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THE CABALA is divided
into two parts: (1) The practical; (2)
the theoretical. The first treats of amulets and talismen,
and
possesses no value for the student of philosophy. The
second is divided into the Dogmatic and the Literal. The
Dogmatic Cabala is an exposition of the rabbinical
theosophy and philosophy: the Literal Cabala is the
science
which teaches a mystical method of explaining sacred
things
by a peculair use of the letters of words, and a reference
to
their value. The Book of Zohar, which is the great
exponent
of the Dogmatic Cabala, begins by positing the First Cause
as En Soph, the endless, the boundless, abiding in
"the
simplicity and undifferentiation of perfect unity."
By act of the
Supreme Will the universe flows forth from the divine
essence in a series of emanations, which are called the
sephiroth. Says Lewis Spence in his Encyclopedia of
Occultism:
The doctrine of the sephiroth is undoubtedly the most
important to be met with in the pages of the Cabala. To
justify His existence the Deity had to become active and
creative and this. He achieved through the medium of the
ten sephiroth or intelligences which emanated from Him
like
rays proceeding from a luminary. The first sephiroth or
emanation was the wish to become manifest, and this
contained nine other intelligences or sephiroth, which
again
emanate one from the other - the second from the first,
the
third from the second, and so forth. These are known as
the
Crown Wisdom, Intelligence, Love, justice, Beauty:
Firmness, Splendor, Foundation and Kingdom. From the
junction of pairs of sephiroth, other emanations were
formed: thus, from Wisdom and Intelligence proceeded Love
or Mercy and from Mercy and justice, Beauty. The sephiroth
are also symbolical of primordial man and the heavenly
man, of which earthly man is the shadow. They form three
triads which respectively represent intellectual, moral
and
physical qualities: the first, Wisdom, Intelligence and
Crown;
the second, Love, Justice and Beauty; the third, Firmness,
Splendor and Foundation. The whole is circled or bound by
Kingdom, the ninth sophiroth. Each of these triads
symbolizes a portion of the human frame: the first, the
head
; the second, the arms; the third, the legs. It must be
understood that though those sephiroth are emanations from
God, they remain a portion, and simply represent different
aspects of the One Being.
Cabalistic cosmology posits four different worlds, each of
which forms a sephiric system of a decade of emanations,
which were verified in the following manner: the world of
emanations or the heavenly man, a direct emanation from
the En Soph. From it is produced the world of creation or
the
Briatic world of pure nature, but yet not so spiritual as
the
first. . . . From this is formed the world of formation or
the
Yetziratic world, still less refined, which is the abode
of
angels. Finally from these emanates the world of action or
matter. . . . But the universe was incomplete without the
creation of man: the heavenly Adam, that is the tenth
sephiroth created the earthly Adam, each member of whose
body corresponds to a part of the visible universe. The
human form, we are told, is shaped after the four letters
which constitute the Jewish tetragrammaton, Yod-he-vau-he.
. . . The Cabala states that these esoteric doctrines are
contained in the Hebrew scriptures, but cannot be
perceived
by the uninitiated; they are, however, plainly revealed to
persons of spiritual mind.
The ten sephiroth, represented in the order of their
ascent
from the lowest to the highest, from the Foundation to the
Crown, bear a certain resemblance to the symbolical
ladders of the various systems, of initiation, for
example, the
Brahmanical Ladder of the Hindoo Mysteries; the Ladder of
Mithras of the Persian Mysteries; and the Ladder of Kadosh
and the Jacob's Ladder of the Masonic Mysteries.
The Zohar is not easy reading. it is full of obscurities.
It was
not intended for the hoi polloi but for Initiates. The
language
used is highly figurative and not to be taken literally.
Albert
Pike, in his Morals and Dogma, devotes considerable space
to the Cabala. He says (page 764) :
In the view of the Cabalists, all individuals are
contained in
species, and all species in genera, and all particulars,
in a
Universal, which is an idea, abstracted from all
consideration of individuals; not an aggregate of
individuals;
but, as it were, an Ens, Entity or Being, ideal or
intellectual,
but none the less real; prior to any individual,
containing
them all, and out of which they are all in succession
evolved.
