In this essay I discuss the Sefer Yetzirah in light of some fourth way ideas. The exposition here is by no means exhaustive, but represents an approach to the Sefer Yetzirah—an approach that I believe is productive.
The Sefer Yetzirah (meaning "Book of Formation" or "Book of Creation") is a text written down almost 2000 years ago that is generally considered the first of those texts that came from the pervasive influence known as Kaballah. Kaballah itself cannot be defined, as it surfaced in Jewish, Islamic, Christian, alchemical, astrological, and other traditions, always interpreted in light of the particular manifestation.
Because of the wide range of kaballistic texts, it is tempting to "return to the source"; tempting, but at least in the case of texts, not possible. The Sefer Yetzirah itself may be the oldest text, but even it exists in multiple, often contradictory versions. There is a short version, a long version, and others, although none are more than about ten pages. I was torn between using the shortest version, the "Short" version, and the oldest known version, the "Saadia" version. The shortest version because it seems to me that often ancient texts get added to over time so the short version may be the most accurate. That is not a certain thing because things can be taken out or lost as well. So the Saadia version tempts me, but seems sometimes too long, as if later commentary is being included. So I use the Short version, but refer to the Saadia version when the Short version seems garbled. (I'll point out those few cases when I take something from the Saadia version.) I'll occasionally use another translation of the Short version, that by Knut Stenring, when I feel it can throw light on a diffcult passage.
As a general summary, the Sefer Yetzirah introduces the idea of "ten sefirot", and the term "sefirot" (plural sefirah) itself is variously translated as text, number, or none of the above.
Fundamental to the Sefer Yetzirah is number, and number in three particular groupings: three, seven, and twelve. Together these quantities sum to 22, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, which is used throughout the text to explain properties of the groupings. Hebrew, like other sacred languages, assigns numerical values to letters, so number and letter are intimately related. This inevitably leads to "numerology", where the numeric value of a word, for example a name, is considered significant. It also leads to complete lunacy if one is not careful, and I choose to use number values of letters very little in the way of explanation.
That Gurdjieff was knowledgeable about Kaballah is known. But as you already must realize, there is Kaballah and there is Kaballah, and getting to the heart of the matter is not trivial. The fourth way is not Kaballah, although it may be that at certain times Kaballah was an expression of the fourth way. If we recognize the fourth way as alive, ancient texts that relate to it may be seen as signposts along the way, signposts that may be decipherable with fourth way knowledge and may, in turn, lead to new insights.
The versions of the Sefer Yetzirah to be discussed here are the "Short Version" and, occasionally, the "Saadia" version. As non-identical copies of each of these versions exist, bracketed text [] indicates additional text from another copy of the same version. Text from the Sefer Yetzirah is in white text. My comments are placed throughout the book and displayed in turquoise text.
The discussion of "32" occurs only at the beginning of this book.
Otherwise, this book speaks about the three, the seven, and the
twelve, each one generating the next in turn from the original
One which is "God, faithful King". Three, seven, and twelve
combined equal 22, the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet,
the alphabet used throughout the text in explanation of the
properties of the three, seven, and twelve. So where does this
32 come from?
Clearly 10 + 22 as the second verse tells us.
These are the basic 10 numerals and 22 letters
used to form all numbers and words.
But the nature of the 10 will not become clear until the 22
are further expounded.
Understanding and wisdom are emphasized to be distinct here, and the
imperative of the translation seems to demand mental activity on our part, as
opposed to passive acceptance.
The Sefer Yetzirah begins
with number. In particular, ten numbers, one through ten. Thus we have
here, at the foundation of Jewish mysticism, the same number theory
deeply rooted in the Greek civilization, and it was these two great
lines that were to merge into Western civilization.
It begins with One. Whether the Greek Monad or the singular Master,
it begins with One. And, it ends with One, is all contained in One,
because multiplicity is division, not multiplication—He has no second.
The One divides to make two possible, which necessitates three, that
creates four, and so the thing is set in motion.
