The First Four Sepherot
form the inside dimensions of the Cube of Space, the center and the
three axes which constitute the inner space of
Adam Qadmon.
The last six sepherot, the infinite extremites, are the outer dimensions of the Cube of Space
and form Adam Qadmon's psychological or experiential/developmental space. As we will see,
they gain a dual description in order to do so.
His orientation within the Cube is Space is a source of much confusion, resulting in reversals
of directions within the Cube and loss of semantic coherence.
The first and third verse, in summaries, describe the image of Adam Kadmon. The second, when he
is active, describes the viewpoint of Adam Qadmon himself.
The Name of perfected Adam is Adam Qadmon. The root of the second word, Qadam
(Qof-Dallet-Mem) is none other than Adam in which Aleph is replaced by Qof (100), the cosmic
Aleph. In Hebrew this refers to what is anticipated to what is coming, and also to the East
(the direction of the rising sun). Seven is the number designating the uncertainties of life.
Therefore in the 7th Sephira we see cosmic man looking towards the East, facing his own image as he projects
it in the future.
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The student, who is not yet a complete man (although made in his image), turns his back to the East
and looks to the West, towards the past, projecting on it what he imagines to be his future. Indeed,
everyone who is not yet Adam Qadmon, has his compass the wrong way round. It is him of which verse
1,5 is a study, and whose lesson is recapitulated in verse I,14, but in verse I,13, Adam Qadmon is alive.
Looking towards the West the unperfected man, in his imagination, sees Adam Qadmon, across the distance
separating him from his maturity, lit by the reflection of the sun, which he faces. For his part,
Adam Qadmon sees the future in the East, actually lit by the sun, and the past, Westwards, behind his back.
Carlo Suares, Sepher Yetsira, p.88
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The first four sepherot,
formative of Adam Qadmon's inner space, describe the initial stepping
down of infinite energy from Ayn-Sof.
The next six begin the structuration of Adam Qadmon's outer space, where he realizes himself.
| Depth |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 100 |
40 |
6 |
70 |
| 216 |
|
Oomq |
Unstructured energy/consciousness is projected into cosmic resistance, where it is "sealed" by Tav, and
then arises again as biological structures. "Depth" describes the ultimate origins of these structures
in the indetermination of the universe and their destinations in Qof, cosmic Aleph.
| Good |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
Evil |
| 17 |
2 |
6 |
9 |
|
70 |
200 |
270 |
|
Tov |
|
Raa |
The first four Sephirot describe two polarites of energy: beginning/end and good/evil.
The first two Sephirot show Aleph in structured and unstructured states, a flow
and a return flow. The third Sephirot, Binah/Intuition stabilizes the "supernal triad"
with its structuring Tayt-Waw-Vayt, the "good" of continuity. The fourth Sephirot,
Mercy/Greatness, now in the World of Briah, Creation, is the first stamped with
the Ayn of realized freedom. We can follow Ayn (potential in all the "depths")
downward through the Sephirot, to its cosmic realization in the 10th Sephira,
Malkut/Tsafon. The same goes, of course, for development of unstructured possibility,
traced from the Hayt in Beginning/Acharit to its respective culmination in Tsafon/North.
Indeterminate and actual probabilities (Zayn/7 and Ayn/70) are interwoven with the
unstructured potentials and real possbilities (8/Hayt) and Pay/80) of
the Life (sealed with Hay) axis: Phani/Mizrah and 'Ahhari/Ma'arav.
In the Sephirotic summaries of Chapter 1 of the Sepher Yetsira, the first four Sephirot are
specified by number and quality and function; the last six are specified by number and direction and
by Adam Qadmon's subjective perspective: over/under, face/back, left/right. Energy now has an existential,
outward aspect. The perspectives are the corresponding anatomical representations of the bio-physio-psychological
equations of the directions.
In reading these equations, which must be gone into rather than translated (one might as well
translate Maxwell's equations into Latin), we keep several things in mind. First, the
Sepher Yetsira is obsessed with double descriptions of energy, from
Nativot-Phayliot to
Sephirot-Belimah and
Autiot-Yassod to the
Seven Doubles and their
Contrary Qualities, and the
Coming and Going of the autiot
themselves.
Next, we need to remember that these equations describe energies which may either build up and
determine structures or lead to unstructured and undetermined states of organization and energy/consciousness.
Then we can examine the pairs themselves, both in relationship to each other and to their
complemenatary pairs and also to other equations describing related sepherotic structures like
formative letter and planet/contrary quality, and we find a semantic ecology that
maintains its coherence and meaning internally and waits to transform the consciousness that pays
attention to it.
| Upper |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
Lower |
| 246/806 |
40/600 |
6 |
200 |
|
400 |
8 |
400 |
808 |
| Rom |
|
Tahhat |
Rom, Upper, or Above, shows Raysh, the whole universe, above us, penetrating (Waw) all biological structures (Mem)
with its Sheen-Noun. Tahhat, lower, related to Hhatam, Seal, shows unstructured energy arising
between two cosmic resistances.
Lama'alah/Over and Lamatah/Under complement this duality with another polarity.
