Glyphpairs and the Kabbalah

[Thought]

I haven't found discussion, statements, or hints of this elsewhere, so I thought I'd share some information that I learned at the 2012 SD Comic Con: the glyph diagrams on the front and back inside covers were based on the Jewish Kabbalah at Sanderson's request.

This information came from Isaac Stewart (who probably wins the award for the absolute nicest person ever), at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con. Specifically, I had asked him if the design was based on the Kabbalah, he confirmed it, and then added that Sanderson had talked with him about that very thing during development.

It seems particularly interesting since the Kabbalah has the ten attributes (Sephirot).

[Zas678]

Really? That's interesting. Do you have more information on the Kabbalah? I haven't ever heard of it before.

[Thought]

Well, as I was introduced to it (by a

), when God created light in Genesis 1, that light was actually the Kabballah, a sort of cognitive blueprint for the universe. Actual light wasn't created until much later, when God started making the physical world (and thus the Sun, starts, etc).

From what I've gathered (I've never directly studied it), this light of creation was pure and bright enough that one could see all of creation (and time) by it. Sin, however, threatened to shatter (eh? Eh?) that light, so God hid it within crude matter. The Sephirot are the ten signposts of rediscovering this light, as well as the ten attributes of God, which sustain creation (or ten vessels into which the light of creation was poured). I think there is sometimes some controversy here, as the Sephirot can be mistaken as individual gods, but are supposed to represent a modalistic manifestation of the one-God's intent.

Oddly enough, in trying to find the 10 Sephirot, I've come across 11 (on wikipedia). It says that two of them are just two sides of the same, so they count at one. Anywho, they are:

Keter (supernal crown, representing above-conscious will)

Chochmah (the highest potential of thought)

Binah (the understanding of the potential)

Daat (intellect of knowledge)

Chesed (sometimes referred to as Gedolah-greatness) (loving-kindness)

Gevurah (sometimes referred to as Din-justice or Pachad-fear) (severity/strength)

Rachamim also known as Tiphereth (mercy)

Netzach (victory/eternity)

Hod (glory/splendour)

Yesod (foundation)

Malkuth (kingdom)

As should be expected, the Kabbalah is also based on the assumption that there are hidden meanings in the text of the Torah (even to the point that accent marks themselves are conveying important esoteric knowledge).

Wikipedia has a lovely image of a Kabbalah, for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Albero_della_Vita_di_Davide_Tonato.jpg

Of course, none of this came from Issac, just to be clear.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Thought