The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all art and science.

—Albert Einstein, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner, 1879 - 1955

I

Photographs of the far reaches of the universe always help put things in perspective, don’t you think?

We are so small compared to the enormity of the universe or universes in which we live.

How can our human experiences feel so important when we are only like a grain of sand on the beach.  But our experiences are strong and deeply felt –motivating, throbbing, personal.   Consider the billions of humans that inhabit the planet, each with a unique set of circumstances–how can this be?

Humans are all part and parcel of an intricate web of life and of energy systems.  We are like intelligent, thinking, rational, actionable pieces of a huge puzzle.  Our free will enables us to go anywhere, do anything or think anything we choose.  But we are still enmeshed in a larger design.

We are like sensing, feeling eyes of intelligent life form who wishes to know every condition and every thing that can be. This life form bores easily and so constant change of circumstances enables a fantastic array of experience.

Nature and science rule the heavens, the earth, and the creatures.  Everything works perfectly like a clock that never loses a second of time.  Each element obeys the “laws of nature” that rules it.   It is science, mathematics and nature.   The universe itself is a mystery unfolding as we learn more each day.

This system of which we are a part could not be any more amazing.  Any more complex.  Any more simple.

Hunans have come to count on the certainty of things.  Like the sun coming up in the morning and the seasons following each other just the way they did last year and for aeons gone by.   We all obey the laws of physics.  We all are part of this intricate world which we do not own and cannot control.

And still, even if we are attempting to maintain balance and equilibrium in our day to day life, we cannot.  Exigent circumstances compel change anyway.  Life is like a moving target.  The seasons change, we age.  People come and go.  Our health changes.  Our family grows up.  Friends and loved ones pass.

I can’t help it because I am getting the strongest feeling that our world is getting an overdue attitude adjustment from years of abuse of power and wealth.  Maybe it is just me.  But, it doesn’t seem so.

More than once in recent history have we gone through changes in civics because of imbalances in power and wealth.  Many governmental systems have been put into place over and over again to balance these things.  None have worked.

But this thing called physics is put in play…call it kinetics.  To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  We have years of growth followed by recession.  We have people who want more capital gains than they could have thought possible so they put their money with Bernie Madoff.  We have mortgage lending to people without the ability to pay, but others who directly benefit from the insane scheme.  Greed leads to fraud.

So, when our security is threatened one way or another, the individual has to find another way to grow to love life and to remember to feel the joy that life brings.  Maybe it is finding a way out of the dilemma one finds oneself in.  Maybe it is taking a look at the simpler pleasures: like biting into a perfect Fuji apple and experiencing delight.

The pendulum swings in one direction, then another.  No one is left untouched.  It is the game of life and everyone plays.  Active or inactive, the game just keeps going on.  We are all a part of something so much bigger than just our “self”.

This is the mystery of life.  And the mystery is so complex that no one will ever figure out the whole thing.  That is precisely what is so interesting about this mystery.  All we can do is participate fully, feel deeply and enjoy the experience.   Even the hurts we feel invoke great feeling and lead to an improved person.  You. Me.  The purpose of life is to experience joy.  Even the pain is a lesson to focus on the joy that is under that pain.  The mystery is there for us to explore to the fullest.

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.

If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author 1821-1881

There was a time when ancient wisdom was considered blasphemy.  People were forced into religious systems without their permission, or else.  Many brave individuals were put to death for their beliefs–including Jesus.  So we have been through a tremendous dark age, forgetting our heritage, forgetting our place.

There was a time when pagan works were very threatening to the emerging but violent Western civilizations.  The Egyptian Library at Alexandria founded by Ptolemy I and its smaller library at the Serapheum were destroyed by degree of Thodosius in the third century AD destroying much of the written history of civilization and most of the works of Hermes, known as the God Thoth or Mercury, scribe of heaven.

Perhaps some of these works are still with us, moved, buried, not destroyed. Hopefully this goal is not wishful thinking.  Wouldn’t it fill in the gaps in our knowledge of our selves and our history if perhaps one day we rediscover this lost material?  What a loss we have suffered. What a tremendous find it would be if this ancient wisdom is finally revealed.  Some guardians of secrets are deliberately releasing information and making it public after years of secrecy.

