THE MYSTIC PATH - PATH 10: MALKUTH
7:27 PM
Me, my beloved, and a collection of crazy souls are currently engaged in an initiatory Pathworking with
the Qabalah Tree of Life. You can read what that is 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.
The next ten paths are actually not Paths per se, but represent the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life consists primarily of ten spheres (with an invisible 11th sphere) called Sephiroth. Gareth Knight defines the Sephiroth as the "stages in the emanations of the Spirit of God or man in its progress from noumenal existence to its building of a physical vehicle in the phenomenal world." (A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol. 1, p. 24) Imagine the Tree of Life as a process chart, each Sephirah a phase which establishes itself as its own sphere of intelligence, but then precedes the force of movement to the next phase. It starts from the top with from the Unmanifest and ends at the bottom, where Matter has manifested fully to the end result of evolution. We are starting at the bottom and following the path of Creation back to its Source.
Path 10 is Malkuth (MAL-KOOT) which means "Kingdom" in Hebrew. It resides at the bottom of the Tree and is the output of all manifestation, the end result of Creation. It is here, this world, this manifest reality all around us that we participate in in our immediate experience of consciousness. It is because of this that Malkuth, unlike any of the other Sephiroth, is broken out into the four primary elements: earth, water, air, and fire. "The Elements can be conceived of as forming a great Equal-armed Cross, which is a symbol of [...] Malkuth." (Knight, Vol. I, p. 200)
It is best to try to understand the Elements in terms of Malkuth's relationship with the Sephiroth Yesod, which is the astral realm that ensouls the world of matter with soul itself. Studying the elements in terms of the physical sciences can be helpful, but studying them in term of the esoteric sciences in a more accurate approach. One will then see the affiliation with a more quantum framework:
"Elemental Fire [...] is a kind of over-state of matter with which only the most advanced physics has any acquaintance. It might best be called a state of relationships rather than a thing in itself. Elemental Air might be described as a capacity to achieve these relationships, and as such, is the vital principle of physical life; for it is only in so far as matter has a capacity for organization that organic substance is possible. Elemental Water, the Water of the Wise, is just plain protoplasm; and Elemental Earth is inorganic matter." (Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qablah, p. 250-251).
Keeping us in contact with the tangible world around us, Malkuth is not typically associated with the spiritual life by one who is not versed in the Mysteries. One that is versed, however, knows that mastering the material world is the essential ingredient in living a true spiritual life. As a Sephiroth, Malkuth "is one of the most important of the whole Tree for it is the Gateway to all further spiritual development, and until the lessons of Malkuth are well and truly learnt, the paths of the higher spheres must be closed to us." (Knight, Vol. 1, p. 203)
Dion Fortune depicts Malkuth with this excellent analogy: "Malkuth is the nadir of evolution, but it should be looked upon, not as the ultimate depth of unspirituality, but as the marking-buoy in a yacht race. Any yacht that puts about on to the homeward course before it has rounded the marking-buoy is disqualified. And so it is with the soul. If we try to escape from the discipline of matter before we have mastered the lessons of matter, we are not advancing heaven-wards, but suffering from arrested development." (Fortune, p.252)
Malkuth (the Inferior Mother) has a distinction relationship with Binah (the Supreme Mother). Since Binah is the Sephiroth where Form first comes into being in the Supernal sense, and Malkuth is the end result of Form, we can then learn a lot about Malkuth by studying Binah, and vice versa. But the most advanced relationship is between Malkuth and Kether, the fount of all Creation. Once head of the Order of the Golden Dawn, MacGrethor Mathers once stated, "Kether is the Malkuth of the Unmanifest," and much can be revealed by meditating upon this maxim as a mantra to ingrain in one's consciousness. It carries the same tenet as "As Above, So Below," and teaches that "Spirit and Matter are as great poles in a vast cosmic battery, each has to be functional before current can flow [...] this further implies that all knowledge of spiritual realities can be gained from contemplation of the physical world--the reflection of the Vast Countenance of Kether." (Knight, 192)
Among its titles is the Gate of Death, for "the knowledge of our own existence raises questions about our non-existence. If we can live, we can also cease to live. The created can be uncreated. [...] The self-awareness that we acquire at Malkhut [sic] reamins with us when we shed our bodies with each incarnation. Each death is like a snake shedding its skin. We emerge renewed for another season of our life cycle." (Vivianne Crowley, A Woman's Kabbalah, p. 193, 194)
Below are the various attributions of Malkuth:
GOD NAME: Adonai Malekh. Adnoai ha Aretz (Lord of Earth).
ARCHANGEL: Sandalphon.
ORDER OF ANGELS: Ashim, the Souls of Fire.
COLOR:
Citrine, olive, russet, and black.
SYMBOL:
Equal-armed cross. Magic circle.
VIRTUE:
Discrimination.
TAROT ATTRIBUTION: The four Tens, and the four Pages/Princesses.
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