The Mystical Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is the central diagram of Kabbalah and of the Hermetic Qabalah that derives from it. The classical Jewish Tree arranges the ten sephirot in a particular pattern, joined by twenty-two paths, and reads the pattern as a map of reality, a contemplative diagram, and a structural model of the soul. The Hermetic version of the Tree uses the same ten sephirot and the same twenty-two paths, but adds an extensive table of correspondences drawn from tarot, astrology, alchemy, and the Western magical tradition. This article describes the classical structure in detail, with notes on the four classical worlds, and indicates briefly how the Jewish Tree and the Hermetic Tree differ.

For a beginner’s introduction, see what is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. For the sephirot themselves, see the ten sephirot: ten emanations of the divine. For the Hermetic adaptation, see Hermetic Qabalah and Western esotericism.

The shape of the tree

A small note for the reader who is new to the diagram: ten circles in a particular arrangement, joined in a particular pattern, with a set of names and numbers attached. The shape is shown below in the standard form, with the highest sephirah at the top and the lowest at the bottom.

                 Keter
              Chokhmah  Binah
                Chesed  Geburah
                  Tiferet
                Netzach  Hod
                    Yesod
                   Malkuth

(The three vertical columns and the twenty-two paths connecting the sephirot in the standard pattern are described in the text below.)

The three columns are the supporting structure of the sephirotic diagram. The right-hand column is the pillar of mercy, consisting of Chokhmah, Chesed, and Netzach, and represents the masculine, expansive, outgoing force. The left-hand column is the pillar of severity, consisting of Binah, Geburah, and Hod, and represents the feminine, receptive, restraining force. The middle column, called the pillar of equilibrium or the pillar of mildness, consists of Keter, Tiferet, Yesod, and Malkuth (vertically: Keter at the top, Tiferet in the centre, Yesod directly below Tiferet, and Malkuth at the bottom). Yesod sits directly below Tiferet on the central pillar; Netzach and Hod are on the side pillars, not flanking the middle. The three pillars express the polarity and balance of the sephirotic structure: the masculine (mercy, expansion) on the right, the feminine (severity, restriction) on the left, and the central equilibrium between them. The three pillars are also sometimes called the pillars of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, after the columns of Solomon’s Temple, Jachin and Boaz, with Tiferet (Beauty) at the centre.

The ten sephirot are also grouped into three triangles, reflecting the top-to-bottom descent of the sephirotic light. The upper triangle consists of Keter, Chokhmah, and Binah, the divine head; the middle triangle of Chesed, Geburah, and Tiferet, the divine heart; the lower triangle of Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, the divine lower body, with Malkuth standing apart as the kingdom. This triple-triangle arrangement gives the tree a further symmetry that is important in meditation and in the construction of ritual diagrams.

The ten sephirot

The sephirot, in descending order, are: Keter (Crown), Chokhmah (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Chesed (Mercy), Geburah (Severity), Tiferet (Beauty), Netzach (Victory), Hod (Splendor), Yesod (Foundation), and Malkuth (Kingdom). Each has a divine name, an attribute, a quality, an archetype, and a colour, and each is associated with a particular figure in the Western esoteric tradition. The full treatment of each sephirah, including the divine name, the meaning, the archetype, and a one-line contemplation, is in the ten sephirot: ten emanations of the divine. A short summary follows.

Keter is the first emanation, the pure will of the Ein Sof, beyond all attributes. Chokhmah is the flash of wisdom, the first stirring of differentiation, traditionally associated with the divine name Yah and (in the Hermetic tradition) with the planet Uranus or the sphere of the Zodiac. Binah is understanding, the womb that receives and gives form to the flash of wisdom, associated with the divine name YHVH Elohim and with the planet Saturn. Chesed is mercy, the expansive force of divine love, associated with the divine name El and with Jupiter. Geburah is severity, the restraining force of divine judgment, associated with Elohim Gibor and with Mars. Tiferet is beauty, the harmony that unites mercy and severity, associated with YHVH Eloah ve-Da’at and with the Sun. Netzach is victory, the enduring force of nature, associated with YHVH Tzabaoth and with Venus. Hod is splendor, the rational and articulate force, associated with Elohim Tzabaoth and with Mercury. Yesod is foundation, the place of formation, associated with Shaddai El Chai and with the Moon. Malkuth is kingdom, the manifest world, associated with Adonai ha-Aretz and with the Earth.

