(The first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet on the ouroboros of infinity)
The image at the top of this page expresses the unfolding of the universe in the form of ten emanations, and its return to unity. Each Hebrew letter is also a number. They proceed clockwise from the head of the ouroboros: Aleph - 1, Beth - 2, Gimel - 3, Daleth - 4, Heh - 5, Vav - 6, Zain - 7 Cheth - 8, Teth - 9, Yod - 10.
In the Kabbalah, Aleph is associated with Air, the element that is the breath (spiritus) of life. According to Genesis the universe was begun with the exhalation of God upon the waters of chaos. Aleph is thus an appropriate symbol for Kether, the beginning of creation. Its shape suggests the swastika or fylfot cross, which by its very pattern embodies whirling or spiral energy expanding from a point. Aleph has the number value of one.
Yod is in the Kabbalah understood to be the source of all the other letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Its simple shape is thought to represent droplets of sperm and the primal sparks of creation. Perhaps it is not an accident that the shape of Yod actually does resemble a wriggling sperm cell. Kabbalists believe that the letter Yod combined with itself in various patterns composes every other Hebrew letter. It is thus the source and the fulfillment of creation. This meaning is mirrored in the symbolism of its number value, 10 which is magically 1 + 0.
The tenth sphere of creation is Malkuth, the sphere of the material elements. Malkuth has a number value of ten. It is the end of creation, just as Kether is the beginning. The number 10 contains in itself the primal point, represented by the simple stroke of one, and the totality of being, represented by the limiting circle zero. Yet the zero that in its shape contains everything has a value of nothing. Zero is the point expanded. One and zero are the same at root. By Hermetic addition, 10 = 1 + 0 = 1, and by multiplication, 10 = 1 x 0 = 0.
The letter Yod is the end and the beginning. As ten, it is the end of the decimal cycle of numbers, and at the same time begins the higher cycle from 10 to 20. In Hebrew numbering, the letter after Yod, which is Kaph, is not valued at 11, but at 20. The twelfth number, Lamed, is valued at 30. And so on up through the second cycle of numbers. In the Kabbalah, Malkuth, the tenth Sephiroth, is the last sphere of emanation, but paradoxically it begins a lower series of emanations, where it serves as the first sphere.
The symbol is the ouroboros swallowing its own tail, signifying a circle that returns by spiral motion to its point of origin, the beginning and the end. Within the circle is the letter "I", suggesting in an occult sense both "eye" and "I". The I Am, or point of cosmic self-awareness, is the center of the universe. Every person's "I" is the center of their personal universe. The eye that perceives the world is the point of view for awareness, the center that is surrounded by all things that are seen.
The capitol letter "I" also represents the number one in Roman numerals, just as the ring of the serpent represents the number zero. Overall, the shape of this symbol calls to mind the glans of the penis when viewed from its end, the "I" being the slot from which sperm is emitted into the world. In another sense, the capitol "I" is the erect penis and the circle of the serpent the womb. In still another sense, the "I" is the fertilizing sperm cell within the ovum.
This symbol does not exist elsewhere. It entered my mind while contemplating the number ten. It is offered here for the consideration of anyone who may be interested in Kabbalistic numerology.