S. L. Macgregor Mathers - The Kabbalah Unveiled

"The body is the veil of Nephesch, Nephesch is the veil of Ruach, Ruach is the veil of the shroud of Neschamah.

"Light personifies itself by veiling itself, and the personification is only stable when the veil is perfect.

"This perfection upon earth is relative to the universal soul of the earth ( i.e. , as the macrocosm or greater world, so the microcosm or lesser world, which is man ).

There are three atmospheres for the souls.

The third atmosphere finishes where the planetary attraction of the other worlds commences.

Souls perfected on this earth pass on to another station.

"After traversing the planets they come to the sun; then they ascend into another universe and recommence their planetary evolution from world to world and from sun to sun.

"In the suns they remember, and in the planets they forget.

"The solar lives are the days of eternal life, and the planetary lives are the nights with their dreams.

"Angels are luminous emanations personified, not by trial and veil, but by divine influence and reflex.

"The angels aspire to become men, for the perfect man, the man-God, 1is above every angel.

"The planetary lives are composed of ten dreams of a hundred years each, and each solar life is a thousand years; therefore is it said that a thousand years are in the sight of God as one day.

"Every week--that is, every fourteen thousand years--the soul bathes itself and reposes in the jubilee dream of forgetfulness.

"On waking therefrom it has forgotten the evil and only remembers the good."

75. In the accompanying plate of the formation of the soul there will be seen in the upper part three circles, representing the three parts known as Neschamah, Ruach, and Nephesch. From Ruach and Nephesch, influenced by the good aspirations of Neschamah, proceeds Michael, the good angel of the soul; that is to say, the synthetical hieroglyph of the good ideas, or, in the esoteric Buddhist phraseology, the "Good Karma" of a man. From Nephesch dominating Ruach, and uninfluenced by the good aspirations of Neschamah, proceeds Samäel, the evil angel of the soul; that is to say, the synthetical hieroglyph of the evil ideas, the "evil Karma" of a man. And the Tzelem, or image, is double, for it reflects alike Michael and Samäel.

76. The following is Dr. Jellinek's 1analysis of the sephirotic ideas, according to the ethics of Spinoza:--

1. DEFINITION.--By the Being who is the cause and governor of all things I understand the Ain Soph -- i.e. , a Being infinite, boundless, absolutely identical with itself, united in itself, without attributes, will, intention, desire, thought, word, or deed.

2. DEFINITION.--By Sephiroth I understand the potencies which emanated from the Absolute, Ain Soph , all entities limited by quantity, which, like the will, without changing its nature, wills diverse objects that are the possibilities of multifarious things.

I. PROPOSITION.--The primary cause and governor of the world is the Ain Soph , who is both immanent and transcendent.

( a ) PROOF.--Each effect has a cause, and everything which has order and design has a governor.

( b ) PROOF.--Everything visible has a limit, what is limited is finite, what is finite is not absolutely identical; the primary cause of the world is invisible, therefore unlimited, infinite, absolutely identical-- i.e. , he is the Ain Soph .

( c ) PROOF.--As the primary cause of the world is infinite, nothing can exist without (EXTRA) him; hence he is immanent.

Scholion .--As the Ain Soph is invisible and exalted, it is the root of both faith and unbelief.

II. PROPOSITION.-The Sephiroth are the medium between the absolute Ain Soph and the real world.

PROOF.--As the real world is limited and not perfect, it cannot directly proceed from the Ain Soph : still the Ain Soph must exercise his influence over it, or his perfection would cease. Hence the Sephiroth , which, in their intimate connection with the Ain Soph , are perfect, and in their severance are imperfect, must be the medium.

Scholion .--Since all existing things originated by means of the Sephiroth , there are a higher, a middle, and a lower degree of the real world. ( Vide infra , Proposition VI.)

III.--PROPOSITION.--There are ten intermediate Sephiroth .

PROOF.--All bodies have three dimensions, each of which repeats the other (3 x 3); and by adding thereto space generally, we obtain the number ten . As the Sephiroth are the potencies of all that is limited they must be ten .

( a ) Scholion .--The number ten does not contradict the absolute unity of the Ain Soph ; as one is the basis of all numbers, plurality proceeds from unity, the germs contain the development, just as fire, flame, sparks, and colour have one basis, though they differ from one another.

( b ) Scholion.--Just as cogitation or thought, and even the mind as a cogitated object, is limited, becomes concrete, and has a measure, although pure thought proceeds from the Ain Soph ; so limit, measure, and concretion are the attributes of the Sephiroth .

IV. PROPOSITION.--The Sephiroth are emanations, and not creations.

1. PROOF.--As the absolute. Ain Soph is perfect, the Sephiroth proceeding therefrom must also be perfect hence they are not created.

2. PROOF.--All created objects diminish by abstraction; the Sephiroth do not lessen, as their activity never ceases; hence they cannot be created.

Scholion .--The first Sephira was in the Ain Soph as a power before it became a reality; then the second Sephira emanated as a potency for the intellectual world; and afterwards the other Sephiroth emanated for the moral and material worlds. This, however, does not imply a prius and posterius , or a gradation in the Ain Soph , but just as a light whose kindled lights, which shine sooner and later, and variously, so it embraces all in a unity.

V. PROPOSITION.--The Sephiroth are both active and passive (MQBIL VMThQBL, Meqabil Va-Metheqabel .)

PROOF.--As the Sephiroth do not set aside the unity of the Ain Soph , each one of them must receive from its predecessor and impart to its successor-- i.e. , be receptive and imparting.

VI. PROPOSITION.--The first Sephira is called Inscrutable Height , RVM MOLH, Rom Maaulah ; the second, Wisdom , ChKMH, Chokmah ; the third, Intelligence , BINH, Binah ; the fourth, Love, ChSD, Chesed ; the fifth, Justice , PChD, Pachad ; the sixth, Beauty , ThPARTh, Tiphereth ; the seventh, Firmness , NTZCh, Netzach ; the eighth, Splendour , HVD, Hod ; the ninth, the Righteous is the Foundation of the World , TzDIQ ISVD OVLM, Tzediq Yesod Olahm ; and the tenth, Righteousness , TzDQ, Tzedeq .

( a ) Scholion .--The first three Sephiroth form the world of thought; the second three the world of soul; and the four last the world of body; thus corresponding to the intellectual, moral, and material worlds.

( b ) Scholion .--The first Sephira stands in relation to the soul, inasmuch as it is called a unity , IChIDH, Yechidah ; the second, inasmuch as it is denominated living, ChIH, Chiah ; the third, inasmuch as it is termed, Spirit , RVCh, Ruach ; the fourth, inasmuch as it is called vital principle , NPSh, Nephesch ; the fifth, inasmuch as it is denominated soul, NShMH, Neschamah ; the sixth operates on the blood, the seventh on the bones, the eighth on the veins, the ninth on the flesh, and the tenth on the skin.