The Paths Emanating to and from Netzach
The 7th Path: The Hidden Occult Intelligence
7. Hidden Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nistar): It is called this because it is the radiance that illuminates the transcendental powers that are seen with the mind’s eye and with the reverie of Faith.
The Seventh Path is the Occult Intelligence because it is the Refulgent Splendour of all the Intellectual virtues which are perceived by the eyes of intellect, and by the contemplation of faith.
Alt. Trans. “The seventh path is the hidden consciousness because it is the radiance that illuminates all the powers of the mind which are seen with the eye of the intellect and through the contemplation of truth.”
Wescott trans. The Seventh Path is the Occult Intelligence, because it is the Refulgent Splendour of all the Intellectual virtues which are perceived by the eyes of intellect, and by the contemplation of faith.
Case trans. The seventh path (Netzach. The seventh Sephirah) is called the Occult or Hidden Intelligence, and it is so called because it is the brilliant splendour of all the intellectual powers which are ‘beheld by the eye of understanding and by the thought of faith.
Genesis 1:6 — “And Elohim said: ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’ “
The paths emanating from Netzach are those that illustrate the individual’s experience of the day-to-day world. The Hidden Intelligence or The Occult Intelligence is the knowledge of the unseen theoretical world “which illuminates all the powers of the mind” i.e., the awareness of the principles, laws, and axioms of the rational mind which determine the understanding of the things that are, as well as a knowledge of the unconscious or the sub-conscious. It is a part of what we understand by self-knowledge. Faith is not a thought but a way of being in the world: “Faith is the experience that the intelligence is illuminated by Love.” It is a way of thinking, and as such is a way of being-in-the-world.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle begins his Metaphysics with: “All men by their nature desire to see”. The translation of “see” into English usually becomes “to know”. The “brilliant splendour” or “glory”, the beauty of the world, that is given to the human intellect is enlightened by Love, and such viewing results in faith. The Hidden Intelligence, Path #7, combines with Path #29, the Corporeal Intelligence, the Palpable Intelligence #27 (Yod), and the Natural Intelligence Path #28, to produce the individual perspective on the presence-at-hand and ready-to-hand world of Yetzirah. This is crucial to how the world is to be apprehended by the human psyche, and the psyche is wed to eros.
The individual perspective becomes what it is because it is influenced by the Memory of Mem given from Chakmah (Dalet) which shows its concrete manifestation in what are called the 7 Pillars of Wisdom (our “historical knowledge”) which combines with the Alef of the Logos or Ain Sof (given in the symbols of “tongues of fire” from Tiferet and which gives Intelligence of the Secrets of All Spiritual Activities Path #19) to “clothe” the individual in the images of Path #24, The Intelligence of the “Imagination” or The Apparative Intelligence, and this is the foundation of Beauty. This Beauty is accompanied by the Intelligence of Trials, Path #25, and it represents the “strife” that occurs between Love and Will which is ever-present in the individual human being.
In the Hebrew Tree, the Seventh Path is represented by the Sephirot Binah. In the Western Tree of Case, the Seventh Path is the Sephirot Netzach represented in Tarot by The Chariot #7 card. With the letter Alef, Elohim “made” the firmament, but with Binah Elohim says “let there be a firmament”.
Binah is the potential or possibility of making i.e., it is the dynamis as understood by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. With the Alef present in Tiferet, this possibility becomes energeia, the realization of the work, the work brought to its completion. Binah stands on the contrary pole of the Tree of Life from Chesed. While Chesed is on the pole of Jakim, Binah is on the pole of Boaz. This may account for the assigning of Binah to path Seven as 3 + 4 = 7. This, however, would be contrary to the Pythagorean use or understanding of number. Binah ascribes the limits (potentialities and possibilities) to that which is unlimited. In the Tarot, The High Priestess #2 is rightly referred to as the “dark, sterile Mother”, while The Empress #3 is the “bright fruitful Mother”. Brightness and fruitfulness arise from the imposing of limits.
The Emperor card #4 shows the figure seated within a sterile landscape in the Tarot deck illustrated here. Is this a representation of the power of Nature? This would seem to suggest that there is something missing within the sphere represented by The Emperor. The Emperor card is associated with Aries in the Zodiac. Is this an aspect of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” and its association with the creation of Time? Does one need to view the Tree of Life in a mirror i.e., to transpose all statements into their contraries? Or does it mean that one must sustain the contraries in a synthesis? This needs to be explored further.
Netzach is the centre of the strife that is being a human being. It is the embodied soul illustrative of the strife that is within eros itself. The human body is “the chariot of fire”; and the fire which it carries is the human soul. The symbols of Venus are prominent in the martial aspect of this card because it is through Ares and Aphrodite and their son Eros that we experience the needs and their fulfillment in our lives. The fire here is the “shadow fire”, the human urges that drive us in each waking moment of our lives, that which is hidden and emerges from the sub-conscious. The “victories” that we may experience take many different forms. Netzach is linked to the letter Dalet and to the path linked to Chesed. This is combined with the influence from Tiferet through the letter Samekh. The illustrator here has chosen to link Netzach with the letter Chet; and since Chet means “enclosure”, it is apt to represent the human body as that which “encloses” the soul.
