Hod
Hod (Hebrew: הוד "splendour, majesty") is the eighth sefira on the Tree of Life of Kabbalah. Together with Netzach (victory) and Yesod (foundation), it forms the third triad of the Tree of Life.
Hod forms the eighth path of the 32 paths of wisdom and stands for perfect intelligence.
On the mystical path, such as that followed in the initiation of the Essenes, one experienced the triad of Netzach, Hod and Yesod when immersed in one's own astral body.
„Just as we look over the animals, plants and minerals when we direct our gaze out into the world of the senses, where our I can be present, so for the one who dives down into his own inner being, the gaze falls on everything he can perceive in the astral body. The human being does not see this through his I, but the I uses the tools of the astral body. And what the human being sees, if he has a different faculty of perception, where he is present with his I in that world with which he is connected through the astral organs, is already described in the ancient Hebrew language with three expressions. Just as we have an animal kingdom, a vegetable kingdom and a mineral kingdom, the ancient Hebrew language designates the trinity that one overlooks by being present in one's astral body with Netzach, Yesod and Hod.
If one wanted to translate these three expressions more or less conformably into our language, one would have to reach deep into the ancient Hebrew linguistic feeling; for the usual lexical translations with the dictionary do not help at all. If one wanted to understand what is important now, one would have to use the linguistic feeling of pre-Christian times. For example, one would have to take into consideration that what we can describe with the phonetic structure Hod would express "spiritual things appearing outwardly". So please note: this word would mean a spiritual that manifests itself outwardly, a spiritual that strives outwardly, but a spiritual that is to be understood as astral. The word Netzach, on the other hand, would express this outwardly manifesting will in a much coarser way. What is manifested there is something to which we can perhaps apply the word that it proves to be "impenetrable".
If you pick up physics textbooks today, you will find something that is stated as a judgement, but which should actually be a definition - but logic is not important here - namely the definition that physical bodies are called impenetrable. It should actually be written as a definition: A physical body is called one of which it is true that at the place where it is, there cannot be another at the same time. So it should be given as a definition. Instead of this, one sets up a dogma and says: The bodies of the physical world have the peculiarity that they are impenetrable - whereas it should be said that two bodies cannot be at the same place at the same time. But this is something that really belongs to philosophy. The making of oneself known in space, so that the exclusion of another takes place - which would be the much coarsened nuance of the Hod - is given by the word Netzach. And what stands in between is given in Yesod.
So you have three different nuances. First the manifestation of some abstract fact, which manifests itself outwardly, in the Hod. Then, where the thing is already so coarsened that the things approach us in physical impenetrability, there would be Netzach according to the ancient Hebrew usage. And for the intermediate nuance, Yesod would have to be taken. Thus we may say that the three different peculiarities with which, in fact, the entities of the astral world are afflicted, are designated by these three words.“ (Lit.:GA 123, p. 148ff)
Literature
- Rudolf Steiner: Das Matthäus-Evangelium, GA 123 (1988), ISBN 3-7274-1230-5 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner, Anna R. Meuss: From Beetroot to Buddhism: Answers to Questions. CW 353. 16 lectures, Dornach, March 1 to June 25, 1924. Rudolf Steiner Press 1999. ISBN 978-1855840621; eBook ASIN B07N9MBW26 (2013) rsarchive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Die Geschichte der Menschheit und die Weltanschauungen der Kulturvölker, GA 353 (1988), ISBN 3-7274-3532-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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