Jewish Kabbalah Can Explain Elden Ring’s Greater Will
The cosmic system described in Jewish Kabbalah strongly correlates with the lore of the One Great (OG), Greater Will (GW), and Elden Ring (ER). This isn’t a copy-paste into the game; it served as likely one of many sources of inspiration, but one strong enough to start a framework explaining how the GW and maybe even the Elden Ring works.
Most of it relates to the tree of life, a sacred geometry like the ER. Today, the tree is so bloated with interpretations it means just about everything, but by focusing on Jewish Kabbalah and some Gnosticism, clear parallels emerged.
Below are explanations of the tree of life in Jewish philosophy.
I’ve simplified some of the complex concepts to keep this easily digested and left out anything unrelated. Remember the source is layered metaphor. Theres a pinch from western esoterica too, about the tree of death. My comments on how this info relates to the game are in [].
Ein Sof [The One Great]
Before creation, we have the united divine, called Ein Sof (Unending). This is perfect unity of being and consciousness, but so transcends human understanding as to be effectively non-existent to them. It contains the Ohr Ein Sof (Infinite Light); the potential for all existence. {1}
[This is clearly the One Great. Too distant to even assign motivation too.]
Tzimtzum [The Void]
Inside the Infinite Light, all is unified. God’s light “retracted” or was concealed to create void in the centre, in which individuality and free will could exist. Only by allowing darkness could separate “selves” come into being. While light represents God and darkness represents free will, in truth both are still part of Ein Sof. {2}
[A God that can be represented by both light and void. The light is the source of creation, but darkness is required for mortal life.]
Emanation [Primordial Current?]
A ray of light was sent down into the void to emanate light. This energy manifests the divine and continually creates reality. {3} As the light spread down it structured itself into different "vessels" that form the spheres of the tree of life.
Because God contains everything, many of the vessels are in opposition to each other. The light contained in each vessel will express the vessels nature by manifesting and revealing that aspect of the divine.
“Emanation is an ancient way of explaining how a world that contains a chaotic diversity can have an underlying order and a connection with a single, unified source of all being”. {4}
[The single ray of light is probably analogous to the primordial current.
There is continual manifestation of created reality by divine conflict.
Visually, the “path of the flaming sword” by which light descends is mirrored by the “path of the serpent” where it reascends, forming a double helix spiral. {5}]
Ascent
As the light descends down every level, it longs to ascend back to its source. Descent is an exile from each sphere, but returning is nullification of the distinctness gained beneath i.e. the self is lost. Higher spheres descend by "clothing" themselves with lower "vessels".
[“All things yearn eternally to converge.”]
The light formed realms, layered like onion skin. The first three are immaterial:
"Primordial man", or the world of chaos. The consciousness of this realm is still unified, and does not perceive self-existence. {6}
[A concept similar to the crucible. In the OG, all that there is is united. In the crucible, all life is united.]The world of potential creation; the first tree of life forms, separating independent lights in separate vessels. The vessels cannot bear the divine light, causing many of them to shatter, starting at the vessel of emotion. {7}
[A shattering]The world of the second tree, made of interdependent lights in separate vessels, where the "burden" of divinity is shared between the vessels. {8}
[After shattering, the divine is spread between vessels. A close likeness to the runes shared after the shattering. It also hints at a polytheistic version of the GW where the runes spread between many gods instead of concentrated in one.]The physical world, where the light forms a tree of life as separate divine "personas". The spheres are not separate Gods but separate channels through which God is revealed. From here it spreads out to creation, root-like. Adam contained all human souls. His sin enabled births, which shed soul sparks into each person as “soul-roots”. {9}
[The root-bottomed Farum rune. Compare to GO rune with "basin" bottom to gather blessings. (Rune Arc description) Emanating light vs withholding light to those approved?]
Farum Azula Elden Ring (Elden Ring Fandom Wiki) Finally, beneath this is the realm of evil or shadow, the tree of death not made of directly emanated light.
[The golden tree is mirrored by the shadow tree.]
Mankind and the Divine
The light of creation in each soul yearns to reunite with the infinite light. Yet to leave the void and unite is the loss of “self”.
