Kabbalah — The Tree of Life

A map

Ten ways the infinite shows itself, on three pillars, joined by twenty-two paths. Read from the top, the way the light is said to come down.

How to read it

On the right, expansion — mercy. On the left, contraction — judgement. Down the middle, the balance that holds them. The spheres are sefirot; the zigzag through them in order is the lightning flash. The dotted gap is Da’at, knowledge — present, and not counted.

tap a sphere to go to it

1 of 10

Keter

Crown · middle pillar

Before anything wants anything.

The first will, so far above form it is sometimes called nothing. Not where the light comes from — where it has not yet begun to be light.

2 of 10

Chokhmah

Wisdom · right pillar

A single point.

The first flash: pure potential, no edges. Everything that will ever be is in it, and none of it is told apart yet.

3 of 10

Binah

Understanding · left pillar

The point given room.

Wisdom received and shaped — the womb of the tree. The first time anything has a boundary, and so the first time it can be known.

4 of 10

Chesed

Loving-kindness · right pillar

Giving without measure.

Grace that pours without asking whether it is deserved. Beautiful — and, on its own, too much.

5 of 10

Gevurah

Strength · left pillar

The limit that makes the gift bearable.

Judgement, restraint, the no. Not the opposite of love: the shape that lets love be received.

6 of 10

Tiferet

Beauty · middle pillar

Where they meet.

The heart of the tree, holding the giving and the limit in balance. Every sefirah is joined to it by a path — except the last.

7 of 10

Netzach

Endurance · right pillar

Keep going.

Victory by persistence: the part of you that comes back. Desire that lasts long enough to become devotion.

8 of 10

Hod

Splendour · left pillar

Name it rightly.

Form, language, acknowledgement. Where Netzach keeps moving, Hod gives the movement words — and says thank you.

9 of 10

Yesod

Foundation · middle pillar

Everything gathers here.

The channel that collects the whole tree above and passes it on into the world. Dream, image, the covenant.

10 of 10

Malkhut

Kingdom · middle pillar

This, here.

The world as it is, and the presence dwelling in it — the Shekhinah. The foot of the tree is not the lowest place. It is where the light arrives.

The light came down to arrive. The paths are how you walk back up.

Jewish mystical tradition. This arrangement of the paths is the one most printed since the seventeenth century; traditional sources draw it more than one way.