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A NOTE ON GENESIS
BY THE
A NOTE ON GENESIS
PREFATORY NOTE
THE following Essay is one of the most remarkable studies in the Hebrew
Qabalah known to me.
Its venerable author was an adept familiar with many systems of symbolism,
and able to harmonise them for himself, even as now is accomplished for all
men in the Book "777".
In the year 1899 he was graciously pleased to receive me as his pupil, and,
living in his house, I studied daily under his guidance the Holy Qabalah.
Upon his withdrawal --- whether to enjoy his Earned Reward, or to perform the
Work of the Brotherhood in other lands or planets matters nothing here --- he
bequeathed to me a beautiful Garden, the like of which hath rarely been seen
upon Earth.
It has been my pious duty to collate and comment upon this arcane knowledge,
long treasured in my heart, watered alike by my tears and my blood, and sunned
by that all-glorious Ray that multiplieth itself into an Orb ineffable.
In this Garden no flower was fairer than this exquisite discourse; I beg my
readers to pluck it and lay it in their hearts.
It should be studied in connection with the Book "777," and with the Sepher
Sephiroth, a magical dictionary of pure number which was begun by the
author of this essay, carried on by myself, and now about to be published as
soon as the MS. can be prepared.
The reader who is at all familiar with the sublime computations of the
Qabalah will find no difficulty in appreciating this Essay to the full; but
all will gain benefit from the study of the ratiocinative methods employed.
These methods, indeed, are so fine and subtile that they readily sublime into
the Intuitive. This study is truly a Royal Magistry, an easy and sure means
of exalting the consciousness from Ruach to Neschamah.
PART I
IN the First Verse of the First Chapter of the First Five Books of the Holy
Law: it is written: --- B'RAShITh Ba RA ALoHIM ATh HaShaMaIM VaATH HaAReTz, or
in Aramaic script
Such are the Seven Words which constitute the Beginnings or Heads of One
Law; and I propose to show, by applying to the Text the Keys of the Qabalah,
that not merely the surface meaning is contained therein.
In the Beginning, created, God, the Essence of the Heavens, and the
Essence, of the Earth.
<<1: Aleph-Taw = the First and Last --- Alpha and Omega --- Aleph and Tau.>>
<<2: "I.e.," the White Skull. "Vide" Idra Zutra Qadisha, cap. ii.
Distinguish from the skull of Microprosophus.>>
Contained therein also are the Divine, Magical, and Terrestrial Formulae of
the Passage of the Incomprehensible Nothingness of the Ain Soph to the
Perfection of Creation expressed by the Ten Voices or Emanations of God
the Vast One --- Blessed be He! --- even the Holy Sephiroth.
And the Method whereby I shall work shall be the One Absolute and inerratic
Science: the Science of Number: which is that single Mystery of the Intellect
of Man whereby he becometh exalted unto the Throne of Inflexible and Unerring
Godhead.
But before I may proceed unto the Qabalistical<<Here use in its true
meaning of "the marshalling forth by number." Qabalah, Qof-Bet-Lamed-Heh, by
Tarot, "The Mystery shown forth in balanced disposition by Command.">>
enumeration and analysis of the Text, a certain preamble in the fruitful
fields of that Science will become necessary. The Evolution of the Numbers is
the Evolution of the Worlds, for as it is written in the Clavicula Salomonis,
"The Numbers are Ideas; and the Ideas are the Powers, and the Powers are the
Holy Elohim of Life." That which is behind and beyond all Number and all
thought (even as the Ain Soph with its Mighty Veils depending back from Kether
is behind and beyond all Manifestation) is the Number 0. Its symbol is the
very Emblem of Infinite Space and Infinite Time. <<"Hidden behind my Magic
Veil of Shows, I am not seen at all --- Name not my Name.">> Multiply by it
any active and manifested number; and that number vanishes --- sinks into the
Ocean of Eternity. So also is the Ain Soph. From it proceed all Things: unto
It all will return, when the Age of Brahman is over and done, and the day of
Peace-Be-with-Us is declared by Thoth, the Great God, and the Material
Universe sinketh into Infinity.
The first Number, then is ONE; emblem of the All-Father; the Unmanifest
Mind behind all Manifestation: the First Mind. Multiply by It any other
Number --- for the Multiplication of the Numbers is a Generation, as is the
Multiplication of Men and Gods --- and behold! the "Resultant" is a replica of
the Number taken. So is One the All-Father, the All-begetter --- generating
and producing all.
