by Marcus Katz
To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.[43]
Such is the promise that the Tree of Sapphires (another translation of the word Sephirah) holds, as each facet of each sapphire reflects eternally upon each other in a labyrinth of light.
The Tree as an Emanative System (The Fountain of Light)
One of the earliest exponents of an emanative system was the Neoplatonist Plotinus (c.205-70 AD), for whom Reality could be visualised as a set of increasingly fragmented reflections, proceeding from the One (or "the Good") to Mind, then to Soul, and then a fading out into blank matter. His philosophy, as compiled in the Enneads also contains a doctrine that uses a tri-partate division of the Worlds, as within Kabbalah, and mentioned by some Kabbalistic authors as the Supernal, Moral and Physical Triangles. Mathers termed these the Intellectual, Moral and Material Worlds, but Dion Fortune disagreed with his "misleading translations" and rephrased them as the Supernal, Ethical and Astral Triangles.[44]
Emanative systems are based on the concept of a genesis point which emits a series of hypostases or worlds, which are usually arranged in liner or circular patterns, or some combination, as in the Tree of Life, and then subdivided into hierarchies or orders of being.
Following from this core idea, the human being is then seen as a fragmented reflection of this Source, to which it can attain by contemplation and transcendence of the less real. As Plotinus and Aristotle both perceived it, this contemplation of its own virtue formed a self-similar image which could then, albeit being imperfect, draw vitality from the real and generate more accurate reflections of that Source.
As Plato wrote in Timaeus (37 c-d):
When the father who had engendered it [the universe] saw it in motion and alive, a shrine brought into being for the everlasting gods, he rejoiced and, being well pleased, he conceived the idea of making it more like its model. Accordingly, as that model is the ever-existent Living Being, he set about making the universe also like it, as far as possible, in that respect. Now the nature of that living Being was eternal, a character with which it was impossible fully to endow a generated thing. But he planned as it were a moving likeness of eternity; and, at the same time that he set in order the Heaven, he made, of eternity that abides in unity, an ever-flowing likeness moving according to number - that to which we have given the name Time.[45]
The idea that the universe is in the process of becoming increasingly real is also repeated in The Unfinished Universe, and one of the key implications of this meta-concept is referred to by Omar Khayyam in the Rubaiyat:
With Earth's first clay they did the last man knead,
And then of the last harvest sow'd the seed;
Yea, the first morning of creation wrote
What the last dawn of reckoning shall read.
This is reflected in Kabbalah by the statement that Kether contains the whole potential of manifestation within it. That is to say, due to the holographic nature of the universe, the pattern exists as a fundamental, implicit structure, at all levels, and is therefore immanent.
Carl Sagan uses this philosophy wonderfully in his fiction Contact, where the heroine finds, by using a computer to arrange the infinite regressions of the number Pi in base 11 arithmetic, "a miracle - another circle, drawn kilometres downstream of the decimal point”.[46] He calls it the "Artist's Signature", and again we return to the idea of the recursive Universe, where the ripples of the thought of God form patterns always showing the way home.
The Tree as a Communications System (Lattice Theory)
I will briefly mention here that another of the implications of the Recursive Metaconcept in its relation to the Tree, and as rediscovered in modern quantum theory, is the so-called "Butterfly effect" as found by Lorenz in weather pattern modelling. In poetic terms, as Francis Thompson put it in The Mistress of Vision:
"Thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star."
This idea basically states that it is impossible to predict the behaviour of a system due to the number of potential variables that can eventually cause, with very minute original change, large divergences in the possible emergent patterns. This is important in freeing the mind of the Magician from slavishly adhering to what have previously been considered immutable laws which are in effect merely habits of nature. It is this very principle that has helped examine, and at the same time, confound the "greenhouse effect" and global warming. The Magician must remain open to possibilities and opportunities that those blinded by expectation cannot see, and this is depicted by the Fool card of the tarot, who should be considered the esoteric emblem of the New Physics.
Another extension of the Lattice idea is that of the link between macrocosm and microcosm, the "greater" world and the "lesser" world. It can be seen that if the whole Universe is modelled as a latticework of reflective spheres, each point in the Universe reflects everything else. Thus, if a change occurs within one sphere, the whole is equally changed, and if a change occurs across wider areas of the lattice, then equally, every discrete point will be changed in reflection. This model is a more holistic vision of the many levels model previously adopted by some esoteric writers, which is more linear in that one world tends to be seen above or about the other. "As above, so below" can be equally considered as "as within, so without", or even, "as here, so everywhere".
Perhaps we can also see this pattern at work in that minute accidents of fate are often more influential in the causing of large divergences of personal and world history than pre-arranged grand events organised specifically to alter such things. Examples include the vision of the Roman Emperor Constantine, which radically affected the history of the world by his subsequent consolidation of Christianity as state religion for Rome from circa 325 AD, or the assassination of the Austrian politician which sparked the First World War.
