#Keter to malkhut

[brother-hermes]

IMAGINATION & MENTAL ALCHEMY

Visualization is a powerful technique. One we can use to tune into the macrocosm around us. Let’s discuss the mystic interpretation of the triangle as a symbol of our manifesting ability. Rock with me as we take that journey within.

[talonabraxas]

Etz Hayim “Tree of Life” Talon Abraxas

Tiphareth in Hebrew תִּפְאֶרֶת means “beauty,” “splendor,” or even “glory” (being close to “Hod”), it is the sixth sefira in the cabalistic tree of life, and has in common the association of “Spirituality”, “Balance”, “Integration”, “Beauty” and “Compassion”.

In the Bahir (one of the first cabalistic literature works) we read: “Sextus is adorned, glorious, enchanting throne of glory, the home of the world to come. His place is engraved in wisdom as ‘GOD said: Let there be light, and light was”.

Tiphareth is the force that integrates the Sefira of Chesed (“compassion”) and Gevurah (“Strength, or judgment”), these two forces are, respectively, expansive (giving) and restrictive (receiving), one without the other could not manifest the flow of divine energy. They must be balanced in perfect proportion by balancing compassion with discipline, and this balance can be seen in the role of Tiphareth, where conflicting forces are harmonized and creation flourishes. Tiphareth also balances Netzach and Hod in a similar way, in this case Hod can be seen as intellect and Netzach as emotion.

Tiphareth is the only one among Sephirot that is connected to all others except Malkuth, its position in the center between Keter and Yesod indicates to many Kabbalists that it is a kind of “conversion” of the sefirah between form (Yesod) and strength (Keter). In other words, all the intersections on the central path via Tiphareth determine a polarity inversion. The law of conservation, valid for both energy and mass, tends to confirm this, in all cases of energetic transmutation, as can happen in the transmission of gifts and goods from parents to their children, a sacrifice is necessary for a new form to be born.

Tiphareth is the center of the tree, and five Sefirot surround it: above are Chesed on the right (south) and Gevurah on the left (north), and below are Netzach on the right, Hod on the left and Yesod directly below. Together these six are one entity, Zer Anpin, which is the male counterpart of the Malkuth female sefira. In certain contexts, Tiphareth alone represents the whole sefirot of Zer Anpin, so that the whole tree appears with only five sefirots: Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Binah, Tiferet and Malkhut.

In both the Jewish tree of life and the hermetic tree, Tiphareth has eight paths leading (counterclockwise) to Keter (through Daat), Binah, Gevurah, Hod, Yesod, Netsach, Chesed and Chokmah.

Tiphareth can also be a variant of the word “Tifarah” and in modern Hebrew used in Israel is translated as “Glory” (from GOD – “ELOHIM, ADONAY).

[malottie]

in my long series of "i can't stop thinking about the kabbalah": what if the sephirot were Disco Elisyum skills? bear with me

one day i'll be able to draw all of these and it'll be magnificent but in the meantime here are the ideas!

i think it works particularly well with keter because apparently it litteraly means 'crown' and volition is litteraly a crown

anyway

Keter: it is the crown that rests on top. it is the Will that pours in all else. Volition

Chochma: it is the unfiltered wisdom, the insight of the world. wordless dreams of creation and faith in that which sight cannot see. Inland Empire

Binah: it is the prism that filters wisdom, the insight for the world. perfectly structured knowledge and understanding. Logic

Da'at: it is emptiness, and it is all. it is the wind, the world, the inexistent whispers. and you. Shivers

Chesed: loving kindness. understanding beyond reason and forgivness unbound. Empathy

Gevurah: blind retribution. strength without reason and punishment unbound. Half-Light

Tifaret: balance. beauty. the piece that makes everything else click perfectly into place. Conceptualization

Netzach: fortitude, victory and leadership. strength in the name of good muddied by impulse. Authority

Hod: subtelty, concessions and community. weakness in the name of good uplifted by faith. Rhethoric

Yesod: the interface. the funnel through only which all else can access the physical reality, and vice-versa. Perception

Malkhut: the body. the kingdom. the Shell in which all else pours. Endurance

[elartedeseryo]

FASE 1: The Urban Elf era

HELLquin SONGS

Como castigo fui enviado al planeta "Infierno", un planeta cubierto de grandes velas que representan la vida de todos nosotros. Habitado solo por un gran demonio que come las velas de los condenados.

Estando ahí, mi única labor era entretener al diablo mientras comía almas. Y siendo yo alguien que sabe sacar provecho de sus desgracias, en ARLEQUIN me personifique. Si el diablo quería entretenimiento, yo se lo daría de la mejor manera. Con música, circo y sado masoquismo. Así mis tiempos en el infierno no fueron tan malos... hasta que un día haciendo uno de mis shows de malabares con cuchillos "accidentalmente" uno se me salió de control y corto la cabeza del gran diablo come almas. Poco a poco el infierno se fue desmoronando y sus llamas desvaneciendo.

CIRCUSLAND

Escape del infierno antes de que se destruyera por completo, y llegue al planeta mas cercano "CIRCUSLAND", una tierra donde todos sus habitantes están obligados a entretener a la burguesía 24/7 sin descanso alguno.

Me negué a esto y me transforme en perro, con algunos payasos que habían decidido ser vagabundos, en las calles vivíamos felices, danzando, haciendo acrobacias, tocando instrumentos y yo ladrando con mucha fuerza. Los burgueses al darse cuenta que no estábamos prestando nuestros servicios de entretenimiento para ellos, nos llevaron a cárcel. Ahí junto a los demás creamos nuestra mejor obra: "El gran incendio", así que los muchachos y yo, ejecutamos el plan perfecto para quemar la carpa del circo y encender en llamas este planeta, así mi alma seria libre para siempre.

