The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)
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229. Through those thirteen dispositions do they flow down, and the thirteen fountains of precious oil issue forth, and they flow down through all those inferiors, and in that oil do they shine, and with that oil are they anointed.
230. The beard of ornament of the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, the most concealed of all things, is configurated in thirteen dispositions.
231. From the two beautiful apples * of His countenance is the face of Macroprosopus illuminated ; and
* The cheeks.
THE GREATER HOLY ASSEMBLY.
1 37 whatsoever is white and rosy is found below ;* it shineth and radiateth from that light.
232. Those thirteen dispositions are found in the beard. And in proportion to the purity of his beard, f according to its dispositions, is a man said to be true ; for also whosoever (in sleep) beholdeth his beard, that man is very desirous of truth.
233. We have taught in the “ Book of Concealed Mystery,” that certain ( dispositions ) are found in the universe, according to those thirteen (< dispositions ) which depend from that venerable beard, and they are opened out into the thirteen gates of mercies.
234. And he who extendeth his hand in swearing, also doth the same if he swear by the thirteen { dispositions of the beard : these are in Arikh Anpin, or
Macroprosopus.
235. In Zauir Anpin, or Microprosopus, how many are there ? He said unto Rabbi Isaac : “ Arise in thy place, and describe the beard of the Holy King according unto the arrangement of its parts. How are these arranged ? ”
236. Rabbi Isaac arose; he commenced and said,
Micah vii. 18: “What god is like unto Thee,” &c. ;
“Thou shalt give truth unto Jacob,” &c.
237. “We have learned by tradition that herein are thirteen sections seen, and they all proceed from the thirteen fountains of excellent oil, of the parts of the holy beard of the Ancient of the Ancient Ones.
238. “Tradition: A most secret thing is this disposition of the beard. Secret is it and hidden ;
* That is, the lower Sephiroth reflect and partake of the properties of the superior emanations.
t By the beard is of course symbolically meant the atmosphere of good or bad deeds with which a man surrounds himself during his life. Concerning dreaming of the beard, see the “Book of Concealed Mystery,” c. iii. §§ 17, 18.
J Thirteen is by Gematria the number of AChD, Acliad , Unity. For
A + Ch + D = 1+8 + 4 = 13*
KABBALAH.
hidden, yet not hidden ; concealed, yet not concealed in its dispositions ; known, yet unknown.
239. “The first disposition. We have learned that the single locks and the single hairs do not mutually adhere unto each other ; and that the hairs of the beard take their rise from the disposition of the hair (of the head) .
240. “ This matter is worthy of examination. If all the hairs of the head and the hairs of the venerable supernal beard are balanced in one equilibrium, wherefore are some long, and others not so long ?
241. “Wherefore are not the hairs of the beard constant in the same proportion of length ? These also are firm; whi]e those which are on the head are not firm, but soft.
242. “ Therefore is it said that (in Macroprosopus) all the hairs descend equally from the head and beard ; for the hair of the head is prolonged even unto the shoulders, so that it may reach unto the head of Microprosopus, from that flux of the one brain unto the other.
243. “And because they are not firm, also it is necessary that they be soft.*
244. “We have learned by tradition. What is that which is written, Prov. i. 20 : c Wisdom (plural in Hebrew , ChKMVTh, not ChKMH) will cry without ; ’ and at the end of the verse it is written, c She (singular) will utter Her voice in the streets.’ In this text the beginning doth neither agree with the end, nor the end with the beginning.
245. “Therefore is it said : Wisdom will cry without when She passeth from the concealed brain of Macroprosopus unto the brain of Microprosopus, through those longer hairs; and thus as it were extrinsically those two brains are connected and become in this way one brain.
246. “ Since there is not subsistence in the inferior brain except by the preservation of the supernal brain.
* I.e. If they be not the one, they must be tbe other.
THE GREATER HOLY ASSEMBLY.
247. “And when this proflux is instituted from the one, namely, into the other, this hath place which is written, ‘ She will utter Her voice ; ’ namely, in the singular number.