Creation and the Sephira of KETER: The Crown
Given the connection between the Earth Element and the Sephira of Malchut that we touched upon in the last post, you’d think Malchut would be the first Sephira I’d choose to dive into here, in the first of a series of more detailed posts about each Sephira of Kabbalah’s Tree of Life. Instead, I’m going with the first (and my personal favorite) Sephira of Keter. It’s a great Soul Center to connect to during this time of the year and the holiday of Rosh Hashanah we just celebrated last week because it involves a ceremony referred to as the “crowning of the King” and the remembrance of the purpose of creation.
Keter is the Sephira associated with our very own crowns and the remembering of our connection to the one and only King, the Creator.
According to the Torah (the source of Kabbalah), Rosh Hashanah always falls on the sixth day of creation, which signifies the birthday and anniversary of the creation of mankind. It’s also the first day of the month of Tishrei / Libra. In order to understand the Sephirot, it’s best to first get some perspective on Kabbalah's basic teachings of creation. Let’s start at the “beginning,” right in time for when we start reading from the beginning of the Torah again in just a few weeks.
THE PROCESS OF CREATION ACCORDING TO KABBALAH
The opening lines of Parshah Bereishit, the first chapter of the Torah whose name means ‘the beginning,’ alludes to Earth having already existed before what we read as being the first act of creation through G-d’s utterance of the words - “Let There Be Light.”
Rashi and Rambam, two of the greatest Rabbis and Torah commentators, who lived between the 11th and 12th centuries, had very different perspectives on whether the Earth already existed or how it existed before there was light. Both luminaries would agree it’s not so much about whether the planet itself existed before there was light or why the text was written in a way that makes it unclear as to whether the Earth was G-d’s first creation. What is clear for both Rabbinical scholars is that the process of creation began when G-d introduced a new world order into an unformed or incomplete creation through his utterance of the words “Let There Be Light.”
Let’s take a second to really digest these densely packed words of Torah and first acts of creation. If G-d, the Creator, created a new world order by uttering the words “Let There Be Light,” and we are created in the image of G-d, as the Torah also tells us, then we can come to realize our speech and how we use our words also has the power to create new world orders in our daily human lives and actions.
The words we speak have just as much of an impact on the continued contributions to creation, as the first words spoken by the Creator himself. The Torah’s first and most important teaching is to use our words to create light just like G-d did, whether it be by expressing a simple ‘thank you’ or taking the time to encourage a friend in doubt with hopeful thoughts and wishes.
THE MEANING OF ‘THE LIGHT’ IN CREATION AND KABBALAH
What is this Light uttered into existence on the first day of Creation? It’s a primordial metaphysical and heavenly light that’s different from the physical light we receive from the Sun and light bulbs. We know that because if we continue reading Parshah Bereishit, we read G-d created the light that comes from the physical sun three days after the primordial metaphysical light he first brought into the Earth on the first day of creation. Up until that point, the Earth was “concealed in darkness.”
The light from the first day of creation is described in the Torah as being “good” by G-d. The meaning of light can be understood further in another great wisdom found in these same first verses of Torah where we read about a clear distinction between the upper spiritual worlds (Heavens) and the creation of the orderly lower worlds (Earth). The Torah says the Earth was “unformed and void” until there was the light from the first day of creation.
The concept of separation and differentiation is also a common and repeated theme throughout Torah that’s first introduced with the creation of an orderly world. We see this immediately play out in Parshah Bereishit with G-d’s distinct, dual and opposing yet complementary creations of Heaven vs. Earth, Day vs. Night, Sky vs. Land, and Water vs. Land Animals.
If the Earth was unformed, dark and void, as the Torah first described it to be, this same concept and process of dualistic creation leads us to believe that Heaven is the Earth’s opposite and complement - fully formed and bright with endless light.
The polarity between the forces of creation also helps explain one of Kabbalah’s most foundational teachings - G-d’s creation of man on the Earth below is a vessel meant to receive and reveal the infinite light of the Heavens above. In other words, the infinite light can only be perceived and received through the finite world of distinctions and vessels of duality. In this way, Heaven is the higher spiritual dimension through which Divine influence is expressed and Earth is the lower receptive realm where that spirit can manifest.
Now, I know this is a lot to take in, especially in this rest and digest season of Chinese medicine that we learned about in the last post here, so let’s let that sink in for a bit before I attempt to break it down into a more bite size, chewable understanding of Kabbalah’s purpose of creation.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF CREATION ACCORDING TO KABBALAH?
