Chomah - A Vision Of The Temple In The Night

Toldot

עַד אֲשֶׁר-תָּשׁוּב, חֲמַת אָחִיךָ
until my brother's sisters' viciousness is turned away ... Bereshit 27:44

The word translated as viciousness is חמת. The last Hebrew letter (ת) in the word חמת can be a feminine plural suffix, implying that the viciousness alluded to here is sourced in a multiplicity of women. The correction of the text from חמת into חומה (a defensive wall) creates the vision of a new translation:

until my brother's defense returns

Last night, I dreamt a vision in the night.

Some living creatures were stuck in the fence (chayitz from the shoresh חצץ) beside my home.

I released them from their entanglements in it. Willing the potentially dangerous ones to move away, some of the living creatures then ran off into the field on the other side of the fence. After this separation, one living creature came over onto my side of the fence, then shapeshifted into a human being. A small group of vicious women hanging around who had come out against me were driven off by the presence of his friendly nearness to me. Their harsh words and aggressive countenances, like smoke blew out of, disappearing from, the dream.

I woke up.

The single letter root, an orach (אורח), of the shoresh חצץ (from which the word chayitz is derived) is the letter chet (ח), itself meaning fence. In kabbalah and tarot, chet both guards the path bridging the mind and heart (between tiferet and keter) and joins understanding to strength (forming the path between binah and gevurah).

The two letters tzadi (צץ) of the shoresh חצץ form the path between tiferet and yesod and further form the "justice, justice" we pursue into the root of malchut (ateret hayesod) and simultaneously, through both a wealth of intuitive associations and intelligent reason, into understanding.

Interestingly, in making the fence (ח) into chomah, the word חמת (sisters' viciousness) in today's parsha (on this day ה of Kislev and day ו of Shamash, the two non-root essential letters of chomah) is remade through three letters, a vav (representing a masculine force), a mem (the single letter root of the temple), and a hei (representing the feminine force of the awakened dreamer).

Kindred And The Mesorah Of The Ancestors

Chayyei Sarah

וְאֶל-מִשְׁפַּחְתִּי
and to my kindred ... Bereshit 24:38

The Hebrew word translated here as my kindred is משפחתי. From the shoresh (three-letter root) שפח, as is the word for 'female slave' (namely שפחה), the word for kindred is mishpacha (משפחה). The prefix letter mem (מ) can simply mean 'from.' Taken together, the kindred described in the Hebrew of this phrase from the Torah portion are family who come 'from a female slave,' like Hagar who was the slave of Sarah for example. The word שפחה , as well as meaning 'a female slave', can also mean 'to spread out' - thus significantly, the shoresh שפח pertains to an extroversion of consciousness.

As Calev is a man with a different spirit (ruach acheret), so too does another word for kindred have a different spirit - the Hebrew word קרובים also means kindred. From the shoresh קרב - as are the words for 'to draw near' (קָרַב), 'to be brought closer' (קֹרַב), 'to hasten [an event]' (קֵרֵב), 'interior' (קֶרֶב), and 'innards' (קרביים) - these kindred speak to us through Inner Tradition. Thus, significantly, the shoresh קרב pertains to an introversion of consciousness.

ואל-מקרובימי
and to my kindred ...

This past Wednesday I purchased a new book for my library - The Cauldron of Memory, Retrieving Ancestral Knowledge And Wisdom by Raven Grimassi. Chapter three speaks to the idea of Inner Tradition:

Today we hear a great deal about traditions. Some people speak of old traditions, eclectic systems, or self-sytled traditions. There is however another lesser-known form of tradition. This is the "inner tradition," or esoteric system. It is also one of the most misunderstood traditions for a variety of reasons.

Raven writes more ...

So what is an inner tradition? The short answer is that it's a system based upon an agreement of consciousness between members of the tradition. In other words, an inner tradition exists and functions within the group mind of the people that sustain it.

Not just stories ...

