(an extract from “Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy)
After working for Laban as a shepherd for twenty years, Jacob was ready to return home to the land of Israel with his entire household. In payment for his service it was agreed upon that he would take only those sheep and goats which were “banded,” “spotted,” or “streaked.” He separated his animals from Laban’s by a distance of three days and within a miraculously short time he had built up a sizeable flock of his own.
“Banded” in Hebrew is Akudim. Such animals had bands around their legs, while the rest of there body was white. Due, to these bands, they appeared to be bound, In Hebrew, Akud means “bound.”
“Spotted” is Nekudim. Such animals had black spots on a white body.
“Streaked” is Berudim. This is the precise opposite of the above; the animal has a black body with white streaks, giving the appearance of hail. In Hebrew, hail is Barad.
The way in which Jacob succeeded in increasing his flock was obviously miraculous…..
Nevertheless, he followed regular procedure……
When he wanted his sheep to conceive banded, spotted or streaked offspring, he cut rods with the appropriate markings and set them out where the sheep mated…..
This in turn was based on a prophetic vision in which an angel appeared to Jacob and said to him, ‘Raise your eyes and you will see that the bucks mounting the sheep are banded, spotted and streaked’ (Genesis 31:12)…..
As a result of this vision, Jacob learned that he was to meditate on these rods while in a very high state of consciousness and thereby project his thoughts on the sheep being conceived…..
Now, as the Ari states, when Jacob saw this vision, he was looking at the very beginning of the creation of the Sefirot. It was because Jacob had reached such a high level of consciousness that he was able to meditate on the spiritual dimension that underlies the physical reality and thereby influence the genetic structure of the sheep. The three types of markings in the vision represented the three major stages in the evolution of the Sefirot. By meditating on the latter, he succeeded in changing the former.
What Jacob saw was that when the Sefirot were first created they existed as a paradoxical “ten lights in one vessel.” This is the first level, Akudim (banded), where all the Sefirot are completely undifferentiated and bound together.
Next, three lights were divided into ten distinct entities. In this state they existed as simple Nekudim (spots or points). This is a state where the primitive Sefirot could receive God’s light, and they are thus called “vessels.” They could not interact or give anything to each other, however, and therefore could not hold the Divine light. Instead, they were overwhelmed by the light and “shattered.” This is known as the “Breaking of the Vessels.”
After having been shattered, the Vessels were then rectified and rebuilt. This is the final stage, Berudin (streaked), where the Sefirot are connected as Partzufim, archetypal personas or spiritual parallels to the human body. This is the level usually referred to as the Universe of Atzilut. It is in this rectified state that the Sefirot could now interact with each other and become givers as well as receivers.
We can now summarize this process again and familiarize ourselves with the terms used. Akudim is the first level where all the Sefirot are bound together. In Nekudim they are separated into single points or vessels and the shattering takes place. Berudim is where they become reconstituted into Partzufim.
The Sefirot thus originate in a completely undifferentiated state, bound together in Akudim. At this state we are confronted with the paradoxical “ten in one.” We see one single indissoluble entity, yet we know that it contains the potential of separating into ten different functions. This corresponds to the level of Keter-Crown…..
[A]ny creative act requires all ten Sefirot acting in unison. In essence, all of the Sefirot are vessels of Keter and they constitute a unified system through which the light of Keter manifests itself. When we go up a level, however, and see all of the Sefirot as they originate in one single vessel, this is the level of Akudim.
This in itself is a preparation for the next stage in the process that leads from unity and similarity to diffusion and dissimilarity. The “ten in one” situation is now forcibly dissolved. Each Sefirah must manifest as an independent entity. This is the next stage, the level of Nekudim.
It is here that the Sefirot first appear as ten distinct concepts. They are called Nekudim, points, because in this primitive state they are totally disconnected. The force of diffusion is so great that the Sefirot are now said to constitute a Universe of Tohu-Chaos. The word Tohu comes from the root meaning “confounded.” When a person is confounded it means that he is perceiving an idea that his mind cannot hold. Similarly, the vessels of Tohu-Chaos received a light that they could not contain. Just as confusion and confoundment shatter the thought process, so these vessels were shattered. It is this shattering that is alluded to in the Midrash which states, “God created universes and destroyed them.”
Refrain from speaking much. Out of a thousand words uttered there may be one, and one only, the need in truth be uttered. The rest but cloud the mind, And stuff the ear, and irk the tongue, and blind the heart as well.
How hard it is to say the word in truth be said!
–Mikhail Naimy
“Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive,
is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of
God. For the grateful man knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by
experience. And that is what makes all the difference.”
Most Biblical scholars today are still trying to compare and align Gnostic texts with the traditional Christian interpretations of the Bible. If so much were not at stake, I would just laugh them off
as misguided minions of the ‘CrystalPalace‘ of academia. After all the ‘Crystal Palace,’ pays the light bill for a lot of scholars who know full well they are there to help maintain the ‘Right Wing,’ hold on the Church.
