Post by Senbecc on Apr 27, 2007 22:33:30 GMT -5
The Divine Origin of the Kabbalah
By many centuries antedating the Christian era, and older than the Mosaic traditions, indeed, in its origin older than the Egyptian or any other system of religion or philosophy now known, the Kabbalah has all the claims to respectful consideration that antiquity can confer. These claims are enhanced and intensified when we discover evidence, not merely of its early origin, but of its important influence, in their structure and teachings, upon the religions of all lands and ages. Yet but few, even of the modern mystical thinkers, know enough of the wondrous Kabbalah to have the faintest conception of the vast debt the world of all ages has owed to that grand system of philosophy. Even while using the symbols, quoting the language, repeating the ideas, teaching and maintaining the doctrines of the Kabbalah, writers of modern times are generally ignorant of the source of the symbols, language, ideas and doctrines, and hence, naturally, they fail to realize their beautiful significance, far-reaching scope, and more than marvelous harmony.
The Kabbalists claim that the source from which their knowledge is derived is divine; that God reveals it to the pure in heart alone, and that the fountain of the true Light of knowledge is itself known to those only who are illuminated by that Light within their souls. The philosophy of the Kabbalah was expressed in symbols, some of which are in use among the Masonic and other secret fraternities of our day, though much of their ancient force and beauty, which depended very largely and in some cases entirely upon their Hermetic meanings, is lost by erroneous interpretations.
Keys to the Kabbalah
The symbols of Masonry are Kabbalistic, and were known to the alchemists Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Apollonius, Raymond Lully, Cornelius Agrippa, Fludd, Boehme and others. Solomon's Temple, with its marvels of beauty and grandeur, its strikingly distinct and different parts, its still more striking diversities of material and style-all blending in one superb, gorgeous, and absolutely harmonious whole was the grand panoramic symbol -- a complete epitome and miniature, of the universe as portrayed in the Kabbalah. The history of its builder, Hiram, is a curious, strangely fascinating history, but it is foreign to our present subject, and we must pass it by with the single remark that he was a Kabbalist of the clearest type. He who exactly understands SoIomon's Temple, in its details and in its entirety, is both a true Templer, Mason, and Kabbalist -- therefore, an initiate of the highest order.
There are two keys to its symbolism that will unlock the secrets of the Kabbalah, open the sanctuaries of the initiates where the knowledge of its full significance is still hidden, and expose to the understanding eye the mysteries of Hermetic philosophy.
The keys we shall use in deciphering the Kabbalah are the ideas of Light and Heat. As we have intimated, the Kabbalah treats of two distinct subjects: philosophy and religion, which correspond to our two keys. Though distinct, these two keys are in perfect accord as found in the Kabbalah, and show the sublime harmony that must ever characterize the relations of true Religion and true Science, since both are from the one divine source and have one central theme (Truth), they cannot, in the final analysis, be antagonistic or even really diverge. So in the final analysis, our two keys of Light and Fire are really just one key to all.
The First Key: Light
Light is the foundation upon which rests the superstructure of the Kabbalistic theosophy. Light is the source and center of the entire harmonious system. Light was the first-born of God -- His first manifestation of Himself in the universe. No man can know God except as He manifests Himself in Light -- not visible or sensible light, seen by man's carnal eye but intellectual and spiritual Light, apparent only to the inner vision of those illuminated by that Light. Indeed, the Bible, in both the Jewish and Christian parts, abounds in the Kabbalistic distinction between the outward or objective, and the inward or subjective Light. The outward light is a manifestation of Himself by the same Supreme Being, but inferior in degree and in its influences, though still glorious.
The treatise Wisdom of Solomon is said to have been written in Alexandria in the time of Jerome and is attributed to Philo. But Philo could not have been its author, as his known views were clearly opposed to much that is found therein. The wisdom it enunciates is claimed to be that taught to Moses in Egypt. It describes God as "Illuminated Time;" no origin can be assigned to Him; He is engulfed in His own glory, "dwelling in the Light that no man can approach onto." Creation is said to have consisted in emanations from Him, which dispelled the primordial darkness.
