The Mystical Qabalah - Dion Fortune 2000
Yesod
TITLE: Yesod, the Foundation.
(Hebrew—Yod, Samech, Vau, Daleth.)
MAGICAL IMAGE: A beautiful naked man, very strong.
SITUATION On The Tree: Towards the base of the Pillar of Equilibrium.
YETZIRATIC Text: The Ninth Path is called the Pure Intelligence because it purifies the Emanations. It proves and corrects the designing of their representations, and disposes the unity with which they are designed without diminution or division.
VIRTUE: Independence.
VICE: Idleness.
Correspondence In Microcosm; Reproductive organs.
SYMBOLS: The Perfumes and sandals. TAROT CARDS: The four Nines. NINE Of WANDS: Great strength. NINE OF CUPS: Material happiness.
GOD-NAME: Shaddai el Chai, the Almighty NINE OF SWORDS: Despair and cruelty. Living God.
Archangel: Gabriel.
ORDER Of Angels: Kerubim, the Strong.
MUNDANE CHAKRA: Levanah, the Moon.
Spiritual Experience: Vision of the Machinery of the Universe.
Nine Of Pentacles: Material gain. Colour In Atziluth: Indigo. BRIAH: Violet.
YETZIRAH: Very dark purple. ASSIAH: Citrine, flecked with azure.
1. The study of the symbolism of Yesod reveals two apparently incongruous sets of symbols. Upon the one hand we have the conception of Yesod as the foundation of the universe, established in strength; this is indicated by the recurrence of the idea of strength, as in the Magical Image of a beautiful naked man, very strong, the God-name of Shaddai, Almighty, the Kerubim, the strong angels, and the Nine of Wands, whose secret name is the Lord of Great Strength. But upon the other hand we have the Moon symbolism, which is very fluidic, in a continual state of flux and reflux, under the presidency of Gabriel, the archangel of the element of Water.
2. How are we to reconcile these conflicting concepts? The answer is to be found in the words of the Yetziratic Text, which says of the Ninth Path that it “purifies the Emanations. It proves and corrects the designing of their representations, and disposes of the unity with which they are designed without diminution or division.” This concept is further illuminated by the nature of the Spiritual Experience assigned to Yesod, which is described as “the Vision of the Machinery of the Universe.”
3. We get the concept, then, of the fluidic waters of chaos being finally gathered up and organised by means of the “representations” that were “designed” in Hod; this final “proving, correcting, and disposing of the unity” of these “representations” or formative images resulting in the organisation of the “Machinery of the Universe,” the vision of which constitutes the spiritual experience of this Sephirah. In fact, Yesod might aptly be described as the Sphere of the Machinery of the Universe. If we liken the kingdom of earth to a great ship, then Yesod would be the engine-room.
4. Yesod is the sphere of that peculiar substance, partaking of the nature of both mind and matter, which is called the Ether of the Wise, the Akasha, or the Astral Light, according to the terminology that is being used. It is not the same as the ether of the physicists, which is the fire element of the Sphere of Malkuth; but is to that ether what that ether is to dense matter; it is, in fact, the basis of the phenomena which the physicist attributes to his empirical ether. The Ether of the Wise might, in fact, be called the root of the ether of physics.
5. The material universe is an insoluble riddle to the materialist because he insists on trying to explain it in terms of its own plane. This is a thing that can never be done in any sphere of thought. Nothing can ever be explained in terms of itself, but only by being resumed in a greater whole. The four elements of the ancients find their explanation in a fifth, the Ether, as initiates have always maintained. For it is a doctrine of esoteric philosophy that any four visible states always have their root in a fifth, an invisible state. For instance, the Four Worlds of the Qabalists have their root behind the Veils of the Unmanifest. It is only by positing this unmanifest fifth, and assigning to it certain attributes deduced from the manifest four as being essential in the prime cause, that we are able to arrive at any understanding of the nature of the four. So do we find in Yesod the unmanifest fifth of the four elements of Malkuth, the fire of the ancients answering to the ether of the moderns, and earth, water, and air to the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter.
