3

The Tree of Life

“The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after
death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary,
it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can.”—Paul Kurtz

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is a diagram of human existence—a roadmap of the mind, body, and spirit and their relationships to one another. It is also the cornerstone of most modern magick.

The first mention of the Tree of Life is in Genesis 3:22, which most scholars date to around the 6th century BCE, but the actual diagram came much later, developing and evolving throughout the Middle Ages. Diagrams similar to the ones we know today first appeared around the 13th century CE.17

The Tree of Life consists of 10 spheres, called Sephiroth, and 22 paths between them. Surrounding the Tree of Life is a “womb of nothingness” from which all life is born, collectively known as the “Three Veils of Negative Existence.”

Don’t worry if this chapter seems overwhelming and complicated. The Tree of Life is easy to work with, but it takes a little time for its simplicity and sublimity to sink in naturally. There is no deadline on comprehending the Tree of Life. It will evolve with you at your own level of understanding.

The version I use in this book is the arrangement used by the majority of ritual magicians. Be aware, however, that there exist other versions of the Tree of Life with somewhat different attributions.

What is the Qabalah?

The Tree of Life comes to us from the Kabbalah. In simplest terms, Kabbalah is Hebrew mysticism, i.e., the “magickal” side of Judaism. It is a collection of esoteric teachings intended to explain the relationship between the infinite, unknowable Creator, and the finite material world around us.

High magicians and Hermeticists, however, have done their own thing with traditional Kabbalah for a long time (since at least the 15th century18) and tend to use the spelling “Qabalah,” when referring to their “Hermetic Qabalah” so as to distinguish it from Jewish Kabbalah.

The Tree of Life with labeled Sephiroth

What can I get out of the Tree of Life?

1. A better understanding of the world. The Tree of Life is a classification system for everything. It’s the structure upon which you may hang all your various knowledge resulting in improved comprehension of everything you will ever learn.

2. An improved memory and broader scope of mind. By having a classification system you will more easily be able to remember things. Ideas will naturally “pigeon hole” into their proper slots. Ideas, names, and concepts will not be lone entities scattered throughout your mind, but will instead be part of a web, or network, called the Tree of Life.

3. The Tree of Life will give you a common language to share with other magicians. Learning the attributions here will help you communicate quickly and easily with other students of esoteric thought. Moreover, it will place you in a position to understand other magickal books that may otherwise seem overwhelming (Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley magick books for example).

4. The Tree of Life is an excellent basis for spells and meditation of all types. We will learn about this in upcoming chapters, but everything I’ve given in these first few chapters is the foundation for practical magick, i.e., magick for changing your day-to-day life and attracting things you want and need. The more you use these symbols, the more they sink into your subconscious, and therefore the more powerful your rituals and talismans become.

5. The Tree of Life will balance you and unclog any mental or emotional blocks you may have. Working regularly with the Tree of Life is akin to having a healthy circulatory system. When things are flowing, there are no problems in your life, because you will understand your place in the world and know where you are going. Everything will be exactly where you need it as you need it. You will have meaning, and that will give you joy at all times, in all situations.

Introduction to the Sephiroth

In this next section, we are going to cover the “spheres,” that is to say the Sephiroth (singular Sephirah), which is their technical name. When referring to the Tree of Life, “spheres” and “Sephiroth” are interchangeable.

Just what is a Sephirah? Traditionally, they are “emanations of God” or “things in and of themselves.” If you like, you may consider the Sephiroth as actual “places” in the subconscious mind. The paths, which we cover in the next section, are the psychological means of conveyance between these places in our subconscious.

The Sephiroth evolve from simple unity (1) down to the complex material world (10).

One way to visualize this is to consider “1” as God and “10” as our material body. Together the ten Sephiroth make a complete map of the relationship between God and Man. To experience and sustain this sense of wholeness is one of the main goals of magick.

The good news is that while understanding all the theory behind the Tree of Life could take years, using it for real-life results is quite a bit easier. When it comes to practical magick, working with either the paths or the Sephiroth is simple. You decide which Sephirah (or path) relates to your problem and then use the appropriate correspondences to create a talisman or other magical ritual using the correspondences given. These correspondences are not necessary to memorize, but rather are to be referred to when creating a ritual.

If you are confused, don’t worry. By the time you are ready to create your first talisman, you will have the confidence to succeed. I will be going over everything step by step, but if you struggle with any concept, just move forward. Eventually things will click.

How do I pronounce all these Hebrew words?

Pronunciation is flexible in high magick. No one really knows how original Hebrew sounded. I try to stay close to modern Jewish pronunciations of most words, but let me shock the purists right now: it’s ok if you mangle the pronunciations. They will still work in rituals—perhaps even more so since you have made the words your own. I have given the usual Hermetic way of pronouncing the words in parenthesis in the following section.

The First Seven Sephiroth

Finally, we are ready to start “growing” your own Tree of Life. Just by reading and learning about the Sephiroth you will be planting seeds in your subconscious that will eventually allow a better understanding of your own place in the universe. Learning the Tree of Life will also bear fruit in later chapters when it comes time to perform practical magick. So here we go, the Tree of Life, from the bottom up:

10. Malkuth

(mal-KOOT)

Colors: Black, Russet, Olive, Citrine

Scent: Dittany of Crete

Planetary influence: Saturn19

Metal: Lead

Malkuth (“Kingdom”) is the Earth, i.e., the material world around you, including your physical body. While seemingly the most solid of the spheres, it actually contains the most transitory things. Malkuth is the end result of the Tree of Life.

“As above, so below” applies here. Your material world is a reflection and extension of the first nine Sephiroth.

The reason many humans are so unhappy is that they try to fix their problems from Malkuth, instead of from deeper within themselves (i.e., further up the Tree of Life).

Saturn is ruler of Malkuth. He was originally the Roman god of agriculture and harvest. Later on, however, he would acquire darker and “heavier” associations including his link to Karma, the passage of time, and even to death. (Saturn, like the grim reaper, was seen with a sickle.) All these associations are appropriate to Malkuth.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Good for grounding, especially bringing energy from the higher spheres down to earth.

What is Karma?

Karma means “action” or “deed” in Sanskrit. In its simplest terms, Karma is the law of cause and effect. For every action we perform, there will be corresponding results of some sort. These results lead to other actions, creating an infinite chain of action and reaction.

After the simple answer of what Karma is, things get more complicated. Karma means different things to various schools of Hindu and Buddhist thought, with some considering God to have a role in Karma, while others consider Karma to be a natural function of the universe, similar to the laws of physics.20

Westernized versions of Karma often compare it to a reward-and-punishment system, a sort of misunderstood 1:1 ratio in which “good” and “bad” acts are worked out in a single lifetime, but that idea is not very Hindu, as the original concept of Karma is based on the notion of reincarnation and multiple lifetimes.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using Karma as a shorthand for “you reap what you sow,” but do be aware that it has other uses and connotations in Hindu and Buddhist21 schools of thought.

Note that Karma is not Fate; humans have free will to create their own destiny. However, the weight of our past actions weighing on our present and future may feel like our destiny at times! With magick we learn to efficiently take charge of our Karma and put it to good use in our lives. A magick ritual alters your future by taking into account the record of your past actions, i.e., your Karma, while implanting a new direction. More on this in Chapter 5 regarding the Earth Vessel, which is a symbolic representation of our Karma.

The Veil of Qesheth22

There are three traditional “veils” on the Tree of Life.23 Veils are imaginary boundaries separating different levels of human consciousness.

The first veil, between Sephiroth 9 and 10, separates the physical world, including our body, from the rest of our being, which includes our mind, emotions, and spirit.

In a practical sense, this veil and the next two, can be highly important aspects of ceremony and ritual, especially initiatory ones. The veils are symbolized by actual partitions in the temple, screening off an area until the initiate is ready to see it.

9. Yesod

(yeh-SODE)

Color: Violet

Scents: Jasmine, Ginseng

Planetary influence: Luna

Metal: Silver

Positioned in between the physical world (Malkuth) and the realm of imagination (Tiphareth), Yesod is traditionally known as the “astral plane.” Yesod is more tangible than Tiphareth, but also more impure. Yesod, like the Moon that influences it, receives its light indirectly from Tiphareth (whose planetary influence is the Sun).

What is the Astral Plane?

Aleister Crowley once wrote, “There is more nonsense talked and written about Yoga than anything else in the world.”24 The same can be said about the astral plane. The amount of rubbish written about it is staggering.

Forget everything you know about the astral plane, and start afresh by merely understanding that Yesod is the indistinct area between the mind and body. It contains the overlap of emotions, thoughts, visions, dreams, and any other sort of mental “picture making.”

You will work with the astral plane during rituals when you imagine drawing pentagrams in the air, for example.

Some people will have a better sense of the astral than others. If you are a person with weak perceptions of the astral plane, it is of no major consequence. I also am of that type. Luckily, with magick, we are concerned about implanting seeds of desire much deeper than the astral plane. Later we will see how this is done, but in many ways Yesod is just a convolution of Tiphareth. Without the clarity of Tiphareth to enlighten it, Yesod is prone to delusion, deception, and false visions.

