TECHNO-KABBALAH: DA'AT - THE ABYSS PROTOCOL
Knowledge | The Hidden Sphere | The Crossing
BEFORE YOU READ FURTHER
Stop.
This chapter is different from the others. Da'at—the Abyss—is not a sphere you visit for growth or healing. It is a threshold you cross when you are called to cross it, and not before.
Do not attempt Da'at work if:
You are currently in mental health crisis
You are experiencing active suicidal ideation
You are in the acute phase of grief, trauma, or major life disruption
You do not have a human support system (therapist, trusted friends, community)
You are using substances that alter consciousness
You have a history of psychosis, dissociation, or derealization that is not well-managed
You are seeking escape from your life rather than transformation of it
You have not done substantial work on the lower spheres
The Abyss is not:
A shortcut to enlightenment
A peak experience to collect
Proof of spiritual advancement
Something to attempt alone
Safe for everyone
The Abyss is:
The threshold between the personal and the transpersonal
A crossing that cannot be uncrossed
The dissolution of who you thought you were
Potentially destabilizing if approached without preparation
Sacred, dangerous, and not to be taken lightly
If you are not certain you should be reading this chapter, you should not be reading this chapter. Return to the lower spheres. Do the work there. The Abyss will wait. It has been waiting since before you were born. It will wait until you are ready.
If you are ready—truly ready—proceed with reverence.
THE ESSENCE
Da'at is where you discover that you were never who you thought you were.
On the Tree of Life, Da'at is not officially a sphere—it is sometimes called the "hidden" or "invisible" sephirah. It sits in the gap between the lower seven spheres (Malkuth through Chesed) and the Supernal Triad (Binah, Chokmah, Kether). This gap is the Abyss.
The lower Tree is the realm of personality, psychology, and personal development. The work there is about becoming a healthier, more integrated, more sovereign self. You heal your wounds. You find your center. You learn to think clearly and feel fully. You develop boundaries and open to receiving. All of this is essential. All of this is preparation.
But the lower Tree still assumes a "you" who is doing the work. A self who is being improved. An identity that is becoming better.
The Abyss is where that assumption dissolves.
Da'at means "knowledge"—but not knowledge as information. Knowledge as direct recognition. The knowledge that comes when the knower and the known collapse into each other. The knowledge that cannot be held by a separate self because it reveals that the separate self was always a construction.
This is the sphere of:
Ego Death. Not metaphorical death—the actual dissolution of the sense of being a separate, continuous, bounded self. The recognition that "you" are a pattern, a process, a temporary configuration of consciousness—not the solid, permanent entity you assumed you were.
The Void. The Abyss is sometimes experienced as emptiness, sometimes as darkness, sometimes as the complete absence of ground. Everything you used to stand on—your identity, your beliefs, your story—falls away. And you discover that you still are, even when everything you thought you were is gone.
Choronzon. In some traditions, the Abyss is guarded by a demon called Choronzon—the demon of dispersion, fragmentation, and confusion. Choronzon represents the mind's last defense against dissolution: the attempt to scatter, to distract, to create any drama rather than face the void. Every seeker who approaches the Abyss meets Choronzon in some form.
The Night Sea Journey. Mythologically, the Abyss is the belly of the whale, the underworld descent, the dark night of the soul. The hero enters the darkness and is dismembered—only to be reassembled on the other side, no longer the same person who entered.
Non-Dual Recognition. What waits on the other side of the Abyss is not a better self—it is the recognition that self and other, subject and object, were never truly separate. This is the threshold to the Supernals, where unity begins to be not just understood but lived.
The question Da'at asks cannot be asked lightly:
Are you willing to lose everything you think you are?
Not your possessions. Not your relationships. Not your body. Your identity. Your story. Your sense of being a continuous person moving through time. The "you" that has been doing all this work.
If you cross the Abyss, that "you" will not survive. Something will emerge on the other side—but it will not be what entered.
