The Tree of Life

I am going to walk you down it from the top. Keep a picture of the Tree beside you. It makes far more sense seen than described, and I say that as the person about to describe it.

The ten sephiroth

Each sphere is called a sephirah, plural sephiroth, and each has a Hebrew name and an English one. Here they are in order, with the one thing I would want you to remember about each.

Kether, the Crown, is number 1 and sits at the very top. It is the point before anything has happened, the source, the idea of an idea. Nothing can be said about it, which has never stopped anyone trying.

Chokmah, Wisdom, is 2. The first spark of force. Pure push, pure drive, the energy that sets things going before anything has a shape.

Binah, Understanding, is 3. Form. The womb that gives that force an edge, a limit, a shape it can take. Chokmah without Binah is a shout in an empty room.

Chesed, Mercy, is 4. Growth, generosity, expansion, the giving hand. Some books call it Kindness.

Geburah, Severity, is 5. The cutting hand. Discipline, limits, the necessary ending, what has to go so that the rest can live. Some books call it Strength.

Tiphareth, Beauty, is 6. The heart of the Tree, sitting dead centre, where everything above and below comes into balance. If you only remember one sphere, remember this one.

Netzach, Victory, is 7. Feeling and desire. What you want, and the drive to go after it.

Hod, Splendour, is 8. The mind. Words, plans, thinking, the stories you tell yourself. Some books call it Glory.

Yesod, Foundation, is 9. What runs underneath. Dreams, habits, patterns, the machinery you do not see.

Malkuth, the Kingdom, is 10. The everyday world. Body, home, work, money. Where it all lands.

The three pillars

Look at the Tree and you will see the spheres fall into three columns.

The right hand pillar, as you look at it, is the pillar of Mercy: Chokmah, Chesed and Netzach. Everything on it gives, expands and pushes forward.

The left hand pillar is the pillar of Severity: Binah, Geburah and Hod. Everything on it shapes, restricts and defines.

The middle pillar is the pillar of Mildness, which some books call Equilibrium: Kether, Tiphareth, Yesod and Malkuth. It holds the balance between the other two, and in my experience it is where the actual living gets done. The two side pillars are the argument. The middle pillar is the decision.

Neither side pillar is good or bad. Mercy with no Severity is a garden nobody prunes. Severity with no Mercy is a garden nobody waters.

The three triads and the abyss

The spheres also group into three triangles, one above the other.

The top triad is Kether, Chokmah and Binah. This is the level of pure principle, the idea before it is anything. Below it the tradition draws a gap called the abyss, a line nothing crosses easily, which separates the idea from everything that follows.

The middle triad is Chesed, Geburah and Tiphareth. Give, cut, balance. This is the level of character, the moral weather of a person.

The lower triad is Netzach, Hod and Yesod. Feel, think, habit. This is the level of personality, the part other people meet.

Malkuth stands alone at the foot of the Tree, the one sphere with nothing beside it. It is where the whole structure touches the ground.

The lightning flash

Number the spheres 1 to 10 and join them in order. The line zig zags down the Tree like a bolt of lightning: Kether to Chokmah on the right, across to Binah on the left, down to Chesed on the right, across to Geburah, into Tiphareth in the centre, out to Netzach, across to Hod, down to Yesod, and finally Malkuth.

That path is the lightning flash. It is the order anything comes into being: the idea, the push, the shape, the growth, the pruning, the balance, the wanting, the planning, the habit, the result. I have watched it play out in a business, in a relationship and in a vegetable bed. What changes is how long people spend at each stop.

Daath, the hidden sphere

Some diagrams show an eleventh sphere in the gap below the top three, on the middle pillar, where the abyss is. It is called Daath, Knowledge, and it is drawn as a dotted circle or left out altogether.

Daath is what happens when Wisdom and Understanding meet. It has no number in the count of ten and no card in the spread. I think of it as the knowing you cannot explain afterwards, the moment the penny drops. The Tree of Life Spread leaves it out, and so does my name arithmetic, but the Daath page gives it its due.

The planets on the spheres

The tradition gives each sphere a planet, and once you know them the Tree and a natal chart start to speak the same language.

Kether has no planet. The tradition calls it the first swirlings, the motion before there was anything to move. Chokmah is given the zodiac as a whole, the entire wheel of stars. Binah is Saturn, the great shaper and limiter. Chesed is Jupiter, the giver. Geburah is Mars, the cutter. Tiphareth is the Sun, the heart of the chart as it is the heart of the Tree. Netzach is Venus, desire and attraction. Hod is Mercury, the mind and its words. Yesod is the Moon, habit and dream and tide. Malkuth is the Earth itself.

Each planet has its own page in the Western Astrology section, and the sephirah pages point you to them.

The tarot on the Tree

The Minor Arcana sit on the spheres by rank. The four Aces sit on Kether, the four Twos on Chokmah, the Threes on Binah, and so on down to the four Tens on Malkuth, one card of each suit on each sphere. So the Fives of every suit share Geburah, and if you have ever wondered why all four Fives are hard cards, there is your answer.

The twenty two Major Arcana sit on the twenty two paths between the spheres, and The Twenty Two Paths page takes them one at a time.

The Tree of Life Spread puts a card on each sphere and reads them down the Tree and across its pillars. If you want to see the Tree at work, lay that spread tonight.

The Tree as a picture of a person

Most of the time I read the Tree as a portrait. Read from the top, it is you: the purpose you may not have words for at the Crown, your generosity and your discipline on either side, your heart at the centre, your feelings and your thoughts, the habits running underneath, and at the bottom the life you actually live on a Tuesday afternoon.

Most of us have one pillar heavier than the other, one sphere we live in and one we avoid. Finding which is which is the beginning of the work, and the Tree is the clearest map I know for it.

Where on the Tree do you spend most of your day, and where have you not visited in a while?

If you would like your own chart read, my readings are here.

Related pages
The Four Suits