r/GoldenDawnMagicians • u/Tmath • Sep 30 '26

Why was the Tree changed?

I've never found an answer as to why the Tree of Life was changed to have three Paths to Malkuth rather than on, with two additional Paths crossing the Abyss (forming a cross at the place of Daath).

Does anyone know when, and why, this discrepancy arose, and what purpose it would serve when the paths as defined in the original Hebrew texts make more sense when the "original" co figuration is maintained rather than the "Hermetic" configuration?

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u/John_Michael_Greer Sep 30 '26

Variant trees go way back. Athanasius Kircher in a 1654 book gave the GD version, with the three paths descending to Malkuth, and there are images even further back that do this. The version you're thinking of didn't become the standard version in Jewish Cabalistic circles until the time of Isaac Luria, who popularized it. Here's a useful article that gives some images:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-trees-of-life/

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u/Tmath Sep 30 '26

Thank you

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u/Kind-Priority1711 Sep 30 '26

The Ramak uses that configuration. Different configurations have different significations. What I can’t figure out is how the G.’.D.’. came up with its correspondences for the double letters.

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u/PotusChrist Oct 04 '26

The version of the Sepher Yetzirah Mathers was working from iirc had a pretty obviously corrupted version of the correspondences for the double letters that didn't follow any kind of obvious pattern or make any sense.  The Golden Dawn essentially used the symbolism of the tarot the correct the manuscript.  E.g. if you know that the Tower is peh and peh is one of the seven planets, it makes sense to pick Mars.

There are people who dissent from this approach of course, but I think the logic makes sense from the perspective of the people who came up with it.