THE MYSTIC PATH - PATH 5: GEBURAH
7:08 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.
"There are many people who look upon anything destructive as evil," says Qabalist Gareth Knight, "but this is only because they take the short instead of the long view and consider any change as a threat to their security. Thus we have the old bogey, Fear, cropping up again." (A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol I., p.131)
This is the crux of the experience of the Sephirah of Geburah, which means "Severity." It is often the least understood Sephirah of the Tree of Life. Many people also attribute Geburah to being the "negative" Sephirah, and they are entirely wrong. Geburah, in reality, represents the center of the Pillar of Severity, the counter-balance to Chesed in the center of the Pillar of Mercy. The Universe, and thus the Truth of Beauty (Tiphareth) cannot exist without either of these poles.
Chic and Sandra Cicero provide an exemplary definition of Geburah, which also provides a description of its function: "The severity of Geburah is the purging and purifying fire of God that burns away all that is obsolete and useless. It is a holy and cleansing fire." (A Garden of Pomegranates, p.369) This works both ways: when descending the Tree the Universe is purifying forms in order for it to become manifest; when ascending the Tree the soul is purified of its dross before climbing to the higher spheres. The archangel of Geburah, Kamael (whose name literally means "burner/fire of God") represents a purifying presence as "Kamael acts to help remove obstructions to the flow of grace and to measure out grace so that we might receive God's blessing-power." (Tau Malachi, Gnosis of the Cosmic Christ, p. 186)
Geburah is a Sephirah of adjustment; another name for it is "Judgement." It is an assessment of the powers that exist which flow through it. Change is always necessary in the orientation of the soul, "and if that reorientation is denied or resisted then the product of the resultant conflict can be unpleasant in the extreme, resulting in bad cases in nervous or physical breakdown, insanity, or even death." (Knight, p. 132) Not even good intentions guarantee passage at this level of Pathworking; everyone will have to face these adjustments, whether alive and implementing the Great Work, or in the realms of Death as a soul traversing the planes.
Dion Fortune discusses Geburah in the sense of sacrifice, however that does not mean giving up something dear to you necessarily. "It means the deliberate and open-eyed choice of a greater good in preference to a lesser good, as the athlete prefers the fatigue of exercise to the case of the sloth that puts him out of condition." (The Mystical Qabalah, p.163) Breaking away from anything which separates one from the Great Work is the essence of the magical act, which really is just the transmutation of force. This is a place where conflict is almost a necessary (if misunderstood) phenomena in the mystical process.
Dion says of sacrifice: "If the cut is clean, and there is no repining, an immense amount of psychic energy is released for use in the chosen channel. But if the lesser desire is merely inhibited and denied expression and not really laid upon the altar of sacrifice as a deliberate free-will offering, the unfortunate victim has made the worst of both worlds." (Fortune, p.164) This may seem contrary to the common spiritual nomenclature of modern mystical philosophy, but it is a theme as timeless as the Mystery Traditions and beyond. "There is a place where patience becomes weakness and wastes the time of better men, and when mercy becomes folly and exposes the innocent to danger." (Fortune, p.164) Not that patience and mercy do not have their place, but they have them in Chesed, not in Geburah.
GOD NAME: Elohim Gebor. “Almighty God.”
ARCHANGEL: Khamael, Burner of God.
COLOR:
Scarlet red.
SYMBOL:
Pentagon, pentagram, sword, spear.
VIRTUE:
Energy, courage.
TAROT ATTRIBUTION: The four Fives.
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