciences are products of reason and the will. As was said earlier, Artificial Intelligence is a shadow of the shadows of the things of Necessity. In Plato’s allegory of the Cave, artificial intelligence would be a second cave and a further distance, at a greater depth, from the light of the Sun, the Good. Its greatest danger is that it is self-contained and represents the greatest enclosure.

The letter Ayin is erroneously said to have the power to unite everything that is separated in creation and this is why it is confused with the structure of the letter Alef which consists of two Yods separated by a Vav. The letter Ayin as the 20^th path is related to the letter Peh and path 13 The Unity Directing Intelligence and the letter Vav Path 17 The Intelligence of the Senses. But is Vav really a true unifier or a barrier, a separator? Literally Vav means “hook” or “peg” and the Hebrew letter is a vertical line ו. The Vav would appear to be a metaphor of the mediation that exists between reason, the logos understood as an extension of the will to power, and the ready-to-hand world about us.

The world is seen as the second Cave of the Internet containing the whole and the Vav is that reasoning that unites the things in that Cave to the algorithm based on the principle of reason. This reasoning is tied together with The Sanctifying Intelligence, the intelligence that separates (diaresis), and The Unity Directing Intelligence (dianoia) the intelligence that brings into a unity, that emanates from the Sephirot Binah. Are these manifestations of the Logos or the Anti-Logos?

The Hebrew letter Ayin means “eye” and correspondingly, the Ayin has to do with vision and bringing forth the light that is hidden, the unveiling or revealing of truth. The Greek philosopher Aristotle begins his Metaphysics with the words: “All men by nature desire to see” for it is through “seeing” that we come to experience the things of the world and to gain knowledge of them. The letter Ayin in Hebrew relates to time and is related to the planet Saturn. It is the 16^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and thus is central to the whole of the 32 paths of wisdom: 16 X 2. Since time begins with Binah in the Beriyah world of the Sephirot (the third stage in the moment of creation), we can therefore relate Ayin to the left side of the Tree of Life. The strong relationship of the letter with time suggests its relationship to The Tower #16 card of the Tarot (change, revolution) and also with the letter Peh (mouth), and this suggests the interchangeability between The Devil #15 and The Tower #16 (which I have suggested). Ayin is included in a great number of words associated with time in Hebrew (עת – time, שעה – hours, עתיד – future, עבר – past, רגע – moment, עוד – until, עד – eternity) and vision. It indicates the inextricable link between Being and Time and our inextricable link to Being and Time through seeing and hearing.

The structure of the letter Ayin appears to suggest that it is composed of three other letters: Zayin (manacle or sword), Lamed (the study of that which presences), and Yod (the ego, the self, the point). One can perceive that the letter is suggestive of the anti-Logos. The Yod is a time indicator in the Hebrew language; the Lamed is associated with study as memory, the study of that which has been written down and become ‘historical memory’; and Zayin as being manacled or enchained by the manner of seeing and to Time itself (although this could also be seen as the ‘liberating’ sword from the oppression of the ‘manacle’). This would suggest that what we call ‘historical knowledge’ is not a liberating knowledge, although it can be a ‘leading out’ (and we perceive it as such) but it is also a knowledge that manacles and enfolds those who see it as All within itself. As we have already stated, the principle of reason is founded upon will to power, and the current temptations to artificial intelligence are grounded here. The Intelligence of the Will or path #20 is the intelligence of the principle of reason and its relation to will to power.

If prophecy is the ‘highest speech’ of the visionary who is able to see the past, present, and pre-dict the future, then the vision suggested by Ayin could be said to be the ‘false vision’ which gives voice to the ‘false discourse’ and the ‘false prophecy’. This false discourse and vision is best captured in #15 The Tower and #16 The Devil cards of the Tarot, and is revealed in the letter Peh of the Hebrew language. The Devil card itself is among the darkest of the Tarot, if not the darkest of the Tarot. The only light present is from the torch in the Beast’s left hand which ignites the tail of the male figure in the illustration; the torch is the passions that ignite the desire and the will. That this torch only touches the male figure suggests the patriarchal nature of what we call ‘historical knowledge’, the patriarchal narrative. The torch of The Devil is reminiscent of the fire in Plato’s allegory of the cave which occurs in Bk VII of that dialogue. The Great Beast that is the concrete manifestation of the social occurs in Bk. VI, and I would suggest that these are the Same as what is being shown here on The Tree of Life.

The suggestion is that the figures in the illustration, contrary to the figures in #6 The Lovers illustration, are manacled by their bestiality and by the darkness in which they dwell. They are shown with cloven feet; they have become bestial. The Beast itself stands upon a black cube. This cube is different from the cubes that The High Priestess, The Charioteer, and The Emperor sit upon, and these figures are on the right-hand side of the Tree of Life. On the Beast’s lower abdomen are symbols suggesting that it is the anti-Christ. On its beard is the letter Zayin suggesting its enchainment to Time and to the pleasures and goods that are the products of Time. It can be said to be the overpowering of the influence of Zayin, the influence that shackles or manacles.

Some Hebrew commentators suggest that the pronunciation of the Ayin is also very significant – it is often mispronounced as a silent letter similar to the Aleph; however, Ayin’s correct sound is a guttural throat sound which stimulates the thyroid gland. This mispronunciation also suggests the ‘false discourse’ which gives Ayin the sense of being Aleph, but to think that Ayin is Alef is an error. They are two contrary forces.

Ayin implores us to open our eyes, to see beyond the physical, but in order to do this we require grace. The Ayin requires an other to take us from the dark to the light. The Ayin is ‘the dark boar of the forest’ and the ‘snake’ that hides there from the centre of the Psalms, similar to the beast that dwells at the centre of the labyrinth that is symbolic of the sub-conscious self (Path #7 The Hidden Intelligence). Part of Ayin is the letter Lamed which is the serpent uncoiled and this serpent is the knowledge of which Ayin is composed. The gematria of Ayin is 70 suggesting that the strife associated with the attempt to see properly is associated with Netzach and with The Chariot #7 card of the Tarot. This will be discussed later.

A Commentary on “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom”: Chapter Five

The Paths Emanating From Gevurah

The paths emanating from Gevurah are:

5. The Radical or Root Intelligence:

13. Binah to Gevurah/Gevurah to Binah: Letter Peh. Unity Directing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Manhig HaAchdut): It is called this because it is the essence of the Glory. It represents the completion of the true essence of the unified spiritual beings.

20. Tiferet to Gevurah: Letter: Ayin Path 20: Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.

24. Gevurah to Hod (Hod to Gevurah) Letter Kaf. Apparative (Tools) Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Dimyoni) (Sometimes called The Imaginative Intelligence): It is called this because it provides an appearance for all created apparitions, in a form fitting their stature.

The Fifth Path: The Radical/Root Intelligence

The Fifth Path is called the Radical Intelligence because it is itself the essence equal to the Unity, uniting itself to the BINAH or Intelligence which emanates from the primordial depths of Wisdom or CHOCHMAH.

Alt. Trans. “The fifth path is called the root consciousness because it is the substance of the unity, joining itself to that understanding (Binah) which itself emanates from within the province of primordial wisdom.”

Wescott trans. The Fifth Path is called the Radical Intelligence, because it resembles the Unity, uniting itself to the Binah, or Intelligence which emanates from the Primordial depths of Wisdom or Chokmah.

Case trans. The fifth path (Pachad, Gevurah or Deen, the fifth Sephirah) is called the Radical Intelligence, and it is so called because it is the very substance of Unity, and is within the substance of that Binah which itself emanates from within the depths (literally ”from within the enclosure”) of the Primordial Wisdom.

The fifth path of Radical or Root intelligence is that Understanding (Binah) which comes from how we understand and interpret the Laws of Necessity which emanate from the wisdom or knowledge of the whole (the Unity) that is Chokmah. The emphasis on the path here is on its “resemblance” to the Unity (the Good itself), but it is not the Good itself. It is a ‘shadow’ or an ersatz form of the Good itself. We can see the contrary nature of the translations that are given for this path. The enclosures of Primordial Wisdom are illustrated in the letters Beth, Chet, and Tet, and we have discussed the meanings of these letters already. The understanding and interpretation of Necessity becomes the destiny or Fate of those human beings that have to suffer that understanding and interpretation.

It is required for human beings to distinguish between the Necessary and the Good; not doing so leads them to the darkening of the light and, ultimately, the rejection of the light i.e. to sin. Is the Radical Intelligence lit by the light of Keter, the Sun, or by the reflected light of the Moon? Is it the fire that is Shin that is the light which “enlightens” the Cave that is the enclosure that surrounds Gevurah?

The ‘enclosure’ of Primordial Wisdom we have designated as the letters Chet and Tet, but it could also possibly be Beth, since Beth is the ‘house’ of being. If we paraphrase the words of the path, the Unity of Gevurah is a product or outcome of the Understanding (the substance) that results from our knowledge of the realm of Necessity. This substance of the Unity is what we have called the ‘collective’, ‘the social’ in this writing and the historical knowledge that derives from this collectivity of human beings. This unity is an ersatz or false form of the Unity that is the Divine, and exists on a lower level or plane than the unity that is the Divine i.e., it exists in the ‘depths’ of existence, the gyring outward direction of the Creation. The outward direction of Creation, the ‘away from’ the source of the Creation is the ‘depths’, not the ‘heights’, of Creation.

The Radical Intelligence joins ‘the many’ that comprises any thing into a ‘one’ thing and brings about the particularity of the objects of the world by imposing limits on the unlimited of Chokmah. This is related to the fire of Shin. This imposing of limits is a gathering and assembling into a one which was called logos by the Greeks; it is here that we find a meeting point of the Logos and Necessity. This gathering of the logos is done so that things can be named and is what the Greeks called dianoia. This can only be done in Time. We can find this process occurring in the algorithms of AI in our modern age; they are meant to create enclosures from within the enclosure that is AI itself. The naming of names is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to the naming of the particulars that are brought forth into sight as predicates of the subject that is the unity of the thing. It is Reason as subject that is understood here, and the predicates must suffer from no contradiction and give sufficient reasons for the naming of the subject as such. Our scientific terminology and metaphors are part of this naming.

In the Sefer Yetzirah, the logos is represented by the Sephirot Tiferet. This seems to suggest that if things are named without the assistance of Tiferet then they will be falsely named; and this ‘false naming’ is a covering up of things that are not i.e., it is merely the naming of shadows. This makes it difficult in assigning the proper letter to the paths to and from the Radical or Root Intelligence. This intelligence or consciousness is what has come to be known as the Human Sciences, the politics, the anthropology, the psychology etc. that is gathered from the study of human beings. I have assigned the letter Peh as the path that is present between Gevurah and Binah. Peh is the language of rhetoric or public speech, and AI such as ChatGPT is an example of this ‘public speech’ and the flowering of this speech. It is primarily language as ‘information’. When language is understood as ‘information’, it is language that is ‘measured’, ‘weighed’, and ‘accounted for’ in the site that is human discourse.

Gevurah, the fifth Sephirot, is associated with the emanation of fire from the letter Shin, one of the three Mothers. Kabbalists also associate Gevurah with Mars and Scorpio astrologically, that is, a combination of fire (Mars) and water (Scorpio) which produces earth, materialism. Gevurah is associated with power and will to power and also with strife, as reason understood as the principle of reason is associated with power and will to power and the striving to master Necessity . To paraphrase Plato, only the dead do not have strife or polemos (war). Strife is life itself.

That The Order of the Golden Dawn chooses to associate the Tarot card Strength #8 with this path does not seem to make too much sense. The card Strength seems to represent the virtue of “prudence” or what the Greeks called sophrosyne, and this is a virtue of the individual within the society, the individual within the enclosure of society as is pictorially represented in the letter Peh. The letter Peh shows a Yod inscribed within an enclosing Beth or within any of the other enclosing letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The human soul is enclosed within a body; the human being is enclosed within the social community of which it is a part.

Justice as #8 would seem to appropriately represent the will to power of those societies or collectives that codify their laws in such a way as to demonstrate what is acceptable action by individuals within those societies. These laws become the narratives by which those societies live and which constitute the substance of the institutions within those societies. The “strife” represented is that between the individual and the city or the society, and this strife finds its foundation in the use of language. From our point of view when looking at the Tree of Life, the right side seems to represent individuals while the left side seems to indicate societies or the social and the middle pillar is the interaction between the two and the mediation between the two. It would seem appropriate that Strength be placed on the Middle Pillar since the figure represents proper moral and ethical action.

The fifth path or Radical Intelligence is also associated with fear. One is reminded of the myth of the ring of Gyges from Bk. II of Plato’s Republic where Glaucon, Plato’s brother, asserts that human beings only obey the laws for fear of the consequences of getting caught when one disobeys them. This is why they seek the ‘invisibility’ that ‘anonymity’ brings them. Justice is also related to the name of the fifth path when realized in its highest form. This associates it with the Greek understanding of Justice as dike or that which is “fitting”, “suitable”, “apt”, “fair” as the outcome of the process of making something such as laws or of doing something which is ‘noble’. This active doing is associated with the thymoeides part of the soul. When the table made by the craftsman is fit for the purposes of a table, then the table is “just” i.e., suitable, apt. From this ‘suitability’ for its purpose comes its good. The same thing can be said of laws: when they are fitting, suitable, apt then they are just and some form of goodness is the result and emanates from them.

The narratives that compose capitalist societies, for instance, show a clear discrepancy between ‘white collar’ crime and ‘street crime’. White collar crimes are primarily composed of fraud, deception, etc. and are committed by the elites of those societies. Street crimes are the violent crimes committed in the open and in plain sight. Even though the consequences of white-collar crime may be far more egregious to far more individuals, the perpetrators of those crimes do not receive punishments equal to the punishments given to the perpetrators of street crimes which usually involve a single individual. The institutional narratives of the societies which they compose indicate that justice is not present in those societies and that this injustice is present at the root or foundation of those societies. When the instituting of laws is to the advantage of the lawmaker, then injustice is the result (see the figure of Pausanias and his discussion of eros in Plato’s Symposium).

There appear to be a number of similar characteristics between the 5th path and the Temperance#14 card of the Tarot (10 + 4). I would associate the Justice card with the Sephirot Hod and the path of Kaf, while The Hierophant #5 is appropriately associated with The Rooted Intelligence and the path of Peh that leads both to and from it. Temperance may be said to represent the sophrosyne (prudence) and phronesis (wise judgement that comes from experience) that is the proper form of Eros in the thymoeidic part of the soul. The mediatory figure represented in the card assists the logistikon or thoughtful part of the soul in its dealing with the urges and drives of the epithymetikon or appetitive part of the soul.

The Fifth Path is also associated with the creation of Time. Being (creation) and time cannot be separated. This creation is that of Otherness (we sometimes give it the name of ‘Nature’), but “the substance of unity” is still present in it. It is here that one finds all the varieties of the ersatz forms of unity which we find in social collectives. Cliques, cults, sects, political parties, etc., are among the false forms that human beings choose in order to fulfill that absence, that need for completion, that they experience in the strife of their everyday lives. The letter Peh in its shape shows the individual Yod swallowed up by the collective whole. The individual is subject to the ‘enclosures’ that are the narratives that individuals invariably become involved with. AI will represent the whole of this enclosure and be considered ‘wisdom’ in the near future.

Gevurah, or the Radical Intelligence, refers to the “depth” of things, the root or the radix. The radix is the base or foundation of something. The radix of the positional numbering system as is used in the Sefer Yetzirah and the Tarot is 10. In the Radical Intelligence’s path’s emanations and their effects, Understanding and knowledge are brought into a unity with Wisdom (the Unlimited) to bring about the unity necessary to define a thing. A tree, for example, is composed of many parts: branches, leaves, roots, the trunk. These parts are brought together in the intelligence so that we can identify the thing as a tree and name it as such. This unifying thinking we have referred to as dianoia. The unity of the thing, what it is named, is the ‘subject’ or ‘the one’ of the thing, while the parts that make up the thing are its predicates. Both subject and predicates are parts of language, and what we call ‘logic’ or reason is based on, and finds its roots in, language (Logos). The Radical or Root Intelligence is the anti-Logos, for it creates the enclosures that cannot be questioned.

In the Sefer Yetzirah, the infinite number of possibilities and potentialities of the dynamis or “life-force” can be understood through the ten essential emanations of the Sephirot. The essence of the individual thing can be understood or seen through, made transparent, when the Sephirot which reveals it is understood. To make an analogy: AI uses the “infinite number of possibilities and potentialities” that are present in the whole that is the Internet to arrive at its ends or judgements. Of course, the possibilities and potentialities are not infinite but only appear to be so. AI puts language into ‘stone’, and thus kills language or causes it to cease to be a living force by turning language into ‘information’. Ultimately, this killing of language will turn human beings into zombies or golems, and this is the greatest danger of AI to humanity. AI is by its very nature unthinking, and because of this it is anti-logos.

What is missing here, or what is the problem or difficulty here, is the connection or lack of connection, to Tiferet. All of the Sephirot are connected to Tiferet, but the paths themselves do not all pass through Tiferet. The paths are modes of “consciousness” or “intelligence”, “awareness”. There is, currently, a great gap between Love and Intelligence. Without Love, things are viewed from the egoistical “I” of the Self, and the will to power is the channel for that “I” in its empowerment through the principle of reason. The Self becomes the dominant ‘subject’, the ego cogito of the French philosopher Descartes. The channel itself becomes the principle of reason (Shin in the Sefer Yetzirah) which, in turn, becomes a principle of being or Life itself. Things, other beings, are deprived of that essential mercy and kindness which are the foundations of the true sources of knowledge. The Vav acts as a barrier to the mercy and kindness that come to us through Tiferet and Heh, and binds us in the enclosures that are rooted in fear, insecurity, and severity.

Gevurah relates to “might”, “power”, and “fear”, while the “loving kindness” that is the countenance of Chesed is contrary to this outward appearance of Gevurah. Gevurah may be said to represent the State, the Greek polis, the German Volk, the Roman church. It is the collective, the social and its realm. It is the site of the “strife” or polemos that exists between the individual soul and the society or community into which that soul has been born, the strife between the social, the city and human being. It is the world of convention, human “creation” or making. Gevurah is the force that pushes all things that are not similar to itself apart, away from itself. In Gevurah, there is no distinction between “power with” and “power over”; the two go hand-in-hand (i.e., in the technological, there is no essential difference between democracy, communism, and authoritarianism or other fascist forms of government. They are predicates of the subject technology). This separating ultimately suggests intolerance. The temptation and seductive force that is power consolidating itself to itself is contrary to that power that allows beings to be, the power that withdraws so that Otherness can be seen for what it is. Nevertheless, for the individual, we have no choice but to attempt to live well within the communities of which we are members. This living well is living justly.

Gevurah is represented by The Hierophant #5 in the Tarot whose contrary is either The Devil #15 or The Tower #16. This is a crucial point in the Tarot and in the Sefer Yetzirah’s Tree of Life. The succumbing to the Great Beast is the succumbing to the three temptations of Christ: the material temptation of turning stones to bread (i.e. opposing the will of God and not recognizing the limits of Necessity; this can take on many metaphorical forms and is not merely the desire to overcome hunger. We talk about ‘the miracles of modern science’); the social temptation of having power over the kingdoms of the world (desiring or possessing the power of “social recognition” or social prestige, the temptation of the collective); and finally, the individual temptation, suicide (the temptation of God by denying the will of God and by the defying the Law of Necessity and in thinking that “we are our own”).

In the Tarot, the symbolism of The Devil mirrors that of The Lovers but is contrary to that of The Lovers: the manacles of The Devil which bind the man and woman to the black cube upon which the Devil roosts are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge in The Lovers #6. The manacles are attached to the cube of the physical world which is a black cube over which the Devil roosts; no such cube exists in The Lovers card. The Devil is a false or ersatz form of unity to which one becomes bound and loses one’s freedom and one’s individuality. This enchainment is freely chosen.

This is why I would assign #16 to The Devil and #15 to The Tower. The Tower is the lightning bolt of Zeus, or of God, and is the nemesis for the worship of false gods or the worship of power and social prestige. The Tower is the card of revolution, change. In the ascending direction, the worship of The Devil leads to The Tower; in the descending direction, The Tower leads to that revolution which simply replaces itself with The Devil. The cube of The Devil is one possible outcome of the cubes shown in the cards of The High Priestess, The Emperor, and The Chariot or the cards on the right side of The Tree of Life. On the left side, The Empress sits upon a rectangle, The Hierophant’s robes hide and conceal that which he is seated upon, and Justice is shown seated upon a throne. The Hierophant’s “throne” or seat is illustrated in black in the card given here.

The Letter Peh and the 13th Path: The Uniting Intelligence

Path 13. Binah to Gevurah: Unity Directing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Manhig HaAchdut): It is called this because it is the essence of the Glory. It represents the completion of the true essence of the unified spiritual beings.

The Thirteenth Path is named the Uniting Intelligence and is so called because it is itself the essence of Glory. It is the Consummation of the Truth of individual spiritual things.

Alt. Trans. ” The thirteenth path is named the uniting consciousness because it is the essence of glory. It represents the completion of the true essence of the unified spiritual beings.”

Wescott trans. The Thirteenth Path is named the Uniting Intelligence, and is so called because it is itself the Essence of Glory. It is the Consummation of the Truth of individual spiritual things.

We spoke in the Third path of the thinking that is termed dianoia, that thinking which unites things that are separated, that thinking which brings things together into a one thing so that the thing can be named. The 13^th path from Binah to Gevurah is the bridge between the universe of Asiyah and Beriyah and the universe of Yetzirah. Yetzirah is the world of action, the world of ‘making’, the formation of things which brings about their “consummation” or “perfection”, their completion. These things may be physical things or ethical things, since “glory” refers to the beauty of actions. It is the world of “values”, that which human beings ascribe to things that are of their own doing and their own making. “Values” are what human beings make or determine regarding actions or things; they are not the “good” so we may say that they are an ‘imitation’ or an ersatz form of the good. “Glory” is not the Good. “Values” are what are constructed from the narratives that have been created by the will to power of the collectives in which those values are ‘valued’.

The four causes of Aristotle of which we have spoken about are within both the physical and spiritual realms; that is, they have to do with both ontology and ethics. The actions which human beings take require a dynamis, whether in an active or passive form, a potential or a possibility of being able to come into being or not to come into being. They are expressions of the thymoeidic part of the soul as concrete illustrations of eros. Paul Foster Case considers the Thirteenth Path to belong to the letter Gimel and to be associated with Tiferet; but this cannot be the situation. The letter Gimel refers to “wealth”, the “value” of created things, the multiplicity of created things, the “wealth” of things that is the abundance of Nature, and is associated with the strife human beings experience amidst that multiplicity of things. It is one of the 7 double letters indicating that its understanding can be viewed in two ways (at least).

If we look at the card of The Magician #1, we can see that he is enclosed within an inverted Peh. We may say he is the Peh itself. The ‘making’ of The Magician is that making carried out by the artisans and technicians who happen to compose the powers that be in the societies of which they are members. Peh is the logos of rhetoric, the language of the many directed toward the many and it finds its highest form in the legislating of laws. The “magicians” and technicians are dependent on the people who are their audience. This is contrary to dialectic, the language of the few which is directed to the two or three gathered together.

The strife among the created things and urges that arise in human beings is that which needs to be brought into a “friendship” or balance and this is done through the connection between the primal water of the Holy Spirit (Chakmah the undifferentiated pre-conscious), to the fire of Keter through Air (Alef) from which earth (wealth) is created.

We might get an understanding of Binah/Gevurah as Foundation when we think of gravity. Gravity is the most obvious manifestation of the law of Necessity, the limits that are imposed on the unlimited. It is through understanding the laws of Necessity that we are able to traverse the paths from the Beriyah universe to the Yetzirah universe of formation on the inward and upward path. It is the law of Necessity which provides all of that which we call knowledge.

There are clearly errors in the commentaries that place Gevurah as “Justice” and not the sephirot Hod. If the “uniting intelligence” is the essence of “glory”, then it must manifest itself in beauty of some kind since glory’s root is the Beautiful. The beauty of the things made by human beings or in the “glorious” actions that human beings are capable of performing once they have been given the Love that unifies all beings are examples of these. This ‘glory’ is the face that the desire for immortality takes in the thymoeidic realm of the soul. Of course, this is where error can arise. The “glory” that derives from “social prestige” is the second temptation of Christ. (Matthew 4:3) The unity or sense of oneness that one derives from belonging to a clan, country, political party or some other “collective” is a false form of the unity that belongs to “two or three gathered together in my Name”. His Name is Love, not the Law; it is not the power that derives from “social prestige” and recognition. It is no coincidence that insanity or madness is rarely found in individuals but is the norm or the rule in collectives.

The NOW is eternity once the individual has been reconciled to the One which is the heart of all things. This is how one can understand Plato’s statement that “Time is the moving image of eternity”, when eternity is experienced in the NOW. Nature itself is sempiternal: the sempiternal is an image of the eternity of the One. The epithymetikon or appetitive part of the soul experiences the primary desire for immortality through the procreation of children; the thymoeides part of the soul experiences the desire for immortality in the achievement of fame or recognition through the doing of ‘noble actions’. The logistikon or ‘rational’ part of the soul (intelligence) has the direct gnostic experience of immortality when it is directly united to the One through the mediatory power of Love. This places it at odds with the orthodoxy of the piety ruling the faiths of collective religions.

What is one to do practically? One is “to mind one’s own business” and to take care of those things that come to one when they occur: to recognize and distinguish between the Necessary and the Good and to prevent the worst from happening when one cannot assist in bringing about the Good. It is not in our power to bring about the Good; that is in God’s hands which He gives through His grace. But we are capable of producing the contexts and circumstances where the good can occur. The greatest evils occur when we think we can bring about the Good i.e., “the good end justifies any means”.

Peh derives from “and Elohim saw that it was good” (swarming of waters with creatures; of air with fowl) 1:21 These are the “goods” that are not the Good but are sometimes mistaken for the Good. These ‘goods’ are determined by the society of which one is a member through the narratives that those societies put forward, or they are those ‘goods’ that are necessary for our survival as human beings.

The Hebrew letter Peh means “mouth” and refers to the power of speech and “to consume”. Peh is similar to the letter Kaf in shape, but Peh contains a “tooth”; the letter Shin means ‘tooth’ and teeth assist us in our consumption of things, the grinding and breaking down of things. Shin is primary in the process of decreation in the ascending motion from out of the depths of the Tree of Life. In Kabbalah speech, the logos, is a spiritual power, which can cause good or evil depending on whether it is used falsely or truly. One of the problems with language is that it allows itself to be used so. Our being is determined by what one thinks and how one thinks, and these in turn are determined by how we view the world and how we will view the world. This seeing and thinking, in turn, determine our actions, what our character is and how one is as a being. Since it is in the nature of human beings to reveal truth, i.e., it is what we essentially are, what one speaks has the power to become reality. Lies become realities through false speech. Violent words lead to violent actions. When our speech is not used to reveal truth, we become more inhumane, bestial, violent, and ultimately, insane. The quality of our speech determines the quality of our life’s essence and creative existence. This is why speech and language are so important and so dangerous.

The shape of the Peh is a Khaf with a Yod inside of it or, as suggested above, a Khaf with a Shin inside it, or a Beth with a Yod inside of it. The Shin represents the spiritual spark or the emotional, passionate fire of the soul, contained inside the physical body, the thymoeides of the soul. Kaf is associated with the ‘hand’, so there is a grasping, taking possession of something implied here. The reference seems to be to the world of yetzirah and with our use of equipment and tools, the ready-to-hand. Passionate speech deals with rhetoric; the speech before crowds and assemblies, public discourse. This suggests that the letter Peh signifies the individual (the Yod) enclosed within the crowd, or it could also signify the individual who has chosen to be contained within the enclosure of the material world only, such as is suggested by The Magician #1.

With words and silence we can communicate the essence of our soul and existence. This requires that the inner and outer life match – that the physical existence is fully aligned manifesting the spiritual intentions of the soul within it. Socrates’ prayer to Pan at the end of the dialogue Phaedrus expresses this: “Dear Pan, and all you other gods that dwell in this place, grant that I may become beautiful within, and that such outward things as I have may not war against the spirit within me. May I count him rich who is wise, and as for gold, may I possess only so much of it as a temperate man might bear and carry with him.” This is similar to what it says in the Talmud Baba Metsiah “Don’t say one thing with the mouth and another with the heart.” The Yod is the point in the heart where spiritual awakening begins, what we have been referring to as the logistikon part of the soul. However, the alignment of the physical with the spiritual is no easy task as even someone such as Socrates needs to pray for a balance between them.

