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Theogenesis - Kabbalah Part 1 |
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 For the kabbalist the universe is not just a creation by God, but also a manifestation of this Gods own development. Just like we develop and grow, so does God.
The state or stage of God in the beginning, the kabbalists describe with the symbol Ein-Sof. This first stage is a mysterious boundless state of being of which nothing can be said, since all describtions will limit and encircle it.
However to create an idea or an intuition in the minds of their students the kabbalists describe the state as a coincidence of all opposites, like good and evil, above and below, beginning and end, etc.
These opposing concepts are not "just words", but are of profound importance when trying to grasp the Ein-Sof. Using good and evil as an example, good deeds only exist to the extent that the opposite, evil deeds, exists. If for some reason the deeds that we label evil should cease to exist, the deeds that we label good, would also cease to exist. Concepts
need a background in order to stand out, and the more clearly the background is, the more clearly the concept stands out, and vice versa. Hence, the concept of good only exists because of its opposite, evil.
The opposites are intimately linked to each other - one cannot exist without the other. These oppositions did not exist at the stage of Ein-Sof. The infinite light of God was everywhere and nothing existed, rather everything existed as a potential. The type of existence or being are described as the union of being and nothingness. To illustrate this mysterious and paradoxial stage, which can not be encircled, we will be somewhat disobedient, and illustrate it with a circle. Also we will use an analogy, and compare the stage of Ein-Sof to the ocean:
The description of God does not end with the symbol of Ein-Sof. The reason is, as mentioned above, that God is also growing and changing according to His own wish. The creator of our universe is a God who will be whatever He wants to be, the kabbalists say.
In the state of Ein-Sof God has the potential to be anything at all, in the new state of being a certain part of these potentials will be purged out, resulting in a more complex state of being. The following conceptual figure might help to give an idea of the change.
To use an earthbound analogy, the change might be compared to what happens in a high-school class in the first few days of school. At day one the class has the potential to create any kind of social network. After a few days (or hours) a certain part of these potentials are manifested, leaving other - potential connections - unmanifested. However, the change is at the stage of Ein-Sof merely planned or intended. So how does God move from the inclination to a changed state of being, to the manifestation of this change?
To get to a more complex state of being, a decision must be made of which potentials to be purged out. To do that God must get an awareness of his potential states of being, and then use that awarenes to purge out a certain part of these potentials. Since the potential states of being are, as the name implies, only potential, they do not exist. In other words God must get an awareness of what-is-not. This is not possible at the stage of Ein-Sof where God is everything everywhere, there is only Light and everything simply is. For the knower (God) to achieve an awareness of the known (what-is-not), a distinction between the knower and the known is needed. This distinction does not exist at this stage.
The Tree of Life
To overcome this problem, God conceals a part of himself from himself, through a process referred to as Tzimtzum (hebrew for concealment or contraction). Out of his own being God produces garments to conceal a part of his being. The garments is at this stage in their essence unknowable, but their reflection in the mind of man is archetypal ideas or traits, referred to as the ten Sefirot by the kabbalists. They are Will, Wisdom, Intelligence, Love, Judgment, Compassion, Endurance, Majesty, Righteousness and Submission. These ten Sefirot are arranged in a special relation to each
other, called the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life can be thought of as the garments that God creates to conceal a part of his being. The Ein-Sof, illustrated as a circle, is being dressed in garments and becomes the Tree of Life. To illustrate that a part of God is concealed at this stage, we will shade a part of the circle. In the ocean analogy it corresponds to a ripple on the ocean. This is stage two of seven.
At this point the concealed part is still a part of Gods total being; the ripple can not be distinguished from the ocean.
The cosmic catastrophe The concealment proces continues until a critical event, known as the Breaking of the Vessels,
occurs. Here the concealed part of God, referred to as the vessels, can no longer contain the infinite light of Ein-Sof. The garments that are produced out of Gods own being, have become so thick (garments upon garments) that they no longer reflect the kind of being (or existence) they emerge from. They "break off" in a multitude of parts, each trapping a part of Gods being (a "spark"). Using the ocean analogy, the ripple have become a creek where the connection to the ocean are beginning to be blocked. The creek will then no longer reflect the characteristics of the ocean.
