BINAH

If, in the process of evolution, we see Kether as equilibrium, Chokmah as the "straight line" of force which eventually curves back upon itself, then Binah is the completion of that curve, a circle, the first form - the first "solid form" (the triangle), although still tenuous, inconceivable and beyond our imagination, and the complementary opposite of Chokmah. All microcosmic objects or natural forms which are receptacles belong to Binah, cups holding liquid and lakes as opposed to the rods and standing stones of Chokmah. In Kether we see the potential for not just Chokmah but also Binah, the first beginnings of materialisation, however abstract, of macrocosmic forces and energies inconceivable by normal human consciousness but grasped at through the use of symbols, images and metaphors. Kether, Chokmah and Binah are all repeated down through the planes in differing strengths and quantities, in the six Sephiroth of the Microsopopus (Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, and Hod) until the final complete materialisation in the sphere of Malkuth, the Physical World. They are the potentialities of manifestation rather than actualities.

Although, Binah is considered as form and Chokmah as force, they each contain an element of each other. There is a force aspect in form just as there is a form aspect to force. The world that we see looks physical and solid but really consists of atoms and molecules which mesh forms together, and as we all know the atom bomb contains a very real and powerful force in it. Electricity is a force whose form can be visibly seen in the lightning of a thunderstorm.

Binah is the Archetypal Mother, mature female symbol. She gives form and life to all but is also negative because by doing so she also gives death. This is why Binah is at the head of the pillar of Severity on the left of the Tree of Life while Chokmah heads the pillar of Mercy, on the right. All of life and manifestation eventually dies, disintegrates and dissolves back into the Great Unmanifest. The union of Chokmah the Father and Binah the Mother is said to produce the Child, Daath, the Invisible Sephirah never shown on the Tree which means Knowledge. Chokmah is wisdom which may be perceived as a straight line of thoughts and ideas. Binah is the understanding, the "penetration", and the synthesis of these thoughts and ideas. It is not enough to just know something, but also to understand it correctly in the light of everything connected with oneself. Daath being the direct offspring of the Supernal Couple may be considered as the link towards perfect knowledge as understood by our normal human consciousness and the way to implementing this knowledge in the physical world through the other Sephiroth below.

The mundane Chakra of Binah is Saturn and this is the first indication of the alternating of polarity throughout the Tree. Saturn is a male God but has the characteristics of age, time, death and destruction attached to his being which fit adequately into the sphere of Binah. He is associated with rocks and stones and hence the relative silence and immovability of the physical world; although seen from an opposite angle, the earth is whizzing through space and is probably not as silent as it appears to be! Another image which springs to mind from mythology is that of Medusa the Gorgon, the sight of whom was said to turn mortal man to stone and whom Ulysses defeated through the utilisation of a mirror; there is much there for further meditation. And finally, from real-life, we can look at the Black Widow spider, who mates with the male and then eats him, similar to Saturn eating his children! These examples show the destructive and terrible side of Binah. The bright side of Binah is the fact that all experiences in life and death lead us closer to the ultimate union with the One Cosmic Being as symbolised in Kether. The closer we go on our path of Light, the more glimpses and insights we receive which are in themselves experiences of varying degrees of wonder and beauty.

The alternating polarity in the physical world, Malkuth can be seen in the sexes. But we cannot say there is such thing as a pure female or a pure male. People invariably contain aspects of male and female characteristics more pronounced now in this more liberating age than in the Victorian age. We can find the view better if we look at the animal kingdom where there are purer forms of male and femaleness or perhaps if we look at stone-age man and his animal-like behaviour. If we consider history we can see evolution in progress and with it the watering down of pure male and female characteristics, the animal aggression of the barbarians, the more sophisticated aggression of the Romans, the noble male chivalry of the Middle Ages, the severe and strict male of the Victorian age through to the New Man of the 21^st Century. These are generalisations though seen from above so to speak and it is not to say that we do not have our fair share of aggressive males (and females) in the 21^st Century!