Considered on of the oldest books of all time, The Sefer Yetzirah, or the Book of Creation was probably written by the father of Judaism, Abraham, according to oral history. The tradition called the short book “The letters of Abraham, our father”.  History places the date of Abraham at 1800 BCE, around the time of the writing of the Vedic texts in India.

This Book of Creation is the most mysterious of all the texts of the Kabbalah.   It reads as an obscure manual.  However, when understood properly by an initiate of the mystery schools, it is an instruction manual, consistent with alchemy of Hermes, that is supposed to aid in concentration and to develop telekinetic and telepathic powers. This and other similar works, especially the Vedas and the Emerald Tablet from Hermes Trismegistus, form a body of wisdom that has been penetrated by mystics, religious scholars, magicians, and mystery schools for centuries.

Supposedly this wisdom traveled in the steps of our forefathers–from Adam it passed to Noah, from Noah to Abraham who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out.

It is possible that it was in this way that the Egyptian, Hermes Trismestigus obtained knowledge of it.  But, history is so confusing insofar as there is a Hermes senior and a Hermes junior…so perhaps historians are only guessing.  As I have mentioned before, some believe that it is possible that Hermes and Moses are actually only one person.

Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt as he was raised by the royal family and was initiated into it in Egypt, all of which is well documented. Moses became more proficient in the use of the magical powers of creation during his 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Moses initiated seventy Elders of the tribe into the secrets of this doctrine during the sojourn in the desert and since then, they have transmitted secrets from person to person.

Jewish mystics claim that Moses ascended Mount Sinai three times, remaining in the presence of God forty days each time. During the first forty days the tables of the written law were delivered.  The Ten Commandments.  During the second forty days he received the soul of the law, the Mishnah. During the last forty days God instructed him in the mysteries of the Kabbalah, the soul of the soul of the law.

Moses concealed the secret instructions that God had given him in the first four books of the Pentateuch, and for centuries students of Kabbalah have studied the Old Testament for codes about the secret doctrine of Israel.  And there are numerous scholars still seeking to understand what is hidden there in the codes supposedly given to Moses by God himself.

As if spirituality is a problem to be solved, there is a riddle.  Just as the spiritual nature of man is concealed in his physical body, so the unwritten law is concealed within the written teachings of the bible as a code.  And this key comes from the Sefer Yetzirah, one of the primary books of the Kabbalah.

Kabbalah means the secret or hidden tradition, the unwritten law, and according to an early Rabbi, it was delivered to man in order that through the aid of its principles he might understand the mystery of both the universe and the universe within him.  As above, so below.

According to the Sefer Yetzirah, there is a Tree of Life within us.  And this contains 10 Sephiroth, 32 mystical paths of wisdom, 221 gates, and 72 names of God from permutations of the 22 original Hebrew letters.   The Tetragrammaton, or name of God, is formed by re-arranging the four letters of the Great Name, י ה ו ה, (I H V H), in the form of the Pythagorean Tetractys, then, the there are 72 permutations or versions which represent various powers that this Great Name manifests.  The Tetragrammaton appears 6800 times in the Old Testament.

Understanding this system of thought can become the study of a lifetime.  Here is an example of one paragraph of the first chapter:

“Ten Sephirot of Nothingness
ten and not nine
ten and not eleven
Understand with wisdom
Be wise with understanding
Examine with them
and probe from them
Make each thing stand on its essence
And make the Creator sit on His base”

This excerpt discusses the will of man, the faculty of the highest Sephira, Keter, meaning Crown.  As a mystic reaches the highest levels of consciousness, he may be fooled into thinking that he is reaching for God, himself, but the Sefer Yetsirah says, ten and not eleven, because we cannot ever reach that level of the Infinite, the Ain Sof–it is beyond our grasp.

