Kabbalah And Psychology

The Sefirot (Sephiroth) are a fixture in almost the entire Western corpus of magickal practice, although most modern practicioners know only their names and perhaps their most common associations. However, they are an excellent map of the mind of mankind and can be a rich source of study. I am not here to proselytize for venturing on the 22 paths as much of the Western ceremonial tradition concentrates on, but rather to provide a treatment of the Sefirot in a easy to understand manner. Please note that my understanding of this topic is heavily informed by the Lurianic school of Kabbalah. Also note that these scribblings borrow heavily from other authors, as I consider this to be a “working document” as I continue to flesh out my thoughts. Consequently, this document will be altered periodically in ways large and small.

Before and surrounding the Sefirot themselves is the Ein-sof, the primal, all-encompassing "Infinite God". This God is the union of both Yesh (being) and Ayin (nothingness), as well as male and female and good and evil and all other basic oppositions. As such, it is the reconciliation of everything and it's moumenal opposite. It represents the primal unconscious that is completely beyond the individual’s conscious awareness. According to Jung:
There is little hope of our being able to reach even an approximate consciousness of the self, since however, much we make conscious there will always exist an indeterminate and undeterminable amount of unconscious material which belongs to the totality of the self.

Tzimtzum (Contraction/Concealment)
The doctrine of Tzimtzum explains the transition from an infinite, all-encompassing God to the existence of a pluralistic world. Luria held that in order to create an independent, finite world, Ein-sof (understood as the full plenum of being) must contract itself and, moreover, conceal an aspect of itself from itself. Tzimtzum creates a division within the divine essence. This division actually creates the possibility of knowledge, through a distinction between subject and object, knower and known. That which is concealed, that which Ein-sof no longer knows as part of itself, becomes the created, finite world, and can be known as distinct from God. From a psychological perspective it can be said that an act of Tzimtzum or concealment lies at the very core of the human psyche, for it is only through concealment and it's variants, i.e.: denial, repression, symbolization, displacement, condensation, etc. that a division is set up between subject and object, conscious and unconscious, and the human personality is born.

The Sefirot
The first of the Sefirot, the one closest to the infinite godhead (and, by extension, to the primal unconscious) is Keter (Crown), identified by the Kabbalists with ratzon (will, desire). In Hebrew the verb ratzon is used in the commonest expressions of desire (e.g. Ani ratzon = "I want"), suggesting that desire, a primal libido in all of its potential ramifications (sexual and otherwise) is the basic manifestation of the human psyche. One step removed from this "desire" is the Sefirah representing the intellect (Chochmah), suggesting that, as Freud held, intellect (i.e. cognition) only emerges as a superstructure built upon desire. The next Sefirah, Binah (Understanding) is according to the Kabbalists a blending of the first two. Binah is held to be the origin of all creativity and is thus referred to as the Celestial Mother. Through Understanding, will, directed by intellect gives birth to the lower worlds.

The next three Sefirot, represent a second triad which, in effect, repeats on a more concrete level the dialectic of the first three. Chesed (Love) is, according to the Kabbalists, fundamentally an expression of desire, whereas Din (Judgment) is an expression of intellect, for in judgment, distinctions that have been held in theory are actually made and implemented in reality. This implementation of the idea is perhaps the reason why this Sefirah is also referred to as Gevurah (strength or power), and serves as the foundation for aggression, and, ultimately, for the harsh, punitive judgments which the Jewish tradition identifies with evil. Love and Judgment are reconciled in the Sefirah Tiferet/Rachamin (Beauty/Compassion) which, according to the Kabbalists serves as a paradigm for all further reconciliations, both within the godhead and man.

The next two Sefirot, Netzach (Glory) and Hod (Splendor) can be interpreted as the further instantiation of man’s libido and intellect in the "glorious" and "splendorous" manifestations of human individual and collective cultural expression. These two Sefirot are reconciled by Yesod (foundation) which the Kabbalists equated with the phallus, and which in turn engages in a dynamic coupling with the final Sefirah (Malchut/ Shekhinah), representing the feminine aspect of the psyche. Indeed, it is the erotic coupling of male and female, and particularly, the masculine and feminine aspects of the psyche that serves as the most prominent Kabbalistic metaphor for the completion of God and creation. Jung, in his works on alchemy, discusses this theme as a symbol of the unification of the self (Jung, 1963).