The word “occult” here means hidden or concealed. We might go back to the quote with which I began this writing: “Faith is the experience that the intelligence is illuminated by Love”. What Weil means by “experience” here is what we perceive with the eyes, what we become acquainted with in our day-to-day experience. Our knowing of these things is “illuminated”, is made clearer, is brought to light, through loving them as gifts. Because of this illumination of the things about us through Love (Tiferet), we may have faith in the experience of God even in His absence as we re-collect His Covenant with us through this Love. Our desires for various goods are a reminder of the Good that awaits us in the fulfillment of our absence, our imperfection. Our absence is experienced as the need for the Good. As Christ said: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” Matthew 6: 21. Temptation rests in our desire to place our “treasure” in false goods and not the Good.
Nature does not lie; it hides. The “occult” or “hidden” aspect of this intelligence or knowledge also refers to the nature of the essence of things: each thing hides within it its contrary. This includes human beings. The goods of the world that we see about us can create obsessions and thus become evils. Illness is part of the nature of things, but within it hides health, that which is natural. In the affliction of despair, hope is hidden. In the darkness that is the false fire and false light of The Devil, there is also the hope for the genuine light and the genuine fire that is the Good.
In the Sefer Yetzirah, all of creation is seen as ‘holy’ and, therefore, we must say that all of creation is seen as moral. “Creation” is perpetual action or movement. This is extremely important in discerning what we think “knowledge” is today. Socrates once said that “the opposite of knowledge is not ignorance, but madness”. We can understand what he is saying when we consider the phenomenon of “stupidity” as a form of madness. Stupidity is a social phenomenon and therefore a moral phenomenon. The German philosopher Nietzsche once said: “Power makes stupid”. “Stupidity” as a collective, social phenomenon is the great danger to the Good. What we call “intelligence”, the mathematical intelligence most admired by society, (that mathematical intelligence and projection exhibited by the AI Chat GPT, for instance) is so because it is an expression of power. Nietzsche also wrote: “In individuals insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
There are many “intelligent” people whose actions are quite evil i.e., Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk as examples; and there are many people who are considered not very “intelligent” yet who appear to be in touch with the very purpose of life itself. These men, Bezos, Trump and Musk, have a number of characteristics which they share, not the least of which is that their “accomplishments” are the by-products of the wealth of others. Their desire for further power is expressed in their “creating” their own social media platforms i.e., Musk > Twitter, Trump > Truth Social where their rhetoric will dominate the discourse of the people who follow them, or in paying a billion dollars to acquire rights to popular cultural events (Bezos’ Rings of Power). They are, of course, not interested in “truth” but in making people “stupid”. They show contempt for the laws of their society and this is telling in itself. (The analogy in literature is to Saruman of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. He aspires to overthrow Sauron; but in his overthrow, he will merely replace him. His knowledge of the making of rings comes from Sauron himself.)
Liberation, not instruction, is the only way to overcome stupidity. But of what does this liberation consist? In Plato’s Republic, the prisoner in the cave must be released from his chains first before the paideia, the education, the “leading out”, can take place. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo must believe that Gollum (notice the similarity to the Hebrew word golem) can be saved, that he can return to becoming a full human being. We, too, must believe that human beings dwelling in the madness of stupidity can be saved either through the grace of God (first) and then secondarily through education. Frodo treats Gollum with mercy and kindness, and he provides an example for us in dealing with those who have succumbed to “stupidity”. Even the great Martin Heidegger succumbed to stupidity during the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany; and it must be remembered that even a character as noble as Frodo fails in his quest to destroy the Ring of Power, the final destruction of which is merely a matter of Chance.
“Stupidity” is not an intellectual defect, but a moral one: there are many intellectually agile people who are stupid, and there are others who appear intellectually dull but who are anything but stupid. People can be made stupid or they can allow stupidity to happen to them i.e., they can choose it. Evil needs the stupidity of others to hide the truth just as the Good needs human beings to reveal the Truth of God’s Creation.
The Letter Dalet and the 26th Path: The Renewing Intelligence
The Twenty-sixth Path is called the Renovating Intelligence, because the Holy God (blessed be He) renews by it, all the changing things which are renewed by the creation of the world.
Alt. Trans. “The twenty-sixth path is called the renewing consciousness because through it God, blessed be He, renews all things which are newly begun in the creation of the world.”
Path 26. Renewing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeChudash): It is called this because it is the means through which the Blessed Holy One brings about all new things which are brought into being in His Creation.
The Renewing Intelligence path (#26) is said to be indicated by the letter Dalet, (the Hermit #9 card has the letter Yod), and relates to the dynamis of procreation, both in nature and in human beings. This renewal is but one aspect of the lower form of eros. Because of the inherent power of sexuality and procreation, many taboos have been instituted against it. Many commentaries on the Kabbalah have attributed this path to Venus, but it does not take much reading to see that Venus is not a particularly pro-creative goddess in and of herself although she does exhibit the isolation of The Hermit. The appropriate goddess is Demeter, or Ceres (The Empress #3 card of the Tarot), the goddess of fertility and grains whose daughter, Persephone, is the husband of Hades, the King of the Underworld, represented by Death #13. Here we see the circle complete. Eros is the off-spring of Aphrodite/Venus, not the goddess herself. Beauty initiates the urge present in eros and leads, ultimately, to procreation and to the bringing forth of beings. The world of The Hermit, on the other hand, is a particularly sterile world.
