"One needs to know that God's glory fills the whole earth and there is no
place empty of Him. He fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds.....Without
His divinity they would have no life and existence at all. The only
limitation is that the lower the level the greater the Tzimtzum
(contraction) of His divinity there, and the more it is clothed in layers of
clothing."
— Meshivat Nefesh
place empty of Him. He fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds.....Without
His divinity they would have no life and existence at all. The only
limitation is that the lower the level the greater the Tzimtzum
(contraction) of His divinity there, and the more it is clothed in layers of
clothing."
— Meshivat Nefesh
Lucifer is a spiritual agent more and more used in order to legitimate anti traditional activity. The latter years has seen a concentration of orders and churches establishing cults to ‘the adversary’, often seen as a misanthropic spirit, jinn or deity that upholds a promise of knowledge for the wicked and strong. If we look at the various myths and legends telling of the particular fall of Lucifer it is ascribed to the disobedience of paying respect to Adam, to prostrate in front of the image of the creator. The reason Iblis Iblis refers to - rather it is a call towards respect towards creation and its order. I am tempted to see this fall as a denial of welcoming a child of Light to the fold of manifested beings, a denial of the great plan and the great cosmic architecture. It is hubris we are speaking of, a pride caused by a damaged sense of self importance. We might say that Iblis when he falls and becomes Shaitan he reveals the exaltation of the ego, he fails in recognizing the spiritual potency of Adam due to a distorted perception of creation. And herein lies the secret of the fall; the reversal of the poles, as Ibn Arabi and many other Sufi saints with him has pointed out, where ego and matter perceives as the spiritual centre. This reversal of the poles where the high was made low and the low high found it social climax in the age of enlightenment. We might say that the great confusion was concerning fire and the heat from the light. The heat from the light being the summit of spiritual ascent, while fire is the passion hat burns in the soul and breeds jealousy and pride. The fire we find in sep’hira DinChesed. It is when this interplay loses meaning and ones spiritual geography turns into a dislocated field of martial excess the food for battles are churned and extracted. Pride, egoism and jealousy seems to be the prime motivators for passionate battles where name, land and possession are the prices fought over in the field. This is far from the spiritual jihad we are encouraged to rage upon our nafs, our ego-inclinations that constantly try to usurp the throne of Selfhood. The fall of the angel of light into the manifestation of opposition is a mystery concerning confusing the planes, to take the heat to be the fire and introduce a measurement of quantity over quality.
The misappraisal of light we see today, where the fallen is exalted into a goal is a natural consequence of the ways the divine clothes itselves in multiple layers. God is like a beautiful woman veiled in layer upon layer with beautiful garments. The mystery hides itself within matter and the truth shines within the walls of lead and concrete. Seekers of truth aimlessly wanders about motivated by a search for understanding Self and realize who they are more and more grab fiery and feisty to this wall of led and motivated by its heat they propagate a gospel of divine death and human supremacy. An ethos, grandiose as it might sound both in words and effect is nevertheless a sign of the times. It reveals what the metaphysician René Guénon referred to as ‘the fissures in the great wall’. It is the Sitra Achra that is eroding the wall so it can enter a domain alien and thus darkness fills the world and all its being, the misplacement caused the reversal of the poles are accomplished and the pralaya is the inedible consequence. While it is true that life and light exist everywhere, in both k’lippot and the Sitra Achra there is still the issue of order and hierarchy. The fall speaks of how light can betray its holder and pave the way for hubris. And Iblis is the ‘negative witness’ to the divine unity, as Nigel Jackson commented in his The Rumi Tarot (Llewellyn: 2009)- for it is through the marks of Iblis foot the road is made straight, it is through his works we know what IS because of what it is NOT. It is this thought that gave birth to the forest texts later referred to as the Upanishads and the Advaita philosophy. But this is but one of Lucifer’s many conclaves – and this one rises against the exaltation of hubris in the form of orders and churches dedicated to upholding the floating existence of the ‘reversed pole’, the triumph of flesh over transcendence. As the Prophet Himself said, Peace Be Upon Him, “More harm is done by fools through foolishness than is done by evildoers through wickedness”.