As a lay scholar I discovered the underlying metaphysical philosophy of the Monad, which was adopted by pre-Christian, and first century Christianity. For most Bible scholars the study and mention of the Monad, or parts of the Monadology does not come up in their study, and I think it is because they can ignore it, but its not going away. The main writings of Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and other early church writers all mention the link to the Pythagorean study of the Monad, but none of them can explain it. There are many who have tried.
The early proto-Orthodox church, was not a part of those Gnostics who formed many little churches within churches. Gnostics clearly studied a secret Christianity, which church leaders such as Irenaeus could target as heretical. Gnostics tended to seek individual Gnosis as the real power of spirituality, the Orthodox formed power through unification of the Church as the primary force representing God. By the second century the Orthodox Church had the kind of power to declare themselves the real link to Godliness, and everyone else was an enemy of the Church.
The syndication of the proto-Orthodox church bonded with governments and this increased their power enough to overcome any chance the Gnostics had to become an equal force. Until the Nag Hammadi Library, and the other related Gnostic texts were found in the sands of Egypt, could anyone in modern times identify the true metaphysics behind the Gnostic texts. This has been the focus of my work.
I discovered the Pythagoreans and the Christian Sethians used the Monad, like the Chinese use the Ba Gua, or eight trigrams of the Tai Chi. Ba Gua Science, is not a usual subject in Western culture, and its easy to see why centuries of Biblical scholars missed it. I only found this link because I have been an Isshinryu Karate student for forty years, and this system is a classical one aligned with the Tai Chi. My discovery was that these two systems are almost identical as to how they work, as a heuristic device.
It is not the focus of this essay to teach this system, as I have dedicated myself to doing that with other works. What should be said about learning this system is needed to encourage scholars to pay attention, there is an 800 lb. gorilla in the room called the Monad. It is the basis for the Sethian Christian metaphysics, its one of the best kept secrets in Christian history, and it is one of the most powerful teaching tools ever devised by mankind.
This being said, the down side for Biblical scholarship is the fact the people paying the light bill believe in a sentient all powerful God who can manifest change. The Gnostic message is not quite opposite but it means an end to the sentient being God, who helps pay the light bill. This is Gnostic humor as these people are seen to be in darkness about the Gnostic metaphysics and therefore the epistemology of the Gnostic texts. All of them.
Without a working understanding of the Monad, in concern to the Sethian Christian texts, an accurate translation of them is a happy accident. This is because works like Codex III of the Nag Hammadi are written in express reference to how the Monad works. This is easy to understand if you know the secret to the Monadology, because what the texts in Codex III are talking about is the creation of the Monad, and how it effects the perceptions of the students of Jesus. One quick lesson on how the Monadology starts..
“As I said earlier, among the things that were created the Monad is first, the dyad follows it, and the triad, up to the tenths. Now the tenths rule the hundredths; the hundredths rule the thousandths; the thousands rule the ten thousands. This is the pattern <among the> immortals. First Man is like this: His monad [...]. ( is His God, my insertion.) (From “Eugnostos the Blessed,” Nag Hammadi Library, Codex III, Robinson, 1990.)
Again it is this pattern that exists among the immortals: the Monad and the thought are those things that belong to Immortal Man. The thinkings are for <the> decads, and the hundreds are the teachings, and the thousands are the counsels, and the ten thousands are the powers. Now those who come from the [...] exist with their [...]
in every aeon [...].” (From “Eugnostos the Blessed,” Nag Hammadi Library, Codex III, Robinson, 1990.)
Most people would not have to look too hard to see what is being explained from the Sethian texts is exactly the same pattern as with the Wu Chi, or great void, which begets the Monad, the dyad, the triad, etc. Only in Chinese the dyad is usually called Yin and Yang, ( Li Yang). This represents duality. The triad is called the San Ti. As it turns out the sequences work alike, and the parts are called by different names, but these two mechanisms can be shown easily, as the same heuristic device.
A “heuristic device” like the Tai Chi or Monadology works as an abstract concept or model applied to contemplation and application about physical, mental, verbal, and social phenomena. Not only are they good devices for contemplation, they can be applied to a number of human skills. Playing chess is an example of one type of system considered a heuristic device mentioned in “The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy,” Audi, Cambridge, 1999.
The device of the Tai Chi, and Monadology are without a doubt historically Occult, both in Asian, and Western studies. The modern church still contends this ‘Pythagorean study’ is heretical. However it is obvious from the comparisons of the Gnostic texts, to what was said about them, that the ‘Church’ never uncovered more than a little of the secret teaching.
