| CHAPTER IV THE FALL OF TETRAGRAMMATON The Principles of Creation |
| The Experimental Worlds |
Before the “Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” and cast the divine shadow on the
formless void, we are told again and again in the Zohar that experimental worlds had existed and had
been destroyed on account of their imperfection. We read
Before the Aged of the Aged (the Ain Soph), the Concealed of the Concealed, expanded into the form of
King, the Crown of Crowns (Kether), there was neither being nor end. He hewed and incised forms and figures
into it in the following manner: He spread before him a cover, and carved therein Kings (worlds) and marked
out their limits and forms, but they could not preserve themselves. Therefore it is written, “These are the kings
that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel” (Genesis xxxvi, 3I).
This refers to the primordial kings and primordial Israel. All these were imperfect: He therefore removed them
and let them vanish, till he finally descended himself to this cover and assumed a form.
But though they vanished they were not annihilated, because “Nothing perisheth in this World, not
even the breath which issued from the mouth, for this, like everything else, has its place and
destination, and the Holy One, blessed be his Name! turns it into service”.
These worlds were formless, “Because the Sacred Aged had not as yet assumed his form”, the
King and queen as opposite sexes, “and the Master was not yet at his work”. By the word “Master”
is meant Adam Qadmon, the human form which deity must of necessity assume. It was, therefore,
after the destruction of the worlds of the Kings of Edom that the Latens Deitas was able to assume a
balanced form in the fourth and material world. Thus the Zohar says:
The Holy One, blessed be He, created and destroyed several worlds before the present one was made, and
when the last work was nigh completion, all the things of this world, all the creatures of the universe, in
whatever age they were to exist, before ever they entered into this world, were present before God in their true
form. Thus are the words of Ecclesiastes to be understood: “What was, shall be and what has been done, shall be
done.”
This strange story is both obscure and perplexing, because it is difficult to attribute imperfection to
God. But to the Qabalist it is otherwise, for the No-Thing evolves into the Some-Thing, the Who; and
necessity creeps in, for necessity is impossible without a choice, and choice demands the existence of
opposing forces, the male and the female, or the positive and the negative. We are told somewhat
mysteriously:
Before the Forms of the Holy King, the Atteek, were prepared, It built worlds and made Forms for their
preservation, but the female principle was not joined yet with the male principle. . . . Therefore they could not
exist until this was done.
Until this balance was established Adam Qadmon could not appear and replace the Adam Belial of
the unbalanced world and the Averse Tree of Life from which the races of the Gentiles are sprung. It
would, therefore, appear that the reason for the creation of the Kings of Edom was to account for the
world being peopled with races other than that of Israel.
formless void, we are told again and again in the Zohar that experimental worlds had existed and had
been destroyed on account of their imperfection. We read
Before the Aged of the Aged (the Ain Soph), the Concealed of the Concealed, expanded into the form of
King, the Crown of Crowns (Kether), there was neither being nor end. He hewed and incised forms and figures
into it in the following manner: He spread before him a cover, and carved therein Kings (worlds) and marked
out their limits and forms, but they could not preserve themselves. Therefore it is written, “These are the kings
that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel” (Genesis xxxvi, 3I).
This refers to the primordial kings and primordial Israel. All these were imperfect: He therefore removed them
and let them vanish, till he finally descended himself to this cover and assumed a form.
But though they vanished they were not annihilated, because “Nothing perisheth in this World, not
even the breath which issued from the mouth, for this, like everything else, has its place and
destination, and the Holy One, blessed be his Name! turns it into service”.
These worlds were formless, “Because the Sacred Aged had not as yet assumed his form”, the
King and queen as opposite sexes, “and the Master was not yet at his work”. By the word “Master”
is meant Adam Qadmon, the human form which deity must of necessity assume. It was, therefore,
after the destruction of the worlds of the Kings of Edom that the Latens Deitas was able to assume a
balanced form in the fourth and material world. Thus the Zohar says:
The Holy One, blessed be He, created and destroyed several worlds before the present one was made, and
when the last work was nigh completion, all the things of this world, all the creatures of the universe, in
whatever age they were to exist, before ever they entered into this world, were present before God in their true
form. Thus are the words of Ecclesiastes to be understood: “What was, shall be and what has been done, shall be
done.”
This strange story is both obscure and perplexing, because it is difficult to attribute imperfection to
God. But to the Qabalist it is otherwise, for the No-Thing evolves into the Some-Thing, the Who; and
necessity creeps in, for necessity is impossible without a choice, and choice demands the existence of
opposing forces, the male and the female, or the positive and the negative. We are told somewhat
mysteriously:
Before the Forms of the Holy King, the Atteek, were prepared, It built worlds and made Forms for their
preservation, but the female principle was not joined yet with the male principle. . . . Therefore they could not
exist until this was done.
