The Inverted Seal

י״ג באייר תשע"א
Mab 15

While I dreamt of a flood two nights ago, last night I dreamt this:

I and another female college student were early to the library-like place where students worked on assignments. We had tablet PCs on which we worked. I set up my tablet PC in the area to the left (as one faced the low bar-like bench-like work table) of the other student. Her work area was about a seat or two away from mine, to my right as I faced the work area.

I sat down and set up my tablet PC (sort of like how mine sets up in real life) to do my school work, except that the case which housed it was made of some kind of hard wood and it had a back flap that set and stood up behind it (like a standing clipboard might hold up a reading paper for easy keyboarding) which displayed (like a paper lace cut-out might) the Hebrew aleph-beit (alphabet) in a row of letters. The aleph-beit was formed of letters where the outlining lines of the letters cut completely through the wood, but the solid portions of the letters themselves didn't fall out. I can't describe this any more because in real life, it wouldn't physically be possible to set up and exist as it did in my dream. Light shone out through the lines of the letters.

Both my PC and the other student's PC had this wood cut-out feature with the Hebrew letters - the feature came on all the PCs issued to students in this school. Mine was different from hers though - her letters looked normal (from my perspective, at least). My letters were upside down, inverted. At first, I thought I had set up my tablet PC wrong, but when I rearranged the flap with the letters inscribed through it, I saw that I had set it up right - the letters in my tablet PC, unlike the student's near me and all the other students' normal tablet PCs, mine had just been made this unusual way - all of my Hebrew letters were inverted. Inscribed clear through the wood, neither they nor the flap into which they were cut could be rearranged to make the letters like the arrangement on all the other students' PCs.

I have the tablet PC that I have - with inverted Hebrew letters - and it's the tablet PC I have been issued for the work. I accepted to work with the tool I have.

I woke up.

Mabon & The World Of Rectified Order

Speckled Mabon Muin

כ' אלול התשס"ח
Belz 22

In follow-up to my previous post (Mystical Mabon, Selicha Of Witches), the witches' sabbat of Mabon marks (ת) the autumn equinox, in preparation for the New Year (Samhain/Rosh Hashanah). In modern Celtic witchcraft, the sabbat of Mabon falls within the month of the Celtic tree calendar distinguished by the Ogham letter muin.

Erynn Rowan Laurie (Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom) writes on the letter muin:

Mbracht, the color associated with this fid (letter), is usually defined as variegated or multi-colored, though brecht means 'speckled' in Old Irish.

In kabbalah (the mystical tradition of Judaism), the "third and final stage of development of the world of Atzilut" is called berudim which means 'speckled'. Atzilut is the world of tikkun (the world of rectified order), is the state of perfection, and represents complete remedy to the effects of committing wrong action.

Thus, the witches' sabbat of Mabon is directly linked, not only to the concept of seeking Divine forgiveness (as discussed in Mystical Mabon, Selicha Of Witches), but is also directly linked to the act of receiving it (through the attribute of 'speckled' called brecht/berudim of the fid, muin).

Mystical Mabon, Selicha Of Witches

Luminary Of The Autumn Night Sky

כ' אלול התשס"ח
Belz 22

Mabon is the time of the year when day and night are equal, the forces of masculine expansion and feminine restriction are in balance, and the god and the goddess dance in harmonic hishtavut.

My friend Eluned Bridhe writes of Mabon from the Norse tradition of witchcraft:

Mabon was a time when the old Norse people believed one's fate for the coming year was sealed. The Norse often spent the day and night before Mabon fasting and praying for forgiveness for transgressions. Divinations and vision quests were done to ascertain whether one's life in the last year had been pleasing to the deities.

This aspect of Mabon has correspondence to the period of Selichot in Judaism:

Selichot (Hebrew: סליחות) are Jewish penitential poems and prayers, especially those said in the period leading up to the High Holidays. Selicha (סליחה) is Hebrew for "forgiveness." Selicha is the category of selichot which comprises the vast majority of the Selichot service of the High Holy Days.

This year (2008/5768), Mabon falls on Monday September 22nd, a day which in the Celtic calendar begins Sunday at sundown, September 21st of the civil calendar.

This year (2008/5768), "Selichot (according to Ashkenazi custom) will begin after midnight of Sunday morning, September 21st."

In both traditions, the time of forgiveness begins in the dark of the day (one early Sunday morning and the other late Sunday night - at both ends of the day, together embracing one day), with the Divine Feminine power. She is the gatekeeper to forgiveness.

Mabon marks a day when the Divine Name is One ... when it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light.

So mote it be, אמן.

The Three-Fold Cord At Dawn

כ"ב אב התשס"ח
Lughnasadh 23

A three-fold cord of the Divine Feminine is not easily broken ...

