2,000 Greater & Lesser Mysteries/2,000 Greater and Lesser Mysteries.iso/cabala/mys00219.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: 15th. 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.

Tiphereth
---------

     "Nothing is left to you at this moment but to burst out into
     a loud laugh"
                    From "The Spirit of Zen"

     The sephira Tiphereth lies at the heart of the Tree of Life,
and like Rome all paths lead to it.  Well, not all, but Tiphereth
has  a  path linking it to every sephira with  the  exception  of
Malkuth.  If  the Tree of Life is a map then the  sephira  titled
Tiphereth,  Beauty,  or Rachamin,  Compassion, clearly represents
something of central importance.  What does it represent? Can you
imagine in your mind's eye what it might be? Do you feel anything
within  you when you contemplate Tiphereth?  If asked  could  you
define  what it stands for?  Well,  if you can do any or  all  of
these things you are almost certainly barking up the wrong  Tree.
As Alan Watts comments [1]:

     "The method of Zen is to baffle,  excite, puzzle and exhaust
     the intellect until it is realised that intellection is only
     thinking  *about*;  it  will  provoke,  irritate  and  again
     exhaust  the emotions until it is realised that  emotion  is
     only  feeling  *about*,  and then  it  contrives,  when  the
     disciple  has been brought to an intellectual and  emotional
     impasse,  to  bridge the gap between second-hand  conceptual
     contact with reality, and first-hand experience."

The  sephira  Tiphereth presents the student of Kabbalah  with  a
conundrum. Whatever you say it is, it isn't; whatever you imagine
it to be it isn't; whatever you feel it might be, it isn't; it is
an empty room. There is nothing there. The modes of consciousness
appropriate  to  Hod,  Yesod  and Netzach  respectively  are  not
appropriate to something which is clearly and unambiguously shown
on the Tree as being distinct from all three.  So what is it? The
student  is told that the Virtue of Tiphereth is Devotion to  the
Great  Work.  What  is this "Great Work"?  The  student  is  told
solemnly that in order to find the answer he or she should obtain
the Spiritual Experience of Tiphereth, which is the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.  So the student runs off
and  duely reports (after some work in the library perhaps)  that
the Great Work is the raising of a human being in every aspect to
perfection.  Or  it is the saving of the planet  from  industrial
pollution.  Or it is the retrieval and perpetuation of knowledge,
or  perhaps  it  is the spiritual  redemption  of  humanity.  The
student  then burns enough frankincense to pay off  the  Somalian
national  debt,  records  endless  conversations  with  the  Holy
Guardian  Angel  in the magical record,  and  impresses  all  and
sundry  with  an unbending commitment to  the  Great  Work.  This
enthusiasm,  commitment,  personal  sacrifice and sense of  moral
purpose  leads  to the development of a special kind  of  person:
pious,  preaching,  judgemental,  a humble servant of the highest
powers  with a blind spot of intolerance.  Those who inhabit  the
vicinity  of such moral incandescence may have reason  to  recall
that the Vice of Tiphereth is self-importance and pride.
     A  student  can  spend  years  running  around  in  circles,
bringing  to  the  planet  the  benefits  of  advanced  spiritual
consciousness,  and this seems to be a necessary exercise. People
need  to sweat various personal obsessions out of their  systems,
and  the empty room of Tiphereth is an excellent set on which  to
act out a personal drama. If the devotion to the Work is genuine,
and  if  Tiphereth  and  the HGA are  invoked  with  passion  and
determination, then sooner or later the hand of fate lends a hand
and the student has the shit knocked out in a big way. An attempt
to  penetrate  the nature of Tiphereth does seem to  bring  about
that  state  which the Greeks  called  "hubris",  an  overweening
arrogance,   self-importance  and  pride,  until  eventually  the
inevitable  happens  and one's life comes  crashing  down  around
one's ears.  The resulting mess varies from person to person;  in
some  people every idea about what is important is turned  upside
down,   while  in  others  an  emotional  attachment  to  habits,
lifestyle, possessions or relationships turns to dust. The daemon
of the false self is dealt a massive blow and sent  reeling,  and
in that moment there is a chance for real change and the  dawning
of the golden sun of Tiphereth.
     This  is how I interpret the word "initiation":  there is  a
state  of  being represented by the sephirah Tiphereth  which  is
absolutely  distinct from what most people experience  as  normal
consciousness.  Once  attained  the change  is  irreversible  and
permanent;  it  causes  a  permanent change in the  way  life  is
experienced.  When it occurs it is recognised instantly for  what
it is...as if every cell in one's body shouted simultaneously "So
*that's*  all  there  is  to it!"  This  state  has  been  widely
documented  in  many parts of the world,  and  Alan  Watts'  book
(referenced  below) is as guarded and explicit on the subject  as
any worthwhile book is likely to be.

