That was interesting - oh well -(had some funny things happen to the post)

yes, the Kabbalah depicts the 'emanations' from God as traveling through various 'shells' or 'levels' on the way to us. These are sometimes depicted as a tree, sometimes as a man. The levels (not really 'levels' - oh well, defining mystical things is hard with words - anyway) are ten in number, called the Sephirot (manifestations?  enumerations? spheres?)

According to Lurianic cosmology, the Sephirot of Kabbalah corresponds to various levels of creation (there are ten sephirot in  each of the Four Worlds, and there are four worlds within each of the  larger four worlds, each of which contains ten sephirot, which  themselves contain ten sephirot, equal to an infinite number of  possibilities, and there are emanated from the Creator for the only  purpose of creating the universe. The Sephirot are sometimes considered  revelations of the Creator’s will and they should not be understood as  the ten different “gods” but as the ten different ways that one God  reveals his will through Emanations. It is not God who changes but is  the ability to perceive God which changes.

Sephirot of Kabbalah are arranged into 3 columns, with 22 Paths of  Connection of three types. As a summary 11 sephirot are named. At any  case Keter and Daat are unconscious and conscious dimensions of only one  principle, conserving 10 forces. The names of Sephirot in descending  order are, Keter (the supernal crown, representing above-conscious  will). The second is Chochmah (The highest potential of thought). 3rd is  Binah (the understanding of the potential). 4th is Daat (intellect of  knowledge). 5th is Chesed (sometimes referred to as Gedolah-greatness)  (loving-kindness). 6th is Gevurah (severity/strength). 7. Rachamim also  known as Tiphereth (Mercy). 8th is Netzach (victory/eternity). 9th Hod  (glory/splendour). 10th Yesod (foundation). 11th  Malkuth (kingdom).

www.sra-i-assure.com/tag/kabbalah

There are MANY ways to depict/arrange or discover relationships withing the Sephirot - ONE of those ways is a man-metaphor (or human) - when you use that particular metaphor, the relationships are like this:

(wikipedia)

But plenty of other metaphors for the sephirot exist, including trees, circles, arrangements of spheres that look rather like a model of a molecule....

Any form of mysticism of any faith is going to be 'esoteric' and full of metaphors, because you can't truly describe mystical matters in concrete words (without sounding strange). Read, for instance, Ezekiel's account of his visit to heaven - it is chock full of 'like' this and 'like' that and 'of the seeming of's. Bottom line - these experiences are so uniquely personal that they are INDESCRIBABLE to others.

A major school of Jewish mysticism is called 'merkavah' (chariot) and it is directly related to Ezekiel's account - students of merkavah mysticism meditate and dwell on the chariot as a metaphor for conveyence/travel between the earthly world and the heavenly realm - which are not, of course, PLACES.

The reason people were/are supposed to be 'forty' (and married with children) is because only well grounded people should be attempting that kind of 'out of body' type mental gymnastics. Its too dangerous otherwise.

Without a solid understanding of Bible and Talmud and normative Jewish knowledge and methods of thought, it is not easy (or maybe possible) to follow kabbalistic paths. You can learn ABOUT it - that's about it.

If interested, I'd recommend a little book called the Beliefnet Guide to Kabbalah. It's pretty decent as an introduction.

www.amazon.com/Beliefnet-Guide-Kabbalah-...

It's also available for the Kindle.