Path 25/26 Interchange?

[Cheiromancer]

It looks to me like paths 25 and 26 should be interchanged. Look at either version of the Tree of Life (Golden Dawn or Thoth) and you'll see a right-left-center pattern to the paths from Kether, while the pattern descending from Tipheret is right-center-left.

Can anyone enlighten me as to this discrepancy?

In particular, what would be the consequences of interchanging these two paths? I.e., what difference does it make if Capricorn connects Tipheret and Yesod, while Sagittarius connects Tipheret and Hod?

 

[Richard]

Regardless of the Path numbering, if Temperance/Art (union of opposites, marriage of sun and moon, balance of mercy and severity) doesn't belong on the Middle Pillar, nothing does.

ETA. I guess you changed Temperance from Sagittarius to Aquarius, so I don't quite know what's going on here. However, I do think that the meaning of the Trumps and the components of the Tree takes precedence over abstract numerical and structural considerations.

I'm tired. Going to take a nap.

 

[Zephyros]

I agree with LRichard, and I hope to have a more thorough answer later in the day, as I am present researching the biblical story of the forbidden fruit. In the meantime, I can refer you to my own posts about Atu XIII and the thread about Netzach, in which I also wrote.

I don't know if the "dry" reasons are all that went into the ordering of the Tree. Some of the paths may defy logic, but feel exquisitely correct.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I agree with LRichard, and I hope to have a more thorough answer later in the day, as I am present researching the biblical story of the forbidden fruit. In the meantime, I can refer you to my own posts about Atu XIII and the thread about Netzach, in which I also wrote.

I don't know if the "dry" reasons are all that went into the ordering of the Tree. Some of the paths may defy logic, but feel exquisitely correct.

I look forward to seeing it. I am also very interested in learning about other aspects of the GD or Thoth trees that feel correct in these traditions.

Regardless of the Path numbering, if Temperance/Art (union of opposites, marriage of sun and moon, balance of mercy and severity) doesn't belong on the Middle Pillar, nothing does.

ETA. I guess you changed Temperance from Sagittarius to Aquarius, so I don't quite know what's going on here. However, I do think that the meaning of the Trumps and the components of the Tree takes precedence over abstract numerical and structural considerations.

I'm tired. Going to take a nap.

I haven't posted any images from my own arrangement. If I remember correctly, the comparison of trees was from a post of yours. It was just so that folks could take a quick look at the numbering of the paths.

I'm trying to figure out the GD/Thoth trees on their own terms, but I'm having difficulty. I thought a question about these paths might provide an opening to insight.

 

[ravenest]

Whaaaa ?

It has provided an opening into something ... hopefully tomorrow when we are more bright and fluffy tailed.

As for me my tail is very unfluffy, since, for some reason I always thought the theory behind the path numbering was something I understood ... but unless we have slipped into an alternate universe ...

I (and I AM rusty on this ... and unfluffly at the moment) thought that the path numbering above the Abyss started from the highest sepiroth; the first connects the next highest sephiroth and then the next highest until all paths are used up.

Same below the Abyss, BUT a path to a sephiroth on the middle piller is in order before one in the next order; coming down in the lightening flash pattern (1 -10).

But that breaks down at Chesed, where path 19 goes to geburuah (next in order)and not tiphareth (on middle pillar). So I make an extra rule (except if it a horizontal path)
My system holds until Netzach , where another horizontal path breaks my rule (but fulfils my new exception), after that my rule holds.

I am sure I am missing some significant influence in my system that accounts for the exception but … unfluffy. I have no idea WHY they are numbered that way.

<flashing red light> :Need systems analyst: :Need systems analyst: :Need systems analyst:

LRichard; HAAALP !

[Need Yum-cha snacks]

 

[Cheiromancer]

I am really enjoying the insight that path 25 is where the marriage of Sun/Tipheret and Moon/Yesod take place. Tipheret is the home of the higher self, right? The Holy Guardian Angel? What's Yesod?

And is there significance to the other paths in the area? Like Mars crossing the path of Temperance, or the area being bounded from above by Death and the Devil. This signifies that we are in the area of mortality and materiality, right? How about the lower boundaries - the Sun (again?) and - is it the Emperor on path 28? Do they contribute to the story?

 

[Zephyros]

Post deleted because it was offensive...

 

[Richard]

Almost anything one says about the Tree is approximate and expressed in metaphor. With that in mind, here is a (simplistic) Jungian model. Yesod is the unconscious. Tiphareth is consciousness. Art/Temperance is individuation.

Medical Definition of INDIVIDUATION

1: the process in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung by which the self is formed by integrating elements of the conscious and unconscious mind

Merriam-Webster.com​

 

[Cheiromancer]

Almost anything one says about the Tree is approximate and expressed in metaphor. With that in mind, here is a (simplistic) Jungian model. Yesod is the unconscious. Tiphareth is consciousness. Art/Temperance is individuation.

Oh, OK. I had been thinking of Yesod as being the source of our sexuality, our unshaped desires and impulses; dreams, psychic pheonomena, stuff like that. Like you said, the unconscious. But I couldn't make out what the HGA would be uniting with. I thought maybe that there was a part of the soul that I hadn't heard of that was associated with Yesod, the way the physical body is with Malkuth, and the HGA with Tipheret. But what this might be - the astral body? the self-image? I wasn't sure.

Individuation as the point of integration of unconscious and conscious - that makes sense. But I wouldn't have thought of equating the HGA with the conscious self.

 

[Richard]

.......Individuation as the point of integration of unconscious and conscious - that makes sense. But I wouldn't have thought of equating the HGA with the conscious self.

As with all models, the Jungian model is inexact. The Tree is by no means static, and certainly Tiphareth is not static. Nor is consciousness a fixed state. It can be expanded. Individuation produces an expanded consciousness (not the same as ego expansion, which is a pitfall of a misdirected individuation process). It brings the inner Self, or HGA, into focus. The Self is incorporated into consciousness.