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Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V

One of the overarching questions in all forms of Kabbalah regards the nature of Evil. How, it is asked, How can Evil exist if God is so completely perfect, whole, and unlimited that it not only fills the entire universe, but is the sum total of what the universe is comprised of, and then some?

While clearly the answer to that would be - if the above criteria are accurate - that Evil must of course be part of God, this seems to be unsatisfactory to those who have a vested interest in demonstrating that God actually takes an interest in its Creation and is not some Spinozan imperative eternal totality - Nature itself (or the idea of Nature being the perfect realization of the objectification of God of and from itself), complete and by necessity, indifferent.

There is the idea that Evil is just the absence of Good, a lack, as a shadow is the occlusion of light. Remove the blockage and all will be well. But this seems half-hearted, a cop out. Something bad happening by chance or circumstance is just shit luck, an accident of fate. It could be terrible, horrfic even, but Evil? Can something impersonal be called Evil?

Because Evil seems personal. Deliberate. Malicious. An act of Will. And indeed in exoteric Judiasm it is the result of a choice by the hapless Chavah (albeit goaded into it by the wily Serpent) that brought sin, and thus Evil into the world. In later Kabbalah, especially in the esoteric Sabbataen reimagining of the teachings of Isaac Luria, the defiance of Eve became a necessary aspect of creation. Free will, the ability to choose Evil (or in this case, have a snack), is a necessary condition for the Tikkun (ThIQVN 566) the Repairing of the Universe. For apparently God was just too damn Great. It broke its toy, and it is up to Mankind to fix it. Someone to do the dirty work.

The so called "sin" of Chavah was a reflection (as above, so below) of a much more fundamental sundering of reality - the Shattering of the Vessels, the Shevirat HaKelim. In this Lurianic myth, before there was anything, in the no-time and no-place, it arose in the thought (MChShBH 355) of the utter totality that was the Ain Soph to create the Universe. But, being without limit - infinite - there wasn't anywhere that wasn't already filled by its Ainness. So in a fit of self-abnegation the infinite restricted itself (TzMTzVM 266). It drew away from itself in the no-direction beyond comprehension into a single point infinitely distant on all sides from its all encompassing light. Into this void it drew down a single ray of its light and from that spun a container - a Kelim (KLIM 100) into which to pour its effluence. Within that first emanation there were nine others, ten in all, from which the Universe would be formed. But the Light delved too greedily and too deep....

Once! Twice! Thrice! The Light of Power flowed from one kelim to the next, one above the other. But the structure was unstable, the vessels could not handle the Light... and from the Fourth on, they failed. The Kelim broke, shards tumbling into the darkness. The Light, uncontained, rose again to be subsumed in the totality of the Infinite.

But they were all of them decieved... for clinging to the shards of the fallen Kelim were traces of the Light of the Infinite (the Ain Soph Aur), spilled drops from the uncontained spurt of the Creative Imperative. These seeds of Light nourished the fallen shards as they fell ever lower, strengthening them, and the in the darkness of the void the shards grew and enfolded the Light like the shell of a nut - like husks... no longer Kelim, but Qliphoth.

In the Lurianic cosmogeny, there are four layers to the Qliphoth, the outer three layers are wholly Evil, but the inner one, the one that surrounds the precious kernal of Divine Light like a skin, this one is an admixture, partaking of both Light and Darkness. It is called Nogah (NVGH 64), "Shining", from the root NGH which is also the Hebrew word for the planet Venus. In the later Sabbataen focus on Kabbalah to the exclusion of normative Judaism, Nogah also represents the fourth methodology of Kabbalistic exposition, that of Sod - the Secret [ed. note - see The Four Who Entered the Orchard]. Sod (SVD) has the value of 70 which is the value of ADM VChVH, Adam and Chavah (NVGH could likewise be thought of as ADM 45 + ChVH 19), and what is Mankind if not an admixture of Good and Evil?

The astrological symbol for Venus, our erstwhile surrounding secret that is commensurate with Adam and Eve, is, as noted in another offhand comment by Crowley, the only Zodiac symbol that can be placed on the tree that connects all ten Sephiroth.

The letter-paths that make up the symbol of Venus on the Baphometric Tree are, for the upper part (starting at the top right and making a full circle): Heh, Gimel, Zayin, Samekh, Beth, and Lamed. The lower cross is formed by the vertical letters Peh and Aleph, and the horizontal Mem.

The sum of these letters-paths is 228. 228 is the value of KRCh, "Necessity", in the purest most philosphical sense of the word. It is RIBVI, "Multiplicity", in all its variety and profusion. KCh QDMVN - the Primordial Force or Power (perhaps another formulation of the Ain Soph Aur). It is BNI AaVLIM The Children of the Most High and KP-VV-NVN-HH, Kavanah - meaning "Meaning" or "Intent", spelled in full. (KVNH 81 is an incredibly important concept in Kabbalah - it describes the state of sincere belief and acceptance that allows one to be able to unite to the Divine. It can be concieved of the end result of the process of meditation and kabbalistic praxis - a purity of thought and body and mind that is like unto a flame. 81 is of course, a key number of the Tree 528 as well).

But primarily, the number 228 is AaTz ChIIM. The Tree of Life. 228 is the Tree of Life.

If one adds all of the Sephiroth one through ten (the Triangle Number 55) to 228, the result is 283. HKCh BChMR "The Force in Matter" or the "Potential in Matter". ZMN + MQVM, Time and Place. It is ZKRVN, Memory, that most essential aspect of consciousness, and MTBAa HNQBH the intrinsic Nature of the Feminine.

If one were to take the Ur Numbers of the paths of Venus (the value plus the ordinal plus the reduction of either of those) the sum is 342. This is the value of BShM, the pleasing scent of incense that rises up, it is ShBIL, a path to be walked and ShLHBH, a Flame - for each Sephiroth is said to be of one flame like successive candles lit from the same coal. It is ARTz ADVM, the Land of Edom.

Once again adding the total of the Sephirothic flames the result is 397. HQPITzH HAMVNH, the Leap of Faith that underlies existence (the Oath of the Abyss? Carlos Castenada I am looking at you...), MLVKH HARTz, the Kingdom of Earth. GVRL AChD LAaZAZL, one Lot for Azazel, doomed to be cast out into the wilderness. AShH HALHIM, the Woman of God (or perhaps more appropriately HAShH ALHIM - the Woman is God).

397 is AVR NAaVLM the Light of the Universe that is the AVR NAaLVM Occluded Light (and thus commensurate with the Primordial Darkness that is the Lightning Path). It is is the AVR PNIMI, the Interior Light, the Light poured into the Vessels of Creation. The Light trapped in the Shells of the Qliphoth. The Light of Consciousness itself.

397 is ShVPIA. Sophia Achamoth. Wisdom. Knowledge. The Tree and The Point*. The reflection of Baphomet (being the Atbash of BPVMTh). The Queen of Heaven. The High Priestess. The Doorway. The Mother of All That Lives. She is the Fourth and she is the Seventh and she is all Ten. And the Ankh of Venus is the Key.

* 397 Added in Series is 165, the value of HAaTz (The Tree) and NQVDH (The Point), as well as that of NAaMH, Na'amah, whom even the Angels loved...