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The Four Worlds Qabalists divide the Universe into four Worlds. The evidence for these is found in Genesis, but it is fascinating to notice that the same ideas are found in Taoism. There is a short note on this. In Genesis the creation myth is told twice; in the first, ‘Elohim’ creates the world (Briah, the World of Creation), and this is followed by Tetragrammaton forming it (Yetzirah, the World of Formation). The first word in Genesis, ‘Bereshith’ is taken as signifying Atziluth, the World of Emanation, and Assiah, the World of Making, or Action, follows Formation. The relationship between the Tree and the Worlds can be shown in several ways. The least useful (in my experience) is the so-called Pendulum Method, where a whole Tree is given for each World, and they are arranged in a string, with the Kether of each overlying the Malkuth of the preceding Tree. A much more useful method is ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, where the Kether overlies the Tiphareth of the preceding Tree. We will look at this method later. A third method (and probably the most useful, for everyday purposes) is to distribute the four Worlds onto one Tree. It’s important to remember that (at least in the case of the latter two) these methods are not contradictory. The Tree of Life is a map of complete systems. The Universe is necessarily one such, and so the Worlds fit onto one Tree; but each World is a complete system in itself, and so can be portrayed as a complete Tree.
The decoded text of Genesis shows the Worlds coming into being in a temporal sequence. It is sometimes valuable, or even necessary, to view them this way; but remember that they didn’t go away, and now make up a part of the Universe. They may not be visible, but we can infer their existence and operation.
The first World, Atziluth (Emanation), refers (in temporal terms) to the primary impetus in bringing the Universe into being. It is also called ‘the Divine Realm’ as it only has functions normally ascribed to God. On one Tree it is portrayed by the first Sephirah, Kether. The second World is called Briah (Creation). This is the World of creative energies and forces. This is the world you use every time you set out to bring something new into the world. If you know its rules, you know how to prepare a plan for how to get jobs done well – everything from a ceremony to doing the washing-up. On one Tree it is portrayed by the next two Sephiroth, Chokmah and Binah. The third World is Yetzirah (Formation). This is the World of Forms – the world you see around you, the forms in your dreams and visions, and a few other things. It is this World that Briah operates upon. In one sense, this world is not ‘real’; it is what the Buddhists call Maya, ‘illusory’. What you sense depends on what you use to sense it with. The world as it appears to human sight is different to the way a bee sees it, or the way we see it with the aid of a microscope, electron microscope, or cyclotron. Objects that appear solid to our eyes are mostly empty space at the atomic level, and the physicists tell us there is a level at which there is nothing but a froth of sub-atomic potentiality. We see forms (in our imagination, or when sleeping) that have no substance, and experience things (voices, touches etc.) when there are no forms that could have generated them. All these things are aspects of reality, and portray reality (with various levels of inaccuracy), but none are reality itself. On one Tree it is portrayed by the six Sephiroth from Chesed to Yesod. The Fourth World is Assiah (Making, or Action). This is the World where things happen. We can’t see this world – we only perceive the forms formed by our minds. It is portrayed on one Tree by the last Sephirah, Malkuth. |
C. The Four Worlds |