| CHAPTER III THE PROBLEM OF GOOD AND EVIL Good and Evil |
| The Evolution of Satan |
The personification of evil in the form of Satan as the God of Evil is the heresy which separates
Christianity from Judaism; consequently, in order to understand what this heresy entails, it is of vital
importance to enquire into the nature of the Hebrew Sammael, the genius of the Yetziratic World, the
world of Angels, that is of Intelligences. This task is a highly complex one, for it is wrapped up in the
principle of necessity, because outside the No-Thing, Deity is not a free agent.
As we have seen in the last chapter, Adam Qadmon - that is Deity in the form of the Archetypal
Man, the Great Seal, and consequently the Great Mystery - by a process of inversion, that is of fall or
reflection, be-comes Metatron in the Briatic World; and then Metatron by a similar process becomes
Sammael in the Yetziratic World. In this world Sammael's clouds of angels are the horses of
Tetragrammaton which bring YHVH into Egypt, that is into the Assiatic World, for Egypt typifies
darkness. His Chariot is the Merkabah (Throne of Magic); Tetragrammaton is the Charioteer; and as
his two horses (two categories of Angels) typify good and evil, (the white and the black or the white
and the red) Tetragrammaton himself represents the fall of Yetziratic Harmony. In fact, the
symbolism here describes the descent of the Tree of Life into Assiah, where it is reversed and
changed from Harmony into Discord - that is into Activity.
Why should this descent take place? The answer is “of necessity”. Tetragrammaton must descend,
because only by descending can he complete the cycle of emanations and so ultimately (through a
reversed process of emanation) reinstate the No-Thingness of the Ayin. As we have shown, the first
fall is from the Ain Soph to Adam Qadmon, the second from Adam Qadmon to Metatron, the third
from Metatron to Sammael, and the fourth from the angelic Sammael to his demoniacal counterpart;
for we are told that “Life in the present dispensation is cut short through the influence of the evil
serpent, whose dominion is symbolized by the darkened moon”. The mention of the “Evil Serpent”
presupposes the existence of a “Good Serpent” - the Serpent of Yetzirah.
To simplify this problem it is necessary to enter more deeply into the idea of the Fall. Sammael of
necessity revolts against Deity, as symbolized by Metatron, and of necessity he is cast out of heaven -
that is out of the Yetziratic World. In the Assiatic World, the World of Matter, in order to redeem
himself, of necessity he has to tempt the earthly Adam. His task there is to cause death, that is to
reverse the life process; as the Zohar says, “the end of all flesh has come before Me [Sammael)”; for
he, as the Evil Serpent, “takes away the souls of all flesh”, that is he liberates them from matter. He
is called the Angel of Venom, of Poison, of Death; for Sam means “poison” and El means “angel”.
His number is 131, that is trinity set between two unities, the whole adding up to 5 - the Microcosm.
His world is now the Yetziratic World reversed; that is to say Assiah is the simulacrum, shadow,
or image, of Yetzirah. Its three supernal Sephiroth are Tohu, the Formless, Bohu, the Void, and
ChShK - Darkness. Its seven lower Sephiroth are seven hells. Each of these ten Infernal Sephiroth is
inhabited by a host of demons, of which the first two orders are without form, the third is of darkness,
and the remaining seven represent all human vices (activities).
These seven infernal halls [or hells] are sub-divided into endless compartments, so as to afford a separate
chamber of torture for every species of sin. The prince of this region of darkness is called Satan in the Bible. . .
He is the same evil spirit, Satan, the Serpent, who seduced Eve.
We are also told that:
The Ten Sephiroth of Atziluth have scintillated and brought forth the Ten Sephiroth of Briah, and from the
energy of these Ten of Briah sparkled forth the scintillations of the World Yetzirah, and through these the Ten
Sephiroth of the World Assiah were sealed.
These are the Seals of St. John's Apocalypse.
Thus it is disclosed to us that the God of Assiah is the reversed Sammael of Yetzirah, who is the
reversed Metatron of Briah, who is the reversed Adam Qadmon of Atziluth. In brief, Sammael in
Assiah is the reversed Adam Qadmon three times removed; he is the “dark shadow of the
manifestation of the Great Androgene of Good”. He is Metatron in an active form, just as when in
Yetzirah he is Metatron in a passive form - the Serpent Above and the Serpent Below. He is
Tetragrammaton reversed; and this was grasped by Picus de Mirandula when he wrote in his
Kabbalistic Conclusions.
The letters of the name of the evil demon who is the prince of this world are the same as those of the name of
God – Tetragrammaton - and he who knows how to effect their transposition can extract one from the other. 16
In brief, as the sorcerers were wont to proclaim:
Daemon est Deus inversus.
Like Adam Qadmon, the evil Sammael is androgenous, for his female companion, or counterpart,
is Esheth Zenunim (AShTh17 ZNVNIM) the Harlot, or Woman of Whoredom, also called Lilith,
which name signifies “night”. Sammael is the active principle, Lilith the passive; in union they
formulate the Antichrist, Anti-Logos, or Anti-Word, known under the name of 'Hay-yah 18 the Beast,
19 the numerical value of which is 25, that is one unit less than the numerical value of
Tetragrammaton, which is 26. One is the numerical value of Aleph, a, hence in Omar Khayyám we
read:
A Hair perhaps divides the False and True;
Yes; and a single Alif were the clue-
Could you but find it-to the Treasure-house,
And peradventure to The Master too.
This mystery is solved as follows: Aleph is composed of two ∞odin and a cross-bar which is a
Vau. It represents the World Above separated from the World Below by the Vital Force; its value is
consequently 10 + 6 + 10 = 26, and 26 is the numerical value of Tetragrammaton. Its symbols are also
the Swastika, Fylfot, or Gammadion. (See Plate VI on page 42.)
The redemption from Satanic rule can only be attained by seeing God as He really is and not as He
is in his reflection; for as Éliphas Lévi writes:
According to the Kabalists, the true name of Satan is that of Jehovah reversed, for Satan is not a black god
but the negation of the Deity. He is the personification of atheism and idolatry. The Devil is not a personality for
initiates, but a force created with a good object, though it can be applied to evil: it is really the instrument of
liberty.