Creation isn't simply about the making of the physical world as we see and experience it as humans or how we read about it on the surface level of written Torah. Creation is about bringing order, distinction, and purpose into existence through the deeper decodified mystical interpretations taught in Kabbalah. While we might be able to read the Torah because of the Earthly physical light of the Sun shining down on us, we don't have the ability to clearly see the deeper meaning behind each letter and word of the Torah unless we take the time to study the depths of their meaning and origin.
Why is the meaning hidden in coded plain text? Because what fun would it be for us to be handed the meaning of life so easily? A life without the mystery and struggles of discovery and experience is a life Kabbalah would associate with the Bread of Shame, a topic we’ll leave for another time, but simply said means earning our way through life without the effort of our own sweat and authentic desires and measures. In this way, the purpose of creation is to discover and reveal the light of our covenant with G-d.
The bottom line is that the tradition imagines that hidden within the story of creation, is a deeper light of understanding that allows us to perceive the goodness and purpose within the world when we follow the expression of divine order that’s rooted in the teachings of the Torah.
The Sephirot are the binding forces of energy built into the blueprint of mankind, or what Kabbalah calls the Tree of Life, that helps us understand, magnify and clarify our relationship with the words of Torah, the Creator, his purpose of creation, the Heavens, Earth and other life wisdoms that reveal themselves slowly and distinctively over the course of our lives and studies. The Sephirot blog post series I’ll be rolling out over the next year will hopefully be a guide in revealing your light, spirit and mission as I share through the Remember, Reclaim and Rejoice journey.
WHAT ARE THE SEPHIROT?
The Sephirot represent different spiritual pathways of light programmed within our Earth bound bodies, in which the attributes of the divine upper worlds of Heaven’s light can express itself in the fragmented and shattered vessels of receiving light in the lower worlds of the dark Earth. They are qualities or expressions of the Creator that help us tap into our inherited ability to be like the Creator.
Before there was the light we are most used to seeing and experiencing in the physical world, there was a blinding light we couldn’t bear to see even if we wanted to because it was a light so bright that it would blind us human beings, both spiritually and physically.
G-d had to contract this blinding light by means of what is called a tzimtzum and the shattering of the vessels that were originally holding the blinding light, in order to give us the ability and free will to choose whether we want to “Remember, Reclaim and Rejoice” in the revelation and rebuilding of that infinite light for ourselves. If the light was just handed to us without the journey of discovering it and developing the capacity for it, we would not know what to do with it, be able to hold its immense power or revel in the glory of it because of what was previously described above with the concept of the “Bread of Shame.”
G-d’s own creation, us humans, are participants in the cosmic process of repairing, building the capacity for and revealing the blinding light that was concealed and shattered in the tzimtzum. Plugging into the spiritual pathways of the Sephirot gives us the ability to participate in this process, which will ultimately bring the healing of the world, more rapidly and effectively.
The word Sephirot shares the same root with the Hebrew word for ‘numbers or counting.’ This makes sense given its connection to the Kabbalistic tradition of the Counting of the Omer, which starts on the second day of Passover and takes us through a journey of spiritual refinement via a daily study of 7 out of the 10 Sephirot that when embodied accordingly, helps prepare us better for the annual anniversary and receiving of Torah on Shavuot.
While there are endless mystical speculations about the nature of each Sephirot, there is a clear and collective basic understanding of what each of the ten sephirot stand for:
Keter - crown connector to the upper worlds
Chochmah - wisdom
Binah - understanding or intuition
Chessed - kindness and giving
Gevurah - strength and discernment
Tiferet - beauty and harmony
Netzach - victory and endurance
Hod - splendor and thought
Yesod - foundation and subconscious,
Malchut - kingship and nobility.
There is also one hidden Sephira called Daat, which stands for knowledge and hidden wisdom. While I might sometimes refer to all of the Sephirot as Soul Centers, that could be misleading. They are not to be confused with wisdom of other traditions such as Hindu chakras, psychological labels or ancient understandings of people and energy.
The Sephirot are part of the creation story that explains how the infinite light of the Heavens becomes manifest in our finite existence on Earth. They represent different modes through which G-d is expressed or revealed and since we are created in the image of G-d, we have the ability to tap into these modes when we are conscious of them.
At the core of the teachings of Kabbalah, we are not to be obsessed with figuring out who G-d is; rather, we are to emulate his greatness and desires through our recognition, implementation and refinement of the Sephirot’s divine attributes of creation that reveal and reflect his light and love for his creation.
