The Kabbalah is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition. Within the Kabbalah, there is a symbolic metaphor for manifestation called the Tree of Life. By no means do I wish to take anything away from the Jewish faith or the formal study of Kabbalah by including a brief overview of the Tree of Life here. Nor do I wish to seem to be endorsing the beliefs of those systems. However, the Tree of Life seems to me to be an archetypal metaphor, rather than a faith-specific one, and I have found that a basic understanding of the Tree of Life helps the Janic practitioner to visualize the movement of energy used in magic.

The Tree of Life, shown here, is made up of ten sephirot (singular "sephira") and twenty-two paths between them. Each sephira has a specific meaning, and energy travels between the sephirot in specific ways. All that is physical is considered to emanate as very abstract, divine energy from the first sephira (referred to as the "root," even though it is at the top of the tree), down the tree through the succeeding sephirot in the order specified until it is manifested in the physical world. Each step down represents an increase in the density and a decrease in the speed of the energy.

All that is physical is considered to emanate as very abstract, divine energy from the first sephira (referred to as the "root," even though it is at the top of the tree), down the tree through the succeeding sephirot in the order specified until it is manifested in the physical world.

This model of manifestation is useful to Wiccans who want to perform magic. It illustrates the concepts that Raven Grimassi describes as the occult dimensions. Magic is the manipulation of energy, and it is important to understand the process by which abstract or "pure" energy is converted into physical conditions and objects.

For information about a specific sephira, click on that sephira on the image map at the top or bottom of this page. In addition to interpreting them individually, the sephirot are also interpreted in groups: the three pillars, the three triangles, and the four worlds.

The Three Pillars

The sephirot on the left side of the tree - numbers three, five, and eight - are grouped together as the Pillar of Severity. Their characteristics are Understanding, Judgment (or Power), and Glory. This pillar is considered to be feminine, containing the more aggressive and controlling goddess energies.

The three on the right - numbers two, four, and seven - make up the Pillar of Mercy. These sephirot represent the characteristics of Wisdom, Mercy, and Endurance, which are considered to be masculine.

The four sephirot in the middle (one, six, nine, and ten) make up the Pillar of Mildness. This pillar includes the qualities of Crown, Beauty, Foundation, and Kingdom (or Presence). The Middle Pillar contains both the beginning and the end of the process of manifestation, and demonstrates that creation contains a combination of both feminine and masculine materials.

While Wiccans may have trouble reconciling the somewhat reversed qualities of masculinity and femininity, the general idea that both male and female energies are necessary for manifestation to occur fits easily into the Wiccan belief of polarities and union. (See The Tenets of Wiccan Belief for additional information about polarities.)

The Three Triangles

The first three sephirot are grouped into the Celestial Triangle. It demonstrates the Wiccan tenet cited above: that Spirit is one, and that as manifestation occurs, so does polarity.

Sephirot four, five, and six make up the Moral Triangle. It is at this level that a balance must be struck between the strength of the feminine and the mercy of the masculine - aggression versus passivity - so that a stable entity can be manifested.

The physical work of manifestation - Endurance, Glory (victory), and Foundation - and manifestation itself - Presence - occur in the Mundane Triangle consisting of sephirot seven through ten..

The Four Worlds

In the Kabbalistic framework there are four worlds, which descend from the most abstract to the material.

Atzilut is closest to abstract and the divine, also viewed as "nothingness." It is made up of sephirot one, two, and three. In Wicca this might be compared to the Creative Void or womb of the Goddess containing the Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding.

With Beriah, containing sephirot three, four, and five, energy begins to develop self-awareness and an urge to create through Mercy, Power, and Beauty.

At the level of Yetzirah, differentiation begins to occur. Various plans are considered, and choices are made. Sephirot seven, eight, and nine make up this process or Endurance, Glory, and Foundation.

Finally, in sephirot ten, the world of Assiyah, work is done and form is manifested. The energy that was completely undifferentiated at the level of Atzilut is now an activity or a "thing" at the most solid, most slowly vibrating, level of energy.

Magic and Manifestation

When constructing magical spells, it is helpful to keep in mind the lessons of the Three Pillars, the Three Triangles, and the Four Worlds because you will have to manipulate energy in this manner.

The Sephirot

Each sephira has a particular meaning which gives additional information about the descent of energy from pure Spirit to manifestation. When a particular type of energy is needed for a particular stage of creation, the correspondences of a particular sephira (or a group of sephirot) can be useful tools in ritual.

On the following pages are the correspondences for the sephirot, grouped according to the Four Worlds.

World Number Sephira Meaning Atzilut 1 Keter Crown 2 Chokhmah Wisdom 3 Binah Understanding Beriah 4 Chesed Mercy 5 Gevurah Judgment 6 Tiferet Beauty Yetzirah 7 Netzach Eternity 8 Hod Glory 9 Yesod Foundation Assiyah 10 Malkhut Kingdom

This section comes from The Janic Tradition web site (an excellent resource), and we'd like to thank Janeson Keeley for letting us use it. There are many different thoughts on Kabbalah, some more traditional than others. Some have said that Crowley's work in this area is based on bad translations of the Hebrew, and is anti-Semitic. There are many excellent texts, just search the Internet...