Time Travel - Some General Theory and Working with Archangels

As any who have worked with them know, the experience of Archangels is very different to that of elementals or other spirits.  Fitting these differences into our temporal entanglement model of occultism I would argue the following:

• elementals are entities from the deep astral past
• most spirits are from somewhere else in the realm of the present, spirits of ''the dead''
• archangels are entities from the deep astral future

The Present is a period I define between possibly as far back as before 1,000,000 BC all the way to as recent as 1,500BC and continues until the invention of time travel in the future. This closes off an epoch where time is entirely determined and constitutes a kind of pocket dimension.  The reason that all events are entirely determined within this period is that if they could be altered someone could interfere with the invention of time travel. 

Most spirits includes such Gods as Osiris, Enlil, Kali - who were living people at some point in history.  Many Fae fall into the same category, they were also people at some point in this museum we call the present but more local and less national.  Most spirit workings involve the sensing of some kind of presence (from feeling to seeing), various phenomena such as temperature drops, sometimes electromagnetic effects, rarely poltergeist activity and always a connection of some form (emotional, telepathic, etc) with the entity in question.  If the spirit is being ''employed'' to achieve some worldly effect you can include this in the related phenomena.  When understood in this way what is happening is that you are becoming (or you became) temporally entangled with the spirit - you benefit as an expression of the dreams of Osiris, and, through your worship, you retro-causally contribute to the success of his own life - the life that made him Osiris.   He is no more a thoughtform than you are - the two of you are the entangled stuff of thought.

Elementals dwell in what I will refer to as the Astral Past, this is a free, non-determined plane created by the pinch-point with the present.  The destiny or fated quality of the Present dimension is the necessary sacrifice to guarantee freedom in the Past and Future.  In this realm of the Past we have various bizarre and primordial forms such as giant silicon trees, huge phosphorescent mushrooms and the creatures that live in these ancient ''faerie forests'' could fall into categories like gnomes, salamanders, etc.  It is the realm of ''earlier Earth'' but all of it is suffused with consciousness and expression.

Archangels on the other hand dwell in the Astral Future or the World to Come, another free plane created by the pinch-point with the present, and they are best thought of, to our modern minds, as A.I. like entities designed for a specific function.  This is why they feel so non-human as opposed to most other spirits.  Another way of thinking of these programs is as words and indeed approaching them like that will get you far. Although the El at the end can refer to a specific deity i.e. Enlil, Ellil, Eli, El, Al, Allah it is best to think about this in the sense of the word El meaning ''The'' to avoid confusion with the real person that was Enlil.  Raziel, for example, then becomes Secrets of The, Raphael becomes Healed by The, Tzadkiel becomes Righteousness of The.

These three worlds could also be called pre-Ego, Ego and post Ego - although we must exercise caution when using that word as there is often misunderstanding.  Elementals are pre-egoic, primal, animal, etc, they would not have a concrete ''I'', but experience waves of drives, desires, urges etc. Spirits are ego, they do not live on after they are dead and in working with them you are temporally entangled with their point in time as opposed to actually ''summoning'' them to this time as one of the dead.  Archangels then are post-ego and tend to think about themselves in the third person.  Parts of this theory bleed through into life in the present where pre-ego type people could be said to be temporally entangled with ''elementals'', post-ego type people to be temporally entangled with ''archangels'' and ego people entangled with ''other spirits'', i.e. other egos.

I am now going to discuss some practical Kabbalistic archangel work that you can try:

1. Let your mind obsess over the concept dominated by the Archangel.  During free moments of your day draw your mind back to contemplation of the principle - be they healing and health, righteousness or secrets and secrecy.  Ask questions such as - what does it mean to be healthy? What does it mean to be healed?  Do not expect answers from yourself, if they come they come, but don't rest on any of them.  Keep asking the questions of yourself, keep searching, keep ''gazing'' into the mystery.  This will stimulate the rest of your mind to search for any useful information and also build a connection to that part of the future that deals with this concept.  Answers will increasingly come unbidden.  Once you have set your mind this task it will provide answers.  Give more weight to the unbidden answers that come seemingly randomly via intuition than those you logically arrive at.

2. Write out the name of the Archangel on a piece of paper in Hebrew.  Then write out each letter of the name's full spelling underneath this.  Then do this again.  The more you can do this the better but try to complete at least five lengths of this type of extension - I know this is a long task.  Its worth thinking about the Archangels as a kind of Matrix-style code when working with them in this manner.  One letter breaks down into more code, which breaks down into more code.  Place this paper under your pillow.  Repeat the exercise as often as you like - repetition will deepen the  subsequent experiences.