To God the reflection of Himself is evil, but to man this reflection is good, so long as he does not
attempt to emulate God by reflecting his own personal Shekinah (Shin, w), or soul, on the chaos of
human ignorance, that is on the unbalanced minds of those who surround him. In order to do so
righteously, this chaos must first be stilled so that it may become a luminous mirror capable of
reflecting the glory of the Shekinah in all its perfection. In the past, the diabolical error made even by
some of the greatest masters and the most illumined adepts was that, when once they had reduced
their consciousness to zero, and on the mirror thus created had received the reflection of the Shekinah,
they attempted to reflect this reflection on the unpurified minds of their followers. The result was not
illuminism but madness, not for them only, but for those intoxicated by them.
Christianity from Judaism; consequently, in order to understand what this heresy entails, it is of vital
importance to enquire into the nature of the Hebrew Sammael, the genius of the Yetziratic World, the
world of Angels, that is of Intelligences. This task is a highly complex one, for it is wrapped up in the
principle of necessity, because outside the No-Thing, Deity is not a free agent.
As we have seen in the last chapter, Adam Qadmon - that is Deity in the form of the Archetypal
Man, the Great Seal, and consequently the Great Mystery - by a process of inversion, that is of fall or
reflection, be-comes Metatron in the Briatic World; and then Metatron by a similar process becomes
Sammael in the Yetziratic World. In this world Sammael's clouds of angels are the horses of
Tetragrammaton which bring YHVH into Egypt, that is into the Assiatic World, for Egypt typifies
darkness. His Chariot is the Merkabah (Throne of Magic); Tetragrammaton is the Charioteer; and as
his two horses (two categories of Angels) typify good and evil, (the white and the black or the white
and the red) Tetragrammaton himself represents the fall of Yetziratic Harmony. In fact, the
symbolism here describes the descent of the Tree of Life into Assiah, where it is reversed and
changed from Harmony into Discord - that is into Activity.
Why should this descent take place? The answer is “of necessity”. Tetragrammaton must descend,
because only by descending can he complete the cycle of emanations and so ultimately (through a
reversed process of emanation) reinstate the No-Thingness of the Ayin. As we have shown, the first
fall is from the Ain Soph to Adam Qadmon, the second from Adam Qadmon to Metatron, the third
from Metatron to Sammael, and the fourth from the angelic Sammael to his demoniacal counterpart;
for we are told that “Life in the present dispensation is cut short through the influence of the evil
serpent, whose dominion is symbolized by the darkened moon”. The mention of the “Evil Serpent”
presupposes the existence of a “Good Serpent” - the Serpent of Yetzirah.
To simplify this problem it is necessary to enter more deeply into the idea of the Fall. Sammael of
necessity revolts against Deity, as symbolized by Metatron, and of necessity he is cast out of heaven -
that is out of the Yetziratic World. In the Assiatic World, the World of Matter, in order to redeem
himself, of necessity he has to tempt the earthly Adam. His task there is to cause death, that is to
reverse the life process; as the Zohar says, “the end of all flesh has come before Me [Sammael)”; for
he, as the Evil Serpent, “takes away the souls of all flesh”, that is he liberates them from matter. He
is called the Angel of Venom, of Poison, of Death; for Sam means “poison” and El means “angel”.
His number is 131, that is trinity set between two unities, the whole adding up to 5 - the Microcosm.
His world is now the Yetziratic World reversed; that is to say Assiah is the simulacrum, shadow,
or image, of Yetzirah. Its three supernal Sephiroth are Tohu, the Formless, Bohu, the Void, and
ChShK - Darkness. Its seven lower Sephiroth are seven hells. Each of these ten Infernal Sephiroth is
inhabited by a host of demons, of which the first two orders are without form, the third is of darkness,
and the remaining seven represent all human vices (activities).
These seven infernal halls [or hells] are sub-divided into endless compartments, so as to afford a separate
chamber of torture for every species of sin. The prince of this region of darkness is called Satan in the Bible. . .
He is the same evil spirit, Satan, the Serpent, who seduced Eve.
We are also told that:
The Ten Sephiroth of Atziluth have scintillated and brought forth the Ten Sephiroth of Briah, and from the
energy of these Ten of Briah sparkled forth the scintillations of the World Yetzirah, and through these the Ten
Sephiroth of the World Assiah were sealed.
These are the Seals of St. John's Apocalypse.
Thus it is disclosed to us that the God of Assiah is the reversed Sammael of Yetzirah, who is the
reversed Metatron of Briah, who is the reversed Adam Qadmon of Atziluth. In brief, Sammael in
Assiah is the reversed Adam Qadmon three times removed; he is the “dark shadow of the
manifestation of the Great Androgene of Good”. He is Metatron in an active form, just as when in
Yetzirah he is Metatron in a passive form - the Serpent Above and the Serpent Below. He is
Tetragrammaton reversed; and this was grasped by Picus de Mirandula when he wrote in his
Kabbalistic Conclusions.
The letters of the name of the evil demon who is the prince of this world are the same as those of the name of
God – Tetragrammaton - and he who knows how to effect their transposition can extract one from the other. 16
In brief, as the sorcerers were wont to proclaim:
Daemon est Deus inversus.
Like Adam Qadmon, the evil Sammael is androgenous, for his female companion, or counterpart,
is Esheth Zenunim (AShTh17 ZNVNIM) the Harlot, or Woman of Whoredom, also called Lilith,
which name signifies “night”. Sammael is the active principle, Lilith the passive; in union they
formulate the Antichrist, Anti-Logos, or Anti-Word, known under the name of 'Hay-yah 18 the Beast,
19 the numerical value of which is 25, that is one unit less than the numerical value of
Tetragrammaton, which is 26. One is the numerical value of Aleph, a, hence in Omar Khayyám we
read:
A Hair perhaps divides the False and True;
Yes; and a single Alif were the clue-
Could you but find it-to the Treasure-house,
And peradventure to The Master too.
This mystery is solved as follows: Aleph is composed of two ∞odin and a cross-bar which is a
Vau. It represents the World Above separated from the World Below by the Vital Force; its value is
consequently 10 + 6 + 10 = 26, and 26 is the numerical value of Tetragrammaton. Its symbols are also
the Swastika, Fylfot, or Gammadion. (See Plate VI on page 42.)
The redemption from Satanic rule can only be attained by seeing God as He really is and not as He
is in his reflection; for as Éliphas Lévi writes:
According to the Kabalists, the true name of Satan is that of Jehovah reversed, for Satan is not a black god
but the negation of the Deity. He is the personification of atheism and idolatry. The Devil is not a personality for
initiates, but a force created with a good object, though it can be applied to evil: it is really the instrument of
liberty.
