This tree is an alternative model that I made from the one on Tony Smith's page sefTorah.
The 22 Hebrew letters are placed on the 22 paths between the 10 Sefirot.
The color green is used for the 3 mother letters, red for the 7 double letters and blue for the 12 remaining letters.
I use the following notation of the
You can learn a lot at this adress: http://www.inner.org/index.htm
and also at: http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/zohar/index_zohar.html
The jewish cosmos according to the mythical world of the bible and the midrashim: (from the thesis by Robert Jan van Pelt : "Tempel van de wereld" about the cosmic symbolism of Salomon's temple)
On the left side the dynamical aspect of creation. The point A is the starting point of the creational process. From this point the separation of the waters took place to create space for the earth. On the right side the result of this creation is given. Point A is the centre of the world and as it is the starting point of creation of heaven, earth and underworld it is also the place where these three cosmic regions touch in a recapitulatio mundi. BCA is the firmament or lower heaven. BED is the heaven of heavens. God's kingdom is marked by J. Rain and wind and moist and lightning etc are stored at K. The Sheol is at H. The fountains of the depth are at G. The mythic-cosmic situation at A in Jerusalem:
At point A we find the Ebhen Schetijjah, the stone that supports the world. It serves as the floor of the Holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem. It is here that heaven, earth and underworld are united. The point lies at the axis of the world (Axis Mundi).
According to the Sefer Yetsirah the 7 "double"
letters in the red channels form a divine space:
"... The Seven Double Letters, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, and Tau have each two sounds associated with them. They are referred to Life, Peace, Wisdom, Riches, Grace, Fertility and Power. The two sounds of each letter are the hard and the soft-the aspirated and the softened. They are called Double, because each letter presents a contrast or permutation ; thus Life and Death; Peace and War(Evil); Wisdom and Folly; Riches and Poverty; Grace and Indignation; Fertility and Solitude (Desolation); Power and Servitude.
2. These Seven Double Letters point out seven localities; Above, Below, East, West, North, South, and the Palace of Holiness in the midst of them sustaining all things. ..."
For the 12
"simple" letters in
the light blue channels the Sefer Yetsirah gives:
"...1. The Twelve Simple Letters are Heh, Vau, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Oin, Tzaddi and Qoph:They are the foundations of these twelve properties: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Speech, Taste, Sexual Love, Work, Movement, Anger, Mirth, Imagination and Sleep. These Twelve are also allotted to the directions in space: North-east, South-east, the East above, the East below, the North above, the North below, the South-west, the North-west, the West above, the West below, the South above, and the South below; these diverge to infinity, and are as the arms of the Universe. ..."
This figure is a cuboctahedron.
The cuboctahedron can be expanded to a
24-cell by 2 octahedra.
The divine space can be seen as a stereographically projected 4-dimensional sphere. The 6 space directions are doubled by a 4th dimension. The point opposite to the centre of projection projects to the centre of the small octahedron and the direction towards that pole in the 4th dimension is outward in the projected world. The centre of projection is surrounded by the large octahedron. If the observer occupies the pole of projection (at infinity in the 3-dimensional projected world) he sees the centre of the opposite octahedron as the centre of the 3-dimensional world. If one doesn't act as an observer but rather experiences being observed, than one can occupy the octahedron in the middle of the world. If one is free in choosing the centre of projection, the middle of the world can be anywhere and one can experience being there at any place.
The hypercube mentioned above also serves as a
model for this divine space. The small cube in the middle is the dwelling place
for the Th (tav). The (deformed) cube above for B (beth), the one below for G (gimel), the left one for D
(daleth), the right one for K (kaf), the rear one
for R (resh) and the one in front for P (pei).
The hypercube can also be expanded to a 24-cell by adding the 8 midpoints of the 8 cubes.
The 19 letters used so far correspond to 7 vertices of the this 24-cell and 12 vertices of the dual 24-cell above. The remaining letters are the 3 Mother letters A, M and Sh and the 5 finals Mf, Nf, Tsf, Pf and Kf םןץףך. The former are 3 levels in space, time and man and the latter are the 5 elements.
Inserting the 8 midpoints of the cubes and
coloring the 2 cubes corresponding to B and G we get:
The 2 cubes are mirrored in the horizontal plane that contains 6 points. One of the points in this plane lies at infinity.
The point in the middle of the
horizontal plane corresponds to the letter Tav. It looks like the Ebhen
Schetijjah, the stone that supports the world. It serves as the floor of
the Holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem. It is here that heaven, earth and
underworld are united. The point lies at the axis of the world (Axis Mundi). The
point at infinity lies opposite to this midpoint. The form of the letter Aleph א
Three additional points complete the equivalence with the 27 lines on a cubic surface. Selecting one of the 27 lines, for instance the one corresponding to the centre of the upper cube, there are 10 lines having a point of intersection in common with this one and 16 lines that are skew to it. The 10 lines correspond to the 10 points of the lower cube with its centre and one additional point. One line of the 16 skew lines, for instance a second additional one, has a point of intersection with 5 of these 16 lines (an upper tetrahedron and an additional point) and is skew to the remaining 10 lines (the other upper tetrahedron and the 6 points in the horizontal plane). One of the 10, for instance the third additional one, intersects 3 of the remaining lines and is skew to 6 of them.The 6 lie in the horizontal plane.
We can change position and let the centre of projection
become the centre of one of the 24 octahedral cells of the 24-cell. The result is a flattened cuboctahedron in
the horizontal plane and two octahedra that are mirrored in the horizontal plane. Now imagine you aren't the observer nor the observed
one. Then the light blue region
is where you are and the letter beth is associated with it. In the centre I
think I see the three Mother letters A,M and Sh in the equilibrium of the letter
G. The form of the letter Aleph א
