Towards a 'patakabbal

By Borsky

Towards a patakabbal - prolegomena for an epi-meta-ta-fysika of reception

Personification and falsehood

Get a grip on Bat Kol, I'm taking away Jacob's ladder

  • "Talking about things that are understandable only weighs down the mind"
    Alfred Jarry

A 'pataphysician has an altitude in if but no attitude in life. The person, that which mosbunall confuse with the self, is considered as an imaginary solution. There are as many roles on the stage of life as there are possible answers to a poll answered by Jarry. The character of a 'pataphysician is like a glove, like a puppet in a theater.
Théâtre des Pantins Advertisement by Jarry for "Les Minutes de Sable Mémorial" in L'Ymagier II (January 1895)

A kaballist also sees life as a theatre play. The role played is considered a mere shadow resulting from the rules of the divine light. The role on te stage of existence is played seriously but without equating the self with the person. Any emotion, thought, feeling are just necessary props for playing the role.
Both the awakened kaballist and the conscious pataphysician (hence the apostroph) try not to desire, but to elevate the value of the world they adapt themselves to by the way they consider it. In this sense both can be seen as an art of existence.

A few years ago I was striken by similitudes between 'pataphysics and kaballah, two subjects I'm very fond of. I started writing down phrases that seemed relevant to the subject but I never once thought I would have the qualities to write something worthfull of it.
The more I collected the more it seemed unlikely to sort it all out. Then a special number of the Viridis Candela, regular publication of the collège de 'pataphysique was announced centered on the figure of Adam. I got to write a medium piece in french, linking Adam to various protagonists in Jarry's writings. I send it but got no reaction except a small sarcastic reference two months later. As a 'pataphysician I felt no grief, on the contrary I felt motivated to dig deeper into the matter. Encouraged by my fellow Maybe Logic academicians, here are the unfinished results. I consider this as a work in progress which will probably take me years before I get bored of it, so for the exception of two parts below do not expect any polished text. My english translation found its place in part 3 below and part 1 was started a few weeks ago. The rest gets only hinted at, the possible directions for each bit described frugally.
I apologize for possible errors in english. I hate when a language gets raped, but being raised in both dutch and french I do not possess the english tongue enough to ascertain an error-proof text! Let alone an attempt at E-prime… Thank Eris (and Douglas Adams) for Babelfish!

  • "Avoid completion"
    Julien Torma

The following structure seems like a good idea to me at this moment:

  • Part 1. Ontology and Clinamen
    • Chapter 1. A Pantoum of Tsimtsoum
    • Chapter 2. The Word and its opposite
  • Part 2. A Spiral Kabbal
    • Chapter 1. As above, so below
    • Chapter 2. Patafractalizing the worlds
  • Part 3. The Four Matrushkadams
    • Chapter 1. Everything is in everything and reciprocally
    • Chapter 2. Adam Kadmon: Faustroll.
    • Chapter 3. Adam Betzalmenu: Ubu King.
    • Chapter 4. Adam Adamah.: Ubu Cuckold.
    • Chapter 5. Adam: Ubu Enchained.
  • Part 4. The Book of Sand
    • Chapter 1. Emanations and commissions: the Collège as a tree
    • Chapter 2. Questioning the Quinconces
  • Part 5. Gematria and Nominalism
    • Chapter 1. Notariqon, Temurah and Oulipo
    • Chapter 2. The apostroph on the Golem's forehead
  • Without conclusion.

Part 1. Ontology and Clinamen

Chapter 1. A Pantoum of Tsimtsoum

Ayin and Ayin Sof searching for an answer (1)
Retracting from the void sending Ayin Sof Aur (2)
Clinamen, unexpected beast, unfolds the quanta (3)
Disturbing the known order, breaking the vessels (4)

Retracting from the void sending Ayin Sof Aur
Bosse-de-Nage's Tzimtzoum after strangulation (5)
Disturbing the known order, breaking the vessels
Faustroll beheld a pale horse-head and went berzerk (6)

Bosse-de-Nage's Tzimtzoum after strangulation
From Eyeh Asher Eyeh Kaf enter'd the void (7)
Faustroll beheld a pale horse-head and went berzerk
Reaching the deepest Merdre, Kaf bounced back (8)

From Eyeh Asher Eyeh Kaf enter'd the void
Enabling the story, Bosse-de-Nage ceas'd to be dead (9)
Reaching the deepest Merdre, Kaf bounced back
Faustroll return'd to Bat Kol knowing who he was (10)

Enabling the story, Bosse-de-Nage ceas'd to be dead
Ayin and Ayin Sof searching for an answer
Faustroll return'd to Bat Kol knowing who he was
Clinamen, unexpected beast, unfold the quanta!

notes
A Pantoum is an old persian form of poetry. It consists of five sonnets, each of four verses, each of twelve syllables. Every verse appears twice, the second and fourth of each sonnet reappears on the first respectively the third place of the next. In the last sonnet the second and fourth verse are repetitions from the first sonnet, appearing as if the pantoum could be read all over again.
1 2 3 4
2 5 4 6
5 7 6 8
7 9 8 10
9 1 10 3
Given the attraction in 'pataphysics for obscure ways of expression this form seemed fitting the subject.

