The Rosary and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life?

Every Catholic, and perhaps even some non-Catholics, would know what the rosary is. As far back as I can remember, I had been taught how to pray the rosary, and this practice was reinforced in school as we prayed the rosary daily. I even remember a popular ad that came out, with the slogan: "The family that prays together, stays together." It had the picture of Mother Mary and a rosary in the background. No doubt about it, every Catholic is expected to pray the rosary at least once daily.

I am not what you would call a devout Catholic, so I didn't relish the monotonous drone of Hail Marys and accompanying prayers that are part and parcel of praying the rosary. There was a time that my antidote against insomnia was to say the rosary while lying down in bed. It was a sure way to put me to sleep.

Don't get me wrong, I've often heard of people who had their prayers granted by religiously following novenas. And I've also heard stories of people who stayed safe or survived a crisis by praying the rosary. Of course, as every esoteric student would know, any prayer said with intent and repeated continuously becomes a potent force, and the rosary helps the devotee to focus that intent, whether that person is aware of it or not. It's just that I never saw the rosary as my thing.

In a patriarchal religion such as Roman Catholicism, the rosary holds a unique place because it focuses heavily upon invoking the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The word "rosary" comes from the Latin rosarium which means "rose garden" or "garland of roses." Interestingly, author Bettye Johnson states that the Persian poet Sa’adi of Shiraz once called the rose garden "a garden of contemplation." In essence, contemplation is what a rosary is supposed to assist in doing.

The rose has long been recognized as an esoteric symbol in many cultures. The rose was considered sacred to Venus, and through this connection it has come to be associated with love. The rose also represents the Divine Feminine, since the many folds of the petals in a rose is said to mimic the vulva. The rose also symbolizes secrecy. In the Middle Ages, when a rose was hung from the ceiling of a room, everything discussed in that room was considered secret. This is where the phrase sub rosa, which means "under the rose," came from. In modern usage, sub rosa usually refers to covert operations.

Because of the interesting and ancient symbolism of the rose, I started to think that perhaps there was more to the rosary than what we know from Church teachings. The fact that it has a different configuration from other prayer beads (for instance, compared to the Islamic and Buddhist prayer beads) also lead me to think that there was something more to it. After all, throughout its history, the Catholic Church has been known to absorb the esoteric traditions of other religions and adopt them for its own, even if most of the Catholic clergy had no idea about the esoteric meaning of the practices it adopted.

What possible correspondences can be gleaned from the rosary? To do that, I need to briefly touch on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The tree of life is an ancient symbol that supposedly traces its roots as far back as ancient Egypt and perhaps beyond. In kabbalah, the tree of life is composed of 10 spheres called sefira (singular: sefirot). For the sequence of the sefira, I will use Master Choa's sequence as given in The Spiritual Essence of Man. The difference is that the sequence is reversed compared to the traditional one.

The sefira are as follows:

(1) Kether - Crown
(2) Chokmah - Wisdom
(3) Binah - Understanding
(4) Chesed - Mercy and Loving-kindness
(5) Gevurah - Severity, Justice and Strength
(6) Tiphareth - Beauty
(7) Netzach - Victory and Power
(8) Hod - Glory
(9) Yesod - Foundation
(10) Malkuth - Kingdom

Additionally, there is one hidden sefirot:

(11) Daath - Knowledge

Kether symbolizes the highest and is incomprehensible while Malkuth represents our physical universe.

In the image above, you count starting from the top (Kether) and then work your way from right to left going downward until you reach the bottom sefirot (Malkuth). Daath is not included in the Tree of Life because it is the hidden sefirot.

In kabbalistic tradition, the sefira represent 10 dimensions of reality (interestingly, string theory also posits that there are 10 dimensions). The three upper sefira (Kether, Chokmah and Binah) do not directly influence our reality. The six lower sefira are part of the 99% reality that we cannot perceive with our physical senses but is directly connected with our reality. The kabbalists collectively call it Zeir Anpin. Malkuth represents our physical universe, which is 1% of reality.

Furthermore, kabbalists also believe that the 10 dimensions also have 10 dimensions in each of them (a tree of life within each sefirot). So as you go up within each dimension, when you reach the highest point of one dimension, it's actually the lowest point of the next higher dimension. It's like a mystic ladder that one's consciousness climbs to reach higher realms (remember the reference to Jacob's Ladder in the Bible?).

What does all of this have to do with the rosary? Let's look at the structure of the rosary. The start of the rosary is the crucifix, attached to three beads, usually with two separated beads at either end to represent the "Our Father..." and "Glory be...". And then you have the rosary proper composed of five decades (a decade being a group of 10 beads), each decade separated by singular beads. The singular bead is the "Glory be..." of the previous decade and is also the "Our Father...." of the next decade. All the decades are strung together to form a big circle.

