Excerpts from
The Tree of Life
by Ari
And when upon His simple will, came the desire to create the world and emanate the emanations,
To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, His names, His appellations,
Which was the cause of the creation of the worlds,
He then restricted Himself, in the middle,
Precisely in the center,
He restricted the light.
And the light drew far off to the sides around that middle point.
And there remained an empty space, a vacuum
Circling the middle point.
And the restriction had been uniform
Around the empty point,
So that the space
Was evenly circled around it.
There, after the restriction,
Having formed a vacuum and a space
Precisely in the middle of the endless light,
A place was formed,
Where the emanated and the created might reside.
Then from Endless Light a single line hung down,
Lowered down into that space.
And through that line, He emanated, formed,
Created all the worlds.
Just Like Updating An Operating System
While considering how the planets and zodiac signs might relate to this Tree of Life model, I needed to keep a throughline with the ideal numbers that I had started with to maintain continuity within the overall design. To do this I looked for parallel patterns of similarity and symmetry between the geometry, astrology, names, and numbers of the Tree of Life construct. This was important to do in order not to break the thread of connectivity that ties all the parts together into a cohesive whole. To maintain a connection with the ideal numbers, while considering the sun as the zero point, the planets were associated numerically with their natural orbital order from the sun.
For instance, the Sun is the not a planet yet without it the planets would not exist, however, a Sun can exist without planets. Hence, we call it the Solar System, for the planets revolve around the Sun and are subject to its’ gravitational influence. Similarly, the number Zero is not a number of quantities, however, it qualifies all the other numbers of quantity by means of their relative relationship to the determined position of zero; it’s their ultimate reference point and qualifier of their quantitative value.
In turn the Earth, the third planet from the sun, is our relative center of existence, in regard to our relative perspective of the universe. The placement of the Earth in this construct of the Tree of Life is based on our point of view looking out from our relative central perspective into the universe. Furthermore, the Moon, as Earths’ satellite is not a planet and is subject to Earths’ motion around the Sun and has its’ own cyclic patterns that are independent of the Earths cycles around the Suns, however they have a profound influence on life on our planet.
The Moon primarily influences the Earths’ condition, by way of its’ influence on the tides, weather, and overall growth of life on the planet. Similarly, the ebb and flow of knowledge influence the conditions with which we live in and nourishes our emotional, physical, mental and spiritual growth, or any other interests or stances we may take in life. Also, Knowledge, a.k.a. Da’ath, in the Tree of Life is not considered a Sephora but yet still plays an important role in the overall scheme, just like the Moon is not considered a planet but plays an important role on life on our planet.
Now imagine the Moon in motion, only revolving around Tiphareth (in this model representing the Earth); it would become full in Yesod (in this model the position of the sphere of Saturn). In turn, the New Moons and Solar eclipses would occur while the Moon is in position of Da’ath, representing Knowledge. This could also be said about the old approach with Malkuth as Earth, Yesod as Moon, and Tiphareth as the Sun. The progression is the same from the perspective from the Earth looking upward. The major differences are in the point of view: In this model the view of the feminine is raised from the former, under the foot position, to the centerpiece of creation from our relative point of view, where the female is seen as the Beauty of creation.
We now know that our solar system extends even deeper into space then we ever knew just a few hundred years ago. As a result of our present knowledge of the solar system, with the three outer planets and asteroids included, are common knowledge. But I can’t help but wonder if the ancients were aware of these other dynamics of the solar system also, at least theoretically. Afterall, they did recognize that the observations of factors in the observable world they lived in, known as the Microcosm, would have corresponding factors in the universe without, known as the Macrocosm. They also very much understood that there was far more to life than just meets the eye.
One of the major reconsiderations I am making in these models of the Tree of Life is the manner in which the Moon and the outer planets are organized. Previous attempts by scholars of the western esoteric traditions to include the outer planets into their Tree of Life models was to simply place three outer planets onto the three supernal Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, because they had been unassociated with any planets in previous models. Their simple solution however failed to consider the repercussions these new discoveries had on the harmonious relationships of all the parts. The inclusion of the outer planets required a complete reevaluation of what the most harmonious arrangement of the Tree of Life would be with these new factors now included.
