The Path of Ascension & the Tree of the Sephiroth
Originally recorded 10/15/24 as the outro for Episode 75 – Jennifer Spor: Eternal Students, Akashic Records, Call to Truth & Alchemy
In this conversation, Jennifer and I discussed what we believe to be the next phase of human evolution: the path of ascension. The realization of heaven here on Earth. When we study the esoteric wisdom of our religious traditions, we discover the techniques for ascension encoded within all of them. Mysticism is another word for ascension, known as becoming one with God, one with the Absolute.
The path of ascension is encoded within the secrets of Jewish mysticism, known as Kaballah. As Manly P. Hall describes in The Secret Teachings of All Ages:[1]
Hebrew theology was divided into three distinct parts. The first was the law, the second was the soul of the law, and the third was the soul of the soul of the law. The law was taught to all the children of Israel; the Mishma, or the soul of the law, was revealed to the Rabbins and teachers; but the Qaballah, the soul of the soul of the law, was cunningly conceived, and only the highest initiates among the Jews were instructed in its secret principles.
According to certain Jewish mystics, Moses ascended Mount Sinai three times, remaining in the presence of God forty days each time. During the first forty days the tables of the written law were delivered to the prophet; during the second forty days he received the soul of the law; and during the last forty days God instructed him in the mysteries of the Qaballah, the soul of the soul of the law. Moses concealed in his first four books of the Pentateuch the secret instructions which God had given him, and for centuries students of Qabbalism have sought therein the secret doctrine of Israel.
As the spiritual nature of man is concealed in his physical body, so the unwritten law – the Mishma and the Qabbalah – is concealed within the written teachings of the Mosaic code. Qabbalah means the secret or hidden tradition, the unwritten law, and according to an early Rabbi it was delivered to man in order that through the aid of its abstruse principles he might learn to understand the mystery of both the universe about him and the universe within him.
The origin of Qabbalism is a legitimate subject for controversy. Early initiates of the Qabbalistic Mysteries believed that its principles were first taught by God to a school of His angels before the fall of man. The angels later communicated the secrets to Adam, so that through the knowledge gained from an understanding of its principles fallen humanity might regain its lost estate. The Angel Raziel was dispatched from heaven to instruct Adam in the mysteries of the Qabbalah. Different angels were employed to initiate the succeeding patriarchs in this difficult science. Tophiel was the teacher of Shem, Raphael of Isaac, Metatron of Moses, and Michael of David.
Christian D. Ginsburg has written: “From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of the mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his birth, but became more proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but also received lessons in it from one of the angels. Moses also initiated the seventy Elders into the secrets of this doctrine and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and Solomon were most initiated into Kaballah.”
In The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Daniel C. Matt explains:[2]
The Hebrew word kabbalah means “receiving” or “that which has been received”. On the one hand, Kabbalah refers to tradition, ancient wisdom received and treasured from the past. On the other hand, if one is truly receptive, wisdom appears spontaneously, unprecedented, taking you by surprise. The Jewish mystical tradition combines both of these elements. Its vocabulary teems with what the Zohar – the canonical text of the Kabbalah – calls “new-ancient words.” Many of its formulations derive from traditional sources – the Bible and rabbinic literature – but with a twist. For example, “the world that is coming,” a traditional phrase often understood as referring to a far-off messianic era, turns into “the world that is constantly coming,” constantly flowing, a timeless dimension of reality available right here and now, if one is receptive.
The rabbinic concept of Shekhinah, divine immanence, blossoms into the feminine half of God, balancing the patriarchal conception that dominates the Bible and the Talmud. Kabbalah retains the traditional discipline of Torah and mitsvot (commandments), but now the mitsvot have cosmic impact. “The secret of fulfilling the mitsvot is the mending of all the worlds and drawing forth the emanation from above.” According to Kabbalh, every human action here on earth affects the divine realm, either promoting or hindering the union of Shekhinah and her partner – the Holy One, blessed be he. God is not static being, but dynamic becoming. Without human participation, God remains incomplete, unrealized. It is up to us to actualize the divine potential in the world. God needs us.
