The Fifth Element, The Elixir Of Life

Beha'alotcha





וְזֶה מַעֲשֵׂה הַמְּנֹרָה
and this is the work of the candlestick ... Bamidbar 8:4

The gematria of the Hebrew phrase above is 13 (echad), with a digit sum of 4 - earth, air, fire and water. The work of the candlestick is to make manifest the fifth element, the elixir of life available to us in unity of being through the lifeblood of the unified Universe. Gypsies call this fifth elemental elixir mi douvals zee - the Zee Energy.

The Zee Energy runs through and permeates the Universe like blood runs through our vascular system and permeates our bodies through an expanding and spreading network of blood vessels and capillaries. Like within our veins and arteries is concentrated the flow of our blood, within the ley lines and dragon paths of the earth is concentrated the flow of the lifeforce of the fifth elemental energy. Understand then that within our own bodies exists magic sympathy with the powerful ley lines and dragon paths of the earth.

Lighting the Lamp of the Sticky Soul

As oxygen and other nutrients are delivered to our tissues through tiny capillaries, so too is the energy of the fifth element brought into our physical being through the interface of our body and our sticky soul (our animal soul and pure child nature). Feri tradition Witchcraft teaches that our sticky soul is very closely aligned with our physical body. Energy 'sticks' to our sticky soul, and through it, energy from the Universe may be drawn into our physical body. Energy may also be stored in our sticky soul like a battery.

Lighting the Lamp of the Body

Also like a battery, Gypsy Witchcraft teaches that within the protected boundaries of our physical body, the energy of the fifth element may be stored like a ball of radiant light. This light may be utilized for magic and should be kept replenished when expended.

Here is a Gypsy technique for bringing in and storing within yourself the light of the fifth element - Zee Energy Meditation [excerpt from Gypsy Magic by Patrinella Cooper]:

Find a place that has a comfortable feel for you, a spot that feels welcoming, preferably outdoors. It is good to lie on the grass, or lean against a tree or rock, but sit on something comfortable if that feels better. If it is more convenient to be indoors, try to fill your room with harmony and life. Have growing things about you. Burn pleasant incense or oil, maybe a candle or two if that pleases you. The main thing is to feel relaxed.

Don't try to clear your mind of thoughts: to try to do so consciously often has the opposite effect of making one tense. Let your mind range where it will. If you feel like looking around, look around! Notice the flowers, the sound of the birds, the wind through the leaves, the distant noise of traffic and people. Gradually your thoughts will quieten.

As your mind becomes still, imagine your body becoming less solid, your skin - the barrier between you and the outside world - melting. Imagine the zee energy shimmering all around you, permeating the earth beneath, the air above you. Feel the zee tingling around your body like electricity.

Take slow, deep breaths, drawing the air down into your stomach. With each breath visualise the sparkling zee being drawn into your body through every pore, through the soles of the feet, palms of the hand, and crown of the head.

Continue in this way until the zee fills your whole body with vibrant glowing energy, and you feel yourself bursting with light. Now gradually close the barriers between you and the world again, to enclose the zee energy within your body. Feel your skin become solid again. Gradually the light drains from the extremities towards the torso. then concentrate the light into a glowing ball situated in the region of the solar plexus. Concentrate your mind for a few moments on the reassuring feel of this ball of light, your own power house of energy, then darken it with an imaginary cover that will keep it safe, deep inside yourself until it is needed.

Do this exercise whenever you can, ideally every day. Don't worry if you can't complete it every time; don't worry if you fall asleep half way through; just sitting quietly for a while is of great benefit to the psyche, so the time is never wasted.

בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ, אֶת-הַנֵּרֹת, אֶל-מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה, יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת
When you catalyze the lighting of the lamps, at the right time the lamps shall give full light ...

Magic is not only the rituals you do, magic is what you are.