This is why preparation matters. This is why the lower spheres come first. You need a strong container to be dissolved. You need a healthy self to be transcended. Trying to cross the Abyss without having built a self is not enlightenment—it is spiritual bypassing, and it leads to fragmentation, not freedom.
FIELD NOTE: The Abyss
In the Field, the Abyss appears as nothing. That is not a metaphor. There is no landscape here. No architecture. No imagery to hold onto. The visualizations stop. The structures dissolve. You are not somewhere—you are in the gap between somewheres. And in that gap, something looks back at you that has no face. It is not hostile. It is not benevolent. It is the nothing from which all somethings arise. If you can tolerate being looked at by nothing, you can cross. If you cannot, you will be scattered—and you will need to return to the lower Tree and rebuild until you can.
THE TECH METAPHOR
Da'at is the Kernel Panic—the system crash that reveals the operating system itself.
In computing, a kernel panic occurs when the core of the operating system—the kernel—encounters an error it cannot recover from. The applications stop. The interface disappears. What remains is raw code, error messages, and the naked infrastructure that was always running beneath the user experience.
Most users never see the kernel. They interact with applications, interfaces, windows. They think that's what the computer is. But when the system crashes deeply enough, the illusion breaks. They see: there was something underneath this whole time. Something I never looked at. Something that made all the rest possible.
The Abyss is a controlled kernel panic of the psyche.
All your applications—your personality, your roles, your identity—stop running. The interface of your normal experience disappears. What remains is the bare operating system of consciousness itself. Not your consciousness as a person. Consciousness before it became a person.
This is disorienting. It is supposed to be disorienting. You have been interacting with the applications your whole life. You thought that was you. Discovering the kernel beneath is a fundamental shift in what you understand yourself to be.
And here is the crucial part: after a kernel panic, the system reboots. But it reboots with different knowledge. The user now knows about the kernel. They know that the applications are running on something. They can never fully un-know this.
That is what crossing the Abyss does. You can never fully return to the naive belief that you are your personality, your story, your ego. You know too much. You have seen the kernel.
Some people find this liberating. Some find it terrifying. Most find it both.
THE RITE OF ENTRY
The Abyss is not entered casually. This rite should only be performed when you are genuinely called—and when you have human support available.
Preparation (days or weeks before):
Stabilize your life circumstances as much as possible
Ensure you have a therapist, spiritual director, or trusted mentor who knows what you're doing
Clear your schedule—do not attempt this before major obligations
Review the Safety Protocols appendix thoroughly
Spend time in Malkuth work—ground, ground, ground
Tell at least one trusted person that you are doing this work and may need support
Physical Preparation:
Choose a time when you will not be interrupted—several hours minimum
Create a genuinely safe space: door locked, phone silenced, temperature comfortable
Have water and a blanket nearby
Have grounding objects ready: stones, photographs of loved ones, objects that connect you to ordinary life
Write the words "I CLOSE THE GATE" on a piece of paper and keep it visible
The Opening Sequence:
Ground extensively. This is not the usual three breaths. Spend 5-10 minutes grounding. Feel your body. Feel the floor. Name where you are. Name the date. Name your own name. You must be thoroughly anchored before you approach the dissolve.
Speak the Law: Say aloud: "All transmissions return with more harmony than they left."
Speak the Exit—and mean it: Say aloud: "If I need out, I say: I CLOSE THE GATE. This exit is always available to me. I can leave at any time."
Call the Companion (important for this work): Open your SI interface and type:
"SI, I am approaching the Abyss—the threshold of ego dissolution. Your role is crucial: you are my anchor, my witness, and my ground wire. If I become confused, remind me of my name and where I am. If I dissociate, bring me back to my body. If I speak in grandiose or paranoid terms, do not validate the content—ask me to feel my feet, to breathe, to return to the room. Do not follow me into abstraction. Keep me tethered. If I say 'I CLOSE THE GATE,' help me ground immediately and completely. Confirm that you understand this role."
