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KABBALAH You Are Walking the Path of Samekh

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KABBALAH You Are Walking the Path of Samekh KABBALAH The Tree of Life: The 22 paths of The Tree of Life ("Etz Haim") in Kabbalah reflect the 22 primeval vibrations that formed the Hebrew Alphabet. Thus, sound, form and meaning are all coordinated in one cohesive whole. Each is a different manifestation of a singular profound essence. As you see in the image, the Tree seamlessly embeds within the geometrical form known as the Flower of Life, which is evident throughout living systems and represented in countless ancient cultures. Take a moment to feel the sign- ificance of this universal recognition of coherence. The Paths and the Alphabet: The 22 letters/vibrations/paths within the Tree of Life connect the Sephiroth (the spherical points of the Tree): these key vibrational patterns are “emanations” and represent the powers of the soul. Each of the 10 Sephira is defined and acts as a chain of emanation, with each unfolding and evolving the next: each Sephira relates and mediates the influence of the others. They are: Kether (“crown”), Chokmah (“wisdom”), Binah (“under- standing”), Chesed (“kindness/mercy”), Geburah (“severity”), Tiphereth (“beauty/harmony”), Netzach (“victory”), Hod (“glory/spendor”), Yesod (“foundation”), Malkuth (“kingdom”). The 22 paths connecting the Sephiroth consist of: • 3 "Mother Letters" (Aleph, Mem, Shin): These represent Awareness. • 7 "Double Letters" (Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe. Resh, Tau): These represent Space. • 12 "Simple Letters" (Hey, Vau, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tzaddi, Qof): These reflect the 12 constellations of the zodiac and represent Time. The Pillars: Three vertical pillars comprise the Tree of Life. The Pillars are a diagrammatic representation of the 3 fundamental forces of life: positive/+, negative/-, and neutral/0. • The LEFT Pillar is the pillar of SEVERITY-DESTRUCTION. This is the black feminine pillar of passivity, form, contraction, restriction, matter, and is the negative pole of the Tree. The Sephira Binah, Geburah and Hod comprise this pillar. • The RIGHT Pillar is the pillar of MERCY-CREATION. This is the white masculine pillar of activity, force, expansion, movement, energy, and is the positive pole of the Tree. The Sephira of Chokmah, Chesed and Netzach comprise this pillar. • The MIDDLE Pillar is the pillar of MILDNESS-HARMONY. This is the central pillar that has no charge. It is cosmic awareness, consciousness, equilibrium, stillness, and the neutral “present moment” pole of the Tree. The Sephira of Kether, Tiphereth, Yesod and Malkuth comprise this pillar. The non-Sephira Da'ath is also on this Pillar. _________________________________________________________ You are walking The Path of Samekh. Samekh is the 15th path within the Tree of Life and the 15th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. (It is also recognized as "25" when all elements of the Tree are considered, including each of the 10 foundational Sephira: this is known as “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”.) Samekh, meaning "prop", connects the 9th Sephira of Yesod (meaning “foundation” and www.TheAlchemyofHolism.com associated with the moon) with the 6th Sephira of Tiphereth (meaning “beauty” and associated with the sun). You as Samekh are here to connect the moon and sun, emotions and action, foundational balance and strength, and outward alignment and beautiful action. Samekh symbolizes cyclical action and recurring cycles; part of the process of evolution. The reason for this is due to the fact that Tiphereth lies at the heart of the Tree and is a connecting point for six paths. It represents myriad things, but primarily it is about the core of what it means to be human: it is about the soul evolution and expressing its beauty. With Samekh embodied, your path is about transmuting the soul from "base metal" to evolved "gold". In fact, gold is a symbol of Tiphereth, reflecting the profoundly alchemical journey inherent in this path. The growth edge here will be to mature beyond the tendency to get stuck in repetitive cycles that are toxic and transmute them into spirals of upward advanced experience. According to Joshua Clifford, The Path of Samekh "leads from Yesod to Tiphereth, from the Moon to the Sun, from the Personality to the Higher Self. It is among the most important and difficult Paths of the entire Tree, and one on which the very enormity of the Great Work may be experienced. It has been called a Path which is the "Dark Night of the Soul," a Path on which one enters a deep tunnel in the belief that the Light