Modality Columns of Water
Cardinal Fixed Mutable
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The Tree of Water is also known as Briah in Kabbalah. It is composed of all the Cups in Tarot, from the Ace down to the 10 of Cups. The world of Briah (the creative world) is also symbolized by the 3rd Sephiroth of Binah, known as the "Great Mother." The Tree of Water also corresponds to the Water (cups) decans of the Zodiac wheel. Other terms for the sphere of Binah are the Great Sea and the Great Wilderness. All stars and planets are suspended within this water. In a sense, we may think of Briah as the "space between the points," just as Miles Davis once stated that "music is the space between the notes." This indicates how water is sensitive to vibrations, and all the Cups in Tarot do represent, in one way or another, emotional sensitivity.
The Tree of Water is highly creative and represents the "depths of being." Our bodies are over 70% water, and this water acts as the medium through which electrical signals and messages travel to and from all the various nerves, organs, and cells of the body, just like how whales communicate with one another in the vastness of the oceans through singing. Sound itself travels much quicker through water than through the air, and sound traveling across the top of water itself acts as a great amplifier. The suit of Cups hence represents this same kind of sensitivity and "amplification." This amplification is felt within the emotions. The deep waters of the oceans are analogous to the deep waters of the body, soul and even "space." We know that there is not literally water between the planets and stars, but in a way there is. Biblical statements pertaining to the "waters above the firmament" allude to this space. Space is the deep gulf between the points, just as there are "deep gulfs" between nerve endings, between islands and between atoms. If one could actually see atoms, the first thing they would notice is how incredibly far apart they are, possibly as far apart as stars if one were to scale them down to the size of atoms. Space itself is highly sensitive and teeming with information. Physicist Nassim Harramein calls it the "structure of the vacuum," and as Nassim states in the documentary Black Whole:
Space is everywhere, between galaxies, between stars, between planets, between cells, between atoms, and even the atomic structure is made out of 99.99999% space. So the reality we live in is mostly space. Everything you see, all the material world that you think is so solid, is actually mostly space. What you're experiencing as your reality, what you call the material world, is actually .0000001% of whats there. Yet we spend most of our time paying attention to that part and forget to look at that space. For me, earlier on, it was crucial that maybe it's the space we should be looking at. Maybe we should pay attention to the 99.999999%. Maybe objects don't define the space, but space defines the objects. Well if that was true, if the vacuum and the space was connecting all things, and since all things radiate in this space, and if space is the source of all things, then that space couldn't be empty. What we call the vacuum, what we call so-called empty space, could not be empty. It had to be full, and it had to be infinitely full. Very, very dense in any case.
Within the I Ching, the 29th Hexagram, The Abyss, is composed of two trigrams of Water and hence has a close archetypal relationship with all Cups of Tarot and all Water signs in astrology. The nature of Water and of the Kabbalistic world of Briah also implies a great use of the imagination. Much like a muscle, the imagination must be exercised or else it will begin to atrophy leading to a much less fluid life and much more rigidity and brittleness. Paradoxically, an unworked and "water consciousness" makes one very weak in mind and body. In Hua Ching Ni's The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth, on the 29th Hexagram:
The Tree of Water is highly creative and represents the "depths of being." Our bodies are over 70% water, and this water acts as the medium through which electrical signals and messages travel to and from all the various nerves, organs, and cells of the body, just like how whales communicate with one another in the vastness of the oceans through singing. Sound itself travels much quicker through water than through the air, and sound traveling across the top of water itself acts as a great amplifier. The suit of Cups hence represents this same kind of sensitivity and "amplification." This amplification is felt within the emotions. The deep waters of the oceans are analogous to the deep waters of the body, soul and even "space." We know that there is not literally water between the planets and stars, but in a way there is. Biblical statements pertaining to the "waters above the firmament" allude to this space. Space is the deep gulf between the points, just as there are "deep gulfs" between nerve endings, between islands and between atoms. If one could actually see atoms, the first thing they would notice is how incredibly far apart they are, possibly as far apart as stars if one were to scale them down to the size of atoms. Space itself is highly sensitive and teeming with information. Physicist Nassim Harramein calls it the "structure of the vacuum," and as Nassim states in the documentary Black Whole:
Space is everywhere, between galaxies, between stars, between planets, between cells, between atoms, and even the atomic structure is made out of 99.99999% space. So the reality we live in is mostly space. Everything you see, all the material world that you think is so solid, is actually mostly space. What you're experiencing as your reality, what you call the material world, is actually .0000001% of whats there. Yet we spend most of our time paying attention to that part and forget to look at that space. For me, earlier on, it was crucial that maybe it's the space we should be looking at. Maybe we should pay attention to the 99.999999%. Maybe objects don't define the space, but space defines the objects. Well if that was true, if the vacuum and the space was connecting all things, and since all things radiate in this space, and if space is the source of all things, then that space couldn't be empty. What we call the vacuum, what we call so-called empty space, could not be empty. It had to be full, and it had to be infinitely full. Very, very dense in any case.
Within the I Ching, the 29th Hexagram, The Abyss, is composed of two trigrams of Water and hence has a close archetypal relationship with all Cups of Tarot and all Water signs in astrology. The nature of Water and of the Kabbalistic world of Briah also implies a great use of the imagination. Much like a muscle, the imagination must be exercised or else it will begin to atrophy leading to a much less fluid life and much more rigidity and brittleness. Paradoxically, an unworked and "water consciousness" makes one very weak in mind and body. In Hua Ching Ni's The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth, on the 29th Hexagram:
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The nature of Water is soft and yielding, yet it can wear away huge rocks. Lao Tzu used the following simple example to illustrate a profound principle: "To be soft is life; to be hard is death." This same principle is expressed in nature. The branches of a living tree are limber. If the branches are hard and dry, then the tree is dying or already dead. When one is young, one's bones are soft and pliant. As a person becomes older and approaches death, his bones become stiff and brittle. Likewise, to stiffen the mind with concepts and emotions also stiffens the spirit. By following the example of Water, one can learn the conduct that is appropriate to different circumstances.
So, that which is yielding and follows the path of least resistance is actually very strong and "unyielding" so to speak. When water meets an obstacle in it's flow, it does not stop and think about it or become neurotic and tied up in knots about "which way to go." It simply flows around the obstacle, and given enough time and persistence the obstacle itself may become beautifully shaped by the water, or it may even be completely dissolved.
The Tree of Water, Briah, has the qualities of sensitivity, depth, reflection, emotion, introspection, creativity, love, happiness, abundance, and retrospection.
So, that which is yielding and follows the path of least resistance is actually very strong and "unyielding" so to speak. When water meets an obstacle in it's flow, it does not stop and think about it or become neurotic and tied up in knots about "which way to go." It simply flows around the obstacle, and given enough time and persistence the obstacle itself may become beautifully shaped by the water, or it may even be completely dissolved.
The Tree of Water, Briah, has the qualities of sensitivity, depth, reflection, emotion, introspection, creativity, love, happiness, abundance, and retrospection.
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