Moreover, the three metaphysical Sephiroth or " the periphrasis of Jehovah " are not Jehovah; it is the latter himself with the additional titles of Adonai, Elohim, Sabbaoth, and the numerous names lavished on him, who is the periphrasis of the Shaddai, , the Omnipotent.
The name is a circumlocution, indeed, a too abundant figure of Jewish rhetoric, and has always been denounced by the Occultists.
To the Jewish Kabalists, and even the Christian Alchemists and Rosicrucians, Jehovah was a convenient screen , unified by the folding of its many flaps, and adopted as a substitute: one name of an individual Sephiroth being as good as another name, for those who had the secret.
The Tetragrammaton, the Ineffable, the sidereal " Sum Total ," was invented for no other purpose than to mislead the profane and to symbolize life and generation.* The real secret and unpronounceable name -- "the word that is no word" -- has to be sought in the seven names of the first seven emanations, or the "Sons of the Fire," [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Says the translator of Avicebron's " Qabbalah " (Mr.
Isaac Myer, LL.B ., of Philadelphia) of this "Sum Total": "The letter of Kether is (Yod), of Binah (Heh), together YaH, the feminine Name; the third letter, that of Hokhmah, is (Vau), making together, YHV of YHVH, the Tetragrammaton, and really the complete symbols of its efficaciousness.
The last (Heh) of this Ineffable Name being always applied to the Six Lower and the last , together the Seven remaining Sephiroth." .
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Thus the Tetragrammaton is holy only in its abstract synthesis.
As a quaternary containing the lower Seven Sephiroth, it is phallic.
[[Vol.
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in the secret Scriptures of all the great nations, and even in the Zohar , the Kabalistic lore of that smallest of all, the Jewish.
This word, composed of seven letters in each tongue, is found embodied in the architectural remains of every grand building in the world; from the Cyclopean remains on Easter Island (part of a continent buried under the seas nearer four million years ago* than 20,000) down to the earliest Egyptian pyramids.
We shall have to enter more fully upon this subject, and bring practical illustrations to prove the statements made in the text.
For the present it is sufficient to show, by a few instances, the truth of what was asserted at the beginning of this Monograph, namely, that no Cosmogony, the world over, with the sole exception of the Christian, has ever attributed to the One Highest cause, the UNIVERSAL Deific Principle, the immediate creation of our Earth, man, or anything connected with these.
This statement holds as good for the Hebrew or Chaldean Kabala as it does for Genesis , had the latter been ever thoroughly understood, and -- what is still more important -- correctly translated.** Everywhere there is either a LOGOS -- a " Light shining [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The statement will, of course, be found preposterous and absurd, and simply laughed at.
But if one believes in the final submersion of Atlantis 850,000 years ago, as taught in " Esoteric Buddhism " (the gradual first sinking having begun during the Eocene age), one has to accept the statement for the so-called Lemuria, the continent of the Third Root Race, first nearly destroyed by combustion, and then submerged.
This is what the Commentary says: "The first earth having been purified by the forty-nine fires, her people, born of Fire and Water, could not die .
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etc.; the Second Earth (with its race) disappeared as vapour vanishes in the air .
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the Third Earth had everything consumed on it after the separation , and went down into the lower Deep (the Ocean).
This was twice e ighty-two cyclic years ago." Now a cyclic year is what we call a sidereal year, and is founded on the precession of the equinoxes, or 25,868 years each, and this is equal, therefore, in all to 4,242,352 years.
More details will be found in the text of Book II.
Meanwhile, this doctrine is embodied in the "Kings of Edom." ** The same reserve is found in the Talmud and in every national system of religion whether monotheistic or exoterically polytheistical.
From the superb religious poem by the Kabalist Rabbi Solomon Ben Gabirol in "the Kether Malchuth," we select a few definitions given in the prayers of Kippur.
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"Thou art one, the beginning of all numbers, and the foundation of all edifices; Thou art One, and in the secret of Thy unity the wisest of men are lost, because they know it not.
