Discussion/Contemplation Exercise
As you have already experienced, to really get to know the Sephiroth we want to explore not just the associations of the Sephiroth, but how their essence influences, impacts and/or can be used by us. The vices and virtues are integral to this. How does the nature of Chesed, Mercy, leading to a virtue of Obedience? How does it lead to the vice of Bigotry, Hypocrisy, Gluttony? What can the vice and virtue tell you about Chesed?
This month we will look at the virtue first, to give greater context to the vices.
Virtue: Obedience
I cannot describe this virtue better than Ellen Cannon Reed in The Witches’ Qabala:
“Obedience” at Chesed is having your own will so aligned with that of the God/dess that it is impossible for you to do other than they wish, because your wish is the same as theirs. This is not forced agreement, forced obedience. When Chesed is reached in spiritual growth, the Will will be that of the Lord and Lady, because it is right.”
Chesed is the last sphere of manifestation before we cross the Abyss into the wholly unmanifested trio of sephiroth (conversely it is the first sphere of manifestation when travelling down the Tree). When travelling down into manifestation, we are just separating from the Great Mother and Great Father, we are the beginnings of our own Self. We are so aligned still with their essences that we would appear to be following the Will of the Gods rather than our own. But the reality is that the our Will would be so pure, so in alignment with the universe, that nothing else would even be conceivable.
When we are travelling up the Tree, we strip away the illusions and delusions of the manifest world and day-to-day living. The father up we go, the clearer is the flow of energy from beyond Kether into us. We become ‘obedient’ to the Will of the Universe. Drawn to the Flow of what can, may, will be.
The magical image is a might crowned and throned king, not because Chesed is inherently masculine, but because that image is intensely evocative of a figure of authority, strong, certain, in control and in charge. But this is Chesed, this is love, this is mercy.
How do these reconcile for you? The majesty and magnificence with love and mercy? Does the magical image work for you? Would a different figure evoke the feelings better?
Do you balance power and love? Or can power come from love? Love from power? Where does mercy come into this? How?
How does this align with your ideas of Chesed? of jupiter? of a mighty mighty crowned and throned king? Can you get a sense for why the power of this sphere would manifest into this particular virtue?
Make notes on your Chesed: General Notes or in your journal.
Vice: Bigotry, Hypocrisy, Gluttony
We rise up to the virtue of Chesed, we rise up to the clarity of our Selves within Chesed that aligns us with the Will of the Universe. The reality of rising up the Tree is that it is not one continuous flow. We have moments of high connection and then we drop back down. We find clarity and lose it. We dip into enlightenment and then slip out again, informed, changed by it, but only by degrees.
This connection into the Power of Universal Love can make us greedy for more. And more. And even more. And when we drop out of the connection to Universal Love, we can be left with an emptiness that we can become desperate to fill, in any way possible. That desperate grab for something to fill the emptiness leads to gluttony. Gluttony can be expressed through food, drink, drugs, hobbies, exercise. Anything that we love or enjoy can be done to excess.
When we have seen the ‘rightness’ of the Universe, been exposed to the full connection that is there, waiting for all of us, it can be very easy to see our (new and improved) view, as the view, the right one. We put ourselves in the right, for we have seen the Right of things, and can fall into the trap of seeing ourselves as better, leading to bigotry.
And it become very easy to tell everyone else how wonderful Chesed is, what you have learned from it, how people should live in order to touch it, and then forget to live it ourselves. As with many vices, we don’t come to them through an intention to fail, to live a vice. We come to them through an overzealousness, an abundance of intention, a failure to continue to live within the virtues and become overwhelmed by them. And here we can become hypocrites, telling others how to reach this beautiful state, and then leaving it ourselves. Chesed loves to connect us with others, but true Chesed loves people unconditionally, for who they are. The challenge of Chesed, of its vices, is to allow others to be who they are, where they are.
Where have you experienced hypocrisy in your life? Have you witnessed it in others? In yourself? What of gluttony? Have you ever wanted to drink down something (metaphorically speaking) until you are utterly satiated? Can that sensation ever last?
How does this align with your ideas of Chesed? of jupiter? of a mighty crowned and throned king? Can you get a sense for why the power of this sphere would manifest into this particular vice?
Make notes on your Chesed: General Notes or in your journal.