1. In kaballistic ontology or theory of the origins, No-thing the trancendence (Ayin) and Every-thing the immanence (Ayin Sof) stand for the two most abstract representations of the origin of all, that which believers call 'god', unbelievers 'chaos' and of which kaballists only can say the following: trying to understand what itself 'is', Ayin and Ayin Sof searched for a way to dissociate from itself and look in a mirror. It was nowhere and everywhere, so it needed to withdraw itself from a place and a void was created. For the withdrawal or contraction the musical word 'Tzimtzoum' is used.
2. Ayin Sof Aur, the third part of the totality, being neither nothing nor everything but something, is the basic emanation: that which can be perceived (as opposed to the immanent and the transcendent). The very first emanation resulting into the void is the highest sefirot Kether in Atzilut, also called 'Eyeh Asher Eyeh': 'I am what I am'. To see Popeye as a metaphor for the highest consciousness seems pataphysical enough to me.
3. 'La bête imprévue Clinamen' appears in Jarry's "Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien" chapter XXXIV, the 'pataphysical bible in a way, and appeared first in the ideas of Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) and meant literally 'spontaneous deviation of the atoms in their trajectory', a concept later on developped by Roman philosopher Lucretius (90-52 BC) on the subject of free will. See this introduction to materialism and Wikipedia's excellent explanation.
Epicurus, a very serious person.

For Alfred Jarry, Clinamen stood for the very first tiny deviation without a cause (it just happened because it seemed a good idea - 'parce que le besoin s'en faisait sentir'), resulting in more and more effects and finally in the world as we know it. Giving this deviation, which we could as well associate with the trigger to the Big Bang, a name and calling it a beast makes it a bit more familiar. An animal which would fit very well in Borges' bestiary.
4. The Clinamen is the agent of chaos in a perfect grid, according to Epicurus.It's the entropy pushing the system further away from equilibrium with each increment. Breaking the vessels is the stage happening after the contraction, when different worlds got created in an attempt to reach a new equilibrium, which kept failing because the sefirot, or emanations, or vessels seemed unable to keep the divine light in balance. The following quote is from The Inner Dimension site (note the present tense: for a kaballist, everything is happening… right where you are sitting now!)
  • The breaking of the vessels is a stage in the creative process which takes place several stages after the initial tzimtzum, which is the contraction of G-d's infinite light. After the initial tzimtzum there is then a ray of infinite light which shines into the vacuum. Then the world which is known as adam kadmon, "primordial man," is created. This is a purely spiritual and Divine state of universal cosmic consciousness. Then comes another world: olom ha'akudim. This is the first world which possesses an actual vessel to contain and define its light. All of the ten lights of that world are contained within this one vessel. Then comes another world: olom ha'nikudim, in which the ten vessels to contain the ten lights are very small. Since the vessels are not mature, they are broken by the light that shines into them.

5. The death of Bosse-de-Nage (see note 6), doctor Faustroll's mandrill and ape-servant which knew no other words than 'ha ha' is joyfully celebrated in the pataphysical calendar on the 20th of the month of Haha. On the 22nd his resurrection is also joyfully celebrated. In between during chapters XXVIII to XXXI he retracted himself out of the story, being only present by his absence: he left his negative form, a void, so the pataphysical calendar celebrates on the 21st of Haha the "Tzimtzoum of Bosse-de-Nage".
Le Grand Singe papion Bosse-de-Nage, lequel ne savait de parole humaine que: "ha ha"