Until this balance was established Adam Qadmon could not appear and replace the Adam Belial of
the unbalanced world and the Averse Tree of Life from which the races of the Gentiles are sprung. It
would, therefore, appear that the reason for the creation of the Kings of Edom was to account for the
world being peopled with races other than that of Israel.
| Adam Qadmon |
On several occasions already have we made mention of Adam Qadmon. He is called by various
names, such as the Primordial Man, the Archetypal Man, Microprosopos, the Man of the East, the
Shadow of the Invisible Macrocosm, the Pre-existing Soul of Messiah, the Cosmic Son, etc., etc.
Strictly speaking, he is the Form, not the Spirit, of Deity in Atziluth. Nevertheless, he is also the
emanations of this form in the remaining three worlds; consequently there are four Adam Qadmons.
As regards the first of these Isaac Myer writes
The Qabbalah shows the existence of four Adams, or rather three continuations of the Upper Heavenly
Adam. I. The Perfect Upper Heavenly Adam of the Atzeel-atic World, the World of Emanation. It is androgenic
and the sole occupant of that world. It is thought of as a manifestation of the Deity in the Divine D'yook-nah
[shadow], or an undefined phantom shade of the Tzelem [image], which the earthly man, in the flesh, has never
seen. It is a perfect Tzure, or Prototype, to the second and subsequent Adams. In the Upper Heavenly Man is the
perfect Holy Nephesh [instincts], Rua'h [Reason], Neshamah [moral consciousness], 'Hayyah [animal vitality]
and Ye'hee-dah [personality], merged in combination yet existing quasi separately. Here is also the content of
the Upper Ten Sephiroth. It answers to the Intellectual, the Brain, and is in the Upper Inner Emanated Heaven. It
also answers to the Holy Upper Neshamah Soul.
As regards the next three, Myer is more than unreliable, for he is misleading; consequently we will
rely on our own interpretation: each is, a shadow or lower appearance of the one above; the second
being attributed to the Briatic World, Metatron, and the Rua′h; the third to the Yetziratic World,
Sammael, and the Nephesh; the fourth to the Assiatic World, YHVH, and the ′Hayah (or ′Hay-yah) -
the Supernal Man of Genesis i. Together they represent the Grand Personality or Great Universal
Man, the synthesis of Adam Qadmon in the four worlds.
In the world of Assiah, Adam Qadmon is the symbolical reflection of God, not on the illuminated
void, but on the mist of matter, and by this reflection is the earthly Adam created. He is androgenous
like his greater prototype in Atziluth, being both male and female, and therefore he possesses the
power to create and to destroy life; that is to exhale it and breathe it in. Thus we see evolved that
mysterious and mystical order of revolution. First there is God, or the Gods, energy finding its source
in the Ayin. Finally, in the reflection of God is the world emanated, and from the earth emerges man
in the form of conscious matter. God in Himself is unity, the world is duality, and man is trinity in
unity. And as the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, so does the intelligence of man
move upon the face of the fluxes of matter, and through equilibrium it seeks loss of its identity by
stilling them in the Spirit of God. When this is accomplished, then will the Magic Mirror of Illusion
vanish into the No-Thing-ness out of which it was evolved.
In the account of the creation in Genesis the Androgenic Man appears on the sixth day, that is at
the end of the creation, because he symbolizes its totality and completion and six is the number of the
Great Work; 666 being also its number in the vital, intellectual, and spiritual planes, the Vau extended
from Malkuth to Kether.
In the second account of the creation the Androgenic Man is formed of the dust of the ground, and
the Lord God, that is Tetragrammaton Elohim, and not merely Elohim as in the first account,
“breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (that is the Nephesh), “and man became a living soul”.
Next the Neshamah (Eden), the garden of the intellect, is planted and man is put into it but is
oblivious of the knowledge of good and evil, because as yet he possesses no Rua′h (that is power of
judgment), and it is only after the temptation of Eve that the Rua′h is established and the Androgenic
Man becomes fully active.
Until this transformation takes place it would appear that the Androgenic Man is only occultly the
shadow of Tetragrammaton. He is not YHVH (hvhy) but YVY (yvy); for the Zohar informs us “that
God brought them [Man shaped for this world and man shaped for the future world] under the aegis of
His own name by shaping the two eyes like the letter ∞od and the nose between them like the letter
Vau”. At once we see the connection, for YVY equals 26, the numerical value of Tetragrammaton;
further, as we will show later on, by splitting one of the two ∞odin into Heh and Heh (10 into 5, 5)
and inserting the Vau between them we obtain HVH (hvh)-Eve. Again, as already explained, the two
∞odin and the Vau are the members of the letter Aleph, the first letter of the mystical creative
alphabet.
We are also told in the Zohar that when the first man was created, God “gathered the dust from all
the four sides of the world . . . and spread upon her a Soul of Life from the holiness Above”;
that this
Soul was the Neshamah, which, like the mystery above, comprised three degrees - Nephesh, Rua′h,
Neshamah. The third corresponds to the Briatic World, the second to the Yetziratic, and the first to the
Assiatic, the body of man being the mystical and magical Merkabah.
