In this work I map the core variables of classical thermodynamics (T, S, P, V, μ, N, U) onto the Tree of Life (Geburah, Chesed, Hod, Netzach, Yesod, Malkuth, Tiphareth), then read standard thermodynamic identities in that symbolic ‘Q-notation’. Physics remains textbook-true; only the labels change. With the label change, the interpretation is playfully engaged.
TLDR Mapping:
TLDR Full Tree of Life in this mapping:
Disclaimer For Sceptics
I’m exploring the relationship between spheres on the tree of life through classical thermodynamics, by making a few remarkable connections.
All equations found in this blog are legit when mapped onto physical quantities. They can be found in any university-level physics textbook on thermodynamics.
This post attempts to map the metaphysical model of the Kabbalah, onto the extremely well behaving physics of classic thermodynamics. If this makes you light-headed, that’s normal when two big maps touch edges. Breathe; we’ll go step by step.
The content is written with minimal mystical sugarcoating, although it ramps up by the end, when the supernal triad on the Tree of Life is explored. The uninitiated onto the Tree of Life will feel mysticized, no doubt. In any case, my purpose is to reveal the interesting mapping between the Tree of Life, and the dominating predictive power of Thermodynamics.
Alright, you’ve been warned! Let’s get to it.
Thermodynamics
In July 2025, I’ve obtained an undergraduate degree in physics. For any students of physics, thermodynamics is one of those foundational cornerstone epistemological toolkits for quantifiable reasoning about the local universe.
Physics is no walk in the park – it’s exceedingly humbling and hard – and so it takes real talent to explain physics to fresh students of physics, as to not kill curiosity, while also engaging with rigorous and proper explanatory power. For example, my thermodynamics professor’s mastery in the field made it incredibly hard for him to convey basic concepts and protocols of thought to become proficient in thermodynamics.
Now there are many reasons for me to study physics, yet the most important one is to ground my ever-growing spiritual interest into real physical understanding. The last thing that I want to be is an Adept that could be cringed away by curious physicists with sharp questions. This article is both an article about thermodynamics, arguably the most fundamental field of physics, and an honest attempt at attributing it to the tree of life, and further revelations.
So first – what is thermodynamics?
Thermodynamics = The Study of Energy and how it changes In Dynamic Systems.
Because adding or removing energy causes friction, the field often uses Temperature as one of its primary quantities, which directly gives more context to the name.
More specifically, Classic Thermodynamics studies how the properties of a system changes from one equilibrium state to another, while primarily considering the ENERGY CONTENT of the system. This is the thermodynamics that undergraduate students get, and it barely touches on Quantum Thermodynamics (which is covered in ensemble analysis in Statistical Physics), or non-equilibrium thermodynamics (a field that studies closer to real-life systems, like biological cells).
You see, thermodynamics grew out of the need to understand how steam engines can lift heavy stuff to build the first industrial streets, railways and big heavy buildings. To paint a picture with this notion and idea, consider how it takes energy to heat steam, how heated steam expands, and how this expanding hot gas can push a piston, hence converting its “expansion action” into work, to lift stuff, separating it from the everlasting gravitational pull.
The foundational Equation
We now turn to the foundational equation of Thermodynamics – the thing that “says it all” so speak.
The foundational equation in Classical Thermodynamics (I can’t stress the classical part enough) reads:
The equation quantifies how the change of internal energy (dU), with units in Joule (J) is related to quantities on the right-hand side of the equations. Let’s go through it one-by-one:
- U = Internal Energy of the system
- T = Temperature in the system
- S = Entropy of the system
- P = Pressure in the system
- V = Volume of the system
- 𝞵 = Chemical Potential in the system
- N = Number particles in the system
I know that you quickly scanned through all of the above – that’s okay – you can come back later once you’ll see the Kabbalistic attributions for these symbols.
There are more thermodynamic quantities (like heat capacity), and each of these can be studied in depth, and combined into other quantities that are responsible for our modern world, yet my purpose is to bring some esoteric intuition into each of these variables, before going getting into the real juice.
In case you’re not familiar with mathematics, the “d” signifies “the change of …”.
So dU means “the change of U”, which further means “the change of the Internal Energy of the system”.
This basic equation can be beautifully manipulated to calculate things like the efficiency of a steam engine, or derive the ideal gas law, but that is out of scope of this post, and can be readily studied at a university, college, or in modern times, by prompting AI.
Classically speaking, when one obtains the fundamental equation (you know… by measuring and modeling a system), one knows everything that is to know about the system at a macro scale, when considering equilibrium states. The macro scale aspect is what makes this field intrinsically classical.
The idea of “classical vs quantum” is expanded more by the end of this article.
Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Variables
Alright, so you’ve been introduced to the Fundamental Equation which contain a bunch of letters like S,V, N, P, V … Probably super overwhelming, right?
So first, that’s normal. In my first month of the thermodynamics course, after seeing the foundational equation, I just didn’t get, nor could I wrap my head around it. Why some variables paired together? Why is the d next to the S,V,N variables, and not the others quantities? How do these variables even work together?!
The big first distinction arrives in the understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic variables in the fundamental equation.
The Intrinsic (or Intensive) Variables are Temperature (T), Pressure (P) and Chemical Potential (μ). These variables say something about the quality of the system, they don’t depend on the amount of stuff in the system, and they’re concerned with the intensity or strength of some quality in the system. These are observable “causes” for change in a system.
An easy way to understand is that if you have a hot steel ball at some temperature, say 300 Kelvin, then cutting the steel ball into two halves won’t change the Temperature (T) of either halves.
The Extrinsic (Extensive) Variables are Entropy (S), Volume (V), Number of Particles (N). These are concerned with the system as a whole, they depend on the amount of stuff in the studied system. These are observable effects when systems change due to intrinsic variables.
