If the Western esoteric tradition has a single master diagram, it is the Tree of Life. Ten circles joined by twenty two lines: on this figure the magicians of the last five centuries have arranged the planets, the elements, the tarot, the names of God, the virtues and vices, and the stages of the soul's ascent. To learn the Tree is to learn the filing system of the whole tradition. This page introduces it.
In brief
- The Tree of Life comes from Jewish mysticism. The Hermetic Qabalah is a later, distinct adaptation.
- Its ten spheres, the sephiroth, describe ten stages by which the One becomes the world.
- Seven of the spheres correspond to the seven planets of the Hermetic cosmos.
- Read downward, the Tree is a map of creation. Read upward, it is a path of return.
Three traditions, one diagram
Kabbalah, from a Hebrew word meaning that which is received, is the mystical tradition of Judaism. Its classical form emerged in southern France and Spain in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, building on older texts such as the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation. It is a living religious tradition with its own teachers, languages and obligations.
In the late fifteenth century Christian scholars, beginning with Pico della Mirandola, took up kabbalistic ideas and joined them to Hermetic and Platonic philosophy. From that meeting grew a third thing, which absorbed astrology, alchemy and ceremonial magic and reached its developed form in the nineteenth century. This is the Hermetic Qabalah, and the spelling with a Q is a common convention for keeping it distinct from its source.
The distinction matters. The Hermetic Qabalah borrows a great deal from Jewish Kabbalah and owes it acknowledgment. It is not the same thing and should not be presented as if it were. What follows describes the Hermetic adaptation.
The Tree of Life
Select any sphere on the diagram to read its description. Hebrew names are given in a common English transliteration, and you will meet other spellings elsewhere.
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1. Kether, the Crown
The first point, in which the limitless becomes a single thing. Pure being, before any division into this and that. In the person it is the innermost spark of identity, which is never an object of experience because it is what experiences.
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2. Chokmah, Wisdom
The first outpouring: force without form, the flash of the whole idea before it can be put into words. It is the great active principle, the father of the Tree.
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3. Binah, Understanding
The first form. Binah receives the force of Chokmah and gives it limit and shape, as a vessel gives shape to water. It is the great mother, and also the root of time, constraint and sorrow, since to take form is to become mortal.
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4. Chesed, Mercy
The power that builds, orders and gives. The just and generous ruler, the lawgiver, the provider. Its virtue is obedience to a higher order. Its fault, when unbalanced, is indulgence and the tyranny of good intentions.
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5. Geburah, Severity
The power that tests, prunes and destroys what has outlived its use. The surgeon and the warrior. Its virtues are courage and energy. Unbalanced, it becomes cruelty. The Tree teaches that mercy and severity are each incomplete without the other.
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6. Tiphareth, Beauty
The heart of the Tree, joined directly to every sphere but the last. Here the forces above and below are brought into harmony. In the person it is the true center of the self, and the first great goal of the work is to live from it. Its virtue is devotion to that work.
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7. Netzach, Victory
Feeling, desire and instinct; the power of attraction and the source of the arts. Netzach supplies the energy that the intellect lacks. Its virtue is unselfishness. Unbalanced, it is appetite without direction.
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8. Hod, Splendor
Intellect, language and system; the power to name, to reason and to make forms for thought. It is the sphere of books and of ritual technique. Its virtue is truthfulness. Unbalanced, it is cleverness cut off from life.
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9. Yesod, the Foundation
The subtle pattern underlying the physical world: imagination, dream, memory and habit. Everything descending into the world passes through it, and so does everything rising. Much of the early work of training is done here, in learning to steady the image making power.
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10. Malkuth, the Kingdom
The world of the body and the senses, where all the higher powers arrive and are made actual. It is not a fallen place. The tradition says that Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether. The work begins here and must return here. Its virtue is discrimination.
The three pillars
The spheres stand in three columns. On the right is the Pillar of Mercy, expansive and giving: Chokmah, Chesed, Netzach. On the left is the Pillar of Severity, restrictive and form giving: Binah, Geburah, Hod. Between them is the Pillar of Mildness or Equilibrium: Kether, Tiphareth, Yesod, Malkuth. The lesson of the arrangement is the principle of polarity made visible. Every force has its complement, and the way of ascent runs up the middle, between the opposites and in balance.
The four worlds
The Tree is also read as four levels of reality, each denser than the one before. They correspond to the four elements and to four stages in the making of anything.
| World | Meaning | Element | Stage of making |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atziluth | Emanation | Fire | The impulse or will to create |
| Briah | Creation | Water | The idea conceived |
| Yetzirah | Formation | Air | The detailed design or image |
| Assiah | Action | Earth | The finished thing in the world |
The twenty two paths
The lines that join the spheres are called paths, and there are twenty two of them, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If the spheres are states, the paths are the experiences of passing from one state to another. In the nineteenth century the twenty two trumps of the tarot were assigned to the paths, together with the elements, planets and signs of the zodiac, and this scheme is the basis of most modern esoteric use of the cards. The attributions were worked out late, and different schools arrange them differently.
Between the upper three spheres and the lower seven the tradition marks a gulf called the Abyss, the divide between the ideal and the actual. An eleventh, hidden sphere named Daath, Knowledge, is sometimes placed upon it.
How the Tree is used
The Tree serves the student in three ways. It is a filing system: any symbol, idea or experience can be assigned to a sphere and so related to everything else stored there. It is a map of the self, on which strengths and neglected faculties can be located. And it is a ladder. The spheres from Malkuth upward mark out an order of training, beginning with the body and the senses, proceeding through imagination, intellect and feeling, and arriving at the solar center of Tiphareth.
Practice
Learning the Tree
- Draw the Tree by hand, from memory, once a day for two weeks. Number the spheres and write their names.
- When you can do that without error, add the planets.
- Each evening, choose the one event of the day that stays with you and decide which sphere it belongs to. Write down your reason.
- After a month, count how the events are distributed. The empty spheres are as informative as the full ones.