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Chesed, pronounced Khey-zed and meaning Mercy is one of the pair of sephiroth that mark the first level below the abyss of Daath. These are therefore very archetypes of force and form as will be seen from their respective planetary (or Mundane Chakra to give it its formal name) bodies. Think of all the associations you have for Jupiter = Chesed and you will begin to get a sense of the power and purpose of this sephirah.
The Jupiter force has always been seen as expansive and merciful. It gives and empowers rather than takes away, it frees rather than constrains; and yet it is part of a pairing with its partner across on the constraining pillar of Form, Geburah. What does this mean?
The answer lies in the way things become, or come into being. They do not just appear, finished. The act of creation has stages, like notes being played out on an harmonic instrument. These two sephiroth symbolise the basic polarity of the manifestation of Organisation. Chesed empowers and expands, Geburah gives shape and meaningful form to stop that expansive force being wasted.
Think of an engine: the fuel combusts to give the driving energy but the piston/cylinder is the form that turns the raw, expansive energy into the force that can be used further down the tree, where (in this analogy) the actual wheels of the vehicle turn, and the idea of powered movement, born in Kether, is realised in the world.
Chesed and Geburah are a microcosm of the whole tree. Their names, Mercy and Severity, have become synonymous with the positive and negative pillars themselves.
Go to the next sephirah, Geburah
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