Merkabah Descent

I want to talk to you about a method of ascension that has existed in different forms in many traditions since ancient of days. It has, of course, been known by many names, but in my tradition it is the “Merkabah Descent”. We could refer to those who engage in this practice as charioteers, or even travellers, or more poetically, as journeyers – for they were described as “. . . mystics who pass through the seven heavenly palaces or halls (hekhalot) in order to reach the Throne of Glory (Kisse’ ha’Kavod)". There are many different descriptions – each one within a particular cultural context, using the symbols and archetypes familiar to that culture – found of the precise nature of the journey, but the basic structure and goal remains the same – a meeting with the Source.

The form of the journey that was passed down to me entails passing through four mansions or, in modern terminology, portals using the four lettered name of G!d, referred to as Adonai, but more generally known as the Tetragrammaton YHWH. In the sacred tradition this name is never pronounced. In modern circles it is known as Ha’Shem, the Name – referring to the One who can only be called by the nameless name that can never be named. In other traditions YHWH gained vocalisation as Yahweh, eventually becoming Jehovah.

The easiest way to comprehend this, is to contemplate the Oneness of the primordial state – the state before (and after) creation, when all was clearly One, and will always be One, and thus single and perfect.

Why is this important, you may ask? What has this to do with Merkabah Journeying?

Well, whether you journey or not, whether you discover the chariot and ride the waves through the realms, or not, the essential and core issue to grapple with is that

G!d is One.

In my tradition, we have a mantra, and it goes like this:

It is a call to acknowledge G!d, and G!d’s Oneness. As this is a core teaching, it calls on the congregation to “hear” just two things: G!d is our G!d, and G!d is One.

Returning to that difficult statement “G!d (is) One”. Firstly, we could think of the ‘(is)’ as a kind of equals '='. It is an “equal” that is using mundane language to depict the Divine, using finite concepts to express the infinite. So we cannot say 1 = ∞, though we could propose only one (1) infinity, especiallly if it was the infinity that contained all infinities. In fact it IS the Infinite that contains everything – and I mean everything! And as such, it is One and only One. We could express it as the One Infinity.

However, before this conversation can really have any meaning, we have to first accept the idea that:

G!d exists!

Now I have put my foot in it, as I know this is going to upset all of those who are "against" G!d. To you, I say that I believe that it is essentially a problem of communication, of language. God is something that many of us have been exposed to for a long time, and this God that most of us were taught about, and mostly forced to believe in, is not the G!d that I am referring to. Most of us have fashioned God in our own image, and then rejected it. I speak of G!d that is everything, as a word or sound that refers to the totality of everything, real or potential – everything that has ever been, that will be and that is, know or unknown, possible or impossible.

In essence, here we are touching on the seminal jump from the finite, thus limited, to the infinite and unbounded. Herein is the mystery of the finite, being part of the infinite, which contains all these finite “things”, and I mean ALL – far beyond what we could ever enumerate or imagine. Yet each finite part is somehow separate or different both from one another, and from infinity itself. As for the infinite, no matter how many of these objects we identify and name, no collection of them can be even close to the ALL that IS.

What I find even more mysterious is that the finite can even be aware of the infinite that it is a part of. It is like the fish becoming suddenly aware that it lives in the water. This could only occur if it itself contained some hint, some hidden “element”, of this infinite other somewhere “inside” of itself. Just as the fish must have an out-of-water experience to even be able to consider the probability of there being something else besides water.

Does the fish suddenly realise that when it dies in the air? Does it have a moment of awareness that there is another medium of existence during that slow strangulation?

Imagine a fish, called Fried, that had an out-of-water experience. He comes back to his school and tells his mates of his out-of-water experience – which none of them have ever had – nor have they ever heard of such a thing actually happening to any fish. “Wow, it was awesome. Suddenly I was lifted up, and there was no water around me. It was an amazing feeling. One I have never had before. And the things that I saw, large and bushy, and moving on their fins, but not like we move here.”

This unknown “infinity of infinities”, is, in my tradition given the simple name HaShem, the more complex name being Ohr Ein Soph, the Infinite Supernal Light. In this, our present culture, we have one name for it, and that is God, which is an-all encompassing term. Like referring to something as a number. We all know what that is, don’t we? Well, are you speaking about whole numbers, real numbers, imaginary numbers, irrational numbers, natural numbers or transcendent numbers?

The difference in our own personal experience, is that somehow, the consciousness we represented is a consciousness that is aware of this infinity that it itself is a part of. Perhaps it is consciousness itself that is an expression of this infinity that we are somehow aware of, and thus, we are “conscious” of it? In conclusion, if we were not “conscious” of it, how could we deny it? Or question it? Thus this G!d is somehow present “in”, or is it “as”, all objects – manifest and unmanifest.

That is what the atheist stands against: that there is an infinity that we are all a part of, that is greater than any individual piece. This infinity is one (as, in fact all and any infinity is – even if there are many infinities) and exists everywhere, as the collection of all that is.

G!d exists:
The aspect we refer to
is known as the
Infinite Primordial Light
Ohr Ein Soph.
Prior to all this is
the whole of everything
that exists
and everything
that does not exist.
That collection of “things”
is the true
    Oneness
at the base of
    Everything.