Now, taking what I just explained about the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the three starting beads can represent the upper three sefira (Kether, Chokmah and Binah) that do not directly influence reality. This may be why these three beads are attached to the circle of decades but are apart from it. The crucifix of course represents the One Supreme God through Whom everything was created. The separator beads at either end of the trio of beads can represent duality, of which the upper three are not part of, i.e. they are located beyond duality, beyond the manifested state.

Then we go to the decades, each composed of ten beads which fits in with the ten sefira. But what about the beads that separate the decades from each other? Although there is one hidden sefirot (Daath) and it is counted as the 11th sefirot, I don't think it represents the separator bead. I will explain later.

First, why five decades? There are esoteric schools of thought that say reality is composed of four elements: fire, air, water and earth plus one which is akasha. In the Tibetan esoteric tradition, akasha is called spirit. In feng shui, wood corresponds to spirit. Fire corresponds to the will, air to the intellect, water for the emotions/feelings and earth to consciousness or material existence. Akasha is the origin of all the elements.

Remember the mystic ladder I mentioned earlier? So as you pray the rosary, you go through each bead in a decade, each decade representing an element. As you go to the next decade, you are meditating on the next element until you reach the fifth decade which is spirit. As you complete the fifth decade, you complete the circle and come closer, or return in proximity, to the upper three where you began.

As to why there are only 5 decades when there are 10 sefira that are supposed to be represented, each plane typically has two divisions. For instance: the physical and etheric plane (earth element), the lower and higher astral (water element), the lower and higher mental (air element) and the buddhic and atmic plane (akasha). The monadic plane pertains to the divine spark in each of us and can correspond to the upper three that is connected to but apart from the other planes.

So the circle of the rosary can be a meditation on the cycle of manifestation of the spirit as it goes through the cosmic Tree of Life. Going back to the beads that separate each decade, it would be easy to assign the separator beads to mean Daath (Knowledge), and it sounds logical to say that the dimensions are connected through knowledge. But the highest form of knowledge is intuition, which is direct knowing, or knowing without having to study. And the center of intuition is Kether (Master Choa Kok Sui, The Spiritual Essence of Man), so it would make more sense that the separator beads represent Kether, or intuition, which allows one to pass from one plane to the other. Daath would therefore be represented within the beads of the decade.

If this sounds too incongruous, take note that if this correspondence between the rosary and the Tree of Life exists, it won't be the only instance where the Tree of Life has found its way into Catholic symbolism. The papal cross and patriarchal cross (triple crosses) represents the Tree of Life. For a more extensive discussion of this, refer to Master Choa Kok Sui's The Spiritual Essence of Man.

So how did the rosary find its way into the Catholic Church? The origin of the rosary is traditionally attributed to Domingo Félix de Guzmán or more popularly known as Saint Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. In 1214, Saint Dominic is said to have beheld an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary while he was in Prouille, France. The Virgin Mary instructed Saint Dominic about the rosary and how to pray it.

Some scholars dispute this version of the origin of the rosary. But if indeed there is a correspondence between the rosary and the Tree of Life, it's interesting to note that Kabbalah flourished in France and Spain during the Middle Ages. The Bahir book (Book of Brightness) appeared in southern France in 1180 and Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor, who is said to have written the Bahir book, moved to Spain eventually. The Zohar, the central book of the Kabbalah, came out in 1280 and while authorship is attributed to Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai (who lived during Roman times), others say the Zohar was based on the writings of Rabbi Moses de Leon of Spain, who released the Zohar.

Saint Dominic was said to have adhered to the tenet of finding truth wherever it may be (now one of the major tenets of the Dominican Order), and demonstrated this by learning from the Albigenesians despite it being a departure from then accepted Church practices. So while this is purely conjecture, it is conceivable that Saint Dominic could have learned something from the Kabbalists of that era.

Dr. Earlyne Chaney of Astara always said in her books that one must always meditate on the rosary, no matter one's religion (Chaney was a Baptist) even if one must use one's own words in prayer. With this possible Kabbalistic correspondence of the rosary, Dr. Chaney's exhortations gain more significance. Looking at the rosary and the Tree of Life together presents another way of meditating upon the Mysteries of the Rosary. It should revive interest in a mystic tradition that has all too often been practiced by rote.

So in ending, I just want to say that if you find yourself mechanically going through the motions of a particular religious tradition, try to see if there is a deeper meaning to it and perhaps that will enlighten you in your spiritual journey. After all, such is the work of a sincere esoteric student.