Myrrh, My Totem Resin

י״ז בתמוז תשע"א
Faunus 19

In follow-up to my previous post (Confronting Demons Starting Years Ago), I note that from the shoresh מור is also derived the word for myrrh (מֹר), making myrrh my totem resin, so to speak. Significantly, myrrh is also the totem resin of Goddess/the Sacred Feminine in Celtic Paganism and Witchcraft.

The Bird's Nest

Keowulf 28

My Queen Anne's Lace bare root plantlings arrived today! I just finished planting them in an indoor planter box to recover from being mailed (oh hugs! my sweet darlings) and to grow until it gets warm enough to move them outside into the spring sunshine. I ordered six plantlings - I received seven regular sized plantlings and another eighth teensy little baby plantling whose roots were tangled up in one of the other plantlings - that is so sool and mystically significant to me! I separated the two plants and planted each side by side so that each plant's roots could have space to develop.


Queen Anne's Lace is also called Daucus carota, wild carrot and the Bird's Nest. A flowering plant native to the temperate regions of Europe, this plant is also a significant ethnobotanical in Celtic folk tradition. Considered a weed in the USA, Queen Anne's Lace is beautiful to me.

As an herb, Queen Anne's Lace can be used to make a natural yellow dye (as woad is used to make Celtic blue dye), medicinally (as a contraceptive, diuretic, antiseptic or digestive aid), and shamanistically as an hallucinogenic.


It has been so long since I've had a garden, and this year's will start small. Queens Anne's Lace, as the first plant in my new garden initiative, has initiated a new cycle in my life and my return to the traditional herbalism of my Celtic ancestors.

I'm in love with my little plantlings!

Celtic Woad Blue Coming to WITCHCRAFTS

Keowulf 23

Coming soon to WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu - Celtic Woad Blue! Witchcrafted in the tradition of the Old Ways!



I've ordered materials for making authentic Celtic Blue dye from the woad plant (Isatis tinctoria). Used throughout Europe since the Neolithic times 5,000-10,000 years ago, woad is a source of natural indigo.

Famous for its association with the land of the Iceni, the land of Queen Boudicca, medicinally woad has antiseptic and anticancer properties. Research has demonstrated that woad has 20 times more of the anti-cancer chemical glucobrassicin than broccoli. Magically, woad has historically been used for shapeshifting rituals and past life pathworking.

Look for this gorgeous blue soon at WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu!

The Magic Mandrake

טי כסלו תשס"ט
Shamash 10

Being a witch makes joy in me. Truly. There is no separation between joy and I. Joyful am I. Neither do I have cause to pray as one separated from herself.

Rachel said to Leah: 'Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.' Bereshit 30:14

In follow-up to my earlier commentary from Garden Of The Dark Moon Jubilee on Vayetzei discussing The Magic Ladder, the question exists for many reading this Torah portion - was Jacob's vision in the night really a dream?

I can't answer that, but I can answer that my own experience, as described in The Magic Ladder and correlated to Jacob's ladder, was no dream. The experience I described was one I had before I was born, before "I" was incarnate or connected to a physical body or bound up with any psycho-spiritual form or structure of any kind. Thus, the words of my poetic discourse on my particular magic ladder do not create a "picture", but rather, they elicit an apprehensional perception of pure Acting Awareness. Without structure, form or physicality, my experience was one of pure consciousness, known in Sefer Yetzirah as sekhel tahor. In practical kabbalah, sekhel tahor corresponds to the magical botanical called mandrake.

Sekhel tahor ... "purifies the Sefirot. It tests the decree of the their structure and the inner essence of their unity, making it glow. They are then unified without any cuttoff or separation." [Sefer Yetzirah, The Thirty-Two Paths Of Wisdom]

Path Of The Just

י'ד בכסלו תשס"ח
Shamash 16

Acting with the energy of the lights of Tohu, in vessels of Tikkun ... because I can.

This shabbat full moon esbat at 6:33 am, I woke up and wrote down the major symbols of a complex dream so I would remember them.

I saw two Hebrew letters clearly in the dream, a tzadi (צ) was somewhat hidden behind a zayin (ז). The zayin "stepped forward" toward clearer closer identification. In the dream, I said,

"I claim the zayin for now."

