Parsufim (Partzufim) is a plural Hebrew word that means “faces.” Partzuf is the singular word for face, image, or countenance.
Parsufim is plural and refers to the different symbols of the Tree of Life - the way in which we can understand the different triangles and the different aspects of the ten Sephiroth that are the basis of the science of Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, we study five Parsufim, five faces, or five symbols, images, countenances. We are going to talk about these five Parsufim and to see how they are related not only with Judaism and Christianity, but also with other religions.
1: Arik Anpin
The first partzuf is related with the first triangle of the Tree of Life - the triangle of Kether, Chokmah, and Binah, which when translated into English are Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding. These three Sephiroth, spheres, of the first triangle are related with what in Kabbalah is named the World of Atziluth - the World of Splendors, archetypes. An archetype, we will say, is a perfect image or seed of something that eventually develops, or evolves, into different aspects of matter. That is what we call an archetype. Actually, there is in Sanskrit an atom related with the world of archetypes which is called the Atom Anu - a primordial Atom that is a base of the different modifications or atomic variations of matter.
The first partzuf relates with the triangle of the world of Atziluth, and is what in Kabbalah we call Arik Anpin, which means “the vast countenance,” the huge countenance. It relates to what in the Zohar is described as “the ancient of ancients,” that huge man of Zohar who uses the Earth as a basis in order to stand, the solar system in order to cover his waist, the galaxy in order to cover his chest, and the infinite in order to glow in his face - in his Parsuf, we would say in this case. So, it is a gigantic symbol described in Judaism as Arik Anpin.
We have to state here something very important, because as you remember the commandments given to Moses, one of those commandments says that you shall not make any image. We have to explain here how this is related with the Ten Commandments, because in the Zohar we find this big symbol, or image, in which we describe Arik Anpin.
As I said, Arik Anpin relates to the first triangle of the Tree of Life which is an emanation of the Ain Soph, what we call the Solar Absolute, which in Kabbalah is called Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur.
The Ain Soph Aur is the Limitless Light. In Egypt the Limitless Light, is symbolized as RA. But in Kabbalah, Moses prohibited to symbolize the Ain Soph Aur, the Ain Soph, or Ain because that is related to space. When we talk about Ain, Ain Soph and Ain Soph Aur, which is above Kether, we have to understand that this is related with space, and it is impossible to symbolize or represent space. Any symbol of space will be in a form and space is always a space. That is why in Judaism, in Kabbalah, Moses prohibited symbolizing the Ain Soph Aur. But he never prohibited to symbolize, or make an image of the rest of the Sephiroth, since in the Zohar it describes very well how the first triangle is related with Arik Anpin, the vast countenance.
The first triangle of the Tree of Life, plus the Absolute - what we call the Ain Soph, which is from where that triangle emanates - is represented in the fourth part of the holy name of God. The first triangle of the Tree of Life is related to what we call God, the Logos, the Word, and the Ain Soph is that part, the Space, the Abstract Space, from which that triangle emanates. The first part that emanates is Kether, and then Chokmah and then Binah. Or as we say in Christianity, the first part that emanates is the Father, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit. These three plus the Ain Soph which is the unknowable Seity, the unknowable part of God, is what is called the Ain Soph, which is the fourth part.
This is why in Kabbalah the name of God is Iod Hei Vav Hei; the four letters, which in Greek is called the Tetragrammaton. These four letters of the holy name of God in Kabbalah relate in this place to the first triangle. Kether is Iod, Chokmah is Hei, Binah is Vav, and the Ain Soph is the other Hei, the womb, from where the other three emanate.
When you read the Zohar, you find the description of this Arik Anpin which refers to those four parts of the holy name of God. They say that Arik Anpin, the first Parsuf, the first face, only shows his right side, never the left. Why? Because the left is that side that goes towards the unknowable, to the Abstract Absolute Space. That cannot be symbolized, as Moses said; you cannot make any image of that unknowable Divine.
The first Parsuf, Arik Anpin, Kabbalistically is related only to Kether, to the Father; nevertheless, we learn in Kabbalah, as in Christianity, that the Holy Trinity, or Three-unity, which is the first triangle, are three forces. Each one of the three primary forces of the Universe contains the other two; each one of them contains the other two and at the very bottom of each is the Ain Soph Aur - the Limitless Light from the Ain Soph. So each one of them is a Tetragrammaton, part of that holy name of God, that in Kabbalah we name Iod-Havah, or Jah-Chavah, which in the bible is described as Jehovah, and in many ways Kabbalistically, or strictly in Kabbalah, we say Jah-Chavah or Iod-Havah.
In different religions you find that they symbolize this Parsuf with four faces. For instance, in Hinduism, or Brahmanism, the first triangle is represented by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, that in Christianity are called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Hinduism, these Parsufim, or faces, are represented by four faces. Brahma is always represented with four faces pointing to the four cardinal points of the earth. We know that these symbols of Brahma, and sometimes other symbols of Shiva or Vishnu, are symbolized with arms, or with many faces, but most have four, because they relate to this triangle, and with the fourth part, which is the Abstract Absolute, the Unknowable Divine.
It is very important to understand this, because people ignore that those images that are carved in stone or wood are just symbols for something that has no form. If we penetrate into the world of Atziluth, the world of archetypes, we don’t find any gigantic being, as many ignorant people still think in this day and age, that God is a gigantic Being with a form standing there in space. They read literally the Bible or the Zohar and ignore that what the Zohar describes is a symbol, because God is a Logos, a force, an energy; it has no form at all. But it can take any form as he wishes in front of any mystic.
For instance, in my case, I had an experience within that universe called the World of Atziluth. In order for that entity that we call God to appear before me, he took a form. I remember very well when from nothing, from the space, came something and took a form that was a Parsuf in front of me, and after telling me what I needed to know, it immediately disintegrated the form and disappeared, because God does not need the form in order to be. In order to communicate to you, in order to address you, it can take any form. If you are a Buddhist, it will take the form of Buddha; if you are Christian it will take the form of a Christian God, maybe Jesus, maybe Jehovah, any form it wishes. And that is why ancient mystics carved those images in stone and wood in order to point to the same thing. But with time, people came to believe that God has a form, yet that is incongruent.
God, or what we call God, has no form - it is co-essential with the space. It is the origin of all form. That is why when we refer to the Absolute, we refer to it as Seity, not Deity, which means “that which has no form.”
This first Parsuf or Parsufim is a symbol of many faces - which as I said has four aspects, the triangle, plus the Abstract Absolute - is called Arik Anpin, and relates to the first commandment that is written in the Bible.
When you read in the Bible in Deuteronomy the first commandment, the first commandment given unto Moses is divided into four verses, and sometimes people misplace this commandment and put the commandment as the second commandment or part of it as the second, and misplace the commandments of God in different ways, in different numbers, because they ignore Kabbalah. But here since we study the numbers, we are going to study the first commandment in order for you to understand how it is related to the first triangle, understanding that the first Parsuf, or Parsufim, relates to four elements – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit plus the unknowable Divine part which is the Abstract Absolute. So, the first commandment starts like this:
“Thou shall have no other Elohim before Me.”
This is how it is written in the Bible. Translated Kabbalistically, we will say, “Thou shall have no other Elohim beyond my Countenance, Arik Anpin.” Elohim is the word in Hebrew that means Gods and Goddesses.
