The Secret Teachings of All Ages · 141 of 236

The Qabbalistic Scheme of the Four Worlds

In the above chart the dark line between X 3 and A 1 constitutes the boundary of the original dot, while the concentric circles within this heavier line symbolize the emanations and the worlds which came forth from the dot. As this dot is contained within the outer rings X 1, X 2, and X 3, and represents the first establishment of an individualized existence, so the lower universe symbolized by the forty concentric circles within the dot represents the lower creation evolved out of and yet contained within the nature of the first Crown, which may be called God, within whom the divine powers, the celestial beings the sidereal worlds, and man, live and move and have their being. It is highly important that all the rings within A 1 be considered as being enclosed by the primitive dot, which is itself encircled by the great ring X 1, or the Auric Egg of AIN SOPH.

Each ring includes with in its own nature all the rings within itself and is included within the natures of all the rings outside of itself. Thus, A 1—the primitive dot—controls and contains the thirty-nine rings which it encloses, all of these partaking of its nature in varying degrees according to their respective dignities. Consequently, the entire area from A 1 to D 10 inclusive is the original dot, and the rings symbolize the divisions which took place with in it and the emanations which poured out from it after its establishment in the midst of the abstract nature of AIN SOPH.

The powers of the rings decrease towards the center of the diagram, for Power is measured by the number of things controlled, and each ring controls the rings within it and is controlled by the rings outside of it. Thus, while A 1 controls thirty-nine rings besides itself, B 1 controls only twenty-nine rings besides its own. Therefore, A 1 is more powerful than B 1. As the greatest spiritual solidity, or permanence, is at the circumference and the greatest material density, or impermanence, is at the center of the diagram, the rings as they decrease in Power become more material and substantial until the center sphere, D 10, symbolizes the actual chemical elements of the earth. The rates of vibration are also lower as the rings approach the center.

Thus, the vibration of A 2 is lower than A 1 but higher than A 3, and so on in decreasing scale towards the center, A 1 being the highest and D 10 the lowest sphere of creation. While A 1, the ruler of creation, controls the circles marked A, B, C, and D, it is less than the three rings of AIN SOPH—X 1, X2, and X3—and therefore bows before the throne of the ineffable Creator from whose substances it was individualized.

also ten Archdemons, corresponding to the ten Archangels of Briah. The black magicians use these inverted spirits in their efforts to attain their nefarious ends, but in time the demon destroys those who bind themselves to it. The ten orders of demons and the ten Archdemons of the World of Assiah are as follows:

D 1, the evil Crown; the hierarchy is called Thaumiel, the doubles of God, the Two-headed; the Archdemons are Satan and Moloch.

From D 1 came D 2, the evil Wisdom; the hierarchy is called Chaigidiel, those who obstruct; the Archdemon is Adam Belial.

From D 2 came D 3, the evil Understanding; the hierarchy is called Satharial, the concealment of God, the Archdemon is Lucifuge.

From D 3 came D 4, the evil Mercy; the hierarchy is called Gamchicoth, the disturber of things; the Archdemon is Astaroth.

From D 4 came D 5, the evil Severity; the hierarchy is called Golab, incendiarism and burning; the Archdemon is Asmodeus.

From D 5 came D 6, the evil Beauty; the hierarchy is called Togarini, the wranglers; the Archdemon is Belphegor.

From D 6 came D 7, the evil Victory; the hierarchy is called Harab Serap, the dispensing Raven; the Archdemon is Baal Chanan.

From D 7 came D 8, the evil Glory; the hierarchy is called Samael, the embroiler; the Archdemon is Adramelek.

From D 8 came D 9, the evil Foundation; the hierarchy is called Gamaliel, the obscene; the Archdemon is Lilith.

From D 9 came D 10, the evil Kingdom; the hierarchy is called Nahemoth, the impure; the Archdemon is Nahema.

The Qabbalists declare that the worlds, intelligences, and hierarchies were established according to the vision of Ezekiel. By the man of Ezekiel’s vision is symbolized the World of Atziluth; by the throne, the World of Briah; by the firmament, the World of Yetzirah; and by the living creatures the World of Assiah. These spheres are the wheels within wheels of the prophet. The Qabbalists next established a human figure in each of the four worlds: A 1 was the head and A 10 the feet of the man of Atziluth; B 1 was the head and B 10 the feet of the man of Briah; C 1 was the head and C 10 the feet of the man of Yetzirah; D 1 was the head and D 10 the feet of the man of Assiah. These four are called the World Men. They are considered androgynous and are the prototypes of humanity.

The human body, like that of the universe, is considered to be a material expression of ten globes or spheres of light. Therefore man is called the Microcosm—the little world, built in the image of the great world of which he is a part. The Qabbalists also established a mysterious universal man with his head at A 1 and his feet at D 10. This is probably the secret significance of the great figure of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, with its head in the World of Atziluth, its arms and hands in the World of Briah, its generative system in the World of Yetzirah, and its legs and feet in the World of Assiah. This is the Grand Man of the Zohar, of whom Eliphas Levi writes:

“It is not less astonishing to observe at the beginning of the Zohar the profundity of its notions and the sublime simplicity of its images. It is said as follows: ‘The science of equilibrium is the key of occult science. Unbalanced forces perish in the void. So passed the kings of the elder world, the princes of the giants. They have fallen like trees without roots, and their place is found no more. Through the conflict of unbalanced forces, the devastated earth was void and formless, until the Spirit of God made for itself a place in heaven and reduced the mass of waters.

All the aspirations of Nature were directed then towards unity of form, towards the living synthesis (if equilibrated forces; the face of God, crowned with light, rose over the vast sea and was reflected in the waters thereof. His two eyes were manifested, radiating with splendour, darting two beams of light which crossed with those of the reflection. The brow of God and His eyes formed a triangle in heaven, and its reflection formed a second triangle in the waters. So was revealed the number six, being that of universal creation.’ The text, which would be unintelligible in a literal version, is translated here by way of interpretation.

