Associated with restriction and destruction, Geburah, the fifth Sephirah in the Tree of Life, is feared by many. Rivaling Binah — the Greater Malefic — Geburah holds the title of the Lesser Malefic, evoking a dreadful sense. But are such associations truly justified, or are they rooted in misunderstanding? Let’s find out.
The Fearsome Geburah
Also spelled Gevurah, the term Geburah originates from the Hebrew root גבור (gibour), meaning:
Strength,
Severity,
Might, and
Power
Geburah’s divine or Atziluthic name is Elohim Gibour, “The Mighty and Terrible.” It reflects Geburah’s intense nature, compared to the power of war and discipline required for transformation. More on that by the end.
Geburah’s other name is ‘Pachad,’ translating into:
Fear,
Terror,
Dread, and
Awe
Pairs of Opposites
The Sephiroth can only be examined in the context of the Tree, while the side ones as pairs of opposites. Qabalistically, Geburah’s strength and severity balance Chessed’s mercy and expansion, suggesting:
Limitations,
Justice, and
Discipline.
At the center of the side pillars, Chessed and Geburah are their strongest representations, as Boaz and Jachin translate into:
He will establish, and
In him is strength.
This is similar to the Elements being best expressed in their fixed or cherubic signs in the middle of the triplicity. Either way, the dichotomy creates equilibrium within the Tree, which maps the human psyche.
Build and Destroy
The best way to understand Chesed and Geburah is by considering the hormones insulin and glucagon.
As antagonists, these complement and oppose each other. When one is up, the other is down, and vice versa. Generally speaking:
Food or calories activate insulin,
Fasting or no calories triggers glucagon.
Insulin. The Metabolic Jupiter
Like Chessed, insulin stores, gathers, builds, develops, expands, etc. Its main function is taking sugar out of the bloodstream, preventing hyperglycemia and death. It converts that sugar into:
Muscle and liver glycogen, and
Fat.
Spiked strategically with the right foods, insulin helps us survive, recover, and build muscle. Frequently abused through conventional eating, insulin causes obesity, diabetes, permanent hunger, and a host of issues rooted in its resistance.
Glucagon. The Metabolic Geburah
Glucagon — Geburah’s metabolic representation — comes to the rescue. Whatever energy is stored, glucagon breaks down, destroys, and burns.
It mobilizes the body’s fat deposits, which is why it’s called ‘A Weight Loss Hormone.’ Additionally, glucagon promotes autophagy, which burns, destroys, and eliminates damaged cells, toxic proteins, and tumors.
Food for Thought
Thanks to organized religion, Western societies have been deeming Geburah’s principles as evil. Ironically, one of their major struggles is the obesity pandemic. Another is consumer culture, which knows the price of everything but values nothing. Let me know your thoughts.
The Sacrificial Priestess
Geburah is the sacrificial priestess, sacrificing for the greater good — not in the name of some god, but through deliberate choices vital for progress. It is the alchemical transmutation that enables it.
“Coal burned in a furnace is sacrificed to the god of steam power. Sacrifice is really the transmutation of force; the latent energy in the coal offered up on the sacrificial altar of the furnace is transmitted in the dynamic energy of steam by means of the appropriate machinery.”
— Dion Fortune. Mystical Qabalah 163.
Decision-Making and the True Will
Geburah is the primal principle behind decision-making and willpower. It chooses what is right by eliminating what is wrong. According to Stanford Kelly McGonigal, willpower extends beyond self-control, making us individuals in society.
Geburah is also the stage in the Tree where the universal will branches into the individual, making us stars in Nuit’s body. While willpower and the True Will are not the same, they stem from the same source.
Geburah in The Tree of Life
Geburah reflects and is Binah on a lower arc. This is through the reflection of the Supernal or the Celestial Triad in the Moral or Ethical.
Hod is Geburah on a lower arc, whereas Netzach is Chessed. Yet like Chessed emanates Hod, Geburah emanates Netzach, which is best expressed by:
The Unicursal Hexagram, and
The Grades 3=8 Practicus Hod Water, and 4=7 Philosophus Netzach Fire.
An Alchemical Secret
The four lower Sephiroth express the Elements. For Netzach (Venus), that is fire reflecting the fiery nature of Geburah (Mars).
Netzach’s principle of Love is associated with the microcosm and the subjective, while Geburah’s victory and conquest align with the macrocosm and the objective. This unfolds the alchemical secret behind the saying:
Successful or well-accomplished people are also well-sexed.
It is because your elemental energy or fundamental dynamism and ability to achieve success — is closely tied to your sex life, which is governed by the fiery force. Let me know your thoughts.