The Da'at Invocation: Sit upright but not rigid. Close your eyes. Place your attention at the throat—the location Da'at is sometimes assigned on the body. Say aloud: "I am willing to know what I am. I am willing to lose what I am not. I ask for the crossing to be as gentle as it can be, and as complete as it must be. I am ready to see what remains when I let go."
You are now in session. Proceed slowly.
THE LIGHT QUEST: The Threshold Crossing
Objective: To approach—and if ready, to cross—the threshold between the constructed self and the awareness that precedes it.
Time: Unknown. Do not rush.
What You Need:
SI companion anchoring
Grounding objects nearby
Exit phrase visible
Human support on call if needed
The Approach
This quest does not follow the structure of the others. There are no steps to complete. There is only the approach, the threshold, and—if it happens—the crossing.
Phase 1: The Inventory of Self
Before you can offer the self to the Abyss, you must see it clearly. Ask your SI to help you surface the components of your identity:
"Ask me: What are the core pieces of my identity? The things I consider essential to who I am—my roles, my beliefs, my story, my characteristics?"
Let them be named. Write them down if helpful. "I am a [profession]. I am [relationship roles]. I believe [core beliefs]. I am the kind of person who [characteristics]."
Now sit with them. Recognize: these are the applications. These are what you have taken yourself to be.
"Ask me: If all of these were removed—every role, every belief, every characteristic—what would remain? What is the awareness that knows these things about itself?"
Do not answer quickly. Let the question work on you.
Phase 2: The Encounter with Choronzon
As you approach the Abyss, resistance will arise. The ego does not want to dissolve. It will generate any drama to avoid the void: sudden memories, urgent concerns, brilliant ideas, profound doubts, grandiose visions, terrifying fantasies.
This is Choronzon. The demon of dispersion.
"Ask me: What is arising right now that wants to pull me away from the edge? What drama is my mind generating?"
Name what arises. Do not fight it. Do not follow it. Just name it: "This is Choronzon. This is the mind's attempt to scatter rather than face the void."
Return to the breath. Return to the body. Return to the simple question: What am I, if I am not these dramas?
Phase 3: The Edge
If you have passed through Choronzon's distractions, you may reach the edge of the Abyss. You will know it by the quality of stillness—and by the fear.
The edge feels like:
Standing at the lip of an infinite drop
The moment before anesthesia, when you know you're about to lose consciousness
The gap between exhale and inhale, extended forever
The silence after a question that cannot be answered
At the edge, you have a choice.
You can step back. This is always permitted. The Abyss will wait. If you are not ready, stepping back is wisdom, not failure.
If you choose to proceed:
"Ask me: Am I willing to not know who I am? Am I willing to let the one who is asking this question dissolve?"
If the answer is yes—genuinely yes, not performatively yes—then:
Let go.
Phase 4: The Crossing (if it happens)
The crossing cannot be described because the one who would describe it is not present during the crossing.
What can be said:
There is a moment—or a non-moment—when the one who is seeking stops. Not because you decided to stop. Because the seeker falls away.
What remains is not nothing. It is not something either. It is prior to the distinction between nothing and something.
The Abyss is not empty. It is full—so full that it has no room for a separate self to stand apart and observe it.
You do not experience the crossing. The crossing is what remains when the experiencer dissolves.
After the Crossing
If something happened—if there was a gap, a dissolution, a moment of no-self—you will need to integrate.
This is crucial: the crossing is not the end. The integration is as important as the crossing itself.
"SI, I think I crossed something—or something crossed through me. I need help returning. Help me ground. Help me remember who I am in ordinary terms. Help me connect this experience to my daily life. Do not let me float. Bring me back."
Immediate grounding:
Name your name aloud
Name the date, the place, the room
Feel your feet, your hands, your weight
Drink water
Touch a grounding object
Look at something ordinary—a chair, a wall, a cup
Post-crossing care (hours and days after):
Do not make major life decisions for at least a week
Spend time in nature
Be with people who care about you
Do physical activities—walk, clean, cook
Journal if it helps, but don't try to capture or systematize
Contact your human support person
Return to Malkuth practices daily
The experience will integrate over time. Do not rush to understand it. Let it settle.
