Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

The symbol of the Golden Dawn is a red calvary cross above a white triangle, often, but not always, shown upon a black background. This is a very evocative image, which means different things to different people, but what does it mean for the Golden Dawn as a whole? The Neophyte Ceremony tells us the following about it: "The Red Cross above the White Triangle is an Image of Him Who was unfolded in the Light." Another section states: "Two contending Forces and one which unites them eternally. Two basal angles of the triangle and one which forms the apex. Such is the origin of Creation - it is the Triad of Life." Z3 refers to "the White Triangle of the Three Supernals formulating in Darkness" and states that the Candidate "may bear that potent and sublime symbol as a link with his Higher Self and as an aid in searching out the forces of the Divine Light" Z1 states: "The Symbols upon the Altar represent the Forces and Manifestation of the Divin...

An interesting aspect of Qabalistic understanding, one that is only found when the deeper Jewish roots of the Qabalah are explored, is the role of Yesod as the Covenant and the extension of this role to Tiphareth, the Covenant on a higher level. Let me explain. One of the names of Yesod in Jewish Qabalistic texts is berith , the Covenant, and this represents the circumcision of the foreskin, as per Jewish tradition. The reason for its association to Yesod is due to Yesod's relation, on the anthropomorphized Tree of Life, to the phallus (this became later the "reproductive organs" to include the feminine, but traditional [some might say more sexist] views would have seen man alone here, and woman was seen, in her entirety, in Malkuth, as depicted in this post ). There are frequent references in the Hebrew Bible, however, to a circumcision of the heart. For example, in Deuteronomy 30:6 (NRSV, my italics): "Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your he...