Look at the concept of Binah, (understanding), from the standpoint of a container, scaffolding, that the form creates. If you don't have a container in which to hold something, there can be no understanding, because it runs everywhere. How can you understand water if you can't hold it, if you can't contain it? So look at Form as being associated with being contained, and look at Force as being that which propels forward, or movement. I can have a container, but if I have nothing in it, then I have no capacity to gain wisdom. Force is movement. It is that which is flowing, outgoing, whereas form is that which is held static. That is why it is said that as soon as the Creator started into creation and went into Chokmah and overflowed into Binah, death started to occur. Because as soon as we hit form of any nature, even at a most abstracted level, as soon as there is a stopping of absolute flow, even just slowing it down, death starts to occur. And death is of course transformation - it creates the space for transformation. Therefore, form provides the space for transformation. What force does, is provide the material for transformation

Look at the Master Teacher, Saturn, which controls Binah. There is no mistake that we associate the savior Gods as coming in at the time of Capricorn. Capricorn is also associated with Saturn. The energy of the savior Gods has very much been associated with the great teachers, the Messiah Gods, the Saturn Gods. It is the energy of that which restricts and holds and limits. It is that which contains. They also come when the earth is at its darkest, and they bring in the seed of light. It is very purposeful. It is the same reason that Binah holds the darkest of the dark. She holds the Saturnian influence. She holds the severity, because to come into the place of the holding of the restriction, and bring in the force, the light, the power and the potency, into that alchemical container we call severity, that is when you have the alchemical formula. In order for the savior Gods to do their job they always come in, very vulnerable, not full grown, but vulnerable sparks of light in the darkest of the dark. They then grow into the light of the light. The pillar of severity, the pillar of form, is that which provides the container that literally is the space for the darkness of the womb. Then the seed of light, the seed of force can come in, plant itself into the darkest of the dark, and then grow into the alchemical formula, which ultimately synthesizes into the middle pillar.

Remember when we go from plane to plane, we flip polarities as we go up through the levels. So what is feminine, magnetized polarity on this plane is flipped over on the next plane to masculine polarity. And then it flips back to feminine on the next plane. I keep talking about this as an alchemical formula, which it is - the relationship of force and form to go into synthesis is an alchemical formula, but I'm being reminded that we keep looking at this Tree one dimensionally. If you think of the Tree as a conscious entity that holds cosmology, it too flips polarities as it goes up the planes. That means that what I'm giving you in this dimension, as this understanding of how these energies interact and flow up, is that when it flips to the other plane, it flips - they are both force and form, and they play themselves out, depending on what plane they're operating on. Each of the pillars plays itself out in a different way.

Think about this. Those four Trees are stacked on each other, and then they are placed within the planes that then flip. Those four levels also flip as they go through the planes. The veils between the planes are very thin. We are actually moving into a time in which the manifestation in this world will do nothing but increase, and this is part of the Age of Aquarius. This is also why, on a magical level, your personalities are going to get stripped to the bone. In the Age of Pisces, in the element of water, everything was very fluid. You could do a magical formula, an invocation, a prayer, you could put your request, your intention out there, and it didn't stay very long. Even if you were well trained, it didn't stay very long, because the nature of the energy was fluidic. It was not sustainable or extended. We are now moving into Aquarius, which is a fixed air sign. Therefore what is put out there stays longer. The actual universe sustains its staying longer. So we open the gates, and the gates don't just flood back and close on their own as they did in the Age of Pisces. When you open a gate, you have to go back and close it. Never leave a gate open any more. When you're meditating, be sure to sit in a chair, so that if you fall asleep you have to get out of the chair to go to bed. You leave open gateways, energy portals, when you meditate. Close those gates before you go to sleep. What goes drifting by in the astral can just come drifting right in.

We will, in the not too distant future, in the next four or five lifetimes, have an intimate working with some planes that we don't have now. We will truly, not just hypothetically, have to remember that it flips energy as you move to a different plane. We will really have to have a knowingness about that. We will experience it in a different way. The Tree is a conscious energy Being, and is truly a vehicle that moves consciousness, and we will need to become intimately aware that this Tree, in the understanding we've laid out, will flip, if we go to another plane energetically.

