Malkuth
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Define "Mastery"?
If you mean Master of all its parts, then surely you must know all its constituent parts intimately, from Ain Soph downwards before you can truly "Master" all its parts?
Just an a purely physical-science level, you cannot "Master" all matter without understanding its basis as energy, which would also imply the realities beyond energy.Its much like a Chess player saying he wants to know everything about the Pawn.
But the Pawn can only be understood by its relation to the other pieces and the board itself. -
Basic rule of magickThere is no mastery from within a phenomenon. You need to be outside of it - transcendent to it - to be its master.
With respect to aspects, powers, and capacity of oneself, one is rarely a master until one is a past master - has moved past it.
Less than this is usually called mastery of the 'bation.
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In Swami Vivikananda's Raja Yoga, he tells how if one gained complete control over prana, one would have the power to move celestial bodies out of orbit! But a human to poses such a power is more rare then, well it's less then 1 out of 5 billion probly, if a person could reach such a level. Dragonball Z style
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First, Malkuth is not "the planet Earth". As I stated eslewhere, Neil Armstrong did not land on Yesod. Maluth is the supernal sephirah that corresponds to the material actuality of reality, as opposed to our interpretation of what is served up to us by our senses and translated before we have time to consciously do so - in the way that if you see a type of motor car that you have never seen before, you still know it's a car without having to do so consciously.
You cannot conquer Malkuth, but you can rise to it through deep impassive meditation until every interpretation disappears, at which point you are only aware of the materiality of yourself - everything else being created by the senses. In such a state there is no Will, which is why it is just as well that it can't last (unless you're a Jain monk who decides to then starve himself to death).
In Magick tthis state is a preparation for rebuilding Yesod-consciousness in accordance with Will, rather than being a slave to what we have built up throughout our life.
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Interestingly, malkuth has the rook m-l-k, same as the word "king". It means "kingdom", but a more literal translation would be "dominion" (as the root means to rule/dominate - the job of a king)
So, I would almost want to contradict you, sethur, and say that Malkuth is, by definition, that which is conquered and/or ruled. Naturally though, it can't be done from within Malkuth, because, if you exist only in Malkuth, then you are ruled, not a ruler.
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Sorry, but "by definition" is meaningless. All such terms are indicators, not definitions. The term does not indicate who is the King, only that it is ruled. Nowadays, we understand that Malkuth is ruled by laws of science that transcend individual will - I cannot "Will" Hydrogen to gain an extra Proton without it becoming Helium, for example. And even then I employ terms that arise from interpretations. I strongly suspect that the interpretations are correct, but do not direct my Magick regarding attainment of the sephirah Malkuth towards justifying such interpretations, instead I attempt to move below interpretation itself - and then move to other sephiroth.
To me, it is the sheer difficulty of attaining Malkuth - but then having 9 other sphiroth to attain - that attracts me to Cabala. And to me, it is the sim plistic "we are all in Malkuth, so the first thing is to go higher" that has wrecked the use of Cabala in so many Orders.
IMHO of course.
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@sethur said
"Nowadays, we understand that Malkuth is ruled by laws of science that transcend individual will"
Careful how you swing that "we" around <g>. I, for one, am not certain the above is true.
Note that I'm not saying it isn't. I'm actually agnostic on the matter. There are certainly individual cases where I've observed it being wrong, but those don't necessarily invalidate the basic statement in a general way.
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Hmm, bad wording. I didn't mean that Malkuth is ruled by what current scientists believe are the Laws of Science. They keep changiong their mind anyway. I mean that the Laws that control materiality are before and beyond human interpretation. This is why Karl Popper developed his Philosophy of Science - the best we can do is to know that theories can be proved false because experiments based upon those theories don't work. Human science is about functionality, not absolutes.
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I was doing some internet searching to review my Karl Popper because that's some pretty deep stuff you guys are throwing out there. I found this quote, and I thought it was just too perfect:
""What is the object of knowledge?" asks young Grasshopper. "There is no object of knowledge," replies the old Shaman, "To know is to be able to operate adequately in an individual or cooperative situation." "So which is more important, to know or to do?" asks young Grasshopper. "All doing is knowing, and all knowing is doing," replies the Sage, and then continues, "Knowing is an effective action, that is, knowledge operates effectively in the domain of existence of all living creatures." (paraphrased from Maturana & Varela, 1992)."
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@Jim Eshelman said
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Less than this is usually called mastery of the 'bation."
Now that's funny, yet surprisingly insightful."First, Malkuth is not "the planet Earth". As I stated eslewhere, Neil Armstrong did not land on Yesod. Maluth is the supernal sephirah that corresponds to the material actuality of reality, as opposed to our interpretation of what is served up to us by our senses and translated before we have time to consciously do so - in the way that if you see a type of motor car that you have never seen before, you still know it's a car without having to do so consciously"
.My initial instinct is to disagree, whatever that is due to[lack of enlightenment or otherwise]. Or maybe the phrasing of my question was flawed, or a bit of both; however "the supernal sephirah that corresponds to material actuality" is an entirely abstract concept rendering it completely subjective. For me there must be some relation between the Planet Earth and Malkuth even if it is just the simple fact that Planet Earth is for almost all intents and purposes is the only "material actuality" that we have access to. Yet the comparison runs deeper still, geometrically both Earth and Malkuth take the form of a sphere, both may be considered in relation to other spheres, * to form a larger structure or organization * as such I cannot within my mind divorce the solar system from the TOL, it actually seems retarded to IMO since historically it was it's inspiration[seven planets etc], this does not however limit my conception of the TOL to that concept alone.
