There is a school of thought in Qabalistic circles that the Tree of Life originally had just four sepira. It was perfect. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Nothing died. Nothing loved.
And that was just too unbearable. So we cracked it open, dropped the bottom out of the whole shebang and came up with the universe. All sorts of things happening now.
What was the sound of the Tree falling at the beginning of time? It was the sound of a billion billion particles of light bursting out of a singular point of possibility. Duh.
We call the stuff that fell furthest “matter” and some people believe that's all that's left of the Big Bang. These materialists can't tell you why the Big Bang happened nor anything about what happened right before, but they will think you are awfully silly if you think there's more to the universe than this far-flung stuff.
Other people believe that this far-flung stuff is eeeevil. Flesh is evil, sex is evil, eating is evil. They call the distance we've fallen a sin and work to flee towards the center by leaving all this shit behind.
But every bit of stuff, no matter where it landed, was once part of perfection. So what really fell? G*d (whatever that is.) We did this. We the people, and the animals, the plants, the minerals. Thoughts had a hand as did hunger, beauty and sorrow.
The story goes that the journey back to the perfect source is actually amazing. We can't always tell because we're too caught up in it. And it's not really a journey back because we are what we came from and by journeying we are changed. But whatever...
The stuff that fell furthest is the stuff that has the longest journey. It's the stuff that believed in the plan the most, leaped off the cliff with the greatest trust and the biggest YEEHAW! Let's get this incarnation party started! They say that's why Malkuth, the lowliest sepira, the kingdom of Earth, looks up at Kether, the Crown, and blows kisses.
That's the story, anyway.
3 comments:
oh my, i hadn't heard the four-sefirot story, but i sure do love your take on malkuth. the notion that the kingdom, the glorious ultimate expression of unity through the manifold, the divine displaying its love affair with itself through the splendor of manifestation......
who in their right mind could view this transcendence as debased?
what is sadder than wasting one's opportunity to revel in physicality by denying its rightful place as the true reflection of the crown.
damn.
see, we were talking about this the other night. every word i try to write just comes off as trite and overblown.
gah!!!!!!
khaire
suz
What you're writing sounds great to me!
And I agree that it's hard to think of this idea as being debased, but apparently, the idea that all of material existence is the body of g*d (whatever that is) is a named heresy.
:sigh: I feel I have failed. Or else people just have short memories.
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