Cosmos

Balak on this Full Moon Shabbat

וְהוֹקַע אוֹתָם לַיהוָה, נֶגֶד הַשָּׁמֶשׁ
and raise them up in the face of the sun ... Bamidbar 25:4

Thursday night before an important meeting Friday, with the word-locking warding power characteristic of Vardlokkur, I drew one magical rune out of my rune-pouch to reveal and draw out the energy which would characterize the meeting the next morning. (As always, as with every divination I do using magical alphabets, the act of drawing was made by putting one of my hands into the pouch and drawing out the rune to which my hand is drawn - I do not see any of the runes until after one is drawn and taken out of the pouch. In this particular drawing, I drew the rune out with my left hand, the hand of strength. In note, all of my runes are hand-crafted without electrical tools and hand-pyrographed into hand-cut circles of apple wood of equal size.) The rune I drew was Sowilo.

“Sowilo guides and leads you to the doorway, then waits for your return.” ... rune poem, author unknown

Sowilo, the Sun rune, is also known as the victory rune - it guides to and brings up honor, victory, success, revelation and wholeness. Importantly, Sowilo is a life-giving force. It's driving energy is not one of destruction. It's driving energy is one which activates one's inner Divinity to mobilize action of one's highest values within the given situation to catalyze transmutation of one's highest will and thought into manifest reality. Sowilo makes enlightenment real.

This Shabbat Saturday morning, the day following the meeting Friday, and opposite in time to the Thursday night rune drawing, as Sowilo waited for my return to the runes, I returned, drawing a retroceding rune (such that the two rune drawings sandwiched the Friday meeting, both anteceding and retroceding it, with magical energy). As per my usual procedure as described above, yet this time with my right hand to provide balance, amazingly I drew Isa - the Ice rune force which expertly balances and focuses Sowilo.

“Ice only appears to stop a river’s flow.” ... rune poem, author unknown

Isa wards, focuses and concentrates the success and enlightenment brought up by Sowilo onto and into the target situation and magical working. Isa restabilizes the natural instability surrounding the act of transmutation, brought up both through Sowilo and through the magical Hebrew word וְהוֹקַע in this week's parsha meaning "raise up." Isa freezes, brings to stillness and neutralizes other potential negative meanings (namely, "to condemn" or "to execute") of the word וְהוֹקַע to energetically focus, concentrate and bring into single-minded action the positive meaning of the word וְהוֹקַע - namely, "to raise up."

Isa is also the rune of satisfying, meditative quiet rest. Like Shabbat.

Together, Sowilo and Isa correspond to the elusive soul power of hishtavut (equanimity), the ability to live with harmony in the most profound reality of the Cosmos. One who is shown to possess such equanimity shows oneself to be One with the Cosmos.

The vardlokkur for this Shabbat morning is Cosmos. Oh, how beautifully the Cosmos speaks in me!

Vital Achdut

Chukat

וְנַפְשֵׁנוּ קָצָה, בַּלֶּחֶם הַקְּלֹקֵל
and our soul is sick with poor vitality ... Bamidbar 21:5

This phrase tells us that the singular soul (nefesh, not nefashot) of the bodies (not the individual bodies nor the plural souls), of the complainers was "sick with poor vitality." One can suggest then that the complainers were united in a high level of achdut. In fact, their level of achdut was so refined that their nefesh soul was counted as a singular united organism. Having achieved this high level of achdut, the soul required a nourishment that the manna of the desert no longer provided.

Korach's Argument And Aharon's Magical Staff

Korach

וְהִנֵּה פָּרַח מַטֵּה-אַהֲרֹן, לְבֵית לֵוִי; וַיֹּצֵא פֶרַח וַיָּצֵץ צִיץ, וַיִּגְמֹל שְׁקֵדִים
and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and bore ripe almonds ... Bamidbar 17:23

The Magical Staff - the Essence Witchcraft, the Old Religion

The almond is native to the Mediterranean region as far eastward as the Indus Valley, the very cradle of human civilization. Inhabited since 470,000 BCE, through the Indus Valley came the essence of Witchcraft, the Old Religion.

The Flower of Korach

In the Old Religion of the Indus Valley civilization of Sind, as in ancient and modern Witchcraft, there was no centralized ordained clergy (page 23). Each person was her or his own priestess or priest. Each home had its own shrine. There were group gatherings and festivals for the Sun, Moon and seasonal celebrations. The people revered the mother Goddess.

The Bud of Celtic Witchcraft

Interestingly, down through the golden threads of sacred time, the ancient figure of Celtic Cernunnos (first photo) bears a striking resemblance to the figure (second photo) of Indus Siva (from which Hindu Shiva derives) found on an ancient seal dated c.2500-1500 BCE excavated at Mohenjo-Daro.

Giving birth to Celtic culture, the sacred mother Danube river was named for the Celtic mother Goddess Danu. Danu is also the name of an early Hindu mother Goddess of primeval waters. The descendants of the Goddess Danu, in both Celtic and Hindu culture, are called Children of Danu.

Mounting evidence, both religious and archeological, clearly links the origin of ancient Celtic culture with the ancient Dravidian culture of the Indus Valley. Evidence also suggests that the earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia, including biblical Ur, the mother city of the Semitic peoples, were themselves colonial outposts of a mother civilization from the Indus Valley.

The Ripe Almonds - People of the Book

As Jews are people of the Torah, as Christians are people of the Bible, and as Muslims are people of the Koran, so too are Witches people of the Book. In a witch's Book of Shadows, Goddess continues to write and weave Her magic down through golden threads of time. Unlike the newer patriarchal religions, the Mother's Old Religion still to this day, unencumbered by caste or rank or political power, bestows priestesshood and priesthood upon each individual who practices it in her or his own dwelling, before her or his own Earthy shrine to the Divinity of which we are all made.

The Argument of Korach and the Magical Staff of Aharon

Importantly, taking all this together, we can see that within the history and modern reality of Witchcraft, both the argument of Korach (containing an element of the idea that everyone among the congregation is a priest/priestess) and the magical staff of Aharon (which flowered, budded and bore ripe almonds to demonstrate chosenness for priesthood - and priestesshood) are One.

So mote it be. אמן

An Ancient Book Of Shadows

Sh'lach

יְהוָה, אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב-חֶסֶד, נֹשֵׂא עָו‍ֹן, וָפָשַׁע; וְנַקֵּה, לֹא יְנַקֶּה
The LORD is slow to anger, and plenteous in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty ... Bamidbar 14:18

These midot (measures and character traits) - slowness to anger, lovingkindness and forgiveness of transgression - will not clear, will not clean up, will not acquit guilt.

The question now is, what will human beings do?

The Universe pauses to observe.

The total gematria of the Hebrew excerpt above is 1948, with a digit sum of 22 and a final digit sum of 4.

1948 = the year Israel became a nation
22 = the number of magical letters in the Hebrew alphabet
4 = the door into will

In Torah, an ancient Book of Shadows belonging to Humanity, is recorded an alchemical occult procedure for removing the alien infection of human will. As is every mystery Book of Shadows, the cleansing interpretation of the instructions is protected by encryption of the text. How do we read it and how do we act upon our reading of it?

Related dream - Tzaraat, The Mystery Under The Skin