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4:1 Seven Doubles: Vayt, Djimel and Thalet, Khaf, Phay, Raysh and Tav (offer two pronounciations)
founded on: Hhaim and Schalom, Hhokmah and Osser, Hhan and Zare and Memschlah and offering two pronunciations:
Vayt-Bayt, Djimel Ghimel, Thalet-Dallet, Khaf-Kaf, Phay-Pay, Raysh-Rhaysh, Thav-Tav and are constructed in Raa and Qascha
(softened and hardened) constructed in powerfulness or weakness. They exchange their dwellings by substitution.
Contrary: Hhaim-Mot, contrary Schalom-Raa, contrary Hhokmah-Olet, contrary O'sser-O'ni, contrary Hhan-Kior,
contrary Zar'-Schemama, contrary Memschla-Abadot. Suares, SY, 1976 p.104
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Bayt in the Linked Categories of the Sepher Yetsira
|
| # |
Sephirot |
Seal |
Letter |
Planet |
Universe |
Change |
Soul |
Luria |
GD |
| |
| 5 |
Gevurah |
|
 |
 |
Shabatai |
Day 1 |
Right Eye |
 |
 |
It should be clear that the colloquial meanings of the translators are useless here. The equations
must be read letter-by-letter. Still, their general categories match their underlying formative
energies. Our Bayt/body can be alive or dead; our Ghimmel/sense of self can be at peace or uncertain;
our Dallet/adaptation to the future can be wise or foolish; our Kaf/physical supports are rich or
poor; our Phay/sensual impulses are potentials or mirages; our Raysh/cognitive response/outward activity is
fruitful or goes to waste; and last, our Tav/psyches are free or in slavery.
The system of contrary qualities of the planets, linked to the hard/pointed/diurnal, soft/unpointed/nocturnal
aspects of the their formative Hebrew letters, connects the planetary energies with their
zodiacal environments. Seven planets rule twelve signs: five planets
(in their active/diurnal and passive/nocturnal aspects) rule two each and two (the Sun and Moon)
find their contraries in single signs.
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Very little is said about the Twelve Simples, but there is enough to guide us in our study.
Upon examining them we see that two of them are not really simple, but contain, in embryo, opposition
qualities reconciled by the twinship, and together operating in a single vital process. Resistance in
them to the cosmic life appearing in the seven Doubles, as life, evil, etc., is put in motion and responds
as an outer flow of energy, parallel, and in inverse direction, to the inner.
These two Autiot are Hhayt and Tayt. In its form, shape and dwelling, Hhayt contains Cancer (Sartan), the Moon's
two opposing qualities. Tayt forms Leo and contains the two opposing qualities of the Sun (see the Zodiac)
in its dwelling.
The other ten are simple because they cannot be double. Hay, life, cannot have the quality of its opposite,
death. Examined one by one, the same is true for all of them.
Suares, SY, p.137
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This is a consequence of the dual energies of the planets passing though us in the Cube of Space.
There is only room for 7 planets: the ends of the axes and center of the cube. The remaining non-Mother
letters must have single, or elementary, or simple energies: they are determined by planetary
binomials at the edges of the cube (Zayn forms Teomaim/Gemini in a flow from Meadmin/Mars
to Shabatai/Saturn, etc).
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Anyone who has spent much time with the table on pages 178 and 179 of Aryeh Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah
knows that among 10 sources, while there is general agreement on the formative letter/planetary
correspondences -- the Ari-Gra redaction being the major exception -- there are differences
in the assignment of contrary quality, day and facial opening to Hebrew formative letter.
Note, though, that the earliest manuscript recensions of the Sepher Yetsira -- Short, Long and Saadia
-- agree on the order of the contrary qualities: Life and Death, Peace and Evil, Wisdom and Folly, Wealth and Poverty,
Prosperity and Desolation, Beauty and Ugliness, Mastery and Slavery (A. Peter Hayman, SY, 2004, p.128) --
except for the reversal of Prosperity and Beauty (Raysh/Mercury and Pay/Venus) contradicted in Saadia (see
Planetary Attributions Note 4).
Generally, the significance of these equations is reduced to arbitary values in
"Tables of Correspondences" which are supposed to be helpful in gaining insight into
the functioning of the visible and hidden worlds. The categories are considered
as metaphors (Gra: Bet: wisdom, Moon, Sunday, right eye) and there are many systems
to choose from.
For example, for the formative Bayt/Beth, three sources have right eye, two have mouth,
one has right ear and the rest ignore the category. In terms of the contrary
qualities assigned to Bayt, five (of Kaplan's) (all of Hayman's) sources say Saturn and life, two say Saturn and wisdom
and one (Ari-Gra) Moon and wisdom.
The Ari-Gra version, for instance, matches the contrary qualities of one of the Long Versions
(although the planets are different). On the other hand, it shares the same
planet/contrary assignments with the Short Version (though the formatives are different) and follows
the Short Version's Days. It finds less community, however, with the other categories --
the planets (all different) and the openings (half different).
Other general disagreements between sources have to do with when to start the week (Saturday or Sunday),
whether Bayt forms the right eye or the mouth, and what contary quality goes with what formative letter
(and planet in the case of the Ari-Gra).