“Holy” means “perfect, pure”, “set apart from defilement.” The Hebrew word means “separate”, and this designates the chasm separating the Divine from creation. The “speaking silence” is much like the word Aum or Om: it begins in “openness”, goes into “hiddenness”, begins with an “in-spiring of breath” and ends in silence. Music is analogous to it. Chashmal is “brilliant flame” (fire) which, combined with air and water produces earth. From this, or prior to this, is the Law of Necessity which determines the form of everything, be it “potential” (dynamis) or actual (energeia). All of what we call knowledge is grounded in our understanding of the Law of Necessity. The Kabbalistic speech (logos) employs the Law of Necessity; all our actions reflect the laws of Necessity. The danger present is that this knowledge can become “mechanistic”, sterile. The ultimate outcome of a world based solely upon the principle of reason is a world of nihilistic sterility.
The letter Dalet is one of the seven double letters indicating that movement along it can be either up or down. If The Emperor is said to represent Chesed and he is a very sterile figure, then the Dalet represents a fruitful, procreative figure.
Dalet דלת is the word for door, gate and indicates resistance, a barrier, and the state of selflessness and humility needed to pass through it. Dalet is also said to indicate a ‘poor’ person, and this may metaphorically be said to represent the ‘perfect imperfection’ of human beings. The letter also suggests how to pass through the gates to know one’s own mystery of being (self-knowledge) and return to the power of the Aleph – the One source of all creation and being which is the goal of the teaching of the Sefer Yetzirah.
The Dalet is in the shape of a bent over human being, signifying humility and receptiveness. It represents Bitul, the self-nullification, or nullification of the ego, necessary to realize one’s inherent connection to the Creator. This self-nullification or decreation is not an easy task. In the common visions of the after-life, heaven is seen as a ‘land of milk and honey’, the goods and nourishment of this world, where we will be united with those whom we have loved in the present life. This appears to be a placing of the self before the Divine One who is All Good, and such a temptation is ever-present for all human beings. It is a denial of the First Commandment. In the journey on the Tree of Life, Dalet is the structure, form and the diligence required to receive the grace that the Divine is perpetually offering.
Dalet is also Dalit דלית, the “poor man”, the one who receives from benevolence or grace of the Creator through the Holy Spirit represented by Gimel. It is the realization that as humans “we are not our own” and that we have nothing of our own, but are entirely dependent on the creator and that every breath and movement is given to us from Him. It is the recognition of Otherness and the complete denial of the individual ego.
The Dalet also represents structure or gestell, the German word that Heidegger associates with technology and its enframing, but with Dalet it is not a completed frame. Its form of a horizontal and vertical line represents a grid, giving structure to the form. It is shaped like a stair-step, the metaphorical structure required to be ‘lifted up’, or to ‘go up’, thus overcoming the resistance given by gravity and the law of Necessity. This would also indicate that Dalet is a means of ‘going down’, descending the Tree of Life. This would seem to suggest that the creation is a ‘door’, a barrier but also a way through. This might associate the letter and its path to the belief of human beings’ giving ‘perfection’ to the created things and somehow completing them, for the creation and its beings are not wholly themselves.
On the individual level, it shows the structure and stability required to receive. This might suggest that the path suggested by Dalet is from Chesed to Netzach, and that the structure spoken of is the human body, the human form. This would be on the side of “Mercy” on the Tree of Life. The path from Binah to Gevurah would suggest the side of “Severity”. (One might look at the path from Chakmah to Chesed as also a possibility, but I am unable to connect how this can be associated with the Emperor #4 of the Tarot unless the Emperor is viewed as a ‘benevolent king’).
The fourth path or Chesed indicates the physical manifestations of all those things which we call “good” but which are not the Good itself. They are “shadows” of the Good. With it is the arrival of numbers and of the physical forms that can be measured with them; with language and numbers we can measure the benevolence of God or become aware of the benevolence which is “glaring” or obvious (?). Through number we measure, bring into a cohesion, and provide the boundaries which form the “receptacles” or “husks” of physical beings, the eidos or outward appearances of the things. From these boundaries we can then “define” the things, separate and enclose the things, and distinguish them one from another.
The German philosopher Heidegger once said: “Language is the house of Being; in its home humans dwell”. We may further extrapolate on Heidegger’s words by saying, “Logos is the house of being” for logos includes both language and number and it has been translated as “reason” into English. One may go further and say that the human body is the logos or the “home” of the embodied soul. The letter Bet is the first of the ‘double’ letters and is attributed to the path that crosses the mothers of Shin and Alef. My understanding is that Alef is the source of all the following letters and that it is Alef as Air, in combination with Mem as Water and Shin as Fire that creates the Bet which is Earth. Alef yokes together the worlds of Tiferet and of Yesod to the light of Keter, and Bet is the emanation of the goodness that is the reflected light of Keter. In the Hebrew Tree, Bet is said to cross the veil of separation between Chakmah and Binah as well as that between Chesed and Gevurah. Bet would then be associated with the Moon, with the “reflected light”.
This has a number of similarities to the characteristics of The Chariot #7 just discussed and to The Sanctifying Intelligence, Path #3. The “holy powers”, again, are the naming of things, that which distinguishes human beings from other created beings, our ability to use language and to name. From this path we can discern that the Gnostics were incorrect in attributing evil to the demiourgos and that the created world is one of evil. It is more appropriate to say that the created world is one of deprivation and need and this deprivation and need are present from the beginning of the creation. The created world is a ‘house’ that human beings make a ‘home’ through their use of language and number.
