Yesod and The Timeless Way of Building By P. Todd DeckerHere is a description from Christopher Alexander’s The Timeless Way of Building1 in which he explores and codifies the pattern languages that describe timeless architecture that sustains the soul:

Your mind is a medium within which the creative spark that jumps between the pattern and the world can happen. You yourself are only the medium for this creative spark, not its originator. I remember once, sitting in Berkeley, trying to work out a site plan on paper, for our houses in Peru. One of the LOOPED LOCAL ROADS into the site was not yet properly in place, and we could not find a suitable way of fitting this pattern road into the design, the way the patterns told us to--so I decided to take a walk around the site in my imagination. I sat in my chair, in Berkeley, 8000 miles from the real site in Lima, closed my eyes, and began to take a walk around the market. There were many narrow lanes, covered with bamboo screens to shade them, with tiny stalls opening off them, and fruit sellers selling fruit from carts. I stopped by one old woman’s cart, and bought an orange from her. As I stood there I happened to be facing north. And then I bit into the orange--in my imagination. And just as I bit into it, I suddenly stopped and asked myself, “Now, where is that road?” And, without thinking, I knew exactly where it was, and what its relation to the market was--I knew it must be over there, towards the right, from the direction I was facing. I knew that to be natural; it must come sweeping towards the market, and touch it over there. Then I stopped, and came back to my room, and my chair, and my effort to make the design. I realized at once that this position of the road, which had come to me so naturally, was quite different from all the one we had been trying on paper in those last few days--and that it was exactly right, and satisfied the demands of all the patterns perfectly. It was the vividness of being there, and biting into that orange, that allowed me to know, spontaneously, the most natural place for that road to be.

Without using the words of a Mystic, Christopher Anderson was operating in the sephirah of Yesod within the mystic system of categorizing the creation emanations of the Deity known as the Kabbalah. It is in Yesod that spiritual concepts are translated into mental images prior to their

1The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander, 1979, ISBN 978-0-18-502402-9.

P. Todd DeckerDecember 2010

Yesod and The Timeless Way of Building By P. Todd Deckerestablishment in the physical world. “The pre-physical manifestation of all the higher emanations [of Deity],” as Gareth Knight puts it2. It is sometimes known as “The Foundation” and also as the “Treasure House of Images.” Its archangel is traditionally considered to be Gabriel and its ruled by The Moon, The Great Mother, Isis--the teacher. You can touch this feminine aspect of Deity through simple quite meditation and imagination. You touch it at night in your sleep--which is why it is said that you should reflect on your dreams. As a Fellowcraft, you pass between The Pillars into its realm. We do not worship her as a God as the ancients before us did--we just know that it is one aspect of The God. I encourage you to join me in exploring Yesod in your meditations and sleep. As Christopher Anderson states, “You yourself are only the medium for this creative spark, not its originator.”

2A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Gareth Knight, 1965, ISBN 0-87728-397-4.

P. Todd DeckerDecember 2010