geburah

2.1 Geburah 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 red or other appropriate colours, using an anointing oil if you have one (either the blend from the overview for this week or any mars 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 Geburah related oil will encourage your perspectives in that direction.

Geburah Journey/Meditation:

1.1 Planetary Association: Mars

Mars Concepts

Mars is the next planet out from the sun from ours.  In our night sky it appears red and has been long associated with the gods of war.

Mars is the warrior’s heart.  It is the strength and conviction, the loyalty and protection.  It is the fiery rage burning out of control and the measured response of the organized battle to attain specific results.

It is the thrust of masculine energy, the sword and the point, the sexuality that lights our inner passions.  It can consume us if it burns too wildly.

There is always a need with mars energy, something that needs to be released or fought for.  And there is the need to balance mars.

Mars inspires the will.  It invites courage.  It invokes energy.  It is drive.  And sometimes it is the need to surrender.

The resonances with Geburah are strong.  There are similar lessons and gifts, similar pitfalls and problems.  Mars is focussed on the battle and the war, Geburah is the power behind that battle, the might that drives us to war.  The planet mars is NOT Geburah, Geburah is not mars, but they are deeply related and reflective to each other.  I invite you to start diving into the exploration of finding the similarities and discovering the differences.

Exercise 7.1.1:
Planetary Association Geburah to Mars

DOWNLOADABLE:
7.1.1 Planetary Associations: Mars

a) Connect to Geburah (via our brief opening meditation below or on your own).  Draw into your awareness your knowledges and experience of Geburah, your sense of it.

 

b) Connect with the energies of planetary mars, using your own knowledge of planetary mars and/or the associations sheet above.  OPTION:  Listen to Holst’s Mars as you do this exercise.  Use the music to draw up your feelings, sensations and ideas on planetary mars.  Question to consider:  Geburah translates to Might.  How does that apply to the connection to mars?

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.

2.4 Basilisk and Oak

The scourge, the chain, the spear and the sword are all symbols of Geburah.  As weapons it is rather easy to explore these associations, and I invite you to do so!

But let us take a bit of a different road with the available correspondences into the realm of Geburah.

Basilisk

We look here at the classical basilisk, not the one of Harry Potter familiarity.  It was considered to be small (12 finger widths in length), with a mark on the head like a diadem (crown).  It’s breath, vision and venom were all deadly.  There was essentially nothing about it that wouldn’t kill you.  The venom was so strong that a man on horse who killed it with a spear would be killed by the venom traveling back up the spear to him.

Most likely the basilisk was inspired by the king cobra (see the story of Rikki Tikki Tavi for the king cobra versus the mongoose).

The point I invite you to consider is how intense the basilisk is.  It is deadly.  At a distance at a touch.  It is a small (supposedly) creature with a sense of royalty that has multiple destructive forces.

Geburah lies in opposition to Chesed.  It is a little unfair to visit Geburah first, but we will manage.  Chesed is love.  It’s spiritual experience is the Vision of Love.  Can you, just for a moment, imagine being embraced in the purity of love?  No reservations?

Now imagine the opposite of that.

That is Geburah.  The opposite of pure love.  Which is NOT in this case pure hate.  It is the opposite of unity.  It is destruction, breaking down, aggression, and thus its animal is the basilisk, a creature exuding death.  (The creature for Chesed is the Unicorn).

Oak

The nettle as the plant of Geburah is an easy placement.  Just think of how we use “nettled” in relation to interacting with people.  The oak on the other hand, is a familiar and strong tree.  Yet lacking that destructive quality associated with, say, the nettle or the basilisk.

Yet Geburah translates as Might, not as Destruction.  While destruction is inherent in its nature, it is not the point of it.  It is power to a purpose, power that serves, power that brings us to our strength, our courage, our loyalty.

The oak tree has a long history in lore.  Oaks courted the lightening strike, pulling in the power of the destruction and empowerment of lightening (just like Geburah).

They stand on the edge of the wild, embracing that side of nature, yet still standing strong and protective over the people.  Consider how this could relate back to Geburah, its wildness and yet it also protects?  If so, how?

They are sacred and honoured.  The basilisk bears the mark of the diadem, implying a sense of royalty; oaks are a royal tree, a sacred tree.  There is nothing ‘low’ about Geburah.  It is a powerful place, and its transformations are not the petty transformations and unveilings of Yesod.  This is a deeper place, a more fundamental and more intensely spiritual revealing of our true nature.  The work at this level is sacred and not to be taken lightly.  And its impact spreads out over the people around us.

2.3 Geburah 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 Geburah, Might, lead to a virtue of Energy and Courage?  How does it lead to the vice of Cruelty and Wanton Destruction?  What can the vice and virtue tell you about Geburah?