BESTIARIO

Mi cuerpo fue enviado al hotel "Bestiario", un cementerio que se mantiene flotando en el espacio para aquellas criaturas que mueren en esta dimensión. Ahí todos los cuerpos muertos se encuentran encerrados en habitaciones mientras sus almas seguían siendo consientes de vida en una simulación virtual de un video juego llamado "Sci•Punk". Me encontraba en el limbo.

Interactuamos a través de avatares, los llamaban "Dancers", mi avatar se llamaba "Xer0" Dancers #0. La meta del juego era batallar con otros dancers que se hospedaban en el hotel , solo podía subir de piso aquel que quedara vivo en batalla, muchas almas habían estado en este juego por décadas luchando, algunos ya lo hacian por diversion.

El que lograra llegar al ultimo piso se encontraría con un Dios llamado "Urban Elf" el cual te daría la oportunidad de renacer nuevamente pero no en esta dimensión, si no en una donde tendrías la experiencia de ser "Humano". Fui aprendiendo a ser un buen jugador, y a decir verdad tuve bastante suerte al recibir ayuda de otros jugadores que en realidad no querían tener la experiencia humana, así logre llegar al ultimo piso y conocer a "Urban Elf". el cual me otorgaría un cerebro humano.

URBAN ELF

Con su flauta mágica guio una luz que se incrusto en medio de mis ojos, el había puesto en mi su glándula pineal. De Keter a Malkhut, de Maladhara a Sahasrara, de teosofía al cuarto camino, del complejo-R al neocórtex. La fase 1 estaba completada. Ahora solo necesitaríamos un cuerpo humano donde implantar este cerebro. Al planeta tierra observamos en búsqueda del portador adecuado pero ya todos los cerebros de los humanos estaban desarrollados, con costumbres predeterminadas y moldeados a la sociedad. A las orillas del rio magdalena descubrimos a un hombre el cual parecía muy tranquilo observando el cielo, descubrimos que su cerebro aun era bastante primitivo, solo estaba desarrollado su parte instintiva y de supervivencia, así que él era el portado perfecto, en él pusimos el cerebro de Urban Elf y mi escancia. por fin viviría la experiencia humana.

SANGRE DE CAIMAN

En ese momento solo sabia que mi nombre era XAIR, no sabia cuantos años tenia, de donde venia, como nací, o como estoy vivo en este planeta, incluso no sabia porque sabia que me llamaba XAIR. Yo solía ser llamado por los habitantes del barrio cercano al rio como el hombre caimán, mis días se basaban en ver el sol hasta caer la noche. Mi cerebro se iba desarrollando, empecé a crear cosas estando en la orilla del rio, como forma de hacer sonar las cosas, palos ,piedras, lo que sea que encontrara tirado en medio del monte, así fui creando ritmos, poco a poco adquirí la habilidad de tararear melodías, al ver y oír las situaciones que vivían los habitantes del barrio que se acercaban al rio, fui aprendiendo a hablar, a interactuar con los demás humanos y a sentir emociones.

[dynamicmanifold]

A Kabbalistic Reading of Book of the New Sun

[This is a re-upload/edit of a post of mine from Cohost. RIP my beautiful footnotes, but I did my best]

Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun contains several explicit references to the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah. The most obvious of which are probably two place names: the planet Yesod which somehow exist outside of Severian's universe, and said universe which is know as Briah. I think it’s worth unpacking those references a bit.

However, before I dive into what those terms mean, a quick note on Kabbalah.

A Quick Note on Kabbalah

Kabbalah is not one singular thing. Even setting aside derived traditions of Hermetic Qabalah and Christian Cabala[note 1], the Jewish mystical tradition has taken on many forms over the centuries. Kabbalah is in some cases a way of understanding the mysteries of creation, in others a practical guide to performing miraculous acts, and still others a philosophical framework. What unites these strains is a shared intellectual history and a common symbolic language. I’m mostly interested here in using these common symbols as a device for reading The Book of the New Sun, and I will pull in whatever traditions feel most applicable in the moment. This post isn't about "the truth" of Kabbalah (nor, for that matter, "the truth" of The Book of the New Sun), but rather about how we can understand The Book of the New Sun through Kabbalistic ideas and thought. Importantly, Kabbalah is a active part of many Jews religious life, especially for those in the Hasidic movement, and should be treated with appropriate respect.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kabbalah generally, I am primarily pulling from two text: Gershom Scholem’s Kabbalah and Daniel M. Horwitz’s A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader.

With that out of the way, let us discuss Yesod and it's place within the Sephirot.

The Sephirot and The New Sun

The Hebrew word sephirah (plural sephirot) translated into English is something akin to "an act of counting" or "enumeration". Sometimes in Kabbalistic literature sephirah is linked to sappir (sapphire, or other blue gem), which may bring to mind the Claw of the Conciliator. We will return to that connection in a moment.

There are ten Sephirot, whose canonical ordering is

Keter (Crown)

Chokhmah (Wisdom)

Binah (Intellegence)

Chesed (lovingkindness)

Gevurah (Strength)

Tiferet (Beauty)

Netzach (Lasting Endurance)

Hod (Majesty)

Yesod (Foundation)

Malkhut (Kingship)

The Sephirot are usually arranged diagrammatically as shown bellow.

The Sephirot on the right side are usually considered masculine, those on the left feminine, and those in the middle a combination/balance of both[note 2]. Yesod is also sometimes referred to as Tzedek (Justice), which is the etymological origin of Tzadkiel’s name. Tzadkiel, the Hierogammate who dispenses justice on Yesod and whose gender shifts over the course of Urth of the New Sun fits nicely within this framework.

We may also draw a connection between Malkhut and the Autarch Severian. Severian has within him both male and female persona, his Autarchship is of central importance to the series.