In other words, while both letters were "mine", I indicated the one acting "for now" was the letter zayin.

There was another hidden letter as well.

Each letter was associated in some manner with a different and specific aspect of a dandelion.

The zayin, the clearer letter visually, was associated with a yellow dandelion set in a mid-horizontal line on a white door. (This mid-horizontal line corresponds to the path of the letter aleph (א) located "between" Gevurah and Chesed on the Tree of the Sefirot. Zayin is the letter corresponding to the path between Chochmah and Tiferet on the Tree of Life in the GRA array.)

The tzadi was itself somewhat hidden somewhat revealed in the background of directed observation, "behind the zayin", and was associated with a somewhat hidden, somewhat revealed red-like dandelion set opposite the yellow dandelion - out of the line of direct visual sight, but well within the higher mind's eye. In other words, though I didn't see the red-like dandelion with my dream eyes, I saw it through my higher mind beyond the eye - and as the tzadi was "behind" the zayin, the red-like dandelion was "opposite" the yellow one. In my mind, this kind of "seeing yet not seeing" is some "in between" form of quasi-reverse vision. (Tzadi is the path between Netzach and Malchut on the Tree of the Sefirot in the GRA array.)

Beyond both the zayin and the tzadi, and beyond both the yellow and red-like dandelion, I perceived the presence of both another "hidden" letter and another "hidden kind" of dandelion. I did not see directly or indirectly either the hidden letter or the hidden dandelion, but I perceived the Presence, associating the hidden dandelion with, not a color or color-like aspect, but with the essence of the dandelion - a dandelion essence. (This essence corresponds to all the "other" empty yet not empty space between the distinct letter paths on the Tree of the Sefirot which gives form to all the distinct letter paths. It is the pure Divine Feminine no-man's land of the vacated space, the chalal hapanui. This is complete reverse or negative vision.)

As I was waking from the dream, I clearly heard a word pronounced like "sern", spelled in English either as "sern" (like the enterotoxin-like microbial gene studied in medical research laboratories) or "cern" (like the high-energy particle physics laboratory). Both Sern and Cern pertain to "states in between" - the former (sern) to a place "in between" being a distinct toxin "code" or being distinctly non-toxin "code", and the latter (cern) to quantum non-localized fuzzy states existing "in between" distinct places in space. Like klipat nogah, both "sern" and "cern" point to a tachash state of being.

When I woke up from the dream, I remembered clearly that someone had been messing with my instrumental music CDs in my office at work. One of my CDs called Wishes has a dandelion on it - I noticed it had been moved slightly when I went in to work yesterday morning and returned it to its place.

Taking all this together, this dream in triplets pertains to 3 kinds of perception:

direct vision (physical/nefesh and psychic-dream/ruach, color-tzeva)
quasi-reverse vision (indirect/neshamah, color-like light-aur)
reverse-negative vision (hidden yet .../chayah-yechidah, radiance-aur gadol/darkness)

Interestingly, this dream follows the initial act shabbat evening of naming time according to the Witches' Year in parallel with the Hebrew date. The first Witches' calendar date I used for posting entries is today Shamash 16, where Shamash has correspondences to dandelion, the color yellow, the sefirah Tiferet, Hebrew Shemesh and the Hebrew letter meaning "door" (dalet ד).

The path of the Just is a great shining light emerging from within darkness.

The Generative Bone of Bereshit

Red-Handed With Shechinah

י'ו בחשון תשס"ח

I've uncovered another interesting tidbit related to my "chance" purchase of some red ochre, my "chance" encounter with a deer which followed that purchase, and my "chance" discovery following both of those that links both red ochre and deer symbolism to Shechinah.

As the deer symbol is kabbalistically associated with Shechinah, red ochre is historically and more practically associated with Shechinah. Specifically, red ochre symbolizes the immersive creative explosion characteristic of the hashra'ah of Shechinah.

Kathleen Kimball writes in Red Handed: An Inquiry Into The Meaning Of Prehistoric Red Ochre:

Perhaps our ancestors painted or tattooed hand prints on their bodies. Tattooing and painting red ochre hands on human skin likely went on for many tens of thousands of years before so called ‘creative explosion’ 35,000 or so years ago.

