Tree of Life - Malkuth

Qabalah - Tree of Life - Malkuth

On the Tree of Life, Malkut - Kingdom - is the final emanation.

Malkuth is at times claimed to be the 'matrix' from which the physical world manifests from the four elements.

The four elements were first discussed by the ancient Greeks, who sought to understand the actual structure of the world. The culmination of this inquiry culminated with the writings and recorded thoughts of Plato and Aristotle in which, though in different ways, they postulated earlier considerations on these elements. The world, then, contained rocks, trees, blood, bones, hair, etc, each of which was viewed to be made up of various combinations of these four elements.

Cosmologically, they viewed that the centre of the world was the Earth, containing the 'heaviest' element, above which is Water, above which is Air, above which is Fire, above which are the planetary abodes.

The four elements, in their pure form, transcend any observable phenomena, and another way of considering these is as states of Solidity, Fluidity, Gaseousness, and Metamorphosising 'fieriness'.
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In this Sefirah, the Golden Dawn system places the four Tens of the minor Arcana; Wirth places the Wheel of Fortune; I personally favour I the Magician/XI Strength (classical numbering, not later change made on the Waite deck).
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Looking forward to reading your comments and views, which may differ from mine.

I have been playing with the idea lately that malkuth is not earth, in the sense of planetary abode, but is cellular life. I have been thinking lately that the 'earth' corrosponds better with yesod. This it only in cosmological tree, but if a reflection was given at malkuth[as body] we could have the two trees offering a map from inside to outside, in the sense that the 'pyhcological 'tree could be traced all the way through into the 'cosmos' tree [I hope this makes sense]

note if the tree was reflected in malkuth, it would mean every sphere was reflected by itself.[ and would explain why there are no reflections of binah/hockmah by reflecting from tiphareth].....all this is in many ways my own personal non-sense and would proberbly cause dis-stress to the educated qabalah player...but it is one of the joys of the tree of life...the way you can play about with it

AmounrA, why do you see Earth as Yesod? ... and would not Chockmah & Binah be reflective of each other but as opposites? (sort of like a photographic negative ... femine and masculine. Again I go back to the excersive that Kaz and I did using the Templar deck it makes me wonder about something ... now this is me going on my own tangent here. In the exercise Kaz and I did, using the diamond pattern, we saw the fool "split" into his masculine (magician-will) and feminine (HP-intuitive/spiritual) sides and come back together in the world card. With the Templar deck what is neat is that the Fool and World cards are very reflective of each other. Anyway ... this makes me wonder ... what if the Fool is placed in Malkuth then the patways split into the 3 pillars. At the top of the second pillar, you find the HP at Binah (pillar of mercy) and the Magician at the top of the pillar of severity ... blend them and you have Kether in all its parts ...

Oh darn I am doing it again! ~reminds herself to stick to GD and quit going on tangents~

As Dion Fortune's Qabalah was mentioned earlier as a common book from which to also refer to (it is also clearly grounded in the Golden Dawn), here is a short quote relevant to the discussion (p266):

Malkuth is said to be the Sphere of Earth; but we must not make the mistake of thinking that the Qabalists meant by Malkuth only the terrestrial sphere. They meant also the Earth-Soul - that is to say, the subtle, psychic aspect of matter; the underlying noumenon of the physical plane which gives rise to all physical phenomena.

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This underlying noumenon already, to be sure, transcends the physical dimensions.

Interesting quote jmd.

why do I see the earth in yesod?, I link yesod with the moon, and the moon is a planet......just one captured in a larger planets gravity. The sphere of yesod is called foundation, and in many ways a planet 'is' a foundation upon which cellular life forms develop. Also yesod is linked with the sub concious mind, something which perhaps rocks and liquids are 'within'.

Malkuth is called kingdom, and to the concious being the body 'is' there 'real' kingdom.........there land[our land] So I think of malkuth as our bodies and yesod as the planets.

[Tiphareth in this model is stars and galaxies, daath 'is' black holes, (which it now seems are found at the centre of every galaxy).........kether is off the chart

By refecting this external tree at malkuth, and viewing the reflection as the pychological tree, an interesting bridge is formed that takes us from kether to kether, malkuth the body at the centre.