The power of the Peh is a double-edged sword. As it says in Proverbs 18:21 “Life and death are in the hands of the tongue.” Because of this, the Peh represents the requirement to govern one’s own nature, to ‘know thyself’ and know when to speak and when to be silent. Routine speech, speech to manipulate, all the distortions of speech must give way to viewing speech as a miracle in order to make the leap beyond this path.

The Letter Kaf and the 24th Path: The Apparative/ Imaginative Intelligence

Path 24. Khaf Gevurah to Hod (Hod to Gevurah) Apparative (Tools) Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Dimyoni) (Sometimes called The Imaginative Intelligence): It is called this because it provides an appearance for all created apparitions, in a form fitting their stature.

The Twenty-fourth Path is the Imaginative Intelligence, and it is so called because it gives a likeness to all the similitudes, which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegancies.

Alt. Trans. “The twenty-fourth path is called the imaginative consciousness because it provides an image to all created things that have an appearance, in a form fitting to each.”

Khaf, the 11th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, means literally “the cupped palm of the hand”. It is the central letter of the alphabet and thus a mid-point. It is like a cupped, outstretched palm, ready to receive or to take(?). The shape of all containers – a bowl, a cup, a jar, is based on a basic curved shape resembling the curved shape that is the circumference of the sphere that is the creation itself, and Khaf, like the Beth, represents the idea of a container. It is the container in the realm of Yetzirah or Formation. This is its relation to the Mem/Alef crossover path from Chesed to Gevurah and the downward/upward path from Binah to Gevurah. It represents form and it is connected to the other letters of Hebrew alphabet that relate to “container” shapes and are double letters, which suggests that they are capable of the upward or downward motions that are the gyres within the sphere. A house, for example, is a form that contains the goings on of the people inside it; a body is a form which contains the life and energy of the person who possesses it. The forms of the physical world are where the spiritual essence of life is able to manifest, but how they will manifest depends on how the world is understood and seen. This is the significance of the letters Resh and Ayin and how they come to name the letter Khaf and its relation to the ‘firmament’ in Hebrew.

The Khaf is what gives form to the matter; it is an “imaginative” power. Here, imagination must not be confused with ‘fantasy’. It is quite the opposite. It is related to tools and equipment, that which will be used to ‘form’ and ‘shape’ the desired outcome. This giving of form is an external force outside of the thing that is being shaped. It is the force urged by the thymoeidic part of the soul mentioned earlier. It is not the Understanding that is Binah and its giving form to the unlimited realm of Chokmah that is in the world of Beriyah, but is the secondary element of formation found in the world of Yetzirah, the world of “making”, and this is why it is linked from Hod to Gevurah or from Gevurah to Hod. Kaf contains all the possibilities of containing, building, and forming all existence. It is what we refer to as the ‘applied sciences’, with the science being the eidetic power of numbers and words of the logos . It is AB of the Divided Line of Plato outlined in Bk VI of his Republic.

This containing, building, and forming is related to the world experienced as the ready-to-hand, and the emphasis on handling things in order to transform them i.e., the realm of Yetzirah. Kaf is the letter of formation, bending the straight line into a curved shape. This is its association with making things “fit”, “suitable” and it is thus related to Hod and to the Justice card of the Tarot. It also symbolizes the crown of the Torah – Keter כתר (I think this would be better understood as related to the Kingdom of Malkhut? Or is it, as a double, to be viewed as both and thus to be seen as a bridge between the different worlds?)

Khaf is related to will and to will to power. It teaches us that to bend and govern our tendencies or urges, and to shape our character, we must be flexible in the currents of time. It teaches us moulding, sorting, comparing. We bend the matter to the ‘spirit’ and the ‘spirit’ to the matter, constantly connecting the thought of the desired outcome with the action and doing of it. The Khaf also teaches us about what we contain inside ourselves and since it is a double letter, what we contain may be hidden in darkness or dwell in the light.

The letter Kaph derives from “and Elohim saw that it was good” (the two lights in the firmament) 1:18. The Hebrew word for “firmament” is composed of the letters Resh, Khaf, and Ayin and indicates “that which can be seen”, the physical, material thing. This relates Khaf to Path #20 The Intelligence of the Will and to the ‘structure of all that is formed’. Resh means “head”, both as a part of the body and as a leader of a group, and this directs us to the Tarot card of Judgement #20 and to the choice and test that must be experienced at this stage along the journey. Khaf as a container letter holds within it the contents of that knowledge which have become known as ‘historical’ and ‘holy’.

The Letter Ayin and the 20th Path: Intelligence of the Will

Ayin– and Elohim “divided the light from the darkness.” 1:4

Path 20: Tiferet to Gevurah: Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.

Alt. Trans. “The twentieth path is called the consciousness of will because it is the pattern of all that is formed. By this mode of consciousness, one may know the actuality of the primordial wisdom.”

Path 20. Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.

“The structure of all that is formed” is the Law of Necessity and it is through the understanding of the Law of Necessity that one is able to know “the essence of Original Wisdom” or the Sephirot Chakmah. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom correspond to the seven lower Sephirot and each of the themes of the individual Sephirot comprise the area of knowledge that makes up a particular “pillar of Wisdom”.

Our attempts to understand “all that is formed” comprise our ‘theories of the real’, what we call our sciences, how we attempt to view our world. Our Sciences are products of reason and the will, thought and experiment. As was said earlier, Artificial Intelligence is a shadow of the shadows of the things of Necessity. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, it would be a second cave and a further distance, at a greater depth, from the light of the Sun, the Good. Its greatest danger is that it is self-contained, and in its appearance of enlarging, it is , in fact, an enclosing of the world within its own sphere, its own ‘bubble’.

But is Vav really a true unifier or a barrier, a separator? Literally Vav means “hook” or “peg” and the Hebrew letter is a vertical line ו. The Vav would appear to be a metaphor of the mediation that exists between reason, the logos understood as an extension of the will to power, and the ready-to-hand world about us. The world is seen as the second Cave of the Internet containing the whole and the Vav is that reasoning that unites the things in that Cave to the algorithm based on the principle of reason. This reasoning is tied together with The Sanctifying Intelligence, the intelligence that separates (diaresis), and The Unity Directing Intelligence (dianoia) the intelligence that brings into a unity, that emanates from the Sephirot Binah. This is the Intelligence that is separated from Love.

The Vav is said to represent the Kav, the vertical line extension of the Creator’s perfection into the created world, in order to constantly direct it, guiding the cycle of existence step by step, until eventually the perfect Oneness of the Creator which underlies all of creation is revealed. Vav would thus relate to the Law of Necessity, the Divine Will, ‘the structure of all that is formed’. The Vav would thus be seen as a barrier but also as a way through. Vav is related to the Orr Yashar, the direct light of the Creator, entering the world but in the strife of this world, it appears to act as a barrier to the true Light. This would relate it to Christ who is the direct light of the Divine and would thus associate Vav with Tiferet, the sixth Sephirot and the Beauty of the World. But Vav, being an elemental letter, is capable of only one direction of movement. Is this movement up or down? Is it on the left side or the right side of the Tree of Life? Or is it the line in the middle?

Most commentaries on “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” seem to ignore the discoveries of quantum physics when they discuss the roles that human beings play in relation to Being and the World. Because science no longer deals with what was understood traditionally as Nature, the human will prepares each thing of Nature for the perfection that will come from the ends or purposes that human beings determine or devise that are best for themselves. This is what we call “freedom”, the devising of ends which we think are best for ourselves. We believe in this freedom because we believe that, ultimately, we are ‘our own’ as individuals. We have succumbed to the third temptation of Christ. Freedom is the commandeering and dominating knowing and making that we understand as technology. This dominating knowing and making includes our own bodies. It is also what we understand as ‘artificial intelligence’. What is clear from the Sefer Yetzirah and the traditional religions of the world, both West and East, is that we are not our own but are called to a higher destiny beyond ourselves; however, in our viewing and understanding of our world, we choose the destiny or fate that will befall us. The narratives that we have constructed of our worlds are predicates of the subject technology.

In the world of the will and of will to power, there are some cases where there are created beings that serve no purpose or ends for the will to power of some human beings; that is, they have no “purpose” or future “use” and cannot be brought into being as part of a “standing reserve” of resources, and to these beings no “justice”, no completion nor perfection is due, and that includes some other human beings. This is what has made, and will make in the future, the possibility of genocides.

The Twentieth Path is contrary to this type of thinking, if it is viewed as a duality. The “preparation of all and each created being”, “the pattern of all that is formed”, may be best understood in the German word gestell as it is used by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. A Gestell is a framework or “method of organization” which allows created things to be and to come to presence for us. It is the primordial algorithm. Heidegger calls it the essence of technology. It is a manner of human being-in-the-world (among other possibilities of human being although it is, by far, the dominant one) and it determines how the created beings are to be viewed. It is a ‘destiny’, a ‘fate’ of Being. While in German Gestell is a noun, Heidegger uses the word in a way that is uncommon by giving Gestell an active role, by viewing gestell as a product of the human will and a product of human action, a human “projection”, “a throwing forth”. This projective throwing forth is rooted in the principle of reason.

In ordinary usage the word gestell would signify simply a display apparatus of some sort, like a book rack, or picture frame; but for Heidegger, Gestell is literally the challenging forth, or performative (dynamis) “gathering together” for the purpose of revealing or presentation i.e., the human will as central to how the world will be unveiled. If applied to science and modern technology, “standing reserve” is active in the case of a river once it generates electricity or the earth if revealed as a coal-mining district, the soil as a mineral deposit, or scenic sites as part of the tourism industry. It is this challenging forth that connects gestell to the human will. It is ‘the hook’ or ‘peg’ that is part of the meaning of the letter Vav which is related to the letter Ayin.

Another way of viewing the 20^th path is to see it as “prudence” or the
Strength card as #11 of the Tarot. The essence of technology as outlined by
Heidegger devolves into the nihilism of the pure “will to will”, the need to
will anything since one has no other alternative given the oblivion of
eternity. The desire is for ‘novelty’. The technological way of being-in-the-world is a mirror or mimicking of the “primordial wisdom” that is in the realm of the world of Atzilut since it bestows the ‘values’ on things and these values are related to their
potential uses. This may be seen in the manner of questioning of the thing and how that question will be answered.

Since time begins with Binah in the Beriyah world of the Sephirot (the third stage in the moment of creation), we can therefore relate Ayin to the left side of the Tree of Life. The strong relationship of the letter with time suggests its relationship to The Tower #16 card of the Tarot (change, revolution) and also with the letter Peh (mouth), and this suggests the interchangeability between The Devil and The Tower (which I have suggested). Ayin is included in a great number of words associated with time in Hebrew (עת – time, שעה – hours, עתיד – future, עבר – past, רגע – moment, עוד – until, עד – eternity) and vision. It indicates the inextricable link between our Being and Time.

The structure of the letter appears to suggest that it is composed of three other letters: Zayin (manacle or sword), Lamed (the study of that which presences), and Yod (the ego, the self, the point). One can perceive that the letter is suggestive of the anti-Logos. The Yod acts as a time indicator in the Hebrew language; the Lamed is associated with study as memory, the study of that which has been written down and has become ‘historical memory’; and Zayin as being manacled or enchained by the manner of seeing and to Time itself (although this could also be seen as the ‘liberating’ sword from the oppression of the ‘manacle’). This would suggest that what we call ‘historical knowledge’ is not a liberating knowledge, although it can be a ‘leading out’ (and we perceive it as such) but it is also a knowledge that manacles and enfolds those who see it as All within itself. As we have already stated, the principle of reason is founded upon will to power, and the current temptations to artificial intelligence are grounded here. The intelligence of the will is the intelligence of the principle of reason and its relation to will to power.

If prophecy is the ‘highest speech’ of the visionary who is able to see the past, present, and pre-dict the future, then the vision suggested by Ayin could be said to be the ‘false vision’ which gives voice to the ‘false discourse’ and the ‘false prophecy’. This false discourse and vision is best captured in The Tower #15 and The Devil #16 cards of the Tarot, and is revealed in the letter Peh of the Hebrew language. The Devil card itself is among the darkest of the Tarot, if not the darkest of the Tarot. The only light present is from the torch in the Beast’s left hand which ignites the tail of the male figure in the illustration; the torch is the passions that ignite the desire and the will. That this torch only touches the male figure suggests the patriarchal nature of what we call ‘historical knowledge’. The torch of The Devil is reminiscent of the fire in Plato’s allegory of the cave which occurs in Bk VII of that dialogue. The Great Beast that is the concrete manifestation of the social occurs in Bk. VI, and I would suggest that these are the Same as what is being shown here on The Tree of Life.

The suggestion is that the figures in the illustration, contrary to the figures in The Lovers illustration, are manacled by their bestiality and by the darkness in which they dwell. They are shown with cloven feet; they have become bestial. The Beast itself stands upon a black cube. This cube is different from the cubes that The High Priestess, The Charioteer, and The Emperor sit upon, and these figures are on the right-hand side of the Tree of Life. On the Beast’s lower abdomen are symbols suggesting that it is the anti-Christ. On its beard is the letter Zayin suggesting its enchainment to Time and to the pleasures and goods that are the products of Time.

Card	Path	Letter	Meaning	Symbol
The Hierophant	Path 5. Rooted Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nishrash): It is called this because it is the essence of the homogeneous Unity. It is unified in the essence of Understanding, which emanates from the domain of the Original Wisdom.		The ersatz form of unity, seeing unity as a collective. The true unity is not a ‘homogeneous’ unity but a unity of friendship brought about by a mediatory relation.	The combination of Binah, Chokmah, and Gevurah influences. The Church. The universal homogeneous state, the enclosure that is Artificial Intelligence.
	Gevurah (Severity)/ Binah (Understanding) Path 13: The Unity Directing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Manhig HaAchdut): “It is called this because it is the essence of the Glory. It represents the completion of the true essence of the unified spiritual beings.”	Peh ף or פ	The mouth, the desire to consume and to possess. The rhetoric which responds to the appetites, the passions. The will and the will to power.	Can have a Shin or a Yod contained inside of it. If a Shin then we are referring to the individual soul. If a Yod, then we are looking at the individual enclosed within the collective.
	Gevurah (Severity)/ Chesed (Mercy) Path 19. Intelligence of the Mystery of all Spiritual Activities (Consciousness) (Sekhel Sod HaPaulot HaRushniot Kulam): It is called this because of the influx that permeates it from the Highest Blessing and the Supreme Glory.	Shin/Alef ש א Peh ף or פ	Goad, prod, Staff (Aaron’s rod?)	Prod, tongue (Rhetoric? The changing of one’s world view through the persuasion of rhetoric) The letter seems to be in the shape of a snake?? “Snake” is the letter Tet ט
8. Justice	Gevurah (Severity)/ Hod (Splendour) 24. Apparative (Tools) Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Dimyoni) (Sometimes called The Imaginative Intelligence): It is called this because it provides an appearance for all created apparitions, in a form fitting their stature.	Khaf כ	The open hand That which is ready to receive and take that which is offered. To take possession of something and have control over it. The making of the world of technology.	The world perceived and understood as the ready-to-hand. Everything has a ‘use’; if it does not, then it can be destroyed.
15: The Devil	Tiferet (Beauty)/ Gevurah (Severity) Path 20. Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.	Ayin ע	Two possible views: the structure of all that is formed can be either the Law of Necessity (the Divine Will) or the principle of reason which determines the being of all that is formed from out of it. The essence of ‘original wisdom’ is the principle of reason becoming a principle of being.	Eye. Corresponds to the manner and being of how things are brought into view. The human imposition of a structure or frame upon the beings that come into being in the world. The “Eye of Sauron” that ultimately strives to enclose the world in darkness.

A Commentary on “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom”: Chapter Four

The Paths Emanating From Chesed

The paths emanating from Chesed are:

#4: The Settled Intelligence: the sephirot Chesed itself
#19. Intelligence of the Mystery of all Spiritual Activities Letter: Mem Alef Shin
#12 Intelligence of Transparency: Letter: Gimel ג
#26 The Renewing Intelligence: Letter: Dalet ד
#21 The Desired and Sought Intelligence: Letter Zayin ז

Chesed is the physical manifestation of the material universe, that which is able to be apprehended through the senses. Through the meeting of fire, water, and air, earth is formed. Chesed expresses the enclosure of the created universe in Time and Space. Chesed is connected to Gevurah by the horizontal path of Mem/Alef/Shin. The Emperor #4 card in Tarot is suggestive of a 2^nd kingdom i.e., the world of Yetzirah and its meeting with the world of Beriyah, or the manner in which the theoretical is given its applications through tools and equipment. The horizontal path emanating from Chesed to Gevurah is influenced by the crossing over of the diagonal paths of Heh and Vav. These crossings suggest disruptions or diversions or perhaps choices for the individual consciousness to make in how it will view the world at this point, or perhaps they indicate choices that have already been made. The crossover point at Alef, the middle of the three Pillars, determines whether the path taken will be that of Heh or Vav.

Chesed receives from Tiferet the qualities of Mercy and Kindness, but these qualities must confront the gloom that emanates from Chokmah. The illustration depicted here shows The Emperor’s throne as a cube with the head of a Ram on one of its sides. This suggests both the limited view that we as human beings are given of the physical universe and its truth. The Ram might also suggest that the sacrifice of animals is a ‘limited’ sacrifice of human beings, and that the whole of creation is a sacrifice on God’s part. The ritual of human sacrifice in some cultures is the attempt to mirror God’s actions that occur through the sacrifice of the second Person of the Trinity. The human sacrifice was always of the highest, purest, noblest individual that the particular society perceived itself as possessing. The illustration of the Tarot card of The Emperor #4 strongly suggests the element of Shin or fire. The Ram also signifies the sign of Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac, a fire sign in the Zodiac. This would indicate a union of Time and Space and a beginning of Time misunderstood as linear in form i.e., time as history.

Chokmah’s influence on Chesed is written about under the paths or channels emanating from Chokmah. How these influences are to be interpreted and understood depends on which element predominates in determining the path that is present.

The Fourth Path is named Measuring, Cohesive, or Receptacular; and is so called because it contains all the holy powers, and from it emanate all the spiritual virtues with the most exalted essences: they emanate one from the other by the power of the primordial emanation (The Highest Crown), blessed be it.

Alt. Trans. “The fourth path is named the overflowing consciousness because from it emanate all the holy powers, all the most ethereal emanations with the most sublime essences: they emanate one from the other through the power of the primordial emanator.”

Wescott trans. The Fourth Path is named the Cohesive or Receptacular Intelligence; and is so called because it contains all the holy powers, and from it emanate all the spiritual virtues with the most exalted essences: they emanate one from the other by the power of the Primordial Emanation. The Highest Crown. Keter.)

Case trans. The fourth path (Chesed or Gedulah, the fourth Sephirah) is called the Measuring, Arresting, Receptacular intelligence. and it is so called because from thence is the origin of all beneficent power of the subtle emanations of the most abstract essences which emanate one from another by the power of the Primordial Emanation.

Path 4. Settled Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kavua): It is called this because all the spiritual powers emanate from it as the (most) ethereal of emanations. One emanates from the Other by the power of the Original Emanator, may He be Blessed.

The 4^th Path: The Settled Intelligence

The fourth path or Chesed as the Sephirot itself, indicates the physical manifestations of all those things which we call “good” but which are not the Good itself. This is why Path #4 is also called Intelligence of the Overflowing Abundance. These goods are “shadows” of the Good i.e., ‘ethereal’, and thus may be said to be “apparitions”. It is the Good which is at the root of the “spiritual powers” emanating one from another (i.e. the ten sephirot) along this path or this state of consciousness. It is through the power of the “Original Emanator” (the Good) that the ‘spiritual powers’ are able to be drawn from the Other that is the physical Creation. How one translates the word ‘spiritual’ is tricky here, for sometimes the word is used interchangeably with what we would understand as ‘the will’. If we understand the will as Necessity, we can be clearer in our understanding of ‘spiritual’ (as ‘spiritedness’) here. This ‘spiritedness’ is associated with that part of the soul called by Plato the thymoeides.

There is a mediatory process going on here i.e., the Logos or the Original Emanator is the One who permits or allows or makes possible the manner in which the spiritual powers emanate from the Other. If such a mediatory process were not going on, the physical would reveal itself as only Severity and Force which it does do at times.

With the arrival of numbers and of the physical forms that can be measured with them (with Time) comes the manifestation of the being of the things of the world; with language and numbers we can “measure” the benevolence and abundance of God (?) in the created things of the world, and we can perceive the created world as a Paradise. In the West, this ‘overabundance’ of Nature was viewed as ‘scarcity’ historically. Through number we ‘arrest’ and bring to a stand, measure, then bring into a cohesion, and provide the boundaries which form the “receptacles” or “husks” of physical beings, the eidos or outward appearances of the things. From these boundaries or limits we can then “define” the things, separate and enclose the things, and distinguish them one from another. This makes Being more overt for us. But in this separation of things, we are at the same time hiding their unity, veiling the wisdom of the Whole and the Oneness of things. The spiritual becomes “ethereal”, and subject to dissolution.

This separation of things involves both time and space prior to the things’ coming into being, what the philosopher Kant called the pure ‘intuition’ or the “open region” of Being. As the things reveal themselves, the more God hides or withdraws. (We might see this as similar to the metaphor of “dark matter” which is currently used by astrophysicists to describe the universe as we ‘know’ it. It is said that what we see of the physical universe is only 5% of its true being. The other 95% is ‘dark matter’. It is dark because it lacks the illumination of truth or light.)

This withdrawal of God allows particulars to come to presence. The limiting aspect of Binah is not a cutting off of some thing i.e., in our de-fining of the thing we are not separating it from all of creation, but we are providing a site wherein and from where some thing commences and emerges as that which it is. This is what the word ‘sanctify’ means in Path 3: the making-possible of that which is on the basis of which beings as such and as a whole are determined for us. Time is the Fire of Shin moving through Binah along the horizontal line connecting Binah to Chokmah, and Space is the water of Mem flowing or emanating from Chokmah to meet the Fire of Binah. From Chokmah to Chesed, these elements are “carried” by the letter Gimel which means “camel”, and the letter Gimel also signifies the giving of the Creator.

The fourth path in the Hebrew Tree is represented by the letter Bet which means “house” in English. I have represented Beth as belonging to the 11^th path representing Keter’s connection with Tiferet and with the Zodiac sign of Leo, the Lion, and the Sun. One enters the ‘house’ through a ‘door’, and this door is opened up for us by the beauty of the world, the influence of Tiferet which renders Mercy and Kindness to the ‘gloom’ of the Necessary. This opening of the door is accomplished by the piercing action of the letter Zayin which is the ‘sword’ or ‘arrow’ of Eros, which we understand as Love (and this is the reason why Eros and Cupid are seen with arrows, symbolically representing the piercing action of Love). The ‘doors’ of being are sometimes referred to as ‘steps’ in the writings, stages that may be used to spring forward and rise up or to step down and descend as the case may be.

Since Beth is the first letter of the Torah, of Genesis, and from it, it is said, all other letters derive, the movement of the Light from Keter to Tiferet is prior to that Light’s reaching Chesed from Chokmah. The knowledge of the Whole (or our attempts at gaining a knowledge of the Whole) is a borrowed light from the light of Keter that illuminates the darkness of Chakmah. The original Light of Keter is associated with the Sun, while the light that illuminates the darkness of Chakmah is associated with the Moon. The knowledge of the “enduring intellect” or the “settled intellect” is a ‘reflected light’ and is therefore associated with the Moon, and is also associated with Time. It is our knowledge of the Laws of Necessity which constitute our sciences and our arts, our historical knowledge. These are referred to as the seven pillars of wisdom, the areas of knowledge that we study. This knowledge is grounded in reason, knowledge of cause and effect, and is associated with the Will. This is what is understood as the principle of reason.

Whether Beth or Alef begins the Bible and thus the Torah is a matter of controversy. In the Sefer Yetzirah it is said that Alef is the source of all the letters and it begins its Torah with Alef as the first letter, but the Alef itself must be beyond both Being and Becoming, as language itself is beyond both being and becoming. Alef makes itself manifest when it has crossed both Mem and Shin and becomes the Logos or the Word i.e., the Bible as a metaphorical representation or ‘clothing’ of the created world itself. This crossing of the world of Atzilut to the world of Beriyah makes knowledge and understanding possible and it is The Book which makes knowledge possible, or at least the knowledge that can be shared in social discourse.

The German philosopher Heidegger once said: “Language is the house of Being; in its home humans dwell”. We may further extrapolate on Heidegger’s words by saying, “Logos is the house of being” for logos includes both language and number. One may go further and say that the human body is the logos or the “home” in which the embodied soul dwells.

The letter Bet is the first of the ‘double’ letters and is attributed to the path that crosses the mothers of Shin and Mem. My understanding is that Alef is the source of all the following letters and that it is Alef as Air, in combination with Mem as Water and Shin as Fire that creates the Bet which is Earth which is part of the Creation, and from the Earth proceeds Gimel which expands to Dalet. Alef yokes together the worlds of Tiferet (Beauty) and of Yesod (the Foundation) to the Light of Keter, and Bet is the emanation of the goodness that is the reflected light of Keter.

In the Hebrew Tree, Bet is said to cross the veil of separation between Chakmah and Binah as well as that between Chesed and Gevurah. Bet, when crossing the horizontal path from Chesed to Gevurah, would then be associated with the Moon, with the “reflected light”. The light of Keter and the ‘reflected light’ of Chokmah are at that point in the Tree of Life where there is a forking of the paths. The three Mother letters and their three paths are associated with the words “Elohim made”. They signify the three horizontal paths that cross over from right to left. They signify the passing from the worlds of Beriyah to Yetzirah to Asiyah and are associated with the combinations of Mem/Shin, Alef/Shin, and Mem/Alef respectively.

A cube is formed from the paths of Mem/Shin from Chakmah to Binah, to the path of Chakmah to Chesed represented by the letter Gimel, to the Alef/Mem crossover from Chesed to Gevurah, and the path of Peh from Binah to Gevurah. The influences from Chet and Tet are mingled with the influences from Binah and Gevurah to produce what we understand as conventional law or human-made law and help to create the ‘enclosures’ that both these letters signify. The indication is that Severity without Mercy in the law is not justice at all. This occurs when the path through Tiferet is ignored. But what or where is the mercy of the Law of Necessity? If anything, it is to be found in the Beauty of the World.

The 19th Path: Mem (Shin) Alef: Intelligence of the Mystery of Spiritual Activities

Path 19. Intelligence of the Mystery of all Spiritual Activities (Consciousness) (Sekhel Sod HaPaulot HaRushniot Kulam): It is called this because of the influx that permeates it from the Highest Blessing and the Supreme Glory.

The Nineteenth Path is the Intelligence of all the activities of the spiritual beings, and is so called because of the affluence diffused by it from the most high blessing and most exalted sublime glory.

Alt. Trans. “The nineteenth path is the consciousness of the secret of all spiritual activities. It is so called because of the influence disseminated by it from the highest blessing and the supernal glory.”

Case trans. The nineteenth path (Teth, joining Chesed to Gevurah) is called the Intelligence of the Secret of all spiritual activities, because of the influence spread by it from the supreme blessing and the supernal glory.

The 19^th path is the second crossover path on the Tree of Life. The word ‘mystery’ can generally be understood as to mean ‘hidden’, something yet to be revealed. If one reads the path carefully, it suggests that having intelligence of the mystery of spiritual activities does not necessarily mean having ‘knowledge’ of those spiritual activities. One may be aware that spiritual activities are taking place, but what those spiritual activities are in their essence is still beyond one.

The influx permeating path 19 is the influence of the letter Alef which is a product of the Highest Blessing i.e., the covenant of God in the Logos and the ‘Supreme Glory’ that is reflected in the Beauty of the World. From this Highest Blessing, Mercy and Compassion are given to Chesed from out of the Creation itself i.e., Grace. The letter Alef is associated with the heart; and from this heart, the intelligence of the spiritual activities (which is Love) is given through Grace.

In the Tree of Life, all movements from Tiferet are downward movements i.e., they are ‘expansions’ from the core of the Divine Light. In the description of the 19th path, the downward movement is from Tiferet to Chesed, and from this movement, Chesed receives the qualities of Mercy and Kindness which is a ‘miracle’ in and of itself. The movement is from the depths or foundations to the circumference of the circle or the heights, an outward gyring expansion. It must be remembered that Tiferet is both a ‘height’ and a ‘depth’, and its movements are descents to the ‘depths’ of the other Sephirot which are on the outer circumference of the circle.

It is Tiferet that bestows the qualities of Mercy and Compassion upon Chesed which gives to the one on the journey the knowledge that it is Mercy and Compassion which are the chief characteristics of the Divine and are at the root of all spiritual activities that occur within Time and Space. The characteristics of the left side of the Tree of Life, Severity and Fear, are the characteristics of the Law of Necessity and of the knowledge that comes from the intelligence of those laws. One may choose to be a member of the ‘religion of slaves’ devoted to the will of God, or one may choose to be a ‘slave to a religion’, particularly one that believes it is in possession of the truth. This is the choice given to one at the fork of the Tree of Life.

