The Tree of Time

Ten Sefirot out of Nothing.  Their end is infused with their beginning, and their beginning with their end, like a flame attached to a glowing ember.  Know, think and imagine that the Creator is One and there is nothing apart from Him, and before One what do you count?

3:1 Sefer Yetzirah - Saadia Version

Time cannot be defined without assuming a beginning and an end.  We assume a birth and death.  The universe is assumed to expand and contract, that it has a big bang and will have a big crunch.  The dimensions of Space-Time-Observer that were discussed in the Tree of Depths only exist between these points - the Start and the Finish because time cannot exist without a space and observer and viceversa.

The display created by your mind as a sensual picture of the world around you does not exist in the actual moment.  The information your mind uses to build this display takes time to get from the physical world.  This representation then exists somewhere in your mind and you observe it from another position from within that same mind.  Our whole consciousness is in the past.  We never percieve now, only then.  Although ahead of us, the moment does not exist in the future.  The future is also then.

Our decisions based in the yesterday of the mind's perception of the moment influence the tomorrow of the future - but neither of them are ever present.  Future and past spiral around the moment.  Our physical body exists in the physical moment, only our consciousness does not.  When we say physical body we don't simply mean the transitory form, but also the strange states of the various atoms that make it up, along with the information contained in your genetic code which is somewhat immortal.  In taking this approach to the physical body it could be considered your soul.

Our consciousness, our Inner Mind, analyses the moment it recieves, remembers pertinent information, adjusts the moment by making a decision and then forgets the information back into the storehouse of the memory.  In cell biology, this could be likened to the nucleus, the repository of genetic memory, prompted by a chemical messengers, tapping its DNA for the correct protein to manufacture in response.  The changes made to the cellular environment and the subsequent affects of that change on the body at large go on to feedback into more chemical messengers.  If we are the nucelus, then what surrounds us as our perception is the cytoplasm of the cell, our psychic cell.

Other cells are making their decisions to change the environment, so the reality that finally emerges is consensual, though much of it is forced.  Although you influence reality, your will is one will amongst many and much can be achieved through dextrous use of other forces rather than simply exerting your own.

Percieved time, must by necessity begin and end, in the same way finite objects, in order to be observed, have to have edges.  These edges though are the secret to grasping the point at infinity.  When considering the diagram of the Metabolism of Time and its connections to the Tree of Life, in order to understand it you have to know that since most people believe the reality they observe to be actual physical reality rather than a mental representation of it - it causes Malkuth (the experience of the moment) to fall (i.e. they believe the moment is the actual moment).  The Metabolism of Time shows Malkuth in its position at Daat as a way in which to rectify the Tree of your mind.

The Tree of Life - The Saadia Tree, the Twelve Zodiac Signs and Genetics III and Summary

In thirty-two mysterious paths of Wisdom, Yah, Eternal of Hosts, Living Elohim, Almighty El, High and Extolled, Dwelling in Eternity, Holy Be His Name, engraved and created His world in three Sefarim: in writing, number and word. Ten Sefirot out of nothing, twenty-two foundation letters, three mothers, seven doubles and twelve simples. Ch1. V1. Sefer Yetzirah - Saadia Version

During the last series of essays on the Blogos we have looked at the associations between the cellular nature of the human body and the ten Sefirot and the twenty two astrological influences of the Sefer Yetzirah.

In the first essay we looked at the relationship between the three elements and the tripartite nature of the body - blood (air), cells (water) and nuclei (fire) along with the tripartite nature of respiration - oxygen (air), water (water) and sugar energy (fire).  We discussed carbon dioxide as ''earth'' in that it is a gas which we export from the body in respiration and which goes on to be used by plants to make the soil, vegetation and land of the Earth.  Carbon dioxide is not stored in the body which is why we have three elements rather than four.  This is especially important when building the Tree of Life into our auras.

