DOKAN 6/Dokan 06.iso/Webs/128.120.24.39/nge/q5.txt

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                       Notes on Kabbalah

The author grants the right to copy and distribute these Notes provided
they remain unmodified and original authorship and copyright is retained.
The author retains both the right and intention to modify and extend
these Notes.

Release 2.0
Copy date: 12th. January 1992

Copyright Colin Low 1992 ([e-mail])

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Chapter 4: The Sephiroth (continued)
========================
     This  chapter  provides a detailed look at each of  the  ten
sephiroth  and  draws together material scattered  over  previous
chapters.

Yesod
-----

     Yesod means "foundation",  and that is what Yesod is:  it is
the  hidden  infrastructure  whereby  the  emanations  from   the
remainder  of  the Tree are transmitted to the  sephira  Malkuth.
Just as a large building has its air-conditioning ducts,  service
tunnels,  conduits,  electrical wiring, hot and cold water pipes,
attic  spaces,  lift shafts,  winding  rooms,  storage  tanks,  a
telephone exchange etc,  so does the Creation,  and the external,
visible   world  of  phenomenal  reality  rests   (metaphorically
speaking)   upon  a  hidden  foundation  of   occult   machinery.
Meditations  on  the nature of Yesod tend to be  full  of  secret
tunnels and concealed mechanisms, as if the Creation was a Gothic
mansion  with  a secret door behind every mirror,  a  passage  in
every wall,  a pair of hidden eyes behind every portrait,  and  a
subterranean world of forgotten tunnels leading who knows  where.
For this reason the Spiritual Experience of Yesod is aptly  named
"The Vision of the Machinery of the Universe".
     Many  Yesod  correspondences  reinforce  this  notion  of  a
foundation,  of something which lies behind,  supports and  gives
shape to phenomenal reality.  The magical image of Yesod is of "a
beautiful  naked man,  very strong".  The image which springs  to
mind  is that of a man with the world resting on  his  shoulders,
like  one  of  the misrepresentations of  the  Titan  Atlas  (who
actually held up the heavens,  not the world). The angel order of
Yesod is the Cherubim, the Strong Ones, the archangel is Gabriel,
the Strong or Mighty One of God,  and the God-name is Shaddai  el
Chai,  the Almighty Living God.
     The idea of a foundation suggests that there is a  substance
which lies behind physical matter and "in-forms it" or "holds  it
together",  something less structured, more plastic, more refined
and rarified,  and this "fifth element" is often called aethyr. I
will  not attempt to justify aethyr in terms of  current  physics
(the  closest  concept  I have found is  the  hypothesised  Higgs
field); it is a convenient handle on a concept which has enormous
intuitive  appeal to many magicians,  who,  when asked how  magic
works,  tend  to  think in terms of a medium  which  is  directly
receptive  to  the will,  something which is plastic and  can  be
shaped through concentration and imagination, and which transmits
their  artificially  created forms  into  reality.  Eliphas  Levi
called  this  medium the "Astral Light".  It is also  natural  to
imagine  that  mind,  consciousness,  and  the  soul  have  their
habitation in this substance, and there are volumes detailing the
properties of the "Etheric Body",  the "Astral Body", the "Causal
Body" [1,2] and so on. I don't take this stuff too seriously, but
I do like to work with the kind of natural intuitions which occur
spontaneously  and  independently in a large number of  people  -
there  is  power  in these intuitions - and it is  a  mistake  to
invalidate  them  because they sound cranky.  When I  talk  about
aethyr  or  the  Astral Light,  I mean there  is  an  ideoplastic
substance  which  is subjectively real  to  many  magicians,  and
explanations  of  magic  at the level  of  Yesod  revolve  around
manipulating this substance using desire, imagination and will.
     The fundamental nature of Yesod is that of  *interface*;  it
interfaces the rest of the Tree of Life to Malkuth. The interface
is  bi-directional;  there are impulses coming down from  Kether,
and echoes bouncing back from Malkuth.  The idea of interface  is
illustrated in the design of a computer system: a computer with a
multitude  of  worlds hidden within it is a source  of  heat  and
repair  bills  unless  it has peripheral  interfaces  and  device
drivers to interface the world outside the computer to the  world
"inside"  it;  add  a keyboard and a mouse and a  monitor  and  a
printer  and you have opened the door into another  reality.  Our
own senses have the same characteristic of being a bi-directional
interface  through which we experience the world,  and  for  this
reason  the  senses correspond to Yesod,  and not only  the  five
traditional senses - the "sixth sense" and the "second sight" are
given  equal  status,   and  so  Yesod  is  also  the  sphere  of
instinctive psychism,  of clairvoyance,  precognition, divination
and  prophecy.  It is also clear from accounts of lucid  dreaming
(and personal experience) that we possess the ability to perceive
an inner world as vividly as the outer,  and so to Yesod  belongs
the inner world of dreams,  daydreams and vivid imagination,  and
one  of  the titles of Yesod is "The Treasure House  of  Images".
     To  Yesod is attributed Levanah,  the Moon,  and  the  lunar
associations of tides,  flux and change,  occult  influence,  and
deeply   instinctive   and  sometimes   atavistic   behaviour   -
possession,   mediumship,  lycanthropy  and  the  like.  Although
Yesod is the foundation and it has associations with strength, it
is  by  no means a rigid scaffold supporting a world  in  stasis.
Yesod  supports the world just as the sea supports all  the  life
which lives in it and sails upon it,  and just as the sea has its
irresistable currents and tides, so does Yesod. Yesod is the most
"occult"  of the sephiroth,  and next to Malkuth it is  the  most
magical, but compared with Malkuth its magic is of a more subtle,
seductive,  glamorous and ensnaring kind.  Magicians are drawn to
Yesod  by the idea that if reality rests on a hidden  foundation,
then  by  changing the foundation it is possible  to  change  the
reality.  The magic of Yesod is the magic of form and appearance,
not   substance;   it  is  the  magic   of   illusion,   glamour,
transformation, and   shape-changing.   The  most   sophisticated
examples of this are to be found in modern marketing, advertising
and  image consultancies.  I do not jest.  My tongue is not  even
slightly  in my cheek.  The following quote was taken  from  this
morning's paper [3]:

