The Craft and Cabala

[paul]

A good HRA chapter is very nice, but perhaps hard to find

[LorrB]

It was the HRA which cemented the idea that Cabala and Freemasonry are truly akin.

The Sojourners being at the base of the Pillars, the P..,P..,K.. at the top

The 12 indicating 'the opposites' which must be reconciled (bought into balance) during lifes journey.

[LorrB]

The position of the Altar is of interest also. I would place it at Tipareth.

Tipareth - according to Pauls numbers image on the previous page would be the Intuition Plane, the Spiritual Triad, the Plane of At-One-Ment.

Tipareth, in Christian terms, is also equated with Jesus. And one of the Universal symbols for Tipareth is the Crucified Man.

Universal symbolism:


Name of God: YHVH ALVH VDAaTh, Tetragrammation Eloah va-Daath (Lord God of Knowledge)

Archangel: MKIAL, Michael, (He Who Is As God)

Angelic Host: MLKIM, Malakim, (Kings)

Astrological Correspondence: ShMSh, Shemesh (the sun)

Tarot Correspondence: The four Sixes and four Knights or Princes of the pack

Elemental Correspondence: Air

Magical Image: A naked child; a crowned and throned king; a crucified man

Additional Symbols: The cube, the cross of six squares, the truncated pyramid

Additional Title: Microprosopus, the Lesser Countenance

Colors:
in Atziluth - clear rose pink,
in Briah - golden yellow,
in Yetzirah - rich salmon pink,
in Assiah - golden amber

Corrospondence in the Microcosm: The imagination of Ruach

Correspondence in the Body: The solar plexus

www.themystica.org/mystica/articles/t/tiphareth.html

You might find a few Masonic symbols in that lot as well.

[LorrB]

From that same link:

In Tiphareth God's love is revealed as the plentitude and blissful harmony of all his possibilities. They appear as many particular archetypes, each connected by essential fusion and qualitative interpenetration. Each archetype truly representing God, is God, is unique by itself but joined to the others through the essence of God, thus also displaying his unity. This Sephirah reveals the "heart" of God or his compassion which infuses everything which is "above" and "below," "on the right" or "on the left" in the world of emanation. The true knowledge of such emanation is that even though all of the particular archetypes are shown they all emanate from a "center" and are of the same essence.

The essential principle of this divine love is the identity of the absolute (ain)-which excludes everything not of itself-and of the infinite (en sof)-which includes all that is real. From this essential principle of divine beauty radiates both the pure truth of the only reality, eclipsing all that it is not, and at the same time unlimited bliss that each thing effortlessly floats in the essence of God, Kether.

[LorrB]

The true knowledge of such emanation is that even though all of the particular archetypes are shown they all emanate from a "center" and are of the same essence.

The Twelve Tribes
The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac
The Twelve Labour of Hercules

?!

[chotavan]

I personally believe Kabbalah and Freemasonry have so many similarities it is hard to deny the connection.

Many believe the Blue Lodge degrees are divided into three body parts: body, mind, soul. Think of the first three degrees in Freemasonry and how these three degrees correspond to three aspects of the soul in Kabbalah.

Nefresh - Entered Apprentice: body - instincts and bodily desires
Ruah -Fellow Craft : mind and ethical conduct
Neshama - Master Mason: sould - highest level of the soul and is related to the divine spirit of man

[Henka]

One can superimpose it upon Freemasonry, but I do not believe that Freemasonry was deliberately set up to reflect it. One can also impose the Hindu Chakra system, Alchemy, or any other esoteric discipline and achieve the same results.

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."

Umberto Eco

[LorrB]

Maybe Umberto had trouble identifying his own underlying truth and therefore assumes nothing or nobody has one.

DaVinci's paintings reflect his belief system, it doesn't mean that what he protrayed was true.

[LorrB]

Feb 24, 2011 4:48:31 GMT 9.5 Henka said:

One can also impose the Hindu Chakra system, Alchemy, or any other esoteric discipline and achieve the same results.

So, one might presume that they are all trying to tell us the same thing.
Knowledge adapted to suit the minds which approach it.

(And I quite agree with you, we will achieve the same results. I encourage all our readers to try this interesting exercise. And we encourage you to start new threads on your experiments. Let's have fun with this)

[LorrB]

Nice to see you joining in chotavan, a hearty welcome to you.
You might find The Breath of Life thread interesting...

[LorrB]

BEAUTY

On the Tree of Life Beauty = Tifaret/Tiphareth and is allied to the Sun.

I once read that "in Tifaret, conflict is reconciled, and contradiction resolved".

Below it are, respectively, Yesod (Foundation) and Malkut (Kingdom). As these two are, respectively, often connected to the Moon and the Earth, we have here an ascent from Earth, to Moon, to Sun, to the Sun-beyond-the Sun (alluded to in Plato's allegory of the Cave' in Book VII of his Republic) as Keter (the Crown).

The lowest of the two require that we both keep our feet on the ground and that we build a solid foundation before ascending further. We have physical body, and life forces with which to work and direct. these provide initial work.

It is appropriate that the pillar is named by the central Sefirah, for the highest reminds one of Enoch: he 'walked with God, and was not".

The Three Pillars by Jean-Michel David

[paul]

The Qabalah is a:

- peculiar, being restricted in origin and use
- system, being patterned and complete
- of morality, dealing with all the levels of human moral growth
- veiled in allegory, of the Tree, Paths and Sephira
- illustrated by symbols, including forms of the Tree and those used to identify each Sephiroth.

Thus the Qabalah is a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.

[LorrB]

I have to write a paper on the Craft and Qabalah, can I use your post above .. it seems the perfect starting point.

(I particularly noted : 'peculiar, being restricted in origin and use')

[paul]

Please do!

[paul]

Like Masonry the Qabalah refers to the Point within the Circle. Does the symbol have the same meaning in both?

[LorrB]

The "Book of Concealed Mystery" opens with these words: "The Book of Concealed Mystery is the book of the equilibrium of balance." What is here meant by the terms "equilibrium of balance"? Equilibrium is that harmony which results from the analogy of contraries, it is the dead centre where, the opposition of opposing forces being equal in strength, rest succeeds motion. It is the central point. It is the "point within the circle" of ancient symbolism. It is the living synthesis of counterbalanced power.

www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tku/tku03.htm

Seems so to me.

[paul]

I am not so sure that Existence is ever at rest. I rather like the idea of cycling between the polarities.

[LorrB]

Between the in breath and the out breath there is a brief pause. I assume the same might be true when it comes to polarities ?

[paul]

>t expresses that earth is subject to 9th dimensional critter intervention


If we go back to the Theosophical and Lucis Trust writings there was much consideration of planes and subplanes. It seems that such technicalities were not so easily mastered by humans and later texts dumbed down the concept representing it as dimensions.

The complication of course is that the first 3 dimensions exist in the one plane thereby dislocating the numbering system and losing the inner meaning and capabilities of the numbers.


> My Father's house has many rooms

I once went to an Alpha Course en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_course and I asked an attendee what it meant to say "my Father's house has many mansions". He replied that when we die we each get our own house.

> it might be a blu dot on the forehead like Johns of the watchman movie

In the Qabalistic tradition the Point within the Circle is a chakra a short distance above the crown chakra. When humans operate from that chakra they should be regarded as trans-human having graduated out of the human kingdom.