Sefer Yetziyrah - a translation
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Chapter 5 - THE TWELVE SIMPLE LETTERS
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Twelve Simple Letters: Heh, Vav, Zayin, Cheyth, Teyth, Yod, Lamed, Noon, Samekh, A’ayin, Tzaddiy, Qof. Their foundation is Sight, Hearing, Smell, Speech, Taste, Coitus, Work, Motion, Wrath, Laughter, Thought or Meditation, Sleep.
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Twelve Simple Letters: Heh, Vav, Zayin, Cheyth, Teyth, Yod, Lamed, Noon, Samekh, A’ayin, Tzaddiy, Qof. Their foundation is twelve diagonal boundaries: the boundary North-East, the boundary South-East, the boundary East-Above, the boundary East-Below, the boundary North-Above, the boundary North-Below, the boundary North-West, the boundary South-West, the boundary West-Above, the boundary West-Below, the boundary South-Above, the boundary South-Below. These extend infinitely, throughout Eternity. They are the boundaries of the universe.
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Twelve Simple Letters: Heh, Vav, Zayin, Cheyth, Teyth, Yod, Lamed, Noon, Samekh, A’ayin, Tzaddiy, Qof. Their foundation is He engraved them, carved them out, refined them, weighed them, and transformed them. He formed by them twelve zodiacal constellations in the universe, twelve months in the year, and twelve drivers in the soul, male and female.
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Twelve zodiacal constellations in the universe: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.
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Twelve months in the year: Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tebet, Shebat, Adar.
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Twelve drivers in the soul, male and female: two hands, two feet, two kidneys, the gall bladder, the intestines, the liver, the gizzard, the stomach, the spleen.
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He made the letter Heh king over sight, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Aquarius in the universe, Shebat in the year, and the qebah in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Vav king over hearing, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Taurus in the universe, Iyyar in the year, and the left hand in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Zayin king over smell, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Gemini in the universe, Sivan in the year, and the right foot in the soul, male and female.
- He made the letter Cheyth king over speech, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Cancer in the universe, Tammuz in the year, and the left foot in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Teyth king over taste, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Leo in the universe, Ab in the year, and the right kidney in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Yod king over coition, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Virgo in the universe, Elul in the year, and the left kidney in the soul, male and female.
- He made the letter Lamed king over work (karma), and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Libra in the universe, Tishri in the year, and the gall bladder in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Noon king over motion, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Scorpio in the universe, Cheshvan in the year, and the intestines in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Samekh king over wrath, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Sagittarius in the universe, Kislev in the year, and the liver in the soul, male and female.
- He made the letter A’ayin king over laughter, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Capricorn in the universe, Tebet in the year, and the qorqeban in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Tzaddiy king over thought or meditation, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Aries in the universe, Nisan in the year, and the right hand in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Qof king over sleep, and He bound unto it a Crown; and He combined one with the other, and formed with them Pisces in the universe, Adar in the year, and the spleen in the soul, male and female.
He made them like a desert. He arranged them like a wall. He organized them as for war.
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Chapter 6 - CONCLUSION
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These are three Mothers: Alef, Meym, Shiyn. And from them emanated three Fathers, and they are Air, Water, and Fire; and from the Fathers, generations. Three Fathers and their generations, and seven planets and their hosts, and twelve diagonal boundaries. Evidence of this statement: faithful witnesses in the universe, the year, and the soul; and the Law of the Twelve, the Seven, and the Three governs in the Celestial Dragon, in cyclicity, and in the heart.
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Three Mothers: Alef, Meym, Shiyn: Air, Water, Fire. Fire is above, and Water below, and the breath of air reconciles between them. A mark of this is that the Fire is the bearer of the Water. Meym is silent, Shiyn hisses, and Alef is the breath of air reconciling between them.
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The Celestial Dragon in the universe is like a king upon his throne. The cyclicity in the year is like a king out in the provinces. The heart in the soul is like a king in warfare.
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“Also, Elohiym made the one opposite the other.” Good opposite evil; evil opposite good. Good from good; evil from evil. The good defines the evil, and the evil defines the good. Good is the preserve of those who are good, and evil is the preserve of those who are evil.