     Although  the changes look cosmetic,  those responsible  for
     creating  corporate  image  argue  that  a  redesign  of   a
     company's uniform or name is just the visible sign of a much
     larger transformation.

     "The majority of people continue to misunderstand and  think
     that  it is just a logo,  rather than understanding  that  a
     corporate identity programme is actually concerned with  the
     very commercial objective of having a strong personality and
     single-minded,    focussed    direction   for   the    whole
     organisation, " said Fiona Gilmore, managing director of the
     design company Lewis Moberly.  "It's like planting an  acorn
     and then a tree grows.  If you create the right *foundation*
     (my  itals)  then you are building a whole culture  for  the
     future of an organisation."

I don't know what Ms.  Gilmore studies in her spare time, but the
idea  that it is possible to manipulate reality  by  manipulating
symbols and appearances is entirely magical.  The same article on
corporate identity continues as follows:

     "The scale of the BT relaunch is colossal. The new logo will
     be  painted on more than 72,000 vehicles  and  trailers,  as
     well as 9,000 properties.
     The  company's 92,000 public payphones will get new  decals,
     and  its 90 shops will have to changed,  right down  to  the
     yellow door handles.  More than 50,000 employees are  likely
     to need new uniforms or "image clothing".

Note  the emphasis on *image*.  The company in question  (British
Telecom)  is  an ex-public monopoly with  an  appalling  customer
relations  problem,   so  it  is  changing  the  colour  of   its
door handles! This is Yesodic magic on a gigantic scale.
     The  image  manipulators gain most of their power  from  the
mass-media.  The  mass-media correspond to two  sephiroth:  as  a
medium of communication they belong in Hod,  but as a  foundation
for our perception of reality they belong in Yesod. Nowadays most
people form their model of what the world (in the large) is  like
via the media.  There are a few individuals who travel the  world
sufficiently  to have a model based on personal  experience,  but
for most people their model of what most of the world is like  is
formed by newspapers,  radio and television;  that is,  the media
have become an extended (if inaccurate) instrument of perception.
Like  our  "normal"  means of perception  the  media  are  highly
selective in the variety and content of information provided, and
they  can be used by advertising agencies and other  manipulative
individuals to create foundations for new collective realities.
     While on the subject of changing perception to assemble  new
realities,  the following quote by "Don Juan" [4] has a definite
Kabbalistic flavour:

     "The next truth is that perception takes place," he went on,
     "because  there  is  in  each of  us  an  agent  called  the
     assemblage   point  that  selects  internal   and   external
     emanations for alignment.  The particular alignment that  we
     perceive  as  the world is the product of  a  specific  spot
     where our assemblage point is located on our cocoon."