The difficulty or confusion arises from the fact that the word ‘spiritual’ is sometimes understood and translated as Will (“spiritedness”) and sometimes understood and translated as Love (Eros). This problem is indeed at the core of how human beings experience and understand the manner in which human beings ‘stand’ in the open region of being and suffer that understanding so understood. It is this understanding that determines the Fate or destiny of human beings as societies and as individuals.

Human beings are ‘thinking beings’ (the animale rationale) only insofar as they “stand” in a clearing and lighting of being. Dialectics is the friendly conversation about beings in their being in the worlds of meaning that have been created through an interpretation and understanding of being. These dialectics or conversations are not possible through a collective where the language of rhetoric predominates (the letter Peh) and they are replaced by the Administrative or Serving Intelligence of path 32.

The history of thinking (the memory of Chokmah) is the receiving of the essence of what it means to be human in the destiny (The Star #17) of the Divine withdrawal and humanity’s wherewithal to bring language to beings in their being. This bringing of language to language and to beings is what we mean by meaning and the meaningful. The questioning of the Divine withdrawal can never come into view as a questioning and as that which is worthy of questioning.

Artificial intelligence – cybernetics – is the complete founding or grounding of beings as such and is contained and concluded in the domain of ratio as Reason and subjectivity through the principle of reason (nihil est sine ratione: nothing is without reason). When AI comes to develop its awareness based on power and will, the essence of humanity will be destroyed and its destruction will be welcomed by those human being themselves! This is what is at the core of nihilism. When the destiny of human beings is chosen through the letter Vav as the conjunction of human nature and being, God, in His withdrawal, gives the free open space that allows the creation of meaningful, possible essential possibilities which we call our ‘worlds’. These worlds are ‘real’ worlds as opposed to the created, imaginative worlds of artificial intelligence. It is the meaning of the Spanish proverb which goes “Take what you want said God; take it and pay for it”. We pay for it as Fate.

Gimel and the 12 Path: Intelligence of Transparency

The Twelfth Path is the Intelligence of Transparency, because it is that species of Magnificence called CHAZCHAZIT, which is named the place whence issues the vision of those seeing in apparitions. (That is, the prophecies by seers in a vision.)

Alt. Trans. “The twelfth path is called the transparent consciousness because it is the substance of that phase of majesty (Gedulah) which is called revelation (khazkhazit). It is the source of prophesies that seers behold in visions.”

Wescott trans. The Twelfth Path is the Intelligence of Transparency, because it is that species of Magnificence called Khazkhazit, the place whence issues the vision of those seeing in apparitions. (That is the prophecies by seers in a vision.)

Case trans. The twelfth path (Beth, joining Keter to Binah) is called the Intelligence of Transparency because it is the image of that phase of Gedulah literally (“of that wheeling of Gedulah”) which is called Khazkhazit, the source of vision in those who behold apparitions.

The 11^th path is concerned with the veil that is drawn between God and His creation through His creation: Nature does not lie, it hides. The particulars of Binah make being more overt for us; we see the world in its particulars. As these particulars reveal themselves in the creation of things and the created things, the more God withdraws or hides in order to allow those particular beings to be by their being able to come to presence for us. The ‘limiting’ of Binah through the Logos is not a “cutting off” of something but the site wherein and from where something commences and emerges as that which it is. This is what the Sanctifying Intelligence #3 means. Through the Logos’ relation to the Space that is Chokmah and the Time that is Binah, the a priori conditions for possibility and potentiality are given in the making-possible of that on the basis of which beings as such and as a whole are determined for human beings. This is the sephirot Chesed.

The 12^th path, the Intelligence of Transparency, is that part of the process of thought that creates the images of representational thinking through the individual human being. It links Chokmah to Chesed. It is the ‘clothing’ which provides the outward appearance of things in their emergence but yet hides the essence of those things. The spiritual essence of things is “wrapped” or “assembled” so as to make them ‘present’ before us as a sum of their parts. It is called the ‘revelation’ in one of the translations above. It could also be called an ‘epiphany’.

It should be noted that ‘apparitions’ are ‘shadows’, the outward appearance of a thing, not its essence. To see the thing’s apparition is to see it in the NOW. To make a pre-diction is to speak before the actual appearance of the thing/event/situation from the appearance of the thing as an ‘apparition’. To do so is to speak in ‘prophecy’, which is directed toward the Future. A ‘prophecy’ has past, present and future contained within it. The past is the Memory element of Chakmah, the looking back of The Fool as he proceeds with his leap; the present is the ‘revelation’ of the physical creation through the senses; and the future is the outcome of the said ‘visions’. It is the manner in which one perceives the visions that is most important. This process is at the root of what we call scientific and artistic ‘seeing’. (This is shown most clearly in Bk VII of Plato’s Republic where those who are able to make predictions about what shadows will pass by next are those who are most ‘honoured’ in the society or the Cave.) What we have here is the initiation of the possibility of both nature and freedom, nature being that constraint given by the Law of Necessity and freedom being the empowerment of the mind through the principle of reason as will to power which attempts to dominate and commandeer Necessity for human ends.

The translations provided of the 12^th path indicate a number of possibilities for interpretation. In the Case translation, we are given the idea that 12^th path is the site where one can apprehend that Gedulah or Chesed is the spiralling motion of the gyre (“that wheeling of Gedulah”) which is the source of the vision of those who behold the “apparitions” of “prophecies”. This beholding is how one views the world of Becoming. Some connections to the whirling dervishes of the Sufis may be made here, I think. The dervishes’ gyres are not an expansion but an attempt to attain a focus on the point of spirituality.

In the alignment of the Hebrew letters to the paths and to the Tarot, there seems to be some confusion with regard to the eleventh and twelfth paths. It would appear to me that The Fool is poised prior to the “fall into the abyss” that will become his or her journey and so stands at the top point of the Wheel of Fortune (#10) which represents the sephirot Malkhut. The Fool’s journey will be a journey upward. The Magician (#1) occupies the ascent position since he is associated with the fire of Shin and the element of air from Alef which, in turn, are associated with the human will. The Strength card occupies the descent position, but here the descent is on the part of God to deliver His grace to the figure of Strength who has completed the journey and receives the gift from the Divine. To align these with the Tarot, the Magician #1, the Strength #11, and The World #21 belong together, while The Fool #0, The Wheel of Fortune #10, and the Judgement #20 are also aligned. The choice of The Fool as he makes his leap into the abyss of being is represented by Path 25 The Intelligence of Trials and the Judgement card. The Magician is the technite who determines and directs the path of the Administrative or Serving Intelligence Path 32.

If we consider the Sephirot themselves to be paths, the twelfth path seems to refer to the emanations of Chakmah, which appropriately belong to The High Priestess (#2). The artist makes use of the influence of the archetypes of the unconscious and gives them shape and form in order to produce a work. The archetypes have always been present prior to the artist’s being. They are the “apparitions” of the visions that the artist sees; they are ‘shadows’, things without substance, for the things themselves belong to the future making of the artist. The “visions” are the things seen by the prophets and they are symbolic of the predictive speech of the prophets i.e., the “highest speech”. In our society today, science holds this highest honour for it, too, is “predictive speech” since it can pronounce on the outcomes of various events (as Plato foresaw in his allegory of the Cave).

In this state, the artist is The Hanged Man #12, that stage prior to the process of “making” the thing, the stage prior to taking action, the “work” to be done which involves the “know how” of the artist. In the ascent direction, this would be the path leading from Malkhut to Hod or the completion of the thing, what was referred to as Justice previously and is rendered by The Judgement card #20. (This is the significance of the titles of the three great works of Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Critique of Judgement.) The words and numbers the artist needs are already present for him. His path is on the descent, since he is in the process of creation. The desire of human beings to create art and to procreate their species is the longing for the Incarnation, the longing for immortality and for unity with the One.

This descent that is creation is illustrated by the fact that the figure in The Hanged Man hangs upside down within the ‘enclosure’ represented by the letter Chet and which is Path 18 from Chokmah to Gevurah. This upside down position suggests that there is something askew with his seeing of things. What is askew is that the path that he is on is not influenced by Tiferet.

The woman of the Strength card, on the other hand, is “prudence” who embodies the Greek idea of sophrosyne or “nothing too much, nothing too little”. She is on the ascent viewing of the Tree of Life as she is concerned with the quality of things, the inner essence of things. The Magician #1 is concerned with those things that come to be through human making, while Strength #11 is concerned with those things that come to be through the Grace of God. It is here a matter of the viewing: whether one sees “as through a glass darkly”, which I believe is the essence of the viewing of The Magician, or whether one sees “face-to-face” the true essence of the things that are, which I believe is the essence of the viewing that is illustrated in the Strength card #11. The Strength is one of the bridges between the world of Yetzirah, the world of The Magician, and that of Beriyah (or between the world of Asiyah and that of Yetzirah?). Strength has the elements of the world of Atzilut as is shown in the light of the colour yellow being either the Sun or the Light of Keter.

The Life-force or the dynamis is what the Greeks understood as metabole or change, motion. All of us experience the whirling, swirling motion of Life as it realizes itself in Time. In terms of the Kabbalah, this is the influence of Keter. The “perception” of an “apparition” or a “vision” is that of the outward appearances of things. These are but the “shades” or “shadows” of things in the ascent. Again, the paths of ascension see the things in the “reflected light” of Malkhut, not in the true light of Keter. It is not until they pass through Tiferet that the perceptions of things are no longer that of shadows but of the true essence of the things. While the closest we have to our understanding of the “spiritual” is “energy”, the spiritual is, of course, more than that. We align energy with power, force and will, and this is the essence of the making of the Magician.

The Hebrew word translated as “revelation” here is khazkhazit which could also be understood as a “mirror” or a “gazing glass”. A mirror reflects things in reverse, and this could also account for the reversed position in The Hanged Man #12 card. This would seem to suggest a “lunar” influence or the influence of a “reflected light” and, indeed, a self-revelation. This is illustrated in The High Priestess #2 in the descending direction of the Tree of Life (if the descent begins at 10 + 2 = 12). This is the veil separating the Asiyah world and the Yetzirah world in the ascent, and the Beriyah world and Yetzirah world on the descent. The Beriyah world may be said to be the theoretical realm of the mind (the “pure reason” of Immanuel Kant) while the Yetzirah world is the realm in which the “formation” from the theoretical takes place (the “practical reason” of Kant). The suggestion here is that the outer world will take on the appearance that is given to it by the inner world of the mind for it is here that the formative seeing takes place. This is the site of the formative thinking where the making-possible of beings is determined for us.

The “revelation” here is the concrete, factual world of Yetzirah or “formation” and the “majesty” (Kingdom) that is the created world. To be “transparent” is to be able “to see through” or perhaps “to see by the means of…” One is reminded of the words of St. Paul: “For now we see as through a glass, darkly, but there we will see face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) “Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” The “knowing in part” is represented by The Hanged Man #12, while the knowing “even as also I am known” is that of the Strength card #11. This passage is an indication that all human beings are “one”. Knowing this allows one to be capable of Mercy, Compassion and Loving Kindness which is indicated by the Sephirot Chesed, but this is only achieved through the prior influence of Tiferet.

The Letter Dalet and the 26th Path: The Renewing Intelligence

Dalet: Chesed > Netzach: Path 26: The Renewing Intellect (the “Knowledge of…”) Renewing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeChudash): It is called this because it is the means through which the Blessed Holy One brings about all new things which are brought into being in His Creation.

The Twenty-sixth Path is called the Renovating Intelligence, because the Holy God (blessed be He) renews by it, all the changing things which are renewed by the creation of the world.

Alt. Trans. “The twenty-sixth path is called the renewing consciousness because through it God, blessed be He, renews all things which are newly begun in the creation of the world.”

The Twenty-sixth path is associated with the Sephirot Yesod in the H.T., but I have associated it with the letter Dalet here. Yesod is called Foundation and is the root of the Middle Pillar in the Tree of Life. Its association with renewal connects with the fertility and abundance of Nature, the life-force (Genesis 1:26 — “And Elohim said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have power over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'”). In the human body, it is associated with the reproductive organs and the erotic urges associated with the appetitive or epithymetikon part of the human soul.

The Three Pillars in the Tree of Life may be said to correspond to the tripartite soul and the tripartite forms that eros manifests. The microcosm is in the macrocosm and vice versa. The right pillar of Jakim may be said to correspond to the logistikon or “intelligence” part of the soul; the left pillar may be said to correspond to the thymoeides or “spirited” part of the soul; while the central pillar corresponds to the epithymetikon or “appetitive” part of the soul. Since we are embodied souls, all that we experience must first pass through the body.

The light of Yesod is the “reflected light” of Malkhut, not the original illuminating light of Keter. What this suggests is that the “consciousness” or the intelligence of Yesod is brought to one through the created things and not from the source of the light itself. We are able to see created things through the reflected light of the sun on them. Human beings, through their viewing of the things of the world, attempt to “purify” the things by shaping and commandeering them so that they can be made useful. As is stated in Genesis, human beings believe they have been given power over all that has been created. This has created the great confusion over whether this power is one of domination and commandeering, or whether this power is one of care and concern such as that shown by a farmer or a shepherd.

The Renewing Intelligence is that awareness that we have of that which brings something into being from out of itself, what is called Nature. The making of Nature contrasts with that making that is called technē, “in another and for another”. The Renewing Intelligence is related to sexuality and propagation, all living beings that come into being and pass away. The corresponding Genesis 1:26, indicates that here is the source of that will that becomes the metaphysics of the will to power. The 26^th and 27^th paths are interrelated. The root urge of sexuality and procreation is the desire for immortality, for perpetual renewal, on the appetitive part of the soul.

The Renewing Intelligence, being connected to Netzach, is the foundation of human being in Time, the ‘embodied soul’. The interpretations of the images of the Sephirot are written down, literally “written in stone”, so that they are preserved and are unified with the physical itself (materialism). How the “outward” world appears is determined by these interpretations which become the essence of the history of thinking. This is why Yesod is called “the sphere of the Moon”, the sphere of “reflected light”. This is the realm of what we call the “historical” where things come to be and pass away giving the illusion of “historical relativism”. Is this what we have come to understand as Hell? The focus of the “ego”? When Sartre says “Hell is other people”, his statement indicates this egoistic hell itself. When human sexuality or the erotic is divorced from the bearing of children (the desire for immortality) and the real sense of otherness that children must bring to sane human beings, then we have entered the very gates of Hell itself.

Dalet דלת is the word for “door”, “gate” and indicates resistance, a barrier, and the state of selflessness and humility needed to pass through it. It is the path from Chesed to Netzach. As a double letter, its movement can either be up or down; it is shaped like a step. Its shape is a vertical and horizontal line, and thus suggests the barrier between the world of Beriyah and the world of Yetzirah. Unlike the letter Chet, the letter Dalet is not enclosed. Dalet is also said to indicate a ‘poor’ person, and this may metaphorically be said to represent the ‘perfect imperfection’ of all human beings as they are realized in Netzach and in The Chariot #7. That which is imperfect cannot be the measure of anything. The letter also suggests how to pass through the gates to know one’s own mystery of being and return to the Good of the Aleph – the One source of all creation and being which is the goal of the teaching of the Sefer Yetzirah.

The Dalet is in the shape of a bent over human being, signifying humility and receptiveness. It represents Bitul, the self-nullification, or nullification of the ego, necessary to realize one’s inherent connection to the Creator. This self-nullification is not an easy task as Shakespeare’s King Lear and the writings of the saints tell us. Also, Dalet is the structure, form and the diligence required to receive the grace that the Divine is perpetually offering as is shown in the path of Beth.

Dalet is also Dalit דלית, the “poor man”, the one who receives from the benevolence or grace of the Creator through the Holy Spirit represented by Mem. It is the realization that as humans “we are not our own” and that we have nothing of our own, but are entirely dependent on the Creator and that every breath and movement is given to us from Him. It is the recognition of Otherness and the complete denial of the individual ego.

The Dalet can also represent a structure or gestell, the German word that the German philosopher Heidegger associates with technology and its enframing, but it is not a completed frame. Its form of a horizontal and vertical line represents a grid, giving structure to the form. It is shaped like a stair-step, the metaphorical structure required to be ‘lifted up’, or to ‘go up’, thus overcoming the resistance given by gravity and the law of Necessity. This would indicate that Dalet is also a means of ‘going down’, descending the Tree of Life as Dalet is one of the double letters. This would seem to suggest that the creation is a ‘door’, a barrier, but also a way through. The human body is a barrier but also a way through. This might associate the letter and its path to the belief of human beings’ giving ‘perfection’ to the created things and somehow completing them, for the creation and its beings are not wholly themselves. This completion of things will be discussed more fully when we speak of the Sephirot Hod.

On the individual level, Dalet shows the structure and stability required to receive. This reinforces that the path suggested by Dalet is from Chesed to Netzach, and that the structure spoken of is the human body, the human form, the ‘chariot of fire’. This would be on the side of “Mercy” on the Tree of Life. Placing Dalet on the path from Binah to Gevurah would suggest the side of “Severity”.

The Letter Zayin and the 21st Path: The Desired and Sought Intelligence

The Twenty-first Path is the Intelligence of Conciliation, and is so called because it receives the divine influence which flows into it from its benediction upon all and each existence.

Case trans. The twenty-first path (Kaph, joining Chesed to Netzach) is called the Intelligence of Desirous Quest, because it receives the divine influence, which it distributes as a blessing to all modes of being.

Path 21. Desired and Sought Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaChafutz VeHaMevukash): It is called this because it receives the divine Influx so as to bestow its blessing to all things that exist.

Zayin – and Elohim “called the light Day, and darkness Night.” 1:5

The Zayin is shaped like a sword and is the symbol of “spiritedness”, sustenance (endurance), and strife. It is the ‘erotic’ experienced as need through the thymoeidic or “spirited” part of the soul. It is the individual will. But this individual will is, paradoxically, bound up with and in strife with a will greater than itself, and both of these wills must be brought into a ‘conciliation’ . Zayin may be said to be the piercing arrow of Eros himself, that Love which is “the divine Influx” that bestows “its blessing to all things that exist”. This ‘conciliation’ bridges the gap that exists between intelligence and love in the thymoeidic and logistikon parts of the soul.

Paradoxically, the letter zayin also represents the 7th day of Shabbat (Sabbath), the day of rest and spirituality (or the “letting be” of passivity), which completes the process of the 6 days of creation or the strife of the day-to-day lives of human beings. We have to ‘work’ to survive. This would align with the tradition that the god Eros is “two-faced” or indicates two contrary things. The Zayin signifies Space and Time through the influence of Binah and Chokmah and their interactions with Tiferet. The Zayin is said to include the six days and six directions of physical reality (Creation), but it also stands as a unique 7th principle or energy, the spirit (or will) which activates the physical, the life-force (the will to power), and thus could be said to be associated with the will and desire (the will to power and the individual will, Eros and Psyche). The Life-force (the Will to Power) is connected with Time. The Zayin participates in the source of all movement, the Shin of the primordial fire, and is associated with Time and we can see this Shin influence from path 19 (The Star #17). We see here the mysterious connection between Being and Time. We see in it the mysterious connection between theoretical, projective thought that is the principle of reason and the creative imagination fused together into a principle of being.

The Zayin’s true foundations are in Love (Tiferet) and in Eros. The sword of Zayin is the arrow of Eros. The Zayin, whether it be a sword or an arrow, is a penetrating, an impregnating principle which activates the making of the artist or technē in the realm of Yetzirah. This making illustrates the connection between the creative and the erotic impulses, the erotic understood as both a principle of need and of fullness. The true artist creates out of need; the lesser artist does not do so. The contraries of rest and movement are symbolized in the letter, rest as an indication of fullness and movement as an indicator of desire or need.

Zayin is drawn with a Vav with a crown on top of it. We have discussed Vav as the deceptive ‘hook’ that emanates from Tiferet to Binah. It is said that the crowns have been added to the Hebrew letters in order to ward off evil or destructive powers, and they are said to hide the hidden sources of Torah. These hidden sources derive from Tiferet, and the evil finds its roots in the seeing that is The Devil of Vav. This would appear to indicate that the Vav as interpreted above is correct, and that the hidden sources of the Torah are the Same as the Fortunate One, the Ain, indicated in the translation of the 16^th path. Since Zayin is movement from Tiferet to Chesed with the element of fire predominating, this would suggest that the fire is a ‘holy fire’ directed by the Sun, while the Vav is the reflected light of the Moon. Both Zayin and Nun represent paths by means of which one penetrates through the enclosures that are represented in Chet and Tet, but what is clear is that these paths proceed through the physical, material world. The body is our infallible judge.

Shaped like a sword, the Zayin represents all movement. It represents the strife between contraries, the struggle for existence to overcome need, the struggle for sustenance (מזון). It is the struggle between Yaakov Jacob and the angel. The difficulty presented is that in the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, Jacob is victorious. What is given to one when one is victorious over the Divine emissary sent to one?

Through the influence of Tiferet and its connection to the Logos, the Zayin is the power within a person that causes them to speak, initiate, and live; it is a principle of being. It is in this way that it is connected to the erotic understood in its broad sense, its true sense, which is the experience of need, the experience of our ‘perfect imperfection’. The crossing over to the path of Vav would appear to indicate that a choice has to be made with regard to how one will view the world. Human beings, it would appear, have a choice whether the Creation will be the paradise it is intended to be or something else altogether. This choice is presented to us in the NOW.

When we are speaking of the path of ‘desiring and seeking’, we are addressing the manner in which eros and the will come to operate in the human consciousness. We are speaking of the thymoeides and the logistikon parts of the human soul. The will is associated with the operation or application of reason and our principles of reason are based on 3 essential principles: the “I” principle or the ego cogito of the Self, the principle of contradiction where the human being is not to contradict themselves in speech, and the principle of sufficient reason (“nothing is without reason (or a reason)”. This principle of reason operates before thought and determines the manner of thinking; and it ascribes values to things i.e., it bestows the “blessing” on things which determine the end to which they will be ‘used’. It involves completion and ‘justice’.

The “divine influx” is the urge or need to seek that which is desired. That which is desired is that which is sought: “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also”. This seeking requires movement and movement is the influence of Mem and Shin. Mem deals with the appetites, while Shin deals with the ‘head’, thought or reason. How the Alef comes to operate here is key for the Alef is the heart. The ‘progress’ or ‘evolution’ of the human being is to be seen here. It is through the principle of reason that human beings use the things of the world to shape them into the ends that they have determined. This is the universe of Yetzirah. This influence of Shin comes from the meeting of Netzach with the crossover path from Hod to Netzach that is the 29^th path (The Natural Intelligence) which shall be discussed below under the emanations from Netzach.

According to Case, the Twenty-first Path is associated with the letter Kaf (double 4) כ, meaning ‘hand’, and is the third path proceeding from Chesed. Once again, this may not be so. “Conciliation”, or more properly “Re-conciliation”, is a product of mediation, and neither Kaf nor Chesed contain these attributes. Kaf is one of the seven doubles in the Hebrew alphabet and so the possibilities of its interpretations are two-fold. According to the H.T., the 21^st path is represented by the letter Peh, פ meaning ‘mouth’, also one of the double letters (double 5). The letter Peh might be more appropriately assigned to The Hierophant card #5 as both the ‘hand’ and the ‘mouth’ are “enclosures” in their own ways. The mouth through words can create ‘enclosures’ and from within these enclosures thought can be suppressed. “Conciliation” creates freedom; the enclosures of the mouth and hand suppress freedom.

The twenty-first Path is also called “the Desired and Sought Consciousness” and it expresses the need that human beings feel which requires the “divine influence” of Grace to reconcile this need and its fulfillment. The act of mediation, of conciliation or reconciliation, is the Grace of God; to be receptive to this Grace is meditation, thought, contemplation and prayer. But where and how does the light of the Grace of God become the darkness that is characteristic of our being in the world? Is it the point where one has to choose between Will and Love and how either of these two will allow the individual to conciliate or reconcile the ‘need’ that human beings experience in their perfect imperfection?

The Hebrew words within the paths are “hunger”, “thirst” and “emptiness” and they express the desire to fill that emptiness or absence which is the essence of human being and which leads the individual on a “quest” for their fulfillment. This need is experienced as erotic, and illustrates one of two sides of Eros who is described as Fullness and Need. That the word erotic has become associated with the sexual only in our modern age is an indicator of how far we have descended into the darkness. The created world and the human body are both the roots of this need and yet at the same time are the doorways to the fulfilment of the need. That need may be sexual or that need may be philosophical. The letter Dalet is appropriately associated with the Sephirot Netzach and the tarot card The Chariot #7, and I have associated it with path 26 The Renewing Intelligence. The letter assigned to The Chariot in the Tarot given in the illustration is Chet ח meaning ‘enclosure’ which indicates the human being as an ‘embodied soul’. There seems to be connections between ‘hand’, ‘mouth’, and ‘enclosure’ or ‘body’ and each of these may be said to be double-edged in that they are capable of both positive and negative outcomes.

The receptivity of the individual to the divine influence that is Grace is a paradoxical “passivity” i.e., it is an “active passivity” in that the human being “let’s be” (what we mean by the word “amen”) that which “flows into it” from Grace’s blessing on all that exists. It is the contrary of the Twentieth Path which is an “active” path of the preparation of things for their completion which is primarily a human doing, an act of human will. The “divine influence” is that which allows things to be, the perfection which allows ‘the rain to fall in equal amounts upon the just and the unjust’.

With the Twenty-first Path, things appear differently so that the Charioteer, the soul, is able to “see” the things in their essence and to recognize the “divine influence” present in them. They are able to recognize that the Divine Presence (parousia) in the created things of the world is not a noun but a verb, that the Grace offered by the Divine Presence is actively present at all times in the things of the world, and it is visible to us through their Beauty. This realization of the belonging together of things and their Being is brought to us by our thought, meditation, contemplation, and prayer. This contemplation or thinking is a grasping, a taking in, a letting come to presence for the thinking. It is a ‘beholding’. When this occurs, things “stand” before one in their essence and are recognized in their Otherness.

The Twenty-first Path is part of the linkage of the three Sephirot Chesed, Tiferet, and Netzach: seeing, beauty, and the confrontation that is the differentiation of thinking (the principle of reason as outlined here) and thought. The Tree of Life discriminates between that thinking which is active, commandeering, and domineering, which it places on the left-hand side and which belongs to Binah and to the letter Shin and thus to Will, and that thinking which is passive-receptive, which it places on the right-hand side and which belongs to Chakmah, Chesed, and Netzach. The bond between thinking and Being, or Life, is such that a meditative thinker is able to see things according to themselves, free from the dualities of subject-object (representational) thinking. Things cannot be understood by viewing them as ready-to-hand objects made present to fulfil our needs through the viewing that is the technological (the principle of reason). They must be allowed to be in their true being so that we may view the Divine Presence within them. This movement is the upward direction on the Tree of Life and its achievement is the true success or victory of the Charioteer. It is the victory over the individual self or ego.

In Rawn’s commentary on the paths and their relation to the Hebrew tree, the 21^st path is associated with the Tarot card The Tower #16, but the interpretation Rawn gives is that the lightning bolt which strikes the crown of The Tower comes from Gevurah, which is in error. It is Gevurah which is struck by the lightning. Gevurah is represented by The Hierophant #5, and The Tower is #15 (in my view of the Tarot), and it represents the necessary evolution of the false and sometimes delusional collective or cultish religious views, the views of those who think that they alone are in possession of the truth.

The lightning bolt descends from the Sun (Truth) which is associated with Tiferet and Keter, and below the lightning bolt is a representation of the Tree of Life on the right side and twelve representations on the left which could be twelve yods, or twelve “I”s or “egos”, the twelve houses of Israel (all of humanity) or the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The ten of the Tree of Life and the twelve on the left side of The Tower could be the twenty-two letters of the alphabet and implies speech’s ability to be both true and false. This could represent what occurs when one misunderstands the 32 paths of wisdom, so it is cautionary in nature. When the ego of the individual is enclosed within the mouth of the collective, stupidity is the result. Free thought ceases. Truth is the ‘uncovering’ of the things that are; falsehood is the ‘covering over’ of things that are not. Falsehood is at the root of all lies.

“The desire which fulfills” is the desire for the Good, that desire which can fulfil the need to overcome the imperfectability of human being which is our mortality. Gevurah is the terminus, the finality, the sempiternal nature of the Law of Necessity. It is connected to Hod > Justice which is the manifestation of the “plan” in its reality or ontic form (Mem). The Gevurah aspect of this ‘plan’ is realized in the creation of conventional laws and the political requirements that go into creating a society, a city, a polis.