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The Three: Each stands alone; one defending, one accusing, and one deciding between them. The Seven: Three against three, and one law deciding between them. The Twelve stand in war: Three are friends, three are enemies, three are of life, and three are of death. The three friends are the heart and the ears; the three enemies are the liver, the gall bladder, and the tongue; the three that are of life are the two nostrils and the spleen; the three that are of death are the two [lower] openings and the mouth; and God the Faithful King rules all these from His holy dwelling throughout Eternity. The One atop the Three, the Three atop the Seven, the Seven atop the Twelve, and all united, one in the other.
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These are the 22 letters with which inscribed Eheyeh, Yah, Y.H.V.H. Elohiym, Y.H.V.H., Y.H.V.H. Tzabaoth, Elohiym Tzabaoth, El Shaddai, Y.H.V.H. Adonai. He produced from them three forms of expression. He created from them His whole universe. He formed by them all that is formed and all that is ready to be formed.
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When Abraham our father had looked, seen, understood, and inquired, and had engraved and carved out, he was successful in his power of creation, as it is written: “and the souls that they created in Haran.” At once was revealed [to him] the Most High Lord of All, blesséd be His Name forever; and He placed him within His bosom and He kissed him upon his head and He called him “Abraham my beloved” and made a covenant with him and his seed forever, as it is written, “And he believed in Y.H.V.H., and He counted it unto him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6), And he made unto him a covenant between the ten fingers of his hands (and this is the covenant of the tongue) and between the ten toes of his feet (and this is the covenant of the genitals). And He bound the 22 letters of the Law unto his tongue and revealed unto him His Mystery. He attracted them in Water, he enflamed them in Fire, he vibrated them in Air, he ignited them within the Seven, he drove them in the twelve zodiacal constellations.
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I spotted a typo in Chapter 4 verse 6:
- Seven Double Letters: Beyth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaf, Peh, Reysh, Tav, a foundation. He engraved them, carved them out, refined them, weighed them, and transformed them. He formed by them seven planets in the universe, seven days in the year, [and] seven gates into the soul, male and female.
The posted version reads "seven days in the year" instead of "seven days in the week".
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Oops! Thank you. Fixing it now.
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Can someone help to explain this part from chapter two for me?
"4. Twenty-two Foundation Letters: He placed them in a circle like a wall with 231 gates. The circle rotates forward and back. A sign for this thing: There is nothing good higher than Delight (ONG), and nothing evil lower than Plague (NGO).
- How? He refined, weighed, and transformed them each: Alef with all, and all with Alef; Beyth with all, and all with Beyth. They repeat cyclically and exist in 231 gates. Thus, all that is formed and all that is spoken emanates from the One Name. "
There's hardly anything of these parts that I understand. I don't get the 231 gates, nor the circle (or its rotating), nor Delight (ONG), or Plague (NGO) or how that leads to the conclusion that all emanates from the One Name. I hope someone can help!
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@Orione said
"Can someone help to explain this part from chapter two for me?
"4. Twenty-two Foundation Letters: He placed them in a circle like a wall with 231 gates. The circle rotates forward and back. A sign for this thing: There is nothing good higher than Delight (ONG), and nothing evil lower than Plague (NGO).
- How? He refined, weighed, and transformed them each: Alef with all, and all with Alef; Beyth with all, and all with Beyth. They repeat cyclically and exist in 231 gates. Thus, all that is formed and all that is spoken emanates from the One Name. "
There's hardly anything of these parts that I understand. I don't get the 231 gates, nor the circle (or its rotating), nor Delight (ONG), or Plague (NGO) or how that leads to the conclusion that all emanates from the One Name. I hope someone can help!"
It's a tough subject. The published work (available from College of Thelema) has extensive notes in the back nearly as lengthy as the translation itself. The intention here was only to give the translation.
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Ah, OK! I thought we could also discuss the meaning of the translation here, but I see now you meant for us to discuss the translation itself. As I have only read two other versions and have no knowledge of Hebrew, I'll step out of this discussion
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@Orione said
"Ah, OK! I thought we could also discuss the meaning of the translation here, but I see now you meant for us to discuss the translation itself. As I have only read two other versions and have no knowledge of Hebrew, I'll step out of this discussion
"Oh, we can take it several ways. I just didn't have time getting out the door this morning to open another document and compose a lengthy response, when the notes alone take multiple pages. The S.Y. is a very extensive study.