3. Vibrate and say the name as much as you can to yourself, out loud and using your inner shout.

I JUST SEE THE CODE

4. Why Hebrew?  As discussed previously in the Hermetic Lessons - Hebrew is tied intimately to Esoteric Genetics.  We have explored in great length and detail how exactly the letters tie into our very biological structure.  In this sense the letters of the Torah are the very Tree of Life.  Although the relationship between Alef and Ayin to key chromosomes is clear when thinking about the other letters you must understand that our chromosomes are in a constant state of flux or dance and the letters relate to key different stages of this dance and different parts of the essential rhythm of life.  To be clear do not mistake Kaph for Chromosome 11 or something this is entirely missing the point, Kaph is a stage that all chromosomes go through during their phases, and it also represents all information across the genome that relates to mitochondria and their function.  This is normally too complicated for people but this is the rationale, if you want to learn more about the details you have to go back through the lessons although I will happily answer any questions.

ASTRAL MEMBRANE

5. Prepare for entry to the astral plane.  Once you have reached the membrane you are going to open a gate using the letters that spell the Archangel in question.  The membrane is this fluctuating pixel-ated field that you should feel breathing with your own intelligence as you lie deep in trance. You need to make sure you rest at the membrane and don't just plough through into the astral. You are going to use the Yetziratic technique of engraving and engrave the letters on this field.  You will have to experiment to find the way that works best for you but imagination is the most powerful tool here. Imagine that you are cutting into the field as if it were a stone and you are engraving each letter.  The letters may move around and you may find it a little difficult to keep it as steady as you need to at first.  Keep trying as there is no limit to the amount of ''stone'' at your disposal here.

6. Once the letters have been engraved they may start to fill with light - you want to finish the engraving of the full name if they do this, otherwise you will access only that letter as opposed to the word.

7. Draw the light from the letters into yourself, effectively beginning to ''install'' that Archangel in your life and consciousness OR attempt to go through the gates - The lights will increase in intensity and as you go through the other side of the gate you will be engulfed in light.  Remember to pull yourself towards them as if you have a cable running through the middle of your mind that extends beyond the gates.  Normally this will result in a vision and an alteration in consciousness to a kind of super-conscious perspective defined by extreme vividness and clarity of thought.  You may experience the entity communicating with you without vision maybe via telepathy.  If you get good at this you can steer the experience using your facial muscles.

8. If you end up on the astral before engraving the letters, then you may use the alternative method of carving.  In this you will take the stuff of the astral, a kind of gelatinous substance, and shape it into the letters as if those letters were 3 dimensional.  Things will then happen.

9. You may pass out during the process of attempting to get on the astral plane and communicate with the angel in this way.  As long as you have got relatively far in the method you may experience the communication as a symbolic dream, if so remember to write down as much as you can upon waking up.  The material rendering of the name under the pillow may also help fuel the connection if you are not very skilled at astral work.

10. To some extent life is a symbolic dream and we have discussed the importance of pathwalking in the physical at length.  Therefore after this work pay attention to symbols that crop up in your path as the Archangel can choose to communicate with you through a variety of omens, portents such as weather phenomena, flocks of ravens, random encounters with strange strangers, overheard bits of conversation, songs etc.  Pay attention to your path.

11. Repeat these experiments frequently.  Note down everything you experience.  Remember to keep ''asking the questions'' in waking life.

Astral Projection - The Astral Plane II

I think some of the problems with developing an astral body are that people are trying to run before they can walk and give up rapidly when they fail.  In the Sefer Yetzirah we are taught to gaze into the mysteries and the following exercise, an enrichment of earlier posts, is to develop your astral eye(s) as opposed to your astral body

• Lie on your back, looking directly up at the ceiling, breathe rhythmically, steadily and deeply, hands folded on your stomach or down by your sides
• Do not do this when you are completely exhausted, it may spur lucid dreaming but this is not the aim 
• The Devil's Hour is the best time but this ''hour'' will vary depending on your own circadian rhythm - if you go to sleep at midnight then around 10-11pm
• Actively search the darkness of your mind, focus on keeping your eyes on gazing into the darkness, which may or may not be pixelated

