by Marcus Katz
9. Yesod – the foundation of existence, the unconscious, the psyche and personality, dreams and images.
10. Malkuth – the world as it actually is, unknowable other than through Yesod, our perceptions.
The actual spelling and literal meanings of the titles are as follows:
Sephirah
Hebrew
Translations (most common word given first in bold)
Kether
KThR
Crown, diadem, to surround, besiege, wait, encompass
Chockmah
ChKMH
Wisdom, experience, knowledge, intelligence, insight, judgement, science, midwife
Binah
BYNH
Understanding, insight, prudence, reason, discernment
Da'ath
DA'aTh
Knowledge, insight, wisdom, understanding
Chesed
ChSD
Mercy, grace, piety, beauty, good-will, favour, benefit, love, kindness, charity, righteousness, benevolence, to do good
Geburah
GBVRH
Strength, power, force, valour, courage, victory, might, God, hero
Tiphareth
ThPhARTh
Beauty, splendour, magnificence, ornament, honour, glory, boast
Netzach
NTzCh
Victory, splendour, glory, truth, power, firmness, confidence, eminence.
Duration, perpetuity, eternity, lasting, enduring.
To excel, be superior, strength, blood, to be chief.
Music-master, precentor, to sparkle, shine, win.
Hod
HVD
Glory, splendour, majesty, renown, ornament, beauty
Yesod
YSVD
Foundation, base, ground, principle, compilation
Malkuth
MLKVTh
Kingdom, dominion, realm, reign
We will now look at how the Golden Dawn laid out a schema of initiation based on these concepts, arranged upon the Tree of Life. In essence, they took the approach that if the Tree of Life showed the ten stages of creation, our return to the divine would take exactly the same ten stages, in the same order, back up the Tree of Life. In contemporary terms, this is referred to as an ascent narrative. This ascent is a purely intellectual and spiritual, resulting in initiatory change. It is described in one traditional Kabbalistic book, the Sefer ha-Tzeruf, as “when the sphere of the intellect is moved by the Agent Intellect and the person begins to enter it and to ascend the sphere which returns, like the image of a ladder, and at the time of the ascent his thoughts shall be really transformed and all the visions shall be changed before him, and there will be nothing left to him of what he had earlier.”[20]
The Golden Dawn System
The Golden Dawn system originates from the Cipher manuscripts likely created by Kenneth McKenzie (1833 – 1886) and developed by the founders of the Order, S. L. Macgregor Mathers (1854 – 1918), W. W. Westcott (1848 – 1925) and W. R. Woodman (1828 – 1891), in 1888. The system follows the Tree of Life diagram according to Kircher (1602 – 1680), which has three paths connecting Malkuth and no split paths into Da’ath as used by some models. It is Kircher’s diagram, published in his erroneous work on Egyptology, Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1653), with its extensive tables and wheels of correspondences that is the source for the most-used version of the Tree of Life in esotericism.[21] The Cipher manuscript does include a sketch of the Tree of Life with the paths split by Da’ath, and there is a sketch in unpublished archive papers (see later) but this was not apparently utilised until Waite’s F.R.C. version – nor was it utilised by Crowley.
Illus. Tree of Life from Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1653).
The description of the correspondences is given in these Cipher manuscripts in the “Knowledge of the Practicus” grade, and follows a sequence of the Hebrew letters, path numbers, and then the correspondence of the tarot. Interestingly, the Fool is numbered “1” as is the Magician, and the sequence is written with Strength as 11 and Justice as 8, but then manually changed with two lines crossing the cards over.
Whilst the cards and their correspondences are not listed in a particular sequence in the cipher, they are presented in the Order according to their Hebrew letter order or their numerical card order.
Here are the correspondences as given in the Golden Dawn System.
Letter
Path on Tree
Connecting
Sephiroth
Tarot
Correspondence
Astrological
Correspondence
Aleph
11
1-2
0 : FOOL
Air
Beth
12
1-3
I : MAGICIAN
Mercury
Gimel
13
1-6
II : PRIESTESS
Moon
Daleth
14
2-3
III : EMPRESS
Venus
Heh
15
2-6
IV : EMPORER
Aries
Vau
16
2-4
V : HIEROPHANT
Taurus
Zain
17
3-6
VI : LOVERS
Gemini
Cheth
18
3-5
VII : CHARIOT
Cancer
Teth
19
4-5
VIII : STRENGTH
Leo
Yod
20
4-6
IX : HERMIT
Virgo
Kaph
21
4-7
X : WHEEL
Jupiter
Lamed
22
5-6
XI : JUSTICE
Libra
Mem
23
5-8
XII : HANGED MAN
Water
Nun
24
6-7
XIII : DEATH
Scorpio
Samekh
25
6-9
XIV : TEMPERANCE
Sagittarius
Ayin
26
6-8
XV : DEVIL
Capricorn
Peh
27
7-8
XVI : TOWER
Mars
Tzaddi
28
7-9
XVII : STAR
Aquarius
Qoph
29
7-10
XVIII : MOON
Pisces
Resh
30
8-9
XIX : SUN
Sun
Shin
31
8-10
XX : LAST JUDGEMENT
Fire
Tau
32
9-10
XXI : UNIVERSE
Saturn/Earth
In the Golden Dawn system, the Astrological correspondences are allocated according to the division within the Hebrew language itself. The Hebrew letters are divided into three "Mother" letters, seven "Double" letters, and twelve "Single" letters.
