| CHAPTER I THE WISDOM OF THE QABALAH The Qabalah |
| The Origins of the Qabalah |
The origins of the Qabalah are primeval; they are lost in the mists of legend, magic, and folklore.
They have grown through a process of mystical integration until they have absorbed all the great
myths of the world. The Qabalah is consequently a universal philosophy, combining the eternal
masculine and the eternal feminine, and cementing them into the eternally human. So it happens that
wherever we search we find origins. Thus in Essenism we find Qabalism. The Essenes were
not to divulge the secret doctrines to anyone . . . . carefully to preserve the books belonging to their sect and the
names of the angels or the mysteries connected with the Tetragrammaton and the other names of God and the
angels, comprised in the theosophy as well as with the cosmogony which also played so important a part among
the Jewish mystics and the Kabbalists.
But long before the Essenes existed lived the Qabalah. Aryan and Chaldean esoteric doctrines
percolated into it. In Egypt, the mysteries of the Sun god, the Moon goddess, of Osiris and Isis,
impinged upon it. Assyria and Babylon gave it much, and not a little may be traced to the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Vedantas, and much of the Practical Qabalah to the Tantras
more especially.
Historically, the main point of interest is that the Qabalist is an inveterate plagiarist; he never
hesitates to absorb knowledge from outside. His doctrines, being secret, are vastly attractive; they
suck in all mysteries and digest them into a universal form. Consequently there is both grist and chaff
in the Qabalah, a medley of wisdom and nonsense which often defies separation. The outstanding
advantage of this plagiarizing is that it offers something to everyone; consequently the Qabalah has
developed into a world-embracing philosophy well adapted to the ideals of a world-scattered race.
it will be found Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Theism, Deism, Dualism,
Agnosticism, Pantheism, Satanism, Spiritualism, and Atheism; for every cult, except Polytheism, has
burnt offerings on the altar of the Qabalistic mystery - magically depicted in the form of the Pan-like
Baphomet.
It is this extraordinary universality which it is important to remember, for it has been the binding
force which has kept Judaism intact; it has waterproofed it against solvent influences. Further still, the
Qabalah does offer to humanity a world religion or cult. In a silent and secret way its doctrine is the
conquering mystery of the life-force.
They have grown through a process of mystical integration until they have absorbed all the great
myths of the world. The Qabalah is consequently a universal philosophy, combining the eternal
masculine and the eternal feminine, and cementing them into the eternally human. So it happens that
wherever we search we find origins. Thus in Essenism we find Qabalism. The Essenes were
not to divulge the secret doctrines to anyone . . . . carefully to preserve the books belonging to their sect and the
names of the angels or the mysteries connected with the Tetragrammaton and the other names of God and the
angels, comprised in the theosophy as well as with the cosmogony which also played so important a part among
the Jewish mystics and the Kabbalists.
But long before the Essenes existed lived the Qabalah. Aryan and Chaldean esoteric doctrines
percolated into it. In Egypt, the mysteries of the Sun god, the Moon goddess, of Osiris and Isis,
impinged upon it. Assyria and Babylon gave it much, and not a little may be traced to the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Vedantas, and much of the Practical Qabalah to the Tantras
more especially.
Historically, the main point of interest is that the Qabalist is an inveterate plagiarist; he never
hesitates to absorb knowledge from outside. His doctrines, being secret, are vastly attractive; they
suck in all mysteries and digest them into a universal form. Consequently there is both grist and chaff
in the Qabalah, a medley of wisdom and nonsense which often defies separation. The outstanding
advantage of this plagiarizing is that it offers something to everyone; consequently the Qabalah has
developed into a world-embracing philosophy well adapted to the ideals of a world-scattered race.
it will be found Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Theism, Deism, Dualism,
Agnosticism, Pantheism, Satanism, Spiritualism, and Atheism; for every cult, except Polytheism, has
burnt offerings on the altar of the Qabalistic mystery - magically depicted in the form of the Pan-like
Baphomet.
It is this extraordinary universality which it is important to remember, for it has been the binding
force which has kept Judaism intact; it has waterproofed it against solvent influences. Further still, the
Qabalah does offer to humanity a world religion or cult. In a silent and secret way its doctrine is the
conquering mystery of the life-force.
| The Philosophy of the Qabalah |
The philosophy of the Qabalah is not difficult to define; it is a question of balance, of poise, and of
equilibrium. But to explain what is meant by balance or poise is not so easy, and in place of
attempting to do so in a few sentences we will let this central principle evolve slowly on its own in
this and the next four chapters.
Esoterically, the object of this philosophy is a return of the universe into the structure of the first
Adam; this mystery we will attempt to explain later on. Exoterically it is the return of Israel to the
Garden of Eden - the megalomania of the all-conquering Jew. The relationship between these two
objects is that the second constitutes the protective shell of the first. The second maintains the Jewish
peoples intact, and this intactness enables Qabalistic wisdom to evolve. Outside this protective duty,
the second has no relationship to the first, no more than the shell of an egg - lifeless substance - has a
relationship to the yolk within it - living substance. That the Israelites will find the Promised Land in
the conquest of the world is a lie, a lie which protects a sublime truth - the reabsorption of the world
into the pure spirit of God.
To the masses of the Jewish peoples such a statement will be considered blasphemous. Yet in the
Zohar we read:
With his ordinary understanding, man cannot understand the revelation of mysteries. All that I am about to
reveal to you can be revealed only to the Masters, who know how to keep the balance because they have been
initiated.
The shell, the white, and the yolk form the perfect egg. The shell protects the white and the yolk,
and the yolk feeds upon the white; and when the white has vanished, the yolk, in the form of the
fledged bird, breaks through the shell and presently soars into the air. Thus does the static become the
dynamic, the material the spiritual.
If the shell is the exoteric principle and the yolk the esoteric, what then is the white? The white is
the food of the second, the accumulated wisdom of the world centring round the mystery of growth,
which each single individual must absorb before he can break the shell. The transmutation of the
white, by the yolk, into the fledgling is the secret of secrets of the entire Qabalistic philosophy.
