Aleph

1. 1

   I AM,Without beginning, without end.Older than night or day,Younger than the babe new-born,Brighter than light,Darker than darkness.Beyond all things and creatures,Yet fixed in the heart of every one.

2. 2

   From me the shining worlds flow forth,To me all at last return,Yet to me neither men nor angelsMay draw nigh,For I am known only to myself.

   Ever the same is mine inmost being;Absolutely one, complete, whole, perfect;Always itself;Eternal, infinite, ultimate;Formless, indivisible, changeless.

3. 3

   Of all existences I am the source,The continuation, and the end.I am the germ,I am the growth,I am the decay.All things and creatures I send forth;I support them while yet they stand without;And when the dream of separation ends,I cause their return unto myself.

   I am the Life,And the Wheel of the Law,And the Way that leadeth to the Beyond.There is none else.

4. 4

   I am the Fire of MindWhich divideth itselfInto the Superior and Inferior natures,And putteth on a robe of fleshTo come down.

   I am the vital principle of all that is.Nothing is that does not live,And of that life I am the source.

   As it is written:

   ' First the stone,Then the plant,Then the animal,And then the man.'

   But before the stone, I am the FIRE,Distributed equally in space,Nowhere absent, filling all.And before the Fire, hidden within it,I am the pure KNOWINGWhence all forms flow forth.

5. 5

   Apart from meThere is neither wisdom,Nor knowledge, nor understanding.Into every state of knowledge do I enter,Into false knowledge as well as into true,So that I am not less the ignorance of the deludedThan the wisdom of the sage.For what thou callest ignorance and follyIs my pure knowing,Imperfectly expressedThrough an uncompleted imageOf my divine perfection.

   Woe unto themWho condemn these my works unfinished!Behold, they who presume to judgeAre themselves incomplete.Through many a fiery trial of sorrowMust they pass,Ere the clear beauty of my wisdomMay shine from out their hearts,Like unto a lightBurning in a lamp of alabaster.

6. 6

   I am the doer of all.Nothing moveth but by my power.

   Mine is the healing influenceFlowing down from consecrated hands,Mine the venom of the adder's fang.Nothing falleth but by meAnd in whatsoever risethMine is the power that lifteth up.

7. 7

   My presence is the substance of all things.I am the virgin snow on mountain heights;I am the fruitful loam in valley depths.I am the gold and silver of the temple vessels;I am the mire on sandals left by the faithfulat the temple gate.

   See me and regard me equally in all, O Israel,And thou shalt see indeed.

8. 8

   For seeing thus, shalt thou see, too,That nothing is, or can be, my antagonist.All, and in allShall I fight myself?What hath power to limit or defeatThe very source of power?

   Know then, that all thy sense of conflictIs but the shadow-play of ignorance.Wait with patience on me, thy Lord,And in my appointed timeWill I make clear what now is dark,And show before thee, straight and true,A path of safetyIn the very place where now an abyss of terrorSeems to open at thy feet.

9. 9

   I am the beginning of all beginnings,Checked by neither time nor space,Held by no bonds of name or form.Present everywhere,Centering the full perfectionOf mine exhaustless power,I am thy Lord, O Israel,And Lord of countless hosts.

   Seek me in the Holy of Holies,In the heart of the true Temple,On the Holy Mountain.Behold, I am with thee always,And I never sleep.

10. 10

    I am the Height above all heights.My descent reacheth likewise below all depths.Yet am I poised forever between Height and DepthIn perfect balance.Consider me under the aspect of ALEPH;There shalt thou find both Height and DepthAnd the path also which joineth themFor descent and return.

11. 11

    ALEPH in truth am I,The ox of solar fireWhose radiance lighteth all the world,Whose life-breath ebbeth and flowethIn creatures great and small,Whose power taketh formIn all the acts of men, of beasts, of plants,Yea, and of things which seem inanimate, as well.

    ALEPH am I, the patient burden-bearer,Strong to carry the heavy load of the manifest.

    ALEPH am I, the Eternal Worker,By whose might all fields are tilled,And from whose life all seedsDerive their growth and increase.

    ALEPH am I,The First and the Root.From mine unfathomable WillThe universe hath its beginning.In my boundless WisdomAre the types and patterns of all things.

    Before all worlds I WAS;In all worlds I AM;And when worlds are but a memory,I SHALL BE.