Now that our players are set, how are we to understand them within the Sephirotic system? One view holds that the Sephirot are vessels which hold and channel divine light (ohr ayn soph). This light takes on different hues in each sephirah, but is ultimately of the same substance, like light viewed through a stain glass window. Of interest to us is that Yesod channels this light downward to Malkhut. This can then be readily understood in Urth of the New Sun as Severian receiving the literal light of the New Sun after his trials on Yesod. The New Sun is describe as a white hole, the inverse of a black hole where matter—posited to come from some other, higher place—flows out of it. We will discuss this higher place in the next section, but we can read this process now as the outflow of light from Yesod to the New Sun/Severian/Malkhut. As alluded to above, the light Severian calls forth from the Claw can also be seen as part of this process.

We can now read Severian’s story as that of Kabbalistic tikkun olam (repairing the world). In mainstream Rabbinic Judaism tikkun olam would be understood as a mission in which we are changed with trying to make the material world a better place. However in Kabbalah it is a metaphysical restoration. The story goes that in the beginning God created ten vessels of light, which were fragile and shattered. The tikkun (repair) of tikkun olam is then the restoration of the Sephirot and their divine light to their rightful places. See here for a brief primer on the Kabbalistic creation myth.

In a very literal sense is it obvious that Severian is trying to restore his dying Urth, but we can also read it as him performing his Kabbalistic duty to restore divine light to its proper place. In Kabbalah, this is done via acting with proper kavanah (intention, directing one’s heart). Now, it may at first seem odd to suggest Severian, who by his own admission “backed into the throne”, but for most of The Book of the New Sun Severian isn’t even aware of this divine light, let alone the need for him to engage in tikkun olam. In fact, we can see Severian’s journey in the first four books as him coming to appreciate the immediacy of the divine. This is best expressed by a scene towards the end of The Citadel of the Autarch,

What struck me on the beach and it struck me indeed, so that I staggered as at a blow—was that if the Eternal Principle had rested in that curved thorn I had carried about my neck across so many leagues, and if it now rested in the new “thorn (perhaps the same thorn) I had only now put there, then it might rest in anything, and in fact probably did rest in everything, in every thorn on every bush, in every drop of water in the sea. The thorn was a sacred Claw because all thorns were sacred Claws; the sand in my boots was sacred sand because it came from a beach of sacred sand. The cenobites treasured up the relics of the sannyasins because the sannyasins had approached the Pancreator. But everything had approached and even touched the Pancreator, because everything had dropped from his hand. Everything was a relic. All the world was a relic. I drew off my boots, that had traveled with me so far, and threw them into the waves that I might not walk shod on holy ground.

The revelation Severian comes to is very similar to the Kabbalistic doctrine that sparks of divine light exist in everything[note 3]. It is only after this that Severian make act with the proper kavanah to restore these divine sparks to their rightful place and bring about the New Sun; and it is with such kavanah that he journeys to Yesod.

How did Severian reach the right kavanah? Though obtaining a state of devekut (adherence/clinging). In the meditative tradition of Kabbalistic, one attempts to obtain a mental state where the practitioner "clings" to God, breaking down the barrier between themself and the divine[note 4]. Pursuing devekut can be seen as a dangerous process if one is unprepared; one in particularly intense prayer can enter a state of hitlahavut (burning fervor) where the soul is consumed as if by a flame. This union with God is comparable with ego death, with the distance between the self and God reduced to nothing and one is overwhelmed with the awareness of God. Severian obtains this state while meditating on the Claw at the end of The Sword of the Lictor, in the chapter appropriately titled The Claw:

Whenever I looked at [the Claw], it seemed to erase thought. Not as wine and certain drugs do, by rendering the mind unfit for it, but by replacing it with a higher state for which I know no name. Again and again I felt myself enter this state, rising always higher until I feared I should never return to the mode of consciousness I call normality; and again and again I tore myself from it. Each time I emerged, I felt I had gained some inexpressible insight into immense realities. At last, after a long series of these bold advances and fearful retreats, I came to understand that I should never reach any real knowledge of the tiny thing I held, and with that thought (for it was a thought) came a third state, one of happy obedience to I knew not what, an obedience without reflection because there was no longer anything to reflect upon, and without the least tincture of rebellion. This state endured all that day and a large part of the next, by which time I was already deep into the hills.

This process of losing himself in the contemplation of the Claw[note 5] (which we above linked to the sephirot), Severian orients himself with proper kavanah to serve the divine in his quest of tikkun olam. We can view Severian's journey throughout the first four books as a series of moments furthering his devekut, which ultimately allows him to succeed where precious Autarchs have failed.

The Four Worlds and The New Sun

Now that we have discussed how Kabbalah relates to the story of The Book of the New Sun, we may move on to what people truly care about: fictional cosmology.

Briah is the name of Severian’s universe. It is also the 2nd highest of four worlds in Kabbalah. These worlds (olamot, the plural of olam) are thought of as steps in the chain in which God created the universe. In descending order they are

Atzilut (Emination)

Briah (Creation)

Yetzirah (Formation)

Assiah (Action)

Typically the mundane world is thought to be at the bottom of Assiah. In some traditions[note 6], these four worlds are conceived as stages the mystic reaches through meditation on the Divine.

The world of Yesod that Severian travels to is notably outside of Briah. Traditionally each world is said to contain its own copy of the sephirot, linked in a chain with the Malkhut of the higher world being the Keter of the lower world. When Severian is observing the passage of the ship from Briah to Yesod he notices a strange phenomenon (Urth XV)

Into the center of that disk we plunged, so that for a moment there was a ring of ebony set with ghostly stars all around our ship, the Diadem of Briah.

