Qabalah: Discover Powerful Tools to Explore Practical Magic and the Tree of Life (Hay House Basics) - David Wells 2017
Universal laws
Symbolism and The Tree of Life
To better understand how you might see the influence of the Sephiroth in your life, or how you might use them perhaps, you need to know these undeniable laws. They can help put events and situations into the context of the Tree of Life, and that will hopefully help you find your way out of those you don’t want or attract more or those you do!
Kether
No. 1: The law of expression or creativity
Creativity. It’s something we admire in others. How often do we say, ’I wish I was more creative’? You can hear yourself saying it, I’m sure! Do you know that you’re just as creative as the next person, it’s just that you may not have taken the time to find how to express it yet?
Creativity is an expression of who you are. At its very heart, it’s simply being yourself, bringing yourself to a project or a situation. You don’t have to compare yourself to anyone else or copy anyone else. It’s easy to just do the bidding of your boss or of someone who is bossy, but is that what you’ve incarnated for?
Think of the Sephira that’s associated with this law. Think of the moment where no-thing exists, so no-thing is impossible. From that point, what would you choose to make possible?
Create something for itself and for no other reason. Start something new in your life because it seems like fun and make it an expression of yourself.
Chokmah
No. 2: The law of rotation or cycles
We all know that life moves in cycles, the obvious ones being the seasons and the rising and setting of the Sun. You can see cycles in fashion, in governments and in your own moods. As the great wheel turns, recognize what cycle you’re in, where you are in it and how you can use it to make your life easier.
Most likely you already do, but where? Can you think of a cycle you adhere to? If you have children, you’ll know that every year at a certain time there’s book week, then there’s the Halloween party and so on, and you can be ready for it or not!
Some cycles you can’t change, like the seasons, for example. You’ll also see cycles in those you love — when they are more vibrant, when they slow down — and you may not be able to change those either. The move from birth to death is a cycle too. Whether we like it or not, the wheel turns.
Where do you need to be more patient and wait for the right moment rather than ignore the cycles you see?
Binah
No. 3: The law of polarity
Polarities: there are male and female, hot and cold, dark and light, yin and yang, and you probably have more to add to the list. Polarities are all around us, but they should complement each other, with neither being dominant, and if things do move out of synch they should compensate quickly.
In your own life this may mean using the power of silence to allow time for someone to restore their own balance, or could it be about putting form around the chaos they have going on in their life by using what they’re missing but you have in abundance? If one person is great at accounts and the other superb with customers, it makes for a good business, but what if neither is that great with customers?
Can you identify a situation where you are yin to someone else’s yang? Or where more hot is needed to balance the cold?
Chesed
No. 4: The law of order and timing
Isn’t that the same as cycles? Not quite. Perhaps it’s best described as being linear rather than circular.
The law of order and timing is knowing that everything has its time and place. The flower grows and at the perfect time it will bloom. It’s also about the order and timing of your soul choices, about listening to what is your true will and living it rather than falling into the trap of hypocrisy or, worse still, bigotry.
In your own life it’s knowing enough to let things go with the energy of the moment, but also knowing when it’s time to do your bit. Taking that flower, for example, it may know it’s time to bloom and do it beautifully, but the bee that visits the bloom also knows it’s time to get some pollen for honey, which in turn pollinates the flower. Sometimes you just need to be before you can blossom.
Look at a project in your life. Truly observe it and know whether you need to be involved in it now or not.
Geburah
No. 5: The law of cause and effect
This is one of those laws that really needs no introduction! Look at the Sephira it’s associated with!
The law of cause and effect is quite simple: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Another way of looking at it is karma. You’ll see this clearly in your own life, without even needing to delve into past lives. Your actions have consequences.
Sometimes you know what could come back at you and yet you feel so passionately about something, you just have to go with it anyway. But there are limits. Cause and effect can adjust and bring change, but must never, ever, be allowed to move into cruelty, where you just don’t care what damage you cause.
Can you see where cause and effect could work really well for you in your life? We often look at the negative connotations of this law, but think of the positive. Through giving time or money to charity work, for example, we bring about far-reaching change. Look at your own life. Where can you bring in more of the positive by doing more of the positive?
Tiphareth
No. 6: The law of adaption or change
We adapt. It’s what we do. But is adaption change, pure and simple? Could it be a warning too? If you lost a limb, you would adapt to make the most of what you had left. What if you were kept prisoner? Would you adapt and make the most of that? Would you adapt to bigger jeans instead of looking at the cause and effect of eating too many doughnuts?
Don’t adapt negatively, adapt positively. Adapt upwards — adapt and change as you devote yourself to a greater cause or commitment. Raise your vibrations and use the law of adaption positively by spending time with those who do that for you naturally. Tribes and vibes. Where can you adapt purposely? Where can you invite change in?
Netzach
No. 7: The law of relativity and perception
Some weeks pass quickly, some seem to drag. Perhaps that’s relative to what you’re doing or how you perceive the time that you have. If you’re on holiday, time passes all too quickly. If you’re doing a boring job, it slows down, bringing you long hours filled with mind-numbing tasks!
Perception can also be a tricky thing. Acting on what you see means acting on what you see from your angle. Change that perspective and you might see something totally different. You might think someone is a right royal pain; what you might not know is why they’re behaving that way. That child making too much noise while their parent pays no attention whatsoever — annoying, isn’t it? Until you find out the parent has just taken a phone call with some devastating news in it and is in a state of shock.
What’s really going on in your life? What could you be seeing from just one angle? Where do you need to find out that little bit more about a situation? And time — what if there were no time? Let things unfold!
Hod
No. 8: The law of images
I subscribe to the idea that thoughts aren’t ours, they float on past us and we feel them, see them, experience them, however we do it. But do we always act on them?
If you have an idea for a great invention and a few years later there it is, someone else has made it happen. Have they read your mind or just taken the idea that was floating about and done something with it?
An idea that floats past is one image you might have in your head. What you build in your mind is, however, different. If you keep thinking the same thing over and over again, it will manifest. Negative or positive, it doesn’t matter. So, keep the images, and the chat, inner and outer, as positive as you can. Always. Catch yourself saying something negative about yourself and stop right there. I don’t just mean stop doing it, but stop and consider how it’s making you feel. Now change it. How does that make you feel?
Yesod
No. 9: The law of reflection
We all know that when we meet someone we like, we mirror their actions. It’s basic body language — they cross their arms, we do it; they play with their drink, we do it.
Take that a step further and you see life reflecting back messages all the time, through songs, television programmes, books, other people… Look, there you are — situations in other people’s lives that are in yours too!
Recognize this process. Then detach from your emotional reactions to it. Find a way to use what you see without letting it take you on an even deeper journey into the emotions of it all. Step back and consider what it’s telling you.
Be aware of those prompts, those moments that tell you not only what needs to change but also what you may need more of in your life.
Malkuth
No. 10: The law of discrimination and action
What do you really need to do right now? If you have to make a pie, you can’t fill it before you’ve made the pastry, but first you have to decide to make the pie and actually do it! Does the pie have to be made before the potatoes are done? Probably, so you do that first, don’t you? Or maybe you don’t want a pie, you want a takeaway… Do it, don’t do it, either way, but make a decision and act on it or you’ll remain in the land of doing nothing, the land of inertia.
Here on Earth, nothing happens without action — fact. Is there something you want to see happen? You can think it, dream it, see it, feel it, ask your angels about it and/or get a crystal glowing, but nothing will happen until you decide where it lies on your list of priorities and then get on and do something about it.
Where have you been leaving an event, an action, up to a higher power without participating in it yourself?