It’s not completely unhelpful to think of the Tree of Life as “messier” the closer we are to the bottom. As we travel upwards we find more simplicity since we are moving from the actual to the ideal.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Improved astral senses and dreaming. Can be used for sex talismans—but a different flavor than those made by using Netzach.

8. Hod

(HODE)

Color: Orange, Yellow

Scents: Storax

Planetary influence: Mercury

Metals: Quicksilver, alloys

Hod (“Splendour”) symbolizes the rational mind, which might at first seem at odds with the idea that this is the sphere of Mercury, a.k.a. Hermes, the master of magick. But it is only contradictory when you think of it in modern terms. The great thinkers of ancient times25 were spiritual—they were not “atheists” or “agnostics.”

In ancient Egypt, the god of writing was also the God of Magick. His name is Thoth, and he has the body of a man and the head of an Ibis, and is usually shown holding a stylus and parchment. This implies writing is magick, but in modern times we tend to take writing for granted and so writing does not fascinate most humans like it used to.

However, even with the influence of Mercury’s magick, the essence of this sphere is the logical and rational mind. Notice how far down the Tree of Life this sphere is, and note that it is off-center. Modern man often makes a crown of his rational mind, but this is a critical error.

Holding contrary ideas in our head at once is the hallmark of higher intelligence. Learn to accept magick and be skeptical of it at the same time. Then shall the lesson of this sphere go aright.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Good sphere to invoke when studying mysteries of any sort. This sphere grants exceptional skill at learning, writing, wit, and magick.

7. Netzach

(net-ZACK)

Color: Orange, Yellow

Scents: Benzoin, Rose, Red Sandal

Planetary influence: Venus

Metals: Copper, Brass

Netzach (“Victory”), the sphere of Venus, is a tricky one. It is the Sephirah of love, but it is also the sphere of Copper, which was known as the metal of “external splendor, internal corruption.”26

We do get Venusian qualities here, such as sexuality and seduction, but there is a tendency towards debauch, therefore the darker side of love and romance is here, including infidelity and disease.

Also the desire for fame and glamour can trap someone in Netzach.

Netzach is best balanced out by Hod. They are each other’s complement—but the reaction between them is often violent and destructive as symbolized by the path of Peh (“The Blasted Tower”), which connects them on the Tree of Life (more on this in the next section). Therefore, there must be a third element, something higher than either, that can balance them out (in this case, Tiphareth, the next Sephirah). This is always true in magick. For every pair of opposites, there is a “higher” idea or concept that can reconcile the two.

If Hod is the sphere of the “nerd,” then Netzach is the sphere of the “exotic dancer.”

Ritual and talismanic uses: Love, romance, and sex spells easily fall under the dominion of Netzach. This sphere can teach deception—but of a different kind of trickery than Hod grants. Seduction, glamour, and sensual illusion all may be studied in Netzach.

The Veil of Paroketh27

Most people “live” in one of the four lower spheres (or just a muddled mix of them). The bottom four spheres are poor places to rule your life from. They are too far down the Tree of Life, and Netzach and Hod are off-center, which makes them even worse places to be stuck in.

Few people pierce the Veil of Paroketh, but behind it is the Sephirah where magicians, artists, and all enlightened beings prefer to reside as much as possible.

6. Tiphareth

(TIF-uh-ret)

Color: Gold, Bright Yellow

Scents: Olibanum

Planetary influence: Sol

Metals: Gold

Tiphareth (“Beauty”) is the pumping heart of the Tree of Life and encompasses every aspect of our imagination. All we can feel, hear, see, taste, smell, and experience come to harmonious fruition in this Sephirah.

Understanding Tiphareth and its relationship to the other spheres is to experience the pure joy underlying every moment in the infinite universe.

Tiphareth is harmony and balance. Perfectly centered, it reconciles the highest with the lowest, and balances out the tensions of the left and right sides of the Tree of Life.

Tiphareth is the sphere of the magician, guru, or holy man. While Kether is the most pure representation of “God,” and can occasionally be experienced in intense meditation, magick, or under the influence of entheogens, Tiphareth is the highest sphere in which we can experience the bliss of God and still maintain our day-to-day consciousness.

When I say “God” here, I don’t mean any dogmatic representation of divinity. I simply mean a deep-rooted sense of connection to the universe. Feeling holy or spiritual is just a general sense of well-being you have with you at all times. Tiphareth is all about this good feeling.

You cannot find these good feelings through grasping or clinging to external things. You can find peace by focusing on “the now.” As every second of your life unfolds, the moment of its unfolding is Tiphareth.

Tiphareth is always the present moment. To experience Tiphareth with all its harmony, balance, and joy, is merely to experience the present moment fully.

While Tiphareth expresses the beauty and clarity of a clear summer day, death is also here—in the form of resurrection. Tiphareth is symbolized by the sun, which “dies” every night and is “reborn” every morning. All Osiris-like gods (Jesus, Dionysus, Krishna, etc.) are attributed to Tiphareth. They exist. They die. They are reborn more powerful and enlightened than before.

I feel the message of Tiphareth is simple: Die to the moment and experience the beauty of “the now.”

Even as you read this, the everlasting moment is now forever blooming before your eyes and senses. Be here. Be present. Stay with your senses. Don’t hide. Don’t think about your past; don’t anticipate your future. Be bold enough to be right here, right now. Have fun. Find beauty in everything.

Do not think it complicated or difficult to feel the power of Tiphareth, i.e., the power of the moment. Instead, imagine a time when you were engaged in some enjoyable activity, whether a hobby, sport, a game, a work project, or whatever else. Imagine a time when you were completely in the “zone” and completely “on top of things.” You felt that you could not be stopped or turned aside. You were excited and yet calm, lucid. You were completely “in the moment.”

Recall that feeling now. This feeling is the essence of Tiphareth.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Invoke for inspiration and creativity and to connect with your higher self. All healing spells would do well to utilize Tiphareth as well.

5. Geburah

(Geh-BU-rah)

Color: Red, Fiery Orange

Scents: Tobacco, Cinnamon

Planetary influence: Mars

Metals: Iron, Steel

Geburah (also “Gevurah”) means “severity.” Geburah also implies strength, force, and fire. Though sometimes perceived of as “destructive,” that is an illusion. The universe has perfect economy with the sum total of zero.28 Nothing in the universe is created or destroyed—only transformed from one type of energy to another.

Mars, God of War, is attributed to Geburah. If Saturn is time and change, then Mars is the ability to roll with the punches life deals us, and how to return a few blows of our own. This is consistent with Geburah’s other titles of “judgment”29 and “power.”

From a practical standpoint, it is no use denying that Geburah can feel violent and destructive at times. Like a warrior caught in the onslaught of Ghenghis Khan’s legions, those on the receiving end of abrupt change may not like it—but they must adapt or die. That is the lesson of Geburah.30

Ritual and talismanic uses: Good for “war,” whether in business, sports, love, or actual warfare. Geburah is also excellent for any ritual requiring intense transformational energy.

4. Chesed

(HEH-sed)

Color: Blue, Royal Purple

Scents: Cedar

Planetary influence: Jupiter

Metals: Tin, Aluminum

Chesed (“kindness”) is a source of stability and level-headed rulership. If Geburah is the king at war, out expanding his borders, then Chesed is the ruler at peace, working on the infrastructure and welfare of his kingdom. The number four here suggests stability and safety. Imagine four walls of a castle and you have the right idea of Chesed.

Jupiter is the supreme ruler of the gods in Roman mythology (known as Zeus in the Greek) and therefore we get all the royal associations of Chesed. Also this is the last sphere before we cross the Abyss. On the other side of the Abyss things cannot be “known,” but they can be understood through direct experience or sensed intuitively, therefore Jupiter, as supreme ruler still makes sense—at least when viewed from Earth. Indeed, Jupiter rules from mount Olympus. Gods associated with this sphere are the highest conception of God we can have without crossing over the Abyss to abstract representations such as monotheism.

Chesed also implies luck and success upon the material plane. This is a better place to focus for financial gain than Malkuth. Not only will it manifest more easily, but you will have a better idea of what wealth actually is and how to use it in a wise and meaningful fashion since Chesed is directly ruled by the wisdom of Chokmah, the sphere above it.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Wealth, luck, and abilities regarding finance or money. Also spells to protect your home, spells calling for regality, and also any time you need the ability to govern large groups of people.

Veil of the Abyss

Of all the veils, the Veil of the Abyss is the most infamous. Magicians usually just refer to it as “the Abyss.”

The Abyss separates the seven lower Sephiroth, which are considered to be of the “practical” world, from the top three Sephiroth. These top three Sephiroth are so different from the rest that they are considered “ideal.” Because the top three Sephiroth are not part of the actual world in any sense that our minds can usually comprehend, the gap between them and the lower seven Sephiroth is traditionally considered an unfathomable chasm of space and time (as even the very concepts of space and time break down above the Abyss).

