The Mystic Path - Path 25
7:10 AM
Me and some others are currently engaged in an almost two-year initiatory 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 26, now for Path 25 .....
Part 2 of "The Dark Night of the Soul" as it is called. We begin to reach the a phase where the Paths defy description the closer and closer we get to Kether. According to mystic Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki, the reason is that the "closer to source, the less there is to say about that source, and simplicity is something that modern man finds hard to cope with, so the higher paths have a much deeper effect on us." (The Shining Paths, p. 81) The symbols become all that more important. Although remember the aim of a symbol is its own destruction, they cannot be taken literally; what matters is behind the symbol. We learned that lesson most with The Devil.
Where Path 26 tested us on illusions, this path is a test of temptation. Devotion to one's faith is most important here, "for those whose courage or Faith fail them will curry back to the apparent security of consciousness in the lower worlds." (Gareth Knight, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol. II, p. 69) The story of Jesus being tempted in the dessert is a prime myth associated with Path 25, including all stories of visioning into the wilderness. To test one's faith and senses in exchange for a high connection with the upper worlds . . . those of us familiar with Native American shamanic vision questing will get the nuance. "By administering 'temptations,' the Creator strengthens the soul of the student so that it becomes a fit and resilient vessel for the divine life-force . . ." (Chic & Sandra Cicero, A Garden of Pomegranates, p.310)
The Hebrew letter samech means "prop" or "crutch," implying a support from the divine in the face of temptation. It should be noted this prop also forms a T (Tau) cross on the Tree of Life with Path 27 - The Tower (Hod - Netzach). This closely aligns this Path with Path 32, being as they both form the lower half of the Middle Pillar of Manifestation on the Tree. That being noted, samech the prop is at "once a life support and a means of death." (Ashcroft-Nowicki, p.81) This paradox is one of the more important ideas in occult training which must be understood.
" . . . the formula of continued life is death, or putrefaction." (Aleister Crowley, The Booth of Thoth, p. 103)
The arrow of Sagittarius can be taken in two ways. Pointing up, "having overcome the animal part of himself, man looks up at the stars and aims his thoughts like an arrow towards them , the next step would be the winged man of the Holy Creatures." (Ashcroft-Nowicki, p. 82) Pointing down, can "be considered as the Individuality marking out its prey, the Personality, and speeding an arrow into it." (Knight, Vol. II, p.76) It is either a precise ascension to the Divine, or the Divine's descent into the lower worlds. The arrow is the symbol of directed Will.
Aleister Crowley, of course, has his own interpretation. Changing the name of the card to "Art," instead of an angel the primary image is of an amalgamation of the king and queen who have been married from The Lovers card; they are fused into on androgynous being. "The original duality has been completely compensated," Crowley says. "In this card, therefore, is foreshadowed the final stage of the Great Work." (Crowley, p. 103)
We can see then why the name change, as this is the symbol of the True Art, the arrow piercing the rainbow. The rainbow is the Divine promise kept, as Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki conveys it is, "a bridge between God(s) and man, and a way between the worlds. Here it embraces all that and more, its place on the Tree, just behind Yesod and the thirtysecond path, and just before Tiphareth, its promise here is that we can and will win through the Dark Night." (p. 83)
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