Part 70 (2/2)

And this is why the Essential Name has four letters,--three different ones, and one of them once repeated; since the first He is the wife of the Yod, and the second He is the wife of the Vav.

Those _media_ which manifest the First Cause, in Himself profoundly hidden, are the Sephiroth, which emanate immediately from that First Cause, and by Its Nature have produced and do control all the rest.

These Sephiroth were put forth from the One First and Simple, manifesting His Infinite Goodness. They are the mirrors of His Truth, and the a.n.a.logues of His Supremest Essence, the Ideas of His Wisdom, and the representations of His will; the receptacles of His Potency, and the instruments with which He operates; the Treasury of His Felicity, the dispensers of His Benignity, the Judges of His Kingdom, and reveal His Law; and finally, the Denominations, Attributes, and Names of Him Who is above all and the Cause of all ... the ten categories, wherein all things are contained; the universal genera, which in themselves include all things, and utter them outwardly ... the Second Causes, whereby the First Cause effects, preserves, and governs all things; the rays of the Divinity, whereby all things are illumined and manifested; the Forms and Ideas and Species, out whereof all things issue forth; the Souls and Potencies, whereby essence, life, and movement are given to all things; the Standard of times, whereby all things are measured; the incorporeal s.p.a.ces which, in themselves, hold and inclose the Universe; the Supernal Monads to which all manifolds are referred, and through them to The One and Simple; and finally the Formal Perfections, flowing forth from and still connected with the One Eminent Limitless Perfection, are the Causes of all dependent Perfections, and so illuminate the elementary Intelligences, not adjoined to matter, and the intellectual Souls, and the Celestial, Elemental and Element-produced bodies.

The IDRA SUTA says:

HE, the Most Holy Hidden Eldest, separates Himself, and is ever more and more separated from all that are; nor yet does HE in very deed separate Himself; because all things cohere with Him and HE with All. HE is All that is, the Most Holy Eldest of All, the Occult by all possible occultations.

When HE takes shape, HE produces nine Lights, which s.h.i.+ne forth from Him, from His outforming. And those Lights outs.h.i.+ne from Him and emit flames, and go forth and spread out on every side; as from one elevated Lamp the Rays are poured forth in every direction, and these Rays thus diverging, are found to be, when one approaching has cognizance of them, but a single Lamp.

The s.p.a.ce in which to create is fixed by THE MOST HOLY ANCIENT, and illuminated by His inflowing, which is the Light of Wisdom, and the Beginning from which manifestation flows.

And HE is conformed in three Heads, which are but one Head; and these three are extended into Microprosopos, and from them s.h.i.+nes out all that is.

Then this Wisdom inst.i.tuted invest.i.ture with form, whereby the unmanifested and informous became manifested, putting on form; and produced a certain outflow.

When this Wisdom is thus expanded by flowing forth, then it is called ”Father of Fathers,” the whole Universe of Things being contained and comprehended in it. This Wisdom is the principle of all things, and in it beginning and end are found.

The Book of the Abstruse, says the _Siphra de Zeniutha_, is that which describes the equilibrium of the Balance. Before the Balance was, face did not look toward face.

And the _Commentary_ on it says: The Scales of the Balance are designated as Male and Female. In the Spiritual world Evil and Good are _in equilibrio_, and it will be restored, when of the Evil Good becomes, until all is Good. Also this other world is called the World of the Balance. For, as in the Balance are two scales, one on either side and the beam and needle between them, so too in this world of restoration, the Numerations are arranged as distinct persons. For Hakemah is on the right hand, on the side of Gedulah, and Binah on the left, on the side of Geburah; and Kether is the beam of the Balance above them in the middle. So Gedulah or Khased is on one hand, and Geburah on the other, and under these Tephareth; and Netsach is on one side, and Hod on the other, and under these Yesod.

The Supreme Crown, which is the Ancient Most Holy, the most Hidden of the Hidden, is fas.h.i.+oned, _within_ the occult Wisdom, of both s.e.xes, Male and Female.

Hakemah, and Binah, the Mother, whom it impregnates, are quant.i.tatively equal. Wisdom and the Mother of Intellection go forth at once and dwell together; for when the Intellectual Power emanates, the productive _Source_ of intellection is included in Him.

Before Adam Kadmon was fas.h.i.+oned into Male and Female, and the state of equilibrium introduced, the Father and Mother did not look each other in the face; for the Father denotes most perfect Love, and the Mother most perfect Rigor; and she averted her face.

There is no _left_ [female], says the _Idra Rabba_, in the Ancient and Hidden One; but His totality is Right [male]. The totality of things is HUA, HE, and HE is hidden on every side.

Macroprosopos [Adam Kadmon] is not so near unto us as to speak to us in the first person; but is designated in the third person, HUA, HE.

Of the letters it says:

Yod is male, He is female, Vav is both.

In Yod [?] are three Yods, the upper and the lower apex, and Vav in the middle. By the upper apex is denoted the Supreme Kether; by Vav in the middle, Hakemah; and by the lower apex, Binah.

The IDRA SUTA says:

The Universe was out-formed in the form of Male and Female. Wisdom, pregnant with all that is, when it flowed and shone forth, shone altogether under the form of male and female. Hakemah is the Father, and Binah is the Mother; and so the two are in equilibrium as male and female, and for this reason, all things whatsoever are const.i.tuted in the form of male and female; _and if it were not_ so _they would not exist_.

This Principle, Hakemah, is the Generator of all things; and He and Binah conjoin, and she s.h.i.+nes within Him. When they thus conjoin, she conceives, and the out-flow is Truth.

Yod impregnates the letter He and begets a son; and she, thus pregnant, brings forth. The Principle called Father [the Male or Generative Principle] is comprehended in Yod, which itself flows downward from the energy of the Absolute Holy One.

Yod is the beginning and the end of all things that are. The stream that flows forth is the Universe of things, which always _becomes_, having no cessation. And this _becoming_ world is created by Yod: for Yod includes two letters. All things are included in Yod; wherefore it is called the Father of all.

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