While the Wisdom of Solomon is greatly valued by Kabbalists, their primary works are the Zohar (or Book of Light) and the Sepher Jezera (or Book of the Creation). The Zohar was written by Simeon ben Jochai and first printed in Mantua in 1558. The author of the Sepher Jezera is unknown and scholars place its origin at sometime between 100 B.C. to 800 A.D. Actually, the opinion prevalent among Kabbalists is that the Sepher Jetzera, is a monologue of the patriarch Abraham, and they believe that his contemplations induced the patriarch of patriarchs to abandon the worship of the heavenly bodies and become the servant of the one true God. The Rabbi Jahuda Levi, who flourished and wrote in the eleventh century, says: "The Book of the Creation, which belongs to our Father Abraham, demonstrates the existence of the deity and the divine Unity, by things that are, on the one hand, manifold and multifarious, while, on the other hand, they converge and harmonize; and this harmony can only proceed from the One who originates it."
Kabbalah's Connection to the Old Testament
The design of this work is to declare a system in which the universe may be viewed in connection with the truths found in the Old Testament, in such a way as to show, by tracing the gradual and orderly process of creation and the harmony which characterizes its details and its perfection, that one God produces all and is over all. The order and harmony of creation is deduced from the analogy subsisting between the visible things and the signs of thought. The Sepher Jetzera is regarded as the basis of, and key to, the teachings of the Zohar, though the arrangement and plan of the two works differ somewhat. In the Zohar dwells with great emphasis upon the Kabbalistic doctrinal teachings on Light. The treatise declares that Light is the primordial essence of the universe, and that all life and motion proceed from it. Light is the vital dynamic force in Nature. It also declares that it is by the study of Light that we are enabled to acquire knowledge of the unknowable or causal world. Light is Jacob's Ladder by which we ascend to Celestial knowledge, the upper rundle being in the fourth Sephira, represented by the Pentagram.
In considering the Kabbalah and the Kabbalists, we must never lose sight of the philosophy's intimate connection with the Bible; it is really an enlightened commentary on the sacred scriptures. The scriptures have, running all through their inspired lines and words, a two-fold meaning: an outward meaning which may be perceived by any candid reader, and an inward or hidden meaning that "the carnal mind cannot receive, because it is foolishness to it." Being spiritual, this meaning can only be "spiritually discerned. " It is the province of the Kabbalah to shed the Light of Truth upon this second meaning.
Solomon Gabirol, an Arabian philosopher, wrote, under the pseudonym of Avicebron, about the middle of the eleventh century, two works of value to those interested in Hermetic philosophy; they were Liber de Causis (or Book of Causes) and Fons Vitae (or Source of Life). He speaks of the unity of Light as it arises from the throne of the Most High, which subjectively becomes divided into nine categories. This united Light he calls "the substance of the intellect," on account of its having been the receptacle of the Divine Will when God said " Let there be Light." When describing God in his Liber de Causis, Gabirol states that He is wise, and from His wisdom He has seen fit to make His Will manifest in Light, and all existences and substances in creation are created and sustained by God through Light. His Will, His Divinity, His Unity, His Eternity, and His very existence, are profound mysteries, and we can know Him only through His manifestations of Himself in Light. Gabirol speaks of the absurdity of a finite mind's attempting to define God. If it could it be done, he asserts, it would make Him a finite being.
Ten Emanations from the Mind of God
The ten Sephira of the Kabbalah illustrate in symbol the Kabbalistic conception of the universe as it came from the incomprehensible Supreme Will of the Most High. The Crown is called the Kether or En Soph (the Endless, the Ineffable), because in it and by it God manifested the power of His Will in creation. Since Light is His creative agent, so this En Soph is the source from which Light flows, the Fons Lucis (Source of Light). The En Soph was not created by God, but emanated from Him to manifest Himself. In the Crown, Light is pure white, utterly indiscernible by the physical eye, and in it resides the life and dynamic power of the universe. The ten Sephira emanate from this En Soph, the Unity, in nine categories, or spheres, making ten in the complete figure. The number ten is called a "perfect number" and symbolized the unity and synthesis of creation.
