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 Tifareth, the Beauty and Harmony, lead to a virtue of Devotion to the Great Work? How does it lead to the vice of False Pride? What can the vice and virtue tell you about Tifareth?
Vice: False Pride
Pride is not a sin. Not immediately and inherently. But too often pride falls into false pride and the problems begin.
When we accomplish something, something beautiful, something to good purpose, we honour the work that we have done by experiencing the pride of it.
And then we let it go.
If we hold onto that pride, to try and keep that feeling with us 24/7, it will cease to have healthy moving and we move into false pride.
When a group we are a part of accomplishes something, when it acts to good purpose, we feel pride for being part of that group. That group could be our country, our coven, our dance troupe, our club, our sports team, our tradition, our spirituality. The group can be shared belief, shared action, shared anything that groups us with others. We take pride in our group.
Ideally, when there is reason to take pride. The group itself is not the point of pride – that is a false pride, placing the pride in a thing. Pride is in actions, in accomplishments, in results. A group or tradition or country that continues to make right action, to create positive results in the world, is worthy of our pride – the pride grows and accumulates because reasons.
Yet in the end, it is not the group (or individual) that we have pride in, but in their actions and accomplishments and results. In the demonstration of their worthiness.
THEIR worthiness.
There is no pride in a name. The pride is in the Self, in the Individual, in the continued positive results of action. When the pride becomes attached to the name, to the history, and not the current reality, we can fall into false pride.
Pride that is no longer worthy. Pride that has no longer been earned. Pride that was never earned in the first place.
What are your thoughts on pride? What does false pride mean to you? What do you take pride in? It is in the actions or in the group, the thing?
How does this align with your ideas of Tifareth? of the sun? of a king, a child, a sacrificed god? Can you get a sense for why the power of this sphere would manifest into this particular vice?
Make notes on your Tifareth-General Notes or in your journal.
Virtue: Devotion to the Great Work
We have already spoken a bit of, mentioned the Great Work. The Great Work is the deep purpose each of us has inside of ourselves. It is the deep purpose of our existence, why our spark of Spirit is within this Body, why Kether has emanated the special vibration that is our Self down into the physical being of Malkuth.
The Great Work will take us from our daily loves and elevate us back towards Kether, back into reunion with the Source (Kether). It is both the deep spiritual purpose of our lives individually and the deep shared spiritual Work of seeking the deepest alignment possible with Kether. We all do this. All of us who work a spiritual path. All of us who seek to heal and improve ourselves (with or without the overt spiritual component). All of us do this work and this Work.
In Tifareth we can see straight up to Kether. There is nothing blocking the emanations of the source, there is only distance that dims the light. This is why Tifareth is The Lesser Countenance. It is a reflection of Kether, just as the full moon is the reflection of the Sun. Tifareth allows us to, through its reflection of Kether, experience the rays from the source without being consumed. We do not have the full experience of the source, but we do have a real, deep partial experience of Kether through this reflection.
We experience part of the reality of Kether and are changed by that experience.
That feeling, that connection, that experience stirs in us the devotion to the Great Work, because it is Great, it is worthy, the truest purpose of our Spirit is to do this Work and evolve.
What draws you forward? Where does your greatest purpose lie? Have you felt devotion before? If not, can you imagine what that would feel like?
How does this align with your ideas of Tifareth? of the sun? of a king, a child, a sacrificed god? Can you get a sense for why the power of this sphere would manifest into this particular virtue?
Make notes on your Tifareth-General Notes or in your journal.