One of the titles of Yesod is "The Receptacle of the Emanations",
and  its function is precisely as described above - Yesod is  the
assemblage  point which assembles the emanations of the  internal
and the external.
     In  addition  to the  deliberate,  magical  manipulation  of
foundations, there are other important areas of magic relevant to
Yesod.  Raw, innate psychism is an ability which tends to improve
as more attention is devoted to creative visualisation,  focussed
meditation (on Tarot cards for example),  dreams (e.g.  keeping a
dream  diary),   and  divination.   Divination  is  an  important
technique  to  practice even if you feel you are terrible  at  it
(and  especially  if  you  think  it  is  nonsense),  because  it
reinforces  the  idea  that it is permissible  to  "let  go"  and
intuite  meanings into any pattern.  Many people have  difficulty
doing  this,  feeling  perhaps  that they will  be  swamped  with
unreason (recalling Freud's fear, expressed to Jung, of needing a
bulwark  against the "black mud of occultism"),  when in  reality
their minds are swamped with reason and could use a holiday.  Any
divination system can be used,  but systems which emphasise  pure
intuition are best (e.g.  Tarot,  runes,  tea-leaves,  flights of
birds,  patterns on the wallpaper,  smoke. I heard of a Kabbalist
who  threw a cushion into the air and carried out  divination  on
the  basis  of the number of pieces of foam stuffing  which  fell
out).  Because  Yesod  is a kind of aethyric  reflection  of  the
physical world,  the image of and precursor to  reality,  mirrors
are an important tool for Yesod magic.  Quartz crystals are  also
used,   probably  because  of  the  use  of  crystal  balls   for
divination,  but also because quartz crystal and amethyst have  a
peculiarly  Yesodic quality in their own right.  The average  New
Age shop filled with crystals, Tarot cards, silver jewelry (lunar
association),  perfumes, dreamy music, and all the glitz, glamour
and  glitter  of a daemonic magpie's nest,  is like a  temple  to
Yesod.  Mirrors  and  crystals are used passively  as  focii  for
receptivity, but they can also be used actively for certain kinds
of  aethyric magic - there is an interesting book on  making  and
using magic mirrors which builds on the kind of elemental magical
work carried out in Malkuth [5].
     Yesod  has  an  important  correspondence  with  the  sexual
organs. The correspondence occurs in three ways. The first way is
that when the Tree of Life is placed over the human  body,  Yesod
is positioned over the genitals. The author of the Zohar is quite
explicit about "the remaining members of the  Microprosopus",  to
the  extent that the relevant paragraphs in Mather's  translation
of "The Lesser Holy Assembly" remain in Latin to avoid  offending
Victorian sensibilities.
     The  second  association of Yesod with the  genitals  arises
from  the  union  of the Microprosopus and  his  Bride.  This  is
another recurring theme in Kabbalah, and the symbolism is complex
and  refers  to several distinct  ideas,  from  the  relationship
between  man and wife to an internal process within the  body  of
God: e.g [6].

     "When  the  Male  is  joined  with  the  Female,  they  both
     constitute one complete body,  and all the Universe is in  a
     state of happiness, because all things receive blessing from
     their perfect body. And this is an Arcanum."

or, referring to the Bride:

     "And she is mitigated,  and receiveth blessing in that place
     which is called the Holy of Holies below."

or, referring to the "member":

     "And  that  which floweth down into that place where  it  is
     congregated,  and  which is emitted through that  most  holy
     Yesod,  Foundation,  is entirely white,  and therefore is it
     called Chesed.
     Thence  Chesed entereth into the Holy of Holies;  as  it  is
     written Ps.  cxxxiii.  3 'For there Tetragrammaton commanded
     the blessing, even life for evermore.'"