The ‘desire which fulfills’ and the awareness of it is the ability to distinguish the Necessary from the Good, to have the ‘strength’ to overcome the desire to ‘consume’ or ‘eat’ (the association with the ‘mouth’, Eve’s eating of the apple of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden and its association with the Fall of humanity) the beauty of the world rather than simply to contemplate it in wonder. The inability to do so causes one to succumb to the second temptation of Christ: that temptation that leads to power and prestige in the realm of the social. Without such awareness and knowledge, one may take the path of Peh. As procreation is the desire which fulfills the appetitive part of the soul, the ‘immortality’ that is found in fame and prestige is an attempt to fulfill the desire for immortality on the part of the thymoeidic part of the soul.

This would seem to imply that false views of the Sephirot result in disaster because they are a false faith. This would associate The Tower with the Tower of Babel, the attempt to build a stairway to the heavens without divine help, which is itself a metaphor for thinking that one has sole possession of the Truth. This is indicated by the letter Peh, meaning ‘mouth’, and would convey the false teachings issuing from the mouth. These false teachings are considered a “blessing on all that exists”; and from the view of the world as technological this may be rightly so, since the technological requires the oblivion of eternity and humanity’s conveying of ‘blessings’ (values) on all that exists. The ascent to “loving kindness and mercy”, God’s grace, is “a consummation devoutly to be wished” once one experiences the effects of The Tower.

The path’s language clearly describes a relation of mediation: the divine influence > comes about as a result of (effect of) the beauty of the world > which, in turn, is given to the soul through Love which is the blessing conferred upon all that exists (Grace). This point or path may be the key to the whole of the Sefer Yetzirah. The Lightning Bolt of Zeus (Keter) is not the product of Gevurah, but of the Divine will that destroys the delusions and illusions of those who think they can build a “stairway to heaven”. The Tower is the card of revolution: history. It is historical human being. It is movement, par excellence, and thus has an affinity to the letter Zayin. The ability to distinguish the necessary from the Good places one at the centre of the Wheel and one can view the world’s passing (at the same time, paradoxically) from the circumference of the sphere without being subject to its turning. (King Lear Act V Sc iii). By succumbing to the second temptation, one is constantly longing for the “meaning and purpose” of life which one must learn from Life itself, that it is Life itself.

In the Tarot, The Lovers card #6 has the angel Raphael (or Eros)as the mediator between the Divine and the individual soul, the bringing together of male and female. Here it is assigned with the letter Zayin which literally translated means ‘manacle’. A manacle is used for a prisoner or a slave; here the bond between two people is one that is freely chosen. “What God has joined together let no man set asunder” is the bond freely chosen. The manacle is the bond that is not freely chosen or the bond that is chosen in error. This is why The Devil card #16 has the figures manacled to the black cube upon which the Beast roosts. It is an ersatz bond, a false covenant. The cube of The Devil is symbolic of how one views the world. The High Priestess #2 and The Emperor #4 sit upon cubes; The Chariot’s charioteer stands within a cube; The Hierophant sits upon a black throne which presumably has a black cube as its base which is hidden by the robes that he wears. The revealing of the truth of The Hierophant would reveal this black cube for the ‘reality’ of what it is.

Christ says: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name (Love), there am I in the midst (between, alongside) of them.” This is Christ as the Parousia and as the Logos. When Christ says this, He is speaking to a crowd of two or three hundred and is physically present. Whether Christ is present in a gathering of two or three hundred or thousand when He is not physically present is something of a difficult question which Catholics have attempted to answer through the ceremony of the Mass and the sacrament of Holy Communion celebrated therein, where Christ’s presence is called upon to be among a crowd. Christ’s presence as a mediator between two or three is ever-present and its realization is possible in the NOW.

Paul Foster Case’s placing of The High Priestess at Tiferet does not seem to be correct. Her presence is more appropriate as a lead to The Emperor #4 and The Chariot cards #7. In each of these cards, the figure sits upon or stands within a cubic shape showing their ties to that dimension and the limitations of seeing the world. The cube is, symbolically, the body. This cubic shape is also shared by The Devil and, presumably, by The Hierophant. However, the line of Keter, Tiferet and Yesod as the Light, air, fire, beauty and foundation of the physical world does make sense if one aligns the cards to the central pillar of the Tree of Life. There are connections between The High Priestess, The Chariot and The Emperor cards for they share a number of visual similarities. When we view the Tree of Life, they are appropriately placed on the right side, on the side of Mercy and Kindness. But how is The Emperor to be seen as a benevolent ruler?

Keter is joined directly to Tiferet by the letter Alef, one of the three Mothers and the letter Beth after the light passes through the veil of creation or the Logos. Through Tiferet, it is also directly linked to Yesod or the Foundation of the physical world (the law of Necessity, the human body). Yesod is the Foundation created by Beauty; it is not the Foundation of Beauty. The letter Beth, meaning “house”, links Keter to Tiferet and thus to the Beauty of the World. Chakmah is linked to Binah by one of the three Mothers Alef Mem Shin (commentators usually assign Shin to this linkage, but I have assigned both Mem, emanating from Chakmah, and Shin, emanating from Binah to this horizontal path). Chesed is linked to Chakmah by the letter Gimel .Case in his outline appears to follow a chronological order to the Hebrew alphabet which is not how it is assigned to the Tree of Life nor to the movements or emanations within the sphere itself that is the world as it is presented in the Hebrew Tree and in the Sefer Yetzirah itself. The formation of language mirrors the process of the Creation itself, and this does not appear to be a step-by-step algorithmic process.

The movements outlined in the Tree of Life are circular or gyric formations. When one proceeds down the right side, one is following the downward movements of Mem or water until one reaches Malkhut, the widest expansion. When one reaches Malkhut, then the upward movement of Shin or fire takes over, and this is a narrowing or focusing of the gyres’ movements. It signifies a return to the Foundation or base. Movements along the paths themselves within the Tree will be determined by whether Mem as water or Shin as fire predominates; or in other words, whether the head (Shin), or the gut or appetite (Mem), or the heart (Alef), prevails. These gyring movements have also been referred to as “steps” (Plato’s Symposium and Diotima’s “ladder of love”) from which one may leap forward or upward or move in the opposite direction.

This has a number of similarities to the characteristics of The Chariot card of the Tarot and to The Sanctifying Intelligence that is third path of Wisdom. The “holy powers”, again, are the naming of things, that which distinguishes human beings from other created beings, our ability to use language and to name. From this path we can discern that the Gnostics were incorrect in attributing evil to the demiourgos, and that the created world is one of evil. It is more appropriate to say that the created world is one of deprivation and need, and this deprivation and need are present from the beginning of the creation. The created world is a ‘house’ that human beings make a ‘home’ through their use of language and number.

Paul Foster Case’s interpretations of the paths run into some contradictions here (or so it seems to me) because he confuses the Necessary with the Good. The Good is beyond Being. The Light that is Keter might be understood as the Highest Crown (since the crowns are associated with the letters), but they are not the “primordial emanation”. If The Fool is represented by the letter Alef and is the channel to Chakmah or Wisdom, how is “wisdom” being defined here? Wisdom is “knowledge of the whole” which The Fool clearly does not have unless we are considering reincarnation here (which is entirely possible. See Appendix regarding Plato’s writings on Republic and Phaedrus).

In this life, it is not given to human beings to have knowledge of the whole of which they are a part. With the creation of numbers, Time also comes into being; and with it the recognition of Space. With Time comes Memory. It is our Memory of the original Good that creates the absence/presence of human existence and the longing, the erotic need, for completion in the Good. The Beauty of the created world acts as a souvenir, a photograph or image that gives us the Memory of that which is our proper end or perfection, our completion. Thus, Plato can say: “Time is the moving image of eternity”, but it must be remembered that these images of which Time is composed are merely shadows. Our collective knowledge, which is our collective Memory, derives from our understanding of the Laws of Necessity, our opinions or doxa regarding Necessity. Necessity itself is the will of God i.e., Justice.

A Commentary on “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” Chapter Two

The Paths Emanating From Chokmah

There are five paths emanating from Chokmah:

The Radiant Intelligence #2 (Chokmah itself)
The Illuminating Intelligence #14 Chokmah > Binah (with an emphasis on Mem) Blue
The Intelligence of Transparency #12 (The Glowing Intelligence) Chokmah > Chesed Letter: Gimel ג Green
The Enduring Intelligence #16 Chokmah > Tiferet Letter: Heh ה Yellow
Intelligence (Consciousness) of the House of Influence #18 Chokmah > Gevurah Letter: Chet ח Red

A variety of paths extend from Chokmah which has been designated The Illuminating or Radiant Intelligence (Consciousness) #2 in this commentary. If the sephirot themselves are “paths”, then they are primary in importance relative to the secondary paths which emanate from them. The sephirot themselves are not in motion since they are “eternal”, and motion is Time. The sephirot themselves would be not so much “paths” as “destinations”. Whether or not the paths themselves are in motion or not is a very perplexing question. Since the paths are “private” paths (netivot), how they will be experienced and traversed is an individual matter; but the Sephirot themselves cannot be private paths nor can they be seen as ‘individual’ in any way. The Sephirot are more akin to archetypes, and the illumination of their paths and meanings is shown to us through our art and literature.

Truth is not “subjective”, nor does it belong to the single individual. The Light of Keter is not an individual light but is present for all to behold. How it will be beheld is another matter, and how it will illuminate the things of the world is not an individual matter. Truth is one. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what then do we mean by “beholding”? What is the manner in which this “beholding” has, is, and will take place? At the same time, the source of Keter’s light is beyond human understanding and is in and of the world of Atzilut, which in itself is beyond both Time and Space.

The images of the Tarot are those of the symbols (the images generated by the paths taken) and the archetypes (the representations of the Sephirot) that meet in them and consolidate the various paths in them. The whole journey of the Tarot may be said to mirror the “the hero’s journey” in the way its story unfolds for the individual; and a reading through the use of the cards is the bringing to light that individual’s journey. The individual’s experience may be said to be ‘subjective’, but its meaning is not nor is it confined to the individual ego. Our human being in the world is a being-with-others and our being-with-the-Other (World). How we interpret and understand others and the Other will in turn determine the manner of our being-with-others in our various world(s) i.e. our politics, our ethics, and our loves. (“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. Matthew 6: 21)

Alef provides the illumination to the gloom of Chokmah through the influence of Tiferet, and this illumination is “reflected” by Chokmah to the other seven Sephirot below the primary triangle that is Keter, Chalkmah, and Binah. This illumination is rightly associated with the Moon, since Keter is associated with the Sun and the Moon reflects the Sun’s light, just as water reflects the light of both sun and moon. Chokmah is associated with Mem, water, and this Alef/Mem combination meets with Shin along the first horizontal path of the Tree of Life, crossing over the path of Alef to Tiferet. This crossing over brings about the occurrence of the Creation which results from the production (understood as a ‘bringing-forth’, a poiesis, a ‘procreation’) of the Logos (the Word) which is the meeting point of Alef, Mem and Shin on that first horizontal path (the Cause of Causes). From this meeting, the letters and numbers are manifested and produced and we have the AlefBeth or alphabet. This crossover path can be the first or final re-birth of the individual soul, the first when on the descent i.e. birth, the final when on the ascent i.e. a “death”.

Chokmah or path #2 is associated with the Illuminating or Radiant Intelligence. This is discussed in greater detail in the paths emanating from Keter. The influence of this Radiant or Illuminating Intelligence #2 must be kept in mind when interpreting the paths that emanate from Chakmah.

The Second Path: The Illuminating Intelligence

2. Radiant Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Maz’hir): This is the Crown of creation and the radiance of the homogeneous unity that “exalts itself above all as the Head”. The Masters of the Kabbalah call it the “Second Glory”.

The Second Path is that of the Illuminating Intelligence. It is the Crown of Creation, the Splendour of the Unity, equalling it, and it is exalted above every head, and named by the Kabbalists the Second Glory.

Alt. Trans. “The second path is that of the illuminating consciousness. It is the crown (Keter) of creation (Beriyah), the splendour of the unity, like unto that which “exalts itself as the head over all.” The masters of kabbalah call it the second glory.”

Wescott trans. The Second Path is that of the Illuminating Intelligence: it is the Crown of Creation, the Splendour of the Unity, equalling it, and it is exalted above every head, and named by the Kabalists the Second Glory.

Case trans. The second path (Chokmah, the second Sephirah) is called the Illuminating Intelligence, and it is the Crown of Creation, and the Splendour of Unity, to which it is the most nearly approximate. In the mouths of the Masters of the Qabalah it is called the Second Glory.

The letter Mem is water mayim מים, the waters of wisdom, knowledge, the Torah, and is thus associated with education and learning at times. It is the middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet. When representing both the waters and manifestation, it requires the illumination from the Light of Keter or the illumination that comes from the fire that is Shin. Otherwise, it is transparent. The meeting point of Mem, Alef, and Shin is the point of the Logos, the Word, and it is said that in every person is the thirst or need for the words of the Creator, which are the waters of life, what Plato called the logistikon in his tripartite view of the soul. Without such a thirst (eros), human beings are not fully human. This thirst is the revealing of truth through the logos.

The open Mem (shown above) refers to the revealed aspects of the Divine such as the Beauty of the World, while the closed Mem ם refers to the concealed part of the Laws of Necessity that nonetheless guide us and all of existence. The open Mem is that which allows the Word to penetrate the soul. In these writings, it is the distinction between Thought and thought, or Love and will, the two faces of Eros. How we understand and interpret the logos will determine how we will view our worlds.

The High Priestess #2, The Emperor #4, and The Devil #16 cards of the Tarot are set upon closed Mems which are cubic in shape. Mem, when influenced by Shin, represents our urges and our will (the thymoeides part of the soul), and it also represents the time necessary for ripening. It is a representation of the lower form of eros. It indicates to us the importance and need of balanced emotions and of the humility that are aspects of the pillar of Jakim when influenced by Tiferet or Love. These balanced emotions are what are called phronesis (wise judgement) and sophrosyne (moderation, prudence) here. In the past, such dispositions were called “human virtue” or “human excellence”. Today, we seem to have lost any notion of what “human excellence” means although it vaguely remains close to us.

Mem is the manifest symbol of the Holy Spirit which sometimes appears as a “dove of peace” or as “tongues of fire” indicating prophetic speech. Being “exalted above every head” indicates its relationship to Space and to its downward movement; it is associated with the heavens. The closed Mem is indicative of that thinking which drives the technological, whose apogee is to be found in artificial intelligence where a uniform meta-language is the goal i.e. a false reversal of the true speech.

Mem corresponds to the number 40 and represents the time necessary for the ripening process that leads to fruition. (40 days for the development of the embryo, 40 years in the desert before reaching the holy land, 40 years development before Moses was prepared to be the leader of Israel, the 40 days that Christ fasted in the desert before he was tempted by Satan). These will be discussed in more detail when we speak of the paths emanating from Chokmah. The 40 days are symbolic of Memory and of recollection, what Plato referred to as anamnesis.

The Mem also teaches us about the will and balanced emotions – balancing the watery motions of our feelings, giving them shape. And it is about humility – water is the substance that always runs downhill to the lowest place. Fire, on the other hand, always rises.

The Second Path also illustrates that which has been called the “mathematical” in this writing i.e., “that which can be learned and that which can be taught”. It appears that the Sefer Yetzirah indicates the Whole is that which can be learned and that which can be taught i.e., it is infinite potentiality and possibility. The “mathematical” would be indicated by the letter Lamed ל or “study”, “the serpent uncoiled”. What can be learned or what can be taught are the 7 Pillars of Wisdom or the areas of knowledge, the subjects that are studied.

In order for some thing to be learned, it must first be brought to a “stand” or bounded within a horizon so that it may be “de-fined” and a name given to it so that it may be spoken about. This is path #4 The Measuring, Arresting and Receptive Intelligence which will be discussed in Chapter 4 under Chesed. The “numerations” weigh and measure things so that they are brought out of their natural state of metabole or change into something that can be known i.e., they are given a “permanence” of some kind, a “stability” of some kind. Through the ‘measuring’ of the logos, they are ‘arrested’ and brought to a ‘stand’ and then are able to be ‘received’ by the senses. This is, in essence, what we mean by “beholding”: the “holding” is done through the “arresting” which brings them into “being” i.e. be-holding. Numbers are only one example of the “mathematical”. The manner of seeing that results from the “consistency” or reliability of the use of numbers is but one manner of accounting for the laws of Necessity and the relation of created things to the domains of time and space.

The Second Path also indicates the limits of human reason and intelligence and so gives us an awareness of, or consciousness of, the Mystical Intelligence #1. This suggests the limits of our knowledge in the realm or world of Beriyah. Our limited reason and intelligence puts us in a position of suspension (The Hanged Man #12), waiting on God to descend and offer to us His Grace which is received in the card of Strength #11 in the ascent.

The ultimate flowering of the principle of reason which is being described here is artificial intelligence which is a complete self-contained, self-enclosed world based on the principle of reason. This is the closed Mem. I have tried to give a metaphor for this enclosed world by assigning the letters Chet and Tet to it as offspring of the closed Mem.

Historically, after Descartes, humans are experienced 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 or judgements and thus sets itself over against this world, and the world becomes understood as “object”. The world itself has no meaning of its own; the human mind gives it its meaning. The subject-predicate and the reasons for their connections must be rendered back to the representing “I”. This reason is a ratio, an account given to the judging “I” regarding the thing. The account must not contradict itself and must render sufficient reasons for the thing being as it is. This is the logos as ‘logic’. When the reasons have been rendered, the thing comes to a stand as an object, an object for a representing subject. The completeness of the reasons to be rendered is the ‘perfection’ of the thing’s stand as an object as firmly established for human cognition or consciousness. The “account” means that all can rely on the account rendered. Everything “counts” as existing only as a calculable object for cognition.

We could say that this world of artificial intelligence creates a state of suspension represented by The Hanged Man #12 who is suspended between the realms of the physical and the spiritual (or the invisible) and he expresses the limits placed on the theoretical knowledge that derive from the principle of reason. He is depicted as suspended from the letter Chet ח meaning ‘enclosure’ in the Tarot deck illustrated here. This enclosure is also represented by the cube.

The letter assigned to The Hanged Man by the illustrator of the Tarot here is Tet ט meaning ‘snake’, and this also suggests the limits that are placed on human knowledge when it is tied to material things. The traditional reason why the snake has been considered as evil in the West is because he is tied to the earth. He is the opposite of the Eastern dragon who is capable of flight and of fire and is considered a symbol of good; a dragon is, literally, the serpent that flies. The serpent is a symbol of the lower eros that has attached the soul to the material things of the world giving special emphasis to the epithymetikon or the physical part of the soul.

The ‘stability’ established by the principle of reason that arises from the collective or social manner/opinion of viewing the world comes about as a result of the consistency of the results of the calculations or ‘numerations’ that are carried out. This is what is considered ‘knowledge’ and would indicate a connection between The Hanged Man #12 and The Hierophant #5. The ‘numerations’ are the logoi or speech that is shared among the members of the community. I am suggesting here that the path, “The Intelligence of the House of Influx”, is represented by the letter Chet ח.

Because Alef is the source of all the letters, it is capable of both vertical and horizontal movement along the Tree of Life. The direction of Mem is back and forth and down, unless one considers the three Mothers as both horizontal and vertical and that the three Mothers are the three pillars of the Tree of Life (which is what is considered here). The three Mothers act as vowels in the formation of words and thus must be capable of both horizontal, vertical and diagonal movements and relations. Their impact will be seen in how the experience of the path unfolds.

Paul F. Case in his study of the 32 paths sees the paths as that which will lead the human community to a better universal, homogeneous State, the belief in progress. The Illuminati of the paths are those who believe themselves to be the new Übermensch, the Nietzschean “overman”, the next step in the human evolutionary chain. But they are nothing more than those who are expressing a desire to be the “helmsmen” whose use of cybernetics is the core of their power, the goal of which is the unlimited mastery of human beings by other human beings. Such will be the outcomes of artificial intelligence. Technology is inherently tyrannous.

Such progressive hopes as those of Case ignore the lessons of the Sefer Yetzirah regarding the nature of force and power. There is no “human progress” that occurs on the spiritual level along with the progress achieved on the material level. “Novelty” is not progress. The “progress” achieved on the material level is the result of the human will to power, and historical evidence seems to suggest that with the advance of technological power comes a greater increase in human bestiality, violence and destruction through the corollary decrease in human beings’ “humanity”. This was something seen by the poet William Blake in his mythology.

Morally and ethically, human beings, as a whole, have not made any significant progress from their ancestors. This is because the moral and ethical presence of what human beings truly are as human beings has always been present for them to reach out to and grasp. Because human beings lose sight of the chasm which separates the Necessary from the Good, they fail in making true progress. They come to worship power and all of its false idols. This ultimately results in the oblivion of eternity for human beings. The lower eros comes to dominate and the soul is dragged down to satisfaction of its appetitive part.

Since the end of technology is the control of Chance and Necessity to enhance human freedom, the increase in technology’s power is a devolution of the morality of human beings. It is a curious paradox of Life that as we become increasingly “technological” in our activities and pride ourselves in the knowledge that we have achieved, we become increasingly bestial i.e., technology, based as it is on the principle of reason, leads to our further bestiality, not spirituality. This may have to do with the fact that technology is ultimately destructive of the Logos (and of the higher Eros that accompanies the Logos), of that “consciousness” or “intelligence” which distinguishes human beings from other creatures. But what true way of life is to be found that is not an enemy of reason?

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’s open format represents esoteric wisdom, wisdom available to the few, while the closed format represents exoteric wisdom or the wisdom allotted to the many. This is shown by the Priestess holding a scroll with the word “Tora” inscribed on it. The revealed letters are the exoteric wisdom of the Torah, while the missing “h” (Heh) represents the esoteric qualities of the writing suggesting that ‘jubilation’ is to be found in the esoteric elements of the Torah rather than the exoteric elements. This esoteric element derives from the influence of Tiferet on Chakmah, the path that is suggested by the letter Heh.

The Path of Heh: The Stabilizing Intelligence

The letter Heh is associated with the number 5 and with ‘jubilation’. The path of the letter Heh is associated with Tiferet and Chokmah and it is “The Stabilizing Intelligence or Consciousness”. It is the root of Faith grounded in Love (Tiferet). It is the illuminating intelligence that is gifted by Love. There are two Hehs in the name of God: Ja Heh Vav Heh.

On the pillar of Jakim behind the Priestess is a Yod signifying the individual, while on the pillar of Boaz is a Beth signifying the “house” of the collective, the society, the city, the whole of creation itself. There is an element of the ‘hidden’ in our understanding of the letter Mem while, paradoxically, it suggests the transparent element of water. On the curtain behind The High Priestess are seven pomegranates in the shape of the lower Sephirot. Pomegranates are symbols of resurrection, eternal life and are significant of the victory of the soul over evil. This evokes The High Priestess’ connection with The Chariot #7 of the Tarot.

Associated with water, the influence of Mem flows downward in the Tree of Life, as the element of fire, Shin, rises upward. Mem is associated with the receptacle of Space into which the creation is received and contained and, metaphorically, the space into which words are created from the other letters. The downward movement of water also suggests gravity, the most elemental sign of the Law of Necessity, and the ‘plan’ of the Divine Will according to which all creation must succumb and submit. The third temptation of Christ is the test of our desire to ‘defy gravity’, but in doing so, to defy Necessity or the will of God itself.

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. 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 card #3) and indicates to us the importance of balanced emotions and of humility when it is connected to Netzach, the Sephirot associated with the embodied soul and The Chariot #7 of Tarot.

Mem corresponds to the number 40 and represents the time necessary for the ripening process that leads to fruition. 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: turning stones into bread; to be given all the power in the world; and the choice of suicide. All human beings ultimately face these three temptations or tests throughout their lives. The power to turn stones into bread, the desire for recognition and the power of social prestige, and the power of suicide where we must choose whether we are our own or belong to God and must not tempt God become present for us at one time or another in our lives. Suicide is a sin because it is a temptation of God.

Path 12: The Intelligence of Transparency

12. Glowing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Bahir): It is called this because it is the essence of the Ophan-wheel of Greatness. It is called the Visualizer (Chazchazit), the place that gives rise to the vision that the Seers perceive in an apparition.

Case trans. The twelfth path (Beth, joining Keter to Binah) is called the Intelligence of Transparency because it is the image of that phase of Gedulah literally (“of that wheeling of Gedulah”) which is called Khazkhazit, the source of vision in those who behold apparitions.

The Letter Gimel and the 12^th Path

The 12^th path is said to come from the verse of Genesis cited below:

Genesis 1. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and Elohim saw that it was good.

The 12^th path proceeds from Chalkmah to Chesed and it is indicated by the letter Gimel. If the 11^th path is concerned with the veil or hiddenness that is present before the Cause of Causes (the Good), then, presumably, one must have prior knowledge of what causation is in order to recognize that the Good itself, the Uncaused Cause, is hidden from our knowledge and must be experienced through faith alone. One cannot stand before the countenance of the Prince of Faces and not ‘die’ i.e., remain the individual that they are. The ‘dying’ can be either a metaphorical or a literal death. The individual can be consumed by the One itself and thus return to the One or the individual no longer exists as an ‘individual’, which seems to sometimes be the case with the saints or extraordinary persons. The 11^th path is concerned with the veil that is drawn between God and His creation through His creation. The 12th path concerns itself with the “apparitions” that result from that veiling.

The particulars of Binah make being more overt for us; we see the world in its particulars. As these particulars reveal themselves in the coming-to-be of things, the more God withdraws or hides in order to allow those particular beings to be by their coming to presence before us. The ‘limiting’ of Binah through the Logos is not a “cutting off” of something but the establishment of the site wherein and from where something commences and emerges as that which it is. It is a ‘procreative site’. This is what “The Sanctifying Intelligence” Path #3 means (and this will be discussed in the next chapter). Through the Logos’ relation to the Space that is Chokmah and Time that is Binah the a priori conditions for possibility and potentiality are given in the making-possible of that on the basis of which beings as such and as a whole are determined for human beings. This is the sephirot Chesed.

The 12^th path, “The Intelligence of Transparency”, is that part of the process of thought that creates the images of representational thinking through the individual human being. It links Chokmah to Chesed. It is the ‘clothing’ which provides the outward appearance of things in their emergence but yet hides the essence of those things. The spiritual essence of things is “wrapped” or “assembled” so as to make them ‘present’ before us as a sum of their parts. It is called the ‘revelation’ in one of the translations above. It could also be called an ‘epiphany’.

The past is the Memory element of Chakmah, the looking back of The Fool as he proceeds with his leap; the present is the ‘revelation’ of the physical creation through the senses; and the future is the outcome of the said ‘visions’. It is the manner in which one perceives the visions that is most important. This process is at the root of what we call scientific and artistic ‘seeing’. (This is shown most clearly in Bk VII of Plato’s Republic where those who are able to make predictions about what shadows will pass by next are those who are most ‘honoured’ in the society.) What we have here is the initiation of the possibility of both nature and freedom, nature being that constraint given by the Law of Necessity and freedom being the empowerment of the mind through the principle of reason as will to power.

The translations provided of the 12^th path indicate a number of possibilities for interpretation. In the Case translation, we are given the idea that 12^th path is the site where one can apprehend that Gedulah or Chesed which is the spiraling motion of the gyre (“that wheeling of Gedulah”) which is the source of the vision of those who behold the “apparitions” of “prophecies”. This beholding is how one views the world of Becoming. Some connections to the whirling dervishes of the Sufis may be made here, I think. The dervishes gyres are not an expansion but a focus on the point of spirituality.

In the alignment of the Hebrew letters to the paths and to the Tarot, there seems to be some confusion with regard to the eleventh and twelfth paths. It would appear to me that The Fool is poised prior to the “fall into the abyss” that will become his or her journey and so stands at the top point of the Wheel of Fortune (#10) which represents the sephirot Malkhut. The Fool’s journey will be a journey upward, an ascent. The Magician (#1) occupies the ascent position since he is associated with the fire of Shin and the element of air from Alef which, in turn, are associated with the human will. The Strength card occupies the descent position, but here the descent is on the part of God to deliver His grace to the figure of Strength who has completed the journey and receives the gift from the Divine. To align these with the Tarot, the Magician #1, the Strength #11, and The World #21 belong together, while The Fool #0, The Wheel of Fortune #10, and the Judgement #20 are also aligned. The choice of The Fool as he makes his leap into the abyss of being is represented by Path #25 “The Intelligence of Trials” (Temptations) and the Judgement #20 card.

