10 spheres of the Tree of Life

[DawningSun777]

Hi there guys,
I am wondering who is willing to share which deities / entities they associate with each of the spheres on the ToL. Do not worry, I am not looking to tell you that your placement is wrong because, to me, the ToL is simply a tool to be used subjectively. No need to go into explaining why if you do not feel like it, I will not be doing so as I see the details of one's system as too personal. I will give the first response in example:

For me it is
11 - below Malktuh - represents the individual (who in my system is "The Adept") represented by the Egyptian sun in all stages (Khepria, Ra, Atum, and in the underworld battling Apep)

10 - Malkuth - Hadit (from Thelema)

9 - Yesod - Yaldabaoth

8 - Hod - Hathor

7 - Netzach - Horus

6 - Tipharet - Baphomet

5 - Gevurah - Samael

4 - Chesed - Lilith

Da'at - The Abyss - Leviathan

3 - Binah - Thoth

2 - Chokmah - Ma'at

1 - Keter - Ra

0 - Ain, Ain Soph, Ain Soph Aur - Chaos

I see the spheres above the Abyss (1 - 3) as Babalon

I see spheres 1 - 10, as well as the individual, as Nuit.

[Ramscha]

Hmm, I also walked some of the paths, what I would be interested in is why you count Daath not as one of the Sephiroth. Is it because of the Thelema background?

Hmm, since it is sharing time, why not? I am using the sephiroth more as general correspondence then as the dogmatic system path.
That s why I don´t use the traditional gods or names coming from most of the cabbalistic oriented sections but going more the chaotic approach. I have named the correspondences I am using also with names, but they might differ a little bit. I also count Daath as own Sephirot, but have only one Malkuth:

11 - Malkuth - Gaia/Thiamat

10 - Yesod - Pan

9 - Hod - Pluton

8 - Netzach - Saturn

7 - Tipharet - Amun Ra

6 - Gevurah - Ares

5 - Chesed - Isis

4 Da'at - Surprisingly also Leviathan

3 - Binah - Ereschkigal & Ischtar

2 - Chokmah - Priapos

1 - Kether - Phönix

So far from my side, wish you fun with the symbolic riddles you might solve here [wink]

Ramscha

[DawningSun777]

Hmm, I also walked some of the paths, what I would be interested in is why you count Daath not as one of the Sephiroth. Is it because of the Thelema background?

Actually I consider Da'at a false sphere. It is certainly in there likely due to the Thelemic aspects of my path. I associated Da'at with The Abyss for two reason:

1. I do see it as a false sphere. Obviously the Abyss is where an individual may come to the hardest part of their path and forever be lost. Da'at is knowledge, and though I believe in knowledge and objective truths I certainly also accepted the limit of human understand. In my system, Da'at is where you run the risk of believing you have all the answers or believing in solipsism, something of that nature. While many Thelemites consider all us LHPers "black brothers" I only use this term for those who have gotten stuck in this part of the Tree. Most commonly is see it in Setianism [eek]

2. There is no path directly connecting Chokmah to Binah, nothing the individual can follow (whether using your own symbolism or someone else's) to get from the fourth sphere to the third. One who is unprepared to stand on their own in a state of uncertainty will almost certainly be stuck there imo.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

I'm hoping to gain a better understanding of the spheres as it relates to choosing deities because I'm at that point where it looks like its about time.

Does anyone know of a good table, diagram, or artical that covers the prime essentials? The supernals seem pretty straightforward but I also know there's a lot more to the planetary spheres and daath than just planetary assignments.

[Ramscha]

Here, this homepages covers the basics of the basics:
http://hermetik.ch/ath-ha-nour/site/kab ... h.htm#buch

After that I would get a little bit of broader hermetic knowledge and then go to work by myself as independent as possible.

Ramscha

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

Here, this homepages covers the basics of the basics:
http://hermetik.ch/ath-ha-nour/site/kab ... h.htm#buch

After that I would get a little bit of broader hermetic knowledge and then go to work by myself as independent as possible.

