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.
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 this work with in order to maintain a thread of continuity throughout the whole construct. To do this I looked for parallel patterns of similarity and symmetry between the geometrical, astrological, rhetorical and numerical components of this Tree of Life system. This was important in order not to break the connecting thread of continuity that ties all the parts together into a unified whole. To maintain consistency with the ideal numbers, the sun would become the zero point, and the planets would be associated with their orbital order out from the sun. Much to my surprise this direct association between the ideal numbers and the planets proved to be very relevant and revealing. It turned out that this association was keyto tying the Tarot and the Tree of Life together in a cohesive manner.
For instance, the Sun is the not a planet yet without it the planets would not exist, however, the 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, not the other way around. Similarly, the number Zero is not a number of material quantities, however, it qualifies all the other numbers representing a quantity by means of their relative relationship to the determined position of zero. Zero is the ultimate reference point and the qualifier of the other numbers of quantitative value. It is the qualifying empty space within which a quantity is thereby distinguishable, determined, or contained.
This approach to a Tree of Life construction is based on a geocentric perspective of our life in the universe, and not a solar centric perspective, simply because we don’t live on the Sun but on the Earth. In other words, from our relative point of view, that is from here on Earth, we are in the middle of all existence, with the Sun above us and Mercury and Venus close by its’ side. Furthermore, the fundamental direction that life grows is upwards towards the Sun light, with the roots going downward through the earth reaching for the water and nutrients below so that it can grow. The Moon is Earths’ only satellite, however, it is not a planet going around the sun by itself. Our moon has its’ own predictable patterns and influences that only effect life on Earth.
Our moon primarily influences the Earths’ condition by way of its’ influence on the ocean tides, the weather, and the overall growth of life on the planet. Similarly, the ebb and flow of our collective knowledge have influenced our living conditions and growth as a species. Knowledge can also nourish our emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual growth for better or worse. In the Tree of Life, the sphere of Knowledge is not considered a Sephora like the other spheres which represent planets. Non the less it still plays an important role in the overall scheme of the Tree of Life; just like the Moon is not considered a planet in the solar system yet it still plays a vital role on the life within our planets’ atmosphere.
Now imagine the Moon in motion, only revolving around Tiphareth (the Sephora representing the Earth in this model); it would become full in Yesod (in this model the position of the sphere of Saturn). In turn, the New Moons and subsequent Solar eclipses would occur while the Moon is in the 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 on 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 Gaia is seen as the central Beauty of creation and the male Sol as the crown 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, are now common knowledge. But I can’t help but wonder if the ancients were already aware of these other dynamics in the solar system, at least theoretically. For they did recognize that the observations of factors in the observable world they lived in, known as the Microcosm, should 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 what meets the eye and spoke extensively about other beings from the stars that influenced our knowledge and destiny.
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 new Tree of Life models was to simply place three outer planets onto the three supernal Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, since they had not been associated with planets in previous models. This over simplistic solution failed to consider the repercussions these new discoveries would have on the harmonious relationships of all the parts. The inclusion of the outer planets required a complete reevaluation of the whole system to attain the most harmonious arrangement of the Tree of Life with these new factors.
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 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 that has an observable effect on the other bodies in our solar system and whose patterns have been observed and analyzed by astrologers for quite some time now.
There are also the stories in western mythology, in which the old gods, Neptune and Pluto, rule 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 their effects on nature and in mankind’s ever changing social behavior.
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 qualitative number Zero. The same patterns could be observed, as can still be observed today, in the Indian/Arabic number system that is based on the Ten Ideal Numbers 0-9. In this system 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 starting again with 0. 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.
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 in order to be better prepared for an otherwise unpredictable future. These considerations of the recurring changes in our environment 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, which doesn’t divide easily into thirds or sixths and thereby lacks the ability to easily create harmonious musical tones in a structured space like a 12-unit system can.
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 often overlooked because of all the popularized versions proposed by the modern western esoteric schools and their publishers’ promotions. 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 only one correct 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 even ridiculous sometimes. However, the mere exercise of reexamining the subject is still very stimulating to the brain and the process can help us focus our minds on higher levels of consciousness that could enable us to see things that we would not have otherwise seen before for the lack of even trying. So give it a try and see what you might come up with.