Chashmalim are “the Fiery Ones,” an order of angels whose name derives from the Hebrew root chashmal (חשמל), a word appearing in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision to describe a brilliant, glowing substance—sometimes translated as “electrum” or “burnished bronze.” In Kabbalistic tradition, the Chashmalim are the “speaking fires” or “silent voices,” beings of pure, articulate light that mediate between the divine silence and created sound. Their very name suggests a paradoxical union: chash (silence) and mal (speech), indicating that they embody the point where profound stillness becomes the Word.

Position on the Tree of Life

The Chashmalim serve as the angelic choir of Tiphereth (the sixth sephirah) in the world of Briah (the Creative World). Tiphereth is Beauty, Harmony, and the central heart of the Tree—the reconciling sun that balances Mercy and Severity. The Chashmalim are therefore the harmonizing forces that transform raw divine energy into radiant, ordered splendour. They are the fiery voices that sing the pattern of Creation into being, their flames not consuming but illuminating and integrating.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

In the system of Liber 777, Tiphereth corresponds to the Sun. The Chashmalim are thus solar angels, their nature being the direct, life-giving radiance of the central star. They represent the fiery essence of consciousness, the point of self-awareness and identity that shines from the heart of the microcosm and macrocosm alike. Their fire is not the destructive blaze of severity but the generative, steady glow of the sun at noon—stable, majestic, and all-revealing.

Historical context

The primary source for the Chashmalim is the Book of Ezekiel (chapter 1). There, the prophet describes a vision of the Divine Chariot (Merkabah): “…out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. …the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning (chashmal).” The term recurs in verse 27: “And I saw as the colour of chashmal, as the appearance of fire round about within it…” This ‘electrum’ was a brilliant, metal-like radiance surrounding the divine throne.

Later Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the Talmud (Hagigah 13b) and the Zohar, developed the Chashmalim into a distinct angelic order. The Talmud recounts a story of a child who, while studying the Merkabah, saw a flash of chashmal and was consumed by fire, demonstrating the perilous holiness of this angelic level. Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah (Yesodei ha-Torah 2:8), lists the Chashmalim as the fourth order of angels in the system of ten ranks, placing them precisely in the sphere of Tiphereth.

In later Kabbalah, the Chashmalim are the angels of the sephirah of Beauty, responsible for transmitting the divine influx from the higher sephirot (Chesed and Gevurah) and weaving it into the soul’s inner harmony. The 777 system of Aleister Crowley codifies this tradition, locating the Chashmalim as the Briatic choir of Tiphereth—the fiery, speaking beings that make the Sun’s glory audible to the mystical ear.

In Liber 777

At scale step 6 (Tiphereth), in the column Choirs of Angels in Briah, the Chashmalim stand as the angelic choir for the central sephirah of Beauty. Their place in the table reflects their role as the harmonizing flames that speak the solar radiance into being, bridging the silence of the highest heavens with the articulate creation of the lower worlds.