This seems to refer to the control of behavior
(speech and thought), and especially attention (running and returning). A useful
reminder to be present, to control attention, to remember oneself while
studying the ideas.
At this point in his commentary on the "Gra" version of the Sefer Yetzirah,
Aryeh Kaplan says "According to some critical studies, this line is
the end of the most ancient part of the text." While I don't have
access to those critical studies, I find this very interesting because,
in my interpretation, this point marks the fundamental division in the
discussion. Thus far we have been discussing the 10 ineffable sefirot.
From now on, we will discuss the Creation of the cosmos.
The point we are at is given no special emphasis by the structuring of
the text—it is simply near the end of a chapter.
The significance of where we are now will be drawn out soon. But note
that now we are going to begin to count, One, two, and so on...
We are now going to follow
the descent of the ray of creation where One acts on two to create three
and so on, or the triad carbon-oxygen-nitrogen which is the process of
creation, or growth.
The mention of "Breath" seems odd here.
As we will see when we
study this text further, the ancient elements of Fire, Water, and Air
(Breath), are used in a manner consistent with the fourth way terminology
active, passive, neutral, respectively (or carbon, oxygen, nitrogen).
Consistent except here. Here we are told that the neutral
force (Breath or Air or "nitrogen") is initiating the triad
of creation, when it should clearly be Fire (active force or
"carbon"). While the author (Kaplan) I am using translates
this word as breath, another translation (Stenring) has the
following text for this passage:
Two in order of density, but three in
order of creation. This is Air, between Water
and Fire. This is neutralizing, the resultant. Collin's "Form". More on this
after the next verse. (This is going to be very confusing for a moment!)
This is Water, the fathomless void, passive force.
Thus the first triad has been created.
This first triad is World 3 in the ray of creation. Now the
ray of creation proceeds by the process of creation or
growth, in the order 1-2-3, or active-passive-neutral, or
carbon-oxygen-nitrogen, or fire-water-air, or
whatever terminology we use (and we are about to
be introduced to still another terminology using
letters of the Hebrew alphabet). Yet, in the
discussion we have the sequence
Spirit-Breath-Water,
instead of Spirit-Water-Breath. The order used
here, for the first triad, World 3, is not
temporal sequence but rather order of density.
This is quite correct because temporal sequence
makes no sense in World 3 where there is no time.
In World 6, which we will be discussing shortly,
time is of the essence, but here the only
distinction between forces is something more
fundamental, its basic property or relative
"density".
So the first triad is complete and now the next one
begins. The first triad supplies the active principle (correctly
labelled Fire now) to the world below.
Now this next world, created by the first world (the first triad or World 3), is
going to be World 6, and here we will see a whole new order of laws, because
time and space enter in world 6.
Note: It would seem that this step should
read "Four: Fire from Air", not "Four: Fire from
Water". This relates to the
following discussion in
In Search of the Miraculous:
Since "nirogen enters as the active principle in the
next triad", the Sefer Yetzirah should read "Fire
from Air", yet it reads "Fire from Water". It is
unclear why this is so. It is possible that the
names Air and Water have a different correspondence thus far
than they will in the rest of text, specifically
that Water is neutralizing and Air is passive.
This would make the preceding discussion of
Spirit-Air-Water identical to the sequence 1-2-3,
which is the triad of creation, and my comments
regarding density as being most important would be
out of place. The trouble with this is, as I say,
the rest of the document specifically equates the
forces fire, water, and air as active, passive, and
neutralizing respectively (see for example
Chapter 3 verse 3).
One possibility is that there is something
unusual, even illegitimate about this case in
which the next triad is generated by water
instead of air as it should be. This is
evocative of many Gnostic traditions in which at
precisely this point, Sophia, for example, begets creation
in error, out of ignorance.
This is remarkable. Here, where the six
processes should be, we see exactly the way the six processes are generated
from the Three. Sequential ordering of the three
forces in time create six possibilities:
If, for example, we take "Y" to represent active
force, "H" to represent passive force, and "V" to
represent neutral force, we have the six different
possible orders of the three forces. These are
the six laws of World 6.