Along with the discovery of the outer planets came a resurgence of old artifacts being dug up from the past and we are also learning how to break away from old family and cultural patterns that we have unconsciously been perpetuating for generations and looking at life through clearer lenses that see further than we have ever seen before. The addition of these new factors has shaken up our collective view of life itself and thereby requires a complete reconsideration of all the factors we’ve known of before in order to find the most harmonious configuration of all the factors as we know them now.
This approach to the Tree of Life construct is from a geocentric perspective of life and is not meant to represent the solar centric perspective, simply because we don’t live on the Sun and from our relative point of view, which is from here on Earth, we are in the middle of all existence and the sun. From our perspective the Sun is above us, with Mercury and Venus close by its’ side in either the morning or evening sky, and the fundamental direction in which life grows is up towards the Sun.
There is also the underworld of western mythology, in which the old gods, Neptune and Pluto, ruled the depths of the ocean and the dark caverns of the underworld, both signifying forces from below. The influences of the outer planets may not have been observed visually, however, over time the cyclic patterns of their behavior could be observed in nature and in mankind’s social behavior.
In this construct of Tree of Life, Pluto is associated with the eighth number, and position, not the ninth number. I’ve done this because when you look at the order of the orbits around the sun and not which planet is goes further away from the sun by linear distance, the orbit of Pluto passes between the orbit of Uranus and Neptune in its’ oblong path around the sun. The puzzle of why Pluto has such an eccentric orbit may have been solved, however its’ classification is still being debated; Is it a planet or a planetoid? Either way it is a dynamic object, which has an observable effect on the other bodies in our solar system and has been observed and analyzed for quite some time now. Since the discovery of Pluto our collective consciousness has profoundly changed in ways that cannot be ignored due to the development of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb.
The natures of the planets in this Tree of Life model are represented by the quantitative numbers, one thru nine, and the emanating life force of the Sun is represented by the origin number Zero. The same patterns could be observed, as can still be observed today in the Indian/Arabic number system based on the Ten Ideal Numbers 0-9. There are ten numbers overall, not nine, and if you included the number ten there would be eleven numbers, not ten. The number ten denotes 1 complete set of ideal numbers and the beginning of a new set.
The number Ten (10) is a return to the zero state and is a summation of the first complete set of ideal numbers, set 1, plus the beginning of the second set of 0-9. The ten completes the numeric progression from beginning to beginning, zero to zero, and quantifies the whole waveform as one complete set. This is why ten is the easiest number to tally by in this basic system of numeric notation. It is like the musical octave, where the eighth note is the return to the first note at a higher scale.
Life on Earth, the third planet from the stationary Sun, is perceived by humans in Three spatial dimensions, within the three temporal references (past, present and future) of this particular system that we live in. The eleven areas of considerations in this Tree of Life system are broken down into ten dimensional spheres and one nonspherical representation of time: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, Neptune and the Moon.
The knowledge of the waxing and waning effects of the moon on planting and hunting was critical to the survival of our earliest societies. The development of civilized cultures grew out of our ability to mark and measure significant moments in time and thereby predict recuring patterns of nature to be better prepared for an otherwise unforeseen future. These considerations could of lead us to the use of the number twelve as a basis for measuring time and space in a manner that is not achievable by the use of the number ten alone. For even though we have adopted a metric system in parts of the world it is not a very good system to build structures with since it doesn’t divide into thirds or sixths easily and lacks the ability to conveniently create harmonious tones in a space.
These updates to the Tree of Life system of correspondences are not as radical as it may seem to those who have a hard time changing their perspective. There have been many different approaches to drawing the Tree of Life over the years, but they are overlooked by most do to the overmarketed or popularized versions proposed by the western esoteric schools. Whether they were actually superior or not to the Judaic versions is subjective; the important thing to keep in mind is that there are no past models of the Tree of Life that are exactly the same or sometimes even similar, and by no means should it be assumed that there is ever going to be a perfect model. The various constructs are all just a means to categorize and organize our present knowledge, thoughts and opinions of how life grows and bears’ fruit for mankind. Modern science makes these archaic approaches to understanding how life works rather obsolete and ridiculous, but the process is still stimulating to the brain and can help us focus our mind on higher levels of consciousness.