To the Mother letters are allocated the three elements of Air, Fire and Water. The Double letters have the seven visible planets attributed to them, and the twelve Single letters have the constellations of the Zodiac attributed to them. The Element of Earth is allocated to Tau with the planet Saturn.
The cards were presented to initiates during ritual, drawn crudely onto large boards and fastened onto stands which would likely be moved about the temple. In our research to date, no actual images have been found above the Death card in reverse sequence, i.e. no images exist for cards 1 - 14 or the 0, although at least one list of text descriptions exists, as given previously. The Death card would have been the last card
to be required by the Outer Order ceremonies.
There is new evidence to suggest that other slightly later temples did draw full decks, and this is presently under research.[22]
In a similar way, no coloured images of the cards for the Waite-Trinick images for the upper part of the Tree exist to our knowledge. This appears to demonstrate how the images in both cases were a work-in-progress and both were unfortunately interrupted before their completion.[23]
The Grades of the Golden Dawn
In our discussion of the Western Esoteric Initiatory System (WEIS) we will refer to the grades of initiation within the Golden Dawn and other Orders. These grades are the steps of magical and spiritual ascent mapped onto the Tree of Life and each have a specific title, drawn from a German magical order, the Gold and Rosy Cross, a century prior to the Golden Dawn.[24] We give those titles here for reference with a brief indication of their nature in the Order of Everlasting Day.
Illus. Grades of Initiation on the Tree of Life.
The Tree of the Golden Dawn
In terms of initiatory progress, the map given by the Golden Dawn, illustrated by the tarot, is partially explained within the Order rituals themselves, which have since been widely published. These descriptions were presented up to the point of the Death card, and only sketched out in the remaining cards as “inner order” secrets. As in much that is truly esoteric, the words on paper, the descriptions spoken in a temple, cannot convey the actual experience and learning of which the words are mere description.
If we consider the journey as one in which we visit the ten Sephiroth on the Tree, and from each can look both up and down to our previous and next destination, we can see the tarot as illustrating challenges ahead and lessons learnt. This is an important concept which we teach beginners in tarot courses; to see each card as a challenge and lesson. It prepares tarot beginners who might later wish to study the WEIS.
Illus. Tarot Cards on the Tree of Life (Golden Dawn System).
1. Malkuth.
Here we stand at the beginning of our journey, as a Zelator of the Order. It is our first significant step (after the Neophyte grade) into working with esoteric philosophy and practice. We have no prior lessons, we only see ahead of us three challenges; the World, the Last Judgement and the Moon. These three images together illustrate a key statement in the Neophyte ritual; “the light shineth in the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not”. The Moon reflects the light of the divine into the world, and we rise from our eternal sleep when we answer a distant calling from above.
The challenges are clear; the world itself and all its attachments and distractions being the main problem. How do we ‘escape’ the mundane world? How do we ‘fit’ the esoteric into this world? How will it change the way we look at our world – and make changes to that world? Is the world all we have? Is it enough? These are all questions that belong on this path, sometimes called the “path of the terrible Tau”, referring to its Hebrew letter correspondence.
There is fear too about the journey ahead – we see this in the Moon card. There is also a sense of distance, impossibility, the blurred lines between reality and fantasy. There is even the beginning of the splitting between our natural and our civilised sides, between our wild and domestic selves.
Yet into this illustration of our life we have risen to meet a call, no matter how much grave dirt we will come to dig. All aspects of our self; male, female, child, have responded to this calling – and we begin to reach up, albeit blindly, to something more than ourselves.
There is a trap here; the Moon reflects everything that is shone upon it, the World is full of itself. We can become trapped here in reflections of our own projections, believing we are making progress and congratulating ourselves endlessly on how well we are doing, how safe we have become in our success in the world – whether mundane, magical, mystical or spiritual.
In a sense too, we never leave these paths, the process is cumulative, as if we are building a whole engine from each of these parts, or a house upon these foundations. The Golden Dawn state that the lower grades “quit not Malkuth” and we must constantly return to this map to ensure we have not gone astray.