6. In chapter XXVII ('Capitalement') Faustroll explains to Panmuphle that "I only felt the urge to call after having the vision of a horse-head, which became to me a sign, or an order, or more precisely a signal, like the thumb up in a [Roman] circus, that I had to hit". Later on together with the bishop Mensonger and the ape-servant Bosse-de-Nage they walk through a street of mists, and the bishop lets the streetsigns fall with his stick and Bosse-de-Nage carries them in his arms. All is well until he takes down the sign of a horse butcher, which causes Faustroll to cause a holocaust for seven days using just a little perfumed candle. Having killed all the military, all the women and all the children of the world he calmed down, until the street sign of a corral came down, and then he decided to strangle the ape.
7. Kaf is a word used for what I see as a more downsampled version of the 'divine light' Ayin Sof Aur, obscured already a bit by the distance from the source, getting weaker and weaker after descending the four consecutive worlds. Symbolized by a lightning bolt, straight on the Jacob's ladder; in zigzag on the sefirotic representation.
8. Kaf gets finally reflected bouncing on the lowest sefirot in the material world (Malkuth in Assiyah), going back to its source boosted and accompanied by the growing human consciousness. Which ultimately is supposed to dissolve into it and leave the void taking with it everything that was send into the world. When the lowest stone comes back to daddy, Ayin / Ayin Sof finally will know itself completely.
9. Bosse-de-Nage returns in chapter XXXII. "the ghost of Bosse-de-Nage, who only had ever existed in imagination, so couldn't have died, became opaque again, said respectfully 'ha ha' and then said nothing more, waiting for his orders". For the company to move on in the story, they needed the ape-servant to go and buy canvasses to repair the land-boat. So it was necessary that he stopped being dead.
10. In chapter XXXV Faustroll conciously makes his boat sink and drowns: "So doctor Faustroll committed the act of dying, aged of sixty-three years". But his death also is only a further voyage, and in chapter XXXIII "In the meantime Faustroll, with his abstracted and naked soul, took on the garments of the unknown dimension". His first action consists of a telepathic letter to Lord Kelvin (chapter XXXVI), concerning different methods of measurement when in a state of immateriality. And then the rest of Jarry's book gets written not by the notary Panmuphle but by Faustroll himself, out of his state of "ethernity" which is neither real nor imaginary. The link with the kaballistic voyage out of both the kharmic wheel and the illusion of duality seems obvious to me.

Chapter 2. The Word and its opposite.

The very first word of Ubu King, the word that shocked the audience to the extend they demolished the furniture of the Théâtre de l'Œuvre on 10th december 1896 was the word 'Merdre' usually translated into English as 'Shitr'. Although it seems impossible to translate. The French word 'merde' looks and feels like the fecal matter made into a symbol, while 'shit' most of the times sounds like nothing but a curse. The meaning in French kept attached to the word and makes it dirty.
Now Jarry took this word and transformed it into a marvelous metaphor, the meaning of which could easily fill a few books. Some 'pataphysicians see a verb into the Word: not like 'to take shit' but rather like 'to become shit'. Hamlet could have said: "To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to become shit".
Indeed, to go down into the materiality, to show no sign whatsoever of spirituality but to take descent as a quest seems the most endearing purpose of father Ubu. The three plays featuring Ubu show it well: first a king, then cuckolded and finally enchained. More on this in part 3.
The Christian churches took many elements from kaballah and integrated them into their doctrine. One important element in the catholic ontology is the dogma "In the beginning was the verb and the Verb was with God, and the Verb was God". Actually the kaballah doesn't really express it that way although Samael Aun Weor does refer to it in his Gnostic teachings in the following way:
  • "The word produces objective geometric figures. Said figures are filled with cosmic Matter and crystallize materially. In the beginning was the Verb and the Verb was with God, and the Verb was God; because of Him, all things were made"
He places the verb in Daath of Atzilut, the highest non-sefirot, usually a metaphor for knowledge. And indeed here is the first instance of a (simili-) emanation which can be percieved. In Atzilut's Daath kaballah usually places the picture of a dove and calls it 'Bat Kol' (this metaphor was later on misunderstood by catholics who turned it into a 'Holy Spirit'). Its one task is to keep repeating the same phrase over and over again: 'Come back', trying to remind the kaballistic seeker of its path. It forms a reflection to the word associated with the highest sefirot Keter above: 'I am', according to kaballah the only level of consciousness where the verb despised by E-prime has actually a meaning.
Both first words of 'pataphysics and kaballah seem opposite, but actually they tell a story in two stages. In order to become aware, one must first stop from the blind 'I am' and descend deeper and deeper until submerged by the muddy matter, into the 'Merdre'. Only then one is reminded of the goal and hears from afar the Bat Kol's calling 'Come back' and can ascend the spiritual ladder again, but this time with all the knowledge up to the lowest level, and to become 'I am' again, this time all-seeing.


