THE HIGHER SECRET DOCTRINE: 1. THE MYSTERY OF SHEKINAH
by
A.E. Waite (from "The Holy Kabbalah")
Part 1
T
here is a very true sense in which the Secret Doctrine of the Zohar must be said to
centre in that Mystery, whatsoever it may be, which lies behind the wonder and glory of Shekinah - a recurring, and speaking literally, incessant subject of reference in adoring honour throughout the great text. There is a very true sense furthermore in which it may be said that out of this Mystery all Kabbalism seems to issue and, moreover, goes back therein. It would have been very reasonable, if indeed it had been possible, to have opened my study of the Doctrine with this subject; but it would have involved entering at once into its most recondite and difficult past, one also which might have made the whole undertaking insuperable for the general and not too critical reader.1 As it is, I must proceed carefully, not only on account of the difficulties but because the Keys of the Mystery open into a region about which there are grave motives for speaking with considerable reserve, when it is possible to speak a t all. It is here, if anywhere in our subject, that we shall find whether as mystics we a re coming into something which may be our own in the matter of Jewish Theosophy or whether we must relegate it to the curiosities of past speculation that are not of our v ital concern. "The sole object with which the Holy One, blessed be He, sends man into this world is to know that Jehovah is Elohim."2 Herein is also all true joy of heart. 3 Now, it is in this manner that I open the high conference respecting the Mystery of Shekinah, which is a Mystery of man and God, of man in the likeness of the Elohim, of the relation between things above and things below, of intercourse for union upon earth performed in the spirit of celestial union, and the transmutation of one by the other for the work of God in the world. In this union abides the Mystery of Faith, which is the synthesis of the whole Law - Written and Oral Law - and of all that exists whatsoever. But union is not identity,4 whence it is said further that Jehovah and Elohim are distinct, not synonymous, though together they form an unity.5 It must be remembered in the first place that Elohim is a title of Shekinah and so also is Adonai, 6 in which sense - but presumably for us in manifestation - she is called the Mirror of Jehovah.7 Like the First Matter of the Great Work in Alchemy, Shekinah is almost myrionymous in respect of her designations, but, almost without exception, the ascriptions are feminine. She is now the Daughter of the King; she is now the Betrothed, the Bride and the Mother, and again she is sister in relation to the world of man at large. 8 There is a sense also in which this Daughter of God is - or becomes - the Mother of man. In respect of the manifest universe, she is the architect of worlds acting in virtue of the Word uttered by God in creation. In respect of the myth of Paradise, the Shekinah is the Eden which is above, whence the river of life flows forth that waters the Garden below, and this is also Shekinah as she is conceived in external things - or Bride, Daughter and Sister in the world below. Considered in her Divine Womanhood, in the world of transcendence, she is the Beloved who ascends towards the Heavenly Spouse, and she is Matrona who unites with the King, for the perfection of the Divine Male is in the Divine Female. Hence it is said that the perfection
of Jehovah is in Elohim.9 She is a trinity in respect of her title as Elohim, for there is an Elohim in transcendence - concealed and mysterious - an Elohim that judges above and one who judges below; but these three are one.10 As such, the Oral Law is her image, while the image of Jehovah is the Written Law11 - a distinction at once eloquent and pregnant, for the Inward Law is life, while the Outer is the body of life. So also she is the waters that are above the firmament in respect of her title of Elohim, but she is the waters below the firmament when she manifests as Adonai.12 As Elohim she is the Middle Pillar,13 and all the various aspects of the one thing that is needful from the standpoint of the Secret Tradition are collocated, their seeming exclusiveness notwithstanding, to shew that she abides in all, is at once above and below, without even as within. She is that Divine Presence which walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening, which went before Israel in the desert and protects the just man who has fulfilled the precepts, dwelling in his house and going forth with him in his journeys. 14 As Elohim, in fine, she is the middle degree of the Divine Essence15 corresponding to the Pillar of Benignity in the Tree of Life. Now, in all the references cited up to this point the intention of the Zohar has been to shew in the most positive and unqualified way that the Shekinah - as affirmed already in the present section - is female in essential aspect, whether as the Bride of God in that transcendent state wherein there is no distinction between her and the Holy One,16 or whether as the tutelary guide of humanity.17 But in preparation for another part of our subject it is necessary to glance at certain alternative allocations which appear in the Zohar . The Shekinah is the Liberating Angel who delivers the world in all ag es,18 who is ever near to man and never separated from the just.19 Of her it is said: "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared."20 But