Chokmah as a masculine sephirah

[PaganSpirit]

This is something that's been boggling my mind a little bit. Why is Chokmah (Wisdom) a masculine sephirah on the Tree of Life? It's odd to me because in a lot of Hebrew wisdom writings, Wisdom is generally represented as female. Could anyone explain this?

[john.a]

Chokmah is grammatically feminine.

[zionwood]

Maybe Chokmah could be either one--maybe it has both a masculine and a feminine aspect. i'm just guessing, really. but yeah, it is kinda funny.

[Gaudior]

I always thought that Chokmah was the feminine and that Binah was masculine.

[RedRaven]

Hi,
What you have to keep in mind is that you can only really get a better idea of a single sephirah when you look at it in comparison to others. The top three sephiroth are called the Archetypal Triangle. The highest point, Kether, is the singular source of everything. Chokmah is the highest sephirah on the masculine pillar, the Pillar of Mercy. Chokmah is the archetypal God while across the Tree, at the head of the Pillar of Severity, the feminine pillar, is Binah, the archetypal Goddess. Kether is the state of Being, Chokmah is a sephirah or Force, Binah is a sephirah of Form. Perhaps this will give you some insight, for Kether visualize a single point ".", it simply IS. Chokmah, the male God force visualize as extending out into a line "_____", for Binah visualize the point and line taking shape into a triangle. If all else fails, check out "The Mystical Qabalah" by Dion Fortune or if you prefer a much more pagan style check out "The Witches Qabala" by Ellen Cannon Reed. Dont ever feel discouraged by the Qabalah, its a life long study. I hope this helps.

p.s. Many of the sephiroth have hints of male and female, balance is always key. There can be grammar that hints one way or another, but there is many layers of symbolism to understand.