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.

Beyond Holiness

Achrei Mot - Kedoshim

וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, אַחֲרֵי מוֹת, שְׁנֵי בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן--בְּקָרְבָתָם לִפְנֵי-יְהוָה, וַיָּמֻתוּ.
and the LORD spoke unto Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD, and died ... Vayikra 16:1

These two Torah portions are filled with what to do and not to do to attain "holiness." Interestingly however, there is a madreigah beyond holiness and beyond the limits of these two Torah portions ... the existence of this mystery madreigah beyond holiness is hinted at in the next Torah portion, Emor ...

And the LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people;

except for his kin, that is near unto him

Holiness has its limits. The mystery madreigah beyond holiness transcends those limits, with Divine blessing.

The Circles Of Life And Light

Tazria-Metzora

וּשְׁלֹשִׁים יוֹם וּשְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים
three and thirty days ... Vayikra 12:4

וְשִׁשִּׁים יוֹם וְשֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים
threescore and six days ... Vayikra 12:5

The time of purification offered by a mother in intercession for a son is three and thirty days. The time of purification offered by a mother in intercession for a daughter is threescore and six days (three and three and sixty days). The difference between these two amounts of time is not only three and thirty days, it is two magical letters lamed.

The Circle of Life

Three is a number of the Goddess. As a female, a daughter is a living incarnation of the Divine Feminine principle. On account of this, through her mother's intercessory period of purification and recovery from childbirth, a daughter enters into an extra three days specifically set aside through which is purified her incarnate connection to the Divine Feminine principle. At her birth, a daughter is already directly connected into to her own Divine Feminine source. Her mother's intercessory time provides space in time for that connection to become purified in a world made with time. This is the reason a woman does not have to undergo brit milah (circumcision in time, in Jewish tradition) to reconnect to the Divine source. A female is born already connected to Her source and to the endless Divine circle of life. The ritual period observed by a daughter's mother purifies the daughter's born connection within the context of spacetime. A female is born a priestess of Goddess. Threescore days are equal to sixty days directly corresponding to the magical letter samech, the creation letter corresponding to ordination and to the endless cycle of life.

The Circle of Light

The two extra magical letters lamed (each with a value of thirty) contained within the time of a mother's intercession on behalf of her son come together to create the number of magical samech (with a value of threescore or sixty), the number of connection into the feminine circle of life and light (sovev kol almin). Through his mother's time of intercessory purification and recovery from childbirth a son becomes encircled and protected by the encircling Divine Feminine Light called sovev kol almin, the encircling encompassing Divine energy which is perceived as universally permeating yet transcendent, supraconscious and elusive by the masculine mind. Thus, the perceptually transcendent Divine Light (as taught by many patriarchal religious teachings) is actually a Light of the Divine Feminine, and while it may be perceived as transcendent by the masculine mind, to the feminine mind, there is no separation in the Light - it is ever whole and complete.

Taken together, the differences between the purification periods observed by a mother for her daughters and sons reflect the fact the a mother is acting as a priestess of the Divine Feminine with these observances. Through the days of a female, a daughter is herself ordained a priestess of the Divine Feminine. Through the days of a male, a son is encircled and protected by the Light of the Divine Feminine.

Nadab and Abihu's Fashion Faux Pas

Shemini

וַיִּשָּׂאֻם בְּכֻתֳּנֹתָם, אֶל-מִחוּץ, לַמַּחֲנֶה
and they carried, them in their tunics, out of the camp ... Vayikra 10:5

The Hebrew word for cotton, namely כֻּתְנָה, comes from the same root as does the Hebrew word (בְּכֻתֳּנֹתָם) in the excerpted phrase above translated as "them in their tunics". The root (כתן) refers to a light-weight garment.

Unlike everyone else, the sacred garments of the kohanim were supposed to be fashioned from the mixtured fibers of wool and linen. Yet, obviously oblivious to the high fashion of the time, and having not developed a unique style of their own, into sanctuary of the Temple went Nadab and Abihu wearing stylishless singularly plain cotton tunics - an unfashionable fashion statement undoubtably earning them no brownie points with the Shechinah. Their fashion faux pas got them zapped. They should have each listened to their coaching on what not to wear on an important date. LOL. Moral of the story - live dangerously and be yourself because bad style is better than no style at all. LOL.

I haven't decided yet which black gladiator sandals to acquire for this summer's wardrobe. This dressy pair is one I am seriously considering - they're awesome - and, both wicked and classy at the same time. These sandals are the epitome of heavy-weight fashion.



Related entries: witch wear