This ‘creative revolution’ was an intensified interest in permanence generally and in the human hand specifically. This is when our species outlines objects on stone surfaces. This outlining seems to me to be a kind of making permanent or ‘binding’.

Taking all this together, it may be that another historic bestowal of hashra'ah and creative explosion is in the making ... information all linked together and brought down through the intended purchase of a 15-watt lightbulb for the elegantly witchy little desk lamp which stands beside my computer. יה

Light From Darkness

י'ו בחשון תשס"ח

Yesterday, before I went to the store from which I returned to encounter the deer as decribed in earlier entries today, I had purchased some red ochre for craftworking. I had just "happend upon" the pigment, and had not gone looking to buy any. I bought it on a gut impulse that it could be useful for my magic-making. So, after purchasing it online, I went to the store for a 15-watt lightbulb. יה

Interestingly, the first color one sees when emerging from blindness or darkness is the color red. The first examples of human art were made with red ochre. The prehistoric art shown here is of a red ochre deer cave painting (thought by scholars to have been created during the Megathilic Period).

Wrestling, Redeeming & Sanctifying Truth

ג' בתשרי תשס"ח

The afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I performed a Jewitch tashlich. At that time I cast the ashes of rituals from the past year into a swampy green cauldron pond in the woods.

As I was waking this morning, I had a powerful mind-vision of two primal goddesses arising from the swampy pond waters (which were waist high on them) where I had performed my Jewitch tashlich. They were wrestling and they arose wrestling, as if the act of wrestling caused the "arising revelation".

Simultaneous with the arising of the wrestling primal goddesses, I saw that the entire atmosphere became chock (חוק) full of dandelions releasing their seeds - so many that they looked like a whitish mist made of dandelion seeds being cast out from the place into the universe at large.

Magickally, dandelions correspond to the Hecate and David archetypes, the planets Jupiter and Saturn, the Hebrew letter tav (through Jupiter), the Ogham letter ruis (through Saturn), the element of air, the channel from yesod to malchut, shabbat consciousness, and the powers of divination/nevuah, manifesting desires and spirit-calling.

Dandelion in Hebrew is שינן, from the shoresh שנן meaning "focus", "precise instructional tool", "directed speech", and "sharpen". Importantly, dandelion comes to "sharpen" the Hebrew letter shin שין, representing the consciousness of mashiach ben Yosef, into the consciousness of mashiach ben David.

With the wrestling of the two primal goddesses of the cauldron-pond, the two meshichim are becoming one.

Interestingly, the Ogham letter ruis corresponds to the color red (Esau, David, Adam) and is the thirteenth (אחד echad = one, with a gematria of 13) letter of the Ogham alphabet.

To mark this Rosh Hashanah vision, I've just created a new original incense recipe - Cauldron Of Creation.

Shown Shamir

י"ג באב תשס"ז

I dreamt a many-faceted dream this morning.

In much of the dream, I was like a demon-buster. I was taken to places to drive out demons and send them back to their source (which I did). Yet, in the midst of all the action, there was one point where I was walking alone to some place, and as I walked, I came upon a huge worm-like living creature also "walking" alone and returning to its lair after doing whatever it had been doing in the world I found myself in.

The worm-like living creature was the shamir as described in midrash regarding Solomon. I knew it.

I was shown Shamir.

On the shamir, Immanuel Velikovsky writes:

The names of the twelve tribes were inscribed on the twelve semi-precious stones of the Urim and Tummim, the breastplate of the High Priest, not by carving, but by writing with a certain fluid and “showing” them to Shamir, or exposing them to its action. In the opinion of modern authors, the expression “was shown to Shamir”—“clearly shows it was the glance of a living being which effected the splitting of wood and stones.”2 It is admitted, however, that “in the Talmudic-Midrashic sources it is never explicitly stated that the Shamir was a living creature.”3

Indeed. In addition to dreaming this morning explicitly about the shamir, yesterday afternoon I received my witch's order which included the new spellcraft materials of aloeswood (used to intensify power of tikun-tohu blends) and a ritual candle for the upcoming Sabbat, Llughnasadh (initiating the harvest season, corresponding to "joy" as found in the final hei of the tetragrammaton). The Llughnasadh ritual candle contains within the top of the yellowgold wax a tiger eye stone, a stone of well-being. שלום

In addition to the tigereye stone I now have, on my altar is a green stone of abundance, transformation and healing, chrysoprase. שלום רב

והיה אור

ב' באייר תשס"ז

Shabbat candles were prepared this afternoon during the planetary hour of Pluto (Da'at) with the waxing crescent moon 16% (הוה) full [1]. This afternoon's sefirotic correspondence is Gevurah of Gevurah, using the Gra array [2].

