Qabalah Part Four: Shekhinah

I haven't posted for quite some time because I've been in the middle of a move and haven't had much time, but I have also been trying to consider the best way to approach the subject of Malkuth. My reason for this is because to me, Malkuth essentially encompasses the essence of Qabalah more than any other Sephirah (closely rivaled by Binah). And therefore to explain Malkuth in a way that does it justice is a very tall order indeed.

Malkuth means "Kingdom". In a very limited sense, it is the physical universe in total. This includes matter, energy, protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, stars, galaxies, black holes, and literally everything that proceeded from the singularity of the Big Bang. Even time belongs to Malkuth, for time is governed by the laws of physics as Einstein demonstrated.

But there is more then that to Malkuth, surely. "The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East, and placed there the man whom He had formed. And from the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and bad."

God walked in the Garden with man. In Qabalah, there is a term for the Divine Presence of God. It is called Shekhinah, which is another term for Malkuth.

The Yetziratic Text for Malkuth reads as follows:

"The Tenth Path is called the Resplendent Intelligence because it is exalted above every head and sits upon the Throne of Binah. It illuminates the splendours of all the Lights, and causes an influence to emanate from the Prince of Countenances, the Angel of Kether."

All Sephiroth from Binah to Yesod are given a planetary correspondent, while the others have similar correspondents although not planetary. To Binah is given the correspondent of Saturn. My reason for bringing this up is to demonstrate the relationship between Malkuth and Binah. Saturn was a Roman god, the Greek equivalent of which was Chronos. Chronos was the God of Time, Father Time, as it were.

Time, like all other things in physical manifestation, is just a system of landmarks. It's like reading a book. All the words are there when you begin to read, but you experience it in intervals of letters, words, paragraphs, and chapters. Because of our limited consciousness we cannot experience the whole at once.

The same applies to time and space. In truth, the All and the One are mutually inclusive of each other. (The All that I am referring to here is Malkuth, while the One is obviously Kether.) But because of our human condition we can only experience it in limited degrees. This is in truth where the concept of evil comes from, because all is simply truth (and therefore a part of God). But in our limited perspective, we can only see facts "out of context". From a cosmic perspective, there is no evil, no death, no pain. The fall of man is not being cast out of the Garden of Eden because we are still there. It is simply experiencing a part of the Garden without awareness of the whole.

There's a Buddhist saying, I don't know by whom, that expresses this well. "It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now. So it is not a matter of understanding or of practice. It is an ultimate fact."

One of the steps up the ladder of attainment is to realize ones place in the Universe is that of the Creator because "As above, so below". The truth is that the whole Universe is contained within our minds, it is only a matter of realizing this fact, that we are in truth Eth ha-Adam, the Spirit of Man, giving manifestation to all things in existence just as the biblical Adam gave names to all the creatures in the Garden of Eden. Malkuth is the Garden of Eden, and we have never actually left it.

In order for this to take place we must begin to see purpose in all things, whether pleasant or not. "These 'tendencies' must be combated: distasteful facts should be insisted upon until the Ego is perfectly indifferent to the nature of its food." (Crowley, Book 4, p.102). For how can we be masters of nature if natural cause and effect, or Karma, cause us to whimper like a child. For more on this matter, see my previous post "Curious Element, Earth". Even more can be gained from meditation and contemplation on some of the paragraphs presented in this post.