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The Kabbalah Unveiled

By S.L. Macgregor Mathers

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Concerning the Forehead of the Most Holy Ancient One

87. THE Forehead, which is uncovered in the Most Holy Ancient One, is called Grace.

88. For that Supernal Head concealed in the Higher, which no man hath known, expandeth a certain external manifestation, beautiful and gracious, which is comprehended in the Forehead.

89. And since He Himself is the grace of all graciousness; hence He assumeth the conformation of the Forehead, which is disclosed in the most intense light (otherwise, hath a formation in the figure of a leaf).

90. And when It is disclosed, the grace of all gracious. ness is found in all worlds.

91. And all the prayers of the Inferiors are accepted; and the countenance of Microprosopus is illuminated, and all things are found to exist in mercy.

92. And since (through this) all judgments are hidden

and subjected, hence in the Sabbath, in the time of the afternoon prayers, in which all judgments are excited, that Forehead is disclosed.

93. And all the judgments are turned aside, and mercies are found.

94. And therefore is the Sabbath found without judgment, as well that which is above as that which is below; also the fire of Gehenna is restrained in its place, and the transgressors are at rest.

95. And therefore is the Spirit, NShMTh, of joy added on the Sabbath.

96. And it behoveth man to rejoice with three feasts on the Sabbath; for all truth, and the whole system of truer faith, is found therein (i.e., in the Sabbath).

97. And it behoveth man to prepare the table, that he may eat in the three feasts of true faith, and rejoice in them. 1

98. Rabbi Schimeon said: "I attest concerning myself, before all these who are here present, that through all my days I have not omitted these three feasts, and that because of them I have not been compelled to fast on the Sabbath.

99. "Furthermore, also on other days I have not been compelled (to fast), much less on the Sabbath, for he who, rightly acteth concerning these (feasts) is the adept of perfect truth.

100. "The first feast is that of the Great Mother; the second that of the Holy King; and the third that of the Most Holy Ancient One, the Concealed with all Concealments. 2

101. "And in this world, who can thoroughly follow out, through them, those paths?

102. "If this RTzVN, Ratzon, Grace, be revealed, all those judgments are enlightened, and are diverted from their concentrated rigour.

103. "The conformation of Him, the Most Holy Ancient One, is instituted through one form, which is the ideal Syntagma of all forms.

104. "The same is the Concealed Supernal Wisdom, the synthesis of all the rest.

105. "And this is called ODN, Eden, or the supernal Paradise, concealed with all occultations.

106. "And it is the Brain of the Most Holy Ancient One, and that Brain is expanded on every side.

107. "Therefore is it extended into Eden, or another Paradise, 1 and from this is Eden or Paradise formed forth.

108. "And when this Head, which is concealed in the Head of the Ancient One, which is not known, extendeth a certain frontal formation, which is formed for brilliance, then flasheth forth the Lightning of His Brain.

109. And it is formed forth and illuminated with many Lights.

110. And it produceth and designeth (a certain effect) in this Light (otherwise, in this opening), in this Forehead, whereon is inscribed a certain Light, which is called RTzVN, Ratzon, Grace.

111. "And that Grace is extended backward into the beard, even unto that place where it can remain in the beard, and it is called the Supernal, ChSD, Chesed, Mercy.

112. "And when this Grace is uncovered, all the Lords of Judgment behold It, and are turned aside."

Footnotes
268:1 In many of the ancient mysteries a feast was part of the ceremony, analogous to our Eucharist. Verbum sapientibus.

268:2 That is. the greatest triad of the Sephiroth. the Crown, King, and Queen; which finds a parallel in the Osiris, Isis, and Horus; the Axieros, Axiochersos, and Axiochersa of Lemnos and Samothrace, &c., &c.

270:1 Described in other places as the Supernal Eden and the Inferior Eden.