The capitalization leading us to think of this as an object and not merely a trick of the light, we can read this as passage through the Keter of Briah/Malkhut of Atzilut to the Yesod of Atzilut[note 7].

Additionally, the worlds come into play with the white hole mentioned in the previous section. The energy which flows out of this white hole of the New Sun is thought said to come from a higher place, presumably Atzilut—the universe Severian travels to on his quest to bring the New Sun. Severian's journey thus parallel's the Kabbalists meditative journey though the Four Worlds in an effort to bring down Divine Light to the mundane world.

As I write this I am realizing this bit is just listing facts at you, so let's run through several smaller connections to Kabbalah: In Kabbalah, the higher worlds are also thought to be the realms of the angels, and in Urth the planet of Yesod contains angelic beings. The cyclical nature of time Severian mentions in Citadel XXXIV, the "divine year" is similar to that discussed in the 13th/14th century Kabbalistic text Sefer HaTemunah which connects the sabbatical year[note 8] to a cycle of creation/desolation of the world. And finally the Brook Magregot which Tzadkiel tells Severian runs from Yesod to Briah, is named from the Hebrew word for "steps"/"stairway", possibly alluding to ascension between the worlds of Kabbalah.

With that out of the way we can now proceed, as we always should, to asking "so what?"

What Are We to Make of This?

It is at this point worth mentioning that Gene Wolfe is Rather Catholic. While I think the case is clear that Gene was drawing from Jewish Kabbalah for The Book of the New Sun it is unlikely he was doing so with Jewish meaning in mind. Gene also makes references to various other non-Christian mythologies and belief systems, though I am not nearly knowledgeable enough on them to comment on their use. Regardless, it seems that Gene wanted to bring together mystical ideas from different backgrounds and religions in his work.

One possible reason is that Gene was, following in a Christian tradition, attempting to evoke Jewish ideas in a search of the "original" Christianity[note 9]. By evoking Jewish and other non-Christian ideas Gene attempts to establish a universality for the ideas he expresses in his books—much in the same way a politician might invoke "Judaeo-Christian values" to paint their efforts to legislate Christian ethics as a pluralistic endeavor. One should be wary of such universalisms which take faiths on the margins and cherry-pick ideas from them to suit and support the beliefs of the universalist[note 10], often by eliding inconvenient ideological or theological differences.

However, I think Gene's Kabbalistic references suggest a genuine attempt to engage with Kabbalah, if not on Jewish terms, at least in earnest. And while Gene was no doubt writing with a foundation of Christian dogma we can still reconstruct Jewish meaning from his use of Kabbalistic words and imagery. Perhaps this is merely the fact that many different meanings can be constructed by joining together whatever scraps the author leaves in various ways, but I would like to believe that the coherence we can salvage reflects Gene trying to do some amount of justice to the ideas he was borrowing.

Regardless, my personal desire to read The Book of the New Sun with a Jewish point of view came from seeing the Jewish imaginary used in the series somewhat ignored. I am by no means a Wolfe expert, but when I searched for anyone mentioning the Jewish character of the words he used I found very little. It seems odd to me that Jewish language and ideas can be used so centrally in the series (especially in Urth of the New Sun) while being a footnote in discussions.

Also I had a Jewish education and I gotta do something with all this stuff.

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I will be using the convention of using “Qabalah” and “Cabala” to distinguish non-Jewish mystical traditions which evoke the same language as Kabbalah but are fundamentally not Jewish. The relation between these non-Jewish traditions and Kabbalah is sometimes contentious. On the antisemitic/appropriative elements in Cabala/Qabalah see Ezra Rose’s FYMA. A full discussion is beyond the scope of this post.

Painting the central column of sephirot as a middle ground between masculine and feminine is not a exactly standard practice. It is also complicated by a persistent, explicitly sexual, Kabbalistic metaphor wherein Yesod is the phallus through which feminine Malkhut "receives" from masculine Tiferet in exactly the way you are imagining. Kabbalah as a whole is full of heteronormative sexual metaphor. This is one of those instances where I am bracketing off part of Kabbalah for the sake of this exercise[note 11].

For instance compare to this quote by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman of the Chabad-Lubavich movement: "The fire of the sun, the air we breathe, the roaring waves of the oceans and all that lives in them; When we perceive beauty, it is because we have found that window to the infinite . . .the Earth and the plants and animals that live upon it; even the human flesh, its vital soul and the angels above—everything we find in our world and in the worlds deeper within—all are no more than artifacts of the sparks that fell in the explosion of that primordial world. But the essence of the human being, the breath of G‑d within us, that is G‑d Himself, gathering, refashioning and piecing back together an impossible dream."

We can also note that Severian also obtains a similar state of mental closeness with Thecla. If we interpret Thecla's presence in Severian as like that of the Shekhinah (see note 11) then this too could be read as devekut.

Consider this passage from Arthur Green's These are the Words on hitlahavut: "[Hitlahavut] is a rare and precious moment that happens in the life of those who give themselves wholly to prayer. Usually it comes and goes almost in a flash. But no matter: The real impact of hitlahavut is in the memory of such moments. They are stored in the contemplative mind and become important steps on the road toward the much cooler but longer lasting goal of devekut, an attachment to God in which one may live and act."

See Artur Green's Ehyeh : A Kabbalah for Tomorrow

The world atarah, often translated as “diadem”, is used in Kabbalah to refer to Malkhut. This contrasts Malkhut as the lower crown to Keter’s upper crown while highlighting their similarities. Since atarah and keter are Hebrew words we should not be too hung up on the choice of translation. The scene makes sense with the Diadem being an allusion to Keter.

The biblical tradition of shmita (release) dictates that agricultural land is to be left fallow every seventh year. Sefer HaTemunah extends this idea to the entire universe. (though each cycle is longer than 7 years, obviously).

