Monday, March 16, 2015

The Tree of Life - Saadia, The Three Elements and Cellular Consciousness




The structure of our body can be divided into 3 sections - the blood which supplies the cellular tissue, the cytoplasm of those cells and finally the DNA which is housed inside the nucleus of each. This threefold division can be associated with our 3 elements as follows - Air with the Blood, Water with the Cytoplasm and Fire with the DNA.







AIR (ALEF)


Our cells are supplied with nutrition and oxygen via the blood but since the blood is predominately made up of red blood cells* I have associated this with Air.  However Air (Blood) is ''Mother of the Mothers'', in that all components of respiration are dissolved into it.

The formula for respiration is:

Oxygen (air) + Sugar (energy/fire) = Water (water) + carbon dioxide (earth*)

  • Air - Oxygen
  • Water - Water
  • Fire - Sugar
Looking at our Tree of Life diagram at the top of the page - the path of Air mediates between the depths of Good and Evil - like we have the notion of faire winds and foul, evil winds, so our blood brings to our cells a payload of merit and liability, or mercy and severity.

Good and Evil are strong terms and it may behoove us to simplify this to the notion of Advantage and Disadvantage, or nutrition and poison to describe the axis of the observer.  The blood brings us the vital ingredients of our life, essential proteins we cannot synthesize, sugar, oxygen, hormones, etc but it also brings us a cargo of death and disease in the form of toxins, pathogenic microbes, etc.



WATER (MEM)

THE CYTOPLASM AND ITS ''PLANETS''

Our second element Water rules over the cytoplasm, the bubble of mostly water that makes up the prime constituent of every cell.  This cytoplasm has various ''organelles'' within it that look like little globes, or planets.  These organelles can be grouped into 7 functions that match with the 7 planets.  Water then is said to be Mother of the Doubles, or Mother of the Planets.

  • Saturn - cell membrane, cytoskeleton (the structural integrity)
  • Jupiter - endosomes (the transport/trade system)
  • Mars - lysosomes (the defence system)
  • Sol - mitochondria (the powerplants)
  • Venus - golgi apparatus (the ''lips and mouth'' of the nucleus)**
  • Mercury - endoplasmic reticuluum (the face around the nucleus)
  • Luna - nucleolus (contains the ''mark'' or ''destiny'' of DNA) 

Water as an element mediates between the depths of north and south, cold and hot or expansion and contraction respectively.  Simplistically we can think of the cell swelling and shrinking with supplies of nutrition, the membrane ''pulsing'' if you like.

From a more advanced perspective we can also see the positions of Mars and Jupiter on vertical paths leading from the horizontal of air, to the horizontal of water - here our astrology tells us about contraction and expansion with the planets.  Mars and Jupiter as lysosomes and endosomes form the defence/surveillance system of the cell and its internal transport and external trade system.  These paths then form the link between what passes through the membrane and survives in the interior of the cell and also what is exported back to the body as a whole.

Our Saturnian path leads straight from the membrane to the mitochondria, and shows how nutrients diffuse from the blood into the cell and reach the mitochondria where they allow us to complete our metabolism without which we would die.  Our Luna path, associated with the nucleus, leads us from the depths of the past (our birth, and our cell-line stretching back to the origin of the first cell on Earth) to the depths of the west (the passing of a given day) and reminds us of the cell cycle whereby our cells split and divide into two ''daughter'' cells.

FIRE (SHIN)


THE THREE TONGUES OF SHIN - DNA + RNA

Our third element Fire rules over the DNA itself which operates according to 12 basic genetic rhythms and is therefore Mother of the 12 simples/zodiac signs.  As we see from our Tree of Life, the path of Fire, mediates between the paths of up and down or as I prefer in and out.  The nucleus of the cell, which contains our genetic material is the very core of our being - as such there is an information flow ''out'' from the nucleus and ''into'' the nucleus.

