According to Kabbalistic tradition the universe came into being because God wished to know himself, to express his love in the act of creation and to experience what he had created. To do so the endless light of the absolute all (en sof), emerged from the darkness of absolute nothing (ayin) in the form of a lightening bolt (en sof aur) and was refracted as through a prism at ten different levels, symolised by the sephiroth or spheres, before grounding itself in matter.
What was once pure conciousness had condensed into a composite entity.For this reason every atom and element in the universe is seen as an expression of the divine.
The descent of the divine from spirit into matter is envisaged in terms of foru distinct stages of creation,as four interdependent and interpenetrating worlds, each containing the essence of those from which it was generated.
These are the worlds of emanation ( the realm of spirit or devine essence), creation (the dimension of universal conciousness), formation (the astral,emotional or dream world) and action ( our physical world).
The world of emanation (azilut)
The world of Creation (beriah)
The world of formation (yezirah)
the world of action (asiyyah)
As an embodiment of the divine we exist in the four worlds simultaneiously, because we possess a spirit, an intellect, an emotional body and a physical form.