Symbolic Study of the Tarot and the Tree of Life

Between Two Worlds

The middle point of this study has been reached with the preceding post. Two more worlds are left to explore. 64 more weeks left.

In the four Worlds, Kether of the preceding World becomes Malkuth of the next one until the last World is reached, Atziluth.

One may find a subject of study in comparing the four main peaceful Deities in the Bardo Thodol to the four forms of Kether in the four Worlds.

In a not to bad translation of this book, it is said about the central Peaceful Deity: “But all class of individuals who have received the practical teachings (Guides) will, if applied to them be set face to face with the fundamental Clear Light; and, without any Intermediate State, they will obtain the Unborn Dharma-Kaya, by the Great Perpendicular Path” Translated by W.Y. Evans-Wentz.

The same may be said about the wisdom path on the Tree of Life. It may not be necessary to take this path, or any other path for that matter, as they can be by-passed by some. Following a path may even become a burden for some in their search for realization.

Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) Peaceful Deities Mandala:

[BigJohn]

I like that Mandala.

Thanks for the discussion.

Malkuth in Briah and the 10 of Cups

BRIAH: the second world, emanates from the tenth sephirah of Atziluth; it is the archangelic world of Creation.

Briah derives from the Hebrew root BRA (Beriah), meaning "teaching or creating". Here, the idea is driven by a desire to manifest itself, to become something.

It will be associated here to the element Water and in Tarot to the Cups

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 Briah: SANDALPHON

Color: lemon yellow, olive, brown and black

Even if pictures limit what an archangel is, here is one.

Sandalphon by Aigle de crystal:


SANDALPHON (praise of God) is the intellect-agent, the force that unites matter and form. Sandalphon is interpreted as the archetype of the intimate form (Sandal is an embryo without form).

Sandalphon is the twin brother of Metatron. The tradition says that he is the one who collects the prayers. Sandalphon and Metatron are terms derived from Greek. Sandalphon can come from two roots of the Pahlavi meaning Master of the expanse of heights, or from synadelphos which could be translated as twin brother. More simply, it can be translated as the sound of sandals. Sandalphon was said to be an immense angel standing behind the divine chariot.
As Metatron could be Enoch, Sandalphon could be Elie.

The 10 of Cups: Satiety

“This card represents a conflicting element. On the one hand, it receives the influence of the Ten, Malkah the Virgin. The arrangement of the cups is that of the Tree of Life. But, on the other hand, they are themselves unstable. They are tilted; they spill the water from the great Lotus which overhangs the whole system from one into the other.

The work proper to water is complete: and disturbance is due.

This comes from the influence of Mars in Pisces. Mars is the gross, violent and disruptive force which inevitably attacks every supposed perfection. His energy displays the greatest possible contrast with that of Pisces, which is both peaceful and spiritualized.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Week 66: Path between Malkuth and Yesod in Briah

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 there fore 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:

Week 67: Yesod in Briah and the 9 of Cups

Forgot to put the colour of the path between Malkuth and Yesod in Briah it was : Black

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 Briah: Gabriel

Colour: Violet

It seems that in this world and the next to come, I will find lesser and lesser words or pictures to describe the experience of its parts, the beauty and subtility of them being so pure.

GABRIEL means in Hebrew: Strength of God. He is the angel of divine heroism. With MICHAEL, he is one of the main leaders of the heavenly militia, but he keeps a much more knowledge-oriented aspect.

The archangel Gabriel is traditionally the messenger of God. He is the intercessor between humanity and the divine plan.

The 9 of Cups: Happiness

“The Number Nine, Yesod, in the suit of Water, restores the stability lost by the excursions of Netzach and Hod from the Middle Pillar. It is also the number of the Moon, thus strengthening the idea of Water.

In this card is the pageant of the culmination and perfection of the original force of Water.

The Ruler is Jupiter in Pisces. This influence is more than sympathetic; it is a definite benediction, for Jupiter is the planet of Chesed which represents Water in its highest material manifestation, and Pisces brings out the placid qualities of Water.
In the symbol are nine cups perfectly arranged in a square; all are filled and overflowing with Water. It is the most complete and most beneficent aspect of the force of Water.

