Symbolic Study of the Tarot and the Tree of Life

Week 27: Path between Binah and Chokmah in Assiah

This is the last horizontal path out of three going up the Tree. It comes after the third veil.

To reach the top of the Tree when we are in Chesed, we must cross the abyss and meet the mysterious Sephirath Daath. Geburah and Chesed crossed, no guide supports us anymore. Maintaining the aspirant at equal distance from the two pillars, only the perfectly balanced forces can help him to cross the Abyss.

Letter: Daleth

III – The Empress: “This card is attributed to the letter Daleth, which means a door, and it refers to the planet Venus. This card is, on the face of it, the complement of The Emperor; but her attributions are much more universal.

On the Tree of Life, Daleth is the path leading from Chokmah to Binah, uniting the Father with the Mother. Daleth is one of the three paths which are altogether above the Abyss. There is further more the alchemical symbol of Venus, the only one of the planetary symbols which comprises all the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. The doctrine implied is that the fundamental formula of the Universe is Love. [The circle touches the Sephiroth I, 2, 4, 6, 5, 3; the Cross is formed by 6, 9, 10 and 7, 8.]

It is impossible to summarize the meanings of the symbol of the Woman, for this very reason, that she continually recurs in infinitely varied form. "Many-throned, many-minded, many-wiled, daughter of Zeus."

In this card, she is shown in her most general manifestation. She combines the highest spiritual with the lowest material qualities. For this reason, she is fitted to represent one of the three alchemical forms of energy, Salt. Salt is the inactive principle of Nature; Salt is matter which must be energized by Sulphur to maintain the whirling equilibrium of the Universe. The arms and torso of the figure consequently suggest the shape of the alchemical symbol of Salt. She represents a woman with the imperial crown and vestments, seated upon a throne, whose uprights suggest blue twisted flames symbolic of her birth from water, the feminine, fluid element. In her right hand she bears the lotus of Isis; the lotus represents the feminine, or passive power. Its roots are in the earth beneath the water, or in the water itself, but it opens its petals to the Sun, whose image is the belly of the chalice. It is, therefore, a living form of the Holy Grail, sanctified by the blood of the Sun. Perching upon the flamelike uprights of her throne are two of her most sacred birds, the sparrow and the dove; the nub of this symbolism must be sought in the poems of Catullus and Martial. On her robe are bees; also dominos, surrounded by continuous spiral lines; the signification is everywhere similar.
About her, for a girdle, is the Zodiac.

Beneath the throne is a floor of tapestry, embroidered with fleurs-de-lys and fishes; they seem to be adoring the Secret Rose, which is indicated at the base of the throne. The significance of these symbols has already been explained. In this card all symbols are cognate, because of the simplicity and purity of the emblem. There is here no contradiction; such opposition as there seems to be is only the opposition necessary to balance. And this is shown by the revolving moons.

The heraldry of the Empress is two-fold: on the one side, the Pelican of tradition feeding its young from the blood of its own heart; on the other, the White Eagle of the Alchemist.
With regard to the Pelican, its full symbolism is only available to Initiates of the Fifth degree of the O.T.O. In general terms, the meaning may be suggested by identifying the Pelican herself with the Great Mother and her offspring, with the Daughter in the formula of Tetragrammaton. It is because the daughter is the daughter of her mother that she can be raised to her throne. In other language, there is a continuity of life, an inheritance of blood, which binds all forms of Nature together. There is no break between light and darkness. Natura non facit saltum. If these considerations were fully understood, it would become possible to reconcile the Quantum theory with the Electro-magnetic equations.

The White Eagle in this trump corresponds to the Red Eagle in the Consort card, the Emperor. It is here necessary to work back wards. For in these highest cards are the symbols of perfection; both the initial perfection of Nature and the final perfection of Art; not only Isis, but Nephthys. Consequently, the details of the work pertain to subsequent cards, especially Atu vi and Atu xiv.

At the back of the card is the Arch or Door, which is the interpretation of the letter Daleth. This card, summed up, may be called the Gate of Heaven. But, because of the beauty of the symbol, because of its omniform presentation, the student who is dazzled by any given manifestation may be led astray. In no other card is it so necessary to disregard the parts, to concentrate upon the whole.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...htarotcard.jpg

Week 28: Chokmah in Assiah and the 2 of Disks

General Symbolic of Chokmah:

From Kether, we reach the top of the White Pillar where Chokmah, the Wisdom of God, stands. It is the awareness of transcendental Unity, of the will of the divine. Too brilliant to be reflected directly to the different worlds, Chokmah wraps himself in the veil of Binah, the Intelligence that takes on the manifestation of a form.

A point is a position that appears, crystallizes in the primordial "void". It has no dimension. Kether is that point.

But if a point is conceived as moving in space, it becomes a line, an infinite number of points. Its only dimension is length. Kether is the dimensionless point, and Chokmah its extension into that measurable dimension which is the line (existence by extension). If we represent the primordial point that is Kether as becoming as becoming the line that is Chokmah, we will get a good image of it. This energy that unfolds is dynamic in essence. It is assumed in Euclidean geometry that the ends of a straight line will never meet, but this is only true in our near universe. Extend the line to infinity and it becomes a circle of inconceivable diameter, a sidereal zodiac whose constellations are the last elements that the eye can perceive.