Today, Kaballah can often carry a negative connotation. It’s no coincidence that the word cabal, a small group of people who plan secretly to take action, especially political action, derives from it. The reality confronting humanity today is that the forces of organized crime have for millennia monopolized the occult wisdom of the Kaballah for their own power and control.
However, this should not scare us from understanding the secrets of mysticism. Rather, we should recognize that what can be used for black sorcery can also be used for divine magic, these are two sides of the same coin.
The knowledge of Kaballah was organized into a graphical representation by Jewish mystics, a key known as “The Tree of the Sephiroth”. Here’s Manly P. Hall again:[3]
The Tree of the Sephiroth may be considered an invaluable compendium of the secret philosophy which originally was the spirit and soul of Chasidism [Hasidic Judaism]. The Qaballah is the priceless heritage of Israel, but each year those who comprehend its true principles become fewer in number. The Jew of today, if he lacks a realization of the profundity of his people’s doctrines, is usually permeated with the most dangerous form of ignorance, modernism, and is prone to regard the Qabbalah either as an evil to be shunned like the plague or as a ridiculous superstition which has survived the black magic of the Dark Ages. Yet without the key which the Qaballah supplies, the spiritual mysteries of both the Old and the New Testament must remain unsolved by the Jew and Gentile alike.
The Sephirothic Tree consists of ten globes of luminous splendor arranged in three vertical columns and connected by 22 channels or paths. The ten globes are called the Sephiroth and to them assigned the numbers 1 to 10. The three columns are called Mercy (on the right), Severity (on the left), and, between them, Mildness, as the reconciling power. The columns may also be said to represent Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, which form the triune support of the universe, for it is written that the foundation of all things is the Three. The 22 channels are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and to them are assigned the major trumps of the Tarot deck of symbolic cards.
Eliphas Levi declared that by arranging the Tarot cards according to a definite order man could discover all that is knowable concerning his God, his universe, and himself. When the ten numbers which pertain to the globes (Sephiroth) are combined with the 22 letters relating to the channels, the resultant sum is 32 - the number peculiar to the Qabbalistic Paths of Wisdom. These Paths, occasionally referred to as the 32 teeth in the mouth of the Vast Countenance or as the 32 nerves that branch out from the Divine Brain, are analogous to the first 32 degrees of Freemasonry, which elevate the candidate to the dignity of a Prince of the Royal Secret. Qabbalists also consider it extremely significant that in the original Hebrew Scriptures the name of God should occur 32 times in the first chapter of Genesis. (In the English translations of the Bible the name appears 33 times.) In the mystic analysis of the human body, according to the Rabbins, 32 spinal segments lead upward to the Temple of Wisdom - the skull.
Exhibit 1[4]
The four Qabbalistic Trees … were combined by later Jewish scholars into one all-inclusive diagram and termed by them not only the Sephirothic but also the Archetypal, or Heavenly, Adam. According to some authorities, it is this Heavenly Adam, and not a terrestrial man, whose creation is described in the opening chapters of Genesis. Out of the substances of this divine man the universe was formed; in him it remains and will continue even after dissolution shall resolve the spheres back into their own primitive substance. The Deity is never conceived of as actually contained in the Sephiroth, which are purely hypothetical vessels employed to define the limits of the Creative Essence. Adolph Franck rather likens the Sephiroth to varicolored transparent glass bowls filled with pure light, which apparently assumes the color of its containers but whose essential nature remains ever unchanged and unchangeable.
