The Gra Tree of Life

Zephyros

Egads, that makes zero sense to me! :)

But I'll look at it and try to wrap my head around it.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Egads, that makes zero sense to me! :)

But I'll look at it and try to wrap my head around it.

It is interesting, thanks for the graphic from Kaplan, LRichard.

I too would have been tempted to put the letters more or less as they are in Luria/Kircher, in a "restored" (before the Fall) Tree as well.

As for the logic, it appears that the Mother Letters balance the pillars of Mercy and Severity. The letters Bet, Resh, and Tav go straight up. I don't know exactly why, but I might guess that they, apart from Yod and the two Mothers already used, make up the word "BRAShITH", i.e. "In the beginning", the first word in Genesis. So it is the direct creation/emation, straight up and down. Why they excluded Yod I don't know, but they had to exclude one letter, and it obviously couldn't be Bet (the first letter of the word) or Tav (the last), so they put Resh there instead (perhaps because the word could theoretically be spelled without the Yod, but not the Resh).

Then it seems the logic follows the right/left (our right and left, not the Tree's) emanation of the pillars: Gimel and Dalet from Chakhmah and Binah down, then the first "oblique" paths, Heh and Vav, come from Keter down to the former.

Zayin, Chet, Tet and Yod go left/right higher/lower, which is a clear reasoning.

Then in the "second half" of the Tree, Kaf from Chesed is like Gimel coming from Chakhmah, but we would expect Lamed to be coming from Gevurah, so the logic fails here. Instead we get the oblique right side getting treated first with Lamed, and then the left oblique side getting treated with Nun. Then the obliques come again high/low right/left with Samek and Ayin, and only THEN we get Peh coming down from Gevurah.

Tzaddi and Qof make up the balance, right/left.

So about 2/3 of it is clear; why the oblique paths get treated first in the lower part of the Tree must have some doctrine associated with it.
 

Richard

For a start:

3 horizontal paths - Mother Letters
7 vertical paths - Double Letters
12 slanted paths - Simple Letters

As for the Trump attributions, might as well use the Levi correlations, which don't make any sense anyhow (at least not to me). :D
 

Ross G Caldwell

For a start:

3 horizontal paths - Mother Letters
7 vertical paths - Double Letters
12 slanted paths - Simple Letters

As for the Trump attributions, might as well use the Levi correlations, which don't make any sense anyhow (at least not to me). :D

Right, thanks. I'll admit I missed what should have been the first step.

So all that remains is to ask why the Mother Letters occur in that order, rather than top down alphabetically.
 

GnosticTarotCards

I never actually heard what the "model" or "system" of Laurel was :/ It just seemed like a previous comment said , she was "thinking" about writing something.
 

RLG

Right, thanks. I'll admit I missed what should have been the first step.

So all that remains is to ask why the Mother Letters occur in that order, rather than top down alphabetically.

Dwtw

I believe Alef is in the center because it is the tongue that balances the Fire and Water of Shin and Mem in the Sefer Yetzirah

Litlluw
RLG
 

GnosticTarotCards

Aleph is the "air" in the middle of the system bridging the left and right, it reflects a above and below in the image. Aleph is a humble letter and only spoke after Elohim granted Bet the honor of the beginning of creation. On the diagram it connects the mercy and severity
 

Breakbeat_Mystic

Sorry, I'm about to necro this.

Laurel - I'm very interested in buying this book when it comes out. It sounds like you've spent the last twenty years pretty much attempting answers to the same questions I've had about the various modes of the ToL as well as the systems that abound and what their unique strengths/weaknesses entail.

Part of my own dilemma is trying to figure out which system to pick. I'm up in the air between several Rosicrucian systems as well as Martinism, the trouble is while you have truly wonderful purveyors and elucidators of the GD system (ie. Kircher with Fool on Aleph) such as Paul Foster Case, Gareth Knight, Dion Fortune, there's hardly anything out there I've read that really tackles the handling of the Ari tree in such a meticulous or granular manner. While I love both Rosicrucian orders I'm in I'm still trying to sort out whether these are where I'm staying or whether there's still yet another system or Order out there better attuned to me that I might be missing.

Definitely let me know when this thing hits the shelves or when it's got the pre-order options where I can at least put it on my wish list.


Thank you and LVX.
 

kwaw

If one wishes to use the Gra Tree, then it might be useful to go the whole hog and use/create a deck that incorporates the Gra attributions. The first to do so as far as I am aware was W. Wynn Westcott in his essay on the Isiac Tablet of Bembo:

quote:
"The dogmas of the Sepher Yetzirah also form a perfect Tarot. The Three Mothers, which are: - Aleph, Air, the Firmament, the Holy Spirit. The Human respiration, the Chest. 13. Mem, Water, the Earth, the Belly, the Womb. 21. Shin, Fire, the Heavens of Stars and Suns, the Brain, the Head. These are represented by the Centre of the Isiac Tablet.

"The seven doubles which correspond to the planets, and the median part of the Isiac Tablet: - 2, Beth, Luna, Nature; 3, Ghimel, Mars, Force; 4, Daleth, Sun, Fertility; 11, Kaph, Venus, Generation; 17, Pe, Mercury, Wisdom; 20, Resh, Saturn, Peace; 22, or O, Tau, Jupiter, Beauty, and the Twelve Single, corresponding to the Zodiacal signs, and the Upper Region of the Isiac Tablet . . ."

End quote from The Isiac Tablet of Bembo by William Wynn Westcott."

Note beside his use of Gra attributions his "22, or 0, Tau."

Westcott created his own deck (he later changed the attributions on them to correspond with those of the GD).

These are the attributions used in some 20th century Spanish decks. Decker/Dummet suggest the source for the attributions of these Spanish decks is Westcott's essay on the 'Isiac Tablet of Bembo' in which he uses the Gra attributions. They do not give their reasons for this suggestion. However, Westcott gave a lecture on this to the Theosophical Society, and the essay was distributed widely through the theosophical society; on the 1st of January 1908 the formation of the Order of Christian Mystics was announced,s co-founded in Philadelphia in the USA by two Theosophists, Dr. Frank Homer Curtiss and Mrs. Harriette Augusta Curtiss. They published two volumes on the tarot, The Key to the Universe and The Key of Destiny that use the Gra attributions.

(Both of these publications are available as pdf files on the web btw.)

A description of Westcott's pen & ink deck with the Gra attributions can be seen here:
http://green-door.narod.ru/west-tarot.html