Vice:  Cruelty and Wanton Destruction

Geburah gifts us with the Vision of Power.  We experience our own strength, the strength and power of the universe, can feel the flow and push and intensity of it.  There is a reason that “drunk on power” is a familiar phrase.  It can be very easy to become on the thrill of the power and through it forget the point of it.

There is purpose behind Geburah.  It does not exist in a vacuum, it does not exist to torment or to punish.  It is a natural process of the world and the Tree; it is a natural process to our lives.  Yet it can be easy, oh so easy, when the power rushes up inside of us, when we allow ourselves to really feel and connect to our own power and worth, without illusion, delusion or denial, we can be swept up in it.  Thrilled by the *lack* of worry, the *lack* of defeat, disappointment, fear, we strike out in the worst ways.

We become cruel.  We inflict unnecessary harm and pain onto others, for the thrill of the power, for the thrill of not being the victim.  We rush past the need to protect and become so addicted to the sense of power that we become that which needs to be protected from.

We can shed wanton destruction upon the world because we can.  When you can smash the bottle in front of you, because the act of destruction feels so good and there appears to be no consequences to run from.  Why not destroy everything?

There is power in destruction!  New life grows in the wake of it.  The roads are cleared or new roads are created.  Destruction is a necessary part of creation!

It is so easy to fall into those words and to fall into destruction without purpose, destruction without gain, destruction that holds no other purpose than to destroy.

And that is where it fails.  That is where the advantages of Geburah fail and become lost into an overabundance of its nature.  It loses its internal balance and we become lost in too much of Geburah.

What are your thoughts on cruelty?  Have you ever felt the pull of wanton destruction?  If so, what was it like?  What inspired it?  What purpose does cruelty serve, if any?

How does this align with your ideas of Geburah?  of mars?  of a mighty warrior in a chariot?  Can you get a sense for why the power of this sphere would manifest into this particular vice?

Make notes on your Geburah-General Notes or in your journal.

Virtue:  Energy and Courage

The Might of Geburah isn’t without purpose.  Without purpose it becomes cruelty and wanton destruction, with purpose that power can propel us forward, can give us the courage we need to keep going, despite all odds, despite all obstacles.

It can be the courage we need to get over the wall or through the wall or to demolish the wall itself.  It is also the energy to do so.

Desire and wish isn’t enough.  We need the burning fire of energy to drive through us, to propel us forward.

The Vision of Power of Geburah can inspire the courage.  It shows us that we can make a difference, that we can affect the world, create impact and change, if we but have courage.  It shows us the importance of courage and also that we deserve to have it.  That we have what is needed to be courageous because we are also Powerful, Mighty.

The titles of Geburah include Fear and Justice.  Fear is a part of Geburah.  When it overwhelms us it can lead to the vices of cruelty and wanton destruction out of a desire to keep the fear at bay.

But when embraced?  When accepted for the necessity and natural part of us that it is?  Fear is a guide, a teacher, and the diving board that feeds us energy and plunges us into courage.

What fears would you overcome?  What energy can you draw from the fear?  Where and when have you met your own courage?  Can you imagine what it would be like to be flooded with it?

How does this align with your ideas of Geburah?  of mars?  of a mighty warrior in a chariot?  Can you get a sense for why the power of this sphere would manifest into this particular virtue?

Make notes on your Geburah-General Notes or in your journal.

2.2 Deities of Geburah

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 Geburah, we are looking at the essence of mars, Might, power, energy and justice.  This is the sphere of the weapons of spear, courage and sword, the realm of the fiery serpents.

Exercise:  Which gods and/or goddesses do you feel resonate with these concepts?

Name of Power Exercise:

The name of power associated with Geburah is Elohim Gibor (Mighty God/dess).  The might of the realm is but a reflection of the might of the gods or is the might of the gods a reflection of the sphere?

Play with vibrating the Name of Power: Elohim Gibor.  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: Elohim Gibor (Mighty God/dess)

 

After vibrating the name for the mighty God/dess, reconsider the deities you associate with Geburah, with mars, with Might and the titles of Fear and Justice.  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 Geburah Associations sheet from section 1.0 or the Geburah-General Notes sheet.

Goddesses & Gods

Having difficulty figuring out which goddesses or gods you would associate here?  Geburah is relatively straight forward with the war, protector and avenger deities, such as Ares and Thor, Anann and Freya, Athena and Mars, Chi Yu and Sekhmet, Set, Eris, Phobos, Pele, and the list goes on.

Yet there are also the smith and forget deities. Those that work deep with fire and the powers of its transformation, such as Waylund, Hephaestus, Vulcan, Ptah.