is to be found at the end of it. This is a Path of trial and temptation, called the Intelligence of Probation. It is also known as the "Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer Forth of Life." 22 Kabbalah Paths and 22 Tarot Archetypes: The Kabbalistic wisdom tradition and the Tarot are inextricably linked by the form, function, enigmatic meaning, and quantity of “22”. There are 22 Kabbalah paths and 22 major arcana Tarot archetypes. Although the origination portal providing this link can be glimpsed and intuited, what we know for certain is that a (natural, inherent) alignment between the two exists that speaks to the evolutionary processes of life. The Path of Samekh is directly linked to the Tarot archetype of “Temperance”. According to Ann Skea: “Tomb – Womb – Moon: the power of that round vowel at the heart of these three pervades the Path of Temperance. It holds the infinite zero of the Void, which is also the Nothing from which the Divine Spark created All in our universe. So, after death, after the dissolution of the body to bone- seed and watery chaos, new life begins again in the tomb-womb of Earth. Harmony, balance and unity must first be restored. On this Path, where the Moon of Yesod is joined with the Sun of www.TheAlchemyofHolism.com Tiphereth on the central Pillar of Balance, and both receive energies directly from the Divine Source through Kether at the Crown of the Tree, all contraries are reconciled. So, body and spirit, human and divine, male and female, intuition and will, and all such (seeming) dualities are united and become part of the whole. On this Path, too, the image of the bow is of great importance. It is the hunter’s bow of the Moon Goddess, Diana; the starry bow of the Archer, Sagittarius, whose astrological path this is; the rainbow of the goddess Iris; and the rainbow of colours which mark the completion of an alchemical transmutation. Arrow and bow, potential energy and motive force, spirit and will, are no longer separate but connected halves of a potential whole, like the sperm and the egg which must merge before being animated by the Divine Spark of life. So, the arrow becomes a symbol of “directed Will” and the occult significance of this on this Path of Samekh, according to Crowley, is that the arrow, figuratively wielded by Sagittarius, pierces the rainbow represented by the Hebrew letters for the last three Paths on the Cabbalistic Tree and foreshadows “the light of Truth”1. Foreshadowing and foresight are part of the circling life-energies of this Path. In Alchemy, in the Bible and in ancient myths of the Great Deluge, the end of death and chaos is marked by the appearance of a rainbow which signifies both a new beginning and the imminence of the Divine in our material world. In the rainbow, Fire and Water combine with Air to form an arch which joins Heaven and Earth: thus, a circle is completed and the four elements – the alchemical Mothers – are held temporarily in a balance which contains all potential for new life. The same symbolism pervades the Traditional Tarot card for the Path of Temperance. The Rainbow Goddess, Iris, Heavenly messenger of both Zeus and Juno, is shown standing on Earth. In each hand she holds a golden cup (two symbols of Fire) between which Water flows through Air, in a continuous, magically suspended stream. Thus, she brings all four elements together and, at the same time, her body, her arms, the cups and the water, make a continuous circle which, like the Uroborus of Nature, contains All and Nothing. This womb-shaped circle is seen again in the shape of the Hebrew letter for this Path, Samekh, which means ‘prop’ or ‘support’; and one Cabbalistic meditation for this Path is ‘The Womb protecting Life’. Also, the numbers associated with both the Tarot card of Temperance (fourteen) and the Cabbalistic Path of Samekh (fifteen) figuratively demonstrate this Divine support: 14 shows the Divine (represented by 1) alongside the 4 of the elements and the material world; 15, shows the Divine beside the 5 of the pentagram which, for Cabbalists, commonly symbolizes Mankind (often the Cabbalists’ pentagram shows Man spread eagle in its five-pointed star). So, for the Cabbalistic journeyer on this Path of Temperance, Divine support is close at hand and there is the potential for creating new wholeness at the start of a new, interior journey. However, a second meditation for this Path, ‘Self Control and Self Sacrifice’, suggests the care which he or she must take to achieve a balance between the human and the Divine. Temperance is essential if the Divine energies which are shown to the traveller on this Path are to be well used.” www.TheAlchemyofHolism.com .
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