An 8 inch red candle was inscribed in Hebrew with the words והיה אור (let there be light, 3), אמן (amen) and dressed inwardly with both lavender oil and the Gevurah-Da'at-Chesed blend described in a previous entry.

A 4 inch black candle was dressed inwardly with Feminine Clarity from the ruby crystal vessel, also as described previously.

To further bring clarity to the surface of consciousness, an earthy brown citrus bergamot votive will also be burned in tandem with the red and black shabbat candles this evening, as will cinnamon-vanilla-ginger [4] incense.

והיה אור, אמן so mote it be

Footnotes:

[1] הוה is found in Bereshit 27:29 in Yitzchak's blessing to Yaakov.

[2] Tiferet of tiferet, using the standard Ari array.

[3] Using the form of "be" implying joy, "the word והיה is used to convey gladness" (The Wisdom In The Hebrew Alphabet, R' Michael Munk; Megillah 10b; Pesikta Zuta 6:10).

[4] cinnamon, kinamon [קנמון]; vanilla, [וניל]; ginger, zangvil [זנגביל, זנגוויל].

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The Heyuli Within Herbs & Other Magical Aids

כ"ט בניסן תשס"ז

Phyllis Curott (Witchcrafting) writes:

While an herb, potion, oil, or crystal has inherent power, it does not contain the magic you are seeking. It contains the potential for the magic. In other words, it's not the magical or quantum energy of the herb called damiana that will make your love spell work. The herb itself has no power to affect the outcome of your love life until you interact with it. It is your intent, your desire, and most of all, your appreciation and respect for the assistance given you by the herb or other aid, your reverence for it as an embodiment of diety, and your actions that activate its power.

From this, we can understand that the potential magic within herbs or other magical aids is not like the potential for fire which exists in a coal. Rather, the potential for magic within the witch's aids is more like the potential for fire which exists in a flint. The witch must activate and draw out the magic through her own intent, desire and action. The magic is not drawn out by the mere act of burning incense, for example. The magical potential in magical aids is a heyuli potential - and this heyuli is drawn out and extends into reality in response to the witch's interaction with the magical aid.

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Heart Healthy Pomegranate Juice

כ" באדר תשס"ז

Along with organic flax seeds, I purchased some pomegranate juice today. It has several health benefits. From wiki:

In several human clinical trials, the juice of the pomegranate has been found effective in reducing several heart risk factors, including LDL oxidation, macrophage oxidative status, and foam cell formation, all of which are steps in atherosclerosis and heart disease. Tannins have been identified as the primary components responsible for the reduction of oxidative states which lead to these risk factors.[1] Pomegranate has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by inhibiting serum angiotension converting enzyme (ACE).[2]

One pomegranate delivers 40% of an adult's daily vitamin C requirement. It is also a rich source of folic acid and of antioxidants. Pomegranates are high in polyphenols. The most abundant polyphenols in pomegranate are hydrolysable tannins, particularly punicalagins, which have been shown in many peer-reviewed research publications to be the antioxidant responsible for the free-radical scavenging ability of pomegranate juice.

Interestingly, the Hebrew root of the word for pomegranate - רמון - is also an Egyptian root (wiki):

A separate, widespread root for "pomegranate" is the Egyptian and Semitic rmn. Attested in Ancient Egyptian, in Hebrew rimmôn, and in Arabic rummân, this root was brought by Arabic to a number of languages, including Portuguese (romã), and Kabyle rrumman.

Footnotes:

[1] Pomegranate Juice May Help With Coronary Heart Disease

[2] Aviram M, Dornfeld L. Pomegranate juice consumption inhibits serum angiotensin converting enzyme activity and reduces systolic blood pressure Atherosclerosis 2001 Sep;158(1):195-8

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Shumshom, Appointment

ט"ו באדר תשס"ז

Sesame in Hebrew is shumshom שומשום, with a total gematria of 692, a digit sum of 17 (טוב), and a final digit sum 8 (אז).

