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In the previous article we explored the Tree of the Sefirot as a map of the soul. Now we will learn to read it as a mirror. Every good map does more than show the terrain. It helps you find yourself within it. The simplest and deepest question is this: where are you right now.
This is not a test, and there is no right answer or better place than another. Every point on the tree is a force, and the awareness of where your energy gathers in this moment is the beginning of freedom.
The First Question: Which Column Are You In
The Tree of the Sefirot has three columns, and each one is a different way of meeting life.
The right column is the column of Chesed, of giving and expansion. When you dwell there, you tend to give, to believe, to say yes, to open doors. This is a warm, expanding energy. When it flows in balance it becomes generosity and compassion. When it stands alone, without the column that balances it, it can feel like giving that drains you or boundaries that dissolve.
The left column is the column of Gevurah, of contraction and containment. When you dwell there, you tend to define, to discern, to hold boundaries, to say this far. This is a focused, precise energy. When it flows in balance it becomes clarity and self respect. When it stands alone it can feel like rigidity or holding tight.
The middle column is the column of Tiferet, of balance and harmony. This is the place that holds both movements together, the giving and the boundary, and knows when to open and when to pause. Most of the time we are not standing at the center, but leaning toward one of the sides, and that is completely natural. The center is not a place you arrive at and stay in, but a movement of returning home again and again.
Pause for a moment and ask: in recent days, which way did I lean. Did I give too much and forget to keep something for myself, or did I hold so tightly that I forgot to open. There is no mistake here, only information.
The Second Question: Which Level Are You On
Alongside the division into right and left, the tree also has height. Three levels of experience, and in every moment you are mostly in one of them.
The upper level is the mind, Keter and Chochmah and Binah. When you are there, you live in thought, in planning, in understanding and ideas. This is a place of clarity and of spaciousness, and it is also the place from which it is easy to hover above life without quite touching it.
The middle level is the heart, Chesed and Gevurah and Tiferet. When you are there, you live in feeling, in connection, in love and longing. This is a place of warmth and of contact, the place where things truly touch you.
The lower level is the body and action, Netzach and Hod and Yesod and Malchut. When you are there, you live in doing, in the sensations of the body, in contact with tangible reality. This is a place of presence, of grounding and of concrete action.
The work is not to remain on one level, but to know how to move between them. An insight that stays only in the mind is an idea. When it descends to the heart it becomes feeling, and when it descends to the body it becomes action and life.
Four Questions for Reflection
To find yourself on the map in any given moment, sit quietly and ask yourself gently.
Am I giving and expanding a great deal, or limiting and contracting. This is the question about your column.
Am I living mostly in thought, in feeling, or in the body. This is the question about your level.
Is the place where I am dwelling giving me strength right now, or beginning to weigh on me. This is the question about balance.
Where would I like to move now. Not in order to fix something, but to complete what is missing. If you are entirely in the mind, perhaps the heart is calling. If you have given without limit, perhaps Gevurah is inviting you to return to yourself.
A Questionnaire: Where Am I
Answer each question according to what feels true in recent days, not according to who you once were or who you would like to be. There are no right answers. At the end you will find simple instructions for reading your result.
First Axis: The Column (right, left or center)
- When someone asks me for a favor at an inconvenient moment, I usually
a. Say yes almost always, even when it costs me
b. Pause, check what suits me, and only then answer
c. Tend to say no or postpone, in order to protect myself
- My money, time and energy in recent days
a. Flow outward easily, sometimes too much
b. Are divided more or less in balance
c. Are kept carefully, I am cautious before I give
- In my close relationships I feel more
a. Surrendered and open, sometimes dissolving into the other
b. Present and also holding on to myself
c. Protected, keeping distance and clear boundaries
- When I look at my schedule
a. It is full of things I said yes to for others
b. There is balance between what is mine and what belongs to others
c. It is planned and fenced, and hard for me to leave room for spontaneity
- My inner critic right now sounds like
a. You need to give more, to be more generous
b. It is fairly quiet and balanced
c. You need to take control, to restrain yourself, not to scatter
Second Axis: The Level (mind, heart or body)
- When a difficulty arises, the first thing I do is
a. Analyze it and try to understand it
b. Feel it, let the emotion rise
c. Notice where it sits in my body
- During an ordinary day I spend the most time
a. Inside my thoughts, planning and solving
b. In connections, feelings and relationships
c. In doing, in movement and in contact with tangible things
- When I recall a meaningful event, what arises first is
a. What I thought about it and what I understood from it
b. What I felt there
c. What my body remembers, sensations and smells and places
- The connection that is easiest for me these days is
a. To ideas, books, insights
b. To people, emotions, love
c. To the body, to nature, to tangible action
- When I want to calm myself, I tend to
a. Understand the situation fully and find an explanation for it
b. Talk to someone or let myself feel
c. Move, breathe, do something with my hands
Reading Your Result
Count separately your answers to questions 1 through 5. If most of your answers are a, you are leaning right now toward the right column, the column of giving and expansion. If most are c, you are leaning toward the left column, the column of boundary and contraction. If most are b, or if there is a balanced mix, you are dwelling close to the center, on the column of balance.
Now count separately your answers to questions 6 through 10. If most of your answers are a, you are living right now mostly on the level of the mind. If most are b, on the level of the heart. If most are c, on the level of the body and action.
Join the two answers together, for example right and heart, or left and mind. This is your starting point on the map right now. Then ask the last and most important question: what is missing for me to complete the picture. If you are in the mind, perhaps the heart or the body is calling. If you have given without limit, perhaps Gevurah is inviting you to return to yourself. The score is not a diagnosis, it is an invitation to movement.
The Map Is Alive
The place where you are today is not the place where you will be tomorrow. The Tree of the Sefirot is not a frozen picture, but a living system that moves with you through the day, through the month, through life. All that is needed is to pause now and then and ask where am I now. This awareness alone already moves you, because the moment you see the map, you are no longer trapped within it. You are the one walking through it.
להמשך קריאה בעברית: המאמר המלא זמין גם בעברית תחת הכותרת "איפה את נמצאת: מיפוי התודעה על עץ הספירות".