The Tree 528 Part III: The Three Pillars
Benevolence, Judgment, and Beauty
Part I - Part II
The number 3 is one of those numbers, like 7, that is ubiquitous in religious, magical and mystical systems (not one, not two... its the Magic Number). The dialectic writ large - thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis - the resolution of an opposing duality into a new harmonious one (or three as it were). On the Tree of Life and in Kabbalah, three pops up with some regularity. There are the three supernal Sephiroth, the three stages of (non) Existence before the Emanation of the Tree, the three worlds that were formed and destroyed before our own, the three "Mother" Letters (Aleph, Mem, and Shin) from the Sefer Yetzirah representing the primary Elements of Air, Water, and Fire respectively (and in more traditional Kabbalistic schemata than the Baphometric Tree - representing the three horizontal paths on the Tree itself), and of course the three vertical Pillars.
The Pillars, in Hebrew Kabbalah are representative of the right hand of God as typified by the Sephirah of Chesed - the expression of the love and grace of the Divine, the left hand of God as the Sephirah Geburah - the might and power of the Divine, which is also known as Din, DIN דינ (64) , meaning Judgment, and of the balance and harmony between those two all-encompassing oppositions, repesented by the Sephirah Tiphareth at the heart of the Tree. In Hermetic Qabalah these are known as the Pillars of Mercy, Severity and Mildness. This is slightly confusing, as the term "Mercy" RChMIM רחמימ (298) is in Hebrew Kabbalah an alternate name of Tiphareth, not Chesed...
These opposing forces of benevolent loving-kindness and mighty judgment, on their own would not be able to sustain the Universe, until blended in the harmony of Tiphareth, together becoming, with the rest of the Sephiroth comprising the partzufim of Ze'ir Anpin - the Divine Bridegroom/Consort of the immanent presence of the Creator (the Shekinah). Which is after all, the point of Creation.
In creating the Baphometric Tree, I took the position that all of the Tree was to be to me as a particular dealing of Universe with myself - that I would divine (pun intended) the meaning of each and every relationship on the Tree. No depth would be left unplumbed. So, I thought to myself, if the Lightning Path on the Baphometric Tree has profound and deep meaning - the Pillars ought to as well.
The Left Hand Pillar - that of Judgment - on the Tree 528 is comprised of the paths of Beth and Resh which together add to 202. 202 has the meaning BQQ בקק "To lay waste" and "to ruin", of RB רב "a multitude" or "many" and also has a connotation of greatness - the multitude of the famous "Mixed Multitude" that followed Moses out into the desert (and for the most part failed in their devotion). Of HBAaL HMIM הבעל מימה "The Master of The Waters" and AaBD AaBDIM עבד עבדימ "Slave of Slaves" - both apropos as The Waters is a referent to both the Sephirah Binah which sits at the top of the Pillar of Judgment, and of Malkuth, the Waters below, which by Kabbalistic imagery is intimitely connected to the Sephirah Geburah. As the Feminine apotheosis on the Tree, and in context of the really fucking patriarchal nature of Judaism and Hebrew Kabbalah as a whole - Slave of Slaves is pretty self-evident.
To the Right we have the Pillar of Loving-Kindness with a value of 403, comprised of the Letters Gimel and Tav which accordingly is the value of HBAaL HARTz הבעל הארצ "The Master of the Earth" (a fitting contrast to the Pillar of Judgment) and of ABN SPIR אבנ ספיר "The Stone of Sapphire" which is known as the Stone of the Wise and thus can be connected to the Sephirah of Chokmah which is the crown of this Pillar.
And all that is great. Totally apt and to the point. Reasonably self-referential. But none of those seemed to have the import, the 'Wow' factor, like the Lightning Path equalling 528. But then I remembered that these two Pillars represented, in some sense, opposition. What if one were to take them together as a whole? Add one to the other? The result of course would be 605*.
Et Voila. The Magic.
