Cosmere Concept Origins?

[calamity]

For everyone who thinks Brandons concept of the cosmere is a great idea for a fantasy series but obviously is not realistic just like other fantasies, prepare to be amazed. Centuries ago, before Brandon was born (although you wouldn't know it from the amount of books Brandon published) there was a guy called Isaac Luria who conceptualized something called Lurianic Kabbalah. To keep this relatively short i will just summarize its contents. Once upon a time there was a all powerful infinite being. Then in order to create the being contracted himself (made in its omnipresence a void)  to let something else exist, known as the physical world, and while doing this put all of its powers and personality into a vessel ("cup") to hold it together to relate to the physical.

However catastrophe struck when the vessel for unknown reasons shattered into many shards and and dispersed all over the universe where they eventually landed places and got stuck there, drawn in and unable to escape and changing the places with their influence or vise versa. Then the world became chaotic once the vessel shattered. It is up to humans to gather these pieces and bring them together in order to recreate the vessel in order to bring balance to the world before the evil shards destroyed the worlds.

 

There are a lot of comparisons:

All powerful being=God beyond

Vessel=Adonalsium

Shards=Shards

There are more but i am sure they are self evident.  

 

Also interestingly Luria's concept of a first all powerful being is very different than others have looked at it before, and I think it fits really well into the cosmere. Also Luria did not believe it magic and sorcery which makes this even weirder. 

 

There's a lot more to it but i am not confident enough to in my understanding to accurately detail all of it. The link to the sparknotes is http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/kabbalah/section9.rhtml.There are three small pages of the concept (so you will need to turn the page twice). Or you can just wiki it. 

 

I am not saying that Brandon formed cosmere from Lurianic Kabbalah, or that there is an even earlier source that they both borrowed it from, but rather saying to the public that the cosmere ideology  might not be purely fantasy. It makes the cosmere a lot more enjoyable and entertaining now, doesn't it. 

 

If anyone has opinions or comments feel free to reply, just please look at the theory on an official website before starting to critique since i no doubt left stuff out and probably made a few mistakes. Does anyone else think they are similar, or is it just me?

Edited June 1, 2016 by calamity

[natalie.perkins]

I wrote a whole response to this yesterday but then hit the backspace key on my browser and lost it all so I got very frustrated and had to walk away:

 

I think this is super interesting. It got me thinking about just how common it is for this concept to be applied to many different stories. Off the top of my head I can think of at least one manga/anime and one just anime that borrows from this concept: InuYasha and Sailor Moon.

 

In InuYasha, the priestess Midoriko (had to google this one, it's been some time since I watched or read InuYasha) created the Shikon Jewel which was then shattered into many shards which then the protagonists had to go collect. These shards contained the power to make someone a demon or demon-like and they were forced to battle many being with supernatural powers granted to them by the Shikon shards.

 

In Sailor Moon (anime only), Princess Serenity created the Silver Crystal (pretty sure she created it) and then it was shattered into Rainbow crystals and bestowed upon certain mortals that turned them into demons as well.

 

So, Adonalsium is obviously on a bit more macro scale, but it's interesting to see the parallels of a power source shattered into pieces and what those peices can do.

 

Whether or not all these stories drew from  Lurianic Kabbalah or, similar to Block Pyramids, just a common idea thought up individually and applied to different situations is interesting to consider.

[calamity]

It's funny, the same thing happened to me when i tried posing the first time. Typing it again was a chore. 

 

Comparing sailor moon to the cosmere is just hilarious, never before would i have put those in the same sentence, but now that i think about it, you have a point. It is hard to imagine sailor moon to have a serious side plot that would have historical backing. Or maybe Brandon got his idea from here....haha probably not.  

[VirtuousTraveller]

Perhaps Hoid (and Mraise, with his Ghostbloods) are attempting to collect the cosmere's version of the Dragon Balls? 

[ARARITA]

the Kabbalah is something I have studied for 25+ years - I'm sure there are elements that have been used

the QBL is something that has been around way before Luria - the Torah / old testament is coded with it

it is a very old tradition - predating the Bible

the Jewish tradition has 10 Sephiroth / bottles

the Arabic before that had 8

and  - lol - the QBL is everywhere - used by nerds and magickians alllll over the planet }