Has anybody ever made a paralel between the 7 main characters of Gaiman (Death, Destiny,Dream, etc) with the 7 sefirot of the kaballah?

Aren't there 10 Sefirot?

1. Kether (Crown)
2. Chochmah (Wisdom)
3. Binah (Understanding or Intelligence)
4. Hesed (Kindness) (I always called it "Mercy")
5. Geburah (Power)
6. Tipheret (Glory or Beauty)
7. Netzah (Firmness, Might, Victory)
8. Hod (Splendor)
9. Yesod (Foundation)
10. Malkut (Kingdom) (also called "Shekhinah")

Also, to make it work for even 7 sefirot, I think you'd need to use Delirium's former role as Delight. All the sefirot are positive attributes, and as much fun as Del can be in the stories, Delirium is not really a positive thing. (I've known enough truly mentally ill people to feel confident in that statement.)

BTW, I'm certain that Neil, with his wide knowledge of matters mythical and mystical, plus his Jewish upbringing, is familiar with the Sefirot, and probably much more.

- Cho

There might be an astrological linkage though as seven of the Sephirah have planetary correspondences and three do not. In order those are Binah (Saturn), Chesed (Jupiter), Geburah (Mars), Tiphareth (the Sun), Netzach (Venus), Hod (Mercury) and Yesod (the Moon).

For the Endless I *might* equate these to:

Binah - Death?
Chesed - Destiny?
Geburah - Destruction?
Tiphareth - Dream?
Netzach - Delirium/Delight?
Hod - Desire?
Yesod - Despair?

As the Sefirot can be considered as holographic energies, they are not Good or Evil, they are Everything on the same time.
I am trying to link the Endless with the first 7 Sefirot, form Malchut to Chessed, and I agree with The first of the Fallen ´s equate. I would only change linking Death to Malchut.
And Cho I also considered that there is some mystical judaism flowing through each Endless description, but in a ´reversed`point of view and not following the former Cabalistic concepts.

Why Hesed w/ Destiny? Surely Death is the one of the Endless most known for kindness/mercy?

Also, if Tepheret is associated w/ the Sun, I really can't see that working for Dream! Usually it's the Moon that's associated with the unconscious mind.

Is Hod associated w/ Desire because of the worldly connotations of "Splendor"?

You might want to consider too that Binah, Geburah, and Hod can be considered female (yes, Might is female) and Hesed, Chochmah, and Netzach, male (yes, the one associated w/ Venus is male). This is from the arrangement of the Sephirot into the Tree of life, where one of the outer "pillars" is male and one female.

I would imagine that there is no single "right" way to do this.

What exactly do you mean by "reversed" Judaism, Re?

Also note that I used "positive" and "negative" rather than "good" or "evil," and that was on purpose.

I'd be rather curious as to what the "other face" of mercy would be. Are you saying that Hesed could manifest as, say, cruelty? I don't think so ... but is there some source that suggests this?

I will frankly admit that most of my knowledge of Kabala is an outgrowth of the study of Tarot symbolism. But I also did some study of it eons ago for a paper I did on Medieval mysticism, comparing Jewish and Christian concepts during that time.

- Cho

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
Why Hesed w/ Destiny? Surely Death is the one of the Endless most known for kindness/mercy?

You`re quite right I should have reversed the placings for Death and Destiny but I`d placed the former in Binah because as the Dark Sterile Mother, she represents the principle of resistance. We are born into form with all the limitations on our ability to act that forces us to evolve as created beings. She is both the 'ticking clock' and the emblem of rebirth. Destiny was thus 'bumped' into Chesed because pre-destination represents a form of judgment or the application of Law.

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
Also, if Tepheret is associated w/ the Sun, I really can't see that working for Dream! Usually it's the Moon that's associated with the unconscious mind.

I don`t know about this one. I bought the association with Dream because in the graphic novels Dream ultimately sacrificed himself in order to be transfomed into something new - Daniel. You also have to remember the words of Thessaly in the wake when she compared Dream`s love for her to the reflection of the Sun on the Moon. At any rate the Visions associated with Tiphareth are those of Sacrifice (Which Dream does repeatedly, both himself and of others) and Harmony which he accomplishes by restoring order to his domain and appeasing the Kindly Ones.