In the moment when I say this it is coming into my mind what is written in the Bible:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them. – Genesis 1: 27
Genesis describes that when God (Elohim) created man, Elohim created man in his own image, and immediately after Genesis states, “In the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them (plural).
As you see there is a repetition here, right? Elohim created man into his own image, that’s the first image. And then it is added, “In the image of Elohim He created them.” So there are two Elohim here. The first Elohim is the one that pertains to you. In the very depth of our consciousness, our own spirit, we have our own particular Elohim, meaning we have our own particular Tetragrammaton, We have our own particular Iod Hei Vav Hei. So there are as many triangles (the first triangle of the Tree of Life) as there are beings in the universe; each one has his own particular Elohim, but in different degrees, or hierarchical rank. So if you go deep down in meditation, into yourself, you can talk with your own Elohim, as I did. You can experience that particular Elohim that belongs to you or that is the superior part of you, and talk with him, but you discover it has no form, and can take any form.
It is called Elohim because Elohim is a plural name. El in Hebrew means God, Eloha means Goddess and the “im” at end of the word Elohim means plural. So it means different parts of your own Divinity within.
As Genesis describes, in the beginning the Man, the Human Being, was made into the image of Elohim, so Elohim made Man into his own image. In the image of Elohim he made them; this means that there are many other Elohim that are alike. When you name, for instance, Elohim in the second part, we are pointing to all the beings who are self realized, all the beings who reached perfection. As we say, all the Angels are Elohim in themselves, part of that Divinity. So for instance, the Archangel Michael is a perfect Elohim; the Archangel Raphael, he is another Elohim; the Archangel Uriel - well, you can name many Angels, because when you study Kabbalah, you know the names of many Angels. Or in Sanskrit, they are called Devas, Gods, Masters - there are different names. But particularly in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam they are called Angels. In other religions, such as Hinduism they call them Gods, Devas, Masters, Buddhas, as well. But here speaking in Hebrew, we say Elohim. Each one of them is an Elohim because each Elohim has many parts, as we are explaining here. This is why it is written:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them. – Genesis 1: 27
This means that when the perfect Human Being is created, he becomes another Elohim. This is precisely what we want, which is, to perfect all the parts of the Tree of Life in order to become an Elohim. We are not Elohim right now, but we can become one if the image of our own particular God, our own particular Elohim, develops within us.
And when “Iod Hei Vav Hei” saw that he turned aside to see, Elohim called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And he (Elohim) said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, He said, I am the Elohim of thy (Monad) father, the Elohim of Abraham (Chesed), the Elohim of Isaac (Geburah), and the Elohim of Jacob (Tiphereth). And Moses hid his face (Parsuf); for he was afraid to look upon Elohim’s (Parsuf). - Exodus 3:4- 6
Thus, in order to perform this Self-realization, we have to gather, we have to collect, all of the parts which are symbolized in the Tree of Life. We have to collect all those parts and make it one perfect Unity, with cognizance, because as you see for instance right now scarcely are we conscious, or cognizant, even of our physical body.
Many times we discuss the different parts of the Self, for instance, the mind, the emotional body, the mental body, the causal body, the spirit, and all the parts of the Tree of Life that we describe, nevertheless, for many of you, it is something new.
Moreover, even though we said that each one us has all of the parts of the tree of life within, and you might say “I didn’t know that but I am learning it now,” why were you ignoring this fact when indeed all of these parts are within you? It is simply because you are unconscious of your own self (your own Elohim). This is why in ancient times there was a phrase, an axiom, written in the door of the Temple of Delphi:
“Homo Nocsce Te Ipsum”
This means, “Man Know Thyself.” We have to know ourselves, because we have many parts. This is precisely what we always teach. We always point to different parts that we have.
When all of those parts are perfected, when they become one, and when we become conscious of all of them, this is what in Kabbalah is described as Elohim. This is what is called Elohim. We have our own particular Elohim in the depth of our consciousness. But we are not conscious of it. To become cognizant of it is what we call Self-realization.
Those Beings who did this conscious super effort in the past became perfected Beings, cognizant of themselves; they became Elohim. That is why Genesis states:
So Elohim created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them. – Genesis 1: 27
Your own Elohim is going to make of you a Human Being, a man in his own image. Thus, when you become perfected by your Elohim and all of its parts become one, we fulfill “In the image of the Elohim He created Them.” These other Elohim are already perfected, and are what we call Angels or Gods. Elohim means Gods and Goddesses. Thus, we have to understand, to comprehend, the plurality within the Unity.
Nevertheless, in order to acquire consciousness, or cognizance, of what we are within - read carefully –
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth. – Deuteronomy 5: 8
We should not make any image above or below, because God or Elohim made the man into His own image: empty.
Inside of us, physically, we can find the Tzalem, “the image of God.” Each one of us has it within. It is the material with which we can create the Human Being into his own image. In that world of Atziluth, in Hebrew, the image of God is called Chaiah, which means creature, and also life. Life and creature are both called Chaiah.
There is another word, Yechidah, which is “the likeness,” something very high that descends into the earth, descends into the matter, and is enclosed within what we call the Ruach Elohim, or what in the Bible is described as follows:
And the earth (matter) was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God (Ruach Elohim) hovered upon the face of the waters’ (fathomless abyss). – Genesis 1: 2
Those waters are the sexual energy. If we are attentive and we are always conscious of everything at every moment, this means that the image of Elohim is completely free (within the matter without form, and void) and is using us as a vessel in order for the Man to be created in his own image.
Unfortunately, we are not like that. We are not always aware of our Self - we ignore who we truly are, and we have, unfortunately, many images inside. The image of God is within us, but among many other images.
Any image is a vessel that the spirit uses in order to manifest. Do you understand this? An image is a vessel that the spirit uses in order to manifest. So when we say that the Man was created in the image of God, this means that such a Man is the vessel of the Spirit, because Man itself is an image that holds developed the spirit of God, the Ruach Elohim within, and this is a Human Being. This is what a Human Being is. Now, do we have that Spirit developed within? Are we the vessel of that Spirit of the Elohim? Are we the image of that Ruach Elohim? The answer is no. We are not. Indeed, we are the vessel of many images, because parts of our own Spirit are trapped into many images, many vessels that we have created. And that is our problem.
Any ego is an image, a vessel. What is the ego? Lust is an ego; anger is an ego; greed, gluttony, laziness, pride, arrogance, self-esteem, fear, you name them. We have many vessels, and the Spirit of God is trapped, conditioned, by those vessels.
We will say then that the ego is the Hell of God. The particles of God are trapped within the ego. And that is why God suffers within our own ego.
And Jah-Chavah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people (all the parts of Elohim) which are in Egypt (Malkuth), and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters (karmic laws); for I know their sorrows. - Exodus 3: 7
That is why Moses indicated clearly to not make any image. But people always interpret that in the wrong way. They think you must not take the hammer and the chisel and make in stone or wood an image or something. Meanwhile they maliciously forget the images they have within their mind. They deliberately forget, that in order to carve any image, any sculpture, in wood or stone, they undeniably had the image in their heads first, in order to make it physically.
Consequently, in the world, there are many idol worshipers – they could be Muslims or Christians or Jews - who worship images; even though they might swear that they don’t worship images since they mistakenly think that this commandment refers to the outside carved sculptures of this physical world.
