The Tree of Life

Magical Golden Dawn

THE TREE OF LIFE
Part One - Awareness

The Book of Genesis begins with: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Three things are mentioned in this first sentence: God, heavens and earth. In this article, we'll call this first God mentioned in the Western theology as Creator God or simply as The Creator for the sake of clarity.

This creation story is told in every commonly known religion. The principle character in this story is called by many names (Ahura Mazda, Brahman, Ptah, and Yod Hey Vav Hey for example). The other two characters are called male and female, heaven and earth, light and darkness, energy and form, and several other pairs of opposites.

This is the nature of the Tree of Life. One creates two who are opposite in nature and those two combine to form one balanced whole. This is where we'll start our discussions since this is where Gnostics started to become separated from the other Western religions and spiritual paths.

Gnosticism is not so much a religion as it is a spiritual path. It is this spiritual path which is disclosed by the Tree of Life. This is the topic of our discussion.

If Creator God created the heavens and earth we know Creator God must have existed prior to this creation. On this assumption alone man has tried to define Creator God for thousands of years. We're no closer to arriving at a perfect definition now than we were back then.

Our second assumption is Creator God created something Creator God knew and understood. We all create things we know and understand. We don't create things we don't know and we don't understand. So what Creator God created was familiar to Creator God.

If Creator God knows all about each of us, because Creator God did create us, then Creator God knows more than all of us put together. In fact, Creator God knows everything we know and Creator God knows more than we know. Thus, because Creator God knows everything, Creator God has to be Omniscient.

If Creator God was all there was in the beginning, then there was only one thing Creator God could have used to create and that one thing was Him, Her, It, Creator God. therefore everything that is created is within Creator God, and Creator God is within everything. Creator God is both Omnipresent and Immanent.

If Creator God created us and all that is within Creator God, then all the power that is must exist within Creator God. Creator God is and must be Omnipotent. Additionally, since Creator God created the heavens, and there is no end to the heavens, and those heavens are within Creator God, then Creator God must be Infinite.

If Creator God was in the beginning and Creator God is Infinite then it follows that Creator God is also Eternal and Ever-living. So, we know Creator God is Eternal, Infinite, Omnipresent, Immanent, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Creator God created all that exists. Everything is Creator God. Creator God is everything.

If we assume Creator God created something He, She or It knew and understood, then it follows that the Law of Correspondence may be true. That Law says: "That which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below is as that which is above." In short, this law is: "As above, so below."

This gives us the opportunity to understand more about Creator God because the Law of Correspondence says we create in the same manner. How do we create?

We create because we get the idea we can create, we think we can create so we set about creating. We might intuit this idea, reason it out for ourselves, or receive it from some Higher Source. This logic leads to several possible ways in which Creator God came to create all that exists.

One possibility is Creator God received the inspiration to create Heaven and Earth from a Higher Source. In this case, we drop our consideration of this particular "Creator God" and go back to the Original Source above and beyond which there is no other Higher Source. In other words, we disregard this possibility since we've already decided there is no Higher Source above the Creator God we're considering.

If Creator God reasoned it out or intuited the idea to create a physical universe, the first step in this process was to become aware such a creation was possible. As above, so below.

To understand this process let's examine the life of a child. The first thing a child does is cry. Why? The child has become aware of something and reacted to that something. This is the story of a child's life: to become aware of something and react to it. This is the story of life for most humans most of the time. As we go through life, we become aware of many things and possibilities. Once we become aware, we start to think and have feelings about the things in our awareness.

As below, so above. Before Creator God could create anything, Creator God first needed to become aware of the possibility of creating anything. Awareness is the first step of this or any other creation.

On the Tree of Life, the topmost sphere is called Kether (pronounced ket' - er) or The Crown. In the Tree of Life we're creating now, we'll call this sphere Awareness. For our purposes, Kether, the Crown and Awareness are all the same thing. What we know about one, we know about the other.

