History UsefulNotes / Kabbalah

As mentioned, an important component of Kabbalah is the snazzy and iconic tree pattern known as ''the Tree of Life'', whose leaves are the Ten Sephirot, connected by 22 paths called the Partzufim, which are each associated with one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. These ten spheres are connected in a pattern that shows ten virtues through which God emanates into our level of reality, and conversely how humans can ascend back up and reach Him. The ten Sephiroth, along with what they represent (note that there are [[SpellMyNameWithAnS many possible transliterations of their names from Hebrew]]) are as follows:

* The Spirits in ''Literature/DateALive'' are based on the Sefirot tree. Each one has an Angel, a weapon named after the archangel that represents their Sephira, as well as an [[BattleBallgown Astral Dress]] named after the Divine name of God for their Sephira. They also have a [[NumericalThemeNaming number in their name]] designating which Sephira they belong to. For example, the first Spirit introduced is Tohka (meaning "10th day") representing the 10th Sephira Malkuth with her {{BFS}} Angel Sandalphon and her Astral Dress Adonai Melek. The protagonist Shido has the ability to seal Spirits' powers into himself, potentially representing Daath as the unity of all the Sephira. [[spoiler:The First Spirit Mio Takamiya has the Angels Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, and created the Sephira Crystals that turned human girls into Spirits, representing God's role as the emanator of the Sefirot. A Spirit who crosses the DespairEventHorizon will slip into an [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse form]], in which their Angel is replaced with a Demon King based on the corresponding demon of the Qliphoth Tree, the EvilCounterpart to the Sefirot.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s Sephiroth takes the name from the Tree of Life. True to his name, his ultimate plan involves ascension and becoming one with the game's version of the godhead, called the Lifestream. Each of the playable characters bear similarities to the Sefirot. with Cloud representing Keter, Barret as Gevurah, Tifa as Tifaret, Aerith as Chesed, Red XIII as Chokmah, Yuffie as Hod, Cait Sith as Binah, Vincent as Netzach, and Cid as Yesod. The Planet itself could represent Malkuth.

* ''Series/Touch2012'' features both Kabbalistic numerology as well as the concept of the 36 hidden righteous ones, of which Jake may be one.

* One of the [[PowersThatBe Aeons]] in ''VideoGame/HonkaiStarRail'' is [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Qlipoth]], [[AbstractApotheosis presiding over]] the Path of Preservation. They are characterized as being rather indifferent in nature, typically only lending their powers to zealots -- though [[spoiler:[[PlayerCharacter the Trailblazer's]] determination catches their eye during a crucial moment, causing Qlipoth to offer them their aid]]. The people of Jarilo-VI, particularly the Supreme Guardian Cocolia Rand, appear to worship Qlipoth, even erecting a fort in the Aeon's honor.

Kabbalah is a form of [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Jewish]] [[MagicalJew mysticism]]. Like UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} (which it's sometimes said to be descended from), in its most basic form, it concerns the division between the material world and a spiritual world of nothing but light. Due to a complicated chain of events, every human being has a fragment of this light in them, which is the soul. The realm of light is the Jewish god "as He is in Himself", AKA the godhead. This godhead has absolutely no qualities, as to give Him qualities is to limit Him; instead, He is said to contain and transcend anything and everything. However, He can manifest in the material world through ten virtues called [[SpellMyNameWithAnS "Sephirot" or "Sephiroth"]] (the singular is "Sephira"), and following these ten virtues makes a Kabbalist a more godly man until he shines with [[LightIsGood the Divine Light]].

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' features Kabbalistic symbolism extensively, via the InUniverse philosophy of Neohermeticism. Ten of the most notable and powerful empires of the Terragen Sphere are each identified with one of the Sephirah, and are thus collectively referred to as the Sephirotic Empires. The AI deities (known as archailects) who rule said empires are often named after the appropriate sefirah, and they and [[GangOfHats their empire]] identify with its associated [[AbstractApotheosis abstract concept]]:

* One of the [[PowersThatBe Aeons]] in ''VideoGame/HonkaiStarRail'' is [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Qlipoth]], [[AbstractApotheosis presiding over]] the Path of Preservation. They are characterized as being rather indifferent in nature, typically only lending their powers to zealots -- though [[spoiler:[[PlayerCharacter the Trailblazer's]] determination catches their eye during a crucial moment, causing Qlipoth to offer them their aid]]. The people of Jarilo-VI, particularly the Supreme Guardian Cocolia Rand, appear to worship Qlipoth, even erecting a fort in its honor.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Kabbalah has a central role over the universe's metaphysics.