Skin Of The Magical Tachash

Naso

The Bowels of the Earth

and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels ... Bamidbar 5:22
וּבָאוּ הַמַּיִם הַמְאָרְרִים הָאֵלֶּה, בְּמֵעַיִךְ

The Crusty End

And it came to pass on the day that Moses had made an end of setting up the tabernacle ... Bamidbar 7:1
וַיְהִי בְּיוֹם כַּלּוֹת מֹשֶׁה לְהָקִים אֶת-הַמִּשְׁכָּן

Back to the Future - Reflection on the Skin of the Magical Tachash

כְּסוּי עוֹר תַּחַשׁ
a skin will make haste to cover ... Bamidbar 4:6

Sometimes translated as "a covering sealskin" or as "a covering tachash skin", the Hebrew phrase above may also be translated as "a skin will make haste to cover." When prefixed to a verb stem, the Hebrew letter tav (ת) indicates the future tense. The verb stem, in this case, are the two magical Hebrew letters chet-shin (חש), which together mean to make haste and to hurry.

There is no three-letter Hebrew root תחש (the letters comprising the word tachash), but there are three-letter Hebrew roots where the fiery-letter shin (ש) is substituted with the Hebrew letters in the alphabet before and after the fiery-letter shin. Before the letter shin in the alphabet is the letter reish (ר). The Hebrew root tav-chet-reish (תחר) means to protect. Following the letter shin in the alphabet is the letter tav (ת). The Hebrew root tav-chet-tav (תחת) means place below, being underneath and in place of. Taken together, the Hebrew root tav-chet-shin (תחש), namely the tachash, refers to something being in a place underneath something which protects something.

The tachash (תחש) is a magical biblical creature created specifically in the making of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Before the moment of its specific singleminded creation, it does not exist. Torah gives us instructions on how to make the Mishkan using the skin of a tachash, therefore, in the future tense - because until it is actually made, the tachash does not exist. Once the Miskhan is actually being made, in the moment of its creation, a tachash too is created ... and a skin will make haste to cover it. It's pure magic!

A Skin Made Haste To Cover It - As I dreamt, it was made - a protective skin covering and holding back the flowing fire for that standing beneath it.

From my earlier entry today [Dreams and Visions on the Divine Feminine Power of Resistance] from Walking On Fire:

Last night I dreamt.

I was visiting a small town to the east of me in the midwest. The small town was not any which inhabits my real life. The entire town consisted of magical practitioners. There was a murdering group loose in the town, but the townspeople suspected among themselves that there was a single murderer and that it was me, because I was not a native of the town. Even though I knew that there was a renegade group as opposed a single individual who was doing the murders, I couldn't identify the individuals who comprised the group. The town was investigating me. I was investigating members of the town. The group of murderers was alert to the murder investigations, and that I had them on my radar. They hid and laid low.

As the investigations proceeded, it became clear that the town was in trouble. The land upon which it stood and to the south of it was shifting due to activity in the earth's core and mantle. A huge wall of molten earth and lava rose up in the south like a tsunami wave. But, as it approached the town, when it saw me, the face of its surface cooled and crusted, forming a wall of crusted earth with molten lava dammed up behind it. For now, the town was safe. I knew that if I left the town at this point in time, the cooled crusty face of the dammed lava wall would melt enabling the wall of molten earth and fiery lava to pour down upon the town.

I began waking up. As I was waking, I saw the land making up the west coast of the United States collapse into the bowels of the earth. Then, the sea poured in and covered over where the land had been.

As I was opening my eyes, words spoke through my mind saying, "your path is diverted." In my mind, I knew that the path of my life, unseen by me, had been leading me toward moving or traveling to the west coast, but now that path had been diverted. My life path is not heading me toward the west coast any longer.

Related entry - Yabok and the Power of Witchcraft

Just a laboratory note for my Book of Shadows - Since around the time this Torah cycle began, my practice is to not read any of the weekly parsha until the moment I am ready to post my commentary on it - in other words (just like the creation of the magical tachash), I don't read a parsha until the moment of the creation of my commentary on it. Also, last night's dream and this morning's vision preceded my reading of and commentary on Naso.

Yabok And The Power Of Witchcraft

Bamidbar

אִישׁ עַל-דִּגְלוֹ בְאֹתֹת לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם, יַחֲנוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
The children of Israel shall pitch by their fathers' houses; every man with his own standard [input]

מִנֶּגֶד
according to the ensigns [resistor]

סָבִיב לְאֹהֶל-מוֹעֵד יַחֲנוּ
a good way off shall they pitch round about the tent of meeting [output] ... Bamidbar 2:2

On Yabok (יבק), tradition teaches -

Yabok is the name of the river which Jacob transversed upon entering Israel, before his encounter with his brother Esau.

