isthmus nekoi said:
I get the sense that one might benefit from overlaying the planets' meanings as opposed to forcing the planets to fit.
It is good to remember that the Tree as generally taught is only one of four basic 'configurations', namely the third, the one ruled by triplicity: it takes (at least) three points to determine a form, hence water, hence Cups (psychological forms). There is also a configuration where the ten are set in five pairs, outlined in the much-revered but oft puzzled-over
Sefer Yetzirah: duality is of course Swords, which cleave the air.
Adherence of planetary spirits to Sefirot happens in the formation of the fourth Tree (out of the third), that of (planetary) rounds or Coins. This suit constitutes the material, temporal world so to speak. It does bear a relation, however, to the third Tree, in that 'cup' seen as cauldron can contain planets' (molten)
metals. As a quick example of how they overlay, 7th and 8th in Cups are the third male-and-female types (in our psychological makeup), meaning those driven by lust, lowest of the three possible (sexual) motivations, Platonic (chaste), reproductive, and lustful: hence overlaying Venus-Aphrodite onto 7-Netzach and Mercury-Hermes onto 8-Hod represents that which each seeks, male seeking the beauty (as divine manifestation) in a woman, female the power (as divine messenger) in a man. (Don't get me started defending this view against the shallower 'feminist' viewpoint unless you want an ear-full.) One other quick example: Mars is the quality (in our psychological makeup) most clearly exemplified in the 5th (psychological) type, the reproductive female defending her young, who will readily sacrifice herself in the process (Mars being martial discipline).
Now mind you I do not vouch for rabbis knowing all this, but I do pretty much vouch for
it.
But as for the other topic of this thread - does the notion of consciousness arising from matter, or matter transmuting into spirit seem a sound perspective to view the Sephiroth?
(I am attracted to Light, much like a domesticated animal.) This is just about 'spot-on'. To refine it just a little, you can look at the origin, the One (Keter), as Consciousness itself (ultimate reality), the ten being how an individual conscious self arises out of that ultimate reality. By this I don't mean idealism, since nature matter can be and is conscious
as what it is (in whatever consciousness
of it there happens to be). What the Sefirot
actually signify are the ten stages (in being conscious) on the universal round (on which one's individual progress is measured) from what is
exalted (straight up, aries-the-head) to what is
us (straight back, capricorn the tenth sign). The fourth sign signifies 90-degrees out from straight up, hence straight out from us (fourth is called
Chesed, 'Lovingkindness'), meaning nature (there being 4 elements therein), which makes the tenth sign opposite it straight back towards us: oneself, the point to which one has progressed on the round. And we had to progress through all the levels of nature before we could 'cross over' from the part of the round towards the outer horizon (what is before us) to what is towards the inner horizon (back towards us, the direction of responsibility).
Solme rabbis know of course that the Tree represents our emanation or 'evolution’ (as individuals) from God', and Lurianic Kabbalah relates the Sefirot to the round, but I do not get the impression Jewish (or any) circles are any longer aware specifically that the ten are the
stages on that round that mark what we have 'mastered' to arrive here (at individual-hood). One is the Unity we emerged from to become individuals, ten is the individual ten-fingered we have become, in whom is the 'Presence' or
Shekhinah of the One, we being emanations therefrom.