Paul Foster Case’s interpretations of the paths run into some contradictions here (or so it seems to me) because he confuses the Necessary with the Good. The Good is beyond Being. The Light that is Keter might be understood as the Highest Crown (since the crowns are associated with the letters), but they are not the “primordial emanation”. If The Fool #0 is represented by the letter Alef and is the channel to Chakmah or Wisdom, how is “wisdom” being defined here? Wisdom is “knowledge of the whole” which The Fool clearly does not have unless we are considering reincarnation here (which is entirely possible.) In this life, it is not given to human beings to have knowledge of the whole of which they are a part.
With the creation of numbers, Time also comes into being. With Time comes Memory. It is our Memory of the original Good that creates the absence/presence of human existence and the longing for completion in the Good. The Beauty of the created world acts as a souvenir, a photograph or image that gives us the Memory of that which is our end or perfection, our completion. Thus, Plato can say: “Time is the moving image of eternity”, but it must be remembered that these images of which Time is composed are merely shadows. Our collective knowledge, which is our collective Memory, derives from our understanding of the Laws of Necessity. Necessity is the will of God i.e., Justice.
The 23rd Path: The Letter Samekh and The Stable Sustaining Intelligence
Samekh: Tiferet to Netzach: Netzach to Tiferet
Path 23: Sustaining Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kayam): It is called this because it is the sustaining (enduring) power for all the Sephirot.
The Twenty-third Path is the Stable Intelligence, and it is so called because it has the virtue of consistency among all numerations.
Alt. Trans. “The twenty-third path is called the stable consciousness because it is the power of sustenance among all the Sephirot.”
Case trans. The twenty-third path (Mem joining Gevurah to Hod) is called the Stable Intelligence because it is the power of permanence in all the Sephiroth.
Samekh is the symbol of support, protection, and memory. It means to “lean upon“, “support”, “uphold”. In gematria its number is 60. The perimeter of Samekh denotes the Creator and its interior denotes His creation, which He constantly supports and upholds and protects. It represents the Orr Makif, the Surrounding Light of the Kabbalah, indicating the general providence of the Creator, surrounding and sustaining all of existence, even as we perceive ourselves as separate and distinct from that Creation. The Samekh is the container of all forms and is, therefore, related to the other container letters including the letter Khaf.
The Sun card is the microcosm of this overall cosmic relationship. Friendship is shown through the love, protection, and keeping in mind through one’s care and concern the interests of the other. Its common symbol is the wedding band which indicates the bond of the relationship. When two people are joined by Love through the mediation of the Divine, they enact a covenant with each other which cannot be broken. (“What God has joined together, let no one put asunder”. Matthew 10:9) Human beings are not always brought together by or through God, however. Other forces are at work here.
In literature, we see the opposite of this bond in The One Ring of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings. Here the bond is not one of friendship or relationship but one of oppression and dominion. The relationship of Sauron to his followers is contrasted by the relationship of the hobbits in the story, especially that of Frodo and Sam. The figure of Sauron is well-illustrated by The Devil #16 card of the Tarot which is the contrary of The Lovers #6 card and can be said to be contrary to The Sun #19 which is contrary to The Hermit #9 card.
The letter Samekh teaches us that thinking in its rational form is circular. There are no grounds for the principle of reason, although traditionally it has been grounded in and on the Divine Reason itself (the Uncaused Cause) understood in its Latin translation of the Logos as ratio. Samekh tells us to think for the good of the other, to take care and be concerned with the other, and not just one’s self. This means to be inclusive of everything and everyone as these are part of the One. It is the principle that the wisdom is not contained in just one vessel, in just one person, but is distributed in all beings. This could be why those who believe they are in possession of the truth are, so often, intolerant. Their illusion is their foundation which, of course, is not a solid foundation for it is merely the ‘garments’ that the truth shows itself in its appearance/hiddenness to us. The Samekh teaches us that in order to know our Creator, we have to get out of our limited selves, out of what we think we know and the limitations of the physical, so we can get in touch with our essential inner self. It is the meaning of Christ’s saying that “Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.“ Matthew 18: 3 It implies a re-birth, and this re-birth is a going in the opposite direction from that suggested by linear time. It is the decreation process that I am speaking about here.
The danger of the Samekh is that we can become totally absorbed with ourselves and not be concerned or care for the other. We must empty ourselves in order to be filled; this “decreation” is much more easily said than done. The first step in the recognition of otherness is given to us by the beauty of the world, and this recognition pierces us (Zayin) and inspires us to love the other. The outer covering or ‘husk’ of Samekh needs to be pierced by the ‘arrow’ or ‘sword’ of Zayin in order for the divine influence to flow into it. (This is the meaning of Jesus’ saying that 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” Matthew 10 34-36 This suggests the polemos or strife that is at the heart of Life and at the heart of what we conceive to be ‘our own’.)
The combination of Nun (Path #28 The Natural Intelligence) and Samekh נס Nes (Path #23 The Enduring Intelligence) means “miracle”. This miracle is what is called Love here. Once we have learned the lessons of these two letters, we can discover what the miracle really is. It is the ‘friendship’ of the Divine which sustains all the Sephirot, and we as human beings are called upon to mirror that ‘friendship’ in order to sustain that which makes us truly human, to continue to reveal the truth of God’s creation. Frodo’s friend and companion in The Lord of the Rings is appropriately named Samwise and their ‘friendship’ is a manifestation of that miracle. This miracle is “the friendship of Justice” or “the Justice of friendship”, the bringing of two unequal parts or partners into a relationship that makes them “equal” (but not the “equality” that we perceive as the Same). The possibility of friendship is a miracle.
