back to The Traditional Tree of Life
back to The Tree of Life Corrected
next: The Hebrew Alphabet
| The Sephiroth | The Path of the Middle Pillar |
It is one thing to change the traditional Tree of Life, but how does this impact the other kabbalistic doctrines related to the Tree? With the traditional Tree of Life different kabbalists place certain subjects on the Tree in different ways, without any explanation as to why they do so. For example, the Veil is sometimes placed under Yesod, sometimes above; or the four Worlds are divided differently over the Tree. With the new Tree of Life I will explain why this system allows for a more coherent and meaningful assignment of these issues to the Tree.
First, we have to keep in mind that although Kether is depicted as a Sephirah like all the others, it is actually a direct emanation from the Divine, a Crown that sits upon the Tree of life, as a crown sits on the head of a man, sometimes it is considered a point of light.
| When numbering the
Sephiroth, Daath gets included, as the two new Sephiroth above Malkuth,
which I will name Desire and Instinct. Kether as the Crown sits on top of the Tree of Life, as Kether is actually a connection point to the Divine. It does not get included in the numbering of the Sephiroth. Thus we start numbering at the first emanated Sephirah, Chochmah. Thus we have twelve Sephirah. |
 |
Twelve is the number of possibilities and potencies one can experience in the physical world. It is necessary to pass through all the possible experiences of this earthy existence before transcending to the next planes. In the gospels, Jesus had twelve disciples. Twelve here is symbolical and is probably based on older knowledge. The twelve disciples represent the twelve earthy energies; Jesus is the one who transcends them. Jesus dies and is resurrected, the disciples stay behind and remain human beings.
The number twelve is also found in the zodiac. Why divide the zodiac into twelve signs? Because this the number of energies the soul has to go through in its human evolution. Jesus’ symbol was the fish, or the astrological sign of Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac before transcending it.
I do not want to impose the twelve astrological signs on the New tree of Life, as it is a totally different system, but it is tempting, especially when we consider Jesus Christ as the Thirteenth who transcended (resurrected) the twelve, in this case referring to Kether where the resurrection into the Divine happens.
The Triad of the World of Assiah
| I have kept the traditional names of the Sephiroth, although the names themselves don't tell us much about the Sephiroth content. The new 10th and 11th Sephiroth I have named Desire and Instinct. |
 |
Assiah is the world of physicality, of appearances, of action, of becoming. Like the other three worlds it consists of two opposite energies which create an equilibrium in a third. I mentioned before that those two Sephiroth were probably left out because they are pure animalistic archetypes that have been suppressed by the Catholic Church for almost two millennia. Even Yesod, to which sexuality is attributed, is almost never explained as such, but instead is more often explained in terms of the foundation of this world, or as righteousness. Kabbala is very much an intellectual system, and it is well known that intellectual people don't pay much attention, if any at all, to issues of sexuality, or animalistic or bodily sensations. In the climate of Catholicism, or any other religious power for that matter, all those basic human "lower" feelings were strictly taboo, and sometimes openly called evil. Especially for the clergy, and that is where the intellectuals were, and mystics, and this had to be repressed. It is no wonder that certain mystics had tortuous visions of sexuality.
Man on the physical level, is, in the first place, a mammal. That is we have the body of an animal. Maybe religious people don't like this, but this is a fact. We have the body of an animal that is driven by two very primal archetypes: desire and instinct. In accordance with the right pillar of the Tree, the Sephirah Desire is a free flowing energy, that drives physical man to obtain what he needs to survive. Survival is the element of Malkuth. In accordance with the left pillar of the Tree, Instinct is a restricting energy, shaping the free flowing energy of desire into practicality. Instinct is formed by many, many experiences. Instinct forms programs that are highly effective in obtaining what physical man needs to survive. Desire by itself would lead to dangerous situations, like eating a poisonous plant; instinct will prevent this from happening. If desire is not present, instinct alone is not enough to drive one to go out and confront the obstacles to going out to find food and eat at all. Desire and Instinct thus balance each other and guarantee survival in the physical world of Malkuth.
How does all this tie in with Yesod, which, in the traditional system, is said to be the foundation of Malkuth, or the physical world? After the physical body is guranteed its own survival, the next thing it will do is to guarantee the survival of its species, by means of procreation, an thus sexuality comes into play, an attribute of Yesod. And yes, Yesod is still the foundation, because procreation is the foundation of the physical manifestation of a species, and thus also of man. And Yesod, as archetype of sexuality, creates desire (Desire being the next Sephirah). Desire for the other sex, desire for sexual expression, and all the other desires needed for survival.