Kether is a static state, a "crystallization" of the formless. But we cannot conceive of this concentration as a dynamic process. The limits of this crystallization having been reached, the force, the ever-emerging force of the unmanifested breaks these limits. The full potential of the energy that keeps our existence in manifestation.

This sephirah is the first to give rise to the appearance of a polarity. Although Binah, the sephirah facing it, is created from Chokmah, it is good to associate it with the other, because both are connected to Kether and form the basis of the polarity that gives its structure to the Tree of Life. As a creative force, it personifies the energy, the impulse that launches the project. 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.

Wisdom and knowledge should not be confused. True wisdom, or spiritual intuition, is as unsubjective as the certainty that two and two make four. It has the power to penetrate beyond the person to the primordial depths of divinity. On the other hand, knowledge is a state of human knowledge, useful but limited. In order to preserve the priority of wisdom over knowledge, oral transmission was long favoured. The true Qabalah must be received from within. The only true secret is incommunicable. It lies in what the student makes to spring forth from within and in the transformations that take place within him.

The student-hermetist is mistaken if he/she thinks that there is a book that will reveal the "hidden knowledge" to him/her or an Initiatic Order that will teach it to him/her from grade to grade. The only thing that can be proposed is a teaching pedagogy, the transmission of working tools and the realization of group rituals. This is very much and even indispensable in the magical process.

When the final stages of the quest are reached, it is important to keep in mind that the Light, Chokmah, is not the perfect manifestation of the Lord, but the last veil that still hides Him.

Chokmah in Assiah: Zodiac

We are reaching the limits of the material world. The sphere of fixed stars. These limits are those that man can perceive without instruments. They correspond to the innermost reality of himself.

The 2 of Disks - Change:

“The number Two, Chokmah, here rules in the suit pertaining to Earth. It shows the type of Energy appropriate to Two, in its most fixed form. According to the doctrine that Change is the support of stability, the card is called Change.

Its celestial rulers are Jupiter and Capricornus; and these symbols are most inharmonious, so that in practical matters the good fortune of Jupiter is very limited. Their influence on the card is not great. Yet, Jupiter being himself the Wheel (Atu X), he emphasizes that idea.

The card represents two Pantacles, one above the other; they are the Chinese symbols of the Yang and Yin duplicated as in the Hsiang. One wheel is dextro- and the other laevo-rotatory. They thus represent the harmonious interplay of the Four Elements in constant movement. One may in fact consider the card as the picture of the complete manifested Universe, in respect of its dynamics.

About them is entwined a green Serpent. His tail is in his mouth. He forms the figure Eight, the symbol of the Infinite, the equation 0=2.”
(Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...hoth-tarot.jpg

Week 29: Path between Tiphareth and Kether in Assiah

Letter: Gimel

II – The Priestess: “This card is referred to the letter Gimel, which means a Camel.

The card refers to the Moon. The Moon (being the general feminine symbol, the symbol of the second order corresponding to the Sun as the Yoni does to the Lingam) is universal, and goes from the highest to the lowest. It is a symbol which will recur frequently in these hieroglyphs. But in the earlier Trumps the concern is with Nature above the Abyss; the High Priestess is the first card which connects the Supernal Triad with the Hexad; and her path, as shown in the diagram, makes a direct connection between the Father (Kether) in his highest aspect, and the Son (Tiphareth) in his most perfect manifestation. This path is in exact balance in the middle pillar. There is here, therefore, the purest and most exalted conception of the Moon. (At the other end of the scale is Atu xviii, q.v.)

The card represents the most spiritual form of Isis the Eternal Virgin; the Artemis of the Greeks. She is clothed only in the luminous veil of light. It is important for high initiation to regard Light not as the perfect manifestation of the Eternal Spirit, but rather as the veil which hides that Spirit. It does so all the more effectively because of its incomparably dazzling brilliance. [The tradition of the best schools of Hindu mysticism has a precise parallelism. The final obstacle to full Enlightenment is exactly this Vision of Formless Effulgence]. Thus she is light and the body of light. She is the truth behind the veil of light. She is the soul of light. Upon her knees is the bow of Artemis, which is also a musical instrument, for she is huntress, and hunts by enchantment.

Now, regard this idea as from behind the Veil of Light, the third Veil of the original Nothing. This light is the menstruum of manifestation, the goddess Nuith, the possibility of Form. This first and most spiritual manifestation of the feminine takes to itself a masculine correlative, by formulating in itself any geometrical point from which to contemplate possibility. This virginal goddess is then potentially the goddess of fertility. She is the idea behind all form; as soon as the influence of the triad descends below the Abyss, there is the completion of concrete idea.

At the bottom of the card, accordingly, are shown nascent forms, whorls, crystals, seeds, pods, symbolising the beginnings of life. In the midst is the Camel. In this card is the one link between the archetypal and formative worlds.

Thus far concerning this path, considered as issuing downwards from the Crown; but to the aspirant, that is, to the adept who is already in Tiphareth, to him who has attained to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, this is the path which leads upwards; and this card, in one system entitled the Priestess of the Silver Star, is symbolic of the thought (or rather of the intelligible radiance) of that Angel. It is, in short, a symbol of the highest Initiation.”

