Cube of Space: Ten Sephirot Belimah

1:5 Their measure without end. Depth of beginning. Depth of end. Depth of Tov. Depth of Raa. Depth of above. Depth of below. Depth of East. Depth of West. Depth of North. Depth of South. Adon Yahhid true King (or eternal) has dominion over the Universe of (the) Holy Abode. Eternity of eternity immemorial.

The ten Sephirot are transformers of energy, breaking it down until it becomes completely materialized. Suares, SY, p.53

32 Paths: The First Four Sephirot
Sephirot	Number	Name (Zohar)	Quality	Function

1	Ehhat	Kether	Oomq Reshith	Rouhh Elohim Hhaim

	One	Kether	Depth of Beginning	Breath of Elohim Alive

2	Schtaim	Hhokmah	Oomq Ahhriyth	Rouhh Merouahh

	Two	Wisdom	Depth of End	Breath of Breath

3	Schelesch	Binah	Oomq Tov	Mayim Merouhh

	Three	Understanding	Depth of Good	Waters of Breath

4	Arbaa	G'dolah	Oomq Raa	Esch Memaim

	Four	Greatness	Depth of Evil	Fire of Waters

12 + 7 + 7 + 6 =				32 Paths

Six Extremities: The Last Six Sephirot

5	H'amesh	G'veruh	Oomq Rom	Lam'alah

	Five	Strength	Depth of Height	Above

6	Shesh	Tipheret	Oomq Tahhat	Lamatah

	Six	Beauty	Depth of Abyss	Below

7	Sheva	Netzach	Oomq Mizrah	Phani

	Seven	Victory	Depth of East	Face

8	Schmona	Hod	Oomq Maarav	Hhari

	Eight	Glory	Depth of West	Behind

9	Tesha	Yesod	Oomq Darom	Yamin

	Nine	Foundation	Depth of South	Right

10	Esser	Malkuth	Oomq Tsafon	Semol/Shem-El

	Ten	Sovereignty	Depth of North	Left

What Were the Names of the Sephirot?

Exodus 31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge

1 Chronicles 29:11 Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.

Among all topics within the Kabbalah, the doctrine of the Sefirot enjoyed the greatest popularity in its presentations. Time and again, the list of names of the Sefirot, with the anthropopmorphic pattern, is repeated as the core of this lore. The same is true of scholarly research: the various conceptions of the Sefirot have been analyzed far more extensively than any other Kabbalistic topic. But notwithstanding this wealth of interest, there is as yet no comprehensive study of the history of the Kabbalistic doctrines of the Sephirot. The emergence of the specific names of the Sefirot and the structure and functions of the sefirotic pleorama are all crucial matters for a precise understanding of theosophical Kabbalah; their study is urgent.

Moshe Idel, Kabbalah, New Perspectives, Yale, 1988.

The Sepher Yetsira (300-900 CE) is the first use in Hebrew of the term sephirot and it names them by number, quality/direction and function/perspective. The familar sephirotic names, from Kether to Malkut, came into use with the early (12-13th century) kabbalists and are unknown to the Sepher Yetsira. Attempts to reconcile the ten sephirot-belimah and directions of the Sepher Yetsira with the kabbalist sephirotic theosophy of the Zohar have produced a number of systems of assignments.

For instance, taking the earlier Short, Long and Saadia versions as a baseline, the structure of the sephirot has been subject to revision from two directions -- from above in the order of the first four sephirot -- beginning/first and end/last and good and evil -- as with Isaac Luria's assigning Good to Kether and Evil to Malkuth -- and from below in changing the nature of Malkut from a planetary sephirot to one forming an element called "earth," a non-existent Yetziratic element and displacing the planets upward into the first four/inner court.