Once the Church could stop the Gnostic studies, but not today. As I know a great many people who now know how the Ba Gua, or the Monadology works, and use it, I know it has potentials for learning not realized before. I see the denial of the Gnostic teachings, as one of the biggest sins of the Church.
A Gandharva (Sanskrit) or Gandhabba (Pāli) is one of the lowest-ranking devas in Buddhist theology. They are classed among the Cāturmahārājikakāyika devas, and are subject to the Great King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Guardian of the East. Beings are reborn among the Gandharvas as a consequence of having practiced the most basic form of ethics (Janavasabha-sutta, DN.18). It was considered embarrassing for a monk to be born in no better birth than that of a gandharva.
Gandharvas can fly through the air, and are known for their skill as musicians. They are connected with trees and flowers, and are described as dwelling in the scents of bark, sap, and blossom. They are among the beings of the wilderness that might disturb a monk meditating alone.
The terms gandharva and yakṣa are sometimes used for the same person; yakṣa in these cases is the more general term, including a variety of lower deities.
Among the notable gandharvas are mentioned (in DN.20 and DN.32) Panāda, Opamañña, Naḷa, Cittasena, Rājā. Janesabha is probably the same as Janavasabha, a rebirth of King Bimbisāra of Magadha. Mātali the Gandharva is the charioteer for Śakra.
Timbarū was a chieftain of the gandharvas. There is a romantic story told about the love between his daughter Bhaddā Suriyavaccasā (Sanskrit: Bhadrā Sūryavarcasā) and another gandharva, Pañcasikha (Sanskrit: Pañcaśikha). Pañcasikha fell in love with Suriyavaccasā when he saw her dancing before Śakra, but she was then in love with Sikhandī (or Sikhaddi), son of Mātali the charioteer. Pañcasikha then went to Timbarū’s home and played a melody on his lute of beluva-wood, on which he had great skill, and sang a love-song in which he interwove themes about the Buddha and his Arhats.
Later, Śakra prevailed upon Pañcasikha to intercede with the Buddha so that Śakra might have an audience with him. As a reward for Pañcasikha’s services, Śakra was able to get Suriyavaccasā, already pleased with Pañcasikha’s display of skill and devotion, to agree to marry Pañcasikha.
Pañcasikha also acts as a messenger for the Four Heavenly Kings, conveying news from them to Mātali, the latter representing Śakra and the Trāyastriṃśa devas.
Gandharva or gandhabba is also used in a completely different sense, referring to a being (or, strictly speaking, part of the causal continuum of consciousness) in a liminal state between birth and death.
“What does it mean to know and experience my own ‘nothingness.’?
It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults
and mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they were not, and as
if I were someone other than myself. This kind of self-annihilation is
only a worse illusion, it is a pretended humility which, by saying ‘I am
nothing’ I mean in effect ‘I wish I were not what I am.’”
–Thomas Merton
……………………..
Those who see me as form
Those who know me as words
Are dwelling on wrong paths.
These persons have not seen me.
What is meant by the buddhas
Is the view of dharmata.
The leaders are dharmakaya.
Dharmata is not a knowable,
So consciousness cannot know it.
–The Diamond Sutra
….
A Gandharva (Sanskrit) or Gandhabba (Pāli) is one of the lowest-ranking devas in Buddhist theology. They are classed among the Cāturmahārājikakāyika devas, and are subject to the Great King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Guardian of the East. Beings are reborn among the Gandharvas as a consequence of having practiced the most basic form of ethics (Janavasabha-sutta, DN.18). It was considered embarrassing for a monk to be born in no better birth than that of a gandharva.
Gandharvas can fly through the air, and are known for their skill as musicians. They are connected with trees and flowers, and are described as dwelling in the scents of bark, sap, and blossom. They are among the beings of the wilderness that might disturb a monk meditating alone.
The terms gandharva and yakṣa are sometimes used for the same person; yakṣa in these cases is the more general term, including a variety of lower deities.
Among the notable gandharvas are mentioned (in DN.20 and DN.32) Panāda, Opamañña, Naḷa, Cittasena, Rājā. Janesabha is probably the same as Janavasabha, a rebirth of King Bimbisāra of Magadha. Mātali the Gandharva is the charioteer for Śakra.
Timbarū was a chieftain of the gandharvas. There is a romantic story told about the love between his daughter Bhaddā Suriyavaccasā (Sanskrit: Bhadrā Sūryavarcasā) and another gandharva, Pañcasikha (Sanskrit: Pañcaśikha). Pañcasikha fell in love with Suriyavaccasā when he saw her dancing before Śakra, but she was then in love with Sikhandī (or Sikhaddi), son of Mātali the charioteer. Pañcasikha then went to Timbarū’s home and played a melody on his lute of beluva-wood, on which he had great skill, and sang a love-song in which he interwove themes about the Buddha and his Arhats.
