Shells of the Abyss · Sitra Achra · The Other Side
עֲרָבוֹת הַסֶּת
Tunnels of Set
The twenty-two paths of the Dark Tree
After Kenneth Grant · Nightside of Eden, 1977
If the ten Qliphoth are the shells themselves — static nodes of the Dark Tree,
each with its own quality of distortion — then the Tunnels of Set are the paths
between them. Twenty-two tunnels, corresponding to the twenty-two letters
of the Hebrew alphabet and the twenty-two Major Arcana of the Tarot, form
a system of routes through the night side of being.
Their mapping was undertaken by Kenneth Grant in
Nightside of Eden (1977) — the third part of a trilogy devoted to
the Typhonian tradition. Grant drew on the automatic writing and sigilic work
of Austin Osman Spare, on Crowley, and on his own magical experience.
Each tunnel received its name — a being that inhabits or guards it.
These are not demons in the usual sense: they are principles of passage, forces
acting in the space between states.
Unlike the Qliphoth themselves — which are discussed in detail in the Zohar
and the Lurianic tradition — the tunnels are scarcely present in classical Kabbalistic
literature. They belong predominantly to the Western magical tradition of the 20th century.
The descriptions given below are based on Grant's material, supplemented
by analytical inferences from the corresponding Arcana and paths of the bright Tree.
The first tunnel joins the highest point of the Dark Tree to the first obstacle. Amprodias is a being without fixed nature, like the Fool, who stands outside the numbering of the Arcana. Aleph signifies the ox — the primal force, which here moves not upward, toward unity, but sideways, toward obstruction. The tunnel of Amprodias is the space of the first step in the dark: a leap in which there is no ground beneath the feet and no knowledge of where one is falling.
Beth — «house». The Magician on the bright Tree signifies will directed toward embodiment; here the same will is directed toward concealment. Baratchial is a being that builds houses without doors. This is the tunnel between the highest conflict and the great hiding: intention moving not toward manifestation, but toward going out of sight. A master of vanishing, not of making.
13 · ג Gimel — Gargophias
Arcanum: The High Priestess (II) · Thaumiel — Thagirion · Gematria: 3
Gimel — «camel», the animal that crosses the desert. The tunnel of Gargophias runs along the central column of the Dark Tree — from its summit to its centre. On the bright Tree this path crosses the Abyss and joins Keter with Tiferet; here it leads from the war of Thaumiel to the discord of Thagirion. Gargophias is the keeper of the longest and darkest of the tunnels. The High Priestess here is not wisdom, but the silence in which all meanings drown.
Daleth — «door». The horizontal path in the upper triad of the Dark Tree joins two kinds of destruction of understanding: obstruction and concealment. Dagdagiel moves across where the Empress should have been — fertility, growth, life. Instead — a side corridor between two forms of darkness. A door leading from one dead end to another.
Heh — «window». Hemethterith carries the force of obstacle downward — from Ghagiel to the centre of the Dark Tree, Thagirion. Where the Emperor of the bright Tree establishes order and authority, here that authority is nothing but a continuous obstruction descending from above. The fifteenth tunnel is the fall of authority into discord.
Vav — «nail», the connecting link. Uriens — «the one who burns» — passes between the obstruction of wisdom and destructive love. The Hierophant in its inverted state is not the transmission of tradition, but its use as an instrument of coercion. Uriens links two kinds of violence done to knowledge: its blockade and its turning against those it should have loved.
Zayin — «sword». Zamradiel conducts what was hidden into the centre of dispute: what Sathariel had carefully concealed flows through this tunnel into the endless disputation of Thagirion. The Lovers on the Dark Tree is not a choice between two paths, but the union of two kinds of darkness. The hidden comes out at last — only to become at once the object of conflict.
Cheth — «fence». The Chariot moves down the left column of the Dark Tree: from concealment to fire. Characith is the passage in which what was hidden is revealed not through revelation but through burning. The hidden is not disclosed — it is consumed. The eighteenth tunnel is discovery through destruction.
Teth — «serpent». Temphioth joins horizontally two forms of destruction in the middle of the Tree: love-as-crushing with fire-without-aim. The Arcanum of Strength is here not the taming of the beast by reason, but the union of two unrestrained forces. Temphioth is excess itself — a principle that knows no moderation in love or in destruction.
Yod — «hand». Yamatu descends alone from distorted love to the centre of discord. The Hermit on the Dark Tree bears not the wisdom of solitude, but isolation as a form of punishment. The twentieth tunnel is a descent that leads nowhere: solitude moving through darkness toward greater darkness.
