Traditional
Views on
the Tree
of Life & the Qliphoth
On Earth,
the Tree of Life1 is a common symbol used amongst mystics to
represent the way in which God created the world, and how this knowledge can be
used as a pathway to work one’s way back up to God2. The Tree of Life is composed of ten Sephiroth
(singular Sephirah) that represent emanations, or outflow, of God’s
energy, with nine of these Sephiroth symbolizing a different characteristic of
God’s will. These emanations all unite
and come together in the tenth, materialization.
In short,
existence begins in a location off the tree, known as the Veils of Negative
Existence. The furthest veil is called
Ain, “Nothing,” represented by 000. The
nearest veil is called Ain Soph Aur, “borderless light of non-creation,”
represented by 0.3
The story
goes that God had to first conceptualize a contained space of nothing, Ain Soph
Aur, into which It could put Its creation, so that creation would be different
from the Ain. This continuous procession
of God containing Its psyche within Its psyche to establish a location for
manifestation is called Zimzum.”4 (“contraction” or
“constriction”)5 The Paradox
here is that God makes Itself a womb into which to come into. (There is no
coincidence that this resembles the story of how the Egyptian god Atum
masturbated creation into existence6.)
Out of
this void Ain Soph Aur came primordial creation energy, known on the Tree of
Life as 1. Kether (Crown), which is located at the top of the Tree of
Life. Kether represents the purest,
least dense form of energy, pure potential energy, the closest thing to God
that man can fathom. Kether is then
split into two forms: 2. Chokmah, (Wisdom), the Masculine force; and 3. Binah,
(Understanding), the feminine force. As
this energy is split, it is also becoming denser, moving from ethereal to the
corporeal. It moves on through 4.
Chesed, (Mercy), 5. Geburah, (Strength), 6. Tiphareth, (Beauty), 7. Netzach,
(Victory), 8 Hod, (Splendour), 9. Yesod, (The Foundation) and finally ends in
10. Malkuth, (The Kingdom), which represents the physical world in which we live.
7,8,9 (This path in numerical
order through the Sephiroth is known as The Lightning Path. I explore The Lightning Path and how it is
taken by The First Rays of creation in more detail in a forthcoming section.)
Once
energy has reached its densest point, then it redintegrates back towards the
etheric.10
Redintegration is defined as “the restoration of the whole of
something from a part of it.”11
(This, of course, sounds a lot like a holograph. “Every small fragment of a piece of
holographic film contains all the information recorded in the whole.”12)
In
addition to the Tree of Life, there is the Tree of Death, also called the
Qliphoth (this is NOT the Tree of Knowledge in Suturian mythos - we’ll get back
to that).
Traditionally,
the Qliphoth (singular Qliphah) is thought to be the opposite of the
Tree of Life. It corresponds to chaos,
and represents all the forces of destruction.13 It is also considered to be “empty shells,
form without force.”14 “The
shells conceal holiness.”15 Additionally,
the Qliphoth are thought to be hells.16
The
Qliphoth
|
|||||
#
|
Sephirah
|
Hell
|
Name
|
Meaning
Name
|
Interpretation
|
10
|
Malkuth
|
Gehenna |
Lilith
|
Queen of
the Night
|
Stasis
|
9
|
Yesod
|
Gamaliel
(“Obscene One”) |
The Obscene Ones
|
Zombieism,
robotism
|
|
8
|
Hod
|
Shadow of Death
|
Samael
(“Poison of God”) |
Falsity
|
Rigid order
|
7
|
Netzach
|
Gate of Death
|
Oreb Zaraq
|
Ravens of Dispersion
|
Routine,
repetition, habit
|
6
|
Tiphareth
|
Mire of Mud
|
Thagirion (“Litigation”)
|
The Hagglers
|
Hollowness
|
5
|
Geburah
|
Pit of Corruption
|
Golachab
(“Flaming Ones”) |
The Arsonists
|
Bureaucracy
|
4
|
Chesed
|
Place of Destruction
|
Gasheklah
|
The Smiters
|
Ideology
|
3
|
Binah
|
Sheol,
The
Grave,
The
Deepest Hell
|
Satariel (“Hiding”)
|
The Concealers
|
Fatalism
|
2
|
Chokmah
|
Ghagiel (“Hinder”)
|
The Hinderers
|
Arbitrariness
|
|
1
|
Kether
|
Thaumiel (“Twins”)
|
Contending Heads
|
Futility
|
|
~ Table
compiled from: 13,14,16 ~
20th
century Western occultists established the aforementioned concepts of the Tree
of Death, which differs from the vague concepts expressed in Jewish
Kabbalah. According to the Kabbalah, the
Qliphoth occurred when, during creation, as the first ray of the God light
emanated downward into each of the Sephirah, when it hit number 5, Geburah, the
Sephirah’s shell broke and fragmented.
(This is called Schebirath ha-Kelim.) These fragments of the Sephirah’s shell,
which contained trace amounts of the light of God, fell into the lowest part of
the Zimzum. This caused the creation of evil forces. 17
Color
Analogy
On the
Golden Dawn’s Tree of Life, colors are used symbolically to represent the
nature of each Sephirah and their alchemical interplay, to be utilized as a
tool for meditation.
In
summation, they use four color scales to represent the four worlds of Kabbalah:
King, Queen, Emperor (or Prince), and Empress (or Princess). Each world represents a suit of the tarot:
King = fire, Queen = water, Prince = air, Princess = earth. The King scale is composed of the colors of
the rainbow and, when applied to the paths, works like an artist’s color wheel. The King scale represents the essence of
color in its true state. Each subsequent
scale is made from the previous scale, thus the Queen scale is derived from the
King scale. The Queen scale is described as perceived colors of reflective
light. The colors of the Queen scale
descend from white, gray, and black into the primary colors of the artist’s
wheel: blue, red, and yellow; and then on into the secondary and tertiary
colors of said wheel. The Prince scale
is a mixture of the King and Queen scale. The Princess scale is a deterioration
of the Prince scale.” 18 (Page 3)
The
Kabbalah of Aleister Crowley list
Crowley’s interpretations of these colors.
Or you can
see them here:
I’m not
going to spend any more time writing about traditional views of the Tree of
Life and the Qliphoth. Although it’s a
fascinating illustration of mystical thinking, information on this subject
matter is plentiful. I’m going to move
forward with the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the
subject. The reader should utilize this
familiarity as a reference point for understanding Suturian philosophy. However, if you are a student of the Golden
Dawn’s color theory, in regards to interpreting Suturian color theory, my advice
to you is forget it. The Golden Dawn’s color theory is too different from
Suturian color theory, because the Golden Dawn’s definition of true color is
nothing like my own.
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