It is probably unwise to pursue this even further at this point
because of the many different versions of the Sefer Yetzirah:
Later in this text, there will be an explicit assignment of
each of the three forces to a letter of the process (Chapter 3,
verse 8) and so we will be able to exactly associate each of
the six processes with a letter sequence.
Despite the very economical presentation of this chapter so far,
we have a far-reaching explication of the first three worlds of
the ray of creation. Point four above, described as Fire (the
"seventh" process), comes from the previous triad (World 3), and
then the six processes are listed. As I've pointed out
elsewhere, the so-called seventh process is the manifestation of
world three in world six, or more generally the manifestation of
a higher world in a lower one. In the planetary representation,
for example, the higher world, the seventh "planet", is the Sun.
And we can now see how the original ten sefirot of Chapter 1 are generated:
the first triad (1, 2, and 3) generates 4 which is "fire", or
the highest part of the following world which includes the next
six for a total of seven. The triad plus the seven is the ten.
This seems garbled. It should be a summary at the end of
the chapter but only accounts for 9 of the 10 sefirot.
Stenring's translation reads:
So not only are all ten Sephirot summarized, but
"Spirit" is correctly translated where Kaplan
uses "Breath".
(You may be wondering, at this point, why I just
don't use Stenring's translation instead of
Kaplan's. I may do so at some point but,
disregarding for the moment the time required to
replace it, in many ways the Kaplan translation is
more "friendly", using for example "God" rather
than "Elohim" etc.)
Chapter 1
(The Ten Numbers)
Ten ineffable Sephiroth:
One—The Spirit of the Living Elohim, His
Throne is erected in eternity...
Elsewhere, where Kaplan translates to "Breath",
Stenring consistently uses "Air", which makes me
suspect that Kaplan's use of Breath in this
passage is incorrect.
With Stenring's translation of "Spirit", we get an
active force at the beginning of the triad we are now discussing, which must be
correct, as the process of growth begins with the
active force (1-2-3).
C, O, N retain their numbers 1, 2, 3. 'Carbon' is
always 1, 'oxygen' is always
2, 'nitrogen' is always 3.
But being more active than 'oxygen', 'nitrogen'
enters as the active principle in
the next triad which it enters with a density of
2. In other words 'nitrogen'
has a density of 2 and 'oxygen' a density of 3.
YVH
HYV
HVY
VYH
VHY
These are the ten ineffable Sephiroth:
one—the Spirit of the living Elohim;
two—Air form Spirit; three—Water from
Air; four—Fire from Water; Height, Depth,
East, West, North and South.
The pans mentioned here are the two pans on a weighing scale.
If O=passive, N=neutralizing (this
exact association with the O and N Oxygen and Nitrogen
terminology of the fourth way is not accidental),
and G=active, then the first trigram, ONG is the process
of healing (here described as delight), and the second trigram, NGO, is the process
of corruption, (here described as plague).
(Note that the G in Hebrew (as in Greek) is the third letter of
the alphabet, our "C". This assignment of the same forces
to the same letters also holds if, and this will be my only
excursion into numerology here, we relate the higher numeric
value of the letter assigned in Hebrew to a greater density
where O=70, N=50, G=3.)
This idea of 22 letters, 231 gates, and transposing,
transforming, permuting and so on, the letters has led to
elaborate figures of circles of letters and much discussion and
argument about their relative value. It may be a more simple
permutation is meant here. It is the permuting of the three
forces (three Mothers) that creates the six/seven processes
(seven Doubles), as, for example, 2-3-1.
In his book, Kaplan at this point goes into a long discussion on
the subject of creating a "golem", an artificial life form that
the great Kabbalistic masters were said to be able to create.
But the whole subject of creation of a Golem is nonsense,
based on a misunderstanding of a
biblical passage in which Abraham and some of those with him
were said to take with them "the souls that they had made" (Genesis 12:5).
Students of the fourth way should have no trouble understanding
the idea of creating a soul and it has nothing to do with golems.