* The Spirits in ''LightNovel/DateALive'' are based on the Sefirot tree. Each one has an Angel, a weapon named after the archangel that represents their Sephira, as well as an [[BattleBallgown Astral Dress]] named after the Divine name of God for their Sephira. They also have a [[NumericalThemeNaming number in their name]] designating which Sephira they belong to. For example, the first Spirit introduced is Tohka (meaning "10th day") representing the 10th Sephira Malkuth with her {{BFS}} Angel Sandalphon and her Astral Dress Adonai Melek. The protagonist Shido has the ability to seal Spirits' powers into himself, potentially representing Daath as the unity of all the Sephira. [[spoiler:The First Spirit Mio Takamiya has the Angels Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, and created the Sephira Crystals that turned human girls into Spirits, representing God's role as the emanator of the Sefirot. A Spirit who crosses the DespairEventHorizon will slip into an [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse form]], in which their Angel is replaced with a Demon King based on the corresponding demon of the Qliphoth Tree, the EvilCounterpart to the Sefirot.]]

*** [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hecate]] -- imagined here as a [[HellBentForLeather leather]]-[[DressedLikeADominatrix clad]], [[WhipItGood whip-cracking]] woman with [[MultipleHeadCase three]] [[NonHumanHead beast heads]] courtesy of Kazuma Kaneko -- appears at the town of Yesod, guarding the entrance to the Yetzirah Corridor. When asked why Hecate was at Yetzirah in the aforementioned interview, Kaneko simply replied "That’s because she is the three-faced god" and received an [[RuleOfSymbolism "impressive symbolism"]] in response before it was lampshaded how much of a GeniusBonus this would be to players; similar to Yesod's position on the Tree of Life (see the page image), the Yetzirah Corridor connects the town to three other areas of Makai (Netzach, Hod, and Tiphereth; Yesod itself is effectively the entrance to Makai), with Hecate able to oversee all the paths because of her three heads. As pointed out in [[https://eirikrjs.blogspot.com/2015/08/SMT-identity-crisis-pt1.html this fan retrospective]] of the mainline ''SMT'' titles, this depiction matches the description of Hecate found in Fred Gettings' ''Dictionary of Demons'': "It is said that [Hecate's] three heads were so disposed that she could keep her attention on all four roads at the same time."

In 1984, English ceremonial magician [[[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Gray William G. Gray]] wrote ''The Tree of Evil'', which contained his own explorations into the Kabbalah and the Qliphoth. The list of Qliphoth developed by Gray consisted of the opposites of the representations of the Sephirot. This list of Qliphoth was significantly different from the Qliphoth "canon" made by Aleister Crowley.

In 1984, English ceremonial magician William G. Gray wrote ''The Tree of Evil'', which contained his own explorations into the Kabbalah and the Qliphoth. The list of Qliphoth developed by Gray consisted of the opposites of the representations of the Sephirot. This list of Qliphoth was significantly different from the Qliphoth "canon" made by Aleister Crowley.

This list of the Qliphoth was popularized in Japan in the late 1980s, and came to inspire many Japanese depictions of the Qliphoth. More bizarrely, at some point during the spread of this list, Gray's Qliphoth, which were originally written in English, were given Hebrew translations, and then re-Romanized into English. This creates a list of [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign partially-corrupted]] Hebrew words describing basic evil concepts that is attributed as a list of Qliphoth.

