The Kabbalistic Body In Modernia

Another bit about spiritual gender awareness.

Feet

Genitals

Solar Plexus

Heart

Shoulders

Eyes

Crown

Society is grappling with Identity. Identity is addressed in the 3rd Chakra of the body; Hod/Netzach; Venus/Mercury; the hips of the body. I wrote about it 10 years ago, before I understood the full intensity of the experience.

Here’s the current problem: Screaming, yelling, demanding, puching, accusing, and generally being awful will not bring relief or answers. We need Divine intervention.

When this was written, I had no idea of the confusion that would ensue from mis-gendering, mis-understanding and re-wording. These events can be more easily reconciled if we choose to focus on the spiritual stories that describe our lived experiences rather than insist we have actually changed our physical sex.

Men with Mars in a feminine sign will “feel” different about their roles in life than men with Mars in a masculine sign. Wimmin with Venus in masculine signs will be more demanding and adventurous than wimmin with Venus in feminine signs. Those tendencies do not demand that the person brutalize the body. Those tendencies demand that the person allow alternate ways of presenting the self in public and understanding the self in private.

It comes at a cost, because society has demands. Society gives rewards and penalties that have meaning for us as members. We didn’t chose to join humunity. We were conscripted. The urges of life came into play. People got together and made us. We are on a ride. Some say we chose the ride, others say we are victims of Divine Whim.

The best solution is to play along. Walk your path. Play the hand you were dealt. These cliches are true. It’s a hard road, but knowledge gives you meaning. And meaning makes your path sweeter, and esoteric knowings bring the frosting on what may have been a cow pi.

The Kabbalistic Body

The Tree of Life is rooted in three pillars; left, right and central. The theme of the central pillar is Union. As it relates to the body, it is the spine. In Eastern terms this is the path of the Kundalini energy, the fire of life. It courses from the center of the Earth to the heights of the Heavens. Our bodies are the lightning rods that conduct the Sacred Fire from Father to Mother and back to Father in the continuing loop of existence.

The Feet (Central Pillar) Earth/Moon

The Human body is the microcosm of the entire Tree of Life. The Tree lives within each one of us. Our feet stand on the Earth, Malchut, the 10th sphere at the bottom. We are an extension of Earth. We stand on her. She is alive and gives us life. All life is born from the Earth, our Mother. We get sustenance from Her. We are of her, but she is not of us. Our Mother is the vehicle for our existence. We should not use her and abuse her or take her for granted. She has graciously donated her body on our behalf and she is the cutting edge of Creation, the Holy of Holies. 

Christian doctrine says that man is given dominion over plants and animals. Christian doctrine promotes dominance over Nature, which in turn promotes the abuse of Nature. What are we here for? Aren’t we Nature? How is it that the Earth can live without Humans but Humans cannot live without the Earth? 

Christian doctrine calls our gratitude Paganism. It says that appreciation of Nature is Pagan worship. This concept promotes patriarchy and hierarchy. It desensitizes us to that which lives. They say that the only Holy thing is Christ the God/Man. But Christ himself said that we are all God/Human and that we must have the “ears to hear and the eyes to see” the truth of that. 

Christian doctrine says that Baptism wards off original sin. After its birth a baby needs a bit of washing. Instead of it being a practical matter, Christian original sin consists of coming in contact with the “unclean” blood and vagina of its reviled mother. To the Christian mind sex and birth are sinful. The only way to get “clean” is to be “saved” by a man that was tortured to death in a horrific way, thus replacing the natural and feminine Near Death Experience of birth with a male persona. 

We have at our feet the place of our birth, the place we claim as our own. Every culture has some form of baptism that is designed to let it be known to the community that a new member has arrived. The community teaches the child how to participate and thus belong to the group in a homogeneous way. The child observes and learns how to participate in this particular family in this particular place. 

The water of baptism is like the water of the womb. The community claims the child as its own, in the name of someone who agrees to care for it. Baptism is a greeting into the mother tribe. Christian baptism greets the baby in the name of the Father. Not that there’s anything wrong with Him. It’s the other things they say during the ceremony that are troublesome. “Deliver the baby from sin” being the most meaningful. 

Moon and Earth are intertwined and represented by the same symbols. We have the Earth under our feet and the Moon above our heads. The phases of the moon control the cycles of life on Earth. Some say that Earth could not exist without Moon.

The Moon in your astrology chart describes your collective nature: the things you are used to; the things you need to gather to you for a sense of safety and belonging. If your Moon is in a fire sign, then you need passionate surroundings to placate you. If your Moon is in an air sign, you need cool logic to soothe you. If your Moon is in a water sign, then you need emotional connection to feel at peace. If your Moon is in an earth sign, then you need regularity and ritual to keep your mind at ease.

