The Tree of Life : A Study in Magic - Global Grey

THE TREE OF LIFE 55
the creative imagination of the Macroprosopus is worked upon still
further, the separate sparks or ideas being clothed with that conition
of fine substance appropriate to that sphere. Here, too, a
omplete Tree of Life is developed through reflection. From the
ieative World, the Tree is projected on to a third plane, the
,?ormative World, Olam Yetsirah, where the imaginative ideas of
the Logos, the spiritual monadic sparks already clothed in the
subtle mental substance of the Creative World, are formed into
definite coherent entities, the astral models which give rise to, or
erve as the stable foundations of the physical world. The Physical
Norld, Olam Assiah, is the fourth and last plane, and as the crystalized
projection of the Formative World is the summarization and
,oncrete representation of all the higher worlds.
In this conception we see the justification of the Hermetic axiom,
' As above, so below." For that which exists below has its ideal
rrchetypal counterpart in the higher worlds. In variegated forms, the
drchetypal ideas find their particular representation below ; stones,
jewels, perfumes and geometrical forms all being peculiarly indicative
in the mundane sphere of a celestial idea. This metaphysical
formula also provides Levi with adequate reason for speaking of
' the single dogma of magic-that the visible is for us the pro-
~ortional measure of the invisible." The French Magus also remarks
n another place that " the visible is the manifestation of the
risible, or in other terms, the perfect Logos is, in things which are
aP preciable and visible, in exact proportion with those which are
in: lppreciable to our senses and invisible to our eyes. . . . The
fnr -:m bears proportion to the idea . . . and we know that the
nnate virtue of things has created words, and that there exists an
:xact proportion between ideas and words, which are the first forms
ind articulate realizations of ideas." It is this philosophical state-
:nt of the relation between ideas and things which gives the
~damental rationale of much that holds true in Xagic. To this
: shall have to revert at a later place, there being in the meanlile
a few further ideas demanding elaboration.
The formula of Tetragrammaton is also applied to the Four
orlds, and tlie primordial four elements. To the Archetypal
orld the letter " Y " is given. Hence the Archetypal World is
th' e Father, the all-begetter, the all-devourer of the worlds. The
,' -
Y " also represents, in this instance, the element of Fire, showing
rth the fierce, active, spiritual nature of the Father. The " H "