It  is  not difficult to read a great deal into  paragraphs  like
this,  and there are many more in a similar vein.  Suffice to say
that  the  Microprosopus  is often identified  with  the  sephira
Tiphereth,  the  Bride is the sephira Malkuth,  and the point  of
union between them is obviously Yesod.
     The  third and more abstract association between  Yesod  and
the  sexual  organs  arises because  the  sexual  organs  are  a
mechanism  for perpetuating the *form* of a living  organism.  In
order to get close to what is happening in sexual reproduction it
is worth asking the question "What is a computer program?". Well,
a  computer program indisputably begins as an idea;  it is not  a
material  thing.  It can be written down in various ways;  as  an
abstract  specification  in set theoretic notation akin  to  pure
mathematics,  or  as  a  set of  recursive  functions  in  lambda
calculus;  it  could be written in several different  high  level
languages - Pascal,  C,  Prolog,  LISP, ADA, ML etc. Are they all
they same program? Computer scientists wrestle with this problem:
can we show that two different programs written in two  different
languages  are  in some sense functionally  identical?  It  isn't
trivial  to do this because it asks fundamental  questions  about
language  (any  language)  and meaning,  but it  is  possible  in
limited  cases  to  produce  two  apparently  different  programs
written   in  different  languages  and  assert  that  they   are
identical.   Whatever   the  program  is,   it  seems  to   exist
independently of any particular language,  so what is the program
and  where is it?  Let us ignore that chestnut and go on  to  the
next  level.  Suppose we write the program down.  We could do  it
with  a pencil.  We could punch holes in paper.  We  could  plant
trees in a pattern in a field.  We can line up magnetic  domains.
We can burn holes in metal foil.  I could have it tattooed on  my
back. We can transform it into radically different forms (that is
what compilers and assemblers do). It obviously isn't tied to any
physical representation either.  What about the computer it  runs
on?  Well,  it  could be a conventional one made with CMOS  chips
etc.....but  aren't there a lot of different kinds and  makes  of
computer, and they can all run the same program. It is also quite
practical  to build computers which *don't* use electrons  -  you
could use mechanics or fluids or ball bearings - all you need  to
do  is  produce  something with the  functionality  of  a  Turing
machine, and that isn't hard. So not only is the program not tied
to any particular physical representation,  but the same goes for
the  computer itself,  and what we are left with is two puffs  of
smoke.  On another level this is crazy;  computers are real, they
do  real things in the real world,  and the programs  which  make
them work are obviously real too....aren't they?
     Now apply the same kind of scrutiny to living organisms, and
the mechanism of reproduction. Take a good look at nucleic acids,
enzymes,  proteins etc., and ask the same kind of questions. I am
not  implying  that  life is a sort of program,  but  what  I  am
suggesting is that if you try to get close to what constitutes  a
living  organism  you  end up with another puff of  smoke  and  a
handful  of  atoms which could just as well be  ball-bearings  or
fluids  or....The thing that is being perpetuated through  sexual
reproduction is something quite abstract and immaterial; it is an
abstract  form preserved and encoded in a particular  pattern  of
chemicals,  and if I was asked which was more real, the transient
collection  of chemicals used,  or the abstract  form  itself,  I
would answer "the form". But then, I am a programmer, and I would
say that.
     I   find  it  astonishing  that  there  are  any   hard-core
materialists left in the world.  All the important stuff seems to
exist at the level of puffs of smoke,  what Kabbalists call form.
Roger Penrose,  one of the most eminent mathematicians living has
this to say [7]:

     "I  have made no secret of the fact that my  sympathies  lie
     strongly  with the Platonic view that mathematical truth  is
     absolute,  external and eternal,  and not based on  man-made
     criteria;  and  that  mathematical objects have  a  timeless
     existence of their own,  not dependent on human society  nor
     on particular physical objects."

"Ah  Ha!"  cry  the  materialists,   "At  least  the  atoms   are
real." Well,  they  are until you start pulling them  apart  with
tweezers and end up with a heap of equations which turn out to be
the linguistic expression of an idea. As Einstein said, "The most
incomprehensible   thing   about  the  world  is   that   it   is
comprehensible",  that  is,  capable of being described  in  some
linguistic form.
     I am not trying to convince anyone of the "rightness" of the
Kabbalistic  viewpoint.  What I am trying to do is show that  the
process  whereby  form is impressed on matter  (the  relationship
between  Yesod  and Malkuth) is not  arcane, theosophical  mumbo-
jumbo;  it is an issue which is alive and kicking, and the closer
we  get  to  "real things" (and that  certainly  includes  living
organisms),  the better the Kabbalistic model (that form precedes
manifestation, that there is a well-defined process of form-ation
with the "real world" as an outcome) looks.