The Geomantic Figure Laetitia is ruled by Jupiter in Pisces. For its meaning consult the "Handbook of Geomancy" (Equinox Vol I, No.2). Laetitia, Joy, gladness, is one of the best and most powerful of the sixteen figures; for the Solar, Lunar, and Mercurial symbols are, at the best, ambiguous and treacherously ambivalent; those of Venus portend rather relief than positive beneficence; Saturn and Mars are seen at their worst; and even the stable-companion of Laetitia, Acquisitio, has its unpleasant aspects, and even its dangers. But the consonance of Laetitia with this card amounts to little less than an identity; the wine is poured by Ganymede himself, unstinted vintage of true nectar of the Gods, brimful and running over, an ordered banquet of delight, True Wisdom self-fulfilled in Perfect Happiness.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Week 68: Path between Malkuth and Hod in Briah

So much Purity, already, for this flesh to absorb, from what is felt behind what some call Sandalphon and Gabriel. I really have less and less words to describe the Beauty of it.

And now, how is one, in this world, to describe a “path”, a form of contact, between what some call Sandalphon and Michael?

Color of the path: Vermilion

Letter: Shin

XX - The Aeon or The Last Judgement:

“In this card it has been necessary to depart completely from the tradition of the cards, in order to carry on that tradition.

The old card was called The Angel or, The Last Judgment. It represented an Angel or Messenger blowing a trumpet, attached to which was a flag, bearing the symbol of the Aeon of Osiris. Below him the graves were opening, the dead rising up. There were three of them. The central one had his hands raised with right angles at the elbows and shoulders, so as to form the letter Shin, which refers to Fire. The card therefore represented the destruction of the world by Fire. This was accomplished in the year of the vulgar era 1904, when the fiery god Horus took the place of the airy god Osiris in the East as Hierophant (see Atu V). At the beginning, then, of this new Aeon, it is fit to exhibit the message of that angel who brought the news of the new Aeon to earth. The new card is thus of necessity an adaptation of the Stélé of Revealing.

Around the top of the card is the body of Nuith, the star-goddess, who is the category of unlimited possibility; her mate is Hadit, the ubiquitous point-of-view, the only philosophically tenable conception of Reality. He is represented by a globe of fire, representing eternal energy; winged, to show his power of Going. As a result of the marriage of these two, the child Horus is born. He is, however, known under his special name, Heru-ra-ha. A double god; his extroverted form is Ra-hoor-khuit; and his passive or introverted form Hoor-pa kraat. He is also solar in character, and is therefore shown coming forth in golden light.

It should, by the way, be noted that the name Heru is identical with Hru, who is the great Angel set over the Tarot. This new Tarot may therefore be regarded as a series of illustrations to the Book of the Law; the doctrine of that Book is everywhere implicit.

At the bottom of the card we see the letter Shin itself in a form suggestive of a flower; the three Yods are occupied by three human figures arising to partake in the Essence of the new Aeon. Behind this letter is a symbolic representation of the Sign of Libra; this is the forth-shadowing of the Aeon which is to follow this present one, presumably in about 2,000 years-"the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis shall arise and the double-wanded one assume my throne and place". The present Aeon is too young to give a more definite representation of this future event. But in this connection attention must be drawn to the figure of Ra-hoor-khuit: "I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the Force of Coph Nia; but my left hand is empty, for I have crushed an Universe; & nought remains. There are many other details with regard to the Lord of the Aeon which should be studied in the Book of the Law.