A person at this grade can be easily recognised – as any grade – by their state, actions and most importantly the questions they are presenting the world, spoken - or by their behaviour, which in itself is only an enquiry into the nature of their engagement with the universe. The questions any human is asking by their speech and activity are the only relevant and true indicator of their progress in the quest, as those questions demonstrate what has not yet been exhausted by their Work. And all questions speak of One who questions and Another which answers. Transcendence, then, is merely the pure exhaustion of all questions and all separation.
A person at this grade will be busy, constantly doing new things; they will be delighted with each discovery as if it is of major significance. They will be testing their limits – and the limits of those around them. They will be excitable, keen to tell you about the world, yet often failing overall to meet their ambitions, and constantly unsatisfied. They will be ambitious, active and keen, even if quietly. They will judge themselves by others, and the world around them, not any internal measure.
Their constant questions can all be seen as flavours of one simple enquiry; “What can I do to distract me from my death”. This is the lowest question and the perversion of the question of the Adept.
All of this and much more can be seen in those three card illustrations. They represent a perfect map of human behaviour on the spiritual journey, one that applies to any tradition, and time, and any person. This is the power of the WEIS to model initiatory progress.
The escape from this state is not present in the illustrations, as it must be initiated by someone else, someone outside of you. This is unavoidable and whilst the concept of hierarchy and teaching is often dismissed in the “New Age” beliefs of becoming your own saviour, and not following others, it is something that remains true by any observation.
Many people spend their whole lives merely becoming better and better Zelators.
2. Yesod
When we are at last uplifted from our state in Malkuth to Yesod by another, one who watches us asleep and chooses to awaken us, we have our first opportunity to look back and see the world differently. In fact, we look at the map and see it is indeed the World tarot card that is now “below” us. We have attained a new state, a new perspective, a new outlook for the very first time. We have been initiated and the World is a different place.
Whilst we are still “cradled” in the paths illustrated by Judgement and the Moon, we now also have access to the paths of the Sun and Star either side of us, and the Temperance card above us.
The first observation is that having shifted our state, we have an Angel above us, not the World. We may feel more spiritually connected, but this is a trap again – our connection is to our “Self” centre not to the divine. Immediately many practitioners get a sense that having accomplished one significant state-change, they have become enlightened above others. They become overwhelmed by a more direct connection to their inner world, and aggrandise themselves through exposure to its limitless content. They immediately begin to talk with their own “higher self”, “inner self”, “angel”, “guide”, or somesuch and this fixes them in their place and starts to feed upon them.
Or they become prophets for their cause, speaking to everyone of the path they are upon, and how wonderful, exalted and incredible it all is, if only others could see it.
The challenge, again, given in the card illustrations, is simple; Temperance.
We have to balance the light of awareness (Sun) and our sense of Will (Star) to constantly try and stay awake in the knowledge that “every man and every woman is a star”. We will continue to go round the same habitual cycles (Moon) and keep deciding to do differently next time (Last Judgement), and this may cause despair and disillusionment (Sun and Star reversed).
&nbs
p; But the work is going on regardless (Temperance) – a true “Tempering” of the ego/self-identity process in constant motion. This is intimated in our map by the Blasted Tower being the next level up; it connects Hod and Netzach yet is not yet accessed by the Practitioner other than its influence through Hod and Netzach on Yesod.
3. Hod
The way out of Yesod is through the path of the Sun. It is a direct allusion to the Sephirah Tiphareth, which also corresponds to the Sun after another manner. In the practice given to the Theoricus in Yesod, they eventually break through into a new constant state which is sudden, immediate and dramatic. In this we see the impact of the Blasted Tower, as it often happens together with significant change in the outer life of the initiate. It can for many be the first experience of a “magical” event paralleling a “mundane” event.
In Hod we have now passed the path of the Sun card, so we have “mastered” it, or more technically, “utilised” it so its main purpose is redundant, other than as a reminder. You cannot go backwards from this point, although at any grade you can remain and stagnate.
This is the first experience too where we have access to a path that goes across the veil on the Tree of Life. The path of the Hanged Man indicates the overturning of consciousness that is being experienced, and challenges us further to the idea of sacrifice and living to our highest values. Again, this is an intimation of Tiphareth, for which all four lower grades are preparation.
We also see from Hod the paths of the Devil and Blasted Tower. We can test our attachments to the world and our old sense of self, but this will only take us up a path for which we cannot pass. We must exhaust ourselves of our Devil, there is no beating him. Then we walk across the path of the Tower, in a constant building up, testing and destruction of our beliefs about ourselves.
