Formation, Tree of Life and Gates
A station, a path and a Gate each have an address.
How to read this room.
Sefer Yetzirah gives this reading room its central doorway. Begin with its ten-and-twenty-two framework, then distinguish later diagrams from the text’s own statements. Babylon’s ten numbered stations, twenty-two letter paths and paired Gates can be connected once each structure is named. Four Worlds describe another layer of the learning.
Short definitions open a topic; the linked studies develop the passages and Babylon’s authored interpretation.
Sefer Yetzirah
The Book of Formation, a Jewish work on creation through letters and number; versions and interpretive traditions differ.
Also found as: Sefer Yetsirah · Book of Formation · Book of Creation
Thirty-two paths of wisdom
The opening framework of ten sefirot and twenty-two letters in Sefer Yetzirah; later maps develop their own arrangements.
Ten sefirot
A tenfold vocabulary whose meanings depend on the text and tradition; Babylon’s numbered stations are an identified teaching map.
Also found as: sephiroth · sefirot
Tree of Life
A relational diagram used in later Kabbalistic and other symbolic traditions; identify the particular map being studied.
Also found as: Etz Chaim
Keter
The crown in the sefirotic vocabulary; a named station in Babylon’s adopted Tree map.
Also found as: Kether
Chokhmah
Wisdom in the sefirotic vocabulary; preserve its name when comparing station, passage and practical teaching.
Also found as: Chokmah · Hokhmah
Binah
Understanding in the sefirotic vocabulary; Babylon uses FORM as the action word for its third station.
Chesed
Lovingkindness in the sefirotic vocabulary; distinguish the Tree station from a general act of kindness.
Also found as: Hesed
Gevurah
Strength or judgment in the sefirotic vocabulary; Babylon’s reflective use does not authorize judging a person’s worth.
Also found as: Geburah
Tiferet
Beauty in the sefirotic vocabulary; part of Babylon’s love interpretation alongside Malkuth.
Also found as: Tiphereth · Tifereth
Netzach
A sefirotic name often rendered endurance or victory; its station remains distinct from a letter path.
Also found as: Netzah
Hod
Splendor in the sefirotic vocabulary; a fixed station in the Tree used by Babylon.
Yesod
Foundation in the sefirotic vocabulary; distinguish its Tree address from a zodiac chamber.
Malkuth
Kingdom in the sefirotic vocabulary; Babylon’s love teaching uses it when discussing embodied expression.
Also found as: Malkhut · Malchut
Da’at
Knowledge in Kabbalistic vocabulary; its diagrammatic treatment varies and it is not an extra numbered station in Babylon’s tenfold count.
Also found as: Daat · Daath
231 Gates
The 231 unordered pairs obtainable from twenty-two distinct letters; the calculation does not supply an interpretation for every pair.
Aleph Gates
The twenty-one pairings of Aleph with another Hebrew letter, each given a published Babylon lesson.
Letter permutation
Rearranging letters in a stated procedure; distinguish ordered arrangements from the unordered pairing used to count 231 Gates.
Atziluth
Emanation in the Four Worlds vocabulary; Babylon applies it as a symbolic lens of will.
Also found as: Atzilut
Briah
Creation in the Four Worlds vocabulary; Babylon applies it as a symbolic lens of feeling.
Also found as: Beriah · Beri'ah
Yetzirah
Formation in the Four Worlds vocabulary; Babylon applies it to thought and language, not to diagnosing another person.
Also found as: Yetsirah
Assiah
Action in the Four Worlds vocabulary; Babylon applies it to material practice and what is actually done.
Also found as: Asiyah
Four Worlds
The named sequence Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah; each has its own role in Babylon’s reading framework.
Fixed Tree station
One numbered point in Babylon’s ten-station map; a station is different from a connecting path or Heart chamber.
Letter path
A corridor identified by a Hebrew letter and number in Babylon’s adopted Tree map; it is not a station.
Sort Binah, Lamed, Aleph–Bet and Assiah by their roles before drawing a connection.
Continue with named sources.
These selected references orient this room. Consult the named work and edition for a close reading. Babylon’s symbolic connections remain its own teaching.
Read the full source register