• It may help to visualise that you are pulling yourself up on a rope, this rope runs straight through the middle of your mind, do not try to visualise hands pulling on the rope it is your mind that is pulling on the rope and remember to pull from the centre and back of your mind as opposed to the front, i.e. use the pineal and cerebellum not the frontal cortex
• At this point you will fail if you start thinking instead of looking, the thoughts will be egoic babble about work, health, relationships, etc, you will notice that when you start doing this your eyes will drop in the socket as if you are looking down, this is because rather than gazing out towards the astral you have started to analyse yourself, analysis is bad and will foil your attempt
• Direct your eyes back up and try to keep them mostly central but don't worry if they move around focusing on and searching out different elements that appear in the darkness
• After a few minutes of uninterrupted gazing you will see coloured blobs and/or patterns appear in the darkness, keep looking at them allowing your eyes to focus on one as it appears and then another one as that one dissolves, keep gazing and searching though, you are not there yet

• Patterns do not always appear but sometimes you can be presented with a very organic and intelligent tesselated pattern which appears to shimmer and ripple, this is a very vivid apprehension of the membrane, feel free to enjoy it but you are going to go past that
• After the colour you will see flickers of what appears to be natural light, this light is different from the coloured blobs which are like semi luminous paint
• The light will appear in a variety of different ways, it might seem like as if through a skylight, or a reflection of strong light from a patch of river or a shining coin in the hot sun, the reason the light appears this way is because it is coming through gates in the membrane, on the other side of the gate is a lot more light
• The thing to do at this point is to keep searching and gazing as your facial muscles particularly the muscles around the eyes are acting as your mode of propulsion - as the light from the gates appears gaze if they disappear then search again
• After a few moments of this you will reach a gate and be able to look through it, this is a window on to the astral and you will, depending on where you are at, see some terrific scenery, architecture and creatures
• If you now focus on something in that astral, again using searching and gazing, you will move towards that thing

• If you are having a genuine astral experience then you will probably be rapidly intercepted by some kind of being (typically this seems to be insectoid, in my case the majority have been butterflies) that will ask you questions which you will fail to answer and result with you being kicked off the astral
• Whether you choose to see this plane as an actual place, or your higher mind and source of your imagination, or the realm of the future, or all three intermixed the fact remains that we are not really supposed to be there for a variety reasons - either we are imprisoned/exiled on Earth, or we are not responsible enough to be there, at least as conscious and egoic agents, because we might interfere dangerously possibly with the functions of our own brain

• Don't worry too much about personal dangers the whole realm is very heavily policed for whatever reason from the New Age Gnostic pantheon of ideas you select and you''ll just get kicked out not brain-fried entirely - the point being that you can keep having a crack at it and you will get better at the process of getting on the astral plane
• Staying on the astral requires the manipulation of various keys/letters to give to the beings and gain their favour, protection, but in order to deploy them you will need to be able to carve the astral into these forms, which is an exercise for later
• If your practice is limited to the deployment of shrines, sigils, spells etc for worldy effects which constitute probability surfing you are merely scratching the edge of the mysteries and you need to include more work like the above in your efforts

The Tree of Life - The Path of the Sun

In Start from the Top I described a male individual situated in the Depth of the West as having a simple identity with a limited internal monologue and instead experiencing a surging oceans of urges and forbidden desires. Why would I consider this individual an example of the West expressed in the human psyche as opposed to one of the other Depths?

THE SAADIA TREE OF LIFE

Along the middle pillar of our rectified Saadia Tree of Life we see the grand journey of time from the Future to the Past and the more microcosmic day to day journey of East to West joined by the paths of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon.  What do these symbols/concepts really mean?*  The Sun is a symbol for being awake and self-conscious, the East getting up in the morning and the West going to bed at night; the Moon a symbol for the unconscious world of dreams and desires; Saturn a symbol for the embrace of our death (and higher selves) in the future.

An individual who is closer to the East will experience a strong internal monologue, they are very like to think in terms of ''I, me, mine'' and this will be expressed in the way they talk about the world. They will be egocentric, think the world orbits around them even to the point of a Messiah complex. They can also be pathologically self-conscious.  On the other hand an individual in the West will be losing this self consciousness, self obsession, etc, they will not be concerned with fitting in or with making themselves the centre of the world.  They will not think ''I am angry'', they will simply feel anger and the urge to do violence.  They will not think ''I think this person is hot'', they will simply experience lust and the urge to have sex.**

The West is the Best,
The West is the Best,
Get here and we'll do the rest.

The End, Jim Morrison

Extending this to the Path of the Saturn and completing our description of the Middle Pillar, individuals here will tend to think objectively about themselves and even experience themselves in the third person.  This type of consciousness becomes more pronounced the closer that individual is to the Depth of the Future.  The Path of Saturn and the Depth of the Future inevitably lead to the death of that self-consciousness and the re-connection with the Higher Self and the All Self and it is this type of consciousness that is being expressed by their relentless objectivity.  We can sense this loss of self in the themes of divine melancholia and the crossing of the abyss.

