Of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, three hold a special rank in the kabbalistic tradition: Aleph, Mem and Shin. The Sefer Yetzirah calls them the mother letters (immot) and describes them as «a great secret, wondrous and hidden». From them, according to the text, derive the primordial elements of the cosmos. Joined together, they form the word Emesh, by which the tradition sometimes refers to all three.
Why «mothers»
The Sefer Yetzirah divides the letters into three groups: three mothers, seven doubles and twelve simples. The mothers come first, because the basic structure of the world arises from them. Just as a mother gives birth to children, so these three letters give birth to the elements from which everything else takes shape.
The tradition also notes a phonetic aspect. The three mothers represent three fundamental modes of sound:
- Mem is a closed sound, produced with lips pressed together: the text describes it as «mute» or humming;
- Shin is a hissing, open sound that whistles between the teeth;
- Aleph is almost just a breath, a consonant that has no sound of its own and lets the voice pass.
The text uses a legal image: Mem and Shin are like the two pans of a scale, merit on one side and guilt on the other, and Aleph is like the pointer of the scale that decides between them.
Three letters, three elements
The main correspondence is with the elements:
| Letter | Sound | Element | Position in the cosmos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shin | hiss | fire | above |
| Mem | hum | water | below |
| Aleph | breath | air | in the middle |
According to the Sefer Yetzirah the heavens were created from fire, the earth from water, and air stands between the two as mediator. It is interesting to note that the text speaks of three elements, not four as in the Greek tradition: earth is not a primary element, but arises from water.
Three planes of correspondence
As with all the letters, the Sefer Yetzirah links the mothers to three planes of reality: the cosmos, time and the human person.
In time
The three mothers correspond to the three fundamental seasons of the year, according to the text's division: Shin to heat, Mem to cold, Aleph to the temperate season that lies between them.
In the body
In the human person Shin corresponds to the head, Mem to the belly and Aleph to the chest, the seat of breath. The human being is thus described as a small cosmos: fire above, water below and air in the middle, exactly as in the universe.
In the person: masculine and feminine
The text also adds a distinction between masculine and feminine correspondences of the three mothers, a sign of how central combination and balance were to its vision.
The mothers on the Tree of Life
In the diagrams of the Tree, the three mother letters often occupy the three horizontal paths, that is, those that join the sefirot of the two side pillars:
- the highest path, between Chokmah and Binah;
- the central one, between Chesed and Gevurah;
- the lowest one, between Netzach and Hod.
This placement is particularly consistent in the scheme associated with the Gaon of Vilna. It has a precise symbolic meaning: the horizontal paths balance the opposing forces of mercy and severity, just as Aleph mediates between Mem and Shin.
In the scheme popularised by Athanasius Kircher, by contrast, the letters follow alphabetical order from the top, and the mothers end up in different positions: Aleph between Kether and Chokmah, Mem between Gevurah and Hod, Shin between Hod and Malkuth.
The mothers in the Hermetic tradition
The Western Hermetic tradition, which adopts Kircher's scheme, has linked the three mothers to three major arcana of the tarot: Aleph to the Fool, Mem to the Hanged Man, Shin to Judgement. These are modern associations, born within occultism, which do not belong to Jewish Kabbalah, but they show well the elemental character attributed to the three letters: the free air of the Fool, the suspended water of the Hanged Man, the awakening fire of Judgement.
An exercise on sound
Since the tradition insists on the sound of the mothers, a simple exercise is to pronounce them slowly, one at a time, observing where they resonate in the body:
- Mmm, with closed lips, vibrating in the belly and chest;
- Shhh, coming out between the teeth and seeming to rise towards the head;
- a long, open exhalation for Aleph, filling and emptying the chest.
Studio Esoterico Cornelio offers this exercise as a form of meditation on the relationship between sound, breath and the elements, in the contemplative spirit of the Sefer Yetzirah.
In short
- Aleph, Mem and Shin are the three mother letters of the Sefer Yetzirah.
- They correspond to air, water and fire: three elements, not four.
- On the plane of time they indicate the temperate, the cold and the hot; in the body the chest, the belly and the head.
- In the schemes of the Jewish tradition they often occupy the three horizontal paths of the Tree.
- The Hermetic tradition links them to the Fool, the Hanged Man and Judgement.
