Cool, thanks Doc.
My understanding of the 231 Gates is that they are recited to access the energies of the Sephiroth much like normal path working except without the use of the normal GD correspondences. The Gates being groupings of Hebrew letters, are vibrated in a certain order and each letter pair is pronounced multiple times to account for the main vowel sounds (correct me if I am wrong see noob questions).
Now, Noob question 1:
There are 22 letters. For a specific GATE, the letter of that Gate, say Aleph would then need to be combined with each other letter except itself to form letter pairs. This would give me 21 letter pairs for the Aleph Gate. (42 if you include both directions but I am only interested in the Gates for creation / day, not destruction / night)
This is NOT what is described in the SY. The Aleph Gate in the SY has 231 letter pairs starting with what I described above as the first line. It then goes on to create 231 letter pairs for just the Aleph gate - I don't understand why you need to do this? Why can't you just combine Aleph with the other letters in one direction depending on what you want (creation / destruction)
Noob question 2:
Since Aleph, Shin, Mem (from memory, I am moving and don't have my books) are the three mothers, which equate to the three horizontal paths on the tree and also to the supernal triad (Kether, Binah & Chockmah).
Now, if I wanted to complete all of the gates, I am confused on the order of doing so. It makes sense to me that I would start in the middle pillar (aleph) and then recite the doubles (Vertical paths) under aleph and then the left pillar, the doubles and the elementals and then the right pillar, the doubles and elements respectively.
Is that the correct order to recite them in? or do you have to follow the order of creation detailed in the Bereshith?
Noob Question 3:
For each letter pair, how many times do you recite it? Which vowel sounds do you use? Do you always use the same vowel sounds for each letter in the pair at one time?
Noob Question 4:
This is an extension to question 2, but I wanted to keep it separate so that they didn't get confused.
If I want to invoke the middle pillar via the 231 gates method, would I start with the Aleph Gate, then move to the next (Gimel?) gate etc. In the next Gate, do I not use the Gimel + Aleph combination since it has already been used above?
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Thats it for now, if you can provide some clarrity on this it would be most helpful for me. I have used a lot of the other rituals in the SY, but I have never gotten the Gates to work properly.
If you have completed all Gates, could you PLEASE post on what method you used and what results you obtained. There is so much that can be taken from this wonderful little book IF one has the understanding to extract the learning.
Thanks in advance,
BrotherM
Sefer ha-Yetzirah, 231 Gates
| Kinjo Sefer ha-Yetzirah Mar 24 2005, 02:49 PM
Mar 24 2005, 02:49 PM