[p.s I think binah is at the top of the pillar of severity, and chockmah is at the sumit of the pillar of mercy. I put the heirophant at chockmah]

one, two, three... jump!

first let's have a cheer for diversity


okay, here goes...

i work mostly with a different varient of the tree-- i have a path between binah and chesed; a path between chokmah and geburah. i remove the path between hod and malkuth, and the path between netzach and malkuth.

this means there is only on path connecting netzach with the rest of the tree-- the path between yesod and malkuth.

if we are traveling DOWN the tree-- starting with kether and ending with malkuth-- i term it 'the tree of creation' because we move from nothingness to the manifest.

if we are traveling UP the tree-- starting with malkuth (which is where i consider us to hang around through most of our life) and ending with kether-- i term it 'the tree of redemption' because we move from diversity to union with 'God' (please place your prefered term here)


either way you travel, i see the Fool as the Major associated with the path between yesod and malkuth.

LVX
steve

Malkut is sometimes referred to as the 'Bride' and connected by the Golden Dawn, as mentioned earlier in the Keter thread by either AmounrA or stevepolsz (apologies - I just cannot recall by whom), to the Pages (which they name Princesses) and all the Tens of the minor Arcana of the Tarot.

Personally, I take very much to heart the quote by Dion Fortune previously posted, especially viewing Malkut as 'the underlying noumenon of the physical plane which gives rise to all physical phenomena'. As such, it is very much the whole sphere of Assiah - I personally, in agreement with some Kabbalists, see this last emanation as the realm of Assiah, not a whole Tree, though each Sefirot can itself be investigated from the perspective of each Sephirah, and hence can be described as containing a whole Tree.

As the underlying noumenon, it begins to manifest in four 'directions' (Malkut is often represented as a circle divided into four). Each of these four directions can be represented as tetracti, thereby having the ten pips of the four elements as 'stages' of manifestation. Likewise, the 16 court cards become, as it was, sixteen masks (Personae) through which the incarnated individual manifests.

Re: one, two, three... jump!

stevepolsz said:

i work mostly with a different varient of the tree-- i have a path between binah and chesed; a path between chokmah and geburah. i remove the path between hod and malkuth, and the path between netzach and malkuth.

this means there is only on path connecting netzach with the rest of the tree-- the path between yesod and malkuth.

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OK, I'm struggling to understand this, neophyte that I am....

Why remove the paths between hod and malkuth, and the one between netzach and malkuth? That would present only one way to ascend the tree -- the path between yesod and malkuth. Would that not, for lack of a better term, infringe on the concept of Free Will, as it leaves one option and one option only for "progress?"

Just wondering....

Blessings,
-- k

Re: Re: one, two, three... jump!

wetsheep1 said:

Why remove the paths between hod and malkuth, and the one between netzach and malkuth? That would present only one way to ascend the tree -- the path between yesod and malkuth. Would that not, for lack of a better term, infringe on the concept of Free Will, as it leaves one option and one option only for "progress?"

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it doesn't leave one way to ascend the tree-- it leaves one path to BEGIN the ascent.



the path between malkuth and yesod lie on what is termed "the middle pillar"-- a pillar of balance. balance is a very important concept/quality while dealing with the tree. all workings move towards keeping/creating balance.

one way of considering the situation of having only this particular path to begin with, is that one must be in balance before one starts up the tree. rather than starting with either the right-hand (from malkuth to netzach) or left-hand (from malkuth to hod) path, and balancing oneself as one goes along, taking the path from malkuth to yesod assures one is initially in balance.


also, when dealing with the concept of creation (moving DOWN the tree), this again inforces balance.

just a brief explaination. if it makes no sense to you, let me know. i'll try to clarify.

LVX
steve

Click to expand...

just a quick thought.....

the way I see this is if the path between hod-netzach is unbalanced[ i.e troubles/distactions in either hod or netzach], then the aspirant will not be able to reach tiphareth. this to me, in simple terms means if hod[thoughts] are in rough seas, then ideas about the simplicity of tiphareth become clouded......and if netzach[emotions] are unsettled , this also clouds tiphareth.

going on with the same logic, if the path between geburah and chessed is unbalance then the aspirant will not get into the abyss....and the same for the path between binah and chockmah.

To me, these horizontal paths act like gates, they are only passable when balanced.......and this works going up or down the tree