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...hpriestess.jpg

Week 30: Path between Binah and Kether in Assiah

Letter: Beth

I – The Magus: “This card is referred to the letter Beth, which means a house, and is attributed to the planet Mercury. The ideas connected with this symbol are so complex and so multifarious.

But Mercury is the Path leading from Kether to Binah, the Understanding; and thus He is the messenger of the gods, represents precisely that Lingam, the Word of creation whose speech is silence.

Mercury, however, represents action in all forms and phases. He is the fluidic basis of all transmission of activity; and, on the dynamic theory of the Universe, he is himself the substance thereof. He is, in the language of modern physics, that electric charge which is the first manifestation of the ring of ten indefinable ideas, as previously explained. He is thus continuous creation.

Logically also, being the Word, he is the law of reason or of necessity or chance, which is the secret meaning of the Word, which is the essence of the Word, and the condition of its utterance. This being so, and especially because he is duality, he represents both truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly. Being the unexpected, he unsettles any established idea, and therefore appears tricky. He has no conscience, being creative. If he cannot attain his ends by fair means, he does it by foul. The legends of the youthful Mercury are therefore legends of cunning. He cannot be understood, because he is the Unconscious Will. His position on the Tree of Life shows the third Sephira, Binah, Understanding, as not yet formulated; still less the false Sephira, Da'ath, knowledge.

From the above it will appear that this card is the second emanation from the Crown, and therefore, in a sense, the adult form of the first emanation, the Fool, whose letter is Aleph, the Unity. These ideas are so subtle and so tenuous, on these exalted planes of thought, that definition is impossible. It is not even desirable, because it is the nature of these ideas to flow one into the other. One cannot do more than say that any given hieroglyph represents a slight insistence upon some particular form of a pantomorphous idea. In this card, the emphasis is upon the creative and dualistic character of the path of Beth.

In the traditional card the disguise is that of a Juggler.

This representation of the Juggler is one of the crudest and least satisfactory in the medieval pack. He is usually represented with a headdress shaped like the sign of infinity in mathematics (this is shown in detail in the card called the Two of Disks). He bears a wand with a knob at each end, which was probably connected with the dual polarity of electricity; but it is also the hollow wand of Prometheus that brings down fire from Heaven. On a table or altar, behind which he is standing, are the three other elemental weapons.

"With the Wand createth He.
With the Cup preserveth He.
With the Dagger destroyeth He.
With the Coin redeemeth He." Liber Magi vv. 7-10."

The present card has been designed principally upon the Graeco-Egyptian tradition; for the understanding of this idea was certainly further advanced when these philosophies modified each other, than elsewhere at any time.

The Hindu conception of Mercury, Hanuman, the monkey god, is abominably degraded. None of the higher aspects of the symbol are found in his cult. The aim of his adepts seems principally to have been the production of a temporary incarnation of the god by sending the women of the tribe every year into the jungle. Nor do we find any legend of any depth or spirituality. Hanuman is certainly little more than the Ape of Thoth.

The principal characteristic of Tahuti or Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, is, firstly, that he has the head of the ibis. The ibis is the symbol of concentration, because it was supposed that this bird stood continuously upon one leg, motionless. This is quite evidently a symbol of the meditative spirit. There may also have been some reference to the central mystery of the Aeon of Osiris, the secret guarded so carefully from the profane, that the intervention of the male was necessary to the production of children. In this form of Thoth, he is seen bearing the phoenix wand, symbolising resurrection through the generative process. In his left hand is the Ankh, which represents a sandal-strap; that is to say, the means of progress through the worlds, which is the distinguishing mark of godhead. But, by its shape, this Ankh (crux ansata) is actually another form of the Rose and Cross, and this fact is perhaps not quite such an accident as modern Egyptologists, preoccupied with their attempted refutation of the Phallic school of Archaeology, would have us suppose.

The other form of Thoth represents him primarily as Wisdom and the Word. He bears in his right hand the Style, in his left the Papyrus. He is the messenger of the gods; he transmits their will by hieroglyphs intelligible to the initiate, and records their acts; but it was seen from very early times that the use of speech, or writing, meant the introduction of ambiguity at the best, and falsehood at the worst; they therefore represented Thoth as followed by an ape, the cynocephalus, whose business was to distort the Word of the god; to mock, to simulate and to deceive. In philosophical language one may say: Manifestation implies illusion. This doctrine is found in Hindu philosophy, where the aspect of Tahuti of which we are speaking is called Mayan. This doctrine is also found in the central and typical image of the Mahayana school of Buddhism (really identical with the doctrine of Shiva and Shakti).

The present card endeavours to represent all the above conceptions. Yet no true image is possible at all; for, firstly, all images are necessarily false as such; and, secondly, the motion being perpetual, and its rate that of the limit, c, the rate of Light, any stasis contradicts the idea of the card: this picture is, therefore, hardly more than mnemonic jottings.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...thothtarot.jpg

Week 31: Path between Chokmah and Kether in Assiah

Letter: Aleph

0 – The Fool: “This card is attributed to the letter Aleph, which means an Ox, but by its shape the Hebrew letter (so it is said) represents a ploughshare; thus the significance is primarily Phallic. It is the first of the three Mother letters, Aleph, Mem, and Shin, which correspond in various interwoven fashions with all the triads that occur in these cards, notably Fire, Water, Air; Father, Mother, Son; Sulphur, Salt, Mercury; Rajas, Sattvas and Tamas.