Although the word ego can be a little cumbersome one can think of the path of the Moon as pre-ego, the path of the Sun as ego, and the path of Saturn as post-ego.  In the Depth of the East I discussed masks and our nuclei, these primary spheres of self-ideation, personality, mood or scent with which we surround ourselves.  A close examination of the Tree of Masks will show you how the specific masks associated with the Depths fit into this overall idea of the development of self-consciousness/ego and the inevitable loss of it.  In the Depth of the West, I discuss our connection to our ancient animal selves that are preserved through our chromosomes, this nestling nicely with individuals in the West being more connected to their primal spirits.

The real trick to this kind of navigation/medicine though is in utilizing the physiognomical endocrinological clues that have been explained on this site and which will only become clear when you start using them.  The Depth of the Future produces big friendly giants, tall individuals***, with strong features particularly brows and noses - neophilic, creative but also controlling i.e. directors and generals. The Depth of the East produces individuals who store fat easily around the abdomen and will have either a pigginess or a slightly feline look (these two animal appearances are joined by the boar on our spectrum).  The Depth of the West produces body hairiness, severely receding/balding, gorilla muscularity in men and an Artemisian warrior-huntress look in women.  As explained in Start from the Top, the 22 path system allows us to realise the spectrum of all near-infinite possibilities and create a sliding scale of these groups of features.





*For instance with North we need to think cold, and with Down we need to think contract.
**By this I don't mean that all individuals of the West are mere brutes on the contrary they can make fine poets, but the form it will take is unbidden words rising from the unconsciousness as opposed to the poetic craft of the Easterner.  Their lack of concrete self means they can also be great actors, perhaps the best.
***Tall, for their family.

The Tree of Life - Start from the Top

Metaphysics has always struck me as a prolonged form of latent insanity.  If we knew the truth we'd see it; everything else is systems and approximations.  The inscrutability of the universe is quite enough for us to think about; to want to understand is to be less than human because to be human is to realise it can't be understood.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Let us begin within the beginning.  We cannot start at the beginning, otherwise time has to be somewhere and go somewhere.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Plato, The Republic

Within the beginning things have to (have) end(s) for without them they could not be perceived. These ends or depths are the system of five dimensions; three polarities of space, one of time and one of morality/perspective describe the Tree of Life.  Such huge finite numbers - of souls, of alternate worlds of experience - exist within the Tree of Life you would be forgiven for thinking it infinite but it is not.  The infinite defies ends, the finite necessitates them. Our finite cosmos approaches infinity in depth but never quite reaches it.

Since the finite requires position in order to be finite, a series of relationships have to exist between the depths - therefore the 22 paths of wisdom.  Although they are represented by element, planet and zodiac sign you do have to see this as shorthand for what those symbols represent*.  Each position within the system ends up being characterized by the network of paths or depths that define it.  A finite world or soul/individual/character defined by the Depth of Evil would thereby be distinguished from a world defined by the Depth of Good and therefore percievable/intelligible.  Similarly a character or individual in our world can be characterized by the admixture of good, evil, north, south, east, west, past or future.  For example this position could find physical expression in the colour and quality of the skin, how saturated with melanin, whether it is cold, warm, clammy or dry or in personality qualities like neophobia and neophilia.

SAADIA TREE OF LIFE

The Tree of Life, using these principles of mathematics (number, geometry), language and physical quality, defines the entire range of possibility for manifestation within the finite and also the extent of all possible knowledge.  The use of this knowledge in medicine requires that you classify the position of the world or soul according to it.

For example a male individual who is positioned in the Depth of the West would be expected to have: a simple identity, no strong concrete internal monologue/voice but a surging ocean of urges/drives, paraphilias, anger management issues, impulsive behaviour, balding along with a host of other characteristics we might consider more positive like assertiveness.  Using this stock character as my benchmark the path system allows me to zoom in on a spectrum of individuals** that branch off from the Depth of the West and alter palliative remedies.

• If this individual has the qualities in the median above but is also slightly fatter and stores the fat in their abdomen I would place them on the Path of the Sun (King of Life/Health) but close to the Depth of the West - diet focusing on blood sugar levels. 
• If they are also fleshier with evenly distributed fat storage and have some kind of skin issue (eczema, urticaria, etc) or manic-depression I would place them on the Path of Sagittarius (King of Sleep)  - proactive psycho-dermatological relaxation strategies to reduce cortisol levels, anti-inflammatory diet in severe cases.  
• If they are also skinnier and more avian in facial features I would place them on the Path of Capricorn (King of Anger) expect their anger management issues to be exacerbated and for them to be jumpy and temperamental - sports/exercise to burn off excess wrath.*** 

''Starting from the top'', within the beginning, what begins as simply a position in the cosmos of space-time-observer rapidly becomes a nest of virtues/vices that we derive character/personality/world from - the process of alchemy being the mitigation of the more vile aspects of our character and the extraction of virtue.