21 · כ Kaph — Kurgasiax
Arcanum: The Wheel of Fortune (X) · Ga'agsheblah — Harab Serapel · Gematria: 20
Kaph — «palm». Kurgasiax joins destructive love to the ravens of dispersion. The Wheel of Fortune here is not the circularity of fate, but the endless rotation of destruction: that which destroys through love above is scattered by ravens below. Kurgasiax is the mechanism of that transmission — a wheel that translates one form of destruction into another without stopping.
Lamed — «ox-goad», instrument of direction. Lafcursiax moves from senseless fire to central discord. Justice, inverted, is not judgement, but an endless process without verdict. This tunnel is the space of perpetual proceedings, where the fire of Golachab becomes the procedural hell of Thagirion.
23 · מ Mem — Malkunofat
Arcanum: The Hanged Man (XII) · Golachab — Samael · Gematria: 40
Mem — «water». Malkunofat carries the fire of Golachab to the poison of Samael: burning passing into poisoning. The Hanged Man on the Dark Tree is not given as a willing sacrifice — he is hung by force. The twenty-third tunnel is the transformation of destructive fire into intellectual poison: as physical destruction cools, it becomes mental.
Nun — «fish». Niantiel is one of the most significant tunnels: the Arcanum of Death on the Dark Tree carries the discord of Thagirion into the dispersion of the ravens. Death here is not transformation, as on the bright path, but simply the end of harmony and the beginning of decay. Niantiel is the passage from central conflict to that into which the conflict ultimately falls apart.
Samekh — «support». The central column of the Dark Tree continues downward: the discord of Thagirion flows through Saksaksalim into the impurity of Gamaliel. Temperance, inverted, is the mixing of what ought to remain separate. Saksaksalim is the principle of wrong combination, the joining of the incompatible: discord recast into defilement.
Ayin — «eye». A'ano'nin is the tunnel of attachment and enslavement: the Devil binds central discord to poisoned reason. This is not simply a joining of two Qliphoth — it is their mutual reinforcement. Dispute descending into poison; poison rising into dispute: A'ano'nin is a loop with no exit. The seeing eye looking into nothing.
Peh — «mouth». Parfaxitas is a horizontal bridge between the ravens of dispersion and the poison of reason. The Tower: lightning, sudden destruction. On the Dark Tree this is not the freeing from a false structure — it is simply destruction as such. The scattered and the poisoned join in Parfaxitas in an act of sudden and final breakage.
28 · צ Tzaddi — Tzuflifu
Arcanum: The Star (XVII) · Harab Serapel — Gamaliel · Gematria: 90
Tzaddi — «fish-hook». Tzuflifu carries the scattered force of the ravens toward the impure foundation. The Star on the bright Tree is hope and direction. Here the same star is a false beacon: it shines, but it leads not to salvation but to defilement. Tzuflifu is the tunnel of attraction to what ought to have repelled.
Qoph — «back of the skull». Qulielfi is one of the most unsettling tunnels. The Moon rules dreams, illusions, what stands between consciousness and the unconscious. Here she leads from the dispersion of the ravens straight to the whisperers of Nehemoth. Qulielfi is the passage from madness to the dark whisper, from daylight chaos to the night call. The tunnel closest to the surface of dreams.
30 · ר Resh — Raflifu
Arcanum: The Sun (XIX) · Samael — Gamaliel · Gematria: 200
Resh — «head». Raflifu carries the poisoned intellect of Samael to the impure foundation of Gamaliel. The Sun, inverted, is a blinding light that does not illuminate but burns out the capacity to see. Raflifu is the poisoned mind that has found its channel: poison become part of the foundation. Brilliant, confident, completely blind.
Shin — «tooth». Shalicu — the penultimate tunnel — carries the poison of reason directly into the dark whisper of Nehemoth. The Arcanum of Judgement on the bright Tree signifies awakening, resurrection, a summons. Here the same call sounds, but from the dark: not the rising from the grave, but a summons downward. Shalicu is an announcement heard only in the depths, only when one has nearly reached the bottom.
32 · ת Tav — Thantifaxath
Arcanum: The World (XXI) · Gamaliel — Nehemoth · Gematria: 400
Tav — «cross». The last tunnel. Thantifaxath joins the impure foundation to the dark floor of the Dark Tree. The Arcanum of the World on the bright path signifies completion, integration, the return to wholeness. Here — no. Thantifaxath is the final step into a space from which there is no return: not an end in the sense of completion, but an end in the sense that there is nothing beyond. Except the dark itself.