The next step is the division into TWO. Thus was manifested the Great Dual
Power of Nature. As above, so below. And thus we find that the simple
division into two is the method of multiplication of the Amoeba, the lowest,
simplest, and most absolute form of physical life that we know.
Again, to draw an analogy from the Material World, consider the Moon, our
Mother. Behold in her the Typic representative of the Powers of the Two.
Light and Darkness, Flux and Reflux, Ebb and Flow --- these are her manifested
Powers in Nature --- where also she binds the "Great Waters" to her Will.
Now these twain being Conjoined and manifest in ONE, produce the Number 3;
as it is written: "For the Mind of the Father said that 'All Things should be
cut into Three,' Whose Will<<HB:Bet, the magus of Power in Taro = Will.>>
assenting All Things were so divided. For the Mind of the Father said "Into
three," governing All Things by Mind. And there appeared in it the Triad,
Virtue and Wisdom and Multiscient Truth." Thus floweth forth the form of the
Triad.<<Ritual of the Path of the Daughter of the Firmament.>> Thus is
formulated the Creative Trinity which is, as it were, the essential
preliminary to Manifestation.
This Mystic Son of the Eternal Parents, having for his number 3, is
typified in all the sacred scripts by that number. Thus it is written of the
manifestation of the Son of God upon the Earth, "Shiloh shall come" (the
initial of which Mystery-Name is HB:Shin = 300). And in the Grecian tongue
it is written: "In the beginning was the Word," &c., which is lambda omicron
gamma omicron sigma (lambda = 30). But the best of all the Examples is
found in the Holy Tetragram Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh. For we may regard this venerable
name as typical of the Father and the Mother, and so divided into Vau-Heh and
Yod-Heh.<<For it is written (Genesis v. 1, 2):
We are now, therefore, arrived at the Great Mystery of the Tetractys, and
to go further we must resort to the Twin Sister of the Science of Number ---
which, indeed, is but Number made Flesh: Geometry, or Absolute Symbolism.
Even as it was spoken by the holy Pythagoras: "God geometrises."
. 3. .
. /| \ .
. / | \ .
6. ----------+----------- 5.
. \\ / | \ // .
. \ X | X / .
. \ / \ | / \/ .
. \ 4. /\ .
. / \ / | \ / \ .
. / X | X \ .
. / / \ | / \ \ .
1.--------\--+--/-------- 2.
. \ | / .
. \|/ .
. 7. .
By producing the Paths whereby the Forces of the Three ("see" Second
Symbol) were concentred into four, we find they read 1 + 4 = 5, 2 + 4 =
6, 3 + 4 = 7. And thus is revealed the Second Triangle of the Hexagram of
Creation.<<As it is written in the Path of the Child of the Sons of the
Mighty: "And the Chaos cried aloud for the unity of Form and the Face of the
Eternal arose. ... That Brow and those Eyes formed the upright-Fire-triangle
of the Measureless Heavens: and their Reflection formed the inverted-Water-
triangle of the measureless Waters. And thus was formulated One Eternal
Hexad: and this is the Number of the Dawning Creation.">>
Further, this Reflected Triangle showeth forth the evolution of the four
Worlds and their Consolidation: for
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = Yod = Atziluth
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 = Yod Heh = Briah
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21 = Yod Heh Vau = Yetzirah
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7<<10>> = 28 = 2 + 8 = 10 Assiah
<<10: But herein is the Fall, that there were only six numbers, so that for
the seventh was 5 repeated. Hence 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 26 Yod-Heh-Vau-
Heh. Assiah; Tetragrammaton as the Elemental Limitation, the Jealous God. ---
P.>>
The Number 28, the total numeration, therefore represents Malkuth, the
Tenth Sephira: Assiah made manifest --- the Work of Creation accomplished:
wherefore God rested on the "Seventh" Day. And 28 is 7 x 4, the seven stars
shining throughout the four Worlds.
