Mathers takes his history of the Qabalah from Ginsburg's essay, and Ginsburg had set out the legend (taught by God to angels, handed from Adam through Abraham and Moses, first written down by Simeon ben Yochai) expressly as the story its followers tell. In this paragraph the distance is gone: Mathers states the last point in his own voice, as a matter of course. In the same breath he declines to say, of the unwritten Qabalah, "even whether I myself have or have not received it". Within a year he was a founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The book is introduced by a translator writing as a possible initiate, not as a historian; modern scholarship, which dates the Zohar to thirteenth-century Spain, is not his frame.
The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)
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1000, Sh=300, I=io, and Th=4oo ; total = 39io years, being the time in round numbers. Picus de Mirandola gives the following working out of BRAShITh, Berashith : — By joining the third letter, A, to the first, B, AB, Ab — Father, is obtained. If to the first letter B, doubled, the second letter, R, be added, it makes BBR, Bebar =in or through the Son. If all the letters be read except the first, it makes EAShITh, Bashith— the beginning. If with the fourth letter, Sh, the first B and the last Th be connected, it makes ShBTh, Shebeth=th.Q end or rest. If the first three letters be taken, they make BE A, Bera = created. If, omitting the first, the three following be taken, they make RASh, Bash— head. If, omitting the two first, the next two be taken, they give ASh, Ash = fire. If the fourth and last be joined, they give ShTh, Sheth— foundation. Again, if the second letter be put before the first, it makes RB, Bab — great. If after the third be placed the fifth and fourth, it gives AISh, Aisli — man. If to the two first be joined the two last, they give BRITh, Beritli = covenant. And if the first be added to the last, it gives ThB, Theb , which is sometimes used for TYB, Tliob = good.
2 1 . Taking the whole of these mystical anagrams in proper order, Picus makes the following sentence out of this one word BRAShITh : — Better in filio (aut per filmin') principium et finem ( sive quietem) creavit caput , ignem, et fundamentum magni hominis feeder e bono : “ Through the Son hath the Father created that Head which is the beginning and the end, the fire-life and the foundation of the supernal man (the Adam Qadmon) by His righteous covenant.” Which is a short epitome of the teachings of the “ Book of Concealed Mystery.” This notice of the literal Qabalah has already extended beyond its proper limits. It was, however, necessary to be thus explicit, as much of the metaphysical reasoning of the ensuing work turns on its application.
2 2 . The term “Unwritten Qabalah” is applied to certain
KABBALAH.
knowledge whick is never entrusted to writing, but communicated orally. I may say no more on this point, not even whether I myself have or have not received it. Of course, till the time of Rabbi Schimeon Ben Jochai none of the Qabalah was ever written.
23. The Dogmatic Qabalah contains the doctrinal portion. There are a large number of treatises of various dates and merits which go to make up the written Qabalah, but they may be reduced to four heads :
(a) The Sepher Yetzirah and its dependencies.
(/3) The Zohar with its developments and commentaries.
(y) The Sepher Sephiroth and its expansions.
($) The Asch Metzareph and its symbolism.
24. The SPR ITzIRH, Sepher Yetzirah , or “ Book of Formation,” is ascribed to the patriarch Abraham. It treats of the cosmogony as symbolized by the ten numbers and the twenty-two letters of the alphabet, which it calls the “ thirty-two paths.” On these latter Rabbi Abraham Ben Dior has written a mystical commentary. The term “ path ” is used throughout the Qabalah to signify a hieroglyphical idea, or rather the sphere of ideas, which may be attached to any glyph or symbol.
25. The ZHR, Zohar , or “Splendour,” besides many other treatises of less note, contains the following most important books, of which the three first are translated in this volume :
(a) The SPRA DTzNIOYThA, Siphra Dtzenioutha , or a Book of Concealed Mystery,” which is the root and foundation of the Zohar.
((5) The ADRA RBAQDIShA, Idra Rabla Qadisha, or “ Greater Holy Assembly :” this is a development of the “ Book of Concealed Mystery.”
(y) The ADRA ZYTA QDIShA, Idra Zuta Qadisha, or “ Lesser Holy Assembly ; ” which is in the nature of a supplement to the “ Idra Rabba.” These three books treat of the gradual development of the creative Deity, and with Him the
INTRODUCTION.
Creation. ‘The text of these works has been annotated by Knorr yon Rosenroth (the author of the“QabalahDenudata,”) from the Mantuan, Cremonensian, andLublinensian Codices, which are corrected printed copies ; of these the Mantuan and Cremonensian are the oldest. A species of commentary is also given, which is distinguished from the actual text by being written within parentheses.