September 25, 2016: Binah and Chokmah and the element of Air

I listed myself as standby for my California trip.  I’m really looking forward to this year’s trip; I will be spending time with my sister-in-law, and my friend.  I will even take BART for the first time!  Plus, I will be celebrating Samhain in person with my personal mentor of my Wiccan Path.

My Dreams if Gaia card is the Ten of Earth.  Another repeat!  The image on this one is serene, filled with bounty.  I particularly love the Mona Lisa smile on the girl in the image; just the tiniest uplift of the corner of her mouth is the only evidence of the serenity, peace and confidence within. The keywords for this one are synthesis, harmony, reward, inner peace, grace, highest good, and authenticity.  I like this repeat because I am being encouraged; I am achieving balance in all aspects of life – career, home, family, self – and they are all coming together as an integrated whole.  I am perceiving the connections, too, which enables me to do a better job for the well-being of everyone.

I looked at the sephiroth of the Tree for a bit, and it is obvious to me which pair of sephira I would consider while working with the element of Air: Chokmah or Wisdom and Binah or Understanding.  Here is a bit of info I’ve compiled about them:

Chokmah (Wisdom) is the second sephiroth on the Tree, at the top of the Pillar of Force/Expansion.  It is seen as dynamic thrust, and as the Ultimate Positive, the Great Stimulator and the Great Fertilizer (one of the symbols of Chokmah is the penis), and thus this sephiroth is connected to the Wheel of the Year.  It represents dynamic male energy and is the origin of vital force and polarity.  In Chokmah, pure being becomes pure force (and thus, pure formlessness), but not physical force, rather, the idea of force. 

Chokmah, the Sphere of the God, is the first pair on the Tree of Life, and of course, in order to truly understand it, we will need to address its counterpart, Binah, the Sphere of the Goddess.  That will be a task for another day.

My correspondence list for Chokmah is:

Magickal Image: Bearded Man

Planetary: the Zodiac

Vice: None

Virtue: Devotion

Deity: Father, Priapic Wisdom

Spiritual Experience: Vision of the Source We Seek

Briatic Correspondence: Revolution

Illusion: Independence

Obligation: None

Path: Path 2, the number of balance and polarity.

Binah (Understanding) is the third sephiroth on the Tree, at the top of the Pillar of Form/Restriction.  It is seen as form, as force in pattern, and as the Great Mother and the Womb of Life.  Binah offers shadow and contrast, which in turn gives us shape and form.  Binah restricts in order to provide a springboard, and that restriction can also be its downfall if it becomes greed.  The energies of this sephiroth are the purest of receptive energies, and they act as a balancing opposite to Chokmah.

Binah, the Sphere of the Goddess, and Chokmah, the Sphere of the God, are eternally connected.  One cannot exist without the other, for nothing can exist without form ~and~ force; joined together, they are the Web of Life.

My correspondence list for Binah is:

Magickal Image: Mature Woman

Planetary: Saturn

Vice: Avarice

Virtue: Silence

Deity: Mother, Underworld

Spiritual Experience: Vision of Sorrow

Briatic Correspondence: Comprehension

Illusion: Death

Obligation: None

Path: Path 3, the number of new creation from the union of opposites. 

These two sephiroth create Path 14, one of the Paths that offer ways to transition across the Abyss to the Supernal Triangle (which is the trio of sephiroth connected to the mind, and thus, to the element of Air).  The 14^th Path is the highest horizontal Path on the Tree.  When we move across the Path from Binah to Chokmah, we are experiencing a birth or transformation of sorts, a birth that leaves the physical body behind (similar to the transition from Yesod to Malkuth I discussed when working with the element of Water).  When we move in the opposite direction, we are drawing the non-physical into the physical effects and manifestations around us. 

Each of these sephira is at the top of a Pillar, with Binah at the top of the Pillar of Form and Chokmah at the top of the Pillar of Force, and that means this Path in a sense activates both Pillars.  This Path also unites male energies (Chokmah) and female (Binah) energies, which is the recipe for creating new life essence.  There are a lot of possibilities here!

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