When I say this the Masons come to my mind. They use the symbol of the hammer and chisel. The hammer is a symbol of willpower and the chisel is a symbol of imagination. Any artist who sculpts anything, like Michelangelo, for instance, who carved Moses - Michelangelo’s image of Moses is a beautiful image - Michelangelo used the hammer and chisel in order to do it. In order to create such a sculpture, he had to have in his mind a lot of imagination (chisel) and in order to carve it a lot of will (hammer). So the hammer and chisel are the imagination and willpower he used.
In the same way, our willpower (the hammer) and our imagination (the chisel) make within our mind, with our fantasy, many images that become idols made of protoplasmic matter inside of us. Every single psychological aggregate: lust, anger, pride, greed, envy, gluttony, laziness, etc., is an idol, chiseled by our own imagination - or better said, fantasy - because we use our willpower in the wrong way. When we use willpower in the wrong way it is called desire. When you use imagination in the wrong way it is called fantasy. Obviously our desires use our fantasy and create a lot of idols inside of us, within our head (mind). If someone can come with a special device and take all of those idols or images that we have in our mind, and materialize them in front of us, we will run away scared to see the ugly things that we have carved within our mind and within our heart; alas, those elements are alive within us.
So everybody without exception is an idol worshiper, this is the main point in the doctrine of Moses, which is directly related to the soul, the consciousness.
Nevertheless, Deuteronomy 5:8 does not relate to the Parsufim, the image that we are describing here. In Judaism, in the Zohar, they describe the first Parsuf or Parsufim, which is Arik Anpin, the vast countenance, which is the symbol of that which is the Holy Trinity plus the Ain Soph, what we call Iod Hei Vav Hei, Jah-Chavah or Iod Havah.
If you have the effort or time to read the Zohar you will read there how those Rabbis (Masters) describe the first Parsuf, or image, or symbol, of that which has no form. If Moses prohibited making images, how come these Rabbis of the Zohar make a description of the first triangle as a big image? This is precisely what we have to understand in Kabbalah, which relates to these other images or symbols from other religions that always symbolize something abstract. Yet, another thing are the idols we carry within.
So, when the Bible says we shall not worship any idols, it is pointing to our own psyche, and not to the abstract symbols that we find in many religions.
Nonetheless, we cannot deny that there are many people who look at those symbols as if they are the reality. In Judaism and Christianity there are many people who describe the man of Zohar and think that indeed God is a creature there in space, as I said, a gigantic being with form. Indeed, to think this way is ridiculous, ludicrous, because God has no form. God is co-essential with the Abstract Absolute Space but He can take any form.
What the Rabbis of the Zohar are describing, explaining in their disquisitions, are the different parts of the first Parsuf that we call Elohim. They call it Arik Anpin, the vast countenance. But as we say in Hinduism or in Buddhism they also describe different Parsufim, or different faces. Understand: these are symbols. Do not fall into the mistake of believing what many present people believe, that the ancient wise men of the past described God or the Angels like that, because they imagined God to be like that. This is as ignorant as seeing the flag of the United States that has fifty stars and stripes and thinking that the flag is the United States, ignoring that such a flag is only a symbol of the country. It is just a symbol. Do not mistake the symbol with the reality. The flag of the United States is just a flag. The reality is different. When we see symbols of Buddha, or Gods, or Angels of different religions, they are just symbols, as the Parsufim that we are describing here, which we call the Tetragrammaton or Jah-Chavah.
This is why we find that the first commandment also says:
Thou shalt have none other Elohim beyond my Countenance. - Deuteronomy 5:7
“Beyond my Countenance” is the right translation. “You shall not have other Elohim before Me,” is how it is translated. But we know Kabbalah so we say “You shall not have other Elohim beyond my Countenance.” The Countenance of Arik Anpin, the first Parsuf, describes what Elohim (God) is – this means that we have to have the image of Elohim as an abstract element and we must not have to have any other image within, because any other image will be an obstacle in order to experience the reality (emptiness) of that which is God within, who has no form.
And the earth (mind) was without form (image), and void (empty); and darkness (incognizance) was upon the face of the deep. And (the image of) the Spirit of God (Ruach Elohim) hovered upon the face of the waters’ (fathomless abyss). And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light. – Genesis 1:2, 3
If you enter into your own mind you will see how many images you have within of many things. The spirit of God, or the Elohim, is trapped in each one of them. Even the atheists who don’t believe in Elohim or in God have within themselves many images within which they are trapped. It is something we have to meditate on and analyze profoundly in order to comprehend.
Sequentially, the first commandment, in verse eight says:
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven (Schamayim) above (Daath), or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters (Mayim - Yesod) beneath the earth. – Deuteronomy 5:8
In English, Schamayim is translated as Heaven. Schamayim refers to the superior water (1) that is in Heaven above.
Or (2) that is in the earth beneath, that is in Ha-Aretz, which refers to the matter - Assiah.
Or (3) that is in (Mayim) the waters beneath the earth which precisely refers to Yesod that because of the orgasm is infected by the world of Klipoth, or what we call Hell.
So Schamayim is called Heaven in Kabbalah. Generally, Schamayim (the superior waters) is related with Daath (the world of the Elohim), while Mayim is related with Yesod, the lower sexual waters of Adam and Eve.
The Image of the Elohim come down together into the world during mating!
For the image (Hebrew - Tzalem) is a garment for the Spirit of the man and comes down together with it. As they are like light and vessel. It is the third counting from the spirit (Hebrew - Ruach), that is, a third category. The Ruach is the first, the Soul (Hebrew - Nephesh) is the second and the image (Hebrew - Tzalem) is the third. It is the first to come into the world during mating. - Zohar
It is difficult for a person who wants to create the Human Being within in the image of God to do it, since during mating, in the sexual act is where the Elohim work in order to create. Here, we are talking about creation, not about beliefs. Comprehend, in order for Elohim to create the Human Being into His own image, He needs the sexual energy (that is in (Mayim) the waters beneath the earth ). But when the couple enters the sexual act, they don’t have the image of God (that is in Heaven above) in their mind, in their vessel, they just have the image of lust (that is in - Klipoth - the earth beneath).
So, they have different lustful images, since - through the orgasm - they are creating or multiplying like animals or creating with the satisfaction of lust different elements (that is in - Klipoth - the earth beneath) within their subconsciousness that become what we call ego. So therefore, they are carving, because in order to carve an egotistical image within you, within your psyche, you need sexual energy.
In psychology and endocrinology, we study this area of the solar plexus. It is called the solar plexus because it has a lot of solar force within which we create with our desires different elements, psychological elements. We carve them with our fantasy - our desire- and in the very sexual act. We know that those people who masturbate create incubi and succubi that dwell in their psyche - idols that belong to Klipoth.
All of us are idol worshippers, and those idols dwell within our own psyche, in our mind and in our heart. Let us read in the Gospels what Jesus said:
Either make the tree (of knowledge - sex) good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree (of knowledge - sex) corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. – Matthew 12: 33, 37
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. – Matthew 15: 19, 20
Jesus describes very clearly that all the evil we do comes from within the heart, because it is within us. If we didn’t have all those images, all of those idols within, how are we going to have evil thoughts? Do you think that our evil thoughts come from outside? No, they come from within. Desires come from within. We carry them. So that is why in order to fulfill the first commandment we have to first clean the temple of God.
