Qabalah: Discover Powerful Tools to Explore Practical Magic and the Tree of Life (Hay House Basics) - David Wells 2017

Binah
The Sephiroth

Binah is called the Great Mother, the Cosmic Goddess. She is the great sea from where we all spring; she is where life begins and ends. She turns both knowledge and wisdom into understanding. Knowledge is something we constantly seek, wisdom is sharing what we have learned, and the alchemy of putting them both together, as Binah does, truly produces a deeper understanding of what we are about.

This is where you have been through some tough stuff, you know what the lesson was and you can see the wisdom that’s pointed out to you by your friends, or appears in your dreams, or any other way you can imagine, and then, then there’s that moment of deep understanding, that slow stealth of the ’Aha!’ moment that almost makes you laugh (sometimes actually does for me) at the deep, deep truth in what you now know to be absolute.

It may seem odd having Binah, the Great Mother, at the head of the Pillar of Severity, and indeed she’s represented by Saturn, a male planet and god. But remember that as you climb the Tree you are moving further and further away from the physical world, so when talk turns to male and female, it’s not the same as here on Earth, where we divide those forces according to anatomy. Here it’s about polarity and a recognition that for black to be, white must exist, for yin there must be yang, for negative, positive, and so on. But if you stop and think for a moment, your own anatomy doesn’t determine your response to a situation — you can be both receptive as well as active, negative as well as positive. Both/and rather than either/or.

On the Tree of Life, Binah is seen as a feminine force, one that takes the seed of an idea from Chokmah, binds it with her power into form and sends it down the Tree. Saturn also represents karma, and as Binah sits above Geburah, this planetary force reminds us also of what we have learned, enforcing the discipline of the law of karma — every action has an equal or opposite reaction.

Binah makes all things holy, as she effectively brings all things into formation! She has three names, known as the sanctifying intelligence of the Tree of Life:

· First is Marah, the great sea, and that refers to the cosmic sea, the sea of life.

· Second is Aimah, the fertile mother, and the force that rises from the sea just as humanity did from the Earth’s seas.

· Finally there is Ama, the dark mother. There are goddesses up and down the Tree, but in Binah we see Hecate, Persephone, Nuit and many other dark mothers capable of harnessing the power of the universe!

Binah witnesses your sorrow, she sees it and she feels it, but she doesn’t seek to make things better, to wrap you in the protectiveness of Chesed or stand in front of you with the might of Geburah. She neither judges nor advises; she accepts and she loves.

There is sorrow in every life, and for me, the beauty in the understanding of Binah is seen in those moments of grief. That may seem like a very odd thing to say. But if you can sit with your grief, feel it and not try to do anything but be with it, there’s a beauty in giving in to it, being at one with it, which will heal you more quickly than trying to push it away and pretend it’s not there.

Whilst running workshops, past-life and Qabalah workshops in particular, I find there can often be a moment when someone makes a breakthrough, a moment when bottled-up grief comes to the surface and comes out. As tempting as it is to offer comfort, a shoulder to lean on, to be Chesed or even Geburah, if it’s a mate of yours who has been hurt, consider the power of Binah, of allowing someone to feel that grief, to finally and totally understand where it comes from and to release it. Silence. The virtue of Binah.

Binah is a tough taskmaster. This Sephira understands when her children need to fly the nest and will push them out, knowing they will be fine but must find their own way, safe in the knowledge that she will be there should they need support and, of course, ready to remind them of the rules. But she will also stand by the sea, weeping as she watches her children leave.

Angels

Tzaphkiel is the archangel of Binah. He protects you from strife and should be called upon whenever you feel things are little too full on, perhaps when you are in need of some support in dealing with what seems like a massive change. He will bring clarity to the situation, showing you what’s really going on, what the changes are about and how you can learn from them and work with them, rather than let them take over. He can ease the work of Saturn if you call on him. Change will happen, but perhaps you don’t need it to be so tough? He’s also said to be so vast that you never see all of him, perhaps just an eye or a hand.

The angelic order is the Aralim, the mighty ones, angels of understanding, known as angels of divine justice.

Vices and virtues

The vice of Binah is avarice, where greed gets in the way of what’s needed perhaps.

The virtue is silence. When you listen, you understand, and when you say nothing, you see more. Nothing works better than a silent response — it encourages those who talk too much to carry on talking until they eventually speak their truth rather than what they think you want to hear. At its most effective, it leaves someone with rather too much to say with nowhere to go with their argument and leaves the power with you. Perhaps the modern equivalent is the internet troll. Throw nothing their way and they shrivel!

Tarot cards

The threes of the Tarot are strong structures — a triangle is stronger than a square — but show that hard work is required and (of course) structure needs to be put around your goal.

· Three of Wands: Lord of Virtue. Become more aware of the skills and talents you possess.

· Three of Cups: Lord of Abundance. The universal love for you is overflowing, exhilarating.

· Three of Swords: Lord of Sorrow. Pain and separation. Perhaps something that needs to be tackled when you feel stronger?

· Three of Disks: Lord of Works. Find what needs your attention and put your attention on it until it budges!

