"The Book of Concealed Mystery' opens with these words: "The Book of Concealed Mystery" is the book of the equilibrium of balance.' What is here meant by the term 'equilibrium of balance'? Equilibrium is that harmony which results from the analogy of contraries; it is the dead center where, the opposition of opposing forces being equal in strength, rest succeeds motion. It is the central point. It is the point within the circle' of ancient symbolism. It is the living synthesis of counterbalanced power. Thus form may be described as the equilibrium of light and shade; take away either factor, and form is viewless. The term balance is applied to the two opposite natures in each triad of the Sephiroth, their equilibrium forming the third Sephira in each ternary. I shall recur again to this subject in explaining the Sephiroth. This doctrine of equilibrium and balance is a fundamental Kabbalistical idea.

"The Book of Concealed Mystery' goes on to state that this Equilibrium hangeth in that region which is negatively existent.' What is negative existence? What is positive existence? The distinction between these two is another fundamental idea. To define negative existence clearly is impossible, for when it is distinctly defined it ceases to be negative existence; it is then negative existence passing into static condition. Therefore wisely have the Kabbalists shut out from mortal comprehension the primal AIN, Ain, the negatively existent One, and the AIN SVP, Ain Soph, the limitless Expansion; while of even the AIN SVP AVR, Ain Soph Aur, the illimitable Light, only a dim conception can be formed. Yet, if we think deeply, we shall see that such must be the primal forms of the unknowable and nameless One, whom we, in the more manifest form speak of as GOD. He is the Absolute. But how define the Absolute? Even as we define it, it slips from our grasp, for it ceases when defined to be the Absolute. Shall we then say that the Negative, the Limitless, the Absolute are, logically speaking, absurd, since they are ideas which our reason can not define? No; for could we define them, we should make them, so to speak, contained by our reason, and therefore not superior to it; for a

subject to be capable of definition it is requisite that certain limits should be assignable to it. How then can we limit the Illimitable?

"The first principle and axiom of the Kabbalah is the name of the Deity, translated in our version of the Bible, ‘I am that I am,' AHIH ASÍR AHIH, Eheieh Asher Eheich. A better translation is, 'Existence is existence,' or 'I am He who is.'

Eliphaz Levi Zahed, that great philosopher and Kabbalist of the present century, says in his 'Histoire de la Magie (bk. i. ch. 7): The Kabbalists have a horror of everything that resembles idolatry; they, however, ascribe the human form to God, but it is a purely hieroglyphical figure. They consider God as the intelligent, living, and loving Infinite One. He is for them neither the collection of other beings, nor the abstraction of existence, nor a philosophically definable being. He is in all, distinct from all, and greater than all. His very name is ineffable; and yet this name only expresses the human ideal of His Divinity. What God is in Himself it is not given to man to know. God is the absolute of faith; existence is the absolute of reason, existence exists by itself, and because it exists. The reason of the existence of existence is existence itself. We may ask, "Why does any particular thing exist?" that is, "Why does such or such a thing exist?" But we can not ask, without its being absurd to do so, "Why does existence exist?" For this would be to suppose existence prior to existence.' Again, the same author says (ibid. bk. iii. ch. 2): 'To say, "I will believe when the truth of the dogma shall be scientifically proved to me," is the same as to say, "I will believe when I have nothing more to believe, and when the dogma shall be destroyed as dogma by becoming a scientific theorem." That is to say, in other words: "I will only admit the Infinite when it shall have been explained, determined, circumscribed, and defined for my benefit; in one word, when it has become finite. I will then believe in the Infinite when I am sure that the Infinite does not exist. I will believe in the vastness of the ocean when I shall have seen it put into bottles." But when

a thing has been clearly proved and made comprehensible to you, you will no longer believe it - you will know it.'

"Thus, then, have I faintly and with all reverence endeavored to shadow forth to the minds of my readers the idea of the Illimitable One. And before that idea, and of that idea, I can only say, in the words of an ancient oracle: In Him is an illimitable abyss of glory, and from it there goeth forth one little spark which maketh all the glory of the sun, and of the moon, and of the stars. Mortal! behold how little I know of God; seek not to know more of Him, for this is far beyond thy comprehension, however wise thou art; as for us, who are His ministers, how small a part are we of Him!'