To God the reflection of Himself is evil, but to man this reflection is good, so long as he does not
attempt to emulate God by reflecting his own personal Shekinah (Shin, w), or soul, on the chaos of
human ignorance, that is on the unbalanced minds of those who surround him. In order to do so
righteously, this chaos must first be stilled so that it may become a luminous mirror capable of
reflecting the glory of the Shekinah in all its perfection. In the past, the diabolical error made even by
some of the greatest masters and the most illumined adepts was that, when once they had reduced
their consciousness to zero, and on the mirror thus created had received the reflection of the Shekinah,
they attempted to reflect this reflection on the unpurified minds of their followers. The result was not
illuminism but madness, not for them only, but for those intoxicated by them.
| (a) Aleph; (b) the beginning of motion through opposition; (c) the whirling forces of the Zodiac; (d) the female Swastika; (e) the male Swastika. The 17 squares of the Swastika refer to IAO, whose numerical value is 17. Plate 6: The Mystery of Aleph |
In the first chapter of Genesis is depicted the fall of the Yetziratic Deity through inversion due to
reflection; the glory of this Deity, that is the Shekinah within it, being the agent which renders the
formation of a simulacrum possible. According to the Zohar, Metatron “sets all his legions in motion
by the power of a single letter [Shin]”. This was the spoken word Tetragrammaton, which created
Light, when the Yetziratic emanation moved upon the face of the waters (the luminous mirror) and
proclaimed “Yehe Aur” (value 222), “Let there be Light” (Illumination). In proclaiming it, the
Shekinah, Astral Light, Ether, or by whatever name the reader chooses to call it, emerged from out of
the Yetziratic Deity, leaving the four Tetragrammatic letters of his name reflected upon the deep.
These four letters represent what may be called the materiality of this Deity, the elements of air, fire,
water, and earth. In themselves they are not spiritual but are reflected upon spirit, the Shin by going
forth from the Yetziratic Deity rendering them visible.
This transmutation of Tetragrammaton - or the despiritualized good Sammael - into matter is one
of the profoundest mysteries of the Qabalah, a mystery so secret that it is nowhere clearly explained.
We are told that the name of Tetragrammaton is unpronounceable, and this in fact is so, for though
YHVH can be pronounced as Yahweh, or Jehovah, this is not the true name of Tetragrammaton, for
his name must contain the Shekinah as symbolized by the letter Shin. If this letter is placed in the
centre of the four letters of Tetragrammaton, we obtain YHShVH; that is Ishvah, Yeheshua,
Jehoshuar, Joshua, and Jesus, any one of which may be taken as the veritable name of the Yetziratic
Deity, the God or Genius of the World of Formation. The Chief of the Angelic Hosts is YHwVH
(=326 = 11 = 5 + 6 = the Microcosm and the Macrocosm), and only when the Shekinah (w) flames
forth does Tetragrammaton descend in the Merkabah, the Chariot of Magic, and become the Great
Magician of the earthly world.
To translate this involved symbolism in a simple way: GOD becomes manifest to our
consciousness through the vibrations of light, life, love, etc. - His Spirit. This manifestation is
nevertheless not God but the reflection of God on these vibrations; consequently, of necessity, it must
be reversed and becomes DOG.
| The Problem of Free Will |
It is apparent that the centre of this problem is the letter Shin, the most mysterious in the Hebrew
alphabet. Its sound is like the hiss of a Serpent, its appearance that of the open mouth of a snake (jaws
and tongue), and its numerical value clearly shows its triadic nature; further still, 300, its value,
esoterically symbolizes the 300 Sephiroth of the three Worlds which preceded the creation of the
World of Matter.
Though as Spiritual fire, or glory, it is the symbol of the Shekinah, the Sepher Yetzirah hints that it
also represents transmutation and the Devil. Usually the thirty-first path of the Tree of Life is
referred to it, and according to The 32 Paths of Wisdom, this path “is called the Perpetual Intelligence.
. . . Because it rules the movement of the sun and the moon according to their constitution, and causes
each to gravitate in its respective orb”. In other words, it is the equilibrating force in the World of
Action, Kether, 'Hokmah, and Binah, Christ and the two thieves on their crosses, the caduceus of
Hermes, the solar disc and dual serpents of Egypt, and, according to Éliphas Lévi, the Astral Light
between the horns of the Baphomet of Mendes - the Panlike Satan of the Templars. When erect it is
the rod of Aaron and the Brazen Serpent of Moses. (See Plate VII on page 44.) Its three teeth, or
tongues, represent three Vaudin and consequently may be translated into the number 666, the solar
number and the number of the Beast in the Apocalypse. According to the Siphrah D'Tzniuthah, it is
The Serpent which runs with 370 leaps. It “leaps over mountains and hastily runs up over hills”. . . .
. . . The Serpent holds its tail in its mouth with its teeth. It is perforated on both sides. When the
Perfect One [or the Archangel Metatron?] is raised up, the Serpent is changed into three spirits.
alphabet. Its sound is like the hiss of a Serpent, its appearance that of the open mouth of a snake (jaws
and tongue), and its numerical value clearly shows its triadic nature; further still, 300, its value,
esoterically symbolizes the 300 Sephiroth of the three Worlds which preceded the creation of the
World of Matter.
Though as Spiritual fire, or glory, it is the symbol of the Shekinah, the Sepher Yetzirah hints that it
also represents transmutation and the Devil. Usually the thirty-first path of the Tree of Life is
referred to it, and according to The 32 Paths of Wisdom, this path “is called the Perpetual Intelligence.
. . . Because it rules the movement of the sun and the moon according to their constitution, and causes
each to gravitate in its respective orb”. In other words, it is the equilibrating force in the World of
Action, Kether, 'Hokmah, and Binah, Christ and the two thieves on their crosses, the caduceus of
Hermes, the solar disc and dual serpents of Egypt, and, according to Éliphas Lévi, the Astral Light
between the horns of the Baphomet of Mendes - the Panlike Satan of the Templars. When erect it is
the rod of Aaron and the Brazen Serpent of Moses. (See Plate VII on page 44.) Its three teeth, or
tongues, represent three Vaudin and consequently may be translated into the number 666, the solar
number and the number of the Beast in the Apocalypse. According to the Siphrah D'Tzniuthah, it is
The Serpent which runs with 370 leaps. It “leaps over mountains and hastily runs up over hills”. . . .