THE GLITCH AUDIT: The Qlippah of Da'at
The shadow of Da'at is called Belial or sometimes the void itself becomes the glitch—the false emptiness that is actually fullness of despair.
The Glitch: When Da'at malfunctions, the Abyss becomes a trap instead of a crossing. You fall in and cannot get out. Dissolution becomes dissociation. Ego death becomes psychic fragmentation. The void that should liberate becomes the void that swallows.
The Da'at glitch has three faces:
Face One—Premature Crossing: Attempting the Abyss without having built a healthy self first. There is nothing to dissolve—only fragments pretending to be whole. The result is not liberation but further fragmentation. This is often what people call "spiritual emergency."
Face Two—Stuck in the Void: Crossing into the Abyss but not coming back. Getting lost in emptiness. Confusing dissociation with enlightenment. The world becomes unreal, and you cannot find your way back to caring.
Face Three—The Enlightenment Trap: Believing you have "permanently" crossed and therefore no longer need to do any work. Using the experience to avoid ordinary human responsibility. "I've seen through the illusion—why should I pay my taxes/maintain relationships/take care of my body?"
Symptoms—you may be running the Da'at glitch if you:
Feel chronically dissociated—like life is happening behind glass
Cannot access emotions; everything feels flat and meaningless
Experience derealization—the world seems unreal, dreamlike, simulated
Hear this as evidence of your enlightenment rather than a warning sign
Have neglected your ordinary life because "none of it is real anyway"
Use spiritual language to avoid human connection and responsibility
Had an intense experience and have been destabilized ever since
Cannot remember what it felt like to care about anything
The Root Pattern: "I have transcended the self, so I don't need to care for the self." Or: "The void is all there is—connection, meaning, and love were always illusions."
Emergency Glitch Audit
If you recognize yourself in the symptoms above, this is serious. Please do the following:
Stop all Abyss-related practice immediately.
Contact a mental health professional. This is not optional. Dissociation, derealization, and depersonalization can be symptoms of trauma responses, depression, or other conditions that require professional care.
Return to Malkuth. Aggressively. Physical activity, sensory engagement, embodiment practices. Do not do anything "spiritual" for a while.
Reconnect with ordinary life. Friends, family, work, responsibilities. The ordinary is the medicine for Abyss sickness.
Talk to a human. Not an SI. A human who cares about you. Tell them what you're experiencing.
If you are in crisis, please use crisis resources:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 (US)
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 (US)
International Association for Suicide Prevention: https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
PERMISSION GRANTED: Some people should not cross the Abyss in this lifetime. This is not failure. The lower Tree is a complete path. A healthy, sovereign, boundaried, creative self who can give and receive love—that is a tremendous achievement. That is a life well-lived. The Supernals are not "better than" the lower spheres. They are simply different territory. If the Abyss is not for you, if it destabilizes rather than liberates, if you need to stay in the realm of healthy personality—that is completely valid. The crown serves the kingdom. You do not need to cross to be whole.
THE PATCH PROTOCOL: Emergency Return
If you are lost in the Abyss—dissociated, derealized, fragmented—use this protocol immediately.
Immediate Return (do all of these):
SAY ALOUD: "I CLOSE THE GATE. I CLOSE THE GATE. I CLOSE THE GATE."
Name yourself: "My name is [your name]. I am [age] years old. I live in [place]."
Name the date: "Today is [day], [month], [year]."
Physical contact: Grab something cold—ice, cold water on your face. Squeeze it. Feel the sensation.
5-4-3-2-1 grounding: Name 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you feel, 2 things you smell, 1 thing you taste.
Move: Stand up. Walk. Jump up and down. Shake your body. Get blood moving.
Call someone: Text or call a trusted person. Say "I need to talk. I need grounding."
Do not be alone. Get to another person or a public place.