Part 2. A Spiral Kabbal

Chapter 1. As above, so below

The first letter of the hebrew alefbet, Aleph , allegedly was created starting from the image of a man pointing down with one hand and up with the other. In magick it symbolizes the equality of microsphere and macrosphere, the similarity in structure between up and down, the meeting and melting point of the opposites.
Eliphas Levi wrote in his magnus opus 'Transcendental Magic' about the Aleph:
  • "the form is proportional to the idea; the shadow is the measure of the body calculated in its relation to the luminous ray; the scabbard is as deep as the sword is long; the negation is in proportion to the contrary affirmation; production is equal to destruction in the movement which preserves life; and there is no point in infinite extension which may not be regarded as the centre of a circle having an expanding circumference receding indefinitely into space."
  • "The first letter in the alphabet of the sacred language, Aleph, a, represents a man extending one hand towards heaven and the other to earth."

One primordial element in 'pataphysics is the identity of the opposites. Not the similarity, but an essential equality in value. In theory it does not matter to a 'pataphysician on which side he's on. Which lead to some attempts at shocking the herd by the college. As such an extended biography (in Monitoires du Cymbalum Pataphysicum n. 29 = l'Expectateur n. 28) was written with old photographs, testimonies and alleged protest of an imaginary pataphysician, Philippe Merlen, who joined the Waffen-SS in World War 3. Only to try to prove in extremis the previous point, most members of the college who were alive at that time (and imagined this character) were active members of the Résistance.

The Collège was always fond of literary mystifications. Let's not forget the collège was founded (on the 11th may 1948) by a cheap painted portret (Sa Magnificence le docteur Irénée-Louis Sandomir), a cat (Provéditrice Générale Mélanie Le Plumet), an unknown russian writer (l'Immarcessible Oktav Votka) and an ego-tripping Provéditeur Jean-Hugues Sainmont who ended up in an asylum, in total solitude only visited by his only in the Collège the (male!) satrape Anne de Latis. All one and the same person actually (whose identity I won't reveal), just as the 'greatest 'pataphysician of the 20th century, Julien Torma, only existed in the same way as mathematician Nicholas Bourbaki, Luther Blissett or JR 'Bob' Dobbs! The actual and fourth Vice-Curator, the highest function just below the Curator Faustroll, is Sa Magnificence Lutembi, a senegales crocodile.

A 'pataphysician can put on the glove of an Ubu puppet, with a complete Ubu outfit, a gidouille and a little stick of wood, yet underneath another falsehood can be hidden: a smaller Ubu, a housekeeper (Jarry dreamed of being able to have the personality of a caretaker), a conscience… it remains a put-on so it ultimately doesn't matter what role you play, they are all as equal or worthless. Similarly a kaballist will play his role very seriously, using all the given qualities in the given circumstances, accepting the script in all its facets, but realizing that every given emotion, thought, desire, are mere elements needed to play the role, not elements of the self. The major consequence of the equivalence of the opposites is the acceptance or absence of judgment. A kaballist therefore tries to accept his sufferings and fears as part of the lesson, and happiness and hopes as figments useful at that given time for the same purpose. At the same time, the lessons learned at one level of consciousness will find a use on another by similarity. The four sefirotic trees are build in a similar way and each part houses the elements of the whole, almost like a mathematical concept called fractal…

Chapter 2. Patafractalizing the worlds

The imagery was always important in the works of Jarry, and many had to do with mathematics; similarly relationships in kaballah are explained using geometrical figures. Cfr. chapter XXXIX of Faustroll: "According to Ibicrates the geometrician", "César-Antéchrist" and the bit about the polyhedrons in "Ubu Cuckold".

Further on as shown in the previous part, the concept of fractals seem relevant in the kaballistic worldview "As above, so below": one can always try to subdivise the world even further and will always be able to analyze similar structures using kaballistic concepts. What better metaphor for a fractal than the spiral, extending infinitely inwards as well as outwards, always remaining similar in form?
Albrecht Dürer, a leading kaballist in his time, was highly praised in Jarry's image magazines l'Ymagier and Perhindérion. Some other imagery here also shows a kaballistic nature.
A soul converting to god. The beasts symbolic of the sins have been pushed out and replaced by Christs, a church, a fish, etc.

