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

49. Woe unto him who shall open her gate ! (The gates are said to be paths through which influence rusheth forth ; they are said to be closed, because, on the other hand, too much influence cannot be taken away from the inferiors ; wherefore the members are said to be overshadowed by the members, so that the light may diminish in its transit. But when those very concatenations and cohibitions of the lights are separated by

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KABBALAH.

the sins of the inferiors, no influx can come into the universe in a proper manner.)

[Following out the symbol of the equilibrium in the Sephiroth,. the sin of the inferior paths would be the introduction of unbalanced force. The reader will at first find a little difficulty in following the reasoning of these last few sections, but after reading them over once or twice, their meaning will seem clearer to him.]

CHAPTER II.

1. The beard of truth. (That is, now followeth a description of the beard of Macroprosopus, and its thirteen parts, which are more fully described in the “ Idra Rabba.5’)

[The beard is the influx which descends from the first Sephira through all the others. Macroprosopus is of course, as I havefully explained in the Introduction, the first Sephira, Kether, or ther crown ; also called the Ancient One.]

2. Of the beard mention hath not been made. (The correct Mantuan Codex hath this correction, so that the word DQNA, Deqcna , is here inserted in the original text. The meaning is, that Solomon in the “ Song of Songs ” maketh mention of all the other members, but not of the beard.) Because this is the ornament of all. (It is called an ornament because it covereth the rest, just as a garment which ornamenteth the body covereth that. Bub this beard covereth not only the Macroprosopus, but also the father and the mother, and descendeth even unto Microprosopus. Whence, on account of the communication of so copious a light, it hath also itself been clothed as with a garment with the great reverence of silence.)

[By this beard, covering “ not only Macroprosopus, but also the father and the mother,” is meant that, while it is an important attribute of Macroprosopus (who is, be it carefully remembered by the reader, Eheich, AHIH, and not IHYH, in which latter name he

THE BOOK OF CONCEALED MYSTERY.

6 7 is only alluded to as “the uppermost point of the letter I, Yod”), it also extends through the Sephiroth, for it covers the father and the mother ( i.e ., the second Sephira, ChoTcmah, wisdom, and the third 'Sephira, Binali, understanding, the IH of IHVH). Thus, therefore, though properly speaking a part of AHIH, and not of IHVH, it extends through the Tetragrammaton IHVH, for it “ descendeth even unto Microprosopus,” the next six Sephiroth, the V of IHVH.]

3 . From the ears it proceedeth about the circumference
of the open space ; the white locks ascend and descend.
Into thirteen portions it is distributed in adornment.
(Of all these see the explanation in the “ Idra Eabba
and u Idra Zuta.”)

[These thirteen divisions of the beard of Macroprosopus are all descanted upon at length in both the “ Greater ” and “ Lesser Holy Assembly,” in the first mentioned of which a chapter is devoted to the consideration of each division. I therefore shall not need to enter into the subject here, as the reader will find all the information he requires in the latter part of this volume. By Gematria (see Introduction), the word AChD, Achad, one, unity = 13. The beard therefore is a glyph of the unity.]

• 4. Concerning that ornamentation it is written (Jer.
• ii. 6) : “ No man passed through it ; and where no man dwelt.” Man is without, man is not included therein ; much less the male.

[The verse runs in the English version : “ Through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt.”]

5. Through thirteen springs are the fountains distributed (by which there is an influx upon Microprosopus and the inferiors). Four are separately joined together, but niue flow upon the body (or, as others read, by advice of the correct Mantuan Codex) , encircle the garden (that is, the Microprosopus).