The Supernal Triad

Supernals
The Supernal triad
NOTE: There are several systems of Souls. This is the system of five Souls. The system of four souls omits Yechidah, ascribes Chiah to Atziluth, and ascribes Neshamah alone to Briah. The system of three souls omits both Yechidah and Chiah, ascribing Neshamah to the entire supernal Triad.

Among the Tree's many divisions are three triads, each composed of three Sephiroth. These triads interweave with the various worlds, and map to five Souls.

The topmost of these triads is the Supernal: Kether, Chokmah, and Binah, also referred to as the Archetypal triad. Kether sits alone in the world of Atziluth (Archetypes), while Chokmah and Binah are the world of Briah (Creation). These Sephiroth also map onto three of the five souls: Yechidah (Uniqueness), Chiah (Vitality), and Neshamah (Breath).

We take these three souls as a group, and call that group Neshamah. We think of it as the higher consciousness, that level of the Unconscious that sits above us, mediating between us and the Divine: our Holy Guardian Angel.

A lot happens here. The Divine makes its first appearance as a Unity in Kether, and that One creates the Duality of Chokmah and Binah.

The souls are divided from one another by veils. Below this group sits the Abyss, dividing it from our everyday consciousness, Ruach. But within this soul-which-is-three-souls there is also a veil, the Presence of the Most High, separating the One from the Two.

And, if it isn't already perfectly obvious, this triad is also the Holy Trinity. When you pray, this is what you're praying to. Meditate upon that, if you please.

But while I'm on the subject, a word about the Trinity. We are taught that the Trinity is Kether = Father, Chokmah = Son, and Binah = Holy Spirit. With all due respect to those who say so, I disagree. The Spirit is the undifferentiated One, Kether;[1] and Chokmah and Binah are, respectively, Father and Mother: the (male) Gods and (female) Goddesses. That's your Trinity, and the Male is not exalted over the Female; the pair of them, together, are Briah, the creative world. The Supernals are a reflection of the three negative veils Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur. Ain cannot exist separate from Ain Soph, and neither can Chokmah exist separate from Binah. They are Father and Mother.

This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all. Liber AL I:30

In that quote, the pain of division is the Light piercing the veil of thePresence of the Most High as Kether begets Chokmah and Binah. The joy of dissolution is what happens as the Soul traverses the path the other way, losing its duality to join once again with the One, and beyond even that, to the None.

Those of you familiar with Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality might think of this Triad as intellectual patterns. This is the place where thoughts congeal, whence inspiration springs. It is a place beyond hierarchy, where old patterns can be broken and reformed into new patterns.

[1]Sepher Yetzirah also tells us this: One is the Spirit of the Living God, ... The voice of breath and speech, and this is the Holy Breath [I,9]
[1]Sepher Yetzirah also tells us this: One is the Spirit of the Living God, ... The voice of breath and speech, and this is the Holy Breath [I,9]