Elephants and Tortoises

We have repeatedly discussed the objective world that we perceive as “reality” is, in fact, a picture, a description, which arises depending on the observer (or a set of observers) who create it.

Despite this, it is not quite correct to call this world “illusory” either, since its images, energies, and interactions become real to the extent possible as soon as the mind singles out the corresponding potentials from the global Medium.

Moreover, as is true for any picture, the individual elements that make up this image have varying significance, or, as they say, different “weight”. Some elements of the description turn out to be critically important, and the loss or replacement of one of them either completely changes the whole picture or deprives it of internal integrity and meaning altogether, whereas changing or discarding other elements changes almost nothing.

As mentioned, if, in this discussion, we switch from psychological to physical language, then those structures, elements of the description that are critically important for a particular process or phenomenon are traditionally called its “points of support,” since on which the semantic (and therefore physical) basis of this phenomenon holds (that is, rests).

And this notion holds for systems of any scale. For example, for the description we call the “physical Universe,” such “points of support” turn out to be the fundamental physical constants, whose apparent arbitrariness has been discussed many times. In other words, from the point of view of the Magical myth, gods at the dawn of the world’s emergence “agreed” among themselves what the properties of the created world would be, and singled out from the Medium the corresponding elements of the description — that is, those very basic characteristics of reality.

However, for any other relatively integral and internally organized system description, the same principle holds: even a “personal myth,” that is, one’s own “way of life” of any person includes elements of different weight, among which one can always distinguish a fairly clear set of “points of support.” In the same way, any realization, any action always rests upon its key supports.

At the same time, all points of support of any system are divided into two groups: internal and external. And although, strictly speaking, only the internal supports of the system are essentially necessary, in a real situation the “external” supports play the role of that “house of realization” without which realization is practically impossible. We have already mentioned that such an “external” system of supports and interactions, without which a given process or phenomenon cannot exist, is called its “external vessel” (“kli hitson”, חיצונ כלי). In Kabbalah, “kli hitson” (or “kli makif”) denotes an attractive energetic structure, a vessel, which interacts with the “external” Light (“or makif”). As long as this Light cannot be fully perceived by a person all at once, it surrounds the person and gradually pushes them toward development and perfection. At the same time, “kli pnimi” is an internal vessel that can already contain the Light that a person is capable of perceiving at this stage. In other words, as long as the structure of a person’s mind (the “vessel”) has not reached the level of perfection at which it can perceive divine energies directly and in their fullness, they need an “external vessel” that mediates this perception. It is important to understand that such “supports” are not simply something random or arbitrary, but that this is a vitally important structure, a kind of “external organ system” of a given being or process.

For different people and systems, such supports can be completely different elements: work, other people, religion, places, works of art, and so on. And therefore one should not be surprised that for someone their world literally “collapses” when they lose their job, while for another even the death of a close relative is not a serious trauma.

One way or another, the loss of even one of such supports — that is, one of the organs of the “external vessel” — is truly an energetic trauma, comparable to the amputation of a part of the physical or energetic body. Therefore it is frivolous to try to simply “talk such a person out of it,” that “nothing terrible has happened” or that “life goes on”: it is important to understand that their personal world has truly collapsed, and that if a new system is built, it will be a completely different personal universe.

Knowing one’s set of such “irreplaceable external elements” is as important for maintaining one’s integral health as paying attention to one’s physical or energetic limitations. Every person, and even more so a magus, needs to know on which “elephants and turtles” their own universe stands and treat these elements with utmost seriousness. If some “organ” of kli hitson is lost, breaks, or dies, it profoundly changes the entire personal world; it is indeed a serious trauma after which the system will never be the same. And if some of the “elephants” are sick or hostile, it is also important to understand that perhaps they need to be replaced, but in this case one will still have to go through a painful and irreversible process of transformation, whose significance it would be dangerous to downplay.