Hod Qlifa | הוד קליפה
As it is the sphere of the intellect, the spiritual experience is the Vision of Splendor (the splendor of the mind) which is the truth of the spirit shining through the mind. Or in other words, the mind's perception of truth shining through the forms. Precisely, the virtue or quality of Hod is truth (and therefore truthfulness). Truth is said to be the seal of God. The vision of Splendor consists in the contemplation that in their essence all things are but luminous reflections of the divine being itself.
In the world of form, truth is always relative. As we descend through the Tree and the Light undergoes a progressive diminution, truth also seems to be behind a veil, as when we have to look through a dark glass or a set of curtains. The assertion by many that there is no such thing as absolute truth must then be understood to mean that on the planes of form we know only relative manifestations or partial truths. What is more difficult to admit is that this is due to the inherent limitations of rational discourse.
The intellect can generate the illusion of rationality: everything follows an order that can be explained. The intellect is a formal instrument by means of which we analyze, classify, define and conceptualize reality. As reality is embodied in a series of logical explanatory chains, an image of order emerges from mental activity. Hod's illusion is to elevate this logical order to the category of absolute. For everything there are reasons. In our times it is a very difficult illusion to overcome. If we join to this the illusion of Malkuth (there is only the physical) we have the basis of modern science. It is necessary to put reason in perspective. We must bear in mind that the fact that everything happens for a reason in the spiritual order does not mean that it has a rational explanation. Just as there is the field of the pre-rational, there is also the domain of the supra-rational, which is another name for the spirit.
Therefore, the virtue of Hod is honesty (truthfulness in thought, word and relationship) which implies a sincere search for truth, i.e., reason put to the purpose of reflecting and transmitting the higher light, but also the recognition of intrinsic limits to the very process of rational knowledge. It must be kept in mind that society is also language and therefore Hod is the sphere of relationships and communication. And honesty, with its connotations of good intention, truth, sincerity, transparency and reciprocity, is like the lubricant that makes relationships work, while dishonesty, the vice of Hod, which entails lies, deceit, fraud, theft and injustice, is like the rust that corrodes them.
Honesty is, finally, an indispensable virtue to have access to one's own Tiferet. There is no true introspection without honesty with oneself and this is something to learn: to analyze ourselves truthfully, not to lie to ourselves or self-deceive about our true motivations and feelings, to recognize our true way of being, with virtues and defects, dismantling the defense mechanisms we have built to evade the pain of seeing clearly how we are and how we have acted in the past. The ego is always looking for excuses and blaming others or circumstances for what it does not like about itself. Or it seeks to rely on theories and reasons to justify its behavior to itself and others. This is not compatible with Tiferet, which begins by accepting the truth about the self without regrets or victimhood.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Eighth Word, the commandment, is "thou shalt not steal". Stealing is, on the one hand, a form of lying and abuse of social language and, on the other hand, a violation of the principle of reciprocity, since we seek to obtain something without giving anything in return. This could be an affirmative formulation of the commandment: For everything you must pay a price. And this, like the concept of theft itself, applies to all relationships, at all levels. An excessive development of, let us say, our material nature to the detriment of our spiritual part is a form of theft. There is theft of time, which also implies theft of thought. There is theft of honor, of fame, of the respect due to others. This includes not only slander, but half-truths, spreading rumors, gossip... even if what is said is "true", if the underlying intention is not to help the other. Most likely the opposite will happen, that the intention will be to destroy, or at least diminish in some way, the fame of the other.
The Qlifa of Hod is the lie. We imagine a truth that is not true and we deceive, first, ourselves and then others. Now, the main problem is not the deception itself, but not being aware that we are deceiving others.
The Netzach-Hod relationship is disturbed when true emotions are hidden behind structured language. In fact, the transgression of Hod allows structured language to be used to distort the emotions flowing from Netzach.
The question to deal with the negativity of Hod is: how do I deal with the lie? My lie and the lie of others. I must make a profound effort to grasp the lie, because in this world of the fragmentation of bet, good and evil are mixed, so that it is possible for a formal truth to be a substantial lie and a formal lie to be a substantial truth. To grasp and discover where the lies lie, so that they can be corrected, is a lifelong job.
The only way to build trust is through truth and although we know that, because of our finite structure, all human truth is a limited perspective of truth, we are aware of the nature of lying.
One thing is the perspective of truth that each one may have, that is, the interpretation of an event or an idea, and quite another is to justify lying by saying that it is a perspective of interpretation.
This is the strategy of the lie, to appear as a formal truth, when in substance we know that it is a lie. How can we differentiate a finite perspective of human truth from the lie? Where are the limits? We could say that the substantial level of the lie comes from the point of analysis from which we start. However, this is incorrect.