CHAPTER XXXIX.

CONCERNING THE BODY OF MICROPROSOPUS IN GENERAL, UNDER THE CONDITION OF AN ANDROGYN.

919. This have we learned. Rabbi Schimeon said: All those dispositions and all those words ought to be revealed by those who are weighed in the balance, and not by those who have not entered therein, but by those who have both entered therein and departed therefrom. For he who entereth therein and goeth not out therefrom, better were it for that man that he had never been born.

920. The sum of all is this: The Ancient of the Ancient Ones existeth in Microprosopus; He is the all-existent One; He was all, He is all, He will be all; He will not be changed, neither is He changed, neither hath He been changed.

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921. But by means of those conformations hath He conformed Himself in that form which comprehendeth all forms, in that form which comprehendeth all names.

922. But this form wherein He Himself only appeareth is in the similitude of this form; and is not that form, but is analogous unto this form ¹--namely, when there are associated therewith the crowns and the diadems and the perfection of all things.

923. And therefore is the form of the man the form of the superiors and inferiors which are included therein.

924. And because that form comprehendeth the superiors and the inferiors, therefore by such a disposition is the Most Holy Ancient One conformed; and thus also is Microprosopus configurated in this disposition.

925. And if thou sayest: What, then, is the difference between the one and the other?

926. Assuredly all things are equally (balanced in the) Unity. But yet from our point of view (i.e., from our plane) His paths are divided, and from our point of view (on our plane) is judgment found, and from the side which is turned towards us are (His attributes) by turns duplicated. ²

927. And these Arcana are not revealed save unto the reapers of the Sacred Land. ³

928. For it is written, Ps. xxv. 14: "The secret of Tetragrammaton is with them that fear Him."

929. Also it is written, Gen. ii. 7: "VIlTzR IHVH ALHIM ATh HADM, Va-Yeyetzer Tetragrammaton Eloim Ath Ha-Adam. ⁴ And Tetragrammaton Elohim formed the

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substance of man, completed (him) formation by formation from the most ethereal (portion) of the refined (element of) earth (otherwise formation within formation from the best, &c.)

930. And this is Va-Yeyetzer VIITzR, written with two (Yod's, I's instead of VITzR, Va-Yetzer, with one Yod, I).

931. Wherefore? There is an Arcanum of the Most Holy Ancient One, and an Arcanum of Microprosopus.

932. VIITzR, Va-Yeyetzer, and formed. What did (Tetragrammaton Elohim) form? Form in form. And this is VIlTzR.

933. And what is form in form? The two names, which are called the full name, IHVH ALHIM, Tetragrammaton Elohim.

934. And this is the Arcanum of the two I's, Yods, in VIITzR; and of how it hath been conformed form within form; namely, in the disposition of the perfect name, Tetragrammaton Elohim.

935. And in what are they comprehended? In the supernal beard (otherwise, in this supernal form which is called (the supernal) man; the man who comprehendeth Male and Female equally).

936. And therefore is it written: "ATh HADM, Ath Ha-Adam (τὸυ ἄνθρωπου), the substance of man," because it comprehendeth equally the Male and the Female, for to the word ADM, ATh is subjoined, so as to extend and exaggerate the species which is here produced. Most assuredly here therefore is it as Male and as Female.

937. "OPR MN HADMH, Ophir Men Ha-Adamah, from the dust of the ground," dust, form within form (otherwise, from the most ethereal portion of the refined element of earth, one within the other).

939. But wherefore are all these things so? Because that from the supernals there was sent down into him (Man) the Arcanum of the supernal Arcana, even the end of all Arcana.

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939. This is that which is herein written: "VIPCh BAPIV NShMThChIIM, Ve-Yepech Be-Ephaiu Neschamath Chiim, and breathed into his nostrils the Neschamath ¹ of (their) lives.

940. Their souls, from which all things living, superiors and inferiors, alike depend, and wherein they have their existence.

941. "VIHI HADM LNPSh ChIH, Va-Yehi Ha-Adam Le-Nephesch Chiah, and the Adam was formed into a living Nephesch," so that it (the physical Nephesch form) might be attached to himself (otherwise, so that it might be developed in him), and that he might form himself into similar conformations; ² and that he might project himself in that Neschamah from path into path, ³ even unto the end and completion of all the paths.

942. So that in all this Neschamah might be found, and that it might be extended into all, and that it itself might be still one.

943. Whence he who taketh this away from the universe doth the same thing as if he should take away this Neschamah for the purpose of setting in its place another Neschamah beside it. ⁴

944. And therefore shall such a man and his remembrance be cut off from generations unto generations.

Footnotes

225:1 Microprosopus, the Vau, V, of IHVH. The sea is Binah, the Supernal Mother, the third Sephira, and the first H of IHVH.

226:1 I take the sense of this second clause to be that He is not really in the outward and visible form of a material man; but that he can be best expressed hereby in a symbolic spiritual form. Cf. Ezek. i. 26; "And upon the LIKENESS of the throne was the LIKENESS as the APPEARANCE of a man above it."

226:2 In connection with this section read ch. i. §§ 5, 6, 7, and 5, of the "Book of Concealed Mystery."

226:3 I.e., to the students of the Qabalah.

226:4 See also "Book Of Concealed Mystery," ch. ii. § 23.

228:1 Neschamath is either the plural of Neschamah, defectively written, or else shows that Neschamah is in regimine to Chiim, and evidently means the united higher souls of both Adam and Eve conjoined in one body. (For explanation of Neschamah, &c., see Introduction.)

228:2 That is into conformations similar to those of the Supernal Man.

228:3 That is, into forms, conditions, and qualities analogous to the Sephiroth. (See Introduction regarding the soul, and Plate showing the analogy between the soul, the letters of Tetragrammaton, and the four worlds, where the Sephiroth are shown reflected in Nephesch.)

228:4 Apparently the sense of this passage is intended to combat Atheism. and to show that it is logically absurd to deny the existence of a Spirit of God which works in the universe; inasmuch that if this be denied, at all events something analogous in its general properties will have to be substituted for it.