Thou art one, and Thy Unity is never diminished, never extended, and cannot be changed.
Thou art one, but not as an element of numeration; for Thy Unity admits not of multiplication , change or form.
Thou art existent; but the understanding and vision of mortals cannot attain to thy existence, nor determine for thee the Where, the How, and the Why.
Thou art Existent, but in thyself alone, there being none other that can exist with thee.
Thou art Existent, before all time and without Place.
Thou art Existent, and thy existence is so profound and secret that none can penetrate and discover thy secrecy.
Thou art Living, but within no time that can be fixed or known; Thou art Living, but not by a spirit or a soul, for Thou art thyself , THE SOUL OF ALL SOULS," etc., etc.
There is [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
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in D ARKNESS," truly -- or the Architect of the Worlds is esoterically a plural number.
The Latin Church, paradoxical as ever, while applying the epithet of Creator to Jehovah alone, adopts a whole Kyriel of names for the working FORCES of the latter , those names betraying the secret.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The passage repeatedly negates positive categories of the divine — 'no word,' 'Ineffable,' 'the word that is no word,' 'none can penetrate and discover thy secrecy,' 'cannot attain to thy existence, nor determine for thee the Where, the How, and the Why.'
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage makes a comparative claim about cosmogony — that no cosmogony except the Christian attributes immediate creation to the One Highest — and then narrates the staged descent of the First, Second, and Third Earths.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The passage emphasizes the supreme God's radical concealment — the Tetragrammaton as a 'screen' and 'substitute' to mislead the profane, the 'real secret and unpronounceable name' hidden behind circumlocutions.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The Ben Gabirol prayer describes the One as having 'no multiplication, change or form,' being 'in thyself alone, there being none other that can exist with thee,' expressing pure undivided being.
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.
The passage describes the hierarchical structure of emanations — the three metaphysical Sephiroth, the 'first seven emanations,' the 'Sons of the Fire,' and the lower Six — flowing from the One Highest.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage implies that the true divine name is accessible only through esoteric seeking ('has to be sought in the seven names') rather than through the exoteric circumlocution of the Tetragrammaton.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly describes how the true name is concealed behind the Tetragrammaton 'for no other purpose than to mislead the profane,' and that the secret is reserved for 'those who had the secret.'
The twenty-two Hebrew letters as the building blocks through which God creates and sustains all existence.
The passage details how the Hebrew letters Yod, Heh, and Vau compose the Tetragrammaton from the letters of Kether, Binah, and Hokhmah, presenting them as the building blocks of divine names and efficacy.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage explicitly states 'Everywhere there is either a LOGOS — a Light shining in Darkness' as the mediating principle between the One Highest and creation.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The prayer from Ben Gabirol describes the One as 'the beginning of all numbers,' whose unity 'admits not of multiplication, change or form,' expressing the absolutely simple, undivided first principle.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage is saturated with numerical mysticism — the significance of seven letters, the quaternary, the senary, the 'Sum Total,' and the mapping of numbers to divine structure.
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
The entire passage revolves around divine names (Tetragrammaton, Shaddai, Adonai, Elohim, Sabbaoth) as carriers of ontological power, their concealment from the profane, and their esoteric significance.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The passage references 'the Occultists,' 'the Jewish Kabalists,' and 'the Christian Alchemists and Rosicrucians' as groups who possessed 'the secret' and used Jehovah as a 'convenient screen.'
The diagrammatic arrangement of the ten Sephirot as a structured 'Tree of Life' mapping divine and cosmic forces.
The passage maps the Sephiroth in their structured arrangement (upper three, lower six, the Ten total) with specific letters assigned to each position, describing the Tree of Life as a diagrammatic system.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The passage is centrally organized around the Sephiroth — their names, letters, hierarchical arrangement (three metaphysical, six lower, ten total), and their relationship to the divine names.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The Ben Gabirol prayer affirms 'Thou art one' and 'Thy Unity is never diminished, never extended,' expressing the doctrine that all existence is ultimately one divine reality.