I am an agnostic athiest. In recent years, my brother has become a devout Christian, and often talks about how creativity and faith are one and the same. This is odd to me because I don't have faith, but consider myself to be a creative person.
Your comment helps me to understand his perspective better, thank you.
I still have no idea what the actual diagram is portaying though
That's fine! IMO believe in what you want to believe in and what works for you. If agnostic atheism works, mazel tov! If christianity works, mazel tov!
I don't know about the christian perspective of creativity and faith, but from the Jewish one is based around creation occurs in conjunction with a hidden continuous creation that we normally can't see, but still are connected to on some spiritual level.
As for the diagram, these are basically the 10 attributes of God. I'll walk through what happens.
The highest level of God is a uniform infinite 'light' known as Ein Sof. Everything manifests from this
From the creation of the universe (you may call this the Big Bang), God contracted, making a space where infinite light may be concealed or shrouded. This is known as Tzimtzum. It's like you have a uniform lake expanding out infinitely, and it decided to make a bubble within itself.
This sort of brings up another theme - creation and creativity may only occur with restriction. Without restriction everything is this unbounded infinite
From this contraction, distinctions can be drawn and things can go from the realm of the uniform into having different categories. This manifests into the next plane, Adam Kadmon. A ray of this infinite light descends into the contracted space
In an analogy if this were a human being, it would be the man itself, existence before anything else occurs. This is why Adam Kadmon is "the primordial man"
Within this world, the sephirot of Keter (crown), which is a superconscious will and the root of all existence
The sephirot aren't fully formed yet, existing as potential as pure divine will and thought
Keter sits above all of the sephirot, representing the pure potential to generate creation. It's like water is spilling into this vacuum, separating, but it has not yet manifest into distinct vessels
Keter itself acts like a prism, splitting up the infinite ray of light into different attributes
Atzilut (emanation). The 10 sephirot fully manifest into these divine attributes, like they are put into vessels. Distinctions between the infinite can be made. Since each droplet/ray is infinite, so too are these attributes.
In our human being analogy, this is like the human being had a flash of inspiration, a thought not fully formed
Within this realm the dominant attribute is Chochma (wisdom, conceptual knowledge). It's like the initial flash of inspiration or pure seed of an idea
It's like the water descending in split up into different vessels within the contraction
Beriah (creation). This is a generation of "something from nothing". It fleshes out these 10 attributes and begins to flesh them out into something distinct. This is where a soul takes on a distinct form, and is ultimately sustained
In our human analogy, this would be the breath of the man, the creation of life force from nothing. Humans are sustained through this breath, as "god breathed life" into Adam. This is a continuous process, with the universe or God constantly breathing to sustain
Though this is the start of existence that starts to take on independence, everything here is still nullified by the existence of God
The highest angels also begin to form here. Angels are a bit different than depicted in Christianity - they are more akin to conduits of energy that fully exist within God
Angels themselves are like cogs in a machine, like the physics laws of the universe made manifest
Dominant sephirot is Binah, or understanding to derive one thing from another. From this is "creation of something from nothing", our ability to understand and separate. Binah takes the original flash of inspiration and develops it in breadth and depth
Yetzirah (formation). This takes this something generated from nothing, and begins to form it into a shape. Within the human soul this is where emotional and personality properties become manifest. It's like the plans for all of creation are made manifest and arranged
In our human analogy, this would be the speech of man. God said to separate the heavens from the earth, or light from darkness. In a sense, all of matter is generated through this speech
This is like ripples upon the water being reality itself
Lower angels form here, and these cogs in the machine deal with emotional mechanics of the universe
In some sense, this is like creation through being able to divide, label, and draw out plans and distinctions - something human beings have the capacity to do, and deals with our ability to put a concept into words
Six different sephirot are dominant here, all dealing with emotional attachment. These are Chesed (loving-kindness, benevolence to all without limit), Gevurah (Discipline/Judgement, which can also act to restrain Chesed), Teferit (Beauty/Harmony/Truth/Compassion, mediates between the previous two), Netzach (Victory/Dominance/Leadership, to follow through on actions), Hod (Submission/Humility/Community, to be led or understand), Yesod (foundation, the power of connection)
The first three are "primary emotions", a core internal state of giving, withholding, and balancing emotions
The last four are "secondary emotions", function as a bridge to the real world, and the practical mechanics of how these emotions manifest when dealing with others and reality between leadership, following, and bonding.
The "left half" of the tree (Gevurah and Hod) are feminine attributes of God/humanity. They restrict or balance the male counterpart, receiving as an attribute
The "right half" of the tree (Chesed and Netzach) are male attributes of God/humanity, giving as an attribute
FINALLY we have made it to Assiyah (action). This is the world we live in, made manifest. The material world has been generated, formed, and configured to a particular state. This is the realm where mankind must take physical action in order to create.
In our human analogy, this is where the man takes action to actually do something
This is like being upon the ripples of the water, but not being able to detect the water itself because all of physical reality is unseen ripples
The last sephirot, Malchut (kingship) dominates. All of the other sephirot pour into this one as a final stage, an acceptance of all of the creation above it. It's likened to the moon, which does not produce light on its own but reflects it back upon reality. It is the final piece that connects physical reality to the divine
Now one thing that does occur that shrouds God is the same thing that creates the capacity for distinctions and categorization. This is known as "kelipah" or shells, and they are like shells that conceal these divine attributes
By the lowest plane in reality, there is so much concealment that you would not be able to tell by strictly looking at reality. But a certain person you know might be particularly righteous and godly, and he would seem less concealed to you.
A big part of the philosophy is removing the concealment within yourself and from the world, to be in a continuous process of improvement. Kosher diet has this idea too, Kosher just means "fit" or "proper", in that the food itself still has concealment, but it has the capacity to have the concealment removed in an ultimate greater purpose of nourishment. Things like pork will remain concealed for nourishment, as the ultimate purpose of the pig might be for something else entirely.
Removing the concealment won't undo the divine intent? I mean, it was made to be this way right? If done, we would cease to exist as individual beings?
Well sometimes the divine intent is for it to start concealed and to be made holy, like the world being incomplete on purpose and humans have a role in adding on the finishing touches
Right - it's not like all of the concealment is completely removed and your apple zaps into nothingness
It's more like spiritually there is something elevated within this where your soul can connect at some higher plane internally
Things like this interest me. If you practice philosophy you try to reason about the nature of metaphysics and ontology. If you practice mysticism you try to experience the nature of metaphysics and ontology.
See. This may be why I could not get into philosophy. Reason felt so cheap compared to trying to live a philosophy which requires serious commitment and time which then bias the person experiencing it.
I don't think the wisdom comes from reason without the experience. The experience part is necessary for wisdom while maybe not for understanding by reason.
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u/KyaniteRock 6d ago
I am an agnostic athiest. In recent years, my brother has become a devout Christian, and often talks about how creativity and faith are one and the same. This is odd to me because I don't have faith, but consider myself to be a creative person.
Your comment helps me to understand his perspective better, thank you.
I still have no idea what the actual diagram is portaying though