8 Hod - Splendour (Thoughts)

Mercury, Initiation of Knowledge. Intellect, concrete thought, reduction of Intuitive knowledge to form. Represents the Mind Side of Magic. the Occult. Hod gives understanding of sciences. we become filled with enthusiasm and energy for research. Concrete Mind.
Planet: Mercury. Gods: Hermes, Mercury, Odin, Toth, all magic and language gods. Day: Wednesday. Color: Orange. Jewel: Opal. Planet: Moly (mandrake), anhalonium, lewinil. Perfume: Storax. Animal Hermaphrodite Jackal.
TITLE: Hod, Glory. (Hebrew spelling: He, Vau, Daleth.)
MAGICAL IMAGE: A hermaphrodite.
SITUATION ON THE TREE: At the foot of the Pillar of Severity.
YETZIRATIC TEXT: The Eighth Path is called the Absolute or Perfect
Intelligence because it is the mean of the Primordial, which has no root by which it can cleave or rest, save in the hidden places of Gedulah, from which emanates
its proper essence.
GOD-NAME: Elohim Tzabaoth, the God of Hosts.
ARCHANGEL: Michael.
ORDER OF ANGELS: Beni Elohim, Sons of God.
MUNDANE CHAKRA: Kokab, Mercury.
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE: Vision of Splendour.
VIRTUE: Truthfulness.
VICE: Falsehood. Dishonesty.
CORRESPONDENCE IN THE MICROCOSM: Loins and legs.
SYMBOLS: Names and Versicles and Apron.
TAROT CARDS: The four Eights.
EIGHT OF WANDS: Swiftness.
EIGHT OF CUPS: Abandoned success.
EIGHT OF SWORDS: Shortened force.
EIGHT OF PENTACLES: Prudence.
COLOUR IN ATZILUTH: Violet-purple.
BRIAH: Orange.
YETZIRAH: Russet-red.
ASSIAH: Yellowish black, flecked with white.

A Sephirah of Form, as it is a reflection of Chesed. We see, then, that it is through inhibitions and refrainings on the lower planes that the dynamic energy of the highest plane is rendered available. It is in the Sphere of Hod that the rational mind imposes these inhibitions on the dynamic animal nature of the soul; condensing them; formulating them; directing them by limiting them and preventing diffusion. This is the operation of the magic that works with symbols. By its means the free-moving natural forces are constrained and directed to ends that are willed and designed. This power of direction and control is only obtained by the sacrifice of fluidity, and Hod is therefore aptly said to be the reflection of Binah through Chesed.

The initiate of Hod sees behind the appearance of created things and discerns their Creator, and in the realisation of the splendour of Nature as the garment of the Ineffable he receives his illumination and becomes a co-worker with the Great Artificer. It is this realisation of the spiritual forces manipulating all manifestations and appearances which is the key to the powers of Hod as wielded in the Magic of Light. It is by making himself a channel for these forces that the Master of White Magic brings order into the disorder of the Spheres of Unbalanced Force, not by deflecting the invisible powers to his personal will. He is the equilibrator of the unbalanced, not the arbitrary manipulator of Nature.

The standard of the physical plane is strength, the standard of the astral plane is beauty, the standard of the mental plane is truth, and the standard of the spiritual plane is that of right and wrong as we understand the terms. The symbols associated with Hod are given as the names and versicles and the apron. The names are the Words of Power wherein the magus sums up and evokes into consciousness the multiform potencies of teh Beni Elohim. These names are by no manner of means arbitrary and barbaric vocables, without etymology or meaning. They are philosophic formulae.

Versicles: mantric phrases, a sonorous phrase which, when repeated over and over after the manner of a rosary, works up on the mind as a special form of auto-suggestion. The apron has immediate associations for the initiates of Solomon the Wise; it is the characteristic garment of the initiate in the Lesser Mysteries, who is always deemed figuratively to be a craftsman, that is a maker of forms. The apron covers and conceals the Moo-centre, Yesod.

Hod and Yesod are readily accessible through dreams, imaginative ritual meditations or psychedelic drugs