It is also to be noted, that the Neshamah has three divisions, the highest is the Ye′hee-dah, the middle the
'Hay-yah, the last and third the Neshamah, properly to say. They manifest themselves in the Ma'hshabah
Thought, Tzelem Phantom of the Image, Zurath Prototypes, and the D′yooq-nah Shadow of the phantom Image.
The D'mooth Likeness or Similitude is a lower manifestation.
Such was the organization of the Great Vitality, the Adam Qadmon of Assiah, who for “a hundred
and thirty years had . . . .intercourse with female spirits”, begetting the evil powers of the world,
powers which are endowed with life but not with immortality until they have been set in conflict with
the good and have become equilibrated. To effect this transmutation demanded an angelic race of men
and, consequently, the creation of the Angelic Mother.
names, such as the Primordial Man, the Archetypal Man, Microprosopos, the Man of the East, the
Shadow of the Invisible Macrocosm, the Pre-existing Soul of Messiah, the Cosmic Son, etc., etc.
Strictly speaking, he is the Form, not the Spirit, of Deity in Atziluth. Nevertheless, he is also the
emanations of this form in the remaining three worlds; consequently there are four Adam Qadmons.
As regards the first of these Isaac Myer writes
The Qabbalah shows the existence of four Adams, or rather three continuations of the Upper Heavenly
Adam. I. The Perfect Upper Heavenly Adam of the Atzeel-atic World, the World of Emanation. It is androgenic
and the sole occupant of that world. It is thought of as a manifestation of the Deity in the Divine D'yook-nah
[shadow], or an undefined phantom shade of the Tzelem [image], which the earthly man, in the flesh, has never
seen. It is a perfect Tzure, or Prototype, to the second and subsequent Adams. In the Upper Heavenly Man is the
perfect Holy Nephesh [instincts], Rua'h [Reason], Neshamah [moral consciousness], 'Hayyah [animal vitality]
and Ye'hee-dah [personality], merged in combination yet existing quasi separately. Here is also the content of
the Upper Ten Sephiroth. It answers to the Intellectual, the Brain, and is in the Upper Inner Emanated Heaven. It
also answers to the Holy Upper Neshamah Soul.
As regards the next three, Myer is more than unreliable, for he is misleading; consequently we will
rely on our own interpretation: each is, a shadow or lower appearance of the one above; the second
being attributed to the Briatic World, Metatron, and the Rua′h; the third to the Yetziratic World,
Sammael, and the Nephesh; the fourth to the Assiatic World, YHVH, and the ′Hayah (or ′Hay-yah) -
the Supernal Man of Genesis i. Together they represent the Grand Personality or Great Universal
Man, the synthesis of Adam Qadmon in the four worlds.
In the world of Assiah, Adam Qadmon is the symbolical reflection of God, not on the illuminated
void, but on the mist of matter, and by this reflection is the earthly Adam created. He is androgenous
like his greater prototype in Atziluth, being both male and female, and therefore he possesses the
power to create and to destroy life; that is to exhale it and breathe it in. Thus we see evolved that
mysterious and mystical order of revolution. First there is God, or the Gods, energy finding its source
in the Ayin. Finally, in the reflection of God is the world emanated, and from the earth emerges man
in the form of conscious matter. God in Himself is unity, the world is duality, and man is trinity in
unity. And as the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, so does the intelligence of man
move upon the face of the fluxes of matter, and through equilibrium it seeks loss of its identity by
stilling them in the Spirit of God. When this is accomplished, then will the Magic Mirror of Illusion
vanish into the No-Thing-ness out of which it was evolved.
In the account of the creation in Genesis the Androgenic Man appears on the sixth day, that is at
the end of the creation, because he symbolizes its totality and completion and six is the number of the
Great Work; 666 being also its number in the vital, intellectual, and spiritual planes, the Vau extended
from Malkuth to Kether.
In the second account of the creation the Androgenic Man is formed of the dust of the ground, and
the Lord God, that is Tetragrammaton Elohim, and not merely Elohim as in the first account,
“breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (that is the Nephesh), “and man became a living soul”.
Next the Neshamah (Eden), the garden of the intellect, is planted and man is put into it but is
oblivious of the knowledge of good and evil, because as yet he possesses no Rua′h (that is power of
judgment), and it is only after the temptation of Eve that the Rua′h is established and the Androgenic
Man becomes fully active.
Until this transformation takes place it would appear that the Androgenic Man is only occultly the
shadow of Tetragrammaton. He is not YHVH (hvhy) but YVY (yvy); for the Zohar informs us “that
God brought them [Man shaped for this world and man shaped for the future world] under the aegis of
His own name by shaping the two eyes like the letter ∞od and the nose between them like the letter
Vau”. At once we see the connection, for YVY equals 26, the numerical value of Tetragrammaton;
further, as we will show later on, by splitting one of the two ∞odin into Heh and Heh (10 into 5, 5)
and inserting the Vau between them we obtain HVH (hvh)-Eve. Again, as already explained, the two
∞odin and the Vau are the members of the letter Aleph, the first letter of the mystical creative
alphabet.
