Yesod and Daath: Form and Wisdom

It is perfectly obvious that the most universal and developed image of both the Way of the world’s creation and of overcoming this created condition, liberating the mind, is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

We have discussed the concepts of the “descent” and the “ascent” of mind from a potential and unmanifest state — toward its perfection, described from the point of view of this concept.

At the same time, extremely important is the idea that both the manifestation and the liberation of mind begins with revealing the duality within it, which in the first case unfolds into a further process of self-knowledge and self-actualization, and in the second is overcome and integrated.

On the Tree, this birth is described twice as a two-stage process: in the unfolding of creation from Keter, the Chokhmah-Binah binary emerges, which then exists in three hypostases: as duality itself, as a process (the remaining seven sephirot) of mutual reflection of its poles, and as potential unity (Daath) and the energy of this mutual reflection. Accordingly, Keter acts as the Source, the Yod of the Tetragrammaton, the binary — as the field of its activity (He), the lower heptad — as Movement (Vav), and Daath — as the potential goal, the expected result (He”). And thus the entire world process is permeated by two forces — movement or spirit (Vav; Shiva in Eastern tradition), and energy, wisdom — Shekhinah or Shakti.

In the process of ascent and realization of the mind, these stages include: the object of cognition, the “mixed” unity of Malkhut, the unity of Yesod, ready for cognition, which then gives rise to the Two Ways of liberation, ultimately leading to the perfection of Keter.

At the same time, it is important to note that the “third,” middle Way, passing “between” the poles of the binary, does not exclude awareness of dualities; on the contrary, this awareness culminates in an even more ultimate form, since it leads into Keter through Daath, which in this case acts as the Abyss, the place where all dualities and contradictions manifest in their final form.

In other words, if movement along one of the “polar” Ways implies periodic encounters with the opposing forces on the opposite Pillar, then the “middle” Way concentrates these encounters at its final stage of development, and if the Crossing of the Abyss on the ways of the “right” and “left” hand may occur relatively smoothly, since the travelers are already familiar with the principle of duality and the ways of its neutralization, then the encounter with Choronzon after the “harmony” of Tiferet often turns out to be unexpected and therefore fatal.

Regardless of whether the ascent up the Tree follows one of the Pillars, or the Way of the Serpent, strives to pass through all sephirotic stages, it involves differentiation, integration, and transcendence of binary pairs.

We have already said that ignoring this fact either delays the mind at the level of the “lower unity” — Malkhut or Yesod, or leads to a catastrophic encounter with the Demon of the Abyss at a higher stage. Even “skipping” the first vertical duality — manifestation and content, Malkhut and Yesod, refusing the Mounting of the elemental manifestations of mind, thus failing to overcome Keshet, turns out to be a serious obstacle to development, often recognized only later.

Unfortunately, in modern mass culture the idea of the “primordial nonduality” of mind, understood completely incorrectly, has become mainstream, and all the stories of the Magi about the importance of passing through and transcending both poles of any binary are most often ignored.

Of course, the basis of mind is non-dual, however this nonduality is potential, and in order to attain it, the incarnate being has no path other than differentiation and neutralizing as many binaries as possible. A being in Malkhut cannot reach the state of Keter in any other way than by consistently passing through dual stages, where the ascent to the next step occurs not until the preceding binary has been identified, experienced, neutralized, and transcended. The “Joy of the once-born,” which is the modern “standard” of post-New Age esotericism, either means marking time, without truly beginning the ascent up the Tree, or, even worse, frivolous and careless movement along the Pillar of Wisdom, which will almost certainly end in the jaws of Choronzon. And after these “jaws” there will be an inevitable fall into worlds of fragmentation and contradictions, from which one will then have to get out for a long time and with suffering. And, of course, everyone has the right to choose their own Way, and everyone has an entire eternity ahead that can be spent on the Tree’s threshold; the main thing is not to deceive yourself or others, and not to call your laziness ‘wisdom’, nor your megalomania an ‘attainment’.