This is why when Jesus came two thousand years ago, he found in the temple (which is his own body) merchants, people making business, in the temple of God, which is our own physical body.
And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords (which symbolizes will power) he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. – John 2: 13-21
This is the same thing we have to do if we want to create the Human Being into the image of God; because what are we right now? Look at yourself, be your own judge: what type of images are expressing themselves through your mind, through your heart, through your actions? Observe society. What type of behavior do we have?
Obviously, the intellectual animal is not as we like to think, “made into the image of God.” Yes, fundamentalists think we are made in the image of God. Listen, when we see the kind of images we carry within, that is what we think, in our mind, in our heart, and none of this is from God.
We are full of idols; we have to clean ourselves. That is what Jesus taught us in John 2: 13-21: to take the whip and eject all the merchants out of our own temple. To do that is a great work - a psychological work. To accomplish that is to fulfill the first commandment, which is related to what we study in Kabbalah; we know well that the first commandment:
“Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth.”
We should not make images in our three brains - within all our psychological parts. This relates to the temple of God within, which is our three brains: intellectual brain, emotional brain, and the motor/instinctual/sexual brain.
But he spoke of the temple of his body. – John 2: 21
Sequentially, the first commandment says:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I Jah-Chavah Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. - Deuteronomy 5: 9, 10
Who are those that hate Elohim, our own particular God? Well, those are called the unfaithful ones, the heathen: Lust is one, anger is another one, pride is another one, greed, laziness, gluttony; you name them. Those are the ones that hate our own particular Elohim. And they are the reason why we don’t manifest the image of God in us.
“Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them” corresponds to Chokmah, because Chokmah is faithfulness, what is called the Holy Denying. When we start working against our own defects and vices, we are working with the second aspect of Arik Anpin which is related with the first triangle of Atziluth.
Sequentially, verse ten, says “…and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.” Mercy in Hebrew is Chesed. Chesed is the Innermost, our own particular spirit. In other words, when you accomplish that, that Elohim above shows us our own particular Chesed inside of us, our particular spirit within. When you see your own Chesed, your own Spirit, your own Mercy, then you understand that in order to incarnate Chesed in your body you need to clean yourself, you need to accomplish the first commandment. Mercy (Chesed) is the outcome of the first triangle; He is what is called the Ruach Elohim - the Spirit of God.
What is that Spirit of God? The Spirit of God is your own particular individual Spirit within; because Elohim is above “El.” This is why the first commandment as you see is divided into many parts, related to Kether, Chokmah, and Binah, which are three plus the Ain Soph, four. That is the famous Tetragrammaton, Iod Hei Vav Hei or Jah-Chavah, or the highest.
In order for those forces to be inside of us, and to make the Human Being into His own image (which is Chesed, Ruach Elohim) we need to work a lot and to disintegrate a lot of images, idols that we have within. That Elohim visits us, he comes inside of us, as it is written there “...visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third of fourth generation.” This means that God (Elohim) is always entering us, visiting us, and seeing all the iniquities that we have within. That Elohim is the ancient of ancients, because each one of us has our own part from him. He gave us that part in order for us to develop. But instead of developing that Ruach Elohim in order to make the Human Being into his own image, we just have other images. We make havoc, a chaos, of each one of us.
Jesus of Nazareth became a vessel of the image of God; Moses was another vessel of that image; Abraham was another vessel of that image; Buddha was another vessel of that image. In different pantheons, in different religions, you find many Masters that became vessels of that image. Naturally, not all of them call that image “Ruach Elohim” because not all of them are Hebrews, thus they spoke other languages.
In Sanskrit they call it Buddha... Buddha means “illuminated one,” which relates to the Chasmalim of Chesed.
In other pantheons these Parsufim are described; for instance, among the Aztecs they call it Ometecuhtli, the first Logos; Quetzalcoatl the second Logos; and Tlaloc, the third Logos. These are Nahua names, from their own language. If we describe and study that language, we will see that these names are describing the same thing.
So this is what we have to understand. When you study other religions, other symbols of other religions, you find a lot of Parsufim, faces. For instance, in the Egyptian pantheon you find that those Parsufim or symbols, faces are made with the body of a Human Being with the face of a bird, or a bull, or many other faces; these are symbols. These Parsufim are not as ignoramuses’ state: “the ancients were worshipping idols;” listen, the ancients knew about the images in the psyche; and they knew also about this Parsufim that we are talking about here.
For instance, there is a book in the Old Testament, in the Bible, written by Ezekiel, a great prophet. In the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel he describes the following Parsufim:
Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies… …This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jah-Chavah. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. - Ezekiel 1: 5-11
And he said unto me, Son of man (Tiphereth), stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit (Ruach Elohim) entered into me when he (Elohim) spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel (the igneous particles of Elohim that are bottled up within the egos), to a rebellious nation that (because of fornication) hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day; for they are impudent children and stiff hearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jah-Chavah Elohim. - Ezekiel 2: 1-4
When you read Ezekiel you might say, “how come you shouldn’t make any images and behold, here comes Ezekiel, a great prophet, and describes such an image there.” Listen, Ezekiel is describing a Parsufim which has nothing to do with worshipping idols. When you understand and comprehend Ezekiel, you understand that the commandment of Moses, “Thou shall not bow down thyself unto (your egotistical) images, nor serve them,” is related to something psychological. That is why the first commandment is divided into four steps that we have to study, because they are related to the Tetragrammaton, which is the Holy name of God.
- Thou shalt have none other Elohim beyond my (vast) countenance (Arik Anpin).
- Thou shalt not make (of the Ain Soph for) thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above (Daath), or that is in the earth beneath (Daath), or that is in the waters (of Yesod) beneath the earth (Malkuth):
- Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them (your egotistical images), nor serve them: for I Jah-Chavah thy Elohim (in Chokmah) am a zealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (because I am Love).
- And showing mercy (Chesed) unto thousands of them (in Binah) that love me and keep my commandments. – Deuteronomy 5: 7-10
After that first commandment follows the rest of the commandments - the second, the third, the fourth, which people misplace because they ignore Kabbalah.
The second commandment says, “You shall not pronounce the name of God in vain.” When you study Kabbalah you know that the holy name, the Tetragrammaton, appears for the first time in the world of Chokmah, the second Sephirah. The name of God, in Chokmah, in the world of Atziluth, is Iod Hei Vav Hei - Jehovah, Iod-Havah or Jah-Chavah – or if you wish to name it simply “Jah”. So that is the Holy Name of God. So the second commandment relates to Chokmah.
And the third: “You shall keep the Sabbath holy,” relates to Binah.
When you study Kabbalah, you know that the Sabbath, Shabbat, or Sabathoth is related with Binah. Binah is the Holy Spirit, and in Binah, the name of God is Jehovah Elohim. As you see, in Binah the name of God (Iod Hei Vav Hei - Jehovah, Iod-Havah or Jah-Chavah) appears the second time in the first triangle but as Jehovah Elohim. This means that that Jehovah is many Elohim. Each particular Elohim has its own Jehovah. Yet, according to the five Parsufim, that Jehovah is manifested or his power is manifested in the second and third Parsufim that we are going to talk about here. We already said that the first is Arik Anpin and this Arik Anpin is the vast countenance that is related to the first triangle: Kether, Chokmah, Binah plus the Ain Soph, the Absolute, which forms the Tetragrammaton. Arik Anpin is the first Parsuf or face that we have studied. Now we are entering into the study of the other Parsufim.
