Four Worlds - Yetzirah

jmd

Kabalah - Four Worlds - Yetzirah

Before the Kabalah Forum was folded within this new and wonderful broader forum (maybe it can be considered the leaven in Magic and Spellcraft ;)), a number of threads were even added to the Table of Contents without their actual formation as yet... This is one of these.

Of the four worlds, the World of Yetzirah - the world of formation - seems at times the most difficult to clearly explain. I have reflected numerous times on this, and have wondered if it was not simply because this is the one we are, in our thoughts, so often engaged in... and then I also think that this doesn't do justice to the Yetzirahic world.

It is the world whereby forms take shape - but not forms in their manifested state. Rather, Forms in a somewhat similar sense to Goethe's discovery of the Ür-Plant: it already has all the elements by which it can instruct its Assiatic manifestation.

In Hebrew, 'Yetzirah' has the connotation of not only the making of something, but also the impulse in its making. Oft times, it is translated as 'creation' rather than 'formation'.

I'll leave it here for now...
 

Kiama

Does the world of Yetzirah have a place on the Tree of Life? Where does it end?

Kiama
 

Macavity

(very) Random Thoughts

jmd said:
It is the world whereby forms take shape - but not forms in their manifested state. Rather, Forms in a somewhat similar sense to Goethe's discovery of the Ür-Plant: it already has all the elements by which it can instruct its Assiatic manifestation.
I think it quite fun that e.g. Colin Low draws analogies with "cyberspace" and virtual reality. In a CAD system, I could have a virtual glass and fill it with my virtual beer. In that sense I interact with the "intangible but real". Also (my) ideas of data abstraction(?) where e.g. (XML) data can be shared and understood but only be made visible when transformed (XSLT) into a Web Page (HTML). Now, there's a thought? :D

But I sense Yetzirah must occupy some pivital role. It seems to me(!) the only generally and realistically accessible world? (Below the abyss and all that) Also, in the single tree of worlds, comprises Sephira 4 thru 9, being the domain of the Holy Guardian Angel "first point of contact" the four princes (sic) etc. etc.

From my own (internal) ramblings this seems to parallel Crowley's implication(?) that Tarot card minors two and three are somehow "less distinguishable" (across the suits) until "completion" (4W!) (formation?) within the fours. Another (probable red-herring!) is that "All Swords" lie in Yetzirah? ISTR I've seen vague hints that Swords are in some way "different" from other suits - Even before the Crowley/GD scheme?

Macavity

P.S. Following my discussion with Kiama on the HGA, I've perhaps now understood better that the "worlds" can be expressed alternatively within a single tree, as a collection of "parallel plane" trees or indeed a linear chain of Jacob's Ladder? Well, that's my story, anyway... :laugh:
 

jmd

Interesting reflections, Macavity... and wonderful analogies.

The World of Yetzirah is at times mentioned as extending from the fourth through to (and including) the ninth Sefirot.

Alternatively, it is at other times described as extending from the seventh to the ninth (the lower 'triangle') - which I personally prefer.
 

jmd

Kabalah - Four Worlds - Yetzirah

In the Table of Contents [ToC] for studying Kabalah, the top three links related to the four worlds had not, in fact, yet been created - the ToC was constructed at a time when there was quite active participation in Kabalah, which also had its own specific Forum Area within the Study section - this was before there were so many wonderful and more directly relevant Tarot Forums herein.

There are a number of ways in which the Yetziratic world may be described. One of these is of the world, in its ongoing direction towards actualisation in Assiah, as in constant flux of transformation.

Literally, 'Yetzirah' is often translated as 'formation'. The key root-word here is, it seems, 'form', in its sense not of 'shape', but of 'create'.

This world gives very much the impetus of formation, of creation, of sustenance.

Whereas the world 'below' it - Assiah - may be described as the underlying matrix which sustains the manifested world, this level provides the impulses and forces at work which itself 'later' (in its eternal present form) forms this underlying matrix.

Upon the Tree of Life, various Kab(b)alists variously connect Sefirot - and of course some connect a whole Tree for each World. In many ways, I personally favour one of the more common association of Netzah, Hod and Yesod as the three Yetzirahic Sefirot...

I realise that not much discussion has occured on the four worlds in recent times... all the more reasons to bring this to the fore again :)
 

kwaw

Re: Kabalah - Four Worlds - Yetzirah

jmd said:

Upon the Tree of Life, various Kab(b)alists variously connect Sefirot - and of course some connect a whole Tree for each World.


I thought 'all' kabbalists thought of the sephiroth as existing in each of the four worlds [some add a fifth]. They don't?

This is commonly portrayed in the form of a ladder of trees. There are various ways of portraying the ladder. Perhaps the simplest is in which Malkuth becomes Kether of the tree below. So Malkuth of Atziluth is Kether of Beriah.

A more common version is one in which Tiphereth becomes Kether of the Tree below, Yesod/Daath, Malkuth/Tiphereth, Netzach/Chokmah and Hod/Binah. In this then the 'false' sephiroth Daath is actually Yesod of the World above, and does not exist in Atziluth.

In many ways, I personally favour one of the more common association of Netzah, Hod and Yesod as the three Yetzirahic Sefirot...


Another common association of the composite tree is the first septhiroth to the first world; second two sephiroth to the second world; next six to yetzirah, and Malkuth to Assiah.

An early version I tend to favour, but does not seem very common nowadays, is that based on the Tetractys. First world to first sephira, next to next two sephiroth, next to next three sephiroth, and last [assiah] to next four.

Kwaw
 

Fulgour

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jmd

Drawing a three-dimensional representation of what some Kabalists consider is a Tree of Life in each of the four worlds, linking the Keter of the lower Tree to the Tifaret of the one higher up, is quite useful.

Warren Kenton (Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi) also tends to use precisely this model, and much useful information can be found on his School of the Soul's site: Kabbalah Society.

Personally, I tend to view this as a useful conceptual and intellectual metaphor, but retain the ONE Tree as essential. As such, the four worlds can be used to 'sever' its various portions and penetrate the mysteries of each of its parts.

As such also, I tend to prefer to consider the top three of the four worlds has each having three emanating 'worlds' (ie, three Sefirot, but this does not entail that each of these Sefirotic 'worlds' are each a Tree of Life).

The tetractys shown by Fulgour in the above post also shows another way on which the four worlds may interestingly be divided, with the Yetzirahic (being the subject of this thread) comprising of the central Sefirot - the third (Hesed), fourth (Pahad) and fifth (Tifaret) - or third 'layer' of the tenfold Tetractys.
 

Fulgour

Yetzirah

Water

Netzach - Hod - Yesod


...or no?
 

Parzival

Four Worlds-- Yetzirah

Please permit a brief addition by a student of Kabbalah, no expert. Yetzirah is a realm of "archetype-ing" rather than archetypes pre-fabricated. It is a plastic, dynamic dimension; here, thought-forms come into increasing structural stability.( The final concretion is our world below.)
Irene Gad, in Tarot and Individuation, describes Yetzirah as where " the flowing creative process unfolds"," the level at which the formless takes shape." The astral world of the occultists?...