* Creator/AlEwing has referenced the Kabbalah in some of his work.
** In ''Comicbook/ImmortalHulk'' narration explains the idea of the Qlipoth as the reverse of the Sephiroth's unity and raises the question of whether the Hulk is a creature of Geburah or Golachab (Referencing the question "Is he man or monster... or is he both?" from Hulk's first appearance).
** In ''Comicbook/DefendersBeyond'' the Defenders travel through various higher planes of existance that the issue titles helpfully map to spheres in the Sephiroth: the Neutral Zone outside realities is Malkuth, The Beyonders' realm in the remainder of the Second Cosmos is Yesod, and the White Hot Room, home of the Phoenix Force, is Tiphereth.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has the Sephira, each an identically named floating sword that aids [[OneWingedAngel Vayne Novus]] in battle. In this form, Vayne has access to an AOE NonElemental attack called "Tree of Sephira" in reference to the Tree of Life.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' draws upon Kabbalistic tradition quite a bit for its depiction of [[DarkWorld the Metaverse]], though mixed in with UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} on account of [[spoiler:the game's BigBad being none other than the Gnostic Demiurge]].
*** Mementos, a sprawling dungeon located underneath Shibuya and created from the distorted desires of the masses, is divided into several "paths," each named after the Qliphoth as given by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Gray William G. Gray]] in ''The Tree of Evil'' (Qimranut, Aiyatsbus, Chemdah, Kaitul, Akzeriyyuth, Adyeshach, Sheriruth, Iweleth). When [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth, the God of Control manifested from mankind's sloth, fully awakens from within the depths of Mementos and [[RealityBleed fuses it with reality]]]], this results in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: the Qliphoth World. [[OddNameOut The sole exception to the Qliphothic theme]] is Da'at (introduced in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]''), instead taken from the unison of the ten sefirot and tying into [[spoiler:Maruki's UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans-fueled [[RewritingReality override of humanity's cognition]] during the third semester]].
*** [[spoiler:Maruki's Palace]] itself is a mechanical replica of the Tree of Life filled with Sefirot symbolism, from the incredibly long elevator shaft connected to the Palace's main body, to [[spoiler:the heart of the Palace, the Monitoring Room housing a major roadblock only removable in the Path of Da'at, and finally to the ultimate realization of enlightenment; a gorgeous replica of the Garden of Eden.]] Even the purpose of [[spoiler:some facilities inside the Palace match their meanings in the Kabbalah, and the Palace is supposed to be navigated in a zig-zag fashion just like the actual Tree of Life.]]

** TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'' is the Tree of Life, overlaid onto Tokyo Tower, with its ruler being [[spoiler:the Platonic Demiurge manifested from the EMMA application]] trying to do a similar thing as [[spoiler:Maruki did in ''Royal'', although instead of giving desires, the Demiurge has attempted to assess the answer for human happiness without consideration of the heart, so she merely took people consulting her into consideration, leading her to believe that the ultimate answer of humanity's happiness is her doing all the thinking for humanity]]. During [[spoiler:her boss fight, the Demiurge even summons protective minions named after the ten Sephirah]]. [[labelnote:Spoilers!]]Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, Netszach, Tiferet, Geburah, Chesed, Binah, Chokmah, Keter[[/labelnote]]

*** [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hecate]] -- imagined here as a [[HellBentForLeather leather]]-[[DressedLikeADominatrix clad]], [[WhipItGood whip-cracking]] woman with [[MultipleHeadCase three]] [[NonHumanHead beast heads]] courtesy of Kazuma Kaneko -- appears at the town of Yesod, guarding the entrance to the Yetzirah Corridor. When asked why Hecate was at Yetzirah in the aforementioned interview, Kaneko simply replied "That’s because she is the three-faced god" and received an [[RuleOfSymbolism "Impressive symbolism"]] in response before it was lampshaded how much of a GeniusBonus this would be to players; similar to Yesod's position on the Tree of Life (see the page image), the Yetzirah Corridor connects the town to three other areas of Makai (Netzach, Hod, and Tiphereth; Yesod itself is effectively the entrance to Makai), with Hecate able to oversee all the paths because of her three heads. As pointed out in [[https://eirikrjs.blogspot.com/2015/08/SMT-identity-crisis-pt1.html this fan retrospective]] of the mainline ''SMT'' titles, this depiction matches the description of Hecate found in Fred Gettings' ''Dictionary of Demons'': "It is said that [Hecate's] three heads were so disposed that she could keep her attention on all four roads at the same time."