See this wonderful article by Sheila Spector: http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_34839_wpt_2018_26_1_33-40

I'm not talking about Universalists, as in those who follow the Christian theological doctrine that Salvation will, in the end, be universal and everyone Saved. Though I am sure someone else could talk about the relationship between the two.

However, even in the case above[note 2] we can still make the connection between the Autarch Severian and Malkhut (which is where we are going with this if you didn’t know already). Malkhut is also associated with the Shekhinah (dwelling/settling) of God. The Shekhinah is feminine, and denotes God’s presence settling in the physical world, such as in the burning bush or the Tabernacle. In this case we can draw the parallel with Thecla dwelling within Severian, and it is through her that Severian is able to access the higher Sephirot. This does then leave out the gender ambiguity for Tzadkiel, but that is of lesser concern.

[the-ten-sefirot-the-four-temples]

How do the Ten Sefirot Come into Play?

So there's the Ten Sefirot. How do they correlate? How do they even get introduced? Well, we have the High Priestess, Devasha, who has been having visions, and a particular Goddess speaking through her, with her nearly dying each of the three times, though her recovery period seems to be shortening drastically each time. When this finally happens semi-publicly, in front of her prince and their two closest friends, one of them - Janina - asks her if she's been seeing anything when she is no longer in control. She then sketches out the image of the Ten Sefirot, and Cera believes it to be an idol from her culture, because the idea of the Ten Sefirot in my story can take on many different appearances, but they all end up being about one specific God by many different names. In Devasha's culture based on Kabbalah and Judaism, she goes by the name of Sefira. It doesn't take her long to realize that Sefira is not at her full strength and that she has ten mortal extensions on their plane of existence, one for each of the ten sefirot. Here they are:

1. Keter - Crown - is Aovaia, the young ruler of Arcadia

2. Hokhmah - Wisdom - is Hadassah (the first to figure out something weird going on with the Oracle since she's an Emerald)

3. Binah - Understanding - Kali (twin sister to Kalena)

4. Hesed - Loving and Kindness - Mayim (she's the sweetest and most trusting character in the entire series and is a water witch)

5. Gevura - Might, Judgement, and Punishment - Devasha (since she has the personal tie to Sefira)

s6. Tiferet - Beauty and Glory - Kalena (she is GORGEOUS and also Kali's twin)

7. Netza - Victory and God's Grace - Nehemiah (she's the savior)

8. Hod - Splendor and Judgement - Araminta (older sister to Lyric)

9. Yesod - Foundation, Divine Creativity and Fertility - Lyric (advisor to the queen and creates sea magic and music thanks to being a siren)

10. Malkhut - Sovereignty and the Synthesis of God's Attributes - Cosima (previous Queen Regent before Aovaia and has had very close call with death)

Anyway, next post I'll talk about the Emeralds and Ianira and the Oracle!!!

[mysticmachmir]

Etz Chayyim Spread

This tarot spread is made by and for Jewish people, and I ask that if you’re not Jewish that you do not use this spread. This is because this imagery, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and sefirot are from Judaism, a closed practice. Please have respect for closed cultures and practices, even in your tarot.

This spread is meant to focus on the different attributes of every sefirah, but turned instead into questions to address our lives and what we can bring in from these aspects into your lives. It is only in Malkhut that we address our relationship with the divine, as G!d is hidden in all aspects, still present.

1: Keter - What do I need to let go of?

2: Binah - What am I ignoring?

3: Hokhmah - What wisdom do I need to hear?

4: Gevurah - What boundaries need to be set?

5: Chesed - What ways can I engage in 
lovingkindness?

6: Tiferet - What do I need to bring back into balance?

7: Hod - What will come up in the future for me?

8: Netzach - What will come up in the past for me?

9: Yesod - What do I need to address in the present?

10: Malkhut - What can I lift up to the Divine?

[mizchichay]

( Keter to Malkhut )

[fortunatelynervousrunaway]

As Sefirot As dez esferas, as dez Sefirot, da Árvore da Vida representam aspectos divinos da manifestação do Absoluto na existência. São o meio pelo qual o Santo governa o mundo do Árvore da Vida e as Sefirot espírito, da alma e da materialidade. A disposição dos sefirot é o modelo para tudo o que existe. A Árvore é uma unidade; essa é a primeira lei. As Sefirot são Keter, ou Coroa; Hokmah, ou Sabedoria; Binah, ou Entendimento; Hesed, ou Misericórdia; Gevurah, ou Julgamento; Tiferet, ou Beleza; Nezah, ou Eternidade; Hod, ou Reverberação; Yesod, ou Fundação e Malkhut, ou Reino. Existe um décima primeira não-Sefirah, entre Binah e Hesed, chamada Daat, Conhecimento, que tem uma função especial. Algumas Sefirot têm diversos nomes, tanto no hebraico como no português. Gevurah, cuja raiz é Poder, às vezes é chamada de Din ou Pechad, que quer dizer Julgamento e Medo; Hod e Nezah podem ser traduzidas por Glória e Vitória. De acordo com a Tradição, a palavra Sefirot significa safiras ou luzes cintilantes. Foram também chamadas de Números, Graus, Vasos, Poderes, Trajes, Coroas e muitos outros nomes. Isso ilustra a densidade simbólica do hebraico e da Kabbalah. O esquema da Árvore da Vida é muito aberto. As Sefirot podem se associadas aos planetas, às notas musicais, aos Mandamentos, aos processos físicos, emocionais, mentais e assim por diante. Nessa representação aparece igualmente o princípio das polaridades, que se exprimem simbolicamente pela Misericórdia de Deus (coluna direita) e por Sua Justiça (coluna esquerda), vistas respectivamente como ativa e passiva, macho e fêmea,força e forma, e assim por diante. O pilar central, do equilíbrio, representa a Graça Divina, que reconcilia os pilares funcionais externos, lateriais; é também chamado de coluna central da consciência. Keter-Coroa, simboliza o princípio unificador, ponto de origem e de contato com o Divino. As duas sefirot superiores e externas, Hokmah-Sabedoria, à direita, e Binah-Compreensão, à esquerda, representam o princípio do Intelecto Divino. Já Hesed-Misericórdia e Gevurah-Julgamento são a expressão do Divino Sentimento. O par das sefirot laterais inferiores, Nezah-Eternidade e Hod-Reverberação, traduz o princípio da Ação Divina. As seis sefirot externas atuam como aspectos funcionais, tais como braços e pernas, cérebro, coração e mãos que servem o eixo central da consciência e da vontade. Da Coroa (1. Keter, topo do pilar central do Equilíbrio) jorra a trindade divina, composta do princípio ativo da Sabedoria (2. Hokmah, o Pai, topo do pilar direito da Força) e do seu complemento passivo, a Compreensão (3. Binah, a Mãe, topo do pilar esquerdo da Forma). "As dez Sefirot surgem do Nada como Um Relâmpago e não têm começo nem fim. O Nome de Deus está com eles enquanto vão e quando voltam" (Sefer Yezirah). O impulso da Vontade que se manifesta em Keter passa em progressão alternada do pilar ativo para o passivo ao descer por todos os Sefirot e Mundos.

