New Years Eve Ritual 2026/2027 with Savannah
Oct
A Dummy’s Guide to the Qliphoth and Their Demons
This is a plain guide to what the Qliphothic demons are, where they come from, and how they sit on the Tree of Life. You do not need to know Kabbalah already. You only need the map.
What they are
The Qliphoth are the dark side of the Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life is a Jewish mystical diagram with ten realms, called Sephiroth. It is a picture of how the world comes into being, from the highest unity down to ordinary life.
The Qliphoth are the leftover, unbalanced versions of those same ten realms. The word means shells or husks. Each husk has a ruler. Those rulers are the Qliphothic demons people talk about.
So you are not dealing with a random list of spirits. You are dealing with the other side of one tree.
Where they came from
The idea starts in Kabbalah.
In the later Kabbalistic story, God sent light into vessels. The vessels could not hold it and broke. Sparks of light fell. What was left around those sparks were shells. Those shells are the Qliphoth. They were a way of talking about leftover force, exile, and what clings when holiness breaks.
They were not written as a modern summoning list.
Western occultists later took that idea and turned it into a second tree. The Golden Dawn and writers after them gave each Sephira a matching Qlipha, with a name and a demonic title. In the last century, some magicians started treating that dark tree as a path you can walk, not only as a warning.
That is why you now see books and rites for the Qliphoth. The roots are Kabbalah. The practice of calling these demons as a Nightside path is much newer.
How the Tree of Life fits
Think of two sides of the same diagram.
On one side: ten Sephiroth, from Kether at the top to Malkuth at the bottom.
On the other side: ten Qliphoth, each sitting across from one Sephira.
There is also Daath, the gap in the middle of the tree. People treat it as an eleventh place, an abyss you cross.
If you want to work with these demons in a logical order, you do not start at the top. You start at the bottom, in the world you already live in, and move up.
The demons, from the first gate to the last
1. Lilith, or Nehemoth Across from Malkuth, the kingdom, ordinary life. This is the entrance. Naamah is often named at the door. Lilith is Queen of the Night and the presence over the gate. This is body, house, night, hunger, and the feeling that the world has a back side.
2. Gamaliel Across from Yesod, the moon and the dream life. Lilith is usually named here too. This is desire, fantasy, sleep, and what you are when no one is watching.
3. Samael Across from Hod, the thinking mind. The ruler is often Adrammelech. This is intellect as poison: sharp, stripping, and able to corrode what it explains.
4. A’arab Zaraq Across from Netzach, feeling and desire that lasts. The ruler is often Baal. This is passion that will not stay in one place. People call it the ravens of dispersion.
5. Thagirion Across from Tiphareth, the sun and the heart of the tree. The ruler is often Belphegor. This is the black sun. A light that shows what is ugly or discarded instead of what is beautiful.
6. Golachab Across from Geburah, strength and severity. The ruler is often Asmodeus. This is fire with no brake: wrath, lust, burning.
7. Gha’agsheblah Across from Chesed, mercy and giving. The ruler is often Astaroth. This is giving that smothers. Love or help that does not know when to stop.
8. Satariel Across from Binah, understanding. The ruler is often Lucifuge. This is concealment. Knowledge that hides as it arrives.
9. Ghagiel Across from Chokmah, raw wisdom and force. The ruler is often Beelzebub. This is force that cannot find a path. It hinders, swarms, and will not be organized.
10. Thaumiel Across from Kether, unity. The rulers are often Satan and Moloch, the twin heads. Some modern work also places Lucifer here. This is the top of the dark tree: two instead of one. It is last, not first.
Daath The gap between the upper and lower tree. Some people name Choronzon here. It is a crossing, not a mascot.
Spellings change from book to book. The order does not. Bottom to top is the logical order.
The Qliphoth, One Realm at a Time
The image you have is the whole map. Each Qlipha sits across from a Sephira on the Tree of Life. The Sephira is the balanced form. The Qlipha is what that same force becomes when it breaks, inverts, or goes too far.
You do not have to work all of these. You only need to know what you are looking at.
