Tree of Life

Origin

The image of the Tree of Life appears in Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 3 as the tree planted in the midst of Eden whose fruit conferred eternal life. Proverbs 3:18 identifies Wisdom (Chokmah) with the Tree of Life, providing a key link to the kabbalistic system. The technical Kabbalistic Tree, with its ten sefirot and twenty-two paths, emerges in the Sefer Yetzirah (between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE), which describes the ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters as the foundation of creation. The full diagram becomes standard in the 13th-century Spanish kabbalists, especially in the Zohar and the writings of Moshe de Leon and his contemporaries.

The visual form of the Tree as it is most commonly drawn today, with three columns and four worlds, was systematised by the 16th-century kabbalists of Safed, especially Isaac Luria and his circle. Luria's diagrams added the doctrines of tzimtzum, the broken vessels, and the partzufim. Christian kabbalists from Pico della Mirandola onward adapted the diagram, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the late 19th century produced the version most widely used in contemporary Western esotericism, with the twenty-two paths assigned to the twenty-two Hebrew letters and to the twenty-two Major Arcana of the tarot. The standard modern reference is Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah (1935).

The ten sefirot and three pillars

The ten sefirot are arrayed in three vertical columns. The right pillar (Mercy) holds Chokmah (Wisdom), Chesed (Mercy), and Netzach (Victory). The left pillar (Severity) holds Binah (Understanding), Gevurah (Severity), and Hod (Splendour). The middle pillar (Equilibrium) holds Keter (Crown), Tiferet (Beauty), Yesod (Foundation), and Malkuth (Kingdom). The right pillar is expansive, generous, masculine in symbolic terms; the left is restrictive, formative, feminine; the middle is the path of balance and consciousness that synthesises the two. Between Binah and Chesed lies the Abyss, the chasm of Da'ath (Knowledge), the non-sefirah that marks the gap between the supernal triad and the lower seven.

The Tree is also divided into four worlds, each a complete Tree at a different level of reality. Atziluth, the world of emanation, is the realm of pure divinity, associated with the element fire and the letter Yod of the divine name. Beriah, creation, is the realm of the archangels, water, and the first Heh. Yetzirah, formation, is the realm of the angels, air, and Vau. Assiah, action, is the realm of material manifestation, earth, and the final Heh. The same sefirah operates differently in each world: Keter in Atziluth is the divine root, Keter in Assiah is the pure consciousness of the material soul. This nested structure is one of the great architectures of Western esoteric thought.

In practice

Begin by memorising the names, positions, and basic attributes of the ten sefirot, working from Malkuth upward (the traditional direction of ascent) or from Keter downward (the direction of emanation). Draw the Tree by hand. Place objects, colours, planets, tarot cards, and Hebrew letters in their proper positions on the diagram. Each sefirah has a colour scale, a divine name, an archangel, an angelic order, a planetary correspondence, and a tarot Minor Arcana association. Each path has a Hebrew letter, a tarot Major Arcana, and an astrological correspondence. Building these associations is the foundation of all subsequent work.

The Golden Dawn system of pathworking provides guided meditation through each of the twenty-two paths, ascending from Malkuth toward Keter. Begin with the lower paths and proceed slowly. Daily practice may include the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (a kabbalistic ritual frame), invocation of the divine name of the sefirah you are studying, and contemplation of the corresponding tarot card. Combine with study of Kabbalah, sefirot, and the Hermetic tradition that integrates these elements with tarot and astrology.

Symbolic depth

The Tree of Life provides the most complete and integrated symbolic system in Western esotericism. It bridges theology (the names and attributes of God), cosmology (the structure of the worlds), psychology (the architecture of the soul), and practice (the path of ascent and return). Its ten sefirot account for every quality and gradation between the unmanifest source and dense material existence. Its twenty-two paths describe every relation between these gradations. The Tree thus functions as a master key that unlocks correspondences between previously isolated symbol systems: tarot, astrology, alchemy, numerology, and Hebrew letter mysticism all find their places on the diagram.

In tarot, the Golden Dawn attribution places each of the twenty-two Major Arcana on one of the twenty-two paths. The Fool is the path from Keter to Chokmah, the Magician from Keter to Binah, the High Priestess from Keter to Tiferet, and so on through the Universe (World) at the path from Yesod to Malkuth. The ten pip cards of each Minor Arcana suit correspond to the ten sefirot in one of the four worlds, with the four court cards representing the four worlds themselves. In astrology, the seven traditional planets, the twelve signs, and the three elements (fire, water, air) together account for the twenty-two paths. Continue with sefirot, Kabbalah, and the complete glossary.

Also known as

• Etz Chayim
• kabbalistic tree
• sephirotic tree
• tree of the sefirot
• cosmic tree