Why the dire associations with the Abyss?

We are talking about the complete destruction of the ego, and any personal concept of identity. Above the Abyss, the experience of existence is one of complete unity and harmony with the entire Universe. It’s blissful there, but from the ego’s point of view it is pure destruction. The more one is associated with one’s fragile ego-mind, the more painful the experience of the Abyss will be.

When Crowley says give up your blood to Babalon31 (his symbol for Binah, in this case), he’s merely giving a poetic metaphor for the submission process of letting go of one’s ego to one’s True Self. Only our True Self can completely experience the top three Sephiroth. This is why Crowley said give up your blood willingly to Babalon. If you give up your ego on your own it’s blissful to cross the Abyss—but if you are miserly and cling to your ego, it can indeed be uncomfortable as your earthly “crutches” are yanked from you.

The Abyss also has a bit of a reputation in the magickal world as a “frightening” place where one undergoes the “dark night of the soul.” In his Magick: Book 432, Crowley goes so far as to say, “To him who has not given every drop of his blood for the Cup of Babalon all magic power is dangerous.”

But don’t be frightened by what you may read in other magick books on the Abyss. For one thing, you don’t bodily experience the Abyss until you are an advanced student of magick, and second, you can work with the Tree of Life gradually so that there never is a “dark night of the soul.” In fact, with proper preparation as you will receive in the book, the actual experience of the Abyss is exciting and liberating.

If the idea of letting go of your ego scares you, then you begin to see why the Abyss has a forbidding reputation—but don’t worry. In this book, the Abyss is treated as an intellectual concept rather than as an initiation. All you need to understand is that the next three Sephiroth are in a class all by themselves.

The Supernals: Binah, Chokmah, and Kether

The top three Sephiroth are collectively known as the Supernals. We are now approaching the simplicity of pure, idealized oneness. To completely comprehend any one of them is to automatically understand the other two, so closely are their concepts related.

There are no traditional metals listed for the last three Sephiroth—being not of this Earth, there is no metal that could properly represent the Supernals. Since these last three Sephiroth are so different than the other seven, I have also assigned them alchemical attributions instead of planetary33 ones.

3. Binah

(BE-nuh)

Color: Black

Scents: Myrrh

Alchemical influence: Salt

Binah is the Great Mother, the ultimate female energy. Her color is black, symbolizing the darkness of her womb. Binah, impregnated by Chokmah, gives birth to the rest of the Tree of Life.

Binah is congruent with the Indian goddess Shakti, the personification of divine female energy in Hinduism. Shakti provides the universal womb for her consort Shiva (Chokmah energy) to impregnate her. Together they are the “divine couple” of Tantra.34

As we follow the process of creation down the Tree of Life, Binah symbolizes the womb, but there is another side to Binah. Climbing back up the Tree of Life, which is an essential component of magickal initiation, she is also the destroyer. Initiations are meant to purify and cleanse our spirit. Binah has a critical function here as we must give up our ego-identity to return to the womb of our primal mother. Binah is the destroyer of the ego-mind, what most of us think of as our “self,” and that gives rise to some of the more awesome and menacing aspects of the Great Mother.

Babalon is entirely congruent with everything just stated about Binah. Babalon is the Great Whore that takes all the energy of the Beast (Chokmah) and gives birth to manifested forms. As she initiates us, we are to give up our blood, which she receives into her Cup, the Holy Grail, which is said to hold the blood of Saints.35 More on this subject will resurface throughout the book. For now just be aware that this is all symbolic for destruction of the ego and doing so willingly.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Good for any magick in which you are trying to cross the Abyss and experience the top three Sephiroth directly. Use it also when you need the supreme female energy.

2. Chokmah

(HOKE-muh)

Color: Grey

Scents: Musk

Alchemical influence: Sulphur

Chokmah is Wisdom. He is the original male energy as Binah is the original female. I like to think of the grey color traditionally associated with Chokmah as the color of a wise man’s beard.

Wisdom in this case is right action without reflection. Understanding is knowing why we made the choices we did. Chokmah is pure action. Binah is reflective upon its own nature; Chokmah does not have this ability. He is pure rushing, unadulterated force. Binah receives Chokmah’s force and gives birth to the rest of the tree of life.

Chokmah is primal “fire.” Binah is primal “water.” Their son is air, Tiphareth, and their daughter is earth, Malkuth, so once again we see the formula of the Tetragrammaton.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Useful for works of wisdom, and anytime the supreme primal male energy is needed.

1. Kether

(KET-er)

Color: Pure bright white

Scents: Ambergris

Alchemical influence: Mercury

This Sephirah is the source beyond all sources. This sphere has no polarity. It is complete in and of itself, and yet it is not—because only through incarnation into the physical world can it truly be appreciated. The story of the Tree of Life is Kether’s development into the “imperfect reality” of Malkuth for the sheer joy of the experience.

Kether is pure oneness. It is the only perfection on the Tree of Life. Everything else is just emanations of the one perfection.

Kether is the singularity from which all life manifests. It is the simplest, most pure form of “God” that a human can contemplate. The experience of Kether is so profound, deep, and perfect, that any words about Kether itself must necessarily be false. Kether can only be completely understood through direct contemplation.

Mercury36 is appropriate here not just as the unifying principle between Binah (Salt) and Chokmah (Sulfur), but because of his attribution as the Logos. Logos means “word” in Greek and it is symbolically considered to be the word that created the universe. Therefore, Mercury is both the Logos, and He who speaks it.

However, Mercury is nothing if not duplicitous. He partakes of the lowest and highest in every sense. Mercury, in the guise of The Magus,37 is also the last illusion before God. He is a helpful initiator, but also a trickster. Mercury is God as well as the veil of illusion directly in front of God meant to mislead the profane and unprepared.

All these descriptions are highly symbolic and only useful in so far as they point to the real thing. While true of all descriptions in this book, it is even more true for Kether: Do not get hung up on descriptions of the Sephirah, but instead seek the underlying meaning that transcends words. Words are only pointers. It’s too easy to forget that and start mistaking words for the “essence” of something.

Ritual and talismanic uses: Kether is too lofty for most talismans. Use Kether in your rituals when you need the highest and most pure form of divine energy available.

The Three Veils of Negative Existence

Besides the three veils I’ve just described, there is a further set of veils surrounding the entire Tree of Life. These veils are known collectively as the Three Veils of Negative Existence. They are the ain, ain soph, and the ain soph aur.

Ain, translated as “not,” is the infinite void beyond comprehension of any sort, about which nothing can be known. Ain soph translates as “no end,” i.e., the limitless, the infinite. Ain soph aur is “the limitless light.” The easiest way to understand these veils is that together they are the unmanifested menstruum out of which the Universe is born. They are a sort of primal silence, a womb of nothing, which gives birth to everything.

The Three Veils are “negative” ideas so if you have a hard time comprehending them, it’s no wonder. Luckily, you won’t use them much in practical magick. While crucial to theoretical discussions, we can leave the philosophical digressions on the Three Veils to another book.

The Three Pillars

The left side of the Tree of Life (which includes Binah, Geburah, and Hod) is known as the Pillar of Severity. This side tends towards discipline, control, and dominance.

The right side is known as the Pillar of Mercy (and contains Chokmah, Chesed, and Netzach.) This side tends towards mercy, compassion, and “letting things be.”

The center pillar (which includes Kether, Tiphareth, Yesod, and Malkuth) is the “Pillar of Mildness.” The center pillar, also known as the Pillar of Equilibrium, tends towards harmony, balance, and unity.

A popular axiom of the Golden Dawn is “Unbalanced Mercy is weakness and the fading out of the Will. Unbalanced Severity is cruelty and the barrenness of Mind.”

The Tree of Life is about balancing this tension of opposites. Traditionally, the Pillar of Mercy corresponds to the left side of your body, while the Pillar of Severity corresponds to the right side of your body. I imagine my clenched right fist as Geburah, a good symbol for the entire Pillar of Severity. My open left hand is the mercy of Chesed. With myself in the center, I make wise and balanced decisions.

The Five Elements on the Tree of Life

As mentioned in passing, the formula of the Tetragrammaton can also be applied directly to the Tree of Life:

Kether is Spirit, the root of everything, pure potential. Chokmah (Fire) is the Father. Binah (Water) is the Mother.

Their son (Air) is specifically Tiphareth, but includes all six middle Sephiroth (Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Hod, Netzach, and Yesod) known collectively as the Ruach38 (“mind”). The Daughter is Malkuth. The daughter is to be set upon the throne of her mother, Binah, to mate with the father, Chokmah, continuing the cycle of energy.

Introduction to the Paths

Now that we’ve learned something about each Sephirah we can discuss the paths between them.

The twenty-two paths of the Tree of Life correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. The paths also correspond to the twenty-two tarot trumps (also known as “Atu” or the “Major Arcana”) of a tarot deck.

