The Tree of Life is a diagram of ten sefirot and the relations between them. It is a map for reading a tradition, not a literal picture of the divine.
What the ten sefirot do
The sefirot name modes through which divine activity, creation and human experience are discussed. Their arrangement encodes relationships—expansion and restraint, wisdom and understanding, foundation and manifestation—rather than ten separate gods or physical locations.
Different diagrams emphasize different relationships. The familiar three-column Tree is especially important in later Kabbalistic and Western esoteric teaching, but a diagram should never be mistaken for the whole literature behind it.
Why the paths vary
Occult schools connect the sefirot with twenty-two paths and assign Hebrew letters, tarot trumps, planets or elements to them. Those assignments are constructed systems and sometimes disagree. Compare the key before comparing two diagrams.
A sensible first shelf
Begin with a historical introduction to Kabbalah, then a primary or translated source, and only then a handbook for a particular occult correspondence system. This order makes later symbolism easier to place and harder to confuse with its sources.