In the second essay we looked at the relationship between the seven planets, the seven vertical paths and the organelles - planet-like structures that exist in the cytoplasm of every cell.  We imagined a descent into the cell from the membrane (Saturn), through the endosomes (Jupiter), the lysosomes (Mars), the mitochondria (Sol), the Golgi apparatus and the endoplasmic reticuluum (Venus and Mercury) and finally the nucleus itself (Luna).  This descent into the cell following the Chaldean order of the planets takes us into the interior of the Earth, our chronosomes, where we may find the hidden stone and unlock our latent powers.

In the two sections of our third essay we discussed the link between the twelve zodiac signs and the twelve basic genetic mechanisms of the DNA, the molecular whirlwind which dances in every nucleus - whereby our DNA is copied, reproduced, read and translated, repaired and recombined as it has been ever since the dawn of the first cell.  We looked at how these twelve signs and their genetic mechanisms match up with the twelve diagonal paths of the Tree of Life, effectively creating the shape of DNA itself in the glyph, and we see how the information stored in DNA emerges from the nucleus and creates every thing in the body.

In the Sefer Yetzirah we know that the twenty two letters (plus a fabled twenty third letter of the future world, a four headed Shin) merge into one name and here we see our twenty three chromosomes and the way their genetic material is deployed to create our entire physical and to a great extent, psychological being.

Sometimes in the current obsession with identity politics in the Western Mystery tradition, or with assuming a scholarly historical approach to the subject we forget that our ancestors, the alchemists, were primarily mystical experimental scientists and their principles are embedded in the scientific knowledge we have today.  There remains an untapped wealth of wisdom here which misdirected intellectual energies continue to fail to recognize and explore.

Ten Sefirot out of nothing. Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Understand in Wisdom and be wise in Understanding. Examine them, investigate them, think clearly and form. Place the word above its creator and reinstate a Creator upon His foundation; and they are ten extending beyond limit. Observe them: they appear like a flash. Their boundary has no limit for His word is with them: "and they ran and returned." And they pursue His saying like a whirlwind [vortex]; and they prostrate themselves [bend] themselves before His throne. Ch.1, V1. Sefer Yetzirah - Saadia Version

In this final section we will look at the two remaining signs of Aquarius and Pisces and their assocations in our twelve basic genetic mechanisms.

Aquarius and Pisces - Repair and Recombination

Aquarius - DNA repair

DNA is damaged in a variety of different ways, from toxins to cosmic rays, and there must be processes in order to repair the molecular lesions that occur.  When a section of the code is damaged an enzyme scans along the strands and uncouples the DNA in the mutated area copying the correct code from the remaining unaffected strand then repairing the missing links.  Damage to the DNA if uncorrected can lead to mutations and to cancer.  We see the glyph of Aquarius in the zig-zag motion of the DNA as it is being repaired.

Pisces - DNA recombination

During meiosis the production of sperm and eggs, the DNA is recombined, information swapped around between chromosomes and/or strands so that a new mix of DNA (and its accompanying traits or phenotypes) are created.  In this sense different sperm can potentially create different babies.  We see the glyph of Pisces in this swapping over of the strands.

 

The principles outlined in the Tree of Life essays can all be applied to what I call cellular consciousness, understanding the structure of your consciousness to be the same as the structure of the cell.  These associations once explored, memorized, and internalized will open the tremendous depths of your being - a being which continues in an unbroken line to the origins of life and into the furthest reaches of our metaphysical antiquity.

