The Mystical Qabalah - Dion Fortune 2000

Hod

TITLE: Hod, Glory.

(Hebrew—He, V au, Daleth.)

MAGICAL IMAGE: An hermaphrodite.

Situation On The Tree: At the foot of the Pillar of Severity.

Yetziratic Text: The Eighth Path is called the Absolute or Perfect Intelligence because it is the mean of the Primordial, which has no root by which it can cleave or rest, save in the hidden places of Gedulah, from which emanates its proper essence.

VIRTUE: Truthfulness.

VICE: Falsehood. Dishonesty.

Correspondence In Microcosm: Loins and legs.

SYMBOLS: Names and Versicles and Apron. TAROT CARDS: The four Eights.

EIGHT Of WANDS: Swiftness.

EIGHT Of CUPS: Abandoned success.

GOD-NAME: Elohim Tzabaoth, the God of EIGHT OF SWORDS: Shortened force. Hosts.

Eight Of Pentacles: Prudence. Colour In Atziluth: Violet-purple. BRIAH: Orange.

ARCHANGEL: Michael.

ORDER OF ANGELS: Beni Elohim, Sons of God.

Mundane CHAKRA: Kokab, Mercury.

YETZIRAH: Russet-red.

SPIRITUAL Experience: Vision of Splendour. Assiah: Yellowish black, flecked with white.

1. The two root-powers of the universe are represented on the Tree of Life by Chokmah and Binah, Positive and Negative Force. It is held by the Qabalists that although each Sephirah emanates its next in numerical order, that these two Supernals of the Tree being once established, are reflected down it diagonally in a particular way. This is clearly indicated in the Yetziratic Text of this Sephirah, wherein it says that Hod “has no root by which it can cleave or rest, save in the hidden places of Gedulah, from whence emanates its proper essence. Gedulah, be it remembered, is another name for Chesed.

2. Binah is the Giver of Form. Chesed is cosmic anabolism, the organisation of the units formulated by Binah into complex, interacting structures; Hod, the reflection of Chesed, is in its turn a Sephirah of Form, and represents this coagulating principle in another sphere.

3. Chokmah, on the other hand, is the dynamic principle; it reflects into Geburah, which is the Cosmic Catabolist, representing the breaking-down of the complex into the simple, thus releasing latent energy; and this reflects again into Netzach, the life-force of Nature.

4. It is important for the understanding of the five lower Sephiroth to note that the present stage of evolution has brought some degree of development of human consciousness in their Spheres. Tiphareth represents the higher consciousness wherein the individuality unites with the personality: Netzach and Hod represent the force and form aspects of astral consciousness respectively. Because human consciousness has made a degree of development in these spheres, their purely cosmic nature is considerably overlaid by its influences; and as human consciousness, being developed in Malkuth, is a consciousness of forms derived from the experience of physical sensations, the conditions of Malkuth are reflected back, though in a rarefied form, into Hod and Netzach, and in a lesser degree into Tiphareth; Yesod is even more markedly conditioned by the rising influence of Malkuth.

5. This is due to the fact that the mind of any being of a sufficient degree of development to have achieved an independent will works objectively on its environment, thereby modifying it. Let us make this clear by an illustration. Creatures of a lowly development, such as the simple forms of life that have no motile power, like sea-anemones, can exercise very little influence over their environment; but a higher and more intelligent type of creature can exercise a great deal, forcing its environment, by its energy and intelligence, to conform to its will, as when a beaver builds a dam. Human beings, the highest of all the creatures of matter, have learnt to exercise a profound influence on their environment, so that the material globe is gradually being brought into subjection to man, whole spheres, in fact, being thus harnessed.

6. The conditions with regard to each level of consciousness are precisely analogous. The mind builds up out of mind-stuff and the spiritual nature out of the spiritual forces of the Cosmos in exactly the same way that the sea-anemone builds up its substance out of the nutriment brought to it by the water. The higher types of personality, however, are analogous to the higher types of animals in that they can in an increasing degree, according to their energy and capacity, influence their subtle environment; the mind, built up out of mind-stuff, making its influence felt in the plane of mind.

7. We observe in dealing with the astral plane, which is essentially the level of function of the denser aspects of the human mind, that the forces and factors of this plane present to consciousness as ethereal forms of a distinctly human type; and if we approach the subject philosophically, and not credulously, we are at a loss to explain how this can be. The initiate, however, has his explanation. He declares that it is the human mind itself which has created these forms by representing these intelligent natural forces to itself as having forms of a human type; reasoning by analogy that, because they are individualised, their individuality must have the same kind of vehicle for its manifestation as his own individuality.