“Know that all the upper and the lower worlds are comprised in the Image of God”, we read in the
Zohar.13 Here we have: (1) a unity - the Image of God; (2) a duality - the Upper and Lower Worlds; (3)
a trinity - the Upper and Lower Worlds and the Image of God; and (4) a quadruplicity - the Knower,
the Upper World, the Lower World, and the Image of God. Yet this quadruplicity is in itself a duality
- the Knower and the Image of God; because this Image includes the Upper and Lower Worlds. The
absorption of the Knower in the Image is the Great Work - the re-establishment of unity or
equilibrium.
Concerning the first of these two dualities, Isaac Myer writes:
The basic element of most of the ancient, and to this day, of many of the modern religions of the world is,
the idea of a perfect invisible universe above, which is the real and true paradigm or ideal model, of the visible
universe below, the latter being the reflection, a simulacrum or shadow, of the invisible perfect ideal above. This
idea was fully understood by the Ancient Egyptians, as was shown in their deities Nut or Neith, the Upper
World, Shu or Mâ, the Intermediary, and Seb, the Earth. In India, the same idea is fully set forth in the
esoteric books of the Vedas, called the Upanishads. It is the supreme Ideal Brahm which is the only True. It
manifests Itself first in Brama, Vishnu and Siva, past, present and future time, and through these in the visible,
the last being Maya, or Illusion. The temples of most of the archaic peoples of Asia and of Egypt were intended
to be visible copies of the heavenly Temple, the starry firmament called Templum, and the same idea is visible
in those of the Hebrews. Philo and Josephus represent the Temples of the Israelites, as typical of the visible
universe, and this was based on the invisible universe.
Amongst the Mohammedans we find the same idea: the first thing God created was a pen.
Indeed the whole creation is but a Transcript, and God when He made the World, did but write it out of that
Copy which He had of it in His Divine understanding from all Eternity. The Lesser Worlds (Mikrokosmos) or
Men, are but transcripts of the Greater (the Makrokosmos), as Children and Books are the copies of themselves.
God takes upon himself spiritual form in the act of creation, which is pure light transfigured into
visible light, which is the relationship between the eyes and pure light. Pure spirit can only be sensed
as a relation which we call spirituality - the relationship between the third eye and pure spirit. God to
this third eye is not Nothing, he is All Things; for when this eye is open he can be seen everywhere.
The idea ex nihilo nihil fil17 (from nothing nothing is made) is abhorrent to the Qabalah.
Not any Thing [says the Zohar] is lost in the universe, not even the vapour which goes out of our mouths; as
all things, it has its place and its destination, and the Holy One, blessed be It, makes it concur to Its works; not
anything falls into the void, not even the words and the voice of man, but all has its place and its destination. 18
The Qabalist Abram ben Dior writes:
Then they [the Qabalists] affirm, that All Things have been drawn from No-Thing [not Nothing], they do not
wish to speak of nothing properly to say, for never can Being come from Non-being, but they understand, by
Non-being, that which one can conceive of, neither by its cause or its essence; it [the No-Thing] is, in a word,
the Cause of Causes; it is It whom we call the Primordial Non-being, because it is anterior to the entire universe.
Though the Qabalah recognizes but one primordial cause, it also recognizes two complementary
elements: the one incorruptible and vital which reveals itself as a spiritual energy, and the other
corruptible and inert, always tending to dissolve and return to its original atoms. The first is Bliss, the
second is Hate: the first is symbolized by the angelic hosts, the second by the demon hordes - Good
and Evil; for, as Isaiah says: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil :I the
Lord do all these things.”
The spirit which we sense through our third eye is not God as the Primordial Cause, or No-Thing,
but as it were the Thought of this Cause. “He constituted in the first place a point of light, which
became the Divine Thought.” Our consciousness is the mirror which catches the rays of this
Thought; there-fore all thoughts are images of God's Thought, and the more spiritual, alive, our
consciousness becomes, the more perfect are these images, which are not illusions but symbols of
Reality.
Simon ben Yohai stretched out his hands and cried:
Now ponder well upon all that I have this day revealed unto you! And know that none of these celestial
palaces are light, nor are they spirits, nor are they souls, nor are they any form that may be seized hold of by any
of the senses. Know that the Palaces are Thoughts-seen through curtains. Take away the thought, and the Palace
becomes nothing that the mind can grasp nor the imagination picture! And know, finally, that all the mysteries
of the Faith lie in this doctrine: that all that exists in the Upper World is the Light of Thought- The infinite. Lift
the curtain, and all matter appears immaterial! Lift another curtain, and the immaterial becomes even more
spiritual and sublime! As each succeeding curtain is lifted we are transported to ever-higher planes of sublimity
until the Highest is reached!
The curtains are the divisions (abysses) between the superconscious Thought of God and the
conscious thought of man. The ultimate curtain is the shell of the egg - materiality; but before this
final curtain can be lifted, a host of intellectual curtains - the white of the egg - have to be dissolved
by transmutation into spiritual energy. Spiritual deliverance, or attainment, is consequently an act of
creation.
Finally we come to this conclusion: It is not God, or the Universe, which is the supreme mystery,
but man, man himself, the link between God and the Universe. The Zohar says:
As soon as man appeared, all was achieved, both in the upper and in the lower worlds. For all is contained in
man. He combines within himself all the forms.
Again the Zohar says:
The Essence of the Supreme Wisdom is composed of earth and of heaven; of divine and of human; of
material and of immaterial, even as man is composed of body and soul. Man is the synthesis of all the Holy
Names. In man are enclosed all the worlds, both the upper and the lower. Man includes all the mysteries, even
those that existed before the creation of the world.
Since the form of man comprises all that is in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, God has chosen it
as His Own Form. Naught could exist before the formation of the human form which encloses all things. And all
that exists is by the grace of the existence of the human form. But we must distinguish between the upper man
and the lower man, since one cannot exist without the other. On the form of man depends the perfection of faith.