Shumshom derives from the shoresh שום meaning "to place", "to appoint for use", "enabling" and "decision". This root is found in Shemot 4:11, "who appoints a mouth ... or who appoints one dumb or deaf, or sighted or blind ...", where Hashem is appointing Moshe as prophet.

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Cheshbon HaNefesh, Eye To Eye

י"ג באדר תשס"ז

In my dream posted earlier, the (unbleached) Linen String, my enemies are on the run. My liberators are on the way. In the pouring rain, I died. I woke up.

Linen & Nevuah

Linen is made from flax, one of the few plant species to produce a true blue flower. To harvest flax, the plant is plucked up with its roots (not cut) to maximize harvested fiber length. During the threshing process, flax is held in the left hand. Unlike most fibers, flax is stronger when wet. Bleach damages it. It resists dirt and stains. Outlasting cotton, it endures up to 20 years of use. Artists prefer it as a support for oil painting due to its archival integrity, strength and durability.

Importantly, prophets wear linen to "give notice" that they are fit to receive ruach hakodesh.

Judgment Of The Soul

The portion of the reversal and protection ritual I did this evening went rather well and uneventfully. I was alone in a quiet house. It began under a 13-day old waxing gibbous 99% full moon and under the planetary influence of Jupiter (tav, ת). Tav is a dalet making an impression upon the crown of a nun (yechidah), a crown of testimony.

Tonight's ritual actions completed under the planetary influence of Mars (gimel, ג). Gimel corresponds to the concept of reward and punishment, in the context of the physical world.

My enemies are on the run. Liberators are on the way. In the pouring rain, like a flaxen fiber, I found greater strength, lifted my hands to heaven and began to sing.

I died. At death, the nefesh is judged. I woke up.

Eye To Eye

Wound seven times around the left foot (hod) and ankle (ASTMN, Sh'ir Qoma, Sefer Raziel HaGadol) of the servant girl (ruach of yetzirah), the linen string was then placed eye to eye.

Hark! the watchers lift up the voice singing; beholding together eye to eye, the Lord's return to Zion ... Yishayahu 52:8

קול צפיך נשאו קול יחדו ירננו כי עין בעין יראו בשוב יהוה ציון

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Asphodel Of Sharon, The Awakening

י"ב באדר תשס"ז

In follow-up to my previous post, irit batzal עירית בצל is Hebrew for the flower asphodel (another name for daffodil). In Greek mythology, asphodel is the "deathless kind of of lily flower that covers the plains of Hades and was a favorite food of the dead." Oddly, irit may be derived from the shoresh עור which means to "awaken" and "awakening".

Asphodel is found in the Song Of Songs, Shir HaShirim 2:1.

I am an asphodel of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
אני חבצלת השרון, שושנת העמקים

Irit has a gematria of 690, a digit sum of 15 and a final digit sum of 6, the value of vav ו, the letter symbolizing the sefirah tiferet, and the partzuf zer anpin.

Batzal has a gematria of 122 and a digit sum of 5, the value of hei ה, the letter symbolizing the sefirah malchut, and the partzuf nukvah.

Together וה they have a gematria of 11, the number of spices used in the Temple, the number of sefirot in the universe of Tohu, and the number of Holy Names of G-d associated with the sefirot.

I wrote a poem a long time ago, called Chavatzelet, Dark Torah, based upon a memory of pre-incarnate experience. I didn't realize until just a few minutes ago that chavatzelet also meant daffodil (asphodel). It seems I have a very deep connection to daffodil, and through it, and to Shir HaShirim as well, although this particular memory was shattering. I know that this memory pertains to shevirat hakelim (breaking of the vessels), yet I still don't fully understand why. It still hurts. Still.

But, I am awake.

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Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant

י"א באדר תשס"ז

Today is Saint David's Day - Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant. 'Dewi Ddyfrwr' (David the Water-Drinker) is a Welsh patron saint. While I'm not Christian, I do have some Welsh ancestry and absolutely love daffodils - my favorite flower.

From Wiki regarding traditions:

"Children take part in school concerts or eisteddfodau, with recitation and singing being the main activities. Formerly, a half-day holiday was afforded to school children. Officially this custom does not continue, although the practice can vary on a school-to-school basis.