8. This, of course, does not necessarily follow. In fact, these forms of life, left to their own devices, achieve incarnation in natural phenomena, their vehicles being coordinations of natural forces such as a river, a range of mountains, or a storm. Wherever man comes in touch with the astral, whether as psychic or magician, he always anthropomorphises and creates forms in his own likeness to represent to himself the elusive subtle forces that he is endeavouring to contact, understand, and harness to his will. He is a true child of the Great Mother, Binah, and carries his natural propensities for organism and form-making to whatever plane he is able to exalt consciousness.

9. The forms perceived on the astral plane by those who can see there, are the forms that have been made by the imagination of men to represent these subtle natural forces of other forms of evolution than the human. The intelligences of other forms of evolution than ours, if they come into touch with human life, can sometimes be persuaded to make use of these forms, just as a man puts on a diving-dress and descends into another element. A certain, and fundamental, type of magic deals with the making of these forms and the inducing of entities to ensoul them.

10. Let us consider what is done when such a process is afoot. Primitive man, who is much more psychic than civilised man, his mind not being so elaborately organised by education, is intuitively aware that there is a subtle something behind any highly organised unit of natural force that differentiates it from every other unit. Humans are subconsciously aware of this to a greater degree than they will admit; it is not for nothing that a ship is “she,” and that we speak of “Father Thames.” A savage, then, feeling this life behind phenomena, tries to get into touch with it in order that he may come to terms with it. As he obviously cannot hope to conquer it, he must make terms with it, just as he would with other alien lives ensouled in the bodies of another tribe. In order to come to terms there must be a parley. One cannot make terms with persons who will not parley. The savage thinks, reasoning by his own primitive method of analogy, that the beings behind the phenomena dwell in a kingdom similar to that in which his own dream-life goes on; as daydreams are close akin to the dreams of sleep, and have the advantage of being inducible at will, he tries to approach these beings of another sphere by entering their kingdom; that is to say, he fabricates in day-dream or phantasy the closest approach he can to the visions of the night, and if he can achieve a high degree of concentration, he is able to close down his waking consciousness and enter voluntarily into the dream state in a dream of his own determining.

11. In order to achieve this end, he builds up in his imagination a mental picture intended to represent the being that is the presiding genius of the natural phenomenon he wishes to come to terms with; he builds it up repeatedly; he adores it; he prays to it; he invokes it. If his invocation be sufficiently fervent, the being he is seeking will hear him telepathically and may become interested in what he is doing; if his adoration and sacrifices are agreeable to it, its co-operation may be obtained. Gradually it may become tamed and domesticated; and finally, it may be persuaded to ensoul from time to time the form that has been built up out of mind-stuff for its vehicle. Success in this operation depends, of course, on the degree to which the worshipper can appreciate through sympathy the nature of the being he is bent upon invoking, and he can only do this in proportion as his own temperament partakes of its nature.

12. If this process is successful, then we have the domestication of a portion of the life of Nature, and its incarnation in a form built for it by its worshippers. As long as the astral form is kept alive by the appropriate kind of worship, carried out by worshippers who have the necessary capacity to enter into sympathetic communion with that kind of life, there is an incarnated god, available for contacting, brought down within the range of human perception. Should the worship cease, the god withdraws to his own place in the bosom of Nature. Should other worshippers come along, however, who possess the knowledge necessary to build a form in accordance with the nature of the life that is to be invoked, and the imaginative sympathy necessary to invoke it, it is a comparatively simple matter to attract into the form once more the life that was accustomed to ensoul it; no more difficult, at least, than to catch with a basket of oats a horse that has run wild on the ranges.

13. Now, it may be said, all this is the wildest speculation and sheer dogmatism. How do I know that that is the way in which primitive man went to work? Because that is the way of going to work that has come down in the secret Mystery Tradition from very ancient times, and because when it is used by anyone who has acquired the necessary degree of skill in concentration and knows the symbols that are used for building the different forms, the method works, and back come the Old Gods to the altar fires re-kindled. Definite results are obtained in the consciousness of the worshippers; and if they borrow the technique of the spiritualist, and a materialising medium is available, phenomena of a very definite kind are produced.