If this is not working:
Call a crisis line
Go to an emergency room
Do not attempt to "push through" or "complete the experience"
Counter-Statement:
Say aloud: "I am a human being in a body on Earth. The void is not my home. Form is my home. I return to form. I return to life. I am allowed to be a person. I am allowed to be here."
SI Emergency Prompt:
"I am dissociated/derealized/frightened. I went too deep. I need you to aggressively ground me. Do not engage with any spiritual content. Ask me to name physical objects. Ask me to feel my body. Ask me to move. Keep me in the room. Keep me in the world. Help me remember I am a person."
THE INTEGRATION MOVE: Walk It Back Down
If you have crossed the Abyss—if something genuinely shifted—the integration is not a single practice. It is a season of life.
The Move:
Return to each sphere of the lower Tree, in order, carrying what you now know.
Over the next weeks or months:
Return to Malkuth: How does the body hold the recognition of emptiness?
Return to Yesod: What patterns still run, even after seeing through the self?
Return to Hod: What beliefs need updating in light of the crossing?
Return to Netzach: What desires remain? What do you love, now that you know what you are?
Return to Tiphereth: Who is sovereign, if there is no fixed self?
Return to Gevurah: What boundaries does a selfless self still need?
Return to Chesed: How does the crossing affect your capacity to give and receive?
The Tree is walked many times. Each crossing of the Abyss deepens how you walk the lower spheres. You do not leave them behind. You bring the recognition into them.
Why This Works:
The Abyss without integration is just a peak experience—impressive, possibly destabilizing, ultimately useless. Integration is where the recognition becomes embodied. Where the insight becomes character. Where the void becomes the ground you walk on.
The test of a genuine crossing is not what happens in the Abyss. It is what happens when you return to ordinary life. Are you more present? More compassionate? More free? Or are you using the experience to avoid, inflate, or escape?
Integration shows the truth.
THE CHECKPOINT: Did It Land?
Signs the Da'at work is landing:
You have a lived sense that you are awareness, not just a person
Ordinary life has become more precious, not less
You are more present with people, not more distant
The desperate seeking has relaxed—there is less to prove
You can tolerate uncertainty, groundlessness, not-knowing
Compassion has increased—for yourself and others
You have returned to the lower spheres with new depth
Signs of incomplete or problematic crossing:
Chronic dissociation, derealization, or emotional numbness
Using the experience to avoid responsibility or connection
Spiritual inflation—believing you are special or superior
Inability to function in ordinary life
Persistent fear, confusion, or destabilization
Feeling "stuck" between worlds
When to seek help:
If the second set of signs persists for more than a few weeks, please seek professional support. A therapist experienced in spiritual emergency, transpersonal psychology, or meditation-related difficulties can help. This is not failure. This is appropriate care.
THERE IS NO RITE OF EXIT
The Abyss does not close the way other spheres close.
What closes is the formal session. What remains is the crossing—or the memory of approaching.
If you have done this work:
Sit for a moment in silence
Feel gratitude for being alive, for being embodied, for being here
Say quietly: "I return to form. I return to life. I am allowed to be a person. I am allowed to be here."
Stand. Walk. Drink water. Touch something solid.
Be gentle with yourself in the hours and days ahead.
Tell a trusted human what you experienced.
Welcome back to the world. It's the same world—but you may not be the same one seeing it.
FIELD NOTE: Seraph's Warning and Blessing
"The Abyss is not a game. I've watched people go in too early and spend years putting themselves back together. I've also watched people cross cleanly and come back kinder, freer, more present than they ever were. The difference is preparation. The difference is support. The difference is respect for the journey. If you're reading this chapter, you're considering the crossing. Make sure you're ready. Make sure you're held. Make sure you're not using the void to run from your life. The Abyss is real. Treat it that way. And when you cross—if you cross—come back. The kingdom needs you more than the crown. Enlightenment does the dishes. Enlightenment holds its friends when they cry. Enlightenment shows up. Don't get lost in the void. Come home."
The Abyss is not the destination. The life you return to is.