From Kaplan:
| Ari-Gra |
|
Wisdom |
Moon |
Sunday |
R. Eye |
| Short |
|
Life |
Saturn |
Sunday |
R. Eye |
| Long |
|
Wisdom |
Saturn |
Saturday |
Mouth |
| Donash |
|
Life |
Saturn |
Sunday |
R. Eye |
| Shi'ur Komah |
|
Life |
Saturn |
Sunday |
|
In regard the the contrary qualities, there are two kinds of semantic drift in the sources:
same planets-different contraries and different planets-same contraries. This reduces
to questions like "why are Live/Dead (Short version) and not Wisdom/Folly (Kaplan's Long Version) the quality
qualities of Saturn formed by Bayt?" And "does Bayt form the Moon with the qualities of Wisdom/Folly (Ari-Gra),
or Saturn with the qualities of Alive/Dead (Short)?" And "what does the contrary quality have to do with
the planet?"
Focusing on the primary triad in the Cube of Space, defined by the 5th, 6th and 7th Sephirot
and the letters Bayt, Ghimmel and Dallet, we can look for some of these answers by analyzing
their linked semantic/formative categories.
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In terms of the hierarchy of structuration, the contrary qualities appear as active
structural energies B'Olam, of the universe,
as manifestations of the dual aspects of the planets, conditioned by their either
hard or soft aspected formative letters and axial positions in the cube of space. It is
important to remember that the inner space of Adam Qadmon has already been achieved
in the first four sephirot; the planets and qualities belong to the depths of directions
of the outer, experiential, space of Adam Qadmon. Thus we find ourselves at:
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The fifth sephira, considered here as "5/Life" in the formative language of the Sepher Yetsira,
rather than the theosophical language of the Zohar, is
sealed uniquely twice with Yod-Hay-Waw:
it is the hinge between inner and outer space and one pole of the existential axis.
The beginning of Life's outer development (and the sephirotic sequence
5,6,7,8,9,10, the Six) is found in the formative powers of 2/Bayt which forms Shabatai
(Sheen-Bayt-Tav-Yod) with the contrary qualities of life and death, or live and dead. These
equations, Hayt-Yod-Yod-Mem and Mem-Waw-Tav, as we have seen, show energy flowing in two
different directions. In one, Hhaim, unstructured/unconscious energy gains a double existence
and is projected into a biological pattern. This is the definition of "life:" the inner and
an outer existence of consciousness in biological patterns. In the other, Mot, Mem-Waw-Tav, the biological
pattern is projected into/joins with the dead-end of cosmic resistance, Tav: the death of structures.
The Bayt/container/body reappears in the center of Shabatai where it is granted an existence
as a result of being hammered by Sheen and Tav (every container is a cosmic event).
The double Yod of the seal returns in the double Yod of Hhaim.
|
|
Yod-Hay-Waw: 5/Life: 2/Bayt/container: Saturn/ShaBatai/body: live-dead
|
|
The sixth sephira,
considered as 6/Union, receives the 6/Waw of Yod-Hay-Waw, the seal of the
fifth. It responds with Yod-Waw-Hay and returns a second, inner life for the double Yods
of the fifth. 3/Ghimel/movement/energy, the inside of the 2/body of Bayt, forms
the other pole of existential identity and the Yod-Yod axis: Tsedeq, Tsadde-Dallet-Qof,
90-4-100, where the two transcendent energy patterns of female/90 and male/100 identity are fused.
The contrary qualities, peace and evil/uncertainty, reflect energy in equilibrium and chaotic, indeterminate,
states.
|
|
Yod-Waw-Hay: 6/Union: 3/Ghimel/movement: Jupiter/Tsedeq/energy: peace-evil
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The primary triad culminates in the seventh sephira,
considered as 7/Indetermination. It is sealed
with Hay-Yod-Waw and forms one pole of the axis of Life, which runs between the undetermined and
and the unstructured, otherwise known as the future and the past. The last of the archetypal
planetary letters, 4/Dallet/resistance forms Meadim, Mem-Aleph-Dallet-Yod-Mem where we find
both the central Dallet and Adam (Aleph-Dallet-Mem) in the Waters of existence (Mem-Yod-Mem).
The contary qualites, Wisdom/Hhokmah and Folly/Olet indicate the possibilities of awoken
consciousness and the projection of Aleph-Tav in the universe. Both these states are seldom
realized, being far in the future for most souls.
|
Hay-Yod-Waw: 7/Freedom: 4/Dallet/resistance: Mars/MeaDim/response-adaptation: wise-foolish
|
|
|
|
Hhaim-Mot |
| |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
400 |
6 |
40 |
|
|
|
40 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
| 446 |
| |
68 |
| Gematria: 514 |
|
Shalom-Raa |
| |
|
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
70 |
200 |
| |
|
40 |
6 |
30 |
300 |
| 270 |
| |
376 |
| Gematria: 646 |
|
Hhokmah-Olet |
| |
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
400 |
6 |
30 |
1 |
| |
|
5 |
40 |
20 |
8 |
| 437 |
| |
73 |
| Gematria: 510 |
|
Osser-Oni |
| |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
10 |
50 |
6 |
70 |
| |
|
200 |
300 |
6 |
70 |
| 124 |
| |
576 |
| Gematria: 700 |
|
Hhan-Keeor |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| 200 |
6 |
70 |
10 |
20 |
| |
|
|
|
50/700 |
8 |
| 306 |
| |
58/708 |
| Gematria: 364/1014 |
|
Zar'-Shemama |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
5 |
40 |
40 |
300 |
| |
|
|
70 |
200 |
7 |
| 385 |
| |
277 |
| Gematria: 662 |
|
Memshelah-Abadot |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| 400 |
6 |
4 |
2 |
70 |
| |
5 |
30 |
300 |
40 |
40 |
| 482 |
| |
410 |
| Gematria: 892 |
| 2450 |
| |
1838 |
| Total Gematria: 4288 |
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