Each pair is the same force in two conditions. Malkuth becomes Lilith. Yesod becomes Gamaliel. Tiphareth becomes Thagirion. Kether becomes Thaumiel. If you know the Sephira, you already know the raw material of the Qlipha. The Qlipha is that material unbalanced, inverted, or leftover.
Lilith
This is the first gate. It sits across from ordinary life. Naamah keeps the threshold. Lilith rules the opening.
The rite is to stand at the mouth of the Nightside and ask to be let in. You are not hiring her. You are entering. The image is a cave, a door in the house, night coming into the room. This is the working we already gave you.
Stay here until the gate has a taste you recognize.
Gamaliel
This gate sits across from the moon and the dream life. Lilith is named here again.
The rite is for desire, sleep, and the life you live when no one is watching. People often do this one before bed, then write the dream in the morning. The image is the dark moon, a garden at night, a bed that is also a door.
Do not rush this because it feels sexual or strange. That is the climate of the gate.
Samael
This gate sits across from the thinking mind. Adrammelech is the ruler people usually name.
The rite is for the part of thought that will not stay kind. You sit with the name Samael and let the mind go sharp. The image is poison, a stripped idea, a voice that accuses and also tells the truth.
This one can leave you cold or restless. Close it cleanly. Talk to someone ordinary after if you need to.
A’arab Zaraq
This gate sits across from feeling that wants to last. Baal is the usual ruler.
The rite is for passion that will not stay in one form. The image is ravens leaving a tree, dark water, something beautiful that will not sit still.
People come here when they want movement. They also meet unrest. Write what wants to scatter.
Thagirion
This gate sits across from the sun at the center of the Tree. Belphegor is the ruler.
The rite is for the black sun: a light that does not warm. The image is a dead glare, discarded things, a center that argues instead of shining.
This is not a beauty working. It is a working of what you refused to look at.
Golachab
This gate sits across from severity and strength. Asmodeus is the king.
The rite is for fire with no brake. Wrath, heat, lust, the cut that does not stop. The image is burning ground, a furnace, a body that is too hot for the room.
This is one of the harder gates. Do not come here first. Do not stay longer than you meant to. Eat and sleep after.
Gha’agsheblah
This gate sits across from mercy. Astaroth is the usual name.
The rite is for giving that smothers. Love, help, or hunger that does not know a border. The image is something that embraces too hard, a feast that will not end.
People mistake this gate for kindness. Watch what it asks you to keep.
Satariel
This gate sits across from understanding. Lucifuge is the ruler.
The rite is for concealment. Knowledge that arrives hidden. The image is a veiled face, a locked room, a moon with no light.
You may get very little vision. That can still be the gate doing its work. Write the sense of being refused.
Ghagiel
This gate sits across from raw force. Beelzebub is the name people know.
The rite is for power that has no path yet. Swarm, blockage, will that will not be organized. The image is flies, a storm of motion, a road that will not open.
This one can feel loud. Close the gate on purpose. Take your name back.
Daath
This is the gap, not a neat sphere. Some people name Choronzon here. Some leave it unnamed.
The rite is a crossing, not a visit. You only come here when the walk has actually reached the middle of the tree. The image is a drop, a black interval, a place with no floor.
Do not treat this as a mascot. If you are still at Lilith, this page is only a map.
Thaumiel
This is the last gate. It sits across from unity. The old names are Satan and Moloch, the two heads. Some modern work also places Lucifer here.
The rite is for a crown that will not become one. You do not start here. The image is a split throne, two powers that will not merge.
If you came to this tree for Lucifer, this is why he is last. The walk has to have a bottom before it can have a top.
This path starts in the life you already have. The first gate is Lilith.
So on this map, 1 is at the bottom and 10 is at the top.
Use this picture when you want to know which gate comes next.
How People Work With the Qliphoth
Opening the First Gate: What Qliphothic Ritual Actually Is
This is for people who want real knowledge of the Qliphoth and want to see what a ritual in this current looks like. Not a joke sitting. Not a lecture about being unready. A first rite with the power that opens the Other Side.
When you are done here you should know what these demons are, what a Nightside ritual is built to do, and how to perform the first one: the opening of Lilith.
