The four worlds can be related to the sephi-rothic Tree, and there are many ways of doing this. There is general agreement that Atzilut cor-responds to Keter, Briah to Chokhmah and Binah, Yetzirah to the next six sephiroth, and Assiah to Malkhut. This is too simple however.
The four worlds represent four distinct
“realms” of consciousness, and there is more in this idea than a simple attribution to sephiroth.
Out of the many ways of presenting the four worlds I will present two schemes which I con-sider to offer more in the way of real, useful substance than other schemes I am familiar
with. There is no question of “rightness” or
“wrongness” - any map, unless it is grossly or maliciously misleading, is bound to contain some useful information. It is a question of how useful the map is, and in my opinion the follow-ing attributions of the four worlds to the Tree are outstandingly useful and enrich the basic sephirothic Tree considerably. The first attribu-tion relates the four worlds to a single Tree; the second makes use of four separate Trees and is called “The Extended Tree”.
The first attribution begins with a small amount of simple geometry, and if you have not done this before then it is well worth doing.
Draw a vertical line on piece of paper. At the top of the line place the needle of a pair of com-passes and draw a circle with a diameter approximately half that of the length of the line.
Without altering the compasses, draw a second circle where the first intersects the line. Repeat this for the second circle, and then for the third.
You now have a line and four intersecting cir-cles. Label the centre of the first circle “Keter”, the second “Daat”, the third “Tipheret”, and the fourth “Yesod”. It should be obvious where to place Malkhut, and the rest of the sephiroth can be placed at the intersection points of the four circles.
The four circles represent the four worlds. The first circle, Atzilut, is centred on Keter, reaches up into the Unmanifest, takes in Chokhmah and Binah, and reaches down to Daat. It is entirely on the other side of the Abyss. The second cir-cle, Briah, is centred in Daat, reaches up as far as
Keter and down as far as Tipheret, and takes in Chokhmah, Binah, Chesed and Gevurah. The third circle, Yetzirah, is centred in Tipheret and reaches from Daat to Yesod, and includes Che-sed, Gevurah, Netzach and Hod, the six sephi-roth traditionally associated with Zoar Anpin, the Lesser Countenance or Microprosopus. The final circle is centred in Yesod and reaches from Tipheret to Malkhut, taking in the sephiroth Netzach and Hod. This is shown in Fig X.
Note that most sephira can be found in more than one world, and this is an important point:
the worlds overlap. There is a subtle but real dis-tinction between Hod in Assiah and Hod in Yetzirah. The sephira Tipheret can be experi-enced in three distinct ways, depending on whether one’s vantage point is that of Assiah, Yetzirah or Briah. These are not intellectual dis-tinctions, and an example would be the ways in which one can experience Tipheret as the King of Assiah, as the Sacrificed God of Yetzirah, or as the Child of Briah (refer to the magical images for Tipheret).
The worlds overlap, but they are distinct, almost like social strata which co-mingle but are nevertheless clearly defined. The upper middle-class nineteenth century household, with its
“upstairs” and “downstairs”, is a good example of two completely distinct but co-mingling strata.
There are ways of trying to articulate this, but they obscure as much as they reveal; I was taught that in going from one world to the next there is a “polarity switch”, so that one might regard Assiah as negative, Yetzirah as positive, Briah as negative once more, and Atzilut as pos-itive. This idea can be related to the Tetragram-maton, where the Yod can correspond to Atzilut, He to Briah, Vau to Yetzirah, and He final to Assiah: this points a finger at the deep relationship between Briah and Assiah1. Just what a “polarity switch” might be I leave to the reader to explore - there is no way I could attempt to describe this.
The second scheme for representing the four worlds is based on the tradition that each of the four worlds contains its own Tree, and these are sometimes shown strung out with the Keter of the world below intersecting the Malkhut of the world above. This is not a very illuminating igure 15:The Tree and the Four World
Atzilut
Briah
Yetzirah
Assiah
1. Yod normally corresponds to Chokhmah, He to Binah, Vau to Tipheret and He to Malkhut - this gives another way to attribute the four worlds to the Tree..
arrangement, and there is an alternative arrangement called “the Extended Tree” which requires some draughtmanship to appreciate.
Use the “four circles” method for drawing a Tree described earlier, and draw four identical Trees on clear acetate film; an even better method is to draw the Tree once and photocopy it four times onto acetate - any copy bureau should be able to do this. Now observe that the Tree contains two diamond shapes which I will call (incorrectly, as it happens, but it is a useful convention) “the upper face” and “the lower face”. The upper face is bounded by the sephi-roth Keter, Chokhmah, Binah and Tipheret; the lower by the sephiroth Tipheret, Netzach, Hod and Malkhut. Now take your four identical transparencies, label them from Atzilut to Assiah, and lay the lower face of Atzilut over the upper face of Briah, the lower face of Briah over the upper face of Yetzirah, and the lower face of Yetzirah over the upper face of Assiah.
You should now have a single, large Tree, some-times called “Jacob’s Ladder” for reasons which should be obvious when you look at it
The Extended Tree makes clear the dynamics of the four worlds, and is probably the most
useful Kabbalistic map you are likely to find. It provides a map of the four worlds, and a method for representing the sephirothic corre-spondences for each world, and it shows how the worlds overlap and interpenetrate. The rep-resentation of the four worlds on a single Tree (given previously) is consistent with the Extended Tree, but the Extended Tree is consid-erably more useful in that it provides the Kab-balist with a powerful new map - it is like going from a large-scale map of a whole country to a series of detailed, overlapping small-scale maps.
The worlds of overlap are Yetzirah and Briah, and in these worlds the sephira Hod overlaps the sephira Binah, the sephira Netzach overlaps the sephira Chokhmah, and the sephira Yesod overlaps Daat. When one makes the polarity switch from one world to the next, then one sephira becomes another; for example, Binah in Assiah, the “Intelligence” of the body, becomes the Hod of Yetzirah, the capacity for abstrac-tion. The mystery of Daat can be fathomed by flipping to the world above, where it becomes its Yesod. The king who wears the crown (Keter) of Assiah becomes the Sacrificed God of Yetzirah in Tipheret, and is reborn in the Mal-khut of Briah as the Child. It is essential to draw the diagram for yourself, study the overlaps, and think about the significance. There is too much material for a series of introductory notes such as these.
The four worlds should not be viewed as an arbitrary four-fold “graduation” of the Tree, with little additional content. There is a great deal of experiential worth in this scheme, and it reflects real and important changes in con-sciousness which can be observed in practice.
This is one of several holistic views of the Tree that concentrates less on the sephiroth and paths, and more on its deep structure.
I must emphasise that the Extended Tree is not another piece of pretty Kabbalah for the armchair Kabbalist to indulge in, and I say this because there is tendency for many who study Kabbalah to become lost in the pretty patterns.
The Vision of Splendour is the curse of those who like pretty patterns. To use the Extended Tree effectively it is necessary to have inte-grated the model of the sephiroth into one’s internal awareness, and be capable of observing (relatively) subtle changes in consciousness - it is pointless having an exceedingly detailed map of a region if one is too short-sighted to observe Figure 16:The Extended Tree
the countryside as it passes! For this reason I will say no more about the extended Tree.