Ten, not nine. However... was: Re: VMs: Re: word length counts

["Jorge Aveleira" <jorvms@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:

"The reason I'm just a bit skeptical about the claimed link with the Tree of
Life is that (a) the 9-rosette picture shows no obvious signs of having had
any additional pages attached, and (b) 10 seems to be a crucial number to
Kabbalists, and one that's not really negotiable downwards (think Moses).
:-o"

Hi everybody:

Let me abuse your patience and hammer a little more on my narrow,
single-minded approach to the VMs:

In the Tree of Life nine sephiroth are arranged in three triads, holding
definite natures and relationships in compliance with the text of the Sepher
Yetzirah. Some interpretations bestow the upper triad as situated in a
heavenly divine-like realm, with the two lower triads accomplishing a
worldly process of dynamic opposition between their components; others
define each sephira as arising at a lower and denser level from its  higher
and more ethereal antecessor. There are also studies proposing even an
eleventh sephira, Daath, subsequently conceived to help in grasping the
meaning of the first triad. Those different interpretations confuse the
issue of the real structure of the Sephirotic Tree.

Some scholars on jewish  tradition equate the first sephira or divine
emanation with the Spirit of God, godlike Being, etc. It is also common to
match that first sephira with Kether-Crown, which is a component of the
first triad. The tenth sephira is usually known as Malkhut-Kingdom and is
generally equated to various worldly principles. The function of the
non-triadic sephira, when it is taken as the last or lowermost one, usually
appears as more or less obscure, gratuitous and not compliant with the
overall Tree of Life process of
creation-transmutation-opposition-descent-ascent. The non-triadic sephira is
alternatively interpreted as being the first or the last, the highest and
more spiritual one or the lowest and more material one. It is possible to
gather evidence in support of either view, and the excerpts below may
illustrate how that is not a settled argument.

While it is indisputable that the sephiroth have been ten since their onset,
the VMS author, depending on the textual of graphical interpretation he had
available, could have felt aghast by the task, and chosen not to represent
the Spirit of God itself in his illustration. That is one of the
interpretations for the non-triadic sephira, when taken as showing the
first outcome from, or perhaps the Ein-Sof itself.  The author could have
chosen then to depict only the process of universal creation and
transmutation arising from that divine instance, through the other nine
sephiroth. May I invite you again to visit:
http://www.cgjungpage.org/articles/javconsciousness.html  and especially:
http://www.cgjungpage.org/graphics/japic2.html

Please allow me to reiterate, with renewed emphasis and a reasonable
conviction, that the nine sephiroth composition in f85_86 is *essential* for
understanding the meaning of the VMs. That composition is perhaps the
earliest graphical depiction of the Tree of Life still extant and possibly
holds a  key to the decipherment of the VMs. The exploration of schemes
involving the geometry and text contained in f85_86 may per chance yield the
solution to that enigma.

Thanks,
Jorge Aveleira

==================================
The non-triadic sephira as the uppermost, ethereal and  godly spiritual one:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1&letter=C#6
The "Sefer Yetzirah."
The basic doctrines of the "Sefer Yetzirah" are as follows: The fundamentals
of all existence are the ten Sefirot. These are the ten principles that
mediate between God and the universe. They include the three primal
emanations proceeding from the Spirit of God: (1) (literally, "air" or
"spirit," probably to be rendered "spiritual air"), which produced (2)
"primal water," which, in turn, was condensed into (3) "fire." Six others
are the three dimensions in both directions (left and right); these nine,
together with the Spirit of God, form the ten Sefirot.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1&letter=C#6
Isaac ibn Latif, who flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century,
occupies a peculiar and independent position in the history of the Cabala...
He conceives of the first immediate divine emanation as the "first created"
(), a godlike, absolutely simple Being, the all-containing substance and
condition of everything that is. The other Sefiroth proceeded from this in
gradual serial emanation, growing more coarse and material as their distance
increased from their purely spiritual, divine origin.

http://ln.com.ua/~kostenko/cab-shoj.html.ru
The ten sefirot supplement the doctrine of the Creation from the alphabet.
The first of God's emanations is the Spirit of God; the second is the
element air which derives from the Spirit. On the air the twenty-two letters
were thought to be hewn. From air comes the water from which is derived the
chaos and the darkness out of which the earth was formed. The fourth
emanation is the fire which derives from the water and from which God made
the angelic hosts of Heaven and the merkavah. The last six sefirot are the
spatial dimensions, north, south, east, west, height and depth.

==================================
The non-triadic sephira as the lowermost, dense and more material one:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1&letter=C#6
The treatment of the Sefirot is also more thorough and extended than in
Azriel. They are identified with God; the first Sefirah,  ("crown"),
containing in potentia all of the subsequent nine emanations. The doctrine
of double emanations, positive and negative, is taught in "Ma'areket,"...
The author of the "Ma-'areket" proceeds as the "Bahir" in the separation of
the three superior from the seven inferior Sefirot, but in a much clearer
way: he regards only the former as being of divine nature, since they
emanate immediately from God; while the seven lower ones, which were all
produced by the third Sefirah, are less divine, since they produce
immediately the lower world-matter.

http://www.yashanet.com/studies/revstudy/rev5a.htm
In the relationship between Keter and Malkut, It should be noted that
Malkhut is not itself  "evil" as all the Sephirot are aspects of God and
therefore good. Malkhut, being the Sephirot furthest from Eyn Sof, is simply
said to be representing the direction away from God, although (as Yeshua
taught), it is also the beginning point in a relationship with God.

==================================
And  even the non-triadic sephira as the lowermost and however more
dignified one:

http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/c.htm
As early as the eleventh century Hai Gaon (998-1038) classified the ten
primal potentialities into two groups, the first including three which
produced the spiritual world, and the second comprising two triads which
were united by a seventh, and these formed the source of the material
world... Each group forms a triad, and its members stand in the mutual
relation of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The first two members,
moreover, sustain a polar relation to each other, and are united by the
third.... All three triads are subject to the tenth sefirah, "Kingdom,"
which binds them into a harmonious whole.

http://35.1911encyclopedia.org/K/KA/KABBALAH.htm
Kingdom (Io), 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.

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