Later, Śakra prevailed upon Pañcasikha to intercede with the Buddha so that Śakra might have an audience with him. As a reward for Pañcasikha’s services, Śakra was able to get Suriyavaccasā, already pleased with Pañcasikha’s display of skill and devotion, to agree to marry Pañcasikha.
Pañcasikha also acts as a messenger for the Four Heavenly Kings, conveying news from them to Mātali, the latter representing Śakra and the Trāyastriṃśa devas.
Gandharva or gandhabba is also used in a completely different sense, referring to a being (or, strictly speaking, part of the causal continuum of consciousness) in a liminal state between birth and death.
“Our physical demand is great. We need a healthy body. We dealt so much in soulfulness, we forgot the holiness of the body. We neglected physical health and strength; we forgot that we have holy flesh, no less than holy spirit.”
- Avraham Kook (Orot)
“One whose heart, however, is aroused and whose mind is illuminated, lights up more than the sun and moon.
They light up more than sun and moon, and they spread the Call and the Scent in the world.
Daily disciples meet with such a one, receiving from them the Sign and ascend by that ones strength.
Because the strength of their Father (Life) is kept with them, and the word of their Father rests with such a one.
When their soul ascends the watchtowers do not subject them to inspection, and the planets do not speak to that one in judgment.
They are not transformed to the pathways of the obscene ones, and their eye does not behold the darkness.
They go forward on the way of the ones of established Righteousness, on which Habshabba walks.
They climb by hidden words, which darkness hid from the passing one.
They climb by secret Mystery, their form is hidden and kept before the worlds.
Blessed and again blessed, are those who separate from the world; they ascend and behold the place of light.”
Love is patient,
Love is kind.
Love does not envy,
Love does not boast,
Love is not proud.
Love is not rude,
Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not easily angered,
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
Love always protects,
Love always trusts, Love always hopes,
Love always perseveres.
Love never fails.
–I Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is real, real is love,
Love is feeling, feeling love,
Love is wanting to be loved.
Love is touch, touch is love,
Love is reaching, reaching love,
Love is asking to be loved.
Love is you,
You and me,
Love is knowing,
We can be.
Love is free, free is love,
Love is living, living love,
Love is needing to be loved.
“You receive inner answers to all your questions and all your
prayers. If you do not hear the answers, it’s because you have
surrounded yourself with thick walls by indulging in thoughts,
feelings, desires and actions not inspired by love, wisdom and
truth. If you begin to knock these walls down, you will hear.
Now, it may happen, of course, that you don’t find it easy to
accept the answer you receive. When you’re wrestling with an
insoluble situation and wondering how you can get out of it, you
tend to imagine that a solution will appear as if by magic to
extricate you from it. No, no, the solution may require enormous
effort on your part. But don’t back away, because, if it really
is the solution, however painful, it’s worth more than all the
hesitation, uncertainty and anxiety you have been living with up
until now, none of which will go away as long as you refuse to
make any effort.”
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
The Sefirot in Love and Relationship
by
Gershom Winkler
(from “The Place where You are Standing is Holy”)
The sefirot represent an ancient Jewish mystical formula for esoteric gymnastics and God-shuttling. They are based on the ancients’ understanding of the attributes of God, the qualities of the Creator revealed within the fabric of Creation. The sefirot are symbolized in the human form, each attribute corresponding to a particular sector of the body. What follows is a loose adaptation of this ten-point kabbalistic formula for a clearer understanding of relationship dynamics. The Shadow side of each is described as well.
KETER
Keter means “crown.” A crown symbolizes representation. Before engaging in a relationship encounter, make sure you are wearing your personality where it can be seen. When engaged in relating to an Other, be fully aware of your own greatness, your own uniqueness. You, too, count. You, too, wear the royal crown because you, too, are the child of the Cosmic Sovereign. Do not lose yourself in the Other to the point where you feel inferior to them, or less adequate or talented, or that you must conceal some part of yourself from the Other to win their favor. The Shadow side of Keter is staying so clear you are actually unconnected and functionally rigid.
CHOKHMAH
RIGHT SIDE
Chokhmah means “knowledge.” Knowledge means yesterday’s consciousness. All that you know, in other words, comes from your past. In entering the arena of relationship, get in touch with your knowledge, your consciousness level as it has been up to the point of the encounter with the Other. Your past will need to be prepared for attunements and adjustments if it is to merge with the knowledge/consciousness of another, if you are to have a future with another. The Shadow side would be staying so logical and immersed in what follows from before that you cannot see the innovations, transformations, and surprise gifts that the universe is offering through yourself and others.