For centuries, inner traditions have been hidden from the public, or if not hidden, have been presented in ways that made them appear to be something else. This is perhaps no more apparent than in fairy tales and in the old myths and legends of our ancestors, particularly those associated with magical or mystical themes. The old stories appear at the same time to convey different meanings reflected in an outer form and an inner form of the tales. The outer form is the story itself, which seems to entertain and even convey a message or social moral. The inner form transmits a code or set of keys designed to access a much deeper level. This is because enlightenment does not dwell on the surface; it dwells in the depths below. It is what brews in the mystical cauldron.

Each of us inherits the gift of an inner tradition from, the mesorah of, the Ancestors. World through world, and to my kindred, with a different spirit, I draw near.

חֶבְרוֹן--בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן ... Bereshit 23:19
Chevron in the land of Canaan

Mystery Of The White Bull

Vayera

הִנֵּה-נָא הוֹאַלְתִּי לְדַבֵּר אֶל-אֲדֹנָי, וְאָנֹכִי עָפָר וָאֵפֶר
Behold now, I speak as the Divine even within dust and ashes ... Bereshit 18:27

On this phrase, in Out Of Context, n writes:

Rava in Tractate Chulin 88b says that the reward for saying this was that his children would earn the Mitzvah of the ashes of the Para Adumah (Red Heifer) and dust of the Sotah (a woman brought to the Temple accused of adultery was forced to drink a concoction which had dust from the foot of the Altar in it).

How are Sotah and Para Adumah a relevant reward to Afar v'Efer?

N sums it up:

This explains the Pshat of the Dubner Maggid, that Hashem took what Avraham said, and changed the context from dust and ash with all their negative connotations, to dust and ash as Mitzvos with all their positive connotations.

In other words,

Says the Beis HaLevi, Hashem inverted this, by giving the Mitzvah of Sotah, which cleans the woman's past, and Para Adumah which purifies the persons future.

Last night before sleeping, I drew mannaz, the rune of Divine Conciousness made manifest in the individual and within the race of humanity. Mannaz asks the question, "what does it mean to be human?"

I dreamt.

Like in the television series Lost, I was in Jacob's shack. There was something I had to face.

Outside, a storm-tossed ocean filled my view. The waves were as tall as skyscrapers. Driving the waves and all across the surface of the ocean were tornados made of water. One was coming at me. The natural instinct would be to run, but I just stood looking at it as it approached. Then, like Aaron of the Exodus, I ran toward and into it, face first. I encountered an underwater ship with a brief dreamstory of its own walking through the wall of water. The water didn't part, there was no water-water, I just walked completely through it as if I could breathe like a fish (נון, like Moses). [Interestingly, נון is the Aramaic word for fish - and, in follow-up to last week's Torah commentary (The Demon Dance), angels can't understand Aramaic. Human beings, with the ability to maintain wholeness even within the physical, can.]

I emerged in a sunny place. Climbing up an embankment by a river's edge, I saw a reddish cow wearing a cowbell standing near the edge of the earthen landing. Glancing aside while eating vegetation, she looked up at me, then turned and walked away.

In the place of the reddish cow, a white bull came toward me. Telepathically, the white bull communicated to me, "I can tell you."

Then, the white bull transformed into a bald man with his eyes closed standing in the rain. I was now standing at the top of the earthen embankment, face to face with the man. The man opened his eyes. Our gaze met eye to eye.

In our linked minds, we looked together and saw two women trapped in a hole in the earth.

I woke up.

Interestingly, mannaz is the "n" rune describing humanity as the progeny of the Divine. As n considers the mysteries of dust and ashes in Out of Context, n considers the mystery of what it means to be human.

