Epsilon (Ε ε) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet. Its name, epsilon (ἒ ψιλόν), means “bare e” or “simple e,” distinguishing it from the digraph αι (which later came to be pronounced the same). In the ancient numeral system, epsilon has a value of 5. The Phoenician letter he (𐤄) gave rise to epsilon; the Semitic glyph represented a window or a lattice and originally carried the consonant sound /h/. The Greeks, who lacked this phoneme, refitted the symbol to represent the vowel /e/.

Position on the Tree of Life

Epsilon occupies Scale Step 15, corresponding to Path 15 on the Tree of Life. This path connects Chokmah (Wisdom) to Tiphereth (Beauty) and is assigned to the Hebrew letter He (ה). The 15th path is the “Constituting Intelligence,” which unites the primal substance of Chokmah with the harmonizing center of Tiphereth. As a Greek letter on this path, epsilon carries the formative, creative breath of He, the letter associated with the womb, the window, and the idea of manifestation through the Word.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

Path 15 is traditionally attributed to the zodiac sign Aries (♈), the Ram, the first of the fiery signs. Aries is the exaltation of the Sun and the house of Mars. The epsilon, as the Greek equivalent of He, thus participates in the martial, initiating energy of Aries—pure will breaking forth into expression. The letter’s numerical value, 5, further echoes the five-pointed star (the pentagram) and the five elements of the microcosm, reinforcing a correspondence with the active, projective principle.

Historical context

Epsilon entered the Greek alphabet during the 8th century BCE, appearing in the earliest Euboean and Attic inscriptions. Originally simply called ei (εῖ), it was only in the medieval period that the name epsilon was coined to distinguish it from the digraph αι, which had merged in pronunciation. In the Classical period, epsilon was used for the short open /e/ sound, while the letter eta (Η) represented the long open /e/. The letter’s formal shape—a rounded crescent with a central bar—remained stable for nearly three millennia.

In the magical and gnostic traditions that feed Liber 777, epsilon acquires a rich symbolic texture. The Chaldæan Oracles (fragment 37) speak of the “three-lettered name” inscribed in the sphere of Aries, a cryptic reference that later theurgists linked to the three-barred forms of epsilon. Among the Pythagoreans, the letter was sacred: the Epsilon of Delphi (a capital epsilon carved above the temple entrance) bore two mottoes: ΕΙ (thou art) and ΕΥ (well). The first was the name of the god; the second, the predicate of the good. This epsilon stands for the second person of the Delphic triad, the son who is the manifested word.

In the Hermetic and Qabalistic synthesis of the Golden Dawn, epsilon is assigned to the 15th path and thereby to the Hebrew letter He. The five paths of Yetzirah that form the “backbone” of the Tree (paths 11 through 15) culminate in He and its Greek equivalent, representing the completed microcosm. The epsilon, with its rounded shape and central bar, was seen as a hieroglyph of the cosmic womb—the ruach (spirit) brooding over the waters—and the bar as the phallic axis, the yod entering the heh.

In the 777 table

At the intersection of Row LIII (The Greek Alphabet) and the column for Path 15 (the scale step), Liber 777 places the letter Ε ε. This single cell ties the formative vowel to the zodiac sign Aries, the Hebrew letter He, the fifth Sephirah Geburah (Strength, Severity), and the whole current of the 15th path. If the student contemplates this cell, they will find epsilon not as a mere character but as a living glyph of the creative breath taking form in Fire.