Unique Paths Through The Sea

ט"ו בניסן תשע"א
Annwyn 17

In both Jewish Midrash and Talmud, Rabbinic tradition tells us that each Hebrew tribe walked its own path (netivah) through the Yam Suf (Red Sea, the Sea of Reeds) at the Exodus, and that to accomplish this, the Sea actually parted into twelve unique sections to accommodate the uniqueness of each collective tribe within Klal Yisrael. Now, as a Jewitch, this is an interesting tradition to drill down into. If, as the Rabbis teach, the Sea can part twelve times to accommodate the uniqueness of each Hebrew tribe within the Klal, then the Sea can also part the unique path for me (and likewise for every individual) to accommodate my unique Jewish path as a Jewitch within my tribe and within the Klal.

So mote it be, אמן.

Read an article about a few other Jewitches: Nice Jewitch Girls Leave Their Brooms in the Closet

A Strong East Wind

ה' אדר א' תשס"ט
Keolwulf 6

In follow-up to my earlier entry Messengers of the Black Goddess, where a strong east wind saved me from being swallowed up in an ocean of molten earth:

The Divine will battle for you ... then the Divine said to her there ... by the sea [of molten earth], held back through a strong east wind of the Night [Black Goddess], to pass through upon dry ground ... Shemot 14:14-22

where the earth divided, [facing east] molten on my left, solid ground on my right.

Related entries:
Four Winds From The Lips Of A Song
Ketoret Samim And Ketoret Zarah

Bitachon, Shlomah's Catacomb & The Magic Megilah

Photo from Witches Moon.

ג' באדר א' תשס"ח
Keolwulf 4

In follow-up to earlier entries, 9 Magic Keys To Redemption (which arrived in the mail yesterday) and Manifest Spark Of Redemptive Magic, I dreamt this morning.

Time felt both anciently existent and nonexistent, between being and not being, a twilight zone between time and timelessness.

I lived within a community located deep within the earth, in the hidden (amon) underworld inner world. We came to know through sensory telepathy that the deep subterranean oceans were being broken up throughout the underworld, and soon the deeps immediately surrounding our completely enclosed dwelling pocket within the land would be affected too. Unless some miracle occurred for us, we would be covered over with many waters, obliterated, and our hidden place submerged within the deep underworld seas. In my mind, I was aware that this catastrophic event had happened many times before in antiquity clear back to in the beginning of all. It was a cosmic event that repeated itself throughout aeons of time.

But, there was nowhere to escape. The deep underworld sea was all around us outside the protecting walls of our catacombed dwelling pocket. We lived completely surrounded by the deeps, and had lived our entire existence in this place. We lived in a bubble among the deeps, protected by the earthenstone walls which gave form to our inner place. But those walls were about to be broken up, and our world submerged.

There was no place to escape. We waited for destiny to make itself known. It was the only thing we could do.

The earthenstone walls of our protected place, like the rest of the walls within the underworld, began to break up. We could hear the rush of many waters bounding toward our little world. The walls broke and the waters came. But then, an amazing thing happened.

Though the protecting earthenstone walls had been broken up and there was nothing to stop the waters, the waters stood up anyway as if invisible walls were still there holding them back! The waters stood up and themselves formed a protecting wall (chomah) around us, forming a stockade (migdal) against the onward natural rush of the waters.

The former earthenstone walls now formed small stony paths of escape leading through the deep underworld seas to the surface world. The stony paths were surrounded by protecting walls of underworld deep waters standing straight up.

We stepped upon the paths leading to the safety of the surface, and emerged, awaking to another day.

When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not transgress His commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth;

Then I was by Him, as a nursling; and I was daily all delight, playing always before Him,

Playing in His habitable earth, and my delights are with the sons of men.

Mishlei 8:29

With connection to my 9 magic keys, from Insights To The Daf, Megilah 10:

[4] (a) So we base Rebbi Yitzchak's initial statement on a Machlokes between Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi and the Chachamim. Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi explains in a Beraisa, that the Mishnah in Erchin lists (in connection with the Din of Batei Arei Chomah) specifically nine towns out of the numerous towns that had a wall around them in the days of Yehoshua bin Nun - because those are the ones that they found and consecrated (whilst all the others lost their Kedushah with the destruction of the first Beis-Hamikdash).

