Thagirion

Thagirion is the qliphah associated with the sephirah Tiferet in the kabbalistic Tree of life. It means the disputers, the painful movers, and the demons called the Zomiel are attributed to it, great black giants that are always working against each other.

Tiferet is the sephirah of harmony, and the balance of different forces, which in particular balances the giving powers of Chesed, Loving kindness, with the restaining power of Geburah, restraint. Implicit in the idea of balancing and synthesis is also the idea of stress and strain, and the swinging backwards and forth between the different forces. Chesed and Geburah often work against each other, and the pendulum must be allowed to swing between them. If the pendulum is forced to stay still, in the middle, due to an excess of Tiferet, then undue stress and pain is felt, as these forces are not given room to breathe. Therefore Tiferet, beauty, becomes Thagirion, the disputers.

Thagirion plays a role similar though inverse to that of Tiferet in the Tree of Life, in stopping the different forces from falling apart from each other, and maintaining the shape of the tree, although in the case of Thagirion, it maintains and sustains the ugly and evil forces together.

Another important role of Tiferet is that of Saviour, and in Christian Kabbalah it is through Tiferet, the Son, that the father is known. Thagirion could be said to be the negative aspect of this dogma, the harsher doctrines that condemn all who dare defy their particular brand of beauty to everlasting hell and fire.

References