If this discontents you, reflect that, supposing the
theory
correct, that all was originally in the Deity, and that
the
Universe has proceeded forth from Him, and not been
created by Him out of nothing, the idea of the Universe,
existing in the Deity before its outflow, must have been
as
real as the Deity Himself. The whole human race, or
humanity, for example, then existed in the Deity, not
distinguished into individuals, but as a unit, out of
which the
manifold was to flow.
Everything actual must also first have been possible,
before
having actual existence; and this possibility or
potentiality
was to the Cabalists a real Ens. Before the evolvement of
the Universe, it had to exist potentially, the whole of
it, with
all its individuals, included in a single Unity. This was
the
Idea or Plan of the Universe, and this had to be formed.
It
had to emanate from the Infinite Deity, and be of Himself,
though not His Very Self.
As regards the sephiroths or emanations, General Pike
writes as follows:
They were not only attributes of the Unmanifested Deity,
not
only Himself in limitation, but His actual manifestations,
or
His qualities made apparent as modes; and they were also
qualities of the Universal Nature-Spiritual, Mental, and
Material, produced and made existent by the outflow of
Himself.
In the view of the Cabala, God and the Universe were One;
and in the One General, as the type or source, were
included and involved, and from it have been evolved and
issued forth, the manifold and all particulars. Where,
indeed,
does individuality begin? . . . The tree is one? but its
leaves
are a multitude, they drop with the frosts, and fall upon
its
roots, but the tree still continues to grow, and new
leaves
come again in the spring. Is the Human Race not the Tree,
and are not individual men the leaves? How else explain
the
force of will and sympathy, and the dependence of one man
at every instant of his life on others, except by the
oneness
of the race? The links that bind all created things
together
are the links of a single Unity, and the whole universe is
One, developing itself into the manifold.
Some writers have declared that the Cabala assigns sexual
characters to the very Deity, but Pike emphatically denies
this assumption. He says:
There is no warrant for such an assertion, anywhere in the
Zohar or in any commentary upon it. On the contrary,
the
whole doctrine of the Cabala is based on the fundamental
proposition, that the Very Deity is Infinite, everywhere
extended, without limitation or determination, and
therefore
without any conformation whatever. In order to commence
the process of creation, it was necessary for Him, first
of all,
to effect a vacant space within Himself. To this end the
Deity, whose Nature is approximately expressed by
describing Him as Light filling all space, formless,
limitless,
contracts Himself on all sides from a point within
Himself,
and thus effects a quasi-vacant space, in which only a
vestage of His Light remains; and into this circular or
spherical space He immits His Emanations, portions of His
Light or Nature; and to some of these, sexual
characteristics
are symbolically assigned.
The Infinite first limits Himself by flowing forth in the
shape
of Will, of determination to act. This Will of the Deity,
or
Deity as Will, is Kether, or the "Crown," the
first sephira. In it
are included all other Emanations. This is a philosophical
necessity.
General Pike then proceeds to define and elaborate all the
other sephiroths with their philosophical implications.
The
lecture on the "Knight of the Sun, or Prince
Adept" (28d), as
contained in the Morals and Dogma is the real Hermetic
ritual of the Rite. The Supreme Council of Belgium lays
particular emphasis on this abstruse but beautiful degree,
which goes to the bedrock of Gnosticism, Cabalism, and
Hermeticism. For a scholarly exposition of the Cabalistic
cosmogony the student is referred to the Jewish
Encyclopedia.
AN INTERESTING feature of the Zohar is its theory of a
prior creation and destruction of worlds, resembling
somewhat the Hindoo doctrine of the Out-breathing and In-
breathing of Brahma. Everything, too, must return to the
source whence it emanated. The Zohar says: "All
things of
which this world consists, spirit as well as body, will
return to
their principal, and the roots from which they
proceeded."