A distortion occurs in the vessels that have broken off - a distortion that implies a new type of being. Seen from the viewpoint of the vessels it is a cosmic catastrophe; they are suddenly alienated from their source. Seen from Gods point of view it is a temporary schism needed for further growth. The development in these first three stages might be better understood through this figure:
In stage 1 God simply is. In stage 2 the being of God is adjusted or concealed, but it still reflects the essence of the being in stage 1. In stage 3 a distortion occurs that brings a new type of being to life. The new type of being that occurs within God implies the creation of the universe, with all its galaxies, stars and you name it.
The fractal universe is the "Son of Necessity", the unavoidable effect of "a loop in Gods mind", a reflection of a reflection. If the creation were not there the part of Gods being that have "broken off" would be lost forever. It would have nothing to "cling to" and would be just like a cry in an empty room. Instead it is entangled in the creation and because God has control of the creation he can also, indirectly, keep track of his alienated part.
To use an analogy imagine that you are sleeping and have a dream. In the analogy you are God and your dream is the creation. In your dream, you have a body and you find yourself in surroundings that you recognize, e.g. the house that you grew up in. Also you might meet your parents or other people you recognize. Who are the creator of the house you walk around in? Who are the creator of the persons you interact with in your dream?
Who decides what other persons in your dream are telling you? You create all this, and at the same time a part of your consciousness is present within the dream, experiencing the dream from within. Now instead imagine that you have a dream in which there were only emptiness: You have no body, there is nothing surrounding you. Only nothingness, blackness. What would that dream be like?
Few people would find amusement in such a situation. The creation might be a fall, or a distortion, but it is also a very necessary distortion. The creation is the necessary middlestation for Gods further development as we shall see.
The Kabbalists refer to the creation as Sitra Achra (the "Other Side"). The Sefirot, which at stage 2 were arranged as the Tree of Life are now "out of joint".
The new disrupted constellation of the Sefirot we will refer to as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
In the Kabbalah this is where the celestial Father and Mother turn their backs on one another, thereby disrupting the flow of divine erotic energy in the worlds. In other traditions the event may be described as the separation of the World
Parents or the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, but behind the symbols lies the same message: The creation of the world at the price of alienation. Spirit and matter are torn apart, leaving a nameless cry for reunion in both of them.
However, the �tooth extraction� has just begun at this stage: The separated part of Gods being has not been completely separated from the wholeness. One could imagine that it �wobbles� back and forth like a soap bubble about to let go from its source. In the dream analogy it can be compared to the situation where the dreamer is only present within the dream once in a while. To reach the goal, God have to let a part of himself be completely caught within the dream.
Man
Now as we recall, the purpose of the Tzimtzum, the concealment process, was for God to get an awareness of what-is-not. How is this achieved by creating the universe? Does the universe or any part of the universe have an awareness of what-is-not? The answer is yes: A small part of the universe, mankind, have an awareness of what-is-not, and we refer to this awareness as consciousness.
By using our consciousness we can speculate on an infinite number of things that does not exist; an imagined conversation with someone or a pink elephant painting our house, just to mention a few examples. As the carriers of consciousness, human beings play a key role in the fulfillment of Gods further development.
The consciousness we have today has not been brought forth easily, though.
The price has literally been blood, sweat and tears. Thousands of years ago our consciousness were diffuse, hazy and unstructured. It was in the childhood of mankind where we merged with the wholeness, and then shortly after had a feeling of individuality, only to remerge with the wholeness again in a dreamlike condition.
Our consciousness wobbled back and forth from individuality to unity with the wholeness. It can be compared to the consciousness we have today after consuming a large quantity of alcohol or euphoriant drugs: If one ignores the bodily reaction to the poisoning, these drugs gives a regression to earlier stages of consciousness.