2 & 3: Father and Mother
And Elohim said, Let “Iod-Hei” be lights in the firmament of Schamayim (Daath, the Upper Eden) to divide the day from the night; and let them be (Abba and Aima) for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let (Abba and Aima) be for lights in the firmament of Schamayim (Daath, the Upper Eden) to give light upon the earth: and “Iod-Hei” became so.
And Elohim became (Abba and Aima) two great lights; (Iod) the greater light (the King, the Sun, Zaratustra, Zoroaster, Sarastro, Osiris-Ra) to rule the day, and (Hei) the lesser light (the Moon, the Queen, Mother Space, Isis) to rule the night and the stars also. And Elohim set them (Jah and Chavah) in the firmament of Schamayim (Daath, the Upper Eden) to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: And Elohim saw that they were good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. - Genesis 1:14-19
The next Parsufim relate to the Sephirah Daath, which relates to the world of Briah, the world of creation. In Daath, the Upper Eden, we find Abba and Ima (Aima): Father/Mother, the duality. We explained elsewhere that the Arik Anpin unfolds or separates itself into two halves: the masculine and feminine, Abba and Aima, father and mother. So, these are what we call the second and third Parsufim or faces that we study in Kabbalah. They are studied in many religions, because God as father is Wisdom, and God as mother is Love.
Thus in Daath is where we find such a division. To comprehend that we have to understand the first Parsuf, which is related to Osiris-Ra. In Egypt they call the three parts of the first triangle Osiris, the upper part from where that Trinity emanated they call Ra, the Solar absolute or the Ain Soph Aur, in other words. So Osiris-Ra is Egyptian for the Tetragrammaton - the four parts in one being.
Comprehend that the Egyptian Osiris-Ra or Hebrew Jah-Chavah is an androgynous being, a symbol of the two polarities in one; two polarities, masculine/feminine, in one. Yet, in Daath, those parts, masculine/feminine, are separated as Abba and Aima, Father-Mother.
In Daath you find the mystery of Abba and Aima, which are related with Shabbath or Sababath, or also Sabathoth, plural; because indeed in Kabbalah we study three Sabbaths. Remember that the third commandment states:
Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as Jah-Chavah thy Elohim hath commanded thee. Six days thou shall labor, and do all thy (Alchemical) work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jah-Chavah thy Elohim: in it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Jah-Chavah thy Elohim brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore Jah-Chavah thy Elohim commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. – Deuteronomy 5: 12-15
The First Sabbath is related with Binah. The duality, above - let us call it the superior Sabbath - where we find Abba and Aima, where we find the two polarities of Elohim, which are called Jah, the father and Chavah, the mother. So, Jah Chavah is Father-Mother, is the other aspect, an unfoldment, in the world of Briah which is also called the world of creation.
These two Parsufim are found in many religions. They are the personification of the father and the mother, as for instance, Jupiter (Zeus) and Hera, in the Greco-Roman Pantheon, or in Hinduism, Shiva-Shakti. Shiva is the father, and Shakti the mother, representing those forces. So in many religions you find different symbols of this father-mother.
Moses brought the fourth commandment to those two polarities, which says:
Honor thy father (Abba) and thy mother (Aima), as Jah-Chavah thy Elohim hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land (physical body) which Jah-Chavah thy Elohim giveth thee. - Deuteronomy 5:16
This is the fourth commandment. It is the fourth because the fourth Sephirah is Chesed. Chesed is the emanation of Abba and Aima, the father-mother. Chesed is the Spirit, the Ruach Elohim that we have within, he is the Son of Elohim. This is why the fourth commandment goes directly to our own spirit. “Honor father and mother.” So honor father and mother is the fourth commandment.
That is precisely the position of it, because it is related to our own spirit. He is the one who has to honor Abba and Aima, and how that spirit honors Abba and Aima is by accomplishing the third commandment, which is to keep the Sabbath holy. How does the spirit keep the Sabbath holy? He does it through his Human Soul.
The spirit has two souls: the Divine Soul called Geburah and the Human Soul called Tiphereth. That human soul, Tiphereth, is also called the Second Sabbath.
The third part of Sabathoth is Malkuth, which is called the third Sabbath, called night. Why is the third Sabbath called night? It is because it is under the moon, which is Yesod. Tiphereth is symbolized by the Sun; Tiphereth is the Sabbath day. That is why, here below Daath, the Sabbath is divided into night and day. When you enter into Saturday (which is the Sabbath day), you start in the night, in the evening, when the sun sets on Friday; that is the first part of the Sabbath. But then when the sun rises, that is the other Sabbath, which is called the Zeir Anpin, the symbol of Tiphereth, or we will say the symbol of the whole Monad; because the whole Monad in itself, which is Chesed, Geburah, and Tiphereth is precisely one unit. Remember that in Greek Monad, is Monas, which means unity, one.
4: Zeir Anpin
We were studying the unity of God in the first Triangle, as the trinity plus the Ain Soph, forming the Tetragrammaton, yet, down here in the second Triangle, we find our own individual particular unity, as Spirit, Divine Soul, and Human Soul, which is related to the second part of the Sabbath, being Abba and Aima the superior Sabbath. Thus the lower or third Sabbath is Malkuth, or as we will say: Below Daath the Superior or First Sabbath is the man (Tiphereth), the second Sabbath and the Third Sabbath is the woman (Malkuth). Man above, woman below. Thus, related with the Tree of Life, Tiphereth is Zeir Anpin (זֵיר אנפִן also spelled Zeir Anpin).
Abba and Ima (Aima) are the Father-Mother.
Kether is the first Parsuf.
Abba is the second Parsuf.
Aima is the third Parsuf.
The fourth Parsuf is Zeir Anpin. Zeir Anpin is represented by Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth, Netzach, Hod, Yesod: these six Sephiroth together form what we call the Zeir Anpin.
The fifth partzuf is Malkuth, which is the tenth Sephirah; it is the last partzuf, which is called Nukva.
This is how the Partzufim are divided according to the Tree of Life:
- Arik Anpin
- Abba and Aima
- Zeir Anpin
- Nukva
Nukva, the fifth Parsuf, is the third Sabbath. Zeir Anpin is the second Sabbath. Abba and Aima form the first Sabbath, or the higher, superior Sabbath. That is why in many parts of the Bible it says you must keep my Sabbaths (plural) holy. This does not mean that every Saturday of each week, you have to keep that day and not to work, and to rest; no it doesn’t mean that. It means that you have to keep holy the three Sabbaths (Sabathoth):
You keep the first Sabbath holy by honoring Abba and Aima
You honor Abba and Aima by remembering your Zeir Anpin (your Monad) in the sexual act.
You keep the two previous Sabathoth holy when in the sexual act you do not spill the sexual substance of your Nukva, which is Malkuth, the physical body, the third Sabbath.
“Honor Jah-Chavah (Abba and Aima) with thy substance, and with the first generation of all thine increase: " (Proverbs 3:9), your substance..." means your semen, the first generation means the outcome of your chastity.