BINAH
LEFT SIDE
Binah means “understanding,” “intuition,” from the Hebrew word for “construction.” And it connotes tomorrow’s consciousness. It processes, builds upon, what you’ve known until now. And this is the next stage of encounter, seeing whether you can build a unit out of the merging of your past, your knowledge, and the other person’s past/knowledge; seeing whether there can be a future, whether you can move together, or whether you might not end up obstructing the movements of one another’s mind. The Shadow side is that, without Chokhmah, Binah consciousness renders you too fluid and in the moment so that you do not keep agreements because they don’t feel right anymore. The Other can see and respond to your authenticity but can barely find you or count on you for anything.
(These three processes take place in the initial embrace and therefore their acronym, in sound only, is CHiBeK, Hebrew for “embrace.” But this acronym works in sound only, not in actual spelling, for the initial embrace is not clear, it only sounds good. It hasn’t been tested. It is a social, rather than intimate, embrace. If the embrace, the greeting or meeting, has succeeded, the next three movements of the dance can begin.)
CHESED
RIGHT ARM
Chesed means “grace.” Once there is a meeting of minds, a synchronicity of consciousness, there develops an innocent sense of trust that unleashes a sometimes overwhelming desire to express, to give to the other. The giving may take any variety of forms ranging from loving, caring, and giving gifts to sharing your innermost secrets, spilling your guts. Its Shadow side is oversharing, losing boundaries, engulfing the Other, swallowing them up. Or, on the other hand, sharing too much when the Other is not honoring you in your deepest places.
GEVURAH
LEFT ARM
Gevurah means “constriction.” The initial unleashing of the emotion we call love often gets us into a lot of trouble, a lot of pain, because of the tendency to spill it rather than to pour it. The attribute of Gevurah helps one to direct the outpouring in such a way that it does not overwhelm Self or Other but leaves ample space for feedback, for the Other to respond, for the Other to choose either to receive the Chesed expressed or reject it or harness it toward alternate directions for the relationship. Gevurah checks to determine whether the love is real, or infatuation, or perhaps even psychotic and obsessive. Its Shadow side is harshness, inflexibility, and demanding of too much structure and restriction around how each emotes or even around what time dinner is served. It can also involve censoring your feelings too harshly so that the Other is left with uncertainty about how you are seeing them. Too much Gevurah leads to emotional as well as sensual frigidity.
TIFERET
HEART
Tiferet is feeling. It means “beauty,” but beauty is determined by feeling. Tiferet is the end result of the processes worked out up to this point, a healthy, well-toned feeling. Love. Harmony. Clarity. Good—as in: “And God saw all that God had made and behold it was Good” (Genesis 1:31)—when everything comes together and clicks. The Shadow side is feeling so blissfully complete about the relationship that you leave little or no room for the possibility of change in either your Self or the Other. The notion of conflict, too, becomes taboo, and you end up suppressing your feelings if you are hurt by something the Other says or does, because, after all, you have the perfect relationship.
(This second three-part process is that of interaction, playing out the mind merging of the first stages. Its acronym is appropriately CHuG, which means “circle,” as in a circle or intimate gathering of people. The “T” for tiferet, stands for the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet, tuf, for like the tuf, Tiferet is the climax of the merging. The relationship has begun. Likewise, so have the most challenging of all the dynamics in a relationship: the power struggle, the nature of the final three-part process.)
NETZACH
RIGHT THIGH
Netzach means “victory” or “mastery.” It is the expression of assertive power, or commanding presence, in a relationship. Once the security of relationship has been established, either by marriage or other commitment, or merely by living under the same roof, the idealism of mind meeting and integration give way to soul-deep linking of each person’s powerfulness combined with a drive to manifest personal ideals. It is a dance in powerfulness. There are times when one partner feels the need to take control momentarily due to a situation that calls for someone taking action. Netzach would be an aggressive way in which this would happen. Its Shadow side is aggression, domination, sometimes violence, and ego-deep competitiveness in which each partner strives for the most power in the relationship, for the leading role.
HOD
LEFT THIGH
Hod means “splendor.” It, too, is mastery or victory, but in a more gentle sense. Hod consciousness emanates from a place of solid self-esteem, a quiet affirmation of Self and Other, and a peaceful determination to work things out. In doing Hod, you affirm your stance in the relationship but without intimidating the Other from theirs. Its display or exercise of power is in its majesty, as opposed to force, being moved to religiosity by the awesome beauty of God’s Creation, for example, as opposed to the awesome voice of God commanding. Hod would be a balancing, more gentle way to take control when needed, or to act out the power struggle if there is too much of a dominating presence of the Other in the relationship. The Hod method of dealing with Netzach would be akin to the art of Akido, where the martial artist operates with, rather than against, the force of the opponent’s movements. It is diplomacy. The Shadow side of Hod is an inexorable force unceasingly pushing the Other toward a resolution of a process or issue that the Other finds untenable in timing or form, a nonviolent but unrelenting compulsion of the Other. Or, in Yiddish, being a nudnik.