If we consider the Sephirot themselves to be paths, the twelfth path seems to refer to the emanations of Chakmah, which appropriately belong to The High Priestess (#2). The artist makes use of the influence of the archetypes of the unconscious and gives them shape and form in order to produce a work. The archetypes have always been present prior to the artist’s being. They are the “apparitions” of the visions that the artist sees; they are ‘shadows’, things without substance, for the things themselves belong to the future. The “visions” are the things seen by the prophets and they are symbolic of the predictive speech of the prophets i.e., the “highest speech”. In our society today, science holds this highest honour for it, too, is “predictive speech” since it can pronounce on the outcomes of various events with some certainty.

In this state, the artist is The Hanged Man #12, that stage prior to the process of “making” the thing, the stage prior to taking action, the “work” to be done. In the ascent direction, this would be the path leading from Malkhut to Hod or the completion of the thing, what was referred to as Justice previously and is rendered by The Judgement card #20. (This is the significance of the titles of the three great works of Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Critique of Judgement.) The words and numbers the artist needs are already present for him. His path is on the descent, since he is in the process of creation. The desire of human beings to create art and to procreate their species is the longing for the Incarnation. It is the urge given to us by Eros.

This descent that is creation is illustrated by the fact that the figure in The Hanged Man #12 hangs upside down within the ‘enclosure’ represented by the letter Chet and which is Path #18 from Chokmah to Gevurah. This suggests that there is something askew with his seeing of things.

What is askew is that the path that he is on is not influenced by Tiferet. The woman figure of the Strength card, on the other hand, is “prudence” who embodies the Greek idea of sophrosyne or “nothing too much, nothing too little”. She is on the ascent viewing of the Tree of Life as she is concerned with the quality of things, the inner essence of things. The Magician #1 is concerned with those things that come to be through human making, while Strength #11 is concerned with those things that come to be through the Grace of God. It is here a matter of the viewing: whether one sees “as through a glass darkly”, which I believe is the essence of the viewing of The Magician #1, or whether one sees “face-to-face” the true essence of the things that are, which I believe is the essence of the viewing that is illustrated in the Strength card #11. The Strength is one of the bridges between the world of Yetzirah, the world of The Magician, and that of Beriyah (or between the world of Asiyah and that of Yetzirah?). Strength has the elements of the world of Atzilut as is shown in the light of the colour yellow being either the Sun or the Light of Keter.

The Life-force or the dynamis is what the Greeks understood as metabole or change, motion. All of us experience the whirling, swirling motion of Life as it realizes itself in Time. In terms of the Kabbalah, this is the influence of Keter. The “perception” of an “apparition” or a “vision” is that of the outward appearances of things. These are but the “shades” or “shadows” of things in the ascent. Again, the paths of ascension see the things in the “reflected light” of Malkhut, not in the true light of Keter. It is not until they pass through Tiferet that the perceptions of things are no longer that of shadows but of the true essence of the things. While the closest we have to our understanding of the “spiritual” is “energy” the spiritual is, of course, more than that. We align energy with power, force and will.

The “revelation” here is the concrete, factual world of Yetzirah or “formation” and the “majesty” (Kingdom) that is the created world or Nature. To be “transparent” is to be able “to see through” or perhaps “to see by the means of…” One is reminded of the words of St. Paul: “For now we see as through a glass, darkly, but there we will see face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) “Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” The “knowing in part” is represented by The Hanged Man #12, while the knowing “even as also I am known” is that of the Strength card #11. This passage is an indication that all human beings are “one”. Knowing this allows one to be capable of Mercy, Compassion and Loving Kindness which is indicated by the Sephirot Chesed, but this is only achieved through the prior influence of Tiferet.

After Beth establishes the existence of the duality of two different types of being identified as Space and that which encloses Space and is beyond Space i.e., Time, through the presence of the Logos, Gimel arises to resolve and harmonize these two different types of Being through Time. The imposition of limits on the unlimited suggests that both Space and Time are one and the same, and that the imposition of limits is not a “cutting off” but the site wherein and from where being emerges and commences as that which it is, what we have come to call Nature. This ties in with the idea of Creation as a withdrawal rather than an expansion as is commonly believed. We conceive of Time as linear and that as we grow older, we “expand” in terms of our lives and their experiences. But this expansion is, in reality, a withdrawal of the One to give the “open space” that allows those experiences and our lives to be. (The following statement from the Bible indicates this: “He said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt: 18:3. This humility is further in evidence in the letter Dalet.)

Gimel links and balances the Aleph and Beth, between Space and Time by providing limits to the unlimited and, in this provision of limits, allows the particular things to be. This associates the letter Gimel with the third path of the “sanctifying intelligence” that is related to Shin and to Binah, but this association is a mirrored association. All particular beings are “holy”, and it is knowledge of their particular “holiness”, their hidden truth, that is the ‘sanctifying intelligence’ which, through its unveiling of this hidden truth, provides the foundation of Trust which in turn establishes the Faith that is rooted in Love (Tiferet).

Our modern view of the world is one of doubt: we begin by doubting everything and arrive at our truths through questioning and examining things as objects and by challenging them to give us their reasons for being as they are. This examining and challenging is associated with reason and the will. This is done through our application of the mathematical project or projection. While this initial doubting is necessary in the quest, it must be enclosed within the broader embrasure of Trust.

Gimel is a letter of constant transformation, change and motion, and translates literally as “camel”, an animal we associate with its ability to retain water while being in motion. The transformation, change, and motion relates to both the elements of fire and to Shin as well as to water and Mem. This is its connection with the 14^th path, “The Illuminating Intelligence”. Gimel includes the contraries of both giving and receiving, reward and punishment, fire and water, creating balance and motion between these contraries. This would seem to be a contradiction of the constancy of Faith and Trust, but Gimel relates more to how we relate to change and motion and the experiences of our lives, that is, that they must be experienced with Faith and Trust i.e., Love.

Gimel resolves the giver and receiver (Aleph and Beth), so it represents giving and receiving. The Creation is the gift of God; we are the ones who receive this gift. In the company of the influx of Tiferet into Chokmah and Chesed, it represents kindness and cultivation, the organic nurturance that causes things to grow (Hebrew Gamol גמול means to nourish until ripe, גמילה – weaning child, ripening fruit ) and refers to the ‘life-force’ that is present in Nature and created things, the procreative force (eros). This life-force is the combination of Mem and Shin. This is why it is associated with The Empress card #3 of the Tarot here.

This life-force can be mistaken for Will and will to power. The West has always been of the view that Nature’s “scarcity” must be attacked and overcome. The view of the Sepher Yetzirah is that Nature is an example of the over-abundance of God and that is why Chesed is sometimes referred to as “The Intelligence of the Over-Abundance” (Path #4). For the philosopher Nietzsche, will to power is “the stamping (marking) of becoming with the character of being”. This stamping or marking is the done through the principle of reason understood as giving permanence to the chaotic change and movement that is Becoming.

Gimel גמול also means “giving”, and the leg of the Gimel is said to represent the rich man running to give charity to the poor (represented by the 4th letter Dalet, the path from Chesed to Netzach). This metaphor signifies the Creator’s eternal presence and benevolence to all creation, manifested with abundant life and prosperity (the life-force), but also the movement of the Creator to give Grace across the expanse that is the realm of Necessity. It seems to suggest that as the Creator further withdrew into and from His Creation, those further points of the Creation were deprived of the presence of God to a greater degree. This is the widening of the gyres at their outer reaches. The giving and receiving aspects of the letter Gimel also illustrate that the World itself is ‘moral’ and ethical in its being.

The Gimel also represents reward and punishment. The word גמול represents the giving of both reward and punishment. The laws of the created world are two-fold: Natural Law and Conventional Law. Natural Law is the permanent law of the realm of Necessity; Conventional Law is the law instituted by human beings which is constantly in motion and subject to change. Both types of Law are based on the rule of Judgment – blessings are able to flow to those who act justly and they do so through the Light, while wrongdoing or sin blocks the receipt of goodness and abundance, or what we mean by grace. It is important to recognize that in the Sefer Yetzirah, the whole of creation is seen as ethical. In the prayer of the Our Father of Christians, we ask the Lord “to forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. This suggests that in the matter of ethics and morals we shall be repaid in the coin of the realm in which we choose to operate, “who lives by the sword, dies by the sword”, for instance, or “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”. This accounts for Gimel being one of the double letters i.e., working both ways.

Another meaning of Gimel is a “bridge” and this would suggest that it provides that cross-over point between the realm of the unlimited (water), Mem, and the realm of the limited (in this case, what we call earth). It is the combination of water and fire that originates earth. It is the Wisdom of Chakmah seen in the “Radiant Intelligence” (Path #2) combined with the “Sanctifying Intelligence” (Path #3) that creates “The Unifying Directing Intelligence” (Path #13). (The Fibonacci sequence of numbers?)

In the Tarot, some decks show the Strength as #8 while Justice is shown as #11. This may be because Gimel is a ‘double letter’ and is one of the 7 double letters representing 7 vertical paths on the Tree of Life. The other double letters are: Beth, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Resh, and Tav. Each of the double letters and their assignments represent an ambiguity in how they and their associated cards are to be interpreted. Perhaps it may be understood by whether we are looking at an ascent of the Tree of Life or a descent down the Tree of Life. (Is the ascent the cards interpreted in their upright position, a looking upward, and the descent, a looking downwards, the reversal interpretations of the cards? a fullness and a deprival?)

The 14th Path: The Illuminating Intelligence

14. Illuminating Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Meir): It is called this because it is the essence of the speaking silence (Chashmal). It gives instructions regarding the mystery of the holy secrets and their structure.

The Fourteenth Path is the Illuminating Intelligence, and is so called because it is itself that CHASHMAL which is the founder of the concealed and fundamental ideas of holiness and of their stages of preparation.

Alt. Trans. “The fourteenth path is called the luminous consciousness because it is the essence of the Chashmal [“speaking silence”] which is the instructor in the secret foundations of holiness and their stages of preparation.”

Wescott trans. The Fourteenth Path is the Illuminating Intelligence and is so called because it is that Chashmal which is the founder of the concealed and fundamental ideas of holiness and of their stages of preparation.

Case trans. The fourteenth path (Dalet joining Chokmah to Binah) is called the Luminous Intelligence, because it is the essence of that Chashmal which is the instructor in the secret foundations of holiness and perfection.

Mem (Alef) Shin Path 14: The Illuminating Intellect: “Illuminating Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Meir): It is called this because it is the essence of the speaking silence (Chashmal). It gives instructions regarding the mystery of the holy secrets and their structure.”

Mem (Alef) Shin — “and Elohim hovered over the face of the waters.” 1:2

Path 14: The Illuminating Intelligence

Path 14, “The Illuminating Intelligence”, is related to the “Radiant Intelligence” Path #2 and the “Sanctifying Intelligence” Path #3 that is the crossover path of Chakmah to Binah on the descent, and from Binah to Chakmah on the ascent.. The “illumination” or “that which brings to presence” is either the light from Keter through Alef in its descent to Tiferet, or the light of the fire of Shin as it crosses over from Binah to Chokmah. Shin relates to reason and the head (the logistikon of the tripartite soul), while Alef relates to love and the heart (the thymoeides or spiritedness, which houses anger, as well as other spirited emotions such as care and concern), which is why Alef’s first descent is to Tiferet and not to Chakmah. Both possibilities are present. The third part of the soul is the epithymetikon (appetite or desire, which houses the desire for physical pleasures). Each of these divisions of the soul is driven by eros in either a higher or lower form, the higher leading to an ascent and the lower leading to a descent.

These differing ways of viewing the world determine how the physical beings of Chesed will come to be understood and determined for us. Both forms of light are present for us to illuminate the various worlds in which we live, and this illumination is our understanding of that world. Elohim’s ‘hovering over the face of the waters’ is the beauty of the outward appearance of things, and it is an indication of how we should be in the world i.e., contemplating the things of the world as presence-at-hand, ‘hovering over’ and before them, not attached to them.

The illuminating intelligence gives to its receiver the ability to ‘unveil’ the hidden holy secrets of the Divine essence of things i.e., to reveal Truth. It is a “method” or “methodology”. The covenant of God shown in the beauty of the world gives the instructions that the revelation of Truth is to be done through Love, through the imitation of God Himself, by a withdrawal and contemplation of the things that are. It appears that we have made a great error in considering ourselves as human beings to be co-creators with God for, historically, this has led us to believe that we can dispense with God and can rely on our own will to power for our own empowerment or expansion. We are in the position that we can view the world and wish to change it or we can view the world and accept it as it is (the meaning of “Amen”.) We have historically referred to this period in our history as The Age of Humanism which occurs roughly at the same time as the writing of the text of “The Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom”, so we can say that the text is a post-medieval text.

The Fourteenth Path, “The Illuminating Intelligence”, can also be understood as the intelligence derived from the borrowed light of Malkhut. It is the “intelligence” or “consciousness” present in the cave of Plato’s allegory. In the Cave, there are two sources of light present: the light of the Sun from outside of the Cave which is dimly present (which we are calling here the Light of Keter); and the light of the fire made by the technites to show the shadows of the things that are upon the walls of the Cave to the prisoners within the Cave. The knowledge that human beings take pride in is of their own ability to understand and make things. It is a knowledge that “conceals” the true essence of the sacred or the truth of things, and deters one from understanding the sacred or even acknowledging the sacred. It is a “false light” because it is primarily a human-made light (like the fire inside of the Cave of Plato, like the light inside The Hermit’s lamp in the Tarot card). Human beings, through the power of their “formative” thinking, can close themselves off from the true essence of things. This kind of thinking is representative of those who have chosen to remain satisfied with the “shadows” of the things that are rather than seek for the “holiness” of their true essence. It is here that sin primarily occurs for we are tempted to follow the false light believing that the outcomes of the journey by the light of it will result in the “goods” that become our ultimate goal. As has been mentioned previously, the root of all sin is the sin against the Light which manifests itself in the desire for power.

This sin against the light is the mistaking of what is the Law of Necessity for the Good. The borrowed light of Malkhut illuminates the world of Necessity, the world of Time and Space, of seasons, years and days, and the ‘firmament’ that is the realm of space or the heavens. There are two primary luminaries in the heavens and they are the Sun and Moon. It appears that one may follow the illumination provided by the Sun (Tiferet) or one may follow the illumination provided by the Moon (Chakmah), and these are represented by The Lovers #6 and The High Priestess #2 respectively in the Tarot.

“Holy” means “perfect, pure”, “set apart from defilement.” The Hebrew word means “separate”, and this designates the chasm separating the Divine from creation, Love from Intelligence. The “speaking silence” is much like the word Aum or Om: it begins in “openness”, goes into “hiddenness”, begins with an “in-spiring of breath” and ends in silence. Music is analogous to it, but all forms of hearing are related to it. The translation of Chashmal is “brilliant flame” (fire) which, combined with air and water, produces earth. From this, or prior to this, the Law of Necessity determines the form of everything, be it “potential” (dynamis) or “actual” (energeia). All of what we call knowledge is rooted in and descends from our understanding of the Law of Necessity. The Kabbalistic speech (logos) employs the Law of Necessity; all our actions reflect the laws of Necessity. Only the infinite iota of the soul that is part of the Divine (Yod) is that which is not touched by the Law of Necessity.

The Sixteenth Path: The Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence (Consciousness)

Alt. Trans. ” The sixteenth path is called the eternal consciousness because it is the pleasure of that glory beyond which is no glory like unto it. It is also called the garden of pleasure (Eden), which is prepared for the compassionate (Khasidim).”

Case trans. The sixteenth path (Vav joining Chokmah to Chesed) is called the Triumphant and Eternal Intelligence, and is so called because it is the delight of glory, the glory of Ain, the No-Thing, veiling the name of Him, the Fortunate One, and it is called also the Garden of Eden, prepared for the compassionate.

Chakmah to Tiferet: Path 16. Enduring Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nitzchi): It is called this because it is the Delight of the Glory (Eden). As it is, there is no Glory lower than it. It is called the Garden of Eden, which is prepared for the (reward of) the saints.

The Letter Heh and the 16th Path:

The Hebrew letter Heh, or Hey (האות ה), is the 5th Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. It also represents the number five. There is a special significance of the letter Heh in Judaism: It appears twice in the Hebrew name of God (יהוה) Yah Heh Vav Heh. (5 x 2 = 10 + 5 = 15)

The 16^th path emanates from Chakmah to Tiferet, and contains a number of interesting ideas, particularly in Case’s translation of the text. The first idea that we should pick up here is that the Creation itself is Paradise i.e., the here and the NOW is the paradise prepared for the “compassionate” and for the “righteous”, the “just”, and is not some dwelling place that is to be expected or hoped for after death.

In the various translations, ‘compassion’ and ‘righteous’ are similar or synonymous. This indicates that justice is to be found in our compassionate response to Creation and to the beings within it. This mirrors God’s disposition towards His Creation. What is being said here is that the Garden of Eden is present before us if we are compassionate and act righteously towards it. To act righteously is to render to each being its due or what is owed to it. The Garden of Eden is not something such as a reward for being compassionate: the disposition will create the reward of the Garden of Eden itself. The world before us ‘veils’ or ‘hides’ the name of Him, the Ain, and it does so through its Beauty. The Beauty of the World is but a souvenir of the Good, not the Good itself. Nevertheless, it is the covenant of God with His Creation and all the beings who dwell therein.

This path is represented by the “jubilation” that comes from the awareness of and contemplation of the Divine covenant that is given to us in the Beauty of the world. With the letter Heh we are asked to “Behold”, “to look and see”. Heh goes beyond the mere diaretic knowledge and awareness of Binah and the diaretic knowledge that particularizes the unlimited content of Chakmah in that it sets up distinctions, limitations, horizons, and boundaries so that things may come to appearance and be de-fined as such. Heh is the “fire catching fire” in that the individual soul is enraptured by the physical beauty of the world and is thus led up to the spiritual. This is the operation of the higher Eros.

Hei or Heh represents divine revelation or truth, the breath of the Creator (Psalm 33:6 – By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.) The world or worlds (heavens) were created with the utterance of the Hei. It has three literal meanings: “here is” or presence; “to be disturbed” or “to be made to wonder”, “to be confused” (the Greek word here is phrike, what we mean by being ‘freaked out’); and “Behold” or “to look and see”. The word also suggests “jubilation” or the joy upon seeing a revelation, an epiphany, of the beauty of the world and the things within it. The proper response to life is Love and to behold the world with love. Through this beholding, one will dwell in the Paradise that is the NOW.

Heh represents the gift of life and creates the verb of being (היה Haya – being). Its symbolic meaning of jubilation is the proper response to the gift of life. It is divinity, the spiritual life that comes about through the first four letters: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10. It represents the life essence in all creation, the dynamis of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. It symbolizes the effortlessness of the world and is the symbol of divinity, gentility, and specificity which indicates the three levels of Creation upon which it rests. It contains within it the freedom of choice.

Hei is one of the letters of the Holy Name (Yod Heh Vav Heh), giving it a special significance within the Aleph-Beth. Heh moves upward from Tiferet to Chokmah, and its meaning as “confusion”, “wonder”, “being disturbed” is comparable to the experiences of the prisoners in Plato’s allegory of the Cave in which they are confused by the influx of light they receive at each step of their emergence from the Cave. The prisoner is released from their chains and in a complete turning of the body (primarily the head, but the whole body must follow i.e., a conversion must take place) they are made to see that the ‘shadows’ that they once took for the ‘real’ are only shadows produced by the fire in the cave that is attended to by the technites or the artisans and technicians who are the rulers of the time. There is an emphasis on ‘seeing’ and in the manner of seeing. Heh suggests a correctness in the manner of seeing that is not present in the path of Vav which represents path #17 “The Intelligence of the Senses”.

Ya Heh begins the letters of the Holy Name: “I am”. Ya Heh Vav Heh is the complete name and includes the letters Yod, Alef, Heh, Men, Vav, and Heh repeated. The repeated Hehs represent the duality of the Divine and the Creation.

Path 18: Consciousness of the House of Influence: The Letter Chet

The Eighteenth Path is called the House of Influence (by the greatness of whose abundance the influx of good things upon created beings is increased), and from the midst of the investigation, the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth, which dwell in its shade and which cling to it, from the cause of all causes.

Alt. Trans. “The eighteenth path is called the consciousness of the house of influence. From its inmost centre flow the Arcanum and veiled ideas, which “abide in its shadow”; thus, is there union with the inmost substance of the cause of causes.”

Wescott trans. The Eighteenth Path is called the Intelligence of the House of Influence (by the greatness of whose abundance the influx of good things upon created beings is increased), and from its midst the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth, which dwell in its shade and which cling to it, from the Cause of all causes.

Case trans. The eighteenth path (Chet, joining Binah to Gevurah) is called the Intelligence of the House of Influence; and from the interior walls of its perfections the arcana flow down with the hidden meanings concealed in their shadow, and therefrom is union with the innermost reality of the Most High.

Chet: Chakmah to Gevurah Path 18. Intelligence of the House of Influx (Consciousness) (Sekhel Bet HaShefa): By probing with it, a secret mystery (Raz) and an allusion are transmitted to those who ‘dwell in its shadow’ and bind themselves to probing its substance from the Cause of Causes.

Genesis 1.4 And Elohim saw the light, that it was good; and Elohim divided the light from the darkness. 5 And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

The Letter Chet and the 18^th Path

The 18^th path joins Chokmah to Gevurah and it is the letter Chet which makes this conjunction or relation. In the text of “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”, the House of Influence is singular, though I think we can say that there are a number of worlds that make up a number of houses of influence. There is clearly a duality spoken of in the text: “the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth” and “dwell in its shade” suggests the realm of becoming, while the truth itself remains hidden which is the union with the Cause of Causes. The letter Chet is an ‘enclosure’ and in the Tarot illustrated here, The Hanged Man #12 is held in suspension from this letter.

Nature does not lie, it hides. The outward appearance of things which the Greeks referred to as the eidos, both reveals and conceals, and here the outward appearance ‘hides’ the reality of the kind of union that is present at the core. This showing forth of the ‘goodness’ of things can seduce the mind and soul of the human being into believing that the outward appearance is, in fact, the truth of the thing. “The Intelligence of the House of Influence” interacts with “The Rooted Intelligence” of Gevurah and “The Sanctifying Intelligence” of Binah to make things ‘holy’ which, in fact, might not be ‘holy’. While the abundance of the world shows forth many ‘goods’, they are not the Good.

Chet is the letter of life חיים. It represents infinite possibilities or the making-possible of that on the basis of which beings as such and as a whole are determined for us. It is undifferentiated substance and energy, containing all the possibilities that could come into being (i.e., it is what is designated as Will to Power here).

We have already indicated that the Logos determines all that is and all that is possible, so Chet is not influenced by the Sephirot Tiferet to any great degree but it passes through the Logos and requires the Logos. It is one aspect of the life-force. As such, it indicates an influence from Chakmah and to The High Priestess #2 card. Chet indicates the illusion of the ability of the human being to rise and go beyond nature (what we understand as our ‘freedom’ encapsulated in our notions of ‘transcendental thought’); but whether this rising beyond is done through the will and the domination and control of nature, or through submission to the Divine Will of Necessity is the matter of choice for the individual human being.

As has been noted, all the Sephirot with the exception of Malkhut are connected to Tiferet in some way. The letter Chet, according to some Hebrew readings, is related to the Neshama, the soul, and thus would relate to the ‘embodied soul’. The body is the “enclosure” of the soul; the physical world is the ‘enclosure’ of the Divine Soul, and yet is at the same time enclosed by the Divine. Chet also represents the power of choice which is given to the soul, as well as the qualities of charm and grace חן . Whether this charm and grace is genuine or a deception is a matter of choice for human beings.

Chet is like a revolving gateway or doorway, and represents the gyring power of Shin which directs the soul to enter a higher level beyond time, to enter the mysteries of one’s soul, and then return to worldly consciousness. The ancient form of the letter looks like a ladder indicating the ability to go above and beyond limitations. But herein lies the danger. It is not given to human beings to ‘rise up’ in this way i.e., through the use of the will, and this is shown most clearly in The Tower #16 of the Tarot. The ‘rising up’ of human beings could be analogous to an ‘expansion’ and the end or purpose for human beings is to be realized in a ‘diminution’ or decreation.

As the letter with the numerical value of 8, Chet also signifies transcending nature, as represented by the 7 days of creation. This gives the illusion of a transcendence of Time. We can ‘transcend’ Time through Memory, but it is not a true transcendence of time. It is merely the appearance of transcending Time. In this way, Chet is associated with Chokmah and Gevurah; and as an elemental letter, it indicates a diagonal path in its relation to these Sephirot. We can transcend something by knowing the essence of the thing, but this knowing is not a domination and control of the thing but a letting be of the thing as it is. We may perceive the thing as presence-at-hand in which it is merely contemplated or we can perceive the thing as ready-to-hand and disposable for whatever use we may wish to make of it.

It is the essence of the human being to “break through” nature to spiritual realization, but this is not done through the use of Will nor through the transcendental knowledge of the principle of reason. It is done through the revealing of Truth, and this is only partially accomplished in the achievements of our technology based as they are on the principle of reason. Nature does not lie; it hides. Truth may be revealed through reason but this is not the only way, and reason’s revelation of nature is only a partial revelation. This is shown in the path of Tet which crosses over the path of Chet from Binah to Chesed.

Chet is also in the word for prophecy hazon חזון, and wisdom hochmah חוכמה. In The Hanged Man #12, the figure is suspended from a letter Chet formed from wood. His upside down hanging suggests life in suspension, waiting. On the other hand, it could also suggest entrapment and an incorrect viewing of the world in which he is suspended since he is hanging upside down, and it is by this viewing that his suspension is made possible. Is this incorrect viewing a result of the historical knowledge that he/she has come to possess? The figure in the illustration of The Hanged Man does not appear to be in distress. He is waiting on an Other for either Grace or direction.

A Commentary on “The Thirty -Two Paths of Wisdom”: Chapter One (con’d):

Paths Emanating From Keter:

The four paths emanating from Keter are illustrated on the left:

#1: The Mystical Intelligence: Letter: א Alef (fire) Tarot: The Fool, The Magician

#2: The Radiant Intelligence: Letter: מ Mem (water): Tarot: The High Priestess (This will be discussed in Chapter Two: Paths Emanating From Chokmah)

#3: The Sanctified Intelligence: Letter ש Shin (tooth, fire): Tarot: The Empress (This will be discussed in Chapter Three: Paths Emanating from Binah)

#11: The Scintillating/ Glaring Intelligence: Letter Beth Tarot: Strength. The Path from Keter to Tiferet.

#14: The Illuminating Intelligence: Letters: ש Shin א Alef מ Mem Tarot: The High Priestess

The Eleventh Path: The Scintillating/ Glaring Intelligence

The Eleventh Path is the Scintillating Intelligence because it is the essence of that curtain which is placed close to the order of the disposition, and this is a special dignity given to it that it may be able to stand before the Face of the Cause of Causes.

Alt. Trans. ” The eleventh path is called the scintillating consciousness because it is the essence of the veil which is placed before the ordered arrangement of the powers. Who walks this way acquires a special dignity – he can stand face to face before the cause of causes.”

Wescott trans. The Eleventh Path is the Scintillating Intelligence, because it is the essence of that curtain which is placed close to the order of the disposition, and this is a special dignity given to it that it may be able to stand before the Face of the Cause of Causes.

Case trans. The eleventh path (Aleph. Joining Keter to Chokmah) is called the Scintillating or Fiery Intelligence. It is the essence of the veil placed before the dispositions and order of the superior and inferior causes. He who possesses this path is in the enjoyment of great dignity; for he stands face to face with the Cause of Causes.

If the ten Sephirot comprise the first ten paths of the Tree of Life, then the designation of the 11^th path would be the 4 of the first four paths of the Sephirot and the 7 remaining Sephirot i.e., 4 + 7 = 11. The original light of Keter would have passed through the whole of Creation and knowledge of this light would be present for the individual who attained it i.e., the individual would be able to stand face to face before the Cause of Causes (the Good). Such is the case with the female figure of Strength shown in the Tarot card on the left. The Strength is the “opposite” or “deprivation” of that power which is shown in The Magician #1. In some modern Tarot decks, the cards of Justice #8 and Strength #11 are interchanged. I will attempt to give compelling reasons why this exchange is not valid nor necessary through the philosophy provided by the text of “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom”.

The Strength #11 card and The Magician #1 card represent two of the faces of Eros in human beings, the emotions and the will, the passions and human ‘spiritedness’, the intellect (logos) and the flesh. While the Strength figure has the light of the Sun both behind and within her, the male figure of The Magician draws his power from the bower of Nature above him and from the reflected light from the wall behind him (this is indicated by the bower’s shape as an inverted Bet). He uses his equipment/tools, the wand, to direct his energy and his will towards the cups, the pentacles, the swords and the table, the ready-to-hand upon which they rest, to make his images and to bring the things which are useful for him and to him into being. The Magician is the artisan or technician of the formative world of yetzirah.