14. It is the method that is used in working the Mass by those priests who have knowledge. There are two types of priest in the Roman Church: the beneficed parish clergy and the men who belong to monastic Orders and undertake parish, and especially home mission, work as part of their service. These monks frequently bring to the working of the Mass a very high degree of magical power, as any psychic can testify. It is the ensouling of an astral form with spiritual force which is the real act of Transubstantiation. It is in the knowledge of these things, and in the possession of organised bodies of men and women trained in their use in the encloistered Orders, that the strength of the One Catholic and Apostolic Church lies; it is the lack of any such inner knowledge which is the weakness of the schismatic communions, a lack that makes the Anglican rituals, even when worked with full ceremonial, as water unto wine when compared with the Roman rituals; for the men who work them have no knowledge of the secret workings which are traditional in the Roman communion, and are not trained in the technique of visualising. I am not a Catholic, and never shall be, because I would not submit to their discipline, nor do I believe that there is only One Name under heaven whereby men may be saved, much as I revere that Name, but I know power when I see it, and I respect it.

15. But the power of the Roman Church does not lie in charter, but in function. It is powerful, not because Peter received the Keys (which he probably didn’t), but because it knows its job. There is no reason why priests of the Anglican communion should not work with power if they apply the principles I have explained in these pages. In the Guild of the Master Jesus, which is part of my own Organisation, the Fraternity of the Inner Light, we work the Mass with Power because we apply these principles. When we first started we were offered Apostolic Succession for our ministrants, but declined it because we felt that it was better to use our knowledge to make the contacts anew on our own account than to receive Apostolic Succession from a source that was not above suspicion, and experience has justified our choice.

16. For the full understanding of the philosophy of magic we must remember that single Sephiroth are never functional; for function one must have the Pair of Opposites in balanced equilibrium, resulting in an equilibrated Third which is functional. The Pair of Opposites, by themselves, are not functional because they are mutually neutralising; it is only when they unite in balanced force to flow forth as a Third, after the symbolism of Father, Mother, and Child, that they achieve dynamic activity, as distinguished from the latent force which is for ever locked up in them, awaiting to be called forth.

17. The functioning triangle of the Lower Triad consists of Hod, Netzach, and Yesod. Hod and Netzach, as we have noted before, are respectively Form and Force on the astral plane. Yesod is the basis of etheric substance, Akasha, or the Astral Light, as it is variously called. Hod is especially the Sphere of Magic, because it is the sphere of the formulation of forms, and is therefore the sphere in which the magician actually works, for it is his mind that formulates the forms, and his will that makes the link with the natural forces of the Sphere of Netzach that ensoul them. Be it noted, however, that without the contacts of Netzach, the force aspect of the astral, there could be no ensouling; and with Netzach, being the Sphere of emotions, the contacts are made through sympathy and “feeling with.” The power of the will projects the magician out of Hod, but only the power of sympathy can take him into Netzach. A cold-blooded person of dominating will can no more be an adept working with power than can a fluidically sympathetic person of pure emotion. The power of the concentrated will is necessary to enable the magician to gather himself together for his work, but the power of imaginative sympathy is essential to enable him to make his contacts. For it is only through our power to enter imaginatively into the life of types of existence different to our own that we can pick up our contacts with the forces of Nature. To attempt to dominate them by pure will, cursing them by the Mighty Names of God if they resist, is sheer sorcery.

18. As we have already noted, it is through the corresponding factors in our own temperaments that we come into touch with the forces of Nature. It is the Venus within that puts us in touch with the influences symbolised by Netzach. It is the magical capacity of our own mind that puts us in touch with the forces of the Sphere of Hod-Mercury-Thoth. If there is no Venus in our own nature, no capacity to respond to the call of love, the gates of the Sphere of Netzach will never open to us and we shall never receive its initiation. Equally, if we have no magical capacity, which is the work of the intellectual imagination, the Sphere of Hod will be a closed book to us. We can only operate in a Sphere after we have received the initiation of that Sphere, which, in the language of the Mysteries, confers its powers. In the technical working of the Mysteries these initiations are conferred on the physical plane by means of ceremonial, which may be effectual, or may not. The gist of the matter lies in the fact that one cannot waken into activity what is not already latent. Life is the real initiator; the experiences of life stimulate into function the capacities of our temperaments in such degree as we possess them. The ceremony of initiation, and the teachings that should be given in the various grades, are simply designed to make conscious what was previously subconscious, and to bring under the control of the will, directed by the higher intelligence, those developed reaction-capacities which have hitherto only responded blindly to their appropriate stimuli.

19. Be it well noted that it is only in proportion as our capacities for reaction are lifted out of the sphere of emotional reflexes and brought under rational control that we can make of them magical powers. It is only when the aspirant, having the capacity to respond on all planes to the call of Venus, can easily and without effort refrain at will from responding, that he can be made an initiate of the Sphere of Netzach. This is why it is said of the adept that he has the use of all things, but is dependent upon nothing.