If we look at the combination of Path #6 The Transcendental Influx Intelligence and Path #23 The Sustaining Intelligence, we can see that the combination of the Light of the letter Alef and the “house” of the letter Beth influences how we come to interpret the Sephirot Chesed. It is from Tiferet that Chesed receives the qualities of Mercy and Kindness, and when Chesed is looked upon without the influence of Tiferet, then we have the influence of will to power which is a relationship of commandeering and domination.
The Letter Qof and the 31st Path: The Continuous Intelligence
Qof: Path 31 The Continuous Intelligence: Netzach to Malkhut
31. Continuous Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Timidi): Why is it called this? Because it directs the path of the sun and moon according to their laws of nature, each one in its proper orbit.
Qooph – Elohim “said: I have given you all . . .” 1:29
Khof is the nineteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter Khof (also spelled Kaf, Kuf, or Qof) originally meant “the back of the head”, or “the eye of a needle”. Khof also means “monkey”. It is said to represent “unholiness”. It is the symbol of both the sacred Kedushah קדושה, the prayer for holiness, and the profane – the Klipah קליפה, the peel, cover, or husk which represents the outward presence of the things that emerge from the khôra. Khof has to do with the requirement of removing the husk which hides the truth of that which lies within. The Khof is that which hides the Divine Unity of the One and illustrates itself as the deception of the outward appearance of the Many. The Qof is at the greatest depth or the furthest away from the primordial Light of the Divine as it descends towards the sephirot of Malkhut.
In Hebrew, Khof means “monkey”, a creature which resembles a human being but is purely animalistic, with none of the higher capacities of a human being which are related to the logos i.e., language and number. In the Kabballah, this indicates the requirement for a human being to overcome their purely animalistic nature and to emulate the image of the Creator (the Logos) that is their true nature to realize the true spiritual nature of their being an ‘embodied soul’. It is the essential strife of life.
The Khof is the only letter which extends below the line of the other letters, indicating descent into the lower world, but also the ability to ascend from there. This extension also suggests “exceeding the boundaries” or the limits placed upon human actions. The elements of hubris and nemesis come into play here, and these are revealed in Path #32 The Administrative Intelligence of Malkhut to Hod. As such, the Qof is related to the Sephirot Yesod (Foundation) and to the material world of Malkhut (Kingdom). The revealing of the true essence of what human beings are is in their wresting of truth from the husks of the world that hide it. When human beings cease to reveal truth, they succumb to their bestial, animal natures. This is the succumbing to stupidity, which again, is a moral not an intellectual phenomenon.
The design of the Kuf is similar to that of the Hei, the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and representative of Path #16 The Enduring Intelligence, but while the Hei is said to represent holiness, the Kuf represents Klipah, or unholiness. Both have three lines, two vertical and one horizontal. These three lines, depicting thought, speech, and action in the Hei, are also represented in the letter Kuf, but its three lines represent unholy thoughts, profane speech and evil actions.
These negative qualities are illustrated within the actual form of the Kuf. Its long left leg plunges beneath the letter’s baseline. It represents one who ventures below the acceptable, an individual who violates the circumscribed boundaries of the laws of Necessity and, thus, commits hubris for which an eventual nemesis must be paid. This nemesis is shown in the Tarot card The Tower #15. As a contrast with the letter Heh, the Paradise of the saints represented in the 16th path is shown as the hell of the 31st and 32nd paths.
It is also significant that the head of the Kuf is a Reish (in contrast with the Dalet that comprises the Hei). The difference between the Dalet and the Reish is the Yod in the right-hand corner of the Dalet, representing the individual while the Reish represents the collective. While the individual Yod may be capable of passing through the door or gateway (“the eye of the needle”), the collective is not able to do so. The Zohar, one of the principle sources for the medieval interpretations of the Sefer Yetzirah, calls the Kuf and the Reish the letters of falsehood and impurity. This associates the letter with both The Devil #16 and The Moon #18 cards of the Tarot.
When Christ said that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark: 10:25), He is referring to the difficulty that arises when one forgets to remember that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”, and this is dependent on how one sees the world. Christ follows his statement on the heart with: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6: 21-22). One must see with one’s own eyes, not with the eyes of the collective.
Christ’s statement may also refer to the path of the letter Gimel which means ‘camel’ as well as ‘wealth and abundance’ (the path from Chokmah to Chesed) and the need to discard the illusion of conceiving or the manner of seeing where it is believed that the Good rests in material things in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. This erroneous seeing has been a foundation for a number of different Christian sects throughout history and the disburdening of this error is not an easy task. There are also some references to the ‘eye of the needle’ as being the entrance to the fortified city of Jerusalem where all mercantile traffic must pass. For Christ to say that “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” would be a good joke.
Kuf is also הקפה – to circle, to go around. Since the letter rests at the bottom of the created world, the next step is rise up to the beginning. It thus signifies a new beginning. Shin is the power to rise; Mem is the power to move down to the depths. Khof represents all the cycles of nature, changing seasons, monthly and yearly cycles. It is in the realm of Time, and this would associate it with The Devil #16 card as well as with the realm of Necessity. It is the constant movement, circulation, and change of life. It is one aspect of the lower form of eros. It also represents that through the cycles of life that we see – evolution, growth, change, suffering, happiness, life experience – we are constantly worked on in order to be purified (the process of Shin, the fire) and to realize our true spiritual nature. The gematria of Kuf is 100 and this aligns it with The Fool #0, The Wheel of Fortune #10, and the Judgement #20 cards of the Tarot. Because Kuf is associated with beginnings and endings, it is also associated with the Death #13 card. This death can be either or both spiritual and physical.