Now comes the fun part – Temperature (T) always goes with Entropy (S), Pressure (P) always goes with Volume (V), and Chemical Potential (μ) always goes with the amount of stuff in the system. We can nicely put these variables onto a diagram.
When summed appropriately, you get the foundational equation.
When I first drew this diagram for myself, the concepts locked in. But I also immediately saw a tree of life in the diagram, which made me dare to map the variables onto the spheres on the tree of life, with the following mapping:
- S, Entropy = Chesed = Sphere of Jupiter
- T, Temperature = Geburah = Sphere of Mars
- U, Internal Energy = Tipareth = Sphere of the Sun
- P, Pressure = Hod = Sphere of Mercury
- V, Volume = Netzach = Sphere of Venus
- μ, Chemical Potential = Yesod = Sphere of the Moon
- N, Number of Particles = Malkuth = Sphere of the Earth
What’s cool is that these cover the most important “sense-making” spheres on the Tree of Life, while also having a very intuitive mapping to them. The first three spheres on the Tree of Life are very abstract and “post-abyss”, which have a strong quantum mechanical vibe to them, but I won’t dare to take you into that territory yet.
With this mapping, the fundamental relationship takes on the following form:
whose attributions onto the sphere of life are to be explored next.
I call the use of symbolic or planetary glyphs in mathematical representations, as being written in Q-Notation.
Contemplating The Mapping
We discuss each classical quantity and its mapping onto the tree of life.
Malkuth
Let us start with Malkuth, attributed to “N – The Number of Particles” in a system. Malkuth is the sphere of the EArth. It’s the Kingdom of Eaerth where the four elements are whirling and undergoing their journey of receiving inspiration from the higher up spheres, manifesting it in evolving an changing configurations and quantities.
It’s only appropriate to attribute the quantity N to Malkuth as N really represents the physical bare “earthy facts”.
Yesod
Yesod is attributed to “μ – The Chemical Potential” of particles in the system. Chemical potential really speaks to the imagination immediately, which really works in the symbolism of Yesod. Here we have a quantity that measure how much energy it takes to add “particles to the system”. It also measures how much energy you’d get out of a system when the particles are removed, or transformed.
The symbolism of Yesod as the Sphere of the Moon, the Foundation, is really apt. We’re speaking about the sphere of emotional processing and the “receiving of burden from above”. We’re talking dreams, handling difficulty and the unknown with intuition and inspiration. In this sphere we touch the surface and dip into the works of our imagination, and how the final destination of our imagination causes our physical reality to reconfigure (dN – change in number of particles – malkuth).
To understand this mapping even better, consider how our dreams, visions, intuitions and intentions have “potential”. They’re not the vision yet, the dream hasn’t manifested yet, the intention hasn’t become a definite act, it’s just a “potential”. Further, our dreams and visions have a potential to “chemically change us up”, making us more motivated, perhaps more depressed, or worst, have us come to a complete standstill. Hence the “Chemical Potential” is just such a good mapping in my humble opinion.
Hod
Hod is attributed to “P – Pressure” in a system. Physically, pressure is a phenomenon of particles or waves pushing against a surface and each other, setting up an “outward force”. Hod is the Sphere of Splendor, often associated with the capacity to communicate, to cut up words into scientific insight, the abilit to lie, cause distortion, and the ability to cloth up products and ideas up using marketing.
We’re speaking about a sphere that is a forward facing ability of a conscious being to manipulate the subtle substance of our and others imagination, for good or for worse. Doesn’t such a capacity perfectly represent the pressure that one feels when studying scientific insight, the pressure one feels when being convinced by a conman or marketeer to pressure us into buying action? How about being pressured to say or not say something due to the spun up thought forms in our imagination?
It’s for this reason that the Hod mapping to Pressure P is more than adequate.
It’s funny when you go deeper into all this and start thinking how “Pressure” builds up particles that are already in a system, and thus have been added (dN and μ) which are lower on the Tree of Life. Moving on!
Netzach
Netzach has been attributed to “V – Volume” of a system. Physically, everyone knows what volume is. Foremost, it’s a closed (dare I say hermetically closed) container that hosts a bunch of stuff (particles). Reduce the volume of a system, while keeping everything the same, the pressure will go up, perhaps there will be some heatup of the system (like when putting pressure on a syringe). In Physics, Volume is almost inseparable from Pressure, which will tell us something later about the Netzach-Hod relationship.
The sphere of Netzach, is the sphere of Passion, the sphere of Venus, the sphere of Love, Luxury and just “having it well in your house and life”. The notion of Volume is powerful in this sense. Notice how Love take up in our lives. Notice how luxury and passion takes up volume in one’s life? Consider how proper communication (Hod) is impossible without some level of Love and comfort (Netzach) in one’s life!
This sphere speaks of our capacity to make space for love, make space for good stuff to manifest. The ability to clean up that which isn’t serving, and receive the goods into our space, such that we may be passionate about life, such that we may be victorious!
Notice how protecting our life to have love not only takes its volume, but directly causes pressure on other parts of the system (perhaps work?!). I feel the deep interconnection of Hod and Netzach working hand-in-hand together, just like Pressure and Volume in thermodynamics, hence justifying its attribution.
Geburah
Geburah is attributed to “T – Temperature”, and I find this attribution quite revealing! Physically, Temperature is associated with the measure of “how warm something is” (NOT HEAT – that’s energy transfer). A system becomes warm because there’s friction in a system, because of the thousands of particles that are bouncing against one other. The reason why Temperature even exists is because particles respect their boundaries, and have head on collisions with other particles that have their own boundaries. The stricter the boundaries of particles are setup, and how more often they’re engaged, the more often there’s a Geburah-like collision or interaction, increasing the temperature. In physics, Temperature is a proxy-quantity of “kinetic energy” that is directly attributed to the boundary conditions, and interface interactions of particles.