The seven traditional planets (Mars, Venus, etc.), the twelve zodiacal signs (Aries, Taurus, etc.), and the three original Hebrew elements (Fire, Water, Air) also have their correspondences in the twenty-two paths.

It might seem confusing that the seven traditional planets are used to describe the paths as well as the Sephiroth, so let me clarify: The Sephiroth and the paths are much more than any single attribution assigned to them. All attributions just hint at the true nature of the path or Sephirah in question.

As an analogy, consider the paths a sort of “stew” of symbolism. For each path we consider its placement on the Tree. The Sephiroth on either end of the path contributes its own energy to the “stew” (for example Path 12 gets energy from Kether and Binah). That’s the broth of the stew, but then we throw in the symbolism of the Hebrew letter (Path 12 is Beth, which means “house”). That changes the flavor a bit. Then we consider the path’s planetary/elemental/zodiacal energy (in this case Mercury). This changes the flavor yet again. Finally, we consider the Tarot card (in this case II. The Magus), which adds its own packet of ingredients to the stew. Finally, we stir it up and taste the stew. That “taste” is the essential nature of the path.

There are some symbols, like Mercury, that are all over the Tree of Life. Aspects of Mecury affect Hod, Kether (as the alchemical Mercury), Path 12 (The Magus), Path 20 (because Mercury rules Virgo), and Path 17 (as he rules Gemini as well). Mercury, known to the Romans as “Messenger of the Gods,” certainly gets around! The point is that none of these paths or Sephiroth are Mercury exactly—but they all partake of his essential energy in some way.

The Tree of Life with paths labeled

Tarot Trumps and The Twenty-two Paths of the Tree of Life

Once again you are about to be bombarded with a lot of information. I don’t expect all this to make sense right away. I am providing the most useful attributions for each path. It will take some time for the symbols to be understood on their own, and even longer to appreciate the subtle interplay of energies upon the Tree of Life as a whole.

To make the visualizations easier, I recommend you buy a tarot deck like Crowley’s Thoth deck that has the Hermetic attributions printed on the cards. If you don’t want or can’t buy a deck right now, just get online and take a peek at each picture of the tarot trump.39 It will make the following paths much easier to understand.

I suggest not to completely rely on any one tarot deck to understand the energy of the paths. Study various tarot decks in conjunction with the underlying symbolism that is given here, and not only will you comprehend any tarot deck, you will even have the skills to design your own.40

So jump in and latch onto whatever symbols make the most sense to you. Any symbols learned now will help you understand further layers of symbolism down the line. For example, understanding the paths helps make more sense of the Sephiroth, and vice versa. Understanding the zodiac signs helps make sense of the Hebrew alphabet. All the symbols help clarify the tarot card titles, and the tarot helps make sense of the symbols as a whole.

For each path the following is given: the path number, the name of the Hebrew letter (and its pronunciation in parenthesis), the meaning of the Hebrew letter, the Hebrew letter itself (and its numerical value in parenthesis), the Roman numeral and the title of its respective tarot cart, and finally, the planetary or elemental symbol.

The Fool from
The Pictorial Key
to the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

The Fool from
The Pictorial Key
to the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

Path 11: Aleph41 (AH-lef), an “ox”
(1)—0. The Fool

Path 11 deals with “nothing” and therefore will have the longest description of all the paths. This card deals with such a simple concept that it takes many words to describe.

The most salient feature of this path is the concept of “zero.” In magick, zero is a big deal! Zero42 symbolizes the “nothingness” of pure being. This is the “zero” of a silent mind, where quiet divinity is revealed.

The shape of a zero symbolizes the egg, which is a symbol of spirit in magick. The egg is the unmanifested spirit, pure potential. This card therefore symbolizes the silence of the Yogi. This is the silence of pure being—the only place where the ultimate essence of life can be felt.

The Fool is the divine fool—drunk and mad on God’s essence. He is also a “Fool” because he moves to the beat of his own drummer, and does not follow the “common sense” of the common man.

“Salvation, whatever salvation may mean, is not to be obtained on any reasonable terms. Reason is an impasse, reason is damnation; only madness, divine madness offers an issue … Mohammed … Napoleon … Karl Marx. There is only one thing in common among such persons; they are all mad, that is, inspired.”43

The contradiction of folly being equated with wisdom is not uncommon in magickal symbolism. As obtuse as it sounds, most magickal truths are a seeming contradiction to the rational mind. It’s just one of those things that takes getting used to.

The Fool is quite unlike other cards in not only the Major Arcana, but the entire deck of 78 cards. Why? It is the Fool that travels the paths. It is he who experiences the rest of the cards. He is the immaculate soul, and the rest of the cards are a parable regarding his decent into the World of Matter (and his ultimate return to divinity).

Like many of the Hebrew letters, it is not immediately clear what “ox” has to do with this path. Frankly, the Hebrew letter attributions can be a little confusing. These are best left to the student to study through meditation. I will sometimes give my suggestions as to how the Hebrew letter ties everything together, but my interpretations need not be considered to be writ in stone.

With regards to an ox pertaining to this path, remember that oxen can pull obstinate and almost unmovable loads. They are more sure-footed than horses and do not try to jerk the load, therefore, they can pull harder and longer than horses. This seems to me a hint that our soul is the ox. It is tireless in its slow march down the Tree of Life into manifestation. We each of us are the Fool bitten with wanderlust just as we each of us are the “dumb” ox on a long journey through the Tree of Life.

Interpreting a path’s position between two Sephiroth also requires a fair amount of finesse, and once again interpretations vary depending on the student and the circumstances. I will give clues from my own experiences and interpretations. For example, on the Tree of Life, this path connects pure divinity (Kether) to wisdom (Chokmah.) To me this means wisdom comes from being able to find pure joy in every moment. The Fool is happy in any and all circumstances, because for him there is no final goal. Each moment of the journey is the meaning—the very reason for his existence.

As a final note, in most historical decks The Fool went unnumbered, considered to be distinct from the rest of the deck entirely. In 1870 America, the “Joker” appeared in a standard 52-card playing deck. Similar to The Fool, he is quite unlike the rest of the deck. He is the wildcard.

Ritual and meditational use: For “escaping” it all. For works of drunken ecstasy. Help with quieting the mind during meditation. Useful for combating fear, weakness, stagnation, and depression.

Path 12: Beth, ( BET ), “house”
(2)—I. The Magus (The Magician)

Mercury, also known as Hermes to the Greeks and Thoth to the Egyptians, is the God of Magick.

One of the great secrets of magick is indeed contained within this path: Beth=house=The Magus. The Magus is a master of acquiring things as well as traveling from place to place, so why is he attributed to a house, an immovable object valued for its stability? The secret is that when you move, you are always “home.” In other words, “no matter where you go, there you are.”44

You don’t go to people or things. They come to you. This sounds so simple, but most people are constantly looking for things on the outside to make them feel complete on the inside. You will never actually go anywhere. You are and always will be the center of your perceptions. You cannot escape that. You can’t quit having the experiences that constantly bombard you. All you can do is learn to change yourself internally, so that you may attract more and more pleasurable experiences.

“Every man and every woman is a star,” a famous magickal quote from Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law,45 is essentially the same idea. We are all of us the center of our own universe. We should not imagine we are in orbit around someone or something else, but rather, the world orbits around us.

In the magickal tradition, The Magus is the final veil before God, therefore Mercury is the ultimate illusion before God. He is the word or voice of God, but God’s true essence is represented only in silence. Therefore, Mercury, for all his power and wit, falls short of the “Pure Fool” state of Path 11. The Fool is one step above The Magus, the master of magick. The Fool is beyond even the need of magick as in his eyes all things are blissfully equal.

In another sense, Mercury is an active form of The Fool. The Fool becomes The Magus through his experiences on the Tree of Life; The Magus’s final goal is to become the Fool once more.

Ritual and meditational use: Improved wit, verbal and mental alacrity, help with winning at games, help with learning any science or language, multitasking, juggling competing interests, diplomacy, and anything regarding magick or writing. Also useful for business dealings of any sort, theft, trickery, deceit, etc.

Path 13: Gimel ( GEE-mel), “camel”
(3)—II. The High Priestess

This path is the longest path visually upon the Tree of Life. It is also the main path across the Abyss mentioned in the last chapter.

The Abyss is often referred to as a desert, and therefore the attribution of camel is appropriate here. This is a spiritual camel, capable of traveling safely from Tiphareth to Kether, no matter how long and dry the path.

That symbolism, however, is more appropriate when climbing back up the Tree of Life through pathworking (see Chapter 9). In a day-to-day sense, we understand this path not so much as Tiphareth up to Kether, but from Kether down to Tiphareth. In this sense, Path 13 is about the descent of “unknowable” divine energy descending into the “known” parts of our conscious mind. This is the connection from the nearly incomprehensible experience of Kether, brought down to Tiphareth, a more human-accessible conception of divinity.

