by Mark Horn
Hod also carries the quality of Humility. Consider this in combination with the esoteric title of the Eight of Cups: The Lord of Abandoned Success. So here is where we can look at one of the shadow sides of this Sephirotic pair. The power of Chesed can be overwhelming, and for some people, the shadow side of Humility is not a feeling of modesty but an expression of low self-esteem and a feeling of unworthiness. If you’re feeling unworthy yet love, abundance, and success keep coming at you, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you feel as if you want to flee. Perhaps that’s what the figure in the Eight of Cups is doing.
That makes this a day to consider whether any feelings like that are hiding inside you. After all, metaphorically speaking, you were just set free from slavery a few days ago. Psychologists Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks refer to this kind of situation as the Upper Limits Problem: when you find yourself in a place of success or happiness, but because it’s an unfamiliar experience, you’re uncomfortable, so you do something to bring yourself down to a more familiar level of misery. When you look at the Eight of Cups in this pairing, it’s good to ask whether you’re turning away from Love or success because you’re uncomfortable with it, or whether you’re turning toward something deeper.
Day 5: Hod of Chesed in Yetzirah
The Eight and Four of Swords
_________within_________
Hod of Chesed in Yetzirah does not look so Glorious at first glance in this pair. Yet clearly, both of these images are a Surrender of a kind. We’ve already considered the meditative retreat of the Four of Swords. How is that mediated by the Eight of Swords, which looks and feels coercive?
In the Eight of Swords, a woman’s arms are bound and her eyes are blindfolded. She stands on ground that is treacherous, since it is neither level nor solid. On this not-entirely-solid ground, the swords and the woman are in danger of falling over at any time. There is the danger of losing one’s balance and falling into something dangerously sharp or onto the ground. With the ground being not entirely solid and the woman’s arms being bound, it would be extremely difficult (though not impossible) to stand up again.
Compare this with the knight in the Four of Swords, who in his position of rest on top of a sarcophagus is completely stable. Here, Chesed is in fact providing a solid ground of compassion that enables the woman in the Eight of Swords to make her way through this hazardous landscape. This interpretation suggests that the woman is being guided from within, from a place of deep Love for herself in this situation. At the same time, both of the people are figures in solitude. They are alone, and certainly the woman in the Eight of Swords could use some assistance.
One of the meanings given to Hod is Humility. An act of Love for oneself in this situation would mean having the Humility to ask for assistance. After all, on a meditation retreat, unless you’re shut up in a cave by yourself, when one encounters difficulties there is always a teacher or guide to consult or seek assistance from.
Because both Hod and the suit of Swords correspond to the world of intellect, there is the possibility that the Eight of Swords shows someone who is a prisoner of her thoughts and perhaps her unconsciously held ideas. Maybe one such idea is that she is alone and there is no one she can seek help from. Perhaps she thinks that this is an ordeal that must be gone through alone, just as the knight in the Four of Swords must go through his vigil on his own.
With this double focus on the intellect, this card pairing can stand as a warning of the arrogance of the intellect that it can solve a problem alone, without the help of intuition. Certainly, an overreliance on the intellect can blind and bind. Yet the only way the woman can move forward without falling is by dropping the total reliance on the intellect (since she is bound and blindfolded) and Surrendering to her intuition (and thus keeping her balance). For someone who sees the world through the lens of the intellect, giving up its primacy to the power of intuition can feel like a terrifying surrender. This card suggests that without such a Surrender, there is no way forward.
Are we really alone in our trials? Often one’s partner or a family member is right there pointing out something you don’t want to see. Or you’re trapped in a behavior pattern or an argument that has left you feeling isolated or unwilling to ask for assistance from a loved one. Your pride in your intellect tells you that you are right about something, yet an insistence on this leaves you alone.
I know this particular trap fairly well, since I am one of those people who puts a premium on intellect. And in an argument with someone who is a more intuitive and emotional person, my reliance on logic only makes things worse because I am often blind(folded) to their way of seeing things. Intellect and logic are important, but they aren’t everything. Reliance on intellect alone results in a world out of balance.
