The below quote from another site got me thinking....
I have an issue with this, if the restoration of Israel by an annointed one by God himself would only result in a physical (Assiah) restoration then it cannot be termed anything but a restoration. But would that restoration be the exact replica of what Israel was in the first place? As far as human memory is concerned Israel was an ancient (relatively) physical geographical location whose borders and rulers changed on occassion. Sure, there was a spiritual (Atziluth) impetus for Moses to lead people there. And there was the defining of the borders which led to the creation (Briah) of the nation of Israel plus there had to be the formation (Yetzirah) of how that nation would function. It was only when these 3 worlds were acted on in there appropriate order that the 4th world would come about - the physical result (Assiah).
But as for the restoration of Israel being defined as the entire (known and what can be physically observed) universe, I would like to know how the other 3 worlds would come into play concerning this. The order of world is thus....
Atziluth (purely spiritual) > Briah (creation) > Yetzirah (formation) > Assiah (physical)
But to put the physical world 1st and then figuring out what can be done with it in order to try and create things with it to somehow serve a spiritual purpose is a reversal of order. Unfortunately mankind views spirituality from a physical perspective and from this take the view that spirituality is to serve ones' physical being, just something to complement ones' physical existence. Rather than ones' physical being is merely a vehicle to serve ones' spirit.
You see this everyday in how people think the only purpose in life is to get money so as to indulge in physical pleasures/luxuries. How many times have you been told that 'time is money'. As though both are of absolute equal value, if you were to help a mentally ill person stop having to live on the street and eating out of bins with no sense of dignity. And if you were to get that person to living in an abode of some sort, and have them in a position to support themselves and actually feel good about themselves and a sense of hope. What would people say to you? Some would say that you did a compassionate thing, then you would have others saying 'what did you get out of that?' implying you got some sort of payment, or stole from them or were even bedding them. And when you say that you got no physical reward those same people would be the 1st to say that you are an idiot and loser.
Anyway the issue of Israel being restored so as to contain the entire known universe can be read to imply that Gods' creation is entirely physical and can only defined in a physical context and this I cannot accept.
I am a monotheist - there is only one God and that is the God of Abraham and he has no partners or equals - Praise be upon him and his name. I am also a panentheist, this is different from pantheism which its believers hold that God is in everything. Panentheism holds that everything is within God, this I believe to be true because the 4 worlds come into play in their appropriate order, it can also allow for a degree of autonomy amongst its inhabitants which is a case of free option instead of freewill. It can also explain to a certain degree how the likes of magic can be accessed by inhabitants and that the 'power' for such things can be measured even though it is not a physical product in itself in absolute terms. I will try to explain my beliefs in human digestible terms.
So I'll put this to you, before God there was nothing (assuming) God came into being and he is the only thing to exist. God exists and nothing else, there is no absence, free space, anything that can be defined except him (or anything defined as nothing, but to say this is somewhat contradictory...true?). If I could ask God a question it would be this... "How long did it take for you to realise what you are?"
Continuing.... it is said that God created by emanation, I assume this would be by projecting his substance into a void in order to bring about creation by separation from himself. This he could have done but how would he bring about void within himself? The sephiroth of Ain, Ain Soph and Ain Soph Aur are interperated by us to be states of negative existance. Again this can come across as contradictory, example -1 is a number yes it is a negative number but none the less it is a number - it doesnt 'not exist' same could be said for 0 as well I suppose.
Now assuming that God is infinite and cannot have any physical boundaries or limits by his inherant nature, it can only come about if he imposes limits on himself. God cannot be a positive or negative existence solely within himself, he would contain both and yet be above either. Same way he is neither exclusively good or evil, he can be both and yet is above either. He is in perfect balance because he is perfect himself, as he is perfect he can have no fault by his standards because he is the standard because he is perfect. And yet mankind will hold him up to their standards even though they are not perfect and yet they deem themselves to be because of their physical status, again this is an example of reversal of order.
If we look at order for all of the 4 worlds we see it as this...
God > the 3 Ain sephiroth > the Tree of Life (Kether and Chokmah have no vice, the other sephiroth have both virtue and vice) and Death (said that only 4 sephiroth exist and they have no virtue) of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The 3 Ain sephiroth are said to have neither virtue or vice, as far as I know no-one has ever been able to work with these sephiroth as they have no colour or even God name associated with them. They dont seem to be accessible by anyone but God and maybe thats how its meant to be.
So how did all creation of existance come about?