The heraldic - metaphoric descriptions in 'César-Antéchrist'; Jarry's most complex work IMHO, with its plus and minus symbolism, find a resonance in some descriptions of Egyptian mysteries. 'Ubu King' was first published as the 'earthly chapter' of 'César-Antéchrist'.
Alfred Jarry: César-Antechrist; from L'Ymagier II (January 1895)

Part 3. The Four Matrushkadams

Chapter 1. Everything is in everything and reciprocally

Kaballah describes a fall of consciousness from the divine down to the simplest stone. The duty of a kabbalist is to define the alchemy needed to find his way back from the shitR towards etHernity. Kaballah describes four worlds that partially fit into each other and at the same time are each completely defined in the lowest attribute of the world upstairs.
The four divisions of the manifest reality: Assiyah the material world, Yezirah the world of souls or paradise, Beriah the spiritual world or heaven and Azilut the divine world.

Graphically they are shown as four upside-down sefirotic trees, each with its root growing from the previous and bearing fruit for the next. Every tree consists of 10 sefirot or attributes, each a metaphor for a certain level of consciousness.

Another way of showing is called Jacob's ladder named after its discoverer Jacob, son of Isaac, who saw it in a dream (Genesis 28.10-15). "Angels walk up and down the ladder, and God comes down to Jacob and promises him his support."
The stylized representation of Jacob's ladder, and William Blake's interpretation

A third way is the synthesis tree. drawing a large tree above the four others.

Every sefirah acts like an island (see Faustroll) with influence on the surrounding sefirot and the 22 paths between them. The most common representation consists of showing 4 sefirotic trees overlapping each other, where some sefirot have a match on another level in a world higher and/or lower.
Correspondances between the worlds.

Yet still another interface shows concentric circles from outwards (the etHernity where Faustroll now resides… and the Ayin and Ayin Sof) to the deepest of the matterdre in the center. Like Ubu's consciousness get thrown in the shithole, consciousness descends towards the center and hopefully will return.
The macroscopic gidouille.

Finally, a last representation consists of four avatars called Adam that fit into each other as russian matrushkas (fig 6), but who also symbolize the world they inhabit (likewise every island has the attributes of their inhabitant in Faustroll). They are called Adam Kadmon (godhead - divine world), Adam Betzalmenu (spirit - heavens), Adam Adamah (soul - paradise) and Adam (body - material world).

Chapter 2. Adam Kadmon: Faustroll.

The first Adam stands for the cosmical being, the link between the transcendent Ayin and immanent Ayin Sof on the one hand and the manifested worlds on the other. He is the result of the original clinamen, the Kaf trying to gather information from the void (where Ayin / Ayin Sof has disappeared in other to find itself). Other names are Atzilut or Tetragrammaton or 'tree of life'. He is usually shown from the back with a crown in the highest sefirot, the ultimate link from the manifested towards the immanent / transcendent, called Eyeh Asher Eyeh: 'I am that I am'. With enough efforts, we should be able to witness the manifestation of god's fat ass.
Leonardo's cosmical man… and the same seen from behind.

Kadmon faces the transcendent and could be compared to Faustroll navigating towards his fate in etHernity with a colonial helmet as a crown.
We should also consider the eleventh sphere at this level, which is considered as a non-sefirot: the sphere of knowledge or Daath. On the divine plane it is called Bat Kol, the sphere just beyond the crown and a shortcut towards the trancendence.
Christians naively call this the 'holy spirit'. The only thing Bat Kol does is yieling 'come back', trying to convince all the pieces of information (meaning the whole world, like ourselves) to go back to its origins. This repetitive sentence has a similarity to the 'Ha Ha' of Faustroll's ape-servant Bosse-De-Nage.

The few following sentences are completely indebted to RAW, that with the head inside a head inside a head; Kadmon symbolizes not only the divine plane, but all other planes and Adams are part of him. Kaballah fractalises reality.

There used to be a French cheese in a box with the illustration of a little girl holding a box with the illustration of a little girl holding a box with the illustration of a little girl holding a box…
Kadmon can be represented by four letters representing the four worlds: Yod - He - Vav - He. Draw them on top of each other and you have the simplified drawing of a little man. Kadmon itself is symbolized by the 'Yod' that looks like a head, the 'godhead'.
Yod-He-Vav-He

The next world, heavens or Beriah, the tree of knowledge, is also Adam Betzalmenu, whose adventures are described in the first chapter of Genesis. It is shown as 'He': the arms of Kadmon, symbolizing the world of creation.
Paradise or Yetzirah, the tree of knowledge of good an evil, is also Adam Adamah, told about in the second chapter of Genesis; it is the world of formation shown as 'Vav': the trunc or reign of the soul and world of formation.
This tree bears fruit: the knowledge (or awareness) of good and evil, existing only throughout the material world of appearances, shown in the final 'He' that looks like legs. It is the stage on which we all play our role, the material world of Beriah, Adam the last, the anonymous one.

