chesed
4.1 Pathworking to Binah
Pathworking the Tarot:
X Wheel of Fortune, IX Hermit, and VIII Adjustment (Justice)
This continues the work we’ve done in the fourth week of each month.
Remember that you can begin your path working by going to your sacred/personal space. A description of what that means is in section 2.4 under Malkuth. Here is the brief meditation on how to find that internal place:
And then (and you can skip straight to this), a brief pathworking meditation on the tarot cards that will take us from the spheres we have already been to (Netzach, Tifareth, and Geburah) to the next sphere in our journey: Chesed.
X The Wheel of Fortune
We begin with X which is the path from Netzach to Chesed, up the Pillar of Mercy, from Victory to Mercy. If you have a tarot deck, this would be an opportune moment to pull out the appropriate card and to hold it or place it in front of you while you do the meditation.
IX The Hermit
We continue with IX The Hermit, to travel fro Tifareth, the Harmony, to Chesed, Mercy. If you have a tarot deck, this would be an opportune moment to pull out the appropriate card and to hold it or place it in front of you while you do the meditation.
VIII Adjustment (a.k.a. Justice)
We conclude with the journey from Geburah on the Pillar of Severity across VIII Adjustment to Chesed on the Pillar of Mercy. If you have a tarot deck, this would be an opportune moment to pull out the appropriate card and to hold it or place it in front of you while you do the meditation.
This concludes this month’s exercises.
4.0 Magical Chesed
Chesed Ritual
I have two thoughts for you on how to connect ritually to Geburah energy.
Option 1
Create. Paint, dance, sculpt, write. Take some passion from your soul and give it outward expression. Invoke Geburah first. Release with appreciation the Geburah energy at the end.
Option 2
- Acquire a cheap mask
- Create sacred space with the mask and a mirror inside of it
- Put on the mask, as you would put on one or all the masks that you wear in the world, all of the roles of child, parent, employee, manager, friend, professional, hobbyist, etc.
- Sit/stand before the mirror. See the mask that you wear.
- Invoke the Geburah energy
- Allow it in to break through the barrier of the mask, to remove the barriers and the illusions and the cover between our eternal self and our temporary self of day-to-day life.
- Express the impact of the Geburah energy into the mask itself – remove it, destroy it, do whatever the ritual needs from you in order to complete the removal of the mask(s).
- See yourself without the mask(s) in the mirror. See your true(er) self. Take this in and allow the experience to affect you.
- Release the geburah energy with appreciation.
- Close the sacred space.
3.1 Tarot: The 4’s
Downloadable:
Tarot: Geburah 5’s
The chart is for reference, for those who like such materials. Reminder, the “Thoth label” is the word chosen by Aleister Crowley to epitomize the energy and the meaning of the card. The astrological association is another way to describe the energy of the card.
Tarot Meditations:
If you have a tarot deck, I recommend pulling out the four 4’s to have with you during the meditation. NOTE: In the Thoth deck (the tarot deck Aleister Crowley designed), as with many other tarot decks, the suit of wands is associated with fire and the swords with air. If your deck has those associations flipped you will most likely want to use your 4 of swords with the wand meditation and the 4 of wands with the sword meditation. Or in other words, follow the elemental association of the meditations over the representation.
These meditations can be done contemplatively, i.e. purely as meditation. You an also do them as a pathworking, where you draw in the energies that are being worked with and explore the card from that direction. The choice is yours. If you are unfamiliar with energy working, I recommend staying meditative.
Geburah’s destructive energy and power storms through each of the elements, disrupting them from their place of comfort and stability, from where they are balanced and harmonized. There is no balance or harmony in Geburah. There is exploration into the farthest, most destructive reach of anything and everything, Self and Other. Geburah is the path TO harmony, but in order to find harmony, we must first seek out all of our places of discord, understand them, embrace them.
Earth: Pentacles
As we are travelling up the tree, we will also travel ‘up’ the elements. As the most manifested of the four elements, earth is encountered first, followed by air, then water and finally fire for the beginning of all things. In this particular reference point anyways.
You can also use 4 stones, laid out in a circle around you are in front of you as part of the meditation/journey.
The power of earth, the physical, the body; the power of Chesed, Mercy. Sun in Capricorn. Power.
Ideally you have the tarot card in hand or in front of you during the meditation.
The meditation starts with the presumption that you are already settled, comfortable, mind settled and calmly focused, ready to begin.
Air: Swords
The power of air, the mind, the intellect; the power of Chesed, Mercy. Jupiter in Libra. Truce.
You could choose to have 4 sticks of incense burning around you or in front of you or 4 feathers to represent air with you while you listen/do the meditation.
Ideally you have the tarot card in hand or in front of you during the meditation.
The meditation starts with the presumption that you are already settled, comfortable, mind settled and calmly focused, ready to begin.
Water: Cups
The power of water, heart and emotions; the power of Chesed, Mercy. Moon in Cancer. Luxury.
You could choose to have 4 cups of water surrounding you as you do the meditation.
Ideally you have the tarot card in hand or in front of you during the meditation.
