Kabbalah is a form of Jewish mysticism. Like Gnosticism (which it's sometimes said to be descended from), in its most basic form, it concerns the division between the material world and a spiritual world of nothing but light. Due to a complicated chain of events, every human being has a fragment of this light in them, which is the soul. The realm of light is the Jewish god "as He is in Himself", AKA the godhead. This godhead has absolutely no qualities, as to give Him qualities is to limit Him; instead, He is said to contain and transcend anything and everything. However, He can manifest in the material world through ten virtues called "Sephirot" or "Sephiroth" (the singular is "Sephira"), and following these ten virtues makes a Kabbalist a more godly man until he shines with the Divine Light.
The origins of the doctrine depend on who you talk to. Either it took shape in 13th century Spain with a group of Jewish mystics, or it was divinely revealed to Moses during the Exodus, or even to Adam in the Garden of Eden, if you're a believer. Different Jewish denominations have different stances towards Kabbalah. More modern denominations, such as Reform and Conservative Judaism, think Kabbalah itself is nonsense but the academic study of Kabbalah is valid scholarship. Chassidic Judaism, on the other hand, takes Kabbalah pretty seriously, and Orthodox Judaism has views in both camps (and sometimes a position in the middle). It has reached wide popularity via a shiny, Power-of-Positive-Thinking version that Madonna has been wearing since about 1997, but this is only one of the dozens of movements trying to claim the word as their own. Books about Kabbalah tend to have less in common with one another than books about cooking do.
The word means "The Tradition" in Hebrew, and it usually means "The Secret Traditional Explanation of Everything," so it has been fights and collaborations between rivals since the beginning. Who wouldn't want to fight over that? The version of the Kabbalah that got big in 13th century Spain was deeply entrenched in the Jewish religion and tended to deal with the questions that bothered 13th century Jews, such as "Why are we following these Laws?" "How did the Universe come about?" "What's with all these contradictions in the Bible?" They weren't new questions, but kabbalists found some new ways of asking them, usually by looking for hidden messages in the Torah using mathematics, reading Hebrew words as numbers, and numbers as the stuff the universe is made of. Particulars were debated, but the hidden message tended to be that the Universe is made of parts that are out of harmony, but if all Jews were to follow Jewish Law, the universe would be fixed. The Zohar and the writings of Abulafia are the classic from this period, the first being more like sacred adventure stories, and the second being training manuals for prophets. They both claimed to have the ancient secrets, but they disagreed on most specifics.
And since then people have continued claiming that their newly discovered version of the ancient tradition is truer than all of the other newly discovered versions. In the Renaissance, Christians discover that the secrets were actually Christian secrets, and Masons later discover that those Christian secrets were also Egyptian or Babylonian secrets. People like Aleister Crowley discovered that these Masonic had always been magical secrets, or that they explained everything from Taoism to Quantum Physics. From the Jewish side, the "Ari" (an acronym meaning "Lion") Isaac Luria discovers some details about how our universe is on top of a shattered previous one, in the sixteenth century. Hasidism makes it folksy, dancey, and dynastic in the eighteenth century. The popular new ones are strange, but it would be hard to show that they were stranger than the ones that were new before.
- Keter (Kether) - the Crown. Represents consciousness, the connection between the human and divine.
- Chokhmah (Chokmah) - Wisdom. Represents creativity, intuition, male energy.
- Binah - Understanding. Represents stability, female energy.
- Chesed - Mercy, Kindness. Represents benevolence, order, laws.
- Gevurah (Geburah) - Power, Severity. Represents strength, courage, righteousness.
- Tiferet (Tiphereth) - Heart, Beauty. Represents individuality, coordination of parts, balance, symmetry.
- Netzach (Nezach) - Victory. Represents emotion, art.
- Hod - Glory, Splendor. Represents intellect, determination.
- Yesod - the Foundation. Represents energy, imagination, communication.
- Malkuth - the Kingdom. Represents the physical world and body, self-expression.
Additionally, there is Da'at (Daath), which is not numbered, but is the central state of unity of the other ten.