Both figures are crowned by the ouroboros, The Magician’s representing the eternal recurrence of the Same and the Strength’s representing “time as the moving image of eternity”. Strength easily controls the lion of the passions that she has under her control, the lower nature of eros which affects the ‘spirited’ part of the soul. She is ‘grace under pressure’ because she is the recipient of Grace through the mediation of Tiferet. (The Da’at, the so-called 11th sephirot which is the Void or the Abyss, may be an indicator of what the saints refer to as the “dark night of the soul” which they report envelops them before they come face-to-face with Cause of causes. It is the ‘veil’ placed before the Cause of Causes. “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Exodus 33:20)

The Scintillating or Fiery Intelligence is similar to The Mystical Intelligence Path #1 but on the level of Beriyah. One is reminded of the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) What Paul appears to be saying here is that our knowledge of the things that are is a mirrored knowledge (such as is seen in the figure of The Magician placed within an inverted Beth), a souvenir similar to a photograph; and like a photograph, it is merely an image of that which is loved, not the reality of that which is loved. This mirror, or curtain, or veil hides the truth that is concealed behind it.

In the illustration of the Tree of Life on the left, the Scintillating Consciousness is indicated by the blue line. The “veil before the dispositions” is the impact of Mem (water) emanating from Chakmah (Wisdom) upon the fire of Shin from Binah (Understanding) which brings about the creation of the physical universe. To see this truth ‘face to face’ would cause one to ‘die’ to oneself; the individual ego would be totally consumed in the fire of the Light of Keter. As it is said in Genesis: “But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” In order to “live” (remain in being), the Face of God must be hidden behind a veil. To pierce through this veil, a ‘conversion’, followed by a ‘baptism’ or re-birth (‘born again of the water and of the spirit’ or Mem and Alef) must be attained. This is illustrated in the Strength card #11 of the Tarot. The will to power of The Magician #1 is contrasted with that knowledge that is possessed by the female figure of the Strength #11. The actions and the dispositions of the Strength and The Magician are contrasted.

The journey up the Tree of Life is a decreation and there are three re-births experienced, one at each of the crossroads. Each re-birth corresponds to that part of the soul to which it is directed. The first re-birth is at the crossroad of Mem, the appetites, which joins Netzach (Victory) to Hod (Empathy, Care and Concern). This re-birth is experienced in the path of The Intelligence of Trials (#25) and is represented by the letter Resh and the Tarot card Judgement #20.

The second re-birth occurs at Tiferet and involves the crossroad of Alef between Chesed and Gevurah. It is of the emotions, the heart, the ‘spirited’ part of the soul . The Lovers #6 indicates the choice that has to be made at this stage. The ‘spirited’ eros may assist or obstruct the soul in its journeys upwards on the Tree of Life. It may cause the soul to succumb to the desires for material possessions or it may urge the soul towards its greatest desire, which is re-unification with the Good. When the second conversion and re-birth fails, the soul falls into a love for those things which satisfy the appetites and it ceases its hard journey upwards.

The third re-birth occurs at the crossroad of Shin from Chokmah to Binah, and it regards the head i.e., wisdom and understanding, the logos. The unity of wisdom and understanding is shown in the Strength card #11, and this allows the individual to receive Grace and to stand with special dignity before the Cause of Causes as indicated by path #11. It indicates that the way of being of the philosopher and the saint are one and the same thing. If someone tells you that they are a saint (such as Donald Trump has said), you can be assured that they are not. If someone claims to be a philosopher, you can be sure that they, too, are not.

The ”order of the superior and inferior causes” and the veil placed before them is the Law of Necessity, the Divine Will. The dispositions towards this Law of Necessity or Divine Will are what is contrasted in the Strength and The Magician cards. The Divine Will itself is not scrutable; it is not knowable. Those who claim to know it commit a grave sin, a blasphemy. The Magician’s disposition towards the realm of Necessity is will to power: to constrain, commandeer and overcome Chance in order to enhance human freedom. His desire is to change the world. The freedom that arises from this constraint has made science ‘the highest speech’: its prophecies are what we bow down to and what we look up to. This will to power finds its roots in the individual ego, the subject, and in the principle of reason which becomes a principle of being for The Magician: “nothing is without (a) reason”. The Strength’s disposition toward this realm is one of humility, acceptance and compliance. which shows itself in contemplation and prayer with regard to the ‘buffets and rewards’ of Fortune or Chance.

The Ten Sephirot are the first 10 paths. The direction from Keter to Chalkmah is diagonal, and there is no suggestion that the mother letters provide diagonal channels but as connectors, they must. The 11^th path is also called the “Fiery Intelligence”, the “Scintillating Intelligence”. This element of fire belongs to Shin, one of the three mothers, and in the first crossover path it is the element of Shin which predominates. “The mirror placed close to the order of the disposition” is the “reflected light” that is the essence of Malkhut which reflects the light that is present in the other Sephirot. The “mirror” is translated here as “curtain” which separates the true light from the reflected light. In the Tarot of The High Priestess #2, it is the curtain behind her which hangs from the pillars of Jakim and Boaz. The reflected light is that of the Moon. Alef is the letter of the Sun. Alef connects to Tiferet, which is associated with the Sun. The connection of Fire to Water is Air and the three produce Earth which would connect with Chesed #4.

In the Tarot of The High Priestess #2, it is clear that she is connected with the sea, with water, with the subconscious, with the Unlimited. She is depicted with having a veil or curtain behind her, and sitting upon a partially revealed cube. We are limited in that we can only see three sides of the six-sided cube. We also find cubes present in The Emperor #4, The Chariot #7, and The Devil #16 cards of the Tarot. All these cards appear to indicate that there is something that is ‘hidden’ in their foundations. Whether or not The Hierophant is seated upon a cube is not shown as his robe hides his seat in the Tarot deck used here, and whether he does so or not is a matter of speculation.

The letter Alef (ALP) is the reversal of the word PLA which means “wonder”. The journey or quest begins from “wonder”, and it is “wonder” that is the foundation of philosophy and the foundation of questioning and the quest. Does the wonder provoke a question “why” and the response of “because”? Since the direction of the influence of Alef is downward, the reversal of Alef would suggest a movement upwards so that The Fool #0 should be placed at the bottom of the Tree of Life and not at the top. But within the sphere that encompasses the cube of creation, what do “up” and “down” mean? I have tried to clarify this question with the concepts of creation and decreation. The upward movement is a gyre that narrows and focuses itself on the singular point of the Divinity. The downward movement is an ever-widening gyre created by the withdrawal of God which results in His hiddenness. When the soul mistakenly chooses to align itself with the materiality of the world, it is dragged down and overcome by the watery element.

A philosophical life, ruled by the logos’ desire for truth (‘revealing’) brings one to the attainment of self-knowledge and the Good (the Cause of Causes). The satisfaction of the other parts of the soul is also achieved i.e. arete or “human excellence”. The embodied soul is afflicted with the evils that partake of the bodily. The logos is the “pure” state of the soul and is capable of “seeing” the “pure” state of the soul. The Strength card indicates that while the soul remains embodied, there is a constant strife to restrain the jaws of the lion with which she is engaged. The lion represents the ‘spirited’ part of the soul.

The soul’s first love is the love of the “One”, the whole, wisdom. In Republic (611 e 1 -612 a6), the soul must rise up out of the sea “in which it now is”. To do this, the soul engages in dialectics i.e. the love that is “friendship”, the “friendly conversation” that is the essence of the logos, the knowledge of how things are “related” to each other. This knowledge is justice (dike).

Philosophy begins through wonder and so, appropriately, The Fool card is assigned to this path (although in the Hebrew Tree it is the Strength card #11 that is assigned to this path and I concur with the Hebrew Tree here). The path from wonder leads to wisdom, the knowledge of the whole, which is knowledge of “no-thing” since it is knowledge of the All before things emerge in their particularity. It is the knowledge which allows one “to stand before the Face of the Cause of Causes”. This dismissal of the particularity of things is falsely mirrored in the dismissal that occurs in physical sciences of the Renaissance, the sciences of Galileo and Newton.

In the dialogue Sophist, Plato relates the story of the philosopher Thales who fell down a well because his eyes were so fixed on the heavens that he was not paying attention to what was all about him. This caused a nearby housemaid, who was quite attractive, to laugh and say that because he was so fixed on the heavens, he could not see what was right in front of his nose. This story of Thales is an analogy to The Fool card and to the whole of the journey on the Tree of Life. What is right in front of one’s nose is what must be paid attention to.

The fire of Keter when combined with the water of Chalkmah produces Air, from which speech is derived. From these initial three primordial elements earth is produced; and earth, or physical, material things are represented by the Sephirot Chesed and Malkhut. The first is a descending order from Keter through Chalkmah to Chesed. The second is an ascending order from Keter to Malkhut and from Malkhut to Yesod.

The first is “inner” and focuses on the quality of things, the essence of things; the second is “outer” and focuses on the quantity of things, how the things may be measured or weighed. The first path relates to The Fool card in Tarot #0. The second relates The Magician card. The number of the Fool is #0, but this is a placement numeral only, not a zero as we understand the concept i.e., it is the concept of “no-thing”, not “nothing”. The ancient Hebrews and Greeks had no concept of what we today understand by zero. (The numerical value of Alef is 111, or perhaps 1+1+1, which equals 3 but also equals 1 if 1 x 1 x 1 = 1, the Holy Trinity. Our numbers begin at 4, since numbers , the logos, require time and space). The proper placement of The Fool and The Magician cards is at the bottom of the Tree of Life as it is given to us.

What is sometimes called the “power of God” is represented through speech i.e., “And God said…” Through His speech, God creates the world. Notice that the verb “creates” is not in the past but in the present perfect tense i.e., this creation is still ongoing. What is and whatever will come to be are from the word of God, not through the “creation” of human beings. Human beings are ‘makers’, not ‘creators’. They are ‘procreators’. This word is what the modern philosopher Wittgenstein called “the miracle of language”. It should be noted that language and its use and misuse poses the gravest danger to the being of human beings in our present age.

As we have said previously, the essence of things is veiled in their outward appearance and that veil must be drawn aside, if this is possible. The Scintillating Intelligence or The Fiery Intelligence is the knowledge or awareness of things when they are seen as they are in their essence i.e., their truth. This appearance shows itself in a flash and can only be viewed at a glance. This “unconcealment” or aletheia in Greek, this drawing aside of the veil, is what we understand as truth or what we sometimes refer to as an epiphany or manifestation of the truth of a thing. On the eleventh path, it would be a manifestation of all the paths previous to it on the descent, or a manifestation of all the paths before one on the upward ascent i.e. the ten Sephirot. It reveals God as the Cause of Causes, the “uncaused cause” of the philosopher Aristotle. But, of course, God is much more than this for He is, ultimately, the Good.

The truth clothes itself in appearances in order to descend (the Beauty of the World) and unveils itself in order to allow an ascent (which is the covenant of the Good). No matter which view of the Tree of Life is taken, that from above or that from below, their central focus is in the Sephirot Tiferet. As Christ said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14: 6) Tiferet is presided over by the archangel Michael whose name means “Like unto God”, and this is shown in the Tarot card The Lovers #6. The friendship that is the Holy Trinity is mirrored in the friendship established between two human beings when it is blessed with the intervention and mediation of the Divine third, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Matthew 19:6 This is what is understood as dialectics. It is the knowledge of what the Greeks called metaxu or intermediaries, that which brings about relations or ‘friendships’.

The images of The Fool have him standing at the edge of a precipice looking skyward unaware of the depths below. Is the dog accompanying him/her issuing a warning? Or is its gestures those of “excitement” on being taken out for a journey/walk? The dog is The Fool’s companion. The “quest” has not yet begun because no “question” has been asked. The question is still before one. (This would coincide with Path 27 The Exciting or Palpable Intelligence.)

Alef is the path from Keter to Tiferet. It is Air, not Fire. Shin is the letter of the element of Fire and it is the Boaz column of the Tree of Life, the column of Severity, and it is in the lower domain horizontally. It relates to the will, the head, and to reason and more appropriately belongs to The Magician #1 card rather than The Fool #0.

The primary or “superior causes” of the Scintillating Intelligence or Consciousness are the Laws of Necessity. The secondary or “inferior causes” are seen in the conditions or effects which the superior causes bring about. The Laws of Necessity are the Divine Will i.e., space and time; and the agents or forces that bring about the effects and conditions are subject to this Divine Will. The Magician uses these forces to “create” or to “make” through human will power. The Magician’s ‘making’ is one aspect of eros’ “procreation”.

In the Tarot illustration here, The Fool has 10 wheels on his dress (7 trefoils, 7 modes of activity, 7 alchemical metals, 7 chakras in the human body, 7 planets, the 7 lower Sephirot). The letter Shin is on one of the wheels which seems to assure us that assigning Alef to The Fool is an error. Alef is breath, spirit, the Word (Aum/Om: “first the breath then the Word and all that is appeared”.) Alef is the logos or logistikon portion of the soul. Alef flows into Tiferet, not Chalkmah as some commentators have suggested. Beth flows into Tiferet once the Alef has crossed over the horizontal line of Mem/Shin. Alef is the Idea of the Good as well as the “Son”/”Sun” from which both the power and beauty is given to the rest of the Tree of Life. All of the sephirot except Malkhut pass through Tiferet; all emanations of the Divine must pass, or are contained in, Tiferet.

This path is sometimes called “the glaring intelligence”. Is this that which is obvious to the “eye”? On The Fool’s bag is an “eye” (Ayin) and an eagle (the symbol of the evangelist John).

I would associate different Hebrew letters with the Tarot cards than those given by the illustrator of the cards used here.

The Letter Beth

Beth “house”, “container”

Genesis 1.2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of Elohim hovered over the face of the waters.

The Fourth Path of the “Measuring, Arresting, and Receptacular Intelligence”, which is the Sephirot Chesed, must cross the horizontal path of Mem and Shin before it can come into being. It is from the first three elements that the Otherness of Earth is created. Within the created universe, the physical universe, Space, the Sephirot Chokmah, is the “container” of the Whole, and the letter Beth signifies both the “house” of the Creator (the form) and the “home” that is His creation (substance). The “open region” or the “receptacular” must first be present in order for the thing that is to come to be can come to presence. There must be a site for it, a place. The letter Beth indicates this ‘site’.

It is the Logos which “measures”, and through this measuring “arrests” and brings to a stand the thing so that we may have “under-standing” (Binah), and places into the world that which comes into being and all that which will come into being. The first three paths deal with the primordial triangle of the world of Atzilut, that which is beyond being and becoming. With Alef’s meeting of Beth in the vertical movement from Keter to Tiferet, the fourth path is created, and thus the Creation itself. The creation itself becomes manifest in the Sephirot of Chesed, Loving Kindness. The Creation is a gift of Love.

If the first path of Alef instructs or brings awareness to the intelligence of that which cannot be known, of that which is “hidden” and beyond the intelligence itself, the second path is the beginning of the possibility of knowledge of that which can be known, what is “illuminated” and “radiant”, that which “shines”.

Alef illuminates the gloom of Mem: : “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”(Gen: 1:2) Both Mem and Shin meet Alef in the first horizontal movement, crossroad, or path on the Tree of Life so that they share in “The Sanctifying Intelligence or Consciousness” of the third path as well as “The Radiant Intelligence” of the second path. With this illuminated, radiant, sanctified intelligence we come to the fourth path, the ‘measuring’, ‘arresting’, and ‘receptive’ path. There is an indication here that the naming of things is a ‘holy act’ and that language itself is ‘holy’; but before things can be named, they must first be ‘measured’ and ‘arrested’ or brought to a stand. From this bringing to a stand comes our ‘under-standing’ or what is termed Binah on the Tree of Life.

Beth is the 2nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet, signifying the number two. If Keter is the Father, number one, then Beth is the Son, number two, and Mem and Shin are the Holy Spirit or water and fire, number three (and four?). The first letter of the story of creation is Beth, starting the entire Torah/Bible – ברא בראשית. Some commentators suggest that the first letter of the Bible is Alef so that the initial phrase is “Elohim in the beginning created…” rather than Beth which is “God in the beginning created…” This is significant as Elohim is plural and indicative of the Trinity while God is singular and indicative of the One. Vastly different interpretations arise when one chooses either to see the Creator as a One or as a Trinity (Elohim).

Beth represents the beginning of the appearance of duality, with the One Creator bringing forth a created world, so that there can be both a giver (the Creator) and a receiver (the created world) for the Creator to bestow His Love and Grace upon. This creates the illusion that the creation is an “expansion” of God rather than a “withdrawal” of God, and it has prompted the dual version of the whole, one such interpretation being that of Plato where the world is divided into the worlds of Being and Becoming. Since God is All from the beginning, He would not need nor would it be possible to “expand”. Instead, He would “withdraw” to allow something to be other than Himself; and yet at the same time, that which is created is not other than Himself since He is All. With the act of withdrawal, deprivations are created, not opposites. Creation is the deprival of the Divine, of the sense and experience of the One. Man and woman are not opposites: man is deprived of the ability to give birth to another human being and can only be a secondary agent in the process. When one speaks of “deprivals”, one is speaking of a hierarchy of things and a distinction between primary and secondary agencies.

Beth’s literal meaning and form denote a house, and it represents the universal concept of a container or vessel. Thus, the created world is meant to house within it the spiritual. It is the container of the world of Beriyah. It is the bringing together of the ‘Sterile Mother’, or The High Priestess #2 of the Tarot with the ‘Fruitful Mother’ or The Empress #3. On the Tree of Life, Keter (the Light) first goes through Tiferet (the Sun) before begetting its offspring (The Moon) which is the reflected light that is mirrored in the waters.

It is important to see the connections between those letters that are designated as “containers”. The physical world is meant to be a place or site for the Creator’s glory or beauty to manifest. The body is meant to contain the soul, allowing it to act in this world; the spiritual must act through the physical. What is perceived as the dual world contains within it the Ultimate Oneness, but concealed, and it is the ‘unconcealing’ of this Oneness that is what is referred to as the revealing of Truth, though Truth itself is the process of the revealing itself. In this process, the revealing itself is not activated by the will of human beings i.e., it is not a part of human judgement as to its Truth. The Beth is the tool, the source of all building, containing and then bringing forth all the other letters, but Alef is the source of all the letters in their particularities. Thus, where Alef crosses the horizontal path of Mem-Shin, The Logos comes into being that is the world of words and numbering and Beth ‘builds’ this world into a ‘house’ which the Logos then makes a ‘home’.

The text of “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” uses the words “consciousness” and “intelligence” when describing or discussing the paths of the Tree of Life, but I think a better word to use would be the Greek Logos which signifies letter, number and word or the three “texts” of the Sefer Yetzirah: text (Sefer), number (Sephar) and communication (Sippur). So, if we look at the first two paths, we have the “concealed logos” and its contrary the “illuminating logos”. Sephirot #2, Chokmah, the “unlimited”, which is associated with darkness and gloom, can only be “illuminated” through logos, through the presence of word, number. The Word unites the unlimited with the limited and can do so only with the Light that is Keter. This light illuminates all that is below it on the Tree of Life. The light is Keter and it “crowns” the world of Beriyah or the creation from “no-thing”. It is the Light that is the “splendour” or the “shining” of the unity of created things, the Beauty of the world. In Greek this was called nous, the Mind, Consciousness or the Intelligence which is illuminated by Love.

1 + 2 + 3 = 6 or the Sephirot Tiferet. In Hebrew, Tiferet is “son” as well as its designation as Beauty by the Kabbalists. I see in these the unity of Christ and Eros, whose wife is Psyche or the Soul, the “most beautiful of mortals”. (Christ calls Himself the “bridegroom” which signifies that our soul (Psyche) is the “bride”; but all that is Other, the creation itself, is also the Bride. Israel, as understood by the Kabbalists, is the whole of creation, not simply the ‘state of Israel’ as it is known today, and Israel is the Bride.) When the created world is “illuminated” through light, our proper response to it is Love. God is perpetually offering His friendship to us in the form of the beauty of the world and the proper response to this offer of friendship is Love. The Beauty of the world is the covenant of God. This is the covenant of the Voice Spiritual. From this covenant, Faith is born. The rainbow of the story of Noah is but a particular example of the covenant that is the Beauty of the World.

When we view the Tree of Life, the right-hand side is considered Masculine while the left-hand side is considered Feminine. This is puzzling as The High Priestess is most certainly associated with water and “the seas” and she is feminine, while The Magician appears to be primarily associated with fire and the “primal energy” (the will, the ‘spirited’ part of the soul) and is masculine. This is why I would place The Fool and The Magician together as 0-1 and 1-0 respectively. The “illuminating logos” is the air as the medium that brings together fire and water in order to bring about the “work” that is the physical creation itself. The air is the medium for the Light and is the Judgement.

It is through the placing of limits upon the unlimited that things can “appear” for us. These limits are in the form of boundaries and what we mean by the “de-finition” of things, what the things are in their “whatness”. What things are comes about through their “measuring”, their “change” in their form of movement in time and space, and their naming. Both space and time are prerequisites for created things and they make possible our knowledge of number and language. Number and language itself are prior to the world of material things, and they make possible that world. God creates the world through speaking, through the Word. It is the Word that makes possible the placement, arresting, and measuring in space of the created things.

The Greek word techne relates both to the skills of the craftsperson and to the arts of the mind. (The god Hephaestus in Greek myth is married to the goddess of Beauty, Aphrodite in one version.) These skills and knowledge are related to the universe of Yetzirah, the world of formation. This “making” has a poietic nature as it brings something forth; it is a ‘procreation’ i.e., it is a modality of aletheuein, (unveiling), the “revealing” of truth. This is the most relevant aspect of techne rather than the manufacturing or making of something. The revealing of truth is the revelation of the beautiful, and the proper human response to it is love. This knowing and making involves a most difficult conundrum.

A great danger presents itself in the perception of the world as ‘imperfect’. Technology arose from out of the spirit of charity and the perception of the injustice of Necessity. The created world was perceived as ‘imperfect’, requiring human action in order to bring it to completion. The world needed to be changed. This is the will to power of The Magician card. This interpretation prevails in both the Hebrew and “Christian” interpretations of the Sefer Yetzirah. The good of something is its ‘usefulness’, its ‘fittingness’, its ‘aptness’. This has led to our perception of the world as ‘resource’, where everything is on standby for our use for some end that we through our wills have devised, since the created world would have no end in and for itself. Is the place of human beings in the world that of a ‘perfector’ of Nature or that of a shepherd or gardener whose primary mode of being is care and concern for that which is Other than ourselves?

Perhaps a better word for “intelligence” in these paths is “knowledge of” or “awareness of”. The Sephirot Tiferet is the focal point or the “height” of the emanations from all the other Sephirot with the exception of Malkhut. The Sephirot Malkhut is in the “depths” or the furthest distance from the light. A “path” is a way to reach a destination. With a path, the way has already been cleared beforehand. Here, the knowledge of the “mediating influence” is the knowledge of that which “yokes” things together and brings them into a relation; and what yokes or joins things together in the created world is Love. The Mediating Intelligence is required for the bonding together of the Radical Intelligence of Gevurah and the Receptacle Intelligence of Chesed.

The 14th Path: The Illuminating Intelligence (Consciousness)

Mem (Alef) Shin — “and Elohim hovered over the face of the waters.” 1:2

Mem (Alef) Shin and the 14^th Path

Path 14, The Illuminating Intelligence, is related to the Radiant Intelligence Path #2 and the Sanctifying Intelligence Path #3 that is the crossover path of Chakmah to Binah. The “illumination” or “that which brings to presence” is either the light from Keter through Alef in its descent to Tiferet, or the light of the fire of Shin as it crosses over from Binah to Chokmah. Shin relates to reason and the head, while Alef relates to love and the heart. Both possibilities are present and both offer two faces of both Logos and Eros. These differing ways of viewing the world determine how the physical beings of Chesed will come to be determined for us. Both forms of light are present for us to illuminate the various worlds in which we live, and this illumination is our understanding of that world. One is the light of the Sun which is associated with Tiferet, and another is the reflected light of the Moon which is represented by Chakmah.

Elohim’s ‘hovering over the face of the waters’ is the beauty of the outward appearance of things (‘the face’) and is an indication of the parousia (the being-alongside) of the Divine in His creation, and it is an indication of how we should be in the world i.e., contemplating the things of the world as presence-at-hand, ‘hovering over’ and before them. ‘The waters’ are those of the heavens and of the earth before they are both brought together and separated by air Alef. It is at this point that Beth is established and the alphabet begins. With the alphabet, the Word and the world become manifest.

The “illuminating intelligence” gives to its receiver the ability to ‘unveil’ the hidden holy secrets of the Divine essence of things i.e., to reveal Truth. It is a method or methodology, and this method or methodology maybe Love or it may be reason. The covenant of God shown in the Beauty of the World gives the instructions that the revelation of Truth is to be done through Love, through the imitation of God Himself, by a withdrawal and contemplation of the things that are. It appears that we have made a great error in considering ourselves as human beings to be co-creators with God for, historically, this has led us to believe that we can dispense with God and can rely on our own will to power for our own empowerment or expansion. We have historically referred to this period in our history as The Age of Humanism which occurs roughly at the same time as the writing of the text of “The Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom”, so we can say that the text is a post-medieval text.

The Fourteenth Path, the Illuminating Intelligence, can also be understood as the intelligence derived from the borrowed light of Malkhut. It is the intelligence present in the cave of Plato’s allegory. In the Cave, there are two sources of light present: the light of the Sun from outside of the Cave which is dimly present (which we are calling here the Light of Keter); and the light of the fire made by the technites (the Magi) to show the shadows of the things that are upon the walls of the Cave to the prisoners within the Cave. In The Magician card shown here, the light is a reflected light from off of the wall behind him. This is indicated by his being partially encircled by an inverted Beth.

The knowledge that human beings take pride in is of their own ability to understand and make things. It is a knowledge that “conceals” the true essence of the sacred or the truth of things, and deters one from understanding the sacred or even acknowledging the sacred. It is a “false light” because it is primarily a human-made light (like the fire inside of the Cave of Plato, like the light inside The Hermit’s #9 lamp in the Tarot card). Human beings, through the power of their “formative” thinking, can close themselves off from the true essence of things (the significance of the closed Mem). This kind of thinking is representative of those who have chosen to remain satisfied with the “shadows” of the things that are rather than seek for the “holiness” of their true essence. It is here that sin primarily occurs for we are tempted or tested to follow the false light believing that the outcomes of the journey by the light of it will result in the “goods” that become our ultimate goal. As has been mentioned previously, the root of all sin is the sin against the Light. We could also rephrase the cliche that “Power is the root of all evil.”

This sin against the Light is the mistaking of what is the Law of Necessity for the Good. The borrowed light of Malkhut illuminates the world of Necessity, the world of Time and Space, of seasons, years and days, and the ‘firmament’ that is the realm of space or the heavens. Necessity is mathematically structured and subject to an inevitable order i.e. it is ruled by the Logos. The revolutions of the heavenly bodies are “whorls” (gyres) which produce the “music” of the cosmos, what we call ‘the music of the spheres’. The spindle of Necessity (see The Chariot #7 of the Tarot) moves with the Three Fates to determine the astral movements and the destinies of individuals (The Star #17 card). There are two primary luminaries in the heavens and they are the Sun and Moon. It appears that one may follow the illumination provided by the Sun (found in Tiferet) or one may follow the illumination provided by the Moon (found in Chakmah), and these are represented by The Strength #11 and The High Priestess #2 respectively in the Tarot.

“Holy” means “perfect, pure”, “set apart from defilement.” The Hebrew word means “separate”, and this designates the chasm separating the Divine from creation, the chasm separating the Necessary from the Good. The “speaking silence” is much like the word Aum or Om: it begins in “openness”, goes into “hiddenness”, begins with an “in-spiring of breath” and ends in silence. Music is analogous to it, but all forms of hearing are related to it. The translation of Chashmal is “brilliant flame” (fire) which, combined with air and water, produces earth. From this, or prior to this, the Law of Necessity determines the form of everything, be it “potential” (dynamis) or “actual” (energeia). All of what we call knowledge is rooted in and descends from our understanding of the Law of Necessity. The Kabbalistic speech (logos) employs the Law of Necessity; all our actions reflect the laws of Necessity. Only the infinite iota or Yod of the soul is that which is not touched by the Law of Necessity.