The twenty-two paths

The sephirot are connected by twenty-two paths, and each path is associated with one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, with a tarot trump, and (in the Hermetic tradition) with an astrological attribution. The standard Golden Dawn ordering, given in Crowley’s Liber 777 (1909) and in Regardie’s The Golden Dawn, is the following. The first three paths, from Keter, are the most often quoted.

From Keter to Chokhmah is the path of Aleph, the Fool, air. From Keter to Binah is the path of Beth, the Magus, Mercury, air. From Keter to Tiferet is the path of Gimel, the High Priestess, the Moon, water. From Chokhmah to Binah is the path of Daleth, the Empress, Venus, earth. From Chokhmah to Tiferet is the path of He, the Star (or, in some Golden Dawn versions, the Magician), Aries, fire. From Binah to Tiferet is the path of Vau, the Hierophant, Taurus, earth. From Binah to Geburah is the path of Zayin, the Lovers, Gemini, air. From Chesed to Geburah is the path of Cheth, the Chariot, Cancer, water. From Chesed to Tiferet is the path of Yod, the Hermit, Virgo, earth. From Chesed to Netzach is the path of Kaph, the Wheel of Fortune, Jupiter, water. From Geburah to Tiferet is the path of Lamed, Justice, Libra, air. From Geburah to Hod is the path of Mem, the Hanged Man, water. From Tiferet to Netzach is the path of Nun, Death, Scorpio, water. From Tiferet to Yesod is the path of Samekh, Temperance, Sagittarius, fire. From Tiferet to Hod is the path of Ayin, the Devil, Capricorn, earth. From Tiferet to Malkuth is the path of Shin, the Judgment (or the Aeon), fire. From Netzach to Hod is the path of Resh, the Sun (or the Tower), the Sun (or Mars), fire (or water). From Netzach to Yesod is the path of Qoph, the Moon, Pisces, water. From Hod to Yesod is the path of Tav, the Universe, Saturn, earth. From Yesod to Malkuth is the path of Pe, the Tower (or the Emperor), Mars, fire. From Chokhmah to Chesed is the path of Tzaddi, the Emperor (in some versions the Lovers), Aries, fire. (The orderings of the trumps vary slightly between 777, Regardie, and the Mathers translations of the Zohar; the version given here is the standard Golden Dawn one.)

The twenty-two paths correspond, in the Sefer Yetzirah, to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, divided into the three “mothers” (Aleph, Mem, Shin), the seven “doubles” (Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tav), and the twelve “simples” (the remaining letters). The three groups correspond to the three realms of the sephirotic structure (the mothers to the three supernal realms of year, month, and day; the doubles to the dualities of mercy and severity, life and death, peace and war; the simples to the twelve directions, months, and signs of the zodiac). The Kabbalist who studies the paths is studying the deep structure of the Hebrew language and of the cosmos at the same time. In the Hermetic tradition, the paths are also the foundation of the tarot, and a tarot reading can be read directly as a journey through the paths of the tree.

The four worlds

The classical Kabbalistic tradition teaches that the sephirotic light descends through four worlds, or four levels of reality. The four worlds are Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. Each world represents a different density or mode of being, and the sephirotic tree is read differently in each.

Atziluth is the world of emanation, the world of pure divine being. In Atziluth, the sephirot are divine names; the tree is the descent of the Ein Sof into pure being. Beriah is the world of creation, the world in which the sephirot take on archetypal form. In Beriah, the sephirot are the archangelic hosts; the tree is the structure of the divine ideas. Yetzirah is the world of formation, in which the sephirot become the forces that shape the manifest world; in Yetzirah, the sephirot are the angelic and astrological intelligences. Assiah is the world of action, the world in which the sephirot become the manifest cosmos itself; in Assiah, the sephirot are the celestial spheres, the planets, and the elements.

The four worlds are not places but modes of being. Every existing thing exists in all four worlds: its archetype in Atziluth, its idea in Beriah, its formation in Yetzirah, and its physical manifestation in Assiah. The Kabbalistic work of contemplation is to ascend through the worlds by an inward journey up the tree, to read the lower in the light of the higher, and to recognise the sephirotic structure in every thing.

The Lightning Flash and the serpent of return

The classical “Lightning Flash” of the sephirotic descent runs: Keter → Chokhmah → Binah → Tiferet → Chesed → Geburah → Netzach → Hod → Yesod → Malkuth. The order is sometimes given in a slightly different sequence in the Lurianic and Hermetic sources; the “Pillar of Equilibrium” version (with Chesed and Geburah as side pillars) is the more common in the medieval Kabbalistic literature, while the “Side-Pillar” version is the more common in the Hermetic tradition. The reverse motion, the ascending path of the meditative ascent, is sometimes called the serpent of wisdom or the path of return: Malkuth → Yesod → Hod → Netzach → Tiferet → Geburah → Chesed → Binah → Chokhmah → Keter. The two motions together form the central rhythm of Kabbalistic meditation.

