Tree of Life - Kether

jmd

Jewel, one way is to stick to one system (what this means, is stick to the suggestions made by some people who have found this illuminating). As Kaz and others have mentioned, the Golden Dawn version, which allocates the Aces to Keter, is worthy of consideration.

If you wish to also consider suggestions from others, then the positioning of the Major Arcana within the Sefirot is another consideration.

Wirth only places the first ten in the Sefirot (starting with the Magician, as he, like most continental earlier users, does not number the Fool, and places it, as customary, either as penultimate or last card).

Apart from the ten Sefirot, there is also an eleventh 'sphere' which is not, properly speaking, a Sefirah. The twenty-two cards can be paired, and placed on those eleven.

With regards to Kether, though the first emanation, it is also the most distant. It is a bit like trying to understand the nature of Seraphim before discussing the nature of Angels, Archangels, Archai, ..., Thrones and Cherubim. The highest is more easily understood, no matter how inappropriately, as one discusses the emanations closer to the physical realm.

Though this is the first amanation, I'll start another thread on the last: Malkut. Maybe discussion can proceed on more than one thread concurrently. It is also said that Keter is in Malkut, and Malkut in Keter, so to move to this last may be quite appropriate.
 

AmounrA

grand thread this:)

I personally don't think there is any 'correct' 'perfect' way of fitting the tarot trumps to the tree. The major link seems to me that there are 22 paths, and 11 spheres [inc daath].....so allocating a card per path works and so does allocating 2 cards per sphere.

There are 40 minor cards which divides nicely into the tree aswell [not counting daath].

I think it is safe to say that the tree map existed before the '78' card tarot deck....and I personally believe [can't prove it:)] that the tarot cards where designed with the tree in mind.

I have often pondered on the kether malkuth connection, malkuth is said to be a reflection of kether...taking this idea of reflection further it could be seen that tiphareth reflected itself, and that daath was reflected in yesod. [also the abyss would be reflected as the vail of paroketh[sp?]....geburah and chessed would be reflected in hod and geburah........this all actually corrosponds very nicely and makes sense, but it leaves 2 things missing, the reflection of hockmah and binah. I have often wondered if there are 2 spheres that are not acknowledged, and of course this would mess up the numbering of tarot and tree 'connections'.

I also think of daath as a black hole [ tipareth as star/galaxies/atomic, yesod as planets/molecular and malkuth as cellular life], but am not so sure about big bang theory, I am not sure about the link with kether and physical 'matter/energy', which I think comes in through daath [ help:)]

Jewel, don't be worried about being confused....I have played with this map for years and as you can see above....I am still getting confused :) I would suggest you learn the golden dawn system first as it is simple, and gives a great introduction, from which you can voyage deeper and develop your own ideas about it [which are as valid as the next ]
 

Kaz

indeed amounra, that's what i decided to do after having a look what's there. too much, so just pick one to start of with, golden dawn is used a lot so....
i confess i don't have any book about this stuff, so i just surf the net and i know some jewish background about kabbala, but that's it, so i hope to learn heaps here from you guys :)

kaz
 

Ravenswing

golden dawn varient

here's for you jewel and kaz--

this'll send you off to a fabulous site for the golden dawn tree/kabala.

http://www.dimensional.com/~randl/etschaim.htm

it's an interactive encyclopedia and covers the relationship (a la GD) between the tarot and the tree.

kabala has an intrinsic complexity due to its elastisity (say THAT three times fast :) ) there are many 'but you can look at it this way, too..." 's that will totally confuse you if you aren't well versed in the older hebrew writings.

i prefer a thorough groundwork in one angle of the kabala-- others like to look at the facination of the entire jewel (no pun intended :) ). the second way just dazzels me.

and the golden dawn is the most 'popular' angle.

i hope this helps

LVX
steve
 

Jewel

Thanks Kaz, AmounrA, JMD and Steve! I think that is what I will try to do, to stick with the GD for now as it is what I have been exploring for some time. I guess the reason I have found it to work for me is because of the 22 paths and 22 majors, and I like thinking of how the 4 suits and their numbered minors give 4 aspects of each Sephira. I have issues with the court cards ... but then again it would not be natural to study Tarot and the Qabalah and not have issues with it *LOL*.

Perhaps once I get more comfortable with this system I can then move on to the bigger picture. I do not ascribe to a particular system, I am simply fascinated by the whole thing. Like Steve said the "jewel" ... that is how I perceive it too. Steve thanks for the site! I will dig out my Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang and try to start studying more seriously.

Thanks again for all of your help and patience.
 

Ravenswing

mirror, mirror on the wall...

AmounrA--

i am totally in agreement with you-- there is no one 'correct' way of percieving the tree. there are a multitude of 'if you consider...'s
that's the beauty of the system as i see it. so many 'AH HA!' along the path of discovery.

as to kether/malkuth:

do you ever 'stack' the four world? four separate trees, one beneath the other? in this way, the malkuth of the 'superior' tree will be the kether of the next tree down. one way of depicting kether/malkuth.

i like your reflections. i never 'folded' the tree in that manner. as to the 'missing sepharoth', have you ever seen/used 'jacob's ladder' ? it's a grouping of the four trees such that kether of one tree is also tiphareth of the next. the 'spine' of the ladder is 11 sepharoth... that would make binah/chokmah reflect on the geburah/chesed of the next tree down.

i'll have to scan a copy of it sometime; i don't know of any site it's on...

my usual reflections are:

1. the top triad of kether, chokmah and binah reflecting in tiphareth, chesed and geburah.