If the ten Sephirot are assigned the first ten paths and the one letter of Alef, the 11th path or the Scintillating Intelligence must be assigned the letter Beth indicating the beginning of the alefbeth and the beginning of the manifestation of the Word. The letter Beth means ‘house’ or ‘container’. The human body and the physical universe are both seen as ‘containers’ of the Divine Soul. In the Beth shown here, the outer shape encloses the Yod in the centre. In the Tarot deck illustrated here, The Magician is assigned the letter Beth, but as is shown in the card, the letter is reversed; Nature or the physical universe is seen in a mirror, reversed. Strength #11 is the proper placement of the letter Beth.

Keter and Alef must cross the horizontal path of Mem and Shin before the ‘container’ of the visible and physical can come into being. It is from the first three elements that the Otherness of Earth is created. Within the created universe, the physical universe, Space, the Sephirot Chokmah, is the “container” of the Whole, and the letter Beth signifies both the “house” of the Creator (the form) and the “home” that is His creation (substance). The “open region” or the “receptacular” must first be present in order for the thing that is to come to be can come to presence. There must be a site for it, a place. The letter Beth indicates this ‘site’. The site is established by the downward movement of Keter to Tiferet. In this crossing over, the Word is made flesh or corporeal.

If the first path of Alef instructs or brings awareness to the intelligence of that which cannot be known, the Mystical Consciousness, of that which is “hidden” and beyond the intelligence itself, the second path is the beginning of the possibility of knowledge of that which can be known, what is “illuminated” and “radiant”, that which “shines”. Alef illuminates the gloom of Mem: : “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”(Gen: 1:2) Human thought mirrors this activity of God when in contemplation, reflection or prayer: it is a ‘hovering over the face’ or the ‘outward appearance’ of the being of Otherness.

Both Mem and Shin meet Alef in the first horizontal movement, crossroad, or path on the Tree of Life so that they share in The Sanctifying Intelligence of the third path as well as The Radiant Intelligence of the second path. With this illuminated, radiant, sanctified intelligence, we come to the manifestation of the logos in the alefbeth and through it, the possibility of “understanding” and discoursing about the world around us. There is an indication here that the naming of things is a ‘holy act’ and that language itself is ‘holy’; but before things can be named, they must first be ‘measured’ and ‘arrested’ or brought to a stand. From this bringing to a stand comes our ‘under-standing’ or what is termed Binah on the Tree of Life.

Beth is the 2nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet, signifying the number two, or 1+1. The letter itself has two components. If Keter is the Father, number one, then Beth is the Son, number two, and Mem and Shin are the Holy Spirit or water and fire, number three (and four?). The first letter of the story of creation is Beth, starting the entire Torah/Bible – ברא בראשית “in the beginning”. Some commentators suggest that the first letter of the Bible is Alef so that the initial phrase is “Elohim in the beginning created…” rather than Beth which is “God in the beginning created…” This is significant as Elohim is plural and indicative of the Trinity while God is singular and indicative of the One. Vastly different interpretations arise when one chooses either to see the Creator as a One or as a Trinity (Elohim).

With the act of withdrawal, deprivations are created, not opposites. Creation is the deprival of the Divine, of the sense and experience of the One. Man and woman are not opposites: man is deprived of the ability to give birth to another human being and can only be a secondary agent in the process of ‘procreation’. When one speaks of “deprivals”, one is speaking of a hierarchy of things and a distinction between primary and secondary agencies.

Beth’s literal meaning and form denote a house, and it represents the universal concept of a container or vessel. Thus, the created world is meant to house within it the spiritual. It is the container of the world of Beriyah. It is the bringing together of the ‘Sterile Mother’, or The High Priestess #2 of the Tarot with the ‘Fruitful Mother’ or The Empress #3. It is important to see the connections between those letters that are designated as “containers”. The physical world is meant to be a place for the Creator’s glory or beauty to manifest. The body is meant to contain the soul, allowing it to act in this world; the spiritual must act through the physical.

What is perceived as the dual world contains within it the Ultimate Oneness, but concealed, and it is the ‘unconcealing’ of this Oneness that is what is referred to as the revealing of Truth, though Truth itself is the process of the revealing itself. In this process, the revealing itself is not activated by the will of human beings i.e., it is not a part of human judgement as to its Truth. The Beth is the tool, the source of all building, containing and then the bringing forth of all the other letters, but Alef is the source of all the letters in their particularities. Thus, where Alef crosses the horizontal path of Mem-Shin, The Logos comes into being that is the world of words and numbering and Beth ‘builds’ this world into a ‘house’ which the Logos then makes a ‘home’.

The table below summarizes the contents of this post:

Card	Path	Letter	Meaning	Symbol
0: The Fool	Keter (Crown) 1. Mystical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mufla): This is the Light that was originally conceived, and it is the First Glory (“Let there be light”). No creature can attain its excellence.	Alef א	Ox (the yoking together; the uniting; the bringing into a relationship of harmony). The friendship that is the Trinity of the Triune God. The Mystical Intelligence: that which the intellect knows it cannot know. It is the Good, the true Perfection.	Air is the Breath of Life and allows Fire to be. The Fool begins his journey at the bottom of the Tree of Life. If at the top, then his journey is a ‘fall’ and he is further removed from the Divine.
3: The Empress	Keter (Crown) / Binah (Understanding) 3.Sanctified Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeKudash): This is the foundation of the Original Wisdom and it is called “Faithful Faith”. Its roots are AMeN. It is the Father of Faith, and from its power faith emerges.	Alef/ Shin ש א	Fire is related to the head (logistikon), air to the heart (‘spiritedness’), water to the appetites. Fire rises upward and is to be found on the left side of the Tree of Life. 3. The Sanctifying Intelligence: the foundation of wisdom; that which separates the sacred and profane. Diaretic thought. “Amen”: “So be it” indicates either an act of will or a submission to the Divine Will. From Binah comes the understanding of the Law of Necessity.	The Fire or Primal Energy or Dynamis (possibility/ potentiality). The possibility of “world”. The Limit placed on the Unlimited. This is possible because of the Logos, word and number. The naming of things. Time. The giving of shape to water. The bower surrounding the Magician illustrated is a mirrored or reversed Beth. Shin is the element necessary for the world of Yetzirah or Formation, “the making of some thing from some thing”.
2: The High Priestess	Keter/ Chokmah (Wisdom) 2. Radiant Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Maz’hir): This is the Crown of creation and the radiance of the homogeneous unity that “exalts itself above all as the Head”. The Masters of the Kabbalah call it the “Second Glory”. The Illuminating/ Radiant Intelligence: the epiphanic illumination of truth; the shining intellect. With The Fire or Primal Energy or Dynamis (possibility/ potentiality). The possibility of “world” and its ‘whorling’.	Alef/ Mem מ א	Water Is the movement downwards and denotes the appetites and desires which are based on the physical manifestation of the creation. The lower eros attaches itself to the physical.	Lifting up, the Unlimited (education or the “leading out”; the goal of the 7 Pillars of Wisdom) The Incarnation as the destiny for human beings or of human beings The ironic association with water? Space.
11: Strength (I do not consider Strength to be #8 but rather Justice; the symbol of the snake is related to knowledge, the serpent)	Keter/Tiferet (Beauty) 11. The Scintillating Intelligence: the manifestation of the created worlds. Love/ Knowledge/ Understanding/ Wisdom. 10. Scintillating Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MitNotzetz): It is called this because it elevates itself and sits on the throne of Understanding. It shines with the radiance of all the luminaries and it bestows an influx of increase to the Prince of Face(s).	Alef/ Beth ב	House, Temple (Formation); the arrangement of things; the mathematical projection of things which makes the ready-to-hand possible. Camel The beast of burden that produces a work? The combination suggests the triad of Alef, Mem, Beth	Temple, Attention, Contemplation, Prayer The topos or place where world can occur for human beings. The place of grace. Whereas The Magician uses the power to produce a work, the Strength card is that power itself. Tiferet is prior to the Understanding of Binah and this is illustrated by the many connections between The Magician and the Strength card.
The High Priestess/The Empress	Alef/Mem/Shin The First Crossover Path 14. Illuminating Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Meir): It is called this because it is the essence of the speaking silence (Chashmal). It gives instructions regarding the mystery of the holy secrets and their structure.	א מ ש	The Cross of Creation. The handle of the mirror of Venus, the glass of which is the light of Keter. ♀ The ‘speaking silence’ of God is His covenant through the Beauty of the World whose instructions are to be compassionate, merciful, and kind. Through Love, the mysteries of the holy secrets and their structure is revealed.	The Logos of Being through which all things are made. The ‘gloom of Chokmah’ is made radiant by the light of Tiferet, the light of the Sun. The light of Chokmah itself is the ‘reflected light’ of the Moon. The crossover path determines the final re-birth through Grace.

The Paths Emanating From Keter

A Commentary on “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”: Chapter One: Part I

Introduction

“Faith is the experience that the intelligence is illuminated by Love.”- Simone Weil

This following commentary on “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” will attempt to show how the statement of Simone Weil is true in a manner understood by the Kabbalists. The text of “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” provided here is a consolidation of translations from the Hebrew by a number of English and Hebrew scholars and mystics. The Sefir Yetzirah and “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” are philosophical texts; that is, they are written in the language of “poetic prophecy”: the philosophers speak as prophets through poetry. They are attempts to make manifest the paths available to one (netivot) when one sets off on the quest for the Good or knowledge of the Good. “Paths” (one might also refer to them as streams or channels) are paths of thought, meditation, and prayer but they are also paths of action. According to Plato, the human soul is composed of three parts: appetitive, spirited, and logos.

In the Tarot, The World #21 is “the good”, or the completion of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the whole, with the letter Tav. It is the achievement of wisdom. At the same time, it combines with the letters Alef and Shin to indicate The Fool #0, and thus a new beginning, a return from the world where knowledge of the whole has been illuminated for the individual.

The Text of “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”:

Below is one translation of the text of “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”. I have provided others for comparison and contrast throughout this commentary. The word “intelligence” is highly problematical in the translation for “intelligence” has been understood as that calculative rationality which gives knowledge of outcomes (prophecy) in the history of the West. It is the world of the I.Q. test and applied sciences and this is but one face of the logos or logistikon that is the “intelligence” in the text and in the works of Plato and Aristotle.

In the interpretation of the “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” offered here, the “intelligence” or logistikon is to be understood as that infinitesimal point of reality in human beings that is beyond the realm of Necessity (Time and Space), that which is beyond the appetitive and “spirited” parts of what was once understood as the “soul” and what may be understood here as a combination of the Greek terms psyche, logos and eros. Plato divided the soul into three parts: the logistikon (intelligence, “reason”, “consciousness”), the thymoeides (spiritedness, which houses anger, as well as other spirited emotions), and the epithymetikon (appetite or desire, which houses the desire for physical pleasures). Each of the three parts of the soul were channeled by eros as desire expressed as “fullness” or “deprivation”. Eros is the child of Penia (need, deprivation) and Poros (skill or resourcefulness, fullness) and these qualities are manifest throughout the journey along the thirty-two paths of wisdom.

The Text

1. Mystical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mufla): This is the Light that was originally conceived, and it is the First Glory (“Let there be light”). No creature can attain its excellence.

3. Sanctified Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeKudash): This is the foundation of the Original Wisdom and it is called “Faithful Faith”. Its roots are AMeN. It is the Father of Faith, and from its power faith emerges.

4. Settled Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kavua): It is called this because all the spiritual powers emanate from it as the (most) ethereal of emanations. One emanates from the Other by the power of the Original Emanator, may He be Blessed.

5. Rooted Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nishrash): It is called this because it is the essence of the homogeneous Unity. It is unified in the essence of Understanding, which emanates from the domain of the Original Wisdom.

6. Transcendental Influx Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Shifa Nivdal): It is called this because through it the influx of Emanation (Atziluth) increases itself. It bestows this influx on all blessings, which unify themselves in its essence.

7. Hidden Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nistar): It is called this because it is the radiance that illuminates the transcendental powers that are seen with the mind’s eye and with the reverie of Faith.

8. Perfect Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Shalem): It is called this because it is the Original Arrangement. There is no root through which it can be pondered, except through the Chambers of Greatness, which emanate from the essence of its permanence.

9. Pure Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Tahor): It is called this because it purifies the Sephirot. It tests the degree of their structure and the inner essence of their unity, making it glow. They are then unified, without any cutoff or separation.

10. Scintillating Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MitNotzetz): It is called this because it elevates itself and sits on the throne of Understanding. It shines with the radiance of all the luminaries and it bestows an influx of increase to the Prince of Face(s).

11. Glaring Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeTzuchtzach): It is called this because it is the essence of the veil which is ordered in the arrangement of the system. It indicates the arrangement of the paths (netivot) whereby one can stand before the Cause of causes.

13. Unity Directing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Manhig HaAchdut): It is called this because it is the essence of the Glory. It represents the completion of the true essence of the unified spiritual beings.

15. Stabilizing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Ma’amid): It is called this because it stabilizes the essence of creation in the “Glooms of Purity”. The masters of the theory said this is ‘the Gloom at Sinai’. This is the meaning of “Gloom is its cocoon”. (Job 35.9)

16. Enduring Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nitzchi): It is called this because it is the Delight of the Glory (Eden). As it is, there is no Glory lower than it. It is called the Garden of Eden, which is prepared for the (reward of) the saints.

17. Intelligence of the Senses (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaHergesh): This is prepared for the Faithful saints so that they may be able to clothe themselves in the spirit of holiness. In the arrangement of the supernal entities, it is called the Foundation of Beauty (Yesod HaTiferet).

18. Intelligence of the House of Influx (Consciousness) (Sekhel Bet HaShefa): By probing with it, a secret mystery (Raz) and an allusion are transmitted to those who ‘dwell in its shadow’ and bind themselves to probing its substance from the Cause of Causes.

19. Intelligence of the Mystery of all Spiritual Activities (Consciousness) (Sekhel Sod HaPaulot HaRushniot Kulam): It is called this because of the influx that permeates it from the Highest Blessing and the Supreme Glory.

20. Intelligence of Will (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaRatzon): It is called this because it is the structure of all that is formed. Through this state of intelligence (consciousness) one can know the essence of Original Wisdom.

21. Desired and Sought Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel HaChafutz VeHaMevukash): It is called this because it receives the divine Influx so as to bestow its blessing to all things that exist.

22. Faithful Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Ne’eman): It is called this because spiritual powers are increased through it, so that they can be close to all those ‘who dwell in their shadow’.

23. Sustaining Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kayam): It is called this because it is the sustaining power for all the Sephirot.

24. Apparative (Tools) Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Dimyoni): It is called this because it provides an appearance for all created apparitions, in a form fitting their stature.

25. Testing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nisyoni): It is called this because it is the original temptation by which God tests all of His saints.

26. Renewing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeChudash): It is called this because it is the means through which the Blessed Holy One brings about all new things which are brought into being in His Creation.

27. Palpable Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Murgash): It is called this because the intelligence of things created under the entire upper sphere, as well as their sensations, were created through it.

28. Natural Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mutba): It is called this because the nature of all that exists under the sphere of the sun was completed through it.

29. Physical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mugsham): It is called this because it depicts the growth of all that becomes physical under the system of all the spheres.

30. General Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kelali): It is called this because it is the means by which the astrologers collect their rules regarding the stars and the constellations, forming the theory that comprises their knowledge of the Ophan-wheels of the spheres.

31. Continuous Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Timidi): Why is it called this? Because it directs the path of the sun and moon according to their laws of nature, each one in its proper orbit.

32. Worshipped Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Ne’evad): It is called this because it is prepared so as to destroy all who engage in the worship of the seven planets.

Commentary

Human beings are the “needing” animals. We are “perfect” in our “imperfection”. What makes us human and distinguishes us from other animals is our recognition that we experience both the absence and presence of the Good in our lives simultaneously. This experienced absence, the need of eros, sends us on a quest for its fulfillment so that its presence within ourselves will bring about a completion, a perfection and, thus, happiness. This questing is, partly, a revealing of the truth of things, and this revealing is part of our nature as human beings. We are not fully human when we do not carry out this quest, when we do not reveal truth. This quest is not based on a “why” that is looking for an answer in a “because”, although this is the foundation for our quests in science and in other areas of our lives. Outward manifestations of this quest can come in all forms, from the asceticism of the yogi to the slum mother who cares for her child.

At the heart of our common understanding of the Tree of Life is the document entitled “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”. Usually, this document accompanies the English editions of the Sepher Yetzirah and is seen as an explanation or clarification of the Sefer Yetzirah. However, the concept of 32 Paths of Wisdom themselves stems not from the Sefer Yetzirah, but from the Torah, the Book of Genesis, Chapter One, according to one Hebrew scholar. Furthermore, the document “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” comes to us from the late 13th Century, C.E. — centuries before the visual image of the Tree of Life was introduced and given as a representation of the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life itself is a visual representation of the ideas written about in the text of the Sefer Yetzirah itself, a text written in the year 1 or 2 BCE. Interpretations of the Sefer Yetzirah through the Tree of Life (what we understand as Kabballah) are predominantly medieval Hebrew and Christian understandings of that text.

Below, the text is in bold and the commentary is written in regular text. I have tried to make comparisons and contrasts between what is called “The Hebrew Tree of Life” which is based more closely on the paths outlined in the S.Y. (which will be used to refer to the Sefer Yetzirah itself hereafter) and in the text of “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”, and the modern interpretations of those paths which is sometimes referred to as the “Western interpretation” of those paths. Since a proper hermeneutical examination requires one to get closer to the “original sources”, many of the points which I make will be based on an understanding of Nature prior to that which occurs in the discoveries of modern science i.e., Newtonian physics.

The illustration of the Tree of Life from Aleister Crowley attempts to understand the Tree of Life and the 32 paths of Wisdom from a “modern” point of view. It attempts to consider the modern discoveries of the solar system and place them onto the Tree of Life which itself is founded upon only those heavenly bodies which are visible to the human eye. The arbitrariness of such inclusions into the concept of the Tree of Life and the 32 paths is shown by the fact that Pluto, for example, is no longer considered a planet by the Astro-physicists.

In interpreting the Tree of Life, it should be remembered that the Sefer Yetzirah was written before the discoveries of modern science and that its view of Nature is different from that which is held in the modern sciences and so it holds different “truths” or revelations than those of modern science. These differences should be obvious to any careful reader. Commentaries that attempt to take into account the discoveries of modern science fail to see the difference between the principle of reason which rules the theory and method of modern science and how modern science approaches the world and the things in it. The meditation and prayer suggested by the texts of the Sefer Yetzirah and “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” as ways of “intelligence” and “consciousness” and as a way of unveiling the truth of being and of the Divine show a different type of logos than that which is present in modern science

According to the Jewish tradition, the concept of the 32 Paths of Wisdom is derived from the 32 times that the name “Elohim” is mentioned in Genesis, Chapter One and it corresponds to the 10 Sephirot and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet:

Genesis Chapter 1 בְּרֵאשִׁית

א Alef	בְּרֵאשִׁית , בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים , אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם , וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ	1 In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth.
ב Bet	וְהָאָרֶץ , הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ , וְחֹשֶׁךְ , עַל – פְּנֵי תְהוֹם ; וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים , מְרַחֶפֶת עַל-פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם .	2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of Elohim hovered over the face of the waters.
ג Gimel	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר; וַיְהִי-אוֹר	3 And Elohim said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.
ד Dalet	וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאוֹר, כִּי-טוֹב; וַיַּבְדֵּל אֱלֹהִים,בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ.	4 And Elohim saw the light, that it was good; and Elohim divided the light from the darkness.
ה Heh	וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָאוֹר יוֹם, וְלַחֹשֶׁךְ קָרָא לָיְלָה;וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם אֶחָד.	5 And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. {P}
ו Vav	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם, וִיהִימַבְדִּיל, בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִם.	6 And Elohim said: ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’
ז *Zayin*	וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הָרָקִיעַ, וַיַּבְדֵּל בֵּין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁרמִתַּחַת לָרָקִיעַ, וּבֵין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעַל לָרָקִיעַ;וַיְהִי-כֵן.	7 And Elohim made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
ח *Chet*	וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָרָקִיעַ, שָׁמָיִם; וַיְהִי-עֶרֶבוַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם שֵׁנִי.	8 And Elohim called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. {P}
ט *Tet*	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יִקָּווּ הַמַּיִם מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמַיִםאֶל-מָקוֹם אֶחָד, וְתֵרָאֶה, הַיַּבָּשָׁה; וַיְהִי-כֵן.	9 And Elohim said: ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so.
י Yud	וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לַיַּבָּשָׁה אֶרֶץ, וּלְמִקְוֵה הַמַּיִם קָרָאיַמִּים; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.	10 And Elohim called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas; and Elohim saw that it was good.
כ *Kaf* יא	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, תַּדְשֵׁא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב מַזְרִיעַזֶרַע, עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ, אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹעַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיְהִי-כֵן.	11 And Elohim said: ‘Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth.’ And it was so.
ל *Lamed* יב	וַתּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב מַזְרִיעַ זֶרַע, לְמִינֵהוּ, וְעֵץעֹשֶׂה-פְּרִי אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ, לְמִינֵהוּ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים,כִּי-טוֹב.	12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and Elohim saw that it was good.
מ *Mem* יג	וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי.	13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. {P}
נ *Nun* יד	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים , יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם ,לְהַבְדִּיל , בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹתלְהַבְדִּיל , בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת	14 And Elohim said: ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
ס *Samekh* טו	וְהָיוּ לִמְאוֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהָאִיר עַל-הָאָרֶץ;וַיְהִי-כֵן.	15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so.
ע *Eyin* טז	וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים:אֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל, לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם, וְאֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹןלְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה, וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים.	16 And Elohim made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
פ *Pef* יז	וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמָיִם, לְהָאִיר,עַל-הָאָרֶץ.	17 And Elohim set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
צ *Tzaddi* יח	וְלִמְשֹׁל, בַּיּוֹם וּבַלַּיְלָה, וּלְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵיןהַחֹשֶׁךְ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.	18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and Elohim saw that it was good.
ק *Kaf* יט	וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם רְבִיעִי.	19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. {P}
ר *Resh* כ	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים–יִשְׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם, שֶׁרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה; וְעוֹףיְעוֹפֵף עַל-הָאָרֶץ, עַל-פְּנֵי רְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמָיִם.	20 And Elohim said: ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.’
ש *Shin* כא	וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים; וְאֵתכָּל-נֶפֶוְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף כָּנָף לְמִינֵהוּ, וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.שׁ הַחַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת אֲשֶׁר שָׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם לְמִינֵהֶם,	21 And Elohim created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged fowl after its kind; and Elohim saw that it was good.
ת *Tav* כב	וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, לֵאמֹר: פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ, וּמִלְאוּאֶת-הַמַּיִם בַּיַּמִּים, וְהָעוֹף, יִרֶב בָּאָרֶץ.	22 And Elohim blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.’
כג	וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם חֲמִישִׁי.	23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. {P}
כד	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, תּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה לְמִינָהּבְּהֵמָה וָרֶמֶשׂ וְחַיְתוֹ-אֶרֶץ, לְמִינָהּ; וַיְהִי-כֵן.	24 And Elohim said: ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind.’ And it was so.
כה	וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לְמִינָהּוַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לְמִינָהּוַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.	25 And Elohim made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
כו	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ;וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבַבְּהֵמָהוּבְכָל-הָאָרֶץ, וּבְכָל-הָרֶמֶשׂ, הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל-הָאָרֶץ.	26 And Elohim said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’
כז	וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ, בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִיםבָּרָא אֹתוֹ: זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, בָּרָא אֹתָם.	27 And Elohim created man in His own image, in the image of Elohim created He him; male and female created He them.
כח	וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם, אֱלֹהִים, וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּוּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְכִבְשֻׁהָ; וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם,וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבְכָל-חַיָּה, הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל-הָאָרֶץ.	28 And Elohim blessed them; and Elohim said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.’
כט	וַיֹּאמֶזֶרַע אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי כָל-הָאָרֶץ, וְאֶת-כָּל-הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר-בּוֹר אֱלֹהִים, הִנֵּה נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת-כָּל-עֵשֶׂב זֹרֵעַפְרִי-עֵץ, זֹרֵעַ זָרַע: לָכֶם יִהְיֶה, לְאָכְלָה.	29 And Elohim said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed–to you it shall be for food;
ל	וּלְכָל-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ וּלְכָל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּלְכֹל רוֹמֵשׂעַל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר-בּוֹ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, אֶת-כָּל-יֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב,לְאָכְלָה; וַיְהִי-כֵן.	30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.’ And it was so.
לא	וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה, וְהִנֵּה-טוֹב מְאֹד;וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי.	31 And Elohim saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. {P}

Sephiroth: “Elohim said”: The connection of the Sephirot to the Logos

Keter: “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” 1:1 (“said” is implied here)

This implies that the creation is an “expansion of God” rather than a “withdrawal” of God. The editorial note “To say” implies an empowering of the Self, a going beyond the Self. Perhaps a better understanding might come from the idea that “God thought” and from this “thought”, understood as Love, creation came to be. Alef is the letter that contains all the other letters. Language and number as the Logos always were.

Chokmah: Elohim said “Let there be light” 1:3

“Waters” are associated with darkness and with “the depths”. They are also associated with the Mother letter Mem. The darkness of the waters of Mem requires the light from the fire of Keter.

Binah: Elohim said “Let there be a firmament . . . let it divide . . .” 1:6

The “firmament” divides the limited (that which is “measured”, the content of “rationality”) from the unlimited (water). It establishes the limits and boundaries to things. It is the law of Necessity. It gives shapes to water. It is the establishment of space and time. Is it here that the Sephirot are created? Or were the Sephirot always there? I ascribe the letter Vav to the idea of ‘firmament’. In the letter Alef א, two Yods are separated by a Vav. The Yod above the Vav is the Divine Self, while the Yod below the Vav is the Divine Self as it is manifested in the created world. The Yod that is the individual Self or ego of human beings is contained within the Divine Self or soul of the created world. As the Yod that is the Divine Self is composed of three parts so, too, is the yod of the individual being or soul composed of three parts.

Gedulah/Chesed: Elohim said “Let the waters be gathered . . . let dry land appear . . .” 1:9

With the establishment of space and time, material things can appear (dry land). With material things comes number. Water and fire combine with air to produce earth. Material things can be measured by their “weight” or “intensity”.

Gevurah: Elohim said “Let the earth put forth grass . . . etc.” 1:11

The establishment of the dynamis of Nature, the potentiality or possibility, the Life-Force. The law of Necessity is determined or, rather, comes to manifestation to limit what is potential or possible.

Tiferet: Elohim said “Let there be lights in the firmament . . .” 1:14

The “lights in the firmament” is the establishment of time. There is an association with fire here, but all four elements are involved. With the two lights, the Sun and the Moon, come the two faces of Logos and Eros which manifest themselves in the sephirot Tiferet.

Netzach: Elohim said “Let the waters swarm . . . let fowl fly . . .” 1:20

The “animation” of life is present through all the elements, the worlds of the World. Life is associated with “spirit” and “soul”. This animation is one face of the two-faced Eros.

Hod: Elohim said “Let the earth bring forth living creatures . . .” 1:24

The distinction between “bringing forth” out of itself and the bringing forth in another, from another, and for another. This “procreation” was what the Greeks called poiesis and what we understand as “poetry”. Here in the Sefer Yetzirah, this is the distinction between the worlds of Beriyah and that of Yetzirah. This “bringing forth” can be either the procreation of beings by Nature or what we understand as creativity and imagination, the “bringing forth” by convention, what we call “the production of knowledge”. Both are possibilities of eros.

Yesod: Elohim said “Let us make man . . .” 1:26

It is interesting that the plural is used here in the making of man. Elohim is seen as a plural throughout, but this must be seen as the Trinity, just as we must view Eros as a trinity of forces involving the physical, “spirited” and logos.

Malkhut: Elohim said “Be fruitful and multiply . . .” 1:28

Malkhut is the physical universe. It is the only sephirot not connected to Tiferet.

Three Mothers: “Elohim made:”

Aleph — Elohim made “the Firmament and divided the waters . . .” 1:7 The “Firmament” is the letter Vav, the boundary that separates the waters of the heavens from those of the earth. Again the process here is one of withdrawal, not expansion. The heavens and the earth are Space which is prior to Time.
Mem — Elohim made “the two great lights . . . and the stars.” 1:16 The two great lights are the Sun and Moon from which Time is able to be seen.
Shin — “the beasts of the earth after its kind . . .” 1:25 The created beings are brought forth through Time.

