This is it. A collection of crazy souls, including my beloved and I, are now preparing to close a two-year long initiatory Pathworking within
the Qabalah Tree of Life. You can read what that means here. In the meantime, I have been documenting our work as we explore the Paths.
And now here we are, at the end. We have just finished Path 2: Chokmah, now for Path 1: Kether . . .
This may be the end of our Pathworking, but it is the beginning of existence. No human can ever truly know God. In reality, God (the Source) resides in the Unmanifest, which is a whole other realm of esoterica that requires a whole other level of initiation. Kether is the first point of reality in which the Unmanifest began the slightest notion of becoming Manifest. Here, there is not yet any division of pairs or opposites which begets the duality we experience of existence. In Kether, all is still One. All is Light, and nothing more. Our minds, in actuality, cannot comprehend Kether in its purest form, for our minds operate within duality.
As Dion Fortune says, "We cannot define Kether; we can only indicate it." (The Mystical Qabalah, p. 103)
Through Kether, all of the other Sephiroth come into being. All are contained within the One. "The number one, which encloses within itself the remaining nine digits of the decimal scale, was described by Pythagoras as the undividable monad. It cannot be divided, yet it can be defined. By the process of reflection (1+1=2, 1+2=3, etc.), the monad defines and generates all the other numbers. Kether is the starting point; it is the moment that the universe as we know it was conceived. Kether is the initial spark or first breath of the divine." (Chic & Sandra Cicero, A Garden of Pomegranates, p. 475)
Another way to understand it, and its relationship to the other Sephiroth is as a fount: "Let us conceive of Kether, then, as a fountain which fills its basin, and the overflow therefrom feeds another fountain, which in its turn fills its basin and overflows. The Unmanifest for ever flows under pressure into Kether, and there comes a time when evolution has gone as far as it can in the extreme simplicity of the form of existence of the First Manifest. All possible combinations have been formed, and they have undergone all possible permutations." (Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah, p. 37)
Kether, meaning "Crown." implies the Crown of Creation. The is above the head and not a part of it. Therefore, Kether (spilling over from the Unmanifest) is never fully a part of the knowable universe. In this, paradoxically (as all esoteric work is), we see the true colors of the Pathworking process.
According to Gareth Knight, Kether "is the Primal Glory, because no created being can attain to its essence. Were any created being to attain to its essence, which according to the Spiritual Experience is Union with God, it would by that very fact become uncreate." Yet this is the goal of all evolution as the Virtue of Kether reveals, Attainment, Completion of the Great Work. The Great Work, a term often met with in magical and alchemical writings, is the great work of life itself, the death of free-moving spirit into form and its subsequent regeneration." (A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol. I, p. 68)
This has the ambition of The Mystic Path all along, of which my beloved and I set out to create years ago: using our own personal shamanic practices, along with the Holy Qabalah of the Western Mystery Tradition, to achieve a state of connection with God. Pure and simple. There is no other motive. We are not trying to "get" anything out of this, no money, no abundance, no happiness. We only wanted, from the very beginning, a relationship with the Divine. In other words, Attainment.
If ever there was one thing to take with us, to take with you, in the entire adventure Pathworking with the Tree of Life has to offer, it is one statement offered by Dion Fortune as the definitive mantra to understanding Kether, but also the entire make-up of the Tree of Life, and therefore the Universe and ourselves, at the same time. It is the one statement, the ancients say, is all that is ever needed to understand the Tree. Meditation upon it is enough to last one, if not several, lifetime. Remember always, as a beginner, as an Initiate, always reborn in the Light of the first and only I AM.
"Kether is the Malkuth of the Umanifest." (The Mystical Qabalah, p. 29)
This has been an interesting journey, to say the least. It will take a while for most of us to process, I am sure. Until then . . .
And now here we are, at the end. We have just finished Path 2: Chokmah, now for Path 1: Kether . . .
GOD NAME: Eheieh (Aleph, Heh, Yod, Heh) “I AM”
ARCHANGEL: Metatron. Angel of the Presence.
COLOR:
White, sometimes Gold
SYMBOL:
Point, or point within a circle.
VIRTUE:
Attainment. Completion of the Great Work.
TAROT ATTRIBUTION: The four Aces.
This may be the end of our Pathworking, but it is the beginning of existence. No human can ever truly know God. In reality, God (the Source) resides in the Unmanifest, which is a whole other realm of esoterica that requires a whole other level of initiation. Kether is the first point of reality in which the Unmanifest began the slightest notion of becoming Manifest. Here, there is not yet any division of pairs or opposites which begets the duality we experience of existence. In Kether, all is still One. All is Light, and nothing more. Our minds, in actuality, cannot comprehend Kether in its purest form, for our minds operate within duality.
As Dion Fortune says, "We cannot define Kether; we can only indicate it." (The Mystical Qabalah, p. 103)
Through Kether, all of the other Sephiroth come into being. All are contained within the One. "The number one, which encloses within itself the remaining nine digits of the decimal scale, was described by Pythagoras as the undividable monad. It cannot be divided, yet it can be defined. By the process of reflection (1+1=2, 1+2=3, etc.), the monad defines and generates all the other numbers. Kether is the starting point; it is the moment that the universe as we know it was conceived. Kether is the initial spark or first breath of the divine." (Chic & Sandra Cicero, A Garden of Pomegranates, p. 475)
Another way to understand it, and its relationship to the other Sephiroth is as a fount: "Let us conceive of Kether, then, as a fountain which fills its basin, and the overflow therefrom feeds another fountain, which in its turn fills its basin and overflows. The Unmanifest for ever flows under pressure into Kether, and there comes a time when evolution has gone as far as it can in the extreme simplicity of the form of existence of the First Manifest. All possible combinations have been formed, and they have undergone all possible permutations." (Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah, p. 37)
Kether, meaning "Crown." implies the Crown of Creation. The is above the head and not a part of it. Therefore, Kether (spilling over from the Unmanifest) is never fully a part of the knowable universe. In this, paradoxically (as all esoteric work is), we see the true colors of the Pathworking process.
According to Gareth Knight, Kether "is the Primal Glory, because no created being can attain to its essence. Were any created being to attain to its essence, which according to the Spiritual Experience is Union with God, it would by that very fact become uncreate." Yet this is the goal of all evolution as the Virtue of Kether reveals, Attainment, Completion of the Great Work. The Great Work, a term often met with in magical and alchemical writings, is the great work of life itself, the death of free-moving spirit into form and its subsequent regeneration." (A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol. I, p. 68)
This has the ambition of The Mystic Path all along, of which my beloved and I set out to create years ago: using our own personal shamanic practices, along with the Holy Qabalah of the Western Mystery Tradition, to achieve a state of connection with God. Pure and simple. There is no other motive. We are not trying to "get" anything out of this, no money, no abundance, no happiness. We only wanted, from the very beginning, a relationship with the Divine. In other words, Attainment.
If ever there was one thing to take with us, to take with you, in the entire adventure Pathworking with the Tree of Life has to offer, it is one statement offered by Dion Fortune as the definitive mantra to understanding Kether, but also the entire make-up of the Tree of Life, and therefore the Universe and ourselves, at the same time. It is the one statement, the ancients say, is all that is ever needed to understand the Tree. Meditation upon it is enough to last one, if not several, lifetime. Remember always, as a beginner, as an Initiate, always reborn in the Light of the first and only I AM.
"Kether is the Malkuth of the Umanifest." (The Mystical Qabalah, p. 29)
This has been an interesting journey, to say the least. It will take a while for most of us to process, I am sure. Until then . . .
