by Mark Horn
Correspondences:
Minor Arcana: The sixes in each suit.
Body Map: The heart.
Divine Name: Elohim.
Tiferet Key Words: Compassion, Beauty, Truth, Harmony, Balance, Heart, Openheartedness, Dynamic Equilibrium.
7. Netzach: Concepts associated with this Sephira include Mastery, Victory, Mission, and Eternity. On the human level, this means channeling power with intention and direction. Other qualities of this Sephira include Dominance and Triumph, Endurance and Ambition, Fortitude and Physical Energy. This is expressed in human terms as defining oneself through mastery, showing Drive and Determination and moving forward. Within this Sephira is the power to choose—to say yes or no to a situation. In the Zohar, Netzach and its partner Hod are connected to prophecy. Netzach has the outward movement of Chesed, but in the service of establishing personal identity. And because we’re speaking of the outer world, it’s not only identity but also persona. The image I have when thinking of Netzach (in balance with Hod) is Neil Armstrong stepping out of the capsule and onto the lunar surface. His words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” and then his planting the U.S. flag on the moon, capture for me the active victory principle expressed in Netzach, while at the same time his words express the humility of Hod in his relationship with all humanity.
Correspondences:
Minor Arcana: The sevens in each suit.
Body Map: The right hip and leg.
Divine Name: YHVH Tzevaot.
Netzach Key Words: Mastery, Victory, Mission, Eternity, Endurance, Ambition, Willpower, Fortitude, Dominance, Triumph, Drive, Focused Energy, Determination, Perseverance, Persistence, Commitment, Achievement, Tenacity, Resolve, Resilience.
8. Hod: Often translated as “Splendor,” it is also called “Glory.” This Sephira carries the energies of Gratitude and Humility, Submission and Surrender. When you consider the pair of Chesed and Gevurah above, the pairing of Netzach and Hod is also a balancing of energies. The surrender we speak of here is the surrender of the ego in humility—when we are able to listen to and truly hear others wiser than ourselves. The wisdom in the balance of Netzach and Hod is expressed in a section of the Mishnah known as the Pirkei Avot.
Who is wise? One who learns from all . . .
Who is strong? One who subdues their passions.2*6
This stands in direct opposition to the energy of Netzach by itself, which is all about establishing the ego in dominance of all outside. But this doesn’t mean Hod is about being a milquetoast; it’s on the side of Gevurah, so it takes in the strength of Gevurah. This is surrender from the place of a healthy, strong ego. So in opposition to Netzach, Hod is inner-directed.
In some ways, Glory (Hod) is a greater realization of Victory (Netzach). If Victory isn’t internalized, integrated, and nurturing of the self, it is an empty experience. Glory includes the experience of internalized Victory. Victory without this internalization can feel the need for constant reassurance, an unquenched thirst for continual wins.
The negative side of Hod can be seen in the holding back of taking action due to constant second-guessing, discussion, and preparation that doesn’t end. If you’ve ever been in a long meeting where the discussion feels endless and no action steps are decided, you’ve been in the presence of negative Hod. The ability to stand strong and yet surrender the ego is what opens one’s consciousness to the possibility of prophecy in the balance of Netzach and Hod.
Correspondences:
Minor Arcana: The eights in each suit.
Body Map: The left hip and leg.
Divine Name: Elohim Tzevaot.
Hod Key Words: Splendor, Glory, Humility, Submission, Surrender, Gratitude, Inspiration, Majesty, Sincerity, Devotion, Elegance, Flexibility, Diversity, Appreciation.
9. Yesod: This is the Sephira through which all the upper Sephirotic energies come together again to be channeled into Malchut. The holding and channeling of these energies is one of the reasons Yesod is traditionally associated with the male sexual organ (from a twenty-first-century point of view, this is simplistic, but as I never tire of saying, “Remember, it’s all metaphor”). Recently, I’ve heard teachers also connect Yesod to the birth canal, which also makes sense, since as it’s the ninth Sephira, it calls to mind the nine months of gestation to birth. Yesod is all about the desire to connect. This connection is way more than just sexual, but sexual energy and desire certainly play a powerful part in the energy of Yesod. However, while I have started the discussion of Yesod’s sexual energy right at the start, I don’t want to give the impression that this is the first quality to consider in this Sephira.
Words that are associated with Yesod are Bonding, Connection, Attachment, and Foundation. A true and deep emotional bond demands fearless intimacy and radical integrity that enable both closeness and separateness at the same time. All humans have their feeling of safety and security in the world formed by their first bond with the mother. When an infant can completely trust the mother to be there, provide, and protect, the result is a child and adult who feels at home in the world—someone who has a strong foundation. When you are bonded with another you are seen completely and you see the other completely with acceptance and trust.
However, the Yesodic desire to connect or bond can be indiscriminate, and some results of Yesodic energy that is out of balance are addiction, obsession, and attachment disorders. Yesod that is unable to connect to the energy of Tiferet is distorted and can lead to substance addiction or compulsive behaviors such as gambling or sex addiction. Just as I noted earlier that as each Sephira is associated with a part of the body, each Sephira is also associated with a Biblical personage. Yesod is identified with the biblical embodiment of male chastity and sexual purity, Joseph, because of his ability to withstand the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife (and in some tellings of the story, Potiphar as well).
