Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
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erial universe, concealing within herself the mysteries of all dimensions, while revealing her surface to the exterior senses. it is a double cube because, as the emerald tablet states 'the things that are below are a reflection of the things that are above' the world of men and women created to unhappiness is a reflection of the world of divine beings created to happiness. it is described in the sepher yetzirah, or the book of formation, as an abyss of height and an abyss of death, an abyss of the east and an abyss of the west, an abyss of the north and an abyss of the south. the altar is black because, unlike divine beings who unfold in the element of light, the fires of created beings arise from darkness and obscurity. on the altar is the white triangle to be in the image of immortal li

rit, the ruach elohim, formulate the eternal pronunciation of the ineffable name: that name which the rabbins of old have said rusheth through the universe; that name before which rolled back the darkness at the birth of the morning of time. the flame-red triangular capitals which crown the summits of the pillars represent the triune manifestation of the spirit of life, the 'three mothers' of the sepher yetzirah, the three alchemical principles of nature, the sulphur, the mercury and the salt, and each pillar is surmounted by its own light-bearer, though veiled from the material world. the hieroglyphical figures upon the pillars are taken from the vignettes of the 17th and the 125th chapters of the 'ritual of the dead' the egyptian 'per-m-hru. this celebrated and most ancient work is a col

point. the final card is placed in the lower left-hand corner (between water and earth) and this is the earth card. it explains the spiritual aspect in regard to the mundane plane. this card is a very significant card, because in many ways it sums up the other three cards. nw we have what appears to be a cube, or a square. again significant of the cube of the universe as depicted in the book, the sepher yetzirah. a lot of study and time and meditation could be placed on the reading at this point. for spiritual advice on a particular matter, no other cards need be turned over. looking at these cards and meditating on them in their positions and influences can tell us a lot about ourselves, and about where we are and what is influencing us. however, for magical workings we want to know the f

0 0 INITIATION CEREMONY

rial universe, concealing within herself the mysteries of all dimensions, while revealing her surface to the exterior senses. it is a double cube because, as the emerald tablet has said the things that are below are a reflection of the things that are above. the world of men and women created to unhappiness is a reflection of the world of divine beings created to happiness. it is described in the sepher yetzirah, or the book of formation, as an abyss of height and as an abyss of depth, an abyss of the east and an abyss of the west, an abyss of the north and an abyss of the south. the altar is black because, unlike divine beings who unfold in the element of light, the fires of created brings arise from darkness and obscurity. on the altar is a white triangle to be the image of that immortal

1 10 INITIATION CEREMONY

hierophant, hear ye all that i proclaim that frater (name) has been duly admitted to the grade of zelator, and that he has obtained the mystic title of periclinus (pericline) de faustis and the symbol of aretz. kerux: returns to his place by e. saluting, and by s. and w. hiero: in the zelator grade, the symbolism of the tenth sephirah malkuth is especially shown, as well as the tenth path of the sepher yetzirah. among other mystic titles, malkuth is called shaar, the gate, which by metathesis becomes ashur, meaning the number ten. also, in chaldee it is called thraa, the gate, which has the same number as the great name adonai, written in full: aleph, daleth, nun, yod, which both equal 671 in total numeration. it is also called the gate of death, the gate of tears, and the gate of justice

leth, nun, yod, which both equal 671 in total numeration. it is also called the gate of death, the gate of tears, and the gate of justice, the gate of prayer, and the gate of the daughter of the mighty ones. it is also called the gate of the garden of eden and the inferior mother, and in christian symbolism, it is connected with the three holy women at the foot of the cross. the tenth path of the sepher yetzirah which answereth to malkuth is called the resplendent intelligence, because it exalts above every head and sitteth upon the throne of binah. it illuminateth the splendor of all the lights, the zohar me-ou roth and causeth the current of the divine influx to descend from the prince of countenances, the great archangel metatron. frater (name) before you can be eligible for advancement

3 8 INITIATION CEREMONY

te hieroglyph of fire. it is formed of 4 triangles, 3 visible and one concealed, which yet use the synthesis of the rest. the 3 visible triangles represent fire solar, volcanic and astral, while the 4th represents the latent heat. the three words aud, aub, aur refer to the three conditions of heat, aud, active; aub, passive; aur, equilibrated; whilst asch is the name of fire. the 31st path of the sepher yetzirah which answereth unto the letter shin, is called the perpetual intelligence, and it is so called because it regulateth the motions of the sun and moon in their proper order, each in an orbit convenient for it. it is therefore the reflection of the sphere of fire, and the path connecting the material universe as depicted in malkuth, with the pillar of severity on the side of geburah

e kabiri. heg: conducts theoricus to hierophant's throne and hands to theoricus the solar creek cross. hiero: the solar creek cross is formed of 13 squares, which fitly refer to the sun's motion through the zodiac. these signs being further arranged in the arms of the cross according to the four elements with the sun in the center, represent that luminary as the center of the the 30th path of the sepher yetzirah. which answereth unto the letter resh is called the collecting intelligence, and it is so called because from it astrologers deduce the judgement of the stars, and of the celestial signs, and the perfections of their science according to the rules of their revolutions. it is therefore, the reflection of the sphere of the sun, and the path connecting yesod with hod, foundation with

buted, and the waters of creation. the grip or token is the general grip of the first order. the grand word is elohim tzabaoth which means the elohim of hosts and of armies. the mystic number is 36 and from it is formed the pass word of this grade, which is eloah, one of the divine names. it should be lettered separately when given. unto this grade and unto the sephira hod, the eighth path of the sepher yetzirah is referred. it is called the absolute or perfect path because it is the means of the primordial which hath no root to which it may be established, except in the penetralia of that gedulah (magnificence) which emanates from the subsisting properties thereof. the distinguishing badge of this grade which you will now be entitled to wear is the sash of a theoricus with the addition of

4 7 INITIATION CEREMONY

he calvary cross of 12 squares. hiero: the calvary cross of 12 squares fitly represents the zodiac, which embraces the waters of nu, as the ancient egyptians called the heavens; the waters which be above the firmament. it also alludes to the eternal river of eden divided into four heads which finds their correlatives in the four triplicities of the zodiac (places cross aside) the 29th path of the sepher yetzirah which answereth to the letter qoph, is called the corporeal intelligence, and it is so called because it formeth every body which is formed beneath the whole order of worlds, and the increment of them. it is there, the reflection of the sphere of the watery sign pisces, and the path connecting the material universe as depicted in malkuth, with the pillar of mercy, and the side of c

through the depth of the mighty waters. heg: conducts practicus to hierophant and hands to practicus the calvary cross. lights turned up. heg: the calvary cross of 10 squares refers to the 10 sephiroth in balanced disposition, before which the formless and the void rolled back. it also is the opened out form of the double cube, and of the altar of incense (places cross aside) the 27th path of the sepher yetzirah which answereth unto the letter peh is called the exciting intelligence, and it is so called because by it is created the intellect of all created beings under the highest heaven and the excitement of the motion of them. it is, therefore, the reflection of the sphere of mars, and the reciprocal path connecting netzach with hod, victory with splendor; it is the lowermost of the thre

cts practicus to tablet of yetziratic palaces in the south. heg: these are the seven yetziratic palaces, containing the 10 sephiroth. in each palace are the six letters from the divine name of 42 letters. thus, the name of 42 letters has been taken from the 42 first letters of the history of creation, as far as beth of the word "bohu" by various transmutations which are described at length in the sepher pardes. heg: leads practicus to tablet in north. heg: these are the qlippoth with their 12 princes, who are the heads of the 12 months of the year. in the central square are placed samael and asmodai. at the south east are the man, the serpent and the elder lilith, the wife of samael. at the north east angle are the ox and the ass, the aggareth, the daughter of machalath. at the north west

ers of creation. the grip or token is the general grip of the first order. the grand word is a name of nine letters tetragrammaton tzabaoth, which means the lard of armies. the mystic number is 28 and from it is formed the pass word of the grade which is koch (kaph, cheth) meaning power. it should be lettered separately when given. unto this grade and unto the sephira netzach, the 7th path of the sepher yetzirah is referred. it is called the recondite intelligence and it is so called because it is the refulgent splendor of all the intellectual virtues which are perceived by the eyes of the mind and by the contemplation of faith. the distinguishing badge of this grade, which you will now be entitled to wear, is the sash of a practicus, with the addition of a bright green cross above the vio

ALEISTER CROWLEY LIBER 777

\wrtca ynmyt mch husham of temani 6 wyhfyf titahion pit of destruction belphegor awyj tywu ddh hadad of avith 7 twmyruc shaarimoth gates of death yadmca hqrcm hlmnc samlah of masrekah 8 twmla tzelmoth shadow of death adramelek laylb tybhr lwac saul of reheboth 9 tylyl nh lub baal-hannan 10 \nhyg gehinnom hell hmun wup rdh hadar of pau cix (continued* the dukes of edom. cx. elements and quarters (sepher yetzirah. cxi. sephirothic colours (dr. jellinek. 0. 1 \yyj \yhla hwr concealed light 2. air sky blue 3. water and earth yellow 4 hmbylha aholibamah fire white 5 hla elah height red 6 kyp pinon depth white-red 7 znq kenaz east whitish-red 8 myt teman west reddish-white 9 laydgm and rxbm mibzar and magdiel south white-red-whitsh-red-reddish-white 10 \ryu eram north the light reflecting all c

sh the kings and dukes as in the printed edition, i have split this column. for daath add king bela son of beor (rwub b ulb) and dukes timnah (uamt, alvah (hwlu) and jetheth (tty. col. cx. line 1. ruach elohim chayyim, the spirit of the living gods. the first edition of 777 had as a subtitle \yyj \yhla hwr tja, achath ruach elohim chayyim( one [is] the spirit of the living elohim, a line from the sepher yetzirah which adds to 777. cols. cxii cxiii. these sets of attributions were extracted by the golden dawn from the first volume of kabbala denudata. the symbols in 7 and 8 apparently represent hermaphroditic brass. col. cxiv. the numbers are an addition; each password adds to the mystic number of the sephirah corresponding. vide col. x. col. cxv. the entries in this column were originally

d moon in autumn were those referred to winter by pseudo-abano. 17 probably in his oedipus gypticus. it is this book (late 17th century) which as far as i am aware contains the earliest known appearance of the version of the tree of life used by the g.d. and crowley, and in fact most modern western occultists. other tree of life arrangements are discussed by aryeh kaplan in his translation of the sepher yetzirah. appendix: the yi king transliterations of chinese names follow the system used by legge in sacred books of the east, which is not in general current use. note that italicised letters have different phonetic values to non-italicised (k is thin (tenuis) modified guttural consonant, kh aspirated thin modified guttural. b represents the neutral vowel sound. where crowley has tz, legge

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

e regarded as accurate, and the doctrine of the function of the great white brotherhood understood as the foundation of the aspiration of the adept. the account of the master of the temple should in particular be taken as authentic. equinox v, special supplement "liber cdlxxiv. os abysmi vel da'ath" an instruction in a purely intellectual method of entering the abyss. equinox vii, p. 77 "liber d. sepher sephiroth" a dictionary of hebrew words arranged according to their 225 numerical value. this is an encyclopaedia of the holy qabalah, which is a map of the universe, and enables man to attain perfect understanding. equinox viii, special supplement "liber dxxxvi. a complete treatise on astrology" this is the only text book on astrology composed on scientific lines by classifying observed fa

ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS

ahebah hebrew option, love; then what word should arise when you expand it by the creative dyad, and get 26; what when you multiply it by 4, and get 52? then, suppose the pentagram gets busy, 13 x 5= 65, what then? now don't you dare to come round crawling to me for the answers; work it out yourself what sort of words they ought to be, and then check your result by looking up those numbers in the sepher sephiroth: equinox vol. i, no. 8, supplement. when you are a real adept at all these well-known calculations "prepare to enter the immeasurable region" and dig out the unknown. you must construct your own qabalah! nobody can do it for you. what is your own true number? you must find it and prove it to be correct. in the course of a few years, you should have built yourself a palace of ineff

own true number? you must find it and prove it to be correct. in the course of a few years, you should have built yourself a palace of ineffable glory, a garden of indescribable delight. nor time nor fate can tame those tranquil towers, those minarets of music, or fade one blossom in those avenues of perfume! humph! nasty of me: but it has just stuck me that it might be just as well if you made a sepher sephiroth of your own! what a positively magic without tears get any book for free on: www.abika.com 64 beastly thing to suggest! however, i do suggest it. after all, it's simple enough. every word you come across, add it up, stick it down against that number in a book kept for the purpose. that may seem tedious and silly; why should you do all over again the work that i have already done f

number in a book kept for the purpose. that may seem tedious and silly; why should you do all over again the work that i have already done for you? reason: simple. doing it will teach you qabalah as nothing else could. besides, you won't be all cluttered up with words that mean nothing to you; and if it should happen that you want a word to explain some particular number, you can look it up in my sepher sephiroth. by this method, too, you may strike a rich vein of words of your own that i have altogether missed. no doubt, a really great teacher would have said "beware! use my dictionary, and mine alone! all others are spurious" but then i'm not a r.g.t. of that kind. for a start, of course, you should put down the words that are bound to come in your way in any case: numbers like 11, 13, 3

the names of god and the principal angels; the planetary and geomantic names; and your own private and particular name with its branches. after that, let your work on the astral plane guide you. when investigating the name and other words communicated to you by such beings as you meet there, or invoke, many more will come up in their proper connections. very soon you will have quite a nice little sepher sephiroth of your very own. remember to aim, above all things, at coherence. it is excellent practice, but the way, to do some mental arithmetic on your walks; acquire the habit of adding up any names that you have come across in your morning's reading. nietzsche has well observed that the best thoughts come by walking; and it has happened to me, more than magic without tears get any book f

l we try to spell it in greek or in hebrew. by the sound of the name and perhaps to some extent by his appearance one might plump for the former; but after all the greek qabalah is so unsatisfactory. we give hebrew the first chance- we start with ayin teth yod lamed yod aleph hay render in hebrew. let us try this lettering for a start. it adds up to 135. i daresay that you don't remember what the sepher sephiroth tells you about the number; but as luck will have it, there is no need to inquire; for 135= 3 x 45. three is the number, is the first number of saturn, and 45 the last (the sum of the numbers in the magic sic square 6 of saturn is 45) that corresponds beautifully with everything you have magic without tears get any book for free on: www.abika.com 130 got so far; but then of course

ry of a drug fiend, the- a true story of drug addicts who were cured of their affliction by a strict r gime and the constant guidance of a master. equinox, the vol. i, no. 1- 10 vol. iii, no. 1- contains an immense number and variety of official publications, rituals, treatises, etc. also special supplements such as the vision and the voice; translation of eliphas l vi's the key of the mysteries; sepher sephiroth; h. p. blavatsky's the voice of the silence, with a commentary by fr. o.m, etc, etc. vol. iii, 3- the equinox of the gods vol. iii, 4- eight lectures on yoga- the deepest book written on the subject of yoga. vol. iii, 5- the book of thoth- a masterpiece on the egyptian tarot, with appendices, and designs with an entirely new pack of tarot cards, executed by frieda harris. goetia

ALEISTER CROWLEY SEPHER SEPHIROTH

) was black hyd eve: to manifest, show forth hwx nation; gentile ywg 20 yod: a hand dwy a name of god yy fraternity hwx) black liquid wyd it was hyh the breast; a vision; a prophet; to gaze hzx sin h)+h golden bwhz 21 the mystic number of tiphareth existence, being: the divine name of kether hyh) but, howbeit; certainly k) deep meditation gygh ah. alas! ywh purity, innocence wxz part of hwhy (see sepher yetzirah) why 22 with his hand wdyb by yodh dwyb hearer in secret hy))h the state of puberty gwwz a magical vision (ch )wzx wheat h+x good hbw (notariqon of gyehovah elohim yehovah achad h, 151 )y)y unity dxy 23 parted, removed, separated xxz joy hwdx a thread +wx life; chiah: the soul in chokmah hyx lesser (ar)+wz 24 the number of enochian seniors, and of elders in revelation he whom i lov

ALEISTER CROWLEY THE OLD AND NEW COMMENTARIES TO LIBER AL

man. the first chapter al i,1 "had! the manifestation of nuit" the old comment 1. compare ii.1, the complement of this verse. in nu is had concealed; by had is nu manifested. nu being 56 and had 9, their conjunction results in 65, adonai, the holy guardian angel. also hoor, who combines the force of the sun with that of mars. adonai is primarily solar, but 65 is a number sacred to mars. see the "sepher sephiroth ,and "the wake world" in "know om pax" for further details on 65. note moreover, the sixty-five pages of the ms. of liber legis. or, counting nv 56, had 10, we get 66, which is (1-11. had is further the centre of the key-word abrahadabra. the new comment the theogony of our law is entirely scientific, nuit is matter, hadit is motion, in their full physical sense<
ALEISTER CROWLEY THE QABALAH

son, but we hear nothing of the mother in the ordinary religions of the day. but in the qabalah we find that the ancient of days conforms himself simultaneously into the father and the mother, and thus begets the son. now, this mother is elohim. again, we are usually told that the holy spirit is masculine. but the word jwr, ruach, spirit, is feminine, as appears from the following passage of the sepher yetzirah \yyj \yhla rwr tja, achath (feminine, not achad, masculine) ruach elohim chayyim: one is is she the spirit of the elohim of life. 11 in passages mercifully omitted by crowley from the present article t.s. 12 given the timescales involved it is prima faci far more likely that the early qabalists (such as the author of the sepher yetzirah) were influenced by pythagorean number mystic

ral pillar of the temple of life; also it stands for unity, and for the generative force. a is the pentagram, which means the will of man working redemption. o is the circle from which everything came, also nothingness, and the female, who absorbs the male. the progress of the name shows then the way from life to nirvana by means of the will: and is a hieroglyph of the great work. 30 published as sepher sephiroth in equinox i (8. liber lviii 18 look at all our meanings! every one of them shows that the name, if it has any power at all, and that we must try, has the power to redeem us from the love of life which is the cause of life, by its masculine whirlings, and to gladden us and to bring us to the bosom of the great mother, death. before what is known as the equinox of the gods, a littl

chesed, since it connects macroprosopus and microprosopus) is 777 [see diagrams 2 and 1233] to take another example, it is no mere coincidence that 463, the staff of moses, is t, s, g, the paths of the middle pillar; no mere coincides that 26, hwhy, is 1+ 6+ 9+ 10, the sephiroth of the middle pillar. but ought we not to have some supreme name for 489, their sum, the middle pillar perfect? yet the sepher sephiroth is silent (we find only 489= lwmg \lcm, the avenger. ed) again, 111 is aleph, the unity, but also lpa, thick darkness, and sa, sudden death. this can only be interpreted as meaning the annihilation of the individual in the unity, and the darkness which is the threshold of the unity; in other words, one must be an expert in samadhi before this simple gematria has any proper meaning

vine name, the second an archangelic or angelic name, the third a name pertaining to the formative world, the fourth a name of a spirit or blind force. for example, mercury has za and dd (love) for 8, yd and ynd for 64, layrif for 260, and trtrtpt for 2080. but in the earlier numbers this is not so well carried out. 136 is both lypwy, the intelligence of jupiter, and lamsh, the spirit. 54 see the sepher yetzirah t.s. 55 in equinox i (2, or regardie (ed) the golden dawn t.s. 56 see the golden dawn z1 document t.s. 57 when the first number is n, the second is n2, the third n (n2+ 1/ 2 and the fourth n2 (n2+ 1/ 2 t.s. liber lviii 33 the mystic numbers of the sephiroth are simply the sums of the numbers from 1 to their own numbers. thus (1) kether= 1 (2) chokmah= 1+ 2= 3 (3) binah= 1+ 2+ 3= 6

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQ I 5

the edition de luxe; secondly, by buying copies for their friends; and thirdly, by advertising with us, or inducing others to do so* after the 21st of april 1911, copies of no. ii. of the equinox, of which only a few remain, will be sold at ten shillings, instead of five as hitherto. i should like to call attention to the immense amount of important material that awaits publication. there is the sepher sephiroth, referred to in this section of the temple of solomon the king; the complete writings of dr dee and sir edward kelly; a tremendous volume on the tarot; du potet's "magic unveiled" translated by john yarker, the venerable grand master general of the a. and p. rite of masonry; the key of the greater mysteries, by eliphas 1 levi, and many other important mss. all this has cost untold

son, but we hear nothing of the mother in the ordinary religions of the day. but in the qabalah we find that the ancient of days conforms himself simultaneously into the father and the mother, and thus begets the son. now, this mother is elohim. again, we are usually told that the holy spirit is masculine. but the word rvch, ruach, spirit, is feminine, as appears from the following passage of the sepher yetzirah "achth rvch alhim chiim, achath (feminine, not achad, masculine) ruach elohim chimm: one is she the spirit of the elohim of life" now, we find that before he deity conformed himself thus "i.e, as male and female- that the worlds of the universe could not subsist, or, in the words of genesis "the earth was formless and void" these prior worlds are considered to be symbolised by the

microprosopus) is 777 [see diagrams 2 and 12] to take another example, it is no mere coincidence that 463, the staff of moses, is hb:taw, hb:samekh, hb:gemel, the paths of the middle pillar; no mere coincidence that 26, hb:heh hb:vau hb:heh hb:yod, is 1+ 6+ 9+ 10, the sephiroth of the middle pillar. but ought we not to have some supreme name for 489, their sum, the middle pillar perfect? yet the sepher sephiroth is silent (we find only 489= mshlm gmvl, the avenger. ed) again, 111 is aleph, the unity, but also apl, thick darkness, and asn, sudden death. this can only be interpreted as meaning the annihilation of the individual in the unity, and the darkness which is the threshold of the unity; in other words, one must be an expert in samadhi 90 before this simple gematria has any proper me

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQ I 5

nd magical systems as the author is acquainted with. the denominator chosen is necessarily a large one, as the author's object is to reconcile systems which divide all things into 3, 7, 10, 12, as the case may be. since our expression 'common denominator' is used in a figurative and not in a strictly mathematical sense, the task is less complex than appears at first sight, and the 32 paths of the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation of the qabalah, provide a convenient scale. these 32 paths are attributed by the qabalists to the 10 sephiroth, or emanations of deity, and to the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet, which are again subdivided into 3 mother letters, 7 double letters, and 12 simple letters. on this basis, that of the qabalistic 'tree of life' as a certain arrangement of the seph