SOD
GENITALS AND CENTER OF LOWER ABDOMEN
Sod means “mystery” or “secret.” It also means “foundation” and in talmudic terminology connotes “intimate council.” On the Sefirah model, it is the genitalia. And, indeed, it is the sexual arena where the power struggle or power play forges its foundation. It is in the sex act where a couple engage in secret, intimate council to work out the dynamics of control, of whether the relationship is to become one of give and take or one of give and receive. The mystery, or secret, of relationship interplay is contained deep within the body, at the base of desire, of want, of need: the Sod. Here lies the test of truth, the proficiency test for the mastery of all the above processes. The body rarely lies. Here the couple is tested on whether they have truly been honest in their representation of Self to Other (Keter); whether their respective pasts are truly compatible for a mutual future (Chokhmah and Binah);whether they are truly capable of harmonious interaction (Chesed and Gevurah) and have integrated enough to feel clearly whatever it is they feel toward one another and from one another (Tiferet); whether they are capable of balancing respective roles in the relationship so that there is a mutual respect for each other’s presence and leadership rather than a competitiveness (Netzach and Hod). Its Shadow side would be a linking through passion when all or most of the above “tests” have proven negative: cementing two people in an innately destructive combination.
(The acronym for the final three-part process is appropriately HaNeS, which means “the experience,” or “the miracle,” and is related to the word HaNesayon, “the test.” It is the revelation of the relationship, as the initial revelation of God to Moses at the SeNaH, the revelatory burning bush. Because Sod is where it all coalesces into the total experience of mind, emotion, and body: the climax.)
MALKHUT
SOLES OF THE FEET, OR THE EARTH-CONNECTEDNESS OF OUR SOULS, AND BASE OF THE SPINE
Finally, there is Malkhut, which literally means “kingdom.” Malkhut is where the downward spiraling of divine energy fully reaches integration between Ideal and Real. The Ideal relationship has not come about—each Self and each Other has had to learn, compromise, do tzimtzum, assert themselves, dance, get hurt, and heal in order to get this far. But if the Keter started out right and the Shadow of each movement forward was danced back to a sense of rightness and strength of each stage, then the Real expresses the Essence of the Ideal even if the form, character, and flavor are all innovations. The process is highly personalized, but in its authenticity reaches the completeness of the Divine Will for there to be Life in physicality. The Shadow side is that without manifesting the consciousness of the other Sefirot, Malkhut becomes gluttony for the gifts that God creates for physical beings, a gobbling up of the riches of Life without absorbing them. One then becomes insatiable, because even as the food, power, sensuousness, fame, creativity, and so forth, are experienced in their most condensed form, there is no Whole Self sharing in the experience. There is always emptiness but for momentary illusions of fulfillment.
Malkhut and Keter are therefore one and the same, the point where the two ends of a line meet in a circle of wholeness, and holiness. Malkhut is the realization, the actualization, of Keter, of the initial move between the couple to engage one another in the dance of relationship, in the embrace. The Hebrew letter mem, for Malkhut, is described in the Kabbalah as the womb, for it is in Malkhut that the relationship has developed from unformed potential into a fully formed Creation; from a seed, Keter, to a tree, Malkhut—one being the fruition of the other. The acronym for the two, Keter and Malkhut, is KoM, which means “rise,” for here the relationship has risen and now stands erect as a tree, risen from its seed. KoM can also be received as sound advice for the couple to rise up to Keter again and periodically begin the processes anew; to proclaim a Sabbath every now and then. The Sabbath is a period of rejuvenation, of taking a deep breath and regaining composure and clarity. No task needs this more than that of making a relationship.
….
it is said in kabbalah there are only two things
Vessels and light
Vessels receive
Light gives
that is the nature of the universe, there is nothing else…. thus to “take” is “against” the very nature of the universe…. as one gives, they will be open to receive…. thus there is no need to take…ever…
We can see this clearly in the zen allegory of the tea cup..
A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring.
The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself.
“It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted.
“You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”
….
a western hermetic kabbalist once said:
“Once we gain great power, we must give it away
A cup cannot be filled, unless it is emptied”…
This to me is the path of the Gnostic….
One prepares the cup to be emptied (the Grail as the self), in which to be filled…
we give our selves away in order to gain ourselves
….
Of course there is complicated Kabbalstic dogma regarding the problems of vessels only being able to receive and light able to give….and what occurs if a vessel wants to give…etc.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
–John Calvin Coolidge
….
Sabaoth and Zoe
by
Tom Saunders
Sabaoth is a term that is specific to the writings of those who practiced the Secret Christianity. “The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster,” contain the a reference to Sabaoth, and in the same document is a sequencing description for the trilogy in the Monadic system. This makes it possible for anyone who knew enough about the Monadic system to have put it together, and applied it. Its only possible and as of yet there is no proof anyone in history since the 4th century knew the study of the Monad.
