A Study of The Tree of Life
Why? Why have a whole page of our website devoted to the Tree of Life? Surely the SRIA regards it asno more than an optional extra, which is obscure and difficult anyway?
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It underlies so much else
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Thebasics are incredibly simple
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You'll need it later
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It's mentioned in the Zelator ceremony and your whole
progress in the order is built around it
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Sure you can spend several lifetimes on study of the
topic and certainly it can be complicated - but it's simple at heart
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The Tree is formally introduced in the first Adept
Grade and there's room for an inferiority complex if you know nothing
at all about it
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The words Kabbalah, Cabala and Qabalah are a transliteration (the original word is Hebrew). There are 3 varients with a slightly different emphasis for each:
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Kabbalah
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Cabala
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Qabalah
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This is
Jewish mysticism: an oral tradition going back to at least the 2nd Century
BC and probably much further, possibly to the Chaldeans. In medieval
times it aquired North African Arab and Sufi ideas
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Usual term
for the spread of a body of Jewish mystical ideas into Christianity.
Such concepts peaked in Renaissance times but went on to influence Christian
mystics and Martinism
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A mid 19th
Century spelling that reflects a blending of Jewish and Christian thought
with the Hermetic Arts and Sciences, Rosicrucianism and Masonic thought,
astrology, the Golden Dawn etc.
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The Tree of of Life (or Otz Chi'im) consists of 10 Sephiroth (1 Sephira, 2 or more Serphiroth); spheres of activity, which are seen as 'Aspects' of God, reflected in the mind of man. The tree represents the Creative Forces of the Universe. It looks like the diagram below and the principal correspondences are shown
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BINAH (bee-nar) Understanding Saturn - a Mature Woman |
KETHER (ket-er) The Crown |
CHOKMAH (hok-mar) Wisdom Bearded Male |
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GEBURHA (geb-ur-ar) Justice Mars - Warrior in a Chariot Archangel: Kamael ____________________ TIPHARETH (tiff-a-reth) Sun - Christ; a Sacrificed God ____________________ HOD (hod) Splendour Mercury - A Hermaphrodite Archangel: Michael |
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CHESED (hes-ed) Mercy Jupiter - Mighty Monarch Archangel: Tzadkiel ___________________ Beauty Archangel: Raphael ___________________ NETZACH (net-zark) Victory Venus - A Beautiful Woman Archangle: Uriel |
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Pillar of Severity Boaz |
YESOD (ess-odd) Foundation Moon - Strong Man (Atlas) Archangel: Gabriel ______________________ MALKUTH (mal-kut) Kingdom Earth, the Elements - Bride Archangel: Sandelphon |
Pillar of Marcy Jachin |
The kind of 'pathworking' (a sort of guided meditation) that John Paternoster talked us through at the Trienniel Conference in Cambridge requires an understanding of how the Tarot fits in with the Tree. In case you haven't looked at a Tarot pack, there are 78 cards: 22 'Trumps' and 4 suits (wands, cups, swords, and pentacles or coins) of 14 cards each (King, Queen, Knight, Page and 1 to 10)
First several pieces of nearly useless information:-
