Kabbalah: A Short History

YAH, the Lord of Hosts, the living elohim, King of the Universe, Omnipotent, The Merciful Gracious God, Supreme and extolled, Dweller in the height whose habitation is Eternity, who is Sublime and Most Holy, engraved His name and ordained the Universe in thirty two mysterious paths of wisdom, by the three Sephariam, namely, Numbers, Letters and Sounds, which are in Him and one and the same.

(Sefer Yetzirab)

Most Systems of faith have an esoteric  or external level of understanding that is aimed at the masses, and an esoteric, or inner level of meaning that is the reserve of the priests and initiates.
The deeply mystical Kabbalah is the enigmatic aspect of the Jewish doctrine.

The word has its root in Hebrew, QBL, meaning "to receive  or alternately "mouth to ear" or "the unwritten law," and like most mystery traditions its secrets were originally communicated orally. It shares the same root as the word Cabal, meaning "secret intrigue."

these secrets, so the story goes, were given directly from God to the Archangels who then passed the information on to Adam after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in order that he might regain his former favor in the eyes of God. The secrets passed through Noah to Abraham, who shared the mysteries with the Egyptians.From here the
Kabbalah spread to to other parts of the world.

Moses to had Kabbalistic instruction directly from God. According to Jewish mystics, he spent forty days learning its secret doctrine from the angels while he was wandering in the Desert.
Thereafter, Moses concealed the teachings that appeared for the first time in written form in the first four books of the Old Testament.

In the first century  Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai had to hide in a cave with his son for twelve years, avoiding  execution becuase of his criticism of the Roman Empire. During this time, the Rabbi taught secrets of the Kabbalah to his son, and these teachings appeared as a book, published in the thirteenth century Spain, called the Zohar. It is this book which is the cornerstone of the Kabbalistic doctrines.

The universality of the ideas within the Kabbalah means that it has been adopted by numerous different religions. Not surprising, since the beauty and logic of it construction is awe-inspiring and all-encompassing. There was a general upsurge of interest in esoterica in the Middle Ages and this time saw the development of a Hermetic Kabbalah, a combination of Kabbalistic teachings and Greek Hermeticism. In turn, alchemy and Rosicrucianism were influenced by its secrets as was Freemasonry.

The tarot takes its influence from the Kabbalah. The Golden Dawn based its symbolic language, thousands of years after the angels imparted its intricacies to the First Man. The doctrine encompass The Four Worlds and the Tree of Life, while the latter, in turn, encompasses the Ten Numbers and The 22 Letters.

Adele N.

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The Infinite Spirit

BACK in eternity, when the Universal Father's "first" infinite and absolute thought finds in the
Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its divine expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God and the Word-God for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and combined action.

In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become infinitely cognizant of their mutual
interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and therefore do they enter into an infinite and
everlasting covenant of divine partnership. This never-ending compact is made for the execution of their united concepts throughout all of the circle of eternity; and ever since this eternity event the Father and the Son continue in this divine union.

We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity.
The very instant that God the Father and God the Son conjointly conceive an identical and infinite action
— the execution of an absolute thought-plan — that very moment, the Infinite Spirit springs fullfledgedly into existence.

In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities, I do so merely to enable you to think of
their relationship. In reality they are all three existent from eternity; they are existential. They are

without beginning or ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme, ultimate, absolute, and infinite.
They are and always have been and ever shall be. And they are three distinctly individualized but
eternally associated persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.

THE GOD OF ACTION

In the eternity of the past, upon the personalization of the Infinite Spirit the divine personality
cycle becomes perfect and complete. The God of Action is existent, and the vast stage of space is set for the stupendous drama of creation — the universal adventure — the divine panorama of the eternal ages.

The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, the
Father-Father and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, unqualifiedly identifies both of them. He is fully
cognizant of their separate personalities and infinite attributes as well as of their combined nature and
united function. Next, voluntarily, with transcendent willingness and inspiring spontaneity, the Third
Person of Deity, notwithstanding his equality with the First and Second Persons, pledges eternal loyalty
to God the Father and acknowledges everlasting dependence upon God the Son.

Inherent in the nature of this transaction and in mutual recognition of the personality
independence of each and the executive union of all three, the cycle of eternity is established. The
Paradise Trinity is existent. The stage of universal space is set for the manifold and never-ending
panorama of the creative unfolding of the purpose of the Universal Father through the personality of the
Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the executive agency for the reality
performances of the Father-Son creator partnership.