*In a previous post I talked about considering the planetary kingships as akin to the defining qualities of living organisms remembered in the acronym MRSGREN - movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, respiration, excretion, nutrition.
**Isaac Luria drew the ability to read the karma of individuals from their faces/bodies using similar methods.
***Although astrology is involved in this just because you are a Sagittarius do not expect to be on the Path of Sagittarius.  Your position in this scheme is determined by the totality of your horoscope plus underlying genetics.

The Depth of the East - Tifereth, Beauty

Were I asked to discuss the social causes responsible for my soul's condition, I would speechlessly point to a mirror, a clothes hanger, and a pen.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

THE SAADIA TREE OF LIFE

The middle pillar of the Tree constitutes the axis of Time, with the Depth of the Future and the Depth of the Past representing the grand journey of life from birth to death, and the Depth of the East and the Depth of the West signifying the chapters or days that make that life up.  In the Depth of the West I discussed the chromosomes and unlocking both genetic potential and memory, how the process of initiation involves winding back time*, and as the highest level of initiation is prophecy**, ultimately winding all time back into the Depth of the Future.

THE NUCLEUS OR MASK

As discussed in the previous post on The Tree of Masks, the mask, related to Tifereth, is the body language and physical/facial expressions of the individual that demonstrate their personality or mood. On more subtle levels this is expressed in the form of a fine mist of chemical messengers or pheromones, a bio-electric field or an aura.  As explored in earlier posts the work on Cellular Consciousness and the Metabolism of Time links directly to Plato's Analogy of the Cave.  Having followed the path of the Sun to the Depth of the East one becomes initiated into the mysteries of their nucleus and merges with the Form of the Good***.  In practical terms you become the Egg of Light, one with your aura/nucleus, alongside being natural/relaxed in your body - in the langauge of the Tao, supple like a newborn child****. Since praise/criticism fundamentally distort our nucleus some form of Stoicism is an essential element in the path of the initiate and in following the path of the Sun.

Nuclear envelopathies, cellular problems with the nucleus, cause a range of genetic diseases - involving balance, physical posture, muscle spasm, fatigue, inability to cry, darkening of the skin***** - all of these seemingly related to the mask of body language and expression as explained above. Although full blown genetic diseases are rare individuals lie on various spectrums which only culminate in the disease state - i.e. you may be a thyroidal type without hyperthyroidism.  For example, someone on the anorexia spectrum may not manifest the  disease but will have issues with body image, seeing an ugly person in the mirror, etc.  Likewise distortions of the mask, brought about by exposure to extreme attention, cause problems in the physical posture although not necessarily crippling disease.  Someone who is spoiled or abused often has posture/expressions which do not match their underlying physiology and lead to problems later in life - in this way the mask is out of harmony with the body/underlying genetics.

All that we do, say, think or feel wears the same mask and the same costume. No matter how much we take off what we wear, we’ll never reach nakedness, which is a phenomenon of the soul and not of removing clothes. And so, dressed in a body and a soul, with our multiple costumes stuck to us like feathers on a bird, we live happily or unhappily – or without knowing how we live – this brief time given us by the gods that we might amuse them, like children who play at serious games.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

*Anti-time.

**This does not simply mean divination, fully explored with the temporal model we are discussing online it would rightly include all aspects of so-called magick.

***Good, in this sense, means Excellent. One then merges with their own excellence.

****

''Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?
Attending fully and becoming supple,
Can you be as a newborn babe?''

*****Cerebellar ataxia, dystonia, Triple A syndrome, muscular dystrophy...   

The Tree of Life - The Tree of Masks

My God, my God, who am I attending to? How many am I? Who is me? What is this interval between me and myself?

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Although an individual's root genetic character does not change, their personalities do.  Personality, a function of mood, is influenced by positive and negative attention - praise, criticism, compliments, abuse, affirmation, humiliation, yes!, oops!  This personality-mood gestalt is worn as a mask over the root character and is normally appropriate to it, the physiognomy of individuals are in line with their mask.

THE GAMBLER

Why do we wear masks?  The disguise, defensive in nature, begins as a response to traumatic experiences, acting as a protective interface between the self and society at large as society requires interacting with people outside of our control in order to survive.  Individuals, learning from experience, attempt to shield their vulnerabilities and only project/reveal those aspects of themselves that they wish to.  Once developed the mask will feed on attention of different types, again mostly appropriate to the underlying character - a form of social nutrition reward system to encourage in us that tribalism that was so responsible for our evolution.  If an individual recieves an excessive amount of positive or negative attention then their resting mask can be distorted into an inappropriate mask - sometimes permanently.

