Week 46: Tiphareth in Yetzirah and the 6 of Swords

General Symbolic of Tiphareth:

Tiphareth (Beauty) sits in the centre of the Tree of Life, in the middle of the central pillar. It is the outermost manifestation of the five most subtle sephiroth, while being the spiritual principle of the four most dense sephiroth. It's Kether on a lower plane, and Yesod on the upper plane.

Tiphareth is halfway between the body (material world of Malkuth) and the first expression of the divine Kether). For Irenaeus of Lyon, "the son of God became man so that man could become son of God" (Against heresy).

Tiphareth is to the Tree what the sun is to our world; the vital centre, the heart. If everything emanates from Kether, Tiphareth keeps all the Elements of the Tree in relation to each other. With the exception of Malkhut, each sephirah is directly connected to Tiphareth by one of the paths. It is comparable to the eye of the cyclone, a place of calm and security in the centre of the storm. Unless our lives are centered around an appropriate point, we get lost in chaos. Without an inner sun to illuminate us, everything disintegrates and dissolves. This center is God in us, the Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. This is the sun to which Tiphareth draws our attention to the tree. It is the light that we must find to arrange around it the whole of our inner and outer universe that it will transfigure. In a second step, he will be entrusted with the direction of our life. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this task, the only true objective of Magic.

Tiphareth is the centre of the second triad of the Tree, who’s other two angles are Gerubah and Chesed. This triad, reflecting the three upper sephiroth, is the one that remains after the death of the body and mind. In privileged moments, the voice that the inner listening perceives is that of the Self, and not that of God or disembodied spirits.

It should be noted that there are two circuits in the trails. The first is that of the Light distributed to the sepiroth via Tiphereth, and the second is a system of exchanges between the sephiroth themselves. The origin of the light comes from Kether, but from a practical point of view, the distribution centre is Tiphareth.

The six sephiroth of which Tiphareth is the center are sometimes called the Universal Man. From Kether's point of view, this man is a child. From Malkuth's point of view, he is a king in his kingdom. In the Bible, according to the name expressed for "God", we know to which sphere of the Tree this particular mode of manifestation should be assigned. Any reference to the son refers to Tiphareth.

There are three types of magical images of Tiphareth; a child, a king-priest and a sacrificed god. The child indicates that this is where our "individuality" begins, distinct from that of others. The king (divine right) between the heavenly city and the human city. The sacrificed god shows that we must divest ourselves of our individuality to join the union with God. We descend the Tree with the child, we live with the king, and finally ascend to accept the sacrifice of ourselves.

In the tradition of Western mystery schools, the first of the great initiations confers the power to converse with our Guardian Holy Angel. The characteristic of this state is that there are no visions or voices. The higher consciousness (Tiphareth) is beyond the mind (Yesod). Pure intuition, it contains no image perceptible by the senses.

Moreover, any inner experience where the vision ends in dazzling light is assigned to Tiphareth. Visions of a clearly defined shape (characters for example) are characteristic of Yesod. En-stasis without form or light, such as the one described by Plotin, tends to reach Kether.

Tiphareth in Yetzirah: MALAKIM

In Hebrew, MALAKIM (Kings, Those Who Rule) refers to angels; the Qabalah uses the latter term to name more specifically those of this sephirah.

They act mainly on the mineral world, the environment in which the beings of Creation evolve.

They produce the mineral kingdom, metals, gems, and are the soul of all mineral medicine. They give man the necessary strength to overcome the powers of lies, and grant him the reward for which he peregrinates here on earth.

They decide which spiritual path is to be followed by the one who reaches Tiphereth. Once the experience of this sephirah is successful, they strengthen the will and the body of the adept so that he can accomplish his task.

The 6 of Swords - Science:

“Tiphareth shows the full establishment and balance of the idea of the suit. This is particularly the case with this card, as the intellect itself is also referred to the number Six. Mercury, in Aquarius, represents the celestial Energy influencing the Kerub of the Man, thus showing intelligence and humanity.
But there is much more than this in the symbol. The perfect balance of all mental and moral faculties, hardly won, and almost impossible to hold in an ever-changing world, declares the idea of Science in its fullest interpretation.

The hilts of the Swords, which are very ornamental, are in the form of the hexagram. Their points touch the outer petals of a red rose upon a golden cross of six squares, thus showing the Rosy Cross as the central secret of scientific truth.”
(The Book of Thoth)