When mapping psychological concepts onto the Tree of Life, we usually think of Freud and Jung. The Jungian Self aligns with the Neshamah, the Ego with the Ruach, and the Shadow and Freudian Id reside in the neshesh. What about using imagination to do the same with Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy? Let’s find out through an alternative perspective to increase understanding.
Logotherapy
As covered on the channel, Logotherapy is future-oriented and rooted in Teleology. It helps people find existential meaning or reason, which cannot be given externally but must be determined by oneself.
Qabalah
As a backbone of Western Esotericism, the Qabalah helps us navigate life obstacles while engaging the higher aspects of our being. Eternalized in its ageless glyph—the Tree of Life— it maps both reality and the human psyche.
Potentialities
Logotherapy views potentialities as transitory. By actualizing them, we turn them into realities stored in the past where nothing is irretrievably lost, and everything is irrevocably stored.
“Man constantly makes his choice concerning the mass of his present potentialities; which of these will be condemned to nonbeing and which will be actualized? Which choice will be made an actuality once and forever, an immortal ‘footprint in the sands of time?’ At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.”
— Man’s Search of Meaning P.97
A Collection of Realities
If you live recklessly, you’ll be depressed seeing another day gone. If you make mindful choices, you’ll have a collection of meaningful experiences, love, and victories.
Growing daily, your collection has solidified in the past. You aren’t jealous of the youth having more time and potential, as you’ve made the most out of yours. You reflect and say to yourself:
“Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.”
— Man’s Search for Meaning P.97
The Qabalistic Worlds
Logotherapy’s perspective on potentialities finds a place in the four Qabalistic Worlds:
- The highest, Atziluth, represents the life force, Chiah, and the pure potential to live and express.
- The second, Briah, is creative ideation and possibilities.
- The third is formation, organization, and finding ways to turn those into action and results, Yetzirah.
- The fourth is Assiah, the physical actions and manifestation.
Transitoriness
Potentialities reside in Atziluth and Briah. The second is ascribed to Binah Saturn, ruling limitations like time and decay.
“Not lasting forever, potentialities exist in fleeting moments. You either actualize them into realities or let them fade into nonexistence.”
— POTB
Sacrifice
Before acting, you must choose which possibilities to actualize, knowing that those left untouched will be lost. Logotherapy views this as a core responsibility of human existence. To the rescue come Chessed, and Geburah positioned right underneath Binah.
- Chessed expands, develops, and organizes.
- Geburah makes the right choices by sacrificing the wrong.
Yetzirah is the world of formation, shaping things before they become reality. This includes:
- Processing values, and
- Decision-making or willpower for which potentialities to realize and which to discard.
This is navigated by Geburah Mars, the sacrificial priestess, and Hod Mercury, which is Geburah on a lower arc. They let us shape our future by filtering out distractions and committing to what matters. So the questions are:
- What to prioritize?
- What is worth turning into action?
- And what should be let die?
Preservation Through Action
After making a choice comes the time to take action in the physical, building your collection of realities. Whatever you have lived, accomplished, suffered, or loved, it is now eternalized.
“Your past is yours forever. Time erases potentialities but solidifies realities.”
—POTB
Malkuth, Assiah, the physical reality, sits on the Throne of Binah Saturn, which is Briah. Ascribing to the Earth element, Assiah is a synthesis of the upper realms’ processes, as depicted by the Sphere of Malkuth in the Tree and the lower shaft in the Rose Cross.
Earth
Earth bears the most resemblance with Spirit, as they both contain all elements.
- Spirit holds the raw potential and
- Earth contains the manifested synthesis.
Surprisingly, working extensively with Earth tends to re-create opportunities to actualize realities identical to some of the most precious I ever had. Let me know if that resonates.
The Weight of Choice
Whether we are involved in Magick, we navigate the Qabalistic Worlds, dealing with Binah, Chessed, and Geburah our whole lives. You can surrender to entropy and randomness or make hard choices, committing to something meaningful.
By living it, you save it from transitoriness, making it part of the monument of your existence. So the question is: what are you building? But that’s just my opinion. Let me know if you agree. And thank you for your time!