In follow-up to my earlier entry (The Inverted Seal) describing my dream last night, my friend Muninn's Kiss notes in Two Wells, One Name some relevant similarities between Miriam (Jewish prophetess and guardian of Miriam's Well) and Mimir (Norse god and guardian of Mimir's Well).

Muninn's Kiss provides interesting quotes for both wells:

On Miriam's Well from The Inner Dimension - "The Well of Miriam was for drinking and also for washing clothing. Water serves two purposes. One is for drinking, when it becomes part of the person's life force. The second purpose is for cleansing the body and clothing. The skin itself is also clothing of the inner dimensions of the body. The fact that water is necessary for washing, is the way to meditate on the Chotam Hamithapech. The water of the Well of Miriam, in addition to being used for drinking, comes to wash the clothing of the Jewish People."

On Mimir's Well from Wikipedia - "Mímir's Well (Old Norse Mímisbrunnr) is one of three wells at the roots of the world tree Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. The well is named after Mímir, the god charged with guarding it and is fed by a fountain inside it called the fountain of Mímir, which granted wisdom and the power to see the future. Mímir is known as the wisest of the gods; his name translates to "memory." As told in Ynglinga saga, in his youth, Odin desired the wisdom of Mímir's Well, and visited Mímir. They struck a bargain – Odin sacrificed one of his eyes in exchange for the privilege of drinking from the well. This wisdom helped him lead the Æsir, but showed him a vision of the destruction of the Æsir at Ragnarök. This knowledge of the future weighed heavily on Odin, who was said never to have smiled again."

Note the three-fold cord of connection to my dream - the inverted seal (from Miriam's Well), the eye/pupil (from Mimir's Well) and the concept/command of memory/remembering (Mimir's Name).

Interestingly, in Kabbalah it is taught that the two streams of prophecy (represented mythologically by Miriam's Well) and wisdom (represented mythologically by Mimir's Well) are destined to combine into a single stream of enlightenment. The two streams come together peacefully without Miriam's bitterness or Odin's sacrifice in the three-fold cord of connection of my dream.

The Inverted Seal

כ"א אב התשס"ח
Lughnasadh 22

I dreamt.

The only thing I remember about the dream is the waking vision I had of a man's hand coming forward as if to show me the ring on his finger which 'identified' him to me. It was almost as if I were being shown the ring for the specific purpose of determining if I could see and remember it upon waking. As the ringed hand came forward, it seemed to beckon me to 'remember', and to 'recognize' it. It had the feel of a 'king's seal'.

The ring was a very wide band (perhaps even over 1/2 inch wide) of silver with a rough design on it. Inset into the middle of the band was a round white stone about the size of the pupil of an eye. It caught my eye.

I woke up.

The color of the stone (white) which resembled a pupil is the inverted color of a pupil (black). The ring had the feel of a seal. The dream symbolism I recognize pertains to the 'inverted seal' of kabbalah - the chotam hamithapech, where the very highest (soul) level of yechida becomes physically manifest at the level of malchut.

Ani Vahu - Shem Vayisa Vayet

כ'ד בתשרי תשס"ח

זאת, אז, is the sod of what Chazal wrote: “Michael in one . . . Eliyahu in four” (Brochos 4b). Understand this.

I dreamt a single dream expressed through 4 revealed parts and 1 touching yet not touching part. Understand this.

Part 1. Hu'alam. אתהפכא חשוכא לנהורא

Hidden. On the verge of awareness. At the threshold. Almost. Inside out, outside in. Over the edge into perception.

Part 2. House. Elishaba (אלישבע).

My "husband" and I with our 3 children (beriyah, yetzirah, assiyah) were looking to buy a house to live in. We had just come through some hard financial times. We didn't have any good credit rating built up, so we had little hope that anyone would sell us a house "on time". My husband remembered his friend whom he thought would surely sell us a house. We journeyed (ויסע) to find my husband's friend.

We went up the small bare porch to the door of my husband's friend's trailer, from where he engaged in the business of selling houses. I was holding our baby sleeping soundly in a swaddling blanket. My husband knocked on the door. The friend's wife answered the door, then went to get her husband while we stood on the small porch. Her husband came to the door, spoke in words I could not hear with my husband, slipped a notepaper into my husband's hand, and shut the door on us. My husband indicated to me we should leave. I was perplexed as to why we were leaving abruptly without conducting the business of buying a house.

My husband's friend opened the door, came outside and walked toward us as we were walking toward our red pickup truck. My husband was near the driver's side door of the truck. I was approaching my side door to it. My husband's "friend" approached me. He wanted me to leave my husband for him. I was appalled at the suggestion that I should leave my husband and rebuffed him. He turned and went back inside the trailer. I looked at my husband, we looked at one another (ani vahu) over the roof the red pickup truck as we both stood in front of our respective doors. I had no intention of ever leaving him. We got inside the pickup truck at the same time.

