The Tree of Life, Parts Two and Three

[ecosophia]

The essays below are the second and third of a series of seven instructional papers on the Tree of Life, the basic glyph of Cosmic structure and process in the traditions inherited by the FHR. They were written by John Gilbert and is presented here with only minor editing. As I noted in introducing the first of these, it is irrelevant whether you believe or disbelieve in what follows. What matters is that you read these texts, think about them, understand them, and come to your own conclusions about the material covered in them.

One comment may be worth making here. Whenever John wrote of Gnosticism he meant the teachings of the Universal Gnostic Church, the specific and rather idiosyncratic tradition of Gnostic spirituality he taught and lived. Other Gnostic traditions and teachings went in different directions, as you’d expect from a movement that focuses on personal experience of spiritual realities.

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THE TREE OF LIFE

by John Gilbert

Part Two - Intention and Belief

"In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" according to the Book of Genesis.  Several creation stories start out in the same vein.  The words  are different, but the concept is the same.  Some say God first created the light and the dark.  Others say the first creation was male and female, masculine and feminine energies.  

The Heavens are boundless, endless.  They go on forever.  Earth is bounded, finite.  It's a definite thing and well-defined. The more we study the early creation stories, the more we become convinced the first creation was to create matter and energy.  

According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, matter and energy are two different expressions of the same thing.  Matter and energy can each be converted into the other.  More than that, everything in the whole known Universe is either matter or energy and the sum total of all the matter and all the energy is the Universe.  

This sounds like: "In the beginning was God, and God thought about matter and energy and God was matter and energy."  All the matter and energy that ever was or ever will be is here now, and all that matter and energy is The Creator.  The Creator is more than all the matter and energy, but all that matter and energy are The Creator.  

There's nothing in this story to tell us which came first, matter or energy.  Consequently every religion has a theory based on the major culture of that religion.  Christianity teaches man came first.  So do all the major Western religions.  Most Pagans believe the All-Mother, or Great Mother came first.  

Gnostics are not in agreement about this either. Some are in the "Man-came-first" camp while others stand firm knowing "Woman-came-first."  Science says they came together, one cannot exist without the other.  

The Big Bang started out as a point of combined mass and energy and the energy of that primal explosion is still propelling that matter through space.  Matter and energy work together.  You can't have one without the other.  They both live and act together within The Creator and they are The Creator.  

Energy is boundless force and it expands forever.  This is the "Heaven" of the first creation.  This is the masculine principle called "Force."

Matter is form.  It restricts and confines energy. This is the "Earth" of the first creation.  This is the feminine principle called "Form."

The Creator is both form and force, matter and energy, masculine and feminine.  All the matter and energy, force and form, are The Creator but the Creator is more than just that.

Most of the ancient writings about the creation allude to the male and female archetypes rather than explicitly naming them.  For example, Genesis refers to this phase of creation as "God created the heavens and the earth."  The Jerusalem Talmud explains this as a process of the one Creator God dividing Itself into two things of opposite polarity.  Usually this is explained as being the Void which is of negative polarity and the Substance.  Christian theologians consider the Angelic World to be the Heavens and Manifestation to be the Earth.

Eastern philosophers look at creation in very much the same way.  Brahman, the one Creator God, became the Male and the Female principle without diminishing Brahman.  In this philosophy the One became Three in One.  That's pretty close to the Western concept of the Trinity.  The Two, male and female, cannot exist without the One, but the One is self-existent with or without the Two.

The other interesting thing about the Two is that one cannot exist without the other.  The Male Archetype cannot exist without both the Creator Archetype and the Female Archetype.  The Female Archetype cannot exist without both the Creator Archetype and the Male Archetype.  The Creator Archetype can exist with or without the Male and Female Archetypes.

