The Steps of Creation

[anagogy]

Creation in strict sense is inventing something from nothing. An act of free will. There is something new, different, surprising ... Creation is an event. It has potential to be experienced. There is a sense of separation inherent in the very act. Like work of art is separated from the artist. Work is because of the author's free will. Not by necessity or law. Emanation on the other hand is like a smell of flower. It's something uncreated that flows naturally/by default from the source. It automatically belongs together. Kabbalah combines emanation and creation and also adds formation (creation from something) and action. Therefore there are four worlds (planes) - from inner to outer ...

I agree.

I don't really get Ra's cosmology.
"First thing known is infinity." - Is it really known?

I think what they mean by that is infinity is the first thing awareness is acquainted with because, as you said, that is the ground of being. It isn't "knowing" in an intellectual sense, more like the inner awareness of all that is. There is a direct awareness of being infinity.

"The infinity is creation." - I thought infinity is absolute reality, ground of all being. Creation on the other hand is contingent. I think creation really is when intelligent infinity through first distortion free will finds focus and creates light.

Well as we know from other sections of the Ra material, the creator does not properly create, it merely experiences itself by creating experiential distortions that enhance contrast so that archetypal facets of the creator stand out brightly and clearly. So there was an infinity there before it was "formed", and the creator took those already existing emanations (the seven rays) and "organized" them in a certain way through an act of will. So creation is more like "organization", rather than a strictly nothing to something situation. So when Ra says that the infinity is creation, I think they mean that the creator and created are one. The substance of infinity is the substance that is molded by the creator to form what we know as the creation.

Or anyway, that is my perspective on it.