That which we call heavenly man, or the first divine manifestation, is the absolute form of all that is, the source
of all forms and ideas: Supreme Thought. Man is the central point around which all creation revolves. He is the
noblest figure of all those that are harnessed to the Chariot of God.
In Nature, man is the centre and the world is the periphery of what the Zohar calls the garment of
God, 25 and the removal of this garment mysteriously does not disclose what lies behind it, but what
lies within ourselves. It is not that we are absorbed by God, but that God is absorbed by us - the ocean
of quicksilver merging into the minutest globule of this same metal. This unclothing is accomplished
through equilibrium, not of opposite, but of complementary forces. Evil is not the opposite of good,
but the negative side of a positive-negative existence called life. When the positive equals, or
balances, the negative, the result is equilibrium. Perfect equilibrium is Zero, that is No-thing - Bliss.
equilibrium. But to explain what is meant by balance or poise is not so easy, and in place of
attempting to do so in a few sentences we will let this central principle evolve slowly on its own in
this and the next four chapters.
Esoterically, the object of this philosophy is a return of the universe into the structure of the first
Adam; this mystery we will attempt to explain later on. Exoterically it is the return of Israel to the
Garden of Eden - the megalomania of the all-conquering Jew. The relationship between these two
objects is that the second constitutes the protective shell of the first. The second maintains the Jewish
peoples intact, and this intactness enables Qabalistic wisdom to evolve. Outside this protective duty,
the second has no relationship to the first, no more than the shell of an egg - lifeless substance - has a
relationship to the yolk within it - living substance. That the Israelites will find the Promised Land in
the conquest of the world is a lie, a lie which protects a sublime truth - the reabsorption of the world
into the pure spirit of God.
To the masses of the Jewish peoples such a statement will be considered blasphemous. Yet in the
Zohar we read:
With his ordinary understanding, man cannot understand the revelation of mysteries. All that I am about to
reveal to you can be revealed only to the Masters, who know how to keep the balance because they have been
initiated.
The shell, the white, and the yolk form the perfect egg. The shell protects the white and the yolk,
and the yolk feeds upon the white; and when the white has vanished, the yolk, in the form of the
fledged bird, breaks through the shell and presently soars into the air. Thus does the static become the
dynamic, the material the spiritual.
If the shell is the exoteric principle and the yolk the esoteric, what then is the white? The white is
the food of the second, the accumulated wisdom of the world centring round the mystery of growth,
which each single individual must absorb before he can break the shell. The transmutation of the
white, by the yolk, into the fledgling is the secret of secrets of the entire Qabalistic philosophy.
“Know that all the upper and the lower worlds are comprised in the Image of God”, we read in the
Zohar.13 Here we have: (1) a unity - the Image of God; (2) a duality - the Upper and Lower Worlds; (3)
a trinity - the Upper and Lower Worlds and the Image of God; and (4) a quadruplicity - the Knower,
the Upper World, the Lower World, and the Image of God. Yet this quadruplicity is in itself a duality
- the Knower and the Image of God; because this Image includes the Upper and Lower Worlds. The
absorption of the Knower in the Image is the Great Work - the re-establishment of unity or
equilibrium.
Concerning the first of these two dualities, Isaac Myer writes:
The basic element of most of the ancient, and to this day, of many of the modern religions of the world is,
the idea of a perfect invisible universe above, which is the real and true paradigm or ideal model, of the visible
universe below, the latter being the reflection, a simulacrum or shadow, of the invisible perfect ideal above. This
idea was fully understood by the Ancient Egyptians, as was shown in their deities Nut or Neith, the Upper
World, Shu or Mâ, the Intermediary, and Seb, the Earth. In India, the same idea is fully set forth in the
esoteric books of the Vedas, called the Upanishads. It is the supreme Ideal Brahm which is the only True. It
manifests Itself first in Brama, Vishnu and Siva, past, present and future time, and through these in the visible,
the last being Maya, or Illusion. The temples of most of the archaic peoples of Asia and of Egypt were intended
to be visible copies of the heavenly Temple, the starry firmament called Templum, and the same idea is visible
in those of the Hebrews. Philo and Josephus represent the Temples of the Israelites, as typical of the visible
universe, and this was based on the invisible universe.
Amongst the Mohammedans we find the same idea: the first thing God created was a pen.
Indeed the whole creation is but a Transcript, and God when He made the World, did but write it out of that
Copy which He had of it in His Divine understanding from all Eternity. The Lesser Worlds (Mikrokosmos) or
Men, are but transcripts of the Greater (the Makrokosmos), as Children and Books are the copies of themselves.
God takes upon himself spiritual form in the act of creation, which is pure light transfigured into
visible light, which is the relationship between the eyes and pure light. Pure spirit can only be sensed
as a relation which we call spirituality - the relationship between the third eye and pure spirit. God to
this third eye is not Nothing, he is All Things; for when this eye is open he can be seen everywhere.
The idea ex nihilo nihil fil17 (from nothing nothing is made) is abhorrent to the Qabalah.
Not any Thing [says the Zohar] is lost in the universe, not even the vapour which goes out of our mouths; as
all things, it has its place and its destination, and the Holy One, blessed be It, makes it concur to Its works; not
anything falls into the void, not even the words and the voice of man, but all has its place and its destination. 18
The Qabalist Abram ben Dior writes:
Then they [the Qabalists] affirm, that All Things have been drawn from No-Thing [not Nothing], they do not
wish to speak of nothing properly to say, for never can Being come from Non-being, but they understand, by
Non-being, that which one can conceive of, neither by its cause or its essence; it [the No-Thing] is, in a word,
the Cause of Causes; it is It whom we call the Primordial Non-being, because it is anterior to the entire universe.
Though the Qabalah recognizes but one primordial cause, it also recognizes two complementary
elements: the one incorruptible and vital which reveals itself as a spiritual energy, and the other
corruptible and inert, always tending to dissolve and return to its original atoms. The first is Bliss, the
second is Hate: the first is symbolized by the angelic hosts, the second by the demon hordes - Good
and Evil; for, as Isaiah says: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil :I the
Lord do all these things.”
