| SY Project - An Account and Commentary - Ch.6 |
[Apr. 16th, 2007|11:13 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | prague | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Chapter 6 – “One on three, three on seven, seven on twelve, And all are bound, one to another."
Leicester 2006 – Prague 2006
If Chapters 1-5 of the Gra Version of the Sefer Yetzirah were intended to set up the theoretical system of the text then Ch.6 establishes some general rules about how it functions in the world of moral action. We will first look at summarizing some of the theoretical ideas behind our study and then look at how it changed the individual student.
Partzufim are reconfigurations of the qblistic ideas to give them more meaning to the individual qblist. Before I began the SY study I already had 3 systems or Partzufim (derived from the Metabolism of Time 2001 edition): one, which details the 10 necessary steps undertaken by consciousness in order to perceive a single moment; the second, which is in many ways a system of “faces and Thrones” used as the basis of a physiognomic system, deriving generalities about individuals from a series of 10 archetypes; the third is a system detailing exactly how these archetypes are concealed because of attention surplus and deficiency behind a series of 10 masks, again based on the Sefirot.
The Sefer Yetzirah can be seen, in many ways, as a process through which the 32 paths come to life, transforming from “dead letters” and symbols into living breathing icons and systems of and for consciousness to employ – thus there is not only a Partzuf of Beit developed in the sense that the symbol for Beit has become a storehouse for all that is meant by Beit, but as well it has become a mental tool which can “create” Beit, in the larger world. Beginning with 3 Partzufim before the study I finished with over 32 Partzufim and this number brings us back to the most intriguing Partzuf of them all – The Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life is the ubiquitous sign of the QBL, the 10 interlocking Sefirot joined by specific Hebrew letters along lines called paths and although there are several popular tree designs few students understand this enigmatic idea and the processes involved in its construction beyond “rote learning” – suffice to say I began this study with a concept of the Tree but was already insecure as to exact path attribution to Hebrew letters this being down to the fact that I was aware of the different designs and through the study became aware of the different versions of the Sefer Yetzirah.
In Ch 2, I showed how the 10 Sefirot are unified into 1 Sefira and I referred to this Sefira as our “Foundation”. In Ch 3 of this essay I explained how the students stood the letters in a circle around the edge of Yesod, whilst imagining they were in the centre of Yesod, and meditated on each in turn. Out of the 231 “gates” that join the letters to each other there are eleven spokes that pass directly through the centre, these join each letter with its opposite letter in the Alefbeit – i.e. Alef with Lamed. These 11 gates of “diameter” subtracted from the 231 gates leave us with 220 gates which act as chords to the circle, 220 being 22 x 10.
The 11 gates that pass through the centre serve to unify the letters in the mind of the student. The letter one is facing and the letter one has their back to forming radii. The Partzuf of the 231 gates is an extremely powerful one.
These 32 paths, now united, leave us with the nature of active existence, our Logos, or Azoth, and in turn we can look at the Kingships and how the specific letters have their action in Malkuth, the physical world. It is as if our Yesod of 231 gates is enclosed in a larger circle or sphere and if our system of gates are perceived as letter like stones, then the Kingship is the physical impression of the letter in the manifest world, as if someone were pressing an object into plasticine, as if the letter Alef, when used, leaves an Alef-like “footprint”.
From the ToL then, we have derived “one name”, but now the ToL can be reconfigured with the understanding, the wisdom and the knowledge we have acquired through the study – we can literally undertake “Tikkun Ha Etz”. I had been intrigued by the Lurianic Tree with its division of the paths horizontal (3), vertical (7), and diagonal (12) to the mothers (3), doubles (7) and simples (12) – in fact in Ch. 6 of the Gra Version, a rule of 3, 7, and 12 is explained in a verse, alongside other information explaining how to rebuild a Tree and “be successful in creation”. It is outside of the scope of the account to go into all the reasons behind the Tree that I have reconstructed but I will say the following. My reconfigured Saadia Tree is based, approximately, on the Saadia Version of the SY which is one of the oldest and definitely the most poetically inspired version available (it can be found in the appendix of the Kaplan’s Gra version). I then attempted to formulate the simplest and most rational exposition of the principles of the SY in Tree format so I do adhere to the Lurianic path attribution system.