(b) In another Beraisa, Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi says - that they only mentioned these nine because they were the ones that they found when they returned from Bavel, but that in fact, all the towns that were traditionally walled in the time of Yehoshua bin Nun were sanctified (and these included the sixty towns of the territory of Argov that had previously belonged to Og Melech Habashan).

(c) The second Tana's Lashon 'Matz'u Eilu v'Kidshum' is wrong - because he specifically goes on to say that they do not require consecration.

(d) So we amend it to read 'Matz'u Eilu u'Man'um' (they found these and listed them').

[5] (a) Initially, we reconcile these two Beraisos - by turning it into a Machlokes Tana'im regarding the opinion of Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi.

(b) Alternatively, we amend the name of the author of the second Beraisa to Rebbi Elazar b'Rebbi Yosi, who (in another Beraisa), Darshened the Pasuk in Behar (in connection with Batei Arei Chomah) "Asher Lo Chomah" (which is written with a 'Vav' but read with an 'Alef') to mean - that a city that had a wall around it in the time of Yehoshua bin Nun is considered a walled city, even though it no longer has one nowadays.

Interestingly, in addition to receiving my 9 magic keys yesterday, I also received one of my other recent Craftwork orders - a handmade magic megilah scroll created for writing spellwork. So, in addition to the connection with my 9 magic keys, a connection here to my one Magic Megilah also exists.

The original Torah and the Tablets of the Ten Commandments was concealed in a catacomb that had been prepared by King Solomon when he had first built the Temple. It is still here today.

Imhotep & Kriat Yam Suf

י"א באלול תשס"ז

I dreamt.

My little group and I were fleeing pursuers set on destroying or enslaving us. We came to the sea. If we can just get past the creature of the sea, we thought, we will have safely escaped. Those pursuing us wouldn’t be able to get past the creature of the sea, and if they followed us into the sea, they would be slowed down, swallowed up by it, and drown.

We stood on the shore facing into the sea. The waters piled up and created a (paradoxically) distinct yet indistinct place for us to walk through. The creature of the sea was of the waters that piled up, making our walking place. One thing is indistinctly yet distinctly clear, the creature of the sea was neither a fish nor a creature “distinct” from the sea. In other words, the formless creature of the sea was formed of the piled up waters of the sea (another paradox), much in the same manner as Imhotep’s face was formed of the waters which tried to swallow up those in the flying machine in “The Mummy” (or “The Mummy Returns”) movie. The creature of the sea was a male essence, not a female essence like Lilith or Tiamat (as I have read in the midrash and various other mythologies).

We walked into the midst of the sea (guarded by the mouth of the creature of the sea), and emerged safely on the same side of the shore from which we had entered. Yet, we were not in the same place, even though we were in the same place. Another paradox. We were on a different level now and no longer in any real danger. In other words, we were immune to the danger that still existed at the lower level we had left behind and no longer occupied. It was as if our pursuers were now completely immaterial and no longer even existed for us. They were mere illusionary figments of disappearing vapor in a dream. And magic poof – they were gone, not one of them remaining.

I woke up.

James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep (whose name means "the one who comes in peace"): "In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser's reign left so notable a reputation that his name was never forgotten. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes ..."

Interestingly, yesterday evening I chose the new Egyptian style solid silver finger stylus and solid bronze (like the Temple laver depicting the basin of the Yam Suf) dipping inkwell (a semi-sphere) I will use to scribe within the pages my Book of Shadows, Sefer Tzelem. Although an expense for me, I decided on sight that these scribal tools were an expense worthy of my Jewitchery, even though only today as I blog this entry am I discovering the symbolism inhered within the tools I chose.





And this is the (Temple pathways knotwork) vessel I chose to keep my small container of scribal ink within.



Related entry:
2-3 Berries From The Uppermost Bough