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s Sephiroth takes the name from the Tree of Life. True to his name, his ultimate plan involves ascension and becoming one with the game's version of the godhead, called the Lifestream. Each of the playable characters bear similarities to the Sefirot. with Cloud representing Keter(Crown, Leadership), Barret as Gevurah(Strength, Judgment), Tifa as Tifaret(Spirituality, Beauty, Balance), Aerith as Chesed(Kindness, Mercy), Red XIII as Chokmah(Wisdom, Elder), Yuffie as Hod(Splendor), Cait Sith as Binah(Understanding), Vincent as Netzach(Eternity), and Cid as Yesod(Foundation). The Planet itself could represent Malkuth(Kingdom).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s Sephiroth takes the name from the Tree of Life. True to his name, his ultimate plan involves ascension and becoming one with the game's version of the godhead, called the Lifestream. Similarly, it's often speculated that the name "Tifa" comes from Tiferet.

* In the Website/SCPFoundation, the most dangerous and most difficult to contain objects are given the class "Keter", taken from the highest point. Objects created or exploited by the Foundation to aid their mission, meanwhile, are classified as Thaumiel: Keter's ShadowArchetype counterpart on the Qliphoth, symbolizing spiritual conflict. Fitting, as the Foundation considers using anomalous phenomena against anomalous phenomena to be at best a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, and at worst tapping into TheDarkSide.

* In the Wiki/SCPFoundation, the most dangerous and most difficult to contain objects are given the class "Keter", taken from the highest point. Objects created or exploited by the Foundation to aid their mission, meanwhile, are classified as Thaumiel: Keter's ShadowArchetype counterpart on the Qliphoth, symbolizing spiritual conflict. Fitting, as the Foundation considers using anomalous phenomena against anomalous phenomena to be at best a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, and at worst tapping into TheDarkSide.

Even though Gray did not explore any demonological aspects of Qliphoth in his book, this list also became hybridized with Bill Heidrick's list of Qliphoth demons, creating a list of "Hebrew" Qliphoth and "Qliphoth Demons" that are [[TheThemeParkVersion almost completely detached from its Kabbalistic origins]].

These meanings may become important in ThemeNaming.

The word means "The Tradition" in Hebrew, and it usually means "The Secret Traditional Explanation of Everything," so it has been fights and collaborations between rivals since the beginning. Who wouldn't want to fight over that? The version of the Kabbalah that got big in 13th century Spain was deeply entrenched in the Jewish religion and tended to deal with the questions that bothered 13th century Jews, such as "Why are we following these Laws?" "How did the Universe come about?" "What's with all these contradictions in the Bible?" They weren't new questions, but kabbalists found some new ways of asking them, usually by looking for hidden messages in the Torah using ''mathematics'', reading Hebrew words as numbers, and numbers as the stuff the universe is made of. Particulars were debated, but the hidden message tended to be that the Universe is made of parts that are out of harmony, but if all Jews were to follow Jewish Law, the universe would be fixed. The Zohar and the writings of Abulafia are the classic from this period, the first being more like sacred adventure stories, and the second being training manuals for prophets. They both claimed to have the ancient secrets, but they disagreed on most specifics.

The Kabbalah is also known for the snazzy tree pattern known as ''the Tree of Life'', whose leaves are the Ten Sephirot, connected by 22 paths called the Partzufim, which are each associated with one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. These ten spheres are connected in a pattern that shows ten virtues through which God emanates into our level of reality, and conversely how humans can ascend back up and reach Him. The ten Sephiroth, along with what they represent (note that there are [[SpellMyNameWithAnS many possible transliterations of their names from Hebrew]]) are as follows:

These meanings may become important in ThemeNaming.