In many religions, the Great Mother gave birth to her husband and together they gave birth to all that exists.  In others, the male came first as in the story of Adam and Eve.  In the Qabalah, the Creator (which may be called the Great Mother or the Great Father) came first.  The Creator separated Itself into two parts while retaining the whole of Itself.  These two parts are the Mother of All Things and the Father of All Things.  They are the Light and the Darkness, the Positive and the Negative, the Male and the Female Principles, the Male and Female Archetypes.

There really is no discussion about which came first, the man or the woman.  The answer, according to the Qabalah, is they came together.  One Archetype cannot exist without the other.  They are opposites, and when they come together they are The Creator.  But the mystery is that even if they don't come together, the Creator exists in Its fullness and is not diminished in any way.

The Great Mystery has a very simple explanation.  If the Male and Female Archetypes exist in the Mind of the Creator, then it makes sense that the Creator is not diminished.  If the Mind of the Creator is that which gets divided, then it makes sense that neither the Male or Female Archetype can exist without the other.  These Archetypes are opposites and to think of the attributes of one is to define the attributes of the other.

The Creator is The One Mind and creation is in the Mind of the Creator.

That's the great secret of all the Western and Eastern Mysteries.  Everything is Mind.  Everything is The Creator.  Nothing exists outside the Mind of the Creator.  Everything exists within the Mind of the Creator.  We are all brothers and sisters in the creation of all that exists.  We're all in this same Mind together.  We're all interconnected not only to our friends but to our enemies.  We're connected to all the plants, animals and minerals in this world.  Everything is The Creator.

The Creator is unconditional love, all knowing, all powerful, present everywhere and in all things.  This is the archetype that is The Creator.  It's the root of the Air Element.

The Father archetype is outgoing energy that moves away from the source.  It expands in all directions as it moves.  This energy is a force that moves things.  Because it moves, we call it positive.  The Father archetype is all about intention, the desire to do something, the ability to conceive it, the resolve to do it and the energy to finish what is started.  It's the root of the Fire Element.

The Mother Archetype is ingoing and does not move.  It is inert but collects energy inside itself.  It's a form that contains things, and because of this we call it negative.  The Mother Archetype is all about receptivity, the capacity to feel it, the inertia to contain it, the ability to remember it and the ability to love it forever.  Mother is the root of the Water Element.

On the Tree of Life, the Creator occupies the top-most sphere.  All energy moving down through the Tree of Life originates in this top-most sphere.  The Father Archetype occupies sphere  number two on the right-hand side of the Tree of Life as you're looking at the Tree.  The Mother Archetype occupies sphere number three on the left-hand side of the Tree of Life as you're  looking at the Tree.  These two spheres are located below the first sphere.  All three are interconnected so as to form a triangle with The Creator Archetype at the top.  The sphere for Father is called Intention (Chokmah) and the one for Mother is called Belief (Binah).

This triangle is called the Triangle of Air.  It's also called the World of Air because everything in this world is thoughts and ideas.  Nothing else exists in this world except thoughts and ideas. It's the Archetypal World or  the World of Archetypes.  It's also called the Spiritual Triangle among several dozen other names.

Some authors consider the Archetypal World to be the Trinity of God the Creator, Father God and Mother God.  In Christian Gnosticism this trinity is often called Father-Mother-Creator God or Creator-Father-Mother  God.  It's also called Creator-Mother-Father God.  The three spheres in this triad can therefore be labeled Creator God, Father God and Mother God in that order.  The Creator Archetype, Father Archetype and Mother Archetype is another way of saying the same thing as is Creator-Male-Female Archetypes.  Awareness, Intention and Belief are the definitions of these three concepts.

Several authors assign different Judeo-Christian God names to these spheres.  The most common assignment  of Divine Names is Eheieh to Kether (Creator), Yah to Chokmah (Father) and Yod Hey Vav Hey Elohim to Binah (Mother).  Eheieh is often translated as "I am That I am" or as "I am What I am."  Yah is Father God, Yod Hey Vav Hey is the Tetragrammaton normally rendered as Jehovah or Yahweh, and Elohim is Father and Mother God.  Some claim Elohim is a singular male God and plural female Goddesses.