One thing is significant, indeed. Let us take the Primal Three and convert
those Numbers into Colours. So we get HB:Aleph, the Father, the Yellow Ray of
the Dawning Sun of Creation; HB:Mem, the Mother, the Blue Ray of the Great
Primaeval Waters; HB:Shin, the Son, the Red Ray: the Ruach Elohim,<<Remember
that the numeration of the Name Resh-Vau-Chet Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-Memfinal is
300 = HB:Shin.>> symbol of the Red Fire of God, which brooded (v.2) upon the
Face of the Waters: or like the Red Glory that lights up the Heavens at Dawn,
when the Golden Sun illumines the Waters above the Firmament. Now this Red
Glory is the IGNIS DEI: which is also the AGNUS DEI, or Lamb of God that
destroyeth (literally "burns out") the Sins of the World. As it is written in
the Ordinary of the Mass: the Priest goeth unto the South of the Altar and
prays: "O Agnus Dei! qui tollis -- qui tollis Peccata Mundi --- Dona Nobis
Pacem!" And this Fire, this Lamb of God, is "Aries," Symbol of the Dawning
Year: whose colour also is as the Red Fire, and which is the head of the Fiery
Triplicity in the Zodiac. So also in the Grade of Neophyte in the Order of
the Golden Dawn the Hierophant weareth a robe of flame-scarlet as symbolic of
the Dawn.
NOTE. --- It may be objected to this enunciation of the colours that HB:
Yod, the Father, is Fire; that HB:Heh, the Mother, is Water; that HB:Vau, the
Son, is Air, and Yellow instead of Red. This also is true, but it relates to
the governance of the Elemental Kingdoms, which are in the Astral Worlds, and
whose monads are on the descending arc of Life, whilst Man is on the Ascending;
that scale is therefore inverted. For by the mighty sacrifice of the Man Made
Flesh and by His Torturous Pilgrimage is evolved that Glorified Son Who is
Greater than His Father. In Alchemy we have again the descending arc, for we
find that the "red" powder cast upon the Water of the Metals produceth the
Golden Sol. But it is important not to confuse. The Christians have terribly
muddled their Trinity by making the Son the second instead of the third
Principle; whilst with them the Holy Spirit at one Time symbolizes the Mother
and at another the Son.
Thus at the Annunciation and at the Baptism of the Christ the S.S.
appeareth as a Dove, emblem of Venus and the Mother: whilst the S.S. that
descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost was in reality the Spirit of
the Christ, and therefore symbolised by the HB:Shin ("see" Lecture on
Microcosmos in MSS. of R.R. et A.C.).
PART II
IT was necessary that I should go thus somewhat at length into this Mystery of
the Opening of the Numbers, because without this explanation much of the
meaning of the verse must necessarily remain obscure.
The first thing that strikes us is that it contains "Seven Words:" the
Second that the number of its letters is "twenty-eight." Thus does it
perfectly symbolise in its entirety the third Symbol in the numerical
evolution.
Before proceeding to a detailed analysis, and following the Process of
Creation by Time ("i.e.," beginning at the first letter, and so proceeding),
let me point out a few general facts. First as to the number of letters in
each word, which converted into figures stands thus: 4.3.5.2.5.3.6. (Hebrew
direction).
In the midst is 2, by Taro the Central Will: and this two-lettered word is
Aleph-Taw. On either side of this is the pair of figures 35- 53, balanced one
against the other: as though symbolic of the great dawning of life of the
"Mothers" --- HB:Heh and HB:Heh, vitalised by the SON (3) as the Vice-Gerent
of His Father.
These balanced figures together make 16, whereof the Key is 7; the total
number of letters in the third Symbol. Then we have left at either end 4 and
6 = 10,<<"Vide" Sepher Yetzirah for this division of the Holy Sephiroth into a
Hexad and a Tetrad.>> the perfection of the Sephiroth, as if to declare
that this verse from, beginning to end thereof reflected the Voices from
Kether even unto Malkuth: and 6 - 4 = 2 again, the Central Will, HB:Bet,
Thoth, in the Heart of the Universe (as in the centre of the verse). Note,
then, this perfect equilibrium of the verse, and remember that Mystery ---
that equilibrium is strength.
Let us now look at the letters themselves. Counting them, we find that
the two central ones are Mem-Aleph, the Supernal Mother; even as the number of
letters had the dual symbol in their midst. Now their numeration is 41,
yielding by Gematria Aleph-Yod-Lamed = Force: Might: Power: Gemel-Aleph-Vau-
Aleph-Lamed, Divine Majesty: and Aleph-Chet-Lamed-Bet = Fecundity, all
symbolic of the attributes of the Dual Polar Force and Mother. Moreover, 4 +
1 = 5 = HB:Heh, Mother Supernal once again --- and in its geometric symbol the
Pentagram --- the Star of Unconquered Will. Add the next two letters on
either side,
Yod-Memfinal-Aleph-Taw
and we get Earth-Air-Water-Fire, or a concealed Tetragrammaton.