6. Yesod, then, must be conceived of as the receptacle of the emanations of all the other Sephiroth, as is taught by the Qabalists, and as the immediate and only transmitter of these emanations to Malkuth, the physical plane. As the Yetziratic Text says, it is the function of Yesod to purify the emanations, and to prove and correct them; consequently it is in the Sphere of Yesod that all operations are carried out which are designed for the correcting of the Sphere of dense matter, or in any way to dispose of its unity of design. Yesod, then, is the all-important Sphere for any magic which is designed to take effect in the physical world.
7. Now be it well noted that all Spheres operate according to their nature, and that that nature cannot in any way be altered by any magical or miraculous influence, however powerful; we can only “correct” the “designing” of the representations. The things represented remain constant. The conditions of the material world cannot therefore be arbitrarily disposed of, even by the highest spiritual force, as is believed by those who pray to God to intervene on their behalf, healing their diseases or giving rain upon earth; neither can they any more be influenced by the most powerful wizard with his spells. The only approach to Malkuth is through Yesod, and the approach to Yesod is through Hod, where the “representations” are “designed.” Let us once and for all disabuse our minds of the idea that spirit can work directly upon matter; it never does so. Spirit works through mind, and mind works through the Ether; and the Ether, which is the framework of matter and the vehicle of the life-forces, can be manipulated within the limits of its nature, which are by no means inconsiderable. All miraculous and supernatural happenings, therefore, are brought about by the manipulation of the natural qualities of the Ether, and if we understood the nature of the Ether, we should understand the rationale of their production. We should no longer attribute them to the direct intervention of God, or to the activities of the spirits of the departed, than we attribute nowadays the phenomena of combustion to the activities of phlogiston, which a previous generation believed to be the active principle of fire, whose presence or absence determined whether a given substance would burn or not. There are men living to-day who learnt about phlogiston in their school-days, and have seen the change of thought come about; equally, the day will come when men will look upon psychic phenomena and “spiritual” healing as we look upon phlogiston.
8. At the present state of our knowledge it is not possible to give a very full account of the nature of the Yesodic Ether. We can, however, state certain things about it that have been learnt by experience. Much has been learnt by experiments with ectoplasm, which is very close akin to it in nature; in fact, one might describe it as organic Ether, in contradistinction to the ether of physics, which is inorganic Ether. We know that ectoplasm takes on forms, and holds them and relinquishes them with equal readiness, showing that it is not the form which confines the life, but the life that determines the form. We likewise know that ectoplasm can be emanated and absorbed, though we do not know the conditions that govern this phenomenon. Ectoplasm is, in fact, a kind of ethereal protoplasm; and we might conceive of the Aether or Astral Light as bearing the same relationship to ectoplasm as ectoplasm bears to protoplasm.
9. But although we no more know the ultimate nature of the astral Ether than we understand the ultimate nature of electricity, nevertheless we know by observation that it possesses certain properties. We do not merely deduce these properties; we know they exist by experience, because they enable us to manipulate this subtle substance in certain definite ways, within, as has already been explained, the limits of its own nature. Two of these properties are all-important to the work of the practical occultist, forming, in fact, the basis of his whole system.
10. The first of these properties is the capacity of the astral Ether to be moulded into forms by the mind; the second is the capacity of the astral Ether to hold the molecules of dense matter in its mesh-like lines of tension as in a rack of pigeon-holes. It may be asked how do we know that the other possesses these qualities, so vital to our magical hypothesis? We answer that the existence of these properties is the only explanation of the properties of living matter and conscious mind. We cannot explain either mind or matter in terms of themselves alone; we cannot explain mind without employing terms of sensation, and we cannot explain living matter without employing terms of consciousness. Sensation must always be an affair of both mind and matter inexplicable in isolation. To explain neural sensation we must posit a substance that is intermediate between mind and matter; to understand purposive movement we equally require the existence of such a substance—that is, which possesses the power to receive and hold the impress of thought and to influence the position in space of the atomic units of matter. These are the properties we assign to our hypothetical astral Ether, advancing the same arguments in justification of this proceeding as have been accepted on behalf of a similar proceeding in the case of the ether of physics. We plead precedent for our hypothesis; and if the arguments in favour of the ether of physics are acceptable, it is difficult to see why an Ether should not be permitted to psychology. It is an old maxim that hypotheses should not be unnecessarily multiplied, but when a hypothesis such as that of ether has proved so fruitful, we are surely amply justified in experimenting with a similar one in the sister science of psychology. One thing is quite certain, psychology never made any real progress while it limited itself to the materialistic viewpoint and regarded consciousness as an epiphenomenon, that is to say as an irrelevant and purposeless by-product of physiological activity if anything in Nature can be called irrelevant and purposeless. Let us learn a lesson from coal-tar, the irrelevant and purposeless by-product of the production of gas—to be practically given away to anyone who wanted to tar a fence, subsequently found to be the source of most valuable chemicals, dye-stuffs, and drugs.