My husband brought out (ויבא) and handed me the notepaper his friend had given him explaining to my husband why he wouldn't sell us a house. The notepaper told my husband "I am in love with your wife." The message had been transmitted from my husband's friend, into the hand of my husband (who read it as he did), into my hand (where it remained folded for safekeeping and unread). [As I write this, it occurs to me that there is more to the "essential message" I received from my husband's hand for safekeeping than meets the eye.]

We were on our own with regard to getting a house. His friend would not sell us a house (ב). We would have to get one ourselves, some other way.

Part 3. Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

The baby my husband and I had was as yet unformed. It had an inverted mouth (chotam hamithapech) with projecting extensions (makeef hakarov, mazon, levush, bayit). Miraculously however, and to the amazement of everyone, our still as-yet unformed baby could talk using the vibrating extensions (ויט) which radiated like cords from it's mouth. Not only could our baby talk in this world, but it talked of and demonstrated an exquisitely brilliant understanding of extremely advanced and complex topics - topics as yet not understood by the most brilliant minds in the world. The truth in our baby's words was recognized by the greatest minds in the world, but the fullness of understanding they did not yet possess. Our baby was an anomaly of brilliance possessing the keys to advancing understanding throughout the entire world.

Our baby discoursed upon space, time, spacetime, how to reverse and move time, and such things in ways no scientist had yet accomplished. Scientists listening to our baby speak discussed among themselves the idea that many thought time could be changed, but no one had actually done it yet. They discussed the impact our baby's words would one day have on advancing knowledge and human development. If they could only understand that being transmitted through our baby more fully, they could make the thoughts of changing time a reality. They waited with anticipation for the day our baby would "form" - to bring down the details needed to accomplish all the wondrous things our baby spoke of.

Part 4. Cloak Of Many Colors

I observed two women, one was powerful and the other walking behind her was her assistant. In a fall festival fair-like environment, a handsome man with long hair (like Samson) came to tempt and bring down the powerful woman, but she was not tempted. The woman's assistant, however, was tempted and went with the handsome man to his place and slept with him. There was no love in this joining. It was purely sexual. The assistant didn't care. Neither did the handsome man. I didn't see the two together, but when they came out of his bedroom together, I saw that he had given her a colorful silky nightcloak. As the man went into the kitchen to fix some food, the assistant used the telephone to call the powerful woman. The assistant "gloated" sweetly to the powerful woman how she herself now had what the powerful woman "should have" had. My feeling was that the powerful woman was nonplussed by the assistant's call. In other words, the powerful woman had not been tempted nor was she "stricken" (the assistant's intent) by the assistant's assertion that the assistant now had something which "should have" gone to the powerful woman. The assistant was gloating in vain. The assistant was the one unable to control her impulses, not the powerful woman. In observing all this, in my mind were the thoughts that the man was intervening in a situation to defend me and that he was a Druid. He was also a friend of my husband. And while the assistant felt she (in the place of the powerful woman) had had the powerful yet totally sexual encounter and had obtained the gift of a beautiful cloak, I knew, by the way she was gloating in vain, that the assistant was clueless as to what the solely sexual experience and the colorful silky cloak brought with them. She wouldn't be gloating soon.

Part 5. Michael Splits The Water

I was with many people playing in the water (מ) of a sea or large river. Suddenly, "in yet behind" the "watery" sky over the watery water, a hole like a wormhole in spacetime appeared. It was separated thinly from the rest of the watery world (ו, made of both the waterywater and the waterysky, seamlessly unbroken) of the dream by a thin sheer veil. Something had emerged from beyond into the watery world. We all backed away from the hole so as not to be sucked up into it or collide with whatever was going to come through it into our watery world.

I looked and saw. A huge movement came through, traveled under the surface of the water and onto the beach, also under the sand. Then, a huge worm-like slug-like whale-sized creature emerged. (It brings to mind a combination of shamir and livyatan.) A Voice in the atmosphere beside me informed me that more like it would be coming. They would invade and settle my planet.

I had to decide what to do about the creature. Was it friend or foe? Did I want this creature here or not? I had to decide what to do. If I did nothing and allowed it to remain, more would come. I just looked at it. I wanted to figure it out before doing anything. I was curious about it. So, rather than do nothing or anything ...

I woke up, doing both in one action.

Vayavo (ויבא) has a gematria of 19, the same as Chavah (חוה). In my dream, I did not unfold the note given to me by my husband. Unfolding the note in a dream, corresponds to eating from the Tree of Knowledge prematurely. I waited, holding the folded message for safekeeping.

ואין חכמה אלא ברכה שנאמר ויברך אלהים את שלמה וכתיב וה' נתן חכמה לשלמה
Sefer HaBahir, verse 3 excerpt