it is stated that this Liberating Angel manifests as male and female, being male when it dispenses the celestial benedictions on the world below, because it then resembles a male nourishing the female; but when charged with offices of judgment it is called female, as a woman who carries her child in the womb of her.21 It is said elsewhere that those who understand these male and female attributions know the great wisdom.22 But the exposition as to this wisdom is given much later on, when it is stated that Matrona is feminine in so far as she is not in union, but in that state is identified with the male principle, and this is how the interchange of sex in divine things must be understood throughout.23 So also Metatron, who is an aspect of Shekhinah, is indifferently male and female, changing incessantly according to the vibrations of the union.24 Now, it is said that Shekinah is to Metatron what the Sabbath is to the weekdays.25 In other words, she is rest and the rapture of rest, yet it is that rest in which there is the intercourse of spiritual union. The same vibrations which are mentioned in the case of Metatron constitute the beatitude of the soul in heave n. There are two points which should be memorised on this subject. At the apex of the union between male and female - which is to be understood only in a spiritual sense - the sex distinction has ceased: it can be only from this point of view that the Shekinah is mentioned sometimes as if she were on the male side. Here is the first point, and the second is that in characteristics and in mission, she is always typically female; it is she who comprises all women in her mystery,26 and this is why - as we see - she does not abide except with him who is united to a woman.27 In conclusion, so far as there is a dual
aspect on the sex side in the notion of Shekinah, it may be noted that the Divine Name Adonai would answer to the male aspect, Shekhinah to the female and Elohim to the combination of both. 1. The old maxim of the mystical alchemist, Khunrath, seems to obtain in every direction without variation or reduction: Sigillum Naturæ et Artis simplicitas, and I quote it here, as I have quoted it on several occasions elsewhere, to indicate that it is one which applies in a paramount manner to the root of the Secret Doctrine in Israel; for the vast body of cryptic writing and the practice concealed behind it arose out of that one verse in Scripture which says: "So God" - that is to say, Elohim - "created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female" - defining the nature of the image - "created He them." - Gen. i. 27. The difficulty therefore to which I have alluded above is not in respect of the fact wherein the Doctrine centres but in the complications of its development and in the details of the practical part. 2. Zohar , Pt. II, fol. 161b, 162a; OV, 101, 102. There is also a marriage of the two names in Kabbalism, producing the Sacred Name of nine letters, the consonants succeeding one another alternately, thus Myhhwlh)y : Yod, Aleph, He, Lamed, Vau, He, He, Yod, Mem. - Ib., iv, 151. It is said also: "And the Lord God formed man" (Gen. ii. 7) - i.e., Jehovah Elohim, the male principle united to the female, according to the Zohar . Man is said to be grafted on Elohim, as the latter is grafted on Jehovah. - Ib., Pt. II, fol. 260a; IV, 293. 3. Ib., Pt. III, fol. 8b; V, 23. 4. Ib., Pt. II, fol. 162a; IV, 102. 5. Cf. Deut. iv. 35 : "Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord He is God" - or, as the Zohar quotes it, that Jehovah is Elohim. It will be observed that the Scriptural text does not tolerate the Zoharic dogma, though ex hypothesi one of its sources. 6. Z., Pt. I, fol. 101a; II, 10. 7. Ib., Pt. II, fol. 124b; III, 482. 8. Ib., Pt. I, fol. 81b; I, 470. See also Pt. III, fol. 297b; VI, 124, for Shekinah and Matrona; Pt. I, 276a, Sepher Ha Bahir , otherwise, Luminous Book or Book of Brightness; II, 644, for Daughter of the King; and Pt. II, fol. 100b; III, 406, for all the synonyms. 9. Ib., Pt. III, fol. 5a; V, 11. 10. Ib., Pt. II, fol. 257a; IV, 290. 11. Ib., fol. 161b; IV, 102. Elsewhere the Zohar seems to say that the Kabbalah is actually Shekinah and that the Mishna is its humble servant. - Pt. III, fol. 279b. 12. Ib., Pt. I, fol. 17b; I, 108. 13. Ib., fol. 278a; The Faithful Shepherd ; II, 647. See also fol. 241a; II, 552. 14. Ib., Pt. I, fol. 76a; I, 448. 15. Ib., fol. 150b; II, 194. 16. "She and God are one." - Ib., Pt. II, fol. 118b; III, 456. 17. See Z. Pt. II, fol. 270a; IV, 210. 18. Ib., Pt. I, fol. 228b; II, 502. 19. Ib., fol. 230a; II, 508. 20. Ex. xxiii. 20. 21. Z. Pt. I, 232a; II, 516. The "Flaming Sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life" (Gen. iii. 24) is a symbol of this Angel and of Shekinah in the dual sex of both. Mercy is always counted as masculine and severity or judgment as feminine. 22. Z. Pt. II, fol. 100b; III, 406. 23. Ib., Pt. III, fol. 31a; V, 84. It is said distinctly that, in this respect, whether the feminine or masculine form is used by Scripture, the same degree is always and only designated. 24. Ib., fol. 73b; VI, 201. 25. Ib., fol. 243b; V, 581. 26. Ib., Pt. !, fol. 228b; II, 501. 27. Ib., The task of Lighting the Sabbath candles devolved on the matrons, because they are in the service of Matrona. The act was regarded as an earnest (a) of long life for the husbands and (b) of a holy posterity for both, as well as (c) great personal rewards for themselves. - Ib., fol. 48b; I, 281.
