Saturday, January 30, 2010

Pharaoh The Jewitch

Beshalach

כְּתֹב זֹאת זִכָּרוֹן בַּסֵּפֶר
write this for a remembrance in the book ... Shemot 17:14

The total gematria of the Hebrew phrase above is 1455. It has a digit sum of 15, the value of the Divine Feminine Name, Yah (יה). The digit sum of the digit sum is 6, the value of the third letter (vav) in the Divine Feminine Name יהוה. I, the awoken dreamer, am the fourth feminine letter (hei) in the Divine Feminine Name, יהוה.

Last night I dreamt many dreams. Among them, cars and ships were being 'shipwrecked' and deliberately sunk into the seas. After I survived the attempt to morph and slide my own car (among many) off a parking lot tipped down toward the sea, I was on a ship that went on dangerous missions on the oceans to rescue people on sinking ships. The last group I went to rescue was from a ship off the shore of the British Isles. I was unsinkable (neither Pharaoh nor witches can be sunk in water according to Jewish and Celtic lore).

Then, I survived a multitude of mysterious tornados destroying structures and uprooting people in the town around me by hiding in a wooden box.

Then, a man helped my son and I escape another man with 'Israli' written in English (without the English letter 'e' in it, where the English letter 'e' archeographically corresponds to the feminine Hebrew letter 'hei') written across the chest of his shirt attempt to steal my son. He was on a mission to steal 'perfect children' from the Others for some insane plan to offer up and populate an Otherworld utopia. As the first dream had began with me in my parked car, this dream ended with me, the man helping me and my son in my car, starting it up and driving away from the the crazy Israli child-stealer facing us from the end of the driveway.

During all these weird dreams, I was breaking off bread and giving it to people. I was tossing it to them like throwing out a lifesaver vest to someone stranded in the water of the sea from off a ship.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Witch's Circle

Bo

הָיָה אוֹר, בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָם
have light in our dwellings ... Shemot 10:23

Traditionally, a witch's ritual circle measures nine feet in diameter. A protected sacred space within which the witch and her coven raise energy, cast spells and perform rituals, creating a magic circle is called circlecasting. Similar to a mandala, a ritual circle also serves as a microcosm of the Universe, focuses attention for meditation, and enables access to progressively higher and more unified states of consciousness. Similar to a yantra, the circle subdues, integrates and controls chaotic magical forces, creating purposeful structure and organization with them. We can see then that the witch's circle brings order (tikun) to chaos (tohu) and fulfills the kabbalistic teaching regarding the rectified and whole Light of chaos:

The purpose of creation and of our being in it is to integrate the worlds of tohu and tikun into a third order of existence much greater than either tohu or tikun of itself. [Adin Steinsaltz, In The Beginning, Discourses On Chasidic Thought]

The Hebrew phrase written above (translated as to "have light in our dwellings") has a total gematria of 1017 and a digit sum of 9, the diameter of the witch's circle. Thus, witchcraft's sacred circle corresponds to and represents fulfillment of the purpose of creation as taught in magical kabbalah regarding the sacred Light of chaos.

Within the witch's circle, there is Light.

So mote it be, אמן.

Related writings:

Shalshelet HaKabbalah, The Filled Nine
Jewitch Shabbat Ritual

Friday, January 15, 2010

Mind Magic And The Art Of Control

Vaera

בְּלָטֵיהֶם
with their secret arts ... Shemot 8:3

What is the qualitative difference which distinguishes the magic of Aaron and Moses from the magic of Pharaoh's court magicians? Let's consider it.

The Hebrew word בְּלָטֵיהֶם (meaning with their secret arts) derives from the shoresh (3-letter etymological root) לוט and means to cover, conceal and hide. What is hidden? Answer: the ability to retain control.

The gematria of the word בְּלָטֵיהֶם is 96, the same gematria of the word צו. Derived from the shoresh צוה meaning to command or delegate authority while retaining control, צו therefore carries the connotation of retaining control.

Taken together, it becomes clear then that the quality which distinguished the magical acts was the ability (or inability) to reveal and retain control. It may be that the court magicians' magic was produced through an uncontrolled ecstatic frenzy (resulting in unfocused weak magic), while the magic of Aaron and Moses was magic produced and more powerfully focused through remaining in authoritative control of the mind, emotions and senses (resulting in extraordinary magic).

Update / related: Knotty Control of Light

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Sufficient To Do It

Shemot

מזה מה-זה בידך
what is in your hand? ... Shemot 4:2

With digit sums of 10 (the value of the Hebrew hand-letter yod) and 1 (the value of unity), the total gematria of this phrase is 145. The gematriot of each word of the phrase are:

52 = בן = מזה = classification, family, nation
45 = מה = what (am I) I am, with the power to rectify reality
12 = בי = זה = b'yod (in the pintele yid)
36 = לו = בידך = lamedvavnik

Thus, we can see that, with this phrase, Moses is being assayed as to whether or not his pintele yid (Divine spark) is one that can be classified as being one among the thirty-six sparks in whose merit the world exists and within which dwells the Divine power to rectify reality.

With a gematria of 54 (the number of weekly portions in the Torah), Moses answers that in his pintele yid is a staff (מטה), which translates in my mind as sufficient (דים, with a gematria of 54) to do it.