The efficacy of the Middle Pillar ritual as a means to tap into and conduct energy is undeniable . Over time, I have come to the realization of how important the proper intonations of the divine names are to the success of the practice. My problem is with the non-sephirah of Da’at in the throat.

While the divine names associated with Kether, Tiphareth, Yesod, and Malkuth all resonate in the appropriate areas of the body, that of Da’at does not (or at least is not as distinct as the others). What I mean by this is when I vibrate Eheieh I feel a distinct pulse atop my head, similarly with the other three divine names the vibrations occur in my solar plexus, genitals, and inside of my feet respectively. The result is that I do not have to consciously visualize these spheres since the vibrated names literally locate them and define their extent within my body. This is not the case with YHVH Elohim as the vibrated name resonates throughout a large region (from my head to the solar plexus) and requires much more visualization to localize in my throat. I partially accomplish this by making the He sounds as glottal as possible, but it still does not feel as natural as the other four. Of course, this may be the point since Da’at is only an implied sephirah linking the supernal triad to the remainder of the tree. I’m curious to know if others have similar difficulties with localizing Da’at in the throat through the vibration of this divine name.

No traditional kabbalistic text lists a divine name for Da’at, so to my knowledge this was a creation of Regardie. In fact YHVH Elohim is the divine name for Binah. I’m not talking sh*t about Regardie, but if he experimented with divine names for Da’at why shouldn’t we? I would think Elohim alone or Elohim Gibor (divine name associate with Geburah) produce the necessary glottal sounds to localize the vibrations in the throat. What is clearly throwing me off is the YHVH part since this hits my solar plexus as much as it does my throat...

Don't get me wrong, I have followed Regardie's instructions to great success, this is just a minor snag that I've noticed in my experience.

Your right about Da'ath it is not a true sphere upon the tree. You will not find it in use with Jewish Qabalah, only in Hermetic Qabalah. It is not really a sphere but rather a collection of ideas. Mainly being it is the abyss that mankind has between them and the divine powers above and that our work bridges that gap. The name and associations come from Binah due to it being the next highest on the tree and that it is the seat of the Neshamah our spiritual aspiration, as well as being our intuition as powers and knowledge pass through the gap.

Now that being said the divine name for Binah is not what Regardie used or advocated. The substitution was a addition that was made later on. Regardie actually used the four enochian names from the tablet of union for Da'ath. Try those and see if they "fit" better.

Thanks Nero, I'll definitely look into the enochian names.

I'm fairly well versed in the Kabbalah(Jewish) and Qabalah (Hermetic) and thus was having trouble simply substituting the next closest thing (name of Binah) into Da'at. I was, however, unaware that Regardie did not advocate this... makes him that much wiser in my eyes. Thanks for the clarification.

This post has been edited by Faustopheles: Dec 12 2006, 01:35 PM