To: alt.magick
From: [M]
Subject: Re: A question about the Tree of Life
Date: 6 Oct 2003 17:22:51 -0700

The Tree of Life can be used in an endless number of ways, don't
believe anyone who tells you "this is the correct and only way it must
be done".  However, how you use the Tree must be *consistent* with
it's underlying philosophy.  Now this could get complicated because
different people/systems may use different philosophical and/or
symbolic starting points.  But the point is, develop an understanding
of what the Tree of Life is all about (according to the system of your
choice), and then consider the different options for how to use it and
use what makes sense to you.

The system I use takes this approach:  Creation, either creation of
the universe or of a human being (which you eventually understand to
be the same thing), occurs as a lightning flash "down" the tree.  That
is, from one-kether to ten-malkuth.  It is a lightning flash because
it essentially occurs at the same 'time', so to speak, where in a
sense the whole tree is created at once even though each sephira is
layered over the one before it.  So, the progression from one to ten
is a story of creation, it explains the underlying creation philosophy
or mystery that is the foundation of the Tree.

Now then, here we are in Malkuth, we the created, looking "up" at
divine unity, Kether.  Our path, as qabalists or mystics or what have
you, is to work our way up the tree, for various reasons that I won't
get into right now (the purpose will vary from person to person). 
This path back up the tree is often depicted as a snake that winds
itself around the tree, touching each path as it goes.  This
symbolizes the idea that in order to consciously reconnect with that
divine unity in Kether, we need to explore each path between the
sephirot and harmonize and balance each sephira within us.  It's
basically like, now that we've been created, let's look at each stage
of our creation in order to heal the imbalances and reach a state of
harmony.  We examine the stages of creation from the "bottom up"
because we start from where we are, from what we have direct
experience of, but also because where we are is our foundation.  If we
jump ahead before we are ready, any imbalances that we haven't
addressed will make the foundation faulty and prevent us from reaching
a healthy harmony further up the tree.

Now a comment on the various rediculous gender biases in your post
(including that horrid poem) - all the sephirot are part of every
person of every gender.  We all need to balance all of them, and they
each have masculine and feminine aspects (or neither, as with Kether -
there is no duality in Kether).  And actually, as far as I'm
concerned, Malkuth is the only sephira where there is physical
manifestation thus it is the only sephira where a physical attribute
such as genetalia has any significance.  Now there's lots of
'advanced' theories about differences in qabalistic work that spring
from this idea, so I'm not saying it's insignificant, I'm just saying
that if you're studying the basics gender should not affect what part
of the tree you choose to work on.

EOF