The really important feature of this card is that its number should be 0. It represents therefore the Negative above the Tree of Life, the source of all things. It is the Qabalistic Zero. It is the equation of the Universe, the initial and final balance of the opposites; Air, in this card, therefore quintessentially means a vacuum.

In the medieval pack, the title of the card is Le Mat, adapted from the Italian Matto, madman or fool; the propriety of this title will be considered later. But there is another, or (one might say) a complementary, theory. If one assumes that the Tarot is of Egyptian origin, one may suppose that Mat (this card being the key card of the whole pack) really stands for Maut, the vulture goddess, who is an earlier and more sublime modification of the idea of Nuith than Isis.

There are two legends connected with the vulture. It is supposed to have a spiral neck; this may possibly have reference to the theory (recently revived by Einstein, but mentioned by Zoroaster in his Oracles) that the shape of the Universe, the form of that energy which is called the Universe, is spiral.

The other legend is that the vulture was supposed to reproduce her species by the intervention of the wind; in other words, the element of air is considered as the father of all manifested existence. There is a parallel in Anaximenes' school of Greek philosophy.

This card is therefore both the father and the mother, in the most abstract form of these ideas.

This is not a confusion, but a deliberate identification of the male and the female, which is justified by biology. The fertilized ovum is sexually neutral. It is only some unknown determinant in the course of development which decides the issue.

It is necessary to acclimatise oneself to this at first sight strange, idea. As soon as one has made up one's mind to consider the feminine aspect of things, the masculine element should immediately appear in the same flash of thought to counterbalance it. This identification is complete in itself) philosophically speaking; it is only later that one must consider the question of the result of formulating Zero as "plus I plus minus I". The result of so doing is to formulate the idea of Tetragrammaton.

The Fool is of the gold of air. He has the horns of Dionysus Zagreus, and between them is the phallic cone of white light representing the influence from the Crown [Kether: see the position of the Path of Aleph on the Tree of Life.] upon him. He is shown against the background of air, dawning from space; and his attitude is that of one bursting unexpectedly upon the world.

He is clad in green, according to the tradition of Spring; but his shoes are of the phallic gold of the sun.

In his right hand he bears the wand, tipped with a pyramid of white, of the All-Father. In his left hand he bears the flaming pine- cone, of similar significance, but more definitely indicating vegetable growth; and from his left shoulder hangs a bunch of purple grapes. Grapes represent fertility, sweetness, and the basis of ecstasy. This ecstasy is shown by the stem of the grapes developing into rainbow - hued spirals. The Form of the Universe. This suggests the Threefold Veil of the Negative manifesting, by his intervention, in divided light. Upon this spiral whorl are other attributions of godhead; the vulture of Maut, the dove of Venus (Isis or Mary), and the ivy sacred to his devotees. There is also the butterfly of many-coloured air and the winged globe with its twin serpents, a symbol which is echoed and fortified by the twin infants embracing on the middle spiral. Above them hangs the benediction of three flowers in one. Fawning upon him is the tiger; and beneath his feet in the Nile with its lotus stems crouches the crocodile. Resuming all his many forms and many- coloured images in the centre of the figure, the focus of the microcosm is the radiant sun. The whole picture is a glyph of the creative light.

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c..._thothfool.jpg

Week 32: Kether in Assiah and the Ace of Disks

General Symbolic of Kether:

The top of the building! The apex of the Middle Pillar where we can go no further, except to enter the unknown territories of the Veils of Negative Existence (in case of success) or to start again in Malkuth (in case of failure).

When ascending the Tree, Kether is the highest point of balance between the two Pillars. It is there that we can leave the Tree to enter the Unmanifested Ain Soph Aur and reach the Light from which we do not return.

Kether is. To reach Kether, we have since Malkuth worked hard, pruning, scouring the slag that had gathered on the divine spark within us. To reintegrate the first sepiroth, we don't have to do or believe in something, but be something. We must pass from one state of existence to another.

Let's not make the mistake of imagining Kether as located in the distance. It is in fact the closest sephirah to our real being. The Malkuth/Kether loop is complete when we "enter the kingdom of Heaven that is within us".

Kether means "Crown" in the royal sense of the word, but also the summit of any height, be it a mountain or a pillar.

Alchemist iconography shows the spirits of the planets receiving their light in the form of a crown from the hands of their king, the sun. In Yoga, and also in Islam, the crown of the head is the point through which the soul escapes from bodily limitations to ascend to the supra-human states. In Hindu mode, this is the Sahasrâra padma (lotus of a thousand petals).

Out of the boundless light comes a flash of lightning. Kether is the point from which this lightning flashes. It is the first stage of the condensation of Ain Soph, the first crystallization of what has not yet been manifested. There, God is a pressure.

In Kether, no form exists. Only the being in itself is present, which we can imagine as a blinding white light, undifferentiated in rays by a prism.

Kether is reached when we manage to conceive an existence without attributes, dimensions or parts.

The Central Pillar sums up our history. Man fell all the way to Malkuth, becoming a creature of the earth. As we raise our vision, we encounter Yesod and the mind. Higher still, we reach the Sun and converse with the Holy Guardian Angel (the Self). Finally, looking beyond the stars and nebulae, we seek the source of life. Beyond Kether lies our immortality. Communicating with this soul (Tiphereth) and then identifying with it (crossing the abyss) are the necessary steps to conscious immortality.