     The  symbolism  of  Tiphereth  is  three-fold:   a  king,  a
sacrificed   god,   and  a  child.   This  three-fold   symbolism
corresponds  to  Tiphereth's place on the extended  Tree  (to  be
explained  in  a later chapter),  where it appears as  Kether  of
Assiah, Tiphereth of Yetzirah, and Malkuth of Briah, and to these
three aspects correspond the king,  the sacrificed god,  and  the
child  respectively.  One interpretation of this symbolism is  as
follows:  if the kingdom is to be redeemed then the king (who  is
also  the son of God - see below) must be  sacrificed,  and  from
this sacrifice comes a rebirth as a child.  This is a metaphor of
initiation. It is also markedly Christian in symbolism, an aspect
many explicitly Christian Kabbalists have not failed to elaborate
upon,  but  it  would be a mistake to make too much  out  of  the
apparent Christian symbolism. The king, the child and the son are
synonyms  for  Tiphereth in the  earliest  Kabbalistic  documents
(e.g. the Zohar), and the introduction of divine kingship and the
sacrificed  god  into  modern Kabbalah owes a  lot  more  to  the
publication  of  "The Golden Bough" [2] in 1922 than it  does  to
Christianity.
     The  theme of death and rebirth is an important  element  in
many esoteric traditions,  and provides continuity between modern
Kabbalah  and  the  mystery  religions  and  initiations  of  the
Mediterranean  basin.  The initiatory rituals of the Golden  Dawn
[3],  an  organisation  which did much to  reawaken  interest  in
Kabbalah,  were  loosely inspired by the Eleusinian mysteries  of
Demeter  and  Persephone  - at least to extent  that  the  Temple
officers   were  named  after  the  principal  officers  of   the
Eleusinian mysteries.  The Golden Dawn Tiphereth initiation  was,
like most Golden Dawn rituals,  a witch's brew of symbolism,  but
it was strongly based on the mysteries of the crucifixion and the
resurrection - at one point the aspirant was actually lashed to a
cross - and took place in a symbolic reconstruction of the  vault
and  tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz.   The following  extract  [3]
gives the flavour of the thing:

     "Buried with that Light in a mystical death, rising again in
     a mystical resurrection,  cleansed and purified through  Him
     our Master, O Brother of the Cross and the Rose. Like Him, O
     Adepts  of  all  ages,  have ye toiled.  Like  Him  have  ye
     suffered  tribulation.  Poverty,  torture and death have  ye
     passed through.  They have been but the purification of  the
     Gold."