2. yesod reflecting tiprareth.

i do not reflect, but instead translate the tiphareth, chesed and geburah triad down a notch to superimpose upon yesod, netzach and hod


so many ways, so many options...

LVX
steve
 

wetsheep1

Pardon me for butting in here, but...

When I first saw a complete illustration of the Tree of Life, it was in Eileen Connelly's Tarot for the Apprentice volume. All I could say to myself (then, as now) was, "wow!" There's so much to learn about this, and I confess to a nearly complete ignorance of Hebrew tradition in this respect. Nevertheless, what struck me was upon examination of her illustration she named the First Triad as Kether/Chocma/Binah, and ascribed to it the concept of Intellect...

This thread certainly is!

Thank you, everyone, for this study group. It's helping me stumble through an understanding of the Tree, which has in the past proven quite confusing as reference materials about it are simply not to be found around where I live :( I really appreciate the links, too. One of the reasons I've been so interested in this topic, too, is that my working deck is the Tarot of the Spirit, which is grounded in Qabbalistic tradition. [I've always known I was missing a great deal from this deck, now I know why! ;)]

Something else I noticed about Connelly's illustration is that she ascribes Neptune to Kether. Since Neptune is sort of a "water sign," would it be appropriate to ascribe the suit of Cups to this triad as well? (Just as a note, her First Triad, astrologically, is Neptune/Uranus/Saturn....) Or is it simply that Neptune was portrayed as a ruler, and therefore it makes sense to put him at the Crown? (Or is this all entirely too simplistic?)

Thanks, everyone :)
-- k
 

Ravenswing

not enough sense to come out of the rain??

great name; it produces much in the way of inane visuals. but on the serious side...

i'm shortly (hopefully shortly,it's in the mail...) getting the Tarot of the Spirit, I already have connelly's book (1 and 2), so we'll be able to check notes directly.

all musings are welcome here, appropriate is not an issue. all models are open for exploration, and don't think that any thought is simplistic.

along the lines of neptune being a 'water' sign, i would consider uranus as an 'air' sign. there i would place the swords. going further, if we consider that all the planets are associated with zodiacal sign, each planet could be one of the four elements. therefore, we could place a suit in each of the sephiroth. i see no problem with this.

what i do wonder though, is what do you do with this? to me, the second step after construction of a model (first step is checking for validity and consistancy) is to see what its practical applications are.

***this is NOT to imply lack of validity****

i just am not going to deal with this model any further at the moment...

your second 'question' is as to the placement of neptune at kether. traditionally, neptune, uranus and pluto had no place on the tree of life-- they hadn't been discovered yet. instead we had air, water and fire (or aleph, mem and shin-- the three hebrew mother letters).

personally, i place uranus at kether. partially because we are entering/have entered the age of aquarius; partially because i see the three placed at kether, chokmah and da'ath as 'best case scenario'.

a little story of synchronisity:

while i was trying to decide where uranus and neptune fit on the tree, i went into a little shop to buy some incense. lots and lots of incenses to choose from. smelling my way through many racks, i found one i really liked. it was from a series of incenses dedicated to gods and listed the quality of the god the scent evoked/invoked. i had picked neptune with the quality of wisdom.

keep your eyes open-- the universe oft times gives you gentle hints :) sometimes a kick in the ass... })

LVX
steve
 

jmd

As Steve mentioned above, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had not been discovered when certain planetary associations were made.

Moving upwards on the Tree from Malkuth (in the reverse order of emanation), the Golden Dawn, following indications in the Zohar, which itself followed standard Ptolemaic ordering, associated each planet to a Sephirah in increasing order of presumed distance (judged by apparent motion against the background fixed stars). It should be remembered that 'planet' comes from the Greek meaning 'wanderer', and is also, wetsheep1 sill undoubtedly be happy to hear, etymologically connected to the Babylonian for 'sheep' - as they too wander from the flock!

Moving outwards, then, the planets are the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. If one starts this series with Yesod, Saturn ends up in Binah. With the discovery of Uranus and Neptune (in that order, by the way, in three senses: their order of discovery, their distance from the Sun, and their apparent speed of movement from the Earth), it made sense to continue the allocation with Uranus at cHokmah and Neptune at Kether. Though discovered in the 1930s, there are still questions as to whether Pluto should be classified as a planet.

As Steve said, however, such allocation is not traditional, nor do either of those associations fit 'cleanly' - though each can yield insights.

With the Golden Dawn, Hockmah was given the sphere of the Stars (the eighth sphere), and Kether the Crown and Point, through which, being contained, the Powers could descend.
 

wetsheep1

Minor Leagues again....

jmd, I found it interesting that indeed, the Minor Arcana seem to go on ignored in discussions of the Tree, and like Jewel found it confusing. However, you brought up a point: that the Minors sometimes are ordered according to their associations with the different realms.

Eakins assigns Yod to the suit of Fire (Wands), therefore associating it to Assiah, if I have it right. She progresses through the Tetragrammaton with each of the suits; giving Air (Swords) to Vau (Briah?) and both Water (Cups) and Earth (Pentacles) to He.

Here's the question: would it be correct to assume that Water and Earth may be interchangeable where Kether is concerned here? Granted, there's more than a bit of polarity here. Since He appears twice in the Tetragrammaton, I'm a bit confused (ya think?) as to exactly what to make of this, particularly since the GD stuff I've been studying assigns Majors only to the paths.

I am also somewhat conflicted because even as the Majors are well-accepted to be the guides to spiritual journey and the Minors are concerned with more mundane activities, I'm not sure if the Minors have a place on the Tree; and if so, how do they work to "flesh out" the paths?

Just wondering (and feeling a bit like I've driven us off-course),
-- k