Summarizing Tree of Life as layman's conversation game board

[Bryan]

Hi boys and girls! It's been a while since I've been around these here parts. So what I'm doing is working on a version of a conversation game called the Glass Plate Game ( glassplategame.com ) (yes, it is loosely based on Hess's "glass bead game," but I'm not trying to replicate that, since I haven't read his book). So how the game basically works is there are a whole slew of random cards set out on a table as a "board" sort of. Each card has a little picture and a title, and it represents some basic principle or idea, such as "Ambiguity" or "The City As Artifact" or "Monetary Value" or "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" or "unwanted relationships". Take a look at the cards yourself:
glassplategame.com/cards.ph
The players then begin to have a conversation. They may choose to pick a card to start the conversation, or they may just start talking about anything on their mind. In any case, the "topic" of discussion is indicated by placing a marker on whatever card seems to most appropriately represent it. As the conversation meanders, connections between different topics or ideas are are mapped out with successive numbered markers. It's great for mapping out conversations/discussions, or forming new mental connections between ideas and topics... Kinda like Qabalah! I noticed that the cards used in the game are actually pretty arbitrary, and when I organized the cards according to how I would associate them with the Tree of Life, I found them to be not all that all-encompassing. Some cards are so generic that they're used multiple times in every conversation, and some are so specific that they're hardly ever touched.

So my idea was to alter this game by eliminating the cards and replacing them with a board consisting of the 10 sephiroth and 22 paths.

This is what I am requesting help with.

My intention is to be able to use this board even with people who are totally unfamiliar with Qabalah and the TOL. It would probably be layed out in the form of the spheres and paths, each with a series of key-words or simple-ish descriptions (and maybe a picture??) written on them which could be used as a clear and flexible stage upon which the layman could classify whatever thought or phenomenon they may choose to discuss. And so began my attempt to clearly and simply (yet broadly) describe each sphere and path.

I'll share with y'all what I've got so far. I've given the Spheres and Paths alternate titles and summarized them with a smattering of keywords. The keywords for the paths I have separated into words that describe what they represent when going UP the path and when going DOWN the path.

OK, so here's my spheres. How are the titles of the spheres (I want a title that best summarizes the basics of the sphere to the uneducated)? Are there any words that you think don't fit? Any words you think would be better? Any words I should add? Does the format clarify the sphere? Do the words hit all the most relevant points and facets of the sphere? Etc?

“UNITY” (Kether)
One; primal point; beginning and end; source and goal; godhead; all; root and seed; existence and non-existence; union of opposites; paradox; attainment; the unattainable; undiscovered; unknowable; infinite potential; infinite expression

“PURE CREATIVE FORCE” (Chokmah)
Yang; sperm; river; wellspring; emanation; erection; will; life-force; fountains; light; raw power

“SOURCE OF CONDITIONS” (Binah)
Yin, space, time, change, death, fate, old age, infertility, limitation, containment, context, environment, womb, darkness, gestation, egg, fertility, multiplication, division, infinite ocean, potential, differences, otherness, mystery

“EMERGENCE OF CREATIVITY” (Chesed)
Inspiration; the visionary; leadership; authority; righteousness; expansion; creation of form; birth; growth; change; novelty; giving; lawless force; excess; plenty; charity; service; submission

“IMPOSITION OF STRUCTURE” (Geburah)
Severance; power of defense or destruction; full responsibility of free will; karma; justice; law; the immune system; military; severity; strength; restraint; discipline; preservation; deflation; defense

“BEING”; “ESSENCE” (having trouble finding a solid, clear title for Tiphereth)
Truth; wholeness; balance; process; perfection; spirit; root of identity; true self; centrality; the heart; the sun; peace; an empty room with nothing in it; purity; death & rebirth; renewal; life; consciousness; authenticity; appropriateness; unattached being; emptiness & fullness

“STRUCTURED ENERGY” (Netzach)
Affective responses; needs; instincts; drives; desires; the expression of energy; behavior; emotion; feelings; nurturing; intuition; response to aesthetics; passion; pleasure; sensuality

“ENERGIZED STRUCTURE” (Hod)
Intellectual fixation; abstraction; language; communication; cunning; ingenuity; reason; invention; creating structure; construction; technique; medicine; science

“THE GENERATOR”: “ESSENCE GENERATES DISTINCTION” (I'm having trouble with a good title for Yesod)
Consciousness of the world; perception; imagination; interfacing; subconsciousness; mirrors; myth; dreams; archetype; gestalt; identification; the ego; image; glamour; meaning; representation; translation; reproduction; sex; hidden infrastructure; psyche; illusion; adaptation; change

“THE DISTINCT WORLD” (Malkuth)
Practicality; material; down-to-earth; immediately apparent; diversity; physical doings; things; Mother Earth; nature; “sticks and stones”; food; wealth; multiplicity; plenty; mass; inertia; stability; home; environment; vehicle; tools

Now here's my paths. How are the titles of the Paths? Is it appropriate to describe it in different terms of “up” and “down”? Are any “up” or “down” words better suited in another category? Sometimes I've been unsure about which “direction” of the process I am thinking of, or what a path might look like going one way as opposed to another. Is the format even appropriate? Might there be better ways of summarizing the path in a clear and general way? Do the words hit all the most relevant points and facets of the path?