However there are indications that Benjamin Franklin, and Gottfried Leibnitz, did in fact know the secret, and kept it. Leibnitz (Leibniz), did coin the phrase Monadology for modern science. His work explaining the Monad would have made the early Gnostic Alexandrians fall down laughing. That may in fact be what these men intended, and they kept the secret of the Monadology, just that a secret.
In the time of Franklin and Leibnitz, the Church would have put them to death if it had connected them with the heresies described by Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Tertullian, regarding the study of the Gnostic secrets. Possession of ”The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster,” might also be very looked down upon by the Church at the time. It was very dangerous. But in France, there were secret societies that may have actually kept real secrets.
The ’Oracles,’ are certainly occult writing, but Sabaoth connects the text to Sethian Christians. It is very difficult to say how much they knew in regard to the connection to the Secret Christianity.
There are four major Nag Hammadi texts that contain an explanation of Sabaoth, “Hypostasis of the Archons,” “On the Origen of the World,” “The testimony of Truth,” and the Apocryphon of John.”
To make it short Sabaoth represents the evil side of duality. Zoe represents, the good. This is another allegory for yin and yang. In this case, Sabaoth, or evil comes in seven forms, and this proves out when you study the Monadology. The ”Gospel of Mary,” contains the template form, the Seven Forms of Wrath. At least in the Gnostic scripture Sabaoth represents the seven set master template of all evil like…
“Thus, when the prime parent of chaos saw his son Sabaoth and the glory that he was in, and perceived that he was greatest of all the authorities of chaos, he envied him. And having become wrathful, he engendered Death out of his death: and he (viz., Death) was established over the sixth heaven, <for> Sabaoth had been snatched up from there. And thus the number of the six authorities of chaos was achieved. Then Death, being androgynous, mingled with his (own) nature and begot seven androgynous offspring. These are the names of the male ones: Jealousy, Wrath, Tears, Sighing, Suffering, Lamentation, Bitter Weeping. And these are the names of the female ones: Wrath, Pain, Lust, Sighing, Curse, Bitterness, Quarrelsomeness. They had intercourse with one another, and each one begot seven, so that they amount to forty-nine androgynous demons. Their names and their effects you will find in the Book of Solomon.
And in the presence of these, Zoe, who was with Sabaoth, created seven good androgynous forces. These are the names of the male ones: the Unenvious, the Blessed, the Joyful, the True, the Unbegrudging, the Beloved, the Trustworthy. Also, as regards the female ones, these are their names: Peace, Gladness, Rejoicing, Blessedness, Truth, Love, Faith (Pistis). And from these are many good and innocent spirits. Their influences and their effects you will find in the Configurations of the Fate of Heaven That Is Beneath the Twelve. “ (“Origin of the World.”)
It is important to understand the above passages are about what is called the ‘psychic aeon.’ This denotes that man’s mind works like heaven’s, This is because of the power of duality in the form of Sabaoth, i.e. seven parts came out of the heavens and into the mind of men. I have models for most of the words below in sets of seven parts…(“Seven Gnostic Demons.”)
“Next the psychic aeon. It is a small one, which is mixed with bodies, by begetting in the souls (and) defiling (them). For the first defilement of the creation found strength. And it begot every work: many works of wrath, anger, envy, malice, hatred, slander, contempt and war, lying and evil counsels, sorrows and pleasures, basenesses and defilements, falsehoods and diseases, evil judgments that they decree according to their desires.” (On the Concept of Our Great Power, NHL, Codex VI.)
The Sethians explain the androgyny, and gender through the term Barbelo. In other words when Sabaoth and Zoe combined to become duality, i.e. yin and yang, the sexual energy of this bond took the form of Barbelo. The Chinese equivalent of this energy is called Jin (Chen). This is the energy which makes Monadic sets subject to the power of duality, like good/evil, offense/defense, and other types of duality, not all opposites.
Learning the Monad was a way that early Gnostics learned to control chaos, and evil. They learned to use the Monad as a multi-purpose, and multi-applicable heuristic device. They saw the separation of man from the Pleromic state as highly flawed, and not connected with the natural flow of the Monadic forces. They found plugging into this flow as useful as the Chinese and others who knew how to use the flow of Chi, or the Monadic ‘template.’
Sabaoth, and Zoe, represent forces of duality that are in the natural flow of Wisdom, known to those who studied the Books of Solomon, and Books of Zoroaster. The extant document. “The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster,” describes the Monadic sequence as follows…
“25. The Monad first existed, and the Paternal Monad still subsists.
26. When the Monad is extended, the Dyad is generated.
27. And beside Him is seated the Dyad which glitters with intellectual sections,
to govern all things and to order everything not ordered.
28. The Mind of the Father said that all things should be cut into Three, whose
Will assented, and immediately all things were so divided.
