Qabalistic Magick Lesson 10: Chokmah - Wisdom

© Copyright 2023 Karen Charboneau-Harrison and Jeff Harrison, All Rights Reserved.

God Name - YHVH - Yod Heh Vau Heh
Gods - Thoth, Cernunnos, Athena, Minerva, Maat
Archangel - Ratziel, guider of creative force
Experience - Vision of the Gods
Symbols - Phallus, Standing Stones, Bearded Male, the Wand
Titles - All-Father, Abba
Virtue - Devotion
Vice - No Vice
Stones - Star Ruby, Turquoise
Scents - Musk, Amaranth

Chokmah is the Creative Self, the 2nd Sephira of the Supernal Triad, with the title of Wisdom. Its influence is considered to be boundless energy and the divine stimulation of all actions. Chokmah is seen to be God in His lust for life and life giving capabilities. Chokmah is pure dynamism and pure stimulus without formed expression. Chokmah is pure force in action - Binah takes that Force and puts it into its first Form. This Sephira is the archetypal Masculine principle and is an active, spiraling force. Chokmah is the All-Father. If Kether is a Point, Chokmah is a line, the extension of the Point into Space.

Chokmah is not an organizing Sephira, but is the Great Stimulator of the Universe. It is from Chokmah that Binah receives its influx of emanation that originates with Kether and Binah is the first of the organizing, stabilizing Sephira after receiving the stimulus of energy from Chokmah. The Yetziratic title for Chokmah is 'The Illuminating Intelligence' as it receives the light from Kether and sends this light cascading down the Tree of Life in a thunderbolt. The Yetziratic text also calls Chokmah the 'Crown of Creation', thus implying that, like Kether, it is overshadowing and external to rather than imminent and absorbed in the manifested universe. Actually it is the virile force of Chokmah which gives the impulse to manifestation and thus Chokmah's force is prior to manifestation itself. This idea is further borne out in the phrase of the Yetziratic Text which speaks of Chokmah as the 'Splendor of Unity', equaling it, thus clearly indicating its affinity to Kether, Unity, rather than to the planes of dualistic form. The word, Splendor, as used here indicates an emanation or shining forth and teaches us to think of Chokmah as the emanating influence of pure Being rather than as a thing in and of itself.

Symbols of Chokmah are The Phallus, Uplifted Rod of Power or Wand, Bearded Male and Standing Stones. All of these symbols being indicative of powerful masculine creative force. Chokmah is active movement toward creation but this creation must first be stabilized in Binah. Chokmah is the Primal Idea of Maleness -the vital outpouring of energy which is organized, limited and formalized by the qualities of pure femaleness epitomized by Binah.

Chokmah is known as Wisdom - this wisdom is the perfect knowledge of the Essence of Divinity, an abstract wisdom. This Sephira is pure dynamism, and is the embodiment of the Divine Will for Creation. Binah is Form, the container of Force which is Chockmah. Together Chockmah and Binah form the Elohim - the masculine and feminine creators spoken of in Genesis. If you will, they are the Proton and Electron. Together they form the duality, the tides of our lives, activity-passivity, construction-destruction. Understanding is the essence of Binah. The essence of Chokmah - Wisdom - suggests complete and infinite knowledge while Understanding suggests the ability to grasp the unfoldment or use of this wisdom.

In order to contact Chokmah, we must experience the rush of the dynamic cosmic energy in its pure form - an energy so tremendous that mortals are fused into physical dissolution upon encountering it.

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Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford	Mystical Qabalah
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Go to Lesson 1: Malkuth
Go to Lesson 2: Yesod
Go to Lesson 3: Hod
Go to Lesson 4: Netzach
Go to Lesson 5: Tiphareth
Go to Lesson 6: Geburah
Go to Lesson 7: Chesed
Go to Lesson 8: Daath
Go to Lesson 9: Binah
Go to Lesson 11: Kether
Go to Lesson 12: A Qabalistic Meditation, Journey Through the Spheres of the Tree of Life
Go to Lesson 13: History and Differences Between Orthodox Hebrew Qabalah and Western Esoteric Qabalah