Duality vs Trinity

[EarthBow]

Many of us are used to thinking about this physical reality in terms of duality; hot & cold, up & down, hard & soft, etc., but I have begun to see things more in terms of threes.

Left and right, up and down, hard and soft, and similar concepts are almost meaningless without a point of reference... the center. Although this is rarely seen as a distinct state in and of itself, looking at things from this point of offers some fresh perspectives.

As an example:

Black can only move in one direction... towards light.

White can only move in one direction... towards darkness.

(please note that I am talking about colors here, not spiritual paths)

These extremes are limited in their options. Change is inevitable, and from the extreme positions, there is only one possible direction to move. This does more than limit our choices, it removes free will entirely. We then become slaves to circumstance.

Now consider the middle position, in this example, gray.

Gray is free to move towards dark or light as the situation demands. By offering more options, it preserves free will. Such a stance casts off the shackles of circumstance.

If you think about it, all things are trinary, not just things in the physical realm. Consider a thought, for example. There is the thought itself, the thing being thought about, and the one doing the thinking... three, not two.

Realizing the three-nature of all things is a form of liberation.

I would be interested in hearing your perspectives on this concept.

EarthBow

[Briony Haldane]

The lesson of the third point becomes obvious within the triangle. Each apex represents a different stage- 1] initiation, 2] opposition and finally 3] integration. The lesson is inherent in the form..if we wish to evolve, we must allow polarities to be integrated. Without this additional "viewpoint" or facet, things remain two dimensional. The world is flat.

[EarthBow]

So true.

Of course, the concept can be extended.

In the physical, we can see up, down, right, left, front, back and center... 7 points.

In the energetic, we can see the 3 ordinal planes, the 3 cardinal planes, and the Akashic plane... again 7.

Whether we are looking at things in terms of 3s or 7s, the center always plays an important role as the connector... the bridge between the extremes where one is able to access the different aspects as the situation demands.

It's no wonder that 3 and seven are considered sacred numbers by so many cultures.

[Briony Haldane]

Agreed. In fact, the seven is a combination of the 3, significance already discussed, and the 4, the symbol of the material plane. Seven is seen as being the spiritual interpenetrating the physical and is the first number to contain the energies of both the spiritual and the temporal, not to mention the widespread cultural significances assigned to the number 7.

[Celtaur]

I think the trinity is the law of relativity, the point of reference, that which perceives the duality, and is necessary for duality to exist. I don't think it's trinity vs. duality, rather I think it's that the trinity and duality are one. I think that actually the statement trinity vs. duality actually points to exactly what you are saying the "vs." is that 3rd point, the center of that which is necessary to perceive the duality of the two points of reference as comparable concepts.

I don't think we can have a trinity without a duality. For instance the idea of gray, doesn't exist without a combination of the two - black and white, thus the duality creates the duality, but at the same time the combination of a duality creates the trinity and thus cancels out a duality as being self contained. It's as if they become a part of reality simultaneously, rather than broken down step by step, even though the steps can be counted in a sense. Amazing how a seemingly simple concept can be so complex.

[Abider]

The Dialectic Process is one method of taking a trinity perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect...alogic_process

[Celtaur]

That's interesting... I love that you have brought this term to my awareness, there is much to delve into on that subject, which will surely be rewarding learning.

A core point of dialectic seems to be the keyword of compromise. "The goal of a dialectic process is to merge point and counterpoint (thesis and antithesis) into a compromise or other state of agreement (synthesis)"

I wonder... would a compromise align more with the trinity or the duality? I would suspect the trinity, as duality points to opposing forces, whereas a trinity brings forces together in a sort of unity. However, I think that duality and trinity in essence are inseparable, but as this thread has pointed out it can be expanded upon into complicated perspectives.

I think this is why the mystery of the trinity has long been spoken of, expressed in major religions of the world from Christianity, Hinduism, Freemasonry... It is universal, all are connected in force and form. Of course I shall have many moments of pondering on this as I learn more on the subject.

