## The Light of God and How to work with it We are going to be talking about the Light of God, and how it is used as a metaphor for all of the workings that we will be doing going forward. This is something that gets used a lot. It's a very common metaphor in religious speech. We see it in prayers, poetry, devotionals. It's a phrase that's peppered throughout scripture, throughout the mystical writings. But today we're going to talk about the mechanics of it, and how to conceive of this so that you will be able to start understanding the workings that we are going to be doing when we begin casting circles and praying and doing ritual work. The Light of God has three major elements that we need to discuss in order for you to get a good understanding of how all of this works. So there are two ways that we can talk about this: there's the Functional way, and there's the more metaphorical way, and the two will often be used interchangeably. ## Words for Light So when we talk about the light of God, we talk about the light itself. We talk about its flow, and we talk about its influence. In Hebrew, we would refer to this as the ohr (אור), the shefa (שפע) and the hashmal (חשמל) . I tend to not use as many Hebrew words when I'm talking about this, just to keep things simple and clear. I just wanted to say those so that you had some familiarity with them should you hear them in other people's discussions on this topic. The Light of God is the light itself that flows into the world. So the light shines, it flows into the world, either through a conduit or channel, or simply radiates into the realm that we exist in. It will pass through the worlds, which we'll talk about in future, but for now, just understand you have the light, the flow, and the influence is what happens when the light interacts with us. The [[Shadow of the Almighty|Zel Shaddai]], the shadow of God, the world that we inhabit. For more on the [[Shadow of the Almighty|Zel Shaddai]], see my previous video on that topic. So, any time we're discussing the light, it's also helpful for us to see it in its three parts. That would be the maor, the luminary, the ur, the light itself, and the kli, the vessel that it will flow into. So, to use prayer, for example: - God is the light, - God is the luminary, - the blessings of God are the light, - and the person who is praying is the vessel. So the luminary shines the light into the vessel. This basic methodology for understanding things can be used in a lot of different contexts. So if we are doing work with a saint, or an angel, or another spirit, then in this context, the spirit is the luminary. The influence from them is the light, and we, or the thing that we are having blessed, is the vessel. So if we are blessing a stone, if we are blessing water, if we're blessing a brew of some kind, if we're blessing wine and bread, if we're blessing candles, whatever the blessing is going into, that is the vessel. Now, when we're thinking about Saints, angels, and other spirits, they do not have power on their own. They, like us, are part of the [[Shadow of the Almighty|Zel shaddai]], the shadow of God, so it is possible for us to see them as an intermediary vessel. So, again, God is the luminary. whose light shines into the vessel of the saint, spirit, or angel, and that vessel becomes the secondary luminary who shines the light into the vessel of the work that we are doing. We can see this for [[The Sefirot]] themselves, we can see this for the worlds, we can see this for our prayers. It is important for us to understand these three aspects. So that we can understand the workings that we are undertaking. So if, for example, we are blessing a set of rosary beads, then the light of God, or the saint, or the spirit that we are calling upon, starts with the luminary, their light shines down into the vessel, That is these beads. These beads then take on that light and become a luminary to shine it back out. And this is where we understand the cycle of blessing. ## The Cycle of Power The cycle of power that will help us to understand all of the workings that we are doing. There is the run and the return of the light. The light comes from the luminary down into the vessel, and the vessel returns the light back up to the luminary. This connection, this channel that gets forged, is where the real power flows. If the power is just drawn down, yes it can be contained, yes It can be utilized, and yes, it may be spent or soaked up, if you will, by the needs that it is called into, but it is always important to have that return. This is why, in traditional blessings, we begin with, Blessed are you, O Lord our God, creator of the universe. You see, we are calling down blessing, so we begin by returning that blessing first. We do the run for the return. This cycle is very important in all of our workings. And in all of the rituals that we do, that we complete the circuit, that we're not just calling it down to hoard it, to use it, to fill some kind of mythical mana point system that we got from a video game. It's about being connected into the circuit so that the power flows in. through and returns and comes back again and again and again. This is what we're doing. This is the purpose of our working. And this is what happens when we talk about the light of God. ## Two Types of Light So you'll also hear us sometimes talk about the two types of light. So sometimes you'll hear us talk about the outer light and the inner light. Or the surrounding light and the filling light. Now, the difference here that we are discussing is where the light is in the previous cycle. ### The Outer or Surrounding Light The outer light is in the luminaire. And if we want to get very deep into the mystical language here, the outer light The surrounding light shines in from the Ein Sof Ohr, the, uh, outer edges of the Divine that surrounds [[Shadow of the Almighty|Zel Shaddai]], that surrounds the world and cradles it in its arms. So that surrounding light is all around us. ### The Inner or Filling Light Now, the light within us is the inner light, the filling light, and that is the light contained in the vessel. So, when someone, you meet someone, and you have that experience of them being full of light, that is the inner light that has been collected in the vessel as the light shone from the luminary down into the vessel. ## The Nitzotzot Okay? Now, I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the Nitzotzot (ניצוצות), In this video, the divine sparks that we, in our practice, seek out and attempt to restore to their place for the [[7- Tikkun Olam]], for the restoration of the world. That's a topic all on its own for a later video, but it works much the same way. In the beginning, at the shattering of the vessels, when all of the pieces of the Primordial Sephiroth fell down into the world, the light was trapped in the vessels. The light was contained in the vessels. that fell down to earth and are scattered all amongst us. And finding those Nitzotzot, finding those lights, those divine sparks, those holy sparks, and raising them back up to their place is a big part of our divine work. And it works much the same way. When we encounter a fallen spark, we see it as it is a vessel containing the light that has separated itself from the run and return that it should participate in. And it is our job to open it up so that it may flow. Again, I hope that these videos are making sense.