Tag: Tarot

Sefer Yetzirah Chapter 5: Significance of the Twelve Elemental Letters

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

Chapter 5.1 Text:

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

SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER V
(Found in some Versions)

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

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

Wescott’s Notes:

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

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

Commentary on 5.1:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sefer Yetzirah 5.2

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

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

Wescott’s Notes to 5.2

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

Commentary on 5.2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sefer Yetzirah Text 5.3

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

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

Commentary on 5.3

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

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

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

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

Wescott Notes to Chapter V

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

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

44. Postellus gives suspicion and Pistorius, mind.

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

Teth Telah Aries Mem Maznim Libra

Shin Shor Taurus Oin Oqereb Scorpio

Tau Thaumim Gemini Qoph Qesheth Sagittarius

Samech Sartan Cancer Gimel Gedi Capricornus

Aleph Aryeh Leo Daleth Dali Aquarius

Beth Bethuleh Virgo Daleth Dagim Pisces

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

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

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

A Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah: Chapter 4

The Seven Double Letters

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

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

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

Commentary on 4.1:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Text of the Sefer Yetzirah: 4.2

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

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

Commentary on 4.2

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

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

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

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

Text of the Sefer Yetzirah: 4.3

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

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


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

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

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

Commentary on 4.3:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Text of Sefer Yetzirah 4.4

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


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

Wescott Notes to 4.4

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

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

Commentary on 4.4:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wescott Notes:

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

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

Commentary:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sefer Yetzirah: 1:3

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

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

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

Wescott’s Notes;

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

Commentary 1:3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sefer yetzirah 1:4

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

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

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

Wescott’s Notes:

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

Commentary 1:4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sefer Yetzirah 1:5

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

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

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

Wescott Notes:

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

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

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

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

Commentary 1:5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Theory of Knowledge: An Alternative Approach

Why is an alternative approach necessary?