So consider now the attribution to the Geburah, the Sphere of Strength. It’s a measure of how hard or well boundaries are being upheld or respected. When a bunch of people collide fists, it increases temperature. It’s the energy that sets up borders, structures, and is ready to increase the temperature (friction! Remember) to respect them. The police as a force to enforce policies is very often attributed to Geburah. It’s just such a good match in this regard.
Chesed
Chesed is attributed to “S – Entropy”, and I find that this is a bit tougher to unpack if you’re not familiar with the notion of entropy. The sphere of Chesed is the Sphere of Mercy, the sphere of Jupiter. The sphere of being a good king, of brining order to chaos, the ability to govern within the borders setup by Geburah, and make the best possible use of inevitable friction due to the enforced respect of these borders. At Chesed, one speaks of being able to envision a castle on the side of a bare mountain, and have a city spawn there in the next 50 years. Here we have the capacity to govern growth, to allow things to expand right up to the borders, and beyond. Chesed is concerned with the capacithy to make the best possible use of what’s available. It’s beautiful.
Now in physics, Entropy is a measure of disorder. Entropy is low in a system where everything is in order, and it’s high when everything is a mess. The reason why Entropy measures disorder, is because disorder always seems to increase “with no effort” in any natural system, and it’s just easier to work with an ever increasing positive numbers, than negative ones.
In context of Chesed, consider how Entropy is a measure of how governs the disorder and thus entropy in a system. One cannot possibly order everything in one’s life, but one can reduce the disorder considerably by applying rules of good conduct, by governing by beauty, and by respecting one’s an other’s borders.
In this sense, the mapping of Chesed onto Entropy is as counter intuitive as the by-proxy understanding of anything physical: even though we might know how “temperature feels like”, felt temperature is the results of 10^26 (that is 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000) particles participating in their border protection, and entropy is their cumulative order in a system. In Chesed and Geburah too then, these spheres may only be understood once a bunch of experience have been gathered, and properly understood.
The attribution of Chesed to Entropy makes even more sense in the field of statistics (which explains classical thermodynamics). Here, Entropy is a logarithmic measure of how many “possible configurations there are”. Chesed is thus the ability of governance with regards to what’s possible within a system, and the management of these configurations.
Tipareth
The sphere of Tipareth is attributed to the “U – The Internal Energy in a System”. That’s very rich, because Tipareth is the Sphere of Beauty, and Energy is either “just that”, or it might become the biggest quest for looking for a well-defined answer, ever.
The sphere of Tipareth is essentially the capacity to govern one’s energy in life, and putting them adequately where its needed. It’s there sphere where one’s Christ Consciousness comes from – a word that by metaphor means something like “knowing exactly what one’s purpose is and one has to do, and being ready to be crucified for its completion”.
Physically, Energy E doesn’t have such a “consciousness”, but it does tend to be split up into dynamic compartments, becoming available for work in certain setups, or becoming “sponteneously available” in other setups, while becoming “inaccessible” in even other setups. Energy, objectively speaking, has a very unique “existence” of its own, and its existence, dynamic is the very reason why we’re even existing.
Hence the attribution of the role of “Internal Energy” to the sphere of Tipareth is quite apt.
Main Thermodynamic Equations in Q-Notation
With each of the attributions out of the way, we may now discuss how important partial derivatives in Thermodynamics translate into esoteric and insightful meaning. If the information up till now seemed dense, in you’re in for some pudding. From now on, all equations will have the following symbolic mapping, which I get to call Q-Notation (Kabballistic Notation). You may also kall it K-Notation, but that’s too boomy.
Thermodynamic Tree Of Life & Q-Notation
Let’s put these quantites onto the tree of life, according to their given attributions, and have one drawn using the typically used letters in physics, and on the right, using the planetary gifts that are often associated with these spheres.
In the rest of this article, I call call all physically sound equations, represented using their planetary counterpart, written in “Q-Notation”. Q from Qabbalah, but also from QQuill, a little app that is in development which exploits symmetries to uncover the hidden structure of the seemingly contained opaqueness of consciousness.
Let’s discuss each sphere then, and consider proper physical equations represeted in Q-Notation, and interpret those equations in accordance with the Tree of Life and Kabbalistic Structure.
What is Geburah, Mathematically?
Geburah / Temperature / T is defined physically by “how much the internal energy changes when entropy changes”. Outside of the brackets, the little venus and earth symbols represents what variables are “kept constant” during the change, ie – venus (volume) and malkuth (number of particles) is kept constant:
An equation like this can be interpreted in different ways, certainly because on the tree of life, we’re speaking of “dynamics of consciousness”, and how it descends into form (crazy stuff I know!). The biggest obstacle, like already mentioned, is the lack of physical units. Instead, we’re working with “qualities” and how they change, but then again – how do qualities change when the change of quality is not linearly defined? How do we, as humans perceive quality of the moment? I’m discussing of the attributions shortcomings by the end of this post.
Reading the equation:
Geburah is Tipareth changed by Chesed, other energies kept constant
Geburah, the capacity of defining and holding the door, protecting boundaries, and fiercully engaging in the commitment of any mission into the feature… Geburah emerges as your internal energy changed by the forces of growth, prosperity, and chaos management.
It’s interesting to consider that Geburah increases as Tipareth increases as Jupiter increases. What immediately comes to mind is the idea of a person entering into the process of growth, and the first thing that comes up is the required sacrifice of distractions and thus the capacity of keeping those things that don’t serve Chesed at bay.
In other words, when there’s change in chaotic forces that are met with management, there will be an increase of friction, or which in physical systems results in changes in temperature, and in our metamagickal model, the increase of the Geburistic Qualities.