29. The Mind of the Eternal Father said into Three, governing all things by Mind.
30. The Father mingled every Spirit from this Triad.
31. All things are supplied from the bosom of this Triad.
32. All things are governed and subsist in this Triad
33. For thou must know that all things bow before the Three Supernals.
34. From thence floweth forth the Form of the Triad, being preexistent; not the
first Essence, but that whereby all things are measured.
35. And there appeared in it Virtue and Wisdom, and multiscient Truth.
36. For in each World shineth the Triad, over which the Monad ruleth.”
This is an example of medieval occult writing. If you don’t know that the Monadology is almost mechanically exact to Ba Gua Science, this description above is likely to confuse you, which is part of its purpose. If you understand the Monadology, this passage makes perfect sense, and that is probably also a built-in feature of occult writing. It means what it says, but you have to know the underlying philosophy that supports the statement in line with the model. The right model.
The above passage merely counts to three in a system that goes up to much larger sets. If you do not understand that the term “Sabaoth” as a template for seven types, then the meaning is probably lost. It is an underlying philosophy you have to know first to really understand the references to it in occult writing. The Nag Hammadi texts have many of these hidden references to the Monadic system. Sabaoth has equivalent names in the Gnostic collections.
For a brief video explanation of the Monadic system, see….
“The Hypostasis of the Archons,” also known as the “Reality of the Rulers,” contains a description of Sabaoth, and Zoe, which somewhat mirrors what is said in the “Origin of the World.” Sabaoth is mentioned in the “Testimony of Truth,” however the passage is highly damaged and relates only that Sabaoth has powers.
In the “The Apocryphon of John,” Sabaoth is in a mixed context. http://gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn-davies.html Sabaoth in the context of the ”Secret Book,” is put into a matrix with other supposed powers which are governed by the same flows of energy which form the basic Monadic template. John’s book describes an organization of heaven and earth in the context of what emanates out the the abyss, or ”great void.” This seems to in fact be an influence of the Zoroastrians, who are referenced in the longer versions of the ”Secret Book.”
The text, “Zostrianos,” is a Zoroastrian text found in the Nag Hammadi, but this text mentions Seth and Autogenes, which is another name for the powers of duality like Sabaoth, and Zoe. This may suggest that Zoroastrians who converted to Sethianism, later converted to Jesus as the Monad, or that is to say, Christianity.
Zoe, is often associated with Eve, and in context Sabaoth and Zoe, are a duality like Adam and Eve, but the Gnostic texts do not look at creation in the same context as the mainstream Orthodoxy.
The Sethians saw the creation of man a separation from the perfection of the Pleromic state. They saw the creation of man as a mistake, and saw man in the hylic state as flawed.
The study of the Monad, and Sabaoth were ways to learn to apply the powers of duality and relate to the Word, or virtual ‘Mind of Heaven’ in the form of the natural flow of Wisdom. This natural flow was sought after in the study of Gnosis and contact with this power is referenced as the epinnoia. Sabaoth and Zoe, are the equivalent powers mentioned in other Sethian texts, that mention, autogenes, monogenes, Sophia, Seth, and associated powers which emanate from the emptiness, or void. This void is called in regard to Jesus as ”Silence.” In the Sethian use of the Monad, Jesus Wisdom serves as the Word, or like in the ”Gospel of John,” the ”Word was God.”
“The contemplative life is a life of charity. And charity is always twofold. It has one object: God. But it reaches Him both directly, in Himself, and through other men. Our interior life dies out unless there be a constant vital contact with God through both these avenues. If we
do not let ourselves be directed by other men, who speak in His name, we cannot pretend that we are directed by Him. For Christ said to His Apostles: ’He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me. And he that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me.”
–Thomas Merton
You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with
constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,
And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.
But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sandtowers,
But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they
would carve it in their own likeness?
What of the cripple who hates dancers?
What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all
others naked and shameless?
And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters lawbreakers?
What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.
And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?
And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?
But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?
You who travel with the wind, what weather-vane shall direct your course?
What man’s law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man’s prison door?
What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man’s iron chains?
And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man’s path?
People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
–Kahlil Gibran
“Wisdom, the Maharal had often taught, belonged to all. Anyone who actively sought to acquire it, regardless of their knowledge or academic background, was to be considered as wise. As the Talmud taught: ‘Who is he Wise One? The one who learns from everyone,’ which Rabbi Loevy explained to mean, a person who was so earnestly intent on attaining wisdom that he or she was open to receiving it from anyone, man, woman or child, teacher or student, sage or ignoramus. Wisdom, he thus taught, was determined not by the depth of one’s knowledge but by the intensity ofthe process employed toward its attainment. As the Talmud put it: ‘In accorcance with the intensity ofthe effort is the intensity ofthe reward’.”
The traveller has reached the end of the journey!…
In the light of his vision he has found his freedom: his thoughts are peace,
his words are peace and his work is peace.
