QABALAH - ZEN OF THE WEST (PART 2)
So where were we...? Ah yes! The beginning - 913 - BRAShYTh. Literally this means "In the beginning..." as I understand - but it's also interesting to note that BRA means "created" and ShYTh means "six." Doesn't really need much explanation. BR = pure, a field, son. RASh = a head. ASh = fire. I could even go further and say that there's a Head (RASh) in a House (BYTh) B - RASh - YTh. Which suggests to me the House of God, the Primum Mobile, etc.
So yes. In the beginning there is Nothing. Makes sense really. But this is a very special kind of Nothing - AYN (Ain) to be specific. This Nothing is so absolute that you can't even think about it. This is very appropriate really. If someone asks you "What is the supreme creative force?" you could say "God" or "Elohim" or some such. If someone then asks you what comes before God, you could say "Nothing." "What can you say about God?" "Nothing." This appeals to me, because nothing irks me more than people who think God is an old man with a white beard. Or that He is a Man at all. Or any single figure with any single specific mind and direct active will (see my previous post about Rabbi Cooper's "God-ing") That old man might be YHVH - the Demiurge, or creator God that THINKS it is God but is NOT God. Or he might not be.Having NO God before Him might more appropriately be rendered as having NOTHING before Him. No Thing comes before Elohim.
In any case imagine we have Nothing - No Thing. Or rather don't because you can't. From this No Thing-ness proceeds another kind of Nothing: AYN SVP (Ain Soph) - No Limit, Limitlessness. Infinity. In a way this is the corollary of trying to conceive of No Thing. Ain is impossible for our human minds to grasp. Infinity is just about as impossible, but a little easier to think about. If we are to go with the Creator idea, it's almost as if Nothingness realised how perfect it was and simultaneously and necessarily realised what it was Not - numerous beautiful renderings of this realisation exist - Robert Fludd had a whole series depicting this process. Nothingness contracts into itself, realising the Infinity it encompassed and at the same time was Not. In the space that was the diference between Ain and Ain Soph there is the third special kind of Nothing - AYN SVP AVR (Ain Soph Aur) - No Limit to the Light, Limitless Light.
AYN SVP AVR = 414 (non finals) = going forth (MShVTTYM) = Meditation (HGVTh) = Kadish or mourning prayer (QDYSh).
The realisation of Limitless Light appears to be - for the Creative Force involved, at once an active and a passive process. It is a going forth, yet it is a meditation - not that, as many esoteric traditions teach, meditation has to be passive. The link to Kadish or a mourning prayer is only right consdiering the Qabalaistic perspective of Creation(-ing) as a process of degradation or distancing from the God. The Perfect Nothing has realised it's Perfection, and in realising this Perfection, it realises Imperfection and begins the path to Manifestation that will eventually end in Malkuth. Because as Lon put it, saying that Nothing is Not means that Something Is. And that Something is One.
HOORAY!!!!! SOMETHING we can think about! ONE! This is the Crown, Kether - the Smooth Point, the Inscrutable Height or the Inner Light, as it is variously called. The God name of Kether is Eheieh (AHIH - 21) - "I Am" - the Divine Breath has been exhaled in a sigh upon realisation of Imperfection and it's first whispered words are self-identification.
From here the process of manifestation as represented in the Tree of Life diagram is extensively well attested in innumerable Qabalistic works. In a faint echo of the workings of Ain-Ain Soph-Ain Soph Aur, One percieves it's Oneness, and in order to do this must create duality - Two, Chokmah - as soon as this duality is created, the Ternary follows in order to be able to perceive this Duality - Three, Binah. All this is One thinking about itself. From here One crosses the Abyss from idea to actuality, giving rise to the 4th, 5th and 6th Sephiroth, which are reflected again, and finally manifest in Malkuth.
We had an interesting discussion about how Malkuth comes forth - specifically on the established Tree of Life diagram. Some highly secular analogies involving the One "pushing out" the Earth of Malkuth if you cathc my drift. All very amusing. Some theories mentioned about Malkuth originally having been higher on the Tree and being pushed down. For me it encapsulated the "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether, but after another manner." Malkuth is the Kether of the Lower Worlds - showing us that Creation(-ing) is an unceasing outpouring.
From there we examined some Gematria, which is always fun, and a bit of Notariqon, etc. We all looked at our own names. Tried making them into squares. So a 3-letter name makes a 9-square grid. Then in the centre one can put a letter of choice depending on what sort of talisman or links you wish to make with your name. I was a bit astounded at the number of people there who had either never encountered this concept, or who simply couldn't grasp it. I've not got a particularly mathematical mind, but I do have a linguistic mind. I sometimes forget that Itaqke some things for granted too. But a couple of people there I know have been engaging in occult thought for decades, and still hadn't really encountered Gematria before.
All in all nothing drastically new in the day, but Lon really manages to make a lot of these vast and complex ideas very approachable. His explanation of Ain-Ain Soph-Ain Soph Aur was fantastic. He also gave us all a little card certifying us as Chicken Qabalists, which is just hilarious. I had him sign the back of it on the Monday as the Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford. I'm getting it laminated.
Next up is GOETIA!