What is Hod?
Hod / Mercury / Pressure is defined as “the amount that the internal energy of a system drops, when volume increases”. To make meaning on the Tree of Life out of this, we enter into a pretty abstract metaphysics. The equation in “Q-Notation” looks like so:
Reading the equation at face value:
Hod is the Tipareth reversily changed by Netzach, other energies kept constant
Here we’re dealing with the acute concept of the human capacity to produce structures and linear thought and work (Hod), and how this energetic quality increases when we lower our “energetic sense of luxury and love” (Netzach).
This equation captures exquisitely the tradeof between “doing the work” and doing “pleasurable” or “loving” actions. This equation captures the eternal dance between the mental faculties vs emotional faculties. The mental capacity to create mechanics of attention capturing and manipulation is in reverse proportion to let go of our gathered love and resources in our vessel.
Notice too how Hod is an intensive quality (it doesn’t change with how much is going on in life), whereas its quality seems to be equal to how our internal energy (extensive quality) is being changed by the “volume of love” that is in our life.
It’s just so interesting to see, that cunning, scamming, hussling, marketing, selling…. all these come out and about through a hunger that the person feels. There’s a clamping down on sleep, enjoyment of leisure, and thus there’s a freeing up for energy to flow into the intesive work – Hodistic work if you will.
Further, consider how real communication – ie putting yourself out there, building roadways for attention – it requires a sacrifice. A sacrifice of coziness, an opening oneself up to exposure, and clarity that the road may very well lead to scrumptious judgement and a decrease of Netzachian / Venusian energy.
What is Yesod?
Yesod / Chemical Potential / μ is define as the quantity which that reveals itself when the internal energy of a system changes as the number of particles in the systems changes, while keeping all other variables the same. In Q-Notation we get:
Reading the equation at face value:
Yesod is the change of our Creative Potential (Tipareth) as The Kingdom changes.
In physics, change literally means “change in measurable values. On the tree of life, we don’t have units at our disposal, so the “change of our Creative Potential” might can be interpreted as “the outpouring impact of our creative potential”, or rather literally “how much our creative potential increases”. A case can be made for interpreting the differential with regards to Gauss’ Law, but this goes way too far right now.
With that out of the way, here we see a remarkable correspondence to the Kabbalistic meaning of the sphere of Yesod, the sphere of foundation: its purpose is to channel and bring the Divine Light, via Tipareth into Malkuth. In other words, the change that are governed in the kingdom, as originated by our Creative Potential, are directly defined as being Yesod – the amplitication dish of emotional receiving into the vessel.
So for a DnD player, a mystic, or a magician, this is awesome, yet it bares repeating that in our attempt to correspond thermodynamics with the Tree of Life, we’re continuously trying to map continuous and concave quantities onto subtle qualities of the soul, which are brought forth by tghe thesis of the Tree of Life.
That’s why I propose that:
Differential Symbol Interpretation Rule I, for C = 𝞉A/𝞉B : if C equals the differentation of symbol A to B, in the positive direction” it means that whatever quality you subtracted from A via B, will be reflected as the same quality subtraction.
The other way around holds as well – adding any “positive” or “divine” attributes to B, will increase them positively to C. Positive in this sense only means “in the same intentioned direction, to good or bad, or anything of that sorts.
Differential Symbol Interpretation Rule II, for C = – 𝞉A/𝞉B: if C equals the differentation of symbol A to B, in the negative direction, then whatever subjective “adjective” we commit to symbol B, will be reflected as the opposite adjectivity onto symbol C.
More interpretation rules will be stated later on, then repeated by the end of this text.
The Ideal Desire Law
The thesis of Kabbalah is that humans receive things according to their desire. Further, none of us humans consciously chose our lives, our bodies, or our life’s journey, at least from the relativistic perspective. The fact that we’re still here, and keep on being here, seeing the immensity of reality – it’s beyond astonishing, and that’s also the real miracle of existence.
But coming back to this keyword – Desire, you say? You see, in the thesis of the Kabbalah, The Divine Current flows from the top of the tree of life, down towards the mundane Malkuthian reality. This flow is in accordance to our desire, which is automagically encoded in the spheres and pathways as an invisible “valves or cog0- weels of creation”.
Desire is a form of will or intention, with the main difference that one is truly ready to sacrifice time, space, money or old character for the realization of the will or intention. This readiness to “break the boundary” of hesitancy, doubt, confusion, clinging, fear of death…. that’s what turns a mere “want” into “Desire”. One may add here, that one’s Desire is shaped according to one’s capacity to name what one wants, meaning that one’s true desire, is more like a “Divine Will” – it overcomes thy in a form of inspiration, calling, vocation, or perhaps the heartfelt utterance of “I must”.
In other words, to want a Lamborghini is not desire and it won’t “manifest” so to speak. But when one is ready to break some contacts, friendschips, enter into a workload that is beyond healthy, or whatever paved roadway towards the impractical ego car… well then the will for the Lambo becomes desire, and the divine current flows throughout the spheres, into the reality, shaping the metal and resources of Malkuth into a Lamborghini for your possession. At least, that’s what Kabbalah teaches. One may argue that this is encoded in Western Culture, by I digress.
Consider now the Ideal Gas Law – a law in physics and chemistry which dictates, to an impressive macro-accuracy, how gases behave in closed containers. In Q-notation, the equation reads:
R is the ideal gast constant, which may be set to 1 for our convenience. To ease interpretability, I want to introduce the symbolic meaning of multiplication and division.
Symbol Interpretation For Multiplication, for C = A * B : if C equals A times B, it means that the symbolic meaning of A is enriched across all considerations by the symbolic meaning of B.