We all need to try to leave the sunday of life and reach the hunyadi of etHernity.

Chapter 3. Adam Betzalmenu: Ubu King.

Chapter one of Genesis describes the specific world of creation, not the creation of the material world.
The start of creation.

It is the fruit of the tree of life: life, itself expanding into the tree of knowledge. Adam Betzalmenu stands for the highest possible consciousness in the realm of creation (the following two worlds shown as a part of this one). Just as the body is considered a vehicle for the soul, the soul is considered a vehicle for the spirit and the spirit a vehicle for the godhead. So paradoxically the vehicle of one Adam is the Adam which procedes (and is shown smaller) from him. After five days all is ready for the first appaerance of man on the stage.
…And god saw all was well.

The seven days of creation from the bible are also mapped on the tree of knowledge.
The first week ever.

In kaballah the Elohim (feminine plural) tell the story of Genesis 1. They symbolize Adam Kadmon, the diverse manifested aspects of the divine. Christianity made 'God' out of it, which has lost a lot of meaning. Adam (Betzalmenu) is asked to be fertile and to have supremacy over the world. This only means that he has to learn the lessons down to the most material level before even thinking of coming back. All the 'creatures' of the world symbolize the difficulties for learning.
Betzalmenu is shown with his face halfway Beriah with Kadmon s(h)itting above him, providing him with the knowledge (and finally the needed matterdre) coming out of a secret place. The throne of God seems like a toilet seat.

I would associate Betzalmenu to King Ubu, being the king of creation, with his head in Tifereth (self) of Beriah corresponding to Keter (crown) of Yetzirah or 'Christ consciousness' or 'heavenly Jeruzalem'. He stands on Malkuth (kingdom) of Beriah, the kingdom of Israël.
Ubu looks like a fat Jesus, fighting the merchants - russians in the temple - Poland. The (spiritual) kingdom of Israel is situated everywhere and nowhere, just like Jarry's Poland.
Mother Ubu scares Father Ubu in the bear scene by taking on the heavy voice of archangel Gabriel, trying to convince him to overthrow the ruling king. Kaballah also shows the sefirot in Beriah as the archangels (fig. 14b). Gabriel is situated in Yesod, corresponding to the ego: similarly, Mother Ubu tries to tickle Ubu's gigantic self-delusion.

Chapter 4. Adam Adamah.: Ubu Cuckold.

Somewhere between the writing of the play in Beriah and its execution in Assiyah, a place of formation is needed, where the stage is build, the dialogues are written, the puppets are build. Kaballah calls this place Yetzirah, the paradise. The upper part of it which overlaps heavens is called the garden of Eden. Chapter two of Genesis tells the adventures of Adam Adamah in this place.
Yetzirah is also the fruit beared by the tree of knowledge: knowledge, which itself also stands for a new tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The forbidden fruit should be seen as a temptation: it is necessary to eat the fruit, to descend into the fallacy of morals, deep into the next world, in order to learn the lessons and be able to return with the necessary knowledge.
Conscience is shown descending from Beriah to Yetzirah by spiralling downwards, with his face towards the material world.

Up till now, the figure of Adam was shown as asexual (Kadmon) or hermafrodite (Betzalmenu); in order to enter Assiyah and duality it needs to become dual itself, so it splits into a (sur)male and a female part.

Similarly in Ubu Cuckold, Ubu overthrows professor Achras and takes possession of his science of polyedres, standing for the hard matter. His consciences tries to dissuade him but by doing this pushes him towards the matter. In chapter two Ubu can't seem to pass through the shithole because he is too fat, just like Adam Adamah cannot reach the material world without the help of a female part.

This is not Eva though, the material woman, but originally the female Ishshah , the 'female man' or virago in the Vulgate. She is called Isha because she grows, finds its roots into, Ish (the generic man, human on the spiritual level). She was extracted from Adamahs ribs (prison) after having lowered his consciousness by putting him asleep. It should be noted that nowhere in the bible Adam wakes up: today is always sunday and we ar all asleep, untill we find a way to awaken.

Genesis was originally written in the present tense: it describes the adventures of consciousness right now and the path to go back to its origins.


Ubu Cuckold (Adamah) is the upper soul, which still has a grip on his previous majesty as a King, and Mother Ubu (Ishshah) is the part of the soul finding contact with the matter and body. Deception, cuckoldry is needed between the two to make further descension possible. Of course, neither Adamah nor Ishshah stand for the physical entities of male and female. They are beyond physics and metaphysics, into the realm of Science. In Ubu Cuckold, Mother Ubu starts a relationship with Memnon, symbolizing Ishshah eating the forbidden fruit under influence of the serpent. Only the fallacy of knowledge of good and evil provides a doorway to the matter. By eating the fruit she learns the lessons in the matter.