. . . The Serpent holds its tail in its mouth with its teeth. It is perforated on both sides. When the
Perfect One [or the Archangel Metatron?] is raised up, the Serpent is changed into three spirits.
| Plate 7: The Brazen Serpent |
It is energy and the order within energy - the Balance of the Forces. Isaac Myer writes
The harmony is represented by the circle, by the serpent, an emblem of both Satan and Wisdom, with its tail
in its mouth. In the physical universe it is the luminiferous aether, the vital caloric, the electro-magnetic azoth. It
is the ambient fluid which penetrates, permeates, vitalizes all Things, the ray detached from the glory of the sun,
fixed by the weight of the atmosphere, and crystallized by the central attraction, to our earth. In the words of the
erudite Yehudah ha-Levi (A.D. 1140): “There is not any life without motion, nor motion without inspiration, no
inspiration without struggle, no struggle without opposition; oppositions are everywhere essential, but the
Divine power conciliates every opposition.” (Sepher Khozari, Part IV, para. 25.)
Satan, as we call this power, is in fact the Tree of Life of our world, that free will which for its
very existence depends on the clash of the positive and negative forces which in the moral sphere we
call good and evil. Satan is therefore the Shekinah of Assiah, the World of Action, the perpetual
activity of the Divine Essence, the Light which was created on the first day and which in the form of
consciousness and intelligence can produce an overpowering brilliance equal to the intensest
darkness. Satan is also the Flaming Sword which brought light from heaven. (See Diagram 3.)
The harmony is represented by the circle, by the serpent, an emblem of both Satan and Wisdom, with its tail
in its mouth. In the physical universe it is the luminiferous aether, the vital caloric, the electro-magnetic azoth. It
is the ambient fluid which penetrates, permeates, vitalizes all Things, the ray detached from the glory of the sun,
fixed by the weight of the atmosphere, and crystallized by the central attraction, to our earth. In the words of the
erudite Yehudah ha-Levi (A.D. 1140): “There is not any life without motion, nor motion without inspiration, no
inspiration without struggle, no struggle without opposition; oppositions are everywhere essential, but the
Divine power conciliates every opposition.” (Sepher Khozari, Part IV, para. 25.)
Satan, as we call this power, is in fact the Tree of Life of our world, that free will which for its
very existence depends on the clash of the positive and negative forces which in the moral sphere we
call good and evil. Satan is therefore the Shekinah of Assiah, the World of Action, the perpetual
activity of the Divine Essence, the Light which was created on the first day and which in the form of
consciousness and intelligence can produce an overpowering brilliance equal to the intensest
darkness. Satan is also the Flaming Sword which brought light from heaven. (See Diagram 3.)
| Diagram 3: The Flaming Sword |
The understanding of this power, whether in the physical, moral, or intellectual planes, is called
science, and the misunderstanding of it is frequently called magic. As magician, Sammael is preeminently
the Poison-God. “There is more than one Sammael,” says the Zohar, “and they are not all
equal, but this side of the serpent is accursed above all of them.”
In man the will is the magician; when it tends towards evil it is called black, when towards good it
is called white; but when it tends towards neither and in place harmonizes both, then it manifests not
as the magician but as the Shekinah, the Vital Force as Harmonizing Agent, Hermes the messenger of
God.
science, and the misunderstanding of it is frequently called magic. As magician, Sammael is preeminently
the Poison-God. “There is more than one Sammael,” says the Zohar, “and they are not all
equal, but this side of the serpent is accursed above all of them.”
In man the will is the magician; when it tends towards evil it is called black, when towards good it
is called white; but when it tends towards neither and in place harmonizes both, then it manifests not
as the magician but as the Shekinah, the Vital Force as Harmonizing Agent, Hermes the messenger of
God.
| The Mystery of Sex |
THUS far we have dealt with the theory of the Qabalah in its exoteric, philosophical, and
cosmological forms: now we shall enter more and more deeply into its esoteric spirit. We shall meet
with many contradictions, for the Qabalah is full of gropings in opposite directions; yet in the end, for
the greater part, they cancel each other out, leaving to the searcher after truth a clear illuminating
picture.
We start with the archetypal, the world as an idea, a thought, a mathematical conception such as
space, which contains all things. To this idea we add a creative impulse, and the world is endowed
with a will to unfold itself and we enter the sphere of time, of thought in extension. From this
unfolding emerges form - geometricity, or a multiplication of spaces, shadows of things to be. So far
there is no materiality; only mathematics, numbers, and letters; symbols, of shapes which are still
dreaming. Lastly, in these forms movement is born and they become what we call substantial; then
only do we enter the physical world of action - of materialized thought.
Movement presupposes a working outwards from a centre, or a working inwards from a
circumference, a breathing in and out. In both there is a starting-point and a beyond the starting-point:
a duality which presupposes a choice between at least two directions, the value of each differing
according to the circumstances which surround each at any given time. Consequently in the
intellectual sphere there must always be a right and a wrong path of action; in the moral sphere a good
and a bad path; and in the physical sphere one which gains or loses, assists or resists.
These three series of opposite but, in reality, complementary principles have ever since the
beginnings of human thought perplexed the mind of man, and none more so than the second, which
has revolved round the problem of good and evil. Deeply and searchingly has the Qabalist meditated
upon this problem, until Wisdom revealed to him that the World of Action is fashioned of two distinct
yet inseparable elements: the positive life-giving principle which reveals itself as energy, and the
negative death-giving principle which reveals itself as inertia. To him the first is spiritual and the
second material. The one he symbolizes by the hosts of angels and the other by the evil spirits of the
Qliphoth. Isaac Myer explains this very clearly when he writes:
The Qabbalah does not recognize in the Good and Evil, two independent, automatic, opposing powers, but
both are, according to it, under the power of the Supreme Absolute Deity. It asserts that the Evil springs out of
the Good, and only originated from a diversion of the latter. Evil exists, for God's own wise purpose, by the
sufferance of the Absolute One, who gives us the blighting cold, frost, and night, and also the beneficent and
blessed daylight, warmth, and sunshine. Man therefore partakes of two regions, that of the external, visible,
matter world, that of Evil and Darkness, and that of the internal spiritual higher world, that of Goodness and
Light.
The German Philosopher Hegel holds that a thing can only exist through its opposite, that the thing and its
opposite must arise together, and that eternally, as the complements of a unity; white is not without black, nor
black without white, good is not without, nor is evil without good. This is the doctrine of the Siphrah
D'Tzinoothah and the Sepher Ye'tzeer-ah. At the very beginning of the life germ, dissolution and death oppose
its vitality and endeavour to destroy it, and the whole existence of man in this world is a continual struggle to
preserve his vitality. Isaiah says, in his magnificent language: “I am YHVH, and there is none else, there is not
any Elohim besides Me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me; that they may know from the rising of
the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am YHVH, and there is none else. I from light create
darkness; I make safety and I create misfortune; I YHVH do all these things.”