If you can focus your questions more specifically, possibly we could tackle them one at a time? Broad global questions like "WTF does all this mean?" tend not to get answers so much as laser-sharp specific questions
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Noted
I'm most intrigued by the 231 gates and why they are in a circular wall. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? -
@Orione said
"Noted
I'm most intrigued by the 231 gates and why they are in a circular wall. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?"The 231 Gates, as you may know, are all combinations of the 22 Hebrew letters taken two at a time.
Think of the comparison, first of all, to Tarot - a word that is an anagram of rota, "wheel." Tarot is a wheel.
In S.Y. the word I translated "circle" is GLGL, galgal, most simply meaning, “turning.” Functionally, this word may be translated as “circle,” “sphere,” “wheel,” or “cycle,” all of which have meaning in the present context. However, the phrase that follows, referring to a “wall,” determines the interpretation selected: the 22 letters are written in a circle.
One view is that a further meaning is that the recitation of these letter pairs is to be done in a "round."
You also asked previously about ONG and NGO. The text says, "There is nothing good higher than Delight (ONG), and nothing evil lower than Plague (NGO)" These two statements are called "a sign for this thing," i.e., for the discussion of the 231 gates. Oneg is used in Isaiah 58:14 to refer to an intimate relationship with God. Nega’a derived from oneg by the rotation of its letters: such a “plague” symbolizes alienation from the direct intimate relationship with God indicated by ONG, much in the way that the word “disaster” – literally dis-aster – means that one is “out of synch” with the stars.
The hint here given is more sophisticated than first appears. ONG and NGO both enumerate to 123, which is precisely the same sort of temurah of 231 as ONG is of NGO! The hint is more visible in Arabic numerals than Hebrew, but is sufficiently visible even in the latter.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"The published work (available from College of Thelema) ..."
Is there a link on the COT site to purchase this? I looked but couldn't find it anywhere. Thank you in advance.
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@skytoucher said
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@Jim Eshelman said
"The published work (available from College of Thelema) ..."Is there a link on the COT site to purchase this? I looked but couldn't find it anywhere. Thank you in advance."
At present, that one (a skinny little paper thing) is generally only circulated by local T.'.O.'.T.'. bodies when people show up in person to public events. (Always good to have some things out and available.)
But you can write to <!-- e --><a href="mailto:orders@thelema.org">orders@thelema.org</a><!-- e --> and ask if you can buy one. Someone will get back to you pretty quickly.
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Thank you for answering Jim. That is very interesting! I have been learning a lot from all kinds of information related to what you answered.
What interests me is that the Sepher Yetziyrah seems to imply that language was the creation of the divine through which everything else was created, but it seems that numbers (and certain mathematical laws) are integral to the divine. (I don't know how to express this very well, I hope you understand what I am saying.)
Yet at the same time, the language that has been created is very mathematical in nature and seems more of an entropic falling apart/detailing and restructuring of the numbers (to give them even more potential for expression and multiple layers etc.) than a completely new creation.And also, looking at it from the other side, it almost seems as if the decimal numeral system was already engrained in the Hebrew language.
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@Orione said
"And also, looking at it from the other side, it almost seems as if the decimal numeral system was already engrained in the Hebrew language."
Yes, as far as I can tell it was. A number like 93 would have been written TzG (Tzaddi Gimel), so the structure was decimal. There was also the form of Temurah called the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers (AIQ BKR).
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"The 231 Gates, as you may know, are all combinations of the 22 Hebrew letters taken two at a time."
Maybe I don't know that...
I thought it was the sum of all the major arcana. 1+2+3......= 231.
Or is that actually the same thing?
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Same thing
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I feel like smacking my forehead and exclaiming
" I could have had a V8"Or well, maybe to the seventh power....
Or fifth..I did catch the wheel, sphere rota explanation here as well.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Great Work!
When I got to Chapter 4, I knew I'd come to the right place.
I will have to compare this to Kaplan's translation soon, simply for curiosity's sake. I often compare many translations of a given work to see how wide the variance can be and which resonates the deepest in me.
Love is the law, love under will.