The Four Planes of Existence: Vertical Causality

The Four Planes of Existence: Vertical Causality

In Visionary Kabbalah, the physical reality of the world and our bodies is, in a manner of speaking, at the bottom of the totem pole of creation. Causality, in the perspective of Kabbalah, goes from top down – not as we commonly think of it and as the natural sciences of the physical world say it operates – from the bottom up.

There are four planes of existence in Kabbalistic cosmology, each giving birth to (causing) the plane below it. This is called vertical causality, and all four planes operate in both the cosmos and our individual lives. Cosmologically, the top plane is what Visionary Kabbalah calls emanation or invisible reality, which gives birth to (causes) creation, which gives birth to (causes) formation, which gives birth to (causes) action – the realm of the physical world and the physical body. Each of these four planes is reflected in our individual lives. Emanation in our lives is the realm of the will, or spark of life. Creation is the realm of ideas, beliefs and concepts. Formation is the realm of image. Action is the realm of experience and emotion. Just as emanation (invisible reality) leads to creation, which leads to formation, which leads to the physical world – in effect, to us; will, the spark of life, leads to ideas, which leads to image, which leads to experience and emotion. The same vertical causality that operates in the cosmos operates in us as well. As the invisible reality creates the visible world, we create our experience.

In the physical world in which we live, experience has the qualities of volume, mass, and duration, which means that it is susceptible to being measured, calculated, or otherwise quantified. Experience gives us an opportunity to know what is going on inside of us. At the same time, it can be actively and consciously created by us, from inner to outer, through a working or re-working of our inner concepts and images. As we have seen, formation gives birth to action in the physical world. In this world as we live it, our images give birth to our experience. Thus, by changing our inner concepts and images, we influence, shape, or reshape our outer reality. The beauty of this is that in terms of the creation of physical existence, we are at the bottom of the totem pole, yet we have the tools – our concepts and images – to create and recreate our lives and lift ourselves upward to the world of Spirit. We come from what is higher, and through our images and concepts, we can rise back up to that which is our true being.

Invisible.....Impulse..................Emantion

....................Idea........................Creation

....................Image....................Formation

Visible........Physical World......Action (experience, emotions)

Kabbalah For Inner Peace,

Gerald Epstein, MD