From this and related books, many secret or arcane traditions have sprung up using the wisdom handed down.  Astrology, gematria and the Tarot are based upon the systems articulated here.  All arcane.  All undeniably old and ridiculed by the practical science of our modern world.  Forgotten knowledge?

If you study either the Kabbalah or the Tarot, you will find the most gracious links to the wisdom presented in the Sefer Yetzirah.  Actually, it is amazing how the Tarot has boiled down much of the information into a visually presentable style.  There is much more to Tarot than you might think at first blush.

The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the one of the most dense but detailed and enlightening informational books ever written.  On the other hand, this was written by the guy who came back from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.  Those are similarly dense and important.

The Book of Creation is so short that I am going to give you a reproduction of it here in case you are interested….now, it would take a lifetime of study and hundreds of pages to examine these contents, but it is totally cool to see the real thing.

Then, if this text peaks your interest as it has mine, you can buy a book or 100 books to learn how to interpret this.  If you are interested in reading a great analysis of the theories behind this important book, it has relatively recently (10 years ago) been translated into English by Aryeh Kaplan, naturally called the Sefer Yetzirah.

The Short Version of the Sefer Yetzirah, Book of Creation

Chapter 1

1. With thirty two mystical paths of Wisdom engraved YAH, YHVH of Hosts, God of Israel, the Living God, God Almighty, high and exalted, dwelling in eternity on high, and his name is Holy, and he created his  Universe with three books, with text, with number, and with communication.  They are Ten Sephirot of Nothingness and 22 foundation letters:  three Basics, seven Doubles, and twelve Elementals.

2. Ten Sephiroth like the number of ten fingers, five opposite five.  The singular covenant is directly in the middle, like the circumcision of the tongue in the mouth, and like the circumcision of them membrum.

3. Ten Sephiroth of Nothingness, ten and not nine; ten and not eleven. Understand with wisdom, probe with understanding. Discern with them and probe from them. Make a thing stand on its essence and make the Creator sit on His base, for He alone is the Former and Creator and there is none beside Him. And His measure is ten and they have no end.

The ten ineffable Sephiroth have ten infinitudes, which are as follows:

The infinite beginning and the infinite end;

The infinite good and the infinite evil;

The infinite height and the infinite depth;

The infinite East and the infinite West;

The infinite North and the infinite South;

and over them is the Lord Superlatively One, the faithful King.He rules over all in all from His holy habitation for ages of ages.

6. The appearance of the ten spheres out of Nothing is as a flash of lightning or a sparkling flame, and they are without beginning or end. The Word of God is in them when they go forth and when they return. They run by His order like a whirlwind and prostrate themselves before His throne.

7. The ten Sephiroth have their end linked to their beginning and their beginning linked to their end, co-joined as the flame is wedded to the live coal, for the Lord is Superlatively One and to Him there is no second. Before One what can you count?

8. Concerning the number of the Sephirot out of Nothing, seal up your lips and guard your heart as you consider them, and if your month opens for utterance and your heart turns towards thought, control them, returning to silence. So it is written: “And the living creatures ran and returned.”  And on this wise was the covenant made with us.

9. These are the ten emanations of number out of Nothing:

1st. The spirit of the living Elohim, blessed and more than blessed be the living Elohim of ages. His Voice, His Spirit, and His Word are the Holy Spirit. 2nd. He produced air from the spirit and in the air. He formed and established twenty-two sounds–the letters. Three of them were fundamental, or mothers; seven were double; and twelve were simple; but the spirit is the first one and above all. 3rd. Primordial water He extracted from the air. He formed therein twenty-two letters and established them out of mud and loam, making them like a border, putting them up like a wall, and surrounding them as with a rampart. He poured snow upon them and it became earth, as it reads: “He said to the snow be thou earth.”  4th. Fire. He drew forth from the water. He engraved and established by it the Throne of Glory. He fashioned the Seraphim, the Ophanim, and the Holy Living Creatures, as His ministering angels; and with these three He formed His habitation, as it reads: “Who made His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire.” 5th. He selected three consonants (I, H, V) from the simple ones–a secret belonging to the three mothers, or first elements; א מ ש (A, M, Sh), air, water, fire. He sealed them with His spirit and fashioned them into a Great Name and with this sealed the universe in six directions. He turned towards the above and sealed the height with י ה ו (I, H, V). 6th. He turned towards the below and sealed the depth withה י ו (H, I, V). 7th. He turned forward and sealed the East with ו י ה (V, I, H). 8th. He turned backward and sealed the West with ו ה י (V H, I). 9th. He turned to the right and sealed the South with י ו ה (I, V, H). 10th. He turned to the left and sealed the North with ה ו י (H, V, I).