There are other ways to look at the Sephiroth of Desire and Instinct. When we look what makes up the physical world, then we are talking about electromagnetism. Electrical energy corresponds with the Sephirah Desire, and magnetism with the Sephirah Instinct. We can also talk about the subtle physical energies like prana from the Hindu, yoga, yantric systems, and the subtle etheric energies flowing through the meridians of which it said that they are part of the physical body but just not quite physical.
|
We still have the same three pillars, positive, negative and neutral, each containing four Sephiroth. In the process of emanation and creation, there is the same flow of energy going down the Tree. Every time when the Shekinah rests, a Sephirah is created. When the Shekinah rises, or when one's consciousness is expanding and rising up the Tree, the reverse path is taken. The flow of energy is all regular, no big leap from Binah to Chockmah, or a sudden vertical fall from Yesod to Malkuth. |
|
|
With the New tree of Life, the four Worlds each contain a triad of Sephiroth. Each triad is formed of two opposite Sephiroth with a resulting equilibrium, a third Sephirah on the middle pillar. We have four Sephirah on each of the tree pillars. The Sephiroth on the middle pillar also acts as a transformation station between two worlds, except for Malkuth where the creation process stops. (Later we will see that the Sephiroth on the middle pillar are places for transformation of consciousness.) This is similar to the philosophy of the chakras. Chakras are also transformation stations where energy of transformed from one level into another. |
|
|
With this new Tree of Life we have a real dynamic flow of divine energy throughout the Tree. We have already shown that each world is equally divided over the Tree, and each world has a triad. I have shown these triads in their traditional form, that is a pair of opposites create a third one, thus we have triangle that points downwards. |
|
|
With the New Tree of Life we get a more complete picture. Not only do we have four downward pointing triads, but we also have four upward pointing triads. Each world has two triads that interconnect, actually all the triads are interconnected. That is the dynamic movement up and down the Tree, covering all the Sephiroth and linking all the worlds together. It starts with Kether, the divine light source that produces the first two Sephiroth. Binah and Chockmah create their balance in Daath. That is a traditional triad. But Daath creates Chesed and Geburah, which also is a triad. And the process repeats itself. Not only do we have a dynamic play of forces between the two opposite pillars, between the negative and positive poles of duality; but we also have a dynamic play of forces between the interlocking triangles, creating the four worlds, by repeating the process each time on a lower level/world. It is like a lower world is a reflection of the world above. For the New Tree of Life this is valid for the entire Tree, for all the worlds, for all the Sephiroth, and all the triads. |
|
|
The Sephiroth on the middle pillar, Yesod, Tiphereth and Daath are the connection points between the triangles as they are each part of two triangles. They are the transfer stations we talked about, the places where one world touches the other, where the energy of one world flows into and is transformed in another. These three Sephirah hold the three worlds together. |
|
There is another argument to make to call them transfer stations, and why the dividing line between the four worlds runs through them. This is based on the traditional explanation of the middle pillar, which is the immediate path to the Divine, and on which the transformation of the individual happens.
When we go down the Tree (on the middle pillar of consciousness), on the path of emanation and creation, we first have Kether, where the divine monad is (what we all are in essence) in unity with the Divine. Then we have Daath where the monad gets knowledge of itself as a separate unity. It is aware of the unity of opposites in the world of Atziluth, including the consciousness of being the opposites of 'me and the Divine'.
But this divine essence, which has a sense of "I", looks downwards and wants to create. Not only is the next world, Briah created, but it creates itself the sense of an ego, of being an individual, reflected in Tiphereth. Now it sees itself as the center of the universe, and of the Tree of Life.
Again it wants to express itself even more, and creates the world of Yetzirah, and an animal self in order to experience form and procreation. This happens in Yesod.
Finally it builds itself a physical body in the physical world, the ultimate downwards transformation of itself in its most crystallized form. In Malkuth is the transformation of becoming. It is the transformation of coming down here in the physical world by birth, growing up, learning, developing consciousness. I Malkuth one becomes more than just a body.
Then it is time to go up the Tree, the mystical path of transformation. The first transformation happens in Yesod. It is a basic requirement in all initiatory rites, the first thing to happen is the transformation of the animal self, not by suppression, but becoming aware of the 'lower' emotions of passions, desires and sexuality. Then one should learn not to be dominated by these emotions, but to dominate them, to rise above them, to use them when necessary, and to transform the rest of their energies into higher energies. Otherwise one will be bound by animal energies and get nowhere. It is not for nothing that we call people who act primarily from their lower energies 'animals'. But we should not forget that we all have those animal energies in ourselves. And that it is what makes us survive in the physical world.
