The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)

56. I have already remarked that there is one trinity which comprises all the Sephiroth, and that it consists of the crown the king, and the queen. (In some senses this is the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which in their highest Divine nature are symbolized by the first three Sephiroth, Kether, Chokmah, and Binah.) It is the Trinity which created the world, or, in qabalistic language, the universe was born from the

The Vast Countenance'.

INTRODUCTION.

union of tlie crowned king and queen. But according to the Qabalah, before the complete form of the heavenlyman (the ten Sephiroth) was produced, there were certain primordial worlds created, but these could not subsist, as the equilibrium of balance was not yet perfect, and they were convulsed by the unbalanced force and destroyed. These primordial worlds are called the u kings of ancient time,” and the “ kings of Edom who reigned before the monarchs of Israel.” In this sense, Edom is the world of unbalanced force, and Israel is the balanced Sephiroth (Gen. xxxvi. 31). This important fact, that worlds were created and destroyed prior to the present creation, is again and again reiterated in the Zohar.

57. Now the Sephiroth are also called the World of Emanations, or the Atziluthic World, or archetypal world, OVLM ATzILVTh, Olahm Atziloth ; and this world gave birth to three other worlds, each containing a repetition of the Sephiroth, but in a descending scale of brightness.

58. The second world is the Briatic world, OVLM HBBIAH, Olahm Ha-Briah , the world of creation, also called KVBSIA, Khovsia, the throne. It is an immediate emanation from the world of Atziloth, whose ten Sephiroth are reflected herein, and are consequently more limited, though they are still of the purest nature, and without any admixture of matter.

59. The third is the Jetziratic world, OVLM HITzIRH, Olahm Ha-Yetzirali , or world of formation and of angels, which proceeds from Briah, and though less refined in substance, is still without matter. It is in this angelic world where those intelligent and incorporeal beings reside who are wrapped in a luminous garment, and who assume a form when they appear unto man.

60. The fourth is the Asiatic world, OVLM HO- ShIH, Olahm Ha-Asiah , the world of action, called

KABBALAH.

also tlie world of shells, OVKM HQLIPVTh, Olahm Ha-Qliplioth , which is this world of matter, made tip of the grosser elements of the other three. In it is also the abode of the evil spirits, which are called u the shells” by the Qabalah, QLIPVTH, Qlipkoth , material shells. The devils are also divided into ten classes, and have suitable habitations. (See Table.)

6 1. The Demons are the grossest and most deficient of all forms. Their ten degrees answer to the decad of the Sephiroth, but in inverse ratio, as darkness and impurity increase with the descent of each degree. The two first are nothing but absence of visible form and organization. The third is the abode of darkness. Next follow seven Hells occupied by those demons which represent incarnate human vices, and torture those who have given themselves up to such vices in earth-life. Their prince is Samael , SMAL, the angel of poison and of death. His wife is the harlot, or woman of whoredom, AShTh ZNVNIM, Isheth Zenunim ; and united they are called the beast, CHIVA, Chioa . Thus the infernal trinity is completed, which is, so to speak, the averse and caricature of the supernal Creative One. Samael is considered to be identical with Satan.