Mans actions in harmony with the spheres reflects light back up. It is mankinds role to keep the divine personas in alignment by living in peace and order and "repairing" disorder. {10}
When that is correctly done, the divine presence can manifest to creation. As the divine unity cannot separate, it cannot manifest if balance is lacking.
[Man affects the nature of the world and can be "disconnected" from the divine by living out of order.
The soul is intended to return back up the path of creation, sometimes for reincarnation.{11}]
Structure of the Tree
Causality is the pull between meanings; that which links all things in a chain of relation.
The first sphere is the Crown {Keter}, the seat of divine will. Sometimes called the Hidden Light. It is the intent or desire to bring things into being. Linked with the colour of brilliant white.
[The GW, which brings creation into being. The rune arc atop the ER may be a "crowning" rune. Also present in the Farum ER.]
Wisdom {Chokmah} is called the father. The origin of perception. Signifies unprocessed knowledge or raw data.
Understanding {Binah} is called the mother. A palace of mirrors that reflect the light emanated by wisdom in infinite ways, it is "processed wisdom" or deductive reasoning. Grants form and structure.
Between these two and linking all spheres is Balance {Da’ath}; a pseudo-sphere that is hidden unless there is balance to reflect light back up. Here all spheres unite in an indiscernible whole so the divine can manifest to creation. Without balance, the divine light, which always shines, cannot be seen.
Each person has the duty to lift the concealment blinding them to the light. By doing this they sustain the whole world.
[When the world descends into war or chaos, the greater will "abandons" the world. Or maybe, it simply can’t be contacted.
The light of grace may always shine but cannot always be seen.]
Wisdom spreads down to Love {Chesed}, both between people and divine love. Its root meaning is desire, which can be negative desire as well as positive.
Understanding spreads to Severity {Gevurah}, also called Strength. This can be expressed as righteous judgement, justice and authority.
Love spreads to Eternity {Netzach}, also called Permanence. Related to endurance and patience, conquest and war. When paired with strength/severity it relates to leadership.
Severity spreads to Glory or Majesty {Hod}. Related to humility, submission, intellectual rigor, and science. Rather than conquer with force, it subdues itself around the obstacle. It is the ability to articulate divine truths. A sparkling and twinkling of reflected divine light.
[Twinkling light and the pursuit of learning and reason is a close fit for the starlight sorceries.]
Wisdom/Love/Eternity are the pillar of mercy. A male force.
Understanding/Severity/Glory are the pillar of judgement. A female force.{12}
[Miquella is said to be wise and loving, and took a consort of war. The male pillar.
Ranni is calculating, intelligent and embraces harsh truths for herself and others. The female pillar.Miquella’s compulsion of love caused ideological unity between people, but it wasn’t unity they chose. The whole point of the void was to allow free will.
Ranni’s emphasising the void by withdrawing the divine light from mankind was an equal act of unbalance.Neither is balanced, but of course with only limited runes/spheres, its hard to see how they could be.]
Love, Severity, Eternity, and Glory surround Beauty or Adornment {Tiferet}. Linked to all other higher spheres, it represents spirituality, integration, & miracles. Here the opposing pairs of spheres integrate in order to correctly express themselves. Sometimes symbolised by a king or the sun, it is the sphere of divine messengers. A lower reflection of the Crown.
As energy passes any direction over this sphere, it polarises or transmutes, as one side sacrifices so the form on the other side can be born.
[Although this sacrificial transmutation probably refers more to energy passed between the two pillars rather than above/below, it is undeniably synonymous to the "transmission" of divinity through sacrifice in TLB.
Could notably missing sun imagery in game relate to the lack of balance?]
Below this, Eternity, Beauty, and Glory link to Foundation. {Yesod} The transmitter between the spheres above and human reality below, where all forces of existence must pass through. It is masculine, channelling into the Earth.
[Like the ER or Elden Beast passes the divine will down to lower divinities.]
Directly beneath Foundation is the Kingdom or Earth {Malkuth}, containing all living creatures. It is feminine, receiving the channelled light.