Ramscha

TY.

I'm taking a dry-run at this right now with a list of prospects, haven't implemented it but it looks like a good flow of possibilities:

Kether - Divine Father
Chokmah - Christ Logos
Binah - Isis (weaver of forms/demiurge)
Da'at - Sophia of Solomon/Mary
Chesed - Melchizedek
Geburah - Athena (or possibly Ma'at)
Tiphareth - Christ Jesus
Netzach - Hathor
Hod - Thoth
Yesod - Selene
Malkuth - Demeter

I see where the Binah/Daath issue gets ticklish because IMHO Solomon's Sophia and demiurgic Isis are the same, the theological stream of Chokmah and Tiphareth however seem to be bridged better by a Judaic Daath of Sophia/Mary (one could also consider her the dark or hidden goddess of Judaism and Christianity). Geburah is also a tough call between Ma'at and Athena, I'm tending toward Athena partly to help keep the Sophia/Isis creep contained and also for her Mercurial justice tendencies which lend a very level articulation of the sphere.

I'm also considering the abyss or the thick veil as being the convergence or zero point where the causal and logical realities of one plain turn inside out to translate in reverse or inverse in the next. In that sense a visit to Daath would be talking to an entity which is not made of stuff but rather of the spaces between and the experience itself would have a very slippy, glitchy, running backward kind of feel (thus I suspect I'd be talking to a Sophia manifested as a hollow space in rather chaotic/psychedelic astral 'stuff' that's either fresh off of Isis's loom, in her yarn box going to the loom, or even bit of both going and coming back).

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

Reading Dion Fortune a bit further I'm realizing that Athena and Ma'at would both be kinda misplaced for Geburah, it really should more purely warfare, valor, and katabolism. What cracks me up is I got my Thoth tarot deck in the mail last night, watched the movie Crowley last night (for as funny as it was supposed to be it was still kinda meh) and my subconscious seems to be petitioning me to put the Whore of Babylon in Geburah.

Lol - I can see the logic to a point but might I be killing a fly with a sledgehammer? She works pretty well as an inversion of both Netzach and Chesed but she represents 'wipe the board clean' more than elective surgery. Maybe I should put Lord Obamah in Geburah for his 'ultra-small' pin-point strikes on Syria. [lol]

[Asurendra]

A free ebook of 'The Mystical Qabbalah' by Dion Fortune can be found here:

http://www.occult-underground.com/fortune.html

Other Qabbalistic texts here (but why Maimonides is there I do not know):

http://www.occult-underground.com/kabbalah.html

[Moon Sage]

2. There is no path directly connecting Chokmah to Binah, nothing the individual can follow (whether using your own symbolism or someone else's) to get from the fourth sphere to the third. One who is unprepared to stand on their own in a state of uncertainty will almost certainly be stuck there imo.

I would have to say that there seems to be no connection, unless Chokmah & Binah, are entwined. Chokmah (being the male), & Binah (the femamle). Combined & entwined it leads to Kether.

(Believe me... I know nothing.... lol )

[DawningSun777]

Reading Dion Fortune a bit further I'm realizing that Athena and Ma'at would both be kinda misplaced for Geburah, it really should more purely warfare, valor, and katabolism. What cracks me up is I got my Thoth tarot deck in the mail last night, watched the movie Crowley last night (for as funny as it was supposed to be it was still kinda meh) and my subconscious seems to be petitioning me to put the Whore of Babylon in Geburah.

Lol - I can see the logic to a point but might I be killing a fly with a sledgehammer? She works pretty well as an inversion of both Netzach and Chesed but she represents 'wipe the board clean' more than elective surgery. Maybe I should put Lord Obamah in Geburah for his 'ultra-small' pin-point strikes on Syria. [lol]

Thelema puts Babalon in the sphere of Binah. To be honest (and in my opinion) Babalon in Gevurah makes absolutely no sense. The whole ppoint of Babalon is that she is the great whore, she rejects none but extracts a great price. You see, Gevurah is restriction, but Babalon is the exact opposite.