The meditation starts with the presumption that you are already settled, comfortable, mind settled and calmly focused, ready to begin.
Fire: Wands
The power of fire, will and passion; the power of Chesed, Mercy. Venus in Ares. Completion.
You could choose to have 4 candles in front of or around you as you do the meditation. Let yourself be inspired into the pattern you wish to lay them out in.
Ideally you have the tarot card in hand or in front of you during the meditation.
The meditation starts with the presumption that you are already settled, comfortable, mind settled and calmly focused, ready to begin.
This ends this week’s exercises.
3.0 Chesed Reflection
Reflection works well in the third week of the month but obviously can be done at any time.
Having travelled through to Chesed during the tea meditation, are there questions that now exist for you? If yes, leave them in the comments and let us learn from each other.
If you are seeking ways to reflect into Chesed, here are a few suggestions:
- Chesed is the Mercy that comes from form comforting and containing the spur of force. We often hear mercy called weakness. Do you feel this way? Do you consider mercy a weakness or a strength? If a weakness, can you find the strength in it? If a strength, can you see where the weakness can happen? Have you felt mercy? Received it? Write this down in your journal.
- Where and when have you used Chesed energy in your life? When have you felt the expansion of Jupiter settle and strengthen you? When have you experienced love? humility? Have you ever been enveloped by majestic awe?
- Explore Chesed via the 4’s of the Tarot in the next lesson.
2.4 Unicorn and Crook
Crook/Wand
Last month in Geburah we didn’t look at the scourge, one of its symbols and weapons. Wiccans frequently work with the scourge and the kiss (wand). In Egyptian history, you will see the crook and the flail held by the Pharaoh. They were the prime symbols of ruling.
And in essence, they are the symbols of Geburah and Chesed, Might and Mercy, held in balance by a ruler who is the light of divinity on earth (think of Tifareth, holding the symbols of Geburah and Chesed in balance).
The crook (just like the one used on stage to pull people off, called the Vaudeville hook), is the wand with the rounded hook at the end.
The crook and the wand, they are the gentle care for those around you. They reach out into the world in a strong, will-driven way that directs without pain or harm. It is the shepherd’s hook, used to guide the sheep.
This is the symbol, the tool of Chesed, the expression of Mercy and Love.
Unicorn
I have fallen in love with unicorns. Not the cutesy unicorns of cartoons and stuffies. Though…
Unicorns from Fantasia
The Last Unicorn is closer to what I’m talking about. But in the end, the unicorn is the expression of the energy of Chesed in mythical animal form (just as the Basilisk is for Chesed).
Unicorn energy is healing, expressive love.
2.3 Chesed Vice & Virtue
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.
2.2 Deities of Chesed
Once again we will take the opportunity to take the quality of the sphere, its essence, its resonance, and seek out the matching qualities, essences, resonances in something else. In this case specifically gods and goddesses. We can use this to find deeper meaning in the sphere and also find connections between the different gods and goddesses.
Contemplation Question:
In Chesed, we are looking at the essence of jupiter, Mercy, love, majesty, and magnificence. This is the sphere of the orb and the wand, the sceptre and the crook, the realm of the Brilliant Ones.
Exercise: Which gods and/or goddesses do you feel resonate with these concepts?
Name of Power Exercise:
The name of power associated with Chesed is El (God/dess). The spiritual power of all of deity (the unification of deities) comes to us through mercy. Can you feel the majesty, the magnificence of the wonder of deity?
Play with vibrating the Name of Power: El. Do this in a meditative state. Do it several, many, lots of times, use it as a mantra to take you into an altered state of consciousness where you become open to the energies and the experience, more than the thoughts of the experience.
Allow the resonance to connect with something inside you, physical and metaphysical. Vibrating names is done by opening up the throat and mouth, allowing the sound to come from deep inside of you and then allowing the vowels of the words you are vibrating to become very long, extended in time and space. Listen to this short clip for a sense of what it is like. And remember to explore the sounds, how you want to make them, how they impact you.
Name of Power: El (God/dess)
After vibrating the name for the mighty God/dess, reconsider the deities you associate with Chesed, with jupiter, with Mercy and the titles of Love, Majesty, and Magnificence. Do they resonate with the name of power? Is there another deity you would add? Perhaps one you would remove from your list?
Write down your deity associations on the Chesed Associations sheet from section 1.0 or the Chesed: General Notes sheet.
Goddesses & Gods
Having difficulty figuring out which goddesses or gods you would associate here? Chesed is the sphere of benevolent ruler gods, such as Jupiter, Odin (as lawgiver), Nodens, Zeus, Juno, Hera, Isis, Dagda, Adonai, Amen-Ra, Osiris, Indra and so forth.
2.1 Chesed Tea Meditation
As with any time you are doing meditation, try and arrange to be in a quiet place, free from interruptions. Be physically comfortable (including temperature). Go to the bathroom before starting, turn off your phone.