Controlled organic energy, Lammed/30, in biological structures (Mem/40) takes
two paths: towards the determination of cellular structure in the Tayt in Lamatah,
or towards the realization of freedom in the Ayn of Lama'alah. Both are alive,
but the indeterminate yields a second movement (Lammed). This is the structural
circuit of the energizing energy of existence, sealed with Yod, the result of
Rom burying itself in Tahhat and resurrecting as consciousness. The next double pair
of equations will begin with Mem/40 and concern themselves with the fate of organic
structures, under the seal of Hay, 5, Life, at the Seventh Sephirot.
In the East (the future) the 7 is an archetype, in the West (the past) 70 is a reality. The East acts on 8,
the undifferentiated the West on 2, the house.
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The stake in the game of life is represented by the principle of indetermination under the
signs of Zayn, Ayn and Noun final, which allows life to be all that it can be on every level --
archetypal, actual, cosmic -- and by the blessing of the Sabbath. That blessing was confered by the Sheen of
Shabatai at the 5th Sephirot
of Life, where it lives in the realized freedom of Ayn/70, formative of Capricorn/Ghedi, the new birth.
Cosmic indetermination is implicit in Shabatai and Rom. It becomes explicit in the freedom (Ayn)
that produces the second movement of Lama'alah, and then becomes the subject/object of the axis of Life,
East/Mizrah and West/Ma'arav where biological structures (Mem) are conditioned with a future and a past
defined in terms of the possible (Zayn/7) future evolution of consciousness (Hayt/8) at the Seventh Sephira and
the realizations (Ayn/70) that build the house (2) of our (unconscious) past at the Eighth. Note that archtypal
resistance, Dallet/4 forms the 7th, indeterminate Sephira, while realized actions (Kaf/20) contain
the energies of the unstructured 8th. See the
physical and psychological faces.
With the anatomical equations, we return to the fates of the unstructured energies, and find
Phani/Face and Hhani/Behind, complementing the realizations and achievements of the 7 and 70
of East and West with the unstructured possbilities and sum of actual probabilities of the 8 and 80
of face and behind.
We "face" our future, where possbilities (Zayn/7) interact with a pool of actual probabilites (80)
to produce, explicitly for the first time since the Reshit/Acharit of the first and second
Sephirot, the Yod/10 of existence, factual in the future and part of the unstructured energy of
the universe in the past.
In East/Face we find archetypal indetermination
and actual probability sums; in West/Behind we see realized possbilities and archetypal
unstructured energy/alternatives. The two Yod of Phani/Hhani will appear again in the next
set of pairs, as existence is actually formed in the Yamin of the Ninth Sephira (Yesod) and
energy completes the circuit in the Tenth as the existence (10) of Shem-El.
| North |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
South |
| 226/876 |
50/700 |
6 |
80 |
90 |
|
40/600 |
6 |
200 |
4 |
250/810 |
| Tsafon |
|
Darom |
Again, we see complementary energy flows. Darom, Dallet-Raysh-Waw-Mem, begins in archetypal resistance,
Dallet/4, builds the cosmic container (Raysh/200) and joins (Waw/6) with biological structures
(Mem/40). Tsafon goes in the opposite direction: starting in the definite structure of Tsadde/90,
it projects into unstructured energy (Phay/80) and proliferates (Waw/6) in Cosmic Indetermination (Noun/700).
Note that Raysh/200 (daRom) forms the Ninth Sephira and Phay/80 (tsaFon) the Tenth.
Yamin (the right): Yod-Mem-Yod-Noun, with its two existential Yod, is the side where the action
takes place in the physical world: it receives the 9th Sephira, Yassod, signifying, as we have
seen, the foundations which support the Autiot.
Schmol (the left): Sheen-Mem-Aleph-Lammed, is none other than Schem-El, the name of Elohim.
It is directed towards the last Sephira which is numbered Yod, existence, and is called Melkat,
the realm of infinite power infinitely magnified, endowed with the name of the first Sephira, Keter,
crown.
Thus, by Schem-El,, integrated man loops the circumference of the Sephirot, uniting the end to the
beginning and the beginning to the end. (In this language, Schem-El becomes Semol, left, by a
substitution of Sheen in Seen.
Carlo Suares, Sepher Yetsira, p.88
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Depths of Directions Raysh/200
forms the double Kaf/20
of Kawkab/Mercury and the double Yod of
Yamim/Right, an action towards an action in a double existence at the
9th/Structure Sephira of Yesod/Formation beginning with Yod.
South/Darom projects resistance into cosmic consciousness and fertilizes
the biosphere with awareness. This is our response to sensory experience, "thought" (consciousness is a resistance).
In the opposite direction and at the end of the story, in Tsafon/North
the definite Tsadde becomes the indefinite Noun,
and the Left of Semol and our sensuous existence ( Yod/10/Malkhuth, Crown of Creation) formed by Venus/Nogah
(a double life in motion)
is the name of the evolutionary God and the return path to Heaven.
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|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| 700 |
6 |
6 |
20 |
40 |
|
300 |
4 |
100 |
5 |
|
30 |
20 |
10 |
5 |
| 122/772 |
|
404 + 5 |
|
60 + 5 |
| Makhoon |
|
Ha-Qodesh |
|
Ha-Yakol |
| Kernel |
|
Holy |
|
Sanctuary |
| Center |
|
Holy |
|
Palace |
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Suares, The Sepher Yetsira (Sefer Yetzirah) p.84-89
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