Part 69 (2/2)
But after He had formed this Idea, the particular conception, limited and intelligible, which the Ten Numerations are, of the medium of transmission, Adam Kadmon, the Primal or Supreme Man, He by that medium descended, and may, through that Idea, be called by the name IHUH, and so created things have cognizance of Him, by means of His proper likeness.
Woe unto him who makes G.o.d to be like unto any mode or attribute whatever, even were it to one of His own; and still more if he make Him like unto the Sons of Men, whose elements are earthly, and so are consumed and peris.h.!.+
There can be no conception had of Him, except in so far as He manifests Himself, in exercising dominion by and through some attribute ...
Abstracted from this, there can be no attribute, conception, or ideal of Him. He is comparable only to the Sea, filling some great reservoir, its bed in the earth, for example; wherein it fas.h.i.+ons for itself a certain concavity, so that thereby we may begin to compute the dimensions of the Sea itself.
For example, the Spring and Source of the Ocean is a somewhat, which is _one_. If from this Source or Spring there issues forth a certain fountain, proportioned to the s.p.a.ce occupied by the Sea in that hemispherical reservoir, such as is the letter Yod, there the Source of Spring is the first somewhat, and the fountain that flows forth from it is the second. Then let there be made a great reservoir, as by excavation, and let this be called the Ocean, and we have the third thing, a vessel [_Vas_]. Now let this great reservoir be divided into seven beds of rivers, that is, into seven oblong reservoirs, so that from this ocean the waters may flow forth in seven rivers; and the Source, Fountain, and Ocean thus make _ten_ in all.
The Cause of Causes made ten Numerations, and called the Source of Spring KETHER, _Corona_, the Crown, in which the idea of circularity is involved, for there is no _end_ to the out-flow of Light; and therefore He called this, like Himself, _endless_; for this also, like Him, has no similitude or configuration, nor hath it any vessel or receptacle wherein it may be contained, or by means whereof any possible cognizance can be had of it.
After thus forming the Crown, He const.i.tuted a certain smaller receptacle, the letter Yod, and filled it from that source; and this is called ”The Fountain gus.h.i.+ng with Wisdom,” and, manifested in this, He called Himself WISE, and the vessel He called HAKEMAH, _Wisdom, Sapientia_.
Then He also const.i.tuted a great reservoir, which He called the Ocean; and to it He gave the name of BINAH, Understanding, _Intelligentia_. In this He characterized Himself as Intelligent or _Conceiver_. HE is indeed the Absolutely Wise and Intelligent, but Hakemah is not Absolute Wisdom of itself, _but is wise by means of Binah_, who fills Himself from it, and if this supply were taken from it, would be dry and unintelligent.
And thereupon seven precious vessels become, to which are given the following names: GEDULAH, _Magnificence_ or _Benignity_ [or KHASED, _Mercy_]; GEBURAH, _Austerity, Rigor_ or _Severity_; TEPHARETH; _Beauty_; NETSAKH, _Victory_; HOD, _Glory_; YESOD, _Foundation_ or _Basis_; and MALAKOTH, _Rule, Reign, Royalty, Dominion_ or _Power_. And in GEDULAH He took the character of _Great_ and _Benignant_; in GEBURAH, of _Severe_; in TEPHARETH, of _Beautiful_; in NETSAKH, of _Overcoming_; in HOD, of OUR GLORIOUS AUTHOR; in YESOD, of _Just_, by Yesod all vessels and worlds being upheld; and in MALAKOTH He applied to Himself the t.i.tle of _King_.
These numerations or Sephiroths are held in the Kabala to have been originally contained in each other; that is, Kether contained the nine others, Hakemah contained Binah, and Binah contained the last seven.
For all things, says the commentary of Rabbi _Jizchak Lorja_, in a certain most abstruse manner, consist or reside and are contained in Binah, and it projects them, and sends them downward, species by species, into the several worlds of Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Fabrication; all whereof are derived from what are above them, and are termed their out-flowings; for, from the potency which was their state there, they descend into actuality.
The INTRODUCTION says:
It is said in many places in the Sohar, that all things that emanate or are created have their root above. Hence also the Ten Sephiroth have their root above, in the world of the garment, with the very Substance of HIM. And AINSOPH had full consciousness and appreciation, prior to their actual existence, of all the Grades and Impersonations contained unmanifested within Himself, with regard to the essence of each, and its domination then in potency ... When He came to the Sephirah of the Impersonation Malakoth, which He then contained hidden within Himself, He concluded within Himself that therein worlds should be framed; since the scale of the first nine Sephiroths was so const.i.tuted, that it was neither fit nor necessary for worlds to be framed from _them_; for all the attributes of these nine Superior Sephiroth could be a.s.signed to Himself, even if He should never operate outwardly; but Malakoth, which is Empire or Dominion, could not be attributed to Him, unless He ruled over other Existences; whence from the point Malakoth He produced all the worlds into actuality.
