“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
the first major act of cosmic separation—differentiating undivided primordial substance into two levels of ordered existence.
In the cosmology of the ancient Near East, the “waters” signify the primordial, undifferentiated deep. Before creation is structured, everything is described as tohu vabohu—formless and empty—with the “deep” (tehom) covering all.
The “firmament” (raqia) is understood as an expanse or vault that stabilizes and organizes this primordial chaos. It does not mean “sky” in the modern sense but rather a kind of structured dome or ordered plane.
Waters below - The lower, chaotic waters that become the seas.
Waters above - The upper waters, envisioned as the source of rain, dew, and celestial moisture. Symbolically these are “higher” or “purer” forms of the same primordial substance.
The undivided “waters” represent the Infinite divine potential before creation—Ein Sof overshadowing the deep.
- The firmament represents a boundary, a screen, or a veiling necessary for finite existence.
- “Waters above” correspond to supernal consciousness, the upper sefirot, particularly Keter–Chokhmah–Binah.
- “Waters below” correspond to the lower sefirot, the world of form, structure, embodiment, and eventual materiality.
In this interpretive system, creation progresses through a series of concealments and divisions that allow for multiplicity and distinction. The waters/firmament division is one of the earliest and most important of these.
The primordial waters represent undifferentiated substance—the prima materia of existence.
- The firmament marks the emergence of Order, Law, and Differentiation (“As above, so below”).
- The “upper waters” correspond to spiritual substance, subtle energy, or the higher worlds.
- The “lower waters” correspond to psychic and material substance, the realm of density, form, and embodiment.
This is the beginning of dual manifestation. From this division everything else becomes possible: the creation of planes, the formation of souls, the descent into bodies, and the possibility of spiritual ascent.
above–below • heaven–earth • spirit–matter • soul–body • superconscious–subconscious