THE MYSTIC PATH - PATH 3: BINAH
12:14 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.
Now that we have crossed Daath, the Abyss, we have entered the realm of the Supernal Triad. The human mind can never truly understand the Supernals. Daath, Knowledge, breaks down the human psyche . . . only through symbolism can we begin to even have the slightest of relationship with the Supernal Sephiroth.
Binah, which means "Understanding," is the third Sephirah on the Tree of Life. When considering the Creation of the universe, Binah is the first manifestation of the Goddess, and thus the first semblance of manifestation of Form. All forms which exist get their root in Binah. Her titles are Ama, the dark sterile Mother, and Aima, the bright fertile Mother. She is Babylon, both Virgin and Whore. She is the original formulation of the Feminine in existence.
From Dion Fortune:
"Binah represents the female potency of the universe, even as Chokmah represents the male. As already noted, they are Positive and Negative; Force and Form. Each heads its Pillar, Chokmah at the head of the Pillar of Mercy, and Binah at the head of the Pillar of Severity. It may be thought that this is an unnatural distribution; that the Supernal Mother should preside over the mercies, and the male force of the universe over the severities. But we must not sentimentalise these things. We are dealing with cosmic principles, not personalities; and even the symbols under which they are presented give us insight if we have eyes to see." (The Mystical Qabalah, p. 130)
Fortune continues in her description of Binah as a cosmic principle:
"Binah, the Great Mother, sometimes also called Marah, the Great Sea, is, of course, the Mother of All Living. She is the archetypal womb through which life comes into manifestation. Whatsoever provides a form to serve life as a vehicle is of Her. It must be remembered, however, that life confined in a form, although it is enabled thereby to organise and so evolve, is much less free than it was when it was unlimited (though also unorganised) on its own plane. Involvement in a form is therefore the beginning of the death of life. It is a straitening and a limiting; a binding and a constricting. Form checks life, thwarts it, and yet enables it to organise. Seen from the point of view of free-moving force, incarceration in a form is extinction. Form disciplines force with a merciless severity." (sic) (The Mystical Qabalah, p.132)
Study these words of the great mystic and High Priestess Dion Fortune. Then, study them again. There is a great misunderstanding in the world regarding the role of the Feminine in a spiritual context. As Dion stated, this does not mean women. The principle of the Feminine resides in both man and woman, but it must be understood what indeed this energy truly means if we are to herald the return of the Goddess in the modern world.
The spiritual experience of Binah is the Vision of Sorrow. Because this is the Sephirah of the Magister Templi (Master of the Temple) this means to have a vision of absolute fullness and realization of the holistic picture of all that is on the road to be traveled: what was, why it was, what is now, why it is, and what it is to become. In essence, true and total UNDERSTANDING. The Great Mother sees all. And, in all that She sees, She is in sorrow.
By "sorrow," it is meant, according to Gareth Knight:
"Grief is a purgative and strongly disruptive force, and when the essential work of breaking down adhesions and dispersing poisons has been done by it, it gives place to a deep lassitude and feeling of emptiness which can act as a purified basis for new growth. People are so made that they will not or cannot realise a thing fully unless they are hit in the most vital part in some deep emotional sense. And so only by sorrow, and by going from sorrow to sorrow can an individual's evolution proceed. The man who cannot or will not feel sorrow or face it in others cannot proceed at all." (A Practical Guide to Qabalastic Symbolism, Vol.I, p. 93-94)
Managing the Vision of Sorrow is best achieved through Binah's primary virtue: Silence. Again, Gareth elaborates:
"It is necessary to still all the clamouring noises of the lower levels in order to hear the voice of the Spirit, and so the ideal state of form in order to make the vertical contacts is one of quietude. [...] The easiest way to ruin esoteric work is to talk about it, and as Binah is the Archetypal Temple where forms are built for force to indwell, it is natural that the Virtue should be Silence." (A Practical Guide to Qabalastic Symbolism, Vol.I, p. 99)
As the Archetypal Temple, She is the root of all temples in manifestation, the Inner Church, the sacred space of all sacred spaces. Because of this, Binah truly is the Womb of Life, the container from which all has been embodied. Approach the Dark Mother's Temple in Silence, approach the Temple in Sorrow, and the Vision shall be received.
GOD NAME: Jehovah Elohim. “The Lord God.”
ARCHANGEL: Tzaphkiel. Keeper of the Records of Evolution.
COLOR:
Black, or dark brown.
SYMBOL:
Yoni, Vesica Piscis, cup
or chalice.
VIRTUE:
Silence
TAROT ATTRIBUTION: The four Threes; the four Queens.
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