As the saying goes, Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy? Being happy requires Humility in Loving-kindness, Hod in Chesed.
Day 5: Hod of Chesed in Assiyah
The Eight and Four of Pentacles
_________within_________
In the Eight of Pentacles, we have a man at a workbench carefully engraving the pentagrams into these golden disks. When I look at him, I am reminded of when I lived in Japan and would go up to visit traditional potters in the town of Mashiko. I got to know many potters personally and was lucky enough to stay as a guest in their homes. Every potter had apprentices.
The path of the apprentice potter is not an easy one in Japan. They get up before sunrise and roll the cold clay by hand for throwing, often in an unheated studio. It can be months before they get to make something themselves—not something original, mind you, but a copy of one of the master’s pieces. When they finally throw this form, if the master doesn’t like it, he simply breaks it. If he approves, he stamps it as his own. To be an apprentice is to understand the path of Surrender.
In the Eight of Pentacles, I see an apprentice who is just at the moment of becoming a master. And as a master, he makes the same thing again and again, as perfectly similar as any human can. Before the era of mass production, this was the sign of a master. He is a master who has Surrendered to the practice; thus, Chesed Flows into his work unimpeded. That’s what puts the spirit of the five-pointed star into each gold disk. His work (matter) is infused with his Love and his spirit.
In the relationship of these two cards, I see the master and the former apprentice. Here I see the man in the Four of Pentacles as a master holding the space, the form for others: he holds on to the practice, the artistry, with Love and in the spirit of Generosity. The coins that he holds are points in the three pillars of the Tree of Life—at the points of Keter, Tiferet, Netzach, and Hod. His holding of the Pentacles in this way is a sign to the apprentice of the path he must follow.
Now you may be thinking, wait a minute here, the Four of Pentacles is not about Generosity, it’s about the opposite: miserliness. But the cards are not signs; they are symbols with a constellation of meanings that sometimes invert based on the cards that surround them. One of the earliest writers on tarot, Etteilla (whose work you’ll remember may have been influenced by Gikatilla’s description of the Sephirot), described the meaning of this card as Generosity. I’ve heard some tarot experts describe the man in the card as not clinging to the disk in front of his torso so much as presenting it, offering it.
Because the man in the Four of Pentacles is holding the central pillar of the Tree, he has great power. This pillar is where the dynamic tension of the Sephirot is at its greatest. In this pairing, I see the man in the Four of Pentacles as the Magician King and the man in the Eight of Pentacles as the Apprentice at the very moment of his becoming a master himself because he has totally Surrendered.
When you look at Japanese pottery, when you hold it, you can feel the energy of the person who made it—a potter who sensed the Divine Love that wanted to be revealed in the form of a clay body (not unlike the love we seek to express with our own bodies of clay) and who Surrendered his ego to allow that expression of Divine Love to manifest in th
e material world. This is the Glory of Hod of Chesed in Assiyah, and if we’re diligent in our spiritual work—and our work in the world—we can share in the Glory by letting this Love shine through our work in the material world.
Questions for reflection and contemplation: Day 5
1. (Wands) How does your love help you feel connected to Divine love—love that’s bigger than you are?
2. (Cups) In what ways do you experience a split between spiritual and physical love? Is there a relationship that has suffered because of your pride? What can you do to repair that relationship?
3. (Swords) When people you love criticize you, how do you respond? Do you feel self-righteous in any of your relationships?
4. (Pentacles) Does what you do give you an opportunity to express Loving-kindness?
Day 6: Yesod of Chesed
Shining the Light of Love into Our Darkest Places
Today is the sixth day of the Omer.
The energy of Yesod is about the Desire for Connection. This Connection can go in any direction. This statement is not a judgment but is simply a recognition that the energy of Yesod is a strong rush to Connect anywhere. When a person’s relationship to this Sephirotic energy isn’t in balance, the desire for Connection can be expressed, as the Buddhists say, unskillfully. And so it should be no surprise that this Sephira can be associated with addiction. This includes the addiction of consumerism, which can make hungry ghosts of us all.