Symbol Interpretation For Division, for C = A / B : if C equals A divided by B, it means that the symbolic meaning of A is reduced symbolic meaning of B.
This equation now reads:
Hod enriched by Netzach, is Malkuth enriched by Geburah.
There’s a corresponds with the fundamental equation here, but on face value, consider the two spheres of Hod and Yesod as the final layer before malkuthian manifestation. Keep your Geburah constant, then the qualities which are received in Malkuth increase as the qualities of Mercury and Venus are increased.
In a different angle, keep the quality Malkuth fixed – engagements with the Mercury and Venus (IQ – EQ, Intellect and Emotions) will increase the Temperature, Geburah – frictions, conflicts and boundary collisions.
This equation can be further manipulated but carrying over Geburah to the other side: Malkuth = (Mercury * Venus) / Geburah:
Malkuth is Hod enriched by Netzach, but reduced by Geburah
A basic analysis of the meaning is easiest when keeping Mercury * Venus constant, and only changing Geburah. Increasing Geburah would decrease Malkuth, and decreasing Geburah, increases Malkuth. What is this folly?
This speaks to the capacity of manifestation, and how internal friction (Temperature / Geburah) reduces manifestation possibility. Proper addressing of Geburah qualities (friction, boundary dynamics) as they flow into Hod and Netzach will increase changes in the kingdom in accordance with your Desire.
Here we have the Ideal Gas Law, which tells us how molecules fill up the whole container and exert pressure on the volume, and how it relates to the number of molecules and the friction between them in an ideal scenario. When rebranded in accordance to the Kabbalistic interpretation of Desire – we get the Ideal Desire Law.
I’m aware that I’m leaving both a lot of scientific and theological nuance here, but for the time being, I won’t be divulging into more analysis right at this moment. We have other things to cover.
The Veil of Physicality
The Tree of Life features two “veils” which separate the Tree into major initiation events. The veil of physicality is the veil between Malkuth, and the three lower spheres of Yesod, Hod and Netzach. It’s called that way, because it takes an certain exhaustion of external seeking before one finally realises that there are bigger realms that manifest and manipulate the world than meets the eye.
Now, what does that have to do with the following two quantities, which are defined in thermodynamics, and have physical meanings? In Q-notation we write:
In thermodynamics, both are material properties. Isothermal compressibilty is how much a material reduces its volume when one applies pressure (at constant temperature), while the thermal expansion coefficient says how much a material “expands” when the temperature is amped up, under constant pressure.
Notice how both equations are normalized by the volume – this is to make their quantities intensive, and to describe the “internal” quantity of a material without its extensive properties. This will later on have its deeper meaning regarding the attribtion on the Tree of Life.
So let’s see. We read the fit equation, and we get
Metaphysical Compressibility is the reverse change of Netzach as Yesod changes, diminished by the quality of Netzach.
Thus, compressibilty (on a metaphysical level) describes how easily one can be swayed or distracted from one’s own path, derailed by the pressures of the mind, or other mind influences / afluences, regardless of how much luxury and love one experiences in life.
On the other hand, the metaphysical Expansion Coefficient reads:
The Metaphysical Expansion Coefficient is how much Netzach changes as Geburah changes, diminished by the quality of Netzach itself.
Thus, the metaphysical expansion coefficient describes how much one is able to follow one’s path, as internal or external frictions start to arise, regardless of one’s perceived sense of space, luxury, or being loved or supported.
In both equations, I’m interpreting the division of Netzach’s change by Netzach as the path of one’s receiving vessel, regardless of the absolute quality exhibited by the vessel. This matches the canonical anecdote describing how how the veil of physicality is first pierced by a major Tikkun or “Soul Correction” in life, either through emptiness, lack of purpose, intense sickness, near death experience, or the general realization that one’s mental capacities are indeed the major distress of one’s life.
Once the veil of physicality is broken, proper corrections and practises are usually put in place to maintain stability. Such corrections and habit formations are a form of structure building, which reshape one’s internal probability and predictability landscape. This is akin to the physicist who will attempt to change the compressibility or expansion coefficient of a material, by introducing nano-scale polymers, fillaments, or colloids – or structures – to achieve the desired properties for the desired material condition.
The Veil of Paroketh & Execution under the HGA
In this section I’m about to map the physical “heat capacity” onto the metaphysical notion of following one’s True Will, Higher Purpose, Divine Will, Expressing one’s Muse, following one’s Bliss. Just to expand on this a little bit – thus far it seems that humanity has concluded that there’s literally no absolute truth. Even the people who claim such things, cannot properly frame why their claim to truth is the only correct one. Just like the notion of absolute time and space fell into the void by Einstein’s theory of General relativity, so meaning itself is now finding its way into the gutter, and we’ll have to learn that one’s heading is the only heading that exists for one’s sake of being.
So Heat Capacity! In physics, this is a quantity which says how much heat (energy!) a material or system can take on, before its temperature will change. More specififically, it says how much energy is needed to increase its temperature. Metals have low heat capacity, while water has lots of heat capacity – it takes a long time to heat up water, but it also keeps on holding to this heat for a longer time!
In context of the tree of life, Heat Capacity is one’s descriptive capacity to “take on divine tasks, and carry them out against the many frictions of the world”. Grit would be a wonderful secular term for this quality. Personally, I found that the attribution to making contact and gaining knowledge from one’s HGA, or you know – instantly knowing what one has to do in life, and being able to execute against this internal knowing, no matter what others say or think… that’s heat capacity.
In physics, there are two equations for heat capacity, one for constant pressure, and one for constant volume. In Q-notation:
Thus, analysing the Grit equation at constant Netzach, we have
Metaphysical Heat Capacity is how Tipareth changes with impacts of Geburah, at constant Netzach.