----

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'', the floating city inhabited by the wealthy is known as Tiphares. (Or Salem, depending on the version.)
* ''Manga/BlackClover'':
** The Kabbalah is associated heavily with the elves. Their souls are reincarnated into their hosts' bodies by placing ten magic stones in the Tree of Life Monument, with the reincarnated elves having a glow of mana similar to light. Each of the Ten Apostles of Sephira, who are believed to be divinely blessed, correspond to a spot on the Tree of Life and together can open the Shadow Palace, the space between the living world and underworld. Notably, their leader's Licht's position on the tree corresponds to Keter, the "Crown".
** The goal of the Dark Triad, the story's main villains after the elves, is to form the Tree of Qliphoth to bring devils into the living world.
* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Kabbalah has a central role over the universe's metaphysics.
** First, the Tree of Life is used to explain the hierarchy of humans and angels, with God representing Kether. As humans become more powerful, they can ascend to another level, but cannot if a level is full. If a higher level is full, a human can only ascend by making an inhabitant of that level (usually an angel), fall to a lower level.
** Some Magic Side characters compare Academy City's goal of creating a Level 6 esper to people trying to ascend the Tree of Life, which, seeing as Creator/AleisterCrowley is the city's creator, only makes sense.
*** Crowley himself makes use of the Qliphoth, the EvilCounterpart to the Sephiroth, as a way to gain spiritual knowledge, teaching that both trees are valid ways to do so. The inside of his Windowless Bulding is also compared to a third unknown tree.
** In the manga ''Manga/ACertainScientificAccelerator'', an antagonist is a necromancer who was told by "a self proclaimed demon" that a human soul can be purified enough to reach Kether by experiencing death 10,000 times and remember those deaths as memories. His plan revolves around getting one of the Misaka clones for that.
** [[spoiler:Coronzon, one of the setting's GreaterScopeVillain, is a demon (particular in that it is not from the Qliphoth) in charge of guarding Daath, or the Abyss, and stop magicians from ascending to the higher levels. It on the other hand can freely ascend or descend the tree, which is what allows it to create a physical body for itself on earth]].
** [[spoiler:Finally, to defeat Coronzon, with the help of the Misaka network of clones and Qliphah Puzzle 545, Accelerator creates and adds a third tree to the cosmos, Clonoth, different from the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth. It is not based on good or evil like the previous trees, but the changes experienced by the human mind and soul due to technology]].
* The Spirits in ''LightNovel/DateALive'' are based on the Sefirot tree. Each one has an Angel, a weapon named after the archangel that represents their Sephira, as well as an [[BattleBallgown Astral Dress]] named after the Divine name of God for their Sephira. They also have a [[NumericalThemeNaming number in their name]] designating which Sephira they belong to. For example, the first Spirit introduced is Tohka (meaning "10th day") representing the 10th Sephira Malkuth with her {{BFS}} Angel Sandalphon and her Astral Dress Adonai Melek. The protagonist Shido has the ability to seal Spirits' powers into himself, potentially representing Daath as the unity of all the Sephira. [[spoiler:The First Spirit Mio Takamiya has the Angels Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, and created the Sephira Crystals that turned human girls into Spirits, representing God's role as the emanator of the Sefirot. A Spirit who crosses the DespairEventHorizon will slip into an [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse form]], in which their Angel is replaced with a Demon King based on the corresponding demon of the Qliphoth Tree, the EvilCounterpart to the Sefirot.]]
* ''Anime/DayBreakIllusion'' ties the Sephirot to its TarotMotifs by associating the 22 paths with the 22 Major Arcana -- an idea that's been around since the 18th century.
* ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' references it a couple of times. First is Mercuremon's evolved form of Sephirotmon, which is actually composed of orbs in the same pattern as the Tree of Life (complete with the Crest of [[LightIsNotGood Light]] from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' on the central orb). Ophanimon has an attack called Sephirot Crystals, in which she summons crystals in the same Tree of Life pattern as well.
* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and in [[Franchise/FateSeries other spin-offs]] taking place in ''Fate'' worlds with a Holy Grail War system, the lines of summoning for a Heroic Spirit contains an implicit reference to the Tree of Life: ''"The four gates shall close and come out the Crown. Let the three-forked road to the Kingdom cycle"'', with the Crown and the Kingdom referring to Kether and Malkuth respectively.
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', the Tree of Life is one of the mystical symbols appearing on the mysterious Gate.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
** ''Evangelion'' loves its Kabbalistic symbolism. Now, [[BrokenBase whether it]] [[RuleOfSymbolism means]] [[FauxSymbolism anything]]...
** The entire tree is lovingly drawn on Gendo Ikari's office floor, and considering how hip deep he is in [[spoiler: reenacting key parts of the original story to bring back his wife and initiate Third Impact]], it may have somewhat more meaning, insofar as he and [[spoiler:SEELE]] are concerned.
* ''Manga/OPartsHunter'': The Kabbalah is shown throughout the series as a sort of sandwich on the earth.
* In ''Manga/{{Psyren}}'', Amagai Miroku's Sephirot attack is based on the Tree of Life.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', the Tree of Life appears when Z-One uses his Temporal Machine Gods/Timelords. Each monster represents a spot on the Tree, with his 11th ace monster representing Daath.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Kate Kane is heavily associated with Kabbalistic imagery. Her apartment building has an enormous tree growing up through its center, she has a print of the Kabbalah hanging on her wall, the stand for her ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} uniform is shaped like it, and upon seeing her uniform for the first time, she immediately describes its red-and-black color scheme as "Gevurah... the Pillar of Severity... the colors of war."
* Ben Katchor's ''The Jew of New York'' includes Kabbalistic meditation on the word "Greptz," a Yiddish burp sound.
* Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}'' series is strongly oriented by the Occult Kabbalah of Aleister Crowley and the sex magick tradition that has been riffing on him (whether or not he liked it then, or his devout like it now) for the last century. A trip through the Tree of Sefirot fills up all of Books 3 and 4.
* Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s ''ComicBook/{{Warheads}}'' series used a lot of Kabbalah imagery and terminology. The protagonists are Kether Troop, and other squads of mercenaries include the Gevurah and Malkuth Troops.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/{{Pi}}'' has explicit references to Gematria, the kabbalistic practice of analyzing Hebrew words as numbers.
* Creator/GuyRitchie's ''Film/Revolver2005'' is a CrimeDrama[=/=]PsychologicalThriller that features many [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolic]] references to Kabbalistic beliefs.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Bee Season'' (both the novel by Myla Goldberg and the FilmOfTheBook starring Creator/RichardGere) has Abraham Abulafia's prophetic techniques, Isaac Luria's idea of fixing the world, and Hasidic dancing. Of course, this is in a family with serious problems, so these get translated into obsessive compulsion and Hare Krishna.
* Gustav Meyrink's ''Golem'' is heavily influenced by Kabbalah (and by antisemitism). Not very surprisingly so, seeing as the {{Golem}} legend is itself heavily Kabbalistic, and Meyrink was deeply involved with the esotericism of his time.
* The chapters in Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/FoucaultsPendulum'' [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming are named for sephirot]].
* Likewise, the chapters in ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming adopt the same naming convention]].
* ''Literature/TsunTsunTzimTzum'' takes place in a universe based on the Kabbalah, divided into eleven spheres that are each simultaneously a physical place, a philosophical concept and a stage of the universe's creation.
* ''Literature/{{UNSONG}}'' takes place in an alternative present where Kabbalistic magic has returned and started to replace technology.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/Touch2012'' features both Kabbalistic numerology as well as the concept of the 36 hidden righteous ones, of which Jake may be one.