Many Welsh people wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on their lapel to celebrate Saint David: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol which is in season during March) or the leek (Saint David's personal symbol) on this day. The association between leeks and daffodils is strengthened by the fact that they have similar names in Welsh, Cenhinen (leek) and Cenhinen Bedr (daffodil, literally "Peter's leek")."

Interestingly, including my ancestry and proclivity for Welsh tarot cards, my kabbalistic name incense includes daffodil (cenhinen bedr). I had no idea at the time when I wrote the incense recipe that cenhinen bedr is an emblem of Wales or of a saint named David (Dewi). The two letters yod, one in my name Liorah לֵיאורהּ and the other in the Hebrew phonetic transliteration of my craft name Lleucu ללאכי correspond to the flower.

Daffodil is a feminine botanical linked to the planet Venus (or Mars, in some sources) [1] and to the element of water. It's magickal influences include love, fertility and good fortune. It has a cute folk name: daffy-down-dilly.

"The Chinese daffodil belongs to the amaryllis genus. Daffodil is a perennial herb. Because its bulb looks likes onion or garlic, it was called Elegant Garlic in the Six Dynasties and Heaven Shallot in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Subsequently, it obtained several smart and beautiful names, such as golden calix, silver desk, couple orchid, elegant guest, and woman star."

In honor of Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant, I'm burning some shin kokonoe (daffodil) incense today. Hmm, smells good.

Footnote:

[1] Venus (Enclyclopedia Of Magical Herbs, Scott Cunningham) or Mars (Culpepper)

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Imperial Dragon

Today I came upon and acquired a few more essential oils for spellwork - among them are Dragon's Breath and Witch's Brew. On dragon symbolism, Mark Schumacher writes:

"In both Chinese and Japanese mythology, the dragon is closely associated with the watery realm, and in artwork is often surrounded by water or clouds. In myth, there are four dragon kings who rule over the four seas (which in the old Chinese conception limited the habitable earth). In China, a fifth category of dragon was added to these four, for a total of five dragon types:

Celestial Dragons who guard the mansions of the gods
Spiritual Dragons who rule wind & rain but can also cause flooding
Earth Dragons who cleanse the rivers & deepen the oceans
Treasure-Guarding Dragons who protect precious metals & stones
Imperial Dragons; dragons with five claws instead of the usual four"

After acquiring these oils, I looked up dragon mythology and symbolism. Interestingly, in my dream this morning, the ideas and symbols of guarding, ruling the wind (sailing), a deepening ocean and protecting were all present.

Of course, the five claws pertain to the letter hei ה, the letter of feminine expression, and the stone surviving to tell of it. Hebrew letters are also called "stones" in kabbalah. [1]

Footnote:

[1] The Hebrew Letters, R' Yitzchak Ginsburgh (p. 5)

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Lavender - Parah Adumah Temimah

כ"ט בשבט תשס"ז

Lavender (ארגמן-כחלחל), also called elf leaf and spike, is a masculine botanical connected to the planet Mercury and to the element air. Among its powers are love, protection, sleep, chastity, longevity, purification, happiness and peace. [1]

Burned as an incense, lavender induces good sleep and rest. Smelling it often promotes a long life. Indeed, I dressed my black shabbat candle this evening with the essential oil of lavender prior to lighting it.

As a component of healing mixtures, lavender protects against the evil eye. Scattered about the home, it maintains peacefulness. So powerful is the essence of lavender that it has been known to bestow upon one suffering from depression, joyousness.

In Hebrew, lavender (noun) is ארגמן-כחלחל. The first term in this construct is argaman (ארגמן). The royal purple of Torah, argaman is derived from the Akkadian word argamannu meaning "purple". Argamannu (argewan, Sanskrit) itself is a synthesis of two Sanskrit adjectives for red - i.e., two different kinds of red - ragamen and ragavan.

The second term - חלחל - means to "permeate". The first letter - כ - of the second term refers to the sefirah Keter (superconscious crown).

Thus, taken together, the Hebrew phrase for "lavender" means to permeate one's will, desire and Divine connection with the royal color of everlasting (keter) life (ateret hayesod-malchut). To make this royal color of everlasting life, one needs (at least) two colors of red (i.e., two colors of blood). In other words, the key to everlasting life is making peace between different colors of "bloods" (peoples), within oneself and within one's world.