There is something gracious and elegant about this path conferred to it by the Moon. There is no struggle here—no duplicity. Unlike the Magician on the last path, there is nothing “up her sleeve.” This path is the moon in its purest and most lofty aspect (see Path 29 for a darker side of the moon).

The High Priestess is our intuition—a balanced and divine connection to our highest self (Kether). Imagine her as a pure white light descending upon you, blessing you with an enlightened comprehension just beyond your usual consciousness.

The High Priestess is virginal in the truest sense—she cannot be defiled.

Ritual and meditation use: For making a clear connection to our deepest intuition. This path is also used when absolute purity is required.

Path 14: Daleth ( DAH-let ), “door”
(4)—III. The Empress

As Path 13 is the highest aspect of the Moon, Path 14 is the highest aspect of Venus. Therefore, this path is love, receptivity, harmony, and natural growth.

All this is symbolized quite succinctly by an empress resting languidly upon her throne, surrounded by fields of thriving grains, trees, and flowers.

This path does not benefit from over-analyzation, so I leave it to your own meditations to work out the attribution of Daleth, “the door.” Do notice, however, that this path connects the primal male energy, Chokmah, with primal female energy, Binah.

Ritual and meditational use: Use this path when the very highest aspects of love are required, or when loving, nurturing mother energy is required.

The Star from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

The Star from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

Path 1546: Heh (HAY), “window”
(5)—XVII: The Star

Imagine looking out an open window, into a clear night sky and feeling refreshed and filled with a quiet hope for better things. That is the essence of Path 15. Divine starlight and divine breath flow freely in through the window.47

The traditional symbol of Aquarius is that of the “man” or more specifically the “water-bearer.” This card suggests that this water-bearer is not a man at all, but a woman, since in most versions of The Star tarot card there is a nude woman pouring out two cups, one onto the earth and one back into a lake.

In Crowley’s version, the woman is Nuit, the Egyptian goddess who personifies the star-filled night sky. She pours one cup over her own face and the other cup back into the earth. One cup receives and one cup gives, thus completing the economy of the universe.

This path has a give-and-take quality to it. We must be active in our aspiration to the divine, but ultimately we must be passive, i.e., receptive, if we are to receive its guidance. This path travels from Tiphareth, our imagination, to Chokmah, our Wisdom, reinforcing this idea.

Ritual and meditational uses: Inspiration and guidance. Help with depression.

Path 16: Vav (VAW)
(6)—V. The Hierophant (The High Priest)

The Hierophant is the “high priest” and his goal is to bring his worshippers into the presence of the holy and divine. Thus, this is a path of teaching and guidance. It brings down the Wisdom of Chokmah into the Mercy of Chesed.

Through the attribution of Taurus, it symbolizes patience and toil. Ruled by Venus, the energy of this path is best managed with love and gentleness—not brute force.

This is congruent with being on the merciful side of the Tree of Life. If you wish to move the Earth, one should have patience and delicacy in the process.

While the Hierophant’s job is to teach the mysteries of God to men, he is also concerned with the material plane, therefore the teachings of the Hierophant are both spiritual and practical.

This duality carries over to the influence of Venus, where The Hierophant is both spiritual and sexual. The Hierophant is not only a man of God, but also a man. In many religious cultures this sexual component has been repressed, causing perversion among the clergy, but in more sexually inclusive belief systems such as Tantra, Wicca, and Thelema, there is no contradiction. The Hierophantic task is to teach all secrets of God, including divine eroticism, to those who aspire.

Ritual and meditational uses: Helpful for increasing self-discipline and patience. This is a good path to use for help with extremely long or obstinate projects (or people).

Path 17: Zain (ZY-in)
(7)—VI. The Lovers

This path is about the marriage of opposites. The Lovers symbolize two polarized energies, male and female, becoming joined through the act of love. The idea of twins (Gemini) reinforces this idea. Twins are separate individuals and yet are unified by virtue of their similarities. Famous twins such as Cain and Able, Castor and Pollux, etc., all find resonance within this path.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury; it is he who harmonizes the polarities. This is the same function Mercury displays as the intermediary between Sulphur and Salt as discussed in Chapter 1. Mercury symbolizes the thought process that can balance the tension between any pair of opposites, whether male vs. female, fire vs. water, or hot vs. cold.

Gemini is an air path, which is congruent with both the rulership of Mercury and the attribution of the sword. The sword is not only a traditional symbol of air, but also a weapon of division. It symbolizes the process of analyzation, of breaking down ideas for the chance to view them with fresh eyes, and a chance for new combinations.

This path therefore displays mental open-mindedness, because Mercury never gets overly attached to any one point of view. He is always able to see the opposite point of view, thereby opening up a range of new possibilities in the process. The theme of this card is to move beyond superficial polarities and into a full spectrum of possibilities.

Ritual and meditational uses: Helpful for solving difficult problems of any sort. It can shine clarity on the most confusing situations. This is the path to cut through a “Gordian Knot.”

Path 18: Cheth (HET)
(8)—VII: The Chariot

This is a path of conquest and victory. We have understanding (Binah) brought down to the sphere of power (Geburah).

The typical tarot attribution is a young man driving a chariot pulled by either horses or sphinx. The Thoth deck follows this symbolism, but adds one crucial element: The Cup of Babalon, which the driver, a knight, holds in his hands—while the chariot drives itself.

When you submit completely to the divine, i.e., give up all your ego-based wants, greeds, and obsessions, into Babalon’s Cup, it becomes the Holy Grail. The history and mythology of the Holy Grail could fill volumes. The essential feature of the Grail, as far as we are concerned, is offering up the ego to the divine. The wine is our blood—given willingly. Therein lies true power.

This Charioteer has given up all his blood into the holy chalice, and therefore the Chariot guides itself perfectly, while he is free to relax in meditative repose. This is cognate with a quote by Indian spiritual leader Sri Sathya Sai Baba: “Give up all bad qualities in you, banish the ego and develop the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss.”

Like many of the paths, there is a paradox here. Even though this a path of conquering, and even domination, it is also a path of submission. The charioteer submits to the divine, and therefore is able to dominate and claim victory over that which is beneath him.

Cancer rules this path, so it is not surprising there are many secrets here. Crowley attributed the holy word “ABRAHADABRA” to this path. More on this in Chapter 6.

Ritual and meditational uses: A good path to help with meditation itself. Good for increasing self-discipline and control.

Path 19: Teth (TET), “serpent”

Strength from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

Strength from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

(9)—XI. Lust (Strength, Fortitude48)

This path was originally called Strength, but Crowley changed it to Lust to imply not just strength, but the “joy of strength exercised.”49

The image of this card is a woman taming a lion. She symbolizes our higher self gently dominating our lower passions.

This is an important card in Thelema, as in Crowley’s Thoth deck the woman doesn’t just tame the lion, but instead rides him with drunken ecstasy. This woman is Babalon, holding the Holy Grail we have discussed previously. The lion she rides is actually a creature with seven heads and the body of a lion (and the tail of a serpent because of attribution of Teth). This creature is “the Beast,” and symbolizes all our human tendencies for power, passion, sex, adventure, romance, etc. The Beast is dangerous and wild unless tamed by Babalon who symbolizes our connection to our higher self.50 This path represents the joyous, blissfully ecstatic union between our lower self and our higher self.

Also, this path balances the opposing energies of Geburah and Chesed, giving it even more “oomph.” With Geburah as power, and Chesed as Mercy, the woman’s gentleness towards the lion seems to show that mercy dominates power if the energy is properly applied.

This path is the essence of carnal joy enlightened by our connection to the highest. In magick there is no contradiction between enjoying earthly pleasures and the pleasures of heaven. They are one and the same.

Ritual and meditational uses: This path is the very path of magick itself, and sex magick in particular is sacred to this path (among a few others). This is a different type of magick than that of The Magus; this is the pinnacle of success below the Abyss, and is good for spells of dominance, glory, grand beauty, and large indulgent displays of lust.

Also good for invoking fiery passion and a general “lust for life.”

Path 20: Yod (YOOD), the “hand”

The Hermit from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

The Hermit from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

(10)—IX. The Hermit

Once again, Mercury rears his ubiquitous head. Here we find him as the secret progenitor of the entire Tree of Life. How so?

Yod is the smallest Hebrew letter. Does its shape not suggest a spermatozoa? It is the root of the entire Hebrew alphabet. Through various elongations and contortions, the other twenty-one letters are formed.

Virgo is the spiritualized (a.k.a. mutable) aspect of Earth. What does that mean exactly? Earth is considered to be the “lowest” of the elements, the basest, and the darkest. Here in Virgo we have the tendency for Earth to return to the highest. But how? By giving it a purpose, a direction, a part in the divine play of God. Earth cannot do it alone, however. It will need help.

Virgo means a female virgin, but a virgin is incomplete. What does she need? The same thing fallow earth needs: a seed.

The tarot card attributed to this path is the Hermit, an old man holding a light out to help guide the world.