[[folder:Music]]
* The TitleTrack of Music/DavidBowie's ''Music/StationToStation'' album includes the line "Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth." A photo on the back cover of the 1991 CD reissue shows Bowie drawing the Tree of Life.

* ''Series/{{Touch}}'' features both Kabbalistic numerology as well as the concept of the 36 hidden righteous ones, of which Jake may be one.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' features Kabbalistic symbolism extensively, via the InUniverse philosophy of Neohermeticism. Ten of the most notable and powerful empires of the Terragen Sphere are each identified with one of the Sephirah, and are thus collectively referred to as the Sephirotic Empires. The AI deities (known as archailects) who rule said empires are often named after the appropriate sefirah, and they and [[PlanetOfHats their empire]] identify with its associated [[AbstractApotheosis abstract concept]]:

** Some Magic Side characters compare Academy City's goal of creating a Level 6 esper to people trying to ascend the Tree of Life, which, seeing as Aleister Crowley is the city's creator, only makes sense.

* The Spirits in ''LightNovel/DateALive'' are based on the Sefirot tree. Each one has an Angel, a weapon named after the archangel that represents their Sephira, as well as an [[BattleBallgown Astral Dress]] named after the Divine name of God for their Sephira. They also have a [[NumericalThemeNaming number in their name]] designating which Sephira they belong to. For example, the first Spirit introduced is Tohka (meaning "10th day") representing the 10th Sephira Malkuth with her {{BFS}} Angel Sandalphon and her Astral Dress Adonai Melek. The protagonist Shido has the ability to seal Spirits’ powers into himself, potentially representing Daath as the unity of all the Sephira. [[spoiler:The First Spirit Mio Takamiya has the Angels Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, and created the Sephira Crystals that turned human girls into Spirits, representing God's role as the emanator of the Sefirot. A Spirit who crosses the DespairEventHorizon will slip into an [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse form]], in which their Angel is replaced with a Demon King based on the corresponding demon of the Qliphoth Tree, the EvilCounterpart to the Sefirot.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and in other spin-offs taking place in ''Fate'' worlds with a Holy Grail War system, the lines of summoning for a Heroic Spirit contains an implicit reference to the Tree of Life: ''"The four gates shall close and come out the Crown. Let the three-forked road to the Kingdom cycle"'', with the Crown and the Kingdom referring to Kether and Malkuth respectively.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', each of the Fiends is given a candelabra symbolizing one of the ten sephiroth. When the Demi-Fiend gets close to one of them, his own candelabra begins to glow, and you know that you're about to get into a really tough boss fight.

** TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'' is the Tree of Life, overlaid onto Tokyo Tower, with its ruler being [[spoiler:the Platonic Demiurge manifested from the EMMA application]] trying to do a similar thing as [[spoiler:Maruki did in ''Royal'', although instead of giving desires, the Demiurge has attempted to assess the answer for human happiness without consideration of the heart, so she merely took people consulting her into consideration, leading her to believe that the ultimate answer of humanity's happiness is her doing all the thinking for humanity.]] During [[spoiler:her boss fight, the Demiurge even summons protective minions named after the ten Sephirah.]] [[labelnote:Spoilers!]]Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, Netszach, Tiferet, Geburah, Chesed, Binah, Chokmah, Keter[[/labelnote]]

The word means "The Tradition" in Hebrew, and it usually means "The Secret Traditional Explanation of Everything," so it has been fights and collaborations between rivals since the beginning. Who wouldn't want to fight over that? The version of the Kabbalah that got big in 13th century Spain was deeply entrenched in the Jewish religion and tended to deal with the questions that bothered 13th century Jews, such as "Why are we following these Laws?" "How did the Universe come about?" "What's with all these contradictions in the Bible?" They weren't new questions, but kabbalists found some new ways of asking them, usually by looking for hidden messages in the Torah using ''mathematics,'' reading Hebrew words as numbers, and numbers as the stuff the universe is made of. Particulars were debated, but the hidden message tended to be that the Universe is made of parts that are out of harmony, but if all Jews were to follow Jewish Law, the universe would be fixed. The Zohar and the writings of Abulafia are the classic from this period, the first being more like sacred adventure stories, and the second being training manuals for prophets. They both claimed to have the ancient secrets, but they disagreed on most specifics.

# Keter (Kether) - ''the Crown.'' Represents consciousness, the connection between the human and divine.
# Chokhmah (Chokmah) - ''Wisdom.'' Represents creativity, intuition, male energy.
# Binah - ''Understanding.'' Represents stability, female energy.
# Chesed - ''Mercy, Kindness.'' Represents benevolence, order, laws.
# Gevurah (Geburah) - ''Power, Severity.'' Represents strength, courage, righteousness.
# Tiferet (Tiphereth) - ''Heart, Beauty.'' Represents individuality, coordination of parts, balance, symmetry.
# Netzach (Nezach) - ''Victory.'' Represents emotion, art.
# Hod - ''Glory, Splendor.'' Represents intellect, determination.
# Yesod - ''the Foundation.'' Represents energy, imagination, communication.
# Malkuth - ''the Kingdom.'' Represents the physical world and body, self-expression.