Your assignment, should you decide to experiment with the World of Archetypes, is to assign one God or Goddess from the pantheon of your choice to each of the spheres in this trinity.  It's important to preserve the sequence of Creator-Male-Female Archetype for these first three spheres.  But the name of the Deity assigned to each is entirely up to you.

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THE TREE OF LIFE

Part Three - The Abyss

The Archetypal World, the World of Air is separated from the rest of the Tree of Life by an Abyss "of endless breadth, depth and width." It's so deep you can't see the bottom of the pit, you can't see anything as you look down except endless space. It's so wide it appears to go in either direction forever. The other side is so far away you can't see it.  You're not even sure there is another side. Standing on the edge of this abyss, it feels like you're standing on the edge of the world looking out into nothingness.  At least, that's what most of the mystics who've been there have to say.

Yet, when we look at the Tree of Life, we see paths connecting each of the three top-most spheres to each other. We also see five paths from these three crossing the Abyss; one from The Creator and two from both the Father and Mother Archetypes.

These five paths are called The Impassible Paths because crossing the Abyss is impossible until and unless you've completed all the requirements to do so. We'll discuss those requirements over the next couple of months, But in short, they can all be summed up in the admonition to love your Creator and your neighbor as yourself.

The Abyss not only separates the World of Air from the rest of the Tree of Life, it reflects the first three Sephira into the next level of the Tree. As a result of this reflection, the second triangle is upside down relative to the first. It is a reflection like a pool of water might reflect that which is above it.  If the second triangle on the Tree is a reflection of the first, then the second triangle isn't real at all. It's just a reflection. Reflections aren't real.

Some of the modern theories about the birth of the universe would agree with this point of view. The modern concept accepted by most physicists is the universe is a hologram within the mind of some vast intelligence.  It doesn't take much of a leap of faith to believe that Intelligence is the Creator as expressed through the Father and Mother Archetypes.

Science continues to prove the Gnostic viewpoint in all things.

The Sepher Yetzirah, which is the first written document we know as the Qabala, teaches that Spirit breathed (Air) and from this breath came the "The Great Waters." Air came first and Water second. The Sepher Yetzirah continues explaining that Water carried Fire in Her belly. Desire (Fire) comes from the belly and is a combination of Air and Water but desire (Fire) is born of Water. Desire is born from our emotions.

Here's a little exercise to help you understand the Abyss a little better:  Stand in front of a mirror.  Point both your index fingers like guns.  Point these "guns" at the mirror and slowly move them forward until they touch the mirror.  In this example, your shoulders are the Father and Mother Archetypes above the Abyss.  The reflection of your shoulders are Daughter and Son on the other side of the Abyss.  The mirror represents the Abyss.  Both your arms and the reflection of your arms are the connecting path between these spheres.  They connect at the mirror but each remains in its own world and does not encroach into the world of the other.

This is actually a fairly good analogy.  The spheres above the Abyss are in a different world than those below.  The spheres below are a reflection of the spheres above.  The spheres above are connected to the spheres below through the Abyss.  But since that which is above and that which is below the Abyss do not cross the Abyss, this connection is between two different kinds of things.  The two kinds of things do not mix, they connect.  They touch each other at the Abyss.

The only thing that crosses the Abyss is our consciousness. Our bodies never cross the Abyss nor does our personality.  Our thoughts, ideas, memories, and attitudes cross the Abyss but our emotions and our desires do not.  When we cross over the Abyss from above all we bring with us is our thoughts, ideas, and attitudes.  We leave our memories behind in the World of Air, the World of Archetypes.