For example, since Chesed is a mode of divine manifestation that expresses divine light through giving and kindness. Our capacity to give to others through acts of kindness can be understood as a reflection of G-d’s same divine ability and desire for us to do the same. If we’re having a hard time being kind and giving to others or the opposite, we are overly kind and giving to others, there is an opportunity to refine the Sephira of Chessed by looking directly at the other side of the Tree of Life, the map of creation or blueprint of life. Sitting across from Chessed on the Tree of Life is the Sephira of Gevurah, which stands for strength and discernment.
When we’re giving too much (heavy on the Sephira of Chessed), we can tap into the Sephira of Gevurah to see and feel where we may need to draw some boundaries. Understanding the structure of the Tree of Life, can help us find the opposing or complementary divine quality we need to help balance our energies and abilities to be like the light.
The Sephirot are destinations on a map that help guide us in receiving the direction of Heavens’ infinite light, which is an endless bounty of goodness. They help make our experience here on Earth a place where the Heavens would want to reside.
THE SEPHIRA OF KETER
Keter is the crown receptor of light. It sits and hovers over the top of our heads and works much like a wireless hotspot where the first pathway of light from the upper worlds first enters into and touches the realm of the lower worlds.
To create like we’ve been talking about here, is an opportunity to be like the Creator. To create from a place of alignment with the Sephirot and in connection with the Keter, is an opportunity to work as a Co-Creator with the divine, from a place where what you want and what the universe wants for you becomes one and of the same. That’s the ultimate connection to the Creator and our purpose here on Earth.
Although Keter sits at the top and highest point of the Tree of Life, it’s NOT the destination or the goal. It’s the beginning of the end where all the light of our physical life force floods in and the closest to the infinite we can get to in this physical world. Yes, it’s a place and Sephira most of us will never fully be able to reach or stay in full time because of all the distractions and battles that occur between the vices of the seven Sephirot of the physical world, but if we’re lucky enough we can come close to feeling, tasting and touching it just for a bit through acts of kindness and meditation.
The seal of the Keter reveals the face of the creator; the same face Torah teaches no human can actually ever see without dying; not even Moses, the most epic servant of Hashem, got to see his face. The Torah does allude to Jacob having seen the face of G-d after wrestling with an angel in a land called Penial, which translates to the ‘Face of Hashem’ and shares the same root as the human organ of the body called the pineal gland, a common focal point for meditators wanting to tap into visions of light.
Why Jacob and not Moses? As the last of the four forefathers and predecessor to Moshe leading the Israelites out of Egypt, Jacob bore the name and birthed the mission of the Israelites, by exemplifying the burden of effort that comes with struggling to overcome the egotistical sides of the seven physical Sephirot we’ll come to study in more detail in later blog posts. Of all the forefathers, he was dealt the hardest hand at life and yet came out of it alive and shining by balancing the Sephirot of his Tree of Life.
WHY START WITH KETER?
As we enter the holiday of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement / Repentance) this evening, having spent the past forty days resting and reflecting over the past year of struggles, blessings, and missed opportunities, I can’t help but think of all the great giants in our ancestral histories, in addition to Jacob, that were tasked with overcoming their life’s missions and the privilege we have to sit in the seats of abundance we’ve been granted to Remember, Reclaim and Rejoice in our own.
We were blessed to be given this past year to grow past our fears and the past ten days of Teshuvah to return to our promises of being better human beings in the upcoming year. Tonight we have the hope of being sealed into a new and promising year with a judgement of mercy from the same Creator that breathed us into being, created goodness with light and that we crowned as the King this past Rosh Hashanah.
This same King created us in his image with the Sephira of Keter imprinted in all of us, meaning, we too have a crown that gives us access to his great light and powers of creation. What are we going to do in this new year and how are we going to be and flow through the Tree of Life in order to have a chance of receiving his light more deeply through our embedded and inherited crowns of Keter?
What forms of Light are you going to radiate out in this new year?
For me, it’s come through the sharing of the art of Tea Ceremony, Nature Retreats and diving more deeply into the teachings of Kabbalah through what I like to call Meditative Torah. What do you feel called to in this New Year? What are your Tree Truths? Shoot me an email, comment here or send me a telepathic hug with your light filled energy. I want to hear from you and can’t wait to explore the other Sephirot with you as we make our way down to Malchut, the Kingdom that receives all the light from the top down.
Why start from the top Sephira of Keter? If we can know and believe that our lives came from the light, then we can have the strength to toil with any unformed void or darkness we may be facing in order to be the light we need for ourselves and others.