Isaiah's words are pure Qabalah; for instance in the Zohar we read:
“Observe”, he said, “that the Holy One, blessed be He, made a Right and a Left for the ruling of the world.
The one is called 'good', and the other 'evil', and He made man to be a combination of the two.”
And again:
When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He created it by means of the letters of the Torah, all
the letters of the Alphabet having presented themselves before Him until finally the letter Beth was chosen for
the starting point. . . . But when it came to the turn of the Teth and the Resh to present themselves together, the
Teth refused to take its place; so God chid it, saying: “0 Teth, Teth, why, having come up, art thou loth to take
thy place?” It replied: “Seeing that Thou hast placed me at the head of tob (good), how can I associate with the
Resh, the initial of ra‘ (evil)?” God thereupon said to it: “Go to thy place, as thou hast need of the Resh. For
man, whom I am about to create, will be composed of you both, but thou wilt be on his right whilst the other
will be on his left.”
In the Book of Genesis this duality in man is hidden in the words “Let us make man in our image”,
that is in light; “after our likeness” (simulacrum or shadow), that is in darkness, which is the garment
of light.
The purpose of evil is to stimulate goodness.
…..The Holy One inflicts suffering on the righteous in this world in order that they may merit the world to
come. But he who is weak of soul and strong of body is hated of God. It is because God has no pleasure in him
that He inflicts no pain upon him in this world, but permits his life to flow smoothly along with ease and
comfort, in that for any virtuous act he may perform he receives his reward in this world, so that no portion
should be left him in the next world.
Again:
All the acts of the Almighty are in accordance with justice, and His purpose is to purify that soul from the
scum that adheres to it in this world, so as to bring it into the world to come.
Here, mildly though it may be, we are introduced to the pernicious doctrine of Manichaeism,
which is still further accentuated in the following quotation:
Every man has a foretaste of death during the night, because the holy soul then leaves him, and the unclean
spirit rests on the body and makes it unclean. When, however, the soul returns to the body, the pollution
disappears, save from the man's hands, which retain it and thus remain unclean. Hence a man should not pass his
hands over his eyes before washing them [the open eye symbolizes Kether]. When he has washed them,
however, he becomes sanctified and is called holy. For this sanctification two vessels are required, one held
above and the other placed beneath, so that he may be sanctified by the water poured on his hands from the
vessel above. The lower vessel, then, is the vessel of uncleanness . . . [whilst the upper vessel is a medium of
sanctification]
Between these opposites of good and evil is placed the free will of man, which establishes
harmony between them and by which man exercises the divine power of judgment. Man is, therefore,
a living representative of the Tree of Life, or conversely the Tree of Life is a pictorial representation
of man. To the Tree of Life each Sephirah is both good and evil: good in its relation to the Sephirah
immediately above it, and evil in its relation to the Sephirah immediately below it. In the Sepher
Yetzirah we read
The ineffable Sephiroth . . . they are . . . the infinity of the Beginning and the infinity of the End, the infinity
of the Good and the infinity of the Evil.
And again:
Twenty-two basal letters; they are placed together in a ring, as a wall with two hundred and thirty-one gates.
The ring may be put in rotation forwards or backwards and its token is this: Nothing excels gno = ONG (=
pleasure) in good, and nothing excels ogn = NGO (= plague) in evil.
In man good and evil represent the pillars of Mercy and Severity (or Justice), whilst free will
represents the central pillar of Mildness.
This mystery of good, will, and evil is the foundation of the symbolical Temple of Solomon. Myer
writes:
The widow's son, Hiram Abiff of Tyre, cast for the Qabalistic Temple of King Solomon two high pillars or
pylons of bronze; their capitals were pomegranates and lily work. The lily, most likely the lotus, an emblem of
life, white or male, on the right side, the pomegranate, the emblem of fecundity and plasticity, red or female, on
the left side. The first was called Yakheen, the latter Boaz. These columns represented, Understanding, Binah,
h, and Wisdom, 'Hokhmah, v, and between them was the Temple of Kether, y, the Father. Here we see symbols
of the Former, the Harmony, and the to be Formed. All energy must have resistance, all light must have
darkness, all projecture or emanation, a hollow or excavation to receive efflux. Affirmation supposes a negation;
if the first androgene had not been separated into male and female, the result would have been entire sterility, as
was the result as to the Seven Kings of Edom described in Genesis and the Qabbalah; and the Balance not
existing, the forms did not and could not exist, and the emanation of the existences could not proceed and be
manifest.
Sympathy and antipathy governed by harmony is the secret not only of the spiritual but of the
moral and physical worlds. The letters ∞od, Heh, and Vau are their symbols, and together they form
YHV (Gnostic lAO), the ineffable name. This symbolism is universal because it is universally true. In
the Zodiac, Scorpio, male, and Virgo, female, are united by Libra, the balance. The three divine
essentials are Necessity and Liberty linked together by Harmony. Truth cannot exist without doubt,
hope without fear, life without death; and so we find that, whatever the attempted explanation is, good
and evil are necessary one to the other just as are the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the heavenly
bodies. Everywhere are they to be found except in the Absolute, where all comes to rest in No-
Thingness.
In this duality of good and evil the danger is that the uninitiated see two separate unities: they see
good as God and evil as Satan. Consequently they love the one and hate the other, and so establish a
disunity within and among themselves. This is the foundation of Manichaeism. They cannot see, as
the Mishna says, that “God has placed in all things one to oppose the other” and that “good purifies
evil and evil purifies good”. This is the essential ignorance which Separates Christianity from
Judaism; for to the Christians salvation consists in the conquest of evil - that is, in its separation from
the good.
cosmological forms: now we shall enter more and more deeply into its esoteric spirit. We shall meet
with many contradictions, for the Qabalah is full of gropings in opposite directions; yet in the end, for
the greater part, they cancel each other out, leaving to the searcher after truth a clear illuminating
picture.
We start with the archetypal, the world as an idea, a thought, a mathematical conception such as
space, which contains all things. To this idea we add a creative impulse, and the world is endowed
with a will to unfold itself and we enter the sphere of time, of thought in extension. From this
unfolding emerges form - geometricity, or a multiplication of spaces, shadows of things to be. So far
there is no materiality; only mathematics, numbers, and letters; symbols, of shapes which are still
dreaming. Lastly, in these forms movement is born and they become what we call substantial; then
only do we enter the physical world of action - of materialized thought.
