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THE TREE OF LIFE
ture of the Tree of Life. " On penetrating into the sanctuary
of the Kaballah, one is seized with admiration at the sight of a
doctrine so sim~le and at the same time so absolute. The necessarv
union of ideas and signs, the consecration of the most fundamental
realities by primitive characters, the trinity of words, letters and
numbers; a philosophy simple as the alphabet, profound and
infinite as the Logos ; theorems more luminous and complete than
those of Pythagoras; a theology which may be epitomized by
counting on the fingers ; an infinity which can be held in the hollow
of an infant's hand : ten numerals and twentv-two letters, a
triangle, a square, and a circle-such are the elements of the Kaballah,
such are the primary principles of the written word, shadow of
that Spoken Logos which created the world !" So thought Levi,
and in truth one must wholeheartedly agree with him. For the
admiration-compelling foundation of the Qabalah is a simple
mathematical structure of symbols and numbers and names, utilizing
ten numbers and the letters of the Alphabet of the Angels, as the
Hebrew Alphabet has been named. Mathematics has for ever been
considered a divine science by the votaries of the esoteric philosophy,
particularly among the Pythagoreans, adumbrating as it does by
means of Number the creative processes both of the universe and the
development of the human being. It was the view of several
Magicians that by the ideas expressed in number was Nature conceived
in the bosom of infinite space. From these ideas or universals
issued the primordial elements, the immense cycles of time, the
cosmic bodies, and all the host of heavenly changes.
Since Numbers were the means or the symbols by which the
meaning of the abstract universal Ideas could be grasped, in the
course of time they came to be substituted for the ideas themselves.
The number-philosophers were taught at the beginning of their
studies to think of growth and development in terms of Number, to
consider cosmic realities in their progressive states as the sequence
of numerical advance. To these various states numbers became
identified. I-Ience in the magical philosophy to refer to Zero, for
instance, is to imply primarily the unmanifest Essence of the Universe
before yet the worlds had come to birth, the boundlessness
and immutability of infinite space in which were neither stars nor
suns, planets nor men. The Circle, a Zero (0) in shape, was thus
considered to be a fitting representation of that primordial Reality
which had given existence to all living things and beings in the vast