We now come to the most interesting part of our subject. The key to the Kabbalah is the “Word,” consisting of four Hebrew letters, which may be arranged in a cross inclosed in a circle, Fig. A. The Christian Kabbalist inserted the Hebrew letter Sin, as a representative of Christ in the ineffable name, Fig. B. The four-lettered name was the one given to Moses on the Mount, with the understanding that it represented his (Jehovah) verbalization in the universe. The Word was held in profound reverence by all, Kabbalists as well as the Jews, and all ancient secret orders, and was never spoken audibly, in fact never mentioned, except in the last initiation, when it was whispered in the initiate’s ear by the Grand Master of Ceremonies. The knowledge and power the Word confers upon the recipient of its meaning is given in a fragment of a clavicle of Solomon: “I, Solomon, King of Israel and Palmyra, have sought and obtained in part, the Holy Chocmah, which is the wisdom of Adonai. I have become King of the spirit of heaven and of earth, master of the inhabitants of the air, and the souls of the sea, because I procured the key of the occult gate of light. I have accomplished great things by the virtue of Schema Hamphorasch, and by the thirty-two paths of the Sepher Jetzirah. Number, weight and measure determine the form of all things, substance is one, and God created it eternally. Happy is he who knows the letters and numbers; numbers are ideas, and ideas are forces, and forces Elohim. The synthesis of Elohim is Schema. Schema is one, and its pillars are two, its power is three, its form four. Its reflection gives eight, and eight multiplied by three, gives the twenty-four thrones of wisdom. On each throne rests a crown of three jewels, each jewel bears a name, each name an absolute idea. There are seventy-two names on the twenty-four crowns of Schema. Thou shalt write these names on thirty-six talismans, two on each talisman—one on each side. Thou shalt divide these talismans into four series of nine each, according to the number of the letters of the Schema. On the first series engrave the letter Jod, figure of the blooming rod of Aaron; on the second series the letter He, figure of the cup of Joseph; on the third series the letter Vau, the figure of the source of David, my Father; on the fourth series the letter He, the figure of the Jewish shekel. The thirty-six talismans will be a book that will contain all the secrets of nature, and by their divers combinations, thou wilt make the Genii and Angels speak.”
The Schema represents the four-lettered name; when mathematically constructed into seventy-two different forms, it is called Schema-hamphorasch, and represents seventy-two paths of wisdom, which constitute the keys of universal science.
The history of the Kabbalah is yet to be written, which can only be accomplished by one versed in its secrets. Historians have not done it justice, they have debased it by associating it with necromancy or the black art, which is to the Kabbalah what false religion is to pure Christianity. The kernel lies hidden in the rubbish of the past, where it has been preserved for future generations. When it is disrobed of its vile and obnoxious covering it will be found to have lost none of its beauty and brilliancy. The light of the Orient has been preserved by the wise men of the east, in symbols and allegorical language, and when the time arrives, which is not far distant, someone possessing the key, which is the Word, will unlock its mysteries and bring it forth in its divine purity, to enlighten the present and future generations.
The cycle of Tritheme, which commenced in 1878, will prepare someone to bring it forth from its oblivion, and through its teachings a new train of thought will be instituted and an impetus given to the moral and emotional development which will be the harbinger of a bright future. Science will take new strides, religion will throw aside her thread-bare garment and assume a new dress, which will accord with the teachings and example of Christ. When this occurs, the conflict between religion and science will cease and harmony be established. The two then will be like brother and sister, aiding each other in the development of the intellectual and moral attributes of the spirit. It is no fault of science that a difference between them has occurred, it has advanced while religion has been carrying on a warfare about creeds and dogmas, which has retarded her progress.
Christianity of to-day is as different from what it was in the first and second centuries of the Christian era, as modern masonry is different from what it was in ancient times. Religion has attempted to control humanity through fear, having created a devil to keep man in subjection, and force the belief that God, who is the quintessence of purity and holiness, is a vindictive and angry being, who takes delight in chastising those who through ignorance violate the Divine Law. While this religious conflict has been progressing, christianity has gradually lost its hold on the public mind. At the same time humanity longs to know something of the future which science cannot give.
How is this emotional or moral want to be supplied? for humanity cannot progress intellectually beyond objective knowledge, without the development of the moral attributes. We venture the assertion that if the same advancement had been made in the development of the emotional attributes of the spirit, as has been in the intellectual, there would have been no agnosticism, and science would be far in advance of what it is. Science has about reached the limit of objective knowledge and cannot advance until it acquires a knowledge of this world’s antecedents, which will enable it to correct numerous errors and give an impetus to further development. This cannot be done so long as they ignore the existence of a subjective consciousness.
The Kabbalah embodies both philosophy and theosophy. The former gives us a knowledge of the universe, and the latter teaches man how to know himself and his God. It will also elevate masonry and all secret organizations having their rise from it, by showing that ancient masonry was not merely a social and beneficial order like modern masonry, but an organization for the unfolding of the moral and intellectual attributes.
The Kabbalah has shown its fruits in philosophy through such minds as Thales, Solon, Plato, Pythagoras, Göethe, and many others. In religion through Zoroaster, Confucius, Christ, Old and New Testament, and the Early Christians, and later through the United Brethren, to which Jacob Behmen belonged, and other theosophic sects. If the views we have advanced be correct, that it is through the development of the inner consciousness that man attains to a knowledge of the subjective or causal world, and that the knowledge of the Kabbalah will enable us to unfold these faculties, how urgent we all should be to have its secrets revealed.
Seth Pancoast.