In general, the significance of these changes do not seem to be noticed or appreciated for their implications. In all of the early, pre-Luria versions of the Sepher Yetsira, the planets are given in the order determined by their sequence in the Hebrew alphabet: Bayt/Saturn - Ghimmel/Jupiter - Dallet/Mars - Kaf/Sun - Pay/Venus - Raysh/Mercury - Tav/Moon -- the classical order of the planets from Babylonian times and geocentric observation. Later interpretations varied the planetary/sephirotic orderings, as with the Ari's making Bayt formative of Lavanah/Moon at the fifth sephirot, Height/Above.

Suares puts the Zoharic sephirot in order with the Sepher Yetsira, from one to ten, and notes the importance of the 10th Sephirot, formed by Pay/Phay/80 and Venus/Nogah in the North, where Adam Qadmon loops the Tree of Life through Shem-El, the left, the direction of sensuous experience realized in the Sephira of Yod, duration, in the world of action.

The other issue raised by the Sepher Yetsira is where to put the Moon, since the planets begin with Saturn at the 5th Sephira and end with Venus at the 10th Sephira and the Moon is not one of the six extremities, but rather the "hidden direction" or "holy kernel" where they meet. In various kabbalistic and hermetic schemes, it appears capable of appearing almost anywere except the 4th/1st Sephiras, which Suares indicates as the true home of the psyche.

As descriptive as the particular sephirotic name/attribute, even in formative terms, may be, it is a still a qualification of a more fundamental semantic category, probably the one in use before the Crown and the Kingdom -- the one used by the Sepher Yetsira: the categories of the numbers themselves.

Formative and Zoharic Semantics in the 10 Sephirot
#	Formative	Zoharic Sepherot

1	Intemporal	Kether	Crown
2	Container	Hhockmah	Wisdom
3	Movement	Binah	Understanding
4	Resistance	Gedolah	Greatness
5	Life	Gevurah	Strength
6	Union	Tipheret	Beauty
7	Freedom	Netzach	Triumph
8	Potential	Hod	Glory
9	Formation	Yesod	Foundation
10	Existence	Malkuth	Kingdom

The formative categories, while less poetic, are more general and inclusive; the attributive categories are allusions to the underlying energy. There are many examples where the formative category is more useful or leads to a deeper insight into the function or structure of a Sephirot.

"Strength" is not particularly helpful in understanding the 5th Sephira, but "Life" echos on every level.

The first four sephirot begin with the permutations of Rouahh Elohim Hhaim, Breath of Elohim Alive, which result in Esch Memaim , Fire in the Waters.

The 5th Sephira is sealed twice with Yod-Hay-Waw: the two lives of YHWH. The 5th is a hinge between the inner life of the first four sephirot and the outer life of the last six.

Which is why Saturn/Shabatai must be formed there, with the contary qualities of Life and Death, and the possibility of realizing the Sabbath.

See: Sephirotic Systems.

Zoharic Sephirotic Assignments for the Ten Directions

SY	#	Ari	Pree Yitzchak	Raavad	Isaac the Blind	Ramak	WoC	Suares
Beginning	1	Chakhmah	Keter	Chakhmah	Chakhmah	Keter	Da'at	Keter
End	2	Binah	Malkut	Binah	Binah	Malkut	Tipheret	Hhokhmah
Good	3	Keter	Chesed	Chesed	Chesed	Chakhmah	Hhesed	Binah
Evil	4	Malkut	Gevurah	Gevurah	Malkut	Binah	Gevurah	Gedolah
Up	5	Netzach	Netzach	Keter	Keter	Netzach	Kether	Gevurah
Down	6	Hod	Hod	Malkut	Yesod	Hod	Yesod	Tiferet
East	7	Tiferet	Tiferet	Tiferet	Tiferet	Tiferet	Chockmah	Netzach
West	8	Yesod	Yesod	Yesod	Netzach	Yesod	Hod	Hod
South	9	Chesed	Binah	Hod	Hod	Chesed	Netzach	Yesod
North	10	Gevurah	Hhokmah	Netzach	Gevurah	Gevurah	Binah	Malkut

Kaplan, SY,1995, p.46; Glotzer, Fundamentals of Jewish Mysticism, 1992, p.29; and other sources