[brifae]

Dialetic
I like the concept of the process. It describes perfectly also the duality which is also included in the trinity as Celtaur said according to my beliefs and what I have read of what has resonated with me.

The dialestic process describes what I studied yesterday again about "evil' and god, left and right path, yin and yang, dark and light, evil and qaballah high and low/dense magic, and the sphere of malkuth/The world card in earth based relligions such as goddess based and the elements of magic. It is the crone versus the maiden. The goal I think is synthesis and acceptance of finite versus infinite. Physical/material v conciousness. As ABOVE and BELOW. The three pillars, the middle path and severity versus mercy of god.

A good link for gnostics, magicians, or pagans, it also has info on the other spheres and an important theory on the klipoth (dark mirror of the tree of life).
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos072.htm


Chapter 4: The Sephiroth
========================
This chapter provides a detailed look at each of the ten
sephiroth and draws together material scattered over previous
chapters.

Malkuth
-------
Malkuth is the Cinderella of the sephiroth. It is the
sephira most often ignored by beginners, the sephira most often
glossed over in Cabalistic texts, and it is not only the most
immediate of the sephira but it is also the most complex, and for
sheer inscrutability it rivals Kether - indeed, there is a
Cabalistic aphorism that "Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is
in Kether, but after another manner".

The word Malkuth means "Kingdom", and the sephira is the
culmination of a process of emanation whereby the creative power
of the Godhead is progressively structured and defined as it
moves down the Tree and arrives in a completed form in Malkuth.
Malkuth is the sphere of matter, substance, the real, physical
world. In the least compromising versions of materialist
philosophy (e.g. Hobbes) there is nothing beyond physical matter,
and from that viewpoint the Tree of Life beyond Malkuth does not
exist: our feelings of identity and self-consciousness are
nothing more than a by-product of chemical reactions in the
brain, and the mind is a complex automata which suffers from the
disease of metaphysical delusions. Kabbalah is *not* a
materialist model of reality, but when we examine Malkuth by
itself we find ourselves immersed in matter, and it is natural to
think in terms of physics, chemistry and molecular biology. The
natural sciences provide the most accurate models of matter and
the physical world that we have, and it would be foolishness of
the first order to imagine that Kabbalah can provide better
explanations of the nature of matter on the basis of a study of
the text of the Old Testament. Not that I under-rate the
intuition which has gone into the making of Kabbalah over the
centuries, but for practical purposes the average university
science graduate knows (much) more about the material stuff of
the world than medieval Kabbalists, and a grounding in modern
physics is as good a way to approach Malkuth as any other.

For those who are not comfortable with physics there are
alternative, more traditional ways of approaching Malkuth. The
magical image of Malkuth is that of a young woman crowned and
throned. The woman is Malkah, the Queen, Kallah, the Bride. She
is the inferior mother, a reflection and realization of the
superior mother Binah. She is the Queen who inhabits the Kingdom,
and the Bride of the Microprosopus. She is Gaia, Mother Earth,
but of course she is not only the substance of this world; she is
the body of the entire physical universe.


Some care is required when assigning Mother/Earth goddesses
to Malkuth, because some of them correspond more closely to the
superior mother Binah. There is a close and deep connection
between Malkuth and Binah which results in the two sephiroth
sharing similar correspondences, and one of the oldest
Cabalistic texts [1] has this to say about Malkuth:

"The title of the tenth path [Malkuth] is the Resplendent
Intelligence. It is called this because it is exalted above
every head from where it sits upon the throne of Binah. It
illuminates the numinosity of all lights and causes to
emanate the Power of the archetype of countenances or
forms."

One of the titles of Binah is Khorsia, or Throne, and the image
which this text provides is that Binah provides the framework
upon which Malkuth sits. We will return to this later. Binah
contains the potential of form in the abstract, while Malkuth is
is the fullest realization of form, and both sephiroth share the
correspondences of heaviness, limitation, finiteness, inertia,
avarice, silence, and death.