This idea is used to effect in many fiction books, notably The Muller-Fokker Effect by John Sladek, The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg, and the Illuminati trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. The Magician can tremble such a web of recursion to great effect, as Marlowe says in Dr Faustus:
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning.[47]
EXERCISES
1. Drawing the Tree of Life.
Stage One.
First, draw a straight vertical line down the centre of your sheet of paper. Ensure that the line is drawn in pencil as you will be erasing it once the basis structure has been drawn.
Stage 2.
Next, draw a circle whose top edge touches the top of the line, and whose lower edge comes to about one third of the way down the line. Draw another circle of the same size whose top edge touches the bottom of the first circle.
Stage 3.
Draw two further circles of the same size, the first using the intersection of the circles in stage two as a centre, and the second having a top edge which touches the bottom of the circle just drawn.
Stage Four.
You now have the centre points of each of the ten Sephiroth marked out, and can draw smaller circles to represent these as shown.
Illus. Drawing the Tree of Life Stage 4.
Stage Five.
Erase the drawing lines.
Stage Six.
Now connect the Sephiroth with the twenty-two paths, as shown. It may be easiest to begin with to draw the three vertical lines first, the three horizontal lines second, and then the diagonal lines third.
Illus. Drawing the Tree of Life Stage 6.
2. Collect examples of different orders of patterns. For example, choose a pattern such as; circles, curves, squares, sprays, or all ascending patterns. Then make a scrapbook of pictures, words and notes relating to this pattern. If you had chosen a triangle, you may be able to find pictures in magazi
nes, a poem about three people, a diagram of a bridge support, and a picture of a star constellation in the form of a triangle. Use this exercise to demonstrate that the complex world about us can be seen to be composed of simple patterns in different orders. The simplest pattern, of course, is a point, which is a title of Kether.
3. Find a picture of something which for you symbolises an emanative system, i.e. a waterfall, an explosion, a flowchart, a flower. Meditate on this symbol at the start of each day, as a reminder of the constant emanation taking place about, within and through you.
4. Observe ways in which we organise things; linear progressions, sets, sorts, orders, levels and layers, and the criteria we use to make sense of the world around us; colour, size, shape, number. Consider Kabbalah as an extension and supplement to the way in which we naturally order the environment around us. This ordering also takes place automatically as the brain processes the results of our vision, hearing and other senses.[48]
The Sephiroth and the Four Worlds
As discussed in the first chapter, each Sephirah on the Tree of Life descends into itself in an infinite regression, creating a recursive fractal pattern. However, each Sephirah within itself contains a complex of aspects. Whilst these appear quite technical and somewhat arbitrary divisions on first sight, it allows us to perceive nuances in the way events unfold, patterns emerge in nature, and in people’s characters – or our own.
We will list below and briefly explore these six aspects of the Sephiroth as well as give a few examples of how this allows us to deepen our appreciation of the world through the map. It is like having a new overlay in more detail to our existing map, such as adding contours to a simple map, or perhaps even like having the floor plans of every building on a town map.
This complex sub-system within each Sephirah was developed by Cordovero and is known as the doctrine of the behinot, the infinite number of aspects which can be differentiated within each of the Sephiroth.[49]
As these aspects are rarely (if at all) covered in western esoteric or New Age books on Kabbalah, I have also attempted to provide a simple title for each of the aspects. These are obviously not from traditional schools of Kabbalah but given as a contemporary anchor for these very detailed aspects of the tradition.
1. The Attractor Aspect
A concealed aspect that exists even before its manifestation or emanation as a Sephirah.
If we see the Sephiroth as prisms reflecting the light in ways particular to their own structure, we can see that each prism is equally a limited perspective, a layer of reality convenient to the purposes of conceptualisation. That we have split the Universe and all that composes us, whether it is a concept such as revenge, an object such as a cheese-grater, or a process such as condensation, into ten generalised views should indicate that the ultimate aspect of that view must return to the unknown from which it was generated. This can be demonstrated by asking a simple question such as "why is that computer in this room?" which leads to a further "why did I buy it?", and so on in an infinite regress. Take the question "What is ...?" and a similar regression can be found. We can never know what a thing is, or why, and it is this same unknowable that lies at the heart of each of the Sephiroth. This also demonstrates how the Sephiroth proceed from Ain Soph Aur, and yet still reside within it.
2. The Apparent Aspect
The manifest and apparent aspect in its emanation as a Sephirah.
The form of a Sephiroth is represented by its name, and hence the apparent aspect and main form of Yesod is "foundation". Within any system to which the Tree is applied, the "foundation" will be Yesod. Again, splitting the Universe into ten aspects of its manifestation is probably based purely on our propensity as ten-digited beings to count in decimal. However, this does seem to work and orders of "ten" are found at many levels of the Universe around us. The concept should be applied in its most general sense, in that Chesed is not merely "loving kindness", but also the "expansive" aspect of any system.
3. The Active Aspect
The aspect in which it materialises its own location, i.e. the Sephirah itself.