[stellaisla27]

Kabbalah Astrology

Kabbalistic Astrology is a part of Astrology that consolidates the Astral Chart with the Tree of Life's outline to uncover the active and otherworldly components of the mind and their correspondence with the inconspicuous fields of the planets. Both Astrology and Kabbalah have their beginnings in Mesopotamia and were, in every case, firmly related. Nonetheless, it was not until the archaic age when the information on Astrology and Kabbalah were interwoven in the graph of the Tree of Life, where the planetary impacts – which were examined according to the celestial perspective – were coordinated with the elements of the physical, passionate, otherworldly and divine universes.

The artistry study of Kabbalah Astrology on a very basic level uses both the Astral Chart - as a device to know the positions and impacts of the planets-and the Tree of life - to acquire more profound significance into the otherworldly components of the mind. The planetary places of the Chart can be moved to the Tree of Life, and when we do as such, we acquire a novel Tree for every individual that holds a correspondence to their Natal Chart.

MALKHUT – ASCENDANT: It addresses the actual body, the well-being and essentialness, and every one of natural life cycles.

YESOD – MOON: It addresses the self-image, the endurance impulses, and the molding of the way of life to which one individual has a place.

HOD – MERCURY: It addresses the brain and the capacity to learn and convey ideas or thoughts.

NEZAH – VENUS: It addresses the cravings, the boosts, and the quest for joy.

TIFERET – SUN: It addresses the Self, the focal point of our being, from which Beauty, Goodness, and Truth radiate.

GEVURAH – MARS: It addresses judgment, the capacity to protect or assault, contend, and accomplish objectives with military discipline.

HESED – JUPITER: It addresses extension, liberality, and sympathy, just as the capacity to look for new freedoms and bounty.

DAAT – PLUTO: This is a non-sefirah, for what it's worth of different nature from the rest. This is the way to a higher measurement, the passage that prompts the Light—the experience of the dimness, change, and higher information anticipated here.

BINAH – SATURN: It addresses our life experience and the comprehension of its construction and its drawn-out designs.

HOCHMAN – URANUS addresses the blazing beam of motivation and intelligence that upsets the setup thoughts and brings another vision.

KETER – NEPTUNE: At the most elevated mark of the Tree, it addresses the association with the Divine, the re-visitation of the Light where we initially come from.

Kabbalah is a Hebrew expression (mazal). The 2014-2015 Kabbalah investigation has its underlying foundations in this Jewish type of soothsaying. The Kabbalah Zodiac Sign Calculator is utilized to decipher a singular graph and comprehend the importance of the outline from the perspective of the Kabbalah.

The Kabbalah Zodiac Sign Calculator for 2014 decides your star sign dependent on your date of birth and coordinates it with the tree of life, which is a significant component of Kabbalah.

Then, at that point, the Kabbalah horoscope exhibits the circles (two of them) of the tree of life associated with the way through the world governed over by your sign.

[brother-hermes]

YESHUA, TRANSFIGURATION, MERKHABAH

“And after six days Yeshua took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Yeshua, ‘Rabbi,it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”

-Mark 9:2-6

Six Days- if we work our way down from the three supernals- Keter, Chockmah, Binah- towards the world we live in- Malkhut- we quickly realize that each of the remaining 7 sefirot relate to the seven days of creation. It is absolutely vital we pay careful attention to numbers in scripture because they’re always alluding to a deeper understanding of the Divine. In the case of the transfiguration of Yeshua six denotes Yesod, or the foundation through which all the Divine Light of G-D pours into creation.

High Mountain- think of Jacobs latter and ascent to the throne room of El Shaddai- or Most High, ‘The Lord of the Mountains’ to their neighboring Samaritans. Where Jacobs vision occurred became Beth-El, or the House of God right.

Radiant- this is what we call Shekhinah Glory. The tzaddik- saint in simplest terms- is rooted deeply in the path of hakam- seeking wisdom under the guidance of Chockmah- one of those supernals I mentioned earlier. Anyways, this is the Divine Mother, that female aspect of G-D’s dwelling and immanence in the created world. Yeshua has awakened to the Divine Feminine coursing through the fabric of the Universe and was raised up- brought forward into Yesod- a higher state of being. The Bar-Enash, or “Son of Man,” represents the new humanity Yeshua taught must be born within each soul. We must all awaken to Her presence.

