Four Worlds

The Kabbalist image of the Four Worlds, or planes of existence, can be conceived of as a representation of the process of creation and evolution.

It starts with Atziluth, the Archetypal World associated with Kether – closest to the unknowable godhead (in religious terms), or perhaps the inconceivable state of being beyond and before time and space prior to the Big Bang.

It unfolds at the moment of Creation itself, the explosion of matter and energy in the first moments of the universe. This is the Creative World of Briah.

Then follows the Formative World of Yetzirah, with the formation, of stars, planets, solar systems and galaxies.

Finally on our planet and presumably on others there is the evolution of life in all its myriad forms – the Active World of Assiah.