It should be noted that I am placing the 31st and 32nd paths on the Tree of Life as proceeding from Netzach to Malkhut and from Malkhut to Hod. There are no paths from Keter to Chakmah or from Keter to Binah. The paths of “The Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom” are “personal” paths and the realm of Atzilut is unknowable on the “personal” level. There are no paths there so they must be accounted for in some other way.
The Letter Nun and the 28th Path: The Natural Intelligence
28. Natural Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mutba): It is called this because the nature of all that exists under the sphere of the sun was completed through it.
The Twenty-eighth Path is the Natural Intelligence, and is so called because through it is consummated and perfected the nature of every existent being under the orb of the Sun, in perfection.
Alt. Trans. “The twenty-eighth path is called the natural consciousness. Through it is completed the nature of all that exists beneath the sphere of the sun.”
Case trans. The twenty-eighth path (Tzaddi, joining Netzach to Yesod) is called the Natural Intelligence, because by it is perfected the nature of all things under the orb of the sun.
The 28th path appears to be related to technology, to human “knowing” and “making”, which completes the “purpose” or end, the telos of the “created things”, through a process of making them “pure”, or through what we believe is a dis-covery of their essence, their truth. This is a difficult concept for it involves what has become known as the history of Western metaphysics. This history may be summed up by our inability to separate the Necessary from the Good because, paradoxically, by establishing the duality of subject/object and the ‘objectification’ of all beings, we have dispensed with the Good as ‘values’, something we create in our willing. We cannot love an object, and it is through our objectification of the Other that we have created the gap that exists between Love and the Intelligence.
Initially, the good as action was seen as that which enabled some one or some thing to be capable of carrying out an action to bring an end about. It is good for animals to breathe, for instance; it is not good if they do not do so. The 28th path has many similarities to how Aristotle understood dynamis. In the Sefer Yetzirah, the good may be seen as the light which enables both the being of created things and that which enables human beings to see what their ends or purposes are for. For both Plato and Aristotle, the proper direction for human beings is the directedness of their vision toward the divine. This directedness of vision was contemplation, reflective thought. On the other hand, the 28th path may refer to how dynamis, potentiality, becomes energeia or the completed product or work. This would seem to suggest that the universe is ”rational” and its rationality is akin to our own rationality. This is the ground of the principle of reason, and the principle of reason is a principle of being. This principle of poiesis is a principle of “bringing forth”, but it is a distinctive “bringing forth” from that which is found in poetry and the techne of the arts.
There appears to be a connection between the Bible’s giving human beings a central role, as an acme, as the point or purpose of creation (as is shown in the Sephirot Yesod), and the giving of power to human beings over all created beings so that they may be “completed” in their nature through the power of human beings’ making. (1.28 And God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.‘) The power that is given to human beings is realized in their “knowing” and “making” that has become the stand and directedness of human beings’ being-in-the-world. The question is whether or not this dominion over the earth is one of a shepherd filled with care and concern or one of a tyrant filled with commandeering and domineering.
There is here present the view that the created things themselves are not complete in some way. This view of human beings and their role in creation later becomes the “humanism” of Western philosophy, and the consequences of humanism have become far-reaching. The question must be asked: is this view of human being, a product of the Renaissance, a correct understanding of what is said in the Sefer Yetzirah, and is it a correct understanding of what human beings are in their essence? The absence of God, experienced as the God’s silence through which human beings realize their “imperfection” in their affliction and need, devolves into the oblivion of eternity and into the view that the essence of human being is human existence itself and human will (freedom), that human beings will themselves to seek to realize human perfection and determine what Justice is and what Justice will be. Are we as human beings ‘our own’? In the completion of creation, there is no need for a God. The transformation that is spoken about by some commentators regarding Path #28 does not occur within the individual human personality only, but in the way in which human beings are in their worlds.
But Path #28 suggests another kind of way of looking also. If one looks at this “ascent of man” in the history of Western thought through the lens of the Sefer Yetzirah and “The Paths”, one can see that it involves the yoking together of the worlds of Asiyah, or Sensation, and the world of Yetzirah or “Formation/Creation”. This yoking may be done through the “reflected light” of Malkhut, the light from those objects that are present in the created world, or it may involve the light that descends from Keter, through the beauty that is Tiferet, to the foundation that is Yesod. This yoking requires the presence of Shin, one of the three Mother letters of the alphabet as outlined in the Sefer Yetzirah. The yoking is one of “unity”, not identity. There is a possibility of ascent as well as descent within it. The universe beneath the “sphere of the sun” involves the Sephirot Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malkhut, and the links between them may involve either Tiferet or Netzach, the Divine or the human.
Our being-in-the-world is the primordial “foundation” (Yesod) which, through the reflected light of Malkhut, is how we view how the world will be disclosed or “opened up” to us. Our disclosure or opening up to this world can be either true or untrue, and this disclosure or opening up is exclusive to human beings as that which has been gifted to them from God. The truth or falsehood of the disclosure or opening up of the world is dependent upon this primordial viewing of the world in which human beings find themselves placed. Human beings disclose or open up themselves to themselves by the manner in which they disclose or open up their worlds. This “opening up” is what we understand as “freedom” in which we are able to view our possibilities and potentialities. The world in which we find ourselves is already opened up to us; how we view this opening determines what we will conceive ourselves to be in our essence. This determination arises from what we conceive the truth to be.