Who is this Hermit? Why it is none other than Mercury, ruler of Virgo. Remember that Mercury in his highest aspect is God. Here he is in disguise, hiding his brilliance in rags to protect his ineffable holiness from the profane and also to protect the profane from being blinded by so intense a light. Instead, he holds aloft a lamp, shedding a tiny fraction of the infinite light of Kether out into the world so that we might find our own way in the darkness. In the deepest sense possible, Mercury is also the light itself.

So who is the virgin? Odd as it sounds, Mercury is simultaneously the old man and the young virgin. Mercury’s gender is always ambiguous. As the light of Kether, he is the neutral state that contains both polarities. Here in Path 20, home of the mutable Earth sign Virgo, his polarity is expressed through the symbolic nature of both a female virgin and a wise old man.

Another way of looking at this path is that Mercury has come down to impregnate the fallow Earth with his seed, giving it intelligence, clarity, and purpose. The Yod is his seed and Yod means “hand.” This path illustrates the idea that the hand of God is everywhere on Earth. There is nowhere the light of God does not reach. The Tree of Life grows everywhere, in everything, akin to a fractal.

Ritual and meditational uses: Confers practical wisdom. Help during the most difficult and dark of times. Help with meditation. Good for learning how to channel energy with solitary sex magick.

Path 2151: Kaph (KAHF), “palm of hand”

Wheel of Fortune from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

Wheel of Fortune from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

(20)—X. Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune, also known as the Rota Fortunae, was a popular medieval concept symbolizing what they viewed as the capricious nature of Fate. The Wheel of Fortune originally goes back to ancient Rome, where it belonged to the Goddess Fortuna, who spins it at random, causing great windfalls for some and catastrophe for others.

The essence of this card is constant change. The Wheel of Fortune never stops turning, and therefore this card symbolizes the randomness of life, chance, and luck.

A vintage quote from the Roman philosopher Boethius perhaps sums it best: “I know how Fortune is ever most friendly and alluring to those whom she strives to deceive, until she overwhelms them with grief beyond bearing, by deserting them when least expected … Are you trying to stay the force of her turning wheel? Ah! dull-witted mortal, if Fortune begin to stay still, she is no longer Fortune.”52 Embrace change as the status quo and you will never be caught unprepared.

Ritual and meditational uses: To stay on top of life’s constantly shifting situation you have to keep changing as well. Focus your meditations here if you wish to be able to more easily roll with life’s punches. A magician cannot control the Wheel of Fortune, but he or she can become adept at maximizing its windfalls and learning how to turn Fortuna’s many lemons into lemonade.

Path 22: Lamed (LAH-med), “ox-goad”53
(30)—VIII. Justice (Adjustment)

This path is attributed to Libra, which means scales. Scales are not only an excellent symbol of balance, but are also a simplified example of the “laws of conservation.”54 This is most easily understood as a paraphrased version of Newton’s Third Law of Physics: “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

This is congruent with the idea of Karma, where our every deed has a consequence or reaction.

If you put an ounce of gold in one side of the scale, the other side will go up a proportionate amount. It’s just the way the universe is. There is no conception of God doing the balancing. It is inherent in the nature of physics. This is why Crowley changed the title from Justice to Adjustment. He felt that Justice had too many negative connotations because of mankind’s perpetual misuse of “justice.” But were there such a thing as ideal justice on Earth, it would symbolize this path succinctly.

Ritual and meditational uses: For help with anything coming to a legal conclusion or requiring judgment, including marriages, divorces, and court hearings of any sort. It is also useful for balancing tricky situations. Because of the influence of Venus upon this path of balance, it can be invoked for creative and artistic endeavors, imparting elegance and harmony to the proceedings.

Path 23: Mem (MEM), “water”

The Hanged Man from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

The Hanged Man from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

(40)—XII. The Hanged Man

The tarot image of this path is that of The Hanged Man. This path symbolizes “spiritual surrender.” The energy of this path is giving up fixation on the material plane and letting go to the spiritual energies within us, i.e., our higher self.

Often people turn to God or spirituality when their lives are “falling apart.” This path is about losing everything we thought important and finding something deeper and more meaningful just as things are at their worst.

This is usually a misunderstood path. It’s not as uncomfortable as it is made out to be. In fact, it’s quite a liberating experience. It can feel like diving into cold water—and losing your inhibitions that way, or it can feel like blissful submission to the unknown. Either way, it’s finally being forced to let go of all our attachments. Although frightening at first, that experience feels good. It’s free, “in the moment,” and courageous. It is the feeling of nothing to lose and everything to gain. The quicker you submit to the energies in this card, the better they feel. The only thing that could make this path uncomfortable is overly resisting. Despite the title of this card, it is more of a baptism than a lynching.

Ritual and meditational uses: The very best card when desiring escape from the material, external world and entrance into a more spiritual, internal one.

Path 24: Nun (NOON), “fish”
(50)—XIII. Death

This path is about sometimes drastic, yet natural and necessary transformations.

In Hermeticism, Scorpio has three different forms, representing various aspects of transformation:

The Scorpion—It was once believed that scorpions killed themselves when surrounded by a ring of fire.55 This is not actually true, but humans do indeed kill themselves when surrounded by what they feel are insurmountable obstacles. This is the lowest form of transformation associated with Scorpio and in traditional Hermeticism it was considered a “bad” symbol.

The Snake—The snake, or serpent, was thought to contain both “good” and “bad” elements of transformation, and undulated between them. This was the intermediary level of Scorpio’s transformation.

The Eagle—This is the “highest” level of transformation associated with Scorpio. It symbolizes leaving behind the earthly realm, and soaring high above in exaltation.

Scorpio is a Water sign, and it is not surprising to find that Nun means fish, symbolizing life beneath the sea. What is notable is that Mars, a fiery, aggressive planet, rules this path. This gives Scorpio its boiling intensity.

As far as the tarot, almost all versions of the Death card feature some sort of Grim Reaper, a skeletal figure with a scythe, cutting down human bodies, trampling them into the ground before him.

In one of the earliest surviving tarot decks, the Tarot de Marseille (1713), Trump XIII was numbered, but not labeled, probably out of superstition, the same way some modern buildings “don’t have” a 13th floor.56 However, the Death card’s bad reputation is due mainly to misunderstanding its true meaning. To this day, it is maligned in movies as an ill-omen, but this is simply not the case. Like other seemingly “destructive” parts of the Tree of Life, any pain found here is purely imagined and caused from holding onto things too tightly with the ego.

Ritual and meditational use: Transformation. Help with shedding the past. Help moving forward and using current woes to transcend to a higher level of consciousness.

Path 25: Samech (SAH-mekh), a “prop”

(60)—Art (Temperance)

Temperance from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

Temperance from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

This card is about balancing opposites, somewhat similar to that in Path 17 (The Lovers), except in this path, the opposites are not just paired, but conjoined back into one.57

The placement of this path on the Tree of Life is especially important:

Not only does this path harmonize the polarities of the lunar vs. solar, but through the conjunction of this path and Path 27, it harmonizes the tension between the rational (Hod) vs. the sensual (Netzach).

Being so low on the Tree of Life the energy here is practical, and the harmonizing here is done consciously, that is to say through “art.” Unlike the higher spheres, which are symbolic and distinct, now we are closer to the goings on of day-to-day life, therefore the separation between these lower spheres is a bit of a muddle. Art makes sense and harmony out of this jumble of tension and energy.

Ritual and meditational use: On this path, the ephemeral ideas of the imagination come to terms with the realities of the physical world. It is helpful for harmonizing internal, emotional messes, or external, physical ones. It is helpful for creating symmetry, beauty, and harmony out of the chaos that life so often presents to us.

Path 26: Ayin (AH-yeen), “eye”
(70)—XV. The Devil

This path symbolizes blind, creative energy, and is fiercely related to the libido, hence many of its negative connotations.

The libido, if not hampered by guilt or outdated notions of morality, is the very wellspring of creative, energetic, and passionate juices. If these juices are flowing properly, they tend towards original, inventive, and powerful works of art and other forms of human expression. Voltaire sums this up succinctly, “You must have the devil in you to succeed in any of the arts.”58

Capricorn is a sea-goat. His fish tail symbolizes his connection to the waters of the subconscious, while his mountain-goat upper body symbolizes his ability to climb the highest peaks of the Earth.

Everything about this card symbolizes going from the lowest to the highest59 in the most direct fashion, therefore is it symbolic of the Kundalini, the energy that lays dormant sleeping in our spine, until it awakens, rising up through the spine and out the top of our head, where one is said to experience divine bliss.

Ayin means “eye” and this can refer both to the third eye, which becomes mystically awakened with the arising of the Kundalini, and the “blind eye” of the phallus. Crowley60 correlated this path with the erect penis, which he boldly had painted on his version of the card. This is congruent with the Hindu lingam.61 The lingam, as with the other symbols of this path, symbolizes the lowest rising to the highest and, at its pinnacle, releasing divine pleasure, whether it be in the form of art or orgasm.