Moshe and Elijah are prophets of the Most High and like all prophets are deeply related to Netzach and Hod. (the Pereshat Pekudei in the Zohar goes into detail for those interested in learning more about the Hekhalot and the essence of Heaven) Prophecy-divine vision emanates through Netzach, Hod and Yesod in Yeshuas transfiguration as these three represent the zeir anpin- the small face in Aramaic. (it’s the mirroring of the three supernals into the physical world of malkhut and the subject of quite a bit of debate amongst kabbalists. It was still firmly nestled in the realm of oral tradition in Yeshuas time so a lot of our way of seeing it just didn’t exist yet)

Three Tents- remember tents is the word for the tabernacle found in the Torah. It represents Shekhinah glory- G-Ds dwelling among us. This is exactly what will happen to any of us who follow Yeshuas halakhah- the way- and internalize love and justice in our everyday thoughts and manner of living. Whereas Netzach and Hod distribute that divine flux from on high it’s Yesod that determines what we receive. (Kabbalah meaning “to receive”) Yeshua offered us explicit instructions to follow that would allow us to elevate ourselves to a higher calling as He Himself did.

They were terrified- Yeshua brought them on High because Peter, James and John had shown promise. They had internalized the halakhah and were living in the way. (the first church was actually called the way) As such, they were ready to be initiated into the Higher Mysteries and receive Chockmah directly from the source. Think of Solomon saying “The fear of Adonai is the beginning of Chockmah.” The word for fear in Hebrew is yara- to fear, be in awe, tremble with joy. Awakening the baet- transformative awe of God- would shake a disciple to their core as they move beyond the stage of halakhah.

This is what merkhabah is at its core. It’s moving beyond mere words and codes of conduct. To be wrapped in a cloud doesn’t mean a meteorological fog or something trite like that. Anan literally means a covering, or hiding place. It’s the mysterious realm of Yesod- in this case the environment of Divine vision. Ancient accounts from various cultures are full of examples of how people tremble and their hair stands up on the back of their necks when this sort of mystical experience occurs. Hence, the disciples were terrified.

Don’t be shy. I know I shrouded a mystery in a mystery on this one. Symbolism is a kink for me though. Just remember whose yoke is easy and whose halakhah is light. As a Rabbi Yeshua provided a lifestyle and manner of thinking rather than ritual and dogma. Anyone can have a merkhabah experience by following the way of the prophets. All it takes is willingness, not wuwu new age nuance.

That is all. 🫳🎤

[talonabraxas]

Etz Hayim “Tree of Life” Talon Abraxas

Tiphareth in Hebrew תִּפְאֶרֶת means “beauty,” “splendor,” or even “glory” (being close to “Hod”), it is the sixth sefira in the cabalistic tree of life, and has in common the association of “Spirituality”, “Balance”, “Integration”, “Beauty” and “Compassion”.

In the Bahir (one of the first cabalistic literature works) we read: “Sextus is adorned, glorious, enchanting throne of glory, the home of the world to come. His place is engraved in wisdom as ‘GOD said: Let there be light, and light was”.

Tiphareth is the force that integrates the Sefira of Chesed (“compassion”) and Gevurah (“Strength, or judgment”), these two forces are, respectively, expansive (giving) and restrictive (receiving), one without the other could not manifest the flow of divine energy. They must be balanced in perfect proportion by balancing compassion with discipline, and this balance can be seen in the role of Tiphareth, where conflicting forces are harmonized and creation flourishes. Tiphareth also balances Netzach and Hod in a similar way, in this case Hod can be seen as intellect and Netzach as emotion.

Tiphareth is the only one among Sephirot that is connected to all others except Malkuth, its position in the center between Keter and Yesod indicates to many Kabbalists that it is a kind of “conversion” of the sefirah between form (Yesod) and strength (Keter). In other words, all the intersections on the central path via Tiphareth determine a polarity inversion. The law of conservation, valid for both energy and mass, tends to confirm this, in all cases of energetic transmutation, as can happen in the transmission of gifts and goods from parents to their children, a sacrifice is necessary for a new form to be born.

Tiphareth is the center of the tree, and five Sefirot surround it: above are Chesed on the right (south) and Gevurah on the left (north), and below are Netzach on the right, Hod on the left and Yesod directly below. Together these six are one entity, Zer Anpin, which is the male counterpart of the Malkuth female sefira. In certain contexts, Tiphareth alone represents the whole sefirot of Zer Anpin, so that the whole tree appears with only five sefirots: Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Binah, Tiferet and Malkhut.

In both the Jewish tree of life and the hermetic tree, Tiphareth has eight paths leading (counterclockwise) to Keter (through Daat), Binah, Gevurah, Hod, Yesod, Netsach, Chesed and Chokmah.

Tiphareth can also be a variant of the word “Tifarah” and in modern Hebrew used in Israel is translated as “Glory” (from GOD – “ELOHIM, ADONAY).