Having spiritual experiences, gaining K&C with one’s HGA, going for a 10-day meditation retreat, experiencing Ayahuasca, nearly dying from disease or an accident, recovering from the deepest forms of depression, or gliding through panic attacks… all these events “heat up” one’s system.
As the system is heat up – we tend to keep this heat, and we execute in our lives against this heat. This is exactly why I’m attributing Heat Capacity to the Veil of Paroketh. In other words, K&C with the HGA is an event that significantly increases one’s heat capacity, and thus the capacity to have impact in the world.
The Thermodynamic Potentials
Thermodynamics gets practical when describing systems with respect to a few key potentials form which the Internal energy of a system is one too. This means that Tipareth is actually a sphere of potential – who would have guessed that!? In physics, the other three potentials are:
- F – Helmholtz Free Energy = How much energy is available for work in a system
- H – Enthalpy = How much heat is contained in a system
- G – Gibbs Free Energy = How much energy for work is available including “lucky” work due to randomness of atomic interactions. Other standard words for G this is “sponteneity”, and I sometimes call it “consistent luck”.
In practise, these quantities are most often described in terms of their change from state A to state B, giving insight into the “tendency to produce work (F)” of the system, how much it would heat up (or release heat) H, or how spontaneous the process is (ie – would it happen on its own) G.
In Q-Notation, we get:
We may now start to interpret these through a metaphysical lense:
F = Helmholtz Free Energy = Tipareth minus the disorder-control dynamics of the world. I came to call it “Will Power”, or “Free Will to do the work”. In other words, this is how much “presence” can be poured into our life’s work. Notice that both internal and external frictions (Geburah) will reduce our free energy. Interestingly, Thermodynamics teaches that a closed system will tend to minimize its Helmholtz free energy to reach equilibrium. So metaphysically too, the quality of energy we get to commit to our designated target and focus, depends very much on the an act of going into balance, and delivering work to the lower spheres, and hence changing Malkuth.
H = Enthalpy = Creation Energy (Tipareth) enriched by the dynamics of IQ and EQ. In other words, H represents how “much we’ll heat up” as we’re engaging in the act of manifestation and creation.
G = Gibbs Free Energy = Creation Energy, diminished by disorder-control dynamics, and enriched by IQ and EQ dynamics. This one is a bit touch to crack open, so I’ll show you how I went about it:
- Tipareth is the center sphere, connecting to all other spheres. From here, one’s capacity to sacrifice the mundane in order to fullfill one’s desire is clearly proposed.
- To diminish Tipareth with border-chaos-control dynamics means to obtain a quantity which speaks to “how much willpower is available to do the work” – this is Helmholtz Free Energy.
- Enriching Will Power with IQ-EQ dynamics suggests a measurement of sponteneity of one’s work. As our IQ-EQ qualities engage will power, we get an “IQ-EQ adjusted willpower” so to speak. It’s another quantity to express how much work can be done within the system & setup, but this time the qualities Hod and Netzach play an extra contributing role, suggesting that to have a healthy mental system, and a supporting love system, one gets to produce more meaningful work (since that would increase G).
One could say is that:
- F is the quality of Will Power without engagement of our Pressure/Volume or Yesod/Netzach faculties
- G is the quality of Divine Will, an extension of F where the acts of randomness and synchronicity make things be “just so”, hence increasing the possible produced work overall. Luck might be a funny short attribution here too.
- H is the quality of Spiritual Heat that one gets, when engaged with natural processes of being a human.
The Magical Square of Thermodynamics
We’re now entering into a very juicy domain regarding the spheres on the Tree Of Life, and how you may be playing with them using universal mathematical rules (I’m omitting details) allowing you to go down the rabid hole. We do this by reminding ourselves about the chain rule first.
Perhaps first of all, what is the chain rule / Leibniz Rule (yes, the guy from Wilhelm’s translation of the IChing) again? It’s a term from Calculus and it allows us to properly analyse how variables change. In essence, it looks something like this:
The first term is “The value of X as the variable of Y changes”. We can now analyse how the value of x changes with regard to L, and multiply that by how the value of L changes to Y. This “inbetween stepping” is allowed if X is (or can be made) dependent on the value of L.
If this is too much for you right now, here’s a little example in Q-Notation:
You can go ahead and interpret it, and if you want, you can keep on expanding these variables, until you hit a very interesting theorem, the Cyclic Rule in calculus, which states:
This is again kinda like a chain rule, and the pipe symbol, or “|”, next to each partial derivative requires that particular variable to be remained constant. In this equation, you get three variables that are tied together by a constraint. In thermodynamics this would the “equation of state” (consisting of the variables as we defined in this blog thus far). On the tree of life, we’d be dealing with “State of Being” that ties all these together. The minus one indicates a “sign flipping”, where increase becomes decrease. I’ve added a little “Marked State” in there, the primary symbol in George Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form, which in my foolishness is attributed to Kether (more on this attribution in the section about the supernal triad below).
This rule is useful for obtaining “hard to get variables” if the other two are easier to measure or process in some theory – at least, that’s what this does in physics. On the Tree of Life, this may be used to analyse some of those hard-to-get states, or unique combinations. Here’s an example using Q-Notation:
Here’s my attempt at metaphysicalizing this one:
Hod’s change with Geburah, without changing Chesed, enriched by how Geburah changes with chesed, not changing Hod, enriched by how Chesed changes with Hod, without changing Geburah, this is Kether (1) reflected beyond the Abyss.“
I’m interpreting the “-1” as the primary form, beyond the abyss, where hate becomes a facet of love, and Satan is revealed to be Jesus in disguise, and emptiness is breaming with Light. This stuff is not for the faint hearted. Moving along!