The First Triad of Emanations: The Celestial Sun
Pythagoras in his Tetractys gives, besides the Sephiroth, a representation of the creation composed of the four letters of the Ineffable Name of God, the "Four-Letter Name" as it has been called. This name Pythagoras tells us is the key to the mysteries of the Kabbalah. Pythagoras employed numbers in representing his ideas of creation, while the Egyptian Kabbalists used letters, words, and numbers. All Kabbalists represent the properties of Light as dual, calling the parts the two hands of Deity. Although it possesses duality, it maintains its unity and harmony until it becomes focalized in Astral Suns, which are illustrated by the sephiretic "Tree of Life." As we have said, the En Soph (or Kether the Crown) is the fountain or source of Light, which manifests itself in the two lower Sephira, Binah and Hokmah (Intelligence and Wisdom), with masculine and feminine, or active and passive, functions. These functions are strikingly manifested in the light of our own Sun, which must be understandingly be distinguished before we can determine its various and diverse action and influence upon the human organism. En Soph, Binah, and Hokmah form the first triad of the Sephiroth, and lines connecting them bound the World of Briah, the Super-Celestial World or the World of Spirit. [The alchemists would have called these three Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury.]
The Fourth Emanation: The Tipheroth
Light is then focalized forming the fourth Sephira, which is the Celestial Sun, called Tifereth (Resplendence or Magnificence) because of the resplendent, magnificent whiteness of its Light, while its immensity is recognized in its further designation as "Greatness." This is the Central Sun of the entire universe, visible only to the spiritual or subjective sight, never to the natural or objective vision. It is to the Astral Suns precisely what they are to the respective planets that they control, illuminate and sustain, and which revolve around them. It controls, illuminates, and sustains the Astral Suns, and around it they revolve. Without it they could no more maintain their equilibrium in space than could the planets hold their positions without their corresponding physical Suns.
This great Celestial Luminary possesses the dual properties of Light and Fire, but in absolute equilibrium and perfect harmony. This perfect harmony embraces the rays of the Light, and the "chemistry" of the Fire. It is this harmony in the blending of the rays that produces the resplendent, magnificent white of which we have spoken as the characteristic of the Celestial Sun, and which justly gains the appellation Tifereth. The objective vision cannot conceive, as it could not endure, the white splendor of this glorious Orb of orbs.
When Moses desired to see the glory of God, this Celestial Light, God kindly replied: "Thou must not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live." The near approach of the glory made the face of Moses so lustrous that upon his return to the people, they could not endure the sight, and he was compelled to put a veil over his face while he talked with them. And when Saul and his companions were riding, upon their journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, suddenly there shone about them a beam from the Celestial Sun; so intense was its Light that they all fell to the ground, and Saul's eyes were temporarily blinded and permanently affected by the Light, which he described as: "a Light from heaven, above the brightness of the Sun."
The Law of Harmony
We have already alluded to the fact that the one attribute that pre-eminently distinguishes the Kabbalistic system is its complete and absolute harmony. But more may be claimed: This harmony is not only the strongest evidence, but it is an all-sufficient and conclusive proof of the divine origin of the Kabbalah. For in God's universe, in its every department, separately and collectively, harmony is the one positive law that is never disobeyed without immediate and inevitable consequences exactly proportional to the extent and nature of that "disobedience." [This Law of Harmony is what the Emerald Tablet calls "the Operation of the Sun."] No merely human system of action or ethics, of living or belief has ever been or can ever be devised wherein this divine harmony is not wanting; the most skillfully and cunningly planned and practiced counterfeit bears this evidence upon its face of the absence of the divine hand in its construction. It has been well said: "Harmony is God's unique law." So, when we find in the Sephiroth a positive unity, in their relation to each other and to the universe a positive accord, and in the system throughout, of which these are the symbolic declaration, a like oneness arising from marvelous harmony and sublime concord, we can believe that God, the personification of harmony and concord, has inspired the Kabbalah.