We are also told in the Zohar that when the first man was created, God “gathered the dust from all
the four sides of the world . . . and spread upon her a Soul of Life from the holiness Above”;
that this
Soul was the Neshamah, which, like the mystery above, comprised three degrees - Nephesh, Rua′h,
Neshamah. The third corresponds to the Briatic World, the second to the Yetziratic, and the first to the
Assiatic, the body of man being the mystical and magical Merkabah.
It is also to be noted, that the Neshamah has three divisions, the highest is the Ye′hee-dah, the middle the
'Hay-yah, the last and third the Neshamah, properly to say. They manifest themselves in the Ma'hshabah
Thought, Tzelem Phantom of the Image, Zurath Prototypes, and the D′yooq-nah Shadow of the phantom Image.
The D'mooth Likeness or Similitude is a lower manifestation.
Such was the organization of the Great Vitality, the Adam Qadmon of Assiah, who for “a hundred
and thirty years had . . . .intercourse with female spirits”, begetting the evil powers of the world,
powers which are endowed with life but not with immortality until they have been set in conflict with
the good and have become equilibrated. To effect this transmutation demanded an angelic race of men
and, consequently, the creation of the Angelic Mother.
| The Creation of Eve |
In the second chapter of Genesis we are told that Tetragrammaton Elohim took a rib from the body
of Adam and from it fashioned woman - the passive or feminine essence of the Archetypal Man. The
Qabalistic interpretation is as follows: the rib is the letter ∞od, which when removed from the four
letters ∞od Heh Vau Heh leaves Heh Vau Heh, or EVE. The actual transmutation from ∞od Vau ∞od
to ∞od Heh Vau Heh we have already described. The ∞od, as it will be remembered, also symbolizes
the ten Sephiroth of the Yetziratic World, which are reflected in the Assiatic World in the form of the
Garden of Eden, which mystically is the Garment of God. The ∞od being extracted, the Mystical Eye
is closed - that is, the vision of the Yetziratic Tree of Life is cut off from the world of Assiah;
consequently, though Adam and Eve perceived that they were naked, they were not ashamed - that is
they could not perceive the nakedness of the Assiatic World - because the Yetziratic vision having
vanished there was no comparison (duality) left to judge it by. They were in fact bereft of all power of
directly perceiving the Shekinah, or Supernal Light.
There is yet another mystery included in the letter ∞od. Its hieroglyphic is the human hand. When
opened it symbolizes the Microcosm: the four fingers the material elements (∞od, Heh, Vau, Heh),
and the thumb the spiritual element (Shin). When closed it symbolizes unity, the egg out of which all
things emanate. As its numerical value is 10 it also symbolizes the two hands; the erect or good
pentagram and the inverted or evil pentagram (see Diagram 4 on page 53). Ten is a combination of
unity and zero; therefore mystically there is a relationship between ∞od and Aleph, and ∞od and
what is beyond Aleph - the beginning. The numerical value of Aleph is one, the two arms of which
convey the meaning of “as above so beneath”. In this letter is symbolized the whole of creation. The
top arm is Deity, the cross-bar the waters, motionless as zero, and the lower arm the reflection of the
higher arm on the waters. Thus we obtain from a ~, or 1 ÷ 0 ÷ 1, or 10 ÷ 0 ÷ 10; the first equals 2, the
second 20, and ∞od spelt in full - ∞od Vau Daleth - equals 20; therefore the two together equal 22,
that is the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet which constitute the paths of the Tree of Life and
out of which, with the Sephiroth, the universe is mystically formed. Finally, as ∞od represents the ten
Sephiroth and the twenty-two paths, it is the symbol of all things concentrated in the Primordial Point.
In the third chapter of Genesis the fall of man is described. To the Qabalist it depicts the first step
in the redemption of Tetragrammaton; for unless Eve had tempted Adam, good and evil could never
have been harmonized. The apple is the Sephirah of ∞esod - the Foundation and the source of
generative and regenerative power.
We have described how evil, really activity, emanated out of God in the form of Tetragrammaton.
This being so, according to Qabalistic philosophy, out of evil must good, or God, evolve; for “as
above so beneath” and “as beneath so above” are the laws of Qabalistic inversion. Just as the Serpent
of Kronos devoured its tail, so must evil, in the form of the Satanic Serpent, devour itself This magical
operation of activity eating up activity is the central principle in the Messianic act, which we will
examine more fully in the next chapter. Here we will restrict ourselves to a few introductory remarks.
of Adam and from it fashioned woman - the passive or feminine essence of the Archetypal Man. The
Qabalistic interpretation is as follows: the rib is the letter ∞od, which when removed from the four
letters ∞od Heh Vau Heh leaves Heh Vau Heh, or EVE. The actual transmutation from ∞od Vau ∞od
to ∞od Heh Vau Heh we have already described. The ∞od, as it will be remembered, also symbolizes
the ten Sephiroth of the Yetziratic World, which are reflected in the Assiatic World in the form of the
Garden of Eden, which mystically is the Garment of God. The ∞od being extracted, the Mystical Eye
is closed - that is, the vision of the Yetziratic Tree of Life is cut off from the world of Assiah;
consequently, though Adam and Eve perceived that they were naked, they were not ashamed - that is
they could not perceive the nakedness of the Assiatic World - because the Yetziratic vision having
vanished there was no comparison (duality) left to judge it by. They were in fact bereft of all power of
directly perceiving the Shekinah, or Supernal Light.