And this also reads Yod-Memfinal, the Great Sea, Aleph-Taw, Alpha and
Omega, or Essence. Add the next two, so that the six central letters are
obtained; and we read Heh-Yod-Memfinal-Aleph-Taw-Heh, which signifies Heh-Yod-
Memfinal, swollen, extended, or expanded; and hence "Thou" ("i.e.," God, Ateh,
the All) "in extension." But by Metathesis of these six letters is obtained
Heh-Yod-Heh Aleph-Mem-Taw = "Truth Was," as if affirming solemnly the
presence in the Creation of the Supernal Truth.
Now let us take the first and last letters of the verse and "cast into the
midst thereof the Fire of the Sun" --- "i.e.", HB:Vau (6), "the Seal of
Creation" --- and we have Bet-Vau-Tzaddifinal, an Egg. Where we see the whole
universe enclosed in the Cosmic Egg of Hindu and Egyptian Mythology: and the
Formulation of the Sphere of the Universe (or Magical Mirror in Man).
As it were the Egg of the Black Swan of Time, the Kala Hamsa, the
Triune M
A U, or word of Power or of Seb, the Bird of Life, whose will was
heard in the Night of Time.
Now to proceed to what I have termed the Time Process, the first Word of
the Law then is Bet-Resh-Aleph-Shin-Yod-Taw. Now in the Hebrew Scriptures the
first word of a Book is also its Title. Thus Genesis is called by the Rabbins
"B'rasheth," or "In the Beginning," wherefore we may regard this Word as not
the first word --- albeit that is shadowed forth therein --- but as the seal
and title and Key of the whole book. Holding this in mind, let us proceed to
analyse it. The number of its letters is six, the Seal of Creation, and their
total numeric value is 2911. 2911 = 13 = Death, the Transformer<<As it is
written: "Thy youth shall be renewed as the Eagle's." Now the Eagle is
HB:Nun. For further consideration of this 13, "vide" in the Portal Ritual the
explanation of that terrible Key. "See" account of this ritual in "The
Temple."
HB:Taw is the last letter of the Alphabet, the "finis", the Omega,
the Universe, Saturn, the outermost Planet, and it is also
Taw-Resh-Ayin-Aleph, Throa, the Gate of the Universe; and by
Qabalah of nine Chambers it is HB:Dalet, the Gateway of Initiation.
Hence:
Now compare this with the Particular Exordium (G.'. D.'. MSS. Z3):
The positions of the last two letters of the Word have been relatively
changed, so as to render the meaning more harmoniously.
We will now proceed to the first word of the text as thus decapitated,
taking B'rasheth as the Title rather than as the first Word. This latter
stands Bet-Resh-Aleph, which hath three Letters, symbolising thereby the
Unmanifest Trinity.
Now its letters further exemplify the Trinity, for that they are the
initials of three Hebrew words, which are the Names of the Persons thereof,
viz:
Bet-Nunfinal Ben, the Son.
Resh-Vau-Chet Ruach, the Spirit (here the Mother).
Aleph-Bet Ab, the Father.
Note how here again the Son is first for Humanity and the Father last.
These three letters, then, symbolise the three in One Unmanifest. Yet is
there in them the All-potency of Life. For 2 + 2 + 1 = 5, the Symbol of
Power, Mother Supernal, and HB:Heh also is Aries, Lamb of God and Dawn of the
Life of the Year.
Wherefore in them lieth concealed and hidden, not alone the Divine White
Brilliance of the Three Supernals (Heh-Vau-Aleph, Vau-Qof-Dalet-Vau-Shin, Bet-
Resh-Vau-Kophfinal), but even also that Gleaming Glory which partaketh of the
Redness, and which cometh from the Bornless Age, which is beyond Kether. As
it is written in Ancient Hindu Scripture, "In the beginning Desire, TANHA,
arose in It: which was the Primal Germ of Mind." Now in the Aryan Mythology
Tanha, Desire, was the God of Love, Kama; whereof the symbolic tint was Pink:
as it were the first pink blush of Dawn in the Macrocosmic Sky: Herald of the
Rising Sun of the Worlds, when the Great Night of Brahma was over and done.
