Tree of Life - Da'at(h)

cartarum

daath

what is known about daath? can anybody help shed some light on this pathway?
 

Sauwelios

In the macrocosm [that is, the human body], Daäth is located in the throat: it is the Adam's apple, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

"Daäth - Knowledge - is not a Sephira. It is not on the Tree of Life: that is, there is in reality no such thing."
[Aleister Crowley, Little Essays toward Truth; Knowledge.]

To attain to the Truth and the Light, we must cross the Abyss.

"We must understand first of all that the root of Moral Responsibility, on which Man stupidly prides himself as distinguishing him from the other animals, is Restriction, which is the Word of Sin. Indeed, there is truth in the Hebrew fable that the knowledge of Good and Evil brings forth Death. To regain Innocence is to regain Eden. We must learn to live without the murderous consciousness that every breath we draw swells the sails which bear our frail vessels to the Port of the Grave. We must cast out Fear by Love; seeing that Every Act is an Orgasm, their total issue cannot be but Birth. Also, Love is the law: thus every act must be Righteousness and Truth."
[ibid., Silence.]

We must, to speak with Nietzsche, go Beyond Good and Evil; indeed, this is exactly what it means to "cross the Abyss".

"Now is the dominion of Edom, & the return of Adam into Paradise"
[William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.]

EVERY Act is Right and True, Every Act is Orgiastic. There are no moral phenomena, only moral INTERPRETATIONS of phenomena:

"Evil in its nature is neither a thing nor does it bring anything forth.
Evil does not exist at all and is neither good nor productive of good.
All things which are, by the very fact that they are, are good and come from good; but in so far as they are deprived of good, they are neither good nor do they exist.
That which has no existence is not altogether evil, for the absolutely non-existent will be nothing, unless it be thought of as subsisting in the good superessentially. Good, then, as absolutely existing and absolutely non-existing, will stand in the foremost and highest place, while evil is neither in that which exists nor in that which does not exist."
[Dionysius the Areopagite, De divinis nominibus, chapter 4.]

"But how comes it then that there should even be an illusion of Sorrow?
Simply enough; by taking a partial and imperfect Vision."
[Crowley, ibid., Sorrow.]

"Conception of a new perfection: that which does not correspond to our logic, our "beautiful," our "good," our "true," could be perfect in a higher sense than even our ideal."
[Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, section 1010.]

"Such an experimental philosophy as I live anticipates even the possibilities of the most fundamental nihilism [the absence of our logic, our ideal, in reality]; but this does not mean that it must halt at a negation, a No, a will to negation. It wants rather to cross over to the opposite of this - to a Dionysian affirmation of the world as it is, without subtraction, exception, or selection - it wants the eternal circulation: - the same things, the same logic and illogic of entanglements. The highest state a philosopher can attain: to stand in a Dionysian relationship to existence - my formula for this is AMOR FATI [love of fate].
It is part of this state to perceive not merely the necessity of those sides of existence hitherto denied, but their desirability; and not their desirability merely in relation to the sides hitherto affirmed (perhaps as their complement or precondition), but for their own sake, as the more powerful, more fruitful, TRUER sides of existence, in which its will finds clearer expression."
[ibid., section 1041.]

"The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God."
[William Blake, ibid., Proverbs of Hell.]
 

Yatima

JMD wrote:

"If we take No 11 to refer to Da'at, and evil to refer to this hindrance, then: 'No 11 is called the evil number' can be understood to mean that Knowledge may hinder one on the path of return. How? the Abyss is ever present for the unwary. Da'at is forever the tempting trap.
To partake of knowledge, one risks madness if one assumes that one can or one already has reached God - reached the Elohim - crossed the Abyss - without Da'at being sufficiently formed such that it will not crumble under our feet. Da'at must be sufficiently formed to enable the crossing, and our focus ever upwards to prevent the trappings."