The  illusion of Yesod is security,  the kind of  security  which
forms the foundation of our personal existence in the world. On a
superficial level our security is built out of  relationships,  a
source of income, a place to live, a vocation, personal power and
influence etc,  but at a deeper level the foundation of  personal
identity  is  built  on a series  of  accidents,  encounters  and
influences  which  create the illusion of who  we  are,  what  we
believe  in,  and  what we stand for.  There is  a  warm,  secure
feeling  of knowing what is right and wrong,  of doing the  right
thing,  of living a worthwhile life in the service of  worthwhile
causes,  of having a uniquely privileged vantage point from which
to  survey  the problems of life (with all  the  intolerance  and
incomprehension of other people which accompanies this  insight),
and conversely there are feelings of despair, depression, loss of
identity,  and  existential  terror  when a crack  forms  in  the
illusion,  and  reality shows through - Castaneda calls  it  "the
crack in the world".  The smug,  self-perpetuating illusion which
masquerades  as  personal identity at the level of Yesod  is  the
most astoundingly difficult thing to shift or destroy.  It fights
back  with  all  the  resources  of  the  personality,   it  will
enthusiastically embrace any ally which will help to shore up its
defenses   -  religious,   political  or   scientific   ideology;
psychological,   sociological,   metaphysical  and   theosophical
claptrap (e.g.  Kabbalah); the law and popular morality; in fact,
any  beliefs  which  give it the power to  retain  its  identity,
uniqueness and integrity.  Because this parasite of the soul uses
religion (and its esoteric offshoots) to sustain itself they have
little  or  no  power  over it and become a  major  part  of  the
problem.
     There  are  various ways of overcoming this  personal  demon
(Carroll [8],  in an essay on the subject,  calls it  Choronzon),
and the two I know best are the cataclysmic and the abrasive. The
first method involves a shock so extreme that it is impossible to
be  the  same person again,  and if enough preparation  has  gone
before  then it is possible to use the shock to rebuild  oneself.
In  some  cases this doesn't happen;  I have  noticed  that  many
people  with  very rigid religious beliefs  talk  readily   about
having  suffered  traumatic experiences,  and the  phenomenon  of
hysterical conversion among soldiers suffering from war  neuroses
is well known.  The other method,  the abrasive,  is to wear away
the demon of self-importance,  to grind it into nothing by  doing
(for  example) something for someone else for which one  receives
no thanks, praise, reward, or recognition. The task has to be big
enough  and awful enough to become a demon in its own  right  and
induce  all  the  correct feelings of compulsion (I  have  to  do
this),  helplessness (I'll never make it),   indignation  (what's
the point,  it's not my problem anyway),  rebellion (I  won't,  I
won't, not anymore), more compulsion (I can't give up), self-pity
(how  did  I get into this?),  exhaustion (Oh  No!  Not  again!),
despair  (I can't go on),  and finally a kind of submission  when
one's  demon hasn't the energy to put up a struggle any more  and
simply gives up.  The woman who taught me Kabbalah used both  the
cataclysmic  and  the  abrasive  methods  on  her  students  with
malicious  glee  -  I will discuss this in  more  detail  in  the
section on Tiphereth.
     The virtue of Yesod is independence, the ability to make our
own foundations,  to continually rebuild ourselves, to reject the
security  of comfortable illusions and confront  reality  without
blinking.
     The vice of Yesod is idleness.  This can be contrasted  with
the  inertia of Malkuth.  A stone is inert because it  lacks  the
capacity to change,  but in most circumstances people can  change
and can't be bothered.  At least,  not today. Yesod has a dreamy,
illusory, comfortable, *seductive* quality, as in the Isle of the
Lotus  Eaters - how else could we live as if death  and  personal
annihilation only happened to other people?
     The  Qlippothic aspect of Yesod occurs when foundations  are
rotten  and  disintegrating and only the  superficial  appearance
remains  unchanged - Dorian Gray springs to mind,  or cases where
the  brain is damaged and the body remains and carries out  basic
instinctive  functions,  but the person is dead as far  as  other
people are concerned.  Organisations are just as prone to this as
people.

[1] A.E.  Powell,  "The Etheric Double",  Theosophical Publishing
                    House, 1925

[2] A.E.  Powell,  "The Astral Body",  Theosophical Publishing
                    House, 1927

[3] "It's the Image Men We Answer To",  The Sunday  Times,  6th.
                                        Jan 1991

[4] Castenada, Carlos, "The Fire from Within", Black Swan, 1985.

[5] N.  R.  Clough, "How to Make and Use Magic Mirrors", Aquarian
                     1977

[6] S.L.  Mathers, "The Kabbalah Unveiled", Routledge & Kegan Paul
                    1981

[7] Roger Penrose,  "The Emperor's New Mind",  Oxford  University
                     Press 1989

[8] Peter J. Carroll, "Psychonaut", Samuel Weiser 1987.