Hishtavut - Her Sound In The Garden

כ'ו באייר תשס"ח
Mab 27

Erev Shabbat (counting yet not counting yesod of yesod - or 41 days which is 5 weeks and 6 days of the Omer - by both the Ari and the Gra), a long line of tornadic thunderstorms rolled through the midwest. In some of the surrounding counties hailstones the size of golf balls came down, Doppler Radar 4x reported live on channel 10 last night. Several tornadoes touched down. In Indianapolis, CNN reports this morning:

At least 14 people were injured late Friday night as a severe thunderstorm with at least one possible tornado ripped through Indianapolis' east side and other nearby counties.

Buildings were heavily damaged at the Falcon Point apartments on Marietta Drive, off 38th Street and Mitthoeffer Road.

About 150 people from the complex were evacuated to John Marshall Middle School.

Foxnews reports that no deaths have resulted from the severe tornadic storms that rolled through the area last night. That 150 people were evacuated to the Middle School is particularly interesting, because this is what happened to me last evening.

What would the Shabbat storm tell me?

During the height of the storm in my area, I prepared and dressed my Shabbat candles, one of which was a stone charged, herbally charged earth element green pillar candle. Carved with mystic symbols, dressed with my own blend of Ceridwen oil, and handrolled with a special faery blend of botanicals, I brought their flames to life.

Then, I went to get a stick of dragon's blood incense. Only, after picking up the package of dragon's blood, I decided I wanted to use a stick of Witches Brew instead. Opening the drawer to one of my herb cabinets, I pulled out a package of Witches Brew stick incense. I have several packages of Witches Brew stick incense. I held for a moment the first sealed package I had picked up in my hand, then replaced it back into the cabinet drawer, picking up a different package of Witches Brew that had been taped closed. Not this one. Exchanging the packages for a second time, I returned to the first package I had originally picked up, opened it and pulled out a stick of Witches Brew incense.

אב with a gematria of 3, restoration of the broken vav of shalom.

The incense-containing ends of the incense in packages of Witches Brew are not visible. One chooses an incense stick by the bare wood ends that rest near the opening of the package. The Witches Brew incense stick I pulled out was split several inches up the grain of the wood on the now-double (like Shabbat loaves joining 7 heavens with the ark of the covenant in the core of the earth) ended incense-bearing end of the stick. In other words, the bare end was whole (one) and the incense end was split (two). Both lengths of the split bore the Witches Brew blend of botanicals. I lit both ends simultaneously in the earth elemental Shabbat candle flame and placed the incense stick smoldering side down into the Celtic triquetra smoking bottle style incense burner on my altar.

My shamanic alphabet divination consisted of 3 Hebrew letters and 1 Ogham letter.

First, around 8:22 p.m., using my standard and rather simple procedure (where I do not see the 3 letters I am selecting from among 22 otiot), I pulled out 3 Hebrew letter cards, in this order:

קלכ

With a gematria of 150, the word means 'your sound' as found in Bereshit 3:10 - "and I heard the 'sound of your voice' in the garden."

Then, also according to my simple standard procedure (where I also do not see the 1 letter I am selecting from among 20 feda, each fid pyrographed into one of my 20 Ogham staves), I pulled out 1 Ogham letter stave:

Nin - the letter of support, connection, feminine power and writing for clarity and contract. It can also mean "fork" (like my Witches Brew incense stick was "forked" at one end). A fork is a bifurcation within chaos with the power to radically change the course of reality and history.

In Ogam, Weaving Word Wisdom, Erynn Rowan Laurie writes on nin:

[Nin is a fid of] weaving together individuals and energies into a greater tapestry of cooperation and peace. In Gaelic terms it expresses a concept akin to the Lakota phrase mitakuye oyasin or "all my relations". Nin is a fid of relationships, both familial and conceptual.

Relationships with others also bring obligation as well as support. Where you are supported, you are also in a place to provide support to others who need your assistance. Nin is the fid of a friend.

Nin's magic is that of weaving and community creation. It can be used to help bring people together for a common cause, and is good for working on peace projects and other tasks that bring disparate people and communities together. Its link with letters and contracts means that it can be used in workings for clarity and understanding in written communications and to help keep legal proceedings in a clear and cooperative space.