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
Is Hod associated w/ Desire because of the worldly connotations of "Splendor"?

Hod was claimed by Desire because it is the Sephira in which magicians exercise their Art. It is in Hod that our conscious wills can create thought forms for the Gods. It is also the Sephira we must master to access the Treasure House of Images within Yesod. Which I also considered as you did as the placement of Desire before concluding to the majority of people it was better suited to Despair because it is in their we find our inner doubts reflected at us.

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
You might want to consider too that Binah, Geburah, and Hod can be considered female (yes, Might is female) and Hesed, Chochmah, and Netzach, male (yes, the one associated w/ Venus is male). This is from the arrangement of the Sephirot into the Tree of life, where one of the outer "pillars" is male and one female. - Cho

To be correct we are referring to the positive and negative polarities (Force and Form )here of which physical gender only represents within the earthly Kingdom of Malkuth. It also gets complicated by the fact that in the formation of the Sephiroth each Sephira is descended and thus receptive (feminine )to the preceding Sephira and projective (masculine) in relation to those that follow it. Thus Chesed is Mercy because it is the application of the constraint of form on the pure creative Force of Chokhmah and Geburah is Justice because it applies the merciful constrained force of Chesed to the Pillar of Form.

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
I would imagine that there is no single "right" way to do this.

Probably not.

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
Also note that I used "positive" and "negative" rather than "good" or "evil," and that was on purpose.

Indeed.

quote:

Originally posted by Chomiji:
I'd be rather curious as to what the "other face" of mercy would be. Are you saying that Hesed could manifest as, say, cruelty? I don't think so ... but is there some source that suggests this?

From my own hazy recollection this relates to the idea that all of the Sephira below Chokhmah - from Binah to Malkuth - possess a Vice which represents an unbalanced application of that Sephiroth`s qualities.. i.e the Mercy of Chesed can become over-indulgence, abuse or judgmentalism. It is on that basis that the justice of Geburah can become Cruelty and Fear. Try reading Dion Fortune`s The Mystical Qabalah or Gareth Knight`s A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism

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Originally posted by Chomiji:
I would imagine that there is no single "right" way to do this.

Originally posted by The First of the Fallen
Probably not.

Perfect!
I am delighted with your opinions. Porbably there is not only one way to match the Endless to the Sefirot, but it is very interesting the way you find and reveal the core of each one of them and their possible connection to the energy flashed through the Sefirot. I am still thinking on my own combination...

quote:

Also, to make it work for even 7 sefirot, I think you'd need to use Delirium's former role as Delight. All the sefirot are positive attributes, and as much fun as Del can be in the stories, Delirium is not really a positive thing. (I've known enough truly mentally ill people to feel confident in that statement.)

Just one small point, because I think that this sort of lies at the heart of Sandman: as the Greeks said, all things in moderation. There are things about Del that we can take to heart, like her spontaneity, honesty, and naivete. Other things, we can leave. A tiny amount of delirium is positive. Too much is not.

I can't help but notice that SimplySidhe, as of this posting has seven posts. I'll admit being mostly familiar with Kaballistc matters via "Focault's Pendulum" and "The Illuminatus Trilogy," but could SimplySidhe's posts be similarly analyzed in terms of their connections to the sefirot?

Nonsense, to the question of correspondence.

If you want to make it look like there is correspondence, you could argue (as above) that the top three emanations on the Tree--chokhmah, binah, and keter--exist on an even higher level and therefore don't factor in. Or you could say (as do the new agers who claim the Tree is analogous to the seven-chakra system)--Aha!--If I count the pairs of emanations as one rather than two, the number of emanations on the Tree adds up to seven!

You could do that. But I wouldn't buy it.

Oh, but it occurs to me one might have better luck associating the Endless with the seven major chakras. Not that I condone such excessive searching for correspondences.

quote:

All the sefirot are positive attributes

This is true, pretty much. It's more complicated than that, though. The left side of the Tree is regarded as feminine, while the right is masculine--and the bottom of the Tree is feminine while the top is masculine. Sometimes the feminine aspects of the Tree border on evil, depending on what source one is reading.

Also, in addition to the Tree of Life, there is a Tree of Death. The Tree of Death is made of the unclean klippot (shells) that sort of leaked from the sefirot.

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