In the movement of the heavenly bodies -- the planets and their suns and moons and satellites -- none question or can question the importance of this Law of Harmony. With the slightest defect in this respect, not only would their respective order and movements be disarranged and confusion ensue, but the very existence of some of the weaker ones would be destroyed by contact with their stronger neighbors, while the stronger bodies would necessarily suffer immeasurably. Set aside the Law of Harmony in the planetary system, and chaos would soon prevail. The same law is vital too in each individual member of the universe; take our Sun for an illustration. Place discord instead of harmony in its structure, and beauty would give place to distressing ugliness, utility to horrible destructiveness; its orderly movements would become wanderings through space to the peril of all the planets. And so with any one of the suns or their planets, the loss of harmony would inevitably destroy their beauty and usefulness in the universe.
As God is One, so is this law uniform in all His works. In what we call the laws of Nature, His Will is seen in the presence and influence of this same Law of Harmony: every positive has a negative, every active a passive; every destroying element is opposed or corrected by a restoring principle. Let the forces of attraction become weak or impaired, will not the repellent forces work destruction? And the converse is no less sure: Let the centrifugal force in any instance fall below the centripetal, or the latter yield to the former, and the consequence will soon be apparent. Let the polarizing ray in light lose its influence, and decay and death come speedily to tell the story of the absence of harmony to even the most ignorant and unobservant. It is this eternal harmony [symbolized in the alchemical symbol of the Ouroboros] that gives us all of beauty and beneficence we see in Nature; harmony amidst its constituents gives us beauty in Light, sweetness in sound, and all else that we enjoy in life is equally dependent on this law of God.
In the mortal world, the same God exacts obedience to the same Law of Harmony as the price of order and propriety, and disregard of its stringent requirements, even in what we are prone to call trivial matters, is as surely and as swiftly followed by a proportionate penalty as in the planetary and worlds. And in the Above, the World of Eternal Peace and Blessedness, we cannot doubt the assurance that order is Heaven's first law. The Law of Harmony finds there its most complete fruition, because there it is never disregarded, and that fruition is joy and happiness unspeakable, glory ineffable, and perfect life forever and forever. Well may we believe that there is no sorrow or sighing, no pain or sickness, no decay or death, in that place where God's unique Law of Harmony is perfectly and absolutely and always obeyed.
The Breath of God Upon the World
The Rouach Elohim (Breath of God) that brooded over or "moved upon the face of the waters" was held by the alchemists to have been Light from the Celestial Sun shining thereon. The star symbol within the Sephira Tifereth, in its upright, proper position represents the principle of good, when inverted it represents the evil principle. The five-pointed star seen on the disk of Tifereth is the flaming pentagram of the Kabbalists and of the Magi of the Orient. It was the glorious Star of Bethlehem that was the Celestial forerunner of the Christian "Light of the World." Pentagrams thus constitute powerful talismans, but to be effective they must be most accurately made and carefully handled and placed.
The Apocalypse of John is full of passages that can be read with ease by the help of the Kabbalah; indeed there are passages that indicate John was a Kabbalist of a high order. Among these we must cite one. He tells of a most remarkable vision : "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars . . ." The Rosicrucians call the Light of the Celestial Sun the Divine Sophia (Wisdom) because of its purity and its passivity in matter. The Egyptian alchemists called this light Isis and represented her as a pure woman. Since the Light of the Celestial Sun is invisible to mere mortals, seen only by the subjective sight of the illuminated, they clothed Isis with an objective Sun; as the Celestial Sun is greatness and majesty, they placed under the feet of Isis the Crescent Moon, beneath which but outside the sacred circle, was a vanquished Fiery Serpent; then, as a token of the supremacy of Tifereth in the universe, they surrounded the head of Isis with a halo of twelve stars.
Doubtless, Sophia of the Rosicrucians and Isis of the Egyptian alchemists are the same as the wondrous woman in John's vision. If he read John's narrative of that vision a little farther, we will find the vanquished Serpent beneath Isis's feet in the Apocalyptic "great red dragon." The figure of Isis clothed with the Sun is one of the most impressive of the symbolic pictures of the Kabbalistic principles. When a person by Self-denial, meditation, and devotion has attained to the high privilege of subjective vision, he sees Isis or the Light of the subjective Sun. This is truly the mystical "lifting the veil of Isis."