Just as Tiferet is both a balance and a synthesis of Chesed and Gevurah, Yesod is both a balance and synthesis of Netzach and Hod. This combination includes the outward-facing sense of determination and mission in Netzach with the vulnerability and humility of Hod to create a connection of true intimacy. It’s where the self and other are in a balanced relationship.
The negative side of Yesod is what the Buddhists call the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, where animalistic desire drives everything and where nothing can satisfy this desire: it is endless. But when Yesod is in relationship with Tiferet, it creates the possibility of connecting with the Divine through connection with the world, including the experience of that connection in sexual union. This is where the Kabbalists’ practice of heterosexual sex in a marriage on Erev Shabbat*7 was considered a way of reuniting the Divine with the Shekinah, the feminine presence of God, which is identified with the next Sephira, Malchut. It unifies all four levels of the soul within each person. This sexual union is meant to heal the split in creation and to unify the masculine and feminine energies within the practitioner. As you can see, this could easily be misunderstood or misinterpreted. In fact, there are other relationships and sexual energies between the Sephirot I’ve not mentioned. These teachings were only transmitted by the Kabbalists to chosen students who could fully understand them without the danger of their acting out relationships prohibited by biblical law. Obviously, for queer people like me there are other ways to unify the Divine Masculine and Feminine energies. More about that later as we get into the practice.
The power of Yesod is best expressed in E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End, which captures how Yesod holds the possibility of healing the duality of the Divine and the demonic.
Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.3
When Yesod is connected to Tiferet, one feels the connection to the Divine in all relationships. And i
n the ecstasy of sexual and spiritual connection, not only does isolation die, but also all separation is revealed as an illusion.
Correspondences:
Minor Arcana: The nines in each suit.
Body Map: Traditionally, the male genitals, the phallus. Recently, also the birth canal.
Divine Name: El Chai Shaddai.
Yesod Key Words: Foundation, Connection, Generativity, Bonding, Attachment, Basis, Channel, Creativity, Intimacy, Base, Yearning, Desire, Relationship.
10. Malchut: Sometimes called “Kingdom” or “Kingship,” which could be confusing since the first suggests a location in space and the second is more about a quality or character trait. And that’s a good thing, since Malchut encompasses both definitions and more. As a location, Malchut is the physical world we live in, which receives Divine energy every second: it receives the combined energies of all the upper Sephirot that create the reality that surrounds (and includes) us. In fact, Malchut has neither energy nor light of its own, but only receives and reflects the light of heaven as filtered through all the higher Sephirot. It is also called “Majesty”; when one receives all the higher energies in balance in Malchut, one sees all creation as majestic.
As a quality or character trait, Malchut was translated historically as “Kingship” but is better described as “Sovereignty” because when one receives all the higher energies in a balanced relationship, the result is a human being who is fully Grounded, self-assured, and Self-possessed. This confers a level of dignity that isn’t about being haughty or stuffy but is the dignity of the human spirit at its purest. And when we have reached the forty-ninth day, Malchut of Malchut, you should have greater access to this pure spirit, which can now serve as a stronger container for Divine revelation.
Correspondences:
Minor Arcana: The tens in each suit.
Body Map: The feet; in some systems, the mouth, the womb, the digestive system.
Divine Name: Adonai.
Malchut Key Words: Kingdom, Kingship, Sovereignty, Nobility, Shekinah, Manifestation, Service, Divine Presence, Immanence, Royalty, Authority, Responsibility, Dignity, Self-Possession, Presence, Groundedness.
THE FOUR WORLDS
In addition to the ten Sephirot, there are also four worlds (the Hebrew word for world is olam and is singular; olamim is plural), and not surprisingly, just as the Sephirot correspond to the numbered cards in each suit, the four worlds correspond with the four suits. Just as the Sephirot hold Divine energy in ever-deepening concealment, the olamim hold the structure of reality in ever-deepening concealment.
A good way of thinking about this is through the lens of complexity theory and the ideas of implicate and explicate order. Theoretical physicist David Bohm posited that implicate order and explicate order are two frameworks for understanding the same phenomenon. The implicate or “enfolded” order is a deeper and more fundamental order of reality, while the explicate or “unfolded” order includes phenomena that humans normally perceive. He developed this concept to explain the behavior of subatomic particles.