The Tree of Life - The Saadia Tree, the Twelve Zodiac Signs and Esoteric Genetics II

Twelve simples: He, Vav, Zayin; Het, Tet, Yod; Lamed, Nun, Samech; Ayin, Tsadeh, Qof. He engraved them, hewed them, tested them, weighed them, and exchanged them. How did He combine them? Two stones build two houses. Three stones build six houses. Four stones build twenty-four houses. Five stones build one hundred twenty houses. Six stones build seven hundred twenty houses. Seven stones build five thousand forty houses. Thenceforth, go out and calculate what the mouth is unable to say and what the ear is unable to hear.  Ch.3 V.4 Sefer Yetzirah, Saadia Version

Throughout our esoteric archives we see constant reference to our spiral nature whether it be through the Caduceus and the Tree of Life, Yogic chakras as vortices, or the whirlwinds, dragon-serpents and bolas of the Sefer Yetzirah.  Most esotericists would agree that the link between this imagery and our DNA is indisputable and many will discuss this association at length.  It is one thing to talk in general and quite another to know the details - with the former we can make beautiful imagery and inspire soulfulness in our endeavours in the material world, with the latter we can inform our medicine. 

There are Twelve basic genetic mechanisms and these relate to the Twelve Zodiac signs and the Twelve diagonal paths on the Tree of Life.  In the first section we related the first six signs of the zodiac to the six mechanisms involved in replicating DNA. In this second section, we'll look at Libra - Capricorn which cover protein synthesis.  As you know you are made of biological cells, each cell contains a nucleus which conceals the chromosomes - genetic dictionaries listing all the words or proteins necessary to make you. These four astrological signs  relate to the way in which genetic mechanisms are responsible for reading those dictionaries and creating a word (protein) from the genetic code.  In order to do this the chromosomes must be read, analysed, transcribed and translated - the subsequent protein must then be folded in a precise way otherwise it will not have its function.  

Libra - Capricorn or Protein Synthesis

Libra - mRNA transcription + splicing

Transcription is when mRNA is made from DNA - this RNA is a messenger which is ultimately read and translated into a protein. During transcription, an enzyme makes a copy of a gene from the DNA to mRNA as needed.  However some of the code is not useful and the mRNA needs to be spliced before it is read.   Splicing is the process by which pre-mRNA is modified to remove certain stretches of non-coding sequences called introns; the stretches that remain include protein-coding sequences and are called exons.  In the Libra diagram we see in the upper section an intron being removed from the pre mRNA.

Scorpio - mRNA

Once the introns have been removed the remaining exons form the finished mRNA which codes for the necessary protein along with what is called a 3' poly(A) tail.  This tail allows the mRNA to leave the nucleus and be translated into a protein as well as serving to protect the mRNA from degradation. When comparing the mRNA to the Scorpio glyph it is worth noting this tail but at the same time one should compare the image to the one for Virgo or DNA.  If we look at Virgo and Scorpio we see that they are very similar but where Scorpio has a tail, Virgo has a twist - Scorpio is our single-stranded RNA with its poly(A) tail and Virgo our double-stranded DNA.

The image below is useful as we see the DNA of Virgo, the mRNA splicing process of Libra, and the mRNA of Scorpio emerging.

Sagittarius - tRNA + mRNA translation

The produced mRNA is finally read by a molecule called tRNA which is attached to a ribosome. The mRNA is passed through the ribosome and the tRNAs coding for individual amino acids assembles the required protein.  The tRNA is evocative of the symbol for Sagittarius - in the 3d rendering of the molecule we see in the blue downward section the point of our arrowhead and in the green and red of the 2d rendering we see our crossbar.

Capricorn - post-translational folding

After tRNA has read the mRNA we now have our protein as a string of amino acids, our word as a string of letters - however the protein will lack its vital function without being folded, in some kind of molecular origami into its final shape.  This post-translational folding is what is referred to by our glyph of Capricorn.

 

These proteins read from the genetic dictionaries, our chronosomes, are the words of the serpent language of our spiral nature and this final folding of the protein is the inflection*.  These proteins are the words our DNA speaks as it replies to the needs and demands of the shifting environment of the body.