By many centuries antedating the Christian era, and older than the Mosaic traditions, indeed, in its origin older than the Egyptian or any other system of religion or philosophy now known, the Kabbalah has all the claims to respectful consideration that antiquity can confer. These claims are enhanced and intensified when we discover evidence, not merely of its early origin, but of its important influence, in their structure and teachings, upon the religions of all lands and ages. Yet but few, even of the modern mystical thinkers, know enough of the wondrous Kabbalah to have the faintest conception of the vast debt the world of all ages has owed to that grand system of philosophy. Even while using the symbols, quoting the language, repeating the ideas, teaching and maintaining the doctrines of the Kabbalah, writers of modern times are generally ignorant of the source of the symbols, language, ideas and doctrines, and hence, naturally, they fail to realize their beautiful significance, far-reaching scope, and more than marvelous harmony.
The Kabbalists claim that the source from which their knowledge is derived is divine; that God reveals it to the pure in heart alone, and that the fountain of the true Light of knowledge is itself known to those only who are illuminated by that Light within their souls. The philosophy of the Kabbalah was expressed in symbols, some of which are in use among the Masonic and other secret fraternities of our day, though much of their ancient force and beauty, which depended very largely and in some cases entirely upon their Hermetic meanings, is lost by erroneous interpretations.
Keys to the Kabbalah
The symbols of Masonry are Kabbalistic, and were known to the alchemists Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Apollonius, Raymond Lully, Cornelius Agrippa, Fludd, Boehme and others. Solomon's Temple, with its marvels of beauty and grandeur, its strikingly distinct and different parts, its still more striking diversities of material and style-all blending in one superb, gorgeous, and absolutely harmonious whole was the grand panoramic symbol -- a complete epitome and miniature, of the universe as portrayed in the Kabbalah. The history of its builder, Hiram, is a curious, strangely fascinating history, but it is foreign to our present subject, and we must pass it by with the single remark that he was a Kabbalist of the clearest type. He who exactly understands SoIomon's Temple, in its details and in its entirety, is both a true Templer, Mason, and Kabbalist -- therefore, an initiate of the highest order.
There are two keys to its symbolism that will unlock the secrets of the Kabbalah, open the sanctuaries of the initiates where the knowledge of its full significance is still hidden, and expose to the understanding eye the mysteries of Hermetic philosophy.
The keys we shall use in deciphering the Kabbalah are the ideas of Light and Heat. As we have intimated, the Kabbalah treats of two distinct subjects: philosophy and religion, which correspond to our two keys. Though distinct, these two keys are in perfect accord as found in the Kabbalah, and show the sublime harmony that must ever characterize the relations of true Religion and true Science, since both are from the one divine source and have one central theme (Truth), they cannot, in the final analysis, be antagonistic or even really diverge. So in the final analysis, our two keys of Light and Fire are really just one key to all.
The First Key: Light
Light is the foundation upon which rests the superstructure of the Kabbalistic theosophy. Light is the source and center of the entire harmonious system. Light was the first-born of God -- His first manifestation of Himself in the universe. No man can know God except as He manifests Himself in Light -- not visible or sensible light, seen by man's carnal eye but intellectual and spiritual Light, apparent only to the inner vision of those illuminated by that Light. Indeed, the Bible, in both the Jewish and Christian parts, abounds in the Kabbalistic distinction between the outward or objective, and the inward or subjective Light. The outward light is a manifestation of Himself by the same Supreme Being, but inferior in degree and in its influences, though still glorious.
The treatise Wisdom of Solomon is said to have been written in Alexandria in the time of Jerome and is attributed to Philo. But Philo could not have been its author, as his known views were clearly opposed to much that is found therein. The wisdom it enunciates is claimed to be that taught to Moses in Egypt. It describes God as "Illuminated Time;" no origin can be assigned to Him; He is engulfed in His own glory, "dwelling in the Light that no man can approach onto." Creation is said to have consisted in emanations from Him, which dispelled the primordial darkness.