Parah Adumah Temimah - why is there death in the world?

Footnote:

[1] Encyclopedia Of Magical Herbs, Scott Cunnignham (p. 152-3)

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Avoiding The Plague

כ"ח בשבט תשס"ז

In a previous entry I mentioned among the uses of garlic, one magickal use is to "avoid the plague". At the time of writing, my natural assumption was that the "plague" the text was referring to was the black death [1] of the middle ages.

However, later in the day, I discovered that weird hail fell in Jerusalem this morning. So, of course, I thought of the plague of hail of the exodus - and of all the other plagues of the exodus as well. Consequently, now my thinking is that garlic may be good for avoiding all kinds of plagues, including the black death.

But, since hail is this week's plague in Jerusalem, what kabbalistically does hail signify? From the Ascent Of Safed website, Yosef Y. Jacobson writes:

Hail - Frozen Love

The seventh plague, in which produce-destroying hail descended upon Egypt, is symbolic of selfish love. If fire symbolizes rejection, water, naturally descending from a higher plane to a lower plane, embodies the qualities of generosity and loving-kindness. In Kabbala, the flow of love is compared to a flow of water, irrigating and nourishing a human soul with its refreshing vibrancy.

Yet, a man who finds himself in "Egyptian" bondage (historically symbolic of the psychic state of "mitzrayim") knows only an icy love, a love that is based entirely on self-seeking motives and self-centered considerations.

This person's rain-like flow of love becomes cold and frozen like hail, harming his loved ones instead of nurturing them.

[This explains the mystical significance behind the fact that the hail that fell in Egypt had burning flames within it (Ex. 9:24). The cold and icy individual is also aflame - he is fired with self-love and ablaze with egotistical passions. Indeed, it is his excess of inner heat that is the cause of his icy exterior. Thus, the hail that fell in Egypt, icy without and fiery within, reflected the nature of "Egyptian" love: coldness displayed toward other people coupled with warmth displayed toward one's self.]

It did snow alot here earlier this week. So, what does snow mean kabbalistically?

According to Sefer Yetzirah (1:11) snow represents chochmah consciousness in a state of permanence. In other words, it represents memory and permanence of wisdom.

Footnote:

[1] The black death of the middle ages came in 3 forms - bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic. The latter form - septicemic plague - though the rarest of the forms - involves poisoning of the blood. It's mortality is essentially 100%. Even today, there is no viable treatment for septicemic plague.

"Antibiotic treatment is essential for treating plague. Without treatment, mortality is 60% for bubonic plague and 100% for septicemic plague." UAB Bioterrorism

Garlic - Eka Power & Spiritual Clarity

כ"ז בשבט תשס"ז

Garlic (שום) numbers among the many botanicals I have in my magickal herb drawer. Garlic is a masculine herb, bound to fire and Mars, and associated with the goddess Hekate, the goddess of eka power, the power of magickal speech and of unity.

Like a mezuzah is fixed on a doorpost, so too is the spirit of garlic fixed above and below the earth [1]. In other words, the protective spirit inhered within garlic surrounds the earth in its uber and mundane entirety, as above so below. The physical botanical is another link (creating the possibility of a circuit) into the Divine power inhered within it. So mote it be.

Garlic has also been used to guard against the plague, protect against shipwreck, repel thieves, and remove negative vibrations which might contaminate food. Importantly, garlic is also used to absorb disease and protect against hepatitis. [2]

Hepatitis is disease and inflammation of the liver. The liver is the primary organ of the body responsible for purifying and detoxifying the blood. Thus, garlic is an aid to ensure detoxified healthy blood - and by extention of blood's perfusion throughout body tissues - to health throughout the entire body. Blood is the physiological system corresponding to Binah (Understanding). Thus, garlic guards and maintains the purity of understanding, insight and mental-spiritual clarity.

Footnotes:

[1] שום is Hebrew for garlic. The root means "fixing a place", "arrange", "there", "toward a place", "setting a name", "heavens" and "space above and below earth". Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, R' Matityahu Clark, (p. 258)

[2] Encyclopedia Of Magickal Herbs, Scott Cunningham (p. 122-3)

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