The Gra Tree of Life

After a decade or so of half-starts and best of intentions, I'm finally settling into writing a Qabalah book of my own which centers on the Gra Tree of Life and a system of correspondences that take into consideration the way different commentators on the Sepher Yetzirah placed astrological correspondences for the Hebrew letters and the natural division of paths into 3-7-12 just like the Mother, Double, and Single letters. I've put two decades into navel gazing about the Hebrew letters, the astrological concepts of 3 modalities, 4 elements, 12 signs and houses that are the expressions of the elements combined with the modalities.


I've path-worked, I've poured over Regardie, Wang, Crowley, Scholem, Gray and countless authors waiting for the Gra Tree glyph to be fully explored by wiser and more discerning minds by my own. I've used Golden Dawn-derived decks, Haindl's and Crowley's amazing cards and followed the work of Hermetic magicians and mystics from BOTA to Thelema to the Temple of Set and everything in between.

And now, I think I'm ready to stand on the shoulders of some pretty impressive giants and move forward with a non-traditional point of view. There's other female qabalists out there, but most women who have written about the QBL either did so from a Jewish or Wiccan perspective other than Dion Fortune who was part of the GD core and a product of her era just as I'm a product of mine.

I decided that posting here at AT about the Gra Tree and my system is really putting my "money where my mouth is" and jumping off a cliff in proper FOOL (Aleph) style. XD

I'm intrigued.

What is your system, whatever you can allow yourself to talk about without spoiling your book?

You might want to inform GnosticTarotCards (AT screen name) of your project. I believe he has designed (or is designing) a Tarot deck coordinated with the Gra Tree.

Laurel said:

I decided that posting here at AT about the Gra Tree and my system is really putting my "money where my mouth is" and jumping off a cliff in proper FOOL (Aleph) style. XD

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Why? You haven't really said anything about it ... just some sort of notification of what you have done / are doing. No criticism from me on that. Sounds great, go for it. How far is the book along?

Or is this a 'heads up' of what you are about to post ... so we can amass the armaments ? (just kidding).

LIke C. I am also intrigued .

The Tree of Knowledge vs. The Tree of Life

As Fool's Luck would have it, I had unexpected but welcome house guests arrive on 4th of July to spend the holiday weekend so I wasn't able to get back here right away after saying that as I'd planned.

To borrow from Rachel Pollack in The Kabbalah Tree (p 48), the Sepher Yetzirah and the Genesis story both speak in metaphor. The Zohar's "Mystery of Mysteries" are not literal/historical truths. They're symbolic, mythic ones. To quote her directly, "This same need pushes us to believe that the Tree of Life is a literal portrayal of the structure of the cosmos. It is, in fact, a brilliant and inspired metaphor developed through successive generations as a way to help us perceive our own relation to the divine forces that have shaped us."

Da'ath within the Tree of Life glyph is a more modern construct than the sephira (or other sephira) and the Sepher Yetzirah itself goes out of its way to proclaim there are ten sephira, not nine or eleven. The word is used specifically by the writer of the Eden story for the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. The Kircher Tree presents it as an abyss or experience that must be crossed or known in order to achieve balance or enlightenment. It's a product of The Fall.

I view the Kircher Tree as a perfect metaphor for the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, but not necessarily for the Tree of Life which never lost its state of perfection. God didn't destroy the Tree of Life after Adam and Eve obtained knowledge, he simply banished them from Eden and posted the four kerubic angels as guardians of its Gates. None of this is literal and there's nothing wrong with using the Kircher glyph for magic and meditation. It's unfortunate, however, that it has become so standardized.

Many biblical commentators have suggested that Adam and Eve could not see the Tree of Life until after they'd first experienced knowledge because it was hidden until their eyes were "opened". I think there's something profound in stepping backwards, away from the idea of needing to cross the Abyss, away from a Tree that was shattered by either the Fall or Ari's breaking of the vessels and instead, treating the Tree of Life both without and within as a perfect mandala that can be experienced instead by something I call "Taming the Angels": to learn how to stand in the center of the Four Quarters and bring their energies into harmony within one's self. It's not as easy as I make it sound, especially when you try to apply it in practical ways to everyday life outside of ritual and meditation but that's a conversation for other days.

http://hermetic.com/caduceus/images/caduceus-2-4-3.gif is a very simple version of the Gra Tree. Take a look at the way the center column now contains three crossroads of four sephira. Notice how it is possible to fold the tree either vertically or horizontally. In the Gra formation, Malkuth is truly the reflection or polarity of Kether. Everything has its balanced counterpart. As a mandala vs. the Kircher diagram, the Tree of Life shows the conjunctions of sephira in harmony and its simple elegance is very empowering.