Gold is a Tiphereth symbol,  being the metal of Shemesh, the Sun,
which  also corresponds to Tiphereth.  Gold is incorruptible  and
symbolises  a  state of being which is not "base"  or  "corrupt";
again, it is a symbol of initiation, of a state of being compared
to which normal consciousness is corruptible dross.
     I do not wish to go any further into this kind of  symbolism
- there is an awful lot of it.  It is possible to write at  great
length  and succeed in doing nothing more than losing the  reader
in  a web of symbolism so dense and sticky that the  inner  state
one is pointing at becomes a sterile thing of words and  symbols.
I  wanted  to  provide an idea of how a large  amount  of  exotic
symbolism  has accreted around Tiphereth,  but that is  all.  The
state  indicated  by  Tiphereth  is  real  enough,   and  lashing
comfortably-off  middle-class  aspirants to a cross in  a  wooden
vault  at the local Masonic Hall and prattling on about  poverty,
torture and death is somewhat wide of the mark.
     In   the   traditional  Kabbalah  the   sephira   Tiphereth
corresponds to something called Zoar Anpin, the Microprosopus, or
Lesser Countenance. As might be expected, there is also something
called Arik Anpin, the Macroprosopus, or Greater Countenance, and
this  is  often used as a synonym for  the  sephira  Kether.  The
symbology  connected with the Greater and Lesser Countenances  is
extremely complex:  the "Greater Holy Assembly" [4],  one of  the
books  of  the Zohar,  is largely a detailed description  of  the
cranium, the eyes, the cheeks, and the hairs in the beard of both
the  Greater  and  Lesser Countenances.  In  a  crude  sense  the
Macroprosopus is God,  and the Microprosopus is man made in God's
image,   hence  the  symbolism,  but  this  is  too  simple.  The
Microprosopus is also the archetypal man Adam Kadmon,  a mystical
concept  which  should not be confused with a real  human  being.
Adam Kadmon is androgynous,  male and female,  Adam-and-Eve in  a
pre-manifest,  pre-Fall state of divine perfection. The symbology
of the Macroprosopus,  Microprosopus,  and Adam Kadmon appears to
exist independently of the concept of sephirothic emanation,  and
it  is  probably  fair to say that the  former  was  more  highly
developed during the Zoharic period of Kabbalah, while the latter
is  used almost exclusively at the present time - I have  yet  to
encounter   a  modern  Kabbalist  with  much  insight  into   the
thirteen parts of the beard of the Macroprosopus.
     Another rich set of symbols associated with Tiphereth  comes
from  the divine name of four letters YHVH,  usually  written  as
Jehovah or Yahweh. The letter Yod is associated with the supernal
father  Chokhmah,  and  the  letter He  is  associated  with  the
supernal mother Binah.  The letter Vov is associated with the son
of the mother and father,  and is both the Microprosopus and  the
sephira Tiphereth.  The final He is associated with the  daughter
(and bride of the son),  the sephira Malkuth.  Tiphereth is  thus
the "child" of Chokhmah and Binah,  and also "the son of God". In
Hebrew the letter Vov can represent the number 6, and in Kabbalah
this  refers to Chesed,  Gevurah,  Tiphereth,  Netzach,  Hod  and
Yesod,  the  six  sephiroth which correspond to states  of  human
consciousness and hence also to the Microprosopus. With a typical
Kabbalistic  flexibility they can also stand for the six days  of
Creation.
     The illusion of Tiphereth is Identification.  When a  person
is asked "what are you",  they will usually begin with statements
like  "I am a human being",  "I am a lorry driver",  "I  am  Fred
Bloggs",  "I  am five foot eleven".  If pressed further a  person
might begin to enumerate personal qualities and behaviours: "I am
trustworthy",   "I  lose  my  temper a  lot",  "I  am  afraid  of
heights",  "I love chessecake",  "I hate dogs".  It is  extremely
common for people to identify what they are with the totality  of
their beliefs and behaviours,  and they will defend the  sanctity
of  these beliefs and behaviours,  often to the death - a  person
might  have behaviours which make their life a misery  and  still
cling to them with a grip like a python.  This inability to stand
back and see behaviour or beliefs in an impersonal way produces a
peculiar  ego-centricity:  the  sense  of  personal  identity  is
founded  on  a set of beliefs and behaviours  which  are  largely
unconscious  (that  is,   a  person  may  be  unaware  of   being
grotesquely selfish, or pompous, or attention-getting) and at the
same time seem to be uniquely special and sacred.  When behaviour
and  beliefs  are unconscious and incorporated into  a  sense  of
identity it becomes impossible to make sense of other people.  If
I  am  unaware  that  I  regularly  slip  little  put-downs  into
my  conversation,  and Joe takes umbrage at my sense  of  humour,
then  rather  than change my behaviour (which is  unconscious)  I
interpret the result as "Joe doesn't have a sense of  humour;  he
needs  to  learn to laugh a little".  There are  many  behaviours
which  may seem innocuous to the person concerned but  which  are
irritating  or offensive to others,  and when the  injured  party
reacts  appropriately  it is impossible for me to make  sense  of
this reaction if my behaviour is unconscious and tightly bound to
my sense of identity.  Our sense of identity thus becomes a  kind
of   "Absolute"  against  which  everything  is   compared,   and
judgements about the world become absolute and almost  impossible
to change,  even when we realise intellectually the  subjectivity
of our position.  Referring to this projection of the unconscious
onto the world Jung [5] comments:

     "The effect of projection is to isolate the subject from his
     environment, since instead of a real relation to it there is
     now only an illusory one.  Projections change the world into
     one's unknown face."