Some schools of the Kabbalah explored the theological nature of evil, and envisioned two concepts to conceive the existence of evil. Medieval Kabbalism conceived evil as an Evil Counterpart to the holy Sephirot, a realm of evil called the "Sitra Achra" (the "Other Side"), and the "Qliphoth" or "Kelipot" (the "Shells/Husks") are the representations of evil that concealed the holy.
Unlike the Sephiroth, the list of names of the Qliphoth is not concretely defined in foundational texts like the Zohar, and thus there are several different versions of the Qliphoth with minor/major differences between them, if they are even a part of the school's theology at all. The concept is much more heavily explored in non-Jewish Hermetic Qabalah, and most contemporary conceptions of "Evil Qliphoth" originate from these schools.
At some point in history, the concept of Qliphoth also intermingled with demonology, creating lists where Qliphoth concepts were associated with the names of demons.
The list of Qliphoth and associated demons that most pop culture uses (if they're not using William G. Gray version below) can be broadly traced to the writings of Ordo Templi Orientis member Bill Heidrick
, themselves based on earlier writings by Aleister Crowley and others.
- Thamiel (Thaumiel) - Satan and Moloch.
- Chaigidel (Ghagiel) - Beelzebub or Adam Belial.
- Sathariel (Satariel) - Lucifuge.
- Gamchicoth (Gha’agsheklah) - Astaroth.
- Golab (Golachab) - Asmodeus.
- Togaririm(n) (Thagiriron) - Belphegor.
- Harab Serapel (A’arab Zaraq) - Baal or Tubal Cain.
- Samael - Adrammelech.
- Gamaliel - Lilith.
- Nehemoth or Lilith - Nahema.
In 1984, English ceremonial magician William G. Gray wrote The Tree of Evil, which contained his own explorations into the Kabbalah and the Qliphoth. The list of Qliphoth developed by Gray consisted of the opposites of the representations of the Sephirot. This list of Qliphoth was significantly different from the Qliphoth "canon" made by Aleister Crowley.
This list of the Qliphoth was popularized in Japan in the late 1980s, and came to inspire many Japanese depictions of the Qliphoth. More bizarrely, at some point during the spread of this list, Gray's Qliphoth, which were originally written in English, were given Hebrew translations, and then re-Romanized into English. This creates a list of partially corrupted Hebrew words describing basic evil concepts that is attributed as a list of Qliphoth.
Even though Gray did not explore any demonological aspects of Qliphoth in his book, this list also became hybridized with Bill Heidrick's list of Qliphoth demons, creating a list of "Hebrew" Qliphoth and "Qliphoth Demons" that are almost completely detached from the concept's Kabbalistic origins.
Gray's of the Qliphoth (excluding number 0, "Darkness"), and their Hebrew "translations", are:
- Atheism ("Bacikal")
- Stupidity ("Iweleth")
- Antipathy ("Sheriruth")
- Apathy ("Adyeshach")
- Cruelty ("Akzeriyyuth")
- Ugliness, Inharmony ("Kaitul")
- Lust ("Shakah")
- Greed ("Chemdah")
- Instability ("Aiyatsbus")
- Materialism ("Qimranut")
The names of the Sephirot and the Qliphoth are commonly used in Theme Naming, and the messages they represent may further reflect nuances the artist wishes to convey.
- In Battle Angel Alita, the floating city inhabited by the wealthy is known as Tiphares. (Or Salem, depending on the version.)
- Black Clover:
- The Kabbalah is associated heavily with the elves. Their souls are reincarnated into their hosts' bodies by placing ten magic stones in the Tree of Life Monument, with the reincarnated elves having a glow of mana similar to light. Each of the Ten Apostles of Sephira, who are believed to be divinely blessed, correspond to a spot on the Tree of Life and together can open the Shadow Palace, the space between the living world and underworld. Notably, their leader's Licht's position on the tree corresponds to Keter, the "Crown".
- The goal of the Dark Triad, the story's main villains after the elves, is to form the Tree of Qliphoth to bring devils into the living world.
- In A Certain Magical Index, Kabbalah has a central role over the universe's metaphysics.
- First, the Tree of Life is used to explain the hierarchy of humans and angels, with God representing Kether. As humans become more powerful, they can ascend to another level, but cannot if a level is full. If a higher level is full, a human can only ascend by making an inhabitant of that level (usually an angel), fall to a lower level.