I have different question though...and this is vaguely reminiscent of the thread "The Solar Phallic King" . are the lower sephirahs considered feminine in respect to the higher spheres? this is interesting to me not in least because women have less freedom to be dreamers and idealists, [as Veronica also pointed out somewhere] by being the child bearers ..the gateway for unborn souls into Malkuth.
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I think what's trying to be said here is that Malkuth isn't the physical rock we're walking around on, it's not physical matter, but the spiritual representation of that matter and our relationship with it, in the same way that Yesod isn't the actual moon travelling around our planet that regulates tides and seasons, etc.
To "master" Malkuth is to have a true and full awareness of one's physical existence - and that in terms of ecology, economy, politics, and even the day to day stuff like cooking, cleaning, the ability to organise one's resources to earn, rear or grow food, care for one's offspring, maintain a dwelling-place, and so on. And doing all of this with the Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel all at once ~ to live a physical life according to higher spiritual principles.
It has a deeply spiritual aspect and there are spirits of Malkuth - the Ashim are kinda like the motivating life-force of all living things; Elementals aren't directly represented on the tree.
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@_aLL_seEing_eYe_ said
"I have different question though...and this is vaguely reminiscent of the thread "The Solar Phallic King" . are the lower sephirahs considered feminine in respect to the higher spheres? this is interesting to me not in least because women have less freedom to be dreamers and idealists, [as Veronica also pointed out somewhere] by being the child bearers ..the gateway for unborn souls into Malkuth."
All Sephirah are considered Feminine to the ones preceding it.
(Grammatical niggle: "Sephirah" is the plural form. The additional "s" doesn't make sense)
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@Seraph said
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(Grammatical niggle: "Sephirah" is the plural form. The additional "s" doesn't make sense)"Niggling your niggle: 'Sephirah' is the singular, 'Sephiroth' is the plural
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@PatchworkSerpen said
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@Seraph said
" (Grammatical niggle: "Sephirah" is the plural form. The additional "s" doesn't make sense)"Niggling your niggle: 'Sephirah' is the singular, 'Sephiroth' is the plural
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O_o, didnt know that one:D -
@PatchworkSerpen said
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@Seraph said
" (Grammatical niggle: "Sephirah" is the plural form. The additional "s" doesn't make sense)"Niggling your niggle: 'Sephirah' is the singular, 'Sephiroth' is the plural
"Damn. Brain fart. You're right. X)
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@Seraph said
"I think what's trying to be said here is that Malkuth isn't the physical rock we're walking around on, it's not physical matter, but the spiritual representation of that matter and our relationship with it, in the same way that Yesod isn't the actual moon travelling around our planet that regulates tides and seasons, etc."
Excuse me if I'm slow but that just doesn't make sense to me, what is the spiritual representation of physical matter aside from matter itself? yes I understand that it is a "symbolic" representation but a symbolic representation of a spiritual representation of physical matter becomes too convoluted to actually make sense as opposed to a symbolic representation of matter itself. futher Malkuth on its own doesn't represent any relationship whatsoever until it is considered in relation to other sephira. So it would make sense to understand malkuth in relation to other sephira e.g. yesod, as physical matter in relation to the astral plane, by the same token although Yesod may not be limited to the physical moon, yet the moon does have influence of Earth that are more subtle than direct physical contact, like you mention; regulating tides and seasons, women's menstrual cycles etc.
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I think your key question to answer is: what is the difference between Malkuth and Assiah?
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@AvshalomBinyamin said
"I think your key question to answer is: what is the difference between Malkuth and Assiah?"
Agreed!
Want to see a great representation of Malkuth in Briah? Read the Cry of the 20th Aethyr in The Vision & the Voice.
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@AvshalomBinyamin said
"I think your key question to answer is: what is the difference between Malkuth and Assiah?"
would you care to elaborate and/or express your opinion on the matter? it would be appreciated.
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It's a thing that many of us get confused about, and it can be hard to separate the two concepts. I've confused them a lot.
A lot of introductory qabbalah articles (incorrectly) describe Malkuth using Assiah's definition, and this adds to the confusion. A good exercise is to take a complex, creative activity, and break down the portions into their categories in the worlds and the sephiroth.
Let me try an example, and if Jim or someone with similar expertise can correct me if I goof up:
I have a flash of inspiration about inventing and building a new musical instrument. I then come up with some plans for how to make it a physical reality. I then gather the tools and materials, and build the instrument according to plans.
The act of inspiration was Briatic. The abstract thinking about making plans was Yetziratic. Physically building the instrument was Assiah. (This, by the way, is the same pattern as in the old testament, when it says that God creates, makes, and forms something, in that order...)
And yet, from the very beginning, this instrument, from inspiration, to physical manifestation, was always about a 'real world' instrument. So all 3 steps were mostly 'in Malkuth', so to speak.
And a second example:
I have a flash of inspiration about creating a classification method and system for musical instruments. I then come up with all the details about the classification method, and how it will work. I obtain a file cabinet and fill out cards with all the classification details.Same Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. But the 3 steps were mostly 'in Hod'.
Of course, there is overlap, and no project or activity is entirely in one sphere.
Corrections?