There is yet another mystery included in the letter ∞od. Its hieroglyphic is the human hand. When
opened it symbolizes the Microcosm: the four fingers the material elements (∞od, Heh, Vau, Heh),
and the thumb the spiritual element (Shin). When closed it symbolizes unity, the egg out of which all
things emanate. As its numerical value is 10 it also symbolizes the two hands; the erect or good
pentagram and the inverted or evil pentagram (see Diagram 4 on page 53). Ten is a combination of
unity and zero; therefore mystically there is a relationship between ∞od and Aleph, and ∞od and
what is beyond Aleph - the beginning. The numerical value of Aleph is one, the two arms of which
convey the meaning of “as above so beneath”. In this letter is symbolized the whole of creation. The
top arm is Deity, the cross-bar the waters, motionless as zero, and the lower arm the reflection of the
higher arm on the waters. Thus we obtain from a ~, or 1 ÷ 0 ÷ 1, or 10 ÷ 0 ÷ 10; the first equals 2, the
second 20, and ∞od spelt in full - ∞od Vau Daleth - equals 20; therefore the two together equal 22,
that is the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet which constitute the paths of the Tree of Life and
out of which, with the Sephiroth, the universe is mystically formed. Finally, as ∞od represents the ten
Sephiroth and the twenty-two paths, it is the symbol of all things concentrated in the Primordial Point.
In the third chapter of Genesis the fall of man is described. To the Qabalist it depicts the first step
in the redemption of Tetragrammaton; for unless Eve had tempted Adam, good and evil could never
have been harmonized. The apple is the Sephirah of ∞esod - the Foundation and the source of
generative and regenerative power.
We have described how evil, really activity, emanated out of God in the form of Tetragrammaton.
This being so, according to Qabalistic philosophy, out of evil must good, or God, evolve; for “as
above so beneath” and “as beneath so above” are the laws of Qabalistic inversion. Just as the Serpent
of Kronos devoured its tail, so must evil, in the form of the Satanic Serpent, devour itself This magical
operation of activity eating up activity is the central principle in the Messianic act, which we will
examine more fully in the next chapter. Here we will restrict ourselves to a few introductory remarks.
| Diagram 4: The Good and Evil Pentagrams |
| The Messianic Redemption |
To begin with there is no Serpent; then one Serpent; lastly two forms of one Serpent, that is a
Serpent possessing two complementary energies which when balanced cause its immediate
destruction. These two energies, or powers, are called Metatron and Sammael; and in the name of
Tetragrammaton they are symbolized by the ∞od and the Vau - the Serpent coiled up or passive and
the Serpent erect or active. The first represents the creative energy and the second actual movement or
change. These two Serpents are the guardians of those forces which man calls good and evil; they are,
as we have already mentioned, symbolized by Yakhin and Boaz, the pillars of Solomon's Temple, and
flow into Kether through the fifty gates of Binah, 50 being the numerical value of KL (lk) which
means “all”, or the “understanding of all”. Moses failed to open the fiftieth of these gates had he done
so he would have become the Messiah of Israel. When the Messiah does come, the Sabbatic Millenary
will be accomplished; all Israel will be blessed, 16 and will become one nation in the Lord 17 - that is to
say, this world will be inhabited solely by the Chosen People.
There is the energy of the Serpent of Genesis, NChSh (Nachash) and the energy of the Brazen
Serpent which healed the afflicted Israelites, MShICh (Messiah). Both have the same numerical
values, namely 358; consequently when one is subtracted from the other the result is zero - that is
deliverance from both good and evil.
In order to understand this we will repeat it again: good is a means of balancing out evil, and evil a
means of balancing out good. Neither is desirable in itself except in the Material World, which cannot
exist without them; equally, the Spiritual World cannot be entered as long as they exist; consequently
their adverseness is purely relative to the Spiritual World. Further on in this book we will show that
the power of using either is drawn from the same source - Shin, Shekinah, Astral Light, Ether,
Electricity, whatever name it may be called by - and to understand the use of this force, yet never to
be obsessed by it, is to trample on the head of the Serpent and so re-establish the Shin in the body of
Tetragrammaton and formulate the Messiah, the Incarnate Word which when disincarnated caused the
Assiatic World to be.
In brief, this is the central doctrine of the Qabalistic Redemption; yet so dangerous did this
doctrine appear, should it be divulged to the uninitiated, that to safeguard it it was locked away in a
jumble of symbols, names, figures, and cryptograms which are frequently contradictory. The danger
was that this philosophy not only harmonized good and evil, but maintained that all goodness
proceeds from evil. Mystically this means a return of man to God, but by the ignorant it might easily
be interpreted as meaning the doing of evil for the sake of spiritual gain.