The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres
flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise
are existent and potentially operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can physical gravity be
measured except by the reaction of material realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe at
this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one billion worlds materialize, there is
in evidence gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of Paradise.
There now flashes through the creation of the Gods the second form of energy, and this
outflowing spirit is instantly grasped by the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravityembraced
universe is touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit of divinity. In this
way is the soil of life prepared for the consciousness of mind made manifest in the associated
intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit.

Upon these seeds of potential existence, diffused throughout the central creation of the Gods, the
Father acts, and creature personality appears. Then does the presence of the Paradise Deities fill all
organized space and begin effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward.
The Infinite Spirit eternalizes concurrently with the birth of the Havona worlds, this central
universe being created by him and with him and in him in obedience to the combined concepts and
united wills of the Father and the Son. The Third Person deitizes by this very act of conjoint creation,
and he thus forever becomes the Conjoint Creator.

These are the grand and awful times of the creative expansion of the Father and the Son by, and
in, the action of their conjoint associate and exclusive executive, the Third Source and Center. There
exists no record of these stirring times. We have only the meager disclosures of the Infinite Spirit to
substantiate these mighty transactions, and he merely verifies the fact that the central universe and all
that pertains thereto eternalized simultaneously with his attainment of personality and conscious
existence.

In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies that, since he is eternal, so also is the central universe eternal.
And this is the traditional starting point of the history of the universe of universes. Absolutely nothing is
known, and no records are in existence, regarding any event or transaction prior to this stupendous
eruption of creative energy and administrative wisdom that crystallized the vast universe which exists,
and so exquisitely functions, at the center of all things. Beyond this event lie the unsearchable
transactions of eternity and the depths of infinity — absolute mystery.

And we thus portray the sequential origin of the Third Source and Center as an interpretative
condescension to the time-bound and space-conditioned mind of mortal creatures. The mind of man
must have a starting point for the visualization of universe history, and I have been directed to provide
this technique of approach to the historic concept of eternity. In the material mind, consistency demands
a First Cause; therefore do we postulate the Universal Father as the First Source and the Absolute Center
of all creation, at the same time instructing all creature minds that the Son and the Spirit are coeternal
with the Father in all phases of universe history and in all realms of creative activity. And we do this
without in any sense being disregardful of the reality and eternity of the Isle of Paradise and of the
Unqualified, Universal, and Deity Absolutes.

It is enough of a reach of the material mind of the children of time to conceive of the Father in
eternity. We know that any child can best relate himself to reality by first mastering the relationships of
the child-parent situation and then by enlarging this concept to embrace the family as a whole.
Subsequently the growing mind of the child will be able to adjust to the concept of family relations, to
relationships of the community, the race, and the world, and then to those of the universe, the
superuniverse, even the universe of universes.

NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT

The Conjoint Creator is from eternity and is wholly and without qualification one with the
Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit reflects in perfection not only the nature of the
Paradise Father but also the nature of the Original Son.

The Third Source and Center is known by numerous titles: the Universal Spirit, the Supreme
Guide, the Conjoint Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite Mind, the Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise
Mother Spirit, the Conjoint Actor, the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent Spirit, the Absolute
Intelligence, the Divine Action; and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with the cosmic mind.
It is altogether proper to denominate the Third Person of Deity the Infinite Spirit, for God is
spirit. But material creatures who tend towards the error of viewing matter as basic reality and mind,
together with spirit, as postulates rooted in matter, would better comprehend the Third Source and
Center if he were called the Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the Personality Co-ordinator.
The Infinite Spirit, as a universe revelation of divinity, is unsearchable and utterly beyond human
comprehension. To sense the absoluteness of the Spirit, you need only contemplate the infinity of the
Universal Father and stand in awe of the eternity of the Original Son.

There is mystery indeed in the person of the Infinite Spirit but not so much as in the Father and
the Son. Of all aspects of the Father's nature, the Conjoint Creator most strikingly discloses his infinity.
Even if the master universe eventually expands to infinity, the spirit presence, energy control, and mind
potential of the Conjoint Actor will be found adequate to meet the demands of such a limitless creation.
Though in every way sharing the perfection, the righteousness, and the love of the Universal
Father, the Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy attributes of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the
mercy minister of the Paradise Deities to the grand universe. Ever and always — universally and
eternally — the Spirit is a mercy minister, for, as the divine Sons reveal the love of God, so the divine
Spirit depicts the mercy of God.