The mothers are ranked in the order they appear in the SY; air, water, fire with Air/Alef being closest to Keter and fire/Shin being closest to Yesod (this differs from the Ari)
The Doubles are taken in their rational order BGDKPRTh and assigned to the planets in the Chaldean order Saturn-Moon (the Chaldean system being the one in use at the time of the SY)
The simples are assigned according to the astrological man with Aries at the top of the ToL and Pisces at the bottom (my arrangement being similar but not congruent with the Gra), and the letters being divided between 6 severe letters and 6 merciful letters and placed on opposing sides of the ToL, the symmetry between the Yod and the Heh letters is reasonably clear.
The other ToL Partzuf I have created as a result of the SY study is the Etz Shaarei – A ToL where each Sefira is like the Sefira used for the foundation of 231 gates. This format reveals how one can arrange the letters on the Tree according to whatever personal logic and interpretation one has perceived from studying the text and in many ways reflects a Tree of personal interpretation as opposed to a dogmatic memorization of one of the extant Trees. The two trees and their bases are:
Etz Shaarei – The Tree of Gates, Tree of Freedom
Etz Saadia – The Tree of Reason
As stated at the beginning of this chapter, Ch 6 of the Gra Version is a discussion of the morality behind the SY, an exegesis which attempts to formulate practical rules for living and an explanation for how “Yah” works in the world – as well as instructions for constructing a Partzuf which expresses these rules like the Etz Shaarei or the Etz Saadia.
The SY works with the metaphor of the King and I believe if one reads in the imperative, the King is meant to refer to the individual student and in this way the SY acts to empower the individuals while at the same time imbuing them with a sense of duty. The SY does not attempt to create a tyrannous ruler, but a philosopher King who values learning (Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge) and reason (Beauty/Meaning), as extensions of the Foundation they have constructed and as a way of expressing that Kingship to the outside world.
The SY returns to a simple description of the dimensions of space, time and observer (the moral dimension) and discusses how the King relates to them, i.e. on a throne, in his realm and in battle. In the same way that the SY does not shy away from transmitting a sense of power, it also does not shy away from conflict and confrontation, and its discussion of how the star signs interact is a description of some who hate and kill, and others who love and give life, and ultimately a description of a battle between good and evil.
Finally the SY implies that only they who have undertaken this journey of self-discovery, only they who understand the polar nature of the universe, its unification and their Kingship within it, via “the middle path”, only they who have acquired the language of creation through struggle and self-discipline will be successful in that act of creation.
6:7
And when Abraham our father, may he rest in peace,
looked, saw, understood, probed,
engraved and carved,
He was successful in creation,
as it is written,
"And the souls that they made in Haran" (Genesis 12:5).
Immediately there was revealed to him the Master of all,
may His name be blessed forever,
He placed him in His bosom, and
kissed him on his head,
and He called him,
"Abraham my beloved" (Isaiah 41:8).
He made a covenant with him
and with his children after him forever,
as it is written,
"And he believed in God, and He considered it
to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).
He made with him a covenant
between the ten fingers of his hands -
this is the covenant of the tongue,
and between the ten toes of his feet -
this is the covenant of circumcision,
And He bound the 22 letters of the
Torah to his tongue
and He revealed to him His mystery
He drew them in water,
He flamed them with fire,
He agitated them with Breath,
He burned them with the seven [planets]
He directed them with the twelve constellations.
In conclusion, the SY is an extremely difficult book to work with because as Saadia Gaon said “many have been careless in transposing the text and there are many muddled version out there” and therefore there are many versions of the SY which disagree with each other in exactly what should be attributed to what. What this provides us with though are two fundamental learning challenges and opportunities and two, perhaps distinct, learning outcomes. Firstly we either accept the nature of language and specifically the language of creation as arbitrary and use the SY as a mechanism to free ourselves from dogma, release us into a truly individual mystical language, a kingship of personal expression and a fundamental liberty of idea – culminating in a realization similar to the Etz Shaarei; or secondly we see the SY as an ancient puzzle, a fusion of many disparate cultures, Hellenic, through Egypt, to Ancient Babylon, collected in this enigmatic Hebrew grimoire and take it upon ourselves to make sense of it – to form an individual “one true way”, a singular reason and purpose, “one name” that binds the mystery of the 32 paths, like the Etz Saadia.
Perhaps we can see these seemingly opposing ideas as the opposing methods of the hemispheres of the brain, the first approach being that of the holistic creative brain, and the other as the left detail oriented separatist and logical. Perhaps in the same way we are equipped with both hemispheres we can endeavor to attain to both methods simultaneously and in so doing, avail ourselves of both freedom and reason, after all freedom and reason derive from “one name” which is Logos. |
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