This material is very advanced from a genetic perspective but think about it like this - our Mercurial path ''down/in'' represents the path of information flowing down to the nucleus and being *interpreted by the DNA*.  This ''path'' of interpretation is very Mercurial as it seeks to break things down into parts in order to understand them so it can produce the correct answer/response.  Our Venutian path which mediates between ''out/up/rise'' and ''south/expand'' represents the way in which the nucleus ''replies'' to the questions posed by the Mercurial path - if our Mercury ''in'' path is questions our Venutian ''out'' path are the answers.  Science (Mercury) breaks things down in order to understand, Art (Venus) builds things up and offers them back out.

Even more challenging is to fully understand the link between the 12 basic genetic rhythms and the 12 zodiacal signs.  These genetic rhythms/operations can be very clearly visually associated with the 12 zodiacal signs. I will provide a few examples of these in the notes and leave a full exposition until later on in the Blogos.  

  • Aries - DNA replication fork***
  • Taurus - DNA polymerase
  • Gemini - DNA topoisomerase****
  • Cancer - DNA topoisomerase II
  • Leo - histone bodies
  • Virgo - chromosomes
  • Libra - mRNA splicing*****
  • Scorpio - mRNA
  • Sagitarius - tRNA - ribosome complex
  • Capricorn - post-translational folding
  • Aquarius - DNA repair
  • Pisces - DNA recombination

THOTH SPLICING ANKHS


EARTH (LAND/SOIL)

Whilst water is used in the body, carbon dioxide is exported via the blood and ultimately breathing out.  Carbon dioxide is subsequently used by plants to grow thus the association of this with Earth/land/soil.  Therefore Earth is not one of the three elements in this sense.  Earth does not appear in the Sefer Yetzirah as an element.  It is not one of the Mother Letters.  Earth (Aretz - land) is said to derive from Water, one assumes that as water retreats, floods, sea level decrease land is left. To me Earth in the idea of both planet and ''element'' is the concertation of all 22 celestial forces, a compound - as land on the one hand and as soil on the other - it is the central focus of the 231 gates- the ''one name'' that the 22 letters form.


SPIRIT (MIND)

All of these associations can be used with the Cellular Consciousness model discussed throughout the Blogos - if you are the animated Helix in the centre of the nucleus (your physical reach) the room surrounding you is your ''cell'' (your perceptual reach, typically delineated by the walls). Structures within the room maintain its integrity, the walls etc, various tools allow it to fulfill its function, doors, windows allow access, normally some sort of heating/lighting is provided by a room's ''mitochondria'' etc.  The buildings with these rooms containing them are like tissue lining capillaries, veins, arteries etc - the streets, roads along which these tissues emerge - etc.

Deeper than this we see that we are always in the ''room of our Mind'', which never moves... our Cellular Consciousness.  Therefore the '''walls'''of the ''room'' of our mind, once penetrated lead into the bloodstream of time... Enjoy your free-scaling...




*Alef is said to contain the mystery of YHVH in its structure.  If you break down Alef you get one Vav and two Yods.  This has a total value  of 26 which is the same value as YHVH.  26 is the proton number of Iron.  Iron is the essential element in the construction of haemoglobin which allows the blood to carry oxygen.  ADM means Adam, but DM means ''red earth'' (i.e. rich in iron oxide) and A means Air.  Thus ADM can be read as oyxgenated blood.

**

Associated with Venus via Hebrew letter Pe (mouth).

*** Compare and contrast


****Compare and contrast


*****Compare and contrast.





9 comments:

  1. Thanks for this summary; I can see more clearly where you are coming from with this. By the time you get to the constellations and DNA, I'm out of my depth, but the cell structure I can wrap my head around, at least a little.

    I'm not sure I would quite break the cell structures down like this. It seems odd to identify the endocytes with Jupiterian action--their regulation of the cell wall looks more Saturnian from where I stand, especially since endocytosis tends to form endocytes by engulfing/binding what is exterior.

    Similarly, lysosomes seem more Venutian to me, like much of our 'defense' systems (e.g., immune responses proper) operate in a Venutian manner by dissolution rather than confrontation and struggle, more vulture than soldier.