This early consciousness fulfils the criteria of an awareness of what-is-not, what it does not fulfil is the purpose of a tool to plan the new state of being which God wishes to become. The early consciousness were unstructured and characterized by anarchy and to use it to plan anything, corresponds to feeding a kindergarten with candy and soda, wait 15 minutes for the effect to kick in, and then try to teach them the small ABC. It simply isn�t possible.
To be able to use the consciousness something very necessary was needed: Structure and discipline.
How did God get the young humanity to listen to his commandments? According to the Kabbalists he did it by isolating a group of people and then treat them as slaves until they became willing to negotiate. The �selected� group were the Jews and the slavery occurred in Egypt from about 1483 to 1447 B.C..
After 36 years of oppression they were willing to follow just about anyone who could liberate them. For this purpose God used Moses, who were what the Kabbalists calls a Tzaddik. A Tzaddik is �a Righteous Man�; a man who has cleansed himself and has made his own being so much in tune with Gods being that he can act as a messenger for God. The message that Moses passed on were the first five books in the Bible, also known as the Torah.
The task for the Torah was to create the necessary tension in order for the soap bubble to let go if its source. Or in other words the purpose was to make a diffuse and unstructured consciousness, firm disciplined and structered.
It succeeded beyond any expectations � we see the results reflected in our society today. Our society may be barren and without any visions, but thats just on the surface. What children (with few exceptions) are brought up to see is just the shell or �husk� created by the Torah. Concerning child education the Torah writes:
Deuteronomy 21:18
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
The Torah created the structure by means of tight reins and a fierce whip. One does not need to read many pages in the holy scripture before the orgy of violence starts.
�You must purge the evil from among you�, are repeated seven times in the book of Deuteronomy. But it was necessary. If the reins were loosened even the slightest, the attention of the Jews would slip back into the accustomed ego-less track.
The fiercefully held rules forced them to keep a constant inner attention (do not steal nice bread, do not covet your neighbours wife, etc.). This inner attention eventually organized itself to the conscious structure now known as ego-consciousness. Imperceptable the way of thinking changed from �the law must be obeyed� to �I must obey the law�. The individual started to identify with the new structure of consciousness instead of simply acting and being. The latter could easily result in a hand chopped of or death in a shower of stones, so walking about with an ever-present self-censorship was more or less necessary to survive.
The ego-consciousness is the necessary intermediate tool, to be used as a step stone in Gods further development. The price for bringing about this ego-consciousness is an alienation within God himself, which to this very day are reflected in modern people.
We illustrate this alienation as two separate circles, the shaded circle illustrating the creation. The type of being is at this point described by the Sefirot arranged in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the ocean analogy, the creek have now (apparently) broken off from its source and become a small lake:
In the lake there is a small rainbow fish swimming around, as a symbol of our consciousness. Just as the fragile rainbow fish would not be able to survive in the ocean, our consciousness must be shielded from the infinite light of God.
The shield are referred to as Kelippot (Husks) in the Kabbalah. The creation, Sitra Achra, which are composed of these husks, supply the necessary darkness to hatch our consciousness. Besides the function of a shield the Kelippot also imprisons the consciousness at this stage: It is in a state of exile, unaware of its divine roots. The Torah has at this point completed its special purpose for humanity as a whole: It has created structure and discipline. But it has also lead humanity down into the darkness.
The hidden key
 However, the structure created by the Torah can not be used to create anything new. The structure is sterile and only reflects the light from God, just as the dead moon only reflects the light from the sun and does not shine itself.
According to the Kabbalists there are only one God, one creator. Therefore there is only one possibility if a sterile structure are to be made creative: God himself must reside in the structure. We can compare it to us creating a small robot, which can be programmed to perform various things.
The programmed activities of the robot are sterile in the sense that they are not creative. To make the robot creative, a person must himself �reside� in the robot, e.g. by taking on a virtual reality suit and control the robot through this. And even then it is not the robot itself, which are creative, but the spirit dwelling in the robot, i.e. the person controlling it.