The spirit which we sense through our third eye is not God as the Primordial Cause, or No-Thing,
but as it were the Thought of this Cause. “He constituted in the first place a point of light, which
became the Divine Thought.” Our consciousness is the mirror which catches the rays of this
Thought; there-fore all thoughts are images of God's Thought, and the more spiritual, alive, our
consciousness becomes, the more perfect are these images, which are not illusions but symbols of
Reality.
Simon ben Yohai stretched out his hands and cried:
Now ponder well upon all that I have this day revealed unto you! And know that none of these celestial
palaces are light, nor are they spirits, nor are they souls, nor are they any form that may be seized hold of by any
of the senses. Know that the Palaces are Thoughts-seen through curtains. Take away the thought, and the Palace
becomes nothing that the mind can grasp nor the imagination picture! And know, finally, that all the mysteries
of the Faith lie in this doctrine: that all that exists in the Upper World is the Light of Thought- The infinite. Lift
the curtain, and all matter appears immaterial! Lift another curtain, and the immaterial becomes even more
spiritual and sublime! As each succeeding curtain is lifted we are transported to ever-higher planes of sublimity
until the Highest is reached!
The curtains are the divisions (abysses) between the superconscious Thought of God and the
conscious thought of man. The ultimate curtain is the shell of the egg - materiality; but before this
final curtain can be lifted, a host of intellectual curtains - the white of the egg - have to be dissolved
by transmutation into spiritual energy. Spiritual deliverance, or attainment, is consequently an act of
creation.
Finally we come to this conclusion: It is not God, or the Universe, which is the supreme mystery,
but man, man himself, the link between God and the Universe. The Zohar says:
As soon as man appeared, all was achieved, both in the upper and in the lower worlds. For all is contained in
man. He combines within himself all the forms.
Again the Zohar says:
The Essence of the Supreme Wisdom is composed of earth and of heaven; of divine and of human; of
material and of immaterial, even as man is composed of body and soul. Man is the synthesis of all the Holy
Names. In man are enclosed all the worlds, both the upper and the lower. Man includes all the mysteries, even
those that existed before the creation of the world.
Since the form of man comprises all that is in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, God has chosen it
as His Own Form. Naught could exist before the formation of the human form which encloses all things. And all
that exists is by the grace of the existence of the human form. But we must distinguish between the upper man
and the lower man, since one cannot exist without the other. On the form of man depends the perfection of faith.
That which we call heavenly man, or the first divine manifestation, is the absolute form of all that is, the source
of all forms and ideas: Supreme Thought. Man is the central point around which all creation revolves. He is the
noblest figure of all those that are harnessed to the Chariot of God.
In Nature, man is the centre and the world is the periphery of what the Zohar calls the garment of
God, 25 and the removal of this garment mysteriously does not disclose what lies behind it, but what
lies within ourselves. It is not that we are absorbed by God, but that God is absorbed by us - the ocean
of quicksilver merging into the minutest globule of this same metal. This unclothing is accomplished
through equilibrium, not of opposite, but of complementary forces. Evil is not the opposite of good,
but the negative side of a positive-negative existence called life. When the positive equals, or
balances, the negative, the result is equilibrium. Perfect equilibrium is Zero, that is No-thing - Bliss.
| Equilibrium |
Equilibrium is the fundamental law, or mystery, of the Qabalah; in fact the bulk of the Qabalistic
doctrines are but a commentary upon it. There is the Upper and the Lower, the Real and the Apparent,
the Invisible and the Visible. In the Zohar we read:
All that which is found [or exists] upon the Earth has its spiritual counterpart also to be found on High, and
there does not exist the smallest thing in the world which is not itself attached to something on High, and is not
found in dependence upon it. When the inferior part is influenced, and that which is set over it in the Superior
world is equally [influenced], all are perfectly united together.
Again and again is this idea repeated in different words, and from it is derived the Talmudic
maxim, “If thou wilt know the invisible, have an open eye for the visible”, which means that this
world is the true Bible which can lead us back to God or Reality; “for all which is contained in the
Lower World is also found in the Upper [in prototype]. The Lower and Upper reciprocally act upon
each other.” Or as is written in the Sepher Shephathal:
All that which is on the earth is also found above [in perfect prototype], and there is not anything so
insignificant in the world that does not depend upon another above: in such a manner, that if the lower moves
itself the higher corresponding to it moves towards it. As to the number, therefore, of the different species of
creatures, which are enumerated below, the same number is to be found in the upper roots.
This doctrine of interdependence runs through the New Testament. Christ says:
Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do
always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
Also:
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
“Who?” (Mee) and “What?” (Maah) are the two extremes of this doctrine, representing as they do
the “Above” and the “Below”. In “Who” created “these” is to be found the origin of the word Elohim,
that is God (Gods) for in Hebrew “these” is Eleh (hla) and by adding Mee (ym) we obtain Elohim
(myhla) the Mee being reversed on account of its reflection. “And upon this secret the world is built.”
This same idea of equilibrium between Who and What - Upper and Lower - is also found in the
Hermetic doctrines, which drew largely on Qabalistic knowledge. All is expressed in one proposition:
“That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above,
for the fulfilment of the wonders of the one thing.” According to Éliphas Lévi this universal principle
is “the TELESMA of the world”. To symbolize this supreme truth, Hermes, so legend affirms,
duplicated the serpent on his caduceus and so set it against itself in eternal equilibrium. (See Plate I)
In the visible world, man is the centre, just as God is the centre of the invisible world.
