Adam Kadmon

Adam Kadmon - Primordial Man.

The anthropomorphic metaphor "Adam" denotes the Yosher ("Upright") arrangement of the sefirot as the tree of life, which is then personified in the form of Man, though not yet manifest. "Kadmon" signifies "primary of all primaries", the first pristine emanation, still united with the Ein Sof. Adam Kadmon is the realm of "Keter Elyon" (Supernal Crown of Will), "the lucid and luminous light" (Tzachtzachot), "the pure lucid sefirot which are concealed and hidden" in potential. In regards to the future emergence of Creation, it represents Divine light with no vessels, the manifestation of the specific Divine plan for Existence, within Creation (after the Tzimtzum in Lurianic Kabbalah). In Lurianism, the lights from Adam Kadmon precipitate Tohu and Tikun. As Keter is elevated above the sefirot, so Adam Kadmon is supreme above the Worlds, and therefore it is generally not included whenever the Worlds are referred to.

"God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27)

"from my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:26),

Man created in the image of deity Thumb and 4 fingers One god whose name is 4 letters YHVH Yod means “hand” and is 10th letter of alphabet and the fundamental letter 1+2+3+4=10 One God who creates through a fourfold process that manifests in 10 levels of expression

22 20 fingers and toes + 2 Penis/vagina - ability to create new life in our own image

Tongue/mouth - ability to speak and create and shape reality

0 - Void, empty fullness, Tao The Supernal Triad 1 - “I Am” - deity is ONE and alone 2 - “I am this/that” - deity becomes self conscious - reflection 3 - “I am not that” - knowledge of difference between “I” and “Not I”. “I and Thou” Primordial trinity reflects to become more emanations by which the universe will categorize itself and organize its infinite potentialities. 4 5 6 And 7 8 9 And finally manifests in 10 - the Kingdom where the diffused and crystallized light is trapped in a vessel of matter. Where the invisible becomes visible.

Sephirot 1 - divine light of god 6 - is reflected and made manifest in the sun 9 - which is reflected on the moon 10 - which is reflected on the earth

The 22 paths are conduits of divine intelligence, which transmit the influence of each Sephirah back and forth between its neighbor

The tetragamatron as image of Man

The microcosm and macrocosm

Adam Kadmon

• meaning "Primordial Man" or "Original Man,"
• the archetypal blueprint of creation.
• It is often depicted as a divine image or cosmic anthropomorphic figure that contains within it the potential for all subsequent creation. Adam Kadmon serves as a symbolic representation of the divine plan or template from which the universe emanates.
• Adam Kadmon preceded the manifestation of the Four Worlds, - is the first of Four Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God's infinite light.
• Adam Kadmon is divine light without vessels, i.e., pure potential.
• The first stage of creation began when God contracted His Infinite Light to create the vacuum. Then a ray of divine light penetrated the vacuum and the persona of Adam Kadmon was projected into the vacuum. The first stage of Adam Kadmon was in the form of ten concentric circles (igulim), which emanated from the ray. The ray of light was then enclothed by the anthropomorphic form of Adam Kadmon (yosher), which is a realm of infinite divine light without vessels, constrained by its potential to create future Existence.

Adam

• who was formed in the image of God (Genesis 1:27
• and of the first man, whose body God formed from the earth (Genesis 2:7),

Kabbalah, the central system in Jewish mysticism, uses anthropomorphic mythic symbols to metaphorically describe manifestations of God in Judaism. 2 Kabbalah uses the form of the human body to describe the structure of the human soul, and the nature of supernal Divine emanations. A particular concern of Kabbalah is sexual unity between male and female potencies in Divinity on high, depicted as interaction of the two sides in the sephirot (Divine Anthropos), between archetypal partzufim (Divine personas), and the redemption of the exiled Shekhinah (feminine Divine Presence) from captivity among the impure forces below.

Adam Kadmon

Adam Kadmon: Adam Kadmon, meaning "Primordial Man" or "Original Man," is a concept representing the archetypal blueprint of creation. It is often depicted as a divine image or cosmic anthropomorphic figure that contains within it the potential for all subsequent creation. Adam Kadmon serves as a symbolic representation of the divine plan or template from which the universe emanates.

In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (אָדָם קַדְמוֹן, ʾāḏām qaḏmōn, "Primordial Man") also called Adam Elyon (אָדָם עֶלִיוֹן, ʾāḏām ʿelyōn, "Most High Man"), or Adam Ila'ah (אָדָם עִילָּאָה, ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā "Supreme Man"), sometimes abbreviated as A"K (א"ק, ʾA.Q.), is the first of Four Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God's infinite light. Adam Kadmon is not the same as the physical Adam Ha-Rishon.

In Lurianic Kabbalah, the description of Adam Kadmon is anthropomorphic. Nonetheless, Adam Kadmon is divine light without vessels, i.e., pure potential. In the human psyche, Adam Kadmon corresponds to the yechidah, the collective essence of the soul.