10. These are the ten ineffable existences out of nothing; From the spirit of the Living God emanated air; from the air, water; from the water, fire; from the fire, the height and the depth, the East and the West, the North and the South.

Chapter Two

1. There are twenty-two basic letters. Three are the first elements (water, air, fire), fundamentals, or mothers; seven are double letters; and twelve are simple letters. The three fundamental letters א מ ש have as their basis the balance. At one end of the scale are the virtues and at the other the vices, placed in equilibrium by the tongue. Of the fundamental letters מ (M) is mute like the water, ש (Sh) hissing like fire, א (A) a reconciling breath between them.

2. The twenty-two basic letters having been designed, appointed, and established by God, He combined, weighed, and exchanged them, and formed by them all beings which are in existence, and all which will be formed in time to come.

3. He established twenty-two basic letters, formed by the voice and impressed upon the air by the breath. He set them to be audibly uttered in five different parts of the human mouth: namely, Gutturals, א ה ח ע; Palatals, ג י כ ק; Linguals, ד ט ל נ ת Dentals, ז ש ס ר ץ; Labials, ב ו מ ף.

4. He fixed the twenty-two basic letters in a ring like a wall with two hundred and thirty-one gates, and turned the sphere forward and backward. Turned forward, the sphere signified good; when reversed, evil. Three letters may serve for an illustration: There is nothing better than ע נ ג (O, N, G), pleasure (joy), and nothing worse than נ ג ע (N, G, O), plague (sorrow).

5. How was it all accomplished? He combined, weighed, and changed: the א (A) with all the other letters in succession, and all the others again with א (A), and all again with ב (B); and so with the whole series of letters. Hence it follows that there are two hundred and thirty-one formations, or gates, through which the powers of the letters go forth; every creature and every language proceeded from One Name and the combination of its letters.

6. He created a reality out of Nothing. He called the nonentity into existence and hewed colossal pillars from intangible air. This has been shown by the example of combining the letter א (A) with all the other letters, and all the other letters with א. By speaking He created every creature and every word by the power of One Name. As an illustration, consider the twenty-two elementary substances from the primitive substance of א. The production of every creature from the twenty-two letters is proof that they are in reality the twenty-two parts of one living body.

Chapter Three

1. The first three elements (Mothers, א מ ש) resemble a balance, in one scale virtue and in the other vice, placed in equilibrium by the tongue.

2. The three Mothers, א מ ש, enclose a great, wonderful, and unknown mystery, and are sealed by six wings, namely, air, water, fire–each divided into an active and a passive power. The Mothers, א מ ש, gave birth to the Fathers, and these gave birth to the generations.

3. God appointed and established three Mothers, א מ ש, combined, weighed, and exchanged them, forming by them three Mothers, in the universe, in the year, and in man.

4. The three Mothers, א מ ש, in the universe are: air, water, and fire. Heaven was created from the elementary fire, ש, the earth, comprising sea and land, from the elementary water, מ, and the atmospheric air from the elementary air, or spirit, א, which establishes the balance among them. Thus were all things produced.

5. The three Mothers, א מ ש, produce in the year heat, coldness, and the temperate state. Heat was created from fire, coldness from water, and the temperate state from air, which gives equilibrium to them.

6. The three Mothers, א מ ש, produce in man breast, abdomen, and head. The head was formed from the fire, ש; the abdomen from the water, מ; and the breast from air, א, which places them in equilibrium.

