The Fall
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@h2h said
"If I can return to the question of the Fall, perhaps someone more experienced would be willing to shed light on the theory of emanations (“degenerative monism”) in Kabbalah, namely how does Malkuth result from Kether? [...]
If my understanding is correct, a “blockage” or “degeneration” of emanations occurs at each sephirah that passes down to the lower sephiroths."
I wouldn't agree at all that each successive Sephirah results from a blockage or degeneration of the one before. This presumes something inferior about it - yet, a basic premise of the Tree of Life is that all Sephiroth are equally holy.
"Emanation" (about which you primarily ask) is a pouring forth. (The word literally means "to flow out" - Latin emanare.) This is a creative and progressive act.
And yet, at least in Atziluth, the Sephiroth are said to come into existence simultaneously. (The "Lightning Flash" isn't progressive but, rather, instantaneous / simultaneous.) This may be for so simple a reason as that time doesn't exist in Atziluth and, therefore, all things are eternal (and, thus, simultaneous). But in the lower worlds, there is certainly the appearance of sequentiality.
I think the key concept of how the progressive differentiation occurs is increase in complexity. It's the Tao Teh Ching's differentiation of "the one thing" (in Kether) and "the ten thousand things" (in Malkuth). Multiplicity of expressions of the life-force coexists with increased differentiation and specialization, and a progressively more complex-seeming whole.
If the Sephirothic numbers are taken as the number of geometric points under review, then the number of dimensions inferred is always one less than the number of the Sephirah. (For example, Chesed, or 4 points, represents the emergence of 3-dimensional space. Gevurah, or 5 points, signifies 5-dimensional space.) This holds up well analytically as far as Tiphereth, at which point it becomes pretty unmanageable; but it does give a sense of how the process is set in motion. Each new idea exists at right-angles to the whole of the prior. Ultimately this is not a change of content or form, merely of point of view. It's an extension of the basic 0=2 equation: There is really nothing changed when 0 becomes 2 or 2 becomes 0 except the way you're looking at it.
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Aum418, Jim – thanks for your replies.
If emanation is a creative and progressive force that increases in complexity down the Tree, why should it stop at Malkuth rather than continuing down into unknown realms of ever-increasing dimensional complexity? Where is the limiting or restricting force to the creative act of emanation? Or is Malkuth as the “lowest” sephiroth merely a perception of our world and the ten sephiroths a relative frame of reference?
Further, I don’t quite understand how the sephiroths can increase in complexity down the Tree yet ultimately not change in form, merely in point of view.
My question is aimed at trying to understand Malkuth, how it is constituted, since the alchemical Great Work is to “fix the volatile and volatilize the fixed” (i.e. materialize spirit and spiritualize matter).
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@h2h said
"If emanation is a creative and progressive force that increases in complexity down the Tree, why should it stop at Malkuth rather than continuing down into unknown realms of ever-increasing dimensional complexity?"
Observation in the field of Malkuth those us that there is increasing complexity, and layers of complexity. This leads to the conclusion that by "Malkuth" we mean a field large enough to include a wide range of ever-increasing complexity.
This doesn't mean that there isn't anything more complex, though it may mean that there isn't anything more complex that the human psyche can grok. I'm drawn to the view that, within the term "Malkuth" (a Kingdom being a realm of diverity) there is anticipation of all subsequent magnitudes of complexity.
"Further, I don’t quite understand how the sephiroths can increase in complexity down the Tree yet ultimately not change in form, merely in point of view. "
Look at some object head-on, up close, so that you only see one side of it. If it has a flat surface, it will actually look two-dimensional. Then pull back and see the whole of the object so that it actually looks 3D to you. The object hasn't changed but, within actual perception (rather than ideation) your experience of it has changed.
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@Aum418 said
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@Asraiya said
"93 I think the concept of "the fall" comes more from Kenneth Grant than Crowley and there's often confusion between the Left hand path and Black brothers"The concept of the "Fall" comes, without a doubt, from Judaism and spread by Christianity & Islam in peculiar ways.
"t?"
1"
wasn't it a Gnostic concept? Demiurge etc
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I'm going to reiterate my recommendation of Elaine Pagels's Adam, Eve, and the Serpent -- she really gives a thorough and entertaining history of the way the Biblical story of the fall has been viewed throughout history. (Just get it from a library.)
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Gmugmble, I used to have that copy of Elaine Pagels, along with her Origins of Satan, but my library is packed away at present.
Jim, thanks for that explanation. It would be interesting to know what Judaism considers as the Fall since, if no degeneration of emanation occurs in the Lightning Flash, the doctrine of the Fall would seem incompatible to Judaism. Contrast this with gnosticism’s view of Malkuth as entrapment of consciousness ...
In the Christian tradition, Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden has a precedent in Lucifer’s fall from Heaven with his host of angels (Luke 10:18: And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven). The similarity is surely not a coincidence.
When partaking of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, part of Adam and Eve’s awakening must have been of Lucifer’s fall from Heaven, leading to their own fall from grace. A slightly different explanation I’ve read elsewhere is that “we” (humanity) are these fallen angels who are compelled to reincarnate over and over. The goal in occult systems is to therefore awaken and activate one’s Higher Self/HGA/Thetan/ to liberate oneself.
I'm interested in a "positive" perception of Malkuth and how we are to go about attaining that.
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@h2h said
"Jim, thanks for that explanation. It would be interesting to know what Judaism considers as the Fall since, if no degeneration of emanation occurs in the Lightning Flash, the doctrine of the Fall would seem incompatible to Judaism. Contrast this with gnosticism’s view of Malkuth as entrapment of consciousness ... "
Please don't confuse an esoteric doctrine about a thing with a particular orthodox religion's view of the same thing. I don't think there's any mystery what Judaism considers it but, if you aren't famiiar with the standard religious instruction on the matter, I'd advise you to get a Chumesh and read the early chapters of Genesis along with the Rabbinical commentaries.
"I'm interested in a "positive" perception of Malkuth and how we are to go about attaining that."
What's the negative one?
I mean: What is it exactly that you need to get positive about Malkuth on?
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@Jim Eshelman said
"What's the negative one?
I mean: What is it exactly that you need to get positive about Malkuth on?"
Apologies for the delay in replying.
Kindly correct me if I am wrong, but the negative perception of the material plane/Malkuth is its association with the netherworld. In this regard, I found your comments in another thread (In search of Lord or Lady?) to be enlightening, namely how the aspirant identifies with Persephone as the soul of the earth before attaining to Tiphareth.
Would it be correct to say that Persephone in the netherworld corresponds with the sun at its midnight station (Kephra)? And would this be the same as the solar bark's journey through the Amduat?
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@DavidH said
"What is the thelemic and/or kabbalistic view of the "Fall" and did Crowley write specifically about it anywhere? Is the idea not inherent in the Kabbalah?
Does the Kabbalistic view infer some sort of fall from a higher state to our present one? For example, the esoteric Christian view is that Adam was the "God" or undertaker of this universe and when he tried to create on his own without the first cause, he shattered into all the individual souls which became incarnate in matter, thus the Fall. Is there a thelemic or Kabbalistic view of this, or do you stay completely away from any such theories?
LLLL,
David""
LIBER ALEPH
{delta}
LEGENDA DE AMORE.In the Fable of Adam and Eve is this great Lesson taught by the Masters of the Holy Qabalah. For Love were to them the eternal Eden, save for the Repression signified by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus their Nature of Love was perfect; it was their Fall from that Innocence which drove them from the Garden"
And yet the occultist still writes 'Fable'. But his magickal heir was not deceived by his cipher.