What a Qliphothic ritual looks like
Most Nightside rites have the same bones.
You set the space and mark a beginning. You open to the current of the Other Side. You fix your attention on the realm or the ruler: a name, an image, a seal if you have one. You call. Then you stay in what comes. That may be vision, body-sensation, a presence in the room, a shift in the night. When the work is finished, you close the gate, return to yourself, and record what happened.
That is the shape. It is not a shopping trip. You are not reading a menu and placing an order. You are entering a realm and standing before whoever rules it.
The first time, you do not start at Thaumiel. You do not start with Lucifer because the name is famous. You start where the Other Side touches this one.
Why the first rite is Lilith
Lilith is the first Qlipha. Some lists call it Nehemoth. It sits across from Malkuth, which is the world you already inhabit: flesh, house, night, want.
This is not a lesser demon for beginners. Lilith is the Queen of the Night. She is the opening of Sitra Achra. Naamah keeps the threshold. Lilith rules the gate and keeps appearing as you go up the tree.
If you want knowledge of these demons, you meet the one who lets you in. That is not a demotion. That is the law of this map.
The rite
Do this at night. Be alone. Give it a full sitting, not a glance.
You need a closed room, one candle if you work with fire, paper for after, and a name for what you are doing. Black or red is traditional. Use what you have.
Light the candle. Stand or sit before it until the room belongs to the work.
Speak the opening in your own voice, plainly:
The day is shut. I open the first gate of the Qliphoth. I stand at the threshold of the Other Side. Lilith, Queen of the Night, I come to your gate. Naamah, keeper of the door, I ask to be received. I am not here to hire you. I am here to enter.
Then sit.
Hold one image: a cave opening out of the world you know, or a door in the dark of your own house. Say her name when the mind runs. Lilith. Stay with the candle, the name, and that threshold.
Do not fill the time with asking. Let her presence be the work. Heat, hunger, grief, sex, fear, a watcher in the dark, a change in the room: that is contact. So is a thick silence that does not feel empty.
Stay until the sitting has a beginning, a middle, and an end you can feel. Then close it like you meant it.
Lilith, I leave your gate standing. I shut this working. I return to my life.
Put the candle out. Turn on the light. Eat and drink. Write everything, including what you felt in the body and what the room did. Sleep after that, not after another experiment.
What you just did
You opened the first Qlipha. You put yourself in Lilith’s presence as Queen of the Night, not as a symbol on a page. That is a ritual in this current.
Knowledge here is not only information. It is what happens when the gate is actually opened and you are awake enough to notice who met you.
If the night moves, you have started. Stay with this realm until you know its taste. Repeat the rite. Read her. Watch your dreams. Do not climb to Gamaliel or call a later king because you are impatient. The tree is walked.
If you came only to command a spirit and collect a result, you now know this craft will not give you that on the first night. It will give you the Nightside at the door of your own life. That is the knowledge this rite is for.
The next knowledge is the same gate, gone deeper, until you can tell Lilith from a mood. Then the work can move. Not before.
Opening
The day is gutted. Its light lies outside the door. I take this room for the first mouth of the Nightside.
Lilith, Queen of the Night, red mouth, black cave, hair like a snare, womb that swallows the world and gives it back strange: I put my body at your threshold. I put my breath in your dark.
Naamah, who keeps the hole in things, unlatch the floor. Open the wet door under the house. Let me crawl where the ordinary world ends.
I come with heat in the belly. I come with the taste of iron. I come with sleep still clinging to the back of my neck. No bargain. No errand. Only this: take me through.
By this flame, by this sweat, by the pulse in my throat, the first Qlipha splits. The cave leans in.
Lilith. Your name is the gate. I step into you.
NEXT?
That’s the first ritual we give people who come here wanting to work with the Qliphoth.
Try it, and give yourself time with whatever it brings. If this current isn’t for you, that’s all right. There are many ways to work, and you can take what was useful here and leave the rest.
If you want to go further, stay with this rite for a while. Repeat it when you feel ready, write down what happens, and notice your dreams. Lilith is not a first lesson you finish and leave. She is the gate, and it is worth knowing her before you move on.