605 is the number of RVCh MIM ASh רוח מימ אש - Wind/Spirit/Air, Water and Fire - the Primordial Elements. It is AVR SBIB V'AVR MMLA אור סביב ואור ממלא The Light that Surrounds and the Light that Fills (transcendence and immanence?). PLIAVTh HChKMH פליאות החכמה, The Wonders of Wisdom, and AaVNH DAaTh עונה דעת The Sin of Knowledge. It is both HQShR הקשר The Knot and HThR התר The Unravelling - both used as technical terms as the understanding of the Material World and The Cleaving To of The Divine. It is MLBVSh AVIRI מלבוש אוירי The Garment of Light - meaning exactly, the Astral or Aetheric Body. It is HAShH ARGMN האשה ארגמנ The Scarlet Woman (we here at Baphometrics are very pro the Scarlet Woman). It is, using the final form of the letter Mem, ADM אדם. Mankind itself. Us. The Creatures of Earth. The first Golem. Male and Female.
That is what I am fucking talking about here! Heady stuff. Heady stuff.
I turned my three eyes upon my next quarry. The Middle Pillar. Beauty. Harmony. Synthesis.
Comprised of the Letter-paths of Kaph, Peh and Aleph the Central or Middle Pillar has the value 101 This has the meaning of ALHI HKL אלהי הכל, the God of Everything, and AMH HKL אמה הכל, The Mother of All. It is HMVN המונ, a Multitude, Many. It is MI V'MH מי ומה, Who and What? Designations for the Supernal Mother of Binah and the Lower Mother of Malkuth. It is HMLAKH המלאכה "The Work". MINA מינא The Heretic. As a simple visual glyph 1 - 0 - 1 it is a demonstration of separation, of distinction. It is MLVKH מלוכה, Royalty, Kingship, what Crowley calls Ecclesia - the majesty of the gathering, the impregnated Queen.
It is MAIN מאינ. From Nothing. From the Ain.
Taken in conjunction with the other Pillars, the three total to 706. The full array. This is HAaTz AVR V'ChShK העצ אור וחשכ, The Tree of Light and Darkness. KThR ALHIM כתר אלהימ, the Crown of God and RSHAaIM ALHIM רשעימ אלהימ The Wickedness of God. HAShTh האשת The Woman and SVD HDRK HBTh סוד הדרכ הבת the Secret Path of the Daughter. It is HMChShBH LA ChShBH המחשבה לא חשבה The Unthought Thought. It is (again using the final form of Mem) AaVLM עולם. The Universe.
Differentiation. Unity. Separation and Totality. Oppositions resolved. The Thought made Flesh and She is Great (KPRVTh!). The Universe. The Multiplicity of One.
(As a side note. For years I have always left clocks around my house set to 7:06. Way before I did any of this stuff. It appeals to my sense of humor. "Satan Time".)
Three Pillars. Three Paths, or are they but One?
Next: The Tree 528 Part IV: Whither Baphomet?
* Somewhat later I noticed an odd structural/referential synchronicity. If one were to look at the ordinal values of the Sephiroth in the Left and Right Pillars - 3, 5, 8 and 2, 4, 7 respectively - as numbers in and of themselves, 358 and 247, those combined also add to 605. Cool right? Also if you take the difference between those numbers and the value of their respective Pillars by letter-path (the difference between 358 and 202 for the Left Pillar and the difference between 247 and 403 for the Right), the difference in both cases is 156, one positive and one negative (and thus cancelling out). 156 is, among many other things, the value of BABALON, Crowley's transliteration of Babylon, the Goddess and Great Mother of Thelema, Consort of Chaos, but also in more Hebraic terms the value of both TzIVN ציונ (Zion) and of PAaV פעו (Pau). The first a symbol of the location of the Heavenly Temple, the abode of the Israelite God, Jerusalem, the Celestial City, and the second the capital City of Hadar, the last of the Kings of Edom... the one who did not die...
This too is a Key.