Kabbalah-of-the-Golden-Dawn-Pat-Zalewski - D Ank Unlimited

60 The Kabbalah ofthe Golden Dawn
The Zohar describes the Sephiroth as emanating from each other, a
difficult concept to grasp visually (some have used the diagram of concentric
circles). Later Kabbalists have considered the Sephiroth as being
placed on three pillars (Severity, Middle, and Mercy) while others have
used the age-old glyph of the Tree of Life (which has been with us since
antiquity) to apply the Sephiroth visually in balanced disposition.
The First of the Sephiroth is called Kerher, the Crown, which is the
first manifested form and which many have associated with the Hebrew
name of God as shown in the letters YHVH,5I the incomprehensible
deity. Kether is often referred to the Godhead as the primal source of
manifestation. The Hebrew name associated with this is AHIH,52 meaning
"I am," a simple statement of manifestation.
There are a number of ways to visualize Kether. The first is to view
it by way of descent. Here we have a homogeneous force that is perfect in
every way except for experience, and that is what it must gain before it
can' be reunited with itself in Malkuth, the last Scphirah. In many
respects, Kether is much like the spirit of man as he arrives on this plane
of existence; he must gain experience through the process of trial and
tribulation before the re-unification with the Higher Self at death. Any
Sephirah, Kether included, can be applied to the smallest speck or atom
of this planet and also to the greatest distance in the heavens. This
explains the reference in the Sepher Yetzirah to the Sephiroth being
boundless and having no ending. Looking at Kether by way of ascent
here, we have the Godhead on earth, perfection as far as the physical laws
will allow. It is something everyone aspires to, for Kether is the absolute
ideal, untainted by the fears and worries of this world, for it has risen
above them. The Mathers description of the Sephiroth, as given in the
Book ofthe Path ofthe Chameleon, 53 is as given below:
First are the Feminine colours of the Sephiroth, the
Queen's Scale. In Kether is the Divine White Brilliance,
the scintillation and corruscation of the Divine Glorythat
Light which lighterh the Universe-that Light
51 Exodus 20,2, "I am YHVH thy God."
52 Exodus 3014"I am the first and I am the last and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, can
proclaim. let him declare it, and set it in order for me."
53 This manuscript, called also "Hodos Chameleonis," was issued out in separate parts in the Golden
Dawn's Inner Order.