Ecstasy and Magic: Marc Gafni

At this point then it does not surprise us to learn that in the Temple myth it is said that the Holy of Holies is the place of the Even Shetiya, the foundation stone of the world.

In myth, it is that stone, symbol of Eros, which holds the world together. Eros is the interconnectivity of reality. Eros, wrote Emerson, is “an ascendancy of the soul” Its place could be no where other than the Holy of Holies. –

In the kabbalistic myth, the great sin which caused what is called the shattering of the vessels was the sin of separation. Each divine force — sefira — held itself apart, autonomous and independent, free of any dependency on the other sefirot. The result was that each independent sefira was unable to hold its light and ultimately shattered, causing great cosmic disarray.

The tikkun — the fixing of the shattering — is experiencing every point of existence in connection, as part of the quilt of being.

It is in this sense that mystics were often also magicians. Ecstasy and magic are in the end inextricably bound up. Both seek to access the myriad lines of connection that under-gird the wondrous web of existence.