Movement presupposes a working outwards from a centre, or a working inwards from a
circumference, a breathing in and out. In both there is a starting-point and a beyond the starting-point:
a duality which presupposes a choice between at least two directions, the value of each differing
according to the circumstances which surround each at any given time. Consequently in the
intellectual sphere there must always be a right and a wrong path of action; in the moral sphere a good
and a bad path; and in the physical sphere one which gains or loses, assists or resists.
These three series of opposite but, in reality, complementary principles have ever since the
beginnings of human thought perplexed the mind of man, and none more so than the second, which
has revolved round the problem of good and evil. Deeply and searchingly has the Qabalist meditated
upon this problem, until Wisdom revealed to him that the World of Action is fashioned of two distinct
yet inseparable elements: the positive life-giving principle which reveals itself as energy, and the
negative death-giving principle which reveals itself as inertia. To him the first is spiritual and the
second material. The one he symbolizes by the hosts of angels and the other by the evil spirits of the
Qliphoth. Isaac Myer explains this very clearly when he writes:
The Qabbalah does not recognize in the Good and Evil, two independent, automatic, opposing powers, but
both are, according to it, under the power of the Supreme Absolute Deity. It asserts that the Evil springs out of
the Good, and only originated from a diversion of the latter. Evil exists, for God's own wise purpose, by the
sufferance of the Absolute One, who gives us the blighting cold, frost, and night, and also the beneficent and
blessed daylight, warmth, and sunshine. Man therefore partakes of two regions, that of the external, visible,
matter world, that of Evil and Darkness, and that of the internal spiritual higher world, that of Goodness and
Light.
The German Philosopher Hegel holds that a thing can only exist through its opposite, that the thing and its
opposite must arise together, and that eternally, as the complements of a unity; white is not without black, nor
black without white, good is not without, nor is evil without good. This is the doctrine of the Siphrah
D'Tzinoothah and the Sepher Ye'tzeer-ah. At the very beginning of the life germ, dissolution and death oppose
its vitality and endeavour to destroy it, and the whole existence of man in this world is a continual struggle to
preserve his vitality. Isaiah says, in his magnificent language: “I am YHVH, and there is none else, there is not
any Elohim besides Me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me; that they may know from the rising of
the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am YHVH, and there is none else. I from light create
darkness; I make safety and I create misfortune; I YHVH do all these things.”
Isaiah's words are pure Qabalah; for instance in the Zohar we read:
“Observe”, he said, “that the Holy One, blessed be He, made a Right and a Left for the ruling of the world.
The one is called 'good', and the other 'evil', and He made man to be a combination of the two.”
And again:
When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He created it by means of the letters of the Torah, all
the letters of the Alphabet having presented themselves before Him until finally the letter Beth was chosen for
the starting point. . . . But when it came to the turn of the Teth and the Resh to present themselves together, the
Teth refused to take its place; so God chid it, saying: “0 Teth, Teth, why, having come up, art thou loth to take
thy place?” It replied: “Seeing that Thou hast placed me at the head of tob (good), how can I associate with the
Resh, the initial of ra‘ (evil)?” God thereupon said to it: “Go to thy place, as thou hast need of the Resh. For
man, whom I am about to create, will be composed of you both, but thou wilt be on his right whilst the other
will be on his left.”
In the Book of Genesis this duality in man is hidden in the words “Let us make man in our image”,
that is in light; “after our likeness” (simulacrum or shadow), that is in darkness, which is the garment
of light.
The purpose of evil is to stimulate goodness.
…..The Holy One inflicts suffering on the righteous in this world in order that they may merit the world to
come. But he who is weak of soul and strong of body is hated of God. It is because God has no pleasure in him
that He inflicts no pain upon him in this world, but permits his life to flow smoothly along with ease and
comfort, in that for any virtuous act he may perform he receives his reward in this world, so that no portion
should be left him in the next world.
Again:
All the acts of the Almighty are in accordance with justice, and His purpose is to purify that soul from the
scum that adheres to it in this world, so as to bring it into the world to come.
Here, mildly though it may be, we are introduced to the pernicious doctrine of Manichaeism,
which is still further accentuated in the following quotation:
Every man has a foretaste of death during the night, because the holy soul then leaves him, and the unclean
spirit rests on the body and makes it unclean. When, however, the soul returns to the body, the pollution
disappears, save from the man's hands, which retain it and thus remain unclean. Hence a man should not pass his
hands over his eyes before washing them [the open eye symbolizes Kether]. When he has washed them,
however, he becomes sanctified and is called holy. For this sanctification two vessels are required, one held
above and the other placed beneath, so that he may be sanctified by the water poured on his hands from the
vessel above. The lower vessel, then, is the vessel of uncleanness . . . [whilst the upper vessel is a medium of
sanctification]
Between these opposites of good and evil is placed the free will of man, which establishes
harmony between them and by which man exercises the divine power of judgment. Man is, therefore,
a living representative of the Tree of Life, or conversely the Tree of Life is a pictorial representation
of man. To the Tree of Life each Sephirah is both good and evil: good in its relation to the Sephirah
immediately above it, and evil in its relation to the Sephirah immediately below it. In the Sepher
Yetzirah we read
The ineffable Sephiroth . . . they are . . . the infinity of the Beginning and the infinity of the End, the infinity
of the Good and the infinity of the Evil.
And again:
Twenty-two basal letters; they are placed together in a ring, as a wall with two hundred and thirty-one gates.
The ring may be put in rotation forwards or backwards and its token is this: Nothing excels gno = ONG (=
pleasure) in good, and nothing excels ogn = NGO (= plague) in evil.
In man good and evil represent the pillars of Mercy and Severity (or Justice), whilst free will
represents the central pillar of Mildness.
This mystery of good, will, and evil is the foundation of the symbolical Temple of Solomon. Myer
writes:
The widow's son, Hiram Abiff of Tyre, cast for the Qabalistic Temple of King Solomon two high pillars or
pylons of bronze; their capitals were pomegranates and lily work. The lily, most likely the lotus, an emblem of
life, white or male, on the right side, the pomegranate, the emblem of fecundity and plasticity, red or female, on
the left side. The first was called Yakheen, the latter Boaz. These columns represented, Understanding, Binah,
h, and Wisdom, 'Hokhmah, v, and between them was the Temple of Kether, y, the Father. Here we see symbols
of the Former, the Harmony, and the to be Formed. All energy must have resistance, all light must have
darkness, all projecture or emanation, a hollow or excavation to receive efflux. Affirmation supposes a negation;
if the first androgene had not been separated into male and female, the result would have been entire sterility, as
was the result as to the Seven Kings of Edom described in Genesis and the Qabbalah; and the Balance not
existing, the forms did not and could not exist, and the emanation of the existences could not proceed and be
manifest.
