Visionsof the Merkabah Riders
The Chariotof Fire
By Mark F. Dennis
A Golden Iris LLC Publications 2014
On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding and they read from the book of the Law of God, distinctly communicating its meaning, so they could understand the reading.
Nehemiah 8
And it shall come to pass in the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
Joel2:28-29
Table of Contents
For my children, Analise and Jared, who have grown up so fast.
Be a Light to those around you!
Have vision, have faith and belief in yourself.
You can accomplish what you set out do!
Dream big!
Visionsof the Merkabah Riders
The Chariotof Fire
Introduction
In the Beginning
In the beginning there was only God. This is the Almighty God, the Alpha and Omega, God without beginning or end. In Hebrew, God is called, She-en lo tiklah , the Endless One, Ein-Sof , , the Infinite God and nothingness (Ponce pg. 73).
In ancient Jewish teachings, before God created anything at all, He was alone, without any form and without resemblance to anything else because there was nothing else (Bulgakov, pg. 141). This God could have no desire, no thought, no word, or action that could be attributed to Him by man. He was incomprehensible, unknowable and without name. Just in the nature of having a name, God in fact would have limitations applied to Him. To the ancient Jews, it was forbidden to create an image of Him or to even say or write a sacred name ascribed to Him. Even in conservative Jewish writings today, the word God is often spelled as G-d and called the ineffable or indescribable one.
Revelation19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and hehad a namewritten,that no man knew, but he himself.
Creation
After God created the first of His creations, God could be revealed in a limited way through the creation of His hands. After He created the form of the Heavenly Man, Adam Kadmon , a form created in His own image, God could walk and talk with him in the Garden (Ponce pg. 70). Here in the Garden, Adam could relate to God and know Him in a limited way, having a relationship and the ability to spend time with God. This spiritual Adam was created in the very beginning; for from the beginning to the end you have formed me (Psalm 139:5), and was a companion of God; within Adams sinless human form existed all of Gods divine elements and attributes.
Jewish theology taught that this Adam was the Spirit of the Messiah that moved upon the face of the waters in Genesis chapter 1. In Isaiah 11:2, this is the Spirit of the Lord (Kether and Netsah), that will rest on the earthly (Malkuth) Messiah with the Spirit of Wisdom (Hokhmah ) and Understanding (Binah), the Spirit of Advice (Hesed and Yesod) and Power (Gevurah), the Spirit of Knowledge (Daat) and the Awe (Tifereth and Hod) of the God. This is the form of the spiritual Adam which was the chariot in which the light of God would descend; this knowable form of God is called the sacred name YHWH in the Zohar (Smetham, pg. 376).
AncientJewish Mysticism
The word mystic to most conservatives or orthodox of any faith many times is troubling. Paganism, witchcraft, black magic, the occult and even Satan worship are often mistakenly associated with mysticism. The fundamentals of Jewish or Judaic mysticism are relatively basic and in many ways mirror many faiths in existence today. This faith was based on the belief that there is only one God, the Almighty God who is indescribable. However, through creation and through Gods revealed Word, these early believers taught that God could be known in a personal way through ten human like characteristics or attributes. These devout believers taught that God was knowable and that anyone could develop a personal relationship with him outside of the pious structure of established religion.
It was during the Reformation in Europe, at the turn of the Middle Ages, that reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin began to teach a very similar theology, that salvation was through faith and by the grace of God, not through the Church nor the works of man. This teaching caused a split in the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant era began.
This ancient Jewish mysticism goes back beyond the time of David and even before the days of Abraham. The foundation of the mystic teachings was in the Ten Sefiroth and the Four Worlds the Tree of Life, the source of Gods Light that gives life to man.
Four Worlds
These divine elements are expressed in ten different divine attributes or Sefiroth that were visualized within the original image of man before the fall. These attributes are simply anthropomorphic personifications or characteristics of human nature that are attributed to God in an effort to know and understand Him. These personifications of God are expressed in feminine, masculine and neutral characteristics, the three pillars to Jewish mysticism. Horizontally, these attributes are separated into the Four Worlds or Realms; Spiritual, Moral, Sensual and Physical (Ponce pg. 68).
In the Jewish mystic pictorial representation of the Tree of Life , the Ten Sefiroth are divided up into these four worlds; Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah and Assiah . The source of these four worlds comes from the book of Isaiah chapter 43 and from these four words, Glory, Created, Formed and Made.
Isaiah says this:
Isaiah43:7 Every one that is called by My name and for My glory (Atziluth), I have created (Beriah), I have formed (Yetzirah), even I have made (Assiah).
These four worlds are parallel to the four elements of air, (Aquarius), Fire (Leo), Earth (Taurus) and Water (Scorpio). In Ezekiel the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle are closely related (Ezekiel 1:10 & Rev. 4:7).
Atziluth is the first world, the Spiritual realm of God, hidden from mankind. This is the world that emanates the Light of God down to man, the source of Life, the Glory of God. Here resides the first and highest triad of Sefiroth or attributes of God; Crown, which represents Ein-Sof, Wisdom and Understanding .
Beriah is the second world, the Moral world, the world of the throne of judgment. This moral world is a world that can discern right from wrong and good from evil. Here the light of God in the Spiritual world emanates down into the Created world, the Higher Garden of Eden, giving light for the path of righteousness and is the habitation of righteous. Wisdom and Understanding in the upper triad together create Knowledge or Daat which feed down to this next triad of
