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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE London, England 4 August 1899 (PAGE 19)
BOOKS AND BOOKMEN. ITEMS OF LITERARY NEWS.
Aleister Crowley, a confessed Swinburnian, gives a stirring new version of the old mystery play in “Jephthah,” published, with other poems, by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co. The iteration of magnificent words at last prevent even his great master from being read in quantities with pleasure; but in short extracts, both of them may be quoted with advantage. These are the final lines of the chorus when the hero’s daughter has withdrawn to the mountains:—
The silver West fades fast, the skies Are bine and silver overhead; She stands upon the snow, her eyes Fixed fast upon the fountain-head Whence from eternity is drawn The awful glory of the Dawn . . . He hath made His face as a fire; His wrath as a sword; He hath smitten our soul’s desire; He is the Lord.
A curious note is appended to the play in explanation of the theology adopted in it. Whence Mr. Crowley draws his precise knowledge of “the Hebrews of the period” he does not say:—
The Hebrews of the period had formulated the idea of Deity as manifesting from the fundamental conception of Negative Existence. The Ain, negativity, unfolded; the אין םופ (sic), the limitless, and thence derived אורaאין םופ, Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light. This limitless ocean of negative light concentrates a centre כחר, Kether, the Crown, and this is our first positive manifestation of Deity, or as the Hebrew, technically call it, an emanation or ספירא, Sephira. Of these Sephiroth there are ten each emanating from the last, and successively male or female toward the next below or above. These are: (1) The Kether; (2) חכםה, Chokmah, Wisdom; (3) בינח Binah, Understanding, often symbolized as the Great Sea; (4) חםר Chesed, Mercy (or גרולח Gedulah, Magnificence); (5) נבורח Geburah, Strength; (6) חפארח Tiphereth, Beauty; (7) נצח Netzsch, Victory; (8) הור Hod, Splendour; (9) Jesod, the Foundation; and 10, מלבות Malkuth the Kingdom. In the Tetragram יחוח, translated in our Bible “Jehovah,” or “the Lord,” the divine name connected with this Sephiro being אהיה, Eheieh, Existence. Below this world of Atziluth, or of God, is that of Briah, or Thrones’ to this world belong the Archangels; still lower that of Yetzirah or Formatios; to this world ten orders of angels are attributed; and, lastly, the world of Amiah, or of Action (the material world). The further development of these facts, their connection with the numerical system, the parts of the soul, and many other interesting details may be studied in the seventy-two volumes of the written Qabalah, though perhaps (a word to the wise is enough), truth lies hidden deeper yet in the ten volumes of that Qabalah which is unwritten. |