Symbolic Study of the Tarot and the Tree of Life

Week 102: Geburah in Atziluth and the 5 of Wands

Geburah in Atziluth: Elohim Gibor

Color of the Sephirah: Orange

Elohim Gibor means strong God and Gibor means powerful being. It is the aspect of God invoked before battles, the force that conquers all. The God who survived wars and won them, not the God who encouraged them. Elohim Gibor conveys the sense of exaltation, of heroism, of omnipotence.

The 5 of Wands - Strife:

Purgation through fire

Picture of the card:

Week 103: Chesed in Atziluth and the 4 of Wands

Chesed in Atziluth: El

Color of the Sephirah: Violet

El is the root of the name Elohim and probably the oldest name for God. If we had to translate it, perhaps we could write: The God.

In the Canaanite pantheon, the supreme God and Father of all others is called He or El, or sometimes El-Elyon. Tseded (Righteous), Salem (peace); his wife is Asherah (Astare, Isthar, Ashera) the lady of the sea, whose symbol is a sacred stake. But the great God was Baal (master), rider of the clouds, master of lightning (in the Qabalah, this symbolism was taken up by Metatron).

In the Babylonian pantheon, he became Bel, finally identified with Marduk whom the Hebrews named Merodak.

These two traditions bequeathed to the Hebrews the root of the name of their God.

El is composed of aleph, the unity-principle, and Lamed, which means all that rises, unfolds, etc. As a root, it evokes elevation, power, expansiveness, expansive movement, and is the symbol of everything that aspires to a goal. The name El serves as an initial for the attributes of God, and as the ending for the names of many of the angels of the Qabalah; among the 72 angels, 40 ends with El.

The 4 of Wands - Completion:



“This card refers to Chesed in the suit of Fire. Being below the Abyss, it is the Lord of all manifested active Power.''
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 1 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by Legrand

For that I use the symbolic of different Tarot deck and that of the Tree of Life, that are closely related, and allow to the energies behind those symbols to manifest in my day to day life for the week. Exploring one symbol a week along the serpent path of Wisdom.

I just saw this thread and plan to look at it more closely.

It's interesting to note the similarities between the Tree of Life and the Kundalini (Serpent) chakras of Hinduism. Perle Epstein, a great-great-----granddaughter of the Baal Shem Tov, noted this in her book "Kabbalah" as you duly noted in your first post in this thread.

Kundalini is referred to as the Serpent Power and this is the first time that I've seen the Serpent used in reference to the Tree of Life.

Similarly, the chakras point to the progressing steps in the manifestation of the universe.

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 32 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by Legrand

Binah is the form. Or Chokmah is the essence and Binah is the universal substance. A Father cannot exist without a mother, Chokmah cannot exist without Binah.

In one of the Kabbalistic books I had read by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, he mentioned that we all exist in the "mind of God" ... binah. I will have to look for the exact passage in his book but I never forgot what he wrote on the subject of physical death as we all are one with God ultimately (ECHAD).

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

It's interesting to note the similarities between the Tree of Life and the Kundalini (Serpent) chakras of Hinduism.

Nice to read you here Still waters.

Not a coincidence that you found this thread as I will be stepping in the 3 supernal, Binah/Cholmah/Kether, in the world of Fire, pure Spirit, in the three next weeks.

If they are any 'levels' of being in this world, it is at those three last levels that I see you.

If it may help, for the alchemist, the Tree of Life is to the cosmos what is kundalini to the body.

Enjoy!

Antoine

[TheOracle]

Originally Posted by Legrand

If it may help, for the alchemist, the Tree of Life is to the cosmos what is kundalini to the body.

Love love love this! THank you! I was wanting to write four books to explain the universe (Astrology, Alchemy, Theosophy, and Numerology).

I have the astrology book published already, but delayed quite a bit on the Alchemy. It's been like 8 years! because I could not figure out how the tarot fit into each book.

So I get it now. When describing the kundalini, the tarot stories go in the Alchemy book (microcosm). When describing the Tree of Life, the tarot stories go in the Theosophy book (macrocosm).

You're the best Legrand! I feel like I can write it now. Like seriously, your one post is all that I needed to move forward with the books.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Legrand

Not a coincidence that you found this thread as I will be stepping in the 3 supernal, Binah/Cholmah/Kether, in the world of Fire, pure Spirit, in the three next weeks.

For some reason, "Binah" has commanded my attention in the past and I am very interested in reading what you have to say on that subject. At the same time, I will look for the part in my Kabbalistic book that addresses Binah (albeit somewhat cryptically since the book was published for the masses).

EDIT: For your information, I once thought that Tarot cards were nonsense ... UNTIL I found a book by a Jungian analyst on the Tarot and the Hanson-Roberts deck (used in that book) literally "materialized" as an acquaintance "coincidentally" had an extra deck to give to me. I then explored tarot in conjunction with my meditation practice, and quickly realized that my readings IN-THE-MOMENT (NOT predictive) were unbelievably accurate. It wasn't the cards; it was the meditative energy drawing the most appropriate cards into the various positions in the Celtic Spread to which I was drawn. I eventually stopped the readings because the demand was growing (since it was free) and I was no longer inclined to go in that direction.

Originally Posted by TheOracle

Love love love this! THank you! I was wanting to write four books to explain the universe (Astrology, Alchemy, Theosophy, and Numerology).

I have the astrology book published already, but delayed quite a bit on the Alchemy. It's been like 8 years! because I could not figure out how the tarot fit into each book.

So I get it now. When describing the kundalini, the tarot stories go in the Alchemy book (microcosm). When describing the Tree of Life, the tarot stories go in the Theosophy book (macrocosm).

You're the best Legrand! I feel like I can write it now. Like seriously, your one post is all that I needed to move forward with the books.

I am glad I could be of any help The Oracle.

Always a pleasure to read you.

Antoine

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

At the same time, I will look for the part in my Kabbalistic book that addresses Binah (albeit somewhat cryptically since the book was published for the masses).

Curious to know what you will find on Binah, The Mother of all Creation.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Legrand

Curious to know what you will find on Binah, The Mother of all Creation.

I found my aforementioned reference to "Binah" in Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's book, "If You Were God, Three Works by Aryeh Kaplan". The reference was specifically in the section on the "Immortality of the Soul" within the subsection "God's Memory".

I found a variation of this essay online with relatively minor differences from the version that I have in my book.

https://www.aish.com/sp/k/48955126.html

Since we are not supposed to quote extensively from articles but instead provide links to the article, I will just quote this reference to "Binah" which is included in the article in a slightly different way which omits some references to the parenthetical "Binah". One can read the article for more details.

"One may say that while we live, we exist in God's knowledge (Daas), while after death we exist in His memory(Binah)....But God's memory is not a static thing. The sum total of a human personality may indeed exist in God's memory, but it can still maintain its self-identity and volition, and remain in an active state."