The female quality of Malkuth is often identified with the
Shekhinah, the female spirit of God in the creation, and
Cabalistic literature makes much of the (carnal) relationship of
God and the Shekhinah. Waite [7] mentions that the relationship
between God and Shekhinah is mirrored in the relationship between
man and woman, and provides a great deal of information on both
the Shekhinah and what he quaintly calls "The Mystery of Sex".
After the exile of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Kabbalists
identified their own plight with the fate of the Shekhinah, and
she is pictured as being cast out into matter in much the same
way as the Gnostics pictured Sophia, the outcast divine wisdom.
The doctrine of the Shekhinah within Kabbalah and within Judaism
as a whole is complex and it is something I don't feel competent
to comment further on; more information can be found in [3] &
[7].

Malkuth is the sphere of the physical elements and
Kabbalists still use the four-fold scheme which dates back at
least as far as Empedocles and probably the Ark. The four
elements correspond to four readily-observable states of matter:

solid - earth
liquid - water
gas - air
plasma - fire/electric arc (lightning)

In addition it is not uncommon to include a fifth element so
rarified and arcane that most people (self included) are pushed
to say what it is; the fifth element is aethyr (or ether) and is
sometimes called spirit.


The amount of material written about the elements is
enormous, and rather than reproduce in bulk what is relatively
well-known I will provide a rough outline so that those readers
who aren't familiar with Kabbalah will realize I am talking about
approximately the same thing as they have seen before. A detailed
description of the traditional medieval view of the four elements
can be found in "The Magus" [2]. The hierarchy of elemental
powers can be found in "777" [4] and in Golden Dawn material [5]
- I have summarized a few useful items below:

Element Fire Air Water Earth

God Name Elohim Jehovah Eheieh Agla

Archangel Michael Raphael Gabriel Uriel

King Djin Paralda Nichsa Ghob

Elemental Salamanders Sylphs Undines Gnomes


It amused me to notice that the section on the elemental kingdoms
in Farrar's "What Witches Do" [6] had been taken by Alex Saunders
lock, stock and barrel from traditional Cabalistic and CM
sources.

The elements in Malkuth are arranged as follows:
South
Fire

East Zenith Aethyr+ West
Air Nadir Aethyr- Water

North
Earth

I have rotated the cardinal points through 180 degrees from their
customary directions so that it is easier to see how the elements
fit on the lower face of the Tree of Life:

Tiphereth
Fire


Hod Yesod Netzach
Air Aethyr Water

Malkuth
Earth

It is important to distinguish between the elements in Malkuth,
where we are talking about real substance (the water in your
body, the breath in your lungs), and the elements on the Tree,
where we are using traditional correspondences *associated* with
the elements, e.g.:

Earth: solid, stable, practical, down-to-earth

Water: sensitive, intuitive, emotional, caring, fertile

Air: vocal, communicative, intellectual

Fire: energetic, daring, impetuous

Positive Aethyr: glue, binding, plastic

Negative Aethyr: unbinding, dissolution, disintegration

Aethyr or Spirit is enigmatic, and I tend to think of it in terms
of the forces which bind matter together. It is almost certainly
a coincidence (but nevertheless interesting) that there are four
fundamental forces - gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear
& strong nuclear - known to date, and current belief is that they
can be unified into one fundamental force. On a slightly more
arcane tack, Barret [2] has this to say about Aethyr:

"Now seeing that the soul is the essential form,
intelligible and incorruptible, and is the first mover of
the body, and is moved itself; but that the body, or matter,
is of itself unable and unfit for motion, and does very much
degenerate from the soul, it appears that there is a need of
a more excellent medium:- now such a medium is conceived to
be the spirit of the world, or that which some call a
quintessence; because it is not from the four elements, but
a certain first thing, having its being above and beside
them. There is, therefore, such a kind of medium required to
be, by which celestial souls [e.g. forms] may be joined to
gross bodies, and bestow upon them wonderful gifts. This
spirit is in the same manner, in the body of the world, as
our spirit is in our bodies; for as the powers of our soul
are communicated to the members of the body by the medium of
the spirit, so also the virtue of the soul of the world is
diffused, throughout all things, by the medium of the
universal spirit; for there is nothing to be found in the
whole world that hath not a spark of the virtue thereof."