When you are ready for the next realm, that is Gamaliel. After that the tree continues in order, and those writings will be here as we add them.
It also helps to learn the Tree of Life itself. The Qliphoth only make sense if you know what they sit across from. Israel Regardie’s A Garden of Pomegranates is a clear place to begin.
If you want a full written sequence through the Nightside, Asenath Mason’s Qliphothic Meditations follows the same order we used here: one realm at a time, beginning with Lilith. Her later book on invocations and evocations is for after that. Thomas Karlsson’s Qabalah, Qliphoth and Goetic Magic is another solid map of this current.
Tree of Qliphoth by Asenath Mason (Author)
You do not need all of those at once. Sit with the first gate. Read a little. Come back when you want more.
….it’s a deep subject matter, but I hope this has wet your palate
The mat can be the strong connection tool for a beginner.
The cloth people actually buy for this work is not a Solomon circle. It is a Tree of Qliphoth tapestry: the Nightside tree printed on fabric. The small ones go on an altar. The large ones, about 5 to 8 feet, get put on the floor so you can stand on a sphere or walk the tree.
The common sold version is the Sitra Ahra / Qlippoth Nightside Tree design used in Luciferian work. It shows the dark tree with the ten husks, Daath in the gap, Lilith named on one side, Samael on the other, and a Lucifer seal on the cloth. Black, red, and sickly green are the usual colors. You can buy it as a 25-inch altar cloth or as a wall tapestry big enough to lay down.
Make One Yourself
If you want to make the cloth
You do not need a shop version. A dark sheet and something to mark it with will do.
Use a black or deep red cloth large enough to stand on. A cheap flat sheet is fine. If you only have an altar, a smaller square of fabric is enough.
Draw the tree in order, from the bottom:
- Lilith
- Gamaliel
- Samael
- A’arab Zaraq
- Thagirion
- Golachab
- Gha’agsheblah
- Satariel
- Ghagiel
- Thaumiel
Put Daath in the gap under the top three. Connect them with simple lines. Write the names so you can read them in low light. If you work Lilith and Samael as a pair, you can put those names on either side of the trunk. Leave enough room at the bottom that you can stand on Lilith without covering the rest.
Red or white fabric paint, a paint pen, or even chalk for a first try. You can copy a printed Tree of Qliphoth as a guide, then make it your own. Let it dry. Fold it away when you are not using it.
Other Tools that actually help
You can do the first rite with almost nothing. These are the things that make the work easier.
One candle. Black or red if you have it. Any candle if you do not. Light it when you begin. Put it out when you close.
The cloth, or one image. Either stand on Lilith on the sheet, or sit with a simple picture of the gate. The point is to know which realm you are in.
Paper and a pen. Write what happened before you sleep. That is part of the rite.
Water or food for after. Eat or drink when you are done so the room becomes ordinary again. (AKA GROUNDING)
Optional, if you already use them:
- Incense. Dragon’s blood or something heavy and dark is traditional. Use what you have.
- A bowl for water or an offering.
- A dark glass or bowl of water if you like to scry. You do not need this for the first gate.
You do not need a bought circle, eleven matching candles, or someone else’s seals. A sheet you marked yourself, one flame, a closed door, and a way to write it down is enough to begin.
I am Saving to get that, but in the meantime I made my own. I had a black full sized sheet, I bought red fabric paint for about $10. I used an 8or 10 ft level to make a giant compass and clamped a sharpie on one end and a screwdriver on the other. To make a perfect circle. Then I just used the level to draw straight lines and painted a pentagram. I had such good emotions put into it. I used it one time. After my ritual I swear this owl was sitting on an oak branch, and it fell to the ground in a spiral weird kind of falling graceful way. It scared the absolute shit out of me lol. I didn’t see it. Then, the next morning in the garden right under the oak, there were these three giant spots in the grass that looked like a deer had been bed down, or three deer. It was pretty awesome. The spots stayed like that the whole time I lived there..Never saw any deers though.
Wow! Breathtaking!
BWC is so knowledgeable and I am truly grateful for their teachings! ?