20. These concepts are shadowed forth for those who have eyes to see in the symbolism of Hod. The Yetziratic Text declares that Hod is the Perfect Intelligence because it is the mean of the Primordial. In other words, it is power in equilibrium, for the word “mean” implies a position half-way between two extremes.

21. The concept of inhibited reaction and satisfaction foregone is expressed in the title of the Eight of Cups of the Tarot pack, whose secret name is “Abandoned Success.” The suit of Cups, in the Tarot symbolism, is under the influence of Venus and represents the different aspects and influences of love. “Abandoned Success,” the inhibition of the instinctive reaction which would give satisfaction—in other words, sublimation—is the key to the powers of Hod. But remember that sublimation is not the same thing as either repression or eradication, and it applies to the instinct of self-preservation as well as to the instinct of reproduction, with which it is exclusively associated in the popular mind.

22. The same concept reappears in the secret title of the Eight of Swords, which is “The Lord of Shortened Force.” We get a clear image in these words of the checking, or braking of dynamic power in order that it may be brought under control.

23. In the Eight of Pentacles, which represents the nature of Hod manifesting on the material plane, we have the Lord of Prudence—again a checking and inhibiting influence. But all these three negative, inhibiting cards are summed up under the presidency of the Eight of Wands, which represents the action of the Sphere of Hod on the spiritual plane, and this card is called the Lord of Swiftness.

24. We see, then, that it is through inhibitions and refrainings on the lower planes that the dynamic energy of the highest plane is rendered available. It is in the Sphere of Hod that the rational mind imposes these inhibitions on the dynamic animal nature of the soul; condensing them; formulating them; directing them by limiting them and preventing diffusion. This is the operation of the magic that works with symbols. By its means the free-moving natural forces are constrained and directed to ends that are willed and designed. This power of direction and control is only obtained by the sacrifice of fluidity, and Hod is therefore aptly said to be the reflection of Binah through Chesed.

25. Having considered the general principles of the Sphere of Hod, we are now in a position to consider its symbolism in detail.

26. The meaning of the Hebrew word Hod is Glory, and this suggests at once to the mind that in this, the first Sphere in which forms are definitely organised, the radiance of the Primordial is shown forth to human consciousness. Physicists tell us that light is only rendered visible as blue sky owing to its reflection from the particles of dust in the atmosphere. Absolutely dustless atmosphere is absolutely dark atmosphere. And so it is in the metaphysics of the Tree. The glory of God can only shine forth in manifestation when there are forms to manifest it.

27. The Magical Image of Hod affords a very interesting subject for meditation. Those who have grasped the significance of the preceding pages will see how well the form and force nature of magical working is summed up in this symbol of the being in whom are combined the male and female elements.

28. Hod is essentially the sphere of forms ensouled by the forces of Nature; and conversely, it is the sphere in which the forces of Nature take on sensible form.

29. The Yetziratic Text has already been discussed at length, and to that discussion the reader can refer for its elucidation.

30. The God-name of Hod, Elohim Tzabaoth, God of Hosts, contains the hermaphroditic symbol in a very interesting way, for the word Elohim is a feminine noun with a masculine plural, thus indicating in the manner of the Qabalists that it represents a dual type of activity, or force functioning through an organisation. All three Sephiroth in the Negative Pillar of the Tree have the word Elohim as part of the God name. Tetragrammaton Elohim in Binah; Elohim Gebor in Geburah; and Elohim T zabaoth in Hod.

31. The word Tzabaoth means a host or army, and so we get the idea of the Divine Life manifesting in Hod by means of a host of forms ensouled with force, in contradistinction to the fluidic activity of Netzach.

32. The assignation of the mighty Archangel Michael to Hod again gives us food for thought. He is always represented as trampling upon a serpent and piercing it with a sword, and frequently holds in his hand a pair of balances, symbolic of equilibrium and expressive of the same idea as the Yetziratic words, “Mean of the Primordial.”

33. The serpent upon which the great Archangel treads is primitive force, the phallic serpent of the Freudians; and this glyph teaches us that it is the restrictive “prudence” of Hod which “shortens” primitive force and prevents it from overflowing its boundaries. The Fall, be it remembered, is represented on the Tree by the Great Serpent with seven heads which overpasses the bounds set for it and raises its crowned heads even unto Daath. It is very interesting to observe the manner in which the symbols weave in and out of each other, and reinforce and interpret each other’s significance and yield their fruits to Qabalistic contemplation.