As the feminine presence of god, it has descended to share the worlds struggles. Here, the light from above reflects back, and so it is sometimes called ‘the moon’. It is the tangible expression of all the spheres above.
[A female vessel acts as conduit for the divine light’s creation and lifegiving energy.]
The Tree of Death
Any unbalanced energy in the Earth sphere is "excreted" down to the final realm; that of evil. The light becomes the tree of death, formed by either the scattered energy of the shattered vessels, or human imbalances in the form of sin. {13}
[The tree of death is a shadow of the tree of life, caused by imbalance.]
(The spheres of this tree are only expanded on in esoterica. Those below are from German esoterica. {14})
The Crown becomes polarity, where all is divided. Sometimes called the contending forces, with two forces in opposition.
[Two opposing forces I theorise to be the 2 and 3 fingers, in opposition when they shouldn’t be.]
Wisdom becomes concealment of god and the true form or structure of things. Obstruction and hindering.
[What is opposite to the mother of forms? A “formless mother”. This underlines that outer gods are twisted version of divine aspects; they manifest when principles of order are violated. The Formless Mother’s manifestation to Mogh could relate to concealment of Omen and mutilating their forms.]
Love becomes love that either suffocates its object or breaks from exhaustion.
[Miquella seems applicable here]
Severity becomes merciless justice, an unbridled fire that burns more than necessary or that which shouldn’t be burnt. Radicalism and tyranny that preserve structure by any means.
[No comment needed.]
Beauty becomes the forces that prevent man from communion and unity. Confusion and dispute. [See IcyWedding’s post for more info on this and how they believe it relates to Godwyn.)
Eternity becomes uncontrolled greed & lust. Life carelessly produced and easily destroyed.
[Rykard in the serpent.]
Glory becomes unauthentic brilliance; deceit, illusion, fickleness, lack of determination. [No relation in-game I can see.]
The Foundation becomes distorted sexual desire and suppressed truths people don’t want to accept about themselves. Creation without an intent for Beauty that leads to a creature without beauty.
[The creation of artificial/magical life? Created not out of love, they are suffering creatures. But if they can create themselves, lovingly, they would ascend.]
Earth becomes the queen of night, either seductive or tyrannical. The disgraceful forces of nature that are many in one.
[The opposite of the moon, but a dark one as it does not reflect light. Like a world where humanity cannot know the divine, thus will act as they wish, unsure how to reflect light back.]
Balance (on this tree only present in esoterica) usually becomes knowledge as an end in itself. Secret information and knowledge that isn’t brought to life.
[Relevant for some of the sorcerers.]
So how does this help understand the Greater Will and Elden Ring?
Note: I am not suggesting the Kabbalah “plugs” seamlessly into the game world, but should be viewed as a skeleton the writers formed their own ideas over.
Consider this hypothesis:
Using the above structure, the GW is the manifestation of the OG’s desire to create, and its light must emanate down from higher levels to lower ones, then return. This is represented with mediators like Metyr and the fingers, and meteorites sent down from the heavens that cause the earth to float up.
The runes are formed by the creating light and manifest it into reality. There are runes for many opposing concepts, because the OG contains all.
The runes both influence and are influenced by their holders, who are driven to manifest a divine aspect into reality. A holder of a single rune has a limited capacity to shape the world.
One god can hold many runes to create the ER, providing a structured path for the divine light and thus shaping reality. This much divine light in one place may be a great burden to the vessel. And if there isn’t enough balance between the rune aspects, the GW can no longer be contacted. (The dragon war, the sealing of death and the shattering are all possible causes.)
The outer gods are also divine aspects of the OG, but misused or taken to terrible extremes. This system is “life-affirming, as every thing, evil as well as good, is seen to be rooted in the same ultimate source of being.” {15} The Rot Goddess, Fell God, and Formless Mother are all “shadows” of positive deity aspects.
The more unbalanced/sinful the world is, the more they manifest, growing and fading in power. The outer gods for the Golden Order mostly relate to Death, the divine aspect they tried to suppress.
Glintstones are formed from scattered sparks of divine light. Sorcerors seek knowledge of the OG through the higher emanated lights. They are analytical and want an impersonal understanding of the divine.
