The Tree of Life with Magical Symbols
The Tree of Life reveals many things. For instance, the glyph reveals how on a cosmic scale the One exists within the Many and the Many exist within the One. On the personal human scale it shows how a human being is made in God's image--how the personal energy field reflects the Universal Energy Field, or, in esorteric terms, how the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. This composite symbol presents ten energetic states as spheres, with the top sphere, the Crown, representing spiritual unity, and the bottom sphere, the Kingdom, representing the densest and most diverse physical manifestations. In other words, it reveals cosmic involution and human evolution. These spheres, known in Hebrew as “Sephiroth” (“Emanations”), are considered objective states of being and are treated as the first ten “paths” of the Tree of Life. Twenty-two other paths, eleven through thirty-two, are treated as subjective states that connect the Emanations.
Behind the first state of manifestation known as Kether, or Crown, are three veils of “negative existence,” aspects of the Source currently unknowable to the human mind. The process of the creation through the emanation of energy, known as involution, takes place in the first ten paths, or Sephiroth, in the Way of the Lightning:
The Way of Lightning
KETHER, the first Sephira, is the Crown of Creation from which everything in manifestation originates. Known as the first swirlings, this most primal stage of manifestation is a state of unity that holds the undifferentiated identities of all that exists. Emanated from the Great Unmanifest, which is unknowable to the human mind, Kether emanates all states of being represented by the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life.
CHOKMAH, or Wisdom, assigned to the zodiac, is the primordial Father, the second Sephira containing the potent, stimulating life-force, the archetypal expression of the "masculine" principle in the sense that it creates by going outside itself. Also considered the phallus of God, it contains the fiery seed of life, its force dynamic and expansive on all levels of being--physical, emotional, mental, archetypal and spiritual--but restricted by the opposite sphere on the Pillar of Severity.
BINAH, or Understanding, assigned to Saturn, is the primordial Mother, the third Sephira, which is limiting, formative, fertile, and nurturing, establishing polarity with Chokmah. The womb of the Goddess, Binah is the archetypal expression of the "feminine" principle, in the sense that it creates by bringing what is outside into itelf. Binah restricts the forces of Chokmah, establishing the ideal patterns that ultimately manifest as the diverse forms within creation, the many within the One. As the root of form, it also ushers in death below the abyss through the ceaseless cycles of creation and destruction, since all form dissolves to allow new life and regeneration.
A quasi-sphere called DAATH, or Knowledge, which is not a level of being in its own right, exists as a point of intersection between the Supernal triad and the spheres below the abyss, functioning as both a barrier and a gate between the realms of unity and those of individual being.
CHESED, or Mercy, assigned to Jupiter, is the first Sephira below the perfect supernal triad. It is a creative, anabolic, up building, organizing and ordering Emanation where the underlying ideal patterns begin to take form. Chesed is also known as ‘Gedulah,’ which means ‘greatness, ‘magnificence,’ ‘glory,’--the glory of creative force organizing in patterns that result in harmony and grace. As a level of consciousness, Chesed is the awareness of structure, of the inner patterns and possibilities that underly the world we experience. It is the highest point reached by the conscious mind of the Individuality, or soul, before the awakened personality can journey across the Abyss to the transpersonal realms.
GEBURAH, or Severity, assigned to Mars, establishes polarity with Chesed. Like Binah, it is restricting in nature, cutting back excess creative force, but it is also katabolic, breaking down complex substances to release beneficial energy. As such, it is also in a sense a necessary destructive force, burning away whatever does not serve the true Will. It eliminates falsehood for truth, disease for health, injustice for lawfulness, and the transitory for the Real. Imposing discipline, it removes obstacles and sacrifices a lesser for a higher good. As a level of consciousness, it is the awareness of inner freedom, the power to eliminate limitations--self-imposed or otherwise--and choose one's own path.
TIPHARETH, or Beauty, is the sphere that harmonizes and balances all the energies in the other Emanations of the Tree of Life. As such, it is the Christ center, reflecting Kether above it and equilibrating the energies to manifest divine harmony within the cosmos and the individual human being. Here resides the higher self which recognizes the unity of all creation, the light of consciousness in its most balanced and harmonious expression. As a level of consciousness, it is a state of absolute inner honesty in which we truly know ourselves. To it is assigned the Sun.
The Tree of Life with Minor Arcana and Court Cards
NETZACH, or Victory, assigned to Venus, is where the unified light of the sun in Tiphareth breaks into the diverse colors and patterns of multiplicity within nature. It is the victory of the Many reflecting the glory of the One within manifestation. On the human level it is the sphere of emotion, beauty and the arts. At the base of the Pillar of Mercy, it is also known as the sphere of illusion because below the veil emotions and forms are ultimately transitory.
HOD, or Glory, assigned to Mercury, at the base of the Pillar of Severity, is another sphere of severity and restriction, which limits and embodies the diverse forces of Netzach with types of form. Hod is a state that divides and distinguishes between things through forms of thought and perception. It is therefore considered to be the sphere of the thinking mind, the intellect that disciplines the force of emotion.
