Binah, Understanding

Binah
Binah, Understanding

Three: Water from Breath.
With it He engraved and carved 22 letters
From Chaos and void,
mire and clay.
He engraved them like a sort of garden,
He carved them like a sort of wall,
He covered them like a sort of ceiling
And He poured snow over them and it became dust as it is written,
"For to snow He said, 'Become earth.'"[1]
— Sepher Yetzirah

Binah is the Mother of Form, the form part of the duality of force and form. (Force is Chokmah.) It constrains the creativity that comes out of Chokmah, introducing the possibility of boundaries, and is the root of separation, without which there can be no distinction made between one thing and another.

Planet Saturn (Shabbathai, ‎שבתאי‏)
NameBinah, בינה, understanding
Divine Name YHVH Elohim, יהוה אלהים
ArchangelTzaphkiel (צפקיאל‎)[2], Prince of the Spiritual Strife against Evil
Angelic host Aralim (אראלים, angels)[3], Strong and Mighty Ones (also called Order of Thrones)
Tarotthe four threes
the four Queens
ColorBlack[4] [K:crimson; Q:black; Pr:dark brown; Ps:gray flecked pink]
Yetsiratic Attribution[5] Sanctifying Intelligence (Sanctified Consciousness, Sekhel MeKudash, שכל מקדוש), the basis of foundation of Primordial Wisdom, which is called the Former of faith, and its roots, Amen; and it is the parent of Faith, from which virtues doth Faith emanate.
TriadSupernal

Binah and its brother, Chokmah, are the key to illumination. Sepher Yetzirah tells us, "Understand with Wisdom, be wise with Understanding" (I:4). Wisdom (nonverbal thought) can only be experienced — explained, made accessible to us — when it is clothed with Understanding (verbal thought). Wisdom without understanding, or understanding without wisdom, is empty. The Magician must learn to shift between them, oscillating between verbal Binah understanding and nonverbal Chokmah wisdom.

[1]Job 37:6
[2]I have no reference for this. Sources disagree about the name, saying "knowledge" or "shroud" or "contemplation" of God, all unverifiable. In modern Hebrew, צפק is the peritoneum.
[3]Angels is modern usage. There is some debate about the historical meaning. Some say lions, others say heroes. Biblically, this is rendered without the yod, אראלם. And as a side note, a homophone, ערלים, means foreskins or uncircumcised ones, ritually unclean ones.
[4]Colors listed are in the Queen scale. The complete set of colors are:
Crimson - King scale (Atziluth)
Black - Queen scale (Briah)
Dark brown - Emperor scale (Yetzirah)
Gray flecked pink - Empress scale (Assiah)
[5]From the 32 Paths of Wisdom, often printed as an appendix to Sepher Yetzirah. However, see this article for additional (and contradictory) information on these Paths.
[1]Job 37:6
[2]I have no reference for this. Sources disagree about the name, saying "knowledge" or "shroud" or "contemplation" of God, all unverifiable. In modern Hebrew, צפק is the peritoneum.
[3]Angels is modern usage. There is some debate about the historical meaning. Some say lions, others say heroes. Biblically, this is rendered without the yod, אראלם. And as a side note, a homophone, ערלים, means foreskins or uncircumcised ones, ritually unclean ones.
[4]Colors listed are in the Queen scale. The complete set of colors are:
Crimson - King scale (Atziluth)
Black - Queen scale (Briah)
Dark brown - Emperor scale (Yetzirah)
Gray flecked pink - Empress scale (Assiah)
[5]From the 32 Paths of Wisdom, often printed as an appendix to Sepher Yetzirah. However, see this article for additional (and contradictory) information on these Paths.