Silver is a lustrous white metal, but as a color it denotes a cool, reflective grey-white sheen, often associated with moonlight, purity, and value. The English word derives from Old English seolfor, from Proto-Germanic silubra, ultimately from a non-Indo-European source, possibly Anatolian. In alchemical and Qabalistic tradition, silver is the metal of the Moon, embodying receptivity, intuition, and the feminine principle.

Position on the Tree of Life

Silver is the Queen Scale of Colour for Path 13, the twenty-second letter Gimel (ג). This path runs from Kether (Crown) to Tiphareth (Beauty), crossing the Abyss and linking the highest unity to the central solar sphere. Gimel means “camel,” symbolizing the ability to carry nourishment across the desert of the Abyss. The path is ruled by the Moon, and its color in the Queen Scale (the passive, receptive aspect of the divine feminine) is silver—the color of reflected light, of the lunar disk, and of the hidden currents of the unconscious.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

The Moon (Levana) is the sole planetary ruler of Path 13. Silver is the metal sacred to the Moon, and its color mirrors the pale, shifting light of the lunar phases. In astrological magic, silver is used for talismans of intuition, dreams, and emotional balance. The Queen Scale’s silver aligns with the Moon’s nocturnal, watery nature, contrasting with the gold of Tiphareth (the Sun) and the white brilliance of Kether.

Historical Context

In the Western esoteric tradition, silver has been linked to the Moon since antiquity. The Chaldean Oracles describe the lunar sphere as “silver-shining,” and medieval grimoires prescribe silver for scrying mirrors and amulets of Diana or Hecate. In the Zohar, the left pillar of severity is associated with silver, reflecting the Moon’s waning and mysterious aspect. Alchemists called silver luna, the fixed, white metal that could be “killed” and revived in the opus; its color represented the albedo stage, the purification of the soul. In the Hermetic Qabalah of the Golden Dawn, the Queen Scale of Colour for Gimel is explicitly silver, as recorded in Crowley’s Liber 777. This scale is the feminine, receptive counterpart to the King Scale, and silver here denotes the Moon’s passive, reflective power—the light that reveals hidden forms without burning.

In Liber 777, the Queen Scale of Colour for Path 13 (Gimel) is given as Silver, a precise hue that captures the lunar essence of the path. This silver is not a metallic glitter but a soft, luminous grey-white, the color of the full moon seen through a veil of cloud, or the surface of a still lake at midnight.