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 2 2

leave the "lection" returning to it in its proper place, and after explaining "the diagram of the paths and the grades" enter upon the ritual of the 0 =0 grade of neophyte. it will be at once apparent to the reader that the diagram of the paths is simply the ordinary sephirotic tree of life, combined with the tarot trumps, the twenty-two letters of the hebrew alphabet, the thirty-two paths of the sepher yetzirah, the signs of the zodiac, and the signs of the planets and the elements. the following account of it is taken from s.a.'s copy no. 2 of the "ritual of the 24th, 25th, and 26th paths leading from the first order of the g. d. in the outer to the 5 =6, associate adept speaking "before you upon the altar is the diagram of the sephiroth and paths with which you are already well acquaint

ce of fire: heaven cannot speak their fulness, earth cannot utter it. yet hath the creator bound them in all things. he hath mingled them through water: he hath whirled them aloft in fire: he hath sealed them in the air of heaven: he hath distributed them through the planets: he hath assigned unto them the twelve constellations of the zodiac" he then explains that to the thirty-second path of the sepher yetzirah is attributed the seven abodes of assiah; to the four elements, the kerubim, and the qliphoth.5 267 it represents the connecting-link between assiah and yetzirah. it is the rending of the veil of the tabernacle; and it is the passing of the gate of eden. after which he enters upon the symbolisms of the twenty-first key of the tarot, the naked female form of which represents the bri

l. the "hierophant" then says "the symbols before you represent alike the garden of eden,7 and the holy of holies: before you stands the tree of life formed of the sephiroth and their connecting paths. the connecting paths are twenty-two in number, and are distinguished by the twenty-two letters of the hebrew alphabet, making with the ten sephiroth themselves the thirty-two paths of wisdom of the sepher yetzirah" the letters, he then points out to him, form the symbol of the serpent of wisdom, and the sephiroth the flaming sword "the two pillars right and left of the tree are the symbols of the active and passive, male and female- adam and eve. the pillars further represent the two kerubim of the ark; the right, male- metatron; and the left, female- sandalphon. above them ever burn the lam

r is the synthesis of the rest. the three visible triangles represent fire, solar, volcanic and astral; while the fourth represents latent heat. the three words: hb:dalet hb:vau hb:aleph hb:bet hb:vau hb:aleph hb:resh hb:vau hb:aleph refer to three conditions of heat: aud, active; aub, passive;12 aur, the equilibrated; while hb:shin hb:aleph (ash) is the name of fire "the thirty-first path of the sepher yetzirah, which answereth to the letter hb:shin, is called the perpetual intelligence; and it is so called because it regulateth the motions of the sun and moon in their proper order; each in an orbit convenient for it. it is, therefore, the reflection of the sphere of fire; and the path connecting the material universe, as depicted in malkuth, with the pillar of severity and the side of ge

the holy name" and the "hegemon "the seven heavens of assiah,"13 and "the ten evil sephiroth of the qliphoth."14 the "hierophant" then confers on the theoricus the title of the thirty- first path, which ends the first part of the ceremony of 3= 8. the second part consists of the ritual of the thirtieth path. the "hierophant" explains the solar greek cross, and then says "the thirtieth path of the sepher yetzirah, which answereth unto the letter 'resch' is called the collecting intelligence; and it is so called because from it astrologers deduce the judgment of the stars, and of the 272 celestial signs, and the perfections of their science, according to the rules of their resolutions. it is therefore the reflection of the sphere of the sun; and the path connecting yesod with hod, the founda

f maim- water. the closing of the temple now takes place, and the prayer to the undines is rehearsed, and in the name of elohim tzabaoth is the dismissal pronounced. illustration on page 275 discussed (too complex for a full description. weh note- this figure represents a theory of eden on the tree of life that is very much different from the symbolism of traditional qabalah, as presented in the "sepher yetzirah" and other sources. the same is true of the particular method of division of this tree into the trees of life and the knowledge of good and evil "diagram 33. the garden of eden" this figure can be divided into three units, one atop the other. at the top is a large ring-circle. it contains a depiction of the sun with the name hb:aleph hb:bet hb:yod hb:aleph inside. there is a winged

method of writing the holy name in each of the four worlds;21 and also explains to him the method of writing hebrew words by yetziratic attribution of the alphabet. the "hiereus" unveils "the lineal figures attributed to the planets" showing dekagrams, hendekagrams, and dodekagrams; and explains to him the number of possible modes of tracing the lineal figures. the "hegemon" informs him that the sepher yetzirah divides the ten numbers into a tetrad and hexad; also he explains the geomantic figures arranged according to their planetary attribution on the tree of life.22 this finishes the second part of this ritual, and the "hierophant" confers upon the practicus the title of "lord of the twenty-eighth path "the third part" at the beginning of the third part the "hierophant" says "frater mo

esh with cunning and earnestness he will understand why it is necessary to enter the grade of the element of water by the paths of the sun and of fire, as he will in his next step understand why it is that the paths of hb:qof and hb:tzaddi, that is, of pisces and aquarius, lead him to the fire of netzach and not to the water of hod. the path which connects hod with netzach is the 27th path of the sepher yetzirah which answers to the letter hb:peh. it is the reflection of the sphere of mars and is the lowermost of the reciprocal paths. the tarot key attributed to this path is very rightly the 16th key- the tower; which we have seen in the 4= 7 ritual represents a tower struck by a flash of lightning, symbolising the tower of babel struck by the wrath of heaven, and also the power of the tri

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 2 3

nd magical systems as the author is acquainted with. the denominator chosen is necessarily a large one, as the author's object is to reconcile systems which divide all things into 3, 7, 10, 12, as the case may be. since our expression 'common denominator' is used in a figurative and not in a strictly mathematical sense, the task is less complex than appears at first sight, and the 32 paths of the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation of the qabalah, provide a convenient scale. these 32 paths are attributed by the qabalists to the 10 sephiroth, or emanations of deity, and to the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet, which are again subdivided into 3 mother letters, 7 double letters, and 12 simple letters. on this basis, that of the qabalistic 'tree of life' as a certain arrangement of the seph

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 2

duty to collate and comment upon this arcane knowledge, long treasured in my heart, watered alike by my tears and my blood, and sunned by that all-glorious ray that multiplieth itself into an orb ineffable. in this garden no flower was fairer than this exquisite discourse; i beg my readers to pluck it and lay it in their hearts. it should be studied in connection with the book "777" and with the sepher sephiroth, a magical dictionary of pure 165 number which was begun by the author of this essay, carried on by myself, and now about to be published as soon as the ms. can be prepared. the reader who is at all familiar with the sublime computations of the qabalah will find no difficulty in appreciating this essay to the full; but all will gain benefit from the study of the ratiocinative meth

ph-taw. on either side of this is the pair of figures 35- 53, balanced one against the other: as though symbolic of the great dawning of life of the "mothers- hb:heh and hb:heh, vitalised by the son (3) as the vice-gerent of his father. these balanced figures together make 16, whereof the key is 7; the total number of letters in the third symbol. then we have left at either end 4 and 6= 10<"vide" sepher yetzirah for this division of the holy sephiroth into a hexad and a tetrad> the perfection of the 177 sephiroth, as if to declare that this verse from, beginning to end thereof reflected the voices from kether even unto malkuth: and 6- 4= 2 again, the central will, hb:bet, thoth, in the heart of the universe (as in the centre of the verse. note, then, this perfect equilibrium of the verse

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3 3

ae-comitum, 1662. 6s. 6d. agrippa (h. c) the vanity of arts and sciences. small 8vo, old calf, 1684. 10s. 6d. agrippa (henricus cornellus) de occulta philosophia, libra tres. folio, woodcut portrait on title, slight stain in a few margins, hf. old calf, rare, s.l.typ.et a, 15. 35s. qabbalah_ the philosophical writings of ibn gebirol, or avicebron, and their connection with the hebrew qabbalah and sepher ha-zohar, with remarks upon the antiquity and contents of the latter, and translations of selected passages from the same; also, an ancient lodge of initiates, translated from the zohar, and abstract of an essay upon the chinese qabbalah, a translation of part of the mystic theology of dionysus, the areopagite, etc. etc, by isaac myers, ll.b. royal 4to, large paper, with diagrams and illust

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 3

nd magical systems as the author is acquainted with. the denominator chosen is necessarily a large one, as the author's object is to reconcile systems which divide all things into 3, 7, 10, 12, as the case may be. since our expression 'common denominator' is used in a figurative and not in a strictly mathematical sense, the task is less complex than appears at first sight, and the 32 paths of the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation of the qabalah, provide a convenient scale. these 32 paths are attributed by the qabalists to the 10 sephiroth, or emanations of deity, and to the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet, which are again subdivided into 3 mother letters, 7 double letters, and 12 simple letters. on this basis, that of the qabalistic 'tree of life' as a certain arrangement of the seph

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 4

nd magical systems as the author is acquainted with. the denominator chosen is necessarily a large one, as the author's object is to reconcile systems which divide all things into 3, 7, 10, 12, as the case may be. since our expression 'common denominator' is used in a figurative and not in a strictly mathematical sense, the task is less complex than appears at first sight, and the 32 paths of the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation of the qabalah, provide a convenient scale. these 32 paths are attributed by the qabalists to the 10 sephiroth, or emanations of deity, and to the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet, which are again subdivided into 3 mother letters, 7 double letters, and 12 simple letters. on this basis, that of the qabalistic 'tree of life' as a certain arrangement of the seph

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 6 2

nd magical systems as the author is acquainted with. the denominator chosen is necessarily a large one, as the author's object is to reconcile systems which divide all things into 3, 7, 10, 12, as the case may be. since our expression 'common denominator' is used in a figurative and not in a strictly mathematical sense, the task is less complex than appears at first sight, and the 32 paths of the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation of the qabalah, provide a convenient scale. these 32 paths are attributed by the qabalists to the 10 sephiroth, or emanations of deity, and to the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet, which are again subdivided into 3 mother letters, 7 double letters, and 12 simple letters. on this basis, that of the qabalistic 'tree of life' as a certain arrangement of the seph

ALICE BAILEY THE LABOURS OF HERCULES

es to make the twisted line subservient to the straight line (the key of destiny, h. a. and f. h. curtiss. pp. 246- 247. it is interesting to note also that we are told in the kabalah "the eighteenth path is called the house of influence. and from the midst of the investigation the arcana and hidden sense are drawn forth which dwell in its shade and which cling to it from the cause of all causes (sepher yetzira, no. 30. this is what hercules, at the age of eighteen, is setting out to do. he must tread the path whereon all the hidden things can be brought forth into the light; he has reached the point where he can achieve knowledge of himself and can begin to investigate the hidden forces of nature. this is the problem of all disciples. the next episode in his career is his marriage and the

AN INTRO TO STUDY OF THE KABALAH

of each work, and try to show that the assumed author is the only person who could not have written each one in question. but these critics show the utmost divergence of opinion the moment it becomes necessary to fix on a date or an author; so much more easy is destructive criticism than the acquirement of real knowledge. let us make a short note of the chief of the old kabalistic treatises. the "sepher yetzirah" or "book of formation" is the oldest treatise; it is attributed by legend to abraham the patriarch: several editions of an english translation by myself have been published. this work explains a most curious philosophical scheme of creation, drawing a parallel between the origin of the world, the sun, the planets, the elements, seasons, man and the twenty-two letters of the hebrew

ad, a heptad and a dodecad; three mother letters a, m, and sh are referred to primeval air, water and fire; seven double letters are referred to the planets and the sevenfold division of time, etc: and the twelve simple letters are referred to the months, zodiacal signs and human organs. modern criticism tends to the conclusion that the existing ancient versions were compiled about a.d. 200. the "sepher yetzirah" is mentioned in the talmuds, both of jerusalem and of babylon; it was written in the neo-hebraic language, like the mishna. the "zohar" or" sohar" spelled in hebrew zhr or zuhr "the book of splendour" or of "light" is a collection of many separate treatises on the deity, angels, souls and cosmogony. its authorship is ascribed to rabbi simon ben jochai, who lived a.d. 160; he was p

em alone, and they supplemented them by two parallel series of works of literature; the one, talmudic, being commentaries based upon thirteen rules of argument delivered by moses to illustrate the old testament, and supply material for teaching the populace; and the other a long series of treatises of a more abstruse character, designed to illustrate their secret doctrines and esoteric views. the sepher yetzirah, and the zohar or book of splendour represent the kernel of that oral instruction which the rabbis of the olden times prided themselves upon possessing, and which they have even claimed as being "the secret knowledge" which god gave to moses for the use of the priests themselves, in contradistinction to the written law intended for the masses of the people. one of the principal con

a, the great sea, the mother supernal, binah; and of the twenty-two occult forces of the nature of the universe symbolised by the three primary elements, the seven planets, and the twelve zodiacal influences of the heavens, which tincture human concerns through the path of our sun in its annual course. i have given the names and definitions of the thirty-two paths at the end of my edition of the" sepher yetzirah" now to show the close connection between the kabalah and orthodox judaism, we find the rabbis cataloguing the books of the old testament into a series of twenty-two (the letters) works to be read for the culture of spiritual life; this twenty-two they obtained from the thirty-nine books of the o.t. canon, by collecting the twelve minor prophets into one treatise; ruth they added t

ecting the twelve minor prophets into one treatise; ruth they added to judges; ezra to nehemiah; while the two books each of samuel, kings, and chronicles, they called one each. the canon of thirty-nine works was fixed in the time of ezra. returning to the books which illustrate the kabalah, whatever may be the authenticity of their alleged origins, it cannot be denied that those ancient volumes, sepher yetzirah and zohar, contain a system of spiritual philosophy of clear design, deep intuition and far-reaching cosmologic suggestions; that are well worthy of the honour of receiving a special name and of founding a theological body of doctrine--the kabalah. the bulwark and main foundation of the public hebrew religion has always been the pentateuch, five treatises attributed to moses, which

, 10, was 345 and then 12 and then 3, a trinity. a quaint conceit was that of the change of the spelling of the names of abraham and sara: at first abram abrm and sarai shri, became abrhm and shrh: they were 100 and 90 years old and were sterile: now h, heh, was deemed of a fertile type, and so the letter h was added to abram, and the yod i, converted into an h of the name sarai. in the very old "sepher yetzirah" is found the allocation of letters to the planets; from this origin arose a system of designing talismans written on parchment or engraved on brass or gems: as each planet had a letter and a number, in regard to each was allotted a magic square of lesser squares; thus for jupiter 4 was the number and daleth the letter, and the magic square of jupiter had 16 smaller squares within

occur. according to the kabalah, the visible material body, the guph, decays, and the animal aspect of the soul, the nephesh, only gradually fades away from it: the ruach, the human aspect, passes away from the assiatic plane, and the neshamah, the spiritual soul, returns to the treasury of heaven, to the gan oidin, or of paradise, perfected to a spiritual world beyond the plain of rebirths. the "sepher jareh chattaim" says that a man is judged in the same hour in which he dies; for the shekinah, a presence of the divine one, comes near him, with three angels, of whom the chief is dumah, the angel of silence: if the soul is condemned, dumah takes it to gai-hinnom, or hell, for a period of punishment before the next incarnation; if approved, the soul passes to an oidin or heaven. in the end

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

rough it, diffused a bright light in all directions: that is, these 9 with his one (which was the origin, as above, of the nine, together made the 10, that is[[diagram] or[[diagram, or the sacred ten (numbers or sephiroth, or jod- and these numbers were 'the light' just as in the gospel of st. john, god (alhim, 31415 to one) was that light (20612 to 6561) by which (light) all things were made" in sepher jezirah, or numbers of creation, the whole process of evolution is given out in numbers. in its "32 paths of wisdom" the number 3 is repeated four times, and the number 4 five times. therefore, the wisdom of god is contained in numbers (sephrim or sephiroth, for sepher (or s-ph-ra when unvowelled) means "to cipher" and therefore, also, we find plato stating that the deity geometrizes in fab

e process of evolution is given out in numbers. in its "32 paths of wisdom" the number 3 is repeated four times, and the number 4 five times. therefore, the wisdom of god is contained in numbers (sephrim or sephiroth, for sepher (or s-ph-ra when unvowelled) means "to cipher" and therefore, also, we find plato stating that the deity geometrizes in fabricating the universe. the kabalistic book, the sepher jezirah, opens with a statement of the hidden wisdom of alhi in sephrim, i.e, the elohim in the sephiroth "in thirty and two paths, hidden wisdom, established jah, jhvh, tzabaoth, elohi of israel, alhim of life, el of grace and mercy- exalted, uplifted dweller on high, and king of everlasting, and his name- holy! in three sephrim: viz- b-s'ph-r, v-s'ph-r, v-siph-o-r "this comment sets forth

ith yoga in the tibetan text, where the "sons of yoga" are called "sons of dhyana" or of that abstract meditation through which the dhyani-buddhas create their celestial sons, the dhyani-bodhisattvas. all the creatures in the world have each a superior above "this superior, whose inner pleasure it is to emanate into them, cannot impart efflux until they have adored- i.e, meditated as during yoga (sepher m'bo ska-arim, translated by isaac myer, qabbalah, pp. 109-111- 19. the second race (was) the product by budding and expansion; the a-sexual (form) from the sexless (shadow. thus was, o lanoo, the second race produced (a (a) what will be most contested by scientific authorities is this a-sexual race, the second, the fathers of the "sweat-born" so-called, and perhaps still more the third rac

awe of him, and sin not; speak his name with trembling. for satan is the magistrate of the justice of god (karma; he beareth the balance and the sword. for to him are committed weight and measure and number" compare the last sentence with what the rabbi, who explains the kabala to prince al-chazari in the book of that name, says; and it will be found that the weight and measure and number are, in sepher jezirah, the attributes of the sephiroth (the three sephrim, or figures, ciphers) covering the whole collective number of 10; and that the sephiroth are the collective adam kadmon, the "heavenly man" or the logos. thus satan and the anointed were identified in ancient thought. therefore, 33 "satan is the minister of god, lord of the seven mansions of hades. the seven or saptaloka of the ear

tymology of the term shows that it is simply a secret book, i.e, one that belonged to the catalogue of temple libraries under the guardianship of the hierophants and initiated priests, and was never meant for the profane. apocrypha comes from the verb crypto[[krupto "to hide" for ages the enoichion (the book of the seer) was preserved in the "city of letters" and secret works- the ancient kirjath-sepher, later on, debir (see joshua xv, 15. some of the writers interested in the subject- especially masons- have tried to identify enoch with thoth of memphis, the greek hermes, and even with the latin mercury. as individuals, all these are distinct one from the other; professionally- if one may use this word, now so limited in its sense- they belong one and all to the same category of sacred wr

no room for the events noticed in it within the limit of the 4004 years b.c. assigned to the world from its "creation[[footnote(s* city of god, i. xv. ch. xxiii[[vol. 2, page] 536 the secret doctrine. xxii. the symbolism of the mystery-names iao and jehovah, with their relation to the cross and circle. when the abbe louis constant- known as eliphas levi- said in his histoire de la magie that the "sepher jezirah, the zohar, and the apocalypse (of st. john) are the master-pieces of the occult sciences" he ought, if he wanted to be correct and clear, to have added "in europe" it is quite true that these works contain "more significance than words; and that "its expression is poetical, while in numbers it is exact" unfortunately, before any one can appreciate the poetry of the expressions, or

l and immovable divine thought in its absoluteness, separated entirely from the incipient stage of (the so-called[[vol. 2, page] 537 the jews alone the heirloom of jehovah. creation; and comprised psychological and even spiritual evolution, and its mechanical work, or cosmogonical construction. with the hebrews, however, though the former conception is to be distinctly found in the zohar, and the sepher jezirah- or what remains of the latter- that which has been embodied subsequently in the pentateuch proper, and especially in genesis, is simply this secondary stage, to wit, the mechanical law of creation, or rather of construction; while theogony is hardly, if at all, outlined. it is only in the first six chapters of genesis, in the rejected book of enoch, and the misunderstood and mistra

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

aches nearer and nearer to our planet, the emanation becomes more and more shadowy, until upon touching the ground it is as black as night[[footnote(s* the name is used in the sense of the greek word[[anthropos[[vol. 1, page] xliii introductory. the "very old book" is the original work from which the many volumes of kiu-ti were compiled. not only this latter and the siphrah dzeniouta but even the sepher jezirah* the work attributed by the hebrew kabalists to their patriarch abraham, the book of shuking, china's primitive bible, the sacred volumes of the egyptian thoth-hermes, the puranas in india, and the chaldean book of numbers and the pentateuch itself, are all derived from that one small parent volume. tradition says, that it was taken down in senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue, from

ning of the kali yuga just 4989 years ago at the death of krishna, the bright "sun-god" the once living hero and reformer. but there exists another book. none of its possessors regard it as very ancient, as it was born with, and is only as old as the black age[[footnote(s* rabbi jehoshua ben chananea, who died about a.d. 72, openly declared that he had performed "miracles" by means of the book of sepher jezireh, and challenged every sceptic. franck, quoting from the babylonian talmud, names two other thaumaturgists, rabbis chanina and oshoi (see "jerusalem talmud, sanhedrin" c. 7, etc; and "franck" pp. 55, 56) many of the mediaeval occultists, alchemists, and kabalists claimed the same; and even the late modern magus, eliphas levi, publicly asserts it in print in his books on magic[[vol. 1

s of the sidereal world, are the modern copies of archaic prototypes. the very symbolism in their names, when transliterated and arranged in greek and latin, are sufficient to show it, as will be proved in several cases further on. the "sacred animals" are found in the bible as well as in the kabala, and they have their meaning (a very profound one, too) on the page of the origins of life. in the sepher jezirah it is stated that "god engraved in the holy four the throne of his glory, the ophanim (wheels or the world-spheres, the seraphim* the sacred animals, and the ministering angels, and from these three (the air, water, and fire or ether) he formed his habitation" thus was the world made "through three seraphim- sepher, saphar, and sipur" or "through number, numbers, and numbered" with

and an effect of a preceding cause and a combination of these very often produces the most magical effect. the vowels, especially, contain the most occult and formidable potencies. the mantras (esoterically, magical rather than religious) are chanted by the brahmins and so are the vedas and other scriptures. the "army of the voice" is the prototype of the "host of the logos" or the "word" of the sepher jezirah, called in the secret doctrine "the one number issued from no-number- the one eternal principle. the esoteric theogony begins with the one, manifested, therefore not eternal in its presence and being, if eternal in its essence; the number of the numbers and numbered- the latter proceeding from the voice, the feminine vach, satarupa "of the hundred forms" or nature. it is from this n

a separate the world (or plane) of pure spirit from that of matter. those who "descend and ascend- the incarnating monads, and men striving towards purification and "ascending" but still not having quite reached the goal- may cross the "circle of the pass-not" only on the day "be-with-us; that day when man, freeing himself from the trammels of ignorance, and recog[[footnote(s* the sentence in the sepher jezirah and elsewhere "achath-ruach-elohim-chiim" denotes the elohim as androgynous at best, the feminine element almost predominating, as it would read "one is she the spirit of the elohim of life" as said above, echath (or achath) is feminine, and echod (or achod) masculine, both meaning one* this metaphysical tenet can hardly be better described than mr. subba row's in "bhagavadgita" lec

he hitherto secret tenets of the latter (vide addendum) some fifteen years ago, the writer was the first to repeat, after the kabalists, the wise commandments in the esoteric catechism "close thy mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of this (the mystery, and thy heart, lest thou shouldst think aloud; and if thy heart has escaped thee, bring it back to its place, for such is the object of our alliance (sepher jezireh, book of creation) and again "this is a secret which gives death: close thy mouth lest thou shouldst reveal it to the vulgar; compress thy brain lest something should escape from it and fall outside (rules of initiation) a few years later, a corner of the veil of isis had to be lifted; and now another and a larger rent is made. but old and time-honoured errors- such as become with e

ever existent" says the chaldean "book of numbers" from it proceeds periodically the energy, which is reflected in the "deep" or chaos, the store-house of future worlds, and, once awakened, stirs up and fructifies the latent forces, which are the ever present eternal potentialities in it. then awake anew the brahmas and buddhas- the co-eternal forces- and a new universe springs into being. in the sepher jezireh, the kabalistic book of creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of manu. in it, the divine substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted from itself the spirit "one is the spirit of the living god, blessed be its name, which liveth for ever! voice, spirit, and word, this is the holy spirit* and this is

sephiroth, air, or holy ghost, shaped into a sacred form (the ten sephiroth, or the heavenly man, and covered it with a rich and splendid garment, that is the world[[footnote(s* the manifested spirit; absolute, divine spirit is one with absolute divine substance: parabrahm and mulaprakriti are one in essence. therefore, cosmic ideation and cosmic substance in their primal character are one also "sepher jezireh" chap. 1, mishna ix* ibid. it is from arba that abram is made to come "zohar" i, 2a[[vol. 1, page] 338 the secret doctrine "he maketh the wind his messengers, flaming fire his servants" says the jezireh, showing the cosmical character of the later euhemerised elements* and that the spirit permeates every atom in kosmos. this "primordial substance" is called by some chaos: plato and

t too tangible fluid that radiates from the fingers of the healthy magnetizer, for it is vital electricity- life itself. called in derision by the marquis de mirville "the nebulous almighty" it is termed by the theurgists and occultists to this day "the living fire; and there is not a hindu who practises at dawn a certain kind of meditation but knows its effects* it is the "spirit of[[footnote(s "sepher jezireh" mishna ix, 10. everywhere throughout the acts, paul calls the invisible kosmic beings the "elements (see greek texts) but now the elements are degraded into and limited to atoms of which nothing is known, so far, and which are only "children of necessity" as ether is too- as we said in "isis "the poor primordial elements have long been exiled, and our ambitious physicists run races

a "brahma (neuter, the absolute cause of all causes, radiates the gods. having radiated the gods (through its inherent nature) the work is interrupted. in the 1st book of manu it is said "at the expiration of each night (pralaya) brahma, having been asleep, awakes, and, through the sole energy of the motion, causes to emanate from itself the spirit, which in its essence is, and yet is not" in the sepher jezirah, the kabalistic book of creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of manu. in it the divine substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted from itself the spirit "one is the spirit of the living god, blessed be his name, who liveth for ever! voice, spirit, and word, this is the holy spirit (sepher jezireh

