- Qliphoth (קליפות) means "husks," "shells," or "peels".
- They are the remnants of previous, broken worlds—in some interpretations, they are vessels that could not hold the divine light and shattered (a concept found in Lurianic Kabbalah as the "Breaking of the Vessels").
- The Qliphoth are seen as forces of imbalance, chaos, and impurity, often linked to demonic or adversarial energies.
2. The Inverse Sephiroth
Each Qliphothic realm is the shadow or perversion of the corresponding Sephirah on the Tree of Life.
Sephirah | Qliphothic Counterpart | Meaning |
Kether (Crown) | Thaumiel ("Twins of God") | Division, conflict, anti-unity |
Chokmah (Wisdom) | Ghogiel ("Those Who Hinder") | Rebellion against divine wisdom |
Binah (Understanding) | Satariel ("Concealers") | Obscured knowledge, illusion |
Chesed (Mercy) | Gamchicoth ("Devourers") | Perverted benevolence, blind indulgence |
Geburah (Severity) | Golab ("Burners") | Destructive, unrestrained force |
Tiphareth (Beauty) | Tagiriron ("Disputers") | Corrupt beauty, deception |
Netzach (Victory) | Gharab ("Ravens of Dispersion") | Chaos instead of victory |
Hod (Glory) | Samael ("The Poison of God") | Lies, illusion, falsehood |
Yesod (Foundation) | Gamaliel ("The Obscene Ones") | Perversion of dreams and sexuality |
Malkuth (Kingdom) | Lilith ("Queen of the Night") | The void, inversion of the material world |
In the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah, and Hermetic Qabalah, the qlippoth, are the representation of evil or impure spiritual forces in Jewish mysticism, the opposites of the Sefirot. The realm of evil is called Sitra Achra in Kabbalistic texts.
The qlippoth are first mentioned in the Zohar, where they are described as being created by God to function as a nutshell for holiness.3 The text subsequently relays an esoteric interpretation of the text of Genesis creation narrative in Genesis 1:14, which describes God creating the moon and sun to act as "luminaries" in the sky. The verse uses a defective spelling of the Hebrew word for "luminaries", resulting in a written form identical to the Hebrew word for "curses". In the context of the Zohar, interpreting the verse as calling the moon and sun "curses" is given mystic significance, personified by a description of the moon descending into the realm of Beri'ah, where it began to belittle itself and dim its own light, both physically and spiritually. The resulting darkness gave birth to the qlippoth.4 Reflecting this, they are thenceforth generally synonymous with "darkness" itself.56
Later, the Zohar gives specific names to some of the qlippot, relaying them as counterparts to certain sephirot: Mashchith (Hebrew: מַשְׁחִית, romanized: mašḥīṯ, lit. 'destroyer') to Chesed, Af (Hebrew: אַף, romanized: ʾap̄, lit. 'anger') to Gevurah, and Hema (Hebrew: חֵמָה, romanized: ḥēmā, lit. 'wrath') to Tiferet.7 It also names Avon (Hebrew: עָוֹן, romanized: ʿāvōn, lit. 'iniquity'),8 Tohu (Hebrew: תֹהוּ, romanized: tōhū, lit. 'formless'), Bohu (Hebrew: בֹהוּ, romanized: bōhū, lit. 'void'), Esh (Hebrew: אֵשׁ, romanized: ʿēš, lit. 'fire'), and Tehom (Hebrew: תְּהוֹם, romanized: təhōm, lit. 'deep'),9 but does not relate them to any corresponding sefira. Though the Zohar clarifies that each of the sefirot and qlippoth are 1:1, even down to having equivalent partzufim, it does not give all of their names.