Sephirah
Kether
Kether is the Crown at the summit of the Tree. In Hermetic Qabalah it represents undifferentiated being and the first point of unity, before experience divides into subject and object.
13 correspondences · 1 with an ancient or scriptural source · 1 with no source located
All the tables The sephiroth table
The oldest attribution here is Counts of 10, first attested 100 CE.
Counts of
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10
Traditional- Who says so
- Sefer Yetzirah's counting (2nd–6th century CE (contested))
- Earliest verified attestation
- 100 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Attested
- Evidence
- The source states it
Sefer Yetzirah counts ten sefirot but does not name them. Their order on this tree belongs to the later tradition, not to the book itself.
Evidence
-
Rabbi Akiva (traditional attribution); older versions attributed to Abraham, Sefer Yetzirah, 2nd–6th century CE (contested) — 1:2
Ten are the ineffable Sephiroth. Twenty-two are the Letters, the Foundation of all things; there are Three Mothers, Seven Double and Twelve Simple letters.
The count, not the names.
Angelic choir
-
Chaioth ha-Qadesh
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1170 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
The highest of Maimonides's ten angelic ranks. The pairing with Kether (first sephirah, highest choir) is the natural mapping and is standard Kabbalistic tradition.
Evidence
-
Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon, Rambam), Mishneh Torah, 1170–1180 — Yesodei HaTorah 2:7
There are ten names given to the angels: Chayot HaKodesh, Ophanim, Erelim, Chashmalim, Seraphim, Malachim, Elohim, B'nei Elohim, Cherubim, and Ishim.
Maimonides's ten angelic ranks. The pairing of each class with a specific sephirah is a later Kabbalistic development. Available on Sefaria.
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Aleister Crowley, 777, 1907–1909 — Table VI, col. IX (Choir of Angels)
Planetary attribution
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Primum Mobile
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1509 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
Not a planet proper: the sphere of primal motion above the fixed stars. This attribution reflects the medieval Ptolemaic cosmology of nested spheres, not modern astronomy.
Evidence
-
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1509–1510, revised through 1533 — Book II, ch. 4-11 (on the celestial spheres)
Agrippa's account of the celestial hierarchy underlies the Renaissance-inherited cosmology the sephirothic planet assignments reflect.
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Aleister Crowley, 777, 1907–1909 — Table VI, col. I (Sephiroth) and Table IV (Astrological)
Mundane sphere
-
Primum Mobile
Traditional- Who says so
- Agrippan occult philosophy (1509–1533)
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1509 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- None located
- Evidence
- The source states it
Agrippa's Renaissance Christian-Cabalist table is explicit. It is not presented as a planetary scheme stated by Sefer Yetzirah or another ancient Jewish source.
Evidence
-
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1509–1510, revised through 1533 — Book II, chapter 13, Scale of the Number Ten
The table aligns the ten Sephiroth with the ten spheres in order.
-
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1509–1510, revised through 1533 — Book III, chapter 10
Agrippa's prose names this Sephirah and the sphere through which its influence descends.
Archangel
-
Metatron
Unsourced- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1509 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
Agrippa explicitly tabulates Metatron as Kether's intelligence in 1533, long before the Golden Dawn. The status remains unsourced because no originating Jewish primary source for that specific pairing has been identified. WHERE IT IS FIRST SEEN, read off the page in October 2026: Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book III chapter 10, where the first sephirah's divine name is 'Eheia' and its intelligence is spelled Meratiron. The spelling is recorded because it is what makes the locator checkable — a reader going to that chapter for the word 'Metatron' will not find it there. The same chapter offers Metatron AGAIN as an alternative for the tenth sephirah, so Agrippa has him at both ends of the Tree and this pairing is not exclusive even in the earliest place it appears.
Evidence
-
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1509–1510, revised through 1533 — Book III, chapter 10
An early verified Hermetic tabulation, not evidence for where the pairing originated.
-
Aleister Crowley, 777, 1907–1909 — Table VI, col. VIII (Archangel of Assiah)
777 continues the attribution; it does not originate it.
Channel
-
Binah
Traditional- Who says so
- Cordovero's channels (1548)
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1548 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- None located
- Evidence
- The source states it
One of the twenty-two channels Pardes Rimonim 7:1 records as the opinion of the commentators. Drawn on this tree with the letter Beth (ב); the lettering is Kircher's and the Golden Dawn's, not Cordovero's.
Evidence
-
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim, 1548, first printed 1592 — Pardes Rimonim 7:1
The enumeration closes 'they total 22, as the numerical value of bakh'. Cordovero assigns no letters to these channels.
-
Chokmah
Traditional- Who says so
- Cordovero's channels (1548)
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1548 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- None located
- Evidence
- The source states it
One of the twenty-two channels Pardes Rimonim 7:1 records as the opinion of the commentators. Drawn on this tree with the letter Aleph (א); the lettering is Kircher's and the Golden Dawn's, not Cordovero's.
Evidence
-
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim, 1548, first printed 1592 — Pardes Rimonim 7:1
The enumeration closes 'they total 22, as the numerical value of bakh'. Cordovero assigns no letters to these channels.
-
Tiphareth
Traditional- Who says so
- Cordovero's channels (1548)
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1548 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- None located
- Evidence
- The source states it
One of the twenty-two channels Pardes Rimonim 7:1 records as the opinion of the commentators. Drawn on this tree with the letter Gimel (ג); the lettering is Kircher's and the Golden Dawn's, not Cordovero's.
Evidence
-
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim, 1548, first printed 1592 — Pardes Rimonim 7:1
The enumeration closes 'they total 22, as the numerical value of bakh'. Cordovero assigns no letters to these channels.
Divine name
-
Eheieh
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1677 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
The divine name from Exodus 3:14 ('I AM THAT I AM'). Its assignment specifically to Kether is medieval Kabbalistic tradition, standardised by the Golden Dawn.
Evidence
-
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (editor and Latin translator), Kabbala Denudata, 1677–1684 (compilation and Latin translation) — Introduction, on the Sephiroth
Mathers's Kabbalah Unveiled preserves the standard sephirothic divine name assignments as inherited from the Zohar and von Rosenroth.
-
Aleister Crowley, 777, 1907–1909 — Table VI, col. II (Divine Names)
Sephirah of
-
Ace of Cups
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1888 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
The Aces are the roots of their elements, force before it has entered a particular situation. Book T places all four in Kether, where Spirit first moves through the elemental scales.
Evidence
-
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (primarily); Harriet Felkin (later material), Book T, c. 1888 — Of the Aces, pp. 9–10
-
Ace of Pentacles
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1888 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
The Aces are the roots of their elements, force before it has entered a particular situation. Book T places all four in Kether, where Spirit first moves through the elemental scales.
Evidence
-
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (primarily); Harriet Felkin (later material), Book T, c. 1888 — Of the Aces, pp. 9–10
-
Ace of Swords
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1888 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
The Aces are the roots of their elements, force before it has entered a particular situation. Book T places all four in Kether, where Spirit first moves through the elemental scales.
Evidence
-
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (primarily); Harriet Felkin (later material), Book T, c. 1888 — Of the Aces, pp. 9–10
-
Ace of Wands
Traditional- Who says so
- Not yet attributed to a school
- Earliest verified attestation
- 1888 CE
- Ancient or scriptural source
- Not yet investigated
The Aces are the roots of their elements, force before it has entered a particular situation. Book T places all four in Kether, where Spirit first moves through the elemental scales.
Evidence
-
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (primarily); Harriet Felkin (later material), Book T, c. 1888 — Of the Aces, pp. 9–10