Sabathoth reminds us of Sabaoth, “the army of the voice,” or the way in which God expresses or performs his work. Binah, Jah-Chavah Elohim, the Holy Spirit, is the one that divides itself into two in Daath in order to sanctify the Sabbath. In the Sabbath is where the initiate creates.
This is the mystery of why in the Bible - in the Gospels - we see different events that Jesus performed on the Sabbath. Some people think that refers to Saturday. No, it refers to the work that he performed and that any initiate performs in relation to the three Sabbaths, because you have to perform the great work through the three Sabbaths. I am not going to go deeper into this because it implies a lot. It relates to the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is related to the superior parts of the Tree of Life in us, and is related to the sexual act. In order for you to understand this, I will just read something from the book of Isaiah, related to these Sabbaths:
For thus saith Jehovah (Jah-Abba – Chavah-Aima, which are an emanation of the superior Jehovah or Arik Anpin) unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths (plural - Sabathoth), and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant (sexual organs); even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. - Isaiah 56: 4, 5 (These verses say a lot).
Who are those Eunuchs that keep the Sabbaths Holy and that choose the things that please Jehovah, and that take hold of his Holy Covenant? To know that, you have to know the mystery of Daath, where the first Sabbath appears, the Superior Sabbath, where Binah works as Abba and Aima.
Many Kabbalists think that because Father is wisdom, the Father is Chokmah and Binah is Mother, but they don’t understand that Binah is just an unfoldment of Chokmah, so really Abba and Aima is a division of the Holy Spirit, Binah.
Binah is ruled by Saturn. Saturn is Shabbat (Saturn-day), the seventh day related with the Holy Spirit. Thus, in order to keep the Sabbath holy or the Sabbaths holy - which means Abba and Aima, Tiphereth, and Malkuth - you have to be a eunuch.
As you know, one can be a eunuch in different ways. We must understand this; Jesus stated in the bible:
He said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. – Matthew 19: 11, 12
There are some eunuchs who are made eunuchs by man; this means that there are some men in different parts of the world, who cut other men testicles; these are eunuchs who are made eunuchs by men.
There are other eunuchs who were so born from their mother's womb. This is another thing. It is a symbol, meaning that there are some people who are chaste from birth, who are not necessarily born without testicles, for instance the Dalai Lama; the Dalai Lama was born a eunuch, meaning he never touches a woman. He has sexual organs, of course, but he was born like that because he is a Master, He is a reincarnation, a being who was perfected. Now he is a eunuch by his own choice; from his mother’s womb.
Jesus also says that there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for sake of the kingdom of heaven. Meaning, in this case, people who learn about the sexual force, the mystery of Sabbath, and when they understand the mystery of Daath, they start taking care of their sexual force, they do not spill the sexual force, because that is the meaning of being a eunuch: to restrain from being an animal.
That is why among the symbols of Ezekiel, in the beautiful symbol of the Parsufim that he describes in his book, among the animals he describes there, he doesn’t say bull. Instead, he says ox; what is an ox? A castrated bull - a symbol, in other words. In Christianity, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judah, the Christians celebrate and put inside in the stable of Bethlehem a mule and an ox. You might think that it is by chance, but they are symbols. A mule is an animal that is the mixture, a crossing of a horse with a donkey; or a donkey with a mare. The mule cannot multiply. There is not a male mule and a female mule you can multiply in order to make more mules, no. In order to make more mules, you need another donkey and another horse, because the mule is a hybrid animal. So this means it is something related to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, related with that mule, which means it cannot multiply when one is utilizing the sexual energy in the secret way. The ox also is there in the stable of Bethlehem; the ox is a bull that is castrated. In other words, it is a symbol of being a eunuch - (Honor Jah-Chavah [Abba and Aima] with thy substance) meaning you are giving all the sexual energy to your own particular individual Ruach Elohim, in order to make the image of God. So that is the symbol of being a eunuch or circumcised, which is the same.
Paul of Tarsus also explains it:
But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none. - 1 Corinthians 7:29
Paul also said in other verses,
But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. For I would that all men were even as I myself (a eunuch, which was so born from his mother's womb). But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain (their sexual libido), let them marry (and practice white tantra): for it is better to marry than to burn (with sexual pollutions). - 1 Corinthians 7:6-9
Those who are single, who have no wife, it is good that they remain like that. But if you are married, well, being married, be as when you were single. Meaning that when you are single, and you know the doctrine, you will transmute your sexual energy. If you are married, perform the sexual act but keep doing same thing as when you were single, this is, don’t spill your seed, and transmute it. This is being a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake. This is why there were many masters in the past who were not having children. In the case of Abraham and Sarah, for instance, Abraham was a eunuch because he was transmuting his sexual energy with Sarah. He knew the path and so did Sarah. Nevertheless, there are many ways of having children of God without spilling the energy like animals, and that is a secret of Sabbath.
5: Nukva
Malkuth receives all the strength of the Tree of Life, the four rivers of Eden that symbolize as the four elements, but also are forces that manifest in the initiate in his physical body, his own Nukva. Malkuth, the physical body, is the Nukva, the third Sabbath that you have to keep holy. Tiphereth is the second Sabbath, your human soul, which you have to keep also holy.
Remember these are the Sabbaths, the three Sabbaths:
First, honor your father and your mother in Daath; that is the first Sabbath.
Second Sabbath, you shall not commit fornication; that is, “But of the tree of the knowledge (Daath) of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that (in Yesod) thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2: 17) this related to Tiphereth, your soul.
The third Sabbath is Nukva, which is your physical body, your temple. You have to know how to handle the three brains, because the whole work is made through it.
When we talk about Malkuth, the fifth Parsuf, or symbol, always we point to women, because the Sephirah Malkuth is feminine. It means that our physical body is feminine. Even if we have masculine body, it is feminine. But, of course, the woman is more Malkuth than any Malkuth. Because she, besides having the physical body that is feminine, she is also feminine.
So the whole symbol of Malkuth-Nukva relates to the woman, but relates also to the physical body of man; because the physical body, Malkuth is our own fifth Parsuf. This is what we have to understand. When we read Kabbalah, when we study Kabbalah, or when we study the Bible, the Earth, Malkuth, relates to the physical body, but concretely it relates more to woman that to the man.
The Four Types of Women
The first type is called Eve-Venus. She is the animalistic, instinctive, and brutish female - but Eve-Venus also relates to our own body. Eve-Venus is what in the Zohar in Kabbalah is called Lilith. Lilith is the negative ray of Venus. Venus has two rays, the positive and the negative. The positive is represented by Anael, the angel of Love. The negative ray of Venus - which is darkness, fornication, sexual violence - is Lilith.
Eve-Chavah relates directly to the sexual organs, male or female organs. When we use Chavah (our sexual genitalia) in the wrong way we are polarizing ourselves with Lilith.
In the symbols of the physical body, Adam represents the brain, and Eve represents the sexual organs. You always have to study Adam and Eve in relation to your physical body. The sexual organs (Eve or Chavah) are the mother of all living beings; without the sexual organs we cannot be alive. The sexual organs of our mother and father created us physically. That is why Eve is called Chavah, the mother of the living, here in the physical body of course; because there are other meanings.
