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I'm glad this thread popped up, because I've had some strange insights into the tree of life lately.
I have a degree in physics, and lately I've been trying to teach myself the mathematics behind theoretical extensions of the standard model of particle physics. You may have heard recently of Garrett Lisi, the freelance surfer physicist and his paper, An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything (can be found here). After reading the paper and delving into the discussion surrounding it, it became clear that the theory has some flaws that prevent it from being a true "theory of everything," and was mostly sensationalized by the media which latched onto Garrett's unique character. Nevertheless, the theory is quite beautiful.
(Garrett gave a TED talk recently, I highly recommend that you check it out, especially if you're a layman.)
So, his theory claims that all of the fundamental particles and forces that make up the universe as we know it are actually all one and the same thing, being seen through different symmetrical rotations: namely, the E8 Lie Group. I also highly recommend you check that link, the diagrams would likely intrigue any occultist. E8 is quite exceptional for a number of reasons, including its beauty.
Now, what initially triggered this is when I noticed the number of dimensions of E8's adjoint representation: 248. From this website on Lurianic Kabbalah:
"According to Chayyim Vital, a Partzuf is an aspect or 'face' of the divinity, structured like a person with '248 limbs' and arranged in a pattern encompassing all ten Sefirot."
But wait! Delving deeper into the term "Partzuf," from this glossary on kabbalistic terminology:
"Partzuf ('personae' or 'profile'; pl. partzufim):
A partzuf is the third and final stage in the development of a sefirah, in which it metamorphoses from a tenfold articulation of sub-sefirot into a human-like figure ... it may thus interact with the other partzufim (which could not occur before this transformation)."
Each Partzuf has "248 limbs," and only manifests as the final stage of God emanating down to the physical; only after this can the Partzufim interact with each other. The parallels to E8's "248-fold fiber bundle" being the basis of all particles and forces should be clear.
What about the 10 sefirot? Well, it's no surprise that modern occultists like to add Da'ath as number 11. The "mother of all string theories," M-Theory, describes a universe of 10 or 11 dimensions. The basic idea is that the universe began as a quantum mechanical fluctuation in 10- (or 11-)dimensional space: four of those dimensions then rapidly expanded during the big bang inflationary epoch, leaving 6 (or 7) "curled up" in small, compactified dimensions. The four simply-connected dimensions became our familiar 3-space plus time, the others are invisible to us except insofar as they structure the inner properties of fundamental particles and forces.
Again, returning to the modern (and well-accepted) theory of particle physics, the only reason we see different particles is that their basic unity, their symmetry, was broken as the universe expanded and cooled into a vacuum state, in a process known as "spontaneous symmetry breaking."
Furthermore, this resembles the Kabbalistic notion of Kelim: the ten (or eleven) sephirot as vessels that broke as they tried to contain the light of God's emanation (see the Breaking of the Vessels ).
So, what exactly am I getting at? To me, it sounds like ancient mystics and some speculative modern theoretical physics are both describing the same phenomena as responsible for giving rise to the physical world as we see it: the 248-fold Godhead / E8 supergroup was originally one, unity, before there was time. In a violent process known as the "big bang," this unified quantum field expanded over 10 dimensions / emanated itself down through the 10 sefirot, ultimately shattering the remarkable & beautiful unity and manifesting as what appears to us to be the many, differentiated forms that constitute the physical universe.
I have more I could post, but this is already practically a book. Take it as you will. |
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