11. From the point of view of magic, Yesod is the all-important Sephirah, just as Tiphareth is the functional sphere of mysticism, with its transcendent contacts with the Supernal. If the Tree of Life be considered as a whole, it will be seen clearly that it works in triads. The Three Supernals having their correlatives on a lower arc in Chesed, Geburah, and Tiphareth. Anyone who has had experience of practical Qabalism knows that for all practical purposes Tiphareth is Kether for us while we tabernacle in this house of flesh, for no man may look upon the face of God and live. We can only see the Father reflected in the Son, and Tiphareth “shows us the Father.”
12. Netzach, Hod, and Yesod form the Lower Triad, overshadowed by Tiphareth as the Lower Self is overshadowed by the Higher Self. One might, in fact, say that the four lower Sephiroth form the Personality, or unit of Incarnation, of the Tree; the Higher Triad of Chesed, Geburah, and Tiphareth form the Individuality, or Higher Self, and the Three Supernals correspond to the Divine Spark.
13. It will be observed that although each Sephirah is considered to emanate its successor, the Triads are always represented, when once emanated and in equilibrium, as a Pair of Opposites manifesting in a Functional Third. In this, the Lower Triad, then, we find Netzach and Hod equilibriated in Yesod, which is conceived as receiving their emanations. But it also received the emanations of Tiphareth, and through Tiphareth, of Kether, because there is always a line of force working down a Pillar; consequently, as it received also from Netzach and Hod the influences that they in their turn have received from their respective Pillars, it may aptly be called, in the words of Qabalists, the “receptacle of the emanations”; and it is from Yesod that Malkuth receives the influx of the Divine forces.
14. Yesod also is of supreme importance to the practical occultist, because it is the first Sphere with which he makes acquaintance when he commences to “rise on the planes,” and lifts consciousness above Malkuth. Having trodden the terrible Thirty-second Path of the T au or Cross of Suffering, and of Saturn, he enters Yesod, the Treasure House of Images, the sphere of Maya, Illusion. Yesod, considered by itself, is unquestionably the Sphere of Illusion, because the Treasure House of Images is none other than the Reflecting Aether of the Earth-sphere, and corresponds in the microcosm to the Unconscious of the psychologists, filled with ancient and forgotten things, repressed since the childhood of the race. The Keys that unlock the doors of the Treasure House of Images and enable us to command its denizens are to be found in Hod, the Sphere of Magic. It is truly said in the Mysteries that no degree becomes functional until one has taken the next. Anyone who tries to function as a magician in Yesod soon learns his error, for although he can perceive the Images in the Treasure House, he has no word of power with which to command them. Therefore in initiation upon the Western Path, at any rate, I cannot answer for the Eastern, not knowing it, the grades of the Lesser Mysteries go straight up the Central Pillar to Tiphareth, and do not follow the line of the Lightning Flash. In Tiphareth the initiate takes the first grade of adepthood, and from there returns, if he so desires, to learn the technique of the magician relative to the Personality of the Tree, that is to say the macrocosmic unit of incarnation. If he does not desire this, but wishes to become free from the wheel of Birth and Death, he proceeds up the Central Pillar, which is also called by the Qabalists the Path of the Arrow, and passes over the Abyss into Kether. He who enters this Light cometh not forth again.
15. Yesod is also the Sphere of the Moon; therefore to understand its significance we must know something about the way in which the Moon is regarded in occultism. It is held by initiates that the Moon separated from the Earth at the period when evolution was on the cusp between the etheric phase of its development and the phase of dense matter. Those who are familiar with the terminology of astrology will know that the cusp is that phase between two signs wherein the influence of both is intermingled. The Moon, then, has something of the material in its composition, hence the luminous globe we see in the sky; but the really important part of its composition is etheric, because it was during the phase of evolution when life was developing the etheric form that the Moon had its heyday, and for this reason the phase is called by some occultists the Luna Phase of evolution. Those who want to know more of this subject will find it dealt with in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-conception,by Max Heindel, and The Secret Doctrine, by Mme. Blavatsky. As the Qabalists use a different system of classification to the Vedantists, we cannot open up the vast subject of the “Rays and the Rounds” in these pages. It must suffice to give dogmatically certain facts known to occultists and indicate where the reader can find further information if he desires it.