If in the Old Testament Elijah is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, the ascension of Christ (body, soul and spirit) into heaven is an evangelical attestation of this concept. He "spiritualized" himself to the point of gradually disappearing from the disciples level of existence.

Kether in Assiah: Swastika
Images of the Swastika:
http://www.indiandacoit.com/media/02/00/1279215403.jpg

The "planetary" attribute of Kether is the sphere of the First Mobile (Ra****h ha Gilgalim), imaged by nebulae. We should not think of the Primum Mobile, the first cause as a cyclic or rotating expression, a form that it takes only in Chokmah/Binah, but rather as an irregular radiation, as a simple impulse. The centre of the movement is motionless

The SWASTIKA was awarded to Kether. It indicates a rotational movement around an immobile centre, which can be the Self, or the pole. It is a symbol of perpetual action and regeneration. SWASTIKA is an image of life that begins to manifest itself from a dimensionless point and disintegrates as it moves away from its source. It is made of a cross that represents development in the multiple, starting from unity, the central point, but each of the branches of the cross is bent so that the outer part does not show the direction of the centre. If one starts from the end of either of these branches, one gets lost in space. One only reaches the centre if one changes direction at some point, if one accepts to give up rigid logic. They remind us that the outer forms of the Universe do not lead us to their original unity. It tells us that any simplification leads to the absurd, that any knowledge, any philosophy, any religion that claims to hold the truth is illusory and dangerous.

If we think of Kether as the pre-explosive power that stands behind created existence, and Chokmah as the expanding explosion channeled by Binah and resulting in Daath, we will have a good picture of the workings of the supernals (Kether/Chokmah/Binah), missing only the One who presses the button. The One who resides beyond the Veils of the Veils of Negative Existence.

A question remains for me: Why did “the One who presses the Button” ever did press that button?

Kether is the point at which all energy must return after it has been used, and the nature of Kether is such that the reabsorbed energy is equivalent to that which was emitted.

The Ace of Disks - Root of the Powers of Earth:

“The Ace of Disks pictures the entry of that type of Energy which is called Earth.

This cipher is enclosed in a Heptagram, as manifestly needful; and this figure again in interlaced Pentagons whose sides are ex tended, so forming a Wheel of 10 spokes whose boundary is a Decagon; and this again within a circular band, upon which is inscribed in full the name ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ, of 12 (6 x 2) letters.

About this whirling Disk are its six Wings; the entire symbol is not only a glyph of Earth as understood in this New Aeon of Horus, but of the number 6, the number of the Sun. This card is thus an affirmation of the identity of Sol and Terra-and that will be best understood by those who have punctually practised Liber Resh for the necessary number of years, preferably in such Hermitages as those of the Sahara Desert, where the Sun and the Earth can soon be instinctively recognized as living Beings, one's constant companions in a Universe of Pure Joy.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...aceofdisks.jpg

Changing World from Assiah to Yetzirah

Ascending the Tree in the four worlds, Kether in Assiah is said to be Malkuth in Yetzirah.

For the next three worlds:

For each of the 10 sephiroth the general description will be repeated. But the specific text to a world will be in navy-blue color.

For the 22 paths, since I have chosen to explore here only 4 worlds and not the 16 possible combinations of worlds as given in the 16 court cards of the Tarot, the description of each path will remain the same as the one given in the world of Assiah. Yet for the one exploring this symbolic expression, the noumenom of each path will change being in another world.

As a reminder here is again the description of the worlds of Assiah and Yetzirah.

Assiah: the fourth world, is the Elementary World of Action.

Towards this plane are directed the forces and powers of the other three worlds. In this world, the qualities and essences of the other three are weakened and distorted. In him, we see obscurely as if through a glass. Atziluth's divine plan can be glimpsed, but only briefly as a completely inaccessible ideal; even Briah's archangelical creatures cannot be grasped by our limited senses and Yetzirah's divine forms are only perceived in a distorted way, as gods with clay feet. Our world is a twilight world of uncertainty and, like blind people, we are still unable to distinguish anything clearly. The veil of illusion covers everything.

It is associated here to the element Earth and in Tarot to the Disks.

Yetzirah: the third world, emanates from the tenth sephirah of Briah. It is the Angelic world of Formation. The word "Yetzirah" derives from the Chaldean word ITzR, meaning "to form or to do".

In this world reside the intelligent and immaterial creatures, each wrapped in a luminous garment; they are asexual and capable, by divine permission, of taking a form perceptible to men when they appear. They are also spirits, energies or helping forces that fulfill the Will of God. This world is immediately above the earthly world and the first one that contacts man's consciousness when it blossoms. It has the general characteristics that we mean by the astral world.

It is associated here to the element Air and in Tarot to the Swords.

Finally, simply for visualisation purpose, here is a simple 2D representation of the 4 worlds of the Tree of Life:

Week 33: Malkuth in Yetzirah and the 10 of Sword

I did not put the general description of Malkuth in the world of Assiah. Therefore, it is also of a different color here. Do not ask me why I did so, for this exception, I do not know… Maybe some following this thread, and you are numerous thank you, will understand why after reading this following general description of Malkuth and knowing we are now stepping in another world than the simple material one.