In old Tarots (16th century), the number XI sometimes is associated with the Hermit/Time. In so far as we take the number 11 as evil number (although there is another possibility) because of the temptations of knowledge, the Hermit (of later decks, though) would be my candidate in the Tarot order...either as knowledge to earn in lonlyness or as knowledge that leads into isolation or one that reveals itself as remote from life, or as islolation that is the spiritual crisis that has to be gone through to understand the beyond-knowledge...

Otherwise, I would understand the abyss between Tower and Star as Da'at (as I have lined out in the historical therad Star, Moon, Sun)...

Although I know that this is not true in numerological terms, it is to me in symbolical terms.

Yatima
 

Fluffmeister

What a fascinating thread! I love the idea that the Fool of Chaos posted about Da'ath being the hole left when Malkuth fell - brilliant image.

Is it not also known as the "false godhead", and the gateway to the reverse side of the tree where the qlippoth reside?

I often think that modern science is aspiring to Da'ath - believing that everything is explainable in the scientific paradigm, whereas in fact science is actually the study of Malkuth.
 

Agape

Dilemma of Da'ath

The dilemma for me with Da'ath is the idea of crossing the chaos of the abyss by either:
1
employing the relatively recent concept of Da'ath as a bridge (this has been advocated by groups like SOL)
2
Simply falling into the abyss and your whole life going to pieces which seems to be the more commonly recommended approach (in which case where is Da'ath?).

Da'ath as a gateway to the 'nightside' of the tree perhaps indicates option 2 to be the more realistic possibility. Da'ath fascinates me, it is the only aspect of the tree which some choose to completely ignore and and others enthusiastically embrace. One thing that perhaps people could help me with is why does Da'ath have the same divine name (YHVH ALHIM) as Binah? Why not a Divine name of its own?
 

jmd

For myself there are two aspects to Da'at which I consider ever so important.

The first is that, has has now been many times mentioned, it does not form part of the emanated Tree of Life. Ie, it is not given within the 'body' of Adm Kadmon.

Yet, it also figures prominantly on depictions of the Tree.

This last aspect is what lead me to also consider it as an emanation of the 'creation' - of us. It is the basis of our own Freedom. By being living, by thus partaking, of necessity, of the Tree of Life, one enters also the realms of the FRUIT of the Tree of Knowledge (of Da'at).

Various people place it, if anywhere, in differing locations upon or within the human body. Personally, I tend to consider its relation and correlation to the Throat Chakra, to Adam's Apple, to the still forming organ of Speech - which Rudolf Steiner also mentions is to become a future organ of birth: As I speak, thus I create (Abrahadabra).
 

hoomer

Da'ath of course is GNOSIS
as opposed to Episteme of Hod

If we look up the tree, as I generally do...
we can see daath is a place of choice..

Arguably the emanations below number 7
7... seven of course is an important number. In kabbalah of course it relates to the 7 directions. 7 days... etc etc. The 7 directions of course are those found in western magic.. up down left right foward back and within...

This derives from the tree surrounded by four rivers in Eden. We see this imagery of course expressed in the Rosicrucian image of the king and queen

http://redwheelweiser.com/images/large/9780933999350.jpg

Thus I would "argue" the 7 lower, or the lesser face as it is often called, here then represent the body... Some even state the entire lower 7 can represent the christ consciousness....

But that aside, this means Daath acts a bridge between... it is said that the supernal triangle are really beyond intellectualisation, that then,..it is at daath we meet, through Gnosis a joining of intellectualisation a dn that which must be experienced.

A simplistic way to think of Daath is through the medium of television:

Somethign is bored, they are very bored (various levels of Ain)
They decide to make a television show (Kether)
They transmit the television show for people to see (Chockmah)
In order to watch it, in order to understand the television signals, we use a television!!! (Binah)
Some at home, laughs and enjoys the television show (Daath)

So we see daath is that which is illuminated

The flame (kether)
The wick and oil (Chockmah)
The lamp itself (Binah)
That which is illuminated (Daath)

....

Of course there are secret ways to cross daath..such as through the sword bridge. It is said that ultimatly, through daath is the way of people...

But anyway