Any lore about missing pathway through da’at?

Hello everyone (new member to the forum). I have had a burning question about Qabalah lore for several years now and I would like to ask the members of the forum about their thoughts on this.

In the Golden Dawn System there is no pathway to connect the third (Binah) sepherah with the fourth (Chesed) sepherah (which would run through Da’at). When I first began studying the 22 pathways within the Golden Dawn system as it relates to Qabalah this stroked my curiosity. All depictions if the Lightening Path of creation that I have come across depict a flow of creation that occurs in sequence between these two sepheroth. However, when you retrace the Lightening Path of creation with the Golden Dawn system of pathways you cannot do it when it comes to Binah and Chesed.

Thus in the Golden Dawn system it looks like this from top (Kether) to bottom (Malkuth): Path 11, Aleph, The Fool; Path 14, Daleth, The Empress; ???Potential Missing Pathway Through Da’at???; Path 19, Teth, Strength; Path 22, Lamed, Justice; Path 24, Nun, Death; Path 27, Peh, The Tower; Path 30, Resh, The Sun; Path 32, Tau Mark, The World.

I am curious if anyone knows any lore of why this is. Does it have to do with The Fall? Perhaps an affect of the void? Does this mean the Lighting Path of creation cannot be recreated in our travelings of the pathways on the tree? Perhaps an argument for The Happy Squirrel card??? So many possibilities! Any thoughts, insight, or resources anyone can offer would be deeply appreciated.

Forrest

The Golden Dawn did connect it to the Fall, I believe. The "fallen" sefira is Malkuth - it fell from the position now occupied by the missing sefira, Da'ath. The paths fell with it, so now there is no way to get from 4 to 3 without crossing somehow this "Abyss". I don't know the history of this interpretation. It is all very Gnostic.

There are direct paths to the Supernal Sefirot from Tiferet, which is used to teach that the Heart is a direct path to the fullness of the Godhead. By contrast, the last "tangible" Sefira, Chesed, is not a complete path (only Vav connects to Chokhmah); nor is Geburah (Cheth only connects to Binah). Thus the only sure way is through Tiferet, which is why the Order placed such great emphasis on the 5=6 degree.

The "Adventure of the Abyss" is something made a great deal of by Crowley, and represents in his system the aspirant poised in Chesed (7=4), divesting himself entirely of his intellectual make-up, ego, ready to be taken up (or however you want to express it) into Binah. Or not, if you really aren't ready.

Ross

....there is no pathway to connect the third (Binah) sepherah with the fourth (Chesed) sepherah (which would run through Da’at).

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There is one. The Lightning path. I believe it also has another name, or names. However, it exists.

Bee

Bernice said:

There is one. The Lightning path. I believe it also has another name, or names. However, it exists.

Bee

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Sure! But I think the message is the same as that of the "pathless" region between 4 and 3. What does lightning do when it hits you? Unless you are elemental - i.e. a "pure being" in the physical realm - you will be destroyed. This is exactly the Crowleyan message of "the Abyss" - be pure to attempt to "ride the lightning" - don't resist it, or possess anything that *will* resist it.

The lightning is, more technically, the downward path of emanation of the sefirot. It is God's creation of the universe (the Tree of Life). The "climb" is the Serpent (Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). They are the same tree, but we are "fallen", and can only recognize it as the Tree of the K. of Good and Evil. In trying to climb straight up (the narrow way), we are bound to go off the middle path at some point or another, which is why it is good to try to balance the lower sefirot as early as possible (remebering that we all have a complete tree within us -or better said, we are each a complete tree already; knowing this takes time and effort however).

A helpful image for visual people is to see the four lower sefirot as the base corners of a pyramid, whose apex is Tiferet. From the apex, you can have direct access to the supernals.

Ross

This has been helpful

Thank you Ross and Bee,

This has been helpful. I agree this does sound very Gnostic. When I contemplate the full ramifications of The Fall, especially in how it restructured the Tree of Life, there is a deep sense of sorrow that fills my heart, like something echoing deep in my being from long ago.

Perhaps it is my personal slant now that I am acculturating to a healing profession, but it often feels to me that The Fall and the related restructuring of the Tree of Life resembles a traumatic wound and the restructuring of a system (like an organism or the psyche) to best compensate to such a trauma. Images of scar tissue and, more abstractedly, psychological "creative adjustment" come to mind. Like Da’ath is a wound that will not heal, forcing humanity to constantly spiritual grow and change in order to tend to the great loss of our oneness with divinity before The Fall.

Forrest

The Golden Dawn didn't view the doctrine of the Fall as a moral catastrophe, a fall from grace. On the contrary it was viewed as the development of non-superconscious aspects of consciousness. It's a voluntary fall from a higher state to a lower state in order to experince things. (The terms higher and lower shouldn't be taken too literally.)

More Questions....

Is the Golden Dawn view on the Fall similar to one of the Gnostic interpretations of the Fall?

I remember once reading that a Gnostic interpretation (still learning about this, I am uncertain if there is a primary Gnostic perspective or if there are diverse Gnostic perspectives) of Adam and Eve was that rather than Eve being deceived into eating from the Tree of Knowledge by the serpent, both Adam and Eve made a conscious and willing choice to eat from the Tree together. Thus, Adam and Eve ate the fruit in order to partake in a fuller experience of life, to have the opportunity to partake in all aspects (or at least other aspects) of consciousness.

Does such a link exist or am I parellel processing these similar, but unrelated topics?

Forrest

Ross said:

The lightning is, more technically, the downward path of emanation of the sefirot. It is God's creation of the universe (the Tree of Life).

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Yes, that's how I understand it. The 'path' from Binah (3) to Chesed (4) is a 'water' path.

Bee

alternate tree of life

There is an alternate to the 'usual' tree of life. It's the Lurian tree. In this tree, there are no paths between either Hod and Malkuth or Netzach and Malkuth. Instead, there are paths between Chockmah and Geburah, Binah and Chesed.

There are a few reasons I prefer this tree.

First, all the paths taken by the lightning flash exist in this tree of life. It is my belief that what the lightning has carved out should be a part of the tree.

The second reason deals with pathworking; the climb back up the tree. There is only one path one may take initially--between Malkuth and Yesod. This is a pathway along the center pillar leading to Yesod. I see this as meaning that one needs to be in balance before one can even begin the climb. And your first stop is Yesod-- the Foundation. Meaning that a stable foundation must be 'built' before one can go further upwards.

There are three types of paths on the tree. Sephrah 1-6 forms a hexagon. Paths are either formed from two sephrah next to one another, two sephrah with one in between, or two across from one another.

The da'ath is the intersection of three of the last type. These are the longest pathways (perhaps higher energy??) on the tree. Nowhere else do three pathways cross.

From this, I see the da'ath as a point rather than a sephrah or a pathway. And the highest energy point on the tree. (Perhaps a black hole???)

just a few thoughts, my personal construct


fly well
raven

Of course the lightning path would be that of descent, while the paths used by the Kabbalist would be those of ascent, presumably. (Indeed, Lurianic Kabbalah spoke of the Tree of Return.)