The number 3, in kabbalah, is extremely important. In sacred Jewish Cabbala it represents the three-lettered name of God - the Holy Trinity. And in all other Cabbalistic teachings it is the mystical number which balances the Divine power of 1 and the force of 2 and brings them into dynamic equilibrium.The number 1 represents the manifest Divine Spark, 2 the first division of Unity and the first linear extension of it into space and time, 3 gives that extension form and stability- literally, a third dimension. 3 is represented by an equilateral triangle. It links 1 and 2 together, it embodies the innate creative power through which all things are produced, and through it all things return to the Divine Source.
The third Sephira (Binah) on the Cabbalistic Tree is at the apex of the Pillar of Justice and is known as Judgement or Understanding. In the Atziluthic World of archetypes it represents Aima, the Great Mother, the Divine Feminine and the archetype of female energies In Renaissance Christianised Cabbala, because the female is the route through which the Divine energies directly enter the world, she came to be regarded as closer to the Divine than the male and to be exulted by philosophers and poets.
This ran counter to other interpretations of the female as the source of sin and evil in the world, and the problem of evil was (and is) a topic of complex debate. The existence of evil, however, is agreed upon amongst Cabbalists. And whether it is regarded as the result of the dark, sexual powers of the female, or as the work of demons, or as caused by the initial act of separation in which Unity became divided, there is agreement that the Cabbalist must confront and deal with evil, repair that division, re-unite the exiled Shekinah with the Godhead.
Aima embodies triplicity. In mythology, she is the triple Goddess: the Virgin, the Wife and Mother, and the Hag: the channel and mediator of the Divine energies of creation and disintegration who, as such, has oracular power and can wield fierce judgement. Aima, in various forms, is present everywhere on the Cabbalistic Tree just as she is present in many forms in mythology. She is the mother goddess, the moon goddess, the goddess of love, the goddess of wisdom and the black goddess of judgement, death and destruction. And she has many names: Isis, Nepthys, Innana, Ishtar, Kali, Shakti-maya, Sophia, Artemis, Minerva, Lilith, Hecate and many more. Her element is water: she is The Bitter Sea from which all life comes and to which all must return. And her astrological sign is Saturn. In her highest and most spiritual form, she is the Holy Guardian whose brilliant veil of reflected light shields the Divine Spirit from the profane and whose judgement the quester must face at the end of their journey.
Path number 3 (Gimel) on the Cabbalistic journey (as opposed to Sephira number 3), is the path of The High Priestess. It joins Sephiroth 1 (Kether: The Crown) and 6 (Tiphereth: Beauty, Manifest Glory, The Way) and it forms a central column of balance on the Tree. Through Tiphereth it channels the Divine energies directly to every Sephira and every path. The journeyer on the path of The High Priestess must learn to be a passive channel for her creative energies and must learn balance, selflessness and simple trust in intuition, through which comes the guidance of the "Indwelling Glory" - the spark of Divinity present in every created thing. But the High Priestess has both good and evil aspects and the dangers of the High Priestess's path are of illusion, sexual excess, glamour and bewitchment. The epigram used for meditation on this path by members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is appropriate: "The Holy Guardian Angel is attained by self-sacrifice and equilibrium" ... read more ...