The Instability of the Sefirot
There is an inherent weakness and disuniity in the Sefirot which results in their ultimate demise. The Sefirot "closest" to Adam Kadmon, Keter, Chochmah and Binah are comprised of more powerful vessels and they alone can withstand the impact of the lights emanating from the eyes of Adam Kadmon. Each of the others are shattered by the divine emanations.

Psychologically speaking we might say that man’s values and psychic structures as they are initially constituted cannot always serve him well as he matures. The strongest aspects of the ego, those most resistant to psychological decompensation in the face of a surge of libidinous energy, are the basic structures of cognition and perception. However, those aspects of the ego that bind, contain, and structure emotion (the seven lowest Sefirot which are spoken of in the Kabbalah as "emotional") are subject to a psychic shattering as a result of a surge of libidinal energy from the unconscious. Jung spoke of the intellectual and moral values keeping the archetypal images of the unconscious in check until the former are "weakened by age or criticism" (Jung, 1963, p. 473). Such weakened structures are subject to being overwhelmed by a flood of unconscious material.

Shevirat ha-Kelim, the Breaking of the Vessels
The seven lower Sefirot shatter. Even the highest Sefirot, which do not shatter, fall from a higher to a lower place.

The structures of the ego are insufficient for man to contain the energy and imagery of his unconscious mind. These structures must shatter, creating a chaotic, disjoint and dangerous but necessary state from which a new man and self can eventually emerge. Will and intellect have fallen in status. Reason can no longer resolve all difficulties in its path. The ego has been deflated. Kabbalistically, it is only when the "vessels break" that the individual can become truly human.

Tikkun Haolom, the Restoration of the World
The whole Sefirotic realm must be reconstituted and restored via Tikkun haolom (the Repair and Restoration of the world). The restored cosmos, however, will differ considerably from the world as it was originally created.

The restored Self is an achievement that transcends the spontaneous and automatic development of the ego in childhood. When the structures and values which served the nascent ego are shattered by personal crisis, e.g. in adolescence or mid-life, the relations between the primal unconscious, the ego and the personal unconscious must be restructured into a more unified, flexible (and hence more livable) arrangement. According to Jung, the archetype of the "Self" emerges after mid-life to perform this formidable task. Unlike the ego, the Self is not a bastion of consciousness which, like a rider on a horse, limits and controls the forces of the unconscious psyche. Just as the Kabbalist’s restored cosmos involves an integration rather than separation of its various levels, the Jungian Self involves an integration between "conscious", "pre-conscious" and "unconscious", and between anima, animus, persona and shadow. The Self manages desire through wisdom rather than repression and control, for its desire is already integrated with the higher elements of the soul. In Kabbalistic terms, the psyche after Tikkun is one in which each of the Sefirot are fully integrated with each of the others.

The psyche itself must be unified through a coincidence of opposites, especially between its masculine and feminine elements. Further, these inner unifications are reciprocally modeled from, and model, the significant relationships of human life, in such a manner that the inner dynamics of the human psyche reflect the structure and vicissitudes of man’s interpersonal existence. Eros plays a critical role in the psyche’s personal and interpersonal development. Man, even in the depths of his individual psyche, is essentially a social, interpersonal, being. The deeper one probes into one’s self, the surer one finds a representation of the "other". The formation of a Self is hardly a solitary enterprise but is, as the Kabbalists imply, conditioned upon relationships of passion, friendship, and mutual support. The individual, like God himself, cannot hope to be complete outside of such relationships.

The Reunification of Male and Female
The raising of the sparks has the effect of not only reunifying masculine and feminine aspects of the divine (and human) psyche but of harmonizing all other contradictions within the psyche as well. As we have see, for Jung, such unification is the most important psychotherapeutic principle. The fully individuated self is one which having seen the multiplicity, disharmony and conflict of an actual lived existence, comes to experience a harmony behind all of its manifold expressions and appearances.