Xen qabbalah dictionary

231 Gates

The 231 Gates "The Great Master-Key to the theoretical and practical Kabbalah"

The 22 HOUSES And The 231 GATES?

What does this mean?

Such is the Jewish wisdom of the Kabbalah, explained cryptically in the biblical Sepher Yetzirah (or Book of Creation).

Since there are 22 Letters in the Hebrew Alphabet there can only be a maximum of 231 lines that connect these dots or houses in a wheel or circular array. They are thus known as Gates and have deep meaning as in how they connect to one another.

22 Foundation letters: God placed them in a circle like a wall with 231 gates. The Circle oscillates back and forth.

The Sepher Yetzirah, refers to the lines connecting each pair of Hebrew letters as gates. Rabbinic tradition teaches that systematic meditation upon the various combinations will open the mind to the mysteries of God. In the context of the Wheel, we can see that such mediation will lead to insight into the meaning of each letter, hence the meaning of each Spoke, and from there, we will gain insight into the meaning of the Word of God, and so come to know a little more of God himself, who is the greatest mystery of all.

God created the vacated space, a sphere. God placed the 22 Hebrew letters on the circumference of the sphere. God made all the possible two-letter combinations by connecting the letters with straight lines across the sphere he created a complex geometric matrix called the 231 gate. Through the 22 Hebrew letters(energy forms or energy agents), God created the soul of all creation and everything else that was ever to be created.

Every "gate" in the circle is formed by letters of alphabet and stands as a combination of 2 consonants (2 letter Heb. roots) Through these "gates" the creative power goes out into the universe which is sealed on all 6 sides with the permutation of YHVH(God) each permutation of YHVH is a configuration of the Sacred Circle, with various configurations possible within each permutation. The combination of the letters are used to both create words and to create the universe. Combination is one series of operations.

In the Kabbalistic work Sepher Yetzirah, the 231 Gates of Creation are outlined.

Gates

Working a gate

A Gate is the sequential travel from Sephirot to Sephirot which includes the Sephirot AND the 'paths' that connect them. In modern lingo, we use the term 'path' to indicate the connections between the Sephirot, but this is really a misuse of the term, Kabbalistically speaking. In the ancient texts, the term "Path" is used for the Letters AND the Sephirot (e.g., the 32 Paths of Wisdom) and is not an indication of a connection between the Sephirot. So, the individual Sephirot are each "Paths" as are each of the individual Letters.

The first step in working any Gate is to raise your conscious awareness to the "highest" (or first in the sequence noted) Sephirah of that particular Gate. So, first you must raise your awareness to the "highest" Sephirah of the Gate. Then, you must establish a connection with the next Sephirah in the Gate's sequence. One way to do this is to project the image of the corresponding Tarot arcana (except with the "Hidden Paths"... ) and cause it to become a path which connects the two Sephirot. Then, you (i.e., your conscious awareness) traverses the projected image/pathway into the "lower" Sephirah.

Once you have arrived, you create a similar pathway to the next Sephirah in the Gate's sequence, and so on until you reach the place where you started. Then you reverse your footsteps until you again return to your starting point.