"There are three Kabbalistical veils of the negative existence, and in themselves they formulate the hidden ideas of the Sephiroth not yet called into being, and they are concentrated in Kether, which in this sense is the Malkuth of the hidden ideas of the Sephiroth. I will explain this. The first veil of the negative existence is the AIN, Ain = Negativity. This word consists of three letters, which thus shadow forth the first three Sephiroth or numbers. The second veil is the AIN SVP, Ain Soph = the Limitless. This title consists of six letters, and shadows forth the idea of the first six Sephiroth or numbers. The third veil is the AIN SVP AVR, Ain Soph Aur the Limitless Light. This again consists of nine letters, and symbolizes the first nine Sephiroth, but of course in their hidden idea only. But when we reach the number nine we can not progress further without returning to the unity, or the number one, for the number ten is but a repetition of unity freshly derived from the negative, as is evident from a glance at its ordinary representation in Arabic numerals, where the circle O represents the Negative and the 1 the Unity. Thus, then, the limitless ocean of negative light does not proceed from a center, for it is centerless, but concentrates a center, which is the number one of the manifested Sephiroth, Kether, the Crown, the First Sephira; which therefore may be said to be the Malkuth or number ten of the hidden Sephiroth. Thus, 'Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether.'

"I must now explain the real meaning of the terms Sephira' and 'Sephiroth.' The first is singular, the second is plural. The best rendering of the word is 'numerical emanation.' There are ten Sephiroth, which are the most abstract forms of the ten numbers of the decimal scale- i.e., the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Therefore, as in the higher mathematics we reason of numbers in their abstract sense, so in the Kabbalah we reason of the Deity by the abstract forms of the numbers; in other words, by the SPIRVТH, Sephiroth. It was from this ancient Oriental theory that Pythagoras derived his numerical symbolic ideas.

"Among these Sephiroth, jointly and severally, we find the development of the persons and attributes of God. Of these some are male and some female. Now, we find that before the Deity conformed himself thus - i.e., as male and female that the worlds of the universe could not subsist, or, in the words of Genesis, The earth was formless and void.' These prior worlds are considered to be symbolized by the 'kings who reigned in Edom before there reigned a king in Israel,' and they are therefore spoken of in the Kabbalah as the 'Edomite kings.'

"We now come to the consideration of the first Sephira, or the Number One, the Monad of Pythagoras. In this number are the other nine hidden. It is indivisible, it is also incapable of multiplication; divide 1 by itself and it still remains 1, multiply 1 by itself and it is still 1 and unchanged. Thus it is a fitting representative of the great unchangeable Father of all. Now this number of unity has a twofold nature, and thus forms, as it were, the link between the negative and the positive. In its unchangeable one-ness it is scarcely a number; but in its property of capability of addition it may be called the first number of a numerical series. Now, the zero, 0, is incapable even of addition, just as also is negative existence. How, then, if 1 can neither be multiplied nor divided, is another 1 to be obtained to add to it; in other words, how is the number 2 to be found? By reflection of itself. For though 0 be incapable of definition, 1 is definable. And the effect of a definition is to form an

Eidolon, duplicate, or image, of the thing defined. Thus, then, we obtain a duad composed of 1 and its reflection. Now also we have the commencement of a vibration established, for the number 1 vibrates alternately from changelessness to definition, and back to changelessness again. Thus, then, is it the father of all numbers, and a fitting type of the Father of all things.

"The name of the first Sephira is KTHR, Kether, the Crown.

"The Divine Name attributed to it is the Name of the Father given in Exod. iii. 4: AHIH, Eheieh, I am. It signifies Existence.

"Besides these there is another very important name applied to this Sephira as representing the great Father of all things. It is ARIK ANPIN, Arikh Anpin, the Vast Countenance, or Macroprosopus. Of Him it is said that He is partly concealed (in the sense of His connection with the negative existence) and partly manifest (as a positive Sephira). Hence the symbolism of the Vast Countenance is that of a profile wherein one side only of the countenance is seen; or, as it is said in the Kabbalah, ' in Him all is right side.' I shall refer to this title again.

"The whole ten Sephiroth represent the Heavenly Man, or Primordial Being, ADM OILAH, Adam Auilah.

"Under this Sephira are classed the angelic order of CHIVТH HQDSH, Chioth Ha-Qadesh, holy living-creatures, the cherubim, or sphinxes, of Ezekiel's vision and of the Apocalypse of John. These are represented in the Zodiac by the four signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius — the Bull, Lion, Eagle, and Man: Scorpio, as a good emblem, being symbolized by the eagle, as an evil emblem by the scorpion, and as of a mixed nature by the snake.

"Now in the world the Sephiroth are represented by:

"(1) RASHITH HGLGLIM, Rashith Ha-Galgalim, the commencement of whirling motions, the primum mobile.

"(2) MSLVTH, Masloth, the sphere of the Zodiac.

(3) SHBTHAI, Shabbathai, rest, Saturn.