16. The Moon and the Earth, according to the occult theory, share one etheric double, though their two physical bodies are separate, and the Moon is the senior partner; that is to say, in etheric matters the Moon is the Positive Pole of the battery, and the Earth the negative one. Yesod, as we have already seen, reflects the Sun of Tiphareth, which in its turn is Kether on a lower arc. Astronomers have long told us that the Moon shines by borrowed light, reflected from the Sun, and they are now beginning to hint that the Sun may receive its fiery energy from outer space. Translated into Qabalistic terminology, outer space would be the Great Unmanifest, and the Qabalists have taught this doctrine since the days when Enoch walked with God and was not, for God had taken him—in other words, he had received the initiation of Kether.
17. It will be seen from the above that Yesod-Luna is ever in a state of flux and reflux, because the amount of sunlight received and reflected waxes and wanes in a twenty-eight day cycle. Malkuth-Earth is also in a state of flux and reflux in a twenty-four hour cycle, and for the same reason. Likewise Malkuth-Earth has a three hundred and sixty-five day cycle, of which the phases are marked by the Equinoxes and the Solstices. It is the interacting set of these tides which is all-important to the practical occultist, because so much of his work depends upon them. The charts of these tides have always been kept secret, and some of them are exceedingly complex. As these concern the secret workings, the genuine and legitimate occult secrets, which are only given after initiation, they cannot be dealt with in these pages. Enough has been said, however, to indicate that certain tides in the lunar Ether exist and are important, and that students of the occult are probably wasting their time if they try to operate without the necessary charts.
18. These lunar tides play a very important part in the physiological processes of both plants and animals, and especially in the germination and growth of plants and the reproduction of animals, as witness the twenty-eight day lunar sexual cycle of the human female. The male has a sexual cycle based on the solar year, but in the artificially lit and heated houses of civilisation this cycle is not so marked, though the poet drew our attention to the fact that “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” and the reference has been found so apt that it is almost too hackneyed for quotation.
19. It is the light of the Moon which is the stimulative factor in these etheric activities, and as Earth and Moon share one etheric double, all etheric activities are at their most active when the Moon is at its full. Likewise, during the dark of the Moon, etheric energy is at its lowest, and unorganised forces have a tendency to rise up and give trouble. The Dragon of the Qliphoth raises his multiple heads. In consequence, practical occult work is best let alone during the dark by all but experienced workers. The life-giving forces are relatively weak and the unbalanced forces relatively strong; the result, in inexperienced hands, is chaos.
20. All psychics and sensitives are conscious of the set of these cosmic tides, and even those who are not avowedly sensitive are affected by them far more than is generally realised, especially in illness when the physical energies are low.
21. Not a great deal can be said concerning Yesod, because in her are hidden the keys of the magical workings. We must therefore content ourselves with elucidating the symbolism in a somewhat cryptic form, though he that hath ears to hear is at liberty to use them.
22. We have already noted the curious two-sided nature of Netzach and Hod, the magical image of Hod being a hermaphrodite, and Venus-Aphrodite sometimes being represented among the ancients as bearded. In Yesod again we meet with this dual symbolism, and yet again, as we shall see presently, in Malkuth. This indicates clearly that in these Sephiroth belonging to the lower levels of the Tree we must very definitely recognise a form and force side in each one. This comes out very clearly in both Yesod and Malkuth, to which both gods and goddesses have to be assigned.
23. Yesod is essentially the Sphere of the Moon, and as such comes under the presidency of Diana, the moon-goddess of the Greeks. Now Diana was primarily a chaste goddess, ever-virgin, and when the over-presumptive Actaeon annoyed her he was torn to pieces by his own hunting-hounds. Diana, however, was represented at Ephesus as the many-breasted, and regarded as a fertility goddess. Moreover, Isis is also a lunar goddess, as indicated by the lunar crescent upon her brow, which in Hathor becomes the cow-horns, the cow being among all peoples the especial symbol of maternity. In the Qabalistic symbolism, the generative organs are assigned to Yesod.