*Note that the site of post-translational folding, our inflection i.e. the E.R. and the golgi appartus relate to Venus and Mercury or Pe and Resh i.e. the mouth and the face. 

http://hermeticlessons.blogspot.cz/2015/05/the-tree-of-life-saadia-tree-seven.html

''It is probably best to think of the Golgi and the ER as both important parts of the process involving the way in which the nucleus packages and secretes proteins back out into the cytoplasm and finally the body at large.  What must be understood to really grok what is happening esoterically is that the cell is listening to the larger cellular community and then responding to its needs - the proteins, hormones or chemical messengers are the words.  In order to respond to the conversation the information contained inside the nucleus, the physiological dictionary, is read and the correct response/protein is formulated.  This word however must be inflected and spoken - in the language of proteins we would talk about folding the protein and then secreting it - Abrakadabra!''

The Tree of Life - The Saadia Tree, the Twelve Zodiac Signs and Genetics

Twelve simples: He, Vav, Zayin; Het, Tet, Yod; Lamed, Nun, Samech; Ayin, Tsadeh, Qof. He engraved them, hewed them, tested them, weighed them, and exchanged them. How did He combine them? Two stones build two houses. Three stones build six houses. Four stones build twenty-four houses. Five stones build one hundred twenty houses. Six stones build seven hundred twenty houses. Seven stones build five thousand forty houses. Thenceforth, go out and calculate what the mouth is unable to say and what the ear is unable to hear.  Ch.3 V.4 Sefer Yetzirah, Saadia Version

I will be breaking this post on the twelve zodiac signs into two sections in order to make it easier to digest.  What you will learn in these sections, building on the rest of the Saadia Tree and Cellular Consciousness, are ideas which should be exciting for the esoteric community.  It is challenging material to get your head around and ultimately up to that community what they do with it but the ideas are freely given.

There are Twelve basic genetic mechanisms and these relate to the Twelve Zodiac signs and the Twelve diagonal paths on the Tree of Life*.  We'll look at the first six in this section, Aries-Virgo which cover DNA replication.  As you know you are made of biological cells, each cell contains a nucleus which conceals the chromosomes - genetic dictionaries listing all the words or proteins necessary to make you.  These six genetic rhythms relate to the way in which these chromosomes replicate in order for the cell to divide into two daughter cells and involve contortions of the double helix - it must unzip, be read and copied, uncoil, reanneal, wrap and stack - this dance of the DNA secures the continuance of all life on Earth.

DNA replication or Aries to Virgo

Aries - The Replication Fork

The replication fork is a structure that forms within the nucleus during DNA replication when the two strands break apart so they can be read and ultimately copied.  The resulting structure has two branching prongs, each one made up of a single strand of DNA.  These prongs are the horns of the Ram.  As the replication fork is the beginning of the cell cycle so our Aries is the beginning of our Zodiac.

Taurus - DNA Polymerases

Each one of these separate strands is now read by an enzyme called DNA polymerase which runs down the strand and copies it.  Every letter that makes up the code AGTC has its mirror opposite and what the polymerase does is provide this opposite so that each separate strand can ultimately become DNA again.

Gemini & Cancer - DNA Topoisomerases

During the copying of the DNA there are problems with the twisting of the threads and these must be solved by DNA topoisomerases - enzymes which regulate the overwinding or underwinding of DNA.  DNA topoisomerase I cuts into the strand allowing it to break into two separate strands very reminescent of the symbol for Gemini and DNA topoisomerase II allows the strands to reanneal and supecoil again - this supercoiling being shown by Cancer, the two strands rotating around each other again.

Leo - Histone Bodies and Nucleosomes

Our DNA is now ready to be bound into the structures called chromosomes.  First this thread is wrapped around histone bodies - you can think of these as something like spindles.  As a spindle is filled with thread it is stacked against another spindle until they all stack up neatly into chromatin.  Since each human cell has about six feet of DNA inside the nucleus this is truly economic packing and stacking.   The genetic diagram below shows the super-coiled DNA of Cancer at the far left, the wrapping of these onto our histone spindles of Leo in the central section and finally the solenoids of Virgo at the far right.

