Starting point on the Tree
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I hope someone can shed light on this very basic question.
The A.A. system commences from Malkuth and ascends up the Tree. How is that reconciled with the fact the Fool card, signifying the beginning and the end of a journey, is identified with Kether? The Fool suggests we commence at Kether and descend toward Malkuth before reascending the Tree.
Cf. sethur’s comments from The Kundrie thread:
*No no no! We are not in Malkuth. We are not even in the Malkuth of Assiah.
The cabalistic sages made it abundantly clear that Malkuth, like the other 9 sephiroth, are supernal spheres. The diagram of Adam Kadmon shows how we as individuals interrelate with all 10.
The pre-Zohar cabala, which often used the language of the earlier Heikhalot/Merkaba mysticism, made this clear, and in the earlier form you always descended to what we now call Malkuth before doing anything else.
I have seen Order after Order publish or perform rituals where the temple/lodge is opened in Malkuth as if we were already there and then begin ascending.
IMHO this is the reason so many magicians are ungrounded - we need to attain Malkuth, not just assume it.*
I’ve also heard opinions the average person is “outside” the Tree or situated at Tiphareth before descending to Malkuth and back up to Kether. I incline toward the view the goal of attainment lies in Malkuth (Shekinah) and that it cannot be presumed in advance.
Can anyone clarify from which sephira we commence our journey on the Tree and in which direction?
Thanks
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@he atlas itch said
"The A.A. system commences from Malkuth and ascends up the Tree. How is that reconciled with the fact the Fool card, signifying the beginning and the end of a journey, is identified with Kether? The Fool suggests we commence at Kether and descend toward Malkuth before reascending the Tree."
One possible explanation is that the Paths ordered from Kether to Malkuth signify the process of incarnation, while the Paths ordered from Malkuth to Kether signify the process of initiation, i.e. a return to the state of Anatta that is implied by Atu 0.
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@he atlas itch said
"The A.A. system commences from Malkuth and ascends up the Tree. How is that reconciled with the fact the Fool card, signifying the beginning and the end of a journey, is identified with Kether? The Fool suggests we commence at Kether and descend toward Malkuth before reascending the Tree. "
"Can anyone clarify from which sephira we commence our journey on the Tree and in which direction?"
The answer to that question depends upon the answer to another: Which journey?
In crude 2-dimensional language, one sequence is the mourney of our nonmaterial rarety incarnating; the other is the sequence of our incarnated denseness aspiring to more fully incarnate each successively rarified aspect of our being. - In brief, the old "involution-then-evolution" cycle (though it's not quite that simplistic - good enough for a quick reference, though.)
Another thing that might help: I think your question arises out of the (normal and understandable) idea that 1 comes before 2 - that Kether is the first in the numerical sequence, 0 is the first in the Tarot sequence, etc. Instead, think of them as "1 is the number that best expresses the idea of Kether; 10 is the number that best expresses the idea of Malkuth," etc. and don't necessarily presume linearity in this.
This, by the way, is why the grades are traditionally listed as two numbers, e.g., 2=9 means "Second Grade, Ninth Sephirah." Both numbers apply, and have a relationship to each other. As far as I can tell, this dates back to the 13th C. Sephardic work "The Gates of Light, where the chapters have names like, "First Gate, Tenth Sphere."
To answer your most concrete question, the path of initiation in the system about which you inquire is Malkuth, then Tav to open to Yesod, then Yesod, then Shin and Resh to open to Hod, etc. etc. etc.
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Thanks, the involution/evolution cycle makes sense. If Kether = 1 that would require a reconsideration of the Tarot correspondences on the Tree (for example it seems natural to think of Kether = 0 = Fool and Chokmah = 1 = Magus, but apparently not)
The A.A. system presumes everyone is at Malkuth whether they realize it or not. But I am trying to ascertain a more accurate understanding of the Tree as a map of involution vs. initiation/evolution and I am not convinced the average person is necessarily in Malkuth. We may have physical bodies and exist on the material plane, but our consciousness does not necessarily correspond to that reality - initiated or not. This is a normal part of everyday conditioned consciousness - as the Tibetan Buddhists note, we continually experience aspects of the bardo in waking life. So it seems important to keep this objective vs. subjective distinction in mind. By ascertaining a more accurate picture of involution, the path of initiation/evolution becomes clear.
For example would the consciousness of a happy child correspond to Malkuth or more accurately to Tiphareth, which later in life “falls” to Malkuth and completes the path of involution, whereupon he or she tries to reascend the Tree? Would it be correct to say the consciousness of uninitiated people may be at Netzach or Hod or Yesod before completing involution at Malkuth whereupon real initiation may begin? For example teenage boys may feel the urge to become somebody, expressed in lifting weights and bodybuilding. Surely this is an example of the instinct to incarnate on Malkuth or, as the Hindus would say, the path of becoming?
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@he atlas itch said
"The A.A. system presumes everyone is at Malkuth whether they realize it or not. But I am trying to ascertain a more accurate understanding of the Tree as a map of involution vs. initiation/evolution and I am not convinced the average person is necessarily in Malkuth. We may have physical bodies and exist on the material plane, but our consciousness does not necessarily correspond to that reality - initiated or not. This is a normal part of everyday conditioned consciousness - as the Tibetan Buddhists note, we continually experience aspects of the bardo in waking life. So it seems important to keep this objective vs. subjective distinction in mind. By ascertaining a more accurate picture of involution, the path of initiation/evolution becomes clear.
For example would the consciousness of a happy child correspond to Malkuth or more accurately to Tiphareth, which later in life “falls” to Malkuth and completes the path of involution, whereupon he or she tries to reascend the Tree? Would it be correct to say the consciousness of uninitiated people may be at Netzach or Hod or Yesod before completing involution at Malkuth whereupon real initiation may begin? For example teenage boys may feel the urge to become somebody, expressed in lifting weights and bodybuilding. Surely this is an example of the instinct to incarnate on Malkuth or, as the Hindus would say, the path of becoming?"
I shall take silence as a resounding No to the above. When in doubt stick to tradition - i.e. Malkuth as starting point and Tiphareth reserved for KCHGA.