Having 'killed' the 'beast' or 'dragon' in ourselves we can truly be called human. Here we are in Tiphereth, and act with higher emotional energies. The emotions and feelings are more refined. In Tiphereth is the sense of ego, and this is the next transformation that needs to happen. The ego is a construct and tries to maintain its existence by reinforcing "I-Me-Mine". The ego is a necessary value to express ourselves but it keeps us separated from others. It is when we open up to other people, to other living beings on the planet, to nature, to the energies around us, to the entire universe, that a profound transformation happens. The sense of ego diminishes and one finds oneself as a part of a complex world of beings, like and unlike oneself. Here a person starts to feel that he is one with the universe. Sacrifice of the ego is traditionally symbolized by the crucifixion, which is one the symbols of Tiphereth.
The next transformation happens in Daath when one enters the world of Atziluth. In Daath one not only gains knowledge of his divine self, but one becomes his divine essence. Actually he always has been, but now he has become aware of it again. In Daath he transcends the strong sense of duality that still pervaded his being in the world of Briah, and now he knows the duality is only a perception. Now he sees duality in unity. In Daath he enters into unity. Although there is still a sense of duality between "I" and the Divine, he is in unity with the divine energies and everything that exists. This is a profound transformation called in yoga terms the transformation into the diamond body, it is the realization of the "true essence" of man.
The last transformation happens in Kether where one enters the Divine, not to return anymore.
Also note that coming down the Tree of Life, be it via the middle pillar, or via the way of the Shekinah (through the successive Sephiroth), it is a process of continuing contraction. Ascending the Tree is a process of continuing expansion.
The Boundaries of the Four Worlds
|
A word here on the Veil and the Abyss. Information is not available about them. There is not really a veil or an abyss, they are symbols for a transformation, a leap in consciousness, or a leap into another world. There should also be a third boundary that I have called the Wall. I will explain here why there is a third one, why they are all situated on the boundaries between the four Worlds. |
|
|
The Veil Different kabbalists place the Veil on different places, sometimes underneath Tiphereth, sometimes just above or below Yesod. They don't seem to know just where to put it. What actually is the meaning of those two terms? They are boundaries. A veil or curtain is often used in initiations. Once one has passed the veil or curtain one has stepped into another, hidden world. Like the Veil behind the High priestess in the Tarot. The Abyss has the same meaning. Crossing the Abyss means that one has stepped into another realm. A veil or curtain is made out of cloth, and cloth is the most natural, man-made thing used to cover things up. The genitals (Yesod) is the first area of the body that is covered up with a piece of cloth. It is my opinion that the Veil on the Tree of Life is situated at the boundary of the world of Assiah and the world of Yetzirah. That is in complete accordance with the traditional meaning of initiating a novice. One leaves the mundane world aside and steps for the first time into the inner realms of the human psyche which lie just beyond the physical. It is called the Veil because a veil covers up something. Lifting a veil or a curtain is like stepping in another room. |
copyright Carol Herzer |
|
The Abyss The Abyss traditionally is situated underneath Chochmah and Binah, and it is said that Daath lies across it. This corresponds with the boundary of the world of Briah and the world of Atziluth. This boundary is called the Abyss because the transformation that happens here when ascending the Tree is like stepping into an abyss, into a void, into an emptiness of the mind. The exact same terms are used in Buddhism to describe the experience of discovering the divine and true essence of man. This is a real experience, not an abstract concept. |
stepping into the Abyss copyright 2003 by Dirk Gillabel |
|
The Wall There should be a third boundary between the world of Briah and the world of Yetzirah, which runs through Tiphereth. I call it the Wall, because here the transformation of the ego happens. Building an ego is like building a stone tower. Living in this self-enclosed tower, it is a wall that separates one from the outer world, that is of feeling one with the rest of creation. It is in our language when we speak of somebody who has built a wall around himself, of breaking down walls between people. The Berlin wall was built to divide people, it was broken down to unite people. Becoming selfless, or sacrificing the ego when ascending the Tree is like breaking down a hard wall, as the ego is tough to dissolve. |
|
|
In the traditional kabbala, the 22 letters are attributed to the 22 paths. It seems so logical, 22 letters and 22 paths, that can't be a coincidence, is it? I think that that the Hebrew alphabet cannot be attributed to Tree of Life as it is usually done. I have already mentioned that the paths on the traditional Tree of Life are not consistent. Bring Daath in the Tree and the number of paths already changes. Moreover the Tree of Life did not always have 22 paths. An example of this you can see to the right. The Hebrew Alphabet has its own system, meaning, explanation, but do not a relationship with the paths. However there are a couple of letters that are traditionally used to express certain qualities about the Tree and with this I agree. You can find more information here: The Hebrew Alphabet |
 Tree of Life, by Paulus Richius |