BLUE EQUINOX

erly called anubis. an instruction in a suitable method of preaching. liber lxxxiv. vel chanokh. a brief abstraction of the symbolic representation of the universe derived by dr. john dee through the scrying of sir edward kelly. its publication is at present incomplete. liber dxxxvi. batrachophrenoboocosmomachia. an instruction in expansion of the field of the mind. curriculum of a.a. 35 liber d. sepher sephiroth. a dictionary of hebrew words arranged according to their numerical value. this is an encyclop dia of the holy qabalah, which is a map of the universe, and enables man to attain its perfect understanding. liber dcclxxvii. vel prolegomena symbolica ad systemam sceptico-mystic vi explicand, fundamentum hieroglyphicam sanctissimorum scienti summ. a complete dictionary of the correspo

CHRONOLOGIA RORISPERGIUS

unds on the decans. 363 last pagan emperor julian stopped at harran at the beginning of his persian campaign. he consulted the oracles at the temple of the moon. 380 hephaestio of thebes. compendium, delineations of the decans and contains a very long excerpt from nechepso/petosiris on detailed eclipse delineation. preserves an ancient egyptian method of prediction using the dog-star alone. c.380 sepher ha-razim (the book of the mysteries) a jewish mystical and magical grimoire from egypt. related to the sepher raziel. 385 d. st. gregory of nyssa 386: augustine (354-430, a rhetorician of north african descent currently working in milan, accepts baptism into catholic christianity from bishop ambrose of milan. 391 second burning of library at alexandria (by christians. 401 confessions of st

a crusade. called by his contemporaries master of the troubadours; dante ranked him second only to arnaut daniel. 1140-1215 bertran de born troubadour 1144 earliest dated western alchemical treatise- robert of chester de compositione alchemiae c.1145- after 1208 guiot de provins. trouv re in the service of the dukes of champagne in provins; possibly in the holy land on one or more crusades. 1145 sepher zachut -ezra, ibn abraham(mantua, concerning the hebrew letters as well as principles of grammar.)sod (1100s, on the mysteries in the forms of the hebrew letters. manuscript copies of it are in the vatican library. ormat ha-mezima (also known as arugat ha-mezima, 1100s, a small philosophical book using the alphabet and poetry. bishop otto of freising of germany first recorded story of legen

nart in paris expounding to beguins on the key of david 1285 "or haskel" abulafia's principal work an influence upon villanova. 1288 the mongols invade india. alexander von roes notitia seculi derived from pseudo-joachim of fiore's de semine scripturarum anticipates the antichrist as a 3rd frederich and looks for charlemagne's return. 1288-1339 john dastin 1289 abulafia, abraham commentary on the sepher yetzirah (camino, italy) franciscan priest and the first archbishop of cambalec john of monte corvino departs from rome through asia into india in 1291. his companions were the dominican nicholas of pistoia and the merchant peter of lucalongo. 1289-1298 peter john olivi led the spiritual party within the franciscan order 1290: all jews are expelled from england. many move to spain. c. 1290

k holland, frederick hockley, francis george irwin, benjamin cox, rev. w. a. ayton, john yarker, william wynn wescott, kenneth robert henderson mackenzie. 1884 warsaw edition zohar. saint-yves d'alveydre mission des juifs. 1885-1936 sri yukteswar 1886-1951 ren gu non 1886 frederick holland- the temple rebuilt 1887 frederick holland -the revelation of the shechinah 1887, 1893 (1911, scholem, 1890 "sepher yetzirah, the book of formation" w. wynn westcott, mb. jp. supreme magus of the rosicrucian society of england. 3rd edition samuel wesier, inc. translated from the hebrew. follows golden dawn. translates hebrew into english, and collated with latin versions of pistorius, postellus and rittangelius, following the latter, rather than former commentaries. 1887-1961 ren schwaller 1888 anna king

wish quarterly review "april 1912 vol. ii, and april 1913 vol. iii. 1913 translation of "sefer yezirah" in french by duchess c. de cimara and in a translation by e. bischoff. 1914 phineas mordell interprets "sefer yetzirah" in "jewish quarterly review" 1912-13 1916 papus (i.e. g.a.v. encausse, french occultist and author dies 1918 samuel liddell macgregor mathers dies 1923 "the book of formation (sepher yetzirah" by rabbi akiba ben joseph, translated from the hebrew with annotations by stenring, knut, helsingborg, sweden through london, rider& sons. 1925 william w. wescott dies rudolph steiner dies 1921 the witch cult in western europe by m. murray. 1923 italian edition of "sefer yezriah" published by s, savini 1927: wirth publishes "the tarot of the magicians. 1928 karl preisendanz publis

DICTIONARY GLOSSARY OF OCCULT TERMINOLOGY

d from the godhead in the form of ten divine names or spheres of light. a mystical system which is the basis for western religion as well as ceremonial magick. the word is transliterated hebrew, and is spelled in english in several ways including qabala, cabala, etc. there are many different forms of the kabalah. kabalah, dogmatic: the study of books of the kabalah such as the torah (q.v) and the sepher yetzirah (q.v. kabalah, literal: interprets the codes found in hebrew words, especially words found in the torah (q.v) and other mystical books. methods include: gematria (q.v, notarikon (q.v, and temurah (q.v kabalah, practical: refers to kabalistic methods of making talismans (q.v) and amulets (q.v. kabalah, unwritten: that part of the kabalah which deals with the correspondences

abbalists during the renaissance, who used it as the supreme word of power (q.v) in their magick and worship. they intended it replace the tetragrammaton (yhvh (q.v) of the jews. yesode: hebrew for "foundation" pronounced "yea-sohd" the ninth (9th) sephirah (q.v) on the tree of life (q.v. yetzirah: the third of the four kabalistic worlds in descending order. it means world of formation. yetzirah, sepher: hebrew for "the book of formation" considered to be the first kabalistic book. re-produced in a.e. waite's (q.v) the holy kabbalah, and s.l macgregor mather's (q.v) the kabbalah unveiled. yhvh: the tetragrammaton (q.v. the ultimate, unpronounceable, supreme name for god/goddess. a code for the ultimate name of divinity, indicating that the divine being is a blending of everything physical

DION FORTUNE MYSTICAL QABALA

y head in the sand and waving my tail, i will return to the consideration of the matter in hand. 12. the essence of the unwritten qabalab lies in the knowledge of the order in which certain sets of symbols are arranged upon the tree of life. this tree, otz chiim, consists of the ten holy sephiroth arranged in a particular pattern and connected by lines which are called the thirty-two paths of the sepher yetzirah, or divine emanations (see the sepher yetzirah, by wynn westcott. here there exists one of the "blinds" or traps for the uninitiated, in which the ancient rabbis delighted. we find, if we count them, that there are twenty-two, not thirty-two paths upon the tree; but for their purposes the rabbis treated the ten sephiroth themselves as paths, thus misleading the uninitiated. mystica

pher yetzirah, by wynn westcott. here there exists one of the "blinds" or traps for the uninitiated, in which the ancient rabbis delighted. we find, if we count them, that there are twenty-two, not thirty-two paths upon the tree; but for their purposes the rabbis treated the ten sephiroth themselves as paths, thus misleading the uninitiated. mystical qabala page 18 thus the first ten paths of the sepher yetzirah are assigned to the ten sephiroth, and the following twenty-two to the actual paths themselves. it will then be seen how the twentytwo letters of the hebrew alphabet can be associated with the paths without discrepancy or overlapping. with them also are associated the twenty-two tarot trumps, the atus, or abodes of thoth. concerning the tarot cards there are three modern authoritie

ated with it are predominantly female; it is interesting to note in confirmation of our assignation of the holy spirit to yesod that according to macgregor mathers the holy spirit is a feminine force. he says (kabbalah unveiled p. 22 "we are usually told that the holy spirit is masculine. but the word ruach, spirit, is feminine, as mystical qabala page 36 appears from the following passage of the sepher yetzirah 'achath (feminine, not achad, masculine, ruach elohim chum: one is she, the spirit of the elohim of life" when we consider the middle pillar as referring to levels of consciousness we shall find further confirmation of this view. 31. there remains for our final consideration the scphitah malkuth, the kingdom of earth. this sephirah differs from the others in several respects. first

al development; and one that is peculiarly valuable in that it is equilibrated, for the different aspects of manifestation are, as it were, dissected out and dealt with in turn, nothing being neglected. by the time we have trodden all the paths of the tree we shall have learnt the lessons of death and the devil, as well as of the angel and the high priest. chapter x the paths upon the tree 1. the sepher yetzirah refers to the ten sephiroth theni selves, as well as the lines connecting them, as paths, and justly so, for they are all equally channels of divine influence; but it is usual in practical working to consider the lines between the sephiroth only as the paths, and the sephiroth themselves as spheres upon the tree. this is one of the many tricks and blinds to be found in the qabalist

them, as paths, and justly so, for they are all equally channels of divine influence; but it is usual in practical working to consider the lines between the sephiroth only as the paths, and the sephiroth themselves as spheres upon the tree. this is one of the many tricks and blinds to be found in the qabalistic system, for if we think of the paths as thirty-two in number, as they are given in the sepher yetzirah, we shall not be able to equate them with the twenty-two letters of the hebrew alphabet which, with their numerical value and correspondences, form the key to the paths. 2. each path is said to represent the equilibrium of the two sephiroth it connects, and we have to study it in the light of our knowledge of these sephiroth if we are to appreciate its significance. certain symbols

, the former a lawgiver upon his throne, and the latter a warrior king in his chariot. these are the constructive and destructive principles respectively. it is interesting to note that binah, the supernal mother, is also saturn, the solidifier, who connects through his sickle with death with his scythe, and time with his hour-glass. in binah we find the root of form. it is said of malkuth in the sepher yetzirah that it sitteth upon the throne of binah-matter has its root in binah-saturn death; form is the destroyer of force. with this passive destroyer goes also the active destroyer, and we find marsgeburah immediately below it on the pillar of severity; thus is the force locked up in form set free by the destructive influence of mars, the siva aspect of the godhead. chokmah, the zodiac

under the direct presidency of the holy names governing their sephirothic attributions only, and should not be confused with other pantheons; for although we may go to other systems for intellectual enlightenment, we are unwise to attempt to mix the methods of practical working and unfoldment of consciousness. 17. for instance, the seventeenth path, between tiphareth and binab, is assigned by the sepher yet rah to the element of air. we are far wiser to work it with the rite of the element of air and the holy names assigned thereto, and to approach it through the appropriate tattva, rather than confuse the issue with the associations of the assorted collection of deities, castor and pollux, janus, apollo, merti, and other incompatibles assigned to it by crowley, whose correspondences prese

have already mentioned of philosophy, psychism, and magic; to this end he should always think of it firstly as representing a certain factor in the evolution of the cosmos in the immemorial past of cosmic time, whether it remains in manifestation, has passed away, or has not yet arrived at the level of dense matter. 12. with this aspect of the tree are also taken the curious cryptic texts of the sepher yetzirah, one to each path. these most baffling utterances have a curious way of yielding sudden flashes of illumination to meditation and are by no means to be rejected as rubbish, incomprehensible though they may appear at first sight. 13. another source of illumination is to be found in the additional titles of the sephiroth, each of which has anything from one to two or three dozen. the

nature. for instance, geburah (mars) and chesed or gedulah (jupiter) are opposite each other upon the tree. the warrior king and the wise and benign lawgiver of peace balance each other. geburah when unbalanced becomes cruelty and oppression, and gedulah when unbalanced suffers evil to multiply. 9. section 4. the yetziratic text.-this consists of the description of the sphere or path given in the sepher yetzirah, or book of formations. the translation i have used is that of wynn westcott. 10. these descriptions are exceedingly cryptic, but they will from time to time yield a flash of inspiration, and undoubtedly contain the essence of the qabalistic philosophy. 11. section 5. descriptive titles -a catalogue of the names that have been applied to that particular sephirah in the rabbinical l

nd therefore it appears to us as non-existence because it conforms to none of the requirements we are accustomed to think of as determining existence. this concept of other modes of existence is implicit in our philosophy and must ever be borne in mind, for it is the key to kether, and kether is the key to the tree of life. 8. the yetziratic text descriptive of kether, like all the sayings of the sepher yetzirah, is a hidden saying. it calls kether the hidden intelligence, and this appellation is confirmed by several other of the titles given to kether in qabalistic literature. it is the concealed of the concealed, the inscrutable height, the head which is not. here again we get confirmation of the idea that the crown is above the head of the celestial man, adam kadmon; that pure being sta

nature of kether that conditions all things, because all things are evolved from it. bearded he is, because in the curious symbolism of the rabbis every hair of his beard has significance. 20. the manifestation of the forces of kether in briah, the world of archetypal mind, is said to be through the archangel metatron, the prince of countenances, who tradition avers was the teacher of moses. the sepher yetzirah says of the tenth path, malkuth, that "it causes an influence to flow from the prince of countenances, the archangel of kether, and is the solirce of illumination of all the lights of the universe" thus plainly do we learn that not only does spirit flow out into manifestation in matter, but matter by its own energy draws spirit into manifestation, an important point for the ptactit

mic force are the same in essence, they are upon different levels; priapus is not identical with jehovah. nevertheless, the root of priapus is to be found in jehovah, and the manifestation of god the father is to be found in priapus, as is indicated by the fact that the rabbis call chokmah the yod of tetragrammaton, and yod is identical with lingam in their phraseology. 16. it is curious that the sepher ye irah says of two of the sephiroth that they are exalted above every head-a contradictory statement; yet in the fact that it is made with regard to chokmah and malkuth there is illumination for us if we ponder its significance. chokmah is the supernal father, malkuth is the inferior mother, and the text which declares her exaltation above every head also says that she sitteth upon the thr

ning the nature of geburah that a great deal does not remain to say in the analysis of the attribution. 29. the yetziratic text tells us that the fifth path is called the radical intelligence because it resembles unity. now unity is one of the titles applied to kether; therefore we may say that geburah is akin to kether on a lower arc. there are several sephiroth which are thus referred to in the sepher yetzirah, and these references are very important when arriving at an understanding of their nature. chokmah is spoken of as the splendour of unity, equalling it. of binah it is said that its roots are in amen, which is also a title of kether. 30. geburah is a highly dynamic sephirab, and its energy overflowing into the world of form and energising it bears a close analogy to the overflowin

subtler sephiroth, and also as [page 204] the spiritual principle behind the four denser sephiroth. if looked at from the side of form, it is force; if looked at from the side of force, it is form. it is, in fact, the archetypal sephirah in which the great principles represented by the five higher sephiroth are formulated into concepts "in it are multiplied the influxes of the emanations" as the sepher yetzirah declares. 59. the name zoar anpin, lesser countenance, as dis tinguished from arik anpin, the vast countenance, one of the titles of kether, further bears out this idea. for the formless formulations of kether take shape in this, the sphere of the higher mind. as previously noted, kether is reflected into tiphareth. the ancient of days sees himself reflected as in a glass, and the

esented by highly abstract symbols; there are no more of these after tiphareth, but we come to such concrete symbols as the rose, assigned to venus, for netzach, and the caduceus, assigned to mercury, for hod. 3. as has been seen, we conceive of the higher sephiroth under the aspect of factors of martifestation and functions. we saw in our study of tiphareth how the mediating intelligence, as the sepher yetzirah calls it, broke up the white light of the one life as in a prism so that it becomes the refulgent splendour of many-rayed hues in netzach. here we have not force, but forces; not life, but lives. appropriately, therefore, the order of angels assigned to netzach are the flohim, or gods. the one has been reduced to the many for the purposes of manifestation in form. 4. these rays are

e reflexes, just as an infant's lips will suck anything that is inserted between them. 6. the beings of netzach, the elohim, are not so much intelligences as the embodiments of ideas. 7. these elohim, to give them their hebrew name, are the formative influences whereby the creative force expresses itself in nature. their true character is to be discerned in chesed, where they are described by the sepher yetzirah as the holy powers" in netzach, however, which represents the upper stratum of the reflecting ether, they undergo a change, the image-making mind of man has begun to work upon them, moulding the astral light into forms that shall represent them to his consciousness. 8. it is very important that we should realise that these lower sephiroth of the plane of illusion are densely popula

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

a learned scholar, spurred by the hope of winning the hand of a young lady he greatly admired. according to jewish legend, he was taught by the elemental spirits, was a wonder worker, and at his peak had as many as 24,000 disciples. he was reputed to be the author of a famous work entitled yetzirah (on the creation, which is by some ascribed to abraham, or to adam. an early hebrew edition of the sepher yetzirah was printed at lemberg in 1680: a latin version was printed in paris in 1552. rabbi akiba was a great teacher who developed a rabbinical school at jaffu, and his mishnah became the foundation of the religious code. he was involved in the revolt of bar-cochba against hadrian in 132 c.e. and suffered martyrdom by being flayed alive. akita in 1969, akita, japan, was the site of one of

ion of hinduism, where the pairs of opposites like good and evil are regarded as twin poles of a larger reality, where anthropomorphic concepts of god the creator are considered legal fictions for a divine infinity, beyond time, space, and causality. sources: achad, frater. the anatomy of the body of god. chicago: collegium ad spiritum sanctum, 1925. akiba ben joseph rabbi. the book of formation (sepher yetzirah. london: william rider, 1923. angeles, peter a. the problem of god; a short introduction. buffalo, n.y: prometheus books, 1981. arya, ushbarbudh. god. honesdale, pa: himalayan international institute, 1979. brightman, edgar s. the problem of god. new york: abingdon press, 1930. goat encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 648 goblet d alviella, e. f. lectures on the orig

word golem was first used in talmudic references to the creation of adam to indicate formless matter before the inception of a soul. talmudic stories of the third and fourth centuries suggest that certain rabbis might have been able to create a manlike creature by magic that followed the divine process of creation. in medieval kabbalistic legends, such stories revolved around the symbolism of the sepher yetsirah (book of creation, in which numbers and letters are associated with parts of the body and astrological correspondences. much of western occult practice is related to such texts. jakob grimm refers to such legends in his 1808 book zeitung fur einsiedler (journal for hermits: the polish jews, after having spoken certain prayers and observed certain feast days, make the figure of a ma

d forth by divine mind on the plane of reality, to be followed by two other beings, called paternal and ineffable, and finally by hosts of iynxs of a subordinate character, called free intelligences. the iynx was described by occultist eliphas levi as corresponding. to the hebrew yod or to that unique letter from which all other letters were formed, and thus related to the jewish mysticism of the sepher yetsirah or book of creation, a primary text of the kabbalah. for reference to chalde- iubdan encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 814 an concepts, see the complex gnostic emanations discussed by g. r. s. mead. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. iynx 815 j j. allen hynek center for ufo studies foremost organization investigating unidentified flying objects. cuf

ewish kabalists have resented the kabala being appropriated by non-jewish occultists. most, however, have participated in what has become an active dialogue with contemporary occultists. jews and non-jews alike, for example, appreciate the scholarship of gershom scholem, the greatest kabala scholar of this century. sources: abelson, joshua. jewish mysticism: an introduction to kabbalah. new york: sepher-hermon press, 1981. achad, frater [charles s. jones. the anatomy of the body of god: being the supreme revelation of cosmic consciousness. chicago: collegium ad spiritum sanctum, 1925. new york: samuel weiser, 1969. bension, ariel. the zohar in moslem and christian spain. new york: sepher-hermon press, 1932. berg, phillip s. kabbalah for the laymen. new york: research center of kabbalah, n

, 1932. berg, phillip s. kabbalah for the laymen. new york: research center of kabbalah, n.d. franck, adolphe. the kabbalah. new hyde park, n.y: university books, 1967. reprint, new york: citadel, 1979. gaster, moses. the origin of the kabbalah. new york: gordon press, 1976. halevi, z ev ben shimon. an introduction to the cabala.tree of life. new york: samuel weiser, 1972. kalisch, isidor, trans. sepher yezirah. new york, 1877. reprint, san jose, calif: rosicrucian press, 1950. reprint, north hollywood, calif: symbols and signs, n.d. levi, eliphas. the book of splendors. new york: samuel weiser, 1973. luzzatto, moses. general principles of the kabbalah. new york: research center of kabbalah, 1970. meltzer, david, ed. the secret garden: an anthology of the kabbalah. new york: seabury press

