Levanah (לבנה) is the Hebrew name for the Moon, meaning literally “white” or “pale”—a direct reference to the lunar disc’s silvery radiance in the night sky. In the Kabbalistic cosmology of the Thirty-two Paths, Levanah is assigned to the ninth Sephirah, Yesod (Foundation), and is the celestial sphere that mediates between the fixed stars and the mutable earth. As the Moon, she is the light that is not her own but is borrowed from the Sun, a symbol of the receptive, feminine principle and of the astral plane that shapes and reflects the lower worlds.

Position on the Tree of Life

Levanah corresponds to Yesod, the ninth Sephirah on the Middle Pillar. Yesod is the foundation of the Tree, the storehouse of images and the vehicle through which the energies of the higher Sephiroth are transmitted to Malkuth. The Moon here represents the astral light, the ethereal substance that receives, preserves, and transmits all impressions. In the Heavens of Assiah—the material world of action—Levanah is the sphere that governs the subtle body, the imagination, and the tides of generation and decay.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

In the planetary series of Assiah, Levanah stands at the ninth step, between Kokab (Mercury) on the eighth path and Cholem Yesodoth (the elements of the sphere of the Moon) on the tenth. The Moon is the closest of the celestial bodies to the earth, and in astrological tradition she rules the night, the tides, the growth of plants, and the cycles of women. In the symbolism of the Golden Dawn and Liber 777, the Moon is associated with the number nine, the nine months of gestation, and the ninefold structure of the Sephiroth below Kether.

Historical context

The name Levanah appears in biblical Hebrew poetry, most notably in the Song of Songs 6:10: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon (le‑vanah), clear as the sun?” The term is used alongside yareach, the more common word for moon, but le‑vanah emphasizes the white, pure quality of the lunar light. In Talmudic and medieval Kabbalistic astronomy, the Moon is described as the sphere that makes one revolution around the earth each month, and its light is said to be derived from the Sun—a doctrine found in the Zohar and later in the writings of sixteenth‑century Kabbalists such as Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria. The moon’s diminution and renewal were seen as symbols of the Shekhinah, the divine presence in exile, and were linked to the lunar calendar that determines the Jewish festivals.

In Western esotericism, the lunar sphere began to receive systematic treatment in the Renaissance, with figures such as Marsilio Ficino and Cornelius Agrippa assigning to the Moon the angelic orders of the Elohim or the Kerubim in some schemes. The Sepher Yetzirah lists the paths connecting the Sephiroth, and among them the lunar path (the 22nd path) is attributed to the Moon. By the time of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Moon’s correspondences had been thoroughly codified: she was given the number 9, the color violet, the perfume of jasmine or moonwort, and the divine name Shaddai El Chai (Almighty Living God) for the sphere of Yesod. The astrological sign of Cancer was considered the house of the Moon, and the element of water was seen as its essential nature.

In the Tables of Liber 777

In the column for the Heavens of Assiah, the name Levanah appears at step 9 (Yesod) as the specific designation for the lunar sphere in the material universe. The neighboring spheres in the same column—Kokab at step 8 and Cholem Yesodoth at step 10—complete the planetary series: Mercury, Moon, and the mixed elements of the lunar sphere, respectively. Levanah thus holds the central place in the threefold lunar complex of Assiah, serving as the bridge between the mental world of Hod and the elemental foundations of Malkuth.