The Leopard’s head and gryphon’s wings form a composite magical image unique to the 18th Path of the Tree of Life. The leopard symbolises swiftness, ferocity, and keen sight—attributes of the hunter who strikes without hesitation. The gryphon, a classical hybrid of lion and eagle, lends the majesty of the king of beasts and the mastery of the skies. Together they represent a fusion of earthly predation and solar, aerial power, a being that sees all and descends with lethal speed.

Position on the Tree of Life

This image corresponds to the 18th Path (the navigable line connecting the sephiroth), which on the Qabalistic diagram runs between Binah (Understanding) and Geburah (Severity). The path is named Teth, meaning “serpent,” and its associated Hebrew letter is Teth, number 9. The serpentine nature of this path suggests winding, transformative energy, and the leopard-gryphon embodies this coiled, sudden power.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

The 18th Path is under the zodiacal sign Leo, the Lion. The Sun rules Leo, placing this image under a solar, kingly influence. The leopard shares the cat-family royalty of Leo, while the gryphon’s wings lift the earthbound lion into the realm of the Sun’s direct radiance. The image expresses the essential nature of Leo: the fierce pride, the regal bearing, and the ability to dominate from above.

Historical context

In medieval bestiaries, the gryphon (griffin) was often depicted with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, a guardian of treasure and symbol of Christ’s dual nature (human and divine). The substitution of “leopard’s head” in this path is anomalous and striking. Leopards in European heraldry and folklore were considered fierce, sometimes synonymous with the pard—a beast said to be a hybrid of lion and panther. The Zohar and later Qabalistic texts describe the Path of Teth as the “tent of the serpent,” a coiled channel of life force. The 18th Path image appears in the Magical Images column of Liber 777 as compiled by Aleister Crowley, a table of correspondences drawn from the hermetic Qabalah. Crowley likely derived the image from earlier grimoire traditions or from a synthesis of bestiary and alchemical emblems, reflecting the path’s aggressive, vital, and solar nature.

In Liber 777, this magical image (Leopard’s head and gryphon’s wings) is the prescribed form for visualisation and ritual focus when working on the 18th Path. It is part of a series of path images that include, on other steps, a lion with an ass’s head (Path 16), a crowned king on a dromedary (Path 17), and a human-faced bull (Path 22). Each presents a theriomorphic or hybrid form that condenses the path’s spiritual and astrological force into a single, meditative picture.