God created man in His Own Image. . . . Adam was made of the same earth out of which was raised the
Sanctuary of the Earth. And the earth on which was the sanctuary was the synthesis of the four cardinal points
of the world. These cardinal points were united at the moment of creation with the four elements fire, water, air,
and earth . .
these elements being ∞od, Heh, Vau, and Heh of the name Jehovah. Man is consequently the
synthesis of “all the Holy Names”, therefore in man are “enclosed all the worlds, both the upper and
the lower”, and:
Since the form of man comprises all that is in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, God has chosen it
as His Own Form. Naught could exist before the formation of the human form which encloses all things. And all
that exists is by the grace of the existence of the human form. (See Diagram 1)
doctrines are but a commentary upon it. There is the Upper and the Lower, the Real and the Apparent,
the Invisible and the Visible. In the Zohar we read:
All that which is found [or exists] upon the Earth has its spiritual counterpart also to be found on High, and
there does not exist the smallest thing in the world which is not itself attached to something on High, and is not
found in dependence upon it. When the inferior part is influenced, and that which is set over it in the Superior
world is equally [influenced], all are perfectly united together.
Again and again is this idea repeated in different words, and from it is derived the Talmudic
maxim, “If thou wilt know the invisible, have an open eye for the visible”, which means that this
world is the true Bible which can lead us back to God or Reality; “for all which is contained in the
Lower World is also found in the Upper [in prototype]. The Lower and Upper reciprocally act upon
each other.” Or as is written in the Sepher Shephathal:
All that which is on the earth is also found above [in perfect prototype], and there is not anything so
insignificant in the world that does not depend upon another above: in such a manner, that if the lower moves
itself the higher corresponding to it moves towards it. As to the number, therefore, of the different species of
creatures, which are enumerated below, the same number is to be found in the upper roots.
This doctrine of interdependence runs through the New Testament. Christ says:
Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do
always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
Also:
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
“Who?” (Mee) and “What?” (Maah) are the two extremes of this doctrine, representing as they do
the “Above” and the “Below”. In “Who” created “these” is to be found the origin of the word Elohim,
that is God (Gods) for in Hebrew “these” is Eleh (hla) and by adding Mee (ym) we obtain Elohim
(myhla) the Mee being reversed on account of its reflection. “And upon this secret the world is built.”
This same idea of equilibrium between Who and What - Upper and Lower - is also found in the
Hermetic doctrines, which drew largely on Qabalistic knowledge. All is expressed in one proposition:
“That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above,
for the fulfilment of the wonders of the one thing.” According to Éliphas Lévi this universal principle
is “the TELESMA of the world”. To symbolize this supreme truth, Hermes, so legend affirms,
duplicated the serpent on his caduceus and so set it against itself in eternal equilibrium. (See Plate I)
In the visible world, man is the centre, just as God is the centre of the invisible world.
God created man in His Own Image. . . . Adam was made of the same earth out of which was raised the
Sanctuary of the Earth. And the earth on which was the sanctuary was the synthesis of the four cardinal points
of the world. These cardinal points were united at the moment of creation with the four elements fire, water, air,
and earth . .
these elements being ∞od, Heh, Vau, and Heh of the name Jehovah. Man is consequently the
synthesis of “all the Holy Names”, therefore in man are “enclosed all the worlds, both the upper and
the lower”, and:
Since the form of man comprises all that is in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, God has chosen it
as His Own Form. Naught could exist before the formation of the human form which encloses all things. And all
that exists is by the grace of the existence of the human form. (See Diagram 1)
Plate 1: The Caduceus of Hermes
Plate 1: The Winged Wand of Egypt
| Diagram 1: The Divine Man |
As man is a duality in unity, so also is the Garden of Eden. There is the Heavenly Eden to which there
is no human approach, and the Earthly Eden which is approached by thirty-two paths - the 22 letters
and 10 numerals.
No one knows the Earthly Eden but the Little Face [the seven lower Sephiroth], and no one knows the
Heavenly Eden but the Great Face [the three Supernal Sephiroth]. . . . Should the Upper Eye [Kether] cease
looking into the Lower Eye [Malkuth], the world would perish.
Thus does this unvarying idea of balance run on.
“The union of man with God”, says Saint Theresa, “is nothing but the reunion of two bodies which
have been separated but are always one.” The connecting link is the power of will, which is neither
good nor evil, but a power or energy, which can be filtered through good or evil. It is, as it were, the
beam of light of a magic lantern, the slides it penetrates being the nature of man. As long as these
slides exist there can be no perfect vision of God and, consequently, no perfect union. When Moses
said to God, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory”, the answer he received was:
Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a
place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will
put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Which means that man, if he wills, can see God's lower manifestation - his visible universe - but
that his invisible nature is cut off from him whilst in the flesh.
Since this fundamental law of equilibrium was first grasped, and it sinks back long before
Qabalistic days, nothing has been added to the essential knowledge of man; and the philosophy of the
Classical Age, the magic of the Medieval, and the science of the Modern Ages are founded upon it
and have, in attempting to explain it, merely replaced one set of symbols by another. The Zohar says:
The Holy One, blessed be He, found it necessary to create all these things in the world to ensure its
permanence, so that there should be, as it were, a brain with many membranes encircling it. The whole world is
constructed on this principle, upper and lower, from the first mystic point up to the furthest removed of all the
stages. They are all coverings one to another, brain within brain and spirit within spirit, so that one is a shell to
another. The primal point is the innermost light of a translucency, tenuity, and purity, passing comprehension.
is no human approach, and the Earthly Eden which is approached by thirty-two paths - the 22 letters
and 10 numerals.
No one knows the Earthly Eden but the Little Face [the seven lower Sephiroth], and no one knows the
Heavenly Eden but the Great Face [the three Supernal Sephiroth]. . . . Should the Upper Eye [Kether] cease
looking into the Lower Eye [Malkuth], the world would perish.
Thus does this unvarying idea of balance run on.
“The union of man with God”, says Saint Theresa, “is nothing but the reunion of two bodies which
have been separated but are always one.” The connecting link is the power of will, which is neither
good nor evil, but a power or energy, which can be filtered through good or evil. It is, as it were, the
beam of light of a magic lantern, the slides it penetrates being the nature of man. As long as these
slides exist there can be no perfect vision of God and, consequently, no perfect union. When Moses
said to God, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory”, the answer he received was:
Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a
place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will
put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Which means that man, if he wills, can see God's lower manifestation - his visible universe - but
that his invisible nature is cut off from him whilst in the flesh.
