Pathways across the abyss?
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Does anyone know why there is no official path that connects Chesed to Binah and Geburah to Chokmah. I realize that Daath is located in this area of the Abyss so to say. But it strikes me as odd as the whole system of attainment relies on going from Chesed to Binah. Would that not in itself rate a path? Or maybe is that the point of having the Abyss there? To eliminate any clear path so you have to figure it out yourself? I'm not trying to figure out HOW to get across the abyss, it just strikes me as odd that there isn't the paths connecting the Sephirah I described.
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@Phoenix said
"Does anyone know why there is no official path that connects Chesed to Binah and Geburah to Chokmah."
Yes. It's because the nature of the Abyss is that there is no sure path through it. There is a gap. The essence of the Abyss is all footing dropping from under one.
Oh, except there is one cheat: The Path of Gimel. (Which in many ways is uindistinguishable from Binah.)
"I realize that Daath is located in this area of the Abyss so to say."
Except Da'ath isn't a sephirah. In fact, it can be argued (in typical Da'ath style) that the whole punchline of Da'ath is that there is no such thing as knowledge.
"But it strikes me as odd as the whole system of attainment relies on going from Chesed to Binah."
One, that's bullshit. There's this "Abyss mania" running around in recent years. In one cases you can decide who to dismiss and pay no attention to by their obsession with the Abyss and crossing it. (Exceptions are the very new and naive, and the rare, extraordinary Master.)
The whole of the system of attainmnent relies on the attainnent of the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. That's the Next Step for humanity, the individual step equivalent to the species entering the Aeon of Horus.
But... all that aside... read One Star in Sight, the section on the tasks for moving from Adeptus Exemptus to Magister Templi. Three tasks are listed: One for Zayin (to Binah from Tiphereth), one for Cheth (to Binah from Geburah), and one for the "no path to be found" Abyss itself (to Binah from Chesed). Read these for yourself and acquire context.
"I'm not trying to figure out HOW to get across the abyss, it just strikes me as odd that there isn't the paths connecting the Sephirah I described."
See above. OTOH you don't really need to fret about it until you're an Exempt Adept <vbg>.
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There is an interpretation that actually, there are paths on the ToL everywhere.
Coincidentally, it is 16 paths that are "missing" on the ToL with its 32 paths. And also coincidentally, the 10 sephirah are depicted by 40 minor arcana tarot cards which show the four elementary aspects of each sephirah, and 22 major arcana paths which show the connections.
Also there are the 16 further elementary cards. It is not a big jump to assume that the 16 further cards depict the seemingly missing paths, so you have 10 (*4) + 22 + 16 = 78 tarot cards, and also a sum total of 48 "ToL places", 10 sephirah, and 22 open and 16 hidden paths. Coincidentally, the "secret" connection between the 48 enochian keys and the ToL has never been revealed as far as I know.
Taking all that, there are four paths each "missing" from Kether, Chokmah and Binah, and two each from Chesed and Geburah. If we assume that Kether takes on the mantle of root of air, Chokmah root of fire and Binah root of water, and earth are the four lowest "missing" paths, and that the cards are then used top-down in their usual sequence, the path between Chesed and Binah would be the Knight of Cups.
Coincidentally, there is this story about the Holy Grail, a cup, that has to be found by a knight who is also to become a king by crossing an impossible pit.
Hope my little ironic excurse was not annoying but a bit entertaining and that my musings are of some interest to the OP or whoever likes it.
Cheers
Simple Simon
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"Does anyone know why there is no official path that connects Chesed to Binah and Geburah to Chokmah."
I always tend to give a very simple answer to this question.
"I Am The Way, The Truth and The Light". And I come to The Divine only by Me.
My self-knowledge is not anyone else's. Only I can walk My Path.
On this journey of self-knowledge:
I Am My Way, My Truth and My Light...officially.
More elaborately,
We begin with the wound of ignorance. In healing that wound, there will be correspondences and similarities with others who are also engaged in this healing process. Yet, ultimately, everyone has to go to the trinity of the God-head her/himself."
I believe that this is most individual/personal part of the journey. You can walk the paths up to Chesed with co-workers. But at a certain point after attaining knowledge of and meaningful conversation with your HGA; one must take the leap to bridge that final gap by which you literally prove your Spirit/HGA.
This bridging tends to be the space for the birth of authentic spiritual/religious movements. This complex bridging of the Abyss is evident in Crowley's own journey and this is why I believe that he having pushed the boundaries himself, urged the zealous to the formation of their own authentic systems of of religious practice. His own racist misogyny was tempered by a black HGA into a most beautiful system of worship of the Divine Feminine.
Love is the Law, Love under Will
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I think it quite probable that the holy cup or grail has always been a metaphor/symbol and never an actual item the way christian legends go, but I can't prove that. Also it seems obvious from context that not only Crowley chose the grail as a symbol of, shall we say, the lower and upper vagina (the actual one and the one of Babalon/Kundalini, the Sahasrara). It might have been a symbol of tantric kundalini activation and completion for much of its history amongst those who created/sourced these legends.
Historically, the above is pure speculation on my part.
Edit, P.S.: Well, your linked item still is a nice enough figurine and bloodstone/shape
