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.
This is the final Path in the Pathworking, as well as the
first Path on the Tree of Life. It extends from Kether (the Crown of Creation)
to Chokmah (the King) and perhaps has more scholarship dedicated to its meaning
and symbols that any other Path in the Holy Qabalah. Crowley himself has almost
an entire chapter dedicated to the Tarot Trump in The Book of Thoth. Gareth Knight states: “The Tarot Trump is called
The Fool and is perhaps the profoundest symbol of the whole Tarot.” (A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism,
Volume II, p.201) So, it is at once understood the profundity of this Path.
According to Chic and Sandra Cicero, the Path “best reflects
the first outflow of pure divine energy from Kether, the ‘Cause of Causes.’” (A Garden of Pomegranates, p. 467) The
Ciceros are referring to the Sepher Yeztirah’s description of this Path, which
begs a full quotation from the text:
The Eleventh Path is the
Scintillating Intelligence, because it is the essence of the curtain which is
placed close to the order of the disposition, and this is a special dignity
given to it that it may be able to stand before the Face of the Cause of
Causes.
The “order of
disposition” refers to Kether, which the curtain is veiling. The curtain itself
is referring to Form. “Form is the curtain that hides (though at the same time
reveals) the Life-essence, but it is almost pure Force at this point for the 11th
Path ‘is the essence of that curtain.’” (Gareth Knight, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Volume II, p.200)
The Hebrew letter is Aleph, the first letter of the
alphabet, which means “ox.” This is an animal that is a prime symbol of the
Earth in many traditions (the cow in Hindu mythology, the buffalo of the Native
American, etc.) so being the first connection point to Kether—and the ox being
a beast of the plough—we can see that Spirit’s aim is always rooted in the
Earth, in the material world, in Form. In agriculture, the plough is the tiller
of Earth, in which to plant seeds and bring forth fruit. “This is our immediate
and paramount task, the civilization of Earth. And he who takes his hand from
the plough of his immediate Earthly duty (which is a Cosmic and Spiritual duty
also, however much familiarity may tend to breed contempt), will never by that
act attain his heavenly home in the stars.” (Knight, p.204)
As stated before, the Tarot Trump is the Fool.
Traditionally, the Fool is shown to be stepping one foot off of a cliff, ready
to plunge into the unknown; this is representative of Spirit’s plunge from the
Beyond and into the process of Creation. The Fool is a symbol of “pure
potential not yet set into action. It is potential in search of first experience.”
(Regardie, p. 468) Within this resides an innocence one must always tap into no
matter what level of attainment in the Great Work . . . in essence, the open
mind of a beginner.
The Fool in older times was always one to hold court with
the King and to not only provide comic relief, but to be a source of
paradoxical wisdom as well. “ . . . an object of some respect—he is a creature
of paradox—being at the same time wise as well as a fool.” (Knight, p. 202) As
such, often times the Fool was the only one allowed to mock the King: “Fools
down the ages have been honored and revered, the gift of laughter is theirs,
and the ability to reduce great men to their common denominator. The Fool is as
much the Great Leveller as the figure of Death.” (Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, The Shining Paths, p.166) Call to mind
the Heyokah or Coyote of Native American traditions, both acting as trickster
to the people, yet at the same time are some of the more sacred symbols or
roles in the community.
This is where the wisdom of the Fool becomes paradoxical.
“For below the Abyss, contradiction is division; but above the Abyss,
contradiction is Unity. And there could be nothing true except by virtue of the
contradiction that is contained in itself.” (Aleister Crowley, The Vision and the Voice, p. 136) The
original French title of this Trump was Le
Mat, the madman, and Crowley points out that all Native peoples saw the
madman, the wandering lunatic, as one to bear great power and thus salvation
for the people. This is why, he says, the number of the card is zero: “It
represents therefore the Negative above the Tree of Life, the source of all
things. It is the Qabalistic Zero. It is the equation of the Universe, the
initial and final balance of the opposites; Air, in this card, therefore
quintessentially means a vacuum.” (The
Book of Thoth, p. 53)
Dolores Aschroft-Nowicki points out that this vacuum is “an
emptiness waiting to be filled.” (p. 167) But, what does this mean for us? Are
we the vacuum, or are we that which is filling it? “Simplicity being a keynote
of this path,” she says, “it is best left to those treading it to find the
symbolism that speaks to them in the right language. At this level on the Tree,
one must search for the meanings oneself or they have no meaning at all.”
(p.168)