The Genitals/Sacral (Central Pillar) Mars

The octave above Malchut, the feet is Yesod, the genitals. Yesod/ Mars represents the will of the individual. The first stirrings of sexuality begin with the “terrible twos.” The child recognizes itself as separate from the group. As the child matures into adolescence, s/he begins to realize that personal will and desire are often at odds with the tribal norms. Teens then rebel by entering into peer tribes, where they continue to conform to an alternate cultural norm. In the meantime, their sexuality is screaming to get out, while Christian doctrine tells them that the genitals are bad and that individuality is selfish. They equate sex to sin, Humans as sinners and Creation as sinful. In this context the generator of life is evil and people become quite confused.

All of our “doings” are expressed in this center. In astrology it is the planet Mars. A person’s Mars sign is expressed by how s/he drives a car. Do you just power down the road or do you carefully plan your route? Do you daydream as you roll down the road or do you contemplate yesterday’s events? The answers to these questions give clues as to how you manage your personal energy. 

All of our doings are expressed in this center. In astrology it is the planet Mars. A person’s Mars sign is expressed by how s/he drives a car. Do you just power down the road or do you carefully plan your route? Do you daydream as you roll down the road or do you contemplate yesterday’s events? The answers to these questions give clues as to how you manage your personal energy. 

In the past, women were expected to give their personal power to a man. This practice gave way to confusion for men and women. In the present, women are learning to express their personal style of energy management and that is creating a new paradigm of sexuality. Gender confusion is the product of this new paradigm. As a collective we are discovering new ways for individuals to come into their personal expressions. It is only natural that anger surrounds this event, because this center is a point of aggression. Regendering is met with resistance and anger from the community, because they believe that sex equals sin, therefore personal expression is evil. The collective is afraid of the personal. Too many personalities will disrupt the equilibrium of the unit. 

The feminist movement told us to reclaim our power, but I never knew how to do that or what it meant in real life. It was a good slogan, but it was a mystery to me in practice. Now I know it means managing my personal desires in my own way. It doesn’t mean asserting my desires onto another. Yesod is about Union. We can have true Union when we gain knowledge of our own contribution to the events of our own personal lives, apart from the collective. At that point we can come together with others and offer our true selves to the equation of relationship. Holy Sex Union is achieved by two conscious individuals, committed to mutual pleasure.

In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be a follower of me, and whoever does not hate brother and sister and bear the cross as I do will not be worthy of me.” (The Gospel of Thomas, Harold Bloom p. 45) The word “hate” in this context, means “to refute.” This passage says you must leave the nest, the Malchut, the collective and strike out alone into your personal search for the Divine. Self-discovery is part of the Journey to Spirit. This act of separation is the first step in finding yourself, which is the first step toward knowing God. Jesus was asking his followers to know their true desire, not just spout the common rhetoric. Use your power to carry the cross of self.

The Heart (Central Pillar) Sun

Tiferet, the heart, is the octave above Yesod, the genitals. I call it the Grand Central Station of Love. It is the center of the Tree and the center of your body. All meridians and pathways go through the heart. There is a reason why the heart is located above the genitals. We must bring the sexual fire up to the heart and see others through the gaze of the bridegroom, the beloved. We must purify the lust for another with the sacred commitment of Eternal Union. Once we have made the commitment to love unconditionally all the pathways and meridians of the body are cleansed in the Unconditional flow of love and light. 

Christian doctrine states that you must take Christ as your Savior to be saved. This doctrine is called the Vicarious Atonement. In practice this means that you only have to say the words and you don’t have to genuinely understand yourself. Jesus said, “Fortunate is the person who has worked hard and has found life.” (The Gospel of Thomas, Bloom p.45) I don’t think that Jesus was talking about a nine to five job in terms of working hard. He was saying that spiritual victory is an inside job and you can only find the truth of life and Goddess if you pay attention and work on yourself. You will find it on your own, not through any ritual or payment.

The broken heart heals and then is broken again. That is the human condition. Every time the heart is broken, it breaks our will, the desire. We hurt and then we forgive, still accepting that our power moves us through life, but knowing that love is the lubricant that softens the blows and greases the gears. If we take the opportunity of a broken dream, to cleanse the will with love, then we have taken another step toward knowing self and Goddess. When we raise our sex vibration to the heart level, we learn to love our own power and use it for the benefit of compassion, not aggression. 