This tarot card would be more appropriately entitled “The Goat-God,” referring to Pan, the pastoral god of nature. Only in the middle ages did the superstitious and puritanical qualities of Christianity associate him with the Devil. The idea of obscenity as applied to erotic art or representations of sexual organs did not exist to the Greeks or Romans.

Ritual and meditational use: For help with creativity and anything to do with the arts. It helps with raising the Kundalini and increased sexual potency.

A certain type of fearlessness is granted through this path.

In many ways this path is a reverse polarity switch. There is a reprieve here from the purely rational mind. This path can help break through “writer’s block” or other artistic blockages in any field.

Path 27: Peh (PEH), “mouth”
(80)—The Blasted Tower

This path is known as The Tower, or more specifically The Blasted Tower, in the tarot. It is the explosive energy released when Netzach and Hod collide.

As previously mentioned, the conjunction of this path and Path 25 (Art) deserves special consideration. If you imagine the Tree of Life placed over your body (see Chapter 10) this area is below the heart and above the groin. It is not so much the stomach as it is the “gut,” as in “gut instincts.” It also includes our raging emotions, tension, and even anxiety. But ultimately this energy is our power to change the physical world.

Whether the tension here is felt as instinct, neuroticism, or power depends on how well we synthesize the various tensions of the lower spheres. This is why this path is so seemingly destructive on its own (ruled by Mars, you’ll notice). It needs the harmonizing, and vertical, energy of Art to make sense and beauty of the endless conflicts of the material world.

Ritual and meditational use: Useful for breaking out of mental or emotional “prisons.” There is powerful energy here for just about anything if channeled through the Tree of Life to exactly where you want it most.

Path 28: Tzaddi (TSAH-dee), “fish-hook”
(90)—IV. The Emperor

This is active, male energy, but instead of being destructive, it finds outlet as calm rulership.

Aries energy is forceful and fiery. In this case, Aries’s ruthless male energy is balanced by the number four, which, like Chesed, implies stability. Therefore, we get the fair and authoritarian rule of The Emperor.

Etymologically, Tzaddi is related to Tsar, Czar, Kaiser, Caesar, Senior, Seigneur, Signor, and Sir, all of which are cognate with The Emperor.

Like his counterpart, The Empress, the symbolism of this path need not be overstated. If Path 13 could be symbolized by the ultimate mother, then this path would be accurately depicted by the world’s best dad.

Ritual and meditational use: Whenever calm leadership is needed, this path can be meditated upon or invoked. Helps confer authority and confidence in both voice and demeanor.

Path 29: Qoph (KOHF), “back of head”

The Moon from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

The Moon from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

(100)—XVIII. The Moon

The Moon appears again, this time in her dark and mysterious aspect. This is the type of moon under which dark sorceries and menacing witchcraft are performed.

Nothing is what it seems here. This is the world of deceit, delusion, and madness. Not that some might not like it here for awhile—it can be darkly seductive. It’s the grimy underworld of sex, drugs, and excessive indulgence. However, sooner or later, the lack of sunlight will kill any but the genuinely nocturnal.

It partakes of many of the more sinister aspects of Netzach (shallowness, superficial success, hollow fame) and brings it down to the material plane (Malkuth). The attribution of Pisces just enhances all this, with its worst aspects becoming prominent: weak-willed, easily led astray, and secretive to the point of deception.

This path polarizes with The Sun tarot card. This path is the “darkest” part of the Moon. The Sun card however, symbolizes the simplest, and brightest parts of the Sun. The Sun’s Hebrew letter is Resh, which means the head—the center of our sensations, where all our experiences are processed. The Moon’s Hebrew letter is Qoph, however, which means back of the head, implying that which cannot be seen, that which is behind us, and unavailable for conscious understanding.

Ritual and meditational use: Works of wickedness. Be careful they don’t backfire.

Path 30: Resh (RESH), “head”
(200)—XIX. The Sun

The Sephirah of the Sun is Tiphareth, which we discussed in the last chapter. This is the path of the Sun, so there are definitely similarities between this path and Tiphareth, including a natural sense of “wholeness.” This path is simpler, though. It is merely the warmth and joy of being alive in the noonday sun.

This path symbolizes the general sense of well-being that is our natural birthright—before the ego-mind gets too greedy and neurotic, throwing a wrench into our internal harmony.

This is not a complicated path. You could draw a “happy face” on a note card and it would adequately symbolize the guileless joy of this path.

Ritual and meditational use: A good mood lifter, joy enhancer, and confidence builder.

Path 31: Shin (SHEEN)
(300)—XX. The Phoenix (Judgment) Fire/Spirit

This is yet another path concerning destruction and renewal, but in this path it feels entirely like a relief, entirely like a revelation. It is destruction that leads to a new order of things in short order.

Shin means tooth. Teeth “destroy” food in order to release the nutrients contained in food. This is congruent with the energy of this path, which destroys only to release some sort of new and more useful energy.

The title and design of both the traditional decks and Crowley’s leave me unsatisfied. In the traditional deck the idea of a fiery rebirth gets bogged down in Christian dogma (and guilt) replete with Gabriel blowing his horn and people popping out of their graves.

While I’m content with all of Crowley’s renames thus far, I’m not as enthusiastic about this one. I agree it needed a change, but Crowley’s version, called the Aeon, is bogged down with complex Thelemic symbolism when this path is not that complicated.

This path is the energy of a lightning strike. It is purely a natural function of the universe— not God’s judgment. There is no need to straddle this path with any dogma or overly complex symbolism.

If I were to rename the card, I would dub it The Phoenix with that selfsame bird as the image, burning himself up, being reborn from his own ashes.

Ritual and meditational use: Fiery rebirth when a completely new self is desired.

Path 32: Tau (TAHV), a “cross”

The World from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

The World from
The Pictorial Key to
the Tarot by Arthur
Edward Waite

(400)—XXI. The Universe (The World) or

This path can be either attributed to Earth, or Saturn, or both. In this path, we are talking about the solidity, the heaviness, and the tangibility present in both their natures.

Satiety, completion, and wholeness are all represented by this path as its tarot trump is The Universe. As the first path, The Fool, symbolizes “nothing,” so does this path symbolize “everything.”

Magick, and the tarot in particular, is about transformations and changes. There is no ultimate end. The end of one series merely begins something new. In this path is the implicit desire to go from everything back to nothing.

In modern cosmology,62 there are theories called “cyclic models” of the universe. In a cyclic (or “cyclical”) model of the universe, the Universe undergoes an endless sequence of cycles, expanding from nothing into everything (called the “Big Bang”), and then from everything into nothing (the “Big Crunch”). Each cycle could be trillions of years long.

Hinduism has held a similar belief for thousands of years. The universe never has a true beginning or end, but merely cycles. Brahma creates the universe. Vishnu preserves the universe while it is manifested in the present state we are familiar with. Shiva will ultimately destroy the universe, bringing everything back to nothing. Then the whole cycle starts over again.

This path symbolizes the four elements, symbolized by the four Kerubs in the corners.

A modern version of this card could proudly display the periodic table.63

Ritual and meditational use: Good for seeing the big picture. Useful for grounding energy and feeling “whole.” Help with planning and finishing big or important projects. Can also be used in wealth talismans.

Regarding the Cornucopia of Symbolism Just Given

The previous descriptions are not meant to be completely inclusive. Though I list all attributions, I do not necessarily describe how each and every symbol fits in with the whole, but instead I focus on the most salient and understandable of the symbols, hoping the rest will make more sense to you with time and meditation.

For example on Path 16, the Hebrew letter means “nail,” but I don’t mention it in the text. So does the nail symbolize suffering? Or is it the will of Chokmah hammering down into Chesed? Or is it a symbol of the practical world—a way to hold things together in building and construction? It’s all of these and more as you come up with your own ruminations upon the path.

I am also aware that all these symbols and attributions may seem overwhelming at first. Most likely some of the symbols resonate with you, but other comparisons I drew, perhaps, don’t make a lot of sense just yet. This is the nature of the Qabalah. It grows not only at your own level of understanding, but the symbolism will be slightly different for every human. Therefore I encourage you to work with the traditional symbolism and let your own reasons for their connections evolve.

This is more of an art than a science. With time and persistence, the symbols will jiggle into place within your mind.

The point is to create a common language between your (literal) conscious mind and your (symbolic) unconscious mind. Whatever meaning works for you personally is a good meaning. Just don’t cling too tightly to your interpretations. Let them evolve as your understanding grows.

What are the “final” letters?

Five letters of the Hebrew alphabet have “final” forms, those being Kaph, Mem, Nun, Peh, and Tzaddi:

Each one is an alternate way of writing the letter only when it comes at the end of a word. However, final letters aren’t used consistently. The only one that comes up with regularity in magick is the final letter for Mem. (Elohim, a name of God) is a good example of when the final letter is always used. Also, the “Choir of Angels” names in the Appendix nearly all use the final letter Mem.

The “final letters” need to be recognized as they come up in magickal and Qabalistic literature, but how much you emphasize or minimize their effects on your own personal Qabalah is up to you.