Sympathy and antipathy governed by harmony is the secret not only of the spiritual but of the
moral and physical worlds. The letters ∞od, Heh, and Vau are their symbols, and together they form
YHV (Gnostic lAO), the ineffable name. This symbolism is universal because it is universally true. In
the Zodiac, Scorpio, male, and Virgo, female, are united by Libra, the balance. The three divine
essentials are Necessity and Liberty linked together by Harmony. Truth cannot exist without doubt,
hope without fear, life without death; and so we find that, whatever the attempted explanation is, good
and evil are necessary one to the other just as are the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the heavenly
bodies. Everywhere are they to be found except in the Absolute, where all comes to rest in No-
Thingness.
In this duality of good and evil the danger is that the uninitiated see two separate unities: they see
good as God and evil as Satan. Consequently they love the one and hate the other, and so establish a
disunity within and among themselves. This is the foundation of Manichaeism. They cannot see, as
the Mishna says, that “God has placed in all things one to oppose the other” and that “good purifies
evil and evil purifies good”. This is the essential ignorance which Separates Christianity from
Judaism; for to the Christians salvation consists in the conquest of evil - that is, in its separation from
the good.
The problem of sex, being a problem of duality, is closely connected in the Qabalah with that of
good and evil. It is looked upon as the great cosmological mystery, for marriage is the symbol of
perfect harmony. As the Zohar says:
The words “male and female he created them” make known the high dignity of man, the mystic doctrine of
his creation. . . . From this we learn that every figure which does not comprise male and female elements is not a
true and proper figure.
And again:
He who dies without leaving children will not enter within the curtain of heaven and will have no share in
the other world, and his soul will not be admitted to the place where all souls are gathered, and his image will be
cut off from there.
Why? Because “he has not succeeded in radiating light in this world by the means of the body”.
The creation of life is man's divine prerogative; consequently the sex act is of all acts the holiest.
According to the Nobeleth 'Hokhmah:
The Qabbalists say that the entering into existence of the worlds happened through delight, in that Ain Soph
rejoiced in Itself and flashed and beamed from Itself to Itself; and from these intelligent movements and spiritual
and divine scintillations, from the parts of Its being to Its being, which are called delight, Its sources have spread
themselves towards the outside, as seeds for the world.
Here is described to us the sublime orgasm of the Ain Soph, the creation through Bliss. So also it is
with man and woman:
“0 that his left hand were under my head, and his right hand should embrace me” (S.S. ii, 6). Then male and
female are united, and there is mutual desire and worlds are blessed and upper and lower rejoice.
Then we are told that “The most perfect form of praising God is to unify the Holy Name in the
fitting manner”. What is this? It is in such a manner that the complementary forces symbolized in it
may manifest their creative powers. Thus in the name of YHVH we find two dualities, one between
the ∞od and the Heh (Father and Mother) and the other between the Vau and the Heh (Son and
Daughter). Without the Heh the Father is inconceivable and without the ∞od the Mother is
inconceivable. What is conceivable is always a relationship; not ∞od in itself nor Heh in itself, but
∞od Heh in conjunction. ∞od, be it remembered, has the numerical value of 10 and thus holds
within itself the seed of the Tree of Life. The value of Heh being 5, this letter represents the
Microcosmic power which can bring the Sephirotic Scheme into consciousness. Again, in order to
realize the perfection of the unity of ∞od Heh it is necessary to establish a unity between Vau and
Heh. Here the Vau, which is of the value 6, represents the consciousness of the Macrocosm and Heh
the Microcosmic power, not in God but in man.
In the Zohar we find a complex account of these permutations, which is worth quoting. It reads as
follows:
Before Israel went into captivity, and while the Shekinah was still with them, God commanded Israel: “thou
shalt not uncover thy mother's nakedness” (Lev. xviii, 7), and this captivity is the uncovering of the nakedness
of the Shekinah, as it is written, “On account of your sins your mother has been put away” (Is. 1, i), i.e. for the
sin of unchastity Israel has been sent into captivity and the Shekinah also, and this is the uncovering of the
Shekinah. This unchastity is Lilith, the mother of the “mixed multitude”. It Is they who separate the two He's of
the sacred name, and prevent the Vau from entering between them; so it is written “the nakedness of a woman
and her daughter thou shalt not uncover”, referring to the upper and lower Shekinah. When the “mixed
multitude” are between the one Hé and the other, the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot link them together, and
consequently “the river becomes dry and parched” - dry in the upper Hé and parched in the lower Hé, in order
that the “mixed multitude” may not be nourished by the Vau, which is the Tree of Life [the ∞od extended].
Therefore the Vau does not link together the two Hé's when the mixed multitude is between them, and the letter
∞od is not able to draw near to the second Hé; thus the precept “thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy
daughter-in-law” is transgressed. Further, they separate the ∞od from the upper Hé, and so break the command
“thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife”, the ∞od being the father, the first Hé the mother,
Vau the son and the second Hé the daughter. Therefore it is ordained with regard to the upper Hé, “thou shalt
not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife”; “the nakedness of thy sister the daughter of thy father” refers to
the lower Hé; “her son's daughter to her daughter's daughter” refers to the Hé and Hé which are the children of
Hé; “the nakedness of the father's brother” refers to the ∞od, which is the product of the letter ∞od, a brother to
Vau. In a word, when the “mixed multitude” are mingled with Israel, the letters of the name YHVH cannot be
joined and linked together; but as soon as they are removed from the world, then it is said of the letters of God's
name that “On that day the Lord shall be one and his name one” (Zech. xiv, 9).
As in God above all things become a perfect unity, that is a perfect balance, so also in man below
must a perfect unity be established, for all things are also to be found in man. To the Qabalist the
mystery of faith consists “in the union of God with the female whom He fructifies, after the manner of
the union of male and female”. To the Christian this may seem a blasphemy, but remembering that in
the Qabalah the union of the sexes is looked upon as the sublimest act in life, to the Jews it is the
reverse. “Benediction does not abide save when male and female are together” ; and even Moses the
Law-giver of Israel was not considered perfect because he was separated from his wife. God being a
unity in the spiritual world, this oneness is manifested in the material world when the male is united to
the female “in a righteous purpose” ; for it is through the union of bodies and souls that perfect unity
is attained.