However, the analogy slips at a few important points. In the robot example the person first creates the robot and then resides in it. In the case of God, he resides in the structure as it develops. Another important difference is that a part of Gods awareness gets caught in the structure during the creation process. In the robot example the spirit of the person does not necessarily get caught in the structure, although it is possible. An american experiment has in fact shown how a test person after working in a robot for a long time started to identify himself 100% with the robot.
 The Torah is created in such a manner that the part of Gods awareness directed towards it, automatically gets caught in the structure itself.
It may come as a surprise for many people who regularly studies the Bible, that what they are sitting with on their lap is in fact a very advanced mechanism to catch the light of God. A black hole which draws everything in and lets go of nothing.
However, this knowledge has through out the ages been known in esoteric circles and kept as a secret for the public through symbolic language. All myths describing a princess who is caught by the god of the underworld, conveys this truth.
A royal son is sent for her rescue, but during his stay in the underworld he forgets his mission and are led astray. The king then sends another of his sons to liberate both of them, but alas... he is also caught, etc.
Why would God create such an advanced trap for himself and furthermore make it self-reinforcing?
 The answer is that he did it to lead a part of himself down into the darkness, into matter. The golden egg, which holds the germ for his next manifestation, are hatched in darkness not in day light. But when he planned the Tzimzum-system, he did what any sensible programmer would do:
He incorporated a hidden mechanism which at the right time would reveal the truth to the person worthy. What among modern hackers are referred to as a trojan horse. A trojan horse is a tool which on the surface seems to be so harmless that the enemy are willing to pull it all the way in behind the walls. Then the trojan horse reveals its true face at the right time.
The trojan horse in the Torah looks like this:
It is the name of God: Yod, He, Vau, He, written from above and down, which was given to Moses on mount Horeb. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground, he was told.
To explain what the name of God has to do with a trojan horse, it is necessary to explain what a mantra is and what the name of God potentially can do to your being.
A mantra is simply a word or sentence repeated several times. The effect of the mantra is proportional to the number of times the mantra is repeated and the meaning of the words.
If the words are meaningless the mantra has no effect. Also the effect is higher the more convincingly the words are said. If one, with a mumbling and lazy voice says: I am good at dancing, I am good at dancing, I am good at.. hmmm... dancing, the effect is barely measurable.
In order for the mantra to have an effect it must be said convincingly, and the more you can believe that it is already true the better it works. Positive self-suggestion it is called in the world of sports and on sales courses. The mantra can also be given from outside, e.g. you are always so clumbsy. Which, if it is repeated often enough, can become: I am always so clumbsy... negative self-suggestion. And quite right, soon the person can not sit by the table without dropping most of the food. But what came first? The hen or the egg?
Different words also has a different effect. If for instance a child has a very strict mother or father, or a very strict teacher at school, their name will have a strong effect. The two sentences �donald duck is coming� and �father is coming� will have a very different effect on a child with a bad conscience and a very strict father... the latter sentence will sound like �FATHER IS COMING�.
Imagine now that a person in your surroundings without hesitation chops off your hand if you steal a bread and without hesitation stone people who commits adultery. Moreover the person is present in all your waking hours. After a very short period of time the name of this person will have a very powerfull effect on your mind. This was pretty much the situation for the Jews throughout many generations, where the always present person was YHWH, their God above all other gods.
The pronouncation of YHWH has been lost, but it was something like Jahve. The name Jahve had a very clear meaning for the individual Jew, a meaning that is difficult to express in another language, partly because Hebrew is a socalled �deep� language where a Hebrew word typically can be translated in many various ways. Not because the Jew has any doubts about the meaning of the words, but because Hebrew words covers more complex phenomena. Like Sanskrit is the holy language of the East, so is Hebrew the holy language of the West.
The name Jahve means something like �I-am�, �I-am-who-I-am� or �I-will-be-who-I-will-be�. Hence, the meaning for the Jew is similar to what we understand by spontanity, pure being and unconstrained behaviour. We will use the translation �I-am� here, but remember that this is just one aspect of the meaning.
