Pathjoins 7–9 designates the twenty-eighth path of the Tree of Life, the direct link between Netzach (Victory, seventh sephirah) and Yesod (Foundation, ninth sephirah). The term itself is literal: it names the connection that runs between these two spheres, neither of which lies on the central pillar. In Hebrew, this path is associated with the letter Tzaddi and with the astrological sign Aquarius in most traditional correspondences, though in some systems its attribution shifts to the Moon. The path’s number in the Order is 28, the third path of the second triad of the Tree, descending from the right pillar to the middle pillar by way of Yesod.

Position on the Tree of Life

Path 28 occupies the lower section of the Tree, bridging the fifth and sixth planes. It begins at Netzach on the right pillar, crosses the lower face of the Abyss, and terminates at Yesod on the middle pillar. This diagonal trajectory makes it a conduit between the emotional drive of Netzach and the formative, receptive base of Yesod. In the diagram of the thirty-two paths, it is the first path to enter the seventh plane (the plane of Malkuth) indirectly, through Yesod’s position as the last sephirah above the material world.

Historical context

The earliest known Jewish mystical texts do not enumerate the paths as separate entities; the thirty-two paths first appear in the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation), where the “twenty-two paths” are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The specific list of connections between the ten sephiroth—the paths as we know them—was developed in later medieval Kabbalah, particularly in the works of the Geronese circle and in the Zohar. By the time of Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria, the schematic arrangement of the paths had become a standard feature of the Tree diagram. Path 28 (Tzaddi) appears in these classical diagrams as the diagonal from Netzach to Yesod, often receiving the astrological sign Aquarius in the system that assigns twenty-two letters to the twelve zodiacal signs, three mother letters, and seven planets.

In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the path was given the name “The Moon” when the correspondence to the Hebrew letter Tzaddi was shifted to the twenty-eighth path, while some later Thelemic sources reassigned it to the letter Tzaddi and the zodiacal sign Aquarius as part of a larger reform. Liber 777 reflects the Golden Dawn attribution: Path 28 corresponds to Tzaddi and the sign Aquarius, though the table given here lists no specific astrological or planetary symbol for this cell. The path’s function as a connector between Netzach and Yesod was discussed by Aleister Crowley in The Book of Thoth and in his 777, where he linked the path to the card The Star in the tarot (the Atu that follows Tzaddi), emphasizing themes of vision, hope, and the flow of spiritual energy into form.

The historical significance of Pathjoins 7–9 lies in its position as a “bridge of desire”: Netzach represents the instincts, passions, and natural victory of life, while Yesod represents the astral body, the subconscious, and the foundation of individual existence. The path between them governs the way raw emotional force becomes shaped into dreams, intuitions, and psychic impressions before reaching the physical world through Malkuth.

In the Liber 777 table under the source column “The Tree of Life,” this row appears simply as the step number 28, labeled “Pathjoins 7–9.” It carries no further correspondences in the adjacent cells of that specific table row; the name itself is the primary entry.