So you have God the purely spiritual, he has a thought or a desire/need (Atziluth). He then envisions how this desire/need can be met by himself and within his thought/imagination envisions a possible solution... a creation (Briah). He then thinks how this creation would function with or without his help or supervision (Yetzirah) and finally he brings about the end product (Assiah).
If God created via emanation that would involve using his essence within his own essence, so if we say that God withdrew his essence into himself to create the void in order to infuse his essence back into that void to create. Wouldnt that be merely a temporary state as he is infinite and he couldnt 'dispose' of portions of himself to create a void? We could look at the laws of thermodynamics, example... You can burn a piece of wood, but have you destroyed the wood or make it non existant? No, all you have done is changed the vibrational rate of that wood by applying energy (fire) and turned that wood into smoke and ash. Apart from that the only thing you have actually 'destroyed' is the time that the tree has taken to grow to provide the wood that you burnt. Regardless of the time involved the tree is still subject to the laws of thermodynamics because it is a physical being where as God is not. And time is a symbolic function in the laws of thermodynamics, it is a symbolic measurement of a non physical factor and cannot be destroyed by physical means.
So how does God create? While you can describe it as an act of emanation, I will put forward he creates by acts of contractions. Isaac Luria (as I remember) described it as Tzimtzum, as God is infinite and eternal essence he could only do two things which really are one. To create a void he would have to contract his essence in what we would see as a physical boundary, and to do this would to an extent be described as condensing his essence (but how is that possible for he is infinite?). In a physical sense we can relate to and somewhat interperate condensing and contracting because we are physical beings in a physical world, but we can also somewhat comprehend the other 3 worlds (non physical) because we are not purely physical beings because the other 3 worlds had a factor in how we come to exist today. We as physical beings are the end result of the order of the other 3 worlds.
In magic we are looking to alter or change our circumstances, to do this we need to manipulate time so well as seek to alter vibrational rates in order to bring about a physical result. If God truly created a void and this is where we exist, how could we speak to him in ritual, submission or even magic? He cannot be absent from anywhere that we can imagine, I suppose we are like pets in that we only know of what our owner shows to us.
Still....we can always seek to dig under the fence to see what is out there, but as humans we can always seek to perform magic. And to seek to do it while we have the time in Assiah.
I'll leave this for the time, more contemplation required........
I have an issue with this, if the restoration of Israel by an annointed one by God himself would only result in a physical (Assiah) restoration then it cannot be termed anything but a restoration. But would that restoration be the exact replica of what Israel was in the first place? As far as human memory is concerned Israel was an ancient (relatively) physical geographical location whose borders and rulers changed on occassion. Sure, there was a spiritual (Atziluth) impetus for Moses to lead people there. And there was the defining of the borders which led to the creation (Briah) of the nation of Israel plus there had to be the formation (Yetzirah) of how that nation would function. It was only when these 3 worlds were acted on in there appropriate order that the 4th world would come about - the physical result (Assiah).
But as for the restoration of Israel being defined as the entire (known and what can be physically observed) universe, I would like to know how the other 3 worlds would come into play concerning this. The order of world is thus....
Atziluth (purely spiritual) > Briah (creation) > Yetzirah (formation) > Assiah (physical)
But to put the physical world 1st and then figuring out what can be done with it in order to try and create things with it to somehow serve a spiritual purpose is a reversal of order. Unfortunately mankind views spirituality from a physical perspective and from this take the view that spirituality is to serve ones' physical being, just something to complement ones' physical existence. Rather than ones' physical being is merely a vehicle to serve ones' spirit.
You see this everyday in how people think the only purpose in life is to get money so as to indulge in physical pleasures/luxuries. How many times have you been told that 'time is money'. As though both are of absolute equal value, if you were to help a mentally ill person stop having to live on the street and eating out of bins with no sense of dignity. And if you were to get that person to living in an abode of some sort, and have them in a position to support themselves and actually feel good about themselves and a sense of hope. What would people say to you? Some would say that you did a compassionate thing, then you would have others saying 'what did you get out of that?' implying you got some sort of payment, or stole from them or were even bedding them. And when you say that you got no physical reward those same people would be the 1st to say that you are an idiot and loser.
Anyway the issue of Israel being restored so as to contain the entire known universe can be read to imply that Gods' creation is entirely physical and can only defined in a physical context and this I cannot accept.
