The Kabbalah Unveiled. S. L. Macgregor Mathers
to the kerubim.
72. But this foregoing triple division of the soul is only applicable to the triple form of the intellectual, moral, and material. Let us not lose sight of the great qabalistical idea, that the trinity is always completed by and finds its realization in the quaternary; that is IHV completed and realized in IHVH--the trinity of
| Crown; | King; | Queen; |
| Father; | Son; | Spirit; |
| Absolute; | Formation; | Realization; |
completed by the quaternary of--
| Absolute One | Father and Mother | Son | Bride. |
| Macroprosopus, the Vast Countenance | Father and Mother | Microprosopus, the Lesser Countenance | Malkuth, the Queen and Bride. |
| Atziloth | Briah | Yetzirah | Asiah. |
| Archetypal | Creative | Formative | Material. |
And to these four the soul answers in the following four forms:--Chiah to Atziloth; Neschamah to Briah; Ruach to Yetzirah; and Nephesch to Asiah. See subjoined plate illustrating the analogy between the soul, the letters of the Tetragrammaton, and the four worlds.
73. But Chiah is in the soul the archetypal form analogous to Macroprosopus. Wherefore Neschamah, Ruach, and Nephesch represent as it were by themselves the Tetragrammaton, without Chiah, which is nevertheless symbolized "in the uppermost point of the I, yod," of the soul; as Macroprosopus is said to be symbolized by the uppermost point of the I, yod, of IHVH. For "yod of the Ancient One is hidden and concealed."
74. I select the following résumé of the qabalistical teachings regarding the nature of the soul from Eliphaz Levi's "Clef des Mystères," as also the accompanying plate. This gives the chief heads of the ideas of Rabbi Moses Korduero and of Rabbi Yitzchaq Loria.
"The soul is a veiled light. This light is triple:
"Neschamah = the pure spirit;
"Ruach = the soul or spirit;
"Nephesch = the plastic mediator.
"The veil of the soul is the shell of the image.
"The image is double because it reflects alike the good and the evil angel of the soul.
"Nephesch is immortal by renewal of itself through the destruction of forms;
"Ruach is progressive through the evolution of ideas;
"Neschamah is progressive without forgetfulness and without destruction.
There are three habitations of souls:--
"The Abyss of Life;
"The superior Eden;
"The inferior Eden."
"The image Tzelem is a sphinx which propounds the enigma of life.
"The fatal image (i.e., that which succumbs to the outer) endows Nephesch with his attributes, but Ruach can substitute the image conquered by the inspirations of Neschamah.
"The body is the veil of Nephesch, Nephesch is the veil of Ruach, Ruach is the veil of the shroud of Neschamah.
"Light personifies itself by veiling itself, and the personification is only stable when the veil is perfect.
"This perfection upon earth is relative to the universal soul of the earth (i.e., as the macrocosm or greater world, so the microcosm or lesser world, which is man).
There are three atmospheres for the souls.
The third atmosphere finishes where the planetary attraction of the other worlds commences.
Souls perfected on this earth pass on to another station.
"After traversing the planets they come to the sun; then they ascend into another universe and recommence their planetary evolution from world to world and from sun to sun.
"In the suns they remember, and in the planets they forget.
"The solar lives are the days of eternal life, and the planetary lives are the nights with their dreams.
"Angels are luminous emanations personified, not by trial and veil, but by divine influence and reflex.
"The angels aspire to become men, for the perfect man, the man-God, 1 is above every angel.
"The planetary lives are composed of ten dreams of a hundred years each, and each solar life is a thousand years; therefore is it said that a thousand years are in the sight of God as one day.
"Every week--that is, every fourteen thousand years--the soul bathes itself and reposes in the jubilee dream of forgetfulness.
"On waking therefrom it has forgotten the evil and only remembers the good."
75. In the accompanying plate of the formation of the soul there will be seen in the upper part three circles, representing the three parts known as Neschamah, Ruach, and Nephesch. From Ruach and Nephesch, influenced by the good aspirations of Neschamah, proceeds Michael, the good angel of the soul; that is to say, the synthetical hieroglyph of the good ideas, or, in the esoteric Buddhist phraseology, the "Good Karma" of a man. From Nephesch dominating Ruach, and uninfluenced by the good aspirations of Neschamah, proceeds Samäel, the evil angel of the soul; that is to say, the synthetical hieroglyph of the evil ideas, the "evil Karma" of a man. And the Tzelem, or image, is double, for it reflects alike Michael and Samäel.
76. The following is Dr. Jellinek's 1 analysis of the sephirotic ideas, according to the ethics of Spinoza:--
1. DEFINITION.--By the Being who is the cause and governor of all things I understand the Ain Soph--i.e., a Being infinite, boundless, absolutely identical with itself, united in itself, without attributes, will, intention, desire, thought, word, or deed.
2. DEFINITION.--By Sephiroth I understand the potencies which emanated from the Absolute, Ain Soph, all entities limited by quantity, which, like the will, without changing its nature, wills diverse objects that are the possibilities of multifarious things.
I. PROPOSITION.--The primary cause and governor of the world is the Ain Soph, who is both immanent and transcendent.
(a) PROOF.--Each effect has a cause, and everything which has order and design has a governor.
(b) PROOF.--Everything visible has a limit, what is limited is finite, what is finite is not absolutely identical; the primary cause of the world is invisible, therefore unlimited, infinite, absolutely identical--i.e., he is the Ain Soph.
(c) PROOF.--As the primary cause of the world is infinite, nothing can exist without (EXTRA) him; hence he is immanent.
Scholion.--As the Ain Soph is invisible and exalted, it is the root of both faith and unbelief.
II. PROPOSITION.-The Sephiroth are the medium between the absolute Ain Soph and the real world.
PROOF.--As