34. The Order of Angels functioning in Hod are the Beni Elohim, the Sons of the Gods. Again we have the concept of the “God of Hosts” or armies. One of the most important concepts of arcane science concerns the working of the Creator through intermediaries. The uninitiated and profane conceive of God as working as the labourer works, who adds brick to brick with his hands, fashioning the edifice; but the initiated conceive of God as working as the Great Architect of the Universe, designing His plans on the plane of archetypes; to Whom come the overseers, the archangels, for their instructions, these last directing the armies of humble toilers who add stone to stone according to the archetypal plan of the Most High. Whenever did the architect designing the edifice work upon it with his two unaided hands? Never, not even when the universe was a building.

35. The Mundane Chakra, as we have already noted, is Mercury, and its symbolism as Hermes-Thoth we have already considered.

36. The Spiritual Experience assigned to this Sephirah is the Vision of Splendour, which is the realisation of the glory of God manifesting in the created world. The initiate of Hod sees behind the appearance of created things and discerns their Creator, and in the realisation of the splendour of Nature as the garment of the Ineffable he receives his illumination and becomes a co-worker with the Great Artificer. It is this realisation of the spiritual forces manipulating all manifestations and appearances which is the key to the powers of Hod as wielded in the Magic of Light. It is by making himself a channel for these forces that the Master of White Magic brings order into the disorder of the Spheres of Unbalanced Force, not by deflecting the invisible powers to his personal will. He is the equilibrator of the unbalanced, not the arbitrary manipulator of Nature.

37. In this Sphere, which is the Sphere of Mercury-Hermes, god of science and books, how clearly can we see that the supreme virtue is truthfulness, and that the obverse aspect of this Sephirah is that which reveals Mercury in his aspect as the god of thieves and cunning rogues. In esoteric ethics it is realised that each plane has its own standard of right and wrong. The standard of the physical plane is strength; the standard of the astral plane is beauty; the standard of the mental plane is truth; and the standard of the spiritual plane is that of right and wrong as we understand the terms; therefore there is no ethic except in terms of spiritual value; all else is at best expediency. In the Sphere which is essentially the Sphere of the concrete mind how right it is that the Qabalah should give the supreme virtue as truthfulness.

38. The Correspondence in the Microcosm is given as the loins and legs, in accordance with the astrological ruling of the planet Mercury.

39. The symbols associated with Hod are given as the names and versicles and the apron. The names are the Words of Power wherein the magus sums up and evokes into consciousness the multiform potencies of the Beni Elohim. These names are by no manner of means arbitrary and barbaric vocables, without etymology or meaning. They are philosophical formulae. In some cases their interpretation is etymological, as in the case of the Egyptian deities, whose names are built up out of the names of potencies and symbols when used to indicate composite forces. In all systems of magic, however, which have their root in the Qabalah, the magical names are built up out of the numerical value of the consonants of whatever sacred alphabet is used; there is a Greek, an Arabic, and a Coptic Qabalah, as well as the better-known Hebrew one. These consonants, when replaced by the appropriate numerals, yield a number, which can be dealt with mathematically in many ways. Some of these ways are according to the methods of pure mathematics, the results being then translated back into letters again, and showing very interesting correspondences with the names of similar or related potencies. This is a very curious aspect of Qabalistic lore, and in the hands of competent exponents yields interesting results; it is, however, full of pitfalls for the unwary, for there is no limit to what it can be made to yield, and only a sound knowledge of first principles can tell us when the analogies are legitimate or otherwise, and prevent us from falling into credulity and superstition.

40. The versicles are mantric phrases, a mantra being a sonorous phrase which, when repeated over and over after the manner of a rosary, works upon the mind as a special form of autosuggestion, the psychology of which is too complex to be entered upon now.

41. The apron has immediate associations for the initiates of Solomon the Wise; it is the characteristic garment of the initiate in the Lesser Mysteries, who is always deemed figuratively to be a craftsman, that is a maker of forms, and as the Sephirah Hod is the Sphere of the operations of the makers of magical forms, it will be seen that this symbolism is again apposite. The apron covers and conceals the Moon-centre, Yesod, concerning which we shall speak in its appropriate place. As has already been noted, Yesod is the functional aspect of the Pair of Opposites of the astral plane.

42. Concerning the four Eights of the Tarot pack, assigned to this Sephirah, we have already spoken on a previous page.

43. To sum up, then, in Hod we have the Sphere of formal magic as distinguished from simple mind power. The forms that are formulated thereon by the magician initiating the forces of nature are the Beni Elohim, or Sons of the Gods.