The Tree of life is the cosmology of the Kabbalah.
The tree of life from the first book of the Bible, an important topic in and of itself in Judaism, has been elaborated on by kabbalists and developed into a full model of reality, or perhaps more accurately, a map of creation.
The tree of life describes in symbolic form how the creative force of God, according to the Kabbalah, emanated into the universe. Part of it are ten Sephiroth (singular: Sephirah, sphere) ordered from highest to lowest. The lowermost is physical reality, and the highermost is the one closest to the original, unknowable source.
Many variants of the tree of life arrangement of the Spheres have been described. The tree as detailed by Athanasius Kircher (sometimes referred to as the Kircher Tree) is by far the most well-known one today. Others arrange the Sephiroth in different ways, such as in the form of concentric circles.
Scholars differ on the presence of other elements in the cosmology. The position of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet is relatively undisputed at least in Kircher type arrangements, as is the presence of three pillars or columns of Sephiroth described as connected to each other, and the three Veils of negative existence . Less well-known elements are the Abyss that separates the three supernal Sephiroth from the others, the "false" eleventh Sephira Da'at, the Veil of Paroketh and the demonic counterpart of the tree of life: the Tree of death composed of the Qliphoth, husks, instead of the Sephiroth.
Web links
Colin Low's Notes on Kabbalah - The Tree of Life
