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the ''Sephirothic Tree." This Tree is composed of ten circles, representing the numbers 1 to 20 and
connected together by twenty-two canals--the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The ten numbers
plus the twenty-two letters result in the occult number 32, which, according to the Mishna, signifies the
Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom. Letters and numbers, according to the Qabbalists, are the keys to all
knowledge, for by a secret system of arranging them the mysteries of creation are revealed. For this reason
they are called "the Paths of Wisdom." This occult fact is carefully concealed in the 32nd degree of
Freemasonry.

There are four trees, one in each of the four worlds established in the preceding chapter. The first is in the
Atziluthic World, the ten circles being the ten globes of light established in the midst of AIN SOPH. The
powers and attributes of this Tree are reflected into each of the three lower worlds, the form of the Tree
remaining the same but its power diminishing as it descends. To further complicate their doctrine, the
Qabbalists created another tree, which was a composite of all four of the world trees but consisted of only
ten globes. In this single tree were condensed all the arcana previously scattered through the voluminous
archives of Qabbalistic literature.

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of the side of Microprosophus and combines the potencies of the entire Qabbalistic Tree
in one sphere, which may be termed man.

According to the mysteries of the Sephiroth, the order of the Creation, or the Divine
Lightning Flash which zigzags through the four worlds according to the order of the
divine emanations, is thus described: From AIN SOPH, the Nothing and All, the Eternal
and Unconditioned Potency, issues Macroprosophus, the Long Face, of whom it is
written, "Within His skull exist daily thirteen thousand myriads of worlds which draw
their existence from Him and by Him are upheld." (See The Greater Holy Assembly.)
Macroprosophus, the directionalized will of AIN SOPH, corresponding to Kether, the
Crown of the Sephiroth, gives birth out of Himself to the nine lesser spheres of which He
is the sum and the overbrooding cause. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, by the
various combinations of which the laws of the universe are established, constitute the
scepter of Macroprosophus which He wields from His flaming throne in the Atziluthic
World.

From this eternal and ancient androgyne--Kether--come forth Chochmah, the great
Father, and Binah, the great Mother. These two are usually referred to as Abba and Aima
respectively--the first male and the first female, the prototypes of sex. These correspond
to the first two letters of the sacred name, Jehovah, יהוה, IHVH. The Father is the י, or I,
and the Mother is the ה, or H. Abba and Aima symbolize the creative activities of the
universe, and are established in the creative world of Briah. In the Sepher ha Zohar it is
written, "And therefore are all things established in the equality of male and female; for
were it not so, how could they subsist? This beginning is the Father of all things; the
Father of all Fathers; and both are mutually bound together, and the one path shineth into
the other--Chochmah, Wisdom, as the Father; Binah, Understanding, as the Mother."

There is a difference of opinion concerning certain of the relationships of the parts of the
first triad. Some Qabbalists, including Ibn Gebirol, consider Kether as the Father, Binah
as the Mother, and Chochmah as the Son. In this later arrangement, Wisdom, which is the