THE VAMPIRE

A particular problem arises in this system when the mask is mistaken for the character underneath and takes on a life of its own.  Feeding on attention now becomes a means unto itself - gorging for pleasure as opposed to nutriment.  This mis-identification is brought about when a character has been forced to wear - through spoiling or abuse - a mask which is unnatural to them.  Many people operate within the elastic limit of their character, their mood oscillating with events and the attention of others but returning to equilibrium - some though have passed the plastic limit, the natural character's mask is bent out of shape or broken entirely, and a new mask, fevered and alien, takes over.  Rectification of this situation does not mean abolishing the mask to become a smiling nobody, it is about restoring the natural mood* and therefore the ''happiness'' of the underlying character.

THE IMMORTAL

Attention then, to simplify, comes in two forms, positive and negative - one building up the individual and the other breaking them down, extremes of which produce permanent, or semi-permanent, distortions of the mood and alter the mask and the health.  Different masks naturally seek out  certain types of attention, will feed on them until satisfied and then retire until they need more.  In this way the mood oscillates up and down but typically stays around that individual's equilibrium - often if they are getting too much praise or criticism they will find a way to block it out of themselves and prevent distortion.  Likewise when one is giving out attention one can only give out so much until the supply is exhausted.  Pushing somebody past the limits in producing attention can exhaust them in the same way as recieving it can.

THE LOVER

Attention is exchanged between individuals in environments usch as a workplace or meeting place.  The recycling of attenton in these places lead to the wear and tear of that environment and ultimately to its collapse/regeneration.  Some masks like to move between new environments as often as they can and meet new people, some reside.  Of those that remain within a fixed environment, a natural hierarchy of masks** and roles assigned to them emerges - an ecosystem related to varieties in the endocrinological spectrum.  As you ascend the hierarchy, the masks generally need more attention in order to feed their appetites but also relate to attention in different ways from lower masks:

Kether - The Director (pituitary)
Chokmah - The Angel (pineal)
Binah - The Timelord (pineal)
Chesed - The Magician (thymus)
Gevurah - The Demon (thymus)
Tifereth - The Dreamer (pancreas)
Netzach - The Lover (adrenals)
Hod - The Immortal (adrenals)
Yesod - The Vampire (genitals)
Malkuth/Daath - The Gambler (thyroid)

Gamblers seek out new environments and new masks - they are good at meeting people and adapting to newly discovered environments.  The attention they prefer is the new.

Vampires form close relationships with individuals in the environments as opposed to groups wthin them.  They enjoy ''best-friends'' type relationships and the preferred attention type is the exclusive.

Immortals protect the group from outsiders - they are cliquey team players and the attention they prefer is the sharing of agreement in principle, affirmation.

Lovers form close relationships with the group as opposed to individuals within them.  They flit between individuals in the group rapidly, recover from relationships far quicker than others and the attention they prefer is the longing or yearning.

Dreamers feed on the glow of others recycling attenton between them and create internal worlds and dreams, it is a passive form of attention gathering like photosynthesis.

Demons feed on explosive bursts of attention given off in dramatic, memorable exciting events, good or bad.  They will do what they can to create, and then detonate, these events but they can survive off one explosion for a very long time if necessary.

Magicians also feed on drama but where demons operate in the background, magicians, like entertainers, prefer to be the centre of attention.  They treat groups as audiences and the favourite type of attention is applause.

Timelords tend to appear aloof, stoic and out of reach - they do not need much attention to subsist.  Secretly though, they feed on worship.

Angels feed on continuous intense bursts of love or fear, a kind of pulse, which they can generate in the environment by  - religiosity, Dionysian activity, Apocalypticism, politics.

Directors manage and guide environments so the preferred attention type is the one that they gather through direct control of individuals.

THE DREAMER

Just like the Tree of Time and the Tree of Faces even though we may express a particular part of the system in our relationship with the whole we contain the whole within us.  The mask is natural and appropriate when it is subordinated to the character  but not when it subsumes the character and takes on a life of its own.  Stoicism is a means through which one limits their exposure to the oscillations in their mood, maintains the naturalness of their mask.  By exploring this Tree of Masks we can understand how our mood oscillates as we seek attention and recognition from others, and ultimately we can play with the masks in our stories rather than have them play with us. 

