A metaphor sometimes used in the magical tradition of the Kabbalah compares the crossing of the Abyss to a sea voyage into unknown waters. The magician leaves the known world behind and sets out into unchartered regions. The mystic paths of Zayin 7 Cheth are the seas to be sailed with the Sephira Binah being the landfall on the far side of the ocean. The strangeness of the Supernal realm; its total difference from anything familiar; must be kept in mind constantly when the Sephiroth and paths above 'the mystic sea' are explored. The Supernals are the realm of unity; not a unity within which forms take shape; not a unity in which forces press outward; but utter unity in which no division; no distinction; no separation can be imagined to exist.
In Binah, that unity is the source of Form. In Chokmah, it is the beginning of force. In Kether, it cannot be defined even in so abstract a manner.
To the Neshamah, the Chiah and the Yechidah [the three highest aspects of the microcosm] this strange territory is home ground. The Ruach, basically the structure of awareness, is the ship in which the magician sails, but it is a ship which can only complete part of the journey before it flounders. The remainder of the journey must be undertaken by awareness alone, without anyof the familiar structures which define the self. Very much like a castaway, it comes to the far shore of the ocean bearing nothing of itself.
