A Synthesis of Jewish and Chinese Spirituality, Lichfield Cathedral Provides The Key
“All stones are made of water”
Introduction
In this article, we continue our exploration of Lichfield Cathedral in the UK as a “theory of everything”. As explained earlier, we examine the Cathedral using mathematics, geometry and physics to use the Cathedral as a key to understanding everything in the Cosmos, the consciousness in all things, as a symbol of truth in all philosophies and faiths.
Here our focus is on synthesising Jewish mysticism in the Kabbalah and the Chinese “I Ching” or “Book of Changes”.
Parable: The Puppet Master & The Puppet
“Like the universe itself,” the sage said, “this puppet has been created by a skilled hand. Yet, it seems to have a will of its own, does it not?”
Once there was a puppet master named Chaim who was known throughout the land for his skilled marionette performances. Each puppet he carved was intricately detailed and unique and seemed almost alive when Chaim manipulated the strings. However, there was one puppet, crafted more beautifully than all the others, that refused to move as Chaim wished. This puppet, named Wei, would often move in unexpected ways, much to the surprise of the puppet master.
In his frustration, Chaim sought the wisdom of an old sage, who was learned in both Kabbalah and the I Ching. The sage listened to Chaim’s troubles and then held up the puppet, observing it. “Like the universe itself,” the sage said, “this puppet has been created by a skilled hand. Yet, it seems to have a will of its own, does it not?”
“Indeed,” said Chaim. “I try to control Wei, to make him dance and perform as I desire, but he often resists or moves differently than I intend. How can I better manipulate the strings?”
The sage smiled gently. “The Ein Sof, the Infinite One, created the universe but did not control it in the way you seek to control Wei. In Kabbalah, it is taught that God contracted Himself to create a space for the universe, for human beings, to exist and to have free will. In the divine plan, there is space for uncertainty, for freedom, for the unfolding of potential.”
He then showed Chaim the I Ching, the ancient Chinese text. “In Chinese philosophy,” the sage explained, “the Dao, like a flowing river, follows its own natural course. It does not seek to control, but rather to move in harmony with the natural order of things. The Yin and Yang, the two opposing forces in the universe, are in a state of constant interaction and balance, each containing the seed of the other.”
Chaim was puzzled. “But how does this help me with Wei?”
The sage replied, “Just as the Ein Sof and the Dao interact with their creations, perhaps you should not seek to control Wei, but rather understand him. Learn his rhythms, his idiosyncrasies, his unique ‘way’. Instead of seeking to dominate, seek to harmonize, to balance. Allow for the possibility of Wei’s own unfolding potential.”
Chaim took this to heart. Over time, he began to understand Wei’s movements. Rather than trying to control him, he started working with Wei, allowing the puppet to move in its own way while gently guiding it. The performances became even more beautiful, more fluid, and more captivating. The puppet seemed to come to life in Chaim’s hands, not because it was being controlled but because it was being understood, respected, and allowed to express its own potential.
In this way, Chaim discovered the divine potential within himself, not as a puppet master but as a harmonizer, a balancer, and a co-creator. His struggle to control was replaced with a dance of understanding, a partnership. He had learned to touch the strings of the divine within his puppet, and in so doing, he touched the divine within himself.
Just as the Ein Sof creates space for the universe and humanity’s free will, and the Dao emphasizes harmony and natural order, Chaim learned that a true puppet master does not control but understands and respects the unique nature of his puppets. The puppet master and the puppet, like the Creator and His creation or the Dao and the universe, can thus form a relationship of reciprocal respect, co-creation, and ultimate harmony.
The Kabbalah
Jewish mysticism is found in the Kabbalah, a term meaning “tradition”, which has its origin in the oldest extant book in Judaism, “The Sefer Yetzirah”, possibly written by the patriarch Abraham. Kabbalah attempts to explain, through theory and practice, the construction of the universe, as is hidden in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers).
It attempts to reveal the belief that through Torah study, prayer, meditation and good works, one can attain a true connection with God through a concept known as “Devekut”. This connection via heaven is given freely and flows like a “river from Eden”.
A core key to Kabbalah is in the “Tree of Life”, as in the diagram below. The circles have Hebrew names in them and are abstract concepts to help us understand the Divine attributes of God. Like many religions, including those most strictly monotheistic such as Islam, God can be given many different names, not in the polytheistic sense, but rather as a way to help the human mind understand that which is not understandable, as Allah is.
The study of the Kabbalah is a lifelong pursuit and can take many years or even span many lifetimes. If God is the Father (the Infinite Light above Keter the crown), then the Sun is a part of the beauty of Him made visible, like His son. And through the purity of heart, mind and soul, He creates His daughter the world, known in Judaism as the “Shekinah”.
The Shekinah is associated with the Sefira known as Malkuth, which means “kingdom” in Hebrew. This is the lowest of the Sefirot, signifying the physical world where the divine presence is perceived or the realm of action. Malkuth/Shekinah is often represented as the feminine aspect of God and is sometimes called the Daughter, the Bride, or the Matron.