They say that, “the heart wants what the heart wants.” You may ask, “What does my heart want?” Your astrological sun sign defines the answer. If your sun sign is in fire you want passion. If it is in earth you want security. If it is in water you want emotional responses. If it is in air you want freedom. 

The Hips/Solar Plexus
(Left/Right Pillars) Venus/Mercury

This is the area of our current cultural discontent

The hips are the third position from the bottom of the Tree with the left and the right pillars involved. Hod/Venus is on the feminine left and Netzak/Mercury is on the masculine right. These positions were quite a revelation to me, because the popular culture and the inner circle all have agreed for a long time that Venus and Mars are the pair of opposites that define our gender assignments. 

This revelation completely changes my view of gender. The masculine right is pure thought and the feminine left is pure magnetic form. “I think, therefore I am.” These two spheres combine to form our sense of identity in the Solar Plexus. Gender identity is located above the genitals, not by the sex organs. As we entered the age of self-analysis, we began to see that gender identity was a bigger issue than we thought in the past. Instead of being defined by our plumbing, a single sex organ, we are learning that gender identity has more to do with inner voice and personal expression. Two archetypes times twelve each equals 144 gender expressions. Now it seems that I have jumped from my One Gender Theory to a 144 Gender Theory. 

Between Venus and Mercury there are 12 x 12, or 144 variations of gender interpretations that lead to personal behavior having to do with cultural roles and personal identity. As such, gender is not a simple sex assignment, but a state of mind and a condition of expression. As Mercury thinks, Venus provides.

In some cultures it was acceptable to be homosexual and those people took on specific roles and were included in the group with which they identified (Native American). In other cultures, transgender people had to stay in the closet for fear of violence or shunning (The Modern World). In some cultures people could procreate as expected by society and recreate as their gender identity dictated (Greece/Rome).

Hod (Venus) is called Splendor and Reverberation. She dances the great cycles of the Earth and she “weaves ritual from the deep awareness of structure, gathering people towards the center”. Venus was goddess of the loom. In other cultures she was Spider Woman, with forms and thoughts caught in her sticky web. The weaver makes a visual pattern with form that expresses all the unseen elements she has collected from the non-physical Voice of God. She makes Beauty and Splendor that Reverberates in the forms of Nature in all of its wonder. She gives birth to the Thoughts of God.

Venus/Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess in the Greek pantheon. Everyone was attracted to her and that’s just how she liked it. In Goddess culture she was young and fertile maiden. She was associated with vitality and sexuality. She chose her partners and had sovereignty over her body and reproduction. In God cultures they called her a virgin and kept her as property to be dispensed according to the will of male custom. Her enslavement has caused the atrocities toward women and the Earth for 4000 years. 

Netzak/Mercury is located in the right hip of the Kabalistic body. Mercury represents the way we think. Netzak is called the “wings of victory”. Mercury wore wings on his feet. He could go anywhere in the world or the heavens or the underworld. In other words, our thoughts can be bright or dark, happy or sad and there are 144 ways to think about any situation. “I manifest as the God-voice heard by prophets. I call to each soul to live in the present, to act to call out, to touch the infinite and reach for God.” Netzak is active and expansive, like Mercury, he moves around heralding the news, examining what is and generally getting into grace or trouble from one moment to the next. He is the non-physical voice of God.

The Shoulders (Left/Right Pillars) Saturn/Jupiter

This is the area of our current cultural polarized finger pointing

Gevurah is judgment on the left, balancing Hesed, mercy on the right. We balance the requirements of society with the exuberance of creation. We speak our truth from experience and know that mercy for others will bring inner peace. This is a mature set of energies I call the Matron on the left and the Preacher on the right.

Saturn/Gevurah is on the left shoulder. It is above the heart and represents structure and is called Rigor and Judgment. In ancient times Saturn was the farthest planet still visible to the naked eye, so it came to represent old age, the Matron Goddess and Father time. Gevurah is a feminine energy that says, “I provide the structure that is needed for life to exist.” Once more we see the word “structure” with reference to the feminine left. 

In Gevurah/Saturn, you take responsibility to love and stay connected to Tiferet/Sun, the octave below. Gevurah is about being a responsible adult; the miles under your feet. Mother Time can make you compassionate and careful or bitter and cruel. This is the point where you choose and declare what you have made of your life. Saturn is the place of containment, the Sumerian Goddess of the mountains surrounding the valley. She is associated with restriction, ordinances and regulations.

