Splendor

Hod, Splendour or glory, is the eighth sefirah, the lowest of the left-hand Pillar of Severity, and the sphere of the intellect, reason, language and the analytic mind. Paired with Netzach across the Tree, Hod supplies the form, structure and rational articulation that balance the surging emotion of its opposite: where Netzach feels and desires, Hod thinks, names and orders. It is traditionally the sphere of the intellect and of communication, and Western esotericism has associated it with magic and with the written and spoken word, the shaping of reality through language and symbol. Its divine name is Elohim Tzabaoth, the God of Hosts, paired with the YHVH Tzabaoth of Netzach.

In the Kabbalistic map of the soul Hod is the seat of the reasoning faculty, mediating and structuring the material world just above the foundation of Yesod. The sefirah takes its place in the doctrine of the ten emanations named in the Sefer Yetzirah and developed through the Zohar and the Lurianic Kabbalah, one of the lower seven qualities active in creation and in the human person.

Sources The ZoharTraditionally attributed to Moses de Leon with Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation in Theory and PracticeAryeh Kaplan

Hod is assigned the planet Mercury, and the pairing is apt: Mercury, the classical planet of the mind, communication, commerce and the messenger's swift intelligence, is the fitting counterpart of the sefirah of intellect, reason and language. In the Golden Dawn system of 1888 and in Liber 777, Hod's colour is orange, and it corresponds to the four Eights of the tarot suits; the Mercurial attribution underlies the strong Western-esoteric association of Hod with magic itself, understood as the art of manipulating symbol and word, the domain of the Mercurial trickster and scribe. As always the layers must be kept distinct.

Hod as the eighth sefirah, its name Elohim Tzabaoth, and its role as the rational faculty of the soul are Jewish Kabbalah, the fruit of centuries of mystical reflection, while the cross-referencing to Mercury, to a tarot rank and to a scale of magical colours is Hermetic Qabalah, the Western ceremonial adaptation formalised in 1888. The Tree is the same figure in both, but the uses to which its eighth sphere is put diverge sharply.