Please can someone take pity on me -- the Tree of Life

[Carla]

I have started on a One Deck Wonder study of Thoth and I'm reading the DuQuette book. Even the DuQuette book is over my head. I need help with Tree of Life. I don't understand. I do not know what the heck.

Is there a source somewhere, the Tree of Life for Absolutely Gormless Dullards? I've ordered Chicken Qabalah and hope it will be here soon. But right now I am feeling hopelessly lost.

The most useful thing I've done (well maybe most amusing--to me) is to make up a mnemonic for 'Atus of Tahuti' -- 'R2s of Patootie'. Made me laugh, anyway.

 

[Zephyros]

Chicken Qabalah is a great introduction, really, but his Thoth book really gives only the barest minimum. I recommend you not only read Chicken Qabalah, but study it, writing notes to yourself. By the time you're through with it, you should have a good basis in it.

One important thing to remember about the Tree is that it isn't a body of knowledge, but a system of thinking (quoting Dion Fortune) that can be applied to any idea. Grasp the basic abstract concepts and it will flow. In DuQuette's Thoth book pay close attention to the chapter about the Tree (I think it's called A Decade out of Nothing) as it does outline the form of all Qabalistic thinking, at least Thoth-wise. Chicken Qabalah, though, used Golden Dawn attributions, not Thoth ones, but for me it didn't really matter, and you won't be memorizing things too much.

You won't get all of it at once, but you will get it in time. The most important things are the meanings of the Sephiroth, which are the Minors; and the Hebrew letters and their meanings, which relate to the Majors. A month, tops, you'll be able to read, understand and draw conclusions from the Tree of Life.

 

[Richard]

Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune (free online) seems intimidating at first, but she eases into it very gently. The Tree is a method more than a system. It's a way of thinking about the universe and about you. It is only as deep as you make it out to be. I doubt if anyone can claim to understand all of its ramifications. It is a mistake to try to "get" the whole thing all at once, just as one can't instantly learn a foreign language. Chicken Qabalah helps with overcoming the intimidation, as does Mystical Qabalah.

 

[Laura Borealis]

The Tree is complicated and you also have multiple interpretations and spins on it, which doesn't help. I have trouble remember which sephiroth is which and how they relate to each other. Where it falls apart for me is when they start talking about four different trees for the four different worlds. I just can't hold it together in my mind.

There's a scene in the novel Andromeda Klein that stuck with me. Andromeda is a teenager with a deep interest in hermeticism and tarot. She has read all the classics and knows her stuff, and even she has trouble with it. So there's this scene where she's going through her cards, visualizing where the majors go on the paths, and suddenly she gets this perfect visualization of the Tree as a shimmering, three-dimensional jewel, rotating in space and continually turning itself inside out. And in that moment she gets it. But it's gone a second later...

 

[Zephyros]

... suddenly she gets this perfect visualization of the Tree as a shimmering, three-dimensional jewel, rotating in space and continually turning itself inside out. And in that moment she gets it. But it's gone a second later...

That's exactly how it is for me, and I suspect for everyone. I see the Tree not as something you study and then know and put away, but as a constant process. Like the Thoth itself, study of the Qabalah entails both formal book study, and the meditative process of merely thinking about it, which is actually the fun and exciting part for me.

Today, for example, got the Sun as my daily. Couldn't tell you why, but I did spend the day looking at the Tree and thinking of the relationship between Hod and Yesod, and why the Head of Reish would be there.

It's poetry of ideas, and once the basics are down, one can take off from there into vast, unexplored territories of thought. It really is quite beautiful, and the marriage with Tarot does nothing but good to the experiential aspects. Tarot is a definite advantage when meditating Qabalah.

 

[GoldenWolf]

The Chicken Qabalah helped me quite a bit. As I recall, DuQuette notes where the Golden Dawn system he gives in the book deviates from the Thoth system. He presents it all in a lighthearted way, telling funny stories that still get all the important points across.

The Dion Fortune book is also excellent though very different.

I did take a workshop once where we colored in the Tree with assigned colors and put tiny color Xeroxes of the cards on their assigned paths. It really didn't do much for me, but sometimes people find that sort of thing helpful. I think a combination of repeated study with different sources and meditating on the cards and their paths finally got me past the most rank beginner stage. I am still very much in learning mode though and I have no illusions that I will really, truly learn the Tree of Life. I'll be lucky to catch a glimpse too.

 

[Richard]

.......Where it falls apart for me is when they start talking about four different trees for the four different worlds. I just can't hold it together in my mind......

That's a relatively recent concept. It's sort of like fractals. You zoom in on certain sections of the Tree, and you see the same Tree pattern repeated. IMHO it's an unnecessary complication to toss at someone who is trying to understand the basic concepts. That's why I like Dion Fortune so much. She understands that too much at once can be bewildering.

 

[Laura Borealis]

Oh, that's good to know. I've only read DuQuette, really. Thank you.

 

[Zephyros]

For me, the Four Worlds are where Tarot really shines, and I would have a hard time wrapping my head around them if it weren't for such an excellent learning tool. The different worlds' names can be difficult to remember, as well as their counterparts in the soul, though, but in my mind they're the same thing, more or less. This makes it easier, and is also the thing that really opened up the relationship between Tarot and the Tree, giving it a dynamism movement.

Sometimes I feel slightly "guilty" at using Tarot so much for study of Qabalah, but it's so interesting and beautiful I just put it aside and postpone the guilt for later.

 

[Chiska]

I second Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah. The first chapter was a struggle, but I got used to her writing style and found it not only informative, but enjoyable.