She quiets and restrains her companion on the right shoulder, Hesed/Jupiter, the masculine spirit of the “unrestrained flow of love, generosity and tolerance into the cosmos and the psyche.” Jupiter is considered good luck because he was the most likely God to show mercy to the human condition. When Romans needed help, they prayed to Jupiter because he seemed to like humans a lot. He came to Earth and procreated with all forms of creatures and humans. He was carried away with love and fun. His wife, Hera/Saturn was always at home with a reprimand and he was usually contrite. He is the lightening bug and she is the mason jar. 

The Eyes (Central Pillar) 2 into 1

Neptune (Jupiter)/Uranus (Saturn)

This is the area where we must focus to promote a healing view

The highest octaves on the left and right pillars are Binah, on the feminine left and Hokmah on the masculine right. Binah/Neptune is Understanding and Formation. She is the womb of the Universe, and like a black hole in space she pulls in all light and matter within her reach and then gives birth to new worlds. She is process. She is gravity. She rules the left eye. She is utterly dark and erotically entwined with Hokmah, wisdom and the first point of creation, first light. He rules the right eye.

In meditation we strive to reach this level called the “third eye”. If we manage to “get there” in meditation we don’t stay long, because we can only glimpse this realm. We are there when we have an “aha” moment, when clarity suddenly appears and then just as quickly disappears. Yet somehow that clear moment stays with us in memory, beyond concrete explanation, but alive in the imagination. This is the highest level of creativity and faith. 

They say, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” What we choose to see with our physical eyes is dependent on the inspiration that comes to us in the transcendental realm. Others see inside us through our eyes. Movie actors show a wealth of emotion by very subtle expression through the eyes. Inspiration means in-spirited; the in- dwelling spirit; ideas that come “out of the blue.” In these two centers we have the juice of life and the jar that contains it. Once again, the feminine contains the masculine and brings him to formation.

The Head/Crown (Central Pillar) Pluto/Mars

This is the area where we adapt to our true path

The final destination on this central pillar is the top of the head, called the “Crown Chakra” or Keter. It is the higher octave of all the others. Like the Earth/Malcut, Keter is outside the body. It is a gateway for Universal energy to enter and exit the body. In modern astrology we call it Pluto, but in ancient times they called it Mars by Night. This is where we breathe in the light and this is the light we follow when we die. It is transcendent and therefore harder to understand than any other Center.

In the Gospel of Thomas (Bloom p 49) Jesus said, “There was a rich person who had a great deal of money. He said, ‘I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing.’ These were the things he was thinking in his heart, but that very night he died. Whoever has ears should hear.”

This passage tells us that death is always there, a breath away and we should prepare for it as we prepare for life. Pluto/Keter is transformational. Changing shape can be painful, like the cars squashed into cubes in the junkyard. The soul leaves the body through the same center that gives us birth. The Keter of one world is the Malcut of the next. If you lay out two Trees of Life, end to end and place the Earth of one on the Pluto of the next one you will see how there are worlds within worlds in this Universe. Your death in this world completely transforms your physical body and sends you into a new place; a new Earth, so to speak. 

Just as a baby enters this world fresh and ready for new experience, we enter the next world as babies, ready for a new start, but with our souls in tact. That soft spot on the top of a baby’s head is no accident. The crown is fully open to allow the divine power to enter the child. As we age and the spot hardens, we must work to remember the source of life and visualize the light pouring through our heads, through our bodies and out our feet down to the Earth. 

Death is the point where you trade places with another soul that is coming in as you go out. If you can see the Trees overlapped you know there is a destination for you and you won’t be afraid. Fear of change is a big theme with Mars by night. The desire wants to live and forge ahead. At this point it must forge ahead into the night where the light waits on the other side. Everyone must take this journey of surrender. The passage is tight so those of us with claustrophobia look forward to this event with trepidation.

The astrological sign of your Pluto is not personal. Pluto stays in a sign for fifteen to thirty years, depending upon the sign. It represents a generation. The Pluto in Cancer generation went from 1913-1939. The Pluto in Leo generation went from1939-1957. The Pluto in Virgo generation went from 1957-1972. The Pluto in Libra generation went from 1972-1983. The Pluto in Scorpio generation went from 1983-1996. The Pluto in Sagittarius generation went from 1996-2008. It is now the Pluto in Capricorn generation and it will last until 2024. 

These generations represent change through world politics and trends. The cancer generation was family oriented. The Leos are the “me” generation. The Virgo generation is duty-bound. The Libras are the diplomats and artists of the zodiac. The Scorpio generation is the sensitive but stoic group. The Sagittarian generation is the true believer group. The Capricorn generation will bring women into partnership alliances with men.