While the Wisdom of Solomon is greatly valued by Kabbalists, their primary works are the Zohar (or Book of Light) and the Sepher Jezera (or Book of the Creation). The Zohar was written by Simeon ben Jochai and first printed in Mantua in 1558. The author of the Sepher Jezera is unknown and scholars place its origin at sometime between 100 B.C. to 800 A.D. Actually, the opinion prevalent among Kabbalists is that the Sepher Jetzera, is a monologue of the patriarch Abraham, and they believe that his contemplations induced the patriarch of patriarchs to abandon the worship of the heavenly bodies and become the servant of the one true God. The Rabbi Jahuda Levi, who flourished and wrote in the eleventh century, says: "The Book of the Creation, which belongs to our Father Abraham, demonstrates the existence of the deity and the divine Unity, by things that are, on the one hand, manifold and multifarious, while, on the other hand, they converge and harmonize; and this harmony can only proceed from the One who originates it."
Kabbalah's Connection to the Old Testament
The design of this work is to declare a system in which the universe may be viewed in connection with the truths found in the Old Testament, in such a way as to show, by tracing the gradual and orderly process of creation and the harmony which characterizes its details and its perfection, that one God produces all and is over all. The order and harmony of creation is deduced from the analogy subsisting between the visible things and the signs of thought. The Sepher Jetzera is regarded as the basis of, and key to, the teachings of the Zohar, though the arrangement and plan of the two works differ somewhat. In the Zohar dwells with great emphasis upon the Kabbalistic doctrinal teachings on Light. The treatise declares that Light is the primordial essence of the universe, and that all life and motion proceed from it. Light is the vital dynamic force in Nature. It also declares that it is by the study of Light that we are enabled to acquire knowledge of the unknowable or causal world. Light is Jacob's Ladder by which we ascend to Celestial knowledge, the upper rundle being in the fourth Sephira, represented by the Pentagram.
In considering the Kabbalah and the Kabbalists, we must never lose sight of the philosophy's intimate connection with the Bible; it is really an enlightened commentary on the sacred scriptures. The scriptures have, running all through their inspired lines and words, a two-fold meaning: an outward meaning which may be perceived by any candid reader, and an inward or hidden meaning that "the carnal mind cannot receive, because it is foolishness to it." Being spiritual, this meaning can only be "spiritually discerned. " It is the province of the Kabbalah to shed the Light of Truth upon this second meaning.
Solomon Gabirol, an Arabian philosopher, wrote, under the pseudonym of Avicebron, about the middle of the eleventh century, two works of value to those interested in Hermetic philosophy; they were Liber de Causis (or Book of Causes) and Fons Vitae (or Source of Life). He speaks of the unity of Light as it arises from the throne of the Most High, which subjectively becomes divided into nine categories. This united Light he calls "the substance of the intellect," on account of its having been the receptacle of the Divine Will when God said " Let there be Light." When describing God in his Liber de Causis, Gabirol states that He is wise, and from His wisdom He has seen fit to make His Will manifest in Light, and all existences and substances in creation are created and sustained by God through Light. His Will, His Divinity, His Unity, His Eternity, and His very existence, are profound mysteries, and we can know Him only through His manifestations of Himself in Light. Gabirol speaks of the absurdity of a finite mind's attempting to define God. If it could it be done, he asserts, it would make Him a finite being.
Ten Emanations from the Mind of God
The ten Sephira of the Kabbalah illustrate in symbol the Kabbalistic conception of the universe as it came from the incomprehensible Supreme Will of the Most High. The Crown is called the Kether or En Soph (the Endless, the Ineffable), because in it and by it God manifested the power of His Will in creation. Since Light is His creative agent, so this En Soph is the source from which Light flows, the Fons Lucis (Source of Light). The En Soph was not created by God, but emanated from Him to manifest Himself. In the Crown, Light is pure white, utterly indiscernible by the physical eye, and in it resides the life and dynamic power of the universe. The ten Sephira emanate from this En Soph, the Unity, in nine categories, or spheres, making ten in the complete figure. The number ten is called a "perfect number" and symbolized the unity and synthesis of creation.