7. God let the letter א (A) predominate in primordial air, crowned it, combined it with the other two, and sealed the air in the universe, the temperate state in the year, and the breast in man.

8. He let the letter מ (M) predominate in primordial water, crowned it, combined it with the other two, and sealed the earth in the universe, coldness in the year, and the abdomen in man.

9. He let the letter ש (Sh) predominate in primordial fire, crowned it, combined it with the other two, and sealed heaven in the universe, heat in the year, and the head of man.

Chapter Four

1. The seven double letters, ב ג ד כ פ ר ת (B, G, D, K, P, R, Th), have a duplicity of pronunciation, aspirated and not aspirated, namely: פּ ת, רּ ר, פּ פ, כּ כ, דּ ד, גּ.  They serve as a model of softness and hardness, strength and weakness.

2. The seven double letters symbolize wisdom, riches, fertility life, power, peace, and grace.

3. The seven double letters also signify the antitheses to which human life is exposed. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness; of riches, poverty; of fertility, sterility; of life, death; of power, servitude; of peace, war; and of beauty, deformity.

4. The seven double letters point out the six dimensions, height, depth, East and West, North and South, and the Holy Temple in the center, which sustains them all.

5. The double letters are seven and not six, they are seven and not eight; reflect upon this fact, search into it and reveal its hidden mystery and place the Creator on His throne again.

6. The seven double letters having been designed, established, purified, weighed, and exchanged by God, He formed of them seven planets in the universe, seven days in the Year, and seven gateways of the senses in man. From these seven He also produced seven heavens, seven earths, and seven Sabbaths. Therefore He loved seven more than any other number beneath His throne.

7. The seven planets in the universe are: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon. The seven days in the Year are the seven days of the week. The seven gateways in man are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth.

8. In the central triangle are the three Mother Letters from which come forth the seven Double Letters–the planets and the heavens. Surrounding the black star are the signs of the zodiac symbolized by the twelve Simple Letters. In the midst of this star is the Invisible Throne of the Most Ancient of the Ancients–the Supreme Creator beyond definition.

1st. He caused the letter. ב (B) to predominate in wisdom, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them the Moon in the universe, the first day in the year, and the right eye in man.   2nd. He caused the letter ג (G) to predominate in riches, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Mars in the universe, the second day in the year, and the right ear in man.  3rd. He caused the letter ד (D) to predominate infertility, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them the Sun in the universe, the third day in the year, and the right nostril in man. 4th. He caused the letterכ (K) to predominate in life, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Venus in the universe, the fourth day in the year, and the left eye in man. 5th. He caused the letter פ (P) to predominate in power, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Mercury in the universe, the fifth day in the year, and the left ear in man. 6th. He caused the letter ר (R) to predominate in peace, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Saturn in the universe, the sixth day in the year, and the left nostril in man. 7th. He caused the letter ת (Th) to predominate in grace, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Jupiter in the universe, the seventh day in the year, and the mouth of man.

9. With the seven double letters He also designed seven earths, seven heavens, seven continents, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days, seven weeks, and in the midst of them His Holy Palace. There is a cycle of seven years and the seventh is the release year, and after seven release years is the Jubilee. For this reason God loves the number seven more than any other thing under the heavens.

10. In this manner God joined the seven double letters together. Two stones build two houses, three stones build six houses, four stones build twenty-four houses, five stones build 120 houses, six stones build 720 houses, and seven stones build 5,040 houses. Make a beginning according to this arrangement and reckon further than the mouth can express or the ear can hear.

Chapter Five

1. The twelve simple letters ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק (H, V, Z, Ch, T, I, L, N, S, O, Tz, Q) symbolize the twelve fundamental properties: speech, thought, movement, sight, hearing, work, coition, smell, sleep, anger, taste, and mirth.

2. The simple letters correspond to twelve directions: east height, northeast, east depth; south height, southeast, south depth; west height, southwest, west depth; north height, northwest, north depth. They diverge to all eternity and are the arms of the universe.

