Kabbalah Group in SF, Week of June 8, 1995
Today, Christina gave a talk on Alchemy, and Alchemical Microcosmos. All is derived from the androgynous Fire and Water.
At the very beginning we have
Azot Mercury.
At the door of the Garden of Eden, the two rivers of Fire and Water,
Guadin and Kahmael, mix. The result is the four alchemical elements:
Fire, Water, Air, Earth.
Now Azot + the three pure elements (Fire, Water, Air) can be manifest
on the physical plane.
We can take now two of each of the pure elements and mix it with Earth; We can make 10 such combinations, the ten Sephirot of the Tree of Life. Da'at is not counted here.
Transcendence is moving between elements and combining them. Also, Chariot on alchemical Water is descending exercise. Musick and Dance are good for both ascending and descending exercises, as is drumming. But there is no fixed Water music. Qualities of musick can change quite a bit.
It seems that
Kabbalah does not contain descending exercises! In an
alchemical sense, descent is "feminine" as the Hebrew letters have
"feminine" or "masculine". Can use Water to get to Fire + Earth.
Also, descent is path oriented, while Ascent is goal oriented.
Descending, learn Water with Fire+Air, and thus get to Earth, learn. The meeting of the FIre of "I" and the Universe is the "Will".
Other descending exercises: belly dancing, scuba diving, spelunking, or
hiking in a forest. But we should return,
Tesh'uv .
We then finished with a brief discussion of the vowels and their position on the Tree of Life.
In Keter we have
Kammatz . It resembles a closing mouth or fist
and has the sound 'ah'
.
In Chokhmah we have
Patach . It is 'Open", and
has the sound 'ah'
.
In Binah we have
Tzerey . It is "Split', and
has the sound 'eh'
.
In Chesed we have
Segol . It is 'Virtue' and
has the sound 'eah'
.
In Gevurah we have
Shvah . It
has the sound 'eh' or no sound
.
In Tiph'eret we have
Cholem . It is 'Soul', and
has the sound 'oh'
.
In Netzach we have
Chirik . It is 'point of contact', and
it has the sound 'i'
.
In Hod we have
Shurek . It
has the sound 'uh'
.
In Yesod we have
Kibutz . It
has the sound 'uuh'
.
In Malkhut we have silence.