General Symbolic:

The Tree of Life is composed of three functional triangles, but Malkuth (the Kingdom) does not participate in any of them and appears isolated. Malkuth, which is located at the lower end of the "Middle Pillar", is in fact not only the receptacle of the sephiroth of the Right Pillar (Clemency) and the Left Pillar (Severity), but also that of the central sephiroth, the upper one of which is Kether.

Malkuth is the lowest point of the fall, after which the Tree continues in other planes. The sephirah Malkuth of a plane of existence is the Kether plane of existence of the plane following the descent. But Malkuth must be considered above all as the turning point of a race. Malkuth is the extreme point of the descent, Nadir, through which all life must pass before returning to the source, Kether, in the direction of the Zenith.

This means that if we seek to escape the material world before we have mastered the laws and requirements, we see our development come to a halt. There is no way back up. What we call "spiritual evolution" is then only an illusion due to the mists of Yesod. Sooner or later, we will have to face the obstacle and overcome it. By repeated failures, by an inner malaise, life will bring us back to it again and again, reproducing the same scenario.

In this world, the attracted representative of God is man, whose task is to gain control over the spirits of the Elements in order to bring about changes in the physical planes they affect.

Man must also transmute his body, the "garment of skin" acquired during the "Fall" to shelter his real being. Of flesh and blood, he must be made of ever more subtle matter in order to become a suitable vehicle for the divine spark that resides in us. This is the lesson we must learn at the foot of the Tree.

Like other sephiroth, Malkuth can only be understood in relation to its neighbours. In his case, there is only one neighbor: Yesod. If Malkuth is the sphere of the material world, its cohesion, its form, its plans depend on Yesod. And Yesod depends, in order for the plans and archetypes it contains to manifest themselves, on the materials that Malkuth offers him.

Any form constructed in Yesod will tend to take shape in that of Malkuth, unless it contains in itself irreconcilable factors. This construction is the work of our daily life. In Magic, any operation has the purpose of making a power come down through the planes and put it at the disposal of the operator, who then uses it for the purposes he wishes (treatment of illness, obtaining a job, etc.). No operation is complete that has not managed to express itself in terms of Malkuth, with very concrete results. Misconceptions circulate in certain spiritualist circles that aim at the objective, but imagine that they can do without the means. A being in Tiphereth would no longer be limited by material contingencies and could actually obtain results without apparent means. But a man situated in Malkuth needs very precise techniques, a method, rites. And neither you nor I are in Tiphereth.

The tragedy of Hermeticism in general and of the Qabalah in particular is that these proponents too often stick to learned theories and fail to apply their knowledge to the transformation of daily life. While basic science, in recent decades, has been gradually raising its perceptions from Malkuth to Yesod. Two examples of this are the power of the mind and the overcoming of inert matter now thought in terms of energy.

The magical image of Malkuth is a young queen, crowned and veiled. And who is this woman?

The Shekinah (from the Hebrew Scakan: residence in a place) is the immediate presence of God in the world and in man. If divine transcendence is symbolized by the AIN SVP In one of these aspects, the Shekinah corresponds to Malkuth, i.e. the Kingdom, the assembly of saints, Providence.

The veil (remember the Veil of Isis) indicates the hidden but ever-present essence. Plotinus offers us an eloquent example: just as a gold coin fallen into the mud appears to us as worthless rubbish, so a superficial observation of ourselves leads to the darkest pessimism. Yet it is enough to wipe off the coin to reappear its true nature.

Mallkuth in Yetzirah: ISHIM

The ISHIM (the "men") are the entities that animate Malkuth. In Christianity, they are the Blessed Souls or Glorified Souls of men. The ISHIM are human souls who have reached a high degree of perfection, in accordance with their qualities of heart. They are able to protect and spiritually guide other human souls.

They give men intelligence and understanding of divine things, as well as the same faculties in the ordinary arts and knowledge. They protect them bodily, counsel them spiritually, constituting in them the echo that is memory and hereditary experience.

The 10 of Disks: Ruin

“The number Ten, Malkuth, as always, represents the culmination of the unmitigated energy of the idea. It shows reason run mad, ramshackle riot of soulless mechanism; it represents the logic of lunatics and (for the most part) of philosophers. It is reason divorced from reality.

The card is also ruled by the Sun in Gemini, but the mercurial airy quality of the Sign serves to disperse his rays; this card shows the disruption and disorder of harmonious and stable energy.
The hilts of the Swords occupy the positions of the Sephiroth, but the points One to Five and Seven to Nine touch and shatter the central Sword (six) which represents the Sun, the Heart, the child of Chokmah and Binah. The tenth Sword is also in splinters. It is the ruin of the Intellect, and even of all mental and moral qualities.

In the Yi King, Sol in Gemini is the virtue of the 43rd Hexagram, Kwai, the Watery modification of the Phallus; also, by the interlacing interpretation, the harmony of these two same Trigrams.

The signification is perfectly harmonious with that of the Ten of Swords It represents the damping down of the Creative impulse, weakness, corruption, or mirage affecting that principle itself. But, viewing the Hexagram as a weapon or method of procedure, it counsels the ruler to purge the state of unworthy officers. Curiously, the invention of written characters to replace knotted strings is ascribed among Chinese scholars to the use of this hexagram by the sages. Gemini is ruled by Thoth; 10 is the key of the Naples Arrangement; and Apollo (Sol) is the patron of literature and the arts: so his suggestion might appear at least no less suitable to the Qabalistic correspondences than to their double emphasis on Water and the Sun.