3. The simple letters having been designed, established, weighed, and exchanged by God, He produced by them twelve zodiacal signs in the universe, twelve months in the year, and twelve chief organs in ` human body.

4, The signs of the zodiac are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The months of the year are: Nisan, liar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tisri, Marcheshvan, Kislev, Tebet, Sebat, and Adar. The organs of the human body are: two hands, two feet, two kidneys, gall, small intestine, liver, esophagus, stomach, and spleen.

5.  As to the arrangement of properties:

1st. God caused the letter ה (H) to predominate in speech, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aries in the universe, the month Nisan in the year, and the right foot of the human body. 2nd. He caused the letter ו (V) to predominate in thought, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Taurus in the universe, the month liar in the year, and the right kidney of the human body. 3rd. He caused the letter ז (Z) to predominate in movement, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Gemini in the universe, the month Sivan in the year, and the left foot of the human body. 4th. He caused the letter ח (Ch) to predominate in sight, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Cancer in the universe, the month Tammuz in the year, and the right hand of the human body. 5th. He caused the letter ט (T) to predominate in hearing, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Leo in the universe, the month Ab in the year, and the left kidney of the human body. 6th. He caused the letter י (I) to predominate in work, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Virgo in the universe, the month Elul in the year, and the left hand of the human body. 7th. He caused the letter ל (L) to predominate in coitus, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Libra in the universe, the month Tisri in the year, and the gall of the human body.  8th. He caused the letter נ (N) to predominate in smell, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Scorpio in the universe, the month Marcheshvan in the year, and the small intestine in the human body.  9th. He caused the letter ס (S) to predominate in sleep, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Sagittarius in the universe, the month Kislev in the year, and the stomach in the human body.  10th. He caused the letter ע (O) to predominate in anger, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Capricorn in the universe, the month Tebet in the year, and the liver in the human body.  11th. He caused the letter צ (Tz) to predominate in taste, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aquarius in the universe, the month Sebat in the year, and the esophagus in the human body.  12th. He caused the letter ק (Q) to predominate in mirth, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Pisces in the universe, the month Adar in the year, and the spleen in the human body.

6. He made them as a conflict, He arranged them as provinces and drew them up like a wall. He armed them and set one against another as in warfare.

Chapter Six

1. There are three Mothers or first elements, א מ ש (A, M, Sh), from which emanated three Fathers –primordial air, water, and fire–from which issued the seven planets with their angels, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

2. To prove this there are three faithful witnesses: the universe, the year, and man. There are the twelve, the balance, and the seven. Above is the Dragon, below is the world, and lastly the heart of man; and in the midst is God who regulates them all.

3. The first elements are air, water, and fire; the fire is above, the water is below, and a breath of air establishes balance between them. The token is: the fire carries the water. The letterמ (M) is mute; ש (Sh) is hissing like fire; there is א (A) among them, a breath of air which reconciles the two.

4. The Dragon is in the universe like a king upon his throne; the celestial sphere is in the year like a king in his empire; and the heart is in the body of men like a king in warfare.

5. God also set the opposites against each other: the good against the evil, and the evil against the good. Good proceeds from good, evil from evil; the good purifies the bad, the bad the good. The good is reserved for the good, and the evil for the wicked.

6. There are three of which each stands by itself: one is in the affirmative or good, one is in the negative or evil, and the third provides equilibrium for them.

7. There are seven divided three against three, and one provides balance in the midst of them. Twelve stand in warfare: three produce love and three hatred; three are life-givers and three are destroyers.

8. The three that cause love are the heart and the two ears; the three that produce hatred are the liver, the gall, and the tongues; the three life-givers are the two nostrils and the spleen; and the three destroyers are the mouth and the two lower openings of the body. Over all these rules God, the faithful king, from His holy habitation in all eternity. God is One above three, three are above seven, seven are above twelve, yet all are linked together.

9. There are twenty-two letters by which the I AM, the Lord of Hosts, Almighty and Eternal, designed and created by the three Sepharim of Numbers, Letters, and Sounds. His universe, and formed by them all creatures and all those things that are yet to come.