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

solution and with the three states of consciousness (dreaming, deep sleep, and waking. manson, charles m. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 976 the scripture mandukya upanishad describes how aum, or om, is the basis of all the other letters in the sanskrit language and is associated with the universe and the human microcosm (analgous concepts exist in such kabalistic works as the sepher yesirah. a mantra may also be associated with a yantra, or mystical diagram. mantras are frequently uttered in rhythmic repetition known as japa, often with the aid of a mala, a set of beads resembling the catholic rosary. in japa yoga, the power of a mantra is enhanced by the accumulation of repetitions. although mantras have an automatic action, that action is enhanced by proper concentra

ers practice them. sources: das, krishna. pilgrim heart. new york: triloka records, 1998 easwaran, eknath. the mantram handbook. london: routledge& kegan paul, 1978. godwin, joscelyn. music and the occult. rochester, n.y: university of rochester press, 1995. gopalacharlu, s. e. an introduction to the mantra sastra. adyar, madras, india: theosophical publishing house, 1934. kalisch, isidor, trans. sepher yezirah: a book on creation. new york, 1877. lakshmi montra. mantra on net. http :www.mantraonnet.com. february 26, 2000. narayana, har, trans. the vedic philosophy; or, an exposition of the sacred and mysterious monosyllable aum; the mandukya upanishad. bombay, 1895. radha, swami sivananda. mantras: words of power. spokane, wash: timeless books, 1994. shiva montra from mantra on net. http

yphal writings (gospel of thomas, gospel of philip, book of enoch, writings from nag hammadi) and modern mormon revelations (oracles of mohonri, the order of the sons of zadok. the group believes in a secret oral tradition passed from moses to the essenes, to the gnostics, and eventually to joseph smith jr. that tradition is believed to be preserved in mystical books such as the pistis sophia and sepher yetzira. a 22-item statement of sai beliefs posits a heavenly hierarchy consisting of the heavenly father and mother; their son, jesus christ; the holy spirit; angels and archangels; and ministers of the flame (righteous humans made perfect. human beings are the literal offspring of the heavenly parents and have come into earthly existence to experience the mystery of mortality. redemption

purifying fire. n.p, 1894. the chaldean oracles of zoroaster. london: theosophical publishing society, 1895. egyptian magic. london: theosophical publishing society, 1896. numbers: their occult power and mystic virtue. 1890. reprint, london: theosophical publishing society, 1911. the pymander of hermes. n.p, 1894. rosicrucians, their history and aims. n.p, 1894. the science of alchymy. n.p, 1893. sepher yetzirah, the book of formation. london, theosophical publishing society, 1893. rev. ed. gillette, n.j: heptangle books, 1987. somnium scipionis. n.p, 1894. west indies the importation of africans into the caribbean area as slaves began in the sixteenth century but expanded greatly after 1640 when the islands became a major source of sugar and workers were needed for the plantations. most o

FULLER J F C SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH

of solomon ben yehudah ibn gebirol or avicebron, isaac myer, 1888; la kabbale ou la philosophie religieuse des hebreux, ad. franck, 1889. the kabbalah, its doctrines, development, and literature, christian d. ginsburg, second impression, 1920. the holy kabbalah, a. e. waite, 1929. the secret doctrine of israel, a. e. waite, 1913. the history of magic, eliphas levi, 1913. the book of formation or sepher yetzirah, knut stenring, 1923. the zohar in moslem and christian spain, ariel bension, 1932. a garden of pomegranates, israel regardie, 1932. q.b.l. or the bride's reception, frater achad, 1922. the anatomy of the body of god, frater achad, 1925. secret wisdom of the qabalah page 11 chapter i the wisdom of the qabalah the qabalah the qabalah is not a holy book as are the vedas, the bible, a

peated in different words, and from it is derived the talmudic maxim, gif thou wilt know the invisible, have an open eye for the visible h, which means that this world is the true bible which can lead us back to god or reality; gfor all which is contained in the lower world is also found in the upper [in prototype. the lower and upper reciprocally act upon each other. h 27 or as is written in the sepher shephathal: all that which is on the earth is also found above [in perfect prototype, and there is not anything so insignificant in the world that does not depend upon another above: in such a manner, that if the lower moves itself the higher corresponding to it moves towards it. as to the number, therefore, of the different species of creatures, which are enumerated below, the same number

l 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 secret wisdom of the qabalah page 37 preserve his vitality. isaiah says, in his magnificent language: gi am yhvh, and there is none else, there is not any elohim besides me. i girded thee, though t

38 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. 7 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= p

brew 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.23 usually the thirty-first path of the tree of life is referred to it, and according to the 32 paths of wisdom, this path gis 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 h. 24 in other words, it i

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: gthere 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. h (sepher khozari, part iv, para. 25) 27 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

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

ecting the twelve minor prophets into one treatise, ruth they added to judges, ezra to nehemiah, while the two books each of samuel, kings and chronicles, they called one each.thecanon of thirty-nine works was fixed in the time of ezra. returning to the books which illustrate the kabalah, what255 ever may be the authenticity of their alleged origins, it cannot be denied that those ancient volumes,sepher yetzirahandzohar,contain a system of spiritual philosophy of clear design, deep intuition, and far-reaching cosmologic suggestions, that are well worthy of the honour of receiving a special name and of founding a theological body of doctrine- the kabalah 255 which will be found to illustrate and to reflect light upon the secret doctrine which has been nursed in central asia, and has been no

he sephiroth of the kabbalah, one proceeding from the other, produce, as they are always designed in visible form, a tortuous path, at once reminding us of the winding staircase. indeed one form of the contemplation of the eternal was described by the kabbalists as ascending by the sephirotic names and descending by the paths. this tortuous path is also like the lightning flash, as is said in the sepher yetzirah or 'book of formations, which has been translated by myself and is now published at bath, and is, perhaps, the oldest monotheistic philosophical tract in exist255 ence. note, the son of god is also spoken of as the 'light of the world. four tassels refer to four cardinal virtues, says the first degree tracing board lecture, these are temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice; th

GILBERT THE SORCERER AND HIS APPRENTICE

irit, the ruachelohim, formulate the eternal pronunciation of. the ineffable name: that name which the rabbins of old have said rllsheth through the universe;thatname before which rolled back the darkness at the birth of the morning of time. the flame-red triangular capitals which crown the summits of the pillars represent the triune manifestation of the spirit of life, the 'three mothers' of the sepher yetzirah, the three alchemical principles of nature, the sulphur, the mercuryandthe salt, and each pillar is surmounted by its own light-bearer, though veiled from the material world. the hieroglyphical figures upon the pillars are taken from the vignettes of the 17th and 125th chaptersofthe 'ritual of the dead' theegyptian'per-m-hru. this celebrated and48 the sorcerer and his apprenticemos

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

as the demiurge. the abyss is both a doorway and a seal, it tests and also destroys. the twenty two paths each of the ten sephira is connected to the others by a sequence of paths. while there are many different forms these paths take, the most accepted system is that shown in fig 24. each of these paths is attributed to a hebrew letter according to the kabbalistic tradition first outlined in the sepher yetzirah. to each of these paths a mass of correspondences may be added; colours, sounds, godforms, animals, images and so on. according to one tradition the tarot cards can be attributed to these paths as well. the minor cards (1-10) are attributed to the sephira, the king, queen, prince and page (princess) cards are attributed to chokmah, binah, gnostic theurgy page 95 tiphareth and malku

oly ordained and created the universe in twenty two mysterious paths. namely out of the seraphim who art three: idea, word and word in form, which are in him one and the same. they consist of a decade out of nothing and twenty two fundamental letters (which) he divided into three holy divisions the three mother letters, fundamental or first elements,the seven double and the twelve single letters. sepher yetzirah. the mother letters are mem, shin and aleph. they are attributed to the three elements- fire, air and water. the double letters are nun, beth, resh, kaph, pe, daleth and tau. they are attributed to the seven planets of the hebraic astrological system, they are seen illustrated in the sevenfold candelabrum used in kabbalistic liturgy. the single letter are gimel, he, vau, zain, chet

rm a ritual focused on geburah in yetzirah. he has chosen geburah as it represents mars- the force of action and has chosen yetzirah as it represents the world of the unconscious. he starts to collect background information on mars. he started by examining basic books of kabbalistic lore. some of these include 777 and other qabalistic writings of aleister crowley (samuel weiser, various editions, sepher sephiroth, godwin s cabalistic encyclopaedia (llewellyn) and the magicians companion, bill whitcomb (llewellyn 1993. he finds the following correspondences of interest. geburah is attributed to mars. it is related to the four fives in the tarot- wands, cups, swords and discs. the yetzirah card is five of swords. it is connected to four other centres on the tree of life: gnostic theurgy page

n, emptiness. another level of interpretation is that the hawk (horus) is attacking jesus on the cross because he is a false jesus, this is hinted at by the focus on the eye or ayin. the jesus being attacked is the false jesus created by the apostate churches and used to control the masses. what emphasizes this inner interpretation is the meaning of the number of the verse, fifty one according to sepher sephiroth is the number of edom. edom being the name given to the pharisees or false israelites who in the gnositic identity tradition brought about the apostate form of christianity in the first place. both of these interpretations give us important clues regarding the message of the remnant age and its relation to conventional forms of christianity. madame blavaskty madame blavaskty was a

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS ZAM2

laced within the center of the name hwhy. it has also been interpreted as: igne natura renovatur integra; igne natura renovando integrat; igne nitrum roris invenitur; intra nobis regnum dei" j.s.m. ward, in his book on free masonry and the ancient gods, provides us with yet more understanding of the letters: i.n.r.i. hebrew hebrew element element i y yam n n n nur o r r ruach m i y yebeshas l the sepher yetzirah gives us a deeper and more profound meaning for inward meditation by assigning the astrology to the keyword: i.n.r.i. hebrew astrology i y f n n h r r a i y f! f is the pure virginal state of nature. this sign relates unto the great goddess isis! h is the sign of death and regeneration. it is also a sign of energy in that ?ruleth. this sign relates to apophis, the greek for set, th

GOLDEN DAWN RITUALS ZAM8

g polygons and polygrams. the point within the circle, the primordial point, is a representation of rtk. much can be said about this primordial point, for in it is the potential of all things and of no thing. all things emanate from the primordial point, and all things end at the primordial point. the cross within the circle is attributed to hmkj. here, we have the root of wisdom according to the sepher yetzirah. thus, the cross within the circle is a representation of all things and no thing in perfect harmony and balance, as well as unity. hnyb is represented by the triangle inside the circle. the triangle is the only lineal figure in which all the surfaces can be reduced. what we are saying here is that every polygon can be divided into triangles by simply drawing lines from its angles

ISIS UNVEILED

the popes are not utterly groundless. dr. inman asserts that report says that "in our christian times. popes have to be privately perfect* but we do not know whether this is carried to the extent of the levitjcal jewish law. digitizecoy google who and what was peter? 127 the first fifteen christian bishops of jerusalem, commencing with jamea and including judas, were all circumcised jews' in the sepher toudath yeahu" a hebrew manuscript of great anti- quity, the account oi peter is different. simon peter, it says, was one of their own brethren, thou^ he had somewhat departed from the laws, and the jewish hatred and persecution of the apostle seems to have existed but in the fecund imagination of the fathers. the author speaks of him with great respect and fairness, calling him "a faithful

ere a branch. all these sects, which only in the days of ire- naeua began to be considered heretical, were more or less kabalistic. they believed in the expulsion of daemons by magical incantations, and practised this method; jervis terms the nabatheans and other such sects 247. enseb: e el bitl, it, t; sulpidui sererui: ckrtmica, 11, 31. 24s. it appeara that the jewi attribute a hi^ antiquity to sepher toledetk kmau. it m mentioned for the first time by martin, about the beginning of the thirlceuth century, for the talmudibtt took great ore to conceal it from the chriitiani. uvi says that poi^ dwtui salratkui (paria, 1520] published aome portioiw ot it, which were used by luthn (ne vni. jena edit [ane alao wittemberg edit, 1556, v, pp. 509-535. the hebrew text, which waa miniiig, was at h

han the destruction of all reape ct fm the bible, and the disruption of government and society" very plain talk this. tbe proteatants nught eftsily return the compliment. digitizecoy google traditions about jesus 201 official complunts of the synagog abundant evideace of the persecutiod <3t the initiates. the talmud also corroborates it. the jewish version of the birth of jesus is recorded in the sepher toudoth yaku in the following words "maiy having become the mother of a son, domed jehosuah, and the boy growing up, she entrusted him to the care of the rabbi el'hanan, and the diild progressed in knowledge, for he was well gifted with spirit and luderstanding "babbi jehosuah, son initiated him in the secret kn

ters on the cubical stone, and hid them in his thigh" after which, emerging hxim the temple, he went abroad and began astounding people with his mira- cles. the dead were raised at hia command, the leprous and the obsessed were healed. he forced the stones which lay buried for ages at the bottom of the sea to rise to the surface until they formed a mountain, from the top of which he preached" the sepher toledotk states furthw that, mume to dupiace the cubical stone of the sanctuary, jesus fabri- cated one of clay, which he showed to the nations and passed it off for the true cubical stone of israel. hiia allegoiy, like many others in such books, is written 'iiuide and outside' it has its secret meaning, and ought to be read in two w^s. he kabatistic books explain its mystical meaning. furt

a one of the methods for extracting the bid- den meaning from letters, words, and sentences is arithmetical. it consists in applying to the letters of a word the sense they bear as num- bers, in outward shape as well as in their individual sense. moreover, by hk temnra (another method used by the kabalists) any word could be made to yield its mystery out of its anagram. thus we find the author of sepher yebirah saying, one or two centuries heton our era "one, the spirit of the alakim of lives* so again, in the oldest kabalistic diagrams, the ten sephiroth are represented as wheels or circles, and adam kadmon, the primitive man, as an upright pillar "wheeb and 756. ari mesu, moreover 'tbou art* in suukrit, and sbo'(wonl' ah, witbout the accent on the firat vowel. 759. profe ww a. wiuer. 760

KARR DON NOTES ON EDITIONS OF SEFER YETZIRAH IN ENGLISH

n put into english many times. all of the english translations of sy which i have seen are discussed in part 1: translations. i deal with these in chronological order, starting with the first, that of isadore kalisch from 1877, and concluding with the most recent, that of dr. fred reiss from 2007* in the introduction to preliminary critical edition. 20073 3 part 1: translations: kalisch, isadore. sepher yezirah. a book on creation; or the jewish metaphysics of remote antiquity, with english translation, preface, explanatory notes and glossary. new york: l. h. frank& co, 1877. reprinted san jose: amorc, 1948, with several reprint editions following; more recently (late eighties) reprinted by heptangle (gillette) in an overpriced deluxe edition. kalisch gives a straightforward translation, s

ptangle (gillette) in an overpriced deluxe edition. kalisch gives a straightforward translation, showing the english and hebrew side by side. his notes clarify the ideas and language of sy, often referring to readings from major commentaries and other rabbinic works. the publisher s forward in the amorc edition says, the service dr. kalisch rendered in 1877 by his first english translation of the sepher yezirah has grown ever greater with the passing years. other translations, it is true, have a certain merit; none the less, none has surpassed and few have equaled the work which he did. this comment was written in 1948, but one could have made a case to fully concur until relatively recently (i.e, until kaplan [1990; see below, page 13. kalisch translated what appears to be the long versio

es, bracketed or parenthetical words, and explanatory remarks in regular type. what we get is an earnest effort upon a rather terse version of sy (which, for instance, omits the predominations of the letters from chapter 4. the notes and additions are more helpful than intrusive, and where he is unsure, edersheim nobly places a question mark next to his variant renderings. westcott, william wynn. sepher yetzirah. the book of formation and the thirty-two paths of wisdom, translated from the hebrew. bath: robert h. fryar, 1887; 2nd revised edition: london: theosophical publishing society, 1893; 3rd edition: london: j. m. watkins, 1911; reprinted new york: samuel weiser, 1975; reprinted san diego: wizards bookshelf, 1990 (this edition adds notes from mme blavatsky s works. fourth revised edit

es, an account of the derivatives of the letters, and a general resume. papus follows sy with not only the thirty-two paths of wisdom but also the fifty gates of understanding. the fifty gates is a hierarchic list of features of the universe; papus version is derived from athanasius kircher s oedipus agyptiacus (3 volumes, rome: 1652-5. papus section on sy concludes with an essay, the date of the sepher yetzirah by dr. sair a.c. which advances the notion that sy is from the patriarchal age or earlier on the basis that scholars have not proven otherwise at least not to the satisfaction of subscribers to the occult tradition* papus rendering of eser sefirot belimah (a phrase which opens a series of statements in sy, chapter 1) is the ten sephiroth, excepting the ineffable. it must be concede

d be understood as signifying closed, that is, closed within itself. further, see peter hayman s comments in some observations of sefer yesira (1) its use of scripture (journal of jewish studies 35:2 [1984) concerning belimah, where he mentions its likely derivation from job 26:7. 20073 6 on page 30 of gershom scholem s kabbalah, an english translation of sy by p. davidson (elsewhere noted as the sepher jetsirah, white county [ga: 1896) is mentioned. i have not seen it. given the time and place of this publication, it does seem that this p. davidson is peter davidson (1837-1915) of the hermetic brotherhood of luxor; see godwin, chanel and deveney: the hermetic brotherhood of luxor (york beach: samuel weiser, inc, 1995. mordell, phineas. the origins of the letters and numerals according to

readings and translations put the number of double letters of the hebrew alphabet at seven* it is puzzling that, out of all the possible translations, david meltzer chose mordell s quirky rendering to represent sy in the secret garden. alas, this is not the only doubtful aspect of this well-circulated anthology. see below, the second) note on page 8. 20073 7 stenring, knut. the book of formation (sepher yetzirah) by rabbi akiba ben joseph including the 32 paths of wisdom, their correspondences with the hebrew alphabet and the tarot symbols, with an introduction by arthur edward waite. philadelphia: david mckay co, 1923; reprinted new york: ktav publishing house, 1970. stenring refers to his own work as a word-for-word translation from the hebrew. he used a number of sy texts to construct h

me of which, such as the works of mme. blavatsky and eliphas levi, are notoriously unreliable. with hall, we come to the end of a cycle of fairly frequent productions of sy in english. between hall s translation and the next one reviewed here (that of work of the chariot, 1971, there is a lapse of over forty years. falling between are two translations, neither of which have i seen: doreal, dr. m. sepher yetzirah. the book of creation. a verse by verse analysis. denver: brotherhood of the white temple, 1941. listed in sheila spector s jewish mysticism: an annotated bibliography of kabbalah in english (new york/london: garland publishing, inc, 1984) under the history of kabbalah, f. merkabah mysticism and jewish gnosticism; doreal= f15) raskin, saul. kabbalah in word and image, with the book

roduce the section on abraham abulafia in meltzer s secret garden, pp. 117-119. there, the book is called kabbalah, book of creation, the zohar, but the date is the same. the ebay images confirm the title as given by spector and kaplan. 20073 9 the more recent cycle of sy translations that of the last few decades begins with an obscure, homespun production: work of the chariot. book of formation (sepher yetzirah. the letters of our father abraham [wc #1b. 2nd edition, hollywood: work of the chariot, 1971 [also at www.workof thechariot.com] the 2nd edition includes two appendices: 1. diagrams; 2. shuo kua/i ching with diagrams; plus sy in hebrew and gezer/sinatic, and a depiction of the gan eden alphabet. this version has been neither well known nor, until recently [see the website shown ab

scholem s view: translation of kabbalistic texts is possible because the kabbalists themselves considered their language a precise, technical vocabulary and not arbitrary and emotive poetry. the texts are not served well by poetic translations; they cry out for scientific philology (gershom scholem: kabbalah and counter-history, cambridge: harvard university press, 1979: p. 89) suares, carlo. the sepher yetsira, including the original astrology according to the qabala and its zodiac. french original: editions du mont-blanc, 1968. english translation: boulder: shambhala publications, 1976. suares book on sy is one in a series on what he considers the three great cabalistic works [namely] genesis, the song of songs and sepher yetsira. suares does not believe kabbalah to be mysticism, stating

original astrology according to the qabala and its zodiac. french original: editions du mont-blanc, 1968. english translation: boulder: shambhala publications, 1976. suares book on sy is one in a series on what he considers the three great cabalistic works [namely] genesis, the song of songs and sepher yetsira. suares does not believe kabbalah to be mysticism, stating, qabala is a science and the sepher yetsira is a precise and accurate treatise on the structure of cosmic energy, written in a hidden code. suares thesis rests on the belief that each hebrew letter denotes not only a letter, but also a proof, a symbol and even a miracle revealing its forgotten ontological origin. in a chapter which is repeated in all three books of this series, suares explains the letter-code as he has discov

d, it. all this, of course, puts something of a spin on suares handling of sy. each short paragraph of sy is followed by a lengthy explanation, so the text itself is spread in small pieces over some sixty pages. the translation is mannered in a way that serves suares thesis, so it is not always very clear on its own. however, he does include the hebrew text next to his translation (anonymous. the sepher yetzirah. bray: guild press, 1976. with a terse introduction and scant notes( excluded from the body of the text to avoid any interference between the text and the reader, this rendition of sy is slim but attractive more a little work of art and trigger for meditation than a scholarly effort. the frontispiece shows the tree of the sephiroth from robert fludd s utruisque cosmi. 20073 12 frie

1040-1990, edited by gabrielle sed-rajna. paris: les editions du cerf, 1993 [see page 15 for a description of hayman s critical edition and translation of sy] a most disappointing piece by david meltzer, a reader s guide of kabbalah, appeared in gnosis magazine 3 (fall/winter 1986/7. listed there is a rendition of sy which i have not seen. the notice reads thompson, scott, translator and editor. sepher yetzirah: book of creation. a critical edition consisting of a hebrew-english interlinear translation with collated translations of six previous editions: lenowitz, friedman, kalisch, mordell, stenring, and westcott (available through the translator: c/o valencia books, 525 valencia st, san francisco, ca 94110 $15) i sent off my fifteen bucks but never received thompson s sy. kaplan, aryeh

rma 2784.14, derossi 1390 fols. 36b-38b (short; vatican library (cat. assemani) 299(8, fols. 66a-71b (long; the genizah scroll, cambridge university library, taylor-schechter k21/56+ glass 32/5+ glass 12/813 (saadian. these are supplemented by numerous others. see above, page 13 for articles which are sure to be included in such a collection. 20073 16 reiss, dr. fred. ancient secrets of creation: sepher yetzira, the book that started kabbalah, revealed. new york lincoln shanghai: iuniverse, inc, 2007 reiss sets up his translation/commentary with chapters summarizing greek philosophies on creation and jewish theologies of creation. the new translation is supplemented by lengthy explanations, complete with diagrams and tables. with its somewhat rosicrucian tone, reiss reinterpretation, has b

eptual summaries are often misleading and frustratingly lacking in nuance, e.g, his statement, the knowledge that we call kabbalah is based on the doctrine and teachings of isaac luria, who was born in jerusalem during the 16th century( ancient secrets, page 87; reiss does go on to mention the zohar and moses de leon. in an excerpt from an interview with the author of ancient secrets of creation: sepher yetzira, the book that started kabbalah, revealed* dr. reiss begins to understand why god chose the aleph, mem, and sheen to be the mother letters of creation, we have to know three things. the first is that the author of sepher yetzira understood that the scroll of the five books of moses, called in hebrew, the torah, was the blueprint for the world because it contains the story of creatio

bbalism; it is all the more regrettable that it is marred by an uncritical attitude toward facts of history and philology (major trends in jewish mysticism, p. 212) the 1906 edition of the jewish encyclopedia (vol. xii, pp. 602-8) contains the article sefer yezirah by louis ginzberg. joshua abelson s jewish mysticism: an introduction to the kabbalah (london: g. bell and sons, 1913; rpt. new york: sepher-hermon press, 1969& 1981; and mineola: dover publications, inc, 2001) has a brief chapter (v) on sy. ponce, charles. kabbalah. an introduction and illumination for the world today. san francisco: straight arrow press, 1973. ponce s sections of sy may well be the strongest parts of his book, for elsewhere there are numerous errors and omissions. the first segment on sy (pp. 100-111) resides

e artificial anthropoid (albany: state university of new york press, 1990. on idel s and scholem s conclusions regarding the roots of the golem tradition, see peter sch fer, the magic of the golem: the early development of the golem legend, in journal of jewish studies, vol. xlvi, nos. 1-2 (spring-autumn 1995. 20073 22 other articles: finkel, asher. the exegetic elements of the cosmological work, sepher yesirah, in mystics of the book: themes, topics, and typologies, edited by r. a. herrera (new york: peter lang, 1993) kiener, ronald. the status of astrology in the early kabbalah: from the sefer yesirah to the zohar, in jerusalem studies in jewish thought, vol. 6, nos. 3- 4: proceedings of the second international conference on the history of jewish mysticism: the beginnings of jewish myst