It is also important to study very thoroughly, and meditate upon, this Book, in order to appreciate the spiritual, moral, and material events which have marked the catastrophic transition from the Aeon of Osiris. The time for the birth of an Aeon seems to be indicated by great concentration of political power with the accompanying improvements in the means of travel and communication, with a general advance in philosophy and science, with a general need of consolidation in religious thought. It is very instructive to compare the events of the five hundred years preceding and following the crisis of approximately 2,000 years ago, with those of similar periods centred in 1904 of the old era. It is a thought far from comforting to the present generation, that 500 years of Dark Ages are likely to be upon us. But, if the analogy holds, that is the case. Fortunately, to-day we have brighter torches and more torch-bearers.” (The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

 

Week 69: Path between Yesod and Hod in Briah

In this world the link between Gabriel and Michael or should I say Mihael…

The Sun by Lucia:


Colour of the path: Golden Yellow

Letter: Resh

XIX - The Sun: “This card represents, in heraldic language, "the Sun, charged with a rose, on a mount vert".

This is one of the simplest of the cards; it represents Heru-ra-ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical. He is the Lord of Light, Life, Liberty and Love. This Aeon has for its purpose the complete emancipation of the human race.

The rose represents the flowering of the solar influence. Around the whole picture we see the signs of the Zodiac in their normal position, Aries rising in the East, and so on. Freedom brings sanity. The Zodiac is a kind of childish representation of the body of Nuith, a differentiation and classification, a chosen belt, one girdle of Our Lady of infinite space. Convenience of description excuses the device.

The green mound represents the fertile earth, its shape, so to speak, aspiring to the heavens. But around the top of the mound is a wall, which indicates that the aspiration of the new Aeon does not mean the absence of control. Yet outside this wall are the twin children who (in one form or another) have so frequently recurred in this whole symbolism. They represent the male and female, eternally young, shameless and innocent. They are dancing in the light, and yet they dwell upon the earth. They represent the next stage, which is to be attained by mankind, in which complete freedom is alike the cause and the result of the new access of solar energy upon the earth. The restriction of such ideas as sin and death in their old sense has been abolished. At their feet are the most sacred signs of the old Aeon, the combination of the Rose and Cross from which they are arisen, yet which still forms their support.

The card itself symbolizes this broadening of the idea of the Rose and Cross. The Cross is now expanded into the Sun, from which, of course, it is originally derived. Its rays are twelve-not only the number of the signs of the Zodiac, but of the most sacred title of the most holy Ancient Ones, who are Hua. (The word HUA, "he", has the numerical value of 12.) The limitation of mundane law, which is always associated with the number Four, has disappeared. Gone are the four arms of a Cross limited by law; the creative energy of the Cross expands freely; its rays pierce in every direction the body of Our Lady of the Stars.

With regard to the wall, it should be noted that it completely encircles the top of the mound; this is to emphasize that the formula of the Rose and Cross is still valid in terrestrial matters. But there is now, as was not previously the case, a close and definite alliance with the celestial.
It is also most important to observe that the formula of the Rose and Cross (indicated by the wall-girt mound) has completed the fire-change into "something rich and strange"; for the mound is green, where one would expect it to be red, and the wall red, where one would expect it to be green or blue. The indication of this symbolism is that it must be one of the great advances in adjustment of the new Aeon to work out simply and without prejudice the formidable problems which have been raised by the growth of civilization.

Man has advanced so far from the social system, though it was not a system, of the cave man, from the primitive conception of property in human flesh. Man has advanced so far from crude anatomical classification of the soul of any given human being; he has accordingly landed himself in the most dreadful mire of psychopathology and psycho-analysis. Tiresome and tough are the prejudices of the people that date morally from about 25,000 B.C.

Largely owing to their own intransigence, those people have been born under a different spiritual law; they find themselves not only persecuted by their ancestors, but bewildered by their own uncertainty of foothold. It must be the task of the pioneers of the new Aeon to put this right.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card :

 

[BigJohn]

Interesting work.....

Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Interesting work.....

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you John,

I really do enjoy walking the path, even if there is no path to walk.

A dream can be enjoyed to the upmost delight, even if one knows it is a dream.

Regards,

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Legrand

Thank you John,

I really do enjoy walking the path, even if there is no path to walk.

A dream can be enjoyed to the upmost delight, even if one knows it is a dream.

Regards,

Walking down the path
    that is not there
        is the most
         enjoyable
       aspect of life.