The Zohar shows to what Sublime heights the human
imagination can soar.
The Cabala posits the pre-existence of the soul and its
repeated incarnations, but this particular doctrine forms
no
part of Masonic instruction. Freemasonry teaches the
immortality of the soul, but does not dogmatize on the
subject.
I should like to elaborate upon the Sepher Zetzirah, or
"Book of the Creation," but space forbids.
Suffice to say it
deals with the philosophy of numbers and letters. Says the
Royal Masonic Cyclopedia:
The design of this book is to exhibit a system whereby the
universe may be methodically viewed, showing from the
systematic development of creation, and from the harmony
visible in its parts that it must have proceeded from the
One
and Only Creator. The order and correlative
correspondence of these parts are proved by the analogy
subsisting between visible things, and the signs of
thought
whereby men are able to denote, communicate, and
perpetuate wisdom throughout time. From the fact that the
unknown author also employed the letters of the Hebrew
alphabet in a double sense, this book also received the
name of The Letters, or Alphabet of the Patriarch Abraham.
There being 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and 10
fundamental numbers, these are designated the thirty-two
ways of secret wisdom - the alphabet being used in
numerical sense. The treatise opens by the declaration:
"By
32 paths of secret wisdom, the Eternal, the Lord of Hosts
. . .
hath created the world by means of numbers. phonetic
language, and writing." The fundamental number ten is
divided into a tetrade and hexade, and from these is shown
the gradual evolution of the world from nothing. The
Divine
Substance alone at first subsisted, with the creative idea
and the articulate Word as the Holy Spirit, identical with
the
Divine Substance. Hence the Spirit of the
living God is at the head of all things, represented by
the
number one. From this Spirit emanated the whole Cosmos,
etc. .
Do the thirty-two degrees of the Rite, from Entered
Apprentice to Prince of the Royal Secret, symbolize the
"thirty-two paths of secret wisdom," with the
33d and Last
Degree as the Grand Goal of Initiation? - Who knows!
III.
THE CABALA is the effloresence of the mystical schools of
Alexandria, and as such was duly appreciated by General
Pike, but he went further than this theosophical system of
the Jews in his quest for the origin of the great
religious
symbols, when he formulated the Prince of the Royal Secret
or Thirty-second Degree of the Rite. He turned to the
Orient,
to the uplands of Asia, where the Aryan race lived some
1400 years before Christ and afterwards descending to the
plains, divided and conquered the world. One division of
this
Caucasian people migrated into what is now called Persia
and are known as Irano-Aryans; the other division invaded
India and are known as Indo-Aryans. From the Irano-Aryans
sprang our modern Europeans. The ancient Aryans were a
race of hardy warriors, but they had among them priests,
prophets and philosophers, who sought to unravel the
mysteries of the universe. Says Bro. Frederick H. Bacon,
33d, in an interesting dissertation on Scottish Rite
Masonry,
(New Age, Oct. 1922, p. 589):
In their hymns or vedas they sought to declare their ideas
of
the divinities which ruled the world. . . . They early
formed
the idea that the divine powers were in the nature of a
trinity.
The first trinity was represented by the three divinities,
Agni,
Ushas, Mitra; the fire, the dawn, and the morning star
which
was the herald of the Sun. As time passed the second
trinity
succeeded it. The Divine Light, in which abided the Divine
Wisdom flowed forth as the Divine Word. Here it is seen
that
the two latter are manifestations of the first. Ahura was
the
light. The divine attributes are the emanations or
potencies
of Ahura. These potencies or emanations, seven in
all,
being manifestations of the divine power, were divided
into
those from the sky - four - which were considered male
because generative, and those from the earth - three -
which
were regarded as female, because productive.
The three-faced head is a symbol of tile triune Divinity
of
Zarathustra and Pythagoras; the five-pointed star
represents
Ahura. The various forms of the triangle and the mystic
numbers 3, 5, 7 and 9 are represented by the lights and
symbols.
The Aryan faith was that the intellects of great and good
men ascended at their death to the sky and became stars. .
