Tree of Life (Value Firmament)
Kabbalist’s have long utilized the image of a tree to depict the growth and development as well as the organic unity of the ten Sefirot that are said to be the archetypal elements of creation and thus the basic value structure of the world. The following “Tree of Life” (Etz Chayyim) is based upon the Kabbalah of Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-72), whose entire theosophical system can be understood as a cartography of values. Thus this tree includes not only the Sefirot, but a number of other elements of the Lurianic system that are significant for a theory of value (axiology). The tree provides a Kabbalistic value matrix or “value firmament”, a guide for living, the elements of which corresponds to the symbolic elements of the Lurianic theosophy. The elements of the Lurianic theosophy appear in black, and their associated values in blue.