The Kabbalah Unveiled · 13 of 16 · tr. S.L. MacGregor Mathers
Introduction, Section 1m
Woe, woe unto him who revealeth their nakedness!
(Since this can be done by the faults of the inferiors, so that Microprosopus loseth this influx, whereby he is of so great power that he can seek to enshroud his mother; for that covering is the reception of the supernal influx, and the capability of transmitting the same to the inferiors, which cannot be done if the mother be uncovered and taken away from the Microprosopus, as the Israelites did when they committed the sin of the calf.
[IHV is of course the Tetragrammaton without the final H.
It is interesting to note that in the qabalistical work called the "Sepher Yetzirah," this trigrammatic name is used instead of the Tetragrammaton.
The crown which is hidden is Kether, the first Sephira, or Macroprosopus, who is AHIH, and is therefore not openly shown in IHVH.
The path of Hod is the eighth Sephira.
The father and the son, by whom the mother is enclosed, are of course the letters I and V in the word IHV.
With regard to what is said regarding the Israelites when they committed the sin of the calf.
I imagine that it is intended to intimate--( a ) That the calf was a symbol of ALHIM, Elohim, not of IHVH; for the Israelites had said, "Make us Elohim to go before us." ( b ) That this name, "Elohim" is applied to the feminine portion of the Tetragrammaton p.
62 HH.
( c ) That therefore the force was unbalanced which they adored, and that it would have been just as wrong to adore IV alone.) 42.
And God said, let there be MARTh, Maroth , lights in the firmament of the heaven.
(Now he hasteneth to the third part of that quadrilateral name, namely, to these two letters IH, Yod , He .
But by lights are understood the sun and the moon, the beautiful path and the kingdom or bride.
And herein the sense is this: although usually by these two letters are accustomed to be understood the Father and the Mother, or the wisdom and the understanding, yet in this place the supernal lights are wanting, like as the word MARTh, Maroth , is written in a defective form; and the meaning is proper to be applied unto the firmament of the heaven--that is, to the foundation, extended and prepared for marital conjunction; for the spouse is called the heaven, and the member of the treaty is the firmament, like, as, therefore, the two last paths in the whole name IHVI, Yod , He, Vau, Yod are designated by the letters V, Vau , and I, Yod , so likewise these in this portion of the square are designated by the letters, I, Yod , and H, He .) The husband hath dominion over the wife (since it is not written by V, Vau , but by I, Yod , which is the symbol of the member of the treaty, and herein denoteth the actual combination with the female): like as it is written (Prov.
x.
25): "And the just man is the foundation of the world." (By this saying he illustrateth his meaning; because by the letter I, Yod , is understood the fundamental member by which the world is preserved in existence.) (If the reader refers to the Introduction, he will there find in the Table showing the operation of the Sephiroth in the four worlds.
&c., that in the world of Asiah the sun is referred to Tiphereth and the moon to Yesod.
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 celestial bodies (sun and moon) to specific Sephiroth (Tiphereth and Yesod), reflecting cosmic structure.
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 passage describes the flow of supernal influx from higher powers to inferiors through Microprosopus and the Mother.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
It distinguishes between Microprosopus (Lesser Countenance) and Macroprosopus (Greater Countenance), mirroring human and divine structures.