It is not possible that the Spirit could have more of goodness than the Father since all goodness
takes origin in the Father, but in the acts of the Spirit we can the better comprehend such goodness. The
Father's faithfulness and the Son's constancy are made very real to the spirit beings and the material
creatures of the spheres by the loving ministry and ceaseless service of the personalities of the Infinite
Spirit.
The Conjoint Creator inherits all the Father's beauty of thought and character of truth. And these
sublime traits of divinity are co-ordinated in the near-supreme levels of the cosmic mind in
subordination to the infinite.


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The Fathers Supreme Rule and Tribulation to Acension

In his contact with the post-Havona creations, the Universal Father does not exercise his infinite

power and final authority by direct transmittal but rather through his Sons and their subordinate

personalities. And God does all this of his own free will. Any and all powers delegated, if occasion

should arise, if it should become the choice of the divine mind, could be exercised direct; but, as a rule,

such action only takes place as a result of the failure of the delegated personality to fulfill the divine

trust. At such times and in the face of such default and within the limits of the reservation of divine

power and potential, the Father does act independently and in accordance with the mandates of his own

choice; and that choice is always one of unfailing perfection and infinite wisdom.

The Father rules through his Sons; on down through the universe organization there is an

unbroken chain of rulers ending with the Planetary Princes, who direct the destinies of the evolutionary

spheres of the Father's vast domains. It is no mere poetic expression that exclaims: "The earth is the

Lord's and the fullness thereof." "He removes kings and sets up kings." "The Most Highs rule in the

kingdoms of men."

In the affairs of men's hearts the Universal Father may not always have his way; but in the

conduct and destiny of a planet the divine plan prevails; the eternal purpose of wisdom and love

triumphs.

Said Jesus: "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck

them out of my Father's hand." As you glimpse the manifold workings and view the staggering

immensity of God's well-nigh limitless creation, you may falter in your concept of his primacy, but you

should not fail to accept him as securely and everlastingly enthroned at the Paradise center of all things

and as the beneficent Father of all intelligent beings. There is but "one God and Father of all, who is

above all and in all," "and he is before all things, and in him all things consist."

The uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of existence do not in any manner contradict the

concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities.

Consider the following:

1. Is courage, strength of character, desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments. 
2. Is altruism, service of one's fellows, desirable? Then must life experience provide forencountering situations of social inequality. 
3. Is hope, the grandeur of trust. desirable? Then human existence must constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.
4. Is faith, the supreme assertion of human thought, desirable? Then must the mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever knows less than it can believe.
5. Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads, desirable? Then must man grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood always possible. 
6. Is idealism, the approaching concept of the divine, desirable? Then must man struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty, surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach forbetter things. 
7. Is loyalty, devotion to highest duty, desirable? Then must man carry on amid the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion to duty consists in the implied danger of default. 
8. Is unselfishness, the spirit of self-forgetfulness, desirable? Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast. 
9. Is pleasure, the satisfaction of happiness, desirable? Then must man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.

Throughout the universe, every unit is regarded as a part of the whole. Survival of the part is dependent on co-operation with the plan and purpose of the whole, the wholehearted desire and perfect

willingness to do the Father's divine will. The only evolutionary world without error (the possibility of

unwise judgment) would be a world without free intelligence. In the Havona universe there are a billion

perfect worlds with their perfect inhabitants, but evolving man must be fallible if he is to be free. Free

and inexperienced intelligence cannot possibly at first be uniformly wise. The possibility of mistaken

judgment (evil) becomes sin only when the human will consciously endorses and knowingly embraces a

deliberate immoral judgment.

The full appreciation of truth, beauty, and goodness is inherent in the perfection of the divine

universe. The inhabitants of the Havona worlds do not require the potential of relative value levels as a

choice stimulus; such perfect beings are able to identify and choose the good in the absence of all

contrastive and thought-compelling moral situations. But all such perfect beings are, in moral nature and

spiritual status, what they are by virtue of the fact of existence. They have experientially earned

advancement only within their inherent status. Mortal man earns even his status as an ascension

candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything divine which the human mind grasps and the human

soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a reality of personal experience and is therefore a unique

possession in contrast to the inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant personalities of Havona.

