The Ten Sefirot, or "emanations" or "enumerations", form the
very heart of all Kabbalistic theology and theosophy. The sefirot are the ten
archetypal attributes or characteristics of the Godhead. A distinction is made in
Kabbalah between the unknowable Godhead, the En Sof or "infinite", and the
knowable qualities of God, represented by the sefirot.
The idea of ten archetypal qualities first appears in an enigmatic
pre-kabbalistic text, the Sefer Yetzirah. They are next found in the Sefer Bahir,
one of the earliest treatises of Kabbalah-proper. As Kabbalah developed the Sefirot
have been given different meanings, each later meaning been superimposed over the earlier
ones. The arrangement of the Sefirot in the "Tree of Life" (Aytz
Hiyam) has also differed slightly.
It is necessary to visualize these Ten Sefirot as being connected by
"pathways" that go both down and accross the diagram -- and particularly the
Pathway of the "Center Column" (Sefirot 1, 6, 9 and 10, the sum of which,
incidently, equals 26, the Gematria of the Hebrew letters YHVH, the name of God).
The central pillar and the two side columns have also been identified with the central
nadi and the two side channels of the Tantric Kundalini system of chakras.