In commentaries on the Sefer Yetzirah and “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”, the word “initiate” and “initiation” are often used to describe the journey through life through the Tree of Life and its paths. This word can be seen as a simile or metaphor for our word “education” which comes from the Latin educare, “to lead out”, and “that which is responsible for the leading out”. The “initiate” and his or her “initiation” is a “leading out”. The images of paths and guides are apt here. We are concerned with what is authentic thinking here and how it may be achieved. Every “leading out” begins with an “opening up”, a liberation. In this open region, both truth and untruth are possibilities. Untruth is the deprivation of truth, not the opposite of truth; just as evil is the deprivation of good, not the opposite of good. How one views the world is a choice to be made. Because we are beings in bodies, we become preoccupied with the things that are and how those things may be able to fulfil our needs, whether those needs are hunger and thirst or empowerment.
Shakespeare himself says: “The Art itself is nature”, and one is very hesitant to disagree with the wisdom of the Bard. “Human nature” is completed through “natural intelligence”, through the ‘light of the Sun’, i.e., through Tiferet, not through the ‘reflected light’ of the Moon that dominates the world of Asiyah, (Malkhut/Yesod) and the world of Yetzirah or Formation (Hod/Yesod/ Malkhut/Netzach). This is a key point in the Tree of Life for at this juncture, human beings make the choice of becoming more fully human/humane or simply residing on the “bestial” level of existence. It is here that one fully experiences the “severity” of Hod and how and what we think shapes our perceptions of the world about us.
When rationality or the principle of reason dominates our view of the world and becomes our principle of being-in-the-world, we are less than fully human; and this foreshadows the coming into being of the technological worldview which dominates the world of Yetzirah, the world dominated by the Gestell, the “system”, the “plan” which brings about one’s attempts to bring justice to the world through our commandeering of nature. This is why technology may be viewed as ‘black magic’.
The Letter Mem and the 29th Path: The Corporeal Intelligence
The Twenty-ninth Path is the Corporeal Intelligence, so called because it forms every body which is formed beneath the whole set of worlds and the increment of them.
Alt. Trans. ” The twenty-ninth path is called the corporeal consciousness because it marks out the forms and reproduction of all bodies which are incorporated under every cycle of the heavens.”
Path 29. Physical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mugsham): It is called this because it depicts the growth of all that becomes physical under the system of all the spheres.
“To mark out” is to assign limits and boundaries to things, to give them a form (eidos) so that they may be understood within the web of Necessity. This is the mental process of the principle of reason and so has been assigned to the letter Shin. This influence of Shin is the realm of Yetzirah or Formation; and as we have stated, it is ruled by the principle of reason. The 29th path seems to indicate Aristotle’s teleology: the telos or end in which things achieve their completion or perfection (Hod). In the Tarot, The Star #17 is the card of completion i.e., Fate, what one is destined to be. What one is destined to be is determined by the choices one makes. The 29th path is the crossover from Netzach to Hod and it indicates a change from the realm of Asiyah, the material realm, to that of Yetzirah or the realm of Formation. The Judgement #20 of the test of Reish has already been determined and the Fate has already been decided.
The paths and the Sefer Yetzirah cannot be viewed from an individual perspective only. The individual is not the whole human being. The human being is an ‘embodied soul’ within a community of embodied souls. In the journey that is life, one can be ‘hooked’ into viewing the world as material only, as the fact-based reality we encounter and confront every day in our day-to-day lives. In the confrontation or strife that is Netzach, one makes the choice of becoming a full human being and going onward, or of being satisfied with materialism and power and of potentially becoming a golem, a ‘soulless’ animated thing. One chooses the darkness, or one chooses the light.
The letter Mem is water mayim מים, the waters of wisdom, knowledge, the Torah as it is referred to by some Hebrew commentators. Representing both waters and manifestation, it is the ability to dive deep into the wisdom, into the depths of Creation. It is said that in every person is the thirst for the words of the Creator which are the waters of life, and this corresponds to Aristotle’s words that “All human beings by nature desire to see”. The open Mem refers to the revealed aspects of God’s will that we understand as Necessity and that are given to us in our study and learning, while the closed Mem refers to the concealed part of the celestial rule that nonetheless guides us and all of existence i.e., the Divine Will. Mem also represents the time necessary for ripening and indicates to us the importance of balanced emotions and of humility, in particular, while we are waiting on God.
Mem corresponds to the number 40 and represents the time necessary for the ripening process that leads to fruition. (40 days for the development of the embryo, 40 years in the desert before reaching the holy land, 40 years development before Moses was prepared to be the leader of Israel, Jesus’ fasting for 40 days before he is tempted by Satan).
The Mem also teaches us about balanced emotions – balancing the watery motions of our feelings and this is how it influences Netzach. And it is about humility – water is the substance that always runs downhill to the lowest place. Fire, on the other hand, always rises.
The Twenty-ninth Path once again illustrates that which has been called the “mathematical” in this writing i.e., that which can be learned and that which can be taught. It is the knowledge or awareness of the physical material of the universe and the forms that are possible for this physical material to take its shape. In the path, this movement is associated with Time.