The Yesod of manifestation can be seen in the foundation of all events, concepts and objects, for example the foundations of a building, the founding of a company, or the personality that nature and nuture provides us as the foundation of our self-identity.
There are three further aspects of each Sephirah that relate to the networked structure of the Tree. A Sephirah cannot be seen merely in terms of itself, but also must be viewed as part of a holistic system. A Spinning Wheel has one meaning in a Casino, where it is part of a financial system, and another in a Windmill, where it is part of a production system. The context in which a Sephirah is viewed is one of its aspects;
4. The Responsive Aspect
The aspect which enables the Sephirah above it to instil within it the power to emanate further Sephirah.
This is the receptive aspect of the Sephirah, which reflects its qualities in terms of those Sephiroth within the process which come before it. Thus, Hod has an aspect whereby Geburah, Tiphareth and Netzach instil within it an ability to continue the process by generating Yesod.
5. The Core Aspect
The aspect by which it gains the power to emanate the Sephiroth within it to their manifested existence within its own essence.
This is the central aspect of the node of activity, whereby it coalesces its own nature and from that proceeds forwards in the system. It is somewhat like the sudden chemical reaction which takes place in the slow mixture of two liquids when they reach the saturation point. Sometimes, this point of the process then begins a new reaction, such as the crystallisation of a solid, or the violent emission of heat.
6. The aspect by which the following Sephirah is emanated to its own place.
This is the transmitting aspect of the Sephirah, by which it governs the nature of the next Sephirah in the process. Obviously, the transmission or outflowing of a Sephirah is bound to shape the next, although in the networked nature of the Tree, each of the Sephiroth is more truly created by a conflux of prior Sephiroth, and result as their convergence.
As an example, Tiphareth (sometimes called the ‘son’), is the result of the convergence of Kether, Chockmah, Binah, Chesed and Geburah. A good example of this is Da'ath, ‘knowledge’, which is seen as the union of Chockmah and Binah, and sometimes depicted as a non-Sephirah on the Abyss which separates the upper three Sephiroth from the rest of the Tree.
In addition to this type of description, two other versions describe how each Sephirah exists as a vector (from the Latin, meaning a ‘bearer’ or ‘carrier’) of the Light. The first details how light is reflected from each Sephirah back to the preceding Sephirah, as well as the light "flowing" downwards, as an object reflects light back to a torch, for example.
The second uses the premise of ‘channels’ (zinnor) that form between each Sephirah, apart from the emanative process, in that they model reciprocal influence between the Sephiroth, and not the lightning flash itself. This doctrine is more in accord with the standard occult map of the paths of the Tree of Life.
The Four Worlds
One of the fundamental concepts of Kabbalah is that of the existence of a number of worlds. This can range from the millions of worlds depicted as the strands of the beard of the long face of God, to the aborted worlds which preceded our own and referred to as the Kings of Edom (see the later chapter on the Klippoth). We can perhaps make a parallel of this concept to modern physics, and the Cophenhagen Interpretation with its many observer-created worlds.
A common understanding of these variations of the many-worlds doctrine came around the 14th century, but is also mentioned in the Zohar, and was developed primarily by the Lurianic school in the 16th century.
This version depicted four worlds:
(a) Olam ha-azilut, the world of emanation (the Sephiroth)
(b) Olam ha-beriah, the world of creation (the Throne & Chariot)
(c) Olam ha-yezirah, the w
orld of formation (the Angels)
(d) Olam ha-asiyyah, the world of making (the terrestrial sphere)
The four worlds can be connected with the four letters of the divine name YHVH, the four quarters, the four elements, and other quaternary systems. They can be further described as:
(a) Azilut [Atziluth], the world of emanations, at which level that which renders possibility becomes real (i.e. the thirty-two paths of wisdom).
(b) Beriah [Briah], the world of creation, at which level the spirit is moved to general manifestation without differentiation. The Zohar calls this world the pavilion which veils the point.
(c) Yetzirah, the world of formation, the level at which the general spirit is broken down into a crowd of individual minds.
(d) Assiyah [Assiah], the world of production.
In essence, the first world is that which is emanated directly from the divine source, falling into the process of creation in the second world or stage, then being formed into patterns in the third world and finally arriving at manifestation in the fourth and final world.
At each level the practical Kabbalist works with a different mode of personification of the Divine, in that at the world of Assiah he works with the elemental spirits, in the world of Yetzirah he works with the Angels, in the world of Briah the Archangels, and at the world of Atziluth he works directly with the ten names of God in each of the Sephiroth.
However, the basic idea is that the Universe is broken down into four layers of functionality, each of which resonates with the others. A more practical example of a "four worlds" application is in business planning, where the layers are seen as strategic, tactical, operational, and functional. A full business plan will integrate these layers by having a simple, but broad strategic goal, broken into tactical means of attaining this goal, each tactic being further analysed in terms of its operation, and then being applied in the day-to-day functioning of the business. The "worlds" must be consistent with each other to ensure the overall objective is reached - every function must be in line with the overall plan (or "that which is above is like unto that which is below").
