The Pillar of Purity

Binah is the mother figure of the supernal Archons, and her Principle is Community. It is through her will and guidance that humanity understands their relationship to people they connect with. While family is the ultimate, inseparable unit over which she holds sway, Binah is the mother of all communities and oversees tribes and clans, hobby organizations, cities and whole nations of people. Community binds humanity by tying us to one another and creating a sense of homogeneity which comforts us so. The primary value and goal of a community is that everyone within it is alike, either by appearance, ideal, or other signifiers. Community demands Purity, which is the name of this left-hand pillar of the Archonic tree of life. To create a sense of belonging, to be fettered to Binah’s Principle, we must not only assume but actively ensure that the ingroup remains stable and uniform.

This is where the reign of Geburah and his Principle of Law becomes apparent, and necessary. Law is not cruel, it is not vengeful. The Judge knows the set of ideals by which he separates the worthy from the unworthy and the righteous from the criminals, and he will apply those ideals exactly as they are known to him. But by which means will he determine what is right and wrong? It is through the shared understanding of the community that he gains this knowledge. Law is a natural consequence of any group, it is the means by which the group controls itself. If there was no Law, the community would soon fall apart and splinter off into different factions with increasingly disparate ideas and goals. Geburah’s Principle acts as a limiting force on the community, creating the stability needed to maintain it.

While Geburah acts as an indifferent arbitrator, it is through Hod‘s Principle of Honor that the community’s members find their own relation to the laws that govern them. The purpose of law within the community is to maintain unity and purity, and so to aspire towards that purity becomes the source of honor and pride. To publicly display your purity and worth to the rest of the ingroup not only reinforces the laws governed by Geburah, but also acts as a teaching tool for new or uncertain members of the community. They learn through the honorable what it means to be part of the community, and so Binah pulls them closer into her motherly embrace. Honor strengthens the bond within the community, making impenetrable Binah’s core of belonging as delineated by Geburah.

With these interactions examined, we can make some observations on the nature of these alliances. These Principles serve and depend on each other, but they can also cause conflict. Even bound, humanity does not always abide the will of its captors and reality often clashes with the lofty and idealistic goals of the Archons. Furthermore, the fall of Hod plunges these clockwork mechanisms into disorder and weakens the whole of their functions. All these thoughts and principles often operate on a subconscious level, and so most humans may never be aware of the structure that governs them, as is Elysium’s goal. There is confusion and suffering inherent to that.

Consider the family unit, thought inseparable by all within it. The family is aware that they are a group, a community bound by blood. One cannot be severed from family, one belongs there. However, Geburah still operates within that space, because the family’s traditions and morals will doubtlessly shape an appropriate manner to act within that community. Don’t speak against your parents lest you be spanked. Don’t tell lies, don’t leave food on the plate, don’t associate with criminals, don’t be gay. These are the family’s Laws, and failure to adhere to them comes with consequences meant to bring in line those who go against them. With Hod as shattered and weak as he is, Honor no longer finds its place here and rebelling against the arrangement causes friction which may well lead to expulsion, even from family. Don’t speak of the homosexual son, refuse the heroin addict uncle a place to stay the night, never call grandma. Those cast out must seek a new Community outside family, there is always a place for them where Binah is waiting. Failing that, they descend into Sathariel’s domains.

Let us also examine the relationship between a nation state’s supposed united community of people and the desperate criminals staking their own claim to city blocks and slums within it. One might consider the drug lords reigning over Rio’s favelas lawless, but in truth they simply operate on a different set of laws. The mistake is in assuming that the Law ascribed to the Community of the “nation” still applies to the people within the criminals’ sphere of influence. They have left that community behind and belong to another one, the set of Laws enshrined into that Community’s existence much different yet still Geburah’s to claim. Binah still governs their togetherness and the faltering Hod desperately inspires the community’s members to succeed and have pride in the rules which have been shaped for them.

The Pillar of Purity is an insulating one. It doesn’t concern itself with the other, for all power within this Pillar is focused on the ingroup. It is given form by Binah, walls by Geburah, and strength by Hod. Operating on all levels of society, it teaches humanity that they belong among each other and should strive to uphold that connection. That is a powerful lesson to embed in prisoners, making them feel at home in captivity. With Hod gone or weaker than ever, humanity begins to question that wisdom. Splinter groups, crypto-ideologies, and communities evolving and changing too fast for anyone to keep up are born from this lack of Honor. There is no longer an interest in maintaining the Community according to the Laws set forth by it, but instead a fight to question those Laws, to abandon those Communities. Find new belonging, write new ideals, but always be ready to jump ship and go somewhere else. Binah and Geburah still exist and prosper in this environment, but their grip on humanity is flimsier than ever before.

## Keystones

The AwokenThreadsElysiumThe PrinciplesOriginsMetropolisThe OthersRealmsInferno