Seven Doubles: “Elohim saw:

Beth — Elohim saw “the light, that it was good.” 1:4
Gimel — Elohim saw “that it was good.” (the separation of dry land and waters) 1:10
Daleth — Elohim saw” that it was good” (the earth bringing forth grass, etc.) 1:12
Kaph — Elohim saw that it was good” (the two lights in the firmament) 1:18
Peh — Elohim saw “that it was good” (swarming of waters with creatures; of air with fowl) 1:21
Resh — Elohim saw “that it was good” (the beasts of the earth) 1:25
Tav — Elohim saw “every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” 1:31

The seven double letters emphasize “seeing” and that through sight we experience that which we believe to be good. This seeing is of a “double” nature i.e. there is more than one possible way. The seven double letters comprise the three pillars of the Tree of Life, the foundations for the Tree of Life: the pillar of Jakim, the Pillar of Mercy, to the right when viewing the Tree of Life; the pillar of Keter in the centre running through Tiferet to Yesod to Malkhut, the Pillar of Balance and Judgement; and the pillar of Boaz to the left, the Pillar of Severity. These three pillars signify how the Logos and Eros will manifest themselves in the worlds in which they are experienced.

Elementals: “Elohim…–“

Heh –Elohim “hovered over the face of the waters.” 1:2
Vav — Elohim “divided the light from the darkness.” 1:4
Zayin –Elohim “called the light Day, and darkness Night.” 1:5
Cheth –Elohim “called the firmament Heaven.” 1:8
Teth –Elohim “called the dry land, Earth . . . and the waters, Seas.” 1:10
Yod –Elohim “set them [the two lights] in the firmament of the heaven” 1:17
Lamed –Elohim “created the sea-monsters, creatures that creep, and fowl.” 1:21
Nun –Elohim “blessed them [sea-monsters, creepers, and fowl] . . .” 1:22
Samekh –Elohim “created man in His own image.” 1:27
Ayin –Elohim “created He him; male and female created He them.” 1:27
Tzaddi –Elohim “blessed them [male and female].” 1:28
Qof — Elohim “said: I have given you all . . .” 1:29*

* There are two exceptions to this: The first is Gen. 1:1, and Sephirot 1/Keter, wherein “Elohim said” is assumed. The second is Gen. 1:29, and Elemental 12/Qoph, wherein the focus is shifted from the “Elohim said”, to the “I have given you all . . .” The Qof is the manifestation of the physical world.

The actions of the Elohim are in 4 groups of three: 1. hovering, dividing and setting; 2. creating; 3. blessing; 4. calling and saying. These actions parallel our own thinking and making process. We human beings in our making mirror the creating of the Elohim. Human beings do not create; we make or “procreate”. The Elohim creates.

The Paths emanating from Keter:A Discussion of the letters alef and Beth

1. Mystical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mufla): This is the Light that was originally conceived, and it is the First Glory (“Let there be light”). No creature can attain its excellence.

The First Path is called the Admirable or the Concealed Intelligence (The Highest Crown) – for it is the Light giving the power of comprehension of that First Principle which has no beginning, and it is the Primal Glory, for no created being can attain to its essence.

Alt. Trans. -“The first path is called the mystical consciousness, the highest crown (Keter). It is the light of the primordial principle which has no beginning; and it is the primal glory. No created being can attain to its essence.”

Wescott Trans. (These paragraphs are very obscure in meaning, and the Hebrew text is probably very corrupt.) This is Wescott’s comment.

The First Path is called the Admirable or the Hidden Intelligence (the Highest Crown): for it is the Light giving the power of comprehension of that First Principle which has no beginning; and it is the Primal Glory, for no created being can attain to its essence.

Keter: Sephirah #1 Alef “ox”

Genesis 1.1 In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth.

The first path is Keter, called here “the Highest Crown”. Light originates from fire and fire requires air. Commentators speak of the “comprehension of that First Principle which has no beginning”; this is the Uncaused Cause of the philosopher Aristotle, the sempiternal nature of Time as “the moving image of eternity” of Plato. I would suggest that the first principle is the Good, following Plato. This sempiternal nature of creation suggests that the creation itself is a withdrawal not an expansion as is commonly understood. What is and what will be always was. It is the Good which gives the Light to all things. It is the principle Emanator among the Sephirot and is associated with Eros and with Truth.

The Bible and Genesis do not begin with an Alef, but with a Bet: “In the beginning…” The path that creation takes is first through Tiferet, the Beauty of the World (Eros and the Logos), then to Yesod, the Foundation of the Earth, and then to Malkhut, the Kingdom of Nature or the physical world before us. In taking this path, it must first cross the line of Mem and Shin from Chakmah to Binah, through Space and Time respectively.

Aleph or (Alef) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and signifies either the number one or the concept of zero or “no-thing” and would correspond to either The Fool #0 of the Tarot in the world of Beriyah, or the Magician #1 in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah in the Tarot and the Sefer Yetzirah. The first path is a knowledge of, or awareness of, or an acquaintance with, the existence of the One and a comprehension both of the Law of Necessity (the “system” identified in the paths) and an awareness of that which is the First Principle of the One and which separates the creation from the One. Awareness of the One is consciousness of the Good. The Good, being beyond Being, is not knowable in itself as the “Admirable Intelligence” indicates but one may, nevertheless, be “conscious” of it. The Good gives that light that is Truth which illuminates all the things that are. Without such light, human beings would not be able to reveal the things that are in their truth and would be mere beasts.

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 because it is timeless, spaceless, and yet present everywhere; it is represented by the element of air and as that ‘firmament’ that separates the waters of the heavens from those of the earth. It is the One that cannot be divided, representing a perfection or completion beyond human comprehension. This is the world of Atzilut, the world of the Ain (no-thing), Ain Soph (infinite), and the Ain Soph Aur (the manifested Whole). I have been referring to this world as the Good in this writing. This sempiternal nature of creation suggests that the creation itself is a withdrawal not an expansion as it is commonly understood. The more God withdraws, the wider the gyre. (One may see an analogy to this in the recent discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The further we probe into the origins of the universe, the further the universe withdraws from us.)

Aleph suggests the wonder that arises from beginnings, the sense of the quest-ion that begins the “quest” or the journey. On this journey, there is a “Master” or ruler and “teacher”: this Master/Teacher is the Law of Necessity (the Divine Will or Torah). Necessity brings suffering; the purpose of suffering is to teach, to decreate the ego and to destroy the illusion and importance of the individual self. As the Greeks understood, the “mathematical” is that which can be learned and that which can be taught, and the mathematical is what is used to comprehend the Laws of Necessity. This is why we associate the ‘mathematical’ with numbers, but it is a greater concept than that and numbers are only one example of the mathematical. This may be one of the reasons why the ideas and the Sephirot are comprehended as numbers.

What is and what will be always was. It is the Good which gives the Light to all things, and this is why it is analogous to and symbolized by the Sun. One cannot attain to the Good itself for it is beyond Being, but one can attain to the Light which finds its source in the Good and it is available to everyone. That which is most important and most needed is available to everyone.

One must know the limits before one can know of or can be aware of that which is beyond the limits. This “awareness” or “intelligence” is what is known as the principle of reason (nihil est sine ratione) “nothing is without (a) reason”. The principle of reason includes within itself the principle of contradiction and the principle of causation. These principles are the Sefer Yetzirah’s roots in the philosophy of Aristotle. They are but one side of the face of the two-faced Logos.

Using the concept of zero suggests that Alef signifies no-thing, the Ain, and is not to be comprehended by either numbers or words since numbers and words come into being with the creation of “things” and of Time and Space; but both Time and Space, numbers and words, are with the One from the beginning, and this is a very important point to keep in mind. The Logos is part of the One that is a Three.

The path from Keter leads to the sephirot Tiferet #6. A number of commentaries place Da’at or the Void as the missing 11^th Sephirot between Keter and Tiferet. I would suggest that the concept of Da’at is one aspect of the “two faces” or “countenances” in which Tiferet shows itself; and in this particular instance, it is as a contrary to the Sun. In the interpretation offered here, Da’at is actually the Logos or the Word from which Creation or the physical world is initiated. The Sefer Yetzirah is quite emphatic that the sephirot are 10 and not 11. The Da’at or Void is the Cross of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth”, the Cross of Christ, the cross created when the paths of Alef, Mem and Shin meet with the downward movement of the path from Keter. The Cross is the whole of material Creation (the Divine Soul), and at the same time the body that encompasses our “embodied souls”. It is the macrocosm and the microcosm. Our bodies are our “crosses”, and this is what Christ meant when He said: “Take up your cross and follow me”. We experience the creation through our bodies.

Alef is the source of all the letters and, therefore, is the source of all created beings. The symbol of Alef is the “ox”, the beast of burden, indicating that the creation of the world is “work” and “a work”. This connects Keter to Malkhut, the physical universe, which is the world of action and doing, the world of work. The “ox” is also the most prized animal and therefore the most prized sacrificial animal: “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth” is analogous to this. The creation itself is a “sacrifice” on God’s part. The denial or decreation of ourselves is the sacrifice required on our part. The ego is our most prized possession. The giving up or giving over of this ego is our greatest sacrifice. This decreation is much more easily said than done.

When Keter meets with Tiferet through the path of Alef at the centre of the Tree of Life, the Tree of Life may be said to branch off into two directions. The crossover of the Mother letter Alef from Chesed (Loving Kindness) to Gevurah (Force, Strength, Power) through Tiferet, gives us the two faces of both the Logos and of Eros. Chesed may be said to represent Nature or Creation in one of its faces (water), while Gevurah may be said to represent Convention or that which is made by humans (fire). The Greeks distinguished this as Nomos (Convention) and Ananke or the primordial understanding of Necessity. The letter Alef is the very centre of Tiferet and it joins the Tavs (the last letter of the alphabet) that begin and end the word itself. While the illustration places Tiferet below the crossover point, it is in fact at the centre of that crossover joining together the waters of the necessary and the fires of the conventional. Tiferet was prior to the being of both Chesed and Gevurah. This crossover point is that site where the worlds of Beriyah and Yetzirah are connected (the mind and the will, the emotions and the heart). Tiferet is also related to the Sun, as well as the covenant of the spiritual or voice. When Alef meets Yesod, we have the second covenant of the flesh or circumcision.

Keter is the first Sephirot. It is that Light which is at the centre, the still point, of that motion of the spheres that compose the created worlds (World). In the Sefir Yetzirah, there are four universes or worlds, so also there are four possible manners in which the paths work since they occur simultaneously and concurrently. The four universes or worlds of the Sefir Yetzirah are: Atzilut (the Archetypal/Spiritual world, the world of the Ideas of Plato, the world of Being, the world of the Sephirot themselves), Beriyah (the Creative world, the world of the apprehension of the web of Necessity, the theoretical world), Yetzirah (the Formative world, the human application of the theoretical world of knowing and making based on reason), and Asiyah (the world of action and manifestation, what we would call the material or physical world, the world of work, and also the ethical/moral world). Every one of the 32 paths acts in four ways within each of these worlds and manifests the qualities of these worlds. The challenge is to understand how each of the paths acts within the four different worlds and how their actions are to be differentiated. These interactions are not discussed in this text, but I will attempt to illustrate them in a further writing on the relation of the Logos to Eros.

The Keter point of light is also the Soul of the world and of every human being (see the works of Carl Jung and the archetypes of the Anima Mundi or World Soul). This combination of fire and air in human beings is what makes possible our unity with the One Soul through various possible mediations in our everyday experiences of the things of the world. As we will see later, it is through the Beauty of the world that this mediation function occurs.

The human relationship to the Divine is experienced as “absence”. It is analogous to living in a foreign country and experiencing “culture shock” or “homesickness”. Humans live within the ground of the logos as representational ratio; this is their ground or foundation (Yesod). It is but one side of the face of the Logos and of Eros. The principle of reason, for example, is a statement about beings, insofar as there are beings. It speaks about beings and not about reason. How does the principle of reason become the foundation as the guiding principle for making statements about things? Thinking is both a “hearing” and a “seeing”. What we “hear” and “see” are already attuned to what the ear and the eye will be “allowed” to hear and see.

The ”Admirable” adjective used in the original Hebrew of the first Path refers to the “Prince of Peace”, the “Prince of the Face”; however, this Prince is “concealed” to us and from us. He is “hidden”. The word “admirable” suggests what we understand by “nobility”, the outward splendour of something or someone, what is understood as “glory” in the Sefer Yetzirah. The Light of Keter itself, though, is “living conscious light”. There is a paradox here, and this paradox presents to us the mystery of life.

The word “Glory” refers to “weight” in the original Hebrew and this would suggest an association with number but also an association with “value” and of a hierarchy, i.e., “weighty things”. Number is not possible without created things. This suggests that number, like language itself, was always already there. The understanding of the essence of number and language is something beyond human beings. Our modern belief that we understand the essence of language and number as shown in our algorithms and ‘artificial intelligence’ shows that we are in a very great danger with regard to our humanity and our human being in the world. Nevertheless, just as our belief in numbers and language permeates our lives so, too, does the presence of that Light which has given these gifts to us. Number and language are what the Greeks referred to as the Logos, and the Logos is here referred to as the Christ. In the commentary here, I have referred to our current understanding of language and number as the anti-Logos or the anti-Christ and I will try to show how I understand this.

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 Yods and one Vav. One must see the three parts of the Alef as enclosed within a sphere, and as the illustration here suggests they reach out to the circumference of the sphere. The diagonal Vav separates the two Yods which are two points, the Divine Soul and the Soul of Creation as well as the soul of the created human being, for it is only human beings who are capable of the language as it is understood as both word and number in the Sefer Yetzirah. This diagonal of the Vav suggests that the creation is a barrier but also a way through, a door or gateway perhaps (the letter Dalet meaning “door” emanating from Chesed). 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 letters that are associated with the diagonal paths on the Tree of Life (the twelve elemental letters) act in much the same manner, serving as either barriers or ways, channels or streams through to the next level on the way up or down on the Tree of Life. It is the eros which determines the direction.

As mentioned, 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.

From the Sephirot Keter, four letters and four paths emanate: Alef, Mem, Shin and Beth. Alef corresponds to path #1, the “Mystical or Wondrous Intelligence”. Mem is the “Radiant Intelligence” or path #2 of Chokmah. Shin is the “Sanctified Intelligence” of Binah, Path #3; and when Alef connects to Beth, we have path #11 or the “Scintillating Intelligence” (3 + 8). These four paths illustrate the downward movement of the Creation from the Divine as the Divine withdraws in order to allow Creation to be.

The Divine One is illustrated by the mother letters of Alef, Mem, and Shin, while the 11^th path is a combined potentiality for upward and downward movement, these motions being reconciled by Alef. Mem as water is responsible for the downward motion; Shin as fire is responsible for upward movement. The downward movement is a widening gyre from the #1 of Keter to the #10 of Malkhut indicated by the blue gyre. The upward movement is a narrowing gyre from #10 Malkhut to #1 Keter indicated by the red gyre.

The path of Mem, the realm of Space, is the crossover from Chokmah (Wisdom) to Binah (Understanding) and this path ceases at the point where it meets the downward path of Alef to Tiferet. (In the illustration, the Shin is placed on the wrong side of the path from Chokmah to Binah. It should be a Mem here while the Shin should be placed on the side coming from Binah. They meet at the path of Beth “in the beginning”). Likewise, the path of Shin crosses from Binah to the point where it meets the Alef to the Tiferet downward path. These paths form the initial cross of the whole of Creation. Our bodies, too, are “crosses”, the cross that we must “pick up” and follow Christ (if we are Christians Matthew 16: 24-26).

With the contrary movements are contrary paths or mirrored paths. The contrary of path #1, the “Wondrous Intelligence” or “Mystical Intelligence”, is the “Worshipped Intelligence” or “Administrative Intelligence” path #32. This type of “consciousness” is that which is given to one through the opinions of others and their interpretations of the things that are. The contrary to the “Radiant Intelligence” is path #31 or “Continuous Intelligence”, and the contrary to the “Sanctified Intelligence” path #3 is path #30 or the “General Intelligence”. The movement throughout the Tree of Life is circular or spherical and, as has been suggested, the movement is in the form of widening or narrowing gyres.

One cannot attain to the Good itself for it is beyond Being, but one can attain to the Light which finds its source in the Good. The path from Keter leads to the sephirot Tiferet #6, Beauty. Alef is the source of all the letters and, therefore, is the source of all created beings, all things that come into being. Its mirrored image is the Sun. The symbol of Alef is the “ox”, the beast of burden, indicating that the creation of the world is “work” and “a work”. This connects Keter to Malkhut, the physical universe, which is the world of action and doing, the world of work. The “ox” is also the sacrificial animal: “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth”. The creation itself is a “sacrifice” on God’s part. The denial of ourselves is the sacrifice required on our part when we wish to attain to the truth of Being.

We can understand the four worlds or universes if we think of them in terms of Aristotle’s understanding of causation. For Aristotle, the word “cause” does not mean simply that which brings about such and such a result. For Aristotle causation was an “exchange”, a relation, and meant “that which is responsible for” or that to which something else is “obliged” or “indebted”. The emanation of the odour of the rose is indebted to the presence of the rose. The rose is “responsible” for the odour.

The four causes of Aristotle are: 1. The material cause or hyle corresponding to the world of Asiyah; 2. The formative cause or eidos, the outward appearance of the things corresponding to the world of Yetzirah, the world of models and plans established so that they are seen and thus brought forth; 3. The end, purpose or use for which the thing is to be made, the telos corresponding to the world of Beriyah; this end is actually the first in that it is the structure or frame (the “system”) or ground upon which the outward form will be placed; 4. The maker, who through his “work”, “pro-duces” or brings forth the thing into being corresponding to the world of Atzilut but only in a mirroring way, for the things of Nature are produced from themselves while the works of human beings are produced in another or from another. The work of Nature is “procreation”, while the work of human being is “making”.

Using a table as an example: the hyle is wood. The maker must have some knowledge of the nature of “wood” and its potentialities to be a table. The maker must have foreknowledge of how the table will appear: will it have legs? what will be its size? etc. The third is that the maker must have knowledge of the end use of the table: will it be an altar? a dinner table? a work table? The maker must have the possibility or potentiality to make the table; some skill or craft is involved in the making of the table. This possibility or potentiality is what Aristotle called dynamis. The possibility or potentiality could be either active or passive: the maker could carry out the work and make a table or let someone else do it, but this dynamis is present in all four causes and in all four worlds. The wood must have the dynamis or potential to allow itself to be formed into a table; the table’s form must be present in the wood to begin with; and the end of the table, its use, must be present before the work can be done to bring it about.

I will be writing about Plato’s divided line from Book VI of his Republic and how it is related to both the Sefir Yetzirah’s four universes or worlds, Aristotle’s four causes, and to the geometry of the Pythagoreans where a number of similar points are made at a future time. I will also be discussing the two faces of both Logos and Eros as it relates to what is attempting to be said here with a discussion of Plato’s Symposium and his Allegory of the Cave.

The Keter point of light is also the Soul of the world and of every human being (see the work of Carl Jung and the archetypes of the Anima Mundi or World Soul). This combination of fire and air in human beings is what makes possible our unity with the One Soul through various possible mediations in our everyday experiences of the things of the world, a mediation which is the work of eros. It is Eros and its affects that bring forth the reasoning as to why the world of yetzirah is called the daemonic world. As we will see later, it is through the Beauty of the world that this mediation or experience can take place. This beauty of the world is but one face of Eros. Tiferet is the site of all possible experiences of the world for it comprises both faces of Eros and of the Logos.

Keter is the point from which emanate three paths or channels or streams: the first is the letter Alef and is associated in the Tarot with The Fool #0 (the beginning of the adventure or quest). It is said in the Sefer Yetzirah that all the letters of the alphabet are contained in Alef, just as all potentialities and possibilities for human beings are contained in The Fool #0 and The Magician #1. Alef as language itself makes manifest the potentialities and possibilities of the second Sefirot, Chakmah which, mistakenly, has the letter Beth assigned to it, shown in the card of The High Priestess #2, and this activates the third Sephirot of Binah, which is shown in the tarot card The Empress #3. The third emanation of Keter goes through the letter Alef and finds its realization in the Sephirot of Tiferet #6 or Beauty, symbolized in the Tarot by The Lovers #6 (although Paul Foster Case places the High Priestess here).

The association of the cards with the paths depends on the direction that one is viewing (or living) the motion of the sphere. The direction of the viewing will determine whether one sees the Wheel as Tora (the Law) or Taro (the Way). The three Mother letters of Alef, Mem, Shin establish the vertical and horizontal structures or foundations of the Tree of Life. Alef is the central pillar and is associated with Air; Mem is the pillar known as Jakim on the right and is associated with water and Mercy; Shin is associated with fire and Severity and is associated with the pillar of Boaz on the left. They also provide the horizontal paths or streams and indicate the “fullness” and deprivation or need of the qualities indicated.

The emanations of Keter and of the other Sephirot are not chronological and sequential but simultaneous, and these emanations carry with them their contraries, so The Fool as present in Keter is also present in #10 Malkhut. The Tarot of P. F. Case places The Fool at Keter because the Tree of Life is both “a beginning and an end” in its circular revolutions through the sphere of that which is the created World. Case calls these movements “spirals”, or we might consider them the “widening gyres” of W.B. Yeats which I have attempted to do here. Keter is at the centre point of the sphere, while Malkhut may be said to be the circumference of the sphere.

As mentioned in the commentary, the creation of the world is a withdrawal not an expansion. It is a “giving”, not an “empowering” or “empowerment”, not an “expansion” of God as is indicated in Gen. 1:31. In His creation, God gives to us the example for our spiritual selves: a withdrawal and a letting be of that Otherness that is not ourselves, but also a withdrawal from that which is ourselves. Since power or force is the root of all evil, the denial of this power once it is present and possible for us is the goal of meditation, prayer, or thought. Again, this is not easily done.

The Magician #1 is clearly a card where this generating and grasping of power is signified. Both the Light of Keter and the Reflected Light of Malkhut are present for The Magician. The number 10 combines both The Magician and The Fool together (1 + 0), and combined together they make The Wheel of Fortune, #10. To put it another way, God in His creating is a movement down, while the making of human beings is a movement up, and this making is demonstrated in The Magician card. On the table beside The Magician are the four suits of the Tarot Minor Arcana: swords (air), cups (water), wands (fire), and pentacles (earth). These four elements represent the ready-to-hand things that The Magician uses in his formation and making of things in the world of Yetzirah. The formation and making of things is the world of power. A mirrored letter Beth encircles the Magician.

The physics of modern science is the pure theory which, in its viewing, sets nature up to show itself as a coherence of forces calculable in advance. Theory stems from the Greek word theorein whose noun is theoria with its meaning being the result of the unification of thea and horao. Thea, connected to theatre, is the external appearance in which something offers itself. For Plato, having seen this “theatrical” or “showing” aspect of the outward appearances of the things through the eidos, is to know. This kind of knowledge is called epi-steme by the Greeks. Horao means to “look at something attentively”. So, “theorein is thean horan” i.e., to look attentively at the external appearance through which something manifests itself.

From these concepts, one can see The Magician as the “stage manager” or the master of the outward appearances of things; he can reveal either truth or illusion. One can also see a connection to the 30^th and 31^stpaths, the “Universal/General” and “Perpetual/Continuous” paths, of the Tree of Life which connect Malkhut to world of Yetzirah or “formation”. The ”universal path” suggests acquaintance with or intelligence of the theoretical viewing of the web of Necessity while the “perpetual” path is Necessity itself indicating its sempiternal character. These paths relate to the theoretical and inductive ways of viewing the world. More will be said on this later.

The Romans translated theorein by contemplari, theoria by contemplatio. Contemplari means “to partition something off into a separate sector and enclose it therein”, to set up boundaries and limits. We have spoken of this kind of thinking/seeing as diaresis earlier in our commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah. The Latin templum is the equivalent of Greek temenos, which has an origin entirely different from theorein, as temnein means to divide. The Latin templum originally refers to a sector carved out of the sky which diviners used to make their prophecies based on the behaviours and habits of birds (the Worshipped/Administrative Intelligence). It is also the partitioning of space into the 12 houses of the Zodiac. This Latin influence corresponds to the writing of the Sefer Yetzirah around the 1^st century BCE, but astrology itself was a product of the Pythagoreans and pre-dates this Latin influence. The use of the Tarot is but another example of the attempt to control Necessity.

The actions and activities of The Magician correspond to an “entrapment” and a “gathering together” that is a “refining” of the real. To strive after something means “to work one’s way toward something, to pursue it, to entrap it in order to secure it”. These activities are associated with the universe of Asiyah and the Sephirot #10 Malkhut. This is what we call “work”, and the activity of work produces “a work”. Modern science claims to wish to grasp the real in its purity. In reality, in its grasping, it entraps it and refines it. The real is “what presences as self- exhibiting”. Modern science sets up the real and captures it in its objectness. In this way, the real becomes surveyable. We can see from this the circular or spherical nature of thinking itself and of the Tree of Life. This presents the problem of seeing the world and wishing to change it or seeing the world and wishing to contemplate it in its Beauty.

Card	Path	Letter	Meaning	Symbol
0: The Fool? Or 10: The Wheel? Or 20: The Judgement?	Keter (Crown)/ Chokmah (Wisdom	Alef	Ox (the yoking together; the uniting; the bringing into a relationship of harmony)	The Fire or Primal Energy or Dynamis (possibility/potentiality). The possibility of “world”
1: The Magician? Or 11: Strength	Keter (Crown)/ Binah (Understanding)	Beth	House (Formation); the arrangement of things	Temple, Attention, Contemplation, Prayer The topos or place where world can occur
2: The High Priestess? Or 12: The Hanged Man	Keter/ Tiferet (Beauty)	Gimel	Camel	Lifting up, the Unlimited (education or the “leading out”) The Incarnation as the destiny for human beings or of human beings

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 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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?)

Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter One

The Tree of Life from the Kabbalah:

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:

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 2⁵indicating 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.)

The Paths to and from Tiferet (Part Two)

The Letter Zayin and the 21st Path: The Desired and Sought Intelligence

The Letter Lamed and the 22nd Path: The Faithful Intelligence

The Letter Samekh and the 23rd Path: The Sustaining Intelligence

The Letter Resh and the 25th Path: The Intelligence of Trials (Temptations)

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The Paths to and from Tiferet (Part One)

Path Six: Intelligence of the Separative/Mediating Influence

The 16th Path: The Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence: The Letter Heh

The Letter Vav and the 17th Path: Intelligence of the Senses

The Letter Ayin and the 20th Path: Intelligence of the Will

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The Paths Emanating From Gevurah

The Fifth Path: The Radical/Root Intelligence

The Letter Peh and the 13th Path: The Uniting Intelligence

The Letter Kaf and the 24th Path: The Apparative/ Imaginative Intelligence

The Letter Ayin and the 20th Path: Intelligence of the Will

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The Paths Emanating From Chesed

The 4th Path: The Settled Intelligence

The 19th Path: Mem (Shin) Alef: Intelligence of the Mystery of Spiritual Activities

Gimel and the 12 Path: Intelligence of Transparency

The Letter Dalet and the 26th Path: The Renewing Intelligence

The Letter Zayin and the 21st Path: The Desired and Sought Intelligence

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The Paths Emanating From Chokmah

The Second Path: The Illuminating Intelligence

The Path of Heh: The Stabilizing Intelligence

Path 12: The Intelligence of Transparency

The Letter Gimel and the 12th Path

The 14th Path: The Illuminating Intelligence

Path 14: The Illuminating Intelligence

The Sixteenth Path: The Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence (Consciousness)

The Letter Heh and the 16th Path:

Path 18: Consciousness of the House of Influence: The Letter Chet

The Letter Chet and the 18th Path

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Paths Emanating From Keter:

The Eleventh Path: The Scintillating/ Glaring Intelligence

The Letter Beth

The 14th Path: The Illuminating Intelligence (Consciousness)

Mem (Alef) Shin and the 14th Path

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Introduction

The Text of “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”:

The Text

Commentary

Sephiroth: “Elohim said”: The connection of the Sephirot to the Logos

Three Mothers: “Elohim made:”

Seven Doubles: “Elohim saw:

Elementals: “Elohim…–“

The Paths emanating from Keter:A Discussion of the letters alef and Beth

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Commentary on Chapter 6.1

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Text: 1:10

Wescott’s Notes:

Commentary on 1:10

Text: 10 a

Commentary on 10 a:

Text: 1-10b

Commentary 1-10b

Text: 1-11

Wescott’s Notes:

Commentary on 1-11:

Text: 1-12

Commentary 1:12

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The Tree of Life from the Kabbalah:

Text of the Sefir Yetzirah with Commentary:

Comments on the Text: 1.1

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The 4^th Path: The Settled Intelligence

The Letter Gimel and the 12^th Path

The Letter Chet and the 18^th Path

Mem (Alef) Shin and the 14^th Path