Exercise: Silence is golden

One of the things I particularly like about Binah is its silence. In saying nothing you can say so much. Binah is a quiet place, which may be why understanding comes to you there. Stopping amidst a storm will show you just where the storm came from and what must happen for calmer seas to take its place.

So this exercise is deceptively simple — but very effective. It may seem like something and nothing, but I know many students who find it a tough thing to do.

It’s simply being silent.

If you could do it for half a day, that would be great — in fact it would be amazing. Some people can’t do it for 10 minutes.

The purpose of the silence is to allow your inner chatter to wear itself out, to stop banging on about phone contracts and cat litter, to let the noise of your inner personality die down and to begin to listen with more clarity to your soul and spirit.

You don’t have to sit cross-legged meditating — in fact it’s best if you don’t. You should just be. Wander by the ocean if you can, as the sound of the waves and the motion of the ocean will help you empty your mind. No plugging in your MP3 player and listening to some tunes. Remember the exercise is done in silence. Complete silence isn’t easy in a noisy world, but if it’s just you and nature, that’s perfect.

When you find that place where the noise dies down and you reach the heaven of no internal noise, no external distractions, I promise you, you’ll feel more connected to the universe and from it will come a greater understanding of yourself, what happens next and what choices need to be made. You are Binah, you are the Great Mother, you can let go and leave it to fate.

When you feel you’ve done enough, write down your experience. Was that tougher than you thought? What information came from your soul? Do you recognize just how much your personality witters on all the time?

Then make it a habit: a few hours or a half a day a week where silence is indeed golden.

Visiting Binah

Correspondences

· Keyword: Understanding

· Number: Three

· Archangel: Tzaphkiel

· Order of angels: Aralim

· Planet: Saturn

· Virtue: Silence

· Vice: Avarice

· Gods/goddesses: Danu, Demeter, Hecate, Hera, Isis, Nuit, Shakti

· Colour: Black

· Crystals: Jet, onyx, pearl

· Incense: Myrrh

· Body part: Right side of the face

· Tarot cards: The threes, the queens

Exercise: The Temple of Binah

Dress your altar in silence. Pick a time and place that you know will be as still as possible.

Take a Tarot card before your meditation.

Perform your protection and energy work and create your sacred and beautiful space according to your own divine creativity.

Ask your guides, Archangel Tzaphkiel and the divine beings of Binah to assist you.

Use your 4-2-4-2 breathing or any technique you’re comfortable with to count yourself down into a meditative state of being.

· Allow the material world to melt away and replace it with the temple forest. See it, feel it, be in it completely and walk silently through it.

· Once you’re in the garden, perhaps already in the clearing, see your Tree. This time it will be a piece of jet that breaks free from the shifting, sombre branches of the Tree of Life.

· As it forms a black sphere in front of you, walk towards it, considering what Binah means to you. Where you need to be more like the Great Mother? What needs the discipline of form in your life?

· Project the symbol for Saturn onto the sphere as you walk into it and through into the worlds of Binah. Step onto her beach and feel the dark water lap at your toes.

· Consider the lessons and gifts of Binah and how you could use them. What’s relevant to you right here, right now?

· Feel the holiness of this space, home to the Great Mother. It is a very sacred place.

· Consider your own inner Goddess and your inner God, the balance of the feminine and masculine principles within you. Feel them work together in perfect symmetry.

· Surrender to the silence. In doing so, you find your consciousness expands like never before, right across the great ocean of Binah to the truth of your life in Malkuth. Observe.

· The temple of Binah is triangular, made of many triangles in fact, but it is also the beach and the ocean.

· The archangel of Binah, Tzaphkiel, comes towards you. You think it’s him, for he’s difficult to see, easier to feel. He can help lift the burden of grief, but he can’t remove it; he can ease your troubles, but can’t do the work for you.

· Ask him for the vision of sorrow — how you work with the virtue of Binah and avoid the vice.

· Commune further with Tzaphkiel and the Great Mother and if they offer you a gift, offer them one in the form of your commitment to pay more attention to when silence is required and to work with the balance of yin and yang more within yourself.

· When you’re ready, follow the path back from the ocean and towards the dark sphere waiting for you.

· Say your farewells, pay any further respects and walk into the black light, back into the temple forest of Malkuth.

· Allow the forest to fade, return to your usual surroundings and then close your meditation down.

Make notes, take a Tarot card and remember to eat and drink something. No matter how small, it’s symbolic of grounding your energy here on Earth.

Binah consolidation

’Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.’

HELEN KELLER

’I have a dream…’

Remind yourself of the dream you stated in Malkuth.

Astrology

Look at the planet Saturn in your chart, where he sits and what aspects he attracts. What have you decided to bring more form to and where do you think you need to keep your own counsel a little more?

Tarot cards

· Going into the temple: Card

· Coming out of the temple: Card

· Consolidating the temple: Card

The route the cards are taking

A short analysis of what the cards tell you.

Analysis of the temple visualization

How you felt, what you saw, what the symbols mean to you.

How it has manifested in your life

How has it presented itself in your life here on Earth? What have you noticed that you missed before? What do you want to change?

’Moving forward, I commit to…’

Make a commitment to making those changes happen.