We will repeat it again: to the Hebrew mystic the God of Genesis, Tetragrammaton Elohim, is not
the ultimate God, or Ayin, the incomprehensible No-Thing, but Its lowest emanation - matter, or
grossness, personified; a reflection of a reflection four times removed. Yet this emanation is the only one
which can be comprehended by man, who in this Microcosmic life can only struggle forward through
the clash between passivity and activity, which are both good and evil according to circumstances - that
is according to necessity. Necessity is Divinity in hiding: Authority is the Divinity of the religious order
and Liberty is Divinity in man. The establisher of Authority is the Messiah.
These mystical philosophers fully recognized the necessity for “original sin”, because the world is
of Satan and man is of the world. Man is born in sin; not the sin of Adam's disobedience, carnal or
physical sin, but in the mystical and spiritual sin of Tetragrammaton’s fall. The blame was thrown
upon Adam, the man, not out of deference to the Deity, but to conceal this potent secret from the
uninitiated. In order to redeem the sin in which all mankind is born, it was necessary that a passiveactive
emanation be created to balance the active-passive Satanic force. This emanation was to be the
Messiah of the world, on whose advent equilibrium would be re-established. This supreme
cancellation was the one hope of Israel.
Serpent possessing two complementary energies which when balanced cause its immediate
destruction. These two energies, or powers, are called Metatron and Sammael; and in the name of
Tetragrammaton they are symbolized by the ∞od and the Vau - the Serpent coiled up or passive and
the Serpent erect or active. The first represents the creative energy and the second actual movement or
change. These two Serpents are the guardians of those forces which man calls good and evil; they are,
as we have already mentioned, symbolized by Yakhin and Boaz, the pillars of Solomon's Temple, and
flow into Kether through the fifty gates of Binah, 50 being the numerical value of KL (lk) which
means “all”, or the “understanding of all”. Moses failed to open the fiftieth of these gates had he done
so he would have become the Messiah of Israel. When the Messiah does come, the Sabbatic Millenary
will be accomplished; all Israel will be blessed, 16 and will become one nation in the Lord 17 - that is to
say, this world will be inhabited solely by the Chosen People.
There is the energy of the Serpent of Genesis, NChSh (Nachash) and the energy of the Brazen
Serpent which healed the afflicted Israelites, MShICh (Messiah). Both have the same numerical
values, namely 358; consequently when one is subtracted from the other the result is zero - that is
deliverance from both good and evil.
In order to understand this we will repeat it again: good is a means of balancing out evil, and evil a
means of balancing out good. Neither is desirable in itself except in the Material World, which cannot
exist without them; equally, the Spiritual World cannot be entered as long as they exist; consequently
their adverseness is purely relative to the Spiritual World. Further on in this book we will show that
the power of using either is drawn from the same source - Shin, Shekinah, Astral Light, Ether,
Electricity, whatever name it may be called by - and to understand the use of this force, yet never to
be obsessed by it, is to trample on the head of the Serpent and so re-establish the Shin in the body of
Tetragrammaton and formulate the Messiah, the Incarnate Word which when disincarnated caused the
Assiatic World to be.
In brief, this is the central doctrine of the Qabalistic Redemption; yet so dangerous did this
doctrine appear, should it be divulged to the uninitiated, that to safeguard it it was locked away in a
jumble of symbols, names, figures, and cryptograms which are frequently contradictory. The danger
was that this philosophy not only harmonized good and evil, but maintained that all goodness
proceeds from evil. Mystically this means a return of man to God, but by the ignorant it might easily
be interpreted as meaning the doing of evil for the sake of spiritual gain.
We will repeat it again: to the Hebrew mystic the God of Genesis, Tetragrammaton Elohim, is not
the ultimate God, or Ayin, the incomprehensible No-Thing, but Its lowest emanation - matter, or
grossness, personified; a reflection of a reflection four times removed. Yet this emanation is the only one
which can be comprehended by man, who in this Microcosmic life can only struggle forward through
the clash between passivity and activity, which are both good and evil according to circumstances - that
is according to necessity. Necessity is Divinity in hiding: Authority is the Divinity of the religious order
and Liberty is Divinity in man. The establisher of Authority is the Messiah.
These mystical philosophers fully recognized the necessity for “original sin”, because the world is
of Satan and man is of the world. Man is born in sin; not the sin of Adam's disobedience, carnal or
physical sin, but in the mystical and spiritual sin of Tetragrammaton’s fall. The blame was thrown
upon Adam, the man, not out of deference to the Deity, but to conceal this potent secret from the
uninitiated. In order to redeem the sin in which all mankind is born, it was necessary that a passiveactive
emanation be created to balance the active-passive Satanic force. This emanation was to be the
Messiah of the world, on whose advent equilibrium would be re-established. This supreme
cancellation was the one hope of Israel.
When discussing the philosophy of the Qabalah, we touched upon the principles of creation; here
we will return to this subject, for they constitute the foundations of mystic knowledge towards which,
as we shall show later on, scientific thought is tending.