INNOCENCE (Aleph)
UP (words describing movement up the path)
association with all things;
DOWN (words describing movement down the path)
spontaneous beginning; pure activity; play

CLEAR TRANSMISSION (Beth)
UP
Return; letting go; authenticity
DOWN
the unexpected; story weaving

CROSSING A THRESHOLD OF ILLUSION (Gimel)
UP
Loss of self into otherness; enlightenment/dissolution
DOWN
manifestation; creation; virgin birth

LOVE AS A DOORWAY (Daleth)
UP
Embrace; acceptance; forgiveness
DOWN
phase change; genesis; conception; nourishment

THE PROCESS OF LIFE (Heh)
UP
fulfillment of all possible life experiences; encounter with the ultimate power; humility; bathing in the fountain of creativity;
DOWN
inspiration; will to live

STRENGTH IN SILENCE (Vau)
UP
learning the secret of omnipotence
DOWN
Revelation; education; communication of wisdom; indirect communication; granting blessings

THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY (Zayin)
UP
All things “come together”; marriage; synthesis; discovering the context/substance of the self; mystical insight
DOWN
birth; the first murder; deconstruction; reflection;

THE PROCESS OF SUFFERING (Cheth)
UP
Victory through self-sacrifice; limitation meets its source;
DOWN
awareness of separation/distinction; conveying dreadful orders

CREATIVE TURBULENT BOUNDARY (Teth)
UP
social change/turbulence; compassion; interrelatedness of life
DOWN
oppositions resulting in life;

INSIGHT (Yod)
UP
balancing up, shedding power; last judgment; distillation; boiling down to the essence; learning the secret
DOWN
Innovation;

TRANSITORINESS AND CREATIVITY (Kaph)
UP
secondhand emotional response to creativity; loving reaction to newness and change; desire for creative power
DOWN
transmitting creativity to the masses; performance; divine influence; conferring blessing; the gift of change

NECESSITY AND BALANCE (Lamed)
UP
Knighthood; holy war; pursuit of justice; commitment to defending moral law; doing what's required for the best; selfless duty; work of equilibration
DOWN
Re-birth; synthesis; self-awareness; field-awareness

SYSTEMS OF CONTROL (Mem)
UP
discovering the force which maintains the limits you work with; the intellect meets its maker directly; insanity; suspension (stopping) of the mind; world turned upside down; ordeal of stasis and and awakening; trial
DOWN
the force of guidance; sustaining power; dominance

CHANGING ATTACHMENTS (Nun)
UP
Detachment from feelings; impartiality; re-considering the value we place on things; end of emotional attachment; moving on; transformation; death; “Come back, Shane!”
DOWN
Immersion into values; partiality; plugging-in

TRUTH AS AN ABSTRACTION (Ayin)
UP
detachment from ideas; abandoning rational truth; unfixation from particulars; universal joke; absurdity;
DOWN
articulation of what is true; immersion into definitions; commitment to ideas;

THE SPIRITUAL PATH (Samekh)
UP
Initiation; refinement; lifting-up; testing/trial; “do or to not, there is no try”; willingness
DOWN
Influence; Inspiration; inhabiting

WHOLE-SYSTEM TRANSITION (Peh)
UP
Chaos; loss of narrative; encountering necessary disorder; awakening; uncomfortable truth; chaotic confrontation with the experience of life's uncertainties
DOWN
Organizing; formalizing; rationalization

NEEDS VS. WANTS (Tzaddi)
UP
transition from glamorous dreams to true needs; practicality; seeing the same thing in an unfamiliar way; reassessment; reprioritization;
DOWN
glamor seen from a practical standpoint; seduction;

THE PROCESS OF BIAS (Qoph)
UP
value making;
DOWN
projection; perception of atmospheric mood; judgement; world as a mirror of subconsciousness; illusion; empathy; “cloudy visions”

THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION (Resh)
UP
belief; narrative; subjective perception; imaginative scenarios
DOWN
storytelling?

EDUCATION (Shin)
UP
making intelligable; diversity to categories; pigeon-holing; rationalizing
DOWN
dissolving models; immersion; silence; assigning; informing

THE THRESHOLD OF POTENTIAL (Tau)
UP
Concentration; finding a fulcrum/perspective which reveals the power to change; gaining perspective on the self-in-the-universe; the power of intention; formation; limitation
DOWN
Loss of self; immersion into otherness; point of view moving into vast, impersonal manyhood; death;

Any and all feedback will be appreciated. Thanks, friends with brains!

[Quintessence]

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.