Whether you are doing this meditation with tea or not, I recommend wearing blue or other appropriate colours, using an anointing oil if you have one (either the blend from the overview for this week or any jupiter related oil; sandalwood is always a standard fallback) and anointing your third eye with it (middle of your forehead, essentially; I like to anoint by drawing an equal arm cross inside of a circle). The anointing of the third eye helps to open you up to greater perceptions/wider perceptions, and doing so with the Chesed related oil will encourage your perspectives in that direction.
Chesed Journey/Meditation:
2.0 Chesed Tea
Today is the 8th tea of the course. We have been travelling long and far. Here, in this tea, there is a time of rest and rejuvenation available to us.
It is important to recognize that the higher we travel up the Tree, the more esoteric, the more cerebral our connection to the sephiroth often become. This is deeply impacted by how far we have each travelled. Those who have had experiences that align with higher spheres on the Tree will have a more layered experience of the sphere. We begin our connection with our mind, through logic and thought, but always we seek to connect on an intuitive/emotional/spiritual level with each sphere.
Do not be bothered by this! Whether your connection with connective Chesed is mental or emotional, it is the beginning or continuation of your resonance with the essence of this sphere. Each time we move through the Tree, when we seek out these connections and spent time tuning ourselves to their resonances, the more we invite the influence, power, and essence of the sephiroth into our lives. We are all on a journey to our Higher Selves and no one’s journey will be just like any others. Being farther up the Tree is not ‘better’, just different, for it gives a broader perspective.
Don’t be in a rush! Set the framework for the experience of Chesed, explore it, so that when you have moments that touch into this energy, you will recognize them for what they are, and thus have an easier time integrating and embracing such wonder into your Self and your life.
As usual, there are four lessons or exercises if you prefer in this week. They can be done together, as in all of them contemplated (if alone) or discussed (if working this in a group) all on the same day, or you can spread them out over the week as works for you.
Tea Preparation
For those who will be doing tea like I will, here’s the things to keep in mind:
- Wear some form of blue to connect with the (Queen’s) colour of Chesed
- Tea suggestion (mine are added to a rooibos base) **always take care that there are no allergies with what you choose to use**. Use all or some of the following:
- cinammon
- clove
- cracked pepper
- calendula
- mace
- basil
- Chesed oil blend:
- benzoin
- neroli
- basil
- cedarwood
- Optional (well, it’s all optional, but this item is particularly so): dress (anoint) a blue candle with the oil, to burn during the tea, to help bring connection to the contemplation/discussion.
Tea Process
Anoint self with oil.
Do the meditation.
Make tea.
Contemplate/discuss Chesed while drinking tea.
1.3 Other Connections: Chesed
Pick your own adventure time!
a) Using the Chesed Associations, find a connection with Chesed that you want to explore; I recommend one of the symbols and/or titles for Chesed.
b) Connect with Chesed (either on your own or via the connection meditation below:).
c) Contemplate/meditate on the symbol or title.
d) Connect those impressions/reactions/sensations with Chesed.
e) Record your impressions on the Chesed: General Notes or in your journal.
Repeat this exercise as often as you like with various parts of Chesed.
This concludes Week 1 with Chesed.
1.1 Planetary Association: Jupiter
Jupiter Concepts
Jupiter is the planet of expansion. It is spinning so fast that it emanates more heat than it receives from the sun, the only planet that does so. It has 16 of its own satellites, making it in a sense its own miniature solar system, second only therefore to the sun. The ancients (Greeks) called it the “Great Benefic” because its influence was considered so positive.
Jupiter elevates us beyond the physical considerations of the previous four planets. Here the physical begins to transcend to the trans-personal, an aspect of Jupiter that is reflected in Chesed.
Jupiter is expansive, forward-thinking, joyful. It embraces abundance and advancement, opportunity and success.
Within Jupiter it is easy to connect with the lover’s heart, easy to care for those around us for we are so full with the positive aspects of the universe ourselves.
As with all of the relationships between planets and sephiroth, there is a close similarity between them but they are not strictly the same thing. Jupiter has a stronger masculine presence than Chesed. Chesed is more receptive, more focused on love, the love that comes out of Jupiter’s embrace of all those around.
Jupiter is the focal point of its own system of satellites, the centre, caring for all those within its influence. As does Chesed, which teaches us that we are connected with all that is within our sphere of influence and we are as impacted by those in our sphere as they are by us.
Exercise 8.1.1:
Planetary Association Chesed to Jupiter
DOWNLOADABLE:
Planetary Associations: Jupiter
a) Connect to Chesed (via our brief opening meditation below or on your own). Draw into your awareness your knowledges and experience of Chesed, your sense of it.
b) Connect with the energies of planetary jupiter, using your own knowledge of planetary jupiter and/or the associations sheet above. OPTION: Listen to Holst’s Jupiter as you do this exercise. Use the music to draw up your feelings, sensations and ideas on planetary jupiter. Question to consider: Chesed translates to Mercy. How does that apply to the connection to jupiter?
c) Seek places where the two correspond well, where they resonate with each other; are there any places where you feel dissonance? Make notes on the downloadable sheet above.