YESOD, or the Foundation, assigned to the Moon, completes the third triad, crystallizing the elemental energies before they become fixed in matter. The forces and forms below the veil are stabilized and given final shape before manifestation in the material universe. As a sphere of the Moon, it suggests fluid strength within the flux of force and form, as well as the depths of the subconscious mind, which is the realm of the basic drives and instincts as well as dreams and visions and psychic perception.
MALKUTH, or the Kingdom, which stands alone, receiving the influx from all of the other Sephiroth, is essentially the stable interaction of all the elements of the Tree reaching their fulfillment within manifestation. Dense, and therefore at times oppressive and harsh, the elements also achieve solidity and the quality of endurance, achieving the full expression of the Divine Will. Symbolically, the Bride in the Kingdom, conceived by the supernal Father and Mother, unites with the King in Tiphareth to form the complete expression of all of the elements.
The Way of the Serpent
Eventually, within a personal evolution, over many lifetimes, after fully developing all the energies represented by the Tree of Life, one experiences the culmination of the Great Work: Union with the Divine Source, as revealed by "The Way of the Serpent."
The Tree of Life incorporates all authentic spiritual traditions because it factors out the different energies behind existence that cultures from time immemorial have represented as symbols and archetypal figures; over time different Gods and Goddesses have become associated with the different “paths” on the Tree of Life because cultures throughout history have personified the same spiritual forces behind the material world in different symbolic forms.
If one tunes the mind to a particular energy represented on the Tree, intensely and sympathetically, that energy in the cosmos stimulates the corresponding latent energies of the self. Bridges to the energies in the macrocosm represented on the Tree include symbols in geometric form and the archetypal figures of the Gods; both allow the energy of the Emanation to flow into the mind, thereby strengthening the soul and hastening evolution, if used positively. In other words, whenever one touches the energy of a God or a Goddess, one actually brings through an aspect of the energy of a Sephira, or state of being, from the Tree, and concentrates it in the mind. If one, for instance, concentrates the energy of Tiphareth, the sphere of the Sun, the Christ-center, one might experience the vision of harmony, understanding the field upon field of energies interwoven harmoniously in one vast tapestry of life. Or, one might experience the opposing energy of pride, which selfishly exalts the ego above the One, a common experience, unfortunately, in too many churches. Polarity is inescapable: How the energy manifests depends entirely on the character and experience of the individual handling it.
Very real dangers exist when dealing with the Gods, no matter what culture has fashioned them, however. The energies invoked each have a positive and negative pole, a virtue and a vice, so to speak. The danger is that when concentrating a specific force during a ritual, one tends to heighten at some point in the operation the corresponding aspect of one’s personality, depending on the sphere one is contacting. If one is greedy (Malkuth), “idle” or spacey (Yesod), dishonest (Hod), lustful (Netzach), egocentric (Tiphareth), angry or cruel (Geburah), or prejudiced (Chesed), for example, there is a strong chance that one will become more so if one lacks the discipline to polarize from the negative to the positive poles when dealing with the forces. For instance, with any Goddess of Love, such as Venus or Hathor, on the positive end of the energetic spectrum is high spiritual love and compassion; on the other end is lack of chastity and lust. If one cannot polarize the force, moving, if necessary, from the adverse extreme to the positive pole, the energy is very likely to manifest in its adverse aspect. One can receive greater energy and courage from the martial Gods, but if one does not polarize from the negative pole, cruelty and destructiveness are the inevitable results. Truth is the highest ideal in the Mercurial realm of the intellect, the adverse side being dishonesty, which can, of course, have disastrous consequences.
Consciously moving by degree from a negative pole to a positive pole can liberate an individual and radically change a circumstance or even a civilization by altering detrimental patterns of behavior. For example, our society currently values Mars and Jupiter archetypes. The positive pole, or virtue, of the martial archetype is great strength and courage and energy, as well as the ability to burn away whatever does not serve the greater good of an individual or a community. The adverse pole, or vice, of the Mars archetype is destructiveness and cruelty. The virtue of the Jupiter archetype is obedience--the ability to obey the Divine Will for the highest good. The adverse pole of Jupiter consists of bigotry, hypocrisy, gluttony, tyranny--the attitude, in other words, that ignores the needs of the community and inflates the individual ego at the expense of others. Western civilization has evolved to the point that many people have generally “contacted” the energies of Geburah and Chesed, the spheres of Mars and Jupiter respectively, but too often the adverse aspects of the archetypal energies dominate.
After cleansing and unifying consciousness, one can begin to sense and contact the powerful energies of the cosmos, best represented by the symbols on the Tree of Life, to strengthen the corresponding energies within oneself, the ultimate goal being unity with the Divine Source. The process does not have a schedule; rather, it is an evolutionary, spiraling cycle where one continues to gain more experience, knowledge, and enlightenment as time goes on.