The author makes it plain that the human form which he ascribes to Deity is only an image of his meaning and that God is beyond expression by human thought or representation by any figure. Pascal said that God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere. But how is one to imagine a circle apart from its circumference? The Zohar adopts the antithesis of this paradoxical image and in respect of the circle of Pascal would say rather that the circumference is everywhere, while that which is nowhere is the center. It is however to a balance and not to a circle that it compares the universal equilibrium of things. It affirms that equilibrium is everywhere and so also is the central point where the balance hangs in suspension.

We find that the Zohar is thus more forcible and more profound than Pascal. * * * The Zohar is a genesis of light; the Sepher Yetzirah is a ladder of truth. Therein are expounded the two-and-thirty absolute symbols of speech—being numbers and letters. Each letter produces a number, an idea and a form, so that mathematics are applicable to forms and ideas, even as to numbers, in virtue of an exact proportion, and a perfect correspondence. By the science of the Sepher Yetzirah, the human mind is rooted in truth and in reason; it accounts for all progress possible to intelligence by means of the evolution of numbers. Thus does the Zohar represent absolute truth, while the Sepher Yetzirah furnishes the method of its acquisition, its discernment and application.” (History of Magic.)

By placing man himself at the point D 10, his true constitution is revealed. He exists upon four worlds, only one of which is visible. It is then made evident that his parts and members upon the material plane are, by analogy, hierarchies and intelligences in the higher worlds. Here, again, the law of interpenetration is evidenced. Although within man is the entire universe (the 43 spheres interpenetrating D 10), he is ignorant of its existence because he cannot exercise control over that which is superior to or greater than himself. Nevertheless, all these higher spheres exercise control over him, as his functions and activities demonstrate. If they did not, he would be an inert mass of substance. Death is merely the result of deflecting the life impulses of the higher rings away from the lower body.

The control of the transubstantial rings over their own material reflection is called life, and the spirit of man is, in reality, a name given to this great host of intelligences, which are focused upon substance through a point called the ego, established in the midst of themselves. X 1 is the outside boundary of the human Auric Egg, and the entire diagram becomes a cross section of the constitution of man, or a cross section of the Kosmic constitution, if correlated with the universe. By the secret culture of the Qabbalistic School, man is taught how to climb the rings (unfold his consciousness) until at last he returns to AIN SOPH. The process by which this is accomplished is called the Fifty Gates of Light. Kircher, the Jesuit Qabbalist, declares that Moses passed through forty-nine of the gates, but that Christ alone passed the fiftieth gate.

To the third edition of the Sepher Yetzirah translated from the Hebrew by Wm. Wynn Westcott are appended the Fifty Gates of Intelligence emanating from Binah, the second Sephira. The source of this information is Kircher’s Œdipus Ægyptiacus. The gates are divided into six orders, of which the first four have each ten subdivisions, the fifth nine, and the sixth only one.

The first order of gates is termed Elementary and its divisions areas follows: (1) Chaos, Hyle, the First Matter; (2) Formless, void, lifeless; (3) The Abyss; (4) Origin of the Elements; (5) Earth (no seed germs); (6) Water;(7) Air;(8) Fire;(9) Differentiation of qualities; (10) Mixture and combination.

The second order of gates is termed Decad of Evolution and its divisions areas follows: (11) Minerals differentiate; (12) Vegetable principles appear; (13) Seeds germinate in moisture; (14) Herbs and Trees; (15) Fructification in vegetable life; (16) Origin of low forms of animal life; (17) Insects and Reptiles appear; (18) Fishes, vertebrate life in the waters; (19) Birds, vertebrate life in the air; (20) Quadrupeds, vertebrate earth animals.

The third order of gates is termed Decad of Humanity and its divisions are as follows: (21) Appearance of Man; (22) Material human body; (23) Human Soul conferred; (24) Mystery of Adam and Eve; (25) Complete Man as the Microcosm; (26) Gift of five human faces acting exteriorly; (27) Gift of five powers to the soul; (28) Adam Kadmon, the Heavenly Man; (29) Angelic beings, (30) Man in the image of God.

The fourth order of gates is termed World of Spheres and its divisions are as follows: (31) The Heaven of the Moon; (32) The Heaven of Mercury, (33) The Heaven of Venus; (34) The Heaven of the Sun; (35) The Heaven of Mars; (36) The Heaven of Jupiter; (37) The Heaven of Saturn; (38) The Firmament; (39) The Primum Mobile; (40) The Empyrean Heaven.

The fifth order of gates is termed The Angelic World and its divisions are as follows: (41) Ishim—Sons of Fire; (42) Orphanim—Cherubim; (43) Aralim—Thrones; (44) Chashmalim—Dominions; (45) Seraphim—Virtues; (46) Melachim—Powers; (47) Elohim—Principalities; (48) Ben Elohim—Angels; (49) Cherubim—Archangels. [The order of the Angels is a matter of controversy, the arrangement above differing from that accepted in other sections of this volume. The Rabbins disagree fundamentally as to the proper sequence of the Angelic names.]

The sixth order is termed The Archetype and consists of but one gate: (50) God, AIN SOPH, He whom no mortal eye hath seen. The fiftieth gate leads from creation into the Creative Principle and he who passes through it returns into the unlimited and undifferentiated condition of ALL. The fifty gates reveal a certain evolutionary process and it was declared by the Rabbins that he who would attain to the highest degree of understanding must pass sequentially through all of these orders of life, each of which constituted a gate in that the spirit, passing from the lower to the higher, found in each more responsive organism new avenues of self-expression.