Tiphareth

Beauty (also Rachamim, Compassion)

The Sixth Path is called the Mediating Intelligence, because in it are multiplied the influxes of the emanations; for it causes that influence to flow into all the reservoirs of the blessings with which they themselves are united.
The 6th Path, the Mediating Intelligence: The 32 Paths of Wisdom, trans. Westcott

Correspondences

Number: 6 of the ten
Meaning: Beauty (also Rachamim, Compassion)
Pillar: Middle Pillar
Triad: Ethical Triad (its lower point and the centre of the whole Tree)
World: Yetzirah
Divine name (Atziluth): YHVH Eloah va-Daath יהוה אלוה ודעת
God made manifest in the sphere of the mind
Archangel (Briah): Raphael רפאל
the Healer of God; some Golden Dawn papers give Michael here and Raphael in Hod
Angelic choir (Yetzirah): Malachim מלכים
the Kings
Mundane chakra (Assiah): Shemesh שמש
the Sun
Colours: King: Clear rose pink · Queen: Yellow (gold) · Prince: Rich salmon · Princess: Golden amber
Magical image: A majestic king; a child; a sacrificed god
Spiritual experience: The Vision of the Harmony of Things; the Mysteries of the Crucifixion
Virtue: Devotion to the Great Work
Vice: Pride
Titles: Zoar Anpin (Zeir Anpin), the Lesser Countenance (Microprosopus); Melekh, the King; Adam; the Son; the Bridegroom; Rachamim
Symbols: The lamen; the Rosy Cross; the Calvary cross; the truncated pyramid; the cube
Tarot: The four Sixes, and the four Princes (Kings in the Waite deck)
In the body: The breast, the heart
Part of the soul: Ruach, the conscious self, at its centre
Grade: Adeptus Minor 5°=6□, the first grade of the Golden Dawn’s Inner Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis
Qliphoth: Thagirion (Tagiriron), the disputers or litigators, who strive against beauty; arch-demon(s): Belphegor
Gods (777): Egyptian: Ra, Asar (Osiris), Hrumachis · Greek: Iacchus, Apollo, Adonis · Roman: Apollo · Hindu: Vishnu, Hari, Krishna, Rama
Precious stone: Topaz; yellow diamond
Plant: Acacia; bay; laurel; vine
Animal: Phoenix; lion; child
Perfume: Olibanum (frankincense)
Magical weapon: The lamen or Rosy Cross

In Jewish Kabbalah

Tiferet is the trunk of the divine body and the centre of the six sephiroth of Zeir Anpin, the Lesser Countenance. It is Rachamim, compassion, the harmony of Chesed and Gevurah; it is identified with Jacob, who balanced his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham; and it is the Written Torah, “the Holy One, blessed be He”, whose union with the Shekhinah in Malkhut is the goal of every commandment. The Zohar calls it Heaven (Shamayim, read as esh and mayim, fire and water reconciled).

In the Golden Dawn and Thelema

Tiphareth is the heart of the Golden Dawn system. The Adeptus Minor ritual takes place in the Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz, a seven-sided chamber representing Tiphareth, in which the candidate is bound to the Cross of Suffering and rises as a Rose-Cross Adept. It is here that the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is attained (Crowley’s Adeptus Minor, the central task of the A∴A∴). The sun-gods who die and are reborn (Osiris, Adonis, Dionysus, Christ) all belong to Tiphareth, and the Sixes of the Thoth deck (Victory, Pleasure, Science, Success) show each element in perfect balance.

Dion Fortune

Fortune calls Tiphareth the place where the higher self and the personality meet: the point of incarnation of the divine, “the Christ-centre”. Its three images (king, child and sacrificed god) are the three faces of the redeemer: the ruler, the innocent, and the one who gives himself up. Its vice is pride, the self that forgets it is a vessel. Everything on the Tree flows through Tiphareth: it touches eight other stations by paths, more than any other sephirah.

In the Tarot

Each sephirah rules the four small cards of its number. From two to ten, each card is also one of the 36 decans of the zodiac, ruled by a planet in a sign, following the Golden Dawn’s Book T.

Card	Thoth title	Book T title	Decan
6 of Wands	Victory	Lord of Victory	Jupiter in Leo
6 of Cups	Pleasure	Lord of Pleasure	Sun in Scorpio
6 of Swords	Science	Lord of Earned Success	Mercury in Aquarius
6 of Disks	Success	Lord of Material Success	Moon in Taurus

The four Princes also belong here: the airy, active part (Kings in the Waite deck). In the Waite deck: King of Wands, King of Cups, King of Swords, King of Pentacles.

Paths from Tiphareth

Read further

Tiphareth on Wikipediaoverview of the Jewish and Hermetic sources
Sepher Yetzirah and the 32 Paths of WisdomW. Wynn Westcott, trans., 1887
The Kabbalah UnveiledS. L. MacGregor Mathers, from Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata, 1887
Liber 777 RevisedAleister Crowley, 1909/1955
The Book of ThothAleister Crowley, 1944
The Golden DawnIsrael Regardie, ed., 1937–40
A Garden of PomegranatesIsrael Regardie, 1932
The Mystical QabalahDion Fortune, 1935
The Pictorial Key to the TarotA. E. Waite, 1910
The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the AgesPaul Foster Case, 1947
A Practical Guide to Qabalistic SymbolismGareth Knight, 1965

Also in the background throughout: Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (1974) and Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941), for the Jewish tradition as historians understand it; Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah (1990); Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden (1977), for the Qliphoth; Robert Wang, The Qabalistic Tarot (1983).