24. All this is very puzzling at first sight, for the symbols appear to be mutually exclusive. Carried a step further, however, we begin to find connecting links between the ideas.
25. The Moon has three goddesses assigned to her, Diana, Selene or Luna, and Hecate, the latter being the goddess of witchcraft and enchantments, and also presiding over child-birth.
26. There is also a very important moon-god, none other than Thoth himself, Lord of Magic. So then, when we find Hecate in Greece and Thoth in Egypt both assigned to the Moon, we cannot fail to recognise the importance of the Moon in matters magical. What then is the key to the magical Moon, who is sometimes a virgin goddess and sometimes a fertility goddess?
27. The answer is not very far to seek. It is to be found in the rhythmical nature of the Moon, and, in fact, in the rhythmical nature of sex-life in the female. There are times when Diana is manybreasted; there are times when her hounds tear the intruder to pieces.
28. In dealing with the rhythms of Luna we are dealing with etheric, not physical, conditions. The magnetism of living creatures waxes and wanes with a definite tide. It is a thing that is not difficult to observe when one knows what to look for. It shows itself most clearly in relations between persons in whom magnetism is fairly evenly balanced. Sometimes one will be in the ascendant, and sometimes the other.
29. Now, it may be asked, if the Sphere of Yesod is etheric, why are the generative organs assigned to this sphere, for surely their function is physical, if anything is? The answer to that question is to be found in the knowledge of the subtler aspects of sex which appears to be entirely lost to the Western world. It cannot be entered upon in detail in these pages, and it must suffice to point out that all the more important aspects of sex are etheric and magnetic. We might liken it to an iceberg, five-sixths of whose bulk is below the surface. The actual physical reactions of sex form a very small proportion, and by no means the most vital portion of its functioning. It is owing to our ignorance of this that so many marriages fail to fulfil the purpose of the welding of two halves into a perfect whole.
30. We take no account of the magical side of marriage, despite the fact that the Church classes it as a sacrament. Now a sacrament is defined as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, and it is that inward and spiritual grace which is so seldom found in the marriage act of the Anglo-Saxon races, with their relatively frigid temperament and contempt for the body. That inward and spiritual grace which makes of marriage a true sacrament after its kind is not the grace of sublimation, or renunciation, or a purity of denial and abstention; it is the grace of the blessing of Pan in the joy in natural things so beautifully expressed by Walt Whitman in his poem-series, Children of Adam.
31. The assignation to Yesod of the perfumes and sandals is very significant. These two things play a very important part in magical operations. The sandals, or soft heelless slippers that give free play to the foot, are always used in ceremonial work to tread the magical circle. They are as important a part of the equipment of the practical occultist as his rod of power. God said unto Moses, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” The adept makes holy ground for himself by placing upon his feet the consecrated sandals. The floor-cloth, of the appropriate colour and marked with the appropriate symbols, is also an important piece of lodge furniture. It is designed to concentrate the earth magnetism used in the Operation in the same way that the altar is the focus of the spiritual forces. Through our feet we pick up the earth magnetism; and when that magnetism is of a special kind, we use special slippers that shall not inhibit it.
32. The perfumes, too, are very important in ceremonial operations, for they represent the etheric side of the affair. Their psychological influence is well known, but the fine art of using them psychologically has been but little studied outside occult lodges. The use of perfumes is the most effectual way of playing on the emotions, and consequently of changing the focus of consciousness. How quickly do our thoughts turn away from earthly things when the drifting smoke of incense comes to us from the high altar; how quickly do they return to them again when we get a whiff of patchouli from the next pew!
33. And in the four Tarot cards assigned to this Sephirah how clearly do we see the workings of the etheric magnetism appearing. There is Great Strength when we are on the earth-contacts and blessed of Pan; there is also Material Happiness; in fact, without the blessing of Pan there can be no material happiness because there is no peace of the nerves. On its negative side, however, are to be found the depths of Despair and Cruelty; but with the earth-contacts firm under our feet there comes Material Gain because we are adequate to deal with the material plane.