Since this fundamental law of equilibrium was first grasped, and it sinks back long before
Qabalistic days, nothing has been added to the essential knowledge of man; and the philosophy of the
Classical Age, the magic of the Medieval, and the science of the Modern Ages are founded upon it
and have, in attempting to explain it, merely replaced one set of symbols by another. The Zohar says:
The Holy One, blessed be He, found it necessary to create all these things in the world to ensure its
permanence, so that there should be, as it were, a brain with many membranes encircling it. The whole world is
constructed on this principle, upper and lower, from the first mystic point up to the furthest removed of all the
stages. They are all coverings one to another, brain within brain and spirit within spirit, so that one is a shell to
another. The primal point is the innermost light of a translucency, tenuity, and purity, passing comprehension.
| Philosophical comparisons |
Before concluding this chapter, it may be of some interest to the reader if a few brief comparisons
are made between the Qabalistic doctrines and other philosophies, because this will accentuate its
universality; for the Qabalah is a world philosophy, and consequently there lurks within it the
makings of a world religion. That it should show remarkable resemblance’s to Zoroastrianism is to be
expected, for both flourished in adjacent regions. As the Qabalah is largely an exposition of the Upper
and Lower, God and the Image of God, so is the Zoroastrian philosophy founded on the idea of the
passive and active in Nature - the so-called good and the evil. As to the Qabalist the mediating agent
is the will, so to the Zoroastrian the Great Magical Agent is in actual fact no other than Lucifer - the
vehicle of light.
To Pythagoras, God was absolute truth clothed in light, all things emerged from the tetrad, and the
mediator was number manifested by form. To him material forms were but images or illusions of real
forms, and this was the view also taken by Aristotle and Plato. To the second of these philosophers
“God, intending to make a visible world, first formed an intelligible one; that so having an incorporeal
says: “The Supreme God holds himself invisible, and it is only in his works that we are capable of
admiring him.”
And Cicero says, “Though you see not the Deity, yet by the contemplation of his works, you are
led to acknowledge a God”. which is similar to St. Paul when, speaking of Christ, he said: “For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” And again: “For in him we live, and move,
and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
But of all philosophies the closest-allied are those of the Vedanta and of Lao-Tze. The Indian
system is a trinity in unity, the ineffable, incomprehensible Brahm becoming apparent in the Trimurti
(tri = three and murti = bodies), Brama, Vishnu, and Siva - creation, preservation, and destruction.
The Âtman is Reality, and the apparent world is Mâyâ, or illusion. Man within him possesses an
âtman, or soul, which can only attain to Reality through absorption by the Âtman or over-soul. This
absorption is effected through meditation.
Taoism is in idea even more closely related. “Tao produced one, one produced two, two produced
three, and three produced all things.” What, then, is Tao?
There was a time when Heaven and Earth did not exist, but only an unlimited Space in which reigned
absolute immobility. All the visible things and all that which possesses existence were born in that Space from a
powerful principle, which existed by Itself, and from Itself developed Itself, and which made the heavens
revolve and preserved the universal life; a principle as to which philosophy declares we know not the name, and
which, for that reason, it designates by the simple appellation Tao. . . . Tao manifested itself in Heaven and
Earth, with which it is, so to say, One.
Another writer says
By the Chinese, man is considered as a mikrokosm, the universe is man on a large scale. . . . Human reason
is the reason of the universe The holy-man, or sage by eminence, is like the great pinnacle and spirit. He is the
first of all beings. His spirit is one with the heavens, the master work of the Supreme Reason, being perfectly
unique.
These resemblances - and scores of others could be cited - are not fortuitous, neither is it possible
that they should have originated from one source, one human philosophical doctrine. The truth is that
they are spontaneous, they spring naturally from reason itself once thought is turned upon the world;
they are an integral part of man's mind and being. Destroy them, and we are plunged into madness;
fertilize them, and step by step we are raised towards God. Religion, that is the equilibrium between
the visible and the invisible, the lower and the upper, is essentially a part of man's nature. When this
equilibrium is lost, society, however progressive it may seem materially, is plunged back into chaos
from which cosmos and order can only emerge by an illumination, a balancing of forces, which will
give life and light to a new world order. Man is the Microcosm, because he cannot truly and
meaningly say “I am” without postulating the Macrocosm. The one is as much of his nature as the
other, because his existence depends on the balance between both as certainly as an electrical current
depends on what we call positive and negative waves of electricity or of light. “Let there be Light”
occultly represents the world, not only as a material form, but as a spiritual idea.
are made between the Qabalistic doctrines and other philosophies, because this will accentuate its
universality; for the Qabalah is a world philosophy, and consequently there lurks within it the
makings of a world religion. That it should show remarkable resemblance’s to Zoroastrianism is to be
expected, for both flourished in adjacent regions. As the Qabalah is largely an exposition of the Upper
and Lower, God and the Image of God, so is the Zoroastrian philosophy founded on the idea of the
passive and active in Nature - the so-called good and the evil. As to the Qabalist the mediating agent
is the will, so to the Zoroastrian the Great Magical Agent is in actual fact no other than Lucifer - the
vehicle of light.
To Pythagoras, God was absolute truth clothed in light, all things emerged from the tetrad, and the
mediator was number manifested by form. To him material forms were but images or illusions of real
forms, and this was the view also taken by Aristotle and Plato. To the second of these philosophers
“God, intending to make a visible world, first formed an intelligible one; that so having an incorporeal
says: “The Supreme God holds himself invisible, and it is only in his works that we are capable of
admiring him.”
And Cicero says, “Though you see not the Deity, yet by the contemplation of his works, you are
led to acknowledge a God”. which is similar to St. Paul when, speaking of Christ, he said: “For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” And again: “For in him we live, and move,
and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
But of all philosophies the closest-allied are those of the Vedanta and of Lao-Tze. The Indian
system is a trinity in unity, the ineffable, incomprehensible Brahm becoming apparent in the Trimurti
(tri = three and murti = bodies), Brama, Vishnu, and Siva - creation, preservation, and destruction.