The ten Sephiroth composing the body of the prototypic Adam, the numbers related to them, and the parts of the universe to which they correspond are as follows:
It must continually be emphasized that the Sephiroth and the properties assigned to them, like the tetractys of the Pythagoreans, are merely symbols of the cosmic system with its multitude of parts. The truer and fuller meaning of these emblems may not be revealed by writing or by word of mouth, but must be divined as the result of study and meditation. In the Sepher ha Zohar it is written that there is a garment - the written doctrine-which every man may see. Those with understanding do not look upon the garment but at the body beneath it - the intellectual and philosophical code. The wisest of all, however, the servants of the Heavenly King, look at nothing save the soul - the spiritual doctrine - which is the eternal and ever-springing root of the law. Of this great truth Eliphas Levi also writes declaring that none can gain entrance to the secret House of Wisdom unless he wear the voluminous cape of Apollonius of Tyana and carry in his hand the lamp of Hermes. The cape signifies the qualities of self-possession and self-reliance which must envelope the seeker as a cloak of strength, while the ever-burning lamp of the sage represents the illumined mind and perfectly balanced intellect without which the mystery of the ages can never be solved.
The Sephirothic Tree is sometimes depicted as a human body, thus more definitely establishing the true identity of the first, or Heavenly, Man - Adam Kadmon - the Idea of the Universe. The ten divine globes (Sephiroth) are then considered as analogous to the ten sacred members and organs of the Protogonos, according to the following arrangement. Kether is the crown of the Prototypic Head and perhaps refers to the pineal gland; Chochmah and Binah are the right and left hemispheres respectively of the Great Brain; Chesed and Geburah (Pechad) are the right and left arms respectively, signifying the active creative members of the Grand Man; Tiphereth is the heart, or, according to some, the entire viscera; Netsah and Hod are the right and left legs respectively, or the supports of the world; Jesod is the generative system, or the foundation of form; and Malchuth represents the two feet, or the base of being. Occasionally Jesod is considered as the male and Malchuth as the female generative power. The Grand Man thus conceived is the gigantic image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, with head of gold, arms and chest of silver, body of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay. The mediæval Qabbalists also assigned one of the Ten Commandments and a tenth part of the Lord's Prayer in sequential order to each of the ten Sephiroth.
Exhibit 2[5]
As Jennifer and I discussed, the Apocalypse is not an eschatological end to humanity. Rather, it represents a transition point in the ages. During our last transition, from the age of Aries to the age of Pisces, Jesus of Nazareth was born. He revitalized the knowledge of Kabbalah, and in doing so, became the ascendant master Jesus Christ.
Again, the forces of corruption distorted his message to divide rather than to unite. To say we must accept him as our one true lord and savior, or reject him as simply man or myth. And to foment war after war between these groups. In the process, we have lost the essence of Christ’s message. As he said so eloquently:[6] “the Kingdom of God is within you”. As humanity is made in the image of God, so too do we all have the latent potential for ascension here on Earth. Today, in the eternal present now.
Humanity today finds itself at another Apocalypse. A transition from the end of the age of Pisces, and the dawning of the age of Aquarius. An unveiling of that which has been hidden. In this next phase of human civilization, it’s not enough to know. It’s time for us to know how. Students of Christian mysticism suggest that the Beatitudes, delivered during Christ’s Sermon on the Mount represent more than just divinely inspired wisdom. That they also represent an alchemical formula, and by speaking these verses, we catalyze the potential for ascension encoded within our DNA. I’ve incorporated this recitation into my morning meditation practice, and would like to end this episode doing so again.
If you’re inclined to join me, please grab your closest Bible or web browser, and turn to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5, Verses 3-12:[7]
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
[1] Hall, Manly P. The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedia Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy. Lushena Books, Bensenville, IL: 2022 (Originally published 1928).
[2] Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. Castle Books, New Jersey: 1995.
[3] Hall, Manly P. The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedia Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy. Lushena Books, Bensenville, IL: 2022 (Originally published 1928).
[4] Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. Castle Books, New Jersey: 1995.
[5] Abrahamic Study Hall. October 2020. Accessed October 15, 2024. https://www.abrahamicstudyhall.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ASH-vetruvian-sephirot.png
[6] Luke 17:20-21. New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation: 1960.
[7] Matthew 5:12-13. New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation: 1960.