KARR DON NOTES ON THE STUDY OF EARLY KABBALAH JEWISH MYSTICISM IN ENGLISH

tudies between the disciplines: papers in honor of peter schafer on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday (leiden. boston: brill, 2003. refer also to scholem fs kabbalah, pp. 30-5: gmysticism in the geonic period. h an example of a work from this period is pirke de rabbi eliezer (chapters of rabbi eliezer, which has been translated and annotated by gerald friedlander (london: 1916; rpt. new york: sepher-hermon press, 1981 [4th ed. b. commentaries on sefer yezirah see my gnotes on sefer yezirah in english, h part 3, for a review of english sources on these commentaries* the eunique cherub f circle (tubingen: mohr siebeck, 1999, page 17. 20081 18 c. religious philosophers* a history of mediaeval jewish philosophy by isaac husik (philadelphia: jewish publication society of america, 1916; rpt

storical] a[strological] t[exts, 1998. commentary of abraham ibn ezra on the pentateuch, translated by jay f. shachter. hoboken: ktav publishing house, 1986. commentary on the pentateuch, translated and annotated by norman strickland and arthur m. silver. new york: menorah publishing company, 1988. the commentary of rabbi abraham ibn ezra on hosea, edited and translated by abe lipshitz. new york: sepher-hermon press, 1988. the secret of the torah (sefer yesod mora ve-sod ha-torah) translated by norman strickman. northvale. jerusalem: jason aronson inc, 1995. rabbi ibn ezra fs commentary on the creation (perush ha-torah: bereshit, perek 1-6) translated by michael linetsky. jason aronson, 1998. also see. del valle, carlos. gabraham ibn ezra fs mathematical speculations on the divine name, h

KNOWLEDGE LECTURE ONE

sent darkness and matter wherein the spirit, the ruach elohim, began to formulate the ineffable name, that name which the ancient rabbis have said "rushes through the universe" that name before which the darkness rolls back the birth of time. the flaming red triangular capitals which crown the summit of the pillars represent the triune manifestation of the spirit of life, the three mothers of the sepher yetsirah, the three alchemical principles of nature, the sulphur, the mercury and the salt. each pillar is surmounted by its own light-bearer veiled from the material world. at the base of both pillars rise the lotus flowers, symbols of regeneration and metempsychosis. the archaic illustrations are taken from the vignettes of teh 17th and 125th chapter of the ritual of the dead the egyptian

KNOWLEDGE LECTURE THREE

of the soul. ruach- the middle part, answering to six sephiroth from chesed to yesod, inclusive. and to the mind and reasoning powers. nephesch- the lowest, answering to malkuth, and to the animal instincts. neschamah itself is further divided into three parts: yechidah- is referred to kether. chiah- is referred to chokmah. neschamah- is referred to binah. the three classes of hebrew letters the sepher yetzirah divides the hebrew alphabet into three classes of 3, 7, and 12 letters. three mothers wma seven doubles trpkdgb twelve singles qxisnlyeczvh the holy place of the temple embraces the symbolism of the 22 letters. the table of shew-bread, the single letters. the altar of incense are the three mother letters. astral spirits are those belonging to the astral plane. such are false and il

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

ala represents a growth of many centuries under the influence of many types of thought- jewish, gnostic, neo-platonic, greek, arabic and even persian- and it has never been fully translated into any european language. it consists of certain great texts written in hebrew and aramaic, and a mass of commentaries upon them compiled by jews of many lands and many ages. the most important texts are the sepher yetzirah, which explains the mystic meanings underlying the hebrew alphabet, and erects a vast system of mystical and occult speculation upon the combinations and permutations of the various letters; and the sepher ha zohar, or book of splendour, which is a medley of history and legend, of fable and of fact, of mysticism and fantastic speculation which, like all such literature, contains pr

LEMEGETON

ach sign of the zodiac are evidently abstracted from paracelsus, the second treatise of celestial medicines, cf. archidoxes of magic translated by robert turner, 1656, pp. 136 ff. ars almadel in 1608, trithemius mentioned a long list of books on magic, including the book "almadel attributed to king solomon [7] ars almadel is also found in the hebrew manuscript of the key of solomon, ed. gollancz, sepher maphteah shelomoh, 1914, fol 20b. turner mentions a fifteenth-century manuscript in florence [8] ars notoria the ars notoria is a medieval grimoire of the 'solomonic cycle. many latin manuscripts are extant, the oldest are dated thirteenth century, and possibly earlier. like liber juratus (also thirteenth century, the text centers around an even older collection of orations or prayers which

hierusalem, by a jewish rabbi& by him put into the greeke language& from thence into ye latine, as it is said &c. appendix- other examples of some of the drawings sigil for baal, from harl. 6483. sigil for agares, from harl. 6483. sigil for vasago, from harl. 6483. magical circle and triangle, from sloane 3648. hexagram to be worn as a lamin, from the hebrew manuscript of the clavicula salomonis (sepher mafteah shelomoh, fol. 38a. gollancz, fol. 38a. or. 14759 pentagram, from harl. 6483. the magic ring, from sloane 2731. brass vessel, from sloane 2731: sigil for carmasiel, from harl. 6483. sigils for some of carmasiel's dukes, from harl. 6483. the seal of solomon, from harl. 6483. seal of solomon from the magical calendar. seal of solomon, frontispiece from british library manuscript lans

the magical calendar. seal of solomon, frontispiece from british library manuscript lans. 1203, les v ritables clavicules de salomon, traduites de l'hebreux en langue latine, par le rabin abognazar. sigilla, nempe xii signorum zodiaci, from paracelsus, archidoxis magicae, liber ii. aries taurus gemini cancer leo virgo libra scorpio sagittarius capricorn aquarius pisces the almadel, from gollancz, sepher maphteah shelomoh, 1914, fol 20b. note the drawing at the bottom showing how the candles are to be constructed with feet to support the almadel "picture of the almadel, from or. ms. 6360: first note of the art of grammar, from sl. 1712, fol. 14v. second note of the art of grammar, from sl. 1712, fol. 15r. the fourth note of rhetoric and the note of geometry, from sl. 1712, fol. 19r: second

LIBER 777

9 31 496 hot and dry b 8 10 32 the serpent of wisdom follows the course of the paths or letters upwards, its head being thus in a, its tails in t. a, m, and c are the mother letters, referring to the elements; b, g, d, k, p, r, and t, the double letters, to the planets; the rest, single letters, to the zodiac. 528. 9 10 32 bis. cold and dry e. 31 bis. table i (continued) 5 xiii. the paths of the sepher yetzirah. xiv. general attribution of tarot. xv* the king scale of colour (y. 0. 1 admirable or hidden intelligence the 4 aces brilliance 2 illuminating i. the 4 twos kings or knights pure soft blue 3 sanctifying i. the 4 threes queens crimson 4 measuring cohesive or receptacular i. the 4 fours deep violet 5 radical i. the 4 fives orange 6 i. of the mediating influence the 4 sixes emperors

wrtca ynmyt mch husham of temani 6 wyhfyf titahion pit of destruction belphegor awyj tywu ddh hadad of avith 7 twmyruc shaarimoth gates of death yadmca hqrcm hlmnc samlah of masrekah 8 twmla tzelmoth shadow of death adramelek laylb tybhr lwac saul of reheboth 9 tylyl nh lub baal-hannan 1010 \nhyg gehinnom hell hmun wup rdh hadar of pau cix (continued* the dukes of edom. cx. elements and quarters (sepher yetzirah. cxi. sephirothic colours (dr. jellinek. 0. 1 \yyj \yhla hwr concealed light 2. air sky blue 3. water and earth yellow 4 hmbylha aholibamah fire white 5 hla elah height red 6 kyp pinon depth white-red 7 znq kenaz east whitish-red 8 myt teman west reddish-white 9 laydgm and rxbm mibzar and magdiel south white-red-whitsh-red-reddish-white 1010 \ryu eram north the light reflecting all

sh the kings and dukes as in the printed edition, i have split this column. for daath add king bela son of beor (rwub b ulb) and dukes timnah (uamt, alvah (hwlu) and jetheth (tty. col. cx. line 1. ruach elohim chayyim, the spirit of the living gods. the first edition of 777 had as a subtitle \yyj \yhla hwr tja, achath ruach elohim chayyim( one [is] the spirit of the living elohim, a line from the sepher yetzirah which adds to 777. cols. cxii cxiii. these sets of attributions were extracted by the golden dawn from the first volume of kabbala denudata. the symbols in 7 and 8 apparently represent hermaphroditic brass. col. cxiv. the numbers are an addition; each password adds to the mystic number of the sephirah corresponding. vide col. x. col. cxv. the entries in this column were originally

modern western occultists (the version printed by kircher is not proportioned to a 60 mesh as the modern version is; stirling in the canon argues that kircher s figure is rather proportioned so a vesica can be inscribed in it, the points in kether and malkuth, and the sides touching the left and right pillars. other tree of life arrangements are discussed by aryeh kaplan in his translation of the sepher yetzirah, and in an appendix to the third edition of godwin s cabalistic encyclopedia. appendix: the yi king transliterations of chinese names follow the system used by legge in sacred books of the east, which is not in general current use. in particular, note that consonants have different phonetic values when italicised (k is thin (tenuis) modified guttural consonant, kh aspirated thin mo

LIBER COLLEGII SANCTI

d through this note of his office, and sign it. let him cause the necessary addition to be made to his zelator's robe. let him make an appointment with his practicus at the pleasure of the latter for the conferring of advancement. 1. the practicus shall proceed to the grade of philosophus at any time that authority confers it. 2. he shall pass examinations in liber dcclxxvii, the qabalah, and the sepher sephiroth. he shall attain complete success in liber iii, cap i. 3. he shall further show some acquaintence with and experience of his chosen method of divination. yet he shall be his own judge in this matter. 4. he shall commit to memory liber xxvii and pass examinations in the ritual and meditation practice given in liber xvi. further, he shall pass the mediation practice s.s.s, in liber

LIBER HHH

ractices based on these three .enthusiasms. 6 to explain this piece of qabalistic analogic: the divine names hyha and hwhy, having as they do the letter-pair hy in common, may be combined to give a single six-letter name hwhyha, which is said to unite microprosopus and macroprosopus (it enumerates to 32, the total number of paths and sephiroth, the number of the .paths of wisdom. mentioned in the sepher yetzirah. next, since h is the letter of the mother, we substitute for the three h.s the three .mother letters. of the hebrew alphabet, a, m and c, giving awmyca (or some permutation thereof, which enumerates to 358, the number of cjn, nechesh, a serpent (e.g. in gen. iii, and jycm, messiach, the anointed one. the three mother letters are referred to the three chapters of liber hhh as indic

LIBER LVII

son, but we hear nothing of the mother in the ordinary religions of the day. but in the qabalah we find that the ancient of days conforms himself simultaneously into the father and the mother, and thus begets the son. now, this mother is elohim. again, we are usually told that the holy spirit is masculine. but the word jwr, ruach, spirit, is feminine, as appears from the following passage of the sepher yetzirah \yyj \yhla rwr tja, achath (feminine, not achad, masculine) ruach elohim chayyim .one is is she the spirit of the elohim of life. now, we find that before the deity conformed himself thus.i.e, as male and female.that the worlds of the universe could not subsist, or, in the words of genesis (i, 2 .the earth was formless and void. these prior worlds are considered to be symbolized by

to help our deduction about redemption, too, we find hdj, to brighten or make glad. we also work in another way. i is the straight line or central pillar of the temple of life; also it stands for unity, and for the generative force. a is the pentagram, which means the will of man working redemption. o is the circle from which everything came, also nothingness, and the female, who 30 [published as sepher sephiroth in equinox i (8] 20 liber lviii absorbs the male. the progress of the name shows then the way from life to nirvana by means of the will: and is a hieroglyph of the great work. look at all our meanings! every one of them shows that the name, if it has any power at all, and that we must try, has the power to redeem us from the love of life which is the cause of life, by its masculin

chesed, since it connects macroprosopus and microprosopus) is 777 [see diagrams 2 and 1233] to take another example, it is no mere coincidence that 463, the staff of moses, is t, s, g, the paths of the middle pillar; no mere coincides that 26, hwhy, is 1+ 6+ 9+ 10, the sephiroth of the middle pillar. but ought we not to have some supreme name for 489, their sum, the middle pillar perfect? yet the sepher sephiroth is silent (we find only 489= lwmg \lcm, the avenger. ed) again, 111 is aleph, the unity, but also lpa, thick darkness, and sa, sudden death. this can only be interpreted as meaning the annihilation of the individual in the unity, and the darkness which is the threshold of the unity; in other words, one must be an expert in samadhi before this simple gematria has any proper meaning

up to this number. in reality it is the final extension of the number 6, both because 6 111([la= 111= 1= 6, and because the sun, whose greatest number it is, is 6 (i here interpolate a note on the .mystic numbers. of the planets. the first is that of the planet itself, e.g. saturn, 3. the second is that of the number of squares in the square of the planet, e.g. saturn, 9. the third is 56 [see the sepher yetzirah. t.s] 57 [in equinox i (2, or regardie (ed) the golden dawn. t.s] 58 [see the golden dawn z1 document. t.s] on the qabalah 39 that of the figures in each line of the .magic square. of the planet, e.g. saturn 15. a .magic square. is one in which each file, rank, and diagonal add to the same number, e.g. saturn is 8 1 6, 3 5 7, 4 9 2, each square being filled in with the numbers from

LIBER MMCMXI NOTE ON GENESIS

s duty to collate and comment upon this arcane knowledge, long treasured in my heart, watered alike by my tears and my blood, and sunned by that all-glorious ray that multiplieth itself into an orb ineffable. in this garden no flower was fairer than this exquisite discourse; i beg my readers to pluck it and lay it in their hearts. it should be studied in connection with the book 777, and with the sepher sephiroth, a magical dictionary of pure number which was begun by the author of this essay, carried on by myself, and now about to be published as soon as the ms. can be prepared [he emigrated to ceylon and became a buddhist monk. t.s [a conventional idiom for a collection of kabbalistic writings. t.s [it was published as a supplement to equinox i (8; reprinted as an appendix to the third e

father. these balanced figures together make 16, whereof the key is 7; the total number of letters in the third symbol. then we have left at either end 4 and 6= 10* the perfection of the sephiroth, as if to declare that this verse from, beginning to end thereof reflected the voices from kether even unto malkuth: and 6- 4= 2 again, the central will, b, thoth, in the heart of the universe (as* vide sepher yetzirah for this division of the holy sephiroth into a hexad and a tetrad. liber mmcmxi 12 in the centre of the verse. note, then, this perfect equilibrium of the verse, and remember that mystery.that equilibrium is strength. let us now look at the letters themselves. counting them, we find that the two central ones are am, the supernal mother; even as the number of letters had the dual sy

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

methods of paracelsus--palingenesis--hermetic theories concerning the cause of disease--medicinal properties of herbs--the use of drugs in the mysteries--the sect of the assassins. 109 the qabbalah, the secret doctrine of israel the written and unwritten laws--the origin of the qabbalistic writings--rabbi simeon ben jochai--the great qabbalistic books--the divisions of the qabbalistic system--the sepher yetzirah. 113 fundamentals of qabbalistic cosmogony ain soph and the cosmic egg--the qabbalistic system of worlds--the qabbalistic interpretation of ezekiel's vision--the great image of nebuchadnezzar's dream--the grand man of the universe--the fifty gates of life. 117 the tree of the sephiroth the thirty-two paths of wisdom--the greater and the lesser face--kircher's sephirothic tree--the

au to leo, that is momphta, and he final to typhon. note the cherubic parallel--man, bull, lion and eagle. the fourth form is found either as scorpion or eagle depending upon the occult good or evil intention: in the demotic zodiac, the snake replaces the scorpion "the lower region he ascribes to the twelve simple hebrew letters, associating them with the four quarters of the horizon. compare the sepher yerzirah, cap. v, sec. 1 "the central region he ascribes to the solar powers and the click to enlarge levi's key to the bembine table. from levi's history of magic "the isiac tablet, writes levi, is a key to the ancient book of thoth, which has survived to some extent the lapse of centuries and is pictured to us in the still comparatively ancient set of tarocchi cards. to him the book of th

the pantomorphic iynx. g. r. s. mead defines the iynx as "a transmitting intelligence" others have declared it to be a symbol of universal being. over the head of the goddess the throne is surmounted by a triple crown, and beneath her feet is the house of material substance. the threefold crown is here symbolic of the triune divinity, called by the egyptians the supreme mind, and described in the sepher ha zohar as being "hidden and unrevealed" according to the hebrew system of qabbalism, the tree of the sephiroth was divided into two parts, the upper invisible and the lower visible. the upper consisted of three parts and the lower of seven. the three uncognizable sephiroth were called kether, the crown; chochmah, wisdom; and binah, understanding. these are too abstract to permit of compre

ed it, numerous medi val qabbalists devoted their lives to the practice of ceremonial magic. the transcendentalism of the qabbalists is founded upon the ancient and magical formula of king solomon, who has long been considered by the jews as the prince of ceremonial magicians. among the qabbalists of the middle ages were a great number of black magicians who strayed from the noble concepts of the sepher yetzirah and became enmeshed in demonism and witchcraft. they sought to substitute magic mirrors, consecrated daggers, and circles spread around posts of coffin nails, for the living of that virtuous life which, without the assistance of complicated rituals or submundane creatures, unfailingly brings man to the state of true individual completion. those who sought to control elemental spiri

of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels* moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this doctrine and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, david and solomon were most initiated into the kabbalah (see the kabbalah) according to eliphas levi, the three greatest books of qabbalism are the sepher yetzirah, the book of formation; the sepher ha zohar, the book of splendor; and the apocalypse, the book of revelation. the dates of the writing of these books are by no means thoroughly established. qabbalists declare that the sepher yetzirah was written by abraham. although it is by far the oldest of the qabbalistic books, it was probably from the pen of the rabbi akiba, a.d. 120. the sep

by moses de le n. the probability is that moses de le n himself compiled the zohar about a.d. 1305, drawing his material from the unwritten secrets of earlier jewish mystics. the apocalypse, accredited to st. john the divine, is also of uncertain date, and the identity of its author has never been satisfactorily proved. because of its brevity and because it is the key to qabbalistic thought, the sepher yetzirah is reproduced in full in this chapter. so far as is click to enlarge the seventy-two names of god. from kircher's oedipus gyptiacus. this rare cut shows the name of god in seventy-two languages inscribed upon the petals of a symbolic sunflower. above the circle are the seventy-two powers of god according to the hebrew qabbalah. below two trees, that on the left bearing the symbols

orant is most unusual. as the religious world interprets its scriptures with twentieth-century educational facilities, it becomes ever more apparent that the sacred books were not historical documents, but that the kings, sages, prophets, and saviors whom bible students ham revered for ages as once-existing personalities are in reality only personified attributes of man himself. p. 114 known, the sepher ha zohar has never been completely translated into english, but it can be obtained in french (s. l. macgregor-mathers translated three books of the zohar into english) the zohar contains a vast number of philosophical tenets, and a paraphrase of its salient points is embodied in this work. few realize the influence exerted by qabbalism over medi val thought, both christian and jewish. it ta

s lore in the power, magnitude, and actual substance of the sidereal bodies, and also revealed the mystical constitution of the planet itself. the fifth, or magical qabbalah, was studied by such as desired to gain control over the demons and subhuman intelligences of the invisible worlds. it was also highly valued as a method of healing the sick by talismans, amulets, charms, and invocations. the sepher yetzirah, according to adolph franck, differs from other sacred books in that it does not explain the world and the phenomena of which it is the stage by leaning on the idea of god or by setting itself up as the interpreter of the supreme will. this ancient work rather reveals god by estimating his manifold handiwork. in preparing the sepher yetzirah for the consideration of the reader, fiv

of the reader, five separate english translations have been compared. the resulting form, while it embodies the salient features of each, is not a direct translation from any one hebrew or latin text. although the purpose was to convey the spirit rather than the letter of the ancient document, there are no wide deviations from the original rendition. so far as known, the first translation of the sepher yetzirah into english was made by the rev. dr. isidor kalisch, in 1877 (see arthur edward waite) in this translation the hebrew text accompanies the english words. the work of dr. kalisch has been used as the foundation of the following interpretation, but material from other authorities has been incorporated and many passages have been rewritten to simplify the general theme. at hand also

ut material from other authorities has been incorporated and many passages have been rewritten to simplify the general theme. at hand also was a manuscript copy in english of the book of the cabalistick art, by doctor john pistor. the document is undated; but judging from the general type of the writing, the copy was made during the eighteenth century. the third volume used as a reference was the sepher yetzirah, by the late win. wynn westcott, magus of the rosicrucian society of england. the fourth was the sepher yetzirah, or the book of creation, according to the translation in the sacred books and early literature of the east, edited by prof. charles f. horne. the fifth was a recent publication, the book of formation, by knut stenring, containing an introduction by arthur edward waite

urth was the sepher yetzirah, or the book of creation, according to the translation in the sacred books and early literature of the east, edited by prof. charles f. horne. the fifth was a recent publication, the book of formation, by knut stenring, containing an introduction by arthur edward waite. at hand also were four other copies--two german, one hebrew, and one latin. certain portions of the sepher yetzirah are considered older and more authentic than the rest, bur the controversy regarding them is involved and nonproductive that it is useless to add further comment. the doubtful passages are therefore included in the document at the points where they would naturally fall. the sepher yetzirah, the book of formation chapter one 1. yah, the lord of hosts, the living elohim, king of the

wo ears, two nostrils, and the mouth. 8. note. knut stenring differs from other authorities in his arrangement of the planets and days of the week in the following seven stanzas. kircher has still a different order. rev. dr. isidor kalisch, wm. wynn westcott, and the sacred books and early literature of the east adopt the following arrangement. click to enlarge the hebrew letters according to the sepher yetzirah. in the central triangle are the three mother letters from which come forth the seven double letters--the planets and the heavens. surrounding the black star are the signs of the zodiac symbolized by the twelve simple letters. in the midst of this star is the invisible throne of the most ancient of the ancients--the supreme definitionless creator. p. 116 1st. he caused the letter (

circumference is everywhere, while that which is nowhere is the center. it is however to a balance and not to a circle that it compares the universal equilibrium of things. it affirms that equilibrium is everywhere and so also is the central point where the balance hangs in suspension. we find that the zohar is thus more forcible and more profound than pascal* the zohar is a genesis of light; the sepher yetzirah is a ladder of truth. therein are expounded the two-andthirty absolute symbols of speech--being numbers and letters. each letter produces a number, an idea and a form, so that mathematics are applicable to forms and ideas, even as to numbers, in virtue of an exact proportion, and a perfect correspondence. by the science of the sepher yetzirah, the human mind is rooted in truth and

ber, an idea and a form, so that mathematics are applicable to forms and ideas, even as to numbers, in virtue of an exact proportion, and a perfect correspondence. by the science of the sepher yetzirah, the human mind is rooted in truth and in reason; it accounts for all progress possible to intelligence by means of the evolution of numbers. thus does the zohar represent absolute truth, while the sepher yetzirah furnishes the method of its acquisition, its discernment and application (history of magic) by placing man himself at the point d 10, his true constitution is revealed. he exists upon four worlds, only one of which is visible. it is then made evident that his parts and members upon the material plane are, by analogy, hierarchies and intelligences in the higher worlds. here, again

se. by the secret culture of the qabbalistic school, man is taught how to climb the rings (unfold his consciousness) until at last he returns to ain soph. the process by which this is accomplished is called the fifty gates of light. kircher, the jesuit qabbalist, declares that moses passed through forty-nine of the gates, but that christ alone passed the fiftieth gate. to the third edition of the sepher yetzirah translated from the hebrew by wm. wynn westcott are appended the fifty gates of intelligence emanating from binah, the second sephira. the source of this information is kircher's oedipus gyptiacus. the gates are divided into six orders, of which the first four have each ten subdivisions, the fifth nine, and the sixth only one. the first order of gates is termed elementary and its d

malchuth--the kingdom elements moon it must continually be emphasized that the sephiroth and the properties assigned to them, like the tetractys of the pythagoreans, are merely symbols of the cosmic system with its multitude of parts. the truer and fuller meaning of these emblems may not be revealed by writing or by word of mouth, but must be divined as the result of study and meditation. in the sepher ha zohar it is written that there is a garment--the written doctrine-which every man may see. those with understanding do not look upon the garment but at the body beneath it--the intellectual and philosophical code. the wisest of all, however, the servants of the heavenly king, look at nothing save the soul--the spiritual doctrine--which is the eternal and ever-springing root of the law. o

antic image of nebuchadnezzar's dream, with head of gold, arms and chest of silver, body of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay. the medi val qabbalists also assigned one of the ten commandments and a tenth part of the lord's prayer in sequential order to each of the ten sephiroth. concerning the emanations from kether which establish themselves as three triads of creative powers- termed in the sepher ha zohar three heads each with three faces--h. p. blavatsky writes "this [kether] was the first sephiroth, containing in herself the other nine sephiroth, or intelligences. in their totality and unity they represent the archetypal man, adam kadmon, the prwt gonov, who in his individuality or unity is yet dual, or bisexual, the greek didumos, for he is the prototype of all humanity. thus we

, the great mother. these two are usually referred to as abba and aima respectively--the first male and the first female, the prototypes of sex. these correspond to the first two letters of the sacred name, jehovah, ihvh. the father is the, or i, and the mother is the, or h. abba and aima symbolize the creative activities of the universe, and are established in the creative world of briah. in the sepher ha zohar it is written "and therefore are all things established in the equality of male and female; for were it not so, how could they subsist? this beginning is the father of all things; the father of all fathers; and both are mutually bound together, and the one path shineth into the other--chochmah, wisdom, as the father; binah, understanding, as the mother" there is a difference of opi

MORALS AND DOGMA

ion is not, for all who look upon it, of one form and one color. our brain is a book printed within and without, and the two writings are, with all men, more or less confused. the primary tradition of the single revelation has been preserved under the name of the "kabalah" by the priesthood of israel. the kabalistic doctrine, which was also the dogma of the magi and of hermes, is contained in the sepher yetsairah, the sohar, and the talmud. according to that doctrine, the absolute is the being, in which the word is, the word that is the utterance and expression of being and life. magic is that which it is; it is by itself, like the mathematics; for it is the exact and absolute science of nature and its laws. magic is the science of the ancient magi: and the christian religion, which has im

NAGEL CARL AMAZING SECRETS OF OCCULT POWER

stic doctrines and philosophy of the old testament, and forms the basis of modern occult thought. it is immensely complex, and it takes many years of earnest study and practice to master the merest fraction of it. the central symbol in cabalism is the tree of life, giving the path to perfection. the idea is that you follow a complex path of spiritual enlightenment up the tree passing through each sepher (divine emanation) until you achieve union with god in kether the crown. an interesting aspect of the cabala is that the achieving of knowledge is likened to sexual union with shekinah, a female personification of wisdom. this is similar to the gnostic sophia, wisdom given a female personification, only with a much stronger sexual connection since she was a prostitute. gnosticism was the ma

REGARDIE ISRAEL THE COMPLETE GOLDEN DAWN

hus the four letters may be used as hebrew initials of the four ancient elements. in the nineteenth century when the hermetic order of the golden dawn came to be formed, these letters were picked up and integrated into the complex structure of the order symbolism. to understand the interpretation used by the order, we need only the most superficial knowledge of the basic attributions given in the sepher yetzirah, the tarot pack of cards, a smattering of gnosticism and astrology. the first gesture is to convert the four letters into their hebrew equivalents and then to direct yetziratic attributions, as follows: i= yod= virgo n= nun= scorpio r= resh= sun i= yod= virgo the final 't, being repetitious, is dropped, only to be picked up again in a later place in order to extend the significance

nvocation, is intact. so that the unwise editing that they have received in the past several years has not actually damaged them; all that has been removed are a few items, more or less important, of qabalistic knowledge. if the reader feels that these might be value to him, and for the sake of tolerable completeness would l i e to have them, by studying such qabalistic texts as the zohar and the sepher yehirah both of which are now in english translation, or some such work as waite's holy kaballah, he will be in possession of the fundamental facts. it is in other parts of the order work that injudicious tampering has been at work. most of this is now restored and i believe that this book is an accurate representation of the whole of the order work from neophyte to theoricus adeptus minor

t darkness and matter wherein the spirit, the ruach elohim, began to formulate the ineffable name, that name which the ancient rabbis have said "rushes through the universe" that name before which the darkness rolls back at the birth of time. the flaming red triangular capitals which crown the summit of the pillars represent the triune manifestation of the spirit of life, the three mothers of the sepher yetsirah, the three alchemical principles of nature, the sulphur, the mercury and the salt. each pillar is surmounted by its own light-bearer veiled from the material world. at the base of both pillars rise the lotus flowers, symbols of regeneration and metempsychosis. the archaic illustrations are taken from< 11 1> vignettes of the 17th and 125th chapter of the ritual of the dead, the egyp

the deity, archangel and angelic host attributed to it. the twenty two paths are bound together by the serpent of wisdom. it unites the paths but does not touch any of the sephiroth, which are linked by the flaming sword. the flaming sword is formed by the natural order of the tree of life. it resembles a flash of lightning. together the sephiroth and the twenty two paths form the 32 paths of the sepher yetzirah or book of formation. the two pillars either side of the altar represent: active: the white pillar on the south side. male. adam. pillar of light and fire. right kerub. metatron <123> the serpent on the tree of life second knowledge lecture passive: the back pillar on the north side. female. eve. pillar of cloud. left kerub. sandalphon <124> the second meditation let the zelator me

the three supemals. 2. ruach the middle part, answering to the six sephiroth from chesed to yesod, inclusive. 3. nephesch the lowest, answering to malkuth. neschamah answers to the higher aspirations of the soul. ruach answers to the mind and reasoning powers. nephesch answers to the animal instincts. chiah answers to chokmah, yechidah to kether, while neschamah itself is referred to binai-i. the sepher yetzirah divides the hebrew letters into three classes of three, seven, and twelve. three mothers v: d: n seven double letters n'lb27j3 twelve single letters 33y b2?'ul?lfl the holy place embraces the symbolism of the 22 letters <130> the table of shew-bread, the single letters. the altar of incense the three mothers. astral spirits are those belonging to the astral plane. such are false an

ial universe, concealing within herself the mysteries of all dimensions, while revealing her surface to the exterior senses. it is a double cube because, as the emerald tablet has said "the things that are below are a reflection of the things that are above."the world of men and women created to unhappiness is a reflection of the world of divine beings created to happiness. it is described in the sepher yetsirah, or the book of formation, as "an abyss of height" and as an''abyss of depth "an abyss of the east" and "an abyss of the west "an abyss of the north" and "an abyss of the south" the altar is black because, unlike divine beings who unfold in the element of light, the fires of created beings arise from darkness and obscurity. on the altar is a white triangle to be the image of that i

. 152 the goiden dawn: volume i1 book two hiero hiero k m hiero hiero has been duly admitted to the= grade of zelator, and that he has obtained the mystic title of periclinus (pericline) de faustis and the symbol of aretz. he returns to his place by e, saluting, and by s. and w* in the zelator grade, the symbolism of the tenth sephirah malkuth is especially shown, as well as the tenth path of the sepher yetsirah. among other mystic titles, malkuth is called shaar, the gate, which by metathesis becomes ashur, meaning the number ten. also in chaldee it is called thraa, the gate, which has the same number as the great name adonai, written in full: aleph, daleth, nun, yod, which both equal 671 in total numeration. it is also called the "gate of death "the gate of tears, and the "gate of justic

nun, yod, which both equal 671 in total numeration. it is also called the "gate of death "the gate of tears, and the "gate of justice, the "gate of prayer, and "the gate of the daughter of the mighty ones. it is also called "the gate of the garden of eden" and the inferior mother, and in christian symbolism, it is connected with the three holy women at the foot of the cross. the tenth path of the sepher yetsirah which answereth to malkuth is called "the resplendent intelligence, because it exalts above every head and sitteth upon the throne of binah. it illuminateth the splendour of all the lights (the zohar me-ouroth) and causeth the current of the divine influx to descend from the prince of countenances, the great archangel metatron. frater. before you can be eligible for advancement to

the all- presence of fire. heaven cannot speak their fullness- earth cannot utter it. yet hath the creator bound them in all things. he hath mingled them in water. he hath whirled them aloft in fire. he hath sealed them in the air of heaven. he hath distributed them through the planets. he hath assigned unto them the twelve constellations of the universe (places cross aside) the 32nd path of the sepher yetzirah, which answereth unto malkuth and the letter tau, is called the administrative intelligence, and it is so-called because it directeth and associateth in <79> all their operations, the seven planets, even all of them in their own due courses. to it, therefore, is attributed the due knowledge of the seven abodes of assiah, the material world, which are symbolised in the apocalypse by

to enter here, for it is the key of all things when rightly understood. upon each sephira are written in hebrew letters, its name, the divine names and those of angels and archangels attributed thereto. the connecting paths are twenty-two in number and are distinguished by the twenty-two letters of the hebrew alphabet, making with the ten sephiroth themselves the thirty-two paths of wisdom of the sepher yetsirah. the course of the hebrew letters, as placed on the paths, forms as you see, the symbol of the serpent of wisdom, while the natural <85> succession of the sephiroth forms the flaming sword, and the course of the lightning flash, as shown in the drawing below. the cross within the triangle, apex downwards, placed upon the altar at the base of the tree of life, refers to the four riv

hat of the first order which you received in the preceding grade. the grand word is a name of seven letters, shaddai el chai, which means the almighty and living one. the mystic number is 45, and from it is formed the pass-word which is mem he, the secret name of the world of formation. it should be lettered separately when given. unto this grade and unto the sephirah yesod, the ninth path of the sepher yetsirah is referred. it is called-the pure and clear intelligence, and it is so called because it purifieth and maketh clear the sephiroth, proveth and emendeth the forming of their representation, and disposeth their duties or harmonies, wherein they combine, without mutilation or division. the distinguishing badge of this grade, which you are now entitled to wear is the sash of the <87>

of fire. it is formed of four triangles, three visible and one concealed, which yet is the synthesis of the rest. the three visible triangles represent fire, solar, volcanic, and astral, while the fourth represents the 1 72 the golden dawn: volume i1 book two latent heat- aud, active- aub, passive- aur, equilibrated- while asch is the name of fire (puts pyramid aside) the thirty first path of the sepher yetsirah which answereth unto the letter shin is called the perpetual intelligence, and it is socalled because it regulateth the proper motion of the sun and the moon in their proper order, each in an orbit convenient for it. it is therefore a reflection of the sphere of fire, and the path conneding the material universe as depicted in malkuth with the pillar of severity and the side of geb

iri. hegemon conducts theoricus to hierophant, to whom he hands the solar greek cross. the solar greek cross is formed of thirteen squares which fitly refer to the sun's motion through the zodiac, these signs being further arranged in the arms of the cross according to the four elements with the sun in the centre and representing that luminary as the centre of the whole. the thirtieth path of the sepher yetzirah which <110> answereth to the letter resh is called the collecting intelligence, and it is so called because from it the astrologers deduce the judgment of the stars, and of the celestial signs, and the perfections of their science according to the rules of their resolutions. it is therefore the reflection of the sphere of the sun and the path connecting yesod with hod- foundation w

d. the grip or token is the general grip of the first order. the grand word is a name of ten letters, elohim tzabaoth, which means lord of hosts. the mystic number is 36, and from it is formed the pass-word of this grade which is eloah, one of the divine names <116> it should be lettered separately when given thus- aleph, lamed he. unto this grade and unto the sephirah hod, the eighth path of the sepher yetsirah is referred. it is called the absolute or perfect path, because itis the means of the primordial, which hath no root to which it may be established, except in the penetralia of that gedulah (magxuficence) which emanate from the subsisting properties thereof. the distinguishing badge of this grade which you are now entitled to wear, is the sash of the theoricus with the addition of

the calva y cross of twelve squares. the calvary cross of twelve squares fitly represents the zodiac which embraces the waters of nu as the ancient egyptians called the heavens, the waters which be above the firmament. it also alludes to the eternal river of eden, divided into four heads which find their correlations in the four triplicities of the zodiac. places cross aside. the 29th path of the sepher yetsirah which answereth unto the letter qoph is called the corporeal intelligence- and it is so called because it forms the very body which is so formed beneath the whole order of the worlds and the increment of them. it is therefore the reflection of the watery sign of pisces and the path connecting the material universe as depicted in malkuth with the pillar of mercy and the side of ches

s. hiero this pyramid is attributed to the four elements. on the four triangles are their hebrew names: asch- fire; mayirn- water; ruach- air; aretz- earth. on the apex is the word eth composed of the first and last letters of the alphabet and implying essence. the square base represents the material universe and on it is the word olam meaning world. hiero puts pyramid aside. the 28th path of the sepher yetzirah which answereth unto the letter tzaddi is called the natural intelligence- and it is so called 188 the golden dawn: volume ii book two because through it is consummated and perfected the nature of every existing being under the orb of the sun. it is therefore the reflection of the airy sign aquarius, the water-bearer, unto which is attributed the countenance of man, the adam who re

gh the sea with thy horses- through the depth of the mighty waters. hegemon leads practicus to hiero and gives hiero the calvary cross. the calvary cross of ten squares refers to the ten sephiroth in balanced disposition, before which the formless and the void rolled <142> back. it is also the opened out form of the double cube and of the altar of incense. places cross aside. the 27th path of the sepher yetzirah which answereth unto peh is called the exciting intelligence, and it is so called because by it is created the intellect of all created beings under the highest heaven, and the excitement or motion of them. it is therefore the reflection of the sphere of mars, and the reciprocal path connecting netzach with hod, victory with splendour. it is the lowermost of the three reciprocal pa

hich moved upon the waters of creation. the grip or token is the general grip of the first order. the grand word is a name of nine letters- yod he vau he tzabaoth, which means lord of armies. the mystic number is 28 and from it is formed the pass word kaph cheth, which should be lettered separately when given. it means power. unto this grade, and unto the sephirah netzach, the seventh path of the sepher yetzirah is referred. it is called the recondite <148> intelligence, and it is so called because it is the refulgent splendour of all the intellectual virtues which are perceived by the eye of the mind and by the contemplation of faith. the distinguishing badge of this grade which you will now be entitled to wear, is the sash of a practicus, with the addition of a bright green cross above t

alike in the universe which is the greater world, and in man who is the lesser. the arms and the hands are the swift the golden dawn: volume 11 book three executors of evil works, the bringers of pestilence and disease. the heart is malice and envy in man, the nourisher of evil in the atmosphere, which later are again symbolised by the numerous and twining serpents <181> 2nd ad. the 24th path of sepher yetzirah to which the tarot key of death is referred is the imaginative intelligence, and it is so called because it giveth form to all similitudes which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegances. for the outward form always follows the hidden law, thus from chaos is produced harmony, just as a beautiful flower is produced from decaying matter. return now to yesod, for

<184> the nine circles represent the sephiroth with the exception of kether, exactly those which are included in the symbol on the tree of life. the ruddy face is the heat of the earth- the horns are the rays- the body contains the elements and the cube is the firm basis. observe that the higher part of the figure is human, growing more bestial as it nears the earth. 3rd ad. the 26th path of the sepher yetzirah, to which the tarot key of the devil is referred, is called the renovating intelligence, because, by it, god the holy one reneweth all the changing forms which are renewed by the creation of the world. return again to yesod, for here no more may be spoken. 3rd ad. returns to place. hs. to altar. heg. rises as phil, comes to altar. hs. and heg. stand on either side of phil. w. of al

raight and narrow way of which it is said "few there be that find it" which alone leads to the higher and glorified life. for to pursue that steady and tranquil mean between two opposing forces, is indeed difficult, and many are the temptations to turn aside either to the right or to the left- wherein, remember, are but to be found the menacing symbols of death and the devil. the 25th path of the sepher yetzirah to which the tarot key of temperance is referred, is called the intelligence of probation, and it is so called because it is the primary temptation by which the creator tries all righteous persons. that is, that in it, there is ever present the temptation to turn aside to the one hand or the other. 2nd and 3rd ads. give cup and red lamp to phil. who holds them in form of tau cross

REGARDIE TALISMANS

to serve as the basis for the construction of sigils. it related to the old symbol of a rose upon a cross not necessarily a new symbol in itself. however, it is not any antecedently known type of rose-cross symbol. it has no parallels in occult or symbolic history. the novelty consisted of drawing the twenty-two hebrew letters in the petals of the rose according to the archaic attributions of the sepher yetzirah. they were placed in a certain order. the so-called twelve single letters, referred to the twelve signs of the zodiac, were placed in the outermost circle of rose petals. within this ring were the seven double letters attributed to the seven planets. inside this second ring, was a third subdivision of large petals where were found the three mother letters so-called, referred to the

RITUEL ET DOGME DE LA HAUTE MAGIE BY ELIPHAS LEVI PART I

al balance of being; it alone reconciles reason with faith, power with liberty, science with mystery: it has the keys of the present, past and future! to become initiated into the kabalah it is insufficient to read and to meditate upon the writings of reuchlin, galatinus, kircher, or picus de mirandola; it is necessary to study and understand the hebrew writers in the collection of pistorius, the sepher yetzirah above all; it is essential in particular to master the great book zohar, to investigate the collection of 1684, entitled kabbala denudata, especially the treatise on kabalistic pneumatics and that on the revolution of souls; and afterwards to enter boldly into the luminous darkness of the whole dogmatic and allegorical body of the talmud. we shall be then in a position to understan

theft. vulgarly, he is the traitor judas, and his punishment is a menace to betrayers of the great arcanum. finally, for kabalistic jews, the hanged man, who corresponds to their twelfth dogma, that of the promised messiah, is a protestation against the saviour acknowledged by christians, and they seem to say unto him still: how canst thou save others, since thou couldst not save thyself? in the sepher-toldos-jeshu, an anti-christian rabbinical compilation, there occurs a singular parable. jeshu, says the rabbinical author of the legend, was travelling with simon-barjona and judas iscariot. late and weary they came to a lonely house, and, being very hungry, could find nothing to eat except an exceedingly lean gosling. it was insufficient for three persons, and to divide it would be to sha

r me, said st. peter, i dreamed that i was the vicar of god. and i, said jeshu, that i was god himself. for me, said judas hypocritically, i dreamed that, being in somnambulism, i arose, went softly downstairs, took the gosling from the spit, and ate it. thereupon they also went down, but the gosling had vanished altogether. judas had a waking dream. this anecdote is given, not in the text of the sepher-toldos-jeshu itself, but in the rabbinical commentaries on that work. the legend is a protest of jewish positivism against christian mysticism. as a fact, while the faithful surrendered themselves to magnificent dreams, the proscribed israelite, judas of the christian civilization, worked, sold, intrigued, became rich, possessed himself of this life's realities, till he became in a position

ts dispenser. raymund lully enriched sovereigns, planted europe with institutions and remained poor. nicholas flamel, who in spite of his legend is really dead, only attained the great work when asceticism had detached him completely from riches. he was initiated by a suddenly imparted understanding of the book aesh mezareph, written in hebrew by the kabalist abraham, possibly the compiler of the sepher yetzirah. now this understanding was for flamel an intuition deserved, or rather, rendered possible, by the personal preparations of the adept. i believe that i have spoken sufficiently. divination is therefore an intuition, and the key of this intuition is the universal and magical doctrine of analogies. by means of these analogies the magus interprets visions, as did the patriarch joseph

RITUEL ET DOGME DE LA HAUTE MAGIE BY ELIPHAS LEVI PART II

he revolution termed the renaissance; but it has been the doom of the human mind, blinded by insensate passions, to realize literally the allegorical history of the hebrew hercules: by over-throwing the pillars of the temple, it has been buried itself under the ruins. the masonic associations of the present time are no less ignorant of the high meaning of their symbols than are the rabbins of the sepher the triangle of pantacles 27 yetzirah and the zohar concerning the ascending scale of the three degrees, with the transverse progression from right to left and from left to right of the kabalistic septenary. the compass of the g a and the square of solomon have become the gross and material level of unintelligent jacobinism, realized by a steel triangle: this obtains both for heaven and ear

the operator. there-fore the great work is something more than. chemical operation: it is an actual creation of the human word initiated into the power of the word of god himself. this hebrew text, which we transcribe in proof of the authenticity and reality of our discovery, is derived from the rabbinical jew abraham, the master of nicholas flamel, and it is found in his occult commentary on the sepher yetzirah the sacred book of the kabalah. this commentary is extremely rare, but the sympathetic potencies of our chain led us to the discovery of a copy which has been preserved since the year 1643 in the protestant church at rouen. on its first page there is written: ex dono, then an illegible name, followed by dei magni. the creation of gold in the great work takes place by transmutation

SEPHER HA BAHIR

g his dear young ones with its blood; the young icarus, drowned in the water, whose nurse is the earth, whose mother is the wind, whose father is the fire, the water her caretaker and drink, one stone and no stone, one water and no water, nevertheless a stone of living power and a water of living might; a sulphur, a mercury, a salt, hidden deep in nature, and which no fool has ever known nor se n sepher ha-bahir or the book of illumination attributed to rabbi nehunia ben hakana translated by aryeh kaplan the bahir 2 the first verses of creation 3 the aleph-beth 7 the seven voices and the sephiroth 12 the ten sephiroth 32 mysteries of the soul 53 index 57 the bahir 3 section i the first verses of creation 1. rabbi nehuniah ben hakana said: one verse (job 37:21) states "and now they do not s