The primordial current is a pure, undivided form of divine light and will, and thus those that touch it lose their sense of self by unity with the glintstone light (Azur & Lusat) or as a school of graven mages.
Both order and chaos are contained in the OG. Chaos is the first primordial realm, likely analogous to the crucible, which also represents the random force of organic evolution. The frenzied flame is a path to reunite with the divine by attempting to recreate the crucible, but it is a false path. (Side note: Some kabbalistic poems written after the holocaust expressed desire for time or history to end so all mankind would reunite with God. A clear mirror to those touched with frenzy. {16})
As each soul contains a spark of life, theoretically, if you combined enough of them together you could gather enough light to “equal" or perhaps “create" a god.
There is not meant to be 2 and 3 Fingers, but 5 Fingers. Joined together as a whole hand, it unites both the chaotic nature of creative energy and the structure of divinity. Indications are given they once "wrote" in scripts of light like Goldmask. In the bible story of king Belshazzar "the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall". Notable that it says fingers of a human hand. This is compelling as the inspiration source of the Fingers, so why would a full human hand not be their true form?
Grafting, saint-creating jars, the spiral to the gods, and melding bodies seen at the divine gate all evoke the desire to return to the united divine. Roderika, who can hear spirits, relates the howls and suffering of those trapped with Dungeater (who cannot return), yet is strangely neutral about those that have been grafted, whom she calls “chrysalids". She tells us:
I want to be like everyone else, but I’m just too scared.
and
Did you give the little chrysalids the message? That I love them.
And that, despite my craven heart, I’m sure I’ll be joining their club soon enough.
Perhaps we should consider that grafting/graven mages/jarring is not unpleasant for the souls involved. It is a form of unity. But a corrupted, purposeless one that doesn’t actually lead to the true divine. It’s mimicry or dead end.
Final Thoughts
To close I’ll note this is probably only a smidge of what’s out there. Miyazaki developed his narrative style reading myths he couldn’t always understand and had to fill in the gaps.
Why wouldn’t he hide some of the games lore in real world myths themselves? Not just scraps of symbolic similarity here and there, but developed systems, histories, conceptual relationships, and philosophies inserted into the game with enough piecemeal clues to align into brilliant clarity when you realise what you’re looking at.
I hope others think so and go out, and in-game, looking for environmental and textual evidence related enough to form skeletons the fine draperies of Elden Ring lore can be checked for fit against.
I also encourage anyone with evidence that contradicts my theory framework above to let me know. I will be carrying this idea forward and seeing how it sheds light on further elements of the game, and don’t wish to make critical errors at this early stage.
Thanks for reading!
Sources:
My sources for this were mostly specific Wikipedia articles. While that’s shallow research, I doubt the writers were going through the Zohar and other original texts. Summaries are more reasonable sources they would have pulled from.
If you want to dig into the original texts, go for broke: https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Kabbalah
Here’s a guide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_texts_of_Kabbalah
Colin Low, Emanation and Ascent in Hermetic Kabbalah, page 5 - http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/essays/Emanation%20Ascent.pdf
3910 – Alpha Omega Tracing Board Diagram Flaming Sword With Serpent, https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/object/alpha-omega-tracing-board-diagram-8/
Shabtai Teicher, Division of Adam's Soul, https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380864/jewish/Division-of-Adam39s-Soul-63.htm
Yekutiel Green, 1:2 World's 3 Pillars, https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/379488/jewish/12-Worlds-3-Pillars.htm
The Three Pillars, https://kabbalahschool.wordpress.com/the-three-pillars/
Frater Acher, On the Nature of the Qlippoth, https://theomagica.com/on-the-nature-of-the-qlippoth
Colin Low, ibid, page 14
Nathan Wolski, Man, Woman, and Serpent: Kabbalah and High Modernity in the Early Writings of Aaron Zeitlin, https://ingeveb.org/articles/man-woman-and-serpent
"Glory becomes unauthentic brilliance; deceit, illusion, fickleness, lack of determination. [No relation in-game I can see.]"
This might be Marika herself.