These circles are ten in number. Originated by points, they expanded in circular shape. Ten Circles, under the mystery of the ten Sephiroth, and between them ten s.p.a.ces; whence it appears that the sphere of Splendor is in the centre of the s.p.a.ce Malakoth of the First Occult Adam.
The First Adam, _in the ten circles above the Splendor_, is called the First _occult_ Adam; and in each of these s.p.a.ces are formed many thousand worlds. The first Adam is _involved_ in the Primal Ether, and is the a.n.a.logue of the world Binah.
Again the Introduction repeats the first and second descent of Yod into the vacated s.p.a.ce, to make the light there less great and subtile; the const.i.tution of the _Tehiru_, Splendor, from the light left behind there by him; the communication of Light to him by the female letter He; the emission by him of that Light, within the sphere of Splendor, and the formation thereof, within the sphere ”of a certain sphere called the Supreme Crown,” _Corona Summa_, KETHER, ”wherein were contained, in potence, all the remaining Numerations, so that they were not distinguishable from it. Precisely as in man exist the four elements, in potence specifically undistinguishable, so in this Corona were in potence all the ten Numerations, specifically undistinguishable.” This Crown, it is added, was called, after the restoration, The Cause of Causes, and the Ancient of the Ancients.
The point, Kether, adds the Introduction, was the aggregate of all the Ten ... when it first emanated, it consisted of all the Ten; and the Light which extended from the Emanative Principle simultaneously flowed into _it_; and beheld the two _Universals_ [that is, the Unities out of which manifoldness flows; as, for example, the _idea_, within the Deity, of Humanity as a Unit, out of which the individuals were to flow], the Vessel or Receptacle containing this immitted Light, and the Light Itself within it. And _this Light is the Substance of the point Kether; for the WILL, of G.o.d is the Soul of all things that are_.
The Ainsophic Light, it had said, was infinite in every direction, and without end or limit. To prevent it from flowing into and re-filling the quasi-vacant s.p.a.ce, occupied by an infinitely less Splendor, a part.i.tion between the greater and lesser Splendor was necessary; and this part.i.tion, the boundary of the sphere of Splendor, and a like one bounding the sphere Kether, were called _Vessels_ or _Receptacles, containing_, including, and enclosing within themselves the light of the sphere. Imagine a sea of pellucid water, and in the centre of it a spherical ma.s.s of denser and darker water. The outer surface of this sphere, or its limits every way, is the vessel containing it. The Kabalah regards the vessels ”as by their nature somewhat opaque, and not so splendid as the light they enclose.”
The contained Light is the Soul of the vessels, and is active in them, like the Human Soul in the human body. The Light of the Emanative Principle [Ainsoph] _inheres_ in the vessels, as their _Life_, internal _Light_, and _Soul_ ... Kether emanated, with its Very Substance, at the same time as Substance and Vessel, in like manner as the flame is annexed to the live coal, and as the Soul pervades, and is within, the body. All the Numerations were potentially contained in it.
And this potentiality is thus explained: When a woman conceives, a Soul is immediately sent into the embryo which is to become the infant, in which Soul are then, potentially, all the members and veins of the body, which afterward, from that potency of the Soul, _become_ in the human body of the child to be born.
Then the wisdom of G.o.d commanded that these Numerations potentially in Kether, should be produced from potentiality into actuality, in order that worlds might consist; and HE directed Yod again to descend, and to enter into and s.h.i.+ne within Kether, and then to re-ascend: which was so done. From which illumination and re-ascension, all the other numerations, potentially in Kether, were manifested and disclosed; but they continued still compacted together, remaining within Kether in a circle.
When G.o.d willed to produce the other emanations or numerations from Kether, it is added, HE sent Yod down again, to the upper part of Kether, one-half of him to remain without and one-half to penetrate within the sphere of Kether. Then He sent the letter Vav into the Splendor, to pour out its light on Yod: and thus,--
Yod received light from Vav, and thereby so directed his countenance that it should illuminate and confer exceeding great energy on Hakemah, which yet remained in Kether; so giving it the faculty to proceed forth therefrom; and that it might collect and contain within itself, and there reveal, all the other eight numerations, until that time in Kether.
The sphere of Kether opened, and thereout issued Hakemah, to remain below Kether, containing in itself all the other numerations.
By a similar process, Binah, illuminated within Hakemah by a second Yod, ”issued forth out of Hakemah, having within itself the Seven lower Numerations.”
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