[baticuls]

hold on okay top ten posts that cater to me only but im reading an article on the Sefirot and of course ive already associated this word with the Sephiroth in my Favorite Game of All Time: Tale of the Abyss and anyways as it turns out the names of the Sefirot (Keter, Hokhmah, Malkhut, etc) correlate to the countries/continents where the Sephiroth are located in tales of the abyss (Keterburg, Grand Chokmah, Malkuth, and so on).....when i say i gasped out loud

[ronam0268]

05-11-2020 quando o louco faz um passeio pela Árvore da Vida : 1 - Keter - O Mundo 2 - Hokhma - 2 de espadas 3 - Bina - O Sol 4 - Hessed - Pagem de Moedas 5 - G'vura - 7 de bastões 6 - Tiferet - O louco 7 - Netzah - 2 de Bastões 8 - Hod - 3 de Moedas 9 - Iessod - Rei de espadas 10 - Malkhut - 3 de espadas Passeando pelos caminhos de 2020 está o louco .... em Tiferet, regente do ano ... Este jogo e essa jornada bem pode representar a jornada do herói (que está no interior de cada um de nós ...) ... Muito se fala do ano de 2020, muito se discute, mas pouco se pode enxergar dele realmente.... jornada do louco em Tiferet ... ou você acredita ou você entende da jornada .... Há motivos para acreditar??? Sim!!! ... Hokhma mostra isso com o 2 de espadas... é preciso entrega, equilíbrio, redenção... Há motivos ao entendimento? Sim!!! Nas o que representa o entendimento no 3 de Moedas na esfera de Hod?? .... dedicação, empenho, busca constante pelo significado da sua existência... Problema maior é quando a carta do Sol, na esfera de Bina (regida por Saturno) escancara tudo.... você é seu salvador, você é sua cura, você é seu algoz, seu demônio interior.... você, louco (a) que é a consciência Cristica, que é um ser multidimensional, você também é a criança ferida que espera pela salvação que nunca vem, e quanto mais espera mais dor (3 de espadas em Malkhut) ... Criança, minha criança - o louco (a), a árvore é tua evolução, a árvore são suas muitas facetas encobertas pelo véu da ilusão, você, louco (a), é um ser divino (Keter, A carta do Mundo - união dos 4 elementos) .... mas, louco (a), como tudo que reflete Tiferet passará de frente pelo espelho de G'vura (Marte) ... o que o 7 de bastões em G'vura representa para você?.... é a expressão de sua mais plena criatividade ou é a sua raiva, seu ressentimento?? ... quem é esse Rei de espadas em Iessod??? .... seu Mentor, seu pai interior ou seu ego controlador, acaso você sabe quem ele é? .... pode ser deus, que você escreve Deus por o ter tornado maior que você (quando ele é onipresente, ele é você!, está em você!) ... Diga-me louco (a), que anda, busca e caminha por essa Árvore da Vida ... continua nos comentários.. (em Vila Mariana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHOLnkLnqtp/?igshid=ah886b5prrnv

[steliosagapitos]

                 Kabbalah and Interfaith

   As very few people were literate in Biblical times, the faith was spread through stories that could be interpreted on many levels. It was important to have some kind of structure on which to hang these stories so that they did not become just inaccurate Chinese whispers. It is believed that this structure was based on the design of the Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum). If a story fulfilled all the criteria of the ten specific buds on the Menorah then the story was sound. The Menorah was the forerunner of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Tree’s ten sefirot each reflect an attribute of the Holy One and a human being. The sefirot are: * Malkhut (Kingdom) - the human body and its basic needs and requirements. Our primary life force. Survival and reproduction. * Yesod (Foundation) - the ego-consciousness, our instincts, our ‘place in the tribe’ and our automatic reactions to life. * Hod (Splendour) - our thought processes and intellect. Information as opposed to knowledge or wisdom. * Nezach (Eternity) - our active processes, sexuality, addictions, doing rather than thinking. * Tiferet (Beauty) - our conscious self; the part that responds rather than reacts. Being awake where Yesod is sleeping. * Gevurah (Judgment) - discipline, strength, discernment, the ability to say a conscious ‘no.’ * Hesed (Loving Kindness) - mercy, unconditional love, justice (as distinct from law or judgment), the ability to say a conscious ‘yes.’ * Binah (Understanding) - boundaries, experience, comprehension, clarity. * Hokhmah (Wisdom) - inspiration, direct contact with the Source. * Keter (Crown) - our ‘higher self’ or God-self. Direct contact with the Divine beyond all religion or tradition.

[apenitentialprayer]

In the wake of the Breaking of the Vessels, divinity sought to mend itself through a complex set of processes known by the term tiqqun (mending, healing, restoration). The principal means by which this began to take place was through the emanation yet again of divine light in the form of the Adam Qadmon, but now reconfigured in altogether new ways. Instead of emanating in the comparatively simple form of ten sefirot, divine light now reorganized itself into five major configurations or partsufim (literally, "faces" or "countenances"), under which the sefirot were subsumed. These five partsufim were intended to possess the stability and strength that the earlier manifestations of light lacked. Out of the "points" of Keter, a complete configuration known as Arikh Anpin (literally, the "Long-Faced One" or "Forebearing One") was formed. This structural principle was also called by the name Attiqa Qaddisha (literally, the "Holy Ancient One"). The sefirah Ḥokhmah became transformed into the second partsuf, now called Abba ("Father"), while Binah evolved into the partsuf of Imma ("Mother"). Out of the six aspects of Tiferet, that is, the cluster of sefirot from Tiferet through Yesod, the partsuf known as Ze'ir Anpin (the "Short-Faced One" or "Impatient One") was constituted. That is, Ze'ir comprises a constellation of all sefirot below Binah, with the exception of Malkhut. As with Tiferet itself, Ze'ir Anpin (Ze'ir, for short) represents a male structural principle, the "son" of Abba and Imma. Its masculinity is especially reinforced by the inclusion of Yesod, an unequivocally phallic quality. The fifth partsuf is known as Nuqba de-Ze'ir (the "feminine of Ze'ir), corresponding to the sefirah Malkhut. Nuqba de-Ze'ir (Nuqba for short) stands in romantic and erotic relationship to Ze'ir Anpin and is the "daughter" of Abba and Imma. Nuqba Herself has two basic aspects or dimensions, Rachel and Leah. We have here, then, one partsuf, Arikh Anpin, which, at least theoretically, transcends the category of gender, and two sets of gendered partsufim, Abba and Imma, and Ze'ir and Nuqba.

Lawrence Fine (Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship, pages 138-139)