The Tree of Life describes ten qualities of the divine, but Kabbalah also asks where and at what level these qualities manifest. The classic answer is the doctrine of the four worlds: four planes of reality arranged like steps, from the one closest to the source to the one closest to matter. In each of them the Tree repeats itself, with a different density.
A verse as foundation
The names of the four worlds are taken from the Bible. In the book of Isaiah (43:7) there is a verse in which God speaks of those who bear his name and whom he has created, formed and also made for his glory. Kabbalists saw in the three Hebrew verbs, barati, yetzartiv, asitiv, three successive levels of reality. To these they added, above them, the world of emanation, Atziluth.
The doctrine of the four worlds develops in medieval Kabbalah and takes its most structured form in the Kabbalah of Safed, in the sixteenth century.
The four steps
Atziluth, the world of emanation
This is the highest world, the one in which the sefirot are still one with the divine light. The name comes from a root meaning «near» or «beside». Here there is not yet any separation: the divine manifests without becoming other than itself.
Beriah, the world of creation
With Beriah something distinct from the source appears for the first time. In traditional symbolism it is the world of the throne, and of the first principles of things: the idea before the form. The word bara, «to create», is the same as in the first verse of Genesis.
Yetzirah, the world of formation
This is the world of forms, of images, and according to many sources of the angelic hosts. What in Beriah was a principle here takes on contours. The name is the same as that of the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation.
Assiah, the world of action
This is the lowest world, the world of doing and of matter. It includes the physical reality in which we live, but the tradition also understands it in its spiritual dimension: it is the plane on which thought and image become act.
The correspondences
In the tradition the four worlds are related to the four letters of the Tetragrammaton and, in the Western Hermetic tradition, to the four elements.
| World | Meaning | Letter of the Name | Element (Hermetic tradition) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atziluth | emanation | Yod | fire |
| Beriah | creation | He | water |
| Yetzirah | formation | Vav | air |
| Assiah | action | final He | earth |
The correspondence with the elements is particularly dear to the Hermetic tradition, which also links the four suits of the tarot to it. It should be remembered, however, that this is a later construction, not a teaching of the original Jewish Kabbalah.
A Tree in every world
The most important point of the doctrine is that each world contains a complete Tree. The ten sefirot are not found only in Atziluth: they are reflected in Beriah, in Yetzirah and in Assiah, each time with a different degree of density.
In the modern Hermetic tradition this idea has been conveyed with a very effective image: four overlapping Trees, in which the Malkuth of one world coincides with the Kether of the world below. So the lowest point of one level becomes the highest point of the next, and reality appears as a continuous ladder.
The four worlds and the soul
Kabbalah also links the four worlds to the levels of the human soul. The most widespread scheme counts five:
- nefesh, the vital soul, linked to Assiah;
- ruach, the spirit, linked to Yetzirah;
- neshamah, the higher soul, linked to Beriah;
- chayah, the «living one», linked to Atziluth;
- yechidah, the «unique one», the innermost point, linked to the very root of Atziluth.
In this vision the human being does not inhabit a single world: he is rooted in all four, and his inner life is a movement between these levels.
A reading for inner work
A simple key, used in many Hermetic schools, applies the four worlds to every project or decision: the initial intuition (Atziluth), the clear idea (Beriah), the image and the plan (Yetzirah), the concrete action (Assiah). Studio Esoterico Cornelio offers it as an exercise in awareness: observing on which of the four steps one has stopped, and what is needed to descend to the next.
In short
- The doctrine of the four worlds describes the planes on which the sefirot manifest.
- The names derive from a verse of Isaiah: create, form, make, to which emanation is added.
- Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah and Assiah correspond to the four letters of the Name.
- Each world contains a complete Tree of Life, with a different density.
- The worlds are also linked to the levels of the soul, from nefesh to yechidah.
