The Second Plane, Left Pillar is the tenuous yet severe station of the cosmic pillar that governs the sphere of Saturn (Binah) on the Tree of Life. In the Western esoteric tradition articulated by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Tree's three columns represent the active, passive, and equilibrating forces of creation. The Left Pillar, corresponding to the Pillar of Severity, is the passive, receptive, and restricting pole. The Second Plane specifically denotes the vertical rank of the third Sephirah, Binah—Understanding—positioned at the summit of this leftward column.

Position on the Tree of Life

On the diagrammatic Tree, the Second Plane is the second horizontal tier from the top (counting Kether as the first). The Left Pillar is the rightmost column when the Tree is oriented with Kether at the apex. Thus, the 2nd Plane, Left Pillar is the unique coordinate of Binah, the third Sephirah. Below it on the same pillar stand Geburah (5) and Hod (8).

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

The 2nd Plane, Left Pillar is directly governed by the planet Saturn. Saturn's astrological qualities—limitation, contraction, time, and profound structure—are the foundational energies of this position. As the highest and most dense point of the Severity Pillar, it represents the first formal restriction of the infinite light descending from Kether.

Historical Context

In the Yetziratic tradition, the Left Pillar is called the Pillar of Judgment, a term that predates the Golden Dawn and appears in the commentary on the Sepher Yetzirah. Here, the leftward columns correspond to the Hebrew letter Shin (fire) and the element of severity. The 777 table, following the Qabalistic schema of the Golden Dawn, crystalizes this by assigning the entire Second Plane, Left Pillar to the Sephirah Binah, the Great Sea that receives and contains all forms. The 17th century texts of Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata also echo this placement, emphasizing the left pillar as the throne of the Shin of 'Elohim' and the origin of the 'leftward emanation.'

The number 3 (the rank of Binah) is the number of the Three of Swords in the Tarot (Rider-Waite-Smith), which in the Golden Dawn correspondences is the card of 'Sorrow,' 'Loss,' and 'the withdrawal of things into their root,' all of which are expressions of this position's restrictive and form-giving nature.

In Liber 777, the 2nd Plane, Left Pillar appears each time the table column for "The Tree of Life" reaches the row for the Sephirah Binah (Scale Step 3). The entry is simply the coordinate, not a separate symbol, but a fixed point from which all other correspondences of that Sephirah (its colors, god-name, angelic order, etc.) are understood to be in the mode of 'Severity.'

Thus, the 2nd Plane, Left Pillar is less a thing to be named than a position—the seat of the Form, the place where the boundless becomes bounded, and the axis upon which all receptive, structuring power is measured.