SEPHER YETZIRAH WESTCOTT

ment, death and punishment all came because she added to the commandment of the blessed holy one. regarding this it is said, whoever increase diminishes. may god enlighten our eyes with the light of his torah, may he place in our hearts his fear, may we be worthy to greet him. he will enlighten the hear waken the heart with understanding make the heart shine with brilliance. the bahir 57 inde the sepher yetzirah (translated from the hebrew by wm. wynn westcott (note: the sepher yetzirah is one of the most famous of the ancient qabalistic texts. it was first put into writing around 200 c.e. westcott's translation of the sepher yetzirah was a primary source for the rituals and knowledge lectures of the golden dawn. this is the third edition of westcott s translation, first published in 1887

the hebrew by wm. wynn westcott (note: the sepher yetzirah is one of the most famous of the ancient qabalistic texts. it was first put into writing around 200 c.e. westcott's translation of the sepher yetzirah was a primary source for the rituals and knowledge lectures of the golden dawn. this is the third edition of westcott s translation, first published in 1887. a fourth revised edition of the sepher yetzirah by darcy k ntz, complete with hebrew text, notes and bibliography, is available from holmes publishing group, p.o. 623, edmonds, wa 98020) introduction the "sepher yetzirah" or "book of formation" is perhaps the oldest rabbinical treatise of kabalistic philosophy which is still extant. the great interest which has been evinced of late years in the hebrew kabalah, and the modes of t

late this tractate from the original hebrew texts, and to collate with them the latin versions of mediaeval authorities; and i have also published an introduction to the kabalah which may be found useful to students. three important books of the "zohar" or "book of splendour" which is a great storehouse of kabalistic teaching, have been translated into english by s. l. macgregor mathers, and the "sepher yetzirah" in an english translation is almost a necessary companion to these abstruse disquisitions: the two books indeed mutually explain each other. the "sepher yetzirah" although this name means "the book of formation" is not in any sense a narrative of creation, or a substitute genesis, but is an ancient and instructive philosophical treatise upon one aspect of the origin of the univers

abalistic tractates which have succeeded it in point of time and development, many of which are associated together in one volume known as the "zohar" which is in the main concerned with the essential dignities of the godhead, with the emanations which have sprung therefrom, with the doctrine of the sephiroth, the ideals of macroprosopus and microprosopus, and the doctrine of re-incarnation. the "sepher yetzirah" on the other hand, is mainly concerned with our universe and with the microcosm. the opinions of hebrew kabalistic rabbis and of modern mystics may be fitly introduced here. the following interesting quotation is from rabbi moses botarel, who wrote his famous commentary in 1409-"it was abraham our father--blessed be he--who wrote this book to condemn the doctrine of the sages of h

e author of good. the second sect admitted three great powers; two of them as in the first case, and a third power whose function was to decide between the two others, a supreme arbitrator. the third sect recognised no god beside the sun, in which it recognised the sole principle of existence" rabbi judah ha l vi (who flourished about 1120, in his critical description of this treatise, wrote "the sepher yetzirah teaches us the existence of a single divine power by shewing us that in the bosom of variety and multiplicity there is a unity and harmony, and that such universal concord could only arise from the rule of a supreme unity" according to isaac myer, in his quabbalah (p. 159, the "sepher yetzirah" was referred to in the writings of ibn gebirol of cordova, commonly called avicebron, wh

t in the bosom of variety and multiplicity there is a unity and harmony, and that such universal concord could only arise from the rule of a supreme unity" according to isaac myer, in his quabbalah (p. 159, the "sepher yetzirah" was referred to in the writings of ibn gebirol of cordova, commonly called avicebron, who died in a.d. 1070. eliphas levi, the famous french occultist, thus wrote of the "sepher yetzirah" in his histoire de la magie, p. 54 "the zohar is a genesis of illumination, the sepher jezirah is a ladder formed of truths. therein are explained the thirty-two absolute signs of sounds, numbers and letters: each letter reproduces a number, an idea and a form; so that mathematics are capable of application to ideas and to forms not less rigorously than to numbers, by exact propor

e zohar is a genesis of illumination, the sepher jezirah is a ladder formed of truths. therein are explained the thirty-two absolute signs of sounds, numbers and letters: each letter reproduces a number, an idea and a form; so that mathematics are capable of application to ideas and to forms not less rigorously than to numbers, by exact proportion and perfect correspondence. by the science of the sepher jezirah the human spirit is fixed to truth, and in reason, and is able to take account of the possible development of intelligence by the evolutions of numbers. the zohar represents absolute truth, and the sepher jezirah provides the means by which we may seize, appropriate and make use of it" upon another page eliphas l vi writes "the sepher jezirah and the apocalypse are the masterpieces

we may seize, appropriate and make use of it" upon another page eliphas l vi writes "the sepher jezirah and the apocalypse are the masterpieces of occultism; they contain more wisdom than words; their expression is as figurative as poetry, and at the same time it is as exact as mathematics. in the volume entitled la kabbale by the eminent french scholar, adolphe franck, there is a chapter on the "sepher yetzirah" he writes as follows "the book of formation contains, i will not say system of physics, but of cosmology such as could be conceived at an age and in a country where the habit of explaining all phenomena by the immediate action of the first cause, tended to check the spirit of observation, and where in consequence certain general and superficial relations perceived in the natural w

the spirit of observation, and where in consequence certain general and superficial relations perceived in the natural world passed for the science of nature "its form is simple and grave; there is nothing like a demonstration nor an argument; but it consists rather of a series of aphorisms, regularly grouped, and which have all the conciseness of the most ancient oracles" in his analysis of the "sepher yetzirah" he adds-"the book of formation, even if it be not very voluminous, and if it do not altogether raise us to very elevated regions of thought, yet offers us at least a composition which is very homogeneous and of a rare originality. the clouds which the imagination of commentators have gathered around it, will be dissipated, if we look for, in it, not mysteries of ineffable wisdom

e last word of this system is the substitution of the absolute divine unity for every idea of dualism, for that pagan philosophy which saw in matter an eternal substance whose laws were not in accord with divine will; and for the biblical doctrine, which by its idea of creation, postulates two things, the universe and god, as two substances absolutely distinct one from the other "in fact, in the 'sepher yetzirah' god considered as the infinite and consequently the indefinable being, extended throughout all things by his power and existence, is while above, yet not outside of numbers, sounds and letters--the principles and general laws which we recognise "every element has its source from a higher form, and all things have their common origin from the word (logos, the holy spirit. so god is

ved in the reign of the emperor titus, a.d. 70-80, is considered to have been the first to commit these to writing, and rabbi moses de leon, of guadalaxara, in spain, who died in 1305, certainly reproduced and published the "zohar" ginsburg, speaking of the zoharic doctrines of the ain suph, says that they were unknown until the thirteenth century, but he does not deny the great antiquity of the "sepher yetzirah" in which it will be noticed the "ain suph aur" and "ain suph" are not mentioned.i suggest, however, that this omission is no proof that the doctrines of "ain suph aur" and "ain suph" did not then exist, because it is a reasonable supposition that the "sepher yetzirah" was the volume assigned to the yetziratic world, the third of the four kabalistic worlds of emanation, while the "

est world of shells, and is on the face of it an alchemical treatise; and again the "siphra dtzenioutha" may be fittingly considered to be an aziluthic work, treating of the emanations of deity alone; and there was doubtless a fourth work assigned to the world of briah -the second type, but i have not been able to identify this treatise. both the babylonian and the jerusalem talmuds refer to the "sepher yetzirah" their treatise, named "sanhedrin" certainly mentions the "book of formation" and another similar work; and rashi in his commentary on the treatise "erubin" considers this a reliable historical notice.other historical notices are those of saadya gaon, who died a.d. 940, and judah ha levi, a.d. 1150; both these hebrew classics speak of it as a very ancient work. some modern critics

r idea as having no real basis. the talmuds were first collected into a concrete whole, and printed in venice, 1520 a.d. the "zohar" was first printed in mantua in 1558; again in cremona, 1560; and at lublin, 1623; and a fourth edition by knorr von rosenroth, at sulzbach in 1684. some parts are not very ancient, because the crusades are mentioned in one chapter. six extant hebrew editions of the "sepher yetzirah" were collected and printed at lemberg in 1680. the oldest of these six recensions was that of saadjah gaon (by some critics called spurious).there are still extant three latin versions, viz, that of gulielmus postellus; one by johann pistorius; and a third by joannes stephanus rittangelius; this latter gives both hebrew and latin versions, and also "the thirty-two paths" as a supp

edition by peter davidson, 1896, to which are added "the fifty gates of intelligence" and "the thirty-two ways of wisdom" the edition which i now offer is fundamentally that of the ancient hebrew codices translated into english, and collated with the latin versions of pistorius, postellus, and rittangelius, following the latter, rather than the former commentators. as to the authenticity of "the sepher yetzirah" students may refer to the bibliotheca magna rabbinica of bartoloccio de cellerio, rome, 1678-1692; to basnage, history of the jews, 1708; and to the doctrine and literature of the kabalah, by a. b. waite, 1902.the following copies of the "sepher yetzirah" in hebrew, i have also examined, but only in a superficial manner- 1. a version by saadiah, ab. ben david, and three others, ma

cum commentario rabbi abraham f.d. super 32 semitis sapientiae, a quibus liber jezirah incipit: translatus et notis illustratus a joanne stephano rittangelio, ling. orient. in elect. acad. regiomontana prof. extraord" amstelodami, 1642.in tomas primus of "artis cabalisticae hoc est reconditae theologiae et philosophiae scriptorum" basileae 1587, is found "liber de creatione cabalistinis, hebraice sepher jezira; authore abrahamo. successive filiis ore traditus. hinc jam rebus israel inclinatis ne deficeret per sapientes hierusalem arcanis et profundissimis sensibus literis commendatus" johannes pistorius. the "sepher yetzirah" consists of six chapters, having 33 paragraphs distributed among them, in this manner: the first has 12, then follow 5, 5, 4, 3, and 4. yet in some versions the parag

i have made a short definition of the subject-matter of each chapter. the substance of this little volume was read as lecture before "the hermetic society of london" in the summer of 1886, dr. anna kingsford, president, in the chair. some of the notes were the explanations given verbally, and subsequently in writing, to members of the society who asked for information upon abstruse points in the "sepher" and for collateral doctrines; others, of later date, are answers which have been given to students of theosophy and hermetic philosophy, and to my pupils of the study groups of the rosicrucian society of england. sepher yetzirah the book of formation chapter i section 1. in thirty-two (1) mysterious paths of wisdom did jah (2) the jehovah of hosts (3) the god of israel (4) the living elohi

he two eyes, the two ears, the mouth and the two nostrils. so with the seven are formed the seven heavens (41) the seven earths, and the seven periods of time; and so has he preferred the number seven above all things under his heaven (42) supplement to chapter iv note--this is one of several modern illustrations of the allotment of the seven letters; it is not found in the ancient copies of the "sepher yetzirah" he produced beth, and referred it to wisdom; he crowned it, combined and formed with it the moon in the universe, the first day of the week, and the right eye of man. he produced gimel, and referred it to health; he crowned it, combined and joined with it mars in the universe, the second day of the week, and the right ear of man. he produced daleth, and referred it to fertility; h

le letters and sounds. 3. behold now these are the twenty and two letters from which jah, jehovah tzabaoth, the living elohim, the god of israel, exalted and sublime, the dweller in eternity, formed and established all things; high and holy is his name. supplement to chapter v note--this is a modern illustration of the allotment of the twelve letters; it is not found in the ancient copies of the "sepher yetzirah" 1. god produced h predominant in speech, crowned it, combined and formed with it aries in the universe, nisan in the year, and the right foot of man. 2. he produced vau, predominant in mind, crowned it, combined and formed with it taurus in the universe, aiar in the year, and the right kidney of man. 3. he produced zain, predominant in movement crowned it, combined and formed it w

the tongue (57) and he formed the twentytwo letters into speech (58) and shewed him all the mysteries of them (59) he drew them through the waters; he burned them in the fire; he vibrated them in the air; seven planets in the heavens, and twelve celestial constellations of the stars of the zodiac- the end of "the book of formation- the fifty gates of intelligence attached to some editions of the "sepher yetzirah" is found this scheme of kabalistic classification of knowledge emanating from the second sephira binah, understanding, and descending by stages through the angels, heavens, humanity, animal and vegetable and mineral kingdoms to hyle and the chaos. the kabalists said that one must enter and pass up through the gates to attain to the thirty-two paths of wisdom; and that even moses o

he thirty-first path is the perpetual intelligence; but why is it so called? because it regulates the motions of the sun and moon in their proper order, each in an orbit convenient for it. the thirty-second path is the administrative intelligence, and it is so called because it directs and associates the motions of the seven planets, directing all of them in their own proper courses. notes to the sepher yetzirah it is of considerable importance to a clear understanding of this occult treatise that the whole work be read through before comment is made, so that the general idea of the several chapters may become in the mind one concrete whole. a separate consideration of the several parts should follow this general grasp of the subject, else much confusion may result. this hook may be consid

f the astro-theosophic schemes of the rosicrucians. to obtain the full value of this treatise, it should he studied hand in hand with hermetic attributions, the "isiac tablet" and with a complete set of the designs, symbols and allocation of the trump cards of the tarot pack, for which see my translation of the sanctum regnum of the tarot, by eliphas levi. note that the oldest mss. copies of the "sepher yetzirah" have no vowel points: the latest editions have them. the system of points in writing hebrew was not perfected until the seventh century, and even then was not in constant use. ginsburg asserts that the system of vowel pointing was invented by a rabbi mocha in palestine about a.d. 570, who designed it to assist his pupils. but isaac myer states that there are undoubted traces of po

THE KEY TO THE MYSTERIES

o signs and numbers; by its combinations, it realizes the mathematics of thought. solomon represented this alphabet by seventy-two names, written upon thirty-six talismans. eastern initiates still call these the "little keys" or clavicles of solomon. these keys are described, and their use explained, in a book the source of whose traditional dogma is the patriarch abraham. this book is called the sepher yetzirah; with the aid of the sepher yetzirah one can penetrate the xiii hidden sense of the zohar, the great dogmatic treatise of the qabalah of the hebrews. the clavicles of solomon, forgotten in the course of time, and supposed lost, have been rediscovered by ourselves; without trouble we have opened all the doors of those old sanctuaries where absolute truth seemed to sleep- always youn

four; and it reenters thus into the symbolism of the septenary. each letter represents a number: each assemblage of letters, a series of numbers. 184 the numbers represent absolute philosophical ideas. the letters are shorthand hieroglyphs. let us see now the hieroglyphic and philosophical significations of each of the twenty-two letters("vide" bellarmin, reuchlin, saint- jerome, kabala denudata, sepher yetzirah, technica curiosa of father schott, picus de mirandola, and other authors, especially those of the collection of pistorius. the mothers the iod- the absolute principle, the productive being. the mem- spirit, or the jakin of solomon. the schin- matter, or the column called boaz. the double letters beth. reflection, thought, the moon, the angel gabriel, prince of mysteries. gimel. lo

t hermetic arcanum. we have just said that alchemy is the daughter of the qabalah; to convince oneself of the truth of this it is sufficient to look at the symbols of flamel, of basil valentine, the pages of the jew abraham, and the more or less apocryphal oracles of the emerald table of hermes. everywhere one finds the traces of that decade of pythagoras, which is so magnificently applied in the sepher yetzirah to the complete and absolute notion of divine things, that decade composed of unity and a triple ternary which the rabbis have 192 called the berashith, and the mercavah, the luminous tree of the sephiroth, and the key of the shemhamphorash. we have spoken at some length in our book entitled "dogme et rituel de la haute magie" of a hieroglyphic monument (preserved up to our own tim

ays that lazarus "by this time stinketh, for he hath been dead four days" one may then attribute this remark to imagination- e. l. rather to the arrogance of the a priori reasoner- trans) let us now come to the secret of the great work, which we have given only in hebrew, without vowel points, in the "rituel de la haute magie" here is the complete text in latin, as one finds in on page 144 of the sepher yetzirah, commented by the alchemist abraham (amsterdam, 1642: 216 semita xxxi vocatur intelligentia perpetua; et quare vocatur ita? eo quod ducit motum solis et lunae juxta constitutionem eorum; utrumque in orbe sibi conveniente. rabbi abraham f. d. dicit: semita trigesima prima vocatur intelligentia perpetua: et illa ducit solem et lunam et reliquas stellas et figuras, unum quodque in orb

THE MAGICIAN S KABBALAH

our line of examination is undoubtedly the publication of christian knorr von rosenroth's (1636-89 "kabbala denudata" in latin in 1677 and 1684, which provided translations from the zohar and extracts from the works of issac luria. it was this work which, when translated into english by macgregor mathers (1854-1918) in 1887 as "the kabbalah unveiled, alongside already existing translations of the sepher yetzirah, provided the kabbalistic backbone of the golden dawn society, from which issued many of the more recent occult kabbalists, such as dion fortune (1891-1946, who summarised the sephiroth in her "mystical kabbalah (1935) and aleister crowley (1898-1947. the christian occultist, and golden dawn member, a.e. waite also produced many works examining the secret tradition of kabbalah, alt

agon or serpent. it can be noted that a rearrangement of the letters of kthr gives krth, meaning "to cut off, and "divine punishment, hence referring that any deviation from the crown brings about a fall from the state of grace represented by kether. kl, to comprehend, measure, all every, whole, any, referring to kether as the all and the highest comprehension (the "admirable intelligence" as the sepher yetzirah entitles it, also "invisible intelligence" in that if something is everything, it cannot ever be perceived because there is nowhere outside it to perceive it from. thus "occult" and "unspeakable" experiences are so because they defy comprehension as they partake of this ultimate ground of reality. lk, a word meaning "to you" and hence can be seen as the mystical return up the tree

d positive in respect of binah("understanding, the third sephirah. it connects to kether, binah, tiphareth and chesed, and the linking paths have the following tarot cards attributed to them; fool, empress, emperor, and hierophant. in the berakhot (7a, it is written "the beginning of thought, and the first revelation of the array, is the second sefirah, which is called chockmah-wisdom, and in the sepher yetzirah, chockmah is more fully defined as "the illuminating intelligence, the crown of creation, the splendour of unity, equalling it. it is exalted above every head, and is named by kabbalists the second glory. chockmah is essentially the concept of force, dynamism, and energy. it is the extension of the point of kether, contracted from the ain, into manifestation as a line. in terms of

ry system to learn to balance these states both within and without, to ensure that tiphareth, the pivotal point of the tree, is maintained in a dynamic equilibrium. the zohar puts it that the "left arm draws the immensity of space in rigour, and that geburah is associated with the "repentance of god" and the archangel samael. it also points out that mercy and severity are united in tiphareth. the sepher yetzirah states "the fifth path is called the radical intelligence, because it is more similar than any other to the supreme unity and emanates from the depths of the primordial wisdom" it is the conciliatory force, restricting and directing the expansion of chesed. the link with kether is in its role in defining the process of zimzum as din, which will be examined later in this chapter. th

iscovery of background radiation from the edge of the cosmos is written of in identical terms, as the epoch of recombination, the first ripples of cosmic structure, and is the stage where light was set free from the foggy soup of radiation. dion fortune writes that "binah is perpetually binding force into form, and geburah perpetually breaking down form via the preserving influence of chesed. the sepher ha-temunah, amongst other works, uses the doctrine of cosmic cycles associated with the sephiroth. these cycles or the "shemittah, are said to last 6000 years, and are associated with the 7 sephiroth below the abyss, thus making 42,000 years (or 49,000 years if the cycle is 7000 years, leaving the last 8000 or 1000 years to complete the "great jubilee (the jubilee is a period of 50 years. i

ed on the eve of the sabbath, states that the cup signifying reception contains red wine, expressing an aspect of geburah, but has a small amount of water added to represent the mercy of chesed. it is important in all acts to harmonise geburah and chesed in tiphareth to achieve equilibrium, as will be examined in the following chapter. chapter nine; tiphareth, the hub of sacrifice the text of the sepher yetzirah regards tiphareth as a "mediating intelligence" which multiplies the flow of emanations into it, and communicates these emanations to those who unite with it. thus is tiphareth the centre of the tree, acting as a functioning nexus for the operations of the sephiroth. as a mediator (from the latin, meaning "middle, tiphareth can function as a translator and diplomat, organising the

s analysis as yod, nun, resh and yod. i virgo isis n scorpio apophis r sun osiris i virgo isis thus, as with the tetragrammaton of yhvh, the formula repeats a key letter to indicate that events cycle through growth, death, rebirth and growth again. tiphareth might be the top of one mountain, but is also the beginning of another climb altogether. chapter ten; netzach, the rose in the lamplight the sepher yetzirah deems netzach "the hidden intelligence, for it pours forth a brilliant splendour onto all intellectual virtues which are looked upon with the eyes of the spirit and the ecstasy of faith" in most readings, netzach is described as the seat of the emotions, partnering hod, the seat of the intellect. as the base of the positive pillar, and as the first of the sephiroth in the creative

n ones own arrangement of them through the universe atu, or ones own cosmology. chapter thirteen; malkuth, the kingdom of the shells "the tenth path is called the resplendent intelligence because it is exalted above every head and sits upon the throne of binah. it illuminates the splendours of all the lights, and causes an influence to emanate from the prince of countenances, the angel of kether (sepher yetzirah) malkuth, in hebrew mlkvth (mem, lamed, kaph, vau, tau, translates as "kingdom" and "reign, and is the name of the tenth sephiroth of the tree of life. an examination of the letters that compose this word may shed light upon the nature of the "kingdom" itself. this can be done in three ways; first, numerically; second, by analysis of the translation of the letters; and third, by an

ppropriate to the working as they are not consistent themselves with the area being worked. there are many forms of gematria- one list gives seventy-two forms, and moses corovero listed nine major systems. the most basic is obviously taking the value of the letters and adding them up, then discovering what other words total to the same value. for this purpose, many occultists keep and maintain a "sepher sephiroth" or 'book of numbers, which functions as a numerological dictionary. the main numbers used by crowley are to be found in many of his works, the most important numbers being 31, 93, 418 and 666. crowley also produced "liber mcclxiv, a dictionary based on greek words and phrases and their numerations. a few numbers from my own sepher sephiroth are given below: 10: value of yod; dah

tens, hundreds and so forth, base two works in columns of powers of two. these can be attributed to the sephiroth in succession to reveal the following meanings; kether 1 value of aleph chockmah 2 value of beth binah 4 value of daleth; also 2+2 and 2*2 chesed 8 ahb (to love) geburah 16 aih (hawk) tiphareth 32 ichid (oneness; number of sephiroth+paths netzach 64 nvgh (venus) hod 128 no words in my sepher sephiroth yesod 256 ditto malkuth 512 ditto 2. grade passwords these words, listed in crowley's "777, were created to equal numbers which are produced by simply adding cumulatively, i.e. 1, 1+2=3, 1+2+3=6, 1+2+3+4=10 and so forth; kether 1 value of aleph chockmah 3 ab (father, source) binah 6 gg (covering of altar; ha (existence, airhole) chesed 10 bdd (to be secluded; dah (to fly, soar) ge

intermediate states in a network of interactions, where the lines (see diagram 1) are "reaction channels" through which energy flows. it shows that particles are "events" and not "things. equally, we must see kabbalah as a dynamic process, a verb and not a noun. the interaction region inside the circles of an s-matrix or the tree of life is "blurred and unspecified" as one scientist puts it. the sepher yetzirah says this of the sephiroth "their end is lost in infinity. the word of god moves in them; leaving and returning ceaselessly like a whirlwind, they execute the divine word in an instant" the paths, on the other hand, as kircher puts it, are "luminous roads by which one can attain the hidden centres. that is to say, the paths are the observable symptoms of the process depicted by the

t of guesses everytime we choose a position where the battleship is not eventually outline the shape of the hidden vessel. magical initiation is the process of removing the guesses and that which is left, as arthur conan doyle puts it "however improbable, must be the truth" or at least, certainly narrow down the area which is the truth. the classic text dealing with the paths is that found in the sepher yetzirah. however, it reads very much like a series of unintelligible zen koans, and it may be that they are most accessible by prolonged meditation and intuition, rather than a full-frontal analytical attack. i offer here a few notes as to their relationships in terms of the pillars and the triads (see diagram 2. it should also be noted that the descriptions offered by the text seem to des

st accessible by prolonged meditation and intuition, rather than a full-frontal analytical attack. i offer here a few notes as to their relationships in terms of the pillars and the triads (see diagram 2. it should also be noted that the descriptions offered by the text seem to describe some paths in their descending context and functions, and others in their ascending context. it may be that the sepher yetzirah was pieced together from fragmentary notes of larger, oral, commentaries. diagram part a the pillar of severity is composed of paths 18 and 23, which both indicate the "formative" nature of the pillar. path 18 is described as the "house of affluence, from which are drawn hidden meanings. this refers to binah, from which the path runs, as understanding, and geburah, as discernment

n this would be the case. in a sense, the path also acts as a reflection in a lower order of path 14 above it, which is the "institutor of arcana, foundation of holiness. in more mundane terms, we can see that path 14 refers to nature, and path 19 below it refers to our relationship to nature. path 20 "prepares beings individually for the demonstration of the existence of wisdom, according to the sepher yetzirah. as we have already seen "wisdom" is one of the meanings of chockmah, and as this path connects chesed to tiphareth, we can see that chesed acts as a "precursor" of chockmah, manifesting itself to the initiate of tiphareth as "loving kindness, as if to say "there is a wisdom governing the universe. the tarot card of the path is the hermit, and we can see that he acts as a "demonstr

the tree, the expansive nature of chesed. when these two aspects are merged, we gain the true essence of will; that we are unalterably part of the process of the universe in manifestation, and our realisation of this state is our will, and everything else is klippoth, or a "shell" that separates us from our actual nature. path 22 is that to which the "justice" tarot card is attributed, and as the sepher yetzirah states "spiritual virtues are deposited and augmented within it. that is, the process of geburah at any level or in any system is that of "discernment, sorting the wheat from the chaff. this particular path is where that process is seen to be taking place, as "justice, or as crowley retitled the card "adjustment; doing so to indicate that the card had no relation to our usual, limi

a loose-leafed folder of lined paper, and write down the margin the numbers one to about nine hundred, allowing two or three lines for each number. then, using the values given in table one(b, calculate out the total value of words relating to the tree of life. table one of chapter two gives some basic calculations for the titles of the sephiroth and so forth, and these can be noted in your own "sepher sephiroth, or 'book of numbers. purchase or loan from a library a hebrew-english dictionary and even better a bible in hebrew and english. select words of interest and add them to their appropriate values in your folder. note if certain numbers have themes of words. add to this dictionary as you advance your studies, and perhaps you will find numbers being presented to you in dreams, or set

