Yesod she’b Gevurah
Day Six of Week 2:Connection in Restraint
For discipline to be effective it must be coupled with commitment and bonding. Both in disciplining yourself and others,there has to be a sense that the discipline is important for developing a stronger bond. Not that I discipline you, but that we are doing it together for our mutual benefit.
Thirteen is a number of good omen in Jewish lore. It is the gematria, the sum of the numerical letters of Echad, which means “One”, as well as the gematria of Ahavah, “Love”. Added together, the numerical values of the words “One” and “Love” equal 26, which is the gematria of the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter unspeakable name of G-d: Yod-Key-Vav-Key, which we pronounce as Adonai. This gives us a hint of the special energies available to us this day.
Today the energies of Yesod enter into Gevurah. Yesod is the “Foundation”, the place of ego, located energetically just above the genitals of the body. We focus our attention on the channel of light between the left shoulder and the pubic area. We bring our ego into the place of Limitation to seek its proper form. Ego is always in need both of higher energy as well as more effective structure. Yesod brings the Foundation of personal identity into the realm of Gevurah, so that Yesod might know the nature of the identity who carries Holy Energy into the world.
Placed at the area of the loins, the very place of Yesod on the Tree of the body reflects the influences of sexuality. Our ego identity is largely bound up in our sexuality, in the challenge not only to act in the world with sexual integrity, but to balance within each one of us the energies of the male and the female, the giving and receiving.
Yesod is the centre of the soul which the Zohar, “The Book of Splendour” calls the nefesh. It is the vivifying soul, our “animal” soul. The nefesh, cut off from higher energies is separate and competitive; while the nefesh that receives along a clear channel from the Source enables that Source to express itself more effectively in this realm.
Through nefesh we know the pain of separateness, the powerlessness of our separate self when collapsed into alienation from the world and from others. We grow to respect the integrity of our separate selves as we move through the illusions that this realm is all there is and assert the influences of a deeper awareness. Yesod moves into Gevurah to receive the blessing of its proper form.
I am filled with deep respect for the expression of my uniqueness in the world. All the energies of my being are blessed through my connection to the Source of all Being. My body, my mind, and my emotions server as a vehicle for Being. I am whole and complete now.
Personal Reflections
The nefesh, once it begins to gain power, has a single, driving purpose – that is to make the whole world in its own image – in order to bring “peace”! That is the masculine dynamic. However, only by reigning in that outpouring drive to conquer and subjugate, and using that very energy to constrain and direct the thrusting force of nefesh, can its overpowering energy can be directed to more nourishing expressions. This is the feminine dynamic. It is like a fire that needs to be managed. This is why it is called the vivifying soul – the burning soul – reminiscent of the angelic energies we call the serafim, flaming angels.