- Some Magic Side characters compare Academy City's goal of creating a Level 6 esper to people trying to ascend the Tree of Life, which, seeing as Aleister Crowley is the city's creator, only makes sense.
- Crowley himself makes use of the Qliphoth, the Evil Counterpart to the Sephiroth, as a way to gain spiritual knowledge, teaching that both trees are valid ways to do so. The inside of his Windowless Bulding is also compared to a third unknown tree.
- In the manga A Certain Scientific Accelerator, an antagonist is a necromancer who was told by "a self proclaimed demon" that a human soul can be purified enough to reach Kether by experiencing death 10,000 times and remember those deaths as memories. His plan revolves around getting one of the Misaka clones for that.
- Coronzon, one of the setting's Greater-Scope Villain, is a demon (particular in that it is not from the Qliphoth) in charge of guarding Daath, or the Abyss, and stop magicians from ascending to the higher levels. It on the other hand can freely ascend or descend the tree, which is what allows it to create a physical body for itself on earth.
- Finally, to defeat Coronzon, with the help of the Misaka network of clones and Qliphah Puzzle 545, Accelerator creates and adds a third tree to the cosmos, Clonoth, different from the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth. It is not based on good or evil like the previous trees, but the changes experienced by the human mind and soul due to technology.
- The Spirits in Date A Live are based on the Sefirot tree. Each one has an Angel, a weapon named after the archangel that represents their Sephira, as well as an Astral Dress named after the Divine name of God for their Sephira. They also have a number in their name designating which Sephira they belong to. For example, the first Spirit introduced is Tohka (meaning "10th day") representing the 10th Sephira Malkuth with her BFS Angel Sandalphon and her Astral Dress Adonai Melek. The protagonist Shido has the ability to seal Spirits' powers into himself, potentially representing Daath as the unity of all the Sephira. The First Spirit Mio Takamiya has the Angels Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur, and created the Sephira Crystals that turned human girls into Spirits, representing God's role as the emanator of the Sefirot. A Spirit who crosses the Despair Event Horizon will slip into an Inverse form, in which their Angel is replaced with a Demon King based on the corresponding demon of the Qliphoth Tree, the Evil Counterpart to the Sefirot.
- Day Break Illusion ties the Sephirot to its Tarot Motifs by associating the 22 paths with the 22 Major Arcana — an idea that's been around since the 18th century.
- Early on in Demonizer Zilch, the eponymous Zilch makes note of a "Qliphothic Demonic Tree" plan and "the fruit of the Qliphoth." It's later explained that an occultic research group/religious organization known as Goetia discovered the Ark of the Covenant and used its knowledge as the basis for the secret arts documented in works like Ars Goetia and the Zohar. In turn, those within the organization who sought to harness the power of devils and demons devised the Qliphoth Plan in order to create artificial demons — Demonizers — whose power could be harnessed without the need for ritualistic sacrifices. As the title indicates, Zilch is one of said Demonizers, formed from the fusion of a girl named Zilch Kanoa and one of the 72 demons of King Solomon (Astaroth in this case).
- Digimon Frontier references it a couple of times. First is Mercuremon's evolved form of Sephirotmon, which is actually composed of orbs in the same pattern as the Tree of Life (complete with the Crest of Light from Digimon Adventure on the central orb). Ophanimon has an attack called Sephirot Crystals, in which she summons crystals in the same Tree of Life pattern as well.
- In Fate/stay night and in other spin-offs taking place in Fate worlds with a Holy Grail War system, the lines of summoning for a Heroic Spirit contains an implicit reference to the Tree of Life: "The four gates shall close and come out the Crown. Let the three-forked road to the Kingdom cycle", with the Crown and the Kingdom referring to Kether and Malkuth respectively.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, the Tree of Life is one of the mystical symbols appearing on the mysterious Gate.
- In Little Witch Academia (2017), in the episode "Papiliodia", the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and various assorted real life symbols can be in a tilting shot during Badcock's lecture to her class.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- Evangelion loves its Kabbalistic symbolism. Now, whether it means anything...
