Meaningful link between Sephiroth in different worlds?

JackofWands

As an experiment, I overlaid the structure of the Tree of Life (using this more symmetrical model as opposed to the Kircher Tree, just for simplicity's sake) in the Four Worlds, with each world starting one Sephirah down and the bottom of the Tree reconnecting with the top to form a complete loop. I'm not sure if what I mean by this is entirely clear, so let me give a few examples:

-Malkuth in Atziluth overlaps with Yesod in Briah, Tiphereth in Yetzirah, and Kether in Assiah
-Malkuth in Yetzirah overlaps with Yesod in Assiah, Tiphereth in Atziluth, and Kether in Briah
-Netzach in Assiah overlaps with Chesed in Atziluth and Chokmah in Briah
-Netzach in Briah overlaps with Chesed in Yetzirah and Chokmah in Assiah

Hopefully, this makes sense. The idea is to overlay the Four Worlds and find interconnections between the manifestations of different Sephiroth in them. So my question is as follows: Is there something to be gleaned from this? Is there some underlying link that makes Malkuth in Atziluth similar to Yesod in Briah and Tiphereth in Yetzirah? Extrapolating this to Tarot, is it fair to draw a connection between the Ten of Wands, Nine of Cups, and Six of Swords because of this construction? Or do you feel that something like this is too arbitrary and off-map to provide helpful connections for practical use?

Any thoughts are welcome.
 

Zephyros

I don't quite understand. Is it possible for you to take a picture?
 

JackofWands

I can't post a picture, but I'll try to explain better.

The Tree of Life can be split into four Trees, each manifesting in of the Four Worlds. These Trees are often depicted as overlapping so that Malkuth in one world is Kether in another (see this depiction). What I did in my thought experiment was to overlap four symmetrical versions of the Tree so that each one's Kether started on the Tiphereth of the former, instead of on its Malkuth.

In other words, in the diagram I've linked, Kether in Briah overlaps with Malkuth in Atziluth. But in the scheme I drew up, Kether in Briah overlaps with Tiphereth in Atziluth. Kether in Yetzirah overlaps with Tiphereth in Briah and Yesod in Atziluth, and so on.

But then some Sephiroth (e.g. Kether in Assiah) overlap with all four iterations of the Tree, whereas others (e.g. Kether in Atziluth) don't overlap with any. So to even this out and make it more symmetrical, I reconnected the bottom of the tree back to the top to make a closed loop. This would connect Kether in Atziluth to Tiphereth in Assiah (as well as to Yesod in Yetzirah and Malkuth in Assiah).

I'm going to lay out the numbers of the Sephiroth on the four Trees so they run parallel to each other horizontally. I'm sorry for the general mess and lack of symmetry, but hopefully this will show you what I'm trying to convey: a Sephira on one Tree would always correspond to different Sephiroth on each of the other Trees.

Atziluth********Briah*********Yetzirah********Assiah
**1************10*************9*************6***
3****2**********************8***7**********5**4*
**6************1**************10************9***
5****4********3***2************************8**7*
**9************6***************1************10**
8****7********5***4*********3****2**************
**10***********9***************6*************1**
**************8***7*********5****4*********3***2

Obviously, this is not really working within the framework of the accepted Qabalistic tradition. This is more of a personal thought experiment to help me look at the Tree of Life from a different perspective. Still, I would be curious as to whether it makes sense to you (although it appears not to, but that might just be shoddy explaining on my part the first time around) and you think there's value to be had there.
 

Zephyros

Well, there's value if you find there is. I like playing mind games with the Tree, it keeps you on your toes. That being said, I feel like you're kind of stunting the growth of each world, ending its development at the ideal, rather than allowing it to unfold to its fullest extent.

But since we're on the subject, what do you you make of it?
 

JackofWands

All of my work with Kabbalah comes back to Tarot, generally speaking; I use Kabbalah as a tool to understand the principles of the Tarot, rather than the other way around. So I suppose the end goal of this thought experiment for me was to find a different way to link the cards together.

If we take, for example, the Ten of Wands, Nine of Cups, Six of Swords, and Ace of Disks, it's interesting for me to look at them as a collective unit. The Ten of Wands and Nine of Cups seem almost like polar opposites, with the Six of Swords being the mental attitude that balances between the two ideas. The Ace of Disks sets the theme for the link between the three cards, suggesting to me that the polarity between the cards of oppression and happiness is a fundamentally material one.

This on its own provides food for thought (for me), but I would also apply it in readings for myself (less so for others). If I drew, say, the Ten, the Nine, and the Ace, but I didn't see the Six of Swords, then I would take that to mean I'm lacking the necessary mediating energy to manage the forces of the other cards at play.

This really is just idle play, though. It probably won't factor into my reading practice in any big, dramatic way. I just wanted to sit down and reflect on it to see if there was something to be learned in there.