The 3 Veils of Negative Existence

The Creation of Everything out of Nothing

"The three Veils are not God Himself but the process by which the infinite conceals to reveal; Ain is absence, Ain Soph is potential, Ain Soph Aur is the spark of becoming." - Moses Cordovero(?)

The Three Veils of the Unmanifest

From the infinite LIGHT, Creation unfolds as THE ONE, The Monad becomes aware of itself and begins pouring itself forth into manifestations and multiplicity

Ohr Ein Sof ("God's Infinite Light")

"Ain is the negation of all things, the nothing that precedes being. Ain Soph extends as the boundless, and Ain Soph Aur is the light that begins to manifest, yet still not a thing." - Book of Concealment, Sifra di-Tzeni’uta

The Unfolding of Divinity

0 - deity as nothingness. Void, empty fullness, Tao The Supernal Triad 1 - deity as The One and All. The Monad. Self. “I Am” - deity is ONE and alone 2 - diety turns within and recognizes itself “I am this”. Self consciousness. “I am this/that” - deity becomes self conscious - reflection 3 - the knowledge of the difference between self and not-self. “I am this, but not that”. “I and Thou”

This supernal triad is the Primordial trinity which reflects to become more emanations by which the universe will categorize itself and organize its infinite potentialities. It is reflected in sephira 4,5,6 And reflected again in sephira 7,8, and 9 Finally manifesting in physical reality in the 10th sephirot of Malkuth, The Kingdom - where the diffused and crystallized light is trapped in a vessel of matter. Where the invisible becomes visible.

Ain

“Before He gave any shape to the world, before He produced any form, He was alone, without form and without resemblance to anything else.” — Zohar

Ayin  Hebrew: אַיִן, lit. 'nothingness', related to אֵין ʾên, lit. 'not' Absolute Negation

Ain is the highest and first of the veils. It is literally translated as 'nothing', or simply 'no'; it is absolute emptiness, the opposite of existence, complete absence.

“Nothingness (ayin) is more existent than all the being of the world. But since it is simple, and all simple things are complex compared with its simplicity, it is called ayin.” - David ben Abraham ha-Laban, a 14th-century kabbalist,

“Ain means No-Thing. Ain is beyond Existence, separate from any-thing. Ain is Absolute Nothing. Ain is not above or below. Neither is Ain still or in motion. There is nowhere where Ain is, for Ain is not. Ain is soundless, but neither is it silence. Nor is Ain a void – and yet out of the zero of Ain’s no-thingness comes the one of Ain Soph. ” — Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi

"Before the world was created, there was He alone, one and unified... And even now it is likewise so for Him, that the creation is as absolute nothingness in relation to His Being and Essence." - Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

"God's existence is absolute and it includes no composition and we comprehend only the fact that He exists, not His essence. Consequently it is a false assumption to hold that He has any positive attribute... still less has He accidents, which could be described by an attribute. Hence it is clear that He has no positive attribute whatever." — Moses Maimonides

"Since it does surpass all finite understanding, immutable and boundless as its expanses are to the human mind whose most profound speculation could not approach to the faintest adumbration of what It is in Itself, it must ever remain a mysterious emptiness—No-thing." - Israel Regardie, Tree of Life

Something from Nothing & Nothing from Something

From the perspective of the emanated created realms, Creation takes place "Yesh me-Ayin" ("Something from Nothing"). From the Divine perspective, Creation takes place "Ayin me-Yesh" ("Nothing from Something”).

Only God has absolute existence; All of manifest creation, everything that we see and experience is but the clothing or garment that veils the infinite ain soph

In order for the infinite to be truly infinite - there must be a finite aspect of it.

In order for there to be a finite, there must be an underlying infinite that creates it. Paradoxical All that is and could be includes the finite limited

"He made His Ayin, Yesh". - Sefer Yetzirah

This statement can be interpreted in different ways. It could be, "He made that which wasn't into that which is", or "He turned His nothingness into something."

Ain Soph

Ayin is closely associated with the Ein Sof (Hebrew: אין סוף, lit. 'without end'), which is understood as the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the creation of the spiritual and physical realms, single Infinite unity beyond any description or limitation.

"The Most Mysterious struck its void and caused this point to shine. This beginning expanded, and thus made a palace for its glory and praise." - Moses de León (attributed author of the Zohar)

Hebrew: אֵין סוֹף‎ ʾēn sōf; Literally: '(There is) no end' No Limit, "infinite"

If there is primarily NOTHING, then it logically follows that there are no boundaries or limitations; this is the limitless foundation - the infinite and eternal in its purest sense.

(Note that Infinite is not a measure of Space, and Eternal is not a measure of Time.)