- The entire tree is lovingly drawn on Gendo Ikari's office floor, and considering how hip deep he is in reenacting key parts of the original story to bring back his wife and initiate Third Impact, it may have somewhat more meaning, insofar as he and SEELE are concerned.
- O-Parts Hunter: The Kabbalah is shown throughout the series as a sort of sandwich on the earth.
- In Psyren, Amagai Miroku's Sephirot attack is based on the Tree of Life.
- Rental Magica features a group of magic-wielding antagonists known as "Dark Magician's Society: Ophion". A few members have titles/positions named for sephira, translated from Hebrew as opposed to being left as is: Cecilie is "Kingdom" (Malkuth), Melchiorre is "Persistence" (Netzach), and a third individual (a necromancer whose name is never revealed) is exclusively referred to as "Foundation" (Yesod).
- At one point in Urusei Yatsura, Ran performs a Kabbalah-inspired ritual to create an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-inspired Pocket Dimension.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the Tree of Life appears when Z-One uses his Temporal Machine Gods/Timelords. Each monster represents a spot on the Tree, with his 11th ace monster representing Daath.
- Kate Kane is heavily associated with Kabbalistic imagery. Her apartment building has an enormous tree growing up through its center, she has a print of the Kabbalah hanging on her wall, the stand for her Batwoman uniform is shaped like it, and upon seeing her uniform for the first time, she immediately describes its red-and-black color scheme as "Gevurah... the Pillar of Severity... the colors of war."
- Al Ewing has referenced the Kabbalah in some of his work.
- In Immortal Hulk, narration explains the idea of the Qliphoth as the reverse of the Sephiroth's unity and raises the question of whether the Hulk is a creature of Geburah or Golachab (referencing the question "Is he man or monster... or is he both?" from Hulk's first appearance).
- In Defenders: Beyond, the Defenders travel through various higher planes of existence that the issue titles helpfully map to spheres in the Sephiroth: the Neutral Zone outside realities is Malkuth, The Beyonders' realm in the remainder of the Second Cosmos is Yesod, and the White Hot Room, home of the Phoenix Force, is Tiphereth.
- Ben Katchor's The Jew of New York includes Kabbalistic meditation on the word "Greptz," a Yiddish burp sound.
- Alan Moore's Promethea series is strongly oriented by the Occult Kabbalah of Aleister Crowley and the sex magick tradition that has been riffing on him (whether or not he liked it then, or his devout like it now) for the last century. A trip through the Tree of Sefirot fills up all of Books 3 and 4.
- Marvel's Warheads series used a lot of Kabbalah imagery and terminology. The protagonists are Kether Troop, and other squads of mercenaries include the Gevurah and Malkuth Troops.
- π has explicit references to Gematria, the kabbalistic practice of analyzing Hebrew words as numbers.
- Guy Ritchie's Revolver (2005) is a Crime Drama/Psychological Thriller that features many symbolic references to Kabbalistic beliefs.
- Bee Season (both the novel by Myla Goldberg and the Film of the Book starring Richard Gere) has Abraham Abulafia's prophetic techniques, Isaac Luria's idea of fixing the world, and Hasidic dancing. Of course, this is in a family with serious problems, so these get translated into obsessive compulsion and Hare Krishna.
- Gustav Meyrink's Golem is heavily influenced by Kabbalah (and by antisemitism). Not very surprisingly so, seeing as the Golem legend is itself heavily Kabbalistic, and Meyrink was deeply involved with the esotericism of his time.
- The chapters in Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum are named for sephirot.
- Likewise, the chapters in Illuminatus! adopt the same naming convention.
- Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum takes place in a universe based on the Kabbalah, divided into eleven spheres that are each simultaneously a physical place, a philosophical concept and a stage of the universe's creation.
- UNSONG takes place in an alternative present where Kabbalistic magic has returned and started to replace technology.
- Touch (2012) features both Kabbalistic numerology as well as the concept of the 36 hidden righteous ones, of which Jake may be one.
- The Title Track of David Bowie's Station to Station album includes the line "Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth." A photo on the back cover of the 1991 CD reissue shows Bowie drawing the Tree of Life.
- In Artery Gear: Fusion, the Frontier faction has a giant railgun named Kabbalah.