In summary,  the illusion of Tiphereth is a false  identification
with  a  set  of  beliefs  or  behaviours.  It  can  also  be  an
identification  with  a  social  mask   or   Persona,   something
discussed in the section on Netzach.  So to return to the orginal
question:  "what are you?".  Is there an answer? If the answer is
to be something which is not an arbitrary collection of emphemera
then you are not your behaviours - behaviour can be changed;  you
are not your beliefs - beliefs can be changed;  you are not  your
role  in society - your role in society can change;  you are  not
your body - your body is continually changing.  Out of this comes
a sense of emptiness,  of hollowness.  The intellect attempts  to
solve the koan of koans but has no anchor to hold on to. Is there
no  centre to my being,  nothing which is *me*,  no axis  in  the
universe,  no  morality,  no  good,  no  evil?  Do I  live  in  a
meaningless,  arbitrary  universe where any belief is as good  as
any other, where any behaviour is acceptable so long as I can get
away  with  it?  This  sense of emptiness or  hollowness  is  the
Qlippoth or shell of Tiphereth,  Tiphereth as the Empty Room with
Nothing  In  It.   Jung  [6]  provides  a  memorable  and  moving
description   of  how  his  father,   a   country   parson,   was
progressively consumed by this feeling of hollowness.  There  can
be few fates worse than to devote a life to the outward forms  of
religion  without ever feeling one touch of that which  gives  it
meaning.
     The  God  Name of Tiphereth is Jehovah Aloah  va  Daath,  or
simply  Aloah  va  Daath.  It is often translated  as  "God  made
manifest in the sphere of the mind".  The Archangel is  sometimes
given as Raphael,  but I prefer the attribution to Michael,  long
associated with solar fire. His name "Who is like God" reinforces
the  upper/lower relationship between Kether and  Tiphereth.  The
angel order is the Malachim, or Kings.

     To  cover  all  of  the  traditional  material  related   to
Tiphereth  is  to cover most of Kabbalah.  Tiphereth  is  at  the
centre  of  a complex of six sephiroth which  represent  a  human
being.   This  isn't  a  modern  interpretation,  an  "initiated"
interpretation of obscure medieval documents. Kabbalah has always
been  deeply  concerned  with the dynamics  of  the  relationship
between God and the Creation,  between God and a human being, and
the  descriptions of the Macroprosopus and Microprosopus  in  the
Zohar  are  a bold attempt to grasp something ineffable  using  a
language  built from the most immediate of metaphors,  the  human
body.  According to the Bible and Kabbalah,  a human being is  in
some sense a reflection of God,  and to the extent that  Kabbalah
is an outcome of genuine mystical experience it is a  description
of the dynamics of that relationship,  and more importantly it is
a  description of something *real*.  Even if you don't  like  the
look  of the word "God" (I don't) Kabbalah is trying  to  express
something important about a relatively inaccessible dimension  of
human  experience.  Tiphereth  is  a  reflection  of  Kether  and
represents  the "image of God",  the "God within",  whatever  you
take that to mean;  it is a symbol of  centrality,  balance,  and
above  all,  wholeness.  It  can  be  an  empty  room,  a  gaping
emptiness, or it can be the heart and blazing sun of the Tree. It
is the symbol of a human being who lives in full consciousness of
the  outer and the inner,  who denies neither the reality of  the
world nor the mystery of self-consciousness, and who attempts to
reconcile the needs of both in a harmonious balance.


[1]  Watts, Alan W., "The Spirit of Zen", John Murray 1936

[2]  Frazer,  J.G.,  "The  Golden  Bough,  A Study in  Magic  and
                      Religion", Macmillan 1976

[3]  Regardie,  I.,  "The Complete Golden Dawn System of  Magic",
                      Falcon 1984

[4]  Mathers, S.L., "The Kabbalah Unveiled", RKP 1981

[5]  Jung,  C.G., "Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the
                   Self", RKP 1974

[6]  Jung,  C.G., "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", RKP 1963