The Sun, sometimes described in ancient Egypt and some mystical traditions, is the “visible God”, though not in the sense that it is worshipped as God, but rather that we give thanks to God for its power to sustain all life on the Earth. It is often paired with the Sephirah called Tiferet, which represents the divine bridegroom or son. Together, their union, through Yesod (transl. Foundation or Tzedek, the righteous one) symbolizes the joining of divine compassion (Tiferet) with the actualization of that compassion in the world (Shekinah/Malkuth).
In terms of biblical allegory, Shekinah is represented as the daughter of Binah (Understanding) and Chokhmah (Wisdom). Her status as Daughter reflects her role as receiver of divine influence and also signifies her potential for growth and transformation. She is also seen as a daughter who yearns for unity with her divine parent.
However, these familial metaphors are allegorical and not meant to be taken literally. They’re symbolic expressions used to explain complex spiritual concepts in more understandable terms.
It should also be remembered that in Jewish thought, as in Islam, God is ultimately considered to be beyond human comprehension, gender, or form, and these concepts are ways of understanding different aspects of the divine reality rather than literal truths about God’s nature.
The I Ching or “The Book of Changes”
The I Ching (‘Book of Changes’ or ‘Classic of Changes’) is an ancient Chinese divination text and a treasure of the world’s spiritual literature. Its core principle is based on understanding and interpreting the universal laws of change.
The I Ching seeks to aid the reader to understand and use to their advantage the principles of how the universe works to help them live a human life. It is based fundamentally on three levels:
- “Taiji”: the Supreme Ultimate Source, manifesting as absolute Oneness. From this comes duality in the …
- “Yin & Yang”: the duality in everything that becomes resolved within itself, shown in the symbolism of the Yin & Yang symbol. In the architecture of Lichfield Cathedral, these are symbolised by the tip of the Central Spire, the Chapter House and the Lady Chapel.
- “The Trigrams”: the principles and phenomenon of reality, each an aspect of nature. They represent the underlying fundamental principles of reality as eight interrelated concepts. They are derived from collections of three broken (Yin) or unbroken lines (Yang). They are heaven, lake, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain and Earth. These principles are then synthesised into two heavens: the “Earlier Heaven” or “Fu Xi” and the “Later Heaven” or “King Wen”. In the plan of Lichfield Cathedral, these are symbolised by those structures easterly of the Crossing (Earlier Heaven) and westerly of the Crossing (Later Heaven).
- “The Hexagrams”: The trigrams are further combined into 64 hexagrams, symbolizing the manifold of situations in life. In a sense, they represent the experiences in the world, within consciousness, or within humanity that results from the “marriage” of the Earlier Heaven with the Later Heaven.
You may find it useful to review our earlier article describing how we use the geometry of Lichfield Cathedral to explore the “structure” of Chinese philosophy in the I Ching and how this is similar to other moral “structures” described by other world religions.
It might also be helpful to consider these in the below Venn-like diagram.
Synthesising Judaism in the Kabbalah with I Ching
Both Judaism and Chinese philosophy, as represented in the I Ching, have deep and complex traditions that have developed over thousands of years. They each have unique views on ethics, metaphysics, spirituality, the nature of the universe, and the meaning of life.
It’s also important to note that any attempt to synthesize these traditions must be done with a deep respect for and understanding of both, as there is a risk of misinterpreting or oversimplifying complex ideas and traditions.
Possible Parallels
The Moral Universe
One potential overlap could be found in the Jewish concept of a moral universe governed by divine law (as found in the Torah) and the Chinese concept of the Dao as a cosmic principle of order and harmony. Both philosophies in the belief in reincarnation and Karma ultimately underpin this.
Quotes from Judaism
“Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it.” — Pirkei Avot 5:22.
“All the worlds, upper and lower, are inside man.” — Zohar II: 20b-21a.
“There is no blade of grass that does not have an angel that strikes it and says, ‘Grow.’” — Midrash Bereshit Rabbah.
“Everything that is below is like that which is above, and everything that is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.” — Isaac Luria
“If a man commits a sin, it is as if he has upset the balance of the scale.” — Zohar, Numbers.
Quotes from the Tao
“The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao.” — Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), Chapter 1.
“Those who follow the Dao become one with the Dao… Those who follow the laws of Earth become one with the Earth… The Dao gives birth to all beings, nourishes them, maintains them, cares for them, comforts them, protects them.” — Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), Chapter 25.
“When Heaven is going to place a great responsibility on a great man, it first distresses his mind with suffering, and his muscles and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. In this way Heaven stimulates his mind, stabilizes his temper, and develops his weak points.” — Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter 1.
“The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.” — Confucius, Analects, Book 4, Chapter 5.
“The Master said, ‘Heaven produced the virtue that is in me. What can Huan T’ui do to me?’” — Confucius, Analects, Book 7, Chapter 22.
“Heaven and Earth are large, yet in the whole of space, they are but as a small grain. Man is large, yet in the whole of existence, he is but as a small insect.” — Zhuangzi, Chapter 17.
Finally, earlier we explored the idea that morality was a natural consequence of the structure of consciousness or the organising principles in the mechanisms of the mind and brain in the below article:
Practical Wisdom
Additionally, the Jewish focus on wisdom (as embodied in texts like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) could find a parallel in the practical wisdom of Chinese philosophy, especially Confucianism.