- The conflict in Devil May Cry 5 centers around the Qliphoth, an ancient demonic tree that gathers human blood over thousands of years before bearing a single fruit able to imbue demons with divine power. The last of these fruits was consumed by Mundus, who used this power to become King of the Underworld. After Mundus's defeat at the hands of Sparda, the Legendary Dark Knight placed a seal upon the Qliphoth, preventing it from manifesting in the human world and producing any more fruit. With the seal broken in the present day, the Qliphoth sprouts in Red Grave City as an upstart conqueror by the name of Urizen seeks to claim its fruit's power for his own.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth takes the name from the Tree of Life. True to his name, his ultimate plan involves ascension and becoming one with the game's version of the godhead, called the Lifestream. Each of the playable characters bear similarities to the Sefirot. with Cloud representing Keter, Barret as Gevurah, Tifa as Tifaret, Aerith as Chesed, Red XIII as Chokmah, Yuffie as Hod, Cait Sith as Binah, Vincent as Netzach, and Cid as Yesod. The Planet itself could represent Malkuth.
- Final Fantasy XII has the Sephira, each an identically named floating sword that aids Vayne Novus in battle. In this form, Vayne has access to an AOE Non-Elemental attack called "Tree of Sephira" in reference to the Tree of Life.
- Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward has a Primal based around the concept (and Fiend from Final Fantasy VI), the appropriately named Sephirot. Unlike the similar named Sephiroth mentioned above, the symbolism is more apparent: many of his attacks and minions use the names of the ten Sephira (such as Binah, Chokhmah, Chesed, and Malkuth) and he has abilities referencing the concepts of Ein, Ein Soph, and Ein Soph Ohr. His affinity for plant life comes from the literal interpretation of the Sephirot as the "tree of life."
- FireWorld, the second game of the Swordquest series, is based off of the Tree of Life.
- Both Hellgate: London and Clive Barker's Jericho have heroes who could count as Kaballah Punk.
- One of the Aeons in Honkai: Star Rail is Qlipoth, presiding over the Path of Preservation. They are characterized as being rather indifferent in nature, typically only lending their powers to zealots — though the Trailblazer's determination catches their eye during a crucial moment, causing Qlipoth to offer them their aid. The people of Jarilo-VI, particularly the Supreme Guardian Cocolia Rand, appear to worship Qlipoth, even erecting a fort in the Aeon's honor.
- Kittens Game has several Metaphysics upgrades that carry over across all runs, of which ten sequential ones are named after the ten Sephiroth starting with Malkuth and ending with Keter. They all increase the Diminishing Returns for Balance limit for Paragon Points.
- Lobotomy Corporation is chock full of Kabbalah symbolism, from terms such as the Qliphoth Counter, the facility being structured like the tree of life, the administrative force being named after the ten Sefirot with their personalities themed after what they represent; and this is only just scratching the dilapidated surface.
- Persona:
- The occult-obsessed school nurse in Persona 3 will lecture the main character about Kabbalah and various derivative practices.
- Persona 5 draws upon Kabbalistic tradition quite a bit for its depiction of the Metaverse, though mixed in with Gnosticism on account of the game's Big Bad being none other than the Gnostic Demiurge.
- Mementos, a sprawling dungeon located underneath Shibuya and created from the distorted desires of the masses, is divided into several "paths," each named after the Qliphoth as given by William G. Gray in The Tree of Evil (Qimranut, Aiyatsbus, Chemdah, Kaitul, Akzeriyyuth, Adyeshach, Sheriruth, Iweleth). When Yaldabaoth, the God of Control manifested from mankind's sloth, fully awakens from within the depths of Mementos and fuses it with reality, this results in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: the Qliphoth World. The sole exception to the Qliphothic theme is Da'at (introduced in Royal), instead taken from the unison of the ten sefirot and tying into Maruki's Utopia Justifies the Means-fueled override of humanity's cognition during the third semester.