Stenring's translation of this verse is very different:
How did He combine, weigh, and exchange them? A with all and all with A; B with all and all with B; G with all and all with G; and all of them turned around. Hence they go forth through two hundred and thirty one gates, and thus it comes about that the whole creation and all language proceed from one combination of letters.The idea being that a few fundamental elements can create the infinite variety of the world. But once again, three letters, in this case the first three letters of the Hebrew alphabet, are used as an example.
This seems to refer to the idea of cosmos, any and every cosmos being constructed of the 22 elements represented here as letters of the Hebrew alphabet divided into groups of three, seven, and twelve. This is represented by the ennegram as the triangle, the web figure, and the 12 crossings they make. One gives rise to three which leads to all, represented by 22.
Here again we will deal with three forces, in this case designated as the Hebrew letters A, M, and Sh, representing neutralizing, passive, and active respectively (the triad of regeneration). These three forces were historically referred to as the "elements" air, water, and fire, again respectively. (I put "elements" in quotes because I once again ran across somebody's benighted understanding in an article I was reading the other day in which the author pitied the poor ignorant ancients who thought there were only four elements and today we know there are over 100! This is a good example of formatory thinking: In that case, the author equated the ancient elements with the modern elements because we use the same word for each.)
The usage of "three Mothers" and "three Fathers" here is interesting, and would seem to contradict a statement a few chapters later that states "Three Mothers which are three Fathers". Both are true, depending on the point of view. In this case, they are called "Mothers" as opposed to their source, the Father, and as their offspring generate the rest of the world. The actual means of the creation is the six processes, that is the three laws of world 3 and the three additional laws of world 6. Once world 6 exists, creation can proceed mechanically. The six rings that conceal the three Mothers are the six processes.
Fire, associated with the male, is the active force and water, associated with the female, is the passive force.
Heaven is active, earth passive, air neutral.
Hot is active, cold passive, temperate neutral.
Head is active, belly passive, chest neutral.
Alef (A) is associated with the neutral elements.
When permuting the three letters, two sequences (A
M Sh and A Sh M) begin with A.
Mem (M) is associated with the passive elements.
When permuting the three letters, two sequences (M A Sh and M Sh A) begin with M.
Shin (Sh) is associated with the active elements.
When permuting the three letters, two sequences (Sh A M and Sh M A) begin with Sh.
This completes the introduction of the three forces and their association with
the six processes. This is accomplished using a 3x2 matrix as such:
In addition, the triads of forces (processes) are related to "male" and
"female" as in the statement "the male with A M Sh, and the female with
A Sh M", in other words, keeping the same starting force and swapping the
next two forces:
To summarize, we have:
A M Sh M A Sh Sh A M
A Sh M M Sh A Sh M A
The order in which they are introduced is Alef, Mem, and Shin. That is, the
two permutations beginning with Alef are given first, then the two that begin
with Mem, then the two that begin with Shin. In addition, Alef is associated
with Breath (Air), Mem with Water, and Shin with Fire. In fourth way
terminology, this is the order Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, or neutralizing,
passive, active. This is also the way the first triad given is ordered (A M Sh).
This triad is the process of regeneration.
A M Sh - neutral, passive, active - male
A Sh M - neutral, active, passive - female
A M Sh - neutral, passive, active - male (This is the process of regeneration, 3-2-1.)
A Sh M - neutral, active, passive - female (This is the process of corruption, 3-1-2.)
M A Sh - passive, neutral, active - male (This is the process of healing, 2-3-1.)
M Sh A - passive, active, neutral - female (This is the process of refinement, 2-1-3.)
Sh A M - active, neutral, passive - male (This is the process of destruction, 1-3-2.)
Sh M A - active, passive, neutral - female (This is the process of growth, 1-2-3.)
(
For details on the nature of the different processes, refer to The Six Processes.)
The seven letters discussed here have two
pronunciations, making each of them a "double".
Here we see the basic relationship of six and
seven, or the six processes to the law of seven, where the seventh is
indicated by a point in the middle of the six around it. This is the same arrangement as in many symbols including the tetractys, enneagram, Hopi altar, tree of life, and so on.