First you have NOTHING Then you have EVERYTHING

"Ein Sof cannot be the direct cause of creation, for there is no relation or connection between Ein Sof and any thing other than itself." - Moses Cordovero

"The light of the Ein Sof is equal in all worlds, and even in this physical world it is not diminished; as it says, 'I fill heaven and earth.' The only difference is in the receiving vessels." - Baal Shem Tov

Ain Soph Aur

From within the infinite, the Ain Soph, arose an infinite light. "The Ain Soph withdrew itself to create a space for the world, a contraction from which Ain Soph Aur radiated, forming the first point of existence." - Isaac Luria

Hebrew אין סוף אור, literally "limitless light." “Infinite/eternal light”

All things happen by virtue of the fact that there is no reason why they shouldn't.

Everything that is, is made of Light.

"The most hidden of all hidden things is Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light, from which emanates all that is, yet it remains concealed, beyond comprehension." (Zohar II, 239b)

The Infinite Light shines and radiates out from each thing, and IS each thing.

"Ain Soph is not a being, but the condition of all being; Ain Soph Aur is the light that bridges the unmanifest to the manifest, yet remains beyond grasp."

• Gershom Scholem

The Creation of Worlds

The Infinite Light—Ohr Ein Sof—is boundless by nature. Left unfiltered, it could never directly create the worlds, because anything born straight from the Infinite would be infinite too—without separateness, without identity, without story. It would dissolve back into the Source, lost in total union, without the spark of selfhood.

To allow creation to truly be, the Light had to descend through a sacred narrowing—a series of veils, filters, and constrictions. Through the Sephirot and the great Chain of Emanation (Seder Hishtalshelus), the Infinite stepped itself down, hiding its face in layers of concealment. This is the process of Tzimtzum—divine contraction—the way in which God cloaked His own radiance, so that we might awaken in a world where choice, individuation, and the path of return become possible.

The three veils contain the hidden ideas of the Sephirot, which have not yet come into being and are concentrated in Kether.

“There are three qabalistical veils of the negative existence, and in themselves they formulate the hidden ideas of the Sephiroth not yet called into being, and they are concentrated in Kether, which in this sense is the Malkuth of the hidden ideas of the Sephiroth. ... The limitless ocean of negative light does not proceed from a centre, for it is centreless, but it concentrates a centre, which is the number one of the Sephiroth, Kether, the Crown, the First Sephera; which therefore may be said to be the Malkuth or the number ten of the hidden Sephiroth. Thus "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether.””

• 777, Aleister Crowley

“First is Nothing, or the Absence of Things, אין Ain, which does not and cannot mean Negatively Existing (if such an Idea can be said to mean anything) ... Second is Without Limit אין סוף Ain Soph "i.e.", Infinite Space. This is the primal Dualism of Infinity; the infinitely small and the infinitely great. The Clash of these produces a finite positive Idea which happens to be Light, אור Aur. This word Aur is most important. It symbolises the Universe immediately after Chaos, the confusion or Clash of the infinite Opposites. א Aleph is the Egg of Matter; ו Yod is Taurus, the Bull, or Energy-Motion; and ר Resh is the Sun, or organised and moving System of Orbs. The three Letters of Ain thus repeat the three Ideas.”

• Qabalistic Dogma, Aleister Crowley

Ayin and Yesh (Existence and Non-Existence)

Ayin & Yesh: Nothingness & Being

Ayin (Hebrew: אַיִן, lit. 'nothingness', related to אֵין ʾên, lit. 'not') is an important concept in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy. It is contrasted with the term Yesh (Hebrew: יֵשׁ, lit. 'there is/are' or 'exist(s)'). According to kabbalistic teachings, before the universe was created there was only Ayin, the first manifest Sephirah (Divine emanation),and second sephirah Chochmah (Wisdom), "comes into being out of Ayin."1 In this context, the sephirah Keter, the Divine will, is the intermediary between the Divine Infinity (Ein Sof) and Chochmah. Because Keter is a supreme revelation of the Ohr Ein Sof (Infinite Light), transcending the manifest sephirot, it is sometimes excluded from them.

Ayin is closely associated with the Ein Sof (Hebrew: אין סוף, lit. 'without end'), which is understood as the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the creation of the spiritual and physical realms, single Infinite unity beyond any description or limitation. From the perspective of the emanated created realms, Creation takes place "Yesh me-Ayin" ("Something from Nothing"). From the Divine perspective, Creation takes place "Ayin me-Yesh" ("Nothing from Something"), as only God has absolute existence; Creation is dependent on the continuous flow of Divine lifeforce, without which it would revert to nothingness.

Maimonides and other Jewish philosophers argued a doctrine of "negative theology", which says there are no words to describe what God is, and we can only describe what "God is not". Kabbalah accepted this in relation to Ayin, becoming one of the philosophical concepts underlying its significance. However, Kabbalah involves itself with the different, more radical proposition that God becomes known through His emanations of Sephirot, and spiritual Realms, Emanator ("Ma'ohr") and emanations ("Ohr") comprising the two aspects of Divinity.