The Qabalah teaches that Awareness is partially manifest and partially unmanifest. It is partially of the world of creation and partially of the world above and beyond the creation. Awareness is like that. It's both partially in our consciousness and partially in our conscious mind. We're aware, but we're only aware of what we see, hear, smell, touch, taste or feel (intuit).

The Creator created everything that ever was, is now or ever will be. The first step in this creation process was the act of becoming aware it was possible to create. Awareness precedes everything else. It's the first step in thinking everything we think, feeling everything we feel, speaking everything we speak and doing everything we do.

According to the teaching of the Qabala, nine more steps are needed to actually manifest anything in the material plane. But none of those steps will occur until and unless there is first Awareness of the possibility of creating something in our lives.

Awareness is the first step, the first of ten steps to manifestation. Awareness is the first sphere on the Tree of Life, the first of ten spheres of manifestation. Awareness is the first act of creation, it is the first creation from which all else flows.

According to the Big Bang Theory, in the beginning there was nothing. At a point in this nothingness all the matter and energy that ever was, exists now and ever will be was created. All this energy and all this matter were compressed into a single point, a single point in the Mind of The Creator.

The sheer power of all this energy being compressed into a single point caused it to explode in a Big Bang. Matter and energy have been moving away from the explosion of this single point ever since. Matter and energy will continue to speed away from this explosive beginning until the energy of that explosion has been expended. Then, according to the Big Bang Theory, everything will reverse course and be pulled back to it's source in the Mind of the Creator.

Nobody knows for sure when the Big Bang occurred nor when it will collapse back on itself. Scientists are looking back in time toward the center of the Universe with very powerful telescopes. They say the Big Bang occurred about twelve billion years ago and that our Sun is about ten billion years old.

These same scientists say the Universe is still expanding and it's not slowing down. Not yet. The best minds working on the Big Bang Theory guess the Universe will continue to expand for at least another ten to fifteen billion years.

To think it all began because Creator God became aware creation was possible. As above, so below. To think that all we are, have been and ever will be is so because you and I became aware we could create our own lives. This Awareness was the first step in our own act of creation.

The Creator has been called many things. In the Western Gnostic tradition, The Creator is usually referred to as Creator God. In Eastern traditions The Creator is called Brahman. In Greek myth Gaia emerged from the Chaos and created the Earth and everything in it. Thus The Creator can be considered to be Chaos though some call Gaia the Mother of All.

Tellus Mater was the Roman Goddess equivalent to Gaia and she, too, was born of the Chaos. In our discussions we'll consider Chaos to be The Creator in both Roman and Greek mythology. The Creator of the Mesopotamians was the God El, the father of all man and creator of all things. The Creator in Egyptian mythology was Atum the self-created, the Great He-She. Memphis priests taught that Atum was the child Ptah but this was apparently not a wide-spread belief.

In Celtic Druidism the Creator is a female God called Danu. She is the Great Mother of All that is and ever was. The name of The Creator in Norse mythology is lost to us. Many consider The Creator to be Tiwaz but the stories seem to indicate Tiwaz was born of The Creator.

The North American Indians were not one faith or religion but many. The Creator has as many names as there are tribal families. The Pueblo Indians consider The Creator to be Awonawilona. Awonawilona is The One Who Contains Everything.

The Algonquin Nation called The Creator Kitcki Manitou and the name Manitou has been used by several tribes in describing The Creator. The Pacific Coast Nations called this same God by the name Olelbis. To the Pawnee Nation this God is Tirawa-Atius and to the Cherokee it's Kanati and Selu (father and mother) who created all that is.

You need to decide for yourself what name you'll use for The Creator who, according to the Western theology, created the Heavens and Earth. Which is to say, The Creator created all that is, was and ever will be.

[ Part Two ]

[ Candidate's Index ]

[ 0 = 0 ] [ Links ] [ Home ]