From the junction of Sephiroth Nos. 2 and 3 emanated the masculine
potency Love or Mercy (4) and the feminine potency Justice (5), and
from the junction of the latter two emanated again the uniting potency
Beauty (6). Beauty, the sixth Sephirah, constitutes the chest in the
archetypal man, and unites Love (4) and Justice (5), which constitute
the divine arms, thus yielding the second triad of the Sephiric
decade. From this second conjunction emanated again the masculine
potency Firmness (7) and the feminine potency Splendour (8), which
constitute the divine legs of the archetypal man; and these sent forth
Foundation (9), which is the genital organ and medium of union between
them, thus yielding the third triad in the Sephiric decade. Kingdom
(10), which emanated from the ninth Sephirah, encircles all the other
nine, inasmuch as it is the Shechinah, the divine halo, which
encompasses the whole by its all-glorious presence.
In their totality and unity the ten Sephiroth are not only denominated
the World of Sephiroth, or the World of Emanations, but, owing to the
above representation, are called the primordial or archetypal man (=
[Greek: protogonos]) and the heavenly man. It is this form which, as we
are assured, the prophet Ezekiel saw in the mysterious chariot (Ezek. i.
1-28), and of which the earthly man is a faint copy.
As the three triads respectively represent intellectual, moral and
physical qualities, the first is called the Intellectual, the second the
Moral or Sensuous, and the third the Material World. According to this
theory of the archetypal man the three Sephiroth on the right-hand side
are masculine and represent the principle of rigour, the three on the
left are feminine and represent the principle of mercy, and the four
central or uniting Sephiroth represent the principle of mildness. Hence
the right is called "the Pillar of Judgment," the left "the Pillar of
Mercy," and the centre "the Middle Pillar." The middle Sephiroth are
synecdochically used to represent the worlds or triads of which they are
the uniting potencies. Hence the Crown, the first Sephirah, which unites
Wisdom and Intelligence to constitute the first triad, is by itself
denominated the Intellectual World. So Beauty is by itself described as
the Sensuous World, and in this capacity is called the Sacred King or
simply the King, whilst Kingdom, the tenth Sephirah, which unites all
the nine Sephiroth, is used to denote the Material World, and as such is
denominated the Queen or the Matron. Thus a trinity of units, viz. the
Crown, Beauty and Kingdom, is obtained within the trinity of triads. But
further, each Sephirah is as it were a trinity in itself. It (1) has its
own absolute character, (2) receives from above, and (3) communicates to
what is below. "Just as the Sacred Aged is represented by the number
three, so are all the other lights (Sephiroth) of a threefold nature"
(_Zohar_, iii. 288).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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