Sephiroth
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Origin 1270 to 1300
Geburah means Severity (also translated Strength or Power), the fifth Sephirah, on the Pillar of Severity below Binah. Its divine name is Elohim Gibor, its archangel is Kamael, and its angelic order is the Seraphim, the Fiery Serpents; its planet is Mars, the warrior and disciplinarian. It is the sphere of judgment, restraint, and the necessary destruction that clears away what is corrupt or outworn.
As a sphere of experience Geburah is power, courage, discipline, and severity: the surgeon's knife and the just enforcement of law. It is the counterweight to the boundless mercy of Chesed, and the two together keep the Tree in balance, for mercy without severity dissolves into indulgence and severity without mercy hardens into cruelty. It is symbolized by the number five, the pentagon, the sword, and the mighty warrior, and it governs the will to cut away, to defend, and to correct.
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 PeriodGeburah 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 PeriodGeburah'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 Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own accountThe Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888, fixed Geburah's place within its own ceremonial correspondence system by 1900, the scheme this atlas follows for Geburah's Golden Dawn associations. 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn 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 accountMars 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Divine NameSourced to the subject's own accountElohim Gibor 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn IncenseSourced to the subject's own accountTobacco 3Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn GemstoneSourced to the subject's own accountRuby 3Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn PlantSourced to the subject's own accountOak 3Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Queen Scale ColourSourced to the subject's own accountScarlet Red 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
Geburah, Severity
Geburah, Severity or strength, is the fifth sefirah, the counterweight to Chesed and the necessary discipline of the Tree. It heads the left-hand Pillar of Severity beneath Binah and expresses judgement, restraint, power and the setting of limits, the divine severity that prunes, restricts and destroys what must not continue, so that mercy's boundless outflow is given form and justice. It is also called Din, judgement, or Pachad, fear.
In the Kabbalistic understanding Geburah is not evil but essential: without the cutting-back of severity the generosity of Chesed would run to formlessness, and the Kabbalists located the origin of evil precisely in severity unbalanced, judgement divorced from mercy. Its divine name is Elohim Gibor, the God of might or of battles. The sefirah takes its place in the doctrine named in the Sefer Yetzirah and developed across the medieval and early-modern Kabbalah; Geburah is the martial, disciplinary power of the divine, the strong hand and the sword, held in tension with the open hand of Chesed across the central axis of the Tree.
Sources The ZoharTraditionally attributed to Moses de Leon with Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation in Theory and PracticeAryeh Kaplan
Geburah and the Western Correspondences
Geburah is assigned the planet Mars, and no attribution in the system is more transparent: Mars, the classical planet of war, force, aggression and cutting energy, is the exact planetary counterpart of the sefirah of severity, judgement and the sword. In the Golden Dawn scheme of 1888 and in Liber 777, Geburah's colour is red, and it corresponds to the four Fives of the tarot suits, the fives being, across the deck, the cards of conflict, loss and struggle, in keeping with the martial character of the sphere. The Mars pairing makes Geburah the seat of strength, courage and the destructive power that clears the way for renewal.
As everywhere on the Tree, the distinction of provenance holds: Geburah as the fifth sefirah, its name Elohim Gibor, and its theological role as divine severity are Jewish Kabbalah, whereas the assignment to Mars, to a tarot rank and to a colour scale is Hermetic Qabalah, the 1888 Western magical systematisation. The severity of Geburah is a doctrine of the divine nature in the one tradition and a category of ceremonial correspondence in the other.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The notation 6=5 sets Adeptus Major on Geburah.
Khamael is set over Geburah, the sphere of Severity, Strength and Mars, presiding over judgment, discipline and the destruction that clears away corruption.
Found In
Geburah, Severity, sits on this pillar and gives it its common name.
Originates in Language
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