First it must be realized that though, in the ordinary use of words, creation conveys to us an idea of
“springing up”, that is of newness and novelty, to the Qabalist it conveys the opposite idea, namely,
that of descending, obscuring, and grossifying. For instance, no rational being would assert that a
work of art was greater than the artist who created it. A statue is an artistic idea materialized. It is of
stone, clay, or metal - pure matter - to which has been added an ideal form which emanated from the
thoughts of a human being also fashioned of matter, that is of flesh, blood, and bone. It was not
thought which created the material of the statue, for this existed before the thought arose in the head
of the artist; yet thought did give to the statue its form, and this crystallized thought may live on long
after the flesh, blood, and bone of the artist have fallen to dust. Will the artist, then, have perished?
No, not altogether, for he will in part live on in the form of the statue which perhaps for thousands of
years will proclaim his genius to those who look upon it.
With the entire world, the entire universe, it is the same, but with this difference: it expresses the
totality of the thoughts of the Divine Thinker. Thought, we have seen, gave it form; therefore the
universe is God in form and in activity. “All that has been created,” says the Zohar, “from the Holy
Beasts [the Kerubim] in the highest firmament, down to the tiniest worm that crawls upon the earth,
lives in Elohim and through Elohim.” 1 That is to say, everything which is, has been, or will be is
formed by the Divine Thought; therefore the universe is the symbol of the Divine Thinker.
What is it formed of? What is the material? The void and the formless, the negative and the
positive of vhb, Bohu (BHV), and vhu, Tohu (ThHV), which find their Harmony in the Darkness.
And be it noted that Beth, the first letter of BHV, is the letter of creation, the first letter of Genesis,
and that it represents the open mouth, or parted lips, which utter the Logoic Word. Also that as Tau,
the first letter of ThHV, is the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it completes the utterance, and as its
numerical value is 400 it represents the 400 Sephiroth of the four worlds. Finally, that each word
includes a Heh and a Vau, a feminine and a masculine quantity, and that the numerical values of these
four letters is 22 - the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; consequently, potentially, the names
of all things (forms) are included in them.
These two find their equilibrium in Darkness or the black fire.
Tohu [we are told] is under the aegis of Shaddai; Bohu, under that of Zebaoth; Darkness, under that of
Elohim; Spirit, under that of YHVH. . . . “There was a strong wind breaking the mountains, but the Lord was not
in the wind”, because this name was not in it, since Shaddai presides over it through the mystic nature of Tohu.
“After the wind there was a quaking, but the Lord was not in the quaking”, since over it presides the name of
Zebaoth, through the mystic nature of Bohu (which is called quaking [ra'ash], because it quakes continually).
“After the quaking there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire”, because over it presides the name Elohim
from the side of darkness. “And after the fire there was a small still voice”; and here at last was found the name
YHVH.
This small still voice represents the Shin emerging from YHShVH, which by turning the darkness into a
luminous mirror enabled YHVH to be reflected upon it. Then only was the Balance between the Former and the
Formless established. As the divine spark scintillated forth, “He caused a wind to blow from above against a
wind that blew from below. From the shock of the meeting of these two winds, a Drop emerged and rose from
the depths of the abyss. This Drop united the winds and from the union of these winds the world was born”, a
simulacrum of Elohim - Who? . . . These ! - in which the form of every atom represents a divine idea.
Or we may try to understand it in another way: The Indivisible Point or Supreme Point sends forth a light of
such transparency, limpidity and subtlety that it penetrates everywhere. Around the Point, the penetration of its
own light forms a ring or a Palace. The light of the Supreme Point being of an inconceivable brilliance, the light
of the Palace which is inferior to it looks like a dark circle round it. But the light of the First Palace, though it
may seem dark by comparison with the Point itself, is yet of an immense splendour which gives off another ring
or palace forming a sort of envelope around the first one. So that, emanating from the Supreme Point, all the
degrees of creation are but envelopes, the one for the other. The envelope of the superior degree forms the brain
of the degree next to it.
Here is presented to us a system of worlds within worlds. First there is the world, or expanse, of
No-Thingness; then the Awir, or ether; next the Aur, or light; then ten Sephirotic rings of light, one
grosser than the other, until the last is composed of Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit, or ∞od, Heh,
Vau, Heh, and Shin, in which the form is visible because of the existence of the spirit. By the cry
“Yehe Aur” (Let there be Light) was the world created, and Yehe is a combination of ∞od and Heh
(hy) - the Great Father and the Great Mother - the eternal complements.
Finally, it may be asked: What was the reason for the creation? And the Qabalist answers: This is
not a rightful question, because God is beyond reason. To him Omnipotence supposes Authority,
Necessity, and Liberty, and through Necessity the universe came into being in the form of Authority
and Liberty - law and free will. Necessity is in fact the Divine Mystery which is beyond all Reason. It
exists; it is, “I Am”, the Secret of Elohim.
we will return to this subject, for they constitute the foundations of mystic knowledge towards which,
as we shall show later on, scientific thought is tending.