1.3 Other Connections: Geburah

Pick your own adventure time!

a) Using the Geburah Associations, find a connection with Geburah that you want to explore; I recommend one of the symbols and/or titles for Geburah.

b) Connect with Geburah (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 Geburah.

e) Record your impressions on the Geburah-General Notes or in your journal.

Repeat this exercise as often as you like with various parts of Geburah.

This concludes Week 1 with Geburah.

1.2 Color Connection: Red

Colour Connection Exercise:  Red

This is a simple exercise.  You can do this simply by contemplating the colour red.  Or by having samples of the colour in front of you while you do this exercise.  The

a) Start with connecting to Geburah, on your own or via the Geburah connection meditation:

Connection with Geburah Guided Meditation:

 

b)  And then do the following meditation to explore how the colour connects to Geburah.  What does it invoke in you?  Does it resonate with your concepts of Geburah?  Where do they differ.  Note your thoughts in your journal, on one of the other note pages or on the downloadable notes page below.

Red Color Meditation:

 

c)  OPTION:  explore and experience moving through the colour scales of princess, prince, queen and king (Crowley refers to this as the knight’s scale, I prefer king).  Or planetary, angel, archangel, deity.  Or physical, mental, emotional, causal (willful).  Or manifestation, idea, archetype, inspiration.  These colours are:

  • Planetary/Princess:  Red flecked black
  • Angel/Prince:  Bright scarlet
  • Archangel/Queen:  Scarlet red
  • Deity/King:  Orange

Geburah Color Scale Meditation:

 

DOWNLOADABLE:
Geburah Associations

 

3.1 Tarot: The 5’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 5’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 10 of swords with the wand meditation and the 10 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 5 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 Geburah, the Might.  Mercury in Taurus.  Worry.

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 Geburah, the Might.  Venus in Aquarius.  Defeat.

You could choose to have 5 sticks of incense burning around you or in front of you or 5 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 Geburah, the Might.  Mars in Scorpio.  Disappointment.

You could choose to have 5 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 Geburah, the Might.  Jupiter in Leo.  Strife.

You could choose to have 5 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 Geburah Reflection

Reflection works well in the third week of the month but obviously can be done at any time.

Having travelled through to Geburah 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 Geburah, here are a few suggestions:

  1. Geburah is the Might that results from force churning up the concept of form, invigorating it and inspiring it.  In Tifareth we experienced Harmony, but also the Harmony that results from the cycle of sacrifice, a cycle of death and rebirth.  Here we have broken that cycle down into its components and we explore the destructive side.  Can you feel the power in destruction?  We are trained to see this as a negative – that this negative power, that destruction is evil, and yet it is also the surgery that removes cancer, the breaking of a relationship that is destroying us so that we can find freedom, it is the breaking down of our preconceptions so that we can see a clearer truth.  How do these statements make you feel?  Have you felt the passion of creation?  The power of destruction?  Write this down in your journal.
  2. Where and when have you used Geburah energy in your life?  When have you felt the fire of Mars invigorate you into action and creation?  When have you experienced courage? loyalty?
  3. Explore Geburah via the 5’s of the Tarot in the next lesson.

4.0 Magical Geburah

Geburah 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

  1. Acquire a cheap mask
  2. Create sacred space with the mask and a mirror inside of it
  3. 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.
  4. Sit/stand before the mirror.  See the mask that you wear.
  5. Invoke the Geburah energy
  6. 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.
  7. 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).
  8. See yourself without the mask(s) in the mirror.  See your true(er) self.  Take this in and allow the experience to affect you.
  9. Release the geburah energy with appreciation.
  10. Close the sacred space.

4.1 Pathworking to Chesed

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.

2.0 Geburah Tea

Welcome to the seventh tea of the course!  Wow.  Seventh.  Over half way.  When did that happen?  Wow, just wow!

Having travelled through Tifareth, through the centre of the tree, through the heart of ourselves and the core of our systems, from Harmony we journey once more to the Pillar of Severity, into the sphere of Might.

Geburah shares qualities with Hod for they rest upon the same pillar, yet Geburah is higher up the tree, closer to Kether than Hod.  It has not yet been mediated by the Harmony of Tifareth (or it has been left behind).  We will come to a greater understanding next month when we explore Chesed, for all pairings on the tree are best understood through the comparison of the two sides.

But for now, we start with gaining comprehension of Geburah, the sphere of Might, where power can heal us, help us or destroy us.  Let’s talk about it, contemplate it, play with it!

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:

  1. Wear some form of red to connect with the (Queen’s) colour of Geburah
  2. 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
  3. Geburah oil blend:
    • gingergrass
    • cloves
    • basil
    • lime
    • cinnamon leaf
    • juniper berry
    • cedarwood
    • frankincense
  4. Optional (well, it’s all optional, but this item is particularly so): dress (anoint) a red 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 Geburah while drinking tea.