Comments

[d_mekel]

"The mirror represents the Abyss."

roughly an hour before I read this, I sketched a large stick person and a small stick person. One was the creator and one was the creation. They each had mirrors for faces and were staring at each other. an interesting synchronicity that I'm not sure if I fully understand. to add to that synchronicity, my divination cards for today,from your oracle deck, were 16 mediation(me), 21 unfolding(situation), and 20 expansion(outcome). I can't help, but see 2 mirrors facing each other forever expanding.

[ecosophia]

An interesting synchronicity indeed.

[(Anonymous)]

Something similar happened to me as well - a few hours before reading this, I painted a mirror.
- J

Catholic

[(Anonymous)]

Many years ago I saw the travelling reliquary of st Theresa of Lisuex, the little flower as she is known for roses appear after novenas are recited for her intersession (with God).

So I put my hands on the fancy carved box of bones and felt like I was falling down an elevator shaft.

It reminded me of your description of the abyss as described by mystics.

Just recently, on her feast day, during the consecration of the host, (bread), I saw a flash to the back right, (facing), of the priest, and wondered if she wasn't showing me her presence at that mass.

Bilocation, there are many accounts of living and dead saints appearing and helping folks in dire straights. This considered, I would say that vast intelligence called God is able to manifest anything it wills in alignment with Its Will. (Contrary to the non crossable abyss theory)

Gr8 post! Pray for peace if you can.

Re: Catholic

[ecosophia]

Oh, the Divine can always cross the Abyss. The Divine is the Abyss, since the Abyss is the infinite qualitative distinction between the Creator and the creation. It's you and me who have to worry about getting across it, and as John points out, we can do this by putting ourselves in harmony with the Divine.

Re: Catholic

[(Anonymous)]

The mirror analogy really hit the mark for me. And by saying, "putting ourselves in harmony with the Divine", I imagine we need to spend our days making that mirror as clean as possible for the reflection to shine through.

Re: Catholic

[(Anonymous)]

I used to live across the street from a retreat that had a bit of St. Therese’s bone as a relic. It was a nice place, especially before they sold the woods. Their woods were where I saw a melanistic red fox. Black where a normal fox is red, white where a normal fox is white.

Now the retreat is an expensive Catholic old folks’s home. It was a lot better before.

—Princess Cutekitten

[kimberlysteele]

Thank you for this series. It meshes perfectly with Levi's Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic. John Gilbert had a wonderful talent for bringing difficult-to-understand material down to earth. I am grateful to him and you for your ways of explaining this stuff. I honestly don't think I would have the remotest clue without it.

[ecosophia]

You're most welcome! Yes, John had a real gift for communicating ideas. He worked as a schoolteacher for many years.

[kimberlysteele]

No wonder! I had a particularly brilliant high school physics teacher, Mr. Hisgen, who had that gift. I still remember the concepts he taught, such as how atoms on the periodic table combine to become molecules, nearly 35 years later. Bless him wherever he is. In my system of Ogham, such knowledge falls under Phagos/Beech tree or Teaching, when a person has mastery on the mental plane sufficient to teach the subject and be readily understood.

[ecosophian]

The Heavens are boundless, endless. They go on forever.

It sounds like the ideal of the Faustian culture.

[(Anonymous)]

But it's not faraway, it's ever present

[ecosophia]

Of course. John was part of that culture, like you and me.

[tiporcupine]

I had a thought: do the first three spheres correspond to the three spiritual paths of Occultist, Magician, and Mystic, respectively?

Or perhaps Occultist corresponds to Da’ath?

[ecosophia]

You can certainly make use of that symbolism if it works for you. Remember that symbolism isn't set in stone -- it's a language, but it's meant to be used creatively.

[boccaderlupo]

Lots of echoes in this series (and understandably so) of both Watts's version of the Vedanta (and perhaps the Tao) and Neoplatonic thought. I like the stress on how Creator God abides without the need of the "things below," containing all things and yet being beyond them. And that the act of Creation does not involve diminishment of Creator God in any way. Well communicated and enjoyable read. He does indeed have a way of communicating these concepts in a straightforward way without losing any of the necessary subtlety. Did he also incorporate any of the levels "above" Kether (Ayin, Ein Sof, Ohr Ein Sof)? Thank you.

