Vav and the Firmament

Genesis 1:6 says, ‘And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters’. I don’t want to go too deeply into the analysis of Genesis yet; suffice it to say that this is outlining the World of Briah coming into existence; but the pattern remains the same for all Yetzirah. The diagram shows how the Vav comes between the two Hehs. The imagery is sexual; Yod (Chokmah, the Father) impregnates Heh (Binah, the Mother) with Vav (Chesed-Yesod, the Son) which equally produces the final Heh (Malkuth, the Daughter). ‘God’ at this stage in Creation is Elohim (אלהים); The Tetragrammaton (יהוה) is the divine formula of Yetzirah.

The Worlds of Emanation and Creation can, as we have seen, be attributed on one Tree to the Supernal Sephiroth; but these are Worlds ‘without form’. How does form come into being? The process is adumbrated in Genesis 1:2 (I’m trying not to go too deep into textual analysis, but this bit is important); ‘and the Spirit of God (Ruach Elohim) moved upon the face of the waters (Ha-Mayim,)’. If any of you are ‘Star Trek’ fans you will know the sign that Spock makes. Leonard Nimoy, as a child, and when his eyes were supposed to have been closed, observed the rabbi in his synagogue making this sign. It is a way of forming the letter Shin (ש) with the fingers. The rabbi does this to represent the Spirit of God, because the numerical value of the letters is the same as Shin – 300. And further, the verb translated ‘moved upon’ means ‘to rub oneself against’. So, what is represented here is Shin, Fire, rubbing against Mem, Water. Those of you familiar with Hinduism may recognise hints of Shiva and Shakti. At this stage there is an Abyss marking the limits of existence; when someone asks how ‘something’ can come from ‘nothing’, they are asking about how this Abyss is crossed. The union of Chokmah and Binah creates the so-called ‘false Sephirah’ (Da’ath) which, in the imagery of the Tree, ‘bridges’ the Abyss. What happens is that an expanse (the ‘firmament’, the Vav of Tetragrammaton) forms within the Waters (Binah, the Heh) and thereby divides it into the upper and lower waters – Binah and Malkuth. This is only a ‘seed form’ in this part of Genesis but, because the process is concentrated into a few letters, it is easier to see what is happening. Ultimately this ‘expanse’ becomes the visible Universe, the World of Yetzirah. Tracking its development through Genesis is a truly rewarding adventure – for those who are fascinated by such things; but I won’t inflict it on you in any depth. Promise.

The Buddhists call the world of our senses ‘Maya’, illusory, and this is why. If you’ve seen the way a few drops of petrol on a puddle will create a dazzling array of rainbow patterns, you have a good image of Yetzirah – except you have to imagine water on both sides of the petrol – above and below it. The upper and lower waters are separated by this film (Yetzirah, the world of forms), which, as the lightning flash of creation passes through it, is excited into producing the ‘dazzling array’ we see around us. In essence, it's a fully sensory Hologram, generated by the interaction between Mother (Binah) and Daughter (Malkuth).  The ‘upper surface’ of the film is the upper triad of Sephiroth - Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth; and the ‘lower surface’ is the lower triad, Netzach, Hod, Yesod. These Sephiroth are real, creative powers, but there is a difference between them; the lower triad is much more easily detectable to us than the upper one.