Virgo - Solenoids

The wrapped DNA packaged on to the histone bodies is then stacked up into a structure called a solenoid.  These solenoids form our chromosomes the repository of our life and our cellular fertility. A fitting association for Virgo.  In the diagram below you can see the solenoid on the far left and if you rotate the symbol for Virgo ninety degrees you will hopefully see the obvious connection between the two.

From Aries to Virgo then we chart the origins of the replication process in the uncoiling of the virile horns of Aries, the fertile work ox of Taurus that replicates each one of the horns by providing it with its mirror opposite, in Gemini, the uncoiling of the loops so they stand opposite one another - duality unbound - following by the supercoiling of Cancer - duality rebound.  This double helical twine is then bound on to its spindle in Leo, and the spindles are stacked in Virgo finally culminating in the structure we call the chromosome.  

Are these associations between the astrological glyphs and genetic diagrams mere coincidence?  The Sefer Yetzirah is known as the Book of Formation and was used, according to legend, to create life - the twenty two letters like astral chromosomes that we mix and match through the 231 Gates in order to heal limbs or manufacture golems**.  Throughout the knowledge of the Western Mysteries we see reference to our spiral nature - be it through the caduceus or through the Tree of Life - and indeed the discoveries of our biochemists stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, the alchemists and the qabalists.  That the wisdom of the ancients, transmitted from antiquity through our mystery schools would correlate so well with the findings of genetics seems to be clear - indeed if we believe in the principle of as above so below why would it not be? 

If the chromosomes are The Rivers of Time, their course unbroken since the dawn of life and the first cell, their internal clocks, their cell cycles mapped by the movement of the stars perhaps a better name would be the chronosomes.

*Note the way the diagonal paths trace a DNA like shape on the ToL.
**More on this later.

The Tree of Life - The Saadia Tree, the Seven Planets and Cellular Consciousness

Twenty-two letters: He carved them, hewed them, refined them, weighed them, and combined them, and He made of them the entire creation and everything to be created in the future. How did He test them? Alef with all and all with Alef, Bet with all and all with Bet... and they all return again and again, and they emanate through two hundred and thirty-one gates. All the words and all the creatures emanate from One Name 

Sefer Yetzirah, Saadia Version 4:4

The six trillion biological cells that you are made from have various language systems in order to communicate with one another. Communication can occur through protein messages, which are interpreted with the genetic dictionary in the nucleus of the cell or through calcium signaling, a kind of cellular ''Morse code'' based on calcium ions (Ca2+).  Its worth keeping this in mind as from our QBListic perspective we see these systems as the cellular basis for such ideas as ''letters of foundation'' or the way in which ''all the letters form one Name''.

In terms of Cellular Consciousness the seven planets which are placed on the seven vertical paths are all under the kingship of the element of Water and are related to the organelles in the cytoplasm.  The cytoplasm is a membrane bound bubble of an aqueous solution containing various structures necessary for the function of the cell.

We can see how the cell's structure echoes the structure of the solar system and the atom, providing us with a unique bridge in scale following the As Above, So Below principle.  But we must be careful to not make a few critical mistakes at this point:

• Although it seems like the nucleus, as the ''core'' of the cell would be like the Sun in the solar system it is in fact related to the Moon and ultimately to the Earth - these are Geocentric biological cells.
• People often make the mistake that since it contains all the information the nucleus must be like the ''brain'' of the cell - again, as it relates to the Moon and Earth, if we are going to provide a physiological correlate then it would be the genitals of the cell - where information is stored in order to reproduce.

Moving on then we can observe in our cellular solar system various objects that speak to us of planets, satellites and other celestial bodies such as asteroids.  If we imagine a descent* into the cell from the membrane to the nucleus we can use our Chaldean order of the planets - Saturn, Jupiter, Nars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna - in understanding the roles of the various organelles.