The Âtman is Reality, and the apparent world is Mâyâ, or illusion. Man within him possesses an
âtman, or soul, which can only attain to Reality through absorption by the Âtman or over-soul. This
absorption is effected through meditation.
Taoism is in idea even more closely related. “Tao produced one, one produced two, two produced
three, and three produced all things.” What, then, is Tao?
There was a time when Heaven and Earth did not exist, but only an unlimited Space in which reigned
absolute immobility. All the visible things and all that which possesses existence were born in that Space from a
powerful principle, which existed by Itself, and from Itself developed Itself, and which made the heavens
revolve and preserved the universal life; a principle as to which philosophy declares we know not the name, and
which, for that reason, it designates by the simple appellation Tao. . . . Tao manifested itself in Heaven and
Earth, with which it is, so to say, One.
Another writer says
By the Chinese, man is considered as a mikrokosm, the universe is man on a large scale. . . . Human reason
is the reason of the universe The holy-man, or sage by eminence, is like the great pinnacle and spirit. He is the
first of all beings. His spirit is one with the heavens, the master work of the Supreme Reason, being perfectly
unique.
These resemblances - and scores of others could be cited - are not fortuitous, neither is it possible
that they should have originated from one source, one human philosophical doctrine. The truth is that
they are spontaneous, they spring naturally from reason itself once thought is turned upon the world;
they are an integral part of man's mind and being. Destroy them, and we are plunged into madness;
fertilize them, and step by step we are raised towards God. Religion, that is the equilibrium between
the visible and the invisible, the lower and the upper, is essentially a part of man's nature. When this
equilibrium is lost, society, however progressive it may seem materially, is plunged back into chaos
from which cosmos and order can only emerge by an illumination, a balancing of forces, which will
give life and light to a new world order. Man is the Microcosm, because he cannot truly and
meaningly say “I am” without postulating the Macrocosm. The one is as much of his nature as the
other, because his existence depends on the balance between both as certainly as an electrical current
depends on what we call positive and negative waves of electricity or of light. “Let there be Light”
occultly represents the world, not only as a material form, but as a spiritual idea.
The Qabalah is not a holy book as are the Vedas, the Bible, and the Koran. It is not a book at all:
instead it is a secret traditional knowledge, the hidden thought of Israel, which, like gold embedded in
rock, is to be found only after much labour in many Hebrew works, such as the Torah, the Talmud,
the Mishna, Midrashim, Zohar, and scores of other books, the bewildering nature of which may be
recognized in a few minutes by glancing through A Talmudic Miscellany by Paul Isaac Hershon.
The word hlbq (QBLH) is spelt in many ways, such as Qabalah, Qaballah, Cabala, Kaballa, and
even, though quite incorrectly - Gabella. It is not derived from such fantastic origins as the name of
Kapila, the Indian philosopher, or from the name of the goddess Cybele, for the word simply means
“reception”, something received an oral transmission, an oracle, or the spoken word. And the reason
is, as we have already mentioned, that for ages the Qabalistic doctrines were not set down in writing
or print, the Hebrews considering them too secret and sublime a wisdom for the common eye.
This wisdom is formed within a vast number of doctrines, such as the nature of God; the mystical
cosmogony of the universe; the destiny of the universe; the creation of man; the immutability of God;
the moral government of the universe; the doctrine of good and evil; the nature of the soul, angels,
and demons; the transcendental symbolism of numbers and letters; the balancing of complementary
forces, etc., etc. All these many problems are divided under two main headings, the Theoretical and
the Practical Qabalah; the first being again divided into the Symbolical, Dogmatic, and Speculative
branches. The first main division, that is the Theoretical, is philosophical; the second is magical and is
largely elaborated round the Maaseh Merkabah - the Chariot of Ezekiel and the four Animals which
are also mentioned in the Apocalypse. Out of this magical Qabalah much of the magic of the Middle
Ages was developed.
The Speculative, or Metaphysical, Qabalah is the more important branch. It forms, as Adolph
Franck says: “the heart and life of Judaism”. It covers the evolution, involution, and devolution of the
universe in every conceivable spiritual, moral, and intellectual form; and under such symbolism as
“The spirit clothes itself to come down and unclothes itself to go up”; and again in Ecclesiastes, “Who
knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the
earth ?”
All these doctrines are wrapped up in the most complete secrecy. They form, in fact, the ancient
Sod; or Mystery, of the Hebrews.
Woe to the man who sees in the Thorah, i.e. Law, only simple recitals and ordinary words! Because, if in
truth it only contained these, we would even today be able to compose a Thorah much more worthy of
admiration. . . . The recitals of the Thorah are the vestments of the Thorah. Woe to him who takes this garment
for the Thorah itself! . . . There are some foolish people who, seeing a man covered with a beautiful garment,
carry their regard no further, and take the garment for the body, whilst there exists a still more precious thing,
which is the soul. . . . The Wise, the servitors of the Supreme King, those who inhabit the heights of Sinai,3 are
occupied only with the soul, which is the basis of all the rest, which is the Thorah itself; and in the future time
they will be prepared to contemplate the Soul of that Soul [i.e. the Deity] which breathes in the Thorah.
This idea is again set forth in the Zohar in the following allegory:
Like unto a beautiful woman hidden in the interior of a palace who, when her friend and beloved passes by,
opens for a moment a secret window, and is only seen by him; then again retires and disappears for a long time;
so the doctrine shows herself only to the elect, but also not even to these always in the same manner. In the
beginning, deeply veiled, she only beckons to the one passing, with her hand; it simply depends [on himself] if
in his understanding he perceives this gentle hint. Later she approaches him somewhat nearer, and whispers to
him a few words, but her countenance is still hidden in the thick veil, which his glances cannot penetrate. Still
later she converses with him, her countenance covered with a thinner veil. After he has accustomed himself to
her society, she finally shows herself to him face to face, and entrusts him with the innermost secrets of her
heart [Sod].
