Category Archives: Astronomony

Tree of Life, Astrology, & Neoplatonism

Upon reading a few articles, one on Jewish/Sufi Post Platonism (Gnosticism), another on astrology (star maps), Star Of David (Sacred Fruit, aka Math Porn), Vesica Piscis, and Kaballah (and sacred geometry).  I noticed the word emanation and thought of Plotinus’ 3 Hypostasis, I then synthesized the following:

The idea of having an internal star map imprinted on our minds at conception sounds similar to Plato’s idea that all ideas are revealed from within. I had a difficult time with Plato’s internal ideas vs understanding ideas. Interestingly enough, I have read that Greece described art as an uncovering of beauty vs a creation of it. Sculptors hewing from a block of stone would uncover the beauty of the form of a statue. Aristotle would later argue that the form was held within the sculptor’s mind. Stoics would describe knowledge (this is much later than Plato though) as being an external stimulus projected onto the mind (which appears opposite of Plato’s position that knowledge is from within).

I think the idea of a “star map” stamped on our minds at conception bridges two worlds. It shows how the configuration of the constellations is like a specific position of a set of gears in an an engine at the time of combustion. A causal seed, or marker, signifying a specific point in time (inception) and the subsequent set of events that define a “person” that are logically dependent on that point in time.

Plato felt that knowledge was held in the pre-existent and eternal forms which are internalized within the soul and that our souls merely remembered internal ideas that are eternal.  In this way, the ideas are like integrated (interconnected points of) ideas akin to Indra’s Net.

My view has been that evolution has brought us humans our ideas by evolving our species through the crucible of nature and time. The ideas are internalized evolutionary responses shaped by time.

We are cocooned within the world soul, biosphere, gaia, what have you. Like a protein and enzyme. Unaware of how we fit like a key within the universe. Yet we don’t control the fact that we are human, or what chromosomes we are born with. We have to give concessions to factors that shaped us. Those factors are the configurations of events at the time we are born which are wholly dependent on the universes internal configuration at the time we were born.

So the idea expressed here is that we are time stamped with a cosmic time seed, makes a lot of sense to me. I always felt that the position of the stars at the time of birth determines what and who we are.

As Ibn says,
“all phenomena are nothing but manifestations of Being, which is one with God.”

When I read this quote, I think of the Universe. These cosmic timestamps which determine our nature, right down to our very species and birth locations. To me this (universe and time position) is the true source of being.

Explanation of symbols found under Merkabah Mysticism

The way I see this related to Kaballahism, is the tree of life is kind of like an artificial neural network of inputs where we sit at the bottom (the output) (Malkuth) unaware of the inputs that led us to the outputs.  Each of the 11 Seraphim’s is akin to a neuron with it’s own specific weight (think polynomial function), this weight is set at birth as imprinted by the internalized star maps.  The Seraphim represent the position of the cosmos at birth.  Each Seraphim represents a core personality trait, but what important to understand is how each layer is influencing another area and they all interlace.

Merkabah is a vehicle of enlightenment to travel between each sphere

Kabbalah relates the Merkabah vision of Ezekiel and the Throne vision of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1–8) describing the seraph angels, to its comprehensive

Four Worlds.

The highest World, Atziluth (“Emanation”-Divine wisdom), is

Neoplatonic: The One

the realm of absolute Divine manifestation without self-awareness,

metaphorically described in the vision as the likeness of a Man on the throne.

The throne of sapphire is an etymological root in Kabbalah for the Sephirot divine powers.

The second World, Beriah (“Creation”-Divine understanding), is

Neoplatonic: Internal contemplation (Aristotle’s Active Intellect)

the first independent root creation,

the realm of the Throne,

denoting God descending into Creation,

as a king limits his true greatness and revealed posture when seated.

The World of Beriah is the realm of the higher angels,

the Seraphim (“burning” in ascent and descent as their understanding of God motivates self-annihilation).

The third World, Yetzirah (“Formation”-Divine emotions), is the realm of

Neoplatonic: World Soul

archetypal existence,

the abode of the main Hayyot angels (“alive” with divine emotion).

They are described with faces of a lion, ox and eagle, as their emotional nature is instinctive like animals, and

they are the archetypal origins of creatures in this World.

The lowest World, Assiah (“Action”-Divine rulership), is the realm guided by the lower channels of the Ophanim (humble “ways” in realised creation).

Neoplatonic: Matter, subject to yin/yang (physical forces), Heraclitus divine judgement

“We must know that war (πόλεμος polemos) is common to all and strife is justice, and that all things come into being through strife necessarily.”

“All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things (τὰ ὅλα ta hola, “the whole”) flows like a stream.”

“There is a harmony in the bending back (παλίντροπος palintropos) as in the case of the bow and the lyre.”

