The 22 Hebrew letters are divided by students of Qabalah into three groups, the Mother Letters, the Double Letters (so called because they have two pronunciations), and the Single Letters (which have only one pronunciation).

The seven Double Letters are associated with the seven elder planets, by which is meant those heavenly bodies visible with the naked eye and known to the ancients. The twelve single letters are associated with the signs of the zodiac.

The three Mothers Letters are Aleph, Mem, and Shin and they are associated with the elements. After the discovery of additional outer planets, the Mother Letters have been related to them as well.

As far as elements go, since there are only three Mothers and four elements, Earth was treated separately. For completeness sake, Earth was associated with the planet Saturn and the sephirah Malkuth. This tends to give Saturn special status, but this is appropriate since it is not only the only elder planet assigned to the supernals, but also is considered the Center of the Cube of Space.

There are a several ways to place the elements on the Tree of Life.

First of all, the elements can be placed following the Four Worlds:

The Golden Dawn used another method of elemental associations, with Air associated with the Middle Pillar, save Malkuth, Earth with Malkuth, and Fire and Water alternating from pillar to pillar.

The correspondences of the Mother Letters include:

Prepared by Emmanuel Rose
Ó Emmanuel Rose 2000

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