Another symbol of Binah is the throne, in contrast to the wheels of Chokmah. The throne portrays the idea of something or a King who is static while the wheels give the opposite idea of something or someone in movement. Wheels or anything for that matter cannot go on moving forever; they must come to rest at some point. Likewise the King cannot sit in his throne forever; at some point he must move into activity. In our own lives we are either still or moving and we cannot stay in one condition without eventually switching into the other. So again we have the key ideas of Kether, Chokmah and Binah coming up - movement, stillness and equilibrium. These, together with polarity and the inter-relationships between the Sephiroth are the key ideas when working with the tree.

Spiritual Experience of Binah

The full Spiritual Experience of Binah is sorrow. It is sorrow because form is the binding of force, the binding of Life to Death, the eventual disintegration of all manifestation back into the Great Unmanifest. "All good things must come to an end"! The pure energy of Chokmah is imprisoned in the cage of Binah. As individuals we encounter in life many experiences which brings this feeling or vision of sorrow, in differing strengths, quantities and quality. The feeling might be personal or it might be brought on objectively reading stories in the newspaper, or watching horrific events unfold on TV, but the essence remains the same, it is sorrow and belongs in the sphere of Binah. The virtue of silence belongs to Binah. When we are silent in meditation we can feel this great sadness as we view the suffering of world in our minds and the ponderous, slow progress of the evolution - and yet because we have understood the vastness of cosmic evolution in our studies, we can also find a contentment and happiness. Without this perspective, the vision or experience might overwhelm us and our will to live cease, in our despair. The vice of avarice may be seen working widely in world as people turn their attention away from sorrow and try to find happiness in material goods and wealth. The emphasis here though is the extent of the importance to which people place on acquiring wealth to the detriment of tackling the important questions of life and their own selves. To sum up, both silence and avarice are linked to

Quotes from Dion Fortune's "The Mystical Qabalah"

[Page 140, Para 10]

We may conceive that the first Cosmic Night set in, the first Pralaya, or sinking into manifestation to rest, when the Supernal Triangle found stability and equilibrium of force with the emanation and organisation of Binah.

[Page 142, Para 15]

Wisdom suggests to our minds the idea of accumulated knowledge, of the infinite series of images in the memory; but Understanding conveys to us the idea of a penetration into their significance, a power to perceive their essence and interrelation, which is not necessarily implicit in wisdom, taken as intellectual knowledge.

[Page 143, Para 20]

This constant becoming cannot remain static, it must overflow into activity; and that activity cannot for ever remain uncorrelated within itself; it must organise; some manner of adjustment of interlocking stresses must be arrived at; thus we have the potentiality of both Chokmah and Binah implicit in Kether; for be it said yet again that the Holy Sephiroth are not things, but states, and that all manifested things exist in one or another of these states, and contain an admixture of these factors in their make-up, so that the whole of the manifested universe can be sorted out into its appropriate pigeon-holes in our minds when the glyph of the Tree is established there.

[Page 147, Para 28]

The female reproductive unit is all-potential, but inert; the male reproductive unit is all-potent, but incapable of bringing to birth.

[Page 149, Para 36]

The worship of Jehovah instead of Elohim is a potent influence in preventing us from "rising on the planes," that is to say from obtaining supernormal consciousness as part of our normal equipment; for we must be prepared to shift our polarity as we shift level, for what is positive on the physical plane becomes negative on the astral, and vice versa.

[Page 151, Para 44]

Binah, Marah, matter, is the thrust-block which gives dynamic life-force its secure basis.

[Page 154, Para 52]

The triangle is one of the symbols assigned to Saturn as god of densest matter, and the triangle of art, as it is called, is used in magical ceremonies when it is the intention to evoke a spirit to visible appearance on the plane of matter; for other modes of manifestation the circle is used.