Let us work on the Tree with the emotion of fear. I have got a rolling gut of fear. I recognize that my fear is rooted in Malkuth because my fear is coming from my sense that I am not safe in this world. They're out to get me, and I know it. They're behind every corner, and they're watching me. There's probably a little bit of Yesod, or astral influence. I am going to sit in Netzach to work this, because there's this roaring emotion inside of me. I build my temple space, and I go into the first level, which is the world of formation, the manifested world - Assiah. I would consider what is the opposite emotion of fear. It is love. So I would sit in Netzach and call in love. In the manifest world of that level, I would consider those two emotions. The sphere is my temple, and when I'm in my temple space, I'm in sacred space, so I can explore things, and I can see how they're manifesting in my world, but because I'm in sacred space, I'm not in my fear any more. I am observing my fear. So I'm observing my fear in the sacredness of Netzach, which will support my exploration of this fear. But I would also recognize that the other side of the coin of fear is love. I would also consider love, in the physical world. I'm in love, in relationship to my physical world. I look at fear from the standpoint of physicality, but I'm also looking at love from the same standpoint - all in the sacred space of my temple in Netzach. The power of detachment gives clarity, and that's the gift of the sephiroth. You can sit in the temple with all of the support, but you're not in it. You're observing it. Then I would take it up to the next level, which is the world of formation, or Yetzirah. Always work both sides, because you're working both sides of the same coin. I would ask again. I'm sitting in my sacred temple, I'm in a place that's supporting my exploration of my emotions, and I would look at the roots, the places of formation, of my fear. I'm into my thought world.

What are my thoughts that led to this manifestation of fear? I'm thinking about how I think about the world. I think about the thoughts that lead to fear. "They're out to get me", "I know that what they said to me they didn't mean". And I also think about the thoughts that I associate with love, because I want to do both sides. So I think, "They love me because I'm nice to them", and "They love me because they're my kin", and "They love me because I'm beautiful". This is still how it is in my personality world. I'm not in some upper realms. Then I take it up to the next level, into the world of creation, into Briah. I may find myself considering my ancestral line. I may recognize a lineage that has come from the beliefs of fear, of lack, of lack of safety. I can see that traced in my mother and father. I can consider it from the standpoint of mass consciousness that has supported this belief - the tribal consciousness. Then I would go over and do the same thing with love. What did my mother, my ancestors, tell me was love? What has my tribe told me love is? Then I would take it to the next level, which is the world of divinity in Atziluth. I would explore the messages I have been given about fear from the divine. "A tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye", "If God loves you, He'll take care of you, if He doesn't, the devil take you". Then I'll have worked the four levels in a very simplistic way, you might say, but I've worked the levels in that sephirah. Then I would probably go over and do the same thing in Hod, because I would want to keep the balance. I wouldn't want to do just that one side. And then I would go and hang out in Tiphereth and ask for the higher level of understanding of the sephirah to come to me in relationship to these energies. In Netzach you work with the feelings, in Hod, the intellectual aspect. When you start working the higher levels of the Tree, that is when you start to move with more cosmic kinds of things, out of the realm of strictly the personality.

I believe you can work other aspects of the Tree in the recognition that it begins to create pathways of other possibilities. That's why people work the Tree. Obviously, when you go and hang out in Kether, you're not really in Kether, or you wouldn't be here. You would have lost embodiment; we can safely say that. But just the energy of touching Kether, has an impact. I would work the upper level of the Tree on more transcendent issues. For instance, if I wanted to consider understanding things from a cosmology standpoint, such as cosmic good and cosmic evil, I would go to a higher level of the sephiroth. If I wanted to explore the roots of creation, when the creator breathed us out, I would go even higher. I don't go to Yesod to work with problems. I'll tell you why: Yesod is purposeful, and there are four levels, but Yesod is way too tricky. Everything is Yesodic, or has a Yesodic influence. It's impossible not have this influence from our standpoint. Remember that everything that we have here has to come through the Yesodic influence. You always work the Tree by going through Yesod. It is how you move to the upper levels of the Tree. Everything is affected by the Yesodic consciousness. I will stand in the temple of Malkuth with its black and white checkered floor, and I will acknowledge the four elements, which are always present in my temple. Then I'll state my intention and ask for assistance. Then I'll walk through this temple and then I'll walk through and acknowledge Yesod. I experience Yesod as being very purple and lavender, and very fluidic. From there I would move to the appropriate sephirah.

When working with addictions, I would work in Netzach because I recognize that addictions have a very strong emotional base. If you don't deal with this base, you aren't going to touch the addiction. You have to deal with the emotional complex that it's rooted in. You also have to deal with the thoughtforms and the way you twist your mind and your thoughts. There is a way that you twist your thoughts to justify your addiction. For this you have to hang out in Hod to really see the thinking for what it is. Then I would go first to Tiphereth for balance and to ask for assistance in seeing the beauty and the perfection and taking it to a higher level of my addiction issues on the emotional and mental level. After this I would go to Geburah, and ask her assistance in helping me cut through those cords. After this I would go to Chesed, or Mercy, and I would ask for healing on a spiritual level. You're not in denial. You're being supported by the energies of the Tree to heal on a different level. It does not mean that when you leave the work on the Tree that you no longer have an addiction. That depends on your level of mastery. You would have it to a lesser degree than when you went in, and you could keep working the problem.

