Hod Key Facts
In Jewish Kabbalah
- Number
- 8 of 10
- Hebrew
- הוד, pronounced hohd
- Meaning
- Splendour
- Pillar
- Pillar of Severity, at its base
- Triad
- The seven lower sephirot (middot)
- Divine name
- Elohim Tzevaot (אלהים צבאות), "of hosts"
- Partzuf
- Part of Ze'ir Anpin (Lurianic)
- Other spellings
- Glory, Majesty
In Hermetic Qabalah (Golden Dawn)
- Archangel
- Michael (Raphael in some lists)
- Planet / sphere
- Mercury (Kokab)
- Colour (Queen scale)
- Orange
- Virtue
- Truthfulness
- Vice
- Falsehood, dishonesty
- Tarot
- The four Eights
Hod is the eighth of the ten sephirot: splendour and majesty, and the yielding that answers Netzach's push. It stands at the foot of the Pillar of Severity, across the Tree from Netzach. This page keeps two traditions apart — Jewish Kabbalah, where the sephirot come from, and the Hermetic Qabalah of the 19th century, which added angels, planets and tarot cards.
What does Hod mean?
Hod (הוד) means splendour, majesty or glory, and it is the last of the five attributes named in order in 1 Chronicles 29:11. Where Netzach is the drive to prevail, Hod is the radiance of something that does not need to — the long-read's "yielding, receptivity, the counterweight to Netzach's push".
Hasidic teaching, Chabad above all, links Hod with hoda'ah, acknowledgement or thanks, and reads the sephirah as humility: the splendour of yielding, of admitting what is true, of giving way without being diminished. On the Tree it does for Netzach what Gevurah does for Chesed higher up — it gives a force its shape.
Hod on the Tree of Life
Hod stands at the base of the Pillar of Severity, below Gevurah, facing Netzach across the Tree. Both feed into Yesod on the Middle Pillar below. Diagrams mirror left and right, so learn the pillar by Binah at its head.
Five paths touch Hod on the familiar Western diagram: from Gevurah and Tiferet above, across to Netzach, and down to Yesod and Malkhut. Sefer Yetzirah ties the 22 paths to the 22 Hebrew letters, but it never says which letter joins which pair of sephirot; that wiring is a much later construction, and versions of it disagree.
Hod in Jewish Kabbalah
- Divine name. Hod is paired with Elohim Tzevaot (אלהים צבאות), "God of hosts" — the name of judgement on the left, answering Netzach's YHVH Tzevaot on the right.
- Aaron and prophecy. In the custom of ushpizin on Sukkot, Hod belongs to Aaron the priest, the guest of the fifth night. With Netzach it is the Zohar's source of prophecy.
- Partzuf. In the Lurianic system of the 16th century Hod is part of Ze'ir Anpin, the Small Face. The Tikkunei Zohar's passage Patach Eliyahu calls Hod and Netzach the two thighs.
Hod has the most famous date on the Omer calendar. The 33rd day of Sefirat ha-Omer is Hod within Hod, and it is Lag BaOmer, a day of celebration traditionally linked with the death anniversary of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, to whom the Zohar is attributed. Bonfires and a mass pilgrimage to his tomb at Meron still mark it.
Everything in the second half of the panel is Hermetic, not Jewish. Archangels, planets, colour scales, virtues and tarot cards on the sephirot come from Western occultism — Renaissance occult philosophy, then Éliphas Lévi in the 1850s and the Golden Dawn after 1888. They are a consistent system — and a later overlay on a medieval Jewish structure.
Hod in Hermetic Qabalah
The Golden Dawn, founded in 1888, kept the name Hod. Its sphere is Mercury, Kokab; its Queen-scale colour is orange. The Golden Dawn, Crowley's Liber 777 and Dion Fortune give the archangel Michael, though some later lists swap him with Raphael of Tiphareth. Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah (1935) gives the virtue truthfulness, the vices falsehood and dishonesty, and calls Hod "especially the Sphere of Magic".
In tarot the four Eights sit on Hod: the Eight of Wands, Eight of Cups, Eight of Swords and Eight of Pentacles. Book T titles them Swiftness, Abandoned Success, Shortened Force and Prudence. The paths from Hod carry The Hanged Man (Mem), The Devil (Ayin), The Tower (Peh), The Sun (Resh) and Judgement (Shin).
Hod in meditation and practice
Beyond Lag BaOmer, Hod's practice in Jewish life is acknowledgement: giving thanks, conceding a point, letting another be right. Modern Omer guides use its week to examine humility — the capacity to yield without resentment, and to see splendour that is not one's own.
In the Golden Dawn grade system Hod is Practicus, 3=8. Because Hermetic Qabalah gives Hod to Mercury — language, symbol and the formulation of forms — it is treated as the natural home of study and ceremonial ritual. Fortune's magical image for it is a hermaphrodite, a figure holding both sides of a polarity.
What is Jewish and what is Hermetic
| Hod | Where it comes from | When |
|---|---|---|
| Name, "splendour, majesty" | Hebrew Bible, then Bahir and Zohar | Biblical word, medieval sephirah |
| Elohim Tzevaot; Aaron; Lag BaOmer as Hod within Hod | Jewish Kabbalah and custom | Medieval onward |
| Part of Ze'ir Anpin; one of the two thighs | Tikkunei Zohar; Lurianic Kabbalah | 14th–16th century |
| Michael, Mercury, orange; truthfulness | Golden Dawn; Dion Fortune | 1880s–1930s |
| The four Eights; Hanged Man, Devil, Tower, Sun, Judgement on its paths | Lévi, then the Golden Dawn | 1850s onward |
Hod follows Netzach, its partner across the Tree, and both flow into Yesod, the next sephirah. See all ten sephirot on the Tree, or read the Kabbalah Tree of Life explained for how the pillars and paths work together, and Kabbalah for beginners for the difference between the traditions.
What does Hod mean?
Hod (הוד) is Hebrew for "splendour", also majesty or glory. It is the eighth sephirah on the Tree of Life, at the base of the Pillar of Severity: yielding, form and acknowledgement, the counterweight to Netzach's drive.
What does Hod have to do with Lag BaOmer?
Lag BaOmer is the 33rd day of the Omer count, and in the Kabbalistic pairing of days with sephirot that day is Hod within Hod. It is traditionally linked with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, to whom the Zohar is attributed.
Which tarot cards belong to Hod?
In Hermetic Qabalah the four Eights sit on Hod, and its paths carry the Hanged Man, the Devil, the Tower, the Sun and Judgement. These are Golden Dawn attributions from the 19th century, not part of Jewish Kabbalah.
What is the planet of Hod?
Mercury, in Hermetic Qabalah, with the colour orange and usually the archangel Michael. The planetary spheres on the sephirot are a Hermetic table; in Sefer Yetzirah the seven planets belong to the seven double letters, not to the sephirot.