The dark side of Yesod is particularly associated with sex addiction because Yesod corresponds in the human body with the genitals. When the Yesodic desire for outer Connection isn’t balanced by inner Connection with Tiferet, there is the danger of the misuse of Yesodic energy in sexual encounters that denigrates the humanity and divinity of the other.
It’s hard to hold the energy of Yesod: this is the place on the Tree where all the energies of the “higher” Sephirot come together once again before pouring into Malchut. That’s one reason Yesod is known as Foundation: it has to be strong enough to hold all this energy that wants to go somewhere right now—and to direct it with Love. When Yesod is in a balanced relationship with these other energies, sexual Intimacy is a channel to express and share spiritual Intimacy in the deep connection of physical Intimacy. Or it can be the channel for Generative energy to create and share something (art, ideas, a child!) with the world.
Ultimately, Yesod of Chesed is about the desire for Connection that is born of boundless Love. It gives those who can hold this energy the ability to Connect with the suffering of another on the deepest level, even the suffering of those who project their unhappiness onto us and make us the enemy. It is Love and understanding for the suffering and delusion that leads those people to spread their misery. That doesn’t mean we don’t oppose the actions of such people; we just don’t fall victim to their delusion of demonizing the other because we know that, in fact, we are all Intimately Connected.
Nobody said this was an easy path.
Day 6: Yesod of Chesed in Atzilut
The Nine and Four of Wands
_________within_________
Yesod is the Sephira of Connection and emotional Bonding. Yet in the Nine of Wands, we have an image that is very defended and closed off. Notice that there is an opening in the defense, the line of staves, so it’s not a total shutdown. It can be seen as an ingathering of energy, a psychic regrouping before the movement of all the energy stored in Yesod rushes into Malchut tomorrow. So let us look at the stockade image of the Nine of Wands in juxtaposition with the very open image in the Chesed card, the Four of Wands. Love requires the vulnerability we can see in the openness of the Four of Wands, and the man in the Nine of Wands has been open; he made himself vulnerable in the past, but he has been wounded. However, he hasn’t fully closed himself off. He may be defended, but he has left his defenses somewhat open because, while hurt and wary, he still wants to trust and hope. These two cards together capture the issues we all face in relationships: open idealism and wary defensiveness. We need both, but we can’t let ourselves be completely ruled by either. True Intimacy that lasts is accepting of the hurts that we know will inevitably come. Even in the best Relationships, sometimes we get hurt and need to retreat, but it’s essential to always leave a door open and eventually relax, return, and reaffirm our commitment.
The Four of Wands is a vision of total trust—the trust of Abraham with his tent flaps open on all sides. Chesed is an outpouring of the energy of Loving-kindness. Yesod takes that energy and channels it with Generative, Creative, and/or sexual energy to Connect. With this understanding, you can see that even though the man in the Nine of Wands is in a defensive position, his very nature is outgoing.
Looking at these two cards through the darker lens of addiction, we can interpret the man in the Nine of Wands as someone in recovery, possibly from sexual wounding or addiction. He may be defending himself against the energy of Yesod of Chesed, which can be indiscriminate. Flowing in all directions equally, Yesod of Chesed in Atzilut can be a dangerous energy pairing for those not skillful in handling it. Let’s also remember that the word Kabbalah literally means “receiving.” The problem of the man in the Nine of Wands might be that because of wounding, addiction, or both, he finds himself unable to receive Love.
When we overlay the mythic journey of the Hebrew slaves just freed from slavery in Egypt, the sixth day is the day when they came to the Red Sea. On one side, they are being pursued by Pharaoh and his army. Before them is the sea. And just as there is an opening in the wall before the man in the Nine of Wands, the sea is parted and God’s Chesed Flows to hold two walls of water for the Hebrews to pass through. You can see the man in this card as one of these Hebrews at the shore, looking at the newly parted sea. His headband is a symbol of the psychic toll slavery has taken; he remains wary and uncertain about taking the next step through the waters to freedom.