The First Triad of Emanations: The Celestial Sun
Pythagoras in his Tetractys gives, besides the Sephiroth, a representation of the creation composed of the four letters of the Ineffable Name of God, the "Four-Letter Name" as it has been called. This name Pythagoras tells us is the key to the mysteries of the Kabbalah. Pythagoras employed numbers in representing his ideas of creation, while the Egyptian Kabbalists used letters, words, and numbers. All Kabbalists represent the properties of Light as dual, calling the parts the two hands of Deity. Although it possesses duality, it maintains its unity and harmony until it becomes focalized in Astral Suns, which are illustrated by the sephiretic "Tree of Life." As we have said, the En Soph (or Kether the Crown) is the fountain or source of Light, which manifests itself in the two lower Sephira, Binah and Hokmah (Intelligence and Wisdom), with masculine and feminine, or active and passive, functions. These functions are strikingly manifested in the light of our own Sun, which must be understandingly be distinguished before we can determine its various and diverse action and influence upon the human organism. En Soph, Binah, and Hokmah form the first triad of the Sephiroth, and lines connecting them bound the World of Briah, the Super-Celestial World or the World of Spirit. [The alchemists would have called these three Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury.]
The Fourth Emanation: The Tipheroth
Light is then focalized forming the fourth Sephira, which is the Celestial Sun, called Tifereth (Resplendence or Magnificence) because of the resplendent, magnificent whiteness of its Light, while its immensity is recognized in its further designation as "Greatness." This is the Central Sun of the entire universe, visible only to the spiritual or subjective sight, never to the natural or objective vision. It is to the Astral Suns precisely what they are to the respective planets that they control, illuminate and sustain, and which revolve around them. It controls, illuminates, and sustains the Astral Suns, and around it they revolve. Without it they could no more maintain their equilibrium in space than could the planets hold their positions without their corresponding physical Suns.
This great Celestial Luminary possesses the dual properties of Light and Fire, but in absolute equilibrium and perfect harmony. This perfect harmony embraces the rays of the Light, and the "chemistry" of the Fire. It is this harmony in the blending of the rays that produces the resplendent, magnificent white of which we have spoken as the characteristic of the Celestial Sun, and which justly gains the appellation Tifereth. The objective vision cannot conceive, as it could not endure, the white splendor of this glorious Orb of orbs.
When Moses desired to see the glory of God, this Celestial Light, God kindly replied: "Thou must not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live." The near approach of the glory made the face of Moses so lustrous that upon his return to the people, they could not endure the sight, and he was compelled to put a veil over his face while he talked with them. And when Saul and his companions were riding, upon their journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, suddenly there shone about them a beam from the Celestial Sun; so intense was its Light that they all fell to the ground, and Saul's eyes were temporarily blinded and permanently affected by the Light, which he described as: "a Light from heaven, above the brightness of the Sun."
The Law of Harmony
We have already alluded to the fact that the one attribute that pre-eminently distinguishes the Kabbalistic system is its complete and absolute harmony. But more may be claimed: This harmony is not only the strongest evidence, but it is an all-sufficient and conclusive proof of the divine origin of the Kabbalah. For in God's universe, in its every department, separately and collectively, harmony is the one positive law that is never disobeyed without immediate and inevitable consequences exactly proportional to the extent and nature of that "disobedience." [This Law of Harmony is what the Emerald Tablet calls "the Operation of the Sun."] No merely human system of action or ethics, of living or belief has ever been or can ever be devised wherein this divine harmony is not wanting; the most skillfully and cunningly planned and practiced counterfeit bears this evidence upon its face of the absence of the divine hand in its construction. It has been well said: "Harmony is God's unique law." So, when we find in the Sephiroth a positive unity, in their relation to each other and to the universe a positive accord, and in the system throughout, of which these are the symbolic declaration, a like oneness arising from marvelous harmony and sublime concord, we can believe that God, the personification of harmony and concord, has inspired the Kabbalah.
