Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: Two weeks ago, we touched on the links between ancient India and actual truths concerning the universe. Apart from India, though, there is one more culture who’s religion is contaminated with similar occult facts – Judaism, or specifically the Kabbalistic mysticism within it. The two text we’ll look at this week are related to just that. This first one though has one more interesting aspect within it. It tells us why something is wrong, but a reading between the lines may reveal what could be right.
In this treaty, we will be discussing why the Levitansky model for correlations between the Sefirot and the Idee-Gestalt duality fails even under cursory examination. Furthermore, we will also discuss the relationship between perception of the Gestalt and the Gestalt itself under the leans of classical Kabbalistic Sorcery.
For those unfamiliar with the Levitansky model, we’ll begin by briefly describing its cosmology. A more detailed explanation can be found in chapter 2.
Levitansky and her disciple Wassermann were both smitten with the Idee-Gestalt duality, this is not our own conclusion, rather, in her letters, Levitansky writes:
Understanding that we live within the Gestalt opened my eyes to many things. It gave old texts new meaning and emboldened me to find meaning where we previously believed it to be lost.
Helena Levitansky, 1903
As their work dates back to a century ago, it is important to remember that the Idee-Gestalt movement itself was young at that point and still developing a solid theory of how exactly the duality functioned. Levitansky’s work in finding correlations between the new model and the writings of the old Kabbalistic traditions should not be taken lightly. The issues come after Levitansky’s death at the hands of the Third Reich when Wassermann fled west with her writings. The misattribution of the final model to Levitansky comes from her disciple’s wish to honour her with his work.
Unfortunately, Wassermann was put in an unfortunate situation when finishing the model, being forced to work on it without the original texts they both used in Germany. Those texts are also, unfortunately, most likely lost around 1944 during the bombings that destroyed the Versteckte Bibliothek von Berlin.
The final model presented the Sefirot as a map of the boundaries between the Gestalt and the Idee. In this view, the Gestalt would be correlated to the Sefira Malkuth or an existence even lower down, while the Idee would be reflected in the Sefira Keter in much the same way. This is based on the so-called Four Worlds or ABiYA. The remaining eight Sefira would thus form pathways from Malkuth to Keter, where Adam Kadmon was hidden from us.
The issue with this perspective is manyfold and we will attempt to unwrap them one by one. And we will begin by taking a brief look at the Four Worlds… or rather Seven Worlds. A detailed explanation of this subject can be found in chapter 3, but for a brief introduction.
The seven worlds of the Kabbalistic Sorcerers are:
– Ein Sof, which is a state of divinity,
– Adam Kadmon, which is in itself described as a world,
– Atziluth, the first of the Four Worlds,
– Beri’ah,
– Yetzirah,
– Assiah, the fourth of the Four Worlds,
– Assiah Gashmi, which is the physical world.
The Sefira are then assigned to these worlds, though the details differ from Sorcerer to Sorcerer. For example, Keter can be a part of Adam or Atziluth, Binah can be shared between Atziluth and Beri’ah and so forth. Most interesting of all Malkuth can be a part of Assiah and Yesod can be part of Yetzirah, but both Malkuth and Yesod are a constituent of Assiah Gashmi in some of the writings. Clearly, the exact assignment was a matter of either opinion or speculation among classical Kabbalists, but the exact correlation between them is not important. The progression from Malkuth to Keter is the main focus of this discussion.
Was the Levitansky (or should I write Wassermann?) model correct, the progression of Sefira brings one further away from the Gestalt and closer to the Idee, in this case, represented by Keter. The issue with the model starts with the Ein Sof and progresses from there.
The Ein Sof is the creating force in Kabbalistic cosmology, the source of all creation. It is Chaos that becomes Cosmos, to reference a different cosmological system. Overall it bears a striking resemblance to the Elder Gods, which are not beings of the Idee. This causes multiple issues which we will discuss in chapter 4, along with further proof that the Ein Sof and the Elder Gods are one and the same.
Adam Kadmon is the most contentious issue due to the rather scarce information about the subject that survives to this day. Adam’s position in the world is anyone’s guess, but at the very least we can present evidence that there is no need for Adam’s location to be hidden within the Idee. We will present this proof in detail in chapter 5.
Finally, in chapter 6 we bring our evidence together and present an alternate model which excludes the Idee and instead presents the Seder Hishtalshelus as a model of how we perceive the Gestalt itself. To summarise, the Assiah Gashmi is indeed the inanimate Gestalt, the world as seen as a collection of matter. But with the progression of the Sefira, we climb the ladder of understanding of the material world. Thus Netzach and Hod emerge from Yesod and further up the six remaining Sefira surround Da’at – the state of unity of the ten emanations – Knowledge itself. Knowledge of the Gestalt that leads humanity towards the Elder Gods.
The following part is conjecture, but the study of the oldest surviving texts suggests that Knowledge is the key to unlocking the Chamber of Guf and releasing a soul from Adam Kadmon. Read in this way the Sefira are a roadmap towards Apotheosis. The theoretical significance of Guf is fully explored in chapter 7. In summary, the view that every human is granted a soul from the Chamber upon birth might be a contamination of the original writing with theology. Instead, it is possible the soul must be earned or taken by force, for one to become more like Adam.
In the closing 8th chapter we will finish by examining the World of Fire. The mythical realm that is hidden from humans. In light of the significance of Guf and the descent of a “soul” from Adam Kadmon, as the Emanations are often described as light, the World of Fire becomes an allegory to a level of perception where one sees the Emanations rather than their effect. The World of Fire could then be the perception of the flesh of the Elder Gods – the energy that drives the universe, the Gestalt, into motion.
Esoteric Musings... 