The chain rule and cylic rule were maximally exploited by James Clerk Maxwell, producing the well known Maxwell Relations. In Q-Notation, the four most commonly taught Maxwell Relations are:
It would take another 10 minute read to unpack these, but you should now be equipped to unpack these on your own time, revealing quite powerful insights. The “squared” partials on the right indicates to “differentiate the variable twice”, once to the first variable, then once more to the other variable. There are plenty more relationships that can be derived, and Max Born, a prominent physicist from the 20th century, with major contributions to Quantum Mechanics, came up with the “Magical Square of Thermodynamics”, which helps to derive all these relationships easily:
All these can be “summarised” by putting them into a single Magical Square (seriously, physicists have invented this terminology!). Mnemotic Square is a more standardized term for this tool.
In Q-Notation, the magic square looks like like so:
Btw, if you’re still reading, I must really congratulate you – you might be part of the new humanity. So many people just want the quick and easy fixes towards everything, and the study of physics and consciousness is actually a very dull experience.
How does one use such a magical square?
The most common use is by providing a proper visual. Say that you want to relate the change of Geburah to the change Hod.
Since both are next to each other on the square, you may now follow the opposite edge to know how to differentiate the sphere. Geburah’s Arrow goes via Netzach, hence we partially differentiate Geburah to Netzach.
Next we follow the curved arrow to the opposite site, which indicates what to “hold constant” when differentiating. Because the curved arrow moves against the “straight arrow” within the magic box, we now add a “minus sign”.
On the right side, we go the other way around, applying the same principles, then equate left and right side. And that’s the thermodynamic magick square in Q-Notation!
Here’s anoter maxwell relation demonstrated, if you want to dive deeper into this fun little device:
The magical square can also be used to setup relations with respect to thermodynamic potentials. Pick a potential, then the quantities (in the corners) next to it will both change, while the arrow points with what to multiply the quantity with. The direction of the arrow, if pointing away from your choses quantity, introduces a minus sign. Here’s two examples for the internal energy, and the the Enthalpy:
Try using the square yourself to derive the following two equations of state:
Going Quantum – Attributing Binah, Chokmah, Kether & Beyond
Thus far, we only discussed spheres below the abyss, and classic thermodynamics actually doesn’t go beyond the abyss. It’s only starting from the discovery of the “unsplittable atom”, quantum mechanics, and the theory of relativity that took the ground from beneath our feet, and made humans questions the very idea of what matter actually is. For this, we need to go “finer”, and I think that the Tree of Life actually has room to accomodate the “idea” of the quantum level.
Before going further, let’s clarify what is meant by “quantum” in the physical and proper sense.
Quantum means “whole part”. In Quantum Mechanics, physicists speak of “mechanics that move in “whole parts”. It involves the smallest possible distances, and the smallest possible energy values. One cannot divide a quantized “smallest unit” into two – it’s impossible, which is why quantum mechanics is so weird.
The easiest example for lay people to understand quantum mechanics, is to consider a plastic bottle of water: A plastic bottle that is thick enough won’t ever start leaking, but if you make the walls very thin, the surface of such a bottle might become “wet” because the bottle itself would become porous. Not all water would leak out, but tiny drops, every once in a while, depending on the circumstances, would leak through the wall. This “leaking through the wall of a bottle” is quantum tunneling – it’s almost as if there’s nothing fancy here if I’m putting it like this, hey?
In Quantum Mechanics, particles are more fluid-like than particules, until we measure them. That’s when they become quanta, yet before that has happend, the wave spread out across all space.
The most important take away, is that quantum mechanics deals with small little quanta at fundamental scales. It doesn’t take root in anything in the macro world. Wheels don’t fly off our cars when we take a corner, nor does the chemicals in our plastic bottle tunnel out of their bottle when we let them sit in our cupboard. Neither do we sink randomly, once upon a full moon, a meter into the ground, because “quantum mechanically we teleported” or something like that.
This means that if magick, consciousness, or the idea of imagination-infuencing-reality is real, at any level, it’s not quantum mechanical under any currently known canonical or otherwise esoteric formalism that is out there, ever. Now catch this – Consciousness might require a mathematical quantization when trying to pour it into a formalism, but that wouldn’t be quantum mechanics. To avoid the temptation, think about computer programming. Even though it uses computers that work on quantum mechanics, and uses quantised bits of information to structure information flow, programming itself is not quantum mechanical, but a practical application of information theory. Not a single programmer in the world would call programming “quantum mechanical”, because it absolutely is not – programming is highly deterministic, and deals with closure. Even random-number algorithms are determined in this way. Either way!
The Spheres of Binah, Chokmah and Kether
Because this blogpost is getting incredibly long (48 minute read up to this point), let me show you the full the tree of life, including the spheres of Binah, Chokmah, and Kether, including my current attributions:
The justification is being briefly discussed.
Binah represents the “point beyond the abyss”, the minimal possible energy transfer in time. It’s the “time factor” that cannot be ommitted. It’s the fact of life that anything decays, and everything renews. The Planck constant represents exactly such a value in physics, which as far as our experiments demonstrate, is the “bottom-end value” of all things small. Smaller just simply doesn’t exist, almost like there are no smaller pixels on your screen.
On the tree of life, P times V forms energy, and T times S also forms energy. Thus, by analogy, because the planck constant h times the frequency 𝜈 is energy (E = h𝜈), Chokmah has been attributed the “frequency”. A frequency tells how many “full cycles” a system makes per second, which spans a sector, and thus also some space. This corresponds pretty well with the Kabbalistic idea, that the 12 divisions of the sky, and “upper harmonics of meaning” are stored for the Wise ones to uncover and understand, in the Sphere of Chokmah.