So long as Jacob was unmarried, God did not manifest to him clearly. . . . After marriage he arrived at the
perfection which is above as distinguished from the perfection which is below, and God manifested to him
clearly.
We thus see that the mystery of sex is but the mystery of good and evil looked at from another
angle. And as in the first problem the separation of evil from good is the main cause of differentiation
between Christian and Hebrew ethics, so is the looking upon the sex act as sinful in place of righteous
the main cause of differentiation between Christian and Hebrew morality. As Christian Ginsburg
writes:
Love and fear are designed to aid the soul in achieving her high destiny, when she shall no more look
through the dark glass, but see face to face in the presence of the Luminous Mirror, by permeating all acts of
obedience and divine worship.
good and evil. It is looked upon as the great cosmological mystery, for marriage is the symbol of
perfect harmony. As the Zohar says:
The words “male and female he created them” make known the high dignity of man, the mystic doctrine of
his creation. . . . From this we learn that every figure which does not comprise male and female elements is not a
true and proper figure.
And again:
He who dies without leaving children will not enter within the curtain of heaven and will have no share in
the other world, and his soul will not be admitted to the place where all souls are gathered, and his image will be
cut off from there.
Why? Because “he has not succeeded in radiating light in this world by the means of the body”.
The creation of life is man's divine prerogative; consequently the sex act is of all acts the holiest.
According to the Nobeleth 'Hokhmah:
The Qabbalists say that the entering into existence of the worlds happened through delight, in that Ain Soph
rejoiced in Itself and flashed and beamed from Itself to Itself; and from these intelligent movements and spiritual
and divine scintillations, from the parts of Its being to Its being, which are called delight, Its sources have spread
themselves towards the outside, as seeds for the world.
Here is described to us the sublime orgasm of the Ain Soph, the creation through Bliss. So also it is
with man and woman:
“0 that his left hand were under my head, and his right hand should embrace me” (S.S. ii, 6). Then male and
female are united, and there is mutual desire and worlds are blessed and upper and lower rejoice.
Then we are told that “The most perfect form of praising God is to unify the Holy Name in the
fitting manner”. What is this? It is in such a manner that the complementary forces symbolized in it
may manifest their creative powers. Thus in the name of YHVH we find two dualities, one between
the ∞od and the Heh (Father and Mother) and the other between the Vau and the Heh (Son and
Daughter). Without the Heh the Father is inconceivable and without the ∞od the Mother is
inconceivable. What is conceivable is always a relationship; not ∞od in itself nor Heh in itself, but
∞od Heh in conjunction. ∞od, be it remembered, has the numerical value of 10 and thus holds
within itself the seed of the Tree of Life. The value of Heh being 5, this letter represents the
Microcosmic power which can bring the Sephirotic Scheme into consciousness. Again, in order to
realize the perfection of the unity of ∞od Heh it is necessary to establish a unity between Vau and
Heh. Here the Vau, which is of the value 6, represents the consciousness of the Macrocosm and Heh
the Microcosmic power, not in God but in man.
In the Zohar we find a complex account of these permutations, which is worth quoting. It reads as
follows:
Before Israel went into captivity, and while the Shekinah was still with them, God commanded Israel: “thou
shalt not uncover thy mother's nakedness” (Lev. xviii, 7), and this captivity is the uncovering of the nakedness
of the Shekinah, as it is written, “On account of your sins your mother has been put away” (Is. 1, i), i.e. for the
sin of unchastity Israel has been sent into captivity and the Shekinah also, and this is the uncovering of the
Shekinah. This unchastity is Lilith, the mother of the “mixed multitude”. It Is they who separate the two He's of
the sacred name, and prevent the Vau from entering between them; so it is written “the nakedness of a woman
and her daughter thou shalt not uncover”, referring to the upper and lower Shekinah. When the “mixed
multitude” are between the one Hé and the other, the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot link them together, and
consequently “the river becomes dry and parched” - dry in the upper Hé and parched in the lower Hé, in order
that the “mixed multitude” may not be nourished by the Vau, which is the Tree of Life [the ∞od extended].
Therefore the Vau does not link together the two Hé's when the mixed multitude is between them, and the letter
∞od is not able to draw near to the second Hé; thus the precept “thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy
daughter-in-law” is transgressed. Further, they separate the ∞od from the upper Hé, and so break the command
“thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife”, the ∞od being the father, the first Hé the mother,
Vau the son and the second Hé the daughter. Therefore it is ordained with regard to the upper Hé, “thou shalt
not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife”; “the nakedness of thy sister the daughter of thy father” refers to
the lower Hé; “her son's daughter to her daughter's daughter” refers to the Hé and Hé which are the children of
Hé; “the nakedness of the father's brother” refers to the ∞od, which is the product of the letter ∞od, a brother to
Vau. In a word, when the “mixed multitude” are mingled with Israel, the letters of the name YHVH cannot be
joined and linked together; but as soon as they are removed from the world, then it is said of the letters of God's
name that “On that day the Lord shall be one and his name one” (Zech. xiv, 9).
As in God above all things become a perfect unity, that is a perfect balance, so also in man below
must a perfect unity be established, for all things are also to be found in man. To the Qabalist the
mystery of faith consists “in the union of God with the female whom He fructifies, after the manner of
the union of male and female”. To the Christian this may seem a blasphemy, but remembering that in
the Qabalah the union of the sexes is looked upon as the sublimest act in life, to the Jews it is the
reverse. “Benediction does not abide save when male and female are together” ; and even Moses the
Law-giver of Israel was not considered perfect because he was separated from his wife. God being a
unity in the spiritual world, this oneness is manifested in the material world when the male is united to
the female “in a righteous purpose” ; for it is through the union of bodies and souls that perfect unity
is attained.
So long as Jacob was unmarried, God did not manifest to him clearly. . . . After marriage he arrived at the
perfection which is above as distinguished from the perfection which is below, and God manifested to him
clearly.
We thus see that the mystery of sex is but the mystery of good and evil looked at from another
angle. And as in the first problem the separation of evil from good is the main cause of differentiation
between Christian and Hebrew ethics, so is the looking upon the sex act as sinful in place of righteous
the main cause of differentiation between Christian and Hebrew morality. As Christian Ginsburg
writes:
Love and fear are designed to aid the soul in achieving her high destiny, when she shall no more look
through the dark glass, but see face to face in the presence of the Luminous Mirror, by permeating all acts of
obedience and divine worship.
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The Secret Wisdom Of The Qabalah: Chapter 3