The “mathematical” would be indicated by the letter Lamed ל or “study”, “the serpent uncoiled” and how this emanates from the Sephirot Tiferet or The Sun. In order for some thing to be learned, it must first be brought to a “stand” or bounded within a horizon so that it may be “de-fined” and a name given to it so that it may be spoken about. The “numerations” weigh and measure things so that they are brought out of their natural state of metabole or change into something that can be known i.e., they are given a “permanence” of some kind, a “stability” of some kind. Numbers are only one example of the “mathematical”. The manner of seeing that results from the “consistency” or reliability of the use of numbers is but one manner of encountering and accounting for the laws of Necessity and the relation of created things to the domains of time and space.
The Twenty-ninth Path also indicates the limits of human reason and intelligence and so is influenced by The High Priestess #2. The ‘stability’ that arises from the collective or social manner of viewing the world comes about as a result of the consistency of the results of calculations or ‘numerations’ that are carried out. The ‘numerations’ are the logoi or speech that is shared among the members of the community. These logoi are grounded in the principle of reason.
The Sefir Yetzirah states that Mem, as one of the three Mothers, moves in a horizontal, not a vertical direction. The movement on the paths is a later, Renaissance, addition. Because Alef is the source of all the letters, it is capable of both vertical and horizontal movement. The direction of Mem is back and forth not up and down, unless one considers the three Mothers as both horizontal and vertical and that the three Mothers are the three pillars of the Tree of Life (which is what is considered here). The three Mothers act as vowels in the formation of words and thus must be capable of both horizontal and vertical movements as well as diagonal movements.
There is no “human progress” that occurs on the spiritual level along with the progress achieved on the material level. Morally and ethically human beings, as a whole, have not made any significant progress from their ancestors. This is because the moral and ethical presence of what human beings truly are as human beings has always been present for them to reach out to and grasp. Because human beings lose sight of the chasm which separates the Necessary from the Good, they fail in making true progress. They come to worship power and all of its false idols. This ultimately results in the oblivion of eternity for human beings.
Hod is the terminus of the Pillar of Severity or Form (necessity); Netzach is the terminus of the Pillar of Mercy, the “splendour” of which is the recognition of the Beauty of the world and the potentiality for the beauty of human actions within that world. The middle pillar is the fulcrum providing the “balance”, the “harmony”, the “equilibrium”, the “friendship”, the “covenant” between the Divine and human beings.
The following chart provides a summary of the paths emanating from Netzach.
| Path | Letter | Meaning | Symbol |
| Netzach Path 7. Hidden Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Nistar): It is called this because it is the radiance that illuminates the transcendental powers that are seen with the mind’s eye and with the reverie of Faith. | The embodied soul and its strife in everyday life. Our revealing of things is at the same time a concealing of them. The transcendental powers seen with the ‘mind’s eye’ are Love and Will. These two powers are in constant strife as is truth itself in its hiddenness as it is revealed simultaneously. | The tarot card of The Chariot #7 is extremely rich in symbolism. It embodies many of the themes expressed in the Sefer Yetzirah and in “The 32 Paths of Wisdom”. The Sphinxes represent Love and Will and their strife. The cubic shape of the chariot illustrates limitations. The wheels represent the two manners in which one may travel the Tree of Life, etc. | |
| Netzach to Chesed Path 26. Renewing Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel MeChudash): It is called this because it is the means through which the Blessed Holy One brings about all new things which are brought into being in His Creation. | Dalet ד | Door, gateway. A revolving door. The revealing/hiddenness of the appearance of truth in being. | Indicates the truth of the saying that ‘nature does not lie, it hides’. The truth must be wrested from nature since it hides itself. |
| Netzach (Victory)/ Malkhut (Kingdom) Path 31 Continuous Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Timidi): Why is it called this? Because it directs the path of the sun and moon according to their laws of nature, each one in its proper orbit: | Qof ק | Back of the head, monkey, the eye of the needle. Does the “monkey” refer to the bestial qualities of human being and thus relates it to the figures in The Devil card? “And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” The light of the Sun as opposed to the light of the Moon. | Hidden, behind. Deception, deceit. The past as hidden from us until it is brought forth into the light? What is behind is unseen. The past deceives (?) us as a shadow At the same time, the outer husk that conceals the fruit contained within. The simultaneous appearance and disappearance of truth, its revealing and concealing. |
| Netzach (Victory)/ Yesod (Foundation) Path 28. Natural Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mutba): It is called this because the nature of all that exists under the sphere of the sun was completed through it. | Nun נ | Fish | Honesty, harvest (reap what is sown, Fate) The elements of hubris and nemesis are present here. |
| Netzach to Tiferet Path 23. Sustaining Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Kayam): It is called this because it is the sustaining power for all the Sephirot. | Samekh ס | Support, prop | Indicates that Mercy and Kindness, Love, sustains the Sephirot. Without human beings, there are no Sephirot. The ring and eye of the Divine in contrast to the Ayin of The Devil. |
| Netzach to Hod Path 29. Physical Intelligence (Consciousness) (Sekhel Mugsham): It is called this because it depicts the growth of all that becomes physical under the system of all the spheres. | Shin/Mem/Alef מ/ש/א | Fate, Choice | How nature is understood is through a “system”, a grid that depicts the ‘growth’ of all that becomes physical in Time. Being and Time. The depictions are representational thought; they occur in metaphors. These depictions become a ‘fate’ chosen by human beings. |
Theory of Knowledge: An Alternative Approach 