2 Chokmah
Wisdom
Chokmah is Wisdom, the first outward movement from Kether. It represents dynamic force before Binah gives that force a boundary or stable form.
10 sourced claims: 1 canonical , 8 traditional , 1 unsourced
Names and titles
Divine names and Yetziratic titles from Sefer Yetzirah and Kabbalistic tradition.
The Illuminating Intelligence
Sources (1)
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Sefer Yetzirah
, Westcott translation, 3rd edition, 1911 (first published 1887)
— Appendix: The 32 Paths of Wisdom, Path 2
“The Second Path is that of the Illuminating Intelligence: it is the Crown of Creation, the Splendour of the Unity, equalling it, and it is exalted above every head, and named by the Kabalists the Second Glory.”
The 32 Paths of Wisdom appear as an appendix to Westcott's Sefer Yetzirah.
Yah (יה)
The short form of the tetragrammaton, comprising its first two letters. Biblical, appearing in Psalm 68:5 and many others.
Sources (1)
- 777 , First edition, 1909 (anonymous) — Table VI, col. II (Divine Names) · systematising, not originating
Angelic hierarchy
Archangels of the sephirah and the angelic choir it leads. Maimonides gives the ten choirs; the sephirothic pairings are later Kabbalistic tradition.
Auphanim (Wheels)
Second of Maimonides's ten ranks. From Ezekiel 1:15-21, the wheels beside the Chayot.
Sources (2)
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Mishneh Torah
, Original Hebrew, Maimonides c. 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.
- 777 , First edition, 1909 (anonymous) — Table VI, col. IX · systematising, not originating
Astrological
The classical planet or sphere associated with the sephirah.
The Zodiac (Mazloth)
The sphere of the fixed stars. Some 20th-century occultists assign Uranus to Chokmah instead; the classical assignment is the Zodiac.
Sources (1)
- 777 , First edition, 1909 (anonymous) — Table VI, col. I / Table IV · systematising, not originating
Golden Dawn attributes
Correspondences established by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn between 1888 and 1912.
In the Twos, active and receptive powers meet. The suit begins to generate and take direction, though its result is still young.
Book T classifies the Twos under Chokmah. Their common idea is initiation: the first active emergence of a suit's elemental power.
Sources (1)
- Book T , Mathers, c. 1888 (Golden Dawn internal) — General meanings of the small cards under the Sephiroth, p. 27
Correspondences 11 sourced correspondences
| Relation | To | First attested |
|---|---|---|
| Planetary attribution | Zodiac | 1907 CE |
| Sephirah of | Two of Wands | 1888 CE |
| Mundane sphere | Starry Heaven | 1509 CE |
| Counts of | 10 | 100 CE |
| Channel | Binah | 1548 CE |
| Channel of | Kether | 1548 CE |
| Channel | Tiphareth | 1548 CE |
| Channel | Chesed | 1548 CE |