Gender
In Judaism, the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) can be viewed as a combining of male and female aspects of the divine. Yud and Vav are masculine, and Heh is feminine.
The Tree of Life, depending on the context, is always in balance, as half the Sephirot are masculine, and half are feminine.
In the concept of the Tzelem (explored earlier by us in the below link), in Genesis 1:26–27, we are told in the creation myth that, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
The Chinese Mythology of Pan Gu is a narrative containing a series of thesis-antithesis-synthesis of the combination of genders and new births. Watch the video below for a quick summation of these myths. In the Kabbalah, this myth parallels the concept of Adam Kadmon.
In Chinese philosophy and the Kabbalah, the soul has gendered elements. Yin is feminine, whilst Yang is masculine. In Kabbalah, the soul is feminine, and God is masculine.
In the Taijitu in Chinese philosophy, the masculine and feminine are in union, balance and harmony.
Divination Methods
Both traditions have a “divination method” with the two genders at their centre. The Kabbalah in some cultures sometimes uses the Tarot to represent the paths connecting the Sephirot.
This connecting symbolism aids the understanding of the “mechanics” of the Tree of Life. The I Ching is a complete and fully practical divination system that the reader can use to help understand life in the same way a Tarot reading can help.
Just as the I Ching has “Trigrams”, the Tarot reader uses combinations of three Tarot cards. These methods probably work by reflecting the eternal principles of the soul, within the reader, just as the birds in the poem by Attar, “The Conference of the Birds”, find their reflections in their ultimate search for truth.
The Shared Geometry of Kabbalah and The I Ching
We began by explaining how the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, as the “building blocks” of the universe, might be built into the structure of the Cathedral.
Comparing the Tree of Life and the Chinese Symbols
There are no direct and absolute one-to-one correspondences between the Jewish and Chinese systems. Any comparison between the two would be determined by the context of the issues under examination or the spiritual questions being asked. For example, the male and female attributes of Yin and Yang are set in their symbol but then become distributed within the trigrams and subsequent hexagrams. The same is true of the Tree of Life. Whilst we tend to ascribe certain genders to Sephirot, these are also not fixed. For example, Tiferet is usually considered male, and Malkhut female, but this is only in relation to each other. In the below diagram we show how these may change in relation to each other.
In an earlier article, we drew the below three “doubling” circle diagrams to help us understand the changing dimensions of the different Sephirot in any given Tree of Life and the progression from Keter to Chockmah to Binah and so on. These same principles can be used to demonstrate the progression of the Four Worlds of Kabbalah, from Atziluth through Assiah.
In the same way, we can use the circles to show the progression from Yin & Yang, through the Heavens to the Hexagrams as they describe the manifold dynamics of human existence.
Though they are not identical concepts, there is a correspondence between them, and the plan of Lichfield Cathedral provides a useful tool to help us understand and pick this apart, as below.
The placement of the Platonic Solids was explained in the following article.
Practical Applications
Personal Study
If you are interested in exploring a potential synthesis between Judaism and the I Ching, I would recommend starting by studying both traditions in depth. For Judaism, you begin with the Torah, the Talmud and shorter texts on the Kabbalah. For the I Ching, you might start with an annotated edition of the text. You can explore scholarly works on comparative philosophy and religion to gain a more comprehensive understanding of both traditions.
Meditation: Thinking with Nature
On a calm day, find a private place outside where you can be private for a short period. You can stand, sit or lie down, or even walk slowly while doing this. Rest for a couple of minutes to make sure your body is not overly stressed, and when you are calm close your eyes. If, for some reason, you don’t want to close your eyes, then keep them open. The meditation works just as well that way. Then focus your attention on the following in this order:
- Your breath. Focus on the air entering your nostrils just at the point above your upper lip. Do not try to control your breathing. Just notice how deep the breath is, how fast you’re breathing and so on. Do this for around a minute but don’t count or time it. Just guess the time.
- Your mind: Notice, but do not try to control, your thoughts and any feelings that might result from them. If they are calm and peaceful, great! If they are troublesome or even painful, then that’s okay too. Just be aware of them and let them flow naturally. Do this for a minute.
- Your heart. Next, fix your attention on your heart. Feel the rhythm of the beat, feel its strength, hear its sound, and be aware of its sensation. Do this for a minute.
- The sounds and sensations of nature around you. Listen to the sound of the leaves in the trees, the birds, any running water, the birds, the insects, the wind on your face. Do this for as long as you find it pleasing.
- Then split your attention between your mind and the sounds you have picked up in your natural environment. As you do this, try to find any harmonies between your thoughts and the sensations of your natural environment. Do this for as long as you wish to find synchronicities between the two.
- Finish the meditation by focusing back on your heartbeat. Do this for as short a time or as long a time as you wish.
Dr Nick Stafford
Eye of Heaven — Lichfield Cathedral, a Theory of Everything
“Sometime too hot, the eye of heaven shines.” William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Artificial intelligence was use to research and assist in the writing of this article.