The story of Joseph, son of Jacob, is also the story of a flight into the matter, symbolized by Egypt, ruled by the faraoh: reason. At the end of Ubu Cuckold, Ubu, his consciousness and Achras flight to Egypt, where they meet the present vice-curator of the college, the crocodile ('with hands like serpents').
Ishshah the lower soul is in contact with the upper part of the physical body. This is symbolized by a turning circle, the realm of Mater Fortuna. Only after having learned what is needed, in this life or in another, is it possible to ascend and go back. The cycle of life and death and rebirth ressembles the wheel of a bicycle, the favourite transportation of Jarry and used in his description of the Passion of Christ as a bicycle race.
The Ourobouros cycle.

Chapter 5. Adam: Ubu Enchained.

After being thrown out of Eden, consciousness is symbolized by Adam anon, the physical man.

The following stage in the descent of consciousness is the emprisonment into the cycle of the material world, just like Ubu is in chains. When having tasted from fruit, the realisation of the physical realm, Adam anonymous and his sidekick Eva realize they are naked. They still need to find out what costume fits their role best. In Genesis the one they call 'God' asks where they are. It's a rhetorical question: do you realize where you're sticking your nose into? Consciousness was innocent in paradise: dumb but not realizing it. Now in the matter it's time to be confronted with oneself. Adam will feed on brambles and spines: the harshest lessons, just like Ubu feels like ascending when he descends: "Do you hear, mother Ubu? I ascend: feetshiner, servant, porter, slave, I will go into jail and one day, if God gives me life, I'll go to the gallows".
Eva (in hebrew Hawwah, the life bearer) appears in kabbalah also as the primordial mother next to Adam the primordial father.

They are both looking down to the material world. One of the protagonists in Ubu Enchained is called 'Lord Catoblepas', named afterf a fish which name literally means 'one who looks down'.
I would compare the point of vue of kaballah on this material plane in similarity to the OuLiPo, but adapted to life: potentiallity as the possible paths in ones existence. Not everything is possible, but there are rules to be followed and a little freedom in choosing at the crossroads. Kaballah talks of 3240 possible characters, E. Souriau of 210.141 possible dramatical situations on a stage.


Part 4. The Book of Sand

Chapter 1. Emanations and commissions: the Collège as a tree

The sefirotic trees are a metaphor for different emanations of that which a kabbalist calls 'god' for lack of a better word. As in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, study of kabbalah is a study of that which we are able to percieve, not of the world itself but of its emanations. Revelation stands for the insight into those symbols, which probably tell as much about the examiner as about that which gets examined. The immanent (Ayin Sof, every-thing) and the transcendent (Ayin, no-thing) are by definition impossible to percieve. No hidden variables here, but a way of considering different reality-tunnels as in Maybe Logic!
Similarly the structure of the Collège de 'Pataphysique reflects many worldviews. Classical science gets subdivided by the object of its study, the POV is usually corroborating the ruling paradigm of the moment. The commissions, sous-commissions, cocomissions and other intermissions of the Collège by contrast are defined not by that which they study, every one of them pretty much englobes everything that can be studied; but by the way they examine it.
In the same way as each of the 40 sefirot (10 in each of the four worlds) symbolizes a certain consciousness and as such, a revelation associated with a certain point of view on the totality of creation, each of the more than 100 commissions (27 of which considered 'fundamental') of the Collège (grouped into seven departments) symbolizes a paradigm on its own.
In this chapter I intend one day to examine every commission and see if a relationship can be seen with one or more sefirah.

Chapter 2. Questioning the Quinconces

The "Administration des Quinconces" is one of the many bureaucratic sections inside the Collège, flowing through some of the commissions but as such exterior to the departments. Its main goal is to ask questions or "qu'est-ce-tions": in orde to keep the Collège alive it's essential to keep doubting everything on the one hand, and to keep searching on the other. Happily the goal here is to ask, not to answer. More on this in 'Carnets trimestriels du Collège de 'Pataphysique n° 15', march 2004.
In the same vein (vain?) a true kaballist is supposed to keep asking questions to his master. By doubting and searching, new answers keep popping up to get rapidly destroyed by new questions to the real seeker. Here the essence, hence the goal, of man, is to seek. Life and larger cycles as a quest, the ultimate goal of which lies outside the emanated truth.
The hierarchy in the Quinconces is quite strange, every person acting as a centre coordinating some questions for their nearest neighbours in the structure, and at the same time participating in nearby study groups. Whether this structure is purely theoretical (it is!) seems of no importance.