When we scale up the phenomena we’re looking at from the subatomic realm to look at a living human being, we see that human as a discrete and individual organism. That’s how we normally perceive things. We don’t see an amalgamation of separate organs or, getting down to an even lower level, the billions of cells that make up a person. In fact, we also don’t see the billions of nonhuman organisms that live on us and in us that make the complex system we perceive as a discrete person possible. If you look under a microscope at any of these cells, you see that each of them is also a complex system that can be broken down further and further. We get down to complex biomolecules and DNA until we get back down to the subatomic level that Bohm was writing about. It’s all a matter of scale and what we’re able to perceive. Except that you can’t see the explicate and implicate orders at the same time. You can’t look at a human and see a discrete individual and a mass of cells at the same time. Each level or order conceals the ones below it.4
This is a way of looking at the idea of the olamim, or the worlds or multiverses. Only the Divine can perceive these levels of reality simultaneously, because the Divine is the Source of all these levels of reality. These worlds, like the Sephirot, follow an order and interpenetrate each other. The first world, Atzilut, is the world closest to the Divine, so it is associated with our spiritual aspirations. Just as Keter is the Sephira that is closest to the Divine, Atzilut is the world that is closest to the Source. Which means that within Atzilut is a whole Tree—ten Sephirot that are closer to the Divine than the ten Sephirot in the next Tree below it. Atzilut is the world of emanation. Looking at Atzilut through the lens of complexity theory, you could think of it as the world of the quantum foam—the first manifestations of reality, where matter and antimatter wink in and out of existence, giving space-time and the universe a “foamy” character. This is the most enfolded, or implicate, order there is.
While I have no idea if the great Jewish philosopher Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel knew about this theory or quantum foam, these words of his from God in Search of Man speak to this mysterious moment: “The very structure of matter is made possible by the way in which the endless crystallizes in the smallest.”5
Some Kabbalists will say that Atzilut comes before even the existence of space-time. However, I use the example of quantum foam because it is the deepest order science has been able to reach . . . so far. I don’t mean to suggest that the world of Atzilut is the actual world of quantum foam (or that there is actually foam). Once again, this is a metaphoric correspondence to enable you to understand the many enfolded and concealed levels of reality. Because it is associated with the will to create, the tarot suit that corresponds with Atzilut is Wands.
Moving up (or down, or in, depending on the metaphor you prefer) from Atzilut is the next level of implicate order, B’riah, and coming forth from B’riah is Yetzirah. Finally, there is the world of Assiyah: the world of matter as we can ordinarily perceive it—the explicate order. But before we look at the two “middle” worlds of B’riah and Yetzirah, let’s consider the world of Assiyah.
Assiyah is sometimes called the world of action and physical manifestation. It’s the material universe we live in and can perceive with our sensorium and with the tools we have created that enable us to see further down into that material universe. It’s important to note again here that Judaism is a nondual path. The physical world of Assiyah is not meant to be transcended because ultimately there is no separation between it and the other worlds. The path of Tikkun Olam*8—the healing, the making whole of the world—is to see the Divine, the hidden sparks of God energy, in the material world of Assiyah and thus return them to the Divine. Some Jewish meditation traditions focus on training the mind to be able to apprehend the simultaneous interpenetration of these multiple worlds. This is one of the esoteric meanings of the interpenetrating triangles of the Star of David: the upper and lower are not really separate. The tarot suit that corresponds to Assiyah is Pentacles. While we are not able to physically see the implicate order of biomolecules or atoms with our eyes, we are able to apprehend the implicate order of the multiple universes with our souls.
Before we get to the “middle” two worlds, it’s time to note once again that traditional Jewish Kabbalah and the Hermetic (Western tradition) Qabalah are different, and one of the places these differences are clear is in the definition and mapping of correspondences to the “middle” worlds. In the Jewish Kabbalist tradition, the world of B’riah is the world of creation and of conceptual thought—the world of the intellect, while the world of Yetzirah is the world of formation and of the emotions. In the Qabalah of the Western Hermetic tradition, this is completely reversed: the emotions are assigned to B’riah and the intellect is assigned to Yetzirah.
Why am I bringing this up? Because the Western Hermetic tradition assigned the correspondences between Kabbalah or Qabalah and the tarot deck. They aligned the suit of Wands with Atzilut and
spirit, and the suit of Pentacles was aligned with Assiyah and action. This makes sense symbolically. But in the middle, the suit of Cups was aligned with emotion (which makes sense to me metaphorically) and with the Kabbalistic world of B’riah. This tradition also aligned the suit of Swords to intellect—which also makes sense to me metaphorically—and with the world of Yetzirah. For a traditional Jewish Kabbalist, these reversals would be a mistake. Of course, the traditional Jewish point of view doesn’t recognize the value of tarot to begin with. So while my own studies in Kabbalah have all been deeply within the Jewish tradition, at least when it comes to the four Kabbalistic worlds in the tarot deck, I work with the Western Hermetic set of correspondences. The three decks that trace their origin to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn are organized in this way, and that is the organization this book follows.
Don’t let this puzzle or disturb you: consider these differences as simply different maps to the same territory. The Jewish Kabbalists themselves disagreed on how the Sephirot and the olamim correspond with each other, and there are many traditions within mystical Judaism that take different approaches to all this. Azriel of Girona even had very different names for some of the Sephirot. The diagram of the Tree of Life and its paths differ between Rabbi Isaac Luria and Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon (the Vilna Gaon). Everyone is trying to describe what ultimately goes beyond language. Remember, the purpose of these metaphorical maps of the inner journey is to help you to connect with the Source. But as Alfred Korzybski said, “The map is not the territory.” Your experience doing the practice will be different from mine. We all come up against different challenges. Welcome these challenges as the teachers they are.
