Understanding

• Keywords: Discipline, Time and Space
• Wish Imperative: Here the Tree inculcates the importance of discipline and persistence in achieving any wish. Adopting some sort of personal discipline— swearing off caffeine or pledging to meditate at least 15 minutes every day—will invigorate your own powers of manifestation.
• Hebrew name of sphere: Binah
• Myth and Personalities: The myth of the Great Mother
• Planet: Saturn
• Dark side: Fear
• Color: Dark Indigo
• Number: 3
• Tree: Beech
• Body Part: Left Brain
• Name of God: Elohim (the materializing feminine aspect of God)

The word Understanding (Binah) follows next. No wonder few of us can understand Wisdom; Wisdom arrives in the creation before the sphere that gives birth to Understanding. This third sphere imparts the energies we need to comprehend ourselves, our identity, and our mission in life. It brings us logic, science, education, and discipline, as well as the concepts of time and space that provide a structure in which to practice all that science and discipline. This sphere is colored dark indigo. Understanding marks the first sphere to be assigned an astrological planet. It brings Saturn, the ruler of Aquarius and Capricorn and the planet associated in traditional astrology with malevolence, plagues, disasters, and other misfortunes. But Kabbalistic astrology places Saturn in the most lofty and vital domain, the closest of all the planets to Crown and the Will of God. In your chart, Understanding—represented by Saturn—highlights the area of life in which you must practice persistence and focus in order to succeed and grow. Saturn helps us in the Understanding of our Tikkun (fixing our soul), as well as with the construction of a structure (such as regular yoga, meditation, community and service) that will drive that rectification.