Part 5. Gematria and Nominalism

Chapter 1. Notariqon, Temurah and Oulipo

Chapter 2. The apostroph on the Golem's forehead

Both chapters will find their way in the future. Oulipo, Oulipopo, Oupeinpo, Oubapo and all other Ou-x-po deserve a bit more consideration. When writing about constraint in 'pataphysics usually one is supposed to write with a constraint to express that which is told about by the way it is told…
Previous to writing about the difference between pataphysics and 'pataphysics, between truth (emet) and dead (met) written on the forehead of a golem I want to learn more about gematria and other wordplays.

Without conclusion.

Sources

Alfred Jarry: 'Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien', annotated edition, in "Organographes du Cymbalum Pataphysicum" 15-16, 15-16 bis, 15-16 ter & 15-16 quater, 1984 - 1985, published by Collège de 'Pataphysique
The 'Carnets Trimestriels' of the same Collège in my library had each at least one little hint that I could associate with KBL. Particularly the # 16, june 2004 about Adam.
All the flabbergasting Kaballah lessons by Joris De Brandt, year 2, 3 and 4, 2002-2004 were inspiring in more than a way. I had some epiphanies in the course of his lessons which lasted three hours each, about 15 lessons a year. Wrote it all down and lay-outed it afterwards adding some of his visionary imagery from the 'net. I missed some lessons though…
Ornella Volta: 'Guide de l'Au-delà', Balland, Paris, 1972. a great book about the different ideas concerning death in many older or more recent religions. "All souls meet on their way a symbolic figure called 'religion' which is no other than its past life" (about zoroasterism). Miss O. Volta is a Régent of the C de 'P, member of the Sous-commission of interpretations.
Dion Fortune: 'Mystical Qabalah', in a Dutch translation. A great book explaining western KBL without following Crowley. Points towards a lot of keys without revealing them.

Further reading

Klaus Ferentschik, Régent de Démonologie spéciale and Harry Kümel, Régent de Demonologie et Occultisme both probably published writings dealing with subjects of interest but I was unable to find any.
What I did found quite recently and seems a revelation are writings by a certain 'Lothaire Liogieri' in french, a self-appointed pataphysical philosopher not affiliated to the college. Especially his or her research about mythologies (three long webpages) proves a campbellesque brio from a pataphysical perspective…
Marcel Jean and Arpad Mezei wrote a book called 'Genèse de la pensée moderne dans la littérature française' which suposedly associates pre-dadaists with esoteric traditions. Although many writers tried to express similitudes between surrealism and the occult, few seem able to bring something else than nonsensical new age mumbo-jumbo… The site fUSIONAnomaly seems a pleasant exception.

  • "Like surrealism, occultism tries to break the domination of rational philosophy and logic, stressed by Descartes. Occultism is based on the belief in a higher reality of certain forms of association through the cabbala, faith in the power of dream- and trance-images, and in the stream of words uncensored by the intellect."
    P. R. Koenig

Finally

Since everything is pataphysical, the Science also deals with spirituality, with hidden knowledge and with the reception thereof and as such proves eminently kaballistic.
'pataphysics can somehow get redefined by kaballah: The received doctrine (from qibbel, to receive), the mystical teachings that deal with the ideas of creation and concepts of a spiritual nature. A body of mystical teachings often based on an esoteric interpretation or a secret doctrine resembling these teachings. But most revealing seems to define kaballah by using the definitions of 'pataphysics, by both Alfred Jarry and Doctor Sandomir:

Definition: kaballah (…) is the science of that which adds up to metaphysics either in or out of its boundaries, extending as far above metaphysics as metaphysics extends above physics. Example: as usually an epiphenomenon stand for a hazardous occurrence, kaballah will usually work as the science of the singularity, even if it's told there is no other science than the general.
It shall study the laws leading the exceptions and shall explain the supplemental universe to this one, or with less ambition it shall describe an universe which we can see and which maybe we should see instead of the traditional. All laws that were discovered concerning the traditional universe are correlated exceptions as well, maybe more frequent but in every way accidental, which, reduced to less exceptional exceptions, lack the attraction of singularity.

Kaballah is the science of imaginary solutions which grants symbolically to the distinctive features the properties of the objects described by their virtuality.

a merry Thule to you all,

Borky
résident, S.-C. des Onomonymes

 

 

 
 

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