[DawningSun777]

2. There is no path directly connecting Chokmah to Binah, nothing the individual can follow (whether using your own symbolism or someone else's) to get from the fourth sphere to the third. One who is unprepared to stand on their own in a state of uncertainty will almost certainly be stuck there imo.

I would have to say that there seems to be no connection, unless Chokmah & Binah, are entwined. Chokmah (being the male), & Binah (the femamle). Combined & entwined it leads to Kether.

(Believe me... I know nothing.... lol )

My bad, I meant there is no path connecting Chesed, the fourth sphere to Binah, the third sphere. You cross through the path of Gimel but it is no followed, it only connects Keter to Tipharet (which is rather unimportant with the Serpent of Wisdom method I use the Tree of Life for). That is where the false sphere of Da'at would be located.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

Thelema puts Babalon in the sphere of Binah. To be honest (and in my opinion) Babalon in Gevurah makes absolutely no sense. The whole ppoint of Babalon is that she is the great whore, she rejects none but extracts a great price. You see, Gevurah is restriction, but Babalon is the exact opposite.

You may well be right. I was reading the symbol in the traditional exoteric sense of God clearing away the dross in end times by way of a dominating evil system with the Whore of Babylon riding at the helm (which would essentially be a surgery function). Admittedly though I haven't read anything to date that decodes the esoteric meaning of Revelations so I'm lacking in that particular interpretation of it.

[DawningSun777]

Thelema puts Babalon in the sphere of Binah. To be honest (and in my opinion) Babalon in Gevurah makes absolutely no sense. The whole ppoint of Babalon is that she is the great whore, she rejects none but extracts a great price. You see, Gevurah is restriction, but Babalon is the exact opposite.

You may well be right. I was reading the symbol in the traditional exoteric sense of God clearing away the dross in end times by way of a dominating evil system with the Whore of Babylon riding at the helm (which would essentially be a surgery function). Admittedly though I haven't read anything to date that decodes the esoteric meaning of Revelations so I'm lacking in that particular interpretation of it.

Ah I see, my brain doesn't work that way haha. I don't see why any Christianized symbols would go into the Tree of Life, but as pointed out elsewhere I think I am one of the only LHP practitioners on the forum. Even so, I believe that Babylon (not the spelling difference) is about the same in Christian symbolism. She represents the filth of the world, which would be the equivalent of Chesed perhaps on the ToL, unrestriced love, mercy, etc. Christianity, to me, is rather anti-liberation the way the Tree of Life tries to lead to spiritual liberation. Then again one can interpret the ToL to be union with God rather than personal enlightenment, I am so deep into my own system that I often talk as if it is the be all, end all of systems, which I apologize for.

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

Popular Christianity just seems badly mangled by culture. It's funny that when you read someone like John of the Cross you can hold it up against Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali and see striking similarities or when you read sermons by some of the so-called greatest preachers of the 18th and 19th centuries (Charles Spurgeon, John Edwards, etc.) things start sounding strangely Hermetic. Then with the new testament itself you have the Neoplatonism of the gospel and epistles of John as well as Paul's initiate language. The more I read the bible the more it got clear that things aren't quite what they seem.

[elderos]

Let me give this a try.. it was actually a cool thought experiment for me so I'm not 100% confident about what I'll decide. I like Gnostic Christian take on this.

Kether - grand-paradox/no deity
Chokmah - Divine Goddess/ Sophia
Binah - Demiurge / Elohim
Chesed - Gabriel
Geburah - Azazel
Tiphareth - the Buddhas, including Christ, Gnosis
Netzach - Lucifer
Hod - Hermes, can't think of a Gnostic equivalent
Yesod - the collective unconscious
Malkuth - I would say mankind, but more like the individual soul

[Moon Sage]

Hod - Hermes, can't think of a Gnostic equivalent

Pan...Saturn.