To turn away from the idea that there's something innately wrong or broken or shattered or out of balance in the Worlds Within and Without is startling. To work without the abyss, to visualize and experience the flow of energies of the Tree as Mandala instead was very heady for me at first.

Here is a very basic exercise as an example. Take a few minutes to just look at the Gra Tree and get used to it. Then imagine yourself there at each of the crossroads connecting four sephira starting with the one between Malkuth-Yesod and then Hold-Netzach. Pull in the energies of the four lower sephira until you feel like you have them in balanced harmony. Write down any thoughts or images that come to mind. Do that four days in a row, possibly while practicing the standard Fourfold Breath. Then shift your focus to the crossroad between Yesod-Tipareth & Geburah-Chesed. Do it again for another four days, still writing down your thoughts and images. Repeat with the supernal quarters above. Don't worry about applying Hebrew letters or tarot cards to the paths yet. Just take two weeks to open yourself to the flow of the energy of the sephira from the crossroads and see how you feel thereafter.

Laurel said:

I view the Kircher Tree as a perfect metaphor for the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, but not necessarily for the Tree of Life which never lost its state of perfection.

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Laurel, That's beautiful--I'm facinated and encouraged by your endeavor. I hope you won't put too much out there, too early, before you're solidly on your way. I would think others that see the Tree as a living, evolving methodology would feel a tingle of excitement at the stirrings of the New Aeon coming through you. Onward!

I'm working on a 3-D model in meditation that puts Tipareth in the center with Kether and Malkuth as poles. It's a piece of living machinery more like a gyroscope with paths that disconnect and reconnect at will (in other words, as deemed necessary by the wisdom of the construct itself.) Chokmah is the outer shell (zodiac). The Ain (all three Lurianic aspects) is not above anything; it is and is not everywhere, everywhen. Binah and Yesod are more like concertric spheres (at changing "distances" from one another) that expand and contract (breath really), while the two wiper blades of Chessed-Geburah and Netzach-Hod, piviot and whirl on the fixed point of Tipareth. Force and Form are at opposite ends of the infinite blades and they spin through the cosmos. They're a bit like the light saber of a Jedi. You can hear them coming and going. Beautiful to watch, awesome to behold.

Being infinite, this tree can fold up in your pocket and go to work with you

treedog said:

Laurel, That's beautiful--I'm facinated and encouraged by your endeavor. I hope you won't put too much out there, too early, before you're solidly on your way. I would think others that see the Tree as a living, evolving methodology would feel a tingle of excitement at the stirrings of the New Aeon coming through you. Onward!

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Thank you! I definitely feel like I will be spending the next year getting everything in the right form, but my own self-readings have suggested now the time is right to start discussing the Gra Tree and QBL in general with my peers while pulling a manuscript together from a daunting amount of notes.

LRichard said:

You might want to inform GnosticTarotCards (AT screen name) of your project. I believe he has designed (or is designing) a Tarot deck coordinated with the Gra Tree.

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http://gnostictarotcards.com/Kabbalah.html

As i've learned before from this forum, this particular room is focused upon Iconography and History. It is going to challenge your statements on the tree and prepare to have your words re focused upon verifiable , accurate, historical and scholastic work. The mystical vision is not really a matter of discussion , not that people here don't practice mysticism, for sure they do. But your going to find a lot of opposition to "ushering in the new aeon" without a verifiable historical perspective. I for one hand love the idea of a 3d model of the Gra tree. This is great visual tool. I just want to warn , for what its worth.

GTC

GnosticTarotCards said:

As i've learned before from this forum, this particular room is focused upon Iconography and History. It is going to challenge your statements on the tree and prepare to have your words re focused upon verifiable , accurate, historical and scholastic work.
GTC

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Hi GTC - I think that would be a fairer 'warning' re: the history section of the forum - this section is far more open to speculative discussions - especially when as with Laurel they state that after years of study and exercise they are interested in developing a system of correspondences based on the Gra, as opposed to say someone who comes in and claims to have discovered the 'one true authentic' relationship between historical esoteric tarot and the Gra and every one else with ideas different to their own are wrong. The one leads to an open discussion with people interested in joining in with seeing how such a system of correspondences might develop, the other to well founded skepticism. Personally I think a modern revision of kabbalistic correspondences in line with the natural array and variations of the SY might well be an interesting endeavor/exercise. Laurel's approach I think is one that invites mutual involvement and interest in what she is doing, or trying to do. Your own approach appeared to be that of a teacher making claims about the one true authentic tradition wanting students who didn't ask questions - naturally the response was more negative.