The first to use the expression "original man," or "heavenly man," was Philo, in whose view the γενικός, or οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος, "as being born in the image of God, has no participation in any corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose material, called a lump of clay."1 The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the Logos, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to the senses and partakes of earthly qualities.2 Philo is evidently combining philosophy and Midrash, Plato and the rabbis. citation needed

Setting out from the duplicate biblical account of Adam, who was formed in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and of the first man, whose body God formed from the earth (Genesis 2:7), he combines with it the Platonic theory of forms; taking the primordial Adam as the idea, and the created man of flesh and blood as the "image." That Philo's philosophic views are grounded on the Midrash, and not vice versa, is evident from his seemingly senseless statement that the "heavenly man," the οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος (who is merely an idea), is "neither man nor woman." This doctrine, however, becomes quite intelligible in view of the following ancient Midrash.

Midrash The remarkable contradiction between Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:7 could not escape the attention of the Pharisees, for whom the Bible was a subject of close study. In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, they taught3 that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynos), explaining "זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה" (Genesis 1:27) as "male and female" instead of "man and woman," and that the separation of the sexes arose from the subsequent operation upon Adam's body, as related in the Scripture. This explains Philo's statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.

This doctrine concerning the Logos, as also that of man made "in the likeness,"4 although tinged with true Philonic coloring, is also based on the theology of the Pharisees. Genesis Rabbah:

Thou hast formed me behind and before' (Psalms 139:5) is to be explained 'before the first and after the last day of Creation.' For it is said, 'And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,' meaning the spirit of the Messiah "the spirit of Adam" in the parallel passage, Midr. Teh. to cxxxix. 5; both readings are essentially the same, of whom it is said (Isaiah 11:2), 'And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.'5

This contains the kernel of Philo's philosophical doctrine of the creation of the original man. He calls him the idea of the earthly Adam, while with the rabbis the spirit (רוח) of Adam not only existed before the creation of the earthly Adam, but was preexistent to the whole of creation. From the preexisting Adam, or Messiah, to the Logos is merely a step.

Kabbalah In Kabbalah, before creation began, all that existed was God's Infinite Light. The first stage of creation began when God contracted His Infinite Light to create the vacuum. Then a ray of divine light penetrated the vacuum and the persona of Adam Kadmon was projected into the vacuum. The first stage of Adam Kadmon was in the form of ten concentric circles (igulim), which emanated from the ray. The ray of light was then enclothed by the anthropomorphic form of Adam Kadmon (yosher), which is a realm of infinite divine light without vessels, constrained by its potential to create future Existence. Adam Kadmon is sometimes referred to as Adam Ila'a (Aramaic: "upper man") or Adam Elyon (Hebrew: "upper man").

The soul of Adam HaRishon ("the first man") was the supreme essence of mankind. It contained within it all subsequent souls. In the midrash, he is sometimes referred to as Adam HaKadmoni ("the ancient man"),6 Adam Tata'a (Aramaic: "lower man") or Adam Tachton (Hebrew: "lower man").

The anthropomorphic name of Adam Kadmon denotes that it contains both the ultimate divine purpose for creation, i.e., mankind, as well as an embodiment of the Sefirot (divine attributes). Adam Kadmon is paradoxically both "Adam" and divine ("Kadmon-Primary").

Adam Kadmon preceded the manifestation of the Four Worlds, Atzilut ("emanation"), Beriah ("creation"), Yetzirah ("formation") and Asiyah ("action"). Whereas each of the Four Worlds is represented by one letter of the divine four-lettered name of God, Adam Kadmon is represented by the transcendental cusp of the first letter Yud.

Adam Kadmon (Heb.). Archetypal man, humanity. "Heavenly man" who did not fall into sin. Kabbalists refer it to the ten Sefirot on the plane of human perception. In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon is the manifested logos corresponding to our Third Logos, while the unmanifested one is the first ideal person, who is above the image and symbolizes the Universe in concealment, or in its “need” in the Aristo-Telean sense. The first Logos is the "light of the world", and the second and third are its gradually thickening shadows.» — The Key to Theosophy, H. P. Blavatsky

«Eliphas Levi thus describes the Great Prototypal Man: “That synthesis of the word, formulated by the human figure, ascended slowly and emerged from the water, like the sun in its rising. When the eyes appeared, light was made; when the mouth was manifested, there was the creation of spirits and the word passed into expression. The entire head was revealed, and this completed the first day of creation. The shoulders, the arms, the breast arose, and thereupon work began. With one hand the Divine Image put back the sea, while with the other it raised up continents and mountains. The Image grew and grew; the generative organs appeared, and all beings began to increase and multiply. The form stood at length erect, having one foot upon the earth and one upon the waters. Beholding itself at full length in the ocean of creation, it breathed on its own reflection and called its likeness into life. It said: Let us make man -- and thus man was made. There is nothing so beautiful in the masterpiece of any poet as is vision of creation accomplished by the prototype of humanity. Hereby is man but the shadow of a shadow, and yet he is the image of divine power. He also can stretch forth his hands from East to West; to him is the earth given as a dominion. Such is Adam Kadman, the primordial Ada of the Kabalists. Such is the sense in which he is depicted as a giant; and this is why Swedenborg, haunted in his dreams by reminiscences of the Kabbalah, says that the entire creation is only a titanic man and what we are made in the image of the universe.» — Manly P. Hall