The Kabbalah explains how the world came into existance from the will of God. This is described as a series of emanations from the divine source.
The Tree of Life can be seen as a Framework that shows how the Supreme, Undifferentiated Consciousness of the Individual. It also reveals the Paths by which we can return to Unity with God, by removing those obstacles that limit Consciousness.
The Sephiroth
The Tree of Life is depicted as an arrangement of Ten Spheres on Three Parallel Pillars. These Spheres are called Sephiroth (sephirah in the singular), meaning "splendid lights." The Sephiroth can be understood as facets of the Divine Personality. The highest sphere, Kether, represents divine glory; the lowest sphere, Malkuth, denotes the Material World in which the divine light is compartively dim.
Below Kether on the Middle Pillar is a nonsphere called Daath, meaning knowledge. This is the Abyss, the Void, the gulf that seperates the Manifest from the Unmanifest, the Finite from the Infinite. To reach the sphere of Daath is to attain union with the divine, the true goal of all mystics and mages.
The Four Planes
The Sephiroth exist on four planes, known as:
*Atziluth, the world of Emanation;
*Briah, the world of Creation;
*Yetzirah, the world of Formation;
*Assiahm the world of Action.
All of the Sephiroth inhabit two of the planes except Malkuth (sphere 10), which is only present in the world of action.
The Love Triangle
The Three Highest Spheres, forming a Triangle on the Tree, are called the Supernals. They are highly Abstract of Divinity and beyond the Apprehension of Human Intellect alone.
Kether (1)
Kether is the highest sphere, standing alone as the crown on top of the middle pillar of the tree. It is the sphere of God as the Creator, It is the divine glory, the light that which the Sun is but a pale reflection. The first creative act of God is to seperate the light from the dark, This seperation produces the first pain of opposites, Chokmah and Binah.
Chokmah (2) and Binah (3)
These spheres are the Original Couple, the Father and Mother of the Universe, the root of all polarity- positive and negative, male and female, yin and yang. They top the Active (right) and passive (left) pillars of the Tree respectively. Chokmah is the Active Father of Fathers; Binah, the Great Mother. The dynamic tension between Binah, God's passive understanding, and Chokmah, God's active wisdom, produces the Divine Creative Spark. This spark, drawn by Chokmah from the divine source of Kether, is the seed of life that is received by Binah and generates all the Forms in the Universe.
The Ethical Triangle
The Second Triangle on the Tree is a Reflection of the Supernal Triangle.
Chesed (4) and Geburah (5)
Below Chokmah on the Right Pillar of the Tree is Chesed, the sphere of Mercy or Love. Chesed is the constuctive and organizing energy that builds the Blueprints for all forms that are Latent in Binah. In opposition to Chesed is Geburah, on the Left Pillar of the Tree. Geburah is the sphere of Severity or Strength and imposes the Limitations of Mortality on all created things. Whereas Binah is the Mother of all Forms, Geburah is the Destroyer. This may seem cruel, but these limitations are an Ineviltable part of the deal. They mean that Created Forms are finite in the manifest world of Time and Space. This is the Principle of Change, without which there is stasis.
Tipareth (6)
Balancing Chesed and Geburah is Tipareth, situated below Kether and Daath on the Middle Pillar. Meaning beauty, Tipareth is the reflection of Kether. Whereas Kether represents Supreme Concsiousness, Tipareth symbolizes consciousness of consciousness- it is birth of Self-Consciousness in creation. Tipareth is the visible Glory of God Made Manifest, representing vitality and the Will To Live. It is the Balancing Point, the heart of the tree, the heart of creation, just as the Sun is the heart of the Solar System.
The Lower Sephiroth
The Lower Triangle on the Tree Reflects a further Organization of the Preceding Pattern. At the Base is a Single Sphere, Malkuth.
Netzach (7) and Hod (8)
Netzach, at the Base of the Right Pillar, is the Positive Force of Attraction and Cohesion in the Universe. It is the sphere of Animal Drives, sensuality, passion, instinctive responses, and the Natural as opposed to the Contrived. Its opposite sphere, Hod, forms the base of the Left Pillar and represents the Duplicity that results from Self-Consciouness. It is the sphere of Mental Faculties, intelligence, reason, considered responses, the artificial, ambivalent, and contrived. Hod is the Negative Force behind Flux and Change.
Yesod (9)
Balancing the Polarity of Flux and Cohesion is Yesod, the penultimate sephirah on the Middle Pillar. Yesod rules the constant, ordered Cycles of Time, as seen in the regularly changing Phases of the Moon. The reproductive cycles of all things on Earth are regulated by the Moon, so are the Tides of the Oceans. Yesod is both fluid and precise, ruling the Unconscious Mind and Emotions on one hand and organizing the Machinery of the Universe on the other.
Malkuth (10)
Although the last Sephirah, Malkuth, meaning Kingdom, appears to be at the Bottom of the Tree, it is actually the cherry on top, for the Roots of the Tree are beyond the vanishing point of Kether- this tree grows out of Heavenm not Earth. The magical image of Malkuth is a young woman Crowned and Thorned, She is both the Daughter and the Bride of Godm but she is exiled in matter, Seperated from her consort by the Gulf of Creation. In this sense God himself is exiled from an Aspect of Himself. His queen, Mother Earth who has borne his children, is known as the Shekinah.
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