Kabbalah is essentially both a way of viewing the world and a way of living in the world. The Tree of Life is a blueprint of the organizational structure of All Life, both seen and unseen, so this includes not only our physical Earth and all of its parts, our Solar System, our Galaxy and Universe, but All of the Cosmos.

Kabbalah is both the macrocosm of space and time, and the microcosm down to the atomic level. We are born from Nothingness and we return to Nothingness, and the voyage of our eternal life is mapped on the Tree of Life.

During the journey, we travel a road anywhere between polar opposites: positive and negative, excesses and deficiencies, highs and lows, light and dark, etc. The key to this journey is to not get stuck in one place, but to be fluid, while at the same time, learning the value of the dynamic process between the extremes of life. The goal is to maintain a neutral path, while still experiencing the extremes around us. It's staying in the spoke of the wheel and observing what's all around us rather than riding the bumpy dizzying path at the rim of the wheel.

It is a cyclical, never-ending journey, with our Soul becoming crystallized Light at conception, and then after a "time", we experience what we call death, when our physical body becomes dust once again. At the moment of death, we leave our physical shell, only to eventually return for the same voyage once again. And so the cycle begins once again.

Kabbalah truly is the grand, in-finite "Circle Of Life".
 

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is a physical picture of how our experience of life is represented. The Tree is the Blueprint of All Life.

While the Tree appears in most depictions as 2-dimensional, it is in actuality a multi-dimensional "universe" containing Trees of Life within Trees of Life, each intimately interconnected. It is the warp and weft that creates the woven Cloth of Life. Because of our limited abilities to perceive beyond our physical plane of existence, it is difficult to imagine how vast and all-encompassing the Tree really is.

The Kabbalah Tree of Life is a map of the soul/human journey and experience toward enlightened consciousness. It is a picture of how Nothing becomes Everything, which ultimately becomes physical matter; and vice versa, how physical matter ultimately becomes Everything which then becomes Nothing.

In all of time... in the past, present and future... we are somewhere in the Tree, experiencing a moment, then moving to another moment in time to another place in the Tree. It is a personal journey, and yet also a universal journey. It is the journey to understand oneself, understand our relationships, and understand our planet and the cosmos in relation to the Creator of the All-That-Is.

It is a physical representation of the stepdown process through each Sephirah where a differentiated Spectrum appears. The stepdown of visible color begins with KETER. And so the Tree of Life is formed with different aspects of Life being born on each Path, with eventual complete physical manifestation occurring in Malkuth.

The totality of our journey is also the stepup process of returning to the Source, returning to the Light, and eventually returning back to the Nothingness from which we came.

This is not a stagnant process! It is dynamic and ever-changing, like the synapses of the brain firing in any given moment. If we are in in a state of healthy movement, we are bouncing around the Tree like a pinball in a arcade game, all along gaining information and experience so that we can make different choices as to where we want to go next.

Tree of Life as an Energy Pathway

As was said earlier, the Tree of Life is a picture of the macrocosm and the microcosm, which are one in the same.

Our physical body and energy field has the same organizational structure as the Tree of Life. So therefore, it is possible to map the Tree on the physical body. Note that the Tree of Life maps on the BACKSIDE of the body. Even though most all pictures show the tree mapped on the front of the body (even the graphic I've included with the Vitruvian Man at the top of this page), the Tree of Life truly maps to the BACK of the body. You can read more about the placement of each sephira on the physical body here.

The Binah/Deburah/Hod left-side column is the FEMININE/- NEGATIVE CHARGE side and the Chokmah/Chesed/Netszch right-side column is the MASCULINE/+ POSITIVE CHARGE side. The middle column is Ø NEUTRAL. You can read more about the 3 Columns or Pillars here.

Color, light, sound, crystals & stones, subtle aromatherapy, sacred geometry, Crystalline Alchemy™ and energywork can be used to access the Tree and all its parts within our human energy system. This includes the Sephira, the Pillars, the Worlds, the Veils and the 32 paths (or stages) which are composed of the 10 sephira plus the 22 Hebrew letters, each of which is a link (Tarot card) between the 10 Sephira.

Each sephira is associated with: a particular Divine attribute, Divine name, pillar, one of 5 worlds, one of 5 elements, a letter in the Name of God YHVH, a number, an Archangel, a planet in our Solar System, a place on Earth, a principal color, a particular part or area of the physical body, a particular part of our energy field, a chemical element, a crystal or stone, a chakra, a geometric shape, one of the ten commandments, and a musical note.

Human DNA can be superimposed on the Tree of Life showing how the Tree is literally a part of our physical composition. Just as the Tree is the blueprint of life, so is the DNA the blueprint of an individual Life. We can travel our DNA just as we can travel the Tree of Life, with the potential for DNA enlightenment!

The Tree can also be superimposed on the grid of the Earth and on the ancient Nadis system with the primary nadis being the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna.

Final Thoughts

As you explore these ideas, you begin to see the Holographic Principle, that Source exists exactly the same as itself within every piece of Life, from the smallest tachyon to the grandest parts of the Cosmos. Metaphors are actually not metaphors at all. They are literally exactly the same as that which they appear to emulate, but in a different perceived "form".

All living things are "cut from the same One Universal piece of cloth". We are all made of the same stuff, and each piece of the stuff is the same organizational structure of the larger stuff. That which the largest of any living entity is made of, is also contained within the smallest part of the larger entity. In other words, we literally are made in the likeness of God.

We truly are All ONE.

Suggested Reading

Kabbalah: Your Path To Inner Freedom by Anne Williams-Heller, 1990
Other books

Links

• Kabbalah Information Center
• Kabbalah Learning Center
• "Kabbalah Revealed" a PDF Book by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD