C. The Qabalistic Tree of Life
Introduction
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Virtually all books on the subject of the Qabalah feature one or more forms
of the map of consciousness known as the "Tree of Life." The Tree
of Life objectively represents the physio-spiritual entirety of both the
individual soul, or Microcosm "created in the image of Elohim,"
and the Divine Soul, or Macrocosm as the "Body of Celestial Man (Adam
Kadmon)." Thus, the Hebrew word adam (lit. man), like the
word purusha in Sanskrit, denotes both the individual person and
the Supreme Persona of the Divine Self.
"And upon the likeness of the throne was the appearance of Adam upon
it from above." (Ezekiel 1:26)
As touched upon earlier, the Tree of Life is the qabalistic equivalent of
the Tantric Chakras (see Diagram)
and Sufi LatifasSee "Sufi Kundalini," Pir Vilayat Khan, The Message, May,
1978.. The Sefiroth of the Tree of Life, the Chakras, and the
Latifas represent the same succession of centers or stations of consciousness
that correspond to various nerve plexi along the spinal column and cerebrum.
The Chakric and Sufi Trees have only one format, with all of their centers
in a single vertical row. In contrast, there is a considerable variety of
Trees of Life in the Qabalah. Some are flat and linear with one (see
Diagram), two (see Diagram),
or three vertical columns (see Diagram);
some are flat and circular (see Diagram);
and yet others are three-dimensional (see
Diagram). Almost all books on the Qabalah contain only diagrams
of flat Trees. Most of those flat Trees have a straight vertical trunk called
the "Central Column," flanked by two parallel side branches called
the "Side Columns," or the "Column of the Right" and
the "Column of the Left."
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A pattern of ten circles connected by lines is superimposed upon the three
columns. The circles are known individually as "Sefirah" (sphere)
and collectively as "Sefiroth" (spheres). There are two very different
sets of names for the same Sefiroth. One rarely used set comes from the
Sefer Yetzirah, and one widely known and used set comes from
the Zohar. So that the reader will get familiar with the parlance
of both books, the Sefiroth will be referred to by both sets of names. The
Zoharic name of each Sefirah will be given first, followed by the one from
the Sefer Yetzirah. The Yetzirathic names are each preceded
by the qualifying phrase "Depth of" (Omehq), but for the
sake of brevity this designation will usually be dropped when referring
to them. The two names will be separated by a forward slash e.g. Sefirah
Crown/Above, Sefirah Wisdom/East, and so forth. Also, for the sake of brevity,
the Zoharic Sefirah Knowledge of the Ayn will be referred to simply
as Sefirah Knowledge. The Sefiroth are said to be emanations from the unmanifest,
undifferentiated Divine Source. They form a set of four self-consistent
worlds or planes of existence within which creatures can exist due to the
relative orderliness and smoothness of change. The Sefer YetzirahSefer Yetzirah 1:5 tells us that the Sefiroth emanate as pairs of opposites, such as East and
West, Crown and Foundation, and Water and Fire.
The Sefiroth are linked among one another by "gates." Each of
the interconnecting gates is associated with a specific Hebrew letter. The
Sefer Yetzirah is the primary source for the teachings regarding
the nature of the letters and their distribution among the Sefiroth on the
Tree. The gates connecting the Sefiroth are doors that allow our consciousness
to travel from one plane of existence to another. For example, all living
beings pass through two gates connecting three Sefiroth every day and night.
The physical plane, which is the waking state of dualistic consciousness
in most human beings, is represented by the Sefirah at the very bottom of
the Tree called "Kingdom" (there is no equivalent in the Sefer
Yetzirah since it only yields Trees of Perfections). When we go
to sleep at night, we first move through the Gate of the letter Beyt that
links Sefirah Kingdom to Sefirah Foundation/Below, and into the Geviyah
(astral shell) in the World of Formation. All people do this every night,
and the vast majority experience it as an unconscious state of REM sleep.
However, if the gate is crossed while maintaining awarenness, it will be
experienced as a conscious dream state. Sefirah Foundation/Below is the
point of departure from which we may enter the psychic states by passing
through one of the gates into the side columns, or enter even higher levels
of consciousness by moving further up the Central Column into Sefirah Beauty/Last.
When we pass through the next gate up the Central Column of the Tree, called
the Gate of the Gimel, we move into the Sefirah Beauty/Last. Almost all
people experience Sefirah Beauty/Last as deep sleep, and pass through the
two gates and among the three lower centers unconsciously. Some individuals
are able to transit to and from these three lower centers consciously, and
there are those who can dual process information from the waking and astral
states simultaneously as a matter of course.
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