Eve/Venus, or Eve/Lilith, is that part of the man or woman who utilizes the sexual act for pure animal satisfaction. That is why it is instinctive or brutish.
In women we see that side when they fall into the mistake of wanting to satisfy their animalistic sexual desires. They then fall into prostitution and all types of degeneration. Lesbianism and prostitution are related to Lilith; Lesbianism or the way in which women utilize Lilith (animal desire) as men do in homosexuality; which is utilizing their own Chavah in the sexual act, only for pure animalistic satisfaction.
The second type of Eve is called Venus/Eve. This Venus/Eve is related to Anael, the positive aspect of Venus. This type of woman, this type of person, is faithful to their own partner, they form a beautiful home, and may have children. This type of Eve is faithful and knows how to love the man who takes care of her. It is the type of woman who takes care of home, a housewife.
Gurdjieff said we have to know and to see the difference between a woman prostitute and a woman wife. The woman wife is that one who marries, has children, multiplies, and is faithful to one man. This is very difficult to find in this day and age. Likewise, it is also difficult to find men who do not use sex in order to satisfy their animal desires; since they carry many lustful images within unto which they bow down themselves in order to satisfy them.
The third type of Chavah, or woman, is called Venus-Urania. Among the Greeks, Uranus is Heaven, and Heaven in Hebrew is Schamayim, which we stated at the beginning of this lecture is related to Daath. So in other words, it is related to Abba and Aima.
Venus-Urania refers to that type of female who is very spiritual, very conscious - filled with the deepest of both spiritual and human feelings: the type of woman who wants to self-realize - who walks on the path of self-realization. We may say this type of woman is the repented prostitute, who relates to that type of man, the repented sinner, who as well follows the path of the spirit and knows how to be a eunuch, meaning – who knows how to take care of the sexual energy of Chavah, which is the only way for us to walk on the path. Remember, Chavah is related to the sexual organs, thus, in order to be a eunuch, you need to take care of your Chavah (physical body and sexual organs) to walk the path of Venus, which is love, towards Schamayim, Urania, the heavens. That is the path of initiation.
The fourth type is Urania-Venus and relates to those women who reached self-realization, like for instance, Joan of Arc, Madame Blavatsky, Perenelle (the wife of the great master Nicholas Flamel, who at the present time lives in India), Mataji (the wife of Babaji), Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and many other great women, who reached self-realization, who reached the level of Urania-Venus.
Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth, is a Urania/Venus type of woman-master who reached self-realization and now comes and serves as a vehicle for a master to come and to incarnate and do something for humanity. That is why you find in many religions that Urania-Venus becomes the mother of great avatars. In all the stories of great avatars, or messengers, there is always a woman who is fecundated by the force of the Holy Spirit, which in Greek Mythology is Uranus, which is Binah.
In the story of Uranus, the force of the Holy Spirit, the force of life, he created in the beginning many beings, but then Saturn came and castrated him, and took the testicles out of him, and took him off the throne. The testicles fell on the sea, and from the foam came Aphrodite, which means “foam,” from the ocean, which in Roman terms is Venus, the goddess Venus, the goddess of Love. This is a symbol of course, a very deep symbol of how the Holy Spirit unfolds in different aspects that we have to study.
Urania/Venus is a symbol of Aima, the mother in Daath. The Urania-Venus types become the symbol of the Divine Mother. That is why Mary or the virgin of Carmel, the mother of Jesus, took the symbol of Aima of Daath, It is not that she particularly is the only Aima or Ima in Daath, no! She only became the symbol of Aima Elohim in Christianity. You find the symbol of this feminine fourth aspect of the superior part of Chavah in many religions. For instance, the mother of Buddha was Maya, which is another symbol of Urania/Venus, the higher aspect of the feminine level within men and women.
In relation with the Nukva, the fifth Parsuf, which is related with women, there are many symbols, that could be positive or negative symbols, because the first type of women that is called Eve/Venus related to Lilith, which takes all the attributes, all the forces of Klipoth which is hell. Lilith manifests all the animalistic forces.
Unfortunately, in this day and age you find a lot of women with a lot of Lilithic force, yet there are also many who are entering into path, and they are turning into the third type. While, there are other women who still want to be mothers - the second aspect - because it is a beautiful mission of any woman to be a mother and the maternal instinct is something that is born with them always, the longing of having a child, which is a beautiful predestination. Yes, it is a great sacrifice to renounce that longing, yet, when they overcome such a feeling they enter into the third type, and they apply that longing for having a child, inside, and walk on the path. And then they become the mother of Isaac, the only one (the first generation of all thine increase. - Proverbs 3:9) which is the first spiritual initiation.
So, remember always the symbol of the five Parsufim which we are studying here, since these are symbolized in different religions in many ways, because when we do not know about the Parsufim we think that people are worshipping idols, etc.
Like for instance, many fundamentalist Christians do not worship the Divine Mother, Mary, because they think that it is not necessary. Nevertheless, if we want to go to heaven, we need the feminine aspect of Jah-Chavah, Ima, the feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit to work with; because Abba and Aima are the mystery of Sabbath.
Thus, if you want to keep the Sabbaths holy, you need to know the mystery of Daath, the mystery of Tiphereth and Nukva. The Nukva is related with four parts, four rivers of Eden, the four rivers of Yesod which the book of Genesis talks about. This is why Abraham had four wives. This is why Jacob had four wives. Those four aspects are related to the four rivers of Eden. Remember that Chesed is Abraham, Isaac is Geburah and Jacob is Tiphereth, representing the three parts of the monad. If you multiply the four rivers of Eden by three you have twelve. These twelve wives of these patriarchs represent the development we have to acquire within. It is the story of Abraham, story of Isaac, and Jacob, because remember in the end the twelve tribes arrive to Matzarim, which is Malkuth, and from there Moses takes them.
So, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses relate to an initiatic mystery that here we are just talking about in general; since every single Parsuf encloses a lot of wisdom. All the Parsufim together - which are five - enclose the whole work we have to perform and are described in many books, not only in the Bible.
Questions and Answers
Q: You said there were three Sabbaths and then you put the four names on the board. Which one is the Sabbaths?
A: Abba and Aima, Father and Mother, “honor father and mother,” that Commandment, relates to the first Sabbath, because Abba and Aima, or Ima, is a division, a split of the two forces of Binah, because that Binah in reality is the higher Sabbath. That is Binah, the Holy Spirit, the seventh, Saturn; this is called Shabbat, Saturn. But this Shabbath, Holy Spirit is Binah, who divides in two, because the Holy Spirit is the creator -masculine and feminine, thus the first Sabbath is Abba and Aima. That is why when we talk about the higher Sabbath, we talk about Binah and Daath together. That’s the first Sabbath we have to keep Holy. To “Keep my Sabbath holy” you have to be a eunuch; you have to take care of your sexual energy in order to keep the Sabbath holy.
The second aspect is Tiphereth, which is the day, the sun. And the night of the Sabbath is a woman, is what they call Nukva, which is what we said here is related to four types, the four rivers, and how you understand the Bible, because Abraham had a child with a slave, which is related with one type of the river. Sarah represents the higher forces above, the higher Sabbath, so in other words, in order to keep the Sabbath holy, it doesn’t mean that you have to worship Saturday. That means something else more profound. Saturday is just a symbol.
Q: So being a eunuch is a form of keeping your Sabbath holy.
A: Yes, the only way to keep the Sabbath holy is by being a eunuch, taking care of your sexual energy and not wasting it as an animal.
Q: You refer to the four types of Eve; does that apply strictly to women, or does that apply to both men and women?
A: The woman is individually, physically, called Eve, Chavah, because she is the one who gives you birth. But if you are talking about your physical body, that Chavah is your sexual organ which also helps to give birth. In order for a woman to be a Chavah, a giver of life, she needs a zoosperm. She needs the particular Chavah from a male. That is why it is written that in Sabbath, men and women are face to face. Let me read something to you that is given in the beginning of the Commandments that is very hidden but very good for you to understand. It says at first:
And Moses called (meaning gathered) all Israel (which means Tiphereth because Israel is the inner name of Jacob, which is Tiphereth), and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. Jah-Chavah, our Elohim made a covenant with us in Horeb. (That holy Covenant is the sexual Covenant. The mystery of sex, the eunuchs). Jah-Chavah made not this covenant with our fathers (who are our fathers? Abba and Aima, our parents; Father and Mother; they are our parents. Jah-Chavah did not make the covenant with them, because they are holy. But we are not holy. So we need to be in chastity) but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day (alive means the living when we are in Tiphereth, in the second triangle of the tree of life, in Tiphereth is where you are alive, the rest of the world who are not there are dead). Jah-Chavah talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire (The mists of the fire is the mount of Chesed, the innermost, the spirit, it is called the mists of Fire, it is where you hear your own Jehovah, but in order to listen, to hear you have to be face to face. Face to face means in the sexual act. Because only in sexual act are men and women are face to face. That is the mystery of Sabbath. Face to face, meaning sexual contact, but not like animals; Face to face in order to make an Elohim, yes, they are sexually joined in order to make an Elohim. This is precisely how you make an Elohim; because El is masculine and Eloha is feminine. United they make an Elohim), I stood between Jah-Chavah and you at that time, to shew you the work of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire (what is to be afraid by reason of the fire? The fire in the sexual act rises. You have to be afraid; because the beginning of wisdom is to be afraid of Jehovah, which is the sexual force, not to spill it. So Moses is the intermediary between you and God in when you are in the sexual act, which means Will Power, because Moses is will power. That is the symbol of it), and went not up into the mount saying, I am Jah-Chavah thy Elohim, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. - Deuteronomy 5:1-6. (Thereafter follows the 10 commandments).
The land of Egypt, the house of bondage means this physical world where we are in bondage, in bondage of all the idols of Egypt; because in Egypt (this physical world) there are a lot of idols. Egypt is Matzarim, our physical body. Thus when we go inside the psyche of our physical body, there are a lot of idols. So we are a slave of Egypt, meaning the physical body. There are a lot of images as we explained in the beginning. The land of Egypt, the house of bondage doesn’t mean Egypt in the Middle East or Africa. It is something different. You have to know how to read the scriptures in order to understand what you are reading. Because people misinterpret things and they fall into many mistakes.
Q: Can a man Self-realize with an Eve-Venus woman?
A: Well, that Eve-Venus woman has to transform into Venus-Urania,
Q: But can a man Self-realize with a Eve-Venus woman.
A: Yes, but I repeat, if she transforms herself into Venus-Urania.
Q: So a male cannot Self-realize unless his wife does?
A: The question is if a woman likes to be an Eve/Venus, likes to fornicate, that is a lot of work that he has to do; because if the woman does enter the path, and the man does, the man is a eunuch. But if the woman likes to fornicate, well there is a lot of fight in order to be a eunuch there. Because if the woman cooperates, it is very easy to be a eunuch, but if the woman does not cooperate, well, you have to use a lot of skill in order not to fall into fornication.
Q: You are also combining energy with her, and it is quite low in that sense so he is having to work extra hard.
A: Yes. Obviously, if the man is very strong, like Samson. Samson in the beginning was with prostitutes, which means he went in to help, but in the end he went with Delilah, and Delilah was stronger than him. Delilah (Lilith) pulled him down. And that was the end of Samson. He was very strong. But Delilah? Believe me, there are many women who have a very strong instinct. And the main thing here you have to have a powerful Moses within you: that is willpower.
Q: Samson was strong but he didn’t really know himself. Didn’t know his weakness.
A; Well, the problem with Samson was that he wanted to help Delilah, as it happened with many Bodhisattvas. There is a story about another Bodhisattva who was sent to help a prostitute in order to help, because the prostitute was a fallen soul, so his Being sent him to help that prostitute, and when he was trying to raise the prostitute - which the only way to help her is by performing the sexual act - because he had to teach her how to transmute. We hold here the mystery of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, something very hidden. Of course, not everybody is Jesus of Nazareth, not everyone is Moses. Most of them are Samsons, and they end spilling and they lose all their power.
As a man, you have to calculate, because a woman really has a lot of power. If you try to help a woman that is fallen, it is good, but if you are not strong, it is better if you find Venus-Eve, because a Lilith woman is difficult, not impossible. Everything is possible. Mary Magdalene symbolized that. She changed drastically. Not all the prostitutes in the world want to be Mary Magdalene.
Q: Would Venus-Urania be the equivalent of a wife, woman who we call a crone. An older, wise one?
A: No, the Venus-Urania is a woman who knows the mysteries of Sabbath and who transmutes the sexual energy with her husband. It is not related with believing in anything. Venus-Urania is a woman who knows how to take care of her sexual energies, like Sarah, the wife of Abraham. It is written that she was sterile; but because she didn’t fornicate, Abraham didn’t fornicate either. Thus, later on Sarah begot Isaac, something spiritual inside, because in order to have a child in this physical world, you can become super fertile, yet in order not to steal and to drop off the path, you have to be an eunuch, and it is not easy, yet, it is not impossible. That is why the great masters are called eunuchs; but in order to be a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake you need to perform the sexual act, because that quality of eunuch, that gift is something you have to create with your own actions, in the very sexual act. That is the covenant. That is why Jehovah says “keep my covenant holy,” clean, and the covenant is between the two sexes, the two sexual forces, when they are united within the covenant. But who keeps that covenant holy? It is enough to reach spasm, in order to be filthy. The eunuchs in spirit are those who keep the Sabbaths holy.
Save me, O Elohim; for the (lustful) waters (of Yesod) are come in unto my soul.
(As a lustful boar) I sink in deep mire (of sexual degeneration), where there is no standing: I am come into deep (filthy) waters, where the (licentious) floods overflow me.
I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my Elohim.
They (my egotistical images) that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they (lust, anger, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony, etc.) that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then (through chastity) I restored that which I took not away.
O Elohim, thou knowest my (psychological) foolishness; and my sins (egos) are not hid from thee.
Let not them that wait on thee, O Adonai Jah-Chavah Zabaoth (Jehovah Lord of Hosts in Malkuth), be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O Elohim of Israel (Tiphereth).
Because for thy sake (chastity) I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face (third Parsuf).
I am become a stranger unto my brethren (in heaven), and an alien unto (Aima Elohim) my mother's children.
For the zeal (ardent sexual desire) of thine house (Malkuth, physical body) hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them (my heathen lustful egos) that reproached thee (O Holy Spirit) are fallen upon me (the soul). – Psalm 69: 1-9