Apart from this, however, the parallelism is complete.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...words_ruin.jpg

Week 34: Path between Malkuth and Yesod in Yetzirah

It seems, in this difficult time for humans, that we can distinguish more clearly the ISHIM that dare to come out.

Letter: Tau

XXI - The Universe or the World: “The first and most obvious characteristic of this card is that it comes at the end of all, and is therefore the complement of the Fool. It is attributed to the letter Tau. The two cards together accordingly spell the word Ath, which means Essence. All reality is consequently compromised in the series of which these two letters form the beginning and the end. This beginning was Nothing; the end must therefore be also Nothing, but Nothing in its complete expansion, as previously explained. The number 4, rather than the number 2, was chosen as the basis of this expansion, partly no doubt for convenience, to enlarge the "universe of discourse"; partly to emphasize the idea of limitation.

The letter Tau means the Sign of the Cross, that is, of extension; and this extension is symbolized as four-fold because of the convenience of constructing the revolving symbol of Tetragrammaton. In the case of the number 2, the only issue is the return to the unity or to the negative. No continuous process can be conveniently symbolized; but the number 4 lends itself, not only to this rigid extension, the hard facts of nature, but also to the transcendence of space and time by a continuously self-compensating change.

The letter Tau is attributed to Saturn, the outermost and slowest of the seven sacred planets; because of these dull, heavy qualities, the element of earth was thrust upon the symbol. The original three elements, Fire, Air, Water, sufficed for primitive thought; Earth and Spirit represent a later accretion. Neither is to be found in the original twenty-two Paths of the Sepher Yetzirah. The world of Assiah, the material world, does not appear except as a pendant to the Tree of Life.

In the same way, the element of Spirit is attributed to the letter Shin, as an additional ornament, somewhat in the same way as Kether is said to be symbolized by the topmost point of the Yod of Tetragrammaton. It is constantly necessary to distinguish between the symbols of philosophical theory and those more elaborate symbols based upon them which are necessary in practical work.

Saturn and Earth have certain qualities in common-heaviness, coldness, dryness, immobility, dullness and the like. Yet Saturn appears in Binah in respect of its blackness in the Queen's scale, which is the scale of Observed Nature; but always, as soon as the end of a process is reached, it returns automatically to the beginning.

In Chemistry, it is the heaviest elements that are unable in terrestrial conditions to support the strain and stress of their internal structure; consequently, they radiate particles of the most tenuous character and the highest activity. In an essay written in Cefalù, Sicily, on the second law of Thermo-dynamics, it was suggested that at the absolute zero of the air thermometer, an element heavier than uranium might exist, of such a nature that it was capable of reconstituting the entire series of elements. It was a chemical interpretation of the equation, 0=2.

It becomes then reasonable to argue from analogy that since the end must beget the beginning, the symbolism will follow; hence, blackness is also attributed to the sun, according to a certain long- hidden tradition. One of the shocks for candidates in the "Mysteries" was the revelation "Osiris is a black god".

Saturn, therefore, is masculine; he is the old god, the god of fertility) the sun in the south; but equally the Great Sea, the great Mother; and the letter Tau upon the Tree of Life appears as an emanation from the moon of Yesod, the foundation of the Tree and representative of the reproductive process and of the equilibrium between change and stability, or rather their identification. The influence of the path descends upon the earth, Malkuth, the daughter. Here again appears the doctrine of "setting the daughter upon the throne of the Mother". In the card itself there is consequently a glyph of the completion of the Great Work in its highest sense, exactly as the Atu of the Fool symbolizes its beginning. The Fool is the negative issuing into manifestation; the Universe is that manifestation, its purpose accomplished, ready to return. The twenty cards that lie between these two exhibit the Great Work and its agents in various stages. The image of the Universe in this sense is accordingly that of a maiden, the final letter of Tetragrammaton.

In the present card she is represented as a dancing figure. In her hands she manipulates the radiant spiral force, the active and passive, each possessing its dual polarity. her dancing partner is shown as Heru-Ra-Ha of Atu XIX. "The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake." This final form of the image of the Magical Formula of the God combines and transforms so many symbols that description is difficult, and would be nugatory. The proper method of study of this card-indeed of all, but of this especially-is long-continued meditation. The Universe, so states the theme, is the Celebration of the Great Work accomplished. In the corners of the card are the four Kerubim showing the established Universe; and about her is an ellipse composed of seventy- two circles for the quinaries of the Zodiac, the Shemhamphorasch.

In the centre of the lower part of the card is represented the skeleton plan of the building of the house of Matter. It shews the ninety-two known chemical elements, arranged according to their rank in the hierarchy. (The design is due to the genius of the late J. W. N. Sullivan: see The Bases of Modern Science.)

In the centre, a wheel of Light initiates the form of the Tree of Life, shewing the ten principal bodies of the solar system. But this Tree is not visible except to those of wholly pure heart.

1. The primum mobile, represented by Pluto. (Compare the doctrine of the alpha particles of radium.)
2. The sphere of the Zodiac or fixed stars, represented by Neptune.
3. Saturn. The Abyss. This is represented by Herschel, the planet of disintegration and explosion.
4. Jupiter
5. Mars.
6. The Sun.
7. Venus.
8. Mercury.
9. The Moon.
10. The Earth. (The Four Elements).