10. When the Patriarch Abraham had comprehended the great truths, meditated upon them, and understood them perfectly, the Lord of the Universe appeared to him, called him His friend, kissed him upon the head, and made with him a covenant.

First, the covenant was between the ten fingers of his hands, which is the covenant of the tongue; second, the covenant was between the ten toes of his feet, which is the covenant of circumcision; and God said of him, “Before Abraham bound the spirit of the twenty-two letters upon his tongue and God disclosed to him their secrets.”

God permitted the letters to be immersed in water, He burned them in the fire and imprinted them upon the winds. He distributed them among the seven planets and gave them to the twelve zodiacal signs.

It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions.

Seek, O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul. Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions: mistrust thy senses; they are false.

But within thy body — the shrine of thy sensations — seek in the Impersonal for the “Eternal Man”; and having sought him out, look inward:   thou art Buddha.

—H.P. Blatavsky, founder of Theosophy, 1831-1891

It seems that there is a mystery that we must penetrate.

There is a secret doctrine that has been hidden from the many for centuries.  It is a synthesis of science, religion and philosophy.  It is not a religion. The work is the basis of sects within religions, secret societies and myth and lore.

Several world philosophies were synthesized by the founder of the Theosophy movement, Helena Blatavsky.  I have read some of Blatavsky’s work and find the reading a bit trying.  Perhaps it is the style of the writing of the time.  Blatavsky insists that we are not the first root race on our planet, but the fifth.  And we are  heading toward a permanent golden age where people will understand that they are part of light, and that light is universal spirit.

But Theosophy is not the only movement that discusses the origin of man and our ultimate destiny.  Most secret societies who have a limited number of initiates and levels of achievement also explore this mystery.  Many, many such groups as the Rosicrucians,  Buddhists, Hindu, Kabbalist Jews, Freemasons, Illuminati, Pythagoreans, Gnostics, Plato and Aristotle, the Order of the Golden Dawn and Hermetic alchemists are based upon the secret doctrine. Even the whole series of books called Harry Potter are all based upon concepts from alchemy, magic and secret doctrine, hidden away for centuries.

Perhaps these earlier root races of Blatavsy explain the origin of many of our myths and legends of the past–from the Gods, Zeus, Apollo, Hermes to the earlier civilizations lost for all time–even Noah, no less Plato’s Atlantis.

This mystery of ages past contains the secret of happiness.  There is a way to lift ourselves out of mundane reality and into super consciousness.  There is a history of people who have achieved this–some are quite famous —Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Mother Mary, Archangel Michael, Sri Ramakrishna, Kwan Yin, Yogananda, Archangel Metatron, Confucius, Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, St. Germain, and others.  They are referred to as Ascended Masters, or those who have acquired sufficient knowledge and to become immortal.

Ascended masters have gained a command over thought, feelings and the spoken word.  They have achieved self knowledge, or have become aware of and in touch with the self conscious divine spark within.   This ability translates to the ability to master love, wisdom and power in manifestation of everything that the world has to offer.  This gift enables us to create joy, love and abundance as a master of the energy that permeates the universe.

Super consciousness allows us to transcend our normal waking thought patterns and be lifted into the limited light of the Kabbalah’s “Ain Soph Aur” or “Limitless Light”.   The light represents universal spirit and we are a part of that light or spirit.  The whole phenomenal universe was created out of this light which is indescribable and for humans beyond comprehension and impossible to penetrate.

This light is everywhere.  Even within us. It is holographic.  Mystic teachings the world around agree on this….everyone is a part of this light and and the root of our being stretches throughout the universe.

The Kabbalah is a series of books that has been hidden from most humans for hundreds or thousands of years.  Yet, here is where the heart of the Secret Doctrine lives.

The origin of Kabbalah is a legitimate subject for controversy.  The system comes from the deepest past.  It seems that it stems from the Kybalion, an arcane document from early Egyptian times. This hidden history has developed into Hermetic Kabbalah and is studied by many non-Jewish people who derive significant benefit from the wisdom accumulated there.  Some have speculated that the Biblical Moses and Hermes Trismegistus are indeed one and the same person.

