Judaism is based on the Torah and lists that there are two aspects to the Torah: the encoded Torah and the decoded Torah. The decoded Torah is called Kabbalah. The Rabbis have the keys to decode the encoded Torah.
In Kabbalah, YHVH—the name of the Jewish 'god'—is represented as the world tree with the ten sephiroth on it.
Kabbalah states that the 10 sephiroth are divided into three upper ones, the upper face, and the seven lower ones, the lower face.
The three upper worlds are Kether, Binah, and Chokhmah, which Kabbalah states are the left brain, Binah, the right brain, Chokhmah, and the optic thalamus, Kether. The three upper sephiroth are called the three heads or the three faces, which in ancient symbolism is the symbol of the three parts of the brain and the three nadis, the moon, sun, and middle channel merging together in the head. The head of the trident is another way this is shown. The image of the three upper faces or heads is still in Hindu symbolism:
The seven lower faces, or sephiroth, in Kabala are called the "Seven Elohim," the seven gods; they are also called the "seven lights" and relate to the seven planets. The seven planets are seven chakras. The name "gods" is also an ancient term for the seven chakras, and so are the "seven lights."
YHVH in Kabbalah as a name is openly stated to be nothing more than a code for the ten sephiroth on this tree:
- The Yah letter is Kether and Hokhma
- The Heh is Binah
- The Vav is Gevurah, Tiferet, Chesed, Netzsach, Hod, Yesod.
- The second Heh is Malkhut
The three pillars are the left, right, and middle of the body. The left is where the female nadis or energy pathways are, and on the right are the male nadis. They meet in the middle at the middle pillar. This concept is still shown in Hinduism as Ardhanarishwara:
The three pillars also represent the sun, moon, and middle channels in the spine. The worlds are divided into male and female sephiroth, or energy centers; the male and female parts of the soul. Much of the talk on the sephiroth in Kabbalah focuses on the unification of the male and female sephiroth, which aims to sexually unite the male and female chakras and the soul. Kabbalah calls this practice "Daath," which in this context means "sexual union." This creates the new soul in Kabbalah.
The four worlds associated with the tree, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah, are related to the four elements, with Daath being the hidden fifth world of spirit. They also relate to the five main sheaths; this is still found in Hinduism: the physical body, the prana body, the astral body, the mental body, and the emotional body that come together to form the person.
In Kabbalah, the soul simply reincarnates, which they call "Gilgul" in Kabbalah. And this process is done according to the karma of the individual soul. There is no literal heaven with a "god" sitting in it in Kabbalah.
In Kabbalah, the highest "god" is simply the Ain Soph, which in Kabbalah is a code for Kether, the crown, which relates to the element of space. There are actually only nine sephiroth counted in Kabbalah, not ten. Kether is considered not part of this for reasons that it relates to the union with the Ain Soph and the essence within all the other sephiroth. The Ain Soph is called simply "A Force" in Kabbalah and nothing else; it's the subtle energy that manifests existence. The nine sephiroth are seen in the Norse with the nine worlds on the tree. Ten is a code for union with spirit. The 1 in Kabbalah is spirit, as it unites and adds to all numbers. The O is the female symbol for the physical body, or Prakriti in Hinduism, that unites with spirit, or Purusha. The union of both occurs at the crown.
The goal of Kabbalah is to raise the Shekinah from Malkuth, the root chakra, to "god" in Kether, the crown. This is the union of Shiva and Shakti in Hinduism. There are actually 33 pathways on the Kabbalah tree, as Kether is the hidden 33rd pathway in Kabbalah. This is the 33 vertebrae of the spine, which Shekinah, the serpent energy, must travel through to unite with "god" at Kether, the crown, at the top of the head. This is also the 33 Devas in Hinduism and 33 degrees of Masonry. Note Ain is the Hebrew letter that is given the All-Seeing Eye and is called this in Kabbalah. Kether, the crown, connects to the pineal gland in the brain. This concept of Kether as the actual "god" is in Hinduism. The crown is called Guru, which means "god" for the same reason. It connects into the eternal essence of "That Which Is Not," the Shiva Tattva in Hinduism.
In Kabbalah, the 22 letters relate to the seven planets, the 12 signs of the Zodiac, and the three elements. However, this is taken from the Greek 24 letters, which in Greek are the 7 planets, 12 signs of the Zodiac, and 5, not 3 letters for the five elements. The letters on the tree are designed to be vibrated in certain patterns to lead the Shekinah up the 32 paths to the 33rd path of Kether. The individual physical Jew is literally called "god" in Kabbalah, that is all. The ten sephiroth also relate to the formation of the physical body and how it overlaps the soul, making simply a physical human being. This shows the truth; Kabbalah is stolen and corrupted from more ancient spiritual teachings of other cultures; hence, much of this is still found in Hinduism, which many Israeli Jews who went into Hinduism and were initiated into esoteric Hinduism, Tantra in India, simply left and went back to Judaism as they stated everything they found in Hinduism was already in Kabbalah.
- The Universal Meaning Of The Kabbalah, Leo Schaya
- The Greek Kabbalah, Barry
- The 32 Secret Paths Of Solomon, Hogan