Examples of the seven "in the universe" are introduced here and specified in the next seven sentences.
Note that this does not correspond to the way we
usually associate planets with days of the week.
For example, our Saturday is associated with
Saturn, our Sunday, with the Sun. It is hard to understand
why the Sefer Yetzirah makes the associations between
planets and days that are given here. But the order of the
planets is traditional. It is the way the ancient planetary
spheres were ordered (outermost to innermost) as shown here:
Again, a few elements can be permuted to make many combinations.
I have not spent much time with the twelve. Here or elsewhere. It may be
that a
knowledge of the 12 months of the Jewish year and the 12 letters of the
Hebrew alphabet here related to the astrological signs has some meaning but I
have seen so much nonsense connected with zodiacal astrology that I skip
it, at least for now. The main point to be made here is we are discussing
world 12, which is as far as this book's descent of the ray of creation takes
us.
Here we see the basic difference between the
three and seven:
So we have: Three, which are simultaneously male
and female as well as each other; Seven, which can be male or female; and
Twelve, of which six are male, six female.
This is expressed by the author using the Hebrew alphabet as
follows:
Incidentally, this entire discussion of three, six/seven, and twelve
illustrates the chief difference between worlds six and twelve. World six,
created consciously, is directly influenced by the world above it (world 3),
which acts as another law in it, so we have seven. But world twelve, generated
mechanically from world six (as all further worlds will be generated), does not
have the direct participation of the higher world in it, so it is twelve and not
thirteen.
This text, with its "seven doubles" first alerted me
to the dual nature of the seven, and I have since found it
mentioned frequently in ancient texts. An example of such
references is in Macrobius's commentary on The Dream of
Scipio, in which he describes how the soul being born
descends downward through the seven (ancient) planetary spheres,
acquiring each planet's characteristic for a positive seven; and at death the soul
ascends in reverse fashion through the spheres, dropping
each characteristic in turn, for a negative seven. In gnostic writings, we find
frequent mention of both the positive and negative aspects
of the planets - sometimes only one or the other.
In the gnostic creation myth of the Corpus Hermeticum, we find
first the creation of the seven essence types which is then
followed by the division into two sexes. In architecture,
for example at the Temple of Luxor in Egypt, we find seven
pairs of pillars. This, like so much "pagan" knowledge, was
adopted by the Christians, and the seven pairs of pillars in
the cathedral were said to represent the fourteen stages of
the cross.(1)
The twelve diagonals are said to be the 12 diagonal lines on the tree of life. Perhaps also the 12 diagonal lines formed when all the points of the tetractys are connected. And the twelve crossings of the enneagram's web with the triangle.
For reference, here is a tetractys (and one drawn with connecting lines)
The following diagram shows some simple symbol transformations initiated by connecting the same six points of the tetractys in two different ways to generate a Star of David and an enneagram web. Again we see how the seventh point, although not shown in either the Star of David or the enneagram, would be in the center ("three opposite three, with a decree deciding between them" as we will soon read):
"Also every desire, one opposite the other was made by
God" (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Good opposite evil, good from good, evil from evil.
Good makes evil recognizable, and evil makes good recognizable. Good is kept
for the good, and evil is kept for the wicked.
"Three: each one stands alone"—the triangle. "Seven are divided,
three opposite three, with a decree deciding between them"—this is
the standard way the seven are illustrated in the enneagram, although
the seventh is typically invisible. ("Three opposite three" is well
illustrated by the theory of essence types where the maximum attractions,
which do not combine, are opposite each other, left and right, and "a
decree deciding between them" - the solar type in the middle, which may combine
with any of the other six, on the enneagram.) So "One over three"—
the circle over the triangle; "three over seven"—the triangle over
the web and its center; seven over 12—the web crossing the triangle
at 12 points (here shown on the scale of the solar system):
And, finally, the point of the whole thing. This knowledge is intended to
be used to grow in being, and so create higher understanding.
In the temple at Luxor the seven pairs of pillars are arranged like this:
All pages © Copyright John Raithel