THE DEMON

Who am I to myself?  I am only one of my sensations.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

*Bear in mind that the natural mood can be ''angry'', ''depressed'', etc.  What happiness means from this perspective entirely subjective. A depressive/melancholic is not automatically ''happy'' at parties full of loud, smiley people.
**Although in terms of cellular consciousness all masks are related to Tifereth which is the nucleus of the cell.  Problems with the mask can be considered nuclear envelopathies. More on this in the Depth of the East.  The Tree of Masks however can be considered as a fractal Tree within the Depth of the East.

The Tree of Life - The Hypersphere and the Voids

I have been musing on how I just effectively bashed spheres as a manifestation of the evil forces of the Klippot and therefore consigned my own structures in the Metabolism of Time to the recycling.  I thought about posting a 14 yr old re-interpration of the middle pillar ritual to fit the biological cell but - spheres!  spheres!  spheres!  Is our cellular nature really spherical?  Not really its more blobby and the nucleus is off centre.  Then ''I thought'' about the 3rd Act of the Metabolism of Time or ''The Conflux'' and the principles it teaches about flux, shards, rifts, veil and colour.  This image surfaced and I was saved from my theoretical despair.

FLUX

What the above image does is apply the principles of the Hypersphere to the Metabolism of Time.  (The appearance of) Spheres may be limiting in the sense that they detach us from our higher dimensional selves, (5D) hyperspheres return us to them.  The 3-spheres and 4-spheres, or glomes, may well explain the blobbiness of our cellular nature, that blobbiness is the imperfect 3 dimensional rendering of a higher dimensional sphere on a lower plane.  So if we approach the spheres in the metabolism of time with this in mind, I think we can be safe.

GLOME

Secondly after comments from Andrew on the Brickwork of Sapphire about why the bricks don't have names (which I think refers to the gaps in the Tree of Life as opposed to the paths and vertices) I was reminded of the communication from Raziel in the Tower.  That the nothingness of the void breeds matter - the matter which precipitates out being the ''mortar'' if you will, and that the nothingness itself is the bricks.

The Tree of Life - The Brickwork of Sapphire

They saw a vision of the G-d of Israel and under His feet was like the brickwork of sapphire and like the essence of the heavens for its purity. 

Shmot 24:10

GATES OF ISHTAR

In The Tree of Depths I discuss the problems with the use of spheres in the Tree of Life - they automatically limit the mind to three dimensions when the Tree is trying to portray five dimensions and they also help people to unnecessarily conflate the planets with the Sefirot which goes on to cause a whole chain of logical contradictions in their thinking.  That the word Sefirah sounds like Sphere doesn't help but we know the word actually relates to counting, text and communication - i.e. to meaning.  Gershom Scholem in Kabbalah also points out the similarity between the word Sefirot and the word Sappirot (or Sapphires). As Io discusses in his post on Crossroads by removing the spheres from the tree and just looking at the Sefirot as points, or vertices where the lines meet, you see the appearance of diamonds/rhombuses or the brickwork of Sapphire.

But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute of God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When Mercy seasons Justice.

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

In the early phases of the universe you had a chaos of unconnected points or nekudim, the eventual connections between these points are the paths, the brickwork, conterminous with the letters of foundation. By differing arrangements of these letters the entire universe is constructed - like atoms or genetic code.  But the universe struggled to contain the light that the thoughtful infinity imbued it with so many of the Sefirot shattered and each of the points, or divine sparks, nitzutzot, sank into matter, wrapping themselves ever more completely in husks and shells, they sank into the Klippot, they sank into the Spheres...

How do we strip back these accumulated layers of confused meaning?  How do we de-spherify our thinking?  We can use advanced mathematics to meditate on toroids and Calabai-Yau manifolds as string theorists do; we can replace spheres with vertices and crossroads, help us understand interconnections/relationships; we can return to the brickwork.  The Tree shattered because the ideas of the Sefirot were separate and did not contain each other within each other - mercy did not season justice*.  But the Sefirot of the Supernal Triad, the worlds of Atziluth and Briah were not shattered and in those worlds we see the naked points and their connections themselves, as they were meant to be.

SPHERIFICATION

The ultimate problem is that ''spheres'' or rather circles** remain incredibly useful as text boxes after all there needs to be some way of writing the name of each Sefirah and pertinent information on the diagram!!!  We need to constantly remind ourselves, and those we mentor, that the sphere on the diagram is a blown up, zoomed in vertex, and the essence of that vertex is a singularity, not a sphere, otherwise we are, and have been, in great danger of mistaking the eggshell for our metaphysical baby chicken - and building a Tree of Shells as opposed to a Tree of Life.