.
. Life, light, and intellect were one to the Indo-Aryans,
and
the same idea remained with us. In God was life, and the
life
was the light of men. The Divine Light in the mind is
intellect
and knowledge, and is Masonic Light.
In the natural phenomena of the seasons, of birth, life
and
death, the ancients saw manifested all these divine
powers.
They represented darkness as the foe and enemy of light. .
.
. The Hebrews follow the ancient Aryan doctrine of sacred
numbers and figures, and many of the angels and forms of
worship, of the Hebrew faith are but the natural
successors
to the persons of ancient Aryan worship.
We do not clearly understand the ancient Aryan doctrines
nor what was meant by their mystic symbols and numbers,
but Ahura-Mazda contained the two other persons, Mainyu
(Divine Wisdom), and Vohumano (the Divine Word) ; thus,
one is three and three are one. The trinity is symbolized
by
the sacred number nine or three times three.
The great interpreter of the Irano-Aryan faith was
Zarathustra, high priest and prophet, whose powerful
intellect was able to pierce the veil of matter that
clouded
the primitive mind (and clouds our own to a great extent),
and behold the Divine Reason that lies back of all
phenomena. His religious doctrines are embodied in the
Zend-Avesta.
Says Albert Pike (Irano-Aryan Faith and Doctrine, etc.):
I think it will appear that while the Indo-Aryan mind was
slowly attaining the conception of a higher nature than
those
of star worship . . . Zarathustra advanced from the Fire-
worship to that of an Infinite source of Light and Life,
containing within itself an infinite intellect and
infinite
beneficence as weft as power; and to the philosophic
conception of Divine action by Emanations, personifying
His
attributes and Potencies, and whereby only the infinite
God
was revealed.
"We see in the vedic hymns," says Max Muller,
"the first
revelation of Deity, the first expression of surprise and
suspicion, the first discovery that behind this visible
and
perishable world there must be something invisible,
imperishable, eternal or divine." And then the
philosophers
no longer adored the sun as a Deity or the sacred flame as
an incarnation of God; but Agni and Ahura-Mazda became
symbols of the Eternal One. According to the ancient
sages,
God unfolded or revealed Himself in three ways. In Him was
the intellect or Divine Wisdom, and the Word or Thought
which when uttered flowed forth as the universe and
became incarnated in humanity. According to Zarathustra
the mind or Spirit of man is a ray from the great primal
light
and must, therefore, be immortal and indestructible. A
portion of the Deity is incarnated or individuated in each
one
of us. We are the temples of the living God.
GOD, according to the Indo-Aryans, is the Creator, the
Preserver, and the Destroyer or absorber of the universe.
The Hindoo sages declare that the cosmos is one of many.
When Brahma outbreathes, so to speak, the worlds go forth,
they are sustained for eons of time, and when the great
breath is withdrawn the worlds are reabsorbed within the
divine essence. Among the adepts of India the symbol of
the
Deity is the mystic word Aum, sometimes spelled and
pronounced om. "A Brahmin," says Menu,
"beginning and
ending a chapter on the Vedas, must always repeat to
himself the syllable "Om." This sacred
triliteral monosyllable
is perhaps the oldest name of the Deity known to man. Its
origin is unknown. Brahma, it is said, extracted from the
Vedas the three letters which form the mysterious
monosyllable. Among the Surfis of Persia the pronunciation
of the word Aum represents the creative process: the
outgoing and incoming of the great breath. Pronounce the
letter A (ah); it is a sustained note indicative of being.
Now
pronounce the letter U (oo); and your breath goes out.
Then
utter the letter M (um), and the breath is cut short.
Here, you
see, is a superb symbol of the creation idea of the
mysteries
of India and Persia. The sacred syllable Aum is concealed
in
the names of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and in the Irano-
Aryan name of God, Ahura-Mazda. Its letters form the
initials
of Agni, Ushas, Mitra. It was perpetuated among the
Egyptians by the word Amun, and is concealed in many of
the Masonic sacred words.
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