The Mystic Path - Path 27
8:18 AM
My beloved and I have been on a 15 month long Pathworking with The Qabalah Tree of Life. You can read what that's all about here. In the meantime, I have been documenting our work as we explore the Paths.
It is important to know these are brief notes. A true understanding of each Path begs a vital understanding of the Sephiroth connecting them. Further research on your own is highly recommended.
It is important to know these are brief notes. A true understanding of each Path begs a vital understanding of the Sephiroth connecting them. Further research on your own is highly recommended.
We have done Path 28, now for Path 27 .....
The Tower. I had a lot of trepidation working up toward this Path. Was this anxiety well-deserved or over-kill? Maybe a little of both. There is something to be said for this Path being the first lateral Path directly connecting the two Pillars of Manifestation. It is the first of only three Paths that do this, so the energies are extremely powerful, potent, and can be jarring for the unprepared. "These lateral paths can be more difficult to deal with in terms of effects on the physical, this is because the side spheres are polarized pairs of reciprocal energy, and you are liable to be bounced between them if you are not careful." (Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, The Shining Paths, p. 65)
This Path completes our Pathworking within the Astral Triad before moving onto the Ethical Triad of the Tree of Life. Again, it is important to understand the distinctions between these two Triads in terms of the Self and Universe: the Ethical Triad being the place where the Individuality resides and the Astral Triad home to the Personality. As I quoted before from the posting on the last Path, from our lineage High Priestess Dion Fortune: "The four Sephiroth below Tiphareth represent the personality or lower self; the four Sephiroth above Tiphareth are the Individuality , or higher self; and Kether is the Divine Spark, or nucleus of manifestation." (The Mystical Qabalah, p. 176) That being said, this Path "brings to life circumstances that offer the chance to survey our entire personality." (Ted Andrews, Pathworking, p. 153)
Thus The Tower card is the gateway for Path 27. It is easy to associate this Trump with the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. However, Gareth Knight has much written on this subject...it is not the traditional fundamental notions that causes man's Tower (Personality) to collapse and shatter from the lightening (the Lightening Flash/Flaming Sword/Initiation), which is that man seeks to become god-like. To become the gods we are is our birthright; that is Creator's design. In truth it is man's Personality retaining its separation, building the Tower prematurely, or wrongly, that causes its collapse (its rise denoting our rise from the Astral Triad to the Ethical, and then Supernal). "The story of Babel in connection with this Path and Tarot Trump then is a reminder to build one's foundations true--(on the rock of Faith, to quote another parable)--and true Faith at that, certainly not the prideful Faith of the Pharisee which sets one up supposedly as better than other men." (Gareth Knight, Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol II, p. 62)
What is experienced throughout the Astral Triad, if the Pathworking is authentic and true, is an alchemical change which transmutes the Personality in preparation for the Individuality (Higher Self) to become the driving force in one's life. "The aim is," again clarified by Gareth Knight, "a higher synthesis, so the Personality is sacrificed , that is, its interests are no longer paramount and its forces are turned in upon itself in a kind of 'distillation' representing the early initiatory process which results in an egg, the germ of contact with the Individuality. This egg is hatched out, that is, the Individuality takes over, at first crudely and in an unbalanced way, but eventually in harmonious control of its lower vehicles." (p.65) This is alchemy in its purest form. Prime examples to more deeply understand this 'distillation' process can be read in the 15th Century text The Chymical Wedding of Chistian Rosenkreutz or Alejandro Jodorwsky's surrealist film The Holy Mountain.
Here we can then begin to understand the Hebrew letter for this Path, Peh, the Mouth. For the mouth both gives and receives, a perfect gateway between the Astral and Ethical Triads. The mouth takes in nourishment and utters speech. In terms of the Personality, and its rightful utilization in the Great Work, the Mouth teaches that "the purpose of incarnation is the seeking of the food of experience in Form for the benefit of the Individuality and the Spirit [as well as denoting the Creative Word of God that] has reverberated down to the astro-mental levels of being and formed a vehicle for itself--the Personality. It is through this Personality that the Word is uttered in the densest level of existence, Malkuth, the physical world." (Knight, p.60-61)
Ted Andrews relays that this Path will "stimulate a stronger desire to succeed." (p.154) Our desire to receive the Lightening Flash of Initiation will surely knock us on our asses, but will our Individuality (Higher Self) reign supreme and continue onward?
"The lightening is not meant to kill or maim, but to scour out the non workable parts of ourselves, a cleansing process that can be painful if we resist it. This is what makes the path a tricky, but vitally important one on the Tree. To resist is painful, but if we accept the lesson of the lightening flash we may end up bruised, but better off in many ways. Two clues to help you further in your study: any building needs a strong foundation, and the title Daughter of the Reconcilers for the tarot card has a lot to do with a balanced Personality. (Ashrcoft-Nowicki, p. 66-67)
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