If I have a specific problem that I recognize that I am working with, such as money, I would start in Malkuth and look at the manifestation of the issue on the four levels of Malkuth. There is very clear manifestation in these four worlds, such as my belief system, my thoughts, the physical manifestation. Then I would go to Yesod and I would see the fluidic, moon influence. This is how, on an astral level, this relationship expresses itself. I would spend time emotionally and mentally, again exploring these energies, how they hit me, the shame, blame, and guilt. I would spend time with my thought system around the problem. Next I always go to Tiphereth because by that time I need something to help clear and balance the energies, so that I can then go effectively to Geburah. By then in Geburah I've probably worked the lower levels of the Tree enough that I have a higher level of understanding of what needs to be cut away around this whole relationship with money. Then I go to Chesed and I say, " I've done all this work on all these levels, including hacking off whatever is really interference, and I open to You and I am open, Jupiter, to the mighty abundance. I am ready to receive on all levels and in all ways."

Yesod is like a shape-shifter. What you think it is shifts over to something else. It's like the shifting sands. Yesod is astral, where you have more instinctual emotions. Here there are more group, animalistic thoughtforms. Here you experience mass instinct, fight or flight, the thoughtforms around "us versus them", common belief systems, dogmas, and creeds. The emotion of Netzach is higher than this.

The Initiations of Geburah:

In disciples' lives there are energies that tend to work cosmically, such as the Initiations of Geburah. When disciples reach a certain place on the Path, they are given the gift, the opportunity, to cut away. Through the work they've done in this lifetime and other lifetimes, they've reached a place, where the cosmos gives them the gift of cutting through. This lifetime is just a continuum of energy. We take our lifetime very seriously, but from Spirit's standpoint you can have several lifetimes that are Geburic. But from Spirit's standpoint it's the blinking of an eye. It's a different perspective. Geburic experiences are beyond that of the personality. There is a level of Soul involvement, and it is the place where the cutting away of all that is extraneous can take place. You cannot cross through the abyss, the sword, with excess. Karmically, a disciple will sometimes choose, on a Soul level to really rev it up, and where the Soul feels there is enough strength of contact, the Soul will go for the prize, which means that the lifetime can include very swift clearing of karma. Karma is excess, and this is just the clearing of the slate.

The Purpose of Guilt

There comes a point in the development of consciousness where there is healthy guilt. It is the kind of guilt where, if you hit a car and you drive out of the parking lot, you feel guilty enough that you come back and write a note. There is a point in a person's development where they need healthy guilt. There is also a place where theoretically you have progressed beyond that, and you don't need guilt to induce good behavior. It comes from an intrinsic place. It's really an identification with Spirit. It is where you and Spirit become so aligned - and it's a process, not an act - where the separation between you and Spirit becomes less and less. It can be called becoming a Soul-infused personality. A lot of people have to be motivated by healthy guilt at some point during their evolution. There are people who are termed younger souls that simply do not have the infrastructure in place from this lifetime or other lifetimes, to support them in this quantum leap of consciousness. And so guilt is a very appropriate thing because it takes them their next step down their probationary path. To develop guilt may be a real boon for their Soul. If this isn't just some pivotal lifetime where they're switching something around, which on a Soul level can happen, they may well spend several lifetimes thereafter developing guilt. This isn't a bad thing from the standpoint of where they're at. We are sometimes naïve in that we perceive that everyone should be at the same level when they are exposed to the same things. People have their own perceptions and their own development. Where they are at and where they need to be, may include things like guilt, remorse, shame, etc. At that point they may be stepping-stones for them. Those very stones that are weighing on our heads and holding us back, are the very same stones that at one point we stepped on which took us to the next level. We have to remember that most people aren't even personalities yet. That means that most people operate strictly out of one part of their personality. Some may still be totally identified with their physical body, or polarized in their emotional body. The question of becoming Soul-infused is not an issue because there isn't enough integration for that to happen. Before you can surrender the personality, you have to be an integrated personality. Once you have an integrated personality, where the physical, emotional and mental bodies have been blended and harmonized so that there isn't a polarization in any one body, you then can open to the Soul.

The Qliphoth

It is hard for us to believe that God could make a mistake. God was all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfect. The implication of the Qliphoth is the recognition that the very nature of creation was flawed. There were flaws in the process of God's creation. The truth is, one day we will be responsible for the creation of yet another universe, and if we truly understand the flaws, embrace them and transmute them, then the manifestation of the next will not carry the inherent flaws that are in this system. Every outbreath of Brahma has brought forth its Qliphoth. Humanity's task in this evolutionary scheme, as we become the Planetary Logos, the Solar Logos, is to master the Tree. One day we will be breathed back into Brahma and the essence of how we have mastered this Tree of Life, with its perfection and imperfection, we will take with us into Qliphoth. Then when the outbreath of Brahma occurs, we will create yet another Tree, and yet another scheme, and it will have the potentiality not to carry the flaws that this one has.