The tree as contemplative map

In the contemplative practice of Kabbalah, the Tree of Life is used as a path of meditation. The practitioner begins at Malkuth and ascends, sephirah by sephirah, through Yesod, Hod or Netzach, Tiferet, Geburah or Chesed, Binah or Chokhmah, and Keter. At each sephirah, the practitioner rests, contemplates the divine name and the attribute, and prays the characteristic prayer of the sephirah. The ascent is a journey of purification, and the goal is the “noonday” or “flashing” experience — the term is from Psalm 91, “the noonday demon”, and is used in the Hasidic tradition to describe the contemplative breakthrough — in which the sephirotic structure collapses and the practitioner rests in the Ein Sof.

A further traditional feature of the contemplative practice is the doctrine of Da’at, the “knowledge” that is sometimes counted as an eleventh, hidden sephirah at the centre of the supernal triad (between Keter, Chokhmah, and Binah). Da’at is not a separate sephirah in the classical enumeration of ten but a state of consciousness in which the three supernal sephirot are unified; it is, in some Kabbalistic texts, the place of the concealed first triad in a state of active knowing. The Golden Dawn’s practical Qabalah often treats Da’at as a working principle; some modern Western occultists have added Da’at to the tree as an explicit eleventh sephirah. The Hasidic tradition tends to treat Da’at as a function of the lower part of Binah rather than as a separate sephirah.

The contemplative tradition of Kabbalah distinguishes two main modes of practice. The first is devekut, cleaving to God, in which the practitioner meditates on the divine name and the sephirotic attribute until the mind is absorbed. The second is hitbonenut, contemplative gazing, in which the practitioner meditates on the structure of the tree, on the relationships among the sephirot, and on the correspondence between the tree and the manifest world. Both modes are central to the Jewish mystical tradition, and they were carried into the Hermetic tradition by the Christian Kabbalists and the Golden Dawn.

The Jewish tree and the Hermetic tree

The relationship between the classical Jewish Tree of Life and the Hermetic version developed in the Christian Kabbalistic literature and codified in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is close but not identical.

The Jewish Tree has ten sephirot, three columns, twenty-two paths, and the four worlds, and the sephirot have their classical attributes and divine names. The Hermetic Tree uses exactly the same structure but adds three further dimensions: an astrological attribution for each sephirah and each path, a tarot attribution for each path, and an alchemical association for several of the sephirot. The Hermetic tradition also identifies the sephirot with the Christian Godhead and with the angelic hierarchies, an identification that the Jewish tradition does not share.

The two trees are not, however, in conflict. The Jewish Tree is the doctrinal source, and the Hermetic Tree is a development that adds Western esoteric correspondences to the same fundamental structure. A practitioner who learns the Jewish tree first will find the Hermetic version familiar in its basic form, and the Hermetic practitioner who studies the Jewish sources will recognise the underlying structure. For a fuller treatment of the Hermetic version, see Hermetic Qabalah and Western esotericism. For the wider context, see Kabbalah and the mystical Tree of Life.

Sources and further reading

Gershom Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (Schocken, 1965) and Origins of the Kabbalah (1962; English trans. 1987). Scholem’s most important treatments of the sephirotic tradition.
Isaiah Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar: An Anthology of Texts (Oxford, 1989). The classic English anthology of Zohar texts, with extensive commentary on the sephirot.
Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah (HarperSanFrancisco, 1995) and The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (Stanford, 2004–2017).
Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation (Weiser, 1997). The most widely used English translation and commentary.
Aleister Crowley, Liber 777 (1909; many reprints). The standard Hermetic table of correspondences.
Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites & Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order (Llewellyn, 1937–1940; 6th ed. 2001). The standard modern edition of the Golden Dawn material.
Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (Yale, 1988). The revisionist study of the tradition.
Elliot R. Wolfson, Through a Speculum That Shines (Princeton, 1994). Wolfson’s most accessible work on the sephirotic symbolism.
Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar (Oxford, 2004).
Aryeh Kaplan, Meditation and Kabbalah (Samuel Weiser, 1982). A practical manual for the sephirotic meditations.
J. H. Laenen, Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction (Westminster John Knox, 2001).