Sephiroth
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Origin 1270 to 1300
Tiphareth means Beauty, the sixth Sephirah, at the very center of the Tree of Life on the Middle Pillar of Equilibrium. Its divine name is YHVH Eloah va-Daath, its archangel is Raphael (in the Golden Dawn Sephirothic scheme), and its angelic order is the Malachim, the Kings; its planet is the Sun, the heart and light of the whole system. It is the point of harmony where the influences of all the surrounding Sephiroth meet and are reconciled.
As a sphere of experience Tiphareth is beauty, balance, and the harmonizing heart: the seat of the higher self, of sacrificed and reborn gods, of the redeemer who mediates between the crown above and the kingdom below. It is symbolized by the number six, the hexagram, the child, the king, and the sacrificed god, and it is the solar center to which the mystic aspires as the first great goal of the inner work, the vision of the Higher Self.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period1270 to 1300 1Tradition: Zoharic Kabbalah Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account1888 to 1900 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Origin Period200 to 600 CE 1Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah, where the ten sefirot are first enumerated Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own accountThe Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888, fixed Tiphareth's place within its own ceremonial correspondence system by 1900, the scheme this atlas follows for Tiphareth's Golden Dawn associations. 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Origin PeriodTiphareth appears among the Sefer Yetzirah's original ten Sephiroth of Nothingness, a text Scholem places between the second and sixth century CE and which survives in recensions that do not agree in every particular. 1 Origin PeriodTiphareth's place in the now-standard system of ten Sephiroth, with the specific divine name, archangel and planetary associations recorded on this page, crystallizes in the Zoharic literature that Scholem locates in Castile between 1270 and 1300. 1 Place of OriginSefer Yetzirah tradition, late-antique Near East 1 Place of OriginSefirotic system developed in Provence and Castile 1 Place of OriginWestern correspondences added in London 1 Attributions
Ruling PlanetSourced to the subject's own accountThe Sun 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Divine NameSourced to the subject's own accountYHVH Eloah va-Daath 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn IncenseSourced to the subject's own accountOlibanum (Frankincense) 3Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn GemstoneSourced to the subject's own accountTopaz and Yellow Diamond 3Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn PlantSourced to the subject's own accountAcacia, Bay, Laurel and Vine 3Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Queen Scale ColourSourced to the subject's own accountYellow (Gold) 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Tree of Life PillarSourced to the subject's own account Identity
Also Known As Also Known As Learn More
Tiphareth, Beauty
Tiphareth, Beauty or harmony, is the sixth sefirah and the heart of the Tree of Life, positioned at the centre of the whole figure where the influences of the sefirot above and below, and of the pillars of mercy and severity on either side, are gathered and reconciled. It is the sphere of balance, of the reconciling son who mediates between the supernals and the lower world, and it is traditionally associated with the Sun, sacrificial kingship and the harmonising centre that holds the opposites in equilibrium. More paths meet at Tiphareth than at any other sefirah, marking it as the great point of mediation. Its divine name is YHVH Eloah va-Daath, God made manifest in the sphere of mind.
In the Kabbalistic understanding Tiphareth is the seat of harmony and compassion, the beauty that arises when mercy and severity are perfectly balanced, and it stands directly below Kether on the central Pillar of Equilibrium, reflecting the crown into the created world. The sefirah belongs to the doctrine named in the Sefer Yetzirah and developed through the Zohar and the later Kabbalah.
Sources The ZoharTraditionally attributed to Moses de Leon with Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation in Theory and PracticeAryeh Kaplan
Tiphareth and the Western Correspondences
Tiphareth is assigned the Sun, and the pairing is central to the symbolism of the whole Tree: as the sun stands at the centre of the planetary spheres and gives light to all, so Tiphareth stands at the heart of the sefirot and harmonises them, the solar centre of balance and beauty. In the Golden Dawn system of 1888 and in Liber 777, Tiphareth's colour is golden yellow, and it corresponds to the four Sixes of the tarot suits, the sixes being cards of harmony and equilibrium in keeping with the sphere.
The solar attribution makes Tiphareth the seat of the harmonising, life-giving and sacrificial-kingly principle, and Western esotericists have connected it with the figures of dying-and-rising solar saviours. As always, the sefirah Tiphareth, its divine name, and its theological role as the reconciling centre are Jewish Kabbalah, while the cross-referencing to the Sun, to a tarot rank and to a magical colour scale is the Hermetic Qabalah formalised by the Golden Dawn. The centrality of Tiphareth is a shared feature of the diagram, read devotionally in the one tradition and magically in the other.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Crowley kept the Golden Dawn notation in A A, so 5=6 sets Adeptus Minor on Tiphareth.
The notation 5=6 sets Adeptus Minor on Tiphareth, at the centre of the Tree. Crossing from the outer grades to this one is the step the Second Order was built around.
Raphael is set over Tiphareth, the sphere of Beauty and of the Sun, presiding over healing, harmony and the point of balance around which the whole Tree is built.
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