The Hebrew letter Daleth (ד) is the fourth character of the Hebrew alphabet, whose name derives from the Semitic word for 'door.' Its shape, a vertical line with a protruding corner, evokes the image of a tent flap or doorway, symbolizing a passage between inner and outer worlds, the threshold between the material and the spiritual.

Position on the Tree of Life

Daleth corresponds to Path 14 on the Tree of Life, connecting the sephirah Chokmah (Wisdom) to Binah (Understanding). This path represents the bridge between the first two emanations of the divine, a channel through which the raw creative force of Chokmah is received and shaped by the receptive intelligence of Binah. As a 'door,' Daleth is the gateway through which wisdom enters understanding.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

In the Hermetic Qabalah, Daleth is assigned to the planet Venus (Nogah in Hebrew). This correspondence links the letter to love, beauty, harmony, and the generative forces of nature. Venus, as the evening and morning star, embodies the dual aspects of desire and spiritual aspiration, reflecting the letter's role as a threshold between the physical and the divine. The association also ties Daleth to the goddesses of love and war, such as Ishtar and Aphrodite, and to the alchemical principle of conjunction.

Historical context

The earliest known inscriptions of the Proto-Sinaitic script, from which Hebrew derives, depict Daleth as a simplified drawing of a door or fish. In the Hebrew Bible, the letter appears in the acrostic structure of Psalm 119, where each verse in the fourth section begins with Daleth, emphasizing themes of humility and the opening of the heart to divine law. The Sefer Yetzirah, an early Jewish mystical text, describes Daleth as one of the twelve 'simple letters' corresponding to the twelve zodiacal signs, though in later Qabalistic tradition it is classified among the seven 'double letters' (those with both hard and soft pronunciations), aligning it with Venus and the sphere of Tiphareth. In the Zohar, Daleth is associated with the Shekhinah, the divine presence, as the 'door' through which the divine enters the world. Medieval Qabalists, such as those in the Bahir, further developed the symbolism of Daleth as the gateway to the hidden wisdom of the Torah.

In Aleister Crowley's Liber 777, Daleth appears in the row for Hebrew Letters at scale step 14 (Path 14). Its correspondences include the number 4, the planet Venus, the color green, the perfume of rose and myrtle, and the magical image of a beautiful woman crowned with stars. This placement reinforces the letter's role as a conduit for love, beauty, and the creative power of the divine feminine.