Wave-Particle Duality

Every year the earth yields an abundance of vegetative life. How can anything grow out of the soil? The produce of the land–the favorite image of all growth processes–incorporates a mix of dry land and water. In our symbolic universe, the capacity to yield more that you sow (a loose analogue to creating something from nothing) invites yet another comparison to wave-particle duality. While the seed is certainly not nothing in its original form, once planted it becomes divested of its original structure via chemical deconstruction, turning it into a relative no-thing as its pre-plated constitution now rots in the ground. In essence, the seed is an information delivery system. The information it contains in-forms the new object that it assembled based on its instructions by collecting together the raw materials of the soil and water. Therefore, if information ‘works’ the wave-particle complementary of reality, it too can generate massive amounts of productivity.

Consider for a moment the physical size of the seed: Chassidic thought suggests that the incomparability of the fruit or product with the seed testifies to the power of infinition present within the earth itself. Infinition does not mean that it is literally endless or without limits but rather that it can overcome limits. However we would define or limit something, it can always become something more–growing beyond or making more of itself. Continually making more of it than what is there already nullifies its finitude: in-finition. Besides this augmentation, the earth ultimately affects the reprogramming of matter as it is harnessed for agriculture. ‘Mother’ earth is a trans-former and calls to mind all of the stages of input (fertilization), metamorphous (gestation) and output (birth).

Semiotically, the earth or eretz signifies more than a concrete object (as in the physical   earth (soil/land) or the planet earth. According to the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba 5:8), the earth is named eretz on account of its “running” (ratz from the same sub-root) to do the “will” (ratzon also the same sub-root) of its Creator. ‘Creator’ in this citation is a translation of the word Koneh which also refers to one’s possessor. The earth takes up a specific relationship with the one who acquires it.

In philosophic language, the earth assumes the structure of intentionality in that it designates an entity that ‘runs‘ to con-form to the will of the agent that acts upon it or owns it. Intentionality links the subject (creator/owner–even the owner of a thought about something) to the object(s) reflected upon. We help constitute the object (even the solid one like the earth) by interacting with it (wave-collapse). The object (among others) that characterizes the extreme plasticity of the object in the face of the subject-object (possessor-possessed) relationship is the earth (particle). Running as it does to manifest the will of its owner, the earth expresses its exceptional reactivity (sensitivity to measurement/observation).

As a signifier, “earth” exceeds the signification of the actual thing signified. Just as the physical earth can grow an amazing amount of vegetation (completely disproportionate to what was seeded within it) so too that word “earth” carries within it potential meaning in excess of the literal sense. The metaphoricity of the word grows out of the literal meaning of the word. This is similar to the configuration of meaning as a marriage of the definite and indefinite nature of wave-particle duality. In this sense, the particle nature of a word is its literal meaning which the metaphoric (meta-phor to carry over) ‘distributed meaning’ (as a probability wave) solicits non-local or decontextualized significance–the application of the word to multiple contexts, some of which are more ‘probable’ than others.

Earth can also imply a commodity (an object or article of use). This is to say that earth is named for its usefulness. It is a use-object like a vehicle or tool through which our act of volition becomes realized. As such, the earth functions like a ‘standing reserve’–the pure receptivity of an empty vessel. In order to kick start its creativity, it must receive something from outside of itself. The seed must be deposited within it. Catalytically, the seed starts the processes that takes place from within the earth. Hence, the feminine earth (historically) has required the dissemination and fertilization of a transmitting agent (marked as masculine in the gender symbolism of Kabbalah which borrows from biological reproduction). Some ‘higher’ (in the sense of being more abstract) reality cultivates the lower (in the sense of being more tangible) reality. Then, the lower reality (the earth) superadds to the mass and characteristics of the contribution of the higher reality effectively taking of itself to build out that potential.

In the classical terminology of Kabbalah, this would be akin to Malchut (Kingdom or the domain of influence, the mastered zone or place of expressed will i.e. the earth) receiving an influx of energy or information from Zeir Anpin (literally the ‘small face’). The term “Zeir Anpin” practically denotes the microcosmic picture of reality wrapped up in the life of an individual person. The human being in particular is the ‘small face’ who stands in contrast to Arich Anpin or (literally the ‘long face’) the macrocosmic picture of reality. As a pair of terms, they highlight that relationship between a person and the cosmos. On a simple level, I am the human agent (the microcosmic profile) that seeds the earth. As a farmer, I place the seed in the ground (like the ‘ground state’ in reality) and provide irrigation. The watering of the seed in the earth is the intersection of information packets (seeds) in the nexus of wave-particle (water-soil) interactions.

In the Midrash mentioned above, the word Koneh is not the traditional one used for Creator (which would be Borai). One of the reasons for this word choice can be explained by its etymological relationship with the word ken which means a ‘nest.’ Nesting involves the lodging of eggs (another information container) within a receptacle that contextualizes it. My will, or intention, both measures up and contextualizes ‘embryonic‘ reality which is how “I” acquire the earth and the earth automatically (or at least with rapid reactivity–like running as opposed to the reluctance of dragging one’s feet or the slowness of walking) con-forms.

In another arrangement of these terms, the Tzemach Tzedek equates the ‘earth’ with receptive souls that run to fulfill the will of the Creator. The ‘small face’ then becomes the finitude of the world as a mask of the Divine influence on Creation. We then conform to the Divine will which spiritually fertilizes each of us bestowing God given talents and abilities which we parlay into even greater produce (the fruits of the earth). So while the world in this picture is a participatory universe (we are licensed and endowed to contribute to the creative process), historically we have had to react to this initial seeding. This would be similar to people waiting for something to happen to them. I am waiting for someone to come along and make an investment (only in this case we are waiting on God or reality to make the first move). Then we consent to run with the seed money for our startup ‘business’ and try to make it profitable.

But all of this is starting to change. The foretold future (which we are taste testing today) transfers the initiative to the feminine earth who will no longer have to wait for an investor (fertilizer) to make a transfer to start something. She/we/the earth will be able to start up on her/our/its own and the division between funder and funded erodes. The old top down method of seeding the earth shifts into a novel situation wherein she/we/the earth gives birth on her/our/its own, automatically, without waiting. We make things happen instead of standing around waiting for them to happen to us.

In Part Five we will highlight examples for how this shift is already upon us and how it will only continue to grow in the future.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/new-earth-gathered-waters-physics-and-kabbalah-part-5/

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/new-earth-gathered-waters-physics-and-kabbalah-part-3/

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