Finally we have the sphere of Kether, which to me is the “point particle” in physics. The point of pressure where God enters the Godhead in Kabbalah. I attribute this to the idea of “Form” or “Distinction”, using the notation of marks in Laws of Form by George Spencer Brown. How I see the world, distinction is fundamental, and consciousness is “the force that creates distinction”. Either way, I’m not expanding idea too much right now.
The three layers above Kether, the Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, can be attributed to the Bilattice Four construct of Laws of Form, with two imaginary marks, and the emptiness itself – a mark crossing itself. If this sounds esoteric, it’s because it is, and I won’t be expanding on it further in this article, but you’re always free to reach out. All three Ains, with Kether, represent the endless cycle of forms coming in and out of existence, exactly like waves that emerge from the ocean, crash on the shorelines, then return back to it.
Where the analogy strains
The shortcomings of this article and its made analogies are discussed.
First, quantities in thermodynamics have physical units, and even though about 60% of physical quantities in thermodynamics cannot be measured, they can be established by the actually measurable quantities, which via the Maxwell relations beautifully predict the behaviour of matter at literally all scales of existence, in equilibrium.
Attribution thermodynamical quantities and potentials, which have units, to spheres on the tree of life, which don’t have any units, begs the question – what is actually being done here? This is a very valid point. Thus far, Theories of Consciousness do not speak of attribute any units to Qualia, and even the most reverend physicsts and physics engineers gone mad, will completely neglect the requirement of consciousness or Qualia to exhibit units.
Now of course, perhaps Qualia doesn’t need a unit, just like the cosmological constant doesn’t need units. Perhaps Qualia are ratios, inherently contained in the formless, and thus one cannot define their units, except by pointing in the direction of their direct experience?
The great thing about units is that they surive multiplication and division, and they prohibit wrong quantities to be counted up or subtracted. Starting from the Tree of Life a priori would lead nowhere, because doing calculus with dimensionless ratios is a tricky business only cosmologists attempt to do. However, since the tree of life is derived from the experimental and thus objective verification of thermodynamics, there’s almost a one-way-direction of information flow – thermodynamics has influences my attribution of it onto the tree of life, and not the other way around. From another perspective, perhaps the structure represented in pentagrams, hexagrams, heptagrams, the tree of life, and the flower or life, are somehow fundamental to distinction making (consciousness), which allow physicsts to find these beautiful relationships in the first place?
Next we have the issue of differentiation. What does it mean to differentiate one qualia to the next? Can one differentiate one form to another form? Is the subjective experience of Qualia actuall groundable in a common symmetry structure, such that a common map may be created, and thus can the idea of consciousness differentiation be formulated?
If the above would ever be answereable, we could tackle psycho-physical questions like: what is the cross section of two qualia intersecting and resulting into radicalization?
I must also recognise that this work didn’t mention non-newtonian substances, soft condensed matter properties, or that it assumes a single component system.
Lastly, the idea of the Tree of Life can be categorized into an age-old-yet-trendy philosophical branch called “idealism”. Idealism tends to declare even the most physical realities but an illusion. Materialists tend to declare the most meaningful occurences as insignificant. We’re truly grappling with the border of making distinctions here.
In conclusion, all of the above are valid concerns which begs for the application of philosophical treatments that may lend interesting insights, or the complete debunking of its very utterance.
Future Work
The concepts of qualia have been discussed by thousands of sages whose whispers are long gone, yet the geometry and symmetry of their teachings echoes to this day. Further work would constitute proper formulation of the qualia for each of the spheres, and proper framework for interpretation of the minus sign, the idea of “qualia times qualia”, and the idea of “qualia A partially differentiated to qualia B, without changing qualia C” is an incredible potent idea that might require Kantian analysis for proper understanding and validation.
Further, the magic square may be reshaped to accomodate the reduced plank constant, the wavenumber k, adn the inclusion of Laws of Form is very desirable to make the Tree of Life come to life with predictable capacities.
Next, qualia / imaginal experiments may be conducted in alignment with the maxwell relations, predictions may be postulated, and the experimental results could be evaluated to confirm, correct, or falsify the attribution of Thermodynamics to the Tree of Lfe in Q-notation, or propose refinements to the model.
A carnot-like cycle of consciousness might be devised, together with a maximum efficiency of “consciousness” given a high and low level of nature.
The Four Laws of Thermodynamics haven’t been attributed or described here within the Tree of Life, and if done using this work’s Q-notation, should reveal both trivial and non-trivial into the dynamics of Qualia. Particularly, the third law of thermodynamics should be come manifestly important regarding crossing the abyss.
Neither are the pathways concretely interpreted in the thermodynamic correspondence attribution to the Tree of Life.
Finally, the classification of the Tree of Life into non-trivial symmetry groups might prove exceedingly interesting when trying to describe the activity of consciousness facing the opaqueness of the unknown, yet still managing to structure insight, by the imposition and verification of symmtries onto physics and data alike. The implication is that characteristics that flow within a Renormalization Group Flow can be walked in reversed if the source of the flow has operators that follow symmetries.
Conclusions
The quantities and equations of classical thermodynamics have been attributed to the spheres of the Tree of Life, which have been attributed as Dimensionless Qualia to each sphere, and interpreted accordingly. The attributions are both potent and insightful, perhaps introducing a less mystic and more mathematically grounded meaning to each sphere, in a less mystical language, but more esoteric notation with differentials.
The magic square, maxwell relations, and even quantum-mechanical principles like the De Bröglie equation have been attributed to the spheres on the tree of life as well, even though the whole formalism of LoF, and Quantum Mechanics seem to get last right on the edge of the abyss.
Going further, I hope that we as humanity will properly attempt to inch ourselves towards the notation and formalism of consciousness, such that all conscious beings may engineer and understand their qualia stream, instead of falling pray to the story tellers of falsehood and fast promise.
