THE MYSTIC PATH - PATH 7: NETZACH
6:42 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. Further research on your own is highly recommended.
It is important to know these are brief notes. Further research on your own is highly recommended.
The last 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.
The seventh Sephira on the Tree of Life, Netzach, means "Victory." This victory is the victory of achievement, and one can trace the seven days it took God to create the world in Genesis to Netzach as the seventh Sephira. Of course, Netzach cannot accurately be understood without its relationship to the Sephiroth surrounding it, specifically Hod. Where Netzach sits at the base of the Pillar of Mercy (Force) and Hod sits and the base of the Pillar of Severity (Form). We must understand its function within the Astral Triad, the lowest level of manifestation in Creation: "Netzach represents the imagination, feelings, and emotions of the mind; Hod represents the thoughts of the mind. Yesod, which is the union of Netzach and Hod, represents desires that come into being by way of the activity of the mind." (Tau Malachi, Gnosis of the Cosmic Christ, p. 238) Thus, from Yesod, then the activities of the mind become manifest in Malkuth.
Aphrodite, Venus, is the main god-form of Netzach, the goddess of Love. But, of course, according to the great Dion Fortune, "in the Greek concept of life, Love embraced much more than the relationship between the sexes, it included the comradeship of fighting men and the relationship of teacher and pupil [or the] art of meeting the needs of the human soul for etheric and mental interchange of magnetism . . ." (The Mystical Qabalah, p.212-213) In essence, and especially in the Cult of Aphrodite, the management of polarities is essential to the function of the Sephira. It is through this management that that achievement of victory is experienced, in both force and form.
Also the victory of Netzach is "the realization of the beauty and life-force that the divine has placed in all manifested things. It is the love of nature in all her aspects," according to Chic and Sandra Cicero. Therefore, "the seventh sphere is the realm of the passions that drive humans to the creative arts." (A Garden of Pomegranates, p.300) Where connection with Hod is sought through philosophy and mathematics, connection with Netzach can be attained through the arts: painting, music, dance, any activity which taps one into the instinctual aspects of being. The realm of inspiration is where Netzach bears its fruit.
In this light, the victory of Netzach is also revealed as the valor and resolve needed in "the battle against indifference and hostility that almost every great creative artist has to face before his work is first accepted and then drawn into the bulk of established academicism which later artists in turn have to fight against. [...] The pioneer is always resented whether he be scientist, doctor or occultist." (Gareth Knight, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol.I, p.161)
But, to effectively make use of Netzach, and what was refined within the Cult of Aphrodite, one must truly understand the inner workings of what Dion Fortune calls the "Circuit of Force" upon the Tree of Life. So, to properly end this posting on Netzach, I must provide a sufficient excerpt from Fortune's words in order to meditate upon:
" . . . in the microcosmic Tree there is a flow down and up the positive and negative aspects of our own subjective levels of consciousness, whereby the spirit inspires mind [Tiphareth to Netzach], and mind directs emotions [Netzach to Hod], and the emotions form the etheric double [Hod to Yesod], and the etheric double moulds the physical vehicle [Yesod to Malkuth], which is the "earth" of the circuit.
" . . . there is a flow and return between each 'body' or level of consciousness and its corresponding aspect in the macrocosm just as there is an intake and output on the level of Malkuth whereby food and water received into the body as nutriment and rejected as excreta, which is the food of the vegetable kingdom under the polite name of manure - so is there an intake and output between the etheric double and the astral light, and between the astral body and the mind side of nature, and so on up the planes [...] The essence of the Magical Qabalah, which is the practical application of the Tree of Life, is to develop these magnetic circuits of the different levels, and so strengthen and reinforce the soul." (The Mystical Qabalah, p.214)
GOD NAME: Jehovah Tzabaoth. The Lord of Hosts.
ARCHANGEL: Haneal. Grace of God.
COLOR:
Emerald, olive.
SYMBOL:
Lamp and girdle. Rose.
VIRTUE:
Unselfishness.
TAROT ATTRIBUTION: The four Sevens.
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