The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)
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19. It is written, Gen. i. 20 : “Let the waters bring forth the reptile of a living soul ” (ChIH, CJiiah , living creature is to be here noted).
(To this section belongs the annotation which is placed at the end of this chapter ; which see.)
20. Like as it is said IH, Yah (Ch-III, Ch-iah , the corrected Mantuan Codex hath it, so that it may explain the word ChIH, Chiah , living creature, out of the eighth
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path of the understanding, which is that water of the name Yah , which denoteth father and mother. For when) the light of the former is extended unto the latter (which is the moving of the water) all things reproduce their kind at one and the same time — the waters of good and the waters of evil. (That is, there is reproduction as well in divinity and sanctity as among terrestrial living creatures and man ; for by the reptile form souls are symbolized.)
2 1 . (For) while it saith : IShRTzV, Yesliratzu , “ Let them bring forth abundantly,” they have vital motion; and the one form is at once included in the other form ; the living superior, the living inferior ; the living good, the living evil.
2 2. (So also it is written, Gen. i. 2 6): “ And
Elohim said, Let us make man.” (Where) it is not written HADM, Ha- Adam, “ this man ; ” but Adam , man, simply, in antithesis of the Higher One who hath been made in the perfect name.
[Regarding the “form of the heavenly man,” see Introduction, § 55.]
23. When that one was perfected, this one also was perfected ; but perfected as male and female, for the perfecting of all things.
24. (When therefore it is said) IHYH, Yod , He, Vau,
He (then is expressed), the nature of the male. (When)
ALHIM, Elohim (is joined therewith, there is expressed),
the nature of the female (who is called the kingdom).
[“The female who is called the kingdom,” i.e., Malkath, the tenth Sephira.]
2 5 . (Therefore) was the male extended, and formed with his members (in order that he might have), as it were, regenerative power.
[The “members of the male” are the six Sephiroth which together form Microprosopus.]
26. By means of this regenerative power those kings,
THE BOOK OF CONCEALED MYSTERY.
who had been destroyed were herein restored, and obtained stability. (For when the lights were sent down through narrow channels in less abundance, the inferior intelligences could take possession of them.)
[The “kings who had been destroyed,” are the “Edomite kings,” the “ worlds of unbalanced force,” who could not subsist because the “form, of the heavenly man” was not as yet. See Introduction, §§ 41, 56.]
27. The rigours (of judgments, which are symbolized by those kings), which are masculine, are vehement in the beginning; but in the end they are slackened. In the female the contrary rule obtaineth.
28. (We have an example of this in this form of the name) YIH (where the male hath two letters, and the female one only ; and the masculine also the letter in the beginning long, and afterwards short. But also in this form) the channels of connection are shrouded beneath His covering (that is, the supernal letters are doubtless connected in marital conjunction, but they are enshrouded in the letter Vau. And) Yocl (is in this place) small, (a symbol of the foundation ; because) in the very form (of the female, that is, even as he is hidden within H, He , which also is not the supernal but the inferior H, He) he is found. (And all are judgments, because the supernal influx is wanting.)
29. But if (these) judgments are to be mitigated, necessarily the Ancient One is required (that is, the first letters of the Tetragrammaton, denoting, IH Yah, the father together with the crown, which is the apex of the primal letter, and is called Macroprosopus.)
30. The same species of rigours and judgments occurred in the inferiors. For like as to the He of the bride, are added the two letters Yod and Vau , under the idea of the leviathan ; so) the serpent came upon the woman, and formed in her a nucleus of impurity, in order that he might make the habitation evil.
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31. Like as it is written, Gen. iv. 1 : “And she conceived and brought forth ATh QIN, Aik Qain , Cain, (that is) the nucleus QIN A, Qaina , of the abode of evil spirits, and turbulence, and evil occurrences.” (See further in the “ Treatise of the Revolutions of the Soul.”)