- Maruki's Palace itself is a mechanical replica of the Tree of Life filled with Sefirot symbolism, from the incredibly long elevator shaft connected to the Palace's main body, to the heart of the Palace, the Monitoring Room housing a major roadblock only removable in the Path of Da'at, and finally to the ultimate realization of enlightenment; a gorgeous replica of the Garden of Eden. Even the purpose of some facilities inside the Palace match their meanings in the Kabbalah, and the Palace is supposed to be navigated in a zig-zag fashion just like the actual Tree of Life.
- Additionally, the final form of the True Final Boss in Royal is Adam Kadmon, which evolved from Maruki's Persona Azathoth. The entity's namesake being the original man in Kabbalah teachings, free from earthly desire, parallels the implication that Yaldabaoth's meddling in human affairs, along with Maruki's warped desire for a world free from pain, inadvertently corrupted the form of Maruki's Persona, causing it to manifest as Azathoth and kick off the events of the third semester.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon of Persona 5 Strikers is the Tree of Life, overlaid onto Tokyo Tower, with its ruler being the Platonic Demiurge manifested from the EMMA application trying to do a similar thing as Maruki did in Royal, although instead of giving desires, the Demiurge has attempted to assess the answer for human happiness without consideration of the heart, so she merely took people consulting her into consideration, leading her to believe that the ultimate answer of humanity's happiness is her doing all the thinking for humanity. During her boss fight, the Demiurge even summons protective minions named after the ten Sephirah. Spoilers!
- The third labyrinth in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth is A.I.G.I.S., a film depicting a post-apocalyptic robot dystopia ruled by the Overseer, a Mother Computer that appears in the form of Shuji Ikutsuki. In the battle with its core, which displays a Huge Holographic Head in Ikutsuki's likeness, said core is surrounded by circles that resemble the "Upright" configuration for the sephirot (see the page image), complete with Hebrew letters inscribed on the floor.
- Shin Megami Tensei:
- In general, the realm where demons, spirits, and other supernatural entities reside is most commonly known as Makai (魔界 or 魔階 depending on the title) or the Expanse. The handful of times it's not addressed as such or has an alternative name in-universe, the etymology is usually something Kabbalistic, such as Atziluth in IMAGINE, Strange Journey, and IV or Da'at in V (which is the name the demons themselves have given to their world; it's still called Makai otherwise, which was changed to the Netherworld in the English localization). This dates back to the foundation for the SMT games, the Digital Devil Story novels, which were the first documented use of Atziluth. In fact, a 1992 interview with former Atlus producer Yosuke Niino about Shin Megami Tensei I has Niino refer to demons as being summoned "from the world of Atziluth to our own." Additionally, Digital Devil Story, Strange Journey, and SMT IV all dub Earth as Assiah to provide another parallel between the two planes of existence.
- Shin Megami Tensei II might possibly be the SMT entry that overtly takes the most inspiration from Kabbalah, including:
- Makai* is fashioned after the Tree of Life and consists of several spheres (Tiphereth, Yesod, Netzach, Hod, Chesed, Geburah, Binah, Chokmah, and Kether), some of which are connected by "Corridors" named for three of the Four Worlds in Kabbalah (Yetzirah, Beriah, and Atziluth). It's more of a Fantasy Kitchen Sink in practice, though; while Netzach is led by a perverse wizard named Crowley, Chesed is a Buddhist temple and Kether is home to Makai's head honcho Lucifer, to give a few examples. Those who live in Makai refer to the human world as Malkuth. According to a developer interview found in the Shin Megami Tensei II Akuma Daijiten released in 1994, the Kabbalistic design was chosen in order to present Makai as a thematic opposite to both Tokyo Millennium and the Underworld, though the creators state that, in-universe, humans came up with Kabbalah and the Sephirot based on their visions and understanding of Makai as opposed to the demons modeling their world after Kabbalah.
- Hecate — imagined here as a leather-clad, whip-cracking woman with three beast heads courtesy of Kazuma Kaneko — appears at the town of Yesod, guarding the entrance to the Yetzirah Corridor. When asked why Hecate was at Yetzirah in the aforementioned interview, Kaneko simply replied "That’s because she is the three-faced god" and received an "impressive symbolism" in response before it was lampshaded how much of a Genius Bonus this would be to players; similar to Yesod's position on the Tree of Life (see the page image), the Yetzirah Corridor connects the town to three other areas of Makai (Netzach, Hod, and Tiphereth; Yesod itself is effectively the entrance to Makai), with Hecate able to oversee all the paths because of her three heads. As pointed out in this fan retrospective of the mainline SMT titles, this depiction matches the description of Hecate found in Fred Gettings' Dictionary of Demons: "It is said that [Hecate's] three heads were so disposed that she could keep her attention on all four roads at the same time."
