Sixteen Kabbalistic Axioms

Henry More





1. Nothing can be created out of nothing,...

2. as matter cannot be created...

3. nor exist by itself because of the baseness of its nature. From which one draws the deduction which is rather a foundation that no vile thing can exist by itself.

4. There is therefore no matter in the nature of things.

5. All that really is is Spirit.

6. But this spirit is uncreated and eternal, intelligent, sensitive, vital, self-moving, infinite in extent and necessarily self-existent.

7. And therefore this spirit is the divine essence, ...

8. and no essence other than divine can exist by itself.

9. As, in truth, there is no essence apart from this in the universe by virtue of Axioms 1, 2, 3, 8 and it is clear that a thing comes from this unique essence , by an action of division – it is obvious that the divine essence can divide.

10. Since the divine essence really exists, there are innumerable individual particles, and they can expand and spread out in circles of infinite power and extent.

11. And since the particular grains of sand, the little grains of the cobblestones, and the particles of the air, of the ether, etc., are parts of this divine essence, it is equally evident that the latter can unite and shrink into extremely fine particles.

12. From the assemblage of these particles is formed the world which is called material although it is in reality spiritual, formed assuredly of spirits in divided particles of the divine essence, contracted and collected into monads or physical points.

13. This contraction is the state of sleep or numbness for these divine particles – their expansion, the state of awakening.

14. There are different degrees of awakening, namely: in the vegetative, sensitive, rational life...; much more finally is the awakening and the expansion, in a circle of infinite amplitude and power, until this divine parcel in this particular spirit can build a World formed of earth, water, air, sky and other parts.

15. And, therefore, this particular Spirit can - from the example of the fine marble dust - become the plant, from the plant the animal, from the animal the man, from the man the angel, finally the God creator of a new Earth and a new Sky.

16. And we can say the same about the individual particles of the divine essence, that it is necessary that they are either all separable without doubt, or that they can be Gods creators of the earths and of the heavens, which is the very thing that a child, one sleepless night in the schools, questioned by me on the point of knowing whether he believed in one God, answered me smiling that he believed in the existence of a large number of Gods, distinct from each other.