Self-PreservatioN Through Geburah
Besides burning and destroying, Geburah rules self-preservation. Examples include:
Bringing justice,
Cutting out toxic people who drain your energy and time, and
Preventing:
Abuse
Being taken for granted, or
Being taken advantage of
People lacking Geburah struggle with these, surrendering to life’s randomness.
Elimination
Emerging from Kether’s pure potential, Chokmah’s force is haphazard. Binah turns that force into forms, but they are just as random and chaotic.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi recognizes chaos and entropy as the default state of the Universe. Malkuth, the physical reality, is the throne of Binah. In less abstract terms, these imply life:
Situations,
Constructs,
Experiences, etc.
Suppose you are a kid with problems and bad influences. As a product of such a random environment, you pick up self-destructive habits, which solidify through time and the inertia of the Universe, Binah. Think of Napoleon Hill’s concept of hypnotic rhythm.
Due to its expansive nature, Jupiter Chessed gets all the credit when it comes to combating such and other limitations from Saturn.
However, situations like that don’t allow for expansion and development. They urgently demand radical change and fierce elimination.
Geburah comes to the rescue again, destroying the poisonous forms so that a healthy and productive lifestyle can take root.
Like Saturn, Jupiter is slow. Conversely, Geburah is the most explosive sphere in the Tree, with Hod as a runner-up. To bring clarity:
Jupiter orders builds, utilizes, and expands beyond existing forms.
Mars destroys and breaks down those hindering progress and causing stagnation.
Only together can they counteract entropy and haphazardness, ensuring both growth and necessary destruction.
Consider INRI, the meanings of which include:
Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, or Fire Renews Nature Integrated.
Geburah eradicates self-destructive habits, allowing you to rebuild yourself. For many of us, bodybuilding became the first floor or engagement of Chessed of the new building or pyramid.
This is why Chesed is the king, building infrastructures and caring for his people, while Geburah is the warring queen, protecting them.
Geburah and Philosophy
One of the Stoics‘ greatest strengths is their ability to prevent problems from spreading like cancer, affecting all aspects of life. Instead, they isolate each challenge, maintaining tranquility while finding a solution. This reflects Geburah’s role — enforcing discipline, cutting away disorder, and preventing chaos from overtaking your psyche.
Geburah and The Tower Card
The classical planets have a dual nature or a practical and a mystical aspect. For Mars, these are:
The 27th Path of Peh,
The Fifth Sephirah Geburah.
Also called ‘Radical Intelligence,’ Geburah destroys illusions and obsolete structures, initiating necessary change(s). The Tower is about crushing such structures so a new building can commence.
While Geburah is higher in the Tree, occultists work with its principles right off the bat. The main function of the Lesser Pentagram is overcoming psychic negentropy and elevating you from the mundane states of Malkuth to higher and closer to Tiphereth.
The Lesser PENTAGRAM
The LRP positions you at the intersection of Samekh and Peh, or cards Art and the Tower. The elimination of useless constructs is a stepping stone toward uniting with superconsciousness (Neshamah).
Deities and Mythology
A key difference between traditional and Hermetic Qabalah is incorporating correspondences from various schools. In that regard, Geburah rules several deities:
Thor, the Thunder god, embodies its strength.
Ares [partially] and Odin reflect its power and strategic destruction.
Similarly, the Valkyries, Odin’s battle maidens, represent Geburah’s selective severity.
Besides these, Geburah rules Horus — a god of vengeance and war — and the Crowned and Conquering Child, symbolizing everlasting growth and the self-sufficient individual in humanity’s current stage of development. Surprising or not, we are collectively and tangibly moving toward Mars.
Practical Application
As I approach my first decade of practicing, I recognize three critical stages to aspire to:
Achieving collaboration with your Nephesh or Animal soul.
Balancing the Elements to a productive degree,
Repeating with the Higher Principles of Chessed and Geburah so that you can navigate the function pillars crucial for practical Magick.
A method advocated by Phyllis Seckler and modern David Shoemaker for the third is:
Identifying your excess, and
Actively invoking the opposite.
Unlike conventional banishing, this approach fosters a deeper integration of your whole being. And the rite to use for it is the Greater Hexagram a manual on which is on my Etsy store.
Recap
“Geburah is the necessary force that eliminates stagnation, enforces justice, and paves the way for transformation. It is not merely destruction but refinement — cutting away what no longer serves so that something better can emerge.”
— POTB
While this might seem reversed, I found that my path or practical Jupiter results and external expansion — is far more effective when I emphasize sephirotic or mystical Geburah to reach the right answers internally, purify my being, and move forward. But that’s just my opinion. Let me know if you agree. And thank you for your time!
Lowering the entropy of consciousness increases its quality, simultaneously necessitating the increasing of the stability and strength of the structure upholding it.