- Elohim, an endgame boss, is one of three (possibly four in the Updated Re-release) avatars of YHVH. The name Elohim, beyond serving as an honorific for the Abrahamic God, has been associated with several of the Sephirot, particularly Chokhmah, Binah, and Gevurah (as well as Chesed and Tiferet when the combination YHWH Elohim is used).
- Makai* is fashioned after the Tree of Life
- In Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, each of the Fiends is given a candelabra symbolizing one of the ten sephiroth. When the Demi-Fiend gets close to one of them, his own candelabra begins to glow, and you know that you're about to get into a really tough boss fight.
- Mobile spin-off Shin Megami Tensei Liberation: Dx2 features event items known as Atziluth Particles and Atziluth Choice Files that can be used for special summons on time-limited banners.
- In general, the realm where demons, spirits, and other supernatural entities reside is most commonly known as Makai (魔界 or 魔階 depending on the title) or the Expanse. The handful of times it's not addressed as such or has an alternative name in-universe, the etymology is usually something Kabbalistic, such as Atziluth
- The back wall of the bathroom where you start the game in Silent Hill 2 has Kabbalistic drawings on it.
- Tales of the Abyss derives much of its mythology from Kabbalah, instead of the series' habit of drawing on Norse Mythology. Sephiroth are Auldrant's ten major magical "hotspots," the Qliphoth is a lifeless underground sea of hot mud and poisonous gas, and several towns in the Empire of Malkuth take their names from the actual Sephirot (e.g. St. Binah is one of the first towns visited, while the capital is called Grand Chokmah). Malkuth itself is named for the lowest Sephirot, which means "kingdom."
- Trickster Online takes place on Kabbalah Island and includes all sorts of specific references to Sefirot.
- The Witcher has ten Sephirot Stones that must be collected.
- Xenosaga has the Zohar as an important element, along with many biblical references.
- Orion's Arm features Kabbalistic symbolism extensively, via the In-Universe philosophy of Neohermeticism. Ten of the most notable and powerful empires of the Terragen Sphere are each identified with one of the Sephirah, and are thus collectively referred to as the Sephirotic Empires. The AI deities (known as archailects) who rule said empires are often named after the appropriate sefirah, and they and their empire identify with its associated abstract concept:
- The ascension-seeking Keter Dominion's ruling archailect is just called Keter (the empire is named after the god).
- The monastic Sophic League's archailect, Sophia, is idenitified with Hokmah.
- The megastructure-builders of the Mutual Progress Association have the Great Architect, who is identified with Binah.
- The Utopia Sphere, which aims to create a wide variety of, well, utopias, has Chesed.
- The Negentropy Alliance has the Eternal Judge, who is identified with Gevurah.
- The Solar Dominion have the Lord of Rays, who is identified with Tipharet.
- The empaths of the Communion of Worlds' ruling archai aren't well understood, but are generally identified with Netzah.
- The MegaCorp-dominated Non-Coercive Zone has the Invisible Hand of the Market, who is identified with Hod (assuming it does in fact exist and is in fact an archailect).
- The virtual-based pseudo-empire known as the Cyberian Network has Maya, who is identified with Yesod (which is one of the only things anyone knows for sure about Maya).
- The Caretaker Gods, a collection of lesser AI gods who protect unique and life-bearing planets, don't really have a leader, but they and their shared philosophy are identified with Malkuth.
- In the SCP Foundation, the most-difficult-to-contain objects are given the class "Keter", taken from the highest point. Objects created or exploited by the Foundation to aid their mission, meanwhile, are classified as Thaumiel: Keter's Shadow Archetype counterpart on the Qliphoth, symbolizing spiritual conflict. Fitting, as the Foundation considers using anomalous phenomena against anomalous phenomena to be at best a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, and at worst tapping into The Dark Side.