I am a monotheist - there is only one God and that is the God of Abraham and he has no partners or equals - Praise be upon him and his name. I am also a panentheist, this is different from pantheism which its believers hold that God is in everything. Panentheism holds that everything is within God, this I believe to be true because the 4 worlds come into play in their appropriate order, it can also allow for a degree of autonomy amongst its inhabitants which is a case of free option instead of freewill. It can also explain to a certain degree how the likes of magic can be accessed by inhabitants and that the 'power' for such things can be measured even though it is not a physical product in itself in absolute terms. I will try to explain my beliefs in human digestible terms.
So I'll put this to you, before God there was nothing (assuming) God came into being and he is the only thing to exist. God exists and nothing else, there is no absence, free space, anything that can be defined except him (or anything defined as nothing, but to say this is somewhat contradictory...true?). If I could ask God a question it would be this... "How long did it take for you to realise what you are?"
Continuing.... it is said that God created by emanation, I assume this would be by projecting his substance into a void in order to bring about creation by separation from himself. This he could have done but how would he bring about void within himself? The sephiroth of Ain, Ain Soph and Ain Soph Aur are interperated by us to be states of negative existance. Again this can come across as contradictory, example -1 is a number yes it is a negative number but none the less it is a number - it doesnt 'not exist' same could be said for 0 as well I suppose.
Now assuming that God is infinite and cannot have any physical boundaries or limits by his inherant nature, it can only come about if he imposes limits on himself. God cannot be a positive or negative existence solely within himself, he would contain both and yet be above either. Same way he is neither exclusively good or evil, he can be both and yet is above either. He is in perfect balance because he is perfect himself, as he is perfect he can have no fault by his standards because he is the standard because he is perfect. And yet mankind will hold him up to their standards even though they are not perfect and yet they deem themselves to be because of their physical status, again this is an example of reversal of order.
If we look at order for all of the 4 worlds we see it as this...
God > the 3 Ain sephiroth > the Tree of Life (Kether and Chokmah have no vice, the other sephiroth have both virtue and vice) and Death (said that only 4 sephiroth exist and they have no virtue) of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The 3 Ain sephiroth are said to have neither virtue or vice, as far as I know no-one has ever been able to work with these sephiroth as they have no colour or even God name associated with them. They dont seem to be accessible by anyone but God and maybe thats how its meant to be.
So how did all creation of existance come about?
So you have God the purely spiritual, he has a thought or a desire/need (Atziluth). He then envisions how this desire/need can be met by himself and within his thought/imagination envisions a possible solution... a creation (Briah). He then thinks how this creation would function with or without his help or supervision (Yetzirah) and finally he brings about the end product (Assiah).
If God created via emanation that would involve using his essence within his own essence, so if we say that God withdrew his essence into himself to create the void in order to infuse his essence back into that void to create. Wouldnt that be merely a temporary state as he is infinite and he couldnt 'dispose' of portions of himself to create a void? We could look at the laws of thermodynamics, example... You can burn a piece of wood, but have you destroyed the wood or make it non existant? No, all you have done is changed the vibrational rate of that wood by applying energy (fire) and turned that wood into smoke and ash. Apart from that the only thing you have actually 'destroyed' is the time that the tree has taken to grow to provide the wood that you burnt. Regardless of the time involved the tree is still subject to the laws of thermodynamics because it is a physical being where as God is not. And time is a symbolic function in the laws of thermodynamics, it is a symbolic measurement of a non physical factor and cannot be destroyed by physical means.
So how does God create? While you can describe it as an act of emanation, I will put forward he creates by acts of contractions. Isaac Luria (as I remember) described it as Tzimtzum, as God is infinite and eternal essence he could only do two things which really are one. To create a void he would have to contract his essence in what we would see as a physical boundary, and to do this would to an extent be described as condensing his essence (but how is that possible for he is infinite?). In a physical sense we can relate to and somewhat interperate condensing and contracting because we are physical beings in a physical world, but we can also somewhat comprehend the other 3 worlds (non physical) because we are not purely physical beings because the other 3 worlds had a factor in how we come to exist today. We as physical beings are the end result of the order of the other 3 worlds.
In magic we are looking to alter or change our circumstances, to do this we need to manipulate time so well as seek to alter vibrational rates in order to bring about a physical result. If God truly created a void and this is where we exist, how could we speak to him in ritual, submission or even magic? He cannot be absent from anywhere that we can imagine, I suppose we are like pets in that we only know of what our owner shows to us.
Still....we can always seek to dig under the fence to see what is out there, but as humans we can always seek to perform magic. And to seek to do it while we have the time in Assiah.
I'll leave this for the time, more contemplation required........