Back to Articles List Making a Tree of Life Mobile adapted from Emily Peaches "The Tarot Workbook - Understanding and Using Tarot Symbolism" • Materials Needed • • 10 strong paper plates or cardboard disks about the same size • 2 wire Coat Hangers • 1 ball of yarn, string or macramé cord (should be of reasonable thickness to pin cards on with clothes pins) • 1 pair of scissors • 1 large needle • 1 detailed diagram of the Tree, with at least all Paths and Sephira clearly marked. • 78 clothes pins or plastic coated paper clips • Marking pens, coloured pencils, glue, and other decorative craft type items 1. The first thing is to punch 4 small holes in the center of all your paper plates or cardboard disks like this:

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NOTE: Your plates or disks should look like big buttons. 2. I like to wrap the wire hanger with the yarn, string or cord, a little hot glue is helpful with this task. This is not a necessity, but I think it looks more attractive because all 22 paths will then be made out of the same material and you will not end up pinning cards onto bare wire. 3. Attach a small length of yarn, string or cord to the hook of the first hanger, so you can suspend the mobile. 4. Sew the first plate or disk, onto one of the hangers, at the top elbow where the hook is. This will represent the Sephiroth Kether. 5. Sew a second and third plate or disk onto each elbow of the hanger, these will represent the Sephira of Chokmah and Binah. You now have the first 3 Sephiroth done. 6. Attach a long length of yarn, string or cord from each of the tree tops plates or disks. These will form the basis or each of the three pillars and you will attach the other spheres to them. 7. Refer to your diagram of the Tree to judge distance and attach another plate or disk on each pillar, one underneath Binah for Geburah, one underneath Chokmah for Chesed and one underneath Kehter for Tipareth (this one should be lower than the ones for Geburah and Chesed). 8. 8. Now using your second hanger, invert it so the hook is facing down and attach it the bottom of each of three pillars, (pieces of yarn, string or cord). In one elbow of the hanger sew a plate or disk on for Hod underneath Gerburah and Binah and in the other elbow of the hanger sew a plater or disk on for Netsach underneath Chesed and Chokmah. On the elbow which is attached to the hook of the hanger, sew on a plate or disk for Yesod underneath Tipareth and Kether. 9. Now run another piece of yarn, string or cord from Yesod and sew to it your final plate or disk for Malkuth. You should now have all 10 plates or disks on the mobile to represent each of the 10 Sephira. 10. The final step of construction is to carefully check your Tree diagram and using your yarn, string or cord, make the missing paths between the Sephiroth. Count them (22) after to make sure you haven't missed any paths. Now the real fun begins. First you can label your spheres with numbers and/or names, depending on what you are trying to learn. You can add astrological and elemental correspondences if you wish. If you use some kind of sticky tack (it is like putty sold in stationary stores) you can add and remover labels at will from this model, making it a truly great teaching tool. You can also make the 22 Hebrew letters to pin on the paths. You can make this as plain or as decorative as you wish, using coloured markers, fancy papers (velvet or metallic), even sparkles if you want! As you learn Tarot to Tree correspondences, you can practice by pinning (using clothes pins or paper clips) cards onto the model, both on the Sephiroth and Paths. Some hints from experience: It is possible to damage cards pinning them on to this model, I really think making flat disks instead of using paper plates is better. Also if you use paper clips make sure they are plastic covered ones. You might also consider, if possible buying an extra copy of the deck you want to do your work with for using with this model. I did slightly damage a couple of cards years ago when I first made one of these mobiles. Or you might want to photocopy cards to pin on. Taking the cards off and pinning them back on from memory is a great learning tool, I recommend doing it often. If you are working and studying on a specific Sehpiroth, this is a good time to also work on decorating it, add colour, images, and symbols etc. I think you get more out of it by adding these things while concentrating on that particular sphere and its meanings. Meditation and ritual can easily be added to this whole process. For more information on placement of Tarot cards on The Tree of Life try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot_%28Kabbalah%29 http://www.rodurago.de/en/index.php?site=lebensbaum http://www.jwmt.org/v1n3/32paths.html http://www.crystalinks.com/kabala.html Back to Articles List MoondragonsEyrie.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot_%28Kabbalah%29http://www.rodurago.de/en/index.php?site=lebensbaumhttp://www.jwmt.org/v1n3/32paths.htmlhttp://www.crystalinks.com/kabala.htmlMoondragonsEyrie.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6
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