The Kabbalistic account explains this difference in terms of the Four Worlds.

All prophecy emanates from the divine chokhmah (wisdom) realm of Atziluth.
However, in order to be perceived it descends to be enclothed in vessels of lower Worlds.

Isaiah’s prophecy saw the Merkabah in the World of Beriah divine understanding,

restraining his explanation by realising the inadequacy of description.

Ezekiel saw the Merkabah in the lower World of Yetzirah divine emotions,

causing him to describe the vision in rapturous detail.

According to the Kabbalistic explanation, the Seraphim (“burning” angels) in Beriah (divine understanding) realise their distance from the absolute divinity of Atziluth.

Their call, “Holy”, repeated three times, means removed or separated. This causes their “burning up” continual self-nullification, ascending to God and returning to their place.

Their understanding realises instead that God’s true purpose (glory) for creation is with
lowly man.

The lower Hayyot (“living” angels) in Yetzirah (divine emotions) say, “Blessed” (etymologically in Kabbalah “drawing down” blessing) be the glory…from “His (distant-unknown to them) place” of Atziluth.

Though lower than the Seraphim,

their emotional self-awareness has a superior advantage of powerful desire.

This causes them to be able to draw down divine vitality from a higher source,

the supreme realm of Atziluth,
to lower creation and man.

In Ezekiel’s vision, the Hayyot have a central role in the merkabah’s channeling of the divine flow in creation.

Flower of Life

Metator’s Cube

Tree of Life

Mixed

 

Cosmic Paradox & Vacuum Genesis

I had a realization today from reading Philosophy (Heraclitus). Amazing how the theory of Olber’s Paradox falls back to the Greek letter Omega.

The assumption is, that our observed Solar System represents a model of the Universe. There must be other solar systems with their own stars. At the time of Olber, this was known to be true, and is still true today (solar systems/galaxies expand in every direction from our observations). So assuming that this model is the static observed model and the model must fill the universe (assuming the as is observation represents the entirety of space time, aka static model). Olber’s Paradox says, why is the night sky not filled with infinite stars that blots out the night? Therefore the universe can’t be said to be static, for if that were the case, stars from an infinite set of suns would have reached us by now.

Post Hubble, we find the universe is expanding…

So I asked myself. Well. Did the big bang have a center of stars at it’s core at some point that would have permeated the known universe at that time? Possibly, however the universe is said to have gone under a rapid rate of expansion AS WELL as dark energy perpetuating that expansion. It is said to be expanding BEYOND the speed of light. Which is freakishly scary.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=575

So I was thinking… that sounds a whole lot like how light travels in vacuums and how matter is ripped apart in a vacuum… wait. Is the universe expanding into a vacuum?

Sure enough… that was posited in 1969, it’s called the Vacuum Genesis by the name of Edward Tryon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_genesis

also discussed here

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/010902a.html

It’s very weird. Supposedly nothing can go faster than the speed of light, but the expansion of the universe is, and light can’t escape black holes. It’s almost as if the edges of the Universe will remain forever dark as the light within will never reach the edges, but the light within will fade away even from the neighboring galaxies within itself at some point. The entire night sky will be filled with darkness is the claim.

Aw snap… Here’s an answer to the issue. The Universe is curved unto itself (much like the Earth is). They also reference Omega !!! (via Einstein)

Almost sounds like an expanding sphere. The universe is a closed system (sphere) where we live on but the surface or something. However, the universe itself is expanding (the sphere) and in no way a threat to itself… unless of course gravity has an affect on the sphere itself.

According to the youtube video, our detection equipment can only see photons of 500 million light years away? That would answer Olber’s Paradox right there. Photo light degrades. I figured the assumption was that there was more space than objects, but only one object is needed to degrade a lights path. So in theory, if the universe were infinite, rotating bodies would blot out light.

I think I know what’s up.

The Universe consists of a “closed system” of finite matter. The Universe itself is expanding. If the Universe were constantly creating more matter, it’s possible this matter would carry with it more gravitational forces to pull the universe towards the center vs expansion. However, if the Universe is made of a finite set of matter, and that matter appears to be spreading apart at an ever increasing rate. Apparently that matter will not close back unto itself.

I believe that theory is already described as an ending to the Universe, but I think it relies on the concept of Omega. Supposedly Dark Matter ??? says Omega is over 1. I’m not 100% sure if Dark Matter is part of Omega of if Omega is just matter itself (i.e. finite source). However, there’s this talk of spontaneous matter creation that pops in and out of existence at the quantum level, and is posited as the source creation of Genesis Vacuum… so wtf knows. It just seems that matter filling a void (like gas) is akin to entropy IMO.

Stuff on Omega Constant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_constant