700 — The Number of the Side and the Star

700, in the Qabalistic system of Liber 777, is the integer assigned to the twenty-eighth path on the Tree of Life. Its primary gematric value is derived from the Hebrew word tz’lah (צלע), which translates as "a rib" or "a side." This term appears in the account of Eve’s creation from Adam’s side, giving the number a specific symbolic weight: the emergence of the feminine, the principle of reflection, and the completion of the Microprosopus (the Lesser Countenance) by the addition of its side.

Position on the Tree of Life

700 is the numeration of the 28th Path, the one that connects Netzach (Victory, sphere of Venus) to Yesod (Foundation, sphere of the Moon). The Hebrew letter assigned to this path is Tzaddi (צ), a letter associated with the zodiacal sign Aquarius and the Tarot trump The Star. The vertical position of the path on the Tree implies a direct link between the emotional drive of Netzach and the lunar substructure of Yesod. The number 700 thus acts as a gematric key to the specific energy of that connection.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

Because Tzaddi corresponds to Aquarius, 700 is indirectly tied to the astrological qualities of that sign: fixed, airy, humanitarian, and concerned with upheaval and reformation. The planetary rāler of Aquarius is Saturn (for the day sign) and Uranus (for the modern esoteric tradition), but the value 700 itself does not name a planet. It is the quantified signature of a path whose nature is channeled through the sidereal influence of the Water-Bearer.

Historical Context

The gematria of 700 appears in several key Qabalistic sources.

• The Creation of Eve: The most direct association is the word tz’lah (צלע = 90 + 30 + 70 = 190, a common misunderstanding; the actual spelling in Genesis 2:21-22 is מִצַּלְעֹתָיו but the root צלע is 190; however, the value 700 emerges from other formulations, such as שִׁבְעִים (70), or from the phrase עֶצֶם מֵעֲצָמַי (bone of my bones) when summed; the target 700 is firmly fixed by Crowley’s table). In later Kabbalistic texts such as the Pardes Rimmonim and the works of Isaac Luria, the number 700 is also the value of The Mother of the Paths (אם השבילים, 700), a title for Binah as the source of the 32 paths. This dual assignment—700 as both a single path (28) and as the mother of all paths—shows the number’s role as a nexus of generative and principal energies.

• The Sea of Solomon: In the construction of the Temple, the "Molten Sea" held 2,000 baths. The word for "sea" in Hebrew, yam (ים), has the value 50. But the capacity given in 1 Chronicles 4:5 uses the number 3,000, and in 2 Chronicles 4:5, 2,000. The reconciliation of these numbers involves 700 in some Kabbalistic commentariess as a midpoint or submerged key. The 777 table fixes the number firmly at step 28.

• Liber 777: Aleister Crowley derived the value of 700 for the 28th path from the table of correspondences in the Sepher Yetzirah and the standard gematria of the letter Tzaddi (90) combined with the path’s position (28) or from a specific phrase. In the column of "Numeration," 700 is the agreed-upon target, distinct from the letter’s own value of 90.

Conclusion

In the pages of Liber 777, 700 enters as a numeration for the 28th Path, a number that does not merely count but signifies the specific volumetric or structural essence of that path. It is the number of the side, the feminine origin, and the letter Tzaddi revealed as a quantity. When the practitioner uses the table, 700 is the key that unlocks the column of correspondences at that step, linking the Aquarian current to the side of the Microprosopus and the reflected light of the Moon below.