So we can also read this pairing of cards as the passage out of slavery (whether addiction or even working for an abusive company) that requires us to step through the wall of Wands to be reborn and free on the other side. There is a way out, and it is through. Divine Chesed is holding those wands apart so that you may escape “the narrow place” and open to a deeper Connection.
Day 6: Yesod of Chesed in B’riah
The Nine and Four of Cups
_________within_________
In both the cards for Yesod of Chesed in B’riah, we see solitary figures, each seated with arms crossed, guarding the heart and separating the energy of the upper Sephirot from the lower. With Chesed not in relationship with Yesod, it’s no surprise these figures are solitary. In the Nine of Cups, it’s almost as if the seated man is blocking our way at a banquet. He has been gifted with plenty and has much to share, but his position, with his thighs “manspreading,” suggests a veiled aggressive energy. Though dressed like a merchant or minor noble, he displays an attitude best expressed by a great Mel Brooks song: “It’s Good to Be the King.” Yet he is not seated on a throne, but on a bench. And indeed, the bench is clearly long enough for two people to sit closely together, except for the fact that the man has spread out to take all the room.
The cups on the table could signify the past Creative achievements of this man; they are behind him, and he is resting on his laurels, no longer using his Creative energy and not sharing his gifts with others. Still, he smiles as he faces us because he’s happy to show off all his cups; he just isn’t going to share their benefits. On the table under the nine cups, there is a tablecloth that’s so long it reaches the ground. It functions more like a curtain, hiding what’s underneath it. What’s being hidden? Because this is Yesod of Chesed, I see one meaning for this card as an expression of the loneliness that can’t be filled by material possessions and outer success. The cups behind the man are empty and arrayed like trophies. I think of a man who collects lovers like objects, a man who wants one trophy Relationship after another. So while the seated man looks satisfied with himself at having won one cup after a
nother, he is at his core very lonely and Disconnected (the shadow side of Yesod) from others and himself.
The Nine of Cups also raises the possibility of another addiction—alcoholism. At the root of many addictions is a wounded ability to express or receive Intimacy. Or he could be a “social loner.” That is, someone who is happy to throw lots of parties and who uses the crowds as a way of avoiding direct and deeper Connection with any one person.
All these images suggest that this would be a good day to shine a Loving light of Chesed on where we use substances or behaviors to avoid Intimacy. We all have ways of refusing the Flow of Love. We all have ways of avoiding Intimacy, some of which, while not at the level of addiction, can keep us cut off from a deep Relationship with ourselves and others.
Day 6: Yesod of Chesed in Yetzirah
The Nine and Four of Swords
_________within_________
Our unconscious energy in Relationship is also part of the story when we look at Yesod of Chesed in Yetzirah. In the Nine of Swords, a solitary figure sits up in bed in the middle of the night, perhaps in deep grief, anxiety, or awakening from a nightmare. Nine swords are arrayed against the dark, as though hanging on a wall, and all are pointing in one direction—the same direction that the figure in bed is facing. In a reading, the Nine of Swords can indicate depression. Psychologists say depression is the result of anger toward others that feels too dangerous to express in Relationship and too dangerous even to admit to conscious awareness, so that it gets turned inward toward the self. I see the swords arrayed above the figure in bed as unexpressed anger, floating there in the dark because this anger has not even been admitted into consciousness; hence, the depression. But this withheld anger means one’s inner Relationship is damaged and one’s outer Relationships are not whole. From another point of view, the unexpressed emotion may not be anger. It can be anything unexpressed (or unowned) because it’s considered unacceptable; hence, a shadow trait, which in fact could be a positive trait that is considered unacceptable by the person who has it. If we see the figure in this card as a woman and take into consideration the interpretation of the suit of Swords as representing discriminating intelligence, this could be the depression of an extremely intelligent woman who lives in a social situation where her intelligence is not only not valued but is actively discouraged.