* The Spirits in ''LightNovel/DateALive'' are based on the Sefirot tree. Each one has an Angel, a weapon named after the archangel that represents their Sephira, as well as an [[BattleBallgown Astral Dress]] named after the Divine name of God for their Sephira. They also have a [[NumericalThemeNaming number in their name]] designating which Sephira they belong to. For example, the first Spirit introduced is Tohka (meaning “10th day”) representing the 10th Sephira Malkuth with her {{BFS}} Angel Sandalphon and her Astral Dress Adonai Melek. The protagonist Shido has the ability to seal Spirits’ powers into himself, potentially representing Daath as the unity of all the Sephira. [[spoiler:The First Spirit Mio Takamiya has the Angels Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, and created the Sephira Crystals that turned human girls into Spirits, representing God’s role as the emanator of the Sefirot. A Spirit who crosses the DespairEventHorizon will slip into an [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse form]], in which their Angel is replaced with a Demon King based on the corresponding demon of the Qliphoth Tree, the EvilCounterpart to the Sefirot.]]

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' loves its Kabbalistic symbolism. Now, [[BrokenBase whether it]] [[RuleOfSymbolism means]] [[FauxSymbolism anything]]...
** The entire tree is lovingly drawn on Gendo Ikari's office floor, and considering how hip deep he is in [[spoiler: reenacting key parts of the original story to bring back his wife and initiate Third Impact]], it may have somewhat more meaning, insofar as he and [[spoiler: SEELE]] are concerned.

* Creator/{{Marvel}}’s ''ComicBook/{{Warheads}}'' series used a lot of Kabbalah imagery and terminology. The protagonists are Kether Troop, and other squads of mercenaries include the Gevurah and Malkuth Troops.
* Ben Katchor's ''The Jew of New York'' includes Kabbalistic meditation on the word "Greptz," a Yiddish burp sound.

* ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'''s chapter names [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming are named for sephirot]].
* So are those of Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/FoucaultsPendulum''.
* Gustav Meyrink's ''Golem'' is heavily influenced by Kabbalah (and by antisemitism). Not very surprisingly so, seeing as the Golem legend is itself heavily Kabbalistic, and Meyrink was deeply involved with the esotericism of his time.

* The TitleTrack of Music/DavidBowie's ''Music/StationToStation'' album includes the line “Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth”. A photo on the back cover of the 1991 CD reissue shows Bowie drawing the Tree of Life.

*** Mementos, a sprawling dungeon located underneath Shibuya and created from the distorted desires of the masses, is divided into several "paths," each named after the Qliphoth as given by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Gray William G. Gray]] in ''The Tree of Evil'' (Qimranut, Aiyatsbus, Chemdah, Kaitul, Akzeriyyuth, Adyeshach, Sheriruth, Iweleth). When [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth, the God of Control manifested from mankind's sloth, fully awakens from within the depths of Mementos and fuses it with reality]], this results in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: the Qliphoth World. [[OddNameOut The sole exception to the Qliphothic theme]] is Da'at (introduced in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]''), instead taken from the unison of the ten sefirot and tying into [[spoiler:Maruki's UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans-fueled [[RewritingReality override of humanity's cognition]] during the third semester]].

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* In the Wiki/SCPFoundation, the most dangerous and most difficult to contain objects are given the class "Keter", taken from the highest point. Objects created or exploited by the Foundation to aid their mission, meanwhile, are classified as Thaumiel: Keter's ShadowArchetype counterpart on the Qliphoth, symbolizing spiritual conflict. Fitting, as the Foundation considers using anomalous phenomena against anomalous phenomena to be at best a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, and at worst tapping into TheDarkSide.