    I'm rusty on my cell biology, though, so I'll probably have to give myself a little refresher and take in the dynamic relationships you are pointing out between the organelles before I get carried away with that line of thought. I may be running on some misunderstandings!

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  2. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Endocytic_pathway_of_animal_cells_showing_EGF_receptors%2C_transferrin_receptors_and_mannose-6-phosphate_receptors.jpg

    Endosomes are the transport mechanism for cellular ''cargo''. They can carry molecules all across a cell.

    The cell membrane and its attendent gates and transporters are Saturnian, yes.

    Probably the emphasis, in my language should have been on sorting and analysis for the lysosomes, rather than as defence - although bacteria etc are degraded by these entities as well.

    With the golgi apparatus and the e.r. the process is Venutian and Mercurial as this is where ''words'' (proteins) are prepared from the language (DNA). As such in our ''descent'' towards the nucleus (and its path of the Moon) we pass through Chaldean order. The internal system of the cell mirrors the cosmos in this way.

    By all means play around (and discuss) but I think this fits the overall structure better. My cell (and molecular) biology stuff is not completely laid out often because I think I'll completely lose people.

    The innermost place of this is the nucleus so the descent into the self occurs into forty trillion caves at once seeking the treasure within. This descent, and ascent from that treasure are the ''up and down'' of the Saadia Tree, in order to fully access the treasure though once the ''descent'' is complete (i.e. one is within the nucleus of one's own being) one must then travel back in time.

    Weird, huh?

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    1. The nucleus...wow. I hadn't quite gotten to the implications of the Luna/nucleus affinity. That's really rich, with the saadia tree, as a channel opening into the depths of the past.

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    2. Glad you like it. I agree with you about endocytosis but the endsome itself I hope will be clearer as you think about a Chaldean descent from the membrane to the nucleus.

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  3. Our 22 letters (''chromsomes'') remember, are ''letters of foundation'', so we know that the nucleus is down that way.

    Note how the Fire now crosses Sol as ''mitochondria''.

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    1. That's nice. There are two things that I keep coming back to regarding the mitochondria:

      (1) They have a separate genome, inherited through the mother, which suggests that there may be a properly occult significance to the rule regarding "Jewish through the mother." The work passes through the sun, through the mitochondria, through a separate chain of time. Thinking in terms of my geomantic assignments, I am also thinking about the affinity between Sun and Planet (Fortuna Major; the intensity of the maternal mitochondria) and Sun and other star (Fortuna Minor; the affinity between people through a more subtle and indirect shared origin of mitochondria).
      (2) The deep time in which mitochondria become part of the cell likely occurred by endocytosis, which makes sense for me with identifying endocytosis as Saturnian, because then we see in the middle pillar the differentiation of cell within and without, giving birth to the Sun (mitochondria) and Moon (nucleus). Even the rival account of mitochondiral development would have it born through endocytosis-like processes from within the cell itself...

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    2. 2) I think endocytosis as a process at the membrane could be considered Saturnian but I think the endosome - cargo system is Jupiterian. Does that help?

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    3. That does. I'll rattle it around a bit and see how it settles. I can definitely see how it operates in terms of it being a mode of Chesed's expression, so that's promising.

      I can see the outline of what you are saying regarding the cell as one of the proper microcosms of the solar system's microcosm, but I'm also toying with the ramifications of the model itself being 5D, which would also imply that the microcosm might not manifest in the same fashion as the macrocosm.

      Rotating through our 4D experience, we would expect it to manifest in ways that don't quite 'look' the same as each other, especially if it were 'rotating' into our 4D world in a dynamic fashion, like a cone toppling through a plane produces very different looking conic sections.

      I may end up settling on your model, but I want to push and tug at it, see where it catches and snags with my experience of all this.

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  4. I've been very much enjoying your explanation of the Tree of Life. Your explanation has cleared this subject up for me quite a bit. The use of pop-occulture is incredibly useful in my view as a way of illustrating the concepts. Thanks for your work. I think I'm going to have to rewatch TP and the Return again.

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