In the movement of the heavenly bodies -- the planets and their suns and moons and satellites -- none question or can question the importance of this Law of Harmony. With the slightest defect in this respect, not only would their respective order and movements be disarranged and confusion ensue, but the very existence of some of the weaker ones would be destroyed by contact with their stronger neighbors, while the stronger bodies would necessarily suffer immeasurably. Set aside the Law of Harmony in the planetary system, and chaos would soon prevail. The same law is vital too in each individual member of the universe; take our Sun for an illustration. Place discord instead of harmony in its structure, and beauty would give place to distressing ugliness, utility to horrible destructiveness; its orderly movements would become wanderings through space to the peril of all the planets. And so with any one of the suns or their planets, the loss of harmony would inevitably destroy their beauty and usefulness in the universe.
As God is One, so is this law uniform in all His works. In what we call the laws of Nature, His Will is seen in the presence and influence of this same Law of Harmony: every positive has a negative, every active a passive; every destroying element is opposed or corrected by a restoring principle. Let the forces of attraction become weak or impaired, will not the repellent forces work destruction? And the converse is no less sure: Let the centrifugal force in any instance fall below the centripetal, or the latter yield to the former, and the consequence will soon be apparent. Let the polarizing ray in light lose its influence, and decay and death come speedily to tell the story of the absence of harmony to even the most ignorant and unobservant. It is this eternal harmony [symbolized in the alchemical symbol of the Ouroboros] that gives us all of beauty and beneficence we see in Nature; harmony amidst its constituents gives us beauty in Light, sweetness in sound, and all else that we enjoy in life is equally dependent on this law of God.
In the mortal world, the same God exacts obedience to the same Law of Harmony as the price of order and propriety, and disregard of its stringent requirements, even in what we are prone to call trivial matters, is as surely and as swiftly followed by a proportionate penalty as in the planetary and worlds. And in the Above, the World of Eternal Peace and Blessedness, we cannot doubt the assurance that order is Heaven's first law. The Law of Harmony finds there its most complete fruition, because there it is never disregarded, and that fruition is joy and happiness unspeakable, glory ineffable, and perfect life forever and forever. Well may we believe that there is no sorrow or sighing, no pain or sickness, no decay or death, in that place where God's unique Law of Harmony is perfectly and absolutely and always obeyed.
The Breath of God Upon the World
The Rouach Elohim (Breath of God) that brooded over or "moved upon the face of the waters" was held by the alchemists to have been Light from the Celestial Sun shining thereon. The star symbol within the Sephira Tifereth, in its upright, proper position represents the principle of good, when inverted it represents the evil principle. The five-pointed star seen on the disk of Tifereth is the flaming pentagram of the Kabbalists and of the Magi of the Orient. It was the glorious Star of Bethlehem that was the Celestial forerunner of the Christian "Light of the World." Pentagrams thus constitute powerful talismans, but to be effective they must be most accurately made and carefully handled and placed.
The Apocalypse of John is full of passages that can be read with ease by the help of the Kabbalah; indeed there are passages that indicate John was a Kabbalist of a high order. Among these we must cite one. He tells of a most remarkable vision : "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars . . ." The Rosicrucians call the Light of the Celestial Sun the Divine Sophia (Wisdom) because of its purity and its passivity in matter. The Egyptian alchemists called this light Isis and represented her as a pure woman. Since the Light of the Celestial Sun is invisible to mere mortals, seen only by the subjective sight of the illuminated, they clothed Isis with an objective Sun; as the Celestial Sun is greatness and majesty, they placed under the feet of Isis the Crescent Moon, beneath which but outside the sacred circle, was a vanquished Fiery Serpent; then, as a token of the supremacy of Tifereth in the universe, they surrounded the head of Isis with a halo of twelve stars.
Doubtless, Sophia of the Rosicrucians and Isis of the Egyptian alchemists are the same as the wondrous woman in John's vision. If he read John's narrative of that vision a little farther, we will find the vanquished Serpent beneath Isis's feet in the Apocalyptic "great red dragon." The figure of Isis clothed with the Sun is one of the most impressive of the symbolic pictures of the Kabbalistic principles. When a person by Self-denial, meditation, and devotion has attained to the high privilege of subjective vision, he sees Isis or the Light of the subjective Sun. This is truly the mystical "lifting the veil of Isis."