In Kabbalah, Yabok is an acronym for Yichud ["unification"], Berachah ["blessing"], Kedushah ["holiness"]). Of the varying interpretations with regard to the three levels of this most fundamental idiom and teaching of Kabbalah--yichud, berachah and kedushah--the most often cited and expounded upon in the classic texts of Chassidut is that the three concepts correspond to the three general ascending levels of the soul: nefesh, ruach and neshamah; or one's "world" of action--his ability to relate and unite with outer reality, one's "world" of emotion--the blessing of abundant emotive energy, and one's "world" of meditation--the experience of holiness as a transcendent connection with the realm of the Divine.

The word Yabok equals 112 in gematria, the combined value of the two Names (referred to together as G-d's "full Name") Havayah (26)--Elokim (86); and as well the combined value of the three Names: Ekyeh (21), Havayah (26), Adnut (65), which themselves correspond to the three levels of Yabok.

Kedushah - Wholiness

In follow-up to The Healing Feeling of Wholeness and A Year To Reveal All Good, this week's Torah portion tells us how to regulate, direct and amplify the proper flow of blessing so that it is experienced as all good and is not overwhelming to our ability to safely receive it.

The Hebrew word מִנֶּגֶד can refer to the load resistor mechanism like in an amplifying transistor which regulates electrical currents. The gematria of מִנֶּגֶד is 97, with a digit sum of 16, and a final reduced digit sum of 7. Seven is the value for the magical Hebrew letter zayin. Connected to the concept of aur chozer, zayin corresponds to the Divine Feminine Power to resist, reflect, reorganize and redirect. As explained in The Healing Feeling of Wholeness, in my own personal experience, the power of zayin to manage Divine Energy is found in Witchcraft.

Berachah - Blessing

The gematria of the entire Hebrew phrase loading as input onto the resistor is 2819, reducing to a digit sum of 20, and to a final digit sum of 2. The value of 2 pertains to the magical Hebrew letter beit, corresponding to berachah (blessing).

Yichud - Unification

The gematria of the entire phrase following as output from the resistor is 334, reducing to a digit sum of 10, and to a final digit sum of 1. The value of 1 pertains to the magical Hebrew letter alef, corresponding to the perfect balance achieved by moving in rhythm with the flow of one's own inner messianic Divine Spark, and to actualizing Unity in Multiplicity. Now, the blessing flowing out from the resistor mechanism is balanced and remains in essential unity even as the blessing becomes expressed in an amplified multiplicity of ways.

Through zayin, Witchcraft is for me the measure (קבי) through which Divine Blessing is safely made manifest. Witchcraft brings the blessing down into reality in proper measure, making it all good. With Witchcraft, it all comes together.

A Year To Reveal All Good

Behar-Bechukotai

אֵת שְׁנַת הַחֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה
the fiftieth year ... Vayikra 25:10

The total gematria of this phrase is 1907, reducing to digit sums of 17 and 8. Seventeen and eight comprise the gematriot of the magical word tov (meaning good) made of magical Hebrew letters and the magical Hebrew letter chet (meaning life). The fiftieth year is thus an auspicious year in which all good is enabled by the very fabric of reality to become widely revealed in one's life. The move of all good out from a state of concealment into stark revelation, not only has already begun for me, but as written this past Monday, the Ingwaz force has forthtold and forthsent the blessing of the fiftieth year as well. Even greater blessing, revelation and understanding are on the way.

At 49 years of age, I'm approaching my fiftieth year of life. After a lifetime of suffering, life now has never been better for me in so many ways. It's only going to get better.

I've lost most of the weight I gained while suffering from a period several years ago of deep clinical depression (which discovering Witchcraft relieved in me - thank Goddess!). My skin is still youthful despite years of suffering (or perhaps, because of it). I have a unique style and feel very good in it. I love being the witch that I am. I'm still healthy and mentally alert. And best of all - I have joy and a loving family. And it's only going to get better - my fiftieth year is going to be an awesome and extraordinary year. I know it - and so does the Universe.

