The Kabbalah Unveiled · 7 of 16 · tr. S.L. MacGregor Mathers
Introduction, Section 1g
so to speak, not only the executor of judgment, but also the destroyer; destruction as opposed to creation, death as opposed to life.
For the whole Sephiroth are represented as being the balance of mercy and justice, and the tenth Sephira is especially of the nature of justice, as also is Geburah.
the fifth.
He is concealed, because he is not called into action till justice requires him.
The term "decimal numeration" of course refers to the ten Sephiroth.
The presence of the serpent when revealed, is an accusation, because it shows that the balance is destroyed; just as in a watch, if one of the wheels be injured, irregularity is at once manifested.
Now, life, when it consists of birth into another form, necessarily implies death in the previous form.
The throne of glory is the Briatic world.] 27.
There are swellings in his scales (that is, like as in a crocodile; because great in him is the heaping together of judgments).
His crest keepeth its own place (that is, there is in him no further power of hastening to things beyond in the Outer).
p.
53 [There is in the destroyer no "hastening to the outer," because he is centripetal and not centrifugal .] 28.
But his head is broken by the waters of the great sea.
(The great sea is wisdom, the fountain of mercy and loving-kindness; which, if it sendeth down its influence, judgments are pacified, and the hurtful power of the shells is restricted); like as it is written, Ps.
lxxiv.
13: "Thou hast broken the heads of the dragons by the waters." ["The waters of the great sea," are the influence of the supernal mother, Binah, of whom Malkuth is the reflection.
But Binah receives the influence of Chokmah.
See Introduction.] 29.
They were two (male and female, whence the text of the Psalm speaketh of the dragons in the plural number; but when the plural number is given in its least form, two only are understood).
They are reduced into one (for the female leviathan hath been slain, lest they should seek to multiply judgments).
Whence the word ThNINM, Thenanim (in the before-mentioned passage of the Psalm), is written in a defective form (purposely to denote that restriction).
[I may refer the reader to the Talmud for further information regarding Jewish ideas of the Leviathan.
Thenanim is written in a defective form, because the letter I of the plural is omitted.
Written fully, it should be ThNINIM, instead of ThNINM.] 30.
(But it is said) heads (in the plural number, for the purpose of denoting a vast multitude, as well of species as of individuals in that genus); like as it is written, Ezek.
i.
22: "And a likeness as a firmament above the heads of the living creature." (Where also the word living creature, ChIH, Chiah , is put in the singular as a genus of angels; and heads in the plural for the purpose of denoting species and innumerable individuals.) ["Thou hast broken the heads of the dragons (Thenanim) by the waters." It must be remembered that this dragon is said by the author of the "Royal Valley" to be the king of all the "shells" p.
54 or demons.
Now, the demons are divided into ten classes.
corresponding to the ten Sephiroth, but in an averse form, and are called in the book, "Beth Elohim," the "impure Sephiroth." The heads of the leviathan (cf.
the Lernæan Hydra which Hercules slew) are probably these.
Compare the description of the beast in Revelation.] 31.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage maps the ten classes of demons onto the ten Sephiroth in averse form, identifies Malkuth as the reflection of Binah, and draws parallels between the Leviathan's heads and the Lernæan Hydra and Revelation's beast.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The mention of Sephiroth and the 'Briatic world' implies a structured hierarchy of divine emanations.
The balance of two contrary forces as the structural law of cosmos and operation — Lévi's equilibrium, expressed in Kabbalah by the senary: the will of God in its first cause, liberty in man, mathematical equilibrium in matter; the twofold vibration required to direct the Astral Light safely.
The passage repeatedly frames the Sephiroth as 'the balance of mercy and justice,' describes the serpent's appearance as showing 'the balance is destroyed,' and explains how the waters of wisdom pacify judgments — all expressing equilibrium as structural law.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage articulates multiple opposed pairs — destruction/creation, death/life, mercy/justice, centripetal/centrifugal — as structural features of the Sephirothic system.
The 'shells' or 'husks' of Kabbalistic doctrine — the obverse, unbalanced counterpart that each Sephira throws off during its own emanation, going off by itself to form its own shadow-sphere in Chaos, the Habitations of Hell, personified as Qlippothic demons (the 'Obscene Ones,' the 'Disputers') mirroring the Archangels of the corresponding Sephira. Distinct from kenoma (the Gnostic void outside the pleroma generally, one undifferentiated realm of deficiency, not this specific one-shadow-per-Sephira structure) and archons (Gnostic planetary rulers governing matter directly, not an unbalanced-emanation byproduct).
The passage explicitly identifies the Leviathan as king of all 'shells' or demons, describes the demons as divided into ten classes corresponding to the ten Sephiroth in averse form called 'impure Sephiroth,' and discusses the female leviathan's slaying to prevent multiplication of judgments — a direct exposition of the Qlippothic structure.