Explanations and representations of the Qabalistic Tree of Life abound on the Internet and in bookstores. Type ‘Tree of Life’ in your prompter and you will receive dozens of images. Its origin is an ‘idea’ and ‘image’ manifested out from the Creator’s Universal Consciousness. The very earliest presentation of this ‘idea-image’ was ‘formulated’ in an oral tradition, then later to be recorded into allegorical story-form within manuscripts gathered together to present what we know now in the Western Tradition as the Bible. Other world traditions have their own cultural versions of a Tree of Life that seem to corroborate each other to a great extent.
The first book in this Bible, Genesis, records the Creation saga beginning from No-Thing. The first three verses of Chapter 1 describe the Three Veils of the Absolute. A Qabalistic analysis of the Veils is presented under the Genesis 1:1-3 article. Loose analyses of the Qabalistic Four Worlds are attempted with the Garden of Eden article in conjunction with the three previous sections of this article on Adam thru Cain’s Genealogy. With sections 2 and 3 of this article a development of the Supernals: Kether, Chokmah and Binah was brought forth.
The Qabalistic Tree of Life (is an ageless ‘blueprint’ constructed of ten circles or spheres called Sephirah (sing.) and Sephiroth (pl.). The ten spheres are arranged in three columns inter-connected by twenty-two ‘paths’. The central column of four spheres is called the Pillar of Mildness. The top-most sphere, Kether (Crown), is assigned the direction East. It is symbolic of the Omniscience mode of the Triune One-Life, and by that connection it is given to the element Air. The bottom sphere of this central column is called Malkuth (Kingdom). It is assigned the element Earth, comprised of the other three elements, and assigned the direction West. Malkuth is symbolic of the entire manifested physical universe, from galaxies innumerable, down to you and me.
The column of three spheres to the right of the central column (as we look at it) is called the Pillar of Mercy. Its top-most sphere is called Chokmah (Wisdom), symbolic of the Omnipotence mode of the Life-breath and therefore given the element Fire. The right side of the Tree is assigned the direction South. It will be considered in more depth in the article Genealogy II: Adam to Seth.
Now, finally, the left column of the Tree (as we look upon it) is called the Pillar of Severity. The top-most sphere is named Binah, which is symbolic of the Omnipresence mode of the Triune One-Life, is given the element Water, and the entire column is assigned the direction North. This Pillar is presented as the skeletal outline behind Genealogy I: Adam to Cain.
The entire Tree of Life might be imagined as an X-ray of our collective human consciousness. The three columns and their assigned elements, the spheres and their connecting paths, all symbolically represent aspects of the consciousness within us all. We can never exhaust the volume of extraordinary information to be drawn from this diagram, gleaned from sober investigation and meditation. Truly can it be said that it is at once the perfect combination of the anatomy and chemistry of the All-Consciousness.
Where the two genealogies are concerned the two outer columns of the Tree will be the underlying guide-line supporting the descendancies. With the delineation of Cain’s alleged progeny it begins with the top-most sphere, Binah, Understanding, on the left side of the Tree, the Pillar of Severity. Within the Triune One-Life it is assigned the Substantive Mode and given to the element Water.
James Investigates 