First it must be realized that though, in the ordinary use of words, creation conveys to us an idea of
“springing up”, that is of newness and novelty, to the Qabalist it conveys the opposite idea, namely,
that of descending, obscuring, and grossifying. For instance, no rational being would assert that a
work of art was greater than the artist who created it. A statue is an artistic idea materialized. It is of
stone, clay, or metal - pure matter - to which has been added an ideal form which emanated from the
thoughts of a human being also fashioned of matter, that is of flesh, blood, and bone. It was not
thought which created the material of the statue, for this existed before the thought arose in the head
of the artist; yet thought did give to the statue its form, and this crystallized thought may live on long
after the flesh, blood, and bone of the artist have fallen to dust. Will the artist, then, have perished?
No, not altogether, for he will in part live on in the form of the statue which perhaps for thousands of
years will proclaim his genius to those who look upon it.
With the entire world, the entire universe, it is the same, but with this difference: it expresses the
totality of the thoughts of the Divine Thinker. Thought, we have seen, gave it form; therefore the
universe is God in form and in activity. “All that has been created,” says the Zohar, “from the Holy
Beasts [the Kerubim] in the highest firmament, down to the tiniest worm that crawls upon the earth,
lives in Elohim and through Elohim.” 1 That is to say, everything which is, has been, or will be is
formed by the Divine Thought; therefore the universe is the symbol of the Divine Thinker.
What is it formed of? What is the material? The void and the formless, the negative and the
positive of vhb, Bohu (BHV), and vhu, Tohu (ThHV), which find their Harmony in the Darkness.
And be it noted that Beth, the first letter of BHV, is the letter of creation, the first letter of Genesis,
and that it represents the open mouth, or parted lips, which utter the Logoic Word. Also that as Tau,
the first letter of ThHV, is the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it completes the utterance, and as its
numerical value is 400 it represents the 400 Sephiroth of the four worlds. Finally, that each word
includes a Heh and a Vau, a feminine and a masculine quantity, and that the numerical values of these
four letters is 22 - the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; consequently, potentially, the names
of all things (forms) are included in them.
These two find their equilibrium in Darkness or the black fire.
Tohu [we are told] is under the aegis of Shaddai; Bohu, under that of Zebaoth; Darkness, under that of
Elohim; Spirit, under that of YHVH. . . . “There was a strong wind breaking the mountains, but the Lord was not
in the wind”, because this name was not in it, since Shaddai presides over it through the mystic nature of Tohu.
“After the wind there was a quaking, but the Lord was not in the quaking”, since over it presides the name of
Zebaoth, through the mystic nature of Bohu (which is called quaking [ra'ash], because it quakes continually).
“After the quaking there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire”, because over it presides the name Elohim
from the side of darkness. “And after the fire there was a small still voice”; and here at last was found the name
YHVH.
This small still voice represents the Shin emerging from YHShVH, which by turning the darkness into a
luminous mirror enabled YHVH to be reflected upon it. Then only was the Balance between the Former and the
Formless established. As the divine spark scintillated forth, “He caused a wind to blow from above against a
wind that blew from below. From the shock of the meeting of these two winds, a Drop emerged and rose from
the depths of the abyss. This Drop united the winds and from the union of these winds the world was born”, a
simulacrum of Elohim - Who? . . . These ! - in which the form of every atom represents a divine idea.
Or we may try to understand it in another way: The Indivisible Point or Supreme Point sends forth a light of
such transparency, limpidity and subtlety that it penetrates everywhere. Around the Point, the penetration of its
own light forms a ring or a Palace. The light of the Supreme Point being of an inconceivable brilliance, the light
of the Palace which is inferior to it looks like a dark circle round it. But the light of the First Palace, though it
may seem dark by comparison with the Point itself, is yet of an immense splendour which gives off another ring
or palace forming a sort of envelope around the first one. So that, emanating from the Supreme Point, all the
degrees of creation are but envelopes, the one for the other. The envelope of the superior degree forms the brain
of the degree next to it.
Here is presented to us a system of worlds within worlds. First there is the world, or expanse, of
No-Thingness; then the Awir, or ether; next the Aur, or light; then ten Sephirotic rings of light, one
grosser than the other, until the last is composed of Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit, or ∞od, Heh,
Vau, Heh, and Shin, in which the form is visible because of the existence of the spirit. By the cry
“Yehe Aur” (Let there be Light) was the world created, and Yehe is a combination of ∞od and Heh
(hy) - the Great Father and the Great Mother - the eternal complements.
Finally, it may be asked: What was the reason for the creation? And the Qabalist answers: This is
not a rightful question, because God is beyond reason. To him Omnipotence supposes Authority,
Necessity, and Liberty, and through Necessity the universe came into being in the form of Authority
and Liberty - law and free will. Necessity is in fact the Divine Mystery which is beyond all Reason. It
exists; it is, “I Am”, the Secret of Elohim.
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The Secret Wisdom Of The Qabalah: Chapter 4