Yesod: the 9th Path

Yesod, centered between Malchut, Hod, and Netzach, balances three forces: The Body (Malchut), Thinking (Hod), and Netzach (Feeling). The three spheres surrounding Yesod are the 'here and now' of life - and Yesod is the past we carry with us - the subconscious - memories and conditioning. Sepher Yesod is contact with our dreams, knowing the hidden parts of ourselves. It helps overcome habits, and enables re-creation of self image. It is the regenerative chakra. Invoke Yesod to enhance the assimilation of prana.

Yesod is the domain of the Buddhist Samsara, our own personal illusion, our continuous cycle of re-affirmation of existence. Samsara means, literally: "continual circle," or "whirlpool."

Yesod concentrates all the higher powers and influences. Balance, always a core concept in Qabala, manifests itself in the personality triad as a synthesis of our thinking, feeling and sensing functions.

YESOD, or "Foundation," is the next sphere up from MALCHUT (the beginning of personality); It is where repressed energies are channeled up into the next appropriate sephirot, either HOD (thoughts) or NETZACH (feelings). TIPHARET is the personality's first foray into the realm of Soul.

Potentials of YESOD: Discovering the mysteries of the astral levels, working with dreams; sensing the underlying clockwork in the universe, connecting with the divine plan. It is fantasy, impressionability, instinct, memory, mystery, purification, rejuvenation, seductiveness, and transformation.

YESOD is often the first port of call experienced by first time travellers of the mystic path. After the first tentative steps at the experimentation stage, the mystic traveller will have its ego severly tested with the Yesod Path … Yesod is the land of Illusion. It is fuelled by the human ego. To pass through this realm, the mystic traveller must be free of ego and be humble. Open to truth and the doubting Thomas … many things will be seen & felt here which the mystic traveller will be fooled into thinking are real. Once fooled, the mystic traveller will be trapped in these enchanted shores for a year and a day. Many would be psychics are entrapped in these seemingly wonderful shores, eating at the table of the gods … when in truth it is their ego fuelling its own interests by suppressing the lower self & preventing passage to the higher realms where the ego must be transcended and the mystic traveller aware of what are true perceptions and what are mirrored misrepresentations. It is therefore the first and most valuable lesson that an acolyte will learn in psychic matters.

The Tarot image linked to Yesod is The Moon.