Also note that Samech, , and final Mem, , look very similar. The main difference is the Samech should be more rounded off at the bottom edges, while the Mem has sharp corners. With many modern Hebrew typefaces, such as the one used in this book, only the bottom right hand corner shows any differentiation.

Exercise 3.1

Memorize the Tree of Life. This should include being able to draw the general shape of the Tree of Life and be able to label each of the Sephiroth.

Exercise 3.2

Memorize the 22 letters of the original Hebrew alphabet.

Learn to draw their shapes correctly with finesse and style. They will be a powerful tool in your magickal arsenal until the end of days.

Be open to discovering your own resonance with the letters. Draw them. Doodle them. Make art with them. Distort them. Make them into stick people—doesn’t matter. The more you work with not only the Hebrew in this book, but all the other symbols, the more you will increase their power.

Exercise 3.3

Memorize the paths and all the attributions supplied. Memorize their place upon the Tree of Life in relation to the Sephiroth.

You will be perfect in this practice when you can draw a blank Tree of Life and label all the paths and Sephiroth. (See Chapter 10 for a completely labeled Tree of Life.)

Wait! You REALLY want me to memorize all that?

Yes. In this book I’ve kept what you need to memorize to the absolute minimum, but this much is necessary if the incredible symbolic power of the Tree of Life is going to sink into your subconscious.

However, I don’t expect you to completely understand the barrage of symbols presented in this chapter. Memorizing the attributions is the chore of a week, but understanding their interrelations is the joy of a lifetime.

I presented them early not only so they can start sinking in while you finish reading the book, but also as a reference for you to flip back to when constructing your own talismans and rituals in the upcoming chapters.

Using some of the symbols in an actual ceremony will make a lot more sense of them. So just memorize the attributions and trust that with time this jumble of symbols will be useful, practical, and actually make a lot of sense.

[contents]

17 . Moses de Leon; Sepher ha-Rimmon, 1287.

18 . Farmer, S. A, “Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1486),” Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1999.

19 . I have ascribed Saturn to Malkuth, which accords with traditional Golden Dawn attributions where Saturn often does double duty as the element Earth. Also the path of Saturn/Earth is Tau, which is the path straight up from Malkuth—indeed this path and Sephirah can hardly be differentiated in practice. The former is merely the entryway, while the latter is the mansion itself. Saturn is also sometimes attributed to Binah due to the supposed darkness and heaviness of the darker aspects of the Great Mother.

20 . Hinduism also subdivides Karma into different types of Karma, including “accumulated Karma” from all our lifetimes (“Sanchita”) that we only deal with a fraction of in this lifetime, Karma we are accumulating from just this lifetime (“Kriyamana”), and Karma from previous lifetimes now coming into fruition (“Prarabdha”).

21 . In Buddhism, we can produce “good” and “bad” Karma all we want, but we will still be “trapped” in samsara (the endless cycle of birth and rebirth). Only certain types of actions lead to escaping the “wheel of samsara.” So if you follow the tenets of Buddhism you don’t want good or bad Karma, but rather Karma that leads to liberation (“nirvana”).

22 . The word Qesheth is formed by the Hebrew letters associated with the three paths branching out of Malkuth (Qoph, Shin, and Teth, which means “bow” or “rainbow” in Hebrew).

23 . The dotted lines on the Tree of Life diagram.

24 . Eight Lectures on Yoga, first lecture.

25 . Or more modern ones like Einstein, for that matter.

26 . Regardie, Israel, The Golden Dawn, Fifth Knowledge Lecture: “Copper is externally of the nature of Gold, but internally corrosive.”

27 . This is actually redundant as Paroketh (PRKTh) means hanging, covering, curtain, or veil in Hebrew.

28 . “The answer is that the total energy of the universe is exactly zero,” from Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, 1988.

29 . One of Geburah’s other titles is Din, which literally means “judgment.”

30 . Geburah is sometimes referred to by the title Pachad, which means “fear.”

31 . Crowley’s concept of Babalon and the Beast is a high magick twist on Babylon the Great riding her seven-headed beast in the Book of Revelation. Magickally, it's entirely congruent with Shakti and Shiva, and Binah and Chokmah.

32 . Part 3, p. 267.

33 . The five brightest planets are visible to the naked eye and have been known to mankind since antiquity. They have more powerful psychological resonance than the newer discoveries, which were never satisfactorily applied to the Tree of Life. Uranus, Neptune, and even Pluto have haphazardly been applied to the Supernals by various occultists over the years, but they don’t really fit.

34 . Usha, Brahmacharini (1990). A Brief Dictionary of Hinduism. p.77.

35 . This is revealed in Vision and the Voice and discussed in The Book of Thoth.

36 . Mercury’s ambiguous sexuality fits here as well. Kether has no polarity, but does contain the potential for both active and passive polarities.

37 . Tarot Trump II (Path 12). More on this in the next section.

38 . Also known as the Ze’ir Anpin, “small countenance.”

39 . For example, a Google image search for “thoth tarot magus” brings up the tarot card just discussed.

40 . Now painting them is another matter, and most famous magicians employed artists. However, even simply drawing the appropriate symbols on note cards can create a powerful tarot deck of your own. “Fancy” and artistic doesn’t always make things more powerful in magick. Sometimes the more primitive and personal magickal items hold the most power.

41 . Aleph is often transliterated as “E” such as in the god names Elohim, El, Eheiheh, etc.

42 . The album Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins contains numerous references to both the Fool and zero, and of course Billy Corgan was famous for his “Zero” T-shirt.

43 . Crowley, Aleister, and Frieda Harris. The Book of Thoth: a Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians, Being the Equinox, Volume III, No. 5., York Beach, Me.: S. Weiser, 1974.

44 . This quote from the 1988 film Buckaroo Banzai is sometimes variously attributed to both Buddha and Confucius.

45 . The Book of the Law, technically called Liber AL, Book I, Line 3.

46 . In some books on magick or Qabalah you may see this path attributed to Aries and The Emperor card instead of The Star and Aquarius. There are even some contradictions on this in Crowley’s own writing because Crowley was not always in possession of the correct attributions, and earlier in his career he used the ones given to him by the Golden Dawn.

47 . A star appears to us as a point in the night sky. The Aquarius symbol is two wave forms on top of each other. Light is described this way in modern science, as both a particle and a wave.

48 . Fortitude was one of the four Cardinal Virtues of Plato, three of which were titles of Tarot cards (Temperance and Justice are the others), and like the other two, Crowley changed the title. In this case, it’s typical of Crowley’s ironic sense of humor that he changed the title of this virtue to Lust, which was considered a Cardinal Sin.

49 . Book of Thoth, p. 92.

50 . Babalon is attributed to Binah, therefore Babalon is our connection to the highest parts of the Tree of Life.

51 . Let’s do some simple gematria with the number 777. Some consider this a holy number, which it can be, and it is also known as jackpot to slot machine players. Now 7+7+7=21. Path 21 is the Wheel of Fortune, another game of chance. The number 21 is also the most important number in blackjack.

52 . Consolation of Philosophy, c. 524. Translation by W.V. Cooper, 1902.

53 . Lamed symbolizes the “ox-goad,” that is to say the whip that keeps lazy ox (Aleph, Path 11) moving. In this sense, it makes sense that this is the card of Karma. Karma is what keeps the Fool moving forward. Every action produces consequences, which forces us to take more action, which causes more Karma. This is therefore the complementary path of Path 11. Together they spell AL, which is an important name of God both on its own and as part of other god names (Alhim, Eloah V’Dath, etc.). It is also an important name in Thelema. The Book of the Law is technically known as Liber AL.

54 . In modern physics there are six laws of conservation: “conservation of charge, conservation of momentum, conservation of mass/energy, conservation of angular momentum, conservation of baryons, and the conservation of leptons.”

55 . To the casual observer this still appears to be so, as the scorpion lashes about at unseen enemies giving the impression of stinging itself, but it actually dies from its sensitivity to the heat. The scorpion is immune to its own poison.

56 . The number 13 as an unlucky number goes so far back into antiquity that no one is positive how long it’s been in use or what may have caused the original association.

57 . Sagittarius and Gemini are opposite signs of the zodiac, so they themselves are “twins” of a sort.

58 . Tallentyre, S. G., Life of Voltaire, third edition (Knickerbocker Press, 1903), p. 145.

59 . And in another sense, from the highest to the lowest, both for reasons related to the complex relationship between The Devil and The High Priestess, and also simply because the greatest of sexual pleasures is sometimes found in the lowest, most primal incarnations.

60 . “Veil not your vices in virtuous words—these vices are my service,” is an apropos quote from The Book of the Law.

61 . The lingam is a physical symbol of Shiva used for worship in temples in the shape of an erect penis.

62 . A branch of astronomy that studies the totality of the universe, including space, time, and all known phenomena.

63 . Crowley’s version does contain an obscure version of the periodic table, but it’s hardly recognizable as such.