• Saturn - Cell Membrane (gates, receptors, transporters)

The cell membrane is a structure composed of lipids that encloses the cell and maintains its integrity. Like Saturn, this structure can give a sense of restraint and confinement - the cell is not permitted to expand beyond this membrane.  The membrane contains gates, receptors and transporters that allow various chemical messengers to access the membrane from the blood.**  At the end of a cellular lifespan the membrane will pop - apoptosis - and in this death of the cell, we see the final action of Saturn, its internal constituents released back into the blood.

• Jupiter - Endosomes

The cargo convoy of the cell - various little structures (vesicles) that would be like the containers you see on the back of transport ships.  Once a chemical messenger or protein has accessed the cell via the membrane (Saturn) it is conveyed (Jupiter) by endosomes to other structures, the lysosomes, for processing.

• Mars - Lysosomes

The lysosomes contain hydrolytic enzymes that literally hack into other biomolecules (brought to them by the endosomes) and break them down into smaller structures.  This process can be turned against bacteria or other pathogens that are invading the cell - as such the lysosomes form both part of the analytic and defence systems of the cell.

• Sol - Mitochondria

The mitochondria are the energy system of the cell - it is in the mitochondria that respiration, the biological process necessary for life, is completed.  As described in another post respiration can be considered an elemental process where fire (sugar/energy) and air (oxygen) are combined to produce water (H2O) and ''earth'' (CO2). Occultists will also note the hexagonal structure of the glucose molecule.

666

At a deeper level the fuel molecules (sugar!) are being stripped of charge in the form of electrons which are subsequently used to ''recharge'' a battery molecule called ATP/ADP - which contains phosphorus.  In all of this we see the hallmark of the Sun.  The equation for power*** is work done over time - for most of us this work does take place with the rise of the Sun in the Depth of the East and its setting in the Depth of the West.

HOLY FUCK! I JUST DISCOVERED PHOSPHORUS

• Venus - Golgi Apparatus
• Mercury - Endoplasmic Reticuluum

It is probably best to think of the Golgi and the ER as both important parts of the process involving the way in which the nucleus packages and secretes proteins back out into the cytoplasm and finally the body at large.  What must be understood to really grok what is happening esoterically is that the cell is listening to the larger cellular community and then responding to its needs - the proteins, hormones or chemical messengers are the words.  In order to respond to the conversation the information contained inside the nucleus, the physiological dictionary, is read and the correct response/protein is formulated.  This word however must be inflected and spoken - in the language of proteins we would talk about folding the protein and then secreting it - Abrakadabra!

• Luna - Nucleus

The nucleus is probably the organelle of the cell that we are most familiar with - it contains the storehouse of all information needed to build any cell in the body although in any given cell only part of that information is expressed - this expression is what defines that cell as a nerve cell, or liver cell, or skin cell.  Of the many reasons to associate it with the Moon (and ultimately the Earth) one of the main ones it that it is the nucleus where cellular reproduction begins - the process known as mitosis whereby the cell divides must begin by the DNA inside the nucleus copying itself.

As mentioned in the previous post we can see the Depths as systems of expansion and contraction - Good, South/Warm, and Up being expansive Depths and Evil, North/Cold and Down being contractive Depths; they signal the journey within and the journey without.  Visit the Interior of the Earth and you will Discover the Hidden Stone - this hidden stone, the Philosopher's Stone exists in the core of everyone of your cells.  Once we have completed our descent we must enter the ''Depth of the Past'' via the path of Luna**** - this Depth of the Past, our genetic/epigenetic memory which even materialists must admit is an unbroken ancestry to the ancient forms of life, and still deeper into the mysteries of our metaphysical past.  Although the Nuclear membrane is associated with Luna what it contains is ''the interior of the Earth''

*Yordei Merkabah, "descenders of the chariot"
**Remember in the larger metaphor of Cellular Consciousness the bloodstream is likened to the time-stream so it is again appropriate for Saturn to mediate over the transfer of undifferentiated time into the experience of linear time in our cells of consciousness.
***

****Thoth and Seshat are appropriate Lunar deities to rule over this internal library.