All these symbols swim and dance in a complex but continuous ambience of loops and whorls. The general colour of the traditional card is subfusc; it represents the confusion and darkness of the material world. But the New Aeon has brought fullness of Light; in the Minutum Mundum, Earth is no longer black, or of mixed colours, but is pure bright green. Similarly, the indigo of Saturn is derived from the blue velvet of the midnight sky, and the maiden of the dance represents the issue from this, yet through this, to the Eternal. This card is to-day as bright and glowing as any in the Pack.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...etarotcard.jpg

Week 35: Yesod in Yetzirah and the 9 of Swords

General Symbolic:

Yesod:

(The foundation) receives the emanations of the other sephiroth. It is the privileged receptacle that transmits them to the physical world (Malkuth). A form in Yesod is similar to a child in the womb of its mother in the ninth month of pregnancy: it is fully formed but awaits its entry into a new world of existence in which it can grow and flourish.

Yesod is the astral, the intermediate world that stands beyond the world of forms, beyond this physical world that we perceive. To act on the forms, we must situate ourselves in Yesod and not in Malkuth. It is an illusion to want to transform the material world by being in the same world. The only way to achieve a lasting effect in Malkuth is to rise to Yesod, the vessel of Tiphereth's power, and act there. Procedures have been developed for this purpose, ranging from simple visualization techniques to sophisticated rites. The purpose of all these techniques is to elevate the mind to a certain plane so that it generates forms, planes, images that will incarnate in Malkuth.

Yesod is the kingdom of images. It is a distorting mirror of illusion that reflects images of the human mind or the higher spheres. It is also the sphere of the subjective mind, in all its strata: conscious, subconscious, unconscious, where many emotionally charged images have accumulated since the dawn of time. It constitutes the ancestral lineage of which we are the result. In the practice of Magic, it is wrong to think that the magician is only dealing with powers that are external to him. An evocation is a shock therapy. The "entities" mentioned are above all the personification of the materials of the unconscious, some of which inhibited the development of the person concerned. During the evocation, a dialogue continues between this entity and the operator. Both having tamed each other; this entity is reabsorbed. It reintegrates the unconscious, in a form that is no longer disabling. When the magician evokes powers that are external to him, these will only manifest themselves through him. The Platonic maxim "Know yourself and you will know the universe and the gods" confirms that the superior worlds are contacted at the end of a journey that passes through the interior of us. They are beyond the deepest part of ourselves. Thus, the psychological and hermetic explanations of the magical experience are reconciled.

Yesod in Yetzirah: KERUBIM

The name KERUBIM comes from Keroud - like a child - that's why these angels are represented with children's faces.

In the beginning, the KERUB was the lord of the air, linked to lightning and serving as a mount for YAHVE. Thereafter, he kept things holy and absorbed the winged geniuses in semi-animal form from the Babylonian, Egyptian and Syro-Hittite mythologies. The first KERUBIM of the bible, which stood at the doors of the Assyrian palaces and temples, these gigantic animal-geniuses carved in stone, were only protective pentacles, impassable bounds, which the priests raised in the consecrated places.

In the Bible, they were guardians posted in front of the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24); with the flame of the flaming sword, they guard the way to the tree of life.

When the ark was built for the tabernacle, two golden KERUBIM were placed face to face at the two ends of the tabernacle. They symbolized the Presence of the LORD and the distance which separates them from us. Many passages allude to the Presence of the LORD between the KERUBIM.

In the temple of Solomon, there were two five-metre high KERUBIM. In the vision of Ezekiel, the KERUBIM carry the divine throne. They are the "watchman", "guardian" aspect of the holy animals.

It should be noted that the etymology of the word "cherubim" leads us to the trilateral root: Kaf, Rech, Beth, and can be related to the Greek Gripes trilateral root: Gamma, ro, pi, the griffins. In Greek mythology, the griffins guard the treasures in the land of the Hyperboreans, they also watch over the crater of Dionysus, filled with wine. Finally, they oppose the gold diggers in the mountains. They are the obstacle to be overcome to reach the treasure. The kinship between griffins and cherubs is obvious.

Their function seems to be that of guardian of the threshold, the Scripture entrusts to the KERUBIM the defence of the holiness of God, in front of the unconsciousness of the fallen man who would like to extend his hand and take the tree of life.

The 9 of Swords: Cruelty

The number Nine, Yesod, brings back the Energy to the central pillar of the Tree of Life. The previous disorder is now rectified.

But the general idea of the suit has been constantly degenerating. The Swords no longer represent pure intellect so much as the automatic stirring of heartless passions. Consciousness has fallen into a realm unenlightened by reason. This is the world of the unconscious primitive instincts, of the psychopath, of the fanatic.

The celestial ruler is Mars in Gemini, crude rage of hunger operating without restraint; although its form is intellectual, it is the temper of the inquisitor.

The symbol shows nine swords of varying lengths, all striking downwards to a point. They are jagged and rusty. Poison and blood drip from their blades.

There is, however, a way of dealing with this card: the way of passive resistance, resignation, the acceptance of martyrdom.

Nor is an alien formula that of implacable revenge."
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:
http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-c...ds_cruelty.jpg