Extra: The Tree of Life's Paths
By Tabitha Chamberlain
This is the last article for the Extra series. Given the rest of the Kabbalah series this one is going to be relatively easy. This is only on the Pathways, or the branches that connects each Sphere to one another.
Each Pathway connects two Spheres together, it's in this connection that we understand our more basic egos and self. While the Spheres of Kabbalah works from the bottom to top to help us with this work. Starting with the things that we are familiar with working up towards the more difficult ideas for us to grasp such as the Godhead.
It's the Pathways of Kabbalah is what allows us to move freely throughout the Tree of Life. These simple lanes of thoughts that allows us to come to this understanding between Spheres. In hopes to make our life experiences more meaningful.
However to add to the confusion of Kabbalahism, instead of starting at the bottom and working our way towards the top like with the Spheres. The Pathways start at the top of the Tree with the Fool and end at the Root of the Tree with the World.
PATHS:
Fool: Kether to Chokmah, the Fool links together wisdom to the creative aspects providing new beginnings with unconditional love and occasionally choices that need to be made.
Magician: Kether to Binah, linking together understanding and creativity to create our own realities.
High Priestess: Kether to Tiphareth, creative flows towards beauty starting to show the secrets of the universe.
Empress: Chokmah to Binah, wisdom flowing towards understanding, the ultimate feminine energy but with the balancing both aspects of male female to reach the fullest potential.
Emperor: Chokmah to Tiphareth, wisdom and beauty of the masculine character ruling over authority, possessing ability to make sound decisions.
Hierophant: Chokmah to Chesed, wisdom and mercy creating traditions, such as religions or churches. It helps build the power to achieve oneness Godhead.
Lovers: Binah to Tiphareth, understanding and beauty to enable us to have a satisfying relationships. Also giving us the ability to be happy and honest with ourselves.
Chariot: Binah to Geburah, understanding with severity, this achieves victory in our lives. Never accepting defeat, understanding the most trying circumstances to help us to persistence in our goals.
Strength: Geburah to Chesed, by using mercy we can negotiate the severity of our situations in life. We become stronger by enduring these trials, those harsh circumstances allows us to be more merciful to others around us.
Hermit: Chesed to Tiphareth, mercy and beauty creates an inner awareness that can only come through quiet meditation.
Wheel of Fortune: Chesed to Netzach, mercy to victory allows us to bring about changes to our circumstances usually for the good.
Justice: Geburah to Tiphareth, severity connects to beauty to put balance in our lives. Also the path to Karmic understanding. What we will be and are held accountable for as well as our actions.
Hanged Man: Geburah to Hod, severity with splendor leads us to creative spiritual awareness. Achievements coming through sacrifices, knowing that knowledge comes with a price.
Death: Tiphareth to Netzach, beauty and victory transcends the physical. This one signs a major changes in our lives. Requiring the discarding of old ideas.
Temperance: Tiphareth to Yesod, beauty linked with foundation, brings together a balance knowing that moderations will allow our lives to run more smoothly to achieve our goals.
Devil: Tiphareth to Hod, beauty and splendor materialize in the physical forms both earthy and what we want to create with beauty and material wealth.
Tower: Netzach to Hod, victory and splendor, truly this should be a happier pairing but it’s about huge upheavals giving us a false sense of security. Focusing us to change occasionally dramatically but it’s truly for our own good.
Star: Netzach to Yesod, victory and foundation brings an awareness. Awakening us to the universal truths and ideas, enabling us to develop our spiritual paths.
Moon: Netzach to Malkuth, victory to link to the kingdom of God, this feminine aspect of the Godhead leads towards our intuition and the mysteriousness related to the female. As well as the vagueness of the Godhead.
Sun: Hod to Yesod, this is the connection of splendor to foundation creating happiness. It helps build realities, bring insights to important decisions. This is the basis of where we get the idea of how we would like our lives to unfold.
Judgement: Hod to Malkuth, splendor to the kingdom of God this allows for purifications of ourselves. Atoning for our sins creating an area in our lives for rebirth and regeneration. This acts as a healing process to make us wiser.
World: Yesod to Malkuth, earthly foundation to kingdom of God which allows for the complication of one cycle at a time. If we allow this to continue we will finish all of the completions to makes us whole.
Kabbalah is something that does require years of study, but if you want to get the basics and learn simply to enrich your tarot experience it can be as simple as this Pathways. Or more depth as adding both in the Spheres, Pathways, and Worlds to form a deeper richer world around your tarot readings.
I hope that you enjoyed this series of articles, I know that I personally have learned a great deal more than I realized when I started out on this journey.