With the celestial current, this fid is one of clarity and communication. It suggests harmony and peace in relationships, and speaks of friendship, cooperation and common cause among diverse people. Nin brings connections through communication, and urges you to look for deeper meaning. Nin's link with writing and contracts by necessity brings a connection with the law and the establishment of social order through legal means.

Legally whole peace of rare strength.

Nin corresponds to the ash tree and the herb nettle.

Nettle cloth is stronger and wears better than linen, though fewer fibers can be gleaned from nettle than from flax.

In Ogam, The Celtic Oracle Of Trees, Paul Rhys Mountfort writes on nin/ash:

Ash is a check on peace, for from it [the ash tree] are made the spear shafts by which peace is broken [or restored].

Erynn and Paul both teach that according to Celtic tradition, ash/nin corresponds to 'the contest, boast or flight of women.' Consequently, the contest of women can break peace apart or women's weaving can bring it together into a freedom song of flight. The reality of whole peace or broken quasi-peace/war is given over to the Divine Feminine, manifesting through the collective soul of Womankind.

Paul writes further on nin/ash:

Nin is the ash, a great and sacred tree in Celtic mythology ... presiding over the processes of transformation and manifestation.

This ogam is linked to fate. This does not mean that destiny is iron-cast, but points to the unique fate-path that you have to pursue in this world - one which, although it contains many possible options, is singular to you and no one else. Nin counsels you to regard the continuous unfolding of events as signposts, prompting and guiding you on your journey.

It also challenges you to take up the wand of manifestation and make reality anew for yourself. Positivity, creative visualization, ritual and spellcraft are all instruments of manifestation you may wish to draw upon.

One of ash's greatest features is the massive height to which the tree grows; up to 150 feet. It has quite a sheer trunk with widely spaced branches, and this pole-like appearance contributed to its association in Celtic and Nordic thought to the axis mundi: the central column and axis that supports the sky. As such, it also appears as a type of bridge between the earth and heavens.

Ogam wands were originally made of ash, and the root word nin means 'letters'.

In both cases [of illustrative myth stories shared in the book] we see a symbolic transformation or rite of passage from being controlled by fate to having it in one's own hands. From this flow nin's associations as a tree letter of empowerment in matters of transformation and destiny. In drawing the nin, it is as if you have been handed a magical tool of ash with which to work your will in the world.

I carved the letter nin into my Jewitch wand (the two forms of the letter shin already carved into it at the wand's initial creation), a tool of destiny within my hands, here now in this post with real-world and earthy correspondences to:

* magical letters of creation and transformation

* shins of chochmah (300) and binah (150-150), distinct yet as one

* the middle pillar, ha-emtsa

* hishtavut, magical-mystical balance (nin/150 - קלכ/150) and achieving an immunity to curses

* double-loaved challah, tikun and transformation of evil into holiness

* transformation of a 'curse' (קלל) into a 'blessing' (קלכ)

* restoration of the Divine Feminine

* restoration of the Kohenet Tzedeket (axis mundi, tzadikim nistarim)

* unification (height of nin and gematria of קלכ equals 300/shin)

* restoration of the broken vav of peace (the halved, broken wand of Pinchas transformed into a messianic split middle vav of the Hebrew letter shin)

By this time after carving my wand, the fury of the storm had passed over, but it was still raining heavily and thunderous outside, with lightning dancing across the dark skies. I went outside, felt the magic of the fiercely gentle wind in my face, and let the cool rainwater pour over me as I walked widdershins (holding the essential power of Dark Light) 3 times and 4 upon the wet sacred ground where I walked barefoot like a point of connection joining the entire expanse of heaven with the center of the earth. I felt the soft current of connection sparkling most intimately through the soles of my feet - the heat of the heart of heaven joined to the heat in the womb of the earth as they collided together in the wet cool grass against my skin.

Wholy awesome!

Kept in a black resin pentacle box at the face of my altar when not in ritual use, I slept with my spirit cord around my waist this Shabbat night last night.

Related entry:
Shalshelet HaKabbalah: Weaving A New World, The Filled Nine