Axé,
Fra' Lupo

[ecosophia]

He used to joke about people who said the realms beyond Kether are indescribable, and then go on for pages and pages describing them! To the best of my recollection, that's what he had to say about that subject.

[boccaderlupo]

Funny, been trying to wrap my head around that one, as well...

"Panentheism" is the word that was floating around but eluding me. He communicates this in a really simple-to-grasp way.

It strikes me, reading through this again, that Papus's Septenaries (1,2,3 (4) ▲, 4,5,6 (7) ▼, etc.) might have some correspondences here, with regard to how the Tree extends...hmmm.

Thank you.

[ecosophia]

It ought to. Papus was a first-rate Cabalist, and his system of ternaries -- while I'm pretty sure it primarily derives from Proclus -- has a strong Cabalistic flavor to it.

[boccaderlupo]

Ah, I did not make the Proclus connection. That will bear investigating, for sure...

Incidentally, Gilbert's prior essay, in which he considers some aspects of Creator God, is reminiscent of early parts of Proclus's Elements of Theology, IMO.

[deng]

I've never heard the standing in front of a mirror with guns drawn analogy before and found this description very striking. The body position transformed to an image of ancient gods and kings seated at their thrones with their hands forward and the head above the body. This brought added meaning to my understanding of the body as the 'throne of god' as the images juxtaposed themselves upon one another and myself.

Thank you John. Seems you are not messing around and really packing it clearly with no unnecessary fat.

[ecosophia]

John was good at that!

[autpaxautbellum]

“ Science continues to prove the Gnostic viewpoint in all things.”

A sly reference to the “Order of Essenes” lectures?

Really enjoying these.. much to reread and ponder.

[ecosophia]

That's a possibility, though there's a whole mess of other Essene material unrelated to Burks Hamner's teachings, which I'll get out in due time.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

"Our thoughts, ideas, memories, and attitudes cross the Abyss but our emotions and our desires do not. When we cross over the Abyss from above all we bring with us is our thoughts, ideas, and attitudes. We leave our memories behind in the World of Air, the World of Archetypes."

Slightly confused there, Is John Gilbert referring to re-incarnation whereby we do not remember past memories but our thoughts, ideas and attitudes that form our mental sheaths get re-incarnated into a new body?

Or have I got everything wrong? LOL!!!!

Thanks

[ecosophia]

That's certainly the way I read it.

[deng]

God mostly my imagination feels so limited. Thank you for this extension.

I've always seen the mirror of the mind analogy as something like a small hand held or bathroom wall sized mirror that I look into as I experience my thoughts. Mostly personal and representing only my individual mind. Even with an extraordinary expansive experience I didn't expand my conception of the mirror enough. I thought I extended the analogy to the Creators thinking or dreaming existence into being intellectually, but not really. Never with a feeling, grasping, enveloping, ah-ha that's it moment. The image of the spheres, overlaid on a seated deity, overlaid on myself, facing a full length mirror, overlaid with multiple Eastern, Western, and Gnostic interpretations really pulled so much together it is more than I can express right now. I feel like a cup of hot water with a tea bag full of this post steeping through me.

A very clear weaving of the different traditions. A very powerful image describing detailing sitting in front of the full length mirror. Magical words conjuring wonderful images leading to greater understanding.

Wonderful

Thank you to John and John. You guys are awesome:)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I have a question about the Tree of Life. Above, the top triangle is defined as being of air. But in your Celtic GD on p60, the top triangle is Fire. I'm sure I'm missing something really obvious, but why are they different?

Many thanks for your time.

[ecosophia]

Because there are different traditions in Cabala, and how you relate the spheres to the elements varies from tradition to tradition!