The creatures of Havona are naturally brave, but they are not courageous in the human sense.

They are innately kind and considerate, but hardly altruistic in the human way. They are expectant of a

pleasant future, but not hopeful in the exquisite manner of the trusting mortal of the uncertain

evolutionary spheres. They have faith in the stability of the universe, but they are utter strangers to that

saving faith whereby mortal man climbs from the status of an animal up to the portals of Paradise. They

love the truth, but they know nothing of its soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but they were born

that way; they are wholly ignorant of the ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice. They are

loyal, but they have never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and intelligent devotion to duty in the

face of temptation to default. They are unselfish, but they never gained such levels of experience by the

magnificent conquest of a belligerent self. They enjoy pleasure, but they do not comprehend the

sweetness of the pleasure escape from the pain potential.

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The Realization of God

God is the only stationary, self-contained, and changeless being in the whole universe of

universes, having no outside, no beyond, no past, and no future. God is purposive energy (creative spirit)

and absolute will, and these are self-existent and universal.

Since God is self-existent, he is absolutely independent. The very identity of God is inimical to

change. "I, the Lord, change not." God is immutable; but not until you achieve Paradise status can you

even begin to understand how God can pass from simplicity to complexity, from identity to variation,

from quiescence to motion, from infinity to finitude, from the divine to the human, and from unity to

duality and triunity. And God can thus modify the manifestations of his absoluteness because divine

immutability does not imply immobility; God has will — he

God is the being of absolute self-determination; there are no limits to his universe reactions save

those which are self-imposed, and his freewill acts are conditioned only by those divine qualities and

perfect attributes which inherently characterize his eternal nature. Therefore is God related to the

universe as the being of final goodness plus a free will of creative infinity.

The Father-Absolute is the creator of the central and perfect universe and the Father of all other

Creators. Personality, goodness, and numerous other characteristics, God shares with man and other

beings, but infinity of will is his alone. God is limited in his creative acts only by the sentiments of his

eternal nature and by the dictates of his infinite wisdom. God personally chooses only that which is

infinitely perfect, hence the supernal perfection of the central universe; and while the Creator Sons fully

share his divinity, even phases of his absoluteness, they are not altogether limited by that finality of

wisdom which directs the Father's infinity of will. Hence, in the Michael order of sonship, creative free

will becomes even more active, wholly divine and well-nigh ultimate, if not absolute. The Father is

infinite and eternal, but to deny the possibility of his volitional self-limitation amounts to a denial of this

very concept of his volitional absoluteness.

God's absoluteness pervades all seven levels of universe reality. And the whole of this absolute

nature is subject to the relationship of the Creator to his universe creature family. Precision may

characterize trinitarian justice in the universe of universes, but in all his vast family relationship with the

creatures of time the God of universes is governed by

infinite God is a

instructed to portray the God of all creation as the Universal Father.

In God the Father freewill performances are not ruled by power, nor are they guided by intellect

alone; the divine personality is defined as consisting in spirit and manifesting himself to the universes as

love. Therefore, in all his personal relations with the creature personalities of the universes, the First

Source and Center is always and consistently a loving Father. God is a Father in the highest sense of the

term. He is eternally motivated by the perfect idealism of divine love, and that tender nature finds its

strongest expression and greatest satisfaction in loving and being loved.

In science, God is the First Cause; in religion, the universal and loving Father; in philosophy, the

one being who exists by himself, not dependent on any other being for existence but beneficently

conferring reality of existence on all things and upon all other beings. But it requires revelation to show

that the First Cause of science and the self-existent Unity of philosophy are the God of religion, full of

mercy and goodness and pledged to effect the eternal survival of his children on earth.

We crave the concept of the Infinite, but we worship the experience-idea of God, our anywhere

and any-time capacity to grasp the personality and divinity factors of our highest concept of Deity.

The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is born of that creature faith which dares to

challenge each recurring episode of existence when confronted with the awful spectacle of human

limitations, by the unfailing declaration: Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one who can and will

do it, a part of the Father-Absolute of the universe of universes. And that is "the victory which

overcomes the world, even your faith."

THE URANTIA BOOK
TruthPerfected in no way endorses or promotes the beliefs of THE URANTIA BOOK, it is only highlighted for educational purposes.

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