Four Divisions of Shekhinah
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I've finally started reading Gikatilla's Gates of Light, so will probably have plenty of questions for this forum. Let's start...
In his chapter on the First Gate, Gikatilla notes:
The essential and true understanding of the verse "A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and then it divides and becomes four branches (Gen 2:10)" is that the rivers represent the four divisions of the SHeCHINaH, which are subordinate to ADoNaY, which is the lowest level of the Divine oneness."
I suppose one could posit Shekinah in each of the Four World, but I suspect something more interesting here. Any ideas or references?
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93! Huh, weird. I googled it to make sure I wasn't mistaken in my understanding of the word which is Shekinah (Shekhnah, Shechinah etc.) is the Christian's God or rather the Hebrew's Yehovah feminine aspect. I've never heard nor could find anything that refers to her divided into fours, trinity certainly (sure hope I don't have to go find a 4th Mary now..) but is usually explained as the "Holy Ghost" in the trinity of father, son, and holy spirit. I did find text saying the word stems from shakan defined as "to dwell" which means that Shekinah is the manifestation of God on earth in which case my best guess here is that this is referring to the 4 directions North, South, East, West as well as the elements earth, air, fire, and water.
Subordinate to Adonai? Wtf? Get Lilith!
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@zeph said
"I suppose one could posit Shekinah in each of the Four World, but I suspect something more interesting here. Any ideas or references?"
I don't know but will offer...
I suspect it is more Shekinah in terms of the Four Elements, since that's the general attribution of the four rivers. These are "the SHeCHINaH, which are subordinate to ADoNaY" rather than, say, the Binah aspect - so they are the four divisions of Shekinah in Malkuth.
BTW, The Gates of Light uses the divine Names of the Sephiroth interchangeably with the names of the Sephiroth themelves, so this is synonymous with "subordinate to Malkuth."
The main number of Shekinah is 5. The 5 letters of her Name are part of her equivalency to the 5-lettered name Elohim. Any division of her into 4 would follow the pattern of the rivers themselves: a single stream which branched into 4 aspects, i.e., actually a 5.
Zeph, since that's a big book, for future questions could you also give the page number? I suspect most such questions will require reading Gikatilla's comments in context.
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Hi Zeph,
Thanks for reading the book. Never got around it, myself. Would you please tell me the edition and publisher of the book you are using, so that when you reference it, I can find the information? I will order it so I can follow the discussion.
Thanks,
and L.V.X.,
chrys333 -
Since it's on the desk...
Gates of Light: The first English translation of a Classic Introduction to Jewish Mysticism by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla Translated & with an Introduction by Avi Weinstein. AltaMira Press.
Here's the Amazon link:
www.amazon.com/Gates-Light-Shaare-Sacred-Literature/dp/0761990003/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1820934-9440445?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192376010&sr=8-1 -
To add to the above - there is another passage relevant to the original question. It occurs in the chapter on The Ninth Gate (Chokmah), p. 345:
"Beyond MaLCHUT is the realm of separation, "and it divided into four heads"; this is the essence of the four camps of the SHeCHINaH which are separate from the realm of unity; which is the essence of the four letters of unity, and the four heads of separation."
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Thanks, Jim. That the Divine Names of the Sephiroth are used interchangeably with the Sephiroth themselves is an extremely good clue that I missed altogether. This passage occurs on page 14 of this edition. (Thanks, A, for posting the edition info.)
I've always considered the division of the river to have occurred higher up on the Tree. I've also never thought of Shekinah in terms of that river. New stuff to meditate on.
I'm going to read very slowly, so you'll have plenty of time to catch up if you want, Chris; and I think it will be fun if you do. I'll start by going back to the beginning of this first chapter.
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@zeph said
"I've always considered the division of the river to have occurred higher up on the Tree. I've also never thought of Shekinah in terms of that river."
Where the river divides and how it is portrayed depends on the model. One of the things I think is happening in this work: There seems to be a tendency to think of the Sephiroth only as existing in Atziluth. I don't remember that being stated anywhere, but it's consistent with the equation of the Sephiroth to their Divine Names. So Malkuth is the garden that is in Eden, and the place where the one stream divides in to four to g forth from that one spot to 'that which is beyond or beneath Malkuth' (or words to that effect).
Shekinah is commonly related to the whole Middle Pillar culminating in its establishment in Malkuth. Waite gave a wonderful speech to the old Second Order on Shekinah and the three Paths of the Middle Pillar. (Remember that the "angel" image of Samekh is not the design of the esoteric Tarot. Crowley's Art and its use of Artemis is much more on track. Universe, Art, and Priestess as progressive images of the descent of Shekinah as a single stream that then divides into fourfold expression in Malkuth.)
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93
Was Crowley's Porta Lucis inspired by Portae Lucis?
93, 93/93
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@Draco Magnus said
"Porta Lucis inspired by Portae Lucis?"
"Gate of Light" is a common term in Qabalah, whether in English or other language. I don't know that any version of the Hebrew text by Gikatilla was known by him (or available in any form), but the tradition of the title was certainly relevant.
The Gates of Light (plural) is enormously influential on our tradition, though. Aside from being the oldest available work examining the Sephiroth in detail - incorporating many core principles such as the Divine Names and that Y.H.V.H. is the basis of the Tree structure - it also likely is the origin of the X=Y grade structure (e.g., 5=6) since the chapters have titles like "The Fifth Gate - The Sixth Sphere."
Crowley's received work, "The Gate of Light" - note the singular in the title - is named after a traditional title of Malkuth.
If you are interested in Sha'are Orah, its author, and its historical context, you might want to read the Wikipedia article on Rabbi Gikatilla:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gikatilla
To put him in context, he wrote this work about half a century or more before the Zohar, and just a little later than The Book of Contenmplation. He was from the same general Qabalistic community as the latter work, which was the codification of the philosophy and vocabulary that allowed the writing of The 32 Paths of Wisdom, which was probably pretty contemporary to Gikatilla's core work.