The Kabbalah is designed for western cultures.  In the Vedic traditions stemming from Hinduism and India, the philosophy is essentially the same, but the characters are different.  The Egyptian Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus is of unknown age but is thought to have been authored in Egypt before the beginning of recorded history.  It seems as if this information has mostly the same components, and much wisdom is in both the East and the West.  All documents come from before recorded history can remember.  No one knows.

The Kabbalah is quite amazing as it is so logical, so simple, and explains such complexity with such precision.

For various reasons, the various books of the Kabbalah have been a closely guarded secret that is now being released to those who are interested by agreement.  It seems that the dawning of the Golden Age is upon us.

The legend goes that the secret doctrines of Kabbalah have existed since the beginning of the world. The writing of the Sefer ha Zohar was attributed by Simeon ben Jochai, a disciple of the famous Rabbi Akiba.  After being sentenced to death in 161 during the reign of Emperor Marc Aurelius Antoninus, he escaped with his son to hide in a cave and pen the manuscript of the Zohar.  During the twelve years that he lived in that cave he created the complicated system of the “Greater Face” and the “Lesser Face” of God.   The books were discovered and published by Moses de Leon in 1305. Some authorities believe that Moses de Leon wrote the Zohar from the oral tradition of unwritten secrets of Jewish mystics.

Initiates of the Kabbalah believe that it was taught by God to a school of angels before the fall of man into the dark period that we are now in, the Kali Yuga, in Hindu terms. These angels evidently communicated the secrets to Adam.  The idea was that Adam would help pass on and preserve this information of our divine source.  By understanding the principles of how we create our reality, the lost people in the darkest times of humanity might retain and reuse the acquired wisdom for the coming Golden Age. The Angel Raziel was dispatched from heaven to instruct Adam in the mysteries of the Kabbalah. Different angels appeared in later times to teach the patriarchs in this difficult science.

With Kabbalah comes the fantastic and illuminating idea of the “Tree of Life” and all of its wisdom. The Tree of Life has 10 Sephirot–which literally means counting.  Each Sephira is like a book that serves as a memory bank.  Each of us has our own tree of life. These Sephira may also correspond to the Asian concept of the human Chakra system.  The tree has 32 paths which correspond to our nervous system. So, it seems that it might indeed be a way for the divine to communicate with us and for us with the divine.

The Hebrews had three levels of theology that were disseminated to the people. The first was the law that was taught to all the people.   The second was the soul of the law, the Mishna, revealed only to the Rabbi.  The third was the soul of the soul of the law, the Kabbalah, concealed and taught to the highest initiates among the Hasidic Jews who appear as strange as any cult to the rest of the world.

Kabbalah combines gematria with a trinity of words, letters and numbers together. The 22 Hebrew letters, 10 Sephirot form one tree of life with 32 paths.   Kaballistic theology uses simple arithmetic—10 emanations of light – that can be counted on one’s fingers, and 4 worlds.   But it becomes ten ciphers and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square, and a circle.

These elementary principles are the “Word”—the gift that separates man from the animals and plants.   This is the manifestation of the “Word” that the Old Testament indicates created the world as we know it.

The three greatest books are the Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation; the Sefer ha Zohar, The Book of Splendor; and the Apocalypse, The Book of Revelation.  The study of Kabbalah takes a lifetime, and it is likely that you will need a teacher and a study group.

The Tarot system is an amazing and complex tool used for enlightenment and course correction that is based upon Kabbalistic thought and ideas of personal transformation.  Each Tarot card corresponds to the Sephirot, paths, and combinations that come directly from the Tree of Life.  The Tarot is another amazing system worth looking into.

It is well worth investing time and effort into understanding this wisdom that has been handed down from generation to generation and just opening up to everyday man.  We are the lucky, the chosen ones to live through these amazing times as humanity explodes with new creativity and energy.  The Secret Doctrines that are hidden in plain sight are truly a gift from beyond.