Expanding into the Clouds: Meeting Christ in the Etheric by Rev. Michaël Merle

report by John-Peter Gernaat
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In the Garden of Eden there were two Trees described as being in the middle. The one Tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. ‘Good and Evil’ is a merism and means ‘all things’; It could therefore be described as the Tree of the Knowledge of All Things. The other Tree was the Tree of Life. Both of these are esoteric trees, not physical trees. Deeper study reveals that they for part of a set of seven Esoteric Trees that coincide with the development of the human being through the Great Cycles of Time. The Tree of the Knowledge of All things is the Tree of this Earth Cycle of Time. This means that the intention of this Earth Cycle of Time is for the human being to become the Tree of the Knowledge of All Things. It was therefore not the intention that humanity should not eat of this Tree, but humanity chose to eat of the fruit of this Tree before the human being had the constitution to discern all of this knowledge. Eating of the fruit of this Tree therefore had an effect on the development of humanity that was not in the original intention. The incorporation of the I-constitution into the human being through the event of Whitsun brought the human being to the developmental point of being able to discern the Knowledge of All Things.

The Tree of Life is the Esoteric Tree for the next Great Cycle of Time. We receive a picture of this Tree in Revelation where it is described as being on this side of the River of the Water of Life and on as being on that side of the River in the New Jerusalem. This picture is of two avenues of the Tree of Life standing along the River of Life. The Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem is described as bearing twelve-fold fruit, a different fruit in each month, and having leaves that heal the nations. It is a picture of the becoming human being in the next Cycle of Time: the human being becomes the Tree of Life.

Human beings appear, by all scientific investigation, to have their origin in the region between the Cradle of Humankind and the Ngorongoro Basin and to have left Africa to populate the middle east, migrating along the seashores to the far east and having travelled to Australia between 70 000 and 80 000 years ago. A second migration is more recent. From these migration cultures eventually arose and these cultures have left records, the earliest being, broadly, from around 10 000 years ago. The first great culture recognised the Tree of Life as a real tree, a mighty banyan tree that grew on the banks of the Ganges River. The second great culture identified the Tree of Life as being rooted In the Water of Life and guarded by two Ka fish that swam around the roots of the Tree in opposite directions (the earliest picture of the constellation of Pisces) protecting the Tree from a poisonous toad. This was the Sumerian Culture. The third great culture identified with a Tree of Life and Death which was an acacia tree for the Egyptians. The first people walked out of the Tree of Life and Death. Life was the beginning for the Egyptians but the greatest part of the journey occurred in death. In the fourth great cultural period the Tree became the Tree of Death and Life represented by the Cross; resurrection arises out of death. After the 15th century AD the development of the human being gave rise to the consciousness soul. The Kabbalah Tree of Life is a picture of the Tree of Life that has arisen from the Consciousness Soul Age. It is relevant because it is not a fixed picture. There is a lot that can be understood from the Kabbalah Tree of Life. However, be cautioned that very little of the writings of those who have investigated the Kabbalah Tree of Life most profoundly, both Rabbinical and Christian scholars, is accessible through a search of the internet. The information that is readily available on the internet is misleading and biased. The great gift of the Kabbalah Tree of Life is that it can be understood in many ways. Kabbalah means ‘real’ or ‘to receive’.

The Kabbalah Tree of Life is represented as ten sefirots which means attributes or characteristics of the Divine. We may see the Kabbalah Tree of Life as having been received from an earlier image.

The points move upwards as indicated below:

​Becoming the Tree of Life.

For this study three pillars have been identified and given the names of Hope, Love and Faith. In some of the Kabbalistic writings these pillars are respectively called Equanimity, Compassion and Stability.

The names given to the sefirots are relevant to this study and differ slightly from the names given in Kabbalist writings although the descriptions provided for each emanation of the Divine are quite consistent with the names used here. The traditional connections between the sefirots are presented below: the triangle, below which is a square and interpenetrating the square, a cross. These shapes exist also in our Sacrament of Baptism as the three symbols inscribed on the baby: triangle on the forehead, square on the chin and cross over the heart.

In this study of the Kabbalah Tree of Life we started with the lowest sephirot: Creation. To be continued....