“It is”, according to the Book of Proverbs, “the glory of God to conceal a thing” - Gloria Dei est
Celare Verbum. “With the lowly is wisdom”; that is, wisdom belongs to those who have conquered
the arrogance of the rational faculty. Moses is looked upon as such a one. He kept the secret law
secretly and orally transmitted it to the elect; also he compiled the public, or exoteric, law for the
multitudes.
These two categories of laws are distinct, but frequently the second envelops the first, and, as
pointed out in the Introduction, the uncovering of mysteries before the uninitiated is wraught with
infernal dangers; for to do so wantonly is to blaspheme against the Mystery of God. As Éliphas Lévi
writes:
Woe to those who lay bare the secret of divine generation to the impure gaze of the crowd. Keep the
sanctuary shut, all ye who would spare your sleeping father the mockery of the imitators of Ham. . . . The veil
of Isis is not lifted with impunity, and curiosity blasphemes faith when Divine things are concerned. “Blessed
are those who have not seen and have believed”, says the Great Master.
instead it is a secret traditional knowledge, the hidden thought of Israel, which, like gold embedded in
rock, is to be found only after much labour in many Hebrew works, such as the Torah, the Talmud,
the Mishna, Midrashim, Zohar, and scores of other books, the bewildering nature of which may be
recognized in a few minutes by glancing through A Talmudic Miscellany by Paul Isaac Hershon.
The word hlbq (QBLH) is spelt in many ways, such as Qabalah, Qaballah, Cabala, Kaballa, and
even, though quite incorrectly - Gabella. It is not derived from such fantastic origins as the name of
Kapila, the Indian philosopher, or from the name of the goddess Cybele, for the word simply means
“reception”, something received an oral transmission, an oracle, or the spoken word. And the reason
is, as we have already mentioned, that for ages the Qabalistic doctrines were not set down in writing
or print, the Hebrews considering them too secret and sublime a wisdom for the common eye.
This wisdom is formed within a vast number of doctrines, such as the nature of God; the mystical
cosmogony of the universe; the destiny of the universe; the creation of man; the immutability of God;
the moral government of the universe; the doctrine of good and evil; the nature of the soul, angels,
and demons; the transcendental symbolism of numbers and letters; the balancing of complementary
forces, etc., etc. All these many problems are divided under two main headings, the Theoretical and
the Practical Qabalah; the first being again divided into the Symbolical, Dogmatic, and Speculative
branches. The first main division, that is the Theoretical, is philosophical; the second is magical and is
largely elaborated round the Maaseh Merkabah - the Chariot of Ezekiel and the four Animals which
are also mentioned in the Apocalypse. Out of this magical Qabalah much of the magic of the Middle
Ages was developed.
The Speculative, or Metaphysical, Qabalah is the more important branch. It forms, as Adolph
Franck says: “the heart and life of Judaism”. It covers the evolution, involution, and devolution of the
universe in every conceivable spiritual, moral, and intellectual form; and under such symbolism as
“The spirit clothes itself to come down and unclothes itself to go up”; and again in Ecclesiastes, “Who
knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the
earth ?”
All these doctrines are wrapped up in the most complete secrecy. They form, in fact, the ancient
Sod; or Mystery, of the Hebrews.
Woe to the man who sees in the Thorah, i.e. Law, only simple recitals and ordinary words! Because, if in
truth it only contained these, we would even today be able to compose a Thorah much more worthy of
admiration. . . . The recitals of the Thorah are the vestments of the Thorah. Woe to him who takes this garment
for the Thorah itself! . . . There are some foolish people who, seeing a man covered with a beautiful garment,
carry their regard no further, and take the garment for the body, whilst there exists a still more precious thing,
which is the soul. . . . The Wise, the servitors of the Supreme King, those who inhabit the heights of Sinai,3 are
occupied only with the soul, which is the basis of all the rest, which is the Thorah itself; and in the future time
they will be prepared to contemplate the Soul of that Soul [i.e. the Deity] which breathes in the Thorah.
This idea is again set forth in the Zohar in the following allegory:
Like unto a beautiful woman hidden in the interior of a palace who, when her friend and beloved passes by,
opens for a moment a secret window, and is only seen by him; then again retires and disappears for a long time;
so the doctrine shows herself only to the elect, but also not even to these always in the same manner. In the
beginning, deeply veiled, she only beckons to the one passing, with her hand; it simply depends [on himself] if
in his understanding he perceives this gentle hint. Later she approaches him somewhat nearer, and whispers to
him a few words, but her countenance is still hidden in the thick veil, which his glances cannot penetrate. Still
later she converses with him, her countenance covered with a thinner veil. After he has accustomed himself to
her society, she finally shows herself to him face to face, and entrusts him with the innermost secrets of her
heart [Sod].
“It is”, according to the Book of Proverbs, “the glory of God to conceal a thing” - Gloria Dei est
Celare Verbum. “With the lowly is wisdom”; that is, wisdom belongs to those who have conquered
the arrogance of the rational faculty. Moses is looked upon as such a one. He kept the secret law
secretly and orally transmitted it to the elect; also he compiled the public, or exoteric, law for the
multitudes.
These two categories of laws are distinct, but frequently the second envelops the first, and, as
pointed out in the Introduction, the uncovering of mysteries before the uninitiated is wraught with
infernal dangers; for to do so wantonly is to blaspheme against the Mystery of God. As Éliphas Lévi
writes:
Woe to those who lay bare the secret of divine generation to the impure gaze of the crowd. Keep the
sanctuary shut, all ye who would spare your sleeping father the mockery of the imitators of Ham. . . . The veil
of Isis is not lifted with impunity, and curiosity blasphemes faith when Divine things are concerned. “Blessed
are those who have not seen and have believed”, says the Great Master.
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The Secret Wisdom Of The Qabalah: Chapter 1