The next word in the Great Name of God the Vast One: Aleph-Lamed-Heh-Yod-
Mem final. Let us meditate upon its Mystery! Herein behold five
Letters: In its Centre is the Great Letter HB:Heh, Mother Supernal. Five once
more; and its first and last letters are once again Aleph-Memfinal, 41, the
Mother, and 5, the Maternal Essence. And its numeration is 86, whereof the
Key is 14, whereof the Key is 5. Wherefore we say that this great name is 5
in its form symbolic. 5 in the Heart of its Power: the Beginning and the End
thereof are 5; and 5 is it in its Venerable Essence!
Turn now back unto the third Symbol; gaze at it steadily for a few moments,
and see hidden in the Six-fold Seal of Creation the Five-fold Star of
Unconquered Will.
For this was the Divine Force which created the worlds! Power Eternal,
Power Resistless, Power All-dominating, in its Absolute Supremacy --- gleaming
as the Great Name Elohim in the Heart of the Six- fold star! Flaming as the
Purifying Fire, purging and ordering the Chaos of the Night of Time!
As in the midst of the Letters of the Verse we saw the words Aleph-Taw-Heh-
Heh Yod-Memfinal, "Thou in Extension," so also does the Name Elohim read
Aleph-Lamed, "Deity," Heh-Yod-Memfinal, in Extension.<<And Aleph-Lamed =
Lamed-Aleph, No, the Negative.>>
Write the letters of this Name in any Invoking Pentagram; and the Banishing
Pentagram thereof will read 3.1415 (by Qabalah of nine Chambers), which is the
Formula of the Proportion of diameter to circumference of the Circle.<<The
nearest computation to four places of decimals is 3.1416 (3.14156 {SIC. s.b.
3.1415926... --- WEH}). But 3.1415 is good enough for the benighted Hebrews.
--- P.
In the sublime Computations of the Qabalah the Final Forms of letters have
no increased numerical value. Mem is 40, whether final or not. The Ancient
Hebrew Method of obtaining all numbers above 400 and below 1000, respectively
HB:Aleph and HB:Taw {SIC s.b. HB:Taw and HB:Aleph --- WEH}, was to make up
the number with the proper letters. Thus 500 would have been written Taw-Qof,
not HB:Kophfinal, and 800 Taw-Taw, and so on. [Yet in some few Arcana the
Finals are counted as such. This mystery, however, pertaineth to a Grade even
more exalted than our beloved and erudite Brother had attained at the period
of this Essay {WEH paraphrase: Bennett didn't know, and Crowley either doesn't
know or won't say.}. --- P.]>> Thus herein do we perceive the Hidden Power of
the Three extended as a Mighty Sphere to the Confines of Space!
The next word is Aleph-Taw, which we have seen to be the Central word: and
its signification is the Alpha and Omega --- From Beginning unto End: Essence:
and its Key is 5.
In the next word, Vau-Aleph-Taw, we find that the Conjunctive HB:Vau makes
of the Key number of the Essence of the Earth 11 instead of 5: symbolising how
the World should fall unto the Kingdom of the Shells, and how it should be
redeemed by the Son of Man.<<For 11 is the Number of the Qliphoth; but when
the Fall had occurred and the Sephira Malkuth had been cut off from the Tree
by the folds of the Dragon there was added unto the Tree Dalet-Ayin-Taw, the
Knowledge, as the 11th Sephira, to preserve intact the "Ten"-ness of the
Sephiroth. Showing how by that very eating of the Fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and of Evil should come the Saving of Mankind; for Daath is
the Priceless Gift of Knowledge and Intellect whereby cometh Salvation.
Wherefore also is 11 the Key Number of the Great Saviour's Name (Yod-Heh-Shin-
Vau-Heh = 29 = 11), and this is also in the Taro the Wheel of the Great Law,
HB:Koph, the Lord of the Forces of Life.>>
Thus with the first appearance of the number of Matter does the first verse
of B'rasheth close: formulating in itself the Beginning and the End of the
Great Creation.
"The Characters of Heaven with Thy Finger hast thou traced: But none can
read them save he hath been taught in Thy School."
Wherefore closing do I name the Mighty Words:
-oOo-