Aethyr underpins the elements like a foundation and its
attribution to Yesod should be obvious, particularly as it forms
the linking role between the ideoplastic world of "the Astral
Light" [8] and the material world. Aethyr is often thought to
come in two flavors - positive Aethyr, which binds, and negative
Aethyr, which unbinds. Negative Aethyr is a bit like the
Universal Solvent, and requires as much care in handling ;-}


Working with the physical elements in Malkuth is one of the
most important areas of applied magic, dealing as it does with
the basic constituents of the real world. The physical elements
are tangible and can be experience in a very direct way through
recreations such as caving, diving, parachuting or firewalking;
they bite back in a suitably humbling way, and they provide CMs
with an opportunity to join the neo-pagans in the great outdoors.
Our bodies themselves are made from physical stuff, and there are
many Raja Yoga-like exercises which can be carried out using the
elements as a basis for work on the body. If you can stand his
manic intensity (Exercise 1: boil an egg by force of will) then
Bardon [9] is full of good ideas.
Malkuth is often associated with various kinds of intrinsic
evil, and to understand this attitude (which I do not share) it
is necessary to confront the same question as thirteenth century
Kabbalists: can God be evil? The answer to this question was
(broadly speaking) "yes", but Kabbalists have gone through many
strange gyrations in an attempt to avoid what was for many an
unacceptable conclusion. It was difficult to accept that famine,
war, disease, prejudice, hate, death could be a part of a perfect
being, and there had to be some way to account for evil which did
not contaminate divine perfection. One approach was to sweep evil
under the carpet, and in this case the carpet was Malkuth.
Malkuth became the habitation for evil spirits.
If one examines the structure of the Tree without prejudice
then it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that evil is quite
adequately accounted for, and there is no need to shuffle evil
to the periphery of the Tree like a cleaner without a dustpan.
The emanation of any sephirah from Chokhmah downwards can
manifest as good or evil depending on circumstances and the point
of view of those affected by the energy involved. This appears to
have been understood even at the time of the writing of the
"Zohar", where the mercy of God is constantly contrasted with the
severity of God, and the author makes it clear that one has to
balance the other - you cannot have the mercy without the
severity. On the other hand, the severity of God is persistently
identified with the rigors of existence (form, finiteness,
limitation), and while it is true that many of the things which
have been identified with evil are a consequence of the
finiteness of things, of being finite beings in a world of finite
resources governed by natural laws with inflexible causality, it
not correct to infer (as some have) that form itself is
*intrinsically* evil.

The notion that form and matter are *intrinsically* evil, or
in some way imperfect or not a part of God, may have reached
Kabbalah from a number of sources. Scholem comments:

"The Kabbalah of the early thirteenth century was the
offspring of a union between an older and essentially
Gnostic tradition represented by the book "Bahir", and the
comparatively modern element of Jewish Neo-Platonism."


There is the possibility that the Kabbalists of Provence (who
wrote or edited the "Sepher Bahir") were influenced by the
Cathars, a late form of Manicheanism. Whether the source was
Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, Manicheanism or some combination of
all three, Kabbalah has imported a view of matter and form which
distorts the view of things portrayed by the Tree of Life, and so
Malkuth ends up as a kind of cosmic outer darkness, a bin for all
the dirt, detritus, broken sephira and dirty hankies of the
creation. Form is evil, the Mother of Form is female, women are
definitely and indubitably evil, and Malkuth is the most female
of the sephira, therefore Malkuth is most definitely evil...quod
erat demonstrandum. By the time we reach the time of S.L. Mathers
and the Golden Dawn there is a complete Tree of evil demonic
Klippoth *underneath* Malkuth as a reflection of the "good" Tree
above it. I believe this may have something to do with the fact
that meditations on Malkuth can easily become meditations on
Binah, and meditations on Binah have a habit of slipping into the
Abyss, and once in the Abyss it is easy to trawl up enough junk
to "discover" an averse Tree "underneath" Malkuth. This view of
the Klippoth, or Shells, as active, demonic evil has become
pervasive, and the more energy people put into the demonic Tree,
the less there is for the original. Abolish the Klippoth as
demonic forces, and the Tree of Life comes alive with its full
power of good *and* evil. The following quotation from Bischoff
[10] (speaking of the Sephiroth) provides a more rational view of
the Klippoth:

"Since their energy [of the sephiroth] shows three degrees
of strength (highest, middle and lowest degree), their
emanations group accordingly in sequence. We usually imagine
the image of a descending staircase. The Kabbalist
prefers to see this fact as a decreasing alienation of the
central primeval energy. Consequently any less perfect
emanation is to him the cover or shell (Klippah) of the
preceding, and so the last (furthest) emanations being the
so-called material things are the shell of the total and are
therefore called (in the actual sense) Klippoth."

This is my own view; the shell of something is the accretion of
form which it accumulates as energy comes down the Lightning
Flash. If the shell can be considered by itself then it is a dead
husk of something which could be alive - it preserves all the
structure but there is no energy in it to bring it alive. With
this interpretation the Klippoth are to be found everywhere: in
relationships, at work, at play, in ritual, in society. Whenever
something dies and people refuse to recognize that it is dead,
and cling to the lifeless husk of whatever it was, then you get a
Klippah. For this reason one of the vices of Malkuth is Avarice,
not only in the sense of trying to acquire material things, but
also in the sense of being unwilling to let go of anything, even
when it has become dead and worthless. The Klippah of Malkuth is
what you would get if the Sun went out: Stasis, life frozen into
immobility.

The other vice of Malkuth is Inertia, in the sense of
"active resistance to motion; sluggish; disinclined to move or
act". It is visible in most people at one time or another, and
tends to manifest when a task is new, necessary, but not
particularly exciting, there is no excitement or "natural energy"
to keep one fired up, and one has to keep on pushing right to the
finish. For this reason the obligation of Malkuth is (has
to be) self-discipline.

The virtue of Malkuth is Discrimination, the ability to
perceive differences. The ability to perceive differences is a
necessity for any living organism, whether a bacteria able to
sense the gradient of a nutrient or a kid working out how much
money to wheedle out of his parents. As Malkuth is the final
realization of form, it is the sphere where our ability to
distinguish between differences is most pronounced. The capacity
to discriminate is so fundamental to survival that it works
overtime and finds boundaries and distinctions everywhere - "you"
and "me", "yours" and "mine", distinctions of "property" and
"value" and "territory" which are intellectual abstractions on
one level (i.e. not real) and fiercely defended realities on
another (i.e. very real indeed). I am not going to attempt a
definition of real and unreal, but it is the case that much of
what we think of as real is unreal, and much of what we think of
as unreal is real, and we need the same discrimination which
leads us into the mire to lead us out again. Some people think
skin color is a real measure of intelligence; some don't. Some
people think gender is a real measure of ability; some don't.
Some people judge on appearances; some don't. There is clearly a
difference between a bottle of beer and a bottle of piss, but is
the color of the *bottle* important? What *is* important?

What differences are real, what matters? How much energy do we devote
to things which are "not real". Am I able to perceive how much I
am being manipulated by a fixation on unreality? Are my goals in
life "real", or will they look increasingly silly and immature
as I grow older? For that matter, is Kabbalah "real"? Does it
provide a useful model of reality, or is it the remnant of a
world-view which should have been put to rest centuries ago? One
of the primary exercises of an initiate into Malkuth is a
thorough examination of the question "What is real?".