The name of God is frequently used in the Torah and as explained above the name stands out from the other text because Jahve has been present since the Jew was a little boy. E.g. we read in the book of Deuteronomy 1:19,
�Then, as I-AM our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful desert that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea. Then I said to you, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which I-AM our God is giving us. See, I-AM your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as I-AM, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.... I-AM.... I-AM... I-AM... I-AM... I-AM...�
One must assume that the Jews who functioned as priests would read in the holy Torah several times a day. Get the picture?
Gods name in the Torah is the key that revoke the curse of �the black hole�. By using the name as a mantra, the priests were stimulated to get in touch with their true being; they incorporated through self-suggestion spontanity and unconstrained behaviour into their being. Devotion to the present moment � the now. This contact is not only contact to life and to joy, it also gives contact to God himself, to his plan for creation... and to his powers.
For this reason only the priests were allowed to study the holy scriptures. If a selfish man, dominated by his desires would get in touch with this knowledge, he could not only use it to fulfil his desires, but also as a means of power to oppress others. The fact that our situation today shows that the priests who were left with the responsibility also fell in this ditch is another issue, but the times they are a�changing as Bob Dylon sings.
When the Torah later in history became everybodys property, the only reasonable thing was done: All appearances of Gods name were removed and replaced by the Hebrew word �Adonai� which means �the Lord�. Below is an image from a bible where the name has not been erased (from yhwh.com), but you can check it out in your own officially approved bible: Each time the word �the Lord� occurs, it originally said YHWH, Gods name.
The name of God occurred 6828 times in the old testament, so it has been some task to remove all of them (in a time without �search and replace�). This considerable task was of course done for a very good reason. If you have always had an inner dislike against reading your bible, you now know why: It is just about as useful as a plastic machinegun. Of course it is also this bible our own priests use, which explains why they are so harmless.
To make it clear: If you want a tool which can be used to do your will, you must call upon the name of God. For instance you can use �I-AM� as a mantra in the morning and in the evening before going to bed. Or you can use the words �I am spontaneous�, �I act and talk freely�, �I do and say what is on my mind, always anytime�. In the yoga meditation known as the deep yoga nidra, which are in store in most yoga institutes, a meditation seed are picked before the meditation starts. One of the mentioned mantras might be applied there.
Depending on the whole-heartedness of your approach, the effect is said to occur after a few months. You become a co-creator of your life and are no longer caught as a fly in a net, like most of the population is today. You get in touch with the creating powers in the universe, but woe to the person who has not cleansed his temple before the god arrives! The person, who has the webpage where I got the image of the Hebrew bible, followed the procedure every day for a couple of months, but then stopped.
Not because it did not work, but because it works. A few pounds of plutonium can be used to do good or bad. If your motives are unpure and selfish, your actions will be likewise. Actions which now have a much larger effect on your surroundings. Everybody has �dark� things in their basement which they do not realize, but by meditating daily, light is shed on these matters and they can be dissolved. Personally I have spend the last couple of years meditating and soul-searching to �clean out the basement� and get my priorities straight. It is only recently that I have dared (and understood the need) to consciously call upon the willpower. Now you know the technique and can choose to use it or not.
 What happens today also happened a few thousands years ago. The priests who succeeded in creating this contact, suddenly attained a knowledge which were inherently different than knowledge attained from their surroundings. This knowledge was certain, they knew it was true.
They suddenly realized that their highly treasured Torah, was in fact like a roaring lion devouring people from the moment they were born.
And they realized that Lucifer the fallen angel was merely one of Gods faces. Naturally just a single word about this would be enough for the people to gather around with stones in their hands.
So they kept their mouth shut and passed on their knowledge in obscure symbols, which they were very cautious to reveal to others. And then they waited for their Messiah.
The author of this article can be contacted here, and is a member of The Book Of THoTH Forums
Part Two of this article can be found here
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Posted on Thursday, June 08 @ 13:53:34 CDT by THoTH
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