The Demon Dance

Lech Lecha - The Demon Dance
a perfect parsha for Samhain

מֵאוּר כַּשְׂדִּים
me'aur Chasdim ... Bereshit 15:7

neither dark nor light
the torah of night

woman hides
wholy creative power

questions unspoken, who knows
yes and no

nourishing
meaning, empty of meaning

a paradox
one whole inclination

pure flames
guard the gate to the demon dance

where lilith laughs
with absolute delight

a wild majesty
in wholy motion

secrets rest
and no angel understands

understand

*******

My original poem republished here as commentary for Lech Lecha, was originally published on my now closed geocities website, Walking On Fire (1996-2009).

The Mystery Of Urcanaan

Noach

וַיֹּאמֶר, אָר וּרכְּנָעַן
And She changed the changeless saying, shine Urcanaan ... Bereshit 9:25

What does the prefix "ur" (ור) mean?

The prefix ur refers to the prototype, to the first from which all others derive. It is the unique divine essence which contains all of the defining qualities of all that is derived from it. It is the irretrievable past paradoxically ever-present here and now. It is the dark ineffable made illuminatingly manifest.

It is not ... yet it very much is.

Related information - a modern pagan Canaanite religion.

Magical Duel

Bereshit

וְנָהָר יֹצֵא מֵעֵדֶן
a flowing surged from Eden ... Bereshit 2:10

Last night I dreamt.

I had been set in a small lifeboat upon a river of sand. I had a handful of people traveling with me.

In the river of sand were many alligators who ate people put out on the river in small lifeboats. The alligators would capsize the lifeboats and then eat the people who fell in. The alligators couldn't capsize my boat, so the malevolent magician who had guided with guile us into the lifeboat, with his handful of companions, let our boat come 'ashore' into a large square whitish chamber-room. This is hard to put into words, but I'll do the best I can.

The walls held back the sand of the overflowing sand river. The chamber-room was at a lower level than the overflowing sand river. The malevolent magician then laughed, and as he left the chamber-room, he pushed a button on one of the walls. The walls started to retract down into the ground, allowing the overflowing sand to begin flowing into the room, bringing with it the alligators from the sand river. Having left the chamber-room, the malevolent magician thought that now the alligators would surely be able to reach and eat us.

But I was more powerful than the malevolent magician. By just willing it, I commanded the walls of the chamber-room to come back up - and they did. I could see the alligators through the now-clear glass-like walls swimming in the sand trying to break through the walls, but they couldn't. They and the sand were held back, for there was no button the malevolent magician could push to deactivate the strength of my will for the wall.

I and my companions left the chamber-room on the side opposite the river of sand. I went into a supermarket and acquired a white sweatshirt and some cherry cheesecake. There was a little girl with me.

I woke up.

Sand is made up of tiny stones. Stones symbolize the creative letter-forces of the magical alphabets.

Eishet Shem Hameforash

Vezot Haberachah - Eishet Shem Hameforash, Woman With A Name

וְאָתָה מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ; מִימִינוֹ, אשדת (אֵשׁ דָּת) לָמוֹ
and He came from the myriads holy, at His right hand was a fiery law unto them
Devarim 33:2

To form the phrase "fiery law", the word אשדת must be separated into two words, namely אֵשׁ דָּת. The separation is a function of Binah consciousness. The word אשדת is only explicitly made manifest with wholeness when Chochmah consciousness is in unity with rectified Binah Consciousness.

אשדת signifies a woman (אשת) within whom the Name of Four (ד), also known as the tetragrammaton YHVH (יהוה), explicitly dwells. In other words, אשדת is a woman within whom Divine consciousness and mundane consciouness reside at peace inseparably together in complete and beautiful harmony.

Her semitic pagan Name of Four is Rabatu Atiratu Yam Mi meaning Great Lady Who Is Abundance.

Interestingly, the central name Atiratu in this Name of Four is amazingly similar to the Ætir of Germanic paganism, suggesting a possible common link among tribes of ancient pagan peoples. Ætir means families and eights. Binah is the eighth sefirah (Divine emanation) from the perspective of manifest reality. Importantly, rectified Binah (understanding) inseparably reunites families with Chochmah (wisdom).