The Spiritual Experience of Malkuth is variously the
Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), or
the Vision of the HGA (depending on who you believe). I vote for
the Vision of the HGA in Malkuth, and the Knowledge and
Conversation in Tiphereth. What is the HGA? According to the
Gnosticism of Valentinus each person has a guardian angel who
accompanies that individual throughout their life and reveals the
gnosis; the angel is in a sense the divine Self. This belief is
identical to what I was taught by the person who taught me
Kabbalah, so some part of Gnosticism lives on. The current
tradition concerning the HGA almost certainly entered the Western
Esoteric Tradition as a consequence of S.L. Mather's translation
[11] of "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage",
which contains full details of a lengthy ritual to attain the
Knowledge and Conversation of the HGA. This ritual has had an
important influence on twentieth century magicians and it is
often attempted and occasionally completed.

The powers of Malkuth are invoked by means of the names
Adonai ha Aretz and Adonai Melekh, which mean "Lord of the World"
and "The Lord who is King" respectively. The power is transmitted
through the world of Creation by the archangel Sandalphon, who is
sometimes referred to as "the Long Angel", because his feet are
in Malkuth and his head in Kether, which gives him an opportunity
to chat to Metatron, the Angel of the Presence. The angel order
is the Ashim, or Ishim, sometimes translated as the "souls of
fire", supposedly the souls of righteous men and women.

In concluding this section on Malkuth, it worth emphasizing that
I have chosen deliberately not to explore some major topics
because there are sufficient threads for anyone with an interest
to pick up and follow for themselves. The image of Malkuth as
Mother Earth provides a link between Kabbalah and a numinous
archetype with a deep significance for some. The image of Malkuth
as physical substance provides a link into the sciences, and it
is the case that at the limits of theoretical physics one's
intuitions seem to be slipping and sliding on the same reality as
in Kabbalah. The image of Malkuth as the sphere of the elements
is the key to a large body of practical magical technique which
varies from yoga-like concentration on the bodily elements, to
nature-oriented work in the great outdoors. Lastly, just as the
design of a building reveals much about its builders, so Malkuth
can reveal a great deal about Kether - the bottom of the Tree and
the top have much in common.

[Abider]

Very good, Brifae. Thank you for sharing.
So much to respond to in your post.

The goal I think is synthesis and acceptance of finite versus infinite. Physical/material v conciousness.

I would add my conjecture. The synthesis could be a process of evolvement. As mentioned Malkuth is a physical realm. Space-time. Science refers to humans as having a "reptilian brain" - a small part of the limbric system responsible for memory and emotioal reactions. This part of the human mind was thought to have developed early in human evolution. This part of the brain would have a very obscured spiritual eye. Dualistic thinking would be the primary logic process on this level of the human conciousness. hot/cold, fight/flight....

Early ideas thought the earth to be flat and unmoving. The heavens a physical extension of the Earth was also unmoving. The vault of heaven a solid, physical object, a large dome.

Elihu asks Job, “Can you beat out [raqa] the vault of the skies, as he does, hard as a mirror of cast metal (Job 37:18)?”

The Dialectic process, is an attempt to synthesize a third persepctive: thesis and antithesis moving to a third (syn)thesis.
Its intersting to note that the Dialectic process in based around 4 concepts.

1. Everything is transient and finite, existing in the medium of time.
2. Everything is made out of opposing forces/opposing sides.
3. Gradual changes lead to turning points, where one force overcomes the other.
4. Change moves in spirals (or helixes), not circles.

these concepts so much like the Malkuth four elements. Maybe an attempt to evolve the human conciousness. Plato along with Socrates are rumored to have traveled and studied sacred teachings throughout the world.

As far as the seven concept of perception, I am such a denzien of Malkuth that I really do not yet have anything intelligent to add about the seven concept.

Namaste.

[Celtaur]

Could the Klippoth be in fact the Tree of Knowledge? That is the Tree in the Garden of Eden which opened the gates to ego, in essence a "shell"? Whereas the Tree of Life is what they chose not to "eat" from, but entered the realm of the Klippoth, or opened the gates for it to become part of reality in Malkuth?