Even my new county employer is gleaning benefits at the corners of my field of blessing. Just yesterday, the Director of Nurses remarked that the facility's census (both general facility and Medicare) has "never been this high." My work is hopping and reimbursements are on the rise! In contrast, I've been informed through the grapevine that the census at the place of my former employer has "never been so low" - and that their Medicare census is hemorrhaging at record lows. It looks like I took my blessing with me when I left there.

Indeed, my fiftieth year promises to be amazing.

[Just an interesting eclectic observation perhaps unique to me - In Witchcraft I find in myself the archetype of Naomi (the power to overcome depression and to build a better future). In Judaism I find in myself the archetype of Boaz (owner of a field of blessing).]

Blessing Of The Cursed

Shabbat Sabbat Beltane, 32 Days of the Omer

Emor

הוֹצֵא אֶת-הַמְקַלֵּל
eject the one who has cursed ... Vayikra 24:14

The psycho-spiritual energy it takes to create and send forth an effective curse is massive. Anger constitutes the only energy able to fuel the manifestation of a curse's intention into reality. No other energy has the power to do it. Casting a curse against someone, whether through direct or indirect intention (i.e., active or passive ill-will), takes an extraordinary self-investment of energy.

During the active or passive act of cursing, the energy raised by the curse-caster to fuel a curse is transferred from the curse-caster to the object of the curse. Such a powerful transference of energy surely taxes and typically wipes out the curse-caster's psycho-spiritual energy reserves. Consequently, experienced practitioners of the magical arts rarely cast a curse. It costs the soul too much power to engage in a frivolous practice of cursing.

The experienced practitioner of the magical arts takes understanding advantage of energetic dynamics when faced with an enemy who has cursed her.

On understanding magical energy from Dorothy Morrison's Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions:

The pixels in a computer graphic ... they are only dots of color - nothing more, nothing less. But when an artist moves them together in a particular order and directs them into a proper measurement, an image forms. The pixels, themselves, have no control over whether the image is dreadful or gloomy, or bright and cheerful. They are, after all, just dots of color. It is the artist who brings the image to light - and evokes the desired feeling from those who view it - by moving and directing the pixels in a certain fashion. The same is true of energy and the practitioner.

Consequently, the experienced practitioner of the magical arts understands that negative energy should never be returned to the sender through reversing the energy of the sender's curse and sending it back to the person or casting one's own curse against the person. Dorothy goes on to write:

Because if both [magical] practitioners have their shields in place - and they certainly should if they're worth their salt - all this is going to do is cause a game of psychic volleyball. The energy is going to just bounce back and forth until someone gets tired. And we can only hope that someone is the practitioner who sent the energy in the first place.

Think about it. Dorothy continues:

Regardless of how it feels, all energy is a gift. It's the very substance from which everything is created. And that being the case, it should never be sent back. Instead, it should be grabbed up, moved and directed, and formed and shaped into something entirely different - something wonderful - something that can be used for personal [or collective] benefit.

All energy is a gift, even the energy of curse. When an experienced practitioner of the magical arts is cursed by someone who actively or passively wishes her ill-will, the experienced witch fully accepts the gift of energy and rearranges its pixels of negativity into pixels of positive blessing. After all, like pixels on the computer, pixels of energy can be moved around and transformed into something beautiful by the artist within whom they find life. Ultimately, it is the soul of the one who ends up with the energy which determines how the pixels come together as a pattern on the screen of her life. Even though the curse-caster may send the pattern of a curse, that pattern may dissolve and rearrange into a pattern of blessing once the energy arrives in the soul of the "cursed."

We can see then that, when a vengeful or inexperienced person curses an experienced witch, all that person is effectively doing is providing the witch with more energy to fill her life with more blessing. Given that the amount of energy it takes to muster up an effective curse is massive, the potential for blessing is equally massive.

We can also see why Torah commands one who has cursed to be removed from the collective camp - because one who has cursed has transferred energy out of the camp and has given it over to another camp through the process of "cursing." Energy constitutes both manifest curses and manifest blessings. Thus, by giving away energy through a curse, cursing is like giving away the energy which also constitutes the camp's Divine blessing. Considering this, we can see that it is actually for transferring energy (which ultimately constitutes all manifest blessing) out of the camp that the curse-caster is commanded to be also cast out of the camp.