THE MIDDLE PILLAR

ion, many important qabalistic words have the numerical value of thrteen, including achad (yilk "unity" and ahavah( 7 1 7 k "love" other words tied to this number include gahah (ti "healing" or "health; ziv (lt "glory; and hegeh (717 "to separate" or "to imagine" the thrteenth key of the tarot is titled "death" and it is attributed to scorpio, transformation, and change. the thrteenth path of the sepher yetzirah, an important qabalistic text, corresponds to the tarot card of "the high priestess" and is attributed to the moon. ths path is the primary conduit by which the higher, divine consciousness flows down to lower levels. it is also a path of change. interestingly, thirteen multiplied by two is twenty-six, the value of yhvh (7137) and kabedh (712 "to honor" the twenty-sixth path of the

epher yetzirah, an important qabalistic text, corresponds to the tarot card of "the high priestess" and is attributed to the moon. ths path is the primary conduit by which the higher, divine consciousness flows down to lower levels. it is also a path of change. interestingly, thirteen multiplied by two is twenty-six, the value of yhvh (7137) and kabedh (712 "to honor" the twenty-sixth path of the sepher yetzirah is attributed to the tarot card of "the devil" to which is assigned the powers of material force and generation. thirteen multiplied by three is thrty-nine, the value of yhvh achad('tilt4 71;t7) or "yhvh is one" thuteen multiplied by four is fifty-two, the number of yhvh spelled 0ut.19 it is also the value of aima (kt37k, the supernal mother and ben (11, the reconciling son. finall

he completion of cosmic manifestation. twenty-one is the value of eheieh (vnn, the divine name of kether. eheieh is one of the highest names that is associated with the act of creation. figure 12: the pentagram and pentagon. 190 the balanceb etweenm ind and magic other words that correspond to the number twenty-one are hagig (212n "meditationff and khezev (lth "vision" the twentyfirst path of the sepher yetzirah is called "the wheel of fortune" and it is attributed to the planet jupiter. in addition, the mystic number of tiphareth is twenty-one. the total length of all lines on the pentagram (twenty-one multiplied by five) is 105, which is formed by adding all the numbers from one to fourteen. the fourteenth key of the tarot is "temperance" the card of the hga or higher self. the fourteent

h is called "the wheel of fortune" and it is attributed to the planet jupiter. in addition, the mystic number of tiphareth is twenty-one. the total length of all lines on the pentagram (twenty-one multiplied by five) is 105, which is formed by adding all the numbers from one to fourteen. the fourteenth key of the tarot is "temperance" the card of the hga or higher self. the fourteenth path of the sepher yetzirah is attributed to daleth (1)th, e "door" of initiation. fourteen is also a number associated with the hebrew words atad (tun "thorn, the piercer; debach (hll "sacrifice; gaye (ryi "rising earth; dai?'i "abundance; david( l l l "beloved; habhab (lnln "sacrificial offering; hadah (tl "to direct with the hand; yod (t "hand; and zahav (l7t "gold" other words associated with the number 1

THE SECRET RITUALS OF THE OTO

of jewish origin, but there is no hard evidence of this and it is clear that, nominally at least, he was a catholic, for there is a surviving record of his son s baptism. nevertheless, he had undoubtedly been deeply influenced by a somewhat debased variety of jewish mysticism, for he was a devotee of the degenerate version of qabalistic magic presented in such works as the key of solomon and the sepher ratziel. the order of elect cohens was founded at bordeaux in 1760 six years earlier de pasqually had unsuccessfully attempted to found an organization called the scottish judges which may well have been a first attempt to establish a magical/masonic link-up and quickly acquired a surprisingly large number of initiates. the membership (confined to those who had already taken the three degre

THE HOLY BIBLE KING JAMES VERSION

caleb the son of jephunneh he gave a part among the children of judah, according to the commandment of the lord to joshua [even] the city of arba the father of anak, which [city is] hebron. 15:14 and caleb drove thence the three sons of anak, sheshai, and ahiman, and talmai, the children of anak. 15:15 and he went up thence to the inhabitants of debir: and the name of debir before [was] kirjath- sepher. 15:16 and caleb said, he that smiteth kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will i give achsah my daughter to wife. 15:17 and othniel the son of kenaz, the brother of caleb, took it: and he gave him achsah his daughter to wife. 15:18 and it came to pass, as she came [unto him] that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off [her] ass; and caleb said unto her, what woul

the children of judah went down to fight against the canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley. 1:10 and judah went against the canaanites that dwelt in hebron (now the name of hebron before [was] kirjath- arba) and they slew sheshai, and ahiman, and talmai. 1:11 and from thence he went against the inhabitants of debir: and the name of debir before [was] kirjath-sepher: 1:12 and caleb said, he that smiteth kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will i give achsah my daughter to wife. 1:13 and othniel the son of kenaz, caleb s younger brother, took it: and he gave him achsah his daughter to wife. 1:14 and it came to pass, when she came [to him] that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off [her] ass; and caleb said unto her, what

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

, the golden dawn (st. paul: llewellyn publications, revised edition, 1989, 288-92. 11. agrippa, occult philosophy, 371. 12. mathers, trans, the book of the sacred magic of abramelin the mage (new york: dover publications, 1975, 57. 13. agrippa, occult philosophy, 318-27. 14. knight, a practical guide to qabalistic symbolism, 2 vols (new york: samuel weiser, 1978, vol. i, 37. 15. westcott, trans, sepher yetzirah (york beach, maine: samuel weiser, 1980, 15. 16. hermes trismegistus "the emerald tablet' occult philosophy, 71 1. 17. larousse encyclopedia of mythology (new york: prometheus press, 1960, 328. 18. regardie, the golden dawn, 82. 19. mathers, trans, the kabbalah unveiled (london: routledge& kegan paul ltd, 1962, plate iv facing p. 30. 20. crowley, book of thoth, 53. 21. waite, picto

TYSON DONALD SOUL FLIGHT

seems to be floating in a brilliant blaze of glory in kether, with the kerubim circling all around."201 the tree of life is derived from the system of jewish mysticism known as the kabbalah, which westcott and mathers incorporated into the teachings of the golden dawn. the kabbalah was developed mainly in europe during the middle ages and the renaissance, although portions of it, such as the text sepher yetzirah, are much older. the tree was an attempt to represent in a single diagram the stages in the emanation of the universe from the undifferentiated godhead to the physical environment that most people think of as surrounding them. kabbalists understood the process not so much as a creation, but as a coming forth or extension of the divine essence in ten stages, which were called sephir

ths that link pairs of sephiroth are described descending from higher sephirah to lower sephirah. included with each path is the corresponding verse from a short kabbalistic tract known as the thirty-two paths of wisdom, which was often bound under the same cover chapter thirteen: pathworking 231 with the seminal work of the kabbalah, sephirah yetzirah. the translation is from the 1887 edition of sepher yetzirah by william wynn westcott, one of the original human chiefs of the golden dawn. meditation on these verses is sometimes helpful in conceiving the astral appearance of the paths on the tree. 1. kether (crown) divine name: eheieh (i am) archangelic name: metatron correspondence: primum mobile "the first path is called the admirable or the hidden intelligence (the highest crown: for it

TYSON DONALD THE POWER OF THE WORD

hawa (the void between heaven and earth, leading to the interpretation "he who rides the wind" or "he who makes the winds to blow" earlier speculations that there is a connection between tetragrammaton and the greek god of thunderbolts (jehovah= jove, or with the gnostic deity iao, are generally discounted (although gershom scholem finds a connection between iao and the truncated name ihv used in sepher yetzirah to seal the six directions of space-see scholem, kabbalah, p. 27. so are wilder claims that the name can be traced back to ancient china, egypt, or babylonia. all these propositions have been put forth at different times, but there is little hard evidence to support them. the pronunciation jehovah, which occurs in many english bibles, including the king james, is the result of an e

te and destroy, for human ends. according to the esoteric doctrine of the jewish mystic-magicians known as kabbalists, the structure of tetragrammaton forms the blueprint upon which the entire universe of space and time, matter and energy, good and evil, humans and angels, is based. the name does not merely reflect the makeup of the world-it is the world. in the most ancient book of the kabbalah, sepher yetzirah (the book of formation, it is written "he selected three letters from among the simple ones and sealed them and formed them into a great name, i h v, and with this he sealed the universe in six directions. he looked above, and sealed the height with i h v he looked below and sealed the depth with i v h. he looked forward, and sealed the east with h i v. he looked backward, and seal

ame, i h v, and with this he sealed the universe in six directions. he looked above, and sealed the height with i h v he looked below and sealed the depth with i v h. he looked forward, and sealed the east with h i v. he looked backward, and sealed the west with h v i. he looked 8 tetragrammaton to the right, and sealed the south with v i h. he looked to the left, and sealed the north with v h i (sepher yetzirah, westcott translation [new york: weiser, 19801, p. 17. the very substance of space itself is composed of the letters of ihvh. only three letters of the name are employed, not all four, because it is possible to permute three letters in six different ways, and in three-dimensional space there are six fundamental directions-up, down; before, behind; left, right. this is sufficient, b

he name are employed, not all four, because it is possible to permute three letters in six different ways, and in three-dimensional space there are six fundamental directions-up, down; before, behind; left, right. this is sufficient, because there are only three different letters in the name, the h being repeated. in the later kabbalistic theory of the zohar, which was written centuries after the sepher yetzirah, the relationship between tetragrammaton and the creation of the world became more complex and specific. to understand this relationship, it is necessary to say a few words about the doctrine of emanations. kabbalists hold that creation, all forms of creation of being from nothingness, occurred and continues to occur through the mediation of ten spheres of living sacred fire called

us (sun-earth, mars (earthsun; jupiter (moon-earth, and saturn (earth-moon. mercury is formed of all three, moon-sun-earth. it is highly instructive to compare the structure of the planets with the structure of tetragrammaton. the sun corresponds with the initial yod. the moon is the first he. mercury is the threefold aspect of the name, ihv, out of which the six directions of space are formed in sepher etzirah. there are six possible permutations of the glyph for mercury. the paired planets venus-mars and jupiter-saturn may be related to the fourfold ihvh itself, because these four planets have in them the principle of earth, yet are not complete individually, but only when considered as a set. these three principles, under the names cardinal, fixed, and mutable, together with the four oc

ad heard and seen him, that he would also tell him his name, that when he offered sacrifice he might invoke him by such his name in his oblations. whereupon god declared to him his holy name, which had never been discovered to men before; concerning which it is not lawful for me to say any more (antiquities of the jews [first century, bk. 2, ch. 12, sec. 4 [london: george routledge, n.d.1, p. 66) sepher yetzirah he selected three letters from among the simple ones and sealed them and formed them into a great name, ihv, and with this he sealed the universe in six directions (sepher yetzirah [third century, wynn westcott edition [new york: weiser, 19801, p. 17) and from the non-existent he made something; and all forms of speech and everything that has been produced; from the empty void he m

: weiser, 19801, p. 17) and from the non-existent he made something; and all forms of speech and everything that has been produced; from the empty void he made the material world, and from the inert earth he brought forth everything that hath life. he hewed, as it were, vast columns out of the intangible air, and by the power of his name made every creature and everything that is (ibid, pp. 18-9) sepher ha-bahir it is thus written (micah 2:13 "god (yhvh) is at their head" we have a rule that every name that is written yud, heh, vav, heh is specific to the blessed holy one and is sanctified with holiness (the bahir [twelfth century, aryeh kaplan translation [york beach, maine: weiser, 19891, p. 25) appendix b: commentaries on tetragrammaton moses maimonides it is well known that all the nam

WAITE ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM

ered zion, but the word did not come back into their hearts; and when divine providence inspired cyrus to bring about the building of the second temple and the return of israel into their own land, they went back empty of all, recollection in this respect. the divine name i am putting things in a summary fashion that are scattered up and down the vast text with which i am dealing- that is to say, sepher ha zohar, the book of splendor. the word to which reference is made is the divine name out of the consonants of which, he, vau, he, yod, we have formed jehovah, or more accurately yahve. when israel fell into a state which is termed impenitence it is said in the zoharic symbolism that the vau and the he final were separated. the name was dismembered, and this is the first sense of loss whic

WEOR SAMAEL AUN ESOTERIC COURSE OF KABBLAH

escucha siempre a sus devotos. en la tierra sagrada de los vedas, fue el iluminado ramakrishna, uno de los m s grandes devotos. quer is las alturas del nirvikalpasamadhi? necesit is desarrollar a anubaya (percepci n de vuestro dios interno en la meditaci n) quer is la ciencia de jinas. recordad que ten is una madre adorable "pedid y se os dar "golpead y se os abrir. 21 arcanum 3 remember that the sepher yetzirah marvelously describes all the splendors of the world and the extraordinary play3 of the sephiroth in god and in man through the thirty two paths of wisdom. the entire science of the sephiroth is hidden within the sexual mysteries. the soul has three aspects: 1. nephesh, the animal soul. 2. ruach, the thinking soul. 3. meshamah, the spiritual soul. the sephiroth are the substratum o

o origo spiritual principle i. a o is the supreme mantra of the arcanum a.z.f. whosoever wants to raise the soul of the world through the medullar channel must work with the sulfur (fire, with the mercury (water) and with the salt (philosophical earth. it is only in this way that one can be born in spirit and in truth. 3 jeugo extraordinerio is literally extraordinary game arcano iii recordad, el sepher yetzirah describe en forma maravillosa todos los esplendores del mundo y el juego extraordinario de los sephirotes, en dios y en el hombre, por las treinta y dos sendas de la sabidur a. en el misterio de los sexos se oculta toda la ciencia de los sephirotes. el alma tiene tres aspectos: primero nephes, el alma animal. segundo ruach, el alma pensante. tercero mes hamah, el alma espiritual. e

WESTERN MANDALAS OF TRANSFORMATION SR AL

lavan once said "nothingness is more existent than all the being of the world" and the christian mystic meister eckhart echoed this thought when he said that "god's nichts fills the entire world; his something though is nowhere" this "nowhere" is often thought of in qabalistic terms as the chaos from which the divine being created the world. god, it is thought, made the universe from nothing. the sepher yetzirah tells us that "he formed something actual out of chaos and made what is not into what is (2: 6. and the gnostic basilides said that the non-existent god made the cosmos out of the non-existent, casting down and planting a single seed containing within itself the whole seed-mass of the cosmos (jonas, 1963. the book of proverbs tells us "with wisdom god established the earth, with un

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

blished hebraic lore in his talmudic miscellany, and genesis, according to the talmud. 8. the midrash ha zohar of d. h. joel, leipzig, 1849, narrates the relation between the kabalah and platonism, neo-platonism, greek philosophy and the zoroastrian doctrines of the parsees. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott perhaps the oldest extant kabalistic book is the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation, an english translation of which has appeared in three editions from the author s own pen. the fundamentals of the numerical kabalistic ideas on creation are laid down in that treatise; it has also been printed both in french and german, and there is an american edition. upon the mathematical aspect of numbers, readers may consult for further detail in the wor

numbers xxxv. v. 6. there were six things hated by jehovah. prov. vi. v. 16. the seraphim of isaiah had each 6 wings. in a freemasons lodge there are 6 jewels, three of which are immovable and lie open in the lodge for the brethren to moralize upon, while the other three jewels are transferable from one brother to another at the periodical changes of officers. in the hebrew, book of creation, the sepher yetzirah, the hexad is spoken of. the units representing the four quarters of the world; north, south, east and west, and also height and depth, and in the midst of all is the holy temple. see my translation; cap. i. v. ii, and notes. third edition. 1911. the druids had a mysterious religious preference for the number 6. they performed their principal ceremonies on the 6th day of the moon

ys keeps off the quinsy. at 30 years of age jesus began his ministry; joseph was 30 years old when he stood before pharaoh; david was 30 years old when he began to reign; 30 pieces of silver was the price judas received and jair had 30 sons. 31. the number of el, god=al. 1+30. joshua did not complete the conquest of canaan until he had slain 31 kings. 32. the number of the paths of wisdom, of the sepher yetzirah, being 10 sephiroth and 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet. 33. the years of the life of jesus. king david reigned in jerusalem 33 years. the number of vertebrae in the human spinal column. 35. the number of agla, agla, a composite kabalistic wonder-working name. see page 27. 36. abaji said there are never less than 36 holy men of any regeneration upon whom the shekinah does not res

r of adam, adm. the world is preserved for the sake of 45 righteous persons. chullin, 92. 48. there have been 48 prophets in israel. 48 cities were assigned to the levites. 49. moses received 49 reasons for the cleanness and uncleanness of each thing; so says the talmud. 50. the number of the gates of binah (binh) the understanding. the kabalah states that even moses only reached the 49th. see my sepher yetzirah, third edition, 1911. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott 116. 58. noah, nch. 60. aristotle stated that the crocodile lives naturally 60 years, and sits 60 days on 60 eggs. the chinese have a time cycle of 60 years, and call it kya-tse. the people of malabar call this period chi-tam. the talmud refers to 60 deadly drugs and 60 sorts of wines;

mber of bones in the human body. 207. this is the number of ain soph, ain, svp, the boundless, and aur, avr, light, and of adonai olam, adni ovlam, lord of the universe. 216. the cube of six (6; 216 years, the period of the pythagorean metempsychosis. 221. the cup of david in heaven contains 221 logs of wine (about 20 gallons) says the talmud. 231. the sum of the numbers 1 to 21, the gates of the sepher yetzirah. 243. circles of zoir anpin; the number of the permutations, without reversal of the hebrew letters. kalisch. 248.there are 248 members of the body, says talmud eiruvin, 53. 2, and an anathema enters into all of them. the word chrm, accursed, is 248,but so is rchm, mercy. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott 252. it is said that the disciples o

ZALEWSKI GOLDEN DAWN ENOCHIAN MAGIC OCR

should enlighten them when thus harmonized so that therein may be manifested which is emethsh or amethsh, herein as the shin of the divine fire entered, and this order of letters is that of the angles of the tablets, and of the 4 tablets themselves, viz: first is air and aleph. second is water and mem. third is earth and tau. fourth is fire and shin "this again is the order of the elements in the sepher yetzirah' of the qabalah. from these 4 sigils there are the 4 names drawn forth as may follow in order. from the tau with 4 yods or a t surmounted by four yods of the sigillum ameth, t and 4 other letters counting by the rule of 4, 22, 20, 18. from the first letter t thus: this yields the name tahaoelog for the air tablet "the 4th square each time from the last will shew the letter and figu

ZALEWSKI SECRET INNER ORDER RITUALS OF THE GOLDEN DAWN OCR

cales. thus shall the soul, upheld by the firm will, tread under foot the desires of the flesh, and rule her kingdom by the light of the spirit. mercy and truth have met together. righteousness and peace have kissed each other, and in that embrace shall spring the perfected man, ready to face with tranquil mien, whatsoever the day may bring forth: life or death, joy or sorrow. the 21st key of the sepher yetzirah is known as the intelligence of conciliation, and it is so called because it receiveth the divine influences which flow into it from its benediction upon each and all existence" the ch.ad. moves to e. of altar: 2nd ad. hands him the censer. 3rd ad. slips cowl over postulant's eyes and lights the 33 candles. 2nd and 3rd ads. then take their places south and north of the altar, each

he hand of the great mother, a spark of the indwelling glory which ever hallows the holy places of humanity. thus may be loosed the binding cords of desire and lust. thus may he truly dedicate himself, body, soul, life and spirit to the living service, and thus may be at length exchange the robe of earthly darkness for the wedding robe of glory and attain the beatific vision "the 20th path of the sepher yetzirah is called the intelligence of will: it is so called because it is the means of preparation of all and each created being; and by the intelligence the existence of the primordial wisdom becomes known "the 19th path of the sepher yetzirah called me intelligence of the secret of all the activities of the spiritual beings, and it is so called because of the influence diffused by it fro

celebrant the first meaning lies with utter plainness on the surface of the card, and it does not concern us here. it reminds us, however, of the great truth which is commemorated and symbolised in the mysteries of all ages and countries that we must pass ultimately through death to life in the mystical sense. but the time is not yet, nor is the place of the experience here. the 24th path of the sepher yetzirah is called the imaginative intelligence, and it is said to be the ground of similitude in the likeness of beings and of things. the explanation is that the deep things of spiritual life are in correspondence with life manifested in the material world. similar bonds of comparison subsist between pysical and mystical death; both are a veil, and the curtains in both cases aer parted fr

s also literally and ritually the symbol of the second death, and to confront it by a forced entrance would be the attempt to attain spiritual life by going down into hell, and by the worship of satan in the place of god. it would be also as if one should seek to work evil by good, to enthrone the spirit of denial, and to open the abyss that heaven might be swallowed thereby. the 26th path of the sepher yetzirah is called the renewing intelligence, and all renovation in the world is said to be operated therewith. we come in this manner to recognise another aspect of the symbol, as a counterpoise to the previous memorials. satan is also god's emissary; he is life unregenerated, nature on the lower side, which is red in tooth and claw. he answers to the circle of necessity, blind force, and

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