I have studied the Kabbala in one way or another for nearly thirty years. I ran across a profound change in the way that the twenty two paths are represented in the tree of life. The ten sephera representing the dimensional levels chartl and the twenty two paths between them representing (or represented by) the twenty two letters of the hebrew alphabet. The fire letters representing the sacred geometries of creation! In the usual tree of life the first letter aleph is between the crown and wisdom sephera, however the Sefer Yetzirah, indisputably the most ancient book on the subject, shows aleph to be between the severity and mercy sephera.chart2 In meditation over this I have drawn some very profound differences in this one change alone! But the changes do not end there, they continue in their nearly polar opposite positions until the final letter or pathway which is the only one that is the same. Some further complications come when associating the cards of the Taro's Major Arcana to the letters. The Sefer Yetzira would call the magician the first letter aleph and the traditional way that I grew up thinking was with the fool representing aleph. This also, would clearly have some profound implications.-->bibliography page<=--

The placement of aleph is an extremely important issue, it is the first letter of the hebrew alphabet. The hebrew alphabet is a revealed language. It has twenty two fire letters each representing a number and having a flame geometry that represents different levels of creation. Within the ten sephera of the tree of life chart and the twenty two fire-geometry letters the secrets of the universe are to be found! The Hebrew alphabet and the tree of life are the cornerstone of most western mystic traditions. Aleph is the easiest to interpret flame-shape, it is a spiral fire. The galaxies full of stars all started out this way, so too, our solar-system, the DNA molecule is a spiral and so on. We can be relatively certain of one thing, aleph belongs in the beginning for it very accurately symbolizes a beginning.

The tree of life is a map to the multi-dimensional universe as is shown on the left side of the chart. Some levels have two houses with opposite attributes other dimensions have only one house in a dimensional level. Placing the first letter, aleph, between severity and mercy reflects the very same process that an idea goes through on the way to manifestation or dismissal. First we create an idea in our mind's eye. Contemplating the idea from as many positions as possible can help to eliminate a lot of failed actual attempts. The idea oscillates between severity and mercy, or acceptance and rejection. What ever else that may be true, one thing seems obvious; the spiral beginning of everything belongs here.