*The roots of the shattering were in din, or ''unseasoned judgement''.
**In Lurianic Kabbalah, circles or iggulim are used to describe the pre-shattering arrangement of the Sefirot that did not work to contain the light - this is an explicit association between Klippot and our somewhat misguided tradition of sphereoth.

Raziel - Time Travel III

If time travel is possible,
Then it will happen;
Therefore it already has.

The Depth of the West - Yesod, Foundation

When we meditate along the directions, east-west, north-south, up-down, good-evil, past-future, we lose ourselves in the point at infinity.  When we bring these opposites together we are left with nothing. Infinity and nothingness are the foundation upon which the rest of the edifice is built - the great arteries, veins, intestines, muscle fibres, fat cells, tissues, the cellular apparatus of the Great Man, Adam Kadmon splayed out in the roads, the tubes, the pipes, the systems and the chambers of our world.  A vision of the universal machinery.

The twenty two letters of foundation are related to the chromosomes of the cell and are situated in the Depth of the West.  The animal forces that manifest are part and parcel of the genetic time travelling I discuss in the Hermetic Lessons.  In descending into your genes in meditation, whether you know it or not, you are inevitably entering into dialogue with the ancestor organisms/animal spirits that link your tree of life back to the first cell.  Various types of monkeys for sure but go deep enough and you will find - marsupials, amphibians, sharks, sea-squirts, flatworms, sponges and fungi.

If you follow the principles of cellular consciousness you will discover that Yesod, or the Depth of the West, relates to your genetic self - a creature I refer to as Feelix the Perfect Helix, a time travelling information spiral.  As you emerge from Malkuth, the Depth of the Past, during your initiation, you are winding back time - the lightning flash grounded you in the past, fixed you in destiny - your path away from this is therefore one of liberation.  You are no longer an isolated organism disconnected from the Earth, alone amongst the shells or husks, but the sum of the being of the organisms that brought you here.

YESOD - DEPTH OF THE WEST

When moving from Yesod to Tifereth - along the path of the Sun, we do so then as Feelix, not as our individual egoic self which is left behind like shed skin.  We continue to move backwards through time, West to East, towards the Beginning in the Depth of the Future - the animal spirits within us have merged together into Feelix and what we are becoming is a cell.   The higher forms of animal life we encounter in Tifereth are not ''higher'' in the sense of ''more evolved'' organisms like monkeys, etc they are deeper, or more fundamental components of life and existence.  At the end of the path of the Sun, in the Depth of the East, lies the nucleus.  When we follow this path we merge with the Sun at ''the Dawn'', our genetic selves regain their nuclei.

TIFERETH - DEPTH OF THE EAST

The nucleus, nucleolus, or nuclear membrane, can be likened to the luminous egg of Carlos Castenada, the celestial vehicles of Iamblichus, or some interpretations of ''the aura''.  In my work on cellular consciousness I liken it to the sphere of physical reach so adeptly rendered in the Vitruvian man but this sphere, when understood in consciousness, goes beyond simply the ability to manipulate the world ''physically'',

As I discussed in the post on education and initiation, one's models and assumptions change fundamentally as you progress through the system.  To begin with you tend to be a materialist*, rooted in matter and you therefore use material models to explain the way the magic is working. You believe that the world around you is literally the world, and have not yet understood that it is a representation of that world which is in fact, a bit late.  As you move up the path of the Moon and into the Depth of the West, psychological models seem to yield the most explanatory force - psychology gains ground as you realise the limitations of matter and the necessity of mind.  In order to complete the initiation as far as the Depth of the East, and regain your nucleus, it is necessary to study the Depth of Down (informational models) and the Depth of Up (spirit models).  The most powerful understanding of the nucleus then is the way in which these models culminate and integrate within a model based in Mind.  Your sense of being is no longer rooted in your brain, or your physical body, or your ''genetic self'' now it extends to this luminous egg.

DAATH - CYTOPLASM

In following the middle pillar up the Tree, we enter the final path of Saturn, continuing to rewind time and reconstitute our cellular nature - although like the journey to Tifereth, the Depth of the East, it involves more than this path but all the other remaining paths as well.  This journey connects Zeir Anpin (Tifereth and the central Sefirot) to Arikh Anpin (the macrocosm) and reveals how your nucleus relates to and connects with the whole cosmos.  Daath, when understood, becomes ''the contents of the cell'', bounded by the cellular membrane, and Kether, ''the bloodstream of time''.

KETHER - MEMBRANE/BLOODSTREAM

*Generally lay folk are ''materialists'' even if they live in a more spiritual society and are not what we consider scientific materialists